my misfortunes and still persecute the Asmonean memory by the shame thou preparest for the last of its Illustrious bloud which thou hast spilt so brutishly Hope not I will assert my innocence no that account must only be rendred to him that knows it and by his goodness will defend it against the calumny of my Enemies believe all of the unfortunate Mariamne wherewith her envious detractors have inspir'd thee Thy cruelties have given me but too much cause to dispence with the justification which I owe to him whom Heaven in its anger gave me for a Husband but do not involve such persons in my misery as have no part in the crime thou imposest and if thy rage demands a victim to appease it seek no other than her whom thou hast taught to desire Death by rendring her Life calamitous The last words of the Queen transported Herod to the farthest degrees of fury and now more than believing the care she took of my justification while she disdained her own could spring from no other root but that of Love he concluded the proof clear enough to convince her and not able so far to over-rule this belief to dissemble his intention Yes perfidious Creature cryed he I will credit all that my eyes and ears and not the envious detractors have told me I will credit all that will convince thee of the most shamefull and blackest of all Treasons and in fine believe that of thee which thou wouldest I should do and disdainst to disavow The care thou takest of that ingratefull wretch which has so basely betrayed me to the prejudice of thy own safety shall suffice for his and thy Condemnation the ruin of that thou holdest so dear shall begin the punishment ofthy disloyalty and the choice of victims due to my just anger shall not be at thy disposal for before thou learnest what to resolve upon thy self prepare to know what I shall execute upon the person of thy Adulterer At these words he flung out of the Chamber with a Countenance so furious as those that met him in the passage could not behold him without trembling Alas how erroneous was the opinion he had of my fortune how remote was I from that Soveraign degree of happiness and how worthy my condition had been of envie had his suspitions been true In the mean time I was at my Lodging wholly ignorant of what had passed at the Palace and employed the rest of that day upon my ordinary diversions The hour of Supper being come I was serv'd after the usual manner and sitting at the Table with some friends of the Court which were come to visit me we had done part of our repast when calling for drink one of the Kings Cup-bearers that was accustomed to serve me presented the Cup with a troubled look and discompos'd countenance I observed this change in his Visage but made no reflection upon it only contented my self to ask him if he was not well and in the mean time taking the Cup from his hands I was carrying it to my mouth when Arsanes enter'd the Chamber and hastily running up to me just as I touched the Cup with my lips he rushed against my arm so rudely as he made me let fall the Cup and spill the Liquor part on the Table and part upon my Cloths this action of Arsanes was so little respectful that knowing his disposition I concluded he had not done it without some powerful motive but he stayed not till I should ask the reason and desirous to hide his intent from those were with me Sir said he I beseech you to pardon the offence which my rash haste made me commit and be pleased to vouchsafe me the liberty of your ear for one moment This said he drew me by the Arm with an action so earnest as I perceived he had some advice of importance to communicate I rose from the Table making a bad excuse to those that supp'd with me and followed Arsanes into my Cabinet which he first entred We were no sooner there but Sir said he nothing but a speedy flight can save your life the Gods in good time conducted me hither to spill the Poyson was prepar'd you but if we stay longer here it will not be possible with the same facility to put by those other dangers that menace you Read this Note which just now I received of the Queens chief Eunuch it is written with her own hand and if the Gods consent that we escape t is to her alone you owe your safety I was amazed at the words and actions of Arsanes and without reply to his Discourse I took the Letter where I found these words written with the hand of my Divine Queen Mariamne to Prince Tyridates THE peril to which I expose my self in writing to you cannot hinder an advice which I owe to your vertue and the proofs of your affection Tyridates if it be possible save your self and stay no longer in a place where Poyson and Sword are employed to give you Death I read over the Billet twice or thrice kiss'd those amiable Characters which that adorable hand had traced and after the perusal I was much to seek whether the cruelty of Herod that sought to destroy me after he had given me shelter or the goodness of Mariamne who took such noble pains to preserve my life with the peril of her own touch'd me deepest I knew not to which of these resentments my soul was to give preheminence but I know well the death that was threatned could not put on so rude a shape as that departure to which I saw my self condemn'd by the hand of Mariamne The grief I felt was too prodigious to be wrap'd in words I stood a long time silent and immoveable which Arsanes who had ballanced the estate of my Affairs disapproving after he had often urged me to resolve What would you I should do said I what Resolution can you wish me to take in so cruel a proposition think you this life which through your care I have miserably drag'd from Court to Court is so dear to divorce me from Mariamne do you believe this separation more easie than that of my Soul from my Body Shall I abandon her for ever whom I can scarce leave for a moment without dying And to avoid one single death shall I carry a thousand in my Brest through all those places where my pitiless Fortune shall lead me Ah! Let us die first continued I walking a great pace without listening to the Reasons Arsanes pressed for departure let us die a ready death since a slow one is much more sensible leave the Body cold and pale in that place which the Soul cannot abandon and since we must die one way let us seek to die in the eyes of Mariamne and if that glory be refused at least give up that Spirit which neither was nor ever shall be but to her as near her as is possible I pronounc'd these words with an
wrought upon my spirit and running to the chamber door like a mad man I learned that after strong agonies Delia had begun to vomit up the poison and that by the vertues of the remedies which they had given her they hoped shortly to expel it all This success was conformable to their hopes and not to detain you any longer with this tedious passage I will tell you that a little after Delia having cast out all the poison found her self in so good a condition that the Physitians assured me of her life Certainly never was a Prince's pardon more sweet to Criminals who already beheld the sad preparations of death than that assurance was to my spirit which they gave me of the safety of my Delia and those from whom I received it received testimonies of it which might make them remember my acknowledgement as long as they lived Delia saw her self restored to a quiet condition those violent pains wherewith she had been tormented ceased by little and little her eyes partly recovered their accustomed brightness the pale wan colour wherewith her fair face was covered went away and if she did not presently regain all her beauties at least all the designs of death dis-appeared and we saw such a change in her as put us out of all apprehensions of danger O Gods how was I ravished at that time and what discourse can be able to make you comprehend the transports of joy to which I abandoned my self I was in such an extasie that I could not frame any rational discourse and embracing Delia's knees with passion much different from those I felt a little before Delia said I my dear Delia you are restored to me and the Gods have snatched you out of the arms of death to leave you entirely to me I know not replyed Delia to what intent they preserve me but the affliction you had for my death makes me receive the life they leave me with more satisfaction than I should have received it upon my own single interest These words full of acknowledgement and goodness transported me to new ravishments and looking upon Delia with eyes enflamed with love Ah! Delia said I with a sigh seeing the Gods render you to me and that 't is at my prayers rather than yours which were less ardent and less passionate that they restore your life will you render the miracle which they do only in my favour useless to me and will you henceforward oppose any obstacle to a felicity for which Heaven hath openly declared it self Do you not see that the pity of Heaven hath exceeded yours and would shew you by its example what compassion you should shew to me I had some other disdiscourse with her upon this subject and Delia having patiently hearkned to me gave me her hand and with a favour which she was not won't to do me pressing one of mine Prince said she to me I am obliged to your affection and I have received such pregnant proofs of it this day that I should be the most ingrateful person in the world if ever I should lose the remembrance of it Assure your self I will preserve it more dearly than my life and whensoever it shall be in my power to express my acknowledgment I shall do it with all my heart Some reasons oppose it at the present which you would not condemn if they were known to you but if I ever find my self in a condition that I may declare my thoughts to you without reproach I promise you before the Gods that I will free you from all those subjects of complaint which you suppose you have against me I satisfied my self with these words the best I could but I did not understand them and calling to mind by the likeness of it the discourse which she had begun when she supposed she was ready to die and was interrupted by the violence of her pain I requested her to proceed and prayed her as earnestly as I could possibly that she would perfect the discovery of her heart to me and not repent her self now I might make use of them of the good intentions she had for me at that moment when by reason of our approaching death I had lost all hope of enjoying them Delia continued a while without reply and then on a sudden turning her eyes upon my face with a sigh Philadelph said she I know not what it is you desire of me and I if made you any more particular discourse either the force of my distemper disturbed my sences or took away the memory of it since for I do not remember it Whether she spake truth or would not trust me any farther with her secret I did not press her any farther for fear of displeasing her and immediately after the Physitians having told me that by reason of the violent fits she had had she had need of some repose we retired into the Princess's Chamber who was little less interessed in the sickness and cure of Delia than my self The night was already come and all that day I had eaten nothing but then I supped with Andromeda and a little after I retired to my apartment where I took some repose The next day Delia grew a great deal better and we understood with much joy that within a few daies she might leave her bed Though I was moved with a just resentment at the attempt they had made upon her life and burned with a desire of revenging my self upon the Authors the fear I had to discover the shame of our house and to find the King culpable of so black an action hindred me from making strict inquisition after it and the King whom I believed thenceforth to be innocent of it and who had protested to do justice suspecting the Queen for it not without great probability was affraid of the success of the business on her behalf if he should prosecute it any farther but not being able to take my revenge upon those cruel persons I resolved at least to hinder the new effects of their cruelty and as long as Delia kept her bed I would not suffer her to take any nourishment but what I first tasted of my self letting those poisoners know by that precaution that they could not attempt upon her life without taking away of mine In the mean time I saw not the King and the resentments which my suspicions had caused in me against him would have lasted a long time if the same day that Delia left her bed in the effects which my displeasures had produced both in my body and mind had not thrown me into a violent Fever I neglected my distemper at first but within a few daies it so augmented that the Physitians began to be in fear of my life In effect I had so tormented my self for Delia's sickness that my body could hardly chuse but suffer for it and I had continued too long subject to such passions as deprived me of repose not to receive some alteration in my health
a clearer delight if it had not stood bent to his friends prejudice But if Coriolanus thus moderated the resentment of his own felicity because it oppos'd his friends Marcellus indured his disadvantage with patience since Coriolanus reap'd the profit nor could his own misfortune afflict him without the mixture of some comfort because it conduc'd to his friends success I desire not would Coriolanus say to Cleopatra you should hate Marcellus for if a Man can merit it he is worthy of your effection but if it be destin'd for any Mortal I demand it wholly and entire for Coriolanus Marcellus would almost say the same things only he durst not let his passion come abroad so openly as my Masters for fear to displease the Emperor his Uncle who did him the honour to design him his Daughter helped him to cut out a disguise for his affection and make the borrowed name of Brother injoyn'd by Octavia serve to mask that of Lover Thus had they wasted almost a year during which my Prince doubtless more deep struck than Marcellus daily gathered such fresh causes of displeasure from his friends encroachment as the melancholy it produced began to settle it self in his face and behaviour though the cause was conceal'd from all the World but my self whom by a peculiar preference to the rest he always honoured with the knowledge of his secrets And why said he one day to me should mischievous fortune raise me up a Rival of my dearest friend and such a friend whose repose I cannot combat without wounding mine own Ah! had it pleased the Gods to inspire any other but Marcellus with the design of serving Cleopatra our Swords should decide our titles and sure I should kill any but Marcellus in so just a quarrel In fine his sadness grew to such a height as Marcellus who perceived it with the first began to be much troubled at it and indeed as one that went a deep share in all the resentments of so dear a friend he often demanded the cause though his own suspition did partly answer him but Coriolanus still took care to cover the truth till all his friends reasons growing too weak to satisfie Marcellus care at last he was constrain'd to discharge his heart and one night as they lay together which they often did Marcellus having often prest him upon that Subject and a thousand times sworn he could never be capable of any pleasure so long as he saw him drown'd in so deep a sorrow and himself ignorant of its Fortune the Prince sending one or two sighs before the Discourse he was to make Brother said he for so they always called one another the Gods can attest you do force that from me by your friendship which I ever resolv'd to wrap in silence though you might easily have read it by your own observation and so have spared your constraint of a bad relation Did you believe I could see my self travers'd in a passion that is twined with my vital threed by a friend as dear to me as my self without a mortal displeasure Do you think I could designe the ruine of your content or abandon the care of mine own repose without a cruel violence You know I was Cleopatra's eldest prisoner before your eye had marked her out for a Mistress and had my dear Marcellus prevented my design of serving her I should sooner have ran upon my death than his pretences or expos'd him to the anguish he has made me resent nor did I perceive he was my Rival before I was engaged too deep to render what was due to our amity which if I may say it he himself has forgotten to pay Ah! would to Heavens our contest had been for Crowns or any thing else of higher value you should quicly have seen with what a free heart I would have given up my interest But for Cleopatra my dear Brother 't is that cannot be obtain'd of an enslaved spirit that will never recover strength enough to get out of the Abyss wherein my spighthful Fortune has plunged me I say my spightful fortune for what ever glory I acquire by Cleopatra's service and however my hopes may feed high upon success I shall never think that fortune propitious that must be establisht at the price of your repose nor have I the liberty to Court it so much as with a single wish since it can no where be raised but upon the ruines of yours Coriolanus accompanied these words with many others of the same nature which sunk so sensibly to Marcellus heart as it was long before he could recover strength enough to shape a reply at last his words broke their way through his resentments and embracing my Master with an ardent affection My dear Brother said he Heaven is my witness that when my eye first told me Cleopatra was lovely I did not believe your youth could have been capable of forming a design to serve her and if I have since let my self slip into the snare I rendered my liberty to that in vincible puissance which no heart can resist yet I confess I have sinned against our amity and should prove my self unworthy of a place in Coriolanus heart if I do not strive with my soul to render the reparation I owe you I know my intentions are good but do a little distrust my power however but this night to clear all scores and possibly before we part I shall make it appear how dearly I prize our friendship Coriolanus would have reply'd to this discourse but Marcellus oppos'd it and prest him so earnestly to give him the remainder of that night as he was constrain'd to obey him they both passed it over without so much as closing their eyes my Master often over-hearing the sighs that broke away from Marcellus though he strove to imprison them with all his power and still cut them off in the middle least their noise should convey them to my Masters ear The hour that he was wont to call them up was not yet arrived when Marcellus turning himself to my Princes side with a vivacious and resolute action Brother said he I have combated and conquered for you or rather for my self since by this victory I am directed in part how to expiate the crime I have committed Cleopatra now is yours and I ask your pardon for having so injustly disputed her our friendship with the aid of reason has almost driven her from my heart and all that remaines unfinished of the cure I think may safely be referred to the Chirurgery of time my youth and a short absence wich is already designed I am now entered an Age that allarms me to the trade of my Ancestors and tells me t is time to go seek out reputation with my sword in my hand I will therefore beg the Emperors permission to go serve my Apprenticeship under the Consul Vinicius who marches within a few dayes with a puissant Army into Germany where I hope to perfect my recovery not only
to the passion of an inhumane brother and Cleopatra that Cleopatra which by her cruelty authorized Artaxu 's shall never accuse me amongst the shades below for approving against her blood of the revenging of the injury which she did to our family She spake some other words besides after which having employed all the rest of the day almost in seeking unprofitably for some expedients for my assistance at last she abandoned her self to desperate resolutions All this while I was in prison where about the end of the day my sentence was pronounced to me and I was advertised to prepare my self for death the terrible countenances of those that brought me this news could not refrain from shewing some signs of compassion and according to their report they found something extraordinary in my face which made them regret my destiny I will not tell you that I received this sad intelligence without being troubled at it and whatsoever courage Heaven bestows upon a man when his mind is not prepossessed with despair it is a difficult thing for him to endure the face of an horrible and shameful death without astonishment and trouble I was young and more happy in the affection of Artemisa than I had confidence to wish and in a likelyhood to improve my life to the best advantages these reasons without doubt made me find death of a more hard digestion than usually it is to those whose misfortunes smooth the face of it I confess I was troubled and that I had a combat with nature wherein reason at first did not prevail without some difficulty and I could not dispose my self without regret to abandon my hopes but yet after I had yielded a little to humane frailty I was sooner resolved than many persons very timorous would have been and at last I made use of my courage to let my enemies know that all the ill they could do me was not capable to cast me down After I began to speak O Cleopatra said I 't is just that since I have received my life from you I should render it back for the reparation of your faults And afterwards turning my self towards them that had brought me news of my death Artaxus said I doth very vigorously revenge the death of his father and hath taken a great deal of pains and run a great many hazards for his own satisfaction but tell him that he should have taken his course by way of arms both against Anthony and the deceased King of the Medes for the liberty or the revenge of his Father and that this which he now takes upon me can neither repair the baseness he hath committed in suffering this injury for the time past nor give me so much regret for my death as to oblige me to be beholding to him for my life if he should be in the humour to give it me yet let him know that his cruelty shall not remain unpunished and that I shall leave persons behind me who shall more nobly and more generously call him to accompt for this offence I sent them back with these words and staying with those of my ordinary guard I began by little to surmount all the difficulties that I found in this passage Night was come on when the Keeper that was wont to give me Artemisa's Letters by the means he was accustomed to use presented me with the last which she had written an hour before and with the Letter he gave me a little Vessel wrapped up in a paper the little necessity I had at that time to dissemble my affairs made be presently open the Letter and at the sight of those dear Characters which I immediately kissed not being able to forbear some tears O Artemisa said I 't is just that your goodness should continue as long as my life but after my death wish you a repose which may never be crossed by any remembrance of Alexander and after I had given some kisses more to this precious writing I read these words The Princess Artemisa to Prince Alexander YOu must die my dear Alexander and I would not send you this news but that I am resolved to die with you all my hopes are extinguished Artaxus is inexorable and I see my self at last reduced to that deplorable condition I so much feared Let us die since Heaven hath so decreed it but let us not suffer Artaxus and the People of Armenia to glut their eyes with the cruel spectacle By this poison that I send you you may avoid the shame they intend you and I have kept as much for my self to avoid the shame I should have to survive you Adieu my dear Alexander and if by my death I do not acquit my self of what I owe to yours let your affection supply that defect and believe that if my life were far more precious I should have given it you with all my heart There was hardly any need either of dagger or poison to take away my life at the reading of this Letter and I was so struck to the heart that grief alone wanted but a little of immediately contenting the rage of my Enemies these last testimonies of Artemisa's unmoveable affection rendred me the most happy of men but they made me find some regret too in my death which without doubt I should not have done if she had not loved me and seeing her as she sent me word in a resolution to die I was seased with so violent a displeasure at it that there was no room for comfort in my soul I took the Vessel wherein the poison she sent me was and delivered it to Tideus to prepare it in a potion receiving this present from Artemisa with a great deal of satisfaction as likely to free me from the shame wherein a great part of the punishment to which I was destinied did consist After I had sufficiently tormented my self at the Princesses design wherein I found sufficient reason to die desperate if I should not divert her from it I desired to give her the last assurances of my fidelity in a Letter which I wrote unto her in these terms Prince Alexander to the Princess Artemisa I Am ready to die my dear Princess and I part from this life without any other regret than of quitting you for ever I shall die but half if you preserve that part of me which I leave you and death it self cannot take from you but I shall die twice and the most cruel death that can be imagined if you suffer me to part in that fear whereinto your fatal resolution hath put me I have dearly received the present you sent me but I conjure to employ the remainder for other uses than for the destruction of the most perfect Master piece of the Gods a loss so inconsiderable as mine should not give a Princess of your quality occasions of despair and you cannot conceive a thought of it without rendring my end full of horrour and giving me greater resentments against your cruelty than against
However it was or whatsoever might be the cause but I was so ill within a few daies that they were in no less fear for me than before they had been for Delia. The King out of the real affection he had for me dissipated the hardness of his heart and came to visit me every day but as I accused him alone for my sickness and all the displeasures which had caused it so I could not willingly see him and I received his visits with little satisfaction The Queen her self to please him visited me divers times and the Princess Urania who bare her company whatsoever cause of resentment she might have against me out of an inclination worthy of her self and purely generous was afflicted at my sickness and interessed her self in the return of my health Andromeda never stirred from my pillow and for my greater comfort Delia pale as she was after her late sickness was often other with her One day that she was by my bed-side desiring to animate me to a recovery What Sir said she will you make no resistance against your disease for their sakes who desire your health and did you only interess your self so much in mine to cause me a too just displeasure by the absence of your own Ah! Delia replied I with divers sighs the Gods have taken notice that my sufferings were uncapable of prevailing with you and it hath been their will at last to put me into a condition which might move your pity I will not tell you that I die for you that discourse would have some appearance of a reproach and Heaven is my witness that I have no intention to make you any but I will tell you and truly too that I should receive death from what cause soever it might proceed with a great deal of resignation if by it I should not lose the means of seeing and serving you or if thereby I might draw from you more particular thoughts for me than those which you have discovered to me and if they were expressed to me by some efforts which proceeded from a little love as now they proceeded from your goodness only Delia at these words looked upon me with an eye full of the marks of her compassion and laying one of her fair hands upon mine which I held out of the bed Sir said she in the name of the Gods do not accuse me that the reasons which might justifie me to you are unknown to you you shall know them as soon as I shall be permitted to discover them to you and in the mean time believe with all manner of certainty that I will rather lose my life a thousand times than fail in the acknowledgement of your affections I only desire you to have a little patience if you love me you will prevail so far with your self for my sake and I protest to you before the Gods who hear us that as soon as I shall be in a capacity to declare so much to you without meriting your disdain you shall know that all my inclinations have not proceeded from good nature and compassion only I tell you more than with decency I may continued she with a little blush but I will pass by that for the repose of a Prince to whom I owe a great deal more The real love and respect I had for Delia made me find some comfort in these words and lifting her hand to my mouth though she endeavoured to hinder me I will not die said I seeing there is some hope left I will preserve my life if it be possible since you do not esteem of it as a thing indifferent Delia was not willing to make me speak any more for fear of doing me hurt and after she had confirmed to me what she had said by a gracious look she retired her self She was scarcely out of the Chamber but the King came in and having understood before he came near my bed that my disease grew every day worse and worse and that without flattering him they could not conceal from him that I was in great danger he drew near me full of tenderness and having found me in a worse condition than they had represented to him after he was fate by the side of my bed and had taken one of my hands which he pressed a great while between his without speaking My Son said he is it possible that you will let your self die 'T is time to die answered I since my life is odious to you Ah! Philadelph cried the King with tears that came into his eyes with that approach take heed the Gods do not punish you for the outrage you do me and believe the protestation which I make you before them that my own life is not so dear to me as yours Ah! Sir said I if that were so you would not have abandoned it those torments which have reduced it to that extremity you see and you would not see your Son ready to die under the cruel persecutions you have made him suffer No Sir continued I strugling with my weakness to express my resentments No Sir I could not live without Delia and seeing I was not permitted to think upon her without disobeying you and throwing her into the danger wherein I saw her a few daies since I have been willing to prevent this misfortune and the continuance of my disobedience by a death which is the dearer to me and which I heartily embrace since by that I shall be freed from the miseries to which my life was exposed I leave it without any other regret than this that it hath been disagreeable to you and I quit it the more willingly because it would be impossible for me to preserve it without the hope of bestowing it absolutely upon Delia. I uttered these words with a vehemence above my strength and the King having hearkned to them with a great deal of grief and tenderness fixed his eyes upon the ground and continued a long while without being able to reply At last after a great contest in his spirit having taken his resolution and turning his eyes towards me Philadelph said he 't is true I opposed the passion you had for Delia after I knew she did not only divert you from the designs I had for you but likewise that you had an intention to marry a strange unknown Maid of so different a birth from your own the reasons I had for it were so great that if you had never so little reason left your self you could not dis-approve of them and they are so well known to you that it is not necessary for me to repeat them No Philadelph there is no Father but would have done as much at least and would have employed his authority more publickly to divert his only Son and the Heir of a great Kingdom from a Marriage so unequal and unsuitable to his dignity Philadelph I would still give part of my Dominions to wean you from this resolution if it were possible and if you
my loves I have made little use of the assistance of that vertue which is not over-familiar to persons of my humour and have gone by another path which the long usage of that Passion and the inclination I have naturally to it might have tanght me above a great many other persons and thence it is that possibly I have had better success in my petit amorous projects than our Cato 's and Philosophers would have had with all their prudence And to answer Cornelius 's Discourse who accounts me very happy in comparison of a great many others I will confess my self to be really happy if I make my happiness to consist in a thing of nothing and not being able to give my self any other vanity but only to cause the persons whom I have loved to endure the Discourse of my love I satisfied my self with it leaving to the more happy and the more meritorious the glory of having camsed love in others which is far to be preferred before the speaking of it only You are very modest said Agrippa looking upon Ovid with a smile but we are better acquainted with your Affairs than you are aware of and your feigned-Corinna whom you have so handsomly disguized to all the world is not possibly so unknown to me as you imagine Ovid blushed at Agrippa's Discourse and expressed sufficient trouble to oblige Agrippa who was of no disobliging humor to repent himself of what he had said Fear not added he to recompose him I will say no more of it and that which you keep secret is so still seeing 't is only the suspition of your best Friend Sir replied Ovid I have no secret worthy of you which I would have concealed from you if you had had a desire to know it I shall try that answered Agrippa perhaps before this day be past and if you have any confidence in me I promise you I will not abuse it Ovid made a Reply to this Discourse with that respect which was due to such a personage as Agrippa was and Agrippa whom his Dignities and the greatness of his Actions had not made proud received his Discourse very civily and with a very good grace Immediately after Candace having winked upon Elisa according to the Design they had that fair Princess turning her self towards Cornelius prayed him to give them the opportunity to walk a few hours that day along the shoar and in the Neighbouring wood to take the Aire and to entertain their sad thoughts at liberty You may absolutely command what you please said Cornelius and you shall have Chariots ready at what hour you please both for your selves and for those persons whom you will receive into your Company We two would be alone if you please replied the Princess with our Maids and the men that shall be necessary for our Conduct There is no likelihood said Agrippa that you should go out of the City so and besides that it will be unconformable to your Quality since the Accidents that lately hapned to the Princess Cleopatra and to you Madam said he pointing to the Queen of Ethiopia we should be blamed if we did permit you to expose your selves to the same danger We have no more Enemies in this Countrey added Candace and if you do not grant us this liberty as we desire it we will not receive it any otherwise Both Cornelius and Agrippa contested a long time with the Princesses to have permission to bear them Company but when they saw them fixed in thir resolution they were constrained to comply only prevailing with them to consent that Twenty men should follow them on Horseback at a little distance to secure them in case of necessity from such Accidents as might arrive The business was thus resolved and the two Lovers did so much the more willingly submit to the will of the Princesses because they assurd them that they desired to be alone only for that day and afterwards they would not refuse their Company A little after they went forth to give the Princesses liberty to prepare for their going abroad and to go to Dinner the hour being near at hand but they would not think upon either before they had seen the Princess Olympia to know the condition of her body mind and fortune since the last Night but as they were going out of their own Chamber to go to hers they saw her come in with a more assured countenance than she had at their last interview I am resolved said she to them to make a full discovery of my Destiny to day and whatsoever it pleases the gods to send me I hope to know it before Night The two Princesses expressed a great deal of joy to see her so healthful in body and so quiet in mind as she seemed to be and confirmed her by all manner of reasons in those hopes which she ought to conceive They had not spent half an hour in this Conversation but they saw Cornelius come back into their Chamber who came to them and told them that Philadelph Prince of Cilicia Ariobarzanes Brother to the King of Armenia and the Princess Arsinoe his Sister having understood that the Princess of the Parthians was in the Palace were come to visit her and desired permission to see her If the Habit of a Slave wherewith Olympia was disguized had permitted Cornelius to observe the emotion which his words had wrought in her he would have perceived that they operated otherwise upon her than they did upon the Princess to whom he addressed them and the illustrious Slave had no sooner heard them but in spite of all her assurance a trembling seized her from head to foot Yet how sweetly was she surprized when she heard the Pretor say that the Princess Arsinoe was with her Brother and when by that Discourse she had reason to judge that she doubtless was the fair unknown with whom he was found and to whom he addressed his innocent Caresses which had caused her so much trouble and yet the Relation she had heard of the death of that dear Sister did oppose her hopes and not knowing what she might expect with a great deal more tranquility than before she left what might befall her to the conduct of the gods She had neither time nor liberty to express these different thoughts wherewith she felt her self assaulted and at that very moment the Queen Candace having cast her eyes upon her to let her know what share she would take in the interest she would have in this Visit easily observed the agitation of her Soul In the mean time the Princess Elisa having answered Gallus that these persons which intended to honour her with a Visit should be very welcome that the house of Armenia had been long allied to that of Parthia and for that reason and for their particular merit she should be very glad to see a Prince and a Princess whose death was spread by same throughout all Asia and as for the Prince of Cilicia
greatest man and in a manner Master of the Universe only to employ the greatness I have given thee to the shame of the name thou bearest and the ruine of my posterity What is remaining of it among men in the person of a Prince who would better become the rank that 's due to him and in which I have unfortunately placed thee after he had sought security among the Sun-burnt Nations against the first discoveries of thy cruelty is still exposed thereto and expects the stroke of that inhumane sword which thou hast lifted over his head He disputes not any thing with thee though he lawfully might all and yet thou thinkest much to let him live in the extremities of the earth where he had by the assistances of heaven found refuge Thou wert the death of his mother a person I dearly loved as also that of Anthony my faithful friend Their daughter the miracle and ornament of her times finds in thee a cruel persecutor and a Prince the glory of his age one I loved in his infancy and promised the kingdoms of his father which I had added to thy dominions after he hath setled it by his valour nay after he hath saved thy life in the greatest danger thou wert ever exposed to expects from thy unmerciful hand the period of his noble life Men were in a disposition to forget thy horrid proscriptions upon thy personated change but thou returnest to thy former humour and thinkest it a trouble to acquire a deserved fame by a reall vertue Reflect on all the transactions of my life such as might well be proposed as a pattern for thee and see whether of that great number of enemies who fought against both my life and fortunes I ever put one to death after victory had brought them into my power if this example and the remembrance of what thou owest my blood and the obligations thou hast to vertue cannot move thee go base executioner go Son of Octavius unhappily called into the house of the Caesars by an unjust adoption go sacrifice all to thy revenge and ambition and glut thy self with the blood thou art so desirous to see spilt Thy inhumanity shall not go unpunished and if the Gods give thee a long and peaceablelife it shall be crossed with domestick discontents such as shall haply be stinging enough to put thee in mind of thy cruelties Since thou derivest a satisfaction from the death of mine thou shalt also see that of thy own it shall not be long ere thou lament the losse of thy dearest hopes and after thou hast while living bewayled the death of what had been most dear to thee thou shalt leave thy place contrary to thy present intention to what thou raisest for the destruction of mankind and to such successors as shall be the burthen and hatred of the earth To this effect was the discourse of the Great Caesar which he concluded with a look inflamed with indignation upon his successor who was so smartly moved thereat that making a sudden interruption in his sleep the impression left of it in him was so strong that he thought at his waking he saw disappear the reverenced shade of his illustrions Predecessor Certain it is this dream which seem'd to portend something extraordinary mov'd him in such a manner and fastened on his thoughts with so much appearence of truth that it was along time ere he could well discern whether it were a dream or a real apparition It made him reflect on whatever he had heard said of Visions whether reall or imaginary among other things called to mind that of the evill Genius of Brutus which presented it self to him before the battel of Philippi After all these considerations concluding it was only in a dream that Cesar had appeared to him since he had seen him only in his sleep he began to reflect on the menaces and reproaches that fell from him He was well enough satisfied as to the latter but found much obscurity in the former though by that which was made to him of the loss of his dearest hopes affection naturally guilty of a certain timidity made him imagine it might relate to the death of Marcellus That consideration moved him very much and that the more because Marcellus's condition and resolutions were such as he might well fear any thing so that not able to smother certain sighs What said he must I then lose my son Marcellus whom notwithstanding the resentment I have against him I still love beyond my life His thoughts were much more taken up with that menace and those consequent thereto than they were with the reproaches though these raised in him some confusion and at certain times a remorse It was far dayes ere he could divert his reflections from this importunate dream which incessantly came still into his mind or resolve whether he should persist in his resolutions after the menaces of heaven which he thought discovered to him by the great Cesar At last overcoming the impression that made such a disturbance in him What said he Cesar frightned at a dream a dream make Cesar quit the resolutions he had taken No no continued he I will never be reproached with that weakness and if my father who charges me with cruelty had secured himself by maximes suitable to mine his reign had not been so short nor his illustrious life been exposed to the rage of his enemies With which words he got out of his bed endeavouring to disengage his thoughts of those importunate ideas that disturbed him yet could he not do it so well but that those who were waiting his getting up observed in his countenance somewhat more than ordinary of pensiveness which they attributed to the actions of the precedingday whereby he had been moved to several passions which had wrought some change in his disposition His Court was but small that morning or if it were great it was by reason of the number and not the dignity of the persons about him for of all the Kings Princes and other considerable persons that were in Alexandria there came only King Tigranes and the King of Comagene with such of the Romans as he had cast particular favours on and the Officers of the Pretorian bands All the rest were elsewhere and betimes in the morning upon the intreaty of the King of Scythia the King of Armenia the Prince of Cilicia the King of Cappodocia and with them Crassus Lentulus and divers other illustrious Romans met together at the King of Scythia's lodgings to resolve what course should be taken for the safty of so many excellent persons Every one gave his opinion suitable to the degree of his esteem or friendship for the besieged Princes so that Alcamenes finding the intentions of all concurr'd to do something in order to their deliverance especially Ariobarzanes and Philadelph who sensible of their obligations to Artaban and concerned in the interest of Alexander by reason of that of Artemisa would run any hazard
arrested my intentions and I have shak'd at the thought of my design like a timerous Souldier at the sight of an Enemy or his approaches to an Assault yet I exprest part of that in looks which my tongue would fain have said at large and then if she chanced to cast her eyes upon mine and take them in the fact they lost all their assurance and were either too feeble to receive the beams she shot without astonishment or confounded with the surprisal threw themselves at the feet of this Divine Princess and seemed by that submiss action to ask pardon for the fault The Queen had soon discovered the truth if she had not been prevented by so many cruel Cares that would not permit her to fasten an observing thought upon any of my particular actions I was one day with the Princess Alexandra her Mother and as I kept a complacence full of respect in my behaviour to them by the help of an opinion which they had conceived to my advantage they began to repose much confidence in me Alexandra being of a boiling spirit and a temper which wanted much of the sweetness and patience the Queen her Daughter was indued with abandon'd her self to the resentment which was yet fresh for the death of Aristobulus exclaimed against the cruelty of Herod in most violent terms and deplor'd her own and her Daughters condition in words full of passion and transport from the injuries she received in her Son's death and the ruine of her Kindred her bitter complaints passed to the deadly jealousie of Herod and the fatal effects it had like to have wrought by the Order he had given to his Unkle Joseph which at the brink of his going to appear before Anthony at Laodicea commanded him to kill Mariamne in case that voyage proved fatal to him Alexandra went on with vehemence in recounting divers other effects of her Son-in-law's cruelty and during all the discourse the Queen never so much as open'd her mouth but only to let go some redoubled sighs and made her tears keep company with her Mothers words which gave fresh lustre to her beauty Oh Gods what new deep wounds did the sight of that lovely sorrow give me how possible it was to behold my Divine Queen in that estate without suffering all her sorrows I had now no longer power to dissemble and losing all remembrance of my present condition and the danger whereinto I threw my self headlong by provoking Herod against me I blindly abandoned my self to the motions of my passion and casting my eyes moist as the Queens upon hers that were letting fall their dejected looks to the Earth Good Gods cried I sighing is it possible you should submit the most accomplish'd piece that ere you made to so much affliction and must I owe safety to a man whose actions have given me so much horrour I presently repented that I had suffered these words to escape me fearing I had declared my self too far but after I perceived I was understood by none but the Princesses and that they appeared unmoved I recovered my assurance and a little after the Princess Alexandra being retir'd to the other end of the Chamber to confer with some Persons and seeing my self alone with the Queen by her bed's side I made a strong assault upon my fear to recover my Discourse and beholding the Tears that still crept upon her fair Cheeks Would to Heaven Madam said I that all the bloud I have could stay the recourse of those precious tears you spill Ah! with what joy should I resign it how gladly sacrifice my Life for the repose of yours These words wholly compassionate as they were were ascribed by the Queen to nought but the Compassion I took of her Misfortunes yet they called her from the Contemplation of her miseries which had seized her thoughts and raising up her eyes to mine with a look full of a sweet acknowledgment I should be sorry said she to buy the quiet of my life with the danger of yours and I have yet more right to my own miseries than to your afflictions we are both persecuted you by a Brother and I by a Husband your resentments I cannot disapprove but I can admit none that are unlawful against my Husband and if his actions do frame our calamities 't is fit I should believe that Heaven makes use of them to chastise our Crimes By them it hath let fall its wrath upon the head of our deplorable Family and therefore if any complaint breaks from me it makes its way through the weakness of my Nature and must be owned for the Child of Justice O miraculous Virtue cry'd I interrupting her It is requisite I should redouble my griefs to see you plunged in such deep Calamity My Misfortunes are not insupportable replied the Queen if you would find the way to understand them right and if you knew the God which I adore you would likewise know the consolation I tast in my sufferings which now you cannot apprehend If he hath given me Herod for a Punishment as well as a Husband I ought to receive him from his hands as both and if he ordains me to pardon the injuries done by the most cruel and remote Enemies sure he would have me forget those with an entire resignation I received from him to whom he hath pleased to tie me in a knot so sacred It is that Madam answered I that makes me hold my condition unfortunate that Heaven hath raised you up an Enemy and a Persecutor against whom I cannot offer you my Sword and Life without offending your Virtue that your high raised Reflections cannot be combated by a man that reveres you nor can I censure the consideration you keep for the King your Husband since in his Arms I found my refuge nor do him any ill office without ingratitude but if the interest which I take in your wrongs the admiration I have of your virtue and resentments much more pressing and particular make me find in your afflictions a Subject at these words I stopped and considering how the insensible transport of my passion had carried me into terms of discovery I staid in an abrupt silence without conducting my words to any period The Queen observing my strange breaking off looked upon me and doubtless either expected what was behind to close my Discourse or would have asked the cause of my sudden silence when the Princess her Mother came back again to my rescue from the perplexity wherein my imprudence had engaged me yet I think we had spent more time in this entertainment if the arrival of some Ladies had not interrupted us the principal of which was Salome the Sister of Herod It was not amity that brought her to visit the Princesses for she hated them mortally but having a dexterous and artificial spirit she made it bow to her Interests and knowing the power Mariamne had as unfortunate as she was in the Kings affections she forced her self to
appear officious and cover'd her malicious thoughts with a black dissimulation The ill-will she already bore to the Queen was augmented by a mischance which I must now recount for since you have ordain'd me to give you the truth of my Fortune stript of all disguise I am forc'd to tell you Madam though the relation may offend Modesty that my mishap and no other cause made me be lov'd of Salome I had already observ'd her affection by divers signs but was easily perswaded to slight my discovery either by a just anticipation which chain'd me to another the meanest part of whom was infinitely above all that Salome could boast lovely or by an imperfect knowledge I had already got of her dangerous humour however I was content to answer her extraordinary Caresses with such a civility as I believed was due to the Sister of Herod and if I received them at first with any satisfactions from that time wherein my life grew considerable because I had given it to the Qu. had begun to seek all that sweetness I could fancy in her only I had scarcely allow'd one single regard either to the face or actions of Salome For that day she cut off my further discourse with the Queen but I had liberty enough to renew it in those that succeeded the Court was not then very large every man fearing to provoke Herod's jealous and suspitious spirit but in all the Converse I had with her fear still fetter'd my tongue and I had not the confidence to disclose my thoughts further than what my eyes or sometimes a sudden change of colour could express In the mean time Herod either through generosity or those reasons I render'd still permitted me those liberties when Fortune presented an occasion to improve my credit with him Malichus who commanded the Arabians an ancient enemy to Herod with a powerful Army invaded the Frontiers of Judea committing a thousand Acts of Hostility it was since believ'd he kept intelligence with old Hircanus who as I told you liv'd at Hierusalem in the condition of a private man without any craft or cognizance of affairs and with the Princess Alexandra however it was Herod uniting his dispersed forces with exceeding diligence had soon gather'd a considerable Army and not being able to go in person because of some troubles he suspected at home besides his intended voyage to go visit Augustus Caesar then at Rhodes he put his Brother Pheroras in the head of it I was asham'd that I had employ'd all my youth in running away from death and desiring leave of the King that I might accompany his Brother in that expedition he not only consented but gave me the command of all the Cavalry I parted very well pleas'd with the employment and endeavoured to sweeten the grief I took to leave Mariamne with a hope to merit her esteem by some action of Valour I will not trouble you with the particulars of this War and shall only content my self to tell you that by an excess of good fortune I acquired a reputation large enough in the Ingagements made with my Troops I defeated the Enemy in divers Encounters which I had still the hap to Signalize by some personal action In one Combat which was obstinately disputed with a Squadron of our Troops I kill'd the Brother of Malichus with my own hand and a few dayes after having surpriz'd half the Enemies Army at a pass upon a River I charged it with 4000 Horse I had then with me with so strange a success that we kill'd above 8000 Arabians upon the place and routed the rest with such a grand confusion that they left all their Baggage to our souldiers By this and the precedent encounters I had acquired as much credit in the Army as I could well desire and Herod receiving the news conceiv'd an opinion of me so advantagious as within a short time after having call'd home his Brother Pheroras to the Government of the State during his voyage to Augustus he desired me to accept the Command of the Army in Chief rather chusing to repose so weighty a trust in me though young and a Stranger than in any of his old and more experimented Captains After the departure of Pheroras I had the sole Command and Fortune that had favour'd my beginnings did so well second her kindness in what follow'd that at last I entirely chased the Arabians out of Judea after they had lost above 1000 lives in divers encounters Thus when all was pacified upon the frontiers and we had no more enemies to combat after the Garrisons were fortified I returned towards Jerusalem less satisfied with the applause was prepar'd me for my good success than with the hope of being suddenly restor'd the sight of Mariamne and to see her at such a time when I believ'd the service I had done her Countrey had purchased some esteem in her thoughts But oh Gods how surpriz'd was I at a sad report I met with upon the way which told me that Herod was departed from Rhodes with design to gain the same credit with Augustus that he had with Antony but before his departure had caused old Hircanus to be strangled out of suspition that he kept intelligence with Malichus and that great Princess his Grand-child with her Mother to be shut up in a Castle or rather a close Prison near the City under the Guard of Sohemus and Joseph with express order to restrain their liberty and forbid them all converse till he came back again This News not only moderated the contentment I took in my return and the successful event of my expedition but possest my spirit with astonishment horror compassion I was amaz'd at the cruelty of Herod who holding his Life and Scepter of Hircanus goodness though he was then fourscore had not the patience to stay till Nature would relinquish him to his Tomb the horrour of this act and the sad pity I had for the affliction and captivity of Mariamne bruis'd my Soul with a grief so weighty as I was ready to give over all resistance Arsaues and my Governour Polites seeing my sorrows swell to such a proportion as they thought too big for my interests in Herod's house earnestly entreated me to undisguise the cause of it At first I resisted but in fine considering the little reason I had to distrust them after they had given such clear proofs of their affection I abandon'd my secret to their discretion and avowed my violent passion for Mariamne This confession surpriz'd them though well knowing what charms the Queen possessed and after they had in vain represented all the reason they could make to extinguish my flame they disposed themselves to serve me at the peril of their lives I was a little comforted with the protestations they made me and began to judge their advice not unserviceable for the conduct of my desires I finished the rest of my journey with such a setled Melancholy that the reception I
held the reins of his passions as he could not so well contain himself but I discover'd much coldness and change in the discourse and entertainment he made me indeed I should have apprehended all these things with such a spirit as his and doubtless had so if the powerful love of Mariamne had not stifled that in my Soul which nature places there for our proper safety and forc'd a neglect of all that care I should have carried about me for the preservation of my life The Queen perceiv'd this which she always suspected as soon as I and though her conscience witnessed to her self the innocence of her carriage yet she was desirous to avoid the danger she apprehended by treating me with a more reserv'd behaviour if possible than she had done formerly I studied a more specious dissimulation but it was too late the tempest was already risen and at last made it self known by most dangerous flashes One day the remembrance of which I must preserve as the most remarkable of my life the very same whereon the Jems celebrate that which they call the Feast of Tabernacles being desirous through curiosity though of different Religion to assist at their Ceremonies I accompany'd the King to that famous Temple which from the Name of its Founder they call the Temple of Solomon and which for Riches and admirable structure may pass with more justice than that of Diana at Ephesus or that of Jupiter the Olympian for one of the Worlds wonders at first the Ceremonies borrowed my attention for methought they were very specious but in fine no longer able to keep them off I transported all my thoughts to Mariamne and with those tyed my eyes to her face with so attentive a regard as though Arsanes who stood behind me often endeavour'd to call me to my self and made me mark in what manner the King observ'd me I had much ado to retire them for a few moments while the Sacrifice lasted nor was I ignorant of the fault I committed but I believe the Gods struck my Reason blind to punish my offence of assisting at the Sacrifices of a Religion which was enemy to theirs whatever the cause was that was the day wherein the King abandon'd himself to his Jealousie though possibly he had not yet determin'd upon the resolution he was to take Coming back from the Temple he went to visit the Queens Lodging full of furious thoughts his Face carried the Copy of his troubled Soul and his eyes sparkled Messages of Death Yet they were no sooner encountred by the Queens but all their storms clear'd up and those tempests which rage had rais'd against her by that marvellous ascendent she had upon his Spirit did homage to the charms of her beauty and grew calm in a moment of one terrible as a Lion in a few minutes he became mild and tractable and in stead of uttering the threats he had prepar'd his disarmed Anger gave place to Kindness which rendred his Spirit pliable to Caresses and Flatteries He made the Queen a discourse full of Affection which she receiv'd with her usual modesty but then offering to take some liberties with her which he might have lawfully believ'd his due if by so many cruelties inflicted upon her and hers he had not violated the Rights and lost all those advantages of which Marriage had possest him that couragious Princess who could never tamely hide her resentment in a disguise disdainfully repulst him Herod that was not ignorant of the true cause of this though he suspected others would not take a denyal from her first coldness but perceiving she resisted with an invincible resolution and being no way able to obtain these favours from her which his desires were greedy of he recall'd that Choler that had so lately shook him and beholding her with Eyes that sparkled fury Ingrateful Woman said he do not longer think to abuse me by thy specious pretences but know I am not ignorant that it is the love of Tyridates and not the memory of Hircanus or Aristobulus that renders thee inflexible to thy Husband's Kindness Though the Queen had ever fear'd these things from Herod's humour yet she could not be less than surpriz'd at this language and appear'd as if she had been struck with a Thunderbolt her Tongue remain'd mute her Visage chang'd colour and from the profound astonishment which Herod there observed he received cruel confirmations of his Jealous thoughts This apprehension redoubled his fury and now not doubting but the Queens powerfull surprisal rose from the reproaches of her Conscience and the shame or fear she might have to see her Passion discovered he gave himself up to the most furious transports that rage could inspire and had much ado to keep it from committing outrage upon her Person but he upbraided her with the most injurious words that Choler could invent How now Traitress said he must I then be rob'd by a Barbarian's witchcraft of what is only due to my self And thou that wouldst fain pass for a demure Zealot does it suit with the Law of thy God or the repute of the World that thou findest more sweetness in the shameful embraces of an Infidel than the Legitimate affections of a Husband Ah! disloyal Woman unworthy of a Love which has preserved thee in a rank from whence thou hast deserved to fall with thy Family a Love that hath exposed me too to the Contempt of my People is it by these infamous passions thou makest good thy claim to the Macchabean blood of which thou hast so often boasted Thinkest thou those illustrious Asmoneans with whose glory thou hast still reproached me should they return to the World could approve of the ignominious preference thou makest of an exiled Parthian to a King whom the latest of thy Ancestors gave thee for a Husband or rather who honoured thee with the Title of his Spouse when he might have used thee as his subject He accompanied these words with a torrent of others more cruel and injurious during which the fair Queen having had time to restore her self from her first astonishment began to regard with all the assurance that innocence could give her and neither able to make her spirit flexible to his Flatteries nor her own justification of which she believ'd him unworthy after that he had given some truce to his invectives Finish said she thou cruel Man finish thy rage and believe that after the exercise of so much brutish cruelty upon mine thou may'st give it leave to let fall its last effects upon my self there only remains the last part of it to be acted upon me for having had by the murther of my dearest friends by a miserable Captivity and the bloudy orders thou gavest for my own my repose so often tortured there rests no more but to assault my Honour which by the favour of Heaven I have till now defended from thy horrid persecutions do tear my Reputation which hath maintained it self pure and spotless in
respect in every soul that saw it Cleopatra who had eyes as well as others to regard it finding her self deeply oblig'd to his noble offices and affection insensibly fell to tie on her own Chains and had already begun to engage her self when the Affairs of Aegypt received that memorable revolution of which you have doubtless heard and from that belief I shall abridge the recital as much as possible While Caesar entirely gave himself to his Love and endeavoured with all the proofs of it to gain Cleopatra's the wicked Ptolomee and his perfidious Counsellors nursed designs very different They had found in Caesar as they apprehended little acknowledgment for the service they had rendered him in the death of great Pompey and indeed that high rais'd Spirit that could neither approve villany nor esteem those that committed it had contemptuously treated all those that had dipp'd a hand in that black Treason besides Ptolomee saw with despite the Love he bare to his Sister and not without cause feared that he would favour and support her against against him in the Partage they were to make these considerations joined with the counsels which Pothinus Achillas Theodorus and the rest of their perfidious Companions were ever fomenting made him at last resolve to use Caesar as he had done Pompey and find a way to his ends by the death of him and Cleopatra Caesar had lodg'd none but his most considerable Persons in Alexandria and to satisfie the Citizens had left the Body of his Forces at the Isle of Farion which was so near the City that it might easily be seen from his Chamber window Ptolomee believed this occasion might favour the execution of his Plot and secretly causing his Army which was yet undisbanded to advance he made it approach to Alexandria and assur'd himself of all those in the City whom he knew at his Devotion his Design was ill contriv'd worse conducted and worst of all executed And it is to be thought the Gods that abhor Crimes forbad success to so loathed a Treachery and so blinded the Contrivers of his mischievous intention Caesar was in Cleopatra's Chamber when one came to advertise him that the whole City was in Arms that Pothinus and Achillas one of Pompey's Murderers were marching towards the Palace in the Head of a Troop with a design to kill him at a Feast he had made that day Caesar did not despise this advice but having rallied such of his with an admirable diligence as had time to range themselves about him he quitted the Palace and marched against his Conspirators with an assurance worthy of himself But before he left Cleopatra's Chamber Madam said he It is not I that seek the ruine of your Brother but Heaven who unwilling so wicked a man should longer Reign does this day present you the Crown of Egypt I go now to fight for you and my self and I promise with the Victory our common Vengeance Cleopatra had no time to reply because he instantly departed but her Eyes kept him company as far as possible and knowing he went to Combat for their common Interest she aided him with Vows to Heaven for his Success The Traytors perceiving they were discover'd resolv'd to fight it out couragiously and in effect disputed it very hotly yet the justice of his cause with his own admirable Valour gave Caesar the Victory Pothinus was killed upon the place with the greatest part of his Forces and Achillas with such as could follow him fled out of the City to Ptolomee whom the report of that ill success had made retire with his Army Caesar might safely have staid in Alexandria and enforc'd himself by Cleopatra's Faction which was none of the weakest but he rather chose to retire with his Troops to give Ptolomee Battel and hearing the Alexandrians of the contrary part endeavoured to cut off his Retreat by surprizing his Vessels he ran thither with that handful of men that followed him doing such deeds against them as in any other but Caesar would have been accounted Miracles Yet he there ran a greater danger than he had done before in all his former Battels For no longer able to make Head against the great number of his Enemies which grew every moment stronger by the coming up of fresh Reserves he threw himself from the Cliff into one of the Boats to gain the Isle but being discovered he was environ'd by his Enemies and pressed upon with such desperate fury as after he had received divers blows and Arrows upon his Arms he was constrain'd to throw himself into the water and swim that space between him and the Island not without excessive pain and peril At last he recover'd his Forces gave order for the Battel Shipped them and rowed towards Ptolomee's Army who conducted by his evil destiny advanced with full Sails to meet him The Battel prov'd very dubious and bloody but I shall forbear the particulars because I believe I have already repeated things of which no person can be ignorant It shall suffice to tell you that Caesar was always Caesar that the Egyptians were defeated with a mighty loss and their King by a just chastisement of Heaven being fallen into the Sea was drown'd by the weight of his Arms and not taken up till the next day where he was found Arm'd in a guilded Curass half buried in the Sand. After this Victory Caesar advanc'd toward the City and at the Gates found the fair Cleopatra with a part of the Citizens that begg'd Pardon for the others who through obedience to their Princes Authority had taken up Arms against him the Princess obtain'd all her desires and he entered the City and Pallace with her in a fashion wholly Pompous and triumphant Never was there seen so sudden an Execution nor so many troubles appeas'd in so short a time Ptolomee's evil Counsellors were all either perished with him or had sought their safety by flight The rest of the Egyptians willingly submitted to Caesar who told Cleopatra that for her sake he was sorry for her Brothers death but he knew so well how to represent the small cause she had to afflict her self for his loss as after she had given some tears to his memory which such an excellent nature as hers could not refuse him she accepted the comforts he profered The Funeral Honours she Celebrated with much Solemnity and the following day Caesar having conven'd the Egyptian Nobility in their presence put her in possession of the Realm and with an Universal Applause Crowned her with his own hands all the Egyptians by whom Cleopatra's Government was much more desir'd than Ptolomee's receiv'd her for their Queen with excessive contentment and render'd publick thanks to Caesar for his magnanimity and munificence But the the troubles that agitated the soul of Caesar were not quieted with those of Aegypt and in giving peace to that People he had not done so to his own spirit the eyes of the fair Queen still made war upon him
Diligence and having gained that Victory with the slaughter of 50000 of his Enemies and the loss of but fifty of his own Souldiers he was return'd to Rome where he had made three Triumphal Entries the fame of these great deeds pleasingly flatter'd the Soul of Cleopatra and she dismissed all her anxieties with a confidence that such a man could not be capable of infidelity In the mean time no longer able to hide the swelling fruit of her Womb and unwilling to contract the ill opinion of her Subjects she was constrain'd openly to declare the truth of her Marriage and instead of the shame and confusion her Fear suspected from that Discovery she found her Aegyptians possessed with new joy in the expectation of such a King from her Loins as might prove a perfect Copy of Caesar and Cleopatra The Queen was brought to Bed in Alexandria almost at the same that Caesar made his Entry into Rome of a Son not only worthy of his Father and Mother but of all that the most fruitful hope should conceive never did the light salute a thing so beautiful the Astrologers never knew a Birth so advantagious for this Royal Infant immediately became the admiration and delight of all that saw it but because his Childhood was but the spring to that lustre which hath since appeared in him with riper advantages I will not stay upon the beginnings of his Life because they are of less importance By a general consent he was call'd Caesario and we all hop'd that though there was little difference between his and his Fathers Name there would be yet less in their qualities and the greatness of their actions the Queen took a marvellous care of his Education and made the whole world to be searched for the most expert and knowing persons in all Sciences and Exercises wherein he was to be instructed when his Age permitted him and though I did but weakly merit that Honour and a better choice might have been made among the Aegyptians she was pleased to make me his Governour for my Father was too old for that employment and only desired it for my self In the mean time the Queen whatever consolation she tasted in the enjoyment of her Son was galled with bitter grief seeing there appear'd no proof of Caesars promise Not long after she understood he had given the last blow to that War by the defeat of Pompey's Sons that in Rome he had usurped the Soveraign Authority and forced a Master upon that proud City the imperious Mistris of so many Kings and so large a part of the Universe Then her hopes began to swell with the expectation of his Promise and Caesar by frequent Letters endeavour'd to confirm them excusing his absence from her delights with very specious Reasons which for a time appeased her but when she saw a whole year wasted and yet no haste made to accomplish his Vow she began to lose her patience and complain of his infidelity yet before she thought fit to make her resentments speak lowder she sent my Father Apollodorus to Caesar as well because he was the faithfullest of her Servants as that in his presence Caesar espoused her and might therefore better than any other reproach the violation of his word This Voyage of my Fathers proved ineffectual yet when Caesar saw him he hugg'd him in his Arms entertain'd him nobly gave him rich Presents and often mentioned the Queen with dear resentments of affection but could afford him no other reasons for his delay than what he had written to Cleopatra He protested that so soon as he had felt himself sit sure upon his Imperial Throne he would accomplish his promise but in that condition while his Monarchy was yet infant feeble and staggering he found it not safe to enterprize any thing against the consent of the People and Senate whom he had already exasperated with imposing his Yoke Cleopatra was contented for a time to flatter her self with the likelihood of these excuses but in fine after her patience had learned another Lesson as tedious as the first she broke into reproaches against him gave her self up to the sway of a just passion and probably was hatching thoughts to make it known in some deadly blow when news came that Heaven had revenged her and that her faithless Caesar was murdered in the Senate-house with twenty three wounds by those that he thought his dearest friends This report fell like a Clap of Thunder upon her spirit and all her Choler could not disswade her from receiving it at first as the greatest blow that Heaven and Fortune could contribute to her overthrow She solemniz'd this loss with a deluge of tears and such actions as could best express most passion and would possibly have abandoned her self to grief if the last marks of Coesar's ingratitude had not brought her comfort for she learn'd that a little before his death he had adopted his Nephew Octavius who is now the great Augustus Caesar for his Son declar'd him his Heir and oblig'd him to take his Name and Dignity without making the least mention of his Son Caesario or Cleopatra This last assurance the Queen received of her Husbands ingrateful disesteem kindled a despite that dry'd up all her tears and shewed her cause to rejoyce in the same death she so lately bewailed however she ceas'd to bemoan his loss in publick though she rendered to Caesar's memory the Funeral Honours which she believed due as to her lawful Husband but her resentments against the Father descended not to the Son for she nourished the little Caesario with as dear indulgence as if his Father had been still faithful and remembring that perjur'd as he was he had been the greatest of all men in his face she beheld the Image of his mighty Sire as another dawning of her Comfort To him her resolutions intended the Crown of Aegypt and though the Aegyptians perceiving the Ptolomean Race was almost extinct did oft petition her to make choice of another Husband she alwaies denied their entreaties and at last so won upon them by her mild and prudent Government as they were content to approve her Design of passing the rest of her Life in Widowhood Alas how happy had the poor Queen been had she held her resolution she had avoided those famous misfortunes that made so much noise in the World and her miseries with the lamentable Catastrophe of her Life had not forc'd tears from her rudest Enemies Sir I suppose you know that a few years after Julius Caesar's death the unfortunate Antony having shar'd the Empire of the world with young Caesar since called Augustus and with him reveng'd the murder of their Predecessor by the defeat of the Conspirators and by that bloody Triumvirat which produc'd such fatal effects in Rome passing through Cilicia to make war upon the Partbians he summon'd Cleopatra to appear before him and because the Queen was too weak to resist the puissance of that great Master of half
intirely divided it according to the sway of several affections two greater powers than these never met in opposition and the World never regarded an event with so much interest as that which was to decide its Empire My Lord you have understood the beginnings of this War with the divers encounters wherein Fortune sometimes listed her self in one sometimes in the other party till the Battel of Actium where after she had long ballanc'd her good will she declar'd for Caesar The miserable Antony was betray'd both by Love and Fortune and whatever courage the Queen disclos'd in the spring-tide of her Life was all resign'd to the horror of that one Battel where she assisted in Person whence flying with sixty Sayls in her company she drew along the amorous Antony who rather chose to abandon with the Victory the Empire of the World then to lose his Cleopatra You must needs have heard how after that signal deleat they were forsaken by all their Troops and sure same has told you of the pitisul effects that errour produced among them how upon a false report of Cleopatra's death spread by her self with design to cure Antony of an unjust suspition he had conceived of her that desperate Prince slew himself with his own hand and breathed his last between the arms of his dear Cleopatra in the Tomb wherein she had shut up her self you have heard it related how Caesar having rendred himself Master of Alexandria came to visit her brought her comfort and intreated her to hope for all the civil usage his power could afford all which the great-hearted Princess couragiously disdained and not induring to survive her dear Antony nor to see her self in danger to be led to Rome in triumph she called Death to her Rescue which she gave her self by an Aspick 's tooth for want of other weapons and how Caesar after he had pacifi'd Egypt and left Cornelins Gallus Governour at Alexandria returned to Rome whither he led Alexander Ptolomee and Cleopatra the Children of Antony and our Queen Thus compris'd in a few words I have given you the lamentabie destiny of this infortunate Prince but you are yet to understand that of Caesario and I assure my self you believed with the greatest part of the World that Augustus had caus'd him to be put to Death as same did openly divulge it 'T is true said Tyridates and I had my belief from the general confidence at Rome that it was so where I have often heard that Caesar having taken Alexandria and advising with his friends what he should do with Caesario the Philosopher Arrius who was in great credit with him whisper'd some words in his ear that alluding to a verse in Homer might thus be interpreted Plurality of Caesars is not safe And from that hint Augustns fearing that he might one day dispute the succession of his Fathers Empire put him death Such replyed Eteocles was the general opinion and we are happy that it got so much credit among the Princes Enemies who possibly without that prevention would have made their pursuit and persecution reach to the place that protected him But to you I shall unmask the truth what ever danger the discovery may threaten knowing well I do not hazard my Prince in declaring the truth of his Life to another Prince that equals his vertues and it was but to come the right way to his adventures that with a few words I touch'd a part of the Queen his Mother The History of Caesario and the Queen CANDACE AFter the loss of the Battel of Actium and the disloyal falling away of the greatest part of the Forces the unfortunate Antony and his Queen shut themselves up in Alexandria and there attended the approaches of their victorious Foe with the rest of their Forces resolving to defend it to the last Man and the latest moment of their lives their courage was not revolted with their fortune for they might yet have protected their Fate and again debated the Worlds Command if the prevention of that disastrous mistake had not contrived their ruine Nevertheless the Queen not able to refute her just fears of a sudden wrack began to cast an eye upon her deplorable Family that in so short a time were tumbled from the sublimest pitch of Fortune to the foot of Calamity Oh Gods what words that were fittest to shew the marks of a signal grief did she not give to those sad considerations There was much reason in her fears that the Victor would make his hatred reach to the Children of his Enemy and so choak all the seeds of War that might grow up to give another shock to the tranquillity of his dominion by rooting out the whole Antonian race and these suspitions made her oft solicit that the Children might be put in some place of safety and either sent to the King of Aethiopia a great and puissant Prince their friend and allye who had neither felt nor fear'd the Roman Arms or to Herod a faithful friend to Antony or at least to some others whom the change of fortune had not perswaded to disavow their Amity But Antony who tenderly indulged his Children could not resolve to see them so pluck'd from him or send them to seek their safety from the hands of a stranger he represented to the Queen that the Gods that were yet able to send them succours contrary to the opinion of men might miraculously repair the ruines they had made and should such a change arrive in their favour they should repent the exposing them to a flight whose success was uncertain that if Heaven had resolved to compleat their destruction they might expect a better fate for their Infants from the clemency of their Enemy than the loyalty of any barbarous Prince whose friendship the Child of their Fortune no doubt would follow it to the Conquerours party Cleopatra perceiving his resolution not to be mov'd and her self not able to wrest the disposal of the Children from him fell to consider of his preservation whom he had no part in and judging with much prudence that though Augustus might pardon the Progeny of Antony yet he would not do so to the Son of Julius Caesar who professing himself the off-spring of a lawful Marriage while he lived would at least be armed with Justice to bid fair for his Fathers succession which the other possessed by no other right than that of adoption the lawful power of his disposal sfolely remaining in her self for Antony pretended not to it she concluded that it was not safe to trust him to the mercy of that enemy and could find no other way but such a flight to secure him Caesario was five or six years elder than the rest and then newly arrived at the fifteenth year but at that age was become the most accomplished of Princes his beauty never found an equal among those of his own Sex in the vivacity of his eyes and all the features of his visage was seen an ayr
had been of his Party and was then a Companion of his Fortune at the end of their repast regarding him with a visage that breathed nought but Death Petreius said he 't is fit we dye to preserve our liberty for if we stay on earth but a few days we shall have no power left to put by the shame is prepared us I demand no other proof of thy affection but Death from thy hands and as my Fortune is now stated I cannot receive a greater from thy Friendship Here stab this breast pursu'd he presenting his naked bosom pierce this heart which the Arms of our Enemies have unluckily spared and make a KING fall by thy friendly hand whose courage scorned to bow under the fortune of a puissant Enemy He mingled these words with some others so pressing that Petreius could not refuse the fatal courtesie but without farther delay ran him through with his own sword the King not so much as turning his eye aside nor letting fall the least action unbecomming the grandeur of his spirit Petreius when he had seen him breath his last turned the same point against his own breast and throwing himself upon it with all his force fell dead at his feet thus were the festival Ornaments discoloured with Royal blood and thus did this great King catch up the shield of of death to defend himself from ignominy A few days after the victorious Caesar rendered himself Master of both the Realms and with them of the Queen his spouses liberty whom he designed for one of the principal Ornaments of his Triumph she was gone some months with child when the King her Husband lost his life and was brought to bed of the Prince my Master two days after her arrival at Rome whither Caesar sent her two months before he made his triumphal entry Thus was my Prince begotten free and the Son of a King but born a slave and between his Conception and Birth happen'd that deplorable revolution of his Fortune Some days after his Birth he was carried along as one of the most remarkable Ornaments of Caesar's Triumph happy in his misfortune that as yet he understood not the shame they made him suffer being then of an age incapable of resenting the loss of his Crowns his brave Father or the death of the Queen his Mother who resigned her life a few days after she had disclosed the little Heir of her misfortunes to the World But there wanted not persons that took care of his bringing up for the great Caesar from whom the disastrous fate of his Parents had drawn some compassion caus'd him to be brought up at Rome in the garb of a Kings Son and bestowed such a particular care upon him that scarce any of his neerest kindred in that high swoln prosperity was trained to a braver Education I will yet say further and believe I shall not injure truth in affirming that the losses of his estate were in part repaired by the gallant Education he receiv'd among the Romans wherein that tender age escaping the impression of the Affrican customs and the Company of such persons which falling far short of the Romans politeness might have given him a taste of the Barbarian his excellent nature contributed such marvellous assistance to the care of those that were ordained to form him that before his age could promise it he became as accomplished in all requisites of a Prince as wish could fancy and rarely skil'd in every undertaking to which his vertuous inclination carried him In his earliest Infancy Caesar would often cause him to be brought into his presence and observing that someehing Majestick and Heroical was already risen with that morning of his excellent beauty he let him get ground in his affections to that degree as one day he broke into an earnest protestation that if the little Juba for at his birth they gave him his Father's name seconded those hopes he had already begun he would restore him the Crowns of his Ancestors but he took special care to mould him to the Roman fashion and deface all such unpolished manners as his inclinations might possibly borrow from his Affrican blood Besides to fortifie the friendship he would have him bear to the Republick he gave him a Roman name and because he was brought up in the Martian Family illustrious among the Patricians and derived from the famous Coriolanus whose valour survived him in so glorious a reputation he would have the young Prince called by his name that the appellation of Juba which sounded harsh and barbarous to a Roman ear might be covered with that of Coriolanus In all likelyhood the affection and bounty of that great Dictator would not here have stopped and doubtless the Prince had gathered the fruits of those promises if Death had not robbed him of that Protector or rather that Father before he attained to his fourth year an age that hardly rendered him capable to dream of those hopes were given him That man the greatest that ever liv'd was murder'd in the Senate-house by the ingrateful conspiracy of those that his own generosity and nobleness had rais'd from their knees all the world knew it self interessed in the loss of him who had made himself Master of it with his Sword yet held it in so gentle a subjection After Caesar's death the little Coriolanus for so was always called wanted no protection for the Senate succeeding Caesar in his Patronage took up that care of him which his death had let fall and trained him up with the Sons of divers Kings that were Friends and Alleys to Rome without making the least difference in their Expence or Equipage though their Fathers had still their Crowns in possession Divers children of noble Exteaction and an equal age descended from the families of Roman Knights were placed in his Service of which number I was appointed one and as I was always brought up near his person so his affection did me the honour to take me nearest to his heart During those cruel and dismal disorders of my Country that bloody Civil War which revenge kindled for Caesars murder the prodigious effects of that horrible Triumvirat which overflowed Rome with the blood of her noblest Citizens and that famous contest betwixt Antony and Octavius Coesar the young Prince grew up with a success miraculous Never did Eye behold a youth of those years handle his Arms with so great a grace or perform any Bodily Exercise his Tutors taught him with a dexterity comparable to his his propension led him with so much advantage to the study of Sciences as he became so learnedly vers'd in Astrology and Philosophy so critically skilled in all kind of History as the World could scarce afford another to match him and for Eloquence that famous Orator that lost his life in the heat of the Triumvirat by the cruel command of Antony could hardly challenge preheminence nor had he qualities disproportioned to these rare endowments of body and mind so that
angry at the intreaties they opposed to his will openly swore that Tiberius within eight days should Espouse Cleopatra and no importuniâ—y whatever should win his consent to a longer delay You may easier imagine than I present how deeply my Master was struck at this cruel news all that Grief Choler and Despair could produce was found in his Soul appeared in his words and started from all his actions to such a degree as that affection he had ever allowed me above the rest that were brought up in his service could not assure me so much Courage as to speak to him you see that lovely sweetness that now speaks it self in his face and discourse but I can assure you that I never beheld any thing so terrible as he then appeared and that Marcellus and only Marcellus durst assume the boldness to speak to him however all the reasons he alledg'd to reclaim his passion were sown in sand and maugre his advice and that of all his friends he immediately resolved to go and present himself to the Emperor whom he had not seen since he forbad him the sight of Cleopatra and complain to himself of the injustice he had done him Marcellus unable to divert was resolv'd to accompany him not fearing to incur any disgrace with Augustus for owning his Interest in such a friend with Marcellus young Ptolomee the Son of Anthony and Cleopatra and an illustrious Company of the noblest among the Romans would needs follow him and with that proud train he audaciously appeared at the Palace where the common discourse treated of no other subject but his disgrace or at least the advantages his Rival had gotten upon the top of the stairs that lead to the Emperors lodgings he encountred Tiberius who was newly parted thence and followed by numbers not inferiour to his with a pride in his looks that express'd the success of his design Coriolanus changed colour at that encounter and had not Marcellus with held him by urging the regard that belonged to the place he had doubtless been transported to some violent attempt upon his Rival nor could he so moderate the agitations of his anger but in the very middle of his guard he aborded him and taking hold of his hand which he press'd in his with an action wholly furious Remember Tiberius said he it is the advantage of thy services and thy arms wherewith thou art only bound to despoil me of Cleopatra if thou art able and that all other wayes are base and unworthy of thy Courage Tiberius was going to reply and doubtless had done it very sharply if Mecaenas who with divers other persons came then from the Emperor had not thrown himself between them and oblig'd Marcellus to conduct my Master into the presence while he forcibly lead away Tiberius to another quarter of the Palace Coriolanus entered the Emperors Chamber with that fair number of his friends behind him and Augustus who had seen him of a time and who inwardly felt some reproaches of conscience for the injuries he had done him was a little surpriz'd at the sight of his reproach in so fierce and hardy a Garb Coriolanus came up to him with as much assurance as if he had then newly return'd in Triumph from a fresh victory upon the Asturians and owning no notice of the trouble that appeared in Augustus visage Sir said he I should forbear to present my self before you after these effects of my mischievous fortune that has betrayed me to the forfeiture of these precious affections wherewith you have heretofore been pleased to honour me but since it is only my misfortune or rather my Enemies happiness that have ravished it from me that I feell no remorse of any action that might draw your indignation upon me and in fine am no less innocent than when you thought me fit for the honour of employment in your service I will not fear to appear before the face of Caesar to receive from his mouth either a new patent for my life or the final sentence of my ruine Caesar they are both in thy imperial hands if I be worthy of Death I here present my criminal head to your Justice but if I have no way sinn'd to the desert of your anger you cannot take away Cleopatra from me it was from your consent in my budding years that I drew the encouragement of my boldness to serve her and only upon your parole I credited my hopes to possess her I have since done nothing that can make you repent your first bounties and though I am forbidden by your order the sight of Cleopatra and that Princess be commanded to Espouse Tiberius I found it hard to believe my Lord that for my sake only you could offer violence to that delight which you ever took in doing Justice and consent to doom a Prince to so cruel a Death who has never appeared ingrateful to your bounty nor ever spared his blood when you gave him leave to hazard it for your Quarrel Coriolanus spoke in this manner and though Augustus was not well pleas'd with his Carriage yet the esteem he ever cherish'd for generous persons helped him to digest the liberty of his language and preserve a part of those thoughts unruin'd which he entertain'd to his advantage but being resolv'd to be absolute in his Empire and judging the proceedings of Coriolanus had shock'd authority held up the same severity that appeared at the first blush in his visage and taking the word as soon as Coriolanus was come to his Period I declar'd my intentions plainly enough said he without leaving a necessity to you for repairing to my mouth for a further Explication and you understood it too well before to find a present Excuse for your disobedience you knew it was my resolution to give Cleopatra to Tiberius and to make you no contemptible portion of those Crowns which your Father lost by the Law of Arms yet without considering that by an excess of bounty I have done more for you than I ought you have despis'd my offers and oppos'd my will I could make it appear that it is in my power to make you know your duty but I have endur'd the faults you have committed for Marcellus and my Sister Octavia's sake who interess themselves more than becomes them in your behalf and in consideration of them though you have ingratefully abus'd the gift I have profer'd I am yet willing to restore you Mauritania under a tribute upon condition you murmur no more and in lieu of the condescention you are to receive of our bounty from this very moment totally release all your pretences of Cleopatra At this Discourse of Augustus any of a lower spirit than my Masters might have timorously taken an occasion to be satisfied Coriolanus appeared to the eyes of all the beholders so enflamed with Choler as he found it impossible for all the temper and moderation he could make to check it Sir said he it was no other than my
that the Governour was preparing to give him a magnificent reception but my Master impatient of knowing further sent his faithful Strato to find out Augustus with order to inform himself if Tiberius was at Court and whether common discourse made any mention of his Marriage with Cleopatra The expectation of this intelligence which Strato was to bring us to a house where we lodg'd not far hence has detained my Master here who but for that reason would have made no stop till he had found out a fit place to be the scene of his tragick design in the mean time not able to endure the Society of men he daily went out to breath his woes in the solitariest walks he could light on and such a melancholly employment as this guided him to the place you had chosen where encountering the valiant stranger you know what oblig'd him to draw his Sword See Sir the faithful relation you desir'd of my Masters life for the vast extention of which all his adventures are my advocates to plead your pardon and now Sir you have that confirm'd which I told you at the beginning of my story of Fortunes malitious obstinacy in the persecution of vertuous persons 'T is true said the Prince Tyridates interrupting Emilius the world cannot boast a person that has given a fairer evidence of vertue and grandeur of Courage than the Prince your Masters and had Fortune been impartial to his deserts it would not only have re-ascended the throne of his Ancestors but mounted that of the whole universe Thus he went on enlarging the Character of Coriolanus merit with a greater variety of praises which when he had ended no longer able to stay from his sight and perceiving the night approach he went from his Chamber with Emilius to go visit a guest of that importance but now let us leave them a little in this Estate to return to the fair Queen of Aethiopia whom we left in the power of the Pirate Zenodorus HYMEN'S PRAELUDIA OR Love's Master-Piece PART III. LIB I. ARGUMENT The Pyrate Zenodorus carries his fair Prisoner with a foul purpose into an adjacent Wood the perpetration of his Lust is prevented and his life taken by the Sword of Cornelius Gallus whom his sports had invited thither and the Queens crys directed to her rescue He receives some concealed wounds from the first beams of her beauty invites her to Alexandria where she meets with the Princess Elisa daughter to Phraates the resemblance of their birth faces and fortunes contracts an entire amity betwixt them Candace discourses to her the story of her life Caesario surprizes the discovery of her affection by an ambush in the Garden Tirybasus boldly discloses his love to the young Princess is scornfully repulsed and seemingly gives it over He commands the Kings Army against the Nubian Rebels beats them twice and the third time is overthrown He falls sick and is call'd home by the King who attended by Caesario goes in person to that War The young Princes gallantry and discretion wins the love and admiration of all the Army The King is mortally wounded in a battel bequeaths Candace and his Crown to Caesario who after the Kings death takes the command of the Army deeply vows a revenge of his blood upon the Rebels makes his Oath good in five signal victories and at last compleats it by the death of Evander the Enemies General whom he bravely kills in a single Duel THe Pyrate Zenodorus charged with his rich prey flew from the place where he had left his men ingag'd in combat against the Princes with all the speed he could spur his horse to The fair Queen of Aethiopia amaz'd with her misfortune and almost intranced with the grief of her sudden surprizal was at first too feeble to retard his Carreir nor had her Spirits recovered their usual vigor when the Barbarian arrived at that part of the coast where he had left his vessels riding but when his Eyes miss'd them there his astonishment was matchless and enlarging their Commission he perceived them afar making off to Sea with all advantage the wind could lend them the sight of this rent some sighs from the Pirates brest and suspecting his Lieutenants infidelity he vomited his first resentments filled with menaces and imprecations against heaven yet he did not so abandon the care of his proper safety but he reserved still judgment enough to weigh the danger whereto his stay in that place was like to expose him not doubting but his enemies whom he left in a condition to obtain a speedy victory would follow him thither so soon as their Swords were at leisure not knowing what way to make choice of nor how to preserve his precious booty he was ballancing his angry thoughts how to frame a resolution when the fair Queen began to awake from her first astonishment and her Spirits returning by degrees to their proper imployment she fell a strugling for liberty with more vigour than she had yet been able to use and raising her hands to bid battel to his face by the new difficulty of that smart War she hastily determined his resolution which was little older than the first proposal to take the shelter of an adjacent Wood then in spite of her resistance re-inforcing his hold and turning his Horses head to the Wood he spurred him thither to the height of his speed his companion whom Clitie despising her safety since it only offered it self upon terms of deserting her Mistress had suffered to carry her away with less trouble followed him so fast at the heels as in a short time they had penetrated a great part of the Wood but it was then no longer possible for Zenodorus to command Candace's forces and tearing his visage with her nails she strugled so powerfully with the Pirate as not able to keep his hold any longer he was forced to let her slide at her length upon the grass and as she fell her garments giving a little way to the rudeness of the action she discovered the beauty of a Leg that kindled fresh desires in the Barbarians brest this made him hastily throw himself from his Horse while the fair Queen ashamed of the last accident nimbly started upon her feet and ran with all the force and speed she could borrow of her fears towards a part of the Wood that was thinnest by her loud cries inviting the pity of Gods and Men to her succour Clitie perceiving she had forc'd her liberty fidelity and desire to follow her Lady drew up all her strength to recover her own and being detain'd by a man more weak and less interessed than Zenodorus she found it not hard to break the prison of his Arms and throwing her self upon the Earth she swiftly pursued the steps of her Mistriss with all the speed that loyalty could lend her Zenodorus was soon upon his feet and though fear and desire to escape the ravishes bestowed their wings upon the Princesses heels she found
entire confidence and an absolute power to the disposal and management of his care If Tyribasus by the cunning continuance of his dissimulation had not already strangled all the suspicions I had of him I had opposed all my power against that absolute Authority the King left him and Cleomedon would never have suffered me to stay under the guard of a person so suspected but in all his actions both before his Nubian expedition in his departure and at his return he treated me with a coldness so incompatible with affection as I easily believed there was not so much as one single root of it left alive in his Spirit The King having left this order at Meroe disposed himself to depart with Caesario in his company whom neither he nor I were then any longer willing to detain from the war not that his absence since I lov'd him as dearly as decency would allow did not deeply perplex me but seeing the King my Father was going to expose his own person to the hazards of the War I thought I should sin too much against Caesario's vertue to keep the passage ' gainst him in his way to glory or detain him with me where now he could not stay with any safety to his credit he wasted divers whole days in the repetition of his passionate adiews and if he made me a thousand vows of preserving an invincible and immortal fidelity I requited him with a thousand assurances that I would ever prefer him till death divorced us before all the rest of mankind The day of that cruel separation being arrived I took leave of the King and Cleomedon of me with all the sincerity and tenderest proofs that were ever exprest by affection and the parting with both assaulted my Soul in several places with a grief so violent as receiving the Kings last embraces I was like to fall at his feet in a swoond timerously gathering an unlucky Augury from the exquisite sense of those redoublings of affection the King who perceiving it endeavoured to sweeten my apprehensions with some comfortable words but they were not strong enough to put my griefs to flight nor banish those prophetick fears from my Soul which staid there by the Authority not only of known but undiscovered causes Cleomedon gave me the first adiew and perceiving the rest of the company while he was taking his leave to be all so busied about the King as none were near enough to over-hear him It 's impossible Madam said he I should carry my self away from your presence without a torment too violent for my face to dissemble but I will learn to cashier a large part of my woes if your compassion gives comfort and allows me to hope that neither time absence nor any of those accidents that may cross our Fortune shall ever have power to exercise your tyranny upon that priviledge I hold of your bounty For that said I you have my promise and shall ever know me as inviolable in the observance of it as I hope to find you Loyal and Religious in performing the Vows you have made That confidence said he creates me happiness that infinitely transcends my merit and I hope to carry your beautiful Image into places where it must infallibly gather the bays of a glorious victory I cannot borrow meaner hopes said I from my opinion of valour but among all those dangers you intend to brave do not tye your self so strictly to the thoughts that you are Caesar 's Son to forget the propriety Candace has in you After these words he kissed my hand and having taken his last leave he left me to the King who came with open arms to bid me farewel I had a face overflow'd with tears which might well fetch their pedigree in the common opinion from no other fountain than the Kings departure and those that stole into the flood for Cleomedon's sake ran along with the rest as if they had started from the same source though if I may say it without offending the Laws of a filial piety they out-swelled the rest in number I saw them both mount their horses and really Cleomedon for in that my opinion was the legitimate child of truth and no Way led astray by the Bias of affection appeared in a posture so Heroick as might kindle envy even in those souls to whom nature had lavished the greatest advantages He was that day covered with arms that were rather designed for Parade than service and that was the first time the Roman Eagle was seen to display her wings and proudly erect her two heads amidst the Gold and Jewels that adorned his Casque and Shield Near the imperial Eagle appeared a young one that with a bold wing and open eyes seemed to strain his pinions against the Sun to prove his descent legitimate with these words The worthy Son of such a Father Caesario had only added the Eaglet and Motto to the ancient devise having received those fair Arms at his departure from Alexandria as a gift from the Queen his Mother in whose custody they were left by Julius Caesar after they had faithfully served him in most of those dangerous battels that got him the greatest name among men Under these beautiful Arms the young Warrior advantagiously mounted appeared so fierce and yet so noble as endeared him to the affection and respect of every soul that beheld him but I doat too much upon his Description and indeed Madam to comprehend it right 't is but fit his Pourtraiture should be limned as well to the life in your imagination as my heart has drawn it upon it self This young Heroe marching by the Kings side and circled with the general applause of all the Ethiopians went out of the City and left me half busied in a cloud of sad and fearful apprehensions behind him Tyribasus whom the Physitians had forbidden to ride staid some time with me in the City and implored a great part of it in striving to confute and divert my melancholly thoughts with a face so seriously honest that none could ever think it belonged to a man that was linked to any other interest than the service of his Master I did not then refuse his Converse in which he was so far from uttering a word as he did not so much as mingle one look of love and I was grown so confident in a blind opinion that he had totally disbanded all his passionate follies that displeased me as I began to interess my self in the return of his health and was glad to see his colour and strength coming to their usual vivacity In the mean time you need not doubt but my thoughts were entirely tyed to the remembrance of what I loved and if I sent any vows to Heaven for the King my Fathers safety you will easily believe I forgot not to mention Caesario's whose image was pourtraid so lively in my heart by the innocent skill of a chast affection as the vast distance betwixt us was utterly
to render my life still serviceable to your interests I would not stock it upon so desperate a cast in this unequal Combat whereto I am now marching without any hope of Victory and this incertainty might happily induce me to preserve it if something did noe prompt me with a probability in this attempt of tumbling Tyribasus from the top of his plundered honour Madam if I can sacrifice him to your just resentments and redeem you that pretious liberty and repose of which he has so barbarously bereaved you at the price of his blood and mine I will spill them both to a drop and perish without reluctance but if death cuts me off before I execute the Traitor pardon the failing to my weakness and let pity preserve some remembrance of him who could not part with his life upon terms of more happiness and glory than to die for the rights of his Royal Mistress The perusal of these words laid a greater weight of woe upon my Soul than ever yet it supported and though of late it had been argued with many anxious perplexities yet I now resented so cruel an encrease of my misery as rendered me incapable of company and comfort I spent that day in Tears and Sighs but the next that succeeded it was yet more dolefully employed since it brought me the accomplishment of all my fears in the sad news of Caesario's bloudy defeat with the loss of his whole Army all those that had made me the recital assured me he was seen fall dead from his Horse after he had left some impression of revenge upon his Rival in two dangerous wounds he had given him and done actions besides of so stupendious a nature that they seemed to hold as great a disproportion to Truth as those fictious tales of our ancient Heroes Madam you will easily judge how cruelly the sense of this disaster stretched my heart-strings and to confirm that thought you may please to know that I sunk dead in my womans arms and lay a long time in that condition before the remedies they applyed could bring back my senses that were all fled away from their usual offices and when at last they waked me from my trance I fell a wailing my loss in the dolefullest accents that were ever expressed by the lawfullest and most impetuous grief and all my actions perswaded those about me that I was become an Enemy to my Life My woman durst not stir from me in that estate wherein they saw cause enough to fear that my own hands would dispatch the business of my despair and all that day I was strictly guarded rather as a distracted person than a Princess that in the preceding accidents of her life had given the world so far a Sample of her constancy When my sighs had left me some liberty to speak My dear Caesar cry'd I since thy soul is driven from her sweet habitation for my Interest 't is but reason mine should follow her to the other world and I am very willing to go keep thee Company by resigning that life which thou hast bought too dear at the price of thine would to heaven I could have condition'd with the destinies aforehand to excuse thy thred for mine thou should'st have seen me run into the arms of my pale Executioner with as great a greediness as hurry'd thee to this unequal Combat but since the Deities deny'd me that favour believe it I will do that without repugnance to follow thee which I would have done with joy to save thee there is nothing left upon Earth that has power to stay me here now when thou art gone and my last Act shall tell that monster who thinks he has securely seated his fortunes upon thy ruine that all those flattering hopes will prove Impostours To these succeeded a world of other words to the same purpose and as the kindness I shew'd Cleomedon had been publiquely Authoris'd by the King my Fathers will so I made no scruple to avow the inclinations I had for him to all those that overheard me the force of my imagination still kept his lovely image before my eyes both day and night and my reason was sometimes so giddied with the violence of my grief as talk'd to my poor Prince in such discoursive terms as if I had seen him there in a condition to return me an answer My sorrows were risen to this degree when Tyribasus came back to Meroe or was rather brought back in a Litter with the marks of Cleomedon's valour still about him which had made him run such a manifest hazard of his life He saw me not of divers days after his arrival as well because his wounds confin'd him to his Bed as that he yet fear'd understanding to what desperate estate the violence of my grief had brought me to appear in my presence but so soon as the success of his cure would give him leave to take the air he came to my Chamber My passionate detestation of his last act had still held it self up at the same impetuous height whereto it was risen at his first conception and I no sooner saw him that was the cruel cause of it set his foot in my Chamber but breaking into a furious out-cry against him Barbarous man cry'd I dost thou come to shew me the bloody spoils of Cleomedon and could'st thou not content thy self to rob the world and me of so great a treasure without increasing my horrour by bringing the face of this inhumane butcher in my sight com'st thou to insult upon the miseries of a wretch that is taking care to die since thy cruelty has bereav'd her of him for whose onely sake she lov'd her life and can'st thou not think thy revenge compleat in the murder of him that merited my affection to the prejudice of the unjust pretences but thou must rudely press into my presence to aggravate the weight of woe thou hast to my soul for ever Tyribasus gave way to this Torrent of words which was violently followed by divers others of the same stamp till they had wearied out my weakness to admit from a tumult of sighs and sobs the short interruption of some moments silence in which vacancy striving against the stream of his own thoughts to express some sorrow for what he had done I am too deeply concern'd in your displeasure said he to sing any Io Paean 's in your presence for a thing that immoderately afflicts you and though the death of my Brother with divers of my friends besides the dangerous impediments he strewed in the path of my intentions and his particular design against my life might leave me little cause of regret for the loss of Cleomedon yet truth her self is my witness that his death cannot sink so deep an impression of grief in your spirit without stamping some sensibility of the same nature in mine and were it now in my power to give him his life though I knew it would prove yet a greater foe to my
danger to so little purpose at a time when possible it would not have stood idle or useless in your service Indeed Caesario you have reason said I to plead pardon for this offence for though you had studied all your life to disoblige me you could not have found out any other way to hurt my heart with so deep a displeasure but tell me now how Fortune contriv'd it to keep you still in the world and in what manner you deceiv'd the eies of so many thousands that saw you fall off your Horse without life among those Carkasses that strewed the Field If you please Madam reply'd Caesario we will rather reserve that story for a time when you may have libertie to allow me a longer audience and I cannot now contract it in so narrow a volume as not to give your followers cause to pass a dangerous interception upon your stay in this place I will only tell you that the Plot is laid and the Engines all at work for the dilivery and re-establishment of your Person and Fortunes that four or five of your best Cities are already at our devotion that we keep an intelligence in Meroe it self and in short time if heaven do's not frown upon our Enterprise I shall be able to knock off all your chains and mount you the lofty throne of your Ancestors by breaking the cruel usurpers neck from thence If that hope said I can endow my joyes with any capacity of addition after the assurance of your safety it must be only for your interests and then my content will reach perfection when I shall have power with my self to bestow a Crown upon you which my Fathers intentions and my own inclinations had alwaies assign'd you In all probability Caesario had fram'd a becoming reply to this obliging language when turning my eye aside I saw Tyribasus appear at the Alleys end in the head of a numerous train coming towards us I was startled at this sight with the extreams of fear and aversion and no longer daring to venture my Caesario neer me See said I hastily Tyribasus is coming hither retire in time and let me see you here again three days hence He made me no other answer than a low inclination with his head and seeing me pursue my walk he turn'd with Eteocles into another Alley to avoid the encounter of Tyribasus and those that followed me The contentment of my soul which breaking through the disguise I intruded it was leaped up from thence into my looks made me then suffer the sight of Tyribasus with a calmer temper than at other times and though he could construe no kindness to himself in my face yet I remember that I treated him with less impatience than ordinary and my Caesar reviving killed the greatest cause of my hatred I restrained that day a part of those reproaches with which I usually entertained him When I was retired to my apartment all the persons that served me might easily perceive the sudden change of my humour and though my experience could point at none that deserved my suspicion yet I strictly forbad my Governess and Clitie to impart a syllable of what they knew to any for fear the weakness of some among them should betray the secret and indeed it carried too geeat an importance to be safely trusted in many breasts for those two that were partners in it I knew they had discretion and fidelity enough to keep it against the cruellest menaces of death and they managed it so prudently as none of their words or actions ever left any hold for the least suspition to fasten on Having thus recovered my gasping joyes by such an unexpected kindness of fortune I had much ado to moderate their excess and I pass'd a large part of the first night and the following day with my two confidents in an entertainment very different from those lamentable discourses and complaints that had swallowed so many of their Predecessors Now my Caesario is not dead said I I will not bestow one single sigh upon the loss of my Crown since my hopes are still alive to recover it so long as my Caesar is so I had consigned him the third day to meet me in the garden though I made it my daily walk but I durst not see him too often for fear our frequent interviews should direct my servants to a dangerous curiosity He came according to appointment our discourse was very short but filled with interchanged vows of a never-dying affection and during one month and a half I thus still saw him twice a week He alwaies cross'd the Nilus to the Garden in a little boat and very securely for though he had been taken in the matter that walk upon the bank was so common as none would have thought it strange He employed all the times I told you of in the conduct of his secret practices for my deliverance at first being utterly destitute of men victuals monie every thing that necessity required for the owning of an open war against Tyribasus at every visit he rendered me a short account of what had passed and by this means I understood the intelligence he kept with all the honest party of the Kingdom by the agency of Telemachus and Oristhenes with whom he had several meetings by night and by whose means he had drawn five or six of the best Cities in Aethiopia to his party every day was witness to a hopeful encrease of his petty numbers and he now staid the striking of a considerable blow but for a little better condition to make it hit the surer In the mean time the consolation I received from these hopes called back the banished blood into my cheeks and I appeared to every eye in as perfect a possession of health and colour as ever my life had been acquainted with Caesario saw this change with unexpressable contentment but the return of this little beauty that kindled them did now more than ever enrage the flames of Tyribasus and still as he felt his passion grow more unruly so he pressed me to espouse him with a more imperious importunity than before he had practised I defended my self from his batteries with the same disdain of his person that had so often repuls'd him but now he began to assault me with an invincible obstinacy and in fine became so insolent as one day after he had treated me very rudely Madam said he since I see you still take a tyrannous pride to abuse the respect I have shewn you and provoke me to destroy all the considerations that flowed from that Fountain I must take leave to tell you that I will now rouze and arm that power in my own behalf that has slumber'd so long in the arms of my injur'd patience You shall only have eight days more to obtain a resolution of your self to espouse me and if in that time you fail to overcome your obstinacy I shall know well enough how to oblige you to
to throw down our Arms and yield our selves upon pain of death Eteocles and Telemachus both very stout and couragious supposing those Ships were sent in pursuit of ours by Tyribasus resolved to perish in defence of that dear pawn Caesario had trusted to their hands and without regard to the number of their Enemies began to repulse them very valiantly their resistance procured their ruine and those cruel men with whom we disputed our liberty after a very obstinate and bloudy contest which cost the lives of many of their Companions at last they overflowed us with an inundation of number and boarding our vessel on every side put all to the sword without distinction the valiant Telemachus whose fidelity deserved a better destiny was killed with the first all our Soldiers cut in pieces after him only Eteocles still defended himself being recoiled with his back against the top of the Deck though with no other hope than to sell his life something dearer than the rest of his Companions when animated with an extraordinary courage and an eager desire to preserve a man whose grand services had rendered him so dear to Caesario I boldly stept into that scene of danger and demanded his life of him I took for the Captain of our Enemies The barbarous Zenodorus for so the Pirate was called having cost his eyes upon my visage and found something there that obliged him to accord me the life of Eteocles called off his men from the Combat and gave him his life just when the danger was ready to enroll him among Death's Captives he presently took me out of that Vessel defiled with carcasses and blood and caused me to pass into another of his that was next it with all the persons that were now left which were only Eteocles and my three women At these words Elisa regarding the Queen with a fixed eye How Madam said she was it then by the Pirate Zenodorus you were taken The very same reply'd Candace and that famous Rober not content to make his depradations by Sea was come up the Nilus very far into our Provinces where he had taken some rich prizes and rendered himself the most redoubled of all those that ever skimmed this Ocean Alas added the fair Elisa what an infinite of tears has that Monster cost me But Madam pursued she do not interrupt your discourse you shall understand when my story comes to tread the Stage by what sad mark I know the Pirate Zenodorus and how near a conformity and alliance the hand of providence has made between our last adventure You may judge Madam continued the fair Queen to what a lamentable condition I found my self reduced by this strange disaster from the hands of an ambitious and amorous man that I fled I saw my self fallen into the power of a pitiless wretch that knew neither Faith nor Honour of a Barbarian known upon all the Sea by his cruelty and in fine of a Monster from whom I could not expect less than all the inhumanities I was capable of resenting this horrid spectacle crimsoned with the vital blood of all my men struck fresh Ideas of terrour in my memory and the presence of those Tygres that breathed nothing but murder and massacre might well have wrought the same frightful effects upon any other spirit though better fortified than mine to resist them and indeed my courage was brought so low as I let my self fall half dead upon the Deck when the consideration of this last calamity almost set me a swimming in my own tears Eteocles though he had received some slight wounds in several places kept himself near my person and kneeling by me supported my head upon his bosom while Clitie with her two companions were all fallen at my feet and become partners of my woe then it was that all my constancy forsook the Lists I detested my unfortunate birth and upbraided Heaven it self with the cruel series of my miseries a thousand times did I call death to my rescue and condemned my cowardise that I did not first tender my throat to the steel of those Barbarians that butchered our Souldiers The Pirates that had long been habituated to such spectacles of pity melted no more than rocks at my desolation but their Captain found some beauty in my face that a little softned his savage humours and made him capable of some sentiments of humanity at first my sorrow had his silent attention and whether he was not yet moved enough to express any signs of Compassion or thought those first excesses of my grief would strike me deaf to his discourse he sat a pretty while upon a seat he had chosen and saw my tears run from me without so much as offering to come nearer but a little after he came towards me and taking some time to contemplate my face before he spoke and endeavouring to send away as much fierceness from his looks as possible Fair Lady said he do not afflict thy self so exceedingly thy beauty has found favour amongst us and perhaps thou art not so unhappy as thou thinkest thy self I was buried so deep in the consideration of my misery as it would not let me have leisure to regard the Pirates words that carried so little proportion to my dignity and he received neither answer nor so much as one single look that could let him know he was understood This gave him a belief that I had no skill in the Greek Tongue in which he spoke and therefore translating his words into the Aethiopan language I tell thee said he with a look that had put on more mildness than before you may cease your laments and dimisse all your fears since you are in a place where your beauty has given you much power I knew not how to shape an answer to this discourse but Eteocles who was less troubled than I and therefore had more judgement at the helm perceiving my perplexity was willing to spare me the pains and taking his eyes from my visage where they had been long fastned to place them upon the Pirates My Lord said he if you use these advantages you have gotten upon us with moderation the Gods will be engaged to reward your generosity This Lady whom you see is my Daughter we were retiring into Egypt whence we took our first Original from the Civil Wars that troubled Aethiopia when we fell into your hands and if we receive such a treatment as our hopes encourage us to expect from your goodness we are not of so base an extraction nor yet so despoiled of Fortunes favours but we may find a way to acknowledge your courtesie and redeem our Liberties at a considerable ransom Zenodorus smiled at Eteocles words and regarding him with a disdainful look For thy Ransom said he we shall talk at leisure but for thy Daughters thou wilt hardly find treasure enough to pay the price of her liberty If I took some satisfaction from Eteocles words wherein he had cunningly disguised my condition
perceiving his designs to advance but slowly Madam said he since I see all my Civilities have been lost upon you I have henceforth decreed it to seek some other means for my own satisfaction I must now therefore tell you that if you dispose not your self to let me have it by frre vote of your own consent you must resolve to see me struggle for it with more success than I have done formerly He accompanied this first menace with divers others of the same moâ—d that almost struck me dead with apprehension and after that day he began to treat me with an air more imperious and absolute than ever his looks had put on before Then did I see my sad condition wound up to the very extreams of misery and I fearfully expected every moment when the Barbarians violence should assay to bereave me of that which was a thousand times dearer than my life and had never been attacqu'd in all my former misfortunes So soon as I saw my self at liberty to talk with my maids without being over-heard by the Pirates Come said I my dear Companions in misery 't is time to think of dying Fortune had not harassed us all this time with supportable calamities but to observe a method in her mischiefs and at last compleat the tragedy she intended this honour which we prize above our lives is now ready to become a prey to Barbarians if a generous resolution do's not rescue it by the hand of death from the shame it prepared us let us dispose our selves to take this only antidote that is left to preserve it and fear not to make use of Waters or Steel to void an ignominy which is a thousand times worse than those tortures that carry the greatest horrour To these words succeeded many others that displaid the unquiet agitations of my spirit and sometimes though absent and remote as he was addressing my speech to Caesario Ah Son of Caesar would I say how welcome would thy succour arrive to silence the threats and stop the mouth of this danger how deeply mightest thou oblige me in neglecting the interests of my state to run to the defence of my honour but oh Gods continued I how vainly do I call thee to my assistance possible thou art no more in the number of mankind but hast rendered thy spirit under the arms of the treacherous Tyribasus and the Gods have laid this punishment upon me with the hand of Justice for leaving thee so cowardly in the mouth of a devouring danger for my interests These words were succeeded with several actions of the same strain but if my grief received a violent encrease from this last intelligence of my fears it quickckly mounted by large strides to a greater height when I saw the Pirate persevere in his design and pass to the cruel execution of his menaces from hour to hour he still became more fierce and terrible and ceasing those entreaties that were the first factors of his passion he now discoursed it in a more imperious stile deeply protesting if I still refused to render the fort by treaty he would take it by assault this extremity provoked me to tear off my disguise and regarding him with an eye that spoke the spirit of anger Barbarian said I thou maist kill me if thou wilt but thy threats shall never fright my consent to the least satisfaction of thy brutish appetite No no replyed the cruel Zenodorus you shall not dye but since there is no other way to obtain my wishes but by putting violence in the place of sweetness my resolution is irrevocable when the thing is done I shall easily gain your pardon since I shall only have your anger for taking that by conquest which should have been mine by consent Well wicked man said I this unjust power thou usurpest is yet inferior to that which arms the hand of divinity and if thou continuest thy detestable intentions believe it the Gods will want no thunderbolts to crush thee The impious wretch derided my hopes of divine assistance and repeating his own wicked resolutions backed with deep Oaths to confirm it he swore I should have but three days more to resolve his contentment and the next day to prove his words and intentions grew up from the same root he licensed himself to take the liberties which he had not presumed before and after some obscene expressions which pudicity forbids me to mention he would have ravished a kiss from my mouth but at that rude attack I forgot the weakness of my Sex and furiously flew at his face with so much violence as I left the characters there of my scorn and anger in a deep impression This provoked him to cashier all thoughts of patience and desperately swearing he would no longer delay to execute the effects of my fears he had already called for some of his men to pull my Maids out of the Chamber when by a manifest succour from Heaven which then armed it self in my defence he heard the Pilot cry out there was a furious tempest coming The terrour he took from this alarm put a sudden stop to his design and running up upon the Deck to know the truth he saw the enraging waves begin to raise a battery against his floating fortress and Heaven prepare to pour its Artillery upon him with so black a defiance as all those foul thoughts that lust had stirred grew cold and did homage to the apprehensions of death which hurried from a place where his presence might animate his men to employ all their force and industry against the choler of the winds I may safely avow that at that time the particular interest of my honour made me rejoyce at the common calamity and I scarce listned to the language of fear for my own or the ruine of those about me since either by his death or mine it promised me a rescue from the brutish fury of Zenodorus this made me only appear with a tranquil and untroubled aspect amidst the disorder of all the rest and when the natural horrour of death had it self painted in its usual Palour upon the face of all the Pirates mine by report of those that saw me still kept its ordinary colour and composure The storm lasted two entire days with a great deal of violence but as Zenodorus and his men had gained the skill from a large experience how to make use of all advantages when they wrestled with that angry Element so they received not all the loss that would doubtless have befallen others less practised in that exercise of four Vessels they lost but one and after they had discharged the other three to the Pirates grand regret of such lading as was most weighty they saved themselves from Ship-wrack without dis-uniting and when the storm had spent its greatest fury they discryed the Egyptian shore with the stately walls of Alexandria As yet none of them knew upon what climate the winds had tossed them for though they were very
themselves a breach in spight of all his Courage that denyed them passage Gods what a fearful divination of my succeeding mischief did that object shoot into my soul how quickly did my spirit at the same time take the impression of my misery and release my repose I advanced towards Artaban with little less disquiet in mine than his looks had shown me the noise of my approach made him lift up his head and he knew me in spight of the prepossession of those passions that disputed precedency in his Soul the light of me inraged the storms of those transports that shook him and he had much ado to stop the torrent of his griefs from breaking out into a discovery by a loud out-cry though I often called him by his name as I made my approaches it was long before he could digest his woes into words and instead of advancing to meet me he leaned his back against an Arbour and holding his arms a cross upon his breast he staid my coming up in a posture that pierced my very Soul with pity my affection soon reached me a share in his anguish and it cost me no second thoughts to divine the cause of his inquietude the fear I had entertained to learn something from his mouth that would justifie it self made my tongue turn coward for a time and charactered a disturbance in my looks that were little short of his in fine I first overcame the confusion that shared it self betwixt us and violently putting by my own sad apprehensions that my judgement might have liberty to make a more dexterous application of comfort to his How now Artaban said I are your knowledge and courage both wracked with one gust what have you let your self sink under the weight of a grief that appears in your visage below the knowledge of Elisa At these words Artaban drew up two or three groans from the bottome of his breast and fastning his eyes upon me with a wild and half distracted look Yes Madam I do know you said he with a voice composed of almost as many sighs as words and oh that Heaven had pleased I had known you less or better In fine Madam pursued he a little re-inforcing his spirits the same Gods that took me from you have cruelly torn those hopes from my heart that my indiscretion planted there and a King whom I can neither call cruel nor ingrateful because he is your Father does rigorously punish the same offence your indulgence pardoned his refusal exposes me to a death that might have been far less bitter and more glorious had I received it as a just doom of my boldness from your command but in this my destiny is much more cruel that utterly unable to love the man that pays me no other price but Death for all my services it is not permitted me to hate him that disclosed such a mine of Treasure as your self to the World At this period a shower of tears that violently broke their way stayed the pursuit of his discourse which softened my Soul to such a melting temper as forced me freely to unlock the channels of my own and putting my hand before my face with a purpose in part to hide them Artaban said I my fears were always Prophetick of what has befallen you and though your services esteemed aright I believed ever there could be nothing too great for your expectations yet I know the Kings disposition too well to over-see so sad an augury this I may safely protest and possibly with too much truth that the cause and sense of your sorrows have equally divided themselves betwixt us and since you cannot be ignorant that I love you you may easily guess from that how large a share my heart has carved it self in the sufferings of your disgrace would to Heaven it lay in my power to smooth all the frowns in the face of your fortune and that the Gods had as happily suited the Kings intentions to mine as my will is submitted to the indispensible tyes of duty to an absolute dependance upon his Believe it Artaban you should quickly know that your vertue takes place of all those in my choice that swell the titles of the greatest Kings nor has the whole Universe a capacity to court my soul with a clearer satisfaction than by putting you in possession of that priviledge my wishes design you But since the Gods will not let us be happy at our own Election call upon the greatness of your courage for a resignation to their wills 't is that must create you hopes to calm and quiet your displeasures and doubtless cut you out fairer Fortunes than any can flatter your expectations in the Court of Parthia I cannot see my self reduced Dear Artaban without a sad reluctance to offer you this Counsel but you must not be ignorant how poorly my power can befriend my will in a business of this nature and you know with what a precise obedience maids of my birth are tyed to the austere rules of their duty they are those that subscribe me a blind submission to the will of my Father and my King And they are those interrupted the sad Artaban that reduce me to this deplorable estate which draws tears from your fair eyes no Madam 't is not the power of a King that creates my misfortune had I nothing but that to combat perhaps I might find forces enough to hold up my Buckler which now I must lay down at your feet since you are my opposer it may be I should throw down all other difficulties that stand in my way to happiness and I think the powerfullest impediments would all become the Trophies of my resolution if your consent would vote the Triumph but 't is that I know not how to hope and 't is that too Madam that has made a coward of all my courage to demand it no Madam I dare not ask any thing that crosses your humour in behalf of a miserable man nor pretend to the violation of a duty that forbids me to be happy for though I were born to greater Crowns than those that embrace your Fathers Temples I should not suffer so bold a thought but since a Sword is all the portion that Heaven has given me I should be too unworthy of the glory I have gotten by it in serving you should I ask more than what I have already received of your goodness my desires then Madam are all contracted in this single request continued he throwing himself at my feet that you will only suffer me to go away with the honour of being yours and continue it till one short Scene of my life be acted I shall not long trouble you with keeping the Commission and I promise you to make hast into the arms of Death as the only medicine that is left for all miseries While he spake in this manner I had seated my self upon a bank that was behind me and regarding him in what sad estate with all the
who without measuring danger either by the number or force of those he encountred had made it his custome to charge all that came near him the combat was begun by the Pirates and their shock sustained by our men with a great deal of resolution my ignorance will not let me describe you the fight in parts but Madam shall I give you a short list of my resentments at that present indeed I cannot chuse but tell you that the detestation I still cherished of the very thought to espouse Tigranes and the grief I took for Artaban's misfortunes had left me so little care or love of life as I can hardly say that death looked ugly enough to affright me and if I may assume the liberty to undisguise my criminal thoughts without a reserve I think Artaban's danger was attended with as large a portion of my fears as those that regarded my proper safety In the mean time an interchanged cloud of arrows rained upon both parties the Pirates quickly found a resistance that made them wish the danger unattempted and certainly the advantages they got had cost them a great deal more blood if Orestes as if those famous Arms had refused to do service to their Masters Enemy had not been tumbled dead at the feet of his men by some of the first blows that were struck in the Combat and my conductor Polinices with one of the Median Embassadors suddenly acquitted by divers mortal wounds of the the care to obey their Masters Commission The Death of their Commanders distributed a terrour among the common Souldiers which froze up those Courages that were so hot as the Fights beginning and losing all hope of victory they disputed it so poorly as the Pirates almost had it in possession when they least suspected it They were upon point to board our Vessels wherefore the Decks were then but very faintly defended when inspired with a thought that deafen'd me to the threats of of danger I boldly step'd upon the Deck and heightning my voice that I might be understood by those in Orestes Vessel My friends cryed I if you desire safety or wish victory they are only to be had from the hands of Artaban ease him of those irons that will not suffer him to succour you give him but arms for your own defence and hope for all from his valour that man can do when he once fights at the head of you These words succeeded to my wishes for since Orestes death Artaban had no more Enemies left in the Vessel the Parthians that adored his vertue whom the sole authority of Orestes inforced to keep him captive that had so often taught them the art of overcoming no sooner saw themselves at liberty to restore him his but they ran down in throngs to release him and even envied his own Squire the glory of putting the first hand to take off his Irons while the overjoy'd young man was doing this office to his dear Master others hastily employed themseves in stripping Orestes carkass of those arms he had unworthily usurped and Arno sooner saw his chains unlocked when he felt his manly limbs reinvested in the same armour that had faithfully served him in so many victories and when his warlike dress was compleated lifting up his sword and voice with a fierce cry My friends said he in exchange of this freedom you have given me I do here promise to requite you with victory As he brought forth these words he flew before them at the audacious Ephialtes that had newly boarded the vessel and by that bold act provok'd his fate for the furious Artaban darting himself upon him with a sorce and swiftness like that of Lightning prevented his design with a deadly thrust which finding a default in his Arms pierced him quite through the body when after he had reeled two or three paces backward he fell dead into his own Ship The death of Ephialtes congeal'd the courages of his men but the following actions of Artaban quickly stifled all their hopes of victory and as if there secretly lodg'd a fatality in his Sword to all that opposed him he carried it to no part of the fight wherein he did not cut down Enemies in heaps and change the fortune of both parties with a prodigious promptitude the actions he performed with his own hands his admirable conduct and the strong belief the Parthians had entertained that his valour was invincible brought forth such marvellous effects as in less than one quarter of an hour the Pirates changed their design of assaulting their Enemies to defending themselves and prospered so ill in that too as in less than another they beheld their Ships covered with their fellows carkasses and the Sea painted with their blood So soon as Artaban had chas'd out those Pirates that invaded his Vessel he leap'd into mine and there it was I saw him do things in my defence that would make an Infidel of the easiest credulity In fine the victory became entirely ours the greater part of the Pirates lost their lives two of their Ships were taken and the rest saved themselves by flight or rather by the small regard we took to pursue them Artaban contrary to the Parthians inclinations gave the Prisoners their lives but he left all the booty to the Souldiers and commanded divers of the Pirates into our Vessel to serve in the places of those Mariners that we had lost in the combat Thus after he had set the face of order upon all things that haste would permit him he ran to me all covered with blood in a posture that had half affrighted me if he had not taken off his Casque as he threw himself at my feet and discovered his face wherein me thought the heat of combat had disclosed some new beams of masculine beauty that I never saw there before at least my fancy was so deeply inchanted with that apprehension as it degarded my judgment so far to let the Medes and Parthians then present see me throw my arms about the neck of the kneeling Artaban and lean my head upon his with an action so tenderly passionate as at this very confession of my weakness I feel the warm blood is come into my cheeks to accuse me Madam I will not trouble your patience with the repetition of those disorder'd words that Artaban and I exchanged at that point of time and indeed they were too full of confusions to deserve recital and if his liberty gave him some satisfaction I was so ravished with joy to see him in so different a condition to that he appeared in but a few hours before as I could not express my contentment better than in shewing by a few disjoynted words that I could not express it In fine after I had raised him from his knee and presented him to the Parthians Well Parthian said I do you judge Artaban worthy to return to his chains or enjoy his part of that liberty his valour has given you if you have done
him That time is past with you said the insolent Eurilochus and since fortune hath now submitted you to those who heretofore attended upon you you must do by them as they did once by you and expect your destiny from their will as they expected and received from Anthony's These words full of Pride and reproach put me into such choler against him that spake them that I could not dissemble but looking upon him with an eye full of disdain and indignation both together 'T is thy interest said I to him to oppose my liberty and if it pleased the Gods that we were in another condition assure thy self thy life should pay for thy insolence Eurilochus though he was in a condition not to fear my threatnings looked pale at this discourse and seeing something in my face which in spight of the condition wherein I then was forced him to some respect he held down his head and turned himself another way without reply After that day I had no more conversation either with him or his companion but I entertained my self only with my two faithful servants who were acquainted with the whole secret of my life and sometimes when I could by stealth with the Keeper that brought me the Princesse's Letters In fine after some scurvy formalities that Artaxus made use of in his proceedings by his cruel orders I was condemned to lose my head upon a scaffold in the great place of Artaxata the rumour of it presently spread it self through the whole City but I assure my self that the most pitiless of the inhabitants did not approve that cruelty Cepio by whose imprudence I was reduced to this condition who since that time had not stirred from Artaxata was one of the first that heard that news He almost died with grief when he considered himself as the cause of my misfortune and the only cause of his stay in the Armenian Court was to seek some occasion to make some reparation for the fault he had committed When he understood the cruel sentence passed against me he went boldly to present himself before Artaxus and without fear of the danger he might incur by provoking him King of Armenia said he I understand that you have condemned the Son of Antony to a shameful death but take good heed how you execute that sentence which will be your ruine and give no way to the death of that Prince except you desire to see the destruction of your People and the absolute desolation of your Dominions And who shall lay desolate my Dominions replyed the King of Armenia with a scornful look who shall ruine my people and execute thy threats Augustus answered Cepio and all the principal persons of Rome who either by blood or friendship have interest in Alexander the whole Empire the whole World will arm with them for the revenge of that Prince and you will see such powers fall upon you upon this quarrel as will infallibly ruine you Augustus replyed Artaxus ought rather to be a friend to me than to the son of his enemy and the remainders of the blood of Anthony will not be more considerable to him than the Kings of Armenia his most ancient Allies Iâ— Augustus be dis-interessed as without doubt he is I do not much value the rest and to those powers thou talkest of I shall oppose others that shall protect me from the effect of thy menaces but let what will happen the Son of Cleopatra shall die to morrow and thou shalt have thy part in the spectacle if thou hast a mind to it in the publique place Yes bluntly replyed Cepio I will have my share in the Spectacle and seeing the young Prince is fallen into this misfortune by my imprudence I will hazard my dearest blood in endeavouring the reparation of my fault With these words he went from the King who had left hearkning to him before and would not have suffered him to have said so much if those about him had not perswaded him to give way a little to the humour of this hair-brain'd man In the mean while the Princess no sooner understood that the sentence of my death was passed and that I was to die the next day without delay but she flew out of her chamber transported with grief with an intention to make use of the last remedies that were left her As she was going to the King she found him upon the top of the stairs and she no sooner saw him but running to him with an action full of the marks of her grief and casting her self at his knees which she embraced and moistened with her tears Sir said she once my brother full of tenderness and affection and now a King inaccessible to pity either command my life to be taken away in your presence or give me Alexander ' s. The barbarous King was not at all moved to compassion at this spectacle but rudely snatching himself out of his Sisters arms Die if thou wilt said he woman without resentment or honour and believe that in the dis-esteem thou hast caused me to have of thee I shall be so far from giving thee Alexander 's life that I would not give the life of the least of my enemies to save thine With these words he flung away without so much as looking upon her more and the Princess rising up full of grief and despair Yes Monster cryed she I will die and death will be a thousand times more sweet to me than the life I can lead with a Tiger and a Barbarian I will die seeing thou wouldest have it so but by my death I will furnish thee with revenging furies which shall eternally torment thee At these expressions breaking out a fresh into tears and being in a condition that imprinted a tender compassion in all that were present at this action she ran to her appartment where she threw her self between the arms of Leucippe and the rest of her women and was ready to expire there through the violence of her grief What Alexander said she shalt thou die and shall this unfortunate creature for whom thou hast exposed thy self with so much love not have the credit with a brother to divert the inhumane instrument of death from thy head Doth this day onely remain to thee of that life which thou hadst so generously bestowed upon me and shall I behold the bloody preparatives of thy death without preventing it Ah no Alexander hope better of my courage and do not suspect me of a baseness whereof I am not capable I might possibly have lived or lingred out a few days in grief if any other kind of death had separated us but dying here and dying only for my sake who wert always faithful to me since our first acquaintance I am engaged both by my affection and by my honor to bear thee company it shall never be laid as a reproach upon me that I drew thee hither by the command I did once lay upon thee to sacrifice thee in our Country
hands of thy companions As I uttered these words I put by a thrust which he made at me and slipping under his sword he thrust mine up to the hilts his which I seized upon in the pass I kept in my hand and with that I laid Elpenor upon the head who advanced to assist his companion with so much ill fortune for him that having cleft him to the middle of the face after he had reeled a little way he fell down dead upon those who were nearest to the Scaffold I received no small consolation at the death of these two enemies over what I expected and seeing that Cepio with two mortal blows had tumbled two Souldiers down from the Scaffold at the same time Courage cryed I brave Cepio we will not die alone to day follow me into the thickest throng of our Enemies and let us render our death famous by so many others that we may have no cause to regret our own Speaking these words I threw my self from the Scaffold upon the nearest of the Souldiers that environed it and laying at all those without any difference which I found in my way I quickly made way enough with my Sword Cepio was presently at my side and seconded me with divers actions of admirable valour 'T is certain that there are no efforts comparable to those that proceed from persons which fear not death and that when men have abandoned their lives they are capable of doing prodigious executions Upon another occasion when he should have fought with some consideration of our own safety without doubt we should not have done half we did upon this but having lost all hope all desire and care but to revenge our death we appeared to be somewhat more than men in this dayes work and we did actions that would hardly find belief if they had not the testimony of many thousand witnesses Our Enemies being intimidated by the great blows we dealt amongst them as much as if our number had been equal with theirs made way for us on both sides and having no Commanders to encourage them I believe they would have given us free passage if we had sought it but instead of Elpenor or Eurilochus they were animated by a more formidable voice than of any of their Captains and then it was that the baseness of Artaxus rendred it self manifest to all his people for he opened the Window behind which he concealed himself to satiate his eyes with the cruel spectacle and shewing his face to the Souldiers he no sooner saw the disorder into which we had put them but he cryed out with a terrible voice Whither do ye flye O ye cowards whither do ye flye from two men And a litte after seeing that at this cry they faced about and began to put themselves into a condition to set upon us Take them added he and if ye cannot take them alive kill them At these words the Souldiers being ashamed of the fear they had expressed rallied up together and began to environ us and at the same time they turned the points of a thousand Javelins against us we knew then that our death was not far of but that was no news to us nor any more than for what we were fully prepared and therefore casting a look upon Cepio Let us die Cepio said I since you desire it but before our death let us send some of our Enemies before us I had scarcely made an end of these words when I saw my blood trickle down from some slight wounds and poor Cepio having received two or three mortal ones fell at my feet where immediately after he expired This man certainly for his courage and admirable generosity deserved a better destiny and if I had been in a condition to make some reflection upon his loss I had without doubt expressed all the resentments of grief that his valour and the assistance he had given me could merit from my acknowledgment Adieu brave Cepio cryed I thou dyest for my interests but it shall not be long before I bare thee company With these words I flew much more furiously into the middle of my Enemies dispatching the two nearest to me with the two first blows I gave them some others besides bare them company and I behaved my self so amongst them that alone as I was the boldest of them durst scarcely venture within the length of my Sword Nevertheless my resistance was to very little purpose and though I had been more valiant than many Achilles's together it was impossible for me to prolong my destiny I retired my self against a wall that I might not be assaulted but only before and there my Enemies made a semi-circle about me and pressed me so close that not being able to put by so many thrusts as they made at me and finding already a great diminution of my strength I was even a sinking under such a number when Artaxus himself came into the place and advanced himself towards that part where I was crying out they should take me alive and that they should take care of killing me upon pain of death This command certainly saved me and after I had defended my self a little longer having engaged my sword in the body of a Souldier who was forwarder than the rest his companions threw themselves upon me in so great a number that not being able to stir amongst them I was thrown down and disarmed a little after they tyed my hands behind me and in this condition they presented me to Artaxus who came near us and made the people give way that he might see me After he had cast his eyes upon my face Thou shalt not die said he as thou didst desire and I am resolved that thou shalt not have the satisfaction of changing the kind of death I had ordained for thee against my will thou shalt return into the hands of an Executioner from whom thou flyest but it shall be to die there in torments I heard his threat without any fear and looking upon him with more scorn than before I expect from thee said I all that can be expected from a base and cruel man and I know thou fearest my resentments too much to restore me to liberty Artaxus made no reply to this discourse but committed me to the custody of Theogenes and Sarpedon and putting them in the place of Eurilochus and Elpenor he commanded them to carry me back to prison and to guard me there till he had deliberated what kind of death to put me too fearing likewise lest I should die of my wounds and so avoid the punishments he prepared for me he gave order that I should be carefully looked to and thus his cruelty was every way for my preservation and by destining me to torments he himself made way for my safety I returned to the same prison from whence I came some hours before without hope of seeing it again and a little after they brought thither to me Narcissus and my two Squires all three
me found no attention and I could not so much as think that Delia was ready to be taken from me by a strange death without abandoning my self to a rage which could leave me nothing but furious resolutions Sister said I to the Princess if Delia die you will shortly be left alone in the royal family of Cilicia this cruel father who precipitates me to my grave shall show me the way thither himself and with the same sword which my hand ought to draw against this unfortunate heart I will pierce that Barbarian's who only gave me life to make me die cruelly These words were criminal and horrible if they had been spoken at a time when reason had had any command upon my spirit but in the condition I then was all things were pardonable and I was capable without doubt of executing whatsoever I said in the transport that possessed me In brief I made such complaints as drew tears from all that heard me and I interrupted them every moment to run to Delia's chamber door to enquire news of her health Amongst those that came to me upon the report of my affliction of whom there was a great number seeing Adrastus whose vertue and affection were dear to me Adrastus said I with a visage which sufficiently expressed the disorder of my soul you may tell the King that he hath found out the assured way of destroying his Son by the most cruel death that the most perfidious enemies could have invented Tell him that I look upon him no longer as my Father but as upon a Tiger who tears my enteral and pulls out my heart Tell him that I renounce with horrour and detestation all the ties of bloud I have to him and that if Delia dies he ought to look upon his Son as a man who only desires to live to revenge her death Adrastus and the rest shrunk their shoulders at these words and I made them some other discourse afterwards so full of trouble and the mark of my despair that the most rocky souls would have been moved to compassion at it At last Delia growing weaker and weaker and believing that her last hour was come desired to speak with me and caused me to be called I entred into her chamber and drew near her bed with a feeble and ill assured pace I fell upon my knees by her so forlorn and cast down that I was hardly able to hearken to what she had to say to me yet I did my endeavour and Delia likewise striving to express her intentions with the little strength she had left Philadelph said she I should die with some regret if I should leave you in the belief that I have been insensible of your affection and I have observed so much purity and so much vertue in it that nothing could hinder me from the acknoledgement that is due to you I protest to you before those Gods whose will it is to snatch me from you that I have esteemed you more than all the persons in the world and that if it had been in my power to express my more particular thoughts and to accept the offers which you made me I should have made you lose the opinion you have alwaies had of my ingratitude to you this is a declaration which I owe to truth and to the end that you may find satisfaction in it I will make you one more which I owe to your affection before I die wherein possibly you may find justifications against the reproaches that might be laid upon you for having too much debased your thoughts No Philadelph continued she with a great deal of pain Delia was not so unworthy of your affection as the King your Father imagined neither have you sinned so much against your self that either you or any of your relations need be ashamed after my death of the resentments you have had for me you have possibly rendred that to me before you knew me which was partly due to me and though you see me a stranger and abandoned by Fortune yet at the period of my life where I now feel my self arrived I will tell you She could hardly finish these words and when she would have proceeded she was hindred by violent fits accompanied with such cruel convulsions that I made no doubt but that she was ready to breath her last Then I fell upon her bed embracing her knees with such transports of love as brought my soul every moment to my lips and when I was constrained to leave her to give them leave to give her their last assistance I tore my face and rent my hair and did a thousand actions so full of rage and despair that my best friends trembled and did not think themselves safe near me Delia cryed I Delia stay for me or let me go before thee to the grave thou canst not leave me without cruelty and if I did not owe the remainders of my life to thy vengeance I would instantly lead thee the way to that death which ought to be common to us both I was in this condition when they presented a man to me from the King who sent to enquire concerning me I could hardly forbear from flying in the face of that hateful messenger and having been held back by those which were near me I took him by the arm and leading him to Delia's bed in a very terrible fashion See said I see the condition wherein I am by that wherein thou seest this innocent Victim of thy Masters cruelty tell that Barbarian tell that Monster that he should come and glut his eyes with this agreeable spectable he will receive a double satisfaction in seeing both her which innocently crossed his intentions and him who of his Son is now become his most cruel enemy die here before his face Sir replied the man all amazed and moved with tenderness at what be saw You do the King your Father great wrong to accuse him of this cruelty he doth not only protest before all the Gods that he is innocent of it but he hath solemnly sworn that if he can discover who are culpable of it he will cause them to be punished without any consideration I made no answer to these words nor hardly gave any attention to them being so intent upon Delia in whom at that time nature was at its utmost plunge that I was not capable of any rational discourse The Princess my Sister and those who were most affectionate to me had drawn me by force into the next chamber and I had staid there above an hour in such transports and impatiencies as you may imagine having nothing but death before my eyes in all its most horrible shapes when by a favour of Heaven which I expected not my fortune began to change and one of the men who was employed in waiting upon Delia entring hastily into my Chamber Courage Sir said he Delia may do well I made a cry at this discourse which sufficiently expressed the speedy effect it had
already told you being despoyled of his Kingdom by Phraates King of Parthia or rather by the valiant Artaban General of his Troops who with a prodigious valour had reduced Media under his Master's Dominion in a less time than would well have served to have seen it all came to seek refuge among his Neighbours and Allies He made some stay first in Cappadocia and by the compassion which his misfortune wrought in the breast of King Archelaus he not only obliged him to protect him but interessed him so in his affairs that Archelaus a Prince of great Vertue offered to raise an Army for his re-establishment and to march with him in person to re-invest him in his Throne Archelaus alone was possibly too weak to put this design in execution and Tigranes having engaged him in this manner to his succour came into Cilicia believing he should find all manner of assistance in the amity of the King his Uncle He was received at Tharsus not as a despoyled Prince but as if he had enjoyed his former dignity and the King who had always dearly loved him treated him as if he had been his Son or his Brother and disposed himself to render him whatsoever he might expect from his affection he was already prepared by the news he had received of his misfortunes to assist and serve him and during the stay he had made in Cappadocia they had begun to make levies to that intention I will not spin out this discourse into a tedious length within a few months that Tygranes continued with us all things were put into an handsome condition for his assistance and Tygranes not being willing to permit that the King should make this Voyage in Person by reason of his age and for divers other considerations I received the commission and disposed my self to march with Tigranes in the head of ten thousand horse and five and twenty thousand foot which the King gave me for this expedition You may well judge Madam that it was not without regret that I prepared my self to leave Delia and You will believe nothing but the Truth when You shall believe that my soul was sensible of a cruel violence at this separation I could not without a mortal grief so much as think of being so far and so long distant from her whom I could not leave for a moment and when I reflected upon the evils which this absence would make me suffer all my courage could hardly furnish me with resolutions enough to dispose my self to it Besides I left Delia in a place where a little before they had cruelly made an attempt upon her life and though by the care the King himself took of her and the little interest the Queen had in the business I was almost assured on that side yet my love making me fearful for that I loved raised such fears in me as all my reason was not able to destroy but that which moved me most was that I went from Delia without being able to oblige her to engage her self to me any more than she had done before and understood so little of the reasons she alledged to me and the hopes she gave me that I could receive but a very imperfect comfort from them For all this I must be gone the considerations of my honour were strong enough to overcome all others and I was of such an age as obliged me to the prejudice of my repose and the peril of a thousand lives to pursue the occasions of glory which called upon me Neither did I much waver in the business but to shorten my discourse the day came which necessitated my separation from Delia. All the time before I had sollicited her in vain to declare her self in my favour more fully than she had done before I had spared neither prayers nor tears to move her but I could not by any expressions either of my love or grief remove her from her former resolution The last day going to take my leave of her I really sound some signs of sorrow in her countenance and she expressed to me divers ways that she sympathised with me in the displeasure I had to leave her After some passionate discourses whereby I expressed to her my just resentments I go Delia said I to her and what is most cruel and insupportable to me I part from You without any certainty of seeing You again and unassured of the condition I stand in your thoughts After such testimonies of my love as possibly would not have been ineffectual in relating to any other person but Delia and which possibly might have prevailed with any courage but hers I see my self as ignorant of my destiny as I was that moment that I gave my self to you I satisfie my self as well as I can possibly with the hopes You give me and seeing that I shall never have any desire but what may be conformable to Your will I endeavour to comfort my self with the expectation of a good which I cannot conceive but Delia I cannot vanquish my grief and what blind confidence soever I have in You 't is hard for me to take notice without a mortal displeasure how little progress I have made upon Your spirit I go from you with all manner of ill presages and if my fears deceive me not I am in great danger of never seeing you again if it be so Delia I shall abandon my self to the most cruel death that ever was suffered and You will live with the remorse of having bestowed such a recompence upon the most real and perfect that ever was I had some other discourse with her upon the same subject the length whereof hinders me from repetition and Delia having quietly hearkned to me and endeavoured to hide some marks of pity which appeared in her countenance Prince said she I will willingly endure all your reproaches without complaining and though possibly I might deserve that you should impose some belief in me I will expect that from you when those things you are now ignorant of are known to you In the mean time you may go with this belief that you have made a greater progress upon my spirit than you suppose and I should say you had done too much in that respect if I did not believe that I cannot be too acknowledging of your affection I shall not be always in a condition wherein I can only satisfie you with such hopes as you cannot comprehend and if fortune be not contrary to me my condition will be changed at your return I shall then be free from divers scruples which a Maid of my humour cannot tell how to overcome and you will be at liberty to demand that of me without hurting me which then I may grant you without fear of reproach Give if you please an absolute credit to what I tell you and receive a thing which I will trust no body with but your self that may in time make you change the unjust opinion you have of my humour
immediately coming to her again he held out his arms to the other who maugre her resistance and her cries did his endeavour to set her up behind him At the sight of such an action and the womans cries which reached the ears of Philadelph his valour rouzed up it self and not being able to endure the violence which was offered to a person so worthy of his protection he called to his Squire that held his horse to come near and instantly clapping on his Casque he put himself in a posture to repel the outrage which they did to beauty Sarpedon being full of courage would have gone with him but besides his being on foot and without arms it was Philadelphs desire that he should keep close by Artemisa who after this example might fear some like accident and not permitting his Squires to go from her to attend him he hastned alone whither he was called to the assistance of the marvellous Unknown Artemisa was already interessed upon her behalf and though her Maids urged her to it she would not retire till she saw her out of danger and from the place where she was she attended the success wherein according to her natural generosity she had made her self much a party Philadelph came up to those Ravishers in a moment and accosting them with an action that breathed nothing but terrour Hold Barbarians cryed he hold He of the two who seemed to be and really was the Master turning towards Philadelph and seeing him hard by him in a condition to oppose his designs And what art thou said he with a furious countenance who comest to cross my resolutions and to interess thy self in such affairs as thou art not called to I am called replyed Philadelph with a stomack as high as his by vertue honour and beauty which thou highly injurest in this divine person more worthy of the adorations of all mankind than of the violence thou wouldest do her Friend added the Unknown be not too officious to thy own cost and go thy ways if thou beest well advised without informing thy self of things wherein thou hast no interest If this Lady answered Philadelph will go with thee of her own accord I will not hinder thee from carrying her away but if thou usest force to constrain her I will employ all my abilities to divert thee from it Employ them rather replyed the fierce Unknown in the defence of thine own life which thou shalt leave behind thee here as a punishment of thy foolish rashness With these words he put down the Visor of his Helmet which he had lifted up and drew out his Sword and leaving his Companion to guard the Lady whom he contended for he fell upon Philadelph with a great deal of fury Philadelph who was ready with his Sword in his hand received him as a man whom the greatest dangers were not capable to afright and they began a combat which quickly made the valour of them both appear to the small number of their Spectators there seemed to be but little difference between the first blows that were given on either side but a little after it was easie to judge that the Unknown was inferior in strength to Philadelph and that valiant Prince defended the justice of his cause with so much courage and vigour that his enemy began quickly to be weakned by some wounds yet he made his choler supply the defect of his strength and he fought like a man that little feared death if he could not obtain the Victory He had cause enough already to despair of it and instead of assaulting his Enemy he could hardly or but very weakly defend himself when he that accompanied him seeing the danger that he was in and preferring his safety before the conservation of that which was intrusted to him left the fair Lady who with the violence of her striving had lost all her strength or had hardly so much left as to carry her some paces off where through weariness she fell upon the grass and throwing himself upon his horse which he had held still by the bridle he ran to help his Master with his Sword in his hand Philadelph was not troubled at the arrival of this new enemy having courage enough to engage a greater number without being daunted and having only opposed his shield to a blow which the other made at him as he came up to him he gave him a thrust at the same time with such favourable success that the Sword finding a passage at the side of his Cuirass pierced him through his body and tumbled him dead at his horses feet The Prince's Squires who from the place where they were with Artemisa saw this action and prepared themselves to go and assist him in that unequal combat stayed themselves when they saw that their Master had but one Enemy to deal with and Philadelph who was filled with animosity at this soul play flying more fiercely than before upon him that opposed him after he had drawn some more blood from him by a fresh wound seized upon him with a strong arm and after some shakes he pulled him out of the saddle and tumbled him upon the ground he was likewise pulled down himself by his Enemy who as he fell grasped him with all his strength but he quickly got up and saw himself in a condition to dispatch his Enemy with ease if he had had as much will as power to do it Thou deservest death said he to him but I will not kill thee in this condition and for the life I leave thee thou shalt only promise me not to torment or offer violence to this fair person or any other of her Sex The Unknown sighing with rage and despight for the loss and shame he received continued some while without reply But he resolved at last out of fear of death and promised his Enemy whatsoever he desired of him After this promise Philadelph let him rise and helped him up again upon his horse and let him go the same way he came He went away full of grief and confusion making such imprecations against Heaven and Fortune as made Philadelph take notice of the rage that transported him He was no sooner gone but the Prince of Cilicia who had received no wound in this Combat turned himself towards the Lady he had succoured and approached the place where she was just as she having taken a little breath rose up from the place where she had sate to go and thank her generous defender Artemisa whose fears were all dissipated by the end of the combat advanced at the same time that Philadelph did with all persons that accompanied her and came almost as soon as he into the presence of the admirable Unknown They continued all amazed at this second view and if at the first sight and so great a distance and in so swift a course they had discovered brightness which dazled their eyes they saw themselves then opposed to a glory which they could hardly endure
my kindred besides him that caused my production into the world He quitted his Countrey in the times of the wars of Julius Cesar by whom his native Countrey was made desolate and out of the aversion which he had against the Enemy of his Country he a little after engaged himself in the party of Pompey the Great where he bare arms with honour and applied himself particularly to his service Pompey the Great honoured him with his affection and married him to a Lady of a noble Roman Family and kept him inseparably in his Retinue to the end of his daies This time was of no long continuance for the unfortunate Pompey after the overthrow at Pharsalia found his death where he sought for refuge and perished upon the shore of Pelusium by the infidelity of Ptolomee Briton for that was my Father's Name not being able to comfort himself for the loss of so great a Master nor to follow the fortune of his Wife Cornelia who from aboard her own Vessel saw with her own eyes the deplorable death of so illustrious an Husband setled himself in a corner of Egypt with his Wife of whom a few daies after I was born and a little after death took her away as my Father afterwards related to me Briton having but one Son left of his whole Family sought all his consolations in him alone and seeing himself by the liberality of Pompey the Great and by the gift of great store of Jewels of great value which he had received of him to be in a condition to pass his daies without being exposed to any necessity he employed part of those goods which might have been converted to other uses to the education of a Son in whom he had established all his hopes Nothing was spared for my bringing up no more than if I had been born of some great Prince and my father very often perceiving that they with whom he was acquainted blamed the excessive expence he was at for me a little conformable to the condition wherein he then was told them that he made all his goods to consist in me alone and that he could not employ them better than to put me into a capacity one day to repair the ruines of my Fortune by my Vertue But I owed much more to his cares than to those of my Masters which he gave me and by his examples and instructions he formed both my mind and body much more advantagiously than all the persons of whom he caused me to learn either Sciences or Exercises With truth I may say he nourished me like Achilles and though I fed not upon the Marrow of Lions as by the care of Chiron the Son of Peleus did at least after the example of that famous Governor he framed my body in my tender years to the most rough and violent Exercises No sooner could I go but he led me a hunting and after I began to have some strength he did not accustom me any longer to pursue the timorous sort of beasts but those which could not be approached without danger and against which I might make some apprentiship of my valour He made me with my Bow in my hand and my Quiver at my back to traverse the Forrests and Mountains on foot and he did in such sort banish from my education all delicacy and effeminateness that persons of the age I now am cannot possibly be more robustious or more capable of all sort of toil and travel than I was in my infancy Although I was brought up in Egypt Briton was never willing that I should come near the Court of Cleopatra and he had such an aversion from every thing that might bring again into his mind the memory of the murtherers of his Master that all that was reported of the magnificences of Alexandria where so many young Princes were brought up with the children of Anthony never gave him any desire to bring me thither I confess likewise that I never moved him to it and though I was tickled with the relation which I heard made of things more conformable to my humour than my solitude and the mediocrity of my Fortune yet I had inclinations like to those of my Father and whether he inspired them into me by his discourse or his example or whether they proceeded from my own nature I had a repugnance against those persons whose memory and name were odious unto him upon his Master's account In this while he perceived in me by many marks a courage elevated above our condition he saw me disdain those things at which my ambition according to all likelihood ought to aim to u dervalue those which were my equals in Fortune if by an extraordinary merit they were not worthy of a particular esteem to aspire eternally to things above me and in all my discourses and in my actions to express resentment very disproportionable to the estate wherein we were Sometimes he used endeavours to subdue that which he saw excessive and immoderate in my courage and foreseeing in part the evils to which it hath often exposed me he set before my eyes the condition of our Fortune to make my spirit comply unto it and in some sort to restrain the impetuosity of my nature But when he saw that he had unprofitably employed his pains and that all the docility and deference which I had for his instructions could not abase my thoughts he repented himself of the endeavours he would have used to humble me and regarding me with eyes wherein his affection sometimes produced tears Go said he unto me young man worthy of a better destiny follow thy haughty inclinations whither soever they may call thee I cannot prescribe limits to thy ambition and by that I may possibly one day see thee above that envious fortune by which we have been ruined In finishing these words he most times turned away his eyes from my face and seemed in such sort mollified by his passion that as very a child as I was I could not see him in that condition without being touched by an extraordinary emotion In this time by the famous War between Octavius Caesar and Anthony the Countries of Egypt were covered with Soldiers and this place beheld it self the fatal field wherein the quarrel of the whole Universe was to becided Although I was but 13 or 14 years of age I did already burn with impatience to throw my self into occasions of getting glory and though by the inclinations I had to follow the resentments of my Father both parties weere almost equally odious to me yet the name of Caesar to the aversion from which I had been accustomed made his side yet more my enemy and I had followed Anthonies sooner than han his if the intentions of my Father had complied with mine I was not unapt for any kind of Exercise and I had acquired such strength by the laboriousness of hunting and other employments wherein my Father had continually exercised me that a man of thirty years of
commanded the greatest part of my Troops this young Warrior who in an age scarcely distinguishable from infancy might already be really accounted the most valiant that ever wore a Sword quitted my service and to my misfortune carried elsewhere the effects of an admirable valour which would have been very necessary for me against the re-inforcement of my Enemies The course of my good successes was stopt and my Enemies being stronger than I had some advantages which made me lose all that I had gained in Media and after some Combats wherein Fortune was not very favourable unto me I was constrained to retire upon my frontire where I made preparations for the last decision of our quarrel when Augustus employed his authority to appease our differences and sent Mecenas and Domitius with order not to depart from our Countries before they had concluded a peace between us I had that repugnance against it that you know of and the Kings my Enemies bing exasperated by the death of some of their near Relations whom I had sacrificed to the Ghost of Artibasus had no more disposition to it than my self But we must needs yield to the will of Caesar and when it was declared on his part that he would arm in favour of him who submitted first against him who made most resistance neither of us was bold enough to oppose it any longer and having signed the Articles which Mecenas and Domitius presented to us we both of us laid down arms and contented our selves to keep our animosity in our breasts without making it appear any more I retired to Artaxata whither a little after Caesar whether it were that he desired to have them as hostages of the treaty we had made or that from the relation he had heard made of them he had conceived a desire to see them and have them with him sent to demand of me the Prince Ariobarzanes my Brother and the Princess Arsinoe my Sister to have them brought up at Rome to frame in them inclinations to the Roman party and to treat them like divers Sous and Daughters of the Kings his Friends and Allies which were brought up with him and the Empress Livia This effect either of the amity of distrust or Caesar troubled me at first and yet the pretence was so fair that I could not handsomly refuse that which he demanded and the Prince and Princess at the first proposition which was made to them of it having expressed no unwillingness to the Voyage I caused a magnificent equipage to be prepared for them and sent them from Artaxata they crossed a part of Armenia and coasted Licia and Pamphilia by Land and afterwards they embarqued upon the Egean Sea but they embarqued in an unlucky hour and a few days after by means of a terrible tempest they suffered a cruel shipwrack and lost under the Waves their lives which were worthy of a better destiny You may well believe that an accident so deplorable the relation of blood only might produce in me very sensible displeasures but besides this natural resentment Ariobarzanes and Arsinoe were two persons so uncommon and so accomplished in the perfection of mind and body that it would have been hard for any to have known them without shedding abundance of tears for their death The Gods took out of the world all that was great and amiable in our family and depriving me of a Brother and a Sister worthy of the esteem and the affection of the whole world they have left me only one Sister worthy of the general scorn a Sister which by her baseness and infidelity hath stained with a shameful blot the illustrious blood from whence she is descended and hath raised me all these troubles of spirit for which I have abandoned my Kingdom and by the means whereof I find my self in a strange condition Time had now given some consolation to the grief which I had suffered for the sad shipwrack of half our family and I believe in peace though against my will at a time when I might have ruined Tigranes by joyning with the King of Parthia his enemy against whom he made War with successes wherein Fortune diversly sported her self if I had not been hindred by the authority of Augustus who would never permit me to break the peace which he had made me make with the Medians nor to give my assistance to the Parthians the cruel Enemies of the Roman name with whom he could not endure that his friends should have any alliance I passed my life I say in this forced tranquility when to overthrow my repose and blast the honour of our Royal house Alexander the Son of Anthony and Cleopatra a worthy object of my lawful vengeance came unknown to my Court with a design to give me yet more subjects of hatred than those I had against him and his for the cruel death of the King my Father Tyridates interrupted the King of Armenia in this part of his discourse Alexander the Son of Anthony said he to him who was believed to be lost at that time when I was at Rome or at least there was no news of him was in Armenia then He was there but too fatally replyed Artaxus and Fortune which in appearance presented him to me to satisfie my just resentments served her self with him to render them more violent and to carry on my displeasure to the last extremities I know you will condemn my rigour in the design I had to render what I ought to the Manes of Artibasus and the Oath I had made but that shall not hinder me from relating to you the naked truth nor from expecting from you that you should approve part of that I would have done out of a sense of pity or paternal love and honour it self too much interessed in the bloody injury which he had received After these words he recounted to him all that had passed at Artaxata after he had known Alexander there the taking of that Prince his cruel imprisonment the solicitations of Artemisa for his safety the extremity of danger whereunto he arrived and in fine all that which Alexander himself related to Caesario till his departure from Armenia and the carrying away of Artemisa Tyridates did not hear this relation without great pain though it was made by a person interessed who did partly sweeten the greatest strangness of his actions by the excuses he made for them and besides that he naturally detested cruelty the friendship he had contracted with Coriolanus and the acquaintance he had at Rome with the Princess Cleopatra Prince Ptolomee and the greatest part of young Alexander's kindred put him into great fear for him in the recital of the dangers he had run and made him very averse from the cruelty of Artaxus The impatience he had to hearken to him sufficiently appeared in his countenance but when he saw Alexander escape from the rage of his Enemy he composed himself and all the complacence which probably he ought to have
for Artaxus could not hinder him from discovering some part of his thoughts I am sorry said he to him that I am constrained to displease you by the confession I am about to make and I profess that if your interests do forbid me to hear of the carrying away of the Princess your Sister with joy I cannot afflict my self with you to see Alexander escape from the punishment you had prepared for him He was altogether innocent of your displeasures and the Gods which are interessed in his protection would not permit that a life free from any crime should suffer the punishment which they themselves had inflicted upon the culpable Alexander replyed Artaxus was not innocent in my thoughts after the Oath I had made seeing he was the Son of Cleopatra neither was he so in effect seeing he came into my dominions with designs whereof he hath made one part appear and would have put the other in execution if Heaven which watches for the preservation of Kings had not prevented the effects by the knowledge which it gave me of my disguised enemy However it be mark the sequel and admire at the capriciousness of my fortune in the relation I am about to make you All expression would be too weak to make you comprehend the displeasure I resented by the double injury I received in the flight of Alexander and Artemisa Theogenes the companion of the traitorous Sarpedon was the first that received the punishment either of his weakness in suffering himself to be abused or of his infidelity in consenting to their escape and few of all those that were apparently suspected escaped the justice which I caused to be executed upon them These testimonies of my grief were publick but the secret effects which it produced in my heart were yet more contrary to my repose and possibly no mind was ever agitated with more violence than mine Whilst those whom I sent in pursuit of my two fugitives ranged up and down the Country in vain I was tormented with despight which had almost carried me to extremities against my self and I had not one moments sleep but what was interrupted by my cruel disquiets What said I in Artaxata in my prisons upon the point of being sacrificed to my just vengeance doth the Son of Cleopatra alone disarmed without the assistance of any of his Friends not only escape my Justice and deprive me of the pleasure and the glory of having rendred to my Father's Ghost part of what was due to it but together with his life he robs me of my onely Sister and aggravates the displeasures which we have received from his race by the last outrage he doth to ours Is it not enough for this audacious Enemy to be born of the cruel murtherers of my Father but that he must needs come into my Dominions to redouble my resentments by the only injury he could do me and that he must have good success in so bold a design at the instant that his neck was stretched out under the axe and when I thought that all the power of man was not capable of guarding him from it But O Gods that which I am most sensible of is that my own relations contribute to my grief and Heaven in causing the rest of my family to perish hath left me a Sister onely to make her serve as an instrument to my shame by her own and it must needs be that in the Royal house of Armenia there must be found a Princess base enough to abandon the interests of her blood and to abandon her self to the Son of the executioners of her Father Ah! at least if this perfidious Ariadne might find in the person of her suborner an unfaithful Theseus by whom Heaven might revenge me of her Treason I should receive no small consolation if the young deceiver should leave her exposed in some desart and savage Isle or rather O ye Gods that by your indignation they might both perish in the waves how would my grief be eased and how heartily would I forgive fortune part of the injuries that she hath done me But O unworthy as I am said I to my self a little after why do I expect from my Enemies why do I look for that from the Destinies which are against me that which I ought to seek for and find in my self alone It is Artaxus himself who is called to carve out his own revenge it is by Artaxus himself that it must be executed he must pursue himself both his unfaithful Sister and the young Seducer and go kill them both in those places where they have sought their refuges For by the memory of this affront the repose of his life will be eternally crossed and he cannot pass it either with honour or pleasure as long as his Enemies triumph over him so many ways whilest he hath made no attempt to satisfie himself This thought did not lightly pass out of my mind it fixed it self there so strongly that at last I resolved upon it and after I had considered that I could receive no reparation from Augustus when I should make my complaints but what would come too late I took a firm resolution to pursue after my Enemies my self I pondered a long time with much irresolution upon the course I should take at first I would have armed all my forces but I knew not whither to conduct them and not doubting but Alexander and Artemisa were retired to Augustus I found my self too weak to pluck them thence by open force and I could not with any likelihood so much as suffer it to be propounded At last after I had sufficiently consulted I pitched upon a course somewhat extravagant but yet it seemed more agreeable to my mind and I resolved to part from Armenia unknown and with such an Equipage as might not render me suspected to seek out the Court of Augustus who made his Progress through Asia and if I could there meet with my fugitives as I did not doubt but I should I determined to destroy them both You will tell me that I must needs be animated with a very violent passion that could carry me to such extremities to abandon a Kingdom wherein by my absence great troubles might be raised to expose my self to vexations and dangers wherein I might probably find the death which I went to inflict upon others I will confess to you that I was yet more passionate and that to content my resentments I was capable of stronger resolutions At last I confirmed my self and in the space of one single day putting my most important affairs in some order as much as my passion would permit me I parted from Artaxata only with twenty horse carrying with me but this small number of my Servants which I had chosen out among the most affectionate and the most daring In this equipage after I was gone out of Armenia I crossed a part of Cilicia where I kept my self very private not being ignorant that by reason
in the safest parts of the ship My men killed some more of them but I troubled not my self with it and being spurred on by the design which aimed only at Cleopatra I went to seek her in her Chamber where she was shut in with two other Women making prayers and vows to Heaven for deliverance from the peril whereunto they were exposed The door of the Chamber was presently broken open and I no sooner appeared at the entry with my bloody sword in my hand but these women being affrighted expressed their fear by great out cryes Thou must dye said I throwing my self into her Chamber Daughter of Anthony thou must dye I would have made some body shew me which was she that I might let my vengeance light upon none but her self but besides that by the respect which the others shewed her I might judge which was she by the relation which I had heard made of her admirable Beauty I presently took knowledge of her and her countenance being less dismay'd than her Womens were she cast her eyes upon me which instantly discovered her to me The view which I received at some far distance did not dissipate my resentments and I went towards her with my sword advanced with a design according to my opinion nothing was capable to divert but when I had cast mine eyes more nearly upon this miraculous Beauty and that from the first dazling I passed to a more particular attention to the prodigies which presented themselves to my sight I remained in the condition of those whom the terrible visage of Gorgon converted into stones my arm grew stiffe in the air my body continued deprived of all force and motion my voice was stopped in my mouth and I did almost totally passe into the nature of those metamorphosed Statues At first my immobility only and the change of my countenance expressed my astonishment and I contented my self to behold this adorable marvel without having changed my posture or appearing animated by any other motion than that of my eyes but a little after all my choler being insensibly dissipated by this betwitching sight and these violent thoughts quitting their place by little and little to others more tender and more powerful than the sword which I held fell out of my hand at the feet of this Divine Princess and I not only lost the design which I had against so precious a life but the fury from which moved me to it I fell into a shame and repentance athousand times greater than my choler had been I had retired some steps from the Princess whence I kept my eyes fixed upon the Princess fâ—et not daring any more to lift them up to her face and by my action I made her sufficiently take notice of the disorder and confusion of my soul But at last I recovered out of this dump and rallying up all my courage to serve me in this adventure I fell upon one knee before her and breaking the silence which I had so long kept Divine Princess said I to her it is not necessary that I should express my repentance to you in words my visage and the condition wherein you see in me so different from that wherein I appeared at first before you sufficiently speak my confusion and You may be pleased to know at length that instead of a â—uâ—ious Enemy which some moments since attempted upon this sacred life of yours You have a Man at Your feet full of grief for this crime and ready to repair it with his own life if there be no possibility of hoping pardon for it from your goodness The point of this Sword which I had drawn against You returns against my own heart and it is but in vain for a Man to arm himself to offend You seeing that all arms are useless to defend ones self against You. I lay down at your feet together with this Sword all my choler and all the design of revenge which I had framed against You and Yours Those cruel resolutions though grounded upon some justice could not preserve themselves against such Enemies and I see my self in fine reduced to implore Your pity I who thought to have been without pity all my life towards the race of Anthony At the end of these words I arose to give order to my Men that respect should succeed in the place of the disorder which they had begun in a place which was become sacred to me and seeing that the astonishment of the Princess was so great that it had not yet permitted her to reply Believe not continued I that I am a Pirate armed against You and yours for hope of Booty I will avow to You with a confession full of horror that it is Your Life I would have had and Cleopatra only that I sought for this crime is monstrous and the reasons wherewith I would have excused it heretofore cannot any longer defend me against You but in fine seeing I must needs say it again to You to my own confusion it was the blood of Anthony and Cleopatra which I would have shed and to let You understand the cause I might have for it it will suffice to tell you that I am Artaxus King of Armenia Son of the unfortunate Artibasus whom You have seen a captive and whom you have seen dye by the cruelty of Your Friends The bloody injury I suffered in his death hath been seconded by other offences I have received from Alexander your Brother and in brief I was animated with reasons strong enough against Your race if it had produced me other Enemies than You and if my Fortune had not confronted me with an enemy which disarmed me sooner than all the powers of the Empire could have done Excuse Madam the excess of my resentment by the lawfulness of it and seeing I have made all the thoughts which the force of blood and the love of my Father and my own honour had inspired me with against Your Family to give place to those I have now for You Do not in the name of the Gods keep any longer against a repentant and an humbled Prince those resentments which a design too inhumane may justly have produced in You against me I spake in this manner and the Princess who during my discourse had had leisure to compose her self answered me in these terms I praise the Gods who instead of Pirats when we feared have made us fall into the hands of a Prince who though incensed against our family is yet born of a Royal blood and endued with royal inclinations Your resentments are just Sir and though my birth inclines me to favour them yet I cannot disapprove the anger You have conserved against those who were the cause of the King your Fathers death if they were living no Person could not condemn what the memory of such an injury might make You undertake against them but Heaven hath severely punished the outrage they did You and the Children they have left were not only
submission but I laboured in vain and beholding me with eyes sparkling with choler Cruel Man said she either give me my death or leave me at liberty the persecutions are more cruel to me than death can be and it is not by the captivity wherein thou retainest me that thou mayest ever hope to make me change my inclinations At last losing all hope of gaining her by fair ways I remounted my horse and the Man that I brought with me having held her was about to put her into my arms whatsoever resistance she could make to hinder him when my ill fortune brought in a man to her rescue I know not who he is but maugre the bad office he rendred me I hold him for one of the most valiant Men in the world He killed my Man in my presence and after a very doubtful combat wherein he had better luck than I he put me into the condition wherein you found me and pulling out of my hands the fair prey which Fortune had given me for my torment See Tyridates how all things concur to my misfortune I was not tormented enough by my just resentments but love must needs joyn it self to them to expose me to more sensible pains and it must needs be that my Soul must be enflamed for my cruel Enemies Cleopatra hath appeared before me Cleopatra fell into my hands but from her sight and from her surprisal instead of the revenge which thereby I might have taken one way or the other if the destinies had not been too contrary to me I have gotten nothing but new subjects of resentment and grief and instead of one single passion which troubled me all the passions have possessed my soul to torment it with their extreamest violence Nevertheless hope hath not yet abandoned me and seeing I know the Country where Cleopatra is I expect from the care I shall take to find her again when my health will permit to see her again in my power She is not a person obscure enough to hide her self from my pursuits and at this moment I have persons in quest of her who possibly may bring me news of her before night If she fall again into my power I shall essay as I have done hitherto by the most sweet and most submissive ways to bow this disdainful spirit and if they prove vain I shall remember that she is the Sister of Alexander and the Daughter of Cleopatra and by this remembrance I shall possibly be free from part of that which it may be I should suffer for another person before I search my remedies and endeavour my repose by the means my Fortune hath given me HYMEN'S PRAELUDIA OR Love's Master-Piece PART V. LIB III. ARGUMENT Tyridates dislikes Artaxus 's intentions but he continues resolute Tyridates walking out meets with Marcellus and brings him to his house where Marcellus relates his story He briefly traces the most eminent passages between himself and the Princess Julia. Her inconstancy causes his jealousie which she heightens by heaping her favours upon Drusus Cleopatra 's constancy to Coriolanus notwithstanding Augustus his authority Julia at solemn sacrifice prefers Drusus before Marcellus which begets a Combat between them wherein they are both wounded Augustus reproves Julia 's levity and commands her to cashire Drusus which she does and is reconciled to Marcellus THE King of Armenia left speaking and Tyridates who being vertuously inclined did not hearken unto him without repugnance and who neither by the memory of the acquaintance they had had together nor the obligation he had to his family for the refuge he had some time found there could vanquish the aversion he had from cruelty and injustice found not himself capable of flattering him or approving either his actions passed or his design for the future Sir said he to him I do not find it strange that the Gods have not hitherto granted to your designs all the success you proposed to your self and by the obstacles which by ways altogether extraordinary they have opposed to the cruel intentions which you had both against Alexander and the Princess Cleopatra you may take notice of the injustice of them Neither was Alexander a person worthy to die upon a Scaffold for the crime of another which possibly he detested as much as you neither is Cleopatra a Princess against whom the horrid resolutions wherewith you are armed can be excused I do not wonder that you are captivated by her divine beauties and they are capable without doubt of a more extraordinary performance but I am surprised at this that they have not absolutely produced in you all that might be expected from their powers and that they have yet left you some desire of seeking your satisfaction of her otherwise than by love by submission and by your services I will say more to you Sir that you have not undertaken a slight enterprise seeing you have resolved either by revenge or by love to render your self Master by force of the liberty of Cleopatra and she is not a person so meanly supported in the World but that you will have the chief powers of the Earth to contend with Augustus who without doubt will protect her comes within a few days to Alexandria as it hath been reported to you and with him persons who interess themselves in the Fortune of Cleopatra as in their own so powerful and considerable that though you should have brought with you all the forces of Armenia you could not with any probability expect any good success Artaxus shook his head at this discourse and expressing to Tyridates by this action how uncapable he was to make any impression upon his spirit I was very doubtful said he at my first knowing of your inclinations that I should have scruples in you to contend with and considering that you are the Brother of a King who for the least Maxim of State would shed the blood of the whole Universe I find you very Religious and circumspect but however it be I cannot repent my self of what I would have done in revenge of my Father and if I had let pass his death without any mark of my resentment I should believe I did more justly merit the blame which Persons of your humour lay upon some effects of severity As for what concerns my love the difficulty which you represent to me is not capable of driving me off from it and though the whole Universe should joyn with the authority of Augustus in undertaking the defence of Cleopatra I find my self hardy enough and possibly sufficiently strong to execute part of what I have resolved If Alexander being alone and a Prisoner could carry away my Sister out of my Capital City I may possibly be able in a condition very different from his to render him the same displeasure and if I do but get Cleopatra into Armenia I defie those powers wherewith you threaten me to oppose themselves to my entire satisfaction I am very sorry replyed Tyridates coldly
in all respects in spight of the displeasures I had received from him I had no unwillingness to become his friend after he expressed a desire of it and requested it with so good a grace In â—ffect after this day we began to converse together not only as two persons which had no quarrel to each other but as two men which had a particular esteem of each other Drusus accosted Julia no more but only to render her that which was due to Caesar's daughter without any other interest and he never expressed either by discourse or action that any thing of his passion was yet remaining Livia being extraordinarily animated against Julia and losing the hope of being more closely allyed to Augustus confirmed her son in his resolution and counselled him to seek by other ways a fortune which could not escape his birth and good qualities At this time I lived in some repose with Julia receiving from her all manner of proofs of her good will and expecting from Caesar within a few dayes the conclusion which should finally remedy my passion The Princess Cleopatra of whom I am obliged to speak to you had likewise time to take breath after the persecutions under which she had so much suffered and though she were still exposed to the attempts of Tyberius she was no longer affraid of them seeing they were no longer upheld by a tyrannical authority and Caesar keeping himself exactly to the Oath which he had made permitted Tyberius only to act by his services without offering any violence to the inclinations of Cleopatra It was not but that he caused her to be sollicited in favour of his Wife's Son and offered her such advantageous conditions in espousing him as might content the highest ambition but it was always by ways of sweetness without employing his authority in it and by these means as well as by the former he wrought so little effect upon the spirit of this constant Princess that Tyberius despairing to conquer her resolved to quit Rome with an intention as it was reported to go seek out Coriolanus in Africa and call him to an account not only as an obstacle to his felicity as far off as he was but also for the wound he had given him by which he was reduced to the extremity of his life and for which he was engaged in honour to require satisfaction He was upon the point of departure and I in the condition and posture I told you of when the news came to Rome of the great Victories which Coriolanus had obtained in Africa 'T was known that after he had vanquished all Volusius his Lieutenants in divers Battels he had at length in the last totally defeated him and taken Volusius himself prisoner that the two Mauritania's had generally submitted to his arms and that nothing resisted him in his Fathers Dominions whereof he was then the peaceable possessor Whatsoever interest I took in the Emperor's affairs the amity I bare to Coriolanus was more strong and though I was obliged to conceal part of my thoughts that I might not totally incense the mind of Augustus against me I felt a joy for the good success of mv friend equal at least to what I could be sensible of for mine own I expressed it to Cleopatra continually and that generous Princess though for the conquest of a Crown she could not more esteem of a Prince whom she loved for the onely qualities of his person yet she rejoyced in the part she took in his glory and we entertained each other with our mutual satisfaction when we received the knowledge of the little cause we had to interess our selves in the good fortunes of that unfaithful Prince and that by the black treason which he committed against each of us he obliged us to change our former affections into great resentments and a violent hatred against him You are about to understand Tyridates the cause of this change which hath amazed you and as I pass to the last effects of the inconstancy of Julia I will likewise relate to you the black perfidiousness of this ungrateful friend whose defence you have undertaken without knowledge of him whom I cannot call to mind without afflicting my self with too just a grief HYMEN'S PRAELUDIA OR Love's Master-Piece PART V. LIB IV. ARGUMENT Marcellus heing about to continue his story is interrupted by the return of Arsanes from Judea who brings the sad news of Mariamne's death Tyridates is struck to the heart with it and commands Arsanes to give him the particulars He relates Salmoe's plots to abuse Herod's jealousie to Mariamne's ruine Mariamne inconsiderately reproaches Herod with the bloody orders he had left with Joseph and Sohemus to kill her if he miscarried This heightens Herod's jealousie which is blown into a flame by Salmone's malice He imprisons Mariamne and sends Judges to examine her She rejects him which puts him into a rage Philon and Sohemus are put to the torture who confess something concerning Tyridates Herod by Salome's instigation gives order to put Mariamne to death which is immediately executed Mariamne dyes with an unexampled constancy Arsanes having finished his story Tyridates expires and fulfills Thrasillus his prediction MArcellus would have gone on with this narration and Tyridates who out of the interest he took in the justification of Coriolanus had heard this passage with impatience disposed himself to great attention when he saw a man come into his chamber by the sight of whom all the curiosity he had to hear strange adventures was dissipated and at whose sight he appeared all amazed and astonished This was Arsanes that faithful Servant to whom he had such grand obligations whom a month before he had sent into Judea to learn news of the Queen Mariamne Tyridates no sooner knew him but the trouble of his soul discovered it felt by divers signs and by this powerful seizure almost forgetting the presence of Marcellus and raising himself up to Arsanes Ah! Arsanes cryed he what news do you bring me Arsanes who possibly upon the way was prepared to disguise to his Master the truth of the news he had heard being touched at his sight with an extraordinary tenderness had not constancy enough to hold the resolution he had taken and instead of making him the answer which he had premeditated to no purpose by a silence full of trouble and confusion and a visage full of the deepest characters of sorrow he made him comprehend that he had none but bad news to tell him yet he would have forced himself to dissemble some part of it and opened his mouth twice to speak against his thoughts but by the constraint which he would have laid upon himself his disorder was redoubled and not finding courage enough to perform what in vain he had attempted he let fall some tears from his eyes which he held fixed upon the ground and continued mute with the countenance of a Man forlorn This was speech enough to make himself be understood by
we have not sought an employment which yet we could not refuse when he was pleased to lay it upon us but seeing that by his absolute will we have been appointed to it and that the authority which you have had over us ought to submit to his you will not find it strange if it please you that we examine you upon the accusations which he himself lays against you I shall account nothing strange answered Mariamne neither from you nor from him who gave you this commission but by all his authority you shall not oblige me to answer before any other Judge than before his Soveraign Master and mine and before him who for the punishment of my fault hath exposed me to the cruelty of a man whom he hath pleased to give me for an Husband Besides these formalities are no whit necessary to him for my destruction and he hath need of no other than those wherewith he served himself in the death of Hyrcanus and Aristobulus It is not that I fear the judgment of men if I should submit to it or that I cannot declare before the face of Heaven that my innocence is pure and clear from all that can touch it The just resentments which I have against him never gave me the liberty of one single thought wherewith he might be offended and if the blood of a Grand-father a Brother and of so many other of my friends which he hath sacrificed to his ambition hath extinguished part of that ardent affection which an Husband less cruel might have found in a Wife less unfortunate yet it hath not defaced the character engraved by the hand of God whereby we are united until death neither hath it ever inspired me with one single wish against his honour or the repose of his life The fair and vertuous Queen pronounced these words with so much courage grace and majesty that her Judges remained surprized with ravishment and admiration and Herod who from the place where he was hid had intelligibly heard them was touched with them in such sort that all his resentments were not capable to resist the motions of his love which raised themselves against them with their former power and thrusting at the door which was half open he entred into the Chamber and discovered himself to Mariamne No Madam cryed he as he drew near her no Madam you shall not be judged but by your own conscience that may possibly convince you of little love to your Husband but all other crimes whereof I suspected you are blotted out of my mind by the love I bear you In fine whether you be criminal or innocent you can neither be condemned nor absolved but I must submit with you to the judgement which shall be pronounced either for you or against you and my heart which takes your part against it self would be the first exposed to the displeasures which too unjust a rigour prepared for you Herod expressed himself in this manner and Mariamne though she were a little surprized at his unexpected sight appeared nevertheless little moved at his approach and discourse or if she were it was only with choler and disdain at the presence of a man from whom she had lately received so unworthy usage In effect the injury she suffered in seeing her self pressed to answer before her subjects who were appointed as Judges of her honour and her life though it were not capable to make her exceed the bounds of moderation and be outragious in the absence of her Husband contrary to what she believed was due to the tye which united them appeared to her understanding in another form when she saw before her the cruel man by whom she was exposed to this ignominy this last affront and condition wherein she saw her self in an hard and rigorous prison being joyned to the memory of his former displeasures revived her resentments with a more than ordinary violence and permitted her not to look upon Herod but as a Dragon coming to devour her she received his caresses themselves so little conformable to the usage whereof she saw the preparation still before her eyes for the effects of a black dissimulation whereof she knew him more capable than all other men all his life long and in fine the aversion she had contracted from what was past being joyned to these new subjects of hatred made Herod more odious and more disdainable than ever he appeared to her before She looked upon him with an Eye full of scorn and indignation and flying from his arms which he reached towards her Suffer cruel man said she suffer thy justice to take its course the faces of the Judges which thou hast appointed me are more supportable than thine to me and I had rather undergo the bloody Sentence which by thy orders they shall pronounce against me than receive any more thy artificial caresses if thou presentest thy self to me to augment the pain to which thou hast destined me thou exceedest the limits of all cruelty and the severest enemies have not aggravated by their presence the last sufferings of those they had condemned to dye Ah! Mariamne replyed the Jewish King with a very passionate action I come not hither to send thee to thy death seeing thou canst not be condemned but by a sentence which will be as destructive to me as to thy self I come rather to snatch thee from the rigour of those whom by too prompt a resentment I have armed against my own life rather than thine I come to let thee know that thou canst not dye without Herod and to tell thee that seeing thou hast some respects left to that tye which ought to unite us until death thou canst not disdain the life I come to offer thee without making an attempt upon thy Husbands life And what favour answered the Queen interrupting him what favour doest thou believe thou doest me in leaving me a life which by thy cruelties thou hast rendred more odious to me a thousand times than the death which thou hast prepared for me what punishments are due to this innocent life of mine if thine contaminated with so many crimes hath hitherto escaped the indignation of Heaven and whatsoever mine be by what right wouldst thou have me beholding to thee for it since thou hast no other right to dispose of it but by usurpation and tyranny These words began to re-kindle Herod's anger and looking upon the Queen with eyes troubled with the motions of his different passions Cruel woman said he the inhumanities wherewith thou reproachest me every moment are not comparable to thine and by the continual outrages which thou doest me thou endeavourest to provoke my love and strain my patience to the uttermost extremities these inclinations which I have not been able to overcome what cause soever I had to oppose them still take thy part and represent to me that without highly injuring my self first I cannot execute my just resentments against thee I conjure thee to abuse them no
of the children she left in the World as so tender an age that they were not yet capable to understand the loss they received Her cruel Enemies fearing lest that Herod should return to his right mind and making a rational reflection upon what was done should recall the inhumane sentence which he had pronounced hastened all things against all forms and gave no time to love and reason to produce the effects they feared Poor Sohemus and the miserable Eunuch were first sacrificed and Salome sent Executioners to strangle them in the Prison They say Sohemus died like a man of courage and protested the Queens Vertue and Innocence to his last gasp for whose death he expressed more sorrow than for his own Those which went into the Prison with the Queen to prepare her to die reported afterwards that she scarcely changed her countenance at their sad discourse and that she received news capable to daunt the most hardy spirits with such an assurance as shamed her Enemies and confirmed them to their confusion in the opinion they themselves had of her Vertue Nothing of passion appeared either in her countenance or discourse she never spâ—ke better sense or with more temper and there proceeded out of her mouth neither complaint nor word which might make one judge that she went to die unwillingly nay they who sometimes saw her passionate against Herods inhumanity when she was provoked by the death of her near kindred found her much more moderate as to her own and observed no new resentment in her for this last effect of his cruelty She only said to those who were present at her last actions Tell Herod that 't is this day that I begin to receive a good office from him and that I accept the present which he hath pleased to send me and with more joy and acknowledgment than ever I did all the testimonies of his love I can nevertheless protest before the God which we adore and I owe this justification to my memory and the blood from which I am descended that the repugnance which his cruelties have caused in me either to his manners or person never inclined me to the least thought of offending against my own honour or the duty of a Wife Tell him that the blood of Joseph and Sohemus which he hath shed will cry for vengeance against him and that if I be culpable at my death it is because that by my imprudence I have caused the ruine of those innocent persons As for Tyridates I thank God I feel no remorse of conscience that can accuse me of the least fault against my Husband and I hold no other thoughts for his person but of acknowledgment and esteem as due to his vertue Tell him that I beseech him if I may beseech him at my death that he would stop the current of his cruelties with me and look with more affection and pity upon the Children which Heaven hath bestowed upon us upon whom the rage of our Enemies may extend it self if he do not remedy it After this supplication I pardon him for my death with all my heart and I pardon Salome too for it though she might have contented her self to hasten the end of my dayes without blasting my reputation and I go without regret to render an account to God for my actions whether criminal or innocent After these words which drew streams of tears from them who heard them she gave some small orders for the recompence of those persons which had served her and having setled her mind in that respect she kneeled down in a little Oratory which she had in her Chamber where she prayed with an action nothing relishing of the world After she had bestowed a quarter of an hour in this pious employment she returned with a much more chearful countenance than before and after she had given the last embrace to her inconsolate Maids who melted into tears at her knees turning her self towards them who waited to conduct her to her death Let us go my friends said she 't is time to part Hyrcanus and Aristobulus call for me and I must go to find out those Illustrious Asmoneans who through the care which Herod hath taken preserve a place in Heaven for me With these words she gave her hand her self to him who was to lead her and having again with a look full or sweetness and Majesty taken her last leave of those who were about her she went out of the Chamber and passed into the Court where the Tragical preparation was made for her death Dispence with me Sir from telling you the last particulars it may be enough and more than enough for you to know that upon that mortal Scaffold the most beautifull head was separated from the fairest body in the world and the most vertuous the most innocent and the most couragious of all Women lost her life by the horrid command of a Monster thirsty after Illustrious Blood whereof he sacrificed the fair remains to the rage of its Enemies The Sun being at the latter end of his course gave light unwillingly as I believe to this sad adventure and the universal nature would have put on mourning if it had been capable of sense for the greatest loss it could ever suffer These last words of Arsanes were interrupted with sighs and sobs and not being able to go farther to finish what he had to relate concerning the remorse of Herod and some accidents which followed Mariamne's death he cast his eyes upon Tyridates to see what effect the conclusion of this pitiful narration had wrought upon him He was amazed and Marcellus too that there proceeded not one word from his mouth nor sigh from his breast but their amazement ceased when after they had looked near upon him they saw that he was fallen into a second swoon much deeper than the former Marcellus being touched to the quick with grief both by the pitiful relation of Mariamne's death whose eminent vertue and admirable beauty he had heard a thousand times highly extolled and at the condition wherein he saw the unfortunate Tyridates was hardly capable of giving him either succour or consolation and whilst Arsanes with the rest of Tyridates his Servants that were left in the house took care by all possible remedies to fetch the Prince out of his swoon he sate by him with his arms across and lifting up his eyes to Heaven as it were to accuse Fortune for the misâ—haps to which she exposes vertuous persons he made sad reflections upon the misery of men Tyridates came not to himself again a long time and the greatest part of the night was past before he recovered his senses Marcellus seeing himself very far from the repose and comfort that was promised him did not so much as seek for any in that desolate house and out of the excellency of his nature did so far interess himself in Tyridates misfortune that for a while he lost the memory of his own At last
wrought in the Princess great thoughts of tenderness and esteem towards her Uncle whose person was unknown to her and as earnest a desire to see him as in this sad condition of her life she was capable of having for any thing in the world This desolate Princess restrained her self pretty well before Candace and indeed without laying any restraint upon her self she found her sweet ionsolation in her company but at the Core her grief was so violent that without an admirable strength of spirit she could not easily have supported it so long without sinking under it The Image of her brave but unfortunate Artaban returned incessantly into her memory and after she had ran over the marvellous actions of that great man and recalling into her remembrance the fair proofs of love which he had bestowed upon her when she fell upon that deplorable passage how she saw him thrown down headlong and buried in the waves all her inconstancy could not defend her against the violent effects of her grief and she remained more dead than alive between the arms of Urinoe or her Daughter who were eternally employed in drying up her tears and re-composing her spirit by all the words which pity and the real affection they had for such a Mistress could put into their mouths 'T was in her bed that the tears took the liberty to overflow into a deluge and the darkness wherewith the earth was then covered much better fitting the sadness of her soul than the brightness of a fair day brought back into it the sorrowful objects in their most natural form and left nothing in her mind but meer Idea's of Death Then it was that after she had shed Rivers of tears wherewith her pillow was all wet and forcing the sobs which would have stopt the passage of her speech My dear Artaban said she is it possible that Elisa should bestow nothing but tears upon my death and that thou canst take so poor a payment for so precious a life as thou hast given her and lost onely upon her account Can all the prodigious effects of thy valour whereof she was the onely aim and cause all those so tender so excellent and so admirable testimonies of love and in fine that cruel death which thou hast suffered before mine eyes in the destroying waves for my interest alone find nothing in the weak Elisa but tears for reparation of them all Ah mine eyes you spend your stores in vain and though you could make a Sea as vaste as that wherein my dear Artaban is entombed if you make it not of my blood you will bestow but little upon Artaban all my sighs and sobs and complaints makes no change in his condition nor in mine and 't is Elisa certainly 't is Elisa which he requires amongst the shades below if he can require any thing Ah! continued she with many sighs if it be onely Elisa that thou requirest thou hast reason to be satisfied in whatsoever place the destinies cause thy Ghost to wander Elisa bears thee company inseparably and if some weakness or some remainders of an ill-grounded hope have hindred her from making the last attempt upon her life to come and bear thee company below her spirit is not absent from thee one moment either out of any desire of life or expectation of comfort From these sad discourses she had with Artaban wherein she found more sweetness than in all the other actions of her life she turned her complaints against her ill fortune and all her moderation and piety towards the Gods could not hinder her sometimes from quarrelling at the rigorous decrees of Heaven for the cruel countenance and sad success of her misfortunes In this sorrowful employment she passed almost whole nights and hardly at the break of day did she give any access to sleep and that rather out of weakness than any intervals of repose One night during which she had extraordinarily tormented her self having closed her eyes a little before the darkness began to quit the earth at the time when dreams present themselves to our imagination more clear and undisturbed After some visions without order or coherence which most commonly precede those which seem most agreeable to the truth whether it were upon effect of those thoughts which had possessed her whilst she was awake or upon some intelligence that Heaven was pleased to send her it seemed to her that she was again upon that unfaithful Element which she perpetually accused of her losses and where she had seen all her joys and hopes intombed in the person of her Artaban In this hateful place she had a while discharged her resentments against the cruel waters by which she had lost all when she saw arise from beneath the waters the God of the waters in a Chariot drawn by Triton with his Trident in his hand and such as he is represented by the Poets who after he had heard her complaints looking upon her with a discontented air Forbear Elisa said he forbear to accuse me of thy misfortunes I detain nothing from thee and I have rendred thee thy Artaban whom thou shalt see again upon the Shore at the Tomb of a faithful Lover The God as he spake these words before he plunged himself again beneath the wayes shewed her with this hand the shore of Alexandria and it seemed to this sleeping Princess that turning her eyes at the same time towards the place which he pointed out to her she saw upon the Shore her dear Artaban stretching out his arms to her and calling her to him with gestures all composed of passion This sight having produced a violent effect upon Elisa's Spirit she would have cryed out with transport and by the efforts she used in that action she wakened her self with a start When she was awake she had her arms stretched out to the Image which was presented to her eyes when they were shut and not being able by awakening presently to drive that dear Idea out of her imagination she felt about the bed and sought after that Artaban which had appeared before her pronouncing his name two or three times But when her sleepiness was perfectly over and she saw her self abased by sleep her grief renewed with violence and seeing that object that was so agreeable to her eyes and dear to her memory no longer appear she abandoned her self to regret and recalled her tears which had hardly stopped their course whilest she was asleep Ah! Artaban said she melting into tears thou deceivest me and flyest from me and thou dost not present thy self to me during these moments of sleep which thou leavest me but to render the loss more present to me and to renew my griefs thou callest to me from the shore or rather from the port whereunto thou art arrived by thy death after thou hadst been so long tossed upon the tempestuous Sea of miseries and crosses wherein thou leavest the deplorable Elisa thou callest me Artaban and by thy action
heard through the branches which composed it the voice of a Person that sung upon the other side it was melodious enough to cause some attention in the hearers and Candace in whom all curiosity was not extinct because her hopes were still alive staying Elisa by the arm prayed her to hearken a few moments to that agreeable found which had so sweetly saluted her ear Elisa who was of a complying humour stayed at Candace's request though her grief left her but little inclination to those things wherein other Persons might find divertisement and the two Princesses hearkned a while with pleasure to a very delicate voice which with a sorrowful tone breathed out amorous resentments It was a Woman that sung but her song was interrupted by another that was near her just when the Princesses began to be moved at it but they were the better pleased because they could hear the discourse of those two persons who believing that they were not over-heard did freely declare their most private thoughts Leave this singing ERicia said she who interrupted her leave this singing which is no fit companion for my sadness wherein I cannot as I have done formerly find either ease or comfort let us seek elsewhere the sweetning of my grief or rather let us seek for Sanctuary in death against the persecutions of my pitiless fortune Let me die let me die Ericia and do not oppose thy self any longer to the last remedy that the Gods leave me seeing by that only I can put an end to those cruel sorrows which my destiny hath prescribed me This Woman had hardly done speaking but Cephisa coming near to Elisa Madam said she I know not whether you have taken notice of this voice but I can assure you that it is the Slave's air whom you have sometimes honoured with your discourse who comforted you so handsomely the other day and whom Madam said she pointing to Candace you desired to see and discourse with 'T is the very same said the Princess who easily discerned her voice And that added Candace creates the greater curiosity in me and will make me hearken with the more attention out of the desire that I have had a long time to be acquainted with her These words were spoken so low that they could not be heard on the other side of the hedge and Candace having laid her finger upon her mouth to enjoyn them to silence she laid her ear nearer to the Hedge to hearken to the conversation of the two Slaves She whose song was interrupted began to resume the discourse and discovering by a sigh what share she had in those misfortunes which she lamented in her Song Alas said she will our miseries never have an end and will Heaven never cease from tormenting persons who have not merited by any crime the evils whereunto they see themselves so long exposed Never possibly was a life so innocent subjected to so many disasters and you have reason to believe that neither by my mournful song nor by all the tears my eyes can shed I am able to accommodate my self to the greatness of our mis-haps I am too blame replyed the fair Slave for letting one word slip in my grief whereby I have possibly failed of that resignation which I would alwayes have to the will of the Gods and it proceeds from an effect of our weakness rather than a deliberate murmur that I have made any accusation against Heaven for the cruel continuance of my misfortunes But 't is certain Ericia that I have need of a perfect constancy to support the burthen of my afflictions without sinking under them and that so weak a spirit as mine might possibly be excused sometimes when it transgresses the strict rules of moderation O Gods continued she lifting up her hands and eyes to Heaven Gods whom I have invoked without murmur in my hardest afflictions behold I absolutely submit to your will and if that which I have hitherto suffered be not capable to appease your wrath and repair the crimes of my relations or mine own faults throw down upon this unfortunate Creature more cruel evils than yet she hath been sensible of and only give her constancy enough to suffer them without offending you there are few displeasures to which this spirit hath not been subject few toils to which this body hath not been exposed and few dangers into which my honour and my life have not been thrown and yet Great Gods I will endure all with patience and will not make the smallest complaint against your Divine Ordinances if you render me that which I lost and if you restore me that which is absolutely lost as it can be for me keeps me in grief in misery and slavery This fair afflicted person without doubt had spoken more if the Princess Elisa in whom the meeting with sorrowful persons like her self wrought a puissant effect feeling her grief revived by the slaves discourse had not broken silence with an exclamation loud enough to be heard at a farther distance than that which separated them O Heaven cryed she O pitiless fortune 't is not upon us alone that you let fall the effects of your choler These words were understood by the fair Slave and by her who was known as well as she by Clity and Cephise to be a companion of her servitude At the first they were troubled when they perceived their discourse was over-heard and they continued a good while without speaking or stirring from the place where they sate in search of some means to repair the fault which they supposed they had committed but they were much more amazed when the fair Queen of Ethiopia who had hearkned to their discourse with much more attention than the Princess of the Parthians having found a passage through the hedge a few spaces off passed to that side where they were and shewed her self to them and presently after came Elisa and their women that attended them After their coming the Slave rose hastily from the place where she sate and casting down her eyes at the arrival of Candace she let them understand that it was not without confusion that she saw her self surprized in a discourse which perhaps might have made too large a discovery Candace desired to recompence her presently and looking upon her with an eye full of sweetness Fair Maid said she be not grieved that we have heard some words from your mouth contrary to your intention they have onely made us know that you are in the rank of unfortunate Persons and the conformity you have with us renders you yet more dear to those persons who bad a very high esteem before of your person as well for that Beauty which your sorrows have not been able to conceal from our knowledge though they have a little altered it as for those marks of vertue courage and discretion that we have observed in you 't is a good while since that these good parts of yours have wrought in the Princess whom
peril whereunto I was exposed by the infidelity of that Element to which I had trusted my life nor the dangerous adventures that might occur upon the Sea could any way equal the satisfaction I had in my mind to see my self escaped from the violence of the King of Thrace and I rendred thanks to the Gods upon the account as if I had been already in the securest harbour In effect both nature and reason had made me conceive so much aversion and horror for the design he had against me that to free my self from it I despised all manner of inconveniences and should have precipitated my self into the most manifest dangers without consideration Yet I could not reflect upon the condition of my fortune without making some small complaint to Heaven nor consider with an absolute moderation how the Daughter of a great King was handled by her destiny which forced her being of so youthful an age and so tender a complexion to fly her native Country and to hazard her self upon the inconstancy of the waves to save her self from an Enemy who ought to have been her Protector and to avoid him as a Monster from whom in all probability she ought to have hoped for refuge against all manner of misfortunes How know I said I sometimes when I was most troubled with these sad considerations how know I but that in the same places where I seek for Sanctuary I may find more enemies and who will give me any assurance of those persons who are allyed to me by some proximity of blood if I have met with nothing but persecution and cruelty in my own Brother Will an Uncle be more pitiful to me than a Brother and may not I fear that he will prefer the amity of the King of Thrace before the protection due to me and that he will put me again into the hands of a Prince whose alliance is more considerable to him than the occasion of assisting an afflicted Princess and drawing an enemy upon him whose power is not contemptible Ah! without doubt I have not sufficiently deliberated upon this difficulty before I embarqued my self in so hazardous an enterprize and I should have considered that the Maxims of Kings and the interests of State are very different from the thoughts which Vertue and Piety inspire us with Whether the King of Cilicia shall put me himself into my Brother's hands or refuse me the refuge I desire against him In either of these two misfortunes I see my loss absolutely infallible and what way soever I turned my thoughts I know no other way for my safety Well added I raising up my courage if Gods and men abandon us death cannot fail us and we will receive it in the same manner either in Cilicia or in the waves as we would have received it at Bizantium rather than satisfie the horrible designs of our persecutor then we shall be more excusable than we should have been upon Adallus his first attempt and we shall sacrifice our lives to our misfortunes and our duty with a great deal less regret after we have tryed the means that Heaven hath left us for the conservation of it I oftentimes entertained my self with these discourses with Eurilus with my Governess and this Maid named Ericia on whom I have bestowed my most tender affections from my infancy and they took the pains to comfor me and to represent to me the little likelyhood there was that the King of Cilicia my Uncle should refuse me his protection to which he was obliged by consanguinity vertue and all manner of considerations nor need I to fear that the King my Brother would obstinately demand me or undertake war against my Protector upon a quarrel which would expose him to the blame of all the World They made me some other discourses besides wherein I really found reason and consolation and receiving my disasters from the hand of Heaven I expected the end of them with all the patience that possibly I could In the mean time we followed our Voyage with a great deal of diligence We had coasted the Isle of Lesbos we had a view of Eubea as we passed by we had left Creet upon our right hand and Rhodes upon the left and we had gone a good way betwixt Cyprus and Cilicia when fortune which had favoured us ever since our departure from Bizantium changed her countenance and made us know that changing of a Climate alters not destiny and that unfortunate persons drag the chain of their mishaps after them whithersoever they go We were but one days journey from the nearest port to Tharsus where the King of Cilicia makes his residence when contrary to all appearances the weather changed the winds became impetuous and all the Sea was agitated by a furious Tempest Never was storm so sudden and so violent and though our Mariners were very expert and our Vessel in very good condition the tossing of the waves was so vehement that within a few moments the Saylers who had often been in the like dangers cried out we were lost and began to despair of our safety You may judge fair Princesses what my fears were then and if the Spirit of a Young Maid though already prepared for all manner of disasters was slightly troubled at the reproaches of a terrible death I was affraid I sent up my vows to Heaven with prayers and tears and yet I could not repent my self that I had thrown my self into this danger to avoid that whereunto I was exposed in my native Country 'T is hard said I in my self 't is a cruel thing for a Princess to lose her life among the waves at such an age as mine but it would have been far more insupportable for to live in the shame and crime to which Adallus his violence had destined me We will die if the Gods have so ordained it but we will die in our primitive innocence without polluting it by any unworthy repentance or regret for having sacrificed this unfortunate life to that which we owe to consanguinity and vertue In the mean while as the Storm redoubled our Mariners did all things possible for to save us They cut down the Masts of the Ship discharging it of all their heaviest lading and forgot nothing that their experience in this art could prompt them to put in practice possibly their care hindred us from perishing all among the waves but it could not hinder the loss of a part of our company and after we had passed a dreadful night in the continual terrors of an approaching death at the break of day we discovered the main land on one side and on the other side part of those Rocks which render navigation dangerous near the Coast of Cilicia We would have done our endeavours to reach the land which we looked upon with some remainder of hope but the winds were not only contrary to this design but our Vessel was no longer in a condition to be conducted by the science of
this miserable Princess to the only effect of your indignation which as yet she hath not felt She accompanied these words with divers others to the same sence at the end whereof the two Princesses being tenderly moved used all the arguments their invention could furnish them to comfort her and to banish out of her mind that cruel opinion which put her into so pitiful a condition After they had spent some time with her in this employment they believed she had need of rest and that her passionate expressions in their presence might redouble her feaver This belief obliged them to quit her after they had promised her that they would return within an hour and not leave her till she was better setled in her mind The End of the Third Book HYMEN'S PRAELUDIA OR Love's Master-Piece PART VI. LIB IV. ARGUMENT Philadelph misconstrues Delia 's kindness to her fair Companion His jealousie almost heightned to revenge is dissipated by a discovery that he is not the Lover but the Brother of Delia. Delia discovers her self to be Arsinoe Daughter to Artabasus King of Armenia and relates her story to Philadelph She tells him of her departure from the Cilician Court under the conduct of Antigenes who instead of conveying her into Armenia carries her by force into Ciprus and there having unsuccessfully used all probable means to gain her love he at last resolves to storm her chastity As he is about to act his villany Arsinoe's outcries call in Britomarus accidentally there to her rescue By the death of Antigenes and his companions Britomarus frees the Princess and undertakes to conduct her into Armenia At Sea they are set upon by Pyrates but by the valour of Britomarus and of a gallant Slave in the Pyrates Ship the Pyrates are discomfited Britomarus leaves Arsinoe to the conduct of her Brother and suddenly departs Ariobarzanes upon some important occasions takes Egypt in his way and near to Alexandria they are found in a Wood by Philadelph IN the mean time the charming Delia the fair Unknown and the amorous Philadelph passed the rest of the day in little differing cares and employments in the house where Cornelius had lodged them Philadelph being alone in his Chamber began to study with a profound meditation what judgement he should make of his Fortune and considering the blessing he had received from Heaven that day he was ready to give himself up to transports of joy but he quickly found that moderated by the motions of his jealousie I have found my Delia again said he and after so long a search and an absence so cruel to an amorous spirit as mine is the Gods have looked upon me with pity and have restored to me the only aim and object of my life I will live no longer in that dreadful darkness wherein my soul hath been so long entombed and I shall be permitted to look upon my Delia with the same eyes which have shed so many tears for her since our separation Ah my sorrows Ah my languishings Ah my tedious nights You are all dissipated by this blessed day which Delia hath brought back into my soul and from hence forward the sad remembrance of my cruel sufferings shall work no other effect upon my Spirit than to render the good things I am to taste more sweet more charming and more sensible He paused a while upon this consideration of his good fortune but a little after that passion the enemy of repose which having its original from love alwaies endeavours its ruine that importunate jealousie which corrupts the best thoughts bringing to his remembrance the fair Unknown and the marks of amity and familiarity which he had seen between Delia and him overclowded all his joy and troubled him in such a manner that he was but very imperfectly sensible of any part of it What doth it avail me said he to have found Delia again if I find her unfaithful and what advantageous change have I received in my condition if I see her again whom I loved so dearly only to see her in a Rivals arms She travels up and down the World she lies in Woods in the company of a Man endued with all manner of lovely parts she caresses him and treats him with friendship in my presence and indeed forgets nothing that may occasion a just suspicion Ah! Delia how strange an alteration is this in you and how different is this manner of Life from that severe and scrupulous vertue which caused me so many sufferings in Cilicia But on the other side added he checking himself seeing I have so many testimonies of the vertue the sincerity and the purity of Delia's heart and spirit ought I upon the first conjecture to overthrow an opinion grounded upon so many proofs did I find any change in her countenance or in the entertainment I received from Delia and have not I received from her own mouth more clear and ample assurances of her affection than ever she gave me heretofore did there appear any constraint in her countenance in the performance of that action did she vary in any thing which might make me suspect her inconstancy and do I not owe respect and consideration enough to the knowledge I have of her spirit to give absolute credit to her words All this is very true pursued he but yet who is this fair Unknown what is this man who possessing so many amiable qualities accompanies her almost alone in her Voyages that passes the nights with her in the Woods that armed himself against me with so many testimonies of affection and familiarity from her in my presence what is this Unknown if he be not a Lover if he be not a Man beloved and favoured by Delia Ha! whatsoever he be continued he growing into passion he shall be the object of the most just resentment that ever soul conceived and if it be true that he deprives me of Delia the respect I have for her which tied my hands to day in her presence will not be able to hinder me from killing him in any part of the World where I shall find him or from leaving at the point of his Sword a life which he hath already more cruelly assaulted than he can do by the way of arms He entertained himself tâ—us in his thoughts when he heard a noise at his Chamber door and casting his eyes immediately that way he saw the brave Unknown come in who at that time took up all his thoughts and who was no less the object of his hated and resentment than Delia was of his Love Philadelph who was not prepared for this visit grew pale at the sight of him and by the changes of his countenance made him easily guess at the agitations of his soul and the little inclination he had for so unexpected a sight The fair Unknown was not repulsed by the coldness of his entertainment but accosting him with a countenance wherein if there were not all the marks of joy there were at
is stretched to its uttermost dimensions and I will know this day whether a heart which is invincible by love and pity can be tamed by any other ways Upon these wordâ— I know not whether his action was premeditated or not as in probability it was or whether the occasion prompted him to the design having made a sign to his Brother and another of those which followed him they came at the same time to pull Ericlea and Melite from off my arms who held by me on both sides and Antigenes putting himself in Ericlea's place began to lead me by force towards the most private part of the Wood whilst his Brother and one of his Men held my two Women by violence This action made me desperately afraid and believing that in such an extremity a disguise was no longer necessary Antigenes said I think of what thou goest about and look no more upon me as an Unknown Delia but as the Daughter of a great King and as a Princess who in what part soever of the world thou shalt retire to will make the vengeance of thy crime light heavy upon thy head I believe that Antigenes gave no credit to these words which he thought I was inspired with by the pressing necessity wherein I was to draw him off from his design by the respect which they might imprint in him Howsoever it was he did not seem to be moved at them and not vouchsafing so much as to give me a reply and continued dragging me with all his force towards the most solitary part of the wood In this extremity I made the wood to Eccho with my cryes and my Women whom they hindred from coming to my assistance were as loud as I Their cryes and mine without doubt did us more good than our resistance could have done and they drew a man to us who was retired into that thick and solitary place whom we presently knew to be the same whose complaint we had heard a little before He came out from between the trees where he sought for silence and obscurity and casting his eyes upon us he presently saw the cause of our cryes and the violence they offered to us and his grief not being capable to extinguish generous resentments in his soul and the remembrance of the succour that was due to oppressed Maids he ran to us with more speed than could have been expected from the languishing and dejected condition wherein he appeared to us Antigenes seeing him come and fearing the hindrance of his design more than any other harm he could do him being accompanied as he was called his brother who leaving my women in the hands of two of his men came to Antigenes with the rest This number did not trouble the Unknown but addressing himself to Antigenes without so much as looking upon the rest Base fellow said he with an impetuous voice stay and do not oblige me to give thee thy death for a punishment of thy crime Antigenes seeing himself fortified by the number of his companions mocked at the pride of the Unknown and not vouchsafing to forbear from his design for him he made a sign to his brother either to stay him or punish him but he had to do with a man who was not easily corrected in that manner and though he had no more then Antigenes and his companions had only his sword without any other arms he presently presented it to the eyes of his enemies and fell upon them with as much assurance as if he had been backed by a greater number than theirs O Gods Philadelph what proofs of valour did he give us in a few moments and what speedy execution did he make before our eyes of five or six men who seemed as nothing in his single hands The first that fell under his sword was the brother of Antigenes whose right arm he cut off at one blow and made a large passage in his side through which his soul bare his blood company and almost at the same time having avoided a blow which another enemy made at him he thrust his bloody sword into his body up to the hilts I could see that action and those he did afterwards because perfidious Antigenes no sooner saw his brother fall but leaving me with a cry he ran either to revenge his death or to bear him company These two which were left to guard my women ran to Antigenes at his cry and these three enemies fell upon the valiant Unknown just as he had cloven the head and half the face of the last of the others with a back blow He cared as little for these as he had done for the former and picking out Antigenes between his two companions he gave him a mortal wound into the throat with which he fell at his feet and presently after was choaked with his blood and dyed My valiant defender received at the same time a slight wound upon his side which did but encourage him the more and hastened the death of him who gave it for as he was just turning his back to run away he thrust his sword into his reins and laid him dead close by Antigenes The last seeing so bloody an execution had not confidence any longer to resist so terrible an enemy and committing his safety to the nimbleness of his heels he ran cross the wood in a deadly fright I cannot tell you whether was greater in me the astonishment at so prodigious a valour or the joy of seeing my self delivered from the hands of my treacherous ravisher or the horror of being amongst so many dead men who had lost their lives upon my occasion I was so amazed and so troubled that I had not so much as power to return thanks to my valiant deliverer and I continued in a confusion not knowing how to begin to speak to him when he approaching to me with his bloody sword in his hand and with a colour which the heat of the combat had raised in his face Your enemies are dead Madam said he and if there remains any thing to do for your service I have strength enough still to free you out of a greater danger He spake no more because astonishment cut off the thread of his discourse and he had no sooner cast eyes a little nearer upon my face but he was full of amazement and confusion My surprize was no less than his when having looked upon him with attention and discerned the tone of his voice manger the change which three or four years and an extraordinary paleness might have wrought upon his countenance I thought I knew him for that brave and valiant Britomarus of whom I made some small mention to you in my discourse who by his miraculous actions of valour in a few months attained to the highest martial employments in the service of the King my brother and quitted it out of a generous resentment against the cruelty which caused the King your Father's hatred against our family the very same who being
augmented by this Relation Why should I detain you any longer upon this passage I consented before we parted from that place that he should love and serve me and I permitted him to hope either for those few dayes which in probability were left us or for a longer time if Heaven should please to give it us that I would do all that my Duty could handsomly permit me to do to express my acknowledgement and esteem to him He seemed to be contented with this hope which I gave him and ever since that moment he continued to serve me with so many marks of real Love so much discretion and respect and so much grace in all his actions that I still found more fuel to encrease my flame And yet he lived so with me before the persons of my Retinue that no body could find any ground to suspect his real thoughts only Ericia who was acquainted with mine too had knowledge of them I confess at last by his admirable parts and handsome way of carriage towards me he perfected the Conquest of my heart so that at last I was constrained to avow to him without dissimulation that I loved him as much as I was permitted to love him and to promise him that I would do all that my Duty would suffer me to do never to have any other Husband but himself I could make him this promise with so much the more liberty because I had neither Father nor Mother living by whose will mine ought to have been regulated and the obedience which after their death was due to the King my Brother seemed to me to be perfectly extinguished by his intentions which were so unconformable to that degree of Proximity which might have given him that Command over me In fine my fair Princesses If there was too much facility in this engagement of my Soul I will not study to excuse it and though possibly I might find some part of an excuse in the extraordinary merit of Ariobarzanes yet I will not make use of it to secure my self from the blame which you may lay upon me for my weakness This union of our spirits which was so well formed would have given us mutual satisfaction if the fear of approaching death had not cruelly crossed it and as I perceived that the fear which Ariobarzanes was in for me was the ground of all his grief and the cause of all his complaints so I confess that I loved him so well already that my regret was no less upon the consideration of his loss than for my own He did all that possibly he could to dissemble part of his affliction before me and he flattered me every day with some hope of succour but when he came to consider that in all probablity I had but a few dayes to live all his Constancy was dissipated and his great Courage could not hinder him from shewing all the marks of sensibility 'T is certain too that in this Adventure the weakness of my Sex did not hinder me from expressing as much Resolution as he and I was often reduced to give him comfort of which by little and little he rendred himself uncapable Ah Madam said he to me one day How different are the Subjects of our grief And how much greater ought my regret to be than yours there being such an inequality between the losses we are like to suffer You are in danger of losing a life which as precious as it is hath not been hither to over-dear unto you but with my life I lose the fairest Hopes and the most glorious Fortune that ever any man aspired to As he spake these words he removed his eyes from off my face to fix them upon the ground and I saw them at the same time so overflown with tears that I was extraordinarily moved at them Ariobarzanes said I to him I would have you conform your self to the will of the gods who can succour us still and possibly will do it if we have merited their assistance if they have determined the end of our dayes we must submit to it without repugnance and I desire you that you would not let the grief which you apprehend for my loss make you excced the limits which your Courage ought to prescribe to it Ah! Madam replied the afflicted Prince How highly is your Resolution to be commended but as much Constancy as you have received from Heaven how hard would it be for you to make use of it if the loss of Ariobarzanes were to you as the loss of the Princess Olympia is to Ariobarzanes Do not doubt said I but that I shall be as sensible of the loss of Ariobarzanes as you can desire But I shall support it more patiently because it must be accompanied and probably preceded by mine than if I should continue in the World in the regret which that might cause me Alas cryed he suddenly Can it be possible that within a few dayes I should see these fair eyes closed up by death Having uttered these few words he continued by me like one half dead and what endeavour soever I used to reduce him to a better condition it was impossible for me to get any thing else from him but sighs intermingled with sobs and looks cast up towards Heaven We were oftentimes in a day upon this sorrowful Conversation but our affliction was much augmented with our fear when all our provisions were quite spent and we had nothing at all to keep us alive but a little Fish which our people took with a great deal of difficulty and it was so little that there was not enough for half the persons there were of us and that little being seasoned with nothing that might give it any relish you may judge how long our dayes were like to continue with nothing but that nourishment and a little water As I did not take the same care of all the persons that were with me as I did of my self so there were some that were more sensible of our misery than I. My Governess was the first who being enfeebled with Age and but of a weak Complexion beside yielded to our misery and after two dayes sickness only breathed her last in my presence I received this loss with all the sorrow I was capable of in the condition whereunto I saw my self reduced and looking upon her whil'st she exspired with my face overflown with tears Adieu Mother said I I shall shortly bear you Company and were it not for that belief your loss a loss which I have been the cause of would not be supportable The good Eurilas her Husband being cast down with grief for the death of his Wife and enfeebled by our miserable manner of life survived her but two dayes and left me deprived of his Conduct and the comfort I received from him in respect of his Age his Prudence and the Affection he had to my interests Then it was that I looked death in the face as the approaching end of our miseries
my self upon your word Having spoken these words Ariobarzanes held his peace expecting Adallas's Answer who upon that Discourse was fallen into a great perplexity and as he imagined seeing misfortune on every side knew not which way to turn himself to be least unfortunate The love he had for me could not without a great deal of violence permit him to bestow me upon another and it seemed to him that by this demand he was robbed of a piece of his heart but coming to consider that he was without a Kingdom without liberty and possibly upon the point to lose life as he saw there was a great deal of likelilihood he could not resolve to lose all and perish miserably by persevering in a detestable passion whereof he could never expect any good success possibly for a more hopeful love he would have quitted both Crown and life without consideration but at last he resolved or at least seemed to do so and after he had held his eyes a long time fixed upon the ground raising them up to Ariobarzanes's face Ariamenes said he or Ariobarzanes Prince or whosoever you are you reduce me to a cruel extremity and if the Service which you promise me and whereof I plainly perceive the necessity and the importance could be recompensed by one half of that Kingdom which you offer to restore me it would be much more easie for me to part with it to you without regret than to yield up Olympia to you and not dye But if you be resolved upon it and if nothing be capable to satisfie you but to give you Olympia well added he with a sigh since my ill Fortune and my Reason which my passion hath so much strugled with will have it so well then I promise you Olympia and engage my Royal word to you which amongst my other failings hath been alwayes inviolably observed that if you perform what you promise and if you be a Kings Son as you assure me you are I will render you possessor of Olympia It was not without expressing sufficient Testimonies of his grief that the King uttered these words and Ariobarzanes had no sooner heard them but turning himself towards those which came into the Chamber with him You are Witnesses my Friends said he That the King hath engaged his word to me and it highly concerns me to assure my self further of it by your Testimony There is no need of that assurance replied Adallas and what soever may befall me I will never fail in the performance of my word Since it is so added the Prince assuming a more pleasant countenance than before and that nothing is able to disingage you from your promise Know King of Thrace that I did not stay till I had your word before I rendred you the Service which you expect from me I am more generous in Effect than I seemed to be in our Conversation Merodates is dead by my hand and all your Enemies hear him Company you are the King of the Thracians now in peace and you may at this moment being free a Conquerour and absolute restore your presence and perfect peace to your Subjects Having made an end of these words Ariobarzanes obliged Euristheus who was with him to give the King a full Relation of all that had passed which he did at length and filling the Kings mind with admiration at the gallant Actions of Ariamenes he gave him a particular Account of the present condition of his Affairs by the death of Merodates and the defeat of all his Troops after which there was little probability that those that were left in the Towns which he hadnot taken would stay so much as a Summons the King upon this Discourse was assaulted with so many passions and so many different perturbations that it was hard to judge which of them would gain the Victory in his spirit At last after he had made long reflections upon the revolutions of his Fortune and had turned his thoughts from the loss of his Dominions his Imprisonment and the danger which had threatned his life to the advantagious change which he had received in his condition by the Valor of Ariobarzanes O immortal gods said he lifting up his eyes to Heaven for what reason have you thus subjected my Genius to Ariamenes that in all the misfortunes of my life I can receive no assistance from you but by his means After that turning himself towards him with an Action composed of a great deal of sweetness Be not offended said he if it be some Affliction to me to be so deeply indebted to you being so unable to requite Services of so high a value I acknowledge you though it be a little of the latest for my Benefactor for my Defender and for my perpetual Deliverer and whatsoever I suffer I will keep my word I doubt it not Sir said Ariobarzanes and I would not have taken so much care to have obtained your promise if I had not had an absolute confidence in it By this Action you will too happily recompence my Services and you will acquire the esteem of the whole Eeath by knowing how to subdue an Enemy more hard to overcome than Merodates was Let us speak no more of it added the King with a sigh let us speak no more of it I will keep my word After these words he continued a long time without speaking and in Conclusion endeavouring to express the satisfaction which was due to the change of his Fortune and to shew himself to his people in a condition which might recover their affection after some Discourse had with Ariobarzanes and those that were with him concerning the necessity of his Affairs and those things which were still left to do he went out of the House and the Town which had served for his Prison and went to shew himself to his Victorious Army which saluted him with loud Acclamations and gave him to understand That Misfortunes are sometimes advantagious to move and to recall those spirits which might be alienated by the miscarriages of Prosperity He viewed the Field where the Battel was sought where the marks of Ariamenes's victory were still fresh and though he beheld them with some confusion yet he could not choose but give that Prince part of the praises which were due to him and approve at least in shew the Ardor which his Subjects expressed in obeying him and fighting according to his Orders At the Request of Ariobarzanes the body of Merodates was used with a great deal of honour and permission was given to his Friends to carry it whither they pleased to rendâ—r it the honour of Burial Ariamenes likewise sent back all the Prisoners upon condition that they should pass to their Garrisons which were held still by their Companions and exhort them to retire within Fifteen dayes which was the time allotted by the King for their secure departure out of Thrace according to the Pass-ports which were delivered to them Thus was peace restored to Thrace with
began to enter into the Woods where the shade and coolness was more agreeable than in the beginning of their walk 'T was in this place that the way turned a little from the Sea and betwixt the Wood and the shore there were divers houses built and amongst them there was that wherein the unfortunate Tiridates made his last abode Clitie who had taken upon her the care of finding it out did not fail to take notice of an Alley which fronted the Rode and advertised the Princesses that this was the place which they sought for but the better to conceal their Design they thought it fit to pass on and continue their walk an hour longer with an intention to return the same way and to execute their resolution as they came back Candace could hardly prevail so far upon her impatience but she knew of what importance it was to her to be careful in concealing whatsoever concerned Cesario The business was done as she desired and after they had spent almost an hour upon the same Rode she caused the Chariot to turn about and returned the same way Clitie took exact notice of the path and as the Princesses after they had made the Chariot to stay were deliberating whether they should go to the house or send Clitie to enquire News of Prince Tiridates they saw one of the Officers of that poor Prince coming from the house whom Clitie knew immediatly having seen him with his Master during the short abode she had made at that house When he was come near to the Chariot and Clitie had called to him he knew her and the Queen her Mistriss too and as according to the effect which merit ordinarily produces he had taken as great a share as he was capable of in the displeasure of his Master for the Queen being carried away so he was joyful to see her in that place and in a condition conformable to a person of Quality The Queen having caused him to come close to the Chariot that the might speak to him without being over-heard by the Cavaliers who guarded the Chariot and who out of respect and their Masters order kept themselves at a distance Friend said she Wilt thou tell us no News of the Prince thy Master and whether we may be permitted to give him a Visit and to have a moments Discourse with him The afflicted Servant instead of returning an Answer to these words let fall abundance of tears and a little after forcing himself to speak Ah! Madam said he with a voyce interrupted with sobs Tiridates is dead he expired two dayes since in that unfortunate house which you see before you and that love wherein he hath been engaged for divers years hath brought him at last to his Grave Candace was struck with this Discourse as with a Thunder-clap and resented the death of this poor Prince with a very violent grief Elisa who had never seen him not being able to resist the force of blood and having much esteemed her Uncle upon the Relation she had heard of his vertue was very nearly touched with this News and joyned her tears with those which the fair Queen of Ethiopia shed in abundance for a Prince to whom she was beholding for her life and whose merit was very considerable to her Ah! Madam said Candace to the fair Elisa turning sadly towards her If you know how worthy this Prince was of your amity and how deplorable his loss is to all those persons that were acquainted with him I assure my self that you would bestow a great many tears upon him Doubtless I ought to do so answered Elisa but they have been so usual with me of late that the poor Prince would be little obliged to me for those I should shed for his loss Upon these words they continued a great while without speaking whil'st the desolate Servant repeated succinctly to them what Arsanes had reported concerning Mariamnes's death and the sudden and the sad effect which it wrought upon the amorous spirit of Tiridates Oh! Example cryed the fair Queen at this lamentable Relation of the most firm and real love that ever heart was inflamed with Oh Fidelity pure and entire to the very end poor Prince And upon these words pity made the two Princesses redouble their weeping with so much violence that for a long time they were not able to speak When they had recovered the use of their speech they enquired of the Servant how his body was disposed of and in what place they intended to render him the honours of a Funeral At this instant said the Servant Arsanes who was the Princes's Governor and whom we obey since his death is employed in one of the Chambers of the house in causing his body to be imbalmed to be carried into Parthia to be interred in the Tomb of the Arsacides and those parts which could not endure the Voyage for fear of corruption are lately laid in a Tomb which we are a raising for him about Five hundred paces hence upon the shore where Prince Marcellus who was present at his death would have us leave this Monument of the loss of our Prince Madam said the afflicted Elisa to the Queen I should not have Courage enough to go and see the body of the Prince my Uncle and I am very sensible that I could not see it without a great deal of emotion and some fear But if you think good I should be willing to visit the Tomb which they are erecting for him upon the shore and to render there to his Manes the last Devoirs they can expect from the Arsacides You have reason said Candace not to be willing to go into the house where all objects would be very doleful and where considering our visit would be useless too there is no need that we should shew our selves to the persons that may be there We may with more facility and handsomness go visit the Tomb as you desire and I will willingly bear you Company thither Upon these words they caused themselves to be conducted that way which Tiridates's Servant guided them and passing by the side of the House they had not gone Five hundred paces but they saw the Tomb and the persons that were employed about it Arsanes had sent for Workmen from the City the day before and because the work was plain and without curiosity 't was almost finished 'T was a Tomb of fair stone without any workmanship and upon it a Pyramid of the height of a man upon which they had newly fixed an Epitaph upon a Copper-plate The Princesses alighted before they approached that doleful place and taking one another by the hand they advanced towards the Tomb on foot They which were still at work about it being moved with respect at the sight of those Beauties and being advertised by Tiridates's Servant retired to their quarter to leave the place free to the Princesses who falling upon their knees washed the cold stone with those tears which this sad object
you imagine that my Captivity alone compleats my Grief And judge you that I bestow not on Coriolanus whom you have seen it may be dye in our defence an equal portion of tears with yours for Alexander If you consult my thoughts replied Artemisa you will be doubtless more affected than I thought you had been for the marvels which I have observed in his person during the little time that I have seen him assisted by those you a few moments before related to me of the great actions of his life and Noble proofs of his love makes me judge that you ought to deplore his loss at least as much as I deplore my Alexanders but after the Treatment you have given him in my presence and the complaints I have heard you utter against his Infidelity whereof you have given me no light by your Discourse I imagined your Soul so over-charged that there remained not the least favourable inclination for him and though you were touched with the danger whereunto we saw him exposed and whereof I my self was very sensible yet generosity alone I supposed to be the cause and not any reliques of affection Generosity alone replied the afflicted Cleopatra might certainly have produced this effect and had my Soul never been touched with the least affection for the son of Juba or had all that which his great Services could have introduced been torn up by his Infidelity to the last root I could not have seen him in the condition wherein we left him for our interests without suffering great inquietudes for his safety and without expending many tears for his death if my cruel destiny commands that he suffer it for the love of me But Artemisa believe that besides what we owe to generosity and compassion the ancient and only affection which my Soul hath ever received hath not left it tranquill enough nor sufficiently dispolyed of all the tender resentments wherewith it inspired her to see Coriolanus perish upon my account with the same sensibility I should have for the rest of mankind By his Infidelity he may root out of my Soul the sweet and acknowledging thoughts I bare him and possess me with horror for his Perfidy and cast me into a resolution of addicting my whole life to the consideration of my misfortune without ever turning to the remembrance of the tokens of his love unless it were to render his Treason more odious to me yet scarce could it intirely blot out of my Soul the Character of an innocent affection which I thought I had with reason received and which I cannot retain but to my misfortune But my Sister added the fair Artemisa will you not tell me what Infidelity this is wherewith you reproach him and whereof I have seen so little appearance in your Discourse and much less in this Incounter and the last actions of that Prince I intended answered the Princess to have given you a Relation yesterday in the Wood where we passed almost the whole day and where we had this fatal meeting I learnt in that place replied Artemisa part of your Noble adventures and you forgat nothing as I believe of the most memorable passages which hapned until the wounding of Tiberius and the leave which Coriolanus took of you in the Garden of Octavia and his departure from Rome for Mauritania to conquer the Kingdom of his Ancestors it was just at this separation that our Discourse was interrupted so well as our walk by meeting the sleeping Prince and to a less adventure I believe I had never consented to remit its continuation Since my Discourse answered Cleopatra finished where you mention it is certain you have heard nothing but what speaks advantagiously of the love of Coriolanus and would to Heaven that the gods had here terminated the course of my life but in that part whereof you are ignorant whose Relation I will no longer defer if I have strength enough to make it and you patience enough to give this intermedium to your grief you will but too clearly behold this Infidelity which composeth all the misfortune of my life and which I should more bitterly detest did I not fear that he who committed it is dead for my sake and if this fear did not make some part of my legitimate resentments give place to compassion At these words the fair Princess was silent and Artemisa having not only testified that she would hearken with attention but that her displeasures by this Discourse would receive a sensible allevation she bethought her self some momencs on the order of her recital which a little after she began on this manner The Continuation of the History of the Princess Cleopatra IT is certain that before the unfortunate Voyage wherein the Fidelity of Coriolanus was ship wrack't I had reason to be satisfied with all the Actions of his life and even in those whereunto glory seemed to pretend with the greatest right He alwayes reguarded me as his only mark no! Glory it self could not rival me in his heart for he in such a manner despised the powers which govern the Earth and the offer which Emperor made him of the Crown of his Ancestors and threw himself for my sake into perils so great and manifest thatany one less easie than me would have been perswaded of the grandure and verity of his affection I can also say that I appeared not insensible at these proofs of his love believing that the point to which it was come and the vertue which I had always observed therein might secure my acknowledging thereof without blame So great it was and so true that Coriolanus himself reasonable as he then was durst not demand more I had so well as he refused very considerable establishments and I had so well as he irritated the soveraign powers without considering what I ought to fear or hope It is true his love made all the fortune and all the designs of my life and as I caused all my felicity to consist in the knowledge which I had of his affection so I made it the whole imployment of my thoughts to render him what I thought was his due and to second with all my care the strong inclination which I had for him Alas how many tears did this true affection cost me at that mournful departure How many did it cause me to expend during the time of his dolorous absence And what a Spring hath it for ever establish't in these eyes which seem not to have been conserved but for this use only What proofs gave I not to this ungrateful person of an inviolable affection and fidelity when after the cure of Tiberius I saw the persecutions of Livia begin again arming against me more than ever the whole Authority of Augustus With what constancy did I resist their flatteries promises and threatnings And with what Resolution armed I not my self at last when being reduced to the utmost extremities by the power of Cesar I feared not to declare openly how much I
it self out into the Sea further than the Ship At first neither he nor those that were with him could discern what it was but a little after advancing upon the upper part of the Vessel and lending an attentive ear they heard the voyce of a man from the Top of that horrible Precipice uttering these words Implacable gods said he Malicious men Irreconcilable Fortune it were insensibility to hope for any good from you and since to defend me against so many Enemies Death only stretcheth forth her Arms and that the miserable reliques of this life are unprofitable for that end to which they were conserved O Death I willingly receive the assistance thou presentest Scarce had Megacles and those that were with him heard the last of these words when they saw him that pronounced them cleaving the Aire from the Top of the Rock fall into the Sea some four paces from the ship The waves parted under his feet with a great noise and rebounded higher than the Mast of the Vessel The water was very deep and that desperate man who threw himself into its bosome being armed at all points had quickly found his death had not Megacles though a Servant to a cruel King been possest with some pity and vertue and commanded earnestly that they should do what they could to draw this man out of the pitiless waves The Mariners who were Masters of their Trade taking great Poles headed with Crooks of Iron sought him amongst the Sands with an admirable diligence Had the success of their labours been less speedy they had been utterly unprofitable but by great good Fortune after some moments search they found the body the weight of whose Armor had hindred its rising and fastning their Irons in some default of the Arms not without lightly wounding the bearer they easily drew him up and uniting their Forces got him into the ship Presently the natural compassion of men how barbarous soever and the curiosity which so unordinary a spectacle raised caused them to flock about him Megacles commanding them to take off his Casque the visit whereof was half lifted up yet could perceive by his pale and meagre face but few signs of life but as he would not succour him by halves he neglected nothing that might save him and by his orders whilst some disarmed him others holding him up by the feet gave passage for the salt water out of his mouth He disgorged a great quantity and when they supposed him intirely discharged they layed him upon a Bed and attended the effect of their succours Presently Megacles knew they would not be unprofitable and although the unknown came not quite to himself he began to breath freely and to stir his Head though with much weakness Megacles gave him some spirits to drink and either through the means of that or what was done before or both a little after he he opened his eyes and found his strength by little and little to return in some proportion Had not Megacles understood this mans despair by his own words which he uttered falling he would have left him to take some necessary rest but imagining that since he sought death he would run to it again were he left to his own dispose he not only watched him to prevent any second effects of his Despair but resolved if it were possible to cure him by reason and to perswade him of all those things that might give him some desire of life He was confirmed the more in this Design when with attention he cast his eyes upon the face of the unknown for he believed that what he had done out of compassion ought to be done to preserve a man of the best Mine he had ever seen His face though pale and changed as well through the last effect of his Despair as through the preceding displeasures was formed with a proportion so accomplish't the sweet and charming being raised by some things so great and high that it was difficult to behold him without respect the beauty of his body marvellously accorded with that of his face and lastly all his parts made an admirable accomplishment Whilst Megacles ran over all those marvels with his eyes the unknown began also to turn his towards the place where he stood and opening his mouth so soon as he was able to speak Ah miserable man said he with a feeble voyce art thou then returned to this odious life he stopped at these first words and a little after easily recollecting all that had passed O Coward added he thou hadst not re-entred thy miseries if of thy hand thou hadst demanded what the pitiless waves have refused thee hadst thou considered that with the gods men and fortune even the Elements are become thy Enemies thou hadst not unprofitably sought that assistance from the water which thou mightest have commanded from thy Sword Finishing these words he attentively beheld those that were about him and not doubting but that it was they who drew him out of the water he testified by some sighs the little thanks he gave them for their officiousness Megacles who carefully interessed himself in his safety sitting down by him and pressing one of his hands between his with much affection I know not said he what misfortunes have caused your Despair and I imagine by all advantagious appearances that you have courage enough to support all the ordinary assaults of Fortune but whatsoever the cause be that hath given you so much aversion to life I cannot repent me of what I have done towards your preservation and I shall do what lies in my power not only to oppose your Design of dying but to find what may render life less odious to you The unknown beholding Megacles with an acknowledging Aire so well as the sad condition he was in would permit and gently pressing the hand that held his Your good intention said he hath obtained pardon for the injury you have done me and I also beg your pardon if I can give you no greater thanks for the care you take of my safety These few words pronounced with an extraordinary grace touched the heart of Megacles and becoming more affectionate towards what he had undertaken Is it possible added he that such a man as you appear to be can find in Death only a remedy of his misfortunes and have you not resolution enough to resist Fortune having so much as to precipitate your self into a terrible Death The horrors of life when the causes are legitimate sadly replied the unknown proceed not always from want of courage and those that can voluntarily expose themselves to Death as you say may easier resist lesser evils than Death is in the opinion of most men but I believe there are causes that can render Despair honourable and though it be weakness and a shame to flie to Death for the loss of some goods or advantages of fortune yet it is honourable to imbrace it rather than survive ones glory or the loss of a beloved
person We have familiar examples enough thereof in our age and they are great persons such as Antony Cato and Brutus who have sought this last remedy either to avoid shame or to yield to the anger of Heaven and not to the assaults of Fortune fitter for feeble souls and ordinary persons The Examples which you alledge replied Megacles have found but few that have approved them and many that have condemned them and though it be confest that Anthony could no longer live with glory after the loss of the Empire neither Cato nor Brutus after the ruine of their party yet it must be granted that fear of their Enemis and their euil Fortune made them forsake that which they durst no longer defend and run to Death as an evil much less than the terror thereof imprinted into their affrighted spirits wheras had they marched with their heads erected against their destiny and had indured until the end all Fortune or the anger of Heaven had prepared for them they had left a more Noble reputation to posterity and had been taken for constant and undaunted for unalterable in good and evil Fortune Well replied the unknown witth a sigh if it be a weakness to seek Death it must be pardoned to our Nature which hath no more strength than Heaven hath given it for my part I will neither justifie nor condemn them that have preceded me herein it sufficeth to believe that life being to me an unsupportable evil to the indifferent strengths of my spirits I have no more reason to preserve it than a Captive to carry his Chains which he may break Nevertheless replied Megacles in case your Despair proceed not from some loss which the gods themselves cannot repair you ought a little to wait their leisure and there is little reason to believe that the gods do consent to your Death or that they preserve you not to a better Fortune for were it so they would have suffered you to perish in that danger from whence you are miraculously escaped Of so many kinds of death that you might have chosen they would have inspired you with another and rather to any of the Rocks that surround the shore would they have directed you than to this you have chosen because perhaps beneath them you would not have found the succors we have given you This is a visible obstacle that Heaven hath cast in your way testifying that it disapproves it and I certainly believe it intends some change in your Destiny since it hath hindred it I exceedingly desire through the interest I take in your life and my advantagious opinion of you that these considerations may arrest your Despair but if they are uncapable so to do and if you think that the assistance I have given you deserveth any acknowledgment and gives me right to demand any thing I beseech you earnestly to receive our Services and to attempt nothing against your life whil'st you are with us we will in time obtain more if it may be done without importuning you but in the mean time give me your word if you think the Service I have done you merits any satisfaction The unknown remained for some time without reply to the obliging words of Megacles but at length beholding him with an Actions which testified his acknowledgment I should be too ungrateful said he for your good intentions for my safety and the pains you take for a miserable Unknown the Butt of angry Heaven and Fortune if I consider not your desire and intreaties but I could wish you had asked something else in recompence of your goodness rather than the prolongation of this miserable life but since from such an unhappy person as I am you can receive no other mark of acknowledgment nor any thing which it may be would be more hard for me to grant I promise you to enterprize nothing against that life which I owe you so long as I am with you I believe it will not be long but be it so long as it will I will exactly perform my promise After this assurance which much rejoyced Megacles the unknown nothing opposed the care they took of him permitting them to take away his wet garment and put him to Bed that he might receive some refreshment after the great quantity of salt water which he had swallowed down Megacles having ordered things towards the assistance of the unknown went to pass into the Princesses Chamber whom he served with much assiduity and secure caution In the displeasure they received through his means he indeavoured to render himself the least odious he could possibly and he the rather hoped it for that he was not of the Number of those who forced them from the shore the day before for the King his Master knowing his little inclination to violent Actions and that he had ordinarily a contradiction of spirit thereto commanded that he should stay and keep the Vessel which was no less important for his return whilst those that he had appointed for the Rape of Cleopatra prepared themselves to execute his Orders Megacles failed not to let the Princesses understand his justification and Artemisa to whom his quality and manners were known forgat not to give a favourable testimony thereof to Cleopatra believing that in the condition wherein both of them at present were they might need this mens assistance and that they ought not to neglect complying with him Cleopatra who with a grandure of courage elevated above the rest of her Sex had an allay of sweetness gratitude and equity easily discerned that he disobliged her only out of fear and if she did not greatly caress Megacles it was through her Souls total occupation upon its own misfortunes rather than any particular resentment Megacles entred not their Chamber till he heard they were up and that it was necessary to sollicite them to some repast The two Princesses sate upon the Bed where they had passed the Night and Megacles having bid them good morrow with a profound respect addressing himself to Artemisa to whom he had the most access he besought her in the most pressing manner he could possible that she would not destroy her self with hunger whilst she was in his guard but receive the food he offered not as from an Enemy since she knew he never had deserved it and that of all the miseries the King had inflicted on her there was not one proceeding from his Counsel Artemisa who saw the truth of what was said receive him with much Civility and as she interessed her self in Cleopatra's health more than in her own she consented to oblige her thereto So that both rifing from the Bed refreshed themselves with a light repast which done though languishing and sick as they were they entred into some converse with Megacles who was a man of spirit and agreeable converse and knew of much the more though his extraordinary Travels having visited the Courts of many Kings both in Asia and in Europe It was by
Path nor Retreat In the Estate wherein he was nothing being more odious to him than life which he so neglected that few dayes would have put an end thereto had not the diligence of his Squires prevented He left off those fair and famous Arms which under the Name of Alcimedon had rendred him so well known in Dacia and all other places where he carried them and delivering them to his Esquires to keep he covered himself with black ones in their stead imbroydered they were with branches of silver underneath which he doubted not to remain unknown I will not relate his continual sorrows wherein he alwayes reserved a profound respect for Menalippa not permitting himself the consolation of a murmur against her commands At length he arrived upon the Frontiers of Dacia and his Esquires not knowing what would be his Design saw him fall sick of a Disease which proceeded from his Grief and had like to have brought him to his Grave they found the commodity to conduct him to a little Town though against his will where they concealed both his true Name and also that of Alcimedon by his own order and there they serv'd him so carefully that what neglect soever he had for his life they preserved it by their diligence and intreaties yet could not this health be restored in some Months during which time though he yielded to the will of his Esquires and received the succors of nourishment which they gave yet he lived in such a manner that his life could not be properly called any other than a continual death In the mean while the great Discourse was concerning the preparations against Scythia and being perfectly cured of the indisposition of his body he left the little Town to continue his Journey hearing that the Rival Princes had joined their Troops with those of the Queen of Dacia and had begun their march towards Scythia What Despair soever possessed his Soul and how great an indifference he shewed to all things that regarded not the cause of his grief he could not but kindle at this report and as he loved Honour as dearly as Menalippa and alwayes preserved great tendernesses and respects for his Father the almost extinguisht flame of courage began to rekindle neither could his mortal sadness forbid him to go whither his Honour and Paternal Love and the hatred he bare to those presumptuous Rivals call'd him He found himself daily more and more confirm'd in this solution but it was resisted by the love of Menalippa and considering that he could not take up Arms for his Father without turning them against his Princess he knew not how to satisfie both his duty and his love nor please the one without offending the other How would he say shall I not succor the King my Father against those unworthy Rivals who perhaps aim more at his Life than his Kingdom And alas replied he How shall I fight against Menalippa to whom maugre her cruelty I will perserve a faith inviolable so long as I live But ah I must not leave the King my Father without assistance in the extremities to which his life may be expos'd so long as I can hold a Sword and yet shall I carry my Arms against Menalippa No the dues of Nature cannot disingage me from those of love With these Contests he grievously tormented himself visiting many unknown Provinces or rather many Forrests and horrible Desarts where he ordinarily sought his Retreats unable to to take any certain resolution and I think he would have remained irresolute to the end without being able to declare either against Love or Nature if in passing near a Temple of Apollo famous for the Oracle it gave he had not consulted that god at the solicitations of his Esquires whose answer was thus THE ORACLE Go Thy Father help thy Mistress see And so Repress that Grief which presseth thee This Answer so clear beyond the custom of the Oracle wrought very much upon the spirit of Alcamenes and resolved the doubt of what resolution he ought to take and something eleveated his abated hopes he resolved therefore without weighing the business any further to march and succor his Father and Countrey and he fancied that by the command of the Oracle which injoined him to revisit his Princess he ought to hope for a change in his Fortune the storm of that anger which made her banish him being blown over These meditations dissipating part of his sadness gave him his health and intire forces and put him into a condition of serving his Father against the lovers of Menalippa He entred Scythia a few dayes after covered with the same black Arms he had born ever since his depart from Tenasia and marcht directly to the City of Serica where the King made his abode but before he got thither he understood that the King was gone to meet the Enemy and by good Fortune lighting upon Two or three thousand Horse which were the last Levies of the Province of the Issedons and the choice of Oronte's Cavalry Alcamenes made himself known unto them and putting himself at their Head marcht with all possible speed to Nicea and reacht it on the day of Battel as I have related On this manner the Prince Alcamenes passed his life since his depart from Tenasia and because there hapned nothing memorable to him during that time I have comprised it in a few words but will relate at large the following Events which seem to me more worthy your attention Scarce had the Prince whose resentments were divided betwixt Love and Duty rendred as he thought what was due to the one but he felt himself sollited to do the same Justice to the other and as in succouring the King his Father he had obeyed part of the command of the gods he believed to that whereby they commanded him to see the Princess Menalippa was due an equal obedience and he found himself powerfully enough carried by his inclination though he had not been obliged thereto by Religion He already resolved of the order he ought to take though it was not without trembling that he disposed himself to appear before Menalippa and it may be valiant as he was he would never have had the assurance to have done it if by the command of the gods he had not been incouraged and by the success of the beginning he had not expected a like event to the last effects of his obedience The morrow so soon as he was up he called Cleomenes a young man whom he loved dearly and who had been nourisht with him in age and person so like they were that a great part of the Scythians supposed him a subreptitious Child of the King Orontes he had indeed exceedingly the hair of the Prince whereby you might judge him next to Alcamenes the handsomest man amongst the Scythians he waited not on Alcamenes in his Travels because he was not with him in the Province whence he departed having a little before sent him to the
excessively afflicted ran to her Mistress loosening her cloaths to bring her to her self her pains were for sometime useless but at last the Princess opened her eys and returned from her faintings She cast her self again upon this dying body and by chance Leander at the same time perceived some remainder of life in him At least my Lord said she discover those Murtherers those Monsters that have reduced you to this condition The poor Cleomenes brought to his last sigh endeavoured to speak and desiring as I believe to discover the truth of this adventure Alcamenes Prince of Scythia said he with a voice so low that it was scarce intelligible Alcamenes Prince of Scythia repeated he but could say no more and death in this moment deprived him both of speech and life At the same time two or three Peasants who by the priviledge of the Truce had ventured to come and cut wood and who had seen all which hapned in the murther of Cleomenes came and offered their service to the Princess and unasked told what they saw and how that this man was slain by more than twenty Horse-men without having time to think of his defence so that Menalippa at that moment wherin she thought Alcimedon gave up the ghost remembred that she heard him name Alcamenes Prince of the Scythians and beleived he had murthered him which the wicked Peasants also confirmed and that he was accompanied by twenty men See how strongly Fortune sported against Alcamenes and think it not strange if the afflicted Princess accused him of the death of Alcimedon 'T was here where grief alone was a sufficient conduct to the Tomb and where the adjuncts of rage and fury rather diverted and hindered than advanced the violence of its effects and helpt to recall those forces which had left her to run to that vengeance which she breathed rather than to Death which was ready to imbrace her She arose from the ground quite furious and casting upon this exspiring body a funest and mortal glance How Alcimedon said she dost thou dye before my eyes by the treason and cruelty of Alcamenes if I love thee not sufficiently to survive thy losse I should be weak and cowardly to run to death rather than to thy revenge This Barbarian whose courage hath been so much admired and with so much injustice fearing the Combate he was to maintain against thee this day hath murthered thee basely and inhumanely in the obscurity of the Wood and shall Menalippa to whom by the just anger of Heaven his treason is discovered deplore like a Woman and dye weakly like one of the people instead of executing that vengeance for which the gods have reserved her Ah! no Alcimedon expect not this imbecillity from a Courage which was never sufficiently known to thee I have it possibly comparable to that of men and this arm which hath given death to Bears and Boars shall Arm it self to destroy that Monster who hath snatched from me my Alcimedon She stopt here rowâ—ing in her mind a thousand furious thoughts whilst Leander and Belisa with a River of tears solemnized the Funeral of Alcimedon and the despair of Menalippa who after a long contest being resolved and wipeing off those tears which trickled from her fair eyes wherein rage and grief had an equal stock 'T is no time to weep Menalippa said she 't is on indifferent griefs we should bestow our tears ours requires blood 't is with blood they must be washed away but with Menalippa 's it demands also that of Alcamenes Finishing these words she turned towards Leander and beholding him with eyes swoln from whom in spight of all her resistance a river of tears perpetually flowed Leander said she Alcimedon is dead for me and I ought to be reproacht with his death since it was my Enemy and my interests that took him out of the world I have loved Alcimedon Leander and I scruple no longer to let you know it I have loved him living and I love him still dead as he is more than I love my own life Oh! would to the gods that by the lesse of this unfortunate life I could save that of my faithful my beloved Alcimedon and Oh! would that he breathed in the stead of that unfortunate wretch who now deplores in vain his decease but since it is not permitted me to recall his breath by the exchange of mine I will revenge his death for the Gods have not acquainted me with it and discovered its author by ways so extraordinary but to let me understand that to me only is reserved this vengeance But in telling you my design O Leander O Belisa I also declare that if you indeavor to hinder it you shall see me plunge this steel in my brest and so you 'l make me doubly miserable in taking away the consolation which I hope for before my death speak not one word therefore to divert me from my resolution and help to Arm me with those unfortunate Arms beneath which my poor Alcimedon hath given up the ghost I have strength enough to carry them and to rule his Sword and it was doubtlesse for this action to which the Gods reserved me that I used my self to the chase of wild Beasts and exercises more sutable to men than persons of our sex it was not without mystery that I received from heaven a composition and force of body nothing ordinary and I will make use of in this occasion of that which possibly is not ordinarily placed in a woman when I am Arm'd and have left you expect here my return in two or three hours and if I comenot in that time put this precious body in the Chariot and conduct it into our Tents there to receive the Funeral rites See what I have resolved and fail not in the obedience which I desire if you intend not to hurry me to the utmost extremities of despair The desperate Princess speaking thus Belisa and Leander observed something so terrible in her eyes and face that they lost all the courage and resolution they had taken to contradict her and certainly in those sad moments Love and the Graces had forsaken the beauties of Menalippa to give place to those furies which tormented her and she appeared to those afflicted persons in a posture so terrible that fear overcame them and they durst not oppose that resolution which they condemned Leander at her reiterated command despoyl'd the cold bloody body of its Arms and Casque and Belisa having taken from the Princess her long encombring habits she covered her head with the Casque though bloody in some places and with Leanders help she buckled about her the Arms which she kist and washt with tears as she put them on Being Arm'd she appeared like some Bellona or something more dreadful and by the fury which doubled her forces she seemed no more troubled with the Arms than if she had used them all her life I have told you that her stature was extraordinary
most mortal Enemy Their Casques so disguised each others voice that they could not discern it yet Alcamenes knew that it was not Cleomenes found himself in a great confusion and his own confusion turning into a fury which Menalippa was not likely to resist What soever thou art said he with a menacing tone thou shalt lose thy life by the hand of Alcamenes and thou hast done ill to draw me out of an order which might have preserved thee He accompanied these words with many blows which put Menalippa into disorder and made her Arms blush with some drops of blood The Judges and Spectators observed this redoubled fury and easily perceived a difference between the beginning and the end of the Combate The Princess could no longer sustain the shower of blows which fell upon her which drew blood in many places and at last the irritated Alcamenes pressing her between his arms though she yielded in strength to few men and that she imployed at this time all that nature hath given her he threw her to the Earth and tearing off her Casque with violence You must dye said he or yield me the victory He had scarce finished these few words but casting his eys upon his Enemies face he saw the tresses of long hair which discovered her sex and perceived at last in spight of all contrary appearances the face of Menalippa O Gods how great was the Prince Alcamenes's astonishment at this sight and with what motions was he seized at so unexpected a spectacle Truly great Princesses it is difficult to express that which he that resented it is certainly unable to relate Astonishment gave place to grief and beside the sorrow he received for the wounds he gave her and in that he had presented his threatning Sword to her fair face he could not see Menalippa metamorphosed into a Souldier for his destruction without becoming infinitely sensible of the hatred which carried her to so great an extremity imagining that she knew him as Alcimedon and as Alcamenes and that Cleomenes had discovered or betray'd him Menalippa gave him time to make this reflexion through the astonishment which her fall had caused but when she was come to her self seeing that she was between the arms of her Enemy who had not lifted up the vizor of his Casque because for divers reasons he would not shew his face to the Judges she indeavoured to dis-intangle her self and to seize the Sword which he held in his hand but Alcamenes holding her arm and pressing hers between his more like a lover than an Enemy Ah Menalippa said he what hatred is this that hath carried you to such violent extremities against Alcamenes Alcimedon hath incurr'd your displeasure but Alcimedon hath been sufficiently punished and I have made him suffer those miseries which possibly your self would have been so pitiful not to have ordained him Instead of culpable Alcimedon receive Alcamenes whom I present unto you in whom you will find all the love and all the fidelity which were sometimes agreeable to you in the person of Alcimedon and you will find here those advantages which you could not have met with in the person of a miserable Unknown Thus spake Alcamenes and it seemed that his evil Genius had dictated all the words he uttered so proper they were to confirm the Princess of the manner of Alcimedon's death and Alcamenes's Treason which working violent effects upon her spirit she dis-intangled her self from the passionate imbraces of her conquerour Traytor said she since thou hast punished Alcimedon punish also the unfortunate Menalippa and give her death by thy cruel hand or prepare thy self to receive thine from hers Alcamenes unable to hold her recoyled some paces and prepared to present his breast to satisfie her cruelty when he saw the Judges of the Field with him who during their contest had descended the Scaffold and knowing Menalippa they ran to separate them and interposing between them hindred her cruel intent but in a few moments the Judges were not alone for Amalthea with the Princes from her Scaffold having known the face of Menalippa and seeing it was her who fighting had received divers wounds unable to submit to the Empire of reason in the violence of her parental compassion which mastered it she cry'd Treason and that it was not against Alcimedon but Menalippa that Alcamenes had fought that the Princess was wounded possibly to death and that the cruel man who had put her into that condition ought to lose his life as a punishment of his crime As she uttered these words they cryed Arms which the Queen transported with grief hindred not The thousand Dacian Cavaliers who guarded the Field overthrew the Barriers to be revenged on Alcamenes but the Scythians who saw them did as much on their side to succour their Prince and if the most zealous of the Dacians took up their Princess to carry her into the Queens arms the most affectionate amongst the Scythians covered their Prince with their Bucklers and Bodies giving him time to take Horse and put himself into a fighting condition The two Judges of the Field having protested their innocency as to the breach of Treaty took leave of each other to attend their charges and in a short time this Field was the place of a general Battel then a particular Combate The King of Scythia beholding with displeasure the rupture of the Truce ran to his Troops and commanded all the Princes and Chiefs to their charges to draw the Army out into the best order which the necessity of affairs would permit Merodates Phrataphernes Euardes and his companions had performed the same on their parts and whil'st those who mingled themselves at the Combate in a disorderly and bloody confusion strove for the Victory by little and little increasing they saw themselves fortified by two great Armies As they fought in disorder so I cannot very orderly follow my discourse and as I oblige my self rather to the particular actions of Alcamenes than to theirs that fought for him I will only say that the Prince finding himself that day animated with the most violent grief and anger he had ever resented in his life he made those who were so unhappy as to present themselves before him such easie sacrifices that they rather took him for a Fury than any thing mortal This Battel had the form of a Massacre without choice or distinction party against party the vanquisht with the vanquisher and the dying with their Murtherers were invelloped in the same ruine Alcamenes who could not fear death but rather through his rage indeavoured to render his depart more funest to his Enemies left every where bloody marks of his fury The first of the Enemy-Princes who presented himself was the disloyal Orchomenes who fierce with the death of the pretended Alcimedon marcht to the encounter with more boldness than before and who conducted by his evil Genius and the Daemon revenger of perfidies durst with a Troop of his
and Desolation put on their true shape and if the whole Camp groaning for the losse of so many thousands that had been slain that day for the death of the Prince of Bithinia and the King of the Nomades and for that of a great number of principal Officers who had left their Bodies in the Field as Trophies of Scythian Valor The Queen to the great cause she had to regret this loss joyned the grief she resented at Menalippa's despair She caused her to be carried off the Field to be disarm'd and her wounds drest and though they were but light yet the unconsolable grief of the Princess would have put the least bodily distemper into a capacity of indangering of life In vain had the Queen imbraced her and bedewed her face with tears in vain had she conjured her by the most pressing words affection could put into her mouth to declare the cause of her despair and funest resolution The desperate Princess answered not but by sobbs and tears which flowed incessantly from her fair eys or if the afflicted Mother could sometimes force a few words from her they so savoured of rage and fury that they easily discovered her Soul to be possest with a mortal sadness But though Menalippa could not conceal her grief yet she would her love choosing rather to suffer the perpetual demands of the Queen than confesse she had loved Alcimedon and that it was for him she fought with Alcamenes and was faln into despair Notwithstanding the pre-occupation of her Soul she caused Belisa to order the Body of Alcimedon secretly to be buried which was very easie amongst so many thousands that kept him company and this Maid who with Leander had carried it to the Camp according to her orders would nevertheless divulge nothing of this adventure having not yet received the Princesses commands so she put the Body of Cleomenes in an unfrequented place where it could not be known by reason of the wounds in his face and being stript of Alcimedon's Arms which might have made him observed Menalippa in her design of concealing her love from the world received some satisfaction from this discretion of Belisa charging her to recommend the secret to Leander and all those who knew ought of this adventure The Queen pressed her uncessantly to reveal the truth partly to understand the cause of her despair and also to know how she came by Alcimedon's Armour and what was become of that valiant man and how he permitted her to fight in his place yet he could never draw the least word out of her mouth that might give any satisfaction in what she desired and all that she could obtain was a promise to declare the truth within six days on condition that till then she would give her the liberty of her tears without troubling her for a clearer knowledge The Queen who even adored her and placed in her only all her affections and hopes was constaained to be satisfied with this promise and though she disapproved and condemned the furious resolution and Combate of her Daughter which she could not attribute but to a violent despair yet durst she not blame her for this action as she would doubtless have done had she been in a condition capable of reproof Yet was not Menalippa's heart so replenisht with her own misfortunes but there was room left to resent the Queen's and seeing her drowned in tears at her Pillow Madam said she I render my self unworthy by my folly of that bounty you testifie towards me In the Name of the Gods allay the troubles of your spirit and hope with me from the bounty of Heaven that mine will repose it self when yours becomes more serene Ah Menalippa reply'd the Queen with a sigh You have little reason to imagine my spirit can be at rest whilst yours remains in the condition it now appears and you have little valued my repose when you exposed a Daughter more dear to me than my own life to the conquering Sword of the valiantest man upon Earth I am not reply'd sadly Menalippa the first person of my sex that hath drawn a Sword against men and you your self have inspired me with Warlike inclinations by the education you gave me however this action may partly be excused to you by the hatred which with my milk you have made me suck against the Fâmily of Orontes and which I believed might reasonably transport me to this extremity against the Son of my Fathers Murtherer against a man who robbs us of the hopes of revenge and of the possession of Scythia which the Gods hath promised us and against a man to whom for other reasons also I have an irreconcileable aversion It must be Menalippa reply'd the Queen and shaking her head that these desperate resolutions against Alcamenes have some deeper causes than those that are common to us both and were he not born of your Father's Murtherer he hath done nothing in this War nor in the Combate against you but what might rather cause esteem than aversion Pardon me Madam repli'd Menalippa brisquely in that my resentments are not conformable to yours and if I have not generosity to love enough vertue in mine Enemies Amalthea knew by the manner of pronouncing these words that she could not contradict her without augmenting her affliction and a little after going out of the Chamber she permitted her to passe the night through her instant intreaties without any other company save that of Belisa During the remainder of this night which she gave wholly to sighs and tears for unhappy Alcimedon she made often reflections on the actions and words of Alcamenes in the Combate and observing amongst those cruel ones whereby he owned the death of Alcimedon that he was in love with her and offered himself to her with all the marks of a passionate man she became astonisht at the quick birth of his love and flattered her self possibly notwithstanding her mortal grief with the glory of such a conquest and of the quick and marvellous effects of her beauty After a long revery If it be true said she that Alcamenes loves me I praise the gods for the occasions they have given me of revenging his cruelty by that I will exercise against him and if the Barbarian be so happy to escape the death which I prepare for him I will make him feel from this heart pre-occupied by a passion so just all that a just resentment can inspire me with of most cruel and most conformable to the hatred I bear him In these furious thoughts she passed the night and part of the next day receiving some nourishment and permitting them to dresse her wounds not out of love to life but of design to imploy it wholly in revenging Alcimedon Part of the day was past when they came to advertize the Queen that the Prince of the Tauro-Scythes desired admittance from the King of Scythia What hatred soever she bare his Master yet knew she how to treat Ambassadours
might long have spoken without the Princes interruption for it was the ill Fortune of Alcamenes that he was faln into a Swoon without which he had spoken and made himself known to Menalippa and by that discovery had finished those cruel Traverses which so long had persecuted his life but the gods would not that this hour should be the last of his sufferings When he came to himself and considered the condition wherein he was and called to mind all that had past his memory gave him occasion enough to exercise all his vertues and he had certainly need of all his constancy and all the iudeavours of the King to consent to the care that they took of his life which promising to permit he ingaged the King to set Menalippa at liberty and the King gave him his word that the next Morning she should depart with an honourable Train which should conduct her even into her Mothers Arms. They ingaged themselves on this manner one to the other by this mutual promise and if the Father sacrificed to the love he bare his Son all his resentments against Menalippa Alcamenes divested himself for his Fathers sake of all the aversion he had to life and resolved to suffer those remedies either in hope they would be fruitless or out of Design that in case he escaped this wound he would seek Menalippa in Dacia and dye there before her eyes When the King was gone out of his Chamber he sent for Sosthenes one of the two Squires that had served him in his Travels the other had been killed in the first Battel and this returned to the City but the day before from a Government which the King had given him Alcamenes by his swooning had lost part of those words which Menalippa spake yet heard enough to understand that she accused him of some wickedness and black Treason As he knew himself blameless in any thing save the innocent change of his Arms and the supposition of Cleomènes he would let Menalippa understand before his death part of those things he had to say to her so that causing Sosthenes to draw near his Bed whatever the Physitians could say to the contrary he caused him to write that which with much pains he dictated ordaining him to give it to Menalippa after his death this being finished and his spirit left to its last resolutions he appeared more quiet than before he inquired concerning Merodates's health commanding their attendance on him with as much care as on himself charging his Servants to excuse him being hindred by his wounds from rendring him those assistances which he ought He returned thanks to all the principal Scythians who stirred not from his Anti-Chamber enquiring continually concerning his recovery and in all things he gave them reason to judge that his spirit was much calmed but though this appeared with probability enough it is also certain that Alcamenes's grief was now come to its utmost extremity In the mean time Menalippa having demanded permission to visit Merodates testified to him by the most obliging words her grief and natural fierceness would permit her acknowledgment of the Service he would have done her and her sorrow to see him wounded for her interests but she was astonisht when she heard Merodates instead of the passionate Discourses he used to make to speak of nothing but the vertues of Alcamenes testifying the displeasure he resented at the wound she had given him protesting that if it pleased the gods to save him he would divest himself for his sake of all those thoughts he had entertained for her advising her to change her hatred into acknowledgment and love and a firm desire of rendring him possessor of that happiness who of all men breathing did most highly deserve it Menalippa was so angry at these words of Merodates in favour of Alcamenes and Alcimedon's Murtherer that having exprest her resentments by angry looks she left the Chamber without Reply Yet could she not hinder the strife of different thoughts which combated in her breasts and that rage which she preserved against Alcimedon's Murtherer left room for a reflection on the love and perseverance of a Prince who dyed by her hand with so much resignation who desired she might be treated with so much respect even then when he felt the pains of that Death which she had indeavoured to give him and who in these last sighs of his life could never be drawn to the least complaint against her Her implacable fury could not hinder the Entertain of some tender thoughts and it is certain that had she believed Alcamenes guilty of any other Crime than the Death of Alcimedon she would have given the Garland to pity which combated her other resentments with a powerful force Immortal gods said she that the wicked and cruel Treason of Alcamenes should be comparable with his Vertues And could he who testifies so much Valor and Generosity in Combats so much perseverance and love to his pitiless Enemy and so much constancy in his Death should be the man who in the obscurity of a Wood by the help of twenty men should murther the innocent Alcimedon Injurious fortune must the wicked and perfidious become vertuous only to render me Criminal hast thou not made me see hast thou not made me love hast thou not made me lose the unfortunate Alcimedon all to arm me against thee as an unfortunate Alcamenes From hence making a reflection upon her past Fortune and the present condition of her life all her constancy could not divert a River of tears which powred down her fair Cheeks passing the rest of this day notwithstanding the comforts her faithful Belisa indeavoured to give in most mournful and deplorable imployments But if the day was cruel to her the insuing Night was nothing less sad and having sufficiently tormented her self by the remembrance of Alcimedon and Alcamenes sleep at last rendred it self Master of her Senses After many confused Visions that Alcimedon whom she had continued in her thoughts presented himself before her in a Dream He appeared as he was when most dear to her memory though pale and covered with blood having his side pierced with a great wound like that which she had given Alcamenes the beloved Prince seemed to point at the wound with one hand and stretching forth the other with a passionate Action Menalippa said he see how you recompense my love behold the performance of your special promises you have thrust the steel unprofitably into my Breast for against a heart which hath alwayes adored you there needs no other arms than those of your hatred behold this blood which you have cruelly spilt and pour forth the rest if you are so thirsty after it but remember that you indeavour your own misfortune and that you cannot persecute my life as you do without submitting your own to new afflictions content your self at least with the evils you have already done me seeing that even in just occasions of anger
added she that this generous spirit came whilst I slept indeavouring to disarm my spirit against Alcamenes and I begin to understand his threat of sending the Ghost of Alcimedon to me though I cannot imagine what power he hath so to do But Sosthenes since Alcimedon hath so dearly loved Menalippa and that Menalippa hath preserved so much amity for Alcimedon Wherefore after the loss of your Master have you not after Leanders example fix't your self in Menalippa's Service but in that of Alcamenes This Discourse began to trouble Sosthenes imagining with some movements of pity that grief had disturbed Menalippa's judgment but as he was preparing a Reply Leander entred the Chamber quite out of breath and accosted the Princess with a mighty astonishment Madam said he I come to tell you News that will certainly surprize you and fill you with Repentance for many of your Actions Menalippa whose spirit was already very unsetled had not power to answer which Leander taking for a permission to speak Madam pursued he in passing through the next street I saw two men fighting with a mighty animosity I drew near to part them but just as I came one of the two having received a mortal wound fell at my feet I drew near to help him but whilst I was upon this friendly office I saw my self incompassed with a great Number of others who came upon the same Account Your succours are unprofitable said the wounded person to me I perceive I must dye and the gods who at this time have justly deserted me have permitted this in punishment of the Murther I committed on the person of Alcimedon These words exceedingly surprized me How said I are you one of those that Alcamenes made use of to kill Alcimedon Alcamenes replied this man contributed nothing to the Death of Alcimedon it was by the Command of Orchomenes King of the Nomades whose Subject I am and who with Nineteen more of my Companions murthered that valiant man near the City of Nicea Alcamenes was so far from being Alcimedon's Murtherer that he revenged it on the person of Orchomenes whom he slew in the Battal These words having thrust me into a marvellous astonishment Friend said I in the Name of the gods hide not the Truth of that Relation which you have begun it is of so great importance and will conduce to the justification and repose of some so considerable persons that you may expect very great Rewards if the gods spare your life I pretend no longer to life reply'd he and in the last moments thereof I should be sorry to lye in charging my self with a Crime which will render my memory odious That which is only like to justifie me is that Orchomenes was my King and that I am a Nomadian by birth and at that time commanded those Troops which composed his Life-guard Then related he to more than Fifty persons that were present that Orchomenes having nourisht a violent hatred against Alcimedon for the death of his brother and the imprisonment himself suffered by his Valor no sooner saw this Prince return to the Dacian Camp but he designed his death and immediately after his departure from the Queens Tents caused some to observe which way he went and being informed he commanded me to take twenty more of my Companions and attend Alcimedon's return and kill him how he could promising excessive recompences and giving part before hand This order was punctually observed for the innocent Alcimedon the next Morning cast himself into our Ambuscado where he was born to the Earth and pierced with twenty wounds in the face and throat Thus Madam did he declare the circumstances so that there is no reason to doubt but that it was so carried a little after notwithstanding all our indeavours to prolong his life till the end of his Confession he dyed in our Arms and I ran with all diligence to relate the News which will be confirmed by more than fifty Witnesses This was Leanders Relation and Menalippa had too much confidence in his fidelity to doubt the Report and so called no other Witness but when she made reflection upon the dying words of Alcimedon who had uttered no other Name but that of Alcamenes her confusion remained and could perceive no light in these contrary appearances It is true said she aloud 't is true that Alcamenes hath testified too much vertue in all his Actions to be guilty of so black a Murther yet it is true replied she that Alcimedon did name Alcamenes and Alcamenes himself seemed to confess the Crime and to glory in the death of Alcimedon The Prince of the Massegetes who was present all this time understood nothing at all and Sosthenes who understood a part was ignorant of the rest and more astonisht than any He knew the Prince had never told the King his Father any thing of those Adventures which hapned to him under the Name of Alcimedon so that before the Prince of the Massegetes he would not speak more clearly to Menalippa not utter those things which his astonishment had put into his mouth but beholding her in a strange perplexity and mortal inquietude Madam said he you may believe Leanders Relation and if you will but see Alcamenes this one time I dare promise you that you will be certainly convinced it was not he who slew Alcimedon The Princess confounded raising her self at these words Yes Sosthenes said she I will revisit Alcamenes and this Truth which I desire to know is sufficiently important to make me pass beyond my resentments I cannot understand after those words I heard from him how he could be innocent of Alcimedon's death but if he be really so I will so repair the Cruelties which I have exercised towards him that I am sure he will grant my pardon At these words she arose and desiring Sosthenes to demand the Princes leave to see him she followed him immediately and was almost so soon there as he The Prince whose wound had made many promises that day of amendment and the King who was with him understood with astonishment her demand nor could they divine the cause though the Prince imagined his Letter had done it and resolving his spirits against any thing cruel or funest that could arrive he prepared to receive this second Visit of Menalippa with more courage than the former and the King thought he saw some beams of joy darting a good augure from Sosthenes's face Menalippa entred the Chamber followed by Leander and Belisa but it was with less fierceness and more sweetness than formerly The King caused a Chair to be set for her by Alcamenes's Bed where being fate Alcamenes said she with an assured countenance I come to make that reparation which I owe to you if you are innocent or which I owe my self if you are guilty of that Fact which I would have punished by the loss of your life I will make a confession of that before the King and other persons here present which
Beauty with all the agitations that a soul that hath lost all command of it self can be capable of He had not hardly had the confidence to open his mouth had he not been encouraged by the presence of Emilia whom he knew to be favourable to him and from whom he expected some relief But at last having rallyed a the courage he had he sets one knee on the ground and looking on Tullia in a trembling posture I should not presume to importune you with my sight Madam said he to her if I thought not my self obliged to make you some satisfaction for the injury I have done you and though Cecinna hath in some sort justified me by telling you that I onely stood in a defensive posture against him yet the displeasure I have done you is greater than to be passed over with such a reparation There was no need of this last misfortune to heighten the aversion you have ever had for the unfortunate person that now adores you and this sight of you which I so earnestly begged before should not have been granted me together with that of an accident which can raise in you nothing but horrour for this so unhappy a wretch But since it is the disposal of heaven it is but just that both Heavens anger and yours should be appeased and since I am already so well acquainted with your heart as to believe I shall find in you all the resolution requisite to revenge your self and to do right to the Manes of Cecinna here take the sword continued he drawing it and presenting her with the hilt take the sword that hath taken away the life of Cecinna thrust it into this breast which lyes open to you and spare not after the injury I have done you a life which even in a condition of innocence hath ever been odious to you At these words Tullia who all the while would not so much as look towards him but turned her face another way gave him such a sudden and furious look that haply upon the first sallies of the violent passions she was then absolutely subject to she might have granted the desolate Antonius the death he so much desired and that accordingly she would have taken the sword he presented to her and whereof the very sight very much enflamed her indignation when she perceived upon it certain drops of Cecinna's blood But the prudent Emilia fastening immediately upon it got it not without much difficulty from Antonius and this she did as well in regard of the uncertainty she was in as to Tullia's intention as to prevent that desperatè Prince from making use of it against himself as he might have done in the distraction his grief had then put him into Tullia continued for some time without so much as opening her mouth expressing the agitations of her soul by her looks and silence more effectually than she could haply have done by her words But at last not able to master the impetuosity thereof and looking on the prostrate Antonius with eyes wherein through the tears that fell from them the fire of her indignation discovered it self but too apparently Unmercifull disturber of my quiet said she to him thou who being the issue of my Fathers Executioners art resolved not to degenerate from their cruelty Is it possible that thy inhumanity cannot be satisfied either with the bloud of Cicero spilt by thy Friends nor with that Cecinna which thou hast shed thy self but thou must persecute to the death an Unfortunate Mayd who hath not without reason avoided thee and who never yet gave thee the least offence Dost thou hope stained with the bloud of him that was to be her Husband that she can regard that odious passion which hath proved the cause of all her unhappinesse Or dost thou imagine she can look otherwise on thee than a Monster and the foulest object of detestation and horrour Go Barbarian go Sonne of Fulvia and disturb no longer the Daughter of the Unfortunate Cicero for whom thy cruelty hath opened a source of tears which no passion could ever have made her shead As she uttered these words which came from her attended with a deluge of tears she rested her face on Emilia's arm when Scipio who was then in quest of either his Mistress or his Friend came into the place directed thither haply by the gods to prevent my Brother's despair He was in few words made acquainted with all that past and though compassion had that effect which it could not but produce in him yet he made a shift to smother it the better to serve his Friend and so joyned with Emilia to oppose those sentiments of hatred and indignation which Tullia had conceived against my Brother But notwithstanding all their arguments intreaties and remonstrances she was still as inflexible as ever and the suppliant posture wherein Antonius had continued all this while or the abundance of tears he shed after her example could not raise in her the least touch of compassion nor any way moderate her exasperation When he saw that the mediation of Emilia and his Friend proved altogether ineffectual rising up from the place where he was and looking very dreadfully on Tullia I now see Tullia said he to her that nothing but my death can satisfie you and I were very much to blame if being neer the dead body of Cecinna I should hope to find that pitty from you which in the greatest innocence of my life and amidst the most prevalent expressions of my love I could never obtain nor indeed was it to your compassion that I addressed my self but I defied the implacable aversion you have for me to put a period to that life for which you have so much horrour I must confesse I should have embraced death more kindly from your hands than my own as conceiving your revenge would be the more absolute when you took it your self But since Emilia hath deprived you of that satisfaction which yet had been but proportionable to the grief I have innocently caused you I shall make it my own businesse to sacrifice to you the remainder of this life which hath been so unfortunately preserved and is so cruelly abhorred With these words he pretended as if he would go away with an action not far from extravagance but Scipio who during his discourse was gotten neer him stayed him and Tullia implacable as she was yet having abundance of vertue about her would not leave in the persons that heard her the sentiments which her distraction might have raised in them so that endeavouring once more to express her self to Antonius yet without looking on him I come not out of a cruel race such as thine is said she to him nor do I desire any bloudy reparations for the injury thou hast done me I neither wish thy death nor thy life and leave thee Master of a Fate wherein I never intend to be ary wayes engaged but if the horrid outrages which my family and my self
those expressions of her affliction and those imperious remainders of love that were yet left in my soul did partly produce therein the effect she desired but a little after through the cruel prejudice that had taken root there all was dashed out again and I had no more regard to what she did then as if it had been meer personation and sycophancy At last after a many dayes silence she would needs force me to speak and having found me all alone in my chamber whither I was often wont to retire since the change of my humour she runs to me with her face bathed in tears and grasping both my hands with an action full of earnestnesse and passion Ah my dearest Husband said she to me shall I be any longer unhappy and not know the cause of my unhappinesse And will you by so many several expressions make it appear to all the World that I am odious in your sight and not acquaint me by what horrid misfortune I have lost your affection Am I lesse worthy of it now than I have been formerly by reason of some defect which you have discovered in my person or have I made my self unworthy of it by any offence I have committed against you To these words she added a many others no lesse earnest and pressed upon me so far that I could not forbear making her some answer Madam said I to her methinks you take abundance of pains to expresse with your tongue that which hath no acquaintance with your heart and if my quiet had been so dear to you as you would make me believe you would not have utterly ruined it by your own cruel inconstancy 'T is enough for me to be miserable and not that you should aggravate my misery by your dissimulation and you ought to be satisfied with what I have suffered hitherto and not put my affection to greater tryalls Elisena seemed to be extreamly troubled at these words as I could easily observe in her countenance but mustring up all her strength together to recover her self My Lord said she to me it is not any change in me that disturbs your quiet or may have been the occasion of that which is happened in your self The gods are my witnesses that I am the same woman to you that ever I was and that my life is innocent even to the least thoughts It is very strange replied I that the thoughts should be innocent when the actions are criminal and that when they appear such not onely to the eyes of a Husband but to the eyes of a thousand other persons These words were a little indigestible to Elisena so that she took a little time to ruminate upon them without making me any answer but with the countenance of a person recollecting and examining her self to find out wherein she had offended At last looking on me with an action which spoke something of clearnesse and confidence Can it be possible said she to me that the cause of my unhappinesse must be no other than the demonstrations of kindnesse and friendship which have past between me and Cleontes And knowing me so well as you ought to know me is there any possibility that you should perswade your self that in the good entertainment I make him there can be any thing criminal or unhandsome The demonstrations of your affection towards Cleontes replyed I are so publick and so remarkable that you need not pretend so much astonishment that when all the World had taken notice of them they should at last come to my knowledge and you ought to be so much the lesse surprized at the effect they have wrought on my disposition if you but reflection the love I have had for you This proved another bone for her to pick so that she could not make any answer thereto till that she had been silent a good while with an action that discovered her uncertainty and losse of resolution At length lifting up her eies which she had all the time before fastened on the ground and directing them on me with a countenance much more setled and serene than before My Lord said she to me when I recollect my self and call to mind things that are now past I much acknowledge that there hath been some want of prudence in my carriage and if I have committed any fault no question but it hath been out of the excesse of confidence which I have had in your love I cannot deny but I have entertained Cleontes with very great demonstrations of a particular esteem nay I confesse that I have still abundance of respects for him as well upon the account of his own worth as for other reasons which oblige me thereto and which I shall acquaint you with when you shall give me leave to do it but I call all the gods witnesses of my innocence and desire them to send me some exemplary death before your face if ever I have injured you as much as in the least thought or ever discovered in Cleontes any design or intention that you might condemne I freely give you leave to take away my life if in processe of time you find not my words true and will accordingly be sorry for the injury you have done me In the interim I conjure you to restore 〈◊〉 your affection the losse whereof is much more insupportable to me then would be that of my life And since you have not taken it away from me but upon unfortunate apparences which rather argue my imprudence than bad intentions I shall make such provision against the like for the future that you shall not have the least occasion to suspect me This was the discourse of Elisena but uttered with so much assurance and serenity that I began to be perswaded she might be innocent whereupon that love whereof there were still some remainders in my heart speaking to me on her behalf with as much force as her words dispelled by little and little some part of my suspicions and if it could not absolutely clear them and make it a bright day in my mind it did at least put me into such a posture as that I was willing to hearken to what it suggested to me for her advantage and to expect her justification from time in stead of condemning her from what was past I immediately acquainted her with all the transactions that past in my soul promising that in case I should find her as innocent as she would perswade me she was I should love her with the same passion that I had ever had for her and she entertained that promise and assurance with such demonsâ—râ—tions of joy that I could not at that time suspect her guilty of any artifice From that day she began to live after another rate with Cleontes that is with much more reservedness and distance than formerly she forbore all secret meetings and private discourses with him and entertained him no otherwise than as civility required that such a person as Cleontes should be This
bemoaning empressions were the burthen of their carkasses and reciprocally wiping off one anothers tears they reiterated their kisses with so much love that a person the least subject of any in the World to suspicion would never have been 〈◊〉 but that there might be yet a further familiary between persons so passionaâ—â— Foâ— my part I made not the least question of it and from that fatal spectacle concluding my unhappiness undeniable I gave way to the rage then gaining ground upon me and 〈…〉 moment to consult upon the resolution I was to take to revenge my injured love 〈…〉 the loss of my honour I seldom went any where without my sword as ill fortune would have it I had it then about me I drew it transported with fury and running to one of the doors of the Arbour with so much hast that those two amorous persons had hardly the time to break off their kissing You must dye base perfidious wretches cryed I you must dye and putting my fury in execution upon the first object that offered it self it self it fell upon the unfortunate Elisena whom running with my sword in at the breast there needed not much strength to force it in up to the hilts Cleontes had the time to get out at one of the doors of the Arbour had got away as soon as he saw me appear with all the speed he could make but the unfortunate Elisena who stood neerest to me receiving the mortal wound fell down at my feet in a torrent of blood â—s she fell fastening on my knees she held me so that I could not get off from her to run after Cleontes In the mean time Elisena expiring strove as much as she could to speak and with abundance of difficulty made a shift to bring forth these words Zonodorus said she to me thou hast spilt innocent blood which will cry out for vengeance against thee but far be it from me to desire it of the gods and I forgive thee my death which my own imprudence and thy want of recollection hath brought me to thou wilt find that I have not injured thee and therefore content thy self that thou hast taken away my life and meddle not with Cleontes who is ............ She would have said somewhat else but ere she could bring it out both voice and life had taken their leaves of her This spectacle you may well imagine was deplorable enough to move me to some pitty and the love which I had formerly had for Elisena whom I saw expiring at my feet beautiful even in her paleness and amidst the very looks of death as amiable as ever she had been in her life must in all likelihood force me to some compassion But rage and fury being grown predominant over my soul and I looking on the loss of my honour as a thing infallibly certain and from the last words of Elisena when she recommended unto me the life of Cleontes and seemed so indifferent as to her own drawing no other conclusion than that of the excessive love she had for him my fury derives new strength from that cruel confirmation and leaving the body of Elisena in the hands of her Women who were come in at the noise out of a place where they waited hard by I pursued Cleontes with the sword all bloody in my hand that way that I had seen him run away He was gotten far enough from me and I should have found it no small difficulty to overtake him if at the same time a noise had not been spread about the Garden that Elisena was dead At this unhappy news Cleontes stayes not desirous to save his life after the misfortune which he had been the occasion of as I came into the Knot of the Garden I saw him coming towards me tearing his cloaths pulling his hair and filling the place with his lamentations Instead of avoiding my sword he would run upon the point of it and presenting his naked brest to me he therein received the mortal thrust which ran him through and through After he had gone two or three paces backward staggering he fell down at the feet of a Diana of Alablaster which stood at one of the corners of the Knot and as he fell embraced it Goodesse of chastity said he receive this life which I offer up to thee and if I stain it with my blood thou knowest it is pure and innocent There was something in these words that seemed so mild and withall so mournful that the better part of my fury was thereby abated and while a many persons were running to the place where I was the expiring Cleontes turning his eyes from the statue and fastening them on me Barbarous man said he to me hope not that the gods will pardon thee the death of the innocent Elisena though I forgive thee mine and since I have not life enough left me to convince thee of her innocence acknowledg it upon the sight of what I had never shewn any man and which thou of all mankind art the most unworthy to see With these words contracting together all the strength he had left he made a shift to open or to tear that which covered his stomack and by discovering to us a neck and breasts whiter then the Alablaster which he embraced easily satisfied us that he was a Woman Artaxus interrupting Zenodorus at this passage Heavens Zenodorus said he to him what is this that you relate to me and what an unfortunate adventure was this of yours Till now though there were things deplorable enough in your relation yet had I not been moved to compassion at any and I thought there was so much reason in all proceedings that I could not bemoane the distiny of two persons whom I conceived worthy the chastisement they received at your hands But these last words of your relation having changed the whole scene of the adventure and though there lies no more guilt on you then there would have done â—ad it been otherwise yet I must confesse you are so much the more to be pittyed You may very well think it my Lord replyed Zenodorus and with the same labour comprehend some part of what I was not then able to expresse At that sight that fatal sight that fatall and too slow discovery I was in a manner more like a dead carkase then those I had deprived of life and not able to oppose all the passions which then made their several assaults on my soul with as much violence as can be well imagined nor expresse them by wordâ— I was almost grown immoveable and senselesse in the arms of those persons that were about me I apprehended my self at the same to be the murtherer of two Women of two beautiful and amiable persons and two innocent persons whereof one had been my own Wife whom I had loved as dearly as my own soul and the other meerly upon the account of compassion had already raised in me an affection towards her This
heaven with eyes sparkling with indignation and an action expressing the very depth of despair Though gods and men cryed he and all the elements combine to ruine me yet shall they not abate a jot of my courage and if I must perish implacable destinies you shall find I can do it without either basenesse orremorse With these words he returns to Coriolanus as conceiving it absolutely necessary that he should be dispatched out of the way before the enemy were come up and thinking it now past time to dally and that he was to make all the haste hë could with him he comes up to him in such manner that the Prince after he had warded off certain blows which the other had made at him struck him over the head with all the strength he had The goodnesse of the head-piece saved him from death but it was not able to hinder him from being stunned in such wise that after he had staggered a while he fell down within some few paces of the Princesse Cleopatra Megacles ran immediately to help him and Artemisa out of the excellency of her good nature remembring what she ought her own bloud came to him and took up the visour of his head-piece to give him a greater freedom of breathing and more aire While he continued in that condition Cleopatra running to those that were still fighting against Coriolanus and who possibly notwithstanding his miraculous resistance would have dispatched him at last comes up to them without any fear and lifting up her voice that she might be the better heard Hold your hands said she to them and if you expect any favour from those whom you see coming to our assistance make no further attempt on the life of a Prince on whom your own will within these few minutes depend T is the onely way you have left you to secure your lives for you are not to hope for any mercy if you betake you not to your own Prince and by complyance make your selves worthy the pardon which I promise you These words proved effectual upon some part of those that heard them and particularly upon the Armenians who were most of them persons of considerable quality These were content to do as the Princesse would have them and giving over fighting went to see how their King did but the Pirates in whom the death of their leader and the despaire of pardon wrought a different effect were obstinate in the designe they had conceived to take away Coriolanus's life and though there were but one half of them left yet despaired not of revenging the death of Zenodorus The Prince perceiving himself eased not onely of the greatest part of his enemies but also of the most dangerous and most valiant valued not much those that remained and though he must needs be very much weakened as well by the continual action he had been in as by some slight wounds he had received yet was he now in greater hopes than ever of gaining the victory and delivering Cleopatra In the mean time Artaxus who had onely been stunned with the heavy blow he had received comes at length to himself by the assistance they had given him but ere he had so far recovered himself as to know all that were about him and become master of his strength that is before he was in a condition to discern what passed in the ship and to give out orders about any thing the other that was coming in to the assistance of Cleopatra and which had already been known to be one of those of Alexandria was gotten so neer that they could hear them hollow that were within her and in a manâ—er discern their faces Artaxus having got up and taken his sword again looked about him of all sides and perceiving that all his hopes were vanished he was convinced his final ruine was at no great distance He sighed again for very grief and rage as coâ—ceiving himself not to be in a condition either to execute his revenge or keep Cleopatra in his possession and therefore was at such losse and irresolution that he knew not what side to take Whiâ—e in the interim the other ship came on still with such speed and such hollowing that it was out of all question she was an enemy and indeed within a few minutes after Cleopatra and Artemisa perceived in the head of those that were coming to their assutance Prince Marcellus and Prince Alexander who that they might be known to the Princesses had raised up the visours of their head-pieces If their joy was extraordinary the grief of Ataxus who upon the first sight knew Alexander was no lesse violent He blâ—sphemed against Heaven and railed at his evil fortune and that hateful sight filled him no doubt upon the first apprehension thereof with satal resolutions We must perish cryed he but it is but just we bury under our ruines those that should derive any felicity from our destruction And for thy part Alexander said he loud enough to be heard by him assure thy self thou shall not laugh at the dâ—feat of Artaxus With these words he comâ—s up to the two Princesses and looking on them with eyes red with blood and fire he put them into a greater fright then ever they had known before See bere said he these are either my security or my victimes what shall escape my love shall never escape my revenge and if it be lost to me it shall be lost to all the World besides As he uttered these words he took Artemisa in the left hand and with the right presenting the point of his inhuman weapon to the fair breast of Cleopatra he directs his fatal looks on Alexander and Marcellus just at the instant that they were preparing all things to fasten the grappling-irons and addressing his speech to the Son of Anthony Alexander said he to him hope not thou shalt have any thing to rejoice at in the misfortune of thy enemy and think not to triumph over me so many several wayes as thou hast through the malice of my fortune and the persidiousness of Artemisa It was through the basenesse of this Princesse that she ever came into thy power and the revenging gods have been pleased that Cleopatra should fall into mine but if my Sister hath been too susceptible of thy love thine hath been too ungratful to entertain the affection I have had for her Thou returnest again conducted by that Fortune which hath ever been in hostility against me with a design and haply in a condition to force them both out of my hands but know that thy hope hath deluded thee and all thou art to expect from this enterprize is the death of these two Princesses Thou maist save their lives by directing thy course some other way and leaving me at liberty to pursue mine but if thou losest a single minute in considering what resolution thou should take thou shalt find me already resolved to sheath this sword in the breasts of Cleopatra and Artemisa
to a mortal oblivion of him that had adored you with so much fidelity and to new inclinations for a dying man whom you had never seen before and one that had 〈◊〉 the death of those persons whom you thought dearest to you I return Eurinoe I return almost from Hell to reproach you with your prodigious inconstancy and the gods have been pleased to restore me to life contrary both to your expectation and my own that I might come and represent to you the many oaths and protestations wherein you have called them to witness to your promises of an eternal affection for me Is it possible that you can call them to mind without remoâ—se and confusion and can so many demonstrations of my love which you sometime valued at the highest rate come into your memory and not raise in you either a secret grief or a secret repentance Your hand was lifted up to thrust a dagger into the heart of my Murtherer and by an extravagance of passion you were hurried into extremities not ordinary to your sex when that fatal sight gave a check to your cruelty and that new love possessing it self of your soul in an instant forced thence the unfortunate Teramenes in such manner that you hardly remembred he had once lived In the mean time my life was preserved to my greater misfortune and I wish it had pleased the gods to have put a period to it at that very minute when your affection ceased and that their assistance and that of men had not proved so effectual as to restore it me to make me fall into the greatest unhappiness that ever man groaned under Do you imagine Eurione that Heaven hath not a punishment for so strange an infidelâ—ty and that the cries of a desperate and an injured Lover will not bring upon your head those misfortunes which his Love permits him not to wish you To this effect was the discourse of Teramenes which fell from him with a certain action that raised in me abundance of pittie and he would have said more had not the excess of his grief prevented him when Eurinoe having quite recovered her self as convinced both by the things which she heard and by what Pelorus had told her would needs stop the torrent of his words Whereupon smothering that confusion and remorse which had tied up her tongue so long she looked on Teramenes not without some remainders of the fright he had put her into and not long after venturing to speak though with difficulty enough Whatever thou art said she to him whether the Ghost of Teramenes or Teramenes himself alive thou hast killed my soul with terrour and astonishment I cannot look on thee in that condition after I had honoured thy cold and bloody body with the last demonstrations of my Love but I must needs be disturbed at so strange an adventure Assure thy self therefore that what thou hast observed in my countenance is meerly the effect of that trouble and not of that confusion and remorse which thou dost reproach me with and though it might haply have proved more advantageous to my self to have continued my affections to thee even after thy death since it was decreed thou shouldst come to life again yet is it certain that thou hast lost them by a misfortune which I have not any way contributed to With what justice Teramenes canst thou charge me with any infidelity towards thee Have I been any way backward in the Love I had promised thee to the very last minute of thy life or did we perswade one another that our Love should last beyond this life What law is that which engages one to this eternity of affection towards the dead or by what symptomes could I judge that thou shouldst return to life after I had caused thee to be brought out of the Field in order to thy burial Those demonstrations of love which I gave thee and what else thou maist have understood from the unfaithful Pelorus were they the effects of an ordinary passion and was there not ground enough thou shouldest be satisfied with a passion which engaged me to do things beyond the bounds of Reason To revenge thee I became contrary to my natural inclinations more cruel than a Lyoness and would have attempted the life of an expiring Prince at whose sight even Tygresses would have been moved to compassion If I therefore were moved thereat if the will of the gods and generosity obliged me to assist him and if since as thou art too well informed to be denied any thing his excellent endowments or some superiour irresistible power have forced my inclinations and taken that place in my heart which was not to be eternally kept empty for one that was dead dost thou find in this misfortune that horrid infidelity which thou reproachest me with or didst thou imagine that my obligations were as great to thy ghost as they were while living to thy self No Teramenes think not that thou canst accuse me with any justice and if thou hast been so unhappy to loose my affections by an adventure so prodigious quarrel with heaven whose will it was it should be so and not with my will which hath contributed nothing thereto As to the misfortune which thou bewailest so much my condition is not a jot happier than thine thou maist elsewhere find a better fortune than thou canst expect with the unfortunate Eurinoe while in the mean time it is destined she should be eternally miserable and exposed to that chastisement of heaven which thou saiest must fall upon me and which indeed I have already felt The period of this discourse of Eurinoe's was a shower of tears which it lay not in her power to keep in any longer Whereupon Teramenes whom it put to the extremity of grief by reason there could not be a greater confirmation of the reality of his unhappinesse casting a dreadful look upon her No no Eurinoe said he to her I shall accuse you no longer but acknowledge with you and submit to that irresistible power which hath forced your inclinations But in regard my life might do your reputation some prejudice in the world though my tongue were silent and that it is not to be doubted but that I am now as abominable as ever I was amiable in your sight it is but just my life should here determine and that in such a manner that you may not be therein mistaken a second time The greatest regret I now have at my death is that I leave you an unfortunate woman and if the vertue and constancy of Cleomedon could but give him leave to forget Candace to enjoy you as you have to gain him forgotten Teramenes the last intreaty I were to make should be that he would be lesse cruel to her and not aggravate any further a revenge which I desire not you should take With these words he drew out a dagger he had about him and lifting up his hand would have thrust it into his breast
him setting themselves before him many were laid on the ground that I was forced to dispatch to come up to his person At last we came together notwithstanding the opposition of our men and running at him full of fury The day is now come Tyrant said he to him that thou must render up the Crown with thy own life into the bargain He made me some answer which I could not hear by reason of the noise and the heat I was then in and received with me a resolution not much different from what I brought But being ever and anon hindred by our men who came in between us and that especially by his who fell upon me on all sides I grew the more eager to determine the difference and that was it had almost cost me my life I had made two blows at Tiribasus with such good fortune that they gave two wounds whereupon he began to look on me as one that sought with a certain confidence of victory when my horse by reason of many hurts he had received sell down so of a sudden that I had much ado to get my feet out of the stirrups and to stand before Tiribasus who taking me at that advantage was upon the point of running over me I could not avoid the shock of his horse in somuch that he had almost overthrown me but in that posture leaning on my own horse that lay dead between my legs with my left hand I with my right thrust my sword into the belly of his so that when he was coming at me he felt him falling down under him In that interim I closed with him to avoid the shock of his men and in that disorder finding a place unarmed I run him with my sword through the body Tiribasus stretched forth his arms as he was falling with his horse but in regard that I stood neer him he very furiously cast himself on me and by his weight forcing me to the ground he fell upon me as he breathed out his last and fastned on me in such a manner that I found it no small difficulty to get from under him all goared and covered with his bloud The danger I was in by reason of that disadvantage had been very great had I not been relieved by diverse stout men who rescued me from the rage of Tiribasus's friends and notwithstanding all they could do got me on horseback again This Madam was the fate of Tiribasus the usurper of your Dominions and your precious Liberty and you may see in it how that the just gods decreed he should perish by his hands to whom of all men that revenge was most due Upon his death those that were of his party were so lost as to courage and resolution that the most eager in the cause could hardly be gotten to fight much longer When I saw the resistance they made was very weak and that some were running away in the streets casting away their arms I considered Madam that they were your subjects and thereupon out of a desire to spare their bloud I cryed and caused it to be cried up and down that if they laid down their arms the Queen would give them their lives would forgive all that was past Som particular friends of Tiribasus would not accept of this proffer but would needs be killed and among the rest Eurinoe's Brother whose life I would gladly have saved for his Sisters sake but all the rest perceiving there was no safety but by that means and having for the most part sided with Tiribasus purely out of fear laid down their arms and cried up and down God save Queen Candace I immediately thereupon sent orders every where that none should be put to the sword and it was so religiously observed that after some few minutes there was no more bloud spilt All those of Tiribasus's party went in among the Citizens who had laid down their arms as soon as I was gotten out of the Palace and our men though in arms and victorious began to treat the others as their Country-men and companions Oristhenes who having been set on horseback again by the relief which I had sent him had joined with me and behaved himself with abundance of valour rid all about the City by my order and so appeased the remainders of the disorder that when the dead bodies were removed out of the streets it could hardly be imagined there had been any fight All things being thus composed I sent out orders that the more considerable of those that had followed Tiribasus as well Citizens as souldiers should come to me in one of the most spacious places in the City and after I had entertained them with a discourse which it were not fit to trouble you with a recital of wherein having in the first place represented to them the greatnesse of their crime I made them in the next apprehensive of that of your goodness who were gratiously pleased even at a time that they might be punished with severity to pardon them so horrid an infidelity and forget all that was past provided that for the future they did those things which were expected from them And that I exhorted them to do with a true remorse and to repair their crime by a fidelity as remarkable as their defection had been All the inhabitants answered me with cries and tears and pronouncing your name on their knees they called all the gods to witness the sincerity of their intentions and protested they had done nothing against you but by force and out of the fear they were in of the power of Tiribasus The souldery for the most part returned me the same answer so that after I had taken a new oath of allegiance from them all in your name I dismissed the Assembly permitting all to follow their occasions and such as had friends dead to bury them I also gave way that those that pretended a more particular affection to Tiribasus should take away his body in order to an honourable enterrement as knowing Madam your generosity to be such as permits not your resentments to go beyond death And thereupon having my thoughts wholly taken up with you and yet not thinking it safe to leave Meroe that very day for fear of the accidents that might happen upon so sudden a revolution I sent Clinias Expresse to you to give you an account of all that had past and to intreat you to remain at Bassa till the next day at which time I should have waited on you bringing along with me your people of Mâ—roe who were infinitly desirous of your return Having gone so far I spent all the rest of the day and some part of the night in pacifying and composing all things and considering the shortnesse of the time there was such order taken that it was hardly perceiveable that there had been any revolt in Ethiopia But what grief it was to me what distraction I was in the gods onely know the next day when I found Clinias
conversation addressing himself not long after to Olympia and looking on her with eies full of love and a deportment which by reason of the present occcasion of his sadnesse was somewhat more serious then ordinary Madam said he to her when I was so desirous of a Crown to present you with the gods are my witnesses that it was my hope I should have arrived to it by some other way then that whereby it is now fallen to me and that I should have chosen rather to passe a way my life with a private fortune and then aspired to the Throne by the death of the King my Brother But since it hath pleased those celestial powers whose decrees are irresistible so to dispose of me as that I am come to the possession of the Crown of my Ancestors give me leave to offer it to you as I would offer you that of the Universe were it in my power and be you pleased to receive it from your faithful Ariamenes as a thing of greater value then it is and yet as what he conceives a thousand times lesse dear and lesse glorious then the chains he hath worn and shall wear for your sake to the last minute of his life Olympia entertained this discourse of Ariobarzanes with a deportment suitable to his that spoke it and looking on him with a countenance which in some measure discovered the present state of her thoughts My Lord said she to him I have looked on you with so much esteem even while you were without a Crown that that which you have now received can hardly add any thing to what you were in my account before I receive it with all heartinesse and submission because that with the Crown I am confident you will bestow on me the Prince that is to wear it and without the person of Ariobarzanes I could easily contemn all the Crowns and Scepters of the Universe I cannot bestow Ariobarzanes upon you replied the Prince because he is yours ever since the day he ceased to be his own and consequently it is not in my power to make you that present but I might well offer you the crown because that it is within this hour that it came to my disposal and that till then I was not in a condition or capacity to make you any offer thereof and so I in some measure make you satisfaction for the injury I did you in depriving you almost of all hopes of a dignity which you could not have missed elsewhere and which you slighted for your Ariamenes He entertained her with a many other things that discovered the greatest kindnesse sense of obligation that might be whereto the fair Princesse answered with the same generosity and their discourse might have continued yet some while on the same subject had it not been interrupted by Prince Philadelph And what shall become of me said he to Ariobarzanes shall I make no advantage of that influence which the change of your condition gives you over my fortunes And will you offer me nothing now that you can do all things after you had offered me so much when all my hopes consisted meerly in the good inclinations you had for me Assure your self replied the King of Armenia that one of the greatest advantages I shall hope to make of my new dignity is that I may be able to do you the civility I ought and though you have indeed but too great an interest already in Arsinoe yet if you have that distrust her arsposition that you imagine she stands in need of a Brothers consent to make her absolutely yours I should heartily with that consent part with the crown I have received could I think that present might contribute any thing to yours satisfaction Philadelph received this discourse of the King of Armenia's with the marks of both a satisfaction and a resentment that were indeed extraordinary and immediately thereupon casting himself at the feet of his amiable Delia and notwithstanding her resistance kissing one of her fair hands with the ordinary sallies of his affection entertained her with abundance of discourse consonant to those demonstrations of Love which she had received from him in Cilicia Alexander was in the same termes with Artemisa and Ariobarzanes being also in the same humour with Olympia these six fortunate persons after so many storms which a malicious fortune had raised against them finding themselves safely arrived at the so much wished for port celebrated their happinesse by all the obliging expressions which they might derive from such an excesse of joy But being mutually ignorant of the fortunes of those persons that were so dear to them and particularly Artemisa who knew nothing of that of Ariobarzanes and had not understood some part of those of Arsinoe and that there were a many particulars in that of Artemisa and Alexander that were unknown to Ariobarzanes and Arsinoe they would needs be informed one of another and thought fit to spend that day in the relations of their adventures To do this they would observe a certain order and Alexander and Artemisa being extreamly desirous to understand those of Ariobarzanes and Olympia they were accordingly the first satisfied with this provisoe that Alexander Arsinoe and Philadelph should afterward give them an account at large of what of their fortune was not as then come to their knowledge Artaban coming into the room while they were thus engaged and being very kindly entertained by all those illustrious persons that were pesent diverted them not from the resolution they had taken And being a person they might well trust with their concernments he hearkned not without much satisfaction to many things whereof as having had an imperfect account of them before he was very much pleased with the relation and would needs sup with that noble company and spend his time in it till the hour assigned him by Candace In the mean time the Princess Cleopatra stirred not out of her chamber where she had with her Elisa and Candace and assoon as the Princes were departed the room the two Princesses imagining not without reason that Cleopatra might stand in need of rest took their leaves of her and went to their own lodgings which were close by Cleopatra upon their importunity laid her self upon the bed and rested for an hour but time expired she got up and having understood what quality Elisa was of and had some account of Candace and finding her self inclined to a great esteem and affection for both she would put off no longer the return of a civility which she conceived she ought them and going out of her own chamber with her woman Camilla she went to that of Elisa The two Princesses quarrelled very much at her for that strictnesse of ceremony and seemed to be very much troubled that she had taken so little time to rest considering the great trouble and hardship she had undergone But the made them answer that the rest which her body might require was not so
would have found the pretence he was so desirous of pretended to be transported with indignation at this discourse drew his sword and ran at me with all the fury he could I should have been but little frighted at his action if all those that were about him had not done the like and with the same labour satisfied me that Tiberius had not bestowed that guard on me but to give me my death Of my two men the more affectionate lost his life at my feet and the other frightned saved himself by getting into the wood so that I was forced to stand alone to the fury of those cruell Butchers who came about me and gave me two great wounds No question but a thousand more had followed to dispatch me out of this world and I saw it was to no purpose to think to lengthen my life by a fruitlesse resistance when it pleased Fortune to direct into that part of the wood a man armed all over mounted on a very stately horse and attended onely by an Esquire He made a little halt to see what was done and perceiving he had but little time to loose if he would save my life after he had anticipated his coming by a great outery and in few words reproached my enemies with baseness and cowardice he ran in among them with a fury to which nothing can be compared and having with the shock of his horse overthrown the first he met within his way he set upon the rest with such eagerness as shewed he was nothing daunted at their number And whereas they as well as I had no other armes then their swords he spent very few blowes which either carried not death along with them or made those they met with uncapable of fighting any longer Theocles astonished at this miraculous relief and perceiving there was no possibility to make an end of me till he had rid his hands of the stranger endeavoured with the assistance of his men to dispatch him But as it happened he ran upon his own death for that valiant man having received upon his buckler the blowes he made at him ran him clear through the body and so he fell down to the ground and immediately breathed his last His companions were but weak in their endeavours to revenge his fall and finding themselves reduced to one half of the number they made at first and that by the same hand they were quite discouraged and placed all their safety in their flight Finding my self rescued in that manner from those unmercifull enemies though very much weakened by the two wounds I had received I made a shift to come nearer my deliverer to give him thankes for his assistance and it happened at the same time that he feeling himself very much heated either by reason of the sultriness of the season or the action he had been in put up the visour of his head-piece to take in a little fresh air I had hardly fastened my eies on his countenance but I was in a manner dazzled by the lustre and goodliness of it and thereupon looking on him a little more earnestly I knew him to be that person to whom I had been so cruelly perfidious the valiant King of Mauritania It is impossible I should represent to you the confusion I was in to find my self obliged for my life to a Prince whom I had so basely abused and to see that Fortune should after so strange a manner direct to my relief that person from whom of all men I had least reason to expect it An adventure so unexpected could not but tie up my tongue for a while and stifling the discourse I intended to disburthen my self of by way of acknowledgment for the deliverance I was obliged to him for I stood still before him mute immoveable and in the posture of a man whom an excess of remorse had deprived of all confidence And it was certainly from my remorse rather than any fear that this proceeded as not knowing whether the injury I had done him was come to his knowledge but if I was astonished to see him he was no lesse to meet with me and calling me to mind by the idaea's he had still in his memory of my countenance and haply confirmed by the astonishment he observed in it he stood still as well as my self like one lost in suspence and irresolution At last the passion which produced that effect in him being much different from that which had put me into so great disturbance he soon recovered himself and having viewed me with much more earnestness then before Are not you Volusius said he to me sometime Praetor of Mauritania I am the very same Volusius answered I who am now obliged to you twice for this wretched life as having once received it with my liberty as a demonstration of your generosity and being obliged to you for it now by the relief I have received from you when I was reduced to the last extremities You might have added to that said he that you are the same Volusius who being once before obliged to me for your life and liberty have neverthelesse made me the most unfortunate man in the world and by your perfidiousnesse have occasioned me the losse of Cleopatra 's affection my Kingdom and whatever should make me in love with life This reproach put me to such a losse that I knew not what answer to make whereupon casting my eies on the ground with an action expressing the greatnesse of my confusion I satisfied the Prince that I had nothing by way of justification to say for my self When he had looked on me for some time in that posture What injury soever I may have received from you said he to me it troubles me not that I have been the occasion that you are yet alive but certainly 't is a visible example of Heavens justice to reserve the revenge of your perfidiousnesse to me who have been most injured thereby Reassume the confidence which the conscience of your crime seems to have deprived you of and since I have seen you defend your life with courage enough against diverse men at the same time muster up all you have to defend it against one man alone and give me not occasion by a feeble resistance to blush at the defeat of a man of inconsiderable vaâ—our Do not imagine I shall make use of the advantage I have over you though the nature of the injury you have done me might very well induce me to wave that consideration and since you have nothing about you but a bare sword I shall put off this armour which if I should keep on the engagement were unequall With those words he cast off his head-piece and buckler and was going to unhaspe his cuirats when looking upon him with the countenance of a man already overcome and one that prepared himself for voluntary death rather then a combate My Lord said I to him If these little remainders of life I have left me
they went all together into the Closet taking onely Camilla with them where being sate and having seated Lentulus near them when he perceived they gave him attention he began his discourse which Cleopatra ordered him to address to the Princess Artemisa as the least acquainted with his adventures and spoke in these terms The History of LENTULUS and TULLIA IT was no slight enterprize that I engaged upon when I undertook the service of Cicero's Daughter and had I examined apparences I could have expected but small success in the disputeof a Heart prepossessed before-hand by a strong passion and that raised by a merit such as that of Ptolomey a person illustrious and recommendable for his Birth and Vertue and one amiable in all things Nor indeed was it any effect of my Will that enclined me to prosecute that resolution but I was dragged to the pursuance thereof by the importunity of a Passion to abate which all the opposition of Reason Proved ineffectual as being so strong that disarming me of all the assistances which the other might have supplyed me with to fortifie my self against its violence left me no other liberty then that of sighing and considering to my grief the sad and sudden change of my condition Certain it is that I went out of Lucullus's Garden a place fatal to me for the loss of my freedome as really and as passionately in love as I could have been had I for the space of several years suffered under the influence of Tullia's attraction and that I was as much metamorphosed during those few minutes wherein was effected that engagement upon my soul as if I had spent a considerable part of my life in the service of that person to whom my Dâ—stiny had but newly enslaved me Those things which should have secur'd me against that growing Passion contributed to my further engagement therein For howere it must be acknowled'd that the fair Tullia was infinitely amiable and really able to raise love in persons much less inclined thereto then my self yet is it my opinion that of a long time I should not have submitted to the yoke she hath forced upon me if in that fatal instant her beauty though of a vertue to work a far more miraculous effect had not received a certain supply from her grief that made it more attractive then ordinary and afforded it those forces against which my heart could not make the least resistance Those tears whereof all-her constancy could not obstruct the passage gliding from her fair eyes down her beautifull face and which contrary to their opinion who would attribute that effect rather to laughter and joy gave a new lustre to her beauty the languishing sweetness was so remarkable in her eyes and all over her countenance the gracefulness of her singing perfor'd with much Art and heightned by an admirable voice the words wherein notwithstanding the eclipse of her passion she discovered so much prudence and so great vertu in a word so many several things having conspired together to give my heart the fatal assault wrought it in the first place into a certain tenderness grief and compassion and afterwards reduced it into such a posture as that it was in an absolute incapacity to make the least opposition against the imperious Passion that possest it self thereof In fine Madam I was in love nay in an instant was eagerly in love with the beautifull the afflicted and the passionate Tullia Ptolomey to whom I discovered my affection at first made sport at it but afterwards bemoaned my Destiny From that very first day was I grown a great lover of solitude and I thought all company insupportable but that which I had then left During the remainder of that day and the night following I imagined to my self that Tullia was perpetually present in the same condition I had seen her as well engaged in the conversation she had had with Emilia in the Arbour as at my last meeting with her when I had her swounding in my arms and saw her breathless in Emilia's lap The night which for that time had drawn a curtain over her fair eyes and the paleness which during those few minutes spread it self over her countenance seemed not to me to have taken ought from her Beauty So that whenever I represented her to me in that posture and that it came into my thoughts it was for Ptolomey an ungratefull obstinate young man who had seen her in that affliction without being moved to the least compassion O ye Gods cried I is it possible that Tullia the object of my adorations should be reduced to these extremities for a persons sake who is not in the least sensible of her sufferings and that he who is ready to die for her dares not hope for any part of that which another so ungratefully disdains O Tullia what cruel Destiny reigns over thee that thou must love him that shuns thee and art so insensible of his devotions that dies for thee O Ptolomey is there any necessity that thou shouldst be possessor of a Good thou do st contemn and that thy unfortunate Friend should derive from that Good which thou deprivest him of without the least enjoyment to thy self all his hopes and all the happiness of his life O Lentulus must thou needs fall in love with Tullia whose soul is insusceptible of all impressions other then what it hath received for Ptolomey or shouldst thou hate Ptolomey who though not chargeable with any such design will prove the occasion of all thy unhappiness Such and the like expressions did my first agitation break forth it self in whereupon making some reflections on the change of my fortune I summoned all the assistances of my Reason the better to fortifie my self against it Not that I could hearken to any consideration that should divert me from continuing my addresses to Tullia if my own inclinations engaged me thereto save onely that of the love she was prepossessed with for Ptolomey which misfortune onely removed all things else seemed to encourage me in the services I had for that excellent person as well in regard of her disposition as her birth and the equality of our conditions which gave me much reason to hope a fortunate issue of my design but that one obstacle appeared so formidable and so cruel that upon the least reflection I made on it I fell into a kind of irrecoverable affliction There had been heretofore a very great enmity between our Families upon occasion that one of our House and Name had been unfortunately engaged in Catiline's Conspiracy which Cicero during the time of his Consul-ship had discovered insomuch that Lentulus with Cithegus and divers others of the noblest Families in Rome lost their lives for it But since Cicero s death these divisions had been appeased and though the familiarity between me and his Son was not very great it proceeded rather out of the intractableness of his disposition then any resentment might be left of our
disposition to re-inforce my heart with a new supply of Hopes But Despair having possessed it self of the place it would have proved a hard attempt to get in any So that at last not able to endure company nor resist the violence of my affliction I thought it my only way to prosecute the design I had resolv'd on some days before and engage in the War then breaking forth in Pannonia I thought it best to depart thence without taking leave of any one and forbear going to Rome though I was not sufficiently furnished with things necessary yet had enough for one defi'd Death so much that he cared not how soon he met with him as not doubting but that Cicero and Scipio and all my Friends would use all possible endeavours to divert me from my Design and put such rubs in my way that it would prove hard for me to execute it To this end Cicero having appointed a Hunting-match the next day I thought a fairer opportunity to be gone could not be expected it being likely no notice would have been taken of my departure and that having given my people order to expect me with my Horses at a place I should appoint them upon the way I intended to take I might easily slip aside and meet with them without any bodies observing it before night For the rest I referred my self to the disposal of my Destiny that which was most occurrent to my thoughts being that I was without any further consideration to run upon my own Death Having thus setled all things in order to my Design I writ that night a Letter to Tullia to be delivered to her after my departure whereof the words were these LENTULUS to TULLIA I Am now preparing for my death inexorable Tullia since it is the only remedy I can imagine wil put a period to my misfortune and I shall not complain either of that Destroyer of Man-kind or of You if while I die for your sake I have the happiness to please you after I had displeased you while I lived I charge you not with my misfortune but sacrifice what I am now going to lose in some measure to the grief I have for yours The Gods know that if the remedies that should abate it had been possibly attainable I should gladly have sacrificed the remainders of my quiet to gain them and that I should have resisted my own misfortunes had they not been multiplied upon me by a fatal conjunction of yours If the Fates reserve you for a better Fortune I heartily pardon them their malice to me And as my Mind was disseated out of my self to be the more constantly attended on you so is it for you alone that it breaths out its last wishes and that it desires of the Gods you may find that which I never could for my self Farewel fairest Tullia I hasten to my death without any regret other than that of being eternally banished your presence and since Death it self can never force your fair image out of a faithful Mind have the compassion to bestow some few minutes of your precious remembrance on the memory of the unfortunate Lentulus Having written this Letter and given some order to my people about my departure yet without acquainting any of them with my Design I went to bed and having passed away the night in such disturbances as you may well imagine I got up in the morning long before any of those whom the love of Hunting had awak'd How fully soever I might be setled in my resolution yet could I not see Scipio and Cicero without some motion of grief and tenderness when I bethought my self I was so to leave them as never to see them again But my Despair having the absolute command of my Soul tyrannizing over all other impressions it might be capable of I soon silenced those that were any way contrary to my Design and having given my Letter to one of my men whom I was to leave behind with order to deliver it to Tullia two hours after our departure I got on Horse-back with the rest and follow'd them to the place where the Hunters met It was not long ere a Stag was put up and Cicero and Scipio being out of emulation earnest upon the pursuit thought it not strange that considering the weak condition I was in I should lag a little behind and were gotten a vast distance from me without the least jealousie of my Design When they were gotten out of sight after I had with the tears in my eyes mutter'd some few words whereby I took my last leave of them I wheel'd about and made towards the way I had resolved to take intending to lodge that night at Vellium where I had appointed my people to meet me and whence I should have sent one to Rome with order to meet me three days after at a place to be named to him with what Equipage were thought necessary for me To speak clearly and truly I knew not well what my intention was as having not determined any thing but with much confusion though this for one thing I had fully resolv'd never to appear among men again and to go and run upon a death that should prove much less cruel to me then the life I was so weary of As I rode along taken up with thoughts I called to mind the Destiny of Julius Antonius who six or seven years before had taken the same course for the same Tullia and left Rome with such another intention as mine and had not been heard of ever since Having made a comparison betwixt his Fortune and mine and reflected on the conformity between them Well said I lifting my eyes to Heaven since it is the Destiny of those that love Tullia to go and seek in Death the determination of their afflictions let us submit our selves thereto without repining and be not much troubled to meet with a Fortune suitable to that of Julius Antonius While my thoughts were entertained with these sad reflections getting still further from the place where I had left my Friends I was surpriz'd by a violent shower of Rain which in a short time made its way through my cloaths and met me as far as that liquid substance could find a passage The condition I was in took off much of the reflection I should have made on that inconvenience as to the body but at last it grew so great a Tempest together with Thunder Lightning and impetuous showrs of Hail that it was impossible to follow any way so that insensibly straying out of that which I was in and not able to get into it again I followed another which instead of carrying me further brought me nearer Cicero's House At last not able to go any further and my Horse being in a manner tired by reason of the Hail and Tempest falling heavy upon him I was forced to turn into certain houses which I perceived not much out of the way to stay till the violence of the weather
in Germany T is very true saies Agrippa interrupting him that your name was soon known among us and that your reputation was spread among the Romans with an esteem such as rankâ—d you among the greatest men of our age I deserved not this great Elogy from the mouth of the great Agrippa replies Inguiomer very modestly but certain it is that in most of those engagements I fought with a suceess which raised me into the esteem of the Prince my Brother his Subjects and all our Neighbour-Princes much beyond my desert But that is not the thing I am to insist upon there being in the adventures of Arminius what is far more worthy your attention which is the reason I so slightly passed over what related to his birth and the first sallies of his affection as looking on the particulars thereof as inconsiderable in comparison of what I have yet to relate to you He liv'd happily in the enjoyment of Ismenia's company there being nothing to disturb it but his impatience and desires of greater happinesses then those he enjoyed and which were denyed him upon no other account then that of his youth It was his hope indeed they should not be delayed much longer as being now arriv'd at the eighteenth year of his age But then was it Fortune thought fit to cross his designs by such traverses obstacles as he could not have foreseen The love of Glory and that which he naturally had for his Countrey had already wrought much upon his martial inclinations and if the passion he had for Ismenia had not detained him he would hardly have spent his time idlely in Segeste's Court when he heard of my successes against the common Enemy and that I made my way for that Fame which he was no less in love with then with Ismenia He was already ingaged upon some thoughts of a return to Clearchus as well to procure his mediation to Segestes for the accomplishment of his felicity as to court in the occasions of fighting for the Liberty of his Countrey that of signalizing his own Valour when he meets with employment for it in in the place where he was and that for the concernments of Segestes and Ismenia which were indeed no other than his own The Roman Forces that were in Germany meeting together from all parts into one body took the field in expectation of Tiberius who was to come with a very powerful Army to give the last assault to the Liberty of Germany and some part of those Forces being under the command of Curius entred the Territories of Segestes surprized him so much through his not fore-seeing that Tempest that upon the first thoughts of it he was in very great extremities However he took order against them with sufficient diligence and being a person of great courage he quieted his people raised Forces with all the expedition he could It was a certain satisfaction to Arminius to meet with that opportunity to exercise his Valour which was much abated by the peace wherein he had spent his younger years and Segestes having as his first employment given him the command of the whole Cavarly he undertook it like a young Mars and seeming in the War as it were in his proper Element he within few days became remarkable for those actions which at an age that few persons have drawn a Sword in got him the reputation of one of the most gallant men in the world There happened no engagement wherein he did not things extraordinary where he grew not famous either for the death of the most considerable of the Enemy or by some other remarkable action and wherein it was not generally acknowledged that his noble example was that which made his party victorious One time with a party of Eight hundred Horse he put to the rout a Legion commanded by Norbanus leaving above Two thousand men upon the place Another time at the passing of a small River having charged the Enemy upon their retreat he pursued and cut in pieces a great part of the Rear and got all the baggage which he distributed among his Souldiers Some days after Curius having laid a siege before a place which he hoped within few days to reduce as being but weakly fortified Arminius fell upon him in the night in his Camp kill'd above Three thousand men and put so considerable a relief into the place that Curius despairing the taking of it and ashamed at the loss he had received raised the siege two days after Segestes looked on these beginnings with admiration and Ismenia who had a soul truly great and generous understood them with a joy suitable to the affection she had for Arminius By these actions did Arminius put Segestes into a capacity to maintain his Countrey with a power equal to that of his Enemies and by those which followed he so strengthen'd his party that at last after many engagements of less importance he came to a pitch'd battel against Curius and gain'd it by the conduct and valour of Arminius who commanded the right wing of his Army and that day twice saved his life and relieved him with his own hands out of the power of Curius I give you the briefer account of the noble actions of Arminius as not doubting but they are come to your knowledge and so shall only adde that at last Segestes was free from and victorious over his Enemies when news came to him that Tiberius was in Pannonia with an Army consisting of the best Legions such a Power as whereto in probability all Germany was to submit He understood that the Boij the Vindelici and the Curiones upon the noise of his advance had submitted to the yoke they had shaken off and that his next Neighbours the Vangiones were already treating with the Romans and were finding out a way to recede from the Alliance they had made with him so that he was with some reason afraid that that Tempest would in all likelihood fall heavy upon him and that he was too weak to oppose it Though he were a person of much courage yet was he startled at that news especially when he was informed that the Vangiones had concluded their Treaty with the Romans and that there was only the Mein that divided the places under their jurisdiction and those under his While he was in this uncertainty as to what resolution he should take those who had concluded the Agreement with the Vangiones upon conditions honourable enough made an overture of an accommodation with him proposing That if he would enter into an Alliance with the Romans and joyn interests with them against those of his Neighbours who acknowledged not their Empire he should not only continue quiet possessor of his own Countrey confined by the Rhine the Adrana the Mein and the Mountains of Melibocus but that he should have withal part of the Countrey of the Catti who were those of his Neighbours whom he was most jealous of These propositions and divers others
disclaim it to those who might have a perfect knowledge of it And on the other side he thought it imprudence to discover what might be yet doubtfull and by that confession run the hazard of losing Candace who was dearer to him then his own life and without whom life signifi'd nothing with him Between these two considerations he was in some suspence what resolution he should take when Augustus observing what doubtfulness and perplexity he was in It is to no purpose said he to him to dissemble with us or to consult whether you should let us know you are Caesario we know all even to the least circumstances and Candace her self does not deny but that Cleomedon is Son to Caesar and Cleopatra Upon the hearing of these names of Candace and Cleomedon the Prince was fully satisfi'd of his misfortune and being unwilling to deny what he thought Candace had acknowledg'd 'T is very true said he to him Cleomedon is Son to Caesar and since Candace hath thought fit this truth should be known it is too advantageous for me to disclaim it I am Caesario and I am also Cleomedon Under this name I have haply done those actions which render me not unworthy the bloud of my Ancestors and the name you bear You are onely by adoption what I am by birth and bloud and name are common to us though our fortunes are much different I have not envied yours as thinking my own glorious enough in the service of Candace and purely out of the extraordinary inclinations I have had for her alone I have without any regret seen you in the place of him that brought me into the world I am apt to believe what you say replies the Emperour and withal willing to acknowledge that the noble actions of Cleomedon are not unknown to us and that they no less discover you to be the Son of Caesar then the resemblance you have of him in your countenance but you will give me leave to require some reason of your abode unknown in Alexandria and you are not to be much astonished if it hath raised some jealousies in us When you know replies the Son of Caesar that I serve the Queen of Aethiopia you will not much wonder I should endeavour to find her out even in Alexandria nor can you think it extraordinary I should conceal my self if you reflect on the Orders you sometime gave out against my life at a time when it was not fear'd I could do you much prejudice The same observations of policy replies the Emperour whereby the actions of persons of my rank are regulated may change their resolutions according to several times and exegenes and there may have been of the Orders you mention in one season a necessity in another none Howere it may be you will give me leave to examine those things whereof the knowledge does so much concern me and to find out how I may with safety treat you suitably to my inclinations rather then according to Maximes of State which are sometimes rigorous even contrary to their intentions who are obliged to follow them With those words he commanded Levinus to conduct him to a Castle not for from Alexandria where were commonly disposed Prisoners of quality and whither they had the day before carried the Prince of Mauritania but as he went away he bid him not fear any thing and commanded Levinus he should be treated and attended as Caesar's Son This personated kindness did Caesario look on as more dangerous then menaces and open discoveries of displeasure insomuch that he doubted not but Augustus had resolv'd his death though hedissembled his intention He departed without making him any reply and march'd away in the midst of the Guards which receiv'd him at the door towards the prison whither he was sent As he passed through the great Hall he met full butt with Candace led by Eteocles who transported with grief was come to give her notice of that misfortune and the fair Queen being wholly at a loss thereat and not thinking any observance of decency and feminine reservedness obliged her to smother her sentiments upon that occasion was running to the Emperor resolv'd to participate of the danger with her beloved Prince though her resolution were the greatest of any of her Sex yet could she not see him surrounded by a Guard without being so troubled thereat that for some time she was no better then in a swound though held up by Eteocles But seeing the Prince carried away she overcame her weakness and runing before him What Cleomedon said she to him is this the condition wherein you appear to me 'T is not Cleomedon replies the Prince 't is Caesario that is carried to Prison and it may be to his death it being in vain for me to conceal my name from Caesar after your acknowledgement of it to him Who I replied the Queen I discover your name to Caesar Ah Cleomedon or Caesario since you will have it so assure your self I know nothing of what you say and that before I should be guilty of a confession so prejudicial to you I would have endured all the torment that mans invention could have put me to And not be assured of this would speak more cruelty in you then in our mortal Enemies And if he who puts you into Chains shall be moved neither by my intreaties nor a respect to my dignity you shall find whether I make any difficulty to run fortunes with you May your preservation be the care of the Gods reply'd the Prince with a gesture wholly passionate but if it be their will I should die upon this occasion they know I shall do it without any other regret then that of losing you If you die replies the Queen you shall not die alone I shall as gladly accompany you to Death as to a Throne She would have said more if Levinus who was afraid his suffering that conversation might give offence after he had made some excuse to her caused the Prince to march on and carried him immediately out of the Hall leaving the Queen so struck at that cruel separation that notwithstanding all that great constancy whereof the had made so many discoveries she fell into a swound between their arms who stood about her to hold her up She was in that condition and the unfortunate Eteocles between the desire he had to relieve her and that of following Caesario was at a loss what to do when the Princess Julia comes into the Hall accompanied by the Princess Andromeda Ismenia and some other Ladies Being a person the most officious in the world she runs to the Queen with much earnestness and having understood from those that were about her the cause of that accident her thoughts were divided between her compassion and astonishment thereat Mean time the Queen by the help of those that were about her recovers her self and seeing the Princess Julia very busie and earnest to relieve her after she had looked on her
to make his advantage of it as not to draw on himself any part of the resentment he observed in her countenance and looking on her with an action which betrayed his diffidence and whereby he made her sufficiently sensible of the fear he was in to displease her Madam said he to her how great soever the happiness may be which I now derive from the Emperour or Empress's compassion I can with all sincerity and by all the respect I bear you assure you that I entertain it not with joy because it occasions your trouble and though we are naturally inclined to make the greatest wishes we can of our own enjoyments yet that which I receive by the violence you do your self cannot be dear to me since it comes with your displeasure Leave then this unfortunate wretch to the mercy of that passion which will lead him to his grave and do your self no violence in order to his welfare since his welfare deserves so little of your assistance and his misfortune so little of your compassion However you may abandon me to my own unhappiness I will never repine against you nay shall not even at the last gasp charge you with a death which I will embrace as the period of a much more cruel torment and the most glorious end my Destiny could have aspired to To this effect was Agrippa's discourse which fell from him with some difficulty and was ever and anon interrupted by certain sighs and the Princess sensible of his worth and having a real esteem for him was studying how to express her self so to him as not to be thought guilty of any remission of her own sentiments or discovering towards him a rigour which considering the condition he was in she could not exercise on him though resolved to make him sensible of her greatest severity She continued silent a while with her eyes fastened on the ground and presently after raising them up gently into his countenance and by that look giving him new wounds Imagine not said she to him it is with any repugnance I have waited on the Empress in this visit nor that I shall ever have any to do you the services that shall lie in my power I am satisfied as to your excellent qualities and I have for your Vertue a consideration great as your self can wish it but I cannot affect in you that Passion whence proceeds not only your but also my misfortunes Endeavour generous Agrippa to subdue it by your Vertue you will not find it so hard a task if you have but the will to attempt it it 's a thing you ought to do out of prudence since you know the condition of my life to be such as permits me not to make those acknowledgments thereof which it deserves and out of generosity since you know it can have no other effect than that of making me miserable But to make you miserable replies Agrippa Ah Madam it 's a thing at the greatest distance from my intentions of any and there needed but that very perswasion to make me seek the period of it in that of my life I perceive indeed that you suffer in the very compliance you have to see and hear me but it hath been my opinion hitherto that those were the greatest inconveniences my passion ever occasioned you and I should think my self very unhappy it caused you any that were more insupportable I have already told you sayes the Princess to him that I have not any aversion to see you and it proceeds from the sincere esteem I have for you that I am troubled at your misfortunes Nor is that the ground of my complaint but I thought I might well let you know that Caesar hath made me sensible of his Authority by a treatment which the Princess of Parthia should not have expected from him The condition you are in forbids me to trouble you with the reproaches thereof but when you shall have recovered your former health I shall put you in mind of the promise you made me I remember it very well Madam replies Agrippa and shall keep it to the last gasp Nay then I see added he after a short interval of silence that the affection the Emperour hath for me forces him to discoveries of it beyond what I expected from him He is my Soveraign Lord and Master I cannot to my wishes oppose him but I protest to you in the presence of all the Gods I will not make any advantage of it and that whatever he may have gain'd upon you I will never accept it without your consent I had made you the same protestation before and had promised it to Artaban whom I cross with much affliction to my self as being a person I reverence and admire and for whose sake did it lie in my power I would do my self more violence then for all mankind besides but since all my endeavours prove too weak to obtain that victory over my heart I wish both for his sake and for yours the Gods so pleased that the end of my life may settle the enjoyments of two illustrious persons and grant me to find in it that quiet which I ineffectually seek by other wayss The last words he spoke so loud that they were heard by the Emperour and was at the same time so mov'd at the consideration of his misfortune and the little hope he had to gain any thing upon Elisa that his heart oppressed with grief immediately lost some part of its strength insomuch that the Princess perceived by the change of his countenance that he was going to fall into a swound She made sigas to those that waited on him to approach and the Emperour coming along with them to the bed side and finding him very pale and weak doubted not but that the rigour of Elisa had produced that sad effect and was so incensed thereat that he was going to discover the resolution he had taken But he forbore because of Agrippa as knowing he would be extremely troubled at the violence of his procedure making a sign to the Empress to take her away with a design to give her an account of his intentions as soon as she were out of the Room Accordingly as soon as Agrippa had a little recovered himself and that he seem'd to be in the same condition he had seen him in some time before he left his Chamber to find out Elisa and met her in the next gallery where the Empress and she were walking together The Parthian Princess could not but tremble to see him coming towards her with a countenance that seem'd to her more terrible than ordinary and the Emperour approaching her with less ceremony then he was wont to do Madam said he to her since you so little respect my sollicitations and the safety of my Friend which I have begg'd of you with so much submission you must not take it amiss if in the extremity you force me to I recur to the justice I am to see executed in my
had had so much horrour nor the joy which she might conceive at her being delivered from the danger that threatned her could hinder from paying that tribute for the loss of a Father Yet was her suffering but little in comparison to what she should have felt had it been for a father of a different nature from that of Phraates nay unless it were in a disposition excellent as hers that news had rather met with joy and consolation Artaban himself who in all probability should not have been dissatisfied thereat and who indeed was not extreamly troubled receiv'd it with so much moderation that even in the apprehension of the Queen he seem'd to be griev'd though he had not observed any discovery of sadness among all the persons of her retinue at last when the Princess had recovered her self so as to give attention to the Queen and that she had her self wiped the tears that stuck in her face she thus re-assumed the Discourse The History of PHRAATES IT is to our regret Daughter that we must acknowledge that King Phraates my husband and your Father leaves a memory behind him that blasts the glory of the Arsacides and makes his death look'd on as a remarkable stroke of divine justice He was no sooner come to an age fit to command but to secure himself in the government he cut off all his Brothers defiling the royal house with their innocent blood and it was with much ado that Prince Tiridates made a shift to escape his fury by a flight that lasted as long as he lived King Orodes his father whom he had divested of all authority supported not without much grief the death of so many of his children whom he saw dispatched by their Brother and being forced by a just resentment to reproach him with his cruelty this unnatural Son had no more respect to the Father then he had had to the Brothers but caused the wretched old man to be strangled whose life had indeed been but too long since the end of it was to be so horrid spectacles 'T is so much the more horrour at least to me to reflect on these things for that these actions have been committed by a person whose memory we ought to honor For which reason it is that I slightly pass them over nor shall insist much on any of the actions of his life which have raised him to the reputation of the most cruel Prince upon earth You know Daughter the pains I have taken to remit the savageness of his inclinations by all the power I could derive from the affection he had expressed towards me as also how often by opposing his intentions when I saw him bent upon some unjust and cruel resolution I have been in danger to run the same fortunes with his Brother I have often run that hazard during the course of his Reign though out of the respect I bore him I kept it from the world as much as lay in my power but more particularly for my endeavours to divert him from the resolution he had taken to have you married to Tigranes You know all I did to hinder it and cannot charge me Daughter that either out of fear or any other consideration I neglected to make the greatest advantages I could of the small credit I had with him I spoke I intreated I wept I was no less troubled at it then your self and you may well remember there was little difference between the discoveries of your grief thereat and those of mine Yet could not all divert him from his cruel design and I was in the same extremities not long after when I would have hindred him from sending Artaban loaden with Chains to the King of Media his professed enemy I sufficiently represented to him what thoughts all the world would have of his ingratitude towards a person who had preserved his Crown and made him Master of that of his enemy I then endeavoured to make him sensible of all the particular obligations we had received from that gallant person and from that first action of his whereby he engaged us to him to the last he had done for us I omitted not any whence he might derive sentiments contrary to the cruelty he exercised upon him But all my discourses instead of pacifying exasperated him the more and after he had cast it in my teeth that I favoured the unworthy inclinations of his daughter he threatned me so highly that I had reason to stand in fear of a thing which upon the least eruptions of his displeasure was so familiar with him as death You may call to mind in what a sad condition you left me at that strange departure and how unfortunate soever you might think your self yet you concluded my condition to be no happier than your own Some days passed away wherein Phraates as it were cloy'd with the revenge he thought he had taken of Artaban seemed to be pacified insomuch that he permitted me to spend them in solitude to bewail with more freedome the departure of a Daughter whom I loved so dearly and saw so unfortunate Those he admitted to his counsel had several times represented to him that having but one only Daughter and in all probability to be Heir to the Crown he should either marry her to some Prince of the Royal Blood of Parthia and not to Tigranes who was a stranger thereto a Prince less powerful than himself and partly dependent on the Roman Empire or if he were resolved to bestow his Daughter on him he should still detain her with him as Heir to a Monarchy incomparably greater than that of her Husband But though he saw much reason in this discourse yet did he slight it and told his Councellors that he would first punish Elisa for her unworthy carriage in loving a person inferiour to her and conceiving inclinations contrary to those of her Father that he would send her away as not being able to endure her sight without aversion and that he looked not on her as his Heir hoping yet to have others his age being such as that he might a long time entertain that hope Nay he said further to some of his confidents from whom I have had it since his death That if he had any design to leave the Crown to Elisa he would have taken care it should not come to Tigranes that he was not so weak in matters of pocy as to make such a choice and that if he despaired of other Heirs of my body his intentention was to put me away or by some other course dispatch me and marry a young Wife that should bring him Sons fit to succeed him This was really his design so that Tigranes had vainly hoped with the enjoyment of Elisa the possession of the Parthian Crown His thoughts ran upon it and he had haply pitch'd upon her in his mind who was to succeed in my place when we find the Medes to whom he had delivered you to be conveyed to Tigranes
thereto To that end he sent away one of the trustiest instruments of his cruelty in the head of a party whom he was confident of with a recommendation to the King of Media for the delivery of Artanez if need were While the Queen continued her discourse Artaban was in no small torment through the respect which hindred him from interrupting her insomuch that at last not able to Master the disturbance he was in Ah Madam said he to her will you not pardon the affection which obliges me to interrupt you to ask you whether it can be possible I should be so unhappy as to occasion the ruine of Prince Artanez I am not a little glad at that disturbance says the Queen to him as much confirming what we have been inform'd and what I am to acquaint you with though you know it better then my self had no great reason to conceal it from us You are then to know Daughter and you also Artaban that the King expecting Artanez to be brought in continued the massacres of all those whom he discover'd to have held any correspondence with Artaban insomuch that he was grown so exorbitant in his cruelty that the Parthians began to to murmur to threaten and at last to rise and particularly several Officers of the Army who had lost their Friends by those bloudy executions and who daily themselves expected the same fate At last through the indignation of Heaven the business came to that height that one day the greatest part of the Inhabitants of the City Praaspa where we then were together with the Souldiery seeing one of their companions carried to execution furiously took up Arms killed those that conducted the Prisoner and march'd violently towards the Palace The King having notice brought him of this Insurrection slighted it but being a man soon fired into displeasure he immediately went out of the Palace attended by his ordinary Gaurds and march'd towards the place where the Insurrection was with a design to put all the Traytors to the Sword But the Gods had otherwise ordered things to come to pass and thought fit that having met and charg'd them in a spacious place he was mortally wounded with two Arrows whereof one had taken him in the throat the other in the heart so that he fell down dead among his own who discouraged at his fall fought but little after The people who were encouraged by this and who after the death of their King were not deliberate what they were to do run upon the instruments of Phraates's cruelty and of those that came within their reach few escaped their fury They had haply been heightned to some more cruel resolutions it being no easie matter to quiet a Populace by just grounds forced into Arms if some eminent persons such as for whom they had no aversion had not interposed themselves and represented to them that they had no more enemies to engage against nor further subject to exercise their fury on that all then left in Praaspa were their Friends and that by death of the King and those inflexible creatures of his who had served him in his barbarous intentions they were sufficiently revenged for the loss of their Friends and and Kindred that of the Bloud-Royal there was not any person left on whom they might with reason exercise their revenge that their Princess was absent and worthy their services and respects rather then of their resentments and that for the Queen her Mother and Widow to the King they had killed they knew what a disconsonancy there was between her nature and her Husband 's how dearly she had ever loved them and to what dangers she had many times exposed her self to appease the King on their behalf The People and Souldiery contrary to their ordinary carriage hearkened to this discourse and were beginning to submit themselves thereto when Prince Artanez conducted by those who were employed to take him and had fortunately executed their Commission was brought to Phraaspa His conductors finding the face of things altered cast themselves at his feet begging their lives which they easily obtained of him but with much ado of the People who would needs punish them for the readiness of their inclinations to execute the cruel Orders of their Prince Artanez being respected by them as one of the Blood-Royal of their Kings loved by them for his vertue and that so much the more by reason of his being hated by the King and ready to be delivered up to execution as their Friends and Kinred whom they had revenged had they surrounded him with acclamations calling him Arsacian Prince worthy the Bloud of Arsaces and declar'd their readiness to obey him Artanez finding them so good an humor entreated them to lay down their Arms promising them upon that condition impunity for what had past and with the assistance of Timagenes and other considerable persons who before his coming had endeavoured to pacific things he managed all so successfully that before night all the people were gotten into their houses and the City was as quiet as if nothing had happened Artanez who had looked on that day as the last of his life and by a revolution which he could not attribute to any thing but divine Justice saw himself followed by all the Parthians with applause used his good fortune with much moderation and generosity and having caused the Kings body with much respect to be taken up and given order for the burial of the rest comes to the Palace where notwithstanding the aversion I had for the Kings death I was ore-whelmed with the grief which so unexpected an accident must needs have raised in me and where I stood in expectation of death through the fright I was in to see an armed Populace which had not spared the life of their King I trouble you not with a discourse of what I felt during that time because it would not onely prove tedious but not any way requisite in order to the discovery of those things which I am yet to acquaint you with Having received a punctual acount of what was done by the care of Zoilus Timagenes and divers other faithful persons who had provided for my safety and endeavoured to comfort me I knew that Artanez was innocent as to the Kings death and afterwards understood what pains he had taken to appease the exasperated multitude and the respect he had expressed towards the Kings memory though he might well have a just resentment against him so that seeing him coming in the posture not of a Prince of the blood of Phraates but of the humblest of his Subjects I embraced him with much affection acknowledged his generosity and recommended to him the memory of the King my Lord and the concernments of my daughter Artanez assured me that all the mischief was over that it was to be looked on as a stroke from heaven and that there was nothing to be feared provided the promise which he with Timagenes and divers
he thought himself obliged to the attempt of his enemies upon him since it had proved an occasion of his gaining my acquaintance and that if he might purchase my Friendship he would value it beyond all he had lost through the cruelty of the King of Parthia Having in consequence to this had an account of my Fortune and understood that I had neither Countrey nor any Revenues but what I derived from my Sword he intreated me with affectionate tears to become Master of all that Fortune had left him told me that Death having deprived him of his onely Son he should think him self but too happy if I would take his place and be to him in stead of a Son that he desired not I should pass away my life in solitude and that it was but just I employ'd to advance my self a Sword which would haply one day raise me to a Throne but in the interim that I would accept in order to the prosecution of my designs part of what he had to dispose and that if Fortune either by the change or death of Phraates restored him to those great possessions which he had left among the Parthians I should have as much command there as if I were his own Son and that it would be the greatest satisfaction in the World to him he might leave them to me at his death as if I were descended from him The acknowledgments of that good Prince moved me in such manner that I could not receive so many discoveries thereof without confusion and they withal raised in me so much affection and respect for him that had I really been his Son I could not have honoured him more He in a short time recovered of his wounds but it was impossible for me to part with him so soon and had he not been jealous of my reputation and perswaded I was born for great things he would never have been content I should have left him During my abode with him we understood that the King of Armenia had been beaten out of all the advantages he had gain'd by the relief which his enemy had received from the Prince of Cilicia and King of Cappadocia and that thereupon a Peace had been concluded between them by the interposition of Augustus who had employed his Authority to reconcile them But soon after came news that Tigranes had hardly the time to breathe by the peace made with the Armenian but the King of Parthia dissatisfied with him upon some slight occasions and as was reported partly for the refuge he had afforded Artanez brought a War upon him and went in person into Media with a powerful Army putting all to Fire and Sword and leaving every where the horrid examples of his cruelty Having heard all the world speak with horrour of the inhumanity of Phraates and that the affection I had for Artanez obliged me to hate his persecutor I immediately felt a certain inclination within me to serve Tigranes against the King of Parthia and all my thoughts being bent upon the War I thought I could not meet with a nobler occasion nor one more suitable to my humour to give Artanez some assurances of the acknowledgments I had for his Friendship I had no sooner made the Proposition to him but he approv'd it and that so much the rather for that this obliged me to be nearer him then would those occasions of War which I should have sought out elsewhere and when he saw that his concernment and the aversion I had couceived against his enemy in some measure obliged me thereto it much heightned the affection he had for me But telling him upon the discovery of my design that if I engag'd my self in the service of Tigranes I would change my name as having under that of Britomarus done service for the King of Armenia against Tigranes which no doubt had made it known to him and might have raised some resentment in him against me I am clearly of your opinion said he to me and think it not fit you should present your self to Tigranes under the name of Britomarus or at least not discover it to him till such time as you have by some signal action forced out of his thoughts the resentment which your past actions may have raised in him against you But since you think it requisite to change your name let me intreat you by all the Friendship you have promised me and by all that I have for you to take that of Artaban who was my Son by bloud but as to affection was not more mine then you are it is by that name of Artaban that I first called you and I have a certain inspiration that under that name of Artaban I shall one day see you advanced beyond your own expectations I willingly took on me the name which Artanez was pleased to give me with this protestation that he who had born it had not had a more sincere respect for him then that which I should have while I lived But to what end Madam should I tire you with a long discourse of a businesse of so little consequence In fine though I was much against it Artanez treating me as his Son as he had given me his name ordered me a Retinue much more noble then what I had brought with me out of Armenia went himself along with me to King Tigranes and presented me to him as a person of admirable valour and one whom he was obliged to for his life He made no mention to him of Britomarus but gave such a character of me as obliged him upon his aecount to put me upon a very honourable employment What happened to me afterward is Madam come to your knowledge and you have not forgotten that Tigranes was unfortunate and lost several Battels and part of his Kingdome while I had but an inferiour command about him But when by certain degrees which I run through suddenly enough I came to the place of General and that Tigranes trusted me with the absolute command of his Army you know Fortune put on another face I gained many Battels and so proceeded to those other actions of my life which you have had an account of During that time I often saw Artanez who with an excess of joy was confirmed in the hopes he had conceived of me and when Tigranes's breach of promise the service of the Princess and my own Destiny had made me quit his party to come into yours Artanez's affection towards me continued the same Nay I prevailed with the King to suffer him to live in his solitude and to forbear all further attempts on his life but durst not sollicite for his return into Parthia not out of a fear of incurring the displeasure of Phraates for I would have run a greater hazard to serve such a Friend but least I might unadvisedly expose him to the mercy of a man near whom I could never have thought him secure what engagement soever he might give me thereof During the War
cruel misapprehension armed me against my Friend and that the offences which love made me then commit against friendship are now to be satisfied for that she may yet employ the interest she hath in her Father on our behalf but withal be confident I will run the fate with Coriolanus Go Sempronius and give Caesar nay if you please all the world this account of me and be assured that nothing shall any way shake this resolution Stay Sempronius says the King of Mauritania and return not to Caesar to acquaint him but with one half of this adventure You have been a witness of the generosity of Marcellus and shall not be of the baseness of Coriolanus but know that death is not so terrible to him but that he can receive it alone without such a companion I am apt to believe this an effect of Augustus 's hatred who would consummate that by friendship which he hath begun by love since that after the Princess Cleopatra he sends Prince Marcellus to make death more insupportable to me by the design they have against their own lives But what ground soever I may have to quarrel at his cruelty you may tell him that Marcellus is much more dear to me then Caesar is odius that I am so far from giving my consent to the death of Marcellus because of the revenge I might imagine to my self upon him that for Marcellus his sake his person is sacred to me and I would hazard my life to serve him though my persecutor and enemy because he is loved by Marcellus Whereupon turning to the Prince Cruel Friend said he to him more cruel in the effects of your friendship then in those of your aversion why will you disturb my last hours by the affliction you cause me why will you not suffer me to entertain the joy I should conceive at the return of your friendship without adding thereto the grief I must needs be sensible of upon the design you discover I was but too too happy in the affection of my Princess and yours and sufficiently satisfied with the resentment which you might both with justice have conceived since it was not impossible you might be surprized by these artifices which deceived allthe world so that there needed not this cruel reparation Go then dearest brother go and resign your self to a man nay rather to a father to whom you are more obliged then you are to me go and resign your self to Julia to whom you owe your self wholly and believe I shall dye with much satisfaction when I shall be assured that you might live happily All things seem to favour you the whole Universe contributes to your assurance of a glorious life it is not therefore just that a wretch exposed from his birth to all manner of mis-fortunes should disturb the course of so hopeful a fortune Many vertuous men have lost friends that were dear to them and have found comfort after those losses in time and their own courage you may expect the same good office from both and will find occasion enough to afford my memory such assurances of your affection as I shall more value then those you offer me I shall continue with you in the person of Cleopatra and if possible put you in mind that you were ever her Brother and that you ought to endeavor the furtherance of her fortunes and enjoyments no less then if she were born of Octavia I cannot receive a greater consolation at my death then what I have in leaving her between your arms and I hope that by the kindnesses she shall recieve from your friendship her fortune may be happy when it shall be dis-ing aged from mine The passionate son of Julia would have said more if the Princess had not with much precipitation interrupted him Forbear said she to him forbear recommending Cleopatra to the friendship of Marcellus and only divert him from his unjust resolution without troubling thy thoughts at the destiny of Cleopatra Thou art not ignorant at least shouldst not be if thou knowest me well that after the Protestation I made to thee yesterday nothing shall be able to separate me from thee but death and I should have continued within those limits which modesty had prescribed me if there had been anything in the world which might have hindred us And thus much I had to say to Coriolanus but for you brother continued she turning to Marcellus I have but too great reasons to oppose the unjust resolution you have taken And I have such as are invincible says the Prince interrupting her to persist in it such as yours will ineffectually oppose and though I had no other then to see it is by his means whom of all the world I ought most to respect I lose the person I most affect and that to rescue my friends life I cannot attempt that of the enemy who destroys him there is no other mean to be taken then for a man to die with his friend and therefore assure your selves what ever you may alledge against it I will either save Coriolanus 's life or suffer death with him While these three generous persons outvyed one the other in this noble contestation and that Drusus not interrupting them with admiration heard what passed Sempronius addressing himself to him What shall we do in this misfortune said he to him and with what confidence can we give the Emperor an account of this strange adventure you may do as you think sit replies Drusits but for my part I am already resolved what to do and since you are to acquaint the Emperor with the resolution of Marcellus you may tell the Empress that my intentions are the same with those of Marcellus and that having by my tears and intreaties vaiuly endeaveured to divert him from his cruel resolution I have my self taken that which my love and my vertue inspired me with that she should not have countenanced me in my inclinations for Antonia if she were resolved to she 'd the blood of her relations and by her cruelty deprive me of a hope she had suffered me to conceive That she had brought two sons into the world of much different inclinations but that I will expiate what is odious in me upon the account of my birth by an action that may render me worthy the affection of Antonia and friendship of Marcellus that by delivering my self up to those whom it is her design to ruine I would give them an hostage for the punishment of her cruelty and in a word That I came not along with Marcellus but to run fortunes with him to the end to undergo the same destiny with Marcellus and Cleopatra This discourse of Drusus as it had been least expected so did it raise the greater astonishment insomuch that Marcellus turning to him with a certain precipitation What Drusus said he to him shall your destiny be the same with those for Marcellus and Cleopatra It shall Marcellus replies Drusus and I have so violent
the author of it and could not look on him in the condition he was in without being transported with fury and thinking of some attempt upon his life and the son of Juba impatient to continue in a place where he could not sufficiently exercise his valour and considering that though they kept off the enemy they must starve for want of provisions if they found not some means to open their passage force the besiegers further from their gates and works if it were possible there being not either in the place that was or any other that might be assaulted occasion to employ half their men he resolved to make a salley having communicated his design no Artaban Caesario satisfied them of the importance necessity thereof Cesario would go with him followed by young Ptolomey and Artaban upon their intreaties continued in the Castle where the presence of one of those great persons was necessary Alexander staying with him So that with three hundred men whereof one half were Aethiopians the other Aegyptians well armed and animated by example and the despair of pardon they went out of the gate caused the Bridge to be let down and marched out as thick as the place would permit Ptolomey with fifty men advanced as far as the end of the stone Bridg which from the Counterscarp reached to the midst of the Moat to keep the passage free for the return of his companions and the undaunted Prince of Mauritania and the valiant son of Cesar went into the Moat with the rest of their men who by great shouts sent terror to those places where they were soon after to be the messengers of death The two Princes were in their sumptuous armor but being to fight on foot they made use only of the Casque the Cuirats and the Buckler and with greater freedom of the arm then if it had been loaden with iron they plyed their enemies with the dazling and mortal sword If the number of their men was small the place where they were to fight was accordingly not very spacious and the valour of the two Chiefs might well be reckoned for a considerable party The Romans on the other side were so surprised at this unexpected tempest that they could hardly put themselves into a posture to make any resistance and by that time they were set upon all was in disorder blood and death among them Never had the terrible Affrican Prince nor the undaunted son of Cleopatra been animated by a fury comparable to that which made them fight that day nor ever with their own hands spilt so much blood upon any one occasion Nay they seem'd in some measure to have lost their compassionate inclinations especially the son of Caesar who with a certain satisfaction sacrificed the Souldiers of Augustus to his just resentment The Ethiopians and Egyptians seconded them with much valour and running into the Moat with a miraculous eagerness overturned the ladders with the men that were upon them so that all they came near perished either by falls or the inexorable sword All places were full of blood and the Princes so covered therewith that they could not be discerned from others but by their irresistable blows that fell from them Artaban who looked on them from the Rampart would have envied the glory they acquired by such transcendent effects of valour had he not by so many memorable actions already raised himself to a fame noble enough However even from the place where he was he did them considerable service and perceiving that Caesar constantly supplyed the Moat with fresh men to relieve those who were either dead or run away and that his own had no further work with those who before scaled the Ladders he ordered them to be perpetually casting at the Counterscarp and by showers of darts hindring the enemies access to the Moat he facilitated the victory of his two illustrious Friends Nor was young Ptolomey without employment or occasion to exercise his valour for Caesar desirous to prevent the return of his enemies caused the young Prince to be assaulted upon the bridg he was to keep and gave him occasion to do things so noble that if the two other Princes had that day in some measure outvy'd whatever was celebrated as most dreadful by Antiquity he raissd in those who saw him an apprehension little different from that of the famous Roman whose maintaining of a Bridge against the armies of Hetruria made his name known all over the world The small number of men assigned him were enough for the defence of the place he was to keep and he would have wanted room to employ any more They were weary of assaulting him by reason of the danger they were exposed to he had half lifted up the visor of his Casque to take a little air after the pains he had been at when a man sumptuously armed tall and of a fierce deportment advances towards him with his sword in the right hand and his left covered with a Buckler Ptolomey seeing him coming on goes towards him and gave him a hearty blow which he received upon his Buckler The young Prince vexed he had spent his blow in vain was lifting up his arm to second it when the unknown person retreating Hold Ptolomey said he to him and be not the death of thy Brother who comes to suffer it from the hands of thy enemies and not from thine And with those words lifting up the visor of his head piece he discovered himself to be Julius Antonius and thereupon going over to him he turned against his enemies and set himself in a posture of fighting In the mean time Coriolanus and Caesario had no more enemies to deal withal in the Moat death or flight having not left them any thing to employ their valour upon all the Ladders were pulled down and most broken and among the faggots stones and other things wherewith the Moat had been filled might be seen streams of blood and heaps of carkasses enough to raise horror and compassion The two Princes finding themselves still followed by the best part of their men pursued the defeated out of the Moat up to the Counterscarp with a design to gain a quarter near the castle known to Caesario whereby they would have had a free passage to the Sea to embark their illustrious company in the Ethiopian ships and having put the Romans to the rout Victory attended them upon the Counterscarp as it had done in the Trench and with the points of their swords they made their way so as to get to the place where Augustus was encouraging his men to fight and which he durst not quit though he perceived them coming on whether out of the shame he conceived it to give way to so small a number or the confidence he had in the multitude of his own He was calling them from all sides to his relief and sending orders to make them advance who were at some distance when Caesario from a
towards me nay though I am satisfied that neither Caesar nor Queen Cleopatra had any hand in the last misfortunes of Pompey and that it is not unlikely Caesar would have been moderate in the advantages of his fortune if that of Pompey would have permitted it yet I entertaine the proffer you make me of your friendship as a pure effect of your Vertue and am to assure you that next to the obligations I have to Candace there is not any thing I more value Whereupon embracing one another upon the new confirmation of their Friendship Artaban gave Caesario a short account of the particulars of his birth and the assurances he had of it as he had received them from Briton By this time night was drawing on and the Princes having caused a distribution to be made of what provisions there were in the Castle found much to their grief there was hardly to afford a light repast for so many persons and that the next day they must either be miraculously supplyed from heaven or suffer through hunger what they had avoided by the sword The Princesses and Princes made that poor meale with much constancy neither Cleopatra nor Candace discovering any thing of weakness upon so strange a misfortune Coriolanus and Caesario seem'd the only persons troubled as reflecting it was upon their account that their Princesses and Friends were fallen into that extremity and the grief which seemed to be legible in the countenances of Artaban Drusus and Alexander proceeded from their remembrances of Elisa Antonia and Artemisa rather than the danger that threatned them Drusus and Alexander discovered so much the less because they had left their Princesses safe among their Friends and feared not any thing might happen to them but Artaban was much in disturbance and though he were resolved out of a consideration of honour to perish with his Friends if he could not avoid it and had a courage great enough to face death without any trouble yet could he not reflect that Elisa was in the power of Augustus and that to be revenged for the injury he had that day received he might force her to marry Agrippa without an affliction that proved extremely a torment to him He was upon the rack of those considerations when Coriolanus and Caesario came to communicate their grief to him and ask his advice in the extremity they were reduced to and all the Princes being called to deliberate together what resolution should be taken it was without any contradiction resolved that when the night was a little advanced they should endeavour to force their way through the Guards and with the Princesses and all the men that were in the Castle endeavour to break through the Enemy on that side which led to the Ethiopian ships not but that the execution of this enterprise would prove difficult and dangerous yet was it to be embraced before the death they were assured of in the Castle being of that kind which was most unworthy their courage This resolution taken about an hour after they set things in order for the execution of it and the Princes having satisfied the souldiery of the necessity there was they should behave themselves gallantly Coriolanus Artaban and Caesario led them on and ordered the two Princesses with their women to come behind conducted by Marcellus Drusus and the three sons of Anthony That illustrious company consisting of what was most great in the world either as to Valour or Beauty went in that posture out of the Castle with a courage no less remarkable in the Princesses than the Princes and the three Chiefes who had severally commanded so great armies and were now all reduced to the command of so small a number fell in with such fury upon a guard placed almost at the end of the bridge and immediately forced it with such success that having cut some to pieces the rest fled in disorder to the next post This not only encouraged the souldiers but put their valiant commanders into some hope but when turning their faces towards the sea they would charge those that kept the passage that way they found their attempts would prove ineffectual the wayes being made up with barricadoes and great beames and maintained by above two thousand souldiers commanded by valiant men So that having set upon them very desperately but to little purpose and perceiving it impossible to get through and that upon the loss of some of their men the rest were unwilling to advance upon a design absolutely desperate they were forced to make what hast they could towards the Castle having out of a prudent foresight lest Briton and Eteocles at the end of the Bridge with fifty men to prevent the enemy from getting into it during the engagement and accordingly Marcellus Drusus and the Sons of Anthony conconducted the Princesses thither while Artaban Caesario and Coriolanus made their retreat so as to keep the Enemy in play till they came to the Castle gate into which they were the last that entred Upon this last act of misfortune was it that griefe and exasperation wrought their saddest effects in the two Princes who saw so many illustrious persons that were dear to them exposed to certain death upon their account Caesario fell at the feet of Candace to divert her from the design she had to dye with him and intreated his Brothers to leave him in an extremity wherein he could make no advantage of their generosity He pressed the same thing to the Great Artaban putting him in mind of his obligations to Elisa and representing to him that he should slight all things for the service of that Princess But the son of Juba was transported in such manner as would have raised compassion in the most insensible hearts and betraying what might be thought the effects of weakness in him had he been reduced thereto out of any respect to himself he endeavoured both by words and tears to prevail with those persons in whom the expectation of sudden death produced no such effect to leave him to his own misfortunes He lay prostrate at the feet of Cleopatra washing them with his tears and with much ado recovering the freedome of speech if ever said he to her Love begat compassion in any soul and if you would have me at the period of my life flatter my self with the glory of having been loved by my Princess my adored Princess by that love which I shall inviolably preserve in the other life by all you acknowledge sacred and in submission to those Deities whom you have ever reverenced and now incense by the injustice you do me force me not to die the most terrible kind of death my Enemies could have invented for me and think it enough that after the example of the Queen your Mother you have satisfied the world how easily you can slight death for his sake whom you love without exercising to the utmost this strange kind of cruelty upon me For in fine imagine not that when
then of a thousand deaths couldst thou make him suffer so many that in the art of exquisite vengeance never any was so well experienced as thy self Caesar adding the Prince of Mauritania interrupting the Princess Cleopatra and Marcellus speak to thee as a cruel Prince and I look on thee as an impartial Judge I must confess the revenge they propose to thee would be cruel but not just and the business now is not to execute vengeance home but to save the innocent and punish the guilty Nor do I therefore divert thee from their death as satisfied that all they can say to thee will not provoke thee so far as to bring their lives into any danger but I conjure thee to prevent the effect of their unreasonable resolutions and not to leave an indelible blemish in thy reputation by neglecting their safety The Emperor replies Marcellus may indeed put me to death if he please but cannot make me live against my will and though I were deprived of all destructive instruments there are other ways to dye which no power but that of the Gods can prevent Be therefore assured my Lord continued he turning to Caesar that though your power be the greatest that can be you cannot make me live if you take away the life of Coriolanus and that all the earth will detest your cruelty if you put to death a Prince who yesterday with so much generosity saved your life Augustus was a little troubled at this discourse of Marcellus and looking scornfully on him Ungrateful man said he to him thou shouldst be ashamed of the reproach thou makest mee and consider thou art much more to be blamed for having engaged against my people in a place where I was in person then to be commended for diverting the enemies weapon from thy father's brest Thou oughtest with the hazard of thy life to have done what thou didst upon that occasion but shouldest rather have lost a thousand lives then be found in arms against thy father and Emperour I neither was in arms against you replied the Prince nor rescued you from the enemyes weapon and the Prince you now send to execution hath sufficiently expressed how little he values his own life if he hath not vouchsafed to tell you that it is only to him you are obliged for your own and that by a magnanimity beyond all example it was he delivered it out of the hands of a dreadful enemy while you endeavoured nothing so earnestly as to take away his How cries out the Emperour casting his eyes one while on Marcellus another on Coriolanus was it from Coriolanus I received that relief which I thought came from Marcellus No it was from Marcellus you received it says the King of Mauritania to him though both Marcellus and Drusus were at that time with the Princesses and had it not been for the respect I have for whatever is loved by Marcellus I should not have been guilty of that tendernesse for the life of so cruel an enemy Augustus giving way to the astonishment and confusion which such an emergency might well raise in him looked several times on the Prince viewing him from head to foot while Drusus confirmed to the assembly and celebrated that transcendent action of Coriolanus and afterward fastning his eyes on the ground and leaning his head on one hand and his arm on the elbow of his chair he continued in the posture of a man overburthened with a deep reflection on something of neerest consequence during which all the illustrious company put up their addresses to Heaven for the Prince's safety nay Livia her self moved at his admirable vertue seemed to favour him and to have quitted the displeasure she had conceived against him upon the wounds of Tiberius He was heard to sigh several times while his thoughts were so busied and the Idaea of the dream which had troubled him that night coming to his mind and raising new disturbances there No more Father said he speaking so loud as to be heard by those that were about his chair no more I remember both your reproaches and your meances While he was in that posture and all the assembly in suspence there comes into the Hall a man whom few there thought in a condition to venture so far t was Agrippa who pale and weak and finding much ado to walk with the help of one of his men had made a shift to get through the throng through the civility that all had to make him way and got up with much difficulty to the Emperours chair Elisa's colour changed upon sight of him though out of the confidence she had of his vertue she expected nothing of misfortune from his coming and imagined that the violence he did himself was an effect of the letter she had sent him At last the Emperour recovering himself as it were out of a deep study immediately cast his eyes on him and no doubt would have been much troubled to see him come abroad in that condition had not his thoughts been wholly taken up with other considerations But as things then stood he was not a little glad to see him and laying his hand on his arm Ah my dear Agrippa said he to him how seasonable is your coming and how much do I stand in need of your help to overcome a strange disturbance But alas added he sighing methinks it is a long time that you have forsaken me Agrippa would have made him some answer but the Emperour wringing him by the arm Leave me to my self said he to him for this first engagement you shall help me out in the rest if I stand in need of your assistance Whereupon endeavouring to dispel that cloudinesse of thought which lay so heavy about his heart he fastned his eyes on the King of Mauritania and after he had looked on him a good while without speaking ought I know not said he to him whether thou hast raised in me more hatred and displeasure against thee by the injuries thou didst me at a time when I might haply force thee to it or confusion at the service thou didst me upon an occasion wherein thou shouldst not do it out of any other motive then that of thy vertue and whether I ought to have a greater resentment of the affront then acknowledgement for the good office I have received but must confesse I was lesse to seek in the revenge than I am in the reparation 'T is past all deliberation that thou shall live thy life is due to the intercession of Marcellus and the great action thou didst yesterday for me deservs something more than life but what can I do for thee if it be not in my power to make thee live and that thou wilt not accept of thy life without Cleopatra The immortal Gods are my witnesses that to recompence thy vertue and to cover with oblivion the cruelties I have exercised upon the most vertuous of men I wish it were in my power by a present of what
tender agitations of Love and Pity Yes my dear Artaban said I where ever you go you have my consent to be always mine and the Gods can witness I would be yours too had the King and his Daughters desires been as neerly ally'd as themselves live then with this assurance but remember I bid you live nay I command you to take care of your life since I have some hope still left unstrangled that tells me Heaven will not always let you be unhappy I know it will concern your safety to absent your self a while from the Court because the Kings anger was ever too dangerous to be trusted but I hope the want of you at the helm of his affairs will quickly make it self known by some following disadvantages that will not only oblige him to call you back again but offer that into your arms which he has ingratefully refus'd you in the mean time oppose your despair with this belief he shall find it no easie Province to make me disclaim my right in you for a new object and so far a Decency will defend those endeavours I shall take care to preserve you from the mischief of seeing that in another mans possession which was unworthily denyed you If this be your resolution Madam cryed Artaban I am not half so miserable as my sorrows told me but as I bind my promise by all that ever was obliging to make my future behaviour take laws from the profound respect my Soul has for you and obey them by reregarding that happy man without a design to disquiet his Fortune whom your own free suffrage shall raise to the honour of your bed so I beg your licence to oppose the felicity of those with all the power I can make that pretend to that blessed Priviledge against your consent I allow your request replyed I without a farther consideration and after this permission do make it my prayer to you to retire your self from hence lest the last jars betwixt you and the King perpended I contract a severe censure by so long a discourse nor can I think my self secure from the bolts of his anger if ever he arrives at the knowledge of our privacy Adieu Artaban and do not complain of a cold unkindness in this farewel for if you desire to oblige me you cannot do it better than by believing that Artaban's memory shall ever be as dear to me as Elisa's life These last words took their flight with a torrent of unruly tears that climb'd over the walls of their prison while Artaban took his last leave of me with a very passionate discourse which in the broil of troubled thoughts I could understand but confusedly I left him half dead at this separation and walked a way from him for fear of a surprizal but in so strange a disguise of grief as it was long before I durst come in sight of my Women and I sought out all the secretest walks in the Garden that I might have leisure to quiet and compose my disorders before I appeared indeed I think at last my face had parted with some of it but my soul was still upon the Rack and torn so cruelly as I believe Artaban himself scarce felt more torment The whole remainder of that day I was utterly incapable of any entertainment or accost and I spake to none but Urinoe and her daughter whom I suffered to be partners in my woe for Artaban's misfortune and my own I say my own for I always ventured an equal share of happiness in his Barque nor was it in fortunes power to send such a storm as would ship-wrack his joys and let mine swim to shoar Ah! Urinoe would I say since 't was impossible for you to over-see this event or miss the fore-sight that Artaban's pretences to me would never be authorized why would you favor his attempt so imprudently and why with so many pressing solicitations strive to enter my heart with his love that it might be this day wounded with his loss That unfortunate is gone and carries away no other salary for his great services than his own despair nay possible he is gone into some other Country less ingrateful than this with a fatal resolution to throw off his miseries with his life and force them both to expire together while I stay behind with the stings of a remorse for exposing a man that has so bravely obliged me to the cruelty of so many disasters But as there is but a part of Elisa stays behind him so he cannot go away with Artaban entire and undivided and if he leaves me a heart which I keep as the dearest pledge that ever was pawned by lover so I have given him leave to glory in the possession of that which my duty how precise and severe so ever it ought to be could not refuse to his Merit his Affection and Services I breathed my sorrows with divers other discourses of the same tenour which I cannot repeat and be civil with your patience and all my actions were distempered with a grief so violent as there were very few eyes in the Court too dim to discover it The next day after Artaban's departure the King came into my Chamber and finding me in bed which I resolved to keep for some days on purpose to conceal what my tell-tale looks would have betrayed too plainly The audacious Artaban said he was yesterday so rash as to demand you of me for the sallary of his services can it be possible Elisa that you should either know or approve his insolence These words stab'd themselves to my very heart but unwilling to betray any trouble in too long a study for an answer Sir said I the services of Artaban are known unto me but I am a perfect stranger to his insolence and he never discovered any thoughts to me that might justly offend your Majesty If I thought replyed Phraates knitting his brows that you favoured the ambition of that presumptuous man I should soon make you know the displeasure you have done me The Queen coming in at this passage interrupted the sequel and secretly strove to allay the Kings passionate heat with milde and gentle insinuations she was a perfect lover of Artabans vertue as she deemed her self obliged and had been touched with a tender sense of his disgrace In fine her gloss upon the cause of his disturbance differed much from the Kings and though her opinion pointed at something too hardy in the attempt of Artaban yet that reflection could not blemish the esteem she had for him and proved so far from forcing his deserts to the loss of any ground in her memory as if his felicity had depended upon her disposal she would not have opposed it however she openly regretted the unlucky cause of his absence and though she durst not condemn that refusal the King had made him yet she made no scruple to speak it in his presence that she was sorry his passion had forfeited the future service of so