Then Basiliscus asked, and prevailed on, the jailor to let him go to the village of Cumiala, near Amasea, where his mother lived, that he might say farewell to her. Now it fell out that early in the morning Agrippa unexpectedly sent for Basiliscus, and when he heard of the indulgence that had been granted him--though soldiers had been sent as guards with the prisoner--he was filled with rage, and threatened the jailor with capital punishment. Then he called to him a city officer named Magistrianus, a brutal fellow, implacable in his detestation of Christianity, and commissioned him to take a band of soldiers and convey Basiliscus to Comana, whither he himself was starting. Magistrianus mounted his ass, and ambled to Cumiala, and surrounded the doors of the house, as Basiliscus was parting with his mother and three brothers, before returning. Magistrianus ordered a pair of boots to be put on Basiliscus, with the nails in them protruding, and then bade him limp along among the guards back to Amasea. The nails made his feet bleed, and as he walked through the street of Amasea a crowd gathered, murmuring against the tyranny of the governor and his satellites. Magistrianus, in a rage, leaped off his ass, and cudgelled the mob with the stick he had used to make the ass go, and the soldiers assisted him to disperse the crowd. Basiliscus was then led along the road to Comana, singing, "Though an host of men be set against me, yet shall not my heart be afraid; for thou, O Christ, art with me!" At mid-day the party, which consisted of fifteen, came to a little village, and a lady's villa. The lady very courteously invited the officer and his men into the house to refresh themselves, and they tied Basiliscus with his hands behind his back to a plane tree in the court yard. A number of the villagers came up to stare at the martyr, who stood under the dry tree, suffering intensely from the heat, and with blood dribbling from his wounded feet, "whilst Magistrianus and his folk were feasting in Trojana's house, on all kinds of delicacies, meats, and costly wines, served up in the cool summer dining hall," says Eusignius, bitterly. But God did not forget the poor martyr under the blazing mid-day sun, for the plane tree put forth leaves, and overshadowed him, and a fountain bubbled at his feet, and cooled and laved his festering wounds. On the party reaching Comana, Magistrianus led Basiliscus direct to the temple of Apollo, where was the governor at the moment. The governor at once ordered him to be brought in. Basiliscus smilingly entered. "Why wilt thou not sacrifice, fellow?" asked the governor. "Who told thee that I will not sacrifice?" answered Basiliscus. "Ah! the gods be praised! thou wilt sacrifice then." "I will offer to God the sacrifice of praise." "Offer to whom you please," said the governor, sharply, "only sacrifice and have done with this folly."