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IN THE BURNING FIERY FURNACE 465
enemies the Jews. Believe me, Poppaea for I know them
well their lives are almost the only beautiful lives spent
in this wicked city.'
Anything I could say for them would be in vain, Pomponia.
'
I am not as you are would that I were ! but let me tell
you what no other living being should hear from me. Since our
child Claudia died, I am no longer all-powerful with Nero. I
can stimulate his course in evil a touch will do that; but I
cannot turn him from any wrong on which he and Tigellinus
have agreed.'
Seeing that her efforts were useless, Pomponia left her, and
would have kissed her hand ;
but the Empress kissed her on
'
the cheek, and said, Oh, Pomponia, deign to be the friend of
the hapless Poppsea. The work of her ambitious guilty dreams
is already crumbling into ruins. She needs to have one friend
who is not wicked.'
In times so oppressive the Christians who were still free
could not forego the duty and support of common prayer and
Holy Communion, however great might be the risk. Accustomed
to hatred and persecution, they were also accustomed
to precautions and secret signs, and by ways of communicating
with each other unobserved and unexpected they made it
known that on the next Sunday, deep in the night, they
would meet in a secluded vineyard at the back of the villa of
Aliturus, and that Peter of Bethsaida, the Apostle of Christ,
had arrived in Rome, and would be present.
By far routes, under the curtain of darkness, they met in
the vineyard, a deeply sorrowing and diminished band.
But
they felt reasonably secure. Aliturus was beloved by his
slaves, to whom he was always generous, and he had trusted
those in whom he most confided to watch on every side, and
give signals by waving a torch at the slightest approach of
He himself went to the assembly, and, though as a
danger.
catechumen he could not receive the holy mysteries, he
joined in the prayers, and received the blessing of Peter,
as he had received the blessing of John. Nothing could
have been more comforting than the brief words of the
great Apostle. His gray hair added to the venerable aspect
of his advancing years ; but his eye was undimmed, his