him she lived with so much anguish that if Alphonso had known her most secret thoughts he would have been healed of his jealousie and would have been assured that she did not grieve more for the death of Octavio then for the loss of his affection It was in this sort then that Leonida and Alphonso lived until that infortunate day wherein we were constrained to forsake Genoua And I make no doubt but that Alphonso's despair induced him to follow us as well as the generosity which he testified to us in this occasion in not abandoning us in the sorrow we were in since he absented himself from a place where Leonida was not You know in like manner what that Tempest was which luckily for him drove us to Albengua neither are you ignorant how the compassion and generosity of Leonida obliged her to imbarque her self with us But doubtless you do not know what Alphonso's and her thoughts were when as after they had had the goodness to lament our misfortunes they had the leasure to think of the terms wherein they stood For whereas we had scarcely been upon the Sea without a Tempest without fear of death and without extream sorrow for the loss we sustained there they had never talked together in private during this troublesom Navigation but when we were at Marocco and at those times wherein we had the liberty to see and speak to one another Leonida who desired to conceal the terms wherein she was with Alphonso entertaining him with indifferent things found that his understanding was as deeply wounded at Marocco as it had been at Genoua with this difference nevertheless that at the first time he spake to her he moved her to anger and the second time he moved her to pity What is the reason said he to he with tears that I can neither continue loving you nor begin to hate you and wherefore since you are capable of some affection for me must I not only share it with another but I must owe it wholly to him and without being able either to change my passion or revenge my self I must eternally be the most wretched of men He that imposeth a necessity on himself replyed Leonida cannot complain with reason seeing he himself is the cause of the evil that arriveth to him Ah cryed Alphonso that you said true and that I could dispose of my thoughts Yes Leonida said he unto her would I could love you less to the end I might love you always and live happily in sharing your affection with another But to endure that in speaking to me you should always think of Octavio that whil'st I sigh for love you should sigh for affliction and having absolutely given you my heart I should have but a piece of yours is that which I cannot suffer But how is it possible said Leonida interrupting him unjust and cruel Alphonso that a man who is no longer in an estate to have any affection for me can give you jealousie You do not comprehend replyed he what is the true cause of jealousie the affection Which any one should bear you would not displease me it is of your thoughts that I am jealous and not of those of others I would be willing chat you should be loved and that you should be adored but I would have you love none but me I should not care to see you have an hundred Lovers provided I were alone in your heart I do not hate my Rivals in their person but in yours only it is you that can increase or diminish the hatred which I have for them by the good or bad usage you shall give them and whereas you may love Octavio as well though he is not in being as if he were living you are not to think it strange that I am jealous In fine continued he you reduce me to those terms that I had rather you should not love me at all so as you would love nothing then to love me as you do in loving Octavio better then me But Octavio is no longer in being said Leonida to him sighing Yet he is still in your Soul answered Alphonso and this sigh which you fetched testifies it but too much unto me No no Leonida said he unto her that which I suffer is without remedy one may sometimes make present mishaps cease and decline those which may happen unto us in time to come but when we are unhappy by the remembrance of that which is past death alone can finish our pains It is not in your power to forbear sighing shedding of tears and to say all loving of Octavio more then Alphonso wherefore marvel not if it be not in your power to cure my mind of the jealousie that possesseth it It was much after this sort that the first conversation ended which Leonida and Alphonso had together at Marocco But whereas Leonida affected him and saw the estate whereunto this fantastical jealousie reduced him she opened her heart to me and having asked my advice what she should do I counselled her I think as she desired to be and as indeed was just I told her then that she was to do all that she could to set his heart at rest that this caprichiousness proceeding meerly from an excess of love she was to pardon so bad an effect since it came from so noble a cause and labor to restore his Reason to him which she had deprived him of I agree with you said she unto me that Alphonso is to be eased but in what manner do you think I may do it if he were jealous of the French Marquiss of Doria or of any other it would not be difficult for me to satisfie him The coldness which I would shew to them should soon set him at rest and if there were no other means for it I would deprive my self absolutely of their company to preserve it but as the case stands I know no remedy for it It is from my self that Alphonso hath learnt the affection which I have born to Octavio I cannot unsay it and if I should be so base as to swear to him that I have not loved him so much as he imagines I should tell a lye to no purpose it being very certain that he would give more credit to my tears then to my latter speeches and then again that is a thing I could never do Counsel me then continued she how I shall carry my self I profess unto you that I was then very much perplexed what counsel to give her for I saw no assured means that could cure Alphonso Nevertheless after I had mused a little my opinion was that the only thing which she could do was to endeavor to perswade Alphonso that she loved him as much as she had loved Octavio as indeed I think I did not oblige her to tell an untruth At first Leonida told me that this would serve to no purpose but finding nothing to stand with more reason she resolved to follow my advice So that the
me speak without fear in this occasion I will beseech thine Highness to consider whether I can without ingratitude and without being the basest of all men abandon a person who hath abandoned all for me and that as one may say hath made her self a slave to deliver me since that remitting her self to my conduct and relying on my word it was no longer in her power to alter her mind but was necessarily to follow my will Can I consider that even at this present I should be loden with Irons exposed to the insolency of Pirates and the cruelty of Arsalon if this woman had not broken my chains and not have for her all the affection and all the acknowledgment whereof I am capable As soon as I was a captive she began to do me good I was wounded she had a care of me with her charitable offices she healed the wounds which her father had given me I no sooner saw her but I knew her vertue she comforted the afflicted took care to relieve them and to say all in a word she bewayled the Victories of her father because she beleeved them not to be just I confess ingenuously that the beauty of her mind moved me more than that of her face and finding my self surprised by the lustre of so great a vertue I engaged my self in such sort unto her as nothing can be able to change it But if vertue be the foundation of the love I bear her that which she bears me hath had no less noble a cause She saw me constant enough in my misfortune she saw me wounded a captive and ready to be sold into a strange Country and knew though she seemed to be ignorant of it that I loved her much the gorgiousness of my clothes did not win her for they were all torn in the heat of the fight I was wan and disfigured she saw me abandoned of my father of whom I had no news ill-entreated by Arsalon because he had lost the hope of my ransom and fâ—nally in a more deplorable estate than ever man was seen Love then did not enter into her heart by voluptuousness but I can say it was introduced thereinto by goodness acknowledgement and compassion for if she had not been pittifull she had not assisted me when I was ill she had not loved me if she had not been acknowledging she had despised the love of a slave that had not the liberty to do her any service and if her heart had not been tender she had not been moved with my misfortunes nor given an end to them It is true that she is the daughter of the Pirate Arsalon that she hath quitted her father to follow me that she hath been brought up amongst cruell and bloody men and that she is the daughter not only of a Pirate but of a Persian But my Lord all this which seems to make against me makes for me in this occasion for what greater mark can one desire of a solid and immoveable vertue than to see a woman of eighteen years of age whose inclinations are not corrupted amidst so many vices and whose innocencie is preserved so entire as she could not so much as excuse cruelty in her father It is true that she hath followed me but it was to see no more murthers nor fights and because she saw a juster temper in my mind She hath not betrayed her father to follow a slave but she hath quitted the Pirate Arsalon to deliver a husband for having promised to be so unto her nothing but death alone can keep me from it Moreover my Lord she is not to be suspected of thy Highness for though she be the daughter of a Persian it is of a Persian the enemy of Tachmas who hath for these eighteen years waged War against him I will not stand to say that this woman albeit the daughter of a Pirate is for all that of a noble extraction because the Mussulmans make Nobility personall and beleeve that it ought not to pass unto children but I vvill only say that in the estate wherein my fathers fortune now is all that can be desired in a woman is contracted in this same she is fair she loves me and she is vertuous It is true that she is without wealth and without parents but she hath lost them for the love of me and whereas by thy bounty my father hath no need either of support or of riches what can I wish for more in a Wife If I take one that is rich it may be she will abandon me if I should happen to fall into misery but this that I have chosen wil be the companion of all my misfortunes without any fear that ever she will quit me I know that I ow a great deal of respect to my father but I know that I ow my life and my liberty to this woman I must then love both the one and the other or keep my word which I have given her for if my father will not suffer himself to be perswaded we will go voluntarily into banishment we are already accustomed to misfortune and the misery that we shall endure together will no doubt be more supportable to us than greatness and riches would be if we were separated As for the generous Slave to whom I have promised liberty I know not by what reason my father can pretend any right to deprive him of it he is neither his slave nor mine and by the severest law of War he can lay no claim at all unto him He is a Christian I acknowledge but all the Christians here in Constantinople wear not fetters he is a captive but that is to Arsalon and not to him and a captive too who after a breach of promise might with justice break his chains nor hath he sought for liberty but to give it me and that is it peradventure that hath made my father his enemy It is true also that he took me but it was in a just fight by that reason I am his slave rather than he is mine Let thy Highness so order it if it be possible that I may acquit me as I ought Behold all the crimes my Lord that I have committed my father would have me perfidious and ingratefull and I had rather my father should hate me with injustice than love me unjustly The generous Alibech seeing that Osman had made an end of speaking and having observed by the Bassa of the seas countenance that the discourse had rather incensed than perswaded him turned her self to Osman with tears in her eyes and conjured him to obey his father I will not sayd she unto him have you faulty for the love of me and since our affection cannot be innocent extinguish it in your heart and leave me the care of conserving it in mine remember that you are the sonne of the Bassa of the sea and that you are not yet my husband you cannot dispense with your self for that first duty and fortune doth dispense
with him before my window or in all other places where I might have you for a witness that his love did not displease me No Horatio I have omitted none and the affection which I bore you made me have recourse to this artifice hoping I should know by giving you some cause of jealousie the force of your passion but I have not seen though you have seen all these things that you had any sense of them and albeit I knew that by this untoward experience I should be in danger of losing you if you were sensible yet chose I rather to resolve upon it and to assure my self of your love than to conserve you with a luke-warm and indifferent affection I have ever heard that jealousie is the daughter of love yet do I not say that love cannot be without jealousie Questionless you will tell me that by my own reasons I am unjust in complaining of you since it is possible that you may have love without having jealousie But alas this discourse hath not so much as an apparent reason neither can I suffer my self to be perswaded to that which I desire so passionately And to shew you that I cannot force my mind to deceive my self hear a thing which hath made me to think upon this matter I have been perswaded then that love alone cannot produce jealousie and how it is necessary that jealousie should have a mother which may contribute to her birth this mother if I be not deceived is occasion and as love without her cannot produce jealousie so she without love canot beget jealousie This reasoning seemes so powerfull to me as you cannot make any objection which it destroyes not for in fine you may well have love without jealousie when as you have no occasion for it but I having given it you and you not having taken it is to say absolutely that you have had no love Ah! fair Hypolita answered Horatio how I doe rejoyce at these complaints of yours for the more reasons you have brought to maintain your opinion the more have you established my felicity You say then amiable Hypolita continued Horatio that there can be no love without jealousie and because I have not been jealous I have had no love you shall pardon me if you please if without losing the respect which I ow you I dare take the libertie to contradict you in maintaining with reason that the perfectest and sincerest reason is that which admits of no jealousie It is a thâ—ng known of all reasonable and dis-interessed persons that he who loves truly loves only to love and not to be beloved or ro expect any recompence for that thought is too base and abject for so noble a passion Now if the love of beauty which is that whereof we speak springs from an object that is pleasing to the sight it followes that so long as this object seems amiable unto us so long will our love continue and whether the person beloved answers our affection or answers it not this love shall be still the same love But that I may make use of a comparison as well as you a man sees a fair Lady and love arises in his heart is it necessary for him to examine whether this Lady be ingaged to another in affection it is certain that it is not and it is every day seen that love doth subject us to them whose love is ingaged otherwhere so that one may wel judg from thence that a man ought to persevere in his love though some cause be given him of jealousie since when he was not beloved and that he was induced to love by the only sight of beauty he left not to be infinitely amorous And if I may be permitted to make use of History in this encounter what sympathy or what affection could that young Athenian expect who became so desperately in love with a beautifull Statue and whose passion was so extreme as the like was never heard of It is very certain that he loved only to love seeing the object of his passion was absolutely incapable of any correspondence Now then if it be true that a Lover is satisfied in knowing that he loves he is most assured that jealousie is not of power enough to destroy his love and that this jealousie is rather an effect of a defective than of a perfect love And to speak freely unto you tell me I pray you who can be so hardy after a worthy person hath had the goodness to receive our services favourably and to testifie some affection unto us as to suspect she should have the same thoughts for another Ah fair Hypolita the gallantry and civility which you have used to the eldest of the Adornes could not oblige me to draw so bad a consequence against you And to comprehend all the rest of my reasons in one alone I am but to say that he who by his discourse gives some marks of his jealousie to his Mistress names her inconstant facile and almost infamous Judge now fair Hypolita whether these be words agreeing with a Lady In the mean time it is most undoubted that in what tearms soever jealousie is expressed it cannot be expressed but in this manner whereas quite contrary this confidence which we have in the person beloved which makes us to approve of all her actions is the true mark of perfect love and indeed merits the most acknowledgement if I may be permitted to say so I have not suspected you then beautifull Hypolita of inconstancy because I have esteemed you very much and if I had had as good a place in your heart as you have had in mine you would questionless have done me justice â—n not accusing me of infidelity Hypolita was not sorry to find Horatio's reasons stronger than hers but whereas she was high-minded she would not let him see that she began to repent her but contrarily making shew as if she thought it strange her brother should leave her so long entertaining Horatio she called him for fear she should be constrained to say something that would be too obliging unto him And whereas Doria could not satisfie himself he came out of his Sisters Cabinet and went down to wait on Horatio whom she could not let part without beholding him in such a sort as he might easily perceive that he was in better terms with her than when he came thither for it is the custom of those that are easily angry to be as easily pacified to accuse that one may justifie himself and to complain that ' they may be satisfied In the mean time Doria had no sooner left Horatio but the Marquis came to him for to show him a Letter which he had written to Aemilia Why said Doria unto him do you think of her still I must needs think of her said the Marquis in the necessity I am in But before you marvelâ—t my constancy read that which you shall finde written in this paper and halving opened it he saw that it
commerce with her nor having ever trusted any thing to her discretion I perceive very well my Lord answered this man that you do not trust in mine but it may be this Letter which I present you with will better perswade my fidelity unto you In saying so he gave him that which he had written to me You may judg now whether Vlama were astonished when he came to know it Howbeit this first motion being over he imagined further that I peradventure might have lost it and some one have found it But the cunning of this man left him not long in this opinion for seeing Vlama moved and capable of being perswaded he told him That Prince Mahamed had loved me a great while and that I also loved him That so long as he beleeved that there could no other harm arrive to him then to be deceived by me he durst not betray Mahamed but having seen by the Letter which he had written to me and which he said I had put into the Princes hands that he spake in such sort as if it came to the Sophi's knowledg his fortune would be utterly ruined he was resolved to make use of the Princes blindness to draw it with address from out of his hands and my Lord continued he to shew you that I speak truth I have taken also three of the Letters which Felixana hath written to the Prince in the beginning of their affection for as for the rest I durst not meddle with them because as they are more obliging so the Prince makes them to be read unto him almost dayly by Amariel who is the Confident of this love Vlama harkened to this discourse looked on her Letters and his knew the hands and no longer doubting of my infidelity he thanked this wicked man and asked him an hundred questions about the love that was between the Prince and me But the other fearing that he would demand so many things of him as in the end he might contradict himself in some one or other he besought him he would be pleased to let him depart for fear lest if any of Prince Mahamed's Officers should see him go out of his lodging so long after he was entred inâ—o it they might suspect the truth Vlama deceived by this artifice dismissed him promised to recompence him and prays him to continue advertising what should pass betwixt Prince Mahamed and me He was hardly out of Vlama's chamber when according to Deliment's advice that old Satrap whom as I have told you he had corrupted came and commanded him from the Sophi to go instantly out of the Palace and the next day to depart to his Government until he received further order And whereas Vlama importuned him to tell him why he was entreated after that manner The Satrap answered him That the Sophi onely knew it and that he had charged him not to leave him till he was out of the Palace Seeing there is nothing more resting for me answered Vlama but to give marks of my obedience having given enough already of my fidelity and courage in other occasions let us obey without murmuring He had no sooner said so but he prepared to be gone howbeit suddenly remembering that he left all the Letters which I had written him in his Cabinet he went boldly thither to take them away and without knowing whether it were out of a sense of choller or love either to teer or preserve them he took a little China coffer wherein they were the old Satrap who walked fairly and softly before never perceiving it But whil'st these things passed in such sort Prince Mahamed who had layd himself on his bed by reason of a weakness wherewith he had been taken re-assumed new forces and calling for Amariel he was told that he was gone forth but for all that he arose and caused himself to be led by another to Axiamira's lodging whom he found alone Ismael and Deliment being gone from thence a good while before and I was not yet come unto her For the adventure of Vlama's Letter which the Prince had snatched from me kept me in so great an unquietness as I knew not what resolution to take I feared to discover my self to the Princess doubting lest she should take it ill that I had concealed from her the affection of the Prince and that of Vlama Neither durst I acquaint Vlama with that which was arrived unto me for fear he should imagine that without this cross adventure I would have told him nothing of Mahamed's love and I judged also that it would not be very easie for me to oblige the Prince to render me Vlama's Letter whensoever I should be able to speak with him which I saw well was at that time absolutely impossible In this irresolution I gave the Prince leasure to visit the Princess Axiamira who as I have told you was alone when as he came into her chamber At his first arrival there he commanded him that led him to get him forth and after he had demanded of the Princess whether he might speak without being heard of any but her self and that she had answered him how he might speak safely he requested her to pardon him two things and to accord him one And when as the Princess had promised him that which he desired All the grace that I demand of you continued he is That you will not think amiss of me when I shall have told you that I have a long time loved Felixana and the second That you will pardon me if the respect which I have born you hath kept me from acquainting you with it sooner But when as you have granted me the pardon of these two things you must also to keep your word with me promise not to intreat Felixana the worse for it For though I am at this present not very well satisfied of her and that it is rather choller then love which carries me to the entertaining of you upon this subject yet I cannot resolve for all that to hurt her You acquaint me with so many strange things at once said the Princess unto him as I doubt whether I should beleeve them for to tell me that you are in love with the beauty of Felixana and that Felixana in whom I confide in all things should make your affection a secret unto me is that which I cannot comprehend and that which I shall not beleeve unless you give me stronger proofs of it I did not say to you replyed the Prince That I am in love with the beauty of Felixana but indeed that I love Felixana And beleeve dear sister that the beauty wherewith I am taken though it wounds not the heart through the eyes yet leaves not touching it very powerfully but in conclusion I am not come hither to tell you what hath made me in love but onely that I am so As for Felixana that which hath kept her as I conceive from speaking to you of that affection which I had for her is that she
the company is exceeding dear to me tell me what recompence do you demand I desire said he unto her that before I relate that unto you which befell me you will let us know what discontent that was which made you quit Genoua to go to Albengua what moved you to marry a man whom you did not love and banish one whom you did not hate For to speak freely unto you it hath been imparted unto me at Genoua in such a manner as gives me a great deal of curiosity and makes me desire to know whether I have been told the truth or no. As for me said Hipolita I have intended a long time since to intreat Leonida she would acquaint me with it but Fortune hath so cruelly persecuted us as we have scarce had any leasure but to feel new miseries without remembring those which were already past Certainly added Doria it I durst joyn my intreaties to those of the Company I would request Leonida to grant us this favor For my part said Sophronia I have not the same curiosity for I am so fully informed of this History as I do not know any thing that hath hapned to my self better If the company said Leonida to her will needs know it I shall make advantage of it if you will take the pains to relate it unto them for as for me I am fully resolved not to expose my self a second time to the vexation which this relation hath been the cause of to me Do not reproach my old error unto me said Alphonso interrupting her and to deliver you from this unquietness and for fear lest I should find my self too weak to hear a thing without grief which hath given me so much I will go and walk in the Garden or entertain my self with a Book Alphonso after he had said this went without attending Leonida's answer forth of the Cabinet and would not return thither again though the Marquiss called him more then once His absence did not for all that change Leonida's opinion and whatsoever could be said unto her she would not recount her own History but she requested Sophronia to take the trouble of it upon her This fair maid seeing that the whole company desired this complacency of her resolved to satisfie them after she had prayed Leonida that if she forgot any thing she would put her in mind of it and Leonida having promised her to do so she then made the Marquiss to swear that as soon as ever she had finished her relation he should begin his And when as he had assured her that he would not fail therein and had told her that he had at leastwise as much desire to recount his adventures unto her as she had to know them Sophroniâ— began and spake in this sort The History of LEONIDA THe Adventures of Leonida have something so extraordinary in them as they are to be related in somewhat a particular manner for to render the recital of them the more agreeable and intelligible unto you I am not to say any thing to you yet of the beginning of her life of her first Conquests nor of her marriage but only acquaint you with Alphonso's love which I believe took its beginning presently upon Justiniano's return and a year and half after the death of Leonida's husband This Conquest without doubt was not disagreeable unto her for as you know Alphonso hath merit wisdom and wit and if after these which certainly are the greatest and most essential good things it is fit to consider the rest you are not ignorant that Alphonso is rich enough and of a race illustrious enough to touch a heart on the side of interest and glory as well as of affection In fine whether Leonida were capable of love or ambition she found in the person of Alphonso wherewith to beget these two passions in her heart and wherewith to render them excusable If Leonida were not present I would tell you that whereas she hath a great deal of wit Love in this encounter was introduced into her Soul rather by Reason then by sense and inclination But not to stand upon small things you shall understand that Alphonso who you have always seen so assidual in serving her after he had rendred her all the testimonies of love that a worthy person can desire of a man infinitely passionate he knew at length from her own mouth that his vows were not rejected and that he was not forbidden to hope After the day that she had permitted him to entertain her openly with his passion it is certain that Leonida had continually all the complacency for him which a vertuous woman was capablâ— of And whereas you know that Leonida hath naturally a gallant wit and a very â—ovial humor sh oftentimes gave him the pleasure to hear her jeer his Rivals in his presence and an hundred times made her Conquests serve for his glory Alphonso then lived in this sort with more content then the extream love which he bore her seemed to permit for as I have heard it said this passion seldom leaves any great tranquillity in the Souls of those whom it possesseth But for Alphonso he was the most generous Lover that ever was his inclination had not been blind all the world approved of his choyce he loved an amiable person and was beloved of her she took care not to give him any cause of jealousie his very Rivals served for his delight and felicity by the usage that she gave them his father did not contradict his affection Leonida was of a free condition and might dispose of her self yea and to keep him from being deprived of the pleasure of hoping for the possession of a person that could render him contented Leonida to assure her self yet further of his love would not so much as let him make use of his friends for the motioning of their marriage In so happy an estate methinks it is hard to imagine what could trouble his felicity especially when I shall have told you that Leonida used him still as favorably as before and without any change arriving in her yet there arrived a change in him I well perceive continued Sophronia after she had been a while without speaking that you cannot divine what it was which troubled Alphonso's happiness and certainly I cannot think it strange seeing according to my sense this adventure is so extraordinary as it is impossible to conjecture it You shall understand then that one day Alphonso being gone to see a kinsman of his whereas the person beloved is a part of all conversations and a man infinitely amorous speaks without choyce and judgment of his Mistress to every one he came to speak of Leonida to his kinsman though to say truth he was not worthy of that honor for this man is both malicious and blockish According then to his humor and stupidity he rudely asked of Alphonso whether he beleeved that he had been the first which ever had been affected of Leonida Now
in your own dispose as in mine wherefore then if you have not deceived me do you not obey me When as I promised you that which you say replyed Alphonso I hoped that I might if not raign in your heart at leastwise not be surmounted there by any body Leonida perceiving then that jealousie was the disease that tormented him and knowing that she had given him no reasonable occasion for it fell a smiling and reaching him her hand with that gallantry which is so natural unto her Affict not your self said this amiable creature nor fear that I will be displeased to understand that you are jealous I know said she unto him still smiling that we fear to lose the good which is extream dear to us that jealousie is an undoubted sign of a strong passion and of the merit of the person whom one loves because if she were not amiable she would have no Lovers and consequently she would give no cause of jealousie And I am the less offended continued she to see you touched with this passion in regard it is easie for me to help you For to speak more seriously to you added Leonida you have no Rivals which can keep me from giving you the pleasure when you will to hear me termed by them cruel inhumane rigorous and inexorable In fine said she unto him you have a malady whereof you shall no sooner have acquainted me with the cause but you shall be cured of it I do not think answered Alphonso with as much anguish as Leonida had gallantry that it is as easie for you to restore tranquâ—llity unto my Soul as it was easie for you to deprive me of it for continued he I have no Rivals whom you can ill intreat and yet I am the most jealous that ever was I do not understand you said Leonida to him with more coldness then before and if you do not explain your self better I shall beleeve that either you have lost your Reason or that with a premeditated design you purpose to break off with me But take heed Alphonso of leaving me long in this suspicion for fear lest whereas I am proud and disdainful I do not prevent you and it be too late for you then to have recourse to my goodness Alphonso surprized both with Leonida's discourse and the manner wherewith she spake resolved at length freely to tell her the cause of his grief I know very well said he unto her that I am going to speak in vain for my self and indeed it is rather out of despair then Reason that I am carried to obey you Know then continued he that I am jealous and that I shall be so eternally since the Rival that surmounts me in your heart can never dye for to conceal the truth from you no longer the blessed Octavio is the object of my jealousie The tears which you shed for his memory are the cause of those which I shall pour forth all my life time the sighs which you fetch for him shall always make me sigh and his past felicity shall beget the misery of all the rest of my days You have loved him so much continued he and you love him so much still that I can find no place in your Soul He much raign there alone for indeed you do not suffer me there but only to conserve the memory of him the better Ah cruel man cryed Leonida hearing him speak in this sort is it possible that you have the inhumanity to open the Tomb of Octavio to persecute me and in stead of weeping with me or at leastwise of bemoaning and comforting me you are so audacious as to give me marks of your hatred to a person whom I have so much loved and whose memory is still so dear unto me and yet in grateful as you are said she to him you owe the affection which I bear you to that little resemblance you have with Octavio but as this infortunate creature hath been the cause of it so shall he likewise give an end to it for in regard of that which you have said to me I ordain you never to speak to me and never to see me more Why do not you shut your self up then in Octavio's Tomb answered Alphonso since you can love none but him Reply no further to me inhumane that you are said she to him and take from my sight the persecutor of Leonida and the enemy of Octavio Alphonso seeing Leonida in such choller and not able to give her a good reason either for the maintaining of his error or for the obtaining of his pardon went away more jealous then before Alas said he to himself how sensible she is on that side I what a powerful mark of her love is her choller if she had loved me she would have used me after another manner she would have taken pity of my weakness she would have given me some new proof of her affection but she could not disguise her heart all her thoughts have been for Octavio and all her words have been against me In this opinion Alphonso got him home with an intent to obey Leonida exactly and never to see her again As indeed he came no more at her and that be might avoyd meeting with her any where he feigned himself sick Leonida seeing to what a madness this ill-grounded jealousie carried him desired at leastwise to conceal it from the eyes of the world and to that effect she advanced a voyage which she was to make to Albengua where as you know she hath some means and affairs She departed then from Genoua so incensed against Alphonso that she could not so much as resolve to do him the favor to complain of him by a Letter Her departure did not cure Alphonso of his frensie but contrarily it augmented it for he beleeved that Leonida did not abandon Genoua but to bewail Octavio with the more liberty This thought for all that was not the most powerful in his heart the impossibility of seeing Leonida redoubled his desire of it and love being stronger still then jealousie he purposed an hundred times to go to Albengua to cast himself at Leonida's feet to crave her pardon and to obtain an oblivion of his fault of her But no sooner did the Phantom of Octavio present it self to his imagination no sooner did he call the tears and sighs of Leonida to remembrance but he re-entred into his former furies He made an hundred impossible wishes which destroyed one another and led a very irksom and melancholick life During that time he wrote divers Letters to Leonida according to the divers thoughts wherein he was but when as she perceived so great an inequality in his mind and such marks of an unsetled Reason she returned no answer thereunto and although she loved Alphonso so much as to be extreamly grieved to lose him yet could she not imagine how she might cure him of this fantasie so that finding no expedient for it and being very much incensed against
longer hereupon it shall suffise to say that after the battel of Varnes he conquered Peloponnesus that he dismissed himself absolutely from his Empire which to took upon him again soon after for to obtain a battel against the valiant Huniades he made the King of Bosnia also his Tributary which was his last victory For the couragious George Scanderbeg Castriot King of Albania who had been his Slave and that had acquired unto himself with so much justice the glorious title of the Buckler of Christendom oposed all his enterprises with such valour as this great Prince seeing him self forced so raise his siege from before Croya dyed with grief and spight at it The Pourtrait of Mahomet the second the eleventh Emperor of the Turks IT was not without some cause that this Prince would be surnamed Bovi which is to say Great or the Terror of the World seeing all his actions have been so great and high that if his excellent qualities had been without blemish this Prince had been incomparable He was great in his enterprises great in courage great in conduct great in prudence a great Politician great in conquest great in beauty and in subtilty of wit but he was also great in impiety in dissoluteness in revenge in perfidiousness and in ambition The greatness of his courage and of his enterprises carried him against the Greeks Hungarians Trebisondians Mifians Valachians Transilvanians Bosniaus Albanians Rhodians Venetians and divers other people In conclusion my dear Doria this Prince had to do with all the Warlike Nations of the World but this Table contains too many things to be explaned particularly unto you wherefore it shall suffice that you only do admire the exquisite ordering of it and that I tell you in generall how Mahomet conquered in two and thirty years that he reigned twelve Kingdoms and two Empires that of Trebisond and that of the Greeks together with this mighty and renowned City of Constantinople as also that of Croya and all Albania Valachia Bosnia Scodra Peloponesus and the Town of Otranto He reduced the Caraman under his obedience Stiria Carinthia Synope the Iland of Metelin and after the battell which he gained against Usuncassan he constrained him to seek his amity Howbeit he was not equally fortunate for the valiant Huniades and the valorous Scanderbeg vanquished sometimes in him the Vanquisher of all others And whereas ambition was the predominant passion in the heart of Mahomet it followed him even to death ordaining that upon his Tomb there should be set after a long narration of all his Victories in the Turkish tongue this subscription in Latin He had a purpose to ruin Rhodes and superb Italy But the divine justice extinguished his desires with his dayes The Pourtrait of Bajazet the second the twelfth Emperor of the Turks THe life of this Prince is so replenished with divers adventures as it cannot be defined certainly whether he had more good than bad fortune The begining of his Reign was established by three Battels which he obtained against a Brother of his who was constrained to fly unto Rhodes When he was at peace he conquered Caramania did great spoyl in Moldavia took the Town of Chilliem together with the Castle and that of Moncastro the chief of the Province he took also Lepanto Modon Coron and Junqua from the Christians whom he defeated iâ— a Navall-fight as you may behold in this Table where the Painter verily hath done prodigies See you not continued Ibrahim these two vessels grapled together consider a little with what ardour the assailants seem to go to the fight and how one of these Janizaries striving to leap aboord this small vessel is repulsed by this Christian how in falling he hath seized on his enemy whom he drags along with him Behold also on the left hand this vessel which the Turks had invested and how that rather than they would yeeld they have blown up themselves observe withall these flakes of fire which light upon this other vessell whose tackle and sayles already begin to burn and how this great cloud of smoak which steals away the rest of the Army from our eyes is an address of the Painter who wanting room hath repaired that defect by this invention But without standing on the last disorders of this Prince which were strange whether for the violent deaths that he caused or for that which he received let us pass on to thiâ— other piece The Pourtrait of Selim the thirteenth Emperor of the Turks THis gloomy physiognomy and this haughty look do not ill paint forth unto us the ambition and cruelty of Selim but they conceal from us his vertues which certainly were very great He was prudent and advised amidst dangers prompt and vigilant in his enterprises indefatigable in War of an invincible courage a reasonable Justicer manger his cruelty extremely liberall and that which is of most marvail in this Prince is that he was never vanquished after he was Emperor He loved the reading of History he made verses in his own tongue was very skilfull in Painting and even to the point that he sent as I have already delared the Battell which he obtained against the Sophy drawn with his own hand unto the Venetians who conserve it still unto this day in their Treasurie There is also a great number of his works to be seen in the Seraglio He was very Eloquent and nothing curious of the magnificence of Apparell and that which I most admire in him is that he alwayes refused those adorations which are accustomed to be rendred to the Turkish Emperors never suffering any to cast themselves on the ground in speaking to him nor to do him reverence on their knees And truly if this Emperor had not blemished his glory by that prodigious desire of reigning which carried him to take away the life of him from whom he had received his to cause two of his Brothers eight of his Nephews and as many of his Bassaes to be strangled he had been excellent in all things But to pass over his Victories lightly because time doth press us I will onely tell you in few words that he won a famous Battle of the Sophy at Zaleran that he took Tauris which he kept not long and Keman at his return he rendred himself Master of Aladulia after he had vanquished King Ustagelu he passed into Siria where he defeated Campson Gauri Sultan of Cairo in a battel neer to Aleppo which was rendred unto him as well as Damascus and all the rest of Siria from thence going to Jerusalem he conquered all Palestina by the valour of Sinan Bassa who obtained a Battel neer to Gaza whereupon Selim having passed the deserts of Egypt fought a battel vvith Thomombey hard by Matharea and constrained him to retire to Cairo where was given the most memorable battel of our Age for it lasted three dayes and three nights in continuall fight but in the end Selim was victorious and forced the Mamelucks to abandon
could not dive into the bottom of his heart Dinner being done Justiniano desired the Count to permit him to go and write in his Cabinet before he was hindered by company which no doubt would be with him ere it were long The Count who was not willing that his own pleasure should destroy that of his friend opened him the door and told him that he was infinitely obliged to the Princess of Monaco who ever after she had power to dispose of her self had been fought unto by all the Princes of Italy without so much as once harkning unto them but that contrarily she had openly published how she had resolved to renounce the world as soon as she certainly knew that he was no longer in it that she had often had business at Genoua where her presence was necessary but would never come thither so much did she fear the fight of them that might condemn her resolution Justiniano was so ravished with the constancy of Isabella that if the Count had not left him for to return unto the company this talk had kept him a long time from drawing up his Letter but in the end after he had written all that which his respect his joy and his passion had inspired him with he gave his packet to a Gentleman whom the Count had assigned him for it he prayed him to go and come again from Monaco with all the speed that possibly he could and to add moreover to that favour the observing the actions of Isabella at such time as she should understand of his return and that she should see him whom he had sent her back that Officer of hers too he caressed exceedingly and assured him that he would acknowledge the pains which he had suffered for his consideration Justiniano had no sooner ended his dispatch but that all the illustrious persons of the City came to visit him with an extreme impatience to learn from his own mouth the success of his adventures But whilst he is satisfying the curiosity of so fair an Assembly and telling them things which vve knovv as vell as he let us go and content ours at Monaco and see with what eye and in what manner the Princess will receive the agreeable newes of her Lovers return When these happy Messengers arrived the next day at Monaco it was very neer night so that although one of them belonged to the Princess yet was he not knovvn nor vvould he discover himself the better to surprize her It vvas only told then to Isabella that a Gentleman from the Count of Lavaegna and another vvho vvere nevvly arrived in a Barque desired to speak vvith her and that they had order to deliver their message to none but her self She vvas at that time in her Cabinet vvhere she had shut up her self that day to read over all the Letters vvhich she had received from Justiniano she vvas vexed then to be interrupted in an imployment that made up together both her joy and her grief she commanded notvvithstanding that they should be brought in But vvhen she came to knovv him vvhom she had sent to seek Iustiniano she vvas so surprized and so amazed out of the opinion she had that his voyage vvas in vain as the apprehension thereof keeping her from speaking gave the Counts Gentleman opportunity to tell her that Iustiniano had given him in charge to present her vvith a Letter from him This discourse revived her spirits for a vvhile but fearing she had not understood him vvell she made that agreeable name vvhich touched her heart so sensibly to be spoken to her once again vvhereupon the Gentleman told her that the paper he had presented to her vvould satisfie her better than he could She cast her eyes then upon the Letter vvhich assured her that it vvas Iustinianoes hand so that in an instant she abandoned her self over vvholy to joy and vvith an extreme precipitation broke up the seal of the Letter for to read that vvhich follovvs here The Letter of Iustiniano to the Princess of MONACO AT Last fortune hath made a truce with me and how constant soever she hath been in persecuting me my love hath vanquished her cruelty and forced her to permit me to see you again I know well that the suspition which I have had of your fidelity makes me unworthy of this grace but I know well also that my cruellest enemies have pardoned me for it and that you have a soul too generous not to do as much for a person that voluntarily accuseth himselfe of a crime which in my opinion is the greatest mark of love that ever I have rendred you If the possession of you had not been so precious unto me my resentment had not been so great and if my passion had been less perfect hate had succeeded to my love But to what transport soever that imaginary misfortune hath carried my mind yet have you alwayes reigned in my heart I have hated your inconstancy but I have alwayes loved your person I have separated the crime from the criminall I would never have extinguished so fair a flame but in extinguishing my life and with the most passionate sense that love can inspire into us I have even adored you in the arms of a Rivall and conserved my soul entirely for you at that very time when as I believed I had lost you for ever After all this I dare hope that my crime shall not be an obstacle strong enough to keep you from according me the permission to come and render you an accompt of my misadventures to comfort me with your sight for my past miseries to let me understand from your own mouth that absence hath not diminished your affection that mine is still considerable with you and that at last you desire I should eternally be your Justiniano Never was there heart more replenished with joy than that of Isabella after she had read this Letter nor ever had an amorous spirit sweeter transports than this Princess felt in thus understanding all at once the life the return and the fidelity of her Lover But her satisfaction augmented yet more when as she knew in what manner he had been received at Genoua no way doubting now but that her felicity was setled for the rest of her life After she had spent two hours at least in hearing these persons relate unto her what they had known concerning Justiniano she gave order that they should be very well treated and that the next morning the Counts Gentleman should repair unto her As soon as she saw her self alone she called a kinswoman of hers which lived with her and not able to contain her joy she imparted the cause of it to her but in such passionate terms as it was easie to perceive that she lived not so much in her self as in Justiniano And that she might no longer deferr her answer unto him she caused paper and ink to be brought her but though she had a fertile wit though she were
him that this person was named Felixana that she was the daughter of the Governor of Mazanderon that she lived with Axiamira eldest daughter to Tachmas Sophy of Persia who it was thought was in love with her but the report was that Felixana by reason of some secret inclination or for some reason that was not known did not receive the affection of that Prince favourably wherefore this being so he resolved to send Rustan in disguise for to see her to offer her all the magnificences of the Seraglio or if she would not receive them willingly to bring her away by force which would not be hard to do because he had learnt by another that the Princess Axiamira with whom she lived went almost every yeer to Mazanderon which is situated on the bank of the Caspian Sea I saw very well after this discourse that being generous I was not to disguise my opinion in so important an occasion I took then the liberty to say unto Soliman in the gentlest terms I could choose that to use this violence was in some sort to violate the Law of Nations and to be wanting to exact justice and that if Tachmas was never so little sensible of it the fire of his love might be likely to kindle that of war and that peradventure his Highness might one day repent that a picture had caused the shedding of his Subjects blood Rustan who saw that by destroying the Emperors design I would take away his imployment from him assured the Grand Signior that he would put Felixana into his hands without the Sophy of Persiaes ever discovering what was become of her that he knew almost an undoubted mean to execute that which he had said provided he would give him a Vessell well furnished with all things necessary that he would cause all his souldiers to be attired like Slaves to the end they might be the less mistrusted that as for him he would also attire himself like a Merchant and lade his Vessell with all that was most rare at Constantinople of the commodities of Europe and most proper to touch the inclination of women that after this he besought his Highness not to command him to say more and to be contented with the Oath that he made him to return him his head at his feet if he did not bring Felixana This promise did so sooth the passion of the Emperor as not able to keep himself from following it he had the goodness to ask my pardon if he did not submit his sense to mine telling me how I had at least this advantage that he confessed I had reason and that he would remember how his glory was dear unto me since I had been so generous as not to fear to offend him in opposing my self to the injustice of his design that in the mean time we should deal in such sort as Roxelana might have no notice of it In the end Madam Rustan had the equipage he required for this goodly conquest and I had more civilities than I deserved Howbeit Soliman was constrained a little after the departure of Rustan to interrupt his amorous thoughts for to think of the affairs of Natolia which since his return to Constantinopie were very much changed for as soon as Zellebis had been advertised by his Spies that the Emperor was departed he took as much care to joyn with his enemy as he had used before to avoid him And whereas Sinan had order to give battell when occasion should serve for it the two Armies were not long before they incountred together If one should alwayes judge of the event of the fight by the number of the Souldiers it is certain that the Bassa would have vanquished Zellebis who had a great many fewer than he but he was so unfortunate and according to some of so little understanding that he let the enemies Army take all the advantages of the field whether it were for the situation or the wind which drave all the dust and the smoke in the faces of ours whereby they were extremely incommodated It hapned also tâ—at when the Battell began the Sun was covered with clouds so that the Bassa Sinan not having observed on which side it was or not having fore-seen that it might break forth he placed his souldiers with their eys just against it who soon after perceived that this light which blinded them kept them oftentimes from being able either to strike their enemies or to avoid their blows At last Madam the Sun cleared the defeat of the Bassa and the triumph of Zellebis and the Emperors Army was so routed as in above eight days after a thousand souldiers were not found together This news very much afflicted Soliman and whereas I was the only confident of his pleasure and of his grief I received order to come unto him but I was scarcely entred into his Cabinet when as he fell to asking of me whether I would have him dishonoured Whether I had resolved to let that be lost which I had gotten Whether I had taken the Capitall Town of Natolia to serve for a retreat to a coward which had blemished the glory of his Arms For at length said he unto me the Bassa Sinan is retired thither after he hath lost a battell and after he hath let mine enemy take the Arms of the Empire Now judge Ibrahim continued he what I am to attend from thee thy valor hath once already established my glory it is again by thee that I must hold it from thy hand it is that I will have the head of Zellebis and from thy arm that I look for victory Oppose thy self no longer then against my will nor can I ever resolve that thou shouldst quit me I love thee too well or to say better I love my self too vvell to give thee liberty to go out of my State Resolve then for that vvhich I have so often demanded of thee and vvhich I dare not almost express more clearly unto thee for fear of grieving thee at length Ibrahim take a Turbant and a Scimitar and after that I make thee the chief of my Empire mine enemies are subdued and Soliman is contented It is certain that the manner wherewith this discourse was pronounced somewhat moved my minde but it is true nevertheless that it never shaked my soul I besought the Emperor not to hearken so much to the affection he bore me but that he would also hearken unto reason that the first blinded his judgement in perswading him that I was capable of great things but the second shewed him clearly that he demanded of me a thing not only unjust but impossible to an heart as mine was For my Lord said I unto him our thoughts depend not upon our wills that which we call faith amongst us is a grace that comes from above and is not acquired by naturall knowledge it is a thing then which can not be forced it is a present from Heaven which is to be conserved with the
which would not be easily vanquished Justiniano answered thereunto in such a manner as perswaded Doria that he had a mind to sleep but indeed it was because his mind was so taken up with his own as he was not capable of hearkening to other mens affairs so that Doria fearing to incommodate him gave over talking and slept more quietly than Justiniano did IBRAHIM OR THE ILLUSTRIOUS BASSA The second part The second BOOK THe morning bringing joy and delight again to this fair Troop the Princess would needes have the Count and the Marquis bestow that whole day too upon her and to pass it away the more agreeably she led them to Monton a little Town some mile from Monaco where the Princes of her House had built a magnificent Paviglion which she desired to shew unto the Marquis Aemilia finding her self better that night made one also of the company so that the Marquis was in the best humour of the World And whereas the Princess observed that his respects were not displeasing to her kinswoman she said to the Marquis for to oblige him to talk that whereas love ought to be without supercherie as well as war he having not as yet declared himself to be Aemilia's she might by his observance and services be induced to beleeve that he was capable of a solid affection and so ingage her further than was fitting Aemilia blushed at this discourse and the Marquis without giving her leave to speak assured the Princess that he should not long conceal himself and that the Count could confirm this truth unto her Indeed said the Count he hath not used to keep himself from being knowen and if he would take the paines to recount unto you the first adventure that befell him at Genoua his address would appear to the beautifull Aemilia and the relation no doubt would give your Excellencie much content Withall it will be better walking towards the evening than in the midst of the day and you cannot pass it away better The Princess who was perswaded that the Marquis his adventures could not chuse but be very pleasant intreated him thereunto with a great deal of civilitie he excuses himself a while but in the end she conjures him to it in the name of his last Mistress It is she indeed answered he that is most powerfull in my heart and that makes me to obey The Princess conducted them then into a Cabinet that was open on four sides and whereof all the walles were of cristall glass from the top to the bottom that so the prospect might be the more free After they were set down there on seates of ebony covered with carnation and silver tinsell the Marquis began his History in this sort The History of the feigned Astrologer BEfore I begin the relation which I am going to make remember Madam though I speak your language as if I were an Italian that I am for all that a French-mam that is to say an enemy of the coldness and reservedness of your Nation That it is I who have reconciled vertue and galanterie at Genoua who have declared my self the protector of the liberty of you Ladies and who in conclusion have by my care and address deserved amongst them the glorious title of their Deliverer I tell you all these things that you may not think it strange if in the sequel of this discourse you understand some adventures where the civility of this side the mountaines is not regularly observed I know answered the Princess all that you have done for the publique libertie the Count hath already acquainted me that the galanterie which is seen now at Genoua is an effect of yours and that in the end you have been so powerfull in perswading the vertue of women as there is scarce any brother or husband that is longer jealous I am not sorry replyed the Marquis that so worthy a man hath drawen you my picture for though I doubt not but that he hath somewhat flattered me yet you will not chuse but know me In the mean time since I must satisfie your curiosity it is necessary that I give you to understand how assoon as I was arrived at Genoua with a design to stay there so long as my humor should find wherewithall to entertain it self I observed that near to the lodging where I lay there was a maid who seemed beautifull enough unto me as indeed it must be acknowledged that Livia hath something that is very bewitching in the air of her face especially for a man that is not melancholick and that she hath a kind of I know not what cast with her eyes which perswaded me she would not be very cruell If I were known more particularly of you than I am I would not tell you Madam that I loved Livia since it would be enough to make you comprehend it that I say to you she seemed fair unto me In fine she had no sooner made an impression in my heart but I sought the meanes to touch hers And although it be my custom to explain my self clearly in matter of love and never to leave her whom I serve to devine of my passion yet in regard I durst not yet publish my precepts openly it is true that I continued a whole week together in using all the fantasticall tricks of a Lover of this Country I passed twenty times a day before her dore I followed her in the streets I accompanied her in her devotions I saluted her with respect I beheld her a far off with languishing eyes I went every evening to make a noyse under her windowes with a Gittern and according to the fashion I imployed the very address of my horse to let her see mine in making him curvet an hundred times before her lodging In fine I omitted none of those fooleries which are introduced amongst you But whereas I advanced my design very little by so long a way and perceived apprehensions of curiosity in Livia but none at all of love at leastwise as I could judge by the manner of heâ— beholding me I began to accuse her of stupiditie or ingratitude and to think of a retreat But coming suddenly again out of this error I resolved not to quit her untill I had served her some time after the fashion of France or at least used the meanes so to doe For said I am not I unjust in desiring she should love me because I pass oftentimes thorough a street where I doe lodge as well as she In desiring that she should be obliged unto me because I take pleasure in looking on her for that she is fair In desiring too that she should recompence me because I hinder her from sleeping some nights with a bad harmony And lastly would I have her judge of my wit and love by the address of my horse No said I I must write to her I must talk with her I must make verses for her I must entertain her with her beauty and my love and after I have
answered Doria for yesterday when I arrived at the Port I heard by chance of a French barque that is bound for Venice which parts away to morrow morning by the break of day and no doubt will receive you assoon as you shall present your self so that you shall have no more to doe but to get abord her and I will stay here to deliver your letter to the Princess You will be but unwelcome to her for it replyed Justiniano who was not willing that Doria should be present at Isabellaes receiving of a newes which would so much afflict her for fear lest the constraint she would be in should more augment her grief He prayed him then not to see her till he had her permission for it And whereas he demanded of him who should wait on him in this voyage Justiniano answered him that one of the conditions of his vow was to goe alone and unknown Doria opposed this as much as possibly he could but vain was it for him to give any counsell to his Friend and Justiniano taking a part of the money which he had at Monaco desired Doria to let him goe and write and to get him to bed After that Doria had obeyed him and that all Justinianoes people were gone out of his chamber except it were one whom he had commanded to tarry in a withdrawing room till he called him he leaned on a table and looking on the paper which he found there but without marking that which he looked on he passed up and down in his mind all his past misfortunes all those which then he resented and all those which he foresaw for the future but of all these deadly thoughts the cruellest and the hardest to be indured was that which set before his eyes how he was to abandon Isabella His heart was not strong enough to support with constancie so dolorous an apprehension and his teares falling abundantly on his paper put him in mind how he was set there with a purpose to write So that after he had spent a great part of the night in an estate which may be more easily imagined than described he took a pen and inspired more by his grief than his wit he traced these sad words Justiniano's Letter to Isabella NOt having been able to surmount your generosity either with my tears or with my prayers I have at length surmounted mine own apprehensions both with my love and with my reason I have found that though Fortune will not let me be happy yet that I shall at least be unhappy alone and that it is just I should steal away from you that I may steal you from the cruelty of Fortune by keeping you from following of mine I am gone then Madam or to say better I do separate my self from my self in separating my self from you I do obey the desire which you had that I should satisfie my honor by shewing my self not unworthy of your love and by a most sensible misfortune I am forced to absent my self from you without having so much as the consolation to bid you adieu and to let you see by my tears what the grief is which I suffer It is so great Madam that losing the use both of sight and reason together I am compelled to shut it up in my heart being impossible to express ie But before I leave you remember that I beg the conservation of your life of you till such time as you shall understand how heaven will dispose of mine I have told Doria that I am going to Jerusalem to accomplish a vow which I made for you during your sickness make use of this artifice as you please and believe that before it be six moneths I shall return happy unto you or be dead with grief JUSTINIANO After that Justiniano had made an end of writing and sealed his Letter he called that servant which he had stayed to wait on him and willed him to deliver it the Princess three hours after his departure And when this man demanded of him whether he would not go to bed Justiniano made a sign to him to be gone feigning as though he had somewhat els to write but it was indeed because his grief was so great as not being able to sleep he thought that the agitation of his body would case that of his mind He past the rest of the night in walking up and down with so great an unquietness as one is not able to describe that which he resented He oftentimes opened the window to see whether it were day and though his greatest misfortune was to part from Monaco yet one would have said that he was impatient to be gone from thence so much was his soul troubled and so much was his reason confounded In the mean time Doria who had not slept all the night hearing Justiniano walk for his chamber joyned to his caused himself to be made ready and entred into his friends just as the day began to break He would yet have disswaded him from this voyage and once more desired him to let him accompany him but Justiniano would by no means accept of so obliging an offer so that Doria seeing his friends resolution was constrained to follow his pleasure And whereas the shadows of the night were almost quite dispersed by the approach of the Sun Doria went and treated with the Master of the French Barque for Justiniano's passage who followed him to the Port his face covered with his cloak The Guards of the Town and Castle who saw him go forth so early marvelled not at it for during the little time wherein he had been well at Monaco he had used to walk out at such hours to entertain his thoughts at the Sea-side The separation of these two friends had been with more tenderness if Justiniano had been less afflicted but love so strongly possessed his heart as there was no more room left there for friendship so that when he came to imbrace Doria all that he could say to him was to conjure him to have a care of the Princess He would fain have disclosed the truth unto him but Isabella having forbidden him so to do he durst not disobey her He got aboard then being scarce able to speak and suffering himself to be disposed of by them that received him he abandoned himself not so much to the Sea as to his grief The Pilot having order given him to part steered his course for Venice and Justiniano standing up beheld Monaco with his arms across and his eys full of tears never marking Doria who still made signs of farewell to him from the Port whereunto he returned no shew of answer at all But when Doria had lost the sight of him he went back unto the Castle with a purpose not to shew himself to the Princess till she commanded him that he might exactly observe what Justiniano had intreated him unto In the mean time the three hours after his departure being past he with whom he had left his Letter
it were three dayes she would get her into the Seraglio for to wait upon her as indeed she failed not to perform it accordingly But at length Bajazet conducted his daughter to the Seraglio and caused Soliman to be advertised that there was a man attending to present a slave unto him without letting him know who he was For whereas the Officers had been all changed since his departure from thence and that he had not been seen in sixteen years at Constantinople he did not fear he should be named to Soliman The matter fell out as he desired and the grand Signior very luckily for his design hapned to be in the best humour of the world by reason he had received news of a great Victory which he had obtained over the Christians Wherefore he presently commanded that this slave and he which brought her should enter When Bajazet first appeared Soliman knew him not whether it were for that time had altered him or that his eyes and heart were so fixed on the beauty of Roxelana as he did not consider him But as soon aâ— Bajazet had cast himself at his feet and that he had begun to speak the tone of his voyce made him call him to mind He did not interrupt him for all that but looking still on Roxelana he hearkned to Bajazet without turning his head towards him Roxelana on her side appeared with so modest a Majesty and so charming a sweetness as it had been very hard to discern the motions of her soul in her eyes and not to be strucken in love with such powerfull attracts But whilst Soliman takes in so sweet and so deadly poyson Bajazet spake to him in these terms I know very well my Lord said he unto him that it is a crime in me to present my self before thee after I have been banished and that if thou beest not the most indulgent Prince of the World thou wilt not permit me to give thee reasons for it which may excuse me But since thy silence seems to accord me so much I shall let thee know my Lord that this young Slave whom thou seest here and whom I present to thy Highness as a thing that appertains unto thee is the daughter of that fair Slave whom I presumed to retain for my self though she were destined to thee Reject her not my Lord since though she be the daughter of an offendor yet is she so too of a woman that belonged unto thee and vvhose vertue hath passed into her as well as her beauty In fine it is a sacrifice which I offer up unto thee to expiate the crime which heretofore I committed and that also which at this present I commit Consider I beseech thee that having robbed thee of one slave it is but just that I should render thee another but with this difference that the former was thy slave by violence and that this same is a voluntary slave That the other had been in the hands of Pirates and that this same hath been alwaies conserved as an offering whereof the purity ought to deface the blackness of my faults But if nevertheless thou judgest her unworthy of this honour I am most ready to give thee both her life and mine own rather than resolve to live any longer absent from thy service and to spend the remainder of my daies without contributing ought to thy glory When Soliman saw that Bajazet had made an end of speaking he cryed out reaching forth his hand to him O happy was that theft of thine since it was the cause of thy now rendring me an inestimable treasure For I profess unto thee that I never saw any thing so beautifull as thy present Then turning him to Roxelana and for thee fair maid sayd he unto her be assured that in losing a father thou findest a lover and that in consideration of thee alone I will give Bajazet his liberty again and restore him to all his former charges and honours Roxelana made no other answer thereunto than with a profound respect but Bajazet was so over-joyed with so happy a beginning as he thought he should never have done rendring thanks to Soliman At last after some other speeches the grand Signior caused one of the Governesses of the women of the Seraglio to come to him and remitted her into her hands with order to lodge her alone and in one of the fairest lodgings in the womens quarter And out of a particular grace he commanded to be given unto her the very same day great store of jewels apparell sumptuous houshold-stuff and mony with six slaves to serve her And whereas she seemed to regret one which she had the Grand Signior caused her to be instantly brought in unto her But I had forgot to tell you that when she was separated from her father she affected to seem good and sensible the tears came into her eyes she looked after him as far as she could see him and with this feigned testimony of naturall affection she touched the heart of Soliman yet more for whereas her tears were without bitterness they did but make her shew the fairer But consider I pray you how deceitfull and ill-assured humane prudence is especially when it works against reason and equity Bajazet had all his life-time been mastered by two mighty passions love and ambition the first made him lose his fortune when as he betrayed Soliman and the other made him lose his life as if the divine Justice would not let him enjoy a good which he had acquired by a crime For he had not been eight days re-established in his charges and Roxelana in the Seraglio when as being gone to visit the Bassa of the sea vvho was then at Pera where the Arsenall and Magazine of all Maritime things were he arrived there just as they were ready to try fifty Cast-pieces which were to be used in some shipping that was shortly to be set forth And whereas the Bassa would be present in person at this tryall it was in this employment that Bajazet found him After the first complements the Bassa told him how that which he was going to do vvas as much to congratulate his happy return to the Port as to acquit himself of the duty of his charge whereupon he commanded fire to be given But to shew that the justice of heaven would punish Bajazet the first piece burst asunder and in the midst of two thousand persons and some four paces from the Bassa of the sea a shiver of that Cannon picked him out and carried him away with such violence as he was almost reduced into powder so strangely were his limbs dispersed And that which is yet remarkable also in what I deliver is that he was the sole man I do not say of them that were killed but of them that were hurt and hovv that was the onely piece that burst in sunder Behold generous Axiamira in what manner Bajazet enjoyed his hopes and the recompense which he had for all his crimes
The news of his death was soon carried to the Seraglio Roxelana shewed a great deal of sorrow for it and out of a sense of interest she was really grieved thereat But in a few daies the markes which the Grand Signior rendred her of his affection comforted her For whereas she did not regret him but because she had believed him to be usefull for her greatness when as she hoped that she might attain thereunto without him she quite forgot him Yea and was glad that she was discharged of the care of his fortune and to have nothing to think of but her own Roxolana had not been fifteen daies in the Seraglio but she so absolutely possessed the Grand Signior as none of the rest of the Sultanaes could pretend to a favourable regard from him but by speaking well to him of her or that he knew they had been somewhat gratious with her which possessed them with no little jealousie and no less spight But that which vexed them more was that they could not find occasion to missay of her amongst themselves whereby they might at leastwise have been eased with this weak remedy For she was excellently fair she seemed extreme gentle she had an agreable and entertaining wit she was civill to the Sultanaes liberall to the Slaves most respectfull of Soliman and in all her actions affected an extraordinary devotion She lived a while in this sort without any cross in her good fortune and with so much satisfaction to Soliman as there was never any joy equall to that which appeared in his humor But at length the Sultanaes seeing that the love of the Grand Signior was not allayed by the enjoying her and that contrarily it augmented daily they combined together and forgetting all the jealousie and secret hatreds which they had had one against another they indeavoured to destroy the person that destroyed them She that incited them the most thereunto was the chief of the Sultanaes the mother of Mustapha who at that time was brought up in the Seraglio and was then about six or seaven yeares old This wo-woman who had a great and generous spirit could not indure to see that she who had given Soliman a Sonne and a successor to the Empire should be less considerable than Roxelana It was by her interposition then that all the other Sultanaes joyned with her and promised never to omit any oportunity that might annoy Roxelana This counsell or to say better this conspiracie could not be so secretly made but that Roxelana by her liberality to the Slaves which brought her presents from their Mistresses and that much affected her was advertised thereof But hear I pray you in what manner she opposed this storm vvhich vvas rysing up against her and I am sure you vvill acknovvledge that she vvas then as ingenious as she hath been vvicked since This conspiracy nothing daunted her she seemed neither more unquiet nor more pensive and all the change vvhich she brought to her life was that she never saw Soliman without speaking some good of one or other of the Sultanaes She praised the beauty of one the humor of another the gracefulness of this and the stature of that but particularly she seemed very much to esteem of the mother of Mustapha and so caressed that young Prince as it had been impossible at that time to have foreseen by the apparences that which hath since fallen out And whereas she knew that the mother of the Sultan had a great power over him she wonne her wholly to her self Now Roxelanes design was to destroy by this aâ—tifice all the ill which the Sultanaes could say of her to Soliman For said she when he shall see that they for whom I do so many good offices to him would hurt me he wil have them in horror and think the better of me The matter failed not to succeed as she had imagined it For one of the Sultanaes whom Roxelana had the most commended having understood that she had sent a little coffer full of jewells out of the Seraglio which is not permitted in that place she advertised Soliman of it who scarcely hearkning to what she said called her ingratefull and disacknowledgledging and without obliging Roxelana to the justifying of her self he sent her a present of importance After this none of the Sultanaes durst venture upon any such like adventure But Roxelana who was not contented with keeping them from doing her hurt and that placed her supremest felicity in doing hurt to others absolutely gained to her three Slaves two Eunuchs and suborned also two of the Sultanaes who went jointly together and advertised Soliman of this secret counsell which was held against Roxelana without making shew for all that of her knowing any thing of it Soliman recompences them for this advice commands them not to speak of it and whereas this crime was too generall he resolved to punish them who had committed it and by one onely way which was to make Roxelana richer greater and more happy than she was He sends for her recounts unto her that which she knew better than he by telling her what had been done against her and in conclusion assures her that nothing can destroy the affection he beares her Roxelana after she had heard this discourse intreates Soliman to pardon them this crime who had committed it and with a false generositie so powerfully charmes the heart of this noble Prince as it was more at the disposing of Roxelana than of Soliman himself But to come to the end of my discourse a little while after she found her self with childe and the time of her lying down being come she brought forth Soliman a sonne who was named Mahomet Untill then she had never thought of any thing but maintaining her self but when she came to consider that Mustapha would reign one day and that according to the custom of the Empire her son should be strangled this awaked her former ambition and all her designs tended no longer but to be speedily the wife of a Prince of whom she was the absolute Mistress to the end that in this illustrious estate she might the more easily destroy Mustapha for her son to reign And mark a little whereunto ambition carried this woman who thought already of setting the Crown on the head of a child who knew not as yet that he was living howsoever it was not out of the absolute power that she had over the mind of Soliman that she attained to her desire but by an artifice which I am going to relate unto you She knew that in one of the books of our Religion the Soveraign is forbidden the possessing of a free woman and she knew also that in another a Slave is not permitted to build either Mosque or Hospitall or to do any other thing that may be available for the other life Upon this foundation she built her design and knowing that the Muphti carried a great stroke vvith the Grand Signior she vvon him
had any thing that was agreeable in my face yet could he not have been touched with it being not able to see it and as for wit I was in an age which ordinarily is not capable of making great conquests Indeed it is true that my complying with him might render me pleasing to him for whereas all my fellows were not of my humor they when Mahamed was with Axiamira declined his conversation or at least-wise applyed not themselves to it and this out of the thought that being incapable of seeing their beauty they beleeved him to be also incapable of love and for this reason they would not lose that time with him which they thought might be better employed in the entertaining of all those young persons of quality which accompanyed the Princes to Axiamira As for me who cared not as yet either for loving or for being loved I gave my self onely to things that pleased me and whereas I was infinitely taken with the conversation of Prince Mahamed and that generosity it self carryed me thereunto I set my self as often as I could to talk with him but that which engaged me yet farther to this compliance was that the Princess Axiamira loved him dearly for whereas Ismael and Perca were unworthy of her affection the first for the defects of his spirit and the other for her malice she had placed all her liking on Mahamed so that when the Princess could not entertain him her self she commanded me to stay with him which I did with a great deal of joy because there was nothing of more power at that time in my minde then the desire to please the Princess who in all her actions seemed to prefer me before all my fellows On the other side the Sophi who would fain know whether I would be as agreeable to his eyes in the Princesses Lodging as he had found me in Vlama's or whether the shining of so much light and that chamber hung with black had not served to deceive him used to come sometimes to the Princesses without giving me notwithstanding any greater mark of his affection then to behold and commend me more then the rest when occasion was presented for it for whereas I was very young at that time he durst not as I understood afterwards speak plainly to me of his passion fearing I should not be discreet enough to conceal it from others But whil'st he attended the improvement of my reason the time whereunto the ceremony of mourning had confined Vlama being quite expired he came to render his duty to the Princesses and to thank them for the honor they had done him and whereas I was almost never absent from Axiamira he saw me in her chamber and by a second view confirmed himself in the advantageous opinion he had conceived of me and so strongly resolved to love me as fearing he should be obliged to dislodg from the Palace because the Princess his wife being dead without children he was scarcely any longer of the royal Family he purposed to endevor all he could to discover his affection unto me for fear he should be deprived of the commodity of doing it so easily if he were constrained to be gone from thence As for me I confess to you blushing that in this visit which he gave to the Princess I felt a desire arise in my heart that I might be pleasing unto him and without making any reflexion on this thought I remember well that although it had been a great Court that day I never thought of heeding my apparel but as soon as Vlama was entred I observed my self with care and without knowing any reason for it I would have been glad that I had been better drest then I was But in fine my Lord two or three hours after Fortune was so favorable to Vlama's design as having found me alone in the Princesses Chamber who was shut up in her Cabinet he spake to me of his affection with so much passion as I knew not what to answer him having never met with such like encounters And whereas his speech had ever since remained in my memory and that it hath been the beginning and cause of all my pleasure and of all my misery I cannot forbear repeating it unto you He no sooner entred into the chamber but I advanced towards him to let him know that I was very sorry for that he could not see the Princess as yet and that having forbidden me interrupting her I durst not advertise her of his being there Do not afflict you self fair Felixana said he unto me for a thing which is infinitely pleasing to me and if you will render me perfectly happy trouble not my good fortune in doubting of this truth What said I unto him exceedingly surprized do you come to see the Princess and yet are glad that you cannot meet with her truly this seems so strange to me as I cannot comprehend the reason of it It is not for all that very difficult to finde out answered he me for I come to see the Princess Axiamira out of duty and the beautiful Felixana out of inclination I am her subject but I am your servant and that in such sort as you shall raign eternally in my soul there being no kinde of service which I will not render you with joy and henceforth continued he receive fair Felixana all the duties which I shall tender to the Princess as appertaining to you and beleeve that I am ravished with finding you thus alone whereby I have had the opportunity to make this Declaration unto you This discourse surprized me in such manner as I should have been much perplexed to have answered it if Axiamira had not at the same instant called me so that being prest to obey the Princess all that I could do was to tell him that knowing him and my self too I should always be able to discern how to beleeve that which was fit for me to beleeve both for his glory and mine But my Lord without particularizing all these things unto you it may suffice me to tell you that in six months space Vlama gave me so many marks of his love and discretion as I should have been ingrateful and insensible not to have rendred him some testimony of my good-will and whereas I was neither the one nor the other Vlama received from me all the proofs of friendship which virtue could permit me to give him and I may say that this was the onely time wherein I lived with pleasure And truly I must confess that the life which I led was happy enough I saw my self favored by the most amiable person that ever was caressed by the Sophi esteemed of Mahamed and passionately beloved of Vlama who without contradiction surpassed all that were at the Court in that blessed time Prince Mahamed resolved then to declare his passion overtly to me so that one day when the weather was very fair and that according to Axiamira's custom we were gone down into the
the Empires merits an eternal acknowledgment I have also observed against my custom that you bear an affection to me and I am so powerfully perswaded of it as you cannot desire I should be more but my Lord if I may be permitted to speak freely I must tell you that the esteem I make of so many rare qualities as are in you joyned to the obligations wherein I am engaged to you could never for all that beget an affection in my heart like unto yours Yet do not think I am ingrateful or insensible but contrarily I love you so much the more perfectly as I can speak it without blushing I my Lord I love you with a friendship so solidly established as neither sense nor fortune hath any part in it I can publish it without shame and conserve it without blame and loving you as if you were my brother I do not see that you have reason to complain I know well nevertheless that you are not satisfied but what would you have me do if love be a passion whereof I am not capable and if marriage hath always past with me for a captivity which is to be avoyded as much as possibly may be I protest unto you by the holy Prophet whom we worship that if I could be touched with this passion it should be doubtless for you never having had that inclination for any one as I have for you But let not this impossibility I pray you of my being in love disquiet you since the friendship which I promise you is incomparably more excellent and more perfect And to testifie unto you that I do all that I can if you have not power enough to contain your self from desiring to marry me I do permit you to use the best means you can to get the Sophi and Soliman to consent unto it which being obtained I do here engage my word to you no longer to oppose your desires Behold my Lord all that I had to say to you and never hope for any more from me for Axiamira's vertue can have no further indulgence for your passion Most vertuous Princess replyed Gianger casting himself at her feet What occasions do you give me all at once both of grief and of satisfaction with one hand you draw me out of danger and with the other you put me to death You cannot answer my passion and yet you love me more then all the world beside who ever saw an adventure equal to mine my Mistress refuses me her love but in such a manner as I am not permitted to have the comfort to term her cruel and unpitiful but contrarily I must give her thanks for the wrong she does me and must admire in her the vertue which opposes my love Gianger in saying thus looked on Axiamira with so much grief as made me pity him And whereas the Princesses goodness hath always allowed me a great deal of freedom with her I took so much upon me as to intermeddle in their discourse so that addressing my self to the Prince The permission my Lord said I unto him which hath been given you should inspire you me-thinks with other thoughts then those which I perceive you have Ah! my Princess said he unto me for he had always called me so ever after we had put that trick upon him that which the goodness of Axiamira grants Fortune refuses me interposing such obstacles as are not easie to be vanquished And in the state wherein things are there needs a supernatural power to change my evil destiny unless you will help me to perswade Axiamira that she will permit me to marry her for being then no longer in a condition to be Deliment's wife or Soliman's Mistress the knowledg thereof would peradventure make their weapons fall out of their hands How said Axiamira mightily surprized have the Sophi and Soliman any interests to be decided between them Is it known that I am in your hands and may I be so unhappy as to be the cause of the desolation of my Country Gianger was very sorry that he had said so much before he was aware but seeing the matter past remedy and that likewise this War could not be always concealed from Axiamira he recounted unto her that a little after her shipwrack the War began between the Sophi and Soliman without any other apparant cause thereof known then that he had been told how you alone had made him undertake it though the Sophi's subjects had contributed some pretext thereunto by the acts of hostility which they had committed in Comagena and then he acquainted her with the victories which you had obtained against the Sophi and the conquests which you had made He vowed unto her that neither he nor his brother had contributed any thing to this War that it had been concluded before they were advertised of it that not having a more powerfull Confident about the Grand Signior then you they could not oppose this design whereof you had been the principall cause and that all they could do had been to find out Pretexts not to be present in it In fine Gianger told her all things except what regarded Vlama of whom he spake not at all and by that which I could judge of it he carried himself in that sort because being ignorant of the affection which Vlama bore me and believing that he would be glad to return into his Country if he met with an occasion for it he imagined that the Princesse who had often spoken to him of Vlama's zeal and fidelity would quickly give him intelligence of her being there and then that Vlama to see his Native Soil again and to be well received there would perswade the Princess to return thither And it may be also as all Lovers are suspicious that he had surmized by Axiamira's discourse which he had interpreted amisse how Vlama was in love with her at leastwise I could not concâ—ive a better reason for it howsoever he never acquainted her with any thing concerning him I will not tell you my Lord in what astonishment the Princesse was to hear of the desolatâ—on of her Country by a Prince whose Son had so much obliged her and whom she could not with reason hate Howbeit she was so just as to accuse none but Soliman and Fortune for her miseries It is not enough then said she weeping that Soliman caused me to be carried away by force but that he must also wast our Empire And it was not enough that the War should have an unjust beginning but that I must too be found on the enemies Party and in such a manner as I am not so much as to desire to get from it And my misfortune is such as I cannot mâ—ke vowes for the Sophi but I must make them likewise for Delimâ—ns who fights for him though I have such cause to hate him nor make vowes against Soliman without offending Mustapha and Gianger In fine my Lord said she turning her self to the Prince since I am in
was very great in riches most mighty in friends of an extraordinary courage having a great deal of prudence and wit and much more ambition there would have been folly and no little hazard for whomsoever would have enterprized to disoblige him Abdalla though grieved with that which Aly had done yet named it an excess of zeal and affection rather then inhumanity and continuing him in his Commands committed unto him almost the whole sway of his Kingdoms But in some sort to repair this cruelty he took care to dry up the tears of the Princess Mariama inforced her to return to the Court made her to be reverenced as the Queen of all his States would have perswaded her that Aly was not altogether culpable of the death of Hamet and her children and would exact no other thing of her but to live in good terms with Aly. This Princess who was no less prudent then vertuous made as if she believed that which the King her Brother told her albeit in her heart she bare an irreconciliable hatred to Aly. And indeed she lived so well with him without doing any thing for all that unworthy of her great minde as it was believed that the consideration of her Brother and her own vertue had made her forget that Aly had counselled the death of her Husband and had caused her Father-in-law and her children to be killed But you shall perceive by the sequel of this History that she had other manner of designs Behold then Madam the estate wherein the Court of Marocco was at such time as we were driven thither by tempest Abdalla was peaceable in his Estates the Princess Mariama was very powerful with him and Aly shared with her in Abdalla's heart I think that after this you will the less marvel when you shall come to know that this vertuous Princess set her self so strongly and so readily to protect us in regard she was carryed thereunto both by her own vertue and the hate she bare to Aly as you shall understand by the sequel of this discourse But to come to that which touches us directly I am to tell you that whether Sophronia's extream affliction had rendered her eyes less powerful then they used to be or Leonida's negligence had taken off some of her charms or that my sister having a complexion not so clear as her fellows was the more suitable to that of the Country it was she that made Abdalla and Aly her Slaves and who by consequence was the cause that we were so too You have promised said Horatio interrupting him to be a faithful Historian wherefore without digressing from your subject relate onely the effects of Hipolita's beauty and not establish your self the judg thereof The Marquis could not forbear laughing at this discourse no more then Sophronia and Leonida nor Hipolita blushing and all out of different apprehensions but at length after some civilities had past betwixt them Doria continued his discourse in this sort Hipolita then having seemed beautiful both to the King and to his Favorite they had both of them a design not to give liberty to a person who had already somewhat engaged theirs But whereas this first sense of love was not yet very strong in their soul they said nothing of it to one another and onely resolved together that we should be retained as Slaves but whereas ill fortune had brought us to Marocco and that we were not their Enemies but because we were Christians therefore we should be treated very gently yea and hope given us that in time we might obtain our liberty This resolution taken all our Soldiers and Mariners were the next day committed to safe custody without any other ill usage offered unto them and for us they contented themselves with leaving us under the guard they had formerly assigned us with this difference nevertheless that we were separated from Sophronia Leonida and Hipolita for it was Abdalla's absolute pleasure that they should abide in the service of the Princess Mariama and that they should lie in her lodgings but with this grace for us that we should be permitted to go sometimes and see them or they to come and visit us This extraordinary favor having been granted to us against the custom of the Country by the goodness of Mariama whom these new Slaves always found ready to render them all kinde of good offices It is certain that this separation was grievous unto us and seeing the terms wherein we stood we were almost sorry that we had not suffred shipwrack at least-wise me-thought I observed such like apprehensions in the mindes of Horatio and Alphonso But as for the Marquis it is to be spoken for his glory that never man was so soon comforted as he and I was not a little surprized to hear him say laughing a quarter of an hour after we were returned from conducting the persons who were so deer unto us to the Princess Mariama's lodgings that the Affricans Love could tell how to use his how better then he of Europe it being very true said he that he had never been so suddenly strucken to the heart as he had lately been by the charms of a sister of the Princess Mariama who was called Lela Mahabit onely with seeing her at a window For me said the Marquis interrupting him who had neither Sister nor Mistress to grieve for nor was afflicted but out of a sense of friendship I am not to be blamed if to render my self more like unto those with whom I conversed I suffered my self to be surprized with the passion which possessed their Souls If I be always interrupted in this manner said Doria iâ— will be hard for me to relate this day that which you desire to know of me Isabella finding that Doria had Reason made all the company pass their word that they would not speak any more until he had ended their History so that every one keeping silence and Isabella having renewed her attention Doria prosecuted his discourse in this sort These new Slaves were no sooner come to the Princess Mariama's lodgings but Abdalla who visited them very often repaired thither accompanyed with Aly. And whereas he found her with them and that therefore they would out of respect have withdrawn he would not permit it telling them that the name of Slave which he had imposed upon them was rather an artifice to retain them about the Princess his sister then a design to keep them in servitude This complement was seconded by another which Aly used to them and with a sincere protestation made to them by Mariama for the treating of them as her sisters rather then as her Slaves This second view yet more augmented the love which the King of Marocco and Aly already bore to Hipolita and whereas Aly was cunning and dextrous and had out of a sense of ambition for a long time before taken great care to observe all Abdalla's motions he quickly perceived that the beauty of Hipolita had touched
least-wise I flatter my self with this opinion that by a particular priviledg and to render her conquests the more illustrious she purifies all the hearts which she enflames that she darts forth a beam of that divinity which I adore in her and therewith illuminates them that come neer her that in making her vertues known she communicates a part of them and that one is no sooner her Slave but he is worthy to command others The Princess Lela Mahabid not able to forbear from blushing at the Marquis his discourse would at leastwise make a gallantry of it I leave you to judg said she unto him how much you would make your Mistresses modesty to suffer if she were here since I could not chuse but change colour at this excessive praise though I have no part in it I fear Madam replyed he that in this occasion you take one vertue for another and that this change which hath appeared in your face be not rather an effect of your great heart then of your modesty seeing it may be you take it not well that a Slave should lose the respect which he ows you so far as to dare to entertain you with his passion You speak so agreeably hereof said the Princess Mariama interrupting him that if my sister will be perswaded by me she shall always be your Confident I am not inconsiderate enough for that answered the Marquis and the thoughts of respect and adoration which I have for her will not permit me to commit this fault Sophronia seeing that hereupon there was a great silence amongst the company which might trouble the Marquis said to him with a great deal of address that she was glad to see a passion in him which made her hope that at last he might be constant since finding in a person whom he loved all the beauties of the body all the graces of the minde and all the vertues of the soul it was impossible for him to meet with any thing that was amiable in another which was not in her You have Reason answered the Marquis but not altogether to renounce my natural inclination though I love none or to say better adore none but this excellent person yet have I found the means to mingle an inconstancy with the love I bear her whereof she cannot be jealous I have much ado to conceive this new mystery added my sister and I do not think that she who is the cause of your love will reign in a divided heart My heart is wholly hers replyed the Marquis and to explain my thoughts unto you know that the person whom I adore is so marvelous as it would be a crime in me having but one heart and one affection to offer to love all that is amiable in her at one and the same time so that to love her the more perfectly and in some sort also to follow this inclination which predominates over all mine I give every day a new object to my passion To day I adore her eyes to morrow I love the beauty of her shape the next day I suffer my self to be charmed with the graces of her minde another time her goodly aspect ravishes me and by this means yielding my heart wholly to each of those excellent qualities which she possesses I shall love her as much as she deserves to be and without being inconstant to her I shall yet be always so much as never to be weary of my servitude This new way of loving so mightily surprized all the company as albeit they had no great cause of joy yet could they not forbear laughing at it I should never have done if I should rehearse all the pleasing passages which the Marquis delivered in all the visits which he gave to these two Princesses it shall suffice then to tell you that the Princess Lela Mahabid had all the esteem and all the affection for him which a Princess gallant enough and who for all that was vertuous was capable of In the mean time you are to know that Aly had not failed in rendering an account to the King of the commission which he had given him but whereas he was a Lover and cunning he had disguised the truth of that which he had said to Hipolita and of that which Hipolita had answered him For though my sister had testified sufficiently unto him that Abdalla's affection could never please her yet he feared that if the King should undertake to speak to her himself she might at length be perswaded so that to keep him from it he told him that albeit Hipolita had not favorably received the declaration which he had made her of his love yet he held it not absolutely impossible to touch her heart it having seemed unto him how he had observed that the greatest fear Hipolita had was lest the Princess Mariama should perceive this affection Wherefore my Lord said he unto him it must be by me that she must be acquainted with all the thoughts which you have for her until such time as by great hopes we have chased away this fear from her heart For there is no doubt added he considering the estate wherein I saw her minde if you enterprize to speak to her your self but you will be very ill satisfied of her for the reason I have told you Abdalla though very amorous and consequently very impatient and very suspicious yet made do question of Aly's discourse and remitting himself absolutely to his conduct he conjured him to remember that on the conquest of Hipolita all his felicity depended In the mean while albeit he had promised Aly to gâ—ve my sister the least testimony of his affection that he could yet was it impossible for him to conceal his passion for he no sooner entred into Mariama's lodging but he asked for Hipolita he no sooner saw her but a new joy appeared in his face Hipolita's looks guided his whether he would or no he followed her with his eyes wheresoever she went and seldom did he make a visit without praising some beauty or some vertue which he said he had not yet marked in her These praises did not please Aly at the beginning nevertheless seeing he could not hinder them whereas soveraign prudence or to say better extream cunning consists in making all things serve for the design that one hath he labored to draw some advantage from the love which the King seemed to bear to Hipolita But before I acquaint you with it I am to tell you that after many conversations which he had with her wherein he always shewed how much he esteemed of her vertue and approved of the refusals she had made of the Kings love one day when as he found her the most civilly disposed for him as he thought and the most incensed against the King he undertook to discover unto her the passion he was in for her And whereas she was exceedingly surprized with such a kinde of discourse and hath naturally an imperious spirit Is it possible
concerning it who after he had protested that the solâ—â—ood of his State made him speak represented unto him that in the design which he had to preserve the Crown for his son it imported much that Abdelcader should not be married and less yet to the Princess of Tunis then to any other because in this sort it was to give him right a second time to his Estates and to furn'sh him with a pretext to make War as often as he met with an occasion for it That to take from him the boldness thence-forward to offer such like propositions he was to tell him absolutely that this marriage did not please him even without colouring the matter with any apparant reasons as he might do because said he Abdelcader's boldness could not be sufficiently punished Abdalla following Aly's opinion in all things contradicted him not in this where he thought his interest alone was regarded He sent Abdelcader word then that he forbad him to think of marrying himself either to the Princess of Tunis or to any other that he should leave to him the care of chusing a wife for him and that if he did otherwise he should then be declared guilty of High Treason Abdelcader no sooner received this answer but every one in Marocco knew it and every one murmured at it The Princess Mariama could not comprehend this business for she knew that Abdelcader had testified a great deal of love to Sophronia in divers occasions and knew also that he had never regarded the Princess of Tunis but with indifferency and that if there had not been some hidden thing in his design she should have been the first to whom he would have spoken of it but howsoever she reasoned thereupon she could not discover the truth And whereas Hipolita had for some time together lived with the King as she had ordained her she observed that Abdalla perceived this change so that seeing the matter in this estate she went one morning to his lodging where she craved the favor of him to talk with him in private and the King having granted it to her she besought him to promise her that if he did not give credit to what she was going to tell him he at leastwise would never speak of it again being fully resolved not to acquaint him with that she had to communicate unto him unless he would engage his word unto her to do so The King being touched with an extraordinary curiosity and yet fearing that Mariama would speak to him of his love to Hipolita stood a while without answering her but at length having promised her as much as she had desired of him she began to prepare his mind with a very particular address I know said she unto him that for this which I am going to tell you I ought to be suspected of you either of malice or of preoccupation I know also that Aly being so mightily established in your affection I shall expose my self to the hazard of displeasing you in telling you that I suspect he is not so faithful unto you as his birth and obligations to you ought to make him I know too that in what manner soever you hear the business it will be still offensive unto you for if you beleeve there is any malice in my discourse you will no doubt be sorry to find a stain in the Soul of a person that is so dear unto you and if on the contrary you find that I am not to blame the displeasure of having been betrayed by a man whom you have so much obliged will disquiet you and whether it be out of a sense of glory or of tenderness you will be grieved Judg then my Lord if the matter which I am to tell you be not important since bearing you all the respect and all the affection that I ought to have for a Prince who is both my King and my brother I expose my self notwithstanding to the hazard of troubling his rest and getting his hatred which is to me my supreamest misfortune Abdalla amazed with Mariama's discourse though he did not believe that she could tell him any thing which was true against Aly's fidelity yet left he not to assure her that in case the suspicions which she said she had against Aly proved not to be well grounded he would judg well of her intentions and be always obliged unto her for her zeal and affection After this Mariama to stir up some trouble in Abdalla's mind and touch his heart where it was most sensible imparted unto him how Aly forgetting the respect which he owed to him had been so daring as to profess love to the Slave Hipolita who belonged to her but this prudent Prince did not let Abdalla know that she understood any thing of his affection so that without standing longer on this discourse yet this is not that said she unto him which obliges me to speak to you of Aly but the design which he hath if you chance to dye before him to break the testament you have made him by taking the Crown from off the head of your son to dispose of it according to his pleasure or it may be to set it on his own head So strange an accusation did not at first encounter with any great belief in Abdalla's mind thinking that the secret hate which this Princess bore Aly made her judg of him in this sort for that which regarded his State but for that which concerned his love though it was more unlikely then the other because he might conceive that Mariama had taken his Confident for a Lover of Hipolita yet he beleeved more of it then she would have had him And making shew of being more moved with Aly's want of respect to her then with his own interest he demanded of her very exactly how she came to perceive Aly's passion and whether the conjectures she had of it were strong enough because if it proved to be so he meant to punish him for his boldness My Lord said this Princess unto him you do me too much favor rather to think of me then of the good of your State but to imitate your generosity be pleased without considering me to let me regard nothing but your person alone and by some invention let me furnish you with means either to convince or justifie Aly. And then without Abdalla's demanding it she recounted all those things unto him which had been cause of her suspicions but at length the trouble of this Princes mind being somewhat appeased he beleeved that Aly might be his Rival but beleeved not that he had any design upon his Crown Howbeit Mariama said so much unto him that in the end with her entreaties and reasons she obtained of him that for fifteen days space he would do whatsoever she would have him for the clearing of the business This Prince had much ado to resolve upon making any doubt of Aly's fidelity so far forth as to seek out the means of convincing him but at
when as she saw that neither her prayers her tears nor her reasons could avail the pain she was in not to grant Octavio the permission to steal her away or to rid himself of his Rival and for a conclusion she acquainted him how the tyranny of her Father and the consideration of her honor having forced her to abandon Octavio to marry Livio she saw her self in so deplorable an estate as that which would have made up the bitterest grief of another was her onely consolation For said she to Alphonso I had no other in this encounter then to know that I marryed a man whom I could never love no not if time should cure me of the passion I was in It was not because I was not resolved for my own glory to live well with him but because I had at least-wise this consolation that Octavio could not suspect me of infidelity yea and I hoped too that the more peâ—vish Livio should be in his humor and the more cankered and unpleasing he should be the more he would shorten my days Judg then said she unto him if these were the most agreeable thoughts that I had what the rest were But in the end said Alphonso unto her you marryed Livio Yes answered Leonida with tears and the infortunate Octavio unable to resolve to see me in the possession of another departed from Genoua to go and seek for the death which he found soon after For although I had done an hundred things beyond what was fitting to oppose my self against my Fathers will yet he believed with reason notwithstanding he knew that I loved nothing but him that seeing I could not be marryed without mine own consent I should never have granted it and that I should rather have resolved to dye then abandon him In so reasonable a thought despair seizing on his soul he went to the Emperors Army and arrived there so unluckily both for himself and for me and so opportunely for the design which he had that the next day there was a battel sought but before he entred into it he desired to let me understand that he went not so much to expose his life for the Emperor as for the love of me In saying so Leonida let him see the Letter which Octavio had written unto her and whereas I have found it extreamly moving and that it is not long I think if I do not remember the words precisely I shall meet with at least-wise the true sence of it OCTAVIO'S Letter to LEONIDA Being unable either to cease from loving you or to see you in the possession of another I am going to seek for death as the onely remedy which I can finde for my grief And without complaining or murmuring I wish that the blood which I am going to shed may not cost you too many tears and that the end of my life may not trouble the tranquillity of yours When as Leonida had made Alphonso read this doleful Letter what shall I say to you more said she unto him with her eyes full of tears Octavio after he had given this Letter unto a man that served him with an express charge to keep it and deliver it to mine own hand if he returned not from the danger whereunto he was going to expose himself in that deadly battel Whereupon he put himself into the foremost Troops without any other Arms then his Sword to the end he might not fail in his design Yet left he not for all that to sell his life very dâ—ar to the Enemy for he was seen to do wonders But when he heard the retreat sounded because night approached far from retiring with the rest he ran into the midst of a body of Horse and defending himself no otherwise but to provoke them the more and to keep himself from being made a prisoner he fell at length and found the death which he sought for But alass he dyed rather by my hand then by the Enemies After this said she I concealed our affection no longer and I gave so many marks of despair as my Father himself repented his having rendted me so unhappy A while after Livio fell sick and dyed and left me the liberty to weep Behold Alphonso said Leonida unto him with as much grief as if Octavio had dyed the very same day that which you desired to know of me but never speak to me more of him I beseech you for as you perceive there is a kinde of inhumanity in renewing so sensible an affliction in my heart and for which I should never be comforted had I not found in you some resemblance of the humor and dispossion of the infortunate Octavio Leonida having finished her relation and wiped her eyes thanked Alphonso for the sadness which appeared in his countenance imagining that it was an effect of the compassion he took of her past misfortunes But she knew not that the same which she believed to be a sense of pity was one of the most violent jealousies that ever an amorous spirit was tormented with For he so strongly perswaded himself that Leonida could not have the same apprehensions for him which she had had for Octavio as he went away from her with an affliction the like whereof was never seen yet he left her without giving her any notice thereof but when he was come home and had shut himself up alone in his Chamber he ran over all that word for word which Leonida had told him for they had made so powerful in impression in his Soul as I think there escaped not so much as one out of his memory The more he considered the matter the more was he confirmed in his jealousie He remembred that she had loved Octavio out of sympathy out of acknowledgment and out of reason that their affection began from their infancy and continued all their life Now said he to himself Octavio is not dead in the heart of Leonida he lives there still in despite of me and in such a manner as I cannot chase him from thence He is not onely dead to keep me from being revenged of him but he is also dead to raign eternally in her soul For added he quite transported with grief infortunate Alphonso Leonida loves thee not neither but for the love of him thou knowest it from her own mouth and thou canst not doubt of thy unhappiness Ah how wretched I am continued he and how Imprudent have I been in laboring mine own ruine my self I if I had not been curious I had been the happiest of men and I have rendred my self the most infortunate that ever was That which I have seen that which I have heard the tears of Leonida her sighs her speeches and the marks of love and tenderness which she hath rendred to the memory of Octavio have not onely destroyed my present pleasures and all those which I hoped for but also my pleasures past I no longer marvel continued he if Leonida ill-intreats my Rivals it is for the ashes
of Octavio that she hath this respect and this fidelity and not for me O blessed Octavio cryed he how worthy of envy is thy fate and how unhappy is mine This fantastical jealousie got such deep rooting in his heart as he lost all rest and almost his Reason He wished sometimes that Octavio were still living to the end he might be revenged of him and by and by after in another quite contrary thought he considered that if he had been living Leonida had never loved him and in this manner he was in some sort glad that he was dead Sometimes likewise he comforted himself for that Leonida had not loved Octavio so much as to marry him against the will of her Parents but then when he came to remember the last marks of affection which Leonida had received from Octavio and what resentment she had testified for it in relating it to him he entred into despair again What can I do said he that can ever perswade her that I love her as well as Octavio When I shall tell her that she raigns in my heart that her will may dispose of mine that she is absolute Mistress of my soul and in conclusion that I live not but for her alone with one onely word she will set Octavio above all that I have said for telling me that he dyed to testifie his affection to her is to tell me that he hath incomparably done more then I that he raigns always in her minde and that I can never pretend to the first place Of all the thoughts that afflicted Alphonso that of his not being loved by Leonida but because he had some conformity with Octavio was the most inhumane and the opinion which he had that since this was the cause of his Mistresses affection she could not therefore see him without remembring Octavio troubled him in such fort as he continued certain days unable to resolve to visit her Nevertheless there were some instants wherein he condemned his transports and demanding of himself what he desired of Leonida in this occasion he knew not very well what he would have but these good intervals lasted so little it while as it might have been said that he had no rest at all If I had a Rival said he sometimes I should spend a part of my anguish in seeking occasion to hurt him and to set him at odds with her I loved and whom he should love I should observe their actions and knowing them I should make use of them either to trouble their designs or to advance mine or to cure me of my passion But is the case stands I have a secret Rival in the heart of Leonida whom she entertains I not knowing nor being able to hinder it She weeps she sighs even as she is talking with me for this blessed Phantosm which she loves still and ever will love since he is no longer in a condition to be able to do any thing that can displease her As for me said he I am in far other terms for I can easily displease her and I cannot be agreeable unto her but because I resemble Octavio Who ever saw continued he such another thing I am jealous and yet I have no Rival I am beloved and yet I am not happy and through an extravagancy of my destiny or of my humor I shall never be let Leonida do what she will it is impossible that ever I should be so For say I should marry her it would always run in my mind that if by a miracle Octavio could rise again she would abandon me for him Yea and I beleeve added he that if she could buy his life with my death she would consent unto it with joy This deadly thought seized so strongly on Alphonso's heart as there were certain moments in which he had as much hatred for Leonida as he was capable of For whereas this extraordinary jealousie agitated all his passions and principally hate and anger not finding a nearer object to employ them upon he had for her no doubt very different thoughts and wholly replenished with violence Love remained nevertheless still victorious over all the rest or to speak more rightly all those several passions were but effects of that same But in the end after Alphonso had spent some days in the entertainment of his anguish of mind without seeing Leonida the extream love which he bore her carried him to her whether he would or no. He hath told her since that being gone out of his lodging with an intent to walk in some place out of the way that he might muse by himself better then at home and exactly run over all the favors which Leonida had conferred on him to the end he might compare them with those which Octavio had received from her he acquainted her I say that against his purpose and without being aware of it his steps conducted him to her door where he no sooner was but without consulting what he was to do he knocked there and understanding that Leonida was within he went up directly to her chamber without advertising her of it though it was not his custom so to do for Leonida seldom ever saw him at her house when she was alone there but at this time Alphonso was not in a case regularly to observe good manners When as Leonida first saw him she received him somewhat coldly for whereas he had been a good while without sending to her or enquiring after her she thought it was but just to use him so As for Alphonso how disordered soever his mind was yet durst he not make shew at the beginning of that which he had in his heart for respect and Reason had so much power over him is he could not resolve to discover his suffering to a person who caused it until he should be extreamly pressed thereunto by her After Leonida had received him somewhat coldly and had observed the change which jealousie had made in Alphonso's face the anger wherein she was in for his neglect turned into unquietness She was afraid left some mishap had befallen him or through some adventure which was unknown to her Alphonso should accuse her unjustly of some defect of affection In this belief she used him more favorably asked of him whether his melancholy was feigned or true and urging him to answer her she forced him to tell her a lye in such perplexed and obscure terms as she doubted not but that he had some unpleasing thought in his mind She employed all her address then to discover it by the several questions she asked him but seeing she nothing prevailed thereby and that the more she demanded of him the less she was satisfied she did him the favor to deal with him as a M stress and absolutely commanded him to tell her what that trouble was which he had in his Soul You have assured me an hundred times said she unto him that I could do any thing with you and that your heart was not so much
first sent a Command to the Sultana Asteria to go to that of Roxelana for she had for a pretty while before been seldom absent from the Princess This command exceedingly disquieted the Sultana but not able to do any other then voluntarily obey a Prince who had power and right to constrain her thereunto she left Isabella with Emilia without letting her know any thing of the feâ—r she was in that Soliman had a purpose to use some displeasing discourse to her seeing he removed her from her Scarcely was she gone out of her chamber when as Soliman came in to it and whereas it seemed to her that he had less civility for her then he was wont and that his looks gave more signs of choller then of love she was in some joy hoping that it may be her constancy had so far provoked him as to oblige him to turn her out of the Serraglio but she soon understood that this incivility and this choller was an effect of his love I see very well said he unto her that my visits do importune you that my presence displeases you that my passion begets your hatred that my respects augment your pride that my prayers render you inâ—xorable and that tears do harden your heart Wherefore continued he I am resolved to take another course I have treated you too long as a Mistress it is just then since you will not be so that I cease to be a Slave but whereas I cannot cease to be a Lover I must tell you once for all that if by your cruelty I am reduced to despair I shall be capable of undoing others in undoing my self How my Lord said Isabella then to him can thy Highness perswade me that which thou sayst No no continued she I know thy vertue too well and it is as equally impossible for thee to possess me with fear as with love thou mayst have unjust desires but I hold thee uncapable of a wicked action Thou mayst I say have weakness but not cruelty and love cannot produce in thee the effects of hatred It is not added she because I do not wish with all my heart both for thy glory and my content that either out of choller or hatred thou couldst resolve to chase me from thy presence and never to see me more The opinion whâ—rein you are râ—plyed Soliman that the same passion which carries me to persecute you will keep me from hurting you is that without doubt which makes you speak with so much confidence but know that a Prince who sees nothing in his choyce but death or your affection ought to enterprize any thing for the avoyding of the one and obtaining of the other It can never be unjust for him to think of his preservation that ought to be preferred before all other things I have friendship for Ibrahim I have veneration for you but I have also some interest in my life I have done what I could to procure my content without troubling yours but at length seeing I cannot do it and that there is a fate which will not let me live without you I must seek out the means for it Remember then that he which craves your affection can command you that he which offers you his heart is not unworthy your love that Ibrahim owing his life to me ougt to render it me in this occasion that after so many services submissions respects sighs and tears the anger and spite of being despisâ—d may seize upon my Soul and for a conclusion remember that revenge is the dâ—light of incensed Kings that Ibrahim is in my Armies that you have in Constantinople persons which are dear to you and that you are in the Serraglio It is true my Lord replyed Isabella that I cannot be ignorant of all these things but I know withall that thy Highness commands both in thy Armies in Constantinople and in the Serraglio and that consâ—quently I have no cause to fear any thing but contrarily I think that Ibrahim my friends and I are in more safety in thy Estates then in our own Country And then again my Lord I cannot imagine that the remembrance of Ibrahim is utterly defaced out of thy memory that a man whom thy Higness hath so much loved and so much obliged can be ill-intreated by thee nor can I believe that Isabella can inspire thee with such unjust thoughts no my Lord I cannot think it Isabella replyed Soliman hath not possâ—st me with unreasonable thoughts I have nothing but love for her howbeit I must confess that her cruelty possesses me with fury and that she may carry me to destroy all that I shall think can ravish her from me and consâ—quâ—ntly to do all that I shall believe can serve my turn concerning her This being so answered Isabella I need not be threatened in the person of my friends nor in that of Ibrahim since on my onely will that absolutely dâ—pâ—nds which thy Highness calls rigor and which I term an effect of Reason and Vertue For my Lord continued she were not my heart nor my word engaged to Ibrahim nay had I as much affection for thy Highness as I am capable of yet should I not give thee more testimonies of it then I have done Were not my Religion I say different from thine yet in that I could not be thy wife I should not be thy Slave since the heart of Isabella can never have thoughts contrary to her honor and her glory The Slaves of Soliman replyed he are more then Queens of other Nations and then again to say the truth to have you command absolutely in my heart and soul is not to treat you as a Slave Isabella thinking she was to speak more throughly to the Grand Signior then as yet she had done and believing that whâ—n he had no more hope he would have no more love said to him with a more confidâ—nt voyce then before Finally my Lord all that I can say to thy Highness is that if forgetting thy usual mildness and generosity thou couldst resolve to carry me by fear to that which thou couldst not get by love and for that effâ—ct wouldst persecute me in the person of Ibrahim who is dearer then my self to me I would see him dye rather then change my resolution Let thy Highness judg after this whether death can fright me and whether fear hath any power over my Soul Consider then that though thou hast no hope left thee yet thou hast a mean left thee to be gâ—nerous but in fine added she let thy love in this occasion suffer it self to be surmounted either by reason or by choller have hatred or friendship for me be my Protector or my Enemy let thy Highness not see me but to comfort me for the absence of Ibrahim or never see me more I know continued she that I speak with a great deal of boldness but my Lord since my complaints my tears my prayers and Reason it self have not been able to obtain any thing of thee
resistance The Bassa of the Sea after this misfortune was perswaded that to be the more gently used and to get the sooner out of his enemies hands he was to tell who he was to the end that offering a great ransom he might be restored to his liberty the rather for that in this occasion the affairs of the Empire being much concerned he should have committed a crime if he had concealed his name for the saving of money But that which he thought would conduce most to the getting himself out of trouble gave him the more for be pleased to know that by an encounter altogether prodigious he that had taken him was the Pirate Arsalon father to the vertuous Alibech who no sooner understood that this prisoner was the Bassa of the Sea but he appeared to be mightily incensed with anger What said he unto him are you the father then of the Traytor Osman or to say better of the Ravisher of my daughter and hath fortune who hath alwayes persecuted me so cruelly at last furnished me with means to be revenged Speak said he unto him but disguise not the truth lest I be drawn to make you tell it by force The Bassa of the Sea surprised with this discourse and perceiving very well that this Pirate was Arsalon thought nevertheless since he had said so much already that the best would be not to dissemble and to indeavour by the assurance which he would give him that Alibech was Osmans wife and that he had alwayes used her as if she had been his own daughter to induce him to use him also with the more humanity In this resolution I acknowledge sayd he unto him that I am the Bassa of the Sea that I am the father of Osman and the father of the ravisher of Alibech but withall you are to acknowledge to me also that I am the father of your daughter seeing she hath maried my sonne and you are consequently to confess that since love alone hath been the cause of their fault you ought to pardon them for it if so be you have not lost the remembrance that the very same passion made you in times past forget all things I have not lost the remembrance of it replyed Arsalon but I remember the punishment too that was inflicted on me and if I treat my daughter after the same manner she will have no just occasion to complain If you knew answered the Bassa of the sea what the affection of Osman and Alibech were it would touch your heart It is so great continued he that in the voyage which I have so unhappily undertaken she would by no means abandon her husband Arsalon hearing this discourse made him explane it more particularly unto him and knew that his daughter was not very far from him Whereat he testified a great deal of joy and beholding the Bassa with a smile full of bitterness to shew you said he unto him that I am generous and that I will not confound the innocent with the guilty I will not use you ill nay I will not require sonne though as my slave I might do it but I will only have that which appertains to me that is to say the ingratefull and unnaturall Alibech I do you a good office sayd he unto him raising his voice for since she could betray her father and abandon him she would quit you no doubt and betray you as well as me The Bassa surprised with this discourse and demand stood a while without answering thereunto nevertheless whereas he is generous and that the vertue of Alibech hath won his heart he could by no means agree to what was required of him No sayd he to Arsalon I will never be ingratefull to your daughter she restored my sonne to his liberty and I will lose mine to preserve her that which she enjoyes And then again said he unto him I am not master of her she is Osmans who commanding the Navy in my absence is in an estate to refuse her unto me if I should be so base as to demand her which I will never do We shall see said Arsalon then to him whether you will not change your mind and after they had disputed yet a while he commanded him to be loaden with chains and told him once again that he should never have his liberty and that every day he would make him try new torments if he did not write to his sonne to oblige him to deliver Alibech into the hands of those whom he would send to him for that purpose promising him that she should be no sooner in his power but he would restore him to his liberty The Bassa in so cross a conjuncture knew not what to think or what to resolve on He knew by the report of his sonne and of Alibech too that Arsalon was firm in his resolutions and of a severe and cruell inclination He knew that his absence would prejudice the affairs of the Empire yea and he was perswaded that his sonne loving Alibech more than his life would never resolve to lose her for the saving of him he felt a strange repugnancy in his heart too against the making of this request unto him and not knowing what to do in so deplorable a case he lamented his misfortune accused Arsalons cruelty and without framing any design indured the sharpest grief that any soul can be capable of In the mean time Arsalon fearing lest the Bassa of the Seas Fleet should remove further from him and that then he should not have Alibech so easily pressed him to take his last resolution but what threatnings soever he could use unto him he could not possibly draw him to write to Osman to oblige him to give Alibech for his ransom Arsalon did all that he could to shake his resolution he assured him of a perpetuall slavery he made him see that his death was indubitable and perceiving at last that he no whit prevailed he chose out one of the most understanding and resolutest men of his company and giving him a Brigantine he sent him towards a Cape where he had learnt the Fleet was reassembled and having told him he would stay for him at a creek which was not far from thence he willed him to search so diligently that he might find out the Bassa of the Seas Navy and having found it that he should deliver to Osman his sonne who commanded in his absence the message which he would impart unto him whereupon rowning him softly in the ear he instructed him with his intentions and dispatched him instantly away This man who was a Persian by Nation exactly obeyed him and was so fortunate as he sayled directly to the place where the Bassa of the Seas Fleet were all joyned together again And it was my Lord the very same vessell which Osman discovered at sea which a far off gave him so much hope and which approaching so mightily redoubled his grief to see that it was a Brigantine that the spight to be so
not stay there for whereas Soliman knowes that I fear neither torments nor death he will make me suffer in your person and that makes up all my grief Fear not for me said Jbrahim unto her but onely think of preserving your self Soliman loves you labour then to move his heart rather than to incense it and be confident that death cannot be grievous to me if I were assured of your life No no answered Jsabella this is not the way I mean to hold and you would blame me without doubt if I should follow your counsell I will die as well as you and if my prayers can obtain any thing of Soliman it shall be that we may die together Augment not my torments replyed the Illustrious Bassa and speak not of your death if you will not have me advance mine live my dear Jsabella and let me alone perish I live cried Jsabella Ah! no no Jsabella knows not how to survive her glory and Justiniano which are the only things that can make her life agreeable without the which she wil not preserve it I may added she live unhappy infortunate laden with chains exiled from my country without means and without liberty but I cannot live without honor and without Justiniano so that if Soliman will ravish me of my glory and bereave me of the onely person that I love I shall not waver between death and life and I know what coâ—rse I am to take Ah! too generous Isabella cryed Ibrahim then why have I loved you to cause you to fall into so many miseries Why have I not alwaies been your enemy to keep you from having such cruell ones But what say I sensless man continued he I merit the torments which I suffer if I can repent me of having loved you No Madam I cannot doe it I would that my death might hinder yours I would that I might indure all things for you but I cannot wish that I could not adore you That wish would be unjust replyed she and would questionless doe great wrong to our affection which is not the cause of our misfoâ—tunes it is two pure and too innocent to bee punished for a crime and the onely thing which comforts me in our miseries is the belief I am in that wee doe not deserve them and that Heaven sends them to us rather to try our vertue than to correct our faults But added she before we are seperated as without doubt we shall be promise me that what artifice soever our enemies may use to perswade you unto any thing to my disadvantage you will never beleeve it For hold it for most assured that Isabella will dye a thousand times rather than do any thing unworthy of her vertue and yours Let me then have the satisfaction to hope that the malice of our persecutors shall make you beleeve nothing to my prejudice Ah! Madam cryed Ibrahim it is for me to demand this favour of you for whereas I have not rendred you so many markes of my affection as I have received from your vertue you may the more easily doubt of it But beleeve Madam that I will dye adoring you and if the loss of my life may oblige Soliman to restore you to your liberty as I purpose to beseech it of him I shall dye even with pleasure Let us not separate our destinies anfwered the Princess either let us live together or let us dye together After so sad a discourse the excess of their affection forced them to hold their peace and their displeasure being shut up in their heart they felt it more vively than they did whom as they eased themselves with their complaints The unhappiness of the persons which were ingaged in their misfortune afflicted them the more and they saw all about them so many occasions of dispair as it might be said that never was the vertue of a person put to so hard a triall Hipolita Sophronia Emilia and Leonida were wholy dissolved into teares Alphonso Doria Horatio and the French Marquis were also infinitely afflicted and if Rustan could have been touched with any compassion hee had been doubtless with so lamentable an object But far from having any humanity for another he was cruell to himself for though he were wounded yet the desire which he had to destroy Ibrahim and to finish a thing which he had so well begun made him in stead of repayring to his house to look to his wound to goe directly to the Serraglio assoon as he arrived at Constantinople and to behave himself so as if he had not been hurt at all Presently upon his landing hee sent to advertise Soliman of his return and of the success of his voyage And whereas this Prince had increased his fury with his solitariness he instantly commanded that Ibrahim and Isabella should be brought into the Seraglio and put into severall places with a sure guard and that all those which had followed them should bee put likewise into another place Never was so deplorable a thing seen as the execution of this commandment Isabella would not quit Ibrahim he too would not abandon her and though they had well enough foreseen that they should be separated yet could they not for all that consent thereunto Their frends likewise would not leave them and if Soliman could have been a spectator of so sad a conversation hee might peradventure have been moved to pitty But at length Ibrahim and Isabella being constrained to resolve for that which they could not avoyd took their farwell of each other as persons that were never to see one another again and following each other with their eyes as far as they could they svvare unto themselves to dye loving one another as faithfully as they had mutually promised After Rustan had conducted Ibrahim to one quarter of the Seraglio caused Isabella to bee carried to another and their friends to a third he went to Soliman whose minde had never been quiet since he knew the success of his voyage For seeing Jbrahim and Jsabella in his hands he scarcely knew what resolution to take for in the estate wherein things were he must destroy the Bassa or render him his Mistress Regarding him as the Lover of Jsabella he desired his death considering him as a fugitive he sound it just but remembring the affection which he had born him hee had much ado to resolve to destroy him What shall I do said he to himself with this ingratefull creature who after so many favors which he hath received from me so many honors which I have conferred on him so many marks which I have rendred him of my good will goes out of my Empire without my leave This perfidious man cried he should have considered me-thinks how I had heretofore broken his chains to share my Empire with him and how he to whom he owed his life and his liberty ought to have obliged him to a more exact fidelity But this wretch preferring the possession of a woman before the greatness wherein
hath none for me And would to heaven cryed he That she had not concealed a thing from you which without doubt touches her more sensibly at the heart Whereupon he recounted unto her the discourses which he had used to me the answers which I had made thereunto the letters which he had written to me the returns I had made him and at last acquainted her how he had snatched away a letter from me whereat I had shewed a great deal of unquietness and that having caused Amariel to read it to him he had found it to be a Love-letter and had thereby understood that I had been a long time engaged in affection to him that wrote it unto me and who questionless as might be judged by that which he said ought to be a man of great quality That his misfortune not permiting him to know the hand he requested her to read it that he might at leastwise be assured of the name of his Rival Saying so he presented her with that foisted paper which Amariel had given him in stead of Vlama's letter and the Princess having taken and opened it without finding any thing written therein could not chuse but sigh and lament the misfortune of this poor Prince Surely said she unto him you have deceived your self in taking one paper for another for I see nothing in this same O Sister said the Prince who little suspected the wickedness that had been done him speak the truth you know the hand of this letter but out of discretion you will not tel it me and by this adress you would draw it out of my hands No such matter replyed the Princess and I assure you that I have spoken seriously Why did you sigh then continued he in unfolding this letter It was answered the Princess because I saw it was none and that this adventure which would have made one that had not loved you laugh hath made me pity your misfortune but it may be you have this paper still No no said he for it was made up in such an extraordinary fashion as made me know it and quite different from Felixana's letters which I have also brought you and from which I never parted since I received them The Princess impatient to see what I had written to the Prince took one of the letters which he presented to her and having read it was as much surprised as before I think you well remember generous Ibrahim that all the letters which I had written to Mahamed were in the Sophi's hands and that those which Amariel had given to the Prince had been all dictated by Deliment and written with an unknown hand So that whereas the Princess knew perfectly my hand I cannot tell said she to Mahamed whether you will beleeve that which I am going to say to you but I am assured that Felixana never wrote the letters which you have shewed me Certainly answered the Prince if I could doubt of your love I should not beleeve that which you tell me but my dear sister if I durst I would intreat you to read them aloud that I may know whither by any inchantment the sence hath been altered as well as the hand which Amariel hath always assured me was Felixana's The Princess to satisfie him read two of those letters which the Prince acknowledged to be the same he had heard before I should beleeve said the Princess then to him that Felixana knowing you could not see but with the eyes of another hath counterfeited her hand or it may be hath caused these letters to be written with an unknown one for fear lâ—st some of them should be seen or lost but that which perswades me there is something in the matter which we cannot comprehend is That they are nothing like to Felixana's stile which I know very well for I saw almost every letter that she sent to Mazanderon when as she wrote to her Father I cannot for all that comprehend replyed the Prince what trick there should be in this for surely Amariel is faithful to me and yet the letters which I have shewed you are not so obliging as Felixana's discourse used to be when I entertained her At length after they had reasoned well together about it without being able to comprehend ought therein and had sent a faithful person to the Princes chamber to search for Vlama's letter they resolved to send for me at that very time when as having striven to banish shame and fear from my minde I had resolved to go and cast my self at the Princesses feet and to rely more upon her affection then on mine own innocence I arrived then at her chamber just as she commanded one to go for me which I had no sooner heard as I was coming in but seeing the Prince with her and a many of Letters on the Table with a paper made up in the same manner as Vlama's was which the Prince had taken from me I no longer doubted but that the Princess knew the truth of every thing for I could not be ignorant that she was well acquainted with Vlama's hand So that falling on my knees before her I perceive very well Madam said I unto her that all my faults are known to you and that coming with a purpose to accuse my self there is nothing more left for me to do then to beg your pardon for them after I had tryed nevertheless to render them more excusable then the incensed spirit of Prince Mahamed would make them appear to you Complain not of the Prince answered Axiamira since if he be culpable of any thing it is of being too little sensible of your fault which yet I ought not to condemn in him since notwithstanding the injury you have done me I have indulgence enough still to hear your reasons or rather your excuses After I had thanked the Princess for this grace I began to recount unto her all that had past betwixt Vlama and me for whereas I beleeved that I saw his Letter lie by the Princess and that I was sure she knew his character I disguised nothing unto her But for so much as regarded the Prince I could not tell very well how to speak of it for not knowing what he had said to Axiamira I feared to displease him if I should deliver things as they had past Howbeit the Princess having marked my unquietness Fear not said she to speak of the affection which my brother bears you seeing I am not ignorant of any one circumstance of it Nevertheless to justifie the relation which he hath and which you have also made to me of it I will know it from your mouth too Whereupon I recounted all that I have said to you concerning it his discourses his letters and that of Vlama but with so much sincerity as it served not a little to perswade the Princess that I had done the like for so much as regarded Vlama as indeed I did not disguise the truth unto her But why said she to