the Sun out of the cloud I see her cherished like a wife served like a Queen adored like a Saint what say you now Is God good behold if he be just All the kindred and friends of Sifroy failed not to visit him in his palace where they met with a far greater subject of joy than they hoped when they knew their good kinswoman and understood the means which God used to declare her innocence there was no body that rendered not thanks unto God for so great a benefit some saluted the mother others were alwayes glued on the cheeks of the childe nothing was forgotten of all that could encrease this rejoycing The feast dured a whole week entire the joy whereof was not troubled but with the displeasure onely to see that the Countesse could not taste either flesh or fish All that which her strength and stomack could endure was herbs and roots a little better accommodated then those she eate in her solitude Some dayes being thus passed away in pleasures and delights the Count commanded that they should draw Golo out of prison who had not been then entire if he had not reserved him to a punishment more rigorous they brought him into the chamber where the Countesse was withall this Nobility which was come to visite Sifroy It was there where all the terrors of an evill conscience seised this wicked man his artifices served him no more he could not deny a crime which had men the beasts and the fishes for witnesses The hope of a pardon seemed unto him a new sin the fear of torments tortured him already the image of death put him into transies the goodnes of Genevieva gave him a thought of his safety but the horror of his offence crossed it and represented to him that it was as little reasonable to expect mercy as he was worthy of pardon Her piety made him to hope it but his own cruelty took from him all his confidence The amity of the Count endeavoured to give boldnesse but his just indignation filled him with fear he would fain finde in his heart the assurances of pardon but his eyes his voice and all his visage spake not to him but of Gibbets and of punishments at last daring not so much as to fix his sight upon her whom he had so unworthily treated he fell down with fear and faintnesse Sifroy kindling all his countenance with choller and thundering forth fearfull threatnings after having reproached him for his infidelity condemned him to die It was here that goodness came to combat with malice prudence with artifice compassion with cruelty sweetnesse with all the resentments of nature and clemency with equity it self Genevieva not able to see a wretch without pitty indeavoured to revoake the Sentence of death speaking unto Sifroy in these tearms Sir said this good mistresse although good successes justifie not evill intentions I have notwithstanding some cause to beg of you the life of Golo for the great good which he hath procured me I confesse that all his proceedings being unjust I cannot finde his pardon but in your goodnesse but if you look upon the favors that I have derived from thence I believe that he may have recourse to another vertue than mercy I disguise not his fault to give it a fair visage Golo hath offended Genevieva he would have ravish't from her her honour with her life to whom belongs it to pursue the revenge of this crime but to her self if you say that her injuries are yours and that you enter into all her interests I answer that you should not take a lesse part in her desires and as there is nothing in the world that I desire with more passion than the life of Golo I must expect this contentment from your goodnesse as he hopes this favour from my benefits Permit that I adde to that little virtue which I have the glory to vanquish my self in the thing which is most sensible to me that is to give life unto him who used all the means he could to take mine from me but if you are fixed to the designe of punishing him I know no means more proportionable to his crime then to leave him under the hands of his own Conscience which will furnish him with a thousand executioners and a thousand punishments In a word my dear Sifroy I desire that he live and that he owe his life to these tears which I give to his misery Who would not have yeelded himself to the prayers of so fair a mouth Golo began to hope all the company expected the pardon of his crime This discourse could not contradict the expectation of the company without giving it admiration the poore malefactour was so touched therewith that he cryed out falling at the feet of Genevieva Madame it is now that I penetrate better than ever into the goodnesse of your heart and the malice of mine alas who would have dared to hope that she whom so many just reasons oblige to my ruine would desire my preservation miserable Golo it is at this instant that thou art unworthy of thy life since thou would'st have ravished that of this holy Princesse No no my good Mistris suffer me to dye ordinary regrets and displeasures cannot expiate my offence it is fit that the rigour of a shamefull death revenge its cruelty Blood is necessary where tears are unprofitable since I cannot merit my pardon permit that I suffer my punishment I have attempted your honour the violence of passion might serve me for excuse Your courage having resisted my pursuits I have slandered your innocence this sin is very black yet it may be forgotten I was not content to make your vertue to be doubted but I endeavoured to take away your life truly this crime ought not to find pardon having no pretence at all It is not that your goodnesse is not great enough to grant me this favour neverthelesse seeing that I am altogether unworthy thereof I have not the desire So my dear mistris all that I beg of you in dying is that my crime live no longer in your memory and that my blood wash away the resentment thereof in your heart As he had ended these words or to speak more properly the sobbes having interrupted them his eyes powred forth so many tears that it was to be believed he would have melted at the feet of the Princesse Golo took Genevieva for that which she was extremely sensible but if she had much pity Sifroy had no lesse zeal God who is as just as mercifull would give by this stroke an example unto men and harden the heart of the Count who believed to have need of all the goodnesse of his wife for his own pardon Behold then his condemnation confirmed they led him unto prison to attend there the execution of the Sentence Sifroy who would punish the extraordinary crimes by torments which were not common found himself troubled about the manner of his death sometimes he would revenge himself of
those vain apprehensions which love puts ordinarily into the spirit of those that love Lanfroy will tell you the good fortune of our Arms and the just reason that hinders me from seeing you above all my dear girl I conjure you to wipe off your tears and to stop your sighs which come from so far to seek me otherwise I shall not believe that you would take any part in my good fortune if you divide not the contentments sthereof with me To the end you may have some cause to be pacified I offer you the present with which it hath pleased our invincible Generall to honour my courage and the emulation I had to do well I knew not to present it to any body so dear unto me as your self if you receive it with the good will which I promise me I shall draw from thence as much satisfaction as if they should erect statues to my valour and as if all the mouths of fame were imployed but to speak of my merit this is the esteem that I desire you to have of my affection adiew my Girl and conserve me the fairest life of this age Leave we Sifroy to depart for Provence and come we to find the Countesse with Landfroy who was not long on his way before he was with her VVhen one came to tell her that there was a Gentleman arrived from her husband she was walking in the windings of a Labyrinth to loose there her sorrows or at least wise to charm the troubles thereof Lanfroy was by misfortune habited in black that day which made Genevieva to sownd assoon as he appeared but having observed by his countenance and gesture the testimonies of joy rather than the marks of sadnesse she demanded of him with a trembling voice how Sifroy did After that the Gentleman had made an humble reveence he presented his packet Madame behold the Letters that will speak it with a better grace than I Having opened them she withdrew her self a little into an Alley and read them two or three times stopping very long on every word notwithstanding her joy was not entire considering that her Palatine was absent The curiosity of a thousand demands presented it self to her spirit she called Lanfroy who by her commandment told her that his Master was at Tours upon the point to go unto Avignon to besiege the rest of the Sarazines who were retired thtiher and from thence to Narbona against Anthime who held that strong plaâ—e All this discourse pleased not much the Countesse who judged well that these sieges of Towns would detain her husband long time lastly having understood that they feared yet the coming of another King named Amorus who brought succours to his Nation she saw well that the return of Sifroy was not to be hoped till the following year which made her resolve to dispatch unto him his Gentleman some dayes after with this answer Sir if the Letter which you writ unto me gave consolation to my evils I will have no other witnes therof but he who rendered it me but if it hath caused me new apprehensions there is nothing but my love that can tell it you Surely as I desire your return beyond all things so the assurance which I have of your retardment causeth me as true griefs as your return gives me vain joyes was it not enough to conceal me the time that might make me hope without telling me that I must be miserable a full whole year and that I shall see you only when you have vanquished an Hydra that springs up again every day alas it may be that my miseries shall not go on so far and that this time shall be longer than my life VVhen the first news of that great defeat was brought unto us and that the bloud thereof was come almost to flow at the foot of our house I could not expresse unto you how many fears assailed my spirit and with how many distresses my heart was seised I heard continually my thoughts that said unto me Genevieva believest thou that death hath spared thy Palatine amongst so many thousand men as her fury hath devoured if her blindness takes from her all knowledge and leaves her not any discretion thou hast no cause to hope that she hath conserved a life which was unknown unto her That tempest is passed that storm is dissipated and you cast me into new despairs Oh that you would apprehend a little that which exposes me an hundred times a day to the hazard of being a widow consider my dear Sifroy that fortune hath no means more ordinary to make her favours appear than their little continuance her constancy not able to be assured she should be suspected of you VVhat know you if the glory of these honours which she presents you is not of the nature of those fires that shine not but to lead into precipices Oh how much better it had been that it had left your courage without recompence than to offer it new motives to destroy it self I am not ignorant of the justice of your Arms and that heaven is obliged to make them prosper if it will maintain its own quarrell but who knows not also that very often it makes us encounter our enemies to the end to break us seeking in our losses either the revenge of our sinnes or the merit of our patience I do not oppose my self obstinately against that which the will of God seeks from our obedience notwithstanding whilst that it shall not be known unto me reason will that I have care of your safety not willing to forget mine own Not to lye if your absence were more profitable to the service of God than it is dammageable to my repose I would make all my Inteests give place unto his and would not desire onely to be happy at the least disadvantage of his glory but now that France is propped with an Arm upon which all the Crowns of the earth might repose the care of their conservation can I permit you to encrease its assurance without being Accomplice of the evill which you do me If I should consent thus to mine own misfortune you have too much knowledge of your merit not to esteem me unworthy of your amity and without doubt you would accuse my iudgement if I had so little wisdome Esteem me not ignorant as to this point for I know that whole Rivers of the enemies blood are not worth one drop of yours and that it should not be desirable although it might be profitable to finish the death of all these Barbarians by the least hazard of your person This thought makes me to hope that you will guard your self from your own courage which is the most redoubtable of your enemies for fear to expose may be three persons to the same death But if you have resolved to seek all the occasions to dye attend at least till this little creature which I believe to carry in my womb be out of the danger to make thereof its
spirit was nothing but patience as his body was nought but grief retained alwayes his affections in an equal resignation he permitted notwithstanding his tongue to complain of his miseries and to say that his members were not of brasse God himself in the cruelties of death would that his plaints should be a proof of that which he was for fear the opinion of his insensibility might take away the belief of the least of his natures Let us imitate his example in his submission as well as in his complaints our tears and our sighes shall not hinder our patience to be a vertue O how Genevieva conformed her self perfectly to this example her constancy was a marble inflexible but this marble yielded tears and witnessed by her sighes that it was not a statue that suffered she accorded all just plaints to her grief but her grief never gave any thing to impatience in a word she accused no lesse sweetly her evils then a Lute which men touch onely because her sighes are agreeable unto them One day as the Image of all her miseries represented it self to her fancy making of her eyes two fountains of tears she cast her self at the feet of her Crosse and said amourously unto it How long my God how long wilt thou suffer that virtue be so cruelly treated Is not five years of miseries sufficient to be content with my patience though I should have overthrown thy altars and burned thy temples my tears would have quenched thy choller if it were not that my sighs would kindle it the more I made my self believe that my sorrows should last no longer than my joyes and that the end of afflicting me should be that of not being able to suffer more I know well now that thou gavest me formerly delights but to make me taste my bitternesses with more displeasure and to render them more sharp by the remembrance of my prosperity Is it not time to make appear that thou art the protector of innocence as well as the revenger of crimes It is five years that I have endured a martyrdome which ceases not to be extreamly cruell for being extreamly slow nothing in the world hath comforted my grief all the creatures seem to be my engaged enemies to the end to encreas my afflictions A good discours can charm a grief but behold I have almost forgoten the use of speech in being separate from al other conversation then that of the beasts the night hides with her shadows the half of our evils sleep dares not approach mine eys fearing to drown it self there or at least to meet there inquietudes It seems that my misery is contagious so much every thing fears to approach it hunger cold nakednesse make the least part of my evils the misfortune of this little innocent is more insupportable unto me than all that Oh Lord if thou wouldst afflict the mother for some fault which to her is unknown why wouldst thou not take unto thee the protection of the child since thou knowest that he is as litle culpable of my sin as capable to bear the punishment thereof Pardon me my God if grief snatches these plaints from my mouth I have believed since I know not the cause of so many evils that I might finde the ease thereof from that mercy which rejecteth no body In pronouncing these sorrowfull words she bathed her Crucifix with the torrent of her tears which spake much more than her tongue The little Bononi mingling his tears with his mother they brake forth into groans so pittifull that the rocks were not hard enough not to be touched therewith At last the poore Genevieva continuing her regreets and embracing amourously her crosse said unto it My God alas my God what have I done unto thee that thou treatest me with so much rigour Miracle Whilest the Countesse spake she heard the image of our good Saviour which replyed to her And what my daughter what cause have you to complain You demand what crime hath brought you hither and tell me what sin hath nailed me to the crosse Are you more innocent than I or your evils are they greater than mine have been You are without crime and am I culpable You never thought of the infamy with which they have sullied your reputation am I perhaps a seducer and Magician as they reproached me You receive no censolation from the creatures is it not enough from that of the Creatour No body hath compassion of your evils who hath had any of mine The very insensible things have horror of your affliction and the Sun refused he not so much as to look upon mine Thy sonne encreases thy sorrows believest thou that my mother lessoned my torments Comfort thee my daughter and leave me the care of thy affairs think sometimes that he who hath made all the good things of the world hath suffered all the evill if thou comparest thy cup to mine thou wilt drink it with pleasure and wilt thank me for the favor that I do thee to make thee live in dolours to die in the joyes of a life laden with the merits of patience It would be a superfluous thing to tell you the confusion that this little reproach put into the spirit of our St but I think it will be profitable to tell you that this discourse gave her so much courage and resolution that all the thorns seemed unto her but roses her bitternesse but sweetnesse her torments but pleasing delights this also was the design of God to animate her unto patience and not to thrust her into despair by this reproach From this time forward Genevieva asked not but griefs from God and God gave not but sweets to Genevieva To witnesse to her that her vertue was not unknown unto him and that her Innocence was very near unto that which the first man possessed in the delights of Paradise God wholly submitted unto her the rage of the savage beasts and the liberty of the birds It was an ordinary thing from her first entrance into the Forrest that the Hind came to give suck to the child and to ly every night in the Cave with the mother and the Son to the end to warm their leie members but since this last favour the Foxes the Hares and the Wolves came to play with the little Benoni The birds strived together which should leave himself to be taken first The Cave of Genevieva was a place where the Bears had no rage nor the Stagges fear on the contrary one would have said that our holy Princesse had changed their nature through the compassion of her evils and given some sense of reason to the beasts to understand her necessities One day putting on an old garment on her son in the presence of a Wolf this beast departed presently from the den and went to choak a sheep whose skinne he brought to Genevieva as if he had had the judgement to discern what was proper to warm the body of her child The Saint received this
sepulchre Grief had begun this Letter grief finisheth it Our Palatine was already at the siege of Avignon when he received it To tell you the trouble that the last words of his wife cast into his soul would be the occupation of some one that seeks out such matters I would do it notwithstanding if it were not time to discourse unto you the most wicked and most infamous treason that could fall into the spirit of a servant Golo unto whom Sifroy had given more authority than the saver of Egypt received from his Master had alwayes looked upon Genevieva with the respect which he owed to her vertue whilst that the Count remained with her They say that the Diamond hinders the action of the Loadstone upon the Iron if it be put between both it is true perhaps that Golo had never a thought against his duty in the presence of his master were it that he apprehended the punishment of his infidelity or that he believed his wife would never divide her heart having before her eyes him that wholy possessed it This Lady had beauty enough to be beloved but she had too much honesty to permit it This was the cause that the Traitor Golo concealed his fire for some time but at last he could not burn with more discretion then the Laurel does he â—ighed he complained he would fain declare the evill that he suffered yet not daring to hope the remedy thereof he believed his words would be lost and his fortune hazarded should he say that which he ought to conceale His thoughts combatted long time with his passion and perhaps it had been vanquished if it had not been ayded with the presence of its object Little Flie you will burn your self if you keep not from this light whose lustre will be as fatall to you as that of a Comet What will our intendent doe become slave to the filthiest of all the passions He takes courage and resolves himself to discover his flames to her who was the innocent cause thereof He goes into the Countesse chamber but as soon as he perceived her modesty his temerity expects a refuse and reproaches This first essay not seeming seasonable he remits the designe thereof to another encounter At last behold the occasion that he takes to discover his desires The Countesse had entertained a Painter to work in the Galleries of her Pallace amongst the works that he made the Tablet of Genevieva was not the least and it could not be deformed being the portrait of so fair a thing as one day the Countesse beheld it she called Golo and asked him his judgement of that piece he who looked for an opportunity to declare his passion was very glad to meet with this and seeing that the servants and gentlewomen were too far distant to hear him He saith unto her Truly Madame If e're the pencill hath hit right it is in this subject there is no beauty how excellent soever it be that comes neer this Image and for my part I think to have eyes is sufficient to a heart In speaking thus he had always his sight fixed upon Genevieva witnessing by his sighs and lascivious looks that he had passion for something else than for the colours Our chaste Countesse perceived it well notwithstanding the fear to appear too subtile made her dissemble to comprehend that which she could not be ignorant of This modesty serv'd as fire to a man all moulded of bitumen believing then that his discourse was too clear not to be understood and the modesty of his mistris too great not to be affected he thus continued what he had so ill begun But Madame if your bare picture gives love to those that ow unto you respect would you not pardon a person that would adore the Prototype thereof without doubt your beauty is too perfect to be so cruell and so unjust as to desire to command a passion which the Gods have obeyed This is to speak like an Idolater replyed the Countesse these Divinities being feigned their love is nothing else but a fable At least it cannot be denied replyed the Intendant that these fictions may not expresse my true affections You love then Golo Yes Madame and the most beautifull person of the world Truly I would fain know her that hath given you this innocent affection I would advance wth all my power your coÌ„tentment if your design be fixed upon any one of those whom I may command I would endevor to render your suit as acceptable to her as it is advantagious Genevieva your sweetnes ha's too much coÌ„placence if you would be a little more severe you would be lesse unfortunate I leave you to think if our Intendant had his head in the stars taking the wise dissimulation of his mistris for a secret consent It was then that he shewed his visage more openly and that his sighs made the half of this evil discourse Madame I see nothing amiable but you they are your attractions which have vanquished the constancy that I opposed to my felicity but since that I know your answers favour my designes I cannot be unforunate if I be not foolish A clap of thunder had strucken Genevieva with lesse astonishment then these words notwithstanding being come again to the liberty of speech her choller and indignation represented to him the shame of his infidelity with such sharp reproaches that if he had not had much passion without doubt he had never had impudence How miserable wretched servant saith she do you acquit your selfe thus of the fidelity which you promised to your Master dare you look upon a person who hath as much horrour of your crime as desire to punish it if repentance do not make you wise the dissimulation which I used was it not an advertisement to your rashnesse that I would not hear it take heed you never more offer me any such discourse if you be but as much carefull of your good as little of your duty I have the means to make you repent your folly Indignation and despight hindered the rest of her discourse What wil Golo say it is no time to speak and then he sees that the servants perceive the Countess was moved perswading himself that another occasion would render her more favourable to his pursuits he remits them wth an answer that draws him out of the suspition of the servants and which excuses him to his Mistris Madame replyed this fox if there be any fault in that which you reproach me of it is pardonable being not voluntary I hope to make such satisfaction to the person that I have offended that if she be reasonable she will be angry no more Those who heard these words having not conceived what the had said believed that the Intendant a man chollerick and brutish had wronged some one of the house and that he promised to satisfie the complaints that had been made against him this encounter passed in this manner but Golo who had not
onely assistance which our little Innocent drew from the creatures during the space of seven years for the Countesse the earth furnished her with herbs and roots He that will consider that Genevieva was a Princesse brought up among the delights of a Court shall have no pain to imagine her troubles Was it not a spectacle worthy of compassion to see the wife of a Palatine in the want even of those things of which the most extream necessities have no need to see her Palace changed into a frightfull solitude her chamber into a fearfull den her Courtiers into wild beasts her musick into the howling of wolves her delicate meats into most bitter roots her repose into inquietude and her joyes into tears surely he must not be of flesh that can be insensible of so many misfortunes and if her vertue could have changed a man even to this degree her countenance would yet have found tears amongst so many evils seeing the rocks themselves seemed not to sweat but with her sufferings Oh who ever could have heard all the regrets which she made to the ecchoes of this wood would have said that all the trees complained thereof that the winds murmured thereat with despight and that all the birds had forgotten their Genius to learn to sigh her miserie If the evils of the poor Countesse touched sensibly her heart it cannot be spoke what torments those of her son caused her particularly when his Tongue came to be untied in the first plaintes of his grief and that this little innocent began to feele hee was unfortunate This pittifull mother locked him sometimes in her bosome to warm his little members all cold as Ice and then as she perceived the tremblings of Benoni pitty pressed her heart so strongly with grief that she drew from thence a thousand sobs and from her eyes infinite tears Oh my dear son said this lamenting mother oh my poore son my dear childe how soon beginnest thou to be miserable to see the child one would have said that it had the use of reason for at her sorrowfull words he put forth a cry so piercing that the heart of Genevieva remained sensibly wounded therewith one cannot say how many times grief and cold made her to sound My Reader I conjure thee before we pursue further the miseries of our deplorable Princesse to cast a little thy eyes through the world to observe the diversitie thereof Thou shalt see there an infinite number of women much meaner in innocence and quality who shine in gold and silk whilest Genevieva is pierced with cold covered onely with the shame of her nakednesse Thou shalt see there vice honoured virtue dispised impurity in credit subtlety praised vanity esteemed whilest a poore Lady suffers in the nook of a Wood for desiring to be innocent and to keep her faith to a person to whom heaven had engaged her O God how true is it that thy providence walketh in the depth which it behoveth not our spirit to sound and that thy counsels are precipices to all those who will search the profundity thereof Let us go no further to observe this truth then into the house of Sifroy though it be two years since we came thence Whilest Genevieva weeps let us withdraw us a little from her misery and enter into her husbands Castle We shal see that there is not a servant who is not conâ—ent not a lacquey that is not at his ease not a dog that hath not bread The Summer hath its pleasures the Winter hath its pass times The chase Viscites play and feasts bannish sorrow from this house Golo added all the artifices that he could to the medicine of time to cure the spirit of his Master It is true that he could not wholy take away the image of Genevieva's virtues from the soul of Sifroy her modesty her honesty her pitty her constancy her addresse her prudence her love were so many pleasing phantesmes which reproached him night and day for his credulity This poore man believed to have continually her shadow by his side and though his evill Intendant knew to remove subtlely those thoughts full of disquiets notwithstanding they made alwayes some impression in his spirit Behold an accident that ruined almost the whole fortune of Golo and discovered the reflection of his malice three years after the return of the Count and three ages of his wives misery As one day Sifroy looked over some papers in his Cabinet he lighted upon the note which the Countesse had conveyed therein Who can describe the regrets and sorrows that this bit of paper caused unto him his mouth uttered a thousand curses against Golo his tears watered the writing he beat his brest he tore his beard and haire all that which grief could command a man the Palatine did and surely he should have had a Tygers heart to read this Letter without regret Innocence conceived it and grief dictated it Adiew Sifroy I am going to die since you command it I never found any thing impossible in my obedience though I finde some injustice in your commandment I will notwithstanding believe that you contribute nothing to my ruine but the consent that you give thereunto I can also protest to you that all the cause I have given thereof is onely the resistance that I have made to remain wholy unto him who ought not to divide me with any other I passe willingly from a miserable life to a condition that may be worse upon the confidence I have that my innocence shall be one day out of suspition into which calumny hath cast it All the regret that I carry with me is to have brought an Infant into the world which must be the victime of cruelty and the innocent cause of my misfortune Notwithstanding I will not let this resentment hinder me to wish you a perfect felicity and to him who is the authour of my disaster a better fortune than that which he procureth me Adiew it is your unfortunate but innocent Genevieva The Intendant who was upon the watch judged that it was fit to let this storm break away and that prudence ought to withdraw him for a time from Sifroy when he believed that his choller was moderated he saw the Count again who failed not to give him sharp reproaches upon the evil judgement into which his malice had precipitated him But Golo wanted no cunning to deceive his master and to draw the thorn out of his heart Whatt Sir said this perfidious man to him do you repent to have taken away life from her who hath taken away your honour or do you doubt not to have done it justly if that be it your displeasure is reasonable but what cause have you to believe it were not your eyes witnesses of your misfortune your domesticks knew too well how equitable your action is to find it evilâ— all humane policy allows you that which you have done Will you be wiser than the Laws condemn that which reason
how happy wert thou Sifroy at the same time that thou op'nedst thy gate unto charity thou openedst thee that of glory may be that this encounter makes the knot of your predestination Whil'st that supper were making ready the Count kept company with this holy man who entertained him upon no other subject but the miseries of the world and the bitternesses which are mingled amongst it's greatest delights Though these discourses were sharpe yet they seemed unto him full of sweetnesse Supper being ready the Count made the Hermit fit at the higher end of the table although his modesty had chosen the lowest place he believed that his virtue required the chief so do all those who despise not virtue for being ill cloathed Every one having taken place according to his quality and eaten according to his appetite our Religious man took notice that Sifroy did nothing but mourn and complain without tasting one morsell of meat He believed that he nourished not himself but with sighes or at least he made shew to believe it That notwithstanding hindered him not to ask him the cause of his tears which obliged much the Count who took no pleasure but in the remembrance of his dear Genevieva After having made the recitall of his lamentable History he concluded thus Now my Father have not I cause to shed everlasting tears can any one finde it strange that so precious a losse should afflict me Sir replyed the Religious man It would be to overthrow the first law of nature to deny tears unto those to whom we ow something more Patience hinders not to complain but onely to murmur you have reason to resent your affliction but how long is it since my Lady deceased It is six moneths answered the Palatine Pardon me then if I say that your grief is too long or that your courage is too weak there is somewhat of excesse when tears reach so far Oh father that would be true if I had made a common losse but having lost in Genevieva a wife a Saint even by my fault I cannot sufficiently complain my misfortune That very thing said the Hermit should comfort you and wipe away entirely your tears Permit me if you please to discourse with your grief and to examine its justice you have lost a wife ought you alwayes to possesse her They have ravisht from you a Saint what right gives you the enjoyment thereof have you so little profited in the consideration of the worlds changes to be ignorant that man being not made to last alwayes must end once your judgment is too good to exact from death a priviledge which is impossible on every side where we cast our eys we see nothing but tombs and ashes Soveraign Princes have indeed some power upon life but none at all upon death yea her greatest pleasure is to overthrow a Thron to break a scepter and to pull down a crown to the end to render her puissance remarkable by the greatnes of those whom she hath ruined Be we born in the purple or in the spiders webs inhabit we palaces or dwell we in cottages death will finde us out every where the great may be distinguished in the condition of living but they shall never have a difference in the obligation of dying I say not but that there are many things which may make us look upon death as a good to be desired and life as the subject of all our fears I stop at the reasons which are particular to you for fear that my considerations may be too generall What cause have you to take it ill that a mortall thing should dye you find nothing here to object but that it is too soon as if you would that death should have the discretion not to displease you but when you pleased And know you not that death being born to the ruine of nature we should not expect favour from her cruelty if not to make us dye quickly for fear of languishing If this knowledge be pass'd unto your spirit whence comes it that you take it ill that a woman hath not lived beyond what she should live and that she hath lived but a little to the end not to dye longer it is not the death of a woman that afflicts you but a Saint who might acquire her self a greater crown in heaven and do many good actions in the world Are you assured that what had been well begun should finish well My Lady was loaden with merit might she not fall under the burthen her treasures of vertue were great might she not fear thieves she was firm in grace but feeble in her nature her piety was well supported but not immoveable her will was constant but it was capable of inconstancy what know you if God who hath no other thoughts but for the good of his creatures hath not taken from her the leasure to sully the glory of her former actions Believe me Sir vice and vertue follow one another like the day and the night the night may precede the day but this terminates again in the darknes I wil believe that the merit of her whom you lament could not be changed but by a great prodigy but it could not also be conserved but by a great miracle I see no cause at all to murmure against God if he takes pain to keep for you a thing which you might lose Consider now the weaknesse of your tears and I assure my self that you will resolve rather to follow her than to hope that she should come again where you are Her example in conforming it self to the will of God leaves you a straight obligation to imitate it her constancy will not that you should weep longer it is that which she her self would say unto you if you could hear her it is that which a person councells you who hath no other interest in your repose but that which charity gives him Seek it in the honest divertisements of hunting of visits and of recreations which cannot hurt you if you take them with moderation which is to be expected from a person to whom vertue ought to be as naturall as it is necessary The Palatine left not escape one sole word of this Discourse which gave him a medicine that time it self had denyed him The Table being taken away after some communication every one retired himself The next day Sifroy having demanded where the Father was the servants answered that he walked in the garden but being come thither he found him not The Count would not believe that he was gone thinking him too honest to commit an incivility and acknowledging enough not to be ungratefull When the day was pass'd and no news of him he knew not where to fix his belief that which filled his spirit with admiration was to find his habit in the chamber The profit which he drew from his good words sweetned much the sowernesse of his resentments All the contentments which were full of gall before seemed unto him afterward