to his prison to prepare himselfe to dye Sypontus is no sooner departed from them but they consult on Victoryna whether shee were guilty or innocent of her husband Souranza's Murther but they differ in opinion some would likewise have her Racked but others of them more advised and modest reply that Sypontus his Letter intimated onely his affection to Victoryna but no way her malice to her dead husband Souranza nor that shee was any way guilty or accessary to his Murther so they resolve to forbeare her and not to put her to the torment except Sypontus accuse her at his execution Now the very night that hee was to die the next morne hee infinitely desires his Iaylor to permit him to conferre with Victoryna and to take his last leave of her which is denyed him as having received command from authority to the contrary whereat extreamely grieving hee is called away by some Divines whom the charity of that grave Senate send him to prepare and direct his soule in her passage and transmigration to Heaven So passing the night in teares and prayers for the foulenesse of his crime the morne being come and nine of the clock strucken hee is brought to the scaffold where a world of people concurre and flock from all parts of the City to see this wretched and unfortunate Gentleman act the last Sceane and part of his life upon this infamous Theater Heere Sypontus freely confesseth his foule Murther of Souranza but is yet so vaine and wretched as hee takes it to his death that Victoryna is absolutely innocent hereof hee seemes to bee very repentant and sorrowfull for all his sinnes in generall and for this Murther in particular For expiation and reward hereof his head is severed from his body a just recompence and punishment for so vicious and bloudy a Gentleman who adhering to adultery more then chastity to revenge then charity and to the devill then God forgot himselfe so farre as to commit this execrable and lamentable Murther Now the order and Decorum of our History leades us from dead Sypontus to living Victoryna who I know not whether more grieve at his death or rejoyce that on the Racke and scaffold hee hath acquitted her of her husbands Murther In a word it is remarkeable to behold the vanity and inconstancy of this female Monster for contrary to her vowes and repugnant to her Letters and teares Sypontus is no sooner dead but her affection towards him dyes with him yea his bloud is scarce fo soone cold as her zeale and friendship for shee now holds it a pure folly to cast away her youth and life if shee may preserve the one and save the other and therefore resolves to try her best art and wit to make her innocencie passe currant with her Iudges yea so desirous and ambitious is shee to live as her female heart hath drawne on this masculine fortitude and generosity that if occasion present shee will constantly both out-dare and out-brave the torments of the Racke thereby to prevent her death Some three daies after Sypontus was executed the Iudges againe sit and consult on Victoryna but finding no evidence nor witnesse to accuse her they at first are of opinion to discharge and free her onely they deeme it requisite to terrifie but not to torment her with the Racke before they give her her liberty whereunto they all agree So they send for her and threaten her with the Racke but shee vowes that all the torments of the world shall never inforce her to confesse an untruth and that shee never had the least suspicion that Sypontus was guilty of this execrable Murther of her husband her Iudges will not yet beleeve her so they cause her to be carryed to the Racke whereunto shee very cheerefully and patiently permits her selfe to bee fastened bidding the Executioner doe his worst which constancie of hers her Iudges seeing and hearing they in pitty and commiseration as well of her youth and beauty as to her descent and the teares and prayers of venerable old Beraldi her father cause her to bee loosed and so in open Court acquit and discharge her Here wee see this wretched Courtizans Victoryna acquitted of her Iudges for her husbands Murther so as triumphing more in her good fortune then her innocencie shee now thinkes the storme of her punishment past and ore-blowne and that no fuâ—…e can possibly bee reserved for her or shee for it but her hopes will deceive her for although shee have made her peace with Earth yet shee hath not with Heaven and although she have deluded the eyes of her Iudges yet she shall not those of God but when his appoynted houre and her due time is come then her crimes and sins her adultery and Murther shall draw down vengeance from heaven to her confusion In the meane time wee shall see this Monster and disgrace of her sexe make such bad use of her former danger as shee will againe adde bloud to bloud and Murther to Murther but God will reserve not onely the rod of his wrath for her correction but the full viols of his indignation for her confusion as the sequell will shew thee Sixe moneths are scarce past since the Murther of her husband Souranza and the execution of her Enamorata Sypontus but shee hath already quite forgotten these two mournefull ard tragicall accidents and which is more shee is so frolike and youthfull as shee hath throwne off her mourning attire and drawne on her rich apparell and glittering jewels whereof the curiosity of the nobler sort of Gentlemen and Ladies of the Citie take exact observation and although Beraldi and Lucia her fatheâ—… and mother herein taxe her of indiscretion and immodesty yet shee thinkes heâ—… selfe exempt of their commands and therefore will doe it out of the ambitious priviledge of her owne uncontrolable authority and wilfulnesse Besides her thought are so youthfull and her carriage so light as notwithstanding shee came as it were but now from burying of her first husband yet shee is resolved without delay tâ—… have a second her father and mother checke her of levity and incivility in imbracing this resolution but in vaine for her impudencie returnes them this immodest answer that shee will not trifle away her time but marry They advize her to bee cautious and to doe nothing rashly in this her second match that the misfortune anâ—… scandall of her first may no more reflect on her But shee will make choyce for heâ—… selfe by the eyes of her youth and not by those of their age by those of her ownâ—… fancie and not by these of their election Her husband Souranza dyed rich both 〈◊〉 lands and monies and his Widdow Victoryna without any opposition injoyeth all 〈◊〉 shee needs not looke out for Suters for there are Gallants enow who sue and seekâ—… her but of them all hee whom shee best and chiefly affecteth is one Seignior Loudvicus Fassino a very neat and proper young Gentleman of
The manner is thus That as his Father deceived his hopes in carrying him from Rome to Caprea so hee will deceive those of his sayd Father in carrying himself from Caprea to Cicily there to find out Bertolini and to fight with him It is not the poynt of Honour much lesse Iudgement and least of all Religion that precipitates and throwes him on this bloudy and therefore uncharitable resolution but it is the vanity of his thoughts and his living affection to his dead Mistris Paulina which gives life and birth to it for he trampling on all disswasion and opposition finding a Galley of Naples bound from Caprea to Cicily very secretly imbarkes himselfe in her and contemning the impetuosity of the Windes and the mercilesse mercie of the Seas lands at Palermo where hushing himselfe up the first night privately in his Inne and informing himselfe that Bertolini was in that City he the next morne by his Lackey sends him this Challenge STVRIO to BERTOLINI HAving killed my deare Paulina in the scandall of her honour and the death of her Brother Brellati my afflictions and sorrowes to survive her make me contemne mine owne life to seeke thine to which purpose I have left Caprea to finde Cicily and in it thy selfe Wherefore as thou art Bertolini faile not to meet me this Evening 'twixt five and sixe of the Clocke in the next Meadow behinde the Carthusians Monastery where my selfe assisted onely with a Chirurgian and the choyce of two single Rapiers will expect and attend thee Thy Generosity invites thee and my Affection and Honour obligeth mee to be the onely Guests of this bloudy Banquet STVRIO Bertolini receives and reades this Challenge which to write the truth is not so pleasing to him as was that of Brellati he sees himselfe and his Honour ingaged to fight and knowes not how to exempt and free himselfe thereof For first he considereth that the ground of his Defence and Quarrell is not good sith he knew in his soule and conscience that Paulina was as chast as faire that he had wronged himself in seeking to wrong and scandalize her then that hee perfectly understood Sturio was valiant and generous yea and very expert and skilfull in handling his Weapons and withall that single Combates were variable and onely constant in unconstancie so that he begâ—…n not onely to doubt but feare that as he had killed Brellati so Sturio was reserved to kill him but againe considering that his birth and bloud was noble it contrariwise so incâ—…red and animated his courage and inflamed and set an edge on his Generosity as with a kinde of unwilling willingnesse hee accepts of Sturio's Challenge and so bade his Lackey tell his Master from him that hee would not faile to meet him to give him his welcome to Palermo The Clocke strikes five and long before sixe our two young Gentlemen come ride into the Field where giving their Horses to their Chirurgians with command not to stirre till their dueâ—…y and office call them they both draw and so approach each other but although this fury of theirs beginne in bloud yet it shall not here end in death At first comming up Sturio wards Bertolini's thrust and runnes him into the right Flanke of a deepe wound at the second he wounds him again in the neck which draws much bloud from him neither is the third meetingmore propitious or lesse fatall to him for Sturio without receiving any touch or scarre gives him a third wound 'twixt his small ribs whereat his courage feareth and his strength fainteth when willing to save his life though with the losse of his honour he throwes away his Rapier and with his Hat in hand begs his life of Sturio and with as much truth as integrity confesseth and voweth that hee is infinitely sorrowfull and repentant for the scandal delivered against the honor of his most faire and chast Lady Paulina for the which he craves pardon and remission Sturio is astonished at this unexpected and cowardly act of Bertolini whereat he bites his lip but I know not whether more with disdaine then anger only at first the remembrance of Brellati and Paulina's deaths for the present make him inexorable to his requeâ—… and submission but at last making reason give a law to choller and Religion to Revenge and considering that he was more then a Man sith a Christian as also that the lustre of his bloud and extraction had distinguished him from the vulgar and so made him honourable and noble hee not as a cruell Tygre but as a generous Lyon disdayneth to blemish his reputation and valour in killing a disarmed man and so his honour outbraving his valour and revenge he as a truely noble Gentleman gives Bertolini his life as holding himselfe satisfyed by having righted the honour of his dead Mistresse Paulina in Bertolini's confession and contrition So they sheath up their Swords and like loving friâ—…nds returne together into the City where Sturio prepareth for his departure and Bertolini betakes himselfe to have his wounds dressed and cured This Combate or Duell is not so secretly carryed betwixt them and their Chirurgians but all Palermo resounds and prattles thereof and which is more this newes speedily sayles from Cicily to Naples and from thence rides poast to Rome where Sturio and Bertolini likewise in short space arrive but first comes Sturio then Bertolini whose Father by this time hath obtained his Pardon for killing of Brellati The Nobility and Gentry of Rome speake diversely and differently of our two late return'd Gallants some â—…t of reason highly applaud Sturio's fighting with Bertolini occasioned through his affection to his dead Mistresse Paulina and then his humanity and curtesie shewed and extended him in giving him his life others out of the errours of youth and vanity taxe and condemne him for not dispatching and killing him againe many extoll Bertolini's valour in killing Brellati but all taunt and taxe him for his Cowardise in not fighting it out with Sturio and which is worse for disgracefully begging and receiving his life of him Bertolini findes this scandall throwne and retorted on him to bee very distastefull and dishonourable in so much as hee cannot rellish it but with discontent nor digest it but with extreme indignation and choller which throwes him so violently on the execrable humour of revenge as hee vowes to make Sturio pay deare for giving two much liberty to his tongue to the prejudice of his honour and reputation Puft up thus with these three execrable humours and vices disdaine envy and revenge whereof the least is great and capable enough to ruine both a fortune and a life hee out of a wretched resolution unworthy the generosity of a Gentleman not onely forgets Sturio his singular courtesie in giving him his life when it lay in his power and pleasure to take it from him but also remembreth and in that remembrance resolveth to repay him with the ungratefull requitall and mournefull interest of
Is De Merson given and addicted to other women why pardon him because hee is a young man and as hee is thy husband and thou his wife beleeve that hee is every way more worthy of thy praiers than of thine envie Thus wee see upon what fatall and ominus tearmes these late married couple now stand De Mersons youth scorning and spurning at his wife La Vasselaye's age and wholly addicting himselfe to others and her age growing infinitly jealous of his youth so that for any thing I see or know to the contrary these different vices have already taken such deepe and dangerous roote in them as they threaten not onely the shipwracke of their content but of their fortunes if not of their lives Now for us to find out the particular object of La Vasselayes jealousie as her foolish curiosity hath already the generall cause we must know that she hath a very proper young Gentlewoman who atends her of some eighteene yeares of age tearmed Gratiana of a middle stature somewhat inclining to fatnesse having a fresh sanguine complexion and bright flaxen haire she being indeed every way exceeding lovely and faire and with this Gratiana she feares her Husband is more familiar than either modesty or chastity can permit and yet she hath onely two poore reasons for this her credulity and jealousie and God knowes they are poore and weake ones indeed The first is that she thinkes her owne withered face serves onely but as a foyle to make Gratiana's fresh beauty seeme the more precious and amiable in his eyes The second is that shee once saw him kisse her in her presence in the garden when she brought him a handkercher which his Page had forgotten to give him Ridiculous grounds and triviall reasons for her to build her feare or erect her jealousie on or to invent and raise so foule a scandall and calumny and yet not to suppresse but to report the whole truth De Merson was laciviously in love with Gratiana had often tempted her deflouration but could never obtaine her consent thereunto for shee was as chaste as faire and impregnable either to bee seduced by his gifts and presents or to bee vanquished and wonne by his treacherous promises protestations and oathes for she told him plainely and peremptorily when she saw him begin to grow importunate and impudent in this his folly That although she were but a poore Gentlemans daughter yet she thanked God that her parents had so vertuously train'd her up in the Schoole of Honour that she would rather dye than live to be a strumpet to any Gentleman or Prince of the world which chaste answer and generous resolution of hers did then so quench the flames of his lacivious and inordinate affection to her as thenceforth he exchanged his lust into love towards her and vowed that he would both respect and honour her as his sister Now although they both kept the passage of this businesse secret from his wife her Mistris yet notwithstanding as it is the nature of Iealousie not to hearken to any reason nor approve of any beliefe but of her owne therefore shee is confident that he lyes with Gratiana more oftner than with her selfe which shee vowes shee cannot digest and will no longer tolerate To which end with a most malicious and strange kind of treachery shee makes faire weather with Gratiana and thinking to coole her hot courage and to allay the heat of her luxurious blood looking one day stedfastly in her face she tels her that she hath need to be let blood to prevent a Fever whereunto although chaste and innocent Gratiana was never formerly let blood she notwithstanding willingly consents thereunto which to effect La Vasselay like a base mistris and a treacherous stepdame sends for an Apothecary named Rennee gives him a watch-word in his eare to draw at least sixteene ounces of blood from Gratiana for that she was strongly entred into a burning Fever But he being as honest as shee was treacherous and cruell told her that the drawing of so great a quantity of blood from her might not only impaire her health but indanger her life But she replies it was so ordered by a Doctor whereupon he opens her right arme veyne and as he had neere drawen so much from this poore harmelesse young Gentlewoman shee faints twice in a chaire betwixt their armes and all the cold water they threw in her face could very hardly refetch her and keepe life in her this old hard-harted hag still notwithstanding crying out that it was not blood enough having no other reason for this her treachery and cruelty but that indeed she thought it not enough or sufficient to quench the unquenchable thirst and flame of her jealousie of which this is the first effect towards this innocent young Gentlewoman but wee shall not goe farre to see a second Gratiana is so farre from dreaming of her mistris jealousie towards her master and herselfe or from once thinking of this her treacherous letting her blood as shee thankes her for her affection and care of her health and now the very next day after De Merson dyning at home with his old wife which he had not done in many dayes before and seeing Gratiana looke so white and pale demaunds her if she bee not well and then questioneth his wife what ayles her Gentlewoman to looke so ill which she seemes to put off with a feigned excuse but withall as if this care of her husband towards Gratiana were a true confirmation of their dishonesty and her jealousie she retaynes the memory thereof deepely in her heart and thoughts yea it is so frequent and fixed in her Imaginations as she cannot she will not any longer suffer or indure this affection of her husband to Gratiana nor that Gratiana's youth shall wrong La Vasselay's age in the rites and duties of marriage Wherefore casting sad aspects on him and malignant lookes on her she to please and give satisfaction to her jealousie which cannot bee pleased or satisfied with any thing but revenge resolves to make her know what it is for a waiting maid to offend and wrong her mistris in this kinde when not to deminish but rather to augment and redouble her former cruelty towards her Her husband riding one day abroad in company of divers other Gentlemen of the City to hunt Wolves which abound in those vast and spacious woods of Maine shee under pretence of some other businesse calls Gratiana alone into her inner chamber when bolting the doore after her she with meager and pale envy in her lookes and implacable fury and choller in her speeches chargeth her of dishonesty with her husband calling her whore strumpet and baggage affirming that the time and houre is now come for her to be revenged of her Poore Gratiana both amazed and affrighted at this sudden and furious both unexpected and undefiled alarum of her Mistris seing her honour and as she thinkes and feares her life called in
evill but it is our owne concupiscence that drawes and inticeth us to it In which respect wee may justly say it is a folly to hearken to temptation but a misery and madnesse to follow and embrace it For why should discontent cast us into despaire except wee will resemble the foolish Saylor who abandoneth the Helme in a storme when he hath most neede to use it or the simple fish that leapes from the pan to the fire Or those ignorant fooles who to shelter themselves from the raine run into the river For are we tempted The Lord will hold us up by his right hand yea hee will not faile those that seeke him For he is our Rocke and our fortresse our shield and our refuge yea although hee hath wounded us hee will bind up our wounds And that wee may yet see a farther benefit that accrueth to those that are tempted let us read with joy and retaine with comfort that Blessed is the man that endureth temptation hee shall receive the Crowne of life which the Lord hath promised to those that love him yea they that trust in the Lord shall bee as Mount Sion which cannot be removed but abideth for ever When therefore amongst other temptations choller so farre prevaileth with us or rather the Devill with our choller that wee imagine mischiefe in our hearts or life up our hands against our Christian brother let us then consider what the Apostle tels us from God Hee that hateth his brother walketh in darkenesse and knoweth not whither he goeth yea He that loves not his brother is not of God Hath any one therefore offended thee Why consider hee is a man and no Angell and as subject to infirmities as thy selfe as also that he is thy brother by Creation and Adoption by Nature and by Grace and that hee beares the same Image and Resemblance of God as thy selfe dost in which regard thou art counselled Not to 〈◊〉 the Sunne goe downe on thy wrath That thou seeke after Peace and follow it That we forbeare and forgive one another as Christ forgives us and q that if we live in Peace the God of Peace will be with us But some there are yea alas too too many who are so hardned in their hearts and sinnes and so resolute in their wilfulnesse as in stead of rellishing they distaste and in stead of embracing reject and disdaine this Christian advice and counsell opening their thoughts and hearts to all vanities or rather drawing up the Sluces and Flood-hatches to let in all impiety to their soules they give way to the treacherous baites of the World to the alluring pleasures of the Flesh and to the dangerous and fatall temptations of the Devill and so cruelly imbrue their hands in the innocent blood of their Christian brethren and although the murthers of Abel by Cain out of Envie of Vriah by David for Adultery of Abner by Ioab for Ambition of Naboth by Iezabel for Malice and of Iehu his Sonnes by Athaliah for Revenge with their severall punishments which God inflicted on them for these their hainous and horrible crimes are presidents enough fearefull and bloody to make any Christian heart dissolve into pittie and regenerate soule melt into teares yet sith new examples ingender and produce fresh effects of sorrow and compassion and as it were leave and imprint a sensible memory thereof in our hearts and understandings therefore I thought it a worke as worthy of my labour as that labour of a Christian to collect thirty severall Tragicall Histories which for thy more ease and perfecter memory I have digested into sixe severall Bookes that observing and seeing herein as in a Christall mirrour the variety of the Devils temptations and the allurements of sinne wherewith these weake Christians the Authors and Actors hereof suffered themselves to bee carried away and seduced Considering I say the foulnesse of their facts in procuring the deaths of their Christian brethren some through blood others through poyson as also Gods miraculous detection and severe punishment thereof in revenging blood for blood and death for death yea many times repaying it home with interest and rewarding one death with many that the consideration of these bloody and mournfull Tragedies may by their examples strike astonishment to our thoughts and amazement to our senses that the horrour and terrour thereof may hereafter retaine and keepe us within the lists of Charity towards men and the bonds of filiall and religious obedience towards God who tels us by his Royall Prophet that Whosoever makes a pit for others shall fall into it himselfe for his mischief will returne upon his own head and his cruelty fall upon his own pate Which we shall see verified in these who seduced partly by sinne but chiefly by Sathan who is the Author thereof forgot the counsell of the Apostle If any one be afflicted let him pray and grived to powreforth their hearts before God not considering the efficacie thereof nor how Moses made the bitter waters of Marah sweet thereby yea they builded not their faiths on God and his promises on Christ and his Church on his Gospell and his Sacrament but spurned at all these Divine comforts and spirituall blessings yea and trampled that sweet-smelling Sacrifice of prayer under their feete which is the Antidote and preservative of the soule against sin and the Bulwarke to expell all the fiery and bloody darts of Sathans temptations yea the very ladder whereby both the aspirations and ejaculations of our soules mount unto God and his benefits and mercies descend unto us and this and only this was both the Prologue to their destruction and their destruction it selfe the which I present unto the view not only of thine eyes but of thy heart and soule because it is a Vertue in us to looke on other mens Vices with hatred and detestation imitating herein the wise and skilfull Pilot who mournes to see the Rockes whereon his neighbours have suffered shipwracke and yet againe rejoyceth that by the sight thereof he may avoid his owne which indeed is the true way both to secure our safety and to prevent our destruction as well of the Temporall life of our bodies in this World as the Spirituall of our soules in that to come I must farther advertise thee that I have purposely fetched these Tragicall Histories from forraine parts because it grieves mee to report and relate those that are too frequently committed in our owne Countrey in respect the misfortune of the dead may perchance either afflict or scandalize their living friends who rather want matter of new consolation then cause of reviving old sorrowes or because the iniquity of the times is such that it is as easie to procure many enemies as difficult to purchase one true friend In which respect I know that divers both in matters of this and of other natures have beene so cautious
mee your friendship I can sooner forget all other offences then pardon this therefore finde it not strange that I request you to meete mee on thursday morning next at five or sixe either with your sword or Rapier on Horse-backe or a foot at Carency halfe a league from Brie-count Robert where the Bearer hereof shall expect you to conduct you safely to a faire Medow where without seconds I will attend you It is impossible for me to receive any other satisfaction for to write you the truth nothing but your life or mine is capable to decide this difference GRAND PRE. At the reading hereof the Baron is so farre from the least shew or apprehension of feare as hee is pleasant and jocund yea he causeth Grand Pre's Page to dine with him and after dinner takes him aside and speakes to him thus Tell thy Master that I will not faile to meete him on Horse-backe without a second at the houre and place appointed The next morne he dispeeds away a choyce horse which his Lackey leades and about ten of the clocke onely with his Chirurgion and Page takes Coach and comes that night to Carency where he lodgeth The next morne being Thurseday the day appointed to fight Grand Pre pretending to goe to the Church sends away his Page to Carency to awayt and attend the Baron and so onely with his Chirurgion hies himselfe to the field which he first entred and immediately before hee had fully made foure turnes in comes Betanford whom Grand Pre's Page had met at Carency and now conducted thither having onely his Chirurgion with him and having left his Coach Page and Lackey a furlong off with command not to stirre till they heard from him The Chirurgions in stead of two Gentlemen for their Seconds dispose themselves according to the order and ceremonies of Duels to search the Combatants for Coats of Male or the like but they might have eased themselves of this labour and curisity for both the Gentlemen were too honorable to have their valours tainted with this base poynt of cowardize or treachery yea in meere contempt thereof they both of purpose had left their Dublets behind them And now beginnes a Combate as memorable as bloudy yea performed with such valour dexterity and resolution that as these times infinitely admire it so succeeding ages will very difficultly believe it They come into the Field with a soft trot and each having his Enemy in front and being neere sixe score paces distant they give spurres to their horses and part like 〈◊〉 flashes of lightning At their first meeting Grand Pre runnes Betanford thorow â—…e left shoulder and Betanford onely wounds Grand Pre in the right checke close under the eye and beeing excellent Horse men they turne short and so againe fall to it with bravery and courage in which encounter Betanford receives a wide wound upon the brawne of his right arme and Grand Pre another thorow his left side which undoubtedly had proved mortall and so ended the Combate with his life had not his sword glanced on a ribbe and so ranne outwards and now they both retire to take breath resolving to advance with more fury they part againe Betanford runnes Grand Pre thorow the necke and hee Betanford thorow the small of the arme where meeting with the sinewes and arteries it causeth the sword to fall out of his hand whereat hee is extreamely perplexed and amazed Here perchance some base fellow who had never beene trained up in the Schoole of Honour and therefore not deserved the title of a Gentleman would have wrought upon the misfortune of this accident and desired no better advantage to dispatch his Adversary But Grand Pre whose generosity in this I commend as much as I detest his jealousy doth highly disdaine to staine his honour and courage with this infamy and so puts Betanford out of his apprehension and feare with these words Baron be couragious and cheerfull for I will rather dye then disgrace my selfe so much to fight with an unarmed man and so commands his Chirurgion to deliver him his sword againe Betanford is thankfull to him for this courtesy and vowes he will never forget it Now although their wounds doe rather ingraine then imbroder their shirts with blood yet their youth is so vigorous their courage Io inflamed and their hearts so resolute and magnanimous as they neither can nor will yet rest satisfyed in a word they mannage their horses bravely and act wonders with their swords for by this time they having runne foure severall Careres Betanford hath received seven wounds and given Grand Pre ten but the losse of all this bloud which now issued from their bodies rather by spowts then drops is not capable to coole their courages and so although with dust sweat blould and wounds they rather looke like Furies then men yet they will not refraine fighting And now their Chirurgians grieving and pittying to see them as it were drowned in their bloud and well knowing that they had performed more then they thought possible for men they both agree and so running with their hats in their hands humbly pray them to desist and rest satisfyed by shewing them that their swords and courages had already acted wonder beyond beliefe and that it was pitty their praents Prince and Country should be deprived of such resolute and valorous Cavaliers then whom the world upon so unfortunate an accident hath seldome seen braver but they speake to the winde and receive no other thankes but this checke from them both that they are base fellowes and know not what belongs to their function and duety and so rating and commanding them away they once more divide themselves and with fresh resolution and courage againe set spurres to their horses but this encounter proves more happy to Betanford and more dangerous to Grand Pre for as hee makes a thrust to Betanford which mist and past under his right arme without doing any other harme then piercing and cutting thorow his shirt Betanford with all the courage and dexterity he had runne Grand Pre thorow the belly into the reynes with which unfortunate wound as also with a false pace his horse then mad he fell from the Saddle to the ground speechlesse sprawling and struggling as if hee were upon the point to take his last farewell of the world but he was not so happy for he shall be cured of his wounds and hereafter dye of a more mournefull and lamentable end Betanford seeing Grand Pre fall doubted that his wounds were mortall and so alights whereat his Chirurgion with a loud voyce cryed out Dispatch him Dispatch him but he calls him villaine for his labour when remembring the former courâ—… hee had received of Grand Pre in regiving him his sword hee like a true noble Gentleman vowes now to requite it and so throwing it and his Haâ—…te awaâ—… hee with out-spred armes ran to imbrace assist him yea he preferres Grand Pre's life
matters altered and her greatnesse and power diminished and to her grief sees that she cannot so absolutely domineere as before and which was farre worse her brother in his absence at Dole having smelt and understood her malice and inveterate hatred both to Mermanda the Baron of Betanford De Malleray her husband and likewise to himselfe though nothing suspecting or dreaming of her poysoning humour he is so farre from acknowledging or respecting her for his sister as he will neither indure her company or sight which she making no shew to perceive but like a Fury of hell as she is dissembling her malice and revenge she is still constant and persevers in her humour of bloud and Murther and hath againe recourse to her execrable Apothecary La Fresnay and to the devill her Doctor likewise to make away her brother Grand Pre with poyson as hee had already Mermanda his Wife and gives him three hundred crownes to effect it This damnable Apothecary loving money well and as it seemes the Devill better doth ingage himselfe speedily to performe it and wretched villaine as he is within two moneths he accomplisheth and finisheth it and so as Mermanda ranne equall fortune with him in life hee doth the like with her in death for one deadly Drugge one bloody Sister and one devillish Apothecary gives a miserable and lamentable end to them both And now his blood thirsty sister Hautefelia the authour of these cruell Murthers and Trageedies thinking her selfe freed of all her enemies and of all those who stood in the way of her advancement and preferment shee neither thinking either of her conscience or soule of heaven or hell domineeres farre more then before yea builds castles in the ayre and flatters her selfe with this false ambition that she must now be a Dutchesse or at least a Countesse But she reckons without God We have seene nay we have here glutted our eyes with severall Murthers whereof wee have beheld this wretched Gentlewoman Hautefelia to be the horrible and cruell author and this execrable La Fresnay to be the bloody actor these crimes of theirs and the smoake of these their impious and displeasing sacrifices have pierced the clouds and ascended the presence of God to sue and draw downe vengeance and confusion on their heads for although Murther be for a time concealed yet the finger of God will in due time detect and discover it for he will make inquisition for blood and will severely and sharpely revenge the death of his children But Gods providence and justice in the discovery thereof is as different as miraculous for sometimes hee protracts and deferres it of purpose either to mollifie or to harden our hearts as seemes best to his inscrutable will and divine pleasure or as may chiefly serve and tend to his glory yea somtimes he makes the Murtherer himselfe as well an instrument to discover as hee hath beene an actor to commit murther yea and many times he punisheth one sinne by and in another and when the Murtherer sits most secure and thinks least of it then he heapes coales of fire on his head and suddenly cuts him off with the revenging sword of his fierce wrath and indignation And now that great and soveraigne Iudge of the World who rides on the Winds in triumph and hath Heaven for his Throne and Earth for his foot stoole will no longer permit Hauteselia and La Fresnay to goe unpunished for these their execrable Murthers for the innocent and dead bodies of Mermanda and her husband Grand Pre out of their Graves cry to him for revenge which like an impetuous storme or a terrible Thunder clap doth in this manner suddenly befall and overtake them Some sixe weekes after Grand Pre's funeralls were solemnized whereat his Sister Hautefelia the better to cloke her villany wept bitterly and was observed to bee the chiefest Mourner this hellish Apothecary La Fresnay having gotten his money so easily thought to spend it as prodigally and so on a time being in his cups at a Taverne at Dijon and his braines swilling and swimming with strong Wine as Drunkennesse is the Bawd and Vsher to other sinnes he stealing from the rest of his company committed a Rape upon one Margaret Pivot a girle of twelve yeares old being the Vintners daughter of the Taverne wherein he sate tippling This young girle with millions of teares throwes her selfe to the feet of her Parents and accuseth La Fresnay for the fact who doe the like to those famous Senators of the Court of Parliament so hee is apprehended and being examined with many vehement and bitter asseverations denyeth it he is adjudged to the Racke and at the second torment confesseth it and so he is condemned to be hanged Two Capuchin Fryers prepare him for his end they exhort him not to charge burthen his soule with concealing any other crimes adding that if he reveale and repent them in earth God will remit them in heaven these exhortations of theirs produce good effects for though he have formerly lived like a devill he will now dye like a Christian and so with many teares revealeth that at the instigation of Hautefelia and for the lucre of five hundred crownes which at two several times she gave him he had poysoned Mermanda and her husband Grand Pre. All the world is amazed and the Parliament acquainted herewith they alter their first Sentence and so for his triple villanies condemne La Fresnay to bee broken alive upon the Wheele and there to languish and dye without being strangled which in Dijon is accordingly executed to the full satisfaction of Iustice. A Provost likewise is forthwith dispatched from Dijon to Grandmonts house to apprehend his daughter Hautefelia and God would have it that shee was ignorant of La Fresnay's apprehension and more of his death The Provost findes her dancing in her fathers garden in company of many Gentlemen and Ladies he sets hands on her and so exchangeth her mirth into mourning and her songs into teares she is brought to Dijon and examined by a President and two Counsellors of the Parliament She impudently and boldly denyes both Murders saith La Fresnay is her mortall and professed enemy and therefore not to bee believed But the devill who hath so long bewitched and deluded her either will not or rather now cannot save her with this poore evasion shee is adjudged to the Racke and at the first torment confesseth it The Criminall Iudges of this great and illustrious Parliament in detestation of these her execrable and bloudy crimes of Murther pronounce sentence on her so after shee had repented her sinnes and prepared her selfe to dye her Paps are seared and torne off with red hot Pincers then shee is hanged her body burnt and her ashes throwne into the ayre Now to gather some profit by reading this History or indeed rather by the memory of the History it selfe let us observe nay let us imprint in our hearts and soules how busy the
hee was once resolved that very instant to send him a Challenge and the sooner because Christeneta might be an eye-witnesse of the delivery thereof but to speake truth Passion could not finde a better oportunity nor Iudgement a worse for him to draw his malicious contemplation into bloudy and impious action and therefore respecting Christeneta although shee had refused to respect him and fearing if shee had the least notice or â—…kling thereof she loved her Pisani so dearely as she would hinder and prevent him from running into so imminent a danger hee all that day hush'd himselfe up privately in his Inne deferring the sending thereof till the morning when delivering it to his cosin Sebastiano the Gentleman that came with him from Cremona hee prayes him instantly to finde out Pisani and to deliver it to him as secretly and as fairely as hee could Sebastiano being no novice in these occasions and accidents repaires to Pisani his Lodging and findes him as he was issuing forth his Chamber whom hee salutes and delivers Gasparino's Challenge fast sealed Pisani with a constant carriage and firme countenance receives it and breaking off the Seales steps aside and reades these Lines GASPARINO to PISANI YOu have given the first breach to our friendship for sith you have treacherously bereaveâ—… mee of my Mistresse you must now both in honour and justice either take my life or yield mee yours in requitall If you consider your owne ingratitude you cannot taxe much lesse conâ—…e this my resolution the Place the West end of the Parke the Houre foure or five after Dinner the manner oâ—… foot with Seconds the Weapon if you please two single Rapiers whereof bring you one and I the other and I will bee content to take the refusall to give you the â—…yce If your courage answer your infidelity you will not refuse to meet mee GASPARINO Pisani having received and perused this Challenge like an Italianated Gallant preferring his honour before his life very cheerefully without any motion or show of alteration either in his speeches or countenance turnes to Sebastiano and speakes to him thus Sir I pray tell Gasparino from me that my selfe and Second will with single Rapiers meet him and his at the houre and place appoynted Sebastiano returnes and Pisani having accepted the Challenge beares it so secretly as Christeneta the other halfe of his heart understands not hereof he findes out his deare and intimate friend Sfondrato a valiant young Gentleman issued of a very noble Family of Millan who accompanyed him from Cremona to whom hee relates the whole effect of this businesse shewing him Gasparino's Challenge and requesting him to honour him so much as to second him in this quarrell Sfondrato very cheerefully and freely offereth and ingageth himselfe and so about noone Sebastiano and himselfe like honourable friendly enemies meet to provide and match the Rapiers but beare it so secretly and discreetly as none whatsoever could once perceive their intents or gather their resolutions The houre approaching they all take horse and that day Pisani because hee would bee no way prevented and hindred doth purposely refraine to visit his Mistresse Christeneta They poast to the Parke as to a Wedding being the place of Rendezâ—…vous of their meeting so famous for the defeat of the French and taking Prisoner of their King Francis the Second by the Forces of the Emperour Charles the Fifth Gasparino and Sebastiano are first in the Field but Pisani and Sfondrato are not long after so they all tye up their Horses to the hedge pull off their Spurres and cut away the timber-heeles of their Bootes that they might not trip but stand firme in their play But ere they beginne the Seconds search the Principalls and they the Seconds so they throw off their Dublets and appeare all in their shirts not as if they feared death but rather as if they were resolved to make death feare them By this time Gasparino and Pisani draw they make their approaches and at the first incounter Pisani is hurt in the out-side of the left arme and Gasparino in the right flanke the bloud whereof appeared not but fell into his hose they againe separate themselves and now trye their fortunes afresh here Pisani receives two wounds the one glancing on his ribs the other in the brawne of his right arme and Gasparinâ—… one deepe one in his left shoulder but these slight hurts they onely esteeme as scarres not as wounds and therefore seeing their shirts but sprinkled not dyed with their blouds they couragiously come on againe but this bout proves favourable to them both for Gasparino wards Pisani's thrust from him and onely runnes Pisani thorow the hose without doing him any other harme and so they close which Pisani doth purposely to exchange ground thereby to have the Sunne in his backe which was be fore in his eyes and now they conclude to take breath Their Seconds withdraw not from their stations neither can they yet imagine to whose side fortune will incline they being well-neare as equall in wounds as courage and now Pisani and Gasparino dressing their Rapiers and wiping off the blood from them beginne againe to make tryall on whom Victory is resolved to smile but they alter the manner of the fight for now Gasparino fights with judgement and not with fury and Pisani with fury and not with judgement whereas heretofore they both did the contrary They traverse their grounds Pisani is so violent as hee hath almost put himselfe out of breath but Gasparino is so wary and cautelous as hee contents himselfe to breake his thrusts and resolves not to make any but to the purpose and upon manifest advantage the issue answereth his hopes and expectation for at the very next incounter as Pisani runnes Gasparino in the necke hee runnes Pisani thorow the body a little below the left pap and his sword meeting with Cavâ—… Vena which leads directly to the heart makes a perpetuall divorce betwixt his body and his soule and so hee falls starke dead to the ground Gasparino knowing him dispatched sheathes up his rapier But Sfondrato and his Chirurgion runue to his assistance but the affection of the one and the art of the other were in vaine for Pisani his life had forsaken his body and his soule was already fled from this world to another Whiles Sfondrato and the Chirurgion were stretching out the dead body of Pisani and covering it up with their cloakes Sebastiano runnes to Gasparino and congratulates with him for his victory extolling his valour to the skie But Gasparino tells him that these prayses appertaine not to him but to a higher providence and withall prayes him to bee carefull and to mannage his life both with courage and discretion and for himselfe finding his wounds no way desperate nor dangerous hee is resolved not to suffer his Chirurgion to bind them up till hee see the issue of the Combate betwixt his faithfull friend Sebastiano and Sfondrato By this time
Iosselina but likewise that of her infant sonne whom hee first strangled and then threw into the River Lignon and this said he he did at the request of his Master Mortaigne of whom for his part and labour he received one hundred Frankes Wee have here found two of these Murtherers and now what resteth there but that the third who is the Authour and as it were the capitall great wheele of these bloody Tragedies bee produced and brought to this Arraignement The Procurer and Lievtennant repaire againe to the Prison and charge Mortaigne with these two bloody Murthers hee knowes it is in vaine to denye it sith hee is sure his two execrable agents have already revealed it therefore he ashamed at the remembrance of his cruell and unnatural crimes doth with many teares very sorrowfully and penitently confesse all It is a happinesse for him to repent these Murthers but it had beene a farre greater if hee had never contrived and committed them yea the Iudges are amazed to heare the cruelty hereof and the people to know it and both send their prayses and thankefulnesse to God that hee hath thus detected and brought them to light on earth And now comes the Catastrophe of their owne Tragedies wherein every one of these Malefactors receives condigne punishment for their severall offences La Palma is condemned to bee hanged and burnt La Verdure to bee broken on the Wheele and his body to bee throwne into the River Lignon and Mortaigne though the last in ranke yet the first in offence to be broken on the Wheele his body burnt and his ashes throwne into the aire which Sentence in the sight of a great multitude of Spectators was on a Market day accordingly executed and performed in La Palisse And this was the bloody end of Mortaigne and his two hellish instruments for murthering innocent Iosselina and her silly and tender infant May all Maydens learne by her example to preserve their chastities and men by La Verdures and La Palma's not to be drawne to shed innocent blood for the lucre of wealth and money and by Mortaignes to bee lesse lascivious inhumane and bloody thereby to prevent so execrable a life and so infamous a death One thing I may not omit La Palma on the Ladder extreamely cursed the malice of his wife Isabella who he said was the author of his death and no lesse did La Verdure on the Wheele by his Master Mortaigne but both of them were so desperately irreligious as neither of them considered that it was their former sinnes and the malice of the Devill to whom they gave too much eare that was the cause thereof And for Mortaigne after he had informed the world that hee extreamely grieved that his Iudges had not given him the death of a Gentleman which was to haue beene beheaded he with many teares bewayled his infinite ingratitude cruelty and unnaturalnesse both towards Iosselina as also his and her young sonne yet he prayed the world in generall to pray that God would forgive it him and likewise requested the Executioner to dispatch him quickely out of this life because hee confessed hee was unworthy to live longer Now let us glorifie our Creatour and Redeemer who continually makes a strict inquisition for blood and a curious and miraculous inquiry for Murther yea let us both feare him with love and love him with feare sith hee is as impartiall in his justice as in distributing his mercies GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND EXEcrable sinne of Murther HISTORIE IV. Beatrice-Ioana to marry Alsemero causeth de Flores to murther Alonso Piracquo who was a sutter to her Alsemero marries her and finding de Flores and her in adultery kills them both Tomaso Piracquo Challengeth Alsemero for his Brothers death Alsemero kills him treacherously in the field and is beheaded for the same and his body throwne into the Sea At his execution hee confesseth that his wife and de Flores Murthered Alonso Piracquo their bodies are taken up out of their graves then burnt and their ashes throwne into the ayre SIth in the day of Iudgement we shall answer at Gods great Tribunall for every lewd thought our hearts conceive and idle words our tongues utter how then shall we dare appeare much lesse thinke to scape when we defile our bodies with the pollution of adultery and taint our soules with the innocent bloud of our Christian brethren when I say with beastly lust and adultery we unsanctifie our sanctified bodies who are the receptacles and Temples of the holy Ghost and with high and presumptuous hands stabbe at the Majesty of God by Murthering of man who is his Image This is not the Ladder to scale heaven but the shortest way to ride poast to hell for how can we give our selves to God when in the heat of lust and fume of Revenge we sell our hearts to the Devill But did we ever love God for his Mercy or feare him for his Iustice we would then not onely hate these sinnes in our selves but detest them in others for these are crying and capitall offences seene in heaven and by the Sword of his Magistrates brought forth and punished here on earth A lamentable and mournefull example whereof I here produce to your view but not to your imitation may wee all read it to the reformation of our lives to the comfort of our soules and to the eternall glory of the most Sacred and Individuall Trinity IN Valentia an ancient and famous City of Spaine there dwelt one Don Pedro de Alsemero a Noble young Cavallier whose father Don Ivan Alsemero being slaine by the Hollanders in the Sea fight at Gibralter hee resolved to addict himselfe to Navall and sea actions thereby to make himselfe capeable to revenge his fathers death a brave resolution worthy the affection of a sonne and the Generosity of a Gentleman To which end hee makes two voyages to the West-Indies from whence he returnes flourishing and rich which so spread the sayles of his Ambition and hoysted his fame from top to top gallant that his courage growing with his yeares he thought no attempt dangerous enough if honourable nor no honour enough glorious except atchieved and purchased by danger In the actions of Alarache and Mamora he shewed many noble proofes and testimonies of his valour and prowesse the which he confirmed and made good by the receit of eleven severall wounds which as markes and Trophees of Honour made him famous in Castile Boyling thus in the heate of his youthfull bloud and contemplating often on the death of his father he resolves to goe to Validolyd and to imply some Grando either to the King or to the Duke of Lerma his great favorite to procure him a Captaines place and a company under the Arch-Duke Albertus who at that time made bloudy warres against the Netherlanders thereby to draw them to obedience But as hee beganne this sute a generall truce of both sides laid aside Armes which by the mediation of England
the Citie rich and weâ—… descended his parents and kinsmen for the most part being Clarissimo's and Senatorâ—… and all of them Gentlemen of Venice and him Victoryna desires and resolves to makâ—… her husband grounding her chiefest reason and affection on this resolution and foundation that as Souranza was too old for her so Fassino was young enough and therefore fit to bee her husband and shee his wife measuring him wholly by his exterioâ—… personage and not so much as once prying either into his vices or vertues Fassinâ—… who carryed a vicious and pernicious heart under a pleasing gesture and tongue anâ—… loving Victoryna's wealth more then her beauty observing her affection and respect tâ—… him seekes courts and wins her Her Parents understanding hereof as also thâ—… Fassino is a vicious and debosht Gentleman with all their possible power and authoritie they seeke to divert their daughter from him But shee is deafe to their requests and resolved that as shee followed the streame of their commands in her first match so shee will now the current of her owne pleasures and affections in this her second and so to the wonder of Venice and the griefe of all her parents and friends before shee had above ten dayes conferred with Fassino shee marries him But this match shall not succeed according to their desires for Victoryna shall shortly repent it and Fassino assoone rue and smart for it sith it is a maxime that sudden affections proove seldome prosperous for if they have not time to settle and take root they are incident assoone to fade as flourish especially if they are contracted and grounded more for lust then love and more for wealth then vertue The first moneth of this marriage Fassino keepes good correspondence and observance with his wife but thence-foorth hee breakes Pale and rangeth for the truth is although hee were but a young Gentleman yet which is lamentable hee was an old whore-master which lascivious profession of his threatens the ruine not onely of his health but of his fortune and reputation so now when hee should bee at home he is abroad yea not onely by day but by night that upon the whole Victoryna is more a widdow then a wife at which unlook'd and unwish'd for newes shee not onely bites the lip but very often puts finger in her eye and weeps for it gripes grieves her at heart to see her selfe thus slighted neglected and abused by Fassino whom of all the Gallants of the Citie shee had elected and chosen for her husband shee is infinitely grieved hereat and yet her griefe and sorrow infinitely exceeds her jealousie and now as gracelesse as shee is shee thinks God hath purposely sent her this lascivious Fassino for her second husband as a just plague and punishment to revenge her adultery committed against Souranza her first so had shee had more grace and lesse vanitie and impietie she would have made better use of this consideration and not so â—…oone forgotten it and in it her selfe Now as it is the nature of jealousie to haue more eyes then Argus and so to prie and see every where Victoryna her curiositie or rather her malice heerein finds out that her Husband Fassino familiarly frequenteth and useth the company of many Courtezans especially of the Lady Paleriana one of the most famous and reputed beauties of Venice and this newes indeed strikes her at the very gall with sorrow and â—…exation faine shee would reforme and remedy this vice of her husband but how shee knowes not for shee sees little or no hope to reclaime him sith he not onely tenderly loves Paleriana but which is worse shee apparantly sees that for her sake hee â—…ontemnes her selfe and her company for when hee comes home he hath no delight 〈◊〉 her but onely in his Lute or Bookes which is but to passe his melancholly for his Lady Paleriana's absence till hee againe revisit her so as wholly neglected and as I â—…ay truly say almost forsaken of her husband shee knowes not what to doe nor how 〈◊〉 beare her selfe in those furious stormes of her griefe and miserable tempest of her â—…ealousie But of two different courses to reclaime him from this his sinne of whoreâ—…ome shee takes the worst for in stead of counselling and distwading her Husâ—…and shee torments him with a thousand scandalous and injurious speeches but â—…is in stead of quenching doth but onely bring oyle to the flame of his lust for if â—…ee repayred home to her seldome before now hee scarce at all comes neere her 〈◊〉 as shee is a Wife yet no Wife and hath a Husband yet no Husband but this is â—…ot the way to reclaime him for faire speeches and sweet exhortations may prevaile â—…hen choller cannot And now it is that this wretched and execrable Lady againe assumes bloudy resoâ—…ions against her second Husband as shee had formerly done against her first vowing that he shall die ere shee will live to bee thus contemned and abused of him yea her hot love to him is so soone growne cold and her servent affection already so frozen that now shee thinkes on nothing else but how to be revenged and to be rid of him and is so impious and gracelesse as she cares not how nor in what manner soever shee send him from this world to another for the devill hath drawne a resolution from her or rather she from the devill that here he shall not much longer live Good God! what an impious and wretched fury of hell will Victoryna proove her selfe here on Earth for the blood and life of one husband cannot quench the thirst of her lust and revenge but shee must and will imbrue her hands in that of two as if it were not enough for her to trot but that shee will needs gallop and ride post to hell O what pitie is it to see a Lady so wretched and execrable O what an execrable wretchednesse is it to see a Lady so inhumane and so devoyd of pitie But the devill is strong with her because her faith is weake with God therefore she will advance shee will not retire in this her bloody designe and resolution Wherefore wee shall shortly see Fassino his adulterie punished with death by his wife Victoryna's revenge and this murther of hers justy rewarded and revenged with the punishment of her owne the bloodyer our actions are the severer Gods judgements and the sharper his revenge will bee Of all sorts and degrees of inhumane and violent deaths this wretched Lady Victoryna thinks poyson the surest and yet the most secret to dispatch her husband This invention came immediately from the devill and is onely practised by his members of which number shee will desperately and damnably make herselfe one her lust and revenge like miserable Advocates and fatall Orators perswade her to this execrable attempt wherein by cutting off her husbands life she shall find that shee likewise casts away her owne So neither Grace nor Nature prevailing shee sends for
for hers for him which suddenly drawing forth her affection to Diego having made her quite forget her poyson shee with her handkerchiefe drawes out the galley-pot which falling on the floore of the bower that was paved with square stones it immediatly burst in pieces when Diego's Spaniell licking up the poyson instantly sweld and died before them Whereat Diego grew amazed but farre more Ansilva who blushing with shame then growing pale for feare could not invent either what to say or doe at the strangenesse and suddennesse of this accident Diego presseth her to know for whom this poyson was provided and of whom shee had it Her answeres are variable and are so farre from agreeing as they contradict each other which breeds in her the more feare and in him astonishment Hee conjures her by all the bonds of their affection to discover it with many millions of protestations professeth it shall dye with him hee addes vowes to his requests oathes to his vowes and kisses to his oathes so as mayds can difficultly conceale any thing from their Lovers but especially fearing that hee might peradventure suspect that this poyson was meant and intended him shee at last vanquished with his importunacy and this consideration discovereth as we have formerly understood that her Lady Catalina had wonne her therewith to poyson her sister Berinthia because shee suspected shee was better beloved of his Master Don Antonio then her selfe Diego is infinitely astonished at the strangenesse of this newes and like a true and faithfull Page to his Master having drawne this worme from Ansilva's nose and this newes from her tongue under colour to seeke a remedy to stop his blood giving her many kisses and promising her his speedy returne hee leaves her in the garden and so very speedily finds out Berinthia to whom with as much truth as curiositie hee from poynt to poynt reveales it praying her to bee carefull not to receive any thing either from Catalina or Ansilva and withall to write for the next morne hee will hye to Elvas to reveale it to his Master Berinthia trembles at the report of this strange and unexpected newes so having first thanked God for the discovery of this poyson and her Sisters malice shee promiseth him a Letter to his Master and heartily thankes him for his fidelitie and affection towards her the which shee voweth to requite and for a pledge and earnest thereof drawes off a Diamond from her finger and gives it him for this good office No sooner hath Aurora leapt from the watry bed of Thetis and Phoebus discovered his golden beames in the azured Firmament of Heaven but Diego causeth his Horse to bee made ready and tells Ansilva that his father hath sent for him to meet him at la Secco and that hee will not fayle to bee backe with her within three dayes being ready to depart Hee under colour of giving order for his horse leaves her and steales into Berinthia's Chamber whom poore Lady feare would not permit to take any rest or sleepe that night the which shee had partly worne out and imployed in writing her minde to her deare Antonio and knowing her selfe not safe in Avero with her father and sister shee resolved to commit her honour and her life into his protection yea she had no sooner finished and sealed her Letter to that effect but Diego comes and knockes softly at her chamber doore Berinthia in her night gowne and attire is ready for him shee admits him commends his care gives him her Letter to his Master and prayes him to use all possible diligence in his returne and so having received all her commands hee secretly descends the stayres and taking leave of Vilarezo and lastly kissing his Mistresse Ansilva hee leapes to horse rides the first Stage there leaves his Gennet and takes Poast Leave we Diego poasting towards Elvas and come we to Catalina whose malice finding no rest nor her revenge remedy shee that very morne assoone as Ansilva came into her chamber demands whether shee be prepared to performe her owne promise and her hopes She answereth her Lady that lesse then three dayes shall effect it and give a period to all her sister Berinthia's Whereat shee is exceedingly glad but all this while ignorant what Diego hath seene and Berinthia knowes to this effect Ansilva presuming on Diego his sidelity and building on his secresie and therefore lesse suspecting his journey to Eluas remaines still so gracelesse and impious in her bloudy resolution as shee now not onely presumes but assures her selfe that Berinthia is neere the ebbe of her dayes and the setting of her life and therefore like an execrable Agent of the Devill she hath now made ready and provided her selfe of a second poysoned potion which shee no way doubts but shall send her to her last sleepe But this female Monster this bloudy shee-Empericke may bee deceived in her art In the interim of which time Diego arrives at Eluas and findes out his Master to whom hee very hastily delivers Berinthia's Letter the which Antonio having kissed breakes off the seales and there contrary to his hopes but not to his desires reades these lines BERINTHIA to ANTONIO MY sister Catalina's malice is so extreme to mee sith my affection is such to thee as shee degenerates not onely from Grace but Nature and seekes to bereave me of my life This bearer thy Page who I pray'love for my sake sith hee under God hath now preserved mee for thine will more fully and particularly acquaint thee with the manner thereof So sith there is no safetie for mee in my Fathers house into whose armes and protection shall I throw my selfe but onely into thine of whose true and sincere affection I am so constant and confident as I rest assured thou wilt shew thy selfe thy selfe in preserving my life with mine honour and mine honour with my life It is no poynt of disobedience in mee to my Father but of deare respect 〈◊〉 mine owne life and therefore to thee for and by whom I live that makes mee so earnestly desire both thy assistance and sight sith the first will leade mee from despayre the second to hope and joy and both to content till when feare and love with much impatiencie make mâ—… thinke houres yeares and minutes moneths BERINTHIA Antonio is amazed at this strange and unexpected newes and curiously gathers all the circumstances thereof from his Page when love feare hope sorrow and joy act their severalll parts as well in his heart as countenance when prizing Berinthia's life and safetie a thousand times before his owne hee with great expedition dispatcheth away Diego the same night to Avero with this ensuing letter which he commands him deliver his Mistresse Berinthia with all possible speed and secrecie ANTONIO to BERINTHIA AS the Sunne breaking foorth of an obscure cloud shines the clearer so doeth thy true affection to mee in that damnable malice of thy Sister Caralina to thy selfe for my sake in such
shee seemes to burst with the violence and excesse thereof but this mirth of hers shall be shortly wayted and attended on with misery and mourning But Poligny notwithstanding sees himselfe doubly obliged to la Palaisiere as well for her affection to him as her care of him and so holds himselfe obliged in either of these respects and considerations to requite her with a Letter the which now unknowne to Laurieta hee writes and sends her to this effect POLIGNY to LA PALAISIERE IT is not the least of my joyes that Belluile cannot beare me so much malice as thou dost affection T is true I have not deserved thy love t is more true I have not merited his hatred for that proceeds from heaven as a divine iufluence this from hell as an infernall frenzie 〈◊〉 will not feede thee with hope neither can hee give mee despaire for not to dissemble it iâ—… 〈◊〉 likely I may lâ—…ve â—…hee as impossible I shall feare him he may have the will to do 〈◊〉 hurt I wish 〈◊〉 were in my power to doe thee good neither can hee bee more malicious to performe me that then I will bee ambitious to confirme thee this his malice I entertaine with much contempt thy kinde advice and sincere affection with infinite thankes for when I consider thy Letter I cannot rightly expresse or define whether hee beginne to hate mee or I to love thee more I doubt not but to make his deedes proove wordes to mee and I beseech thee feare not but my wordes shall prove deedes to thee for I am as confident shortly to salute faire la Palaisiere as carelesse when I meet foolish Belluile POLIGNY Having thus dispeeded her his Letter the vanity of his thoughts and the beastlinesse of his concupiscence and sensuality not onely surpriseth his reason but captivates his judgement so as Laurieta's sight defacing Belluiles memory hee thinkes so much on her affection as hee respects not his malice but this Vice and that errour shall cost him deare For whiles hee is feasting his eyes on the daynties and rarities of Laurieta's beauty Belluiles heart hath agreed with the devill to prepare him a bloudy Banquet Grace cannot containe him within her limits therfore Impiety dallies so long with him and hee with Impiety that at last this bloudy sentence is past in the court of his hellish resolutions That Poligny must dye The devills assistance is never wanting in such infernall stratagems for this is an infallible maxime as remarkeable as ruinous That hee allwayes makes us fertile not barren to doe evill never to doe good At first Belluile thinkes on poyson or Pistoll to dispatch Poligny but hee findes the first too difficult to attempt the second too publike to performe Sometimes hee is of opinion to ascend his Chamber and murther him in his bed then to shoot him ouâ—… at window as he passeth the street but to conclude understanding that he often comes very late in the night from Laurieta he thinkes it best to run him thorow with his Rapier as he issueth forth her house And to make short hereon he resolves Now to put the better colour on his villany hee retires himselfe from Avignion and lives privately some sixe dayes in Orenge giving it out that hee was gone to the City of Aix in Provence where at that famous court of Parliament he had a Processe for a title of Land shortly to bee adjudged and so in a darke night taking none but his Lacky with him he being disguised in favour of money passeth the gate of Avignion and giving his horse to his Lackey being secretly informed that Poligny was with Laurieta he goes directly to her doore and there at the corner of a little street stands with his Rapier drawne under his cloake with a revenging and greedy desire of blood to awayt Poligny's comming forth The Clocke striking one the doore is opened and Poligny secretly issueth foorth without candle having purposely sent away his Lackey who had then unwittingly carried away his Masters Rapier with him Hee is no sooner in the street but Bellnile as a murtherous villaine rusheth foorth and so like a limbe of the Devill sheathes his Rapier in his brest when Poligny more hurt then amazed and wanting his Sword but not courage indeavoureth by struggling to close with his assassinate and so cries out for assiâ—…ance but the dead of the night favoureth his butcherly attempt when withdrawing his Sword hee redoubleth his cruelty and so againe runnes him in at the small of the belly thorow the reines whereat hee presently falls downe dead to his feete having the power to groane and crye but not to utter a word Which Belluile espying and knowing him dispatcht runnes to his horse which his Lackey held ready at the corner of the next streete and so rides to the same gate hee entred which was kept ready for him which passing hee with all expedition drives away for Orenge from whence the next morne before day hee takes poast for Aix the better to conceale and o're vaile this damnable Murther of his But this policie of his shall deceive his hopes and returne him a fatall reward and interest For although he can bleare the eyes of men yet he neither can nor shall those of God who in his due time will out of his sacred justice repay and punish him with confusion By this time the streete and neighbours have taken the allarum of this tragicall accident so Candles and Torches come from every where only Laurieta having played the Whore before will see me now though falsely to play the honest woman for she to cover her shame will not discover that her selfe or any of her house are stirring and so although shee understood this newes and privately and bytterly wept thereat yet shee keepes fast her doores and like an ingratefull strumpet will permit none of her servants for a long time to descend The Criminall Iudge and President of the Ciiy is advertised of this Murther The dead Gentleman is knowne to bee Mounsieur Poligny and being beloved hee is exceedingly bewayled of all who knew him and inquiry and search is made of all sides and the Lievtennant Criminall shewes himselfe wise because honest and curious because wise in the perquisition of this bloâ—…dy Murther but as yet time will not or rather God who is the Creator and giver of time is not as yet pleased to bring it to light only Laurieta knew and la Palasiere suspected and all those who were of the counsell of the one or the acquaintance of the other doe likewise both feare and suspect that onely Belluile was the bloody and execrable author thereof but to report or divulge so much although they dare they will not As for la Palasiere her thoughts are taken up and preoccupated with two severall passions for as she grieves at Poligny's death so shee rejoyceth that she hath no hand nor was any way accessary to his Murther rather that if hee had sayled
lesse doth his father Castelnovo for that of his sonne onely their griefes comformable to their passions are diametrically different and opposite for hers were fervent and true as proceeding from the sinceritie of her affection and his hypocriticall and faigned as derived from the profundity of his malice and revenge towards him And not to transgresse from the Decorum and truth of our History old Castelnovo could not so artificially beare and over-vaile his sorrowes for his Sonnes death but the premises considered our young afflicted widdow and Lady vehemently suspecteth hee hath a hand therein and likewise partly beleeves that Ierantha is likewise accessary and ingaged therein in respect she lookes more aloft and is growne more familiar with her Lord and Master then before And indeed as her sorrows increase her jealousie so her jealousie throws her into a passionate and violent resolution of Revenge both against him and her if shee can bee futurely assured that they had Murthered and poysoned the Knight her husband Now to bee assured heereof shee thus reasoneth with her selfe that if her Father in law were the Murtherer of his Sonne her husband his malice and hatred to him proceeded from his beastly lust to her selfe and that hee now dispatched hee would againe shortly revive and renew his old lascivious suit to her which if hee did shee vowes to take a sharpe and cruell Revenge of him which shee will limit with no lesse then his death And indeed wee shall not goe farre to see the event and truth answer her suspicion For within a moneth or two after her husband was laid in his untimely grave his old lustfull and lascivious father doth againe burst and vomit forth his beastly sollicitations against her chastity and honour which observing shee somewhat disdainefully and coyly puts him off but yet not so passionately nor chollerickely as before onely of purpose to make him the more eager in his pursuit thereby the better to draw him to her lure that shee might perpetrate her malice and act her Revenge on him and so make his death the object of her rage and indignation as his lust and malice were the cause of the sorrowes of her life But unfortunate and miserable Lady what a bloudy and hellish enterprize dost thou ingage thy selfe in and why hath thy affection so blinded thy conscience and soule to make thy selfe the authour and actour of so mournefull and bloudy a Tragedy For alas alas sweet Perina I know not whether more to commend thy affection to thy husband or condemne thy cruell malice intended to his father For O griefe O pitty where are thy vertues where is thy Religion where thy conscience thy soule thy God thus to give thy selfe over to the hellish tentations of Satan Thou which heretofore fled'st from adultery wilt thou now follow Murther or because thy heart would not bee accessary to that shall thy soule bee now so irreligious and impious to bee guilty of this But as her father in law is resolute in his lust towards her so is shee likewise in her revenge towards him and farre the more in that shee perceives Ierantha's great belly sufficiently proclaimes that shee hath plaid the strumpet and which is worse shee feares with her execrable and wretched Father in Law so as now no longer able to stop the furious and impetuous current of her revenge shee is so gracelesse and bloudy as shee vowes first to dispatch the Lord and Master then the Wayting-Gentlewoman as her thoughts and soule suggest her they had done first the Mother then the Sonne so impious are her thoughts so inhumane and bloudy her resolutions Now in the interim of this time the old Lecher her father is againe become impudent and importunate in his suit so our wretched Lady Perina degenerating from her former vertues and indeed from her selfe she after many requests and sollicitations very feignedly seemes to yeild and strike sayle to his desire but indeed with a bloody intent to dispach him out of this world So having concluded this sinfull fatall Match there wants nothing but the finishing and accomplishing thereof onely they differ in the manner and circumstances the Father is desirous to goe to the Daughter in lawes bed the Daughter to the Father in lawes but both conclude that the night and not the day shall give end to this lascivious and beastly businesse his reason is to avoyd the jealousie and rage of Ierantha whom now although she bee neere her time of deliverance hee refuseth to marry her but the Lady Perina's if that she may pollute and staine his owne bed with his bloud and not hers but especially because shee may have the fitter meanes to stab and murther him and hereon they conclude To which end not only the night but the houre is appoynted betwixt them which being come and Castelnovo in bed burning with impatience and desire for her arrivall hee thinking on nothing but his beastly pleasures nor she but on her cruell malice and revenge she softly enters his chamber but not in her night but her day attire having a Pisa Ponyard close in her fleeve when having bolted his Chamber doore because none should divert her from this her bloudy designe she approaching his bed and hee lifting himselfe up purposely to welcome and kisse her shee seeing his brest open and naked like an incensed fury drawes out her Ponyard and uttering these words Thou wretched Whore-master and Murtherer this life of mine owne honour and the death of my deare Knight and husband thy some And so stabbing him at the heart with many blowes shee kills him starke dead and leaves him reeking in his hot bloud without giving him time to speake a word onely hee fetcht a screeke and groane or two as his soule tooke her last farewell of his body Which being over-heard of the servants of the house they ascend his chamber and finde our inhumane Perina issuing foorth all gored with the effusion of his bloud having the bloudy Ponyard which was the fatall Instrument of this cruell Murther in her hand They are amazed at this bloody and mournefull spectacle so they seize on her and the report hereof flying thorow the City the Criminall Iudges that night cause her to bee imprisoned for the fact which she is resolved no way to denye but to acknowledge as rather glorying then grieving thereat Ierantha at the very first understanding hereof vehemently suspects that her two poysoning Murthers will now come to light and so as great as her belly is she to provide for her safety very secretly steales away to a deare friends house of hers in the City which now from all parts rattleth and resoundeth of this cruell and unnaturall Murther yea it likewise passeth the Alpes and is speedily bruited and knowne in Saint Iohn de Mauriene where although her father Arconeto would never heretofore affect her yet he now exceedingly grieves at this her bloudy attempt and imminent danger but her irregular affection and
many teares and farre fetched sighes he lastly bids the world farewell when enviting the Executioner to doe his Office he is turned over And such was the vitious life and deserved death of this Execrable Sonne and bloody Villaine Maurice wherein I must confesse that although his end were shamefull and sharpe yet it was by farre too too milde for the foulenesse of his crime in so cruelly murthering his deere Mother Christina whom the Lawes both of Nature and Grace commanded him to preserve and cherish Yea let all Sonnes and Daughters of all ages and ranckes whatsoever looke on this bloody and disasterous example of his with feare and feare to commit the like by the sight of his punishment It is a History worthy both of our meditation and detestation whether we cast our eyes on his drunkennesse or fix our thoughts and hearts on his murther Those who love and feare God are happy in their lives and fortunate in their deaths but those who will neither feare nor love him very seldome proove fortunate in the one never happy in the other and to the rest of our sins if wee once consent and give way to adde that scarlet and crying one of Murther that blood which we untimely send to Earth will in Gods due time draw downe vengeance on our Heads from Heaven Charity is the marke of a Christian and the shedding of Innocent blood either that of an Infidell an Atheist or a Devill O therefore let us affect and strive to hate it in others and so wee shall the better know how to detest and abhorre it in our selves which that we may all know to our comforts and remember to our consolaâ—…itions direct us O Lord our God and so we shall bee directed FINIS THE TRIVMPHS OF GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND Execrable Sinne of Murther Expressed In thirty severall Tragicall Histories digested into six Bookes which containe great variety of mournfull and memorable Accidents Amorous Morall and Divine Booke IV. Written by IOHN REYNOLDS LONDON ¶ Printed by Iohn Haviland for VVILLIAM LEE and are to be sold at his shop in Fleetstreet at the signe of the Turks-Head neere the Mitre Taverne 1634. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE PHILIP EARLE OF PEMBROKE and Montgomery Lo. Chamberlaine to the King one of the Lords of his Majesties most Honourable Privie Counsell and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter RIGHT HONOURABLE HAving formerly dedicated the third Book of these my Tragicall Histories of Gods Revenge against Murder to your Incomparable Lord and Brother William Earle of Pembroke who now lives with God I therefore held my selfe bound by the double obligation of my duty and your own generous merits likewise to present this Fourth Booke to your Protection and Patronage because as England so Europe perfectly knowes that you are as true an heire to his Vertues as to his Fortunes and to his Goodnesse as to his Greatnesse and that therfore it may properly be said he is not dead because they as well as himselfe do still survive and live in you with equall lustre and glory as having made either a happie Metamorphosis or a blessed Transmigration into your Noble breast and resolutions and therefore as it was my sincere respects and zeale to his Honour that then drew me to that ambition so it is entirely the same which hath now both invited and induced me to this prâ—…sumption to your Lordship having no other ends or object in this my Dedication but that this booke of mine having the honour to be countenanced by so great a personage and the felicity to be protected by so honourable a Mecaenas may therefore encounter the more safely with the various humors it shall meet with and abide more securely the different censures of this our too fastidious age How these Histories or the memorable accidents which they containe and relate will relish with your Lordships palate or judgement I know not Only because you are a Noble Son of Gods Church and an Excellent Servant to your Prince and Countrey I therfore rather hope than presume that your Honor will at least be pleased to see if not delight to know and consider how the Triumphs of Gods Revenge and punishments doth herein secretly and providently meet with this crying and scarlet sinne of premeditated Murther and with the bloudy and inhumane Perpetrators thereof who hereby as so many mercilesse Butchers and prodigious Monsters of mankind doe justly make themselves odious to Men and execrable to God and his Angels God hath deservedly honoured your Lordship with the favour of two great Earthly Kings your Soveraignes as first of our royallKing Iames the father and now of our present most Renowned King Charles his Son and yet this externall Honour and favour of theirâ—… is no way so glorious to you as that maugre the reigning vices of the world you serve the true God of heaven in the purity of your heart and feare and adore him in the integrity of your Soule And to represent you with naked Truth and not with Eloquence or Adulation This Heavenly Piety of yours I beleeve is the prime reason and true Essentiall cause of all this your earthly Honour and sublunary Greatnesse and that this is it likewise which doth so rejoyce your heart and inrich and replenish your House with so numerous and Noble an Issue of hopefull and flourishing Children who as so many Olive branches of Vertue and Syents and Plants of Honour doe both inviron your Bed and surround your Table and who promise no lesse than futurely to magnifie the bloud and to perpetuate and immortalize the Illustrious Name and Family of the Herberts to all Posterity Goe on resolutely and constantly Noble Lord in your religious Piety to God and in your Candide and unstained Fidelity to your Prince and Countrey that your life may triumph o're your death and your Vertues contend to out-shine your Fortunes and that hereafter God of his best favour and mercy may make you as blessed and as glorious a Saint in Heaven as now you are a great Peere and Noble Pillar here on Earth which none shall pray for with more true zeale nor desire or wish with more reall and unfained affection than Your Honours devoted and Most humble Servant Iohn Reynolds The Grounds and Contents of these Histories History XVI Idiaques causeth his sonne Don Ivan to marrie Marsillia and then commits Adultery and Incest with her She makes her Father in Law Idiaques to poyson his old wife Honoria and likewise makes her owne brother De Perez to kill her Chamber-maid Mathurina Don Ivan afterwards kils De Perez in a Duell Marsillia hath her braiâ—… dasht out by a horse and her body is afterwards condemned to be burnt Idiaques is beheaded his body consumed to ashes and throwne into the ayre History XVII Harcourt steales away his brother Vimoryes wife Masserina and keepes her in Adulterie She hireth Tivoly an Italian Mountebanke to poyson La Precoverte who was Harcourts wife
the shorter whereat De Perez rests satisfied and well he may sith this action and his receit thereof doth as much testifie Don Ivans glory as his owne dishonour and shame and now they againe approach each other to fight At their first comming up Don Ivan runnes a firme thrust to De Perez breast but hee bearing it up with his Rapier runnes Don Ivan in the cheeke towards his right eare which drawes much bloud from him and he in exchange runnes De Perez thorow his shirt sleeve without hurting him At their second meeting they againe close without hurting each other and so part faire without offering any other violence At their third assault De Perez runnes Don Ivan thorow the brawne of his left arme who in exchange requites him with a deepe wound in his right side from whence issued much bloud and now they breathe to recover wind and to the judgements of Lopez and Valdona as also of their Chirurgions they hitherto are equall in valour and almost in fortune so although these spectators doe of both sides earnestly entreat them to desist and give over yet they cannot they will not be so easily or so soone reconciled each to other So after a little pausing and breathing they with courage and resolution fall to it afresh and at this their fourth encounter Don Perez gives Don Ivan a deepe wound in his left shoulder and he requites him with another in exchange in the necke and although by this time their severall wounds hath engrained their white shirts with great effusion of their scarlet bloud yet they are so brave so generous or rather so inhumane and malitious that they will not yet give over as if they meant and resolved rather to make death feare them than they any way to feare death But their fifth close will proue more fatall for now after they had judiciously traversed their ground thereby to deceive each other of the disadvantage of the Sunne whiles De Perez directs a full thrust to Don Ivans breast hee bravely and skilfully warding it in requitall thereof runnes him cleane thorow the body a little below his right pap when closing nimbly with him and pursuing the point of his good fortune hee whips up his heeles and so nailes him to the ground when he had the strength to begge his life of Don Ivan and God knowes he much grieved that it was not then in his power to give it him for this his last wound being desperately mortall hee presently died thereof having neither the remembrance to call on God much lesse to begge mercy of him for his sinfull soule but as hee lived abominably and prophanely so he died miserably and wretchedly And although I confesse it was too great an honour for him to receive his death from so brave a noble Gentlemans hands as Don Ivan yet it is a most singular providence and remarkable punishment of God that hee died by the hands of his owne lascivious sisters Husband and which is yet more by his owne sword as if God had formerly decreed and purposely ordained that the selfe fame sword should give him his death wherewith so lately and so cruelly hee had bereaved that harmlesse innocent young Gentlewoman Mathurina of her life although in regard of this his foule and lamentable murther hee with lesse honour and more infamy every way deserved to have died rather by a halter than a sword But Gods Providence is as unsearchable as sacred Don Ivan having rendred thanks to God for this his victory he out of his noble courtesie and humanity lends Lopez his Coach to transport the dead body of his brother in Law De Perez into the City and taking his horse in exchange he by a private way gets home to his lodging But this their Duell is not so secretly carried but within three houres after all Madrid rattles thereof who knowing the Combatants to be both of them noble Gentlemen of Portugall it gives cause of generall talke and argument of universall envie and admiration in all Spaniards especially in the nobler sort of Souldiers and Courtiers When the very day after that Don Ivan had caused this his brother to be decently buried Lopez repaires to his chamber to him and in a faire friendly manner enquires of him if he please to returne any Letter of this his friends death and of his owne victorie to Santarem to Don Idiaques his father or the Lady Marsillia his wife and that his best service herein shall attend and wait on his commands Don Ivan thanks Lopez for this his courtesie but tels him that for some reserved reasons he will send no Letter to either of them but otherwise wisheth him a prosperous returne to Portugall so Don Ivan remaines in Madrid and Lopez returnes for Santarem and there from point to point relates them the issue of that Combat as the victory of his sonne Don Ivan and the death and buriall of De Perez adding withall that he was so reserved and strange that he would write to neither of them hereof At the relation and knowledge of this mournfull newes Idiaques cannot refraine from much sorrow nor Marsillia from bursting forth into bitter teares and lamentations thereat for seeing her deare and onely brother thus slaine by the hand of her owne unkinde Husband by losing him shee knowes she hath lost her right arme and he being dead shee knowes not to whom to have recourse either for counsell assistance or consolation And yet as much as hee sorrowes and she grieves at this diasterous accident they notwithstanding are yet so farre from thinking it a blow from Heaven or from looking either up to God or downe to their owne sinfull hearts consciences and soules for the same that without making any good use or drawing any divine or profitable morall thereof they still continue their beastly pleasures and damnable Adultery and Incest together as if there were no God to see nor no deserved torments or miserie reserved to punish it But they and we shall immediately see the contrary To the griefe of our hearts and compunction of our soules wee have in this History seene wretched Idiaques by the instigation of the devill to poyson his wife the Lady Honoria and likewise his daughter in Law Marsillia to have caused her brother De Perez to have cruelly murthered her waiting-maid in the street as also by the Providence of God Don Ivan to have slaine the said De Perez in the field and our curiosity and expectation shall not goe far before we shall see the just Revenge and punishments of God condignly to surprise wretched Idiaques and gracelesse Marsillia for the same for his Divine Justice contending with his Sacred Mercy it hath at last prevailed against these their â—…le and bloudy crimes so now when they are in the middest yea in the height jollity of all these their soule delights security like an unlooked for storme and tempest 〈◊〉 will suddenly befall them Life hath but
beare up with the time and so to dissemble it and when in the language of a victory and a triumph Felisanna acquaints him therewith hee holds it discretion rather to winke at it and dissemble it with silence then to remember it with choller or reprehension towards her So hee to acquit his ignorance reputation and honour herein towards Borlari cals his laquey againe and vowes and protesteth to him as hee is a Gentleman that hee is free from being any way knowing or accessary to this his disgrace and disaster and bids him to assure his Master from him that hee is every way Innocent hereof the which hee would have signified to him in writing but that his letter was sealed before he knew it and so giving him some crownes to wash downe his anger and sorrow he then takes leave of him Romeo sayes little but thinkes the more and as hee disdaineth to bewray any appearance of griefe hereat so he cannot cloake that of his choller nor overvaile or smother that of revenge in their fatall effects which time will too soone produce Romeo in great haste and more choller arrives to his master Borlaries presence gives him Planezes letter who very speedily and hastily breaking up the seales thereof findes therein these lines PLANEZE to BORLARY I Acknowledge it to bee rather thy misfortune then my merits that induceth the faire and vertuous Lady Felisanna to give her affection to mee and not to thy selfe the which as a rich treasure and pretious Iewell I doe not onely esteeme equall to my life but a thousand degrees aboue it and therefore it was with much affection and zeale to her and with no ostentation or malice to thy selfe that I tendred her my best service to right her of the ignoble wrong which thou didst offer to her Chamber-maide Radegonde In which regard because thou purposely givest a sinister construction to my intent therein and art so ambitiously resolute to hazard thy honour and life in hope of the losse of mine I doe therefore freely and cheerefullie accept of thy challenge and my impatience and zeale shall anticipate thine before I perform it wherein if my Rapier give not the lie to my bloud my misfortune to my Rapier thou shalt finde me enough noble and generous to attempt this duell for thy sake and to finish those of greater danger for the Lady Felisannas sake who I freely professe is the Empresse of my affections and till death shal bee the Queene Regent of my desires and wishes PLANEZES Borlari hath no sooner perused and ore read this letter of Planeze but finding his challenge accepted he is exceeding glad and Ioyfull thereof as if his glory consisted in his shame and his safety in his danger Then his laquey Romeo acquaints him with his disgrace acted saieth he wholly by Dona Felisanna and no way as hee vowes and thinkes by the consent or knowledge of Planeze and so relates all that he and shee charged him to report unto him The which Borlari hearing and understanding hee extreamely stormes to see his owne affront and disgrace offered and brought home unto him in that of his Laquey When having other affaires and businesse in his head he contents himselfe for that time to give him some gold thereby the sooner to make him forget the losse of his eare which his lockes better then his lookes could now overvaile and cover These two inconsiderate Gentlemen being infinitely more ambitious to preserve their honours then their lives and more carefull of their reputations towards the foolish people of the world then of their soules towards God are now fitting of their Rapiers and Chirurgions to dispatch this their rash enterprise and irreligious businesse and it is not the least part of Planezes discretion and care to play the Mercury and now to blinde the Argus eyes of Felisannaes feare and vigilancy and how to see a beginning and end to this duell with his generosity and fame that he bee no way disturbed or prevented by her in the performance thereof The prefixed houre being come Borlari with his Chirurgeon as Challenger comes first into the field I meane into the meadow the designed place and theatre where they intend to act this their bloudy Tragedy and hee hath not stayed halfe a quarter of an houre but Planeze the Challenged arrives there likewise with his Chirurgion When there malice is so furious and their courages so inflamed each against other as passing over their saluting ceremonies without a ceremony they putting themselves into their shirts doe both of them draw and so approach each other At their first comming up Planeze runnes Borlari through the left thigh and Borlari him in the right shoulder and the sight of their scarlet bloud upon their white shirts doth rather revive than quench their courages At their second meeting Borlari runnes Planeze into the right arme of a large and deep wound and Planeze dies not in debt for it but requites it with a dangerous one in the small of his belly which went neere to prove mortall for it fetcht much bloud from him made him to beginne to faint and stagger so being both of them well neere out of breath they make a stand to breath and take the benefit of the aire but their hearts and animosity are so great as they will not as yet desist or leave off but now begin a fresh to redouble their blowes and courages and here they traverse their ground to gaine the advantage of the Sunne with far more advisement and discretion then before Now at this their third comming up Borlari presents Planeze a furious thrust but he very actively and nimbly wards it off him and in exchange runnes Borlari into the necke a little wide of his throat bole whereat Planeze instantly closing with him he fairely attempted to whip up his heeles but that Borlari his strength prevented Planezes agility when each having the other by the coller of their doublets with one hand and their rapiers in the other as they are striving and strugling together God more out of his gratious goodnesse and mercy then of their desires and wishes is pleased that neither of them shall for this time dye For the Earle of Lucerni riding poast with three gentlemen in his company from Venice towards Turin chanced to espie and see them in the meddow almost all covered over with sweat bloud and dust when he and they leaping from their Horses hee very honourably and charitably runnes to them and parts them offering them his best power and a pretty parcell of his time to end and shut up their differences in a friendly attonement and reconciliation but so inveterate and strong by this time is their malice each to other as he found it no way feaseable but impossible to effect it So this brave and honourable Earle contents himselfe to reconduct and see them safe into the City where privately leaving them to their future fortunes hee againe takes horse and away Our
spunne it in her braines shee politickly gives Le Valley more hope than despaire that he shall shortly marrie her maid Martha onely shee tels him shee must first conferre with her to see how shee stands affected to him and that if hee repaire to her againe at the end of the weeke shee will then assuredly give him such an answer as she doubts not but will content and please him or else the fault shall be his But to conclude her speech shee chargeth him not to speake or utter a word hereof to his Master Beaumarays all which Le Valley faithfully promiseth her to performe He goes from the Mistresse to the maid and reports what she hath told and spoken so these young folkes flatter themselves that they very shortly shall be man and wife Blancheville whose heart and minde runnes wholly upon a bloudy revenge towards Beaumarays no sooner understands that Le Valley is gone forth her doores but she sends for her maid Martha into her chamber where no way acquainting her with her bloudy intent and policie she chargeth her to sweare that she will never marrie Le Valley without her free consent and that in the end she shall not repent the following of her advise and counsell herein which Martha solemnly doth whereof this malitious and vindictive Dame is exceedingly glad and satisfied The end of the weeke being come away comes Le Valley to his sweet heart Martha to know if she be shortly resolved to marry him who having beene perfectly taught her lesson tels him plainly that shee will be his wife conditionally that he can gaine her Mistresse Blanchevelles consent thereunto but never without it Whereof he being exceedingly joyfull hee giving her many kisses intreats her to bring him to her Mistresse and that he hopes to receive pleasing newes from her to both their contents Blancheville with much longing impatiencie attends his comming and receives and welcomes him into her Closet with a cheerfull countenance where bolting the doore this hellish Erinnis not heavenly Vrania passionately tels him that it shall be impossible for him ever to enjoy or marrie her maid Martha except he first sweare to her to performe a secret businesse for her which infinitely concernes her content and service Le Valley desires to know of her what it is but shee first sweares him to secrecie herein both from Martha and from all the world the which he freely sweares When Blancheville with hypocriticall yea with diobolicall teares in her eyes being instructed and prompted by the devill representeth unto him how fouly his Master Beaumarays had first wronged her chastity and honour then abused her husband in the Church and afterwards killed him in the field and therefore that hee should not onely marry her maid Martha but that she would likewise give him three hundred Crowns of marriage money with her if for her sake and at her request he would kill his said Master either by poyson Ponyard or Pistoll of which summe shee told him he should have the one halfe in hand and the other when hee had performed it the which if he refused to doe shee swore by her part of Heaven that he should never marrie her nor come neare her Le Valley is amazed and astonished at this bloudy proposition and request of hers the which she might well perceive by the distraction of his looks and the perturbation of his countenance He tels her that although he loves Martha farre dearer than his life yet hee cannot finde in his heart to kill the poorest Christian in the world much lesse so good and so deare a Master as Beaumarays was to him Blancheville being now as subtill in her malice as she was malitious in her revenge towards Beaumarays shewes Le Valley the three hundred Crownes in faire gold which was farre more than ever before he had seene Tels him what a deare friend she will ever remaine to him and his wife and in a word leaves no lure unpractised nor charme unattempted to draw him to the enterprize of this deplorable and to the execution of this hellish fact But finding him as frozen as she was fiery therein she bids him to take a weeks tâ—…e to consider thereof then to bring her his last resolution and withall to remember his oath of secrecie herein from all the world both which points he constantly promiseth her to performe As he descends the stairs from her his sweet heart Martha comes presently to him to know the minde and resolution of her Mistresse whom he thinks good then to satisfie with this pleasing answer that hee hopes a small time will worke and compasse both their desires So after a few kisses and embraces they for that time take leave each of other He is no sooner returned home but his heart is as pensive and sorrowfull as his minde and braine is perplexed and troubled for the cause thereof He consults with himselfe and his resolutions are as different as his desires He cannot as yet finde in his heart to kill his Master and yet hee can resolve rather to die than to lose Martha his Mistresse True it is that the sight of the Lady Blanchevilles gold doth act wonders in his hearts but farre more the sight remembrance of Marthas sweet youth delitious beauty So the first tempts him exceedingly the second extreamly and the devill in both of them infinitely yet notwithstanding his faith and soule are so strong with God that hitherto hee cannot consent or bee drawne to imbrue his hands in the innocent bloud of his Master But here befals an unexpected accident which violently precipitates and throwes him headlong on the contrary resolution His Master Beanmarays not for want of any respect or love to Blancheville but because hee perfectly knew shee extreamly hared him having formerly charged his man Le Valley that he should not frequent her house nor no more dare to seeke her maid Martha in mariage the which he confidently promised him he would He now understands that contrary thereunto his man Le Valley the very day before was there and continued still an earnest sutor to her so he hereupon cals him to him and gives him five or six sound boxes on the eare for his disobeying him and vowes that if he ever any more returne thither and seeke Martha in marriage he would utterly cashier him and wholly discharge him from his service Le Valley not accustomed to receive blowes of his Master was so extreamly incensed hereat as disdaining the blowes for his Master and his Master for the blowes sake they engender such bad bloud in him as he presently strikes a bargaine first with his choller then with the Devill that he would now adhere to the request of Blancheville and so speedily returne his Master a sharp requitall and bloudy revenge for the same and indeed from that time forwards he never looked on him but with an eye of hatred and detestation So without farther delay the same night as soone as
resolves with himselfe to returne them a sharpe answer and commands Iaquinta to doe the like the which they both write and send backe to them by Bernardo who returning to Cardura hee deliuereth his two young Ladies and Mistresses these two Letters and they speedily and privatly retiring themselves to a close shaddowed arbour in the Garden they there with much earnest desire and impatiencie first breake up that of their Father wherein contrary to their hopes but not to their feares they finde this language STRENI to BABTISTYNA and AMARANTHA IF it be not purposely to crosse your owne good fortunes you would not so rashly and peremâ—… torily have attempted to crosse my good intentions and affection towards you in sendiâ—… you to Cardura but would have brooked it with as much patience as I see you doe with discontent and before this act of your disobedience now reveal'd mee in your Letter I held you for my Daughters not for mine enemies and my house of Cardura to be rather a Pallace then a Prison for you So if you knew how ill those errours of yours become you you would rather redeeme them with repentance and teares then remember them either with the least thought of delight or conceipt or sense of joy Nay thinke with your selves what modesty it was what wisedome it is for your greene youth to presume or to dare presume to teach my gray age how or when to chase you husbands when God knowes that neither your yeares nor your discretion doe as yet make you capable to thinke of husbands and if you have any judgement remayning in you then judge with your selves how false and incongruous your reasons are when in words you pretend to obey my commands and yet in effects you wilfully oppose and contradict them And having used me with so small respect see againe with how much untruth and envy you abuse your sister Iaquinta who to my knowledge is as innocent of those false aspersions of pride and malice towards you as your selves are guilty of them towards her sith shee loves nothing more and you affect nothing lesse then humility and charity their contraries for believe me I finde her to bee your true friend and your selves to be the greatest and onely enemies to your selves for otherwise you cannot live in the smallest degree of despaire discontent or misery because such is my care of your education and maintenance that no young Ladies of Tuscanie and few of Italy of your ranke and quality are brought up in more bravery delight and honour the which my indulgencie and affection shall still continue to you if your disobedience and folly henceforth give mee no farther motive to the contrary and therefore as you tender my blessing I charge you to make it your delight and practice to thinke of God not of Husbands of your love to your sister Iaquinta not of her hatred to you and of your Prayer-bookes your Lutes and your Needles and not of such vaine conceipts and passions wherewith you have stuff'd and farced up your Letter to mee the which together with the Coppie of this of mine to you I now inclose and returne to your Governesse Malevola that she hereafter may be more carefull of your conduction and carriage and that you give more houres to discretion and honour and lesse to idlenesse and vanity to the end that she seeing her fault in yours she may thereby the better futurely know how to teach and you how to learne to reforme them And so I beseech God who hath made you my Daughters to blesse and make you his faithfull servants STRENI They having thus perused their Fathers Letter and seene his spleene and passions towards them they cannot so much accuse him of choller as they believe they have reason to condemne their sister Iaquinta of cruelty towards them wherefore with more speed then affection and with more haste then charity they likewise breake up the seales of her Letter wherein she greets them thus IAQVINTA to BABTISTYNA and AMARANTHA I Am so farre from incencing or precipitating our Father against you as I vow to God and to you that his sending of you from Florence to Cardura was not onely without my consent but without my knowledge and for calling in question eyther the thought of your beauties or of my husbands you equally wrong me and the truth therein for it is that most whereof I trouble my heart and minde least and therefore my haste to marry comes infinitely short of your jealousie and feare and except it bee out of your pride and malice of Sisters to become mine enemies herein I know no cause in Nature and lesse reason in Grace why those false suggestions of yours should fall within the compasse of your conceipts or those untrue scandalls within the power of your heart and pen and it is as vaine as ridiculous either for your love or counsell ever to thinke to make mee believe or conceive the contrary As for the priority of my yeares it shall never make mee esteeme-worse-of you then of my selfe for my conscience to God and my actions to the world shall still make it apparent that although you contemne my friendship I will yet corroborate and cherish yours and that there shall want no good will or zeale in mee that according to your desires and expectation our father doe not speedily recall you from Cardura to Florence where your presences shall still bee my happinesse and your company my content and felicity And except your deportments and carriage towards me give mee not henceforth just cause to divert mee from this sisterly affection and resolution I am constantly resolved both to live and dye in the same IAQVINTA Babtistyna and Amarantha having thus read and considered these two severall Letters of their Father and Sister Iaquinta they are infinitely incensed and chollericke to see his discourtesie and her dissimulation and cruelty towards them in that they must bee inforced to live a solitary countrey life in Cardura whiles shee triumphs in pride and flants it out in bravery in Florence and as they much repine and murmure at his dis-affection so they infinitely disdaine and complaine of her imperious courses and carriage towards them adding no beliefe to her Letter but judging it to be hypocriticall They pitty the weakenesse of their Fathers judgement in suffering himselfe to bee so violently transported and carried away by the subtile policie and secret malice of their Sister towards them wherein although their duety and obedience doe some way excuse his age yet their blood and beauty can no way possibly dispense with the pride and malice of her youth which they hourely see confirmed and made apparent in the unaccustomed strict and hard usage of their Governesse Malevola towards them which with her best endeavours and ambition sought as well to captivate their mindes as their persons by making her selfe to be as much their Goaler as their Governesse but they vow to requite
with her Vncle Cassino only they visit each other with their Letters which is all the familiarity that as yet they are permitted to reape and receive each of other And here the true order of our History cals us againe to speake of this degenerate and debaushed Gentleman Alphonso who had no sooner embrued his guilty hands in the innocent blood of the Lady Sophia his Mother but he then without any farther shew of sorrow or sight or sense of repentance for the same againe desperately abandoneth himselfe to all old vices and prodigalities flaunting it out in brave apparell for his mourning weeds he speedily cast off and swimming as it were in the Vast Ocean of all his carnall delights and worldly pleasures and sensualities never thinking of Religion or Prayer but passeth away whole dayes and nights yea consumeth whole weekes and moneths in all licencious riots and excessive prodigalities with his debaushed Companions and Strumpets which began to drowne his Estate and to devoure his Lands apace and in the heate and ruffe of these his Ioviall follies and exorbitant intemperancies he be thinkes himselfe againe of the wealth and beauty of the young Lady Eleanora and so in the vanity of his conceits and the imbecility of his judgement flattering himselfe that being now Lord of all his deceased Mothers lands and wealth her Uncle Cassino could not refuse to give her him in marriage not so much as once dreaming or remembring how plainely and peremptorily both hee and she had formerly given him the repulse To which effect hee dights himselfe and his Followers in exceeding rich apparell and with a traine too worthy of himselfe he rides over to Vercelie and there becomes a most importunate Sutor both to Cassino and Eleanora first seeking her and then courting her Vncle for her but all in vaine for he puts him off with disrespect and she rejects him with disdaine and when yet they see that his importunacie herein passeth the bounds of reason and exceedeth the limits of Discretion and Civilitie then Cassino tels him plainely that his Neece is married and that therefore in that consideration hee forbids him his house and her company which point of discourtesie and as Alphonso termes it of dishonour to him he takes in so ill part from Cassino that exchanging his reason into rage and forgetting himselfe to bee a man or which is more a Gentleman or which is most of all a Christian he againe strikes hands and agrees with the Devill and for meere despight and rage vowes that hee will murther Cassino The Devill making him strong in the vanity of this beliefe and confidence that this speech and suggestion of his that his Neece Eleanora is married is but fabulous and false and that if he were once dead he could not impeach or hinder him from enjoying the faire and rich Eleanora to his wife which is the same prodigious baite and lure whereby Sathan formerly drew and betrayed him to poyson his Mother the Devill still so closely over-vailing his conscience and soule and so ecclipsing and wincking his understanding and judgement that as his hand so his heart is inured and obdurated to the effusion of innocent blood and therefore he will not retire with grace but onwards with impiety to the finishing of this cruell Murther of Cassino and although hee had an itching desire and a hellish ambition likewise to effect it by poyson yet in regard he was denied accesse to his house and company as also for that he was unacquainted with any Apothecary or Physician of Vercelie hee therefore resolves with the Devill to doe it by a Carabine which many times by night hee wore and carried about him There is nothing easier then to doe evill and as it is the nature so it is the policie of Sathan as well to furnish us with the meanes as the matter thereof For when we cast our selves from Malice to Revenge and from Revenge to Murther he then makes us industrious first in the contriving and then in the execution thereof but in the end God will so ordaine that this hellish policie shall turne to misery Alphonso's malice against Cassino will give no peace to his thoughts so he informes himselfe that every morning and evening he is accustomed to walke alone in his Garden for an houre or two in his spirituall meditations and therefore hee thinkes this a fit place from some adjacent house and window to shoote at him when being likewise assured that there was a poor smal taverne not much frequented with company that lay some-what neere and commodious to Cassino's Garden he resolves to make choise of that and there to give end to this bloody busines which his heart so much desireth so abandoned by God and guided and conducted by the Devill he about sixe of the clocke in the evening rides thither and tying up his horse to the doore he in a disguised sute of apparell pretending there to stay for a friend of his which promised to come thither to meet him and having purposely sent away his Servants before him to Cassall he goes up into the Chamber cals for wine and something to eate the better to favour and colour out his stay there when bolting the Chamber doore to him hee putting aside the paper Casements which they use in Italy to expell the fervencie of the Sunne from thence according to his former intelligence plainely perceives Cassino walking in his Garden with his Hat in one hand and his Breviary or Praier-booke wherein he reads in another with the which hee was as busie with God in his meditations and devotions as he was with the Devill in charging his Carabine with a brace of bullets and dressing of his fire locke and priming of his powder touch-holl when without the least sparke of grace or feare of God or his punishments hee lets fly at him and the Devill had made him so expert a Marke-man that as Cassino was saftly comming on walking towards the window wherein he secretly and scelerously stood both the bullets hit him right in the brest a little below the left pap whereof this harmelesse and religious old Gentleman Cassino fell presently dead to the ground and none being in the Garden with him wherein I my selfe have since some times beene I could not understand that hee had the power or happinesse to speake a word But wee shall see that this his inhumane and bloody Murtherer shall not goe farre before the judgements of God will surprise and ore take him The manner whereof is thus As soone as Alphonso had given this bloody blow and seene Cassino fall dead to the ground he unbolting the Chamber doore presently resolves to take horse and fly a way but God ordained the contrary For as hee had againe put up his Carabine into his Belt God presently strucke him into a stupified swoone whereof falling to the ground the noyse of his fall the report of his Carabine and the ratling of his sword and
this infinite in regard it occasioneth the death of our soules But all this notwithstanding it is not in jest but in earnest that Quatbrisson assumes this bloody resolution to murther his brother Valfontaine For seeing that it was neither in his power or fortune to kill him in the Duell he therefore holds it more safe lesse dangerous to have him poysoned and so deales with his brothers Apothecarie named Moncallier to undertake and performe it and in requitall thereof he assureth him of three hundred crownes and gives him the one halfe in hand whereupon this Factor of the Devill this Empericke of Hell confidently promiseth him speedily to effect and performe it the which he doth The manner thus Valfontaine within sixe weekes of his marriage finds his body in an extreme heate some reputing it to an excesse of wine which he had the day before taken at Poâ—…tivie Faire and others for having beene too amorous and uxorious to his sweet young wife La Pratiere But it matters not which excesse of these two gave him his sicknesse onely let it satisfie the Reader that as we have already heard his body was very much inflamed and hot the dangerous symtomes either of a burning Feaver or a Plurifie the which to allay and coole he sends for his 〈◊〉 the carie Moncalier from Vannes to Saint Aignaw and after their consultation he openeth him a veine very timely in the morning and drawes ten ounces of blood from him and towards night gives him a Glister wherein hee infused strong poyson which spreading ore the vitall parts of his body doth so soone worke its operation and extinguish their radicall moisture that being the most part of the night tortured with many sharpe throes and heart-killing convulsions hee before the next morning dyes in his bed His wife La Pratiere being desperately vanquished with sorrow doth as it were dissolve and melt her selfe into teares at this sudden and unexpected death of her Husband Valfontaine and indeed her griefes and sorrowes are farre the more infinite and violent in that she sees her selfe a widdow almost as soone as a wife Her Father is likewise pensive and sorrowfull for the death of his Sonne in Law and so also is his owne Father and Mother at Vannes But for his inhumane brother Quatbrisson although he neither can or shall bleare the eyes of God yet hee intends to doe those of men from the knowledge and detection of this foule and bloody fact for hee puts on a mournefull and disconsolate countenance on his rejoycing and triumphing heart for the death of his brother the which he endeavoreth to publish in his speeches and apparell so hee rides over to Saint Aignan to his sister in law La Pratiere condoles with her for her Husband his brothers death and with his best oratory strives to dissipate and dispell her sorrowes but still her thoughts and conscience doe notwithstanding prompt her that considering his former affection to her and his fighting with his brother her Husband for her sure hee had a hand in his death but in what manner or how she knowes not and so as a most vertuous and sorrowfull Lady leaves the revealing thereof to the good pleasure and Providence of God and the curious heads both of Nantes and Vannes concurre with her in the same conceipt and beliefe But three moneths are scarce past over since Valfontaine was laid in his grave but Quatbrisson is still so deepely besotted with his owne lust and the beauty of La Pratiere as he sels his wit for folly and againe becomes a Sutor to marry her having none but this poore Apologie to colour out his incestuous desires that hee will procure a dispensation from Rome to approve it and that hee hath already spoken to Yvon Bishop of Reimes to that effect who was many yeares Penitentiarie or Almoner to Pope Paulus Quintus And what doth this indiscretion of his worke with La Pratiere but onely to encrease her jealousie to confirme her suspicion and to make her the more confident that her Husband had beene still in this world if he had not beene the meanes so soone send him into another Wherfore she rejecteth both his sute and himselfe tels him that if he can find in his heart and conscience to marry her shee cannot dispence with her soule to espouse him and therefore that he shall doe well to surcease his sute either to the Pope or Bishop sith if it lay in their powers yet it should never in her pleasure to grant or resolution to effect it but this peremptory refusall of hers cannot yet cause Quatbrisson to forsake and leave her For if his lust and concupiscence formerly made him peevish to seeke her for his wife now it makes him meerely sottish and impudent to alter his sute and so to attempt and desire to make her his strumpet But hee hath no sooner delivered her this his base and obscene motion but all the blood of her body flushing in her face shee highly disdaineth both his speeches and himselfe and vowing and scorning henceforth ever more to come into his company so she informes her Father of his dishonourable intent and unchast motion to her who to rid himselfe of so incivill and impudent a guest thereupon in sharpe termes forbids him his house and his Daughters company as having hereby altogether made himselfe unworthy to enjoy the priviledge of the one or the honour of the other when this sweet and chaste young Lady to be no more haunted with so lascivious a Ghost and Spirit being sought in marriage by divers noble and gallant Gentlemen shee among them all after a whole yeares mourning for her first makes choice of Monsieur de Pont Chausey for her second Husband and marries him Quatbrisson seeing himselfe so disdainefully sleighted and rejected of La Pratiere he as a base Gentleman and dishonourable Lover metamorphoseth his affection into hatred towards her and vowes that his revenge shall shortly match her disdaine and meet with her ingratitude and so flies her sight and company as much as hee formerly desired it But as the best Revenge is to make our enemies see that we prosper and doe well so hee quite contrary makes it his practise and ambition to doe evill For from henceforth among many other of his vices he defileth his body with whoredome and gives himselfe over to Fornication and Adultery which hath taken up so deepe a habit in him as it is now growne to a second nature for he wholly abandoneth himselfe to Queanes and Strumpets that be she maid wife or widdow his wanton eye scarce sees any but his lustfull heart desireth and his lascivious tongue seekes Now Quatbrisson among many other hearing that a poore Peasant or countrey man termed Renne Malliot of the parish of Saint-Andrewes three miles from Vannes had a sweet and faire young Daughter hee therefore very lewdly resolves to see her and to tempt her to his obscene desires when provoked and halled on
and entertainment to betray and bereave them of their onely childe and daughter whom they well hoped would have proved the Ioy of their life and the staffe and comfort of their Age. Quatbrisson in the vanity of his voluptuous thoughts having thus by himselfe and the Fryer played his prize in stealing away faire Marieta hee by night brings her to his owne old Nurse her house which is a little mile distant from that of his Father where he secretly keepes her takes his pleasure of her and as often as hee pleaseth lyes with her whole nights together but Marieta's sorrowfull Father and Mother seeing themselves thus robbed of their only Iewell their daughter they bitterly lament her losse and their owne misfortunes therein They complaine to all their Neighbours thereof and leave few adjacent Parishes or houses â—…ought for her yea her Mother Iane Chaumets griefe and jealousie transport her so farre as vehemently suspecting that Monsieur de Quatbrisson had stolne her away â—…rips over to his Fathers house and there with sorrow in her lookes and teares in her eyes acquaints both him and the Lady his Wife thereof who presently send for their Son Quatbrisson before them They shew him what an infinite scandall this foule fact and crime of his will breed him and likewise reflect upon themselves and all their Kinsfolkes and Family How the Iustice of God infallibly attends on whordome and fornication and that he hath no other true course or meanes left him to expiate and deface it but Confession Contrition and Repentance and by returning the poore Countrey girle againe to her aged and sorrowfull parents But Quatbrisson their Sonne as a base deboshed Gentleman denyes all termes old Malliots wife an old hagge and devill to charge him thus falsly with the stealing away of her Daughter and so without any other redresse or comfort this poore Mother returnes againe home to her sorrowfull husband and Quatbrisson secretly to his Nurses to frollicke and sport it out with his sweet and faire Countrey Mistris Marieta But to observe the better Order and Decorum in the dilation and unfolding of this History leave we for a small time this lascivious young couple wallowing in the beastly pleasures of their sensuality and fornication and come we a little to speake how suddenly and sharply at unawares the vengeance and justice of God surpriseth our execrable Apothecary Moncallier who so wretchedly and lamentably as we have formerly understood had sent innocent Valfontaine from earth to heaven by that damnable drug and ingredient of Poyson The manner whereof briefely is thus Quatbrisson as wee have already seene having exchanged his former affectioâ—… into future malice and envie towards his Sister in law La Pratiere doth still reâ—…aine such bloudy thoughts against her as striking hands with the Devill hee 〈◊〉 favour of three hundred Crownes more hath againe ingaged his Hellish Apothecary Moncallier likewise to poyson her at his first administring of Physicke to her which intended deplorable Tragedy of theirs is no sooner projected and plotted of the one then promised speedily to be acted and performed by the other to the end quoth these two miserable wretches to make her equall as in marriage so in death with her first husband Valfontaine Thus Quatbrisson longing and Moncallier hearkening out for La Pratieres first sickenesse two moneths are scarce blowne over since her marriage with Pont Chausey but shee is surprised with a pestilent Fever when hee as a loving and kinde husband at the request of his sicke Wife riâ—…es over to Vannes for this monster of his profession and time Moncallier to come with him and give her Physicke the which presently with as much treacherous care as feigned sorrow hee promiseth to effect and so inwardly resolves with the Devill and himselfe to poyson her but we shall see here that Gods providence will favorably permit the first and his goodnesse and mercie miraculously prevent the second Moncallier sees this his faire and sweet Patient La â—…ratiere but he is yet so farre from shame or repentance that he had poysoned her first husband as with a gracelesse ratiocination he confirmes his former impious resolution likewise to dispatch her selfe but for that time hee contenteth himselfe onely to draw sixe ounces of bloud from her and promiseth to returne to her the next morning with Physicke and therein to insinuate and infuse the Poyson But here in the feare and to the glory of God let mee request the Christian Reader to admire and wonder with mee at the strangenesse of this suddaine and divine punishment of God then and there showne on this wretched Apothecary Moncallier For as he was ready to depart and being on the top of the Stayres next to the Chamber doore where La Pratiere lay sicke complementing with her husband Pont Chausey at his farewell hee trips in his Spurres and so falls downe headlong at the foot thereof there breakes his necke and which is lamentable and fearfull he hath neither the poâ—…er or grace left him to speake a word much lesse to repent his cruell poysoning of Valfontaine or to pray unto God to forgive it him And thus was the miserable end of this wretched Apothecary Moncallier who when hee absolutely thought that that bloudy fact of his was quite defaced and forgotten of God then God as we see in his due time remembred to punish him for the same to his utter confusion and destruction that as his Crime was bloudy so his punishment should bee sudden and sharpe Returne we now againe to Quatbrisson who amidst his carnall pleasures with his young and faire Marieâ—…a is advertised of Moncalliers sudden and unnaturall death at S. Aignaw wherat resembling himselfe he is so far from any apprehension or griefe as he exceedingly triumpheth and rejoyceth thereat yea he is as glad that he hath thus broke his necke because hee can now tell no tales as sorrowfull if now before his death he have not poysoned La Pratiere as formerly he did her first husband Valfontaine his brother Whiles thus Quatbrissons joy in injoying Marieta proves the griefe and disconsolation of her Parents for it is now generally bruted in Vannes that Quatbrisson hath stolne away Malliots daughter Marieta whereof her Father and Mother being sorrowfully acquainted hee being weake and sickly shee againe repaires to Monsieur de Caerstaing and his Lady and with teares in her eyes throwing her selfe at their feet acquaints them with this publicke report humbly beseeching them to bee a meanes to the Gentleman their sonne that hee restore them their daughter but they are in a manner deafe to her requests and so only returne her this generall answer that they will again examine their son and cause all their tenants houses neer about to be narrowly searched for her and this iâ—… all the redresse and consolation which this sorowfull mother could get from them Whereof Quatbrisson being advertised he with much secrecie and haste about midnight causeth Pierot his Fathers
the remembrance of his duty to her and that he left him well in Turin expecting the benefit of good company to travell up to Rome whereat harmlesse loving Mother she weepes for joy and yet rejoyceth in weeping And now for some ten dayes after his returne from acting this wofull and deplorable tragedy on his sonne hee keepes a good correspondencie and decorum with his wife Hester but at the end thereof soly forgetting his heart and soule his God and his conscience his promises and oaths and his attonement and reconciliation hee againe falls into the dangerous relapse of his former old Vice Whordome and Drunkennesse and yet counselled by a better Angell then his owne hee forbeares to beate her as well seeing and now knowing that thereby nothing redounded to him but scandall and scorne from all his Neighbours Friends and Kinsfolkes But now his lust is againe so great and his desires so fervently lascivious towards Salyna that in staying lesse then eight weekes hee thinkes hee hath stayed more then seven yeares from her when pretending another journey to his Wife hee rides over to Cleraux to her Salyna gives him many kisses for his welcome and as many more for relating her that hee hath sent away his sonne George to Rome to reside and live there for shee being his Fathers Strumpet her guilty and sinfull conscience made her stand in extreame feare of him but yet amidst her kisses and pleasures with him remembring the tenour and contents of his last Letter to her and her answer thereof to him her thoughts are something touched with doubt and her minde assaulted and perplexed with feare that the Father had played no faire play with his Sonne but that in regard of his inveterate malice to him for beating her hee might have sent him to heaven and not to Rome To which purpose shee feeles and sounds him every way but he is as constant to denye it as shee curious to inquire after it So shee believing that hee had assumed no bloudy thoughts against his Sonne she is not yet so devoyd of grace or exempt of goodnesse but shee gives him this religious caveat for a Memento which she delivers to him accentively and passionatly That if shee knew hee had made away his Sonne by any untimely end or unnaturall accident or that hee were any way accessary to any prodigious disaster which had befalne him shee vowd to God and swore unto him that shee would spit in his face disdaine his company and reject his affection and himselfe for ever for that shee was most assured and confident that God in his due time would poâ—…re down vengeance and confusion on those whom the Devill had seduced and drawn to imbrue their hearts and hands in innocent bloud But Vasti is past grace and therefore slightly passeth over these vertuous speeches of his vicious Salyna with a denyall and a kisse and then againe they fall to their mirth and familiarity and hee stayes there all that day and lyes with her the whole night follâ—…wing but still Salyna resembling her selfe and her profession is very fingrative of his gold and he as sottishly prodigall in giving it to her as shee is covetous to crave and desire it of him so after hee had glutted himselfe with his beastly pleasures of Salyna hee the next day rides home to his wife who knowing where and with whom hee had beene and considering it to be the first time of his new errour and his first relapse into his old one since their reconciliation shee sayes nothing to him to discontent him but yet thinkes and feares the more When retiring her selfe into her Garden after many bitter sighes and teares for these her immerited crosses and calamities shee there grieves and repents her selfe for permitting her sonne George to goe to Rome and a thousand thousand times wisheth his returne to assist and comfort her but her teares herein prove as vaine as her wishes are impossible to be effected although at present very needfull and necessary for her For now Vasti her husband to make her sorrowes the more infinite her hopes the more desperate and her afflictions the more remedilesse fals againe to his old practice of beating her notwithstanding all his late oathes and new promises to the contrary but he the more especially playes the Tyrant with her in this kind when he comes home to her from his cups and whores for she knowes with griefe that he retaines and entertaines more then Salyna onely she is too sure that Salyna hath his purse his company his affection and his heart at her command farre more then her selfe she sends her sighes to heaven and her prayers to God that out of the profunditie of his mercie and goodnesse hee would bee pleased either to amend her Husband or to end her selfe for griefes sorrowes and afflictions are so heaped on her and like the waves of the Sea fall so fast one upon the necke of the other to her that she is weary of her life and of her selfe When on a time after hee had cruelly beaten her torne off her head attire given her a blacke eye and swollen face and desheveled and disparpled her haire about her eares and shoulders making God her Protector and her Chamber her Sanctuary exempting her servants who came to assist and comfort her and fast bolting her doore she to her selfe very pensively and mournfully breathes forth these speeches O poore Hester what sensible griefe is it to thy heart to thinke and matchlesse torments to thy mind to see and remember that whiles thou art true to thy husband Vasti hee proves both ingratefull and false to thee and that hee continually makes it his delight and glory to hate thee who art his deare wife purposely to bestow his time and his affection yea to cast away his estate and himselfe on his lewd young strumpet Salyna O were hee more happy and lesse guilty in that lascivious and beastly crime I should then be lesse miserable and more patient and joyfull in the remembrance thereof O how wretched is his estate and condition and therefore how miserable is thine in that hee wilfully forsakes God and his Church to follow adultery and drunkennesse and abandoneth all piety and prayer to shipwracke himselfe and which is worse his soule upon all carnall pleasures and voluptuous sâ—…sualities The which grieving to see and almost drowning my selfe night and day in my teares to understand I have none but God to assist mee in these my bitter afflictions and miseries and under God none but my hopefull Sonne George lest to comfort mee in these my unparalelled calamities and disconsolations Therefore O God if ever thou heardest the prayers or beheldest the teares of a poâ—…re miserable distressed woman because I can neither now see nor futurely hope 〈◊〉 any reformation in the life and actions of my debauched and vicious Husband be I beseech thee so indulgent and gracious to me thy most unworthy Hand-maid that
especially those Gent. who savor more of honor than vanity If therfore I have any way wronged mine owne judgment in suspecting or not acknowledging your merits I know I am yet as worthy of your excuse as of your reprehension And because I understand by you that you are a stranger to this place though not to this Country as also that you seeme to be so importunatly desirous and willing to conduct me to my Fathers house I will therefore give a contrarie Law to my owne will and now make civillitie dispence with my discretion by accepting of this your kinde proffer and you shall not accompany mee thither to him with so much respect and zeale as I will you with observance and thankes Which kind speech she had no sooner delivered and Morosini received but he againe closed with her thus Moros Sweet Lady this courtesie of yours seconding your beautie shall eternally oblige mee to your service and in requitall thereof I will ever esteeme it my best happinesse to receive your Fathers commands and my chiefest felicity and glory to execute yours When reciprocally exchanging salutes hee takes her by the hand and arme and very gracefully conducts her to her Fathers house not farre off from this sumptuous Church and by the wayth ther among other speeches and complements he gathers from herthat her Fathers name is Signior Hierome Bondino and hers Donna Imperia his only Daughter Wherein hee for the former fame of his wealth and the present sight of her Beautie doth both delight and glory as dreaming of a future felicity which hee shall enioy in her sight and company whereof for the time present hee hath farre more reason to flatter than to assure himselfe Now wee must heere understand that this Seignior Bondino her Father is a Gentleman of an ancient house and noble descent and of a verie great estate both in lands and meanes and withall he was exceeding covetous as glorying more in his wealth than in his generositie and more in his faire and beautifull Daughter Imperia then in any other of his Children Heere Morisini brings Imperia home and shee presents him and his courtesie to her Father who receives him respectfully and kindly thankes him for this his observance and honour to his daughter who led by the lustre of her eyes and the delicacie of her beautie was so extreamly inflamed with affection towards her as at that very instant he proclaimed himselfe her Servant and shee the Lady Regent of his heart and desires and then it was that hee first acquainted her with his name and quality with his intended voyage to Constantinople but chiefely with his constant desire and resolution to seeke her in marriage both of her selfe and her father Wherefore to contract this History into a narrow Volumne I will passe over his often courtings and visits of her as also those sweet speeches and amorous discourses and conferences which past betweene them during the space of three weekes wherein the winde proving contrary to his voyage proved therefore propitious to this his sute and affection In which time hee proved himselfe so expert a Scholler or rather a Master in the Art of Love that hee exchanged hearts with her obtained her affection and consent to bee his Wife upon his first returne from Constantinople but yet it was wholly impossible either for he or her to draw her fathers consent hereunto although many times hee sought it of him with prayers and shee with teares For hee making wealth to bee the verie image and idol of his devotion and gathering that Morosini's birth farre exceeded his estate and meanes as also that in his opinion that his estate was yet farre greater than his capacitie or judgement hee would never hearken to him much lesse give way that hee should bee his Sonne in Law but with much obstinacie and resolution vowed that hee would first rather see his Daughter married to her grave than to him the which froward and harsh resolution of his makes our two lovers exceedingly to grieve and lament thereat But how to remedie it they know not Morosini now acquaints his two consorts Astonicus and Donâ—…to with his affection to Imperia and brings them the next morning to see her who highly commend his choice and extoll her beautie and vertues to the skies They in Morosini's behalfe deale effectually with Bondino to draw his consent to this match mount his praises and merits as high as Heaven and in a word they leave no friendly office or reasons unatempted to perswade and induce him hereunto but they speake either to the winde or to a deafe man for his will is his Law and therefore they finde it a worke not only of extreame difficultie but of meere impossibilitie to effect it for neither they nor Morosini can so much pray and exhort Bondini to this match as hee with sharpe words and bitter threates seekes to divert his Daughter from it which pierceth and galleth these two Lovers to their verie soules For by this time their affections and hearts are so strongly and firmely united that Imperia loves Morosini a thousand times deerer than her owne life and hee her no lesse So when they thinke of their seperation and departure each from other the verie conceit and thought there of drawes even droppes of blood from their hearts and an Ocean of teares from their eyes But because they are more amorous then superstitious in their devotion and affection each to other and that in their thoughts and desires they sacrifice more to the Altars of Venus then to that of the Virgin Marie Therefore Fortune more envying then pittying them and therefore resolving to separate their bodies as farre assunder as their hearts are neerely linked and combined together the winde comes faire and the Master of their Shippe sends speedily from Ancona to them to Loretto to come away for that he is resolute to omit no time but with all expedition to weigh Anchor and set saile for Corfu Morosini receives this newes with infinite sorrow and Imperia with extreame griefe and amazement so as if grace had not prevailed with nature and her obedience to her Father vanquished and given a law to her affection towards Morosini shee could then and there have found in her heart to have left Italy and to accompanyed him in his voyage to Turkie and Constantinople so sweet was his sight and presence and so bitter was the verie thought of his abscence to her heart and minde Here Morosini comes againe with his hat in his hand and Imperia on her knees with teares to her father that hee will grant they may contract themselves each to other before his departure but he is deare to his requests and inexorable to her teares and prayers For hee vowes hee cannot and sweares hee will not consent thereunto And therefore heere the Reader must conceive for it is impossible for mee to expresse the thousand part of the sighes which hee and the teares
therefore in the name and feare of God hee would henceforth resume and put on a constant and religious resolution no more to seduce her or to suffer himselfe to bee seduced by the Devill in imbruing their guilty hands in the innocent blood of this honest and harmelesse Goldsmith De Laurier whom God hath now made their guest and Lodger In doing whereof quoth shee the same our sacred Lord and God in his due time will bee gratiously pleased to encrease our estate and means and to blesse our povertie with plenty But her Husband Adrian as a most wretched Villane takes this godly refusall and deniall of his Wife in ill part and in requitall and consideration thereof henceforth lookes on her with a squint eye I meane with an eye rather of contempt and envie than of affection But at board and bed yea day and night he haunts her as a ghost and never leaves pursuing of her with his prophane and importunate solicitations to draw her consent to the acting and perpetrating of this bloody businesse But God so well assisted her minde and thoughts with the grace of his holy Spirit and so divinely fortified her heart and soule with his sacred feare that her Husbands sweet perswasions could not gaine nor his threats or menaces obtaine any thing of her but still shee answered this murtherous request of his sometimes with religious refusalls and then againe with passionate and peremptory denialls and therefore the more that shee sees her Husband bent to maligne and hate De Laurier the more devoted and resolute shee is to respect and tend him still bearing a curious a carefull and a vigilant eye over him during all the time of his sicknesse to see that no disaster whatsoever might befall him in her house Adrian missing of this his purpose and desire in his Wife hee is yet so hastie and violent in this his bloody malice towards De Laurier that measuring of Fa ther Iustinian the Priest by himselfe and finding a conformity in their deboshed vices and inclinations hee the sooner hopes to finde a sympathy in their affections and resolutions and therefore although hee bee a Priest yet knowing him to bee extreame poore hee therefore the more easily beleeves that the hope of Gold and Silver will act wonders with him and make him act wonders for the obtaining thereof Upon these hopes and this confidence hee delayes no time but on a Munday morning repaires to his house and after their morning cups telling him he hath a secret of great importance to reveale him he takes him into a little Grove of Walnut Trees behinde his house and there swearing him to secresie reveales him this his bloody businesse where this vitious Priest Iustinian in hope of De Lauriers wealth needed no great labour or industrie to be drawn to make one in this deplorable Tragedy For had not Adrian now opened it to him such was his insatiable thirst and desire of gold though with bloud that the next day he was fullie resolved to doe it to him so he freely consents to him herein and sweares to assist and second him in murthering of De Laurier and the tye and condition of this their hellish bargaine is that what gold silver or jewells they shall finde him to have they will instantly after his death equally divide and share betweene them and hereunto like two bloody hell-hounds they enterchangeably give hands and solemnly sweare each to other Now from the matter of this their bloody designe and resolution they proceed to the manner and time thereof but they then are prevented therein For Father Iustinians little Boy which was accustomed to answer him at Masse comes thither hastily and with his little wine pot on his finger tells him that there were many persons who stayed for him before the Altar on their knees and earnestly enquired for him to say Masse whereupon they both referre the conclusion hereof to the very next morning and in the very same place and Grove but at least an houre sooner So away goes Adrian home to his house and away likewise trips Father Iustinian with his Surplesse under his arme and his Breviary or Matines booke in his hand to the Church where every one may imagine what a prophane sacrifice his bloody heart and hands offereth up to the Lord. They this night thinking of nothing but of gold and blood in the morning they impatient of all delayes come at the aforesaid time and place of their rendezvous where they presently fall to their former consultation of the manner and time of murthering De Laurier first they propose to stabbe him in his bed to death but this they reject because the blood would appeare in the sheets bed and chamber So they resolve to poyson him and to this end Adrian buies the poyson and Father Iustinian will give and administer it to him in a wafer or Agnus Dei the which hee is sometimes accustomed to give him in his sicknesse But here father Iustinian suggesteth another doubt and proposeth another designe which is that Adrian must likewise draw in his wife Isabella to make one in this bloody conspiracy and murther or else hee alleadgeth that it can never bee safe for them to attempt or effect it Adrian answereth him that hee hath heretofore with his best power and art sought to seduce his wife hereunto but that hee finds it wholly impossible to draw her to this consent But father Iustinian will yet make another tryall and experiment on her himselfe so hee and her Husband Adrian set afresh on her to allure her to bring at least her consent if not her hand to the murthering of De Laurier But our sweet and vertuous Isabella is still one and the same woman for shee heares these bloody speeches and perswasions of theirs with infinite discontent and detestation Shee is too much a Christian to bee so much a Devill to consent to the murtherof this honest man and therfore with a world ofteares and prayers shee seekes to divert them from it but especially her Husband because quoth shee the issue thereof will infallibly prove ruinous to them both They are both much grieved at this her resolute repulse and deniall and yet to make a vertue of necessity and to cast the better glosse and varnish on their villany they now falsly seeme to bee diswaded from this murther by the sight of her teares and the consideration of her requests and prayers Wherfore with a prophane hellish dissimulation they tell her that God by her religious speeches and disswasions hath now made them wholly to abandon that bloody attempt of theirs against De Laurier as also the very thought thereof and therefore they conjure her to keepe and sweare secresie herein from all the world the which she willingly doth But yet her feare prompts her heart that this humane conversion and religious resolution of theirs is only false and faigned as every way savouring more of dissimulation than truth In which