in pursuing the end of thy servid and honest Love Thus agitated betwixt divers purposes and lacerated by various skirmishes of different affects I knew not to which part either of hope or of desperation to betake my self but like a ship in the main Ocean tost by the winds and assaulâ—ed by the Waves I lived incloistered in the solitude of my Lodgings without ever going out of the storm of my sadnesse grief and sorrow I obscured by the Clouds of sundry perturbations all light of the knowledge of my unhappy state and bereft my self of all the directions of reason to arrive to the Port of Consolations by the unsafe complacency I took in my Enemie's beauty Arnaldo or the Injur'd Lover Book II. FOr as much as the King saw me not to appear any more in Court and understanding in part my new affliction thinking perhaps to please me he elected me maintainer of a Justing which he had proclaimed for the approaching feast of the Spring And though I was at that time more disposed to retirednesse then to the company of Gallants yet because I would not displease the King I accepted of it Thereupon my Soul flattered with I know not what gale of alacrity I not onely prepared my self to the designed enterprise but communicated my resolutions to a certain number of youthful Knights and we agreed upon a most capricious Mask to present at the feast which the night following the Turnament should be celebrated in the Royal Hall But for as much as the desire of glory did not ease my heart so much of the weight of its afflictions that they did not still presse me down to the center of melancholly being got up with the Aurora of that fatal day I would have the sadnesse of my habit accompany into the field the sorrow of my mind So mounted on a Thracian Courser I appeared in a military posture armed with black Arms with a Cassock of black Velvet imbroidered with studs of Pearl an embleme of my tears The creft of my Helm was dignified with no other ensign than a mournfull Plume of sable feathers But in my shield I had caused to be depainted a Limbeck from which did drop-in divers parts of the distilled water with this Motto And within burneth Now whilst the elected Knights prepared to the course I vaulted upon my Horse before the Scaffold of the Queen and raising my eyes by chance I saw my fair Lucinda which upon an adjoyning Scaffold wrapt in her mournfull Mantle in those Countreys they wear the mourning for their Parents a compleat year darted through those Clouds the luminous rayes of her Divine face and menaced with death who ever through too much boldnesse should have attempted to fix their looks on the immortal Sun of that glittering beauty What befell me upon so unexpected and astonishing a sight if ever you have been a Lover you are able to judge I think I should never have remembred the affair that had called me into that place I was so besides my self if Lucinda taking notice of my stupefaction with a sudden fiction of talking with another Lady of her acquaintance had not in depriving me of the serenity of her face made me to forsee the tempest which began to rise in my heart which calmed in part by the consideration of my duty in so great an occurrence I in the end gave beginning to the Tilting of which as the incounters and accidents were various so it would be necessary I should expatiate in a superfluous discourse if I should recount them all It shall suffice to tell you that my successe in that adventure was such as I was not able to desire more with my vows to Fortune for the increasement of my glory if love of glory had been able at that time to open a way in that breast which knew no other affect then the love of Lucinda The Turnament being concluded with the day and accompanied with the applause of all people to my house I disarmed and masked my self with the rest of the Knights my companions and came into the Hall appointed for the Ball where in the presence of the King the dances were begun My consorts each of them having took out his Lady to dance I withdrew my self apart more then ever troubled with my fears and distracted by my griefs to see my self poor in that good of which I had so much need and rich in that evil which I did so much abhor Yet finally thrust forward by that desire which enkindling in my Soul did set me all on fire I drew near also with trembling feet to my fair Lucinda to invite her to dance with almost a certain credence of being refused And truely the suspension of that Lady confirm'd my belief But yet in the end constrained by generosity and by the accustomed frequency of such passages she courteously gave me her hand But what passions did not torment my wretched heart seeing my felicity so nigh me and the remedy of my infelicity so remote The dance being ended which made me with its turns to experiment in my Soul the turning of Ixions wheel to torment me Lucinda perhaps annoyed with my presence sate her self down so near the Queen that it was impossible for me to speak a word to her wherefore withdrawing almost in desperation into a Ward-robe of the Kings I assum'd a resolution to try my Fortune again by writing And thus amidst the confusions of my spirit I indited upon the Paper these confused words Arnaldo to Lucinda LUcinda If I was granted as well the means to redressing my misfortunes as I have occasion of expressing them I am certain I should be more contented than now I find my self agrieved But seeing you have bereft from my heart all feeling of consolation though not from my mind all sense of good judgement have patience also I beseech you if I write to you that which doth not please you But what can I write since I have written and said so much already of my passions and miseries Let it suffice you to know that except you be in the end moved with commiseration of my passion and sufferings you shall in a short time see the date of my life terminated in my death And yet alas you might with more ease if you so pleased collect the infinity of my sufferings from my words and from my tears which abound in my eyes the speaking mirrours of inamoured and languishing minds I am truely miserable since the more constant my fidelity is the more remisse you are in vouchsafing it a recompence And whereas you think that by giving peace to my life you must proclaim War against your virtue I will not desire you to do any thing nor will I speak any thing that may offend you It shall content me if you but onely vouchsafe sometimes to cast your eye on my torments so that the sweetnesse of your looks may allay the sharpnesse of my sorrow for by this slight
favour you may easily obtain pardon for the many injuries you have so often done me For this onely be not I beseech you so mortal an Enemy for if you desire I should dye I also will not much desire to live and so we may with little labour both receive satisfaction where as on the other side denying me this the memory of your cruelty and my death would be eternalliz'd I verily believe that if you would but follow for a little the impulse of reason you should see how that it 's an act unworthy of a noble and courteous Lady to torment those that offend you not unlesse you can call offence my constancy in loving you and the resolution I have taken of alwayes serving you But if you continue in the same opinion which you have formerly exprest remember a little remember Lucinda the sufferings that I undergo I am confident that if my torments were but considered by you according to what they are you would rather repent them then perpetuallize them with so much severity And really it 's a strange thing and almost incredible that you had rather be cruel to those that love you than be served by those that adore you For did you but condescend to consider the sorrow you return me in recompence of the services I tender to you I assure my self that you would plainly see how in glorious it is to insult in my ruin I conclude this my passionate discourse words being superfluous after that my presence hath presented you with so many demonstrations of my torments Look upon me onely look upon me O beautifull occasion of all my dysasters least otherwise deprived of the blessed gales of your serene looks the desperation which I have of my life provoke me to sollicit the death so much desired by ARNALDO THis Letter being written and seal'd I returned into the Hall where coming in a certain throng near to Lucinda I put it in the slieve of her upper Garment and withdrew to observe how she would entertain it But for a long time that I had watcht her I could observe nothing Whereupon I flattered my self with the hope of some prosperous successe to my attempt I was therefore so distracted with this perplexity of thoughts that I either answered nothing or else besides the purpose to those who entertained me with some discourse of the present Occurrences either of the Ball or Court And he that in that instant had toucht my breast might easily have felt the palpitations of my heart caused by desire and perplexing fear the daughters of a desperate Love The time being come at last that the Ball being ended every one retired to their own house observing that Lucinda would take leave of the Queen I waited on her disguised in an unknown Garb not onely home to her house but into her Chamber without being able to observe any thing in her that contributed so much as an atome to my hope Hence being little inclined to rest for that night I dispatcht Diffilus thither at the same time to bring me back some news of the fortune of that Paper which I had adventured in the slieve of Lucinda but he could hear nothing good or bad Whereupon my natural vigour diminishing by this fixt application and my grief encreasing continually scalding my heart in the inextinguishable flames of sighs I became wholly melancholy and solitary never desiring to see the face of the Sun more out of my Chamber Hereupon Belisa my sister moved to compassion of my misery as one who felt a great part of it her self sitting down close by me one day she weeping said Ah! my dear brother I intreat thee to acquaint me with the fatal cause of this grief which so much afflicts thee Seest thou not that thy affliction is my torment and that the love I bear thee makes me to live for thy sorrow a most unhappy life Thou hast many times confest thy self to be my debter and that thou wouldest recompence my love with a reciprocal affection But you deny me that with your actions which you confirm to me with your words You know very well that such like dissimulation ought not to have place near me make therefore my breast the depository of thy passions And to whom wilt thou commit them if thou wilt not intrust them to me Do but think that if thou desirest death I will not wish for life If thou hatest pleasure I will love sorrow If thou delightest in trouble I will be displeased with repose so that thy malady and my torment are one and the same thing to excruciate my heart If therefore you desire to ventilate your passion with whom better can you do it then with me that am never sparing in wishing your good I am sure that discharging one part of it upon me we shall together be the better able to bear it For if thou hast a desire to weep I will weep if you will comfort your self in your grief I will expedite my consolation and if you desire to conceal and nourish it we two can be better able then thou alone to hide and feed it Shew not I pray thee so little confidence in her which hath nothing in all the world that is not thine and make it believed in the end that thy dissimulation cannot falsify my judgement whilest thy tears and thy sighs thy sadnesse and thy solitude accuse me and too plainly discover that which you seek with such care to hide and conceal It 's certain death ought to be lesse powerfull then brotherly love and that therefore death it self shall be most welcom to me when by it thou shalt come to acquire a joyfull life since that I see thee arrived to that passe that thou canst not long continue alive But I had rather you would assume the spirits of your generosity and cheer up your self considering that fortune is alwayes an Enemy of the happy and favourable to the afflicted and therefore she being by nature fickle and inconstant whereas it befits the fortunate to fear I would have thee accustom thy self to hope in her vicissitude She ever causeth new actions for the tryal of our minds because her puissance is better known by the prosperous then by the calamitous Reserve not therefore thy anxious solitude to thy self alone for if greater is the evil that 's hid than the evil that is manifest thy communicating of it to me may afford thee some succour I intreat thee dear brother I intreat thee let the Key of my counsel open for thee the Door of thy comfort and health the peril that 's concealed being alwayes greater in every occurrence then that which is discovered Speak to me therefore if you love me and love that we should live together whether it be dolefully or cheerfully Here Belisa sighing held her peace I reply'd Thou hast so afflicted me dear sister with thy passion that in some measure to comfort thee I must be forced to tell thee what
I am unwilling to disclose I pray you before I reveal my condition to you any farther not to trouble your self with any superfluous care because I shall see an end of my dayes before you shall see a beginning of the remedy to my dysasters Know therefore sister that more by impulse of strange Fortune then by any act of my own will I was compelled to stoop to the Laws of Love by which Fortune hath desired to make me acquire so much with the merit of my service that to my torment I have felt the ingratitude of her I served My misfortunes have already taken so deep impression in my heart that Fortune in vain forceth her self with her slow revolutions to bring any Medicine of comfort so that if death in the end do not succour me relief will come too late from other parts I will not then despair of life even in a continual death and therefore I pray thee dear sister rather to comfort then afflict thy self that thou hastâ— a brother which knows how and is able to undergo conquering himself so many troubles For if yet you desire I should be comforted and you would do me a good office let me never see thy face so delug'd in tears for if tears could mitigate my passion mine alone would be sufficient whereas thine do but increase my torments instead of contributing relief In brief I was born to languish thou to rejoyce and therefore attend to thy Jollities which better sute to the feeblenesse of thy Sex and to the tendernesse of thy years and leave this sorrow to me as more corresponding to virile fortitude and to the proof of my constancy For if you will deport your self otherwise I shall believe that you love me but little whilest you persist to afflict me with your sadnesse redoubling the grief which is of it self but too heavy to be supported Comfort thy self yet comfort thy self Belisa for thy consolation will be a great part of my redresse when I shall receive thy joy as a sign of the love thou bearest to me Belisa seeing she could not get any thing out of me of what she desired determined to let me alone and inform her self better by other means But I having already imparted this my misadventure without acquainting him with the occasion to a Knight my friend not so much because I held any great confidence in his fidelity as because of the vicinity of his house to that of my fair Enemy considering that from every part my pains increased I resolved to vent my passion to him afresh fancying the encounter at least of some occasion of comforting my self sometimes in the sight of her who though I did not see yet had stuck so many darts of grief in my breast I caused him to be sent for to my Chamber and seeing him so compassionate of my adversities as that he made a shew he would subvert the world to relieve me I as one who easily believed what I desired said unto him Friend Jersus If I go about now to discover to thee that which I have so long concealed of my afflictions yet believe that I am constrained to it by the high confidence I hold of thy loyalty and the love thou bearest me Besides if hitherto it hath been a vertue to bury my griefs in silence at the present it is a vice since after so long a siege of torments I must yield to the assaults of Love and Death And from what may I better request succour in such anguish to the distraction of my tormented heart than from thy fidelity and from thy courtesie whilst that death pursues me and that life rather offends then helps me This cruel assault began dear friend from that day on which the father of Lucinda died for then died in me all light of content never knowing what truce or peace was to an anxious mind For Love seeing me so free and disengaged from his Laws that I derided his power resolved to assault me with all the force of his Empire and though vigorous and great was my defence he had fought with such sharpnesse and assiduity that I was deprived of all succour of reason or of desperation and I saw my self come to that passe that I was forced to render my self to the discretion of his tyrannical indiscretion And if thou thinkest dear Jersus that I talking thus am out of my right senses believe me friend it would be the greatest of my felicities to be deprived of judgement as the greatest of my infelicities comes from the knowledge of and inability to redresse my dysasters Whereas if I were deprived of understanding as I could hope no good so I would fear no evil but being free from the tumults of passion and the Wars of the senses I would live full of inward tranquillity Behold me therefore reduced to so miserable a state that I know not whither to have recourse for succour in these last minutes of my life unlesse to the candour of our friendship which with the Arms of thy counsels and thy courtesie are able to raise from about my Soul the tedious Leaguer of my living death and dying hopes The adjacency of thy house to that of my fair and inflexible Enemy may at leastwise stand me in so much stead as to open to me a door of escape either by means of hope or despair The reality of thy Amity which in necessity is best-experimented and known may be able with the prudence of thy advice and indeavours wholly to set me free for I know very well that thou hast more desire to gratifie me herein then I have to entreat thee to it Having thus said I held my peace and Jersus promptly replied Friend Arnaldo I might justly be offended at the diffidence which thou shewest to have so long had of my Loyalty concealing thy troubles from me and revealing them just now when by the Laws of Love thou wast bound to suppresse them What hast thou got by thy silence which hath deprived thee of the benefit thou mightest have acquired and drawn upon thee that mischief thou didst not merit I shall neverthelesse forbear to aggravate thy grief with superfluous loquacity being my self but too much troubled for thy afflictions which the sense of Pity and the bond of Amity hath made common to me Thou sayest The beauty of Lucinda destroyes thy life and she it is doth also ruin my health for as much then as I know no difference between my will and thine since that thou requirest my counsel in such an exigent assure thy self that if my advice might but as much avail thee as thy malady torments me thou wouldest immediatly be free from all sense of either perplexity or pain Yet to tell thee my thoughts plainly it doth astonish and grieve me to think that thou shouldest voluntarily consent that the greatnesse of thy courage should be foild and overcome by a thing so weak and contemptible and that thou which wert wont
have an occasion to complain of me if now when I moved this hand to write it had been dryed up rather then render its liberty at another's perswasion to give thee not being in the least indebted to thee too pretious a pledge Yet notwithstanding I would not have thee presume upon my present writing to thee that it is because thou hast been offended at my past silence Receive this my letter therefore with moderate resentments wisely dissembling thy joy at this thy good fortune as thou hast done the vehemence of thy Love And above all remember Arnaldo that when men go about to publish such like Victories over women they make a sacrifice of their honours exposing them to the calumnies of contumelious tongues For if thou knowest what thou standest in need of thou shouldest also remember what is fit for me to do having alwayes in thy eye that to comply with thee I am become of a Lady a Slave or rather an enemy to my self for when thou shalt sing of thy glory I shall be condoling of my faults O how many times have I took my hand off from this paper with a resolution not to write to thee But alasse what should she do that cannot defend her self from thy importunities Go to rest at last from thy troubles take a resolution of thy doubts and glory in that thou hast no more occasion of contrast I have understood by thy sister that thou wilt travel into some other Country at which I am greatly displeased for who cannot be instrumentall to the good of another should avoid all occasions of doing them harm I yet to confess the truth have judged that this thy invention is rather feigned then real so that if thou intendest to deceive me Loe now thou hast done it But I must tell thee that in deceiving me thou hast cosened thy self and that thou shalt not be a jot the better for the tricks you Lovers make use of that you may triumph in deceiving the constancy of those infortunate maids that trust you Boast not therefore in thy subtilty and believe me not to be such a fool as I think thee in this particular In short I would have thee know that its more out of compassion of thy sufferings then for any fear of thy departure that I am perswaded to write to thee or rather for pitty of thy Sister whose sorrows as evidences of the torments she suffers for thy sake I have been no longer able to indure Of all this I thought good to advertise thee by this my letter with which I desire you to rest content without pretending to any further advantage otherwise thou mayst chance to lose that which for the merits of thy Sister thou hast acquired Comfort thy self therefore within thy self and suffer me in peace for although thy departure would displease me I intend not neverthelesse that thy stay shall turn to my prejudice and especially have a care it enter not into thy thoughts to desire to see or speak with me that so thy importunity impose not upon me a necessity of displeasing thee afresh by my denyals Use thy discretion and live happily LUCINDA THis letter being writ and delivered to my sister Lucinda withdrew and Belisa run to seek me to give it to me I received it with the same joy a Miser would have entertain'd a Treasure or the Mortally-sick-patient a healthfull Medicine not being able almost to suffer my self to understand this good Fortune At last I awaking out of my stupor Belisa recounted to me the discourses held with this Fair one the which having understood I set my self with a high attention to the reading this letter but he that should have then seen my face shining with a new colour of pleasantnesse might thereby have collected how much virtue and vivacity those inanimate characters had infused into my dead soul Yet this my joy was of no long durance for I did presently prove in my self how true it was that high soring flights are near the most precipitous falls I being past from a supream content to an extream desperation Thus I stood a good space fighting between joy and grief without knowing to which part to betake me for when I thought to take heart the little hope I had did not permit me and if I thought of afflicting my self the good will I seemed to see in Lucinda did not suffer me Wanting therefore the counsel of others I resolved to answer her Letter in these words Arnaldo to Lucinda LUcinda your Letter brought in its first appearance an inexplicable pleasure But the joy I took in seeing it is vanished in reading it by the return of a greater confusion of sadnesse Thus that Paper which sealed promised me remedy open confirm'd me in my misery so that judging by it of your intention I saw my ruin nearer then my relief But if Lucinda you write to me how that you compassionate my misfortunes wherefore do you all you can to afflict me your words correspond not with your actions but as crafty as you are you at the same time thrust me away with your heart and flatter me with hope and bespeak your self resolved never to put an end to my torments but with my death Wherefore use you such dissimulation with him that adores you Ah! Lucinda I had far rather that you were doubtfull of my sufferings then that believing them you should not seek to remove them And what am I the better for your advice To use your favours moderately if you your self cancell and provoke them in the same instant you bestow them If you were but as willing to cure my maladies as I have been patient to undergo them my Passion would not have any thing in it wherewith to torment me I having alwayes veiled my flames with a perpetual silence whereas your favours come so difficultly from you that almost as soon as they are born they languish to my greater prejudice If therefore it be true that you desire my satisfaction depose your severity if you would that I should believe you lay aside this dissimulation Content your self that you have robbed me of the better part of my life and that I am now running upon my own accord to death without desiring me by these fallacious hopes to prolong my life to endure every minute a centuplicated death In short since the more my faithfulnesse shews it self the further I am from my reward and you have resolv'd that I die die I will And because that in this place seeing my self so afflicted by your cruelty I cannot behold others jollity without a multiplied and Tantalizing torment I will go die in a place so remote from all humane conversation that the name of Arnaldo shall never arive to the notice of any man Yet before I depart I beg of you this onely favour to see you and because you shall not think that I request any thing of you unbefitting my Honour and your Reputation I intreat you to
Lucinda appeared accompanied with so numerous a train of servants that I esteemed it a thing almost hopelesse to get any occasion to speak to her Now while she was approaching to my seat me-thought that my heart skipping within me would have leapt out of my breast and they that at that time had observed my face would have judged me mortally wounded it was at that instant overspread with so strange a palenesse Yet in the end Lucinda was come close to me and by the singularity of my dresse and deportment believing me to be a Lady of great quality courteously saluting me she sate down close by me But what I answered to her civil Salute I cannot remember my spirits being at that time lost in consideration of the presence of her who was the sole cause of all my enthusiasms so that they were disabled to all external functions Yet recollecting by little and little my banished forces more by the benefit of the nights obscurity than by any violence I knew how to offer on my self being assisted also by the sollitude in which Lucinda remained the croud of her servants being withdrawn into several parts of the Temple I began plainly in this manner to expresse my mind Dear Lucinda if Fortune shall but grant me as much ability to expresse my torments as you have power to make me feel them I should repute my self no lesse fortunate then you be fair It will therefore concern your affability not to regard the confusion of my speeches but to consider the afflictions of my heart that compels me to pronounce them I know not courteous Madam what profit you can expect from my ruin nor what good you can extract from my evil The tearing of my Letter was truely an impetuous motion of an offended mind but the continual rending of my heart can be imputed to no lesse then an excess of cruelty If this agree to a beautifull Lady I leave you your self to judge And what excuse can you find that may stand you instead to defend the severity of your treatment towards him who loves you above his own life or rather that as to his Terrene Goddess consecrateth upon the Altar of his fidelity his heart in a perpetual Holocaust You might easily Madam openly discover in my languishing looks what be the torments occasioned no less by your beauty then by your rigour and yet the suffering them grieves me not a jot I am onely displeased that you are not pleased to accept my sufference Sweeten I implore you with the drop of some favour the bitterness of such severity for that Lady spots not the candor of her honesty which with a single syllable of courtesie favours the affects of a noble Cavalier her Adorer Other favour Madam I request not of you than verbal It sufficeth me you be still served by honouring me with the Title of your Slave and some declaration that my services are not indifferent to you blessing me now and then with a compassionate look It 's but a poor word it 's but a transient glance to one whom it may recal from death to life Thus proceeded I with a languishing voice intermingling my prayers with my tears But Lucinda I believe that indignation would not permit her before to reply when she perceived me thus run on with a trembling and discomposed voice a sign of great agitation of spirit thus interrupted me Arnaldo I answer at this time to your propositions to the end you deceive not your self in the judgement you may passe upon my intentions and lest perhaps presuming upon my silence you may not nourish some fallacious hope to your prejudice and my own dishonour I shall know of a truth that you love me if with desisting from your unadvised enterprize you will cease to trouble me It is not for me to teach you what means you should use to cure this amorous infirmity but if you be but as discreet in your desires as with your sighs you pretend to make me believe you are passionate you would be able of your self to investigate the same I use not to you that tigour which I ought because I reverence your birth but provoke me not in coming in this form for you shall draw with security little satisfaction from your boldnesse Consider therefore and remember that deceivers are wont to fall into the Nets of the deceits they intended for others This answer of Lucinda was like Oyl which powred upon my burning heart made the flame of my dolours to soment the more since the more her words diminished my hope the more they increased my desire of possessing her Thence by considering the Divine beauty of her countenance and by hearkning to the grace of her celestial discourse ravisht out of my self I retained not in me any part of life but onely Memory which attentively waited if it might be able to draw any thing of benefit from that congression But she neverthelesse having done speaking and making as if she would be gone if immediatly I did not obey her I retired most disconsolate out of the Temple and being returned to my house I shut my self into my Closet and there reasoned to my self Miserable Arnaldo What hope can be able still to flatter thy disconsolate heart to mislead thy tormented spirit Perceivest thou not O wretch that thy unbridled desire having led thee too high menaceth thee with some miserable precipice And canst thou with open eyes behold this ruin without procuring to thy self at least that assistance which reason offers thee of freeing thy self from the snares of this perfidious Love which onely to render thee unhappy is come to disturb thy peace with his importunate furies Alas Alas too vain are my thoughts and too rash my purposes It 's impossible that I can ever heal this amorous infirmity if beauty it self which bred it in my breast do not cure it But not daring to hope that what remains but that I miserably perish My disconsolate spirit wherefore stayest thou any longer in this thy miserable abode now that it is become a ruthlesse Hell of uncomfortable afflictions Unfortunate Arnaldo When thou beginnest to want strength thou beginst to augment thy torments and instead of seeking a Salve to thy evils by the constancy of a generous Cavalier thou losest thy self in the weaknesse of vulgar Lovers And how long hast thou served Lucinda that she ought to give thee her Love With the price then of a few moneths of servitude wouldest thou go about to purchase the reward of her favour The gifts of Love are not obtained with so little labour And again Ladies desire to try the fidelity of their servants with slighting them but after the Tempest of contempts follows the serenity of favours which they concede to their faithfull Lovers Love therefore thy Lucinda and since thy passions are not of a kind that do offend the Laws of the World or of Heaven hope that the World and Heaven ought to assist thee
to bear the victory from the bravest Cavaliers in the world should'st be overcome by a Feminine feeblenesse And for the further increase of my disgusts I see that thy Soul is that which falsifieth thy faith and tenders thee in a manner a rebel to reason for thou makest thy self the minister to thy own servitude and calamity Fly therefore such extreams of Love which transport thee to an extream unworthinesse not that I would have thee banish it wholly from thy knowledge there being no lesse peril in too much solicitude to avoid it then in too much assiduity to pursue it but that thou esteem it fear it seek it and contemne it with a generosity and liberty worthy of thy noble bloud and of thy great Soul For if Love be of it self a deceitfull affect do thou also deceive him his Laws being such that he who loveth least obtaineth the greatest recompence and who serveth most receiveth the greatest ingratitude In sum I consent that thou shalt follow Love but not make thy self his Slave and that thou despise him not but much lesse that thou trust him at any hand Consider that hope in easie things deceiveth in difficult betrayeth and that Fortune gives an unexpected issue to all humane affairs and therefore seeing it 's the cause of thy sorrow do thou also deceive it in making it the means of thy joy For I assure thee if thou wouldest follow my counsel now that I request thee thou shalt easily by this means obtain that which thou shalt certainly lose by going to my house in which neverthelesse thou art absolute master when and how thou pleasest And certainly thou hast done thy self great wrong to delay so long to contribute to thy comfort knowing that thou art more lord of my will then I am of my own house and for that cause I am obliged to serve thee in all occurrences wherein I may be usefull I shall say no more for words are fruitlesse where my thought is onely of comforting thee and not to perplex thee with talk And therefore now if you so please let us go to make a tryal of my Wit and of thy Fortune Thus said Jersus but whilest I hear'd him talk so sinisterly of Lucinda I felt my heart equally to boil with disdain and my mind to freeze with suspition and jealousie Yet with dissembling speeches he sought to make me believe that superfluity of Love would make me rave in my thoughts So I partly distrusted him partly assured my self that in regard of our ancient friendship he would observe that which he promised Seeing therefore that he had so freely offered me his house I resolved to go live there for some dayes but I soon found my self frustrated in my hopes for with all the diligence I could possibly use I could not in all the time I stayed there come so much as once to the sight of her for whose sake I had removed unto that Lodging Hereupon Belisa afflicted in my present peril by the consideration of my future pain at last investigating the cause of my malady she changed her course of life and without making me in the least privy to her design began to frequent the house of Lucinda with whom she had before upon some other account contracted friendship so that one day she being entered into discourse with her finding her in a good humour she thus spake to her I intreat thee my friend that using thy prudence thou will not blame me for that which I am about to tell thee presuming rather to merit applause then reprehension whil'st my compassion of another's misery excuseth my shame Dear Lucinda my deplorable brother Arnaldo for his great affection to thee dayly increaseth his affliction impaireth his health impoisoning even those remedies which should restore him to it Not that I have the least intimation from him of his Love having alwayes denied the true cause of his torments but yet I have been so sollicitous to sift out the truth that I have come to know that thou onely art the cause of his misery and mayest become the restorer of his life I have for this reason resolved to strain modesty to provide if I can possible for his safety and my sorrow And I professe that if I did not see his life in danger thou shouldest not have known the least hint of my trouble Moved therefore by a compassionate zeal for his conservation and to redresse my own calamity because wanting him who in the quality of an onely brother supplieth the place of my deceased Parents I should be left solitary and disconsolate I come to intreat thee that thou wouldest not at once with his life annihilate my consolation decollate our family acquiring to thy self instead of a perpetual glory an eternal infamy for thy cruelty and his death for certain I am he cannot so ill treated as he is prolong his life beyond the date of a few moneths O consider I beseech thee consider how much thou art oblig'd to him whil'st the more thou slightest him the more he loves thee and onely desireth death because thou art displeased with his life Herein while he for love of thee joyes in his torments and none know that thou art she which so much afflictest him thou art doubly ingaged to him and therefore at last relent into commiseration of his so great indurance and permit not his fidelity to perish by thy ingratiude What though thou art not pleased to receive him to the honour of thy conversation wilt not thou therefore gratify him at least with an answer to his Letter And if yet thou wilt not do it by instinct of a gratefull mind towards him yet do it dear Lucâ—nda for courtesie towards me who in so doing of a faithfull friend that I am thou shalt oblige me to become thy perpetuall slave Let it content thee that it 's now two years that I have languished under these sufferings and restore me since thou maist do it without trouble Lucinda presently replyed My dear friend and companion Thou hast no ground to fear that thou hast in any kind prejudiced thy Modesty whilst the pitty of a Brother and the confidence of a Friend absolves thee of all suspition and frees thee from all aspersion For though thou hast in part offended me with thy propositions thou hast also satisfyed me with thy honest innocence there being more cause thou shouldest grieve at thy brother's misfortunes than for any fault thou mightest commit against my person It exceedingly grieves me that I cannot give thee the satisfaction which thou desirest for although the misery of thy brother afflicts me yet I cannot apply my self to give him a remedy that being a thing would reflect upon my reputation to which I ought to have greater regard than to his health And thou art not ignorant how much the honour of a woman is diminished when to succour Lovers they forget themselves Request me not therefore to do that which thou
that Metamorphise their husbands into Acteons It is very right said the Knight Nor hath the Justice of Heaven a heavier scourge for mortals then that of Feminine wickednes while men in the mean time on the other side by no other way so head-strongly rebel against Heaven as by the Love of women Of which though from a divers cause I can render you most ample testimony since that having with so much fidelity Idolized my unfaithfull Lucinda in all that time I lived in such a dotage I never remembred either heaven or my self and I am now reduced by her means after a thousand deaths of intolerable dysasters to live a life more painfull then death Thus said the Knight when upon the instant hearing a mighty noyse in the Forrest we all set our selves to guess what might occasion it The servants of the Cavalier had already catch't up their Arms for our defence when we beheld to rouse on the left side of the Fountain a goodly Stag of an extraordinary bignesse which in a full carier fled the eminent peril threatned him from the persecutions of a Huntresse But stumbling upon some Vessels for the service of the Table which stood in the entrance of that Track he hapned to fall precipitously into a little pit of the Meadow where the Huntresse over-took him and stuck two mortal darts into his flank and head with such a dexterity that like lightning at the drawing of the Bow they vanish'd Having made the blow the beautifull Lasse cast her eyes on the Table and congi'd with a gentle smile dying the face of the Knight with a noble blush and began to proceed on her way But Arnaldo rising to answer her courteous Salute with great affability intreated her to sit down to take with us a short repast after that her victorious chase The Damsel turned about smiling with a grace able to inchant Souls with Love and said Some great prodigy is hapned in the world now that the Enemy of conversation invites Strangers to his Table But I cannot receive the honour you exhibit to me being expected by my company on the other side the River to Dinner Arnaldo interrupted her You will arive too late it being above three miles off but if you will please to favour us with a short stay we will also wait upon you thither I give you humbly thanks replied the sprightly Virago but that would be too much trouble for you to passe beyond the confines which inclose you in this salvage habitation But it 's a good prediction that seeing guests now with you in strange garbs I may think that you will at last put an end to this inhumane solitude which deprives the world of the glory of your person This saying with expressions equally free and generous she bore us company at dinner and out of temperance scarce tasted any of the dishes taking a little cup of water from the fountain to shew how little our nature is content with and how the worth of women is inhanced by their abstinence This done she took her leave and would not by any means suffer either the Knight or his servants to accompany her onely saying She recommended the prey to him for being taken in his jurisdiction The fair Huntresse being gone I was even dead with desire to know her Quality for the air of her looks and the freenesse of her deportment made me plainly perceive she was more then a meer Denizon of the forrest but the Knight foreseeing my curiosity which peradventure he read in my eyes he obligingly said Behold most dear guest our discourse confirmed with a new proof that from women and from good women are occasioned all the calamities of men since for so courteous virtuous and innocent a Maid many persons are at this instant endangered and many families ruined This fair young-one was born in the Isle of Negroponte of a very noble family and conjoyned by kindred to the Royal blood Being grown to fourteen years of age her parents dyed and she remained with three sisters more under the tyrannicall government of her brethren who having designed her against her will and contrary to all reason to a manner of life little pleasing to her as being a lover of Liberty did thereby occasion to themselves extream misfortunes She was for her singular beauty loved and desired by the most accomplished Gallants and noblest Knights of that Court but she yet neverthelesse with a soul truly generous in so young a Ladie did not scornfully despise but courteously refuse the service of all the other Cavaliers declaring her self to like onely the Services of Callisthenes a young Gallant noble of blood and more noble for ingenuity but of so slender a Fortune that he could scarce sustain in any splendor the Nobility transmitted him from his Ancestors This application of the Damsel highly displeased the Brothers for having already advantagiously marryed the eldest sister they designed to bury her together with these younger according to the use of those parts in the perpetuall solitude of a secluse life in the Country with a title incapable of the marriage-freedoms Nor did they long defer this their tyrannicall resolution having confined the fair Argosthenia and the other innocent creatures in a house built upon the top of a mountain in a situation almost inaccessible being incircled on every side with forrests and mountains of their own jurisdiction Hither Argosthenia being come instead of attending the imployments abhorred by her genius she began like a new Diana of those woods with her bow and boar-spear to disturb the peace of the wild beasts which in great abundance sheltred themselves in that solitary and desart place being content though absent from her beloved Callisthenes with that manner of life in which yet at least she satisfied the naturall inclinations of her generous freedom being far from idleness the fomenter of vain thoughts in the tender youth of Maids And this her life also displeased her brothers which would have her in every thing conformed to their capriccio's to remove from her all hopes of marriage The young Virago seeing her self persecuted also in that honest liberty and not brooking upon any terms to be deprived of that freedom of mind the heavens had granted her conceited inexpert as she was that the onely flying into some other part would instate her into such a benefit So having before in her hunting acquainted her self with the tracks of those forrests she got away one day with an old shepherdesse from her other sisters and disguised in the habit of a young shepherd made towards the sea-shoar where in a little fisher-boat she crost the Straits disimbarking in Boeotia and accidentally met upon the coasts a company of Ladies which there entertained the time in disports And she arrived in so fortunate an hour that liking well the deportment of Olympia an antient Lady and free also from all the Laws of Matrimony she discovered to her the secret of her quality
found her so dejected and sad that she could not utter a word And I in like manner seeing her in that state durst not ask her any thing being fearfull of understanding some displeasing news Yet at last forced by Love and my obligements I intreated her to acquaint me with the occasion of so unaccustomed and profound a melancholy At which she began so vehemently to weep that it was not possible for her of a long time to speak distinctly But yet the extreamity of her grief being in part diminished by the vent she gave it in her tears in the end she said My dearest brother Jerson and Lucinda have assassinated us both Jerson having long served me with pretext of obtaining me for other way he knew he had none through the merit of thy friendship and of Love to marry him hath betrayed me to espouse Lucinda And Lucinda now when she seemed most complacent to thee hath most perfidiously deceived thee to marry Jerson And so we are both wounded in the most sensible part of our reputation without possibility of pretending to a satisfaction equivalent to such an injury When I understood this news Belisa being able no longer to continue her discourse I interrupted her with so profound sighs shrieks that I thought thereby to breathe out my dolorous Soul And I verily believe that 't is impossible for a man to die of sorrow since I am able to live under the afflictions of such disgraces Yet indeed I was wounded with what resembled death Anon after I returned to my self and rent the Letter sent me by the inflexible Lucinda into a thousand bits entring into such desperation that even to the tearing my hair from my head I committed the most indecent acts of womanish weaknesse it being but too true That a Soul overpassionate in the love of a woman changeth his manly courage into effeminate cowardice I forbare for some dayes to efface this grief out of my breast till I might assure my self of some constant resolution Then cloathing all my family in mourning I sent Jerson a Chartel of Defiance in these terms Arnaldo to Jerson JErson To the end the world may know how lying and deceitfull the professions have been that thou hast past to me in private I am resolved to publish them that thy punishment may serve for an example to other Traitors like thy self not to abuse with such enormities the name and faith of friendship Remember therefore that among the other things of importance which I trusted to thy fidelity one was that of my Love to Lucinda in which thou hast many times made such offers to transact to my satisfaction that though thou thy self didst serve her thou oughtest to have renounced her for love of me finally under the confidence of a friend thou hast robb'd me fraudulently bearing away the prize due to my services transgressing the Laws of Friendship and Knight-hood and constituting thy self infamous and a Traitor thou art become a blemish to the Nobility of thy bloud and a reproach to the glory of thy Ancestors when as the scope of thy actions should have alwayes been Honour and Vertue Now that thou mayest receive the condign correction due unto thy sordid actions I would have thee know that with such Arms as thou shalt chuse I am ready to give thee thy death or to compel thee at least to confesse that thou hast committed the greatest villany and infidelity that could fall into the thought of man Therefore chuse Arms at thy pleasure and when I receive thy Answer I will appoint thee the field and day of Decision ARNALDO Jerson received this Defiance and pausing upon it some time in the end he answered me in this form Jerson to Arnaldo ARnaldo I have seen thy Chartel and if thy deeds shall correspond to the vaunt of thy words I hold my self already for overcome and stoop to thee as my Conquerour But I hope that this Affair will succeed otherwise and thou shalt find more of strength in my Arm than I have found infamy in thy Paper Thou biddest me remember our past friendship and I through my over-much remembring of it have married Lucinda for knowing how averse she is to thee and knowing thee to be reduced to extremity I resolved to ease thee by cutting off all thy hope of ever enjoying her And if before thou hadst proceeded to defame me thou hadst hearkened to my reasons I am confident that thou thy self wouldest have commended my resolution undertaken for thy safety But because that my words now that thou art past to the publication of these secrets by taxing of my honour therewith might be falsely ascribed to the fear of thy sword know that I pretend not to excuse my self in the least and that I am ready to quell thy haughtinesse and to defend my right by Arms It being my custome with such as thou to say little and do as I ought The choice therefore I am to make of Arms to force thee to recede from thy false opinion shall be thus We will be on Hors-back Armed at all points except the right arm which shall be bare the Lances shall be equal and each wear two swords The Horses likewise shall be barded and have their Testerns and Guards for their necks Choose thou as thou pleasest the time and place for I will meet thee with assured hope to tame thy pride and make thee swallow thy lies as there is reason I should JERSON WHen Arms had been thus denounced against me I went to the King to whom having related my cause and the treachery of Jerson he freely granted me the field The day destined to the battle being come we both presented our selves before the King and took the wonted Oath and our Arms being view'd by the Judges we entred into the List where we encountred in our Carier with such impetuosity that we easily knew the little advantage we should get of each other Jerson therefore being no lesse dextrous than skilfull in hors-man-ship assaulted me on the arme that was naked giving me a dangerous wound I must needs say I struck him onely on the Visour of his Cask without doing him any hurt Yet neverthelesse the Launces flew in pieces then we presently took our swords and began to assault one another with such resolution and our fight endured so long that the eyes of the Spectators were as weary of beholding us as we were with fighting Yet in the end the lot fell in favour of the right and Jerson was dismounted and slain and so Lucinda's infidelity came to be known and my cause approved Yet neverthelesse esteeming his own honour and that of his house more than life he would not in any case confesse his default but preferred a valiant death before a shamefull and dishonourable life Thus Lucinda in the space of a moneth after her marriage made in my contempt and to the betraying of my sister became a Widow Jerson was chastised I a Conquerour
right was vindicated and infidelity punished Here the Knight having stayed his discourse I congratulated with him so glorious a victory obtained over so perfidious together with so valiant an Enemy Then the Cavalier sigh'd from the bottom of his heart and said Too dear I paid Noble Stranger for so famous a victory for in acquiring to my self the applause of valour I came to procure an infinite deal of sorrow having eternally lost her whom I hoped to win in so great a field of courage and fidelity For not being yet cured of my infirmity I made overtures by divers friends kinsfolks so was I inamoured on her to Lucinda that entreating she would pardon the offence done her upon the necessity of honour against my will she would consent though now she was not worthy of my bed and company to receive me in the room of her deceased Consort To which being alwayes averse she shut her ears setling her self in this cruel approbation not onely of not gratifying me with marriage but of not surviving her beloved Jerson Seeing therefore that I spent all my attempts in vain I would for my last proof and ultimate disgrace make use of the person of Belisa Who though she was very unwilling yet knew not how to deny at my request to seek to so ill-beloved a woman but try'd to see if at her entreaty she would receive me into favour which besides bloud and fortune having also made my self a known Superiour in valour to her deceased husband I was not doubtlesse unworthy in a second place to possesse her affections Lucinda understanding by the mouth of Belisa such like remonstrances she disturbedly said to her My friend follow me and I will give you the answer you require of me So they went together to a building of the Ladies separated from the common offices of life and entring the same according to the freedom of our Countreys they came just into that part where Jerson lay enterr'd in the hereditary Sepulcher of her greatest Ancestors founders of that structure Whither being come with her Governesse and other Ladies of her acquaintance Lucinda first stedfastly beheld the Sepulcher and after turning to Belisa tartly said See the nuptials prepared me by your brother And that saying with a sharp Dagger which she carried hid in her slieve she barbarously stabb'd her self in the breast to tranfix in her life my Soul and the comfort of all my hopes She did not die presently yet did not survive many hours so desperate was her resolution to be a perpetual companion in death of him whose company she had enjoyed but few hours in life The horror of such a spectacle put such affliction and terror into the mind of Belisa that it being accompanied with the fear of seeing me also fall in her as not desiring to survive this her death she fell into a deep swound in which she long continued like one really dead being not able to resist so great a dysaster she also ended the course of her dayes with a short ficknesse in the most goodly flower of her youth and hath left me Heir of a perpetual death few nights passing me in which she comes not to disquiet my sleep with horrid apparitions and discourses of death I think therefore that the end of my calamity is not far off for but yesterday she appeared to me about break of day telling me that there would arrive at my house and you are the dearest Guest from the Western parts a Stranger which would one day transmit to the memory of Posterity the Tragical History of our miserable adventures And bring me withall a change of my fortune which I am certain cannot be but by changing this turmoyled life into the tranquil repose of death Arnaldo or The injur'd Lover BOOK IV. HEre stopt the Knight and I subjoyned I would have you hope for more fortunate Auguries which not my arrival in these parts but the benignity of destiny shall present you with gentle Sir which is that which the information you have given me hath just now infused into my mind of the beautifull Huntresse through whose tracks we now direct our steps For if I deceive not my self in the little knowledge I have taken more from the experience of Mundane revolutions than the study of any abstruse sciences I see not onely in your looks but read also in the internal tablet of your heart a marvellous correspondency of Genius between your noble person and that of Argosthenia And Who knoweth but that Heaven which by the means of women hath effected the greatest benefits in the World hath sent this fair Stranger out of Negropont into Baeotia for no other end but by the assistance of her person to terminate your sufferings taking you from this dolefull solitude wherein you are unprofitable to others and a burden to your self to transport you to a place and estate worthy of the dignity of your bloud and the grandure of your mind Here the Knight stedfastly beheld me with silent seriousnesse letting loose unawares many profound things whereupon I prosecuted my discourse saying Negropont already bewails the ruine of the stock of its Princes reduced into the sole person of Doricinia Periander elder brother of Argosthenia to whom by primogeniture that inheritance doth belong hath given the final period to that family For rebelling in an amorous disdain against the Durchesse who either to conserve her self free and independent would not marry or for that she knew Periander to be of too turbulent a Genius and two tyrannical a disposition had refused to make him her husband he hath for the same merited exile from Negropont as a reward of his insurrections and according to the report which goes of him is dead in the Isle of Andros whither he had betook himself with the deplorable Reliques of his Rebellion The eldest sister likewise of Argosthenia is without any of the fruits of her Matrimony so that if Heaven permit that also the Dutchesse should run the great Carier of death without legitimate issue the government of that Noble principality would descend directly to Argosthenia And what would you say gentle Sir if you changing your fortune with the mutation of your life should passe by the means of so prodigious a Lady from the desarts of Boeotid to the Throne of Calcides And whereas now you lye buried an unprofitable burden to the world in the Sepulcher of a Forrest you would return to live in publick to the glory of our age What pretend ye to with such anxiety for an extinguish'd Beauty that you so much love her Is it haply with hopes to revive her that she may again return to torment you That 's an enterprize wholly unworthy of your prudence For Lucinda shall never return more to the earth And although the Fables of antiquity might be renewed and she should rise again Do you presume peradventure that she with her nature changed would rise favourable and faithful It
spoke to me Sir Since I see that this noble and virtuous Girl delighted by your courteous carriage and by the grace of your countenance and expressions hath conceived an infinite affection for you and desires exceedingly to cease this pastorall life and to go to live in an other place and employment more conformable to her birth and inclinations I will discover to you that concerning her which none else knows except my husband and I and leave you to do as you shall please There went now sixteen years agoe to Corinth upon occasions of his studyes an English Gentleman of great birth but greater virtue he put himself to lodge according to the custom of Scholars in the house of a young and comely woman a Citizen which being left a Widow in the flower of her years with some Fortune in movable goods had applyed her self to this Calling very profitable in that City of boarding Trans-mountanian and Trans-marine Scholars which were wont to become the most modest and most studious of all those about our parts whereas ours commonly abandoned themselves to all dissolutenesse Now as it should happen these two being both alike young and fair they were mutually enamoured of one another their names were Rosmond and Camilla and making use of their liberty and familiarity there was both of them this goodly child Orsina The love of the daughter no lesse than that of the mother detained Rosmond at Corinth some five or six years whence at last being necessitato depart about urgent affaires he left about three thousand Ducates in assignment of Portion to Orsina and pretious gifts moreover and above to her Mother She notwithstanding continued to lodge Gentlemen of such like quality Orsina came by that means to learn not onely foraign Languages but also the Principles of the Sciences especially Physik Chirurgery in which professions she is able to do strange things with onely two or three words as what she hath experimented in Arnaldo whom she hath raised from death to life may easily perswade you It happened in this mean time that certain contests arose among the Scholars her guests which breaking into blows some of them were slain at the table mingling their blood with their victualls and wine Whereat Camilla being afrighted and fearing to be cited before the Judges she packt up all her richest movables with what money she could presently get together and imbarkt her self for Athens where not holding her self for all that secure enough she would go into Negropont as being a disjunct Jurisdiction from the Dominion of Attica and stayed her voyage in this place and in the end dyed in this house first leaving and recommending to my charge this her daughter now twelve years of age I have not been wanting on my part for the bringing of her up for this three years that she hath been here with the best decorum my rusticity would permit having my self learnt some thing in my younger dayes in the service of a Lady of Athens which in the end marryed me to this Husbandman with more regard to her convenience than my satisfaction though I confesse my self well enough pleased with this manner of life which though rude and toylsom is yet simple and quiet Now Orsina having often entreated me to carry her to Corinth to procure for her the Dowry left her by her Father and to marry her I could never prevail with my husband to content her for having never gone out of the bounds of these Villages he fears the world will fall on his head if he hear but any strange Country named If you shall please therefore gentle Sir to favor this maid with your assistance protection though my husband gainsay it yet being informed by Arnaldo of your noble quallities I will consigne to you that little Coyn and such Jewells as I have left in my hands by her Mother assuring my self that she cannot but arive safely to the end of her desires She is already pleased with it and tells me She would account her self happy in being able to serve you Do you resolve therefore for we are ready to execute what you shall command us I was well pleased with the conversation and the Virtue of Orsina but the taking such troubles upon my self was a thing wholly contrary to my Genius and inclinations And the businesse of Argosthenia had made me to know by proof what I might expect from travelling up and down the world with Women especially young and handsom Yet the intreaties of the child being added to the perswasions of the woman and knowing my self obliged to her for my health I promised that so soon as I was dis-engaged from the company of Arnaldo I would conduct her to Corinth to her Parents house and it fell out sooner than I thought for For Euristus coming to see me with Letters from Arnaldo I knew not how to reward him for my liberty which I obtained by his means better than by giving him Orsina in marriage under the notion of my Daughter with all that deposited by her Father as the Inheritance of her Mother with a considerable rise to his fortune The advice brought me by Euristus was that Arnaldo having found Argosthenia at the mouth of Asopos expecting of him they had determined to return together to that Village to assist me in my distemper till I was recovered But having deferred it by reason of Cadmus being indisposed and withall to understand my pleasure I that already was aware that Arnaldo for all his generosity languished with a jealousy of me and that this resolution of coming back was a motion of Argosthenia as it was on the other side an invention of Arnaldo to remit it to my disposall and being desirous withall to see my self at liberty to travell the world according to my purposed intent I immediatly dispatcht back Euristhus to intreat them both that they would not incommode themselves for my sake but pursue the course of their own fortune and go to Calcides to celebrate with solemnity their Nuptialls by consent of the Dutchesse from whose pleasure did depend their felicity and advancement For that when I was ridd of my infirmity I would wait upon them in person at a time when my urgent affairs would better permit Yet I should where-ever I came and in all conditions of estate and fortune ever bear in mind the obligations received from them both to preserve them fresh in my memory to the last moment of my life Euristhus returned with new Letters from Arnaldo and Argosthenia who by all means desired me to be at Calcides before the disclosing of themselves being willing to have me present at the opening of that Scene But I resolved to travell to Corinth to settle Euristhus and Orsina and free my self from this new suggestion And it was the goodnesse of destiny so to dispose of it for if new accidents of adverse fortune should crosse their design I should be also inevitably much concernd in it
two torches which they carryed to illuminate the darknesse of the night which by this time had wholy overspread the great face of Heaven yet it 's obscurity began to diminish by reason of the exceeding clarity of the Moon than rising Hercules by this time half angry said to Alexander See here the young Lady which you expected to complement Alexander laugh'd and replyed Even from the antient Sileni arose matters of wonder and who knows but these Cyplop's faces may wait on some Venus Yea replyed I but there being no fire in this Forge we go in some danger and instead of a Venus that we would conduct to a logding we may find some Vulcan that may throw a hammer at our heads We had at our first coming dismist our Guide and to give no suspition of our intent we freely rode on in our way Being at last come so neer as to discern them and discoursing in a tone onely understood by our selves one of them undertook to tell us that we rode out of the way towards the Sea side and not the direct way to Epidaurus Alexander laughing Thus said he they are served that in a dark night follow a blind leader We thought to have found a Lady but we have missed our intentions and in a fancy lost our way It matters not much said I fot however this Lady have slighted us the Moon shall serve as a guid to light us Whilst we were thus talking we heard the languishing voyce of a weak woman crying Ah Sir Knight And while we were hearkening from whence the sound came she sighing rehearsed the same words Ah Sir Knight help the betray'd Argosthenia These lamentable words pierced my heart as so many darts and presently calling to mind the losse of that Lady I concluded that these must needs be Pirats that had ravished her Yet because I would not rashly conclude of things before I knew the truth I entreated him and it was the Captain himself her ravisher that seemed to be the Commander of the rest to tell me Who that Lady was that implored my succour and wherefore His answer was in putting his hand to his sword and buckler to defend his Rape We were three Six our Adversaries and I thought I heard some noyse from the Sea-ward which were two Sea-men his Accomplices who hearing of our coming made towards us I rid up full carier at the Captain assuring my self that the head being once supprest the members would of themselves abandon the enterprise But I was deceived for although he soon paid the penalty of his villany falling mortally wounded under my Horse's feet who dispatcht him with the fury of his kicks his Companions so stoutly persisted in his revenge that after a long contest there was slain besides himself another of the enemies and Hercules Alexander dangerously wounded and his horse distended upon the earth For my part I knew not what I did in that night-scuffle but this I am certain that I never escap't any perill with so little hurt in my person as in this though so hot and long conflict And happily it was the bountifull disposure of Heaven which would not in such necessity deprive the unfortunate Argosthenia of my assistance Arnaldo or the Injur'd Lover Book VII BEing as I told you left with only Alexander who to say the truth deported himself like an Alexander indeed having laid for dead two of his enemies and put the rest to flight masters of the field where there lay dead five Carcasses I stept aside to the place where Argosthenia lay more dead than living through sicknesse grief and fear with her old woman by her little more sensible I am sure more terrified The young Lady seeing me draw neer and knowing me more by my deportment than visage had a desire to get up to receive me and to give me her hand but could not Whereat beholding a Lady of that nobility virtue and gentlenesse in so sad a condition I stood a good space transported by the considerations of the rigours of Fortune exercised over the lives of Mortalls permitted by divine Providence for our correction and instruction But returning to my self I did my best endeavour to comfort the Lady and enquired of her how her affairs stood and of Arnaldo she briefly related all that had befaln her from her departure from me to that instant in which the Captain had stoln her away Understanding by her relation that the Skiff was left tyed to that shoare I desired Alexander to ride and see if happily there were any of the Mariners left for there being no other way to secure Argosthenia than by conducting her that way to Epidaurus moreover it was requisite to take care for the body of our unfortunate Camrade and for his own safty thinking to win them with good treatment and by taking no notice of their default in that detestable enterprise He went but found onely the Bark whereupon dispairing of help any other way I resumed my former familiarity with Argosthenia and carryed her in my arms unto that place where we found some small commodity of meat and of a bed for the Lady I made a fire and served her for Nurse Physician and keeper whereat she was so affected that she continually wept for tendernesse Next I made use of a Secret taught me by the fair Orfina in order to the cure of Alexander And making him also to take a little rest I returned with the old woman to the fields and laying the body of Hercules upon his horse I got him also aboard the boat and hid him in a private place of the same to the end he should not with his sight trouble the mind of my patients and last of all closed my eyes for a little while to essay the dulcity of sleep close by my horse which that night instead of hay and provender fed on bisket and poudred bief like a Mariner Day appearing and my company awaking we discovered a new scene of wonder upon that shore for Argosthenia in the apprehensions of joy for seeing her self delivered from the injurious hands of the barbarous Captain and being again in my protection having taken a long sleep she feigned her self so very much amended that raising her self up in her bed she darred from her face a profusion of rayes of singular beauty as if she had never had the least indisposition or trouble And Alexander on the other side perceived himself reasonable well of his wounds but I desired him before he stirred to expect the operation of the receipt and with the woman's help prepared our repast between merry and sad merry for the recovery of Argosthenia and hope of restoring her presently to Arnaldo sad for the death of Hercules a Gentleman for his worthy qualities deserving a longer life This done and having procured from the places adjacent with much trouble and large promises two Fisher-men that undertook to carry us in that Schiff to Epidaurus whilst we were
with a mortified eye that so I might not offend so much as in the least thought either her reputation or my own fidelity Yet I would have esteemed it my great happinesse to have served her though with this necessity of looking upon my self as dead had not the relations of Methrodorus and our late accidents opened my eyes and let me see that by this way I took together with the troop of a thousand other Wretches I precipitated my self for her sake into the exteamest abysse of Calamity I determined therefore to cease following her not through cowardise but discretion it being a manifest madnesse to dye in a complement Amongst the Papers of Methrodorus I read a relation that in the coasts of Marmarica there is a solitary Society of men separated in customs from the confines of humanity for to live according to the use of Heaven Thither I go to be buryed alive with the body of Hercules which shall serve me for a profound Lecture of celestiall Philosophy Pardon me Sir if I depart thus abruptly since I did not conceive it good to confront my debility to your most friendly conversation which would have detained me in the shackles of a content too sensible for me to have disingaged my self from without an insupportable resentment I carry the Skiff of Methrodorus away with me and one of his Mariners which is willing to follow me in so generous a resolution till death and I will make use of my own hands in the voluntary labour of the Oar learnt for the necessity of our bodily safety to acquire to my self the precious reward of a celestiall life I reverence the Lady Princesse dearly embrace Methrodorus and confirm my self Sir Your Perpetual Vassall ALEXANDER THe sense of friendship rendred this deprivation of Alexander inconceivably grievous but Prudence lessened my affliction thinking that he had chosen the better part and I began to desire to visite my self one day the Desarts of Marmarica I imparted this passage to Argosthenia and Methrodorus and they seemed rather to blame than commend it And Argosthenia said that Cavaliers of Alexander's quality born into the World for the profit of Mortalls ought not to deprive themselves of the means to employ those Talents to the common benefit which Heaven had lent them for this very end to serve to mankind in generall I defended the resolution of my friend alledging that all those who had obtained from Heaven the rare qualities of Wit and Valour were not obliged to employ them to the benefits of others with a manifest perill to themselves For Heaven is also wont to deprive men of the favours conceded them as a punishment of their ingratitude and unworthinesse seeing Virtue is for the most part rather persecuted than acknowledged Again the resolution of Alexander well considered his retirednesse may prove to the World a greater benefit than his commerce with men whilst that in conversation by reason of his capriccio's and adolescentiall vanities he was injurious and prejudiciall to many and in sequestrative solitarinesse he may be able with this integrity of his life and conversation to come forth for an universall benefit into the World Well said Methrodorus Who knows but that even this resolution may arise from a fantasticall humour and not from the invitation of Heaven It concerns not us replyed I to penetrate into these secrets in the mean time we know that Heaven sometimes makes use of such like means to extract a generous Virtue out of a constrained necessity We ought alwayes to censure well of those things which ever appear good in themselves For although the iniquity of man convert these into the worst yet it doth not follow that the good is not still good in it self although the perversity of some do sinisterly use it Certainly Alexander hath done well to prefer his own safety to others benefit for so exercising his proper goodnesse he shall live without injury yea rather with commodity to others whereas in a Knightly life although he might have profited some that could hardly ever be without the prejudice of many For although he merited sometimes in defence of Innocence and in chastisment of Villany yet it more frequently came to passe that he undid himself and others in a vanity in a humour or in a complement Thus I argued but I saw that this Philosophy little liked Methrodorus immerg'd in the thoughts of recovering his House from the dysasters occasioned by the Loves of Calisthenes and Argosthenia and it did as much displease Argosthenia fearing that I also intended to desert her to follow the track of Alexander and therefore I changed discourse desiring Methrodorus to advise us concerning the manner of our Voyage for that being as yet uncerrain of finding Arnaldo at Corinth and being loth to disturb Argosthenia with a journey by Land I judged she might transport her self commodiously by Sea to Athens and stay there in a house which I kept there till such time as I had overtaken Arnaldo which by making long journies over land I might soon do Methrodorus was pleased with my design but Argosthenia would not agree to it fearing still that I contrived pretexts to abandon her But having promised whether I found Arnaldo or no to be at Athens within the space of fifteen dayes to wait upon her she condescended though in my judgment it was still very unwillingly This being resolved on we proceeded to act it Methrodorus hiring a Bark and putting out instantly to Sea and I began at the same instant by Land my journy towards Corinth And just as I entred the house of Euristhus I met full of sorrow and sadnesse the fair Orsina and after many throbs and sighs she related to me that the Injur'd Lover had been at that City to enquire of me and Argosthenia and Euristhus had entertained him at his house where hearing how much I took to heart his dysasters and what diligence I had used to learn his captivity to set him at liberty it partly mitigated if not wholy deposed the maligne suspitions of his Jelousy that held him in a continuall torment to attend a while among those to whom I was continually writing some thing or other of news concerning me But seeing that contrary to my custom I had now let passe ten dayes without writing to them or sending any message he went thence that day upon a certain rumour that sayling towards the Island of Aegina I was cast away with a Knight and a Lady in my company and fell into such a passion that incontinently leaving Corinth he swore he would not survive the death of his unfortunate Spouse Wherewith Euristhus being also extreamly affected he went presently to the haven and hired a Feluca for Epidaurus to inform himself of the truth of that Adventure Understanding this and being glutted and sated with so many rigours and errours of Fortune and Love I comforted Orsina the best I could in such an intervenience of affairs yet she would
to stay awhile in the house of that Lady with an intention of waiting upon him with his Feluca to Athens whither he designed to go the better to inform himself of my proceedings in my own house The Lady made great entertainment for the Knight and perceiving him to be notwithstanding his trouble and melancholly that had so injur'd him the goodliest person in the World in a flourishing age of twenty five years and again having dedicated her self to sensuality she took a conceit to allay her dissolutenesse in this her familiarity She invited him therefore to Dinner an occasion proper by the intervention of Bacchus to introduce the interests of Venus and began with her procacious glances and gestures and licentious and lascivious words to instil into the mind of the Cavalier the incentives of her lust Arnaldo who had alwayes loved more like a contemplative Philosopher then a carnal Amorist not yet knowing what the malice of women was smiled to himself at such pretentions and preserving in his external actions a modest affability he with a marvellous sweetnesse deluded her The woman hereat not a jot discouraged or deterr'd from giving her designs a birth by the Midwifry of some better machinations prevailed so far with the help of Euristhus that she got the Knight to stay there a night longer Which come she deposed all feminine modesty and went to find him in his own bed to throw her self naked into his embraces But not being entertained but rather disdain'd by the generous Arnaldo which would conserve the faith of Matrimony immaculate to his spouse she was mov'd with such scorn that like a dissolute woman she converted her lascivious desire into inveterate hatred contriving for revenge of her repulse the strangest villany that could possibly enter into the heart of woman She made it be signified to the Governour that when he had revok't her banishment she would put into his power her husband's murtherer The Governour accepted the offer desiring to get that Traytor into his hands and she detained Arnaldo with sundry inventions hiding his horse's furniture in her house but yet at last being offended with such entertainment preparing to be gone the Provost of the Citie at the same instant broke into the house with the greatest fury in the World with all his Officers and beset the Knight to carry him to prison Generous Euristhus seeing this put himself upon a daring but imprudent Enterprize bearing away no prize of honour by contracting with such a rout of Catch-poles from whom onely to fly was honourable and ran his sword through the breast of the Provost with such a resolution that he fell senselesse at his feer But all this audacity could not prevent Arnaldo from going to prison and he himself was also stay'd and carried by force to the Magistrates To whom the fact being attested they condemned him as guilty of Treason in the person of a publick Officer to lose his head upon a Scaffold In this state of things I arrived in Eleuxis and understanding the passages by a Gentleman my friend at whose house I had lay'n without taking great thought for Arnaldo knowing assuredly that the Injur'd Lover could not be guilty of such a Crime I was extreamly surprized and confused at the name of Euristhus because my friend representing his case to me as of a very comely and couragious young man I immediatly suspected him to be my dear Euristhus husband to Orsina I rid therefore straight to the Palace where the young man was preparing himself to his last departure and at my request I was permitted to see him but I was so transported that I was nearer death then he finding him in so wretched a condition upon which the last minutes of his life depended On the other side Euristhus rejoyced to see me and was beyond measure ashamed that I should find him in that condition so unworthy of his generosity Yet having not lost the brisk spirit which was so natural to him I apprehended the quality of his Crime and that of a certain the Injur'd Lover was the imprisoned Knight with the presumptive stain of the murtherer of Liviana's husband I ran in all haste with Euridamas the Cavalier my friend to the Governour to whom having disclosed the quality of Arnaldo I intreated him also to suspend the execution of the sentence of Euristhus for having done this in the company of a Knight of so high birth and innocence his own reputation would suffer both in the imprisonment and death of his Camrade The Governour remained exceedingly suspended at the discovery of Arnaldo nor would he at least as he fained give credit to my testimony whereupon that I might not lose a minute of time to Euristhus's prejudice I shewed the Letters just before received from Olympia and produced the Currier himself that brought them me plainly to prove the truth of my depositions And here arose a new mountain of difficulty for the Governour having begun to fear lest Arnaldo once got out of prison and gone to Boeotia might plot some revenge for that injury would not set him at liberty till he had first acquainted the Senate of Athens with these proceedings I perceiving this fear of the Governour took upon me having something to lose in the Dominion of Attica to assure him of the person of Arnaldo for that all the punishment of his affronts falling upon his false accusers he could not with any reason be agrieved with the publick justice This difficulty being overcome I must of necessity presse yet a little farther to defer also the sentence of Euristhus for the getting him out of all danger was almost impossible without a miracle But seeing my prayers and remonstrances profited little I ran to the Governour 's wife a comely and discreet Lady with the whom I had some years before past some services in Athens and so importunatly intreated her that she interposed her own authority with her husband and obtained three dayes time of respit for his reprieve for so much served for my design which was to get an order though there was no need from the Supream Magistrates of Athens to inhibit all proceedings in that cause and to adjourn the judging of it to the same Tribunal Which done and Euristhus being returned to prison I went with the Judge Criminal to the prison of Arnaldo where the Cavalier being examined upon my depositions and sound innocent the Governour commanded that he should be entertained in the Palace desiring at his wife's instigation to satisfie with courteous treatment that over-sight of a constrained imprudence towards him Arnaldo or The injur'd Lover BOOK VIII BUt Who can recount the transports of Arnaldo when knowing of his liberty he knew also by the Judge that it was I that had obtained the Reprieve of Euristhus and procured his freedom And Who can expresse his raptures when as he saw me and heard that his Argosthenia was gone to Athens some dayes before with M throdorus