him that he should not blame his gods; and he answered: 'If I be thus tormented that blame them that be no gods, how shalt thou be tormented that blasphemest him that is very God!' And the king said to him: 'These other traitors have taught thee these words.' To whom Adrian said: 'Why callest thou them traitors, which be doctors and enseign the life perdurable?' And Natalie ran to the others with great joy, and told the words that her husband had said. And then the king did him to be beaten with four strong men. And Natalie anon reported to the other martyrs that were in the prison all the martyrdom, the answers, and the pains of her husband, and he was so sore beaten that his entrails sprang out, and then he was bound with iron, and put in prison with the other. And Adrian was a young man, lusty and much fair, of eight-and-twenty years of age. And when Natalie saw her husband lie grovelling upon the earth, and all to-broken, she laid her hand on his head in comforting him, and said: 'Thou art blessed, my lord, for thou art made worthy to be of the number of saints; thou art blessed, my light, when thou sufferest for him that suffered death for thee: go then forth, my sweet love, that thou mayest see his glory.' And when the emperor heard that many women ministered to the saints in prison, he commanded that they should no more be suffered to enter. And when Natalie heard that, she shaved her head and took the habit of man, and served the saints in the prison and made the other women do so by the ensample of her. And she prayed her husband when he should be in glory that he would
