moving him
to a place of security, they, in a short time effected his recovery, and
prepared him for a second martyrdom; for, as soon as he was able to go
out, he placed himself intentionally in the emperor's way as he was
going to the temple, and reprehended him for his various cruelties and
unreasonable prejudices against christianity. As soon as Diocletian had
overcome his surprise, he ordered Sebastian to be seized, and carried to
a place near the palace, and beaten to death; and, that the christians
should not either use means again to recover or bury his body, he
ordered that it should be thrown into the common sewer. Nevertheless, a
christian lady, named Lucina, found means to remove it from the sewer,
and bury it in the catacombs, or repositories of the dead.

The christians, about this time, upon mature consideration, thought it
unlawful to bear arms under a heathen emperor. Maximilian, the son of
Fabius Victor, was the first beheaded under this regulation.

Vitus, a Sicilian of considerable family, was brought up a christian;
when his virtues increased with his years, his constancy supported him
under all afflictions, and his faith was superior to the most dangerous
perils. His father, Hylas, who was a pagan, finding that he had been
instructed in the principles of christianity by the nurse who brought
him up, used all his endeavours to bring him back to paganism and at
length sacrificed his son to the idols, June 14, A. D. 303.

Victor was a Christian of a good family at Marseilles, in France; he
spent a great part of the night in visiting the afflicted, and
confirming the weak; which pious work he could not, consistently with
his own safety, perform in the daytime; and his fortune he spent in
relieving the distresses of poor christians.

He was at length, however, seized by the emperor's Maximian's decree,
who ordered him to be bound, and dragged through the streets. During the
execution of this order, he was treated with all manner of cruelties and
indignities by the enraged populace. Remaining still inflexible, his
courage was deemed obstinacy.

Being by order stretched upon the rack, he turned his eyes towards
heaven, and prayed to God to endue him with patience, after which he
underwent the tortures with most admirable fortitude. After the
executioners were tired with inflicting torments on him, he was conveyed
to a dungeon. In his confinement, he converted his jailers, named
Alexander, Felician, an