will lessen my torment and my affection. Recall, dear Titus, every time your great heart compels you to perform a noble deed, I will find in it both a source of consolation and sorrow. I will rejoice in your glory and lament the loss I have suffered, but whatever happens, I will always love you. However, I believe I will not remain concerned for a long time with events relating to you, for the pain I feel is so strong that I don't believe it can last. If my exile was the result of your disloyalty, if your feelings towards me had changed, if your contempt was the cause of my misery, at least I'd have the consolation of naming you responsible for my departure. I would soothe my torment by calling you an ingrate and a traitor. The anger and spite would share my heart. I could hope one day not to love you anymore. Out of resentment or prides, I would part ways with you nearly tearlessly. But in the current state of affairs, I see everywhere reasons for despair, and nothing that could soften my pain. I am not only losing a lover, but a faithful one, and I lose him in a manner that does not allow me to complain about him. I implore the Senate and the Roman people never to complain about the emperor, for he is their father, and I can accuse them, not of not loving me well, but of not valuing me enough. Thus, I become the most unfortunate person who ever existed. But wait, this is where I find some subject for consolation! I am leaving Titus and it is not he who is leaving me. Fate pulls me away from him against his will. It threatens to take away his crown if he does not consent to my exile. And at this moment, I have the satisfaction of noticing that my dear Titus values me more than the Empire.
   It is true, however, that I have to leave him, but at least I have the benefit as I leave of knowing that I will remain in his soul and that nothing can push me out. I see that your silence validates what I say. Your sighs assure me of it and your tears prevent me from doubting it. You certainly have a soul too well made to be capable of infidelity or forgetfulness. Frivolity is a defect that you do not have because it is a sign of weakness and lack of judgment, unworthy of you. One should not offer one's heart without having thought long about it, but once it has been offered, it should never be taken back. In my opinion, it is reasonable to consider that we have more authority over the gifts that have been given to us than over the things we have generously granted. Things that are not gifts can sometimes revert to us without injustice, but what we have once given must never be ours again. Giving is accepting to renounce all rights we could claim on the object of the gift, and there is no law that can justly restore us to possession of it. With that said, I am assured that you have given me your heart. It is by this thought that I can hope to live in my exile, it is by this alone that life can be bearable to me, and it is by this alone that I cannot call myself absolutely unfortunate. I hope that in time, the Romans might recognize that as the love you have for me has nothing unjust, I have inspired only benevolent feelings in you. I do not ask

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