V. 6. "And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." Here is her persecution. She was intoxicated with a fanatical zeal to exterminate the Christians; Peter crucified head downwards, so tradition tells us; Paul yielding his head to the stroke of the executioner's ax; thousands on thousands executed in every form of torture. No wonder the word scarlet comes into the scene.