Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	according_a	justice_n	law_n	1,616	5	4.3920	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A11241	Clidamas, or The Sicilian tale. VVritten by I.S.	I. S., fl. 1639.; Hollar, Wenceslaus, 1607-1677, engraver.	1639 (1639)	STC 21501; ESTC S116311	60,002	164

if wee kept such a deed of darkenesse privy to our selves wee should make our selves also guilty of the fact and therefore wee thought it better to accuse them then to carry about with our selves the tedious gripings of a guilty conscience for alas what else would it have benefited us to have them perish they being men so farre from doing us any injury that I know not whether wee have seene them heretofore or no and therefore farre bee it from you to imagine that wee should accuse them out of spleene or anger whom now first of all wee know and I would to God it had not beene our hap so to have knowne them then should we perchance have beene safer and avoided the envy of the over-affectionate multitude for accusing them great in their favour for you are not ignorant my Lordes what a burthen we have brought upon our selves wee incurre the malice of the people what more violent we adventure rude and simple against men of excellent eloquence and attracting rhetorick and what more hopelesse we undergoe the sharp censure of the law if wee should bee overthrowne and what more dangerous yet such is our setled confidence in the justice of our owne cause the trust we have in your uprightnesse that wee dare adventure all these and as many more in the discharging our soules of so heavy a weight as the concealing of so impious a murder May it please your Lordships therefore to understand that upon the day of this bloody deed my friend here and my selfe travailing towards Palermo and passing through a little grove suddainely heard a cry and the neerer we appoached to it the more perfectly we perceived it to be a womans voice and therefore making hast wee might sometimes by fits hear these or some like speeches as gentle loves have pitty on us bee not so unmercifull to staine your faire hands in our innocent bloods these words made us mend our pace to see if wee could as manhood willed us save the lives of the women from such bloody butchers wee were no sooner come into sight but wee might behold the two gentlewomen that are now dead kneeling at the feet of these two men I cannot call them who with their daggers in one hand and a cup of poison in the other stood over them with menacing looks and threatning gesture offring them deadly poison or they should feele the sharpnesse of their merciles daggers which we seeing presently cried out to them to hold their hands and desist from so unmercifull a deed withall with our swords drawne offring to inforce them if they would not give over but they as we then proved and since have heard being men approved in warre and fights presently grew too hard for us would have charmed our tongues for ever babling if our legs had beene no better than our hands but the Gods bee thanked wee outranne them and so saved our selves they had no sooner chased us but they returned againe to their former businesse wee being now safe from their swordes willing to save the Gentlewomen and yet not daring to come into their sight any more resolved that my friend should runne to the towne to fetch helpe whil'st I getting as nere as I could observed their actions so wee parted and I closely creeping along a banke came within hearing of them when I might heare one of the Gentlewomen thus speake Alas deare love what chance hath so suddainely converted thy earnest love to so deadly hate what hath poore Callanthia done to incite Cleanthes to this tyranny alas my love tell mee my fault that before I dye if I must needes dye I may repent me of it if I can if not I may the more willingly receive my death as having done a fault which Cleanthes cannot forgive To which hee made this answer Plague of my heart said hee thy life is the onely fault that I finde in thee and of that I would faine purge thee either by this precious potion or letting thee blood with this daggers point and why is my life become a fault said shee because whilest I live said hee I shall never bee happy for mine eyes have beheld so tempting a beauty that I am dead till thy death release mee of that fond contract that formerly I made with thee Nay then t is time that I were dead said she that am a hinderer of Cleanthes happinesse and is this your doome too said the other gentlewoman to her false friend it is said hee and therefore dispatch and either drinke this poyson or feele the sharpnesse of my daggers point and therewith they thrust the cups to their mouthes holding their daggers at their breasts but the poore gentlewomen not knowing which to choose and inforced to choose one dranke the poyson and so died oft did my heart bid mee to goe and rescue yet I durst not adventure mine own life to save an others No sooner were the two gentlewomen cold and dead but my friend returned with officers from the towne but too late for they were past all helpe the two murderers no sooner perceived them coming but thinking no body had seene the deed done they fell upon the dead bodies lamenting their deaths with many a fained sigh and many a teare forcibly wrung from their relentlesse eyes Thus my Lords you have heard the truth of all which how strange soever it seemes yet if you consider the force of prevailing lust what power it hath over mans affection it will not seeme a thing impossible for two such youg men to bee overcome with lust and being overcome to be drawn by it to worke such outrage Consider my Lords that they which could do such a villany could dissemble it they that could so well dissemble can as stiffely deny the fact it being now their onely safety for I do not thinke they are so fond to hope for mercy after the doing of an act so foul and consider that when wee would have saved them and could not wee doe now our best indeavours to bring the actours to due punishment that such a vile and inhumane deed may not want a deserved recompence This hee spake with so setled and unmov'd a countenance that he possessed the hearts of the whole bench with a ful belief of what he spake yet that the custome of the law might proceed according to the custome the prisoners were commanded to speake for themselves what they could whereupon Cleanthes thus spake Were thy sword as valiant as thy tongue I would desire these Lords that the justice of the cause might onely bee decided by our swords then would I make thy false tongue unsay what it hath now spoken or send thy blacke soule to the lowest hell to teach those lying spirits a new way to falshood but since thou hast cunningly confest thy selfe too weake I scorne to offer thee a combat rather will I fight with thee at thine owne weapon and though my tongue bee not so