The few days’ delay was granted, and the officers returned joyfully to Cecilia’s house. She had at once sent to inform St. Urban of her approaching martyrdom, and begged him to come at once, as many whom she had instructed and converted were desirous of receiving baptism before her death. The Pope hastened to her side and remained with her for all that was left of her life. The house became a temple of prayer and praise; more than four hundred persons, the officers of Almachius foremost among them, were baptised. In order to prevent the confiscation of her property, Cecilia made her will devising her house and all it contained to a certain Gordian, “one of her converts, a most upright man,” charging him to make of the dwelling where the Sacrament of Baptism had been conferred a “Church of the Lord forever.” Then, when all was accomplished and her work on earth completed, Almachius sent for her to appear before him and answer the accusations brought against her. Joyfully she obeyed. The account of her trial is very remarkable, evidently taken down on the spot by some one who witnessed it, and as evidently genuine not only because of the endorsement of contemporaries, but because of some curious allusions to customs prevailing at that particular time. Too long and diffuse to transcribe here, the proceedings opened with the usual question, a question regarded evidently as something of a farce by the onlookers, since all Rome knew of Cecilia, and the greatest excitement prevailed in the crowd that had assembled to see the noble, delicately nurtured lady brought to trial like a common criminal. Cecilia’s very small stature and delicate frame surprised the Prefect, who had never seen her before, and his question seems to show that he had forgotten that she was a married woman. “Who art thou, child?” he asked. “I am called Cecilia among men,” she replied, “but I have a more illustrious name—that of ‘Christian.’” “What is thy rank?” “A Roman citizen of illustrious and noble family.” “We know that. I asked thee of thy religion.” “Thy interrogation was a strangely incorrect one, since to one question it required two answers.”