Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	death_n	die_v	sin_n	4,376	5	5.3448	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31477	The innocent lady, or, The illustrious innocence being an excellent true history, and of modern times carried with handsome conceptions all along / written originally in French by the learned Father de Ceriziers of the Company of Jesus ; and now rendered into English by Sir William Lower, Knight.; Innocence reconnuë	Cerisiers, René de, 1609-1662.; Lower, William, Sir, 1600?-1662.	1654 (1654)	Wing C1679; ESTC R37539	69,822	175

by his judgement and dissembled his discontent for fear to vent his designe Golo had retired himself to his house these two years and came to see the Palatine onely when civility constrained him to this duty What doth Sifroy he takes good order that he escape him not he prayes him by letter to come to aide him at a solemn hunting The design thereof was true but he declared not to him that he was the beast which he would there take Behold him then in the Palatines house and from thence in the same Tower where he had held so long time his innocent mistresse Say now that God is not just say that he sleeps and that his providence leaves virtue to suffer and vice to triumph Golo sighed with fear and Genevieva sighed with love he lost himself in the horrours of his punishment whilest she lost her self in the sweet extasies of her solitude This is nothing yet you shall see presently that God serves himself with the malice of the wicked as we use Serpents and Vipers from whom we seek their venome and after crush their heads The Palatine having thus given the conduct of the punishment which he meditated to his discretion took up a designe to invite his allyes at the kings festival and after the feast to put Golo into their hands to this purpose he made all the provision that could be for a sumptuous and magnifick banket All the elements furnished there their delicates the Count willing to contribute thereunto something of his labour resolved to go a hunting the day which he had chosen had no sooner dissipated the darknes waked the birds but Sifroy departed to the end to surprise the beasts in their lodges It would be to engage one's self in a labyrinth to describe all the turns and returns of the Hares the cunning of the yellow beasts the flight of the Stags and the retreat of the Boars Although this discourse might be pleasing it would be unprofitable being from the matter and then I have so many necessary things that I leave willingly the superfluous Whilest they heated themselves in the Chasse the providence of God prepared its stroak but in a fashion all amourous and full of sweetnesse Scarce was our Palatine separated from his people but he perceived a Hinde at the mouth of the wood it was the Nurse of his poor son he presently set spurs to his horse but she gained the Forrest brushing a thwart the bushes so slowly though that she seemed to desire her taking or at least to be chased Sifroy pursued her even to a Cave Alas it was that of our Innocent Countesse As he made himself ready to dart a Javeline at this poore beast he beheld something in the bottome of that den which resembled much a woman but that it appeared naked having no other cloathing but a long and thick dresse of hair which covered in some fashion all her body This spectacle made him approach it till he might discern that it was a woman in whose bosome the Hind sought Sanctuary The Count and the Countesse were then seised with two different admirations Sifroy wondred at the familiarity of this beast and at the extreme necessity of the woman whom he had taken for a Bear Genevieva who had not been visited but of the Angels these seven years could not sufficiently admire to see her husband whom she presently knew though unknown her self After that the astonishment had made place to other thoughts the Palatine prayed her to approach him but Genevieva who was too modest to appear so naked requested him something to cover her which he did letting fall his Cassock with which she cloathed her self When she was wrapped with this cloak Sifroy came towards her and questioned her of many things O wisdome of God how admirable art thou during their discourse the goodnesse of heaven awaked the remembrance of Genevieva in the soul of Sifroy who demanded of her her name her countrey and how it came she was retired into so fearfull a desart Sir replyed Genevieva I am a poore woman of Brabant whom necessity hath constrained to retire into this little corner of the world having not any support elsewhere It is true I was married to a man who could do me good if he had had so much will thereunto as power The suspition which he too lightly took of my fidelity made him consent to my ruine and to that of a child which was not conceived with the sinne that was imposed upon me and if the servants who received the command to make me die had had so much precipitation to execute my Sentence as he had imprudence to condemn me I had not lived the space of seven years in a solitude where I have not had any did but of the air of the water of some roots which have no lesse served to prolong my miseseries than my life During this sad Discourse love spake in the heart of Sifroy and his eyes sought upon this extenuated visage the marks of his dear wife his sighs said unto him without doubt behold Genevieva but the extreme miserie of our penitent permitted him not to settle himself in this opinion The malice of Golo seemed unto him too prudent and too full of artifices to let her live who had been the subject of his hate Yet she said that a suspition was the cause of her misfortune that she was of Brabant that her husband was of quality that he had a design against her life O what force hath love this visage which so many austerities had defaced gave him certain assurances of that which he sought But my friend tell me your name Sir I am called Genevieva at these words the Count let himself drop from his horse and skipping unto her neck he cryed out Is it thee then my dear Genevieva alas is it thee whom I have so long lamented as dead and from whence comes this good fortune to me to embrace her whom I deserve not to see but what though may I remain in the presence of her whom I have killed at least with desire O my dear Girl pardon an offender who confessing his sin avoucheth your Innocence If one life may serve after having made you die so many times I put mine into your hands dispose thereof according to your will I will live no longer than it shall please you since that my life and my death depend of your Iustice Geneviev It is true that great griefs can neither weep nor complain and it is no lesse true that immoderate joyes cannot speak After this first sally the Count and the Countesse remained immoveable like marble Statues without power to speak a word in a long time Genevieva thought of the amiable providence of God which rendered her Honour by those wayes which were rather miracles than miraculous and Sifroy could not satisfie himself with seeing a visage which he had sometimes so much loved and which he respected then as the most

those vain apprehensions which love puts ordinarily into the spirit of those that love Lanfroy will tell you the good fortune of our Arms and the just reason that hinders me from seeing you above all my dear girl I conjure you to wipe off your tears and to stop your sighs which come from so far to seek me otherwise I shall not believe that you would take any part in my good fortune if you divide not the contentments sthereof with me To the end you may have some cause to be pacified I offer you the present with which it hath pleased our invincible Generall to honour my courage and the emulation I had to do well I knew not to present it to any body so dear unto me as your self if you receive it with the good will which I promise me I shall draw from thence as much satisfaction as if they should erect statues to my valour and as if all the mouths of fame were imployed but to speak of my merit this is the esteem that I desire you to have of my affection adiew my Girl and conserve me the fairest life of this age Leave we Sifroy to depart for Provence and come we to find the Countesse with Landfroy who was not long on his way before he was with her VVhen one came to tell her that there was a Gentleman arrived from her husband she was walking in the windings of a Labyrinth to loose there her sorrows or at least wise to charm the troubles thereof Lanfroy was by misfortune habited in black that day which made Genevieva to sownd assoon as he appeared but having observed by his countenance and gesture the testimonies of joy rather than the marks of sadnesse she demanded of him with a trembling voice how Sifroy did After that the Gentleman had made an humble reveence he presented his packet Madame behold the Letters that will speak it with a better grace than I Having opened them she withdrew her self a little into an Alley and read them two or three times stopping very long on every word notwithstanding her joy was not entire considering that her Palatine was absent The curiosity of a thousand demands presented it self to her spirit she called Lanfroy who by her commandment told her that his Master was at Tours upon the point to go unto Avignon to besiege the rest of the Sarazines who were retired thtiher and from thence to Narbona against Anthime who held that strong pla●e All this discourse pleased not much the Countesse who judged well that these sieges of Towns would detain her husband long time lastly having understood that they feared yet the coming of another King named Amorus who brought succours to his Nation she saw well that the return of Sifroy was not to be hoped till the following year which made her resolve to dispatch unto him his Gentleman some dayes after with this answer Sir if the Letter which you writ unto me gave consolation to my evils I will have no other witnes therof but he who rendered it me but if it hath caused me new apprehensions there is nothing but my love that can tell it you Surely as I desire your return beyond all things so the assurance which I have of your retardment causeth me as true griefs as your return gives me vain joyes was it not enough to conceal me the time that might make me hope without telling me that I must be miserable a full whole year and that I shall see you only when you have vanquished an Hydra that springs up again every day alas it may be that my miseries shall not go on so far and that this time shall be longer than my life VVhen the first news of that great defeat was brought unto us and that the bloud thereof was come almost to flow at the foot of our house I could not expresse unto you how many fears assailed my spirit and with how many distresses my heart was seised I heard continually my thoughts that said unto me Genevieva believest thou that death hath spared thy Palatine amongst so many thousand men as her fury hath devoured if her blindness takes from her all knowledge and leaves her not any discretion thou hast no cause to hope that she hath conserved a life which was unknown unto her That tempest is passed that storm is dissipated and you cast me into new despairs Oh that you would apprehend a little that which exposes me an hundred times a day to the hazard of being a widow consider my dear Sifroy that fortune hath no means more ordinary to make her favours appear than their little continuance her constancy not able to be assured she should be suspected of you VVhat know you if the glory of these honours which she presents you is not of the nature of those fires that shine not but to lead into precipices Oh how much better it had been that it had left your courage without recompence than to offer it new motives to destroy it self I am not ignorant of the justice of your Arms and that heaven is obliged to make them prosper if it will maintain its own quarrell but who knows not also that very often it makes us encounter our enemies to the end to break us seeking in our losses either the revenge of our sinnes or the merit of our patience I do not oppose my self obstinately against that which the will of God seeks from our obedience notwithstanding whilst that it shall not be known unto me reason will that I have care of your safety not willing to forget mine own Not to lye if your absence were more profitable to the service of God than it is dammageable to my repose I would make all my Inteests give place unto his and would not desire onely to be happy at the least disadvantage of his glory but now that France is propped with an Arm upon which all the Crowns of the earth might repose the care of their conservation can I permit you to encrease its assurance without being Accomplice of the evill which you do me If I should consent thus to mine own misfortune you have too much knowledge of your merit not to esteem me unworthy of your amity and without doubt you would accuse my iudgement if I had so little wisdome Esteem me not ignorant as to this point for I know that whole Rivers of the enemies blood are not worth one drop of yours and that it should not be desirable although it might be profitable to finish the death of all these Barbarians by the least hazard of your person This thought makes me to hope that you will guard your self from your own courage which is the most redoubtable of your enemies for fear to expose may be three persons to the same death But if you have resolved to seek all the occasions to dye attend at least till this little creature which I believe to carry in my womb be out of the danger to make thereof its

plaints or was moved with her misery They took her and led her into a Tower from whence she might hear enough the pitifull cryes of Drogan but not comfort his evils To expresse the regrets of Genevieva one must be touched with the same resentments and for my part I love better that you should meditate them than to expresse them ill So many regrets might kill a woman eight months great with child if God had not taken a particular care of her all the consolation she had amongst so many distresses was that heaven could not leave this injury unpunished without declaring it self Accomplice thereof Indeavouring sometimes to make her sighs break prison she complained amorously in this manner Alas my God! is it possible thou shouldst permit the evils that I suffer having a perfect knowledge of their extremity what have I done unto thee to make me the sad subject of so many dolors the petty services that I indeavoured to render to thee made me hope a better fortune and I see now that either thou punishest rigorously their defects or that thou disdainest to acknowledge their merit But my most pitifull Father hast thou no punishment more sweet and lesse shamefull the losse of my riches was it not capable to make the proof of my patience and to punish the revolts of my heart could not sicknesse expiate my offences the death of my kindred and friends and my own would this be too little a thing to try my fidelity Oh how thou wouldest have obliged me if thy justice could have been contented with that but alas that which I have said are blessings which I may desire if I compare them to the evils that I suffer I should not lose enough if I might not lose what is impossible for me to recover without miracle This favour would be very necessary unto me I crave it not for all that provided that this innocent that I carry be not oppressed under my ruine I consent that thou shouldest permit it Let them hide me in the darknesse of a prison but let him see the light of the day and that of thy grace let them beat me but let not the blows light upon him let them slander me but let not the blame stick on him Let them kill me but let him live I may hope of thy mercy that one day they shall acknowledge his mother was miserable but innocent afflicted but without sinne calumniated but without cause condemned but without crime My ashes shall receive this satisfaction from my enemies and my soul shall be content therewith If thou permit me to expect this from thy goodnesse I will not languish without some kind of pleasure and shall rest content to drown in my tears rather than burn with a fire which had been displeasing unto thee It was thus that the poore Innocent sighed night and day without hoping any comfort but from heaven for to expect it from men had been but to help to deceive her self and to seek for illusions No body put foot into this Tower Golo was the Dragon that kept this treasure where he had alwayes his heart he went often to see Genevieva who received more paine and displeasure from his importunities than from the evills which he made her to endure But if he had before found resistance in his designes he met here now with impossibilitie The Countesse dissembles no more her sweetnesse is turned into a just indignation If Golo thinks to flatter her she reviles him if he makes her promises she despises them if he will approach her she flies if he touches her she cryes out One time he said unto her that the means to cover her shame was to permit him that which a wretched Cook had obtained at his pleasure At these words the Countesse could no more command her choller than satisfie the revenge that it inspired into her Perfidious traytor said she art thou not content to have rendered me miserable without desiring to make me an adulteresse hitherto I have not beheld thee but as a wicked man but now I take thee for a cruel tyrant Finish perfidious man finish thy cruelties chastity hath her martyrs I refuse not to be of them for to expect that I permit thee other thing than to kill me is to loose thy time and thy pains This wretch considering that his Mistresse had too much virtue to sin indeavours to cover his crime under the pretext of marriage He made therefore a report flie abroad that the Palatine having embarked himself at Sea for his return had there made shipwrack and so perished Upon this news he forged letters which he made to slide into the hands of Genevieva to the end to dispose her to his suit by the assurance of her husbands death But the holy mother of God discovers this artifice which animated the Countesse with such a despight that the Intendant no sooner made unto her the overture of his marriage but she sent him away wth a box this artifice succeeding not to him he had recourse to his nurse who never did a worse action than in giving him the brest the fidelity of this woman Golo made use of to carry necessaries to Genevieva He conjures her to gain him the heart of the Princesse and to sweeten her spirit by all the artifices that she could devise he hopes easily to be able to beguile a woman by the same means that the devill used against a man But surely he deceives himself for he finds that Genevieva is a rock if the windes beat it it is to fasten it if the waves strike it it is to polish it nor threatning nor flatery nor sweetnes nor cruelty nor violence nor subtilty could prevaile any thing against a soul so full of vertue During all these devises the term of Genevieva's lying in arrived alas may I say that a Princesse was constrained to be her own Midwife should I say that in this necessity where the beasts have need of assistance the wife of a powerfull Palatine was abandoned of all succour verily he must be of some other matter then marble to deny tears to so extream a misery Behold then our holy Countesse in the transes of child-bearing behold her son in her own hands who could hear this wch she saith unto it without pity certainly it would not be more easie to see her without tears then without eyes Alas my poore infant how many sorrows hath thy innocence caused me oh how many evils will my miseries make thee suffer fearing that the necessitie of all things and the incommodities of the place might make him die out of the grace of God she baptised it Boldly Genevieva call your son Benoni or Tristan he must carry the name of his Godmother since God who is his Godfather hath none at all After that this little infant was brought forth his mother wrapped it in the old napkins which they had left there by neglect When the Nurse told the Intendant that there was then

make your self wounds to heal your self I know that it is hard to suffer evil without complaining of it this also is not that I desire of you be sensible of your evils nature wils it but resent them not seeing that vertue forbids it have more regard to the good will of God which permits our afflictions than to their evil will who procure them us If nature invite you to the desire of revenge grace will remove you from it if humane reason commands it divine forbids it if impatience perswades it sweetnesse abhorres it if the example of men carries you thereunto that of God should draw you from thence We ought rather to obey the judgement in this than the will and to hear reason than to hearken to our senses I hope that the mercy of God will do us justice and that it will give all the world to understand that you are son of a mother very little guilty to be in so ill esteem and too innocent to be so unjustly afflicted Moreover my son after having laid this body in earth do that which God shall inspire you if he will that you return to your father make no difficulty thereat you have those qualities which will make you acknowledged the resemblance of your visage to his will not permit him to disclaim you if he remembers yet what he is as for me from whom you cannot expect other good but my desires and benedictions I give them you as abundantly as heaven can distribute them unto you In saying this she put her Benoni on his knees moystening his little visage with the rest of her tears Represent to your selves the pity of this spectacle the poore Genevieva attended the end of her miseries and Benoni the beginning of his dolours Death seeing them in this posture advanced himself to give the last stroke of his rage Stay cruell it is not time yet to cut off so precious a life attend to give her her death till the justice of God hath rendered her her honour What spoils canst thou hope from so miserable a creature her body hath no more flesh to nourish thy worms thou wilt gnaw her bones grief hath done that already thou pretend'st perhaps to encrease the number of thy phantosmes and of thy shadows let her live it is no more any other thing Whilst that our Countesse expected death two angels more fair than the sun entred into her Grott who filled it with odour and light Being approached to her little bed of boughs he who was tutelar of the sick said unto her in touching her Live Genevieva God will have it so then opening her dying liddes she perceived these Angels who gave her not time to be considered leaving her with health the astonishment of this miraculous cure God doth nothing which hath not its last perfection contrary unto men who travell by little and little and who drive away a disease by remedies which are sometime violent evils The great Physician of heaven gives a full and perfect health by the sole command which he gives the sicknesse to retire his medicines are without disgust and his cures without weaknesses so soon as the Angels departed from the cave of Genevieva she departed from her poore bed as strong as she was before this last sicknesse To see her rise one would have said it was a resurrection that was made and not a cure The child wept for joy to see his mother revive and Genevieva sighed with sadnesse to see her self driven back again from the port into the tempest Afflict you no more Genevieva God contents himself with your sufferings he doubts no more of a fidelity which he hath known by so long a patience Your evils are finished your crown is atchieved the fire of your glory hath been long enough buried in the bottome of the pit of calumny it is time that it break forth and make appear the fair and innocent rayes of its light It was near upon seven years that Sifroy Genevieva suffered the one in the horrours of a crime which he had not committed but through ignorance the other in the miseries which she endured not but by injustice God willing to make appear the innocence of the one the error of the other permitted that that wicked Sorceresse with whom he had seen the imaginary sinne of his wife was taken accused ●nd convicted of hainous crimes which she could not deny though they were false for the most part Being upon the point to expiate her offences by the flames and already tyed to the infamous stake of punishment she d●manded permission of the Justice to say some last words which was granted her After the confession of some crimes she declared that of all the evils which she had ever committed that of rendring an innocent person guilty pressed her most The Ministers of Justice laid hold of these words and commanded her to expresse her self on this last point which she did avouching that the Palatine Sifroy had put his wife to death upon a suspition which the illusions of her Magick had given him The Sorceresse dyed upon this protestation which was presently reported to the Count who was no lesse sorrowfull for this news than comforted to see that though he had lost his wife without recovery she was at last dead without reproach Who con describe the rage that seised his spirit the menaces of his choller against Golo and the sweet plaints that he made unto his wife and his son oh cruel Hangman was it not enough to ruine my House without hazarding the Honour thereof If thou hadst malice to massacre the Innocent why found'st thou not mean● more honest to thy cruelty if thou hadst not been as impudent as unjust in thy calumny wouldst thou not think to have done sufficient Oh that thou hast not a hundred lives to expiate the horrour of this crime perfidious traitor thou shoudst lose one of them in the flames another under the sword a third between the teeth of my dogs and all in as many kinde of deaths as thy malice hath had diverse artifices in her calumnies but you are still dead deplorable victimes thou art dead my deere Genevieva thou art dead innocent Lamb which I have as soon made to die as to live Your blood cries vengeance unto heaven against me and marks upon my front the shame of villany O shall I beg your pardon of a fault which my credulity onely hath committed And why should I not hope this favour from your mercy seeing that you are as good as innocent if an extream sin can revenge it self by an extream punishment Oh I promise you to expiate mine and to wash my hands in the barbarous blood of him who i● the cause thereof It would be an infinite thing to tell you all those maledictions which his choler made him pronounce against Golo yet considering that we should not cry after the Birds which we would take he made his passion to be governed