n. During the emperor's
absence, they escaped, and hid themselves in a cavern; which the emperor
being informed of at his return, the mouth of the cave was closed up,
and they all perished with hunger.

Theodora, a beautiful young lady of Antioch, on refusing to sacrifice to
the Roman idols, was condemned to the stews, that her virtue might be
sacrificed to the brutality of lust. Didymus, a christian, disguised
himself in the habit of a Roman soldier, went to the house, informed
Theodora who he was, and advised her to make her escape in his clothes.
This being effected, and a man found in the brothel instead of a
beautiful lady, Didymus was taken before the president, to whom
confessing the truth, and owning that he was a christian the sentence of
death was immediately pronounced against him. Theodora, hearing that her
deliverer was likely to suffer, came to the judge, threw herself at his
feet, and begged that the sentence might fall on her as the guilty
person; but, deaf to the cries of the innocent, and insensible to the
calls of justice, the inflexible judge condemned both, when they were
executed accordingly, being first beheaded, and their bodies afterward
burnt.

Secundianus, having been accused as a christian, was conveyed to prison
by some soldiers. On the way, Verianus and Marcellinus said, "Where are
you carrying the innocent?" This interrogatory occasioned them to be
seized, and all three, after having been tortured, were hanged and
decapitated.

Origen, the celebrated presbyter and catechist of Alexandria, at the age
of sixty-four, was seized, thrown into a loathsome prison, laden with
fetters, his feet placed in the stocks, and his legs extended to the
utmost for several successive days. He was threatened with fire, and
tormented by every lingering means the most infernal imaginations could
suggest. During thus cruel temporizing, the emperor Decius died, and
Gallus, who succeeded him, engaging in a war with the Goths, the
christians met with a respite. In this interim, Origen obtained his
enlargement, and, retiring to Tyre, he there remained till his death,
which happened when he was in the sixty-ninth year of his age.

Gallus, the emperor, having concluded his wars, a plague broke out in
the empire: sacrifices to the pagan deities were ordered by the emperor,
and persecutions spread from the interior to the extreme parts of the
empire, and many fell martyrs to the impetuosity of the rabble, as well
a