Agnes was introduced by her guards into the open space, and stood intrepid, facing the tribunal. Her thoughts seemed to be far away; and she took no notice even of those two who, till she appeared, had been objects of universal observation. “Why is she unfettered?” asked the prefect angrily. “She does not need it: she walks so readily,” answered Catulus; “and she is so young.” “But she is obstinate as the oldest. Put manacles on her hands at once.” The executioner turned over a quantity of such prison ornaments,--to Christian eyes really such,--and at length selected a pair as light and small as he could find, and placed them round her wrists. Agnes playfully, and with a smile, [Illustration: The judge angrily reproved the executioner for his hesitation, and bid him at once do his duty.] shook her hands, and they fell, like St. Paul’s viper, clattering at her feet.[206] “They are the smallest we have, sir,” said the softened executioner: “one so young ought to wear other bracelets.” “Silence, man!” rejoined the exasperated judge, who, turning to the prisoner, said, in a blander tone: “Agnes, I pity thy youth, thy station, and the bad education thou hast received. I desire, if possible, to save thee. Think better while thou hast time. Renounce the false and pernicious maxims of Christianity, obey the imperial edicts, and sacrifice to the gods.” “It is useless,” she replied, “to tempt me longer. My resolution is unalterable. I despise thy false divinities, and can only love and serve the one living God. Eternal Ruler, open wide the heavenly gates, until lately closed to man. Blessed Christ, call to Thee the soul that cleaveth unto Thee: victim first to Thee by virginal consecration; now to Thy Father by martyrdom’s immolation.”[207] “I waste time, I see,” said the impatient prefect, who saw symptoms of compassion rising in the multitude. “Secretary, write the sentence. We condemn Agnes, for contempt of the imperial edicts, to be punished by the sword.” “On what road, and at what mile-stone, shall the judgment be executed?”[208] asked the headsman. “Let it be carried into effect at once,” was the reply. Agnes raised for one moment her hands and eyes to heaven, then calmly knelt down. With her own hands she drew forward her silken hair over her head, and exposed her neck to the blow.[209] A pause ensued, for the executioner was trembling with emotion, and could not wield his sword.[210] As the child knelt alone, in her white robe, with her head inclined, her arms modestly crossed upon her bosom, and her amber locks hanging almost to the ground, and veiling her features, she might not unaptly have been compared to some rare plant, of which the slender stalk, white as the lily, bent with the luxuriancy of its golden blossom.