having traced them through divers trees that lay between both they at last saw them go in to one of the little Isles and made no question but they would go and rest themselves in one of the Arbours They thought it their beâ— course to give them the time to do so and so having taken a good walk they made towards the Isle by other wayes and passed over another bridge then that by which the women had gone in They were no sooner got in but coming behind one of the Arbours on a certain side at which they could not be discovered they heard the voice of a woman singing in the Arbour and making a halt to give her the greater attention they found her admirable not onely as to the voice but also as to the skill whereby it was not a little heightened They at first heard her at some distance out of a fear of making any noise to interrupt her but afterwards perceaving that they had much adoe to hear the words and confident withal that if the noise did not discover them they might go quite to the Arbour without any danger of being seen by reason of the thicknesse of the branches and leaves which admitted not any passage for the sight they went as softly as possibly they could and came to the Arbour time enough to hear these words which were the last that were sung He 's now alus orecome that would not own But still defied Love's charms and pow'r O may my eyes my hearts dear losse bemoane And let their tears its shame devour That slave-like yields to passion The Lady concluded her song with a deep sigh and her companion who had hearkened to her with great attention had no sooner perceaved that she had made an end but addressing her self to her and speaking loud enough to be distinctly heard by the two Evesdroppers that were without the Arbour But is it possible said she to her and must I believe it my dearest Tullia that that god who as t is generally conceaved directs and disposes of the amorous passion should take such extraordinary vengeance on you and that to punish you for the cruelty which you sometimes exercised not without unjustice upon a Prince that adored you he should infuse into you a kindnesse nay if I may presume to say it inspire you with a love for a Prince that does not so much as think on you and one that though born of the same blood yet hath not any thing of those inclinations towards you which his Brother had These words were no sooner heard by Ptolomey and Lentulus but they withal perceaved by the voice that it was Emilia that spoke them and could not be ignorant having heard her name pronounced that they were addressed to Tullia They were both equally surprised thereat and Lentulus looking on my Brother with eyes wherein were visible not onely his astonishment but all that he would have said upon so unexpected an adventure had they been in a place where they might have discoursed without any fear of being discovered grasped him by the arm as if by that action and other gestures he conjured him from making any noise and to hear attentively as well as himself a discourse wherein if he were not mistaken he thought himself very much concerned Ptolomey was willing enough to comply with his desires so that continuing in the same pusture they were in before they heard Emilia reassuming the discourse Speak my dearest Tullia said she and since I am the onely person in the World whom you think fit to entrust with a secret that is so neer your heart ease your spirits as much as you can by acquainting me with what you would conceal from all but Emilia We are now where all things favour our designe so far that the Sun it self did he shine could not participate of the secret that is between us and all things promote the solitude we seek Do your self therefore no further violence my dearest friend and open to me that heart which being heretofore hard and impenetrable to all love and compassion does now submit to the same passion against which it was armed with so much rigour While Emilia was speaking in this manner Lentulus had found a way by turning the leaves aside to make a little passage for his sight and as good fortune would have it he could through that little place direct it just upon Tullia's face By this happy means had he the opportunity to see the face of that Beauty leaning on the shoulder of Emilia bathed with certain tears which issuing out of her fair eyes ran down along her cheeks and dropped into her bosom With one of her arms she embraced Emilia in the other hand she held a hand-kerchief wherewith she wiped the tears which she could not forbearâ— hedding Her hair was in a loose and negligent posture and all her gestures spoke a certain remissenesse but all that negligence all that languishing did but heighten her ordinary beauty insomuch that there seemed to Lentulus to be much more lustre and divinity in it then he had ever observed before He further perceived that after she had with some difficulty prevailed with her self to comply with the sollicitations of Emilia assuming the discourse with an action wherein were easily remarkable all the expressions of sadnesse and confusion Why will you oblige me said she to her to repeat to you what my eyes what my heart what my mouth have already acquainted you with Are you so much in love with my grief as to be delighted with the unhappy demonstrations I give you of it Or would you have me out of a reflection upon so many acknowledgements as I have made of my unhappiness weaknesse and cowardice to dye for shame and confusion before you If it must be so my dearest Emilia I am content and since you are and ever shall be while I have a minute to breath the onely person to whom I shall discover my misfortune I am willing my most secret imaginations should passe out of my heart into yours and wish you may be moved with pitty for the misery which my inflexible destiny hath forced me into I say my destiny Emilia for it is that onely that I can justly charge with all the misfortunes I am fallen into Do not imagine it any effect of the celestial vengeance upon me for the rigour I expressed towards Julius Antonius Though I have contributed very much to his absence and am charged as the occasion of it yet have I not been troubled with the least remorse for any deportment of mine towards him Being Cicero's Daughter I could not upon the first addresses of his affection to me be obliged to entertain any such thing from him and reflecting on the death of Cecinna whom being to be my Husband within three daies he killed in my sight upon my account I was certainly dispensed from whatever the expressions of his love might require of me in his favour
And yet the powers of heaven are my witnesses that I never hated him that I never wished him any ill fortune that I have acknowledged his great worth and that I do at this day confesse notwithstanding my present sentiments that he is as great as to point of merit and as amiable as to his person as Ptolomey is himself So that there is no ground to imagine that the gods should inflict all this as a punishment of my cruelty but that it proceeds meerly from my destiny which in this emergency acts against me as it hath done through all the misfortunes that have happened to our house But my dearest Tullia replied Emilia since you would not be flattered in your passion may it not be represented to you that the same reasons which you alledged against the love and merits of Julius Antonius before he became an impardonable criminal by the death of Cecinna might with much more ground be urged against the affection which you have conceived for his Brother since that not being obliged to him for any the least demonstration of love you cannot but look on him as the Son of Anthony which he is you know no lesse then his Brother I am no question replyed Tullia obliged by the same reasons to do the one as the other at least in some part for I might tell you did I stand upon my justification that Ptolomey is not by his birth such a criminal to us as his brother was since that he is Son to Queen Cleopatra who contributed nothing to the death of Cicero and not to Fulvia who alone engaged Anthony in that design and exercised her cruelty upon the body of my Father even after death by a many abominable indignities but such was my misfortune that I could not make use of them and I need not tell you that in those of this nature the assistances of reason are not alwayes infallible You may further argue that I have hardly seen Ptolomey above once that he is a Prince younger than my self by five or six years and a person that neither does nor haply will love me while he lives All the answer I have to make to these objections is That my misfortunes are so much the more to be bemoaned and that the rather out of a consideration that I have not contributed any thing thereto my self and have endured this violence to tyrannize over my heart without the least complyance of my will Pitty me then if you please Emilia and charge me not with an offence which I see no reason I should take upon me T is not in the power of either Vertue or the Study of Philosophy to make us uncapable of passions but onely teach us how to struggle with them and if they have not been able to make good the little garrison of my heart against the assaults of that which now disturbs my quiet they will so weaken it as that it shall not produce therein any effects that may stain my reputation at the present or my memory hereafter I have been able to look on the Son of Anthony but it seems under an unhappy constellation which made me indeed but too sensible of what I thought amiable in his person I have been able to preserve the remembrance of it too dearly for my own quiet I cannot think of him without tendernesse I can speak of him with delight I can communicate my sufferings to you I can sigh and as you see weep and bewayle this sad exchange of my condition But this Emilia is all that this destructive passion can work in my soul so that all the tempests it is able to raise there shall not eclipse those lights of wisdom which it is not in the power of any blindnesse to extinguish I can pine away yet conceale from all the World Emilia onely excepted the reason why I do so and if I must endure even to death it self I can easily do it not onely rather than open my lips but rather then become guilty of a wish that should any way stain my reputation or cast a blemish on the former part of my life But when all is done replies Emilia to speak sincerely could you not wish that Ptolomey loved you or can you with all your Wisdom and Philosophy oppose such a wish To this Tullia could not for some minutes make any positive answer but having a little after shaken off that suspence and reassuming the discourse with a certain blush wherewith Lentulus could perceive her face all covered The desire of being loved said she by that which one loves is a thing so natural in us that I durst not tell you that I did not wish my self loved by Ptolomey but you are withall to assure your self that this wish is so innocent as not to injure my vertue nay I must adde thus much that though it should prove effectuall yet would not my condition be any thing the more fortunate and that Ptolomey himself though he should love me should not know while he lived that I ever had any affection for him I should avoid him as an enemy though he were dearer to me than my own life nay though it should cost me this very life I should keep to the last gasp from the knowledge of all the earth those sentiments which have broke forth to that of all the Romans But what is then your meaning replyed Emilia what course do you intend to take in order to your own quiet To dye answered the Daughter of Cicero to dye my dearest Emilia if occasion require and I am very much unknown to you if you imagine that I think my life so considerable as not to sacrifice it to preserve my reputation But I shall do what lies in my power to struggle with this enemy that hath possessed himself of my heart and if the strength and assistances of heaven which I dayly implore prove such as that I may not gain the victory you shall find Emilia whether I have not learned to dye rather then be guilty of faults which might make you blush for my sake I have acquainted you with the secret of my heart because there hath not been any transaction there which you have not known but did I imagine it should come to the knowledge of any other person in the World besides your self I should think one hour a long time to survive the shame I should conceave thereat and you should bestow on my death those tears which compassion obliges you to shed to accompany those which my unhappinesse forces from me As she made an end of these words she could keep in no longer those showers of tears which fell down from her eies in abundance which yet hindred not but that Lentulus who looked on her with attention or rather with transportation thought her so beautiful in that condition and was so much moved at her discourses the grace wherewith she delivered them and the fortune that obliged her thereto that pitty which had
and calling to mind all the occasions upon which I had observed too great familiarity between Elisena and Cleontes I was astonished at my own blindnesse or rather inadvertency and upon that came to my memory a hundred circumstances which I condemned all as criminal O ye gods how did this fatal discovery eat into my heart to make a place there for the greatest grief it could be capable of And what deplorable effects did that self-tormenting passion immediately produce there This black impression wrought a kind of Metamorphosis in me insomuch that I was become quite another man than what I was some daies before Being thus convinced of my want of circumspection and consequently of any misfortune I railed at Fortune I quarrelled with heaven and I took any occasion to discover my affliction Is it possible said I that one that is so dear to my heart this great example of vertue and tonjugal love hath so soon turned bankrupt as to all vertuous inclinations and lost all the affection she had promised me Or if she never were vertuous nor had any real affection for her Husband is it possible she should be so well read in the art of dissimulation as to â—conceale it from a mans knowledge with so much artifice for so long time How can that Elisena to whom I had absolutely sacrificed my heart that Elisena for whose sake onely I love my life prove unconstant to me and it may be dishonour me O inexpressible cruelty of my destiny against which it cannot be expected my courage should be able to rescue me O Heaven O Fortune what resolutions would you have me to take Shall I ever be able to hate what I have so affectionately loved and from hatred can I proceed to revenge against an object so dear to my heart and that the only object of all my affections But if I do not I shall be insensible of the persidiousnesse of an ungrateful woman and can I with an unparalleld basenesse endure those extraordinary affronts which must needs blast my honour for ever Hatred Love you that divide my heart between you let either one or the other give place and persecute not my soul with perpetual uncertainties and irresolutions Many dayes did I spend in these reflections and discourses while in the mean time my countenance began to change with my humour and the alteration that happened there was so observable that all the World took notice of it Elisena was one of the first that observed it and by all demonstrations and expressions of love took occasion to discover the grief she conceived thereat but her carriage towards Cleontes was still after the old rate And whereas my eies were nowâ— much more open than they were before and discerned all things after another manner then I had done in times past methought I could perceive in all her actions so much tendernesse and so much love for Cleontes that I made it no more a question but that I was as unfortunate as I had imagined my self I saw the whole day in a manner was little enough for them to spend together they had ever and anon some secret or other to communicate one to another and when they were at too great a distance to speak one to another they discoursed by their eies and cast looks at one another that were more eloquent than any thing of conversation and this to the observation of all the World as well as my self This alteration seemed very strange insomuch that all those that had known Elisena a little before could not without an excess of astonishment make any comparison between these sallies of lightnesse and liberty and her former reservednesse and modesty True it is neverthelesse that notwithstanding all those demonstrations of affection that past between her and Cleontes her carriage towards me was as it had been ever before and I could never porceive either from her discourse or her countenance that there was any abatement or remission in her love towards me or that she was lesse taken with my person then at the first hour of our marriage Her caresses and her insinuations were still the same she spoke with the same sweetnesse and acted with the same complyance save that she did it not so constantly as in times past that she left me often to go and discourse with Cleontes and bestowed on his entertainment the best part of those houres which she had before onely devoted to mine At last my grief was seconded and reinforced by my resentment of those things and after I had been a long time sad and melancholy I became at length exasperated and studying how to be revenged of Cleontes I began to discover to Elisena how that her caresses had not over me that influence they were wont to have that I looked on them as the pure effects of artifice and dissimulation and that I felt my soul changed from the love I sometime had for her to the passion that was most contrary thereto I gave over looking kindly on her I took a bed by my self and by degrees forbore all discourse with her She seemed to be as much troubled at this alteration as the most affectionate woman in the World could possibly be and gave me all the demonstrations of a grief as violent as any soul can be able to endure She used all the insinuation that could be she melted into tears and omitted nothing which she could imagine might perswade me that she was really moved In some intervals I was extreamly sensible of those expressions of her affliction and those imperious remainders of love that were yet left in my soul did partly produce therein the effect she desired but a little after through the cruel prejudice that had taken root there all was dashed out again and I had no more regard to what she did then as if it had been meer personation and sycophancy At last after a many dayes silence she would needs force me to speak and having found me all alone in my chamber whither I was often wont to retire since the change of my humour she runs to me with her face bathed in tears and grasping my both hands with an action full of earnestnesse and passion Ah my dearest Husband said she to me shall I be any longer unhappy and not know the cause of my unhappinesse And will you by so many several expressions make it appear to all the World that I am odious in your sight and not acquaint me by what horrid misfortune I have lost your affection Am I lesse worthy of it now then I have been formerly by reason of some defect which you have discovered in my person or have I made my self unworthy of it by any offence I have committed against you To these words she added a many others no lesse earnest and pressed upon me so far that I could not forbear making her some answer Madam said I to her methinks you take abundance of pains to expresse with your
him and took up the visour of his head-piece to give him a greater freedom of breathing and more aire While he continued in that condition Cleopatra running to those that were stil fighting against Coriolanus and who possibly notwithstanding his miraculous resistance would have dispatched him at last comes up to them without any fear and liftng up her voice that she might be the better heard Hold your hands said she to them and if you expect any favour from those whom you see coming to our assistance make no further attempt on the life of a Prince on whom your own will within these few minutes depend T is the onely way you have left you to secure your lives for you are not to hope for any mercy if you be take you not to your own Prince and by complyance make your selves worthy the pardon which I promise you These words proved effectual upon some part of those that heard them and particularly upon the Armenians who were most of them persons of considerable quality These were content to do as the Princesse would have them and giving over sighting went to see how their King did but the Pirates in whom the death of their leader and the despaire of pardon wrought a different effect were obstinate in the designe they had conceived to take away Coriolanus's life and though there were but one half of them left yet despaired not of revenging the death of Zenodorus The Prince perceiving himself eased not onely of the greatest part of this enemies but also of the most dangerous and most valiant valewed not much those that remained and though he must needs be very much weakned as well by the continual action he had been in as by some slight wounds he had received yet was he now in greater hopes than ever of gaining the victory and delivering Cleopatra In the mean time Artaxus who had onely been stunned with the heavy blow he had received comes at length to himself by the assistance they had given him but ere he had so far recovered himself as to know all that were about him and become master of his strength that is before he was in a condition to discern what passed in the ship and to give out orders about any thing the other that was coming in to the assistance of Cleopatra and which had already been known to be one of those of Alexandria was gotten so neer that they could hear them hollow that were within her and in a manner discern their faces Artaxus having got up and taken his sword again looked about him of all sides and perceiving that all his hopes were vanished he was convinced his final ruine was at no great distance He sighed again for very grief and rage as conceiving himself not to be in a condition either to execute his revenge or keep Cleopatra in his possession and therefore was at such a losse and irresolution that he knew not what side to take While in the interim the other ship came on still with such speed and such hollowing that it was out of all question she was an enemy and indeed within a few minutes after Cleopatra and Artemisa perceived in the head of those that were coming to their assistance Prince Marcellus and Prince Alexander who that they might be known to the Princesses had raised up the visours of their head-pieces If their joy was extraordinary the grief of Artaxus who upon the first sight knew Alexander was no lesse violent He blasphemed against Heaven and railed at his evil fortune and that hateful sight filled him no doubt upon the first apprehension thereof with fatal resolutions We must perish cryed he but it is but just we bury under our ruines those that should derive any felicity from our destruction And for thy part Alexander said he loud enough to be heard by him assure thy self thou shall not laugh at the defeat of Artaxus With these words he comes up to the two Princesses and looking on them with eyes red with bloud and fire he put them into a greater fright then ever they had known before See here said he these are either my security or my victimes what shall escape my love shall never escape my revenge and if it be lost to me it shall be lost to all the World besides As he uttered these words he took Artemisa in the left hand and with the right presenting the point of his inhuman weapon to the fair breast of Cleopatra he directs his fatal looks on Alexander and Marcellus just at the instant that they were preparing all things to fasten the grappling-irons and addressing his speech to the Son of Anthony Alexander said he to him hope not thou shalt have any thing to rejoyce at in the misfortune of thy enemy and think not to triumph over me so many several wayes as thou hast through the malice of my fortune and the perfidiousnesse of Artemisa It was through the basenesse of this Princesse that she ever came into thy power and the revenging gods have been pleased that Cleopatra should fall into mine but if my Sister hath been too susceptible of thy love thine hath been too ungrateful to entertain the affection I have had for her Thou returnest again conducted by that Fortune which hath ever been in hostility against me with a design and haply in a condition to force them both out of my hands but know that thy hope hath deluded thee and all thou art to expect from this enterprize is the death of these two Princesses Thou maist save their lives by directing thy course some other way and leaving me at liberty to pursue mine but if thou losest a single minute in considering what resolution thou shoulst take thou shalt find me aready resolved to sheath this sword in the breasts of Cleopatra and Artemisa The King of Armenia had made this discourse without the least interruption while Alexander seeing him in that cruuel posture against the Princesses had given order to those that were preparing to fasten the ship to forbear and stood in a confusion and absolutely at a losse what to think of so terrible a spectacle Upon the first sight of that Barbarian and his inhuman attempt his indignation would have broke out against him with all its violence but fearing on the other side by his precipitation to lose what was a thousand times dearer to him then his own life his love tyed up his hands with considerations as strong as the other and kept him in an irresolution full of perplexity Thence it was that he not onely forbore interrupting Artaxus while he spoke but also when he had given over was not able to make him any reply and onely looked on him with much confusion and as if he had been in a trance Marcellus was also afraid for Cleopatra whom he loved as dearly as he could a Sister but his soul being not upon this occasion capable of such a violence of passion as was that of
Elisa discourse of their loves Caesario generally known by the name of Cleomedon comes to Alexandria upon intelligence that Queen Candace was there with whom he hath a secret interview in the night time He entertains her and Elisa with a continuation of his History He gives battle with 16000 men to Tiribasus who had 100000. is left for dead in the field but afterwards miraculously recovered by Eteocles who was left in a condition not much better The next day after the battel Eurinoe an Ethiopian Lady coming into the Field to seek the body of her beloved Teramenes is brought also to that of Cleomedon whom as having killed him and not long before a Brother of hers she would have run through with a dagger but is prevented by Eteocles Making a second attempt to do it she finds something in his countenance which being taken with she hath compassion on him causing him and Eteocles to be carryed to her Castle where they were nobly entertained and recovered of their wounds Eurinoe having given order for the enterrement of her dear Teramenes he miraculously recovers to life and is brought by Pelorus to a sisters house of his where he is secretly cured and informed of all that passes at Eurinoe's She falls in love with Cleomedon whom she much presses to promise her a mutual affection but he persisting in his former resolutions of vertue and constancy towards Candace all proves ineffectual Several conferences they had together to that purpose most of which are over-heard by Teramenes who thereupon conceives a great esteem for Cleomedon At last Teramenes is reconciled to Eurinoe and by the mediation of Cleomedon they are married before his departure thence and in requital of his good offices furnish him with all things necessary He goes to Telemactrus and Onisthenes to whom he discover himself and acquaints them with the design he had against Tiribasus IN the mean time the Queen of Ethiopia and the Princesse of the Parthians were gotten into Alexandria and after that the two Princesses had been disposed into their several lodgings Cornelius who had already taken order for the entertainment of the King of the Medes did the like for the accommodation of Artaban This latter though he were not looked upon as a person of a royal rank as Tygranes was yet was he treated with as much respect as any of those that wore Diadems and the great reputation he had acquired such as was already spread over the whole earth added to the gracefulnesse of his countenance and that majestick aire which was so remarkable in his person made Agrippa and the Praetor of Egypt consider him as a man worthy all the reverence and acknowledgment that might be due even to the Caesars Though by an extraordinary indulgence of good fortune he had come off without wounds having been engaged in so great a fight as he was that day yet was he not so throughly recovered of those he had received before but that the action he had been in had weakned him so much as that he stood in need of some rest Elisa could have wished he should take his ease for a certain number of daies but not able to perswade him to it by reason of the impossibility which he urged there was he should forbear waiting on her for so long time after he had so miraculously met with her again she laid her commauds on him not to stir out of his bed for that night and the best part of the next day though she did no small violencce to her self meerly out of the tendernesse she had for his health He obeyed her commands with that respectful submission which notwithstanding his heat and fiercenesse he had ever observed towards her and receiving the lodgings appointed him and the Officers whom Cornelius ordered to waite on him with abundance of satisfaction and respects he passed over that night in his bed with reflections much different from those which he had had for some that preceded it Certain it is that that great soul great even among those that could pretend most to greatnesse though it were not immoderately subject either to grief or joy was at this time sensible of both for as it had in the losse of Elisa made tryal of the greatest spight that a malicious fortune could do him so in the happy recovery of her he had met with the sweetest satisfaction he could be capable of During these pleasant entertainments of his thoughts reflecting on the many extraordinary accidents that checquered his life and not a little delighted with the consideration of those many victories that had raised his fame to so a high pitch and the noble demonstrations of his affection to his Princesse he could hardly for some time so much as think of the misfortunes he had already run through or the opposition he might for the future meet withall through either the cruelty of Phraates or the troublesome enterview between him and the King of the Medes All this signified very little with him when it came into his mind that he had found Elisa again that by many discoveries he found her not displeased that she had met him that he was within the same walls with her and that in a place where she stood not in fear of any thing from either the authority or tyranny of Phraates O ye immortal gods said he at last directing his thoughts to Heaven with all possible acknowledgment O yee assistant deities who have ever delivered me out of those abysses of misfortunes whereinto an implacably malicious Fortune and the ingratitude of men have often forced me I humbly acknowledge your power in this miraculous effect of your goodnesse and I repine no longer for what I have suffered either from the hands of ungrateful men or from the contrary disposal of my destiny since you have been pleased at length to restore me my Elisa I have not forgotten how much I am obliged to celebrate your divine assistances not onely for a many victories which have proved the means to raise me to some name and rank in the World but also for the extraordinary protection which you thought fit to afford me as well amidst the swords of my enemies as the angry waves There is therefore much lesse reason I should forget that at the point of despair you restore my Princesse and with her those felicities which are not subject either to the inconstancy of Fortune or the ingratitude of men From this consideration his thoughts were taken up with Tigranes and he began to reflect on the obstacles and inconveniences he might fear from him and his unfortunate meeting with him and certainly such a reflection had it happened at some other time might have moderated if not disturbed his joy but as things stood now it was not so considerable as to come into ballance against his present happinesse Whereupon calling to mind how that during the small time he had been felicified with the company of his Elisa he
by degrees they passed to some discourse different from that of their present misfortune Yet could not Artemisa give over disputing in favour of Coriolanus and would maintain against Cleopatra that after the last expressions he had given her of his affection in his forsaking of his kingdom the trouble it was to him to wander up and down the earth to find her out and the late combat he was engaged in before their eyes against those that would have ravished them she could not be perswaded he was unfaithful to her Cleopatra who would gladly have been induced to believe Coriolanus innocent opposed what she said with the reasons before alleadged yet so as that through her arguments might be perceaved part of what Artemisa represented in his favour But at last this discourse of a person of whose life there was much uncertainty adding to her grief she would needs change it and put Artemisa upon some other The love which that Princesse had for Alexander made her desirous to know and willing to hearken to any thing that related to his family as if she had some concernment therein and that consisting of divers illustrious persons of both sexes Artemisa who had seen onely Alexander and Cleopatra and young Ptolomey while yet a child had the curiosity to desire some account of the Sisters and Brothers of her beloved Prince She had not the time to understand the particularities of their lives and fortunes for what she had heard from Alexander related to the time while they were yet very young and not what had happened to them since his departure from Rome but though she would gladly have been informed of all yet had she a more particular inclination for the Princesse Antonia whom Cleopatra had mentioned very much to her advantage in her own History and young Ptolomy of whom she had heard such beginnings as gave many occasion to conceave very great hopes of him Cleopatra satisfied her as to all she desired but afterwards observing her design was to have a more particular knowledge of them and thinking it cruelty not to comply with the affection she expressed towards her house Sister said she to her I perceave you are not satisfied with the account I have given you of our house and if we were in some other place I had already entertained you with the discourse you would put me upon of the fortunes of our neerest relations but Sister the likelyhood I am in to engage in a long relation much disconsonant to our present condit on and such as would require such a freedom of spirit as I now have not as to narration nor you to attention deterres me Ah Sister sayes Artemisa for my part what misfortune soever I am persecuted with I cannot want the attention I ought to have for the fortunes of our Brethren and if you can as well without inconvenience give me a particular account of their lives and affairs as I should bear it with passion you would make no difficulty to undertake a relation that may prove the greatest ease to my afflictions that haply they are capable of Not Sister that I dare without blushing put you to that trouble and if you thing it â—t that Camilla or any other of your Women who haply can satisâ—e me as to what I would know supply your place I should mike leâ—â— difficulty to abuse her patience than yours and should never â—â—elesse receave the satisfaction I desire Sister replies Cleopatra no doubt but Camilla is able to acquaint you with part of what you desire and would entertain you with adventures such as must needs be known to the persons that were about us but she cannot possibly give you an account of some particularities that haply went no farther then my knowledge since it was to me more than any one else that the persons now to be spoken of communicated their most secret sentiments and that it was in a manner in my presence that the greatest part of the things happened The relation will haply be somewhat long though it may not contain any great variety of adventures and that in all likelihood I shall not be able to leave off when I would but since I made a shift yesterday to continue that which I had begun of the History of my own misfortunes I hope I shall be as able to go through with this and I shall endeavour all that lies in my power not to omit any thing that may any way satisfie your curiosity Whereupon Cleopatra preparing her self for the narration the two Princesses thought it their best course to lye still abed because it was very betimes in the morning and bid those that waited on them to prevent as much as they could any from coming to disturb them Camilla took that charge upon her and so not long after the fair Cleopatra having bestowed some few minutes to recall into her memory the things she had to say began her discourse in these terms THE HISTORY OF JULIVS ANTONIUS ANTONIA and PTOLOMEY BEfore I give you the account you desire of the adventures of Ptolomey and Antonia it will not be amisse Sister to make mention of an Elder Brother we have had and whom haply we have yet though I said litle of him in my own History in regard it is so long time since we have either seen or heard of him that we have acted hitherto as if there were no such person in the World His beginning discovered him not to be unworthy the bloud of Anthony and all things in him were great enough to rescue him from the oblivion of his neerest relations But before I acquaint you with the first beginnings of his life and the strange accident whereby we lost him I shall tell you what condition the unfortunate Antony left his family in when he dyed though I doubt not but you have heard something of it from Alexander I am easily perswaded Sister you are not to learn how that Anthony left seaven children by three wives by Fulvia who was the first Antillus and Julius Antonius by Caesar's Sister the two Princesses Agrippina and Antonia and by Queen Cleopatra Alexander Ptolomey and my self For the two daughters by Octavia and for us the issue of Cleopatra we all had our education together in the house of that Vertuous Princesse with all the civilities and kindnesses that could be expected from a most affectionate mother and as to the two children of Fulvia Antillus was killed not long after the death of our Father by Caesar's Souldiers his fate having proved not unlike that of our Brother Caesarion whose first eruptions and the great inclinations he discovered raised some jealousie of him in Augustus who for that reason took away his life and Julius Antonius was provided for as we were by the indulgent Octavia and not long after possessed of the house of Fulvia and all the estate belonging thereto with an addition of somewhat out of Anthony's To be short his condition was such
combats are fought whether they be between Beasts or Gladiators so that those of that rank may lean against certain Pilasters whereby the Cirque is compassed about and which is raised up to such a height as to secure them from the fury of the Lyons and Tygers that are the creatures of greatest agility the seats behind that being raised and standing at a greater distance are for the people who are ordinarily admitted to these sights to their very great delight and entertainment I went thither my self that day with the Princesse Julia though we were both of us at that time but in the thirteenth year of our age and consequently I can give you a more particular account of this action then of some others at which I was not present Antonius had his eyes continually fastened on Tullia's face who never was guilty of so much as one look towards him This amorous Prince looked upon that freedom of conversation which was between her and Cecinua with a very jealous eye and with no small disturbance of mind and if any one had concerned himself so far as to mind his actions he might easily have observed in his countenance the agitations of his soul There had past diverse combats of several beasts which found the Spectators abundance of sport and entertainment and they were going to open the door to let in a Tygre and a Bear of a prodigious bulk to set them a fighting together when Antonius who had his eyes still fixed on Tullia saw that amidst the conversation she had with Cecinna and certain Ladies that sate about her she took out a little box set with divers rich Diamonds wherein was her own picture which her Mother had caused to be taken about a year before and which she had given her at her death She had shewn it to those Ladies and Cecinna had it in his hands a good space but at last going to restore it to Tullia the box through negligence slipt out of his hands and she leaning on the raile it fell down into the Area just when the two furious beasts were coming into it with looks so full of terrour that they put the Spectators into some fear Tullia being extreamly troubled at the fall of the box she respected so much into a place whence in all likelihood there would not be any so desperate as to fetch it again gave a great outcry and by her countenance and all her actions expressed an extraordinary disturbance at that accident The Emperour and all that were present soon came to understand it but there was no possibility to recover it while the beasts were within the Cirque Cecinna who was partly the occasion of the falling of the box endeavoured to perswade Tullia to patience by telling her that after the combat of the beasts he would go and find it for her but she giving too much way to her indignation upon so slight an occasion answered him very roundly that had she been a man she would have ventured her life to fetch her picture She had no sooner delivered these words but young Antonius whom his passion had at that time absolutely devested of all reason distracted as to all matter of consideration not onely of the hazard whereto he exposed himself without any necessity but also of the noise which that action must needs make contrary to the design he had to keep his love secret turning towards that side where Tullia was Fair Tullia said he loud enough to be heard by her you shall find there is a man who dares hazard his life to do you this inconsider able service and thereupon leaning upon the raile he vaulted over it into the Cirque I was ever of opinion that Antonius a person naturally discreet would never have been guilty of an action so extravagant had he not been transported by an over-violent passion But I imagined withall as diverse others did that to do Tullia that service whereof the consequence deserved not he should expose his life to so great a danger he had been encouraged partly by a belief he was of that he might not haply while he lived meet with so noble an occasion to expresse his love to her and partly by a desire he had to let her know the difference there was between him and Cecinna whom she preferred and favoured even in his presence However it were this action raised a many outcryes among the Spectators even to the Emperour himself who had a great love and esteem to my Brother My Sister and I were almost out of our selves to see it Octavia was not a little troubled at the accident nay there was hardly any one in that great Assembly that was not troubled at it onely Antonius seemed to be the person that had any confidence and though he were a little startled at his alighting by reason of the height of the place whence he had leapt down yet immediately recovering himself he drew his sword and went with an undaunted courage towards that side where the box lay sparkling among the sand He was so happy as to take it up without any hindrance and so indiscreet as to open it in the same place and to have the patience to look on the beautiful picture of Tullia that was enclosed within it Yet was it not with so little caution but he stood sufficiently on his guard to defend himself if the beasts came to fasten on him but as he went towards the door at which he was to go out he made no more hast than ordinary and retreated so as if he had not been in the least fear of the two beasts that were within the Cirque The Bear stirred not from the place she was in but the Tigre came up to my Brother with his sparkling eyes and in such a posture as put all that were present into a fright Antonius might have gained the door before the Tygre could have fastened on him if he would have run for it but such a flight he thought unworthy his courage and therefore seeing this terrible enemy coming towards him he stood and expected him and presented the point of his sword to him with an admirable constancy You may well imagine that all those to whom Antonius's life was any way dear were not a little troubled at the accident but it was the pleasure of the gods that when the furious beast saw the glistering of the sword it made a halt and seemed uncertain what resolution to take when the Emperour having called out to those of his guard that were about him immediately to kill it it was shot with above twenty arrows and fell down dead at Antonius's feet He seemed to be somewhat troubled at the death of the beast saying he was very sorry he had deprived the Emperour and the Spectators of part of their entertainment and when he thought he might retire without dishonour for the Bear had not stirred from the place he came to the door which they kept open
he omitted not any that might demonstrate the earnestnesse of his passion for Antonia In the mean time Ptolomey our Brother the onely Brother Fortune had left us after the losse of Alexander who was gone to find you out in Armenia and of whom we had not the least account in the World lived in Augustus's Court after such a rate as gave all that knew him occasion to conceave very great hopes of him but as to matter of inclinations the greatest he seemed to have were those of his Liberty nay though he daily waited on the fairest Ladies about Rome and was extreamly well entertained by them yet could it not be inferred from any action of his that he had a particular devotion for any He was a great Lover of Arms Horses and all Exercises of the Body and had a singular dexterity therein but to sigh or pine for a Beauty was a thing inconsistent with his humour as being a person naturally inclined to be free and cheerful and avoided as much as could be all distraction of thought The vertuous Octavia who still persisted in the generous design she had taken to make the best provision she could for the children of Anthony and imagined she could not do it any way better then by bringing them into the family and allyance of Caesar being now out of all hopes to effect her desires first in the person of Julius Antonius and not long since in that of Alexander who was looked on as lost as well as our Elder Brother conceaved it might be brought to something in Ptâ—lomey and wished his inclination directed to Martia a Lady courted by the greatest persons among the Romans and to speak modestly of her one that had very excellent parts Ptolomey made no difficulty to entertain that Princesse with all the civilities she might expect from him nay discovered somewhat of particular affection for her suitably to the good intentions of Octavia but indeed his flames were come to no great height though Martia were a person infinitely lovely for having a freedom of accesse to her every day his deportment was accordingly full of cheerfullnesse and indifference It was much otherwise with Martia and though she were of an exemplary vertue and modesty yet must it withal be acknowledged that she is subjest to much tendernesse of mind and having been brought up with Ptolomey as with a person on whom her mother had cast her eies with a design to make him her Husband and lived familiarly with him as with Marcellus that fraternal friendship which with the names of Brother and Sister Octavia would needs have continued among us had made a greater impression in her mind then well stood with the serenity and quiet thereof so far as that she was no longer able to withstand the lovely qualities of that Prince which out of all doubt had wrought much more upon her inclinations than hers had upon those of Ptolomey I had not without much dis-satisfaction taken notice of it my self and several times chid my Brother for his backwardnesse in his acknowledgements of the sincere affection of Martia but the young man of an uncontrolled humour would make some shift to put me off telling me that he loved and honoured Martia as he was obliged to do and that he should be well content to give her the greatest assureances she could expect of the devotion he had for her but for melancholy disturbances of mind and reservednesse he looked on them as the destroyers of his happinesse and making good what he said in his actions he was indeed very punctual in doing her all manner of civilities and acknowledgements nay so far as to expresse a more particular affection for her then for any other Yet was it observable withal that it was done with a certain discovery of much freedom of mind which argued in him such a mediocrity of inclinations as that he would not to waite on her abate any thing of his enjoyments nor let slip any occasion that offered it self to be among the Ladies whose company could afford him ought of diversion Martia who is of a very mild disposition endured this indifferent manner of behaviour a long time without the least discovery of any discontent thereat but at last looking on it as an evident expression of his coldnesse and negligence she began to be troubled insomuch that the grief she conceaved thereat wrought some alteration both in her humour and countenance All the World took notice of her sadnesse but the motive thereof was absolutely unknown and Martia who made it her businesse to conceal it what she could had haply smothered it to this day if I had not casually made the first discovery thereof During the time that her melancholy grew more and more prevalent upon her taking occasion to give her a visit and finding her alone I entreated her of all love to acquaint me with the cause of her sadnesse which troubled not onely all that knew her but my self more particularly who as I was for many considerations obliged to do had a more than ordinary affection for her My caresses were answered by Martia after an indifferent and evasive manner yet such as betrayed much grief and resentment Very loath she seemed to be go give me any satisfactory answer and would say no more then that she knew not any cause whence her sadnesse should proceed and that it must be derived from her temperament or some indisposition of Body But I not satisfied with this answer reproached her with a want of sincerity and was pressing her to discover her mind more freely to a person whom she might trust with any thing when Ptolomey comes into the Chamber His first appearance wrought such an alteration in her that her colour changed several times of a sudden and having casually cast my eies on her countenance I could not but immediately take notice of the alteration which my Brothers coming in had wrought therein From this discovery I might well guesse at some part of the businesse and was in a manner perswaded that Ptolomey had contributed much to the change of that Princesse's disposition This reflection made me take more particular notice of her deportment then I had done before and I observed that while Ptolomey stayed with us she was at such a losse that she found it some difficulty to speak His visit was indeed but very short for having stayed about a quarter of an hour with us he told us we were too sad for his company and that he would go to Sabina's where Virginia Hortensia Telavia and several other Ladies were met and where he hoped to find more diversion Whereupon going out of the room he left Martia so much troubled both at his words and manner of departure that the most dis-observant person in the World might have perceaved the disturbance of her thoughts by the trouble it raised in her countenance I must confesse I was my self much surprized at Ptolomey's deportment and
by degrees taken place in his heart was of a sudden changed into a violent passion For though he had seen Tullia several times before yet did it not raise in him any inclinations for her other than what her merit might raise in all that knew her but now in this little interval wherein grief appeared so amiable in her countenance he became her absolutely devoted vassal and in love with her after such a manner that he had not the least strength to oppose it and was not able to hear the reason which should have disswaded him from loving a person whose affections were otherwise disposed of and one from whom either upon occasion of that discovery or out of any consideration of her own humour he was in all probability never to expect any thing In a word love here knew no degrees but as soon as he could be said to love he might be said to do it violently insomuch that sympathizing with her in the affection wherein he saw her involved he participated thereof so far that when he turned toward Ptolomey my Brother perceived his eyes were red and big with tears For his part he had not been at all moved either at Tullia's words or the discoveries of her affection whether it proceeded from the resentment he had in heart against that Lady or that naturally he had a soul not over-susceptible of love or that all the affection it was capable of was already devoted to Marcia a Princesse of excellent beauty and one to whom he ought abundance of obligations He was already desirous to remove from that place when Lentulus fearing they might be surprised and perceaving by the discourse of Tullia that it would trouble her infinitely if she should discover that Ptolomey had heard her took him by the arm and carryed him away They went thence as softly as they had come thither and made so little noise that they were not perceaved or heard They went out of the little Isle and walked a good while ere they spoke one to another Ptolomey knew not what to say of that adventure so much was he surprized at the strangenesse of it and Lentulus whose soul was wounded by what he had seen and whose spirits were in some disorder by reason of his newly-conceived passion could not think of words whereby to expresse himself and was content onely to look on Ptolomey in whom he could not perceive the least alteration upon that accident and knew not whether he should out of considerations of compassion advise him to love Tullia or out of those of his own love and interest entertain him with the sentiments he had for her himself At last having taken some few turns they were just falling into some discourse when coming to the end of a walk that abutted upon that wherein they were they met full but with the two Ladies who had left the Arbour in a manner as soon as they had and without the least fear that they had been over-heard by any one had reassumed their walk They were all very much surprised at that meeting and particularly Tullia as being the least prepared for it and the most concerned in it Her eyes were still red with weeping which Lentulus perceiving and consequently the condition she was in could not look on her without a certain trouble and disturbance They were so neer one another that it was impossible to passe by without salutes and Lentulus submitting to the ascendent which now began to govern him could not follow Ptolomey who after a salute full of respect turned aside Emilia who took notice of his carriage not consulting at this time so much decorum as minding the friendship she had for Tullia called him and having obliged him to turn back What now Ptolomey said she to him do you shun the Ladies No Madam replyed he but it is not fit that the Son of Anthony should come neer the daughter of Cicero Enmities replyed Emilia should not be eternal and I shall not be friends with Tullia if she make no distinction between the children of Cleopatra and those of Fulvia who alone wrought all the unhappinesse of their house Both the one and the other are equally guilty by their birth replies Ptolomey nay though they were innocent enough to deserve that Tullia should wish them no hurt they cannot be so far such as to hope for any of her conversation This fierce young man not guilty of that tendernesse he was in civility obliged to would needs out of an affected malice repeat the same words to Tullia which she had sometimes said to his Brother as he had heard it related so that after this last complement he went away and would have no further discourse with Emilia In the mean time Tullia had not spoken at all though Lentulus had come to her but had fastned her eyes on the ground as being in some doubt whether she should approve the proceeding of Emilia whose intention seemed good to her but her action indiscreet enough So that her courage and the affection she had for my Brother raised no small distraction within her but when she heard those last words and saw him go away with so much disdain her face was of a sudden deprived of all colour and grief and vexation pressed upon her heart in such manner that after she had with some precipitation said to Emilia that she was not well and was not able to stand she fell into a swound in her arms Lentulus whose eye was but too much upon her ran to her and though her misfortune touched him to the very heart yet was it some joy to him to have her in his arms while Emilia sate down on the grasse and with the assistance of Lentulus layed Tullia by her and took her head upon her lap Ptolomey who had not had the time to go far thence turned about at the cry which Emilia gave and seeing though confusedly what they were doing he suspected what the businesse might be though it is possible he might not think himself absolutely the cause of that accident However though he was not subject to much love yet would he not be awanting in point of civility and consequently as to that assistance which he thought due to her sex so that when being come neer he saw her in a swound Emilia loosning her garments and Lentulus in such amazement that he knew not what to do he ran to the next rivulet and having taken up some water in both his hands he brought it and cast it on Tullia's face Whereupon she immediately opened her eyes and that time enough to see the action of Ptolomey and to perceave that it was from him that she received that assistance I know not whether the joy or the confusion she conceaved thereat were the greater but being well furnished both as to courage and reservednesse she betrayed not her thoughts of it and giving my Brother a look suitable to the different passions she was then engaged
with I receave this kindnesse from you said she to him in requital for what I did your Brother in the like condition but it is enough for an enemy and you are too too tender of the concernments of your house to do me any more With these words she turned gently towards Emilia and spoke to her softly to entreat them to depart to which end Emilia making signes to them they went their wayes but after several manners Ptolomey with such indifference as if he had not been any way concerned in the adventure and Lentulus so moved and so distracted in his thoughts that he hardly knew what he did Being come some paces thence they met with the women that belonged to Emilia and Tullia whom their Mistresses had left behind that they might walk alone and having acquainted them with the accident that had happened they obliged them to go to their Mistresses When they were gotten a good distance from that place Ptolomey who walked after his ordinary posture of freedom and cheerfulnesse observing the disturbance Lentulus was in as well by his silence as by the several expressions thereof that were visible in his countenance Is it possible said he to him that you are so much troubled at this adventure as you seem to be But is it possible replies Lentulus that you can be so little as your face and actions discover you to be I assure you for my part saies Ptolomey that I am not troubled a jot at it and that I look on this adventure as if it had happened to any other body How continued Lentulus hath neither what you have heard from the mouth of Tullia of the love she hath for you nor yet what you have seen of the effects of your disdain on her spirit raised no trouble or alteration in you Not a jot replies Ptolomey and besides the aversion I had for that Lady I am not much taken with what is bestowed on me upon such occasions if it hath not cost me something before so that I shall not make any advantage of this adventure and all that I shall do for Tullia that speaks any thing of obligation is that I shall not divulge it and that I do upon the account of discretion and her sex So that it seems saies Lentulus you do not love her nor feel any inclination to do it I do not only not love her now answers Ptolomey but I protest to you I never shall love her If it be so replies Lentulus I am some what lesse unhappy then I thought my self that I am fallen into a passion which I should have wrastled with while I lived had it been any way prejudicial to our friendship And since you are the dearest of my Friends I shall make no difficulty to tell you that being along with you into this garden as free as your self from any love I had for Tullia I am now fallen infinitely in love with her to so high a degree that it is impossible your brother could be more These words made Ptolomey look on Lentulus somewhat amazedly as if he could hardly imagine his discourse to be serious How said he is it possible Lentulus that in so short a time and by so strange an accident you should fall in love with Tullia's So deeply replies Lentulus that all the words I can use are not able to expresse it and I thought Tullia so beautiful in her grief and so amiable in her singing and discourse that my soul is bestowed on her without ever consulting my will I say bestowed and that in such a manner that I am not in the least hope ever to retrive it out of her power I know I put my self to strange extremities and that attempting to serve a Lady prevented by a strong passion for you and that one that hath studyed constancy and resolution such as Tullia is I embarque for a voyage wherein I am sure to meet with many storms but when all is done it is the pleasure of my destiny it should be so and it is not in my power to oppose it Lentulus went on with abundance of discourse to the same effect which the length of this relation obliges me to forbear repeating to you though it put Ptolomey into such an astonishment at the fantastick adventure that he could hardly imagine it to be real He entreated him since he was not resolved to affect that Lady never to speak ill of her nor let the World know what he did concerning her passion which haply the little account and acknowledgement he made thereof might in time oblige her to forget My Brother promised never to speak of it while he lived to any one but to me from whom he was not able to conceal any thing and engaged for me that I should not suffer that secret to take any further aire Accordingly he failed not to come that very night to give me an account of all that happened to him conjuring me to secrecy and I could not but be amazed as well at his relation of the love of Tullia as that of Lentulus whose misfortune I much bemoaned because he was a person of a most illustrious birth and very recommendable among the Romans for his many excellent endowments I had also some compassion for Tullia though I had no reason to love her and I blamed Ptolomey for the inflexibility of his heart but having great respects for Martia and looking on that allyance as most advantageous for my Brother and all our house I was very glad not to see him engaged in any other affections that might have diverted him from her He on the other side visited her oftner than he had done before continuing and adding to the demonstrations of his affection but with this remark that he did all things with greater indifference and freedom of spirit then she could have desired and in such manner that his love hindred him not from minding his ordinary divertisements or discovering the aversion he had for marriage However he provided against the day of Augustus's his birth to do for her what all the other young Romans did for the Ladies they served and would come into the exercises with the Livery all other demonstrations of the engagement he lay under to serve her Lentulus did the like for Tullia but he understood that she was not well and was not likely to be present at the Solemnity You may some other time have an account of what hath past in the loves of Lentulus and Tullia possibly not unworthy your attention but besides that there is not much come to my knowledge they are not the subject of my present discourse and my relation is so long without it that I doubt not but you will excuse me if I say not any thing thereof At length the day destined for the celebration of the Solemnity and the honour of Augustus's birth being come the whole Court all the Nobility and the people ran to the Sights I shall say nothing to
body the sword fell out of his hand his eyes closed and his strength leaving him of a suden he fell down in a swound upon the deck The incensed Cleopatra had not lost her generosity and therefore seeing him in that condition though she was somewhat of opinion that that weaknesse might come upon him from some wound he had received in the fight she gave those notice that were about him to have a care of him since he had fought so well in their quarrel Having so done she found a place to sit down where she was and leaning her amiable face on her two fair hands she burst out into a rivulet of tears and deplored the strange and extraordinary misfortune that had happened to her by such complaints as no doubt would have moved any soul with compassion unlesse it were those of Artaxus and Zenodorus Artemisa who sate by her would have comforted her but not being able to do it she wept with her for company and was not afraid to displease Artaxus by participating in her lamentations When the fair Daughter of Anthony had with much adoe dispersed those sobs which made some resistance against the passage of her voice turning upon Artemisa those fair eyes which though drowned as they were in tears set all on fire in the ship even to the hearts of unmerciful Pirates Ah Sister said she to her what fortune was ever comparable to mine by what means think you am I fallen into the hands of Artaxus now the second time That man whose innocence you pleaded so much and were so confident of that man from whom inconstant as I had concluded him I yet expected assistance nay that very man whom you saw not many daies since fighting so valiantly in our defence by the same valour delivers us up himself and that into his hands from whom he had before rescued us the King your Brothers Had it not been for the assistance of his fatal valour we had been freed and it was he alone that forced away nay haply killed those that fought for our liberty After such an adventure as this never dispute with me again the greatnesse of our misfortunes and find me but one example in the World that may be parallel'd with this I do not think it strange that Artaxus an implacable enemy of our house and one that by his former inhumanities had discovered the malice he hath against us should treat me with violence and injustice but that he who had sometime loved me so dearly whom to my confusion I had loved beyond my own life who had suffered so much for my sake and upon my account and had been the occasion that made me suffer so much my self and to be short that that onely person who should have sacrificed thousands of lives for my liberty should come and expose all he had against my friends and against my rescuers purposely to return me into the chains and power of Artaxus and not into his own Ah Sister this this is what no ages ever produced any thing comparable to and t is such a strange accident as I am not well able to comprehend though my eyes can but too well witnesse the truth of what I have seen While Cleopatra broke forth into these lamentations and that Artemisa astonished at the strangenesse of the adventure gave her the hearing and wept with her without making any reply Megacles and diverse others were gotten about Coriolanus endeavouring to recover him again some others were employed in casting the carkasses over-board and to dresse those that were wounded whereof there was no great number But before they went to visite them having looked all about the body of Coriolanus they could not find any wound about him and yet though they cast water in his face and used severall other remedies all could not bring him to himself again Megacles who had the greatest respect of any for him made it his businesse very earnestly to recover him besides that when they reflected on the assistance he had done all that were in the vessell all did accordingly conceive themselves obliged to relieve him Artaxus knew not how he should entertain this strange emergency and though his first motions were inclined to gratitude and acknowledgement for the great services he had received from that valiant person yet those which immediately succeeded them began to raise a terrible disturbance within him From the words of Cleopatra which fell from her in the violence of her grief contrary to her ordinary prudence he concluded that that man must needs be his Rivall But that grieved him not so much as to consider that it was a Rivall very precious in the affection of Cleopatra and the history of the King of Mauritania's Love to that Princesse being a thing known all over the world from the gracefulnesse from the valour and from all the other demonstrations and characters of a great soule that were discoverable in that valiant man he was easily perswaded that it was Coriolanus and consequently he that of all the world should be most his enemy and whom he should accordingly be most jealous of in the love he had for Cleopatra Yet could he not find in his heart to hate him so suddenly as well for the considerable service he had received from him as that from severall circumstances it was very probable he was unfortunate in his affection and that from the reproaches of infidelity which the Princesse made him he could infer no lesse than that that Prince had sorsaken her In this confusion of imaginations he was at such a losse that he knew not what resolution to take casting his eies sometimes on the Prince that was still in a swound and sometimes on the afflicted Princesse Besides it being not his opinion alone that the unknown was the very same person he thought him it went from one to another that without question it was the valiant King of Mauritania So that coming at last to the eares of Cleopatra as incensed as she was against him yet was she not a little troubled that she had by her discourse discovered him and yet it being to no purpose to recall what is once past Yon are in the right said she it is indeed the King of Mauritania 't is a perfidious man whom for a double infidelity I am obliged to hate above all mankind besides but he is a Prince how unconstant soever he may have proved to me deserves your assistance for the service he hath but too fortunately done you against me and therefore since you have made some advantage of his treachery you have as much reason to look after him as I have to abhorre him To this effect was the discourse of this generous Princesse and though that in all appearance she seemed not without very much reason to be incensed against the unfortunate sonne of Juba and to have made a strong resolution not to admit him into her affections again but to avoid him as much as she
and would not have presumed to open his mouth in his own justification if the Princesse had not given over speaking to wipe the teares that fell abundantly from her fair eies The dejected sonne of Juba took the advantage of that inâ—ervall to rejoyne to her discourse but it was with no small difficulty that he made a shift to speak so much were his expressions in a manner smothered by sighes I am satisfied Princesse said he to her that it is not without some reason that I am so detestable in your sight and since that by so many extraordinary demonstrations and by misfortunes so far exceeding those of the common rate it may easily be perceived how odious I am in heavens account it is but just you should avoid the eternall object of its indignation and have no farther commerce with a person so strangely destined to be miserable I am guilty of the crime you lay to my charge I cannot deny it and in an accident so unfortunate I cannot stand upon my innocency I have fought for your enemies against you I have with all the strength I was master of opposed your liberty and I have been the meanes of your coming into the hands of a man whom you would have me look on as the King of Armenia After the commission of such a crime I cannot pretend any thing to innocency and when their effects have proved so deplorable it were vain for me to plead the â—harmlessenesse of the intentions But might it be once the pleasure of heaven Madam that the former treacheries you charge me withall and for which I am undone were so much within the reach of my knowledge as this last which you reproach me with I should not be as miserable as I am since I should haply find somewhat to say for my self by way of justification in relation to those as I can for this last How is that wickedest of men said the Princesse interrupting him dost thou think to find any thing by way of justification for a crime thou hast committed in my sight or wouldst thou perswade me that I have not seen thee with thy sword drawn fighting for my enemies against those that endeavoured my deliverance Wouldst thou dazle my own eyes in this as thou wouldst those of all the World in thy former treachery or is it thy design to perswade me that I am extravagant and out of my wits It is indeed but too too true replyed Coriolanus that you have seen me with my sword drawn fighting for your enemies and I may presume to affirm that I haply made their way to a victory which without my assistance it is likely they had not carried It is not therefore my design to justifie the events but onely my own intentions which if considered alone I dare affirm my self innocent if there can be any innocency in an offence whereof the successe hath proved so fatal to you You may be pleased to remember that there are not many daies past since I fought in your defence against the same enemies whom I have this day served and there is but little likelihood I should since that time have contracted any friendship with them to prejudice the love I have for you For this man said he looking on Artaxus whom you would have me take notice of as King of Armenia he knows how that it is but some few minutes since I first saw him and whether I discovered the least desire to be acquainted with him And for those others said he pointing to Megacles and his companions you may have haply learnt from them whether they had not recovered me out of the waves into which I had cast my self from the top of the rock that covers us through the despair which the losse of you had put me into They can further tell you what trouble they had to make me admit of life and they know whether it were out of any other motive than that of gratitude and a sense of the obligation I ought them for their assistances that I took up arms in their quarrel when they were set upon These truths cannot be unknown to you all those that hear me are now become my enemies since they are those that did you violence and yet I appeal to them whether I affirm any thing which is not true At these words he made a little stop looking about him of all sides and perceiving that Artaxus being much at a losse to think of this adventure expected to see what would be the issue of it without speaking one word and that all those that stood about him were in the same posture and suspence continued his discourse to this effect I know not continued he whether I wanted any love towards you when I cast my self headlong into the sea out of the regret it was to me that I could not relieve you when it hath been known that in other very considerable misfortunes to which my life hath been exposed I have never been charged with want of constancy to support them but these very enemies that hear me know whether upon their earnest intreaties I have prolonged my life out of any other desire then that of making one attempt more for the service of that person to whom the life they prolonged was devoted As soon as Cleopatra began to find some probability in the discourse of Coriolanus she had heard him very attentively and out of the desire she had that he were innocent she favoured him in her heart as much as she could and looking on Artemisa seemed as it were to ask her whether she was not also in some sort convinced of the innocency of Coriolanus Artemisa was very much inclined to that beliefe without any sollicitation and it was onely by reason of the presence of the King her Brother that she would not speak openly in his justification In the mean time Coriolanus deriving a little more confidence from the silence of Cleopatra as also from those discoveries which he perceived in her countenance of the disposition she was in to be perswaded of his innocence reassumed the discourse with an action that argued a greater setlednesse of mind You see then Madam said he to her what I can say for my self to justifie my intentions but for the effects since they have proved so fatal in relation to your quiet and that it is impossible to recal what is past the reparation I am to make you must be extraordinary And therefore this very hand that hath done the mischief must find out the remedy for it and this sword continued he putting his hand on the hilt of his weapon which he had taken into his own hands when he got up this very sword that hath put you into the power of the King of Armenia ought to bring you out of it or take away his life were it to be done not onely in this vessel but even in the heart of his kingdom T is with this resolution that I cast my self
eies upon her with a feeble groane her indignation was disarmed at that object and the weapon fell out of her hand the second time The man that waited upon her thinking he did her a very acceptable service in egging her on to take the intended revenge put the weapon into her hand the third time and encouraging her to the action she would have done was ready to help her to put it in execution when the woman looking very passionately upon him Hold thy hands said she to him it is not the pleasure of the gods that I should put Cleomedon to death The man who was on the other side as ready to obey her was quiet and Eurinoe having sate her down some few paces from me began to look very earnestly upon me and ever and anon disburthâ—ned her self of certain sighs which her breast was not strong enough to keep in She looked still more and more earnestly and the more she looked on me the more she seemed to struggle with her passion and by all her deportment it was easily visible to those that took notice of it that there passed strange things in her soul and that there was an engagement of passion there whereof she was not over-confident which should have the victory Sometimes she would take her sight off my countenance with some signes of reassuming her resolution but presently after she would fasten her eies on me again with greater earnestnesse then before and during those uncertain and impetuous motions which raised such a tempest in her soul she with much ado made a passage for certain sighs Which when she had disburthened her self of Cruel man said she loud enough to be heard by Eteocles who was the next man to her fatal enemy of our house must thou needs after thou hadst triumphed over the life of my Brother and my Lover prosecute thy victorious arms even into my heart With these words she held her peace and observed not without confusion that Eteocles might have over-heard them I here entertain you with a discourse not much consistent with the modesty which is natural to me and which Eteocles might better have undertaken than my self but it was your pleasure to command it and I know not any reason whereby I may be dispensed from the obedience I owe you While the woman was still struggling with the incertainties she was in and that by several discoveries it was visible that she was guided by a passion contrary to that which a little before had put the weapons into her hand to dispatch me Eteocles who notwithstanding the extremity whereto he was reduced himself by reason of his wounds was satisfied of the truth of his observation Being accordingly desirous to make what advantage he could of the adventure wherein he could not but imagine something miraculous and extraordinary and looking on Eurinoe in a very submissive manner Fair Lady said he to her since your indignation hath submitted to your pitty be not generous by halves and consider with your self that to thrust a dagger into the breast of Cleomedon and to leave him without relief in the condition whereto you now see him reduced is no question one and the same thing Let your vertue have an absolute conquest in favour of a Prince who hath offended you onely through his misfortune and will serve you by his acknowledgments if the gods shall through your assistance prolong his life Eurinoe needed no more prevalent sollicitation to oblige her to do a thing which she was earnestly bent to do and thereupon giving Eteocles an immediate answer I shall satisfie your desires said she to him I shal relieve Cleomedon though he be the murderer of both my Brother and my Love and the gods who were not pleased he should receive his death at my hands command me to preserve his life if it be possible With these words turning to the man that accompanyed her Pelorus said she to him the hazard I run in this action is very great and besides the report I am to fear by doing this good office to him that hath shed the bloud that was so dear to me you know I have yet one brother left about Tiribasus exasperated to the revenge of his own relations and without doubt an irreconcileable enemy of Cleomedons But I have so great a confidence of your fidelity that all my hope is in it and I am accordingly inclined to believe that you will not betray this secret and will afford me your assistance upon an occasion of so great consequence The man who was become absolutely her creature by the death of his Master complyed with her in all things and promised her to be as secret as she expected But why should I importune you any longer with the relation of particulars of little consequence By the command of Eurinoe and the care of those that were about her a horse-litter was prepared and brought to the place where we were into which I was put and Eteocles by me and we were conveyed as gently as could be possible to a castle which was but one houres riding from that place where we were at first disposed into several beds but in the same chamber Eteocles it seems being very unwilling to be in any other place then where I was But now give me leave to beg your attention O ye great Princesses and withall your astonishment at what I have to tell you or at least be pleased to infer thence the constancy of those affections which seem to be the most violent You have heard the account I have given you of the affliction Eurinoe was in for the losse of her Teramenes as also of her lamentations and her deportment full of despair and extravagance which in all probability were the expressions of the most violent love that a soul could be capable of and now you are to know that when she left the place whence she caused us to be conveyed away she hardly so much as thought on him or at least bestowing all her pains on the living who might stand in need of her assistance she thought it enough to give Pelorus order to cause the body of Teramenes to be carryed away and to see it buried They presently sent into the next Town for Surgeons by whom we were dressed with much secrecy taking great care they should not come to the knowledg of my name who knew me not by sight And these being excellent men in their profession their endeavours proved so successeful on me that ere that day was passed they brought me absolutely to my self again and within a few dayes after undertook to Eurinoe and Eteocles that I should not dy of my wounds I have understood since that Eurinoe entertained that assurance with as much joy as if her life were concerned in the preservation of mine but for my own part I can truly affirm that I received it without any and that after I had recovered my memory and began to make my first reflections
on the wretched condition I was in I had almost cast my self through my own despair into that danger out of which they took so much pains to deliver me Whereof this certainly must be the reason that the violent desire of death which had forced me to engage in the sight being not yet gotten out of my mind I should in all likelihood have followed what that inspired me with and had rendred the endeavours of those that took so much trouble upon them about my recovery absolutely ineffectuall had it not been for the continuall sollicitations and importunity of Eteocles for whom I have ever had a very great esteem and a most affectionate friendship I shall not trouble you with a repetition of all those reasons whereby he endeavoured to make me apprehend that I did not onely betray a great want of prudence but that I was guilty of a capitall crime against my Love by courting my own death at a time that my life might be necessary for the Queens service and that since I had not received any tidings that she was either dead or married to Tiribasus there was no reason I should rush into extremities which I might overtake time enough when those misfortunes were come to passe To be short he pressed these things to me with so much reason and conviction that I began to acknowledge the truth of them and to submit to his judgement that it was not well done of me to hazard upon such light grounds a life which I had bestowed and consequently could not dispose of my self while she that was the Mistresse of it might expect any service out of it Upon this consideration I was content they should endeavour my recovery and entertained with great acknowledgements the care they took of me Asson as I had arrived to such a degree of recovery as that I was able to endure discourse Eteocles came and told me what place I was in and by what adventure I was brought thither and at the same time acquainted me what aversion Eurinoe had had for me upon account of the death of her Brother and her Love and what affection she had conceived for me of a sudden Now his health being in a much better posture then mine as having given over keeping his bed while I was yet in great danger he had had more leasure to informe himself of all that he was desirous to know and had understood that Eurinoe was a widow of very great quality that her friends and her husband had alwaies kept her at a distance from the Court that she had had two Brothers very deeply involved in the interests of Tiribasus whereof the younger was slain in the late Battle and the elder had staied at Meroe by the orders of Tiribasus who affected him very much and reposed great trust in him that she had been very earnestly courted since her widow-hood by that Teramenes on whom she had bestowed so many teares a person it seems of very great worth and very amiable as to his person that she had loved him very dearly and that after many great traverses and revolutions she was upon the point of marrying him with the consent of her friends when death deprived her of him Eteocles acquainting me with all these things told me withall how circumspectly I should carry my self that I might not be discovered by any other persons then those whom Eurinoe was forced to trust with that secret not doubting but that if such a misfortune should happen my life must needs be in manifest danger as well by reason of the rage of Eurinoe's brother as the near relation he had to Tiribasus who out of all question would never suffer me to live should he once find out where I were retired But as things stood the security of that secret consisted not altogether in our circumspection for Eurinoe was so much concerned in it her self not onely out of the desire she had to preserve a person on whom she had bestowed her affection but also for fear of her brothers indignation whose savage humor she was acquainted with that she omitted nothing which in point of care or caution might be expected from her I shall not presume my great Princesses before you whose beauties eclipse what ever is beautifull in all nature to say any thing of the beauty of Eurinoe but certainly among the beauties of the rank next inferiour to the first and chiefest the might very well passe for a handsome woman somewhat duskish not absolutely black the lineaments of her face very good of a good stature and in a word one of the handsomest persons that ever I met with in Aethiopia I should commend her farther were it not that you would imagine fairest Queen that in the commendations of her beauty I should have no other design then to celebrate my own sidelity Assoon as I was grown any thing capable of conversation I had her perpetually at my bed-side and I soon observed in all her deportment what Eteocles had told me before of her affection Her modesty indeed was such that she would not in words discover what her heart was burthened with but her eies betraied some part of it and all her actions sufficiently confirmed the observation which Eteocles had made of her During some few daies at first while the successe of my recovery was yet doubtfull and my fever very violent she said little to me and I saw her not but at some certain times but when I was a little recovered and permitted to discourse she was very liberall of her company She was one day at my bed-side where she seemed to be extreamly satisfied to see my health in so good a posture when I venturing to speak more than I had done before took occasion to give her thanks and to make all the acknowledgement I could of her care and tendernesse towards me and commended the generosity she exercised towards a man who had been of a party contrary to that of her Friends and withall so unfortunate as by the chance of war to do her a displeasure She patiently bore with my discourse and taking her advantage of my silence My lord said she to me I have done no more for you than your vertue deserved but shall entreat you not to attribute meerly to a consideration of generositie all that I have done to serve you After you had not onely been the death of my Brother but also deprived me of a person I infinitely loved and one with whom I was upon the point of marriage there was no reflection of generosity strong enough to oblige me to do an action whereby I cannot but incur if it be known the reproaches of all the world and the indignation of all my kinred and you may therefore well judge that it must proceed from some more powerfull motive that I conceived my self engaged to relieve you I shall take it upon what ground you please replied I but you will give me leave to imagine
yours against me but you will be pleased to remember when we shall meet with a more favourable opportunity that Britomarus is arrived to that condition which he said he should come to and dares measure a sword not onely with Cleomedon but with all the Princes upon earth This fiery discourse of Artaban's though it raised in me a certain esteem for the person yet was I not a little incensed at and my thoughts being easily put into disorder by reason of the affliction I was in there needed but a small matter to put me out of all patience Not but that I was extreamly troubled at this adventure as such as obliged me to a fruitlesse engagement in a time which I was to employ in finding out other enemies but there being no grief so great as to smother the Love of glory I thought that the discourse which Britomarus had made well considered I could not with honour avoid fighting though he had left it to my choice Upon this reflection looking on him with an eie which easily discovered how much I was moved at what he had said Artaban said I to him I am very ready to believe of you all that you say of your self as also all that Fame hath spread abroad concerning you and am withall satisfied that the cause of your resentments hath been taken away by the change of your affections but it seems though there be no quarrell between us out of any consideration of jealousie I am yet to be accountable for your aversion and though there want not haply other occasions of far greater consequence than the motives of our differences that call me elsewhere yet will I be obliged for my liberty to prosecute them to my self and not to your civility Let us not remit to another time and other opportunities what we may determine in this It is possible we may not meet with another so favourable and we were both equally blameable if we should now part and avoid an engagement that is now become necessary and for which it seems you come so well prepared With these words I rose up from the place where I lay and after I had put on and fastened my head-piece and taken my buckler from my Esquire I got up on horseback and rid forth into the most delightfull part of the plain Artaban was not a person to be expected he had his foot in the stirrup assoon as my self and being immediately come up to me he easily discovered by all his deportment that he was the person Fame published him to be The first ouset proved very furious and the indignation I was in to think that he should continue an unjust aversion during so many yeares for a displeasure I had innocently done him and for which I had made such satisfaction caused me to fight with no lesse animosity against him then I had done some few daies before against Tiribasus The first blowes that were dealt on both sides were hearty and heavy enough but being both very well skilled in the use of the Buckler there were a many exchanged ere there was any wound received on either side At last being more and more exasperated by this triall of our strength we engaged one another with lesse circumspection insomuch that both his armour and mine began to be dy'd with the blood which our swords drew out of our bodies That spectacle heightning our courage added also to our animosity and no doubt but that the end of the combat would have proved fatall to one of us nay it may be to both by reason of the great equality of our force when a certain man on horseback riding at a small distance from us and making a sudden halt staied for some little time to look on us For my part I could see nothing in the man that might divert me from minding what I was then about but Artaban had no sooner cast his eie on him but he gives a great shout and at the same time gave me such a blow over the head that I was for some minutes stunn'd with it However I made a shift to recover and that immediately and was thinking to drive towards him when looking about I perceived him at a great distance from me riding with all the speed his horse could make after the man we had seen and pursuing him so closely that it was not long ere a turning that was in the plain deprived me of the sight of him This accident put me very much to a losse as being too well acquainted with the valour of my Adversary to imagine that it was out of any motive of fear that he avoided fighting No I was far from conceiving any such thing of him as knowing him to be as gallant and as stout a man as ever drew sword but being already exasperated by the sight of my blood sliding down along my Armour I would needs run after him either to decide our quarrell or know of him the reason why he had left me in the midst of it Whereupon observing the way he had taken I followed the track of his horse with all the speed I could make and within a small time came into a place where I found him engaged in a combate with another man that seemed to be no lesse valiant then himself But my greatest Queen I shall say no more as to what past then because you were your self present and saw all having Eteocles with you and another valiant person who made it his businesse to part us There it was that I had the happinnesse to see you like a flash of lightning and just at the minute that I began to feel the first motions of joy for that adventure I saw you carried away once more by the man whom Artaban had pursued who was returned thither with his companions and was the Pirate Zenodorus as I have understood since by Eteocles The fair Queen who had been present at that action and had observed all till she was carried away was so well acquainted with all passages that he might well forbear all further account thereof Whereupon the Prince related to her how that he had followed her so long till at last through the great losse of bloud and the weaknesse he was reduced to by reason of his wounds he fell off his horse how he had been relieved by Eteocles and not long after by his own Brother Prince Alexander and the Princesse Artemisa He afterwards entertained her with an account how they had brought him to the house where they had taken sanctuary themselves how that some few daies after when he had in some measure recovered his health he had been acquainted with the History of their loves and yet though he had not the least mistrust of their vertue and friendship that he thought it not fit at that time to discover himself to them as not knowing whether she might take it well at his hands He afterwards acquainted her with the arrival of the Princesse Cleopatra
in towards Vrania during the time you took sanctuary with King Archelaus her Brother who may with very much reason be exasperated against you if the things I have heard be true and you must needs expect the reproaches of all the world if by your irregular proceedings you disoblige a friend from whom you have received services of so great consequence While Philadelph held him with this discourse Tigranes hearkened to it with much impatience as desirous to interrupt him But when he had given over speaking I must needs acknowledge said he to him that there is abundance of reason in some of these things which you insist upon but if you have had as much love for Delia as you have sometimes told me you had I am to learn how you can imagine it should be so easie for me to disengage my self from that which I have for Elisa the influences of whose beauty are not so weak but that they may work their effect upon a mans heart while he lives Besides though my inclinations that way proceeded not out of any engagement of Love and the interest of a Crown such as is that of the Parthiuns I am obliged to do what I do out of a consideration of honour for I have married her by my Ambassadours and the King her Father bestowed her himself upon those Ambassadors that she might be brought into my embraces So that I am to take in any part of the earth wherever I meet with her the woman that is my lawfull wife and by all manner of waies revenge the affront I have received and I cannot imagine that Caesar or any other Authority in the world will oppose so justifiable a resolution For Vrania you know the worst she can expect it will be no prejudice to her to give place to Elisa and though what you have heard should prove true she is no worse dealt with by me then she had been before by you I hope you are not so far mistaken replies Philadelph as to imagine I ever promised Vrania any thing and that if I had the Love I have for Arsinoe should not oblige me to deceive her As for the revenge you speak of and which you say you ought to endeavour for the affront hath been done you I know not on whom you should execute it and if you take my opinion I think it is onely of Elisa that you have received that affront I shall not revenge my self on Elisa replied the King of the Medes because notwithstanding her ingratitude and insensibility towards me she is yet dearer to me than my own life and I could never attempt any thing against her but it must wound me to the heart But I will punish that audacious fellow whom she most shamefully preferrs before me and will chastise a person who risen out of the dust would needs raise himself above Kings and who not able to list himself up into the rank whereof he now is but by the favours that I have done him and the employments I have put him into in my Armies hath so insolently abused the fortune he crept into by my lenity and treats Kings as his equalls if not as his inferiours I am not acquainted with Artaban replies Philadelph though his great fame hath raised in me a great desire to be but if I may measure him by the things I have heard related of him I cannot look on him as a person that Kings should contemne This you can testifie more than any other and consequently when I consider the things he hath done as well for you as for the King of the Parthians it cannot enter into my imagination that you will find it so easie a matter to punish him as you conceive Philadelph would have said more to that purpose as being not able to forbear giving that acknowledgement of Artabans vertue which all the world confessed to be its due but observing in the countenance of Tigranes that he was not well pleased with discourses of that nature he thought fit not to continue it and not long after falling into some other talk for some time they went together to give a visit to Agrippa Tigranes made some difficulty to go by reason of the hindrance he had done him in his design the day before but considering withal that by reason of the interest he had with Caesar the successe of his affaires depended partly on him he went along Philadelph having before hand made him promise that he would not discover any dissatisfaction towards Ariobarzanes who was no enemy of his and had made the same promise as to him Agrippa entertained all these Princes with much civility and being a man that derived no pride from the greatnesse of his fortune because it was indeed below his vertue he treated them with all the honour due to their dignity And knowing that in Alexandria they had not all things suitably to their rank nor had that attendance they were wont to have especially Ariobarzanes and Philadelph who had not any retinue at all he invited them to dine with him excusing himself for being so free with them out of a respect of their present condition in Alexandria which was such that they could not have those accommodations at their own lodgings which they might with him Ariobarzanes and Philadelph were perswaded to stay but Tigranes would needs dine with Cornelius who had sent him an invitation to that purpose in the morning At this first interwiew between Ariobarzanes and him they saluted one another as persons that were not acquainted without any expression of discontent or animosity of either side which was all that Philadelph desired In the mean time Arsinoe and Olympia were gone to visit Elisa and Candace whom they took just getting out of bed and assoon as Olympia was gotten neer Elisa putting on yet with a cheerful look the countenance of a slave What Madam said she to her have you no employment now for your slave and will you 〈◊〉 your self to be dressed and receive the services of those that are about you and slight mine Elisa blushing at this discourse after she had kissed Arsinoe and Olympia I cannot blame you Madam said she to her for reproaching me with the faults which through my ignorance I have committed against you and to be ingenious I must confesse they are such that if you are not in some measure guilty of them your self I shall be ashamed of them as long as I live This discourse had been continued somewhat longer if the fair Arsinoe had not interrupted it to let Elisa know how much she thought her self concerned in what had happened to her as well upon her meeting with Artaban and with Tigranes assuring her that she was no lesse troubled for any misfortune night come to her then those persons that had been of her acquaintance many years together The discourse of Olympia was much to the same effect and that in terms full of affection and when Elisa had returned them
but that time expired she got up any having understood what quality Elisa was of and had some account of Candace and finding her self inclined to a great esteem and affection for both she would put off no longer the returne of a civility which she conceived she ought them and going out of her own chamber with her woman Camilla she went to that of Elisa The two Princesses quarrelled very much at her for that strictnesse of ceremony and seemed to be very much troubled that she had taken so little time to rest considering the great trouble and hardship she had undergone But she made them answer that the rest which her body might require was not so considerable to her as the obligation she thought lay upon her to return their civilities nor so deare to her as the honour to wait on them which she was not able to dispense with any longer after she had been deprived of their sight with so much precipitation The two Princesses made her answer with equall civility and whereas Candace was already passionately in love with her as well out of a consideration of her excellent endowments which might produce that effect in any one as upon the account of Caesario and was very desirous to be more intimately acquainted with her looking on her in a most passionate manner As for the fair Princesse of the Parthians said she to her whose extraordinary merit makes an immediate assault on all hearts and whose illustrious birth is known to you she may without any unjust presumption claim some place in your friendship and there are few soules can stand out long against her charmes if she thinkes fit to make use of the battery thereof But for one whom you have no other account of then that she is a person of some quality born in Ethiopia and cannot aspire above a mediocrity of parts she cannot rationally hope for the same advantage if in some measure to ballance those wherein Elisa so much excells her she could not pretend to something that more particularly recommends her to your notice For matter of recommendation replied the Princesse smiling at the modesty of her discourse there is so much legible in your face that it were supererogatory in you to look for any elsewhere and as for your being born in Ethiopia you are never for that the lesse worthy of our affections and our respects I am not I must confesse made absolutely acquainted with your birth though I have understood something of it but besides what I have observed of the Princesse Elisa's familiarity and behaviour towards you there are a many other arguments whence I inferre that your quality must needs be of the highest and I shall haply know more of it when you shall be so well acquainted with me as to think I may be trusted with a secret of that consequence I know not replied the Queen whether I can with civility distrust you but besides the bent of my own inclination which naturally engages me into a very great confidence of you I have haply some very particular reasons to discover that to you which I have not to any but the Princesse of the Parthians And therefore to begin with something I shall make no difficulty to acknowledge my self to be Candace Queen of Ethiopia whom Fortune hath been pleased to cast on these coasts and that dispossessed of a Kingdome which she hath since recovered by the assistance of a person not unknown to you Upon this discourse of Candace Cleopatra asked her pardon in case through an ignorance of her quality she had been awanting as to point of civility towards her and gave her many thankes for the confidence she was pleased to repose in her with a protestation that she should make no other advantages of that acknowledgement of her then such as might give her the occasions to serve her if she should be so happy as to find them And thereupon reflecting on the last words that fell from her whereby she confessed her self obliged for the recovery of her Crown to a person of her acquaintance May I pretend to so much happinesse said she to her as that there should be a person within the reach of my knowledge that may have done you a service of so great importance as that you tell me of and can I beg his name of you without presuming too farre upon the confidence you have honoured me with I hope it will not be long replied Candace ere I shall make you far greater discoveries of him than that of his name and it may be renew your affectionate inclinations towards a person upon whose account I presume so much upon your friendship but till that happen give me leave to aske you whether you did not see Cleomedon in the house where Prince Alexander made some little abode upon his arrivall neer Alexandria It is very true replied Cleopatra that I have seen him in that house where I staid one night and some part of the next day till such time as I was carried away thence Alexander procured me the sight of him in his bed which he was confined to by reason of some wounds so that I could not see him with as much advantage in that condition as no question I should have done in another But to measure him by that little observation I then made of him I perceived as well in his countenance as his discourse something that argued a certain grandeur much beyond the ordinary rate of men and it now comes into my mind that my Brother procured me that sight of him as a person of a great and noble fame and told me withall that his name was much cried up in Ethiopia for many famous victories Alexander replies Candace hath told you no more of him than Truth will justifie but I am in hope that he will bring both you and Alexander those tidings of a person whom you once thought very deare which may prove very advantageous to me and very much further the designe I have to purchase your friendship and it is for that onely reason that I asked you whether you had seen him and that I am desirous to give you another sight of him before this night be quite passed if you give me the liberty to do it It cannot be replied the fair Princesse but too great a satisfaction to me to see a man so considerable both upon the account of his own worth and the great services he hath done you and I think my self so much concerned already in whatever relates to you that I cannot but with much more interest than heretofore look on a man to whom you are obliged for the recovery of your Crown Not Madam that any consideration of his person or the hopes I may conceive within my self of him can adde any thing to the respect which I have already for you and assure your self that if the friendship you are pleased to desire of me were any thing of far greater value
drawn into but by my advice and encouragement Though I might well imagine that Theocles fell not upon that discourse but with a designe to quarrell with me and find a pretence without infamy to Tiberius to put in execution what they had basely plotted against me yet did I not reflect on it soon enough and accordingly could not forbear telling him that there was a vast difference between an action wherein we had been jointly engaged though truely considered it were very horrid and the designe to murther a King in his own Kingdome and that there was the greater difference between those two actions in regard of us by as much as that I was a Romane and he a Subject to Coriolanus This barbarous wretch who what answer soever I had made would have found the pretence he was so desirous of pretended to be transported with indignation at this discourse drew his sword and ran at me with all the fury he could I should have been but little frightned at his action if all those that were about him had not done the like and with the same labour satisfied me that Tiberius had not bestowed that guard on me but to give me my death Of my two men the more affectionate lost his life at my feet and the other frightned saved himself by getting into the wood so that I was forced to stand alone to the fury of those cruell Butchers who came about me and gave me two great wounds No question but a thousand more had followed to dispatch me out of this world and I saw it was to no purpose to think to lengthen my life by a fruitlesse resistance when it pleased Fortune to direct into that part of the wood a man armed all over mounted on a very stately horse and attended onely by an Esquire He made a little halt to see what was done and perceiving he had but little time to loose if he would save my life after he had anticipated his coming by a great outcry and in few words reproached my enemies with basenesse and cowardice he ran in among them with a fury to which nothing can be compared and having with the shock of his horse overthrown the first he met within his way he set upon the rest with such eagernesse as shewed he was nothing daunted at their number And whereas they as well as I had no other armes then their swords he spent very few blowes which either carried not death along with them or made those they met with uncapable of fighting any longer Theocles astonished at this miraculous relief and perceiving there was no possibility to make an end of me till he had rid his hands of the stranger endeavoured with the assistance of his men to dispatch him But as it happened he ran upon his own death for that valiant man having received upon his buckler the blowes he made at him ran him clear through the body and so he fell down to the ground and immediately breathed his last His companions were but weak in their endeavours to revenge his fall and finding themselves reduced to one halfe of the number they made at first and that by the same hand they were quite discouraged and placed all their safety in their flight Finding my self rescued in that manner from those unmercifull enemies though very much weakened by the two wounds I had received I made a shift to come nearer my deliverer to give him thankes for his assistance and it happened at the same time that he feeling himself very much heated either by reason of the sultrinesse of the season or the action he had been in put up the visour of his head-piece to take in a little fresh aire I had hardly fastened my eies on his countenance but I was in a manner dazzled by the lustre and goodlinesse of it and thereupon looking on him a little more earnestly I knew him to be that person to whom I had been so cruelly perfidious the valiant King of Mauritania It is impossible I should represent to you the confusion I was in to find my self obliged for my life to a Prince whom I had so basely abused and to see that Fortune should after so strange a manner direct to my relief that person from whom of all men I had least reason to expect it An adventure so unexpected could not but tie up my tongue for a while and stifling the discourse I intended to disburthen my self of by way of acknowledgement for the deliverance I was obliged to him for I stood still before him mute immoveable and in the posture of a man whom an excesse of remorse had deprived of all confidence And it was certainly from my remorse rather than any fear that this proceeded as not knowing whether the injury I had done him was come to his knowledge but if I was astonished to see him he was no lesse to meet with me and calling me to mind by the idaea's he had still in his memory of my countenance and haply confirmed by the astonishment he observed in it he stood still as well as my self like one lost in suspence and irresolution At last the passion which produced that effect in him being much different from that which had put me into so great disturbance he soon recovered himself and having viewed me with much more earnestnesse then before Are not you Volusius said he to me sometime Praetor of Mauritania I am the very same Volusius answered I who am now obliged to you twice for this wretched life as having once received it with my liberty as a demonstration of your generosity and being obliged to you for it now by the relief I have received from you when I was reduced to the last extremities You might have added to that said he that you are the same Volusius who being once before obliged to me for your life and liberty have neverthelesse made me the most unfortunate man in the world and by your perfidiousnesse have occasioned me the losse of Cleopatra's affection my kingdome and whatever should make me in love with life This reproach put me to such a losse that I knew not what answer to make whereupon casting my eies on the ground with an action expressing the greatnesse of my confusion I satisfied the Prince that I had nothing by way of justification to say for my self When he had looked on me for some time in that posture What injury soever I may have received from you said he to me it troubles me not that I have been the occasion that you are yet alive but certainly 't is a visible example of Heavens justice to reserve the revenge of your perfidiousnesse to me who have been most injured thereby Reassume the confidence which the conscience of your crime seems to have deprived you of and since I have seen you defend your life with courage enough against diverse men at the same time muster up all you have to defend it against one man alone and
that through the despair you put me into you deprived me not onely of the power but even of the designe I had to go and maintain them as no doubt I could have done against all the forces of the Universe Through that misfortune is it now come to passe that I have nothing left me as having lost not onely the crowns I had conquered but also the Friendship of Caesar from whom I was to hope for all I could expect So that when I shall return again into your sight in a condition innocent enough to hope a readmission into your favour I shall have no Crowne to offer you nor indeed a refuge in any part of the earth it being not so easie for me to expect a second revolt of my Subjects after I have by my negligence betraied them to Caesars severity and the orders he hath setled in the Provinces since his last conquest thereof Thus Madam can I not cast my eies on you with any confidence nor indeed desire you should fasten your felfe to the fortunes of a miserable person that hath not an inch of earth to offer you and to entertain you in However I go my waies in order to my justification so to satisfie both my love and my duty by both which I am equally obliged thereto and when I shall have effected it I shall either out of a complyance with the will of the gods not disturb a better fortune which it is in their power to send you or with my hopes lose a life which must needs be troublesome to you and to me insupportable To this effect was the discourse of Juba's son and Cleopatra and Marcellus were so moved thereat as also at the reflection he caused them to make upon the deplorable change of his condition that they could not forbear teares and all other demonstrations of the tendernesse compassion and sympathy which might be expected upon such an occasion Cleopatra the most concerned of any to expresse her sentiments to the Prince looking on him with eies wherein could not be seen any thing of displeasure Go Coriolanus said she to him go and endeavour your justification I desire you should effect it no lesse than you do your selfe 'T is possible you might be sufficiently justified in my apprehensions by the things you have done for my deliverance by the probability which I find in your discourse and by the good opinion I have of you were it not requisite to make your innocence apparent that so it might be lawfull for Cleopatra to readmit you with honour into her former favour and affection They are but the just rewards of your fidelity if you have continued in it and the losse of your Kingdomes shall loose you nothing in my heart if yours have suffered no change In the mean tune conceale your selfe in a Country where you are to feare all things as being so near so powerfull an enemy and assure your selfe that in the uncertainty I may be in of your fidelity I am not so little concerned in the safety of your life but that I tremble when I reflect on the hazards whereto you expose it With these words she reached forth her hand to raise him up and the Prince imagined to himself so much kindnesse and obligation in what she had said as also in all the other demonstrations of her affection that for the time he had in a manner lost all remembrance of his misfortunes He stood still and made no reply not knowing how to expresse his resentments when Marcellus looking on him with eies red by reason of the teares he had shed Prince whom I once loved so dearly said he to him and whom I cannot yet hate if you are innocent I know not what reparations to make you but what condition soever you may be found in I here promise that I will never oppose you Having said thus much they all went towards Artemisa who was showring down her teares upon the body of her Brother and after they had given her a little time to recover her selfe they intreated her to passe into the other vessel Artemisa was content and was handed in by her Alexander who looking on her now as Queen of Armenia by reason of the generall opinion there was of the death of Ariobarzanes would have behaved himself with more respect towards her than he had done before would she have permitted it They ordered Megacles to carry the body of Artaxus to Alexandria that it might be embalmed and transported thence into the monument of his Fathers and Coriolanus who had a great esteem for Megacles out of a consideration of his vertue would needs be carried ashore in his ship Cleopatra Marcellus Alexander and Artemisa having once more taken their leaves of him went into their own and with all the joy and satisfaction which they could derive from the liberty of the two Princesses set saile towards Alexandria FINIS TO THE Truly Vertuous Lady M rs JANE AVBREY Of Ynis-gedwin in the County of Brecon MADAME THink it not strange to find so great a Princesse so unfortunate nor much to entertain her suitably to her condition though not to her quality and afford her what her misfortunes have forced from all she hath addressed her self to Compassion We are much moved at the distresses of Strangers meerly out of a consideration of their being such but when we find the greatest Merit and Excellencies struggling with Calamities Vertue it self surrounded with the inconveniencies of life and such whose veines swell with the noblest blood expos'd to all the miseries of a malicious destiny it defies Humanity to be unconcern'd and is able to force the most barbarous inclinations into Sympathy All these recommendations have we Madam in the person of the incomparable CLEOPATRA one whom her misfortunes have wafted for refuge all over the World yet afford not a greater hope of their drawing towards a Period then that they have brought her to the extremities of it as it were to try the entertainment of Wales after that of so many other Countries And where should I addresse her there with greater hopes of reception and assistances then to a Family which glories only in the secret satisfaction that attends the doing of what is highly generous and obliging and sheds its kindnesses as much beyond the expectations as deserts of those that receive them This is an acknowledgment Madam which those I have in particular received from your noble Father force from me and which I hope your Modesty will pardon since that though it were much greater it would be below the resentments may justly be expected in Madam Your most humble and most obliged servant J. DAVIES HYMENS PRAELUDIA Or Loves Master-Piece PART X. LIB I. ARGUMENT ARtaban and Elisa Princesse of the Parthians take sanctuary in Alexandria Agrippa under whose protection they had cast themselves falls in love with Elisa but out of consideration of vertue and generosity forbears the discoveries of his affection Candace and