THE ARGUMENT.

Continuation of the recital. Repentance of Eudorus. His public penance. He quits the army. He passes over into Egypt to demand his release of Dioclesian. Voyage. Alexandria. The Nile. Egypt. Eudorus obtains his release from Dioclesian. The Thebaid. Return of Eudorus

to his family. Conclusion of the recital.

BOOK XI.

"PARDON, my fathers, the tears which still flow from my eyes! I will detain you no longer with the particulars of that dreadful scene. How fully did I merit the chastisement of heaven: I was no more to behold her whom I had seduced, except to deposit her ashes in the tomb.

"The grand epoch of my life, O Cyrillus, ought to be reckoned at this period, as this is the epoch of my return to religion. The crimes which I had hitherto committed had effected myself alone, and were therefore but slightly regarded; but when I found that I had been the cause of another's woe, my heart shrunk within me. I hesitated no longer; Clair arrived; I fell at his feet; I made a full confession of the iniquities of life. He embraced me with transports of joy, and imposed upon me a part of that penance, by much too light, which I still continue daily to undergo. The fevers of the mind are similar to those of the body: a change of place is essential to their cure. I resolved to quit Armorica, to renounce the world, and retire to weep for errors under the roof of my fathers. I returned

my

G

my

to Constantius the insignia of my power, intreating his permission to abandon the station in which he had placed me. Cæsar endeavoured to retain me by every mode in his power: he appointed me to command the imperial guard of the Gaulsan exalted station, the authority of which extends over Spain and the isles of the Britons. But Constantius perceiving that I was fixed in my designs, wrote me these words in his usual strain of mildness:

"I cannot undertake of myself to grant you the favour that you ask, because you belong to the Roman people. The emperor alone can decide upon your fate. Go, therefore, to him. Solicit your release; and if Augustus refuses you, return to Cæsar."

"I gave up the command of Armorica to the tribune appointed to succeed me; I embraced Clair, and, full of sorrow and remorse, I abandoned the forests and the heaths which had been inhabited by Velleda. I embarked at the port of Nismes; I arrived at Ostia, and again beheld Rome, the theatre of my first errors. In vain did some of my young friends endeavour to entice me to the festive board; the settled gloom of my mind destroyed the pleasures of the banquet: affecting to smile, I would often hold the cup for some time to my lips, that I might thus conceal the tears which flowed copiously from my eyes. Prostrating myself before the chief of the

Christians, who had formerly cut me off from the communion of the Faithful, I supplicated him to receive me again into the fold. Marcelline sanctioned my penance: he even gave me to hope that the time of my trial should be shortened, and that the temple of God should be opened to me in seven years, if I continued to persevere in my repentance.*

Nothing now remained but to carry my petitions to the feet of Dioclesian: he was still in Egypt. I could not think of awaiting his return,

* The primitive churches were considerably divided as to the propriety of re-admitting a lapsed member into their communion-and even those who were willing to receive an excommunicated brother, varied much as to the kind and degree of penance necessary to be imposed upon him as a test of the sincerity of his repentance. The purest of the churches, however, were generally ready to open their gates to the returning penitent: but at the same time prescribed to him a severe and solemn form of discipline, as well for the expiation of the crime, as for an example to those who might not be completely firm and stedfast in the faith. The general requisites to be observed by the penitent were, to humble himself by public confession, to macerate his body by fasting, to clothe himself in sackcloth, to prostrate himself at the door of the assembly and implore with tears the pardon of his offences, and solicit the prayers of the Faithful. If the crime was of a heinous character, years of penance were required; and the punishment for a second lapse, was perpetual excommunication. Seven years for a first offence was considered mild and indulgent. See Mosheim's Ecc. Hist. v. i, p. 120. Decline and Fall, &c. v. 2, p. 116.

and therefore determined to follow him into the east.

"At the mole of Marcus-Aurelius there was one of those vessels which the bishops of Alexandria had sent, during the time of a great scarcity, to convey corn to the relief of the poor. This vessel was upon the point of sailing for Egypt; I embarked in her. The season was favourable. We weighed anchor, and the shores of Italy receded rapidly from our view.

"Alas, I had already traversed that sea, when I quitted, for the first time, my native country, Arcadia. I was then young, and full of hope; I anticipated, glory, wealth, honours; I knew nothing of the world but from the dreams of youthful imagination. How different, said I, do I now feel! I am about to retire from that world, and what have I acquired in the toilsome pilgrimage?

"The crew were Christians: the religious rites which were performed on board of our vessel seemed to augment the majesty of the scene. If these men, restored to the use of their reason, no longer beheld Venus issuing from the resplendent billows, and rising towards Heaven upon the wings of the Hours, they admired the hand which laid the foundations of the sea, and which displays at pleasure the terror or the beauty of its waves. Had we any need of the fables of Halcyon and Ceyx to discover the tender relations that exist