25. On the following day, the book of Jonah was read in due course, after which, I began this discourse; We have read a book, my brethren, wherein it is foretold that sinners shall return again to repentance. They are accepted on this footing, that their present state is considered an earnest of the future. I added that this just man was even willing to incur blame, rather than behold or denounce destruction on the city; and, since that prophecy was mournful, that he was also grieved because the gourd had withered; that God had said to the prophet, _Art thou greatly angry for the gourd?_ and Jonah had answered, _I am greatly angry_. Then the Lord said, if the withering of the gourd was a grief to him, how much more ought he to care for the salvation of so many souls; and therefore that He had suspended the destruction which had been prepared for the whole city. Sidenote: Ib. 7. 26. Immediate tidings are brought to me that the Emperor had commanded the soldiers to retire from the Church; and that the fine which had been imposed on the merchants on their condemnation should be restored. What joy then prevailed among the whole people, what applause, what congratulations! Now it was the day whereon the Lord delivered Himself up for us, the day whereon there is a relaxation of penance in the Church. The soldiers eagerly brought the tidings, running in to the altars, and giving the kiss, the emblem of peace. Then I perceived that God had smitten _the worm which came when the morning rose_, that the whole city might be preserved. 27. These are the past events, and would that they were terminated, but the excited words of the Emperor show that heavier trials are awaiting us. I am called a tyrant, and even more than tyrant. For when the Counts besought the Emperor to go to the Church, and said that they did so at the request of the soldiers, he replied, ‘You would deliver me up to chains, if Ambrose bade you.’ I leave you to judge what awaits us after these words; all shuddered at hearing them, but there are those about him who exasperate him. 28. Lastly Calligonus the Grand Chamberlain[107] ventured to address himself specially to me. ‘Do you, while I live, despise Valentinian? I will have your head.’ I replied, ‘May God grant you to fulfil your threat: I shall suffer as becomes a Bishop, you will act as befits an ♦eunuch.’ May God indeed turn them aside from the Church; may all their weapons be directed against me, may they satiate their thirst in my blood! LETTER XXI. A.D. 386.