Epistle XXVII. — To the same Paulinus, when he replied to everything else without promising to come

We are shaking off' a yoke, Paulinus, which its tried equableness once made easy, a yoke lightly laid and worthy the respect of those it joined, which mild Concord used to guide with even reins; which through so long a line of rolling years never an idle tale, never a peevish complaint has stirred, nor quarrel thrust from its place, nor anger, nor misapprehension, nor Suspicion which, lending too ready ears to Persuasion's trumped-up pretexts, forms from them grievances to look like truth; so gentle, so easy a yoke which both our fathers drew on into old age from the beginning of their life, which, laid upon their duteous heirs, they would have had remain throughout till length of days broke up our lives. And remain it did, while there was joyous trust and no laborious care to maintain exchange of good offices, but they flowed freely, keeping unbroken their unguarded course.

This yoke so mild Mars' horses would endure with obedient neck, and those wild steeds stolen from the stable of Diomedes, and even that team which, when another than the Sun held their reins, plunged lightning-blasted Phaethon in the Padus. Yet it is being shaken off, Paulinus; and that, not through the fault of both, but of one alone — of thee. For my neck will ever bear it gladly. It is the partner of my toil deserts me, and 'tis not so easy for one, when his fellow fails, to carry on alone that which the two bare as comrades. Heart and strength fail not, but unfair is the condition of carrying a burden, when both loads are laid on the partner left and the weight of another's charge is added. So one ailing member in a man involves the sound body in infection, and the peril even of a tiny limb makes the whole knitted frame totter in all its countless joints. Yet let me even be crushed if only loyalty to my old friend fail not while I endure, and memory deep-planted in the years bring back — vain consolation! — my errant comrade.

Ah, heartless! From Peirithous thou couldst part Theseus and separate Euryalus from the company of his dear Nisus; urged to flight by thee, Pylades would have left Orestes, and Sicilian Damon would not have kept his bond! What general delight, what good men's prayers have thus been cheated of their looked-for gain! They all were speaking words of congratulation: already they were about to enter our names in the lists of friends belonging to nobler days of old. Pylades was giving place, Phrygian Nisus also now was growing less famed, and Damon who met his promised bail. We showed less tragic tokens of friendship, even as great Scipio and Laelius, long-lived in wisdom: we, with pursuits and hearts the same, were marvellous to all, the more for this that we were equals though unequal-aged. Sooner, methinks, could the Pellaean war-lord have loosed the lashings of that fate-fraught yoke, although their beginning was concealed from view and their end hidden by a double knot.

Some presumptuous word we surely spoke, that the vengeful queen of Rhamnus thus made onslaught on our excessive hopes; as in old days when, angered at the vaunting of Arsaces' royal son, the avenging goddess, crushing his presumptuous boasts, withstood his purpose to set up in the land of Cecrops' sons a memorial of the Median arms, and just when she was to be raised to support a trophy of Greek arms, deliberately took her stand as Attic Nemesis to mark the Persian rout.

What caprice of thine is this to harass nobles of the seed of Romulus? Against Medes and Arabs, thy natural foes, advance through clouds and chaos black: from men of Roman name keep thou afar.

There rather seek thou friendships to assail, where that jealousy of thine and rankling venom estranges hearts well-fitted for thy deceits. For Paulinus and Ausonius, men whom the sacred purple of Quirinus and the golden tissue of the consul's robe have enwrapped, to yield to the stratagems of a foreign goddess is not seemly.

"Wherefore do I complain and cry out on the ravage of an eastern monster? 'Tis western Tagus' shores, 'tis Punic Barcelona that does me hurt, 'tis the Pyrenees whose snowy crests join sea to sea, thou thyself also dost me hurt, thou who abandonest thy friends without a cause, deserting thy town and, perchance, the native fashion of thy dress and speech, thou who now dwellest among new friends, whom the extent of a wide province parts from me beyond mountains 'neath an alien sun, beyond rivers and cities and all the land and sky which lie outspread betwixt Merida by Ana's streams and the wide flood of the Garonne.

"If only the division were narrow and interposed a separating space not too formidable (albeit they think every place far off who seek to be together), even so affection's self would make the places near, spanning the interval with a bridge of words; even as Saintes keeps touch with Bordeaux, and she again with Agen and the folk who till the country parts of Aquitaine; and as two-fold Aries links to herself at equal distances the roofs of Alpine Vienne and Narbonne; and then thou, Martian Narbonne, alliest with thee five-fold Toulouse. If such the distance severing our neighbouring towns, then would I clasp thee, ready to my embrace, and the air of my complaint would be breathed into thy ears.

Now for thee beyond the Alps and stony Pyrenees, Saragossa is thy home, Tyrrhenian Tarragona' is near by, and Barcelona built above the oyster-bearing sea: me hills, me rivers in triple array part from Bordeaux and from the common throng, and in my leisure the vine-clad hills engage me, the rich glebe with its blithe peasantry, now the green meads, now the copse with its dancing shades, the church thronged with crowding villagers, and all those my domains hard by each other in Novarus village, which enjoy such change at the various seasons throughout the year, that the chill winters are warm for them and in the furious summer heats soft north winds breathe over them a gentle coolness. Yet without thee the year advances, bringing no grateful change. The rainy Spring flits by lacking its flower, the heat-bringing Dog-Star parches, Pomona brings not variety of sweet autumn fruits, and with outpoured water Aquarius makes gloomy all the winter. Dost thou perceive thy fault, my dearest Pontius? For my loyalty remains steadfast and, never to be changed, in my regard for the Paulinus of old days endures, even as the harmony betwixt my sire and thine. If Ulysses' bow was easy to be strung by any man, or if Achilles' spear could be wielded save by its lord, then shall the queen of Rhamnus loose us from so long a bond.

But why weave I such sad refrain in mournful verse, why does my heart nut turn to nobler prayers? Far he that fear! Sure is my confidence that, if the Father and the Son of God accept the reverent words of those who seek, thou canst be restored at my prayer, that I may weep not for a home scattered and ravaged, for the realm rent in pieces between a hundred owners, once Pauhnus's, and for thee, that, wandering with a range as wide as the extent of Spain, unmindful of old friends thou dost trust in strangers.

O hasten hither, my pride, my chiefest care, summoned with vows, good omens, and with prayers speed thee hither, while thou art young and while my old age to win thy favour preserves its vigour unconsumed. Ah, when shall this news break on my ears? "Lo, thy Paulinus is at hand: now he leaves the snowy towns of Spain, now reaches the fields of Tarbellae, now approaches the homesteads of Hebromagus, now enters his brother's domains hard by, now glides down stream, and now is in sight: now the prow is being swung out into the stream: now he has passed the thronged entrance of his home-port, outstrips the whole host of folk who hurry to meet him, and passing his own doors now, even now beats at thine."

"Do I believe, or do those who love feign dreams for their own selves." '