and Denials she assents and gives him this following Relation The History of Indamora YOu persuade me my Lord by so powerful a way that I must resolve to make you acquainted with all my Weaknesses To begin then I am the Daughter of a German my Father was more obliged to the Gifts of Nature than those of Fortune however he was a good Gentleman and lived esteemed by all his Humour retired and we in complaisance to it shared his Solitude with him I will not tell you I was naturally pleased with it but since I saw no way to get my self out of it I acquiesced I had not long lived in an Age capable of distinguishing things of such a nature when I became in Love with Alcander one of the most Illustrious of the Kingdom and Son to the Emperor's Sister who had married her self to one of her Brothers Subjects her unfortunate Marriage was never forgiven her but oppress'd with the fatal Anger of his Imperial Majesty She died full of Royal Grief and Sorrow in Travail with Alcander him she had espoused loved her too tenderly to survive her long but after having mourned her loss he followed her in a very little time Alcander being thus left to the Mercy of an incensed King was in all appearance to run a most deplorable Fortune but the Emperor's Anger being dead with his Sister the Princess ordered a great Care should be taken of the Royal Orphan and gave command to have him brought up and educated as his own Son loaded him with Titles and as soon as he was capable of them he gave him great Employs I am going to tell you how it was I first saw him which was almost admirable in a Life so retired so free from Court as mine He was a fine Man well shaped of a good height when I first knew him which was when he was very young his Soul was extreme Amorous had a great share of Inconstancy but where he loved it was with the greatest fervency imaginable the Emperor was Hunting one day in a Wood joyning our House which was seated very commodious for that sort of Diversion Alcander was then with him and having seen me at a great Window I had thrown open for the better seeing the Court pass he seem'd not displeased with me but alighting from his Horse hastily he caused himself to be conducted by my Servants to the place where I was 't is not easie to define the Surprize this Action gave me however I was infinitely charmed with his good Meen his Wit and his Address he found my Inclinations did not agree with that sort of Life he talk'd tenderly I was in an Age wherein I believed all that fell from his inchanting Tongue was true I began to feel a Passion for him and after he had a thousand times sighed for my sake in one hour I was sensible of a pleasing Fire he had inspired me with I gave way for him to endeavour the bringing me to Court which he conjured me to agree to and when he retired after a many Protestations of Admiration he bad me be assured I had in him not only a great Friend but a great Lover This Confession drew some Blushes from me But the following day he came again to visit me then it was I lost my Liberty for in that fatal hour I made no difficulty to own I loved him I valued not to be discreet there is no such thing in Love but I made it all the Business of my Life to be ever telling him my Passion I saw all his Actions with Pleasure there was an agreeable Inchantment in them I repined not at the freedom I had lost nor to have been as great as Heaven is high would have been unacquainted with him again It was thus agreeably I passed some of my Life nor envied I Monarchs in my retirement when e're Alcander shared it with me but as the place I lived in was so distant from the Court that Alcander's Attendance on the Emperor prevented him from seeing me as often as he desired he placed me with the Archdutchess his Imperial Majesties Daughter I was with her in a very glorious Station and though in a place where all sorts of Diversion were in use I esteemed it but as it gave me the greater Liberty to see Alcander and to often assure him of my Passion I writ it to him I told it to him in a Language tender and moving I easily believed all this would satisfie him but when he had seen to what a height my Passion soared and that he was dearer a thousand times to me than I had ever been to him he triumph'd over my Weakness and losing all manner of Respect by the opinion he had I could deny him nothing he courted me for my undoing I received the first cruel Proposals of my ruin with a terrible Emotion and with such Disdain that Alcander durst not urge me further but the following day sent me this Letter YOU are certainly the falsest of all Women How is it you tell me you Love me and yet use me as if I was the remotest Man in all your Kindness Is it your part to pretend to Virtue and I know not what fantastical Chimera's and at the same moment tell me you know how to Love well Ah! Indamora change these barbarous Sentiments and assure your self I will never see you again whilst you continue in them I had much rather live for ever from you without hope than live for ever with you and not dare to tell you you must consider nor endeavour nothing but how to please the Man you say has all your Tenderness I swooned at the reading of this Letter and was just recovered as Alcander entered he flew to me and receiving me in his Arms he whispered so many fatal poysoning charming Things that I had no longer the power to be angry with him he protested he could not see me and not desire to be the happiest Man Breathing when it was in the Power of a Woman that loved him to make him so I know not Love is an unaccountable Madness I dreaded of all things the never seeing him more it was that Consideration vanquish'd me and oh Gods in that fatal moment I promised and appointed him the following day he seem'd transported at the Grant he bless'd the Heavens the Gods and me and retired with so much Joy that the Pleasure I took in pleasing him surmounted all my other Fears and I in short resolved to make him that happy Man he said though at the expence of my own Ease and the Joy of my coming Life I very well saw I gave him what I should eternally repent of but those in Love have no Consideration but what is agreeable to that Passion but though I had abandoned all the Care of my self the Gods retained theirs for me and saved my Honour then from dying in the Arms of Alcander I was to attend that night the Archdutchess to a great
left Vienna the Emperor the Empress the Princes and the Princesses together with the whole Court accompanied the great Dutchess Dowager three Leagues from the City and did not then leave her without all the regret imaginable and as so fine a Princess as she was did deserve The Archdutchess recommended me tenderly to the Care of the great Dutchess and was pleased to express an agreeable sorrow for parting with me We accomplish'd our Journy to Poland very happily where the great Dutchess was resolved to make some short stay being obliged to it by the Queen of Poland nothing could be more Glorious than the Reception we had there the King is a gallant Prince and had ordered every thing so splendidly that the great Dutchess Dowager was extremely satisfied with his manner of treating her nothing was seen here but the most Gallant Diversions and the Business of the King the Queen and the whole Court was how to render every thing agreeable But in the mid'st of all these Diversions I found they were none to me what the Prince Agustus had done just before had rendered me averse to every thing of such a nature his Resentments of my Proceedings mortally afflicted me and altogether rendered my Thoughts nothing but perpetual Inquietudes so that in short not able to support such a world of Grief I fell into a violent Fever which however was not lasting yet the whole Court despaired at first of my Life and I saw the great Dutchess Dowager of Muscovy enter into my Chamber all in Tears I must leave you Indamora said she to me which is a powerful Contribution to my sorrow for assure your self there are very few things in this world more dear to me than you but I have just received an Express from Muscovy That the Great Duke is fallen extremely ill and we have reason to fear the consequence all things are making ready for my departure and I have borrowed this moment from my sorrow to tell you my self of this misfortune 't is with all the Grief in the World that I see you not able to continue our Journy together I am constrained to leave you and it is true I leave you very ill dear Indamora but the Great Duke is so too I have seen you and it 's absolutely necessary that I hasten to see him I leave with you my Physicians part of my Retinue and some of my Guards to conduct you to Muscovy as soon as you shall be in a condition to reassume your Journy they have Orders to obey you as they would do me and to take the same Care of you Adieu says she once more dear Indamora and in kissing me I do not despair of seeing you within these few days as well as I desire you should be which assure your self is as well as possible in that I love you beyond expression She departed that moment and I from that moment began to recover I used now which I neglected before my own Endeavours to get well again the thoughts that I should suddenly see the Prince Tiridate was a powerful Inducement and when I considered that the sooner my Health returned the sooner I should see him again I did every thing that could be done effectual and in short I saw my self in ten days perfectly recover'd and free from all manner of pain but that of Love and nothing retarded my Journy but a languishing weakness which would not permit me yet to indure so great a Fatigue But as every thing is cured by time so within a few days I saw my self in a condition to travel I began then my Journy to Muscovy but what avails it to have surmounted one misfortune since it was but to fall into a greater or who can avoid the capriciousness of Fortune when she designs we shall be eternally unhappy all our endeavours to the contrary are ineffectual for being upon the Borders of Poland I suddenly saw my self a Prisoner my Guards and all that made any Resistance were immediately cut in pices they being more than ten times surpass'd in number the rest with me and six other German Ladies that came with the Great Dutchess Dowager of Muscovy and stay'd with me by her desire till my recovery were made Captives the Turks that continually make Incursions into Poland were unhappily for us come down then and we being met by a Party of them taken Prisoners It is impossible to express my Grief to see my self a Prisoner to a Nation I then believed the most barbarous in the world their Customs were so different from ours that I fancied I could never pass one hour of my Slavery agreeably and to add to that Anguish the thoughts of losing the sight of Tiridate Agustus for perhaps my whole Life rendered me melancholy as the Grave and I a thousand times wish'd to have died in Poland rather than to have fallen into the Slavery of those Barbarians They presently resolved us for the Seraglio of the Grand Signior in assurance of a great Ransom for us and of me in particular whom they treated very unlike an ordinary Captive for the chief of the Turks who had the Title of a Bassa became passionately in love with me and as there was a Guard for his Person he became so careless of it as to charge them with my Safety and abandoned his own Preservation for the Care of mine he sighed a thousand times to me I could understand no other Language which mortally afflicted him he took Care though to remedy that and had me with much difficulty instructed in the Arabick very perfectly He was well-made passionate and brave he one day acquainted me with his Resolutions of making me his Wise and I think his Love together with my despair would have at length made me agree to it had not his Murther put a fatal period to all designs of that nature for when we were first made Prisoners he had promised to the rest of his Party that the Prize should be equally divided amongst them his Passion to me constrained him to be false to his Promise and all the rest of us but the German Ladies being sold he absolutely refused to his People that we should share the same destiny which inspired them with Resolutions so barbarous as to murther him one day as he was at Dinner which they did with very little Resistance his Guards as I said before being with me so that the brave Man fell after having received 13 Wounds and kill'd 5 with his own Hands of those barbarous Villains that assassinated him so cruelly After that Murder they came to me and the next day together with the six German Ladies they sold us to those that ingaged to bring us to the Seraglio where after a world of fatigue grief and despair we arrived Death had not one happy Dart to throw at me but abandoned me to a more cruel Fortune and suffer'd me to come safe to the Seraglio under the conduct of those Barbarians with more
come learn from him what none but Love and he can teach come to my Arms and dye and languish there He paused here and seeing Indamora silent he rose up all in despair and anxious as he was cryed Ah! Gods how have I flatter'd my self I am scorned dâ—spised and all my Life made for ever unhappy Indamora was vanquished by this Action she falls into the Sultan's Arms and declining her head on his breast Heaven is my Witness Sir replied she how much you are mistaken and Heaven does know besides I love you more than Honour Duty and Oh! ye immortal Powers let me add without a fear of being blasted by your angry Vengeance than all Religion too I hasten on my own undoing I court my Ruin and persuade my Virtue to abscond I banish Honour that Idol of the World that bane of Love and teach my Duty to be satisfied with the specious Arguments of Power and you and to assure you more I give my Vows of being only yours and let this Protestation whenever I revoke be then my greatest Curse as now it perfects all my Happiness Be calm my Conscience at this Promise which I make and let me be persuaded while I languish in my Monarch's Arms I am happy still without Remorse or Fears that that Eternity of Bliss is unallowed She accompanied these words with moving accents of Passion with some despondency and a constrained Resolution which the Sultan easily saw and to assure her lavisht away such Protestations as would have fired the World so full of Passion that Indamora could not be any longer unmoved 'T is said the Grand Visier prophesied right certain it is he is loaded with Obligements in return of that one of his in bringing her to the Seraglio and more in favour if possible than ever Acmat who was the most amorous of all Princes and who had Grandeur enough to maintain those Inclinations now indulged himself Indamora had for him a thousand Charms and contrary to that wretched custom which makes the Grand Signior's Passion the sole Reward of her he savoured and that they were confined to a Seraglio without the Liberty to see any but the Sultan and the Eunuchs that attended him I say contrary to this observed Custom Acmat gave the Title of Sultana of Barbary to Indamora and restrained her in nothing but in the Point of Amour and Gallantry None of his Predecessors had ever indulged the fair Sex so much as he The Sultana Queen had a great Liberty allowed her He was much condemned for his tendency to the Women and his very Enemies acknowledged he had no other weakness He derived they said his desires of Peace from the desire he had to possess them and that Women rendred him the merciful Prince he was it was Women they said made him desire to live in ease and in order to it he had made Peace with the German Emperor and neglected to make use of those Advantages the ill posture of Affairs in Hungary presented him with since the Conquest of Mahomet III. Acmat was very brave and had given Proof of his Valour when but a Prince there was none questioned his Courage and he believed it was enough to have once acted like a great a valiant and experienced Soldier that the World was satisfi'd he durst which was enough to justifie a Prince desirous of Peace which he always preferr'd before War when he could with Honour The Sultana Homira had studied all his Weaknesses and was perfectly acquainted with his Inclinations Jealousie was never apt to disturb him which she easily saw and procured first for her self and then for the Sultana Queen that Liberty they possest Gallantry reigned here incessantly and all manner of Pleasures with a great deal of Luxury which notwithstanding was believ'd to please the Sultan since he never reproved it It was this Licentiousness ruined Homira she fell at last into a habitual Debauchery and was a principal Advancer being the great Example of all the Liberties taken by Women of Quality Love and Intrigue was no more so secretly confined to the Walls of the Seraglio and if People were discreet it was what they were not at all obliged to be Never was an Ottoman Emperor before of such Inclinations he had a great Soul charmed with Pleasures and ever went in search of them he believed the greatest terminated in the Arms of the fair Sex. It was he would say a great Injustice that the most perfect Blessings of human Life should be denied a Liberty which served but to make the contrary Sex more happy These Sentiments were prejudicial to our Monarch for all he had loved were debauched by them to be false to him but they served as great advantages towards the Conquering the Hearts of those that loved to please themselves in Variety and hated Restraint The new Sultana of Barbary who remembred what had been advised her by the Grand Visier failed not to assure the Sultan of his great Merit and as for her she had loved him had he not been so great a Monarch This Caress had the desired success the Sultan was charmed with her appearance of Sensibility and continues to give her Protestations of his tenderness assigned her the fairest Apartments in the Seraglio ordered the Furniture to be much more glorious than the Sultany Queens which in effect it infinitely was gave her a Retinue suitable to so much Grandeur and an immense Revenue to support all The Sultana of Barbary who was extream pretty easily became so much Glory she was to act a part whereto the greatest Cunning in the World was required and which with good management would be the most advantagious to her The Sultana Homira had possest the Sultan beyond Example yet this was no encouragement to Indamora she might believe the more of Constancy he had expressed the less he had reserved The Sultana Homira had advantages which Indamora could not pretend to a lofty and an excellent Beauty a Soul which had it not been prostitute to her Licentious Inclinations could not have been converst with without infusing Respect Grandeur was inseparable from all her Actions and one needed but to see her to be inspired with an awe She was by much the finest Woman that had been ever seen in Turky and perhaps in the whole World and once adored by the Sultan who had been brought by her to do a thing beyond President in the Ottoman Empire The good Conduct and the Cunning of Indamora her Air of Innocence her extreme Prettiness her affable Humour her diverting Wit and in a word a thousand other Charms fix'd the Sultan's Affections even to a miracle he would spend whole days with her call'd her his Friend and in short let himself be absolutely governed by her the whole Ottoman Empire was as she pleased to have it all the great Offices are disposed as she desires Germany is much advantaged by the ascendant she has in Turky and she employs all her Arts to
me Mustapha declared his opinion That he believed he should love me for ever Mahomet Bassa persuing the Discourse represented to him how disadvantageous such a Passion must be for any Woman that was but the Daughter of a Subject I am infinitely sorry my Lord says the Grand Visier that I am forced to desire you to forbear your Visits to Zayda though they have hitherto in our opinion been private I am to assure you we were mistaken judg then my Lord how disadvantageous this must be for her she is young and a very little thing ruins her Honor the way you take is not at all consistent to her Reputation which runs a great risque in the World unless my Lord you design what is death in us almost but to wish It is in your own Power if you will chuse to see Zayda yours or never see her more Ah! said the Prince hastily interrupting him Name not such a Hell of Horror to me I will marry her I will run the risque of the Sultan's Displeasure any thing rather than lose her But were I capable my Lord reply'd the Grand Visier bowing low to advise you in it it should be to resolve against it the Great Acmat though he is the most merciful of all Princes yet finding himself so sensibly injured may pass to a Resolution of revenging the little Respect that will be shew'd him by such an Action he hardly forgave you your first Marriage and will undoubtedly punish your second if it be of the same nature He then again press'd him to quit me but not with a design I believe that the Prince should follow his advice he would not hear of that he appeared extreme Amorous and when the Grand Visier proposed it a third time he commanded him on pain of his Displeasure to say no more of it I saw the Prince every day for some time longer I kept my word and did not go to the Seraglio Amurath believed I had been displeased at his Declaration of Love and that I had taken that way to punish him He came once to see the Grand Visier and I who was walking in the Palace Gardens had not the Power to say any thing to him in short I was so agitated by Passion by Desire and by Fear of Mustapha that I swooned in the Arms of my Women and was carried to my Apartment ere Amurath could possibly speak to me He believed whatever had been told him to the contrary that my Fainting was a testimony of my Aversion since such extraordinary Disorders are essential to it he believed me angry with him and altogether he was as discomposed as I he sought to obtain my Pardon for his crime and employed the Daughter of the Aga of the Janisaries to effect it In short said I to that Lady I give to you what none besides could have exacted from me Amurath shall have his Pardon conditionally he never return again with the same Presumption as to dare to love me Amurath refused these Offers and assured me by the Aga of the Janisaries's Daughter he had rather submit to all the cruel effects of my Anger In a word I was constrained by my own Inclinations and the Ladies Importunities to pardon him on his own Conditions and give Leave for him to love me Mustapha was ignorant of all this and after he had continued his Visits to me four or five days longer the Grand-Visier maugre the Prince's Commands would oblige him to quit me incessantly or resolve on something The Prince hearkened to the Reasons he alledged and was really so far transported with a desire I believe of ridiculing me as that very day to be contracted to me I was pleased with so much Glory I thought I had but one step more to make to satisfie my Ambition which would then be bounded Mustapha came the following day again to assure me of his Resolutions of making me his Wife I carest him more than usual and while I was thus flattering my self the Grand Signior's Captain of his Guard came with express Orders to bring Mustapha to the Sultan at the Apartments of the Sultana of Barbary where he then was The Prince durst not disobey but assured me in quitting the Chamber Nor Acmat nor Heaven could ever make him false to me or relinquish the holy Vows and Protestations he had so lately made me But Oh Heavens cried out the wronged Zayda how unjust and how treacherous he was As soon as he had quitted the Sultan he caused himself to be again conducted where I was I wonder how the Traytor the perfidious Ingrate durst ever look on me again He fell on his Knees before me and with a feigned Sorrow and a Passion pauled with Duty learnt me the Commands of Acmat and how that he must resolve to obey them He was beginning to deplore his Misfortunes when I all enraged with a violent despair was searching for a Dagger I usually carried with me to have stabbed to the heart the most Criminal of men and it would certainly have been a Pleasure unexpressible for me to have glutted my Eyes and my Rage in the Bloud of a Villain for nothing else can atone for all his Perjuries My Poinyard by a deplorable ill fate was not then with me which the more enraged me and altogether so opprest me with a fatal Weight that quite blinded with the violence of an angry Passion I sunk down on the floor Mustapha would have raised me but I abhorred him too much to see him near me unless it had been in my power to have then given him Death Ah Villain said I if thou wilt continue to torment me thou needest but to tarry here I was curst the first moment that I saw thee and have ever since remained so He endeavoured then to clear himself as much as possibly he could protested he still loved me and that nothing but a prevention of an inevitable Ruin of me the Grand Visier and himself could have forced him to do so ill an Act. Thou oughtest said I to have let us perished all together rather than to have been perjured to have made the unjust Sultan perish to let the whole World be ruined rather than have treated me thus but since thou wert of so base a Temper as to prefer an inglorious Life before a glorious Ruin thou oughtest to expiate thy Crime by thy Death and though thou didst not love well enough to have died to have been just to that Passion Be just at least to thy Honour and die for thy Perjuries go and never let me see thee more I turned from him then and he left me after having said You are mad I am unhappy and I must be gone I was reflecting persued Zayda on all I had done for a Crown how I had sacrificed my Love to the Hopes of it and how I was disappointed when you enter'd And thus I have given you an account of this Engagement and of the Perjuries of the most undeserving of
confessed that not my Embraces had disgusted her but my former conduct to her which was so base that she should eternally remember and eternally endeavour to revenge she caress'd me for the Letter which when she saw I was resolved not to give her she flew out into an extreme violent Passion she threatned me with death which she assured me she was resolved should be my Fate for she would instantly inform the Grand Signior of my coming to that sacred place in such an hour and an hundred other ridiculous Clamors which I put an end to by answering her Morat should suffer whatever the Sultan ordained me of Punishment Nay persued I either change your Resolution of discovering to Acmat my Crime and your own Debauchery or this ador'd Grand Gardener shall this hour be expiring by Poysons or my Scimitan or shall be strangled by Mutes Consider how you can bear this and take your measures accordingly These Threats had their desired Success the Sultana retired very much inraged at my manner of Revenge and the more so in that she durst not complain of me without hazarding the Life of her dear Morat You entered some moments after the Letter you have by a kind of Miracle had Homira seen it nothing could have preuented your ruin have a care how you carry your self she will certainly have an account of all your Conduct which will be rendered as criminal as her Wit and Malice can make it perhaps she will too inform the Sultan of a Letter I had for you and render us both suspected he loyes you well enough to be jealous though none before could ever make him so the Sultaness Homira was an infamous Woman and disgraced because the Honour of Acmat required she should be so he forgave her other Faults as Criminal though not as publick as her favouring Amurath and would not himself see what the rest of the World easily discern'd Tiridate and Homira may ruin Indamora with the same â—ase that Amurath and Mahomet Bassa ruined her act then with Caution and remember when you have once lost the Sultan all Endeavours will be in vain to make him again love you an Example of this we have in Homira she is beyond comparison beautiful so made to Charm that it was almost a Miracle great as her own Composer to think how Acmat of the Temper he is could ever cease from loving her yet nothing is more certain than that he has He cannot love Indamora more than he did Homira you may perhaps have her Destiny but all Endeavours must be used to hinder that fatal Curse banish Agustus from your Heart for as long as he reigns there you will not fail of being unhappy Monarchs like Acmat when they give a whole Heart expect a suitable return and as in Empire so in Love we can admit of no Competitors This I very well know my Lord replied the Sultana but my auspicious Stars have inspired me with an unfortunate Passion for Tiridate before I ever knew the Sultan I have before now assured you of my Passion for hâ—m but when you placed me with the Sultana Queen that did not disturb me so very much I did not believe I should ever see him again and am yet to learn how it comes that he is protected here in this Court. Possbly I had not consented to please my Ambition had I ever had any hope of being happy again in my Love but the Object of it had for me suffered a Banishment and retired to a place where I could never have come after my being taken and made a Slave in Turky But my Lord pursued the fair Sultana with some great Sighs and a Torrent of Tears I love the Prince and cannot cease from doing it maugre all what you my own Reason or the whole World can say to the contrary and perhaps I had rather share his Banishment with him than never see him again I first gave him my Honour when I had no Love for him and sure my Lord now I have 't is not to be expected I should treat him worse than than Ah! it is too cruel a Destiny my capricious Fates will hurry me to a thousand things but all my Resolves terminate in loving him eternally and in this you must acquiesce all our Sex has some weakness this is mine pity it then my Lord and assist an unfortunate Woman whose Good wholly depends on your Management I would not ask this from you were I not assured it is your Interest I should live in the Favour of the Grand Signior and further my Lord you have hitherto protected and assisted me leave me not now in the greatest moment of my life I would without your aid leave the Seraglio confess my Passion to the Sultan for Tiridate Agustus and declare to him the desire I should have of passing my whole life with him remote from every thing but Love but I flatter my self that with your assistance and by the Ascendent I have over Acmat I may continue as I am I have some Ambition with me the Sultan gratifies it and I must acknowledge it though he is a Monarch very indifferent to me and I know not what I could be capable of doing against him should he make my life uneasie by disturbing my love To prevent it I must endeavour to preserve my selfe in his Opinion as guiltless of persidiousness as I am now in it She stopt here to make room for the Returns of the Grand Visier who represented to her all she had to fear from that manner of Conduct the Life of the Christian Religious and her own but those are things which Love renders but little persuasive and we very often hazard them to satisfie the humours of the God. Mahomet Bassa at least persuaded the Sultana to carry her self with more Caution than usual and to pretend more Passion and Tenderness for Acmat than ever After this the Grand Visier retired the day began to break and to tarry longer would be hazardous if he were known The fair Sultana was agitated by unexpressible Disquiets she returned to the Seraglio and with a Resolution to write to the Religious Prince which she did but then she knows not how to have it safely delivered to him What the Grand Visier had said to her alarmed her she had reason to apprehend all things from Homira who upon very good Considerations she could not believe any thing but ill Offices could proceed from She must then use as much precaution as could be consistent with her Love for the Prince that being dearer to her than her Ambition she believed Acmat was secure in the Opinion of her sincerity her truth and the Protestations she had made him and that more than suspicions would be necessary to ruin her it was her fault if Indiscretion did it she has a thousand Designs forming for the Conveyance of this Letter she had writ she knows not whom to trust she fears all things from every one in the
ingrateful Prince that sacrifices me to Indamora This last Expression made an end of ruining her designs the Sultan believed he had then found the rise of all her Extravagancies and that it was Jealousie disordered her and that Agustus having given the Letter she had written to Indamora had created all these Chimera's Thus he returns as has been observed after pitying the distracted Sultana as he call'd her and all the Absurdities she had been guilty of This made an end of inraging Homira she saw the Sultan was so prepossess'd to the contrary that she deferred giving him the Letter Agustus had sent to the Sultana of Barbary she assured her self if she should shew it him he would scarcely read it and at best believe it a thing feign'd on purpose to give credit to all what she had said which Tiridate had address enough to improve by disowning he had ever writ it and the Sultan who so passionately desired to find the sair Indamora innocent would not indeavour to disapprove him this Homira sees her rage had left her sense enough to give the success the Letter should find to Zelida to order most advantageous and she is going to instruct her in the part she is to Act for the ruin of the Sultana of Barbary and the Prince Tiridate Zelida fully persuaded of the faithlessness of Indamora prepared to discharge her Conscience by telling the Grand Signior all she knew Homira animated her the most she could returned her the Letter Iearnt her the unsuccessfulness of the discovery she had made and in short concluded that a great deal of Cunning would be necessary to convince the Sultan of a truth obvious to all the Seraglio and that it would be more discreet for Zelida to defer yet some five days longer the Relation of that they had resolved on that mean time they should perhaps make some other discoveries but if they failed of that Zelida said she did not at all question but that the Sultan would believe one that had been ever so just to him as she had been The Sultana of Barbary was become deplorably Melancholy and after what the Prince had related to her in the Garden of the Seraglio she began to consider to what unhappiness her transporting Passion for him did expose her yet she cannot repent of what she had done she loves too ardently for such a weakness on the contrary she will add to her Favours her Tenderness conquers her Ambition and she resolves with her self that it is better to live retired and happy than the most gloricus Princess in the World to suffer such inquietude and constraints as she did she casts her self then at the Sultans Feet begs his leave for her to retire from the Seraglio and from Turky pretends Religion and Remorse of Conscience her late dreadful Malady which had given her a prospect of Death and of an Everlasting Estate and said she should employ the remainder of her Life to attain a Blest Eternity and that the Ingagements she was in with him were not at all consistent with it that it was very true it was the greatest Temporal Felicity she could have but then her Eternal Happiness was sacrific'd to him And added she I will never believe you love me if you can so easily for some short moments of Satisfactions and those of so Criminal a Nature doom your Indamora to an Everlasting rest of Torments Remember I have hitherto neglected all reflections of this nature and suffer'd all my remorse of Conscience to be calm'd by your Love but my late miraculous preservation has awakned me and let me see I cannot continue in the same station without appearing highly Criminal to my God My Religion has suffered all manner of persecution for my Love and I may say it has even dy'd in your Arms it is time then for me to alter so deadly and so charming a manner of living And Oh Gods added she as if transported Why were we born with Inclinations proper to distinguish and affect the Pleasures of this Life and not have the liberty of Soul given us to enjoy 'em without such endless Rewards of Torment I would fain persuade my self there are none of these things to fear but my babling Conscience cries alowd against all these Endeavours and in a moment crushes my Objections into nothing and assures me too fatally of the certainty of it You your self nor all your Love call'd to your aid could not boast of more Eloquence towards the consuting of these Truths than I have suggested by favour of those Intervals I would forcibly allow my self to snatch from Religion to the advantage of you Sir and to the advantage of our Passion but alas must I pronounce the Sentence of my own Death death of Love and Joy Ah! 't is too cruel a destiny unhappy Indamora in that she must obey Oh never never cry'd the Sultan taking her in his Arms Would you destroy not only the Repose but Life of Acmat You take the way that will certainly do it and if the sacrifice of it can be pleasing bring me Poysons offer me Poniards or whatever way you command for dying and you shall be satisfied that it is necessary for me to expire by one of them ' ere quit the possession of you It is a truth that perhaps this Action will be accounted Barbarous but who is it that the Ottoman Emperor can fear but Indamora that Charming Cruelty Ah what is it you cause me of torture I am greatly miserable it is not out of sentiments of Religion but your aversion to me that you would leave me how vastly unfortunate I am but though I were assur'd you no longer lov'd me yet should not that be of any advantage to you you should see what a wretched Monarch and in love like me were capable of I would not be unhappy alone I would detain you in the Seraglio and constrain you to Embrace a Monarch indifferent to you while I shall share your Afflictions by considering that I am so Let me then once forget the tenderness of a Lover and assume to me the Majesty of a King by assuring you I will hear no more of any thing of such a cruel nature 't is altogether in vain ever to reassume your Desires and be satisfied Love has render'd it impossible for me to live without you This restraint serves to make the Sultana of Barbary hate the Love and the Person of the Grand Signior and after that what Crimes is not she capable of committing she endeavours secretly to escape and with her dear Agustus to retire into some part of the World where they might uncontrouledly be happy in their Love but she finds it impossible for her to fly and then began to take more fatal Resolutions Acmat fearing she should endeavour her escape for Conscience sake after he had denied her her liberty he put the ways of it so wholly out of her power and yet not as immediately proceeding from him
but as a thing barely customary that she must suspend that design he had sent her some moments after the refusal of her liberty immense Presents and a Letter all tenderness which you may see here 'T Is impossible for me my dear Sultana to know how it is that I came to love you so tenderly as I do ah you are more charming than ever yet I saw any and I know no torment either in this Life or that to come which I would not joyfully submit to for the possessing you an hour Your Conversation your Person your Humour and in fine a thousand other Charms are anvaluable and when the moment comes that I am at any time hurried from you I would give all that I had dear besides to continue with you though perhaps I have passed a great many hours there but ever my heart remains behind and when distant from you I appear but as the shadow of Acmat let this and Mahomet be my witness how tender you are to me satisfie your self my dearest Sultana my Cares and my Empires shall be sacrificed to you ah why have you demanded the only thing I could refuse you Why do not you ask the Crown on the Head of the Sultana Queen rather than what you did it would not have been so difficult for me to have seen you obeyed I would be content to hazard my Glory the Love of my Subjects and in short my Crowns to please you but this is too cruel a fate see how vastly great my Passion is regulate yours by it and do not repine at the happiness of your Sultan After this he visited her again she had learnt That it was best to dissemble her Rage and her Aversion and that without it she could I not be able to effect any thing considerable so that it was not difficult for the great Acmat to reconcile her in appearance to his Love he is so well satisfied with it that nothing could make him more and he leaves her with greater Testimonies of his Passion than ever he had yet done But the fatal time was now come that Zelida was to make those Discoveries to Acmat Agustus that amorous Prelate had not seen Indamora since the night in the Garden of the Seraglio which was an Age in Love and which render'd her impatient and confirm'd her in the Resolves of Sacrificing all things to her love for him Zelida had no more testimony of their Commercce than before but with that she adventures to the Sultan prostrates her self at his feet as the custom of those Slaves is gave him a full account of what Homira had before confusedly related to him put the Letter of the Christian Prince into his hands and retired The Sultan read it with an infinite surprize he weigh'd all Circumstances and could conclude nothing he endeavoured to clear the Sultana of Barbary and his Passion inspir'd him with Eloquence in her Defence but then he would say her desire of quitting the Seraglio was a Proof of her Indifferencie to him and Zelida's Words when she recounted Indamora's Indisposition disturb'd him more than all Says that Slave I will not tell your Highness she feigned I am not sure of that but this I am very certain of she treated the Prelate very different from what you expected and had I not known to the contrary I should have believed it Acmat and no other especially a Religious Prince This and the Letter he had and which was found by Zelida in the Sultana of Barbary's Robes confus'd him he did not at all suspect the Fidelity of that Slave however he will have the Opinion of Mahomet Bassa some of the Eunuchs are sent in search of him whom they return with Acmat bids him be just and free with him as he was his Monarch and his Friend and advise him in what he should believe and what he ought to do He then read the Letter and recounted all to him and in short received his Opinion That there was nothing in it and that the Sultana Homira had bribed the Slave to act as she did The Grand Signior was enclined enough to believe this but considering the Grand Visier was the greatest Friend the Sultana of Barbary had in Turky he sent him away without resolving on any thing The Grand Visier was no sooner out of the Seraglio than that he sends for his Daughter to him who was returned to Constantinople and had espoused Amurath Mahomet Bassa commands her to go to the Sultana of Barbary and give her an account of all and to advise her to throw her self at the Sultan's Feet tell of Agustus's Love to her and make a false Confession of her Cruelty her Resolutions of not returning his Passion and an Order she must desire from the great Acmat for his Banishment as a Reward for his Presumption She must not consider her Love for the Prince says the Grand Visier any farther than it shall be necessary to save his Life They must both die if she does not take that Course I advise her to Zayda fail'd not of obeying the Orders of Mahomet Bassa and in short dispos'd the Sultaness Indamora to make that Relation to the Emperour She hastens then to the Sultan's Apartment agitated by a thousand Fears and had not a thousand things diverted her from so horrid a Resolution she would have Ponyarded him rather than make a Confession of that nature However she comes casts herself at his Feet covers her Face with a Vail sheds a torrent of tears confesses the Presumption of the Prince Agustus his Writing to her in a manner so arrogant her Grief for losing the Letter before the Sultan had seen it and in a word her desires of having him Banished nothing else she said could satisfie her or atone for his Crimes Notwithstanding the improbability of this Relation of her Cruelty since the Letter Acmat had of Tiridate's was writ in a different style yet the Sultan who loved her tenderly and all easie as he was to those Impressions he took her up from the ground spake such tender things to her as none but one so much in Love as he could after a suspicion of that nature however he lost for some Moments all manner of Reflection and abandoned himself entirely to a great Joy which was the more sensible since it succeeded such cruel Apprehensions and whether he wholly believed her or no yet certain it is he assured her he did He return'd her the Letter of Prince Tiridate recounted to her all that had been told him caresses her more than ever conducted her back to her Apartment and assured her He had not quitted her so soon but that he was going to put her Orders in execution for the banishing that ingrateful Prince which he immediately did and caused the occasion of it to be made publick The Prince was transported with Despair and Rage at this accident he came to Zayda threw all the Letters he had received from Indamora to her and