At which name this poor dying man seem'd to enjoy new life of such strength is the empire of Love in the most violent pangs of death His soul took strength at this feeble hope to encourage his body and by little and little the hopes of life came again but yet so leisurely he recovered as rather languishing then living they knew not what to do to restore him Timoleon having many houses had him conveyed from one to another to try if the change of air would give him health but it comes as heavy as lead although his sickness came post certainly it is easie to descend says the Poet but very hard to get up The farther he went from Bellerive the worse he was because he was further off Vaupre where was the only remedy of his longings and the only air that could recover him The end of the first Book ELISE OR Innocencie guilty The Second Book NOt far from the Pyrene Mountains amongst many very pleasant habitations there is a little Hill that for the beauty and fertility of it the inhabitants call Gold-Mount Here Timoleon hath a Castle that hath two properties which lightly are not found together being both strong and fair invironed with a pleasant country and accommodated with all the delights one can desire in a Country-house He commands Philippin to be removed thither and accompanies him himself But by reason they separated him from the Center of his affections all these sweet delights of this pleasant Country were to him bitter and unpleasing they are constrained to bring him back again to Bellarive where when as he began by little and little to get strength helped by the hope he had not to be any more crossed in his love Timoleon having made Scipion tell him that now he thought no more of those promises which he had made him that he did it but to cozen his disease he fell suddenly into such a terrible frensie that whereas in his first sickness they thought only of the loss of his life this second they thought to take away his wits for this troubled him so strangely and produced such unformed actions and fearfull words as none had ever heard tell of the like raving Here is Timoleon more afflicted then ever and the Physitians much troubled to find the cause of this new disease of body not any way considering the troubles of his mind but only by conjectures drawn from the sympathie of the two principal parts which compose our being they imagine that having been bred at Paris and at Court the air of the Country is not so natural as that of the Town for him and that his sadness causes these strange humours in his spirit Timoleon is perswaded the same and resolves to bring him to a place where the frequenting of company might divert him from these melancholy fits Billerive is but a dayes journey from one of the principal Cities in France where he may go without passing the bounds of his exile which was not limited but within his own Province There are more store of Physitians and remedies at hand and spiritual Comforters in greater number His rank and quality noted in the Country made him at first coming visited by many of the chiefest persons of remark Time which is the great Physitian of the affliction of the spirit having drawn away the clouds which suffocated the reason of Philippin renders him now more fit for consolation then he had been before and this house in Town seeming more like the life and air of the Court his first element gives him some ease of his many sufferings Here of a sudden he is returned to his senses and perfect health yet nevertheless always his heart returns towards Vaupre as loving that side of the North. Many visits he hath every day as much for the respect of his father as for the sweetness of his own conversation Though not quite healed of his wound nothing is so pleasing to him as to steal by himself sometimes to contemplate his thoughts in the object he could not see but with the eyes of his understanding As many men as attend him are as so many Watches so that he might say as the holy Scripture saith So many domesticks as many enemies Timoleon which saw this fire was covered with ashes not quite out pressed in part with desire to divert his son from this affection prejudicial to the greatness of his house and partly with desire to see him married which of necessity must be done sometimes consulting if he should send him into Italy or to travel into Spain or to imploy him in the Town in those exercises which young Noblemen ordinarily use His friends counselled him not to send him into those strange Countries so suddenly after his sickness it is his only son the light of his eyes the staff of his age this changing of Country will not change his affection as marriage would All conclude that marriage was a tye that would settle him in peace and bring him comfort and assure his house withdrawing him from all these youthfull passions Timoleon makes choise of this forced to it by his domestick necessities for his so long having been a Courtier living at a great height of expence had brought him much behind-hand and in great debts having been constrained to mortgage a good part of his estate A good portion would clear all this This deliberation made known there would not need much time to find a fit Match for him as being of so noble a house the best in that Town would be very proud of his alliance to match their daughter so honorably A Magistrate of a soveraign Company wonderfull rich having but two Daughters the eldest being married to one of the Officers of this Estate the second we will call Elise for two reasons for truly she bore the name of the famous Cousin visited by the Mother of our blessed Saviour when she was with child of the Forerunner of Messias and because methinks she hath somthing in her innocencie found fit to be compared to the Queen of Carthage whom the Prince of the Roman Poets that pleasing lyre hath taxed with having committed a fault with Aeneas of which she is revenged by those which have written the true history of her chaste carriage This younger was a Maid although but indifferently endowed with the gifts of nature in what concerns the face in so much as she was judged better for a Wife then for a Mistress but on the other side she was so endowed with vertue and with that which most esteem riches that this abundance of gold was able to make any one to think deformity it self fair Timoleon sees this Maid for his Son and like him which more considered her wealth then her form finds that this great portion would quite clear all his affairs and disengage all his house He speaks with Scevole thus we will name this Magistrate father of this Gentlewoman who is not slow in opening his eyes on
sweetening their bitterness I will not represent the pains I now endure being they sever the miseries of my soul and body but I assure you they seem far lighter to me then those I felt when by your command I was separated from you and then I had more understanding to feel it then now to express it It Would be to offend their extremities to think to speak them And if they might be resisted I would not for that being of a nature communicable their contagion might pass into your soul by conpassion and I desire that my death may be a subject of rejoycing to you Permit me only to qualifie all the injuries the world esteems you have done me with the title of good renouncing the reward due to all the services I have rendred you so that satisfying my passion in serving you I have contented my self it lies not in me that you lose not the remembrance if it troubles never so little your joy if my humilities are of any consideration before you methinks they will deserve the credit to be forgot So much I fear as nothing more that the image of my imperfections should again trouble your fancy For I believe if there rests any feeling in bones laid in the tomb the tranquility of mine will be troubled if I thought that pitty might find place in your heart which I have experimented so void of love what a pain would it be to me if I believed only that you would grieve for having killed me For although I ought not to desire a fairer monument then the thoughts of your soul yet acknowledging my unworthiness I dare not apprehend so stately an inclosure because I know I should not rest without causing your unquietness I 'll content my self with the glory that I die for you if I dare say for you for since that I lived but for you is it not giving you that which I owe that I render you my life Nor is this death presented to taxe you or to change into wrong to you that which to me is a high degree of honour only I shew you with all kind of humility that if in honouring you I have been so unhappy to displease you I have not been so miserable to offend you Your opinion shall be such as you please but it shall be permitted me to believe that as I could not address my avows to a more accomplished subject perhaps hereafter you may more acknowledge And although this effect hath not seconded my intention my intention hath had nevertheless its effect which had no other design but to testifie my fidelity I know well that in all I have done but what I ought but as I think not to have failed so it must be confessed that giving all I ought to whom I ought all is no little proof of zeal Happy if I had shewed by the loss of my life that of the holy affections which you have sworn before God and his Angels Be happy at least in my disaster to have endured without desert that you would have me suffer Live from henceforth free by my death leaving me this contentment in my misery to believe that it brings you comfort I will endure it in honouring you All that comes from your hands cannot but be received by me I adore the hand of God which corrects me by yours which mingles gall with that too much honey I tasted in possessing of you and severs me from all delights of the world to make me aspire to the eternal At least dear Philippin acknowledg my fidelity in this sincere testimony that I render you To honour even your cruelty to the last period of my life and to cherish your disdain in the midst of the pangs of death I ought to do it since I confess I did not deserve so great an alliance as you I was not worthy but of your refuse I had consented to my repudiation if the Christian laws in this case were not inviolable espousing a Monastery to leave you at liberty in your desires but honour and justice have withstood it nor could I obtain of my father to give you this contentment to the prejudice of me and my fame If I did presume in taking that great honour to be your Companion not deserving the title of the meanest of your servants think but with your self what command my friends might have of me a Maiden since your father the memory of whom is a blessing to me had so absolute a power on your will This is to the end you may excuse not so much my presumption as my obedience and amongst the illustrious dignities which honour you and of which I participated you know I never did forget my self nor have thought to be but what I was From henceforth I quit this place too great for me to that happy Creature which possesses you I am not to acknowledge her merits yet esteem your judgment in your election not only excusing your change but approving it For although I yield to her all the preheminencies of grace and beauty as long as I live I will never yield either to her or to any person in the world that of affection that if she be better beloved of you then I was you shall never be by her as you have been and are still by me now that death breaks our first bonds rendring the second as I desire them more pleasing the splendor of this fair day will shine brighter after the obscurity of my night My will would have procured you this marriage during my life to have pleased you and have been a purchaser of my own ruine by solliciting it against my self But it is in vain for us to wrastle against the laws of God All that tears sighs from me and troubles the clearness of my constancie in these extremes is the loss of this poor Infant which as fruit disgraced is fallen by the wind of your anger from the arch which bore it seeing it could not ripen under the rays of your favour it hath seen the night of death before the day of life being deprived of the light of the star which only could have illustrated his darkness But that most afflicts me is this little innocent Dalimene which I leave on the earth the subject of your disdains For Gods love dear Philippin let not the indignity of the Mother prejudice the fortune of this poor creature since heaven would to shew you how strongly your idea was graven in my heart that she bears in her forehead the lively image of those graces that nature hath stamped on yours not having any sign of those defects which have deprived me of the happiness of your love Let her childish voice move you to pitty and since she is blood of your blood in her have compassion not of her nor me but of your self And lastly I conjure you by all that is most holy in heaven and earth to have at least as a Christian some feeling of chariâ—y for my
soul praying that the mercy of God may open heaven to it and that earth may be light on my ashes Cruel and yet welbeloved Philippin at least love me being dead since that sacrificing to you my life I give you the most pleasing service that I have ever given you I am weaâ—ier of life then of writing O my dear Lord and husband my soul is going content if thou permit it to draw with its last ascent this free sigh ' Since my vow'd Faith here cannot make the least ' Impression on thy unrelenting breast ' Lo I my Soul do cheerfully resigne 'To Death who hath more charity then thine She thought to have leâ—t her life ending her long Letter For grief and love two strong passions with the extreme pain which affected her body made such an impression as she thought verily to have lost her senses with her blood But by her youth and good constitution the care of her parents help of physitians and perfections of remedies the great Conductor of the world which reserved her for a more sad spectacle preserved her for this time The End of the Third Book ELISE OR Innocencie guilty The Fourth Book WHen this writing subscribed with the blood of this languishing creature came to the hands of Philippin he felt in his soul strange convulsions as what Tygre had not been moved at so much sweetness and humility For comparing in his memory the paradise of tranquillity passed with the hâ—ll of unquietness present he grieves for her being dead whom he had afflicted living But these touches were like the weak pushes of those which wake out of a sound sleep but being drowsie fall incontinently down upon their pillow from which they cannot raise themselves but with great pain His heart was so glued to his present voluptuousness that he had almost forgot the remembrance of his past happiness the clouds hindred him from knowledge of the brightness of this vertue that like a torch casts greater flames by how much the more it draws neer the end Even as an Antient said We slight a present good so Vertue most in sight is hated but ador'd when lost If she court us we flie and grown more coy Disdain those pleasures which we most enjoy These characters imprinted some kind of pitty in this courage before deaf to all that could be said and drew some tears from his eyes but those small drops falling on his hard heart did no more penetrate then rain falling on rocks on the contrary this water like the flood of the Sycionians that dries the wood seemed to redouble his obstinacie and to produce the same effects as the small showers that the vehement heat of the sun draws from the clouds in the hottest of summer which rather burns the leafs of plants then any way refreshes them For fearing his compassion should give jealousie to Isabel or shadow her with some doubt of his affection he is angry with his pitty holding cruelty for a great vertue Proud Isabel at the report of the pitteous news of Elise's death which the messenger assured her thought she should have swouned with extreme joy and contentment esteeming that this obstacle being removed nothing could hinder Philippin from healing the shame of her love by marriage She gives thanks to heaven as if it had been guilty of her fault and bound to repair it by so bloody a means by which you may note the humours of these creatures that are many times so impudent to mingle divinity with their misdeeds Pyrrhe is presently advertised at Vaupre who much rejoices for the ensuing wedding of his daughter and the house of Philippin in stead of wearing blacks for the decease of their Mistress are imployed in feasting and joy of a nuptial pomp to honour a marriage with small honour consummated Philippin receives a double joy by this death seeing himself delivered of her which he could not have been but by it and in possession of her which he could not make his legitimate wife as long as Elise had lived He saw himself possessed with great wealth by Scevole by the means of Dalimene which if he should have restituted or been deprived of would have been his utter ruine He imagines to be gotten above all his pretensions And as the loadstone hath no force to draw to it that iron that is rubbed with garlick even so his heart invironed with the stinking garlick of dishonest voluptuousness cannot be moved to any pitty towards poor Elise whose love trains her to death Accursed be the flames and plots of those Projectors who so fruitlesly expose Themselves to plots so abortive and forlorn They die before they are begot or born For as they were preparing for these nuptial feasts with great diligence news came to them of the recovery of Elise which turned all their joy into smoke and buried all their designs Oh how vain and light is humane understanding Philippin hates the life of her whom he lamented being dead Isabel is in despair Pyrrhe in fury and Herman afflicted all deceived because prevented of their hopes and pretensions Certainly God would have it so and reserve Elise for misfortunes more cruel to make his glory shine on the depth of an apparent ignominie But the rage of Philippin rests not there For being pressed by Pyrrhe to keep his word with him having removed his Appeal to Rome to make that sentence void which had confirmed his marriage with Elise he imploies his uttermost means to remove all lets and hindrances to prove it of no effect not forgetting any diligence or earnestness in the pursuit thereof But if he were a violent undertaker he hath to do with a better defendant For Scevole being upheld by the most equitable right in the world knew better how to handle these Process-weapons then himself This hinders not nevertheless but this labyrinth of contestations ingenders a marvellous long proceeding during which years slide away Philippin is always in possession of Isabel by whom he had some children which were brought up as legitimate The whilst he is lost in his debauches and by these ill proceedings offends again with new outrages the goodness of the chaste Elise which cruel persecution carries him to an action more inconsiderate then malicious and which will cost him his life You must understand that Elise being a Maid had been sought in marriage by a Gentleman well qualified and of a reasonable good estate whom we will call Andronico for some reasons which make this name proper to him of which this is the principal that among his qualities he had one which drew his title from the Apostle who was brother to S. Peter with this being very valiant having had many encounters in which he was still victorious this name methinks agrees well to make all these things darkly understood This young Andronico after a long pursuit because of a secret dislike Scevole had of men of the sword not willing to give his daughter but to a
the mouth is most sharp to wounds and as there is nothing more scalding then oil when it is hot so these outrages coming from your mouth are so much more grievous by how much I have received consolation and gratification Must I be so unhappy to see the fire of my wounds come from the place from whence I expected my healing Is it possible after such a metamorphosis that you retain the name of that Elise that professed so much love to me then when it was less lawfull to love me of that Elise which I so devoutly honoured and against all these contradictions I cherish yet more then my proper life I cannot tell more how to name you nor know not what term to find expressing enough in any idiom that can set forth as it ought such an inconstancie At least Madam let me know the reason that hath caused so long time your pitty to be deaf at my prayers and after this knowledge let heaâ—en cut my life by the knife of your cruelty when it pleases him This is the smallest favour I may hope of you seeing I can draw so much from cruelty it self there is nothing more just then to make known to an offender the cause of his suffering nor any thing more unjust then to conceal it from him If a small cloud can take from our eyes the sight of the sun that is so great replied Elise it is easie with a small fault to shadow out one of a greater importance But that God that sees all and which knows the secrets of hearts and dives into the dark corners of our reins that is served with things of smaller appearance to make known the most covered and which can draw the light of the truth from midst of the thickest obscurities of falshoods will also be served with my goodness and the consideration of that love which I have heretofore born thee for to give thee means to shun a shamefull punishment and to withdraw thee quickly from this place where 't is wonder that thou causâ— have so much assurance having committed so great a fact my silence and thy retreat will be more safe then my discourse and thy stay I would to God you had not done that which I dare not tell you because I have not forehead enough to blush for the loss of thine Content your self that my honour being tiâ—d to your life not to lose the one I will conserve the other although the one is as precious to me as the other is detestable In all this there was much said yet nothing of what should have been said And what is he that would not wonder at these delays and at the length of these circumlocutions For since Passion is a labyrinth it is no marvel if it have many turnings Andronico having had some feeling of the reports which ran to his disadvantage upon the death of Philippin doubts it might be about this accusation comforts himself in the hope to see an end of this Mine that threatned a great descent after it had taken wing being founded on the truth of his innocence So that for fear to anger this woman knowing there is nothing more fierce then a Bee when it is moved which puts her life in the wound she makes and never stings that she rests not wounded to death he fains to be ignorant of the end of this her fury in saying to her That when one endures a pain deserved it is made so much the more tolerable that one believes to extinguish a sin is to suffer without desert it would be hard but more insupportable to suffer innocently and again in being ignorant of the cause of his sufferance And then kneeling down at the feet of Elise with a voice somthing higher then before or then the place where he was and the presence of Sophie although not neer seemed to permit him Madam says he I will die here or learn from your mouth what can be the cause that puts me into so fierce a disgrace nor will I ever leave you till you give me this satisfaction to let me know of what death I shall die for I take heaven to witness I find not my self guilty of any thing that may be prejudicial to you I beseech you not to give way to calumnies and reports to the prejudice of my sincerity Elise surprised to see him in this estate and before her mother did not know on what side to turn her wherefore intreating him to rise which he refused to do she says to him softly Content yourself that I cannot speak without offending mine honour and your life And that in the midst of the hatred with which I detest your vileness I reserve this spark of my antient affection for the conservation of them both to which I found my self bound not so much for any good I wish you but for the respect I owe my modesty Madam replied the unfortunate Andronico this is not to give me light but to plunge me into a new obscurity I beseech you discover these riddles and not to tell me again in other terms the same thing you have already told me for what can he fear that doubts not death but on the contrary if I lose your favour I desire it to free me of a life which will be more troublesom then it being deprived of your love All that astonishes me is your honour which you say is engaged to my conservation and in that it may be you have said better then you think For when the purity of my intentions shall be known the greatness of my affections the sincerity of my soul and how many dangers I have run to give you proof of my service and that you have recompenced me with despair that will take my life it will be hard for you to remove this stain of ingratitude which like an eternal infamy will remain on the pureness of your understanding If ever it happen not that I attempt but only think any thing that might never so little prejudice your honour for the conservation whereof I 'll spend a thousand lives I desire that the heavens never pardon me any fault May I be rais'd by fortune or cast down By fate being object of thy smile or frown Though the disastrous destinies should combine To annihilate and ruine me and mine Nought can divorce my affection or divert Th'unfain'd devotion of a faithsull heart It will be easie for me to resolve to die after being deprived of that I held dearer then life What do I say Truly it will be harder to me to resolve to live or rather to outlive such a loss yet to lose my life without knowing the cause for which I die this is that I cannot resolve on if I do not bury my self with the quality of the maddest of all humane creatures Wherefore I intreat you to permit me to press you with all sort of importunity to declare to me the ground of my condemnation otherwise I shall believe that the
and makes them feel in its tyrannie a forerunning of the unquietness and torments of hell If Philippin could but have conceived to have received in effect this thought we should not be in pain to find words pittifull enough to express the calamities which drive him in consequences of depravings insupportable But not to make him unfortunate before his time give us leisure to consider him in this good hap too great for him if he could but have known or comprehended it For as if void or at least exempt of the most lively points of his first love which tormented him he thought of nothing more then pleasing his father and full of desire to render himself reciprocal to the tender affections of his new Bride Elise passing in this fashion the most quiet and tranquile life as may fall into humane thoughts in ease wealth pastime and abundance without solitude all honour and invite him rejoice and are pleased with his fortune Truly he enjoyed a happiness not common and which cannot be easily conceived but by those which know the difference of a vicious frivolous love and a constant and vertuous for the glory of such delights cannot be comprehended by all sorts of understandings The sun never shines on the earth but it brings to these chaste Lovers some ray of new favour Night shewed not so many torches in the deepest of the heavens as they kindled fires in their souls their contentments not suffocated with their holy and legitimate usage finding as in heaven desire in society because that modesty held their sincere affections under the bridle of reason in such a fashion that being possessors of their desires they seemed yet to desire the possession by a strange agreeing in hope of enjoying It pleases me to paint thus fair and pure though soft and delicate these marriage-affections because methinks one cannot set too high a price of that which is legitimate For why all that is good all that is holy and chaste all that favours well and which hath renown of worthy ought it not to be raised by a Pen which hath no other end in that he writes but to honour vertue and detest vice Must we always represent Antigonus with that side his eye was worst shall we never shew draughts with our pencil that we may shew that side which is most pleasing Malicious pens will do wonders to set forth falshoods with that art that it is uneasie to read them without being filled with ill suggestions and shall it not be permitted them which fight for chastity to shew the legitimate inclosures in this sacred bond or according to the Apostle that their bed is without stain which is the true sign of Christianity But alas how fair weather keeps least constantly his clearness and how few days cleer but are troubled with some clouds Whilst Philippin makes heaven jealous of the felicities he enjoys on earth this fair day hath his night and as his subjection was his happiness his liberty was his ruine ELISE OR Innocencie guilty The Third Book THe Sun was now the third time in midst of the course of his twelve houses Now the thoughts of his Idea Isabel was so weak in his soul that he thought not of her but as a thing indifferent he sees but by the eyes of his Elise nor discerns nothing but by her judgment so possessed by the object of so much vertue that vice could have no place in his soul This Golden Mountain was a hill of perfections and for the temporal blessings and spiritual that God shewed largely upon this house one might have called it a Mountain of God a mountain very fertile a Mountain in which it pleased God to inhabit God filled it with his blessings in favour of Elise as he did heretofore the house of Laban in consideration of Jacob. Timoleon seeing his hopes and desires surmounted by his prosperities sayes sometimes as Themistocles chased from Athens That he had been lost if he had not been lost and his following of the Court would have ruined his house if his banishment from thence had not called him to its restoring He sees himself new-born in the beginning of a posterity for during this time Elise was brought to bed of a daughter which Timoleon named by the name of his wife deceased which was that of the famous Penitent which we will express by that of Dalimene He desires a son there is great likelihood heaven will grant him this grace for Elise had some feeling of a second birth when all of a sudden a great outrage came and troubled these felicities and to cover with thorns so many roses It was the unexpected and sudden death of Timoleon who going a hunting fell from his horse coming down a steep place and having much bruised his head a hurt very dangerous to old men he yet had some time to think of the health of his soul and so yielded his breath to God not having had leisure to exhort his son not to dispose of any thing whatsoever They carry home the body for he dyed in the fields in a blanket to Gold-mount Which poor Elise thinking had been the Stag which they had hunted ran full of joy to meet her Father-in-law deceased which when she saw it touched her so lively the passions of joy and melancholy meeting together in her heart that fell into a swound and being in the estate she was brought her almost to keep company with her deceased father But too happy if this misfortune had but fallen on her for then this bloody tragedy would have ended which we intend to write for after this ill fortune never ceased to persecute her innocence even to make her guilty of death without having committed any crime at all Injurious fortune when wilt thou cease thus to persecute vertue ill encountred Cranker must thou have still the fairest Roses Bellerive is the burial-place of the ancestors of Timoleon the pleasure of Gold-mount is turned into sadness by the accident of his death This body must be conducted to the sepulchre of his fathers O Philippin whither goest thou must thou to shew thy love and duty to the dead give death to thy Love or rather to light with those Funeral-torches the fearfull brand of this Isabel which will reduce thee and thine honour into dust Oh if the lips of Timoleon could but speak they would counsel thee from this journy Oh if death would permit him to make an oration to thee with what efficacie of words would he have disswaded the meeting the first object of thy flames Poor Butter-flie thou goest to burn the wings of thy desires in a torch which will undo thee Love is that devil of the Evangel which once returned into a house from whence it hath been banished remains more strong then before making those whom it possesses more furious then ever We must not set those which are full of rage in the presence of the beasts which bit them they will but
as if you were agreed with him to your own ruine You help him to make to your parents invisible that which he will not have visible but to you Poor Rahab thou hidest the Spies that will be cause of thy destruction and infamy O daughters that have understanding learn by the fault of this miserable one since ill examples ingender good manners and refuse these little Letters which are as so many chains to bring your hearts into servitude and hunt these foxes which break down those inclosures that make you honoured and esteemed The abuser Isabel becomes abused and disadvisedly seduced A just punishment of her craft and cunning She lends her ears and consents to the writings and discourse of this deceiver Philippin and helps herself by her folly to weave the cord which draws her to shame She hears this charmer which flatters so well as he awakes in her that which disdain had made but sleepy not killed covered not quite put out He colours his courting with a mask of honour to make her by this golden outside better to swallow the pill of dishonour Protests he esteems her his legitimate wife says he will declare that marriage with Elise null as having but too many proofs of the constraint of Timoleon as to her that of Pyrrhe that the declarations contrary to their first promises were forced from their pens not from their hearts and that violence was notorious To these rays of apparent reason Isabel lights her first heats putting as in the time of Nehemiah fire in the oven Those Philter-charms of Love did re-inspire Her breast inflamed with a vigorous fire Greatness flatters her courage which is high Honour which she conceives by a just alliance moves her strangely and in the end Love wins her absolutely For although she dissembled a property common enough to all her sex the impression of Philippin had never been quite defaced in her soul neither for despight her affection having still been stronger then the outrage nor for another object for after having failed of so high a design as the first all other Matches were displeasant to her and her universal disdain had lost her many fortunes nor for absence for amongst the divertings of her many exercises always this Idea swam in her imaginations So that it was easie for him to perswade her her own inclination importing her belief Painting cannot last long the first sweating it falls off a face that hath been daubed with it The fained despight the apparent cruelty the artificious disdain the affected scorn of this Damosel cannot be maintained long for that which is counterfeited hath no solid substance 't is as snow before the sun After having kindled the fire of Philippin by a thousand reproaches there flew up a sparkle from so many coals that lighted in her own heart and burned herself It happens ordinarily that those which shoot artificious fire are burnt first and desiring to endammage other lose themselves The Bee never stings but leaves the sting in the wound and in losing her sting remains wounded to death The fire of love is of that nature that those which will give love are taken it is a game in which who will take are taken This place so full of danger Lovers flie Vnder fair flow'rs the foulest serpents lie It is hard to give love without receiving 't is so fine gold as it remains always between the fingers of those which distribute it Mens hearts are as dry as kixes to take fire and the greatest courages are soonest cast down under this violence which hath his greatest strength in his sweetness and makes us find nothing so sweet as this strength It was very easie for Philippin to deceive the eyes of his wife Pyrrhe and Herman having this intelligence with Isabel he thought himself above the clouds being plunged into a foul quagmire This proud Maid loved honour and would never yield but with the hope of a future marriage He importunes her forced by the vehemencie of his infamous desires But on the other side she earnestly pressed him to break with Elise otherwise he should not hope any thing of her but cruelty and disdain Here is Philippin in strange convulsions How shall he break this sacred knot to satisfie his unbridled appetite and the tyrannie of this imperious Mistress This Mine must play by a prodigious clap He yields extraordinary submission to her and seems an Idolater for all that she comes no forwarder He swears protests and promises but the second oaths are refused by the example of the first He passes to promises in writing Isabel receives them but for all that he gets no forwarder in the ground of her honour What shall he do to this inflexible creature He resolves to come to the worst of extremities and to repudiate Elise sending her shamefully from his house breaking violently the laws of friendship and brutally lets himself be carried by the torrent of a passion that will precipitate him blindly in a misfortune irremediable He sees Isabel every day and with so much cunning of this false female that her parents see their discourses and meeting without perceiving their practises confounding by their artificious carriages this word of the Oracle of truth That he which doth ill hates light for in the face of the sun and sight of men they dissembled their ill doings But blind and cruel Philippin began to use with much inhumanity the innocent Elise that his insolencies and indignities are no more supportable by a woman of her worth and quality She desires to know the subject of a usage so rude as this was but the more she enquires the more he hides it from her All she can do to give him content displeases him her presence is so odious that he can no longer suffer her They say the Tygres at the hearing of musick become more cruel Philippin is of that humour the sweet harmony of the vertues of his wife makes him more savage and cruel He now makes her to understand that he acknowledges her for no wife of his having been constrained by the violence of Timoleon to marry her that he had nothing to do with her riches she might take them and be gone for his house was great enough without her help He reproaches her with her birth unequal to his the baseness of her parents her ill fashion he calls her Courtesies cosenings To be short he nourishes her with gall and gives her vinegar to drink Upon these subjects of nothing he puts himself into excessive choler and threatens to kill her if she consent not to the divorce Imagine you if Elise as wise and discreet as she was had patience to suffer so many affronts She is his companion and he uses her as his slave she hath raised his house with her wealth and is told she is the ruine of it Her estate of being great with child doth it not make you pitty her She endures nevertheless these taunts these injuries these
to outrage and full of confidence flatters himself with some aiery hope by these words If Heaven on my forsaken head The influence of his Grace shall shed In melting showrs and once more shine Vpon this drooping soul of mine From gray I shall grow green each night shall bring The morn and turn my winter into spring But why do I delay so long to let you see the rock of precipitation the end of scandal and shelf of shipwrack of these souls in effect innocents yet in appearance will become horrible guilty Alas the bird which produces the feather is taken and the Eagle oftentimes furnishes the feather which makes the arrow that wounds her to death After they had long fighed in one anothers ears their griefs and cursed their miserable condition which had hindred their being one anothers after having many times desired that Philippin had been Isabels and Andronico Elise's the laws which are not always conformable to the desires of Lovers were found to contradict these alliances for the knot which God ties cannot be cut but by the axe of death After many reciprocal words of good will followed with a thousand protestations to enjoy one another in marriage if death in punishing the perfidies of Philippin would give way to their loves after many Letters which contained the same language coming so forward falling by little and little into pits which in stead of snaring drew them out at length to strangle them that they made reciprocal promises one to the other which could have no other ground but the death of Philippin which neither the one nor the other had any thought to procure by any way but to attend it by the hand of God Here is all their fault And certainly 't is true vertuous Elise that by a vain assurance of fidelity which will be as strongly tied to your heart as to the paper you put in great hazard both your honour and life This was the highest degree and end of Andronico's designs for he knew too well the humour of Elise to pretend of her any thing which was not honorable nothing passing between them of that which this honest wife ought to her legitimate although barbarous husband for she had her purity in such a recommendation that modesty ruled not only her actions and words but also her thoughts O must she to prevent the title of ingratitude which could not have been given but by the mouth of Andronico fall into such an imprudence which will make her die in the sight of all the world in quality of an infamous adulterer and bloody homicide of her own husband although in effect or in will she was no ways guilty Thus a sparkle sometime blown far increases to a great fire and a small hurt neglected becomes an incurable ulcer a little spring increasing to a flood runs with a large compass into the salt sea But how shall this Promise be discovered which should not see the day but when the sun should leave to see Philippin on earth Yet you will understand it by a means that will force you to cry with the great Apostle O height of riches of the wisdom of God whose judgments are incomprehensible and his wayes unsearchable The whilst Philippin is at Gold-mount in Possession of the body of Isabel with whom he consumes his days in abominable and unlawfull delights gilding his evils with the fair name of marriage and by a false malicious conscience esteeming her his wife Andronico is in the town in possession of the heart of Elise who laments no more the absence of Philippin by enjoying the presence of Andronico their conversations all pure and spiritual have nothing that the most severe censurers can justly blame and living under the eye and discipline of a Sophie who trusted not so much her daughter as that she had not always an eye on her conversation Thus whilst the Process of Philippin for dissolving his marriage is drawn out still longer 't is a web cannot be untangled Pyrrhe enraged by these dalays murmurs and threatens to kill Philippin if he pursues it not to an issue as he had promised him So that the sollicitation of this business calls Philippin to town having many points in his cause which could not be decided but in his presence besides that he could have no better Sollicitor then himself Being thus imployed in all companies wheresoever he came he was still speaking invective words against Scevole and his daughter which made him odious to all that heard him For wronging her whom all held his wife was it not to gather filth to cover his head and to throw hot burning coals in his own face He was then doubly blamed and mocked of those which knew the integrity of the father and worth of the mother of vertuous Elise who attributed all these words to the lightness of his understanding nourished in vice and rotten in his debauches But when many times his wisest friend would reproach him with his inconstancie presenting to him the ill opinion which was spread in the world of this vile life he lived with Isabel in stead of taking these admonitions with the right hand he receives them with the left is displeased with these truths or turns them to laughter rejoicing in his misfortune and vice and glorying in his ills For many time in the company of Ladies where he was for this most persecuted in a vain humour he describes the graces of his Diana and deciphers what shall I say rends the ill form of poor Elise He makes them see that all the precepts of the art of well-speaking have nothing that gives greater eloquence then passion For as love made him fruitfull in one subject hatred makes him as wild in the other having a voice equally strong to praise and blame excessive in both Andronico frequents as well as he these companies welcomed wheresoever for being full of worthy parts that made him commendable which he accompanied with as much wisdom and staidness as Philippin shewed lightness He hears sometimes recited the indiscreet discourse of this Lord who spake without punishment what he pleased And being pricked in the tendrest part of his affection knowing the vertues of Elise could not suffer they should be so cruelly defamed by the tongue of Philippin But as then fearing to discover his love in sustaining this innocence finds himself reduced into strange agonies Nevertheless at the assault of these reports which took him sometimes on the sudden he could not contain himself from replying as sharp and biting words against Philippin as he received sweet from Elise sometime accusing him of backbiting and indiscretion and often of falshood saying that Scevole wanted not friends to sustain the contrary of that he so unworthily sought to advance sometimes affirming it was a shame for a Cavalier to have to do with one of the Gown and more to tail against a Woman who had no other arms but her tears many times for mirth makes Satyrs
pain yields to this advice to And having acquainted an antient Servant whom they trusted stout of his hands whom we will call Râ—boaldo he 's ready to assist Herman in this enterprise They come to the town well mounted with arms necessary to execute it and being hid in the day not going out but by night hoping to entrap Philippin returning from some company the occasion of this Wedding-supper seems fit to bâ—ing to pass their vengeance Whilst Philippin and Andronico are in feasting dancing mirth and joy with pleasant jests and gallantries their looks are always at'on'side not speaking but with eyes whose sparkles in stead of love threaten death yet do they contain themselves to maintain their promise Not but that they said what they pleased for in those corners separated it was impossible to joyn not holding themselves to have power to speak without being moved and once moved to strike it was very hard to discourse and not betray their passions Here are wars made at Philippin upon the subject of his Amazon but he raises her merits with such art as his eloquence blinds the judgments of all those that hear him and those who accused him in the beginning excuse him in the end At another corner Andronico being persecuted in jest and sport as Elise's Knight what says he not in the praise of this vertuous woman And that he says in honour of her could not but turn to the disadvantage of him that used her with so much in justice And as he was founded in a truth he he sustains it with so good terms that there was not any of those which heard him that had not their eyes fixed on his good fashion and ears on his tongue Many times he unfortunately happened to say That if Philippin were dead which might shortly be expected by the justice of heaven he would esteem himself much honoured to marry Elise as widow to a Knight and one of the honestest women on earth But Isabel could not say so much For if Philippin lived she was dishonored He being dead she durst not appear in the eyes of the world From thence his passion carried him to say that Elise deserved better fortune then Philippin who in truth without the express commandment of her parents would never have married him And after this falls to other particularities which had not fallen to the ground though they had not been gathered up by the ears of Philippin Many times those which heard them speak so disgracefully one of the other would fain have broken off this discourse But as there is nothing that tickles the ears more then detraction by a natural malice which inclines us to ill all give way to their discourse And that which at last lost Andronico was a word that slipt from him unawares as reproaching Philippin of the assassination of Valfran although he were innocent by the oath of the delinquent It might have been easie and it may be permitted says he by the course of the world to return a treason by another but I hate too much such base unworthiness Andronico this will cost you very dear It is now time to conduct the new married pair to bed where being arrived all this fair company are separated In the great number of Caroches and horses which waited at the gates it was easie for Herman and Roboald to stand in the darkness of the night amongst this press from the midst of which comes Philippin slightly accompanied and on foot by reason of the neerness of his lodging As he drew neer Roboald who stroke down the Page that carried the torch Herman on horsback comes upon Philippin like thunder presenting the mouth of his pistol to his forehead with a steel-bullet which strikes out his brains on the stones Philippin seeing him come believed it was Andronico and cryed O Traitor O Elise thou mak'st me be murdered And so dyed After this blow Herman and Roboald retire by favour of the night to their lodgings from whence they went next morning by break of day arriving at Vaupre with an assurance as if they had done nothing for they were certain not to have been perceived But let 's return to the City where in an instant all was in rumor and alarm Many fled others more valiant went to behold this tragick spectacle of Philippin spread stark dead on the pavement Andronico who was no way guilty comes on hors-back with others He laments as Caesar did Pompey the death of his enemy nevertheless with a certain fashion mingled with joy which gives an entrance to suspision if it were not himself that after so detestable a deed comes to counterfeit the innocent Many circumstances seem to accuse him as the discourse he had held in the Wedding-hall and 't was a man on hors-back that kill'd Philippin Many said aloud that if he did it not he had made it to be done which he denies with as much constancie as truth There were other testimonies of some that had seen him take horse at the very time that Philippin was shot giving assurance that he could not have committed an action so base but that he was of the plot there was place for suspition leaving all these groundless reports He raising his head strengthened with his own innocence retires confidently to his house believing already to be in possession of his Elise Who had no sooner understood the bloody murder of her husband with this miserable circumstance of Andronico's being suspected but changing the love she had for Philippin into pitty and the good will so worthy which she had born Andronico into a mortal hatred she takes this conjecture for a truth and upon this first impression no way doubts it whether it was to have her in possession according to the promise she had given him or to be revenged for the attempt of Valfran he had done this base act himself or made it be done And even as that friendship which is grounded on vertue swouns before its contrary the same doth charity in the soul encountring vice like the stone called Prassuâ— that loses its lustre at the approach of any poyson Here is she for the loss of Philippin filled with grief not to be comforted her affection is redoubled by this cruel and dangerous trespass and so void of good will for Andronico that she hath his name in horror and the thought of him is an abomination insupportable Philippin is conveyed to Bellerive to the sepulchre of his fathers whither couragious Elise had the strength to accompany him Her mourning and tears as sincere as her love was true moved more pitty in those that saw her thus living then for her dead husband For all saw by the misgovernment of this young Lord a just punishment from heaven the hand of God lay heavy on his head that had been dashed in peeces according to that word of David A perfidious man given to flesh and blood never sees the days of half the course his life Scevole
you says he how she cuts her throat with her own knife For if I had done this act which can never be proved nor found by me it must be by her perswasions and by the instigation of her promises Upon this the friends of Andronico present a request against Elise obtaining of the Justice that she might be in prison to justifie herself of the same crime Scevole who is confident of the innocence of his daughter and the strength of his authority and being just and a man of conscience although he feels a contradiction in this action that appears not very honorable nevertheless pressed by Elise herself who runs voluntarily to yield herself prisoner so much she is encouraged to be revenged of Andronico whose ruine she holds assured he contents to this imprisonment Here are our Lovers enemies in separated places runing with the bridle on their necks to their loss by the way of a reciprocal hatred Andronico sees himself accused of a murder he never so much as thought and pursued by her of whom he hoped the greatest felicities of life And Elise sees herself accused as consenting to this death bye him that she thought certainly had procured it At last their innocence is ecclipsed in the shadow of these dark dungeons where they learned to their cost that prisons are like quagmires which one gets not out of so easily as they slip in Andronico being examined denies absolutely to have done or caused this murder But having to do with so able a person as Scevole who knew so exactly to gather all these particularities that might make him guilty at last all the world seemed to conjure his death For all the words his threats his quarrels with Philippin are examined his frequenting the house of Scevole with Elise this Promise which she acknowledges to have been forced from her simplicity shewing reciprocally that of Andronico's which he had forced her to receive signed with his blood the presage of his hellish enterprise And not to make here a procedure of a process in law all the circumstances and conjestures of the time of the assassination of Philippin with his last words at his death that seemed to accuse Elise to have made him be killed by the hands of Andronico whom he call'd tâ—rritor All this makes him guilty in that sort that the Judges following that which was produced and proved in the end the opinion of all being changed by the prodâ—cing of this Promise of marriage went all for death there rested nothing but to confront him with Elise Now as there are many forms of contrary qualities in a cloud that produce the thunder that breaks all to powder the places where it falls Even so in this enterview after a thousand flashes of lightening sparkling no more of love but of hatred that flâ—w from their eyes the thunder of their words was understood that broke in a thousand peeces both their reputations and lives For Andronico having heard that after this confrontation he must lose his head carried by despair resolves to draw into his condemnation her that accused him with so much injustice and turning his antient affection into a mortal hatred it resolved to have for company in death her that he could no more hope for in life So that being in presence one of the other as Elise did represent to him what he had said to her at her fathers where it seemed he accused himself in terms obscure It is true answered Andronico with a tone furious and a look on one side that I did desire the death of Philippin and I have sought it and it doth not anger me to have done it so that it were according to the rules of honour that are observed amongst Gentlemen It displeases me that being dead as he is I am charged to have killed him thus but if that were it had not been but by thy perswasion ungratefull Elise For who knows not but it was for thee that I had quarrels with him that it was to deliver thee from tyrannie that I have exposed my life to hâ—zards How often hast thou sighed in mine ears the grief of thy â—â—râ—â—â—ude and wherefore but only to enflame mine anger by the pitty of thy disaster and to bâ—ing me to this shipwrack by 〈◊〉 â—eceiving song O disloyal Syrene My Lords says he to the judges full of despair if you find me guilty behold the caâ—â—â— of my evil shewing Elise for if I killed or made Philippin be killed it was this Fury made me do it Elise finding herself innocent laughs at this accusation but the judges told her there was rather occasion to weep for the strongest proof that was against Andronico being founded on the promise that he had drawn from her to marry him after the death of Philippin was not the same presumption as great against her that had received from the hands of Andrinico a writing of the same effect They find these accusations so connext that they cannot condemn nor absolve the one without the other Elise may weep and protest her innocence Andronico hath struck a stroke that will bring them both to death As much as Scevole understands in this science he finds himself swallowed in this business his credit nor his authority cannot stay this torrent that will overwhelm the honour of his house His prophecies prove true to the great grief of Elise who repents although too late to have preferred the violence of her unjust anger before the wholsom counsel of her father To end quickly this troublesom passage she finds herself innocent to be condemned as an infamous adulteress and as a cruel murderer of her own husband to lose her head with Andronico as complice of his dishonesty and murder of Philippin It is a soveraign decree that excepts no appeal being pronounced in the morning 't is executed at night where these unfortunate Lovers serve for a tragick spectacle to all the Town Scevole not able to drink of the bitterness of this chalice nor support the indignity of this affront absents himself his wife Sophie took such grief to the heart as in three days death lays her in her tomb Elise abandoned of the world hath no more recourse but to heaven She 's now come into the high sea of grief where a tempest promises her an assured shipwrack She hears her sentence which brought thunder with lightning and struck with an assault so little look'd for and so suddenly her understanding that she swouns with the horror and thought to have dyed for fear of death Happy in her pittifull misfortunes if this death had anticipated her shame Returning from this swoun her face painted with the colours of death her eyes sunk and heavy her lips pale and with a voice trembling and mingled with a thousand sighs she breathed forth her sad complaints Who hath done this impittiable duty to recall my soul into this miserable body to make it retire by a second separation more hard and cruel then
since that the vail of absence is altogether necessary to a Father that knows his daughter is sacrificed innocently I say innocently Sir and in this word I beseech you to take part of the only consolation that accompanies me in the loss of my life It is now time to speak truth or never seeing I am going before the tribunal of him that will condemn all those that prefer falshood before truth and who will not acknowledge for legitimate children those that do not fix their eys upon the light of truth God under whose providence run all the moments of this mortal life permitting that at this present my innocence shall appear guilty yet will make known in another season this imaginary guilt to be apparently innocent And I conjure you by the agonies of any death to prolong your life untill that happy time by which the honor of your house that appears now to suffer some stain shall flourish more then ever I must confess that after the death of my husband from whence all my calamities have drawn their original nothing hath so much afflicted me as the pain I have seen you suffer for my occasion For since death had made me widow of the most noble Alliance I could have hoped for in the world I intended to have died to the world and to all the pomps thereof and to have confin'd my self to a Cloister there to have ended my dayes But since it hath pleased the divine wisdom to dispose otherwise be it that I live or die so I appertain to him for ever I pass not be it for ignominie or for reputation so I attain unto the celestial glory it is indifferent to me I believe now that Andronico is innocent of the crime which I accused him of more by suspition then any firm ground I had and it may be God permitted I should be wrapped in the same condemnation to punish my disloyalty thaâ— broke the right of a friendship as holy as it was vertuous for I desire not heaven to pardon me if even there passed between us other but that was worthy and honest or if in the writing that my facility drew from my hand I ever thought to prejudice Philippin in his honour or life The secret judgments of God are marvellous which sounds the depths of all secrets and by the greatness and majesty of him you will know in the end how the murder was done for God is too just to let this deed go unpunished For my self I repent me to have accused Andronico of whom I beseech you to love the memory as mine own and not to bear any hatred against his parents I am as much and more cause of his death then he of mine We have demanded pardon one of the other and pray all the world to pardon us We remit our honour as out lives into the hands of God sacrificing both to his greatest glory I beseech you Sir to implore his misericordia on our souls by your prayers and to â—ake care of little Dalimene since blood and nature require it of your fatherly goodness Farewel my dear Father Oh refuse not your holy benediction to this miserable creature that demands it at the last minute of her death being she is innocent of the cause of her condemnation which for the love of God she goes freely to suffer With the same hand and heart she drew these other lines for Sophie MADAM MUst my deplorable misfortunes bring death into the breast of her that gave me life Must I like a Viper open the bosom of her that gave me my being And must fortune insatiable of my miseries direct the stroke of my trespasses on the body of her that is as innocent of my faults as I am of that which causes my death by a secret judgment of God which I adore although ignorant of Madam the sharp cutting sword that is to sever my head from my body and my body from my soul will not be so sensible to me as the feeling of the grief that hath laid you in your bed for the sorrow of my loss and shame The compassion I have of your heart is more incomparably grievous then the pains I am to suffer If I might die often to deliver you from the torments and pains wherein your own goodness throws you if I should measure the grief you have to lose me by the dear affections you have alwais shewed me I see nothing so extreme as your unconsolable displeasures For knowing how tenderly you have brought up this wretched creature and how highly you esteem your honour I know not how to express nor conceive with what air you can support the loss of both Just Heaven which permittest crimes and hindrest them if thou sufferest that I die without being able to justifie my self of these two false infamies Adultery and cruel murder of my husband at least yet Thou that declarest things that are most dark make for the consolation of my dear mother that from the midst of my ashes may arise the light of my innocence without suffering that truth should not only be detained prisoner by injustice but also stifled with falshood Madam I desire not you should take pitty of my suffering but to cast your eys on my innocence I have no other justification then my protestations which I make in a point where falshood trains after it an eternal ruine You will not be so cruel and severe to me as my Judges And although an Adulteress and a Murderer cannot be purged by oaths yet I think you have had so long knowledge of my soul by my carriage to believe me in this truth which I profess with a dying voice I die innocent of the crime that is imposed on me as God shall love and save me Live Madam even till that day that he makes it appear in evidence from the midst of the clouds that hinder this clearness I have no more to add but to demand your motherly blessing which I ask with joyned hands for the last favour from you and ask it by your intrails that bore me and by the mercies of that good God in whom I put all my hopes Farewell my dearest Mother And remember in your prayers this poor Elise that will have no period to her trespass of more sweet imagination then the memory of Sophie as of the best mother in the world Time with an insensible course advanced with great paces the hour of execution of this Innocencie guilty Our Lovers are brought to the place with as much joy and gladness as if it had been to their wedding When they appeared on the bloody Theatre they were beheld with many eyes yet very different For many had compassion of their miseries by a natural feeling that touches the hardest hearts Others had them in horror not so much for their faults for to sin is a thing humane but because they published so loud their innocence this displeased them like Bats to whom light is unpleasing
removed from his heart But as youth is like soft wax that receives all forts of impressions and keeps not one so Philippin promises what one would have him being resolv'd not to maintain any thing that the apprehension of fear makes him say his love being far stronger then his fear When retired from his fathers sight like a Criminal from the Tribunal of his Judge it was then he blamed himself of weakness and want of courage and giving himself a thousand injurious names accusing his fearfulness and protesting a new loyalty and service to this Idol which swam in his fancy he rubbed his sore and invenomed his wound by this constraint disanuling all he had said in prejudice of his promise he renews his meetings and secret practises with Herman But being sold by his Lacquays in whom he trusted most who for hansel of their treachery put many of his letters and those of Isabels into the hands of Timoleon by which he understood that reciprocal promises had been given on both sides which made him enter into such an extream choler as he had never had the like sometime threatning to ruine Pyrrhe and all his house and then to be revenged on his son for this disobedience as also to publish the shame of Isabella Being transported to these extremities by his choler he calls his son the second time and after having reviled him with all the outragious speeches that could be imagined esteemed this relapse worse then his first fault This young Lyon having taken courage for the shame of his last flight like him which said of himself If I fled at the first encounter it was to return the second time to fight with more resolution setting aside those invective speeches of his father which his duty bound him to endure after some holy protestations of the honour and reverence which he would always give him he told him plainly and in a fashion of that height more then the spirit of Timoleon could endure that he would lose a thousand lives rather then to fail in the least point of his love that his honour was engaged by word and by writing and that his soul should never receive other impression but that of Isabella's the which was a Gentlewoman and of that birth as she could receive no reproach for her Nobility having no other wants but the goods of fortune esteeming rather to chuse a wife which had vertues and perfections in abundance then one with great wealth which should have nothing more unpleasing then herself and that this affection of his was led rather by reason then passion honour and marriage having been the end of his pretensions and if there Were any thing worthy reprehension it was his carriage not any thing in Isabella or Herman and for himself he was resolved never to leave their friendships for all the violence could be used on him chusing rather to suffer the extremity of cruelty and the worst of indignities which should be like flames to purifie his fidelity to the proof And as God lives answered Timoleon we will see whose head is best yours or mine How now Gallant what scarce born and are you at your defiance with me I 'll make thee as supple as glove and to bend to my will and break that stubborn will of yours though it cost me my life and goods and yours too I will teach you the duty of a son and the authority of a father said he And so turning from him he commanded to put Philippin in a chamber which served for a prison to the end to teach this young bird to sing another tune Philippin goes very joyfully contented to give a testimony of his firmness and constancie of his flames But that which put him in an extream agony was to hear that his father having searched his chamber and his secret Cabinet wherein were his sweetest tyes amongst a thousand Letters seised of the Promise of Isabella at which he made a trophie of mockery and laughter and would have made a sacrifice of it and of his choler to the fire For now as being transported what says he not against his father and his ill fortune and against heaven Truly those things which ought not to be repeated but throughly blamed Yet nevertheless comforting himself upon the word of his Mistress which he esteemed beyond all the writings in the world he resolves upon the common remedy of all the ills of the world Patience Not but that the wearisomness of a prison was extreamly sensible to this stirring spirit active and full of heat yet in this extream youth which is nothing but fire and life the tediousness is redoubled by being deprived of news which served at least in this his constraint of liberty to diminish his flame Before he hoped all and feared nothing now fears all and hath no hope But in the faith of the brother and sister He fears that those Letters should come to the hand of Pyrrhe and Valentine they would not take occasion to ease their childrens ill His thoughts are so troubled as when he rests in this prison he thinks he is invironed with a thousand thorns he suspects all which come near him as he had reason being made so many spies by Timoleon's means He wants wherewith to corrupt them this metal which changes courages fails him and his servants whom his father had made his dare not yield to pitty this young Lord. He thinks to entertain them with discourse yet seeing pitty dead in some and affection in others refused all to entertain himself with his own private thoughts the onely recreation that accompanied him which in stead of diverting him nourished his displeasures 'T is Musick which hath that property to make them merry which are content and those which are sad more melancholy He plays reasonable well on the Lute and sings well enough for a young Cavalier who was more given to violent exercises then to these sweet and peaceable One day for to expell the grief he felt in these words expressing Hopeless and helpless in my sad distress I sink my griefs admitting no redress Thus the imprisoned Philippin comforted himself the best it was possible But at last being not able to bear this weak and melancholy life nor having any with whom he might freely converse his thoughts giving way to the vehemencie of his desires he was constrained to yield himself to the mercy of a sickness which brought him so low as within a foot of his grave had it not been for his youth good temper and strong disposition with the help of the Physitians and good means applied he was even at the last point to lose his life and that most affected the sad father to see at point of death his onely son Knowing the cause which brought him to this pittifull estate he repented a thousand times the cruelties he had used an hundred times he promised him but with words far from the thoughts of heart to give him Isabel to wife
redouble their torment we must not approach a smoaking torch with fire if we will not have it lighted The greatest secret the Apostle knows to prevent fornication is to flie those which love peril will perish Elise why dost not thou by thy wisdom find some invention to prevent this disaster which thou goest to gather in this funeral-voyage But when a misfortune will follow one says a grave Antient it seems his wisdom is shadowed and his judgment blinded not being able to prevent his headlong ruine Being come to Bellerive all the Gentlemen thereabouts but especially those which held of Timoleon as his vassals came to render their last obedience to the sâ—pulchre of their Lord. O dead ashes is it possible that from the midst of this coldness should come forth so many coals as to burn the heart of thy miserable successor The fair Amazon now as free as a man by the death of Valentine which was gone to God during this residence at Gold-mount being become unseparable company to her brother Harman and Pyrrhe her father came with them to the funerals of Timoleon which was her honour and the happiness of Philippin for the appear'd clothed in a mourning habit so advantagious to her natural graces that one would have said what she had done simply to honour the funeral pomp and wearing the mourning for her mother made with such art seem'd exceedingly to grace her Mourning hath the property to make the fair appear more fair and the unpleasing more deformed then they are Under these black vailâ— Isabel lanched forth looks more shining then the forerunner of thunder lightning sent from a dark black cloud And for a pittifull encounter Elise which had no beauty but in her vertues shewed with an extreme disadvantage to her natural disposition under these mourning habits withall being much affected for the loss of her father-in-law whom she honoured infinitely and loved with an incomparable affection Nothing defaces so much the beauty of the face as a true and sincere grief For to appear fair and pleasing she must have been content too and happy So that just as the bargain is half made with the second merchant when we are displeased with the first the desires of Philippin revolted against reason by this enterview of which the one rubbed with the wings of sadness hath lost her ordinary effect to draw the iron of his heart the other armed with a thousand drawing spirits raised and transported him in a moment from his true being Their looks messengers of their intentions made their hearts speak which were reduced to ashes by these sparkles framed by this unhappy collection The furious Lion roaring and watching without cease to devour us that Dragon that seduces us by these artificious idea's filling our thoughts with malicious illusions that Spirit sworn against our salvation which loses no time to indammage us covering the eyes of Philippin with double deceit made this illegitimate object appear far more pleasing then she was and on the other side made her which he should and ought justly to have loved appear hideous to him that he conceived a secret horror against her not being able to comprehend with himself how he had continued so long And truly her grief and the estate she was in which we hold will make the most fair seem unpleasant with this habit so little favorable to the mediocrity of the form of Elise contributed to this dislike of Philippin The other strangely insolent by the knowledge of her preheminences like a Peacock with her tail covering and crowning herself with pride throws shame upon other birds glorying in her victory and loaden with trophies of her new conquest retires home triumphing leaving Philipin in the most strange unquietness that can be imagined When we throw a stone into a still water it multiplies the circles infinitely This sight forms a thousand impressions in the soul of this young man till now so peaceable and quiet O Philippin 't is here thou shouldst resist this evil which fights against thee 't is here thou oughtst to take antidotes against this poison which slides through thy veins and will trouble the rest of thy bones and the health of thy flesh If thou dissemblest thy intrails will become rotten and old and the spiritual gangrene giving death grace is unavailable But unfortunate thou flatterest thy misfortunes and angrest thy ulcers with scratching Prevent these shelves and flie that fatal shore Where nought hath less of life or of death more He will do nothing his sickness pleases him better then his health he prefers a tempest before a calm and death before life the prison before liberty This Syren hath sung him asleep in so deep a lethargie as it quite transformed him although a captived will yet voluntarily he yields to this servitude and holds it his greatest happiness He foresaw many ills which threatned this change but he shuts the eyes of his judgment not to take knowledge of them What doth comport with conscience or comply With honour he disdains whose thoughts grow high By contradiction while he will gainsay That which he ought not loathing what he may Thus the huntsman always altered with a new prey leaves that which he had already taken to follow â—iercely that he hath not Here is this young Lord respected like a new star rising in the horison of this Country his Vassals come to give him homage whilst he meditates how to make himself Companion to his Vassal He appears free and yet is more a slave then when he was under the jurisdiction of his father A horse broke loose without either bit or bridle a ship without a stern a cloud full of black water of blind passion blown by the wind of covetous ills Already he receives the innocent embraces of Elise against his heart and as sick men that loath the meats which they have been greedy of during their healths so that which was here to fore his contentment is now become insuppportable His eyes armed with scorn never looked on her but to disdain her her presence is odious her prudence suspect her care and good huswifery avaritiousness her modesty a beastly defect And as all we see through a coloured glass appears of the same colour as the middest that deceives our sight even so not considering her vertues but on the contrary judging by this secret change which will shortly change into a formal hatred she appears odious to him like vice it selfs Whose Beauty mockt his dreaming soul like Lies Pourtraying Truth forth in a false disguise Already this Leah although fruitfull is nothing to the imagination of possessing a fair Rachel all the hony that he had heretofore gathered in the company of Elise changed into bitter forgetfulness Elise easily perceives this coldness but as she was good and simply discreet she threw the cause upon the death of Timoleon which she thought affected Philippin although her grief were far greater then his for that loss whose boiling
heat of passion in love was far from thought of sorrowing for the death of his father The more she thinks to comfort him the more he is displeased the more she courts him the more he seems to be importuned and although she strives as much as may be to cover with a false joy a true sadness yet could he not hinder but his face his actions and words betrayed him making it appear to those which had least of apprehension that there was I know not what in his thoughts which tormented him Elise sees this and is in an agony inconceivable She thought it was a wrong to her husband to esteem he had any ill opinion of her she is too innocent to find in herself any subject of discontentment that she had ever given him and there is nothing she thinks less on then the true cause of this alteration Jealousie of Isabel she had none for she believes that time hath healed Philippin of this old impression But in the end the many matches made for hunting made her plainly see they were not without design and the other visits to Vaupre made her to know the fire by the smoak the beast by the foot but so late that the evil was almost without remedy On the other side Philippin was in extreme agonies for the way of the perverse is sowed with a thousand thorns All seemed contrary to his desires The cunning Isabel which saw she had returned him into her net and that she held him in her goal by means as full of subtilty as Elise was full of simple innocence who made as if she saw not that which she did but too well perceive Isabel seems not to take notice of that which doth clearly appear and by her flying and fained retiredness adds desire in Philippin to see her Industrious Galatee that drawest in flying and hidest in shewing thy self For coming to Bellerive to visit Elise and then he seeing her at Vaupre it was always in the presence of his wife or of her father or brother that he spake to her which was an extreme torment to this passionate This damosel full of vanity took pride tormenting him without giving him any hope to quench the least spark of this great fire in his breast Judge but the craft of this creature Here is a Tantalus dead with drougth in midst of waters and like the Page of Alexander he is constrained in silence to burn It serves him not to speak with Eyes language which she hath heretofore well understood now fains not to understand by a deafness as great and greater then that by which she is beloved The good of Philippin is his hurt For this liberty to see that which he desired redoubled his passion and makes him perish with a death and languishing grief by the object which is the cause All his study is to make known to this malitious creature the renewing of his antient flames but that in such a fashion that neither Elise Pyrrhe nor Harman understood any thing yet all see clearly like Eagles The jealousie of a wife is not to be feared The valour of Pyrrhe and Harman are not unknown to him although his Vassals they are noble and Gentlemen full of honour and that rather then abate the least point would lose a thousand lives Oh how true it is that evil men travel by ways stubled and full of stops and difficulties and attain much weariness in the end of their iniquities If once his courtings be but perceived by so many eyes as watch him all is lost there will be nothing but tempests within and shipwrack without If he but consider the end of his unjust pretension it is but an assured loss of his reputation and may be of his life For if Elise perceive it once farewell friendship and peace but that is the least he thinks of If either her father or brother should suspect any thing there 's no more frequenting nor visits no more duty nor acknowledgment A quarrel that would set all the Gentlemen upon him thereabouts and make him odious to Scevole and to all that knew the rare vertues of his wife And to revenge himself there is no hope He is too far in the business his passion holds his foot at his throat he is fallen and lost he is altogether undone To dissemble his ill he cannot any longer he cannot without death and to dye without daring to complain or make known who is the cause he cannot resolve Here is our Ixion on the wheel It is most true that a disordered spirit is his own hangman he gets much by ruling his actions and motions He loses his countenance at the aspect of the Basilisco whose sight kills him This moving he cannot hinder betrays He speaks to her enough but not enough as much as becomes him but not enough for 't is not that he would or cannot or dares not manifest to her She seeâ— him nevertheless and seems ignorant Learn the cunning of women by this same So that our passionate Philippin dies of a sickness obscure and hidden in midst of all these commodities and remedies that opportunity seems to present him In the end the imposthume grows That which he cannot intreat for with his tongue he borrows with his pen being an interpreter of his thoughts which cannot blush That makes known to the artificious Amazon what she knew already but as she loved her honour and was jealous of her reputation she struck against the rock of a chaste resolution these first points making all these considerations recoil before the impenitrable buckler of a holy cruelty The glory of having captived so great a courage left not to flatter her seconded with pride of a secret joy that she had in her hands the means to be revenged of Philippin for the wrong she thought he had done her in leaving her for one of meaner beauty And as there needs to infernal Archimedes but one point out of the earth for to raise all the earth it was by this large gate of vengeance that he convey'd into the soul of this maiden the Trojan horse the funeral-torch that put all her reputation in ashes What dost thou Isabel in stead of sending back his Pacquets thou receivest and concealest them without giving any notice to thy father or brother Ha! this is not the course of a wise Maiden which like the Mother of Pearl ought not to open but to receive the dew of heaven nor to receive other courtings but those of a legitimate marriage with the permission of her parents You will hide serpents in your breast and then complain you are stung very ill you let in the thieves and then complain of being robbed you put in fire and then are astonished if it burn you Where is your wisdom Isabella I well perceive you are of that unfortunate band that are not wise but in doing ill whilst you are parlied with you intend to yield you betray your self in capitulating with a Traitor