1. OF my fidelity in my former mission you were so well assured as to require from me no account of it. Indeed the very fact that I was detained some days in Gaul sufficiently proved that I had made no promises acceptable to Maximus, nor agreed to any measures which inclined to what was pleasing to him rather than to the establishment of peace. And again, had you not approved of my first mission you would not have committed to me a second. But since as I was on the point of retiring he laid upon me the necessity of a discussion with him, I have thought it best to address to you in this letter an account of my mission, for fear any one should give you an account which mingled truth with falsehood, before my return could declare to you the truth in its perfect and sincere characters. 2. The day after I reached Trèves I presented myself at the palace; a Gaul came out to receive me, who was the Emperor’s Chamberlain, and one of the royal eunuchs. I requested an audience; he enquired whether I had your Majesty’s commission: I replied that I had. He said that I could only be heard in the Consistory. I answered that this was not usual for Bishops, and at all events that there were matters whereon I required serious conference with his master. To be brief; he consulted his master, and brought back the same answer, so that it was plain that the former had originated with his will. I said that such a course was inconsistent with the office I bore, but that I would not shrink from the duty I had undertaken, and that more especially in your service, and as it really was to support your brotherly affection, I was glad to humble myself. 3. As soon as he had taken his seat in the Consistory I entered; he rose to give me the kiss of peace. I stood among the members of the Consistory; some of them urged me to go up the steps, and he himself invited me. I replied, ‘Why do you offer a kiss to one whom you do not acknowledge[141]? for had you acknowledged me you would not have seen me here.’ ‘You are excited, Bishop,’ said he. ‘It is not anger,’ I said, ‘that I feel, but shame at appearing in a place unsuited to me.’ ‘Yet on your first mission,’ he said, ‘you entered the Consistory.’ ‘True,’ I replied, ‘but the blame rests on him who summoned, not on me who entered.’ ‘Why,’ said he, ‘did you then enter?’ ‘Because,’ I replied, ‘I was then suing for peace on behalf of one who was inferior to you, but I now appear for your equal.’ ‘By whose favour,’ said he, ‘is he my equal?’ ‘By that of Almighty God, who has maintained Valentinian in the empire He bestowed on him.’ 4. At length he broke out, ‘It is you who have cajoled me, you and the wretch Bauto, who wished by setting up a boy to acquire sovereignty for himself, who also brought barbarians upon me; as if I also had not those whom I could bring, seeing I have so many barbarians in my service and pay. But had I not been withheld at the time of your arrival, who could have resisted me and my power?’