noise not so much as a sigh or groane hee began to imagine that shee was dead and so indeed it prov'd hee then more incivilly then before rapt at his Ladyes chamber-doore and wakned her telling her that shee had now the event of her bloudy and cruell desires for by reason that there was a still silence in the Dungeon hee perceived the poore Virgin had expired her life At which words being startl'd and strangely mov'd she rose from her bed and calling for store of lights caused the Dungeon doore to be opened where they might behold a most ruthfull and samentable spectacle the maid throwne upon her backe and foure great Snakes wrapt about her one of an extraordinary bignesse wound about her neck another had twinde it selfe encompassing both her legges a third like a girdle imbrac'd her waste or middle a fourth stuck upon her jawes stretching its selfe to its utmost length which no sooner taken thence but was found dead having so ingorg'd it selfe with her bloud that it swel'd and burst asunder At whichsight the Lady strook with the horrour thereof from a suddaine melancholy grew into a meere madnesse and in a raging fit soon after dy'd Strange were that act abroad which cannot in some sort be parallel'd with us at home At Gainsborough in Lincolnshire it happened that a Gentleman of the Town had occasion to ride up to London about his Term businesse and as the custome is in the Countrey the night before a man takes his journey his neighbours and friends will send in their meat and sup with him and drinke to the hope of his safe returne and so they did to him Now this Gentleman had in his house a young gentlewoman sent thither to bee tuter'd and withall to learne good huswifrie and was about the age of fourteen or fifteen yeares at the most The next morning before hee tooke horse when hee call'd for water this maid brought him the Towell and Bason and held it till hee had wash'd onely in rubbing of his hands he sprinkled a little water on her face which his wife observed after Breakfast the Gentleman road on his journey and the woman in whom this slight accident strooke a deepe impression of devillish Jealousie soon after call'd to the maid to deliver her an account of her linnen us'd the night before which was her charge she having hid a Napkin or two out of the way of purpose to pick a quarrell with her The Girle sought in every roome and could not finde them then she bid her looke in the next Chamber but shee was no sooner up staires but after followes the Mistresse like an incens'd Virago and shut the doores fast upon her then casts her upon the Bed and threw another Feather-bed upon her and spying a Scotch Pocket-Dagger hanging by the Walls shee tooke out one of the knives and casting her selfe upon the upper bed turn'd up the bottome where she fell most unwoman-like to worke with her maid making her quite uncapable of future marriage and this was done withinin memory for to the womans great ignominy and shame in the same Towne I have heard it reported and been shewne the very house where the deed was done The horridnesse of which Act makes me that I cannot conceale her name shee was call'd Mistris Brig house In this intrim a Serving-man comming in and hearing his Mistris was in great displeasure and distemperature gone up with her maid and knowing her froward and hasty disposition he went to the doore and knockt but hearing none but one as it were miserably forcing breath for life he lookt in either at some chinke or the key-hole where he saw his Mistris in the same posture I before described with a knife in her hand and one pittifully bleeding under her He broke open the doore being Wainscot and casting her off from the Bed to the floore tooke up the Maid nigh stifled and carried her to a neighbours house where Chyrurgeons were sent for and she in time recovered of life though shee had made her utterly unable of Conception But what gain'd shee by this her uncivill cruelty she was after abhorr'd by all good and modest women asham'd to looke out of her owne doores neither would any of fashion converse with her but held it a scandall to be but seen in her company But now to return to the Judgments inflicted upon adultery and to shew what our own countrey relates as those perpetrated and committed in this Land King Locrine who succeeded his Father Brute in the Kingdome tooke to his Bride Guendolina daughter to Corinaus Duke of Cornwall who lived in great conjugall love together having a young Prince to their issue call'd Madan but after the King having rest and ease in his age with which his youth was scarce acquainted with he was greatly enamoured of a delicate faire Lady whose name was Estrild the daughter of one Homber a Dane who with a great power invading the Land the King gave him battaile and having routed their whole Army they were forc'd to take that great River which parteth Lincoln-shire and Holdernes and runnes up to Hull in which he with his people being drowned left to the same River his name unto this day To returne to the matter Locrine had by this Lady Estrild a daughter call'd Sabrina but this close packing could not be long conceal'd but by some who thought to insinuate into the favour of the Queen who was of a haughty and masculine spirit all was told her for which being mightily incensed no mediation could appease her implacability but she first incensed her Father and then all her owne particular friends whom by her bounty or favour shee had before obliged to make Warre upon her Husband and prevailing in her purpose shee gave the King Battaile in which his party was discomfited and he himselfe slaine in field This revenge to any of reason might seeme sufficient but here her anger rested not but shee caused the faire Estrild and her Daughter Sabrina to be brought unto her Tent where having reviled them both one with the name of Whore the other of Bastard shee in her heat of bloud and height of rage commanded them both to be throwne into the River neare unto the place where the Battaile was late fought where they were both drowned the River upon that accident losing the name and after the Daughter Sabrina hath beene called Severne even to this day Brithricus the first King of the West Saxons began his Reigne in the yeare of our Lord seven hundred threescore and eighteen and the tenth of Charles the Great then King of France who took to Wife Ethelburge one of the Daughters of Off a King of Mercia he was a valiant Prince and renowned for many Warlike exploits but especially for beating the Danes and compelling them to avoid the Land But what can Valour or Prowesse availe against a wicked and cursed woman who the more freely to
unanimous people of Rome to Heliogabolus that being dead they cast his martyred body into the common jakes of the City with his mother Semile and after flung them into the river Tiber making also an Edict that his statues before erected should be demolished and his very name to be raced out of all the monuments of the City willing if it had been possible quite to have extirped his memory They likewise when the Emperour Michael Paleologus was dead denyed unto his body any place for Buriall Martiâ—s Sabinus much troubled and inâ—enced that Hostilius was by the sufferage of the people preferred unto the Crown and Kingdom to which he had before aspired when he saw his malice could not vent it selfe against his competitor not able to suppresse his implacable indignation and not knowing any meanes to embrew his hands in the blood of his adversary he could not contain himselfe but shed his own and falling upon his sword desperately slew himselfe Full of cruelty and savouring no humanity at all was that wrath and fury of Septimus Severus who having overcome Clodius Sabinus in battail and utterly defeated his Army himselfe being taken prisoner he commanded that he should be transpierced with a sword and slain but not content with this he caused his wounded body to be stripped naked and laid before his Palace as a publike spectacle to all men so that himselfe might take a full view thereof from the prospect of his window yet could not all this satisfie his malitious cruelty but further he commanded a wilde and untamed jennet to be brought forth to trample and tread upon his face breast belly and the other parts of his body untill all his bones were bruised and broken in his skin and he disfigured all over Nor ended his fury here for he would not suffer his body thus mangled and martyred to be taken thence till the stench thereof grew so noysome to the place that it could be indured no longer and then lastly as a close to the rest he gave leave that it should be cast into the river This and the like prove the old adage to be true Homo homini lupus one man is a wolfe to another but I thinke such fire-hearted and pouder-brained men are worse for no brute beast will prey upon its like the Lion will not tyrannize over the Lion the Bear fall upon the Bear nor the Wolfe on the Wolfe onely Man who is sensible and indowed with reason will not spare his own similitude and likenesse I have read in Solinus an approved Authour of a strange fowle or bird bodied like a Gryphin and equall to it in bignesse onely bearing the face of a man this ravenous Harpy for no more proper appellation I can bestow upon it above all other Creatures desires to make his prey upon humane flesh and when he hath slain any man and glutted himselfe with his dead carcase his use is to go to drinke at the next river in which he no sooner spies his own face but presently a telenting and repentance commeth upon him sorrowing to have been the death of a Creature of his own aspect and countenance which taketh in him such a sensible and deep impression that after that time he wil never taste the least food or sustenance punishing his unnaturall act with one the most terriblest deaths that can be invented Famine If these roysters cutters and swashbucklers those bloody minded Canibals for they are no better in their brutish condition would but make this Bird their Embleme and consider with themselves what sorrow and repentance with a remorse of conscience waites at the heeles of every slaughter and murder committed they would not be so forward to give the lye strike stab nor that which in seeming of all those Fowle ones appeares to the outward view the fairest be so ready to send or entertain challenges or meetings in single combats and duels not before considering that he who fals by the others sword in his rage and therefore without charity there is great doubt of his salvation and the conquerour must dearly answer for his lost soul. Besides if he escape the justice of the Law the worme of conscience shall never leave him but continue him in perdurable torment And now to such murders arising from wrath their strange discovery and judgement In the Raigne of Christierne the second King of Denmarke when some twelve of his prime Courtiers were making merry in a parlor and amongst them one who was Post-master to the King it happened that dissention falling amongst them upon the suddain all the lights in the tumult were put out and one amongst them slain with a poniard but lights at length brought in and the Body found murdered and breathlesse the King desired to have account for his dead subject the Nobles lay all the guilt upon this Postmaster but the King with whom he was then gracious thought it to be done of malice and perswaded himselfe that he was innocent of the act they on the contrary alledge that he was the cause of that meeting that there had been a former grudge and malice betwixt them and moreover that when the lights were brought in he was found next to the dead Body so that they desired the Body to be laid upon a table and every one singly to lay his hand upon the naked breast of the person murdered with a deep protestation that they were innocent of the act which was done in the Kings presence and they came all by course according to the manner proposed but in the Body was found no change or alteration at all at last came the Cursor or Postmaster and first embracing his feet and with many teares kissed them thinking by that meanes if it were possible to pacific his just incensed spirit and at length comming to lay his hand upon the breast of the dead body a double flux of bloud issued from his wounds and nostrils and that in great abundance by which finding himselfe convicted he confessed his malitious act and by the King was committed to the common Executioner This story the Lord Henricus Ranzovius Vicar generall to the King of Denmarke in all his Dukedomes a man illustrious in Nobility and Learning relates in his Responsory to the Consulatory of David Chitraus Another suiting to this I finde related by Doctor Othe Melander in his Iocoserni who speaks of a man who through rankor and hatred had watched his neighbour till he had found meanes by meeting him in the thickets and woods a place convenient for such a mischiefe to lay violent hands upon him and murder him and after escaped without the least suspition of the fact but the body being after brought to the Iizehohensian Senate they gave command that one of the hands should be cut off and hanged up over the dining-table in the common Jayle or Prison It happened that the malefactor being some ten yeares after committed upon some delinquency of no great matter or
and laid in prison fettered with heavy chaines and after being condemned the morning before the execution the father strangled himselfe and the mother was carried by the Devill both out of the Tower and Dungeon and her body found dead in a muddy ditch with her necke broken asunder Sorry I am that I can paralell this inhumanity arising from the insatiate desire of Gold out of our owne Countrey thus it hapned An Inne-keeper in a knowne City of this Kingdome whose wife was living and they having betwixt them lost one onely sonne and a sole daughter the sonne he made meanes to be put to an East-India Merchant who imploye him to Sea and to trade and traffick in that Countrey where he stayed long some ten yeares or thereabout insomuch that there was great doubt of his life and to his parents and friends it was credibly reported that he was dead and therefore they gave over the care for him dead to provide for the daughter living and at convenient age provided her of an husband and gave her a competent portion so that the young couple lived well and thriftily together in the Countrey some two miles distant from their fathers house In this interim the Climate had much changed the young mans complexion who being but a beardlesse stripling when hee went his voyage after ten yeares was growne hairy and a full man and might be easily out of knowledge who returning into England with a good stocke as having the best part of a thousand markes in his purse after he had dispatched his businesse here about the Towne he had a great minde to travell downe into the Countrey to see how the good old folke his father and mother did and having trust up his money in a port mantuan he provided himself of a good Nag and fastning it safe behinde him and being well accommodated for his journey he set forward and in few dayes sped him so well that he came within some six or seven miles of his fathers but all the way as he was travelling alone he was meditating with himselfe that his father and his mother were growne aged and he was now as willing as able to furnish them in any necessities whatsoever or if his sister were living and unmarried hee had wherewithall to give her a sufficient portion to see her well bestowed and these were his true filiall and fraternall conceptions to depart liberally of what he had unto them He further apprehended that because every body tels me that knew me in my minority I am so altered and growne out of knowledge I will conceale my selfe at the first that when after I shall open and discover my selfe to them I shall finde the more kinde and loving welcome at their hands By this time comming to the next thorow-fare Towne in the way to the Citie he alighted and called for wine and the host to keepe him company of whom he demanded earnestly if such a man were in health and how his wife fared who answered they were passing well and able to live in very good and fashionable manner Then demanded he of their daughter and what was become of her who replyed that she was honestly married to a thrifty and carefull husband and that she lived in the next village just in his way to the Citie of all which being exceedingly joyfull hee tooke horse againe and found the house where his sister lived whose husband being from home after some discourse past betwixt them and she ingeniously confessing to him that he was a stranger and no way knowne to her he at length told her what he was her brother whom they supposed to bee dead withall the successe of his fortunes 〈…〉 at which when by circumstance she found true she was extreamely extasied and first would have him to alight and stay till her husband came home which he would not by any meanes doe then she would have accompanied him to her fathers but he would yeeld to neither telling her his conceit how he meant to carry himselfe to the two old people intreating her of all loves to conceale his comming for a day or two and then to come and aske for him at their fathers where she should finde what welcome hee would give her to which though unwilling she assented and he rid forward and an houre before sunne-set came to his fathers Inne and calling to the hostler bad him to take off his port-mantuan and after to walke his horse well and then put him into the stable and then he called for mine host who presently appeared like a joviall old lad hee called then for his hostesse and gave her the port-mantuan saying to her good hostesse lay this up till I call for it for here is that which I hope will make us all merry then hee desired to have the best chamber in the house and bespake supper telling them he was alone and desired them both to keepe him company yet all this while they not so much as suspected what he was and whilest he was gone into the stable to see his horse the woman feeling what weight the port-mantuan had told her husband and the Devill presently put it into their mindes to murder the stranger for his money supper-time came and they accompanied him much discourse at randome past amongst them but covetousnesse and the Devill so blinded their eyes that all this while they knew him not After supper they tooke their leaves to plot what they before had apprehended To bed he went and in the dead of night they both entred his chamber and murdered him sleeping then they conveyed his body into a backe place and buried it his horse they tooke out of the stable washt the bloud out the chamber and shifted a new bed in the place so that all things were handsome as if nothing had beene In the morning when they thought the worst had beene past comes the sister with her husband she askes for such a stranger they stifly deny that any such lodged there which they did so constantly that she entreated them not to keepe her owne brother and their sonne from her who was come out of the Indies with such a summe of money to relieve all their necessities at first they are both strooke silent but questioning her further when by all circumstances whatsoever she said they found it to be true not able longer to containe themselves they fell into a loud exclamation weeping and wringing their hands Briefly for this they were both publickly executed and the strangenesse of the accident by all that heard it admired I have read strange reports concerning the death of grating Usurers who though by their broking exactions and corroding oppressions doe not visibly imbrue their hands in the bloud of the indigent and needy yet by their horrible extortions have put them to more lingering and torturing deaths as to starve famish and perish not beggering private persons who are compelled to come within their griping clutches only but