86:1
Indicastis quidem tantum doloris causam, qua epi. stolaris officii responsio clauderetur, et durissimo nuntio vulnus inflictum plus me lacrymis cogeret servire quam litteris: tamen metuens silentii eulpam, vel pauca suspiriis meis, ut potui verba furatus sum. Probant igitur tempora, cui rectius ascribatur nota formidinis, quem magis trepidum provisio claustris commissa designet. Ergo urbis caveas dedignatus, inter vicina discrimini constantiam pectoris planis exposui, et jam diu ad patentium locorum aequora perveni, rem ut virtutis audaciam libertate habitationis ostenderem. Vos autem, rumore comperto, ad septa urbis tanquam venturo æmulo convolastis:
You have indeed set forth so great a cause of grief that the reply owed by epistolary duty was cut short, and, a wound being inflicted by the harshest of tidings, it compelled me to serve tears more than letters. Yet, fearing the fault of silence, I have stolen at least a few words, as best I could, from my sighs. The times therefore prove to whom the mark of dread is more rightly ascribed, and whom, entrusted to enclosures, foresight marks out as the more trembling. Thus, having disdained the cages of the city, amid perils near at hand I laid bare the constancy of my heart in open places, and long since I have reached the level expanses of open country, that I might show the boldness of valour by the freedom of my dwelling. But you, when the rumour was heard, flew together to the ramparts of the city as though against a rival about to come:
你確實陳述了如此重大的悲痛之由，以致書信之責所當有的回覆竟被截斷；而最嚴酷的消息所造成的傷口，迫使我服事於眼淚更甚於服事於文字。然而，因懼怕緘默之過，我盡力從嘆息中偷取了幾句話。時勢因此證明，恐懼之名更當歸於誰，而被託付於藩籬之內的謀慮又顯出誰更為顫慄。於是我輕看城中的牢籠，在近旁的危險之間，於開闊之地坦露我內心的堅定，而且早已到達曠野平坦的境地，好藉居所的自由顯明勇氣的膽識。你們卻在聽聞風聲時，齊集於城牆，彷彿要抵擋一個即將來到的敵手：
86:2
et quem pacis diebus jugiter rura tenuerunt, nunc de mortuorum latebris non educunt. Enimvero quam vos tunccivitas flagitabat, tam nunc intra moenia collocatos quaerit relicta possessio.
and those whom in days of peace the countryside continually held, they now do not draw forth from the hiding-places of the dead. Indeed, as the city demanded you then, so now the abandoned estate seeks you, established within the walls.
那在太平之日常被鄉野所留住的人，如今卻不從死人的藏匿之處被引出。實在說來，正如當時城邑迫切需要你們，如今被撇棄的產業也在尋找安置於城牆之內的你們。