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I have ever kept in view the possibility of my enjoying the closest association with you. Indeed, I well remember that from that day you have never found me fail in my respect for you, nor I you in your consummate kindness and generosity to me. If there have occurred any ruptures between us, due not so much to acts as to suspicion on either side, false and fanciful as they have proved to be, let them be eradicated for ever from our hearts and lives. For such is your character, and such I desire my own to be, that faced as we are by the same political conditions, I feel sure that our union and friendship will redound to the credit of each of us.

⁴ And for that reason you, on your part, will decide for yourself what tribute of esteem should in your judgement be paid me—and I trust you will make that decision with proper regard to my deserts—while I on my part explicitly promise you my active support in a special and unprecedented degree, whatever the nature of the service required, provided the object of it is your honour and renown. And in so doing, though I shall find a large field of competitors, I am sure I shall easily surpass them all in the judgment of the world in general, and particularly of your two sons. I am singularly attached to them both, but while I am equally well-disposed to Marcus, I am the more devoted to Publius, because, though indeed he has always done so from his boyhood, still just now he treats me with greater deference and affection than ever, just as though I were a second father.

⁵ I should be glad if you would regard this document as intended to have the force of a compact, and not of a mere letter, and believe that I shall most solemnly observe, and most conscientiously perform,