sufficient for your glory that they whom you favour should be valiant they ought also for the justifying of your judgement to be thought such by all the world And therefore if I may be permitted to speake so I cannot indure that they who have traduced me two hundred leagues from the battell should not by experience undestand that I know not how to recoil either in a generall or particular combat Grant me then out of justice that which you have granted out of grace to mine enemie your equity and your glory is concerned herein and you cannot refuse me the combat which I demand without covering me with shame and confusion The King having attentively heard him said that his resentment was noble but he could not for his own glory accord him that which he desired That the publique testimony which he had given of his valour was more glorious than the death of his enemy who by his commandment would be constrained to publish all his life-time the contrary of that which he had reported That if he should permit him the combat he should seem to posterity that he himself had made doubt of his valour that it would be to equall him with his enemy which by no means he would do neither was it just he should The Marquis hearing the King speak after this sort was so seised with spight and grief as he could not answer him In the mean time the King advising with the chiefest of his Court about what satisfaction he might give the Marquis never heeded his going away for suddenly thrusting himself amongst the press he did so as before he could be followed he took post and went and hid himself in one of his friends house forty Leagues off with an intent not to stir from thence but to be revenged The King was much offended with this action of his and although he loved the Marquis exceedingly yet his authority seeming to be contemned thereby he testified a great deal of displeasure for it He charged Marsé not fight with him and yet commanded him to acknowledge every where how that which he had said was false This while the Marquis caused his enemy to be observed and received news of whatsoever passed at Court and whereas he hath a great and generous spirit the alteration of the Kings favour towards him touched him so sensibly as he desired his friends not to think of restoring him thereunto He took order secretly for his affairs setled his estate raised a mass of mony great enough to undertake a long voyage and that done resolves to fight not only with Marsé but also with Beniers not knowing said he whether he had not spoken that which he disavowed and after all to quit the Kingdom for ever But the latter gave him not leave to execute his design for he died of sickness As for Marsé as soon as he knew that he was returned into his countrey he sent him a challenge whereunto he answers that in regard of the Kings charge to the contrary he could not accept of it The Marquis netled with this refusall resolved to force him to fight and watching for him a good while after in a Wood that was not far from Marsés house and whither he went oftentimes to walk he perceived one morning a Provost-Marshall accompanied with two of his fellows who came along thorough the Forrest he hid himself for fear of discovery and heard that one of them named him and said that the King would have him apprehended if he could be found This discourse obliged him to follow them afar off but he was much astonished when he saw them enter into Marsés house whereupon he no longer doubted but that it would be impossible for him of a long time to find an opportunity to fight with him He informs himself more particularly of the business remains certain daies about this house and at length learns that the Provost-Marshall was sent to Marsé to apprehend him for the King had been advertised both of his retreat and of the time when he departed to return into his Country So that oppressed with many misfortunes he resolved to go and pass away certain moneths in some other place hoping that in the mean time they might peradventure be wearied with continuall guarding of Marsé He went then into Provence for his more security where one of his particular friends lived that was retired from the Court Being there he understands that the Kings displeasure is pacified and that his enemie is dead so that the impossibility which he saw to be revenged makes him take the resolution never to appear again at a Court whose Prince had not intreated him very vvell He passeth into Italie as being Master of his Actions and Estate and after he had seen all that is remarkable on this side the mountains he staied in the end at Genoua vvhere such pleasant things have arrived unto him as one vvould hardly beleeve they vvere true they vvere so extraordinary You have much obliged me said the Princess by acquainting me vvith all these passages but I vvould fain knovv vvhat cause Marsé had so to hate him I rather think Madam replyed the Count that there was some love in the quarrel if I be not deceived Marsé had four sisters and the Marquis but one and they were both neighbours together in the country so that visiting one another very often according to the custom of France Marsé fell in love with the Marquis his Sister and the Marquis who alwaies returns Love with usury became enamoured of all his four at once He loved the eyes of the one the stature of the other the voyce of the third and the wit of the last And in these four mayds he said that he had the most accomplished Mistris in the world This folly lasted long enough to give Marsé leasure to become desperately in love with the Marquis his sister who at her brothers intreaty had entertayned him very civily during certain moneths that he was away in the Province albeit she could by no meanes indure him In the mean while the time of his return being come Marsé begins to think seriously of his affaires beleeves they will succeed well and finding that the Marquis took great delight in resorting to his house thinks to give him the choise of his four sisters and by that exchange hopes to establish his felicity and possess his Mistris He imployes one therein who was a friend both to him and the Marquis gives him order to discover which of his Sisters he hath a mind to that he may prepare her to intertain him the better This friend acquits himself dexterously of his Commission he repairs to the Marquis speakes to him of Marsés Sisters and demands of him which of them pleaseth him most He answers that they please him all alike that the eldest is plump fair-hayr'd white-skin'd that she hath a great deal of sweetness in her eyes and in her humour but that it is great
acknovvledge unto you that I loved her and that she hated not me vvithout recounting my adventure particularly unto you because I alvvaies thought that discourses of this nature did not please you But albeit you have the goodness novv to let me entertain you vvith the estate of my affaires I vvill not repeat unto you the first speeches of Love vvhich I had vvith Hypolita seeing they are for the most part all alike amongst vvorthy persons and vvhereas time presses me I vvill onely give you an accompt of all that hath arrived to me since but it shall be in fevv vvords I served her then vvith assiduitie enough as you might vvell observe and even to that point as she was no longer able to doubt of it I perceived by her lookes that my person did not displease her that my wit and my humor contented hers and then when I expected some testimony of affection for a recompence of my paines guess my dear sister what it was that she gave me and the onely one that I received Horatio stayed a while in expectation of Sophroniaes answer who presently said unto him laughing I think brother that I cannot without trespassing against good manners shew my self very spirituall in guessing at the favors which may be done to a Lover wherefore it were fitter that you should let me know what this favour was than to trouble me to tell it you Harken to me more seriously I conjure you replyed Horatio and know that this testimony of affection which I have so often received from Hypolita was not the giving me occasions to see her or to speak to her in particular it was not an obliging letter it was not a bracelet of her hair it was not a picture it was not assuring me with her own mouth that she did not hate me but it was telling me that I did not love her and that I loved another In fine the first proof which I had of her affection was a mark of her choler and to express my self more clearly jealousie alone hath shewed her love to me You cannot receive a more undoubted proof thereof said Sophronia interrupting him Nor a more grievous one too replyed Horatio For you must know continued he that after I had done an hundred incivilities to satisfie her whereof you have many times demanded the cause of me though I never told it you yet could I not cure her mind of this fancy And of all the women of quality of Genoua I do not know one that hath fair hair which she hath not believed that I have been in love withall Leonida onely remaines who at this present sticks in her stomack and for whom she hath ill intreated me to day If it be so said Sophronia you are to take comfort and be carefull to justifie your self unto her for when her jealousie shall want an object she will questionless be constrayned to give you another mark of her affection Ah sister replyed Horatio you are but little acquainted with this passion it formes phantasmes it deceives the sense it illudes reason and without any ground or subject it leaves not to work in those whom it possesseth it makes them to see that which is not makes them believe impossible things and utterly perverts the understanding At leastwise so far as I have observed it in others for I have never tryed it otherwaies which certainly hath been crueller to me than if I had been jealous my self Bemoan then my dear sister the misery wherein I find my self ingaged and whence I know not how to get out Verely I doe bemoan you said Sophronia and so much the more for that I doe not know how to ease you I am eased already answered Horatio by recounting my torment unto you but it is time to let you go to Leonora Horatio departed then half comforted in having discovered his grief to the vertuous Sophronia but the next day was no sooner arrived but he was taken with his unquietness again which made him go in all hast to Doriaes house though he could not hope to see Hypolita so early but he was happier than he thought he should have been for it fell out that Doria was in his sisters lodging at such time as he was advertised that Horatia asked for him And whereas he was not ignorant of the passion he was in for Hypolita he would needes have him come into her chamber howsoever she withstood it to the end he might oblige him to a like courtesie when there should be occasion for it Hypolita received Horatio somewhat coldly but yet with civility being unwilling her brother should see their petty disorders Horatio thought that he had never seen her so beautifull as she appeared to him in a neglectfull habit which she had put on with an intention not to have been seen of any body all that day Their first discourse was of the last evenings entertainment but after that had continued a while Doria went into his sisters Cabinet to write a letter to Sophronia for he was not yet fully satisfied with the declaration he had made her and though he was long about it yet could he not draw up one that contented him so much did he fear to offend Sophronia He thought that the incivility which he used in leaving Horatio upon his going from him would be in stead of a favor to him so that onely making him a complement about â—t he left him the liberty to entertain his Mistress He was no sooner alone with her but he undertook to justifie himself and gave her so many reasons to make it appear to her that he did not love Leonida as all her jealousie could not furnish her with one to oppose his After that he besought her to call to mind the care he had taken to please her the extreme affection which he had alwaies born her and how many times she had permitted him to interpret her resentments and choler to his advantage Hypolita heard him with a great deal of attention but for all that he could not perswade her for with a precipitous voyce she sad unto him Suppose that your indeavours and services have been powerfull enough to obtain my affection yet have they not been powerfull enough to conserve it and thereof I could bring you a thousand testimonies but whereas they are matters wherein your excuses might give me satisfaction and not desiring to receive any from you I will not furnish you with meanes to doe it but to convince you I will onely say one thing which admits no reply and which all your cunning cannot destroy Have you not seen me continued she receive the civilities of the youngest of the Fregoses of the eldest of the Adornes and of some others without regarding yours Have you not been in some assemblys where that last hath alwaies taken me out to dance whilst I have scarce so much as turned my look towards you Have I omitted any occasion of testifying unto him when you past
with him before my window or in all other places where I might have you for a witness that his love did not displease me No Horatio I have omitted none and the affection which I bore you made me have recourse to this artifice hoping I should know by giving you some cause of jealousie the force of your passion but I have not seen though you have seen all these things that you had any sense of them and albeit I knew that by this untoward experience I should be in danger of losing you if you were sensible yet chose I rather to resolve upon it and to assure my self of your love than to conserve you with a luke-warm and indifferent affection I have ever heard that jealousie is the daughter of love yet do I not say that love cannot be without jealousie Questionless you will tell me that by my own reasons I am unjust in complaining of you since it is possible that you may have love without having jealousie But alas this discourse hath not so much as an apparent reason neither can I suffer my self to be perswaded to that which I desire so passionately And to shew you that I cannot force my mind to deceive my self hear a thing which hath made me to think upon this matter I have been perswaded then that love alone cannot produce jealousie and how it is necessary that jealousie should have a mother which may contribute to her birth this mother if I be not deceived is occasion and as love without her cannot produce jealousie so she without love canot beget jealousie This reasoning seemes so powerfull to me as you cannot make any objection which it destroyes not for in fine you may well have love without jealousie when as you have no occasion for it but I having given it you and you not having taken it is to say absolutely that you have had no love Ah! fair Hypolita answered Horatio how I doe rejoyce at these complaints of yours for the more reasons you have brought to maintain your opinion the more have you established my felicity You say then amiable Hypolita continued Horatio that there can be no love without jealousie and because I have not been jealous I have had no love you shall pardon me if you please if without losing the respect which I ow you I dare take the libertie to contradict you in maintaining with reason that the perfectest and sincerest reason is that which admits of no jealousie It is a thâ—ng known of all reasonable and dis-interessed persons that he who loves truly loves only to love and not to be beloved or ro expect any recompence for that thought is too base and abject for so noble a passion Now if the love of beauty which is that whereof we speak springs from an object that is pleasing to the sight it followes that so long as this object seems amiable unto us so long will our love continue and whether the person beloved answers our affection or answers it not this love shall be still the same love But that I may make use of a comparison as well as you a man sees a fair Lady and love arises in his heart is it necessary for him to examine whether this Lady be ingaged to another in affection it is certain that it is not and it is every day seen that love doth subject us to them whose love is ingaged otherwhere so that one may wel judg from thence that a man ought to persevere in his love though some cause be given him of jealousie since when he was not beloved and that he was induced to love by the only sight of beauty he left not to be infinitely amorous And if I may be permitted to make use of History in this encounter what sympathy or what affection could that young Athenian expect who became so desperately in love with a beautifull Statue and whose passion was so extreme as the like was never heard of It is very certain that he loved only to love seeing the object of his passion was absolutely incapable of any correspondence Now then if it be true that a Lover is satisfied in knowing that he loves he is most assured that jealousie is not of power enough to destroy his love and that this jealousie is rather an effect of a defective than of a perfect love And to speak freely unto you tell me I pray you who can be so hardy after a worthy person hath had the goodness to receive our services favourably and to testifie some affection unto us as to suspect she should have the same thoughts for another Ah fair Hypolita the gallantry and civility which you have used to the eldest of the Adornes could not oblige me to draw so bad a consequence against you And to comprehend all the rest of my reasons in one alone I am but to say that he who by his discourse gives some marks of his jealousie to his Mistress names her inconstant facile and almost infamous Judge now fair Hypolita whether these be words agreeing with a Lady In the mean time it is most undoubted that in what tearms soever jealousie is expressed it cannot be expressed but in this manner whereas quite contrary this confidence which we have in the person beloved which makes us to approve of all her actions is the true mark of perfect love and indeed merits the most acknowledgement if I may be permitted to say so I have not suspected you then beautifull Hypolita of inconstancy because I have esteemed you very much and if I had had as good a place in your heart as you have had in mine you would questionless have done me justice â—n not accusing me of infidelity Hypolita was not sorry to find Horatio's reasons stronger than hers but whereas she was high-minded she would not let him see that she began to repent her but contrarily making shew as if she thought it strange her brother should leave her so long entertaining Horatio she called him for fear she should be constrained to say something that would be too obliging unto him And whereas Doria could not satisfie himself he came out of his Sisters Cabinet and went down to wait on Horatio whom she could not let part without beholding him in such a sort as he might easily perceive that he was in better terms with her than when he came thither for it is the custom of those that are easily angry to be as easily pacified to accuse that one may justifie himself and to complain that ' they may be satisfied In the mean time Doria had no sooner left Horatio but the Marquis came to him for to show him a Letter which he had written to Aemilia Why said Doria unto him do you think of her still I must needs think of her said the Marquis in the necessity I am in But before you marvelâ—t my constancy read that which you shall finde written in this paper and halving opened it he saw that it
the escaping from so many misfortunes after the drying up of so many teares and when it seemed that nothing could oppose Justinianoes and Isabellaes content they should find themselves more unhappy than before they knew not for all that how far their unhappiness extended for their secret misfortunes were without doubt the greatest and most sensible And when as Justinianoes sickness was no longer dangerous and that he had recovered his strength then it was that he was the most afflicted For coming to consider the little time he had remaining to make good his word which he had given Soliman and that he was to quit Isabella his grief became so great as had not his soul been already long accustomed to melancholy he could not without dying have supported so grievous an apprehension But a little while after he had begun to goe out of his chamber for to repair to that of the Princess being still very feeble and languishing he said unto her with a great deal of pain Now Madam is the time wherein you are to dispose of me and to let me know whether I am to be wanting either to my love or to my honor live with infamy or die with glory satisfie Soliman or oblige him by the breaking of my word to ruine not onely all the Christians that are in his Empire not onely all Europe but you too who is more dear to me than all the world beside I think Madam I have already told your excellencie what I ought to doe in such a grievous case advise then what you will have me to doe But I beseech you make me no more such propositions as an excess of generositie would render unjust hearken to nothing but reason in this incounter do not follow that which your affection inspires you with and remember how I ought not to do any thing that is unworthy of the honor which I have to be beloved of you I have told you already replyed the Princess what power I have over my self in this occasion and my proposition seemes so just unto me as I can find nothing that can destroy it For in fine you will satisfie Soliman and you will satisfie me also I will doe nothing against my honor and I will satisfie that which I ow to our affection Resolve then to mary me and to part away and never hope that I will change my design When you were at Constantinople did you believe that I had so little affection as I could easily resolve to receive a visit from you for to be deprived afterwards of your sight it may be for as long as live Ah! Madam said Justiniano interrupting her I had no other intent in parting from Constantinople than that of seeing you and of coming hither time enough to keep you from shutting your self up in a Cloister For understanding the resolution you had taken for it upon the belief you were in of my death nothing could have been able to retain me What said I the incomparable Isabella shall make her self an eternall prisoner for thee and if fortune ever restores thee thy liberty thou shalt find her without hers Ah! no no rather doe any thing to hinder it It was in this sort Madam that I reasoned with my self and that together with the hope of seeing you made me without examining the matter take my resolution And I believe I have accomplished that which I propounded to my self I have seen you Madam and having let you know that I am living it is no longer in your power to dispose of your self seeing your word keepes you from it And for me I promise you if I cannot break my chaines at Constantinople the newes of my death shall soon set you at liberty For to expose you to all the misfortunes which I foresee in permitting you to follow my fortune is a thing that I will nevever consent to The Princess seeing Justiniaenoes firmness said unto him with a kind of tone which testified some choler if the resolution you have taken be an immoveable one add not to you cruelty that of excusing it with weak reasons and to take from you the meanes to doe it I conjure you never to speak to me more of it for fear I should not have power enough over my self to keep me from giving you some markes of my resentment I assign you eight daies to think yet of this important affair but hope not in the mean time to see me change my mind I will obey you Madam answered Justiniano but if you knew to what an hard tryall you do reduce my soul by this excess of generosity and how difficult it is to refuse out of an excess of love that which love it self doth make us desire you would have the goodness without doubt not to give me a mark of affection which love and reason will not have me receive The conversation of these two Lovers finished in teares and sighes and each of them resting in their first determination Justiniano retired to his chamber but in such dispair as never man was in more At length after he had combated but in such dispair as never man was in more At length after he had combated sufficiently within himself he took his last resolution and knowing full well that the Princess would never permit him to part without her neither would have him bâ—eak his word with Soliman and which too he could not indure to do he concluded to go away without bidding her farewell And to favour his intention Doria arrived at Monaco whom he told in private for to give some pretext to his departure that having seen the Princess given over by all her Physicians he had made a vow not to mary her till he had been at Hierusalem if it pleaseth Heaven to restore her to her health That whereas he was resolved to perform this pilgrimage unknown and that this voyage could not be but long he conjured him to take care of the Princess and her affairs in his absence That in the mean time he should not speak of this design till he was gone and that then he should deliver his complements to all his Friends He told him moreover that he was obliged to steal away from the Princess who would not have him make this voyage without her but being loth she should be exposed to the incommodities of so painfull a pilgrimage he had concluded to part without saying any thing to her but onely leaving her a letter Doria was strangely surprised with this discourse but seeing that Justiniano spoke seriously he offered how amorous soever he was of Sophronia to accompany him in this voyage and the contestation which they had upon this subject had not ended so soon had not Justiniano told him that the necessity of his affaires required it to be so and that to render him a proof of his affection it would suffice he should furnish him with meanes to get from Monaco secretly That will not be hard for you to do
said she unto him that you can speak to me in this sort and conserve any memory and judgment Do you believe added she that a person which refuses the affection of your King can receive yours Do you not remember that you have an hundred times commended the resolution which I have taken to dye rather then to satisfie him shall I be more vertuous in harkening favorably to your love then to Abdalla's What part do you play said she unto him without giving him time to interrupt her You betray your Master in speaking to me of your love and if you will pass for my Lover you do me an injury in charging your self with moving the Kings to me and howsoever it be I ought to hate and despise you more then him After Hipolita had testified all her resentment and her anger Aly nothing daunted not displeased besought her not to condemn him without hearing For fair Hipolita said he unto her it may be you will finde some difference between the love that Abdalla bears you and that which I bear you He onely loves the beauty of Hipolita and I adore the vertue of Hipolita He is not your servant but to make you his Slave and I do not love you but to marry you His flame is unjust and mine is lawful the end of his love is his own satisfaction and that of mine is your glory and your conservation For in fine continued he if it be true that you love honor you will have some indulgence for the affection which I carry to you seeing there tests no other mean to warrant you from the violences of Abdalla's love but that of receiving the same which I offer you I acknowledg said he further to her that I am an ill subject but it is not but to be a faithful Lover and because I will not expose you to the greatest miseries which a vertuous person can suffer For if you will said he unto her all the Kings love all his force and all his power shall not keep me from protecting and marrying you Aly having made an end of speaking left Hipolita for that he would not have her said he answer him without advisement in a matter whereon all his happiness or unhappiness depended From thence he went to the Princess Mariama to whom in appearance he bore a great deal of respect And whereas for some time past this Princess had given him more commodity to speak to her then before out of the design she had to discover his intentions concerning him that was to succeed Abdalla it was not difficult for him to talk with her in private so that after he had protested an inviolable fidelity to her and had sworn to her that next to the glory and interests of Abdalla nothing in the world was so dear to him as hers he told her that knowing her exceeding vertue and prudence he thought he was obliged to acquaint her how the King was so desperately in love with Hipolita as he feared that his passion would carry him to lose the respect which he owed to her in drawing him to use some violence to this maid That if in this occasion he might be permitted to give advertisements and counsel both together he conceived that the best course could be taken would be to remove Hipolita out of the way or to marry her That as her Slave she might dispose of her without the Kings having any lawful pretext to contradict her since he himself had bestowed her on her The Princess received this discourse of Ala's as if she were obliged to him for it and although she knew not as yet the interest which he had in this affair because she had not seen Hipolita yet she believed that this generosity which appeared in his speech was not in his heart She thanked him notwithstanding for the advice he had given her promised him to observe the Kings and Hipolita's actions and then told him that she would resolve of nothing in this affair without demanding his counsel about it and that he on his part should not fail to advertise her of all that he knew Aly to let the Princess see that he lyed not desired her to call to minde all the testimonies of unquietness and affection which the King could not conceal in the visits he had rendred her for some time past And when as she had told him that she remembred them very well he went very well satisfied of her For knowing the vertue and prudence of this Princess he doubted not but that now understanding the love which the King bore to Hipolita she would oppose it with all her power and so if it happened that Hipolita should tell her the prâ—position he had made to marry her she would not contradict it because it would be a mean to keep the King from committing a fault and because she would believe also by this way to put him out of grace with Abdalla which he feared not much in regard that all the force of the Kingdom was in his hands that all the Governors of Places depâ—nded on him and that it was impossible for Abdalla to rid himself of him but by taking away his life which he stood in no doubt of for he could not imagine that a Prince to whom he had conserved the Crown could make him lose his head And after this manner he resolved to make a shew of confiding in the Princess Mariama judging â—hat nothing could arrive therein that would not be advantageous to him In the mâ—an time Abdelcader had his designs both of love and ambition as well as Aly and though he was no very excellent Prince yet the desire of reigning is so natural in men as it found a place in his heart and so much the more strongly because he knew that according to equity the Crown of Marocco appertained to him after the death of his brother though Abdalla had a son for that the Xeriff Mahomet had so ordained by his Testament In this thought he had a long time already very much courted Aly to the end he might gain him as much as he could out of the hope that if Abdalla came to dye he would side with him or at leastwise remain a neuter between the son of Abdalla and him Nevertheless whereas at that time Aly had other designs he never said any thing to Abdelcadâ—r which might make him hope for ought from him But whereas he was dextrous and knew not certainly whether he should let Abdalla's son raign or raign himself he had never disobliged him but was contented to tell him still upon the divers propositions which he had made unto him that for matters regarding the State he was not the servant of the person of Abdalla but of the King of Marocco That as for him he was perswaded how it was neither reason nor justice that ordinarily made Kings but Fortune only And without considering whether she were blind or no in the distribution of Crowns he was
the company is exceeding dear to me tell me what recompence do you demand I desire said he unto her that before I relate that unto you which befell me you will let us know what discontent that was which made you quit Genoua to go to Albengua what moved you to marry a man whom you did not love and banish one whom you did not hate For to speak freely unto you it hath been imparted unto me at Genoua in such a manner as gives me a great deal of curiosity and makes me desire to know whether I have been told the truth or no. As for me said Hipolita I have intended a long time since to intreat Leonida she would acquaint me with it but Fortune hath so cruelly persecuted us as we have scarce had any leasure but to feel new miseries without remembring those which were already past Certainly added Doria it I durst joyn my intreaties to those of the Company I would request Leonida to grant us this favor For my part said Sophronia I have not the same curiosity for I am so fully informed of this History as I do not know any thing that hath hapned to my self better If the company said Leonida to her will needs know it I shall make advantage of it if you will take the pains to relate it unto them for as for me I am fully resolved not to expose my self a second time to the vexation which this relation hath been the cause of to me Do not reproach my old error unto me said Alphonso interrupting her and to deliver you from this unquietness and for fear lest I should find my self too weak to hear a thing without grief which hath given me so much I will go and walk in the Garden or entertain my self with a Book Alphonso after he had said this went without attending Leonida's answer forth of the Cabinet and would not return thither again though the Marquiss called him more then once His absence did not for all that change Leonida's opinion and whatsoever could be said unto her she would not recount her own History but she requested Sophronia to take the trouble of it upon her This fair maid seeing that the whole company desired this complacency of her resolved to satisfie them after she had prayed Leonida that if she forgot any thing she would put her in mind of it and Leonida having promised her to do so she then made the Marquiss to swear that as soon as ever she had finished her relation he should begin his And when as he had assured her that he would not fail therein and had told her that he had at leastwise as much desire to recount his adventures unto her as she had to know them Sophroniâ— began and spake in this sort The History of LEONIDA THe Adventures of Leonida have something so extraordinary in them as they are to be related in somewhat a particular manner for to render the recital of them the more agreeable and intelligible unto you I am not to say any thing to you yet of the beginning of her life of her first Conquests nor of her marriage but only acquaint you with Alphonso's love which I believe took its beginning presently upon Justiniano's return and a year and half after the death of Leonida's husband This Conquest without doubt was not disagreeable unto her for as you know Alphonso hath merit wisdom and wit and if after these which certainly are the greatest and most essential good things it is fit to consider the rest you are not ignorant that Alphonso is rich enough and of a race illustrious enough to touch a heart on the side of interest and glory as well as of affection In fine whether Leonida were capable of love or ambition she found in the person of Alphonso wherewith to beget these two passions in her heart and wherewith to render them excusable If Leonida were not present I would tell you that whereas she hath a great deal of wit Love in this encounter was introduced into her Soul rather by Reason then by sense and inclination But not to stand upon small things you shall understand that Alphonso who you have always seen so assidual in serving her after he had rendred her all the testimonies of love that a worthy person can desire of a man infinitely passionate he knew at length from her own mouth that his vows were not rejected and that he was not forbidden to hope After the day that she had permitted him to entertain her openly with his passion it is certain that Leonida had continually all the complacency for him which a vertuous woman was capablâ— of And whereas you know that Leonida hath naturally a gallant wit and a very â—ovial humor sh oftentimes gave him the pleasure to hear her jeer his Rivals in his presence and an hundred times made her Conquests serve for his glory Alphonso then lived in this sort with more content then the extream love which he bore her seemed to permit for as I have heard it said this passion seldom leaves any great tranquillity in the Souls of those whom it possesseth But for Alphonso he was the most generous Lover that ever was his inclination had not been blind all the world approved of his choyce he loved an amiable person and was beloved of her she took care not to give him any cause of jealousie his very Rivals served for his delight and felicity by the usage that she gave them his father did not contradict his affection Leonida was of a free condition and might dispose of her self yea and to keep him from being deprived of the pleasure of hoping for the possession of a person that could render him contented Leonida to assure her self yet further of his love would not so much as let him make use of his friends for the motioning of their marriage In so happy an estate methinks it is hard to imagine what could trouble his felicity especially when I shall have told you that Leonida used him still as favorably as before and without any change arriving in her yet there arrived a change in him I well perceive continued Sophronia after she had been a while without speaking that you cannot divine what it was which troubled Alphonso's happiness and certainly I cannot think it strange seeing according to my sense this adventure is so extraordinary as it is impossible to conjecture it You shall understand then that one day Alphonso being gone to see a kinsman of his whereas the person beloved is a part of all conversations and a man infinitely amorous speaks without choyce and judgment of his Mistress to every one he came to speak of Leonida to his kinsman though to say truth he was not worthy of that honor for this man is both malicious and blockish According then to his humor and stupidity he rudely asked of Alphonso whether he beleeved that he had been the first which ever had been affected of Leonida Now
him she lived with so much anguish that if Alphonso had known her most secret thoughts he would have been healed of his jealousie and would have been assured that she did not grieve more for the death of Octavio then for the loss of his affection It was in this sort then that Leonida and Alphonso lived until that infortunate day wherein we were constrained to forsake Genoua And I make no doubt but that Alphonso's despair induced him to follow us as well as the generosity which he testified to us in this occasion in not abandoning us in the sorrow we were in since he absented himself from a place where Leonida was not You know in like manner what that Tempest was which luckily for him drove us to Albengua neither are you ignorant how the compassion and generosity of Leonida obliged her to imbarque her self with us But doubtless you do not know what Alphonso's and her thoughts were when as after they had had the goodness to lament our misfortunes they had the leasure to think of the terms wherein they stood For whereas we had scarcely been upon the Sea without a Tempest without fear of death and without extream sorrow for the loss we sustained there they had never talked together in private during this troublesom Navigation but when we were at Marocco and at those times wherein we had the liberty to see and speak to one another Leonida who desired to conceal the terms wherein she was with Alphonso entertaining him with indifferent things found that his understanding was as deeply wounded at Marocco as it had been at Genoua with this difference nevertheless that at the first time he spake to her he moved her to anger and the second time he moved her to pity What is the reason said he to he with tears that I can neither continue loving you nor begin to hate you and wherefore since you are capable of some affection for me must I not only share it with another but I must owe it wholly to him and without being able either to change my passion or revenge my self I must eternally be the most wretched of men He that imposeth a necessity on himself replyed Leonida cannot complain with reason seeing he himself is the cause of the evil that arriveth to him Ah cryed Alphonso that you said true and that I could dispose of my thoughts Yes Leonida said he unto her would I could love you less to the end I might love you always and live happily in sharing your affection with another But to endure that in speaking to me you should always think of Octavio that whil'st I sigh for love you should sigh for affliction and having absolutely given you my heart I should have but a piece of yours is that which I cannot suffer But how is it possible said Leonida interrupting him unjust and cruel Alphonso that a man who is no longer in an estate to have any affection for me can give you jealousie You do not comprehend replyed he what is the true cause of jealousie the affection Which any one should bear you would not displease me it is of your thoughts that I am jealous and not of those of others I would be willing chat you should be loved and that you should be adored but I would have you love none but me I should not care to see you have an hundred Lovers provided I were alone in your heart I do not hate my Rivals in their person but in yours only it is you that can increase or diminish the hatred which I have for them by the good or bad usage you shall give them and whereas you may love Octavio as well though he is not in being as if he were living you are not to think it strange that I am jealous In fine continued he you reduce me to those terms that I had rather you should not love me at all so as you would love nothing then to love me as you do in loving Octavio better then me But Octavio is no longer in being said Leonida to him sighing Yet he is still in your Soul answered Alphonso and this sigh which you fetched testifies it but too much unto me No no Leonida said he unto her that which I suffer is without remedy one may sometimes make present mishaps cease and decline those which may happen unto us in time to come but when we are unhappy by the remembrance of that which is past death alone can finish our pains It is not in your power to forbear sighing shedding of tears and to say all loving of Octavio more then Alphonso wherefore marvel not if it be not in your power to cure my mind of the jealousie that possesseth it It was much after this sort that the first conversation ended which Leonida and Alphonso had together at Marocco But whereas Leonida affected him and saw the estate whereunto this fantastical jealousie reduced him she opened her heart to me and having asked my advice what she should do I counselled her I think as she desired to be and as indeed was just I told her then that she was to do all that she could to set his heart at rest that this caprichiousness proceeding meerly from an excess of love she was to pardon so bad an effect since it came from so noble a cause and labor to restore his Reason to him which she had deprived him of I agree with you said she unto me that Alphonso is to be eased but in what manner do you think I may do it if he were jealous of the French Marquiss of Doria or of any other it would not be difficult for me to satisfie him The coldness which I would shew to them should soon set him at rest and if there were no other means for it I would deprive my self absolutely of their company to preserve it but as the case stands I know no remedy for it It is from my self that Alphonso hath learnt the affection which I have born to Octavio I cannot unsay it and if I should be so base as to swear to him that I have not loved him so much as he imagines I should tell a lye to no purpose it being very certain that he would give more credit to my tears then to my latter speeches and then again that is a thing I could never do Counsel me then continued she how I shall carry my self I profess unto you that I was then very much perplexed what counsel to give her for I saw no assured means that could cure Alphonso Nevertheless after I had mused a little my opinion was that the only thing which she could do was to endeavor to perswade Alphonso that she loved him as much as she had loved Octavio as indeed I think I did not oblige her to tell an untruth At first Leonida told me that this would serve to no purpose but finding nothing to stand with more reason she resolved to follow my advice So that the
first time she could speak with Alphonso in private his melancholy still increasing she demanded of him whether he were resolved to live long in that manner Truly no answered he for I do not doubt but from the misery which I feel death will come shortly and deliver me Is it not possible said she that Alphonso should make use of his Reason in this encounter I perceive very well answered he that you have some pity of the hurt you have done me but know that it is not that which I desire in the estate wherein Octavio is I could endure that you should have compassion for him provided you would have affection for me but I could not endure that you should have love for him have nothing but pity for Alphonso What change said she unto him is there come to me since the time that you were contented with my affection have I loved Octavio more or have I loved you lest then I did in no wise at all I swear unto you Wherfore then since I am not changed for you are you changed for me If I had known my unhappiness sooner replyed he I should have been less unhappy it being certain that I should not have engaged my self so straitly in the love of a person that could never love so much as she had loved It is true said she unto him that I have loved Octavio as much as I was able to love in the age wherein I was and it is true also that his memory is dear and precious unto me but who hath told you that I have not the same thoughts for you I know it from your own mouth replyed he for in having assured me that you loved me less then he you have let me understand that you have done that for his consideration which you have never done for mine You loved him as soon as ever you opened your eyes said Alphonso unto her he was agreeable unto you as soon as ever you knew him and your Reason hath told you since that you would have done out of choyce what you had done out of inclination he hath had the happiness to please you always without ever giving you cause to be displeased you have sighed for him in divers occasions you have many times bewailed his absence as much as I could pretend to be lamented by you if I had lost my life in your service and for my last unhappiness he dyed in speaking to you of love It may be if he had lived longer you would have repented the tears which now you shed for him but as the case stands there is a shadow of Octavio remaining which is in stead of his person to you that possesses your soul and will not suffer you to have such thoughts for another How unjust you are said Leonida unto him to speak to me thus howsoever since I am resolved to try whether I can draw your minde out of that disorder whereunto this strange jealousie hath carryed it promise me that if by my discourse I can let you see that you have received more testimonies of my affection then I have given to the infortunte Octavio you will then repent you of your error restore tranquillity to your soul and leave mine in rest Alphonso after he had withstood it a while in saying that she propounded an impossible thing to him and by consequence he was not to answer unto it resolved for all that to hear her and promised her that if she kept her word with him he would crave pardon to his fault and would live better for the future After they had made this agreement tell me Alphonso said she unto him if I can make it appear to you that since the day wherein I permitted you to serve me you never have had occasion to complain of me and if I can shew you that the unhappy Octavio if he were living might with justice accuse me of little affection would you not have reason then to be contented That will not be enough answered Alphonso for it may be that you have never given me just cause to complain and that you have given Octavio occasion so to do and yet for all that I cannot be happy But that which I desire is you would let me know that you have not done any thing for Octavio which you would not have done for me and that I think will not be easie for you to perform I will peradventure shew you yet more replyed Leonida and to begin to cure you is it not true Alphonso that the original of the affection which I bear to you is far more advantageous to you then that which I have born Octavio when I began to wish him well continued she I was in an age wherein perchance that which I then called love was none wherein I counted for great services petty things which now I should not regard and wherein I acted without knowledg and without judgment I said Alphonso interrupting her but not without inclination which is that which renders affections the stronger and more durable I agree with you therein said she unto him but howsoever I had this inclination in an age wherein at first my reason did not combat with it for I had none at that time That is the cause said Alphonso why it is so will setled in your soul And that is the cause replyed Leonida why I do not know whether it were any whit strong since I did not make resistance against it But as for you Alphonso when as you began to please me and that my inclination carryed me to like of your services I was in an age wherein my Reason was in a condition to oppose it self against it as indeed it did resist it as much as it could You had to vanquish in my heart not onely that wisdom and that modesty which permits not a woman to engage her self lightly in affection to a man but had also the memory of Octavio to surmount in forcing me if one may say so to commit a greater infidelity against him then when as I abandoned him to obey my Father seeing it is certain that I marryed Livio without loving him and that I could not keep the promise which I had made to my self never to love any thing more after the death of Octavio This discourse is very subtil replyed Alphonso but have you not told me that you did not love me but because I resembled Octavio I have indeed told you answered she that by this resemblance you comforted me for the loss of Octavio but not that this conformity which you have with him was the onely cause of the good-will which I bear you And certes to speak truly since I must retract what I have said with shame if there had been no other then this reason and that my inclination your services and your merit had not constrained me I should rather have avoyded the sight of you then sought it It was not yeâ— so long since I lost Octavio that I
of his Arms and that he was in a condition to impose Laws on the vanquished he was sent from the Bassa of the Sea to beg a grace of him in favour of Arsalon This name equally surprized both Ibrahim and Ulama for the Grand Visier remembred very well that this Arsalon was he who had taken Doria neer to Naples that he was Father to Alibech whom Osman the Bassa of the Seas son had maried but he could not comprehend how they should meet together and be made friends Ulama knew too by report that the Satrap Arsalon was become the famousest Pirate of all the Seas of the Levant so that both of them provoked by curiosity pressed Morath to explain himself more clearly My Lord said he to Ibrahim before I tell you what Arsalon desires may you be pleased to let me relate unto you the sequele of an History the beginning whereof you are acquainted with to the end that by the knowledge you shall have thereof you may be the more easilier carried to grant the favour which is desired of your generosity Ibrahim having consented thereunto caused every one to go out of his Tent except Ulama and they two being set Morath spake in this sort The Sequele of the History of Osman and Alibech I Make no doubt my Lord but if the generosity of Alibech moved you at such time as by your goodness you got the Grand Signior to judge her cause to her advantage I make no doubt I say but that which I am going to impart unto you will carry you to serve her I will not stand to run over her first adventures thereby to make you understand the rest since I hold it impossible that you should not still remember that she is the daughter of Arsalon the Pirate or to say better of a Satrap of Persia whom ill fortune hath made a Pirate And I do not think you have forgot that this Pirate took Osman prisoner who in a few dayes became desperately in love with the vertuous Alibech and that she delivering him saved her self with him upon condition that he should marry her when he came to Constantinople No more can you be ignorant that the Bassa of the Sea would never have permitted his son to have kept his word with her had not the Grand Signior by his commandment and by his liberality forced him to receive this fair Maid in whom he found no other defect but poverty Now since that my Lord I can assure you that Alibech hath not rendred her self unworthy of the grace you did her nor of that which yet she attends from your goodness She hath lived with the Bassa of the Sea in as much obedience to him as if she had been his own daughter and with her submissions and respects hath in such sort acquired his affection as he loves not his son with more tenderness As for Osman there hath never been heard speak of a more violent or more durable love than his and every day too he sees some new grace in his dear Alibech for whereas the beauty of her soul is far greater than that of her face she hath given him so many new marks of her vertue of her courage of her love and of her generosity as he should be the ingratefullest of men if the affection which he bears her could enter into comparison with any other This person then being so straightly linked in good will to her Father-in-Law and to her husband could not resolve to abandon them at such time as the Bassa of the Sea was constrained to imbark himself for to go and command the Fleet which was sent into Mingrelia And although out of the fear they were in lest she should receive some incommoditie they did all they could to keep her from it yet was it impossible for them to prevail with her No no said she to Osman I cannot leave you and seeing I could follow a father out of obedience I can better follow an husband out of affection I am already inured to the discommodities of the Sea which no doubt will be sweeter to me sharing them with you than rest would be agreeable unto me if I should enjoy it without you If you fight with advantage added she the joy which I shall have of your victory will redouble yours and if by misfortune you be vanquished which Heaven forsend my tears shall fight for you when you no longer can In fine said she further tempests war slavery yea and death it self would be sweeter to me than a long absence Alibech having in this sort touched the heart of Osman and the Bassa of the Sea being overcome by her intreaties she imbarqued her self with her husband who was Vice-Admirall under his Father Their Navigation having been prosperous enough untill they came to Mingrelia they thought of no hing more than of choosing a place where they might make a descent according to the order they had for it but a horrible tempest that arose destroyed all their designs It was so great so long and so extraordinary that the whole Fleet was dispersed so that when it grew to be calm again three Vessells were scarce found together Howbeit so great was our good fortune as in four or five dayes the whole Navy rejoyned and albeit most of the ships had something or other broken yet we rejoyced to see them all shattered as they were after we had believed they were lost The two Vessells of Osman and of the Bassa of the Sea were only wanting to the Fleet but at length that of Osman comming in made us hope that the Bassa would return in like manner After he had been attended some dayes with an impatience which well demonstrated the love which Osman and the generosity which Alibech had for him and after that many Vessells had been senâ— out to cross up and down the Sea for to try if they could meet with him one day as Osman was looking forth himself to see if he could descry any thing he discovered a Vessell and though it was so far off as he could not discern of what Nation she was yet the extreme desire which he had that it might be his fathers perswaded him that it was he In this belief he caused his dear Alibech to come upon the deck to let her see that which all the rest of his Vessell saw as well as he they continued a pretty while in this sort between hope and fear but at length this Vessell approaching by little and little destroyed the first and increased the other for Osman certainly knew that this Vessell was a Brigantine and not that of his father whose fortune had been very different from his The tempest having severed him from his Fleet and the storm having mightily bruised his Vessell he had been so unhappy as to encounter with a Pirate who having found him in so deplorable an estate had set upon him or to say better had taken him he not being able to make any
I had set him and my friendship quits and abandons me and not content to steal a person from me whom I love and without whom I cannot live he gets him away it may be with intelligences that he hath in my Empire to make war upon me and to recover from me that which he saith appertains unto him But he was never of the Race of the Paleologues And then continued he if he could perswade me to it that would be yet a further reason to oblige me to destroy him It behoves he should die out of reason of State as I pretend he shall die out of reason of Love If I regard him as a slave I have power over his life since every slave that breaks his irons deserves to lose it If I regard him as my subject he is worthy of death for going out of my Empire without my consent If I regard him as a Christian I cannot hate him enough and if I consider him as an Enemy-Prince it behoves he should die that the end of his life may make an end of setling my Throne to my successors Soliman having as it seemed to him setled his resolution firmly enough felt some rest in his minde Howbeit suddenly some beam of light coming to him again he was ashamed of his own thoughts yet would he not oppose them but rather sought how he might fortifie them nevertheless there was one thing that retained his fury for a while Suppose said he that I resolve to destroy Jbrahim that he be already punished for his ingratitude and perfidiousness that the end of his life hath ended the love which he bears to Jsabella let us see after this whether in thinking to do our self service we do not hurt our self For can she love a Prince who bereaves her of the person that is dearest to her in the world But can she continued he love any other than Ibrahim as long as he is living No no sayd he raising his voyce it behoves hee should dye and I shall alwayes have this consolation that if shee love not mee shee shall at leastwise love nothing in the world But cried he again after he had continued a while without speaking he whom I will destroy is the same Jbrahim who hath done me such important service and whom I have so much loved howbeit continued he it is Jsabellaes Lover it is a fugitive slave it is a revolted subject it is a Prince my enemy or it may be an impostor In such like thoughts as these was the Grand Signior when as Rustan came to him who out of his malice carried him to further violence against Jbrahim by forging matters which he affirmed he had heard him speak against him Presently therupon Roxelana entred who making as if she did not know that there was any interest of love in the hatred which Soliman bore to Jbrahim spake not but of the good of the State and of the glory of the Empire She represented to Soliman how mightily he had alwaies protected the Christians in all occasions that had been presented as indeed she lyed not But although the most part of those things were done by Solimans consent in the favor of Jbrahim yet was this Prince so unjust as to hearken to this accusation as if he had been acquainted with new crimes After then that this wicked woman had made him resolve to put Jbrahim to death she told him moreover that if hast were not made to take away his life the people undoubtedly would rise to save him for said she out of the design which he hâ—th had to usurp the Empire he hath alwaies taken great care to make himself to be beloved of them Soliman seeing himself upon the point of absolutely resolving the matter felt a new combat in his heart love hatred jealousie friendship shame and glory did their last and uttermost endeavor to vanquish one another but at length vertue was surmounted in this occasion by the wickedness of Roxalana and Rustan And Soliman consented that without further delay he should go and execute this fatall sentence which their hatred rather than he pronounced against the illustrious Jbrahim Away he went with a great deal of speed for fear lest the Sultan should alter his mind Nevertheless not daring wholly to fall in the usuall form he sent for Jbrahim to come to supper and this perfidious wretch who feared a revolt kept all that were in the Seraglio from going forth In the mean time Jbrahim being set at table as the rest Rustan in the midst of the meal presented him with a robe of black velvet which was an undoubted mark that the end of this fatal feast should be the end of his life For after this manner is the news of death denounced to persons of quality that are to lose their lives in the Seraglio Jbrahim seeing his ruin certain received this robe for all that with a great deal of constancie And whereas it was presented to him by Rustan because no body else would tender him this strange present I receive it sayd he unto him without fearing the death which it presageth and without being any whit surprised therewith knowing full well that it is a dependance of the charge which I have possest and that few Grand Visiers have dyed otherwaies But I receive it with grief because it blemisheth the glory of a Prince whom I have loved and for that it is offered to me by the hand of Rustan This ceremony much afflicted all them that saw it yet did not Ibrahim rise til the time which custom requires in such like occasions was past nor forbear talking to some Officers of the Empire which were at this fatal supper by Rustans order in the grand Signiors name for he feared if they should have gone forth and acquainted the people that Ibrahim was going to be put to death they would have risen before he had been executed And truly this design was not amiss for whereas Ibrahim was infinitely beloved their eys were all bedew'd with tears and certainly had they had arms they would have attempted to succor him or at leastwise would have lost themselves with him Never was there a more deplorable feast than this same none that were present at it did eat any thing they seemed all to be condemned to death and Ibrahim only testified by the tranquillity of his countenance and by his constancy that he was in case to comfort the rest Four mutes which were to strangle him stood before him with each of them a black silk bow-string in his hand which was to serve for that deadly office Now though this object possest all those that considered it with terror and pitie Ibrahim seemed no more sensible of fear than Rustan was of compassion This Illustrious Bassa was seen with an admirable tranquillity and with a constancy without affectation he indured his misery without murmuring he beheld the tears of others without shedding any and if any sign of sadness appeared in
to lie with him I resolved then to propound unto him his escaping out of my fathers hands at first he doubted it was but to try him that I spake so to him and withall his own generosity withstood it but having acquainted him with the truth of the matter he believed me and said that seeing my father had broken his word with him he might fail in his fidelity to him also and on condition that Osman would promise him his freedom he would expose himself to any thing for my sake I assured him of what he desired and having so good a second it was not hard for me to finish my enterprise But without importuning thy Highness my Lord by a long relation let it suffise to say we were no sooner at the road of Chio where Osman had some acquaintance but night being come and my father a sleep I went and stole away the key of the Cabbin wherein Osman was loâ—ked and the generous Slave having shut up my father in his where he soundly slept came along with me to unlose his friend snatched away a sentinells armes that would have cryed out and having killed him as well as the Pilot we got into the skiff and for the more surety the generous Slave with a blow of his scimitar cut asunder the cable that held the vessell at anchor which by the light of the Moon we saw fall away from us and float at the pleasure of the wind without a Pilot or any man awake in her In the mean time Osman and that Slave rowed with such speed as wee soon approched to land where we happily arrived and meeting with a sanctuary in the house of one who knew Osman â—t Châ—o we in a little time found the meanes to come unto Constantinople leaving Arsalon no doubt in an extreme rage at our flight which was made with much the more security for that my father seldom suffered his great Vessell to enter into any Port that was suspected unto him but sent a Barque in for the dispatch of such business as he had to do there and upon that it was that I had grounded my enterprise Now my Lord after I had delivered Osman with the help of the generous Slave and had brought him back to his paternall house when he would have made good his word which he had given us this incensed father hath intreated me as an infamous person and a vagabond and hath put that Slave into irons to whom his sonne oweth his liberty since that without him I could not have executed that which I had promised it is that Slave my Lord whom thou hast so lately pardoned and of whom the Illustrious Ibrahim hath undertaken the protection Behold my Lord the difference that is between the Bassa of the Sea and his sonne whose sense I will not deliver for fear I should be suspected to interpret it too advantagiously for my self wherefore it is for thy Highness to understand it from his own mouth and absolutely to dispose of my happiness or of my unhappiness of my life or of my death Alibech having given over speaking a confused noise was heard which seemed to judge the matter for her advantage but Soliman desiring to render equall Justice commanded the Bassa of the Sea to speak his intentions I have no other my Lord said he than to chace from my house a woman that ought to be driven from all the earth and whose disposition is so base and unjust that she could love a captive when she knew him not for that which he was and betray her father a woman descended from a Pirate nourished amidst blood and cruelty brought up amongst wicked villaines whom the earth cannot bear and the daughter of a Persian thy Highness enemy Behold what this woman is whom my sonne will mary and for all her estate brings nothing with her but infamy he will tell me it may be that he owes his liberty to her and I will answer him that it is a good which she hath not done him but to doe it for her self she knew he was the sonne of a Bassa that he had Palaces that he was rich and that he was honored with thy Highness favors she betrayed her father to possess them and hath not so much followed my sonne as she hath sought after his good fortune and then who knowes whether her hatred to Arsalon is not rather the cause of her flight than her love to Osman She was weary of living in a continuall prison and to speak truly of things she owes her liberty rather to Osman than my sonne doth ow his to her since that at length a ransom might have redeemed him whereas nothing could have drawn her out of her fathers hands What assurance can one place in a person that gives no markes of her affection but treasons that stifles all the motions of nature to follow those wherewith she is inspired by a disordinate love and that begins her mariage vvith an impiety Believe me Osman said the Bassa beholding him she that hath been so audacious as to betray her father for to follovv a Slave may yet more easily betray an husband for a man of free condition she that could so cunningly steal avvay the keyes of a sleeping father may peradventure being become the more daring by the happy success of her former designes stab a dagger into the heart of an husband when as she shall be as weary of him as she vvas of her father And then my Lord said he turning himself to Soliman who knows whether all that she hath said be not a trick and that being the daughter of a Persian she comes not hither to observe what is done here and seek occasion to hurt us Howsoever it be I find that she ought to be suspected of us and that in this incounter my particular interest is the same with the publique As for the freedom of the Slave whom thy Highness hath been pleased to pardon I have no more to say for to make it appear that I am not obliged to render it unto him than that he is the cause of all the pain I am in seeing that he alone as this woman her self saies made Osman the slave of Arsalon let my sonne keep his word with him if he can but as for me I have promised him nothing I will retain him in irons not only as a Christian not only as a Captive but also as an enemy Behold my Lord what my sense is in this occasion which as I think is not far from reason Soliman seeing that the Bassa of the sea had done speaking told Osman that he was to declare his mind I am very sorry replyed he that I must be constrained to contradict a man to whom I ow my life and to have that cross conformity with the vertuous Alibech as to have a father as inexorable as hers is cruel but my Lord since the prime duty ought to prevail over all others and that reason will have
since as I have before delivered he was at Genoua unknown The matter failed not to fall out even as he had conceived it for he was advertised that the Prince of Masseran was in this walk attended but with two of his servants he went forth then speedily with the like number and overtaking him in a place where few persons could be witnesses of his action As soon as he was so near him as he might speak to him he asked him whether he knew my name and whether it were possible he should be ignorant that Isabella could not lawfully be his because she was mine but since the thing was done he must at least render himself worthy of so noble a conquest by the loss of his life as I had bought it with my blood in saying so they both drew out their swords and Doria without attending the Prince of Masserans answer attacqued him so vigoriously as he was constrained to give ground They that accompanied him would have opposed themselves to this fury but they that followed Doria would not suffer them so to do and whereas they were equall in number they began a just combat whereof the modesty of my friend kept him from telling me the particulars but in the end notwithstanding whatsoever the Prince of Masseran could perform the victory sided with reason and Doria after the receiving of a slight hurt pressed his enemy with so much courage as he ran him into the body in four severall places which made him fall down as if he were dead A minute after Nature doing her last devoir he opened his eyes and seeing Doria coming from parting their followers and giving order to his help to carry him to some place he had yet so much strength as to call him and before he expired to crave pardon for the outrage he had done me and to pray me to consider the power of Isabellaes eyes for the excusing of his fault moreover he conjured him to tell me that the Princess had kept her faith inviolable to me then he acquainted him in few words with all the violences of her mother with all the resistances which she had made thereunto and at the last swore that he was not her husband but that Julia had used this artifice in hope to make me away as I have already told thy Highness not doubting but that if I were dead she should have carried her daughter to all that she had desired Scarcely had that infortunate Prince made an end of speaking but he dyed in Doriaes armes who with sorrow remitted him into the hands of his servants to goe and provide for his own safety so that without losing time and before this combat was divulged he sent to hire a Feluca and without returning into the City he imbarqued himself for Naples for in the uncertainty of the event of the combat he had brought mony enough about him to mak his retreat into that place and had left a letter in his Cabinet which instructed one of his friends with the order hee would have taken in his affaires He departed then safely away in this sort but the next day he incountred the Pirate Arsalon and in the manner which thy Highness understood yesterday he came to Constantinople But my Lord to make all the rigor of my destiny known to thy Majesty I am to tell thee further that not long since Doria hath met with a slave of Monaco who hath related unto him that as sooon as Julia knew of the death of the Prince of Masseran anger and grief seized so upon her as she died therewith in a little time so that Isabella seeing she was Mistress of her self had sent a man into Germany to desire me to come and take care of her State and to receive her person for a reward of my fidelity For she knew nothing either of my jealousie or despair which having carried me far enough from the place whither she had sent to seek me beguiled all her hopes and destroyed her felicity by the fruiteless return of him she had imployed unto me since that she lived in a very austere and melancholick solitariness saying openly that she was resolved to renounce the world as soon as she knew that I was no longer in it And whereas there ran a bruit in Genoua about a year ago that I had been seen in Naples she dispatched away this man for to goe and see if it were so having made a vow if his voyage proved vain to shut her self in a Cloister for all the rest of her life but whereas fortune hath never done any but extraodinary things in my adventures she so wrought that this man putting himself into a French Barque to pass over thither was taken by a Pirate whose vessells lay under the covert of a Rock which is near to a place by the Italians called Porto Hercoles And whereas he had a grat number of Slaves he stayed not long from going to sell them at one of the Islands of the Archipelago from whence by divers accidents this man came to Constantinople where Doria by chance knew him as having at other times seen him in Rhodolphoes service After all this my Lord it will not be difficult for thy Highness to imagine the deplorable estate wherein I find my self by thy bounty and by the proposition which thou hast made me concerning the Sultana Asteria I should not be so hardy as to speak to thee in these termes if I did not call to mind that the charmes of the divine Roxelana have been of sufficient force to vanquish the most victorious Monarch of the world and that for this reason I may hope to see thee sensible of my misfortune to obtain pardon for my ingratitude and to be heard in my justifications It is true indeed that to excuse my fault I need no more than to beseech thy Highness to consider that if I could even banish from my heart the image of Isabella forget her affection her oathes and her constancie become the most ingratefull of men to his Princess cause her death by my change which she would quickly know prefer my Master before my mistress and my duty before my love the Religion I profess prohibiting me the plurality of wives which that of the Mahometans doth permit I could not dispose of a faith which I have already given seeing I am a Christian under the habit of Mussulman although I be not believed to be so in all the extent of thy Empire But whereas for all that it is not just that my temerity should be vanquished deprive a man of thy favor who refuseth an alliance which a great King outght to receive on his knees Banish from thy sight and Court a man whom so many benefits whom so many greatnesses and to say all whom thy affection cannot make perfectly happy and to satisfie the Sultana Austeria I am ready to reenter into the irons from whence she drew me and to die her Slave since I cannot
live her husband Or if thy Highness will render my end more profitable and glorious command me to seek out death in the midst of thine enemies and I shall not be long without testifying by the loss of my life that I am not ingratefull but because I cannot be acknowledging And to incense thy just wrath I will say further that the chastisement which I demand will be instead of grace to me since that in depriving me of light I shall no longer be sensible of all the misfortunes wherewith I am so heavily oppressed I shall cease to live but I shall cease also from being rebellious to thy pleasure I shall restore the life which I ow to the incomparable Asterin and I shall dye for the glory of Isabella In brief my Lord since I cannot be Asteriaes because my love doth oppose it and my Religion doth forbid it and since I cannot likewise live for Isabella because my duty doth tie me to thy service both by a generall right and by a particular obligation death is the onely remedy that remains for me to get out of so many miseries If thy goodness had not broken off my fetters and that I were still thy slave now when that I know that the constancy of Isabella hath triumphed over the artifice of our enemies that I reign still in her heart and that on me alone her felicity or her happiness doth depend I would employ all my endeavour to free me of my chains by a ransom But my Lord I am tyed to thee by stronger bonds the obligations wherein I am ingaged to thy Highness the benefits which I have received from thee the honours thou hast done me and the last degree of glory whereunto I am mounted are too certain proofs of thy love and of thy confidence for me not to be retained in my duty It is then by these sacred bands that I am tyed unto thee and which I cannot break without sacrilege Finally my Lord the thoughts of liberty which pass for a just desire in the minds of all men were an horrid crime in me and I may well promise thy Highness that I will never so much as dream of it And as I am generous enough not to doe any thing that may blemish my love so am I yet more not to doe any thing that may wrong my duty There is no need then of guards to keep me from going out of thy Empire being fully resolved to sacrifise all my pleasures rather than doe any thing unworthy of the name which I carry and the choice which thy Highness hath made of my person for to be the first in thy favour as I am in thy Estates But without further deferring pronounce the sentence of death so just and so much wished for Ibrahim having given over speaking Soliman rose up fell to walking a great pace and with his eyes fixed on the ground continued in so deep a muse as the Bassa doubted that he should obtain the effect of his request but he was not long in this uncertainty for the Sultan standing still and beholding him in a manner that testified more grief than anger and more compassion than wrath said unto him with all imaginable kindness that he held himself infinitely unhappy in that possessing so great an Empire that being so victorious and triumphant and that being able to give felicity to so many people yet could not render the onely man whom he could love happy Upon this so obliging a discourse Jbrahim would have fallen on his knees but he would not suffer him saying unto him that he would fain have obtained so much resolution of himself as to part for ever from a man who was so dear unto him that he had debated the same in his mind when as he walked in that manner as he saw but that at last the affection which he bore him had surmounted his generosity and that it was impossible for him to resolve on so grievous a separation that he conjured him to excuse the effects of his friendship as he excused those of his love and to testifie unto him that as well as himself he did all that he could he would permit him to goe atd see Jsabella provided he would pass his word unto him to return again within six monthes with this promise also that if during his absence he could accustom himself to this privation he would give him his liberty wholly and intirely The Bassa was so surprised and so transported with joy as having cast himself at the feet of the Sultan he was a good while without speaking but at length after he had recovered the use of his tongue he rendrâ—d him thanks for so notable a favor and told him that none but Soliman could vanquâ—â—â— Soliman that this victory which he had gotten over himself was so glorious to him as all that he had done till then was nothing in comparison of it that battailes were gained by the valour of Captaines and Souldiers buâ— in this occasion he owed this victory to none but his own proper vertue As for the rest if he would permit him to go to Monaco he would ingage his faith to render himself at Constantinople within the time that he had prescribed and that he was not to fear that he would break his word with his Highness since he would keep it with his very enemies After this assurance the Sultan told him that he did not doubt of it but that which obliged him to require an oath of him for it was the knowledge that he had of the force of the passion which reigned in his heart and that his friendship would be secured against this enemy of its content Jbrahim swore then solemnly that nothing but death alone should keep him from accomplishing his promise That done Soliman told him that he would not have consented to his voyage knowing that his affairs were not composed at Genoua had he not had the meanes to have the sentence revoked which had been given against him And when as Jbrahim besought him to to let him understand how he thought to perform so unexpected a a thing the Sultan told him that to comprehend his design he was but to remember how one of his Chaoux returning out of France and staying at Genoua had been murthered in the streetes by a popular commotion so that having been advertised thereof by one of them that accompanied him who instantly imbarqued himself away he had caused all the Vessells of the Genoueses that were found in his Ports to be arrested and that for the better favouring of his design an Ambassador was the day before arrived from his Republique whom he had caused to be put in prison at Pera being perswaded that he had done nothing unworthy himself therein since the Genoueses had first violated the Law of Nations in the person of his Chaoux how it was for to communicate this affair unto him that he had sent for him in the morning but the sadness
pity she is no taller This man who was called Alsac beleeved that this was she which touched the Marquis his heart since he found but this little defect in her But the other proceeding on in his discourse he thought it was the second for said the Marquis the advantagious stature of the next that stately look that dark hair that ovall visage and that noble pride which appears in her port and all her actions would render her incomparable were her complexion somewhat clearer and that she spake a little more than she does I was deceived said Alsac then and it is this same that hath vanquished him But continued the Marquis the mouth of the third her white teeth that quaintness which she hath in the ayr of her face that merry and joviall humour and that which goeth beyond all the rest that charming and passionate voice which she governs with so much art gives her such a grace as would make her surmount all hearts were it not for a little inequality of humour that appears in her Nay now I know not which of them it is said Alsac to himself but for the last continued the Marquis it must be acknowledged that that fresh and vermilion hew proceeding from her youth which may be named the soul of beauty those sparkling eyes that black hair that comely neck that mean and well proportioned stature those white hands and that which is most marvellous in the age of fifteen yeares that nimble wit which renders her the entertainment of a company which makes her talk very agreeably of all matters and which puts a particular charm into every part of her deserves almost the whole heart of a worthy man if she did not live in the Country and had but for six moneths onely breathed the air of the great world but that originall sin which takes off much of her value and the sole thought that she is a country Gentlewoman is a soveraign preservative for a man of the Court Alsac was then very much perplexed howbeit he conceived that the obstacle which the Marquis brought to this last was the least considerable and that thereby he would conceal his passion But this conjecture was not for all that so strong as he durst settle his judgement on it as on an indubitable thing He presses the Marquis yet in another manner and precisely demands of him whether he be in love or no the Marquis who thought he was not to speak seririously answers that he is more than all the men of the world the other intreats him to tell him with whom and the Marquis who believes that this man hath no hidden design is contented to tell him for to keep him still in doubt that it sufficeth he assures him how in that which he loves all the beauties of the body and all the graces of the mind are incountred and that a master-peece of Nature might be made of it if one could see together what he loves asunder Alsac comprehended nothing by this discourse although it were true in the Marquis his sence who indeed was in love with these four maids in each of which he found things that touched his heart and others that did not please him This man then being in dispair of being able to acquit himself of his Commission enquires howsoever whether it be at Court or in the Country that he loves The Marquis answers how it is in the Coutry that he loves and after this they part Alsac goes to Marsè and tels him that all the fruit of his voyage is how he certainly knows that the Marquess is in love in their Country and that of necessity it must be in his house since there were no other Gentlewomen thereabout but to understand precisely which of his Sisters held the chiefest place in his heart was impossible for him to discover so well had he spoken to him of all four howbeit it seemed to him that the last touched him a little more than the rest but this too was so uncertain as he counselled him not to rely on it Marsé finds himself hereupon sufficiently troubled howsoever he resolvs to clear himself therein and beleeves that entertaining all his Sisters one by one in particular he may discover the truth it being impossible said he but that I shall observe by their countenances to which of them he hath spoken seriously of love He sends for the eldest to him into his Cabinet speaks to her with a great deal of testimony of good will and to oblige her the more easily to discover her heart unto him he assures her that he thinks of nothing with more care than to establish her Fortune that he should hardly resolve to marry before her and at length having made a turn or two he demands of her whether the Marquis had ever given her any particular proofs of his affection and whether that match would be agreeable unto her This proposition having made her blush she answers casting down her eyes that in this occasion she had no other will but his and that she was ready to obey him How it was true that the Marquis had testified that he greatly esteemed her and that in an hundred encounters he still seemed to prefer her before the rest and that she also had known how to acknowledge his merit to the prejudice of them that came neer him but that for three or four dayes since he had applyed himself more in talking to the third than he was accustomed to do This Maid giving no further marks in this discourse of the love the Marquis bore her than that which she bore to him by the jealousie which she shewed Marsé was at a nonplus he perceives by his Sisters speech that the Marquis had spoken to her of love that she did not hate him and that she suspects notwithstanding that he hath a mind to her which sings although according to Alsacs opinion it should be to the youngest Howbeit he conceals his unquietness from his Sister and resolves to sound them all charging this not to speak a word to the rest of what had past between them She withdraws and the sâ—â—ond arrives with a look and a modesty that made him beleeve he should be much troubled to draw any thing out of her concerning that which he desired to know But he was much amazâ—d when as at the first proposition which he made to her of it she freely told him but with some little preparation before hand that she beleeved the Marquis loved her eldest as a Sister that he delighted to hear the third sing that the wit of the last did not displease him but as for her she thought that he had given her such tokens of his esteem of her as he had given to none of the rest and that he had at sundry times spoken to her in that manner as she could no longer doubt of it Howbeit that for three or four dayes last past she thought that to spight her or to make
resembles a woman and you will be so cruell as to deprive me of a company wherein I meet with four very amiable ones so as if it be true that the loss of one Mistress brings an unquietness that cannot be ended but by Iron or Poyson what doe you think will become of me when you shall have taken from me four at a time which I love passionately and in a place where I can find no others If I were at Paris I should comply with you herein not onely for fower but for thirty being well assured that I should repair this loss in a little time But in the midst of a desert to deprive me of four sole maides whom I can love is so great an inhumanitie in the humor wherein I am as if you consider it seriously you must needs repent you of it But answered his Sister laughing you doe not love them for how can you share your self amongst so many Not love them replyed the Marquis naughty Sister come you doe not know me if you believe as you say for it is most certain that I love them with all my soul and that in all my life I never found my self so constant nor so amorous And whereas this maid could not very easily comprehend how a man could love four at once and tearm himself constant for to make her understand it he told her that by a very extraordinary adventure he had no great affection â—or any of them in particular but meeting in these four persons separately with that which he would have in one alone he was so desperately in love therewith as he was never in such a passion before He told her further that ordinarily when he found any thing that was amiable in a woman he excused the defects which were in her and became in love with all her person but that in this incounter through a caprichiousness of love he was wounded in another sort For said he seriously it would be impossible for me in the estate wherein my mind now is to love any of those maides single and I am never more joyfull than when I see them all four together I behold the whitness of the first the look of the second I hear the voice of the third and admire the gentleness of the last In conclusion I am so satisfied with this manner of loving that when I could by an unheard-of miracle take from those four maides all that doth please me in them to make thereof a Master-piece and a mervail such as I may imagine yet should I rather chuse to love them as I doe For if I should love but one of them I should be without consolation when she were in choler whereas contrariwise I am never altogether unhappy if I have angred the fair one the brown one regards me favourably and if I am out with the serious one the merry one comforts me with her jocund humor and when it falls out that I am upon good tearmes with all the four I have such delight as cannot be exprest One prepares a bracelet for me another ties a band about my hat a third gives me powder and essences whilst the fourth causes her picture to be drawn for the love of me In pursuance hereof I sing a song that is agreable to all four which each of them applies to their own particular for a mark of my affection and which they all commend with address and joy and that which is yet more worth than all these things is that this passion is so fair and so extraordinary as the end of it can never be unhappy For when as I my self would contribute to mine own ruine it is impossible that ever I should arrive to that infortunate terme which for the most part finishes all loves I mean marriage If I should love one of these maides it may be that utterly losing all reason against my custom I should also mary her but loving these four sisters as I doe unless the Law should permit me to mary them all four as the Turkes does I am in no danger of being their husband In this manner I shall be alwaies free and alwaies amorous and the impossibilitie that there is for them ever to be my wives gives them a charm which will make me love them untill I return again to the Court. Judge now after this cruell sister whether you are to rob me of all my pleasures You knovv continued he that I doe not cross yours that I have never prest you to hearken to the sighes of Marsé more than vvas needfull for my diversion and not to constrain you to marry him I am so much a friend of liberty that I cannot endure the least violence either in my self or in another and if you resist me never so little more I feel that I shall doe what you would have me but at the very same instant I shall take Post to goe seek out some new object for my passion without vvhich I am not able to live They vvere a long time yet pleasantly disputing on either part concerning this matter but at last the Marquis his Sister vvho vvould not lose so favourable an occasion to discover unto her Brother the design vvhich she had gives him to understand that during his absence a Gentleman of their Neighbours extreme rich of great courage and of much spirit had fallen in love vvith her and that he being to return from the Army in a short space she vvas afraid lest some mischief might fall out betvveen him and Marsé It is not that I have any affection for him said this Maid but I must confess to you that I vvill never mary Marsé though I think I could resolve to be the others Wife Come my dear Sister ansvvered the Marquis doe not disguise your thoughts say that you are in love that your passion is violent and vvith these charming vvords you shall obtain of me all that you can desire I vvill return to the Court eight dayes sooner than I vvould have done to leave you the liberty to use Marsé as you please but vvhen I goe I vvill leave our Mother an absolute povver to mary you according to your ovvn mind for I am so glad to see that you are not insensible that I love you for it far more than I did As they vvere thus talking Marsé arrives the Marquis hides himself against his Sisters vvill gets out at a back-gate mounts on hors-back and rides to Marsés house vvhich vvas not far off vvhere he finds those four fair Sisters or to say better his four Mistresses all of them more joviall than ordinary for they had every one in particular some hope to be the Marquis his Wife by reason of the proposition their Brother had made to them of it They had also attired themselves extraordinarily to give him new wounds for they knew well no day past without his visiting them The eldest had a garment on of green cloth-of-Silver whâ—reof the sleeves were
that this difference of humours which is seen betwixt us will set me at ods with you but that which gives me a little hope yet is that I know you have friends that are not inconstant I confess Madam replyed the Marquis that I am inconstant and that following the order of Nature I should hate that which is directly opposite to me but for all that it is certain that I am not incommodiously inconstant I never contradict any in their opinions nor in their pleasures I give unto others the liberty which I desire they should grant me I doe not blame constancie though I like well of change and my soul is so full of passion as I cannot condemn all that which is called Love wheresoever I find this passion it pleaseth me and all the effects of it are agreeable unto me I love jealousie in this same despair in him dissimulation in some infidelity in others and although it seldome produces any thing but joy in me yet does not the melancholy of a Lover who is not of my humour offend me I am so powerfully perswaded of the excellency of Love as I hold for infallible that the most unfortunate Lover in the World hath more happy dayes than the freest of all men can have For in fine the remembrance of what is past or the hope of what is to come still gives him feâ—icities which are not met withall in the possession of other good things Verily said the Princess there was never any one so sociably inconstant for commonly we are so unjust as to desire that our sense should rule that of others to approve of nothing but what pleaseth us and to condemn all that contradicts our opinions And they which are of this humour find in themselves wherewith to maintain their severity They say that whereas there is but one reason in all things there is but one way to be followed that all they which esloign themselves from that doe goe astray and that so they may be justly blamed I acknowledge Madam replyed the Marquis that there is but one reason but I maintain also that it is so difficult to be known as he who thinks he hath found it is oftentimes further from it than others which without judging soveraignty of any thing simply follow the sense wherewith Nature hath inspired them And indeed to speak truth if it be necessary for the equitable judging of a matter that one should be loose from all and so indifferent as to lean equally to each side or to say better not to lean to either how is it possible that any man should be so hardy as to make any judgment of the actions of others principally of that which regards Love But since I have been taken at Genoua for an Astrologer permit me to play the cunning man in this encounter I say then Madam that our reason is not so absolutely loosed from sense but that our temperament hath a great share in our opinions and that that just mixture of the four humours which renders the spirit so clear and solid and our health so sound is seldom found in any body There is alwayes one of them that predominates over the rest and by it we act according to the pleasure thereof we are grave merry cholerick or patient insensible or passionate And certainly it is not so much the rigour of a melancholick mans Mistress that makes him cry out sigh every minute shed tears pass away nights without sleep rave from the purpose talk alwayes of despair and appear with a langor that seems to be an effect of an extreme affliction as the power of this predominant humour which forces him to receive all things after this sort And to prove that which I say we are but to consider that if the same rigour were addrest to a man of my humour he would receive it in another fashion the jollity and joy which proceeds from the temperament is not easily troubled by things without and certainly that which makes the melancholick man complain in Love would give me occasion to laugh that which makes him to sigh would induce me to make verses of gallantery that which makes him weep would quite cure me of my passion and if I should pass nights without sleep it would be doubtless to give Serenades I should not rave in conversing to weary others and make them hate me I should not entertain my Mistress with my despair nor should I fill her imagination with sad thoughts which putting her into a bad humour might make her to use me ill afterwards But contrarily I would talk to her still of all the delights of them that love one another and whereas Love is alwayes represented in the midst of sports laughters and pleasures I would indeavour to inspire her heart with joy that so I might the more easily introduce love into it to whom the painters do alwaies give a bed of flowers without ever laying him on thornes In fine Madam far from perswading my passion unto her by the langor of my face I would shew her so much satisfaction in my eyes as she might very well perceive that her dominion would be pleasing to me and that I would not be like those people newly conquered who by their melancholy makes one beleeve that they are alwaies meditating some revolt There are also two kindes of Lovers who by the humours which predominate in them are made to doe strange things the anxious and the cholerick And though the former are not so far eloigned from the melancholick but that they have some conformitie together nor the cholerick from that sparkling humor and that fire which animates me yet are they for all that differing in many things The anxious is satisfied with nothing the possession of felicities which he hath desired molest him he wishes for quite contrary things he loves and hates all at a time he hath a secret enemy within himself that mingles bitterness with all his pleasures he beleeves when his Mistress shewes him favours that she is too prodigall of them or that she deceives him in conclusion he is easily displeased nothing can content him and when the person whom he loves gives him the least cause of jealousie it is enough for him to meditate on a murther A man like me in such a like occasion would mock at his Mistress and his Rivall a melancholick man in France would fight very couragiously but as for an anxious man Steel Iron and poyson would be the least armes that he would make use of As for the cholerick he would receive the rigors of his Mistress with transports of fury so far forth as to offer affronts to her to threaten her with all things but as the cloudes which form the tempests are dissolved when thunder breakes forth so this man of choler hath no sooner exhaled his fire by his cries but he goes out of himself and one onely look of the person beloved finding yet some impression of heat in
of that nature had done for ordinarily in that which concernes Love I measure the esteem which I make of Ladies according to that which they make of me and if I chance to encounter one who receives not my services at least with civility I presently judge her unworthy of my choler and love and within a quarter of an hour after I never think of her more But in this encounter it fell not out so for still I conserved a little affection and a great deal of desire to be revenged But before I would resolve on any thing I was willing to be yet better informed of the matter and to understand certainly whether Hortensio lay concealed at Leanders It was my good hap that Valerio whom questionless you know and that hath a wit very proper to imbroyl an intricate affair proved to be a dear confident of his And whereas we had contracted a great friendship together at my being at Rome I went and sought him out and having found him I soon obtained of him what I desired He told me that not above an hour before he parted from Leander how it was true that Hortensio lay concealed in his House by reason of an amorous adventure wherewith he was very much troubled because he was inamoured of a neipce of Câ—nthioes named Aurelia with whom Hortensio had had a particular commerce for a good while together How he was in good hope Hortensio going away and having no further pretension there that he might have declared his love to Aurelia but how far from that Hortensio not onely remained hid in his house but had also obliged him to carry a letter to this Gentlewoman to crave her pardon for his parting away without bidding her farewell excusing himself upon this that his grief for leaving her had kept him from doing so He told me likewise that Aurelia had received Hortensio's letter with much testimony of affection that Leander had been greatly tempted to discover unto her how she was betrayed and to make his profit of his friends deceit but that in conclusion friendship had prevailed with him above love That being returned to Hortensio he had very much prest him to let him know why he was unfaithfull to Aurelia how he had freely answered thereunto that his inclination was to Livia how for the other he served her out of acknowledgement it being most certain that he was very much obliged unto her How after all this he had demanded of him whether a friend of his should disoblige him in thinking of her since he loved her but for consideration How Hortensio was netled with this discourse and had testified unto him that he would not endure it Behold Madam the estate of things Livia loved Hortensio and was beloved of him I loved Livia and was ill intreated of her Aurelia loved Hortensio and was betrayed by him Leander loved Aurelia not daring to discover it unto her and was an instrument of his friends treason Valerio was Leanders confident and betrayed him for my sake Lucretia for being faithfull to la Roche was unfaithfull to her Mistress in fine we all of us almost did that which we ought not to have done The business standing in these termes I resolved to speak once more with Livia and whereas it is most certain that when one comes to know that the person beloved accords to another favours which she refuseth to him he changeth respect into boldness and no longer demands her affection as a grace but as a debt I went and attended Livia some three or four steps from her door with a mind that retained little of the French civility At her first appearing followed onely by Lucretia I advanced directly unto her and presenting her my hand with a contemning negligence I said unto her in somewhat a bitter manner It may be fairest Livia that being unable to merit any thing of you as a Lover yet in the quality of a Gentleman-Usher I may be permitted to help to lead you I know not answered she with a serious countenance what renders you so bold as to interrupt me in my way but I know very well that if you have not a purpose to displease me and did know my humour you would not be so inconsiderate as to dare to speak to me with so much liberty for I make profession of a modesty which cannot suffer such things and which you might very well understand by the coldness wherewith I have alwayes treated you I confess that the discourse netled me I could not endure this severe vertue in a person that had none but for me and that reproching me with her rigour seemed as though she would make me serve for the triumph of her Lover I retained her then by the arm as she was offering to goe away and in a quipping and jeering manner beholding her with a malicious smile I said unto her it is true Livia that I have been rash and inconsiderate in daring to lift up my eyes towards a person of so extraordinary a vertue as cannot suffer one to adore her as cannot endure one should speak to her of Love as loves even darkness and hates the light because it might discover that which she would conceal from most men Indeed answered she I hate the Sun because by it I see you It may be said I unto her with the same countenance and looking justly on her that you do not hate the Moon so much towards mid-night Whereupon she strove mightily to get away but in regard I held one corner of her vail she durst resist no further perceiving plainly that I no longer respected her Nay said I unto her as she would have gone from me you must hear me whether you will or no for since it is a sute of Love it is but just that you should hear me as well as you have heard my Rivall and that to be well informed of the justice of our cause you give him audience in the night and me in the day for I doe not desire that in consideration of me an handkercher should be hung in the Window that Lucretia should descend into the garden that a door which seems to be shut should be left open nor that I should be a gallant who seems to be absent and yet failes not to be at the assignation which is given him Verily Livia's astonishment made me almost repent for what I had spoken but indeed I could not contain my resentment The first thing that Livia said after this discourse was Ah Lucretia you have betrayed me But this Wench who in this occasion appeared to me to be the most dextrous and daring that ever was answered her with an extreme precipitation I Madam would to Heaven you were not more betrayed in acknowledging that which I never revealed In the mean time la Roche who had heard all that I said was much vexed at my engaging Lucretia by my discourse so that approching to me he said softly to me in French O
Fernando de Mendoza if she should hear them without grief and that having desired to avoyd all occasions that might bring her to a sense of sadness in a time when she had the pleasure to see him she had withdrawen herself In this sort it was that Isabella entertained Justiniano who ordered the conversation so dextrously as he bad the Princess good night without her pressing him to acquaint heâ— vvith the end of his History IBRAHIM OR THE ILLUSTRIOUS BASSA The second part The fourth BOOK WHEN as Juctiniano was retired to his lodging and that he had commanded his servants to leave him alone after they had got him to bed his imagination represenred unto him more lively than ever it had done before the inconsideration of his voyage the promise he had made to Soliman to return unto him the necessity either of breaking his word with a prince who had so much obliged him or to quit his Mistress Alas said she how unhappy am I and how imprudent have I been what shall I do in so deplorable an estate What shall I say to the Princess Wherefore came I to Monaco Had I the design to betray her in coming to marry her and then to steal away from her the very next day Or have I past my word for to falsifie it No no that was not my design I desired to see Isabella my love carried me unto it and doubtless it ought to carry me unto it and were I to dispose of my self again I should still do the same thing And could I said he alowd refuse to see Isabella Then turning himself about with precipitation he recommenced his complaints What continued he did I come to the Princess only to acquaint her that I was Grand Visier that I was the chief of all the Orient that I was the Favorite of a great Prince and afterwards to abandon her to grief and dispair and so return again to enjoy all those greatnesses Ah no Justiniano is not base he will not quit a Princess who is not unhappy but for the love of him he will not sacrifise her so cruelly to the pleasure of a Prince who may find men enough in his Empite that will take the place which he held there For in fine if Soliman loves us this princess loves us too and if I have friendship for this Prince I have love for Isabella Let us not balance the matter any longer let us injoy the good we have and let us not destroy our selves Whereupon he thought that he had found some rest but on a sudden a sense of honor comming again into his minde he went on passionately Why thou base man said he canst thou resolve to cover thy self with infamy to break thy word with one of the mightiest Princes of the world and that hath the most sensibly obliged thee And doest thou believe that this generous Princess whom thou servest would think thee worthy of her affection after this baseness Thou deceivest thy self Justiniano and with her own mouth she hath pronounced thy sentence That which she hath said of this Prince the praises which she hath given him makes me know but too well that she could not esteem one that should betray him But continued he if in this occasion honor should give place unto love yet wouldst thou not find thy self at rest since this love well considered will in this incounter have the same thing which honor requires Seest thou not wretch as thou art that this Prince whom thou wouldst betray is the most rigorous observer of his word that is in the world and that if thou shouldst fail in that which thou hast given him he is capable of coming with an Army of an hundred thousand men not onely to undo thy Countrey but thy Mistress her self as the cause of thy fault Save her then from this mischief sacrifise thy self for her and follow the Fate which will have thee always unhappy But wilt thou also deprive thy self for ever said he further of the sight of Isabella of the hope of thy possessing her which is to say of all thy felicity to render thy self the most infortunate and the most desperate amongst men Yes I must resolve for it and withall resolve to dye Have courage enough then continued he not to hide a thing from her which thou canst not conceal without baseness speak then wretched man but how darest thou tell her that thou art a Slave that thou wilt abandon her and that thou preferrest thy word before thy love No that may not be thou canst not consent unto it and death hath something sweeter than this wofull speech But again added he further wilt thou consent to the undoing of Isabella and thou that canst not resolve to betray Soliman wilt thou betray this Princess by disguising the truth unto her Wilt thou be so inconsiderate as to let her mary a Slave Ah this thought is too unjust No no be far from so bad a design do only that which thou oughtest to do and leave the rest unto fortune let her intreat thee ill let her persecute thee let her pursue thee every where it imports not so as thou dost nothing contrary to that which thou owest to Isabella It was in this manner that Justiniano agitated in his mind so difficult a thing to resolve on and honor and love tyrannized him so cruelly as his reason was almost lost therewith But at length after he had past the greatest part of the night without sleeping he generously resolved to speak plainly to the Princess and in this design prest with weariness and thought sleep surprized him whether he would or no or to say better a dull and melancholy vapor brought a senselesness upon him which yet could not keep his imagination from representing still unto him the deplorable condition wherein he was Day being come he found himself so altered as one would hardly have beleeved that the miseries of the mind could in so little a time have brought such a notable change to the face As soon as the Princess was in an estate to be seen she sent him a complement to advertise him of it whereupon he came straightway to her Cabinet but with a countenance so pale and eyes wherein grief was so visible as Isabella was surprised with it But whereas she did not believe that he had any cause to be afflicted she thought he was sick told him that he should not have come out of his lodging in the case he was in asked him what he ailed whether he had a feaver whether it were still on him and finally propounded very many questions unto him whereto Justiniano answered not a word For upon the point of executing that which he had resolved he felt so extraordinarie a trouble in his mind as he suddenly past from paleness to redness he was taken at first with an universall shivering which made him to tremble and then with so great a burning that he seemed all on fire The Princess
would apply thereunto At length they ordain her to be laid in her bed that still they might gain time to think of that which they had to doe Justiniano out of respect retired all in dispair and without being able so much as to reason about his misfortune his sorrow became so strong as he felt it but confusedly The Princess was not long in her weakness and Nature doing her uttermost gave her spirits the liberty again which grief had arested But thereupon there was so great and suddain a revolution of all her humors as she fell into a violent feaver so that the Physicians knowing then the Princess disease albeit they were ignorant of the cause of it they began to treat her according to the precepts of their Art Justiniano was also desired by order from the Princess to repair unto her he obeyed and came into her chamber with a face wherein the grief of the mind so nearly resembled that of the body as he seemed to be sicker than the Princess He approches every one withdrawes and when the Physicians told her that after such an accident as this which had befallen her it was fit she should not speak much she assured them that their conversation should not be long as indeed all that she said to Justiniano was comfort your self for the love of me if you will have me live for the love of you and be mindfull not to speak of our misfortunes no not to Doria himself if he comes hither And whereas she saw that Justiniano could not answer her without discovering his grief she wrung him gently by the hand and calling Aemilia she commanded her to have a care of Justiniano untill her sickness was abated This infortunate Lover not daring to speak for fear of augmenting the Princesses distemper and making too much show of his dispair which she would not have him to do retired away without saying any more than Ah! Madam if you will have me comfort my self you must then recover of this sickness which I have been the cause of After that the Princess grew extremely worse and worse the feaver held her ten daies with so much violence and weakness together as the Physicians durst not warrant her life But it was nothing in comparison of the eleventh day for then Justiniano who scarcely had abandoned her all that time absolutely beleeved that she was a dead body The feaver was very much increased her strength diminished the remedies unprofitable Nature seemed to want power and to be so oppressed as it was impossible to hope that she should escape But in the midst of all those miseries and in so great an extremity the constancy of the Princess was admirable who notwithstanding Aemiliaes teares the cryes of her women and Justinianoes dispair who was no longer in the termes to suffer himself to be constrained by reason expressed such a tranquillity of mind as it might well be judged that life was not very dear unto her Yet could she not for all that indure Justinianoes lookes nor see his teares trickle down his cheekes without resentment and besides that deplorable object she was insensible to all things But whilst they were in these termes at Monaco there was nothing but rejoycing at Genoua where it was not known that the Princess was so sick as she was for from her first time of being ill she had given in charge that it should not be published to the end she might recover without molestation or at leastwise dye quietly It was onely then knowen at Genoua that she was not well but that kept them not from meeting almost every day according to the order which the Marquis had established either at the Counts or at Doriaes who after his return had taken an onely sister that he had to govern his house and who was associated with this fair Troop which had no other thought but of delighting themselves The most considerable of this assembly were the Count of Lauagna Leonora his wife Horatio of the illustrious house of Cibo the brother of Leonora Sophâ—onia her sister Hipolita Doriaes sister Alphonso Spinola Leonardo the widdow of Livia of the race of the Adornes the French Marquis and Doria whose love began to be somewhat violent for Sophronia who certainly was very capable of begetting an ardent passion she had not only a piercing and majestick beauty like her sister Leonora but a noble stateliness which rendred her least civilities so obliging that one of her looks touched more sensibly than the tenderest caresses of others The beauties of her soul were no less considerable than those of her face and the graces of her mind did not give place to all the other excellent qualities that she had it is not to be wondered then if Doria who was a man of much vertue and of much judgement suffered himself to be touched with such powerfull charms As for the Count it might be said that he loved Leonora his wife dearly but it may be said also that he was truly in love with nothing but glory His galantry his civilities and his liberality were not terminated with the conquesâ— of the good graces of one only Lady but with the esteem of all the world Horatio was of a less active humour but for all that very pleasing of a solid judgement of a gentle and complying spirit and that notwithstanding some coldness that appeared in his countenance had yet been a long time in a burning passion for the fair Hippolita whose jealous and distrustfull humor troubled him not a little Alphonso likewise had much spirit and Leonida whose beauty gave place to none of the rest added thereunto a gentileness and liveliness which rendred her the entertainment of a company There were many others besides which had also both wit and beauty so that the Marquis being joyned to so many excellent persons it might have been said that this Assembly had been perfect indeed had Justiniano and the Princess of Monaco been there The next day after that the Count Doria and the Marquis were returned to Genoua this illustrious company failed not to meet at the Counts Palace and whereas it was forbidden to speak in these occasions either of war or of generall affairs and that Verses Painting Musick Love Vertue and all other things that depend of an excellent wit were those onely wherewith one might entertain himself in this encounter the constancy of Isabella the merit and love of Justiniano made an overture to the conversation The beauty of the place also added something to the beauty of the Assembly for the more magnificence and making of the better and more glorious show of their jewells those dayes wherein the women decked and set forth themselves all the windows were shut up and torches served to light the room which this day Leonora caused to be sumptuously furnished because the company was to be more than ordinary The hangings were of Carnation Velvet imbroidered all over with tears and spangles of gold and
went and delivered it to the Princess who was but newly awake At first when she heard that Justiniano had sent her that paper she changed colour and asked where he was He went forth very early with Doria answered this man whom I saw return back alone to his chamber Without doubt said the Princess then to her self opening the Letter Justiniano hath deceived me and Doria to be faithfull to his friend hath betrayed me But when she had read that which Justiniano wrote her and that she knew he was gone as also that Doria was deceived as well as she though in a different manner she gave a great skreek howbeit desiring to conceal her grief from him that brought her these deadly news she commanded him to with-draw and to stay in her house till he had further order As soon as she was at liberty to complain what said she not against Justiniano against fortune and against her self Am not I culpable of mine own misfortune said she â—ighing Ought not I to have had him watched Had I not made sufficient tryall of the stedfastness of his resolution he had resisted my intreaties he was not moved with my tears he would not hearken to my sighs With what stronger arms could I hope to vanquish him but now is no time to reason of things done Justiniano is gone and how strong soever my love is I may not forget mine honor I cannot resolve to follow him as a forsaken one he separated himself from me that he might be generous and that I may not swerve from vertue I will not follow him But what say I unfortunate as I am if I know not where he is how can I follow him Then suddenly holding her peace and turning her self on the other side she sighed with so much violence as it was impossible for her to speak A little after for all that she fell to speaking again in this sort Ah Justiniano said she what a sensible outrage to my affection was this excess of love that hath torn thee from me the tempest whereunto thou exposest thy self is to be less feared no doubt than that which is raised in my soul Is it possible continued she that thou couldst resolve to refuse the having of me for a companion of thy miseries Certainly thou didst not believe that my soul was strong enough and thou thoughtest peradventure that I did not intreat thee but to be denyed But I ams cruell said she to make so ill a construction of the meaning of the most generous of men who deprives not himself of me but for the love of me who consider none but my interests and who loves not even his own honor but for my proper glory Let us think better of Justiniano let us live to obey him and let us not give fortune that advantage to have more cruelty than we have constancy Let us force her by our resolution to be weary of hurting us since indeed there is nothing left us but that to do After she hâ—d been a pretty while without speaking and that she had hidden his Letter she sent for Doria to confirm that unto hâ—m which had been told him by his friend And whereas she had a great and generous soul she composed her countenance so well and so throughly restrained her teaâ—s as no more sorrow appeared in her face than that which the absence of Justiniano alone might well be the cause of Is not your friend cruell indeed said she to Doria as soon as he came to her to steal away from me for the satisfying of a thing which he owed not but to my consideration seeing it seems to me that there is some justice I should follow him in a voyage whereof I was the occasion And if I may be permitted to accuse you of too much fidelity towards him I shall tell you freely that you would not have a little obliged me if you had betrayed his secret in discovering iâ— to me There is sometimes added she a great deal of generosity in not serving ones Friends according to their intention and in considering rather that which is utile and glorious than what is pleasing to them and if I be not deceived the matter ought to have gone so in this incounter But in conclusion Justiniano is gone and there is nothing left us but to make vowes for him as he hath made them for us It is certain replyed Doria that Justiniano's voyage stangely surprised me and that I was tempted to acquaint you with his design but I confess Madam when I knew that his voyage was absolutely necessary seeing he had promised it and that he did not steal away from you but to keep you from following him I found that he had reason for it and I served him in his design Yet was it not till I had first offered to accompany him with all the testimonies of affection I could render him and I had added force to intreaty had he not assured me that he should not accomplish his vow if he went not alone and unknown But is it possible that he is gone said the Princess disguise not the truth unto me is he not concealed in some place to take order for his affairs No Madam answered Doria for he hath given me the charge of them If that be so said the Princess who would fain have been at liberty to shed teares I hold it fit that you should goe and publish at Genoua the true cause of his absense for fear lest so unexpected a departure should cause bruites to run about either to his disadvantage or mine But before you go tell me I pray you whether Justiniano were afflicted indeed to quit me whether he said any thing to you to tell me and what were his last words They were all for you replyed Doria for after he had imbraced me all that he could obtain of his grief was no other than force enough to injoyn me to take care of you so that Madam you may dispose of me as you please and believe that never any eloignment begot so great an affliction as that which I saw in Justiniano And knew I not that he loves you more ardently than ever person did love I should hardly believe that absence alone could cause so great a displeasure in his soul The Princess felt her self then so pressed with grief as it was impossible for her to retain her teares and seeing that she could not hide them from Doria she said unto him wiping her eyes You may not think it strange that I am not more constant than Justiniano since I am as unhappy as he and that I yeeld not to him in affection This weakness justifies his said Doria and I profess he were unworthy of the honor which you do him if he did not resent as he doth an absence that separates him from the onely person which can make him happy The princess and Doria had some more such like discourses but at last she prayed him once again
was a Persian and that as often as he spake to her of his affection she used to tell him that when he was grand Visier she would promise him her good will And her pride was so insupportable as he had been constrained to separate her from his other wives being also jealous of her as I have already declared Knowing then her ambitious humour and the love of the fair Slave having almost extinguished that which Alicolaes rigor had much diminished before after he had conducted this stranger into a chamber and given the old Eunuch order to have a care of her he entred into that of Alicola who received him after the accustomed manner that is to say with a great deal of coldness And whereas he thought that he should surprize her with that which he purposed to say unto her he mused a little before he spake but she without losing of time demanded of him how long she should continue a prisoner whether he was resolved that she should alwayes live separated from the commerce of the world and that she should have no other entertainment but the view of a garden and the noise of a fountain whilst his other women which were not worthy to be his Slaves enjoyed all the pleasures of Constantinople Bajezet finding this occasion so favourable would not lose it so that as soon as she â—ad done speaking he answered her in this sort Heaven is my witness fair Alicola said he unto her that the discourse which I am going to make you is rather an effect of despair whereunto your rigor hath reduced me than of any new passion seeing it is certain that if by a coldness which had never example you had not extinguished the fire that your eys had kindled in my soul I had never been sensible of love but for you only and I should never have been capable of seeking to cure my self with an infidelity to Soliman nor of changing of affection by forgetting of yours Alicola believing that Bajazets discourse was but an artifice to try if he could take her with jealâ—usie quickly interrupted him Have I not told you above an hundred times replyed she that love can never touch me without ambition If you were a King I should be jealous of your glory and of your Crown but of your person in the estate wherein it is I should never he Think not then that I do give you markes of my love in giving you any of my jealousie love as long as you please and whom you please I will not appose it for in fine my heart cannot be touched but with magnificence and splendor and not with tears and sighes If you will give me leave to speak to you answered Bajazet I will let you know that I have a mean to satisfie both your ambition and mine and it is so facile that it depends on your will alone to be a Sultana and to render me one of the chiefest of this Empire and one of the happiest men of the world by putting me in possession of a person that is infinitely dear to me This discourse is so intricate answered Alicola that if you do not explain your self better I shall not be able to tell you what my will is but in conclusion I assure you that if so unlikely a thing should depend on it I would soon get out of your hands and would chuse rather to satisfie your ambition than your love for if I were in a condition to make your fortune mine without doubt would be at the point I would have it and it may be as I deserve that is to say extremely great Bajazet who would not displease her protested once again that if he had believed he could have moved her with time he would never have been carried to that which he was propounding unto her whereupon he related unto her how Amurath had trusted him with a Persian Slave which he destined to the grand Signior how the remembrance of her rigor had made him sensible of the attracts of her beauty and at last said unto her whereas you are no less beautifull than she are also as young are known of few have the same coloured hair and of a like stature I will present you to the Sultan in stead of her who questionless will be taken with that inevitable charm which I so cruelly have tryed And in this sort will your ambition be satisfied as likewise my new passion and if you be generous you will in that estate remember how I am born with this conformity of my humor to yours to believe that one may do any thing to become great Let that oblige you then for your own glory to take care of me that a man who hath loved you may not be in a rank unworthy of that honor Alicola mused a pretty while then speaking with a more contented countenance Is it in earnest said she to him that you propounded this unto me or is it to discover my thoughts and when as Bajazet had sworn unto her that he spake with sincerity she said unto him in a more cheerfull manner at length you are come to that pass as to be agrerable unto me once in your life But before you rejoyce me further tell me I pray you continued she what will he say that gave you this Slave to present her to the grand Signior when he shall know that you have retained her He shall not know it replyed Bajazet and I mean to carry this design with so much address that no body shall ever discover it The Eunuch and the Slaves which serve you have testified their fidelity to me in other countries and for those which are come with me from Natolia they cannot so much as suspect that you are not the Slave whom they have accompanied For you are not ignorant that assoon as one is destined to the grand Signior she is treated with a high respect and hath a veil cast over her face which she never takes off but when she is alone so that according to this order they will not wonder to see you goe out in the same sort and whereas I purpose to have you wear the same habit which Amurath gave to that Slave they will doubtless take you for her And for language you need not but seem as though you did not understand ours and make use of your naturall tongue which is the same this Slaves is It was in this fashion that Bajazet made an end of confirming Alicola in the hope of her good fortune And to say truth it must be acknowledged that this design was not ill imagined for he was very sure that Alicola was not known at all to the great men of the Port so that if it should happen that any one of them should be present with Soliman when he should present her unto him that would not discover him Neither was he ignorant that those which give Slaves to the grand Signior never see them again after they are once entred
behold him with a strange insolence I dare not undertake neither the reproaches which Amurath gave to Bajazet for the Treason he had committed But at last after they had said all that the divers passions which mastered their souls inspired them with Amurath caused Bajazet to enter into the Chariot and the fair Slave with him whose fall had brought her more fear than hurt for she had but a little bruise upon one of her arms Alicola mounted then on a horse and her slave on another all Amuraths people marched on both sides of the Chariot and he with Alicola rode four or five paces behind as it were leading the prisoners whom he conducted in triumph They arrived in this sort at the gates of Constantinople where having made Alicola alight he sent her together vvith Bajazet and the fair Slave to his Palace and there after he had caused them to eat he went to give Soliman an accompt of hir voyage As soon as the Sultan was advertised of the state of things he commanded these offendors to be brought before him which immediately was executed You may immagine the severall apprehensions that all of them had Bajazet was in a great deal of confusion to appear before his Master whom he had betrayed before a friend whom he had deceived before a woman whom he had loved and that was going to convince him of perfidiousness but that which most afflicted him was the grief of the fair Slave Alicola was exceedingly vexed to appear before a Prince that had despised her yet did she comfort her self vvith the thought that she deprived him of a man whom he loved Amurath had his heart filled with his new flames which made him to be not without unquietness for he feared that Soliman punishing Bajazet would also punish Alicola since she had helped to deceive him As for the fair Slave the fear alone of losing Bajazet made her shed tears But at length they arrived all before Soliman And whereas none of them durst so much as lift up their eys it was the Sultans pleasure they should speak separately and first he commanded Bajazet to render an account of his doings Whereupon falling down on his knees he spake much after this manner for I think that I have heard him repeat it over above an hundred times As love only hath been the cause of my crime so love only must also be my defence for my Lord said he unto him I know but too well that reason and justice are absolutely against me I have contemned the counsell of the first and I have not been afraid of the second I have betrayed a Prince who is not only my lawfull Prince who is not only the greatest Prince of the World but who for the greater aggravating of my fault is a Prince which hath alwaies loved me and whose goodness hath been so great towards me as it hath scarce set any bounds to my hopes Now if after so great a crime it is requisite to consider the rest which I have committed I have betrayed a man that confided in me I have abandoned a woman whom I had loved long and have made her pay very dearly for the testimonies of my affection with unheard-of rigour and to say all I have abused the simplicity of a Slave which was destined to thee and depriving her by my artifices of the honour of being thine I have wronged her more than all the rest In fine my Lord which way soever I turn me I see the marks of my crime but if notwithstanding it would please thy Highness to consider by what violence my reason hath been forced to carry me to such strange things thou wouldst doubtless have some pitty of my misfortune For if it be true that we have some compassion of a man whose imagination hath been troubled with melancholy why shall we not have it of a man whom love hath bereaved of his understanding What imports it whether the cause of his folly be interior or whether it proceeds from without so it is that I have not failed till love had seduced my reason till I had lost my judgement till my will was no longer in mine own power till all my desires perswaded me to the crime which I have committed till all my senses betrayed me till occasion favored my design and till nothing apposing my felicity I had not strength enough to despise it as I was obliged to doe seeing I could not enjoy it without being the most faulty of all men In conclusion if thy goodness will permit it all my crimes shall be comprised in one alone word I have loved I doe not for all that refuse the chastisement which I merit and to that end I lay my head at thy feet Bajazet had no sooner made an end of speaking but Alicola said unto Soliman with a bold and firme voyce as for me the crime which I have committed is of such a nature as I can never repent me of it and the onely grief I have left me is that I have committed a crime to no purpose I know that in desiring the honor to be thy Slave I wished for a good which I was unworthy of but I hoped that if my beauty was not able to touch thy Highness powerfully yet the greatness of my soul might please thee and I attended from mine eyes but this onely advantage to be received into the number of thy Slaves remitting my good fortune to the knowledge which time should have given thee of the thoughts of my heart Finally my Lord I was shewed a way which might have led me to glory I followed it and would follow it still had I new meanes presented me to doe it But if neverthelesse so noble a designe deserves chastisement I may say that the punishment which I have already received for it is greater than the evill I have done I will not reckon up the rigors of Bajazet for I am too generous to aggravate his fault before a Prince whom he hath but too much provoked but I will only beseech thy Highness to remember those cruell words and that bitter jeere which thou usedst to Bajazet when as thou didst refuse me words which I understood but too well though I made shew that I understood them not And to punish my self also in thy presence I am but to call to minde how thou saidst that I was fitter to conduct Amazons to the warrs than to live in a Seraglio that I looked more like a Soldier than a woman that thou fearedst my valour would equall thine that when as thou wouldest give me markes of thy affection I would render thee some of my courage and at last that I was more capeable of making prisoners of warre than prisoners of love Ah my Lord if thou knewest what a punishment that is which a vvoman doth resent that is of an high spirit and thinkes her self faire vvhen she heares such like things spoken of her thy Highness vvould not be troubled
hovv to chastise me seeing it is certaine that I carry a tormentor about me in my memory vvhich follovves me every vvhere and vvill persecute me eternally Hovvsoever I am most ready to obey thy Highness and to die that thou mayest be revenged of me since I cannot live to be thine Herevvith Alicola made an end of her speech and the faire slave began hers and though she spake not one language perfectly yet vvas not her discourse the least couching The rest said she to Soliman have laboured to execuse their crimes to thy Highness but for me vvho may not black mine innocency voluntarily since I cannot partake vvith Bajazet in his crime I must at least vvise partake vvith him in his misfortune I must I say indeavour to make mine innocency appeare only to obtaine pardon for his crime But the misery wherein I find my self is so great as I cannot think to save him this way but in rendring him the more faulty I must say then my Lord that when Amurath put me into his hands I knew not that I was destined to thy Highness he conducted me to his house and retained me there without ever suffering me to understand so much and having rendred me all the testimonies of love and respect which I could have desired from a man that had not had me in his power I acknowledge that his affection moved me that I gave him mine and that in the wretched condition whereunto fortune hath reduced me I esteem my self happy to be his wife I acknowledge also my Lord that he hath confessed his crime unto me since but whereas this crime was a testimony of the affection he bore me and that our mariage had made me unworthy of being able to repair his fault by restoring me into thy hands would not thy Highness have blamed me for coming to accuse my husband of a fault which he hath not committed but out of an excess of love After this my Lord I do not think thy Highness can doubt of mine innocencie and not doubting of it I dare hope that thou wilt not punish me more cruelly than Bajazet by letting me live and putting him to death and that contrarily thou will have the goodness to grant me his pardon For my Lord what reason would there be that I who am absolutely innocent should have the same destiny that the guilty have Is it not enough that fortune hath forcibly carried me from out of the armes of my parents to put me into the hands of Pirats that I have been sold for a Slave and to say all that she hath deprived me of the honor of being thine but that by the order of the greatest and most equitable of Princes I should also be deprived of an husband who is to me in stead of Parents of country of treasures and who in conclusion makes up all my felicity Consider my Lord in this occasion how his crime and mine innocence are linked so together as thou canst not be just towards him without being unjust towards me and how the other way thou maist be just towards me and clement towards him But to carry presumption as far as it can goe or to say better the confidence which I have in thy goodness I humbly beseech thee again that as it is I who have robbed the unhappy Alicola of Bajazet and that in consideration of me she hath suffered so mâ—ch so thou wilt likewise in consideration of me pardon him But if nevertheless thy Highness is otherwise resolved grant me at leastwise the grace that I may die with Baiazet The fair Slave mollified the heart of Soliman and as hee was about to have spoken Amurath made hast to say to him I know very well that I am the accuser of these offenders and that in some sort too I am a party with them so that my Lord I am to be their defendor also in this occasion and doe most humbly beseech thy Highness to pardon them It is an act worthy of Soliman not to be revenged on them that are in his power and the true felicity of Kings is without doubt to make up that of their subjects It will be long of none but thy self then if thou be not satisfied in rendering us all four happy For my Lord if thou leavest the possession of the fair Slave to Bajazet he will certainly esteem himself happy as well as she As for me my Lord if the purpose which I had to tender thee a present that I thought would be agreeable to thee merits any recompence as thy highness hath beene pleased to assure me I beg the pardon and possession of Alicola who by what I have noted in her discourse is more sensible of ambition than love so that injoying by thy bounty a rank considerable enough about thee she will have means to be satisfied and I too seeing I am constrained to acknowledge that my opinion is not like unto thine for the beauty of Alicola and that I have been a whole day the most amorous of all men Soliman seeing him about to proceed would not permit him and reaching his hand to him smiling I am glad said hee unto him that we are not of the same opinion for beauty since thereby I am enabled to satisfie thee And for thee said he to Bajazet I remit the offence thou hast committed against me but know that if Love combatted for thee in thy discourse the goodwill which I have alwaies born thee hath far better defended thee in my heart Then turning him to the fair Slave he commended her generosity and the affection which shee carried to Bajazet assuring her that he would never trouble her rest As for Alicola he told her that to render the conquest which she had obtained more worthy of her and more capable of contenting her he would make Amurath grand visier After this he said to Baiazet hee was sorry that for the preservation of his authority and for example sake hee could not let him live at Constantinople but in regard it was impossible the matter should not be divulged by those who had accompanied Amurath he must needs resolve to absent himself from the Port for fear least this importunity should give others the boldness to commit the like or greater faults than this That he did not condemn him to go out of the territories of his Dominion but he would have him abide in one of the Islands of the Achipelago and there lead a private and particular life To represent unto you the joy of these four persons would be an impossible thing however so it was that after they had rendered a thousand thanks to Soliman and that he had made them all recount the severall thoughts which they had had during the time wherein he had been deceived by them they departed away Amurath conducted Alicola home to his house where he married her the next day and Baâ—azet went to give order for his affaires Behold Madam how this matter passed
case I should not be discreet enough to conceal this secret from others he would be so confident as to disavow all that he had said to me For Deliment he had a long time before won an old Satrap in whom the Sophi very much confided for the affairs of the Empire and who had oftentimes perswaded him by Deliment's direction that the Law which had caused Arsalon to be banished was very judiciously made for his subjects but not for him perswading him that Kings which did not marry their daughters to forraign Princes were never to admit the noblest and the greatest of their subjects into their alliance because that most commonly was to take Tutors in taking sons in law of an high birth and that for the good of the Prince of the State and of the Princesses it would be better to do otherwise For said he unto him one day coming to particulars if by example the Princess Axiamira had marryed Deliment what a felicity would yours be to have a son-in-law that should owe all his glory to you and absolutely depend on you and what an happiness would it be for Axiamira to have an husband without having a master it being certain that the inequality of their conditions would always keep Deliment in the terms of duty and obedience With such like reasons as these it was that this wicked man had caused the minde of the Sophi to be prepared before he would discover his love unto him But whereas he had understood by his Agent that he had not rejectâ—d those propositions the morning that he had been to see the Princess which was the same wherein the Sophi discovered to him the love which he bore to me he wrought so dextrously with him as he made him comprehend that if he had a passion in some sort unworthy of his rank he on the contrary had one that was far above all he could pretend unto and that would not permit him to hope for any thing He spake this to him with so much cunning as he designed Axiamira unto him yet without engaging himself so far but that he might interpret his discourse after another manner if he perceived the Sophi to be offended at it But he had too much need of him for me and his minde was too much possest with maxims of State which were advantageous to Deliment for him to be so and indeed far from being displeased with it he embraced and told him that his hopes might go so high as that he permitted him to lift up his eyes even to the Princess Axiamira For said he unto him since Nature hath not given me children which can govern this Empire I would be willing that love and fortune would give me such a one as Deliment who may if not be Sophi after me at least-wise counsel him that shall be Deliment cunning and dextrous as he was made as though he did not beleeve that which the Sophi said to him and out of a fâ—â—gned respect not seeming to acknowledg that to be his passion the Sophi said unto him to oblige him thereunto that it being not so far from him to the Princess Axiamira as from me to the Sophi of Persia he was not to fear that he would thence forward oppoâ—e an unâ—qual affection seeing he had discovered his unto him But when as Deliment continued saying that respect was stronger in him then all other things the Sophi that he might know whether it were Axiamira indeed whom he was in love withall carryed him to her lodging and it was then that this rash man was so audacious as to speak with such insolency to the Princess For whereas he had tryed that love could not move her he beleeved that ambition might and that the hope of reigning over Persia would move her more then the certainty wherein she was of reigning over his heart As for the Princess Perca they had a long time before treated together and he had perswaded her that the Crown of Persia was to be shâ—red between her and her sister and for that effect she was to be kept from marrying any man whose generosity for so it was that he spake should carry him to let stupid Ismael or blinde Mahamed reign And when he made a shew of seeking out who in the Court might be Axiamira's husband he play'd his part so well that he led her as cunning as she was to the point he desired For after she had mused awhile as well as he what need have we said she unto him to seek so far off for that which we may finde in the person of Delâ—ment He seeming to have no other interest in this affair then the good of the Princesses held off a good while that he might be the more prest unto it But at length being come to agreement about their conditions they judged that albeit Ismael was not capable of rendering a party much stronger then if he were not of it yet it would be advantageous for them to seize upon his spirit and Perca took the care to do it As indeed she easily perswaded him that it was requisite Axiamira should be marryed to a man that depended on him and not on Mahamed who after the death of the Sophi might trouble him in demanding a great portion as if he were not blind so that to weaken his party it would be good to marry Axiamira to Deliment who would tye himself wholly to his interests Behold my Lord the motives and the causes of Deliment's insolency to Axiamira of the discourses which he made to me touching the love of the Sophi of the perswasions of Perca and Ismael and of the unquietness which this unpleasing entanglement gave us For being advertised of part of these things which we understood much better afterwards Prince Mahamed Axiamira Vlama and I who was also of the counsel resolved that the Princess should always treat Deliment with a great deal of coldness and indifferency without giving him for all that any notable cause of complaining That the best would be carefully to avoyd all occasions wherein the Sophi might speak of this man it being more expedient that the matter should not break forth but upon extremity because it might arrive that it would not have a sâ—quâ—l so grievous as we foresaw it That in the mean time we should labor to let Perca know that Deliment did not intend to use her better then Ismael and Mahamed That for me I should receive the discourse which he should make me concerning the Sophi's love as a thing I did not beleeve and that I would not have to be true and that I should give him as little occasion as I could to speak to me of it I offered the Princess to retire to my father under pretext of a supposed sickness but if the good-will which she bore me opposed it Prince Mahameds love hindred it absolutely In regard whereof they represented unto me that if I should do so it
him Howbeit imagining that the Princess would visit him during his feigned sickness and that I being her Confident would not fail to accompany her thither spight re-assumed its former place and made him execute his resolution The next day he feigned himself sick and would let no body see him but fearing lest Axiamira should be troubled at it he sent her word that she should not be disquieted for it assuring her that the greatest remedy he had need of was her conversation or to be alone The Princess understood well enough what the Prince desired of her so that as soon as she had met with occasion fit for it she went to see Mahamed carrying none with her but an old Governess one of my fellows and me But Perca having understood that Axiamira was gone to see Prince Mahamed who was not well perswaded Ismael and Deliment to go thither too so that we were hardly arrived at Mahamed's chamber but we were advertised that this Enemy troop was coming to trouble our rest The Prince was so enraged at it as Axiamira fearing he should be carryed to some violence made haste to be gone so that meeting them in the anti-chamber where she stay'd them she told them that the Prince being asleep she would not suffer him to be awaked and thereby obliged them to return In the mean time Mahamed who could not forbear giving me to understand that he lived still for me called to him his guide named Amariel who oftentimes served him also for a Secretary He recommends secrecy and discretion to him and after he had made him swear an hundred false oaths he dictates a letter unto him for me which he wrote very faithfully And having caused him to read it over more then once unto him he gives him order to go the next morning for to know how the Princess does and then to deliver me that letter as secretly as he could Amariel promises to acquit himself thereof as he ought and very glad of his adventure he retires from the Prince and goes with all speed to do an act of fidelity to the Sophi and of treachery to Mahamed The Sophi caresses him extraordinarily and taking the letter with very much impatience he sees that it was extreamly passionate and that Deliment's suspicions were not ill grounded He sent immediately for him shewed him the letter which he had and exceedingly moved with choller demanded what counsel he should take Deliment as more cunning and less preoccupated told him how by this letter well considered one migh easily see that Mahamed was passionately in love with me but that one could not judg whether I answered his passion or no so that to be cleared therein Amariel was to deliver this letter to me and crave an answer of it That for his part he beleeved that I did not hate him because one of Perca's maids had heard me say somewhat as she went out of Axiamira's chamber that made him think so This resolution being taken Amariel according to his directions came unto me rendred me Mahameds letter and gave me the commodity to answer it For whereas he was come very early the Princess was not yet awake and I was still in my chamber without any other company then a maid that waited on me Until then I had beleeved that I was not obliged to let Vlama know any thing of Prince Mahamed's love but when I foresaw that it was like to have some sequel I resolved when I could finde a favorable occasion to say something to him of it and in the mean time so to live with Mahamed as he should have no cause to be offended with me nor yet hope to engage me to the affection which he desired of me I answered him with a great deal of respect and turning the sence of his words as dextrously as I could I answered to a letter of love as if it had been a letter of friendship Amariel had no sooner gotten mine answer but he went away very well satisfied to the Sophi who was not sorry to see that I had not so much affection for Mahamed but that he might hope to be able to break it He consulted then with his ordinary counsel that is to say with Deliment and they resolved together that from thence forward they would change the Letters which the Prince should cause to be written to me because for so much as they could judg by that which they had seen they would be too well endited and too passionate purposing also if it fell out that I should answer him too obligingly not to let it be read so to Prince Mahamed who as if fortune would be assistant to our Enemies became so sick indeed as he was fain to keep his chamber fifteen days together In which time there past not a day wherein he did not write unto me and I did not answer him without ever knowing for all that what we said one to another because the Sophi retained all Mahamed's Letters and caused others to be written to me and likewise kept all my answers in making me speak as he pleased I confess that many times I marvelled at the questions wherewith those Letters which I beleeved were Mahamed's were filled and confronting the first I received from him with the rest I found so great a difference between them were it for the gracefulness of the stile oâ— for the things he said to me as I knew not what to think of it Nevertheless seeing it was always the same hand and receiving them the same way all I could conclude upon it was That the blindness of this poor Prince possessed him with such thoughts for love as never any body had the like but he For whereas the Sophi's and Deliment's design was to render Mahamed contemptible to me they made him write strange things by Amariel Sometimes they made this blinde Prince say that he was grieved he did not see me that the beauty of my eyes was always present before him in another Letter that for the more conformity he would willingly that I had been blinde as he was and the rather for that then I should not see the Sophi whom he knew to be his Rival In another he conjured me to let him have my picture and to send him word whether I were fair or brown I leave you to think since I could not despise Mahamed because I esteemed him very much other-ways whether these Letters did not move me to compassion and though Deliment's cunning did always intermix something of the Sophi among yet I had always so much discretion or good hap as not to make any answer to that particular But if Deliment drew up such sensless Letters for Mahamed those which he made for me as I understood afterwards were not much more reasonable And the Prince hath told me that when Amariel read them to him he could not chuse but make him read them over again and again It was not because Deliment who ordinarily
and after he had assured him that they were alone he gave him the Letter which he had taken from me and willed him to read it But he was strangely amazed when as he knew by the reading of this Letter that I had been a long time engaged in affection to some one For as I have told you Vlama had run over welneer all that had ever passed betwixt us He very well perceived by the stile of this Letter that it was from a man of quality and who feared lest the Sophi's love should make me change but whereas it had no name and that the Princes blindness did not Permit him to know Vlama's hand he could not divine who it should be and in this uncertainty he endured such pain as cannot be exprest and said things which afterwards moved me to pity when he recounted them unto me it being most certain that the privation of his sight was never so sensible to him as in this occasion In the mean time Amariel who was cunning and dextrous judging that it much imported the Sophi to see this Letter and fearing the Prince would keep this paper he folded up one that was by chance on the Table in the same form that the other was to the end he might change it And truly this forecast of his was not in vain for indeed Mahamed after he had caused this fatal Letter to be read over again re-demanded it of him and getting to bed with that same paper which Amariel had foysted in by reason of a weakness wherewith he was taken by the excessive agitation of his spirits he gave that Traytor the liberty to go forth He presently made use of the opportunity and causing the Sophi to be advertised that he had something to say to him he had audience instantly He acquainted Tachmas with Mahamed's visit at my lodging his unquietness at his return and at last shewed him Vlama's Letter which he knew as soon as he had opened it for he had seen many of his writing at such time as he was in War with the Azemites and rendred him an account of his victories He sent immediately then for Deliment that was newly come from the Princess Axiamira whom he had found yet more rebellious then she used to be As soon as he appeared I will no longer seek said he unto him for that which is the cause of Felixana's rigor and that which makes her despise my presents my love and even the hope of my Crown for it was true that Deliment entertained me dayly with such like matters I think my Lord answered Deliment how that which renders Felixana inflexible is That the knowledg of your greatness permits her not to beleeve that you will forget it for her advantage and the refusals which she makes are nothing doubtless but that she may be the more strongly assured of that which she desires it may be more then you No such matter replyed the Sophi and this which I have here will certainly make you change your opinion in saying so he shewed him Vlama's Letter whereby they knew but too well the good-will that was betwixt us and how much he was informed of that which the Sophi bore me At first aâ—l Tachmas thoughts ran into violence he would commit me to prison he would destroy Vlama and his gentlest resolutions were at least to banish him But Deliment who always joyned cunning to wickedness told him that the first thing he should do was to banish Felixana from the heart of Vlama and Vlama from the heart of Felixana that to begin by the easiest Vlama was to be dextrously acquainted that I had a particular commerce with Mahamed and that to perswade him the better thereunto he was to be shewed some of the letters which I had written to the Prince and which they had retained leting him know in giving them to him that they were the first he had received from me that to disquiet him further his own Letter was to be shewed him with an assurance that I had put it into his hands for to give him an undoubted mark of my affection and that at the very same time wh n as this trick had excited trouble in his soul he was to be commanded to get instantly out of the Palace and the next day from the Court with order to retire to the Province whereof he was Governor to the end he might not have leasure to clear himself to me and that beleeving he was betrayed he might have the less care to let me hear from him That things being in these terms it would be the easier to vanquish me because not knowing the occasion which Vlama had to be incensed against me I would take it ill that he did neither write to me nor see me before his departure That the most important point of this affair was to be so well assured of all those which came neer me as I might receive no Letters from Vlama and that in fine the absence of a Lover was a great advantage for a Rival The Sophi found this advice to be very good and thinking on nothing but how to execute it they turned their eyes upon one of Mahamed's Officers that had before times served Vlama who had rid himself of him by reason of his bad inclinations They caused him to be sought out and having immediately found and suborned him he without further delay after he had been instructed by Deliment what to say and had Vlama's Letter and three of those which I had written to Mahamed put into his hands went directly to Vlama whom I could not yet advertise of that which had past betwixt the Prince and me because the Sophi's love disquieted him so much as he could not resolve to see me for fear of giving too much notice of his thoughts and therefore to keep him from it he made as though he were exceedingly busied about the affairs of Caramania where the Sophi intended to make some Levies Yet heard I for all that from him every day by that faithful Slave which he sent to you and you have brought to me This Agent of the Sophi's found him then in such an estate as they desired for the surprizing of him he came to him and finding him alone makes him a long discourse of the inclination which he had always had to his service protesting unto him that he would never relinquish it that he acknowledged him still for his Master and that to render him a proof of his affection he came without considering Prince Mahamed's interests to advertise him of a Treason which I committed against him Vlama upon this occasion had a secret suspicion of this mans malice and imagined that he was sent unto him to discover whether there were any intelligence betwixt us so that nothing moved with this discourse I thank thee said he unto him for thy zeal and affection but know my friend that Felixana may well disoblige me but cannot betray me having had no
commerce with her nor having ever trusted any thing to her discretion I perceive very well my Lord answered this man that you do not trust in mine but it may be this Letter which I present you with will better perswade my fidelity unto you In saying so he gave him that which he had written to me You may judg now whether Vlama were astonished when he came to know it Howbeit this first motion being over he imagined further that I peradventure might have lost it and some one have found it But the cunning of this man left him not long in this opinion for seeing Vlama moved and capable of being perswaded he told him That Prince Mahamed had loved me a great while and that I also loved him That so long as he beleeved that there could no other harm arrive to him then to be deceived by me he durst not betray Mahamed but having seen by the Letter which he had written to me and which he said I had put into the Princes hands that he spake in such sort as if it came to the Sophi's knowledg his fortune would be utterly ruined he was resolved to make use of the Princes blindness to draw it with address from out of his hands and my Lord continued he to shew you that I speak truth I have taken also three of the Letters which Felixana hath written to the Prince in the beginning of their affection for as for the rest I durst not meddle with them because as they are more obliging so the Prince makes them to be read unto him almost dayly by Amariel who is the Confident of this love Vlama harkened to this discourse looked on her Letters and his knew the hands and no longer doubting of my infidelity he thanked this wicked man and asked him an hundred questions about the love that was between the Prince and me But the other fearing that he would demand so many things of him as in the end he might contradict himself in some one or other he besought him he would be pleased to let him depart for fear lest if any of Prince Mahamed's Officers should see him go out of his lodging so long after he was entred inâ—o it they might suspect the truth Vlama deceived by this artifice dismissed him promised to recompence him and prays him to continue advertising what should pass betwixt Prince Mahamed and me He was hardly out of Vlama's chamber when according to Deliment's advice that old Satrap whom as I have told you he had corrupted came and commanded him from the Sophi to go instantly out of the Palace and the next day to depart to his Government until he received further order And whereas Vlama importuned him to tell him why he was entreated after that manner The Satrap answered him That the Sophi onely knew it and that he had charged him not to leave him till he was out of the Palace Seeing there is nothing more resting for me answered Vlama but to give marks of my obedience having given enough already of my fidelity and courage in other occasions let us obey without murmuring He had no sooner said so but he prepared to be gone howbeit suddenly remembering that he left all the Letters which I had written him in his Cabinet he went boldly thither to take them away and without knowing whether it were out of a sense of choller or love either to teer or preserve them he took a little China coffer wherein they were the old Satrap who walked fairly and softly before never perceiving it But whil'st these things passed in such sort Prince Mahamed who had layd himself on his bed by reason of a weakness wherewith he had been taken re-assumed new forces and calling for Amariel he was told that he was gone forth but for all that he arose and caused himself to be led by another to Axiamira's lodging whom he found alone Ismael and Deliment being gone from thence a good while before and I was not yet come unto her For the adventure of Vlama's Letter which the Prince had snatched from me kept me in so great an unquietness as I knew not what resolution to take I feared to discover my self to the Princess doubting lest she should take it ill that I had concealed from her the affection of the Prince and that of Vlama Neither durst I acquaint Vlama with that which was arrived unto me for fear he should imagine that without this cross adventure I would have told him nothing of Mahamed's love and I judged also that it would not be very easie for me to oblige the Prince to render me Vlama's Letter whensoever I should be able to speak with him which I saw well was at that time absolutely impossible In this irresolution I gave the Prince leasure to visit the Princess Axiamira who as I have told you was alone when as he came into her chamber At his first arrival there he commanded him that led him to get him forth and after he had demanded of the Princess whether he might speak without being heard of any but her self and that she had answered him how he might speak safely he requested her to pardon him two things and to accord him one And when as the Princess had promised him that which he desired All the grace that I demand of you continued he is That you will not think amiss of me when I shall have told you that I have a long time loved Felixana and the second That you will pardon me if the respect which I have born you hath kept me from acquainting you with it sooner But when as you have granted me the pardon of these two things you must also to keep your word with me promise not to intreat Felixana the worse for it For though I am at this present not very well satisfied of her and that it is rather choller then love which carries me to the entertaining of you upon this subject yet I cannot resolve for all that to hurt her You acquaint me with so many strange things at once said the Princess unto him as I doubt whether I should beleeve them for to tell me that you are in love with the beauty of Felixana and that Felixana in whom I confide in all things should make your affection a secret unto me is that which I cannot comprehend and that which I shall not beleeve unless you give me stronger proofs of it I did not say to you replyed the Prince That I am in love with the beauty of Felixana but indeed that I love Felixana And beleeve dear sister that the beauty wherewith I am taken though it wounds not the heart through the eyes yet leaves not touching it very powerfully but in conclusion I am not come hither to tell you what hath made me in love but onely that I am so As for Felixana that which hath kept her as I conceive from speaking to you of that affection which I had for her is that she
him to let Mustapha understand that which he desired of him but with such pressing terms as it had been impossible for his brother to have refused him And giving order for the departure of the Princess whom before folks he intreated as he was wont to do we set forth two days after for Amasia with as little company as might be and in Turkish habits to be the less noted I will not tell you my Lord with what generosity Prince Mustapha and Saraida his wife received Axiamira let it suffice me to say that Gianger having left us some two miles short of Amasia under the charge of an old Governor of his in whom he very much confided and having acquainted his brother and sister in law with our Fortunes they rendred in particular to Axiamira all the honors which she could have received in her own Country A little while after all that we had delivered was plainly justified For Mustapha understood the return of Rustan and his disgrace and presently thereupon he was told that the Princess and I were not at the Sophi's Court that the report went we were drowned and that others believed how Tachmas and Deliment had caused us to be forcibly carried away After this we lived happily enough Mustapha's care Saraides compliance and Gianger's respectful affection rendred our Exile supportable enough Axiamira could not for all that be at rest she wrote many times to divers persons which were affected to her in Persia without ever receiving any answer And whereas she saw no end of her miseries she could not be without unquietness which at length brought her to a sickness which it was thought would prove mortal to her Her Fever was not very violent but it was without intermission and though she felt no great pain yet was she so weak and so low brought as we durst not hope she could surmount the disease wherewith she was taken during the which Saraida and I never abandoned her and the two Princes saw her as often as the necessity of their affairs and civility would permit them Now though Mustapha had nothing but friendship for Axiamira yet seemed he to be as much afflicted as Gianger such a sympathy was there in all things between these two excellent Princes We continued three Months in this sort without knowing what we were to expect concerning the Princesses life for albeit at length the Fever left her sometimes yet was it for so little while as it did not permit us to hope the recovery of her health But whil'st I was shâ—dding tears for her the Princes and Saraida took great care to conceal from the Princess and me too that Soliman had made War in Persia which was the cause I knew not that Vlama had betaken himself to his party And that which kept Mustapha from saying any thing to us of â—t was not only the fear of afflicting Axiamira but the doubt Gianger was in that iâ— she came once to know it she would be averted from a Prince whose father went about to desolate her Country We lived then above two Months in this ignorance after the Princess was out of danger for whereas we saw no body but Mustapha Saraida and Gianger that understood our language it was easie for them to keep us from knowing any thing but what they pleased But one day as the Princess and I were alone speaking of the affection that Gianger hore her and amplifying his vertues which I opposed to the vices of Deliment I in some sort pressed her to acquaint me with the thoughts which she had for him Why I will tell you now Felixana said she unto me I esteem of Gianger as much as his vertue doth merit I do acknowledg his good Offices as much as one can and I bear as much good-will to him in my heart as I do to Prince Mahamed my brother but for that passion which disorders the mind which destroys Reason and which troubles the rest of them whom it possesseth I am not capable of it and I could wish that Gianger carried a more quiet affection to me That weakness is a blemish which I do not desire should be in great Souls nor is it any thing but the subtilty of men which hath perswaded us that this passion is not vicious since all others are and that every one believes them to be so though they do not produce such deadly effects And to know how much more dangerous it is then the rest we are but to consider how it commonly stirs up all of them Hatred Anger Envy and Ambition it self are many times the followers of it yet do not think that I will be ingrateful to Prince Gianger for know how averse soever I am from marriage I would notwithstanding resolve to be his wife rather then render him unhappy if the Sophi and Soliman could consent thereunto For continued she I may indeed oppose the Sophi's pleasure but I can never be drawn to dispose of my self without his order As I was going to take Gianger's part he entered into the Princesses chamber and approaching to her with all the observance which he was accustomed to yield her he began to talk to her of his affection and he represented unto her the respect wherewith he had served her the greatness of his love the little testimony she had given him of accepting it the deplorable estate of his Fortune the small likelihood there was that after so many Letters vainly written into Persia that the friends which she had left were still generous enough to serve her That he knew how the Sophi was more affected to Deliment then ever and that he alone governed the Empire So that she could never hope either to alter Deliment or to make the Sophi change his resolution but by the necessity of resolving on that which they could no longer avoyd I perceive well my Lord answered she sighing that my misfortune is so strange as the most ingenuous spirit could not foresee any other end of it then such as must be fatal to me for if I have Enemies in Persia I have others also at Constantinople But to answer the complaints which you make against me I will open my heart unto you and if after that you be not satisfied I profess that Fortune hath not yet made me feel her cruellest rigors Ah Madam said the Prince interrupting her suffer me first to tell you that if you deprive me of the hope which my extream love hath made me conceive nothing will be able to preserve my life My Lord replyed Axiamira have patience and do not condemn me without hearing me And to begin with the Obligations wherein I am engaged to you I know that I owe you my life that the respect which you have shewed to me in a time when you knew me not for that which I was hath sensibly obliged me and that the generosity which you have demonstrated in providing me a sanctuary and preferring my interests before Solimans and
of this Prince is onely a facility whereof love and his gentle nature are the causes and that in fine he hath so many rare qualities as he is not unworthy the esteem of the incomparable Axiamira The affection whâ—ch you bear to this Prince replyed she justifies if not all that he hath done at least-wise all his intentions And though he be in some sort the cause of the greatest part of my miseries yet I promise you O generous Ibrahim to give credit rather to your words then to mine own experience and never to speak of this Prince but as you speak of him your self I will complain of Fortune without murmuring against Soliman and albeit I am resolved to weep all my life-time for the loss of those two illustrious children of his yet will I not accuse any for it but the cruel Roxelana and the perfidious Rustan This conversation lasted yet a good while longer and was spent in civility on either part Felixana in her particular gave Ibrahim a world of thanks and assured him she would render Vlama an exact account of that which he had done for her to the end he might help to acknowledg it in publishing it since they could never acquite themselves of it other-ways Presently thereupon the Grand Visier took his leave of the Princess and told her that she might depart the next morning if her health would permit her As indeed all her equipage was ready accordingly but with such magnificence as if she had been in Persia This excellent Princess had made her self to be so beloved of them that guarded her as they could not see her part without abundance of tears though they very much rejoyced for all that to know that her prison should not be thence forward so strait But amongst the rest Halima was so afflicted at it as she was not to be comforted she gave her two Slaves who had always waited upon her during her imprisonment and Axiamira in recompence thereof gave her a chain of Diamonds which she had still kept in all her misfortunes In the mean time Ibrahim had sent away Vlama's Slave whom he had brought away from the Castle of the seven Towers the day before to advertise his Master to repair to Bitilisa if his strength would permit him there to receive the Princess But in case he should no be able so to do he dispatched away another man with a command from the Grand Signior to all the Governors of those Towns which were upon the road whereby she was to pass to render her as much honor as if she had been the Sultana Queen And the Grand Visier to omit nothing that might be for the Princess of Persia's safety had also commanded five thousand Janizaries to be her convoy whom she found ready attending for her a days march from Constantinople This Princesses journey had as prosperous a success as Ibrahim had wished it should She was received with a great deal of magnificence at all the places where she passed and without having any other commodity then that which the weariness of so long a way might occasion she arrived at Bitilisa whither Vlama though very weak of his hurts and sickness was to come to receive her and to enjoy the sight of his deâ—r Felixana When as he was advertised of their approach to the Town he went forth to meet the Princess with half the Garison the principal inhabitants of Bitilisa received her at the gate and conducted her to Vlama's Palace who out of respect had left it to her so as it seemed that Axiamira was the Governess of Bitilisa rather then that Bitilisa was the priâ—on of Axiamira It is easie to imagine what the joy of these three illustrious persons was at this interview but very hard to express it well especially that which Vlama felt in finding Felixana again living and faithful after he had beleeved her to be dead or inconstant But whil'st Ibrahim asswages other folks sorrows his love renders him every day more unhappy The more he sees Soliman the less appearance he sees of obtaining his liberty which he had resolved to demand of him at his departure from Monaco This Prince ceased not dayly telling him that he had been dead if he had not returned that he was the soul of his Empire that he could not subsist without him that six months absence of his had been the cause of more misfortune to him then he had had in all his life besides and that in fine not being able to live without him he must resolve to dye with him To all these particulars the illustrious Bassa made no other answer then with low submissions but by his sighs and silence he testified sufficiently to the Sultan that he expressed not all his thought and that the sight of his Mistress had rather augmented his love then diminished his unquietness Nevertheless whereas the Grand Signior was desirous to avoyd all occasions that might constrain him to refuse Ibrahim he made as though he did not perceive his sadness but endevored to gain him absolutely and divert him from his melancholy by all the honors by all the liberalities and all the caresses that a great Prince can confer on a great Minister But the more the Bassa saw himself obliged the more affliction he had He received the Sultan's presents as so many new chains which tyed him unto him his favors were torments unto him and though in his heart he loved this Prince dearly yet would he not have been loved of him so certain it is that love is stronger then amity In this deplorable estate lived Ibrahim with an extream constraint he delt no longer in affairs as he was wont he declined the world as much as he could yea the very sight of Soliman became insupportable to him and not daring to desire of him the power to return into Italy out of the opinion he had that he should be denyed he sought no longer for any thing but onely solitude It was not because his grief was the less sensible to him by it but it was because he knew that the liberty to bewail ones self is some kinde of consolation to an afflicted person At length after he had well consulted with himself he resolved to speak plainly to the Grand Signior with an intent if he were refused as he almost made no doubt but he should to abandon himself in such sort to grief as death would be constrained to succor him but he knew not when he took this resolution that he could not execute it for as often as he went to the Serraglio for that purpose Soliman with so much address avoyded all manner of discourse that might carry the Bassa to speak to him of Isabella and always took such care to let him know the necessity he had of his presence as the Grand Visier no longer doubting but that Soliman would deny him if he demanded his liberty of him undertook not to augment his displeasure yet further by
he durst not ask him any thing of Felixana for fear left he should take that care for an effect of his ancient love And when as Vlama perceived so much I thought my Lord said he unto him that after I had assured you how Axiamira was in the estate you desired her to be you would have demanded of me how Felixana did since having heretofore judged her worthy of your affection I might well think you would render her that proof of your good will My dear friend replyed Mahamed smiling I durst not put my Protector in mind that I had been his Rival and though the memory of Felixana be infinitely dear to me that which I owe to your friendship kept me from rendering her publiquely what I will ever render her in my heart Let not this discourse disquiet you continued Mahamed for in acknowledging that I shall always be in love with the vertue of this discreet maid I protest to you withall that this love shall never beget any other desire in my Soul then to see her contented that is to wish she may be Vlama's wife My Lord answered he Felixana is far more dangerous and more to be feared then she was when as she surmounted your heart she hath charms and beauties which you know not and which peradventure will make you change your resolution You are but too well assured replyed Mahamed that I am a bad Judg of beauty and that love enters not into my heart by the eye Neither do I mean continued Vlama that visible beauty which renders Felixana the object of the admiration as well of stupid as of witty of vicious as of vertuous persons but I mean that beauty which is wholly celestial which never makes any but noble Conquests which touches none but great and generous Souls and which not destroyed by time begets another love that lasts eternally In fine my Lord that which I mean is the beauty of the mind and soul of Felixana When she captived you she had wherewithall to make one believe that her thoughts were generous ambition did not move her and the desire to be a Queen made her not forget what â—â—e had promised But my Lord Felixana hath done much more for she hath despised death for Axiamira she hath exposed her self for her and this rare maid hath testified so much constancy and generosity in divers encounters as it will be hard for you not to love her when you shall understand it I shall love her without doubt replyed Mahamed but the more worth and vertue I shall know in her the more shall I be obliged thereunto and the more shall I be confirmed in the resolution wherein I have a long time been not to esteem my self happy but when Vlama shall be so nor to pretend to any thing from Felixana but that which she cannot deny me without a crime that is to say her friendship Believe my Lord answered Vlama if there needs nothing but that to content you you have cause to be satisfied for I certainly know that it would be a hard thing to judg rightly who carries more affection to you either Axiamira Felixana or my self And be assured if you please my Lord that all which I have said to you hath been but to have the pleasure to speak of Felixana it being most certain that I honor her at this present so highly and that she hath rendred the love which I bear her so perfect as jealousie can never have any place in my Soul With such like discourses Mahamed and Vlama without being heard of any but him that guided the Prince beguiled the time whil'st the rest entertained themselves with the weakness of Tachmas in suffering himself to be governed in that manner with the malice of Perca the stupidity of Ismael and the universal hatred that Deliment had drawn upon him But at length after they had travelled a day and an half this Troop arrived at and Bitilisa Axiamira and Felixana were exceeding joyful to see Prince Mahamed who not able to enjoy the same felicity was nevertheless charmed to hear them speak Felixana who loved the Prince as much as if he had been her brother durst not testifie so much unto him but Vlama being as dextrously to discover her thoughts as he had been in discerning those of the Prince approached to her and told her laughing that he had made certain conditions with Mahamed which he conjured her she should observe Two such sage persons answered she could not resolve on any thing which is not just wherefore I think that I shall not engage my self inconsiderately when as I shall promise you not to break them Vlama then told her in few words what had past between the Prince and him and Felixana promised to do that he desired whereupon he left her to go and give order for the commodious lodging of all this Troop The Princess would needs see all them that came along with the Prince and with her sweet carriage and address so absolutely gained them as they would have enterprized any thing for her service Whil'st she was complementing and Vlama giving direction in the Town Felixana came to Mahamed and such was their conservation together as it knit their friendship fast for all their lives after He requested her she would permit him to be Vlama's confident and would forget the misfortunes which his love had been the cause of to her he thanked her for the services she had rendered to the Princess Axiamira promised always to honor her more then any person in the world and without speaking to her of love he gave her to understand that if reason had not prevailed over his inclination he had still been Vlama's Rival but it was of that power in his Soul as he never spake a word to Felixana contrary to the promise he had made her to love her no otherwise then as his sister In the mean time Vlama after he had lodged the Prince in the Castle the rest in the most commodious houses of the Town and given order for the intreating of them honorably dispatched away a man to advertise the Grand Signior of that which had past and to beseech him he would permit that Bitilisa might be a prison for Mahamed as well as it was for Axiamira undertaking to bring him his head if this Prince or any of them that followed him enterprized ought against his service But Soliman was not in an estate of thinking on the affairs of his Empire and the Grand Visiers melancholy was the onely thing that took up his minde The Persian Embassador was come to Constantinople and had oftentimes demanded audience but could not obtain it The Sultan spent the most of his time at Ibrahim's Palace and though this illustrious Bassa was extream weak yet walked he sometimes with the Grand Signior in his garden It happened then that one morning Soliman came to visit him earlier then he had used to do and having made him pass insensibly into
to keep Christendom from uniting their Forces for the destruction of the Turkish Empire was to let it breathe a little after so much War because if it were further provoked it might peradventure do that which it would not do were it left in rest that it was many times dangerous to prosecute ones enemies too much that tempting Fortune so often she might be weary of favoring and at last abandon those whom she had protected that to keep her from changing we were to change our design and suffer our selves to be conducted by her and not force her to follow us that after all he did not find that any deliberation was to be had upon the matter in question that Tachmas being in arms and offering no Proposition of Peace albeit his Children were under the power of his Highness it would be an unheard of and shameful thing to think of it especially if it might be remembred that it was not yet a year since Soliman had been crowned King of Persia at Bagdet that it would not be a shame for the Sultan to make no more Conquests upon the Christians but that it would be a great one for him to let himself be vanquished by the Persians or at leastwise to demand Peace of them that for so much as regarded Prince Mahamed and the Princess Axiamira in the estate wherein things were they could not be rendred upon any conditions yea and that it would be most unworthily done to remit them into the hands of the Sophi for the making of Peace because they were not prisoners of War but contrarily were persons fled for refuge that Soliman was therefore to protect them to make War both for their sakes and also that he might not be ingrateful to Vlama whose Fortune was conjoyned to Felixan's that the War had never had more juster grounds then since the time that the Princess Axiamira Prince Mahamed and Felixana were in the power of the Sultan that one of the prime duties of a King was to protect the oppressed and that in this encounter there was too fair an occasion presented to be lost that as for him he offered if his Highness pleased to return unto this War and not to spare either his care his blood or his life for restoring the honor of his arms to the point wherein it had been Ibrahim had no sooner made an end of speaking but they who had been of a contrary opinion to his seeing the Grand Signior favor his party began to change theirs in appearance professing that his reason had cleared theirs And Machmut was he alone who seeming to yield as the rest opposed himself still notwithstanding to this resolution But Soliman having made a sign to him to hold his peace he kept silence as well as the rest of the assembly and the Grand Signior having commanded the bringing in of the Persian Embassador spake softly to Ibrahim but yet finished his discourse aloud in giving him order to answer this Embassador according to his sence so that as soon as he appeared the grand Visier rose up and after he had made a low obeisance to the Sultan he told him how he was to assure the Sophi his Master from his Highness that his State should always be an inviolable sanctuary to all oppressed Princes that the Princess Axiamira and Felixana being no prisoners of War the Grand Signior far from accepting the ransom which was offered for them declared by him that he would become their Protector as well as Prince Mahameds and that he would shortly go with a very mighty Army to execute his Highness Commands and to see Justice rendred to these exiled Princes The Persian Embassador thereupon labored to make it appear that Axiamira not having been intreated as a person sled for refuge since she had been in prison was to be taken for a prisoner of War and for a conclusion he added that if she were not delivered up the Sophi would come with an Army of two hundred thousand men to make her be rendred unto him But the grand Visier having answered him that he would save him the labor of coming so far and that he would go and meet him even in his own Country he was constrained to withdraw as he did with satisfaction little enough He was no sooner gone forth but the Grand Signior arose after he had commanded the Officers of the Empire in all things to obey Ibrahim as if it were himself and in particular the Bassa of the Sea to prepare for his departure with the Naval Army to go and fall upon Mingrelia of purpose to make a diversion and divide the Enemies Forces After this Commandment the Sultan returned in the same order as he came only one of the Capigibassi remained in the Hall to the end that according to the custom he might cause all those which had assisted in this extraordinary Councel to be presented with a rich Gown which is given to all the Officers of the Turkish Monarchy from the Grand Signior so often as he honoreth the Divano with his presence which happens but seldom The two Bassa's which conducted the Emperor having left him alone with Ibrahim he told him that there rested nothing for him now but to take his leave of Isabella because all the Troops which had been levyed for the making up of his Army being already far advanced all that he could do was to overtake them upon the frontire that he was sorry he was constrained to separate him from a person that was so dear unto him but he was to remember that glory was the fairest Mistress in the world and how it was not but for her that he abandoned the Princess Ibrahim answered thereunto that the sole glory of his Arms carried him on for he assured his Highness that in the voyage he was going to undertake he considered not himself at all and in the mean time that he might part with some satisfaction he besought him he would promise to protect Isabella in all things during his absence and if he happened to dye in this War that he would send her back in safety to any place which she should please to make choyce of This discourse touched Soliman he was ashamed of his own thoughts and weakness and little lacked but that craving pardon of Ibrahim he had opened his heart to him and acknowledged his crime with repentance Howbeit love was the stronger and that vertue which this Prince followed in all other encounters was too weak in this for the resisting of so powerful an Enemy He abandoned himself then unto it and with an equivocating answer promised the Grand Visier that he would protect Isabella against all the world that there was not any subject of his whom he would not severely punish if he should displease her that for what he had demanded of him in case he should dye was a thing whereunto he could not answer that thought being too grievous for him to settle his mind upon it that
that at last his reason would be found weaker then his passion That she desired to discover her suspicions unto her to the end she might through her prudence examine the matter lest being altogether ignorant of it she might increase the Grand Signior's unjust designs by innocent civilities At first this discourse surprized her she changed colour ever and anon and out of the trouble she was in she thought that Asteria spake not the truth though she could not imagin any reasonable cause for this fiction The Sultanaes ingenuity notwithstanding destroyed this secret accusation which she charged her within her heart and passing from one extremity to another she in an instant justified not only Asteria but Soliman also and calling to mind all that this Prince had done for Ibrahim she beleeved that the Sultana gave an ill interpretation to the Grand Signiors civilities and took that for testimonies of love which she was perswaded was but an effect of his friendship to Ibrahim This last thought having quieted her mind she thanked Asteria for the care she had of her commended her generosity and wisdom and testified at last how she could not beleeve that so great a Prince as Soliman could be capable of letting himself be vanquished by so unjust a passion as that was whereof she spake I wish it may be so said the Sultana Asteria both for the glory of Soliman and your content but take heed as I have already told you that your beauty be not more powerful in the Soul of the Grand Signior then his friendship to Ibrahim If that should be true replyed the Princess it would rather be an effect of my unhappiness then of my beauty but I profess unto you that I shall never resolve to accuse this Prince till I am forced thereunto by himself This conversation being ended and the Sultana gone Isabella found not her self so quiet howbeit Emilia confirmed her in the opinion that Soliman's respects to her proceeded only from friendship in making her consider that Asteria's conjecture was questionless grounded on the belief of all the other Sultanaes who supposed that the Grand Signior could not have any affection for a woman but straight it must be love and who out of jealousie for the presents that he sent her and the civilities that he used to her had imagined it could not be otherwise This reasoning carrying some likelyhood with it comforted the Princess a little and after she had run over in her memory all that Soliman had said she found being willing to deceive her self that all his discourses and all his actions might be interpreted to his advantage yet saw she not so much certainty in all that she imagined that she durst absolutely rely upon it and though she feared the sight of the Grand Signior out of the doubt she was in of finding him guilty yet had she some instants wherein she desired it out of a hope of justifying him Roxelana on her side having communicated her design to Rustan and he approving of it they thought of nothing but of augmenting Soliman's love to Isabella by the obliging messages which that suborned Slave delivered to him dayly It was at the same time when as there were three marvelous beautiful Slaves presented to the Sultan who without being ever a whit touched with their charms had refused them if he had not by chance demanded of them whence they were but having understood that they were of Italy he retained them with a purpose to bestow them on Isabella seeking after nothing with more care then to please her He went then to visit her after he had commanded that those three Slaves should be carryed into the old Serraglio And whereas Asteria's discourse to her had rendred her more melancholique then she used to be he marvelled at it and by his much pressing her to let him know the cause thereof he made the Princess apprehend that the Sultana's suspicions were justly grounded yet destroyed she her self this her own opinion and having answered the Grand Signior that her melancholy was derived from the remembrance of her past misfortunes rather then from any other reason he desired her to forget them and not to render her self unhappy with things which would never arrive to her again He told her afterwards that to comfort and delight her he had chosen her out three Slaves which it may be would not be disagreeable unto her and would understand her orders better then the others which had been given her because they were of her own Country Isabella answered thereunto very civilly and the Grand Signior having commanded them to be brought in the Princess was strangely surprized when she saw that these three Slaves were Sophronia the sister of Leonora Leonida Alphonso's Mistress and Hippolita Doria's sister She had no sooner perceived them but she gave a great skrick then turning her self to Soliman May it please thy Highness to pardon me said she unto him if I lose the respect which I owe unto thee and if the joy to see persons that are so dear to me is stronger in me then good manners In saying so after she had made a low obeysance to the Sultan she went and embraced her dear friends who were no less amazed and glad then she to encounter her in a place where they hoped for no consolation This first complement being over Isabella once again besought the Grand Signior to pardon her if friendship and surprizal had constrained her to fail in that which she owed to him The incomparable Isabella answered he can owe nothing to any body and in what place of the world soever she can be she can never want Slaves This civility is too excessive replying the Princess blushing and I shall hold my self infinitely obliged to thy Highness if thou wilt give me for companions these three fair maids whom Fortune hath made thy Slaves I have already said answered he that Isabella may command absolutely and I swear unto her further how there is but one onely thing which she may not obtain of me After this speech whereof the Princess durst not demand the explication Soliman would needs know of her whether these three beautiful persons were of Genoua as well as they were of Italy and when she had informed him that they were he used a great deal of civility towards them and enquiring of Hipolita where her brother was he understood that he â—nd three of his friends were Slaves in Constantinople My Lord said Isabella unto him presently in casting her self at his feet I humbly beseech thy Highness to grant them their liberty We have not used to refuse Isabella any thing said he unto her lifting her up and without enquiring who Doria's friends be I declare them free and in what hands soever they are their chains shall be instantly broken Sophronia Hipolita and Leonida would have fallen on their knees to render him thanks but he not permitting it told them how it was Isabella they were to
the Count could not yet tell very well himself whether he loved Leonora or no for the first time that he began to consider her with indifferency was on the day of that assembly which I have spoken to you of already and where Jannetin was present who always regarding the Count as his Competitor had perceived it and therewith acquainted his Uncle We have learnt since that Andrea Doria no sooner understood of the Counts design but falling into a deep muse he appeared very sad and unquiet and that after his musing was over he commanded Jannetin to beware of the Counts designs for said he unto him raising up his voyce it is fit for us to observe this young Lion He is undertaking and hardy and if we suffer him to gather new forces by allying with the house of Cibo and Leonora's riches he will be capable of enterprizing any thing Jannetin harkened to this discourse as one that was interessed therein and obeying Andrea's order he observed the Count and Leonora and confirmed himself in the opinion he had had both by his own knowledg and the talk of the Town Being in no longer doubt then but that the Count was in love with Leonora he advertised his Uncle of it who without further delay commanded him to be the Counts Rival in this suit It would not be enough said he to Jannetin if we should but break off the Counts marriage but we must make profit of his damage and pluck the weapons out of his hands to destroy him therewith when we arâ— Masters of them You must marry Leonora she is fair and amiable but were she only noble and rich it would be enough to oblige you to marry her Think of it then Jannetin you are young as well as the Count you have spirit and courage and though it may be you have not so good a grace as he yet you are Nephew to Andrea Doria and that is to say every thing Think then of winning Leonora's heart before it be engaged but above all come to no violence for it imports much that the adoptive son of him who hath restored Genoua to her liberty should not engage him to protect him in such like things Jannetin who held all his fortune from Andrea Doria and who reverenced him more then if he had been his father promised him to forget nothing of all that should lie in his power to satisfie him as indeed all that care and magnificence could contribute to gallantry appeared in Genoua at that time and had not your melancholy retained you then at Monaco you would have acknowledged as well as we that the like had never been seen But whereas the Count could not give place to any body he no sooner understood Jannetin's design but he overtopped him in all things There was nothing but running it the Ring Turneys Serenades Balls and Feasts and in all things if the Count was not more magnificent yet was he more gentile His apparel was braver his horses were gallanter his matches better made his serenades better consorted in fine he had the advantage in all things And whereas he loved Leonora really all the testimonies he gave her of it wrought another effect in her heart then the feigned protestations of Jannetin who prevailed not with her at all Things continued a while in this manner during the which these two Rivals lived civilly enough together as well by reason of the order which Jannetin had received for it as of Leonora's prudence and the Counts address who never made shâ—w of perceiving his Rivals designs though each of them did for his part all that he could to destroy his enemy But at last Love and Fortune ceased to be blind in this occasion and gave the prize to him that best deserved it The Count had Leonora's permission to demand her of her brothers under whose government she had been ever since the death of her mother he was their particular friend so that upon the first overture which he made to them of it they received him with incredible joy and assured him especially Horatio who was more a friend to the Count then Julio provided their sister did not oppose his content that he was certain to be happy The Count who was no less discreet then passionate would not let them know that their consent was craved to a thing already resolved but only told them that from their mouths he desired to understand Leonora's mind and from them receive either his good or bad fortune In the mean time Jannetin found that Leonora favored the Count to his prejudice yea and that she was resolved never to marry any but him He thought fit to advertise Andrea Doria of it who came to know by another to whom the Counts mother had told it that he had spoken of his marriage to Horatio who had answered her favorably which Andrea Doria understanding he told Jannetin that he was to conserve with address the friendship of him whom he could not destroy by force that one of the greatest effects of prudence was when one could not vanquish his enemies to constrain them to be his friends and not being otherways able to keep them from hurting one must continued he tye their hands with a false generosity especially when one hath for opposite an illustrious adversary such as the Count is Go then Jannetin said he unto him give up a victory which you are not able to carry away and making shew as though you come to learn that he hath a design for Leonora tell him that you prefer his content before your love and so as he will be your friend you will yeild him your Mistress with joy But so order the matter that this may be heard by some to the end that the Count knowing how the world beleeves he is obliged to you may also in consideration of the world and for fear of being blamed live hereafter with you as if he were your friend Madam do not think it strange that I should know so many particularitiâ—s of Andrea Doria's discourses but be pleased to understand that a friend doth not so well know what is done in his friends house as mighty enemies do ordinarily know what they project one against another yet was it not equally so between the Count and Andrea Doria it being certain that this last knew nothing of the Counts designs what care soever he took for it whereas he on the contrary could conceal none of his from him But to come again to Jannetin he had been no sooner instructed by his Uncle but he went home to the Count who attended with a great deal of impatience the answer which Horatio was to make him for it was he who had in charge to give it him he quitted this musing humor to receive Jannetin's visit with his ordinary civility and according to Andrea Doria's direction three of Jannetin's friends arrived at the same time to be witnesses of these two Rivals conversation After the first
his heart and that his Master was his Rival And whereas he knew very well that Love no more then Royalty endures not any companion he resolved to conceal from the King the design which he had in his head It was not long before his suspicions were fully cleared for Abdalla being become passionately in love and fearing lest if he should talk too often with Hipolita his sister to whom he carryed a great respect would come to know his intentions he opened his heart wholly to Aly discovered his passion unto him conjured him to finde out the means to acquaint her with it who had caused it Aly as we understood afterwards testified a great deal of joy unto him for that he being fallen in love as he said with one of those Slaves he had been so happy as not to prove his Rival The King demanded of him then whether it were so that he loved any of them and the other answered him with a false confidence that Leonida had touched his heart That which obliged him to this lye was his belief that by this mean the King would never be jealous of him nor would fear his falling in love with Hipolita being perswaded that his affection was engaged otherwhere and indeed the matter fell out as he imagined The King gave him the conduct of his Love as well as that of his Estates commanded him always to follow him whensoever he went to the Princess Mariama and not to lose any occasion of speaking to Hipolita concerning him In the mean time as if Fortune would give a particular persecution to each of these three fair Slaves a younger Brother of Abdalla's named Abdelcadar became desperately in love with Sophronia For the rest of us except it were the Marquis we had no new passion and mishap in this encounter appeared not to us at first but in the semblance of good fortune The King sent to visit us with presents and many times made us come to his lodgings for to entertain him Aly resorted to us himself and assured us of his protection We had also the liberty to see and speak with our sisters or to say better our Mistresses for in these occasions love always prevailed over friendship In fine the greatest of our unquietnesses was that we could not foresee the end of our present felicities nor divine wherefore they treated us so favorably and yet would not deliver us Howbeit we were not long without discovering it for the King 's and Aly's love still augmenting whereas gallantry seems to be natural to all the Moors they were willing to restore Hipolita to her former joy before they would speak to her of their passion For notwithstanding all the caresses which these faâ—r maids received from the Princess Mariama and the affâ—ction which they carryed to her yet melancholy appeared still in all their discourses and in all their actions So that to delight them there were nothing buâ— publique feasts turneys balls and rejoycings But in all these encounters Aly so carryed the matter as all the parties whereof he was the Head were both braver and more magnificent then that of others without the Kings ever suspecting any thing of his true intent because his minde was prepossest with the opinion that it was Leonida he was in love withall and not Hipolita And surely he should have been very melancholique that could not have taken pleasure in these assemblies it being certain that nothing is seen which is more agreeable even in Europe especially for dancing For whereas since the desolation of Granado many persons of quality retired to Fez Tunis and Marocco though the remembrance of their misfortunes ought to have made them renounce all manner of delights yet their desire to please Abdalla who protected them caused them to be present at all these feasts And truly I do not marvel if the Spanyards in conquering their Kingdom though they be conquerors severe enough have not forborn taking some of their gallantries chiefly that dance called Sarabanda But it must be acknowledged that they are but bad imitators of them no more then we who have taken it from the Spanyards it being most certain that they dance it in a manner wherein there is so much art and grace as we come nothing neer it And whereas out of a particular favor we were present at all these feasts I remember one amongst the rest wherein the Marquis made an end of losing his liberty by a Sarabanda which the Princess Lela Mahabit danced For whereas all thâ— features of her face were excellâ—nt her eyes sparkling and passionate her shape advantagâ—ous and comely her carriage free and majestical although the colour of her skin was not vâ—ry agreeable yet her whole person together appeared infinitely pleasing in this Assembly where she danced a Sarabanda with a negligencâ— so full of charms with so graceful a disposition and so gallant and amorous an ayr as the Marquis was in a minde solemnly to renounce his ordinary humor and bâ—come constant for this Princess And to testifie unto you how gâ—eat an impression she made in his heart I only can tell you that in four days the Marquess who was dâ—sirous to transform himself into the person beloved as much as possibly he could learned this dance so miraculously that having demanded permission of Aly to intermingle himself amongst a Troop of Granadins who were to dance disguised in one of these Assemblies he charmed all the company in such sort as the Princess Lela Mahabid who was an equitable Judg of such like things would needs know who he was But she was much amazed when as she perceived that he was not a Granadin but one of the favorite Slaves for so we were called Sophronia Leonida and Hipolita were no less then she to see that they had admired him without knowing him never dreaming it should be he though they discerned him not amongst us In the mean time this adventure was not displeasing to her for after that there past not an Assembly and there was one almost every day wherein he spake not to her wherein he danced not before her and wherein with his adress and accustomed confidence he gave her not some mark of his affection yet without passing those bounds of respect which he owed to her But whereas all these Feasts were made upon design the King solicited Aly to spâ—ak to Hipolita of his love which he did soon after but in such a manner as seemed at first sight infinitely to oblige my sister For after a reasonable long discourse he besought her to consider what he owed to the King his Mâ—ster to the end that afterwards she might receive that which he was going to say to her as a pure effect of his obedience to Abdalla and not as a matter he approved of He told her then that he had such a particular esteem of her as he would rather expose himself to the hazard of losing his life and his fortune then to that of
displeasing her In fine after a preparation long enough and when as he believed that he had given sufficient good impressions of his vertue to Hipolita he told her that her beauty had touched the heart of Abdalla and that he had commanded him to acquaint her with his love but said he unto her with a seeming sincerity whereas you can never be but his Slave Heaven shield me from contributing ought to so bad a design contrarily I will do my uttermost to hinder such a misfortune and that you may furnish me with means to serve you make known to the King added he if he happens to speak with you that I have acquitted my self of the commission which he gave me in the mean time assure your self that there is not any thing which I will not undertake for your service Hipolita was strangely surprized with this discourse for coming to consider all Abdalla's liberalities and the manner wherein he had lived with her for a good while before she made no quâ—stion but that Aly's discourse was true Nevertheless whereas she is natuâ—ally suspicious and mistrustful she doubted of Aly's sincerity in some things howbeit she answered civilly enough to the offers he had made her but for so much as regarded the Kings love she spake to him with so much firmness as he seemed to be very blank at it It was not because he desired she should accept of Abdalla's love but seeing in what manner she refused the Kings affection he feared lest when he should come to discover his own he should be worse intreated And whereas Hipolita perceived his unquietness for what reason said she unto him are you afflicted to see me resolved to oppose my self with all my power against an affection which you seem not to approve of It is answered Aly with as much cunning as malice because knowing by your discourse how much that which I have used to you hath troubled your mind I cannot chuse but grieve for that the King hath pick'd out to persecute you the only man in the world that honors you most But believe fair Hipolita continued he that this unjust love touches me as much as you and that there is not any thing which I will not do to deliver you from it After this Aly quitted her and left her in such an unquietness as the like was scarcely ever heard of Not only the Kings affection afflicted her not only the sadness which she had observed in Aly's face troubled her not only the incertainty wherein she was whether she should discover Abdalla's love to the Princess Mariama disquieted her but an odd and altogether extraordinary jealousie put her mind upon the rack She did not complain of Horatio's looking on any other person she did not accuse him of infidelity but she was jealous because he was not jealous For when as Aly talked to her she had marked how Horatio's eyes were still fixed on her and albeit he had seen that man entertain her a long time yet had he not appeared the more unquiet for it And as it is the custom of passionate persons to aggravate things according to the apprehensions which they have so Hipolita had the injustice to believe that her Lover must needs perceive the Kings love which she her self had not known If he loved me ardently said she for she declared it unto us afterwards the fear of losing me would have made him fear all things he would have taken notice of the Kings civilities his liberalities would have been suspected unto him I should have seen some unquietness in his eyes when as Aly talked so earnestly to me in fine concluded she in her heart either he loves me not or he loves me but a little and if he loves me but a little he loves me not at all since love never endures any mediocrity Whil'st she reasoned in this manner Aly who dâ—sired to perswade the King that he was in love with Leonida took great care that notice might be taken how she was pleasing to him And whereas Alphonso hath not by nature so quiet a mind as Horatio he seemed to us almost is much troubled as Hipolita though it were in a diffâ—rent manner He was not jealous of Leonida but he was vext to think that Aly was amorous of her He did not fear that she would be unfaithful to him but he was angry that another was passionate for her it being his humor as I conceive that the person whom he loves should never see any but him nor should be seen of any but him As for me that am of a contrary mind that would have all the Earth raise up altars to my Mistress that cannot be jealous no more then Horatio that places all my felicity in having Rivals to the end I may possess the glory of being better intreated then they and may no longer doubt but that I am loved as well out of choyce as out of inclination I saw Abdelcader as long as this Assembly lasted employ all his address to please the fair Sophronia without being troubled at it but contrarily I beheld with pleasure the admiration which her beauty put him into as well as all the rest of the company and it seemed unto me that in commending her they commended my judgment and augmented my glory Behold Madam in what sort this Assembly ended The King retired with a great deal of impatience to know what answer Hipolita had given to Aly this false Confident very sorry for having encountred with so much firmness in my sisters mind Sophronia sufficiently displeased with Abdelcader's complacency Leonida in a humor of laughing at the affection which Aly seemed to bear her Alphonso netled with having a Rival though he would not acknowledg it to us the Marquess exceedingly contented with having a Mistress Lela Mahabid well satisfied with the Marquess his gallantry Horatio with a mind indifferent enough for all that had past and I sufficiently contented in our misfortune and even with a secret sense of joy to see that the beauty of Sophronia was so perfect as she made her self be adored of all Nations In the mean time the Princess Mariama who hath a quick and piercing wit perceived all the divers interests of this Assembly and though she could not discover them perfectly yet knew she that the King was in some passion that Aly was not exempted from it that Abdelcader her broâ—her did not hate Sophronia and that Lela Mahabid was too civil towards a Slave This wise Princess resolved for all that not to make any shew of all these things till she was more certain of them but it was not long before she was deared therein For my sister being retired with her companions and having acquainted them with Aly's discourse they resolved to advertise the Princess Mariama of it and absolutely to confide in her vertue Sophronia was notwithstanding of the opinion to ask counsel of us first so that the next morning according to the permission they
least-wise I flatter my self with this opinion that by a particular priviledg and to render her conquests the more illustrious she purifies all the hearts which she enflames that she darts forth a beam of that divinity which I adore in her and therewith illuminates them that come neer her that in making her vertues known she communicates a part of them and that one is no sooner her Slave but he is worthy to command others The Princess Lela Mahabid not able to forbear from blushing at the Marquis his discourse would at leastwise make a gallantry of it I leave you to judg said she unto him how much you would make your Mistresses modesty to suffer if she were here since I could not chuse but change colour at this excessive praise though I have no part in it I fear Madam replyed he that in this occasion you take one vertue for another and that this change which hath appeared in your face be not rather an effect of your great heart then of your modesty seeing it may be you take it not well that a Slave should lose the respect which he ows you so far as to dare to entertain you with his passion You speak so agreeably hereof said the Princess Mariama interrupting him that if my sister will be perswaded by me she shall always be your Confident I am not inconsiderate enough for that answered the Marquis and the thoughts of respect and adoration which I have for her will not permit me to commit this fault Sophronia seeing that hereupon there was a great silence amongst the company which might trouble the Marquis said to him with a great deal of address that she was glad to see a passion in him which made her hope that at last he might be constant since finding in a person whom he loved all the beauties of the body all the graces of the minde and all the vertues of the soul it was impossible for him to meet with any thing that was amiable in another which was not in her You have Reason answered the Marquis but not altogether to renounce my natural inclination though I love none or to say better adore none but this excellent person yet have I found the means to mingle an inconstancy with the love I bear her whereof she cannot be jealous I have much ado to conceive this new mystery added my sister and I do not think that she who is the cause of your love will reign in a divided heart My heart is wholly hers replyed the Marquis and to explain my thoughts unto you know that the person whom I adore is so marvelous as it would be a crime in me having but one heart and one affection to offer to love all that is amiable in her at one and the same time so that to love her the more perfectly and in some sort also to follow this inclination which predominates over all mine I give every day a new object to my passion To day I adore her eyes to morrow I love the beauty of her shape the next day I suffer my self to be charmed with the graces of her minde another time her goodly aspect ravishes me and by this means yielding my heart wholly to each of those excellent qualities which she possesses I shall love her as much as she deserves to be and without being inconstant to her I shall yet be always so much as never to be weary of my servitude This new way of loving so mightily surprized all the company as albeit they had no great cause of joy yet could they not forbear laughing at it I should never have done if I should rehearse all the pleasing passages which the Marquis delivered in all the visits which he gave to these two Princesses it shall suffice then to tell you that the Princess Lela Mahabid had all the esteem and all the affection for him which a Princess gallant enough and who for all that was vertuous was capable of In the mean time you are to know that Aly had not failed in rendering an account to the King of the commission which he had given him but whereas he was a Lover and cunning he had disguised the truth of that which he had said to Hipolita and of that which Hipolita had answered him For though my sister had testified sufficiently unto him that Abdalla's affection could never please her yet he feared that if the King should undertake to speak to her himself she might at length be perswaded so that to keep him from it he told him that albeit Hipolita had not favorably received the declaration which he had made her of his love yet he held it not absolutely impossible to touch her heart it having seemed unto him how he had observed that the greatest fear Hipolita had was lest the Princess Mariama should perceive this affection Wherefore my Lord said he unto him it must be by me that she must be acquainted with all the thoughts which you have for her until such time as by great hopes we have chased away this fear from her heart For there is no doubt added he considering the estate wherein I saw her minde if you enterprize to speak to her your self but you will be very ill satisfied of her for the reason I have told you Abdalla though very amorous and consequently very impatient and very suspicious yet made do question of Aly's discourse and remitting himself absolutely to his conduct he conjured him to remember that on the conquest of Hipolita all his felicity depended In the mean while albeit he had promised Aly to gâ—ve my sister the least testimony of his affection that he could yet was it impossible for him to conceal his passion for he no sooner entred into Mariama's lodging but he asked for Hipolita he no sooner saw her but a new joy appeared in his face Hipolita's looks guided his whether he would or no he followed her with his eyes wheresoever she went and seldom did he make a visit without praising some beauty or some vertue which he said he had not yet marked in her These praises did not please Aly at the beginning nevertheless seeing he could not hinder them whereas soveraign prudence or to say better extream cunning consists in making all things serve for the design that one hath he labored to draw some advantage from the love which the King seemed to bear to Hipolita But before I acquaint you with it I am to tell you that after many conversations which he had with her wherein he always shewed how much he esteemed of her vertue and approved of the refusals she had made of the Kings love one day when as he found her the most civilly disposed for him as he thought and the most incensed against the King he undertook to discover unto her the passion he was in for her And whereas she was exceedingly surprized with such a kinde of discourse and hath naturally an imperious spirit Is it possible
concerning it who after he had protested that the solâ—â—ood of his State made him speak represented unto him that in the design which he had to preserve the Crown for his son it imported much that Abdelcader should not be married and less yet to the Princess of Tunis then to any other because in this sort it was to give him right a second time to his Estates and to furn'sh him with a pretext to make War as often as he met with an occasion for it That to take from him the boldness thence-forward to offer such like propositions he was to tell him absolutely that this marriage did not please him even without colouring the matter with any apparant reasons as he might do because said he Abdelcader's boldness could not be sufficiently punished Abdalla following Aly's opinion in all things contradicted him not in this where he thought his interest alone was regarded He sent Abdelcader word then that he forbad him to think of marrying himself either to the Princess of Tunis or to any other that he should leave to him the care of chusing a wife for him and that if he did otherwise he should then be declared guilty of High Treason Abdelcader no sooner received this answer but every one in Marocco knew it and every one murmured at it The Princess Mariama could not comprehend this business for she knew that Abdelcader had testified a great deal of love to Sophronia in divers occasions and knew also that he had never regarded the Princess of Tunis but with indifferency and that if there had not been some hidden thing in his design she should have been the first to whom he would have spoken of it but howsoever she reasoned thereupon she could not discover the truth And whereas Hipolita had for some time together lived with the King as she had ordained her she observed that Abdalla perceived this change so that seeing the matter in this estate she went one morning to his lodging where she craved the favor of him to talk with him in private and the King having granted it to her she besought him to promise her that if he did not give credit to what she was going to tell him he at leastwise would never speak of it again being fully resolved not to acquaint him with that she had to communicate unto him unless he would engage his word unto her to do so The King being touched with an extraordinary curiosity and yet fearing that Mariama would speak to him of his love to Hipolita stood a while without answering her but at length having promised her as much as she had desired of him she began to prepare his mind with a very particular address I know said she unto him that for this which I am going to tell you I ought to be suspected of you either of malice or of preoccupation I know also that Aly being so mightily established in your affection I shall expose my self to the hazard of displeasing you in telling you that I suspect he is not so faithful unto you as his birth and obligations to you ought to make him I know too that in what manner soever you hear the business it will be still offensive unto you for if you beleeve there is any malice in my discourse you will no doubt be sorry to find a stain in the Soul of a person that is so dear unto you and if on the contrary you find that I am not to blame the displeasure of having been betrayed by a man whom you have so much obliged will disquiet you and whether it be out of a sense of glory or of tenderness you will be grieved Judg then my Lord if the matter which I am to tell you be not important since bearing you all the respect and all the affection that I ought to have for a Prince who is both my King and my brother I expose my self notwithstanding to the hazard of troubling his rest and getting his hatred which is to me my supreamest misfortune Abdalla amazed with Mariama's discourse though he did not believe that she could tell him any thing which was true against Aly's fidelity yet left he not to assure her that in case the suspicions which she said she had against Aly proved not to be well grounded he would judg well of her intentions and be always obliged unto her for her zeal and affection After this Mariama to stir up some trouble in Abdalla's mind and touch his heart where it was most sensible imparted unto him how Aly forgetting the respect which he owed to him had been so daring as to profess love to the Slave Hipolita who belonged to her but this prudent Prince did not let Abdalla know that she understood any thing of his affection so that without standing longer on this discourse yet this is not that said she unto him which obliges me to speak to you of Aly but the design which he hath if you chance to dye before him to break the testament you have made him by taking the Crown from off the head of your son to dispose of it according to his pleasure or it may be to set it on his own head So strange an accusation did not at first encounter with any great belief in Abdalla's mind thinking that the secret hate which this Princess bore Aly made her judg of him in this sort for that which regarded his State but for that which concerned his love though it was more unlikely then the other because he might conceive that Mariama had taken his Confident for a Lover of Hipolita yet he beleeved more of it then she would have had him And making shew of being more moved with Aly's want of respect to her then with his own interest he demanded of her very exactly how she came to perceive Aly's passion and whether the conjectures she had of it were strong enough because if it proved to be so he meant to punish him for his boldness My Lord said this Princess unto him you do me too much favor rather to think of me then of the good of your State but to imitate your generosity be pleased without considering me to let me regard nothing but your person alone and by some invention let me furnish you with means either to convince or justifie Aly. And then without Abdalla's demanding it she recounted all those things unto him which had been cause of her suspicions but at length the trouble of this Princes mind being somewhat appeased he beleeved that Aly might be his Rival but beleeved not that he had any design upon his Crown Howbeit Mariama said so much unto him that in the end with her entreaties and reasons she obtained of him that for fifteen days space he would do whatsoever she would have him for the clearing of the business This Prince had much ado to resolve upon making any doubt of Aly's fidelity so far forth as to seek out the means of convincing him but at
and whereas he desired to be cleared therein the Princess Mariama told him that in the confusion wherein all things were the day before whether Aly had caused them to be carryed away by force or whether we had contributed any thing thereunto so it was that returning in the Evening to her lodging she had not found them there neither could she possibly learn any news of them I will not repeat unto you all that Abdalla said in this occasion although the Princess Mariama acquainted us with it But in conclusion it suffices you should know that Abdalla took this adventure as an amorous Prince would do and after he had caused search to be made over all the City except in the place where we were which by the care of the Princess was exempted she had the goodness to come secretly and bid her dear Slaves farewell to whom also she gave very rich gifts And the night following having disposed of all things for our departure she caused us to be imbarqued in a Merchants Vessel that set sail the same night and whereof the Captain who was of Palermo undertook to carry us whithersoever we would go in consideration of an excessive sum of money which she gave him for that purpose Now Madam before I leave Marocco I am to tell you that the Marquis was not so glad of the liberty which we hoped to enjoy as for that he should no longer be exposed to the hazard of being constant I should have dyed said he unto us had I not escaped from so great a danger for if I had tarryed longer at Marocco I was in jeopardy of changing my humor in not changing my Mistress But in the end Madam we had no great leasure to laugh at the Marquis his agreeable humor for we had not made two days sail when as we encountred a Vessel by the Turks called a Carmossal which having set upon ours that was but ill provided of things necessary for war became Master of it notwithstanding any resistance we could make and the Turks which commanded this Vessel took us and brought us to be sold here at Constantinople where our destiny hath been such as you have understood Isabella thanked Doria for the pains he had taken in recounting this History unto her As for me said Hipolita I am not contented with my Brother for me-thinks he stood a little too much in examining that which he calls fantasticalness in my humor It is not for that you complain answered Horatio smiling but rather because you apprehend that we do not judg of the greatness of your affection but by that of your jealousie For my part said the Marquis I do not complain of Doria and I have taken more delight in hearing him relate my love then I took in it when I was in Marocco And for so much as regards me added Leonida I am the least satisfied with his relation seeing I served but for a pretext to Aly's love Let us not jest so soon said Sophronia interrupting her for in fine we are still at Constantinople You have Reason answered Isabella sighing and would it might please Heaven that I could as readily procure your departure from thence and mine own with you as I can assure you that you are in safety there but we must hope continued she re-assuming a more quiet countenance that the return of Justiniano will cause ours soon after Sophronia's humor being very serious and consequently more agreeing then the rest with Isabella's melancholly begot a particular conversation with her The Marquis approached to Emilia and intermixing his discourse with Hipolita's Horatio's Leonida's Alphonso's and Doria's they entertainâ—d one another as persons whom the hope of a future good had made to forget all the evils past But at length night coming on and Isabella rememb'ring the counsel which the Sultana Asteria had given her not to incense the minde of Soliman she took leave of this dear Troop and returned to the old Serraglio where Asteria had been in much impatience for her return fearing lest the Sultan her Father should be displeased if she did not observe the order he had given The End of the First Book The Second Book ROxelana in the mean time was not without unquietness in knowing by her Spies that Soliman's friendship to Ibrahim and the respect which he had to Isabella had kept him until then from discovering his love plainly to her that caused it For whereas ambition was the only thing that raigned in her heart she might well be jealous of the power of Ibrahim but not of the beauty of Isabella She knew that the grand Visier would never give her the means to ruine him nor do any thing against the service of the Grand Signior were he not constrained thereunto by some very sensible outrage She knew also that Soliman would never disoblige Ibrahim if some mighty passion did not force him to it In fine the love to Isabella was that which begat a hope in her heart of destroying a man whom she did not hate but because he was too generous and that she would raign alone And whereas she saw that if Isabella went every day out of the Serraglio it might come to pass that Soliman seeing her but seldom might peradventure change his mind she resolved for the preventing thereof to complain of the liberty she had and to let the Sultan understand how the Muphti had advertised her that the people began already to murmur at it There needed no further matter to oblige Soliman to a thing which he desired far more then she But whereas the fear of displeasing Isabella was so much the greater as his love was the stronger he could not resolve not only to forbid her from going forth but to see her that day wherein she should receive this order neither knew he what person to chuse that might deliver this rude message unto her At last upon good advisement he sent for the Sultana Asteria whom he enjoyned after he had extreamly caressed her so to order the matter that Isabella might go but very seldom out of the Serraglio My Lord said Asteria unto him hath thy Highness forgot what thou saidst to her yesterday with thine own mouth No said the Grand Signior unto her and therefore it is why I will not make a prohibition which contravenes the civilities I have used to her but I would willingly that by thy counsel and address without any shew of my constraining her she should be carried of her self to do that which I desire for the Sultana Queen complains of the liberty which I give her the people murmur at it all the Sultanaes take it ill and hate her for it My Lord answered Asteria after that which thy Highness hath said to Isabella I doubt that my counsel and speeches will be suspected of her and that she will give more credit to thy words then to all that I can say to her I perceive well said Soliman then to her that thou
whereas Alphonso had been a long time in the voyage from whence Justiniano brought him back he had understood nothing of what had hapned to Leonida for being fallen in love with her presently after his return no body had been so uncivil as to say any such thing to him It was not as you shall know by the sequel of this History because that which arrived unto Leonida was not glorious for her but because love is a passion that renders the spirit so sensible and delicate as it is impossible to hear that the person whom one loves should have affection for another without some sense of griâ—f And verily Alphonso tryed it but too well in this occasion he beleeved at first notwithstanding that this was an effect of the malice of his kinsman who regarding his succession had perchance a design to do what he could for the rendring Leonida less amiable but when as continuing his incivility he had told him that one named Octavio of the House of the Pallavicins and who was dead since had in times past loved her and that he had been infinitely loved of her he did not beleeve that this man durst have told him things so precisely if they had not been true At length Alphonso having made his visit retired with some unquietness nevertheless whereas he had not yet lost his Reason he did not find that he had any cause to complain of Leonida for that she had been loved of Octavio or for that she had loved him in a time when as he was not known to her For said he I should be unjust to desire that the eyes of Leonida should not have begun to make Conquests before they captivated me and I should be unreasonable to desire also that she should have been absolutely insensible of the affection of a man who it may be was of more worth then my self Now whereas Love is ingenious to torment those which are under his Empire Alphonso did not complain of having a Rival that had not been hated but for that Leonida had made a secret of it to him This unquietness was not for all that very strong but you shall understand by the sequel of my discourse that it carried him to another which put him to a great deal of pain Alphonso had no sooner the commodity to speak with Leonida in private but making shew as if it were without design he took occasion to name Octavio this name which had been so dear to Leonida could not be heard of her without touching her heart and her heart could not be moved without giving some marks of it in her face For her Sense preventing her Reason she blusht and â—â—â—hed both at an instant howbeit desiring to conceal this disorder from Alphonso she layd her hand over her eyes and endeavoring to change discourse he was thereby perswaded that this touched her heart exceeding sensibly augmented his curiosity and made him resolve to testifie it to her plainly In pursuance of so precipitous a design Alphonso without deferring the execution of it any further said unto her I would fain fair Leonida be assured that after my being dead for your service my name should be so happy as to make you blush and sigh as the blessed Octavio's hath done You should do better answered Leonida sighing a second time to call him infortunate Octavio Whosoever hath been loved of you replyed Alphonso could nâ—ver be unhappy notwithstanding any thing that could arrive to him otherwise I wish for all that said Leonida that you never make tryal of the like felicity But continued she with an altered countenance why have you spoken to me of Octavio Let us leave him to enjoy that rest which he could never finde in this life let us not trouble ours in troubling his and let us I pray you have so much regard to him as to leave his ashes in peace Please you to pardon me said Alphonso then unto her if without losing the respect which I owe to you I dare crave of you for a mark of your affection that you will take the pains to relate exactly unto me that which Octavio in times past bore unto you that which you bore to him and briefly all that besell you till the time of his death otherwise you will give me causâ— to complain of you Leonida would not at first accord to Alphonso that which he desired of her for as she knew how highly her heart had been touched for Octavio so she know likewise that it would be impossible for her to remember all their felicities and all their misfortunes without a great deal of unquietness wherefore she excused her self from it as much as she could nevertheless seeing that Alphonso took this refusal for a wrong she promised to grant him his desire so as he would give her some time and in this sort many days past away Alphonso being unable to make her keep her word with him But at length his curiosity being grown the stronger by Leonida's resistance he testified unto her one day so seriously that he should hold himself disobliged by her if she continued in the resolution which she seemed to have as having appointed him a time to come to her for that purpose she resolved to content him If one had then demanded of Alphonso why his curiosity was so strong he could not have told at least-wise he hath acknowledged so much to Leonida since For whereas he was perswaded that she had loved Octavio both by that which his Kinsman had told him by that which he had also learned other-where concerning it and by the marks which he had seen of it in her countenance if in her speech nevertheless she had disguised the truth that lying would have given him a great deal of unquietnâ—ss and yet he felt in his heart that if contrarily she should avouch unto him that she had loved him very much this discourse would not please him But at last carryed by a secret motion which he could not resist he went with an extream impatience to the assignation which Leonida had given him He found her more sad then ordinary for whereas her imagination was filled with displeasing idea's that charming and jovial ayr which she hath usuâ—lly in her face was somewhat changed After she had caused Alphonso to sit down and had told him that she was going to render him the greatest proof of her affection that he had ever yet received she was ready to impart unto him what her fortune had been when as Alphonso before he would give her leasure so to do conjured her once again not to omit any part of all that which had arrived unto her But he had no need to intreat her thereunto for Leonida had no sooner began to speak but forgetting that she was recounting her History to her Lover she suffered herself to be charmed with her own relation and shewing grief or joy according as the matters which she related gave her occasion for she omitted not
any thing of all that happened unto her She imparted to him that Octavio's house being neer to hers she had no sooneâ— opened her eyes but she was acquainted with him and that he had no sooner beheld her in his tendrest infoncy but he was pleased with her That their Fathers being friends they had a thousand times seen one another in that innocent age wherein decency did not require one yet to live with so great a restraint and that then without knowing what it was to love they sorbore not carrying affection to each other She told him further that in this age wherein feigning and dissimulation have no part and wherein the inclinations of the Soul appear such as they are so great a correspondence was seen betwixt Octavio's and hers as no difference could be found therein But said she to Alphonso sighing neither he nor I knew that this sympathy which so straitly united our hearts and mindes should disunite us eternally that this springing love shâ—uld one day be the cause of his death and cost me so many tears and without dreaming of any such thing the pleasure alone of seeing one another and talking together took up all our Souls We knew not as yet for all that added she what those thoughts were which we had one for the other neither did we perceive them till decency would not permit us to see one another so often The privation of a good makes us know the greatness of it and the design which we had to conceal our affection began to make me suspect thâ—â— there was something in it more then good-will I did then all that I could to disengage my minde from a passion which I had always heard to be very dangerous but whereas it was more ancient in me then Reason Reason was not strong enough to chase it out of my Soul but contrarily it was she which engaged me further in it and that speaking to me of Octavio drew the picture of the worthiest man that ever was She told him moreover that which she felt in her heart when as by any reason of honor or business he was constrained to be absent from Genoua the small delight she took in Assemblies when he was not there and how much she enforced her self to seem merry during his absence She acquainted him also how exact Octavio was in following her pleasure in all things what care he used to take from her all occasion of suspecting his fidelity and with what discretion he still demeaned himself towards her all the time of his serving her But said Alphonso interrupting her had you never any of those petty disorders which augment love rather then diminish it No no answered Leonida Octavio never gave me cause to complain besides our affection had no need of that artifice to render it the stronger since it is certain that never any person loved more perfectly then we Alphonso would fain have assured Leonida that he loved her yet better then Octavio had loved her but his minde was so unquiet as he could scarce speak And then again Leonida gave him not leasure to do it for she was so attentive in exactly relating all that had past betwixt Octavio and her as she never took heed of all the several changes which her discourse made in his face She continued then telling him that after an indifferent long love Octavio having obtained permission of her to demand her of her parents believed that his happiness was so sure as he had no doubt at all of it for whereas his Father and hers had always lived as good friends together and their fortunes were equal he could foresee no impediment in it But he knew not said Leonida then looking on Alphonso that a passion less noble then that which raigned in his heart opposed his and that avarice which is far more powerful in the mindes of old men then love is in that of young folks should destroy his and my hopes and should finish our love by his death for to settle a grief in my soul which I shall conserve there eternally In sequel hereof Leonida likewise declared to Alphonso that one named Livio of the Family of the Frigozes a man very rich in the goods of fortune but very poor in those of the minde being touched with her beauty without any thought of discovering his affection to her or gaining her favor went the very same day that he fell in love with her and demanded her of her Father prescribing him no other conditions then that of giving him his daughter and that this old man who knew Livio's wealth being more mightily touched with the love of riches then Livio was with the beauty of Leonida had promised him to bestowed her on him and had engaged his word to him in such sort as nothing was able to make him break it So that Octavio arriving an hour after that Livio was gone and making his proposition he was wonderfully surprized to learn from Leonida's Father that he had promised his daughtar and that it would be in vain for him to hope he might make him change his resolution Octavio could not apprehend that Leonida could be promised to any one and she not know of it and on the other side said Leonida to Alphonso my fidelity was so well known to him as he durst not doubt of it In so deplorable an estate continued she he left my Father and came and found me out at an Aunts of mine who favored our affection and where I had appointed him to come and acquaint me with the answer he should receive But O Heaven I cryed she I did not foresee that this sentence should be that of Octavio's death and of the loss of all the felicity that I attended from it He came then but with so much melancholy in his face as at first I made no doubt but that he had some fatal news to impart unto me When as he had obtained permission of his grief to speak to me and that he had acquainted me that not onely I should not be his but that I was already anothers my affliction was so strong that albeit Octavio's was exceeding great yet was it for him notwithstanding to comfort me He told me that our misfortune it may be was not without remedy and that if I had as much stedfastness as he had love I should vanquish my Fathers rigor Alass said I unto him sighing I will not bewail the tears which I shall shed if they may move his cruelty but if they prove unprofitable to me continued she what arms shall I make use of Of those of your constancy said the infortunate Octavio to me Alass cryed Leonida in making this relation to Alphonso how often have I repented me for not believing him I and rather chusing to obey my Father then to be faithful to my Lover After this transport of affection she recounted unto him all the resistances she had made against her Parents pleasure her grief and despair
could behold his picture without tears and sorrow I should rather then have shunned you with care then received you favorably had I not been forced by a power which I could not resist You make me new wounds said Alphonso thereupon to her in seeking to cure the old for if it be true that you have this intention why do you tell me that the sight alone of one of Octavio's pictures hath made you weep I told it you replyed she to let you see that a man which could comfort me for so excessive a grief must needs have a great deal of power over my soul Alphonso not able to contradict Leonida suffered her to continue her discourse You perceive very well then said she unto him that in the beginning of our good-will I gave you more marks of a strong inclination then ever Octavio received of me seeing when I loved him I was in an age wherein flattery complacency and gallantry do extreamly touch the minde Octavio was my first conquest and the first man that told me I had something that was pleasing in me and by this reason it was almost impossible for me not to have admitted of his affection But for yours I accepted of it in such a manner as would not permit you to doubt of mine if you be reasonable And to pass from the beginning to the progress of it tell me I pray you what is that I have done for him as long as he lived All things answered Alphonso and whereas more marks of affection are given by grief then by joy without running over all the complacencies which you have had for him I will only say that you hâ—ve wept an hundred times for him and that all the love which I have born you hath not cost you a tear It is not time yet to discover my weakness unto you replyed Leonida and to answer precisely to that which you say as long as we lived well together it is true that I have not wept but it was because you were not unhappy and I doubt not but if our affection had been thwarted as Octavio's and mine was I should have had the same sorrow And then again you have this advantage over that infortunate man that I have not forsaken you as I did him for indeed if I had known how to love perfectly I had not marryed Livio I had not abandoned Octavio I had not been the cause of his death Therefore it is answered Alphonso that to repair that failing in not loving Octavio enough you love his ashes and his Tomb you cannot speak of him without tears you cannot think of him without sighing and it may be if I should lose my life I should not give you a minute of unquietness Ah cruel creature I cryed Leonida must I acknowledg my weakness unto you Yes insensible as you are said she unto him I will resolve to do it to the end I may cure your minde or have so just an occasion to complain of you as absolutely to cease from loving you It is true said she unto him that I have wept for Octavio but it is true too that spite of the grief which your capricious humor hath possessed me with I can assure you not onely that I should dye with affliction if your death should happen but that I cannot call that a life which I have led since thus unjust passion hath troubled my rest in troubling yours In fine Alphonso I have shed as many tears for the fear alone of losing your good-will though you were faulty towards me as ever I shed for Octavio who dyed for my sake so that if I am unjust it is onely to him and no way to you It is true that he hath rendred me all the testimonies of affection that I could attend from him but it is true also that I have not done the same I abandoned him to marry Livio and I have been capable of a second love which without doubt must be stronger then the other was because it hath been able to comfort me for the loss I had sustained For you Alphonso it is not so you have no occasion to complain of me I have done for you all that reasonably I could do and when I gave you a mark of my desire to please you it is come to pass that out of an unheard of inhumanity you have made use of the same Arms which I gave you to combat me my ingenuity hath been thâ— cause of your malice and mine innocency hath made your crime In conclusion Alphonso said she unto him with a countenance wherein appeared more grief then choller you must resolve upon the choyce of two things either to quit your error or never to see me more For continued she I can no longer endure to see you in the disposition you are in but know unjust and cruel as you are that if you chuse the last you will peradventure be constrained to have whether you will or no ere it be long more affection for the ashes of Leonida then you have had for her her-self Alphonso touched with so obliging a discourse and not able to resolve to see Leonida no more cast himself at her feet and having not the power eithâ—r to repent him of his error or to crave pardon for it or to say any thing that might shew he was not yet cured of it he gave her so many testimonies of an extream love both by his silence and by his tears as Leonida being sensibly touched with compassion asked of him once again what it was he desired of her I know not answered he onely I know that I can never cease from loving you nor ever separate my self from you Be reasonable then said she unto him and believe that nothing in the world is so dear to me as Alphonso Have pity of my weakness answered he and if you will have me comfort my self say not that nothing in the world is so dear to you as Alphonso but say without reserve that nothing is so dear to you as Alphonso I know not said she unto him whether I have ill expressed my self or no but my intention was such as you would have my words to be I should never have done if I should repeat all Alphonso's questions and all Leonida's answers it shall suffice me then to say that after an hundred odd precautions to assure himself of the love of Leonida against Octavio's phantosm whereunto this amiable creature out of her goodness answered seriously he returned to Reason and certain days after craved pardon of her for his error and absolutely promised her never to fall into it again I believe notwithstanding that he was not so soon rid of it and though he hath not spoken to Leonida since of it because it was one of their conditions yet he hath not for all that left off having many times very odd thoughts This dispute and this peace were so secret amongst us that I was she alone who was acquainted with it
it self in the end so weak as he absolutely resolved to speak to Isabella of his passion I know very well said he to himself that this is to betray the friendship which I have promised to Ibrahim but I know withall that it would be the betraying of my self and the cause of my death if I should bereave my self of the hope which I have of prevailing one day with Isabella In this resolution Soliman went to the Princesses chamber on a time when as the Sultana Asteria was come from her and that none but Emilia was with her When as first the Princess saw him she changed colour and Soliman on his part who very much respected her and that still loved Ibrahim thought to alter his resolution and in this sort fear troubling Isabella and respect silencing Soliman they were a while unable to speak to one another The Sultan was he at last that began the Conversation in craving pardon of Isabella for the constraint wherein she lived My Lord said she unto him since it concerns the quiet of thy State I dare not murmur at it and though the privation of my friends be a displeasure sensible enough I do endure it without complaining of thy Highness I do accuse Fortune and do justifie Soliman who without doubt will never be but equitable Would to Heaven said he unto her I might be sure that you would speak thus always My Lord replyed she this is a thing which will absolutely depend on thy Highness it being most certain that I shall ever be reasonable and not be so inconsiderate as to think ought to the disadvantage of thy Majesty if I be not constrained thereunto by thy self I could have wished replyed Soliman that without exception you had promised me never to think amiss of me for it may be you will learn from mine own mouth that I am faulty Isabella blusht at this discourse and casting down her eyes without daring to look any more on Soliman and being unable to answer him she was a pretty while in this incertainty but on a sudden Soliman carried away by his passion resolved to discover it unto her I know full well said he unto her that I am going to destroy my self that in acquainting you with my thoughts I am going to make you hate me but I would sain have you tell me added he before I confess my crime unto you whether an error which is not voluntary merits as much chastâ—sâ—mâ—nt as a prâ—mâ—ditated malice My Lord answered Isabella all persons that have great Souls like thy Highness can never commit faults but voluntarily There is nothing that can â—orce Reason when one will make use of it and the most violent passions without doubt are but the pretext of weak ones when as they will excuse the bad actions which they do it being certain that it is not impossible to furmount them I knew well enough said Soliman interrupting her that you would be a rigorous Judg to me that you would judg of others by your self and that you would condemn in another that which is not found in you But amiable Isabella continued he you are unjust to deal so seeing it is impossible that ever your Soul should be put to so difficult a tryal as that is which I have encountred You have but weak enemies to sight with and a great deal of vertue to resist them your Reason in what a occasion soever you find your self is always on your side but amiable Isabella in this wherein I am my Reason is my cruelest enemy It is not because she hath not opposed all my thoughts as much as she could and this is it which puts me out of all hope of vanquishing having no longer arms to defend me For my Reason hath been so absolutely surmounted as it is rather by her then by my passion that I am resolved to discover my hurt unto her which hath caused it Let thy Highness take heed said Isabella to him then that in discovering it thou make it not the worse and that that which thou believest would be a remedy for thy grief be not a means to increase it That which you say answered Soliman may easily fall out but continued he what would you have a Prince do who is no longer Master either of his heart of his soul or of his will who seâ—s his death indubitable if he conceals the disease wherewith he is stricken and who is absolutely resolved to dye or to move the person whom he adores with love or pity Isabella knowing not what to answer to a discourse which she understood but too well for her rest fetched a great sigh in lifting up her eyes to Heaven as it were craving succor from thence which Soliman having obâ—ervâ—d I perceive said he unto her incomparable Isabella that you have understood me that you are not ignorant of the Conquest you have made and I thank Fortune for that she hath not compelled me to tell you that I love you so to make you know it for it is certain that I should have been much troubled to execute the resolution which I had taken for it But after I have perswaded you continued he without giving her leasure to answer him that Soliman adores you suffer not that which hath accustomed to be beneficial to all Lovers to be prejudicial to me For added he I see very well that the more I shall perswade you that I love you the more you will hold your self injured by mâ— But to take away at leastwise the means from you of reproaching me with my crime I will acknowledg divine Isabella that I know being your Protector I ought not to be your Lover that loving Ibrahim as I do I ought not to be his Rival that respecting you as I ought I should not use any discourse to you that offends you that loving glory I ought not to endure an affection which may blemish it but I know more then all this that love never shews it self either greater or more perfect then when it destroys friendship forces Reason and without considering either honor or glory carries us to dye or to make our selves be beloved of the person whom we adore This incomparable Isabella is the estate whereunto you have reduced my Soul but if notwithstanding I may be permitted to employ Reason for the obliging of you to pity remember that you would be unjust in causing the death of a Prince who heretofore hath saved Ibrahim's life and that cruelty can never pass for a vertue Be then in some sort indulgent to my passion and at leastwise bemoan the hurt which you have done me Soliman holding his peace and Isabella being somewhat come to her self again Is it possible said she unto him that this which I hear is true and that the greatest Prince of the Earth should be the weakest amongst men No I cannot think it and the discourse which thy Highness hath used to me is doubtless a design to prove my constancy and resolution
first sent a Command to the Sultana Asteria to go to that of Roxelana for she had for a pretty while before been seldom absent from the Princess This command exceedingly disquieted the Sultana but not able to do any other then voluntarily obey a Prince who had power and right to constrain her thereunto she left Isabella with Emilia without letting her know any thing of the feâ—r she was in that Soliman had a purpose to use some displeasing discourse to her seeing he removed her from her Scarcely was she gone out of her chamber when as Soliman came in to it and whereas it seemed to her that he had less civility for her then he was wont and that his looks gave more signs of choller then of love she was in some joy hoping that it may be her constancy had so far provoked him as to oblige him to turn her out of the Serraglio but she soon understood that this incivility and this choller was an effect of his love I see very well said he unto her that my visits do importune you that my presence displeases you that my passion begets your hatred that my respects augment your pride that my prayers render you inâ—xorable and that tears do harden your heart Wherefore continued he I am resolved to take another course I have treated you too long as a Mistress it is just then since you will not be so that I cease to be a Slave but whereas I cannot cease to be a Lover I must tell you once for all that if by your cruelty I am reduced to despair I shall be capable of undoing others in undoing my self How my Lord said Isabella then to him can thy Highness perswade me that which thou sayst No no continued she I know thy vertue too well and it is as equally impossible for thee to possess me with fear as with love thou mayst have unjust desires but I hold thee uncapable of a wicked action Thou mayst I say have weakness but not cruelty and love cannot produce in thee the effects of hatred It is not added she because I do not wish with all my heart both for thy glory and my content that either out of choller or hatred thou couldst resolve to chase me from thy presence and never to see me more The opinion whâ—rein you are râ—plyed Soliman that the same passion which carries me to persecute you will keep me from hurting you is that without doubt which makes you speak with so much confidence but know that a Prince who sees nothing in his choyce but death or your affection ought to enterprize any thing for the avoyding of the one and obtaining of the other It can never be unjust for him to think of his preservation that ought to be preferred before all other things I have friendship for Ibrahim I have veneration for you but I have also some interest in my life I have done what I could to procure my content without troubling yours but at length seeing I cannot do it and that there is a fate which will not let me live without you I must seek out the means for it Remember then that he which craves your affection can command you that he which offers you his heart is not unworthy your love that Ibrahim owing his life to me ougt to render it me in this occasion that after so many services submissions respects sighs and tears the anger and spite of being despisâ—d may seize upon my Soul and for a conclusion remember that revenge is the dâ—light of incensed Kings that Ibrahim is in my Armies that you have in Constantinople persons which are dear to you and that you are in the Serraglio It is true my Lord replyed Isabella that I cannot be ignorant of all these things but I know withall that thy Highness commands both in thy Armies in Constantinople and in the Serraglio and that consâ—quently I have no cause to fear any thing but contrarily I think that Ibrahim my friends and I are in more safety in thy Estates then in our own Country And then again my Lord I cannot imagine that the remembrance of Ibrahim is utterly defaced out of thy memory that a man whom thy Higness hath so much loved and so much obliged can be ill-intreated by thee nor can I believe that Isabella can inspire thee with such unjust thoughts no my Lord I cannot think it Isabella replyed Soliman hath not possâ—st me with unreasonable thoughts I have nothing but love for her howbeit I must confess that her cruelty possesses me with fury and that she may carry me to destroy all that I shall think can ravish her from me and consâ—quâ—ntly to do all that I shall believe can serve my turn concerning her This being so answered Isabella I need not be threatened in the person of my friends nor in that of Ibrahim since on my onely will that absolutely dâ—pâ—nds which thy Highness calls rigor and which I term an effect of Reason and Vertue For my Lord continued she were not my heart nor my word engaged to Ibrahim nay had I as much affection for thy Highness as I am capable of yet should I not give thee more testimonies of it then I have done Were not my Religion I say different from thine yet in that I could not be thy wife I should not be thy Slave since the heart of Isabella can never have thoughts contrary to her honor and her glory The Slaves of Soliman replyed he are more then Queens of other Nations and then again to say the truth to have you command absolutely in my heart and soul is not to treat you as a Slave Isabella thinking she was to speak more throughly to the Grand Signior then as yet she had done and believing that whâ—n he had no more hope he would have no more love said to him with a more confidâ—nt voyce then before Finally my Lord all that I can say to thy Highness is that if forgetting thy usual mildness and generosity thou couldst resolve to carry me by fear to that which thou couldst not get by love and for that effâ—ct wouldst persecute me in the person of Ibrahim who is dearer then my self to me I would see him dye rather then change my resolution Let thy Highness judg after this whether death can fright me and whether fear hath any power over my Soul Consider then that though thou hast no hope left thee yet thou hast a mean left thee to be gâ—nerous but in fine added she let thy love in this occasion suffer it self to be surmounted either by reason or by choller have hatred or friendship for me be my Protector or my Enemy let thy Highness not see me but to comfort me for the absence of Ibrahim or never see me more I know continued she that I speak with a great deal of boldness but my Lord since my complaints my tears my prayers and Reason it self have not been able to obtain any thing of thee
should lose his life by my means No Osman it is that which I can never indure and since we cannot live happy together let us at leastwise die innocent Do what you ought for your father owing him your life you ow him all things sacrifise your wife to deliver him it is just and she desires it I must added she for the love of you deprive my self of you and fear not that I will accuse you of want of affection whenas you shall consent thereunto no Osman I should not be glad that your love to me should stifle the motions of nature in you Reason must be stronger than all other things and he that could abandon his father might also in some other occasion abandon his wife Permit me to do what I ought and leave the rest to the conduct of fortune That would not be just answered Osman What will you do then replyed Alibech I do not know answered he onely I know that the estate wherein my soul is I can neither be wanting to my father nor to you and yet being unable to save you both I see that nothing but death can succour me After this Osman fell a musing then suddenly comming to himself again he seemed to take the resolution to go and seek out Arsalon for to fight with him But Alibech having apprehended his design What my Lord said she unto him casting her self at his feet could you command your men to shoot at a Vessell where your father or mine might be killed and it may be both of them Could that so generous heart of yours permit you to dip your hands in my blood or in yours Think well my Lord of that which you say and know that I am capable of taking away mine own life rather than see you blemish your glory with so strange an action whereas then you would not be carried thereunto but only to save my life whenas I should be deprived of it you would deal in another manner It is true my Lord that my father is cruell and inhuman but remember that when the Bassa your father would have banished us from his house I left not respecting him have the same thought for Arsalon Regard him rather as a man whom misfortune hath bereft of reason than as one that is wicked and to say all consider him as my father I do not refuse to deliver oyurs but contrarily I conjure you to permit me to do it but have also the goodness to spare mine Heaven can witness answered Osman after he had raised her up whether I have any intent to hurt Arsalon no Alibech I will never do it but in the disorder wherein my soul is I say whatsoever my grief suggests unto me without giving my reason leasure to examine whether the thing be just or whether it be not In fine generous Ibrahim after so long and so sad a conversation Osman not able either to deliver his father or deprive himself of his wife or fight with Arsalon resolved at least and made Alibech resolve so too to go with all his Fleet and set himself in the sight of that of Arsalon for all the Pirates of the seas of the Levant had a little before betaken themselves to him and acknowledged him for their Chieftain It was nevertheless after he had promised Alibech that he would not fight with him and that it should be only to endeavour to make him do that by fear vvhich he could not make him do by reason All the difficultie of the matter was but to know precisely where he was but this obstacle lasted not long for Osman having sent for the Persian to come again to him he talked to him with so much address that he learnt the place of his retreat after which he told this man in a gentle manner for fear his father should be ill intreated that before he answered directly to the proposition which had been made to him he would willingly have a Letter from his father to the end that being sure he was living he might deal with the more certainty The Persian finding some justice in Osmans demand presently left him with a promise to return him an answer of it within a few days but take heed sayd he unto him that you go not away for fear lest Arsalon should revenge himself on your father if you should deceive him So Osman having assured him that he vvould not stir and this Persian having set sayl he made his whole Fleet to steer the same course so that two dayes after at the break of day the Pirate Arsalon who could not oblige the Bassa to write to his sonne saw his whole Navy appear At first his design was to fight with it and to that effect he caused also his Fleet to be made ready but when as that of Osman approched and that enlarging it self he could distinctly count all the vessels whereof it was composed he found it so great and his so small in comparison of it as seeing that it would have been temerity and folly in him to hope for the Victory with so unequall a number he took another resolution And after he had instructed the same Persian whom he had formerly imployed with his intentions he sent him back to Osman who seeing a vessell loose from Arsalons Fleet and comming towards him hoped that it might be his design had succeeded Alibech was not of this opinion and fear so absolutely oppressed her soul as there was no place left for hope And truly she had reason for this man was no sooner brought before Osman but he made it appear by the confusion which he had in his countenance that the message which he was to deliver was fatall I come hither my Lord sayd he unto him to tell you that if you do not render Alibech and do attempt to set upon Arsalon he will make your father be slain before your eyes and to deprive you too of the pleasure of revenge if he happen to have the worst in the fight he will blow up himself and so steal from your victory This strange discourse surprised Osman and Alibech in such sort as they stood a good while beholding one another and not able to speak but their resentment suddenly breaking forth they sayd all that an extreme grief can make one think It is no longer time to consult said the generous Alibech our love would be criminall if it could produce so strange an effect Suffer me my dear Osman suffer me to go and make tryall all alone of my fathers fury for provided I can restore you yours death will not be altogether cruell to me In vain you seek for other remedies to your miserie and as things stand I ow my self not only to him which hath given you life but I ow my self also to Arsalon to the â—nd I may keep him from dipping his hands in innocent bloud As for me he may deal with me as he pleaseth I am his daughter I have abandoned him I have