And whiles they thus spake together, Nero sent two knights to look if he were slain and beheaded or no, and when thus St. Paul would have converted them, they said:  When thou art dead and risest again, then we shall believe, now come forth and receive that thou hast deserved.  And as he was led to the place of his passion in the gate of Hostence, a noble woman named Plautilla, a disciple of Paul, who after another name was called Lemobia, for haply she had two names, met there with Paul, which weeping, commended her to his prayers.  To whom Paul said:  Farewell, Plautilla, daughter of everlasting health, lend to me thy veil or keverchief with which thou coverest thy head, that I may bind mine eyes therewith, and afterward I shall restore it to thee again.  And when she had delivered it to him, the butchers scorned her, saying:  Why hast thou delivered to this enchanter so precious a cloth for to lose it?  Then, when he came to the place of his passion, he turned him toward the east, holding his hands up to heaven right long, with tears praying in his own language and thanking our Lord; and after that bade his brethren farewell, and bound his eyes himself with the keverchief of Plautilla, and kneeling down on both knees, stretched forth his neck, and so was beheaded.  And as soon as the head was from the body, it said:  Jesus Christus! which had been to him so sweet in his life.  It is said that he named Jesus or Christus, or both, fifty times.  From his wound sprang out milk into the clothes of the knight, and afterward flowed out blood.  In the air was a great shining light, and from the body came a much sweet odor.

Dionysius, in an epistle to Timothy, saith of the death of Paul thus:  In that hour full of heaviness, my well-beloved brother, the butcher, saying:  Paul, make ready thy neck; then blessed Paul looked up into heaven marking his forehead and his breast with the sign of the cross, and then said anon:  My Lord Jesus Christ, into thy hands I commend my spirit, etc.  And then without heaviness and compulsion he stretched forth his neck and received the crown of martyrdom, the butcher so smiting off his head.  The blessed martyr Paul took the keverchief, and unbound his eyes, and gathered up his own blood, and put it therein and delivered to the woman, Then the butcher returned, and Plautilla met him and demanded him, saying:  Where hast thou left my master?  The knight answered:  He lieth without the town with one of his fellows, and his visage is covered with thy keverchief, and she answered and said:  I have now seen Peter and Paul enter into the city clad with right noble vestments, and also they had right fair crowns upon their heads, more clear and more shining than the sun, and hath brought again my keverchief all bloody which he hath delivered me.  For which thing and work many believed in our Lord and were baptized.  And this is that St. Dionysius saith.  And when Nero heard say this thing he doubted him, and began to speak of all these things with his