hath captivated She said this as twitting her with the infidelitie of Agis who once Loved her and either out of jealousie or some two monthes absence was quite changed also upbraiding her with Polemas who was stolne from her by another beauty which Leonida understood very well and thus replied I must confesse Sister that my cords are easily untyed and the easier because I would never take so much paines as to tye them faster Celadon hearkned unto their pretty quarrells with much delight and to the end they should not end too soon he said unto Silvia fair Nymph since it seemes you are the cause why this admirable Fountaine cannot be seen I beseech you oblige us so far as to tell us how it came to passe Celadon answered the Nymph and smiled you have businesse enough at home and need not meddle much in that of others but if your Love will allow of so much curiositie Leonida if you request her may perhaps tell you the end as she did undesired the beginning Sister answered Leonida since you permit me to tell the story I Love you so well as I will not let your victories be unknowne especially those which you so much desire should be knowne But because I will not tyre this shepherd I will be as brief as possible I can Not for that reason I beseech you said the shepherd but if you will because she may have time enough to do the like office for you Never doubt that replied Silvia but according as she useth me I shall know how to repay her Thus from their own mouthes Celadon was acquainted with all the particulars of their lives and to the end he might the better hear as they walked they placed him in the mindst and thus Leonida began The History of Silvia WHosoever saith that Love is sufficient to procure Love againe never had any experience either in the eyes or the courage of this Nymph for if they had they would have known that as water runs from the fountaine so the Love of such as Love her run away and never troubleth her If when you have heard the discourse I intend to make you do not acknowledge as much I will freely give you leave to taxe my judgement Amasis the mother of Galathea hath a Son called Clidaman owner of as many excellent qualities as any person of his age and ranke is capable of for he is exquisite at any thing which relates either to Arms or Ladyes About three years agoe to give some testimonie of his gentle disposition and by the permision of Amasis he gave a servant unto all the Nymphs and this not by election but lot for having put the names of all the Nymphs into one basin and the names of all the young Caveliers into another then in an open assembly the basin in which the Nymphs were was presented to the young Gallants and the basin in which the young Gallants were was presented unto the Nymphs Then by the sound of several trumpets the young Clidaman did draw his lot and it chanced to be Silvia afterwards the young Nymph did draw her lot and it chanced to be Clidaman Great were the applaudes which every one gave but the behaviour of Clidaman was most extolled who as soon as he had received his lot went and kneeling down before this Nymph did kiss her fair hand She out of modesty would not have suffered it without the command of Amasis who said it was the least homage she could receive After her all the rest took their chances to some it happned according to their desires and to others not Galatheas fortune fel upon a brave Gallant called Lindamor who then was newly returned from the armie mine fell upon one whose name was Agis the most perfidious and unconstant wethercock that ever was Some of these who took their fortunes did only in appearance like their chances others did with their hearts ratifie what fortune had done and those who were most pleased with their chances were such as before that had conceived some seeds of affection Amongst the rest young Ligdamon was one whose lot light upon Silera a Nymph truly very amiable but not to him who had already disposed of his heart And certainly it was happy for him that he was then absent for he would never have performed that faigned homage which Amasis would have commanded that perhaps would have brought him into disgrace For you must know that he was brought up amongst us and was so faire and handsome in all his actions as every one esteemed him especially Silvia they being both of an age At first their ordinary conversation begot a Love like unto that between Brothers and Sisters such a Love as their age was capable of but as Ligdamon grew in years so he did in affection so as at fourteen or fifteen years of age his wil began to change it self into desires and his desires by degrees became passions Yet he carried the matter so discreetly that Silvia her selfe had never knowne it if she had not forced him unto it Afterwards when he knew his disease and confidered what smal hopes there was of his cure then the mirth and pleasantnesse which was wont to be in his lookes and all his actions was turned into sadnesse and from sadnesse into such lumpish melancholy that every one took notice of the alteration Silvia was not the last of those who asked him the reason but she could draw nothing from him but heartlesse answers At last when she saw his dulnesse continued one day when she was complaining against the coldnesse of his affection and obliging him to conceale nothing from her she perceived that he could not so well constraine himselfe but that a sad sigh came out in lieu of an answer This moved her to beleeve that perhaps Love was the cause of his ill Did not poor Ligdamon carry the matter very discretly all the while in all his actions since she could never imagine her self to be the cause Perhaps the Nymphes humour not liking the businesse was partly the cause however his prudence was great that could conceal such ardent affection Now Silvia begins to urge him more then she did before and told him that if Love was the cause she would contribute all her assistance and do all the good offices he could desire The more he denied it the more desirous was she to know it at last not being able to hold any longer he confessed that it was Love but said that he had sworn never to tell with whom T is most high presumption said he to love her but being compelled to it by such an unresistable beauty I am the more excusable yet should I name her what excuse could I find for my rashnesse The same excuse that your friendship to me hath said Silvia Then Madam replied Ligdamor that and your command together shall plead my excuse do but look in that glasse and you will see what you desire to know Upon this
last since his time of stay was but short he thus said unto me My Astrea for so he phrased me alwaies in private I shall leave with you my Brother Lycidas from whom I will never conceale any of my thoughts he knowes how I have vowed my selfe unto your service I beseech you promise me if it be your pleasure I should depart with any joy that you will receive as from me all the services which he shall do you and by his presence renew the memorie of absent Celadon And truly he had good reason to make this request unto me For Lycidas during his absence was so diligent to observe his Brothers commands that many thought that he succeeded his Brother in the affection which he bore unto me this was the reason why Alcippes after he had kept him three yeares out of this Country did call him home in a confidence that so long a time had worne away that light impression of Love which had a little entred into his green heart and that he being now grown more wise would weane Lycidas also from my affection But his returne was an extreame assurance of his fidelitie absence could not extinguish the ardency ot his Love no nor all the so much admired Romane beauties could ever startle him He intreated me by his Brother that I would give him leave to come unto me Oh Heavens how gladly did he come when I gave him licence I think I have his Letters about me for alas I have kept them better then him then pulling a little bundle out of her pocket like unto that which Celadon used to carry or in imitation of him and in which she very charily preserved those which came from him she took the first for she kept them in order as they came unto her then after she had wiped away her pearly teares she read these words Celadons Letter unto Astrea Fair Astrea MY patience hath vanquished my exile and heavens grant also that it may vanquish all hinderances of our happinesse I departed with so much sorrow and returne with so much joy That not dying neither in going nor coming it manifests that one cannot dy with too much delight nor of too much sadnesse Permitt me I beseech you to wait upon you that I may relate my fortunes unto her who is my only happinesse Fair Diana it is impossible to remember all the discourse we then had unlesse I should open those wounds again which are more dolorous to me then death During Celadons absence Artemis my Aunt and Mother of Phillis did come upon a visit unto us and brought with her this Fair shepherdesse Phillis And because our manner of living seemed more pleasant unto her then the shepherds of Allier she was pleased to stay with us which beleeve it was no small contentment unto me for her humours were very pleasing unto me and I have passed over many tedious hours with her When Celadon returned his judgment was so good and he liked her so well as I may truly say he was the cause of the great League which ever since hath been twixt her and me At this time he arrived at the age of seaventeen or eighteen and I at fifteen or sixteen and began to manage matters with more prudence so as to disguise our loves I did intreat him or rather indeed constraine him to be very familiar with all shepheardesses which could pretend unto any shadow of Beauty to the end his applications unto me might be taken rather as common then particular I say I constreyned him unto it for he did severall times upon his knees begge for a revocation of this command and alas he had good reason so to do for he did too well foresee that from hence would proceed the cause of his death Excuse me wise Diana if a few due teares interrupt my discourse since I have so much sad cause for them as it were impiety to stop them Then after she had dryed her eyes she began her discourse again And because that Phillis was most commonly with me it was unto her that he first made his addresses unto according to my command I could scarsly forbear my smiles especially when Phillis beleeved him to be in good earnest and treated him as it is the custome to treat such as begin the like addresses I remember that when he was once very sharply treated he sang this Song which he composed upon this subject A Song CLose by a River cleare whose bankes were clad With Mossie cussions and a channell had Which like a Serpent wreathed and did glide A long a lovely plaine with swelling pride Did sit a Shepheard chanting it in verse And with his Pipe did these sad Lines rehearse Cease Fair one Cease cease once your cruelty Let me enjoy one day before I die The torments I endure for loving you Are greater farr then is for hatred due If gods be good and infinitly kind Then Love and Hate a difference will find Is 't possible a pure and perfect Love Should never never any pitty move Are animals insensible as stones Which never moved are with sighes and groanes Those amorous glances of your winning eyes Have oft encourag'd up my hopes to rise And since they swell with promises so fair If they do violate they perjured are Oft have they told me that your stony heart Would melt and from severitie depart Each charming part of your fair face did say In their false Language they would ne're betray But how Does shepheardesses eyes out vie The glistering Court in all its falsitie Can they who live and only haunt the fields Use any art but what plaine nature yeilds Has rurall beauties found a subtile art Though not their faces yet to paint the heart Are these the Doctrines that your Schoole affords Only to flatter and to give good words No no my Fair one these are fallacies And far unsutable with your fair eyes Learne to be kind and banish cruelty This cometh neerest to a Dietie Beauty that bringes not sweetnesse with it might Be likned to an eye that wanteth sight To her that has no Love and yet is fair A Corps without a Soul I will compare I do very well remember said Phillis and interrupted her how his addresses unto me made you laugh for commonly his discourse was only a few fragments of words so disordered as they could hardly hold sense And commonly when he would name me his thoughts so run upon you that he would call me Astrea But see the variety of severall inclinations I know very well that Celadon had some advantages of nature above Lycidas yet I thought though I knew no reason for it Lycidas to be much more agreeable unto my fancy Sister said Astrea to her you bring into my memorle a discourse which once he had concerning you and this fair shepheardesse said she and turned towards Diana Fair shepherdesse said he to me the wise Belinda and Artemis your Aunt are infinitly happy in two Daughters
wronged her the best way was to refer revenge unto Hesius who had power to do it That if she did her selfe take revenge it was to be feared that she unto whom it was done would pay her back double in her owne coyne To be briefe she used all possible arguments and perswasions to divert her from this designe But Celidea whose designe was different from what she made appear did still resolutely persist in her request telling the woman that she upon whom she would be revenged was not a person that could revenge again besides it should be carried so secretly as she should never know from whence it proceeded therefore conjured her in all love to satisfie her request protesting that if she did not she would cause her to attempt something that was much worse The good woman answered that she should be very sorry to be a cause of any worse accident therefore within two or three daies she would give her an answer Do not fail me then said Celidea for if you do you will be the cause of a far greater mischiefe The terme being expired which this good woman took only to passe on time she desired a longer But Celidea who knew that this was only delay yet she seemed to believe her whilst in the interim she would take the best way she could to accomplish her designe setting a face of beliefe in the good old woman upon it lest she should discover her intention unto Cleontine Celidea then seeking out for any way to dissigure her selfe as ill luck was she came in the morning unto Cleontine's Chamber when she was in bed and because Cleontine was accustomed to wear a pointed Diamond upon her finger as a token that she was dedicated unto Theutates as you know Madam it is the custome of all our Druides she used every night when she went into bed to put it off and to take it again in the morning So it hapned that Celidea taking up this Ring she put it upon her finger and from one to another trying which it would best fit perhaps not thinking what she did which Cleontine perceiving Daughter said she are you willing to wear that Ring upon the same conditions that I do If I were able answered Celidea there is nothing in the world I should more desire How then can you think said Cleontine to satisfie both Thamires and Calidon as you have promised That answered she would be the best remedy of all others for they are so religiously disposed as if I were once dedicated unto Theutates neither of them would offer to have me out again Love said Cleontine is above either duty of religion But pray Daughter tell me which way do you think to give them both satisfaction for truly I cannot understand which way you can do it For in the first place you are Wife unto Thamires therefore if you would you cannot dedicate your selfe unto Theutates without his leave But suppose you were a Druide do you think that would content them both No surely but rather discontent them both since then both are deprived of you Mother answered Celidea the great gods will doubtlesse inspire me with some way or other and by their aide I do not doubt but I shall effect it for in them I put my whole trust Daughter said Cleontine the gods do never fail those that trust in them and therefore since you make them your confidence I shall believe you may bring it to passe Cleontine would have continued on her discourse but Celidea by accident did give her hand such a scratch with the Diamond that she cryed out at which Cleontine starting What have you done said she have you cut your selfe with the Diamond A small scratch answered Celidea though the pain of it did make me cry out You think it small said Cleontine but you are deceived for the mark will never out and the cut is very hard to be healed Then looking into her hand and seeing it much scratched Believe it Celidea said she you have a mark as long as you live and had it been upon your face it had been quite spoiled How said Celidea is a Diamond so venomous The mark of it said Cleontine will never out and that 's the reason why I leave it off every night when I go to bed Oh! how glad was this young shepheardesse when she heard of this secret she thought that the gods had purposely taught it her to accomplish her designe I shall now acquaint you Madam with the strange resolution of this young woman It was already five or six daies since Thamires received his hurt and his wound not being dangerous he recovered so fast that he began to go out of his Chamber Calidon and Thamires both did summon Celidea to the performance of her promise She with a smiling brow told them That tomorrow she would give them both content At night when her Aunt was in bed she stole her Ring and when she came into her Chamber she caused all to go to bed and shut the dore Then she set her selfe down by a Table upon which stood a Glasse in which against all Festivalls she was wont to dresse her selfe As soon as ever she saw her fair face in it Oh Mirrour said she with whom I was wont to consult with so much care and circumspection how to adorn this face How different is the occasion now that makes me take thy counsell I was wont by thy advice to make my selfe more fair but now I come to know how I shall blast this beauty which was formerly so deer unto me Upon this opening the Glasse and seeing her face all swell'd with tears Oh eyes said she you were not human did you not lament the losse of that beauty which heretofore did swell you with so much delight Afterwards being silent a while and considering particularly her beauty her grace the just proportion of her parts the lively and sweet lustre of her eyes the freshnesse of her rosie complexion the composure of her mouth and briefly all the pleasing parts of her face I know very well said she Oh my most precious and dearly loved treasures how valuable you are but alas what are you worth unto me if I cannot enjoy any contentment in preserving you I have formerly esteemed this beauty as my highest and richest jewell I know how much I have been courted for your sake but when I shall charge you before the Throne of Reason to have been the cause of all the torments I have endured when I blame you for the dissention that is betwixt the Uncle and the Nephew nay when I charge you as guilty of their blood and ruine nay more perhaps of their death what can you say in your own defence what reasons can you alledge why I should still retain and preserve you Perhaps you will say that it is a very sweet thing to be fair but tell me how bitter are those effects which that sweet doth produce and how
should Sheep languish and die in a great water where Fishes thrive and play Because answered the Druide it is against their Nature And do you think Father said the Shepheard that it is not against the nature of a Shepheard to live amongst so many great Nymphs I was born a Shepheard and so habituated to a Village-life as nothing but things of my own condition and quality can please me But is it possible said the Druide that Ambition which is so naturall unto men cannot invite you to quit your woods Cannot beautie allure a young heart unto it and divert you from your first intentions The ambition which every one ought to have answered the Shepheard is to do that well which is their duty to do and in that to be the prime amongst those of their own rank and that beauty which becomes us to look upon and ought to attract us is that which we may love and not that which we ought to reverence nor look upon but with eyes of respect only Why do you imagine said the Druide that there is any such Grandure amongst men which merit and vertue may not arive at Because answered the Shepheard I know that all things ought to keep themselves within the limits and bounds that nature hath placed them A Ruby though never so excellent in its kinde can never become a Diamond and he that hopes to elevate himself too high or to say better to change his nature and to make himselfe more then he is will but spend both his paines and his time in vain The Druide now amased at the wise considerations of this Shepheard and very glad to see him so far from any thoughts of Galathea began to deal with him in this manner Son said he I am extreamly glad to find so much wisdome in you and do assure you that as long as you continue in this minde the heavens will shoure all manner of felicities upon you Many are so taken up with vanities and transported with them that they run out of their wits and that upon much vainer hopes than these I propound unto you And what becomes of them at last just nothing unlesse after long and intolerable paines a sad repentance for suffering themselves to be so long deluded You have reason to thank the heavens that have endued you with this knowledge before you come to repentance and you have great reason also to pray that they will preserve you in the same minde in the same tranquility and sweetnesse of life in which you have hitherto lived But since you do not aspire unto any Grandure nor Beauty what is it then Celadon that will stay you here amongst these Nymphs Alas answered the Shepheard there is nothing can stay me by my good will it 's only Galathea that keeps me here in the nature of a Prisoner and the truth is I would have tryed all waies to make an escape had not my sicknesse prevented me and if no way would have hit I should have been so unmannerly as to have gone away by force When I would speak unto Galathea about it she seemes so extreamly angry as I must confesse I durst not mention it any more unto her But in the mean time my stay here has been so tedious unto me that I do accuse it to be the principall cause of my malady And therefore Father if ever you will compassionate the miserable condition of an extreamly afflicted person I do conjure you by the great gods whom you do most reverence and adore by your own good genius by the memory of your worthy Father great Pelion that you will take some pitty upon my life and by your prudence added unto my earnest desire to help me out of this wearisome Prison for so I shall call it as long as I stay here Adamas extreamly glad to hear how passionately he expressed himselfe did embrace him and after he had kissed his cheek said thus unto him Yes dear Son be confident I will do as you desire and assoon as your disease will permit I will use all possible means to facilitate your getting out of this place continue only in this minde and recover as soon as you can Then after much other such discourse as this he left him so much contented that if Adamas would have suffered him he would have quitted his bed that very houre In the mean time Leonida who would not suffer Galathea to run on any longer in that errour which Climanthes had infused into her one night when Silvia and the little Merill were retired she sat down by her beds-side and after some common discourse she said thus unto her Madam I have met with some newes in my journey newes that concernes you and I would not upon any termes conceal it from you because I shall thereby extreamly undeceive you What is it said the Nymph It is said Leonida the most subtle piece of knavery that ever Love invented and I believe you will not be sorry for my voyage though it were for nothing else but the discovery of it This Druide that resided here is the most wicked fellow and the cunningest knave that ever deluded any one Then did she relate all that she heard from the mouth of Climanthes and Polemas and all the plot that was invented only to dispossesse Lindamor and ingratiate Polemas in his room At the first the Nymph was astonished afterwards the love of this Shepheard did so flatter her that she was perswaded Leonida spoke this out of designe to divert her affection from this Shepheard and to enjoy him her selfe so as she did not give any credit to what she said but on the contrary turning it into laughter said thus unto her Go go Leonida go to bed and to morrow perhaps you will be more subtle and know how to disguise your tricks better Then she smiled and turned to the other side This did so extreamly offend Leonida as she resolved whatsoever came of it to set Celadon at liberty In order to this designe she went the same night unto her Uncle unto whom she used this language Father said she you see Celadon is now recovered why should he stay any longer here I pray consider what prejudice it may bring upon us all hereafter I would gladly have undeceived Galathea and divert her from the perswasions of the impostor Climantes but she does so dote upon Celadon as whosoever shall motion his departure is her declared enemy but I do conceive the surest way is to get him gone which we can never do without you for her eye is so continually upon me as I cannot stir a foot but she takes notice of it and suspects me Adamas did a little wonder to hear his Niece say so and had an opinion that she was afraid that he perceived the good-will she had unto this Shepheard and therefore she would blinde him However conceiving to cut up Love by the roots the best way would be to get Celadon away he
ever I saw you I loved you as if I were forced unto it by some interior power which it was impossible to resist But perhaps said the Shepheardesse when I knew you did love me did I use any art to cherish it or augment it by any fresh favours No said he my affection did beginne without you continue without you and augment without you I mean without your contributing any thing unto it but by being your self But on the contrary the first time you knew it for though I did not discover it by my words yet I knew you did perceive it Oh what harsh treatment did I receive from you And what extreame dislike have you since shewed So as if I be as you say a Monster of Love I am so because it is a thing most monstrous that a Lover should so long preserve his affection maugre so many rigorous affronts and causes of hatred for I may safely say that every one of your actions towards me deserves no other name but of Rigour and Hatred So as it is apparent when you came to visit me in my sicknesse your design was to save my life onely that afterwards you might murder me more cruelly Then Celidea replyed thus You see great and wise Nymph by Calidons own mouth that if hee did love me it was without any contributing to it by me unlesse by being my self and against that what remedy can I invent What would he answer if I should ask him these questions before the Throne of Reason and your self Since Shepheard I never did consent unto any of your addresses why would you have me participate in your own troubles shame and errours Is it not enough that I have all this while endured your importunities without revenge You doe love me you say and because you love me I must love you again But pray hear what Reason saith You have loved Celidea and in loving her you have offended her and what other recompence can you expect from her but hatred The truth is Shepheard that being unwilling to be revenged of you as in reason I might I contented my self with hating you in my very soul and for Thamires his sake I pardoned the rest If you doe object that I doe know of your love by your teares and by your sicknesse Alasse this does not oblige mee one jot the more to love you but rather to hate you more extreamly Tell me Calidon since Thamires hath taken so much care to bring you up in literature and travails in what part of the world have you seen it decent for a young maid as I am to love or suffer her self to be loved If it bee not the custome in any place of the world but where Vice is held for Virtue doe you not infinitely offend in tempting mee to that which is contrary to my duty You love me you say because you cannot chuse but doe so Good friend how am I obliged unto you for doing that which you cannot chuse but do You do excuse your selfe to Thamires for loving me against his will by saying that you are not to blame because you are forced unto it Can you think your self exempt from blame in sinning by compulsion and do you think your selfe worthy of recompence for being forced unto a thing whose contrary deserves a recompence Either confesse your selfe culpable towards Thamires or else cease seeking a recompence for your forced service But if you do love me against my will am I to be punished for it Did I ever entreat you to it did I ever give you any occasion You say No. Will your love be any contentment or advantage unto me Shall I become more fair more vertuous or ever the better by it Oh heavens Calidon where are your wits Are you mad to ask a recompence where a punishment is deserved Or rather what an impudent affront is this before this great Nymph to demand â—â—vour and wages of me in lieu of a pardon and in lieu of repenting for your faults I believe you will say that I should not have flattered you in your errour nor kept you alive when you were sick by giving you good language But Calidon have I not good cause to say you are an ungratefull man and does not acknowledge the good office I did you in misconstruing of it and taking it in another sense then you ought Did a guilty person ever finde or think his Judge too milde or sweet or did any offendor ever complain that in lieu of punishment he received favour and courtesy Because I wished not your death am I blamable for saving your life You accuse me for having pitty upon you and shewing favour instead of revenge and would have me punished for it Judge Madam how his understanding is out of the way and how he takes reason the wrong way But Shepheard neither blame me nor commend me for my act since according to your own argument it was an act forced upon me which ought neither to be recompensed nor punished It was my affection to Thamires who conjured me unto it by all the obliging arguments he could devise which induced me unto it I see Calidon that you do smile that I should say it was my affection unto Thamires which moved me to treat you in that manner because you conceive that she who a little before did declare her selfe such an enemy to Love cannot now well say that Love had such an influence upon her soul But Shepheard you are much mistaken if you think that in being an enemy unto Love I am so also unto Amity and friendship or void of that vertue which makes us think of things as they ought to be I have heard say great Nymph that one may love two manner of wayes the one according to reason the other according to desire That which hath reason for its rule is called vertuous and honest Amity and that which suffers it selfe to be transported with desire Love With the first of these we do love our Parents our Kindred our Friends our Country and both in generall and particular all those in whom any vertue shines As for the other those that are infected with it are transported and distempered as with a frenzy Feavour and do commit so many grosse faults that the name of it is as infamous amongst persons of honour as the other is good and laudable I shall without a blush then confesse that I did love Thamires but withall I must tell you it was for his vertue If Calidon do ask me how I can distinguish and discern between these two kinds of affection since the one does commonly appear in the habit of the other I shall answer him that the wise Cleontine teaching me how to behave my selfe in the world did give me the difference Daughter said she my age hath furnished me with experience in many things and hath taught me that things are the most certainly known by their effects and the better to discern after what manner we
ask thee what they are That spark les in those Eyes so fair VVhat are they soules or flames that fly And hover so about that Eye They are flames which death to foules do give Or rather soules that makes Love live 'T is strange that from the selfe same eyes A Life and Death should both arise The works of gods all wonders are And so these Sunâ— seemes sure as rare To think them human is a sin Since reverence from the gods they win To love them they command thy heart Since thou to look allowed art 'T is true but yet my heart doth bear In it such reverentiall fear As bids devotion pay not Love To one that equalls gods above But star the gods who blessings shoure VVill not require above our power But try I say and thou wilt prove Thou canst not look but thou must love Whilst Diana to amuse the company did read these Lines aloud and these being ended took others of which the Altar was full Phillis addressed her selfe unto Astrea Oh heavens dear Sister said she unto her how I am amazed at all I finde in this place For my part answered Astrea I am so much out of my selfe as I know not whether I be asleep or awake Look upon this Writing and then tell me whether you ever saw the like unto it This answered Phillis is Celadon's writing or else I am not Phillis There is no doubt of it answered Astrea and I do very well remember that he writ this last line VVanting the Substance Shadowes comfort me upon a little Picture which he had of me and which he wore about his neck in a little bag of persumed Leather I pray see said Phillis what is in this paper which I took up from under your Picture Stay stand and gaze did e're eye see A Saint so pure so fair as she Can any be so dully dumb As not Idolater become And rather all the gods give o're Then not so fair a Saint adore But soft ere I devotion pay Let me consider what I say These flaming Beauties are not eyes Only a Picture which I prize It is not reall only shade By an in genious Artist made Are they not eyes Can any Art Like them so captivate a Heart Sure Pictures be they ne're so like So mortally can never strike But be they what they will I 'me sure No Mortall can the blowes endure Since by their power I wounded am I 'le flie them to avoid the same But why fond Lover wilt thou flie From such a fatall piercing eye Thy heart 's already wounded by it What e're it be 't is vain to flie it Oh Sister said Astrea it is most certainly Celadon that writ these Verses it is without any manner of doubt for about three years since he did write them upon my Picture which my Father had of me to give unto my Uncle Focion Upon this tears flowed from her eyes But Phillis fearing the rest of the Company would see her Sister said she this is rather a cause of rejoycing then sorrow for if Celadon did write it as I do believe he did certainly he is not dead although you think he was drowned and if it be so what greater cause of joy could you have Ah Sister said she turning the other way and pushing her from her for gods sake do not torment me with any such language Celadon is too certainly dead by my folly and I am most miserable in the losse I see the gods are not yet contented with those tears that I have already shed for him since they have brought me hither to give me a fresh subject for more But since they will have it so I will turn my selfe wholly into tears and though I cannot wholly wash away my offence by them yet I will never cease untill I have lost either my eyes or my life or both I do not tell you said Phillis that Celadon is alive but I must tell you that if he did write these Verses I must of necessity conclude that he is not dead Sister said she our Druides tell us that we have soules which never die although our bodies do and so in that sence he may live I have heard say answered Phillis that it is our duty to give a buriall unto the dead and to put a piece of mony in their mouths to pay the Ferry-man for wafting them over the Stygian Lake and that such as are deprived of buriall are a hundred years wandring about the places where they lost their bodies and how can you tell but that the soul of Celadon having lost his body and being denyed that charitable office may be wandring about the fatall River of Lignon and still retain the same affection and thoughts which he had before Ah Sister said Astrea these are but meer phantasms Celadon is certainly dead and these are the testimonies of his affection and my folly What I do say answered Phillis is grounded upon more then phantaims and Chimeraes and I hint then upto you out of my desire to contribute unto your tranquillity I do know it Sister replyed Astrea but consider that if I should think Celadon alive and afterwards finde him to be dead nothing could preserve my life this would be to see him die twice and the gods and my own heart do know how near his first death did bring me to my grave Yet you may receive this satisfaction by it answered Phillis as to know that death could not extinguish the affection which he bore unto you That said Astrea conduceth unto his glory and my punishment Nay rather said Phillis this construction may be made of it that he being dead does cleerly and without a cloud see the pure and entire affection which you bear unto him and that the jealousie which caused your anger against him did proceed only from the superabundance of your love for I have heard say that our soules separated from the bodies do still see and behold them This answered Astrea would be the greatest satisfaction that I can receive for I do not doubt but as my imprudence did give him great cause of griefe so this sight of my affection would give him contentment For if I did not love him above all the world and if I do not continue stil in the same affection may the gods never love me These two Shepheardesses were talking thus whilst Diana entertained the rest of the Company sometimes in reading the papers which she found upon the Altar and sometimes a king Paris Tircis and Silvander what was their thoughts of these things There is not any here but knowes said Paris but this Picture was made for Astrea and conceives that he who put it in this place does not only â—ove but adore her For my part said Silvander if Celadon were not dead I should believe these Characters to be his How said Tircis Celadon who was drowned some three or four months since in the River Lignon The same answered Silvander
handkerchiefe of blood was still before my eyes so as it was no more then requisite I should have one alwaies by me to add some consolation Leriana who thought that I was ignorant of all her wicked devices would needs be with me as usuall and the better to dissemble it came crying to my bed-side But as soon as ever I saw her I must confesse I had not so much power over my selfe as to dissemble my hatred of her and indeed I thought it in vain since Damon was dead Away away most wicked and perfidious wretch said I unto her away thou very Pest of all human society come not near me with thy damned and hellish tricks had I as much strength as will I would strangle thee with my own hands and tear thy heart in pieces Those who were in the Chamber being ignorant of the cause I had for these expressions were infinitely astonished at them But she who had the readiest wit in her wickednesse of any that ever breathed went from me holding up her hands and eyes and told them that to hee great griefe I was mad and quite out of my wits which they easily believed having heard me utter some odd expressions and thus she went out of my Chamber with this excuse In the mean while Thersander recovered for his wounds were not mortall and the losse of blood only was the cause of his sounding Presently after I also began to be my selfe again and to enquire what reports went of me at Court I understood that every one talked according to their severall fancies but that all in generall blamed me for the death of Damon and how every one thought that Leriana had told many a tale unto Leontidas and his Wife and at the same time I saw Thersander come into my Chamber The very sight of him made me start and having no minde to speak with him when he fell down upon his knees at my beds side I turned my head the other way 'T is very true Madam said he you have no reason to look upon a man who of all men in the world is the most unworthy of your aspect for I must needs confesse I merit that lesse then any man that lives since I have given you so much cause to hate me But if your goodnesse will be pleased to daigne me a hearing perhaps you will not deem me so culpable as now you do And because I answered him very sharply and would not give him leave to speak my Nurse who was with me took his part and told me that I ought to hear him for if he were not in fault I had no reason to treat him so and if he were in fault then I might after a hearing with more reason banish him my presence Well well said I what do you think he will or can alledge I know as well as he he will say that the affection he bears unto me hath forced him to do what he did But what have I to do with his affection if it be so prejudiciall to me I shall not Madam said he unto me insist only upon that affection you speak of though perhaps to any other that might be a better plea and excuse as you think it but I shall go further and tell you that never any were so perniciously subtlely consened as you and I have been by Leriana And hereupon he told the whole story of her jugling artifice how she infused so much confidence into him as to look upon me to speak unto me to aspire unto my favour how she puffed him up by reports unto him of favours from me what stratagems she invented against Damon how she made the world believe he loved Ormanthe how she instructed silly Ormanthe for that purpose and how she gave him a Ring from me which he conceived to be the cause of the quarrell betwixt Damon and him Now Madam said he and continued do you think it possible but that such hopes as she infused into me should swell the most prudent soul that ever was Alas I dare not so much as wish so great a happiness but me-thinks I may in reason be excused since I was meerly drawn in and possed up with vain hopes by the artifice of Leriana with whose persidie I thought fit to acquaint you that you may hereafter beware of her and her wicked devices with which she has cheated both you and me Then he let me understand how this wicked woman seeing she could no longer deceive me and him and being also reprehended by Leontidas and his Wife for having so little care of me she to excuse her selfe had told them all that her subtle imagination could devise against us how I was in love and how I was loved by many and so many as she could hardly number them and amongst those whom she named Damon and Thersander were not forgotten At which Leontidas was so angry and his Wife more both against me and against him as he thought it fit to acquaint me with it to the end I might take the best course I could And lastly he made such humble supplications that I would pardon him for daring to love me and such serious protestations to live for the future as he ought that I was constrained by the intreaties of my Nurse to pardon him But now wise Shepheardesses I shall acquaint you with one of the greatest villanies that ever was invented against an innocent person I told you before how Ormanthe by Leriana's command was extreamly fond of Damon and you must know that she was not so ill favoured nor so disgusted but her kindnesses to him were well accepted so as she proved to be with Child The poor silly Wench presently acquainted her crafty Aunt with it who at the first was much astonished and offended at it but afterwards having recourse to her accustomed subtlety she plotted and intended to make use of this occasion to make Damon believe that I had this Child by Thersander and therefore she expresly charged Ormanthe to tell no body of it in the world and afterwards because her belly began to swell she taught her how to dresse her selfe that it might best deceive the worlds notice But when Damon was dead and that all things were changed yet she resolved to pursue her plot and make use of it to my ruine and thus she went to work Since this sad accident of Damon I kept my bed almost continually unlesse in the afternoones I rose and shut my selfe up in my Closet and there stayed till nine or ten of the clock at night entertaining my own melancholly thoughts alone and none knew where I was except my Nurse and some Maides that waited upon me whom I had charged to tell none in the world where I was And because it might be thought strange I never went to the Queen if it were known I was not sick I faigned my selfe to be so and to deceive the Physicians I did not complain of a Feavour or any
what is then your intention To punish us both answered Diana I mean to chastise him for his presumption in loving me and also to punish my selfe for my fault in liking him to the end we may both be more just and better advised But Sister said Astrea this designe in my apprehension is very pernicious for by this you bring your selfe no satisfaction but much sorrow and perhaps extream shame Take heed lest in holding a flint you strike fire if you strike it against any thing which is harder and so the hidden fire discover it selfe Young spirits and hearts if they do love well and if they be prudent they will discreetly hide their affections and not disclose them unto any of their acquaintance but when they are strucken I mean when they are rigorously used then they are so transported with their passions as it is impossible they should dissemble And this believe it cannot be without abundance of vexation and sorrow in the soul of her that is concerned for on which side soever the reports go they cannot be advantagious to the woman Your wisdome Sister does enable you to give very good counsell unto any other but the wisest eyes are often blinde in their own case And this invites me to ask you Whether do you love this shepheard or you do not love him for if you love him not then break off all manner of conference and all correspondency with him and so entirely and speedily that he may not have one spark of any hopes from you And in this do not flatter your selfe and say that a woman cannot help it if men will needs love her no more then she can hinder them from looking upon her this is an excuse to fool some silly person withall For at the very first the fire must be quenched all hopes must be taken from him not in part but totally and entirely If there be found sometimes some opinionative and obstinate man it is only for a few daies for certainly Love no more then all other Mortalls cannot live without nutriment and the proper nutriment of Love is Hope But then if you do love as you say and as indeed he deserves then Sister me thinks it is a great folly to deprive your selfe of that which pleaseth you Sister said Diana that which pleaseth is not alwaies honourable nor reasonable and since they are not vertue commands us to shun them and for my part I had rather die than do otherwise I make no question of it answered Astrea for I am most confident of Diana's vertue But pray let us see whether this act be contrary unto reason or honour Is it any way in the world contrary to reason to love a generous wise handsome and discreet Shepheard For my part it seemes unto me so full of reason as I can see no contrariety in it Now any thing that is reasonable cannot be dishonourable and since it is not why should you not love him It is an easy matter to conclude in the advantage of this shepheard said Diana as long as none does contradict it but to argue thus Is it reasonable that Diana who hath ever held a good repatation amongst the shepheards and shepheardesses of this Country should marry an unknown shepheard one who has nothing but himselfe and what his ingennity acquires I believe you will decline from your first opinion upon this consideration And upon this cause I am fully resolved to suffer his addresses and affection no longer then I can faigne and seem not to believe it But if be should bring me to that passe as I could not umbrage my selfe under this shadow I do protest I will presently discard him and never permit him to see me or if he did either see me or speak to me or love me I will treat him in such a manner as he shall believe me in good earnest and I think love me no longer And what will you your selfe do said Astrea in the mean time Doubtlesse I will love him answered Diana and I will punish my selfe for my offence in so doing I do foresee said Astrea that this vain Chimera will afford you but false contentment and that this designe will beget in you many a mortall displeasure Whilst these shepheardesses were thus discoursing and thinking that none did hear them Laonice was so attentive that not to lose one syllable of what was said she durst hardly breathe for there was nothing which she did so passionately desire as to discover this which she heard But Silvander was ravished and when he heard at the beginning those favourable expressions of Diana Oh! how happy did he think himselfe Afterwards when he heard the counsell which Astrea gave her and how she took his part how much did he think himselfe obliged But when at last he heard Diana's dire resolution Oh heavens in what a dump was his soul smother'd It was well for him that these shepheardesses had a disposition to sleep otherwise it had been impossible but he should have discovered himselfe to be there by some of his deep and groaning sighes for he could not obtain so much of himselfe as to go further and sigh at ease so desirous was he to hear the end of their discourse and therefore I say it was well for him that after they had bid goodnight unto each other they presently fell asleep for then he retired and went to his companions looking whether any of them were awake and finding them to be all fast asleep he began to entertain his own thoughts and lifting up his eyes he contemplated upon the Stars and the various Chimaeraes which were formed in the Clouds but he found none amongst them so various as his own thoughts upon the discourse which he had heard buying his knowledge that Diana loved him very dear making a doubt whether he was more obliged to his curiosity which let him know she loved him or disobliged unto it for hearing that cruell resolution which she had taken This imagination held a long debate in his soul At last Love out of very pitty closed his eyes and suffered him to fall asleep But now it is full time to return unto Celadon whom we have long left in his Cell without any company but his own thoughts which had no other subject for themselves but his past happinesse and his present misery Fifteen or sixteen daies passed thus on with so little care of his life that sorrowes nourished him more then any other thing which he eat All his delight was in his imaginations in which he passed away his daies and nights which were all one to him since being so distant from the eyes of Astrea all seemed dark There was not one passage in all his life which came not then into his memory and to his misery he alwaies stayed longest upon those that were most sad as most suitable to his present condition If at any time he had any more pleasing he presently gave them a check as
but I can take no delight in seeing her and in seeing her displeased But why said the Nymph do you think she will be displeased with seeing you Because answered the shepheard she hath commanded me never to see her untill she command otherwise How can she command otherwise said Leonida if she never see you nor knowes where you are but thinks you to be dead Ah Nymph said the shepheard Love is a most puissant god and as he has blindely found out a way to banish me her presence he may also finde a way to recall me when he pleaseth Are you then resolved said Leonida not to present your selfe before her I had rather die answered he and therefore let Love do as it lists Upon this he arose purposely to change discourse and taking the Nymphs hand he came to the dore of his Cave but when she saw him in the light and perceiving him so extreamly altered she could not restrain her tears which Celadon seeing Nay nay sweet Nymph said he never grieve at the alteration which you finde in my face for it is a signe that ere long I shall have a long rest It would be too tedious to relate all their discourse But to be briefe all her arguments and perswasions could obtain from him no more then this that he would suffer her to visit him sometimes At the last the Sun being almost set she was constrained to leave him with a promise to see him very often For all Leonida's resolution of not loving Celadon yet could she not extinguish the flames of her first affection to him so difficult a thing it is to expell this passion when it has once taken deep root in a heart which entertains it and therefore this meeting with him was no small contentment unto her but her sorrowes to see him in such a miserable condition were as great and the greater when she thought upon his strange resolution so as her joyes to finde him and her sorrowes to finde him thus did a little puzzle her which to adhere most unto All the way she went she was inventing what course she should take to disswade him from this course of life Sometimes she was in a minde to acquaint the shepheardesse Astrea with it in hopes that her influence might effect it But this minde changed as soon as she considered that this was the way to put her selfe out of all hopes to get his love knowing very well that if Astrea once knew he was alive and could finde him she would give him such sweet demonstrations of her good-will unto him as would blast all her hopes of him Changing therefore this opinion and having heard that Adamas had been a great lover of Celadon's Father she thought it expedient to acquaint him with his course of life assuring her selfe that he would do all that was requisite and fit Yet notwithstanding when she considered that the place where Celadon was was as fit a place as she could wish to enjoy his company alone and to expresse her own passion she conceived the best way was to acquaint none as yet but to try what time would doe and to divert him from his sad thoughts as much as she possibly could and if she found that her presence and artifice could not work upon him then it would be time enough to acquaint her Uncle This then was the course she fixed upon and to effect it she failed not to visit him every day The shepheard knowing that all this could not proceed from any thing but love he was displeased at it thinking that if he suffered so much indulgency from this Nymph he did offend against the promise of fidelity unto his shepheardesse Besides he thought all those houres that were spent in these visits were lost because they kept him from entertaining his own dear and sweet thoughts so as in lieu of growing more joyfull he became more sad which the Nymph perceiving and seeing that he did every day grow leaner and paler she consulted with her selfe and at last resolved to have recourse unto the sage advice of the grave Adamas but to acquaint him with it in such a manner as he should be sure not to suspect any thing to her disadvantage Being therefore one evening in a better humour then ordinary she went unto her Uncle whom she found walking upon a Tarrasse which had the prospect of all that plain from whence she came After salutation the Druide asked her where she left Paris To which she answered that all the shepheardesses were so kinde and civill as to accompany them as far as the Temple of the good goddesse and Paris went to conduct them back again But Father said she I have met with a fine encounter which stayed me so long that I thought Paris would have been back before me What is it said the Druide It is Celadon answered Leonida you must know that since he went from the Palace of Issaures in lieu of going to his kindred and friends he has retired himself into a Cave where he so hides himself from all his acquaintance as every one yet thinks him dead Why said Adamas does he so I believe answered sh that he is very sick in minde and will not live long for he can scarcely go he eats nothing but grasse and is grown so lean and sad as you cannot know him Why think you said the Druide that it is in his minde I conceive so said she because he speaks after an interrupted manner and so little as it is easie to see that discourse displeaseth him I do believe the love he bears unto Astrea is the cause of it If it be so answered Adamas he is the more like unto his Father for Alcippe was once so very much transported with his love unto Amarillis that I did never in all my life see one commit greater follies and therefore it was that he left a Country-life for the Court and continued long in the exercises of Chivalry Is it lawfull for them said Leonida thus to change their quality Child said the Druide neither Celadon nor any of these shepheards about the banks of Lignon nor most of those about the Loire and Furan are of a worse extraction then you your selfe are you must know that their Ancestours made choice of this kinde of life as most sweet and least subject unto inquietudes Indeed this Celadon of whom you speak is your neer kinsman For the House of Laigneau and his did branch both out of one stock so as Lindamor and he are your Cosens in the same degree My Grandfather and the great Grandfather of Lindamor and Celadon were Brothers Leonida hearing how neerly they were allied was astonished fearing lest this consanguinity should forbid the banes of her loving him as Love commanded her to do yet lest her Uncle should take any notice of her fears she said unto him That since they were so neerly allyed they were the more obliged to have a care of him and that the
Celadon who in the mean time had leasure to bid adieu unto Lignon and to take his leave of his Woods and of his Cell but especially of the Temple of the goddesse Astrea And when he was tricked up in the habit of a Nymph for so the Druides Daughters of that Country were dressed when they returned from their Monasteries and was ready to depart they thought it expedient to stay till night to the end none might see him come alone and in the mean time Adamas iustructed him what to answer unto each who enquired how the Druides Daughters lived or of their Ceremonies Sacrifices Schooles or Sciences but said he the best way is to speak as little as possibly you can especially before such as are knowing in the affairs of the world as for others it matters not for they will believe any thing you tell them Now the day being almost done they went from that place at the entrance into which Celadon had engraved these Lines with the point of his knife upon a Rock with much paines and time having begun them that very day he resolved first to leave the place for an eternall memory of his being there The Lines were these Within this hollow dark and rocky Cell Disdain and Love a long time both did dwell Before you enter if their wounds you fear Turn back and flie there 's no abiding here For as a Coal is hot though it seem dead After the flame is quite extinguished Even so Disdain and Love though absent be Yet relicks of their fire may leave for thee This businesse was carried on by Adamas with so much prudence that Paris himselfe could not discover any thing resolving to deceive him if he could sooner then any other to the end that he might the better deceive others He therefore took this supposed Alexis for his Sister whom afterwards we will no longer call Celadon As good luck was when Adamas came home Paris was not there and therefore he could not see how she came alone As soon as she came there Adamas got her to bed giving out that she was weary by reason of travell and her sicknesse so as Paris saw her not untill the next morning and Adamas and Leonida would not suffer her to come out of her Chamber whose windowes were so shut that the little light hindred him from discovery what they desired to keep close and they continued thus severall daies Though this Artifice was superfluous because she knew so well how to carry her selfe so that none could suspect her yet this did give her better confidence because in this condition she received the visits of neighbours who went all away in a full beliefe of her being Alexis Some daies passed on in this manner at the last she began to walk up and down the house and to go abroad pretending that the fresh aire would conduce to her health the seituation of the place was very pleasing and delectable having a view both of the Mountaines and Plaines and the pleasant River of Lignon from Boen as far as Feures This was the reason why Pelion the Father of Adamas did chuse that place to build in And since that Adamas had caused a very sumptuous Tombe to be built in memory of his Brother Belizar and planted a pleasant Grove which almost joyned to the house and extended it selfe towards the Mountaines In this place Alexis and Leonida went often to walk because of the pleasant walks and prospect and because they were to walk up a rising Hill in the Woods Alexis would sometimes take Leonida under the arme when they were not seen And one time amongst others when they were up betimes in the morning and Alexis did offer her that service This said the Nymph and smiled is a piece of service which you had rather do unto another who perhaps wishes you not so well as I do Oh Nymph said Alexis and sighed I beseech you for gods-sake not to renew the remembrance of my miseries do you think I can forget them having such a deep resentment of them as I have Thus they discoursed till they were in the Grove which being higher then the House did better discover all the plain so as there was not a turn of the River Lignon from Boen where it fell from the Mountains unto Fcurs where it fell into Loire which they did not easily discover This prospect had such an operation upon the supposed Alexis that she could not chuse but say aloud Oh my sad eyes how can you live and endure the sight of this happy River where you have left all your contentment Leonida desiring to interrupt her I believe said she of all that ever loved you are the only one who does not delight to see the place where you have had so much pleasure The memory of past miseries is pleasing to the thoughts much more should the memory of happinesse received The sad Alexis answered That which renders the memory of miseries past to be pleasing is it which makes the memory of happinesse to be full of intolerable wormwood for the consideration of having past the miseries doth rejoyce and the consideration of having no more happinesse doth make one sad But my greatest grief is that I do not know the occasion of my misery this consideration I swear unto you Leonida does wound me to my very soul I have made a most exact examination of all my life but I cannot finde one act which I can condemn To think that a light humour or any designe of changing her affection were in her is too great an offence and would give the lie unto those convincing testimonies which I have to the contrary To believe that she treats me thus without any reason that would argue in me too little knowledge of her of whose least actions I have had full experience What then can be the cause of my misery Oh ye gods I think that the tongue not being able to expresse the misery nor the thoughts able to comprehend the grandure of it you will not let the understanding have a knowledge of it Then continuing in these sad thoughts Do you see great Nymph said she a little Isle which Lignon makes close by yonder Town which is beyond the River a little neerer Mount Verdun and a little distant from Julicu There it was we passed over by throwing great stones into the water to step upon because at that time we sought out for the most secret places to avoid the sight of our Parents especially my Father who finding no remedy against this affection which he saw encrease before his face he intended to send me out of Gaul over the Alps to see the great Cities thinking that distance and absence would have that operation upon me which all his forbiddings and charges to the contrary could not effect And because we were advertised of it we sought out for the most obscure and unfrequented places that we could finde there to spend that short
finding her afterwards with me brought her this Letter from his Brother which was indited by my advice The Letter of Lycidas unto Phillis Phillis IT is true that of late I have lodged my love in my heart and would not suffer it to appear either in my eyes or my words If in this I have done amisse then blame your own fair selfe who commanded it And if you do not believe I love you put me to what Test you please and you shall finde it better then by all my weak though reall expressions of words At last wise Diana after many a perswasive argument we brought things to that passe as Lycidas was entertained and ever since all foure of us have found much contentment in our lives and invented many a stratagem to colour our designes both by discourse and by writing one unto another Perhaps you have taken notice of a great Rock in the high way towards Rochell which without much ado cannot be ascended but when one is at the top there is no fear of any eye to discover And because it was neer the high way we made choice of it for our rendevouz if any did meet us we seemed as if we went on in the high-way but when the coast was clear we ascended 'T is true that this Rock being so neer the high way we were in some danger of being heard by passengers if we spoke any thing loud and therefore commonly Lycidas or Phillis were placed as guards to spie when any came And because businesse did sometimes so employ us as we could not every day meet in this place we used to write one to another and we made choice of another place of conveniercy in which we laid our Letters one to another In briefe wise Diana we used all possible waies to conceal our selves and Celadon and I did so seldome converse together in publick as many believed that Celadon's will was wholly changed for assoon as ever he saw Phillis then he made all his applications unto her and she again treated him with all possible complacency Also as soon as Lycidas appeared I left all other company to talk with him so as in a short time Celadon himselfe had a conceit that I loved Lycidas and I believed that he loved Phillis Phillis thought that Lycidas loved me and Lycidas believed that Phillis loved Celadon And thus unawares were we so intangled with these opinions as jealousie began by degrees to kindle amongst us The truth is said Phillis we were then but fresh Schollars in the School of Love for to what purpose was it to conceal a reall love and publish a false one was there not as much cause to fear the divulging of your love to Lycidas as your love to Celadon Sister sister said Astrea when a thing is not we never fear what people think of it But the contrary when it is then the least suspition of it puts all out of order But now continued she and turned to Diana jealousie had so seized upon all foure as I believe our lives had not been long if some good Genius had not inspired us to make all clear in the presence of one another It was now seven or eight daies since we saw each other at our Rocky rendevouz and the Letters which passed 'twixt Celadon and me were so different from the usuall strain as if they were writ by different persons At last as I told you some good Angel having care of us all foure did meet in one place where no other company was And Celadon whose affection had most vigour in it began thus to speak Fair Astrea did I think that time would cure a disease that raignes in me I would wait for that remedje but since I know the older it growes the more it will encrease I am forced to complain against you for the wrongs which you have done me and with more alacritie since I can do it before such Judges as are my peers When he would have gone on Lycidas interrupted him saying that his pain was greater then his Greater said Celadon that 's impossible for mine is extream And mine believe it said Lycidas is without any comparison Whilft the Shepheards were thus debating the matter I was upon Phillis and said Do you see Sister how these Shepheards complain of us Yes answered she but I believe we have greater cause to complain of them Though I am much incensed against Celadon said I unto her yet I am much more incensed against you who under a disguise of friendship which you seemed to bear unto him has drawn him from that affection which he bare unto me so as I may well say you have stollen him from me And because Phillis stood silently amazed at this and knew not what to answer Celadon addressed himselfe unto me and said Ahl fair Shepheardesse but as sickle as fair have you so soon lost the memory of all Celadon's services and your own vowes I cannot so much complain against Lycidas as against you for notwithstanding the consanguinity and amitie betwixt us your perfections might well make him a Traitor and forget his duty but me thinks it should be absolutely impossible that so long a service as mine and such a perfect affection should ever finde the least stain of inconstancy in your soul But admit that all in me was too little to deserve so great a happinesse how can you so far violate and dispence with your vowes as before my eyes to entertain a new affection At the same time Lycidas took Phillis by the hand and with a deep sigh said Oh fair hand to whom I had given up my soul can I live and see thee take possession of any heart but my own my owne I say that did deserve the same happinesse if ever any did deserve it by the most sincere and pure affection that ever was I could not hear any more what Lycidas said because I was constrained to answer Celadon Shepheard Shepheard said I unto him these words Fidelity and Affection are more conversant in your tongue then your heart and I have more reason to complain against you then hearken unto them but because now I do not care for any thing that comes from you I will not take so much pains as grieve at it that office is more fitly yours if your dissembling heart would give you leave to do it But Celadon since things are thus love on love Phillis still and serve her her vertues will deserve it and if I do afford thee a blush it is for anger that I should suffer my selfe to be so grosly deceived and for over-loving one that is so much unworthy of it as thy selfe Celadon was so much astonished at this that he stood stock still a long time could not answer one word which silence gave me leasure to hearken unto that answer which Phillis returned unto Lycidas Lycidas Lycidas said she unto him you that can call me sickle inconstant and I know not what you
interrupted him in this manner Me thinks Lysis said she if Corilas were in such a minde as this paper speaks him he was very ill advised to employ you since your mediation is more like to procure him hatred then love and you rather a messenger of war then peace Stella it 's true answered he he was very ill advised in his choice but if he had shewed as much judgment in the rest of his actions as in this he would not have stood in need of your help he has had tryall of your dissimulations he knowes what force your charmes have and what friend could he have made choice of without the danger of a competitor unlesse my selfe whom you hate even unto death But let us leave this discourse and pray tell me plainly and in good earnest whether or no you will shew him any favour for the truth is I dare not return to him unlesse I carry a good answer with me unto which I do conjure you both by his affection that now is and mine that was Unto this the Shepheard added so many arguments and importunate prayers as the Shepheardesse believed him to be in good earnest and her own naturall disposition did easily encline her to it for it is the custome of such as easily love to believe as easily that they are loved but Lysis at this time could obtain no further from her then that the affection of his cousin for want of his should not be disagreeable unto her but time should advise her farther And since this Lysis has severall waies so solicited her that he got from her as much assurance as he desired and because he was well acquainted with her levitie he obtained from her a promise in writing under her hand and knew so well how to turn her that he obtained of her whatsoever he desired Thus he returned to me and gave me an account of all he had done except of this promise for knowing Stella's humour he alwaies doubted she would deceive him and that if he shewed me this paper it would imbarque me the more and be harder to get me off All this was unknown unto Amintha from whom Stella concealed it more then from any other After I had received so much assurance as I could desire no more and after I had given her all humble and hearty thanks I began by her permission to take orders for the marriage and spake it very freely and openly though Lysis alwaies foretold me that in the end I should be deceived But the very shadow of that good which we desire does so flatter us that we lend but a deaf ear unto any that shall tell us the contrary Whilst this Marriage was preparing and publickly divulged Semires who as I told you discontinued his addresses by reason of Lysis and me he being netled with the discourse which went of him resolved at what rate soever to infinuate himselfe into her favour with a designe to quit her afterwards and make it appear that this separation proceeded from himselfe There needed no great artifice to bring this about for her sickle humour according to its fleeting temper did at the very first assault quit me for Semires as a little before she had quitted Semires for me But for all that the promise which she had given under her hand and which she could not deny did exceedingly stick in her stomack At last the Marriage day being come and I had assembled together all my Parents my Friends and Neighbours I held my selfe so sure as I thought upon nothing but bidding them welcome But she whose thoughts were quite another away when we came to the very point of Marriage she started back and formed excuses far worse then her first at which I was so extreamly offended that I went away without ever bidding her adieu and ever since I held her in such disdain that she could never infinuate her selfe again into my esteem Judge reverend Father whether or no I had good reason to hearken to her and whether those who speak in my disadvantage be not wrongly informed Truly answered Adamas she is a woman that is unworthy of her name and I do wonder since she has deluded so many that any man will ever trust her Nay Sir said Corilas I have not yet told you all for after every one was fallen from her except Lysis all her artifice was how to get the promise which he had out of his hands because she saw that it was a great thorn in her side Therefore with an impudent and dissembling brow she thus spoke unto him Is it possible Lysis said she you should have lost all that affection which you have so often vowed unto me Is there no spark of love yet left in you In me said Lysis no I 'le sooner die Upon this word he went out of the house but she followed him so close as she got hold of his hand and holding it between hers she brought him back in such an amorous posture as any would have judged them to be very loving and though he knew her deluding humour well enough yet could he not chuse but be pleased with her flatteries although he gave no faith unto them and therefore thus said unto her Oh heavens Stella why do you so abuse those favours which the heavens have so prodigally bestowed upon you Did but that fair body contain a soul that had any neer resemblance unto it who could possibly resist it She who knew well enough what charms were in her carresses did use all the artifice of her eyes mouth tongue and all the invention she had to make him melt insomuch as he was almost out of himselfe And at last she came out with these words Lovely Shepheard said she if you be the same Lysis who was once so sweetly affectionate unto me I beseech you hearken unto these words and believe them and if you do finde any cause of complaint I will make it evidently appear that this which you esteem as a second fault was committed only as a remedy for the first which I will repair with all possible and desirable satisfaction These smooth words wrought upon Lysis and did overcome him yet not to shew himselfe so simply weak he answered thus Stella I am so incredulous of all you say as I believe not a syllable and if I knew any thing which would displease you I would do it If you would displease me said the Shepheardesse then come into the house With that intention I will answered he Thus when they were entred into the house and stood neer the fire she began thus Now Shepheard will I unmask the Riddle of all my dissimulations with you and make it most apparent that poor Stella whom you have accounted such a leight huswife is much more constant then you imagine her and will let you plainly see that in satisfaction of those wrongs you have done me that you have reason to confesse them and be sorry But said she upon a
me tell you Hylas that all those reasons which you have instanced for a proof that the loving party ought to be loved again though they be fals yet shall be allowed as good But how can you conclude from them that Tircis ought to betray the amitie of Cleon by beginning a new love of Laonice These are impossibilities and contradictions Impossible because none is obliged unto more then they can do How would you have this Shepheard love when he has no will You laugh Hylas when you heare me say he has none Faith I do so said Hylas I pray what has he done with it He that loves answered Phillis doth give his soul it self all its faculties unto the party loved and so by con equenee his wil is not in his power But this Cleon replyed Hylas being dead has nothing and therefore Tircis ought to to take his own again Ah Hylas Hylas answered Phillis you talke like an ignorant in Love for such gifts as are disposed on by Loves authoritie are for ever irrevocable Pray then said Hylas what is become of this will since the death of Cleon The lesse followes the greater replied Phillis if pleasure be the object of the will if that cease to be a pleasure where 's the will And so it hath followed Cleon if Cleon be not then there is no will for he had never had it but for her But if Cleon be in some certain place as our Druids hold that she is then this will is in her hands so contented in the place where she is that if she her selfe would chase it away she cannot returne it to Tircis as knowing well it would be in vain but it goes into the grave and rests with her beloved Ashes this being so why do you tax the faithful Tircis with ingratitude if it be in his power to love any other Also you do not only require things impossible but also things in themselves contraries for if every one ought to love the party that loves why should he not then love Cleon who never failed him in amitie And as for the recompences which you demand for the Services and Letters which Laonice carried pray let her remember the contentment she received by them and how merry she made herselfe as long as this fallacie lasted who otherwise would have droned out a dull and melancholy life So as if she balance the payment which the service I assure my selfe she will think her selfe very well payed You say Hylas that Tircis deceived her but I say it was no deceipt but a just punishment of love who returned her own blows upon her selfe for her intention was not to serve him but to delude Cleon. Thus Silvander have I briefly answered the false reasons of this Sheapheard and there remaines no more but to make Laonice confesse that she injured Tircis in her unjust pursuing of him which I shall easily do if she will be but pleased to answer me Fair Shepheardesse pray tell me do you love Tircis Shepheardesse answered she all that knowes me knowes I do If he were forced to be absent replyed Phillis and another in the mean time should court you would you not change affection No answered she for I would still hope he would returne If you heard that he would never return said Phillis would you then cease to love him No certainly answered she Then Fair Laonice answered Phillis think it not strange that Tircis who knowes that his Cleon is in heaven that she sees all his actions and rejoyceth in his fidelity should not change the affection he bore unto her nor let this distance of place seperate their loves since all the hindrances of life could never do it Do not beleeve what Hylas said that none ever returnes over the River Acheron many that have been beloved of the gods have both gone and come and who knowes but Cleon who was adorned with so many excellencies of soul may find the same favour from Love Oh Laonice were but your eyes permitted to look upon Divinitie you would see that Cleon to defend her own cause is in this place and whispers these words into my eares which I utter in her defence Then would you confesse that Hylas was in the wrong when he said that Tircis was mad to love her cold ashes Me thinks I see her in the midst of us and in lieu of a fragile body subject unto humane accidents she is cloathed with glorious imortality and chiding Hylas for the blasphemies he had breathed against her What wouldst thou answer Hylas if thy happy Cleon should say thus unto thee Wilt thou offer O thou inconstant wretch to stain my Tircis with thy own insidelity If he did heretofore love me dost thou think it was my Body If thou shouldst answer Yes I would then reply that then he ought to be condemned to love the ashes which I have left in my Coffin as long as they will last For a Lover never ought to retreat from a Love once begun If thou dost confesse that it was my Soul he loved which was my principall part then Oh thou fond and unconstant sinner why should he now change his will since she is now more perfectly glorious than ever she was Otherwise such is the misery of the living I should be jealous I should be vexed and I should be seen by many eyes as I am by his But now I am delivered from such mortall imperfections and am no more capable of any infirmities And wouldst thou Hylas with thy sacrilegious perswasions divert him from me in whom I only lived upon earth and by a most barbarous cruelty endeavour to give me a second death Oh! most horrid to hear These words wise Silvander do make such a Turring sound in my ears as I do believe they will make your heart resent them as well as mine And therefore to let this divinity argue the cause in your soul I will be silent only let me hint thus much unto you that Love is so just as you your selfe ought to stand in awe of his punishing hand if Laonice's pitty rather then Cleon's reasons should move you At this word Phillis made a low congee intimating thereby that she had no more to say in the behalfe of Tircis Laonice offered to answer further but Silvander would not suffer her saying that now she was to hear the sentence which the gods would pronounce by his mouth Then after he had weighed the reasons on both sides he pronounced this Doom The Judgment of Silvander THe principall point in the cause debated before us is to know whether Love can die by the death of the party loved Unto which I say that the Love which is perishable is not right Love for it ought to follow the subject which gave it life and therefore those who love only the Body ought to enclose their love of that body in the same Coffin where it is but such as love the Soul ought with their love to flie
was a hundred miles out of my memorie Nothing troubled me so much as when I was far from them both for then I grieved for both Thus generous Paris did I spend my time till I came to Vienna where being in our lodging for we landed every night at some good Town or other a Shepheardesse came and desired the Master of the Ship or Boat to give her room in it as far as Lyons pretending that her Husband had been wounded in the Warres and had sent for her The Master of the Boat being very civill did very kindly receive her and so the next morning she went into the Boat with us She was fair and so modest and discreet as she was no lesse commendable for her vertue than her beauty but so sad and melancholly as she moved all the company to pitty her And I being ever very compassionate towards the afflicted I did amongst the rest extreamly pitty her also and cheered her up as much as possibly I could at which Floriante was nothing pleased nor Aymea neither Now generous Paris you must consider that though a woman do put a fained glosse upon it yet she cannot for her life choose but resent the losse of any Lover as thinking it an affront unto her beauty and beauty being a thing most deer unto that Sex it is the most sensible thing that is in them However I that began to blend a little Love with my compassion not seeming to regard these two Shepheardesses did continue on my discourse unto this and amongst otherthings to the end we should not let down discourse and also to have more acquaintance with her I did intreat her to tell me the occasion of her sadnesse and she being fluent in courtesie began thus The compassion which you seem to have of my griefe obligeth me courteous Shepheard to give you that satisfaction which you desire and I should think it a great crime to refuse so small a thing But yet I do beseech you to consider the condition I am in and excuse me if I do abbreviate my discourse into as little room as possibly I can Know then Shepheard that I was born upon the coast of the River Loire where I have been educated with as much tender care as possibly one of my quality could be untill the fifteenth year of my age My name is Cloris my Father's Leonces Brother to Gerestan into whose hands I was transferred after the death of my Father and Mother And here I began to resent the blowes of fortune for my Uncle having more care of his own Children than of me did think himselfe overcharged with me All the comfort I had was in his Wife whose name was Callirea for she loved me and furnished me with all things that I wanted unknown to her Husband But the heavens had decreed to afflict me for when Filander Callirea's Brother was killed she took his death so sadly that within a few daies after she died and I was left with her two Daughters so young as could afford me no contentment It happened that a Shepheard of the Province of Viennoise called Rosidon came to visit the Temple of Hercules which is upon the coast of Furan seated upon a high Rock which elevates its head above all the rest of the Mountains That day on which he came thither was a day of great solemnitie and many Shepheards and Shepheardesses were there also It would be impertinent to relate all passages and the manner how he declared his Love unto me but so it was that ever since that day he has so devoted himselfe to me as he became wholly mine He was young and handsome and as for his Estate it was much better than ever I could hope for Moreover his Spirit and his Body were so resemblant and sutable as did make up a most perfect composure His courtship continued four years in all which time I cannot say he ever did or thought any thing which he did not render me an account of and asked my advice This extream submission and long continuance did assure me of his Love and merits and obliged me to love him extreamly We lived and loved thus above a year in as much perfect amitie as could possibly be between two Lovers and at last our joyes were compleated in our Marriage Now were we as happy as Mortalls could be conducted we were to the Temple the Songs of Hymen did sound on all sides and being returned to our lodgings nothing was to be heard but Instruments of joy and when we were in the height of felicity we were separated by the most averse fate that ever chanced unto any We were then at Vienna where the greatest part of Rosidor's Estate did lie It hapned that some debauched young fellowes of those Townes about Lyons where our Druides use to keep the missltoe which they got in the great Forrest of Mars would needs commit some disorders which my Husband could not brook but after some gentle disswasions did hinder them in the execution at which they were so incensed that thinking they could not anger Rosidor worse then to affront me one of them offered to throw a glasse of Inke in my face but I seeing the blow coming turned aside my head so as I had none of it light upon me but in my neck the marks whereof are yet very fresh My Husband seeing my breast full of Inke and blood did think that I was wounded and therefore drew his sword and ran it through the body of him that gave me this affront and afterwards with the help of some friends did drive them away Judge Shepheard how much I was troubled for I thought my selfe worse wounded than I was and when I saw my husband all bloody with a wound which he received on his shoulder But after this first fray was parted and his wound searched he had no sooner dressed himselfe but Officers came to seize upon him and carried him away with such violence that they would not permit me so much as to bid him adieu but my affection was so much above their denyall that I did come unto him and held him about the neck so fast that they could hardly pull me off On the other side he seeing me in this condition and chusing rather to die than to part from me did so shew both his love and courage that though wounded yet he broke from them and got out of the Town This kept him from an Imprisonment but it made his cause worse in the eye of Justice which caused severall Proclamations to issue out against him During all which time his greatest griefe was that he could not be with me and his desire of seeing me being very great he disguised himselfe and in the night came unto me and there stayed God knowes how great my joyes were and also how great my fears for I knew that his pursuers knowing his love to me would have all eyes about the house and do all they could possible to
high rank Amasis and Clidaman caused him with much griefe to be carried off the field and dressed with all possible care insomuch as they began to be in some hopes of his life Every one was extreamly desirous to know who this unknown Knight was whose courage and valour had got him the esteem of very many Galathea was the only person that had an ill opinion of him for this proud Beauty remembred the offence and forgot the courtesie and because it was to me only that she used to vent her most secret thoughts assoon as she saw me in private with her Do you know this discourteous Knight said she unto me unto whom Fortune and not his Valour hath given the advantage of the Combat Madam said I I do know him to be both a valiant and a courteous Knight He has not shew'd it in this action said she for if he had he would have left fighting at my first request Madam answered I you do blame him for that which you ought to esteem him for since in doing honour unto you he thereby was in danger of his life But said she he would not leave sighting when I desired him Had he not all the reason in the world said I unto her to chastise the base act of Polemas who would not first ceafe for my part I think he did very well and Lindamor could not in honour do less then he did How said she was it Lindamor who fought The truth is I was sorry that I had unawares named him but seeing it was out I thought best to tell her Yes Madam said I it was Lindamor who being offended at the report of Polemas would try the truth of them by Armes She was extreamly astonished at it and after she had awhile considered upon this accident she said thus unto me Then I see it is Lindamor who hath done me this discourtesie that is so shallow in his respects unto me Was he so inconsiderate as to put my Honour to the hazard of Fortune and Armes Upon this she was silent and extreamly vexed And I who would by any means make her know that Lindamor was in no fault did thus answer her Is it possible Madam that you should thus complain against Lindamor and not see the wrong you do your selfe What discourtesy has he done you Has he not vanquished Polemas your enemy How my enemy said she Lindamor is much more for he gave Polemas the first cause Oh heavens Madam said I then unto her what do you mean Lindamor more your enemy who has no soul but to adore you nor one drop of blood that he would not spend in your service And can he be more your friend who by his subtle discourse endeavours to stain your honour But Leonida replied she Who knowes whether Lindamor out of his accustomed arrogance and pride did not speak those words wherwith Polemas did tax him But Madam answered I how much are you obliged unto Lindamor for making your enemy confesse that he did invent them Oh Madam I beseech you pardon me if I do accuse you of great ingratitude when Lindamor hazzards his life to make it appear Polemas lyed You accuse him of inconsideration and his making the Lyar to confesse his Lye you tax him with discourtesie Had he not taken himselfe to Armes how should the truth ever have appeared and had he left fighting when first you commanded him Polemas had then never confessed what you and every one heard Ah poor Lindamor how I pitty thy fortune What canst thou possibly do to please since the most signal services are looked upon as offences and crimes Well well Madam perhaps you will not have long to use these cruelties for I beleeve death more pittifull than you will put an end unto your ingratitude and his torments and may be at this very hour he is dead which if he be then the Nimph Galathea is the cause of it Why do you accuse me said she Because replied I when you went to part them and fell upon the ground he helped you up and in the mean while the courteous Polemas whom you extol so highly did most basely wound him in two or three places and I saw Lindamors blood run upon the ground after it but if he doe die upon it it is the least evil he hath received from you for to be scorned after so much duty is me-thinks a misery never equalled But Madam I pray remember the time was you said there was no way to stop these reports of Polemas but by sword and blood He has done what you deemed the best and yet you must needs tax him for doing ill Had not Sylvia and some other Nymphs interrupted us I beleeve I should have somewhat tempered the animosity of this Nymph But seeing so much company coming in we changed discourse yet my words were not without their effect though she would not make it appear unto me but yet I saw it by a thousand symptomes For since that day I resolved to speak unto her no more unless she first asked me She on the other side expected that I should begin And thus eight dayes passed and not a word passed betwixt us of this business In the mean time Lindamor was not without his cares to know what reports went of him at Court and what Galathea thought He sent Flurial unto me upon the same business and to bring me a short Letter And Flurial was so ingenuous that he did his business and Galathea never took any notice of it The Letter was this Lindamor 's Letter unto Leonida Madam THose that do doubt of my innocency are no small offenders against truth Yet as some that shut their eyes and will not see the light though never so resplendent so I am afraid Madam that Galathea to my grief does shut her eyes against the clearness of my cause Oblige me I beseech you in assuring her that if the blood of my enemy will not wash away the stain that he hath put upon me I will most freely adde my own for I value not my life since she does not I enquired very particularly of Flurial how he did and whether any knew him I understood he had lost much blood and that did most retard his cure but that he was not in any danger I perceived he could not be known because his Herald was a Frank of Merovia's Army far off and those about were not permitted to stir out of the house And that Flurials Aunt knew no more of him but that he was the unknown Knight that fought with Polemas whose valour and bounty made them all very diligent about him Also that he had commanded Flurial to come and know of me how reports went at Court and what he should do I commanded him to tell Lindamor that all the Court was full of his valour though he was unknown that he should rest himselfe and have a care of his cure and that I would study his contentment as much as I
Amasis the most honoured by all the Country never considering that Love useth not to measure by the Ell of Ambition or Merit but by opinion only Silvander whose education in the Phocencian and Massellian Universities had compleatly civilized though the meeting of Paris was but halfe pleasing to him yet he turned to the Nymph and him to salute them I need not ask you said Leonida unto him and smiled what thoughts entertained you in this solitary place for I am sure that Diana was the chiefe But I would gladly know why you do prefer the thoughts before the fight of her and what occasions does invite you from her presence I will not deny Madam said he unto her but that those pleasing thoughts whereof you speak were my deer companions as well in this place as every where else when I am absent from Diana But that I should think them more deer unto me then the sight of her give me leave to tell you that though it ought to be so yet I have not obtained so much Mastery of my selfe and though you now see me without her it is only to passe away more sweetly in contemplation those houres which her râ—past does constrain me to be absent from her And indeed I was just now going unto her at the field of Mercury for now 's the time she useth to be there in her way to Astrea and my intention was to wait upon her And we answered Leonida came with resolutions to spend the remainder of this day with those fair Shepheardesses and therefore I beseech you Shepheard conduct us thither and by the way tell us why the thoughts of her you adore ought to be more dear unto you then her presence which is the first cause of them For my part I conceive it so discordant to reason that I cannot imagine how it should be Silvander in obedience to her commands shewing a Path-way which was a nearer cut thorough a great Meadow began thus to reply The question Great Nymph is of no such great difficulty to be understood if it be but taken as it ought for it is most certain that the eyes are the doores by which Love first enters into our soules If any doe fall in love upon report of beauty and perfection of absent parties that is either a love not lasting nor violent being rather a shaddow than any real love or else the soul which received it had some grand defect in it self for reports having commonly as many falsehoods as truths that judgement which builds upon any such uncertain foundation cannot bee found nor proceed from a well-tempered soul but as that which produceth a thing is not the same which gives it nutriment and makes it grow up to perfection so it may be rightly said of Love Our Ewes bring forth their Lambs who at first doe seek a little nutriment from their Milk yet it is not that Milk which brings them up unto perfection but it is a more solid nutriment which they receive from the grasse which they feed upon So likewise the eyes may conceive and produce a green infant-affection but there must be something more solid and substantial to make it grow unto perfection and that must be by a knowledge of the virtues beauties merits and a reciprocal affection of the party loved Now this knowledge does take its originall indeed from the eyes but it must bee the soul which must afterwards bring it to the rest of judgement and by the testimonies both of eyes and eares and all other considerations concoct a verity and so ground upon it If this verity bee to our advantage then it produceth in us such thoughts whose sweetnesse cannot be equalled by another kinde of contentment than the effects of the same thoughts If it be onely advantageous to the party loved then doubtlesse it doth augment our affection but yet with violence and inquietude and therefore no question but absence doth augment love so it bee not so long as that the very image of the party loved be quite effaced Whether it be that an absent Lover never represents unto his fancy but onely the perfections of the person loved or whether it bee that the understanding being already wounded will not fancy any thing but what pleaseth it or whether it be that the very thought of such things does adde much unto the perfections of the party loved Yet this is infallibly true that he does not truly love whose affection does not augment in absence from the person loved For my part answered Leonida My judgement is much different from yours and I have ever been of opinion that absence is the greatest and most dangerous enemy which Love hath Presence replied the Shepheard is without comparison much more as wee may see by dayly experience for you shall find a hundred loves that change in presence for one in absence and to demonstrate that presence is more enemy unto love consider that if one absent cease loving its cessation iâ— without any violence of strugling and the change is onely because the memory is by degrees smothered with oblivion as a fire is with its own ashes but when love breaks off in presence it is never without a noise and extream violence and which is a strange argument â—o prove my assertion converts that love into a greater hatred than if the love had never beâ—n And that proceeds from this reason A lover is alwaies either loved or hated or held in a degre of indifferency if he be loved as abundance is apt to glut so love being loaden in presence with too many favours grows weary If hee be hated then hee meets with so many demonstrations of that hate every minute as at length he is forced to ease himself If hee be in a degree of indifferency and finds his love still slighted he will at length if he be a man of any courage make a retreate and resist the continuall affronts which are put upon him whereas in absence all favours received cannot by their abundance glut since they do rather set an edge upon desire And the knowledge of hatred entring into our souls onely by the ear the blow smarts not so much as that which is received by sight and likewise disdain and slight bee much more tolerable in absence than in presence doubtlesse therefore absence is much more fit to preserve affection than presence is I must needs confesse answered the Nymph that there happens many accidents in presence which destroyes love that absence is exempted from But for all that you cannot perswade me but that I must needs think the sight of the party loved does augment love much more than by not seeing her for carresses and favours are the food of love and those which are conferred in presence are far greater and more sensibly obliging than any others I thought Madam answered the Shepheard that I had already sufficiently answered your demand but since it is your pleasure to desire more clear reasons I
shall endeavour to give them It hath already been said that Love doth first begin at the eyes but it is not the eyes that doth nourish it Beauty and goodnesse without any more give it a growth in us when they are once known Now the knowledge of this Beauty indeed comes first by the eyes but when that knowledge is once in our souls wee may love afterwards without the help of eyes which you will easily grant if ever you were in love Consider and tell mee would you lose your love if you lost your eyes No certainly and therefore you must needs confesse it is not your eyes which does preserve your love As for the knowledge of goodness it is produced either by actions or by words both which doe stand in need of presence to be first known but afterwards not at all for that knowledge is afterwards preserved in the secret Cabinet of the memory whereupon a soul does afterwards sufficiently feed Then I beleeve you know Madam that the more knowledge one hath of the party loved the more doth love encrease but then it is apparent that the turbulent motion of the senses doe infinitely hinder the clearnesse of the understanding and as the plummets of a Clock the one cannot ascend unlesse the other doe descend so when the senses are up the understanding part must needs bee down and so the contrary when the senses are absent the Intellectuals are best present and does work more perfectly than they would if they were disturbed by any objects of the eye which is able to doe nothing else but look and desire and sigh If you would think seriously upon any matter has not wise Nature taught you to put your hand upon your eyes to the end that the sight should not divert the understanding another way And therefore hence you must needs conclude with me in my argument and confess that Love digests it self better in absence than in presence But if it be so said Paris how comes it to passe that all Lovers should so passionately desire the sight of them they love It proceeds from ignorance answered Silvander He cannot attribute unto himselfe the name of a Lover who thinkes his love so great that it is impossible it should augment If any be of that opinion he will never seeke after any means to increase it nor bee in any quest of further knowledge but rests himselfe contented with as much onely as his eye can afford him without any deeper contemplation But O great Nymph what a vast difference there is betwixt a love that is nourished by the eyes and a love that is nourished by the understanding As much doubtless as the soul is superiour to the body so much is the understanding to be preferred before the eyes And absence in such is so far from diminishing love that it augments and begets fresh and violent desires to augment it and contemplation of a Beauty does imprint it deeper into the fancy than any eye can If it be so said Paris I wonder you doe not absent your selfe from Diana to the end you may the more love her I told you before answered Silvander that I ought to doe so but that I have not yet obtained so much mastery over my self for generous Paris we are all but men I mean all imperfect and the imperfections of humanity are not upon a sudden removed We are all sensitively inclined and love to see tast smell and touch and must needs hanker after these corporal senses This is the point unto which I have not yet arrived and unto which I ought Reason will forbid such considerations and bid us act all by the intellectual faculties Nature bestowed the senses upon us onely for instruments by which the soul may receive the knowledge of things but not to be our companions in the pleasures and felicities of them as being altogether incapable of so great a good This discourse had continued longer if they had not by chance heard Phillis sing neare the field of Mercury Shee was sitting with another Shepheardesse under a shady tree looking upon their Flocks as they were feeding untill the heat of the day was over As soon as Silvander heard her tone hee turned his head that way and knowing them hee turned his head again so suddenly that Leonida could not chuse but smile What doe you hear and see said she which causeth you to turn your head so quickly away I have seen Madam said he her whom I never see without sorrow Phillis I meane the most cruel of my enemies since she is the cause of my servitude At the very same time Lycidas was walking the same way and was upon them before he was aware Jealousie which made him fly all company made him shun Silvander more than any other but now Civility constrained him to salute Leonida and Paris and being invited to follow them though at first he would have desired their pardon with some frivolous excuses But Leonida who loved him for Celadous sake was so importunate with him that he was forced to make one in the company And Paris who was very desirous to know where Diana was did ask him if he knew who it was that was with Phillis under that shady Tree Lycidas who had not yet taken notice of them looked and then answered that it was Astrea Then going on their way Leonida resumed the discourse which she had begun with Silvander And why Shepheard said she unto him are you so offended against that Shepheardess for though shee be the cause of your love yet is shee also the cause of your becoming a more accomplished man And I beleeve you will confess that love is able to adde much ornament unto our soules and if it be so you are rather much obliged unto her I must needs confesse answered Silvander that I believe without Phillis I had not fallen in love but I must tell you withall that she is the cause that I have lost my liberty and am lesse my own than hers whom I adore And I must also tell you that liberty is of so high a price that I am not so much obliged to her for making me more accomplished as I am disobliged to her for the losse of my dear and desirable freedom But added the Nymph by her means you may perhaps obtain the affection of her whom you adore and love And a well born soul as yours is will set such a value upon that be it at any rate whatsoever as he cannot complain against her who is the cause of it A well born and generous soul replyed he will not upon any termes thank her who is the cause of her servitude for servitude be it in what degree it will is still servitude At the first when Lycidas heard Phillis named he stood still with much attention but after he had heard all the discourse and replyes of Silvander he did beleeve that he really loved her and not being able to hide his Jealousie as
this affection to her but it was heaven that forced mee to love her whether I would or no. For I did often absent my self from her and opposed all manner of arguments that reason could suggest against it but that did rather augment than diminish my affection which in the end grew to a most extreame height About this time Calidon returned out of the Boyen Province and was some eighteen years of age or thereabouts He was taller than usually that age allows any handsomly proportioned his complexion for a brown extreamly fair his mind his garb and his discourse was higher than perhaps his quality required but yet not at all proud nor vain-glorious I must confesse that when I saw him so much improved I loved him better than I did before For before I did love him onely in consideration of Consanguinity and upon the recommendation of my Uncle but when I found him to be so amiable so extreamly well accomplished and every way so well improved that I having neither Wife nor Child or then intending to marry resolved to make him my Heir after my death unto all my estate which perhaps was not very inconsiderable And to oblige him unto a reciprocal good will unto me I declared as much unto all my Kindred and Neighbours Now because I did foresee that dwelling in my house it was almost impossible but he should fall in love with the fair Celidea I gave him a most strict charge to look upon her onely with the eyes of a Brother and not of a Lover He protested with a thousand asseverations and oaths that he would obey me in this and all things else and would not doe any thing in the world that should displease me Yet before the Moon had run a full course he was charmed with Celidea and not daring to declare it unto her or me or any else after he had languished a while hee was forced to keep his bed his eyes shrunk into his head his complexion grown yellow and grown so lean and altered as he was not knowable I brought the most knowing and experienced Physicians in all the Country unto him If Fame cryed up any man I spared neither cost nor pains till I got him I caused Sacrifices to be offered upon every Altar of the Country to appease Tautates Hesus Tharamis and Belinus if Calidon by chance had offended them I sent to enquire of every Oracle and Augurer I sent for all the Bardi to come and pray with him I sent also for the best Musicians to try if Musick would allay the Melancholly which oppressed his soul To bee short there was not one sage Sarronide which at my request did not come to visit him and give him wise precepts against grief and sorrow But all these had no operation nor could all the teares which I shed by his beds side get him to tell me the cause of his disease Thus languishing in this manner and no remedies could doe any good upon him there was an old Physician a friend of mine who hearing of my sorrows for Calidon came unto me to comfort me in my affliction and after as good and wise advice as any humane Prudence could give hee bade me resign Calidon and my own will into the hands of Tautates and to believe that if I did it unfeignedly I should receive more comfort than I could from all men living When he was ready to goe away he desired to see Calidon We went both into his chamber he fell into talk with him and considered him very seriously he felt his pulse observed his actions and gestures turned him every way to finde out his disease And after hee had been two hours with him Young man said hee unto him chear up and bee assured that you shall not dye of this disease I have found out the cause and I have known many sick of the same but never knew one dye of it Then going out of the Chamber he took me aside and said thus unto me The age I have attained unto is great and though I have not employed all my time very well yet not all unprofitably I have studyed the art of Physick very long and have attained unto no meane reputation I have been employed by many of the best quality amongst the Boyens the Seguanonans and the Allobrogians Long experience have I had in my Art which makes me speak with more assurance than any that is younger than my self can Let me tell you that Calidons disease proceeds not from the body but the mind and if his body be sick it is because of the near union it hath to his sick mind which makes it resent the pain as if it were its own as we see one friend sensible of the pain of another And though these kinde of maladies be very painfull yet are they not so dangerous as those of the body for the mind is not subject to corruption or dissolution of parts but onely to change its quality I tell you this that you may not despair of the young mans cure whose Malady I think I have very rightly discovered And by all symptomes I finde that he is extreame passionately in Love and is either sleighted or else dares not declare it As soon as ever the Physician said so I presently apprehended that certainly it was with the fair Celidea and because of my forbidding him hee durst not speak of it When the Physician perceived me sad in lieu of rejoycing at the matter hee asked mee the reason to whom I answered that I was more in fear of him than ever because his malady was without the compasse of my cure and he might love one I had no power over or else a stranger or perhaps some enemy and therefore I saw no reason to rejoice There is a remedy said he against any thing but death and therefore never fear but I shall keep Calidon alive and if you will please to give me leave to be with him a few dayes I shall discover well enough whether he be in love with any that has any dependance upon you or with a stranger You cannot hope said I unto him ever to get it from his own mouth No no said he that 's not the way but fear not I shall bring it about Matters of Love be they never so close may easily be discovered if prudent artifice be used But great Nymph I should be extreamly tedious if I should relate every trivial passage therefore for brevities sake I shall onely tell you that this Physician was for seven or eight daies never from Calidons bed side In the mean time he advised me to get all the young Shepheardesses in the neighbourhood to come and see him under pretence of sorrow for his sicknesse As for the Physician hee was alwaies holding him by the arme and felt his Pulse to know when any caused an extraordinary motion in him So it was that Celidea at that time was gone a journey with Cleontine and stayed away
Palinice and her modesty was such as would have given a check unto any but Hylas from moving any matters of Love unto her Yet before the third visit was paid he acquainted her with his minde and was as familiar as if he had been brought up with her from his cradle You have fair one said he unto her at the very first accost preserved my life and good reason it should be imployed in your service and I will do it though only out of gratitude And not to detract from your first favour which you have done me I beseech you accept this offer of my service and believe that there is no person upon earth that can love you better then I nor whose heart is swell'd with more affection My Companion who was unaccustomed to any such expressions did at the first answer him very coldly but seeing he persisted she grew angry and would not suffer him to use any such language At the last when by his continuall visits she found his humour she did nothing but laugh at him which did not offend him at all for he had this good quality that as he was free with every one so he allowed every one to be free with him However his Love did so increase that my companion did grow weary of him not but that Hylas is certainly a man of much merit and is owner of many qualities which deserve Love but she being a Widow and not intending to marry this courtship could not but be very disadvantageous to her It seemes that the Heavens had pitty upon Palinice and at the same time sent her a Companion and presently after that another to help her to support a burthen so heavie Palinice had a Brother who had been long a devoted Servant unto Cercenea my companion who now sits next me And respect being most in the hearts of those that love most Clorian for that was the name of Palinice's brother had not yet the confidence to acquaint the fair Circenâ—a with his affection She on the other side was yet too young to discover it by his actions so as Clorian loved and in vain because his love was not known Hylas in the mean time continued his frequent visits unto Palinice and as he said himselfe it being one of Loves chief precepts to get the favour of the kindred friends and servants of the party loved he courted the friendship of Clorian with all obsequious offers he could make which was no difficulty to obtain because the young man was all civility and sweetnesse and had an affection to get the love of all But Hylas being more subtle and crafty as being older and having travelled he faigned what Clorian did in good earnest so as he was only a superficiall friend whilst the other loved him as his Brother and the ensuing story will make this appear For Clorian's affection unto Cercenea daily augmenting and not daring to make it known unto her Hylas took notice of it Cercenea took a journey to see her Father who was sick in a Town within the Country of the Sebusians towards the Allobrogians by reason whereof Cercenea was long absent from our Town and consequently from Clorian And because as I have heard say there is no greater comfort to a true Lover then to think often of the party Loved Clorian did often retire himselfe into a house which he had in that Town that stood upon the top of a hill towards the Sebusians From this place might be viewed the Rosne on one side and Arar on the other and one might also see the Forrest of Mars called 〈◊〉 and if the tops of high Trees did not obstruct the eye questionless it might see further from thence then any other place When he turned towards the Temple of Venus Iâ— might see as far as the Segusian Mountains when he looked towards Arar he might behold the 〈◊〉 and when towards the Rosne he might see as far as the huge hills of 〈◊〉 beyond the plains of the Sebusians And certainly it was a most lovly prospect every way It was to this place whither Clorian did commonly retire himselfe and looking towards the Sebusian plains did ravish himselfe with thoughts of his fair Cercenea It hapned that Hylas being very familiar with him and not finding him in the house he made no question but he was gon unto this Mount and being jealous that his Companion was in Love for he knew that this solitude and melancholly musing could proceed from no other cause he went up the stairs as softly as he could and finding the dore halfe open he saw him looking out of that window towards the Sebusians so ravished in his own thoughts that he could not hear it thunder and therefore could not hear the noise which Hylas made in opening the dore and entring but he himselfe spoke so loud that Hylas could hear these words A Discourse unto the Winde MIld Zephyrus that wantonly Amongst all fragrant flowers doth file Filching from them that sweetest are Thou dost by theft perfume the Air. If ever pitty did thee move Waft o're these plaines unto my Love And blow my thoughts into that breast Where they can only finde a rest But carry with thee on thy wing Those amorous Sighs I sadly sing Tel her in this my sad restraint She is my fair and only Saint Those lovely Twins her lips will yield Odors more sweet then all the field But when thou thus perfumed art Return and let me have a part Have I taken you Clorian said Hylas taking him about the neck and kissing him I must confesse you are the closest Lover that e're I knew yet you cannot hide your selfe from me No more I will not said Clorian after a little considering with himselfe for neither at this time nor any other will I ever hide any thing from you I am satisfied almost said Hylas upon condition you will ingenuously confesse what I do already know What is it replied Clorian which you desire to know of me I will not ask said Hylas what your malady is but only from whence it proceeds Oh Hylas said he and sighed you need not ask me who the cause is But I would to the gods you could as easily give me any comfort as I can freely satisfie your curiosity So sitting down upon a Couch he told him of his affection and how the love he bare unto Cercenea was so great as he durst never acquaint her with it When Hylas heard the name of Cercenea he thought he had heard of it before though he could not well remember when or where and therefore he asked him which of all those he had seen was she Since you do not know her name answered Clorian I believe you never saw her for her beauty is such that it is impossible you should see her and not enquire her name and make you remember her But when I calculate the time of your comming unto this Town I believe you never saw her I came said
be no interruption he would not return an answer And Hylas seeing him silent after he had shook his head he fell into the discourse from which he had digressed See now said he the issue of these Loves the frequent conversation which I had with Dorinde began to encrease my love unto her the more And in as much as the conferring of one favour drawes on another that is greater so she did every day give me cleerer evidences of her love which was a cause that our Letters began to alter style and became more affectionate and passionate then usuall This was a reason why I gave them unto Florice but seldome and then only those which had fewest expressions of affection and craftily kept the rest to my selfe Thus I lived for a while in a sea of delights being welcome unto both but it was too high to hold and this happinesse did not last long For it hapned one day that as I pulled some things out of my pocket in the presence of Florice and other company she espied two or three little Letters lapped up after the very same manner as Dorinde's were which I had given unto her She began presently to suspect the truth and many daies passing and I not giving them unto her she concluded her selfe to be deluded and resolved to steal them from me and because I took no notice she easily got them out of my pocket whilst I was talking unto others who did what they could to abuse me and give her a better opportunity to play the thief thinking she did it only to make me seek them She took them out so dexterously that I perceived not she went away immediately and was no sooner come unto her lodging but locking her selfe up in her closet she threw them all upon the Table and found five some very freshly written and others of a longer date The first she took which was last writ contained these words Dorinde's Letter unto Hylas I Have here sent you the picture which you desired of me not to make you lose the person whom you have wone as heretofore you did with the like-present but to assure you that you have as much power over her that sent it as you have of the Picture when it is in your hands If it were permitted me I should be as often with you as it is and though it be in that more happy then I am yet it is less in not knowing the happiness it enjoyes which I should esteem infinitely above my life Then throwing this Letter upon the Table with an angry look and pushing away the rest further from her she went back a pace or two Then folding her armes and lifting up her eyes Oh heavens said she can this possibly be true Hast then betrayed me Hylas Couldst thou so long fool me and I never see thy treason Then standing silent a long while at last she struck both her hands upon the Table and said Well Traitor thou shalt not passe unpunished I will discover thee unto her whom thou hast betrayed as well as me and perhaps we shall both grow a little wiser by thy follies She had no sooner fixed upon this resolution but she lapt up all her Letters and went to Dorinde and desired her to go into her Closet and then shutting the dore Sweet cosen said she unto her I am come to manifest my affection unto you but upon condition that when I have discovered a secret unto you that you do prudently conceal it I know that Hylas hath long courted you and that you have long thought he loved you but I come now out of my true affection to you to undeceive you and to let you see that he hath deceived you Upon this Dorinde blush'd and seemed a little shie No no said Florice do not think Cosen to hide that which I do know better then your selfe I say better for you only know your own intentions and not his but I do know both If you do said Dorinde I must confesse you to be very knowing but what I beseech you do you know of mine I know said she that you do love him and sent him your picture and receives all his addresses Dorinde being touched to the quick she had not so much impudence as to deny it but looked down and blushed more holding her hands before her face for shame Do not vex Dorinde said she that these things should be thus known but rather rejoyce they are fallen into my hands not anothers who lesse loves you if you love your own honour withdraw your affection for the 〈◊〉 from this man who courts you only to get such favours from you as he brags of There hath been heretofore some familiarity betwixt him and me and that is the reason which you have reason to be glad of that he hath addressed himselfe unto me I do not think you ever spoke one syllable unto him which he hath not told me and because it would be too long to repeat them see here most of the Letters you have written unto him which you may do well to burn lest he should make use of them hereafter to your disadvantage Dorinde both seeing and knowing them she did ingenuously confesse that she did believe I loved her and therefore thought her selfe obliged unto what she did but for the future she would hate me a thousand times more then ever she loved me She thought her selfe infinitely obliged unto Florice for this discovery and commended her for the best friend in the world Then both of them began to inveigh against me with all possible bitternesse especially Dorinde who thought her selfe the most offended Florice having revenged her selfe upon me according to her desires returned unto her lodging fully resolved never to love me again no nor ever to see me again if it were possible But when the heat of her anger was a little cooled and when she began to recall into her memory the discourse which Dorinde and she had she remembered that what affection soever I had unto Dorinde yet I had never acquainted her with the affection I had unto Florice nor of any favour I ever received from her concluding from hence that I loved her more then I did Dorinde so as she began to repent of what she had don for she did believe that if I 〈◊〉 discoursed any thing concerning her she should certainly have heard of it upon this occasion The more this came into her minde the more she repented of her too much haste or said she what though he did visit her I my selfe was the cause If he did court her I did command him so to do If he did love her it was because she was amiable If he did receive her favours it was the better to cloak that affection which he bore unto me And the truth is being young very few of his age would have refused such a fortune If he did dissemble with me and not shewe me how much he was favoured
it was impossible but some occasions would present themselves which would fit her purpose and in order to that she courted me and followed me as close as my own shadow She having a most notable piercing wit which would dive into the very thoughts of persons she found that Thersander did love me I say this same Thersander whom you see here with me It is requisite sage Shepheardesses that I acquaint you with his condition as for his person you see what it is Be pleased to know therefore that his Father following mine in all his martiall expeditions they were both killed the same day Thierres dyed And this Thersander being brought up of a child in my Fathers house he conceived such affection to me as the difference of our qualities could not restrain him from looking upon me otherwise then he ought and perhaps I might ignorantly be the cause of it for the great inequality betwixt us made me receive his services not as a Lover but as a domestick But Love who is blinde did make him entertain such thoughts as were far from any grounds of reason yet Leriana who was far more subtle then I having cast her eyes upon him and found out his intentions she thought him a fit subject for a begining of her revenge She knew very well that amongst all the bitters of Love there is none so sharp as that of jealousie nor so easily infused into a soule that loves well she began therefore to insinuate her selfe into familiarity with him expressing much good-will unto him offering him all the assistance that lay in her power and briefly did by degrees get him access unto me and opportunities to speak with me But finding that his modesty would not permit him to declare his affection unto me she resolved to infuse more courage into him And in order to that one day when they were together after some far-off discourse to be a prologue unto the main businesse she told him that she and I had often wondered he should never make choice of any Mistress and that I should say I could not imagine the cause that it could not be for want of will for his age would not permit that and therefore it must needs be want of courage though if he did set himselfe out he might get the favour of the fairest Lady in all the Court and therefore that I could see nothing but that or that he thought none worthy of him Thersander who believed her and who was touched to the very soul Alas alas said he both my Lady and you have but ill observed my actions since you have not found out my follies Alas I do love and do love in such a place that it is better for me to sit still in silence then declare it in any hopes of obtaining Slie Leriana knowing his meaning very well yet seeming not to understand him did still turn and winde her discourse so as she got out of him the name of Mandonthe but with so many excuses as she saw it very requisite to continue her designe in infusing more courage into him and therefore she told him That she saw no such inequality betwixt me and him but that he might very well go on that though Fortune did not favour him with any great Estate nor could derive his Pedigree from any great Ancestours yet his vertues did supply those defects and made him equall to me in merit All this she told him to make him the more confident of himselfe and much more which she invented as That she knew by my words that I did very much esteem him nay love him and was weary of Damon for his sake and would often say unto her that Damon was changed into Thersander Thus did she infuse as good a conceipt of himselfe as possibly she could Having thus laid a foundation for her treason she would now found how I stood affected and sometimes naming Damon as if by chance she would still be harping upon Thersander and something in his commendations All this I did not understand for I had never cast any eye upon him And finding me to speak of him as of a person indifferent she had an opinion that I would receive Letters if they were handsomely given unto me The time of the year was at hand when it was customary to present New-years gifts She conceived that a pair of perfumed Gloves would be a handsome cover for a Letter and therefore procured one from Thersander and put it into the finger of a Glove and when she saw her time that the best and most company was with me she presented her New-years gift unto me By fortune Damon was present and because she feared lest meeting with it I should not make it known unto every one she told me that there was a seam unripped and she would mend it Upon this she took that wherein the Letter was leaving the other in the hands of those that desired to smell at it But I finding the Paper in the finger I asked what it was To which she answered that it was the seam which rippeed when I tryed them I who did not understand this piece of subtlety replyed that it could not be so She with incredible impudence answered that she her selfe had ripped it and that I could not have it untill it was mended I perceived that there was something which was to be dissembled amongst so much company but I was too young and simple to apprehend it or to dissemble Yet Damon who had his eyes alwaies upon us and who knew by experience how ingenious Love makes men he presently conceived that there was some Letter in the Gloves which must be concealed from him but he could not devise from whom it should be as for Thersander he was out of all suspition yet now he began to have some thoughts of him For my part though I had a desire to do nothing but what was fitting yet I had a great desire to know what it was which was in this Glove and therefore retired as soon as I could When I was alone I took out the Letter and opening it I found these words Thersander's Letter unto Mandonthe AS being constrained not as esteeming my self worthy I do assume so much boldness MADAM as to call my selfe Your most humble Servant If you will be served by none but such as are worthy of you such then only must have the honour to see you Though we have not merits yet we have desires which are more intolerable to us because they are lesse accompanyed with any hopes But if Love continuing his ordinary miracles shall make an extream affection pleasing unto you I shall then Madam esteem my selfe infinitely happy and you be most faithfully served For I do know that though all the hearts in the world should joyne their forces together to love and adore you yet they could not all equall the grandure of my Passion The flatteries of this Letter did please me but comming from
change her tale with Leontidas and his Wife telling them that I took courage that I did not now think any more of leaving the World but that I had quite forgotten my duty unto them To be briefe within a few daies after she told them that now there was nothing to be hoped from me but by force and that I did deny all and in saying so she seemed to be so much offended at me as she confessed I was not worthy of that favour which they would shew me And because the Wise of Leontidas gaped still after my Estate she asked her how she could convince me We have said she very good witnesses but though we had not yet since truth is on our side I have some that will maintain it by Armes against any whosoever shall maintain the contrary And you know Madam that such things as are dubious and cannot be made apparent by convincing proofes the truth of them is to be tryed by Armes Leontidas who was a person of honour and who began to be very angry at the craft which he conceived I used No no said he I am very certain she is in a fault it shall be my selfe who will accuse her and I will maintain it against all men whomsoever Leriana who had made her selfe sure of her two Cosen-germans and who above all desired to seem very affectionate unto Leontidas she turned towards his Wife Madam said she unto her I had rather die than my Lord should enter into Armes upon this occasion I beseech you divert him from it or else I protest I will meddle no more in the matter I have Leotaris my Cousen german and his Brother who will undertake the charge and indeed it is most fit they should for it is not handsome to beg the Estate of one whom he doth accuse Leontidas persisted in his will but his Wife would by no means see him in so much danger and thinking it not handsome he should be my accuser and at the same time beg my Estate of the King she so prevailed with him that he referred it unto the Kinsmen of this woman This being the resolution Leriana spake unto Leotaris promised him her Estate made an assurance of it by Writing and briefly so obliged him and his Brother as they would have attempted either against heaven or hell and right or wrong would arme themselves against me Leriana being assured on this side backed by the opinion of very many and also with the authority of Leontidas she presented her selfe before the King accused me offered to prove her accusation and sett forth the businesse so colourably as every one believed it to be true And lest Thersander should discover all her wicked devices and forgeries she made him a party in the accusation saying he was the Father of the Child purposely to disable his testimony against her The Queen who was a Princesse full of honour and vertue did joyne her prayers with the accusation of this wicked woman and did require I should be punished according to the rigour of the Law Leontidas is called who being ashamed of the businesse made the same request This act being to the dishonour of his family his wife beseeched the Queen to become a mediator for the Estate which the King did freely grant And yet this good Prince calling to memory the good service which my Father had don Thierres his Father he was very sorry for this dysaster The first newes I heard of all this was when the Officers of Justice came to seize upon me locked up my Chamber and Closet and carried me before the King never telling me for what Oh heavens in what a case was I in when I heard the words of Leriana it was long before I could speak at last recollecting my selfe I kneeled down before the Queen beseeched her not to believe this wicked woman I protested unto her by all that is sacred there was no such thing that there could be no proofe against my chastity and beseeched her out of pitty to favour the cause of a most innocent The King was more moved at my words then the Queen whether it was because he remembered the services of my Father or because my youth and face moved him to pitty but so it was that turning towards Leriana If you do aver said he any thing which is not true I do vow by the soul of my Father that you shall suffer the same punishment which you have prepard for others Sir said she with an impudent brow I will prove what I say both by Witnesses and by Armes And both said the King are allowed you Then causing us to be separated I was committed to safeguard and Thersander also and it was commanded that witnesses should be produced Then the Midwife and the Nurse of Ormanthe's Child did testifie their knowledge in the businesse the old Cavalier and the old Matron of whom I spoke did the like she produced severall witnesses who saw her go out of my Chamber with the Child To be briefe the proofes were such as if god had not preserved my innocency I had been condemned By fortune the Judges being in my Chamber and reading the Depositions against me I knew not what to do in this affliction but only to have recourse unto the gods and then lifting up my hands and eyes to heaven I prayed Oh! ye most omnipotent gods who do see into my heart and know that I am innocent of all this which I am accused of be my supporters and declare my innocency And then as if inspired by some good angell I turned my selfe towards the chimney and addressing my speech unto the Judges If these accusations said I unto them be true I beseech the gods that I may never breathe again and if they be fals I beseech them that this hot coal may not burn me Then presently stooping I took up a great coal of fire and held it in my hand naked till it was extinguished not being at all burned The Judges amazed at this proof would needs touch the coal to try whether it was cold but they quickly withdrew their hand then they looked into my hand to see if there was any signe of burning but they found it no more touched then if it had never touched fire you may imagine whether they were astonished or no But so it was they made a report of this unto the King who ordained that Leriana should be acquainted with it to see if this testimony of my innocence would make her decline her accusation But she alledged that I had procured some receipt which kept the fire from burning me and that her Witnesses which she produced were without exception and that this proofe by fire might perhaps have been allowed if it had been ordained and appointed by the Judges but since it proceeded from my own will it was to be suspected of much artifice To be briefe sage Shepheardesses she smoothed over her villany with so many colourable arguments of
truth as all the favour I could obtain from the King was to ordain that the matter should be tryed by Armes and that within fifteen daies we should finde out the Cavaliers which should enter into the lists for us The newes of all this was quickly dispersed throughout all Aquitain so as my Mother heard of it as well as others and because Leriana had produced so many Witnesses she believed as almost all others did that I had committed the fault whereof I was accused and she having lived alwaies in great honour and same it grieved her so much as she fell sick and being old withall she died within ten or twelve daies after she first heard of it but in such a bad opinion of me as she would never send to see me nor assist me in my justification And see how many severall waies the gods were pleased to afflict me for this grieved me more then I am able to expresse Thus was I without Father or Mother destitute of all friends and universally blamed by every one I must confesse I did many times intend to throw my selfe out of the window to rid my selfe out of so many sorrowes but still the gods preserved me in hopes that my innocency would at last appear putting into my minde that if I should die so I should leave all Aquitain in a bad opinion of me But when Leriana offered Leotaris and his Brother for her Champions and when neither Thersander nor I could name any as well because we were not prepared for it as because no man would enter into so bad a quarrell as every one thought this was I must confesse I was astonished and now more then ever grieved for poor Damon assuring my selfe that had he been alive I could not have wanted a Champion Thersander on the other side he must defend his cause by fighting both with Leotaris and his Brother one after another But the terme being past the King in favour allowed us eight daies longer and they being past he added three more without any further delay at the expiration of which we were brought into the Lists I all in mourning and without any other company but the Officers of justice and Leriana on the contrary all triumphant and in the company of many Gallants she was upon another Scaffold opposite to that where I was Leotaris and his Brother were already in the Lists armed Cap apé and bravely mounted vaunting the more because they believed to finde no Antagonist but Thersander for none else could we finde because Leontidas who was the Kings favourit did take Leriana's part and those who heretofore had made addresses of Love unto me and would have undertaken a hundred such Combats for me were now all cold and backward because I had sleighted them for Thersander Thus you may see a falshood is hardly to be known from truth when it is subtlely disguised with a handsome glosse At last Thersander enters the Lists against them both hoping that the justice of his cause would bear him out It was ordained by the Judges that if during the Combat any Cavalier would present him selfe for me he should be received and that Leotaris and his Brother might fight with Thersander both together or severally if they would These two Brothers were men of great courage and persons of honour so as they would undertake him one after another but Leriana would not by any means suffer it so as they ran both of them together against him Judge sage Shepheardesses in what a condition I was I do assure you that I was so much out of my selfe as I could not see any thing I looked at At last the command was given and the Trumpets sounded Thersander who was couragious enough putting his confidence in the gods and justice of his cause set spurrs to his Horse and with his Lance hit the Brother of Leotaris and doing him no hurt brake it but he himselfe at the same time was dismounted by two Lances with the sadle betwixt his legs Leriana seeing so great an advantage on her side she was all joy I on the contrary all fear Thersander seeing himselfe in this extremity did not for all that lose his understanding but running to his Horse he pulled the bridle off from his head before his Antagonists could return upon him The Horse being of a high spirit and finding himselfe without either bridle or sadle began to run up and down the place and as if the gods had inspired him came to Leotaris and his Brother and began to paw with his feet and bite with his teeth kicking and bounding and did so fiercely assault them that they in lieu of fighting with Thersander had enough to do to defend themselves from this Animal This did amuse them a while because they could not kill him so soon as they did imagine because of his nimblence and perpetuall motion but at the last they dispatched him and being animated the more against Thersander resolved to dispatch him also presently and therefore falling both upon him in the heat of their fury he had no other way but to run close to his dead Horse which lay gasping in the end of the Lists and which did him some service after his death for the Horses of his enemies did boggle so at him that their Riders could hardly come neer him and this prolonged the Combat At the last Leotaris seeing he could not get his Horse any neerer he alighted from him and so did his Brother from his and leaving their Horses both loose in the place went both up to Thersander and fell upon him who certainly did as much as one man could well do but having to deal with two of the stoutest Cavaliers in all Aquitain at once it was impossible for him to make any long resistance He had received severall wounds and lost so much blood as he had not strength to defend himselfe any longer when the gods out of pitty unto me did send a Cavalier who desired entrance into the Lists in defence of me and Thersander The dore was presently opened unto him and because he saw Thersander in great extremity he spurred his Horse furiously up unto them but when he was come neer he stooped and cryed out unto them Hold Cavaliers and do not any longer offend against the Lawes of Chivalrie come off that wounded man and fall both upon me who am sent hither purposely to punish you Leotaris and his Brother hearing his voice did recoile and were sorry that they were both on foot and therefore ran towards their Horses But the stranger rid up to them and told them That if they had their Horses they should receive it as a courtesy from him and not from their own nimblenesse But get up said he I scorn to take the advantage of my Horse against you They both did infinitely esteem this generous act of this stranger but I was very sorry for it conceiving that he might very well have taken all advantages
is wholly devoted unto your will prompts me unto more then you can say I shall untill the very last minute of my life do whatsoever you shall command me without any other aime end or designe but only to obey you Yet if my affection my services and obedience can merit so great a favour I shall beseech and conjure you by him you love most and who perhaps is the cause of my banishment that when I bid you my last and eternall adieu you will permit me so much honour as to aspire unto a kisse of your lip I cannot chuse Oh great Nymph but blush in my relation But however I must confesse the truth I did permit him conceiving that his goodness did oblige me unto as much Presently after he departed and I never found him since in any place where it was probable I should see him Now I beseech you were not all these testimonies of my affection enough to oblige this ungratefull shepheard for ever unto one But I found him quite contrary for afterwards he would never see me neither in the way of a Lover no nor so much as in the way of a Friend I much desired to know the cause of his retreat and therefore I did employ a faithfull friend to go unto him from me But no other answer could be gotten but this that Love drives out Love as one naile dxives out another Upon this I had two conceptions First that he was fallen in love with some other shepheardesse and this second love had driven out the first unto me Secondly that by his sleighting of me he gave me counsell to do the same Being thus abandoned and forsaken though it was extreamly requisitie to use my best armes against such an accident yet would I not make use of any such as my enemy sent me for scorning them as his I thought them unworthy of my selfe and I esteemed them perfidious because I esteemed their Inventor so I had recourse therefore unto other remedies which though more slow yet more certain in their effects which was Time Time I say was my Armes and it which taught me the use of them it was both my Physician and my Physick And truly as most things that are slow are yet most sure so the cure it wrought was through not for a day but I thank god for all the rest of my life I say I do thank god for indeed I had abundance of reason for great Nymph when I call into my memory the life I lived as long as this perfidious man seemed to love me and compare it with that which I do live now I must needs confess that I am more obliged unto him for betraying me then I am unto Pantesmon for obeying me For then I cannot call it a life but a slavery my affection was not affection but obedience and his love was not love but tyranny Now this disloyall man being as I believe envious at my happy life or else not contented with once triumphing he must needs make a second attempt And as at the first he surprised me by submission and great demonstrations of a violent affection so he thinks now to catch me with the same bait And therefore Oh great and wise Nymph you see him here on his knees before me using such language and expressions as they do who are really in love But he does not consider that finding my selfe weakest on that side I have more strongly fortified it I am fully resolved to hold him out at armed end let him attempt as long as he will his dissimulations in lieu of love have renewed such extream disdain of him in my soul that I cannot endure the very sight of him And if his designe was to displease me I must needs confess he hath brought it to passe but if that be not his designe as he swears and would make me believe it is not but that as a just punishment from heaven he hath revived his flame that he himselfe was the only author of his own misfortune and that he is prepared for punishment I must then confesse that in giving me this occasion of revenge upon the wrong he hath done me he is a just man but still no good Lover But yet why does he tell me of his misfortunes and miseries me I say who would not so much as remember that he is in the world Or why does he take up such Armes as thinking to hurt me with them he wounds himselfe He cannot ever have any hopes to obtain any thing from me whose soul smarts with the memory of what is past as oft as I look upon him Let him therefore let me alone and leave me to enjoy that happinesse which he conferred upon me by a contrary designe If the heavens as often they do have converted that unto my happinesse which he prepared for my misery why is he sorry I should enjoy it I know better how to make use of these favours from heaven then he hath of those which I have done him heretofore Let him acknowledge and confesse that the heavens have most justly maintained my cause and defended my innocent affection against the most ungratefull and perfidious person that ever pretended to be a Lover If like a losing gamester he ask any thing for his last hand this great and wise Nymph is all I can do for him I will confesse my selfe satisfied for his ingratitude and forgive it I will pitty him upon condition he will never see me nor trouble me any more and this shall be all the revenge I will take for all his injuries Thus the shepheardesse ended with so much colour in her face as rendred her fairer then she was wont to be Then Leonida perceiving she had no more to say she commanded Palemon to speak what he had to say for himselfe Then the shepheard rising up after an humble reverence unto the Nymph he began thus The Answer of the Shepheard Palemon GReat Nymph I acknowledge that to be most true which I have often learned from divinity That gods and goddesses do never come into any place without doing some good You who in your merits and quality are a representation of them amongst us were no sooner come into this place but you may 〈◊〉 me undeceived and convinced of that errour wherein I have long lived if I can call that a life which hath brought me more torments then death it selfe I do most ingenuously confesse all that this fair shepheardesse hath related unto you is most true and that I am infinitely more obliged unto her then either she or I can expresse But having heard her reproach me for complaining that the heavens as envious of my blisse hath kept me from it I should think this to be a greater occasion of sorrow and to accuse it of injustice did I not know that all men are in the like condition and that there is no perfect contentment here below I cannot chuse but beg leave to grieve for the wrong this
fair shepheardesse hath done unto that affection which she hath promised me by misinterpreting mine and taking that for an injury which she ought to take for the greatest assurance and demonstration of my affection But Oh great god of Love how dare I complain against her since thou hast commanded me to think all well that she doth I will therefore use no complaints against her for my heart will not give me leave to contradict her in any thing But Oh wise Nymph I will endeavour to let you see by telling the truth that Palemon doth love and that Doris has no reason to believe the contrary And to be as briefe as I can she does confesse that I did love her and that she did love me but why does she upbraid me with any infidelity Her reason is because I was jealous and I confesse I was But if she did love me as she saies she did for loving her why should my affection be pleasing to her and not the effects of my affection If all that looked upon her made me jealous if their conversation their words nay their very lookes made me suspitious was not this a most certain testimony that I did infinitely love her She hath often told me that to doubt of her was to offend her and to make a sinister construction of her Ah great Nymph did this fair shepheardesse know as well how to love as her eyes do to make her adored she would say that this was rather extream love and the high opinion of her which made me doubt her Had I not thought her most worthy to be served by every one I should never have thought that every one had served her And had I not been of that beliefe how could I have been jealous of every one Jealousie therefore Oh fair Doris is not a lesser signe of affection and violent love then sighes and tears are for it hath its originall from the knowledge one hath of the perfections in the person loved but sighes and tears do often proceed from her cruelty only and from the torments which they resent by reason thereof She therefore knowing Oh great Nymph that I was jealous ought she not therefore to encrease her affection in some sort to ballance the weight which mine endured but on the contrary she rewards me with cruelty she her selfe unties the knot of that amity which so many services and demonstrations of a perfect affection ought to have made indissolvable And to give some colourable pretence for all this she alledgeth faintnesse and coldness on my side and negligence and carelessenesse which alas was only in her own opinion She alledgeth that at that time I absented my selfe from her Indeed when I consider this allegation I must confesse that all actions may be suspected when the effects produce contrary semblances or are not known unto those that have interest in them If I should ask you fair Doris what opinion you had of me when my fortune had brought me into your acquaintance I am confident you will say that I loved served honoured and adored you with as much faithfull zeal of true affection as ever any shepheard could And let it not displease you if before this great Nymph and reverent Druide I beseech and conjure you to tell them who that shepheardesse is that ever I adressed my selfe unto except you or you ever heard of If you do not know nor ever heard of any but must needs confesse my affection was never placed any where else why do you complain of me and why should you suspect and put a misinterpretation upon my actions Me-thinks it is but very ill Logick to conclude that Palemon did love me but because he sees me not so oft as he was wont therefore he does not love me Were it not a better piece of sophistry in the Schooles of Love to argue thus Palemon does not see me so oft as he was accustomed but I know there is some urgent occasions which keeps him away Had you been thus compassionate upon the torments I endured in being absent from you and judged others by your selfe you had never so cruelly offended him who did never offend against the affection which he promised But perhaps you will ask me what I did mean by so many minute visits whereas formerly whole daies would not content me I shall tell you Oh sage Nymph and when you have heard me you will not make such a sinister construction of my actions as this fair one doth of my fidelity only I beseech you to consider the kinde of life which I led at that time and amongst what company I lived I can and truly say Oh great Nymph that never man lived a more salvage life then I no not such whose profession is to inhabit amongst Rocks and Desarts excepting only when my affection constrained me once a day to see her for as soon as day began to dawn I went out of my Cabin and shunning all manner of company I did not return untill dark night retiring my selfe sometimes into the most close and unfrequented Caves and other times upon the tops of the highest Mountains so solitarily alone as nothing but my own thoughts could finde me out but they still kept me so good company as they did often invite me unto some such place from whence I might see her habitation thinking the very sight of the happy walls where she dwelt to be no small consolation unto me Nothing could withdraw me from this kinde of solitary life no not the friendship of Neighbours nor duty to Parents nor care of my Flocks nor any thing in the world else but only my desire of seeing her every day once and that in such short visits as to my sorrow alwaies when I returned I thought I did but only go thither and not see her Now my extream affection unto her was the cause why I did not acquaint her with my reason for this kinde of life Now great and wise Nymph it was ever my opinion that he who loves as he ought to do ought to be more tender of her honour whom he loves then of his own contentment The malice of ill disposed men is never so weak nor drousie but it may alwaies finde out some subject to asperse those that are most vertuous And at this time our frequent visits were eyed and gave occasion unto those malignant spirits to spit their venome and talk very broadly and yet so closely that all the diligence I could use could never bring me to know who were the authors of these poysonous Impostures What should I do in such a case To undertake a long voyage I could not because I was not a free Master of my own actions and to cease to love her had been to cease to live Since our great familiarity was it which gave a colour for their calumny what could I better do then stop the black mouthes of scandall by abridging my selfe of my own contentment in not being so
frequently with her For I thought my selfe obliged to preserve her honour and reputation at any rate whatsoever If she complain that I did not acquaint her with this untill now she may as well complain against my extream love of her for the reason why I did not impart it unto her was because I was loath to make her a partner in my sorrowes for I know that she who was ever so carefull to keep her honour free from all calumny could not endure to hear of these without extream vexation and sad resentment Now great Nymph I beseech you to consider by this most true relation whether such effects are usuall amongst vulgar affections and from thence you may perceive the quality of mine and being such as gives a manifest proof of its grandure why may I not and with reason aske as well some proofes of hers since love is never requited but with love again As for the businesse of Pantesmon which she alledgeth as a great matter of complaint against me I conceive my apprehensions of him did not proceed from an ill grounded jealousie as she termes it but from abundance of reason for this shepheard as she her selfe confesseth being such a one as he is it was probable she would rather love him then scorn him Moreover the friendship betwixt her Brother and him was no small ground for my suspitions but especially the favourable eye which she cast upon him which indeed was such as knowing of my jealousie she was more to be blamed for behaving her selfe so then I for thinking so And indeed their Marriage was openly spoken of so as from hence I had strong grounds for jealousie and she to cleer her selfe had good reason to do as I requested If friendship have a priviledge above love she might well have denyed my request if it have not why should she think it strange my love should desire a preheminency above that amity which she had unto her Brother From hence it was great Nymph that all our miseries had their originall for when I was angry with her for the countenance which she gave unto this shepheard she answered me that her Brothers affection unto him was the cause of it But when I replyed that the report of her Marriage unto him was so common as it was impossible I could endure to hear it What would your fantasticall suspicion answered she with an angry look have me to do You may call it what you please said I unto her but I shall never be at rest untill I see him banished from you Well said she with a more angry eye I will give you satisfaction this time but I wish this may be the last of your odd humours she expressed her selfe in such a manner as made me more suspect her then if she had denyed me with some handsome excuse This made me resolve to look more narrowly into the matter and trust unto no eyes but my own Oh most unhappy diffidence Oh what an abominable resolution was this which hath cost so much sorrow such extream torment and so many tears In order therefore unto this designe I spied out a time when Pantesmon went unto her Chamber for as fortune was either for displeasure or for some ill disposednesse she kept her bed that day And going up a back pair of staires which conducted to her Lodgings I came through a Lobby into a little Closet which had a dore over against her bed Such was my misfortune as I could through the key-hole see all they did but being at too far a distance I could not hear one word I saw and too plainly for my contentment this shepheard sit by her bed-side I saw him take her hand and kisse it several times I saw him talk bare-headed and at last kisse her lip without any resistance and for ought I could observe she answered him with no words of anger Oh heavens what a dagger was this to my heart I knew not what to do with my selfe I knew not how I should suffer this and live But such was my extraordinary affection unto her that though I had these bitter resentments yet it made me constantly to endure any thing which I thought pleasing unto her Pantesmon went away and I also he very ill satisfied with me and I absolutely mad at him Thus did Love drive us both away Now I beseech you great Nymph tell me Would you have thought I had loved her had not this gone to my very soul Could my resentment be lesse then to retire my selfe or Could it be carried with more discretion then never to speak of it unto any I do confesse I did endeavour to regain my liberty and when I found abundance of difficulty in unloosing the cords wherewith she held me I said severall times to my selfe That I would cut those I could not untie And when I was thus striving with my selfe it is true she sent one of her friends unto me But what could I think of her message more then that it was a continuation of her delusions Could I possibly give the lye unto such dear witnesses as my own Eyes So being full of anger I made that answer which she thus complaines of which was That one Nail drives out another Now since I had a beliefe that she had thus ungratefully betrayed me how could I give her a milder check I was obliged unto as much by the Lawes of my affection which would not let me lie now no more then before If she took it in any other sense then I intended it her innocence was the cause of it and my error made me say so She does not know of any other Love that ever driv my love of her out of my heart and yet my fears of displeasing her hath even untill this time deprived me of my greatest contentment When I at any time resolved to upbraid her for all this Love which had ever a great prevalence in my soul restrained me and gave me a check telling me that this would too much offend her whom I once loved so well that it was not handsome to twit her with her faults and make her ashamed of them but that I should be well contented with being loose from those perfidious obligations in which I had been so long entangled Oh! this advice was most pernicious unto me for doubtlesse had I at the first told her what I had seen she would have related unto me all that she had done and so I should have received as much satisfaction happinesse and contentment as I have since suffered torments and miseries But absenting my selfe wholly from her it was long before I knew that Pantesmon had left her And the worst was I durst not so much as enquire lest I should hear something which would encrease my griefe At last my love being stronger then my resolution or my anger I did by degrees go neer her and at the very first sight forgetting all the wrongs which as I thought I had received
I applyed my selfe more unto her then ever before But how did I finde her she had the same eyes the same mouth and the same beauty but she was not the same Doris who when I left her loved none but Palemon esteemed none but Palemon and carrassed none but Palemon At this sad return I saw nothing but disdain found nothing but hatred and resented nothing but rigour and anger so as untill very now it was impossible for me to let her know the cause of my retirement because she would never let me tell her but still interrupted my speech Now Oh great Nymph if these things be not testimonies of a most faithfull and violent love I will not desire her favour though the favour which I ask is not a pardon of any fault committed against love but only for loving her too much perhaps more then she would have me or more then she believes If Love would let me complain against her as in reason I may I should tell her that the hath done abundance of wrong both unto Love unto Doris and unto Palemon For Love may complain that she hath extinguished that fire which blazed with so pure a flame that Vertue it selfe could not be offended with its heat and in lieu of it she has kindled flames of anger and spleen so smothered with black smoak that in lieu of enlightning her soul they fill it full of darknesse and confusion But Doris has greater reason of compliant that so sleight a ground should make her perjured and break so many reiterated Oathes sworn unto that unfortunate shepheard never to change her minde And what can she answer Palemon if he should say unto her Is it possible unthankfull shepheardesse that so many years service so many testimonies of affection so many assurances of my fidelity should not make you have a better conceipt of me 'T is true I was jealous but was it not a fruit of Love I beseech you why not jealous if amorous Who should I be jealous of but of her I love But admit it be a fault and ought to be punished is it not the rigour of justice to equall the punishment to the crime But admit that it ought to equall it and that an eye for an eye and an arme for an arme ought to expiate the sin yet why should you punish me for being jealous of you for then the same punishment ought to be inflicted upon you since you were also jealous of me Is this an act glorious and worthy of a Lover But perhaps you will say unto me You cast me off and quitted me and has therefore rendred your selfe unworthy of any favour Well suppose I did cast you off you must therefore cast me off also and perhaps you have done it already Suppose us to be both upon equall tearmes I have cast you off and you have cast me off But now when I return again with abundance of repentance and sorrow for what is past are not you obliged by the Law of Like to do the like Here I am upon my knees before you with as many bitter tears of repentance as ever Lover had and can your anger extend so far as not to re-admit me into my former happinesse Forgivenesse is the greatest glory of the gods and it has this operation that it converts the greatest offenders into the greatest lovers Thus Palemon ended and Leonida and Chrisante prepared themselves to give Judgment when the other shepheard desired to be heard what he could say for himselfe The History of the Shepheard Adrastes I Beseech you great and puissant Nymph and you venerable Chrisante to stay your judgment untill you have heard me that you may have the better conusance of our differences and be able to put a just conclusion unto all our miseries and inquietudes I have loved this shepheardesse even from her very Cradle I have never since ceased loving her but still encreased in my desires to do her service I have endured all her disdaines and patiently suffered her to place all her affection upon another before my face Length of time has not lessened my love nor diverted my designe her rigours could never afright me and yet hitherto I could never make her leave the least of her cruelties She equally ballanced her selfe with favours unto Palemon and disfavours unto me and ever most cruelly scorned both my love and patience But all was one all her affronts did but the better enure me to endure the intolerable burthen of them they were so far from diverting me from her service that the more difficulties and miseries I met with the more did they confirme the violence of my love Oh heavens can any man infected with this disease be wise Can he look for any cure when his will cannot consent unto it All such as give me any counsell against Love are my declared enemies and though all manner of hopes were blasted yet my affection was unalterable it was never in the least degree startled or lessened No great Nymph I had rather die then diminish the least spark of that flame which burned me She has seen me severall times swim in tears before her she has seen me fall at her feet out of my wits But neither my tears nor danger of my life could ever obtain any thing from her but scorn and mockery A just resentment whereof had been revenged upon Palemon if my love could have consented unto any thing that might displease this cruell one But this passion of revenge was so unable to make me undertake such a designe as I am sure she cannot taske me with the least blemish in my affection and whatsoever she is pleased to say of me I may truly without any ostentation give my selfe the name of A Lover without a fault for jealousie could never finde any harbour in my soul as it did in this too happy shepheard nor did I ever think any ill or finde any fault with any of her actions Love can be my witnesse that even her very rigours were welcome to me when I considered that they were pleasing unto this fair Doris And though I am not so far out of Fortunes favour but any other shepheardesse would perhaps look upon me with a favourable eye yet most certain I am that I never professed any fidelity to them but abundance unto her But Love not to let so much disdain go unpunished and not to forsake a Love so pure as mine hath suffered her to resent the bitternesse of disdain by the divorce betwixt her and this shepheard But before Palemon ever loved her I did yet for all her bitter treatment she never saw the least alteration in me I was the first that served her I am the only one that has continued constant and shall be for ever in the same minde I do not set these things before her eyes by way of reproach but for truthes-sake only yet such truths as shall not put her unto any sad remembrances for so I
must needs phrase my past services And though her cruelty hath been such unto me yet must I in some sort excuse her since being engaged unto Palemon perhaps she had offended against her fidelity in doing otherwise But now when thanks be to the Fates she hath quitted him what reason or colour can she have for her cruelty since she tells you that she loved Palemon because she thought it reasonable to love him who loved her Upon her own ground reason and judgment I do appeal unto you great Nymph swearing unto you by her fair selfe for a greater oath cannot be that never did any Beauty cause a greater more sincere or more faithfull love then that of Adrastes unto the fair Doris Thus Adrastes ended his Oration with so many demonstrations of a perfect love as all that heard him were partners in his resentments And the shepheardesse Doris seeing he had said all he could after an humble reverence answered thus Great Nymph I am very sorry for this shepheard 's sake that all he hath said is true for since he loves me so well it grieves me that he should be ill treated yet you may perceive by what hath been said that the fault is not in me but it is himselfe only that pursues his ill fortune The first time he declared his minde unto me we were both so young that neither knew what Love was so as what he said unto me moved me no more then a person who was nothing at all concerned Afterwards he travelled and when he returned he found me not mine own for I had given my self unto Palemon So that as at the first time he might complain of my ignorance in love so at this second he might much more complain of my too much knowledge in it But he has no reason at all to complain against me for shepheard can you complain against me who was not capable of love for not loving you Lay the blame upon Nature accuse those Lawes unto which she hath submitted us all Then can you think it strange I will not love you when my will was not my owne Alas I have but one heart and one soul and one will You may with more reason complain and that me-thinks is the only plea you have that you did addresse your selfe unto me too soon and returned too late You say that I never looked upon you but with scorn but was ever very averse from shewing any favour unto you Truly Adrastes if you rightly interpret my actions you will finde that you are more obliged unto me for that then if I had done otherwise For had you received any satisfaction from me unto what a strange extremity would your love have been driven that was so great maugre all my rigours Consider Adrastes that favours from me would rather have been aggravations then any consolations in your misery Besides I could not have shewed them without much offence unto that sincere affection which I had promised Palemon I must needs confesse that it is just to love one that loves us but I do not say it is injustice not to love all those that have any affection unto us for if it were there would be no fidelity nor assurance in love if it were so you your selfe were obliged to render a reciprocall love unto the shepheardesse Bebliena who is ready to die for you But I mean that a woman being free from all other affection may without blame love him that loves her if there be no other reason of hatred but his love Now this case is nothing resemblant unto that betwixt you and me for I being engaged another way I cannot contract any new affection with you without a ruine of that which I have contracted already Had I dissembled with you or held you in hopes with any smooth language you might with reason complain against me but if I did ever tell you my minde plainly and freely are you not obliged unto me for it Have I not a thousand times over entreated conjured nay commanded as far as I had any power over you that you should extinguish your affection to me And have you not alwaies answered me that you would if you could do it and live And when you did continue on was it not for your own sake and not mine But great Nymph see how that which as I gather from his wordâ— he thinks to be his advantage does deceive him Doubtlesse he thinks that my affection unto Palemon was the only cause which kept me from giving entertainment unto his And indeed he no sooner heard of the dissentions betwixt that shepheard and me but presently he was blowne up with hopes to effectuate his desires and to lose no occasions of promoting them he hath ever since that time so importunately pressed me that I may and with reason call him rather my enemy then my friend But he is much deceived in these thoughts and does not consider that if ever this affection of mine do cease I shall with it so cease from ever any other love as I shall never resent any effects of it again Thus ended Doris Adrastes would have replyed but Leonida commanded silence and taking Chrisante Astrea Diana Phillis Madonthe and Laonice aside she asked them their opinions and advice But being long in consultation and the shepheards who were not called to counsell being impatient and could not be idle Hylas addressed himselfe unto Doris I do admire said he unto her that you should be angry for being too rich How do you mean answered she I mean said Hylas that you ought to entertain not only these two shepheards who love you but also as an evidence of your beauty all those that would offer themselves unto you For it is a womans honour to be loved and courted by many besides the benefit she may get by it I do believe answered Doris very carelesly that this would be a good way for those who would be esteemed fair and are not or for such as prefer that vanity before tranquillity and solid contentment If it be a Good to be loved replyed he the more that love you the more good you have And if it be ill replyed Doris the more I am loved the more ill it is True replyed Hylas but how can it be ill to be loved by many They will hate us in the end answered she Yes replyed he if you do not content and entertain them How should one satisfie and content many replyed Doris when it is impossible to satisfie and content one But said Hylas is it not good to have many Servants They will in the end become our enemies said she and in loving me they will more trouble then benefit me You must have a care said he to keep them your friends The paines replyed the shepheardesse is above the pleasure The gods said the shepheard do never think themselves troubled that many should bring offerings unto their Altars Most true answered she but it is a peculiar priviledge of
which you have preserved And upon assurance of secresie he continued thus Alexis would have continued her discourse and related all that Vrsaces told her but the comming of Adamas gave a stop unto her for both Leonida and she were constrained to rise and render that honour unto him which was due The sage Druide taking one in one hand and the other in another he began to walk in a Laund which though shaded from the Sun yet had a most delicious prospect towards the Wood of Issoures And whilst they were discoursing upon severall subjects one came to acquaint them that Silvia was arrived and already entred into the house Alexis was very shie and would not be seen lest she should be known but considering how willing that Nymph was to help her out of the Palace of Issoures she hoped she was not changed Yet Adamas had no minde that Silvia should see her fearing lest the young years of that Nymph and the favours which she lately received from Galathea should make her speak more then she should he would have kept the matter so close that if he could he would have kept it from his very selfe Therefore he commanded Leonida to go unto her Companion but be sure that if she desired to see Alexis to tell her that they were busie together concerning their Offices and that she being to return very shortly unto Carnutes and finish out her terme she would not be seen but as little as possibly she could So Leonida thus instructed went to Silvia who when they met kissed and embraced each other as if they had not met of seven years before After these first complements Silvia told her Companion that the Country had not a jot blasted the fresh complexion of her cheek And Leonida in requitall told her The Court Beauties were alwaies above the Country Complexions as plainly appeared by comparing theirs together Afterwards Silvia said thus unto her The sequell of the History of Lindamor THough Sister I had no businesse to invite me unto a visit yet my desires of seeing you are invitations sufficient But I must tell you that at this time that desire was not only my conductor but also some businesse I would impart unto you and if you think good unto Adamas also a business which I thought fit to let you know because Galathea and we may receive much contentment or much displeasure by the result of it Know therefore Sister that Flurial is returned from the place whither you sent him and hath brought Letters from Lindamor and wondred much not to finde you at Marcelles and would have come hither but Galathea took notice that he talked unto me and suspecting that you sent him to me for she knew of the journey which you had commanded him to make she called him to her asked him from whence he came and what was his businesse to me He thinking he had don well without concealing any thing answered her that he came from Lindamor and presently shewed her some Letters which he had She asking who sent him that voyage He answered that it was you since we were at the Palace of Issoures Galathea then turning towards me and shaking her head Do you see said she what humour your Companion is of And refusing the Letters she commanded him to give them unto me to send unto you Afterwards she went into her Chamber and commanded me to follow her This was the reason that I could not say any thing unto Fluriall but only taking his Letters I bad him stay there till I had done talking with the Nymph What do you think of your Companion said she unto me is she not fully resolved to do me all the mischiefe she can Madam said I unto her I cannot tell what to say unto it she must be talked with to know what her businesse and designe was I know it replyed she better then she will tell you for she will not confesse unto you the truth she has acquainted Lindamor with my love unto Celadon Can it be possible Madam answered I that she should take so much pains as to write that newes so far and by such a dangerous way See what is in Lindamors Letters said she unto me and I believe you will finde that I do not lie Then taking the Letters out of my hand she broke open the Seales and read them The first was directed unto you and having brought them you may read them Then putting her hand into her pocket she pulled them out and gave Leonida that Letter which was directed unto her which was in these terme Lindamor's Letter unto Leonida IT seemes you conceive my presence to be requisite and I think the like but in a different manner then as you expect Doubtlesse it is requisite two waies The one to bring me out of this miserable life wherein I am it being impossible for me to live and see such an alteration in my Lady And the other in taking revenge upon him that is the cause of my misery I vow by all the gods that the blood of this perfidious Rivall is the only satisfaction I can take for so great an offence I shall to these ends come to you within the compass of that time which the bearer hereof will tell you In the interim if you think it convenient let my Lady see the Letter which I have writ unto her importing that the end of my life and the death of that Villain shall testifie unto her that I cannot live without a fulfilling of her promise nor die till I have taken revenge See said Galathea unto me continued Silvia what I alwaies most feared The imprudence of Leonida or rather her malice is so great that she has told Lindamor of my affection unto Celadon and this report is the cause that he will come and kill him I had rather die then that shepheard should receive the least harm for my sake Alas how easily may hee do it since the poor shepheard never thinks upon it nor has any Armes but his sheephook Can there be a more pernicious malice then hers in procuring his death who never displeased her I believe rather it is rage for she loves him and because he sleights her she will be revenged Madam answered I I cannot believe that my Companion has committed this fault though perhaps she may as great for upon reading of Lindamor's Letter I cannot think he speaks of Celadon but Polemas for why should he phrase Celadon perfidious And why not Celadon replyed she presently as well as Polemas Because Madam said I unto her she has acquainted Lindamor with the Artifice which Polemas practised with the false and counterfeit Druide And why Silvia said she unto me do you yet believe that Leonida told you or Lindamor truly concerning that Druide Do you not know that it was meerly a device of her own pernicious invention to make me cast off Celadon that she her selfe might solely enjoy him Now let me tell you if you
Chamber when you sent me to him that you have heard of the Battles that have been wone from the Neustrians by the King yet with the assistance of Clidaman and my Master I assure my self also that you have heard talk of a Lady he did name her said he unto Leonida but I have forgot it who putting her selfe into the habit of a man did follow beyond the Sea a Neustrian whom she loved and who resembled Ligdamon so much who was taken for him and dyed because he would not marry a woman for whom that man fought and killed a man for which Murther being banished he fled into a Country beyond Sea I cannot hit upon the name of it and afterwards upon his return was Prisoner by a kinsman of him that was killed And had it not been for this Lady of whom I mean he had been put into the hands of Justice but she fought for him and stayed in Prison her selfe to release him This intricate tale of Flurial's made the Nymphs to laugh though Silvia in memory of Ligdamon and Leonida also had a good minde to help him out Thou dost mean Flurial said Silvia the fair Melander True true said he that 's her name And Lydias continued the Nymph who was kept in Calice by Lypandas because of Arontes his death The very same said Fluriall and clapped his hands together but I shall never remember their names and therefore I shall finish my relation upon condition that you will help me out Now this Lady continued he was the cause of Calice being taken by the Francks and Lypandas I cannot tell whether I name him right was made a Prisoner As for Melander who was in Prison as soon as ever she was released she would go unto Lydias thinking that Ligdamon who was in the hands of his enemies had been Lydias as every one reported him to be As soon as Lydias heard of this Ladies departure he followed after her not fearing any severity of enemies nor rigour of justice But Lypandas who was in Prison knowing that he had kept a Woman Prisoner and that he had fought with her he fell so in love with her that he never left soliciting till he obtained his liberty and then went as fast as he could to the Town whither she was gone I have quite forgot the name of it for it was a very hard word Was it not Rhothomages said Leonida The very same said Flurial Oh god what fine stories could I tell you if I had a good memory But so it was that the King's Son fell upon some of the Enemies and defeated them after a long Combat in which Lindamor was so wounded that he was forced to keep his bed Truly said Leonida you are an excellent story-teller and therefore I pray proceed My memory said he is not so as I wish it but I had rather not tell many things then lie Now whilst this young man told me these things Lindamor sighed and sometimes spoke but I could not possibly hear what he said because the dore was shut At the last I heard him call me and not drawing the Curtains he said unto me Fluriall I would have thee return to morrow and I would be before thee if I could endure a Horse-back but I will presently follow thee tell Leonida that I will come to the house of Adamas and it shall be within this twenty nights at the least if my wounds will give me leave Upon this he commanded me to take my rest But I was much astonished when they told me that very same night that they thought him dead two or three times and that his wounds were so much changed upon a sudden that he was in great danger of his life I do believe that the Letter which you writ was the cause He continued long in this condition so as I could not be dispatched of a month after within which time he grew better and not in so much danger Besides his wounds he had such a Feavour as caused him very often to talk lightly and ordinarily name Galathea Leonida and Polemas Love revenge death At the last he recovered but not so well as to go out of his bed and the Physicians told him that he must not stir out of his Chamber at the least of fifteen nights And therefore he dispatched me saying that before the sixteenth of the next Month he would be here and gave me the Letters which you have seen commanding me to tell you many fine words which did only signifie thanks and which in good faith Madam I have quite forgotten The Nymphs could not chuse but laugh at Fluria's discourse and good memory And because they would talk together they commanded him to go out and stay till Silvia returned especially to have a great care he told none when Lindamor would be back Then being alone together they resolved to tell Galathea plainly the truth of that voyage hoping that perhaps the merits of Lindamor would make her more considerate but by all means to conceal from her the time of his comming lest if she should know it she should advertise Polemas not out of any good-will unto him but only that he might stand upon his guard and that Lindamor intending to kill him they might be both in a possibility of dying or that so acquainting him with the designe of Lindamor he might challenge him the field and there die This then being the designe Silvia thought it expedient to communicate the matter unto the sage Adamas and to know his opinion But Leonida told her that she would acquaint him with it at leasure but now he was very busie with his Daughter And shall not I see her said Silvia It will not be convenient at this time said Leonida for they are both exceedingly busie because it is not much above a month before the Druides assemble at Dreux And I do believe that for this year my Uncle will be exempted because of his Daughter whom he will be constrained to bring back whose presence he would enjoy as long as possible he can Yet if you please I shall acquaint them for I know they will be extreamly glad to see you No no said Silvia I am very glad that Adamas resolves to stay at home this year for I believe his presence will be more necessary unto us then we imagine I will not by any means disturb them it sufficeth me to know that they are well Then after some other discourse Silvia took her leave and returned unto Marcelles where Galathea was in a longing expectation for her desiring to know what discourse Leonida and she had but above all to know what newes of Celadon assuring her selfe that Leonida could tell But when she understood that the shepheard was not in his Town and that none knew where he was she was not a little perplexed but knew not how to accuse Leonida for she imagined that if this shepheard had escaped by her contrivance she would never have suffered him to
company of all your shepheards and shepheardesses and not hear how you are a servant unto Phillis and how after a long continued service you are at the last growne jealous of Silvander Certainly I should have been of a very dull composition if seeing so compleat a shepheard as Lycidas and loving Phillis as I do I had not enquired of your life If I did seem shepheard as if I were ignorant it was only out of discretion for I do know as much of your affaires as you do almost your selfe and if you will I will tell you such particulars as shall make you confesse it Lycidas hearing her say so he was extreamly confused and thought that all her knowledge came from Astrea and Phillis I perceive said he that you are acquainted with my follies and that things are not so secretly carried as I wish they were But to make it appear that I am as much your servant as your Informers can be I will tell you more then they could since they are passages which hapned since they had the honour to see you still beseeching you to be secret I have so great an esteem answered the Nymph both of the versue of Phillis and of your merits as you may be most certain I shall be secret in any thing that concernes either of you And you may see I can be silent since I was so long before I imparted unto you what I did know But when you told me that Phillis was contented I wondred because I knew her to be much troubled at your faintnesse and jealousie Oh great Nymph said Lycidas and smiled great alterations have been since I had the honour to see you Oh how oft have I been upon my knees Believe it Madam Phillis knowes how to bring me into my senses and can make me know my duty Had I but time to tell you the whole series of the story you should see what abundance of difference there is betwixt a Lover and a Wiseman I do not know any thing replyed the Nymph which I more desire to know and as for leasure you may have time enough since Adamas Phocion and Diamis are entred into discourse for old men will never have an end of their old stories The Nymphs chiefe end in holding him thus in discourse was in consideration of Alexis lest he should take too much observance of her and conceiving the first time to be the most dangerous because when the opinion was once fixed it would better passe afterwards for currant therefore she desired him to proceed Lycidas thinking it would be pleasing unto the Nymph began thus The History of the jealous Lycidas YOu know Madam that the familiar conversation which was between Phillis and Silvander by reason of their striving which should make Diana love them best was the cause of my jealousie A jealousy which I may well say was within a small degree of madnesse Insomuch as I have often wondered how it was possible I should live in that torment The paines of death could not be greater Every houre some accident or other added fresh tortures my eye could not turne itself without findingout some new aggravation of misery And worst of all when I had greatest curiosity to find out the causes of my displeasures Nay my imagination would fancy things so beyond all manner of reason as I wonder how it was possible my judgement should be perverted When she spoke any thing freely unto Silvander Oh how every accent pierced me to the heart When she was silent and did not speake at all I concluded she dissembled when she carrassed me I thought she had a designe to deceive me when she slighted me I said this was a signe of a change in her affection when she shunned Silvander I thought she did so lest I should see her if she applyed her selfe unto him then I thought she was desirous to vexe me and shew how well she was contented in her new affection If she was not at any time sad then I said there was some amorous quarrell fallen out betwixt them To be briefe every thing she did offended me And when there was nothing to ground my displeasure upon I should accuse my judgement for being so simple as not to see their dissimulations How oft have I wisht my selfe no eyes that I could not see neither Silvander nor Phillis But to what purpose would that be said I presently after for though I were blind yet they would love But said I it were much better to lose my love since the thought of it doth thus torment me and ever will till I be in my grave See unto what extremity I was driven since in lieu of loving Phillis I did hate her I could have wished her ugly and yet I should have been very sorry if she had lost the least part of her beauty and handsomnesse And this I found presently at the same time for she having had three or foure fits of an ague which had caused a little alteration in her face I was so displeased at it that she herselfe observed me Living therefore or rather languishing in this manner and almost reduced unto an absolute despaire the gods had pitty upon me One Night Silvander chanced to fall asleep in the wood neere unto the Temple of the good goddesse when he awaked he found a Letter in his hand not knowing how it came Upon his returne he shewed it unto Diana and the shepherdesse Astrea they thought it to be writ by the hand of Celadon and they hoping to heare more of him in the place where this Letter was found they entreated Silvander to conduct them thither When they were there night so surprised them that they were forced to stay there untill it was day During this short time Astrea fell asleep and had such dreames and visions as caused her to think that Celadon was in pain and that his Ghost walked because he had not received the last office of a buriall she therefore resolved to erect an empty Tombe for him but thought it more expedient to be done in the name of Paris then her owne these ceremonies were so long and the shepheardesses so weary that at their return they went into their owne cabins to rest themselves For my part I left them betimes and after I had dined retired my selfe into a thick covert neere the way which conducts to our Towne It is so thick with underwood as though it joyne upon the high way yet it was impossible I should be seen And yet I could plainy see all passengers going or comming After a long entertainment of my owne thoughts sleepe did so surprise me that I did not waken untill the Sun was almost set And intending to retire I would first see whether any were in the medow that I might avoyd meeting with Philis By fortune I espyed Astrea and her who having rested themselves in their Cabins came to walk in the fresh Aire of that place On the other side I saw
beauty be the matter said Corilas Phillis is not defective in it She hath lesse then Alexis said Hylas for she is not able to hold me now I have seen the other and therefore I must fairly take my leave of her Silvander who had been long silent seeing Corilas did not reply he undertook the discourse for him It is not any defect in the beauty of Phillis said he which moveth this shepheard to make his retreat but it is his owne naturall inconstancy Very well said Hylas do you call it inconstancy when one goes on step by step unto the place where they intend to arrive No said Silvander And yet said Hylas such a one does set his foot sometimes upon the ground sometimes in the air sometimes before sometimes behinde And is not this inconstancy as well as that which you lay in my dish For intending to arrive at a perfect beauty I do set one foot before another and never leave changing till I arrive at my intended place Even so have I done by all I have hitherto loved untill I found Alexis who I finde to be the most perfect beauty of all This might hold good answered Silvander if you could demonstrate to us that you do merit to love Alexis For as you have gotten the name of Inconstant by loving so many so now you will get the name Presumptuous in loving Alexis Alexis was long silent taking great delight in the discourse of these shepheards but when she heard her selfe so highly commended she thought it fit to speak Did I as much merit the affection of Hylas said she as I am willing to entertain it certainly he should have no small reason to love me Then tuming her selfe in a smiling manner towards Hylas Servant said she unto him take heed lest the language of this shepheard should divert you for you would wrong both your selfe and me if it should It would be a shame for you to attempt an enterprise and so soon give it over and it would be too evident an argument of my little merit if you should so soon quit me But Hylas said Silvander do you not dread the displeasure of Teupates in addressing your selfe unto one who is consecrated unto him Ignorant Silvander said Hylas the gods do command us to love themselves and how can they be angry with us for loving that which is theirs You see said Alexis that this shepheard hath some designe upon us he would cunningly turn you from me by artifice for he knowes well enough that if I will I can leave off that profession which I have taken upon me Whilst these shepheards were thus talking Adamas was entertaining Phocion Diaonis and Tircis and because he esteemed them very much both for their age their vertues and for his designe in making a Match between Celadon and Astrea he did all that possibly he could to bid them welcome And because Tircis was a stranger and had never seen the raritles of his House he asked him if he would take so much paines as to walk and see it And hearing him answer that he did infinitly desire it he took him by the hand and willed Paris to do the like unto Hylas and the rest of the shepheards if they had a minde Alexis with the help of Hylas who led her by the arme followed Adamas with the rest of the Company The House was very fine and furnished with many excellent singularities but because the discourse of it would be too long we will speak no more of it then what is pertinent to our purpose They entred then into a large Gallery which had a prospect of Plaines on the one side and Mountains on the other which made it very delectable and pleasant The sides was Wanscot fretted and betwixt the windowes hung with Maps of the severall Provinces of Gaul At the higher end hung Pictures of severall Countries Kings and Emperours and amongst them the Portractures of severall very beautifull Women The top was adorned with Gold and Azure very richly imbossed with many severall devices Every one fixed their eyes upon that which was most agreeable unto their fancies But Hylas whose heart was all for beauty looking upon a Picture which contained two Ladies See said he two very delicate faces Which of these two should one judge to be the fairer Adamas who heard him That said he on the right hand is the Picture of the Mother in Law and the other on the left the Daughter in Law Both of them were two Princesses as fair and as wise as ever any and as much tossed and turmoiled by the stormes of Fortune as any in our Times This which seemes the more aged is the wise Placidia Daughter unto the great Theodosius Sister unto Arcudius and Honorius Wife unto Constantius and Mother unto Valentiniaen all five Emperours whose Pictures are a little farther off The other is the Picture of Eudoxe Daughter unto Theodosius the Second and Wife unto Valentinian whom Genserio carried into Affrica They were two Princesses said Tircis of great beauties and as great extractions But wherein was their Fortunes so averse I shall briefly tell you replyed Adamas and shall thereby acquaint you with some of these Pieces which you see here Then after a while of silence he began thus The History of Placidia THEODOSIUS the first of that name Emperour of the East one of the greatest Princes the World had since Augustus he had three Children One Arcadius who after him was Emperour of the East Another was Honorius who was Emperour of the West And the third was the wise Placidia whose fortune was so various that we see in her how Vertue is ordinarily crossed For she being at the dispose of her Brother Honorius and he under the government of Stilicon unto whose Guardianship the great Theodosius had committed him during his nonage she was so variously tossed and tormented by severall accidents as if Fortune had made choice of her to shew the power it hath in all human things of which Stilicon was the greatest cause who having great power over the person of Honorius and the whole Empire his ambition aspired at more absolute authority and aimed to make himselfe sole Emperour as when his designes were discovered it did plainly appear He being a man of a deep reach and managing his matters so as might most condure to his desired end and grandure he thought it expedient for him to make use of policy and subtlety where it was impossible for him to compasse it by force His way was therefore at the first to stretch his authority to the highest pitch before he made his intentions known and afterwards to fortifie himselfe by marrying his Daughter unto young Honorius for the very name of Father in Law to an Emperour looked big and procured him a great honour and fear Afterwards he held secret intelligence and correspondency with all such as he thought fit instruments for the advancement of his designe And lastly resolved to weaken the
Forces of the Emperour as much as possibly he could that when opportunity served he might the more easily seize upon him At that time all the world looked at Rome with an envious eye and made it the butt of their Armes The Goths the Fruncks and Burgundians in Gaul the Vandats and Almaines in Spain the Anglois and the Picts in Britany the Hunnes and the Gipides in Pannonia To be briefe every part of the whole Empire was so divided as no part was entire but Italy It fortuned that Alarick King of the Goths would not suffer it to enjoy more tranquillity then Its neighbours of the West and therefore fell into it with such a vast number of People as it was impossible for Honorius to resist him insomuch as to get him out again he was advised to make a Peace with him upon what termes soever he could get unto which he being of ho Warlick disposition but above all things loving tranquillity he lent a willing ear Peace then being propounded it was so prudently managed that Alarick consented to retire beyond the Alpes into some Provinces which were assigned him by the Emperour At which Stilicon being malecontent as thinking this agreement prejudiciall to his designes he so tampered with an Officer then in pay under the Emperour that he procured him to charge some of Alarick's Forces as they were marching away without any mistrust At which Alarick was so incensed against Honorius that he returned to Rome besieged it and at the end of two years took it and entirely sacked it Although Honorius to make it appear that he never consented unto this perfidie did put the Traitor Stilicon to death as soon as ever he heard that he was the author of it Thus this ambitious man came to a miserable end but not before he had put all Italy into a most miserable flame For Alarick after he had plundered and burned this great City and not yet loadned with spil he pillaged all the Country about it and laid it so sadly waste as would have moved any Barbarian unto pitty But that which was most deplorable besides the ruine of so many Temples and the losse of so many rarities with which the Emperours had erected and adorned this City was the miserable fortune which befell this wise Princesse who through the carelessenesse of a Brother was destitute of all succour She who by extraction was Daughter unto the Cesars and Sister unto two Emperours was through the fault of another a Captive in the hands of these Barbarians her Country burned the Temples prophaned and she in danger to lose her life or that which was more deer unto her had not Ataulfus a Prince of Alarick's blood been taken with her beauty and vertue and thought her worthy to be his Wife But this Prince seeing her so fair and so wise and knowing her to be Daughter to the great Theodosius he fell so passionately in love with her that he courted her in Marriage and presently after by Alaricks consent did marry her You may imagine what force this wise Princesse did use upon her selfe before she consented unto this Marriage and Alliance and how prudent she had need to be in behaving her selfe amongst such a rude and barbarous people so wisely as she did god did in this make it appear that he had pitty upon miserable Rome for had it not been for this Alliance it had been utterly ruined for ever For it so fel out that Alarick dyed at Corsienses and the Prince Ataulfus was by the common voice of the Army chosen King If you look upon that Piece next unto Placidias you will imagine him to be a sterne and salvage person more delighted in blood and war then peace and he had no sooner gotten the absolute power but he went to Rome with a designe to burne and utterly demolish it thinking that as long as the Walls of this Town stood there would be still a Roman Emperour which name was so odious unto him that he would absolutely destroy the very memory of it When this prudent Princesse understood his intention she was resolved to do all that possibly she could to prevent him the utter ruine of her Country wounding her to the very soul At the first she shewed her selfe swelled with abundance of griefe and sorrow tears did abundantly flow from her fair eyes she refused her rest and meat and never ceased tormenting her selfe but when Ataulfus was by her and then she constrained her selfe to put as good a face upon it as she could This Prince who loved her so well as to marry her could not long endure to see her live thus but he must needs aske her the cause of her discontents unto which she made this answer I have done all that I possibly could O great King to hide my excessive sorrowes from you fearing I should but the more vex and trouble you with them but since nature will not permit me to conceal the sadnesse of my soul any longer and since the goodnesse of Ataulfus unto the wretched Placidia is such as to ask me I do most humbly beseech you take it not ill if I shed my tears in lieu of my blood for my Country's sad desolation and if to stop the ruine of it I could effect it I would much more willingly shed my blood then my tears My Country Oh great Sir my native Country that gave me breath it bleeds and it is ready to bleed to death and can you think I would not most willingly part with my life to stop the wounds ' Alas it would be better imployed that way then in your service Since you are pleased to do me so great a favour as to aske me the cause of my sorrowes I beseech you give me leave in all humility to aske you What advantage will the ruine of Rome and all Italy be unto you Does the riches and the treasures of it invite you to it Surely those are things too low and unworthy of your high courage besides those are things that cannot be expected out of an already ruined and plundered Country or a demolished and halfe burned Towne which hath been already ravaged by a vast Army Is it any glory that you expect to get by it I cannot believe it for what glory can be added unto that which you have already or what hopes is there to get in ruining those Walls which are already demolished in massacring a naked and disarmed people who cannot be brought into greater submission then they are If it be a shame to wound a dying man what honour can you expect in giving fresh wounds unto a dying people If you think to strengthen your Dominion by it be pleased Oh great Sir to let me tell you that it would be most horrid cruelty to do it by exterminating all the people of Italy Should you put them all to the sword you would be in lesse security then you are for you would thereby incense and raise against
token of his desire shewed unto her the Ring of her Husband She giving credit to the Messenger and suspecting nothing went and was conducted into the Garden being told that the Empresse was there Being brought into the most retired place of all the Garden you may imagine how astonished she was when she saw her selfe in the hands of Valentinian She began presently to look very pale upon it and to tremble The Emperour seeing it took her by the hand and would have carried her to sit downe in an Arbour which was in the midst of the Garden but seeing her selfe alone with him she refused to enter yet he taking her by the arme forced her in and shut the dore after them Oh heavens Silvander in what a terrible affright was poor Isidore when she saw this violent beginning it was as great as if she had been brought to the place of execution But the Emperour thinking to vanquish her by fair words and thinking that no woman would deny him he sat down by her and spoke in this manner I make no doubt fair Isidore but you think this stratagem which I have used very strange and perhaps are angry with me for it but I hope when you consider the violence of my affection how long it hath continued and how neither my owne reasons nor your rigour can quench it I hope I say that you will pardon my boldnesse that you will not think this action strange but will render my affection some satisfaction before you depart from hence Every thing does invite us to it first my unequal'd affection next the quality of him who loves you who being Emperour you may aspire unto the Empire if you will render me as much satisfaction as my love deserves and lastly the consideration of Maximus may move you unto it since you may see by his Ring that he does not only consent unto it but desire it What then my fair Isidore should hinder you from giving satisfaction to my longing desires Then offering to kisse her she turned her head the other way and would not permit him but beseeched him to sit down and hear her desiring if it were possible to overcome him by sweetnesse I must needs confesse Sir said she unto him that I am infinitely amazed to see my selfe alone with you in this dark and solitary place and so much against my minde since upon it depends the ruine of my honour and my life but I have a great confidence that you will do nothing against reason or my will especially when I do consider who you are and who I am Considering you as your selfe why should I fear being in the hands of the great Valentinian Son to the generous Emperour Constantius the most accomplished of any that ever wore the name of Cesar Valentinian I say whose Mother was the wise Placidia the honour and patterne of all Ladies Can you think great Sir that I am affraid of you whose wisdome is known throughout all the world and whose prudence every one admires also one from whom Justice is generally expected I should shew my selfe too ignorant of my Emperour's excellencies did I doubt his goodnesse or fear any harm from him in this solitary place where I am alone with him No no I dare trust my selfe any where in the hands of my honoured Emperour but I must needs confesse I think it strange that I should be brought hither by the consent of Maximus It vexeth me to the soul that he should thinke me so unworthy and that I should have one to my husband who is the very shame and scorne of men Now Sir I will not aske what it is you would have of me nor what occasion brought you to this place That Traytor who is the owner of this Ring and your owne discourse does but too plainly tell it But I do most humbly beseech you great and good Sir to consider that I have no more honour when this is gone and if you love me let me live worthy of great Cesars love Consider Sir that you trample under your feet the honour and the life of her you love and will so much injure your owne honour and reputation as well as mine as I know it will be impossible for you to repaire it againe You tell me that in rendering you this satisfaction I may pretend unto the Empire Oh heavens can you think me worthy so much as to live after so great a crime and staine unto mine honour If you do beare any good will unto me preserve me unstained untill you can make me such as you say and stay till it shall please the gods to bring it to passe If there be any truth in your words that you do love me And if you do love me never offer that which will make me exteamly hate you Can you imagine I shall ever love him that ravisheth away my honour which is much dearerto me then my life No no Sir I never can But I beseech you think upon Constantius your Father think upon Placidia your Mother and think upon God who hath miraculously seated you in the Throne he hath given you power to vanquish John by the hand of young Aspar John I say who otherwise had possessed the Empire he hath overcome for you the valiant Castinus by the valour of Artabures who a little before was a prisoner in Ravenna he hath subjected unto you the Prudent Aetius by the meanes of those who hardly knew you He hath defeated Boniface the Usurper of Affrica he hath made the Puissant Genserick King of the Vandals your friend To be briefe what has not this great God done for you And how thankfull ought you to be unto him Now Sir the very same god who has done all these for you does at this very instant see you and observes what cause you will give him either to continue his favours or to send you punishments Consider what miserable accidents and fatall tragedies have heretofore besalne this Empire upon the like occasions as this Oh most omnipotent Diety rather showre downe all thy thunderbolts upon me and hide me in the profundity of the earth then suffer me to be any cause of moving thy wrath against this Emperour Upon this she kneeled downe and continued And you great Sir I beseech you rather put me to death then ravish from me that which makes me worthy of your love or before you make me instrumentall to bring the odium both of god and men upon you Now Sir shew that you are truly Cesar and be as well a commander over your passions as you are victorious over your enemyes Valentinian seeing her upon her knees he tooke her up and was so moved with her expressions as he was ashamed of what he had done and wished that he had never attempted it Her words did so flow with reason as fast as her eyes with teares so as working upon her good nature they forced him into a resolution of overcoming himselfe and promised
in all his life saw a more imperious or haughty minded man aiming at no lesse then the Monarchy of the whole world and then gave himselfe the title of King of the Hunnes Medes Goths Danes and Gepides He also took upon him the title of The terrour of the world and the scourge of god And because I asked him whether his stature was equall to his courage he answered me That he was rather low then tall that he had a large breast a great head little eyes but quick and sparkling his nose flat his hair browne his strutting pace shewed the pride of his minde and the whole Symmetry of his face spoke him to be a lover of War Moreover he was subtle and though he was couragious yet seldome used to fight in person unlesse in great extremity reserving himselfe alwaies for a great necessity As he was very cruell and inhumain to his enemies so was he very sweet and courteous to such as submitted or having offended asked pardon unto whom he would alwaies keep promise inviolable and defend them against all whomsoever This character which Priseus gave of Attilas at his return to Rome did cause Honorica Sister unto Valentinian to desire a Marriage with him as afterwards I shall tell you But in the mean time to return unto Aetius be pleased to know kinde Silvander that this great Captain being out of Attilas's danger yet he knew that he was entring into a greater for should the Francks Burgundians and Visigots come to know their own strength they might much offend the Empire To keep them therefore in some fear he thought it expedient to save Attilas thinking that the fear they would have of so great an enemy would keep them alwaies united to the Emperour And because Thierres King of the Visigots was slain in this Battle and Thorismond and Thierres his Children in revenge of their Father would needs force Attilas in his Camp he seemed to love them much more then he hated Attilas and advised them to return in all haste unto Tholouse with the rest of their Army lest their Brothers who were left there should seize upon the King dome in their absence Thorismond who was of a distrustfull nature and knowing that he had three other Brothers in the Country called Frederick Rotomer and Honorick also taking Aetius for his friend without more delay he took the Body of his Father and went in all haste into Aquitain where he was very well received his Brothers having no such intention as Aetius perswaded him These Forces being thus separated from our Army it remained so weak that every one was of opinion that it was best to let Attilas go away and that a prudent Captain will make a Bridge of gold sometimes for his enemy to passe over Thus therefore this enemy of the Empire escaped the hands of Aetius and though this great Souldier had a good intention in it yet afterwards the Emperour took it very ill I alwaies followed Aetius in all this last expedition and durst not leave the Army as well because severall occasions of fighting presented themselves as because the fair Eudoxe commanded me so to do being desirous I should be absent from her lest any should take notice of my familiarity with her god only knowes how much it was against my will and how often I resolved to depart setting all considerations of duty and discreâ—â— behinde me but when I remembered the expresse command which she had laid upon me I could not disobey it Yet I stayed therefore in the Army about twelve years at the end of which time this Battle which I have told you of was fought 'T is true that in this long exile I received many Letters from Eudoxe by which she did still continue unto me assurances of her favour And because I had a great desire to do something which was worthy the amity of so great a Princesse I let passe no occasion of signalizing my selfe and giving testimonies of my courage by this means I got much reputation in the Army but more in the opinion of the fair Eudoxe who comming to the knowledge of it by Letters which Aetius writ unto the Emperour she rejoyced at it I shall as long as I live remember a Letter which I received from her after this great Battle it was thus written Eudoxe's Letter unto Ursaces IT is only my Cavalier that can astonish his enemies by his arme and his friends by his valour Twice to relieve the Roman Eagle and recover it from the Francks and Gepides thrice in one day to set Aetius upon his Horse when he was ready to be trodden in pieces by his enemies are actions most worthy of him who has my heart Since fortune hath hitherto seconded your valour I do forbid you to venture your selfe so far for the future as you have done for the time past And I command you to preserve your selfe not as your own but as mine have a care therefore of that which I give you to keep And when Aetius leaves the Army come you also and give me an account of it that as you have shared with him in his pains and dangers you may share also with him in that honour and welcome which all Italy will give him and which I will prepare for you During the time I was in the Army I fell into a great intimacy with a young Roman Cavalier called Olimbres the same you see here many good Offices passed betwixt one another as in such places many occasions fall out which tie such knots of friendship as never are loosed so as nothing ever since could separate us This Cavalier in respect of the amity betwixt us was so much in favour with Eudoxe that he was called to the Senate and created a Senator And certainly next her he prised my friendship at the highest rate unlesse Placidias for you must know that the intimacy of affection which was betwixt us would never let us part since the first beginning of our acquaintance unlesse it were in the service of each other So as he seeing me resolved upon a return for Rome when Aetius returned he would needs come with me and since nothing could be so secret which was not communicated unto one another I freely acquainted him with my affection to Eudoxe and her favours to me yet imposed a strict injunction of secrecy upon him and to take no notice of it lest she should be offended at me This declaration was a cause that he growing into familiarity with Eudoxe he presumed so high as to cast his eye upon Placidia her Daughter and began to court her when she was not above twelve years of age shewing in this a sympathy of humour betwixt him and me for it was at the same age when I began to court her Mother whom this her Daughter did much resemble Olimbres was younger then I being then not above seven and twenty years of age and I about thirty five and the fair Eudoxe about
thirty The fair Eudoxe and I took notice of this growing affection and Placidia did not give it any check And though Olimbres was neither King nor Emperour yet Eudoxe was not offended against this affection because Olimbres was very rich and of as illustrious a Race as any in Rome his Father Grandfather and great-Grandfather being all Senators and oftentimes Consulls so as upon these considerations so it came not to the eye of the Emperour she was not against it especially for the friendship sake that was betwixt him and me I thought fit to acquaint you with these things before I related my reception by the fair Eudoxe lest I should be constrained to interrupt my discourse Know therefore kinde Silvander that we returning with Aetius we were welcomed into Italy with all possible honour and thanks the Roman-people made such acclamations when this great Captain entred into the Town that never was a greater triumph But the Emperour had no great liking unto all this for this grandure of courage which was in Aetius the prudence wherewith he managed all â—is actions the applaud which the people gave him and the honour which all Italy rendred him did make Valentinian so jealous of the grandure of Aetius as he ever after looked asquint upon him and was apt to hearken and consent unto any ill counsell that was given him But for my part who looked after no matters of State but was wholly intent upon the favour of the fair Eudoxe as soon as I arrived with Aetius and had kissed the Emperours hand I went unto the Empresse where pretending I had some businesse with her from my Generall I saw her in private and received such a welcome as my twelve years seemed well imployed since army return I received such extraordinary favours Being at the last constrained to go out of her Closet lost my too long stay should beget suspicion I went unto the wise Isidore as to one whom next Eudoxe I loved and honoured most but I found her so changed from what she was wont to be as I wondred at it I asked her the cause but all the answer I could get was tears at which I wondred more I thought at first that cares of Marriage might perhaps be the cause or else perhaps her Husband was very sharp with her or else disdained her for some other and this doubt made me shorten my visit sooner then I would But when afterwards I observed that Maximus did love her and infinitely carrassed her and when I looked upon the riches and plenty of his house I was quite out of my first opinion and could not imagine what should be the cause of her sadnesse But one night as I was talking with the fair Eudoxe I understood that she came very seldome at Court and was so altered as she hardly knew her I began presently to suspect the businesse though not all yet in part and enquiring whether the love of Valentinian continued unto which she answering that she never took any notice of it Believe it my Princesse said I unto her that there is some ill understanding betwixt them the Emperour hath done her some displeasure or would do and that keeps her from comming to the Court for you have not driven her away by any disfavour her Husband is not unkinde Domestick affairs cannot trouble her and therefore her griefe must proceed from some higher cause Were it any malady of body it would appear I do believe said she that you are in the right for she never sees me but with tears in her eyes and when the Emperour comes where she is I shall see her change presently and go away as soon as possibly she can I have often asked her the reason but I could never get her to tell me Upon these considerations she commanded me to go unto her from her and use my best endeavours to discover the cause but all my labour was lost and I could finde out nothing but a great animosity against the Emperour When I made this report unto Eudoxe I advised her to seem as if she knew something concerning Valentinian and that perhaps would make her discover more And it hapned as I did imagine for being one night all three in the Closet of the Empresse and Isidore falling into her usuall tears Eudoxe seemed unto her as if she knew the cause upon which she began to confesse unto us the injury which the Emperour had done her and fell into such passionate expressions against him as the fair Eudoxe could not chuse but accompany her in her tears I did extreamly compassionate this good Lady and I must confesse that had it been any but the Emperour I should have offered her my hand and sword in revenge of the wrong do 〈…〉 to her but against him whom I acknowledged for my Lord unto whom I had pro 〈…〉 my fidelity and from whom I had received many benefits and much honour 〈…〉 ld sooner have dyed then entertained any thought of such a thing or attempted any thing against him or his Estate When they had condoled together a long while and that I could speak unto Eudoxe Madam said I unto her me-thinks you have now a good occasion offered to make me the most happy man alive How answered she You may my fairest Princesse said I unto her revenge your selfe by the same armes you are injured and do three or foure actions worthy of your selfe First you will be revenged upon him that hath wronged you next you will give some satisfaction to your dear Isidore and you will recompence me and make me the most contented man upon earth The wise Isidore who had not spoke a long time by reason of her tears did reply before the Empresse Madam said she and fell upon her knees I protest unto you I conceive that this is the most just revenge and best that I can any way receive nor is it reasonable that he who does so ill requite a happinesse which the heavens have given him should enjoy it without the same measure that he useth unto others Madam he is unworthy of you and you are unjust if you continue any longer his The injury which he hath done unto you his ingratitude unto the Emperour your Father the dishonour he hath done unto your House and the affront put upon the miserable Isidore whom you have heretofore loved does invite you to grant the request which Ursaces makes unto you What harm can come unto you by it You do love this Cavalier he is discreet none can ever know it and you may this way sweetly revenge an injury which is any other way irreparable The Empresse smiled and answered us Persons that are interrested are not compleat judges you do both of you advise me to a revenge which will offend me much more then before If the Emperour have committed a fault 't is true I do receive an injury by it but since I have not the dispose of his actions I am not culpable
point as this not for any great and large extent of Dominion but for its long continuance which seemes as if it would never have an end untill all things sublunary must have an universall change their lives are very pleasant their Lawes are very good and they are excellent both in Peace and War their Armies have been victorious God has given them the Sea for their Walls and does in every respect favour them so as there is great likelyhood of future Grandure These Isles do not now appear to be Isles but a great City built upon an infinite number of Bridges the Sea is their streets which running through in so many parts with so much art is admirable as well as their originall But to returne to our 〈◊〉 from whence I digressed after Attilas had taken Aquilea he made towards Rome and doubtlesse had sacked it if Valentinian for want of corrage had not rendred himselfe Tributary and consented that his Sister Honorica should be his wife But this dishonorable peace being made he retired into Pannonia where upon his marriage night and after abundance of wine and banquet being gone to bed he was found dead in it in the morning Some said it was by bleeding at the nose which choaked him others that he was killed by one of his wives which way soever it was he dyed the very night of his marriage easing the Empire by this meane both of feare and Tribute Valentinian in this necessity found what a fault he had committed in killing Aetius having not one Captaine that could stop this Barbarian nor any that cared for doing him service since he had shewed himselfe so bad a pay master For my part I was ashamed to be in Italy and see things in such strange desolation and would have tryed to have ruined my selfe with it had I not by Valentinians and Eudoxes command beene sent unto the Emperour Marcian to demand ayde as soone as Aquilea was besieged but I found Marcian very faint towards Valentinian as well because of Aetius his death as because Attiles sent him word that his coming into Italy was onely to obtaine Honorica with whom he was in love And knowing that Valentinian did obstinately deny her unto him he would not relieve him in this necessity into which he had brought himselfe by his ill government and without reason Whilest I was negotiating this businesse I fell so sicke that every one left me for dead and some told Eudoxe that they saw me buried You may imagine how she mourned for me for I may truly say that never any loved more then she me my disease was very dangerous being a spotted Fever and I continued in it above eight moneths and a friend of mine did write unto Isdore intimating my condition for I was not able to write my selfe In conclusion having stayed in Constaninople some eighteene or twenty months to no purpose I resolved to take ship for Ravenna where Valentinian was retreated with Eudoxe for his safety Italy being thus settled in peace Petronius Maximus the husband of wise Isidore began to think upon his revenge all things seeming to second his designe He was a man of great Authority in the Empire For he was Patriarch and having a designe of revenge and happily to make himselfe Emperour he had long beforehand gotten the love of the people and the Souldier of the one by his liberality for he was very rich and of the other by his popularity in seconding all requests which was made for the ease and freedome of the people And to render Valentinian odious unto every one he advised him secretly not to recompence the Souldiers either with honours or benefits and to lay such a load of taxes upon the people as should alwayes keepe them poore and unable to attempt any novelty and the better to accomplish his designe he exasperated all the friends of the great Aetius as much as possible he could and courted himselfe into intimat familiarity with them The Emperour never doubted of any of these things for he knew Maximus was of opinion that it was best to ruine Aetius besides it was now so long since the murder was committed that he beleeved every one had forgotten it And as for his injury done unto the wise Isidore he beleeved she had not acquainted her husband with it since in so many yeares he never made shew of any discontent Briefly he lived in such a carelesse security that he permitted the greatest friends of Aetius to be about his person Which Maximus having long observed and seeking for a meanes how to satisfie the wise Isidore who was continually putting him in minde of it one day taking Thrasiles apart who was one of the greatest friends which Aetius had and who then had the guard of the Emperours person he set before his eyes the untimely death of his freind and the carelessnesse of Valentinian intimating what an easie matter it was to take revenge upon him in so much as he moulded him unto his owne will And not being content with revenge only he went further and resolved to usurpe the Empire Maximus told Thrasiles that when this was come to passe he should find full satisfaction and contentment This resolution being taken it was not long before it was put in execution For Thrasiles had the opportunity when he would being alwayes neere the person of the Emperour One day therefore when Valentinian dyned in private Thrasiles and Maximus did miserably murder him and Heracles the Eunuch not for any offence that he made but for the counsell which he gave the â—â—perour when the wise Isidore was forced Thus dyed Valentinian after he had raignâ—â—â—irty yeares Had I been neere his person at that time doubtless I had dyed in defence of him For though the act which he had committed against Isidore was wicked yet there can be no cause whatsoever for lifting up a hand against a Soveraine Advise one may but never chastise much lesse take that life away which to save he ought to lose his owne I was then at the sacrifice with the faire Eudixe where the tumult was so great that for safety of herselfe she was forced to go out of Rome For Maximus having committed this homicide he knew that wickednesse must never be done by halves and therefore finding the power in his hands by the meanes of Thrasiles and some whose friendship he had gotten and also being assured of the peoples consent he presently caused himselfe to be elected and proclaimed Emperour and all this without the least opposition though the Towne was full of tumult Isidore was presently advertised of it both by her husband by the common report of Valentinians death And she had such an inveterate hatred of him that she could not believe unless she saw him dead Therfore she left her house went to the Palace and seeing his corps without a head she washt her hands in his blood received such a strange contentment in his death
life could not end upon a more noble account nor in a better cause Having ambuscado'd my selfe in a Wood neer the way of Hostia I saw some part of this great Army march in very bad order but my aime being only at Eudoxe I kept my selfe still close till I saw some Chariots comming in which I perceived some Ladies and supposing them to be the same I did expect I encouraged my men telling them that this would be an act worthy of a Roman name Upon setting spurs to my Horse and they most couragiously following me we charged these Chariots whose Guard was above ten thousand Barbarians I shal not relate the passage of this charge for it is impertinent But so it was that we routed them and had Eudoxe been there as I thought she was doubtlesse I had delivered her out of these barbarous hands but as ill luck was she was still behinde and those Ladies which I saw were such as had been taken in the City and Country and were to be carried with the rest of the Booty into Affrica Oh heavens how was I grieved when I saw my selfe thus mistaken and had all the Army on my back for upon this Tumult the Vanguard recoyled and the Reerguard advanced and drew into Battalia so as I was environed on all sides with so great a number of enemies as we could expect nothing but ruine Some ran away others stayed for my part I laid me down amongst the dead and was stripped of my clothes as they were and it was happy for me for my clothes being carried by a Souldier Eudoxe knew them and shewed them unto Olimbres who would not leave her All that she said was I see Ursaces at the last hath met with that Rest which Fortune ever denyed him Upon this expression she swouned in her Chariot Olimbres running after him who had my clothes he asked where he got them and being told the place he went presently unto it and sought till he found me how sad was he when he saw me However he got leave of the Vandal to do me the last office of buriall He would needs return to Rome and have me carried also upon Boughs I was so jogged in the carriage that I gave some signes of life Olimbres seeing this was beyond all measure glad and brought me into the first house they came unto where I received such Cordialls as I recovered out of my long swoun You may imagine Silvander how glad I was when carrying my friend to his grave I found him alive those who saw me did plainly see that his life was as deer unto me as my own yet we had both been happy had we ended our daies then for then I should not have grieved at the absence and ravishment of the fair Eudoxe nor Olimbres at parting from his dear Placidia This consideration made me resolve upon death as soon as I heard this persidious Genserick had carried Eudoxe and her two Daughters away but the great care which my friend had of me kept me from the execution of my designe as long as my wounds kept me in bed But when I had recovered my selfe of these wounds and was able to get upon a Horse I stole away as secretly as possibly I could from him and taking the way towards Tuscany I hid my self in the Appennine Mountaines intending to die with hunger or some such hardship not being willing to shed my blood for fear of offending the great god who punisheth Homicides At the last the languishment of this life made me resolve upon a more sudden death and when casting off all consideration of heaven I would have run my sword to my heart my dear Olimbres came and stayed my arme so by this means gave me a life the second time Then afterwards when I still persisted in my resolution to effect my intentions a young man came in whose beauty and wisdome did make us think that comming in such a nick of time he was some messenger sent from god purposely to divert me from my designe I must confesse that at the first I thought him so and was so obedient to his words that I had no minde to kill my selfe hoping to receive from him some supernaturall aid so as being thus deceived we all three went unto the next Town to get Olimbres dressed of a great wound which I gave him when he offered to take the sword out of my hand where with I would have killed my selfe But when I understood that this young man was a Segusian as you are and that he came to the place where I was by meer chance I confesse I took a stronger resolution of dying then before and doubtlesse had but for this young man whose name was Celadon as afterwards he told me who used such strong arguments and gave me such good reasons that I resolved to stay till the recovery of Olimbres There was in this place an old and grave Chirurgeon who dressed the wound of my friend whose age and travells in severall Countries had got him great knowledge and experience this man took speciall notice of our sorrowes and as one word may sometimes discover what we desire to keep secret so I did not so well dissemble the matter but he did partly suspect my designe so as one day he took me aside and said thus unto me Think it not strange Sir that I unasked intrude my selfe to give you some counsell my age your merit and my duty to god invites me to it take therefore in good part what I shall say I know that you are seized with extream sorrowes and that you have a designe against your own life Do not offer it for god after your death will most severely punish all murderers of themselves And besides to kill ones selfe argues a defect in courage as if you durst not look a dysaster in the face and as those who fly for fear of their enemies so such as kill themselves for fear of any dysaster do flye out of the world for want of courage and because they dare not abide one of fortune's blowes God hath given unto man judgment and prudence to make his election by solid and sound reason and because man being possessed with passion can neither judge nor chuse aright he hath given him a communicative soul to the end that making choice of one or more friends he may ask counsell of them in all matters of importance And because friends are very often interested in their friends businesse this god not leaving man without a good guide hath given him Judges and Kings to order and decide all manner of doubts and controversies This great Creator of men loving them as his Children would furnish them with all that is necessary both to live and to die and to that end hath inspired the Massilians to constitute prudent Judges it seeming unto them that death is no injury but a tribute of nature and therefore it would be unjustly done to deny that remedy