roome enough to entertaine one man and the leaves at the top touch one another hither the shepheards betake themselves consult together and lye in ambush while the paper reeds serve them for City wals some of these Ilands are compassed about with bogges and fenns having in them some small cottages which lying scattered here one and there one look like some City built in haste one of these Ilands being nearest to us and more conspicuous by reason of the great number of cottages was called as I remember Nichocis to this City as to a most invincible fort they repaired relying much partly on the number of their souldiers partly on the situation of the place for it had but one passage into it and that over a narrow causeway an hundred and twenty paces in length and twelve in breadth When they saw Charmides approaching they devised this stratageme having got all their old men and attiring them like suppliants putting branches of palme-trees in their hands they commanded the valiantest of their youth that they should follow them close at the heeles every one armed with his buckler and spear that by this meanes the old men going before with these emblemes of peace might shrewd the armed men behind them who partly hid by these boughs and partly by dragging their weapoâ—â— on the ground could not be discovered intending that if Charmides would grant the old men their requests the young men should not fight at all but if hee would not that they should lead Charmides into their Citie under pretence of submitting themselves to what death he should please to inflict upon them and when they had brought him to the Causeway the old men upon a watchword given should fling away their boughes and save themselves by flight and they which were armed should rush upon them Thus having ordered themselves they met Charmides beseeehing him that hee would have compassion on their old age and that for their sakes the whole City might fare the better which peacefull conditions if hee would yeeld to they promised to give him an hundred talents of silver and as many men whom he might send as pledges to the Governour of Egypt all which they seemed to have beene willing faithfully to have performed had hee accepted of these conditions but giving little eare to what they said he seemed not willing to entertaine their profer which the olde men perceiving broke foorth into this sad â—ermocination O death if our fate have so decreed wee shall patiently beare thee Onely doe thou O Charmides deigne us this favour not to slay us without the Citie or farre from it but bring us into our fathers ancient seats and let that place where wee were borne bee also our Sepulchree wee will lead on to our deaths Charmides hearing this dismist the greatest part of those forces which hee had intended for the battell bidding them without spoile or tumult quietly repaire to the army all that had past was espied by some scouts whom the theeves had set to watch and charged that as soone as they saw the enemy approach they should cut a passage through the banke of the river and let the water in upon them which they usually damme up but when they would water the plaines let it out Behind this village was a great trench digged the damme whereof immediatly upon their reproach they broke down the old men at that very instant fled some one way some another the young men who had all this while drawed their weapons on the ground after them set fiercely on Charmides his company the water by this time comming so fast upon them had overflowed all the marishes and the causeway so that every place lookt like a sea The Aegyptians slew first of all Charmides and then those few men that were with him who were so affrighted with this suddaine and unexpected event that in their countenances there was such varietie of changes as it were impossible to tell how they looked when they were a dying for some having not time either to defend the blow or to resist the enemie perisht not knowing what was the matter ere they felt the stroke some were slaine ere they could know any thing at all others strucke with a suddaine feare stood still expecting death others there were who had their heeles tript up with the violence of the water many striving to flie were drowned for the water by this time was up to their navels which stood on the causeway by which meanes the use of their bucklers was taken away and their sides exposed to the danger of being wounded but those which were in the Marish were up to the neckes who still supposing themselves to bee on firme ground went on till they were drowned this the others seeing fearing lest they should step aside made but slow haste to flie and were presently slaine by the enemie Questionlesse this was a strange kind of shipwracke no shippe being neare them and which may exceed beleefe there was shipwrack on the earth and a land battaile fought in the water The shepheards proud of their successe boasted much of the victorie thinking they had obtained it by their valour not fraud for the nature of the Aegyptian is this that while he is in danger he is timorous but when secure couragious for either hee yeeldes most slavishly or domineeres most proudly By this time Leucippe had beene sicke eleven daies nor was there any hope of recoverie left had I not heard her in her sleepe utter these words Thou O Gorgias art the cause of my madnesse which in the morning I told to Menelaus asking him whether he knew one Gorgias which lived in that village afterward going out of our tent we met a young fellow in the streete who saluted me with this complement You are fairly met Sir by one that shall preserve both you and your wife at which I being astonisht as supposing him to bee a man sent from the gods askt him whether his name were Gorgias he answered no but my name is Chaereas for Gorgias hath beene the cause of all this mischiefe but more amazed at this I askt him what mischiefe or what Gorgias hee meant for the gods that night revealed something to me concerning him in my dreame which I desired him to expound Then said he this Gorgias was an Aegyptian souldier who was slaine in the battaile hee was in love with thy vvife and being skilfull in the power of herbes mingled a love potion undermining your Aegyptian slave who attends on you to administer it but vvhile hee unwisely made choice of too strong ingredients the phyltre turning to little better than poison made her mad all this Gorgias his servant told me yesterday whom it seemes fortune preserved alive in the midst of the battaile to doe you good for he constantly affirmes to me that hee hath a medicine vvhich shall utterly disanull the force of the phyltre for the cure he demands foure pieces of gold For
it vvere so far from prevailing that it vvould not be understood by these parricides I must begge for mercy by a nod or some other gesture of my body oh misery beyond compare but for mine ovvne misfortunes though they be greater than can bee imagined I grieve not so much as for thine my deare Leucippe vvith vvhat mouth shall I complaine vvith vvhat eies shal I vveep seeing thou hast proved so constant and so kind to me thy most unhappy lover See what stately preparation here is for thy marriage to wit a dungeon for thy bride-chamber the earth for coastly bedding for thy chaines and bracelets ropes and cords in stead of a bride-boy see thy jailour lies by thee Wee were much to blame to thanke thee O sea seeing they whom thou swallowed'st up are in better case than wee which thou sparedst thus to save us what is it but more cruelly to slay us envying as it were that we should fall by the hand of any but these theeves This I uttered veru softly but for teares the fountaine whereof in greater griefes is dryed up I shed none For in lesser evils they flow apace whiles begging favour though they prevaile not yet doe lessen the griefe as an ulcer when it is broken brings ease to the patient but in greater ils they flie backe and forsake the eyes being stifled with sorrow and compelled to returne with it to the inmost and retiredst corners of the heart Afterwards turning my self to Leucippe who all this while spake not a word I said Why art thou so silent my Leucippe Shee answered that it fared with her as it useth to doe with those that are sick unto death who immediatly before their departure usually are speechlesse While wee talked the day drew on when suddenly there came in a strange fellow with long blacke lockes riding upon an horse with shagg'd hair without either bridle or saddle for so your thieves ride hee as it seemeth was sent from their King who told us if there were ever a Virgin taken captive shee should bee brought to him to bee made an expiatory sacrifice for their whole army then the keepers cast their eyes on Leucippe but shee taking mee about the middle and holding fast by mee fell a weeping and crying out whllst some of them drew her away others beat me so by violence they carried her thence and some two houres afterwards they led us away but by that time wee had gone half a mile or there about on our way we heard a great shouting also the noise of trumpets and immediatly wee descryed an army of Souldiers comming towards us which as soone as the thieves saw they put us in the midst of their company least we should runne away and provided to fight with them Not long after there stepped me out fifty men armed cap a pe some with targets which covered their whole bodies others with shorter the thieves which were more then the souldiers fell a flinging clods of earth at them which in Egypt are so hardned with the sunne that they are as good as any weapon for the unevener parts thereof being prominent make not onely a wound but cause a swelling about it but the souldiers warding off their blowes with their targets cared not for them but as soone as they saw them wearie with flinging opened their army so those which vvere but sleightly armed rusht out and threvv darts at them aftervvards they joyned battell and to fighting they vvent blovves and vvounds there vvere given and taken on each sides but the souldiers vvere too hard for the theeves vvho though they vvere not so many in number yet vvere better experienc't in the vvarres Meane time vvee that vvere captives perceiving the thieves to bee put to the vvorst gathered our selves together in a troupe and broke their rancks and ran over to the enemies side vvho not knovving vvhat vve vvere vvould have killed us but seeing vvee vvere bound and therby guessing hovv the case stood vvith us admitted us into their army and plac't us in the reere that so wee might bee free from all danger In the meane time the horse-men came upon the theeves and slew the greatest part of them some of them lay dead upon the ground others halfe dead fought as well as they could the rest were taken prisoners Toward evening the Captaine of these souldiers whose name was Charmides examined every particular man what he was and how hee fell into the hands of these theeves to whom every one laid open his case and I mine when he had throughly sifted us hee commanded us to follow him promising also that wee should have weapons given us for he had determined as soone as his munition and more men came whom he expected every houre to set upon the greatest receptacle of these theeves wherein as it was reported was above ten thousand men Now I having formerly had some skill in riding desired a horse might be given me which as soone as I had I praunced about the rankes of souldiers and shewed Charmides my horsemanship which he highly commended injoyning me for that night to be his guest While we were at supper hee desir'd me more particularly to relate what had happned to me which when he heard he much commiserated my case For so it happens oft time that hee which heares of anothers misery doth almost suffer with him now this compassion begets a good will towards him whom hee pitties which good will is many times vented in a reall expression of some extraordinary favour Thus it fared with mee for I wrought so much upon Charmides with my story that hee did not onely weepe at the relation but gave me an Aegyptian servant to wait upon me The day after he provided to go forth to battaile and assayed to stoppe up the trench which was between us and the enemy for on the other side he had discovered a great number of theeves up in armes these theeves had built an altar of clay and digged a sepulchre two of them led a virgin bound toward the altar whom because they were in armour I knew not but the virgin I discerned to bee Leucippe they poured oyle on her head and omitted not any ceremony while an Aegyptian Priest sung an hymne for so I ghest by his making of faces and wry mouthes immediately a watch-word was given and each man stood a pretty distance from the altar then one of those which led her made her fast to a stake like Marsyas whom the potters frame in clay bound to a tree who stabbing her in the breast ript her downewards till hee came to the paunch so that her entrailes started out which they snatching up speedily threw upon the altar and when they had boiled them cut them in peeces and eate them up dividing to each man a share When the souldiers and Captaine saw this they could not chuse but cry out at the horridnesse of the fact but I was amazed and astonisht at it for
outlive Hesiods crow the jaw bone of him is as big as an oxe head if you saw his mouth you would thinke that hee had two great hornes growing out of it but they be not hornes but teeth bending upwards in the middle whereof growes his proboscis or snout which they call his hand in forme and bignesse like a trumpet very usefull to him for in that he receives his meat and if it be such as is his usuall food he conveyes it to his mouth if not he gives it to his master an Aethiopian who sits on his backe To this Aethiopian he is very obedient for he understands his language hee fawnes on him and yet stands in awe of him and if hee offend is by him in stead of a whip beaten with an iron barre One strange thing I will tell you whereof I my selfe was an eye-witnesse I remember I saw a Grecian once I have forgot his name lye downe and lay his head to the Elephants head who opening his mouth breathed on him in which thing I much admired the boldnesse of the man and the clemency of the beast but the Grecian afterward told me that he was faine to fee the Elephant so having received his reward hee blew on him a breah more sweet than all the Indian spices which cured him of a paine in his head and that the Elephant knowing this like a cunning lawyer would not open his mouth gratis or like a proud Physician would be greaz'd in the fist ere hee vvould meddle vvith his patient then said I how comes it to passe that so ugly a beast should have so svveet a breath His meate is the cause of it saith Charmides vvhich is a certaine kinde of leafe vvhich grovves in a City of India a place vvhere the Sunne is first seene and displayes most heat vvhich among them concealing its svveet savour is of no account either because it vvil not boast of its vvorth in its ovvn countrey or that it envies that those inhabitants should injoy it this leafe removed from thence and planted on some mountaine discloses its hidden savour and of a leafe becomes a flovver this is that vvhich among the Indians they call a blacke Rose on vvhich the Elephants feede among them as Oxen doe on grasse among us to vvhich kinde of food they being continually used their breath smels like the flower After Charmides had done his tales he let not much time slip for they which are wounded with love are tost to and fro scarce able to undergoe the burthen of their griefe but calling Menelaus aside tooke him by the hand and said I see Menelaus by what thou hast done for Clitophon thou art a trusty friend thou shalt find that my fidelity shall be answerable to thine onely doe one courtesie for me which is easie for thee to perform and to me a matter of such moment that thereby thou wilt preserve my life Leucippe hath almost slaine me doe thou save me shee has not yet paid thee for that life she owes thee let her in loving me make thee requitall thou shalt have for thy pains fifty pieces of gold and Leucippe as many as shee will aske Then Menelaus answered Your money Sir keepe to your selfe or at leastwise profer it to such as use to sell courtesies for my part seeing I am so deeply ingaged in your favour I shall endeavour to make it appeare to you that you have not fastened your affection on one void of all desert Not long after he met with me and told mee what had past betweene him and Charmides which when I heard I thought it was time to bestirre my selfe for avoiding this danger at last we pitcht upon this resolution to couzen Charmides for then it was not safe to give a flat deniall when he might by violence effect what he had intended and flye we could not by reason every place was fraught with theeves besides he had many souldiers attending him continually who might have pursued us Therefore Menelaus went confidently to Charmides and told him that his businesse was dispatcht and that the maide did at the first very obstinately deny his suit but afterward upon much intreaty mention also being made of the reward proposed she yeelded yet conditionally hee would grant her one favour before he enjoyed her to stay till hee came to Alexandria for the place where they then were was but a small village and all would be knowne quickly to the inhabitants This good turne quoth Charmides will be long a comming and in warre who can have patience to deferre his desire no man goes into the field who can assure himselfe of the conquest seeing there be so many passages open to his death do thou begge of Fortune that I may returne safe out of the battaile and I will tarry I goe now to fight with the shepherds but have a greater fight within me the souldier armed with bow and arrowes fights against mee and hath so far prevailed over me that I am nothing but wounds fetch me hither a Physician some one for my wounds rankle I goe to fling fire against the enemie while Cupid flings torches about in my heart doe thou Menelaus first put out these torches for it were a good omen mee thinkes first to fight Venus battaile ere I enter into Mars his field True said Menelaus but you see how hard a thing it is for her to conceale it from her husband who is still conversant with her and besides which loves her so dearely I but said Charmides it is an easie matter to send him out of the way Whereat Menelaus seeing him so eager upon the matter and fearing much lest I should have some mischiefe done me fained this excuse would you needs know the truth of the matter Charmides I wil tell you she is sick I will stay then said hee three or foure dayes meane while let her come to me and talke with me I long to heare her voice to take her by the hand and to embrace her this would bee some remedy for my love-sicke soule sure shee may safely give me a kisse When Menelaus was come backe and told me this I could not chuse but at his last words cry out that no man but my selfe should enjoy a kisse than which nothing is more sweet from Leucippes mouth For in the congresse questionlesse there is some measure and satiety but kisses are endlesse and alwayes fresh The three best things which the mouth can boast of are the breath the voice and a kisse yet thinke I not that there is any delight in the mutuall touch of the lips but the fountain of all pleasure is the heart Trust me Menelaus for in my distresse I will not bee ashamed to reveale any thing I have hitherto obtained nothing my self at Leucippes hands but a kisse she is yet a virgin and made a woman by nothing else this shall no man adulterate and hee that shall seeke to robbe me of this treasure will brand
me with an infamie which I will by no meanes beare Wherefore I thinke it best yet longer to milk his hopes For a lover so long as he hath any hopes of obtaining his desire will brooke any delayes but if hee lose his possibility any obstacle which hinders him he will remove especially if hee have power to doe it without controule but if he see himselfe neglected hee is the more enraged While wee were thus consulting in came a messenger who brought newes that Leucippe as she was walking fell downe and strucke out one of her eyes with this we ranne straightway to the place and found her lying on the ground but comming nearer and asking her what had befell she looked upon me rolling her bloudie eye and smote her selfe on the cheek and when Menelaus went to take her up she beat him away with her foot perceiving then that she was distracted wee strove to hold her by maine force but prevailed not Charmides also by reason of the tumult which was there made hearing of this ranne thither speedily who knowing what had past thought she had dissembled and casting his eie aside lookt wishfully on Menelaus suspecting that this had beene done to put a gull on him but finding out the truth hee himselfe was much grieved at this accident Meane while ropes are brought and Leucippe is bound which when I saw turning my selfe to Menelaus for all the rest were gone out I said Loose I pray you those bands for they will injure her tender skinne let her and I alone my twining imbracements shall serve in stead of chaines let her vent all her fury on mee for my life is loathsome to mee since I am in company with my Leucippe and shee acknowledges mee not I see her bound and dare not bee so mercifull as to loose her Did fortune therefore deliver thee out of the hands of theeves to make thee a laughing stocke miserable wretches we shunned what we feared at home that we might suffer the violence of the sea wee escaped shipwracke and the hands of the robbers because wee were doomed to madnesse which though thou escape yet it is much to bee feared that fortune hath one more mischiefe to cast thee into and what mischiefe indeed can paralell this of ours which makes us fearfull even of good events But let fortune doe her worst so thou recover thy lost senses While I spake this Menelaus put mee in good comfort affirming that those diseases were not of any long continuance but such as youth was often incident to for that the young bloud boiling in the veines by evaporating up into the braine distempers it and consequently bereaves the party of sense upon this wee concluded that Physitians were to be sent for and Physick speedily prescribed So Menelaus hasted to Charmides desiring him that the Physitian of his army might bee sent for which hee easily condiscended to as being glad of any opportunity to expresse his good will towards Leucippe The Physitian comming in told us that first he must cast her into a sleep thereby to assuage the greatnesse of her paine that being the only remedy of all ils then that hee would proceed to the rest of the cure so he left us a certaine medicine about the bignesse of a pease which being dissolv'd in oyle he commanded us to annoint her temples with promising to send her a purge presently after we did as hee prescribed us and presently after the annointing shee fell asleep and slept till the next morning all this while I sat by her not taking one winke of sleep but casting mine eyes on her bands thus bemoned her My deare Leucippe thou art bound sleeping and canst not enjoy thy naturall rest freely I wonder what kind of dreames thou hast what Chimera's thy distempered fancy represents unto thee After shee awaked shee uttered some abrupt and imperfect speeches when suddenly the Physitian came and administred more physick While Leucippe lay thus distracted letters were brought to Charmides from the governor of Aegypt which it seemes will'd him to muster up his forces as soone as hee could for upon the the receit of these letters hee presently charged them to bee in armes ready to go forth against the shepheards so all his souldiers with what celerity they could after the watchword was given were ready with their javelings in their hands the next day very early Charmides brought his army in sight of the enemy The village is thus situated the river Nilus descends from those places which are beyond the Aegyptian Thebes and falls downe as farre as Memphis sending out a little horne or winding and where the greatest streame ends is this village called Syrus there the earth is parted againe and of one River are made three two whereof runne freely without any let but the third divides the region which is called Delia nor is there any of these streams which run into the sea but one into one City another into another the least whereof is bigger than any River in Greece Nor doth Nilus by being thus divided loose a jot of its vertue being they may saile on it drinke of it and where the water of it sometime ran drive a plough being to them both a river a sea a marsh and arable land which is worth admiration that in the same place a ship should saile and a spade should dig an oare row and a plough goe that where the mariner hath his cabbine the husband man should have his cottage where the Oxes their stalls the fishes their receptacles also yet so it is that where the ship even now went they sow corne and not long after where the corne grew the ship sailes the river being navigable for many miles The Egyptians know what time it will overflow the banks nor doth the river deceive their expectation for it is never tardy but keepes constantly the set time and flowes just so many dayes Then may you see a contention betwixt the water and the earth this striving to drinke up so much water that to overflow so much land and to say truly the victory is equall but in that regiō where the shepheards inhabite there is stil much water for the annuall inundation of Nilus being past many standing pooles are left full of water which soone after is choaked up with mudde through which place some passe on foot others in litle boats no bigger than to carry one single man for should they bee greater having not water sufficient to beare them up they would stick fast in the mudde but being small and light that little water suffices them and if they chance to come to a place while they are rowing where they have not water enough then they take their boats on their shoulders and passe over on foote till they finde some In those marshes there bee many Ilands lye scattered those which are not inhabited are overgrowne with paper reeds which grow so thicke that betwixt every stemme there is but just
Clitophons execution is deffered Sostratus as hee had beene told the night before by Diana in a dreame findes Clitophon at whom he is much offended for the stealing away of his daughter Leucippe but afterwards it is told him that Leucippe was in the Temple of Diana whither she had fled as to an asylum having taken opportunity to steale away when Sosthenes was absent by which meanes he is not onely appeased but Clitophon is also freed from his owne accusation for the present afterwards he walkes under bale of the chiefe Priest till hee come to his second appearance to be fully set at liberty THersander therefore seeing Leucippe so obstinate was much distracted for he grieved that his hopes were frustrate and was angry that his faire profer should bee so neglected and contemned which made him like one wounded with love study what he were best in this plight to doe he spake not a word to Leucippe but in a rage runne speedily out of the roome after that talking with Sosthenes that hee might put a period to his distracted thoughrs he went to him which was keeper of the prison and would have had him poisoned mee which course upon better consideration hee disliking for that the people were very severe against such delinquents and had not long before that time caused one to be put to death for the same crime obtained thus much of the keeper that he might cast a man into the prison who was no malefactor but privy to his designes who should undermine me and catch me tripping if he could in my discourse this fellow had Thersander cunningly instructed to make mention of Leucippe by some meanes or other and to say that shee was slaine by the consent of Melite which plot he invented that though I had quitted my selfe of the crime which I was accused of yet I would never make further search after her who was dead And the reason why hee would have him say that Melite slew her was lest Leucippe being slaine I should marry Melite whom he meant to put away and this he might justly suspect seeing it was plaine that I loved her which if I had done he could not so safely have enjoyed Leucippe wherefore thus hee thought with himselfe that when I should hear that Melite had done mee this injury I should hate and detest her for it and as having little heart to stay with such an enemy in a rage leave the Citie The fellow comming into the prison to mee began his tale but first gave a great sigh saying What hope of life is there or how shall a man be secure seeing danger attends on him for wel-doing and that to live justly is a sufficient accusation Alas how was it possible I should ghesse what hee that travailed with mee had committed to this purpose would he many times talke to himselfe in my hearing to the end that I should aske him the meaning of what hee spake but alas I was otherwise emploied my griefs had so taken me up that I had not leisure to enquire after anothers But one which was bound with us seeing him to weepe so excessively for those which are in any distresse are desirous to know anothers misfortune as well as their owne for that the communicating of their griefes each to other is a kinde of easing their afflicted minds said What hath befallen thee for it should seeme thou art attached for that whereof thou wast never guilty which I gather from what hath happened to mee Then hee began to tell mee the cause of his imprisonment which I did not much listen to afterwards he demanded of the other his story to which hee began on this manner Yesterday departing from this citie and journeying toward Smyrna one met me and demanded of me whither I was travelling when he had understood that I was going to Smyrna he told mee that it was the very place hee was bound for too together we went and as the custome of travellers is we eased the length of our journey with a great deal of good talke but turning into an Inne to bait foure men followed us and making as if they came in to dine there sate downe by us and looked very hard upon us nodding their heads one to the other which made mee suspect that they talked of us though I knew not the reason The fellow that was with me began straightway to waxe pale stammer in his speech and tremble which they perceiving laid hold of us both bound us with ropes and smote my fellow traveller on the face who as if he had beene already upon the racke cryed out though no man examined him I slew Leucippe having of Melite Thersanders wife a hundred pieces of gold for my paines for it was shee that hired mee to doe this villany the money here I give you to a farthing spare my life I beseech you and defraud not your selves of so much treasure I hearing Thersander and Melite named began to prick up my eares to listen more attentively to what he said then turning mee about to him I asked of him What is this Melite Hee answered one of the chiefest women in this Citie who is in love with a young man here they say he is of Tyre who having by some chance lost his sweet heart and found her againe at home in Melites house she out of a jealousie that the maid should draw his affection from her committed her into the hands of him whom it was my hard fortune to accompany in my journey to be slain and he did the deed but I poore wretch who was neither witting nor willing to it or privy to the least word or deed which past about it am apprehended for it but which is worst of all after these foure men had gone a little from the Inne they took the money of the fellow and let him goe but me they brought before the Iudge Having heard this turbulent story I could neither speake nor weepe for my tongue was tyed and my teares dried up every joynt trembled my heart fainted and my soule was well nigh fled out of my body but after I had recovered my selfe out of this drunkennesse of grief I asked of him how did this fellow which was hired kill her where did he bestow her body but he having once pricked me in this veine and knowing that he had what he desired was ever after so mute that I could not extort a word more from him for when I asked him any more questions he told mee churlishly that sure I suspected him to have a hand in it whereof he was utterly guiltlesse So that concerning the murderer after my much inquiry I could learne nothing of him onely this that the maid was slaine but where or how he would not tell mee which made the teares trickle downe my cheekes and discover that portion of griefe which had lay hid all this while in my breast For as in a body beaten with rods the impression they
plead against those adulterers for the whole scope of Thersanders speech was against the Priest and did but glance at other matters telling my advocate further that as soon as he had finished his accusation he should have time to put in his defence so with a most impudent looke and a tongue inured to lying he began You have heard the scurrilous and false tales which this babling priest hath invented of Thersander by retorting upon him what was more applicable to himselfe all that Thersander laid to his charge was most true for it is most evident that he set Clitophon free that he entertained a strumpet and an adulterer in the Temple but hee thinking to make Thersander odious in the eyes of this assembly rippes up a rhapsodie of vices whereof Thersander was never guiltie which mee thinkes is a thing very ill beseeming a man of his coat for of all things a priest should carry a good tongue in his mouth that I may whip him with his owne rod. But to come to the point and passing over the former part of his speech which would have better be fitted a Theatre than the Court let us come I say to that part wherein hee so much complaines of us for committing one to prison whom we had manifestly deprehended in the very act of adulterie wherein I wonder much that hee being a priest should take so much paines in the patronizing of this exolete couple sure it is to be suspected that their lookes have bewitched him and that the beautie of the wench hath ensnared him I'faith say which of them dost thou love best a man may without offence aske you the question for you eate together drinke together and lie together and what you then doe no bodie knowes I feare you turne the Temple of Diana into the Temple of Venus I hope we shall call your priesthood in question anon and examine whether these premises rightly considered you are a fit man for the place for as touching Thersanders conversation how modestly how incorruptly he hath lived from his childhood all the world knowes when he was of yeares hee was legitimately married though I must confesse he was much deceived in the choice of his wife for relying too much on her nobilitie wealth he found she proved another gates woman than he tooke her for for it is very probable that shee had to doe with a great many men which the good man her husband never knew of but at length shee grew to such a height of impudence that she plaid the whore publiquely and while her husband had occasion but to step a little out of the way she taking this to be a very opportune time to satisfie her lust entertained this lascivious youth whom shee could not bee content to play the whore with in Alexandria but must crosse the sea with him and bring him hither to Ephesus where she not onely lay with him but even while the very Sailors stood and looked on most wantonly embraced him O insatiate miscreants who have defiled both sea and land Aegypt and Ionia I have heard of many who have unawares slipt into this vice yet would never againe runne voluntarily into it as abhorring the bestiality of it or if they did yet have they concealed it but this woman blows a trumpet and sets a cryer to proclaime it all Ephesus must take notice of this smooth-faced youth whom shee without any shame brought from a farre countrey and shewed about the Citie being as proud of such a prize as a Merchant is of some costly wares which hee hath transported But then shee answers that shee thought her husband had beene dead thatâ—s wel answered for were it so then she were quite free seeing her husband being dead the name of adulterie dies with him Here Thersander interrupted Sopater in his speech and said What I formerly proposed needs no further examination as touching Melite and her which is reported to be daughter to him who is chief author of this sacrifice though she be truly my servant I have these conditions drawne REPEAT them Thersander concerning Melite and Leucippe for so they say this prostitute is called proposes these conditions First for Melite that since she constantly affirmes that she never had to do either with this stranger or any man else in his absence that first she sweare it next for further triall goe downe into the fountaine of Styx where if it shall appeare that she is not forsworn I will willingly yeeld that shee shall bee dismist Next for Leucippe if it appeare she be a woman she shall serve out her time to me but if shee say she be a maid shee shall be lockt into the Cave where Pans pipe hangs To these conditions we gladly agreed as being confident of Leucippes virginitie and on the other side Melite was sure that during the time Thersander was from home nothing had past betweene her and me but discourse which made her say thus to her husband The conditions I will gladly embrace nay more will sweare that when thou wast from home neither citizen nor stranger had to doe with mee but if it shall appeare that thou hast wrongfully accused mee what punishment wilt thou be content to suffer Thersander answered whatsoever the judges shall please to inflict on mee After this the assembly was dismist and it was concluded on that the next day triall should bee made of each particular contained in the conditions The story of the fountaine of Styx was this There was sometime a very beautifull virgin called Rhodope who delighted much in hunting for swiftnesse of foot and skill in casting a dart most exquisite her attire used to be a robe reaching downe to her knees and girt about with a girdle her haire short with a coronet on her head Diana on a time seeing her tooke a liking to her and led her a hunting where what they tooke was equally divided between them Rhodope for the favour she received at Dianas hands made a vow to keepe her virginitie and never to come in the company of man which when Venus perceived she was inraged and determined with her selfe to revenge the arrogancy of this maid who seemed thus to sleight her for it fortuned that there was a youth of Ephesus as handsome a man as shee was a woman whose name was Euthynicus delighted as much with hunting as Rhodope was and as much detesting the companie of women as she of men as they went forth one day both a hunting Venus cunningly stole into the wood and brought the two wilde beasts which they hunted in severall parts of the wood together by and by Diana being gone she meets with her sonne to whom she sayes thus Seest thou not strippling our two enemies yonder nay the wench hath beene so malapert that shee hath taken a solemne oath against us thou seest them following their prey doe thou play the huntsman too and first worke thy revenge on that saucie wench shee is about