the contrary faining that he did all he could to keepe it in expected but the occasion of telling it making now a shew of being heate with anger and that the fury of his choller had made him thus vomit our his secfet And with that he praised heaven for having changed unto him Greece for Persia pride and the disdainefull Citizen into the gentlenesse and contentsome delights of a great Court and the tyrannie of an inhumane and cruell brother into the favours of the greatest and most courteous King of the Vniverse who missing to restore him by any faire meanes bad given him forces thereby both to restore himselfe to his liberty and also avenge him of his enemies But Chirito with counterfeit charinesse shewing him that the Fleete hee there saw was not enough for his turne Chio being strong of it selfe besides that in respect of the confederate Common-wealthes contributing all of them towards her defence as he might bee assured they would the enterprize would not prove to be so easie especially considering that they would perhaps have sought with him ere his arrivall in Chio To this Timocle in a despising manner answered him That before the Fleetes could joyne together to offer him fight he would have hang'd up without the Walls upon the Gate of Chio that Traytor his brother And for the rest that he was not so foolish to stirre in it without being certaine of the enterprize Chirito with shrinking in his shoulders replied that he conceived not how that could be without secret intelligence To which Timocle smiling answered But admit I had such what would'st thou say of it then I tell thee then I have and such too that litle shall my brothers malice or some others presumption availe them Here he named Rotildo and then taking him by the hand proceeded From hence forwards thou maist know Chirito how much ancient friendship can doe I have now committed to thy trust the greatest secret that is this day in the Court of Persia see therefore I pray thee that it be safely lock'd up in the secret cabinet of thy brest If thou wilt continue my friend I will further thy advancement and doe for thee if otherwise yet shalt thou have no cause to thinke hardly of mee Come along with me in this expedition and I will give thee over and besides the merit and favour thou shalt gaine thee in the Kings eyes a worthy place of command among the chiefe Captaines And that thou maist see that my proceedings are grounded on a sure foundation I 'le tell thee all Know then that Rotildo upon promise of the Principality agreed with the King to sow at my arrivall sedition within the Citie and to bring mee in with his faction which may bee easily done by assaulting Chio both within and without Chirito remained at these newes struck to the heart Rotildo hee knew wonderous well but the treason was so handsomely contrived and the apparances thereof so correspondent that the argument of his goodnesse conceived to be now o'recome by his ambition had no force so to conclude for him as Chirito punctually beleeved not all that hee had heard and then without staying to heare any more commending him for grounding his affaire upon such sure foundations accepting the offer of going along with him and infinitely thanking him for honouring him with such a favour he thought every minute a yeare till he returned to his lodging where writing a letter thereof at full he sent it to Chio by a trusty friend of his forbearing to send it by any of his servants for feare of being discovered The sea was then free for though the suspition of the warre was great yet was there not for all that heard of till then any hostile effect The messengers with most prosperous winde arrived in Chio a litle after that my fathers two kinsmen that had beene with Rotildo in Persia deceived or suborned presented themselves to a certaine Magistrate of supream authority in State-matters An accidentall branch of whose office was to keepe inviolably secret both the accusers testimony of witnesses There they exposed and deposed That they never had since their returne from Persia had the heart to beleeve much lesse relate that which they had with their owne eares heard against the person and faith of Rotildo but that seeing the passe whereunto things were now brought and understanding for a certaine that Timocle was in Ephesus with an Army they mov'd with the love of both their countrey and themselves accorded to be no longer silent now that the said apparances made them beleeve that to bee true which till then they did not This preludium ended they said on That fortuning to be locked up in some of the Royall lodgings of Susa neere the chamber where sate the privy Councell who were wont to shut themselves up when they were come together they heard them serious in discourse about Chio and Rotildo these two names being all they understood the Councell speaking in their owne language till they heard Timocle call'd for and a litle after ask'd in Greeke if Rotildo had power enough to give up Chio to the King and if also having gotten the principality thereof he would prove faithfull and loyall to his Majestie Hee answered yes discoursing with that a long while upon his Nobility riches and traine That for his faith they might well be assured of it because of his being a marveilous upright and honest Gentleman and such a one as would not have accepted of any condition that prejudiced the liberty of his Countrey hee being not naturally ambitious but for the exceeding pride of the Citizens becomming extreamely insupportable This said there was no more Greeke spoken nor Timocle any more heard speake and we being besotted with Rotildo's famed integrity firmely beleeved that Timocle had maliciously caused us to bee locked up there to make us beleeve what he had made us heare Vpon this deposition the good Rotildo was suddenly shut up in close prison so as no man could come to speak with him And whilst upon his examination hee called the Gods to witnesse of his innocence thither came Chirito's letters Whereupon without being any more suffered to speake for himselfe being so accused by two and now convinced by the third he unfortunate Gentleman was miserably and injustly strangled Timocle understanding of Rotildo's death seeming to be then apparently desperate as if by it all his designes had beene frustrated and the neck of all his projects broken made a shew of licensing his troupes for returning to Susa but yet entertained them howsoever having by his former seeming-reall fame dissolved the conjunction of the Greekish forces whilst my Father not without being therefore censured espoused my Mother shee telling such as thereof spake to her that shee would have married not only Pridale a personage so eminent but any base man whatsoever rather than heare her selfe called after the unlucky surname of a wicked Traytor a resolution
you all content and happinesse Eromena This letter wrought not that effect that reason required it should for the King more enraged for it than before would by all means disinherit his daughter suspending the decree against his son-in-law with an intention to unite them in the fault that so he might winde them both in one punishment so as it was very difficult to weane him from that humour with the considerations of his being aged his having no other childe and the being of no other Princes of the blood to succeede him have the Marquesse of Oristanio who was not onely old and issuelesse but above all others the most faithfull servant to Eromena and her husband Besides the being of Corsica in dange to be lost for being environed with enemies and bereft of her friends unlesse it yeelded to the subjection of the Tingitan the onely meanes to deprive together with his daughter and grandchilde himselfe also of the Sardan Crowne since other than he would never accept of a kingdome in the midst of the sea so farre distant with so many difficulties and undergoe the charge and trouble of defending it from so many enemies which were Right the Corses the Moores and the Balears The King bare an innate hatred to the Tingitan than whom hee knew no other would have accepted the proffer of succession being so deere a purchase considering the danger charge wherewith it was to be maintained but that which most of all vexed him was to thinke that his children in all probability would if all other helpes failed put themselves out of meere desperation under his protection which hee would not see come to passe for as much as his life was worth Doubting therefore lest they should settle themselves in Corsica and bee there crowned he commanded his horse and foote to be suddenly mustered marching himselfe in person towards Luogodori followed by all the Nobility and attended by his Councell Hee received by the way the Marquesse of Oristanio's letters with newes of the Princesse's arrivall and how that expecting the decree against her husband shee prepared to accompany him in his banishment Hence taking occasion he shewed him the discontents and inconveniences that might thence arise displaying before him his sonne-in-lawes merits with the advantages hee had in keeping him neere him The King was upon these newes somewhat pacified that his daughter departed not for any evill intent of doing him any hurt yet not quite freed from suspitions and resolved not to suffer Polimero to live either at home or neere him hee wrote to the Marquesse sending him the Councels decree and commanding him to put it in execution composed neverthelesse of moderate words as if he desired rather to triumph over his sonne-in-lawes obedience than to harbour any intention of keeping him long a farre off him The same made he his daughter also beleeve writing unto her a kinde letter and recalling her home with the hope of her husbands speedy returne These letters being read Polimero knew not what to resolve of well conceiv'd hee that the humbling himselfe to his father-in-law could not but be imputed unto him for glory so as the satisfying of his desire troubled him not but to be deprived of a beloved wife debarr'd of either seeing his daughter saluting his brother or visiting his father without knowing whither to betake himselfe was that which tortured him much but much more Eromena who not caring for her father was resolved to neglect all other affaires and follow him company God wot of all others to him the deerest and incomparably most desired but yet neither expedient or necessary Oppose her as I have already said hee would not love being a thing too too delicate and too much incumbred with feares and jealousies Who knowes thought he with himselfe but that prudence may be by her construed for an effect of small love which for being blinde neither sees nor admits of vertues if they thwart it nor any other affect save it selfe But the Marquesse and I wrought so much that wee both perswaded the one and disposed of the other The agreement was that shee should stay because that besides her watchfulnesse over the state-affaires shee might light on an opportunity of procuring his more speedy returne and that he should travell towards the East where having spent such time as he pleased in seeing of forraine countries hee might in case his returne were not by that time procured make his abode in some part of Greece Athens was named for the place of correspondencie whither were to be directed sent and conveyed their letters messengers and monies Of this his resolution to part they sent the King word to free him as much as in them lay of his doubts and jealousies which the Princesse also signified unto him by writing praying withall leave to stay there till her husbands departure wherewith hee was well contented not abandoning for all that the sight of Corsica but standing alwayes in a readinesse with his Army and Galleyes prest to crosse the channell if ocsion requir'd The few dayes that the Prince spent with his wife were by her passed in qeeping and heavinesse which made us endeavour to hasten his departure that so shee might the lesse waste her selfe with the imagination of this privation but the day being come shee said thus unto him I see then my Lord you will goe and leave behinde you your Eromena which wanting you will want both heart and soule impossible will it be for her to live being separated from you or if any thing keepe her alive it must needs be the hope of seeing you againe shortly I am sorry that her love hath so small interest in you as that other considerations exceede it such force have they not in her whom if you permit to goe along with you as by your mutuall affection shee thereto conjures you no losse though it were the heaviest that could be by any imagination conceived shall then taste bitter in her pallate might it be but sugred with the unexpressable sweetnesse which shee shall receive in being present to serve you with that word she affectionately kiss'd him without ceasing to importune him with more earnest entreaties mingled with her teares till hee being no longer able to refraine from accompanying her in the weeping-expression of her heavinesse return'd her this answer I part hence deere directresse of my destiny 't is true but not so as not to have you continually with mee the tempest of my travels shall ever have repose in the pleasant calme of your ever-deere memory the onely soveraigne cordiall to my misfortunes which without it would sinke me into the gulfe of an unmedicable despaire as for my love I cannot imagine how you can in the best manner doubt of it or how you can but imagine that I can preferre any necessity how urgent-soever before that of enjoying your presence since it is in you onely that I both joy and live But if such whose
new thoughts for being caught with the graces of the faire Princess without daring to manifest it upon examination with himselfe of her tender yeares and customes both those and these being incapable of any such affect And withall which seemed most averse to him of a nature farre from an amorous inclination a contemner of men and a mortall enemy of such of her sex who for conforming to their lovers passions shewed themselves any thing pliable to their loves And though hee hoped that time might alter her yet did the suspence of the selfe-same time also torment him for being unable to suffer the agony of such long-expecting and uncertaine hopes hee being but a traveller without either state or meanes deprived of any certaine place of abode yea and of all power to resolve of any thing excepting such as fortune might favour him withall But being unable to contrast with heaven upon re-examined deliberation with himselfe hee determined to serve her in a somewhat more than usuall manner and withall to smoother his flames by assaying if approached her they could by any meanes without her knowledge warme her Or in case nought else come of it yet should he not neede to despaire wholly were it but for the content that he hoped to receive from her most lovely presence and yet more lively because unparalled gestures and though the worst that could happened yet should hee not be the first that for nourishing his amorous hopes had beene voluntarily deceived for not yeelding himselfe up to deaths tyrannie The princely Mayden on the other side far God wot from any such thoughts beheld him with an indifferent eye onely fretting her selfe for his being such as shee could not hate Her youthfull spirit ruminated on nought else save warre and death with cruell revenges of wrongs which poore women every day as shee conceived received from men She held the subjection of her sex to be tyrannicall and conceiv'd that both Nature and the Law were therein deceived and that onely for being abased by tyrant custome it shew'd not its native vertue That it was now high time to let the world see it and by reacquiring their lost liberty to make the so inured female sex if not superior equall and companion to the other in favour whereof shee was egg'd on by examples Well knew shee that in Egypt where shee then abode the Kings had effeminated the men put them to domestick services to the distaffe and spindle to free themselves from dangers and suspitions shee had also read the Amazon's valorous enterprizes and thereupon contemplating the greatnesse of her owne spirit was confident of accomplishing the full of her intentions Wherein shee perceived but one sole difficulty which was to deprive women of their naturall feares though she beleeved them to be rather habituall than naturall Her selfe shee knew to be valorous not so much by the force of her body as by the courage of her heart shee comprehended that valour consisted in being neither carefull of ones person nor incumbred with the feares of death That the sensibility of wounds enfeebles the forces and blunts the edge of courage seeing it is the sole cause that makes it effeminate and backward in assailing and disadvantagious and slow in defending Shee therefore concluded them onely to be more valiant than the rest in whom had taken deepest roote the indifferencie of either living or dying confirmed in such an opinion by the nature of irrationall animals whereof the fiercer are not the stronger but the more courageous Since that for being endued with more force than men they would merit the title of fortitude rather than they if such vertue had its seate in bodily force that then since women were equally capable of the conceits of the minde wherefore then not of their effects too Such were her internall discourses which if they sometime tooke a turne about any passages told her of divers effects of love shee then ever sparkled out disdaine against the shee-lovers and could have found in her heart to have torne in pieces such of her sex as being rejected or slighted tormented themselves with love an affect to her thinking neither necessary nor necessiting but a simple proposition of free will an incompatibility by consequence unnaturall to love one that hates the person loving which if it be not conceiv'd shee a frensie must needs be an infirmitie of the braine to be cured with penance and fasting The day being come and the horses saddled the young woman there waited in a readinesse with her coates gathered up for the better trudging a-foote which the Princesse abhorring and failing to perswade her to make use of the benefit of the channell was therefore faine to consent that shee came along with her upon the importunity of her entreaties accompanied with such a quantity of teares that never mother shed so many for the losse of her children Causing her therefore to be put on horse-backe behinde Carasio shee asked her who shee was and whither shee meant to goe having already understood how shee was found and runne-away from Carasio she considering that no evasion could any thing steed her resolved now though not without being thereof ashamed to recite in the termes of truth the story of her selfe in such like words I redoubted Sir am the most miserable woman that ever was yet borne since whereas others miseries proceede from fortune mine spring meerely and wholly from my selfe so as though but too unworthy in all other respects yet in this above all I deserve to be pittied of no man in so much as if the unfained repentance of my faults had not enabled and prepared mee for supporting the pennance due for them with an intention to impose on my selfe others somewhat greater I should then not onely finde my selfe to be in a desperate case but should also have together with a perverse minde a lying tongue that in steede of faults and dishonour would blazon my merits and honours not so much to conceale from your knowledge my dishonesties which should indeede be buried in the center of the earth as to finde pitty in you and to gaine your better opinion At the hearing of these words the Princesse kindled as fiery-hot embers was about to make her hold her peace till upon her becomming more pliable because of Coralbo's expectation and shortning the longsomnesse of the way shee gave way to her relation My name said shee is Diatistera by Nation a Grecian and by birth of the noblest blood in Chio not because my Father possessing himselfe of its liberty became tyrant thereof but for that no other one Family in all Ionia is of more ancient memory than ours nor any ancestours more remarkeable for vertue nor renown'd for trophies than are our Forefathers I was conceived in a private estate my father then conformable to the stiles of republiques being himselfe but a Citizen though in greater estimation than the rest yet marked with no titulary dignity of
the noblest the flowre of that Countrey The Souldiers stood now a watching her for though shee was exceedingly afflicted yet had now the extreame wearinesse of her body in so long and incommodious a journey given truce to the affliction of her spirit and procur'd her sleepe though interrupted by her waking griefe and hardnesse of the bed easie onely in that part that her teares had softned And now at the sound of Lindadori's thundering blowes she awooke started up broke the truce with griefe and confederated with hope who placing himselfe as her guard in the bulwarke of her brest boldly defended her though with much adoe against the assaults of her cruell enemy Feare yet was shee hurried againe neere the gastly precipice of despaire when she saw her selfe remounted on horse-back by the Souldiers to convey her farther on under the conduct of some fifteene of them but that suspension tormented her not long For Lindadori imagining her by her teares to be a prey of those people ranne thither alone forcing to fight them who in respect of their being so many made an account to exempt themselves from the necessity of sharing of the battell Off cuts shee at first blow the hand of him that held her by the bridle and him that at lifting her into the saddle was suddenly so taken with her as hee could not forgoe his hold of the skirt of her coate shee passed with a thrust through the heart so as one wound was cured by the other A certaine experiment that the weapon's stabbes cure those of love Eromena seeing her daughter inconsiderate in all dangers as resolutely followed her and slaying some of them both shee and her daughter were constrained to retire to the hillock closely pursued by above twenty of the Enemies the whole company leaving the prisoners and baggadge now facing towards the assailers thinking they did no small act if they but defended themselves united together Polimero seeing his wife and daughter in such a plight was raging-mad that he could not come to releeve them for the wall of so many men that stood in his way whilst Don Elcimos had the fortune to open it of his side where was lesse throng with the death of one of them whence he ranne and laid at their backs himselfe being no otherwise strucken at by such as pursued him at the heeles Polimero by this time lesse charged and by the good old Count of Bona valiantly assisted made such havock of the rest as that he gained the passage and running to rescue his company made a shift betweene him and the Count to ease them of foure by them slaine ere they were aware of their comming yet too much would they have had to doe though if fortune had not by another meanes favoured them for the souldiers being hardy well armed and resolved either to save their prey or dye never thought of running away their horses being all laden with pillage and although they had lost many of their company yet had they so many left as they hoped to get the best of their Adversaries by worrying if not vanquishing them And so had it by all probability befallen them if the faire Ermestea gotten loose and flying backe the way whence shee was led had not met a Knight who hearing she was taken away was comming with a good troupe of horse to rescue her Vnderstanding how shee was fled away and that too rather to goe finde out some to ayde the five Knights than to save her selfe she hastily return'd to shew him the place whence they might heare the cries and blowes ere they descried the Combatants this assault quite ruined the souldiers first hopes now that they were assail'd by two parties the rescuing Knight having the edge of his valour sharpned with revenge and anger against those men insomuch as he was loath to receive into his mercie such of them as yeelded themselves unto him judging that such deserv'd no faire quarter which warred against women beauty and their merits Ermestea alighting off her Steede ranne to the Knights whom shee could not finde sufficient conceits to expresse her beholdingnesse unto a thing ordinary for a gratefull minde to suffocate it selfe in words by endeavouring to make them serve for erres of the effects it thinkes it selfe tied to performe But to Lindadori above all the rest strove she to acknowledge a greater obligation to whose lot befell the being the more efficacious if not the prime cause of her deliverance Wounded they were all five so as Carasio's hands had wherewithall to employ them but with such felicity that as no one of them had any dangerous wound so was there as few of them that any way bemoaned their paine But Lindadori more shrewdly wounded than the rest and being in respect of both her age and sex more tender and delicate wrought amazement in all that considered how shee being in all things else over-sensitive and impatient was yet in her sufferings even insensible and farre from bemoaning her selfe or troubling any body Very importunate was Ermestea to have them home with her But Polimero considering that the courtesies of such personages had no limits of time and how much it stood him upon to hold on his way his affaires admitting of no delay fairely excus'd himselfe yet with assuring her that to doe her service he would have omitted all businesses of his owne But sithence this was but meerely in consideration of themselves they were necessitated without losse of time to passe further But the owner of the ship not yeelding to any perswasions of passing them any farther his Vessell being fraighted for Cyprus they were forced to accept of the invitation for being constrained to furnish themselves of a new Vessell Satisfying then the Marriners and taking their leave of the sick Knight by whom the Count fail'd not to excuse himselfe by letter to Gradamoro and Deadora they mounted on horse-back Ermestea causing the booty to be brought back to be restored to its owners And then after having released the prisoners setting on a round pace homewards whom might shee meete a litle onwards but the Baron her Father that with two hundred horse came running after the track of those that had stolne her away whose joyes were now by so much the greater by how much they were lesse expected The wounded Knights were accommodated at their ease with Chambers neere one another as they had desired and served with such respective diligence as if they had beene knowne for what they were Polimero not neglecting to sollicite for a new passage wherein for doubt of displeasing him Ermestea fail'd him not Newes came the meane while that the nuptialls were celebrated in Cyprus with great solemnity the flawes in friendship occasioned by new injuries being sodred up by the old affronts and both reduced to a confirm'd friendship by a new realliance And for domestick affaires That King Riverargo by a great defeate given the Carians had totally chased them from Creete that
I beseech you to give us leave to carry you to the cave that I may then after hye me speedily to him to give him life and bring him to you Whilst Lucano stood as a by-spectator of this part of a Tragecomedy he might see displayed from out the wood another scene The Princesse of Feacia whom he before had taken for Corianna not knowing that her Almadero was otherwise busied was met by him whom shee had espied from the hill top And Polimero with his company seeing the three Squires comming out of the wood went another way to finde them out Whilst Lidomia being told by Almadero that he had strangers at home goes her way Lucano at first sight was almost deceived againe nay he had questionlesse so beene if the lamentation of the foure had not pointed him out the true Corianna And now seeing those Knights goe that-a-way he made a stand though his heart drew him out of the ambush he lay in as free by then from jealousie as more than ever sick of love and pitty Corianna now that shee was somewhat able was about to speake in answer to Olmiro when shee saw stand over her the five Knights and a litle after Almadero Lindadori forgetting her designe of passing for a man sate close by her like a young Girle conforting her with the prettiest words that could be When Almadero by this time come greeted her with these speeches Madame it hath pleased you see the Gods to chastize you for the disfavour you to your owne prejudice did me in refusing to accept of a short repose in my poore house I hope you will now oblige me with that favour sithence these noble Gentlemen joyne with me to entreate you to suffer your selfe to be carried up there to continue till such time as you have recovered strength enough to goe on your intended voyage But shee not being yet able to speake much with a low voyce thanking him told him that those her three servants would carry her very well to her Barke and with that calling to her Olmiro shee whispered him in the eare to goe for the Duke and bring him presently to the cave Lucano who standing aside observed all seeing him part and imagining that hee went for him stept out to Olmiro a joyfull man to see him whom he was already bethinking with himselfe whither to goe to finde out who now told him in two words all the businesse by him before hand sufficiently comprehended That done Lucano suddenly breaking through the circle of Knights prostrated himselfe before her and then taking her by the hand and bathing it with his teares he affectionately kissed it Shee presently knew him and at the very sight of him instantly recovered her full strength her soule then returning to its proper mansion and her spirits executing their severall offices Clasping then her armes about his neck forgetting the nice decorum of her sex and the at other times blush-procuring presence of so many Knights shee parenthesing her words with greedy kisses thus bespake him And what God restores you to me now my sweete Lucano what spitefull death alas tooke you from me deerest life of my soule Dye I or live I now I shall live or dye contented for seeing you alive and too withall not anothers but mine But tell me I beseech you are you indeed Lucano or the sweete spirit that was in him No no! you are my true loyall Lucano Spirits I see are not dissolv'd by the blowes of Fortune This your languishing palenesse is a marke infallible of your love and a most glorious trophey of mine But my deere soule you are in some sort recompenced for it since your tombe hath not any either more worthy Epitaph nor your Hearse any Elegy that expresse your disasters more lively than doth this face of mine whereon so you but cast your eye you may there reade in sad characters the deposition of my affection To this Lucano after he had first as a preludium to his speech vented a few profound sighes thus answered The life Madame that at this present I receive is the hight of so great a glory that the death and now past calamities that I suffered come exceedingly short of meriting it Happy therefore were I if for better expressing my loyaltie and to doe you further service I might often reiterate the sufferings of my disasters For though that your favour to me-wards ever the same doth ever warrant my content from becomming subject to alteration neverthelesse Fortune's so various accidents make me now that I have prov'd and felt them adverse relish better my happinesse than before when I knew nothing of its spitefull effects Onely I affectionately begge of you to adde this one favour more to the summe of my obligations which is that you will presently cheere up your spirits and live otherwise I protest unto you that I may well resolve to dye my selfe but not to endure to see you leade me the way to either death or griefe which said he embracing her affectionately nourished by the assistance of their close-joyned lips her weakely-panting with his fresh-vigorous spirits and then shee having first bestowed such time as was necessary for recovering her intercepted breath bethought of getting her selfe up and to be gone to her retiring-place her cave For furthering of which her desire the Dutchesse to strengthen her fainting spirits presented her with a morsell of restorative conserve which shee had brought with her purposely to revive her but could not perswade her to take of it before because of her then resolution to starve her selfe or otherwise set a finall period to her dayes Now also afterwards shee was by importunity wonne to taste of a litle conforting wine which together with other dainties Almadero caused to be brought downe for her and now presented her withall not without letting her know how sorry hee was that her diffidence extended so farre as to Cavaliers who were obliged to serve her Eromena lighting now on an occasion conforming with a determination of hers concluded on by her husband and the Count of Bona of taking her along with them thus greetes her Madame I know you by your high birth noble spirit and disasters ere e're I had the honour to be acquainted with your person and now that I have the happinesse to know you that occular way too I thanke the Heavens for favouring me so much as to finde you out in such a time or plight as I may any way steede you And to the end you may be excuselesse for not commanding me I am Eromena More she would have said but that name scarce exprest bred such joy in Corianna that she interrupted her with saying And how happy a day is this for me Madame wherein Fortune hath beene so liberall as to restore me my Lucano that so both he and I might personally tender our service to you whom we so much honour and desire to serve But Eromena observing her speake with a great deale of paines made her this sudden reply Sweete Madame let us I pray you lay aside all complements and thinke of some meanes of conveying you hence to take some conforting-cordiall-simples for I conceive you have need of them Besides you may honour me by voutchsafing to be acquainted with Polimero my Lord and Lindadori my daughter who are also come here to serve you together with these two Knights the one of them which is this shewing her the Count of Bona having chanced to espie you out before hathconducted us hither expressely to bring you along with us to Sardinia where we shall with your greater advantage treate of your reconcilements And then after complementall courtesies replied on all sides Almadero would by all meanes have Corianna carried up which favour shee accepted not of but in excuse thereof said Courteous Sir I may not accept of your much-obliging proffer not because I dislike of it but for that I cannot conforme the necessity of my occasions to the desire I have to obey you in explanation whereof I must tell you that I am though I presume you hitherto know not as much your neere neighbour and have at home a young sucking babe that expects me and therefore I shall make bold to begge of you one undeniable request which is that you would bee courteously pleased to leave to my Lucano and me with our company the use of my cave whereunto seeing her resolution so fixt they all assented so as shee was seated and carried thitherward in a chaire accompanied though against her will with all of them who when they came to see that subterranean habitation though adorn'd with royall furniture they could not refraine from weeping But more than all the rest Lucano though he afterwards passed from a sea of teares to an Ocean of joy upon sight of the babe whom Lindadori would needs feede whilst Eromena having first excluded all the menkinde helped Corianna to bed and then soone after re-admitting them shee with some soveraigne restoratives by then prepared her by the noble mayden both conforted and restored her enfeebled forces Full fifteene dayes entertayned they themselves all of them in Ericusa For the Prince of Feacia being informed of their qualities went in person to conduct and lodge them in a delicious house of his pleasingly-scituated on the sea side where upon Corianna's recovering her former beauties they were observed although in apparance the same with Lidomia to bee animated though with different spirits onely so farre alike as tooke away all marveile of their being taken the one for the other Lucano rather was a greater subject of amazement since betweene him and Almadero could not be discerned any sensible difference of favour or making other than in certaine gestures and those too rather habituall than naturall Many complementall ceremonies passed betweene Eromena and Corianna touching their going together till at length upon the later her accepting of the invitation the old Prince furnished them with a Galley Leaving then Almadero protested-unto of a perpetuall amity they fetching about Sicily prosperously arrived in SARDINIA FINIS
from those who perceiving imminent dangers to environ them on all sides dare not for meere feare of them use the meanes to prevent or shunne them whilst their irresolution brings them on to encounter them to their farre greater ruine The faint-hearted man cannot suffer his wound to be touched because he hath not the patience to brooke the sense of the paine untill it grow to be so festered that in despight of his froward will hee must at last endure both searing and lancing-irons yea and oftentimes the losse of the diseased member and his life to boote Matters of great consequence are never unattended on by dangers of all sides There is no man that in a dangerous affaire can make other than a dangerous resolution but the lesse dangerous is indeed the better resolution and the best the most suddaine Our case hath no resolution without danger if we retrune not to our former state of freedome and unlove againe But with what heart I wonder can you returne to what you professe to have utterly relinquisht For my part I am certaine that I shall never be able to unsettle my affection if then necessity require that you be mine it will surely prove a lesser evill that I enjoy you in certainty by flying away with you hence it being so but one sole evill than being married to an other to enjoy you in uncertainty with evident dangers of both life and honour Lucano could have wish'd to have beene at that instant rather amidst an army of enemies than in the straight he was in being well assured that if once shee grew to be obstinate they could resolve of nothing but their utter ruine neverthelesse he thus courteously replies Incomparable Lady it lies not in the power of me your devoted creature to be otherwise than altogether obsequious unto your Highnesse will and pleasure since that two wils are incompatible in one only soule much lesse fitting is it for mee to advise you in an affaire that tends to my owne good and interest which altogether debilitates my judgement and cloudes it with passion yet so you be but pleased to grant me leave to suspend our peculiar wils for the better accomplishing of our mutuall desires I trust I shall be then able in some sort to advise you my interesses being surmounted by the feeling consideration I have of your utter undoing To come to particulars were superfluous for I am sure your Highnesse comprehends them better than I know how to display them or if I thought that you resolved of the contrary for some reasons by me unconceived I would then humbly beseech you not to demand my counsell in it but to command me its execution wherein I shall ever be most ready to obey you At this the Princesse surprized with a skarlet blush thus interrupted him Ah Lncano I see now you are not in love for love is neither fcrupulous nor forecasting nay it hazards all and is uncapable of other consideration than of it selfe In which point shee so enlarged her selfe as Lncano would have had much adoe to raze out of her conceit the wrong impression of his love if laying aside all perswasive reasons hee had not expressed his willingnesse of flying away with her but how to effect it they knew not doubting whether it were their better course to convey themselves privily away from Parthenope or to stay till they went for Sicily and so steale away by the way judging the later to be the lesse dangerous they agreed to cause to be pack'd up in a little fardell all their Iewels and gold Coyne that so they might be ready for their embarking and flight That night was employed in no other occasions shee pretending to extenuate her errours with the title of matrimony besides their mindes troubled with stinging considerations made them uncapable of delight and though hee thought to make authentick their resolved ruine with the sweetnesse of some momentary pleasure yet would shee by no meanes yet permit him but promised him that another night shee would as a loving wife be conformable in all things to his discretion and will Lovers most commonly at their parting from the objects of their loves have their hearts swollen with content onely Lucano parted from his with a minde over-charged with sad and heavy thoughts yet were they so supported by the vigor of his youth and repulsed by the power of his desires that he made no great account of them preferring the value of the reward before the greatnesse of the danger it being the more confirmed since the Princesse constant in her promise was contented in the presence onely of her Gentlewoman to receive the wedding-ring not daring as then to acquaint therewith the Dutchesse as afterwards shee did which was the occasion that shee good Lady kept her bed deprived of the ability of stirring thence for a great while after Fridone Duke of Daunia was then Lord high Constable of that kingdome a Peere next Lucano the chiefe of the Realme and this office of great authority seconded by the greennesse of his blooming yeares made him become both rash and arrogant T is true that hee was Lucano's own Cozen but it is not the vicinity of blood that formes the unanimity of friends for their Fathers having long contended in law left an hereditary ill-will rooted in the hearts of the sonnes Also Fridone besides this hereditary evill inclination was of his owne nature worse affected towards Lucano whom he envied at the heart because he saw him surpasse all others in deserts and excelling qualities It happened as hee passed one day by a shop where were a making certaine tassels for his horses that he entred into it not so much for any necessity or desire that he had to see them as that he idlely loytering sought for any occasion to passe away the time with where at first sight he espied lying upon a shelfe a bundle of silke which he having snatch'd out of the hands of the shop-keeper that endeavoured to hide it from him perceived to be a ladder wrought with marveilous curiosity and imagining it was made of purpose for amorous thefts hee so earnestly sollicited him both by faire words and meances that hee got him at length to confesse it was the Duke of Lucania's brought him the day before to be mended where it was a little worne out by the edge of a window Parted thence he began to bethinke himselfe where Lucano could in so short a time have gotten him a Mistresse but finding no probability for his imagination to pitch on he resolved to watch him narrowly at the next shew at Court being assured that there hee should discover what game his fancie flew at yet found hee himselfe when hee had in that behalfe used all the best meanes he could as farre to seeke as at first Lucano shewing himselfe still indifferent in his carriage to all which so madded this other Lord as he bit his lips for meer anger accusing himselfe
glory yet hope I with her merits helpe to obtaine it beauty being such a power as it once forced Pluto to wander out of his infernall dominions And to the end shee be not affrighted to see me appeare all imbath'd in blood tell her I will come transformed into a gentle breath of winde and will without either affrighting or annoying her softly steale under her vaile and so solace and sport my selfe in her beloved bosome which as oft as shee feeles tell her it is I and pray her to receive me joyfully Tell her also But here his spirits failing him his last will remained unexpressed to my so great griefe that I had undoubtedly kill'd my selfe in the place had I not more deerely tendred my Ladies welfare than my owne despised life But now danger not affording us the leisure to vent our griefe in teares I ranne to call away the mariners with an intention to beare him away with us whatsoever came on 't when my companion comming running after me hastily told me he descried people approaching and true it was indeede Wherefore wee highed us aboord crying out to the mariners to launch out which they suddenly did their pinnace being mann'd with fourteene good Oares The Princesse having heard the clashing of the swords and comprehending by our feare by our being alone and by our faces all besmeared with the blood that spowted out of the Dukes throate the disaster that had befallen us incontinently swounded the wofull-hearted Dutchesse in a plight not much better used for reviving her the best meanes shee could which soone after successefully effected shee all enraged with passion upon her comming againe to her selfe burst out into these speeches And what a Gods name meane you to doe to contend with the cruelty of fortune and to overcome it or to procure me a sensibility thereby to make me become more lively sensible of death Carildo how left you Lucano I miserable wretch had not the power to finde out on a suddain fit words to sweeten so great a bitternesse whereupon shee seeing me so silent ask'd me if he were dead But I weeping afresh knew not how to expresse so dolorous an affirmative whereat tearing her haire and face shee proceeded Hast thou then so forsaken me Lucano No no it is indeede I that have forsaken thee Pardon me oh pardon me I beseech thee my deerest lover when once I come againe where thou art I will never leave thee more but will ever follow thee and be anew joyn'd inseparably unto thee With this shee would have desperately flung her selfe headlong into the sea had not her garments the tacklings of the Barke and all we that stood about her hindred her from executing her so desperate an intention The Dutchesse supporting her betweene her armes comforted her the best shee could but alas possibility it selfe hath no possible arguments availeable in extreame calamities onely this one good effect it wrought which was the procuring her to be silent so as the mariners understanding litle or nothing of our language could not comprehend our case or being And although the suddennesse at first and afterwards the renewing of our lamentations made them curious in better observing of both our words and actions yet did the ignorance of both the fact and persons keepe them afarre off from the conjecture of the truth Shee in the meane time never ceased from weeping depriving her selfe of all refreshing refection either of sleepe or sustenance so as her body was reduced to such a weakenesse and her throate waxen so dry that shee was scarceable to speake any more yet did shee for all this pronounce the name of Lucano with such a compassion-meriting passion as was able to enforce even cruelty it selfe to beare a share in her sorrowes Greived to the heart was the good Dutchesse to see her in so wofull a plight yet seeing she could not perswade her to use any restorative means to her body already disposed to pine it selfe away shee bethought her selfe to assay if shee could any way cheere up her drooping spirits with the more soveraigne medicines of the minde wherefore with a no lesse ardent than compassionable affection shee thus bespake her Madame the time now presents you with an occasion to manifest the greatnesse of your worth oh then I beseech you be but pleased to consider that Nature having bestowed on you a talent larger than that of any other woman as you may therefore jusly esteeme your selfe to be singular among all those of your sex so may shee as justly accuse you to be above all other women living singularly ingrate if you make not an opportune use of her benefits True it is that your crosses exceede those of any one of your sex nay though all their severall disasters were added together yet could they not amount to the summe of yours for you have not onely lost your husband but also utterly abandoned your countrey your fortunes your state and parents yet me thinkes that shee that had the resolute boldnesse to hazard such inestimable losses should not want the courage to endure and slight them with a magnanimous patience Fortunes game Madame is like that of dicing at which no body should venture other than such a stake as hee cared not whether hee wonne or lost yours was I confesse an unlucky cast nor is it any marvell that your losse was multiplied upon the by since that your hazard was a thousand to one But will it not be yet worse if you having lost that thousand should meerely out of a desperate folly throw away all the rest of your stock without reserving any thing if not to hazard another time at a more indifferent lay yet at least wise for setling the foundation of some better advised course of life Remember Madame I beseech you that the afflictions which the Gods send us should serve us and you in particular for favourable admonitions since they are the meanes of recalling us into their love and favour which if they seeme so greivous unto you now that they are but the emblems of their anger how terrible will they then appeare when they shall be transformed into the effects of their unappeaseable fury It lies you know in their power to reduce you to a more miserable plight than you yet are in They have not their hands so shortned as that they cannot lengthen them at their pleasures Although wee cannot with the weake eyes of humane judgement discover the manner how which is the onely argument that makes for your comfort But if for your corporall crosses you will needs have a corporall comfort then doe but looke into your selfe and remember that you are a bearer of a burthen that will doubtlesse prove an abortive if you in time desist not from your grieving fasting and watching Vp up deere Madame and be confident that if worldly fortune hath disfavoured you the heavenly will not faile to glaunce a favourable looke on your distressed state
this the King calling him hee left her preparing himselfe to begin the morrow following his journey towards the Kingdome of Logria But shee to whom brotherly admonitions were reproaches courteous language abuses and promises of a rich dowry an unappealeable sentence of death putting on a manly courage and laying aside all appearance of griefe could so farre temper nay command her passion as with unbeteared eyes to see him at parting yea to salute him and bid him her last farewell and that in so free a way too as made him thinke her an altogether altered woman whereby he became so consolated as hee could not refraine at his departing to drop some teares for meere unlook'd for joy though gaz'd on by all the Ladies that stood by her and accompanied a good while on his way by the flowre of the Nobility But no sooner lost shee once the sight of him than that shee remained as a statue cold senselesse and immoveable Recovered out of her stupifying fit shee retir'd to her bed-chamber too too delicious God wote for a sceane of so lugubrous an act The returne of such as had sent Feredo on his way was the passing-bell that rang out her knill of death the recommendations sent her from him shee received with disdaine and contempt and then presently not having the patience or power to stay till night shee put off her cloathes and laid her downe where being as shee thought all alone shee burst forth into these termes It is now time Gelinda for thee to free thy selfe from the tyrannie of thy insulting enemy Love 't is high time that thou now revenge thy selfe on this thy neither brother nor lover Come thou must die and that 's no newes to thee death shall not seize on thee at unawares Thou shalt have the oddes of the rest of mortals in being thy selfe thine owne Iudge so freeing thy selfe both from the judgement of others and from the qualities and diversities of deaths being conditions that make unexpected death looke on the dying wretch with an aspect so fearefull and horrid A great spirit as thine is will flight it to be by it cruelly revenged on him that no lesse cruelly than ungratefully hath injured thee This said shee would have kill'd her selfe but thinking it too short a preamble for so dolefull an end her despairing soule roaring from within her with an horrible and gastly noyse shee proceeded Implacable Dieties yee infernall Powers to you have I forlorne wretch recourse to you doe I bequeath and consecrate this reâ—â—â—ed life of mine in recompence where of I desire no more than that I may persue and haunt the ingratefull Feredo whithersoever he goes put me no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implore the heavens or their influences for if mortals subject to the hâ—â—vie clog of a body and by consequence ignorant and feeble can domineere over them what may then the immortall soules doe which being separated from these imperfections must needs be more powerfull in respect of their habits corresponding to that privation I grant too that humane judgement and discretion may perhaps shunne them yet mighty yee whose power hath no paragon are able I am confident either to corrupt or alter them But alas if it prove not so to be how ill then am I advised yet how can I that despairing hope be possibly well advised whilst I beleeve revenge to have place among the infernall miseries which to the damned might prove happinesse and glory if glory and happinesse had any accesse to those dismall horrors Die I will were it but to spite and grieve Feredo But what place I wonder among the disordered confusions there shall the order of my uncouth affections hold Shall it be possible that among those eternall disorders there the soule be not confounded with all its parts especially the intellect and that also the order which I prefix to my revenge be not in danger to be broken But oh that the web I warpe here might be there spunne for then would I thinke hell were blessed and all would then goe thither But who will assure me thereof yet doubtlesse thy death Gelinda will grieve Feredo will it so dye then meerely to vex him But soft too too foolish were such a revenge as but makes an addition to the avengers proper prejudice But said I not that hell observes no order then no reason neither by reason of that disorder If so to what end tend then so many considerations they are needlesse and superfluous 't is true yet let them be dispenced withall in priviledge of being my last farewell Here respiting a while to vent out the anguish of approaching death shee with a heavy groane spake on Happy thee Gelinda had'st thou never beene borne since that being borne thou wast borne for hell whose first torments thou proved'st when first thou fell'st in love Yet if I deserved so much misery had it not beene a greater paine for me not to have beene borne at all if true it be that such had beene greater than to be borne to be damned as I was But ah me if this were true sure then I had never beene borne for if among all the things that I am none of there had beene but one that in privation of being had exceeded the not being of others then surely that same one thing had beene Gelinda Therefore Gelinda to her greater anguish beleeves that such a thing cannot be Besides the Gods were unjust if they punished such as were not any way blemished with as much as originall sinne Enough then let these be my last meditations Dye I must and will Feredo will none of mee no more will I him now and for not having him I must goe else-where The passage is I confesse hard the issue doubtfull but whatmatters all that I 'le even venture and runne with the rest the Furies of hell shall direct mee nay I 'le make one among them they shall adopt mee and I 'le be the fourth of those Eumenidan Sisters which if it cannot otherwise steede me it shall then suffice me that the diseâ—â—â—â—teous Feredo be troubled in his sleepe and in his repose desire death the sole remedy to his heart-wasting miseries and besides that in his loves never woman beloved by him may ever love him that some untimely end betide her not More shee would have said when one of her women that all this while had attentively observed her ranne towards the bed at the first trampling noise of whose feere Gelinda stab'd her selfe under the left pap with a long silver bodkin where with shee used to righten her haire but by her destined for this fatall effect which succeeded her desire so well if a man may say well in so ill a case that slipping betweene her ribs it pierced her heart which prov'd now as tender to the force of hand as it had before done to the dart of love The Gentlewoman that faw no signes of any violence done and by consequence not suspecting any such
upon information received of its cause sent to tell him Hee wondered the fierce Sarmatia could so much degenerate from it selfe as to have insteede of a martiall King a dejected lover who for certaine could not possibly be other than a changeling being those of his Royall Family and blood were never owners of soft effeminate hearts which if otherwise hee were indeed a true branch of so Royall a stocke that hee should then rouze up his spirits and be well since both lay in his power warranting him that the noyse of trumpets would soone awake him from his dump of heavinesse and a contrary imagination as soone restore him to his former health his love being no other than a meere conceit and his sicknesse an effect of the like cause Adding for his more comfort that he himselfe had also sought her to wife but had since with more wholsome counsell withdrawne from her his affection wishing him to doe the like or if affection in him for being the younger man bare somewhat a greater sway yet should its force be weakened by considering that if he could leave and slight her when the effect thereof was possible much rather then should this nephew of his desist from an impossible enterprize necessity teaching him to forget her and amorous disdaine to abhorre her now that shee was enjoyed by another or if all this yet sufficed not yet should he not droopingly abandon himselfe to griefe and heavinesse but like a brave Bull winne her from out the hands of his rivall and deprive him not onely of her but also of his scepter state and life Since Kings have no other law than their wils nor other Iustice than power and Armes the rest being but old-wivestales and fables of weake and heartlesse men Promising if he like himselfe bravely resolved to doe thus that then hee should see how he would shew himselfe to be an uncle unto him they being both of the same family and having now a joynt colour of quarrell against one and the same enemy and withall that he was for his part content to let him have to himselfe and owne together with his Mistresse the booty honour and conquest This embassie delivered up got Durislao off his bed perswasion being a hard Chizell to ding out of his fancie his amorous conceit and a sharpe spurre to prick him on to disdaine and anger that sweete love-commanding countenance that before with its sweet perfections so ravished him seemed loathsome to him now that violent passions were chased away by their opposites extreame ones the faire picture rent off his bed was unrooted from out his heart and the disdaine that succeeded in its place kindled by the remaining sparkles flash'd up with an outragious fury Behold we now Sarmatia resounding all over with the death-menacing clattering of Armes and her vaste Champion-fields covered with swarming troupes of man and horse Fame which saw them mustered carrying the newes thereof from the next adjacent to the remoter Regions caused peace to retire to the heavens at the appearance from out their abisse of the infernall Furies with all the rabble of their haggish traine There was betweene Vlmigaria and the other neighbouring Kings a strong defensive league wherein though the enemy were not expressely named yet their intent levelled at Teuton and Durislao so as at the first notice of the being of so great an army on foote they hudled together a great number of bodies though few hearts and each of these few too governed by its feares and by their inducement rather inclined to truce than fight whence sprung the source of all the ensuing evils for humane prudence teacheth us to embrace peace till it begin to appeare prejudiciall unto us but the dice once cast the true Cavalier cannot without exposing himselfe to dangers manifest his valour since life and fame cannot equally be cared for Durislao appeared on the confines where he found Defendants enough or such at least as seemed to be such who gave him battell lost it and fled or rather indeede fled ere they lost it The extolled prudence of their Generall so many yeares before in estimation incomparable being now tried by a true touch-stone discovered the falsenesse of its mettle the mountaines-promising valour of so many Princes that under their pavillions seemed to be invincible as soone as it now appeared in open field was beaten downe and trampled or at least put to flight choosing to lose rather than hazard their lives both their dominions friends and liberties yet among all these evils there was one good thing that the more base and dastard spirits preventing the time gave by their running away the first time to the Court to save it selfe by flight the City being unable to defend it under the command of so faint hearts their greatest care was to informe themselves whether the enemy had as yet entred into or sacked the Citie the terrour whereof so wrought upon their timerousnesse as many of them forgot their very children in their cradles The sweetly-majesticall Queene seeing things reduced to such a point the Citie and Kingdome lost the women weeping and the men standing staring about them with beteared eyes and so confusedly crowded together as their disorderly swarming might endanger their escaping with safety Shee mounted on horse-back said thus unto them I have no cause to wonder at my women whose weapons are their teares but at you who being Knights by your profession had not the courage to defend them and yet now discover your effeminatenesse so far as to imitate them in weeping I can doe no lesse than be astonished yet now that I consider it you doe well for it may chance to save your lives since the enemy how litle generous soever he be will scorne to embrue his warlike sword in such cowardly blood as yours Here without staying for any answer shee putting onwards her Steede spurr'd away much repenting shee had not made one in the battell her heart giving her that her very presence there had prevented the disaster Durislao having gotten so easie a victory with his Lance in rest marched in brave order towards the City where he found the gates wide open and no man that durst either gainesay or withstand him yet seeing himselfe deprived of his hoped-for spoyles now thought himselfe to bee rather the conquered than conquerour Egg'd on therefore by his old love-fits kindled by the ancient fire that lay raked up in the ashes of his contrary resolution hee spurr'd onwards to overtake the runne-away Court troupe who followed by their King having abandoned their peculiar charges had betaken themselves to the speedy legges of their swift Coursers Discovering the baggage he hoped to finde there Doricrene but found nothing answerable to his expectation there being no other than persons of servile conditions indifferently unworthy of either his love or hatred Here understanding for a certaine that hee could not overtake her for his comming too late and her having farre
fields and houses but so abandoned that no living soule was to be seene in any of them Assured of her being out of danger shee thought to license the old man and in the way of almes to give him a diamond which he refused to accept of with telling her Such things Madame befit not me who am obliged to serve you as I am a Knight and besides as I am a religious man my gemmes are those above whose beauty and order make me comprehend the Deity I will waite on you yet a litle farther if you please to give me leave of purpose to declare unto you a case which if the having of company in adversity can give any comfort to an oppressed heart will afford yours I am perswaded no small argument of consolation The Queene hearing he was a Knight used him with a greater respect and therefore the more earnestly importuned his returne till seeing him resolved to accompany her yet farther shee said unto him Kinde Father the journey will be too great a trouble for you to goe on any farther which if that you doe is I assure much against my will yet sithence you will neede have it so I will not refuse your courtesie in hearing the story you would tell me where at he drawing neerer her spake as followeth I Madame am a native of Norwey a great Kingdome which though it lye situated under a very cold clime is not yet 10 barren that it enjoyes not many benefits of Nature Gimislao was the last that there sway'd scepter a Prince exceeding well conditioned to suite with the birth of a private man but too too simple for a Soveraigne King which prov'd by consequence to be prejudiciall no lesse to his subjects than himselfe Teutone King of Seandinavia who of whilome so poore a petty King is now come to be so great a Monarch casting an observant eye on the simplicity of Gimislao never left him till by deceiving him by fained signes of friendship he had wrested him out of his dominions whereof though he harmelesse Prince was often warned by divers and among them by my undeserving selfe in particular yet was it never possible to make him understand it so as he unfortunate man was in the same time assaulted and pillaged of all that hee had saving with much adoe his person by flight the two Princes his sonnes remaining behinde in the hands of fortune I that had bred them up and from the beginning of the warre had safely placed them in a strong castle knowing it could not hold out long when all the rest were once lost abandoned the Father already past all helpe to save the sonnes from the tyrranous pawes of the usurper I cloathed them then poorely and suiting my selfe in the like equipage I bare-foote and bare-legg'd conducted them as mine through the midst of the enemies army assured by poverty which no man tooke notice of Gotten to the sea I sayled prosperously the winde driving me to the Cimbrians who in maintenance of their liberty wage continuall warre with Teutone There found we Gimislao who repenting him too late of his over-coldnesse moved even the very stones with the pittifull moane he made for regaining his Realme and after having spent in spies and leavying of troupes the litle treasure he brought with him he died a beggar for want of any one to releeve him ambition assayling him now out of season who was as incapable of riches with a kingdome as of poverty with a private life having performed for him his last rites of funerall I seeing the impossibility of establishing the Princes in their dominions left them in pay with those people and then examining by the vanity of the world the inconstancie of fortune and how moving the wheele wherein shee gir'd was I resolved to bid her adieu and to retire my selfe some-where where neither shee nor humane hopes should ever any more deceive or molest me Travelling then through many countries I chanced at last to light on and like the place that I now reside in where the meditation of divine things rid my mind of terrene affections making me become farre more happy in my present poverty stript of all vaine desires than I was in worldly riches and honours incumbred with insatiable affections grieving onely that I had not knowne sooner that 't is meerely opinion that torments the minde a torture that ever augments the unhappinesse of humane life I thought good Madame to tell you this short story for ministring unto your present state some argument of consolation and that you might support your losses with a minde worthy your selfe Which said he kissing the skirt of her garment returned without either taking any further leave or staying for other answer The Queene calling to minde that her husbands last resolution was to goe to the Cimbrians was no whit affraid to see her selfe alone but still holding straight forwards on that way shee found at the waxing browne of the evening a few cottages where shee was lovingly though poorely entertained The day following shee saw no body On the third shee met with a young countrey-swaine that with a piece of bread in his hand was chasing away his hunger And shee that the day before had not eaten any thing and the fore-past dayes but very litle prick'd on by the spurre of famine said unto him Impart me good lad I pray thee some of thy bread and I will willingly requite thee for it The boy that till then had never seene a woman of so majestick an appearance paring off with a knife that part where his teeth had bitten reached unto her the rest with a liberall readinesse and then seeing them and their horses too almost starved for hunger hee serving them for a guide led them into a village where shee was unexpectedly met by her husband accompanied with a few others who fearing till then that shee had beene lost joyed now very much to see her safely escaped Advertized afterwards of the enemies sending her her wardrope that was comming a litle after them with one who in his name came to present her with it shee in an anger rose up and calling for her Palfry answered them that shee would have none of her enemies gifts and much wondred that they were not sent backe when they were first proffer'd which said shee rode on followed by her traine till shee came to the Cimbrians whither were a little before arrived from Gaule many Ladies and Knights among whom was Elicarncta Dutchesse of Monconciaco daughter to the old Dutchesse that had beene her governesse The pleasure and joy which shee then conceived in seeing her exceeded her pastgrievances and displeasures The Dutchesse exceeding by qualities not ordinary all ordinary merits though great in that sex thither was shee come good Lady extreamely afflicted both in minde and body in mind for the incomparable crosse-fortunes of her beloved Mistresse in body for the weaknesse of her tenderly-delicate complexion which imitating the delicacie of
her noble conditions the singular deliciousnesse of that Court seemed to teach us that nature formes complexions with declination and disadvantage after the image and according to the excellencie or defect of spirits Weepe they did but not much so just were they in paying every one its due a few teares dropp'd they for the infortunate omitting not though the consolation due to prudence Irinico that in the meane time could not either with embassies or reasons disswade the Scandinavian from siding with the Sarmatan King against his sonne-in-law hearing now of his overthrow and being not able to re-install him by Armes smoothering the injury thought with himselfe to prosecute the affaire of matrimony the Prince Elimante being already enamoured of his pretended wife hoping that this meanes might open him the way to the restitution of what was taken away from his daughter but the marriage being all this while unconcluded on he resolved to permit the Prince to goe himselfe in person into Scandinavia there to prosecute the enjoying of his loves accordingly he goes thither unknowne giving out that hee went to travell as a Knight-errant into other parts Arrived there he saw the King whom though the home-glasse of many yeares were since runne out he yet knew by that Embassad our that had beene at his Fathers a caveat that taught his intellect to guide his behaviour somewhat the more warily become in that regard more cautelous of concealing himselfe than before he assaid all the meanes his invention could propose to come to the sight of the Princesse who stirring abroad but very seldome by consequence could be but seldome seene But prudence and love or rather a prudent love instructing him farre above his yeares and discreetely governing him in all his wayes hee came I know not how to have ingresse into a parke where for her health's sake shee used to walke sometimes all alone in The Prince was cloath'd in the habit of a Squire and though his Royall greatnesse remain'd not vailed by the disguise of the habit he was cloathed in yet was it neverthelesse shadowed with a certaine taking-kinde of humility wherewith hee beleeving to hide it from the fight of others made it become indeede in the eyes of all men more observed and regardfull for its inexpressibly-sweet delightsomnesse and rarely selfe-peculiar hearts-winning amability The Princesse had given her by her Father Elimanto's picture sent from Irinico and now walking all alone shee opening its Diamantine cover heedfully beheld it when casting her eye aside towards a by-corner not farre off the place where shee walked shee discovered its true originall Start back at the unexpected sight of him shee did not but drew her eye from the artificiall to the naturall and then beleeving shee was not deceived in the certainety of her conjecture said unto her selfe Sure this is Elimanto Hee pierced through the heart with that sudden glance had surely fainted but that love received himselfe before him the shaft shot by the bow of her faire eyes a pittie not imputable either to piety or vertue knowing him without any new wounds to bee already wounded and withall that he could not in case he kill'd him out-right so triumph over him as he intended Elimanto tooke on him to be by this encounter surprized at unawares and doing her submissive reverence made a shew of retiring himselfe when shee asked him whom he belong'd unto and how hee got in there The answer was Most excellent Madame it is not long since the Knight my Master died and then I desirous to see and seeke a fortune in this great Court for the famousnesse thereof came hither to that end for the rest I beseech your Highnesse pardon for my being got in hither as a stranger curious to see what I had never seene before Vpon this Celene asking him if he had ever knowne her before and if not how he then came to know shee was the Princes I never had indeede the happinesse to see your Highnesse before answered her the Prince but yet to know you is as easie as to know the sunne by its shining rayes besides my comming from a countrey in which your Highnesse is knowne by pictures merits and relations I might say by love too if I thought there were any Prince living worthy of your Highnesse At this Celene smiled with a gentle gravity without taking off him her eye more certaine than before that hee was Elimanto then asking him what Countrey that hee spake of was and understanding it was Gaula Belgica shee not daring to passe any farther held her peace But he with a courage spurr'd on by a sincere affection proceeded If Prince Elimanto could but imagine me here I am sure hee would with all his heart exchange beings with me he owning not that affect that more sweetly tortures him than the desire of serving your Highnesse so as if the affaire of the-by-him-so-ardently-desired-nuptials be not shortly determined I would not give one of these leaves for his life Knoweth-you then the Prince said Celene if yea why then suffers he you to goe seeke any other Master Yes Madame said he he knowes me but is as willingly content that any of his subjects travell hither as he would more gladly come himselfe so as I dare say that this sole favour I am now honoured with in seeing your Highnesse would suffice to make him the happiest of all the Princes in the world how then can he choose but be well content that others come here for service your Highnesse being Soveraigne Mistresse of his desires and by all his so reputed And could I be but so fortunate in joyning the desire to the effect so farre as that your Highnesse would be pleased to receive me into your service Prince Elimanto would thinke a great part of his desires accomplished in my being so for his sake accepted the most honourable marke of your Princely favour that your Highnesse can favour him withall My favours said then Celene stand at the dispose of the King my Father of whom I have not as yet received any command to any such purpose but you for being a stranger and hapning to come to me before any other I will accept into my service seeing the desire you have to serve me With that bidding a Lady that followed her to cause him to be on her behalfe entertained of her Stuart shee yet held him some while longer in discourse growing to be ever more and more assur'd that shee had not judged amisse Elimanto seeing himselfe at his first entrance so highly favoured by fortune conceived a confident hope of a good issue therein and conferring by night with his Fathers Embassadour under colour of bringing him letters made him when hee knew him tremble to thinke of his no lesse bold than dangerous enterprize Teutone being of all Princes the most malicious whose honour-despising resolutions had no other scope than his owne private profit Litle lesse than a whole yeares time lived
would be undone That then which concernes me to know more particularly is Whether they will deprive me of my dominion totally or with it subject me to another or neither this nor that but afflict me with long warres If no man can tell it me how shall I then behave my selfe for not opposing the divine will Nature teacheth me to defend my selfe The Gods forbid me not to doe it and men will commend me for so doing none will blame me for it save mine enemies to whom only my vertue will be detestable for being prejudiciall unto them If to conserve my state I bow my neck to the yoake of subjection I shall then oppose the Gods in case their will be to have me either afflicted or utterly ruined the same may I say of any other election of mine The Gods when they are disposed to subject ruine or afflict me will not send me Geniuses to buzze or trumpet it in my eares they need no meanes but can make my selfe serve for the instrument of my owne raising or downefall yea my owne ill directed actions will conduct nay hurry me to the end prefixed me by their will so as under such a pretext to doe this rather than that will give them cause not onely to crosse me but to be withall justly displeased at me for pretending to pry into that which is inscrutable whilst I should rather second it with the meanes bestow'd upon me which is defence As for the reason that Princes have no just title in their possessions presupposing their comming by them anciently to have beene by violence I would here faine know how the new may be termed just if the old justified by ancient possession with the prescription of times assent of subjects and confirmed with blood oftentimes spilt in defending it yea with the death of the Princes themselves be unjust And as touching the scene and its representations the Gods would not be spectators if there were no stage-players whose parts to act one Prince must defend if another assaile But if there be this day any Prince obliged to the defence of his Subjects you Prince of Venedotia are surely he you having no brother your father being sickly and weake your people left for a prey to their enemies without any Prince or defender With which prostrating himselfe at his feete he proceeded Therefore I humbly beseech your Highnesse that abandoning your incertaine deceivable conceits you reassume the filiall affection that you have forgotten the inclination of a Prince which you have left off and the duty of a Cavalier by you some while sithence abandoned More he would have said but that his tender-heartednesse restrained him so as with an affectionate respect kissing his knees he besought him with silence and teares more effectually than he could have done by either perswasions or entreaties But he graciously raising him up off the ground after a short pause said unto him Cataulo no more since you have already by doing your duty taught me mine and though ought otherwise than good should come thereof yet will I preferre the publick good before my owne private interesses I thanke you for the paines you have taken which shall not on my word prove to be sowne in the sands Behold I am now perswaded to goe and restore my selfe to my father and Countrey in hope the Gods will bee therewith well pleased At these words all of them rising up did him humble reverence with congratulating and praysing the resolution he had taken All that day passed they over exceeding joyfully and the ensuing the Prince desirous to know them enquired who they were especially the young Knight who now standing in a muse discovered by his face a confused minde he seeming at the instant of Feredo's resolution to ruminate some till then unthought of deliberations and to contemplate that site with greater curiosity than before Of which new passion of his the Prince taking notice could not choose but tell him that he much marveiled to see him so transported My Lord with blushing thereat said he I beseech your Highnesse not to take it ill I obey you not my fortunes and quality being so meane as the knowing them cannot be any way serviceable unto you and though that the concealing thereof might disadvantage me in the way of begging a favour at your Highnesse hands neverthelesse such is the opinion that I have of your generous and noble disposition that I hope you will grant it me by so much the willinger by how much the lesse my silence merits it And withall I should thinke my obligation doubled to your Princely favour if vouchsafing to admit of my excuses you deeme me the lesse discourteous by beleeving that I conceale my selfe for an urgent and necessary occasion Feredo that by this young Knights Squire had secretly learn'd who he was not caring to know thereof any further answered him Your aspect Sir promiseth so much as your quality and unseene merit cannot without injury be doubted of therefore if the desire I had to be acquainted with you onely to serve you made me desirous to know your being the same now teacheth me to content my selfe with what best pleaseth you so as your silence should no whit disencourage you from commanding me since it deprives me not of the will to obey you The young Knight blushing at this courteous answer with doing him humble obeysance said I must then my Lord in begging this favour at your Princely hands first tell you this much of my selfe that being a distressed Gentleman exil'd from my Countrey and in disfavour with my Prince I thought my heart indeede so giving me when first I had the fortune to see you that the tempest had brought me hither to shroude me here as in a sanctuary But seeing your Highnesse now resolved to returne home I bethought me of a new course which was to implore of your liberality the resignation of this place under such vassallage and obligation as might stand best with your Highnesse good liking Much wrought this request on the noble heart of Feredo who by his owne case had learn'd to have a feeling of that of anothermans full loath was he to say his demand nay and yet having beene informed of his desperate love he feared that the subscribing to his desire might turne to his prejudice Taking him therefore aside hee praid him to acquaint him with the occasion that moved him to settle himselfe in that Iland But seeing he could not draw any thing out of him he then by laying before his eyes his owne example counselled him to alter his resolution for the suspition or rather beliefe he had that some desperation had guided him to some ruinous resolution but the young man with a gladsome countenance assur'd him no manner of desperation now troubled him any passion tending that way being cured by that climate where it behoved him to stay some time to take the benefit of that ayre for confirming it Feredo would not
rest satisfied with such reasons neither would the other manifest unto him his secrets yet so much did he by the order and manner of his speech discover that the Prince might penetrate somewhat into his new love or at least free himselfe of the suspition he had of him before observing now in him those joyes which cannot easily be concealed in those enamoured hearts which confidently hope for the full fruition of their desires so as laying aside all doubts he bestowed on him the house with all that was therein with no other obligation but to acknowledge it the Prince of Feacia's so gladsome was the Knight of this gift that he would by all meanes kisse his hands for so noble a favour As they two stood pleasantly conferring together of divers subjects their discourse was interrupted by the trampling of two horses who prick'd hotly on thought by the swiftnesse of their course to shunne the sting of the spurre the one fled from the other and the foremost being not able to rule his suffered him to runne his brest against the wall and his fore-feete into a window of a house that stood erected on that plaine but thence fell downe so neere the wall that his rider tumbling down topsie-turvy with his head undermost ding'd out his braines and remained stone-dead in the place The second that pursued him being already alighted seeing him quite dead remounted on horse-back without doing him other harme but turning back to encounter a great troupe of high-way the eves that made after him and giving no eare to the Prince who courteously welcomed him thither hee furiously galloped downe the hill and rushing in among them made of them so great a slaughter that by that time Feredo arrived who with the others came in speedily to his succour the greater part of them lay dead in the field the rest knowing themselves inferiour in force and seeing no possibility of running away yeelded to the vanquisher who being weary and in some parts of his body wounded went and laid himselfe downe on the ground to recover his then well-neere-forlorne breath Before I tell you who this was give me leave to let you know how that the Princesse Elenia staid a great while in Sardinia with Eromena for being so fond each of other as they could not part company till at last the multiplied messengers from Elenia's father her duty and desire of seeing him after so many yeares induced her to take her leave shee parting obliged beloved and presented with rich gifts Her tenderly-loving father that in her misfortunes had refined his love by the experimented confirmation of the constant opinion he had of her goodnesse welcomed her with all those expressions of a fatherly affection which could be shewed towards an onely beloved and vertuous though litle fortunate daughter Her step-mother having first heard of and afterwards seene the reality of her merits conformed her selfe in her entertainment both to her husbands will and her owne inclination Don Eleimo was seene of her with such an eye as generous Princes are wont to behold with such as have loyally served them shee thinking it withall no shame to publish her obligation and confesse her engagement to him for which shee could never satiate her selfe in rewarding his merits and gratifying him though indeed shee thought all money too light for such an use But to Don Eleimo seemed it on the contrary that so great and accumulated favours brought in some sort a prejudice or blemish to the greatnesse of his generous minde and living perpetually in some measure tormented with an extreame desire of going to seeke after Don Eulavio whom he feared to be in a weake and succour-needing fortune he made suit to depart obtaining at length by his assiduall importunity leave though with much adoe which but for that sole occasion he could not have obtained And so away hee goes to travell seekes him over all such countries as his Genius directed him to and at last after the spending of many yeares in the search of him found him out and brought him to the Court of Aquitaine where he resolved to make a period of his travels and to spend the remnant of his dayes not trusting to the Catalan's promises but refusing them hee banishing the too-tender affects to countrey and kinred resolved to let the world see that he could live any where and that a sincere innate goodnesse is more acceptable in forraine countries than in its owne Needs would Don Eleimos by all meanes beare him company in his exile to recompence in some measure his accompanying him in his misfortunes the sole occasion of his so living a banished man Impossible it were to describe a happier life than this of theirs both of them being ennobled Gentlemen of one and the same Countrey nurst up with the milke of one and the same Court banished for the selfe same cause both alike magnanimous in enduring misfortunes and in counting them instruments of their felicity for having beene the meanes of joyning them together the one serving to the other for father and brother having but one and the same purse one interesse and one heart But Don Eulavio fortuning to dye a litle after the other deprived of so desre a friend seeing fortune not yet satisfied to have loaden him with perpetuall vexation of spirit thought to lighten it with toyling exercises of his body In accomplishment whereof when hee had sought after death through all the warres of the Westerne Northerne and Southerne parts of the knowne world and yet not found it he resolved to seeke then after new enterprizes in those parts where the Sun riseth but being by a storme wind-driven into Ericusa he happened as he walked along the sea-shore to light on that good bird Catascopo That villaine was fled from Arelate the very day before he should have made a miserable spectacle of himselfe unto the popular eye by paying with his death the debt due from the deeds of his mischievous life Hee had about him in his clothes a flat-fashioned bottle of a certaine water of so strange a vertue that it made all the iron it but touch'd become instantly as brittle as glasse which he had got from one that having spent all his substance in alembicks in hope of finding out the richest transmutation of mettals had by chance lighted on this rare secret Nor is it a thing to be wondred at for such men happen sometimes after many losses and much time and coyne spent in vaine to meete by the way with many excellent things without being therefore beholding either to other mens doctrine or their owne proper judgement And this purchase came in that archcaitive his way just as returned from the Pyrenean Mountaines he lived in doubt how to dispose of himselfe when he had counterpoyzed in a just ballance his Masters nature with his owne foule demerits Having then oftentimes experimented the secret and found it by proofe to be right and good for
the difficulty of beleeving what is ardently desired But if it so be indeede that your words are true interpreters of your heart resolve I conjure you then to stay here with me for the company of my sonnes and the excuse of expecting to heare some newes from your home will give a sufficient colour for the occasion of your abode here This advise of hers being by our mutuall consent growne to the ripenesse of a resolution wee after having first taken such order as was requisite for the fruition of our loves returned in gladsomely disposed delaying no time of confirming our words with actions to the so passing content of both of us as there was no degree I am perswaded of joy and delight that could exceede that of our furtive conversation The darkenesse with us was light our sunne eyes its beames amorous glances our sincere affection the faire weather heaven our bed and its truer influences dalliance and kisses so as the large scope of our imaginations could not comprehend any felicity or condition more desireable than ours And I though of yeares but greene burned yet in love so vehemently that the more I enjoyed her the more ardently found I my selfe enflamed whereas shee being of fully ripened yeares and therefore consequently capable of enjoying its pleasure at full found her selfe so ravished with its delicious sweetes as for not being able to endure the tedious longsomnesse of the day which deprived her of them shee would often come with divers excuses to take mee away from her sonnes for engrossing me to her selfe alone so had her affection blinded her as shee neglected or rather forgot both the dignity of her place and quality of her person But after that love had reduced us both to one onely heart taking from us all other distinction except to make us the happier that of our persons and sexes it lay then no more in my power to conceale from her either Coralbo or his birth or harsh fortunes which wrought in her a confirmation if not augmentation of her affection But tormented afterwards with the Idea of my States privation reason perswading her that the recovery thereof was necessary shee would oft-times sigh to thinke of it with proposing mee divers proffers for the accomplishing by other mens meanes what none but my selfe could well effect but comprehending every proposition defective as hatcht by the blindnesse of an extreame affection rather than by any perfect rule of a prudent judgement shee assented to the reasons that contradicted her but dissented againe when to put them in effect the discording string of my departure was to betouched Her designe was to give me martiall forces under pretext of employing them in some secret enterprises but the consideration of the way being for distance farre and for passage difficult and through the dominions of sundry Princes stopt even in its very source the current of any such counsell But admitting that both all those difficulties were removed and all these wayes levelled yet alas what could they have done without me she proffered me a great summe of money to leavy souldiers in those parts by my mother or some other yet made not this neither for the purpose as well because no man could put a hand to the enterprize without mee as also for that the principall meanes for the recovery of a State consists not either in forreine forces or expence of treasure but chiefly if not wholly in the love of the subjects which onely being wanting all other meanes would prove no leste vaine than superfluous In the meane time shee seeing me desirous to be knighted would by all meanes procure my content the age of her sonnes become now capable of the like honour therefore sent shee all of us to Parthenope to receive the Order of Knighthood with the occasion of the marriage of the Princesse Corianna the Kings onely daughter which was then shortly to bee solemnized accompanied with a traine of many noble Knights among them the Lord of Canne who thought by this service to manifest the continuance of his affection towards her with the opinion of meriting it or to shew the constancie of his affections to be such as could not be blowne downe by any blast of small hope Arrived at Parthenope wee were all three of us dubb'd Knights the Court favouring us though ill satisfied with the Dutchesse for not comming thither shee being knowne to be the fairest Lady of the whole kingdome But the reason indeede of her not comming was an agreement betweene us that I being to part away from my company under the colour of some secret enterprize shee should take on her to be sick that so shee might expect me at her house whither I was privily to retire my selfe for the enjoying of each other free from the scanning of so many eyes especially of those of her sonnes which troubled her more than the rest The Prince of Sicily was expected to come and espouse the Princesse when one night shee fled out of a Castle that lyes on the Sea whither feigning her selfe sicke shee was retired and where were many found slaine the Duke of Lucania the Lord high Constable two of the chiefe Peeres of the Realme together with two servants of the later The originall ground of which accident could not bee possibly learnt out There was not a Knight that set not himselfe in the search of her and among the rest the two brothers my companions I taking for an excuse of not following them a blow of a launce which the day before had both beaten off my helme and bruised my head which me thought hapned very fit for my purpose The Lord of Canne who with rather enamoured than squint-eyes had noted something betweene me and Crisanta seeing me now stay behinde resolved to doe himselfe the like and then watching the time of my parting dogg'd me a-farre off till upon his observing my way tend towards the Sannits hee assaulted me unawares with calling mee unworthy villaine and base traytor I unused to be so stiled answered him with sword in hand The fight lested a good while both of us being armed and each of us resolved to kill the other of my death his valour and my youth made him confident till my agility depriv'd him of that hope for being because of the wearinesse of our horses driven to alight I then so tired him as he was glad to fall from pursuing me to defend himselfe The danger and earnestnesse of this our combate could not for all that withdraw my thoughts from musing what should be the occasion of this affront seeing him therefore stand in neede of a breathing-time I besought him to heare mee a word whereunto when he condescended I ask'd him why he had so assaulted me and called me traytor he answered Because I had violated the bonds of hospitality by enjoying a Princesse whom I was not worthy as much as to name whilest others farre worthier than my selfe were of her
favours in the way of affection most injuriously excluded At these words I was so exceedingly vext at the heart as I cannot tell you which at that instant was greater my spite and rage for having a rivall or feare that my secrets were revealed howsoever I made no conscience to lye boldly in telling him that hee lyed most falsly and to defend by so belying him the Dutchesse's honour and mine howbeit my words were few assured and confirmed rather by the sword than by a good conscience But by this time for being exposed to the open violence of the sunne even halfe melted with heate and growne fainty for wearinesse thirst and sweat wee therefore agreed to disarme us and so make a quick dispatch one way or other In execution whereof we hastily cut off each others armour-strops throwing there withall away our shields together with our daggers the usuall successors in that office Our faces so now uncovered there provoked us on more eagerly him my youth and me his uglinesse the disequality encouraging each of us to ridde himselfe of his enemy by no milder meanes than death the one to free himselfe of a rivall which could not bee surely effected by other meanes than by killing him the other to cure the wound given Crisanta's honour could not be salved otherwise than by his rivals death scarce had wee force enough left us to weild our swords being now growne so weary and faintish as we could not lift them up to make use of our edges whilst our eyes stood fixed or rather chained as it were to the enemies sword-hand to gather thence the time and so either to prevent or put him by By this time we were both of us slightly wounded rather through the defects of our ill-closed hilts than for any great oddes that either of us had of other in fencing and by our swords-points slipping through the hilts into our hands and armes though then in our heate we had no feeling of being so mangled For my owne part I perswade my selfe that I had sooner obtained the victory if I had but made use of and followed the advantages I saw for holding it though I know not why foule play to both strike and thrust when the enemy made onely use of his point I still followed on my play conformable to his as if there had beene a law so to doe But considering at length how this kinde of play did but dally out the time and observing my advantage of having my pulses both firmer and lesse wearied than those of mine enemies I began to alter my play falling from thrusts to downe-right and back-blowes and those laid I on too with all the force I had so as the back of the contrary sword sustained by a tired arme and withall carried without the compasse of my offers and his true ward favoured mee with the opportunity of striking him first in the face athwart the midst of his nose and afterwards on the head at which blow the sword dropt out of his hand to the ground and close by it himselfe to my thinking dead which so freed me of a rivall and Crisanta of infamy But now the worst was that I could not possibly re-arme my selfe my armour-tyes being as I told you almost all of them cut off And though my Genius seemed to prompt me to make Cripasso cock sure with fresh and more certaine wounds yet could I not finde in my heart to doe so for that I deemed such a deede unworthy a Gentleman yet parted I not presently for all that but staid to see whether he would revive or no till the wound of his head which was the dangerous one occasioning a strange wrigling of his members with hanging out his tongue betweene his teeth he being at best but very ugly and now in such a plight gastfull for being assail'd with terrible convulsions and shiverings made me confident of his being dead so as to ridde me off so hideous and horrible a spectacle I went my wayes without any longer stay leaving him laid along in the field and my Armes hard by him The Dutchesse to expect me with more conveniencie in a place where I might bee received by night without being incumbred with any watch was retired to the Countrey having at my parting from her given me the key of a Towre that so I might steale in unto her unknowne to any body and so indeede I came in thither unexpected and found her a-bed broad waking and entertained in discourse by the Gentlewoman that was our counsell-keeper who lay on a pallet at her beds feete The Lampe let her soone see who I was yet were her at first sight excessive joyes mortified by seeing my right hand swadled up and my arme hung in a scarfe at my neck howsoeven shee imagined the disaster to be farre lesle than it was for having found me herselfe once before in a farre worse taking but having understood how the case stood shee was like to sinke downe dead at the conceit of it but for my assuring her that I had slaine him the sense of this her griefe was aggravated by the accident of Corianna befallen in the selfe same time but much more by the departure of her sonnes so as our content remained corrupted by the mortifications that suspicions and feares wrought in her Full often conceived shee as indeede shee had good reason so to doe that all slippes of women would be more rigorously examined for the Princesse's errours sake so as shee could by no meanes be perswaded to desist from weeping and grieving besides shee slept never a winke which caused our before-amorous-watchings to be now changed into consultations discourses and presages of evill But Nature requiring in me some repose I was faine to sleepe as I may say waking so exceedingly was I troubled with the heart-rending tones of her lamentations till at length I unable to endure them any longer grew to be so perplex'd thereat that choosing rather to dye than to see her so languish I thus bespake her Deere blisse of my joyes I beseech you prevent not the uncertaine evill with a certaine what cause I pray you of feare have you now that Cripasso is dead and gone sithence wee may so behave ourselves as the very ayre cannot smell out our secrets t was nothing alas but meere jealousie that made him beleeve the truth to be true though for all that such as he could not possibly be ever an eye-witnesse unto nor consequently assure himselfe thereof For otherwise he had never I warrant you this long have deferr'd its discovery Here interrupting me Ah! Coralbo said shee you are but young you thinke that Cripasso is dead but the more woe is me I feare me he yet lives the accidents that you saw in him were for what I gather by your describing them no other than convulsions and violent stupifying fits I cannot beleeve but hee is by this time come to himselfe againe since hee hath not any wound save
I carried my selfe Courtier-like having in three monethes time learnt the Court-customes and phrases of such as had honoured me with their company and attendance so as I now knew well how to convert the Grecian demeanour into that of the Persian and the odious popular audacity into venerable adoration insomuch as I cannot tell you whether the King remained thereat more amazed or taken I superficially passed over the faults of my Vncle and Mother and enlarged my selfe upon their conjuration giving it such colours as pleased me best I shewed him that my Father could not display before him any more evidently visible ensignes of his devotion than by sending mee his onely Daughter and heire to doe him obedience and put my selfe at his feete to the end that shee being formed after the Idea of his royall will and pleasure might give him certaine assurance of our loyall subjection for obtaining the favour of conserving those branches which by the favour of his Majesty and our good fortune were grafted to the stock of so high and noble a Monarchy The King listened to me with great attention and then without suffering me to kneele any longer raised me up and put me to sit on a cloth of Tissue Cushion himselfe being seated upon a Throne of pure gold under a large canopy chased all over with pearle and precious stones adorn'd with faire banners enriched with deepe fringe of finest gold He sate environed with his Peeres divided into two wings with that semblance of humility that comes neerest adoration His answer was short his joyfull countenance and smiling garbe partly expressing his intended speech which was That he was glad of my comming and that Pridale could not thinke of a better meanes to free him from blame whom to gratifie me he received into the number of his friends whereat I being risen up to adore him he tooke me by the hand and amorously beholding it asked me if I were not weary after so long a journey whereunto I submissively kneeling down and kissing his unawares of him answered that wearisomnesse had no place in such who were honoured with enjoying the paradice of his celestiall presence So pleased was the King with my action and adulation that raising me up himselfe and kissing me he said to his Peeres that he had never all his live's time seene either a fairer or a discreeter woman giving with that order to the Lord high Chamberlaine to assigne me lodgings which was soone done for he accompanying me out consigned mee the richest Chambers and neerest the King of all the rest I cannot expresse unto you the joy that I conceiv'd from so good a beginning not that there stuck not in my heart a certaine internall doubt of the issue of the enterprize upon laying before the eyes of my consideration womanish envies from which for all that my heart would have given mee a free issue if mischievous subtilty could have done it But what I doubted of was Fortune a thing above the reach of humane will Scarce was I possessed of my Lodgings when I pretended to goe see the Queene a favour rarely granted to strangers the women being there ever retired not stirring abroad but vailed and waited on by Eunuches But to mee any thing was easie to be obtained of the King who was disposed to will even what I willed and of the Queene too because shee being informed of my comming and of the graces and favours I had received had an extreame desire to espie out some imperfection or blemish either in my face body or demeanour I found her indeede of rare beauty though insipide livelesse of a meane spirit and that litle poorely pieced up with simplicity and an ill grace so as it was no wonder if the King growne weary thereof became enflamed of mee rather for my garbe or carriage as I perceived than for any excelling beauty of my face for that I confidently beleeved and that without mistaking too that the Queene was fairer than I. Beyond measure then remain'd I consolated when I comprehended the advantages I had of her I had now therefore no more feare of my selfe since I was assured to bring the King subject to my beck for that I was to encounter with a Genius inferior to mine I formed neverthelesse with my seeming foresight and penetrating the unexpert craft of those women an ocean of jealousies and absurdities because who-so meanes to beguile another must make a shew of conditions uncapable of beguiling any I should be too tedious in recounting unto you all the particulars of accepting and entertaining me in her service the grace I thereby acquired her ill will being changed into liking her envy into well-wishing trophies litle esteemed by mee otherwise than as they served to my principall end The enamoured King thinking to gaine me with the smoake of his favours and presents remained astonished to see me so deceive his expectation and asking me the reason of my as he tearmed it cruelty I answered him That it was not the use of Princesses in my Countrey to serve for Concubines nor could I with my honour bee such though to so great a Prince so as he was excluded from enjoying me otherwise than as a wife But the plurality of women not of wives being accustomed in Persia gave him by my words an inkling of either repudying or making away of his present wife hee that conceived well enough my meaning extazied with excessive love answered no. That he had no other occasion to put her away than for her barrennesse and then againe to take another without being assured of having issue by her was a thing hee could not doe because in case that that other proved barren it would behoove him for his States satisfaction to follow the first example a point that troubled me much so as I thought upon it many dayes with my selfe till seeing that my consideration hammered ever on the anvill of the selfe-same conceits I was forced to condiscend to his desire upon his royall promise that as soone as I were knowne to bee quick with childe hee would make me his wife But tasted that he had once the sweetenesse of my embraces and seene the difference betweene a woman of frost and one of fire he became so transported with the exceedingnesse of his content as he thought of nothing else save to ridde himselfe of his wife Now he never thought of making her away with poyson as I would have done the easiest way for him nay I was a good warrant to doe it without asking him any leave if I could but that I wanted the simples and meanes to effect it withall so that there now resting mee no other hopes than from being quick with childe I quite despaired thereof after five or six moneths time wherein I tried so many experiments as went neere to cost me my life by endeavouring as much as in me lay to prove my mothers prognosticks false who upon my delivery of childe-birth told
navell they had borne him away with leaving her in his steed a great purse of gold shee first doubted that it was to make use of him for some ill purpose seeing that if he had a minde to breede him up he might well have had the patience to stay till he were weaned But afterwards upon better consideration of the businesse and of him me and my being with childe she conceived the case just as it stood which though shee liked not very well yet joyed shee that her sonne should runne the carriere of so great a fortune keeping in minde a mole shee had taken notice of under his left pap But growne desirous now since shee could no more get a sight of him to know what was become of him shee went to Court where renewing her acquaintance with an under-maide-servant that served the Queenes wash-woman an ancient acquaintance of hers shee saw her weepe the occasion whereof shee understood to be that by reason of the Queenes being repudiated they should bee all of them turned out of service For in respect I had brought forth a male childe the divorce was concluded on for my succeeding her to the end the heire of the Persian Monarchie might be no bastard The woman glad of being so easily assertained of what shee was come thither of purpose to be informed of more desirous as it should seeme to have her sonne though poore to be hers than a King and anothers or else hoping that shee should not onely by discovering the truth satisfie her conscience but also reape therefrom both reward and preferment which in the other state could not as shee conceived befall her for that shee imagined that shee should never come to be known of her sonne and by consequence must have led a discontented kinde of life bethought her selfe of some course of remedying it and having made meanes to come to speake to Gobria shee began to count him up the storie when he penetrating its substance interrupted her with telling her that hee would have her speake what shee had to tell him in the Queenes presence and with that leaving her in his owne Chamber with order that shee stirred not thence he a litle after returning tooke her along with him to the Queene where having sent for some of the best and prime personages of the Privy Councell Gobria in presence and hearing of them all thus gets out of her the whole businesse Good wife saith he you were telling me of a certaine passage of businesse which for some convenient respects I would not then heare out I pray you therefore come out with it now boldly here before this noble company who will vouchsafe you a benigne audience The woman beginning againe her relation punctually accounted the importunity of the Physitian her delivery the sudden convaying away of the childe the gift received and the marke of the mole I leave you to thinke whether the Queene were a glad woman or no at these newes Taking then the woman aside commending her for her good conscience and promising her large rewards for her discovery they fell to consultation of what was best to be done the harmelesse Queene 's shallow braine furthering it no otherwise than by her teares and supplications when the no lesse discreete than true-hearted Gobria shewes the rest that reasons prevailed but litle with lovers lesse if they were great men and least of all if Princes That therefore truth should bee instill'd into the eares of Kings seasonably and by litle drops Accordingly then their consultations were at length reduced to an agreement That every of them should impart the secret to some trusty friend or other But a full houres time was scarce expired when all the Court was full of it so as penetrating to the eares of my Physitian me and my retinue it put us all to our wits end The King marveiling to see me so troubled in minde never left mee till he had drawne me to tell its occasion and I thinking it would advantage me very much to be the first that should speake of it set on the bold face to tell him That the Queenes servants had spread abroad some maligne rumours which could not choose but vex mee extreamely beseeching him to free me thereof speedily if he desired that I lived Vpon this he asking me of whom I had understood them and I telling him that I had heard them of such a one he found the relations thereof so entangled as he could not possibly finde out the source thereof willingly would he have whosh't them up but that the importance of the businesse permitted him not so to doe considering the difficulty of the divorce because of the opinion of the child's being but my supposed sonne Therefore thought he it necessary to convict thereof the Queene and punish her and in such a determination sent for her My trouble of mind was in the meane time augmented long of the babe who seeming to bee at first a goodly well-shap'd childe was now growne hunch-back'd by reason of the becomming crooked and shrinking up I know not how of his Cheine-string a naturall defect it should seeme in him that had begot him Now neither the King nor the rest knew nothing thereof howbeit it grieved me that after having as I conceived accomplished my intent there should yet be added to the summe of the rest this other affliction hard to evade if by ill fortune together with the generall relation of the case this particular of the childs father were also published I suddenly sent my Physitian to the mother who missing her and hearing that shee was some foure dayes since gone to Court without being yet returned home comes running to mee like a man halfe distracted and hastily rounds me in the eare that all the affaire was discovered and wee undone this said he slipping suddenly out of my sight and fetching some monies that he had in store got on horse-back and rode away with intention to save himselfe The Queene came in obedience of her Lords command clad in a lugubrous habit with a side-traine supported under the arme by Gobria himselfe and accompanied with most of the Lords of the Councell A sight that struck the King to the heart more than all the rest for knowing Gobria to be of a minde so upright and disposition so well tempered that passions could not any way sway him They prostrated themselves all of them at his feete without speaking a word when seeing the King mute upon his spirits becomming amazed with the object The Queene animated with Gobria's friendly support sighed out these words Behold here Royall Sir your Majesties most humble hand-maide who in all humility beseecheth your royall goodnesse to vouchsafe to open unto her the oracle of your Soveraigne will and pleasure I am come here sent for by your Majesties command not daring to presume to present my selfe otherwise before your royall presence The King somewhat mollified at the sight of those rare
most amiable conditions so as there was no man that knowing him lov'd him not Erpandro on the contrary with his face all blemished over with pock-holes of a nature rigid and dogged and a vaunter withall was much given to scorne and mock others and the toy taking him sometimes in the pate to counterfeite Gradamoro in his gentle garbe and quaint demeanour he did it so misbecommingly and with gestures so unseemely as made him loathsome to such as saw him act it If therefore ormondo lov'd him 't was for his being a son to so deere a friend of his for having destinated him for his sonne-in-law and for not fully nor throughly knowing him whereas Ladomonte and Deadora who had him ever in their eye could not endure the sight of him and therefore entertained him alwayes with respect for keeping him at a distance off their familiarity but shee above all others could not brooke the sight of him especially when with sighes and sobbes he would as pittifully and handsomely as he could represent the person of an heart-sick passionate lover whereas teares though reall and sighes though unfained full ill God wot became his mouth and cheekes No one had this poore Prince that set before him a naturall glasse to see therein his misbecomming carriage Courtiers he had enough that followed him puft up with an ambition of being trusty to him but knowing the good opinion he had of himselfe they still seconded him in his humours which made him become ever more and more peevish and impertinent Gradamoro on the other side to whom the Graces were Midwives discretion mother and the Muses Nurses had wonne him the hearts of all that knew him Ormondo lov'd him for his merits Arnclinda for neerenesse in blood Ladomonte for friendship and Deadora for love shee being resolved rather to dye than marry Erpandro at whose appearance she would freeze and sweate if shee but heard him speake and indeede to her it seemed wheresoever he was that mirth and discourse gave place to silence and mellancholy and againe where Gradamoro but entred there was no kinde of thing that in her eyes seemed not to rejoyce the very statues had then tongues and the walls voyces How many times alas would shee all alone drop from her faire eyes successive showres of brinish teares in bethinking how to withdraw her selfe from such a husband How often also made shee her moane there of unto her mother who whilest she comforted her with her tongue lamented her with her heart Ladomonte much pittied her and wish'd in his heart to see her freed from him but yet durst not speake of it well knowing that any such proposition though just would not be well taken of Ormondo the match having beene made when as they were as yet in their cradles and with a friend whom it was not fit he should displease since neither of them had ever given the other any cause of either distaste or discontent No sooner was the gentle Gradamoro arrived in Illirio and seene the sweetly-majestick Deadora than that hee rent off the habit of a Cozen Her beauty accompanied with such singular vertues apparelling him in the finest love that ever lover was cloth'd in but having heard the story or perhaps read in the Chronicles of the stealing away of his Aunt the warre that thereupon followed the friendship betweene Ormondo and Serpidoro the marriages and children sprung from them among whom himselfe was one and how that Deadora was firmely promised to Erpandro he durst no more lift up his eyes for doubt lest the object of an hopelesse and haplesse love should bring him to a despairing end during a great course of time endured hee this tormenting paine without communicating the same to as much as Vnicireo to whom hee communicated even his very heart wearying his feeble forces in endeavouring to disburthen himselfe of it but more potent forces forced him to undergoe its loade so as afterwards being used to it he began to delight in it or else that being invisibly eased by Deadora's love it was consequently easie for him to sustaine a weight of it selfe sweete with her much sweeter assistance Love hath in all times beene a cunning warrier hee durst not assault the generous and chaste heart of Dcadora ere he had first battered it on both sides that towards Erpandro with the Ramme-engine of hatred and that to Gradamoro-wards with hope and affection hee led on the assault through the ruines of anxious thoughts and though the fight was no lesse dubious than dangerous and the Captaine assaylant used to vanquish the stoutest Gods yet thought he it not the least of his atchievements to conquer such a mayden And then too shee pensively lamented for such losses that many another would have beene glad of whereof what judgement to make I know not nor can I tell you whether or no it were that shee hated her selfe for suffering her resolution to bee overcome or for loving another with dead and almost impossible hopes One morning had the Princes and shee with them runne at the Ring where after sundry layes it came by order of carreere to her turne to lay with Gradamoro and 't was that the loser should submit himselfe to the discretion of the vanquisher in whatsoever it should please the same to command the other shee perhaps would not winne that so her true losse might be shadowed by this false one at play or howsoever it was lose shee did Gradamoro encouraged by the victory taking off the Ring thus accoasts her Deere Lady and Cozen it hath pleased fortune to shew me in this game how exceedingly shee can hate me shee will that I beare you this Ring for an other guise one which to my ineffable content I would more than gladly have given you had shee beene but pleased to have blessed mee in my swathing-bands as shee hath done others What by this wager I can pretend so it stand with your good liking is that you would be pleased that I ever burne for you and that in such a fire all the remnant of my lives time may blaze out being resolved since the Destinies deny me you never to have other woman That golden shaft which is fained to strike through hearts and impoyson them with love is no more than an amorous word steep'd in the affection of a passionate lover the one stabbes the other envenoms so much teacheth us Deadora who thereof is both the testimony and example Vnpossible is it to represent the trouble of minde shee conceived thereat and the internall commotion of her affections spirits and heart Anger it was not for love had expelled that passion 't was sure one of those things which cannot be knowne or as I by its operation should judge it an effect of poyson Answer him shee could not devise how shee was dumbe to him now and though shee had known how yet now wanted shee time for it the Princes being runne thither to see what Gradamoro meant to
not dead and bemoaned him not The Queene who as a childe of her owne deerely tendred him was even heart-broken with griefe for him The King sollicited the Physitians for fresh Pittims and new Cordialls but nothing avail'd him since they penetrated not into the nature of the disease nor its true occasion Ridden hee had and danced too that morning but without excesse exercises to him ordinary Dined he had too but yet sparingly repletion and disorder had no place in him Deadora seeing him in such a plight too late now repenting her being the causer of it taking him by the hand warm'd it betweene hers calling to him with so many throbs and teares that happy he had he but seene them Nor did such demonstrations any way impeach the reserved modesty of her sex their neernesse in blood education and domestick amity sufficiently priviledging her so to doe At length hee came to himselfe just in that time when litle better than abandoning him for dead every ones thoughts were busied more about his funerall than life for now the King Queene Princesse and Princes were all of them parted save onely Vincirco who staid behinde with the Physicians and was now set a weeping over him as dead The King having notice thereof returned with the rest and finding him laid in warme cloathes in a feaverish fit shaking every joynt of him he began to hope the best of him And because the throng of Courtiers that came in with him might not disturbe his cure he tooke them all againe out with him leaving there onely the Queene with Deadora The former where of being told by the Physicians that the accident proceeded from some great oppression of the heart much marveyled thereat for that shee had observed him to be ever merry yet beleeving that some internall humour falling on that part had caused that accident shee ranne to her lodgings for a most delicate paste made for that purpose leaving with him her daughter and Vincireo Shee seeing the Physitians retired and her selfe all alone with Vincireo whom shee cared not for concealing her selfe from accoasting his bed-side cures the wound given by the weapons of her former sharpe by the balme of these her milder words My Princely Lord and deerest Cozen said shee I confesse my selfe faulty and pronounce my selfe most worthy of chastisement for having beene against all reason the cause of endangering your life by bringing you thus to deaths doore I confesse yea I now from my soule confesse your interesses to be full of love and most worthy of being really corresponded with an equall affection Behold mee here now my endeer'd Lord most ready to make you plenary amends Cheere then up your selfe I beseech you for loe I am disposed and immutably resolved to goe whithersoever you please Banish then from you all melancholy since I am ever yours and never will be any others which that you might be the more assured of I have not you see abhorr'd the testimony of the Prince of Pontus your Cozen and mine here present which shee expressed with an affection so sincerely-ardent as both amazed Vinciero and restor'd Gradamoro to life It is naturall for an oppressed heart to disgorge in teares in the very instant of its being eased that maligne humour that suffocated it a token of health and a signe that Melancholy departing leaves roome and way for joy to enter Right so befell it now the Prince of Cyprus hee stood a good while taking first the Princesse's hands betweene his and distilling rivulets of teares out of the fountaines of his eyes and then affectionately kissing them return'd her this answer I know not incomparable Madame when I shall be ever able to serve you conformable to the great obligation to your more than excelling courtesie You Madame cannot be faulty where you have soveraigne power nor bee subject to punishment whereas you sway the scepter over all the lawes of my affections Your nobly vouchsafing to comprehend in the better sense my interesses and out of your goodnesse to accept them in good worth is to me a supreame favour but your benignely daigning to correspond them surpasseth even all expectation of mine much more the slendernesse of my merits so as I am so farre unable from really requiring your nobly-obliging favours by deeds as I cannot finde apt words to expresse or acknowledge them For the rest could I but have thought nay hoped that the King your Father upon any earnestly-sollicitous Embassie of mine could have beene wrought to bestow you on mee I then would I protest unto you never have presumed to have preposed you your flight but being promised as you are alas what likelihood is there for you to have by his consent other husband than Erpandro And the example of your mother that I proposed you with the revenge that thereupon ensued were never by mee intended for arguments to perswade you since I knew them farre from being availeable in that behalfe but to shew you how by them you might assure your selfe that your resolution should be lesse blamed and censured Besides that I pretend not to robbe what 's any other mans for so you Madame be but pleased to make me by your noble assent but worthy I will marry you ere wee part to the end our faults if such they be may seeme by so much the lesse in the eyes of both heaven and the world The Princesse resolved both to felicitate and cure him here thus interrupts him Well my Lord to the end you may see that there is no neede of justifications behold me here at your disposure therefore so you be therewith pleased marry me a-Gods-name right now in the presence of your Cozen here who astonished to see them at that point without imparting any inckling thereof to him till then taking off his finger a rich Diamond Gradamoro having then no Ring ready reached it him to marry her therewith as instantly he did remitting the rest to another time The Physicians being called found his pulse at a good passe and the Queene come he would needs take what shee brought him to make her the Authresse of his health and then got out of his bed the day following so healthsome and blithsome as if he had not beene sick at all But then Vincireo could not forbeare from taxing him with discourtesie for the small signe of love he shewed him in this occasion of making use of him When he craving him pardon told him that at first he had concealed it with out knowing himselfe the reason why having entred into this businesse beyond all expectation and that afterwards doubting that hee would have disswaded him he was confirmed in his silence judging it a lesser evill to offend by concealing his affection than after communicating it not to follow his counsell or be in some way ruled by him And being thereupon demanded how he meant to carry the businesse now that his resolution had excluded all other either deliberation or counsell He answered
Ladies to arise to goe and awake her there was no Princesse to be found Thou maist easily ghesse what a case he was in who was oft-times minded to cast himselfe into the sea and had but for the inward comfort of his assured innocencie undoubtedly drown'd himselfe Behoove him it did to acquaint the King with it instantly businesse of such importance enduring no delayes But yet to abandon the Castle in such a time might bring him to merit through justice that punishment which he feared would be inflicted on him meerely out of a furious anger and againe to trust another in such an affaire was dangerous one word misconceived being able to occasion his utter ruine much more if spoken to his disadvantage There was the chiefe Chamberlaine as thou know'st to the Princesse the Count of Cana a noble and honoured Cavalier he because there was no other fit for such an employment resolved to be the messenger of these dismall tidings And understanding by that dayes watch that neither of us was come in hee imagined that wee got in and so indeed wee did by night under the priviledged names of the Princesse's servants On he went and turned the Pallace topsie-turvy saying he must needs speake with the King instantly Brought in he related him the case The King rising up in a fury sent to call the Admirall whom he gave sudden order to search every creeke of the sea knitting with that his threatning browes and framing his mouth in a wrying posture in saying to find out his Daughter Wee the meane while lay distended on the cold surface of our Mother Earth litle regarding ought that was a doing against us the Constable and his being dead indeed and I in such a plight as no man imagined that I had any life in me The King was once minded to have us both hang'd up by the feete by the beames of the Draw-bridge but his consideration laying before the eyes of his judgement that one of us two was innocent though he could not come to know which of us both it was wrought him to conceive how unfitting it was for imagination to usurpe the place of certainty in a case so doubtfull with persons of so eminent a quality so as he came at last though with much adoe to be entreated to give way that our corps should be restored to our friends forbidding us though funerall Rites and all ceremoniall pompe All which succeeded to my great advantage since there was no man in all the Court that thought me not guilty now that the successe of the case opened the generall eye to take notice of the Princesse's favours which before were sufficiently observed but yet of all men taken and construed as ceremonious respects due to my birth the greatnesse of my Mother and parity of our yeares My Mother being made acquainted with the case was by some one or other counselled to send speedily for my body which having all the night long laine exposed to the benumming coldnesse of the piercing ayre without for ought I beleeve one drop of blood left in it was thereupon presently brought home in a close Horse-litter But whilst Erinnio inconsolably stood weeping over me doing me as he thought the last services I should ever stand in neede of having stript mee to wash off the blood and embalme me hee found that part of my body that lay next my heart warme and panting which hee discreetly concealing to himselfe found meanes to ridde him of all the company-standers by save onely Tideno and the Chirurgion thou there seest who upon his making it knowne that I had yet life in me throwing hastily aside his instruments prepared for opening and imbowelling me fell to dressing me with applications so cordiall that I in a short time recovered my spirits but yet so weake and benumm'd by reason of the great quantity of blood I had lost and malignity of the raw nocturnall ayre that had poysoned the wound that I remain'd two dayes speechlesse Having thus drest me they knew not how to make my Mother acquainted with it without incurring the danger of discovering all with their own sudden gladsomnesse till Erinnio takes on him the charge of managing the businesse who leaving with mee the other two went to the place where shee wofull woman with her haire all disheveled sate weeping among a great company of Ladies that stood busied in comforting her the best they could He then whispering the secret in the eare of her woman Antea soone devised a way to get them all out Left thus alone Erinnio acquainted her how they had found and left me in so hopefull a plight as the Chirurgion doubted not of my life upon the assurance hee had of the wounds not being mortall Yet with putting her in minde that if then she shewed not her prudence in discreetly-depressing her joy the second inconvenience would much exceed the first At these unexpected newes my poore Mother was so over-joyed as shee fell in a swound and that was indeed even it that Erinnio desired who thereupon ranne out of the Chamber calling no lesse hastily than lowdly for water and crying out that the Dutchesse was stone dead The Ladies return'd all in againe and having laid her abed unlaced her whilst others were busied in spirting and sprinkling water in her face to bring her againe to her speech which shee had lost for an occasion quite contrary to what was by outward likelihood by the spectators conjectured Come then againe to her selfe shee said I kindely thanke you my Ladies all for the charitable offices you doe me I pray the Gods reward you for mee sithence to mee being in their hands and under their afflicting rod there rests no other spirit than to crave them mercy and to yeeld them thankes for having given me a disposition to conforme and subject my will to theirs I beseech you to assist my prayers with yours that they thrust me not out of their sight and that we may the better doe it be pleased I pray you to retire you all to the end that the meditation of my faults and my sorrow for having offended them may so increase in mee as may either rid me of the extreame hearts-griefe which I am overcharged with at this present or make me apt and able to support it rather according to the law of Grace than to that of Nature These pitty-moving words drew fresh teares from the eyes of all there present insomuch as many of them would not avoyde the roome Till some of the discreetest perceiving that the instance was not ceremonious and that great griefes have their exhalations from themselves rather than from any other ground and are withall soonest stopped by being suffocated perswaded the rest to avoyde the roome leaving with her onely her domestick servants from whom also she quickly found meanes to free her selfe to come and see me By this time they had convaid mee into that Chamber there that 's next hers and in this
weeke or such a matter cannot but be his best course for being by that time throughly well hee will bee able to performe his voyage without falling into any relapses or new indispositions which would prove to him dangerous and to Corianna and me a subject of augmenting and prolonging our griefes Concluded it was that goe he should as soone as he were fully recovered The Dutchesse thinking every houre an yeare till shee saw him out of the Realme conceiting it impossible that his long sojourne discovered him not being withall very desirous of Corianna's returne for the ending of her so heavy sufferings Litle ambitious God wot in the rest when shee had considerately examined all things that made for her disadvantage for by reason of the Realme's having a Prince though a babe Lucano could not aspire to the Crowne Also that the Princesse should bee there but slenderly esteemed it being not likely that shee should ever get a good looke of her Father and her not elected but forced affinity likely to prove odious and displeasing to both King and kingdome To these were added womanish emulations for respect whereof shee would rather have had a daughter-in-law of a midling condition that were obedient unto her than a royall Princesse whom it behooved her to bee observant of Full litle slept the Duke that night thinking himselfe to be already gone nay arriv'd in Ericusa in the cave and betweene the armes of his more beloved than deere-bought Corianna so as not yet throughly well and abandoned of sleepe the humours stirr'd up with unexpected joy brought on him a new feaver which lasted him many dayes insomuch as it was unpossible for him to part till a moneth after But then cloathed in a course habit and accompanied with no other than Erinnio and Olmiro taking the way of Taranto he embarked himselfe for Feacia and thence to Ericusa But here contentcrossing Fortune thinking shee had not yet afflicted him enough would needs to make it perhaps knowne that she made no reckoning of Princes take her pastime on him by wayes unlawfull with an intention happily according to her custome cruell to kill him with griefe since shee could not kill him with the sword Corianna was by this time up-risen from childe-bed and Carildo being according to his wonted manner sent to see if he could see arrive any ship and in her Olmiro beheld under the house of Feredo inhabited then by Almadero as hath beene told you the then owner of the house himselfe who upon a hunting-nag was then riding to visit the Princesse of Feacia Now he was in all things so like Lucano that Carildo beleeved it was he yet could not imagine how that could possibly be being hee had left him to his thinking dead Besides that being now to his seeming living he had not in his retinew any one of his wonted servants to him very well knowne But that which chiefly induced him to beleeve it was his language and accent when he heard him speake to his servants in the pure language of Parthenope Accoasting therefore one of them hee praid him to tell him who that Knight was and understanding that hee was the Knight of the teares he was not halfe-satisfied with that new by-surname of his though hee were thereby the more confirm'd in his opinion by conceiving that hee had ta'en on him that name for the losse of Corianna but praying the same man againe to informe him of his proper name and countrey he was answered that hee could therein be satisfied by no man save onely his Squire who was now gone before to see if the Princesse of Feacia were at home sithence all of them had beene the Druid's servants and were now his without knowing of him any more than that hee was setled there upon some not-openly-knowne discontent or crosse-fortune befallen him in his owne countrey but that hee for certaine came from parthenope where of his language accused him to bee a native yet howsoever it were hee could be no lesse than a great Prince by his manners carriage and expence Carildo having thanked this servant of his remain'd astonish'd when he observed how the Knight himselfe upon his saluting him had ey'd him as a man he had never seene before thinking it impossible that Lucano could bee so forgetfull as not to have retain'd in his memory some ghesse of having seene or knowne him before Hee therefore would willingly have followed him but that he thought it his better course to goe see if he could espie in the house any thing that might ridde him of his doubt but yet could not discover there any more Led he was through every roome and shewed all his Armes and Armour but yet could not gather any thing from them neither seene that hee had that noble Steed which by his markes and making he well knew to be of Lucano's breed the prime race in all that kingdome he remain'd so confused in minde as hee knew not what to thinke on 't Return'd to the cave with his wonted answers he renewed to the unfortunate Princesse's wonted afflictions which made her accuse Olmiro of negligence and the Fates of cruelty for hindering his returne Carildo would not acquaint her any whit of his suspitions but taking an excuse to returne about some businesse he had to doe abroad hee went out the morning following with an intent to speake himselfe unto the supposed Lucano whom upon his entrance into the wood he might see close by the Princesse of Feacia in amorous practizes Lucano was the night before arrived and by Olmiro conducted towards the cave through the wood when unseene they saw the same that Carildo did there was not any one of them that tooke her not for Corianna and by peering one in anothers face they exprest their amazement at her habit misbeseeming an afflicted person at her countenance that argued content but most of all at her gadding so alone to finde out some one to accompany her for passing-by without seeing them shee jetted on with a pace so indecent as pierced Lucano to the heart a wound for all that supportable till such time as seeing Almadero meet kisse and close with her in amorous embraces His doubt ceded to certaine realty to the eye and sense which as issuing out of some violent machine struck through his heart with the sharpest griefe that ever cold jealousie tempered with its envenomed juyces in the infernall forge assisted by the Furies and spitefullest spirits of the worst of hells Kill him outright it did not the force of his animall spirits supplying the place of his abated courage by conspiring against it increasing for the increasing of his torment and to make him miserable above all those that ever grieved either for perversity of starres or malignity of Destiny and withall to the end nothing might bee wanting him towards the making full of his heart-racking tortures there appear'd for next object to his sight Carildo that whilome honest faithfull and obliging
descended the downe-hill ever almost running till hee came to the place where the affray was where seeing the Knights that had parted them he courteously saluting them was againe in the same manner re-saluted by them when Carildo said to Olmiro God be praised that thy Master is now come to thee to participate of thy triumphs since that by his owne testimony these Gentlemen may judge whether of us is the Traytor Olmiro having seen Almadero before though he had not in the wood well observed him had now also taken him for Lucano if his healthfull plight and habit had not assured him of the contrary But Carildo noting him yet more now than before turning towards him thus boldly bespake him And is it possible my Lord Duke that crosses and adversity which in others quell rebelling humours and refine their mindes by bringing them to a better temper should worke such a contrary effect in you as you become strangely ungratefull doe not onely take pleasure at the death of your noble Lady and Princesse but that to trample the more on her calamity you upon your reviving must also come hither so contemptuously to wrong her without so much as once voutchsafing her the favour of comming to see how shee languisheth for death Nor yet herewithall content but that you uphold or for ought I know command your servants to accuse me with those treacheries which are meerely yours and theirs in particular Olmiro who growne to be confused in minde at the appearing of this new Lucano and who for knowing what plight he had left the true one in tooke not this for him could not for all that upon more serious surveying him choose but beleeve him to be the very same notwithstanding that reason convinced his fancie stood thereat so amazed as he had not the power to utter a word Almadero on the other side perceiving these new injuries to spring from the old equivocation of her whom hee before had met with Corianna could not refraine from smiling thereat and had made good sport of it too but that hee duely considered the importance of the case as it stood whereupon he used this milde language Honest friend if your adversary hath no greater cause to be offended with you than you have to be angry with him for my sake you will then I am sure be both soone wrought to an accord for I tell you I am not that Duke you say I am neither is hee here my servant as you take him for I never saw him I protest to my knowledge till now nor is it long sithence I was taken for one Lucano whom I know not What is he I pray you Is hee dead or alive Here Carildo felt himselfe struck to the heart upon the conceiving of his mistake whereupon hee crying him mercy would needs runne to embrace Olmiro who more enraged now than before thrust him off him with threatning to be his death if hee but came neere him doubting indeede of some new stratagem for that hee could not beleeve that either Carildo tooke Almadero for Lucano or that Almadero knew not Carildo since he knew him for the very same that was in the wood with the Princesse of Feacia whom hee tooke for Corianna But being entreated to bee either friends with him or to tell them his reason why he would not be so he answered that a friend to him he would never be and that to tell his reason openly he neither could nor needed since the other knew it but too well Every of these replies were so many deaths to Carildo there was never a word of them that pierced not the very center of his heart Beleeve mee Olmiro said hee at length thou wrong'st me to accuse me as thou doest I have not I vow to thee offended other than God and that too by sinnes that concerne no other than my selfe and since thou wilt not talke with mee in the presence of these noble Gentlemen be but pleased by their good permission to retire a-part with me For I assure thee that as I would have sworne that this noble Knight was Lucano and on that mistake without imagining that I lyed would not have stucke to accuse him of treachery as well as thee so likewise shalt thou finde thy selfe every way deceived in me wherein if thou finde me any way faulty or short of my word I now here deliver my selfe into thy hands to bee punished at thy pleasure The Knights perswaded him to content himselfe with this his so reasonable proffer and so left them alone Whereupon Olmiro said to the other Well now how canst thou excuse thy selfe of having beene the instrument that the Princesse is given for a prey under what title I know not to that Knight there whom thou takest on thee to have mistaken for Lucano whereas Lucano and others besides my selfe have seene her with him in the wood Carildo's heart so leap'd for joy to heare Lucano was alive indeed whereof hee was till then uncertaine in respect of his mistake that Olmiro who expected to see him amazed marveiled at a contrary effect when Carildo lifting up his eyes to heaven-wards thus bespake him Alas Olmiro how strangely and dangerously are we reciprocally mistaken 't is but a litle while sithence this Knight came hither as thou shalt shortly know neither saw I him ever till the day that I tooke him for Lucano and yesterday in the wood where he courted the Princesse of this Countrey who for resembling Corianna as you shall see deceived you and he againe favouring very much Lucano beguiled me who beleeved that forgetting and slighting the Princesse he had given himselfe over to this new love Therefore deere brothere mine if the Duke lives in such torment as indeed he hath reason to doe let us goe and free him of it and that quickly too sithence I have left also the Princesse in a case so desperate for the same mistake as it is an even lay whether shee be by this time alive or no Vp̄on this Olmiro beleeving now the case to stand as indeed it did with lovingly embracing him heartily cried him mercy But because the then-dangerous state of the businesse required something else than words they returning speedily to the Knights told them they were now accorded with beseeching them to dispence with the relation thereof till another time not without yeelding them infinite thankes for the courteous office done them but for which they had undoubtedly kild one another By this time Almadero had invited the Princes to come lodge with him wherefore he answered them that he would expect them at his house out of the curiosity he had to know the end of that businesse and more especially to understand how hee was taken for another wherein the Squires promised not to faile him and with that taking their leave return'd to Lucano's lodging where they held it best that Olmiro should first enter so to take from him the occasion of venting his passion on
Carildo But scarce was he entred when for missing to finde his Lord within he came out againe upon this enquiring of the man of the house for Erinnio they were shewed him with heavy downe-cast lookes comming droopingly towards them Being asked for the Duke he with a deepe sigh answered that hee was slipt away no man knew whither But espying with that Carildo he stoop'd downe for a stone when Olmiro seizing on his hand briefly reaccounted unto him how the case stood Whereupon after friendly embracing each other they went so long enquiring after Lucano by counter-signes that in the end they learnt he had taken the path of the wood whitherward they were then a-going Carildo by the way relates unto the others the life led by Corianna with the manner of their mistake but now come to the wood they could not finde him out although they with exquisite diligence sought for him all over what way therefore to take they knew not when Olmiro thus bespeakes the other two Here doe wee being as we are all three together but trifle out the time it were therefore better that thou Carildo went'st to the Princesse to comfort her and that done to returne hither or to our lodging if thou hast but time then one of us may keepe hereabouts to hinder the Duke to come to fight with the Knight whilst the other goes to his lodging lest he chance to come thither and the first of us that happens to finde him may impart him the good newes and send word to his fellowes But how shall I said Erinnio finde the way to the cave in case it should behoove me to come thither Mary very well as I shall now direct thee replied Carildo For ere we walke an hundred paces farther I will put thee on a path that leades directly thither and will withall give thee such counter-signes as thou canst not misse of it though thou would'st But scarce were they gone fifty steps on their way when they might heare a faint voyce whose pittifull lamentations were often parenthesed with sighes and teares whom upon their passing further on Carildo perceived to be the Dutchesse Corianna was parted from Almadero in a bodily state exceeding feeble as I told you having refused to accept his courteous proffer of causing her to be carried to the Barke which for keeping conceal'd the place of her abode shee made him beleeve shee had waiting for her returne but went not farre ere her heart was so choaked with the extreame agony of her passionate griefe that shee sunke breathlesse to the ground a benumming cold that seized on her corps depriving it of all likelihood of her ever reviving any more and the soule-afflicted Dutchesse having experimented on her all the remedies that place could afford her and seeing them all bootlesse was now set a bemoaning her and stood a crying over her with rending her cloathes and tearing her haire when the three Squires arrived who seeing a litle way off the Princesse in such a plight were ready to drop downe for griefe On the other side Lucano who remain'd in his lodging accompanied with none save Erinnio whom because hee knew not how to bee handsomely ridde of that so he might effect his intent he bethought himselfe of sending him to learne out who that Knight might be and accordingly straightly charged him not to returne without a distinct relation thereof But no sooner was Frinnio gone than that the Duke got him out of his bed and then making the best shift he could to cloathe himselfe hee tooke the way of the wood with an intention to stay there till such time as the Knight his reputed rivall came forth that then he might slay him or dye Laying then himselfe along under a tree that grew a-part he might espy a good way off the three met together who having sought him in vaine went to observe the way that led to the cave he marveiled to see them so loving together whereat conceiving an unthought-of hope hee followed them a-farre off to see what they meant to doe till seeing them make a stand he likewise rested him behinde a tree from whence he might heare the Dutchesse utter these despairing speeches And is it possible Madame that you will burthen poore innocent mee with those vengeances which you inflict on your as innocent self whereas they should bee inflicted on no other than injuring Fortune wounding thereby my very soule for not reserving them for a time more desperate Open deere Madame alas open I beseech you those faire eyes of yours oh let that gentle soule of yours respire in you or if you have such power over the Heavens as to dye when you list then befriend mee therewith too by procuring that I may follow you for I trust I have deserved that favour at your hands you know I associated you voluntarily in your sufferings and travels therefore I hope you will not shake mee off from accompanying you in your sweet repose Besides sithence I forsooke all to serve you it befits not a magnanimous noble Princesse as you are to recompence me with this to you suddaine to mee unexpected death and so leave mee a miserable-exild-stranger depriv'd of you even in that place where among the torments of your inexplicable sufferings it was my hight of glory to be neere you both to lament and participate of them Thou Lucano thou woe is me art he who not content to have while thou lived'st robb'd her of her free-will wilt yet now that thou art dead deprive her of her life too But sweete Madame alas will you leave your sweete litle Prince Lucandro motherlesse as well as fatherlesse his quaint prettinesse and taking graces must then dye too since that when you both his mother and nurse are once dead there is none then to give him poore infant any more suck The disconsolated Dutchesse stood so attent to her griefes that the three were come at her ere shee saw them so as the first motive that drew her eyes on them were these words of Carildo Why what meane these strange alterations Madame am I come to bring you good newes and pretend you to receive them with so dolorous a spectacle my Lord Lucano lives nobly-honest and loyall as ever nay more he is here too and will then his more than life beloved Princesse dye because shee will not see him At that word the Princesse opened her eyes and faintly sighing peer'd Olmiro in the face when hee prostrating himselfe on the ground thus bespake her Right excellent Princesse if any tardance of mine bee the occasion of your Highnesse sufferings I then pray Heavens that yours be my death But know my liege Lady that more than is could not possibly be done I beseech you strive with your selfe to pluck up a good heart for to your comfort know that the Duke my Lord is here and by reason of a mistake lyes in as bad a plight for you as you doe for him Bee pleas'd then
matter did the best shee could to comfort her till seeing shee could get no answer of her shee opened the windowes and then seeing her looke so pale shee was againe amazed yet finding no drop of blood about her though her lips and eyes looked of a pale blewish colour shee gently tooke her by the hand and respectively kissing it besought her to speake one word to her but was answered with a gastly grone wherewith shee expired because of her wounded heart's being by then quite suffocated with blood The Gentlewoman searching over her body a-new and yet finding nothing considering that the occasion of her death was not to be divulged shut the doore and went and acquainted therewith the King who because hee could not beleeve that shee died without violence commanded to view her better himselfe casting the meane while an eye on her pulses and paps under one whereof as hee more heedfully observed hee came to discover the bodkin by a litle blood that trickled off the orifice of the wound and so comprehending the cause of her death he charged that no words should be made thereof giving out the morrow following that shee was dead of an apoplexie Feredo in the meane time hastned on his journey beleeving that the farther hee went from Venedotia the neerer he came to content and quietnesse till hee chanced to come to the famous Court of Logria whose then King Alfrido observing him besides the comelinesse of his person to be endued with incomparable qualities had a minde at first sight to make him his Son-in-law for establishing the dominions which hee possessed lying open to divers hostile incursions with the alliance and stay of a King for territories and power next himselfe the greatest of all Albion One sole Daughter had he of some eighteene yeares of age named Alite for beauty singular among the fairest and one sonne as then absent addicted to exercises of Chivalry No sooner was Feredo seene by her than that shee began to affect him seconding her Fathers secret designe with an honest open love and the correspondencie as it was fitting it should had beene by him as forwardly repaid her but that at his first comming thither he began suddenly to feele strange passions of mellancholy which transporting him to turbid imaginations would never suffer him in quiet for that he thought hee saw Gelinda every houre in an horrid shape with a naked and bloody brest settle her selfe by him whether hee were laid in bed or walking any where abroad so as he passed most nights without closing his eyes which made him desire to watch with merry company who upon his corrupted affects wrought just such an effect as doth one single drop of water on one tormented with a burning feaver that thinkes all the rivers of the world too litle either to coole his heate or quench his thirst Many a time have I thought upon these visions whether any such really be or no and whether that which appeared was the very spirit of Gelinda or nothing but the meere imagination of Feredo For if the Gods permit the dead to walke why more for hatred than for love since we heare not for the most part of any such apparitions save in the likenesse of such as have come to their deaths by violent meanes betweene husband and wife father and sonne brother and brother and friend and friend in whom Nature and long practice imprint reciprocall affections with greater efficacie wee seldome or never heare of any such though they should be ordinary Which though they also were yet could they then neither be no arguments making for imagination and use would discover unto us those of reason Nature being not able to worke ordinarily by extraordinary reasons contrary to it selfe The Count who attentively listned seeing him looke as if he expected an answer said unto him Nature gentle Sir cannot give a reason for all things as it seemes you expect it should since we have for attaining to it onely the two meanes of the practick and speculation By the practick we cannot shee requiring time and we being short-liv'd By speculation much lesse she never soaring higher than the pitch of sense Hence comes it that our common knowledge obscure even in things manifest is subject to the censure of contradictions where of such as were Antagonists choosed for the surer side rather to doubt of all than to affirme any thing for certaine out of the uncertainty of our understanding and the same knowledge though in much deceivable is yet neverthelesse embraced for want of a better which well may I beleeve be hoped for but not found by the meanes of humane organs without a long and almost eternall life If then we be so ignorant in things subject to our very senses what can we be in those of the soule abstracted from them yet should not for all this the insufficiencie of meanes of attaining to the knowledge of things make us deny their effects if any be and yet the curiosity of seeking out for them is hurtfull because speculation too much subtilized makes a man unfit not only for the active but even for the contemplative life so as if he be but short in conceiving the first heads he becomes quite dull by that time he comes to the second so blunted shall hee finde his intellect with the hardnesse of what hee understands not therefore a mans choyser course were to rest at quiet and to beleeve that which common opinion both drawne from all the lawes and approved by all the prime Schoolmen of the world in all ages induceth us to beleeve which if otherwise it were not so this Prince his very case might be a sufficient argument for it Since hee was in perfect health when he came from home nor was he ever troubled with any infirmity of his fancie till after the death of his Sister and then too without knowing whether shee were dead or no. So as we must of necessity either deny all and by consequence make the Prince a lyar or in beleeving him beleeve the generall terient which is a reall apparition of the dead a beleefe due to the obedience of the Lawes The Gentleman that stood listning unto him litle satisfied with what was alleadged and loath to let the discourse fall replied My doubt honour'd Sir neither toucheth nor arrives to the law but is as I may say an abstract from it touch it perhaps it might if it were incorporated with it and partaked of its substance and colour as wine doth with those of water The lawes have all of them the selfe same principals and the selfe same ends at leastwise in appearance that is God and good dealing or piety the end of this is to feare those It will not be denied mee that apparitions belong to piety and by consequence make wonderfully for it my doubt doth but question the power of Nature for if Nature could but be united or conform'd to the Law in things supernaturall and that
difference betweene well-wishing and affection For my owne part I hated the ordinary presumption of such young men as beleeve that a woman cannot as much as glance on them a looke with out intimating to her eyes object the homage of her liberty and person well might I indeede perswade my selfe that some internall gift might perhaps serve me for a ladder to climbe up to mens good opinions but was never for all that so selfe-conceited as to beleeve that either my lookes face or person had the power to allure or gaine me the affection liking or good opinion of any one sex or other Then began I to make some signes of my departure not without an internall hearts-griefe occasioned by a truly-affectionate love But scarce had I therein opened my mouth when Crisanta reposing her hand on my arme as we walked alone in a large alley in the garden spake thus unto mee Celio for so made I my selfe be called I understand that this countrey likes you not no more doth perhaps this house neither and that you therefore intend to be gone But I could wish you would prove so courteous as to make first knowne unto me the reason why you doe so for if it so be that you received any disgust here take my word I will endeavour to see you righted because indeede my intent and desire is that of mine you be honoured as of me you are beloved and held in as deere and respective an esteeme as are my owne sonnes But if this be not it that ayles you and that nought else save meere heate of youth spurres you onwards to such a resolution I could then advise you to thinke better on it first and to consider how you are now that you have lost your old servant left all alone although I would not be backwards in supplying you with whatsoever you should want for your journey yet should you me thinkes have already learnt to your cost that simple provisions suffice not being you may in your way light on not onely high-way theeves as you did in my countrey but a thousand other inimaginable misadventures now then so you be pleased to oblige me so much as to let me but know who you are and to make withall your businesse appeare to me such as require your so sudden departure I will then on my word take order that you be conveyed by such a company as shall secure you from all perils But if the case with you stand quite otherwise and that there be no such matter I shall then lovingly entreate you to suspend the deliberation thereof at least so long till I have time to resolve with my selfe whether I can bee without you or no whom I love though you know it not deerer than my owne life These last words drew shee out of her mouth with a kinde of a pretty unwilling willingnesse which so got out had drawne others after them if bashfulnesse having displayed its vermilion colours on her beteared cheekes had not staid her tongue with the modest curbe of the consideration of her sex At the sweete sound of these her sweeter words I altered my first deliberation more speedily than doth a dancer at the change of the musicks tone alter his manner of footing Nor held I it my best course to tempt fortune by doing the office of a woman in refusing since shee had already done that of a man in proffering for having beene already sufficiently turred therein at the cost of others That a woman unlesse shee be impudently-bold can hardly resolve with her selfe to aske a second time a blesh-procuring question The consideration where of made mee returne her this answer This is unparalled Madame the onely Countrey where I have lighted on the best and worst of fortunes spite and favour your Excellencie being the best of good and the theeves that robb'd me the worst of ills But now the evill since past and gone corrupts not the sweete rellish of the present good which is the onely subject whereabout my thoughts are busied and that the rather because discontent hath no abiding place either under the heaven you breathe in or in the spirits that receive from you their influence And for my owne part Madame I see my selfe both honoured beyond my fortune and beloved beyond my merit so as the resolution of my parting hence springs not from these grounds your goodnesse thought good to mention nor yet from my in that behalfe innocent youth but indeede from the consideration of my being a meere stranger and from the doubt I conceived of abusing with a too too bold if not odious indiscretion the noble courtesie of so long an entertainment besides some peculiar affaires of mine owne requiring my crossing the sea to see the state and being of my poore house and mother though I know I cannot doe that neither without your courteous and obliging furtherance which in its time I neither can nor will refuse to accept of The losse which I sustained in the death of my deerely-tendred servant was indeede exceeding great but millions of degrees short nay nothing in comparison of the acquisition of so high and noble a Mistresse Heere stopping my speech with coloured cheekes and downe-cast eyes I stood some short while mute when shee taking mee by the hand and gently wringing it thus bespake mee Hitherto Colio doe I hold my selfe satisfied but what answer make you mee for the rest What further answer can I make you Madame said I seeing that for as much as depends on mee I have already exprest my selfe and then for that which depends on you the answer thereof lyes in your owne brest Depends it on mee replied shee to know either your being since I am a meere stranger to it or your stay here since I cannot divine your thoughts yea Madame said I very well both the one and the other because my beeing depends wholly on you nor can I in such a case either make my selfe better knowne unto you or receive any alteration of being without you But shee not yet fully conceiving me I then with a bolder courage thus proceeded Noble Madame of my native being I beseech you question mee no farther at this time lest the story thereof seeme a fable unto you all other beeing of mine is yours and hath its whole dependance on you By you and through your meanes I live to the world for having beene through your compassionate benignity from being left for dead gathered up and cured And by you also thankes to your obliging love I now live to my selfe being cured of a wound which for not daring to manifest I should if I had parted hence have carried along with me bleeding in my heart No sooner heard shee this than with a blithsome countenance shee said unto mee My Celio I know not whether I may confidently beleeve or no what you tell mee I beseech you deceive me not though I must confesse that my douot of it springs but from