Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vol. LIV: Augustini Epistulae Pars I

But when it came to the woman, with her knees bent to the ground, the flashing sword was raised over her trembling neck, and the executioner drove his practiced right hand with all his strength. At the first touch of the body, the deadly blade stopped, and, lightly grazing the skin, it merely sprinkled a bit of blood from a small scratch. The executioner shuddered at the lifeless hand and, marveling at his own right hand, which had been defeated as the sword grew limp, he turned for a second attempt. The blade, now sluggish, descends again upon the woman, and, as if the iron were afraid to touch the innocent, it grows dull and harmless around her neck. Therefore, the enraged and breathless officer, having pulled his cloak back onto his neck while he prepared all his strength, knocked the buckle, which was biting the edges of his mantle, to the ground. Ignorant of the matter, he balanced the sword toward the wound and said, ‘Here, woman, gold falls from your shoulder. Gather what was sought with such labor, lest it perish.’

8. I ask, what is this security? She does not fear the death hanging over her; she is joyful while being struck; the executioner turns pale; her eyes, not seeing the sword, see only the buckle; and, as if it were not enough that she did not fear death, she offered a favor to her tormentor. Therefore, the third blow: it had frustrated the sacrament of the Trinity. Now the executioner, terrified and not believing his eyes, was fitting the blade to the neck