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"O wretches that we are and so senseless! Since the king has summoned and exhorted us to accept kind treatment if we obey him,
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why do we take pleasure in vain resolves and venture upon a disobedience that brings death?
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O men and brothers, should we not fear the instruments of torture and consider the threats of torments, and give up this vain opinion and this arrogance that threatens to destroy us?
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Let us take pity on our youth and have compassion on our mother's age;
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and let us seriously consider that if we disobey we are dead!
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Also, divine justice will excuse us for fearing the king when we are under compulsion.
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Why do we banish ourselves from this most pleasant life and deprive ourselves of this delightful world?
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Let us not struggle against compulsion or take hollow pride in being put to the rack.
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Not even the law itself would arbitrarily put us to death for fearing the instruments of torture.
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Why does such contentiousness excite us and such a fatal stubbornness please us, when we can live in peace if we obey the king?"
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But the youths, though about to be tortured, neither said any of these things nor even seriously considered them.