The handsome face of Constantine glowed with a wonderful light of hope and pleasure as he answered, eagerly; "Yea, thou most wise and infallible bishop! If thou canst accomplish this thing, soon shall the churches of the East enjoy the imperial protection as fully as do those of the Western Empire; and, freed from the persecutions of Licinius and of the pagan priests, the Church shall triumph over all the world. But I have told thee that no more able warrior lives than the emperor; he will never forego the use of his right arm of power: thou canst not neutralize his navy." The greatest of ecclesiastics gazed with affectionate admiration upon the greatest of emperors, and calmly answered: "I am a man of peace, and know nothing of the conduct of a war. But I do know something of the human heart, and of the secret springs that govern the actions of men. When I did visit thee in Gaul, before the war with Maxentius, thou didst tell me that I could not cast a javelin, nor smite with a sword, nor draw out a legion in battle order, but that I knew all Italy, and showed thee how to conquer Rome. Verily I know not how to sail a ship, yet I will endeavor diligently to keep the tyrant’s navy far off from thy coasts. If I should fail, thou wilt quickly know the unwelcome truth; and if I succeed thou shalt learn it immediately." "Thou hast always succeeded," answered Constantine; "no promise made by thee hath failed. Thou hast never once disappointed thine emperor and friend." "For the present," said Eusebius, "I do greatly desire of thee an indefinite leave of absence, but I trust not a protracted one, in order that I may pay a visit to my beloved brother Eusebius, the Bishop of Nicomedia." For an instant the face of Constantine was clouded. "Within the dominions of Licinius?" he softly murmured, but in a moment he answered: "Thou hast leave to go! But tell me, bishop, why thou goest unto Nicomedia. What canst thou do there except to expose thy dear and valuable head to the fury of the emperor?" "I go thither," said Eusebius, with a light and musical laugh, "seeking to prepare a problem over which the historians and warriors of all future ages shall puzzle their weary brains in vain. The question which will be, I trust, a riddle unto them, is briefly this: Why was it that, in the second war with the most Christian Emperor Constantine, the brave and competent commander Licinius, possessing so vast a superiority at sea, utterly failed to carry an offensive war into the very center of his rival’s dominions, and, having moored his fleet safely in some secure strait or bay, left the issue of the war to be decided by the land-forces alone, in the conduct of which the most glorious Emperor Constantine was known to be invincible?"