Letter 3047: It is true that rumor is swift, but I will not agree with the Mantuan poet [Virgil] beyond that point.

It is a true saying that rumor is swift; but I do not agree any further with the Mantuan [Virgil], who thinks that it ought to be reckoned among evils. For what is more splendid than rumor, when it bathes the ears and mind of good people with glad tidings? To me, certainly, it is exceedingly welcome, since it was the first to bring the report of your acquittal. I was in the country, grieving in spirit over the loss of my parent; there the rumor, having followed me, freed me from the cares which we were carrying on your account. Nor was its trustworthiness lacking. For at once I believed that to be true which I knew to accord both with your innocence and with the fairness of the times. There came too your own letter, so charming and graceful that, in a matter already known, I thought fresh joy concerning you was being announced to me. In it there was the confidence of a good conscience, but together with praise of public justice. For you both gave thanks to the greatest princes [emperors] as one acquitted, and complained of fortune alone as one innocent. But what need of more? When [will you come] to Rome, when [...]