About this time the enforcement of the penal laws in a part of North Africa, probably in Carthage, led to a most impressive display of some of the noblest features of the Christian character.  Five catechumens, or candidates for baptism, among whom were Perpetua and Felicitas, [298:2] had been put under arrest.  Perpetua, who was only two and twenty years of age, was a lady of rank and of singularly prepossessing appearance.  Accustomed to all the comforts which wealth could procure, she was ill fitted, with a child at the breast, to sustain the rigours of confinement—­more especially as she was thrown into a crowded dungeon during the oppressive heat of an African summer.  But, with her infant in her arms, she cheerfully submitted to her privations; and the thought that she was persecuted for Christ’s sake, converted her prison into a palace.  Her aged father, who was a pagan, was overwhelmed with distress because, as he conceived, she was bringing deep and lasting disgrace upon her family by her attachment to a proscribed sect; and as she was his favourite child, he employed every expedient which paternal tenderness and anxiety could dictate to lead her to a recantation.  When she was conducted to the judgment-seat with the other prisoners, the old gentleman appeared there, to try the effect of another appeal to her; and the presiding magistrate, touched with pity, entreated her to listen to his arguments, and to change her resolution.  But, though deeply moved by the anguish of her aged parent, all these attempts to shake her constancy were in vain.  At the place of execution she sung a psalm of victory, and, before she expired, she exhorted her brother and another catechumen, named Rusticus, to continue in the faith, to love each other, and to be neither affrighted nor offended by her sufferings.  Her companion Felicitas exhibited quite as illustrious a specimen of Christian heroism.  When arrested, she was far advanced in pregnancy, and during her imprisonment, the pains of labour came upon her.  Her cries arrested the attention of the jailer, who said to her—­“If your present sufferings are so great, what will you do when you are thrown to the wild beasts?  You did not consider this when you refused to sacrifice.”  With undaunted spirit Felicitas replied—­“It is I that suffer now, but then there will be Another with me, who will suffer for me, because I shall suffer for His sake.”  The prisoners were condemned to be torn by wild beasts on the occasion of an approaching festival; and when they had passed through this terrible ordeal, they were despatched with the sword.