of drought brought on a violent
thunder-storm, which confounded the enemy and saved the army.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE MARTYRS BURIED.

Darker and darker grew the shadows of night over the great empty and
desolate amphitheatre, but a few hours before clamorous with the shouts
and din of the tumultuous mob. The silence seemed preternatural, and a
solemn awfulness seemed to invest the shrouded forms which lay upon the
sand. By a merciful provision of the Roman law, it made not war upon the
dead, and the bodies even of criminals were given up to their friends,
if they had any, that they might not be deprived of funeral rites.
Having wreaked his cruel rage upon the living body, the pagan
magistrate at least did not deny the privilege of burial to the
martyrs' mutilated remains. It was esteemed by the primitive believers
as much an honour as a duty, to ensepulchre with Christian rites the
remains of the sacred dead.[52]

Faustus, the faithful freedman of Adauctus, Hilarus, the fossor, and the
servants of the Christian matron, Marcella, came at the fall of night to
bear away the bodies of the martyrs to their final resting-place in the
silent Catacomb. The service was not devoid of danger, for vile
informers prowled around seeking to discover and betray whomsoever would
pay the rites of sepulture to the remains of the Christian martyrs. But
there are golden keys which will unlock any doors and seal any lips, and
Marcella spared not her wealth in this sacred service.

On the present occasion, too, special facility was given for carrying
out this pious purpose. Through the influence of the Empress Valeria,
Hilarus, the fossor, was enabled to show to the chief custodian of the
amphitheatre an authorization under the hand of Galerius for removing
the bodies of the "criminals who had paid the penalty of the law"--so
ran the rescript.

Beneath the cliff-like shadow of the Coliseum gathered this little
Christian company. The iron gates opened their ponderous jaws. By the
fitful flare of a torch weirdly lighting up the vaulted arches, with
gentle and reverent hands, as though the cold clay could still feel
their lightest touch, the bodies of the dead were laid upon the biers.
Through the silent streets, devout men in silence bore the martyrs to
their burial. Through the Porta Capena, which opened to the magic spell
of the Emperor's order; through the silent "Street of Tombs," still
lined with the monuments of Rome's might