At the foot of the ladder lay a dragon.

Perpetua thought in her vision that she was commanded to mount the ladder.

She set her foot on the dragon's head, saying, 'He will not harm me, in the name of Jesus Christ,' and went up the ladder.

At the top she found a large garden, and the Good Shepherd met her." Pentaur sprang to his feet, and put out a shaking hand.
"No more!" he cried.

"Oh, no more! No more! O Vivia, Vivia!" With a groan of anguish, Pentaur looked upward, as if behind the desert's sky he might see again that youthful face, the face of that sweet Christian with whom he had been acquainted from childhood and whom he had last seen dying in Carthage's amphitheatre.