Thus I lied to my mother -- and
such a mother! -- and escaped. For this too thou didst mercifully
pardon me -- fool that I was -- and didst preserve me from the
waters of the sea for the water of thy grace; so that, when I was
purified by that, the fountain of my mother's eyes, from which she
had daily watered the ground for me as she prayed to thee, should
be dried. And, since she refused to return without me, I
persuaded her, with some difficulty, to remain that night in a
place quite close to our ship, where there was a shrine in memory
of the blessed Cyprian. That night I slipped away secretly, and
she remained to pray and weep. And what was it, O Lord, that she
was asking of thee in such a flood of tears but that thou wouldst
not allow me to sail? But thou, taking thy own secret counsel and
noting the real point to her desire, didst not grant what she was
then asking in order to grant to her the thing that she had always
been asking.
The wind blew and filled our sails, and the shore dropped out
of sight. Wild with grief, she was there the next morning and
filled thy ears with complaints and groans which thou didst
disregard, although, at the very same time, thou wast using my
longings as a means and wast hastening me on to the fulfillment of
all longing.
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