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ROMAN TRADITIONS OF PETER AND PAUL. 267
came to himself he found himself on a deserted street, far
from the prison, with a cloudy night sky above him, from
which the rain, hunted by strong gusts of wind, streamed
down in rapid showers, while the storm spirits seemed to
repeat the warning—" Fly ! fly !
"
"Brother Paul!" Peter called, with muffled voice;
but no one answered. Paul was not with him. Had he
remained in the prison, and given up the offered freedom,
or had he fled to another quarter ? Peter knew not—and
his fevered brain, his. beating heart, denied him further
reflection. Driven onward by the instinct of self preser-
vation, and unhindered by the sores the prison chains had
made upon his limbs, he had hastened over the Roman
market and Velia, and into the valley path between the
Palatine and the Coelian hills. A street now lay before
him, that led to the Porta Capena and the Appian Way.
A few minutes more, and he would have the city walls
behind him. The storm, the beating rain and the dark-
ness, favored his flight. The streets were deserted, the
sentinels seemed to have given the safety of the slum-
bering city in ward to the angry forces of nature.
Peter was hurrying past a temple of Isis, when a cloth
bound around his wounded leg, loosened, fell, and was
carried by the storm to a thorn hedge ; where, according
to the tradition, it was observed next morning by a Chris-
tian woman, one of Peter’s disciples. The place where
this happened, is also shown. In the lonely Via di Porta
San Sebastiano, near the huge ruined walls of emperor
Caracalla’s baths, on the site of an old-time temple of Isis,
stands, forgotten by Romans as well as foreigners, but nev-
ertheless remarkable and essentially pleasing, a very an
cient little church, S. S. Nereo ed Achilleo ; which contains,
among other things, the episcopal chair of Gregory the
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