favour you may easily obtain pardon for the many injuries you have so often done me For this onely be not I beseech you so mortal an Enemy for if you desire I should dye I also will not much desire to live and so we may with little labour both receive satisfaction where as on the other side denying me this the memory of your cruelty and my death would be eternalliz'd I verily believe that if you would but follow for a little the impulse of reason you should see how that it 's an act unworthy of a noble and courteous Lady to torment those that offend you not unlesse you can call offence my constancy in loving you and the resolution I have taken of alwayes serving you But if you continue in the same opinion which you have formerly exprest remember a little remember Lucinda the sufferings that I undergo I am confident that if my torments were but considered by you according to what they are you would rather repent them then perpetuallize them with so much severity And really it 's a strange thing and almost incredible that you had rather be cruel to those that love you than be served by those that adore you For did you but condescend to consider the sorrow you return me in recompence of the services I tender to you I assure my self that you would plainly see how in glorious it is to insult in my ruin I conclude this my passionate discourse words being superfluous after that my presence hath presented you with so many demonstrations of my torments Look upon me onely look upon me O beautifull occasion of all my dysasters least otherwise deprived of the blessed gales of your serene looks the desperation which I have of my life provoke me to sollicit the death so much desired by ARNALDO THis Letter being written and seal'd I returned into the Hall where coming in a certain throng near to Lucinda I put it in the slieve of her upper Garment and withdrew to observe how she would entertain it But for a long time that I had watcht her I could observe nothing Whereupon I flattered my self with the hope of some prosperous successe to my attempt I was therefore so distracted with this perplexity of thoughts that I either answered nothing or else besides the purpose to those who entertained me with some discourse of the present Occurrences either of the Ball or Court And he that in that instant had toucht my breast might easily have felt the palpitations of my heart caused by desire and perplexing fear the daughters of a desperate Love The time being come at last that the Ball being ended every one retired to their own house observing that Lucinda would take leave of the Queen I waited on her disguised in an unknown Garb not onely home to her house but into her Chamber without being able to observe any thing in her that contributed so much as an atome to my hope Hence being little inclined to rest for that night I dispatcht Diffilus thither at the same time to bring me back some news of the fortune of that Paper which I had adventured in the slieve of Lucinda but he could hear nothing good or bad Whereupon my natural vigour diminishing by this fixt application and my grief encreasing continually scalding my heart in the inextinguishable flames of sighs I became wholly melancholy and solitary never desiring to see the face of the Sun more out of my Chamber Hereupon Belisa my sister moved to compassion of my misery as one who felt a great part of it her self sitting down close by me one day she weeping said Ah! my dear brother I intreat thee to acquaint me with the fatal cause of this grief which so much afflicts thee Seest thou not that thy affliction is my torment and that the love I bear thee makes me to live for thy sorrow a most unhappy life Thou hast many times confest thy self to be my debter and that thou wouldest recompence my love with a reciprocal affection But you deny me that with your actions which you confirm to me with your words You know very well that such like dissimulation ought not to have place near me make therefore my breast the depository of thy passions And to whom wilt thou commit them if thou wilt not intrust them to me Do but think that if thou desirest death I will not wish for life If thou hatest pleasure I will love sorrow If thou delightest in trouble I will be displeased with repose so that thy malady and my torment are one and the same thing to excruciate my heart If therefore you desire to ventilate your passion with whom better can you do it then with me that am never sparing in wishing your good I am sure that discharging one part of it upon me we shall together be the better able to bear it For if thou hast a desire to weep I will weep if you will comfort your self in your grief I will expedite my consolation and if you desire to conceal and nourish it we two can be better able then thou alone to hide and feed it Shew not I pray thee so little confidence in her which hath nothing in all the world that is not thine and make it believed in the end that thy dissimulation cannot falsify my judgement whilest thy tears and thy sighs thy sadnesse and thy solitude accuse me and too plainly discover that which you seek with such care to hide and conceal It 's certain death ought to be lesse powerfull then brotherly love and that therefore death it self shall be most welcom to me when by it thou shalt come to acquire a joyfull life since that I see thee arrived to that passe that thou canst not long continue alive But I had rather you would assume the spirits of your generosity and cheer up your self considering that fortune is alwayes an Enemy of the happy and favourable to the afflicted and therefore she being by nature fickle and inconstant whereas it befits the fortunate to fear I would have thee accustom thy self to hope in her vicissitude She ever causeth new actions for the tryal of our minds because her puissance is better known by the prosperous then by the calamitous Reserve not therefore thy anxious solitude to thy self alone for if greater is the evil that 's hid than the evil that is manifest thy communicating of it to me may afford thee some succour I intreat thee dear brother I intreat thee let the Key of my counsel open for thee the Door of thy comfort and health the peril that 's concealed being alwayes greater in every occurrence then that which is discovered Speak to me therefore if you love me and love that we should live together whether it be dolefully or cheerfully Here Belisa sighing held her peace I reply'd Thou hast so afflicted me dear sister with thy passion that in some measure to comfort thee I must be forced to tell thee what
his horse into the water and having gone a little way with great ease he began to feel no bottom whereupon leaving him to swim yet guided by Bitt and Spur that he might not make a stop in the water he immediately began to set foot on land and succesfully attained the other Bank Arnaldo did nor like that ford fearing that either his beast or mine might yield in swimming to the labour of so great a weight and on the other side Argosthenia cried that we had better to avoid a certain danger expose our selves to an uncertain fortune And I added I know what I say Madam Diambres will over take us within this half hour For me I but meanly prise the endangering my life in your service against such inequality of power and people But you what would you do My horse hath forded other manner of Rivers then Asopos and with other manner of weights then now he is like to carry I would freely offer him you but I know that he will not well be rul'd where I am by the guidance of any other hand Sir said Euristhus take you Argosthenia behind you and I will swim over for my Cloaths are not yet dry To that Argosthenia would by no means consent being unwilling so much to incommode the generous Youth to whom his former services spoke her so much obliged but Arnaldo desiring her to be advised by us she obeyed I presently entred the stream and Euristhus cast himself in after me to swim and after him entred Arnaldo followed by his Squire My horse seemed to sport with the stream with such volubility did he cut and trample that water under foot insomuch that I was almost come to the other shore before Arnaldo had scarce waded the third part of the way In the mean time the curiosity and love of Argosthenia made her ever and anon to look back towards the Knight her spouse thereupon hearing him once angrily rating his horse that peradventure was affrighted by the swelling of the Torrent which imperuously assaulted him in the midst of the stream she turned her self with such haste and carelesnesse towards him that she slipt from her horse into the water sinking to the bottom without any stay Providence which would not permit her to be the food of that Element had provided her of a help before the danger by placing Euristhus to swim behind us for he diving presently after her drew her out of that dangerous current as yet half-alive I also at the same instant feeling bottom leapt from my horse to help and take her as being far taller and stronger than Euristhus into my arms and carried her a-shoar But Arnaldo in seeing her fall and knowing himself far from relieving her was ready to throw himself for desperation into the middle of the Torrent to drown himself but coming to land and seeing her in my arms he was ready to die of jealousie renewing his former suspition of our Amorous correspondence Yet dissembling the same he stood without giving us a word nor spake I at all to him though I perceived his suspition By this time Argosthenia coming to her self with reversing all the water her stomack was oppressed with she began to say to me Certainly heaven hath some wonderfull thing to do in our persons Sir My having received life so often from your hands and the series of dangers through which I passe every moment makes me think that either some very great good or great ill is portended to us by this encounter of fatality I onely calling Arnaldo to hearken to what I said replied Madam Heaven is pleased sometimes to work its wonders not onely unknown to but despised by the world It hath designed you to a fortune above your hopes Be pleased therefore to condescend to take Arnaldo for your Spouse and Husband Here she interupted me Is this a time said she for such an affair Will not my word suffice which I have already past to you No Madam said I but it is requisite the businesse passe farther Contract your selves to each other and then we will talk with you This they did with the assistance of my self and of Euristhus and I desiring to discharge my self wholly of the things I was intrusted with by the Lady presently presented the Neck-chain with her picture to Arnaldo which she had commanded me to present him with all Arnaldo earnestly beholding it said Since that this Medall may be divided you would oblige me Madam if you would please to keep my picture which is inchased therein and I take yours And here he related to us that he had formerly made that necklace to present Lucinda with and lost it upon the very same day the tilting was celebrated at Thebes And I added Argosthenia found it upon the Sea-shore at my first Landing in the Boeotian dominions and having made the picture of Lucinda to be changed for that of mine I have alwayes worn it in my breast for the Love of Arnaldo till such time as it pleaseth Heaven instead of his picture to make me possesse his person Arnaldo therefore took onely her picture hanging it in another chain restoring his own to her to wear it for his sake Then I interupting this their amorous contention said Sirs the night is already near at hand and it 's necessary we provide some lodging where to refresh you being both in equall need of it Whilst I thus spoke I discovered a Bark that scouring along those coasts ran a swift course down the stream of the River She had at a place a little distant discharged her marchandize and was returning to the mouth of the River for new fraight There came at that instant into my mind a new conceit upon which I addrest my self to them saying Sirs said I Our interests and your destiny calls us to Negropont This Bark may waft us over for this little distance with security and commodiousnesse and though yet there were no other benefit to be acquired hence this would be no little one of avoyding the incommodity of a journey by Land at this time of night and in this necessity which you have of repast to your bodyes and repose to your wounds My counsell was approved by the contracted couple And the Bark was made immediately to stay which we hyred to the River's mouth with great content to the Marriners to whom in regard they were discharged of their Lading and bound to the same place the money seemed easily got Being entered therein and the Lady having supt slightly with such viands as they gave her and did provide at a Peasants cottage as we past by but yet merrily enough save only that Arnaldo was exceedingly troubled at Argosthenia's relation of the passages under the Tyranny of Diambres and I after supper imparted to Argosthenia the news of Negropont putting her in expectation of things above her hope The morning following leaving Argosthenia with the Pages in the Bark Arnaldo and my self to enjoy the pleasure
found was prepared with real Magnificence in a very spacious Hall where no sooner arriv'd but carually casting my eyes on the Walls I there observed covered by a thin Vail a Magnificent picture in which I discovered depainted a young Lady whose face seem'd to be descended to inform the Graces with all the proportions requisite to render it a breathing picture of beauty Her complexion did onely mourn with dolorous appearance a Vermillion stream of bloud which trickling from her breast transfixed by a little Dagger ran to stain with mournfull drops her Attire I was just about to vent by my mouth in words the curiosity of my mind to know what this picture did signifie when it entred suddenly into my thoughts that perhaps from her took birth the deplorable cause which held that house buried in so profound a silence Yet by that modest respect which ought to regulate the actions of men well-descended in another man's house I refrained for that time to satisfie my curiosity and sate down at Table with the Knight where besides the singularity and abundance of the cheer I admired the marvelous order of the service proper to a great Prince Supper being ended and finding the time convenient I introduced a modest discourse tending to the satisfaction of my desires with which I so mov'd the Knight that he gave me no answer but in these few words Pacify you first the Ghost of Belisa with acquainting me Who you be and the occasion of your journey and then I will likewise to morrow it being now time that you retire to your repose satisfie your curiosity I obeyed him but not without occasioning in him strange astonishment at so unwonted adventures And the Knight asserting a fatal necessity in his request entertained me a short space in superfluous Complements of excuse but not with superfluous Testimonies of his incomparable generosity Performing therefore the injunction of the Knight he withdrew with a discomposed countenance into his Lodging and I also was with treatments of singular courtesie attended and served in the apartment prepared for me There at last being left alone I went to bed assaulted by various thoughts occasioned in me partly by the things I had heard and partly by those which I did expect to hear the next day and that which did not a little foment my inquietude was the reverberated memory of my absence from that person which being more dear to me then my own life I shall sooner want a Soul in my breast then suffer my love to diminish in the least Yet in the end wearied with long watching I lightly accommodated my eyes to repose but scarce had sleep distended his pleasant wings over my senses when first by a soft murmure gently struck and warbled and after by a lamentable Musick I was so awakened that it was impossible for me in all that dismal night to receive the sweetnesses of Lethe Thereupon I gave my self to hearken if I could know what so lugubrious a song might intend in so late an hour and knew in the end that the Knight my Host was the unhappy occasion of that lachtimous ditty afflicting himself in renewing the rewfull memory of his misfortunes accompanied in this sad office by his servants who too tender in the affects of their Master did increase with their vain plaints that grief which they ought rather with mature prudence to have tempered So long was the mournfull harmony of those nocturnal sacrifices that I at last more moved by wearinesses than pity desired nothing else but only that the Sun dissipator of vain phantasms which in the night obnubilate the phancies of mortals would rise and illuminate the hemisphear and already it become compassionate of my wailing almost began to dart the Horizon with his rayes When the Knight entering in suddenly and domestically into my Room invited me to be a spectator of the Divine Ceremonies which in a little Temple adjoyning to his Pallace he did celebrate Being come thither I rested no lesse stupified with the richnesse of that edifice which in the concisenesse of its Gyre emulated the sumptuosity of the most renown'd Temples of the World than with the singularity of its Architecture which seemed to have dis-embowelled it self to render it a miracle of Art This admirable Chappel was in the exteriour circuit of a spherical figure berounded with Columnes of black Marble upon Pedestals of brasse and with Chapters and Arches of the same matter marvelously wrought In the spaces between the Columnes and over the Arches which supported a front of double Cornishes there was placed in proportionate distances sundry Statues Historical and Fabulouâ— some of Porphyr others of Allablaster and Brasse but the summity of the roof wrought with Marquetry into little foliages of Marble inclosed a great Statue which by its aged face by its wings disjointed from the shoulders and by a dyal put in his right hand represented an Image of the Temple On the West-side was situate the Magnificent and lofty Gate by which men enter to Worship in whose prospect towards the East did glitter an eminent Altar of purest Marble inchased with most precious Jemms and such and so much was the splendor which from the Carbuncles Chrysolytes and Crystals did beam forth that without the help of windows which might impart the rayes of the Sun it sufficiently illuminated that religious dwelling of the Divinity On the other parts South and North hung in equal proportion two exceeding large pictures lesse rich indeed in Jewels than the Altar but frauded perhaps with greater cunning since it seemed to who intentively beheld them that the Painter and the Carver had strove in formalities to give the World a marvelous excesse of Art so excellently were discovered the draughts of the pencil in giving life to the tele and so rarely were imprest the touches of the chizel in inlivning the Marbles that they served as an Ornament to the tele The Walls were covered with exceeding black splendid jet and the pavements did even shine with the black Marbles which were laid upon them In this noble Chappel was erected more than two foot above the floor a Sepulcher of polite Alablaster finely historified with divers impresses of Love bordered and garded with little leaves of Myrtle and Cypresse about which with Greek Letters which did seem just then dictated by a pensive Amorist his Pen being placed upon the last Character with a grace able to inchant Souls was read these verses This Sepulcher upon the Theban shore Since it to th' bones he could not consecrate Of fair Lucinda whom he did adore Arnaldo râ—iâ—'d unto her Ghost ingrate Now whil'st the Priests went about with Sacred Rites and pious Oblations to appease the anger of the offended Divinity I sometimes suffered the curiosity of my eyes to wander after the guidance of fancy about the things which there within did offer themselves to the mind to be considered and with so much the more inquietude by how much
in pursuing the end of thy servid and honest Love Thus agitated betwixt divers purposes and lacerated by various skirmishes of different affects I knew not to which part either of hope or of desperation to betake my self but like a ship in the main Ocean tost by the winds and assaulâ—ed by the Waves I lived incloistered in the solitude of my Lodgings without ever going out of the storm of my sadnesse grief and sorrow I obscured by the Clouds of sundry perturbations all light of the knowledge of my unhappy state and bereft my self of all the directions of reason to arrive to the Port of Consolations by the unsafe complacency I took in my Enemie's beauty Arnaldo or the Injur'd Lover Book II. FOr as much as the King saw me not to appear any more in Court and understanding in part my new affliction thinking perhaps to please me he elected me maintainer of a Justing which he had proclaimed for the approaching feast of the Spring And though I was at that time more disposed to retirednesse then to the company of Gallants yet because I would not displease the King I accepted of it Thereupon my Soul flattered with I know not what gale of alacrity I not onely prepared my self to the designed enterprise but communicated my resolutions to a certain number of youthful Knights and we agreed upon a most capricious Mask to present at the feast which the night following the Turnament should be celebrated in the Royal Hall But for as much as the desire of glory did not ease my heart so much of the weight of its afflictions that they did not still presse me down to the center of melancholly being got up with the Aurora of that fatal day I would have the sadnesse of my habit accompany into the field the sorrow of my mind So mounted on a Thracian Courser I appeared in a military posture armed with black Arms with a Cassock of black Velvet imbroidered with studs of Pearl an embleme of my tears The creft of my Helm was dignified with no other ensign than a mournfull Plume of sable feathers But in my shield I had caused to be depainted a Limbeck from which did drop-in divers parts of the distilled water with this Motto And within burneth Now whilst the elected Knights prepared to the course I vaulted upon my Horse before the Scaffold of the Queen and raising my eyes by chance I saw my fair Lucinda which upon an adjoyning Scaffold wrapt in her mournfull Mantle in those Countreys they wear the mourning for their Parents a compleat year darted through those Clouds the luminous rayes of her Divine face and menaced with death who ever through too much boldnesse should have attempted to fix their looks on the immortal Sun of that glittering beauty What befell me upon so unexpected and astonishing a sight if ever you have been a Lover you are able to judge I think I should never have remembred the affair that had called me into that place I was so besides my self if Lucinda taking notice of my stupefaction with a sudden fiction of talking with another Lady of her acquaintance had not in depriving me of the serenity of her face made me to forsee the tempest which began to rise in my heart which calmed in part by the consideration of my duty in so great an occurrence I in the end gave beginning to the Tilting of which as the incounters and accidents were various so it would be necessary I should expatiate in a superfluous discourse if I should recount them all It shall suffice to tell you that my successe in that adventure was such as I was not able to desire more with my vows to Fortune for the increasement of my glory if love of glory had been able at that time to open a way in that breast which knew no other affect then the love of Lucinda The Turnament being concluded with the day and accompanied with the applause of all people to my house I disarmed and masked my self with the rest of the Knights my companions and came into the Hall appointed for the Ball where in the presence of the King the dances were begun My consorts each of them having took out his Lady to dance I withdrew my self apart more then ever troubled with my fears and distracted by my griefs to see my self poor in that good of which I had so much need and rich in that evil which I did so much abhor Yet finally thrust forward by that desire which enkindling in my Soul did set me all on fire I drew near also with trembling feet to my fair Lucinda to invite her to dance with almost a certain credence of being refused And truely the suspension of that Lady confirm'd my belief But yet in the end constrained by generosity and by the accustomed frequency of such passages she courteously gave me her hand But what passions did not torment my wretched heart seeing my felicity so nigh me and the remedy of my infelicity so remote The dance being ended which made me with its turns to experiment in my Soul the turning of Ixions wheel to torment me Lucinda perhaps annoyed with my presence sate her self down so near the Queen that it was impossible for me to speak a word to her wherefore withdrawing almost in desperation into a Ward-robe of the Kings I assum'd a resolution to try my Fortune again by writing And thus amidst the confusions of my spirit I indited upon the Paper these confused words Arnaldo to Lucinda LUcinda If I was granted as well the means to redressing my misfortunes as I have occasion of expressing them I am certain I should be more contented than now I find my self agrieved But seeing you have bereft from my heart all feeling of consolation though not from my mind all sense of good judgement have patience also I beseech you if I write to you that which doth not please you But what can I write since I have written and said so much already of my passions and miseries Let it suffice you to know that except you be in the end moved with commiseration of my passion and sufferings you shall in a short time see the date of my life terminated in my death And yet alas you might with more ease if you so pleased collect the infinity of my sufferings from my words and from my tears which abound in my eyes the speaking mirrours of inamoured and languishing minds I am truely miserable since the more constant my fidelity is the more remisse you are in vouchsafing it a recompence And whereas you think that by giving peace to my life you must proclaim War against your virtue I will not desire you to do any thing nor will I speak any thing that may offend you It shall content me if you but onely vouchsafe sometimes to cast your eye on my torments so that the sweetnesse of your looks may allay the sharpnesse of my sorrow for by this slight
I am unwilling to disclose I pray you before I reveal my condition to you any farther not to trouble your self with any superfluous care because I shall see an end of my dayes before you shall see a beginning of the remedy to my dysasters Know therefore sister that more by impulse of strange Fortune then by any act of my own will I was compelled to stoop to the Laws of Love by which Fortune hath desired to make me acquire so much with the merit of my service that to my torment I have felt the ingratitude of her I served My misfortunes have already taken so deep impression in my heart that Fortune in vain forceth her self with her slow revolutions to bring any Medicine of comfort so that if death in the end do not succour me relief will come too late from other parts I will not then despair of life even in a continual death and therefore I pray thee dear sister rather to comfort then afflict thy self that thou hastâ— a brother which knows how and is able to undergo conquering himself so many troubles For if yet you desire I should be comforted and you would do me a good office let me never see thy face so delug'd in tears for if tears could mitigate my passion mine alone would be sufficient whereas thine do but increase my torments instead of contributing relief In brief I was born to languish thou to rejoyce and therefore attend to thy Jollities which better sute to the feeblenesse of thy Sex and to the tendernesse of thy years and leave this sorrow to me as more corresponding to virile fortitude and to the proof of my constancy For if you will deport your self otherwise I shall believe that you love me but little whilest you persist to afflict me with your sadnesse redoubling the grief which is of it self but too heavy to be supported Comfort thy self yet comfort thy self Belisa for thy consolation will be a great part of my redresse when I shall receive thy joy as a sign of the love thou bearest to me Belisa seeing she could not get any thing out of me of what she desired determined to let me alone and inform her self better by other means But I having already imparted this my misadventure without acquainting him with the occasion to a Knight my friend not so much because I held any great confidence in his fidelity as because of the vicinity of his house to that of my fair Enemy considering that from every part my pains increased I resolved to vent my passion to him afresh fancying the encounter at least of some occasion of comforting my self sometimes in the sight of her who though I did not see yet had stuck so many darts of grief in my breast I caused him to be sent for to my Chamber and seeing him so compassionate of my adversities as that he made a shew he would subvert the world to relieve me I as one who easily believed what I desired said unto him Friend Jersus If I go about now to discover to thee that which I have so long concealed of my afflictions yet believe that I am constrained to it by the high confidence I hold of thy loyalty and the love thou bearest me Besides if hitherto it hath been a vertue to bury my griefs in silence at the present it is a vice since after so long a siege of torments I must yield to the assaults of Love and Death And from what may I better request succour in such anguish to the distraction of my tormented heart than from thy fidelity and from thy courtesie whilst that death pursues me and that life rather offends then helps me This cruel assault began dear friend from that day on which the father of Lucinda died for then died in me all light of content never knowing what truce or peace was to an anxious mind For Love seeing me so free and disengaged from his Laws that I derided his power resolved to assault me with all the force of his Empire and though vigorous and great was my defence he had fought with such sharpnesse and assiduity that I was deprived of all succour of reason or of desperation and I saw my self come to that passe that I was forced to render my self to the discretion of his tyrannical indiscretion And if thou thinkest dear Jersus that I talking thus am out of my right senses believe me friend it would be the greatest of my felicities to be deprived of judgement as the greatest of my infelicities comes from the knowledge of and inability to redresse my dysasters Whereas if I were deprived of understanding as I could hope no good so I would fear no evil but being free from the tumults of passion and the Wars of the senses I would live full of inward tranquillity Behold me therefore reduced to so miserable a state that I know not whither to have recourse for succour in these last minutes of my life unlesse to the candour of our friendship which with the Arms of thy counsels and thy courtesie are able to raise from about my Soul the tedious Leaguer of my living death and dying hopes The adjacency of thy house to that of my fair and inflexible Enemy may at leastwise stand me in so much stead as to open to me a door of escape either by means of hope or despair The reality of thy Amity which in necessity is best-experimented and known may be able with the prudence of thy advice and indeavours wholly to set me free for I know very well that thou hast more desire to gratifie me herein then I have to entreat thee to it Having thus said I held my peace and Jersus promptly replied Friend Arnaldo I might justly be offended at the diffidence which thou shewest to have so long had of my Loyalty concealing thy troubles from me and revealing them just now when by the Laws of Love thou wast bound to suppresse them What hast thou got by thy silence which hath deprived thee of the benefit thou mightest have acquired and drawn upon thee that mischief thou didst not merit I shall neverthelesse forbear to aggravate thy grief with superfluous loquacity being my self but too much troubled for thy afflictions which the sense of Pity and the bond of Amity hath made common to me Thou sayest The beauty of Lucinda destroyes thy life and she it is doth also ruin my health for as much then as I know no difference between my will and thine since that thou requirest my counsel in such an exigent assure thy self that if my advice might but as much avail thee as thy malady torments me thou wouldest immediatly be free from all sense of either perplexity or pain Yet to tell thee my thoughts plainly it doth astonish and grieve me to think that thou shouldest voluntarily consent that the greatnesse of thy courage should be foild and overcome by a thing so weak and contemptible and that thou which wert wont
that Metamorphise their husbands into Acteons It is very right said the Knight Nor hath the Justice of Heaven a heavier scourge for mortals then that of Feminine wickednes while men in the mean time on the other side by no other way so head-strongly rebel against Heaven as by the Love of women Of which though from a divers cause I can render you most ample testimony since that having with so much fidelity Idolized my unfaithfull Lucinda in all that time I lived in such a dotage I never remembred either heaven or my self and I am now reduced by her means after a thousand deaths of intolerable dysasters to live a life more painfull then death Thus said the Knight when upon the instant hearing a mighty noyse in the Forrest we all set our selves to guess what might occasion it The servants of the Cavalier had already catch't up their Arms for our defence when we beheld to rouse on the left side of the Fountain a goodly Stag of an extraordinary bignesse which in a full carier fled the eminent peril threatned him from the persecutions of a Huntresse But stumbling upon some Vessels for the service of the Table which stood in the entrance of that Track he hapned to fall precipitously into a little pit of the Meadow where the Huntresse over-took him and stuck two mortal darts into his flank and head with such a dexterity that like lightning at the drawing of the Bow they vanish'd Having made the blow the beautifull Lasse cast her eyes on the Table and congi'd with a gentle smile dying the face of the Knight with a noble blush and began to proceed on her way But Arnaldo rising to answer her courteous Salute with great affability intreated her to sit down to take with us a short repast after that her victorious chase The Damsel turned about smiling with a grace able to inchant Souls with Love and said Some great prodigy is hapned in the world now that the Enemy of conversation invites Strangers to his Table But I cannot receive the honour you exhibit to me being expected by my company on the other side the River to Dinner Arnaldo interrupted her You will arive too late it being above three miles off but if you will please to favour us with a short stay we will also wait upon you thither I give you humbly thanks replied the sprightly Virago but that would be too much trouble for you to passe beyond the confines which inclose you in this salvage habitation But it 's a good prediction that seeing guests now with you in strange garbs I may think that you will at last put an end to this inhumane solitude which deprives the world of the glory of your person This saying with expressions equally free and generous she bore us company at dinner and out of temperance scarce tasted any of the dishes taking a little cup of water from the fountain to shew how little our nature is content with and how the worth of women is inhanced by their abstinence This done she took her leave and would not by any means suffer either the Knight or his servants to accompany her onely saying She recommended the prey to him for being taken in his jurisdiction The fair Huntresse being gone I was even dead with desire to know her Quality for the air of her looks and the freenesse of her deportment made me plainly perceive she was more then a meer Denizon of the forrest but the Knight foreseeing my curiosity which peradventure he read in my eyes he obligingly said Behold most dear guest our discourse confirmed with a new proof that from women and from good women are occasioned all the calamities of men since for so courteous virtuous and innocent a Maid many persons are at this instant endangered and many families ruined This fair young-one was born in the Isle of Negroponte of a very noble family and conjoyned by kindred to the Royal blood Being grown to fourteen years of age her parents dyed and she remained with three sisters more under the tyrannicall government of her brethren who having designed her against her will and contrary to all reason to a manner of life little pleasing to her as being a lover of Liberty did thereby occasion to themselves extream misfortunes She was for her singular beauty loved and desired by the most accomplished Gallants and noblest Knights of that Court but she yet neverthelesse with a soul truly generous in so young a Ladie did not scornfully despise but courteously refuse the service of all the other Cavaliers declaring her self to like onely the Services of Callisthenes a young Gallant noble of blood and more noble for ingenuity but of so slender a Fortune that he could scarce sustain in any splendor the Nobility transmitted him from his Ancestors This application of the Damsel highly displeased the Brothers for having already advantagiously marryed the eldest sister they designed to bury her together with these younger according to the use of those parts in the perpetuall solitude of a secluse life in the Country with a title incapable of the marriage-freedoms Nor did they long defer this their tyrannicall resolution having confined the fair Argosthenia and the other innocent creatures in a house built upon the top of a mountain in a situation almost inaccessible being incircled on every side with forrests and mountains of their own jurisdiction Hither Argosthenia being come instead of attending the imployments abhorred by her genius she began like a new Diana of those woods with her bow and boar-spear to disturb the peace of the wild beasts which in great abundance sheltred themselves in that solitary and desart place being content though absent from her beloved Callisthenes with that manner of life in which yet at least she satisfied the naturall inclinations of her generous freedom being far from idleness the fomenter of vain thoughts in the tender youth of Maids And this her life also displeased her brothers which would have her in every thing conformed to their capriccio's to remove from her all hopes of marriage The young Virago seeing her self persecuted also in that honest liberty and not brooking upon any terms to be deprived of that freedom of mind the heavens had granted her conceited inexpert as she was that the onely flying into some other part would instate her into such a benefit So having before in her hunting acquainted her self with the tracks of those forrests she got away one day with an old shepherdesse from her other sisters and disguised in the habit of a young shepherd made towards the sea-shoar where in a little fisher-boat she crost the Straits disimbarking in Boeotia and accidentally met upon the coasts a company of Ladies which there entertained the time in disports And she arrived in so fortunate an hour that liking well the deportment of Olympia an antient Lady and free also from all the Laws of Matrimony she discovered to her the secret of her quality
found her so dejected and sad that she could not utter a word And I in like manner seeing her in that state durst not ask her any thing being fearfull of understanding some displeasing news Yet at last forced by Love and my obligements I intreated her to acquaint me with the occasion of so unaccustomed and profound a melancholy At which she began so vehemently to weep that it was not possible for her of a long time to speak distinctly But yet the extreamity of her grief being in part diminished by the vent she gave it in her tears in the end she said My dearest brother Jerson and Lucinda have assassinated us both Jerson having long served me with pretext of obtaining me for other way he knew he had none through the merit of thy friendship and of Love to marry him hath betrayed me to espouse Lucinda And Lucinda now when she seemed most complacent to thee hath most perfidiously deceived thee to marry Jerson And so we are both wounded in the most sensible part of our reputation without possibility of pretending to a satisfaction equivalent to such an injury When I understood this news Belisa being able no longer to continue her discourse I interrupted her with so profound sighs shrieks that I thought thereby to breathe out my dolorous Soul And I verily believe that 't is impossible for a man to die of sorrow since I am able to live under the afflictions of such disgraces Yet indeed I was wounded with what resembled death Anon after I returned to my self and rent the Letter sent me by the inflexible Lucinda into a thousand bits entring into such desperation that even to the tearing my hair from my head I committed the most indecent acts of womanish weaknesse it being but too true That a Soul overpassionate in the love of a woman changeth his manly courage into effeminate cowardice I forbare for some dayes to efface this grief out of my breast till I might assure my self of some constant resolution Then cloathing all my family in mourning I sent Jerson a Chartel of Defiance in these terms Arnaldo to Jerson JErson To the end the world may know how lying and deceitfull the professions have been that thou hast past to me in private I am resolved to publish them that thy punishment may serve for an example to other Traitors like thy self not to abuse with such enormities the name and faith of friendship Remember therefore that among the other things of importance which I trusted to thy fidelity one was that of my Love to Lucinda in which thou hast many times made such offers to transact to my satisfaction that though thou thy self didst serve her thou oughtest to have renounced her for love of me finally under the confidence of a friend thou hast robb'd me fraudulently bearing away the prize due to my services transgressing the Laws of Friendship and Knight-hood and constituting thy self infamous and a Traitor thou art become a blemish to the Nobility of thy bloud and a reproach to the glory of thy Ancestors when as the scope of thy actions should have alwayes been Honour and Vertue Now that thou mayest receive the condign correction due unto thy sordid actions I would have thee know that with such Arms as thou shalt chuse I am ready to give thee thy death or to compel thee at least to confesse that thou hast committed the greatest villany and infidelity that could fall into the thought of man Therefore chuse Arms at thy pleasure and when I receive thy Answer I will appoint thee the field and day of Decision ARNALDO Jerson received this Defiance and pausing upon it some time in the end he answered me in this form Jerson to Arnaldo ARnaldo I have seen thy Chartel and if thy deeds shall correspond to the vaunt of thy words I hold my self already for overcome and stoop to thee as my Conquerour But I hope that this Affair will succeed otherwise and thou shalt find more of strength in my Arm than I have found infamy in thy Paper Thou biddest me remember our past friendship and I through my over-much remembring of it have married Lucinda for knowing how averse she is to thee and knowing thee to be reduced to extremity I resolved to ease thee by cutting off all thy hope of ever enjoying her And if before thou hadst proceeded to defame me thou hadst hearkened to my reasons I am confident that thou thy self wouldest have commended my resolution undertaken for thy safety But because that my words now that thou art past to the publication of these secrets by taxing of my honour therewith might be falsely ascribed to the fear of thy sword know that I pretend not to excuse my self in the least and that I am ready to quell thy haughtinesse and to defend my right by Arms It being my custome with such as thou to say little and do as I ought The choice therefore I am to make of Arms to force thee to recede from thy false opinion shall be thus We will be on Hors-back Armed at all points except the right arm which shall be bare the Lances shall be equal and each wear two swords The Horses likewise shall be barded and have their Testerns and Guards for their necks Choose thou as thou pleasest the time and place for I will meet thee with assured hope to tame thy pride and make thee swallow thy lies as there is reason I should JERSON WHen Arms had been thus denounced against me I went to the King to whom having related my cause and the treachery of Jerson he freely granted me the field The day destined to the battle being come we both presented our selves before the King and took the wonted Oath and our Arms being view'd by the Judges we entred into the List where we encountred in our Carier with such impetuosity that we easily knew the little advantage we should get of each other Jerson therefore being no lesse dextrous than skilfull in hors-man-ship assaulted me on the arme that was naked giving me a dangerous wound I must needs say I struck him onely on the Visour of his Cask without doing him any hurt Yet neverthelesse the Launces flew in pieces then we presently took our swords and began to assault one another with such resolution and our fight endured so long that the eyes of the Spectators were as weary of beholding us as we were with fighting Yet in the end the lot fell in favour of the right and Jerson was dismounted and slain and so Lucinda's infidelity came to be known and my cause approved Yet neverthelesse esteeming his own honour and that of his house more than life he would not in any case confesse his default but preferred a valiant death before a shamefull and dishonourable life Thus Lucinda in the space of a moneth after her marriage made in my contempt and to the betraying of my sister became a Widow Jerson was chastised I a Conquerour
without any other fruit but onely that of a miserable constancy of fidelity and an infortunate amity They therefore hired a Bark to transport them to Calcides and scarce had they put out of the Port but they were taken by a Pinnace of Pirats belonging to Rhodes who presently fettered Arnaldo and reserved Argosthenia upon account of her extream beauty for a mighty ransom passing to unlade their wealthy booty at Scarpanto where they sold Arnaldo though he promised them great ransoms and let them know his quality to a very covetous and churlish Merchant who notwithstanding the comelinesse of his person and the offers made by him of vast sums sent him to work in certain Vineyards of his in a Village in the Country Arnaldo being assaulted but not vanquished by so strong gusts of fortune inured himself to this course of life in hope of speedy redemption having found out a way to dispatch Letters to Thebes letting his friends know his misery that so he might be set at liberty with force of gold and the interposition of the regall power Yet he was in continuall apprehensions of sorrow in behalf of the unfortunate Argosthenia his Spouse which for her singular beauty might be presumed subject to a thousand accidents of adverse fortune verifying in his person but too much the title which he bore of the Injur'd Lover But from the self-same consideration that troubled him did arise the cause of his security those barbarous villains having for their more profit till then preserved her incontaminated She yet never ceased weeping in that her captivity wherein she was deprived of all comforts and were it not that she was loath to wish him so much unhappinesse she could in that calamity have desired the conversation of Philiternus After a time the Pyrats set sayl for Rhodes and there exposed to sale that precious merchandize the admirable Argosthenia as a thing desired by many though but few were found who durst buy her at so excessive a price as the Pyrates set upon her which was no lesse then twenty thousand Ducats there being none would venture so much money on a Jewel which though lovely in extremity might in an hour change and lose all its beauty But that which one alone could not do three young Gallants together to their own ruin attempted who being otherwise intimate friends agreed to buy her joyntly to possesse her also together by turns Fools that they were not to consider That women were made to part not to unite the Wills of men and That the Throne and Bed detest competition The money being disbursed their agreement being for eighteen thousand Ducats they conducted the innocent prize to the house of Antiochus the principal of the Purchasors where the other two Hermogenes and Arbant fell into a contest with him Who should enjoy her the first night He treating them with very unworthy terms said that all reason required that for nobility and fortune being their better the precedency in that Love was his of right Arbant by this time grown all into a fury told him that having equally dispended his money as well as he he knew not how to yield to him in this matter Hermogenes of a more tranquill mind was content to remit the decision of it to Lot but not being hearkned to by the other two they broke out into such terms of rage that Arbant challenged Antiochus out of his house and after an obstinate Combat Antiochus was slain and Arbant so ill handled that he did not survive him many dayes Hermogenes as the third buyer challenged the possession of the fair Captive but he was joyntly denied her by the Heirs of Antiochus and Arbant till he had repayed them the sums contributed by the defunct parties to that mournfull purchase But Argosthenia cut off this contention for engaging to her the women of Antiochus his house with the discovery of her quality and misfortunes they were moved with such a compassion of her calamities that they helped her to escape being disguised in boy's apparrel having first something shortned her hair and discoloured her face Argosthenia being gone the strife at an end she who found nothing about her but her Wedding Necklace with Arnaldo's Picture two or three pieces of Gold preserved from the rapine of the Pirates which had been so modest with her as not to search and ransack her in her under Garments knew not how to get out of that Isle and return to her own Countrey so lonely and forlorn as she was but went wandring up and down the Villages adjacent as if she begged Alms fearing lest if she should shew her Gold to any to work her return she should be either stopt or robb'd Till in the end lighting upon a poor old woman but of a hearty constitution which also went ranging up and down the Isle she consorted her self with her taking a resolution at last to disclose her self promising any recompence she should ask if she would assist her in getting from thence to the Isles of Scarpanto or Negropont The good old woman was content and took her in place of her son traveling together to the Western Coasts and there finding a Fisher-boat of the largest sise that furrow the Seas on such imployments She offered them ten Ducats upon her disimbarking on the Isle of Scarpanto The Fisher-men at first thought themselves mocked but the Damsel assuring them that there was those in that Isle who would presently pay them and considering that they were to go to Sea to fish they agreed and with a prosperous voyage arrived there the same night Here Argosthenia landed in the morning leaving the old woman in the Bark for security and went to the house where Arnaldo was sold But learning he was gone to his masters Countrey-house to work she was exceeding glad And because it was but three miles off she went thither upon the wings of Love and of desire in a short space and seeking of him she was brought to the place with much courtesie by a certain honest woman She found him with his Fetters at his heels and his Mattock and Spade going to work and was so moved in mind at so deplorable a spectacle that not able to keep upon her feet she sunk down with sorrow and regret Arnaldo and the woman ran to help her amazed with the strangenesse of the accident But their words nothing availing the woman ran to her house to fetch some Vinegar Water and Wine and the like to bring her again to her self and in the mean time the confusion of Arnaldo much increased thinking he knew the features of that beautiful visage howbeit that her short hair and Olive-coloured face and mans apparel made Argosthenia unknowable But she returning to her self and taking an opportunity when the woman was returned with her implements to her house she said to the Knight Arnaldo a person of your acquaintance sent me to salute you from her Here is a Bark of certain