For a day and a night Agatha remained locked in a prison cell, inside the praetorian palace: later she became a place of worship, it was an underground room, dark and humid. The ceiling was high and only an unreachable window let a ray of light through a thick iron grate. She was given neither food nor water, and a heavy chain was tightening her ankles. But the young Agatha never despaired and continued to pray even more intensely to the heavenly Bridegroom. The next morning she was taken for the second time before the proconsul. "What are you going to do for your salvation? " Quinziano asked her. "My salvation is Christ," answered Agatha. Only then did Quinziano realize that any attempt at persuasion was doomed to failure and, with a fit of anger, ordered her to undergo horrendous torture. Agatha’s limbs were stretched, she was beaten with rods, torn with an iron comb, her sides were slashed with red-hot foils. Every torment, instead of breaking her resistance, seemed to give her new strength. Then Quinziano went further against the girl and ordered the tormentors to amputate her breasts. "Are you not ashamed, Agatha said to him, "to crush in a woman the springs of life from which you yourself drew nourishment, sucking on your mother’s breast? ". Quinziano’s order was a gesture of anger and vengeance: what he had not been able to achieve, he now wanted to destroy. He wanted to see her suffer for the pain of martyrdom and for the modesty violated. He wanted to humiliate her in her dignity as a woman, but no sign of upset marked the face nor the words of Agatha: "You torment my body "he said, "but my soul remains intact ".