assembled to her husband Joacim, with the two elders full of mischievous imagination against Susanna, these wicked men commanded Susanna to uncover her face that they might be filled with her beauty, and her friends and all that saw her wept.  Then the elders made their charge which they had agreed upon against Susanna, and the assembled people believed them:  so they condemned her to death.  Then Susanna cried to the Everlasting God, saying:  Thou knowest that they have borne false witness against me, and that I never did such things as these men have maliciously invented against me.  And the Lord heard her voice.

When she was led to be put to death, the Lord raised up the holy spirit of a youth named Daniel, who said:  Are ye such fools, ye sons of Israel, that without examination or knowledge of the truth ye have condemned a daughter of Israel?  Then Daniel put the two elders aside, one far from the other, to examine them.  To the first he said:  If thou hast seen her, under what tree sawest thou them companying together?  He answered:  Under a mastic tree.  Daniel said:  Very well; and he put him aside and commanded the other to be brought.  Tell me, he said, under what tree didst thou take them companying together?  He answered:  Under an holm tree.  Then Daniel said:  These men have lied against their own heads, for even now the Angel of God waiteth with the sword that he may destroy them.  Then all the assembly arose against the two elders, for Daniel had convicted them of false witness by their own mouth; and they put them to death.  Thus the innocent blood was saved the same day; and from that time forth was Daniel had in great reputation in the sight of the people.

THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF BEL AND THE DRAGON

When Cyrus of Persia received his kingdom, Daniel conversed with him, and was honoured above all his friends.  Now, the Babylonians had an idol called Bel, which the king worshipped, but Daniel worshipped his own God.  The king said unto him:  Why dost thou not worship Bel?  Daniel answered:  Because I may not worship idols made with hands, but the living God.  Then the king said:  Thinkest thou not that Bel is a living god?  Seest thou not how much he eateth and drinketh every day?  Then Daniel smiled and said:  O king, be not deceived; for this is but clay within and brass without, and it never eateth or drinketh anything.  Then trial was made by order of the king, and meat and wine were set in the temple, the door made fast, and sealed with the king’s signet.  The priests of Bel were three score and ten, besides their wives and children, and they little regarded the trial, for under the table they had made a privy entrance, whereby they entered the temple continually and consumed the meat and the wine.  But Daniel had commanded his servants to strew the temple floor with ashes, before the door was shut and sealed.  Now, in the night came the priests with their wives and children, as they were wont, and did eat and drink up all.