the Princesse of Maiorica I pray you assure him that whosoever told him so lied most falsely in that he informed him of an untruth in a matter so far from my thoughts as that Princesse whom I never yet saw is from my knowledge and acquaintance And if my voyage hath given occasion to any ill-minded fellowes to thinke so of me yet cannot any such conjecture accuse me neither am I such as ought to yeeld any man an account where or which way I goe there being in those parts whither I am bound for so many countries and such diversitie of occasions wherein a Knight may honourably imploy himselfe As I hold my selfe greatly injured of such as judge of me rather the worst than the best for the rest I know the Prince for a valiant Knight and have tri'd him but yet armes as well as other things have their both fortunate and fatall dayes so as if I should happen to affront him this my present misfortune should no whit disencourage me Albeit for the occasion he pretends there shall neither be cause for him to chastise me as he saith nor for me to defend my selfe as I would doe for any one that would offer to injure me If he please to leave me to my liberty there being not betweene us any cause of hostility he will then performe what he owes to the amitie of our parents If otherwise and that he will rather credit the malignant conjectures of some villaine than the royall words of a Prince I shall then have just cause to thinke my selfe hardly used by him The Count could doe no lesse than reporte all these speeches punctually to the Prince who not as much as moved thereat sent for the Catalans of whom hee would know againe whither Don Peplasos intended to goe those that had already vnadvisedly spoken the truth could not revoke what they had said the rest who were so fortunate as not to be examined said they knew not their Lords intrinsecall intentions Howbeit the rumor thereof was so published as the more cautelous sort knew better how to conceale than denie it Whereupon Metaneone unwilling by contestation to multiply the ruine of these men resolved with the advice of the Count not to set him at liberty untill such time as Eromilia were thereof advised and had taken a course for the securing of her person But having discoursed of the manner of effecting it they considering of their being but sixtie miles wide from Maiorica concluded to passe that way and thereof to advertize the King her father and so with the merit of two so great services to give him then an inckling of the desire he had to be his Sonne in-in-law not that he then meant to treate of the marriage but onely to prevent the suit of all such others as might come thither to demand her The Prince glad of this counsell fell off with a contrary wind to Fermentera where he found a Frigat that there rode sequestred by the winds The Knight that came in her presently knowing the Galley Royall ran with much joy to kisse the Prince his hands who suddenly knew him for one of Eromilia's Knights of whom when he understood of his being sent from her with letters to the King her father he told him what had hapned betweene him and the Prince of Catalogna and how that hee continued not in his voyage because it was necessarie for him to goe to Maiorica there to leave him in the Kings custodie till such time as the Princesse had made sufficient provision for the securitie of her person Fidele for such was this Knights name was much astonished at this newes and besought the Prince to grant him some odds of time to get him gon before him as soone as the wind should turne to be a little calmer that the King by reading the letters of the Princesse might come to know the other obligation he ow'd him To which request the Prince was at first loth to consent supposing it was but to give the King of Maiorica time to receive him with greater pompe and honour till afterwards considering the advantage he might come to receive by meanes of the letters of Perseno and the Countesse Palomera he was contented to favour his request and such was the lucke that the winde in that instant as it were quite asswaged occasioned a great calme Wherof Fidele regardlesse having a good Frigat well provided of oares and pressing forwards amaine speed arrived at Maiorica a day sooner than the Prince The King who was even dead of longing to heare newes from his daughter seeing this Knight present himselfe before him was exceeding glad thereof and understanding what had hapned them in their journey as they went and unto the Prince of Mauritania as he came remained thereat strangely amazed afterwards opening his daughters letter he found it thus said My Lord if I had beene capable of content I might say I had received it from your Majesties letters delivered me by the Countesse of Palomero being the greatest joy that an obliged and obedient daughter might possibly receive yet doth not this incapacitie deprive me of that comfort which nature in all children and your particular love towards me might suggest or put me in mind of Insomuch therefore as you strive to surpasse all fathers in loving your daughter most ungratefull were I if I endevoured not to exceed all other daughters in loving so worthy and deserving a father But now me thinkes I heare you say that the last effects manifested the contrary yet My Lord I beseech you in this subject to give credit even to the incredible for my affection which was the source of paradoxes was so repugnant to all humane dispositions as it is no wonder if with it subsist contrarieties Behold then how I pretend not to excuse my fault but doe beseech you to impute it to passion by whose meanes like a raving sicke woman come to the worst point I wanted force to exercise those faculties which the wise make use of so as my offence deserves rather compassion than reproofe in that it brings with it its owne punishment And now that I have acknowledged my duty towards you together with the fault of my absence give me leave I pray you to defend my selfe with the worthy occasion of my errors Represent Oh represent before you My Lord a Perosfilo a Prince of such exceeding rare qualities to whom was dedicated by you my person and by me my soule and then represent him before you dead Alas how could I possibly in so great disorder observe any order I that more than any other loved him whom all loved and which is more with a true and legitimate love If then he were assigned me by you to be the companion of my life why will you not permit me to be the companion of his death And where shall I ever finde out his like Indeede had I aim'd at no other end than solitarinesse I could have retired
desirous to pay the tribute of the dutie that he owed his father having gotten leave of his father-in-father-in-law to take along with him Eromena they accompanied with Eleina went on their intended voyage for Mauritania where being arrived they were received with such pompe and joy as greater can not be described The old King seeing his sonnes thus well match'd and Polimero so well provided for and setled joyed for the hope he had to see issue from them a faire posteritie which hee was so fortunate as to see spring from both of them for Eromilia about foure moneths then after was brought to bed of a boy Whilest Eromena knowing her selfe to bee with child thought to returne home being sent for by her father but the intreaties of her parents and brothers-in-brothers-in-law were so importunate as it was not possible for her to returne and the Embassadors sent thence to Sardegna got with much difficultie leave for her to stay there somewhat longer her time being come she was brought to bed of a daughter whose features were both so faire and manly that the sight of her bred no lesse delight than wonder in the hearts of all that saw her And too withall nature it selfe which in ingendring amazement proceeds with unaccustomed meanes now in her operations exceeded her ordinarie bounds for two or three nights before her birth were heard all over the Palace and through the streets of the citie a pleasing murmur as that of voices and instruments that carried to the eare an unusuall sweetnesse of harmonie beguiling many who went through the lodgings to seeke for it with others who went out of their houses thinking to finde it abroad The day shee was borne on there was no man that minded his owne businesse but every man drawne by an unknowne affect forsooke his shop whilest the sacred temples shone with sacrifices and devout worshipping Never was there seene over all Afrique a more temperate day or a more sweetly-warming Sunne than was then Orenge Lemon and Cedar-trees that never budded before now blossomed abundantly yeelding at that birth their fruit in all maturitie and perfection The gentle Dolphins ranne sporting themselves nimbly in the sea chasing to the land whole armies of fish which the inhabitants tooke with no lesse joy than amazement an old well or deepe wintch that at first was sunke in the castle of Birsa for the commoditie of the Garrison and was for being found afterwards with salt water in it dedicated to Neptune boild all the night long becomming in the following morning so sweete as it excelled in goodnesse the best waters in that Countrey Full glad was Eromena to heare of such things acknowledging her thankes to heaven for doing them in the favour of her girle Congratulations she received not as a woman in child-bed but as a Captaine vanquissant of a battel Many times and often kissed shee her sweet babe who without either crying or weeping beheld stedfastly the faire light of the world by no meanes possible would the sweet little one endure the swathing bands but would with a lovely fiercenesse push them off her No other dugs would shee touch saving those of her mothers wherein though they thought to beguile her by Eromena's holding her in her armes and others reaching her a dug yet she informed by the instinct of nature would shut up close her pretty mouth chusing rather to die for hunger than to be nurst with other milke than her mothers She would by all meanes bee obeyed in all things and faine were they whether they would or not to let her have her will to the passing content of her grand-parents leaving at her parting so great a longing after her as the expectations from her exceeded that of all the girles that ever were borne in Africke Polimero with his Eromena departed thence leaving every one sad for their privation who arrived in Sardegna setled themselves to the ordering of the Relame-affaires Whose strange adventures and rare feates of chivalrie together with other things in this Booke unfinished shall be writ in the Story of Donzella-desterrada or the Exiled Virgin FINIS * Venetia
marvaile if his fatherly inclination hindred him to discerne the malice of his sonne he would not beleeve that they went about to poison me because the Physitian denied it for which I having no other testimony than the two Knights that were fled and gone alleaged my distillations and some words carelesly let slippe from mee whereby my women discovered in mee such like suspitions I denied not the gift of the Iewell though for the occasion I told you further alleaging that Don Eulavio being as every one knew a noble Knight it was not a thing credible that either I should use him for a Pander or that he would have beene so base as to suffer himselfe to become such a one but seeing the King for all this sticke firme to the evidence of his sonne which was the gift of the Iewell and flight of the Knights I shewed him how the gift had its occasion and much more the flight of the Knights that had beene verie wilfully sottish to have trusted themselves to the discretion of an unjust and cruell Prince who if he made no conscience to procure my death for being excluded of his hopes of the Arelatan kingdome and for the aspiring to that of Maiorica much lesse would he have made to put them to death to the end he might thereby not onely revenge himselfe and suppresse the discoverie of his mischievous practises but also rid himselfe of me for ever at the price of my life and honour In the end I besought him that my Physitian might be examined by torture wherof he was well contented but hee the very day before he was to be examined was found strangled to make the world beleeve that he hanged himselfe for feare of torments My reasons in summe had availed mee little if in lesse than eight dayes after this accident there had not appeared an Ambassadour from my father come scowring with maine force of oares on a well rigged Galley who having presented the King with a letter of credence and acquainted him with the occasion of his comming delivered him also a letter from Don Eleimo containing the whole story of my case without varying a haites bredth from what I had formerly related And because the Embassadour suddenly upon his arrivall would needs have audience ere he spake with me or any other he praied as soone as the King had reade the letter that he might see me to confront therewith my deposition which could not be denied him and finding me in a plight so deplorable he comforted me with assuring me that my fathers tendernesse of affection to me-wards was no lesse now than when I was his only child and that when he were assured of my honesty he was resolved to defend it though it should cost him his life and kingdome that he was sent thither to be an assistant at my arraignement which he would have prosecuted with all rigor that so my innocency might be the better cleered that the maine proofe consisted of one sole point which was to see if what I said was conformable to what Don Eleimo had told my father and now written to the King of Catalogna there present Much was I comforted in hearing this and after having asked him how my father did I related unto him as formerly I had done to my father-in-father-in-law the advertizements many times given me by Don Eleimo with the severall antidotes by mee taken whereof I shewed them the receipts wishing them to aske the Physitians if such were effectuall against poisons I made known unto them in the end how it grieved me that my Physitian was hanged up in prison for feare lest he discovered on the racke both his own and the Prince his treacherie Which when the Embassadour heard he asked the King what he thought of it Whereto hee not knowing what to answer reading againe Don Eleimo's letter with strange mutation of colours said he would goe conferre with his sonne to whom when he had shewed the letter and made with him a great stirre about it he at length resolved to have all things husht up wherewith I not contenting my selfe but requiring the death of the false Catascopo with some publike declaration of the Prince for the manifestation of my innocency could by no meanes possible obtaine either the one or the other for Catascopo disclaimed from having ever named me maintaining all hee averr'd to be true without any prejudice to me and the Prince by alleaging love to be a thing full of doubts and feares not onely excluded himselfe from the obligation of giving me such satisfaction as I looked for but also pretended to have withall obliged me in having so basely defamed me I would faine have returned home to my fathers but entreated by my father-in-father-in-law deceived by the false penitencie of my husband and counselled by the Embassadour not to doe it being that my husband could no waies make a more publike declaration of my wronged honestie than to keepe mee with him I was perswaded to stay whereof I soone repented me now that a justly conceived disdaine had taken away from mee all the residue of love and that there appeared to increase in him a desire to free himselfe of the knowne ill opinion that every one conceived of him imagining my life to be unto him a perpetuall upbraiding of his infamie It fortuned that a yeare and somewhat after that these things succeeded the valourous Prince your brother was slaine whereupon a new phrensie being come into his head of getting the Princesse Eromilia a thing which could not be whilest I lived he resolved to make me away but not knowing what colour to have for it now that my honestie was so openly knowne he thought of a thousand wayes whereof no one liked him at last hee lighted on one the most villanous that ever humane wit could imagine Now there stood seated on the Pirenean mountaines a Temple dedicated to the goddesse Iuno whither such married paires as had lived disgusted came from remote parts on pilgrimage to pray the goddesse to grant them reciprocall love and concord Don Peplasos in whom was never before seene any signe either of pietie or religion become now forsooth in an instant devoutly religious invited me to this pilgrimage whereof I that much needed celestiall helpe was God knowes exceeding joyfull Me-thought that my prayers were already heard and that I saw my husband become an altered man for that the desire to be good which he seemed now to have argued in him a beginning of goodnesse Nothing would he resolve of without me touching this journey participating of my advice as well for the manner thereof as for the company we were to take along with us wherein he seeming to be exceedingly mortified and full of contrition we resolved to goe disguised without any manner of pompe taking with us but one servant a-piece but because I thought I could not for modesties cause be so conveniently served in my occasions by a man servant I told him
in his royal estate nor were all those dangers that were proposed to be likely to spring from the keeping of him alive able to remove Eromena from her innate clemencie who onely kept him secure under the charge of a faithfull guarde whereof there was no great neede for he having understood of the losse of his kingdome and of the resolution taken touching his person growne furiously mad thereat and wanting wherewithall to kill himselfe ranne his head at the wall with such a horrible force as he therewith dash'd out his braines for the others were prepared new wayes of torture as pinsers sheares hot irons and fires but the Princesse thereto consented not leaving such inventions for hellish furies contenting her selfe that they though worthy of all torments paid the law its due and satisfied by example the necessitie and publike desire of justice which was executed with so great a concourse of spectators as that the field was not capable to containe so great a throng The Traytors dying all of them penitent of the offence except the obstinate Admirall In the meane time was the Count of Bona held in suspence almost two montehs space without receiving any publike answer being neverthelesse well informed of its occasion and sumptuously entertained The newes being afterwards come of the totall possession of Corsica and Polimero desiring there should be sent thither a Vice-Roy to governe it a generall assembling of the states of the kingdome was resolved of to which end came together the feodatories deputies of every one of the Cities and Provinces The first thing in that Parliament decreed was the Prince's funerall exequies which were celebrated with such an orderly pompe as that they might with more reason bee termed triumphs there not appearing other lugubrous object than the habit and affection to the deceased Prince There were to be seene the representations and modells of sacked cities battells won people tamed and vanquished of Kings and Giants taken and led captives of wilde beasts trampled downe and monsters slaine the liberalitie used towards the vanquished the giving of cities and whole kingdomes not for avaritious but for honourable ends the Virgins preserved and the women cared for the dangers of the land and sea voyages and discovering of new regions In summe all whatsoever could in such a subject bee imagined for the expression of his a thousand-fold happinesse if there had not among so many ornaments of glorie violently beene inserted in the minds of the beholders the occasion of his death At the second sitting was in solemne forme established the incorporation of Corsica to the kingdome of Sardegna with a law of never alienating it more for any occasion whatsoever Some there were that would have their lawes and priviledges quite abolished but thereto would not the Princesse abosolutely consent thinking it best to see first how they demeaned themselves who though conquered by force should not be for that respect worse used than before being fallen not through their owne but through their Prince's faultinesse whose remembrance shold bee defaced out of the peoples hearts by good vsage and continuation of favours rather than by harsh usage and withdrawing of favours to give them cause of endeavouring to regaine their former freedome As for the lawes she well knew their abolishing to be necessarie being that a body cannot be formed of two soules and those different and would therefore have the Sardan lawes serve for and be common to both kingdomes nominating the Marquesse of Oristagnio Vice-roy of Corsica with generall applause of the universall assembly There being propounded afterwards at the third sitting the demand of Mauritania not for obtaining of consent thereto but to have it confirmed by counsell upon recitall of Polimero's merits and of the conquest of Corsica there was not so much as one that gainesaid it The Marquesse of Oristagnio parted suddely to the end Polimero might come to celebrate the marriage Now he had received daily intelligence from his Eromena the Marquesse and the Count of Bona of all that was done in Sardegna wherefore though he were desirous to dispatch himselfe thence yet waited he with all patience the orderly proceeding of his affaires conformable to the necessitie of the times setling in the meane time the places he had gotten in such order as they might be easily conserved fortifying every place whose site or necessitie required it having a speciall eye to the assuring of the ports but chiefely to the remotest from Sardegna in the face of Liguria So as when the Marquesse came and found all things so well setled he said that Corsica might well be kept without his government it being so well ordered as it was impossible for it for a long time to fall into any disorder Arrived in Sardegna and as its Prince reverenced of every one he came to Caleri met with great pompe and extraordinary applause where having kissed the Kings hands he would needes doe no lesse to Eromena's also the presence of the multitude prohibiting them to embrace one another according to their internall amorous affects so as they greeted each other with outward apparances according to the stile of convenient ceremonies The King for all these rejoycings never once joyed at all but the more he observed his son-in-sonne-in-law in his actions resemble his sonne the more he felt his heart rent with the memorie therof which he so loved as for it he disloved every thing else not excepting himselfe Polimero's first resolution was to licence the Mauritanian forces wherewith he well pleased the whole kingdome he re-sent them enriched with the pillage or Corsica and therefore passing well contented sending backe also with them all the Fleet except the Galleyes which he sent for Metaneone to come to his marriage and he by entreatie of his father and mother-in-mother-in-law got leave to bring also along with him Eromilia Having then ship'd themselves after they had by a Fleet-Galley sent their brother word of their comming they sayled the two first daies with prosperous windes but were the two following greatly troubled with Southerly windes so as they had much ado to keep in the maine from crossing over to the Gaulan cost But the winde increasing and blowing with extraordinary furie they having lost their direct course were driven into the Lygustike sea without being able to touch the Iland of Corsica The sweet Eromilia found her selfe heart-sicke being unable to taste any sustenance sore was she troubled with vomiting so as having nothing in her stomack she cast up the very pure bloud to the extreme griefe of her husband who would willingly have died rather than have seene her so languish He had once hoped to come by some meanes or other to strike on the Corsan shore but seeing himselfe transported beyond Capo-Corso he commanded to take the winde in poop and to runne a-shore on the neerest place of landing North-ward from that Cape stood a little disinhabited Isolet where having with much adoe cast anchor
be declared apparent heire after the Queene of that kingdome excluding by name Coralbo for so is this unfortunate child cald in spight of all such as opposed him Very few were those that stucke to the Queenes side all following the fortune of the son-in-sonne-in-law with the pretext of the Princesse by this time fruitfull of three sonnes so as the poore distressed Queene counselled by necessitie was faine to forgoe his sonnes title but perceiving though too late that this could not make up her good sonne-in-lawes content and that Coralbos life was that which he aimed at shee sent him to the strong castle of Cardamina when he waxen wroth to see him so repriv'd from his barbarous crueltie unmasking himselfe now and promising his sisters-in-law with great Dowries to many Princes had the heart to deprive his mother-in-mother-in-law of her kingdome the death of his wife giving him occasion so to do who whilest she liv'd would never consent either to the deposing of her mother or the death of her brother Established then with the title of his sonnes the deposed Queene of every one pittied too late considering how that Cardamina whither she was retired could not be long able to withstand the Tyrants force calling me unto her Sotiro my beloved Cozen said she I know you conceive the miserable estate whereto fortune hath reduced me I am now without either husband or kingdome and am also like enough to bee shortly without a sonne too In such losses as these for which I should have died I have conserved my selfe alive to the end that at every new breathing I might lively feele them all my kindred and servants have all forsaken me you onely deare Cozen have left and lost all to accompanie and comfort me so that it is not the least among my griefes to know the disproportion that is betweene your fidelitie and my present state for not being able to reward you yet will I neverthelesse give you so efficacious a token of my gratitude though the receiving of it can bee to you but a great trouble that you will confesse it lies not in my power to give you more in the case I am in at this present With that taking the child and laying it in my armes she stood a good while without opening her mouth plung'd in a sea of teares till at last she said unto me This is that which I promised you the sole Relique of my felicities and onely comfort of all my losses and miseries which I must lose to my selfe that it be not lost to the world here is no place for him poore Infant no King or Prince to whose trust I may commit him you onely dare I boldly trust him with Vpon this rising off her seate and I following her with the babe in my armes she led me into a great tower where we found so much riches Iewels and coine as I remained thereat astonished opening unto me afterwards the places shut up and my wonder thereat increasing Cozen said she I would bid you take all that you here see if the carriage of it would not endanger you take therefore all that you thinke may stead and serve you yet must you make account that what you take must without any more be the patrimonie of my poore sonne and the stay of your loyaltie my selfe not knowing either what shall become of me or whether I shall ever find any meanes of sending you any more And as she was about to tell me somewhat touching the education she would have me give him she was seazed on by so great a floud of teares as her unfinished conceits were by her sobbings limited with this onely Doe you Whereupon I transformed into her griefe though most unapt to comfort her strove the best I could to speake something to her but she soliciting me to depart with such speedy earnestnesse as if the Tyrant had beene at the gates I went and chused out of the treasure what liked me best and taking up the babe got me to Arsinoe where landing in a Merchants habit having with me the riches signed up in diverse packs with merchants marks I passed to the Nile desending on it at my leasure to the sea where boording a good shop I sought for a setling place over all the Mediterranean Ilands but being winde-driven hither and finding here a great heard of goats with this Deere amongst them I wondered to see her so gently fawne upon me without any feare at all so as I judging this a fit place for my purpose called it because of the goates Capraia and finding this mouldrie stone easie to be wrought I sent for workmen from Liguria who in a short time made me the house you here see wherein I will doe my best to conceale this disinherited Prince I brought along with me three right faithfull servants one my owne the others given me by the Queene but because I never wrote unto her more than once from Arsinoe I sent her some three moneths sithence one of them to bring her newes of us not so much for discharge of my dutie as to know what state she now is in and to see if there be any likelihood of any hope of our returne wherein if there appeare an impossibilitie I intend to continue here till such time as the child grow to be able to exercise horse and armes by that time suspitions ceased my selfe growne aged he well growne up and both of us altogether unkend and quite forgotten I will endeavour to bring him elsewhere that fortune may not together with his kingdome deprive him of those fruits the world is like to reape from his truly Royall inclinations And this excellent Princes is all that you desired to know which I beseech you to account as not spoken nor had your Royall dignities beene sufficient to have made mee become thereof confident enough if your aspects carried not engraven in them the merits of your vertues worthy to be the cabinet of so great a secret Eromilia hugging the babe close to her faire breast with kissing it a thousand times could not containe her selfe from weeping faine would she have praied Sotiro to goe along with her to have him bred up in her Court if she had thought to have obtained him which proffer she and Metaneone both made him with expression how desirous they were thereof but he humbly thanking her told her that he would finde a time to come with him to see and serve her The three dayes that the tempest lasted passed the Princesse pleasantly on this Rocke with the sweet-pleasing company of Coralbo which expired shee commending him to the gods departed with her husband In a short time arrived they at Caleri met by Polimero and wellcomed by Eromena conformable to the dignitie of their estates and communitie of their affections whence they could not part for many dayes after the marriage although the King of Mauritania had by often messages solicited their returne till at length Polimero also
nature As for me I pretend nothing else than your service neither expect I other guerdon than that you would vouchsafe to be pleased to give me leave to serve you wherein if my fortune or your benignitie make me so happie as that my service be acceptable unto you I shall account in at unpretended gaine But as for my wound I thinke it be not dangerous if my sense beguile me not which indeed it well may seeing that who so lives with the gods is not subject to the feeling of any paine your divine presence is sufficient to ease all kinde of paines and cure all manner of wounds though deepe and inward as I repute mine to be at this instant rather exasperated than given The Princesse in the lifting up he made of his beaver rested so extazied as if she had beene strucken with lightning beleeving not till such time as she heard him speake that hee could be other than a damzell like her selfe whom some emulation had drawne into those parts But having afterwards examined the arguments for the contrary she could not satiate her selfe in beholding him yet not all of him for her eyes become immoveable had not the power to stirre from their first object so as fixed altogether on his her eyes twinckled not at all and so exceedingly was she ravished by an unknowne power as she was forced to understand the invisible intelligences that passed frō one heart to the other But when she afterwards heard his courteous conceits his modest pretentions and his last words of her not understood amisse she being such a one as both for vivacitie of wit to conceive them and for incomparable beauties and exquisite perfections to deserve them was every way peerelesse imagining withall that so lofty a thought could not be lodg'd elsewhere than in a Prince's heart she with a gladsome countenance made him this reply You are too too curious Sir Knight in prizing a feeble damzell so highly as you doe and too little affectioned to your selfe-wards in so slenderly esteeming your owne worth for such have your services hitherunto beene as I judge my selfe more than any other indebted to that common law you speake of the exclusion from which if it could be granted me in any case shold then be for services done me by my fathers subjects who are thereto obliged by nature and by the favours they daily receive but in this case a stranger hath no place his service not depending on the law of subjection but on his owne free-will and election wherewith he greatly obligeth whom he serves But leaving this aside me-thinks your wound hath no neede of delaying its cure which since it is such as you tell me let us hence to our tents where I hope in the gods the danger will not prove such but that you may be soone cur'd thereof for there have we good Chirurgions and withall these our mountaines are full of vertuous herbes by meanes whereof you will in a few dayes I hope finde your selfe recovered and a sound man Polimero would no further reply for doubt of being esteemed audacious which she observing put off her glove to touch his hand as she was wont to doe to her guests and he gently taking it in his affectionately kissed it to the great pleasure of them both acutely conceiving their joyes to be equally shared The Marquesse and others seeing him of so tender an age and so rare a beauty after enterchange of courteous complements could never have their fill of looking on him deeming his force to be unproportionable to his yeares and his delicacy to his valour Being come to the tents and the Chirurgions sent for he was by speciall order from the Princesse laid a-bed and dressed in a tent not farre from hers The wound was in the fleshly part of the flancke of a good widenesse of no danger and of a likelihood of being soone cured whereof the Princesse was exceeding joyfull and had willingly gone in person to visite him but that modesty and her dignitie forbade her The day ensuing it was resolved in councell that no time nor respite was to be given the enemy already halfe overthrown but that he should be assailed in his trenches when as they were going out there appeared before them some Countrey Swaines who delivering the Princesse a letter told her they were of Cornetto where they kept prisoner the Admirall shrewdly wounded whereupon she being verie inquisitive to know how he was taken one of them knowing Carasio who by chance waited there to know what the Councell would resolve of answered her the Master of that same squire there is he that delivered him us to bring him as sent from him to your Highnesse but he is in so bad a plight at this present as that we could not bring him along with us Hereupon the Princesse knowing Carasio knew also by him whence the present came so as turning towards the Councell she said A happy starre was it for us that conducted hither such a Knight as this who in a small time hath done more himselfe alone than all our forces together for although the overthrow at Valentino and taking of Sassari were of importance yet all had beene to little purpose without the taking of this Traitor and the rest which were by him tane yesterday calling upon this for Carasio she enquired of him if what they said was true which when hee had affirmed and saw that she joyed much thereof he further said I beleeve not that your Highnesse knowes as yet all that might in that respect make up your joyes more compleate and thereupon acquainted her of the imprisoning of the slave How said she is the slave a prisoner and I know nothing thereof It is most certaine answered Carasio and with that related unto her the manner how he was found at sea by the Marquesse of Chia Scarce had he finished his discourse when there arrived unawares a Poast from the King who brought also letters from the same Marquesse wherein after the newes of the slave he recommended Polimero describing him by his aspect armes and horse giving her withall an inkling of his being highly descended and of his comming of purpose to serve her in that warre Which newes afforded her as she conceived a colourable excuse to go see him and therefore asked Carasio if a visite of hers would be discommodious unto him who having answered her it would not advertized thereof his Master who at the Princesse her entrance raising himselfe on his elbow said The Tent Madame in that it is your Highnesses may perhaps deserve this favour but never I although I possessed all the merits in the world and as he would have spoken on the Princesse interrupting him said Since then Sir the Tent as you say is mine it is fit that I command in mine owne house which otherwise I would not presume to doe with you but by way of intreaty Repose your selfe on your pillow or I will get me gone
permitted returned her this answer My ever-onely Lady Nature that was so carefull to create your Highnesse singular above all things else should by its singularities assure you that there is no judgement so clouded as considering your wayes can chuse but knwo your actions to be completely perfect and though it were possible that any such could be yet should it bee constrained to confesse that in you the very errours themselves are perfections which stealiâ— gwife accompanied you and being ambitious of honour and coverous of fame changed both name and nature being not for all that grafted but onely fastned to the boughs of the goodliest and perfectest tree that ever the gods of husbandry for celestiall deliciousnesse planted among the terrene ones of humane Paradise For who could have knowne how to leave father countery and Realme without any blot of errour except your unparalel'd selfe who have even in erring abounded in a singular constancie and incomparable worth of love farre surpassing all the constancies and merits of the world Your Highnesse then should not doubt but rather confidently beleeve that you shall thereby reape the more praise in that so praise-worthy an errour cannot sufficiently be prized which I repute to be more perfect because its sole perfections having invited mee it of it selfe so ravished me as I being really transformed into a sweete error cannot without error call my selfe more mine owne Now for that it pleaseth your Highnesse to make me happie by seconding the Will of the King your father I have not words to expresse my thankfulnesse nor effects to serve you comformable to your merit onely there remaine in me a desire and a will to both And because your Highnesse merits all that is good too too blame were I if after having given what else was mine I detained from you these that are yet left me Accept them then I beseech you to make mee will and desire if it bee your will that I may wish and your desire that I may desire who account my selfe no other than the obedient executor of your commands and in that right happie since fortune hath raised mee to so high a pitch as to be thought worthy to serve you The Princesse who had now converted her widdowly moane into fresh teares of conjugall affection joyfull of having acquired so courteous a Prince would not leave him unreplied unto with a gentle correspondence of courteous thankes-yeelding which ended and the houre of dinner a good while passed they sate them downe with better content and more consolation in the straightnesse of that Rocke than others of their ranke and eminencie would have done among the superfluous varietie of royall Palaces Needs would the Prince as soone as he had dined goe see Perseno whom the Princesse also favoured with the same honour where after some gratefull passages they had no time to discourse of ought else than of their departure which somewhat troubled Eromilia's minde for not knowing how to dispose of the Rock But the Prince who well knew the Tingitanan Kings ambition and how that such a place well fortified might curbe him at any time resolved not to abandon it at any hand so as their departure was deferred for no other cause than for the refabricking of its ruines and hewing the rock in such a contrived maner as no engins might approch it which in few dayes was dispatched by the helping hand of the Galley-slaves who laboured thereabout every one his share The Princesse would have him leave some of his to governe it whereto he would by no meanes condiscend deeming it as yet unbeseeming him so to doe but prayed her to leave there for Commander Perseno the rather because hee being grievously wounded could not chuse but grow to be in worse plight with the motion and rowling of the sea the Prince himselfe sending to Orano a frontier citie of his state for all things requisite for him to assure that hold against a long siege promising him withall in private that in case it pleased him not to stay there he himselfe would procure his father in law to send him a successour gratifying him in the meane time with large rewards of honours and revenewes from Mauritania of his owne things pertaining to his principalitie Things reduced to this head he embarked himselfe with the Princesse and all her family steering on a direct course for Maiorica Now Eromilia had by Metaneone's counsell ere shee parted caused the Brother-Princes to bee fish'd up whose bodies she sent embalmed in two coffers to the Lord of Velez with the two remaining Galleyes together with the full relation of the fact whereof he was before sufficiently informed praying him to send them to the King of Tingitana their father not without expressing her being sensible of the violence done her in their Dominions and in a place purchased of the Governour himselfe whereto he dissemblingly answered That the Princes came to no other end than to defend and rescue her having understood by their spies the designes of the Princes of Andaluzia and Granada And that if one of them endeavoured to force the Rocke it was for the discourteous language given him by the Captaine of her Garrison In the same manner were the bodies of the other two Princes together with their Galleyes consigned to such of their men as remained alive thereby to take away all pretext of grievances advertizing thereof besides the Courts of sundry Princes by particular letter expressing the manner of the fact to the end that the truth might be every where knowne Onely Don Peplasos was reserved to his wives determination being deemed unworthy to enjoy the prerogative of a Prince or honour due to a Knight for being culpable of two faults and in each of them two severall times guiltie after having for his first offence in the one and the other obtained pardon offences of a base minde an impious heart and mischievous affect and against that sex which nature made pious that it might even of crueltie it selfe obtaine pittie yet he more cruell than any cruelty moved with a barbarous avarice of Tyrannicall ambition had twise attempted the death of chaste Eleina to deprive her both of life and honour and to make her twise miserable with the rape of the gentle Eromilia besides his ingratitude towards the King of Maiorica and Prince of Mauritania who albeit they knew his ill intention yet because they thought it impossible for him to fall into relapse of so foule and enormous a fault had both set him at liberty and honoured him In such a fashion was his Inditement framed not by notaries upon the testimony of two or three nor written in fragile papers but in his owne conscience approved by the deede it selfe made notorious by the attestation of all that part of the world and registred in the most tenacious memories to be conserved for a perpetuall tradition to posteritie to the horror not so much of the good as of the mischievous that as
betweene the one and the other The Queene perceiving well what he meant and yet resolved to get it plainely out of him told him there was no Lady free and at her owne dispose that had cause to refuse the service of so noble and vertuous a Knight as he was unlesse she were a married wife such a one having indeed a good cause of excuse whereto he answering her that she was a widdow she replied that widdowes might lawfully re-marry In fine the end of their discourse was the reciprocall discovery of their affection with the appointment of their marriage to be mannaged with such meanes as might best befit her modestie and credit a conclusion that wrought in their hearts extreme content not to bee changed for the possession of the whole world The overjoyed Queene now assured of the affection of her beloved Prince grew fairer every day than other and come to Omano passed there right happily her destinated moneth Faine would the Prince have written unto his father to send him thither forthwith Embassadors to demand her whereunto she with whom love prevailed not so much but that modestie prevailed yet more would by no meanes consent to the Prince his so great torment as he thought himselfe unable to support it Whereas she founding the fact with more maturitie considered that the world omitting the considerations of her being both a woman and young withall and therefore subject as others were to common passions would have said that she married onely to spite her daughter The feasts ended she licenced him with all the rest he having all that time so behaved himselfe that though hee were enamored young and full of fire yet was there not any that could take notice of his pretentions and although he served her with extraordinarie diligence and that in tournies he carried her Impresa and favours and that shee did him besids the publike favour to terme him her Knight neverthelesse the opinion of modesty in her and discretion in him being great suffered 〈◊〉 those his demeanors to bee deemed other than 〈◊〉 of Chivalrie and of service due rather to a Lady than to love Come home he communicated his designe to the King his father and to the Parthian Prince his brother who assoone as they had understood of the Prince of Susiana's returne home with his bride were not slacke to send to the Queene a noble embassage which they willed to be expressed in presence of the Councell The obstacles in this businesse were three all of them of moment whereof the least was the quantitie of daughters of the other two the lesse important was the jealousie and by consequence the enmitie of the Prince of Susiana the last and greatest of all was the danger of stirring up rebellion in Arabia the desart whereof her late husband the father of the girles having beene naturall King it was to bee doubted whether that people would ever obey a new King in prejudice of the Princesse of Sasiana their legitimate Queene as her who of the daughters was the eldest To the first was answered that a male being more convenient and necessarie to the Realme than a female and a naturall home-borne native more fit than a stranger the mariage of the Queene was approved to be not onely laudable but necessarie To the second that the Prince of Susiana being the Artacan Prince his friend had no reason to dislike of this alliance and though hee were more wedded to the hope of that kingdome than to its Princesse till then presumed to be heiresse neverthelesse there was not by this match any thing of his taken from him because there having beene neither promise nor mention made of giving him the kingdome for a Dower hee was not berest of the hope of having it in case there sprung not from these nuptials any heires male and if he would not be thus satisfied with reason yet was there no cause to feare him considering the greatnesse of the kingdome the valour of the Prince of Artacana and the force of the Parthians apt upon any occasion to invade Susiana To the third finding neither reason nor pretext was said that it lay not in the Queenes power either to give her new husband the title of King of the other Arabia nor yet in case she married to retaine it her selfe it being not hers but her daughters adding that as they besought her to marrie that so she might give them a lawfull Lord so desired they her to be also pleased in the selfe same time to cede that kingdome to whom it of right descended With this the marriage was concluded on and the kingdome of Arabia the desart granted to the Prince of Susiana who for all the inviting that he and his wife had to come to the celebration of the marriage would by no meanes come and Artacana proclaimed and crowned King of that Realme with generall applause and publike satisfaction but little could shee or the kingdome enjoy him for within foure yeares time death tooke him away in the fairest flower of his yeares in the greatest expectation of prowesse that might be hoped for of any Prince of that age Grievous then above all griefes was the griefe of the more than grievously grieved Queene insomuch as no perswasions could prevaile to take out of her armes the dead corpes her often swounding kept her alive by making her become unsensible of the sharpenesse of the paine which shee felt without which shee had irrevocably accompanied him But alas ' t was not here that her misfortunes ended for having left her by her husband two babes the one a boy which is this here and the other a girle there was stirred up a little after the Kings death an insurrection in the Realme in the favour of the clder Princesse In that time were the Parthians troubled by the Medes and our King when he sickned was about to goe in person to the aid of his father who hath by this time I beleeve made an end of losing his state and whole Dominions Susiana seeing himselfe therefore assured of his on that part and withall rid of a competitor having with gifts and promises made up a strong faction in his mother-in-mother-in-laws kingdome thought by laying hold on this occasion to become absolute Lord thereof Of his first motion the Queene was not much affraid either because she having by the losse of her husband beene accustomed and vsed to the supremest of evils had no feeling of lesser or for that shee relying upon the having of a male-legitimate heire cared little therefore but gave her Generall commission to goe pacifie the insurrection These Rebels with the greatest part of the other Barons who whether it were that they scorned to serue a babe in his swathing bands or for any hopes of better advancement under a King great of State and well stricken in yeares accorded to receive him whilest he with a great army quartered on the cofines of the two Arabiaes resolved he would