o the honorable
station of a tribune of the first order. The figure of Constantine was
tall and majestic; he was dexterous in all his exercises, intrepid in
war, affable in peace; in his whole conduct, the active spirit of youth
was tempered by habitual prudence; and while his mind was engrossed
by ambition, he appeared cold and insensible to the allurements of
pleasure. The favor of the people and soldiers, who had named him as a
worthy candidate for the rank of Caesar, served only to exasperate
the jealousy of Galerius; and though prudence might restrain him from
exercising any open violence, an absolute monarch is seldom at a loss
now to execute a sure and secret revenge. [12] Every hour increased the
danger of Constantine, and the anxiety of his father, who, by repeated
letters, expressed the warmest desire of embracing his son. For some
time the policy of Galerius supplied him with delays and excuses; but
it was impossible long to refuse so natural a request of his associate,
without maintaining his refusal by arms. The permission of the journey
was reluctantly granted, and whatever precautions the emperor might have
taken to intercept a return, the consequences of which he, with so
much reason, apprehended, they were effectually disappointed by the
incredible diligence of Constantine. [13] Leaving the palace of Nicomedia
in the night, he travelled post through Bithynia, Thrace, Dacia,
Pannonia, Italy, and Gaul, and, amidst the joyful acclamations of the
people, reached the port of Boulogne in the very moment when his father
was preparing to embark for Britain. [14]

[Footnote 8: This tradition, unknown to the contemporaries of
Constantine was invented in the darkness of monestaries, was embellished
by Jeffrey of Monmouth, and the writers of the xiith century, has been
defended by our antiquarians of the last age, and is seriously related
in the ponderous History of England, compiled by Mr. Carte, (vol. i. p.
147.) He transports, however, the kingdom of Coil, the imaginary father
of Helena, from Essex to the wall of Antoninus.]

[Footnote 9: Eutropius (x. 2) expresses, in a few words, the real truth,
and the occasion of the error "ex obscuriori matrimonio ejus filius."
Zosimus (l. ii. p. 78) eagerly seized the most unfavorable report,
and is followed by Orosius, (vii. 25,) whose authority is oddly enough
overlooked by the indefatigable, but partial Tillemont. By insisting on
the divorce of Helena, Diocletian ackno