aperture in the roof, upon the corresponding opening in the floor below. This opening he conjectured, and conjectured rightly, was the entrance to the famous cell of execution, called the Tullianum. "That hole, then," said he to himself, shudderingly, "is the dungeon in which the accomplices of Catiline were strangled! There, then, is the dreadful cold-bath of King Jugurtha, into which he was cast naked, after having been stripped of his purple robes; and there, he was starved to death!* This is to be the place of exit for me, I suppose :—this is to be my fate,-a lingering death!-a dishonoured name !" The latter thought seemed almost maddening; and the anguish which he suffered caused large drops of sweat to stand on his forehead! The aperture in the floor was closed by a heavy pavement, which curiosity prompted him to attempt to remove, to enable him to take a survey of this thrice horrible cell. This labour was the occupation-I had almost said, the amusement-of many hours. The stone *Plutarch in Vita Marii. was so massive, that he would have felt inclined to relinquish his arduous undertaking long before he had accomplished it, but his curiosity was stimulated by the faint sound of a human voice from the cell below. Having succeeded, at last, in making a little aperture, through which he looked down as though into a dark and deep well, he discovered two men writing, by a faint glimmering light which hardly found aliment in the sepulchral atmosphere with which it was struggling. The flickering flame, however, threw a sufficient gleam on the countenance of one of the persons, to enable Pudens to recognise the features of the Apostle Paul! Strange to say, this holy martyr was at that moment employed in penning his last epistle to his friend Timothy; and amid the horrors of that noisome dungeon, was writing that triumphant strain, which may be styled the Martyr's Io Pæan! “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. "I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith. "Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."* Pudens could not see the Apostle's countenance distinctly, or he would have beheld it glowing with angelic rapture and he would have almost thought himself compensated for his sufferings, could he have deciphered the close of that divine epistle; for there his own name, and that of Claudia and Linus, were united in immortal fellowship! "Eubulus greeteth thee," writes the inspired saint, to his beloved Timothy, "and PUDENS, and LINUS, and CLAUDIA, and all the brethren." + The other person whom Pudens with difficulty descried, was St. Peter, who was also putting a last hand to his divine labours. Pudens judged, by the extraordinary rapidity with which their hands glided over the parchment, that their moments were numbered, and therefore felt some hesitation in disturbing them; but seeing St. Paul raise his head from his scroll, as though he had finished, he was * II. Tim., c. IV., v. 6., et seq. II. Tim., c. iv., v. 21. just about to address him, when his own hand was rudely snatched away from the stone which closed the communication between the two cells! CHAPTER XX. Hast thou no other boon to crave? No other captive friend to save? THE LADY OF THE LAKE. WISHING to preserve the narrative uninterrupted, as far as concerns the fate of Pudens, some few circumstances have been omitted, which it will be necessary to relate before I proceed further. Seneca, as has been stated, had written expressly to Britain, urging the importance of Claudia's being sent home, and describing, as explicitly as prudence would allow, the perils to which she was exposed from the licentiousness of the Emperor's court, against which his own influence had afforded her but little protection. Arviragus felt, as might be supposed, extremely alarmed for the safety of his daughter, and not a little perplexed how to rescue her |