"Old man," answered the patrician mother, "you will not carry off a son from her that bore him!... Listen, if it must be so, I will deny the faith of my fathers; I will believe in the Crucified!... I will become a nun!"
"Ah, pagan! thou canst not understand the law of Christ. A mother cannot be a nun, nor can a nun be still a mother."
"I have borne him in anguish; he is mine!"
"It is not the soul, but the body, that you love."
The patrician woman cast at Didimus a look full of hatred.
"Be then accursed for your lying speeches," she exclaimed; "accursed, you stealers of children--tempters of the guileless! ye black-robed fearers of the celestial light--slaves of the Crucified! destroyers of all beauty and joy!"
Her face changed; she drew her son yet closer, and said chokingly--
"I know thee, my son! thou wilt not go ... thou canst not...."
Old Didimus, cross in hand, stood at the open door leading to the catacombs. He said solemnly--
"For the last time, and in the name of God, I order you, my son, to follow me and to leave her."
Then the patrician relaxed her hold of Juventinus, and faltered--
"Then go! Let it be so.... Leave me, if thou canst!"
Tears flowed no longer down her furrowed cheeks; her arms fell rigid, with a heart-broken gesture, to her sides. She waited. All were silent.
"O Lord, help me ... inspire me!" Juventinus prayed in terrible distress.
"He who will follow Me, and will not hate father and mother, wife and children, brother and sister, and even his own life, can never be My disciple!"
These words were recited by Didimus, turning for the last time towards Juventinus--
"Remain in the world! Thou hast rejected Christ! Be accursed in this age and in the age to come!"
"No, no! Cast me not out, father! I am on your side. Lord, here am I," exclaimed Juventinus following his master.
His mother made no arresting movement; not a muscle of her face stirred; but when the noise of his footsteps died away a hoarse sob heaved her breast and she fell into a swoon.
"Open--in the name of the most holy Emperor Constantius!"
It was the summons of soldiery sent by the prefect to hunt the Sabæan rebels, on the denunciation of the patrician mother of Juventinus.
With a powerful lever the soldiers attempted to prise open the door of the _columbarium_, shaking the edifice on its foundations. The little silver urns vibrated plaintively under the blows. Half of the door gave way.