"Turn him over and beat him on the belly." "Lord, help thy servant." "As you beat him, say, 'Christian man, where is your helper?" "He has helped, and He helps me still. I care so little for your punishment, that I will not obey you." "Think of your body, unhappy wretch. All the floor is covered with the blood from it." "Let me tell you this: the more my body suffers for Christ's sake, the better it is for the health of my soul." "Put him in irons, and stretch him to the fourth hole. Let him have no attention paid to him." Tarachus is then brought before Maximus. "Well, well, Tarachus," said Maximus. "I suppose that the reason why people honor old age is because of the greater wisdom in counsel that comes with it. Therefore, give yourself good advice, and do not today persist in your former notions, but sacrifice to the gods, and earn the praise of piety." "I am a Christian," answered Tarachus, "and I pray that you and your emperors may earn the same praise, and may put away all hardness of heart and blindness, and be quickened by the true God to a higher and better grounded conviction." "Knock his mouth with stones, and say to him, 'Cease your folly.'" "If I were not of sound mind, I should be a fool as you are." "See, your teeth are all loosened. Have pity on yourself, unhappy man." "Nothing that you can do hurts me, not if you were to cut off all my extremities. I stand steadfastly before you in Christ which strengtheneth me." "Follow my advice. You had better. Come and sacrifice." "If I knew that I had better do it, I should not suffer as I do." "Strike him on the mouth and tell him to cry out." "When my teeth are dashed out, and my jaws crushed, I can not cry out." "Will you not even now comply, impious man? Come to the altars, and pour a drink-offering to the gods." "Though you have stopped my voice so that I can not cry out, you can not hinder the thoughts of my soul. You have made me bolder and firmer." "I will take down your firmness, ruffian." "I am at your disposal. Whatever you devise, I shall be more than a match for you in the name of God who strengtheneth me." "Open his hands and put fire in them." "I am not afraid of your fire, which endures for a moment; but I am afraid lest, if I were to obey you, I should become a partaker of the eternal fire." "Look, your hands are consumed with the fire. Will you leave off your madness, senseless man, and sacrifice?" "You talk to me as if I had begged you not to use your arts of persuasion upon my body. I am proof against all that you are doing to me." "Tie his feet and hang him aloft by them; then send up a thick smoke in his face." "I thought nothing of your fire; do you suppose that I shall be afraid of your smoke?" "Consent to sacrifice, now that you are hung up." "_You_ may sacrifice, sir; you are accustomed to sacrificing--even to sacrificing men. But God forbid that I should do so." "Put strong vinegar, mixed with salt up his nostrils."