of her own Our cares were reciprocally of no utility they served only to render us both convict and not to perplex us by a piece-meal process we were both condemn'd to death I confess unto you Tarsis that the small vertue and resolution which I had vanisht away when I knew that Sentence was pronounced against the Queen I did not only reflect on that part which was like to fall upon my own head I abandon'd my self totally out of the tenderness I had to her resenting only her own Misfortunes I had these regrets when I heard the doors of my Prison opened I believed they came to lead me to Execution and had some kind of joy for my Life was a burden to me under the Pressures and Anguishes wherein I was surrounded My sole desire was that I might imbrace my Mother before my death and desired it of him who entred before he told me upon what account he came But good Gods what reply Let 's pass I beseech you O Tarsis a place so mournful to my remembrance I had not yet the courage to speak of so tragical and so lamentable an Incounter he declared that he came from the Queens immediate Execution and that she dyed as valiantly as an Hero and as forme the Prince had out of passionate love so far prevailed for a commutation of the Sentence as that I should be transported into an Island in the Egean Sea and believed he had done me a singular favour I cryed out O hopeless I go go tell him do I continue to address to him who hath acted his part I will court none of his favours and if any it 's that I may follow my mother I would have added and pray'd the Person that I might have liberty to speak one only word to the King or Prince having resolved to declare openly whatever I was believing that I had nothing to stand in fear for than for my self alone But interrupting me would not hear nor understand me declared he was commanded to constrain me to depart without delay the Vessel ready and that he came to cause me to imbark immediately he led me or rather to say compell'd me by force even to the Port. They by mere compulsion in spight of all imaginable resistance forced me to imbarke and conducted me to the Isle of Naxos one of the Territories that belong to the King of Crete and shut me up within the Dungeon of an old Castle who had no other prospect than the Sea and the Rocks I will not molest you with the relation of this ghastly captivity nor with the Indeavours that I unprofitably used to procure my Liberty or deprive me of Life I will tell you only that the Prince of Crete had very lately some important and private Affair to dispatch Personally at Pidne and passed through the Egean Sea where the sight of the Isle wherein I was brought me into his Mind and whether his wrath was appeased or whether he had some Design which I knew not it fell out that he landed here and sent a Vessel to take me in at Naxos with Orders that I should be brought to a City situated in the entrance into that Valley of the Macedonian side eighteen or twenty furlongs from hence and I seemed to understand it to be called Gonnes We arrived here yesterday and in the Evening I took an occasion which by chance hap'ned to me to steal away unknown to the Guards who supposed that a young Maiden would not attempt flight in an unknown Country so far distant from her own I made up by chance to the house of an old Marriner with whom you have found me here who agreed to bring me to the first Port where I might conveniently imbark for Chypre I provided me Apparel to depart with the most security Then when I was surprized by these three Men whom you have seen which are of the Guards which conducted me to Gonnes and who without trackt me and discovered the Place I retired to But in fine you have delivered me most generous Tarsis and out of my resentment of so signal a piece of service I have taken pleasure to tell you at least the name of him whom you have so obliged the justice of the Cause you have supported and the unfortunate necessity which serves to excuse me neither can I at present testify my acknowledgments otherwise than in words that which I have to desire of you at present that you would vouchsafe to instruct me a little is with the Carde of the Countrey as well as in the State and interests of the neighbouring Cities that I may accordingly take measures for my Retreat for all that I can draw from this Marriner doth no otherwise inlighten me than to perplex and confound me there being an impossibility to comprehend any thing from his dictates Whilest the Prince thus spake Tarsis was strangely impatient for he had as we have seen a perplexity of Soul which rendred him almost uncapable of being sensible of that and of anothers wherefore he imbarked not throughly to understand the historical relation of the Prince of Chypre but in hopes as all those ordinarily have which are in trouble to learn on all hands news of those whom they are in quest of So that since the consequence of the discourse of Amalecinte that the hazards of this Prince had no connexion with those of his he had a thousand regrets when he had lost the opportunity of hearing them and left no means unattempted convenient to reingage himself in his conversation Howbeit the quality of the Person with whom he had bin permitting him not absolutely to conform to his passion and the rights of hospitality suffered him not to refuse so great a Prince the Instruction he required in relation to his Countrey He strove to give him all requisit illumination but it was with all brevity possible and in these terms My Lord said he after some testimony of acknowledgments and respects you know undoubtedly that the Valley of Tempé is of Thessaly as well as the major part of the Cities which are on the Thermaique Gulph on the south side Since Philip King of Macedon and father to Alexander the Great this Province hath always bin subject to the Kings of Macedonia but I vow unto you that I know not almost at present who are our Masters For since the death of Alexander the Great Macedonia hath changed so often and so suddainly so many Kings that scarcely have they sometimes given opportunity to their Subjects to learn their Names Moreover there are about two or three years that Brennus to come and fall upon Macedonia with that great Army of Gaules which over-whelm'd as you know all Grecia Demetrius then King of Macedonia to whom our Original communicated with that of our new Enemies rendred us suspicious sent us here for our Governor a Lord of Albania named Alcime to impede the Intelligences that they feared betwixt us and them and to
not be addressed to make one to one so great a Prince as Philadelphe Favor me therefore and of courtesy tell me how you understand it and unfold or explicate me a ridle or mistery which I would give to be done by Oedipe himself The explanation shall be therefore as well short as facile reply'd Telamon but let 's not lose more time here let 's seek out Tarsis and I will unridle you this Mystery in walking Then returning fifty or sixty Paces the same way by which they had come they met a small Town where turning to the right hand they took the way to Gonnes and in the mean time Telamon spake to him thus Here continues the History of Kion and Leonides NOT only Tarsis is Leonides O Agamée but I my self am that unfortunate Kion who was the Companion of all his dismal and mournful Disasters This discourse having yet redoubled the amazement of Agamée although he was falling something suspicious in his mind since he had understood that Leonides was Tarsis he could not refrain himself from interrupting Telamon I thought said he unto him not to come to see the People of Tempé but as illustrious Shepherds but by what I see I find my self contrary to my expectation amongst Heroes I ought therefore well to fore-see Telamon that these illustrious Commencements of apprentiship that you did so young among the Thâ—beans could have no other than such marvellous consequences but I am too impatient to learn that which you promiss me to interrupt you for a longer time Telamon answered with as much civility as such obliging Words deserved and after he had told him that Straton the Philosopher having bin his particular Friend he had doubtless taken pleasure to set a much higher value upon his Actions than they in themselves were worth he continued thus It 's not convenient Agamée that this great Amity which you have seen between Kion and Leonides should surprize you For not only were we born my Brother and my self of the same Father and Mother but I will yet tell you that if Fortune as well as Nature had taken a task to render all amongst us in common we had not even from our infancy but the self same Nurse the self same Sportes the same Exercises yea and even the same Masters and although there is some difference in our Ages there hath not bin almost any in all the courses of our Lives At the return from the Voyage of Thebes which is the only one that ever I made without him we went together to Athens to study in the Academie where then presided Xenocrate the Philosopher The esteem that our excellent Master had for Travellers and Voyages gave us encouragement I say to me and my Brother to spend some years in that Place and the rather and more especially to see the Gaules which we held for our Original Countrey I will say nothing to you of the divers Accidents that hap'ned to us there you will know only that being in the Capital City of the Gaules we were challenged by two young Knights with whom we had had some difference Fortune gave us the advantage of that Combat but the prosecution that was made against us by the Relations of these two young Knights after their death constrained us to depart from thence sooner than othewise we had done and to change even our Names for our better security We then took upon us these of Kion and Leonides which our grand-Fathers bore and our paternals and we were so well accustomed to those that as 't is ordinary enough with those who travel to change theirs we took those of others in all the remainder of our courses Behold Agamée all that I will declare unto you in relation to our Voyage from the Gaules although that at our being there we met with other considerable Adventures but I pretend not as to the present but to satisfy that of your impatience which you had to know how 't is possible that Leonides should be living here when as you have seen him for so it may be said to dye at Panticapée For this end you shall know that the Wife of Prytanis was daughter to Aristodeme Prince of the Senate of Heraclea before the Tyranny of Clearque She had known our Names by our Misfortunes and that strange accident which hap'ned to us at Chalcedone was no less come to her cognisance than the History of the Deliverance of Heraclea That which we had done for her Country moved her therefore to some compassion for us and the natural mildness and tractable curtesy of the asiatick Qualities and Conditions which she could not forget imprinted an aversion in her against the cruelty and barbarity of a Superstition to which she had never been accustomed She knew that the Crime that they imputed to my Brother was called Valor in Heraclea and that this was an effect and product of that same courage wherein her Countrey had received such signal and considerable Services That Lysimachus had drawn upon himself from all Asia the reproaches of cruel and barbarous by a Vengeance almost in similitude to what he would have taken for the death of Diomede and although this great Queen had all the mournful Regret and Sorrow whereof a vertuous Princess was capable in the death of her Husband she therefore knew how to distinguish the Crime of Tarsis from that of his Fortune So compensating in some sort the Services which she had received from him in the Persons of her Compatriots besides the outrage that she had received in that of Prytanis and considering that she owed the first to our Affection and that she could not impute the Injury but to his Fortune she was ashamed to sacrifice a Life which had bin so profitable to her Countrey so that having but one Son very young the Tuition Wardship and Custody of whom rendred her the Regency and conserved in her the sole and intire Authority she had in design to save Tarsis I avow that the Enterprise was great and that the Execution appeared impossible for she would also have saved the significant appearances and seeming signs and given to the Memory and to the Obsequies of the dead King all the Honor and Solemnity that to him was due Moreover when she had had in contemplation and thought to retrench something that depended not absolutely nor solely upon her self because she agitated in a Law and Custom invetterate and of very ancient use and long continuance of a Royal Prerogative and of popular Superstition What remedy then in an occasion of this nature where it was in question publickly to burn a Man in the view of all the People and yet therefore not to cause him to dye What way to save appearances what means to offer these Sacrifices and not to immolate the Victim Certainly I believe they were the Gods who inspired to him whom you go to understand be it by reason they never abandon'd vertue and oppressed innocence
his Councels and yet notwithstanding did quite the contrary He contented not himself to make him speak to me he pressed and solicited me himself We spent a whole year in this new Persecution in fine I conceived my self obliged to advertize his daughter thereof I told her Ingeniously all that which had passed and the Proposals of Mariage which her Father had divers times and oft solicited me Personally to conclude upon She was amazed and promised me that she would apply thereunto a remedy and truly she also was as good as her word but it was very sad and injurious unto me There was made a great Traffick of Women and Maidens for Slaves and as the Isle and all the City of Paphos is Consecrated to Venus they make by this kind of commerce a kind of Religion They come therefore from all parts there to buy Maidens and there are certain Feast Days Destinated thereunto where there is an Incredible number of persons and my Mistress omitted not to expose me to sale to the first that presented We then expected nothing less for as much as she had not spoken any thing to any person for fear lest her Father advertised should thereunto oppose himself it would be infinite here to stop here to tell you of the Grief of Alceste and of my own I knew not of his till afterwards for he had not so much as the opportunity to say adieu Mine was such as can scarce possibly be believed and undoubtedly worthy of our affection but it passed almost into despair when I knew into what hands Fortune made me fall You shall know Wise Shepherdesses that during all these changes and varieties of our Fortune there was also arrived others at Babylon in the Family of Perinte His Father seeing himself delivered from Alceste and my self and having all our wealth in his hands he had no other apprehension but that in returning we would some day come and oblige him to render us what was our own The return of the Merchants to whom he had consigned Alceste had sufficiently assured him that he was in a certain place whence in all appearance he could never come out As for me he was ignorant of the place of my flight but in fine he knew it was impossible for us to return nor yet that we could find one another Alceste and my self and that in Marrying one another we had no right to demand the Inheritance of our Fathers to prevent that he took a resolution to retire himself out of Babylon and to transport his Wealth and his Family to the Country where he was born that is to say at Tempe where he thought not we would come to seek him He disposed of all his affairs for the execution of this Design and put himself in the way with his Son for his Wife was dead a considerable time since and his daughter deceased after my departure he came the ordinary Road and Imbarked in one of the Ports of Syria came near to the Isle of Cyprus In his Voyage upon the Sea he was arrested by a disease which Augmented from day to day and reduced him to such extremity that when he was near to Cyprus when they believed there was no other remedy than to disimbark him he went on shoar at Paphos but very unprofitable for him in that he dyed there a few days afterwards That happened at the time of one of their Feasts of Venus whereof I have spoken unto you and just then when my Mistress would resel me Perinte who had performed his last duty in the Funeral Obsequies of his Father and who was upon the point of his departure had the curiosity to see this Market he met me there if he was surprised I Marvel not at it if he had any compassion it is that he would fain have you believe it but I believe he could never perswade you to it He bought me were it to make me free how can he be able to say so since he pretends that I am at this present his Slave he went upon the Sea caused me to Imbark with him we arrived at Tempe Onâ— the other side the master of Alceste having understood that I had been re-sold readily sent to inquire to whom and gave him charge to redeem me at what price soever it was Judge you a little with what Joy he accepted this Commision but they had given him notice too late we were already departed all that he could learn of those who accustome themselves to expose Slaves to Sale was that I had been sold to a young stranger who had lodged in an Inn they directed him to He ran there the Host told him that he had heard that man named Perinte and that he understood him say that his Father who died there in the Island came from Babylon and returned to Greece the Country of his Birth If this News gave some enlightning to Alceste you may Judge also how many Alarms it might cause in him He returned carryed it to his Master who learning my departure and the cheat his daughter had put upon him conceived such anger and fury against her as he was Naturally Furious and Violent and likewise Old and Decayed he fell into a disease whereof he dyed eight days after And dying left all these signs and tokens of his Indignation against his daughter as on the contrary he left Alceste all those that can be imagined of his affection he disinherited his daughter gave liberty to Alceste and made him the Heir of all his wealth but for all that Alceste esteemed not any thing but Liberty which left him the means of seeking me out He believed it not just to reap profit by the Indignation of a Father against his daughter who had not offended him but upon a Principle of Honour he remitted into her hands her Fathers estate and of a Considerable Inheritance he only took what was necessary to depart and to come after me There is but eight days that he hâ—â—â—â—en arrived here and there is already more than a month that wâ—â—ave been I will not conceal from you any thing that Perinteâ— himself can tell you for his advantage I avow you that during the Voyage he hath not made me any ill treatment and that since he arrived here he hath divers times proposed me Marriage and offered me Liberty on that condition But was I obliged to pay so dearly for a Liberty which is due to me and that I had not lost but by the crime of his Father if he hath redeemed me is it not at the expence of our wealth which he hath seized upon I avow you then that since I have been here I have used all means possible to get out of his hands and could not have been able to do it but by the diligence of Alceste He learnt in arriving here that Perinte lodged at Gonnes The exactitude wherewith I was observed not yielding him any Liberty of approaching me he found means to convey me
to purpose nor more Wonderfully for the Goddess Latone It is as he saith a Desart Island where there is neither Food nor Subsistance nor Habitation and in the mean time dwelt there and nourished himself there a very long time All his Comrades dead there is but him alone living in the conservation of whom you would say that all the Gods were occupyed and employed he dwelt in the midst of Serpents as if he had Charmed them with Medée he set a Forrest on fire in a place where was no fire would you not take him for a new Vulcan at the subtilty with whom he invented it at the self same hour a Ship passed by there as if there was a Randevous that is yet nothing it is justly his Friend and his Mistress which met him there in this Ship and thence conducted him away But how this day this Friend appeareth not and how you could be able to demand of them what is then become of him they have not failed to cause a Corsario or Pyrot Ship to be found there expresly to defeat and take them It would be very much too tedious for me to stay here to examin all these Ridiculous Adventures the rest is not of the same stamp and stile they were sold at different times bought by different persons and notwithstanding they Miraculously met Slaves in the same house and of the same Masters An old decrepit man in an instant Amourous and in Love with this Maiden who made his Slave his Confident disinherited his own Daughter and made his Rival his Heir What Fable this generous Rival quits a considerable Inheritance of importance in Cyprus all the Wealth toucheth him not it is above all his Interests and in the mean time it is to have my Wealth that this disinterested Man comes as they say to commence a process and litigious Suit against me But how dares he accuse me after that which this Maiden hath told you her self she is my Slave and in the mean time have I treated her as a Slave ever since she came into my hands have I not considered her as free as my Sister hath she not told you that I had the goodness to make her my Wife Is there any thing that can rationally be expected from a Man Is there any thing which is convenient for the good manners of a Man whom they would fain have pass to be a violent one to seize upon the Wealth of others to treat free Women as Slaves In very deed and truth Shepherds it is to have a strange Opinion of your Minds to pretend to abuse you by the like Suppositions For yet if they did bring you some proofs if they shew you the Will and Testament of their Fathers or this Testament of their Master but they have but their bare word for all their Evidence if it be not that you accounted for a great proof the opinion of this old Woman whom they have first deceived and who even she her self knows them not In fine Shepherds you cannot doubt but that this Man is an Impostor this Maiden a fugitive Slave and since they with one accord confess that it is I that have bought her you cannot refuse me her as her Master This discourse accompanied with the assurance and with the urgency and fervour with which this Man pronounced it did not make a small Impression and effect in the minds of all those who understood listned to it They looked one upon another with astonishment as avowing that they were a little precipitant in their first Judgment and determination and that the Face of this Affair was very much changed Above all this old Woman who was so easily perswaded that she had been Aunt to Eliante began to blame her self of over much credulity and looking upon Eliante and then upon Alceste she seemed to demand of them successively one after another a proof of that which they had told her Eliante all ashamed and confounded to see her self accused of Imposture appeared to avow by her modest Silence that she had no other proof of all that which she had declared than her own self nor for evidence but her Conscience and Alceste who expected nothing less than a disclaim that Perinte had done all that he knew as well as themselves lifted up his eyes and hands to Heaven and besought of the Gods a punishment whereof the conviction appeared not in his power However afterwards having paused thereon he desired yet a little attention from the Shepherds and said unto them I avow you wise Shepherds that I have bin surprised with the answer of Perinte and that whatever ill opinion I should have of him I believed not that he had or could have so much impudence in the Crime and artifice in his Imposture He hath had reason to tell you that one is not scarce wicked by halves and that one cannot assure Crimes but by Crimes But that which he hath told you for his justification discovereth you the reason of his boldness and impudence and causeth you to see that he disavows not the Truth of our misfortunes but because it would otherwise be impossible for him to excuse himself and that he well perceives that his violence cannot be covered but by his lies Our condition is very deplorable I confess it We are unknown and Strangers in our own Country We are deprived of Relations of Friends and of Wealth and the only Evidence that Fortune hath left us of our condition and of our Estate is he himself that contests it against us He demands of us the Will and Testament of our Fathers and 't is he alone which can have it and who retains it as the Son and Heir of our Guardian He opposeth us with the multitude and the cruelty of our disgraces which puts them almost above their true Semblance and Apparency and 't is his Father and himself that have caused them So that he makes his defence by his Crime and accuseth us by that which ought to make his own Condemnation But I draw notwithstanding a great advantage from his own proper Reasonings If our disgraces are so difficult to be imagined how could they be of our own Invention Eliante is not with her Aunt but since this Morning I have been absent from her almost all the day before that I was not able to accost her nor so much as to discourse her since my Arrival In what place in what time then could have conserted together so many fair Imaginations The more they appeared extraordinary and beneficial the more time they would and must have required to have invented them But let us say the more they seem incredible the least they ought to be suspected There is nothing which affecteth so much the true appearance and resemblance as the Lye It endeavoureth to have the least appearance for him by reason she hath against him the real Truth He knows he cannot deceive but in being imitated and as he strives but to
ones heart Why wilt thou that I commit such a peice of Treachery to make a man believe that I am ravished to listen unto him when I would with all my heart that he were at a further distance Ergaste there is nothing so faithful as not to Dissemble Thou findest wherewith to contradict that one signifies that he is vexed and I would that one should even speak it Ingeniously one to another when one disdains or despiseth when one is angry and furious and when one hates I would desire the truth that one constrains himself to endeavour not to hate nor to dispise any person but if one cannot refrain I would that one should freely and frankly discover it After thy Sentiment demanded Ergaste canst thou bear good Will to a man that should come and tell thee he hates and despiseth thee A thousand times more replyed Celemante than to hate me and say nothing For in fine when a man hath those and the like Sentiments for me if he conceals them from me it is not but for his proper Interest for fear I should bear him ill will or possibly the better to surprize me but if he declares it me ingeniously I should at least hold my self or keep me upon my guard at least even in his hatred would he do towards me a Friendly Action to declare me my Enemies And how many thinkest thou after all are there of hatreds and enmities which continue not in our hearts but least we should dare to discover them and which they would discharge themselves of in expressing them as they do for the most part of all other Passions Ergaste replyed behold very fair imaginations Celemante but they are such as are not customary nor used in this age of ours To whom should they then be held interrupted the other Friend let 's begin to practice them and we should introduce them into a mode It is true that that is justly thy action continued Ergaste smiling for I have always heard say that they are Fools that invent them Ay ay replyed Celemante but as they say that the Wise follow them I hope I shall be a Fool followed by the Wise and if thou doest not as do I then thou shalt be a Wise one who shall not be followed but by Fools And to demonstrate thee that from the present time I will Live with this Freedom it is I declare thee that I begin to be very weary of thee and go to seek to divert my self elsewhere At this saying he took leave of Ergaste and went forward singing towards the midle of the Plain where he saw a considerable number of Shepherds and Shepherdesses assembled together Ergaste lookt upon him sometimes walking smiling and admiring in himself the humor of this Shepherd afterwards as the Extream Love which he had for Arelise conjoined to his temper which was as Melancholy as that of the others was airy and merry made him rather to seek Solitude to meditate then Company where he might divert himself and instead of following Celemante and going to the Assembly which he saw he turned on the other side to go out of the way of that Company In the mean time Celemante went still forward observed that that Assembly were intent in looking upon Shepherds which exercised themselves in a Race and he saw two who disputed Emulously from whom the first carryed a Dart which was fixed in the Earth neer three hundred paces from the place whence they began to run The Shepherdesses were sate upon the Grass eight or ten paces aside from the Dart and one of them with a smiling Countenance held in her hands a branch of a wild Olive Tree which she plaited in form of a Crown to place it upon the head of the Victor Celemante immediately knew that Shepherdess to be Coris and that was enough to make him double his pace although he walked already with speed enough He arrived by or near her just at the same time when the two Shepherds had finished their Race and that the Victor who was named Olcite demanded the Prize Celemante opposed himself thereunto and told him after his ordinary frolicksome joaking I yeild thee all that there is of Olive Trees in Tempe but take it for good that for the Honour of Coris I only Dispute thee that little branch which she hath in her hand Olcite would answer when Coris also still frolick and jocund replyed wherefore say you Shepherd that it is for my Honour that you would Dispute the Prize with Olcite ought you not to do it only for your self since it is indifferent to me as in relation to my self to whom I give it Fair Shepherdess replyed Celemante I said it because that it being for time to come more for you than for me you have more interest in my Honour than my self and since when are you mine then replyed pleasantly Coris It is requisite that I be very Rich to have one in similitude to him there and yet am not perceived But rather Fair Shepherdess replyed he it seems you make a very small account not to remember your self as yet that I gave all these past days to you to be your Gallant Coris being soon put in mind of the Discourse which they had had on that Subject the day that Ergaste feigned to be her Lover rejoin'd him thus Ah I remember once Celemante It is true that you offered your self to be my Gallant but Shepherd I also remember me that I would not receive you Amiable Shepherdess replyed he it is true that I was not altogether received but yet I was not wholly rejected and a Gallant who is not rejected hath right to believe that he is received Let us not dessemble Celemante replyed Coris I think that you will never give your self to any person and each of us find our selves so well to be each one for him or her self that there never will be any more seeking for another Master I find my self so in very deed continued Celemante and that is that wherein you have a greater obligation unto me that I do not as do the Slaves who will change a Master because they have a bad one but that I quit one who to me was one of the best in the World wholly and purposely because I would give my self unto you I have great fear replyed Coris that it was rather through unconstancy and as those servants who change when they are too well because they cannot continue at their ease Will you that I freely declare unto you the truth replyed Celemante I quit a good Master because I believe you will not be yet a better Mistress And I replyed Coris I declare unto you I will not have a Servant so Licentious and such a Libertine for he would without doubt even quit me if he should think of finding or having a better But replyed Celemante be so good unto me that it be altogether impossible to find a better Coris would reply when Olcite who
to Judge of the Actions of the Gods but I believe Women of Heart would never do that which they impute them At the Instant lest he should continue that discourse I reassumed another The occasion which he had to be all the day near me and speak to me made me well believe that to take one away from him I was not precautioned against another for time to come That was because I would break the Course of all the designs he could have to seek any I was resolved to advertize his Father I took him then one day particularly and after I had made him remember the Protestations with which he had answered me in relation to his Son complained to him of his Audacity and conjured him to employ himself in making him more wise with all the reasons that I could possibly call to mind The Father was astonished at the folly of his Son he protested me he knew nothing of it until then and after he had asked my Pardon a thousand times he returned to his own house where he read a Lecture to this young Man both as a Father and as a Master that is to say with a Lenity mixed notwithstanding with very severe Threats if he profited not himself by this first remonstrance But that which should have rendered him wise cast him into the last excess For in fine he conceived so strange a despight and of the complaints that I had made him that by a kind of Desparation he went to find the Prince Demotime in Phrygia and after he had prepared his Mind for the Design he would inspire into him he discovered him what I was and declared him that acknowledging him to be his only and Legitimate King he could not resolve with himself to contribute a longer time in this kind of Treason Demotime who conserved always in his Heart all the Sentiments of that Ambition which had formerly obliged him to take up Arms against the deceased King My Father received this News with the same Joy as if they had already set the Crown upon his Head He embraced a thousand times the young Olearque and excited him by the hopes of the most high and vast Recompences if he could in any kind convince him by reason or demonstration or action make him believe that that was really true that he had declared There was no need to use Arguments or make so much difficulties to carry Olearque from any or all undertaking and would make good his Declaration The despight in his Heart was so joyned with Love and Ambition that in that condition there was not any thing whereof he felt not himself capable What shall I say unto you more He ingaged Demotime to make a Voyage to Mitilene under pretext of coming to give me an accompt of his Employment and there to make his Court he promised him that he would give him an opportunity of seeing me in the Bath and in effect having corrupted with much Money those which were necessary to his design he caused Demotime to conceal himself in a Corner of my Chamber where I bathed my self and I am in confusion only in calling to mind his Insolence this Perfidy betrayed my Secret and my Chastity and acquitted himself of his word to Demotime This same here cleared from his Doubts dreamed a long time in what manner he should make known to the Publick what I was He well believed that it would be a difficult thing if he did not comport himself therein handsomly because there was so little appearance of the Truth thereof that the very small Semblance thereof would only render the Proposition ridiculous and might take away all credulity from his words Behold his first thought was to put it in the Peoples minds that it was requisite to press me to marry to assure Successors to the State dreaming of the refusal that I would make would be the beginning of a Conviction against me My Father had thereunto in some Respect made Provision by the noise that I have told you that he had dumbly and deafly caused to be spread abroad and which might serve me for some kind of excuse But howsoever that noise had bin so uncertain that they knew not certainly whether it were a Fable or a Truth Demotime himself well judged that if this excuse should be ill received of any to whom the sole Doubt that they had had might have given an occasion of making Insolent Jests enough so that he thought that that would be to him but a small advantage if he obliged me to have publick recourse to an apparition or dumb shew which would cause my Person to be despised and would alienate in some sort the minds of my Subjects from the respect affection and allegiance which they ought me So although I was yet very young it might be insinuated into their minds that it was therefore requisite to press me to chuse a Wife to produce an Heir to the Kingdom and as his Interest therein would appear contrary in the pretention that he could be to succeed therein that would make it be thought that he spake not but for the good of the Kingdom and that which he said would make much more Impression And in truth he in fine perswaded the necessity of this Marriage to so many Persons that I understood not of any other thing spoken than of these Propositions He himself was always urging me thereunto yea he so persisted in it until my Subjects expresly deputed some to invite me thereunto poposing me a Princess named Aremise who being fair of my Blood and of my Age seemed not to leave me any pretext to refuse her I have told you that the two Princes who opposed themselves against the establishment of the Decree who declared the Daughters uncapable to succeed to the Crown had each of them a Daughter I was the Issue of the eldest Artemise of the second The People very much affected this Princess because her Father during his Life had been extream Popular and she was very much her self She had moreover a thousand very amiable Qualities a penetrating Wit agitating to the very utmost point But even all these advantages which rendered her so commendable and praise-worthy made an unfortunate effect against me by reason the more amiable she was the more they would astonish themselves if I made any difficulty to espouse her I notwithstanding dallied some time with the artifice of Demotime in temporising and excusing my self with the youth fulness of my Age without my belief that his urgency was an Artifice For as I knew not that he had any knowledge of my Sex I thought not also that all this was done by an evil intention Only I astonisht my self that Demotime who was married and who had Children was so affectionate for my Successors that he would forget his own In fine the success of his Stratagem seeming to him too slow he believed it would be necessary to advance it by stronger and more violent
essayed to lade upon his Shoulders a Dead Corps which I knew to be of a Woman He besought me to assist him to carry this Corps to his own House and told me it was a Daughter of one of his Relations We carried it therefore even near to that House the Master whereof I have known since calls himself Alpide He went there to fetch some Clothes wherein he wrapt the Dead Corps which was already stiff and having told me that his People were comeing to help him he dismissed me after he had given me cloths which I sold in the day time in my way to Persons unknown Yesterday being return'd to see my Master I knew that one of the principal Shepherds of Callioure was in great trouble for his Daughter who was drowned and that he had promised a considerable Sum to them who should carry him News of her The Hour and the Place where they said she was lost and even the relation that they shewed me she had to Alpide have made me very well observe that she was the very self same that I had aided him to bring hither and I came to assure it with this Shepherd whom I know long since to give advice thereof to this Poor Father to whom I well see that Alpide hath not said any thing I see that he hath not spoken to this Shepherd However he said he well remembred that his Master being returned there very late went forth again immediately afterwards and was a long time without returning and that in effect having since understood him to condole the Death of that Shepherdess he heard that they Named her Zelie which is the Name of the Daughter of that Shepherd of Callioure Whilst that Man made this recital a Rivolet of Tears trickled down the Cheeks of Telamon and his Heart was pressed with so much Grief that he could scarce fetch Breath He then Judged that he had yet till then flattered himself with some remaining hopes that he needed no more ask this unknown one with whom they had seen the Vail of Zelie had also apparel like to hers and that the Death of that Incomparable Shepherdess was in fine a thing but too true and assured The tenderness which he had for this Shepherdess was considerable and toucht him with the last Grief and greatest Pain but that which afflicted him so much the more was to think of the Despair or that Death would bring to poor Tarsis For in fine he knew well that whatsoever belief this Shepherd had before he had not notwithstanding extinguished that last hope which with so much pains he had kept up the unfortunate One But at this encounter he saw nothing of mitigation nor of recovery He remained some time in these Mortal Reflections Sad Mournful Unmoveable His Eyes and Arms lift up towards Heaven without ability to express his Affliction but by Tears and vexing Afterwards smiting his Stomack with his two Hands Ah! Poor Tarsis cryed he what Account am I come to render thee here and declare these dismal and dreadful Tidings afterwards he passed with his Hands before his Eyes two or three times to wipe off the Tears which gushed out and blinded him and having afterwards asked this Shepherd some questions with incredible Trouble and disorder he quitted him with a Spirit so strangely oppressed and overwhelmed that he scarcely knew himself neither what he should say nor what he should do nor whither he should go The End of the Fifth and Last Book of the Second Part. FINIS