“Well, he would go to none of them. He went to the one place where safety was impossible. He went to Ravenna; and at Ravenna every one, from the Emperor down to the meanest slave, was an enemy. He wanted to make them trust him by trusting them—as if one disarmed a tiger by going into his lair! He had two or three of his chief officers with him, besides myself, and as many slaves. We had not a weapon of any kind among us. Stilicho made a point of our being unarmed. Well, we had not an encouraging greeting when we entered the city. Every one, as you may suppose, recognized him. Indeed, there was no man, I suppose, in the whole Empire, who was better known. No one who had ever seen Stilicho could forget that towering form, that white head.(49) There were sullen looks as we walked through the streets, and hisses, and even some stone throwing. However, we got safe to our lodgings, and passed the night without disturbance. The next day, as we were standing in the market-place, an old Vandal soldier—one of the general’s countrymen, you know—put a flower in his hand as he walked by, without saying a word, or even looking at him; for it would have been as much as his life was worth to be seen communicating with us. ‘An old comrade,’ said Stilicho, who never forgot a face. ‘He served with me in Greece.’ The flower was a little red thing; the ‘shepherd’s hourglass’ they call it, because it shuts when there is rain coming. It was a warning. There was danger close at hand. The general said, ‘We must take sanctuary.’ Then he called me to him. ‘Leave me, Claudian,’ he said; ‘you cannot take sanctuary with us, for you are not a baptized man. I do not count much on the Church’s protection; but still it may give me time to make my defence to the Emperor. So you must look out for your own safety. But surely they can’t be base enough to harm you, for what you have done?’ ‘I don’t know about that, my Lord,’ I answered; ‘you remember the fable of the trumpeter.(50) Anyhow, I shall follow you as far as I can.’ Well, he went into the great church—what used to be the Basilica before Constantine’s time—and took sanctuary by the altar. I did not go further than the nave. In the course of an hour or so comes the bishop, with the archdeacon and two or three priests, and following them one of the great officers of the Court, with a body-guard. The church was now crowded from end to end; the people had climbed up into the pulpit, and every accessible spot from which they could get a view of what was going on. I think that there was a reaction in the general’s favour. No one, whose heart was not flint, could see the man who had saved the Empire, and that not once or twice, a suppliant for his life. Well, I could not see for myself what went on, but I heard the story afterwards. The bishop brought a safe-conduct from the Emperor; or rather the chamberlain brought it, and the bishop gave it to Stilicho, with his own guarantee.