to the outer gate, and behold, he found
Martin there outside, even as it had been revealed to him.
He was astonished and said to the holy man;
'How now, O dear lord! why doest thou thus?
Thou needest speak no word nor ask anything,
I know what thou desirest; but wend thee now home,
lest God's anger destroy me for the insult to thee.'
Then the holy man straightway returned home,
and the count commanded in the same night
to let all those go away whom he had intended to kill,
and he himself departed, being afraid, from the city.
XLII. He showed his cruelty in every city,
and ever delighted in the slaughter of unhappy men,
but before Martin he was esteemed mild, no
and durst do no cruelty in Tours.
The holy Martin once came to him,
and, as he was going into his parlour,
he saw then a huge swart devil
sitting on his back, and he [Martin] blew on him;
then Avitianus thought that he was blowing upon him,
and said to the holy man; ' Why dost thou look at me so, holy father?'
The bishop answered him; ' I look not at thee,
but at the swart devil which sitteth on thy neck;
I blew him off thee.' And so the devil departed,
and straightway abandoned his familiar seat.
And Avitianus was more merciful ever afterward
from the day on which the devil departed from him,
either because he was aware that he had been performing his will,
or because the evil spirit was expelled from him
through Martin's might; and he was greatly ashamed
of the devil's vassalage in which he had been until then.
XLIII. Martin had two miles to go from his monastery
to the city of Tours in which was his episcopal see;
and as often as he went thither the devils in possessed men
