taken away the life of Cecinna thrust it into this breast which lyes open to you and spare not after the injury I have done you a life which even in a condition of innocence hath ever been odious to you At these words Tullia who all the while would not so much as look towards him but turned her face another way gave him such a sudden and furious look that haply upon the first sallies of the violent passions she was then absolutely subject to she might have granted the desolate Antonius the death he so much desired and that accordingly she would have taken the sword he presented to her and whereof the very sight very much enflamed her indignation when she perceaved upon it certain drops of Cecinna's blood But the prudent Emilia fastening immediately upon it got it without much difficulty from Antonius and this she did as well in regard of the uncertainty she was in as to Tullia's intention as to prevent that desperate Prince from making use of it against himselfe as he might have done in the distraction his griefe had then put him into Tullia continued for some time without so much as opening her mouth expressing the agitations of her soule by her looks and silence more effectually than she could haply have done by her words But at last not able to master the impetuosity thereof and looking on the prostrate Antonius with eyes wherein through the tears that fell from them the fire of her indignation discovered it self but too apparently Vnmercifull disturber of my quiet said she to him thou who being the issue of my Fathers Executioners art resolved not to degenerate from their cruelty Is it possible that thy inhumanity cannot be satisfied either with the bloud of Cicero spilt by thy Friends nor with that of Cecinna which thou hast shed thy self but thou must persecute to the death an Vnfortunate Mayd who hath not without reason avoided thee and who never yet gave thee the least offence Dost thou hope stained with the bloud of him that was to be her Husband that she can regard that odious passion which hath proved the cause of all her unhappinesse Or dost thou imagine she can look otherwise on thee than a Monster and the foulest object of detestation and horrour Go Barbarian go Sonne of Fulvia and disturb no longer the Daughter of the Vnfortunate Cicero for whom thy cruelty hath opened a source of tears which no passion could ever have made her shed As she uttered these words which came from her attended with a deluge of tears she rested her face on Emelia's arme when Scipio who was then in quest of either his Mistresse or his Friend came into the place directed thither haply by the gods to prevent my Brother's despair He was in few words made acquainted with all that past and though compassion had that effect which it could not but produce in him yet he made a shift to smother it the better to serve his Friend and so joyned with Emilia to oppose those sentiments of hatred and indignation which Tullia had conceaved against my Brother But notwithstanding all their arguments intreaties and remonstrances she was still as inflexible as ever and the suppliant posture wherein Antonius had continued all this while nor the abundance of tears he shed after her example could not raise in her the least touch of compassion nor any way moderate her exasperation When he saw that the mediation of Emilia and his Friend proved altogether ineffectual rising up from the place where he was and looking very dreadfully on Tullia I now see Tullia said he to her that nothing but my death can satisfie you and I were very much to blame if being neer the dead body of Cecinna I should hope to find that pitty from you which in the greatest innocence of my life and amidst the most prevalent expressions of my love I could never obtain nor indeed was it to your compassion that I addressed my self but I defied the implacable aversion you have for me to put a period to that life for which you have so much horrour I must confesse I should have embraced death more kindly from your hands then my own as conceaving your revenge would be the more absolute when you took it your self But since Emilia hath deprived you of that satisfaction which yet had been but proportionable to the grief I have innocently caused you I shall make it my own businesse to sacrifice to you the remainder of this life which hath been so unfortunately preserved and is so cruelly abhorred With these words he pretended as if he would goe away with an action not far from extravagance but Scipio who during his discourse was gotten neer him stayed him and Tullia implacable as she was yet having abundance of vertue about her would not leave in the persons that heard her the sentiments which her distraction might have raised in them so that endeavouring once more to expresse her self to Antonius yet without looking on him I come not out of a cruel race such as this is said she to him nor do I desire any bloudy reparations for the injury thou hast done me I neither wish thy death nor thy life and leave thee Master of a Fate wherein I never intend to be any wayes engaged but if the horrid outrages which my family and my self have receaved front thee and thine may give me leave to hope any satisfaction from thee I entreat as thou dost respect Heaven or what ever else may be dear to thee that thou never appear before me again and that thou free me for ever henceforward of a sight which neither is nor ought to be any way supportable to me This thou canst not refuse me if thou hast any spark of vertue left in thee and if thou grant it me I engage my self never to desire either of the gods or men any revenge against thee and that I shall not be guiltie of so much as a wish that may contribute any thing to the disturbance of thy life 'T is but just Madam said Antonius to her who was already resolved what to do I shall give you the satisfaction you desire of me though it be more insufferable then what I had offered you my self and I protest to you that you shall never while you live see again that unfortunate person whom you thus condemn to eternal banishment With which words he went away along with Scipio who would not by any means leave him out of a fear of some effect of his despair and not long after Emilia and the other Ladies having caused the body of Cecinna to be brought away returned into the City in the confused condition which it is not hard for you to imagine to your self I shall not trouble you Sister either with the grief of Cecinna's Friends and Cicero's or with the displeasure of the Emperour at that action wherein yet he could not much blame my Brother after he had understood
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
Love hath at least submitted to the commands laid on her by Octavia and Caesar in his behalf and hath satisfyed him by expressions worthy her solid vertue of the esteem she hath for him And so it hath continued ever since by the happy meeting of these two complyant dispositions who are not subject to any trouble because not to the weaknesse of a many others so that it is out of all question that the Emperour will have them marryed at the same time that the nuptialls of Marcellus and Julia shall be solemnised Drusus hath told us since how that he had heard from Mithridates's own mouth the discourse that had passed between him and Antonia when they walked together upon which he grounded his first letter as also what course he had taken to conceal himself from all the World as well that day that he bestowed on her the magnificent Galley as that of the publick shewes before which some few dayes he had pretended affairs of consequence in the Country because there should be no notice taken of his absence at an Assembly wherein he should in all likelihood be one of the first Some few dayes after Archelaus overcome with grief went to ease himself of it in the war whither he was called to assist the King of the Medes his kinsman against the Parthians and wherein as they say he hath gained abundance of reputation Mithridates was in the same posture uâ—â—aple of any consolation though his love had not made so much noise as the others but to satisfie him in some sort the Emperour having the Crowns of Pontus and Comagenes where there had happened very great revolutions to dispose of bestowed that of Pontus on Polemon and that of Comagenes on Mithridates and sent them to take possession thereof Ptolomey according to his ordinary way of courtship continued his addresses to Marcia that is with little earnestnesse and much esteem and respect but discovering little inclination to marriage He never minded Tullia who in requital was very violently courted by Lentulus but I shall not give you any account of their loves because they relate not much to the subject of my discourse though they may be said to be some consequences thereof I have already given you an account of all that happened to my self at that time as well as to the news I received of the infidelity of Coriolanus the departure of Marcellus and Tiberius and the Emperours voyage wherein we accompanied him so that you are fully acquainted with the affairs of our house and the better to satisfie and entertain you therewith I think and that truely that I have spoken more in three dayes then I had done all my life before Thus did the fair Princesse Cleopatra put a Period to her long relation which to do she had done a more than ordinary violence to her disposition and Artemisa had heard her with an attention which had suspended in her mind the memory of her misfortunes The end of the Second Book HYMENS PRAELUDIA Or Loves Master-Piece PART IX LIB III. ARGUMENT MEgacles discourses with the unknown person whose life he had saved about the constancy and inconstancy of Fortune Cleopatra and Artemisa of the fidelity and infidelity of Coriolanus The King of Armenia visits Cleopatra with a great deale of Courtship and Personated Affection She abhorring him for his cruelties and having resolved to be Coriolanus's slights him and looks on his addresses as the pure effects of insinuation and sycophancy However he forbears force because far from his own Kingdom whither he would make all the hast he could but is prevented by contrary winds Zenodorus the Pirate entertains Artaxus with the History of his Life He marries Elisena a beautiful Lady of Armenia and not long after grows jealous of her through the means of one Cleontes a young man with whom she was over-familiar His jealousie still increasing Cleontes is by Elisena desired to depart the Court The day before his departure he and Elisena taking their last leaves in an Arbour are surprized by Zenodorus who transported with rage and jealousie immediately kills Elisena in the midst of their embraces Cleontes gets away but afterwards hearing of the death of Elisena 〈◊〉 himself to Artoxus sword who 〈◊〉 him through As 〈◊〉 dying 〈◊〉 discoveryâ— his neck and breast and is found to be a Woman 〈…〉 to Phraates King of the Parthians to avoid whose addresses she had disgâ—ised her self Phrates to revenge her death comes with an Army and drives Zenodorus out of his Tetrarchy which is afterward begged of Augustus by Herod Zenodorus having lost all seizes some few ships and turns Pirate He follews Piracy with great successe for ten years at last takes Candace Queen of Aethiopia whom he falls in loves with but she firing his ships and casting her self over-board escapes Loosing her he takes Elisa sole Heiresse of the King of Parthia but going ashore to seek out Candace he loses both Elisa and all his ships hath most of his men killed and is himself wounded He is met with in a Country-mans house under the Surgeons hands by Aristus and by him brought along with the men he had left to the King of Armenia WHile the two Princesses were thus engaged in discourse Megacles whole eare was equally divided between that of having them in safe custody to obey the commands laid upon him by his Master and that of affording him the best attendance he could to satisfie in some sort his own inclinations which were ever directed to vertue omitted nothing of what he thought might be expected from him in order to either of these obligations And whereas on the one side it was some dissatisfaction to him to be employed to secure them out of the fear he was in to incense a Prince who was not wont to pardon any thing so on the other he with no lesse joy laid hold on those occasions which presented themselves to discover unto them the repugnance which he struggled with to displease them Being therefore obliged not to part from the ship he had sent Aristus betimes in the morning to see what news he could learn of the King of Armenia and this man being returned had brought him word that the King would infallibly come aboard the vessel that very day and that though he were in such a posture as topoint of health that he could not well undertake such a voyage without some danger yet had he absolutely resolved to venture it out of the great desire he had to see Cleopatra and the fear he was in of loosing so noble a prize Megacles having received this intelligence for certain began to dispose all things in the vessel in order to his entertainment and having understood that the Princesses were desirous to be alone he out of the great respect he had for them would not so much as come neer their Chamber and was content only to give notice to one of the women that belonged to Cleopatra that he
to have continued to the very last gasp had he persevered in his or am by his death disengaged as to him of a friendship which it is needlesse to observe towards the shades there is nothing can disengage me from my self that is from what I imposed upon my self when I first submitted to that innocent affection and consequently nothing can set my soul at liberty in order to a second choice or into a condition to entertain any new impression of love T is enough that the great Cleopatra hath once given way to love and been taken with the great perfections of the most amiable among men but the justification which I might find for my former weaknesses would not haply be accepted for the latter Expect not therefore from me my dearest Sister what I could not obtain of my self for my self though I should pretend a greater interest it should be so then that which you represent and imagine that there cannot be any selicity hoped from an affection contracted by such extraordinary waies To do you what service I can with the King your Brother and to oblige him to treat you more civility I shall conceale part of my resentments and the aversion I have for him and therefore you ought to be satisfied with me when you shall see me do that for you which I should never endure to do one minute formy self and consider the violence I do my self for your sake as no slight demonstration of my Friendship Artemisa gave Cleopatra many thanks for the promise she had made her to force her inclinations upon her account and begged her pardon for what she had said concerning her own concernments and in requital made a protestation to her that she would never speak to her more on the behalf of the King her Brother and that she had two great an esteem for those resolutions of fidelity and constancy which she had taken ever to be guilty of any design to oppose them Thus were they engaged in discourse when of a sudden they heard a very great noise in the ship and not long after that it was upon occasion of the Kings coming into it What lectures soever they might have read one to another of constancy they both grew pale and were a little startled at this news and looking one upon the other without speaking they were at a losse as to all resolution yet so as that there might be some difference in their thoughts and if the soul of Cleopatra was burthened with a more lively grief that of Artemisa was subject to more fear At last Cleopatra whose courage was greater than that of Artemisa was the first that broke forth into any resolution and looking on Artemisa with a countenance that spoke something of more confidence Sister said she to her let us rely on the assistance of Heaven in our misfortune and in the mean time summon together all our vertue and let us not forget the resolution we have taken Artemisa had not the power to make her any answer nor indeed had she time for immediately thereupon their chamber-door being opened the first thing they saw was the dreadful countenance of the King of Armenia He was somewhat of a pale complexion and lean'd as he came along upon one of his men but his palenesse was dispelled at the sight of that object by which he was enflamed and he made a shift to forget all his weaknesse to get near Cleopatra who at his first coming in was risen from the place where she sate Artaxus saluted her with abundance of respect and Cleopatra who was glad to continue him in that humour and laoth to force him to those extremities which she might justly fear from a man so violent returned him though with a sad and serious countenance what was due to his quality from a Princesse of hers Before he spoke to Cleopatra he cast his eyes on Artemisa who trembling for feer had her eyes fixed on the ground not having the confidence to look him in the face The fear and confusion he perceived her to be in added not a little to his joy but however he thought fit to speak to Cleopatra before he addressed himself to the other and looking on her with a countenance wherein he endeavoured to moderate some part of his natural fiercenesse and to take off somewhat of that which was most dreadfull in him Madam said he to her my love forces me to waite on you though the justice of the gods hath made you mine to be disposed as I please even in the late accident you might have taken notice of so much and you ought to forget your own resentments of it out of a consideration of the blood I have lost to preserve you I shall never believe answered Cleopatra that it is to be attributed to the justice of the gods that a free person and one of my birth should become your prisoner without any war and contrary to the Laws of all Nations You might have observed no lesse your self in this very adventure wherein it hath cost you so much bloud and it is impossible they should approve the unjust violence you do me if they are as it is believed the assertors and patrons of Justice and innocence What violence replies Artaxus can he be said to do you who casts himself at your feet Or wherein does he violate the Law of Nations when he gives you a full right and absolute power over both his heart and his crown Do you in agine that this injustice is of the same kind with those which the gods punish and are you not afraid to incense them your self by entertaining so much aversion and animosity against a King that adores you and is ready to dye at your feet Having said these words he turned towards Artemisa and looking on her with a little more mildnesse than ordinary by reason of the presence of Cleopatra whom he knew to have a horrour for his cruelties Well Artemisa said he to her you see after what manner Heaven hath prospered your designes and how it hath approved that the Daughter of Artabasus should forsake her Brother and her King to run away with the Son of Anthony My Lord replies Artemisa endeavouring to recover her self a little though my affection was I must confesse very great towards Alexander yet was it not such as should have obliged me to forsake you to follow him could I have taken any other course to have saved his life which you would have taken from him and he should have lost for my sake This makes nothing for your justification replies Artaxus but you do not stand much in need of any having found such a sanctuary in the Princesse Cleopatra The power she hath over me disarms the indignation I have against you and I have no hatred for Alexander since I adore Cleopatra In a word your destiny is in her hands and I shall not onely pardon you the offence you have committed against me but I shall
put me upon resolutions of getting that elsewhere which had been wrested out of my hands at home and having yet a number of ships under my command I began to make a Sea-war first against those only that had taken away my estate and afterwards against all Nations without any choice or distinction of parties I had gotten with me my Nephew Ephialtes as valiant and daring a person as ever followed this course of life who contributed much to the carrying on of my designe insomuch that when I had by a great number of rich prises got together abundance of wealth I bought more ships and so reinforced my Fleet and lur'd in a many souldiers who found better service and pay in our war than they would have done in any lawful one In fine I became so powerful that I had squadrons of ships on all seas Having made Ephialtes my Vice-Admiral in those parts of the sea which admitted not of any communication by sea we went and met by land having Horses and private retreats for that purpose So that of a desolate man and one that in all probability should have spent his whole life in weeping over a Tomb I became terrible and dreadful to all Nations the terrour of all that had any businesse with the sea and famous for thousands of Prises which had made me the richest of all the Pyrates that ever were This course of life have I led for these ten years very neer and yet I shall not entertain you with the most considerable actions I have been engaged in not onely because it would require a long relation such as possibly might prove very troublesome to your Majesty but also for that I am confident you have already had some account thereof and have not without astonishment heard of the several changes of my Fortune I shall therefore onely tell you that during the space of ten years that I have followed this trade there happened not any thing memorable unto me in comparison of what hath come to passe within these few dayes upon these very coasts there having in a manner at the same time fallen into my hands two of the most beautiful preyes that the whole universe can afford And this I am confident you cannot but acknowledge when I have told you that in two dayes time I had in my power and disposal the fair Candace Queen of Aethiopia and the Princesse Elisa the onely daughter and heir of the great King of the Parthians I took the Queen of Aethiopia just at the mouth of the Nile and this soul of mine which since the death of Elisena had not entertained the least impression of love nor ever thought it could have been capable of any remitted some part of its Forces upon the first view of that Princesse and by degrees became absolutely subject to her Beauties I was ignorant both of her name and quality and yet love made me at first slight the proffers she made me of a considerable ransome and when afterwards she told me that she was Queen Candace I would not absolutely believe what she said out of an imagination that she might take that name upon her purposely to keep me within those terms of respect which she perceived I should not be long able to observe During that uncertainty I did all that lay in my power to perswade her to my will and having found all the waies I took ineffectual I hoped at last to effect my own satisfaction by making use of the power I had over her when that during the space of one night which I had allotted her to fix on some resolution this Princesse daring above her sex and beyond all example set my ship on fire which broke forth in several places and cast her self into the sea within some few stadia of this river You may well imagine what an astonishment I was in when it came to my knowledge that I had lost her in that manner I made the best shift I could to repaire the breaches which the fire had made in my ship that I might the sooner make after her into this river whither I conceived she might get upon planks with the assistance of some men who had cast themselves over-board at the same time with her We were very busie a mending of our ships when it was the pleasure of Fortune to make me some requital for the former losse to send me a vessel wherein was the Princesse of the Parthians which having with much adoe escaped wrack in a great tempest that had been and being not furnished with men to maintain her came and cast her self into our hands We boarded her without any great difficulty and the first thing I was entertained with was the shouts of certain slaves whom I found to have been my souldiers and some of those that I had left Ephialtus They presently gave me an account of the death of my Nephew and pointing to a person that stood neer the Princesse they told he had been his murtherer I cast my eyes on the man and notwithstanding the admirable things I could observe in him yet was I resolved his life should be sacrificed to the Manes of my Nephew whom I had so dearly loved and thereupon caused the points of all our swords to be turned upon him But good gods how strangely did he behave himself for passing through our armes without any fear he comes up to me takes hold of me by the midle and cast himself into the sea with me in his arms I was relieved and taken up again by my own men not without some difficulty but when I had recovered the danger cast up the water I had drunk and put on other cloaths the presence of a Beauty which all the World might admire but that seemed orewhelmed with an insupportable grief could not make me forget her who may be said to have set my heart a fire as truely as she had done my ship And thereupon resolving to follow her living or find out her dead body about this river I came hither and landed with thirty of my men leaving the fair prize I had taken in my Vessel under the care of a Lieutenant whom I trusted her with I wandred up and down the river-side all that day and could not make the least discovery of what I sought and the next day after I had spent some part of the day in the same enquiry and having divided my men into several parties in order to visit more places I came at last accompanyed onely by two of them neer a spring where I saw two men engaged in a furious combat They were both persons of an admirable goodly presence their arms rich and magnificent but there was nothing comparable to the valour wherewith they fought but the animosity they expressed in the combat One of the two had upon his armes which glittered with gold the Roman Eagle spread in divers places and those of his adversary remarkable for certain Lyons causing me
be concealed from all the World and though I must introduce into my discourse persons whose power is much to be feared yet shall I not forbear since that within a few daies I shall either be in a condition not to fear it or if the gods think good to continue my life I am more willing to see it exposed to some danger by my confession then be perpetually persecuted with remorses which make it much more insupportable to me Be pleased to afford me your attention to the discourse I have to make to you and it is my earnest prayer to the gods that it may in some measure repair the mischief I have done and restore that happinesse and fortune which I have unfortunately disturbed To this effect was the discourse of Volusius and perceiving that instead of making any answer Cleopatra and Marcellus hearkened very attentively to him he reâ—ssumed the discourse in these terms THE HISTORY OF VOLUSIUS WE are satisfied by experience that both the remembrance of good turns and that of injuries have a different operation according to the different character of those souls where they are entertained and that as there are some minds wherein offences make but a very light impression much lighter then that which good offices might make in them so on the other side there are some in whom the greatest benefits cannot smother the least injuries or to say better who not much sensible of obligations laid upon them have neverthelesse eternal resentments for injuries That I have been worsted and disgraced by Prince Coriolanus I must attribute it meerly to his valour and my own unhappinesse and that I was nobly treated by him it was the effect of his pure generosity and yet the impression of the injury filled my soul in such manner that it leaves not any place for that which the generous entertainment should have had there and opposed the resentment it should have conceived thereof that so I might be the more absolutely hurried into contrary resolutions I doubt not Madam but you have heard how that having been several times defeated in the persons of my Lieutenants I was at last overthrown in my own and through the valour of the son of Juba having lost a battel which in all probability I should have gained I was by the same valour cast to the ground and taken prisoner You have also further understood how that after some daies imprisonment such as was sweetned by all the kind entertainments which I could have received from a brother or the best friend I had the same Prince whom by all manner of injuries I had obliged to treat me with cruelty forgetting all out of an admirable generosity and comforting me in my disgrace with the most obliging words could fall from man gave me my liberty without any condition loaded me with presents of great value and furnished me with ships and men to bring me to Rome or any other place where I would my self It might in all probability be expected I should have been sensible of this treatment as much as I had been of my misfortune but having through my disgrace besides the fame I might have acquired in my former years lost the government of two great Kingdoms a very high fortune for a private man and the hope of finding again among the Romans an establishment comparable to that I had lost the grief I conceived thereat had so cankered my soul that I was not able to entertain those expressions of the goodnesse and clemency of the King of Mauritania with the least discovery of gratitude However I pretended to be extreamly sensible thereof as I ought to have been of a favour I should not have expected and I received with my liberty the other effects of the magnificence of that Prince with those demonstrations which might well perswade him that I was not insensible thereof I went a-board with a soul half burst with grief and I carried with me into the sea an affliction grown so violent through the change of my fortune that there was nothing able to afford me any satisfaction And yet I am apt to imagine that my grief would have been satisfied in being onely a torment to my self without producing any effects prejudicial to the fortune of my Conquerour if something of chance and the sollicitations of other persons had not furnished me witlâ— the occasions to do it and that at a time wherein my sufferings were not aggravated by any design of revenge The third day after my departure I was overtaken by a Vessel that came after me from Mauritania and he that was Commander of it being come aboard mine to give me a visit was known to me to be a person of very great quality among the Moors named Theocles whose Father had had under King Juba the father of Coriolanus the greatest places in the Kingdom and the governments of greatest importance But it happening upon the death of King Juba that Theocles revolted to the Romans and sided very particularly with me as having not the least remainder of love for the royal bloud and that further he had expected till the issue of the war without declaring himself for his Prince as the greatest part of the Moors had done young Juba coming to the Throne had accordingly slighted him though he had not any way disobliged him nor taken away any thing he was possessed of and in the distribution of the Governments and charges which he bestowed on those whom he thought most worthy and had expressed most affection towards him he conceived himself not at all engaged to prefer Theocles whose pretensions were great suitably to his quality and the high rank his Father had lived in before him Theocles thinking himself hardly dealt with and taking it very impatiently that his soveraigne should prefer other persons before him such indeed as were inferiour to him in birth but much more considerable than he by their services and their fidelity to their Prince would needs leave Mauritania and lurk among the enemies of his King and bring over with him among the Romanes his resentments and desires of revenge So that having taken ship the same day that I departed the third after he comes up to me and coming out of his own vessell into mine he gave me a visit making the greatest expressions he could of the affection he had for me Now this man being he that of all the Moores I had held the greatest correspondence with and his discontents being not unknowne to me I was extreamly glad to meet with him and having understood from him that the resentments he had against his Prince were the occasion why he left the Country to follow me and to go along with me to Rome this consonancy of thoughts made me the more confident of him and raised in me a certain affection for him and engaged me to promise him all the friend-and assistance amongst the Romanes that I could possibly help him to Thus resolved we continued
HYMEN'S PRAELUDIA Or LOVES Master-Piece Being the Ninth and Tenth Part of that so much Admir'd ROMANCE INTITULED CLEOPATRA Written Originally in French and now Rendred into English By J. D. EVAND Quid magis optaret Cleopatra parentibus orta Conspicuis comiti quam placuisse thori LONDON Printed for Humphrey Moseley at the Prince's Armes in St. Pauls Church-yard and for John Crook at the Ship in St. Pauls Church-yard 1659. TO THE Most Excellently Accomplish'd Lady THE LADY KATHARINE PHILIPS MADAME WHen I consider you a person so much above your Sex in the command of those Languages wherein things of this nature have ordinarily their first birth and consequentlie that what is intended for the entertainment of others proves your trouble a Translation being no lesse to one that hath read the Original When I reflect on your curiosity to look into these things before they have hardlie taken English aire as it were to prevent the earâ—â—est applications of those who labour in this kind When in fine it runs into my thoughts that what I now bring your Ladyship will haplie have the fate to be cast by with I have long â—inâ—e read it in the Original 't is but poorly done into English I must confesse my self guiltie of a strange suspense of resolution whether I should venture on this Addresse or no. You see then Madam with what deliberation I presume to interrupt your divertisement when after all this foreseen and acknowledg'd I offer you what is likely to prove your importunitie but I hope you think this confidence the effect of something more then the assistances of my own courage For reflecting on your great affection and respects for the excellent CLEOPATRA your particular enquiries after her wellfare and adventures and the tenderness which makes you wish the misfortunes of so great a Princess were at a period I can think it but just that the person from whom she had unknown received those great Civilities should accordingly be returned the particular acknowledgments thereof These Madam I thought motives strong enough to remove all suspence and to vindicate the Present I make you proper for your acceptance but heightned by a reflection on the particular favours I have received from your Ladyship it may haplie have forced me to some excess as whence it might be inferred this confidence proceeded from a secret encouragement haplie somewhat of esteem you are pleased to have for Madam Your most humble and most devoted servant JOHN DAVIES HYMENS PRAELUDIA Or Loves Master-Piece PART IX LIB I. ARGUMENT THe two Princesses Cleopatra and Artemisa compare their Misfortunes and compassionate and comfort one another Artemisa out of her Love to Alexander and the Desire she had to be acquainted with her future Relations entreats Cleopatra to give her an account of her Brothers and Sisters Cleopatra relates the History of Julius Antonius Antonia and young Ptolomy Julius Antonius riding a hunting one day is thrown by his Horse and relieved by an unknown Lady whom he falls passionately in love with Lucius Scipio is in love with Emilia the Daughter of Statilius Scaurus Being a friend of Antonius's he carries him to see his Mistresse where by a fatall chance he meets with the unknown Lady who proves to be Tullia the Daughter of Cicero She abhors Antonius as being the Son of Anthony and Fulvia who had put Cicero to an ignominious and cruel death Tullia is courted by Cecinna with the approbation of her brother Quintus Cicero who bringing her one day to the Amphitheatre to see the combats of certain beasts Antonius hath another sight of her but is much troubled at her kindnesse to Cecinna 〈◊〉 shews him a box wherein was her own picture which he going to return her it slips out of his hands into the Area where the beasts fought Antonius perceaving how much Tullia was troubled at it out of an extravagance of passion leaps down into the Area among the beasts and takes it up but bringing it to her out of a confidence she would take that expression of his love with civility if not with kindnesse she out of the horrid aversion she had for him would not receive it whereupon he keeps it protesting he would never restore it to any hands but her own Cecinna meeting him afterwards alone demands the box of him which Antonius refusing to deliver him it begat a duel wherein Cecinna is killed Vpon which accident as also at the request of Tullia that he would not appear in her sight again Antonius leaves Rome and is never after heard of CLEOPATRA The Ninth Part. BOOK I. THe slumber of the two fair Princesses could not be long not onely because the night was far spent before they fell asleep but also because the importunate resentment of their misfortune would not permit a rest of any great continuance They had hardly opened their bright eyes to receive in the light but they opened them withal to let out tears and it could hardly be discerned whether came out of their mouths first or certain broken fighes or some mournful expressions The dawning must needs be full of affliction that was to be delivered of a day so fatal to these two desolate Princesses for neither could the great courage of Cleopatra nor the resignation of Artemisa fortifie them so as to entertain with constancy the first idaea that presented it self to their imaginations of the misery they were to expect Artemisa having been awake some few minutes and bestowed her first reflections on the memory of her Alexander turns to the Princesse Cleopatra and putting forth her arm to embrace her she felt her give a little start and turning from her to the other side with a certain action wherein she observed no small disturbance Thinking her self obliged to be as tender of the concernment of that dear Sister of hers as of her own she hastily asked her the reason of it and the fair Daughter of Anthony ushering in her answer with certain sighs Sister said she to her the affliction I am in does not onely disturb my reason but it is as unmerciful to my senses and my deluded imagination having while I slept entertained me with the idaea of Coriolanuâ— hath brought into my ears the sound of his very voice and caused me to hear certain words which I should be confident could proceed from no other mouth then his were I not now satisfied to my confusion that it is onely to my imagination that I must attribute these deplorable effects of my affliction Inexorable and yet unfortunate Princess saies that known voice I must then be content to loose you for ever These few words are all I heard or to say better thought I heard but the sound I have some time been so well acquainted with hath made such an impression in my hearing that with all the assistance of my reason I can hardly be perswaded that I have not heard the very voice of Coriolanus 'T was with that reflection that I
to employ all the interest she had in him to get it upon the confidence she had that my Brother would not deny that satisfaction to a person for whom he seemed professed to have a very great esteem Antonius entertained this discourse of Emilia's with abundance of respect and when she had given over speaking Madam said he to her it is not without reason your friend is perswaded that you have an absolute power over me and accordingly I did not much doubt but that she would make this request to you when ever she should be content to have her picture again and I further engage my self that I will returne it as soon as she shall be pleased to receave it and that I have no intention to keep it against her will though I haply better deserve that favour than others whom she may confer it upon Tullia is more discreet replies Emilia then to bestow her picture on any one and I can assure you she hath no such intention and that it is onely for her self that she hath entreated me to get it ouâ— of your hands Ah Madam replied my Brother you know what I am obliged to by my oath an oath I took in the most Illustrious Assembly in the World I cannot return the picture till Tullia desire it nor put it into any other hands than her own I conceave my self disengaged as to the one half of it and I receave the demand you make of it as from Tullia's own mouth but for the other part of my oath whereby I am obliged to restore it onely to her self it cannot admit any explication And if you will give me leave to adde to the justice of my cause the confidence I have in your goodnesse and to speak sincerely to you as to a person whose protection I cast my self under I shall tell you that for the favour of one visit from Tullia she shall receave her picture T is the least she can do if she have any desire to have it again and if she deny me so poor a request you are to imagine it is her pleasure I should keep it all I desire is to put it into her own hands in your presence and you shall be privy to our conversation And to acquaint you with what is most secret to my thoughts since you see I have but this onely means left me to procure one visit more of Tullia while I live methinks you cannot without cruelty take it away from me Emilia found a great deal of reason in my Brothers discourse and Scipio adding his perswasions to the others to prevaile with her they brought her to this at last that she promised to use all the interest she could with Tullia to oblige her to see Antonius once more and to receave her picture from his own hands according as he was engaged by his oath She made it her businesse that very day but to no purpose so that Antonius understood by her the next that all the entreaties she could make to her could not induce that heard-hearted Beauty to condescend thereto and that at last she had with a strange constancy protested that she had rather lose her picture by an accident whence it might not be inferred that she had any design to favour Antonius then resolve to see him and to speak with her will to a man whose name those of her family could not hear without horrour My Brother was extreamly cast down at this obstinacy of Tullia and entertained Emilia with diverse discourses which moved her to much compassion for him but he also continued firm to the resolution he had made not to deliver the picture not that he could do Tullia this displeasure without some repugnance but that besides the comfort he receaved from the sight of that dear image he thought he could not with honour restore it after the protestation he had made not to do it before Cecinna and Cicero who pretended to be so much concerned in it What confirmed him further in this resolution was that some dayes after he understood that Cicero purposely to spight him had bestowed his Sister on Cecinna and it was conceaved that within a few dayes he was to marry her and indeed it was certain that he had promised her to him and though Tullia had not till thâ—â— any particular affection for Cecinna yet being discreet and vertuous she submitted to her Brother's will and without any contradiction entertained the Husband he was pleased she should have This news put my Brother into such violent transports of grief as you may easily imagine if you consider well what I have told you concerning those of his Love nay it is almost a miracle that he did not discover it by some action suitable to the passion he was hurryed by At first all his thoughts ran upon some thing that was violent and fatal and when he imagined to himself that his Rival was happier then he did not onely deprive him of what he loved but might haply be the cause of all Tullia's rigour towards him had prevented him by an affection that made her insensible of all the expressions he made to her of his and exasperated her against him more than any consideration of the death of Cicero he could not oppose the torrent of his resentments nor think of any thing but the death of his Rival How said he walking in a furious manner it was then the love of Cecinna that made Tullia's heart impenetrable as to all compassion and it is Cecinna that robs me of this unmerciful Beauty and with her of all the satisfaction and desire of lifeâ— I wonder not added he at his backwardnesse to recover her picture and the confidence he had soon to be possessed of the person hath made him take it the more indifferently to see her fair image in the hands of an unfortunate Rival T is the knowledge he had of my misfortune made him neglect what haply both his interest and his honour had obliged him to do and I am satisfied he had courage enough to take the advice of his reputation in that emergency if the hope of a greater happinesse had not made him lesse earnest for what was of lesse consequence Whereupon he walked for a good while without speaking at all then breaking forth into his ordinary transports Think not Cecinna said he that I resign Tullia to thee as thou hast done her picture to me it shall cost thee the purest of thy bloud to dispute whose she shall be and since I have hazarded my life for her picture it is but just thou shouldst venture something for the person This was the resolution he took but when he thought himself fully confirmed in it he met with such difficulties in that design which he was not a little startled at He had reason to fear he might displease Caesar who upon what had passed in his presence fearing the consequence had forbidden them very severely to attempt any thing one against
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
the others head into two pieces Upon this spectacle Artaxus perceiving it was not safe to dally any longer and repenting he had not fallen upon him sooner cryed out to his men to hasten to cut off that temerarious person and when he saw himself fortified by those that came about him he advanced along with them with his sword drawn towards the Prince of Mauritania But Cleopatra came and stood before him and speaking to him much more mildly than ever she had done before Artaxus said she to him if ever in thy life thou wilt do an action which I may take kindly at thy hands attempt not the life of Coriolanus and remember the assistance thou hast received from him without which I had been out of thy power and thou thy self haply out of the World What you desire of me Madam replies the King of Armenia is a thing out of my power to grant besides that Coriolanus himself who unworthily abusing the respect I have for you sticks not to murder my men before my face is not desirous of that life which you so much beg for him And yet I shall not take it away from him that I may at length begin to do something that pleases you and though he be my Rival and that one so much the more to be feared for that he is much in your favour yet shall I permit him to live and give him leave to depart immediately out of the ship and go his waies whither it shall please fortune to dispose of him If there be any favour in this replies the Mauritanian it were done to thy self and not to me nor indeed do I make the least doubt of it but that thou wouldst be very glad I were once out of thy ship but thou art not guilty of so much vanity as to imagine I will go hence without the Princesse Cleopatra and therefore resolve immediately either to restore her to liberty or to give me my death and withall to defend thy own life which I doubt not but I shall even in the midst of all thy men put once more into danger Alas for death cries out Artaxus being grown furious to the highest degree thou shalt without much difficulty find it at my hands and here I now sacrifice thee to my resentment and my love both as a temerarious enemy and an insoleâ—t Rival With this Rhodomantade having not the patience to give any further ear either to his words or the cries of Cleopatra whom he caused to be taken away by force from between their arms he began to make towards the Prince who having got to a place whence he could not be assaulted but onely before covering his left arm with a buckler and brandiâ—â—g his dreadful sword with the right expected him in such a posture as spoke him a person whom no danger could frighten Artaxus was both valiant and daring but besides that he was not absolutely recovered of his wounds and felt himself a little too weak to engage in a combat the great actions he had seen him do that day against the enemy that would have rescued Cleopatra made him look on that enterprize with some distrust and accordingly was not much displeased to see the stoutest of his men expose themselves before him to that danger Zenodorus followed by the rest of his companions and some of the Armenians animated by him whose Brother the valiant Prince had killed some daies before was the first that would venture to come on Megacles not able to divert this misfortune would not however have any hand in the crime and holding his armes acrosse at the other end of the ship did all that lay in his power to perswade to stay with him such of the Armenians as had most affection for him Aristus who was the first that offered at the King of Mauritania was also the first that paid for his confidence for having made a blow at the Prince and he putting it off with his buckler he received another from him by way of exchange which taking him in the throat cut off the passage of his respiration For the bloud issuing out of his wound in thick clots choaked him within a few minutes and after he had staggered some paces backwards spreading his arms asunder he fell down and breathed out his last at the King of Armenia's feet Had Cleopatra delighted in revenge and that a bloudy revenge here she might with no small pleasure have looked on this victime which the Prince sacrificed to her since it was this man that had seized her and carried her in his armes into the ship This sudden dispatching of Aristus did a little cool the courage of his companions but it withall animated them to revenge him and the King who had loved Aristus very dearly being extreamly grieved at his fall cryed out to his men to take heart and would have been in the head of them had he been in his absolute strength and if some of his own who would not have him to hazard his life had not stood in his way But this they did partly out of a desire to please him and the fear they were in at the sight of Coriolanus's dreadful sword and partly out of a certain repugnance they felt in themselves to put to death a valiant Prince who not long before had so generously hazarded his life for their safety Those that were the most forward to second Aristus met with a destiny not much different from his and he who was so violent to be revenged for his brothers death coming on a little too rashly lost his resentments with his life by a thrust which for want of arms found a way into his belly and which made him fall down into a rivulet of his own bloud The deaths of these two men made their companions more circumspect and more fearful of the length of Coriolanus's sword The valiant Prince looking on them with a certain contempt and frightning them the more by menacing gestures It is not so easie a matter said he to them as you conceived it to take away a mans life who knows how to defend it the advantage of number and arms does not alwaies bring victory with it and if I dy this day as it is possible I may by your hands if the gods have so disposed of me I hope I shall not dy unrevenged Having said these words to them he kept his former posture that is stood close to the ships side to avoid being set upon behind and warding off the blowes which were made at him with his buckler he looked like lightning on his enemies and when any one of them instigated either by shame or the cries of Artaxus grew more daring then his companions he neglected not either time or occasion to make him repent his forwardnesse and alwaies directed his sword so fortunately and with such force and execution that it ever proved either the messenger of death or some cruell wound At last Zenodorus to whom
Alexander he was guilty of a greater freedom of apprehension and consequently was the lesse troubled at the horrour of that object Hence was it that he took occasion to speak while the other was silent and darting on Artaxus a look expressing the greatnesse of his indignation Barbarous wretch said he to him if the sight of those divine beauties cannot stay thy hands consider what will become of thy own life in that horrid attempt and doubt not but thou shalt loose it by the most exquisite torments that humane invention ever found out if thou execute thy barbarous resolution The Armenian smiled at this discourse of Marcellus and looking on him very scornefully Do not imagine said he to him that thou canst frighten me with thy menaces or that I stand in any fear of death my self after I have given it to what I love beyond my selfe but if thou with Alexander art desirous of the safety of these Princesses resolve immediately to do as I would have you for fear your resolutions come too late Ah! saies Alexander to him assuming the discourse at last will thy cruelties never have any end and wilt thou treat me with more inhumanity upon the sea of Alexandria then thou didst upon the scaffold at Artaxata Thus did he speak to him as much out of tendernesse as indignation when the couragious Cleopatra out of a jealousy that that softnesse might prove prejudiciall to her liberty and standing less in fear of death then of her captivity and the importunate Love of the King of Armenia brok that silence which she had observed all the time before and looking on Alexander with a countenance that argued much more confidence than his Brother said she to him have a greater relyance on the gods then to forsake us upon the vain frights which Artaxus would put us into He dares not put us to death but though we were to expect it we think it much more supportable then the life he prepares for us Artaxus was in a manner satisfied that these words of Cleopatra would have that effect on the spirit of Marcellus and that of Alexander as she expected they should and fearing to be surprized he lifted up his arme as he drew near to Cleopatra who was gotten some paces from him either to frighten them the more or possibly to execute his bloody resolution But as happy fortune would have it at the very same instant of time the valiant son of Juba who was fighting at the other end of the ship against those that were left of the Pirates had notwithstanding their finding him so much employment minding the safety of Cleopatra much more than his own partly taken notice of what was past Transported at the imminent danger he saw her in and perceiving it was not now a time for him to be so mindfull of his own life broke through those enemies that stood in his way and laying on the ground all that any way opposed him he got up to the King of Armenia with so much speed that before he was sensible of his coming he gave him a thrust with such force that he laid him at his feet and tumbled him upon the deck to one fide of the vessell Artaxus made a shift to get upon again bet e're he could do it Coriolanus was gotten before Cleopatra in a condition to defend her while in the mean time Alexander and Marcellus in taking their advantage of this intervall had caused their ship to close with the other and notwithstanding the opposition of the Armenians and the Pirates who joyned with them with abundance of resolution made their way through and boarded the Armenian This fight as it was undertaken upon a barbarous occasion so was it managed with more animosity than ordinary and upon that account was it that there was some blood spilt which upon another occasion had haply through the clemency of the Chiefs been spared The Aegyptian souldiers that followed Alexander put all they met with in their way to the sword but that Prince and Marcellus scorning a victory too easily gained ran to Cleopatra and Artemisa and if love obliged the son of Antony to mind in the first place what he most loved Friendship had in a manner the same effect upon the son of Octavia Alexander full of fury and indignation ran towards Artaxus whom rage had put upon the last and most violent attempts and who must needs have expected the execution of a just revenge but Artemisa stepped before him and speaking to her dearest Alexander with her natural goodnesse Alexander said she to him put not to death the King my Brother and satisfie your selfe with the victory and possession of Artemisa Alexander let fall the point of his sword at this discourse and looking on the Princesse with an action full of affection and respect Madam said he to her had not you laid your câ—mmands on me I should have considered in the person of Artaxus both the blood of Artemisa and the dignity of a King Whereupon turning to Artaxus who swelling with rage and confusion and overpressed with grief and wearinesse sate upon the deck whence darting his scattered lookes of all sides his thoughts ran upon what was most barbarous and horrid King of Armenia said he to him thou shalt receive from us what thou hast never granted any one and what indeed thou shouldst not expect if thou call to mind that cruell scaffold upon which my head was once made a publick spectacle We leave thee thy life and absolute liberty to dispose of thy self as thou pleasest and desire no other advantage than that of delivering Artemisa and Cleopatra out of thy cruell hands From this difference of carriage thou maist reflect on what there is between us and from the ill successe of thy enterprises infer what horrour and vengeance the good and just powers of heaven have for thy violences and cruelties To this effect was the discourse of Alexander when the King of Armenia looking on him with eies wherein the rage which possessed him was visibly apparent Be not so fond as to imagine said he to him that I will accept of a life from the son of Anthony the Cajoller of Artemisa and the brother of Cleopatra Thy very birth made thee my enemy thy crime armed me against thee and thy Sister by the little regard she had for my love hath deprived me of all the desire I could have had for life Think not then that I will owe it to him who hath occasioned me so many misfortunes or survive the hope I now lose both of being revenged of thee and possessing Cleopatra With these words he rises with his sword in his hand from the place where he was set and rowling his dreadful eyes about him gave all notice as it were of the horrid resolution he had taken The two Princesses who were best acquainted with his furious humours ran behind their defenders and the Princes set themselves before them in a posture to
for joy gave me so many kisses and spoke to me with so much earnestnesse that at last he absolutely recovered me to life again I began to feele and to see but had not the power to stir and though I saw Eteocles yet did I not perfectly know him but as it were by some broken remainders of an Idaea halfe forced out of my memory In the mean time he perceived it was impossible for him any way to relieve me and though he saw I was come to my selfe yet did he in a manner put it out of all question that I would die for want of assistance and out of the fear he was in it might so come to passe he importuned heaven with cries and exclamations and did all that lay in his power to call in somebody to our reliefe Yet were they not his cries that wrought that effect but it happened by an adventure very strange and unexpected whereof for many reasons I thought fit to give the Queen but a slender and imperfect account but shall now relate at large since it hath been your pleasure to command it from me I had already made a shift to open my eies fully though all I could do was onely to stir them a little when Eteocles heares the neighings of certain horses and the noise of their going which made him imagine that there were some people coming towards us He thereupon lookes about him and perceives a chariot coming into the field among the dead bodies wherewith it was covered and a man riding on horseback before the chariot as if he had been a guide to those persons that were within it Those were onely two women one whereof filled the aire with the dolefulnesse of her Lamentations and there followed the chariot onely three slaves all asoot At last when they were come quite into the field the heaps of dead bodies hindering the passage of the chariot the women that were within it were forced to alight and the man that was on horseback having done the like took the more considerable of the two by the arme and led her towards the place where we were Eteocles whom this accident put into a great hopes of relief took very much notice of all that passed and distinctly heard the mournfull cries and expostulations of that disconsolate Lady which certainly were such as might have been heard many Stadia's Her hair was loose and dishevelled as if she had been fallen into some extravagance her eies showred down teares her breast almost rent with the violence of hersighes in a word her deportment was no other then that of a person distracted and ready to fall into despair Terrible death cried she implacable devourer of mankind which appearest to me here in so many formes is it possible that in this place where thou hast exercised thy power with so much cruelty thou shouldst forbear to dispatch one miserable creature that defies thee or that thou canst deny her thy assistance after thou hast deprived her of all that could oblige her to shun thy face Insatiable Goddesse to whom my malicious Fortune hath sacrificed all that the earth had that was amiable in my sight is it possible thou shouldst avoid an unfortunate woman as I am while thou cuttest off such noble lives and that more inhumane in thy compassion than thy cruelty thou must needs strike a thousand times at a heart which there needs but one blow to deliver from thy Tyranny Here sighs and sobs made a patenthesis in her discourse forsome minutes but soon after reassuming it with an accent much more dolefull Teramenes continued she my dear Teramenes where art thou why dost thou conceale thy selfe from me O thou body that I have loved beyond all things why dost thou hide thy self from her eies that was sometimes so dear to thee Art thou afraid thy countenance covered with the horrours of death might frighten me or that it will be a lesse delightfull object to me in that figure then it was in that wherein I was so much taken with it No no my dearest Teramenes even under that dreadfull livery under that irremissible ice of death I shall think thee amiable and it may not haply be impossible I should by my kisses restore to thee some part of that which thou hast lost and reinfuse into thy cold body that soule which thou hadst enflamed with a fire that death it self is not able to put out At this passage she made a little truce with her Lamentations but it lasting not above a minute or two she turnes her self to the man that conducted her But Pelorus said she to him where is then the body of Teramenes You shewed me this place with a confidence it was that where I should infallibly find it and yet among this vast number of carkases I see not that of my Teramenes Fear not Madam replied the man to whom she spake it will not be long e're we find it for now we are come to the place where I saw him fall yesterday by the hands of Cleomedon No doubt but he came by his own death out of the over earnestnesse he had to revenge that of your Brothers who died by the same hand in the former battle as also out of an excessive desire to have the honour of dispatching with his own hands a Prince of so great a fame Cleomedon falling at his feet drew him upon him and with that little remainder of strength he was yet master of ran him into the throat with a dagger which he had still in his hand Teramenes though mortally wounded with that thrust made a shift to get off the body of the expiring Cleomedon but after he had staggered a little he fell down within some ten paces of him and by reason of the bloud which coming out abundantly hindred his respiration died immediately Ah cruell man cries out the Lady ah inhumane stranger whom I had never any waies injured and that leavest thy native soile to bring death after so many severall waies into the breast of the innocent Eurinoe May it please the gods since I have no other revenge either to take or desire upon thee that thy body may be the prey of Vultures and that thy shade may eternally wander amongst the most unfortunate ones without ever obtaining of the infernal Gods any other rest then what thou leavest this miserable woman Thou hadst opened the sluces of my tears by the death of a brother I infinitely loved which thy unmerciful arms had deprived me of not many daies before but thou thoughtst it not sufficient to assault my self only upon the account of Blood and Friendship without sacrificing to thy cruelty whatever there is in Love that is most passionate and most violent in the death of my Teramenes While she disburthened her grief by such expostulations he who conducted her shewed her the body she looked after which lay not above fifteen or twenty paces from us and it was upon the cruel spectacle that
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
that it is meerly to your goodnesse that I am to attribute the assistances I have received from you since I had not any waies deserved them If it be meerly upon the account of goodnesse replied she with a sigh alasse how fatall will that goodnesse prove to me and if I am onely good to you how cruell am I to my self It would be an infinite trouble to me replied I to think that the good offices you do me should cause you any displeasure and therefore when my health shall be in another posture than it is now I shall heartily spend this life which I have received from your courtesie to protect you against whatever you may fear You your self said she casting down her eies with a blush which covered all her face you are the most dreadfull of my enemies the onely person I can fear and the onely man against whom you can offer me your assistances These words though I were not at all surprised thereat put me to such a losse that I knew not what answer to make her and seeing me silent as seeking what to say It plainly argues in you added she an excesse of cruelty to pretend your selfe ignorant of my condition after what you have discovered your self and what you might have understood from Eteocles You cannot be yet to learn that miraculous alteration of my heart and sentiments which by reason of the inexpressible suddennesse of it must needs proceed from some superiour power or a strange fatality e're it could passe out of one extremity into the other It is impossible you should not take notice of its engagement in my actions since and in fine you but too too well perceive all the transactions of my soule for me to trouble my self to acquaint you therewith by my discourses I am not naturally very much inclined to make declarations of this kind but I have not been able to contain my self in an adventure absolutely prodigious and whereof all the consequences must needs be extraordinary Here Eurinoe put a period to her discourse not without great discoveries of confusion and I was in too much disorder my self not to be astonished thereat as perceiving my self reduced out of necessity to act a part for which I had so much aversion I thought it fit to make her some answer and after I had studied sometime to dresse it with such obliging expressions as that I might neither engage my self nor deceive her Madam said I to her I now perceive I am much more happy than I thought myself since I must infer from your discourse it being your pleasure I should that I owe that to your affection which I thought my self obliged for onely to your pitty This happinesse is too great not to be esteemed and acknowledged by a person that hath the least pretence to respect and gratitude and I must therefore promise you that you shall find my heart as well furnished as to that point as you can desire your self This was all I said to her for the first time and I was not able to judge whether she were satisfied or displeased at it for that Pelorus whose fidelity she began to mistrust comes into the chamber which obliged her to fall upon some other discourse and not long after to leave the roome The discoveries of this affection of Eurinoe had made some further impressions upon me if my soule had not been then strugling with other afflictions which I thought more insupportable and if the knowledge I might have had of the extremities whereto my Queen had been reduced thorough the Tyranny of Tiribasus had not tormented me with such a violence as afforded me but little leasure to think of any thing else Wo is me what cruell reflections was I persecuted with at that time and how often in the daie did I represent to my self that my fairest Queen was fallen into the power of Tiribasus and it may be upon termes of yeelding to his violence Then was it that I seriously repented me of my rashnesse in pursuing my own death at a time that I should most have husbanded my life to do her further service and I thought that if I had minded my own safety I might have been able alone and by some other waies to take away Tiribasus'â— life in the midst of all his Guards That which aggravated my grief was that I durst neither enquire after any newes from the Queen nor give any credit to what I heard related in that place as being such as I could not but suspect On the other side I could well remember that just upon my engagement in the battle I had writ her a Letter whereby I gave her to understand that I was going to inevitable death and consequently made no doubt but that the newes of my departure was soon brought her and spread all over Aethiopia And thâ—â— I saw must needs prove prejudiciall to me two waies either by exposing her to a grief for my losse proportionable to the first experiences I had received of her favours or by exempting her by my death from the obligation she had to my Love and the promise she had made me I was so tormented with these cruell reflections that I saw there was no remedie but patiently to expect my recoverie and to hasten it all that lay in my power it being not to be expected I should there meet with any expresse messenger whom I durst trust with the secret of my life and Etâ—ocles being absolutely resolved not to leave me in the doubtfull posture I was in as to point of health and withall in a place where I lay subject to a thousand dangers if my abode there were discovered I therefore resolved with much difficultie to complie with the present necessity mustring up all the forces of my mind to my assistance in that emergencie while in the mean time my fairest Queen was still in my thoughts and her idaea as it was the cause of all my sufferings was also the ground of all my consolations That part of the Castle into which we were disposed was at some distance from all the rest so that those persons that were in the others knew nothing of what was done where we were Eurinoe having so ordered things that all was carried on with the greatest caution and secrecy imaginable By this means had I all the accommodation and attendance I could desire insomuch that having kept my bed a moneth I at last began to sit up and to walk a little about the room Now had I so much of Eurinoe's company that she was in a manner never from me making it her businesse by all her discourses though ever cloathed with modesty enough to convince me of the greatnesse of her affection I on the other side expressed my self with as much acknowledgment as I could possibly of the obligations I ought her as well because I thought it no more then civility to do so as upon the advice of Eteocles who would not
on her with a countenance wherein his passion was extreamly visible Is it possible Eurinoe said he to her you should be so much affrighted at Teramenes living when you could find in your heart to give him kisses when he was dead and wash his face with so many teares But can I think that change any miracle cruell and ungratefull Eurinoe when I am so well acquainted with that of your soule and that I am not ignorant how that in the same minute you were seen to passe from the effects of the most violent passion in the world to a mortall oblivion of him that had adored you with so much fidelity and to new inclinations for a dying man whom you had never seen before and one that had been the death of those persons whom you thought dearest to you I return Eurinoe I return almost from hell to reproach you with your prodigious inconstancy and the gods have been pleased to restore me to life contrary both to your expectation and my own that I might come and represent to you the many oaths and protestations wherein you have called them to witnesse to your promises of an eternall affection for me Is it possible that you can call them to mind without remorse and confusion and can so many demonstrations of my love which you sometime valued at the highest rate come into your memory and not raise in you either a secret grief or a secret repentance Your hand was lifted up to thrust a dagger into the heart of my Murtherer and by an extravagance of passion you were hurried into extremities not ordinary to your sex when that fatall sight gave a check to your cruelty and that new love possessing it self of your soule in an instant forced thence the unfortunate Teramenes in such manner that you hardly remembred he had once lived In the mean time my life was preserved to my greater misfortune and I wish it had pleased the gods to have put a period to it at that very minute when your affection ceased and that their assistance and that of men had not proved so effectuall as to restore it me to make me fall into the greatest unhappinesse that ever man groaned under Do you imagine Eurinoe that heaven hath not a punishment for so strange an insidelity and that the cries of a desperate and an injured Lover will not bring upon your head those misfortunes which his Love permits him not to wish you To this effect was the discourse of Teramenes which fell from him with a certain action that raised in me abundance of pittie and he would have said more had not the excesse of his grief prevented him when Eurinoe having quite recovered her self as convinced both by the things which she heard and by what Pelorus had told her would needs stop the torrent of his words Whereupon smothering that confusion and remorse which had tied up her tongue so long she looked on Teramenes not without some remainders of the fright he had put her into and not long after venturing to speak though with difficulty enough Whatever thou art said she to him whether the Ghost of Teramenes or Teramenes himself alive thou hast filled my soule with terrour and astonishment and I cannot look on thee in that condition after I had honoured thy cold and bloody body with the last demonstrations of my Love but I must needs be disturbed at so strange an adventure Assure thy self therefore that what thou hast observed in my countenance is meerly the effect of that trouble and not of that confusion and remorse which thou dost reproach me with and though it might haply have proved more advantageous to my self to have continued my affections to thee even after thy death since it was decreed thou shouldst come to life again yet is it certain that thou hast lost them by a misfortune which I have not any way contributed to With what justice Teramenes canst thou charge me with any infidelity towards thee Have I been any way backward in the Love I had promised thee to the very last minute of thy life or did we perswade one another that our Love should last beyond this life What law is that which engages one to this eternity of affection towards the dead or by what symptomes could I judge that thou shouldst return to life after I had caused thee to be brought out of the Field in order to thy buriall Those demonstrations of love which I gave thee and what else thou maist have understood from the unfaithfull Pelorus were they the effects of an ordinary passion and was there not ground enough thou shouldest be satisfied with a passion which engaged me to do things beyond the bounds of reason To revenge thee I became contrary to my naturall inclinations more cruell than a Lyonesse and would have attempted the life of an expiring Prince at whose sight even Tygresses would have been moved to compassion If I therefore were moved thereat if the will of the gods and generositie obliged me to assist him and if since as thou art too well informed to be denied any thing his excellent endowments or some superiour irresistible power have forced my inclinations and taken that place in my heart which was not to be eternally kept empty for one that was dead dost thou find in this misfortune that horrid infidelity which thou reproachest me with or didst thou imagine that my obligations were as great to thy ghost as they were while living to thy self No Teramenes think not that thou canst accuse me with any justice and if thou hast been so unhappy to loose my affections by an adventure so prodigious quarrel with heaven whose will it was it should be so and not with my will which hath contributed nothing thereto As to the misfortune which thou bewailest so much my condition is not a jot happier than thine and thou maist elsewhere find a better fortune than thou canst expect with the unfortunate Eurinoe while in the mean time it is destined she should be eternally miserable and exposed to that chastisement of heaven which thou saiest must fall upon me and which indeed I have already felt The period of this discourse of Eurinoe's was a shower of tears which it lay not in her power to keep in any longer Whereupon Teramenes whom it put to the extremity of grief by reason there could not be a greater confirmation of the reality of his unhappinesse casting a dreadfull look upon her No no Eurince said he to her I shall accuse you no longer but acknowledge with you and submit to that irresistible power which hath forced your inclinations But in regard my life might do your reputation some prejudice in the world though my tongue were silent and that it is not to be doubted but that I am now as abomible as ever I was amiable in your sight it is but just my life should here determine and that in such a manner that you may not be
give me not occasion by a feeble resistance to blush at the defeat of a man of inconsiderable valour Do not imagine I shall make use of the advantage I have over you though the nature of the injury you have done me might very well induce me to wave that consideration and since you have nothing about you but abare sword I shall put off this armour which if I should keep on the engagement were unequall With those words he cast off his head-piece and buckler and was going to unhaspe his â—â—irats when looking upon him with the countenance of a man already overcome and one that prepared himself for voluntary death rather than a combate My Lord said I to him If these little remainders of life I have left me can any way satisfie your revenge you may without any difficulty take them nay though I were much more in love with it then I am you should never see me defend it against you This is the second time that I receive it as your gift and therefore present you with nothing but what was yours before when I sacrifice it to your just indignation Besides should I endeavour the resistance which you would have me undertake I have not strength to beare me out in it for I sind my spirits issuing out with my blood with such hast that it is with some difficulty they afford me the leasure to speak to you so that if you consider the condition I am in you may well take a just revenge on me but not expect an honourable victory Nor indeed is it from the ruine of a person infamous for his perâ—idiousnesse and treachery that you ought to look for any glory yet will it not be any reproach to you though you should without any further combate run your weapon through a breast which I lay open to you and which I offer up to your indignation without any other regret than that of an incapacity to make you better satisfaction for the mischief I have been the occasion of and the injury I have done you While I spoke to this effect the Prince perceiving my countenance grew more and more pale and that my blood ran down along my cloaths in abundance not onely moderated his just displeasure which would have armed him against me but passing from one extream into another with a generosity that is never met with in any soule but such as his he seemed in a manner ashamed that he had been so ready to engage a man to sight that was weakened by so great wounds Whereupon compassion forcing its passage into that truely-royall heart through those barricadoes of passion which for some time had opposed it he became tenderly moved at the wretchednesse of my condition and looking on me with a countenance wherein there was not any thing legible of his indignation Volusius said he to me the injury you have done me is of such a high nature that it is not to be satisfied with light reparations but it is not in the condition you are now in that I can take my revenge on you nor indeed have I been wont to fight my enemies when they are weakened by wounds and incapable to defend themselves Far be it from me to take those remainders of life you offer me since that though you had many whole lives to give me 't were but little by way of reparation for those cruell losses which I have suffered by your meanes With these words out of a miraculous excesse of goodnesse he commanded his Esquire to help me off my horse to view my wounds and to stop my blood if it were possible The officious Esquire immediately obeyed his Masters command and having torne off some linnen from his owne cloathes he endeavoured to stop the blood which ran in abundance from my two wounds and to recover me so far as that I might get hither being not distant many stadia's After I had received that assistance from him turning to the Prince who looked on the good office he did me without any expression of animosity My Lord said I to him this miraculous goodnesse of yours does in a manner multiply my crime and forces a grief upon me such as I shall not be able to shake off but by the hope I am in that the arrowes which the sence of my crime thrusts into my breast will ere long put a period to my life The gods know that the remorse I conceived at that was the onely thing which brought it into the hazard wherein you have seen it and if I had not discovered to Tiberius a regret for the offence I had committed and to Theocles a horrour for his perfidiousnesse they had never plotted that against me which no doubt but this latter was to put in execution as well to satisfie his own resentments as to obey the orders of Tiberius The Prince interrupting me at these words entreated me to clear up a little more that which I had said somewhat obscurely Whereupon to satisfie him I made him abrief relation of what I have repeated to you more at large as well in relation to the instructions we had observed in the carrying on of the treacherous designe we had upon you as to what had happened to me from my departure out of Mauritania to our then meeting And when I was come to the close of my discourse I shewed him the perfidious Theocles who had newly breathed his last and whom the gods by the miracles of their providence had reserved to die by his hands as a reward of the horrid attempt he had made upon his life The son of Juba was very much astonished at the wickednesse of Theocles whose face he knew though somewhat disâ—igured by death At last when I perceived that he was what by my words what by my deportment perswaded I was truely sorry forwhat I had done I am very unfortunate said I to him that I can do so little in order to any reparation for my crime and all the favour I desire of the gods is that they would continue me the light of this life but till such time as that I have acquainted the Princesse Cleopatra and Prince Marcellus with the cruell abuse we have put upon them I shall give them an account of the whole transaction and will acknowledge it to all the World to my last gasp In a word I shall endeavour to restore you to that innocence which I have been the occasion that you have lost in the opinion of men and I wish my bloud spent upon no juster an account then that of restoring you to that kingdom which I sometime maintained so poorly against you Accept from a miserable wretch of what you can get for the expiation of his perfidiousnesse since you will not take those poor remainders of life he offered you and which should have been sacrificed to your revenge These words were accompanied by so many expressions of a real and sincere repentance that the Prince absolutely
satisfied that I was truely sensible of the hainousnesse of my crime was extreamly moved at it himself by the discoveries I had made thereof Whereupon having continued silent a little while as it were to recollect himself and to consider what he had to say to me Volusius said he I heartily forgive you the mischief you have done me and am satisfied with the death of this persidious subject whom the gods by a miraculous conduct of their justice had reserved to perish by my hands when I least expected it I refuse not the proffer you make me to give an account of my innocence to Cleopatra and Marcellus I am confident they have already entertained some apprehensions thereof and it will be your businesse to rid them of all those which may be yet remaining in them of the infidelity wherewith I have been charged I imagine not but that my justification is of as great concernment to me as the recovery of my kingdom I have made a shift to live without a Kingdom assured of the affections of Cleopatra but I would not be burthened with the keeping of a Kingdom when I have been abhorred by Cleopatra I shall entreat you to tell both the Princesse and Marcellus that I had deserved they should have made a stricter inquisition into my crime and consequently been more concerned in my vindication before they had condemned me with so much severity and that they should both of them have debated the businesse a little on my behalf against apparences uncertain enough How do I acknowledge my self obliged to the gods that they have ordered things so as that before my death I may let them know I have not been perfidious either to my Mistresse or my Friend and that since I have recovered my self from their reproaches by truth they shall never hear of those which I might make to them meerly out of the love and respect which I shall have for them to the very last breath Onely you will be pleased to entreat the Princesse to remember her self that notwithstanding my innocence notwithstanding my justification I am no longer worthy to serve her and that though I might hope the recovery of her affections yet durst I not presume to desire they should be cast away on a wretch persecuted by heaven and a crosse fortune and one who hath not all over the earth any place he may call his own Further that time hath been I might through the friendship and assistance of Caesar have hoped to be restored to a condition not much different from that of my Ancestors that after I had lost Caesars friendship I had recovered a Kingdom wherein she should have reigned had the gods and my cruel destiny been so pleased But that now being dispossessed of all all assistance all protection and all hope it is not fit I should lift up my eies on a Princesse whom the greatest Kings upon earth would think it a glory to serve nor indeed so much as wish my self beloved by her since she cannot affect me but upon a condition of her own unhappinesse by involving her self in the miserable destiny of the most unfortunate of mankind That all I have to do now is to dy so to put a worthy Period to this Tragedy and that I shall be able to do either by laying violent hands on my self after the example of the King my father or by Caesars wrath whereto I shall expose my self without the least fear after I have offered up to my ill fortune a victime which I am obliged to sacrifice to her That after that action whatever may be the event of it I shall endeavour to forbear disturbing the enjoyments of a person that is a thousand times dearer to me then the life which I bestow to further them and lastly that I make it my earnest suit to the gods that they never be interrupted by the memory of a wretch whose remembrance might haply occasion some disturbance in the felicities I wish her With those words reaching forth his hand to me he bad me farewell and having commanded his Squire to help me up on horseback again to come for Alexandria in order to the cure of my wounds he took another way and left me much more troubled at his discourse and the action of it then I was at the danger and pain of my wounds Being gotten on horse-back again by the assistance of his Squire I took my way towards this City much about the setting of the Sun and came into it before it was quite dark so weakened that I was hardly able to stand As to what hath passed since I shall not trouble you I was kindly entertained by Cornelius who was my ancient friend and seemed to be very much troubled at my misfortune but it was not in his power to hinder me out of any consideration of health which he pressed very much from leaving my bed assoon as ever I understood Madam I might have accesse to you to acquit my self of the charge I had taken upon me and to clear to you and Prince Marcellus the innocency of a Prince who was never guilty of any thing but by the artifices of Tiberius and our combination and who cannot justly bâ— charged with any thing either as to his Mistresse or his Friend but is the most constant and most generous of all men living I acknowledge the goodnesse of the gods in the favour they have done me to acquaint you with this truth before I dy and humbly beg it of them that this discovery which proceeding from a real repentance I now make to you may in some measure be thought a reparation of my crime It hath produced effects too too important and too too deplorable for me to hope any pardon from you though I have obtained it from him who hath been the greatest sufferer thereby and whom I had offended most but I fear me I have received my punishment from those that were my co-agents in it and that I shall not long survive the discovery of an action which must needs make me abominable in the sight of all the World Thus did Volusius put a Period to his discourse and though that towards the end of it he observed in the countenances of Cleopatra and Marcellus more compassion and grief then resentment or indignation against him yet were it that he could not any longer endure the presence of persons whom he had so highly injured or that his wounds troubled him he would not make any longer stay in the chamber and with some difficulty making a shift to rise off the chair he was sate in after he had by a gesture full of humility and the expressions of his grief taken his leave of the Prince and Princesse he passed into the outer-room where he found the persons which Cornelius had left there to bring him back to his lodgings It were no easie matter to represent what posture Marcellus and Cleopatra were in upon this relation of Volusius They