[70] Their effect, however, on the minds of the people, was rapid and irresistible; and the feeble sovereign of Italy found himself unable to contend with the favorite of Heaven.

The powers likewise of the earth interposed in the defence of Ambrose: the disinterested advice of Theodosius was the genuine result of piety and friendship; and the mask of religious zeal concealed the hostile and ambitious designs of the tyrant of Gaul.

[71] [Footnote 65: Sozomen alone (l.vii.c.

13) throws this luminous fact into a dark and perplexed narrative.] [Footnote 66: Excubabat pia plebs in ecclesia, mori parata cum episcopo suo....

Nos, adhuc frigidi, excitabamur tamen civitate attonita atque curbata.Augustin.Confession.l.ix.