they besought him and said, "We pray thee, help us and we will release thee." But he answered <with a smiling face>[1] "I am not a deserter of Christ, but a faithful soldier of the living God. If I knew that I should die, I would do it, Longus and Cestus; but since I live to God and love myself, I go to the Lord that I may come (again) with him in the glory of his Father." And they said unto him, "How can we live after thou hast been beheaded?"
5. And while they were speaking Nero sent a certain Parthenius and Pheretas to see whether Paul had already been beheaded. And they found him still alive. He summoned them beside him and said: "Believe in the living God, who will raise me, as well as all those that believe on him, from the dead." But they said, "We will now go to Nero, but when you have died and have been raised up, we will believe in thy God."
But when Longus and Cestus continued to ask[2] about their salvation, he said to them, "In the early dawn come quickly to my grave, and you will find two men at prayer, Titus and Luke; they will give you the seal in the Lord."[3]
And turning toward the east, Paul lifted up his hands to heaven and prayed much; and after having conversed in Hebrew with the fathers during prayer, he bent his neck, without speaking any more. When the lictor cut off his head, milk splashed on the dress
