in all outward appearance I thinke he neither loves thee for my sake nor my selfe for thine Live thou as happy as I feare I shall die miserable FIDELIA What a fearefull Letter is this either for Fidelia to send or Carpi to receive but her distempered and distracted spirits can afford no other and therefore shee dispatcheth away the Laquay with this And now as if her thoughts transported her to hell shee cannot bee alone for the Deuill is still with her hee appeares to her in the shape of an Angell of Light and profers her mountaines of Wealth and Worlds of Honour if shee will fall downe and adore him To rebell against God is a sinne but to perseuere in our rebellion is not onely a contempt but a treason in the highest degree against God The best of Gods people are commonly tempted but those are and prove the worst who are overcome with temptation Fortitude is a principall and soueraigne vertue in Christians and if wee vanquish the Deuill it is good for vs that he assaulted us sith those Victories as well spirituall as temporall are ever most glorious and honourable which are atchieved with greatest danger Had Fidelia followed the current of this counsell and the streame of this advise shee had never beene so weake with God nor so unfaithfull to her selfe as to destroy her selfe but forsaking God and contemning prayer which is the true way to the truest felicity what can shee hope for but despaire or expect but destruction Her brother Alcasero and many of her kinsfolks neighbours and friends with their best zeale and possible power endevour to perswade and comfort her they exhort her to read religious bookes and continually to pray Shee hearkneth to both these counsels but neither can or will not follow either Her sleepes are but broken slumbers and her slumbers but distracted dreames and ever and anon it seemes to the eyes of her minde and body that the Captaine her father doth both speake to her and follow her In a word she is weary both of this world and of her life yea despaire or rather the Devill hath reduced her to this extreme misery and miserable extremity that she is ready to kisse that hand that would kill her or that Death which would giue her death Shee never sees a knife in the hands of another but shee wisheth it in her owne heart her Conscience doth so terribly accuse her and â—…r thoughts give in such bloudy evidence against her conscience and selfe for occasioning her fathers murther that she resolves she must die and therefore disdaines to live And now comes her sister Celestina to her to perswade and conferre with her but she will prove but a miserable comforter Fidelia sees her with hatred and detestation and when shee begins to speake very peremptorily and mournfully cuts off her speeches thus Ah sister would we had slipt when wee plotted our fathers death for in seeking his ruine we shall assuredly finde out our 〈◊〉 Provide you for your safety for I am past hope of mine and so get you out of my sight I know not whether the beginning of this her speech savoured more of Heaven then the end thereof doth of Hell for sure If we passe hope we come too short of salvation and if we forsake that this infallibly will forsake us This poore or rather this miserable Gentlewoman having alwayes her murthered father before her eyes which incessantly haunts her as a ghost and yet shee enforced to follow it as her shaddow is powerfully allured and provoked by the instigation of the Devill in what manner or at what rate soever to dispatch her selfe being so wretchedly instructed in faith and piety and shee addes and beleeves that the end of her life will prove not onely the end of her afflictions but the beginning of her joyes But O poore Fidelia with a thousand pities and teares I both pitie and grieve to see thee beleeve so infernall an Advocate for what joyes either will he or can he give thee Why nothing but bondage for liberty torments for pleasures and tortures for delights or if thou wilt have me shew thee whereat his flattering oratory or sugred insinuation tendeth it is onely to have thee destroy thy body in earth that as a triumph and Trophee to the enlargement of his obscure kingdome he may dragge thy body and soule to hell fire But Fidelia is as constant in her sinne as impious in her resolution and so all delayes set apart shee seekes the meanes to destroy her selfe shee procures poyson and takes it but the effect and operation thereof answers not her desires I know not whether shee be more impatient to live than willing to die We never want invention seldome meanes to doe evill a little pen-knife of hers shall in her conceit performe that which poyson could not shee seeks it and now remembers it is with her paire of knives in the pocket of her best gowne she flies to her Ward-robe and so to her pocket but finds not her knives onely she finds her Naples silke girdle in stead thereof The Devils instruments are never farre to seeke she thinks it as good to strangle her throat as to cut it And here comes her mournfull and deplorable Tragedy she returnes swiftly to her chamber bolts the doore and so which I grieve and tremble to relate fastens it to the reaster of her bed and there hangs her selfe and as it is faithfully reported at that very instant and for the space of an houre it thundred and lightned so cruelly as if Heaven and Earth were drawing to an end that not onely the chamber where she hung but the whole house shaked thereat The thunder being past and the skies cleared dinner is served on the Table and Alcasero and Caelestina ready to sit they call for their sister Fidelia but she is not to be found One goes to her chamber and returnes that her key is without side and the doore bolted within and yet shee answers not They both flie from the Table to her chamber and call and knocke but no answer Alcasero commands his men to breake open the doore which they doe and there sees his sister Fidelia hanging to the bed-steed starke dead They cry out as affrighted and amazed at this mournfull and pitifull spectacle and with all speed take her downe but she is breathlesse though not cold and they see all her face and body which were wont to be as white as snow now to be coale blacke and to stinke infinitely These are the wofull effects and lamentable fruits both of Despaire and Murther O may Christians of all ranks and of hoth sexes take heed by Fidelia's mournfull miserable example and withall remember that murther will still be revenged and punished especially that which is perpetrated by Children towards their Parents a sinne odious both to God and man sith it not onely opposeth Nature but Grace Earth but heaven No sooner with griefe and mourning
they doe her to accept and receive her owne They tell her they have not the power to grant her the first and she replies that shee then hath not the will to embrace and entertaine the second They acquaint Morosini herewith who by their order and by their selves doe strongly perswade her hereunto but her first answer and resolution is her last that shee willaccept of no life if he must dye neither will hee refuse any death conditionally that shee may live to survive him The two Friers and two Nunnes use their best Art and Oratory to perswade her hereunto but they meet with impossibility to make her affection to Morosini and her resolution to her selfe flexible hereunto Her life is not halfe so pretious to her as is his for if shee had many as shee hath but one shee is both ready and resolute to lose and sacrifice them all for his sake and would esteeme it her felicity that her death might redeem and ransome his life The Judges out of their goodnesse and charity afford a whole day to invite and perswade her hereunto but shee is still deafe to their requests and still one and the same woman desirous to live with him or constant and resolute to dye for him Therefore when nâ—…thing can prevaile with her because dye he must so dye shee will to the which shee cheerefully prepares her selfe with an equall affection and resolution which I rather admire than commend in her So the next morning theyare all foure brought to the place of common execution to suffer death Where Donato is first liftedup to the Ladder who being fuller of paine than words said little in effect but that he wished he had either died in Constantinople or Aleppo or else sunke in the sea before he came to Ancona and not to have here ended his daies in misery and infamy The next who was ordered to follow him was Astonicus who told the world boldly and plainly that hee cared lesse for his death than for the cause thereof and that hee loved Morosini so perfectly and dearely that he rather reioyced than grieved to dye for him only he repented himselfe for assisting to murther Palmerius and from his heart and soule beseeched God to forgive it him and so he was turned over Then Morosini ascends the Ladder â—…ad in a haire coulour sattin sute and a paire of crimson silke stockings with garters and roses edged with silver lace being so vaine in his carriage action and speeches as before hee once thought of God hee with a world of sighes takes a solemneleave of his sweet heart Imperia and with all the powers of his heart and soule prayes her to accept of his life and so to survive him He makes an exact and godly confession of his sinnes to God and the world and yet neverthelesse hee is so vaine in his affection toward Imperia as hee takes both to witnesse that had hee a thousand lives he would cheerefully lose them all to save and preserve hers As for Imperia such was her deere and tender affection to him as she would faine look on him as long as he lives and yet she equally desires and resolves rather to dy than to see him die and because she hath not the power therefore she turnes her â—…ace and eies from him and will not have the will to see him dye When he having said his prayers and so recommended his soule into the hands of his Redeemer he is also turned over Now although our Imperia bee here againe and againe solicited by the Iudges Friers and Nuns to accept of her life yet she seeing her other selfe Morosini dead shee therefore disdaines to survive him shee hath so much love in her heart as she now hath little life and lesse joy in her lookes and countenance Shee ascends the Ladder in a plaine blacke Taffeta Gowne a plaine thicke set Ruffe a white Lawne Quayfe and a long blacke Cypresse vayle over her head with a white paire of gloves and her prayer booke in her hands When beeing farre more capable to weepe than speake shee casting a wonderfull sad and sorrowfull looke on her dead lover Morosini after many volleyes of farre fetchd sighes shee delivers this short speech to that great concourse of people who from Citty and Country flocked thither to see her and them dye Good People I had lived more happy and not dyed so miserable if my Father Bondino had not so cruelly enforced mee to marry Palmerius whom I could not love and to leave Morosini whom in heart and soule I ever affected a thousand times deerer than mine owne life and may all fathers who now see my death or shall hereafter heare or reade this my History bee more pittifull and lesse cruell to their daughters by his Example I doe here now suffer many deaths in one to see that my deere Morosini is dead for my sake for had hee not loved mee deerly and I him tenderly he had never died for mee nor I for him with such cheerefullnesse and alacrity as now we doe And here to deale truly with God and the world although I could never affect or fancy my old husband Palmerius yet noâ—… from my heart and soule I lament and repent that ever I was guilty of his innocent and untimely death the which God forgive me and I likewise request you all to pray unto God to forgive it me And not to conceale or dissemble the truth of my heart I grieve not to dye but rather because I have no more lives to lose for my Morosini's affection and sake I have and doe devoutly pray unto God for his soule and so I heartily request and conjure you all to doe for mine Thus I commend you all to happy and prosperous lives my selfe to a pious and patient death in earth and a joyfull and glorious resurrection in Heaven when signing her selfe often with the signe of the crosse she pulls her vaile downe over her face and so praying that she might be buried in one and the same grave with Morosini she bad the executioner performe his office who immediatly turnes her over And if reports be true Never three young men and one faire young Gentlewoman died more lamented and pittied then they For Morosini died with more resolution than repentance and Imperia with more repentance than resolution thus was their lives and thus their deaths May wee extract wisdome out of their folly and charity out of their cruelty so shall wee live as happy as they died miserably and finish our daies and lives in as much content and tranquillity as they ended theirs in shame infamy and confusion GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND Execrable sinne of Murther HISTORY XXVII Father Iustinian a Priest and Adrian an Inne-keeper poyson De Laurier who was lodged in his house and then bury him in his Orchard where a moneth after a Wolfe digges him up and devonres a great part of his body which father Iustinian and Adrian
repentance nor consequently from Earth to Heaven but like a prophane Libertine and unregenerate person being within a small point of time neere his end hee yet thinkes not of his soule nor of God but onely dallies away the remainder of his houres in the miserable contemplation of his fond affection and beastly sensuality By this time Victoryna hath receiv'd his Letter at the newes and reading whereof such is the passion of her frenzy which shee though unjustly tearmes love that shee is all in teares sighes and lamentable exclamations she knowes it impossible for any other of the world to bee the revealer of Sypontus his Letter but onely her Mayd Felicia whom in her uncharitable Revenge shee curseth to the pit of hell but that which addes a greater torment to her torments and a more sensible degree of affliction to her miserable sorrowes is to see that her Sypontus whom by many degrees she loves far dearer then her life finisterly snspecteth her fidelity towards him yea so farre as hee not onely calls her affection but her treachery in question and this indeed seemes to drowne her in her teares But yet notwithstanding so fervent is her love towards him as the feare of his death drawes her to a resolution of her owne so if Sypontus dye shee vowes shee will bee her owne accuser and so not live but dye with him Strange effects of love or rather of folly sith love being irregular and taking false objects in its true character is not love but folly to which end calling for inke and paper she bitterly weeping indites and sends him these few lines in answer of his VICTORYNA to SYPONTVS I Were the most wretched and ingratefullest Lady of the world yea a Lady who should not then deserve either to see or live in the world if Victoryna should any way prove treacherous to Sypontus who hath still beene so true and kinde to her But beleeve mee Deare Sypontus and I speake it in presence of God upon perill of my soule I am as innocent as that witch that devill my mayd Felicia is guilty of the producing of thy Letter which I feare will prove thy death and rejoyce that in it it shall likwise prove mine For to cleer my selfe of ingratitude trechery as I have lived so I will dye wiyh thee that as we mutually participated the joyes of life so we may the torments of death for although thy Letter accuse me not of my Husband Souranza's Murther yet that my affection may shine in my loyalty and that in my affection I will not survive but dye with thee for I will accuse my selfe to my Iudges not onely as accessary but as author of that Murther and this resolution of mine I write thee with teares and will shortly seale it with my bloud VICTORYNA Sypontus in the middest of his perplexities and sorrowes receives this Letter from Victoryna the sweetnesse of whose affection and constancy much revives his joy and comforteth him For now her innocency defaceth his suspicion of her ingratitude and treachery and withall hee plainely sees and truly beleeves that it was Felicia not Victoryna who brought this Letter to Light But when hee descends to the latter part of her Letter and finds her resolution to dye with him then hee condemnes his former errour in taxing her and in requitall loves her so tenderly and dearely that he vowes hee will bee so farre from accusing her as accessary of her husbands Murther as both the Racke and his death shall cleare and proclaime her innocency Had the ground of these servent and reciprocall affections of Victoryna and Sypontus beene laid in vertue as they were in vice or in chastly and not in lust and adultery they would have given cause to the whole world as justly to prayse as now to dispraise them and then to have beene as ambitious of their imitation as now of their contempt and detestation So Sypontus as before having fully and definitively resolved not to accuse but to cleare Victoryna of this Murther as also that hee would dye alone and leave her youth and beauty to the injoying of many more earthly pleasures hee expecting hourely to bee sent for before his Iudges to sit upon his torment or death thinking himselfe bound both in affection and honour to signifie Victoryna his pleasure herein he craves his â—…aylors absence and with much affection and passion writes her this his last Letter SIPONTVS to VICTORYNA SWeet Victoryna thy Letter hath given mee so full satisfaction as I repent mee of my rash credulity conceived against thy affection and constancy and now lay the fault of the discovery of my Letter where it is and ought to bee on Felicia not on thy selfe It is with a sorrowfull but true presage that I foresee my life hastens to her period the Racke is already prepared for my torments and I hourely expect when I shall bee fetch 't to receive them which for thy sake I will imbrace and suffer with as much constancy as patience I will deny mine owne guiltinesse the first time but not the second but in my torments and death I will acquit thee of thine with as true a resolution as Earth expects to lose mee and I hope to finde Heaven Therefore all the by bonds of love and affection that ever hath beene between us I first pray then conjure thee to change thy resolution and to stand on thine innocency For if thou wilt or desirest to gratifie mee with thy last affection and courtesie at my death let mee beare this one content and joy to my grave that Victoryna will live for Sypontus his sake though Sypontus dye for hers SYPONTVS Hee had no sooner sent away this his Letter to Victoryna but hee himselfe is sent for to appeare before his Iudges who upon his second examination and denyall adjudge him to the Racke which hee indures with admirable patience and constancy Yea hee cannot bee drawne to confesse but stands firme in his denyall and not onely cleares himselfe but also acquits Victoryna Hieronymâ—… Souranza doth notwithstanding earnestly follow and solicite the Iudges and God out of his immense mercy and profound providence so ordaineth that their consciences suggest and prompt them that Sypontus is the actor of this execrable Murther Whefore the next day they administer him double torment when loe his resolution and strength fayling him hee acknowledgeth the letter his and confesseth it was himselfe that had Murthered Seignior Iovan Baptista Souranza but withall protesteth constantly that Victoryna is innocent and no way accessary hereunto The Iudges rejoyce at Sypontus his confession as much as they grieve at the foulenesse of his fact and so although they were also desirous to hang him yet considering hee was a Venecian Gentleman and consequently had a great voyce in the great Counsell of the Seigniory they adjudge him the next day to lose his head betwixt the two Columes at Saint Markes Place and so for that night send him backe
cole-blacke the best Physicians and Chirurgians are sent for they see her death-strooken with that Planet and therfore adjudge their skill but vaine her strength and senses fall from her which Catalina having the happinesse to perceive and grace to feele will no longer be seduced with the devils temptations The Divines prepare her soule for Heaven and now shee will no longer dissemble with man or God shee will not charge her conscience with so foule a Crime as Murther the which shee knowes will prove a stop to the fruition of her felicity She confesseth shee twice procured her Wayting-gentlewoman Ansilva to poyson her Sister Berinthia and since that she hath given Sarmiata one hundred Duckets to poyson the said Ansilva which he performed and whereof shee humbly begs pardon of all the world and religiously of God whom shee beseecheth to bee mercifull to her soule and so though shee lived prophanely and impiously yet shee dyed repentantly and religiously Vilarezo and Alphanta her old parents grieve and storme at her death but more extreamely at the manner thereof and especially at the confession of her bloudy crimes as well towards living Berinthia as dead Ansilva onely their Daughter Berinthia is silent hereat glad that shee is freed of an enemy sorrowfull to have lost a Sister they are infinitely vexed to publish their daughter Catalina's crimes yet they are inforced to it that thereby this Sarmiata this Agent of Hell may receive condigne punishment for his bloudy offence here on earth So they acquaint the Criminall Iudges hereof who decree order and power for his apprehension Sarmiata is revelling and feasting at Isabella's wedding to which hee is appoynted and requested to furnish the Sweet-meats for the Banquets but hee little thinkes what sowre sawce there is providing for him Wee are never neerest danger then when wee thinke our selves furthest from it and although his sinnefull security was such as the Devill had made him forget his murther of Ansilva yet God will and doth remember it and lo here comes his storme here his apprehension and presently his punishment By this time the newes of Catalina's suddaine death but not of her secret confession is published in Avero and arrived at the Bride-house which gives both astonishment and griefe to all the world but especially to Sarmiata whose heart and conscience now rings him many thundering peales of feare terrour and despaire his bloudy thoughts pursue him like so many bloudhounds and because he hath forsaken God therfore the devill will not forsake him he counselleth him to flie and to provide for his safety but what safety so unsecure dangerous or miserable for a Christian as to throw himselfe into the Devills protection Sarmiata hereon fearing that Catalina had revealed his poysoning of Ansilva very secretly steales away his Cloake and so slips downe to a Posterne doore of the little Court hoping to escape but hee is deceived of his hopes for the eye of Gods providence findes him out The House is beleaguerd for him by Officers who apprehend him as hee is issuing forth and so commit him close prisoner In the afternoone the Iudges examine him upon the poysoning of Ansilva and the receipt of one hundred Duckets to effect it from Catalina which shee at her death confessed Hee addes sinne to sinne and denyes it with many impious oathes and fearefull imprecations but they availe him nothing his Iudges censure him to the Racke where upon the first torment hee confesseth it but with so gracelesse an impudencie as he rather rejoyceth then grieves hereat where we may observe how strongly the Devill stickes to him and how closely hee is bewitched to the Devill so for reparation of this foule crime of his hee is condemned to be hanged which the next morne is performed right against Vilarezo his house at a Gallowes purposely erected and which is worse then all the rest as this lewd villaine Sarmiata liv'd prophanely so hee dy'd as desperately without repenting his bloudy fact or imploring pardon or mercy of God for the same O miserable example O fearefull end O bloudy and damnable miscreant Wee have seene the Theater of this History gored with great variety of bloud the mournefull and lamentable spectacle whereof is capable to make any Christian heart relent into pitty compassion and teares But this is not all wee shall yet see more not that it any way increaseth our terrour but rather our consolation sith thereby wee may observe that Murther comes from Sathan and its punishment from God Catalina's confession and death is not capable to deface or wash away Berinthia's malice and revenge to her brother Sebastiano for killing of her deare and sweet Love Antonio Other Tragedies are past but this as yet not acted but to come Lo now at last though indeed too too soone it comes on the Stage The remembrance of Antonio and his affection is still fresh in her youthfull thoughts and contemplations yea his dead Idea is alwayes present and living in her heart and brest 't is true Sebastiano is her brother 't is as true she saith that if hee had not kill'd Antonio Antonio had beene her husband Againe shee considereth that as Antonio's life preserved hers from death so her life hath beene the cause of his and as hee lost his life for her sake why should not she likewise leave hers for his or rather why should shee permit him to live who hath bereaved her of him But her living affection to her dead friend is so violent and withall so prejudicate and revengefull as shee neither can nor will see her Brother who kill'd him but with malice and indignation In stead of consulting with nature and grace shee onely converseth with choller and passion yea she is so miserably transported in her rage and so outragiously wilfull in her resolution as she shuts the doore of her heart to the two former vertues to whom she should open it and openeth it to the two latter vices 'gainst whom shee should shut it A misery equally ominous and fatall where Reason is not the Mistresse of our Passions and Religion the Queene of our Reason Shee sees this bloudy attempt of hers whereinto shee is entring is sinfull and impious and yet her faith is so weake towards God and the Devill so strong with her as shee is constant to advance and resolute not to retire therein Oh that Berinthia's former Vertues should bee disgraced with so foule a Vice and oh that a face so sweetly faire should bee accompanyed and linked with a heart so cruelly barbarous so bloudily inhumane for what can shee hope from this aâ—…mpt in killing her brother but likewise to ruine her selfe nay had shee had any sparke of wit or grace left her shee should consider that for this foule offence her body shall receive punishment in this world and her soule without repentance in that to come but shee cannot erect her eyes to heaven shee is all set on revenge so the Devill hath plotted the
as I grieve at that so I sorrow at this for although â—…ee dyed mine enemy yet in despight of his malice and death I will live his friend and if thou lovedst him as I thinke thou didst I wish I might fight with his Murtherer for his owne sake and kill him for thine I may say thy affection and beauty deserved his better though dare not affirme I am reserved to bee made happy in injoying of either much lesse of both and least of all of thy selfe and yet I must confesse that if our births and qualities were knowne I should goe as neere to bee thy equall as hee infinitely came short of being mine What or what not I have performed for thy sake is best knowne to myselfe sith thou disdaynest to know it but if thou wilt please to abandon thy disdaine then my affection and the truth will informe thee that I have ever constantly resolved to dy thy Servant though thou have sworne never to live my Mistresse So that could I but as happily regaine thy affection and favour as I have unjustly and unfortunately lost it Belluile would quâ—…ckely forsake Paris to see Avignion and abandon all the beauties of the world to continue his homage and service to that of his onely faire and sweet Laurieta BELLVILE With this his Letter hee sends a Diamond Ring from his finger and so dispatcheth his Lackey who is not long before hee arrive at Avignion where very secretly he delivers Laurieta his Masters Token and Letter and treacherous fury as shee is shee kisseth both and breaking off the Seales reades the contents whereat she infinitly seemes to rejoyce and so questioneth with the Lackey about his Masters returne who being taught his Lesson told her that that depended on her pleasure sith hers was his and withall prayes her for an answer for that two dayes hence hee was againe to returne to his Master for Paris the which shee promiseth The Lackey gone she cannot refraine from laughing yea she leaps for joy to see how Belluile is againe so besotted to throw himselfe into her favour and mercy and to observe how willing and forward he was to runne hoodwink'd to his untimely death and destruction for the Devill hath fortifyed her in her former bloudy resolution so that hap what will shee vowes she will not faile to kill Belluile because hee had slaine her Poligny and already she wisheth him in Avignion that she might see an end to this her wished and desired Tragedy In the meane time she prepares her hypocriticall and treacherous Letter and a rich Watchet Scarfe imbroydered with flames of silver So his Lackey repayreth to her to whom she delivereth both with remembrance of her best love to his Master and that shee hoped shortly to see him in Avignion The Lackey being provided of his Masters Gold and this Scarfe and Letter trips away speedily for Lyons where hee findes his Master privatly husht up in a friends house expecting his returne he is glad of his owne gold but more of Laurieta's Letter when thinking every minute a yeare before he had read it he hastily breaking off the seales findes these lines therein contayned LAVRIETA to BELLVILE AS I acknowledge I loved Poligny so I confesse I never hated thee and if his treacherous insinuation were too prevalent with my credulity I beseech thee attribute it to my indiscretion as being a woman and not to my inconstancie as being thy friend for if he dyed thine enemy let it suffice that I live thine hand-mayd and that as he was not reserved for me so I hope I am wholly for thy selfe How farre he was my inferiour I will not inquire onely it is both my content and honour that thou please vouchsafe to repute mee thy equall I am so farre from disdayning as I infinitely desire to know what thou hast done for my sake that I may requite thy love with kisses and make my thankes wipe off the conceipt of my ingratitude As for my affection it was never lost to thee nor shall ever bee found but of thee To conclude I wish that our little Avignion were thy great Paris and if â—…y love be as unfeigned as mine is firme let my Belluile make hast to see his Laurieta who hath vowed to rejoyce a thousand times more at his returne then ever shee grieved at Poligny's death LAVRIETA At the reading of this her Letter hee is beyond himselfe yea beyond the Moone for joy so as hee wisheth nothing so much as himselfe in her armes or shee in his So hee fits himselfe with a couple of good horses puts his Lackeyes into new Sutes and knowing that time and his absence had washed away the remembrance of Poligny's murther he speeds away for Avignion where the first night of his arrivall he privately visiteth Laurieta 'twixt whom there is nothing but kisses and imbracings yea shee so treacherously and sweetly lulles him â—…leepe with the Syren melody of her deceiptfull speeches as she prayes him to visit her often and that a little time shall crowne him with the fruits of his desire so for that night they part The nâ—…xt day he repaires to her againe when amidst the confluence of many millions of kisses shee prayes and conjures him to discover her what hee hath done for her sake when he tying her by oath to secrecie and she swearing it he relates her that it was himsâ—…fe that in affection to her had slaine Poligny as he issued forth her lodging when having wrested and extorted this mystery from him it confirmes her malice and hastneth on her resolution of his death which his lascivious thoughts have neither â—…he grace to foresee nor the reason to prevent shee espyes hee hath still a Pistoll with him and desires to know why hee beares it who answereth her it is to defend himselfe from his enemies and that hee will never goe without it So againe they fall to their kisses and hee to his requests of a further and sweeter favour of her which shee for that time againe denyes him adding withall that if hee will come to her after dinner to morrow shee will so dispose of matters as his pleasure shall be hers and she will not be her owne but his So being surprised and ravishâ—…d with the extasie of a thousand sweete approaching pleasures hee returnes to his Chamber and shee to her malice where whiles he gluts himselfe with his hope of delight shee doth no lesse with her desire of revenge And now ruminating on the manner of his death she thinkes nothing so fit or easie to dispatch him as his owne Pistoll and so thinking shee should need her Wayting-mayd Lucilla's assistance of whom this our History hath formerly made mention shee acquaints her with her purpose the next day to murther Belluile in her Chamber and so with the lure of gold and many faire promises drawes her to consent hereunto and injoines her to be provided of a good Ponyard under her gowne for the same
consummared far within the tearm of six moneths after For the curious wits of these Citties and Countryes considering what a preposterous course and resolution thiâ—… was for her to marry her husbands man and withall so soone as also that there was none other present but himselfe when his Master De Merson was murthered it is umbragious and leaves a spice of feare and sting of suspition in their heads that there was more in the wind then was yet knowne and therefore knowing no more they deferre the detection thereof to the providence and pleasure of God who best yea who only knowes in Heaven how to conduct and mannage the actions here below on Earth and now indeed the very time is come that the Lord will no longer permit these their cruell and bloody murthers to bee concealed but will bring them foorth to receiue condigne punishment and for want of other evidence and witnesses they themselves shall be witnesses against themselves And although La Vaâ—…elay's poysoning of Gratiana and La Villette pistolling of his master De Merson were cunningly contrived and secretly perpetrated yet we shall see the last of these bloody murthers occasion the discovery and detection of the first and both of them most severely and sharpely punished for these their bloody crimes and horrible offences The manner is thus These two execrable wretches La Villette and La Vasselay have not lived married above some seaven or eight monthes but he being deepely in Law with Mounsieur De Manfrelle his Predecessors father for the detention of some lands and writings hee takes an occasion to ride home to his house of Manfrelle to him to conferre of the differences and by the way falls into the company of some Merchants of Lavall and Vittry who were returning from the faire of Chartres when riding together for the space of almost a whole dayes journey the secret providence and sacred pleasure of God had so ordained that La Viâ—…ettes horse who bore him quietly and safely before on a Sunday first goes back-wards in despight of his spur or swich and then â—…anding an end on his two hind legges falls quite backe with him and almost breakes the bulke and trunke of his body when having hardly the power to speake his breath fayling him and hec seeing no way but death for him and the hideous image thereof apparantly before his eyes the Spirit of God doth so operate with his sinnefell soule as hee there confesseth how his wicked wife La Vasselay had caused him to murther his master De Merson whom he shot to death with his Pistoll that shee first seduced him with a thousand Crownes to performe it which he refused but then her consent to marry him made him not onely attempt but finish that bloody businesse whereof now from his very heart and soule he repented himselfe and beseeched the Lord to forgive it him But here before the Readers curiosity carry him further let me in the name and feare of God both request and conjure him to stand amazed and wonder with me at his sacred providence and inscrutable wisdome and judgement which most miraculously concurres and shines in this accident and especially in three essentiall and most apparant circumstances thereof For it was on the very same horse the same day twelve moneth and in the very same wood and place where this execrable wretch La Villette formerly murthered his master De Merson Famous and notorious circumstances which deserve to be observed and remarked of all the children of God yea and to be imprinted and ingraven in their hearts and memories thereby to deter vs from the like crimes of murther Now these honest Merchants of Lavall and Vittry as much in charity to La Villettes life as in execration of that confessed murther of his Master De Merson convey him to an Inne in Sâ—…int Gorges when expecting every minute that he would dye in their hands they send away post to advertise the Presidiall Court of Mans hereof within whose Iurisdiction Saint Gorges was who speedily command La Villette to 〈◊〉 â—…ght thither to them alive or dead But God reserved him from that natural to 〈◊〉 more infamous death and made him live till he came thither where againe he confesseth this his foule murther of his master De Merson and likewise accuseth La Vasselay to bee the sole instigator thereof as we have formerly heard and understood Whereupon he is no sooner examined but this bloody old Hagge is likewise imprisoned who with many asseverations and teares denies and retorts this foule crime from her selfe to him But her Iudges are too wise to beleeve the weakenesse and invalidity of this her foolish justification So whiles they are consulting on her De Breâ—… having notice of all these accidents but especially of La Vasselay's imprisonment he still apprehending and fearing that she undoubtedly was the death of his daughter Gratioâ—…a takes Poste from Nogent to Mans where hee accuseth her thereof to the Cryminell Iudges of the Presidiall Court who upon these her double accusation adjudge her to the Racke when at the very first torment thereof shee at last preferring the life of her soule before that of her body confesseth her selfe to be the Actor of her first crime of Murther and the Author of the second when and whereupon the Iudges resembling themselves in detestation and for expiation of these her foule crimes condemne him to be hangd and she to be burnt alive which the next day at the common place of execution neere the Halles in Mans is accordingly executed in the presence and to the content of a world of people of that City who as much abhorre the enormity of these their bloody crimes as they rejoyce â—…nd glorifie God for this their not so severe as deserved punishments As for La Villette he like an impious Christian said little else but that which he had formerly spoken and delivered in the wood at the receiving of his fall onely hee said That he had well hoped that his great wealth which hee had with La Vasselay would have sheltred and preserved him from this infamous death for murthering her Husband and his master De Merson But as for this bloody Beldam and wretched old Fury La Vasselay she was content to grieve at Gratiana's death though not to lament or pity that of her Husband De Mersons yea and although she seemed to blame her jealousie towards her yet her age was so wretchedly instructed in piety as she could not find in her heart either to make an Apologie or any way to seeme repentant for her inhumane cruelty towards him For as she demanded pardon of De Bremay for poysoning his daughterso she spake not a word tending that way to Manfrelle for causing his sonne 〈◊〉 pistoll'd only in particular tearmes she re quested God to forgive the vanity of her youth and in generall ones the world to forget the offences and crimes of her age And so conjuring all old
O here they enter into devillish machinations and hellish conspiracies against him for as hee plots their discontents so doe they his destruction Fidelia and Caelestina see their blood and cause one and therefore so they pretend shall be their fortunes they would reveale their intents and designes each to other but the fact is so foule and unnaturall as for a whiles they cannot but they need no other Oratory then their owne sullen and discontented lookes for either of them may read a whole Lecture of griefe and choller in each others eyes till at length tyred with the importunity of their father and the impatiency of Carpi and Monteleone Fidelia as the more audacious of the two first breakes it to her sister Caelestina in this manner That shee had rather die then bee compelled to marry one whom shee cannot affect that the Baron of Carpi is not for her nor shee for him and that sith her father is resolute in this match although shee bee his daughter shee had rather see him laid in his grave then her selfe in Carpies bedde There needs not many reasons to perswade that which we desire For Caelestina tells her sister plainely that shee in all points joynes and concurres in opinion with her adding withall that the sooner their father is dispatched the better because shee knowes they shall never receive any content on Earth till he be in Heaven and so they conclude he shall dye But alas what hellish and devillish daughters are these to seeke the death of their father of whom they have received their lives who ever read of a Parracide more inhumanely cruell or impiously bloody so if ever murther went unrevenged this will not for wee shall see the Authors and Actors thereof most severely punished for the same Men and women may be secret in their sinnes but God will be just in his decrees and sacred in his judgements what a religious resolution had it beene in them to have retyred and not advanced in this their damnable attempt but they are too prophane to have so much pitty and too outragious to hearken to this religious reason yea they are too impious to hearken to Grace and too revengefull and Bloody minded to give eare either to Reason Dutie or Religion So now like two incensed and implacable furies they consult how and in what manner they may free themselves of their father Fidelia proposeth divers degrees and severall sorts of murthers but Caelestina likes none of them in some she finds too much danger in others too little assurance and therefore as young as she is she invents a plot as strange as subtil and as malicious diabolicall as strange she informes her that to be rid of her father there cannot be a securer course then to engage the Baron of Carpi and the Knight of Monteleone to murther him Fidelia wonders hereat saying it will be impossible for them to be drawn to performe it sith they both know and see that the Captaine their father loves them so well as will or nill they must be their husbands But Caelestina's revengefull plot is further fetcht and more cunningly spunne for she hath not begun it to leave it raw and unfinished but is so confident in her devillish industry as shee affirmes she will perfect and make it good Fidelia demands how Caelestina answereth That they both must make a feigned and flattering shew to change their distaste and now to affect Carpi and Monteleone whom before they could not that having in this manner drawne them to their lure when they attempt to urge marriage they shall both agree to enforme them that it is impossible for them to obtaine it whiles the Captaine their father lives sith albeit in outward appearance hee make a faire shew to make them their husbands yet that he meanes and intends nothing lesse for that he hath given them expresse charge and command at any hand not to love or affect them which is the maine and sole cause that hath so long withheld them from making sooner demonstrations of their affections towards them and this quoth shee will occasion and provoke them to attempt it adding that by this meanes they may give two strokes with one stone and so not onely be rid of our father but likewise of Carpi and Monteleone who peradventure may bee apprehended and executed for the fact and for our safegard and security wee will powerfully conjure and sweare them to secresie There is no web finer then that of the Spider nor treachery subtiller than that of a woman especially if she contemne Charity for Revenge her Soule for her Body God for Sathan and consequently Heaven for Hell how else could this young Lady lodge so revengefull a heart in so sweet a Body or shroud such bloody conceits and inventions under so faire and so beautifull complexion But the Panther though his skinne bee faire yet his breath is infectious and we many times see that the foulest Snake lurkes under the greenest and beautifullest leaves Fidelia gives an attentive eare to this her sisters bloody Stratagem and designe shee findes it sure and the probabilities thereof apparant and easie and therefore approves of it So these two beautifull yet bloody sisters vow without delay to set it on foot and in practise It is the Nature of Revenge to looke forwards seldome backewards but did wee measure the beginning by the end as well as the end by the beginning our affections would savour of farre more Religion and of farre lesse impiety and we should then rejoyce in that which we must now repent but cannot remedy They take time at advantage and pertinently acquaint Carpi and Monteleone with it The passions of affection proove often more powerfull then those of Reason they suffer themselves to be vanquished and led away by the pure beauty and sweet Oratory of these two discontented and treacherous Ladies without considering what poyson lurkes under their speeches and danger under their tongues They commit a grosse and maine error in relying more on the daughters youth then the fathers gravity on their verball then his reall affection and so they ingage themselves to the daughters in a veryshort time to free them of the Captaine their father It was a base vice in Gentlemen of their ranke to violate the Lawes of Hospitality in so high a degree as to kill him who loved them so dearely and entertained them so curteously and it is strange that both their humours were so strangely vitious as to concurre and sympathize in the attempt of this execrable murther But what cannot vice performe or Ladies procure of their Lovers at least if they love Beauty better then Vertue and Pleasure then Piety Captaine Benevente is many times accustomed after dinner to ride to his Vineyard and now and then to Alpiata a neighbour village where hee is familiarly if not too familiarly acquainted with a Tennants wife of his whom he loved in her youth and cannot forsake in
both his lips as if the providence and pleasure of God had ordained that that hand which committed the murther and that mouth which denied it should bee purposely punished and no part else As for Alcasero hee had five severall wounds whereof one being thorow the body made Carpi beleeve it was mortall and the rather for that hee fell therewith speechlesse to the ground so leaving him groveling and weltring in his bloud hee departs resting very confident that hee was at his very last gaspe of life and point of death But Carpi his Chirurgeon being more humane and charitable than his master leapes over the next hedge and comes to his assistance Hee leanes him against a banke binds up his wounds and wraps him in his cloake and so runnes to a Litter which he saw neere him and prayes the Lady that was in it that shee would vouchsafe to take in Don Alcasero who was there extreamly and dangerously wounded and this did Carpi his Chirurgion performe in the absence of Alcasero's owne Chirurgion who out of some distaste or forgetfulnesse came not at the houre and place assigned according to his promise It was the Lady Marguerita Esperia who out of her noble and charitable zeale to wounded Alcasero presently descended her Litter commanding her servants to lay him in softly and to convey him to his lodging and shee her selfe is pleased to stay in the fields till her servants returne it her It was a courtesie and a charity worthy of so Honourable a Lady as her selfe and in regard whereof I hold it fit to give her remembrance and name a place in this History All Naples yea the whole Kingdome rings of this combate the Baron of Carpi and Alcasero are joyntly highly commended and extolled for the same the last for his affection and zeale to his dead father the first for giving Alcasero his life when it was in his power and pleasure to have taken it from him But God will not permit Alcasero to die of these wounds but will rather have him live to see Carpi die before him though in a farre more ignoble and shamefull manner As soone as Alcasero's wounds are cured and hee prettie well recovered hee leaves Naples and returnes to Otranto where his sister Caelestina did as much shake and tremble at the imprisonment of the Baron of Carpi as shee now rejoyces at his liberty especially sith shee is assured that hee hath no way accused her nor used her name for the death and murther of her father which indeed makes her farre more pleasant and merry than before and within six moneths after marries with Seignior Alonso Loudovici whom shee ever from her youth had loved and affected and with whom shee lives in great pleasure state and pompe and no lesse doth her brother Alcasero who for the courtesie which Dona Marguerita Esperia shewed him when he was so dangerously wounded in requitall thereof doth now marrie the faire Beatina her onely daughter with whom hee lives in the highest content and felicity as any Gentleman of Italy or of the whole world can either desire or wish But this Sunne-shine of Carpi's prosperity and Caelestina's happinesse and glory shall not last long for there is a storme breaking forth which threatneth no lesse than the utter ruine as well of their fortunes as lives Where men cannot God will both detect and punish murthers yea by such secret meanes and instruments as we least suspect or imagine They are infallible Maximes that we are never lesse secured than when wee thinke our selves secure nor neerer danger than when we esteeme our selves farthest from it And if any be so incredulous or as I may say so irreligious as not to beleeve it haue they but a little patience and they shall instantly see it verified and made good in the Baron of Carpi and the Lady Caelestina who thinking themselves now safe and free from all adverse fortunes and fatall accidents whatsoever and enjoying all those contents and pleasures which their hearts could either desire or wish to enjoy or which the world could prostitute or present them they in a moment shall be bereaved of their delights and glory and enforced to end their dayes on a base scaffold with much shame infamie and misery The manner is thus God many times beyond our hopes and expectations doth square out the rule of his Justice according to that of his will all men are to bee accountable to him for their actions but he to none for his decrees and resolutions it is in him to order in us to obey yea many times hee reprives us but yet with no intent to pardon us Curiosity in matters of Faith and Religion proves not onely folly but impiety for as we are men we must looke up to God but as we are Christians we must not looke beyond him Hee oftentimes makes great offenders accuse themselves for want of others to accuse them and when hee pleaseth hee will punish one sinne by another the which wee shall now see verified in Lorenzo the Baron of Carpi his Laquay that wretched and bloudy Lorenzo who as wee have formerly heard assisted this his Master to murther Captaine Benevente and Fiamento neere Alpiata who ever since being countenanced and authorized by his Masters favour in respect of this his foule fact wherein his bloudy and murtherous hand was deeply and joyntly embrewed with him he from that time becomes so debaush'd and dissolute in his service as he spends all that possible he can procure or get yea and runnes likewise extreamly in debt not onely with all his friends but also with all those whom he knowes will trust him so as his wants being extremely vrgent and enforced to see himselfe reduced to a miserable indigence and poverty He being one day sent by the Baron his Master to the Senate house with a Letter to his Councellor hee there in the throng and crowd of people cut a purse from a Gentlewomans side wherein was some five and twenty Ducketons in Gold was taken with the manner and apprehended and imprisoned for the fact and the next morne his Processe was made hee found guilty and condemned to bee hanged So hee is dealt withall by a couple of Fryers in prison who prepare his soule for Heaven Hee sees the foulnesse of his former life and repents it The Baron of Carpi his Master no sooner understands this newes but he shakes and trembles fearing lest this his Laquay should reveale the murther of the Captaine and his man whereupon he resolveth to flie but considering againe that if his Laquay accuse him not his very flight will proclaime and make him guilty hee stayes and as hee thinkes resolves of a better course Hee goes to the prison and deales with his Laquay to bee secret in the businesse hee wots of protesting and promising him that in consideration thereof hee will enrich his mother and brothers Lorenzo tels him that he need not feare for as hee hath lived so
hee will die his faithfull servant But wee shall see him have more grace than to keepe so gracelesse a promise Carpi flattering himselfe with the fidelity and affection of his Laquay resolves to stay in the City but hee shall shortly repent his confidence Hee was formerly betrayed by Fiesco which mee thinks should have made him more cautious and wise and not so simple to entrust and repose his life on the incertaine mercy of Lorenzo's tongue but Gods Revenge drawes neare him and consequently he neare his end for he neither can nor shall avoid the judgement of Heaven Lorenzo on the gallowes will not charge his soule with this foule and execrable sinne of murther but Grace now operating with his soule as much as formerly Satan did with his heart hee confesseth that hee and the Baron of Carpi his Master together with the Knight Monte-leone and his Laquay Anselmo murthered the Captaine Benevente and his man Fiamento and threw them into the Quarrie the which hee takes to his death is true and so using some Christian-like speeches of repentance and sorrow he is hanged Lorenzo is no sooner turned over but the Criminall Iudges advertised of his speeches delivered at his death they command the Baron of Carpi his lodging to be beleagred where he is found in his study and so apprehended and committed prisoner where feare makes him looke pale so as the Peacocks plumes both of his pride and courage strike saile He is againe put to the Racke and now the second time hee reveales his foule and bloudy murther and in every point acknowledgeth Lorenzoes accusation of him to be true So he is condemned first to have his right hand cut off and then his head notwithstanding that many great friends of his sue to the Viceroy for his pardon The night before he was to die the next morne one of his Judges was sent to him to prison to perswade him to discover all his complices in that murther besides Monte-leone and his Laquay Anselmo yea there are likewise some Divines present who with many religious exhortations perswade him to it So Grace prevailes with Nature and Righteousnesse with Impiety and sinne in him that he is now no longer himselfe for contrition and repentance hath reformed him hee will rather disrespect Caelestina than displease God whereupon he affirmes that she and her deceased sister Fidelia drew him and Monte-leone to murther their father and his man Fiamento and that if it had not beene for their allurements and requests they had never attempted either the beginning or end of so bloudy a businesse and thus making himselfe ready for Heaven and grieving at nothing on Earth but at the remembrance of his foule fact he in the sight of many thousand people doth now lose his head This Tragedy is no sooner acted and finished in Naples but the Judges of this City send away poast to those of Otranto to seize on the Lady Caelestina who in the absence of her husband for the most part lived there A Lady whom I could pitie for her youth and beauty did not the foulenesse of her fact so foulely disparage and blemish it She is at that instant at a Noblemans house at the solemnitie of his daughters marriage where she is apprehended imprisoned and accused to bee the authour and plotter of the Captaine her fathers death neither can her teares or prayers exempt her from this affliction and misery She was once of opinion to deny it but understanding that the Baron of Carpi and his Laquay Lorenzo were already executed for the same in Naples shee with a world of teares freely confesseth it and confirmes as much as Carpi affirmed whereupon in expiation of this her inhumane Paracide she is condemned to have her head cut off her body burnt and her ashes throwne into the ayre for a milder death and a lesse punishment the Lord will not out of his Justice inflict vpon her for this her horrible crime and barbarous cruelty committed on the person of her owne father or at least seducing and occasioning it to be committed on him and it is not in her husbands possible power to exempt or free her hereof Being sent backe that night to prison she passeth it over or in very truth the greatest part thereof in prayer still grieving for her sinnes and mourning for this her bloudy offence and crime and the next morne being brought to her execution when she ascended the scaffold she was very humble sorrowfull and repentant and with many showres of teares requested her brother Alcasero and all her kinsfolkes to forgive her for occasioning and consenting to her fathers death and generally all the world to pray for her when her sighs and teares so sorrowfully interrupted and silenced her tongue as she recommending her soule into the hands of her Redeâ—…mer whom she had so heynously offended shee with great humility and contrition kneeling on her knees and lifting up her eyes and hands towards heaven the Executioner with his sword made a double divorce betwixt her head and her body her body and her soule and then the fire as if incensed at so fiery a spirit consumed her to ashes and her ashes were throwne into the ayre to teach her and all the world by her example that so inhumane and bloudy a daughter deserved not either to tread on the face of this Earth or to breathe this ayre of life She was lamented of all who either knew or saw her not that she should die but that she should first deserve then suffer so shamefull and wretched a death and yet shee was farre happier than her sister Fidelia for shee despaired and this confidently hoped for remission and salvation Thus albeit this wretched and execrable young Gentlewoman lived impiously yet she died Christianly wherefore let vs thinke on that with detestation and on this with charity And here wee see how severely the murther of Captaine Benevente was by Gods just revenge punished not onely in his two daughters who plotted it but also in the two Noblemen and their two Laquayes who acted it Such attempts and crimes deserve such ends and punishments and infallibly finde them The onely way therefore for Christians to avoid the one and contemne the other is with sanctified hearts and unpolluted hands still to pray to God for his Grace continually to affect prayer and incessantly to practise piety in our thoughts and godlinesse in our resolutions and actions the which if wee be carefull and conscionable to performe God will then shrowd us under the wings of his favour and so preserve and protect us with his mercy and providence as we shall have no cause to feare either Hell or Satan GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND Execrable Sinne of Murther HISTORY XV. Maurice like a bloudy villaine and damnable sonne throwes his Mother Christina into a Well and drownes her the same hand and arme of his wherewith he did it rots away from his body aad being discrased of
both accuseth 〈◊〉 condemneth himselâ—… for the same For the very Image of that conceit 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 â—…s his feaâ—… did his phrensie and madnesse hee in thâ—… 〈◊〉 of those fiâ—…s aâ—… the height of that Agony and Anxietie driâ—… out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Mâ—…ther in the Well I have drowned 〈…〉 he suffer you to hang me I speake it on Earth and by my part of Heaven what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is true Which words 〈◊〉 sooner esâ—…aped his 〈◊〉 â—…ut he â—…nstantly â—…nes againe to his out-cries of phreâ—… and madnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…d the rest 〈◊〉 â—…ed at these fearefull 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which 〈◊〉 that they attribute to madnesse yet they lead him to the Hospitall he still raving and crying as hee passeth the streets But oh Let us here farther admire with wonder and wonder with admiration at the providence and mercy of God here againe miraculously made apparent and manifested in this execrable wretch Maurice for he who outragiously cryed in his prison and licentiously raved in the street is no sooner entred into the Hospitall but the pleasure of God had so ordained it as his Madnesse fully fals from him and he absolutely recovereth againe his wits and senses in such firme and setled manner as if he had never formerly beene touched or afflicted therewith His Gaolers make report to the Magistrates first of his confession of drowning his Mother and then of his sudden and miraculous recovering of his perfect memory judgement and senses as soone as hee set foot within the Hospitall Whereupon they as much astonished at the one as wondring at the other doe instantly repaire thither to him and there arraigne and accuse him for that inhumane and bloudy fact of his whereof his owne Evidence and Confession hath now made him guilty But they take him for another or at least hee will not be the same man He denies this horrible and bloudy crime of his with many oaths and asseverations which they maintaine and affirme he hath confessed sayes that they either heard a dreame or saw a Vision whereof hee neither dreamt not thought of and that hee was ready to lose all the bloud and life of his body to finde out and to be revenged of the murtherers of his mother But the Magistrates are deafe to his Apologie and considering the violence of his madnesse by its sudden abandoning him as also his free and uninforced confession of drowning his Mother they conceive that Gods providence and Justice doth strongly operate in the detection of this foule and inhumane murther and therfore contemning his requests and oaths in the vindication of his innocency they cause him to bee refetched from the Hospitall to the Prison and there adjudge him to the Racke when although his heart and soule bee terrified and affrighted with his apprehension and accusation Yet the devill is so strong with him as he cannot yet finde in his heart to relent much lesse to repent this foule and inhumane crime of his but considering that he acted it so secretly as all the world could not produce a witnesse against himselfe except himselfe hee vowes he will bee so impious and prophane in his fortitude and courage as to disdaine these his torments and to looke on them and his Tormentor with an eye rather of contempt than feare But God will be as propitious and indulgent to him as he is rebellious and refractory to God for here we shall see both his Conscience and resolutions taught another rule and prescribed a contrary Law yea here we shall behold and observe in him that now Righteousnesse shall triumph over Siâ—…e Grace over Nature his Soule over his Body Heaven over Hell and GOD over Satan for at the very first sight of the Racke the sight and remembrance of his bloudy crime makes him shake and tremble extremely when his soule being illuminated by the resplendant Sun beames of Gods mercy and the foggie mists of Hell and Satan expelled and banished thence he fals to the ground on his knees first beats his brest and then erecting his eyes and hands towards Heaven he with a whole deluge of teares againe confesseth that hee had drowned his mother in the Well from and for the which he humbly craveth remission both from Earth and Heaven And although there bee no doubt but God will forgive his Soule for this his soule murther yet the Magistrates of Morges who have Gravity in their lookes Religion in their hearts and speecheâ—… and Justice in their actions will not pardon his body so in detestation of this his fearefull crime and inhumane parracide they in the morning condemne him that very after-noone to be hanged At the pronouncing of which sentence as he hath reason to approve the equity of their Iustice in condemning him to die so he cannot refraine from grieving at the strictnesse of the time which they allot him fot his preparation to death But as soone as wee forsake the devill we make our peace with God All Morges and Losanna rings of this mournefull and Tragicall newes and in detestation of this mournefull inhumane and bloody crime of our execrable Maurice they flocke from all parts and streets to the place of execution to see him expiate it by his dearh and so to take his last farewell of his life The Divines who are given him for fortifying and assisting his soule in this her flight and transmigration from Earth to Heaven have religiously prevailed with him so as they make him see the foulenesse of his crime in the sharpenesse of his contrition and repentance for the same yea hee is become so humble and withall so sorrowfull for this his bloody and degenerate offence as I know not whether hee thinke thereof with more griefe or remember it wirh detestation and repentance At his ascending the Ladder most of his Spectators cannot refraine from weeping and the very sight of their teares prooves the Argument of his as his remembrance of murthering his Mother was the cause Hee tells them hee grieves at his very soule for the foulenesse of his fact in giving his Mother her death of whom he had received his life He affirmes that Drunkennesse was not onely the roote but the cause of this his beggery and misery of his crime and punishment and of his deboshed life and deserved death from which with a world of sighes and teares hee seekes and endevours to divert all those who affect and practise that beastly Vice He declares that his Mother was too vertuous so soone to goe out of the world and himselfe too vitious and wirhall too cruell any longer to live in it that the sinnes of his life had deserved this his shamefull death and although he could not prevent the last yet that he heartily and sorrowfully repented the first Hee prayed God to be mercifull to his soule and then besought the world to pray unto God for that mercy when speaking a few words to himselfe and sealing them with
disparity there is betwixt Earth and Heaven By the pleasure and visitation of God Hee is suddenly taken extreame sicke of a pestilent Feaver but not in his Master Harcourts house but in his owne Fathers house who dweltsome foure leagues thence at a parish called Saint Lazare and his Phisition yeelding him a dead man hee as a religious Roman Catholicke takes the extreame Vnction and then prepares himselfe to dye But hee is so morall and so good a Christian as the premises considered he resolves to carry his conscience pure and his Soule white and unspotted to Heaven Hee prayes his Father therefore that hee will speedily ride to Sens in whose Iurisdiction Saint Lazare was and to pray two of the three Iudges to come over to him for that hee hath a great Secret to reveale them now on his death bed which conduceth to the glory of God the service of the King and the good of his owne soule His Father accordingly rides to Sens and brings two of those Iudges speedily with him to his Sonnes bed side to whom in presence of three or foure more of his Fathers neighbours â—…hee very sicke in body but perfectly sound in minde tells him that his Master Harcourt would heretofore have had him pistoll his Brother Vimorye to death and proferred him two hundred Crownes in mony and forty Crownes Annuity during his life to performe it but hee refused it and knowing the said Mounseiur De Vimorye to bee since murthered by a pistoll hee therefore verily beleeves that it is either his said Master or some other for him which is guilty of that lamentable murther the true detection whereof he saies he leaves to God and to them and within halfe an houre after yea before they were departed his Fathers house this Noell dies Hereupon these Iudges wondring at the providence of God in the evidence of this dying man for the discovery of this lamentable murther They speedily send away their officers who apprehend Harcourt in his owne house of Saint Simplitian carowsing and froliking it in his best wine in Company of three or foure of his deboshed consorts and Companions and so they bring him to Sens Where lying in prison that night the next morning the Iudges of that City cause him to bee arraigned before them and Charge him with pistolling of his Brother Mounseiur De Vimorie to death which fortified and armed by the Devill hee strongly and stoutly denies they reade his man Noells dying Evidence against him to prove it So they adjudge him to the fiery torment of the Scarpines for the vindication of this truth the which hee endureth with a wonderfull fortitude and constancy and still denies it When their hearts being prompted from Heaven and their soules from God That hee was yet the undoubted murtherer of his Brother they the second time adjudged him to the racke whereon permitting himselfe to bee fastened and the tormenters giving a good touch at him God is more mercifull to his soule then his Tortures are to his body and so with teares in his eies hee confesseth that it was hee which pistolled his Brother Vimorye to death and which afterwards ranne him twice thorow the body with his Rapier Whereupon for this bloody and unnaturall fact of his His Iudges without any regard to his extraction or quality condemne him the next afternoone betweene foure and five of the clocke to bee broken a live on the wheele at the publike place of execution Some few Gentlemen his kinsfolke solicite his reprivall because as yet they dispaire of his pardon but their labours proves vaine and they purchase no reputation in seeking it for now all Sens and the adjacent Country cry fie on him and on his foule and enormous Crymes of Adultery and Fratricide So the next day at the houre and place appointed hee is brought to his execution where a mighty concourse of people both of Sens and the adjacent Country flocke to see this monster of nature take his last farwell of this world Being mounted on the Scaffold in a Tawny Sattin sute with a gold edge Hee confesseth himselfe guilty of murthering his Brother Vimorye and yet hee grieves farre more for the death of his last wife Masserina then hee doth for that of his first La Precoverte Hee demands forgivenesse of God and the world for this his foule crime of Fratricide and praies all who are there present to pray to Almighty God for the salvation of his soule and that they become more charitable and religious and lesse bloudy and prophane by his example So commending his soule unto God his body to the Earth from whence it came and marking himselfe three or foure times with the signe of the Crosse hee willingly suffers the Executioner to fasten his Legges and Armes upon the wheele the wheele the which as soone as he breakes with his iron barre untill hee have seized upon death and death on him And thus was the wretched lives and miserable and yet deserved deaths of these our cruell and inhumane gracelesse Murtherers and in this manner did the Triumphs of Gods Revenge justly surprize them to their shame and cut them off to their Confusion May we read this History to Gods glory and as often meditate thereon to our owne particular reformation and instruction GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND Execrable sinne of Murther Romeo the Laquey of Borlary kils Radegonda the Chamber maid of the Lady Felisanna in the Street and is hanged for the same Borlari afterwards hireth Castruchio an Apothecary to poyson her Husband Seignior Planeze for the which Castruchio is hanged and his body throwne into the River and Borlari beheaded and burnt IT is a thousand griefes and pities to see Christians who are honoured with that glorious title and appellation should so willfully and wretchedly lose it by imbrewing their guilty hands in the innocent bloud of their Christian Brethren and thereby to bereave our selves of that rich ornament and inestimable Iewell which God in his Sonne Christ Iesus hath lent us for the planting of our Faith and given us for the extirpation of our prophanesse and the rooting out of our Impiety But this is the subtle malice and malitious subtilty of Sathan the professed enemy and Arch-Traytor of our soules as also of his infernall Agents and Factors who thereby prove and make themselves to bee the firebrands and incendiaries of their owne felicity and safety And because the examples of the wicked doe strike apprehension and feare to the godly and that the punishment and death of murtherers doth fortifie the Charity and foment and confirme the Innocency of the living Therefore for that Reason and to this end I have purposly given this next History a place in my Booke wherein wee shall see Choller Malice and Revenge to act many deplorable and bloudy parts Let us reade it with a zealous feare and a Christian fortitude and so wee shall assuredly hate this foule and crying Sinne iâ—…â—…thers and religiously
Thomaso the Goldsmith after this infamous and scandalous death of his Father hee could no longer content himselfe to live in Rome but returned to Savona to his Grandfather Moron who received him with many demonstrations of Ioy and affection and after his death made him sole heire to all his wealth and Estate To God be all the Glory FINIS Decemb. XII 1633. Recensui hunc librum cui titulus The fourth Booke of Gods Revenge against the crying and execrable sinne of wilfull and premeditated Murther unâ cum Epistola Dedicatoriâ ad Honoratissimum Dominum Philip Com. Pemb. Montgom qui quidem liber continet paginas 93. in quibus nihil reperio sanae doctrinae aut bonis moribus contrarium quo minus cum utilitate publicâ imprimatur ita tamen ut si non intrá decem menses typis mandetur haec licentia fit omnino irrita Guilielmus Haywood Archiep. Cant. Capellanus domesticus THE TRIUMPHS OF GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND Execrable Sinne of Murder Expressed In thirty seuerall Tragicall Histories digested into six Books which containe great varietie of mournfull and memorable Accidents Amorous Morall and Divine Booke V. Written by IOHN REYNOLDS VERITAS TEMPORE PATET OCCVLTA RS LONDON Printed for WILLIAM LEE and are to bee sold at his shop in Fleetstreet at the signe of the Turkes Head neere the Mitre Taverne 1634. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE AND TRVLY NOBLE FRANCIS Lord RVSSELL Baron of Thornehaugh and Earle of Bedford RIGHT HONOVRABLE WHEN I had the honour to referre to that Valiant Wise and Honest Nobleman Arthur Lord Chichester Baron of Belfast whose sublime merits doe here justly deserve and challenge this Testimonie from my Duety That hee was too good for Earth and therefore is now so soone crowned a Saint in Heaven I then had first the happinesse to know and to be knowne of your Honour at your Cheswicke In whom because I ever hold it a farre lesse crime to speake the truth then either to silence or dissemble it I then found so many prints and stamps of true honour and Characters of ancient Goodnesse and Nobilitie that with a pleasing content and delectation I was enforced to be againe and againe enamoured of Vertue and Honour for your sake and reciprocally to love and respect your Lordship for both their sakes Since when out of your generositie not my expectation or deserts your Honour was pleased to conferre a favour on me the which though you forget yet the remembrance thereof I will with equall Zeale and Ambition strive to make as eternall as I know my selfe to be mortall and transitorie You are a Religious Christian and a true hearted Englishman and therefore as it is your glory so it is our happinesse that you are both a constant Lover of God and his Church and a firme and faithfull honourer of your Prince and Countrey and you are now Lord Lieutenant under our Royall and Gracious Soveraigne of that famous County of Devon and faire and honourable Citie of Excester to which I owe my nativitie and in both which the Russels Earles of Bedford your Noble Ancestors have condignely left behind them many honourable Trophees of their Valour and sweet and precious perfumes of their Vertue These premises being so powerfull in truth and so considerable and prevalent in Reason I therefore flatter my selfe with this hope that your Honour will attribute it rather to Dutie then Presumption in me If I now publikely attempt to profer and sacrifice up something to the Honour of your Illustrious Name and to the Dignity of your resplendent Vertues Missing therefore of that desired happinesse by some rare or elaborate peece sufficiently to testifie to your Lordship and to the whole world what you are to mee in the height of Honour and what I am and desire to bee found of you in the lownesse of Observance and Humilitie It will therefore bee no lesse my Felicitie then your Goodnesse If you vouchsafe to accept and patronize this my Fift Booke of foraigne Tragicall Histories and also please to permit them to travell and seeke their Fortunes abroad in the world under the auspitious Planet and authenticall Passeport of your Noble Protection wherein you may behold and see how soundly how sacredly the Iustice of God meets with this crying and scarlet Sinne of Murther which in these our depraved and sinfull times in contempt of the Lawes of Heaven and Earth make so lamentable and so prodigious a progression and how sharpely and severely it deservedly punisheth those Butchers and Monsters of Nature the perpetrators thereof And if I may borrow for I desire not to usurpe any part of your Lordships houres of leisure to give first to the Knowledge and then to the Contemplation of these Histories and the severall Accidents which they report and relate I shall then triumph in my good fortune as having obtayned that Honour and Favour which I ingenuously acknowledge I am farre more capable to desire then deserve I come now to implore pardon of your Honour for this my Presumption in inscribing and adventuring so meane a worke to your noble acceptance And I have ended this my Epistle as soone as began to assure you That I will ever religiously pray unto God to accumulate all prosperities and blessings on your Honour as also on your most Vertuous Countesse and successively on your Honourable and Flourishing Posteritie who now promise no lesse then a happy and famous perpetuitie to your thrice Noble Name and Family Your Honours in all Dutie and Service IOHN REYNOLDS THE GROVNDS AND CONTENTS OF THESE HISTORIES HISTORIE XXI Babtistyna and Amarantha poyson their Eldest Sister Iaquinta after which Amarantha causeth her servants Bernardo and Pierya to stiffle her elder Sister Babtistyna in her Bed Bernardo flying away breakes his necke with the fall off his Horse Pierya is hanged for the same so likewise is Amarantha and her body after burnt Bernardo being buried his body is againe taken up and hanged to the Gallowes by his feete then burnt and his ashes throwen into the River HISTORIE XXII Martino poysoneth his Brother Pedro and murthereth Monfredo in the streete He afterwards growes mad and in confession reveales both these his murthers to Father Thomas his Ghostly Father who afterwards dying reveales it by his Letter to Cecilliana who was Widdow to Monfredo and Sister to Pedro and Martino Martino hath first his right hand cut off and then is hanged for the same HISTORIE XXIII Alphonso poysoneth his owne Mother Sophia and after shoots and kils Cassino as he was walking in his Garden with a short Musket or Carabyne from a Window Hee is beheaded for those two murthers then burnt and his ashes throwne into the River HISTORIE XXIV Pont Chausey kils La Roche in a Duell Quatbrisson causeth Moncallier an Apothecary to poyson his owne Brother Valfontaine Moncallier after fals and breakes his necke from a paire of staires Quatbrisson likewise causeth his Fathers Miller to murther and
this infinite in regard it occasioneth the death of our soules But all this notwithstanding it is not in jest but in earnest that Quatbrisson assumes this bloody resolution to murther his brother Valfontaine For seeing that it was neither in his power or fortune to kill him in the Duell he therefore holds it more safe lesse dangerous to have him poysoned and so deales with his brothers Apothecarie named Moncallier to undertake and performe it and in requitall thereof he assureth him of three hundred crownes and gives him the one halfe in hand whereupon this Factor of the Devill this Empericke of Hell confidently promiseth him speedily to effect and performe it the which he doth The manner thus Valfontaine within sixe weekes of his marriage finds his body in an extreme heate some reputing it to an excesse of wine which he had the day before taken at Poâ—…tivie Faire and others for having beene too amorous and uxorious to his sweet young wife La Pratiere But it matters not which excesse of these two gave him his sicknesse onely let it satisfie the Reader that as we have already heard his body was very much inflamed and hot the dangerous symtomes either of a burning Feaver or a Plurifie the which to allay and coole he sends for his 〈◊〉 the carie Moncalier from Vannes to Saint Aignaw and after their consultation he openeth him a veine very timely in the morning and drawes ten ounces of blood from him and towards night gives him a Glister wherein hee infused strong poyson which spreading ore the vitall parts of his body doth so soone worke its operation and extinguish their radicall moisture that being the most part of the night tortured with many sharpe throes and heart-killing convulsions hee before the next morning dyes in his bed His wife La Pratiere being desperately vanquished with sorrow doth as it were dissolve and melt her selfe into teares at this sudden and unexpected death of her Husband Valfontaine and indeed her griefes and sorrowes are farre the more infinite and violent in that she sees her selfe a widdow almost as soone as a wife Her Father is likewise pensive and sorrowfull for the death of his Sonne in Law and so also is his owne Father and Mother at Vannes But for his inhumane brother Quatbrisson although he neither can or shall bleare the eyes of God yet hee intends to doe those of men from the knowledge and detection of this foule and bloody fact for hee puts on a mournefull and disconsolate countenance on his rejoycing and triumphing heart for the death of his brother the which he endeavoreth to publish in his speeches and apparell so hee rides over to Saint Aignan to his sister in law La Pratiere condoles with her for her Husband his brothers death and with his best oratory strives to dissipate and dispell her sorrowes but still her thoughts and conscience doe notwithstanding prompt her that considering his former affection to her and his fighting with his brother her Husband for her sure hee had a hand in his death but in what manner or how she knowes not and so as a most vertuous and sorrowfull Lady leaves the revealing thereof to the good pleasure and Providence of God and the curious heads both of Nantes and Vannes concurre with her in the same conceipt and beliefe But three moneths are scarce past over since Valfontaine was laid in his grave but Quatbrisson is still so deepely besotted with his owne lust and the beauty of La Pratiere as he sels his wit for folly and againe becomes a Sutor to marry her having none but this poore Apologie to colour out his incestuous desires that hee will procure a dispensation from Rome to approve it and that hee hath already spoken to Yvon Bishop of Reimes to that effect who was many yeares Penitentiarie or Almoner to Pope Paulus Quintus And what doth this indiscretion of his worke with La Pratiere but onely to encrease her jealousie to confirme her suspicion and to make her the more confident that her Husband had beene still in this world if he had not beene the meanes so soone send him into another Wherfore she rejecteth both his sute and himselfe tels him that if he can find in his heart and conscience to marry her shee cannot dispence with her soule to espouse him and therefore that he shall doe well to surcease his sute either to the Pope or Bishop sith if it lay in their powers yet it should never in her pleasure to grant or resolution to effect it but this peremptory refusall of hers cannot yet cause Quatbrisson to forsake and leave her For if his lust and concupiscence formerly made him peevish to seeke her for his wife now it makes him meerely sottish and impudent to alter his sute and so to attempt and desire to make her his strumpet But hee hath no sooner delivered her this his base and obscene motion but all the blood of her body flushing in her face shee highly disdaineth both his speeches and himselfe and vowing and scorning henceforth ever more to come into his company so she informes her Father of his dishonourable intent and unchast motion to her who to rid himselfe of so incivill and impudent a guest thereupon in sharpe termes forbids him his house and his Daughters company as having hereby altogether made himselfe unworthy to enjoy the priviledge of the one or the honour of the other when this sweet and chaste young Lady to be no more haunted with so lascivious a Ghost and Spirit being sought in marriage by divers noble and gallant Gentlemen shee among them all after a whole yeares mourning for her first makes choice of Monsieur de Pont Chausey for her second Husband and marries him Quatbrisson seeing himselfe so disdainefully sleighted and rejected of La Pratiere he as a base Gentleman and dishonourable Lover metamorphoseth his affection into hatred towards her and vowes that his revenge shall shortly match her disdaine and meet with her ingratitude and so flies her sight and company as much as hee formerly desired it But as the best Revenge is to make our enemies see that we prosper and doe well so hee quite contrary makes it his practise and ambition to doe evill For from henceforth among many other of his vices he defileth his body with whoredome and gives himselfe over to Fornication and Adultery which hath taken up so deepe a habit in him as it is now growne to a second nature for he wholly abandoneth himselfe to Queanes and Strumpets that be she maid wife or widdow his wanton eye scarce sees any but his lustfull heart desireth and his lascivious tongue seekes Now Quatbrisson among many other hearing that a poore Peasant or countrey man termed Renne Malliot of the parish of Saint-Andrewes three miles from Vannes had a sweet and faire young Daughter hee therefore very lewdly resolves to see her and to tempt her to his obscene desires when provoked and halled on
sugred speeches and protestations of their pretended innocency but consult between themselves what here to resolve on for the vindication of this truth So at last they hold it expedient and requisite first to expose Astonicus to the torments of the Racke the which hee being a strong and robustuous man hee endureth with a firme resolution and constancy every way above himselfe and almost beyond beliefe and still confesseth nothing but his innocency and ignorance of this deplorable fact whereof the Judges resting not yet satisfied they within an houre after adjudge Donato to the tortures of the Scarpines who being a little timbred man of a pale complexion and weake constitution of body his right foote no sooner feeles the unsufferable fury of the fire and his tormentors then confidently promising him all desired favour from his Iudges if hee will confesse the truth but after some sorrowfull teares and pittifull cries hee fully and amply doth and in the same manner and forme as in all its circumstances we have formerly understood The which when the Iudges heare of they cannot refraine first from admiring and wondering there at and then from lamenting that personages of their ranke and quality should bee the Authors and Actors of so foule and lamentable a murther especially of this faire Gentlewoman Imperia to her owne good old husband Palmerius Now by this time also are Morosini Imperia and Astonicus acquainted with this fatall confession and accusation of Donato against them for this murther wherat they do infinitely lament grieve because they are therby perfectly assured that it hath infallibly made them all three liable and obnoxious to death as also for that their supposed firme friend Donato proved himself so false a man and so true a coward to be the cause therof wherin they so much forget themselves as they doe not once thinke and they will not therefore remember that the detection of this their foule murther proceeded immediatly from Heaven and originally from the providence and justice of the Lord of Hostes. The very same after noone the Iudges send for Morosini Imperia and Astonicus to appeare before them in their publike tribunall of Iustice where they first acquaint and charge them with Donatos confession and accusation against them for murthering of Palmerius whereat they are so farre from being any way dismayed ordanted as they all doe deny and reâ—…ell his accusation and so in high tearmes doe stand upon their innocency and iustification But when they see Donato brought into the court in a chaire for his fiery torments of the Scarpines had so cruelly scorched and pittifully burnt away the flesh of the sole of his right foote almost to the bone that he was wholly vnable either to goe or stand and that they were to be confronted face to face with him as also they being also hotly terrified and threatned by the iudges with the torments of the Racke and Scarpines then God was so gratious to their hearts and so mercifull to their soules that they looking mournefully each at other shee weeping and they sighing and all of them dispairing of life and too perfectly assured of death they all confesse the whole truth of this foule fact of theirs and so confirme as much as Donato had formerly affirmed of this their bloody crime of murthering Palâ—…rius in his bed when one of these two reverend and grave Iudges immediately thereupon doe condemne them all foure to be hanged the next morning at the common place of execution of that cittie although Donato because of his confession hereof in vaine flattered himselfe that he should receive a pardon for his life So they are all sent backe to their prison from whence they came where all the courtesie which the importunate requests of Morosini and the incessant sighes and teares of Impreia an obtaine of their Iudges is that they grant them an houre of time to see converse and speak one with the other that night in prison in presence of their Goalers and some other persons before they dye When Morosini being guided towards her chamber such is the weakenesse of his religion towards God and the fervency or rather the exorbitancy of his affection towards her that as he passeth from chamber to chamber he is so far from once thinking much lesse fearing of death as he absolutely beleeves he is going to a Victory and a triumph here Moroâ—…ni with a world of sighes throwes himself into his Imperia's neck brest and here Imperia with a whole deluge of teares embraceth and encloystereth her â—…orosini in her armes when after a thousand kisses they beg pardon one of another or being the essentiall and actuall cause each of others death and doe enterchangeably both kisse and speake sometimes privately and most times publikely before the spectators that if those reports be true which I first heard therof in Tolentino next in Folignio and lastlâ—… in Rome I say to depaint and represent it at life in all its circumstances I should then begin a second history when I am now on the very point and period to end the first neither in my conceit is it a taske either proper for me to undertake or pertinent for my pen to performe because to speak freely and ingeniously I hold the grant and permission of this their amorous visit enterview in prison before they dye to be every way more worthie of the pittie than of the gravity or piety of their Iudges If therefore I doe not content the curiositie I yet hope I shall satisfie the judgement of my Christian Reader here briefly to signifie this their limited houre is no sooner past but to the sharpe affliction of Morosini the bitter anxiety of Imperia they by their Goalers are separated and confined to their severall chambers where by the charity of their Iudges they finde two Friers and two Nuns attending them to prepare their soules for Heaven and in a lesse vaine and a more serious and religious conference to entertaine both their time and themselves from an Earthly to the speculation and contemplation of a divine and heavenly love as also from them to Astonicus and Donato But before I proceed farther Wee must understand that the two Fryers have not been with Morosini and the two Nuns with Imperia above an houre But by the two Iudges there is a cheife subordinate Officers of theirs sent to prison to tel Imperia that her Uncle Seignior Alexandro Bondino a great Senator and famous Iudge of Rome hath obtained her pardon of this present Pope Vrban the eighth But shee is not of glad of this newes as shee is then curious to enquire if her Morosini bee likewise pardoned so the Officer tells her no and that hee absolutely must suffer death then shee weepes farre faster than shee rejoyceth and affirmes that shee will not live but dye The Iudges send for her and perswade her to live but she begges them as importunarely to give Morosini his life as
the ayre for the first pag. 437. THE TRIVMPHS OF GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND EXECRABLE sinne of Murther HISTORIE I. Hautefelia causeth La Fresnay an Apothecary to poyson her brother Grand Pre and his wife Mermanda and is likewise the cause that her said brother kils de Malleray her owne husband in a Duell La Fresnay condemned to bee hanged for a rape on the ladder confesseth his two former Murthers and sayes that Hautefelia seduced and hired him to performe them Hautefelia is likewise apprehended and so for the cruell Murthers they are both put to severe and cruell deaths IF our contemplation dive into elder times and our curiositie turne over the varietie of ancient and moderne Histories as well Divine as Humane wee shall find that Ambition Revenge and Murther have ever prooved fatall crimes to their undertakers for they are vices which so eclipse our judgements and darken our understandings as we shall not only see with griefe but find wâ—…h repentance that they will bring us shame for glory affliction for content and misery for felicity Now as they are powerfull in men so they are soâ—…etimes implacable in women who with as much vanity as malice delight in these sinnes as if that could adde grace to their bodies that deformes their soules or lustre and prosperity to their dayes that makes shipwracke both of their fortunes and lives It is with griefe and pity yea not with passion but compassion that I instance this in a Gentlewoman who was borne to honour and not to shame had not these three aforesaid vices like so many infernall furies laine her glory in the dust and dragged her body to an untimely and infamous grave It is a History that hath many sorrowfull dependances and which produceth variety of diasasterous and mournefull accidents wherein by the just judgement of God wee shall see Ambition bitterly scourged Revenge sharpely rewarded and Murther severely punished by whose example if all that professe Religion become lesse impious and more truely religious wee shall then lead the whole course of our lives in such peacefull and happy tranquility as arming our selves with resolution to live and die in the favour of Heaven wee need not feare either what earth or hell can doe unto us The History is thus NEere Auxone a strong and ancient Towne upon the frontiers of Burgundy and the free County dwelt an aged grave Gentleman nobly descended and of very faire demaynes named Monsieur de Grandmont who had to his wife a vertuous Lady termed Madammoyselle de Carnye the onely daughter of Monsieur de Buserat a worthy Gentleman of the Citie of Dole this married couple for a long time lived in the greatest height of content that either Earth could afford or their hearts desire for as one way they grew opulent in lands and wealth so another way they were indewed with three hopefull Sonnes Grand Pre Vileneufe and Masseron and with two daughters Madamoyselles de Hautefelia and de Cressye a faire posterity they blest in their Parents and their Parents hoping themselves blest in them so as to the eye of the world this one family promised to make many especially sith the youngest of the five had already attained its tenth yeare but God in his providence ordayned the contrary Grand Pre as the first and chiefest pillar of the house craves leave of his Father that he might serve his apprentiship in the warres under the command of that incomparable Captaine Grave Maurice then Earle of Nassaw since Prince of Orenge Vileneufe delighting in bookes his Father thought fit to send to Pont-au Mousson and thinking to retaine Masseron with him he for his beauty was begg'd a Page by that valorous Marshall of France who so wilfully and unfortunately lost his head in the Bastile of Paris As for their two daughters Hautefelia lived with her Parents and de Cressye they presented to a great Lady of Burgundy who was long since the most afflicted and sorrowfull Wife and Mother to the Barons of Lux Father and Sonne who were both slaine by that generous and brave Lorayne Prince the Knight of Guyse But behold the inconstancie of fortune or rather the power and pleasure of heaven which can soone metamorphose our mirth into mourning our joyes into teares and our hopes into despaire for within the compasse of one whole yeare wee shall see three of these five Children laid in their graves and of three severall deaths for Vileneufe was drowned at Pont-au Mousson as hee bathed himselfe in the River Masseron was killed in a Duell at Fontaine bleau by Rossat a Gascon being Page to the Duke of Espernon and Hautefelia dyed at home of a burning Feaver with her Parents a triple losse which doth not onely afflict their hearts and soules but also seemes to drowne their eyes with a deluge of mournefull and sorrowfull teares Grandmont and de Carny his Wife being thus made unfortunate and wretched by the death of three of their Children they resolve to call home their other two to bee comforts and props to their old age but their hopes may deceive them First from the Baronesse of Lux comes de Cressye who succeeding her sister we must now terme by the name or rather by the title of Hautefelia who hath a great and bloody part to act upon the Theater of this History and after her very shortly comes Grand Pre from Holland where in divers services hee left many honourable and memorable markes of his prowesse and valour behind him Vpon his arrivall to his Fathers house the flowre of all the nobility and gentry of the Country come to condole with him for the death of his brothers and sister as also to congratulate his happy returne an office and complement which expresseth much affection and civility they find Grand Pre a brave compleate Gentleman not in outward pride but in inward generositie and vertue not in the vanity of fashions and apparell but in the perfections and endowments of his mind and body he is wholy addicted to the exercise of warre and not to the art of courting of Ladies his delights are in the campe of Mars and Bellona and not in the Palace of Venus and Cupid well knowing that the one will breed him honour and glory the other shame and repentance his pastimes are not crisping and powdering of his haire quarrelling his taylor for the fashion of his clothes dancing in velvet pumps and tracing the street in a neat perfumed Boote with jangling Spurres yea hee resembleth not young spruce Courtiers who thinke no heaven to brave Apparell nor Paradise to that of their Mistresse beauty for hee onely practiseth riding of great Horses Tilting running at Ring displaying the Colours tossing the Pike handling the Musket ordering of Ranke and File thereby to make himselfe capable to conduct and embattaile an Army and to environ fortifie or besiege a City or Castle or the like yea hee spurnes at the Lute and Viall and
before his owne and with all possible speed commands his Chirurgion to bring and hast thither his Coach and to his best power doth assist Betanford in setting him up in ordering and binding up his wounds his Coach being come hee causeth him to bee layd in softly and so hee in one Boote and the two Chirurgions in the other their Pages and Lackeyes attending them they drive away to the very next country house where they hush themselves up privately and here Betanford resembling himselfe conjureth both the Chirurgions to use their best art and chiefest skill upon Grand Pre and before hee would have his owne wounds looked unto hee causeth his to bee opened they doe it and both concurre in opinion that his last wound is mortall he sees them dresse him and vowes hee will not forsake him in this extremity but will bee more carefull of him then of himselfe Reciprocall and singular demonstrations of courtesy and honour in these two Caveliers which will make their memories famous to posterity Betanford seeing Grand Pre committed to sleep causeth his owne wounds to be speedily searched and dressed which are not found dangerous and then takes order in the house that Grand Pre bee furnished with all things necessary as Chamber curious attendance and the like yea he ordereth matters so that all things might be done with great secrecie and silence nor permitting any of his owne or Grand Pre's servants to bee seene forth the house to the end that the newes of these their accidents might not bee bruted or vented About noone Grand Pre's speech by little and little comes to him and likewise his memorie when Betanford absenting all from his Chamber with his Hat in his hand came to his bed side and having courteously saluted and comforted him prayes and conjures him as hee is a Gentleman of Honour to tell him why and wherefore hee fought with him Ah Baron quoth Grand Pre first sweare to mee on thine honour thou wilt deliver me the truth of a question I will demand of thee and then I wil shew thee By my honour and fidelitie replies Betanford and as I hope for heaven I will Then Baron quoth hee diddest thou never wrong me and mine honour in being too familiar with my wife Mermanda The Baron with many solemne protestations and religious oathes cleares both himselfe and Mermanda and vowes that his heart never thought it much lesse his tongue ever attempted it Whereat Grand Pre very humbly intreats him to excuse and pardon him sith he understood and beleeved the contrary which was the onely cause of his discontent and challenge adding withall that hee will till death esteeme him as his most honourable friend and as long as he liues will affect and loue his wife dearer than ever he had before It is as great a happinesse to repaire and reforme errours as a misery to commit them The Baron of Betanford stayes very secretly ten dayes with Grand Pre at the Countrey house when seeing his wounds hopefully cured and recovered they resolve to depart Grand Pre kindly thankes Betanford for his life and all other courtesies hee hath received of him and hee as courteously doth the like to Grand Pre for giving him his sword wherewith he preserved his owne and so like honourable and intimate friends they take leave each of other the Baron taking horse for Paris and freely lending Grand Pre his Coach to returne to Auxone Thus wee see courtesie alwayes returneth with interest Grand Pre at his comming home kisseth fawneth on his wife Mermanda acquaints her with the occasion and event of the combat condemneth his owne folly and extolleth her chastitie prayes her to forgive him againe this once for all and vowes that there lives not a braver Noble man in the world then the Baron of Betanford and to speake truth she deserves this submission and reconciliation and he that praise At the knowledge here of I know not whethet Mermanda like a gracious and curteous wife doe more grieve at her husbands wounds then rejoyce at his recovery and life and now he repenting and detesting his former errour renewes his love affection and friendship to her the which hee confirmeth and uniteth with a perpetuall and indissoluble Gordion knot neverthelesse the variety of her afflictions and the excesse of her griefe and discontent breeds her much weakenesse and sickenesse which withereth the Roses and Lillies of her beauty But come wee from Mermanda's heavenly Vertues to Hautefelia's devillish Vices which cannot be paralleld or compared except by Antithesis for as Mermanda reposeth her selfe under the shaddow of her owne innocencie and lives in perfect love and charity with the whole world so her wretched Sister in law Hautefelia seeing her hopes and purposes prevented will not sleepe in her malice but sets her wits and revenge upon the Tenter-hookes to finde out another expedient to be rid of Mermanda who in her wicked conceit shee thought was enemy to her content and an eye-sore to her ambition and greatnesse We no sooner fly from God but the devil followes us it proves alwaies a miserable folly to be wise in wickednes and sin Hautefelia is resolute in her rage and cannot or rather will not see heaven for hell she be thinks her selfe of another invention to send Mermanda into another world and so strikes a bargaine with La Fresnay an Apothecary for two hundred crowns to poyson her who like a limbe of the devil doth undertake and promise it the which Ah griefe to thinke thereon he in lesse then two months performeth and so this vertuous and harmles young Gentlewoman is most unnaturally and treaherously bereaved of her life and brought to a mournfull and lamentable end Which inhumane murther we shall see God in his due time will miraculously detect and severely revenge and punish Her Husband Grand Pre exceedingly bewayles her death as also all her parents and friends yea so infinite were her Vertues and so sweet her behaviour and carriage as all that knew Mermanda lamented her decease yet no way suspecting or knowing the violent and extraordinary cause thereof Now whiles others mourne Hautefelia exceedingly triumphs and rejoyces hereat but this bloudy victory shal cost her deare In the meane time Mermanda's single death can neither quench her revenge nor satisfy her ambition for as shee liked not the Sister so she as before we have partly understood never loved the Brother her owne husband de Malleray whom she observed very bitterly wept and grieved at his sister Mermanda's death she therefore resolute to adde sinne to sinnne resolves to cast the apple of discord betwixt Grand Pre her brother and de Malleray her husband knowing that if the first were slaine shee were sole heire to her father if the second shee would have a noble Husband a policie whose invention is as diabolicall as the execution thereof dangerous To which effect she informes her husband that her Brother Grand Pre had
matters altered and her greatnesse and power diminished and to her grief sees that she cannot so absolutely domineere as before and which was farre worse her brother in his absence at Dole having smelt and understood her malice and inveterate hatred both to Mermanda the Baron of Betanford De Malleray her husband and likewise to himselfe though nothing suspecting or dreaming of her poysoning humour he is so farre from acknowledging or respecting her for his sister as he will neither indure her company or sight which she making no shew to perceive but like a Fury of hell as she is dissembling her malice and revenge she is still constant and persevers in her humour of bloud and Murther and hath againe recourse to her execrable Apothecary La Fresnay and to the devill her Doctor likewise to make away her brother Grand Pre with poyson as hee had already Mermanda his Wife and gives him three hundred crownes to effect it This damnable Apothecary loving money well and as it seemes the Devill better doth ingage himselfe speedily to performe it and wretched villaine as he is within two moneths he accomplisheth and finisheth it and so as Mermanda ranne equall fortune with him in life hee doth the like with her in death for one deadly Drugge one bloody Sister and one devillish Apothecary gives a miserable and lamentable end to them both And now his blood thirsty sister Hautefelia the authour of these cruell Murthers and Trageedies thinking her selfe freed of all her enemies and of all those who stood in the way of her advancement and preferment shee neither thinking either of her conscience or soule of heaven or hell domineeres farre more then before yea builds castles in the ayre and flatters her selfe with this false ambition that she must now be a Dutchesse or at least a Countesse But she reckons without God We have seene nay we have here glutted our eyes with severall Murthers whereof wee have beheld this wretched Gentlewoman Hautefelia to be the horrible and cruell author and this execrable La Fresnay to be the bloody actor these crimes of theirs and the smoake of these their impious and displeasing sacrifices have pierced the clouds and ascended the presence of God to sue and draw downe vengeance and confusion on their heads for although Murther be for a time concealed yet the finger of God will in due time detect and discover it for he will make inquisition for blood and will severely and sharpely revenge the death of his children But Gods providence and justice in the discovery thereof is as different as miraculous for sometimes hee protracts and deferres it of purpose either to mollifie or to harden our hearts as seemes best to his inscrutable will and divine pleasure or as may chiefly serve and tend to his glory yea somtimes he makes the Murtherer himselfe as well an instrument to discover as hee hath beene an actor to commit murther yea and many times he punisheth one sinne by and in another and when the Murtherer sits most secure and thinks least of it then he heapes coales of fire on his head and suddenly cuts him off with the revenging sword of his fierce wrath and indignation And now that great and soveraigne Iudge of the World who rides on the Winds in triumph and hath Heaven for his Throne and Earth for his foot stoole will no longer permit Hauteselia and La Fresnay to goe unpunished for these their execrable Murthers for the innocent and dead bodies of Mermanda and her husband Grand Pre out of their Graves cry to him for revenge which like an impetuous storme or a terrible Thunder clap doth in this manner suddenly befall and overtake them Some sixe weekes after Grand Pre's funeralls were solemnized whereat his Sister Hautefelia the better to cloke her villany wept bitterly and was observed to bee the chiefest Mourner this hellish Apothecary La Fresnay having gotten his money so easily thought to spend it as prodigally and so on a time being in his cups at a Taverne at Dijon and his braines swilling and swimming with strong Wine as Drunkennesse is the Bawd and Vsher to other sinnes he stealing from the rest of his company committed a Rape upon one Margaret Pivot a girle of twelve yeares old being the Vintners daughter of the Taverne wherein he sate tippling This young girle with millions of teares throwes her selfe to the feet of her Parents and accuseth La Fresnay for the fact who doe the like to those famous Senators of the Court of Parliament so hee is apprehended and being examined with many vehement and bitter asseverations denyeth it he is adjudged to the Racke and at the second torment confesseth it and so he is condemned to be hanged Two Capuchin Fryers prepare him for his end they exhort him not to charge burthen his soule with concealing any other crimes adding that if he reveale and repent them in earth God will remit them in heaven these exhortations of theirs produce good effects for though he have formerly lived like a devill he will now dye like a Christian and so with many teares revealeth that at the instigation of Hautefelia and for the lucre of five hundred crownes which at two several times she gave him he had poysoned Mermanda and her husband Grand Pre. All the world is amazed and the Parliament acquainted herewith they alter their first Sentence and so for his triple villanies condemne La Fresnay to bee broken alive upon the Wheele and there to languish and dye without being strangled which in Dijon is accordingly executed to the full satisfaction of Iustice. A Provost likewise is forthwith dispatched from Dijon to Grandmonts house to apprehend his daughter Hautefelia and God would have it that shee was ignorant of La Fresnay's apprehension and more of his death The Provost findes her dancing in her fathers garden in company of many Gentlemen and Ladies he sets hands on her and so exchangeth her mirth into mourning and her songs into teares she is brought to Dijon and examined by a President and two Counsellors of the Parliament She impudently and boldly denyes both Murders saith La Fresnay is her mortall and professed enemy and therefore not to bee believed But the devill who hath so long bewitched and deluded her either will not or rather now cannot save her with this poore evasion shee is adjudged to the Racke and at the first torment confesseth it The Criminall Iudges of this great and illustrious Parliament in detestation of these her execrable and bloudy crimes of Murther pronounce sentence on her so after shee had repented her sinnes and prepared her selfe to dye her Paps are seared and torne off with red hot Pincers then shee is hanged her body burnt and her ashes throwne into the ayre Now to gather some profit by reading this History or indeed rather by the memory of the History it selfe let us observe nay let us imprint in our hearts and soules how busy the
his Could time reconcile these difficulties with my reputation my heart would iâ—…stantly command my pen 〈◊〉 signify you that I desire to give you hope and to take away your despaire and withall that Pavia is more pleasing to mee then Cremona sith Christeneta lives in it and Pisani in her I was never heretofore cruell to any neither doe I resolve to bee unkind to you for how can I â—…th I as truely vow to honour you as you professe to love me Live you in this assurance and I will dye in the same PISANI Time with a swift foot vanisheth and passeth away but Christeneta's affection to Pisani cannot she in his Letter perceives a glimmering light of hope breake forth thorow the obscure clouds of her despaire but feare doth as soone eclipse and strangle as propagate and produce it onely despight all apprehension and opposition her thoughts doe still gaze and looke on Pisani as the Needle of the compasse doth to the North so as she can rest in no true tranquillity of minde before she writes to him againe the which some fifteene dayes after she doth to this effect CHRISTENETA to PISANI I May passe the bounds of discretion but will not exceede those of honour I have ever learn'd to retaiue this Maxime that affection which receives end had never beginning If then I live I must breath the ayre of your love as well as this of my life sith it is the prime and sole cause thereof as the Sunne is of the light Your Letter I finde so full of doubts and ambiguities as I know not wherefore to hope or why not to despaire could you dive as deepely into my heart as I have into your merits if nature doe not pitty would informe you that you ought to preferre the love of a Lady before the respect of a Gentleman especially sith he may carry his heart from you and I desire to bring and present mine to you and how can your absence either rejoyce or comfort mee sith your presence will not Thinke what you please either of me or of your selfe onely give me leave to tell you that I finde doubt a step and degree to despaire as despaire is to death I write rather with teares then Inke If you will not live my Saint I must dye your Martyr CHRISTENETA At the receipt of this second Letter which was so sweetly pleasing and pleasingly sweet to his thoughts he found the Bulwarkes and defences of his respect to Gasparino razed and beaten downe and a faire breach made and layd open for Christeneta to enter and take possession of the Castle of his heart so now at one instant hee performes two severall attempts for the farther hee flies from his friend Gasparino the neerer hee approacheth to his Mistresse Christeneta and therefore now wholly imparadising his thoughts in the garden of her pure beauty and taking the chiefest light of his content and felicity from the relucent lustre of her eyes he thinkes it high time no longer to beare out his Flag of defiance but to strike sayle and doe homage to the soveraigne of his thoughts the which he doth in this Letter that he purposely sends her in answer of hers by his Page PISANI to CHRISTENETA YOur vertue and beauty is enough powerfull to prevaile with mee but your affection which addes grace to either and either to it makes me forget my respect to Gasparino to remember my love to Christeneta but that which gives life to this my resolution is that it is impossible for him to hate me as much as you love me and in this hope I both rejoyce and triumph that you shall not be my Martyr but my Mistresse and I will be both your Saint and your servant for as you desire to live in my favour so my chiefest ambition and zeale is to dye in your affection that which heaven makes me affirme earth shall not inforce me denye I will shortly follow and second this my Letter till when you can never so much lament my absence as I desire your presence Let this be your true consolation sith it is my sole delight and chiefest felicity PISANI If Pisani his first Letter overthrew Christeneta's despaire this his second revives and confirmes her hopes so that whereas heretofore she condemned her presumption in writing to Pisani she now not only applauds her resolution therein but also blesseth the houre that she attempted it yea she buildeth such castles of delight and content in her heart and her heart in her soule to thinke that shee should be his Wife and hee her Husband that shee anticipateth the houres and blames the dayes for not presenting her with the sight and presence of her sweet Pisani whom above all earthly contents she chiefely desireth Now if Christeneta were thus perplexed with the absence of her Pisani no lesse is hee with that of his Christeneta for remembring the freshnesse of her youth and the sweetnesse of her beauty hee in conceipt hateth Cremona which before hee loved and now loveth Pavia which before hee hated it is as great a griefe to him to bee with his other affaires without her as it would rejoyce him to bee with her without them yea she runnes so deepely in his thoughts and they on her beauty as if it were not immodesty hee either wisheth himselfe impaled in her armes or shee incloystered in his And now to performe as much as his Letter hath promised hee without thinking or respecting of his old friend Gasparino prepares all things ready to goe see his new Mistresse Christeneta Hee comes to Pavia accompanied with three or foure of his neerest and dearest friends visiteth Christeneta whom hee saluteth and courteth with all kinde of honourable and amorous complements Shee is joyfull yea ravished with his arrivall he doth assure her of his perpetuall affection and reciprocally himselfe of hers yea she so infinitely delights in his presence and he so extreamely in hers that shee now freely gives her selfe to Pisani and he in exchange as absolutely takes himselfe from Gasparino to give himselfe to Christeneta so as she rejoycing in her purchase and he triumphing in his victory they attend the time wherein heaven and earth hath ordayned of two bodies to make them one But it is not enough for Pisani to be possessed of Christeneta's favour for he must likewise obtaine that of her parents before either hee can enjoy his wishes or she her desires and so he goes honourably and secretly to worke with them but he findes them not so tractable as Christeneta hoped or himselfe desired for old Vituri her father preferring wealth before honour and riches before vertues dislikes this motion alledging that Pisani's father dyed exceedingly in debt that his chiefest Lands were ingaged and morgaged that hee had many great Legacies to pay to his sisters but which was worst of all that Pisani himselfe loved the Court better then the Country and that in his expences and apparell hee was extreamely prodigall
him by her being a very faire young girle about the age of twelve yeares old named Iosselina whom hee hoped should prove the staffe and prop of his age and resolved when she grew up in yeares and came to womans estate to marry her to some of his neighbours sonnes and at his death to give her all that litle which either his parents or his owne labor and industry had left or procured him Two or three yeares sliding away in which time Mollard increasing in wealth and his Daughter in yeares shee was and was justly reported to bee the fairest Nymph of those parts and by all the rusticke Swaynes tearmed the faire Iosselina esteeming themselves happy if they might see her much more if they might injoy her presence Now within a little League of Mollards house dwelt an ancient and wealthy Gentleman named Mounsieur de Coucie who had many children but among the rest his eldest sonne tearmed Mounsieur de Mortaigne was a very hopefull and brave Gentleman who was first a Page to that generous Nobleman Mounsieur de la Guiche sometimes Governour of Lyons and since his death a chiefe Gentleman to Mounsieur de Saint Ierrant now a Marshall of France This Mortaigne having lived some yeares in Paris with his Lord the Marshall where hee followed all honourable exercises as Riding Fencing Dancing and the like whereby hee purchased himselfe the honourable title of a most perfect and accomplished Gentleman was at last desirous to see his father partly because he understood he was weake and sickely but especially to bee at the Nuptialls of a sister of his tearmed Madamoyselle de la Hay who was then to be married to a Gentleman of Avergne tearmed Mounsieur de Cassalis This Marriage being solemnized Mortaigne having conducted his sister into Avergne and now seeing his father strong and lusty hee beginnes to dislike the Countrey and to wish himsefe againe in Paris where the rattling of Coaches and the infinity of faire Ladies did better delight and please him hee craves leave of his father and mother to returne which because hee is the chiefest stay and comfort of their age they unwillingly grant him and so he prepares for his returne to Paris But an unlooked for accident shall stop his journey for the present and another but farre more fatall seconding and succeeding that shall stop and hinder him from ever seeing it For the night before hee was to depart the morning de Coucye his father is most dangerously taken with a burning Feaver and so neither he nor his mother will permit him to depart Living thus in the Countrey and few Gentlemen dwelling neere his fathers house hee gives himselfe to Hunting and Hawking Pastimes and exercises which though before he loved not yet now he exceedingly delights in Now amongst other times hee one day hunting in his fathers Woods hollowing for his Dog which hee had lost in a Thicket by chance sprung a Pheasant who flying to the next Woods hee sends for his Hawke with an intent to flye at him and so being not so happy as againe to set sight of him hee ranged so farre and withall so fast that he was very thirsty but saw no house neere him that hee might call for wine till at last he happened on that of Andrew Mollard of whom we have formerly made mention Mortaigne seeing a man walking in the next Vineyard demanded if he were the man of the house and prayed him to afford him a draught of Wine alledging that he was very thirsty Mollard knowing this young Gentleman by the Modell of his face presumed to demand him if he were not one of Mounsieur de Coucye's sonnes Hee answered yes and that his name was Mortaigne Mollard presently calling to minde that he was his fathers heire very courteously in his fashion prayes him to enter his house and so beeing set downe hee sends his daughter Iosselina for wine which she fetched and they both drinke where honest Mollard thinking his house blessed with so great and as he thought so good a Gentleman very cheerefully proffers him peares Grapes Walnuts and such homely dainties as his poore cottage could affoord But wee shall see Mortaigne requite this courtesie of Mollard with an extreame ingratitude Mortaigne whose eye was seldome on Mollard and never from his daughter admires to see so sweet a beauty in so obscure a place he cannot refraine from blushing to behold the delicacy of her pure complexion for though she were poore in cloathes yet hee saw her rich in beauty which made not onely his eyes but his heart conclude that shee was wonderfull faire sith it is ever the signe of a true and perfect beauty where the face graceth the apparrell and not the apparrell the face And now comparing Iosselina's taynt to that of the gallant Ladies of Paris he finds that the truth of nature exceeds the falshood of their Art for thorow the Alablaster of her Front Necke and Pappes hee might perceive the azure of her veines which like the windings of Meanders streames swiftly range and sweetly presents it selfe to his eye And for her eies or rather the Diamonds and Stars of her face their splendor was so cleare and their influence so piercing as they not onely captivate his thoughts with love but wound his heart with affection and admiration But if Mortaigne gaze on the freshnesse and sweetnesse of Iosselina's beauty no lesse doth she on the propernesse and perfection of his youth onely his eyes tilt at hers with more liberty and hers on him with modesty respect and secrecy which Mortaigne well espying hee vowes to obtaine her favour or to lose his life in research thereof but the end of such lascivious resolutions seldome prosper But see how all things favour Mortaignes affection or rather his lust to Iosselina for Mollard tells him hee holds a small tenement neere adjoyning of his father who hath now put him in sute of Law for two herriots and therefore beseecheth him for his good word and favour to his father in his behalfe Mortaigne glad of this occasion to serve for a pretext and cloake for him to have accesse to his house and daughter promiseth him to deale effectually with his father for him and the next time he passeth that way to acquaint him what hee hath done therein and so stealing a kisse or two from Iosselina as her father went into the Court and withall swearing to her that hee loved her dearely and would come often to see her hee thanking Mollard for his good cheere for that time departed But the further hee goes from Mollards house the neerer his heart approcheth his daughter Iosselina So his thoughts being stedfastly and continually fixed on her hee beginnes to distaste his fathers house yea forsakes all company and many times pretending to walke in the Parke and Woods he steales away privately to see his new Mistresse Hee visits her often but especially when her father is at market and gives her
judgement but with passion and so rather like a devill then a man flies to his Wife's chamber wherein furiously rushing hee with his sword drawne in his hand to her great terrour and amazement delivers her these words Minion quoth hee upon thy life tell me what familiarity there hath now past betwixt De Flores and thy selfe whereat shee fetching many sighes and shedding many teares answers him that by her part of heaven her thoughts speeches and actions have no way exceeded the bounds of honour and chastity towards him and that De Flores never attempted any courtesy but such as a brother may shew to his owne naturall sister Then quoth hee whence proceedes this your familiarity Whereat she growes pale and withall silent Which her husband espying Dispatch quoth hee and tell me the truth or else this sword of mine shall instantly finde a passage to thy heart When loe the providence of God so ordayned it that shee is reduced to this exigent and extreamity as shee must be a witnesse against her selfe and in seeking to conceale her whoredome must discover her Murther the which she doth in these words Know Alsemero that sith thou wilt inforce mee to shew thee the true cause of my chast familiarity with De Flores that I am much bound to him and thy selfe more for he it was that at my request dispatched Piracquo without the which as thou well knowest I could never have enjoyed thee for my husband nor thou me for thy wife And so she reveales him the whole circumstance of that cruell Murther as wee have formerly understood the which she conjures and prayes him to conceale sith no lesse then De Flores and her owne life depended thereon and that shee will dye a thousand deaths before consent to defile his bed or to violate her oath and promise given him in marriage Alsemero both wondering and grieving at this lamentable newes sayes little but thinkes the more and although hee had reason and apparance to believe that shee who commits Murther will not sticke to commit Adultery yet upon his Wife 's solemne oathes and protestations hee forgets what is past onely hee strictly chargeth her no more to see or admit De Flores into her company or if the contrary hee vowes hee will so sharpely bee revenged of her as hee will make her an example to all posterity But Beatrice-Ioana notwithstanding her husbands speeches continueth her intelligence with De Flores yea her husband no sooner rides abroad but he is at Valentia with her and they are become so impudent as what they did before secretly they now in a manner doe publikely or at least with Chamber-doores open Diaphanta knowing this to be a great scandall as well to her Masters honour as house againe informes him thereof who vowes to take a most sharpe revenge of this their infamy and indignity as indeed he doth for hee bethinkes himselfe thereby to effect it of an invention as worthy of his jealousie as of their first crime of Murther and of their second of Adultery hee injoyneth Diaphanta to lay wayt for the very houre that De Flores arrives from Alicant to Valentia which shee doth when instantly pretending to his Wife a journey in the Country hee very secretly and silently having his Rapier and Ponyard and a case of Pistols ready chaâ—…ged in his pocket seeming to take Horse husheth himselfe up privately in his Studie which was next adjoyning and within his Bed-chamber Beatrice-Ioana thinking her husband two or three Leagues off sends away for De Flores who comes instantly to her they fall to their kisses and imbracings shee rejoycing extreamely for his arrivall and hee for her husband Alsemero's departure she relates him the cruelty and indignitie her husband hath shewed and offered her the which De Flores understands with much contempt and choller as also with many threats Alsemero heares all but doth neither speake cough neeze nor spit So from words they â—…all to their beasily pleasures when Alsemero no longer able to containe himselfe much lesse to be accessary to this his shame and their villany throwes off the Doore and violently rusheth forth when finding them on his Bed in the middest of their adultery he first dischargeth his Pistols on them and then with his Sword and Ponyard runnes them thorow and stabs them with so many deepe and wide wounds that they have not so much power or time to speake a word but there lye weltring and wallowing in their bloud whiles their soules flie to another world to relate what horrible and beastly crimes their bodies have committed in this Thus by the providence of God in the second Tragedie of our Historie wee see our two Murtherers murthered and Piracquo's innocent bloud revenged in the guiltinesse of theirs Alsemero having finished this bloudie businesse leaves his Pistols on the Table as also his Sword and Ponyard all bloudy as they were and without covering or removing the breathlesse bodies of these two wretched miscreants he shuts his Chamber doore and is so farre from flying for the fact as hee takes his Coach and goes directly to the Criminall Iudge himselfe and reveales what he had done but conceales the Murther of Piracquo The Iudge is astonished and amazed at the report of this mournefull and pittifull accident hee takes Alsemero with him returnes to his house and findes those two dead bodies fresh smoaking and reeking in their bloud the newes hereof is spread in all the City The whole people of Valentia flocke thither to bee eye-witnesses of these two murthered persons where some behold them with pitie others with joy but all with astonishment and admiration and no lesse doe those of Alicant where this newes is speedily poasted but all their griefes are nothing to those of Don Diego de Vermandero's Beatrice-Ioana's father who infinitely and extreamely grieves partly for the death but specially for the crime of his daughter The Iudge presently commits Alsemero prisoner in another of his owne Chambers and so examining Diaphanta upon her oath concerning the familiaritie betwixt De Flores and Beatrice-Ioana shee affirmes constantly that now and many times before shee saw them commit adultery and that shee it was that first advertised Alsemero her Master heereof Whereupon after a second examination of Alsemero they upon mature deliberation acquite him of this fact so hee is freed and the dead bodies caried away and buried But although this earthly Iudge have acquitted Alsemero of this fact yet the Iudge of Iudges the great God of Heaven who seeth not onely our heart but our thoughts not onely our actions but our intents hath this and something else to lay to his charge for hee in his sacred providence and divine Iustice doth both remember and observe first how ready and willing Alsemero was to ingage himselfe to Beatrice-Ioana to kill Piracquo then though he consented not to his Murther yet how he concealed it and brought it not to publike arraignement and punishment whereby the dead body
yield and render up to the Kings lawes and justice but hee is resolute to defend himselfe They threaten him with their Pistols but their sight doe as little amaze him as their report and bullets So they alight from their Horses and environ him with their Swords and having hurt two of them and performed the part of a desperate Gladiator the third joyning with him they breake his Rapier within a foote of the Hilt whereat hee yields himselfe Alsemero thus taken is the same night brought backe to Alicant in whose Gates and Streets a wonderfull concourse of people assemble to see him passe who as much pitty his person as execrate and condemne his fact The Senate is assembled and Alsemero brought to appeare who considering the hainousnesse of his treacherous and bloudy fact which the Devill had caused him to commit hee stayes for no witnesses but accuseth himselfe of this Murther the which from point to point hee confesseth and so they adjudge him to lose his head but this is too honourable a death for a Gentleman who hath so treacherously and basely dishonoured and blemished his Gentility As hee is on the Scaffold preparing himselfe to dye and seeing no farther hope of life but the image of death before his eyes knowing it no time now either to dissemble with God or to feare the Law hee to the amazement of all the world tells the people that although he killed Don Thomaso Piracquo yet hee had no hand in the Murther of his brother Don Alonso whom hee sayd De Flores at the instigation of his wicked and wretched wife Beatrice-Ioana had murthered and buryed in the East Casemate of the Castle and withall affirmed that if hee were guilty in any thing concerning that Murther it was onely in concealing it which hee had done till then and whereof hee sayd he now most heartily repented himselfe as being unwilling any longer to charge his soule with it sith hee was ready to leave this world and to goe to another and so besought them all to pray unto God to forgive him whose sacred Majesty hee confessed hee had highly and infinitely offended and wished them all to beware and flie the temptations of the Devill and to become better Christians by his example The Iudges advertised hereof cause his head to be strucken off for murthering of Don Thomaso Piracquo and his body to be throwne into the Sea for concealing that of Don Alonso which was accordingly executed and from the place of Execution they immediately goe to the Castle and so to the East Casemate where causing the stones to be removed they find the mournfull murthered body of Don Alonso Piracquo which they give to his kinsfolkes to receive a more honourable Buriall according to his ranke and degree and from thence they returne to the Churches where the Bodies of De Flores and Beatrice-Ioana were interred after they were brought backe from Valentia the which for their horrible Murther they at the common place of Execution cause to bee burned and their ashes to be throwne into the ayre as unworthy to have any resting place on earth which they had so cruelly stayned and polluted with innocent bloud Loe here the just punishment of God against these devillish and bloudy Murtherers at the sight of whose executions all that infinite number of people that were Spectatours universally laud and prayse the Majesty of God for purging the earth of such unnaturall and bloudy Monsters GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND EXEcrable sinne of Murther HISTORIE V. Alibius murthereth his Wife Merilla hee is discovered first by Bernardo then by Emilia his owne daughter so he is apprehended and hanged for the Fact HOw farre are they from having peace with God and all his creatures when they lay violent hands on their owne wives yea when they murther them in their beds in stead of reposing their secrets and affections in â—…heir bosomes These are hellish resolutions and infernall stratagems that nature neither allowes nor grace approves For besides the Vnion betwixt God and his Church there is none so absolute and perfect on earth as is that of Man and Wife for as this world hath made them two persons so God hath conjoyned and made them one and therefore what madnesse nay what cruelty is it to be so cruell to those who if not our selves are at least our second selves Charity the daughter of heaven teacheth us to love all the world but especiâ—…lly those who are our kinsfolkes or friends Religion the mother of Charity steps a degree farther and injoyneth us to love those who hate us yea these likewise are not onely the rules of nature but the precepts of grace therefore to kill those who love us and to depâ—…ive those of life who did occasion present are ready to sacrifice theirs for the preservation of ours it must needs proceed rather from a monster then a man or rather from a devill then a monster but such devills and such monsters are but too rife and common in these our sinfull times And amongst others I here produce one for exâ—…mple who for that cruell and inhumane fact of his by the justice of God was justly rewarded with a halter And may all those who perpetrate the like crime partitipate of the same or of a worse punishment IN the Parish of Spreare some fifteene miles distant from the beautifull and noble City of Brescia in the Territories of the Venetians there dwelt a poore countrey man termed Alibius who could vaunt of no other wealth left him by his deceased parents but that hee was a man of a comely stature and proportion and withall that they were of an honest fame and reputation so if his vertues had answered theirs his poverty had never proved so pernicious and fatall an enemy to him as to ruine his fortunes with his life and his life with his fortunes or had the vices of his soule not contaminated or stayned the perfections of his body my pen had slept in silence and his History layne raked up in the dust of his grave but sith his actions have exceeded the bounds both of nature and grace yea sith hee hath learned of the Devill to imbath his hands in poyson and to imbrue them in innocent bloud I incouraged by the connivencie and silence of others not out of any want of charity to the memory of dead Alibius but in detestation of his bloudy resolution and actions and chiefely and especially to the comfort and instruction of the living who may abhorre his crime by the sight of his punishment I have adventured and resolved to give this a place among the rest of my tragicall Histories that Italie as well as Brescia and Spreare and peradventure the whole Christian world with Italie may understand thereof This Alibius as soone as he had attained the age of five and twenty yeares marryed an honest Mayden termed Merilla being a Farmers daughter of the same Parish of Spreare with whom he had but small
hee seemed to have the art of perswasion in his speeches yet by the way using his best oratory and charity to draw Alibius from denyall to confession and from that to contrition and repentance his heart was still so perverse and obdurate as hee notwithstanding persevered in his willfull obstinacy and peremptorily continued and stood upon the points of his innocency and justification So strong was the Divell yet with him But whiles an infinite number of spectators gaze on Alibius as hee is in the Castle and hee cheerefully and carelesly conversed with some of his acquaintance as if the innocency of his conscience were such as his heart felt no griefe nor preturbation Lo he is called to his arraignement whereunto that World of people who were then in the Castle flocke and concurre His thoughts are so vaine and his vanity so ambitious as hee comes to the barre in a blacke beaten Satin sute with a faire Gowne and a spruce set Ruffe having both the haire of his head and his long gray beard neately kombed and cut yea with so pleasant a look and so confident a demeanour as if he were to receive not the sentence of his guiltinesse and death but that of his innocency and inlargement These honourable Iudges cause his Inditement to bee read wherein his poysoning and Murthering of his wife is branched and depainted out in all its circumstances whereat his courage and confidence is yet notwithstanding so great as by his lookes hee seemes no way moved much lesse astonished or afflicted the witnesses are produced first his owne daughter Emelia who with teares in her eyes stands firme to her former disposition that hee had often beaten her Mother almost to death and now had killed and poysoned her agreeing in every point with her disposition given to the Podestate and Prefect of Brescia which to refell her father Alibius with many plausible and sugred speeches tells his Iudges that his daughter is incensed or lunatike or else that shee purposely seekes his life to enjoy that small meanes hee hath after his death and so runnes on in a most extravagant and impertinent apologie for himselfe with many invective and scandalous speeches against her and concludes that hee was never owner of any poyson His Iudges out of their honourable inclination and zeale to sacred justice permit him to speake without interruption when having ended they beginne to shew him the foulenesse of his fact yea like heavenly Orators they paint him out the devillish nature monstrous crime of Murther the which they say he redoubleth by denying it not withstanding that they have evidence as cleere as the Sun to convince him thereof and so they call for two Apothecaries boyes who severally affirme they sold him Rattes-bane at two severall times But the divell is still so strong with Alibius as though his conscience doth hereat afflict and torment him yet there is no change nor signe thereof either seene in his countenance or discerned in his speeches but still hee persevers in his obstinacy and in a bravery pretends to wipe off the Apothecaries boyes evidence with this poore evasion that hee bought and used it onely to poyson Rattes And so againe with many smooth words humble crouches and hypocriticall complements hee useth the prime of his subtilty and invention to make it appeare to his Iudges that he had no way imbrued his hands in the bloud of his wife But this will not availe him for hee is before Lynce-eyed Iudges whose integrity and wisedome can pierce thorow the foggy mists of excuses and the obscure Clouds of his far-fetched shifts and cunninglycompacted evasions And now to close and winde up this History after the Iury impannelled had amply heard aswell the witnesses against Alibius as his defence for himselfe and that all the world could testifie that his Iudges gave him a faire triall they return and report him guilty of Murthering his wife Merilla whereat hee is put off the barre and so for that time sent backe to his prison and yet the heate of his obstinacy being hereat no way cooled the edge of his deny all any way rebated nor the obduratenesse of his heart the least thing mollified hee by the way as hee passeth beating his brest and sometimes out-spreading his armes saith it is not his crime but the malice of his Devillish daughter that hath cast him away yea although many of his compassionate and Christian friends doe now now againe in prison worke and perswade him to confession by aleadging him that God is as mercifull to the repentant as severe to the impenitent and obstinate yet all this will not prevaile The second morne after his conviction hee is brought againe from his prison to the Castle and so to the barre to receive his Iudgement where one of the two most honourable Iudges shew him That it is his hearkning to the Devill and his forsaking of God that hath brought him to this misery paints and points him out his dissolute life his frequenting of bad company his prodigality and adultery but above all his masked hypocrisie which hee saith in thinking to deceive God hath now deceived himselfe yea in heavenly and religious speeches informes him how mercifull and indulgent God is to repentant sinners that hee must now cast off his thoughts from earth and ascend and mount them to heaven and no longer to think of his body but of his soule and so after a learned and Christian-like speech as well for the instruction of the living as the consolation of Alibius who was now to prepare himselfe to dye hee pronounceth that for his execrable Murther committed on his owne wife Merilla hee should hang till hee were dead and so besought the Lord to bee mercifull to his soule And now is Alibius againe returned to his prison but still remaineth obstinate and perverse affirming to all the World that as hee hath lived so hee will dye innocently But God will not suffer him to dye without confessing and repenting this his bloudy and unnaturall Murther These his grave and religious Iudges out of an honourable and Christian charity send him Divines to prepare his body to the death of this world and his soule to the life of that to come they deale most effectually powerfully and religiously with him in prison and although they found that the devill had strongly insnared and charmed him yea and as it were hardned his heart to his perdition yet God out of his infinit and ineffable mercies addeth both power and grace to their speeches and exhortations so as his eyes being opened and his heart pierced and mollified they at last so prevaile with him that being terrified with Gods justice and incouraged and comforted with his mercies he with teares sighs and groanes confesseth this murther of his wife and not onely bitterly repents it but also doth thank these Godly Divines for their charity care and zeale for the preservation and saving of his soule and doth upon his
knees beseech them to pray unto the Lord to forgive him Wee have seene Alibius Murther his wife Merilla wee have seene his apprehension imprisonment triall conviction and condemnation for this his execrable and bloudy fact wherein wee may observe how the justice of God still triumpheth o're the temptation and malice of the Devill and how Murther though never so secretly acted and concealed will at last be detected and punished What resteth there now but that after wee have hereby made good use of this example wee see Alibius fetched from his prison and conveyed to the place of execution whereat as wee have heard hee formerly stumbled in jest but must now in earnest where although it were timely in the morn as having the favour to dye alone and at least three houres before the other condemned malefactors an infinite number of the Citizens of Brescia of all rankes and of both sexes assembled to see Alibius take his last farewell of this World At his ascending up the ladder his faire gray beard and comely presence drew pitty from the hearts and teares from the eyes of the greatest part of the spectators to see that the Devill had so strongly inchanted and seduced him to lay violent hands on his wife and to see so grave and so proper an aged man thus misfortunately and untimely cast away His speech at his end was briefe and short onely hee freely confest his crime and with infinite sighes and teares besought the world to pray for his soule hee lamented the Vanity of his youth and the dissolutenesse of his age told them that his neglect of prayer to God and his too much confidence in the devill had brought him to this shamefull end and therefore besought them againe and againe to beware by his example and so having solemnely freed his second wife Philatea from being any way acquainted or accessary with the murther of his first wife Merilla he recommending his soule into the hands of his Redeemer dyed as penitently as hee had lived dissolutely and prophanely And thus was the life and death of Alibius the which I was the more willingly induced to publish partly because I was an eye-witnesse both of his arraignement and death as I returned from my travells but more especially in hope that his example and Historie may prove to bee as great a consolation to the Godly as a terrour to the unrighteous To God bee all Glory and prayse FINIS THE TRIUMPHS OF GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND Execrable Sinne of Murder Expressed In thirty seuerall Tragicall Histories digested into six Books which containe great varietie of mournfull and memorable Accidents Amourous Morall and Divine Booke II. Written by IOHN REYNOLDS VERITAS TEMPORE PATET OCCVLTA RS LONDON Printed by Aug. Mathewes for WILLIAM LEE and are to be sold at his shop in Fleetstreet at the signe of the Turks Head neere the Mitre Taverne 1634. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE AND TRVLIE NOBLE RICHARD Lord Buckhurst Earle of Dorset and Lord Lievtennant of his Majesties Countie of Sussex RIGHT HONOVRABLE OVt of a resolution whether more bold or zealous I know not I have adventured this second Booke of my Tragicall Histories to the World under your Honours Patronage and protection Neither neede I goe farre to yeeld either your Honour or the World a reason of this my Presumption and Ambition sith your Uertues innobling your Bloud as much as your Nobility illustrates your Vertues was the first motive which drew me hereunto for whiles many others indeavour to bee great your Honour resembling your selfe not onely indeavours but strives to bee good as well knowing that Goodnesse is the glory and essence yea the life and as I may say the soule of Greatnesse and that betwixt Greatnesse and Goodnesse there is this difference and disparitie that makes us famous this immortall that beloved of men this of God that accompanyeth us only to our Graves and this to Heaven My second prevayling Motive in this my Dedication proceeded from the respect of my particular duety as my first was solely derived from the consideration of your owne generall and generous Uertues for having the honour to retaine to your Noble Brother Sir Edward Sackvile Knight to whom for many singular respects and immerited favours whiles I am my selfe Iowe not onely my service but my selfe I therein hold me obliged and bound to proffer and impart this part of my Labours to your Honour as the first publike testimony of my zeale and service eternally devoted and consecrated to the Illustrious Name and Family of the Sackeviles whereof Gods Divine providence hath made your Honour chiefe Heire and Pillar The drift and scope of these Histories are to informe the World how Gods Revenge still fights and triumphs against the crying and execrable sinne of wilfull and premeditated Murther which in these our impure and profane times is so fatally and frequently coincident to unregenerate Christians which Scarlet and bloody Crime is infallibly met with and rewarded by Gods sharpe and severe punishments having purposely published and divulged them to my deare Countrey of England that they may serve though not by the way of comparison yet of application as the sight of Iulius Caesars bloudy Robe shewed by Marcus Antonius to the Romanes in Campo Martio when hee there pronounced his funerall Oration thereby to make his Murther and Murtherers in the greater horrour and execration with the people The Histories of themselves are as different as their effects and accidents their Scenes being wilfully and sinfully laid in diuers parts of Christendome beyond the seas and the Tragedies vnfortunately perpetrated and personated by those who more adhering to impiety then Grace and to Satan then God made shipwracke if not of their soules with their bodies I am sure of their liues with their fortunes and of their fortunes with their lives They themselves or rather their sinnes first brought the Materials I onely the collection illustration and pollishing of these their deplorable Histories which are penned in so low a sphaere of speech and so inelegant a phrase as they can no way merit the Honour of your perusall much lesse of your iudgement and least of all of your Noble protection and Patronage Howsoever my hopes led and marshalled by the premises doe as it were flatter mee that your perfections will winke at my imperfections and your curiosity at my ignorance and presumption in daigning permit this my rude Pamphlet to salute and pilgrimage the World under the authenticall passe-port of your Honours favour who of her selfe is composed of so poore metall or rather drosse as without the pure gold of your Honourable Name it would runne a hazard not to passe currant with the curious wits and censures of this our too curious and too censorious age whereof could I rest assured I should then not onely rejoyce but triumph in this my happinesse as so richly exceeding the proportion of my poore Labours and merits that I could not aspire
Yea and the more to bleare the eyes and eclipse the judgement of the world for casting the least shadow of suspicion on her for this unnaturall Murther shee and her whole family take on blacke and mourning Attire and for her selfe in two moneths after never goes forth her house except to the Church where her husband was buryed where her Hppocrisie is so infinitely feigned and dissembling that she is often observed to bedew and wash his Tombe with her teares but these Crocadile teares of hers and these her false and treacherous sorrowes shall not availe her for although Gods divine and sacred Majestie bee mercifull in his justice yet hee is so just in his mercies as neither the politique secrecie of Sypontus nor the Hypocriticall sorrowes of Victoryna for this cruell Murther shall goe either unmasked or unpunished but in their due appointed time they shall be brought forth in their colours and made publique examples as well of infamy as destruction for the same the manner is thus The deceased Signiour Iovan Souranza hath a younger brother named Signiour Hiâ—…ronymo Souranza who having carefully and curiously observed that his sister in law Victoryna never perfectly nor dearely loved his brother her husband and that shee was neither so familiar nor dutifull to him as it behoov'd her during the tearme of her marriage which partly hee attributed to the disparity of their yeares in respect of the frozennesse of his age and the heat and freshnesse of her youth He began vehemently to suspect her of this Murther which hee often revolv'd and ruminated in his minde as if the suggestion and perswasion thereof not onely bore probability but truth with it to which end as the affection of a true friend much more of a brother should passe beyond the Grave and not remaine intomb'd and buried in the dust thereof hee is resolv'd to put his best wits and invention upon the tenter-hookes to discover and reveale the same to which end hee breakes with Victorina's Gentlewoman who wayted on her in her Chamber and who indeed was his owne Neece Felicia to know what Gentlewomen chiefly frequented her Lady Felicia informes her Vnkle that Signyor Sypontus is many nights with her that there is much affection and familiarity betweene them and that he sends her many Letters Her Vncle glad-of this glimmering light which hee hopes will produce a greater and perfecter conjures her to intercept some of his Letters for the more effectuall discovery of his brother and her Vnkles death So Felicia promiseth her best care and fidelity herein and shortly effecteth it for in few dayes after being sent by her Lady Victoryna to a Casket of hers to fetch her a new paire of Romish Gloves shee opening an Ivory Box therein findes a Letter which shee reads and seeing it signed by Sypontus shee thinks it no sinne to be false to her Lady and true to her Vnkle and so very secretly and safely sends it him which indeede was the very Letter wee have formerly seene and read and now is his jealousie and suspicion confirm'd So vowing and Sacrifizing Revenge to his dead and Murthered brother away hee goes to three chiefe Iudges of the forty who sit on criminall causes and very passionately accuseth Sypontus and Victoryna for the Murther committed on the person of his Brother Signiour Iovan Baptista Souranza at Sea whereupon they are both committed prisoners but sequestred in severall Chambers Sypontus is first examined then Victoryna they both very constantly deny the Murther and with many sugred words and subtill evasions intimate and insinuate their innocencies therein so the next day the Iudges produce Sypontus his owne Letter the sight whereof extreamely afflicteth and vexeth him but hee is constant in his denyall and resolute in that constancy and so takes on a brazen face and with many asseverations and imprecations againe and againe denies it averring it is not his hand but a meere imposture and invention of his enemies who have counterfaited it purposely to procure his ruine and destruction yet inwardly to himselfe he feareth all is discovered and that there is no meanes left him to escape death whose Image and forme hee now too apparantly and fatally sees before his eyes So hee is sent backe to his prison and his Iudges in the interim consult on his fact where hee is no sooner arrived but bolting his Chamber privately to himselfe hee considering that either Victoryna or some for her had betrayed him by his owne Letter hee in the bitter fury of choller and passion throwes away his Hat now crosseth his armes and then beates his brest and stamping with his feet at last very low to himselfe bandeth forth these speeches And is it possible that I must now lose my life through Victoryna her folly and treachery into whose hands I repos'd both my secrets and it Have I done what I have done for her her sake and is this the requitall she gives me And sith there is no other witnesse must mine owne Letter bee produced in justice against mee What will I not doe what have I not done for her sake Woe is me that I should live to be rewarded with this monstrous and inhumane ingratitude when for sorrow and indignation not able to containe himselfe hee takes Pen and Paper and writes Victoryna this ensuing Letter SIPONTVS to VICTORYNA IS it possible that thy affection to me hath been all this while seigned and that thou whom I trusted with all my secrets art now become the onely woman of the world to betray mee I have hazarded my life for thy sake and must I now be so unfortunate and wretched to lose it through thy treacherrie When I bore matters with such care and secresie that no witnesse whatsoever could bee produced against mee â—…ust mine owne Letter which was safely delivered thee bee brought forth to convict mee of my crime and so to incurre death which otherwise I had avoyded Is this thy reward of my love Is this thy recompence of my affection O Victoryna Victoryna Such is my tender esteeme of thy sweet youth and beauty that had I injoyed a thousaend lives I would haeve reputed my selfe happy to have lost them all for thy sake and service and having but one wilt thou bee so cruell to deprive mee thereof But that my loyalty and my affection may shine in thy malice take this for thy comfort that as I have ever liv'd so I will now dye thy true Servant and faithfull Lover SYPONTVS But observe here the errour of Sypontus his judgement for whiles hee imputes iâ—… to Victoryna's treachery that this his Letter will occasion his death hee is so irreligious and impious as hee lookes not up to heaven to consider that the detection thereof proceeds from Gods immediate finger and providence No No. For the divell yet holds his thoughts so fast captivated and intangled in the snares of Victoryna's beauty as hee hath not yet the grace to looke from his crime to his
an Apothecary named Augustino and when she hath conjured and he promised his secrecie shee acquaints him that her new husband Fassino keeps Courtisans to her nose and daily and hourely offereth her many other insupportable abuses and disgraces in requitall and revenge whereof she is resolved to poyson him and prayes him to undertake and performe it and that she will reward him with three hundred Zekynes for his labour Of all professions and faculties there are good and bad Augustino loves God too wel herein to obey the devil he hath too much grace to be so impious and gracelesse and vowes that he will not buy gold at so deare a rate as the price of blood so as a good Christian and true child of God he not onely refuseth Victoryna's motion and proffer but in religious termes seeks to divert and perswade her from this her bloody attempt But she is resolute in her malice and wilfull in her revenge and therfore will performe it her selfe sith this Augustino will not so by a second hand she procures poyson from a strange Empericke whereof the Citie of Venice more then other of Italy aboundeth so she onely waits for an opportunitie which very shortly though alas too too soone presents it selfe the manner thus It is impossible that Fassino his dissolute life and extreme deboshing can keepe him long from sicknesse for this punishment is alwayes incident and hereditary to that sinne Hee complaines thereof to his wife Victoryna who receives this newes rather with gladnesse then commiseration and pitie and so taking his bed hee prayes her to make him some comfortable hot broath for his stomack which newes she heares and imbraceth inwardly with joy outwardly with disdaine For albeit shee layes hold of this opportunitie to poyson him yet she dissembles her malice and the better to colour her villany because she knowes it the smoother and shorter way to be revenged in poysoning him shee will not make the broath herselfe but commands her maid Felicia to doe it of whom wee have formerly spoken in the discovery of Sypontus his Letter to her Vnkle Hieronymo Souranza which treacherous office of hers our malicious and devillish Victoryna her Lady and Mistresse hath now a plot in her head to requite with an execrable and hellish recompence for whiles Felicia is boyling of the broath her Lady Victoryna trips to her chamber and closet and fetcheth out the poyson inveloped in a paper whereof shee takes two parts and brings downe with her and whiles she had purposely sent Felicia from the fire shee runnes and throwes it into the broath which for the present no whit altered the colour thereof so Fassino calling for it this poore innocent Gentlewoman Felicia not suspecting or dreaming of poyson gives it him which as ignorant thereof hee sups up and this was about nine or ten of the clocke in the morning Now whiles Felicia is acting this mournfull Tragedie in Fassino his chamber her Lady Victoryna is acting another in hers for shee takes the other third part of the poyson and secretly opening Felicia's trunke puts it into a painted boxe which shee found therein and so lockes it againe hoping though indeed with a wretched and hellish hope that her huâ—…band being dead his body opened and the poyson found in her trunke shee would give out that Felicia had poysoned him with broath that morne and this found in her chest would make her guiltie of the murther for the which she knew she must needs die See see the devillish double malice of this wretched Ladie Victoryna as well to her husband Fassino as her mayd Felicia But as finely as the devill hath taught her to spinne the thread of this her malice and revenge yet though her plot have taken effect and hold of her husband neverthelesse shee shall in the end fayle of hers to innocent Felicia in the interim though to the eyes of the world it seeme at first to succeed according to her desires by the bye yet it shall not in the maine but that murther and this treason of Victoryna shall not goe long either undetected or unpunished This poyson working in Fassino his stomacke and body begins by degrees to cut off his vitall spirits so as his strength failes him his red cheekes already looke pale and earthly and his body infinitely swels he cals for his wife Victoryna who with all haste and expedition tells her secretly that hee feares Felicia hath poysoned him with the broath she gave him in the morning and so requesteth her to send for his Parents and friends to bee present at his death for live hee could not Victoryna like a dissembling shee-devill teares her hayre for anger and for meere sorrow seemes to drowne her selfe in her teares at this newes kisseth and fawnes on her husband and in all possible haste sends away of all sides for his kinsefolkes and friends who hastily repayre thither and finde Fassino almost dead so they with teares inquire his sicknesse when with open voyce his wife Victoryna cries out that her wretched mayd Felicia had with broath that morne poysoned him which Fassino his memory and tongue yet serve him to confesse and averre word for word as his wife Victoryna had related them whereat they are all sorrowfull and weepe and then and there cause Felicia to bee apprehended and shut fast in a chamber who poore harmelesse yong Gentlewoman is amazed at the terrour and strangenesse of this newes and cries out and weepes so bitterly as she seemes to melt her selfe into teares only she knowes herselfe innocent and yet feares that this malice and revenge proceeds to her from her Lady Victoryna Whiles Felicia is thus under sure keeping her Master Fassino dyes which newes is soone dispersed and divulged abroad to the griefe and admiration of the whole Citie The next morne the criminall Iudges are advertised hereof who repaire to Fassino his house who by this time is dead there see his breathles carkasse which they oâ—…daine to be opened the poyson is apparantly found on his stomack in its naturall pristine colour when examining first Fassino then Victoryna's parents they report Fassino his owne words uttered a little before his death that Felicia had that morne poysoned him with broth which is averred by Victoryna who saith she saw her give it him So they send away poore Felicia to prisoâ—… but yet with a vehement suspicion that this poysoned arrow came out of Victoryna her owne quiver which they the sooner beleeve in respect of her former troubles and â—…spicion for the murther of her first husband Souranza So the Iudges returne and bâ—…ake themselves that very instant to their Tribunall of Iustice in the Dukes Palace of Saint Markes where they send for Felicia who is brought them unaccompanied of any for as misfortune would both her Vnkle Hieronymo and her Cousin Andrea 〈◊〉 wâ—…re then at Corfu imployed in some publike affaires for the Seigniory The Iudgeâ—… examine Felicia concerning the
broth and poyson she gave her Master Shee bitterly sighing and weeping confesseth the broath but denies the poyson vowing by hâ—…r part and hope of heaven shee never touched nor knâ—…w what poyson was and desired no favour of them if it were found or proovâ—…d against heâ—… withall she acquaints them that she feares it is a tricke of malice and revenge clapt on her by her Lady Victoryna for the discovery of Sypontus his letter And to speake truth the Iudges in their hearts partly adhere and concurre with her in this opinion they demand her whether her Lady Victoryna touched this broath either by the fire or the bed Shee according to the truth answers that to her knowledge or sight she touched it not nor no other but her selfe So they send her againe to prison and returâ—…e speedily to Fassino his house where committing Victoryna to a sure guard they ascend her chamber and closet search all her trunkes caskets and boxes for poyson but find none and the like they doe to Felicia's trunkes which they breake open shee having the key and in a boxe find a quantitie of the same poyson whereby it was apparant shee absolutely poysoned her Master Fassino The Iudges having thus found out and revealed as they thought the true author of this murther they descend againe examine Victoryna and so acquit her Poore Felicia is advertised hereof whereat shee is amazed and astonished and thinkes that some witch or devill cast it there for her destruction Shee is againe sent for before her Iudges who produce the poyson found in her trunke she denies both the poyson and the murther with many sighs and teares so they adjudge her to the racke whâ—…ch torment she suffereth with much patience and constancie notwithstanding her Iudges considering that shee made and gave Fassino the broath that none touched it but her selfe that hee dyed of it and that they found the remainder of the poyson in her trunke they thinke her the murtherer so they pronounce sentence that the next morne shee shall bee hanged at Saint Markes place Shee poore soule is returned to her prison she bewailes her misfortune thus to die and be cast away innocently taxing her Iudges of injustice as her soule is ready to answere it to God All Venice pratleth of this cruell murther committed by this yong Gentlewoman but for her Lady Victoryna shee triumphs and laughs like a Gypsey to see how with one stone shee hath given two strokes and how one poore drug hath freed her this day of her husband Fassino and will to morrow of Felicia of whom she rejoyceth in her selfe that now shee hath cryed quittance for the discovery of Sypontus his Letter which procured his death but her hopes may deceive her or rather the devill will deceive both her and her hopes too How true or false righteous or sinfull our actions bee God in his due time will make them appeare in their naked colours and reward those with glory and these with shame The next morne according to the laudable custome of Venice the mourners of the Seigniory accompany our sorrowfull Felicia to the place of execution where she modestly ascendeth the ladder with much silence pensivenesse affliction at the sight of whose youth and beautie most of that great infinitie of Spectators cannot refraine from teares and commiserating and pitying that so sweet a young Gentlewoman should come to so infamous and untimely a death when Felicia lifting up her hands and erecting her eyes and heart towards heaven she briefly speaks to this effect Sheetakes Heaven earth to witnesse that she is innocent of the poysoning of her Master Fassino and ignorant how that poyson should bee brought into her Trunke that as her knowledge cannot accuse so her Conscience will not acquit her Lady Victorina of that fact onely she leaves the detection and judgement thereof to God that being ready to forsake the world siâ—…h the world is resolved to forsake her shee as much triumphs in her innocencie as grieves at her misfortune and that she may not only appeare in Earth but be found in Heaven a true Christian shee first forgives her Lady Victorina and her Iudges and then beseecheth God to forgive her all her sinnes whereunto shee humbly and heartily prayes all that are present to adde their prayers to hers and so shee begins to take off her band and to prepare her selfe to die Now Christian Reader what humane wisdome or earthly capacitie would here conceive or thinke that there were any sublunary meanes left for this comfortlesse Gentlewoman Felicia either to hope for life or to flatter her selfe that she could avoid death But loe as the children of God cannot fall because he is the defender of the innocent and the protector of the righteous therefore we shall see to our comforts and finde to Gods glory that this innocent yong Gentlewoman shall be miraculously freed of her dangers and punishment and her inveterate arch enemy Victoryna brought in her stead to receive this shamefull death in expiation of the horrible murthers of her two husbands which God will now discover and make apparant to the eyes of the world for as the Fryers and Nunnes prepare Felicia to take her last farewell of this world and so to shut up her life in the direfull and mournfull Catastrophe of her death Behold by the providence and mercie of God the Apothecarie Augustino of whom this ouâ—… Historie hath formerly made an honest and religious mention arrives from Cape â—…stria and having left his ship at Malmocco lands in a Gondola at Saint Markes stayres when knowing and seeing an execution towards he thrusts himselfe in amongst the crowd of people where beholding so young and so faire a Gentlewoman ready to die he demaunds of those next by him what shee was and her crime when being answered that her name was Felicia a wayting Gentlewoman to the Lady â—…orina who had poysoued her Master Fassino at the very first report of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Victoryna and her husband Fassino Augustino his blood flasheth up in his face and his heart began to beat within him when demanding if no other were accessary to this murther hee was informed that her Lady Victoryna was vehemently suspected thereof but she was cleared and onely Felicia this young Gentlewoman found guiltie thereof which words were no sooner delivered him but God putting into his heart and remembrance that this Lady Vectorina would have formerly seduced him for three hundred Zeckynes to have poysoned her husband Fassino hee confidently beleeving this young Gentlewoman innocent heereof with all possible speed as fast as his legges could drive hee runnes up to the Southeast part of the corner of the Gallery of the Dukes Palace where the Officers sit to see execution done the which he requesteth for that time to stop because he hath something to say concerning the murther of Signiour Fassino Whereupon they call out to the Executioner to forbeare which bâ—…ed infâ—… admiration
with many fearefull imprecations and asseverations stands peremptorily in her innocencie and out of the heat of her malice and choller termes them devills or witches that are her accusers But her Iudges who can no longer be deluded with her vowes nor will no more give eare to her perfidious oaths command to have her Paps seared off with hot burning Pincers thereby to vindicate the truth of her cruell murther from the falsehood of her impious and impudent denyall thereof Whereat amazed and astonished and seeing this cruell torment ready to bee inflicted and presented her God was so indulgent to her sinnes and so mercifull to her soule as the devill flying from her and she from his temptations shee rayning downe many rivolets and showres of teares from her eyes and evaporating many volleyes of sighes from her heart throwing her selfe downe on her knees to the earth and lifting up her eyes and handes unto Heaven with much bewayling and bitternesse shee at last confesseth to her Iudges that shee and her Wayting-mayd Lucilla were the murtherers of Belluile and for the which shee sayd that through her humble contrition and hearty repentance shee hoped that God would pardon her soule in the life to come though shee knew they would not her body in this Whereupon the Iudges in horrour and execration of her inhumane and bloudy crime pronounce sentence of death upon her and condemne her the next day after dinner first to be hanged then burnt in the same street right against her lodging Monsieur de Richcourts house and likewise sith Lucilla was both an accessary and actour in this bloudy Tragedy that her body should be taken up out of her Grave and likewise burnt with hers in the same fire which accordingly was executed in the presence of an infinite number of people both of the Citizens and adjacent neighbours of Avignion Laurieta uttering upon the Ladder a short but a most Christian and penitent speech to the people tending first to disswade them all by her example from those foule and crying sinnes of whoredome revenge and murther and then to request and perswade them that they would assist her with their religious and devout prayers in her soules passage and flight towards Heaven yet adding withall that as her crime so her griefe was redoubled because as she had killed Belluile for Poligny's sake so she was sure that Belluile had killed Poligny for hers And thus Christian Reader were the dissolute lives and mournefull deaths of these two unfortunate Gentlemen Poligny and Belluile and of this lascivious and bloudy Curâ—…izan Laurieta and her Wayting-mayd Lucilla A tragicall History worthy both of our observation and detestation and indeed these are the bitter fruits of Lust Whoreâ—…ome and Revenge and the inseparable companions which infallibly awayt and attend them the very sight and consideration whereof are capable not onely to administer consolation to the righteous but to strike terror to the ungodly O therefore that wee may all beware by these their fatall and dangerous sinnes for this is the onely perfect and true way to prevent and avoyde their punishments GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND EXEcrable sinne of Murther HISTORIE IX Iacomo de Castelnovo Iustfully falls in love with his daughter in law Perina his owne sonne Francisco de Castelnovo's Wife whom to injoy he causeth Ierantha first to poyson his owne Lady Fidelia and then his said son Francisco de Castelnovo in revenge whereof Perina treacherously murthereth him in his bed Ierantha ready to dye in travell of child confesseth her two Murthers for the which she is bang'd and burnt Perina hath her right hand cut off and is condemned to perpetuall imprisonment where she sorrowfully languisheth and dyes WEe need not send our curiosity or our curiosity us to seek Tygers and Monsters in Africa for Europe hath but too many who are so cruell and inhumane not only to imbrue but to imbath themselves in the innocent bloud of their Christian brethren And as Religion prohibites us to kill and commands us to love our enemies with what audacious and prophane impiety dare wee then murther our friends nay those of our owne bloud and who are the greatest part of our selves And although Italy have lately afforded many tragicall presidents and fearefull Examples of this nature wheâ—…of I have given some to my former and reserved others to my future bookes yet in my conceipt it hath produced none more bloudy and inhumane then this whether we respect the Murthers or the persons For here wee shall see a wretched and execrable old man so besotted in lust and flaming in malice and revenge as being both a husband and a father hee by a hellish young Gentlewoman his strumpet poysonâ—…th both his owne wife and his owne sonne It was his vanity which first inkindled the fire of his lust it is then his Impiety which gives way to the Devill to blow the coales thereto and so to convert it into Murther O that Sinne should so triumph o're Grace and not Grace o're Sinne O that Age and Nature should not teach us to bee lesse bloudy and more compassionate and charitable And alas alas by Poyson that drug of the Devill who first brought the damnable invention thereof from hell to be practised here on earth onely by his agents and members Wee shall likewise see him killed by his daughter in law for formerly poysoning of her husband Lust seduced him to perpetraâ—…e those Affection or rather bloudy Revenge drew her on to performe this and consequently to her punishment due for the same Had they had more Grace and Religion they would not have beene so inhumane but falling from that no marvell if they fell to be so wretched and miserable for if we die well we seldome live ill if live ill we usually never die well for it is the end that crowns the beginning not the beginning the end Therfore if we will be happy in our lives and blessed in our deaths we must follow Vertue and flie from Vice love Chastity and Charity and hate Lust and Envie preferre Heaven before Earth our Soules before our Bodies and defie Satan with a holy resolution both to feare and love God SAvoy is the Countrey and Nice the City seated upon the Mediterraneâ—…m Sea being the strongest Bulwarke against France and the best Forâ—…resse and Key of Italy where the Scene of this insuing Tragicall History is layd the which to refetch from the Head-spring and Fountaine of its originall it must carry our curiosity and understanding over those famous Mountaines the Alpes and from thence to the City of Saint Iohn de Mauriena where of late and fresh memory dwelt an aged Gentleman of rich revenues and great wealth named Seignior Antonio de Arconeto who had newly by his deceased Wife the Lady Eleanora de Bibanti two Children to wit a Son and a Daughter that named Seignior Alexandro and this the Lady Perina a little different in yeares for he was eighteen and
imbraceth and kisseth her highly extolling her chastity and applauding the discreet carriage of her escape being himselfe resolute to stay in Saint Iâ—… de Mauriene with her father Arconeto and not to returne to Nice to his owne father Castelnovo But hee shall as soone infringe as make this his resolution for by this time his father understanding of his Sonnes returne from Malta to Saint Iohn de Mauriâ—… and knowing that his Lady Perina had not fail'd to bewray him his lascivious suit and desire attempted against her honour as also grieving at the remembrance of his forâ—…er folly and future shame in knowing what a foule seandall both it and his sonnes absenâ—… would procure and ingender him he resolves to confesse his crime and so by the mediation of a perswasive and satisfying Letter to indeavour to reclaime them againe frâ—… Saint Iohn de Mauriene to Nice when calling for pen and paper hee writes these seâ—… insuing lines and sends them his Sonne by a Gentleman of his CASTELNOVO to his Sonne CASTELNOVO I Am as glad of thy arrivall from Malta as sorrowfull for thy absence from Nice and fâ—… to denye is to redouble our errors and imperfections I will not goe further then my selfe to fiâ—… the cause thereof sith I know that my lascivious and gracelesse attempt against the honour of 〈◊〉 chast Lady hath drawne thee to this resolution but now I write it to my future comfort 〈◊〉 much as I conceived it to my former shame that Grace hath vanquished Nature and 〈◊〉 gion lust in mee so as I am at present not onely sorrowfull but repentant for that crime of miâ—… which I no more remember but with horrour nor thinke of but with detestation My soule 〈◊〉 made my peace with God and my heart desires to recontract it both with thy selfe and her 〈◊〉 as I hope hee will forget it so I beseech you both to forgive it mee being ready to confirme 〈◊〉 my reconciliation as well with my tongue as pen Wherefore sith thou art the sole prop of my 〈◊〉 and comfort of my life make mee not so unfortunate or miserable to bee tax'd with the scaâ—… of my shame and thy absence but bring backe thy Lady with thee for here I professe beâ—… Heaven and Earth that I will henceforth as much honour her for her chastity as heretosâ—… lasciviously sought to betray and violate it CASTELNOVO This vertuous and religious Letter of the Father prevailes with the Sonne and his faire and chast Lady so as their secrecies and discretions hush up this businesse in silence and within eight dayes they both returne from Saint Iohn de Mauriene to Nice where they are conrteously welcomed and respectively received and entertayned of their father whose contrition for his former folly is outwardly so great as hee hath teares in his eyes at the remembrance thereof so as making good the promise of his Letter he very penitently and sorrowfully implores their pardon and remission which they instantly graunt him with as much willingnesse as alacrity So the report and thought hereof is obscured and vanished as if it had never been and all things and parties so reconciled as to common sense nothing in the world is capable to trouble the tranquillity of this reconciliation and atonement But alas alas we shall very briefly see the contrary For old Castelnovo the Father notwithstanding all these religious promises and sincere shewes of repentance and teares is so far from being the man he seemes to be as although hee have made his peace with his sonne and Daughter yet ay mee I write it with griefe he hath not with his conscience nor his conscience with God for although he have a chast and religious tongue yet he still retaineth a lascivious and adulterate heart yea hee is so farre from conversion and reformation as the new sight and review of the Lady Perina's fresh and delicate beauty doth revive those sparkes and refresh those flames of his lust which seemed to be raked up in the embers of her absence And what is this but to be a Christian in shew and a miscreant in effect to hide a foule soule under a faire face and to make Religion and Hypocrisie a fatall and miserable cloke for his villany But though he dissemble with God yet wee shall see and hee finde that God will not dissemble with him and in thinking to bâ—…tray God Satan in the end will betray him The manner is thus As he resumes his old suit and newly burnes in love and lustfull desire to erect the Trophees of his lascivious and incestuous pleasures upon the ruines of his Daughter in lawes chastity and honour so he likewise sees it impossible to thinke to performe or hope to accomplish it as long as his sonne her husband lives and therefore losing his judgement either in the Labyrinth of her beauty or in the turbulent Ocean of his owne concupiscence and lust hee contrary to the rules of Grace and the lawes and principles of nature swaps a bargaine with the Devill to poyson him To which end to shew himselfe the monster of men and the bloudiest president of a most degenerate Father which this or many precedentages ever produced or afforded he hath againe recourse to his Hellish Agent Ierantha in favour of five hundred Ducats to send the Sonne into Heaven after the Mother and to make him equall with her as in nature so in the dissolution thereof death A bloudy designe and mournefull project which wee shall presently bee inforced to see acted upon the Theater of this History But Ierantha is at first so repentant for the death of the Mother as shee will not consent to that of the Sonne And had shee continued in this religious resolution shee had lived more fortunately and not dyed so miserably and shamefully as wee shall briefely see For our old Lecher Castelnovo her Master seeing his Gold could not this second time prevaile with Ierantha being equally inflamed as well with lust to Perina as with malice and revenge to his Sonne Castelnovo her husband hee is so implacable therein as hee promiseth to marry her if shee will attempt and performe it So although his first battery fayled yet his second doeth not For the Devill had â—…ade her so ambitious of Greatnesse and Honour that of a simple wayting Gentlewoman to become a great Lady she consents heereunto and which is a thousand pitties to report within lesse then sixe dayes performes it when God knowes the innocencie of this harmelesse young Gentleman his sonne never dreamt or suspected it At the sight of this his sudden death his Lady Perina is ready to dye for griefe yea to drowne her selfe in the Ocean and deluge of her teares tearing her haire and striving to deface the excellencie of her beautie with a kinde of carelesse neglect as if shee were resolute not to survive him And if the Lady Perina bewrayed many deplorable demonstrations of sorrow for the death of her husband no
hazzarding of our soules and bodies is odious and distastefull to Heaven sith in seeking to deface man the creature wee assuredly attempt to strike and stabbe at the Majestie of God the Creatour but if there bee any colour or shaddow of honour to kill our adversary for the preservation of the vaine point of our honour what an ignoble ingratitude and damnable impiety is it for a Gentleman likewise treacherously to kill another of whom hee hath formerly received his life yea as Grace fights against this former sort of fighting so both Grace and Nature impugne and detest this second sort of Murther A wofull and mournfull president wherof I here represent in the person of a base and wretched Gentleman whose irregular affection to a Lady first slue her brother in the field and execrable revenge to her lover next drew him treacherously to Murther him in the street and consequently to his owne condigne punishment and shamefull death for the same May all such bloudy Murtherers still meet with such ends and may his miserable and infamous death premonish all other Gentlemen to live and become more charitable and lesse bloudy by his example THe friendship and familiaritie betwixt Seignior Iohn Battista Bertolini and Seignior Leonardo Brellati two noble young Gentlemen native and resident of the Citie of Rome was without intermission so intire and intimate for the space of sixe whole yeares which led them from their yeares of fourteene to twenty as it seemed they had but one heart in two bodies and that it was impossible for either of them to be truely merry if the other were absent and surely many were the reasons which laid the foundation of this friendship for as they were equall in yeares so their â—…atures and complexions resembled and their humors and inclinations sympathized likewise they were ancient schoole-fellows and neere neighbours for their parents both dwelt betwixt the Palaces of the too Cardinals Farnesi and Caponius or if there were any disparity in their dignities and worths it consisted onely in this Bertolini's parents were richer then Brellati's but Brellati was more Nobly discended then Bertolini which notwithstanding could no way impeach or hinder the progresse of their friendship but rather it flourished with the time so as they increasing in yeares they likewise did in affection as if they were ambitious of nothing so much in this world as not onely to imitate but to surpasse the friendship of Orestes and Pillades and of Damon and Pâ—…thias whereof all who knew them and their parents yea all that part and division of Rome tooke deepe and singular notice but to shew that they were men and not Angels and consequently subject to frailty not inherent to perfection that earth was not heaven nor Rome the shaddow thereof have wee but a little patience wee shall shortly see the thred of this friendship cut off the props and fortifications thereof razed battered and said levell with the ground yea we shall see time change with time friendship turned into enmitie fellowes to foes loue to loathing courtesie to crueltie and in a word life to death as observe the sequell of this History and it will briefly informe yee how Bertolini sees that Brellati hath a faire and delicate sister named Dona Paulina somewhat younger then himselfe and yet not so young but that the clocke of her age hath strucken eighteene and therefore proclaimed her at least capeable if not desirous of marriage and although hee bee a novice in the Art of love yet Nature hath made him so good a Scholler in the principles and rudiments thereof as hee sees her faire and therefore must love her rich in the excellencie and delicacie of beautie and therefore is resolute to love her and onely her for gazing on the influence and splendour of her piercing eyes hee cannot behold them without wonder and then prying and contemplating on the roseat and lillie tincture of her cheekes he cannot see these without admiration nor refraine from admiring them without affection but againe remarking the slendernes of her bodie and the sweetnesse of her vertues and seeing her as gracious as faire and that her inward perfections added as much lustre to her exteriour beautie as this reflected ornament and decoration to these hee as young as he was vowes himselfe her servant and withall swore that either shee or his grave must bee his wife and Mistresse Bertolini thus surprized and netled with the beautie of his dearely sweet and sweetly faire Paulina hee is inforced to neglect a great part of his accompanying the brother thereby to court the sister so hee many times purposely forsakes Brellati to follow Paulina and delights in nothing so much as in her presence and in that regard in his absence not that it was possible in his conceit and imagination for him any way to hate him in loving her rather that in generall tearmes hee must love Brellati for Paulina's sake and in particular onely affect her for his owne And as his wealth and ambition made him confident hee should obtaine her for his wife so hee in faire amorous and honourable tearmes as well by his owne sollicitations Letters promises and presents as by those of his parents seekes her in marriage yea and when these could not suffice hee to shew himselfe as true as fervent a lover addes sighes teares prayers and oathes But all these sollicitours serve only to betray and deceive his hopes for if Bertolini were extreamely desirous to marry Paulina shee is as resolute not to match him which discords in affection seldome or never make any true harmony in mindes His wealth deceiving him hee hath recourse to her onely brother and his best and dearest friend Brellati to whom he relates the profundity and fervencie of his affection to his sister Paulina acquaints him with his suite and her denyall his attempt and her repulse therein and by the power and bonds of all their former friendship and familiarity intreates and conjures him to become his oratour and advocate towards her in his behalfe whose smiles hee alledgeth are his life and frownes his death Brellati having his generosity and judgement blinded with the respect of Bertolini his wealth as also of the affection hee bore him all other considerations laid apart like a better friend to him then a brother to his sister Paulina promiseth him his best furtherance and assistance in the processe of this his affection and so with his truest Oratory best Eloquence and sweetest Perswasion begins to deale effectually with her herein But as our hopes are subject and incident to deceive us so Bertolini and Brellati come farre too short of theirs for Paulina in absolute and down-right termes prays her brother to informe and resolve Bertolini that she hath otherways setled and ingaged her affection and therefore prayes him to seeke another Mistresse sith shee hath found another Lover and Servant with whom she means to live and die Her broâ—…er for his friends sake
depriving him of his O extreme ingratitude O uncharitable and base resolution Yea hee is so devoyd of reason and the purity of his soule and conscience so contaminated and vilified with the contemplation and object of bloud as hee gives way thereto and resolves thereon yea permits it to forsake God of purpose wilfully to follow the Devill yea his thoughts are so surprised and taken up with this execrable and hellish resolution of Murther as hee thinkes of nothing else but of the meanes and manner how to dispatch Sturio and so to send him in a bloudy winding-sheet from this life to another To fight with him againe in the field hee dares not to assassinate and murther him in his bed he cannot sith he must passe five or sixe severall chambers ere hee can come at his and to pistoll him in the open street though it be lesse difficult yet hee findes it most dangerous sith hee sees Sturio still went better followed and accompanyed then himselfe as indeed being more eminent of birth and noble of extraction then himselfe But hee shall want no invention to accomplish and bring this his bloudy resolution to passe for if hee faile thereof the Devill is still at his elbow to prompt and instruct him therein yea his impiety is growne so strong with the Devill and his faith so weake with God as now having turned over the records of his revenge hee at last resolves to shoot Sturio from a Window with a Petronell as he passeth the street and upon the attempt and finishing of this hellish stratagem and bloudy Tragedy the Devill and he strike hands and conclude it the contriving and perpetrating where of shal in the end strangle him because he was so prophane and gracelesse as he would not strangle the first conceit thereof in their births and conceptions But leave wee here Bertolini ruminating on his intended bloudy crime of Murther and come wee a little to speake of poore unfortunate Sturio who not dreaming of his malice much lesse of his ungratefull and bloudy revenge intended against him like a mournful and disconsolate constant Lover is thinking on nothing so much as on the living beauty and Idea of his dead Paulina and although he knew it as palpable folly to bewray his immoderate sorrowes as discretion to conceale them yet their impetuosity and fervencie give such a predominating law to his resolutions as hee cannot refraine from often stealing into Sancta Maria de Rotunda's Church where shee was buryed and there secretly bedewes her Tombe and washes her Sepulcher with his teares an act and ceremony of Lovers which though affection authorize yet Religion doth neither justifie nor can approve All the care of his father and friends is to seek how to purge his pensivenesse and to wipe off his melancholy sorrowes and sorrowfull melancholinesse to which end they proffer him great variety of noble and beautifull Ladies in Marriage hoping that the sight and presence of a new beauty would deface the memory and absence of an old but their policie proves vaine for Sturio will bee as constant in his sorrowes for his sweet Paulina's death as hee was in his affection to her whiles shee lived and therefore although their power inforce him to see diverse yet his will can never bee drawne or inforced to love any as having inviolably contracted himselfe to this definitive resolution that sith he could not be Paulina's husband he will never wed himselfe to any other wife then his Grave And here I beginne to write rather with teares then Inke when I apprehend and consider how soone our poore and innocent Sturio shall â—…ee by the bloudy hand of Bertolini layd in his unfortunate and untimely Grave Ah Sturio Sturio hadst thou been more vindictive and lesse generous and compassionate thou hadst prevented thy death by killing Bertolini when thy valour in Caprea formerly reduced and exposed him to the mercie of thy Sword or if thou hadst believed this Maxime that dead men can never offend or hurt thou needst not have relyed and trusted upon the false promises of an incensed and irreconciliable enemy but what shall I say It was not thy honour but Bertolini's infamy which hasteneth and procureth thy death O that thou shouldest bee so true a friend to thine enemy and hee proove so deadly an enemy to thee his true friend Sturio gave Bertolini his life and Bertolini in requitall will give Sturio his death but such monstrous and bloudy ingratitude will never goe unpunished of God for as it is odious to Earth so it is execrable to Heaven But I must bee so unfortunate to bring this deplorable Tragedy upon the Theater of this History A misery of miseries that wee are many times neerest our ends when wee thinke our selves farthest from them and not to rush into the sacred and secret closet of Gods inscrutable providence I can finde no other pregnant reason thereof either in Divinity or Nature but that at all times and in all places wee should bee still prepared and ready for death e're death for us and not protracting or procrastinating the houre thereof but that whensoever it shall please God to call us to him or himselfe to us that like good Christians death may still finde us alwayes arm'd to meet never unprovided to incounter it But Bertolini is so obstinate in his malice and so wretchedly implacable in his revenge as understanding that Sturio is accustomed to goe to his mornings Masse at the English Colledge hee provides both himselfe and his Petronell charged with a brace of Bullets or rather the Devill provides both the Bullets the Petronell and himselfe and so watching the advantage of his houre and time on a Monday morning a little after the Cardinalls Farnesi and Caponius were ridden with their traines to the Consistory putting himselfe into an unknowne house betwixt the sayd English Colledge and the Palace of Farnesi hee having his Cocke bent and seeing Sturio comming in the streete upon his prauncing Barbary Horse and Foot-cloth like a gracelesse and bloudy villaine having neither the feare of God nor the salvation or damnation of his soule before his eyes nor once imagining that hee shootes at the Majesty of God the Creatour in killing and defacing Man his Image and Creature le ts flye at him and the Devill had made him so curious and expert a Marke-man as both the Bullets pierce the trunke of his brest with which mortall wounds our innocent Sturio no longer able to sit his Horse tumbles downe dead to the ground without having the power to utter a word but onely to breathe foorth two or three lamentable and deadly groanes And this was the unfortunate and mournefull end of this noble Gentleman Sturio which I cannot relate without sighes nor remember without teares This bloudy Tragedy acted on so brave a Gallant in the very bowels and heart of Rome doth extreamely amaze and draw all the Spectatours to lamentation and mourning and his two servants who
live alone in Millan without thee and he alone in Modena with thee which makes that I know not whether I more envy his joy or lament and pitty mine owne sorrowes and afflictions But if I have any sense or shadow of comfort in this my calamity it only consists in this that as thou carriedst away my heart with thee so thou wile vouchsafe to returne me thine in thy letter by a reciprocall requitall and exchange For if thou neither bring me thy selfe nor send me that I may be sought in Millan but found no where but in heaven were I priviledged by thy consent much more authorized by thy command I would speedily rather flie than post to thee for Faire and Deere Clara as thou art my sole Ioy and Soveraigne felicity so whiles I breath this aire of life thy will shall be my law thy command my Compasse and thy pleasure my resolution BARETANO Her answer returned by the Frier to Baretano at Millan was to this effect CLARA to BARETANO IT is for none but our selves to judge how equall wee participate and share of misery in being deprived of each others presence Thou tearmest mine abscence either thy purgatory â—…rthy hell and my afflictions and torments for thine are so great and withall so infinit as I have all the equity and reason of the world to repute them not onely one but both Thou art mistaken in the point of my thraldome for whiles Albemare vowes himselfe my captive I disdaine to bee his and both vow and triumph to bee onely Baretanos I know not whether I have brought thy heart with me to Modena but sure I am I left mine with thee in Millan If my Parents seeme now pleasing and propitious to him I am yet so far from dispaire as I confidently hope the Fates will not prove cruell or inexorable to thee and in thee to myselfe but rather that a little time will change their resolutions and decrees Sith they cannot our affections and constancy If Clara be thy sole joy and Soveraign felicity no lesse it Baretano hers and albeit I could wish either thou here with my selfe in Modena or I there with thee in Millan Yet such is my aunt Emelias care and Albemares jelousâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that werâ—… thou in this City thou couldest difficultly see me but impossibly speake with me wherefore refraine a whiles and let thy Iourney hither to me be ended ere began yeâ—… with this proviso and condition that the cause thereof thy affection to me be began never to be ended and thinke that my stay and exile here shall be as short as either my best Art in my selfe can invent or truest zeale to thee suggest In which Interim let us solace our selves and visit each other by the Ambassadors of our hearts I meane our letters And this resolve my deare Baretano that during our abscence whiles thou doest feast on my Idaea I will not faile to surfeit on thine CLARA Baretano's other letter sent Clara to Modena by the Pilgrime was couched and penned in these tearmes BARETANO to CLARA HAd not thy requests in thy last letter granted out a Prohibition against my desires and wishes I had long since left Millan to have seene Modena and in it thy selfe my sweet and deere Lady but I speake it to my present comfort and future consolation and joy that it is excesse not want of affection which infuseth this provident care and carefull providence to thy resolutions to the end that thy returne make us as joyfull as thy departure sorrowfull and consequently that the last prove as sweet unto our hearts and thoughts as the first was bitter And yet beleeve me deere Clara that my affection is so intire and fervent to thee because I know thine is reciprocally so to my selfe that I deeme it not only capable to make difficult things easie but which is more impossibilities possible For for thy sake what would I not attempt and to enjoy thy sight and presence what would I leave unperformed But if thou wilt not permit me to come to thee to Modena nor yet speedily resolve to returne to mee to Millan Sorrow will then prevent my Joy and Dispaire my Hope For if thou hasten not thy arrivall and our interview sickenesse will be my death wert thou as kinde as faire or as affectionate as I am fervent in affection thou wilt thâ—… rather suffer me to live with thee than to die for thee for in this rest confident that if thou deny me that request I cannot Nature this tribute my affection this homage or thy beauty this sacrifice BARETANO And Clara her answer hereunto returned to Millan to Baretano by the foresaid Pilgrime was traced in these words CLARA to BARETANO THe last command of my Parents and the first resolution of my aunt Emelia and my sutor Albemare have now reduced me to so strict a Sequestration or rather captivitie as onely my thoughts hardly my pen hath the freedome and power to signifie thee so much But as calmes ensue tempests and sun-shine showres so I beseech thee to brook it with as much patience as I doe with griefe and not onely hope but resolve that violence is never permanent and all extreames subject to revolution and change Wherefore my deare Baretano consider and thinke with thy selfe that my stay from Millan and thy prohibition from Modena hath this two-fold excuse that is in my will but not as yet in my power to performe and this will rather hinder than any way advance the accomplishing of our desires Sith a little time may effect that with my parents which I feare importunity will never neither can thy heart so much long for my sight or wish for my presence as my soule doth for thine Sith to give thee but one word for all thy selfe and onely thy selfe art both the life of my joy and the joy of my life A thousand times a day I wish Modena were Millan and againe as often that Albemare were metamorphosed into Baretano Therefore I am so farre from preventing thy joy as though at the price of my death I am ready to sacrifice my life for the preservation of thine as also for the banishing of thy dispaire Write me not then of thy sickenesse least thou as scone heare of my death and I knew not what request to deny thee sith I have already granted and given thee my selfe which is all that either I can give or thou desire cherish thy selfe for my sake and I will thy remembrance for mine CLARA By these loving Letters of these our Lovers the Reader may observe and remark what a firme league and strict and constant friendship there was contracted and setled betwixt them and what a hell their abscence was each to others thoughts and contemplations In the meane time whiles Baretano entertaines Clara with Letters Albemare doth with words wherein he useth his best Rhetoricke and Oratory to draw her to his desires and withall to listen and espie out if there
bravery are very solemnly married But this marriage of theirs shall not prove so prosperous as they expect and hope For God in his all-seeing Providence hath decreed to disturbe the tranquility and serenity thereof and to make them feele the sharpe and bitter showres of affliction and misery which briefly doth thus surprise and befall them Albemare and Clara have hardly beene married together a yeare and quarter but his hot love begins to wax cold and frozen to her yea albeit she affected him truly and tenderly yet hee continually neglecting her and no longer delighting in the sweetnesse of her youth and the freshnesse of her beauty his lustfull eyes and thoughts carry his lascivious selfe abroad among Curtezans when they should be fixed on her and resident at home with his chaste and faire Lady so as his infidelity proving her griefe and torments and his vanity and ingratitude her unspeakable affliction and vexation she with infinite sighs and teares repents her matching him and a thousand times wisheth shee had beene so happy and blessed to have died Baretano's Martyr and not so unfortunate and accursed to live to see her selfe Albemares wife and yet were there any hope of his reformation she could then prefixbounds to her calamities and sorrowes But seeing that his vices grew with his age and that every day he became more vicious and unkinde to her than other her hopes are now wholly turned into despaire her mirth into mourning yea her inward discontents so apparantly bewray themselves in her outward sorrowfull complexion and countenance that the Roses of her cheekes are metamorphosed into Lillies and her heart so wholly taken up with anguish and surprised with sorrow as shee wisheth that her bed were her grave and her selfe in Heaven with God because shee could finde no comfort here on Earth with her husband But beyond her expectation God is providing to redresse her griefe and to remedy her afflictions by a very strange and unlooked for accident The Providence and Iustice of God doth now againe refetch bloudy Pedro to act another part upon the Stage and Theater of this History For having spent that money lewdly which he before got damnably of Albemare his wants are so great and his necessity so urgent as having played the murtherer before hee makes no conscience nor scruple now to play the theefe and so by night breaks into a Jewellers shops named Seignior Fiamata dwelling in the great place before the Domo and there carries away from him a small Trunke or Casket wherein were some uncut Saphyrs Emralds with some Venice Chrystall pendants for Ladies to weare in their eares and other rich commodities but Fiamata lying over his shop and hearing it and locking his doore to him for feare of having his throat cut gives the out-cry and alarum forth the window which ringing in the streets makes some of the neighbours and also the watch approach and assemble where finding Pedro running with a Casket under his arme he is presently hemb'd in apprehended and imprisoned and the Casket tooke from him and againe restored to Fiamata when knowing that he shall die for this robbery as a just punishment and judgement of God now sent him for formerly murthering of Baretano he having no other hope to escape death but by the meanes of Albemare he sends early the next morning for his man Valerio to come to the prison to him whom he bids to tell his Master Albemare from him that being sure to be condemned for this robbery of his if he procure him not his pardon he will not charge his soule any longer with the murther of Baretano but will on the ladder reveale how it was he who hired himselfe Leonardo to performe it Valerio reporting this to his Master it affrights his thoughts and terrifies his conscience and courage to see himselfe reduced to this misery that no lesse than his life must now stand to the mercy of this wretched Varlet Pedro's tongue But knowing it impossible to obtaine a pardon for him and therfore high time to provide for his owne safety by stopping of Pedro's mouth he resolves to heave Ossa upon Pelon or to adde murther to murther and now to poyson him in prison whom he had formerly caused to murther Baretano in the street to the end he might tell no tales on the ladder thinking it no ingratitude or sinne but rather a just reward and recompence for his former bloudy service so to feed Pedro with false hopes thereby to charme his tongue to silence and to lull his malice asleepe he speedily returnes Valerio to prison to him who bids him feare nothing for that his master had vowed to get him his pardon as he shall more effectually heare from him that night whereat Pedro rejoyceth and triumpheth telling Valerio that his Master Albemare is the most generous and bravest Cavalier of Lombardy But to nip his joyes in their untimely blossomes and to disturbe the harmony of his false content that very day as soone as hee hath dined he is tryed and arraigned before his Judges and being apparantly convicted and found guilty of this robbery hee is by them adjudged to be hanged the next morne at a Gibbet purposely to be erected before Fiamata's house where he committed his delict and crime which just sentence not only makes his joy strike saile to sorrow but also his pride and hopes let fall their Peacocks plumes to humility and feare But his onely trust and comfort yea his last hopes and refuge is in Albemare who hearing him to be condemned to be executed the next morning he is enforced to play his bloudy prize that night and so in the evening sends Valerio to prison to him with a Capon and two Fiascoes or bottles of Wine for him to make merry informing him that he hath obtained his pardon and that it is written and wants nothing but the Viceroyes signe to it which he shall have to morrow at breake of day But the wine of the one of the bottles was intermixed with strong and deadly poyson which was so cunningly tempered as it carried no distastefull but a pleasing relish to the pallate Valerio like an execrable villaine proving as true a servant to his Master as a rebellious and false one to his God he punctially performes this fearefull and mournfull businesse and having made Pedro twice drunke first with his good newes and then with his poysoned wine he takes leave of him that night and committing him to his rest promiseth to be with him very early in the morning with his pardon When this miserable and beastly prophane wretch never thinking of his danger or death of God or his soule of Heaven or Hell betakes himselfe to his bed where the poyson spreading ore his vitals parts soone bereave him of his breath sending his soule from this life and world to another Now the next morning very early as the Gaoler came to his chamber to bid him prepare to his
shee throwes her selfe on the floore and weepes and sighs so mournfully as the most obduratest and flintiest heart could not chuse but relent into pitie to see her for sometimes shee lookt up to heaven and then againe dejecting her eyes to earth now wringing her hands and then crossing her armes in such disconsolate and afflicted manner as Adriana could not likewise refraine from teares to behold her when after a deepe and profound silence she bandying and evaporating many volleyes of farre fetched sighs into the ayre shee commanding Adriana forth the doore shut with the two extremities of passion and sorrow shee alone utters these mournfull speeches to her selfe And shall Clara live to understand that her Baretano was murthered for her sake and by her unfortunate husband Albemare and shall she any more lie in bed with him who so inhumanely hath layen him in his untimely and bloudy grave And Clara Clara wilt thou prove so ungratefull to his memory and to the tender affection he bore thee as not to lament not to seeke to revenge this his diastrous and cruell end when againe her teares interrupting her words and her sighs her teares she entring into a further consultation with her thoughts and conscience her heart and her soule at last cotinues her speech in this manner O but unfortunate and wretched Clara what speakest thou of revenge for consider with thy selfe yea forget not to consider Baretano was but thy friend Albemare is thy husband the first loved thee in hope to marry thee but thou art married to the second and therefore thou must love him and although his ingratitude and infidelity towards thee make him unworthy of thy affection yet yee two are but one flesh and therefore consider that malice is a bad advocate and revenge a worse Judge But here againe remembring what a foule and odious crime murther was in the sight of the Lord that the discovery thereof infinitely tended to his glory and honour and that the poore Foole was doubtlesse inspired from heaven to affirme that God sent the Letter she knowes that her bonds of conscience to her Saviour must exceed and give a law to those of her duty towards her husband and therefore preferring Heaven before Earth and God before her Husband shee immediately cals for her Coach and goes directly to Baretano's Vnkle Seignior Giovan de Montefiore and with sighs and teares shewes him the letter who formerly though in vaine had most curiously exactly hunted to discover the murtherers of his Nephew Montefiore first reads the letter with tears then with joy and then turning towards â—…he Lady Clara he commends her zeale and Christian fortitude towards God in shewing her how much the discovery of this murther tended to his glory and so presently sends away for the President Criminell who immediately repairing thither he acquaints him therewith shewes him the Letter and prayes him to examine the Lady Clara thereon which with much modesty and equity he doth and then returne with her to her house and there likewise examineth the Foole where he had the Letter who out of his incivilitie and simplicity takes the President by the hand and bringing him to the Cupboard tels him Here God sent the Letter and here I found him when Valerio being present and imagining by his Ladies heavie and sorrowfull countenance that this Letter had perhaps brought her into some affliction and danger he looking on the direction of the Letter as also on the Seale he reveales both to the President and his Lady that hee received that Letter from one whom hee knew not and that hee left it purposely on the Cupboard for his Master against his comming The President being fully satisfied herein admires at Gods providence revealed in the simplicity of this poore harmlesse Foole in bringing this Letter which brought the murther of Baretâ—… to light when knowing thâ—… God doth many times raise up the foolish and weake to confound the wise and mighty things of the world hee presently grâ—… out a Commission to apprehend â—…lbemare who being then found in bed with Mâ—…ina one of the most famous Beauties and reputed Curtezans of Millan Hee both astonished and amazed by the just judgements of God is drawne from his beastly pleasures and adulteries to prison where being charged to have hired Pedro and 〈◊〉 to have 〈◊〉 thered Baretano he stoutly denies it But Leonardo's Letter being read him 〈◊〉 theâ—… adjudged to the Racke his Soule and Conscience ringing him â—…ny 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of terrour â—…ee there at large 〈◊〉 it when for this 〈◊〉 and bloudy fact of his he the same afternoone is condemned to be hanged the next morning at the common place of Execution which administreth matter of talke and admiration throwout all Millan when Serjeants are likewise sent away to Pavia to bring Leonardo to Millan who not so much as once dreamt or thought that ever this his letter would have produced him this danger and misery And now Albemare advertised of the manner how this letter of Leonardo was brought to light without looking up to Heaven from whence this vengeance justly befell him for his sinnes hee curseth the cruelty of his wife the simplicity of the foole but most bitterly exclaimeth against the remisnesse and carelesnesse of his servant Valerio in not retaining and keeping that letter which is the onely cause of his death yea he is so farre transported with choller against him as although he have but a few houres to live yet hee vowes he will assuredly cry quittance with him ere he die Now the charity of his Judges send him Divines that night in prison to prepare and cleare his conscience and to confirme and fortifie his soule against the morne in his last conflict with the world and her flight and transmigration to heaven who powerfully and religiously admonishing him that if he have committed any other notorious offence or crime hee should now doe well to reveale it He likewise there and then confesseth how hee had caused his man Valerio to poyson Pedro with wine in prison the verynight before he was executed whereupon this bloudy and execrable wretch according to his hellish deserts is likewise apprehended and imprisoned And now Gods mercy and justice brings this unfortunate because irreligious Gentleman Albemare to receive condigne punishment for those his two horrible murthers which he had caused to bee committed on the persons of Baretano and Pedro who ascending the ladder in presence of a world of spectators who flocked from all parts of the City to see him take his last farewell of the world The sight and remembrance of his foule crimes having now made him not onely sorrowfull but repentant he briefly delivered these few words He confessed that hee had hired Pedro and Leonardo to kill Baretano in the street and seduced his servant Valerio to poyson Pedro in prison whereof with much griefe and contrition he heartily repented himselfe and besought the Lord to forgive it him he likewise
them informe me and both assure me that the freenesse and fervency of my affection towards thee deserved not so cruell but a farre more courteous requitall If my Age be any way displeasing to thy youth yet deprive me not of the felicity of thy sight and presence wherein I not only delight but glory And although I can be content that thou surfet with my wealth yet make me not so miserable as to starve both in and for thy presence If any have given thee any sinister or false impressions either of my selfe or actions why if thy affection to mee will not deface them at least let thy pitty Yea returne my sweet and deare Husband and what errors or faults soever thou saiest I have committed I will not onely redeeme them with kisses but with teares LA VASSELAY De Merson hauing received this his wives Letter it workes such poore effects in his affection as he doth rather rejoyce then commiserate her estate and sorrowes yea he so sleights her and her remembrance as once he hadthought to have answered her Letter with silence but at last he some eight daies after returnes her this answer DE MERSON to LA VASSELAY VVHat hope can I have of thy Affection when I see thou art inviolably constant to thy Iealousie and if the Scruteny of thy thoughts and soule be as true as thou pretendest yet I feare that this Iealousie of thine is not the greatest but the least of thy crimes Thou writest to me that I give a cruell requitall to thy affection but pray God thou have not given a more sharpe and inhumane one to Gratiana's service and Chastity Neither is it thy Age but thy Imperfections and Vices which are both displeasing and o dious to my youth for I could brooke that with as much patience as I can digest these with impossibilities If thou want meanes I will grant thee more but for my presence I have many reasons to deny thee I know none but thy selfe which hath given me any impressions of thy actions and if those were false they would prove thy true happinesse as now they doe thy misery which my affection doth pitty though cannot redresse It is but in vaine for thee either to expect or hope for my returne and sith thy faults and errors are best knowne to thy selfe let thy repentance redeeme them towards God for neither thy kisses nor teares can or shall to me DE MERSON This Letter of De Merson to his wife La Vasselay is so farre from comforting as it doth most extreamely afflict her And although his discontents be such as she sees it almost impossible to reconcile and reclaime him yet being exceedingly perplexed and grieved with this her solitary and discontented life she yet hopes that a second Letter may obtaine that of him which her first could not when six moneths time being now slipt away since his departure shee faigning herselfe sicke writes unto him againe to this effect LA VASSELAY to DE MERSON THy absence hath so deprived my joyes and engendred my sorrowes that Sicknesse threatens my life to bee neere her period So among a world of discontents let mee yet beare this one Content to my grave that I may once more see thee whom so tenderly I both desire and long to see and if I cannot bee so happy as to live at the least make mee so fortunate as to dye in thine Armes which I know not whether it be a greater Charity foâ—… thee to grant or a Cruelty to deny mee this request of mine For my Deare De Merson if thou wilt not bee pleased to be my Husband yet bee not offended to remember that I am thy Wife and withall that as I desire thy returne so that I have not deserved thy departure But if thou wilt still be inexorable to my requests these Lines of mine which I write thee rather with Teares then Inke shall beare witnesse betwixt thy selfe and me of my Kindnesse of thy Cruelty and how my Life sought thy Affection though my Death could neither finde nor obtaine it LA VASSELAY De Merson reades this Letter with laughter yea hee is so insensible of her Lines Requests and Teares as if another had sent him newes of her Death as shee her selfe did of her Sickenesse it had beene farre more pleasing and better welcome to him But thinking how to gall her to the quicke to the end he might henceforth save her the labour to write him any more Letters and himselfe to receive and peruse them hee returnes her this sharpe and bitter answer DE MERSON to LA VASSELAY IT is thy Errour not my Absence which hath exchanged thy Ioyes into Sorrowes and if thy life draw neare her period they cannot bee farre from theirs My sight is a poore content for thee to beare to thy grave sith as a Christian thou shouldest delight to see none but thy Saviour nor bee Ambitious to live in any armes but his and if thou hold not this to be Charity I know others cannot repute it Cruelty That I am thy Husband I graunt and that thou art my Wife I not deny But yet I feare thy heart knowes though thy Pen affirmes the contrary that I have farre more reason for my departure then thou to desire my returne And if thou wilt yet know more if the Inke wherewith thou writest thy Letter be Teares pray God thou diddest not bedeawe Gratiana's Winding-sheete and Coffin both with her Teares and Blood for haddest thou not beene cruell yea inhumane to her I would never have beene unkinde to thee And to conclude live as happy as I feare her death will make thee dye miserable DE MERSON The receit and perusall of this Letter doth not only grieve but afflict and torment La Vasselay for the very remembrance of De Merson his suspition and apprehension that she had a hand in the death of Gratiana doth as it were pierce her heart as well with feare as sorrow for as her poverty lay before at his mercy so now shee knowes doth her life and that sith hee will not love her hee may chance so maligne und hate her as to reveale it Whereupon to secure her feare and to warrant the safety of her life she soone exchangeth her love into hatred and her affection and jealousie into envy towards him yea her inraged and incensed thoughts engender and imprint such bloody designes of revenge in her heart as abandoning the feare and grace of God she impiously concludes a match with the Devill to dispatch and murther him and from which bloody and damnable designe no regard of God or her Soule nor respect of Heaven or Hell can or shall divert her when overpassing a small parcell of time wherein shee ruminated and pondered how shee should send him from this life to another at last her malicious curiosity makes her thoughts fall on La Villette being his Gentleman who still followed him as holding him a fit Agent to attempt and instrument
Honour on avarice not on Vertue on their owne gold not on the want of their Christian neighbours and brethren But enough of this and againe to our History Now if Christina for onely by that name I will henceforth intitle her have any comfort or consolation left her to sweeten the bitternesse of her Husbands death it is onely to see him survive and live in her sonne Maurice in whose vertues and yeares her hopes likewise beginne againe to bud forth and flourish when remembring what an earnest care and desire her husband had to see him a Scholler as she inherits his goods so shee will assume and inherit that resolution of his and although she love her sonnes sight and affect his presence tenderly and dearely yet shee can give no peace to her thoughts nor take any truce of her resolutions till shee send him from Morges to the Vniversity of Losanna some three leagues distant thence there to perfect his studies and learning the seeds whereof already so hopefully blossomed forth and fructified in him To which end her deepest affection and care having hearkned out one Deodatus Varesius a Bachelor of Divinity of that Vniversity whom fame though indeed most falsly had enformed her to be an expert Scholler and an excellent Christian shee agrees with him when allowing her sonne an honest exhibition and furnishing him with Bookes a Gowne and all other necessaries shee sends him away to Losanna charging him at his departure to bee carefull of his Learning carriage and actions and aboue all to make piety and godlinesse in his life and conversation the Regent of all his studies when with teares of naturall affection they take leave each of other Maurice being arrived at Losanna findes out his Tutor Varesius who receives and welcomes this his Pupill courteously and kindly but alas the hopes of Christina the mother are extreamly deceived in the vertues of Varesis because his Vices will instantly deceive both the merites and expectation of her Sonne or rather change nature and qualities in him and thereby shortly make him as vitious in Losanna as formerly hee was vertuous in Morgâ—… for I write with griefe and pity that to define the truth aright it was difficult to say whether he were more learned or deboshed a more perfect Scholler or prophane Christian for albeit the dignity of his Bachelorship of Theologie did hide many of his dissolute pranks and obscene imperfections yet his exorbitant deportment and industry could not so closely overvaile and obscure them but his intemperate affection to drinking and beastly inclination to drunkennesse began now to become obvious and apparant to the eyes and Heads of his Colledge yea to the whole Vniversity A most pernitious and swinish Vice indeed too too much incident and subâ—…ect to these people the Swissers but if it had beene immured and confined within these Rocks and Mountaines of Germany it had proved not onely a happinesse but a blessing to the other Westerne parts of the Christian world where it spreads its infection like an uncontrolable and incurable Gangrene yea like a most contagious and fatall pestilence so as in Varesius there was nothing more incongruous and different than his doctrine and his life his profession and conversation his Theorie and his Practice his knowledge and his will But if the head-springs and â—…onntaines be corrupted with this vice and drunkennesse no marvell if the Rivers and Streames of Common-weales bee infected and poysoned therewith yea if it be not debarred but have admittance and residence in the Schooles and Classes of Vniversities from which Nurses and Gardens of the Muses both the Church and State fetch their chiefest Ornaments and Members how can wee expect to see it rooted out from the more illiterate Commons whose grosse ignorance makes them farre more capable to learne Vice than Vertue or rather Vice and not Vertue sith there is no shorter nor truer art to learne it than of their Art Masters because the example and president of ill doings in our Teachers and Superiours doth not onely plant but ingraffe and root it not onely priviledge but as it were authorize it in us still with a fatall impetvosity with a dangerous violence and pernitious event and issue for if remedies be not to bee found in learned Phisitiâ—…ns it is then in vaine to seeke them in the rude and unlearned people and if the Prâ—…ceptor himselfe bee not sanctified it is rather to be feared than doubted that his Disciple will not This yea this is a most mournfull and fatall rocke whereon divers vertuous and religious parents have even wept themselves to death to see their children suffer shipwracke yea this beastly and brutish sinne of Drunkennesse is still the Devils Vsher and Pander to all other sinnes and therefore how cautious and carefull ought the Heads of Schooles and Vniversities bee to expell and root it out from themselves and to hate and detest it in others sith in the remisse winking thereat I may with as much truth as safety affirme that toleration is confirmation and connivency cruelty as we shall not goe farre to see it made good and verified in this ensuing mournfull History the which in exacting Inke from my Pen doth likewise command bloud from my heart and teares from mine eyes to anatomize and unfold it Difficultly hath Maurice beene three moneths in Losanna with Varesius but his vertues are eclipsed and drowned in vice yea he not onely thinks but holds it a vertue to make himselfe culpable and guilty of this his Tutors Vice of Drunkennesse wherein within lesse than three moneths hee proves so expert or indeed so execrable a Scholler in his beastly Art as both day and night hee makes it not onely his practise but his delight and not onely his delight but his glory Hee who before was so temperate in his drinke and conversation in Morges as for the most part hee wholly dranke water not wine now hee is so vitiously metamorphosed in Losanna as contrariwise hee onely drinkes wine no water yea and which is lamentable to remember and deplorable to observe in this young â—…choller hee drinks or to write truer devoures it so excessively as his Cups are become his Bookes his Carrowsing his Learning the Taverne his Studie and Drunkennesse the onely Art he professeth which filthy and inâ—…ous disease spreding from the Praeceptor to the Pupill from old Varesius to yoâ—…g Maurice hath so surprised the one and seizd on the other as it threatens the disparagement of the first his reputation and the shipwracke of the seconds fortunes and it may be of his life Now Varesius who will not bee ashamed to pity this beastly Vice in himselfe doth yet pity it with shame to behold it in his Scholler Maurice and yet hath neither the Grace to reforme it in himselfe nor the will or power to reprove it in him but in stead of stopping and preventing it doth in all things give way to the current and torrent of this
confident that it is his old Mother who hath diverted him from her whereat shee is exceedingly enraged When seeing this old Letcher so open and plaine with her shee foothing him up with many kisses tels him that this old Beldam his wife must first be in heaven before he can hope to enjoy her or she his Son here on Earth when being allured and provoked by the treacherous suggestions and bloody temptations of the Devill she proffers him to visit her and so to poyson her which hee opposeth and contradicteth and contrary to all reason sense and repugnant to all Humanity and Christianity yea to Nature and Grace as a Husband fitter for the Divell than for this good old Lady his Wife hee undertakes and promiseth her speedily to performe it himselfe yea the Divell is now so strong with him and he with the Divell that because hee loves Marsillia therefore hee must hate his owne deare wife and vertuous Lady Honoria and because he hates her therefore he must poyson her A lewd part of a man a fouler one of a Christian but a most hellish and bloody one of a Husband to his owne wife who ought to be neere and deere unto him as being his owne flesh and blood Yea the other halfe of himselfe Hee cannot content himselfe to seeke to abuse and betray his Sonne but hee must also murther the mother So wanting the feare of God before his eyes and repleate with as much impiety and Cruelty as hee was devoyd of all Grace he is resolute in this his hellish rage and malice against her and so to please his young Strumpet hee will send this good old Lady his wife to Heaven in a bloody Coffin so without thinking of Heaven or Hell or of God or his soule hee procures strong poyson and acting the part of a fury of Hell and a member of the Devill he as a wretched and execrable Husband administreth it to her in preserved Barbaries which he saw her usually to love and eat whereof within three daies after she dies to the extreame griefe and sorrow of her Sonne Don Ivan who bitterly wept for this his mothers hasty and unexpected death but the manner thereof he knowes not and indeed doth no way in the world either doubt or suspect thereof His Father Idiaques makes a counterfeit shew of sorrow and mourning to the world for the death of his wife but God in his due time wil unmaske this his wretched hypocrisie and detect and revenge this his execrable and deplorable murther Now as soone as Marsillia is advertised of the Lady Honoria's death she not able to containe her Ioyes doth infinitely triumph therear and within lesse than two moneths after her buriall Idiaques and Marsillia worke so politiquely with Don Ivan as hee marries Marsillia although his mothers advise to him in the garden doe still runne in his mind and thoughts and now hee brings home his lustfull Spouse and Wife to his lewd and lascivious Fathers house at Sentarem where I write with horrour and shame hee most beastly and inhumanly very often commits Adultery and Incest with her and they act it so close that for the first yeare or two his Sonne Don Ivan hath no newes or inkling thereof and now Marsillia governeth and rules all yea her incontinency with her Father Idiaques makes her so audacious and impudent as shee commands not onely his house but himselfe and domineeres most proudly and imperiously over all his Servants Her waiting maid Mathurina observes and takes exact and curious notice of her young Ladies lustfull and unlawfull familiarity with her Father in Law Idiaques the which her mistris understanding shee extreamely beats her for the same and twice whippes her starke naked in her Chamber and dragges her about by her haire although this poore young Gentlewoman with a world of teares and prayers beggs her to desist and give over God hath many wayes and meanes to set forth his glory in detecting of Crimes and punishing of offenders yea he is now pleased to make vse of this young maidens discontent and choller against her insensed Lady and Mistris for we shall see her pay deare for this cruelty and tyranny of hers towards her for Mathurina being a Gentlewoman by birth she takes those blowes and severe vsage of her Lady in so ill part and lodgeth it so deepely in her heart and memory as she vowes her revenge shall requite part of that her cruelty and tyranny towards her Whereupon with more haste then discretion and with more malice then fidelity she in her hot blood goes to Don Ivan her young master tels him of this foule businesse betwixt his young wife and old Father to the disgrace and shame of nature and makes him see and know his owne dishonour in their brutish and beastly adultery and incest Don Ivan extreamely grieves hereat yea hee is both amazed and astonished at the report of this unnaturall crime as well of his young wife as aged Father Hee cannot refraine from choller and teares hereat to see himselfe thus infinitely abused by her beauty and betrayed by his lust and if it be a beastly yea a prophane part for one man and friend to offer it to another how much more for a father to offer it to his owne yea to his onely Sonne Hee expected more goodnesse from her youth and grace from age but as his wife hath hereby infringed her vow and oath of wedlocke so hath his wretched father exceeded and broken those rules and precepts of Nature yea he is so netled with the report and inflamed with the considetation and memorie hereof that he abhorres her infidelity and in his heart and soule detesteth his inhumanitie so as the knowledge hereof doth so justly incense him against her and exasperate himselfe against him that resolving to right his owne honour as much as they have blemished and ruined it and there in their owne he scornes to be an eye-Witnesse much lesse an accessary of this his shame and their infamy So he here enters into a discreet and generous consultation with himselfe how to beare himselfe in this strange and dishonourable accident when perceiving and finding that both his wife and father had by this their beastly Adultery and Incest made themselves for ever unworthy of his sight and companie he here for ever disdaining henceforth to see her or speake with him very suddenly upon a second conference and examination of Mathurina who stood firmely and vertuously to her former deposition and accusation against them takes horse and rides away from Santarem to Lisbone where providing himselfe of monies and other necessaries hee takes poast for Spaine and there builds up his residence and stay at the Court at Madrid where wee will for a while leave him to speak of other accidents which fall out in the course of this History Idiaques seeing the sudden departure of his Sonne and Marsillia of her Husband Don Ivan and being both assured that he
the shorter whereat De Perez rests satisfied and well he may sith this action and his receit thereof doth as much testifie Don Ivans glory as his owne dishonour and shame and now they againe approach each other to fight At their first comming up Don Ivan runnes a firme thrust to De Perez breast but hee bearing it up with his Rapier runnes Don Ivan in the cheeke towards his right eare which drawes much bloud from him and he in exchange runnes De Perez thorow his shirt sleeve without hurting him At their second meeting they againe close without hurting each other and so part faire without offering any other violence At their third assault De Perez runnes Don Ivan thorow the brawne of his left arme who in exchange requites him with a deepe wound in his right side from whence issued much bloud and now they breathe to recover wind and to the judgements of Lopez and Valdona as also of their Chirurgions they hitherto are equall in valour and almost in fortune so although these spectators doe of both sides earnestly entreat them to desist and give over yet they cannot they will not be so easily or so soone reconciled each to other So after a little pausing and breathing they with courage and resolution fall to it afresh and at this their fourth encounter Don Perez gives Don Ivan a deepe wound in his left shoulder and he requites him with another in exchange in the necke and although by this time their severall wounds hath engrained their white shirts with great effusion of their scarlet bloud yet they are so brave so generous or rather so inhumane and malitious that they will not yet give over as if they meant and resolved rather to make death feare them than they any way to feare death But their fifth close will proue more fatall for now after they had judiciously traversed their ground thereby to deceive each other of the disadvantage of the Sunne whiles De Perez directs a full thrust to Don Ivans breast hee bravely and skilfully warding it in requitall thereof runnes him cleane thorow the body a little below his right pap when closing nimbly with him and pursuing the point of his good fortune hee whips up his heeles and so nailes him to the ground when he had the strength to begge his life of Don Ivan and God knowes he much grieved that it was not then in his power to give it him for this his last wound being desperately mortall hee presently died thereof having neither the remembrance to call on God much lesse to begge mercy of him for his sinfull soule but as hee lived abominably and prophanely so he died miserably and wretchedly And although I confesse it was too great an honour for him to receive his death from so brave a noble Gentlemans hands as Don Ivan yet it is a most singular providence and remarkable punishment of God that hee died by the hands of his owne lascivious sisters Husband and which is yet more by his owne sword as if God had formerly decreed and purposely ordained that the selfe fame sword should give him his death wherewith so lately and so cruelly hee had bereaved that harmlesse innocent young Gentlewoman Mathurina of her life although in regard of this his foule and lamentable murther hee with lesse honour and more infamy every way deserved to have died rather by a halter than a sword But Gods Providence is as unsearchable as sacred Don Ivan having rendred thanks to God for this his victory he out of his noble courtesie and humanity lends Lopez his Coach to transport the dead body of his brother in Law De Perez into the City and taking his horse in exchange he by a private way gets home to his lodging But this their Duell is not so secretly carried but within three houres after all Madrid rattles thereof who knowing the Combatants to be both of them noble Gentlemen of Portugall it gives cause of generall talke and argument of universall envie and admiration in all Spaniards especially in the nobler sort of Souldiers and Courtiers When the very day after that Don Ivan had caused this his brother to be decently buried Lopez repaires to his chamber to him and in a faire friendly manner enquires of him if he please to returne any Letter of this his friends death and of his owne victorie to Santarem to Don Idiaques his father or the Lady Marsillia his wife and that his best service herein shall attend and wait on his commands Don Ivan thanks Lopez for this his courtesie but tels him that for some reserved reasons he will send no Letter to either of them but otherwise wisheth him a prosperous returne to Portugall so Don Ivan remaines in Madrid and Lopez returnes for Santarem and there from point to point relates them the issue of that Combat as the victory of his sonne Don Ivan and the death and buriall of De Perez adding withall that he was so reserved and strange that he would write to neither of them hereof At the relation and knowledge of this mournfull newes Idiaques cannot refraine from much sorrow nor Marsillia from bursting forth into bitter teares and lamentations thereat for seeing her deare and onely brother thus slaine by the hand of her owne unkinde Husband by losing him shee knowes she hath lost her right arme and he being dead shee knowes not to whom to have recourse either for counsell assistance or consolation And yet as much as hee sorrowes and she grieves at this diasterous accident they notwithstanding are yet so farre from thinking it a blow from Heaven or from looking either up to God or downe to their owne sinfull hearts consciences and soules for the same that without making any good use or drawing any divine or profitable morall thereof they still continue their beastly pleasures and damnable Adultery and Incest together as if there were no God to see nor no deserved torments or miserie reserved to punish it But they and we shall immediately see the contrary To the griefe of our hearts and compunction of our soules wee have in this History seene wretched Idiaques by the instigation of the devill to poyson his wife the Lady Honoria and likewise his daughter in Law Marsillia to have caused her brother De Perez to have cruelly murthered her waiting-maid in the street as also by the Providence of God Don Ivan to have slaine the said De Perez in the field and our curiosity and expectation shall not goe far before we shall see the just Revenge and punishments of God condignly to surprise wretched Idiaques and gracelesse Marsillia for the same for his Divine Justice contending with his Sacred Mercy it hath at last prevailed against these their â—…le and bloudy crimes so now when they are in the middest yea in the height jollity of all these their soule delights security like an unlooked for storme and tempest 〈◊〉 will suddenly befall them Life hath but
but to all Portugall And thus most pensively and disconsolately is Idiaques reconveyed to his prison where Church-men are sent him by the Iudges of that court to direct his soule in her slight and transsiguration from earth to Heaven whom they finde or at least â—…hey make very humble mournefull and repentant According to which sentence he is the next morning brought to the place of execution which for the greater example and terrour to others and of ignominy to himselfe was before his owne house wherein he had acted and perpetrated all his enormous crimes Where the scaffold is no sooner erected but there flocke an infinite number of people from all parts of the City to be spectators of this last scene of his Tragedy He came to the scaffold betweene two Friers in a sute of blacke Taffeta a gowne of blacke wrought tuffe Taffeta and a great white set ruffe which yet could not be whiter than his broad beard At his ascent on the scaffold his grave aspect and presence engendred as much sorrow pity as his beastly crimes did detestation in the hearts and tongues of the people to whom after hee had a short time kneeled downe and prayed he made a short speech to this effect That although the poysoning of his owne wife and his adultery with his sons wife were crimes so odious and execrable as had made him unworthy any longer either to tread on earth or to look up unto Heaven yet although he deserved no favour of his Judges for his bodie he humbly repented and begged some of God for his soule and for the more effectuall obtaining thereof hee zealously prayed all those who were present to joyne their prayers to his Hee confessed that it was Marsillia's beauty which first at the instigation of the devill drew him to that adultery with her and this poysoning of his owne wife Honoria whereof from his heart and soule he now affirmed hee implored remission of God of the Law of his sonne Don Ivan and of all the world and prayed them all to be more godly and lesse sinfull by his example and so kneeling downe and praying a little whiles to himselfe he rose up and putting of his gowne ruffe and doublet which hee gave to the Executioner hee binding his head and eyes with his handkerchiefe bade him doe his office which he presently performed and with one blow of the sword made a perpetuall double divorce betwixt his head and his shoulders his body and his soule when presently according to his sentence both his head and his body were then and there burnt and consumed to fire and his ashes throwne into the ayre And this was the deplorable life and death of De Perez Idiaques and Marsillia of whom the spectators according to their severall humours and affections spake diversly all condemning the bloudy cruelty of De Perez towards innocent Mathurina and of Idiaques towards his vertuous wife Honoria Againe some pitied and others execrated Marsillia's youth beauty and lust but both sexes and all degrees of people as so many lines terminating in one Center magnified the providence and Justice of God in so miraculously and condignly cutting off these monsters of nature and bloudy butchers of mankinde And if the curiosity of the Reader will yet farther enquire what afterwards became of Don Ivan The reports of him are different for as first I heard that his discontent and griefe was so great yea so extreame for the death of his Parents and wife that he cloistered himselfe up a Capuchin Fryer in their Monastery at Madrid So contrariwise I have since credibly beene enformed that he shortly after these disasters left Spaine and still lives in Santarem in Portugall in great honour welfare and prosperity But which of these his resolutions are most inclining and adherent to the truth it passeth beyond my knowledge and therefore shall come too short of my affirmation GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND Execrable Sinne of Murther HISTORY XVII Harcourt steales away Masserina his brother Vimoryes wife and keepes her in Adulterie She hireth Tivoly an Italian Mountebanke to poyson La Precoverte who was Harcourts wife Harcourt kils his brother Vimory and then marries his widdow Masserina Tivoly is hanged for a robbery and at his execution accuseth Masserina for hiring him to poyson La Precoverte for the which shee is likewise hanged Noel who was Harcourts man on his death-bed suspecteth and accuseth his said Master for killing of his brother Vimory whereof Harcourt being found guilty he is broken alive on a wheele for the same MAn being the Workemanship and figurative Image of God what an odious sinne yea what an execrable crime is it therefore for one out of the heate of his malice or fumes of his revenge to poyson or murther another sith Nature doth stronglie impugne and Grace with a high hand infinitely contradict it Therefore were not our hearts and understandings either wholly deprived of Common sence or our soules of the gratious assistance and favour of God wee would not thus so furiously and prophanely make our selves guilty of these infernall sins but rather with our best endevours would seeke to avoid them as Hell and with our most pious resolutions to hate and detest them as the Divell himselfe who is the prime Authour and Actor thereof But some such monsters of Nature and Disciples of Sathan there are here on Earth A fearefull and lamentable Example whereof this ensuing History will shew us The which may all good Christians read to Gods glory and remember to the instruction of their Soules THere is a parish tearmed Saint Symplician a mile from the Citie of Sens in the Dutchy of Burgundy which is honoured with the title and See of an Archbishop where within these few yeares there dwelt and died an aged Gentleman more Noble by birth than rich in Estate and Demaynes termed Monseiur De Vimory who left onely two sonnes behinde him the eldest named Monâ—…eiur Dâ—… Harcourt and the second Monseiur De Hautemont who were two very proper young Gentlemen excellently well bred and qualified as well in Arts as Armes or in any other vertue or perfection which was requisite both to shew and approve themselves to bee the sonnes of their father And to content my Reader with their characters Harcourt was tall but not well favoured but of a milde and singular good disposition Hautemont was of a middle stature neatly timbred of a sweet and amiable countenance but by nature hasty and head-strong Harcourt had a light Aubrnn beard which like a Countrey Gentleman he wore negligently after the Ovall cut Hautemont had a coale blacke beard which Courtier-like he wore in forme of an invaled Pyramides Harcourt was thirty two yeares of age very chaste and honest Hautemont was twenty five but many times given to women and ready to bee deboshed and drawne away by any though but of an indifferent quality and complexion To Harcourt the eldest son their father gave his
day goes home to his house with him visiteth his daughter He findes her to be weake leane and pale the which serves the better for his turne to coulour out this his bloody purpose to her When if there had been any humanity in his thoughts any Grace in his heart or any sparke of religion or pietie in his Soule the very sight of this sweet this harmelesse this beautifull young Gentlewoman would have moved him to compassion and not with hellish crueltie to resolve to poyson her But his sinnefull heart his seared Conscience and his ulcerated and virulent soule had in favour of gold made this compact with the Divell and therfore hee will advance and not retire in this his infernall resolution Hee feeles her pulse casts her estate in an Vrinall receives thirty Crownes of her Father for her cure and so bidding her to be of good comfort he administreth her two pills three mornings following whereof harmelesse sweet Gentlewoman within three dayes after shee sodainly dyes in her bed by night Tivoly affirming to her sorrowfull Father and Friends that before hee came to her the violency and inveteracy of her consumption had turned all her blood into water and exhausted and extenuated all the radicall humours of her life which opinion of this base and bloody Italian Mountebanke past current with the simplicitie of his beliefe and their Iudgements So he burieth his daughter and with her his chiefest earthly delight and ioy Within three daies after that this sorrowful and lamentable tragedy was acted This monster this Divell incarnate Tivoly leaves Troyes and poasts away to Nevers where he ravisheth Masserina's heart with the joyfull newes and assurance of La Precovertes death and buriall of whom he receives his other hundred and fifty Crownes the which according to her promise shee failes not presently to pay him downe And heere againe they solemnely sweare secrecie each to other of this their bloody fact Wretched Masserina feasting her heart with joy and surfeiting her thoughts with content to see the rivall and competitor in her loves La Precoverte thus dispatched and sent for heaven Shee now thinking to domineere alone in her Harcourts heart and affection esteemes her selfe a degree neerer to him in marriage that so of his Sister shee may become his Wife For this is the felicity and content whereat her heart aymeth and the delectation and ioy wherein her desires and wishes terminate But her Husband Vimories life doth dash these ioyes of hers in peeces as soone as she conceives them and strangles them if not in their birth yet in their cradle She finds Nevers to bee a pleasant Citie and Pougges a delightfull little place to live in and when the Spring is past and the great confluence of people retired and gone home to bee a place of farre more safety for them than Lyons Yea and shee affects and loves it farre the better because here it was she first heard and understood of La Precovertes death which as yet for a time she closely conceales to her selfe Wherefore shee sends Noell her man to Lyons to his Master and by her letter prayes him speedily to come and live with her at Nevers which shee affirmes to him is a pleasant City and that there she attends his arrivall and company with much affection and impatiencie Harcourt to please his Sweet-heart-Sister Masserina leaves Lyons and comes to her at Nevers where with thankes and kisses she ioyfully wellcomes him telling him that these bathes of Pougges have perfectly freed her of her ache but in her heart and mind shee well knowes it is the death of La Precoverte and not those bathes which hath both cured her doubts and secured her feares They have not lived in Nevers and Pougges above three weekes since his arrivall untill they there but by what meanes I know not understand of La Precovertes death whereat hee seemes nothing sorrowfull but she extreamly glad and ioyfull And by this time which is at least a whole yeare since their flight and departure from Saint Simplician and Sens they in their Travells and other gifts and expenses have consumed â—…nd expended a prettie Summe of their money In all which time wee must understand that Vimory hates his wife and Brother so exceedingly as hee in contempt of their crymes and detestation of their trecherous ingratitude scornes either to looke or send after them but the only revenge which he useth towards him in his absence he pretends a great Summe of money to bee due to him from him and in compensation thereof seizeth upon the remainder of his lands and by Order of Iustice gathereth up and collects his rents from his Tenants to his owne use and behoofe Which extreamely grieves Harcourt and afflicts Masserina who by this time seeing in what obscurity and considering in what continuall feare and eminent danger they live in As their lascivious affections so their irregular desires and irreligious resolutions looke one and the same way which is to send her Husband and his Brother Vimory to Heaven after his wife La Precoverte yea so resolute are they in this their bloody intentions and desires as they wish and pray for it with zeale and desire it with passion impatiency And now their malice is growen so resolute and their resolution so gracelesse in the contemplation and conceiving of this bloody 〈◊〉 as they bewray it each to other Masserina vowes to him that she can reape no true content either in her life or conscience before of his sister he make her his wife Nor I replies Harcourt before my brother Vimorie be in Heaven and I marry thee be thy husband here in earth When as a bloody Courtisan and Strumpet she gives him many thanks and kisses for this his affection to her and malice to his Brother Vimory for her sake when working upon the advantage of time occasion and opportunity Shee tells him that in her opinion the shortest and surest way is to dispatch him by poison Harcourt dislikes her judgement and plot as holding it no way safe in taking away his brothers life to entrust and hazard his owne at the coâ—…rtesie of a stranger at which speech of his shee blusheth and palleth as being conscious and memorative of what she had lately caused to be perpetrated by Tivoly Therfore he thinks to acquaint and imploy his owne man Noell in this bloudy businesse and proâ—… him two hundred Crownes and fortie more of yeerely pension during his life if hee will pistoll his Brother Vimory to death as he iâ—… walking in the fields But Noell is too honest a man and too good a Chriâ—… to stabbe at the majesty of God iâ—…â—…ling man his creature and Image and so absolutely denies his Master and although he be a poore man yet he rejects his offer as resolving never to purchase wealth or preferment at so deere a rate as the price of innocent blood whereat his Master bites his lip for discontent and
anger So he conjures him to perpetuall secrecie and silence of this proposition and businesse which Noell promiseth but sweares not Hereupon Harcourt to approach neerer to Sens He and Masserina leave Nevers and very secretly by litle Iournies and the greatest part by night come to Mascon and there his heart strikes a bargaine with the Divell and the Divell with his soule and resolutions to ride over himselfe to Sens and there with his owne hands to pistoll his Brother Vimory to death in the fields or if his Bullets misse him then to finish and perpetrate it with his owne Sword O wretched Gentleman O execrable Brother thus to make thy Hope and Charitie prove bankrupt to thy Soule and thy Faith unto God But nothing wil prevaile with Harcourt to diswade him from this bloody busines Whereunto the damnable treacherie and malice of Masserina impetuouslie precipitates and hastens him onwards although it be against her owne Husband So he leaves Mascon and in a disguised beard and poore sute of apparell comes to Saint Symplician purposely leaving Sens a litle on his left hand Where waiting for his Brother Vimory at the end of a pleasant wood of his a litle halfe mile from his house where he knew he was accustomed to walk alone by himselfe solitarily He personating and acting the part of a poore begging Souldier and counterfeiting his tongue aswel as his beard and apparel with his hat in his hand espying his Brother he goes towards him with an humble resolution and requesteth an Almes of him Which Vimory seeing and hearing hee in meere charitie and compassion of him because he saw him to be though a poore yet a proper man which is more a Souldier drawes forth his purse and whiles he lookes therein for some small peece of silver Harcourt as a Disciple of the Devill very softly drawes out his litle pistoll out of his left sleeve which he covered with his hat and having charged it with two bullets hee lets flie at him and so shooâ—… him in the truncke of his body a little under the heart of which two wounds he presently fell dead to the ground being as unfortunate in his death as his brother was miserable diabolicall in giving it him for he only fetched two groanes but had neither the power or happinesse to speake one word And the Divell in the catastrophie of this mournefull Tragedie was so strong with Harcourt as his malice towards his Brother Vimory exceeded not onely malice but rage and fury it selfe for fearing he was not yet dead he twice ran him thorow the body with his sword When leaving his breathlesse body all goring in his hot reeking blood he with all possible celeritie takes his horse which he had tied out of sight to a tree not farre off and so with all possible speed gallops away to his now intended wife Masserina at Mascon who triumphs with ioy at his relation of this good newes the which to her yea to them both is equally pleasing and delectable But God will not permit that these wretched joyes and triumphes of theirs shall lâ—…st long This cruell murther of Monseiur Vimory is some two houres after knowne at his house and Parish of Saint Symplician as also in the City of Sens and so dispersed 〈◊〉 all Burgundy and the murtherers narrowly sought after but in vaine Harcourt and Masserina meet with these reports at Mascon but yet they hold it discretion and safetie a small time longer to conceale themselves secretly in that Towne and so to suffer the heate of this newes to passe over and bee blowne away But at the end of two moneths Harâ—…t setting a milke white face upon his bloody fact arrives at Sons and from thence to his maâ—…or house of Saint Symplician which now by the death of his Brother Vimorye who died without issue wholly devolved and fell to him Who having formerly plaid the Devill in murthering his said Brother he now as infernally plaies the Hypocrite in mourning for his death making so wonderfull an outward shew and demonstration of sorrow for the same as he and all his servants being dighted in blackes A moneth after hee sends for his good Sister in Law Masserina who comes home to him and they seeme so absolutely strange each to other as if they had never seene one another during all the long time of their absence and shee likewise seemes to drowne her selfe in her teares and is likewise all in blackes for the death of her Husband But God in his due time will pull off this their false maske and detect and revenge both their horrible Sinnes of Adulterie and Murther Now as close as they conceale this their dishonourable fleight and departure yet it discovered and found out and held so odious so foule to all the Gentlemen and Ladies their neighbours who yet know nothing of their murthers as they disdaine to welcome them home or which is lesse to see them which they both are inforced with griefe to observe as holding it to be the reflection of their owne disgrace and scandall the which henceforth to prevent they within two moneths after sends for their Ghostly fathers as also for two Iesuites and the Vicar of their parish and acquaint them with their desires and resolutions to marry But these Ecclesiastiques affirme it to be directly opposite to the Rules and Canons of the holy Catholique Roman Church for one Brother to marry the widdow of another as also against the written law of God and therefore they utterly seeke both to perswade and diswade them from it as being wholly unlawfull and ungodly and so refuse to Consent thereto much lesse to performe it without a dispensation from the Pope or his Nuntio now resident at Paris They cause the Nuntio to be dealt with about it but hee peremptorily refuseth it But in favour of money and strong friends within three monethes they procure it from Rome and so they are speedily marryed now thinking and withall beleeving and triumphing that this their nuptiall knot hath power to deface and redeeme all their former Adulteries and now wholly wiped off their disgrace and scandall with the world And therefore in their owne vaine and impious conceits are secure and abound in wealth delight and pleasure But as yet they have not made their peace with God Come we therefore first to the detection and discovery of these their bloudy crimes of murther and then to the condigne punishments which they received for the same Whereof the manner briefly is thus It is many times the pleasure and providence of God to punish one sinne in and by another yea and sometimes one sinne for another the which wee shall now see apparant in this bloudy and hellish Itallian Mountebancke Tivoly who repayring to the great Faire of Sens and there beginning to professe his Emperie to a rich Goldsmithes wife of that City named Monseiur de Boys hee the third day stole a small casket of Jewels and
Rings from him out of a cupboarde the locke whereof he cunningly pickt and shut againe vallued at foure thousand Crownes and the same night fled upon that robbery towards Mascon thinking there to put himselfe on the River of Soan and so to slip downe to Lyons and from thence over the Alps into Italy De Boys makes a speedy and curious research for his thiefe whom as yet he could not finde or discover When hearing of this Mountebancke Tivolie his sodaine departure and flight he takes him to bee his thiefe pursues him in person and within foure leagues of Mascon apprehends him having to that end brought two Provosts or Sheriffes men with him in their Coats with their pistolls at saddle bow to assist him De Boys findes many of the Iewels and Rings about Tivoly and divers others wanting the which he could never recover So being brought backe to Sens hee was first imprisoned and then examined by the Senshall and the Procurer Fiscall When having neither cause nor colour to deny this robbery of his hee therefore freely confessed it the devill still assuring or rather betraying his hopes confidence and Iudgement That it is very possible and he thinkes very probable and feaseable to corrupt his Iudges with some of the Iewels which hee had closly conceald and hid about him But he shall speedily see the contrary For they seeing this Itallian Empericke by his owne confession guilty of this great and remarkeable robbery they condemne him to bee hâ—…nged the very next day for the same So having a Cordelier or Gray Fryer sent him that night to pryson to prepare his soule for Heaven Hee the next morning according to his sentence of condemnation is brought to his execution Where on the Ladder he to free his Conscience and soule doth constantly and sorrowfully Confesse that hee had formerly poysoned Madamoyselle La Precoverte daughter to Monseiur de La Vaquery of Troyes and that he was hired to doe it by the Lady Masserina of whom at Pougges he received two hundred and fifty Crownes and a small Saphir Ring to performe it as also fifty Crownes more which she gave him for his charges from Nivers to Troyes and so hee dies in the constant confession of this his foule and lamentable murder and is hanged for his Robbery and his body afterwards burnt for destroying and poysoning of this young Gentlewoman La Precoverte whom many Gentlemen and Ladies there present well knew and exceedingly bewayled for the goodnesse of her sweet nature and pure beauty as also for the excellencie of her honourable perfections and religious vertues And although the Spectators of this wretch Tivoly his death expected some speech from him at the taking of his last farewell of this world yet besides his former confession hee spake nothing but mumbled out some few words to himselfe which were not understood And thus he lived wretchedly as he dyed miserably giving no testimony of his contrition or sorrow to the World or of any sparke of griefe or repentance towards God Now before his body was fully consumed to ashes This our Wretched and bloudy Gentlewoman Masserina together with her old Lover but new Husband Harcourt are by order of the Judges of Sens apprehended and taken prisoners in their owne house of Saint Simplician as they were walking and Kissing together without any thought of danger muchlesse of death They hereat looke each on other with griefe and astonishment especially Masserina who understanding by some of those that apprehend them That it was the Italian Mountebanke Tivoly who at his execution accused her but not her Husband Harcourt for having and causing him to poyson her Sister La Precoverte shee then sees her selfe to bee a dead woman and no hope left her in the world of her life But every way a firme assurance and confidence of her death yet seeing Tivoly dead she resolves to stand upon her Iustification Shee is all in teares at this her lamentable disaster curseth the name and memory of Tivoly for ruining her with himselfe and now when it is too late shee blames herselfe of indiscretion for neglecting and not dealing effectually with Tivoly in prison to conceale this her fact and name As for her Husband Harcourt hee knowing himselfe absolutely Innocent of this murther hee grieves not for the death of his first wife La Precoverte but now extreamely mourneth and lamenteth to thinke of this of his second wife Masserina for live hee feares she cannot He bids her yet bee of good comfort and whispereth her secretly in her eare that hee will give all his estate and meanes to save her life or else that he will dye with her shee thankes him with a world of sighes and teares and rounds him as privately in his eare with many deepe oathes and asseverations that her tongue shall never dare to speake any one word or sillable to her Iudges which shall tend to the prejudice of his reputation safety or life and so they are by their apprehenders separated and then severally conveyed to the prison of Sens Masserina is first arraigned by the Iudges where according to her former resolution she not with teares but with high words and speeches stands upon her Innocency and Iustification they informe her how strongly Tivoly at his death declared shee had given him two hundred and fifty crownes a Saphir Ring and fifty crownes more to pay his charges at Pugges and how he at her instigation and in favour of this her gold poysoned La Precoverte at her father Monseiur La Vaqueris house at Troyes She termes Tivoly witch and devill yea worse then a thousand devils thus to accuse her fasly of this murther of her sister Precoverte whereof she vowes to God and the world to Earth and Heaven that she is as Innocent as that damned Italian was guilty thereof but the Iudges notwithstanding all these her great fumes and crackes doe presently condemne her to the racke the which as soone as shee saw and considered the sharpe nature of those exquisite torments then God was so mercifull to her soule by his grace though shee was not so heretofore to her body by the perpetration of her foule sinnes that shee would not permit her tender dainty limbes to be exposed to the misery of those cruell tortures but then and there confesseth her selfe to bee the author of poysoning La Precoverte her sister as Tivoly was the actor thereof when being here by her Iudges farther demanded whether her last Husband Harcourt were not likewise accessary with her in poysoning of his first wife La Precoverte shee with much assurance and constancy cleeres him hereof and is so kinde and loving to him as shee speakes not a word to them of his pistolling to death of her first Husband his Brother Vimorey So for this her foule and bloudy fact of hers she is condemned to bee hanged the next morning and for that night againe returned to prison where shee and her sorrowfull
hath forgotten her deere affection and constancy to him and how shee hath incurred her fathers indignation for making him her husband and herselfe his wife He hath forgotten his former oathes and promises of his tender affecti-and constant love to her and how that in life and death hee would live and dye more hers then his owne Hee hath forgotten how for his sake and for the fervent love shee bore him that she forsooke divers rich young men of Savona who were every way his Superiours in Birth Wealth and profession Or els if he did remember it hee would not thus sleight her by day or lye from her by night in lewd and lascivious company spending both his time his meanes and himselfe upon panders bauds and strumpets from which ungodly life and sinfull conversation neither her prayers intreaties requests perswasions sighes or teares can possibly reclaime him but he lets all things runne at randome and confusion without order care or consideration so that within the compasse of one yeare and a halfe his trade is neglected his credit crackt his reputation lost his estate spent and nothing left either to maintaine himselfe or releive her but griefe sorrow dispaire and misery Shee sets all his best friends and most vertuous acquaintance to convert him from this his abhominable life yea she holds it more shame then sinne to acquaint his confessor therewith who taking a fit time deales roundly with him for his reformation and failes not to paint out his sinnes and vices as also their deserved punishments in their foulest and most hideous colours But still her husband Lorenzo is so strongly linked to the devill and so firmely wedded to his beastly vices and enormities that all the world cannot divert or disswade him from them and still he is so farre from abandoning and forsaking them as he adds new to his old for the devill hath now taught him to delight in cursing and swearing for in his speeches and actions he useth many feareful oathes and desperate execrations He beginnes to revile her and to give her foule language tear ming her Beggar and her father villaine and that hee is bound to curse them both because saith he they have beggerd him When God and his sinnefull soule and conscience well knowes that there is nothing more untrue or false For if his piety toward God or his care and providence of himselfe and his family had equallized hers he had than made himselfe as happy as nowhe is miserable and she as joyfull as now we see her disconsolate and sorrowfull and then no doubt but time and God would have drawne her father Moron to have bestowed some portion on him with his wife whereas now the knowledge of his impious life and lascivious prodigalities doth justly occasion him to the contrary Againe here befalls another accident which brings our sorrowfull Fermia new griefe vexation and teares for shee sees herselfe great yea quicke with childe by her Husband Lorenzo so as that which shee once hoped would have beene the argument of her joy now proves the cause of her affliction and sorrow for his vices hath scarce left her wherewith to maintaine herselfe and therefore it grieves her to thinke and consider how hereafter she shall be able to mainetain her childe when God in his appointed time shall send it her for he hath so consumed his estate and spent sold and pawned all their best houshold stuffe and apparell that almost they have nothing left to give themselves maintenance hardly bread But yet still how lewd and irregular soever Lorenzo be his vertuous and sorrowfull wife Fermia serves God duely and truely and spends a great part of her time in prayer still beseeching the Lord to give her patience and to forgive her husband all his foule sinnes towards him and cruell ingratitude towards herselfe When in the middest of this her poverty and misery once she thought to have left her husband in Genova and to have cast herselfe at her fathers feet in Savona that he would pardon receive and entertaine her But then againe considering his flinty heart and cruelty towards her and that he would rather contemne then pitty her youth and misery but especially calling to minde her duty to her husband and her Oath given him in marriage in presence of God and his Church for better for worse for richer for poorer Then I say the consideration and remembrance thereof is so strong a tye to her conscience and so strict an obligation to her soule that she thinkes his vices and poverty hath now more need of her assistance prayers and company then of her absence so as a vertuous wife and a religious christian she will not consent to forsake and leave him but resolves to stay and live with him to see what the Lord is pleased to impose on her and for his sinnes and hers what afflictions and miseries hee hath ordained and decreed for them And yet being desirous to draw hope and comfort any way because she findes griefe and dispaire from all parts she resolves to acquaint her father with her calamities as also earnestly and humbly to pray him to releive them the which she doth in this her sorrowfull letter to him which she sends him safely to Savona FERMIA to MORON I Now finde to my griefe and know to my shame and Repentance that my disobedience in marrying Lorenzo against your consent and without your blessing is the reason why God hath thus punished me with a bad husband in him whose fervent affection to me is so soone forgotten and frozen and whose Vertues in himselfe are so sodainely and sinfully exchanged into vices that his prodigalitie hath spent and consumed all his estate and left not wherewith either to give himselfe or mee mainteinance In which regard because my afflictions are so great and my miseries so infinite that I rather deserve your pitty then your displeasure Therefore if not for my sake who am your living Daughter yet for my Mothers sake and remembrance who is your dead wife either give my Husband meanes to set up his old trade and forsake his new vices Genoua or else take mee home to live with you againe in Savona And if you will not in Nature respect me as your Daughter yet in compassion entertaine mee as your Hand-maid and I most humbly and religiously beseech you to thinke and consider with your selfe to what great wants and necessity I am now reduced sith I write you this my letter rather with teares then incke God direct your heart to my reliefe and consolation as mine is eternally devoted to your service and consecrated to his glory FERMIA Her father Moron after a long consultation and reluctation with himselfe whether he should read or reject this letter of his Daughter He at last having formerly understood of her husbands prodigalitie and her poverty and misery breakes up the seales thereof and peruseth it and surely if there had beene any sparke of humanity or
be matched or thy afflictions and sorrowes parralleld when thou hast a Husband who neither feares nor serves God who will neither goe to Church or pray himselfe or permit or suffer thee to doe it and who is so farre from loving thee as hee loves nothing better than to hate revile and beat thee For aye me hee drownes himselfe and his wits in wine and keeps whores to thy nose spends all his estate upon them and upon Bawds Panders and Drunkards the off-scumme and Catterpillers of the world with whom he consumes his time and himselfe making night day and day night in these his beastly revels and obscene voluptuousnesse and upon whom he hath spent so much as hee now hath nothing left either to spend or maintaine himselfe and thee yea thy miseries are so great and thy afflictions and sorrowes so sharpe and infinite that thou hast no parent left to succour or releeve thee and which is lesse no friend who will assist or comfort thee Poore young woman and disconsolate sorrowfull wife that thou art it were a blessed happinesse and a happy blessing for thee that thou wert either unborne or unmarried Alas alas thy mother died too soone for thee when thou wert young and therefore shee cannot and thy father lives and is exceeding rich yet hates thee so much as he will not assist releeve thee And as all thy kinsfolks refuse to lend or send thee any comfort in these thy wants and calamities so those who professed themselves thy friends in thy prosperity will not now either see thee in thy poverty or know thee in thy misery When againe and againe looking on her pretty babe and giving it many tender kisses then her teares interrupting her words and her sighs againe cutting her teares in peeces shee continueth her speech thus And thou my sweet babe what shall I say to thee sith almost I can doe nothing for thee for I have no food to give my selfe how then can I give milke to thee and yet I love thee so dearly and tenderly that although thy unkinde and cruell father hate me so deadly yet I will starve before thou shalt want yea I will cheerfully worke and if occasion serve begge my selfe to death to get sustenance and necessaries for the preservation of thy life For live thou my sweet babe as happy as thy poore mother is miserable and unfortunate And if I die before thee as I hope I shall not live long say thou hadst a mother who loved thee a thousand times dearer than her own life and who was rich in care and affection though poore in estate and means to maintaine thee And if I leave thee nothing behinde me because I have now nothing left me either to give or leave thee yet I will give thee my blessing and leave thee heire to these my most religious prayers That God in his divinest favour and mercy will not power downe his wrath and punishments on thee but thou mayest live to be as happy in thy vertues as I feare thy father will be miserable in his vices and as true a servant and instrument of Gods glory as with griefe and teares I see he is of his owne disgrace and dishonour Neither is our vertuous Fermia deceived in the cloze of this her passionate and presaging speech towards her husband for he continues his odious and ungodly course of life both towards God and her and now as well in his fresh as his drunken humours makes it his practice to revile and his delight and glory to beat her who not withstanding yet thinking and hoping to worke some good in him through his sight of this poore infant his sonne Shee often shewes it to him and with sighs and teares prayes him to leave off this his sinfull life towards God and these his cruell courses and actions towards her selfe But he is still the same man yea he is so wretchedly debauched and vitious as he will not endure to thinke of making himselfe better and to say the truth I beleeve and thinke that the devill cannot possibly make him worse the wich his poore sorrowfull wife perceiving as also that her childe being now by this time almost two yeares old shee hath not wherewithall in the world to maintaine it meat or cloaths she is enforced to make a vertue of necessity and so works exceeding hard with her needle thereby to give life to her selfe and her pretty young sonne and yet say she what she will with sighs and doe she what she can with teares her husband still forcibly takes away the two parts of the poore profit and small revenewe of her labours both from her selfe and her little sonne Thomaso not caring if they starve or die so hee have to maintaine his vitious expences among his lewd Consorts and Companions yea her miseries and wants are now so great and her affection to her childe so deare and tender that when shee hath no meanes to set her selfe to worke nor can procure any from others then though to her matchlesse griefe and shame shee descends so farre from her selfe as shamefully and secretly in remote streets and Churches she begs the almes and charity of some well disposed people for their subsistence and maintenance But at length when she sees that her husband is informed and acquainted therewith and that he is so inhumane in himselfe and so cruell hearted to her and her sonne that he likewise takes these small moneyes away from her which in effect is to take bread out of their mouths and life out of their bodies then not knowing what in the world to doe or which way to winde or turne her selfe any longer to maintaine her son which by many degrees she loves better than her selfe she resolves to write to her father to take him home to him at Savona and maintaine him which she doth by this her ensuing Letter which carried him this humble language and petition FERMIA to MORON THe increase of my Husbands vices are those of my wants and miseries which are now growne so extreame and infinite that I have nor cloaths nor food left to maintaine my selfe or my poore little sonne Thomaso nor scarceto give life to us And considering that I am your daughter yea your onely childe me thinks both in Nature and Christianity that my father should not see me driven to these sharp and bitter extremities without releeving me especially because as heretofore so now my sighs begge it of you with humility for charities sake and my teares with sorrow for Gods sake Or if yet your heart will not dissolve into pity or relent into compassion towards me at least let it towards my poore and pretty young childe whom now with prayers and teares I beseech you to take from me and maintaine though not as a great part of me yet as a little peece of your selfe and whom God in his sacred power and secret providence may for his honour and glory reserve to be as much
the World where the whole Nobilitie and Gentrie make all their aboad and residence the which indeed is one of the maine poynts and essentiall reasons why their Cities are so rich populous and fayre Thus we see Streni and his three Daughters by this time come to Florence and dwel as I have formerly said neere the Monastery of the Dominican Fryers where his wealth birth and port cause him to be visited and frequented of the best and noblest sort of that Citie and as the time of his residence so the number of his acquaintance encreaseth for vertue is capable to purchase friends every where and his wealth and Daughters beauties like so many powerfull Lures and Adamants draw many young gallant Gentleman to his house to see and serve them Where although Babtistyna and Amarantha are beloved and sought in marriage of many yet their Father is resolute to marry their eldest Sister Iaquinta first wherefore when any noblemen or Gentlemen come to his house she is to be seene and courted but Babtistyna and Amarantha are mewed and fast locked up in a Chamber They grieve hereat but they can neither alter nor remedy this their Fathers resolution for his word must bee their Oracle and his will their Law Now before I proceed farther in the dilation of this History as I one way commend Streni his resolution to marry his eldest daughter first so yet in approving his discretion for her preferment I must neverthelesse taxe his want of affection in hindring that of his two youngest daughters For as it was a courtesie of him to have Iaquinta seene of Suters so it was a degree of dis-respect I may say of cruelty in him to confine Babtistyna and Amarantha as prisoners to their Chambers when divers of them came purposely and honorably to his house both to see and seeke them in marriage But Iaquinta armed with her fathers love and authority growes extremely imperious and stately She triumpheth in conceit to see her selfe preferred of her father before her Sisters Shee sees her two sisters Babtistyna and Amarantha are sued and sought for in marriage by divers Cavalliers and the very consideration hereof grieves and the remembrance afflicts her but withall shee observes that they dare not disobey or contradict their fathers command to affect or speake with any and therefore the very knowledge and remembrance hereof againe rejoyceth her As it is a happinesse for us to purchase friends so it is a misery to lose them Her Sisters love her but she loves not them they are as unworthy of her hatred as she is of their affection Nature indeed hath given her the prerogative and priviledge but yet she should consider that they are her Sisters and not her Servants and that their bloud is hers and hers theirs It is an argument both of indiscretion and insolencie for one Brother or Sister to thinke themselves better then another But many Gentlewomen who are Sisters esteeme pride a second beauty or at least an excellent Grace and Ornament to them and therefore to preferre and elevate themselves they care not how they disparage and deiect others The beauty of Babtistyna and Amarantha is an eye-sore to Iaquinta The tree of malice never produceth good fruit It is still a happy vertue for us to checke and vanquish our owne vices She knowes that many Gentlemen love them but sees and observes with griefe that none affect her Her desire to marry is so immodestly licentious and boundlesse as she could willingly resolve to accept of any Gentleman for her husband that would be content to take her for his wife but Incontinencie prooves still a pernicious counsellor to young Ladies and Gentlewomen Now as Cantharides flie still to the fayrest flowers so shee sees and indeede infinitely bites the lip and grieves to see that all Lovers and Sutors flie to one of these her two Sisters and wholly abandon and forsake her selfe but being a woman she wants not an invention to apply a present remedy to this her discontent and choller Shee must have her Sisters beauties and braveries eclipsed that hers may appeare more bright and resplend and shine with more lustre and glory She knowes that Christall seemes precious when Diamonds are not in place to which end shee very passionately and yet subtilly workes upon the affections of her Father and obtaines of him that as her yeares so her apparell may excell and exceede that of her Sisters the which hee inconsiderately grants her and this shee receives and conceives to bee a step to her advancement and an obstacle to theirs So if they formerly grieved to see themselves imprisoned in a chamber whiles shee to her content and pleasure rejoyceth both to see and bee seene of Gentlemen So now their discontent thereof growes into choller and their choller into rage to see this their elder sister Iaquinta not onely to step some degrees beyond them but likewise many beyond her selfe in her apparell It is ever a wise and discreet vertue in Parents to distribute their favours and affections equally to their Children or if they chance to affect one better then others at least that they bee so reserved and cautious as to conceale it secretly to themselves that the rest may neither perceive nor know it That Streni sought to marry Iaquinta before Babtistyna and Amarantha as I formerly have sayd he did well but yet to make them lose when they might find and gaine a fortune was withall to be indiscreet if not unnaturall Mens fancies and affections in marriage are many times counselled and led by the eye as the eye is by the heart Some will prise and affect beauty without vertue others vertue without beauty but where both meete and concurre it doth not onely please but delight and so joyntly sympathize to make each other excellent Many of the best and noblest Cavalliers of Florence love Babtistyna and Amarantha but not Iaquinta or if they seeme to court Iaquinta it is but with a reserved hope and intent to injoy the sight and company of Babtistyna and Amarantha but as Iealousy and Malice have alwayes foure eyes in stead of two so it is at least a torment if not many deaths to Iaquinta to see her two Sisters to live and be beloved of all Sutors and her selfe of none the which to prevent and so to stop the progresse of their triumphs and consequently of her owne discontent and affliction she not desirous to have two such starres of beauty to appeare and shine together in the firmament of her Fathers house in Florence doth so secretly undermine and so cunningly prevail with him as her two sisters when they least dream or think thereof are by his order and command suddenly sent away by Coach to his Countrey house of Cardura neere Pistoia whereof wee have already made mention notwithstanding all their requests sighes and teares to the contrary and there by his appoyntment to be privately and disconsolately shut up from any
sees by no other eyes but by those of malice and revenge towards her Sister shee thinkes every day an age before shee heare of her dispatch At the expiration of which time according to their former agreement Bernardo arrived by night at Streni's house in Florence and at one of the Clocke after midnight hee findes the little Garden doore open and his Pierya there purposely to receive and welcome him so they beginne their meeting with kisses Shee leades him by the hand to the outer doore of her Ladies chamber and they two having agreed on the manner how to stifle her in her bed shee had there to that purpose provided two pillowes keepes one and gives him another to effect it These miserable wretches for the more secrecie put off their shooes and out the candles and the darknesse of the Moone and the obscurity of the night seeming to conspire to their conspiracie they softly enter her chamber goe one by one side and the other by the other where unfortunat Babtistyna lying soundly sleeping and snoring they stifle her with their Pillowes and then a little whiles after thrust a handkercher into her mouth and their fury and malice was so fierce and implacable towards her as shee hath neither the grace to speake nor the power once to screech or crye Thus she who had formerly poysoned her elder Sister Iaquinta is now also cruelly murthered by the treachery of her youngest Amarantha which makes me crie out and say O Lord as thou art immense in thy mercie so thou art inscrutable in thy judgements and that therfore as wee ought not so we cannot resist his divine power and eternall preordination Bernardo and Pierya as two limbes of the Devill having finished this cruell murther on Babtistyna they leave her breathlesse body on her bâ—…d and then withdrawing themselves from her Chamber they softly pull fast the doore which had a Spring locke and then shee secretly throwes in the key within side at a private hole or crannie when her Sweet-heart and her selfe descend the stayâ—…es and with wonderfull silence stalke away to the Garden without the Posterne doore whereof his horse tyed up to an Iron ring in the wall awayted and attended him where with a multitude of kisses they part he faithfully promising her to returne to her againe at Florence within a moneth after at most and then to marry her So whiles Pierya now in the depth and dead of this dismall night betakes her selfe to her bed and there as devoyd of feare as of grace sleepes soundly her sweet-heart Bernardo that very obscure night gallops thorow the streers of Florence towards the gate which leads to Pistoia where God in all seeing providence causeth his horse to stumble and fall with him to the ground whereof hee brake his necke and presently dyed and his horse then rising flyes from him straglingly in the streets leaving the breathlesse corps of Bernardo in the street having not the happines either to crie or utter one word at this his sudden disastrous death God having so ordain'd and decreed in his Star-chamber of heaven that although for the murthering of the Lady Babtistyna he deserved a more shamefull end yet that this poore horse which brought him to Florence should at the same time and place be his executioner as also that there was scarce one houre between his crime and his punishment between her murther and his own death An act and example of Gods justice worthy of all men to know and of all Christians most especially to remember so secret and sacred are the judgements of the Lord of Hosts All that night Bernardo's dead body lay gored in his blood which abundantly issued forth his mouth as also in the dirt of the street unespyed of any mortall eye but as soone as the morning began to appeare thorow the windowes of heaven then it was found and likewise to bee done by the fall of a horse whereof his necke the beholders saw was broken the which the sooner they were induced and led to believe because they likewise found a horse neere him stragling in the streets without his rider This his dead body is therefore presently exposed to the Criminall Iudges of that faire and famous City who forthwith cause his Pockets to be searched where in stead of gold they by the direction of God find the before nominated promise of a yearly Annuity which we have formerly understood Amarantha gave him Whereupon they knowing the Lady Amarantha to be Seig. Leonardo Streni's daughter by this note confidently believing this dead man to be the same Bernardo and he to be Amarantha's servant they without once suspecting or dreaming of any murther committed by him hold it a part of their office and duety to acquaint Streni herewith But the newes of this dead found Corps ratling thorow the streets of the City it devanceth this care of theirs and so speedily arrives to Streni's house before them whereat Pierya looking for nothing lesse takes so hot an allarum of griefe feare and despaire that her guilty thoughts and conscience like so many Blood-hounds still pursuing her she seeing this unlookt for disaster and death of her Bernardo to bee an act of God and a blow from heaven which infallibly predicted both her danger and death she therefore presently flies out a doore and with much celerity and more feare betakes her selfe to the least frequented and most remotest streets of the City for her safety By this time the Criminall officers are arrived at Streni's house whom they acquaint with this mournefull accident shew him this assurance of Annuity and inquire of him if it bee the Lady Amarantha his Daughters hand as also the dead Corps and if this were her servant who with a countenance composed of astonishment feare and sorrow acknowledgeth to them that it is his Daughter Amarantha's owne hand writing and the dead personage to bee her Servingman Bernardo Whereupon they confidently believe and hee sorrowfully feares that this death of his and that assurance of hers doth either import or include some greater disaster and misfortune whereupon they againe modestly yet juridically demand of him for his Daughter Amarantha and her Chamber-mayd Pierya who returnes them this answer that the first is at his Mannor of Cardura neere Pistoia and the second here in his house and now serving his eldest Daughter Babtistyna they demand to speake with Pierya whom hee causeth to bee sought in all places of his house but shee is not to bee found so hee sends to looke her in his Daughters chamber her Mistresse but his servants returne and report that the doore of that Chamber is fast lock'd and that they can get no speech either of her or of the Lady Babtistyna which answer of theirs doth exceedingly augment the jealousie of the Iudges and the feare of the Father So 〈◊〉 all resolve to ascend themselves to that Chamber where they aloud againe calling both the Lady and her Mayd and
hearing no answer of either of them they instantly cause the doore to bee forced open where contrary to their expectation they finde the Lady Babtistyna dead and well neere cold in her bed and causing her body to bee secretly searched by some Chirurgians and neighbor Gentlewomen they all are of opinion that shee is undoubtedly stifled in her bed and her face very much blacke and swolne with struggling for life against death They are amazed and her Father Streni almost drowned in his sorrowfull teares at the fight of this deplorable accident and mournefull spectacle and therefore what to say or how to beare himselfe herein hee knowes not But the Iudges upon farther knowledge and consideration of the flight of Pierya the death of Bernardo and the promised Annuity of Amarantha upon their marriage as it were prompted by God doe vehemently suspect and believe that they all three were undoubtedly consenting guilty of Babtistyna's death notwithstanding that the Key of her Chamber was found thrown in within side So they presently leave this sorrowfull Father to his teares and betaking themselves to their Seat of Iustice doe instantly cause all the Gates of the City to be shut and a strict and curious search to be made in all parts thereof for the apprehension of Pierya which in their zeale and honour to sacred justice they performe with so much care and speed as within three houres after shee is found out and apprehended in an Aunts house of hers who was a poore woman and a Laundresse of that City named Eleanora Fracasa The Iudges being presently advertised hereof convent her before them and by vertue of this Annuity charge both her and her lover Bernardo to bee the actors and Amarantha to bee at least the accessary if not the authour with them of murthering Babtistyna shee can hardly speake for teares at this her examination because her sighes still cut her words in pieces and yet she is so farre from grace and repentance as at first shee stoutly denyes all and boldly affirmes that both Amarantha Bernardo and her selfe were every way innocent of attempting any thing against Babtistyna's life and that if shee were dead shee dyed onely of a naturall death by the appoyntment of God and no otherwise and to this Answer of hers the Devill had made her so strong as shee added many fearfull oaths and deprecations both for her owne and their justification but yet notwithstanding this her Apologie these grave and cleere-fighted Iudges are so farre from diminishing as they augment their suspition both of her and them and so commit her to prison and forthwith to the racke At the pronouncing of which Sentence Pierya is much daunted seemes to let fall some of her former fortitude and constancie and to burst forth into many passionate teares sighs and exclamations But they will nothing availe her for seeing her pretended Husband Bernardo dead in whom lived the imaginary joyes of her heart shee so fainted as at the very first sight of the Racke with some teares and more deep fetch'd sighes shee confessed to her Iudges that shee and Bernardo had stifled her Lady Babtistyna in her bed but still constantly affirmed that her sister Amarantha was wholly innocent thereof flattering her selfe with this hope that for thus her cleering of her Lady Amarantha from this crime and danger shee in requitall thereof could doe no lesse then bee a meanes to procure a pardon for her life But these hopes of hers will deceive her and flie as fast from her hereafter as ever shee formerly did from God So the Iudges in detestation of this her foule and bloudy crime adjudge her to bee hanged for the same but first they send her backe to prison and the very next morning before breake of day they secretly send away three of their Isbieres or Sergeants to Cardura to fetch the Lady Amarantha to Florence being very confident notwithstanding Pierya's denyall that shee likewise had a deepe finger and share in her Sister Babtistyna's murther Amarantha not dreaming in Cardura what had betided in Florence to 〈◊〉 and Pierya but flattering her selfe with much hope and joy that by this time they had undoubtedly made away her Sister Babtistyna and consequently that she should shortly revisite Florence and there domineere alone and obtaine some gallant Cavallier of her Father for her husband shee in expectance of her servant Bernardo's returne and of his pleasing newes had that day as it were in a bravery and triumph purposely dighted her selfe up in her best attire and richest apparell and so betaking her selfe to her Chamber and to that window which looked towards Florence shee with a longing desire expecteth ev'ry minute when he will arrive when about ten of the clocke before dinner contrary to her expectation shee sees three men to enter into the house apparelled as Florentines whereat shee much museth and wondereth as not knowing what they or their comming should import These three Sergeants having entred the house they are brought to the Governesse Malevola who brings them to her young Lady Amarantha in her Chamber to whom with a dissembling confidence they report to her That Seâ—…gnior Streni her Father hath sent them to conduct and accompany her speedily to Florence Amarantha inquires of them for her Fathers Letters to that effect whereunto one of the subtlest of them makes answer very slylie and artificially to her that her Fathers haste and her preferment would not permit him to write to her for that hee perfectly knew from him hee was now upon matching her to a rich and noble Husband Her Governesse Malevola likewise demands of them if hee had not written to her selfe they answer no but that hee bad them tell her that he will'd her without delay to bring away his Daughter Amarantha with her and themselves to Florence by Coach and onely one Foot-boy The Pupill and Governesse consult hereon and the very name of a Husband makes the first as willing as the second is discontented to goe to Florence without a Letter but the policie of the Sergeants so prevaile with the simplicity of this young Lady and old Gentlewoman that they speedily packe up their Trunkes so dine and then take Coach and horse and away for Florence during which short journey although the mirth and joy of Amarantha bee great yet shee findes so many different reluctations and extravagant thoughts in her minde at the absence and silence of her man Bernardo as shee cannot possibly againe refraine from musing and wondering thereat They all arrive at Florâ—…nce where these Sergeants having learnt their parts well and acting them better in stead of Amarantha's Fathers house doe clap her up close prisoner in the Common Goale of that City notwithstanding all her prayers and cries sighes and teares to the contrary and then send her Governesse Malevola home to her said Father to advertise him hereof who tearing the snow-white haire of his head and beard at this sad newes and
extreamely fearing the dangerous consequence of this deplorable accident he with teares in his eyes sorrow in his lookes and sighes in his speeches repaires speedily to the Iudges to whom sorrowfully and humbly casting himselfe almost as low as their feet hee prayes them to thinke of his age and of his imprisoned Daughters youth and that having unfortunately lost his eldest Daughter that they would not deprive him of his youngest nor cast her life away either upon bare presumption or circumstance or upon the wrongful reports and malice of his and her enemies But these grave and Lynce-ey'd Magistrates who looke as deepely into the priviledge and dignity of Iustice as hee doth into the passions of paternall affection and nature cut him off with this sharpe reply That they honour his age and respect his Daughters youth that she shall have justice and that by the lawes of Florence he must expect no more with which cold answer hee returnes home to his house as disconsolate as hee came foorth sorrowfull beeing not permitted but defended to see or speake with his Daughter Amarantha in prison onely hee hath permission to bury his murthered Daughter Babtistyna the which hee performeth with farre more griefe and sorrow then solemnity The truth and decorum of this History must now invite the Reader to visite Amarantha in prison who being there debarr'd from speaking with any or any with her except those miserable comforters her Sergeants and Goalers shee now seeing the imminencie of her danger and fearing the assurance of her death for that shee heard a secret inckling from the lower Court through her Chamber window That her Sister Babtistyna was murthered her Mayd Pierya imprisoned and shee her selfe vehemently suspected for the same Shee therefore now beginnes to think of her former bloudy crimes with repentance and of these her inhumane cruelties towards her two elder Sisters with contrition and solemnly vowes to God that if his divine Majesty will now please to save her life shee will henceforth religiously redeeme the first and second with repentance So in the middest of these good thoughts though vaine desires and wishes of hers shee yet still flatters her selfe with this poore hope that if her man Bernardo bee living then her promised Annuity to him written with her owne hand is still sure and therefore tacitly dead in his custody and that both hee and Pierya cannot any way wrong her without infinitely wronging themselves and indangering their owne lives so albeit her Iudges have matter of suspicion yet they can have no cause of death against her or if peradventure they have yet that the power of her Fathers greatnesse and friends are so prevalent in Florence and Tuscany that if the worst fall out he and they can obtaine at least her reprivall for the present if not her pardon for the future But contrary to all these her weake and triviall hopes the very next morning she is sent for before her Iudges to a private examination who after they had made a grave and religious speech to her they demand her first If shee imployed â—…ot her servant Bernardo and Pierya to murther her Sister Babtistyna the which shee firmely and constantly denyes Secondly If shee had not given an Annuity of 150 Duckatons during his life to marry Pierya the which shâ—…e likewise denyes then they produce and shew it her under her owne hand writing whereat they measuring her heart by her countenance shee seemes to be so much perplexd with sorrow and amaz'd with feare as shee cannot refraine from giving them lesse words but more teares Of which her Iudges conceiving a good opinion hope therfore deeming themselves now to be in a faire way and a direct course to obtain the whole truth of this lamentable busines from her they bethinke themselves of a policie thereby to effect and compasse it which is every way worthy of themselves and their offices of their discretion and justice They tell Amarantha that in regard of her youth and beauty and of her Fathers age and nobility they desire and intend to save her if shee will not wilfully cast her selfe away That her safeâ—…y and life now consisteth in her plaine confession and not in her perverse denyall and contestation of being accessary and consenting to the murther of her Sister Babtâ—…styna That they have proofes thereof as cleare and as apparant as the Sunne and that they having caused Pierya to bee executed for the same this morning shee confessed it to them at her death yea and dyed thereon At which speeches of her Iudges and confession and death of Pierya this wretched and unfortunate Lady Amarantha seeing her selfe so palpably convicted of this her bloudy and inhumane crime being wholly vanquished either with feare toward her selfe or choller towards Pierya she falls on her knees to her Iudges feet and with a great showre of teares makes her selfe by her free confession to bee the prime authour of her Sister Babtistyna's murther That shee had hired Bernardo and Pierya to performe it and given him an Annuity of 150 Duckatons per annum and to each of them 50 Duckatons more in hand to that effect concealing no poynt or part therof as we have already formerly understood when contrary to the expectation of her Iudges she most bitterly exclaymed on the name memory and ingratitude of this base wretch Pierya for so shee then termed her in that she could not be contented to die her self but also as much and as maliciously as in her power to think likewise to hazard her owne life with her And now our chollericke and yet sorrowfull Amarantha between these two different extreames of hope and feare layes hold of her Iudges late promise and profered courtesie to her to save her and then and there with many reverences teares and ringing of her hands most humbly beseecheth them for Gods sake and for honours cause to bee good unto her and to give her her life although she confesseth she is most worthy of death in being so degenerate and bloudy minded towards her owne Sister But they having by this commendable meanes and artificiall policie drawn this worme from Amarantha's tongue I meane this truth from her mouth are exceeding sorrowfull and as much detest this her barbarous fact as they pitty her descent youth and beauty but well knowing with themselves that God is glorifyed in the due and true execution of Iustice upon all capitall malefactors and especially on murtherers who are no lesse then monsters of nature the disgrace of their times and the very butchers of mankinde and that the greatnesse of their quality and blood doth onely serve but to make these crimes of theirs the greater therefore I say these wise and religious Iudges proove deafe to her requests and blinde to her teares and so having first caused then to signe this her confession and then confronted her with Pierya who now to Amarantha's face confirmed as much as she her selfe right now confessed
for the death of her eldest Sonne Don Pedro for the disobedient flight and clandestine Marriage of her Daughter Cecilliana to Monfredo who is now murthered but by whom shee knowes not and seeing her sayd Daughter thereby made a sorrowfull Widdow shee as an indulgent and kinde Mother forgâ—…ng what she had formerly done and beene and now desirous to comfort her and to bee comforted of her againe sends her sonne Don Martino to Valdebelle to solliciâ—…e his Sister to returne and to live with her in Burgos Who detesting this pâ—…ject and resolution of his Mother is very sorrowfull thereat but seeing that shee will be obeyed he rides over to Valdebelle to his Sister and there delivereth his Mothers will and message to her but in such faint and cold tearmes as shee thereby knowes hee is farre more desirous of her absence than her presence and of her stay than her returne yea and to write the truth of her minde his very sight strikes such flames of feare into her heart and of suspicion into her thoughts that shee still assumes and retaines her old opinion and confidence that hee is the absolute Murtherer of her brother Don Pedro and her husband Don Monfredo but herein shee now holds it discretion to conceale her selfe to her selfe and so gives him kinde and respective entertainment shee prayes him to report her humble duety to her Mother that she will consider of her request and either send or bring her 〈◊〉 resolution shortly but inwardly in her heart and soule she intends nothing lesse than either to hazard her content upon the discontent of her Mother or which is worse her life on the inveterate malice of her brother Don Martino And now we approch and draw neere to see the judgements and justice of God overtake this our wretched Don Martino for these his two most lamentable and bloudy Murthers And now his sacred Majestie is fully resolved to detect them and his Arrow is bent and Sword whetted to punish him for the same for wee must understand that the very same day which her brother Don Martino was last with her at Valdebelle his Confessor Father Thomas dyed and some three dayes after his Sister Cyrilla according to his dying order rides over to the Lady Cecilliana and delivereth her the Priest her brothers Letter at the receipt whereof Cecilliana findes different emotions in her heart and passions in her minde 〈◊〉 going into the next roome she breaks up the seales and finds therein these Lines FATHER THOMAS to CECILLIANA WEll knowing that the Lawes of Heaven are farre more powerfull and sacred than those of Earth as I now lye on my Death-bed ready to leave this life and to flie into the Armes of my Saviour and Redeemer Christ Iesus I could not goe to my Grave in peace before I had signifyed unto thee that very lately thy brother Don Martino in Saint Honoria's Church delivered unto me in confession That he had first poysoned thy brother Don Pedro with a paire of perfumed Gloves and then after murthered thy husband Don Monfredo with his Rapier in Burgos And although I must and doe acknowledge that he was in his Fit of Lunacie and Madnes when he thus made himselfe a witnes against himselfe hereof yet no doubt the immediat finger and providence of God led him to this resolution as an act which infinitly tends to his sacred Honor and Glory I send thee this Letter by my Sister Cyrilla whom I have strictly charged to deliver it to thee three dayes after my buriall because I hold it most consonant to my Profession and Order that not my Life but my Death should herein violate the seale of Confession and thou shalt shew thy selfe a most religious and Christian Lady if thou make this use hereof that it is not my selfe but God who sends thee this Newes by mee FATHER THOMAS Cecilliana having o're-read this Letter and therein understood and found out that her brother Don Martino is the cruell Murtherer both of her brother Don Pedro and her husband Don Monfredo her griefe thereat doth so farre o'resway her reason and her malice and revenge her religion as once shee is of the minde to murther him with her owne hand in requitall hereof but then againe strangling that bloudy thought in its conception shee vowes that if not by her owne hand he shall yet infallibly dye by the hand of the common Executioner When Love Pitty Nature Reason Griefe Sorrow Rage and Revenge acting their severall parts upon the Stage of her heart shee findes a great combate in her heart and reluctancie in her soule what or what not to doe herein when with many teares and prayers by the Advice and Counsell of God shee enters into this consultation hereon with her selfe Ahlas unfortunate and sorrowfull Cecilliana It is upon no light presumption or triviall circumstances that I believe my brother Martino to be the inhumane murtherer of my brother Don Pedro and husband Monfredo for besides that God ever prompted my heart and whispered my soule that this was true yet now here is his owne Confession to his Ghostly father and his Ghostly Fathers owne Letter and Confession to mee to the same effect Evidences and Witnesses without exception as cleere as noone day and as bright as the Sunne in his hottest and brightest Meridian that hee and onely he was the Murtherer of them both but Oh poore Cecilliana quoth shee to what a miserable estate and perplexity hath these his bloudy facts and crimes now reduced mee for he hath murthered my brother and husband shall I then permit him to live but withall he is likewise my brother and shall I then cause him to dye True it is I cannot recall their lives but it is likewise as true that I may prevent his death for as the first lay not in my power to remedie yet all the world knowes that the second meerely depends of my pity courtesie and compassion to prevent but Ahlas saith she the tyes of heaven are and ought to be infinitly more strong than those of earth and the glory of God to be far preferred before all our naturall affections and obligations to our best Friends or neerest or dearest Kinsfolkes whosoever Therefore as to detect these Murthers of his thou art no friend to Nature so againe to conceale them thou thereby makest thy selfe an enemy to Grace for assure thy selfe unfortunate Cecilliana that God will never bee appeased nor Iustice satisfyed untill their innocent blood be expiated and washed away in his who is guilty thereof because as by detecting Murther wee blesse and glorifie God so by concealing it we heap a fatall Anatheâ—…a and curse upon our own heads As Clouds are disâ—…pated and blowne away when the Sun ariseth and moâ—…teth in his Verticall lustre and glory so Cecilliana having thus ended her consultation with her selfe and now began her resolution with God she leaves Valdebelle takes her Coach and dispeeds away to Burgos where in steed of
going to he Lady Mother's shee goes directly to the Corrigador's or Criminall Iudges of that Citie and with much griefe and sorrow her teares interrupting her sighes and her sighes her teares before them accuseth her brother Don Martino to bee the bloudy murtherer of her brother Don Pedro and her husband Don Monfredo and for proofe of this truth produceth the Letter of Father Thomas his Confessor The Iudges reade it and are astonished with this report of hers and farre the more in regard they here see a Sister call the life of her owne Brother in question but they see that shee hath as much right and reason for her Accusation as her inhumane brother Don Martino wanted for his Malice in making himselfe guilty of these foule and bloudy Crimes Wherefore attributing it wholly to the pleasure and providence of God they highly extoll her piety and integrity towards his sacred Majestie in preferring his Glorie before the Scandall and Misery of her so wretched and execrable brother and then out of their zeale and honour to Iustice they to evince and vindicate the truth of this lamentable businesse send away for Cyrilla and as soone as she came upon her Oath propose her these three Questions First whether she had this very Letter from her deceased brother Father Thomas his owne hand and that hee gave her order and charge to deliver it to the Lady Cecilliana three dayes after his decease Secondly if it were of his 〈◊〉 writing and sealing And thirdly if shee with her owne hands delivered this Letter to the Lady Cecilliana To all which three Questions Cyrilla with a stayd looke and countenance answereth affirmatively and thereupon with haste and secrecie grant out a Warrant to apprehend Don Martino when hee was as it were drowned in voluptuousnesse security and impenitencie as making it his vain-glory to build Castles of content in the aire and to erect Mountains of wealth and preferment in the Vâ—…opia of his ambitious desires and wishes without ever having the grace either to thinke of his former horrible Crimes or future punishment for the same Hee is amazed at his Apprehension by the Sergeants but farre more at the sight and presence of the Criminall Iudges before whom hee is now brought They sharpely accuse him of these two aforesayd foule Murthers and for evidence and witnesses produce him his Confessor Father Thomas his Letter his sister Cyrilla and his owne sister the Lady Cecilliana at the sight and knowledge whereof hee at first seemed to bee much appalled and daunted but at last recollecting his spirits taking coâ—… of the Devill and not of God assumes a bold countenance puts himselfe and his tongue on the poynts of denyall and justification and so to his Iudges tearmes his Confessor a devill and no man and Cyrilla and his Sister Cecilliana witches and no women so unjustly and falsely to accuse him of these foule Murthers whereof he affirmes not onely the act but the very name and thought is odious and execrable to him But God will not be mocked nor his Iudges deluded with this his Apologie So they adjudge him to the Racke the first tortures whereof hee indureth with an admirable fortitude and patience but the second hee cannot but then and there confesseth himselfe to be guilty and the sole Authour and Actour of both these deplorable Murthers but yet his heart and soule is still so obdurated by the Devil as he hath neither the will to be sorrowfull nor the grace to be repentant for the same For Expiation of which his inhumane and bloudy Crimes his Iudges condemne him to be hanged and his Right hand to bee first cut off and burnt the next morning at the Common place of Execution notwithstanding that his afflicted and sorrowfull Mother out of the naturall and tender affection which she bore him imployed all her friends and possible power yea and offered all her owne estate and Landes to save his life but shee could not prevaile or obtaine it So the next morning in obedience to this his Sentence this Monster of Nature Don Martino is brought to the Common place of Execution to take his last farewel of this life and this world Hee was clad in a blacke Silke Grograine Sute wiâ—…l a faire white Ruffe about his necke and a blacke â—…eaver Hat on his head which hee drew downe before his eyes that hee might neither see nor be seene of thaâ—… great concourse of people there present who came to see him conclude the laâ—… Scene and Catastrophe of his life When after his Right hand was cut off and burnt which held the Rapier whereby he murthered Don Monfredo he then ascended the Ladder Where the Spectators expecting some repentant and religious Speech from him before his death he resembling himselfe I meane rather an Atheist than a Christian and rather a Devill than a Man as he lived so hee would dye a prophane and gracelesse Villaine for some speeches he betwixt his teeth mumbled to himselfe but spake not one word that could be heard or understood of any one and so most resolutely hee himselfe putting the Roape about his necke although all the people and especially two Friers neere him cryed to him to the contrary he saved the Hangman his labour and so with more haste and desperation then repentance he cast himselfe off the Ladder and was hanged And thus was the bloudy life and deserved death of this Hell hound and limbe of the Devill Don Martino and in this fort and manner did the just revenge of God triumph ore his foule and bloudy Crimes which may all true Christians reade to Gods glory and to the instruction of their own soules And if the curiosity of the Reader make him farther desirous to know what became of the â—…old Lady Catherina the Mother and of Dona Cecilliana â—…he Daughter after all these their dismall and disastrous Accidents I thought good by the way of a Postscript briefely to adde this for his satisfaction That the Mother lived not long after but her Daughter was first reconciled to her and shee to her Daughter to whom shee having no other child left all her whole Estate And for her who was now become likewise very rich as having a faire yearely Revennue and Ioynture out of her deceased husband Don Monfredo's Lands and Meanes although she were again sought in Marriage by some noble Gallants of Castile and Burâ—… yet shee resolved never to marry more and as I have within these very few yeares understood shee then lived sometimes at Burgos and somtimes at Valdebelle in great Pompe and Felicity GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND EXECRAble Sinne of Murther HISTORIE XXIII Alphonso poysoneth his owne Mother Sophia and after shoots and kils Cassino as he was walking in his Garden with a short Musket or Carabyne from a Window Hee is beheaded for these two murthers then burnt and his ashes throwne into the River AS Faith and Prayer are the two pillars of our Soules
forth little or no encrease his vines wither and die away all his horses are stolen from him and most of his cattle sheepe and goats dye of a new and a strange disease For being as it were mad they wilfully and outragiously run themselves to death one against the other hee is amazed at all these his unexpected wonderfull losses and crosses and yet this vild Miscreant and inhumane Murtherer hath his conscience still so seared up and his heart and soule so stupified and obdurated by the Devill that he hath neither the will power or grace to looke up to Heaven and God and so to see and acknowledge from whom and for what all these afflictions and calamities befall him He growes into great poverty and againe to raise him and his fortunes hee now knowes no other art or meanes left him then to marry his strumpet Salyna to whom hee hath given great store of gold and on whom as wee have formerly heard he hath spent the greatest part of his lands and estate Hee seekes her in marriage but hearing of his great losses and seeing of his extreme poverty shee will not derogate from her selfe but very ingratefully denies and disdaines him and will not henceforth permit him to enter into her house much lesse to see or speake with him hee is wonderfull bitten and galled with this her unkind repulse and then is driven to such extreme wants and necessity as he is enforced to sell and pawne away all those small trifles and things which are left him thereby to give himselfe a very poore maintenance So as a wretched Vagabond whom God had justly abandoned for the enormity of his delicts and crimes he now roames and straggleth up and downe the streets of Fribourg and the countrey parishes and houses thereabouts without meate money or friends and which is infinitly worse then all without God But all these his calamities and disasters are but the Harbingers and Fore-runners of greater miseries and punishments which are now suddenly and condignly prepared to surprize and befall him whereof the Christian Reader is religiously prayed to take deep notice and full observation because the glory of God and the Triumphs of his Revenge in these his Iudgements doe most divinely appeare and shine forth to the whole world therein Vasti on a time returning from Cleraux towards Fribourg where hee had beene to begge some money or meate of Salyna either whereof she was so hard hearted to deny him the Providence and pleasure of God so ordained it That in the very same Meadow and place and neere the same time and hoâ—…e which formerly he and his Sonne George had their conference there being very faint and weary he lay himselfe downe to sleepe there at the foote of a wild Chesnut-tree yea he there slept so soundly the Sunne being very hot that he could not heare the great noyse and out cry which many people there a farre off made in the Meadow for the taking of a furious mad Bull This Bull I say no doubt but being sent from God ran directly to our sleeping and snoring Vasti tost him twice up in the ayre on his hornes tore his nose and so wonderfully mangled his face that al who came to his assistance held him dead but at last they knowing him to bee Vasti of Fribourg and finding him faintly to pant and breath for life against death they take off his clothes and apparell and then apparantly discover and see that this mad Bul with his hornes hath made too little holes in his belly whereof at one of them a smal peece of his gut hangs out they carry him to the next cottage and laying him downe speechlesse they and himselfe beleeve hee cannot live halfe an houre to an end and as yet he still remaines speechlesse but at last breathing a little more and well remembring himselfe and seeing this his disasterous accident it pleased the Lord in the infinitnesse of his goodnesse to open the eyes of his faith to mollifie the flâ—…ntinesse of his heart to reforme the deformity of his conscience to purge and cleanse the pollution of his soule for now he laies hold of Christ Iesus and his promises forsakes the Devill and his treacheries and God now so ordaineth and disposeth of him that for want of other witnesses seeing himselfe on the brink and in the jawes of death he now becommeth a witnesse against himselfe and confesseth before all the whole company That he it was neere Losanna who murthered his owne Sonne George with a Pistoll and who since poysoned his owne wife Hesâ—… with a muske Mellon for which two foule and inhumane facts of his he said he from his heart and soule begged pardon and remission of God Heâ—… upon this his confession some of the company ride away to Fribourg and acquaint the Criminall Officers of justice thereof who speedily send two Chirurgions to dresse his wounds and foure Sergeants to bring Vasti thither alive if possibly they can They search his wounds and although they find them mortall yet they believe hee may live three or foure dayes longer So they bring him to Fribourg in a Cart and there hee likewise confesseth to the Magistrates his two aforesayd bloudy and cruell Murthers drawne thereunto as he saith by the treacherous alluremements and temptations of the Devill So the same day they for satisfaction of these his unnaturall crimes doe condemne him to be hanged and then his body to be burnt to ashes which is accordingly executed in Fribourg in presence of a great concourse of people who came to see him take his last farewell of the world but they thinking and expecting that he would have made some religious speech at his death he therein deceived their hopes and desires for he only prayed to himselfe privatly and then repeating the Lords prayer and the Creed and recommending his soule to God and his body to Christian buriall without once mentioning or naming his son George his wife Hester or his strumpet Salyna he lifting up his eies to heaven was turned over and although being a tall and corpulent man he there brake the rope and fell yet he was found starke dead on the ground And thus was the wretched life and deserved death of this bloudy Monster of Nature Vasti May we therefore reade this his History to Gods glory and to our owne reformation The End of the Fifth Booke Iunij xiijo. 1634. PErlegi hunc Librum cui titulus The 5 th part of the Triumphs of Gods Revenge against the crying and execrable sinne of Murther unâ cum Epistolâ Dedicatoriâ ad illustriss Comitem de Bedford qui quidem Liber continet Paginas circa 103. in quibus nihil reperio sanae Doctrinae aut bonis Moribus contrarium quò minus cum utilitate publicâ imprimatur sub eâtamen conditione ut si non intr à annum proximè sequentem Typis mandetur haec licentia sit omninò irrita GVILIELMVS HAYVVOOD Capellan
yeares before he had the happinesse to receive his life Some two houres after which was about tenne of the clocke in the morning these our two condemned malefactors are brought to the place of execution where a great concourse of people of Salynes and the country thereabout attend to see them finish the last Scene and Catastrophie of their lives The first who ascends the Ladder is Adrian who speakes little Only he takes it to his death that his decre wife Isabella his servant maid Graceta and his Ostler Thomas are as absolutely innocent of this murther of De Laurier as hee himselfe here againe confesseth hee is guilty thereof Hee prayes God to forgive him this foule fact and beseecheth all that are present to pray to God for him and for his wretched and miserable soule the which he knoweth hath great need and want of their prayers when casting his handkerchiefe over his face and privately ending some few prayers to himselfe hee is turned over Instantly after him rather Iustinian mounts the Ladder who in his lookes and countenance seemes to bee very repentant and penitent for this his soule and hainous fact the which hee praves God to absolve and forgive him hee here againe cleeres Isabella Graceta and Thomas of this murther Hee much lamenteth that hee hath so highly scandalized the sacred order of Priesthood in his crime and person and therefore beseecheth all Priests and Churchmen either present or absent to forgive it him when repeating some Ave Maries and often making the signe of the crosse hee was likewise turned over And thus was the miserable life and death of this impious Priest and wicked and bloody Host and in this sharpe manner did God justly revenge himselfe and punish them with shame and confusion for this cruell and lamentable murther Immediately after which execution of theirs the Iudges set our vertuous and innocent Isabella and her maid and Ostler free from their undeserved indurance and troubles whereat all the Spectators doe as much praise God for the liberty of the three last as they detest the foule crime and rejoyce at the just punishments of the two first If we make good use of the knowledge of this sorrowfull history the profit and confolation thereof will be ours and the glory Gods which God of his best favour and merey grant us Amen GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND Execrable sinne of Murther HISTORY XXVIII Hippolito murthereth Garcia in the street by night for the which he is hanged Dominica and her Chamber-maid Denisa poysoneth her husband Roderigo Denisa afterwards strangleth her owne new borne Babe and throwes it into a Pond for the which she is hanged on the ladder she confessed that she was accessary with her Lady Dominica in the poysoning of her Husband Roderlgo for the which Dominica is apprehended and likewise hanged HOw easily doth malice and revenge enter into our hearts and how difficultly doe wee expell and banish it thence what doth thus promise or rather threaten un o us but that it is a wretched â—…gne and testimony that the Devill hath more power with â—…s than God that wee more dearly afâ—…ct Nature than Grace and Earth than Heaven In many â—…nnes there is some pretence or shadow of pleasure 〈◊〉 in murther there is none except wee desire â—…hat it should bring griefe and repentance to our hearts horrour and terrour to our consciences and misery and confusion to our soules which indeed despight of our earthly policie and prophane prevention it will infallibly both shew and bring us But to shew our wickednesse in in our weakenesse through the â—…e subtilty and treachery of Satan we think wee act and perpetrate it so secretly that it cannot bee found out of men noâ—… detected or punished of God Wherein what 〈◊〉 fooâ—…es and â—…oolish mad-men are we thus to deceive and betray ourselves with false hopes and erroneoâ—… suggestions for although men may be deâ—…ded and not â—…ee 〈◊〉 yet â—…an God bee mocked or will hee be blinded and deceived herein O no his decrees and resolutions are secret and sacred and though invisible to our eyes yet our designes and 〈◊〉 are transparâ—…nt to his For hee in his all-seeing providence reserves 〈◊〉 himselfe the manner and time how and where to punish it Aâ—… reade wee this approaching History and it will confirme as much in the lives and deaths of some bloody and inhumane personages who were borâ—…e to honour and consequently to have lived more happie and died lesse ignominiously IN the rich and popuâ—…us Citie of Graâ—…ado which Ferdinand and Isabella King and Queene of Spâ—…ine Anno. 1492. so famously and fortunately conquered from the Moores there within these few yeares dwelt an ancient Lady named Dona Aliâ—…a Servâ—…tella who was descended oâ—… noble parentage and by her late Husbanâ—… Doâ—… Pedro de Carâ—…s dying a chiefe Commander in the West Indyes shee had two children a sonne and a daughter hee named Don Garcia and shee Dona Doâ—…nica hee of some twenty yeeres of age and shee of some eighteene hee tâ—…l of staturâ—… but some what hard favoured and shee short but eâ—…ceeding â—…ir and beautifull Their mother Cervantella being not left rich by her deâ—…eased Husband did yet bring up these her two children very honoâ—…rably and vertuously and maintained them exceeding gallant in their apparell though shee clad her selfe the worse for it for their sakes Shee observes her Sonne Dâ—…n Garcia to be of a mild disposition and very wittie and judiâ—…ious but for her daughter Dominica shee sees with feare and feares with griefe that her wit will come short of her beauty and her chastity of her wit In which regard and consideration shee loves him better than her and yet beares sovigilant an eie over her actions that as yet sâ—…e keepes her within the lists of Modesty and the boundes of obedience as holding iâ—…â—…rre truer diâ—…etion to make her more beloved than feared of her or rather that feare and love by â—…urnes might act their severall parts upon the Theatre of her youthful heart and resolutions There is an old rich gentleman of that City nobly descended tearmed Don Hippolito Sâ—…vino commonly knowne and named onely Don Hippolito aged of some threescore and tenne yeares and much subject to the Gowt a disease better knowne than â—…red and which loves rich men as much as poore men hate it And this old Hippolito in the Frost and Winter of his age falls in love with our â—…re young Lady Dominica and so by the Lady the Mother seekes her daughter in marriage As for the Mother shee loves Hippolito's gold better than her daughter doth his age and affects his lands as much as she hates his personage But Don Garcia at the often requests of his sister being at last vanquished by her imortuniâ—…e soone changeth his mothers opinion and good esteeme of Hippolito and so they all three give him the repulse and deniall But his affection to this deliâ—…ate fresh young beauty makes him
visit her with affection and zeale for this desire of hers and request of thine is so honourable so reasonable as my Father should be guilty of unkindnesse to deny the one and my selfe of ingratitude not to grant the other Or if he will yet continue to crosse our affections I will then make it apparant to the world that I will not feare him the thousand part so much as I will love her and that I will ambitiously strive and resolve to make my affection to her to equalize thy zeale and her passion to mee and that I cannot receive a greater felicity and honour than to see her my Wife and my selfe her Husband I have given an answere to her Letter and very shortly I will give her my selfe every way answerable to her merits to thy expectation and my promise RODERIGO His Letter to Dominica was charged and fraughted with these lines RODERIGO to DOMINICA To deface thy sorrowes for thy Brothers death and thy miseries for my absence and likewise to preserve thy ioyes in their blossomes and thy hopes in their riper age and maturity I am fâ—…ly resolved very shortly to grant thy request in leaving Asnallos to live and dye with thee in Granado and thou doest offer a palpable wrong to the truth and an immerited disparagement to the purity and candour of my affection to thinke that I any waâ—… preferre my obedience to my Father before my affection to thee or consequently his content to thine Therefore prepare thy selfe to kisse not to chide mee for else I will resolve to chide and not to kisse thee at my returne My best endevoure shall write on the prosperity of thy Mothers affaires and my best love and service shall eternally attend on her Daughters pleasure and Commands and judge thou if my zeale to thee doe not exceed thine to my selfe sith Earth is not so deere to mee as the Honour of thy sight nor Heaven as the felicity of thy company RODERIGO Hee hath no sooner dispatched these two Letters to his Mistris and her Mother but the very next day after hee enters into a resolution with himselfe that hee shall not doe well so soone to disoblige and disobey his father by so speedily precipitating his returne from Asnallos to Granado as urging this reason to his consideration and proposing this consideration to his judgement that Dominica's affection and beauty can difficultly make him rich but that his Fathers discontent and displeasure towards him may easily make him poore Whereupon resolving to cherish his constancy to her and yet to retaine his obedience to him hee holds it no sinne if a little longer hee dispence with his content and promise to temporize for his discretion and profit as grounding his hope upon this confidence and his confidence upon this presuming infallibility that his Lady and Mistris Dominica is as chast as faire and will prove as constant to him as she is beautifull in her selfe But she is a woman and therefore she may deceive his hopes and he is a man and therefore it is possible that her beauty may betray his judgement the which prediction and prophesie to his griefe and sorrow and to her shame and misery wee shall shortly see made true and verified the manner thus Dominica as wee have formerly understood being of a wanton disposition and carriage and very unchastly and lasciviously enclined shee finding Roderigo's stay in Asnallos to exceed his promise and her expectation shee cannot live chast shee will not remaine constant in his absence but hath a friend or two I meane two proper young Gentlemen of Granado to whom shee many times privately imparteth her amorous favours and affection the which shee acteth not so closely but the Lady her Mother being a Lincy-eyed and curious observer of her actions hath notice thereof and thinking ro reclaime her from this foule sinne of fornication and whoredome which threatens no lesse than the ruines of her fortunes and the shipwracke of her reputation she first attempteth to perswade her by faire meanes with teares and prayers but seeing shee could not thereby prevaile with her then shee gives her many sharpe speeches and bitter threates and menaces as wholly to deprive her of her Fathers portion and either to make her spend her daies in a Nunnery or end them in a Prison That shee is not worthie to tread upon the face of earth or looke up to Heaven because this her foule crime of fornication makes her odious to God and an infinite shame and scandall to all her Parents and friends in generall and to every one in particular with many other reasons looking and conducing that way the which for brevities 〈◊〉 I resolve to omit and bury in silence But this lectuâ—…e of the Mother prevailes not with the Daughter but rather inflames than quencheth the fite of her inordinate and lascivious lust the which shee perceiving and to prevent her owne scandall in that of her daughters shee as a carefull Mother and a wise Matron me weth her up in her chamber where Dominice for meere griefe and choller to see her selfe thus debard of her pleasures in the restraint of her liberty shee growes very ficke lookes exceeding wanne pale and thinne and sokeepes her bed the which the Lady Cervantella takes for a fit occasion and opportunity againe effectually to write to Roderigo to hasten his returne to Granado as doubting least her Daughters Belly should chance to swell and grow big in his absence This her Letter to Roderigo reported her minde and represented her desires to him in these tearmes CERVANTELLA to RODERIGO THou doest thy selfe no right but mee and my Daughter infinite wrong in staying so long from Granado in regard it is contrary to thy promise to my expectation and to her deserts and merits For her affection is so entire and fervent to thee because shee conceives and hopes that thine in requitall is so to her that shee hath this many moneths languished in expectation of thy returne whereof now beginning to dispaire that dispaire of hers hath strucke her into so dangerous a consumption that I feare it will shortly prove fatall to her for already the Lillyes have banished the Roses of her cheekes yea her cheekes are growne thinne and those sparkling starres her eyes have lost a great part of their wonted lustre and glory so if thy affection will not yet pitty should move thee to hasten thy returne to see and comfort her especially sith thou wilt scarce know her when thou seest her in regard I may almost justly affirme that shee is no longer Dominica but rather the living Anotomy of dead Dominica How thou canst answer for this her sicknesse to thine honour which is occasioned by thy unkindnesse I know not but sure I am if shee goe to her grave before thou come to her thou canst never sufficiently answer it to thy conscience nor thy conscience to God In her sicke bed thou art the only Saint to whom shee
but not hee her and wee shall not goe far till we likewise see what effects these their different affections will produce Whiles Vrsina is assured of Sanctifiores love to her Bertranna contrariwise by her selfe and her friends makes it her chiefest care and ambition to perswade and draw him to forsake Vrsina and to love and marry herselfe but shee will find more opposition and difficulty therein than shee expects True it is that although the Baron of Sanctifiore doe continually frequent Placedos house and his daughter Bertrannas company yet understanding and considering with himselfe that Vrsina honoured him with her constant love and affection hee therefore held himselfe in a manner bound sometimes to see and visit her although indeed it was every way more to content and please her than himselfe where albeit that her policy to her selfe and her affection to him gives him many quips and jerkes of his Mistris Vrsina yet his reputation and discretion makes him comport his actions and speeches so equally towards Bertranna that although hee give her little cause to hope yet he gives her none to despaier of his love and affection to her in requitall of hers to him and upon these and no other tearmes stand Sanctifiore and Bertranna But as for Vrsina her hopes and heart of Sanctifiores affection to her sayls on with a more pleasing and joyfull gale of wind for shee loving him as deeply as hee doth her dearly she accounts her selfe his and he hers as we may the more particularly and perfectly perceive by foure love-letters of theirs which secretly and interchangeably past betweene them the which for the Readers better satisfaction I thought good here to insert and publish whereof his first to her spake thus SANCTIFIORE to VRSINA THe Sweetnes of thy beauty and the excellencie of thy Vertues have so fully taken up my thoughts and so firmely surprised and vanquished my heart that I am so much thine hoth by conquest and duty as I know not whether I doe more affect or honour or more admire or adore thee Wherefore if thou art as courteous as faire and as loving to me as I am faithfull to thy selfe then returne mee thy heart as I now give and send thee mine and assure thy selfe that my affection is so infinite and entire to thee that I love and desire theeâ—… thousand times more than mine owne life and will esteeme my death both sweet and happy if thou wilt henceforth live mine by Purchase as I am now thine by Promise Thy will shall be my law and as there is a God in Heaven so Vrsina hath not so fervent a lover or constant a servant on earth as her SANCTIFIORE Vrsinas answer hereunto was couched in these tearmes VRSINA to SANCTIFIORE IF thy heart be as full of affection as thy letter is of flattery to mee I should then have as just cause thankfully to beleeve that as now I have to suspect and feare this For the iniquity of our times and the misery of many former examples doe prompt and tell mee that most men love more with their tongues than with their hearts and that they all know far better how to professe than preserve their affections and fidelities to their Mistresses As for mee judge with thy selfe how courteous and loving I am to thee for if I perfectly knew that thy Letter were the true Ambassadour and unfeigned Eccho of thy heart I would both say and promise thee that I would love thee and none but thee Make my selfe thy wife when and as soone as thou wilt please to bee my Husband for in life and death I here now promise thee to bee more thine than mine owne Resolve mee of this doubt and free mee of this feare and then manage this affection and favour of mine with discretion and requite it with fidelitie to thy VRSINA The Baron of Sanctifiores second letter to her contayned this language SANCTIFIORE to VRSINA AS I am not guilty so I am not answerable for other mens crimes of infidelity but doe as justly detest and scorne as you unjustly feare them in mee That my affection is pure and sacred and shall bee inviolable to thee bee God my Iudge and my heart and conscience my witnesses Therefore to resolve thy doubt and to free thy feare thereof I vow by the purenesse of thy beauty and by the dignity of thy vertues that both my former letter and also this are the true Ambassadours and Ecchoes of my heart and which is more of my soule I will shortly kisse thee for thy love to mee then love thee for thy kisses and after embrace and thanke thee for both and when I faile of my affection and fidelity to thee may God then faile of his Grace and mercy to my selfe I will make my selfe thy deere Husband and thee my sweet wife when thou pleasest to crowne and honour mee with that sweet joy and to ravish my heart with this desired felicity SANCTIFIORE Vrsinas answer hereunto was traced in these tearmes VRSINA to SANCTIFIORE RElying on the Purity of thy affection and the preservation and performance of thy constancy to mee for the which thou hast invoked God for Iudge and thy heart and Conscience as witnesses thereof I now freely acknowledge my selfe to bee thy wife by Purchase and thou to bee my Husband by Promise and doe therefore wholly take me from my selfe eternally to give my selfe to thee I desire the enjoyance of thy company and presence with as much impatiency as thou longest for mine and thou shalt find that I will make it my chiefest care and ambition to love thee and my greatest glory to honour and obey thee and let both of us beware of infidelity each to other for God will assuredly punish it with justice requite it with revenge and revenge it with misery on the Delinquents and Offenders VRSINA By the perusall and consideration of these foure precedent Letters wee may plainly perceive what a firme promise and secret contract there was past betweene the Baron of Sanctifiore and the Lady Vrsina and how servently and sweetly they had given themselves each to other in the promise and assurance of mariage so not contented to have gotten the Daughters good will hee in very honourable fashion and tearmes likewise seekes her Father Seignior Placedos consent thereto whom though for some few Monethes hee found to bee averse and opposit to his desires therein yet upon Sanctifiores importunate intreaties and his Daughter Vrsinas frequent teares hee at last consenteth to this their mariage only he delayed the consummation thereof for some secret reasons and considerations best knowne to himselfe the which I cannot publish because I could never gather or understand them Whiles thus the Baron of Sanctifiore remaines in Naples his long stay great trayne prodigall expenses there and his absence from Capua where his lands and meanes lay made him bee in some distresse and want of mony and not knowing how to procure it
shee cannot speake a word when being ready to fall to the ground her aunt Mellefanta steps to her assistance and so doe the two men but they have all of them much adoe to support her up when at last wringing her hands and looking up stedfastly to heaven she throwing her letter to her aunt to reade utters forth this bitter exclamation against Sanctifiore and hath this base Nobleman at last requited all my love with this monstrous ingratitude and treachery O why doe I live to suffer it and O wherefore should hee live for offering it to mee her aunt reads her letter and in detestation of Sanctifiores basenes shee addes fuell to the flame of her neeces choler against him but shee needs not for this very last act of his marriage with Bertranna sets her all in fire and revenge against him yea her heart is so absolutely diverted and taken away from him as heretofore she never loved him so much as now shee hates him shee sweares to her selfe that shee will make him pay deare for this his ingratitude and treachery towards her and limits her revenge with no lesse than his death for so basely abusing and deceiving her shee but now threw away his letter for sorrow but now shee againe takes it up for joy because it calls her home to Naples where as soone as shee arives shee againe and againe resolves and vowes with her selfe that shee will murther him her selfe or cause him to bee murthered by some others her aunt Mellefanta by all sweet meanes and perswasions seeks to pacifie her discontent and fury and so to appease and coole the raging tempests of her heart but shee speakes to a deafe woman who is not capable either of councell consolation or reason for her mallice and revenge against Sanctifiore have so sully taken up her heart and soule and so absolutly surprised her thoughts and possessed her resolutions that shee neither resolves nor thinkes of any thing else but how and in what manner shee may murther him to which end shee takes coach for Putzeole there packes up her baggage conceales her bloody intents and resolutions towards Sanctifiore from her aunt Mellefanta thankes her most lovingly and courteously for all her care of her and affection to her the remembrance whereof she affirmes she will beare to her grave and from thence to heaven and so within three daies takes leave of her and returnes to Naples to her father who receives her with much content and joy and is very glad of the recovery of her health and yet perceives some secret discontent lie lurking in the furrowes of her browes but shee dissembleth it both to him and the world and so beares her selfe fairely modestly and temperatly towards him in her speeches and actions who all this whiles is every way ignorant of her disgracefull great belly as also of the birth buriall of her infant child She is no sooner come to Naples but her deadly malice and revenge to Sanctifiore will give no truce to her thoughts nor peace to her resolutions for her heart having conspired with the devill and both of them against God to dispatch him to heaven so now from the matter shee falles to the manner and from her consultation to the practise thereof She first thinkes it best to get him poysoned to which end within ten dayes after her arivall to Naples shee sends for her owne Apothecary named Antonio Romancy and having sworne him to secrecy profers him two hundred duckatons to poyson her mortall enemy the Baron of Sanctifiore but Romancy is too honest a man and too religious a christian to undertake it and so utterly refuseth her and rejecteth her profer and then and there with many godly reasons and pious speeches endevoureth to disswade her from this foule and bloody fact but hee speakes either to the wind or to a deafe woman for shee is resolute not to retire but to advance in this her cruell and inhumane designe only shee here againe strongly conjures this honest Apothecary to secrecie the which hee solemnly promiseth Vrsina is still implacable in her malice and revenge against Sanctifiore the which revives with more violence and flames forth with the greater impetuositie when shee by her secret spies is given to understand that hee triumpheth in her affliction and scandall and reputes it his chiefest content and felicity to have erected the trophees of his joy upon the ruines of her honour and the demolitions of her reputation and fame as also that shee and this her disgrace is now become the publike laughter and private scorne and glory of his proud and ambitious wife Bertranna so shee cannot endure the thought much lesse digest the remembrance and consideration hereof and therefore shee speedily resolves to reduce her malitious contemplation into bloody action towards him and to try another experiment and conclusion thereof She in a pleasant morning somewhat sooner than accustomed walkes alone with her waiting maid in her fathers curious and dainty garden but not to please her eyes with the delicious sight and fragrant smell of the great variety of rare and faire flowers wherewith it was richly adorned and diapred or to recreate and delight her eares with the mellifluous ditties and madrigalls of those sweet quiristers of the aire the nightingalls thrushes and lennots who sate chaunting of some sweet division on some trees of this garden and on some branches of these trees or to preserve her selfe from the intemperate heat of the scorching sunne beames and therefore either to passe her time either in some shaddowed walkes and arbours or to sit her selfe downe by some curious chrystall fountaine with all which delights and rarities this her fathers garden was deliciously inriched and embelished O no nothing lesse for shee was resolute to make her selfe more miserable and not so happie because her thoughts were wholly bent on blood and her resolutions on the murther of Sanctifiore at what price or rate soever Having therefore formerly mist of her Apothecary Romancy to poyson him shee else knowes not any so fit or proper to dispatch him as her trusty coachman Sebastiano who as wee have formerly understood was both an eye and an eare witnesse of this his base and ignoble crueltie towards her wherefore shee by her waiting maid sends for him into the garden to her and with many ruthfull lookes and sorrowfull sighes having first commended and applauded his fidelity to her and then sworne him to secrecy to what shee should now relate and deliver unto him shee tells him that shee cannot live except that base Lord Sanctifiore dye and therefore shee profereth him an hundred Spanish double pistolls of gold if hee will either murther him by night in the streets with his rapier or pistoll him to death abroad in the fields at his first seeing and meeting of him to the which shee very earnestly prayes and requests him Sebastiano as amazed at this bloody proposition and entreaty of his young Lady
speed to find out Sanctifiore the which armed with his innocency hee joyfully doth Now as they are come within two flight shots of him Vrsina bids Sebastiano not to proceed farther but to drive in the coach into some close shaddowed place out of the high way where they might see Sanctifiore but not as yet to bee either seene or espied of him which accordingly hee doth where shee descends her coach drawes off her 〈◊〉 apparell and so puts on her false friers apparell as also the haire and beard having made and prepared all things fit and ready before and here likewise shee soldeth up the tresses and tramells of her owne haire under it and hath purposely shaved away the haire of a little part of the crowne of her head and all this whiles her coachman Sebastiano turnes her chamber maid here in the fieldes to make her ready where hee cannot refraine from exceedingly smiling and laughing to see what a strang metamorphosis this now is that his young Lady Vrsina is here become an old frier but still shee hides and conceales her two pistolls carefully in her pocket from him as also her bloody designes and intents towards Sanctifiore and whereof hee as every way as innocent as shee her selfe and only her selfe is guilty thereof Now being all in a readines she out of her other pocket takes her almos box and holds it in one of her hands and her howres or breviary in her other and so taking leave of her coachman and with a diffembling cheerefull countenance charging him to pray for her good fortune and speedily to bring up her coach to her as soone as hee sees her wave her white handkercher towards him so as a jolly old frier away this 〈◊〉 â—…vill soâ—…y trips towards Sanctifiore having piety in her lookes but prophâ—… and â—…barous cruelty in her heart and intentions and all the way as shee goâ—… 〈◊〉 cannot refraine from laughing to see this great change and alteration in his young Lady and mistris but directly beleeving that shee in mâ—…ent 〈◊〉 maying or masking such was his ignorance that he least thought oâ—… dreamâ—… 〈◊〉 shee went to commit murther or what devill was here vailed and shrouded under this friers weed So with more assurance than feare and with far more impiety than gâ—…e shee goes on towards Sanctifiore who was there alone walking and reading to whom approaching and giving him a ducke or two she holding up her begging box and counterfeiting an old friers voâ—… prayes him for the blessed Vâ—…rgin Maries sake and also for holy saint Francis sake to bestow some thing on him for their society and order which Sanctifiore being alone as having sent bâ—…e his coach to the cittie resolving to doe hee seeing that faire new 〈◊〉 the friers hands hee fairly takes it from him and carefully vieweth and peruseth it which being that which Vrsina aimed and looked for shee for 〈◊〉 sake but indeed purposely and malitiously steps behinde him and very â—…oftly drawing out one of her pistolls out of her pocket which was already 〈◊〉 shee levels it at the very reines of his backe and so le ts flye at him whereof hee presently was falling to the ground when the devill making â—…mble and dexterious in her malice in the turning of a hand shee whips but the other pistoll out of her pocket and to make sure worke with him likewise dischargeth it in his brest and to make her inveterate malice and revenge to him the more conspicuous and apparant to all the world as neere as shee could gueâ—…e to his very heart of which mortall wounds made by her foure bullets Sanctifiore fell immediatly dead to the ground having neither the power grace oâ—… happines to speake a word and then she pulling off her false beard discovered her selfe to him as hee was dying and spurning him most disdainfully and maliâ—…usly with her foote gave him this cruell farwell such deaths such villaines deserve who triumph and glory to betray harmelesse and innocent Ladies which having acted and said shee waving her hand kercher to her coachman hee comes upâ—…o her with her coach as 〈◊〉 as the wind who is all amazed and in teares to behold this woefull accident and lamentable spectacle for descending speedily from his coach hee finds the Baron of Sanctifiore dead and his soule already fled and ascended from earth to heaven to whom his Lady Vrsina in a gracelesse insulting bravery sayes rejoyce with thee Sebastiano that I have now so bâ—…vely and fortunately revenged my selfe on this base and treacherous Baron Sanctifiore but honest 〈◊〉 being as full of true griefe as shee was of falsâ—…ny replies and tells her Oâ—…dame what have you done for this is no cause and therefore no time to rejoyce but rather â—…o â—…ent and mourne for this lamentable fact and criâ—…e of yours and not to disseâ—…ble you the truth as much as yoâ—… in this â—…all frieâ—…â—…cke did â—…e your bloody inâ—…tions I have faâ—… more reason to feâ—…e than cause to doubt that your â—…urthering of the Baroâ—… of Sanctiâ—… will pâ—…ove the ruine and confusion of your selfe except God â—…ee gratiously pâ—…ed â—…o â—…e more mercifull to you than you have 〈◊〉 to him therefore looke from his danger and misfortune speedily to provide for your owne safety which as sooâ—…e as hee had said hee in the â—…riersweeds speâ—…ly takes her up in the coach and then drives away a full gallop to the shadowed thickeâ—… from whence â—…hee 〈◊〉 where she câ—…sts of her â—…iers apparell beaâ—… 〈◊〉 box and bookâ—… as also the â—…o pistolls the which they two wrap up all in the gowne and throw it into a deepe ditch or precipice and so hee helpes her to put on all her owne apparell and a â—…ire and then with more hast than good speed drives home a maine towards Naples and it was a disputable question whether our bloody and execrable wretch Vâ—…a more rejoyced or her honest coachman Sebastiano lamented and grieved at this unfortunate and deplorable fact Wee have seene with what a malitious courage and a desperate and prophane resolution this cruell hearted Gentlewoman Vrsina hath in the habit of a frier murthered this unfortunate Baron Sanctifiore and the reader shall not goe much further in this history before if not in the same moment yet in the same houre hee see the sacred justice of God will surprise and bring her to condigne punishment for the same as if the last as indeed it is were co-incident and hereditary to the first or as if it were wholy impossible for her to rejoyce so much here on earth for that as God and his Angells doe both triumph and glory in heaven for this Gods judgments are as just as sacred and as miraculous as justs so that all people should rather admiâ—… it with awfull reverence than any way neglect it with a prophane presumption But our wretched Vrsina will not make her selfe so happie to bee of the first but rather so miserable
hackney coach speedily flying to Putzeole to her aunt Mellefunta for protection and Sanctuary so these fierce and mercilesse sergeants doe presently divert and alter their course yea they furiously and suddainely rush upon them apprehend and constitute them close prisoners in the common goale of thaâ—… cittie placing them in two severall chambers to the end they should not prattle or tell tales each to other where they shall finde more leasure than time both to remember what they have done and likewise to know what hereafter they must doe Whiles thus all Naples generally resound and talke of this mournfull fact and deplorable accident and Seignior Placedo particularly grieves at these his daughters unexpected crosses and calamities as also of those of his coachman Sebastiano the which hee feares hee can far sooner lament than remedy our sorrowfull widdow Bertranna with the assistance of her father De Tores gives her husband the Baron of Sanctifiore a solemne and stately buriall in the Fueillantes Church of Naples correspondant to his noble degree and qualitie And then within two daies after at her earnest and passionate solicitation to the judges Vrsina and her coachman Sebastiano are severally convented before them in their chiefe Forum or tribunall of justice and there strongly accused by her and charged to bee the authors and actors of this cruell murther committed on the person of the Baron of Sanctifiore her husband the which both of them doe stoutly deny with much vehemency and confidence and when the little boy Bartholomeo is face to face called into the court to give in evidence against them hee there maintaines to the judges what hee had formerly deposed to them in the fields but saies hee thinks not that this Lady was that frier nor can hee truly say that this was the coachman who carried him although when his cloake was shewed him hee could not deny but it was verie like it but Bertranna having now secretly intimated and made knowen to the judges all the passages that had formerly past betweene Vrsina and her husband Sanctifiore as his getting of her with child and then contrarie to his promise refusing to marry her they doe therefore more than halfe beleeve that it was her discontent which drew her to this choler her choler to this revenge and her revenge to this murthering of him as also that in favour of some gold shee had likewise seduced and drawen her coachman Sebastiano to bee consenting and accessary herein with her whereupon the next day they will begin with him and so they adjudge him to the racke the torments whereof hee endures with a wonderfull fortitude and patience so that remembring his oath of secrecy to his Lady Vrsina hee cannot thereby bee drawen to confesse any thing but denies all whereof shee having secret notice doth not a little rejoyce and insult thereat now the very next ensueing morning Vrsina her selfe is likewise adjudged and exposed to the racke the wrenches and torments whereof as soone as shee sensibly feeles God proves then so propitious and mercifull to her soule that her dainty body and tender limbes cannot possibly endure or suffer it but then and there shee to her judges and tormentors confesseth herselfe to bee the sole author and actor of pistolling to death the Baron of Sanctifiore in the same manner and forme as wee have already understood in all its circumstances but in her heart and soule shee strongly affirmes to them that her coachman Sebastiano was not accessary with her herein upon which apparent and palpable confession of hers her judges in honour to sacred justice and for expiation of this her foule crime doe pronounce sentence of death against her that shee shall the next morning bee hanged at the place of common execution notwithstanding all the power and teares of her father and kinsfolkes to the contrary So she is returned to her prison where her father not being permitted to see her that night sends her two Nuns and two friers to prepare and direct her soule for heaven whom in a little time through Gods great mercy and their owne pious perswasions they found to bee wounderfull humble repentant and sorrowfull She privately sends word to her coachman Sebastiano that shee is thankfull to him for his respect and fidelity to her on the racke and wills him to bee assured and confident that shee being to die to morow her speech at her death shall no way prejudice but strongly confirme the safety and preservation of his life Thus grieving far more at the foulnes of her crime than at the infamy and severity of her punishment shee spends most part of the night and the first part of the morning in godly praiers and religious meditations and ejaculations when although her sorrowfull old father Seignior Placedo by his noble kinsman the Prince of Salerno made offer to the Viceroy the Duke of ossuna the free gift of all his lands to save this his daughters life yet the strong solicitation of the first and the great proffer of the last proved vaine and fruitlesse for they found it wholly impossible to obtaine it So about ten of the clocke in the morning our sorrowfull Vrsina is betweene two Nuns brought to her execution clad in a blacke wrought velvet gowne a greene sattin petticoate agreat laced ruffe her head dressed up with tuffes and roses of greene ribbon with some artificiall flowers all covered over with a white ciffres vaile and a paire of plaine white gloves on her hands when ascending the ladder shee to the great confluence of people who came thither to see her take her last farwell of this life and this world with a mournfull countenance and low voice delivered them this sorrowfull and religious speech Good people I want words to expresse the griefe of my heart and the anxiety and sorrow of my soule for imbruing my hands in the innocent blood and death of the Baron of Sanctifiore although not to dissemble but to confesse the pure truth hee betraied his promise to mee of marriage and mee of my honour and chastity without it whereof I beseech Almighty God that all men of what degree or qualitie soever may hereafter bee warned by his example and all Ladies and gentlewomen deterred and terrified by mine I doe likewise here confesse to heaven and earth to God and his Angells and to you all who are here present that I alone was both the author and actor of this foule murther and that my coachman Sebastiano is no way consenting or accessary with mee herein and that albeit I once promised and proffered him a hundred double pistolls of Spanish gold to performe it yet hee honestly and religiously refused both me and it and strongly and pathetically disswaded me from it whose good and wholesome councell I now wish to God from the depth and center of my soule I had then followed for then I had lived as happie as now I die miserable And because it is now no
time but bootlesse for mee either to paliate the truth or to flatter with God or man the worst of his crime he being my servant was the least courtesie hee owed to mee I being his mistris which after with mine owne hands I had committed that deplorable fact was to bring mee home from the fields to my fathers house and for assisting mee to cast the friers frocke the false beard and haire the almes box breviary and two pistolls into the next deepe pit or precipice thereunto adjoining where as yet they still lie for this my heinous offence the very remembrance whereof is now grievous and odious unto mee I aske pardon first of God then of mine owne deare father and next of the Lady Bertranna and if the words and prayers of a poore dying gentlewoman have any power with the living then I beseech you all in generall and every one of you in particular to pray unto God that hee will now forgive my sinnes in his favour and hereafter save my soule in his mercy the which as soone as shee had said and uttered some few short prayers to her selfe shee often making the signe of the crosse takes leave of all the world when pulling downe her vaile in comly sort over her eies and face and erecting her hands towards heaven shee was turned over now as some of her spectators rejoyced at the death of so cruell and bloody or female monster so the greatest part of them in favour of her birth youth and beautie did with aworld of teares exceedingly lament and pittie her but all of them doe highly detest and execrate the base ingratitude infidelity and treachery of this ignoble Baron of Sanctifiore towards her which no doubt was the prime cause and cheifest motive which drew her to these deplorable and bloody resolutions As for her honest coachman Sebastiano although his owne torments on the racke and now this solemne confession of his Lady Vrsina at her death had sufficiently proclaimed and vindicated his innocency in this murther of Sanctifiore yet such was his widdow Bertrannas living affection to her dead husband and her deadly malice to living Sebastiano for thinking him to bee guiltie and accessary hereunto with his Lady Vrsina that her power and malice so far prevailed with the integrity of the judges for the further disquisition of this truth as they now againe sentence him to the double torments of the racke the which hee againe likewise endureth with a most unparalleld patience and constancy without confessing any thing the which his judges wondering to see and admiring to understand and having no substantiall proofes or reall and valable evidences against him they now fully absolve and acquit him of this his suspected crime when being moved in charity justice and conscience to yeeld him some reward and satisfaction for thus enfeebling his body and impairing of his health by these his sharpe and bitter torments they therefore adjudge the plaintiffe widdow Bertranna to give him three hundred duckatons whereof shee cannot possibly exempt or excuse her selfe And thus lived and died our unkind Baron Sanctifiore and our cruell hearted young Lady Vrsina and in this manner did the sacred justice of God requite the one and condignly revenge and punish the other Now by reading this their history may God of his best favour and mercy teach us all from our hearts to hate this Barons levitie and from our soules to abhorre and detest this Ladies cruelty and impiety AMEN GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND Execrable Sinne of Murther HISTORY XXX De Mora treacherously kills Palura in a duell with two pistolls His Lady Bellinda with the aid of her gentleman usher Ferallo poysoneth her husband De Mora and afterwards shee marrieth and then murthereth her said husband Ferallo in his bed so shee is burnt alive for this her last murther and her ashes throwen into the aire for the first IN the generall depravation of this age it is no wonder that many sinfull foules are so transported by Sathan and their owne outragious passions to imbrue their guilty hands in the innocent blood of their christian brethren and it were a great happines and felicity to most countries and kingdomes of Europe if they were not sometimes infected with the contagion of this bloody and crying sinne which with a presumptuous hand seemes to strike at the majestie of God himselfe in killing man his creature but because wishes availe little and for that examples are more powerfull and prevalent and prove the best precepts to the living therefore I here produce a lamentable one of so inhumane a condition that by the knowledge and consideration thereof wee may know how to detest the like and avoid the temptations in our selves IN the famous kingdome of Portugall and within a very little league of Stremos one of the sweetest and fairest cities thereof there within these few yeares dwelt a noble gentleman of some fifty six yeares old named Don Alonso De Mora Issued and discended from one of the best and famous houses of that kingdome as being Nephew to that great and wise Don Christopher de Mora of whom the histories of Spaine and Portugall make so often and so honourable mention and although hee were by his ancestors and parents left very rich in lands and possessions yet his ambition and generosity caried him to serve his king Phillip third of Spaine in his warres of Africa and Flanders wherein hee spent the greatest part of his time and of himselfe wonne many renowned laurells and martiall trophees of honour and as an excellent cavalier left behinde him many approved markes and testimonies of his true valour and magnanimity But as all men are naturally constant in unconstancy and subject and co-incident to mutations and that the world still delights to please us with changes and to feed our fancies and affections with different enterprises and resolutions so our De Mora at last calls home his thoughts and himselfe from warre to peace and resolves to spend the remainder of his age in as much ease pleasure as formerly hee had done the heate and strength of his youth in tumults and combustions hee now sees that there is no life nor pleasure comparable to that of the country for here the sweetnesse of the imbalmed aire the delicacy of the perfumed and enamelled fields the unparalleld pastime of hauking and hunting and the free and uninterrupted accesse which wee have to arts in our study and to God in religious praiers and meditations makes it to bee no lesse than either an earthly paradise or a heaven upon earth For the campe despite of commanders abounds with all kinds of insolencies and impieties the cittie despite of magistrates with all sorts of vice deceit covetousnes and pride and the court despite of good kings and Princes too often with variety of hippocrisie perfidiousnes and vanity To his owne great mannor house neere Stremos therefore is our De Mora retired with a resolution
now the consideration of De Mora's great wealth and nobilitie makes him fully to disdaine him and commands his daughter likewise to doe the same But shee not considering the premises and loving Palura's youth as much as shee hated De Mora's age shee was neverthelesse so inconstant by nature and so proud and ambitious by sex as she could find in her heart and resolution rather to bee a rich Lady than a poore Gentlewoman and so to leave Palura to espouse and marrie De Mora but first her crime her conscience makes her send for Palura and seriously to consider and debate hereon with him which they doe so Palura perceiving by Bellindas lookes and observing by her sâ—…eeches that De Mora's wealth was far more powerfull with her than his poverty and that shee notwithstanding still aimed to keepe him for her husband and himselfe for her friend hee at last tells her that hee will consent and content himselfe that shee shall marry Don Alonso De Mora conditionally that shee will first â—…aithfully promise him to grant and performe him three requests and artâ—…les So shee bids him propose them to her the which hee doth to this effect 〈◊〉 that hee shall still have the use and pleasure of her bâ—…dy as here â—…ofore and aâ—… oâ—…en as hee pleaseth secondly that from time to time she shall be â—…ow some competency of De Moras wealth on him to support his weake estate and poverty and thirdly that if De Mora die before him that within three moneths after his death shee shall then marry him Which three unjust demands and ungodâ—…y conditions of â—…alura's his sweet heart Bellinda betwixt sighes and smiles immediatly grants him yea shee feales them with many oathes and confirmes them with a world of kisses and to adde the more pâ—…tie I may truly say the more prophanesse to this their contract and attonement they fall to the ground on their knees and invoking God and his Angels for witnesses hereof they with their hands and kisses againe ratifie and confirme it but poore sinfull soules how doth Sathan abuse you and your intemperate and lascivious lusts betray you for God will not be mocked and his holy Angels cannot be deluded by these your blasphemies and impieâ—…ies for you shall in the end see with griefe and feele with repentance that this vicious league and obscoene contract of yours will produce you nothing but shame misery and confusion of all sides By this time is Bellinda's moneth expired which shee gave her father and De Mora for her resolution of marriage and now doe they both of them repaire to her to understand and receive it when her pride and ambition having far more prepared and disposed her tongue than her affection shee as if shee were a pure Virgin yea a Diana for chastitie making a low reverence to her father and a great respectfull courtesie to De Mora delivers her resolution to them in these tearmes that in humble obedience to her father and true affection and zeale to Don Alonso De Mora God hath now so disposed her heart and mind that shee is resolved to wait on his commands and to bee his hand-maid and wife whensoever hee shall please to make himselfe her Lord and husband This answer of Bellinda is so pleasing to her father and so sweet and deâ—…icious to De Mora that in acceptance of her love and requitall of her consent hee gives her many kisses and then claps a great chaine of pearle enterlaced with sparkes of Diamonds about her necke and an exceeding rich Diamond ring on her finger and so most solemnly contracts himselfe to her and within eight daies after in great pompe state braverie marries her whereat his kinsfolkes and friends and all the nobilitie and gentrie of these parts doe very much admire and wonder some condemning his folly in marrying so poore and so young a gentlewoman others praising and applauding her good fortune in matching with so rich and so great a Nobleman Here wee see the marriage of De Mora and Bellinda but wee shall not goe far before wee see what sharpe and bitter sweet fruits it produceth for here truth gives a law to my will and so commands mee to relate and discover that hee is too old for her youth and shee too young for his age yea her I must crave excuse of modestie to affirme that shee is so immodest as shee finds him not to bee so bold and brave a cavallier as shee expected in regard his best performance to her consists oâ—…ly in desire Thus being in bed together whiles hee turnes to his rest so doth shee to her repentance but shee knowes how to repaire and remedy this her misfortune for whiles her husband De Mora only kisseth her shee in her heart and mind kisseth and embraceth her young and sweet Palura who many times comes over in shew to visit her husband 〈◊〉 effâ—…ct to 〈◊〉 and as formerly so now hee â—…sciviously 〈◊〉 and 〈…〉 in a word very often performes and acts that 〈…〉 husband cannot Now within lesse than two moneths 〈…〉 seeing that hee is not capable to deserve much â—…sse to 〈…〉 dainties of his wives youth and beautie and 〈◊〉 â—…ving alâ—… that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 begins to disrespect and sleight him and yet that shee 〈…〉 pleasant to all gentlemen who aâ—…oord and 〈◊〉 his house 〈…〉 on her now hee growes jealous of her and so far forgetâ—… 〈…〉 selfe that he curseth all those who in right of the lawes of 〈…〉 honour come to kisse her but more especially Palura 〈…〉 his house and so frequently conversing with his young Lady 〈…〉 on makes him jealous and his jealousie confident that with too 〈…〉 and dishonestie he usurps upon his free hold dishonoureth him in â—…ing his bed and defiling his wife the which to discover 〈…〉 her of her libertie so that she sees and grieves to see her selfe to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much her husbands prisoner as his wife yea hee sets 〈◊〉 eyâ—… 〈◊〉 as so many Sentinells to watch her and her actions and for himselfe 〈◊〉 jealousie gives him more eyes than ever Argus had to espie out what familiaritie 〈◊〉 betweene her and her sweet heart Palura Bellinda takes this discourtesie and hard measure of her husband in verie ill part at his hands yea she bites the lip thereat and though out wardly shee seeme to grieve and sorrow yet inwardly shee vowes to requite and revenge it he is so jealous of her and so fearefull that she plaies false play with him that as soone as ever Palura comes to his house hee carries his eye and eare everie where to see if hee can espie and hearken out 〈◊〉 and his wives love-trickes together yea hee is so eurious in this quest and so vigilant and turbulent on this his research and disquisition as if hee delighted to â—…ow that whereof it were his happines to be ignorant or as if hee had an â—…ing desire to make his glory prove his
taking a solemne and sorrowfull farwell of all the world shee puls downe her vaile over her snow-white cheekes and then often crossing her selfe with the signe of the crosse and saying her last in manus â—…ua the executioner with a flaming torch sets fire to the straw and fagots whereof shee presently dies and in lesse than an houre after her body is there consumed burnt to ashes at which all that great concourse of people and spectators in favour to her youth and beauty as much affecting the piety of her death as they hate and detest the cause thereof I meane the infamy and crueltie of her life doe with far more sorrow than joy give a great shout and out-cry When the judges of that cittie now upon knowledge of this Ladies first horrible crime of poysoning her first Lord and husband Don Alonsâ—… De Mora they in detestation thereof being not able to adde either worser infamy or more exquisite and exemplary torments to her living body they therefore partly to bee revenged on her dead ashes doe cause them curiously to bee gathered up and so in the same place by the common hang-man before all the people to bee scattered and throwen in the aire where at they rejoyce and praise God to see the world so fairly rid of so foule and bloody a female monster And thus was the untimely and yet deserved end of this lascivious and cruell hearted Lady Bellinda and in this sharp manner did the Lord of heaven and earth triumph in his just revenge and punishments against her for these her two foule and inhumane crimes of murthering her two husbands May God of his best and divinest mercy make this her history and example to serve as a chrystall mirrour for all men and especially for all women of what condition and qualitie so ever And now Christian reader having by Gods most gratious assistance and providence here finished this entire and last volume of my six bookes of tragicall histories if thou find that thou reape any profit or thy soule any spirituall benefite by the reading and perusall thereof then in the name and feare of God I beseech thee to joyne thy prayers and piety with mine that as in Christian religion and duty wee are bound so for the same wee may jointly ascribe unto God all possible power might Majesty thanksgiving dominion and Glory both now and for ever Amen Amen FINIS Augusti XVIII 1634. REcensui hunc librum cui titulus The sixt booke of the triumphs of Gods revenge upon Murther qui quidem liber continet folia 99 aut circiter in quibus exceptis quae delentur nihil reperio sanae doctrinae aut bonis moribus contrarium quò minus cum publicâ utilitate imprimi queat sub eà tamen conditione ut si non intrà annum proximè sequentem typis mandetur haec licentia sit omnino irrita Guilielmus Haywood Capell domest Archiep. Cant. a Psal 23. 1. b Psal. 100. 3. c Mat. 25. 34. 41 d 1 Ioh. 2. 16. e Col. 3. 5. f 1 Pet. 5 8. g Revel 12. 9. h Ioh 12. 31. Ephes. 6. 12. i 2 Cor. 11. 14. k Luk. 4. 6. 7. l Gen. 1. 27. Psal. 115. 6. m Ioh. 10. 21. 11. 25. o Gen. 2. 7. p Gen. 1. 28. q Isay. 43. 21. r Heb. 13. 14. s Psal. 102 3. Isay 40. 7. t Psal. 39. 5. u 1 Cor. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 x Coloss. 3. 〈◊〉 y Ephes. 6. 〈◊〉 b Rom. 5. 3. c Iames 1. 2. d Iam. 1. 13 14. e Psal. 73. 23. f Psal. 9. 10. g Psal. 18. 2. h Hos. 6. 1. i Iames 1. 12. k Psal. 125. 1. l 1. Ioh. 2. 11. m 1 Ioh. 4. 10. n Ephes. 4. 26. o 1 Pet. 3. 9. p Coloss. 3 13. r Psal. 145. 8. s Gen. 4. 8. t 2 Sam. 11. 17. u 2 Sam. 3. 27. x 1 Kin. 21. 13. y 2 Kin. 21. 1. z Psa. 7. 14 15 a Iam. 5. 13. b Psal. 61. 8. c Exod. 15. 15 c Deut. 30. 20. d Psal. 104. 31
stand most fit and requisite for his Iustice and their crimes When therefore the Panders and strumpets and the new pride and bravery of our Lorenzo had eaten out all his mony and credit in Rome and that to his griefe he now saw that by no possible meanes he could procure or borrow any more there being infinitely unwilling to let his vice and prodigalitie strike saile and so as hee vainely and foolishly thinkes to disgrace his Lord Cardinals service instead of honouring it Hee once was minded and resolved to steale some gold out of the Argentiers or pay masters truncke But then consulting with his Iudgement and discretion and finding that attempt to bee full of danger ingratitude and infamy He buries that resolution as soone as it was borne and then gives conception and life to another which was to steale some peices of plate out of a young Goldsmithes shoppe there in Rome with whome hee was familiarly acquainted and whose shoppe and company hee with divers others of his fellowes very often haunted and frequented since his comming to Rome The which watching and taking his time he doth and from him takes away two faire rich guilt Chalices and a curious small gold crucifix set with a few Saphires and Emeralds all mounting to the valew of foure hundred and fifty Dukatons This young Goldsmith whose name we shall anon know is amazed at this great losse when being guided and directed by the immediate finger of God he knowes not whom to suspect or accuse for this robbery but Lorenzo the Cardinall of Florence his Baker whom hee saw and observed did very often and too familiarly frequent his shop and farre the more doth he fortifie and increase this his suspition of him because then making a curious enquiry and research of his former life and actions he found both the one and the other in all points so vitious and deboshed as we have formerly understood onely the murther of his wife Fermia excepted which as yet none but God and himselfe knew Whereupon well knowing that hee lay not in his Lord Cardinals palace which as all others are priviledged as sanctuaries but in a Taylors house neere adjoyning Hee with an officer searched his chamber and trunke wherein he found one of his Chalices but not the other or the gold crucifix which Lorenzo immediately had sold both to pay his debts and to put some double pistols in his pockets for his vaine and prodigall expences When hunting after this his theife Lorenzo he presently finds him commits him to prison and accuseth him to the Captaine and Iudges of Rome Who upon knowledge and sight of one of the chalices found in Lorenzoes trunke and also upon his confession of having sold away the other and likewise the crucifix of Gold they condemne him to bee hanged the very next day for the same Lorenzo bitteriy weeping and fuming at this his disaster doth most humbly sue and petition the Lord Cardinall his Master to begge his life of the Pope who considering him to bee a base Companion and no Gentleman and his fact during this his service to bee very foule and scandalous Hee is too Noble and wise to attempt or undertake it and therefore becomes deafe to his requests Whereupon Lorenzo is that night returned to his prison where he hath leasure though not time enough to thinke upon his conscience and soule upon the basenesse of this his robbery and the foulenesse and bloudinesse of murdering his wife Fermia The next morning hee is brought to his death at the common place of execution at the Bridge foot in a little walled court close to the castle of Saint Angelo where a world of people flocke from all parts of Rome to see the Cardinall of Florence his Baker take his last leave of the world and being the night before prepared by a Fryar in his soules journey towards heaven as soone as hee ascended the Ladder hee there confesseth this his robbery And likewise that his name was Andrea Lorenzo and that he about some Twenty and three yeares since murthered his owne wife named Fermia Moron in a vineyard neere Genova whereof hee saith hee will no longer charge his soule The which the young Gold-Smith whose name was Thomaso Lorenzo over hearing hee presently bursts forth into teares and very passionately and sorrowfully cryes out that this man on the Ladder is his owne Father and that Fermia Moron was his owne Mother and therefore hee with a world of sobbes sighes and teares prayeth the Officers and then the Executioner of Iustice to forbeare and leave the prisoner for a small whiles which accordingly they doe When at the descent of his Father from the Ladder Thomaso in presence of all that huge number of people who were present throwes himselfe at his feet and seeming to drowne himselfe in his teares for sorrow confesseth himselfe to bee his Sonne and acknowledgeth Fermia Moron to bee his mother and therefore prayes him to forgive him this his innocent ingratitude towards him in seeking his death of whom hee had received his owne life And although the consideration of his mothers lamentable Murther doth pierce him to the heart with griefe yet knowing him likewise to bee his Father and himselfe his Sonne hee freely and willingly offers the Captaine of Rome and the Iudges all his Estate to save his Fathers life but this his robbere is so foule and that former murther of his so inhumane and lamentable yea so odious to God and the world and so execrable to men and Angells that none will presume or dare to speake in his behalfe So the next day Lorenzo is hanged having first freely forgiven his Sonne Thomaso and entreated him likewise to forgive him for murthering of his mother and for any other thing else hee at his death said little But cursed the name and memory of that miserable and covetous wretch his Father in Law Moron whose unkindenesse and cruelty hee said had occasioned and brought him to all this misery But he spake not a word of his griefe or sorrow for having murthered his wife Fermia Moron Onely he said and beleeved that this his untimely death was a just revenge and punishment of God to him for the same The common sort of the Spectators and people of Rome seemed to taxe the Cardinall of Florence his Master for not saving this his Bakers life but the wiser and more religious sort applauded his generosity and piety for not attempting it from the Pope But all doe admire and wonder at Gods sacred providence and divine Iustice in making the Sonne the cause and instrument of his fathers hanging for murthering of his mother the which indeed gave cause of speech and matter of wonder to Rome Genova Savona and Florence yea to all Italy And thus was the wicked life and deserved death of this bloudy Villaine Lorenzo and in this manner did the Iustice of the Lord triumph ore his crime in his punishment And as for his Sonne