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488 DARKNESS AND DAWN
in prayer, and dead to the things
of earth, did not recognise
him, but started when he heard a voice whispering to him
that he should attempt to secure his escape.
'
It is impossible,' said Nereus. '
I am more than ready to
share the fate of my comrades, and to win their crown.'
Nay, father,' said Onesimus, ' think of Junia, who, if thou
'
diest, will be left a helpless orphan in the world. I dare
speak no more, but be ready to fly in one instant behind
yonder shrine, if I am able to set thee free.'
Reconnoitring the ground, Ouesimus observed that the
green alley where Nereus was tied was close beside a wall.
At no great distance beyond the wall he knew that there
was one of the corpse-pits into which were thrown the bodies
of the poor. Gliding about, he saw on the ground a basket
containing a hammer and large nails. He snatched it up,
and, hid from observation behind the tangled masses of rank
foliage at the back of a shrine of Priapus, he drove the nails
one over the other between the huge disjointed stones, so as
to make it easy to climb the wall. Then he awaited his
opportunity, which he knew would be when the crowd of
more than a hundred thousand spectators pushed and crowded
into the gardens, and the fires of death began.
He was right in all his calculations. A scene of tumultuous
excitement, and the hoarse murmur of innumerable
voices, greeted the almost simultaneous kindling of many of
the stakes. At that very moment, before the executioners
had reached the end of the alley, Onesimus, gliding behind
Nereus, cut his thongs, slipped the chain over his head, tore
oft' the pitchy outer robe, and hurrying the old man to the
back of the shrine of Priapus, half dragged him up the wall,
and took refuge in the dense gloom of a subterranean passage
in the dreadful burial-place.
The executioners noticed, of course, that one of their victims
had, by some strange unknown means, escaped ;
but it
did not greatly concern them. One simply whispered to the
other, ' It will not be observed. Let the poor cacodsemon get
off. What matters it to us ?
'
Meanwhile on every side the flames shot up around the
stakes, and glared with hideous brightness, and sent up huge
tongues of waving light,
and each stake became a torch of
hell, and black smoke swirled around them, and groans and