2.] [Footnote 87: See the original sentence in the Acts, c.

4; and in Pontius, c.

17 The latter expresses it in a more rhetorical manner.] As soon as the sentence was proclaimed, a general cry of "We will die with him," arose at once among the listening multitude of Christians who waited before the palace gates.

The generous effusions of their zeal and their affection were neither serviceable to Cyprian nor dangerous to themselves.

He was led away under a guard of tribunes and centurions, without resistance and without insult, to the place of his execution, a spacious and level plain near the city, which was already filled with great numbers of spectators.