affection to Monfredo and therefore with frownes in her lookes and anger in her eyes she thunders out a whole Catalogue of disprayses and recriminations against him and because yet shee despayreth to prevaile with her hereby shee now thinking it high time resolves to divert and change the streame of her affection from him to God and so at last to mew and betake her to a Nunnery whereon her desires and intentions have so long ruminated and her wishes and vowes aymed at to which end calming the stormes of her tongue and composing her countenance to patience and piety she with her best art and eloquence speakes to her thus That in regard she will not accept of don Delrio for her husband with whom shee might have injoyed prosperity content and glory but will rather marry Monfredo from whom she can and must expect nothing but poverty griefe and repentance shee therefore out of her naturall regard of her and tender affection to her hath by the direction of God bethought her selfe of a medium betweene both which is to marry neither of them but in a religious and sanctifyed way to espouse her selfe to God and his holy Church when thinking to have taken time by the forelocke shee depainteth her the felicity and beatitude of a Nunnes profession and life so pleasing to God and the World to Heaven and Earth to Angels and Men When her daughter Cecilliana being tyred and discontented with this poore and ridiculous oration of hers shee lifting up her eyes to Heaven with a modest boldnesse and yet with a bold truth interrupts her mother thus that God hath inspired heâ—… heart to affect Monfredo so deerely and to love him so tenderly as shee will rather content her selfe to beg with him then to live with Delrio in the greatest prosperity which either this life or this world can afford her that although shee had no bad opinion of Nunnes yet that neither the constitution of her body much lesse of her minde was proper for a Nunnery or a Nunnery for her in which regard shee had rather pray for them then with them and honour then imitate them when the Lady her mother not able to containe her selfe in patience much lesse in silence at this audacity and as shee thought impiety of her daughter she with much choller and spleene demands her a reason of these her exorbitant speeches When her daughter no way dejecting her lookes to earth but rather advancing and raysing them to heaven requites her with this answer That it is not the body but the minde not the flesh but the soule which is chiefly requisite and required to give our selves to God and his Church that to throw or which is worse to permit our selves to be throwne on the Church through any cause of constraint or motion of distaste or discontent is an act which savoureth more of prophanenesse then piety and more of earth then heaven that as Gods power so his presence is not to bee confined or tyed to any place for that his Centre is every where and therefore his circumference no where that God is in Aegypt as well as in Palestyne or Hierusalem and that heaven is as neere us and wee heaven in a Mansion house as in a Monastery or Nunnery that it is not the place which sanctifyeth the heart and soule but they the place and that Churches and Cloysters have no priviledge or power to keepe out sin if we by our owne lively faith and God by his all-saving grace doe not Which speech of hers as soon as she had delivered and seeing that the Lady her mother was more capable to answer her thereunto with silence then reason she making her a low reverence and craving her excuse departs from her and leaves her here alone in the Garden to her selfe and her Muses Her mother having a little walked out her choller in seeing her daughters firme resolution not to become a Nunne shee leaves the garden and retires to her Chamber where sending for her sonne Martino she relates him at full what conference had there past betweene his sister and her selfe who likewise is so much perplexed and grieved hereat as putting their heads and wits together they within a day or two vow to provide a remedy for this her obstinacie and wilfulnesse As for Cecilliana shee likewise reports this verball conference which had past betweene her mother and her selfe to her brother Don Pedro and Monfredo when according to promise they met that afternoone in the Augustines garden who exceedingly laugh thereat and yet againe fearing lest the malice of their brother Don Martino towards them mought cause his mother to use some violence or indurance to her and so to make force extort that from her will which faire meanes could not they bid her to assume a good courage and to be cheerefull and generous promising her that if her mother attempted it that Monfredo should steale her away by night and that hee as hee is don Pedro her brother will assist her in her escape and flight whereon they all resolve with hands and conclude with kisses Neither did their doubts prove vaine or their feare and suspicion deceive them herein for her incensed mother being resolute in her will and wilfull in â—…er obstinacie to make her daughter a Nunne shee shuts her up in her Chamber makes it no lesse then her prison and her brother don Martino her Guardian or â—…ather her Goaler Poore Cecilliana now exceedingly weepes and grieves at this â—…ruelty of her mother and brother don Martino which as yet her deare brother don â—…dro cannot remedy by perswading or prevailing with them to release her hee acquaints Monfredo herewith and they both consulting finde no better expedient to free her from this domesticall imprisonment then counterfeitly to give her mother to understand and believe that her daughter hath now changed her mind and that by Gods direction shee is fully resolved to abandon Monfredo and so to spend and end her dayes in a Nunnery but contrariwise they resolve to fetch her away by night and without delay Accordingly hereunto Cecilliana acts her part well and pretends now to this spirituall will and resolution of her mother sa before she was disobedient Her mother infinitly rejoyceth at this her conversion and no lesse or rather more doth her brother don Martino who to fortifie and confirme her in this her religious resolution they send some Friers and Nunnes to perswade her to appoynt the precise day for her entrance into this Holy house and Orders which with her tongue shee doth but in her heart resolves nothing lesse or rather directly the contrary The mother now acquaints both her sonnes with this resolution of their sister which is the next Sunday to give her selfe to God and the Church and to take holy Orders when don Pedro purposely very artificially seemes as strongly to oppose as his brother don Martino cheerefully approves thereof now extolling her devotion and piety as farre as the
and France was shortly followed by a peace as a Mother by the daughter Which was concluded at the Hage by his Excellency of Nassaw and Marquis Spinola being chiefe Commissioners of either party Alsemero seeing his hopes frustrated that the keyes of peace had now shut up the Temple of Warre and that Muskets Pikes and corslets that were wont to grace the fields where now rusting by the walls he is irresolute what course to take resembling those fishes who delight to live in cataracts and troubled waters but die in those that are still and quiet For hee spurnes at the pleasures of the Court and refuseth to haunt and frequent the companies of Ladies And so not affecting but rather disdaining the pompe bravery and vanity of Courtiers hee withdrawes himselfe from Validolyd to Valentia with a noble and generous intent to seeke warres abroad sith hee could find none at home where being arived although hee were often invited into the companies of the most noble and honorable Ladies both of the City and Country Yet his thoughts ranne still on the warres in which Heroike and illustrious profession he conceived his chiefest delight and felicity and so taking order for his lands and affaires he resolves to see Malta that inexpugnable Rampier of Mars the glory of Christendome and the terrour of Turky to see if hee could gaine any place of command and honour either in that Iland or in their Gallies or if not he would from thence into Transilvania Hungary and Germany to inrich his judgement and experience by remarking the strength of their Castles and Cities their orders and discipline in warre the Potency of their Princes the nature of their Lawes and customes and all other matters worthy the observation both of a Travellour and a Souldier and so building many castles in the ayre he comes to Alicant hoping to find passage there for Naples and from thence to ship himselfe upon the Neapolitan Gallies for Malta There is nothing so vaine as our thoughts nor so uncertaine as our hopes for commonly they deceive us or rather wee our selves in relying on them not that God is any way unjust for to thinke so were impiety but that our hopes take false objects and have no true foundation and to imagine the contrary were folly the which Alsemero finds true for here the winde doth oppose him his thoughts fight and vanquish themselves yea the providence of God doth crosse him in his intended purposes and gives way to that hee least intendeth For comming one morning to our Ladies Church at Masse and being on his knees in his devotion he espies a young Gentlewoman likewise on hers next to him who being young tender and faire hee thorow her thinne vaile discovered all the perfections of a delicate and sweet beauty shee espies him feasting on the dainties of her pure and fresh cheekes and tilting with the invisible lances of his eyes to hers he is instantly ravished and vanquished with the pleasing object of this Angelicall countenance and now hee can no more resist either the power or passion of love This Gentlewoman whose name as yet wee know not is young and faire and cannot refraine from blushing and admiring to see him admire and blush at her Alsemero dies in conceit with impatiency that hee cannot enjoy the happinesse and meanes to speake with her but hee sees it in vaine to attempt it because shee is ingaged in the company of many Ladies and hee of many Cavaliers But Masse being ended hee enquires of a good fellow Priest who walked by what shee was and whether she frequented that Church and at what houre The Priest informes him that shee is Don Diego de Vermandero's daughter hee beeing Captaine of the Castle of that Citie that her name was Dona Beatrice-Ioana and that shee is every morning in that Church and Place and neere about the same houre Alsemero hath the sweetnesse of her beauty so deepely ingraven in his thoughts and imprinted in his heart that hee vowes Beatrice-Ioana is his Mistresse and hee her servant yea here his warlike resolutions have end and strike sayle And now hee leaves Bellona to adore Venus and forsakes Mars to follow Cupid yea so fervent is his flame and so violent is his passion as hee can neither give nor take truce of his thoughts till hee bee againe made happy with her sight and blessed with her presence The next morne as Lovers love not much rest Alsemero is stirring very timely and hoping to find his Mistresse no other Church will please him but our Ladies nor place but where hee first and last saw her but shee is more zealous then himselfe For shee is first in the Church and on her knees to her devotion whom Alsemero gladly espying hee kneeles next to her and having hardly the patience to let passe one poore quarter of an houre hee resolving as yet to conceale his name like a fond Lover whose greatest glory is in complements and Courting his Mistresse hee boards her thus Faire Lady it seemes that these two mornings my devotions have beene more powerfull and acceptable then heeretofore sith I have had the felicitie to bee placed next so faire and so sweet a Nymph as your selfe whose excellent beauty hath so sodainely captivated mine eyes and so secretly ravished my heart that hee which heretofore rejected cannot now resist the power of love and therefore having ended my devotion I beseech you excuse mee if I begin to pray you to take pittie of mee sith my flame is so fervent and my affection is so passionate as either I must live yours or not dye mine owne Beatrice-Ioana could not refraine from blushing under her vaile to see an unknowne Cavalier board her in these tearmes in the Church and as shee gave attentive eare to his speech so shee could not for a while refraine from glancing her eye upon the sprucenesse of his person and the sumptuousnesse of his apparell but at last accusing her owne silence because shee would give him no cause to condemne it shee with a modest grace and a gracefull modesty returnes him this answer Sir as your devotions can neither bee pleasing to God nor profitable to your soule if in this place you account it a felicity to enjoy the sight of so meane a Gentlewoman as my selfe so I cannot repute it to affection but flattery that this poore beauty of mine which you unjustly paint forth in rich prayses should have power either to captivate the eyes or which is more to ravish the heart of so noble a Cavalier as your selfe Such victories are reserved for those Ladies who are as much your equall as I your inferiour and therefore directing your zeale to them if they find your affection such as you professe to mee no doubt but regarding your many vertues and merits they will in honour grant you that favour which I in modesty am constrained to deny you Alsemero though a novice in the art of Love was not so
yield and render up to the Kings lawes and justice but hee is resolute to defend himselfe They threaten him with their Pistols but their sight doe as little amaze him as their report and bullets So they alight from their Horses and environ him with their Swords and having hurt two of them and performed the part of a desperate Gladiator the third joyning with him they breake his Rapier within a foote of the Hilt whereat hee yields himselfe Alsemero thus taken is the same night brought backe to Alicant in whose Gates and Streets a wonderfull concourse of people assemble to see him passe who as much pitty his person as execrate and condemne his fact The Senate is assembled and Alsemero brought to appeare who considering the hainousnesse of his treacherous and bloudy fact which the Devill had caused him to commit hee stayes for no witnesses but accuseth himselfe of this Murther the which from point to point hee confesseth and so they adjudge him to lose his head but this is too honourable a death for a Gentleman who hath so treacherously and basely dishonoured and blemished his Gentility As hee is on the Scaffold preparing himselfe to dye and seeing no farther hope of life but the image of death before his eyes knowing it no time now either to dissemble with God or to feare the Law hee to the amazement of all the world tells the people that although he killed Don Thomaso Piracquo yet hee had no hand in the Murther of his brother Don Alonso whom hee sayd De Flores at the instigation of his wicked and wretched wife Beatrice-Ioana had murthered and buryed in the East Casemate of the Castle and withall affirmed that if hee were guilty in any thing concerning that Murther it was onely in concealing it which hee had done till then and whereof hee sayd he now most heartily repented himselfe as being unwilling any longer to charge his soule with it sith hee was ready to leave this world and to goe to another and so besought them all to pray unto God to forgive him whose sacred Majesty hee confessed hee had highly and infinitely offended and wished them all to beware and flie the temptations of the Devill and to become better Christians by his example The Iudges advertised hereof cause his head to be strucken off for murthering of Don Thomaso Piracquo and his body to be throwne into the Sea for concealing that of Don Alonso which was accordingly executed and from the place of Execution they immediately goe to the Castle and so to the East Casemate where causing the stones to be removed they find the mournfull murthered body of Don Alonso Piracquo which they give to his kinsfolkes to receive a more honourable Buriall according to his ranke and degree and from thence they returne to the Churches where the Bodies of De Flores and Beatrice-Ioana were interred after they were brought backe from Valentia the which for their horrible Murther they at the common place of Execution cause to bee burned and their ashes to be throwne into the ayre as unworthy to have any resting place on earth which they had so cruelly stayned and polluted with innocent bloud Loe here the just punishment of God against these devillish and bloudy Murtherers at the sight of whose executions all that infinite number of people that were Spectatours universally laud and prayse the Majesty of God for purging the earth of such unnaturall and bloudy Monsters GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND EXEcrable sinne of Murther HISTORIE V. Alibius murthereth his Wife Merilla hee is discovered first by Bernardo then by Emilia his owne daughter so he is apprehended and hanged for the Fact HOw farre are they from having peace with God and all his creatures when they lay violent hands on their owne wives yea when they murther them in their beds in stead of reposing their secrets and affections in â—…heir bosomes These are hellish resolutions and infernall stratagems that nature neither allowes nor grace approves For besides the Vnion betwixt God and his Church there is none so absolute and perfect on earth as is that of Man and Wife for as this world hath made them two persons so God hath conjoyned and made them one and therefore what madnesse nay what cruelty is it to be so cruell to those who if not our selves are at least our second selves Charity the daughter of heaven teacheth us to love all the world but especiâ—…lly those who are our kinsfolkes or friends Religion the mother of Charity steps a degree farther and injoyneth us to love those who hate us yea these likewise are not onely the rules of nature but the precepts of grace therefore to kill those who love us and to depâ—…ive those of life who did occasion present are ready to sacrifice theirs for the preservation of ours it must needs proceed rather from a monster then a man or rather from a devill then a monster but such devills and such monsters are but too rife and common in these our sinfull times And amongst others I here produce one for exâ—…mple who for that cruell and inhumane fact of his by the justice of God was justly rewarded with a halter And may all those who perpetrate the like crime partitipate of the same or of a worse punishment IN the Parish of Spreare some fifteene miles distant from the beautifull and noble City of Brescia in the Territories of the Venetians there dwelt a poore countrey man termed Alibius who could vaunt of no other wealth left him by his deceased parents but that hee was a man of a comely stature and proportion and withall that they were of an honest fame and reputation so if his vertues had answered theirs his poverty had never proved so pernicious and fatall an enemy to him as to ruine his fortunes with his life and his life with his fortunes or had the vices of his soule not contaminated or stayned the perfections of his body my pen had slept in silence and his History layne raked up in the dust of his grave but sith his actions have exceeded the bounds both of nature and grace yea sith hee hath learned of the Devill to imbath his hands in poyson and to imbrue them in innocent bloud I incouraged by the connivencie and silence of others not out of any want of charity to the memory of dead Alibius but in detestation of his bloudy resolution and actions and chiefely and especially to the comfort and instruction of the living who may abhorre his crime by the sight of his punishment I have adventured and resolved to give this a place among the rest of my tragicall Histories that Italie as well as Brescia and Spreare and peradventure the whole Christian world with Italie may understand thereof This Alibius as soone as he had attained the age of five and twenty yeares marryed an honest Mayden termed Merilla being a Farmers daughter of the same Parish of Spreare with whom he had but small
Sypontus and Victorina she like a bad woman a wicked wife and a wreched creature redoubleth him her complaints and discontents against her husband and because Sypontus knowes it wisedome to strike whiles the Iron is hot as also that Time must be taken by the forelocke he like a wretched Politician layes hold of this occasion and opportunity and so consenteth to the Murther of her husband when from this bloudy resolution they passe to the manner how to effect it they consult on this lamentable businesse Victorina industrious in her malice proposeth to poyson him and so to bury him in her little garden but Sypontus dislikes this project and profers her to murther him in his Gondola as he comes from Luifizina whereon they agree So some ten dayes after Victorina advertiseth him that her husband is to goe to his house of pleasure in the Countrey neere Padua on the banke of the River Brenta where hee is onely to stay three dayes Sypontus imbraceth this occasion and continually wantonizing with his wife in his absence promiseth her to meet her husband at his returne and then to dispatch him which newes with a longing desire this miserable Curtezan Victorina attends him with as much impatience as impudencie Sypontus in the meane time in favour of twice ten Zeckynes is prepared of two wicked Gondoliers or Watermen who deepely vow and sweare to conceale this Murther So the precise day of Souranza's departure from his Countrey house being come Sypontus not to faile of his promise to Victorina in the execution of his bloody and damnable attempt takes his Gondola and hovers in the direct passage betwixt Lucifizina and Venice for Souranza his arrivall who poore harmelesse Gentleman loved his young wife so tenderly and dearely as hee thought this short time long that hee had wanted from her but hee hath seene his last of her and allasse alasse hee shall see an end of himselfe for about five of the clocke in the evening it being Summer time his usuall houre of returne hee takes Gondola at Lucifizina for Venice and neere midway twixt both Sypontus espies him and the sooner because it being hot weather and no wind stirring Souranza had caused his courtaines to bee withdrawne Sypontus inflamed with boyling malice and Revenge with all possible celerity makes towards his Gondola the which disguised and masked hee enters and there with his Ponyard very divellishly stabs him three severall times at the heart when falling downe to his feet hee most barbarously cut of his beard and nose that hee might not bee knowne and so throwes him into the Sea as also his Waterman after him that they might tell no tales when having finished these execrable Murthers hee with his Gondola with all possible speed hyes first to Murano and so lands by the Patriarchy from thence by the Arsenall and so to his owne house behind Saint Servi's Church thereby to cast a fayrer varnish on this villany by landing and comming into the Citie another way when being arrived at his house hee that night by a confident servant of his sends Victoryna this Letter SYPONTVS to VICTORYNA FAire and deare Victoryna I have begun and ended a businesse which infinitly imports thy good and my content the party hath drunke his fill of White and Claret and is now gone to his eternall rest so a little time I hope will wipe off thy old teares and confirme thy new joyes bee but as affectionate as I secret and as secret as till death I will bee affectionate and thou needst neither feare my fortunes nor doubt thine owne judge what I would doe to injoy thee and for thy sake sith I have already undertaken and acted a businesse of this nature we must for a time refraine each others company that wee may the sooner meet and imbrace withmore content and lesse danger SYPONTVS Victoryna infinitly rejoyceth at this newes and the better to cloke her malice under the vaile of secrecie shee laments and complaines to her father of her husbands long absence Souranza's Parents are by Beraldi acquainted herewith they begin to finde the time of his stay very long and now resolve to send his nephew Scignior Andrea Souranza up the river Brenta to know the cause thereof hee passeth and repasseth the Sluce of Lucifizina and brings word that hee departed thence for Venice in a Gondola foure dayes since Victoryna his wife grieves and weepes at his absence so doe his owne Parents and friends who enquiâ—…e of all sides but finde comfort or newes from none what is become of him And here Reader before thy curiosity carry thee further I conjure thee to stand astonished and wonder at the inscrutable and wonderfull judgement of God in the detection of this Murther For Fishermen some eight dayes casting out their nets betwixt the Ilands of La Lazareto and Saint George Majore bring up this dead body of Murthered Souranza being well apparelled but chiefly for their owne discharge they bring the dead corps to Venice and lanâ—… him at Saint Markes stayres where they extend and expose his body to bee knowne of passengers now behold further Gods miraculous providence in the discovery and finding out hereof for amongst the numberlesse number of spectators and walkers who dayly and almost hourely frequent and adorne that famous Burse and incomparable Pâ—…lace it happened that Andrea Souranza cast his eye on this dead and sea-withered body on whom hee lookes with as much stedfastnesse as curiosity as if Nature had made his living body a part of that dead or as if his hot bloud had some sympathy and affinity with that of the dead personage which long since the coldnesse of the Sea had congealed and frozen but at last espying a red spot in his necke under his right eare that hee brought into the world with him and which all the influence and vertue of the water of the Sea had not power to deface and wash away as also observing a wart over his left eye-lid which Nature had given his birth and his youth his age hee passionately cryes out before the world that it is the body of his Vncle Seigâ—…ior Iovan Baptista Souranza so it is visited by his Parents and friends and knowne to bee the same so they carry him to an adjoyning house and there devesting it naked finde that hee hath tâ—…ree severall wounds in his body either of a Sword or Ponyard which gives matter of talke and administreth cause of admiration in all the City so they bury him honourably according to his ranke and degree and all knowing him to bee Murthered infinitly bewaile his untimely and lament his mournefull death but especially his wife Victoryna who having formerly plaid the strumpet then the Murtheresse now takes on the maske and assumes the representation of an Hypocrite outwardly seeming to dye for sorrow when God and her foule ulcerated conscience knowes that inwardly her heart leapes for joy thus to bee depriv'd and freed of her old husband
prison although she partly believed and knew that she never affected or loved her when ayming to adde consolation to her afflictions as God would have it Laurieta out of her ignorance or folly returnes la 〈◊〉 this unlooked for answer That her selfe was as innocent of Belluile's death as shee was of Poligny's Which words being over-heard by some curious head of the company were instantly carryed and reported to the Criminall Iudges who instantly cause la Palaisiere to bee apprehended and brought before them whom they examine upon Poligny's death which doth no way affâ—…ight or afflict her because her conscience was untainted and her selfe as innocent as innocencie her selfe thereof They deale further with her to understand the passages of former businesses betwixt her selfe Poâ—…gny and Belluile Shee gives them a true and faithfull account thereof yea and relates them as much and no more then this History hath formerly related us and to verifie and confirme her speeches like a discreet young Gentlewoman she gives them the keyes of a Trunke of hers wherein shee sayth is her copy of a Letter shee wrote to Poligny and his answer againe to her which shee prayes them to send for for her better cleering and discharge The Iudges send speedily away for these Letters which are found produced and read directly concurring with the true circumstance of her former deposition whereupon with much applause and commendation they acquit and discharge her But if la Palaisiers Vertues have cleered her Laurieta's Vices which the Iudges begin to smell out by Poligny's Letter doe the more narrowly and streightly imprison her and yet knowing that la Palasiere neither had nor could any way accuse her for either of these two Murthers she sets a good face on her bad heart and so very bravely frollikes it in prison and to speake truth with farre more joy and lesse feare then heretofore but to checke and overthrow these vaine triumphs of hers in their birth and to niâ—… them in their bâ—…ds newes is brought her that her Wayting mayd Lucilla is secretly fled which her Iudges understanding they now more vehemently then ever heretofore suspect that without doubt Laurieta was the authour and her Mayd Lucilla the accessary of Belluile's Murther and so they set all the city and countrey for her apprehension And this newes indeed makes Laurieta feare that shee will iâ—…allibly be taken which doth afflict and amaâ—…e her and indeed here at shee cannot refraine from biting her lip and hanging downe her head But see the miraculous and just judgement of the Lord upon this wretched and bloudy Lucilla for she for feare flying as it is supposed that night from Avignion to Orenge to her parents was there drowned and the next morne found and taken up dead in one of the Fenny Lakes betwixt the two Cities Which newes being reported to Laurieta she againe converts her feare into hope and sorrowes into joyes as knowing well that dead bodies can tell no tales But the wisedome and integrity of the Iudges by the apparencie of Laurieta's crime in that of her Wayting-mayds flight againe command her to be racked but the devill is yet so strong with her and she with the devill that she againe indures the cruelty of these torments with a wonderfull patience with an admirable constancie and resolution and so couragiously and stoutly denying her crime and peremptorily maintaining her innocencie and justification her Iudges led by the consideration of the sharpnesse and bitternesse of her torments as also that they could finde no direct proof or substantiall evidence against her beginne to conceive and imagine that it might be the Wayting-mayd and not the Mistresse that had sent Belluile into another world and so resolve the weeke following if they heard nothing in the meane time to accuse Laurieta to release and acquit her which Laurieta understanding the torments which her limbes and body feele are nothing in respect of those contentments and joyes her heart and thoughts conceive and already building castles and triumphs in her heaâ—… and contemplations for the hope and joy of her speedy inlargement she in her appareâ—… and behaviour flaunts it out farre braver then before But she hath not yet made heâ—… peace with her Iudges neither have they pronounced her Quieta est And alas how foolishly and ignorantly doth the vanity of her hopes deceive and betray her whenâ—… the foulenesse of her soule and contamination of her conscience every houre and minute prompt her that God the Iudge of Iudges who hath seene will in his good time and pleasure both detect and punish as well her whoredome as her murther in heâ—… death And lo here comes both the cause and the manner thereof wherein Gods providence and justice doe miraculously resplend and shine For Laurieta being indebted to her Land-lord Mounsieur de Riehcourt as well for a whole yeares rent as for three hundred Livres in money which hee had lent her being impatient of her delayes but more of her disgrace le ts out that part of his house which shee held of him to the Deane of Carpentras who for his healths sake came to sojourne that Winter in Avignion and despairing of her inlargement and to satisfie himselfe beginnes to sell away her household-stuffe yea to the very Billets which she had in her Cellar which he retaines for himselfe whereof when his servants came to cleere the Cellar they removing the last Billets finde the earth newly removed and opened in the length and proportion of a Grave wherof wondring they presently informe their Master who viewing the same as God would have it hee instantly apprehended and believed that Laurieta had undoubtedly killed Belluile and there buried him when not permitting his servants to remove the least jot of earth he as a discreet and honest Citizen with all possible celeritie trips away to the Criminall Iudges and acquaints them herewith who concurring with Richcourt in his opinion and belief they dispeed themselves to his house and Cellar where causing the new opened earth to be removed behold they find the miserable dead body of Belluile there inhumanely throwne in and buried in his cloaths which causing to be taken off thereby to search his body they find himshot into the reines with two Pistoll bullets and his body stabd and pâ—…erced with sixe severall wounds of a Rapier or Ponyard they are amazed at this pitifull and lamentable spectacle and so resting confident it could be no other but Laurieta and her Mayd Lucilla that had committed this cruell Murther they very privately and secretly cause Belluiles dead body to bee conveyed to the prison and there when Laurieta least dreamt thereof expose it to her sight and in rough termes charge and crie out upon her for this Murther but this monster of nature and shee-devill of her sexe hath yet her heart so obdurated with revenge and her soule so o're-clouded and benumm'd with impiety as shee is nothing daunted or terrifyed with the sight hereof but
lesse doth his father Castelnovo for that of his sonne onely their griefes comformable to their passions are diametrically different and opposite for hers were fervent and true as proceeding from the sinceritie of her affection and his hypocriticall and faigned as derived from the profundity of his malice and revenge towards him And not to transgresse from the Decorum and truth of our History old Castelnovo could not so artificially beare and over-vaile his sorrowes for his Sonnes death but the premises considered our young afflicted widdow and Lady vehemently suspecteth hee hath a hand therein and likewise partly beleeves that Ierantha is likewise accessary and ingaged therein in respect she lookes more aloft and is growne more familiar with her Lord and Master then before And indeed as her sorrows increase her jealousie so her jealousie throws her into a passionate and violent resolution of Revenge both against him and her if shee can bee futurely assured that they had Murthered and poysoned the Knight her husband Now to bee assured heereof shee thus reasoneth with her selfe that if her Father in law were the Murtherer of his Sonne her husband his malice and hatred to him proceeded from his beastly lust to her selfe and that hee now dispatched hee would againe shortly revive and renew his old lascivious suit to her which if hee did shee vowes to take a sharpe and cruell Revenge of him which shee will limit with no lesse then his death And indeed wee shall not goe farre to see the event and truth answer her suspicion For within a moneth or two after her husband was laid in his untimely grave his old lustfull and lascivious father doth againe burst and vomit forth his beastly sollicitations against her chastity and honour which observing shee somewhat disdainefully and coyly puts him off but yet not so passionately nor chollerickely as before onely of purpose to make him the more eager in his pursuit thereby the better to draw him to her lure that shee might perpetrate her malice and act her Revenge on him and so make his death the object of her rage and indignation as his lust and malice were the cause of the sorrowes of her life But unfortunate and miserable Lady what a bloudy and hellish enterprize dost thou ingage thy selfe in and why hath thy affection so blinded thy conscience and soule to make thy selfe the authour and actour of so mournefull and bloudy a Tragedy For alas alas sweet Perina I know not whether more to commend thy affection to thy husband or condemne thy cruell malice intended to his father For O griefe O pitty where are thy vertues where is thy Religion where thy conscience thy soule thy God thus to give thy selfe over to the hellish tentations of Satan Thou which heretofore fled'st from adultery wilt thou now follow Murther or because thy heart would not bee accessary to that shall thy soule bee now so irreligious and impious to bee guilty of this But as her father in law is resolute in his lust towards her so is shee likewise in her revenge towards him and farre the more in that shee perceives Ierantha's great belly sufficiently proclaimes that shee hath plaid the strumpet and which is worse shee feares with her execrable and wretched Father in Law so as now no longer able to stop the furious and impetuous current of her revenge shee is so gracelesse and bloudy as shee vowes first to dispatch the Lord and Master then the Wayting-Gentlewoman as her thoughts and soule suggest her they had done first the Mother then the Sonne so impious are her thoughts so inhumane and bloudy her resolutions Now in the interim of this time the old Lecher her father is againe become impudent and importunate in his suit so our wretched Lady Perina degenerating from her former vertues and indeed from her selfe she after many requests and sollicitations very feignedly seemes to yeild and strike sayle to his desire but indeed with a bloody intent to dispach him out of this world So having concluded this sinfull fatall Match there wants nothing but the finishing and accomplishing thereof onely they differ in the manner and circumstances the Father is desirous to goe to the Daughter in lawes bed the Daughter to the Father in lawes but both conclude that the night and not the day shall give end to this lascivious and beastly businesse his reason is to avoyd the jealousie and rage of Ierantha whom now although she bee neere her time of deliverance hee refuseth to marry her but the Lady Perina's if that she may pollute and staine his owne bed with his bloud and not hers but especially because shee may have the fitter meanes to stab and murther him and hereon they conclude To which end not only the night but the houre is appoynted betwixt them which being come and Castelnovo in bed burning with impatience and desire for her arrivall hee thinking on nothing but his beastly pleasures nor she but on her cruell malice and revenge she softly enters his chamber but not in her night but her day attire having a Pisa Ponyard close in her fleeve when having bolted his Chamber doore because none should divert her from this her bloudy designe she approaching his bed and hee lifting himselfe up purposely to welcome and kisse her shee seeing his brest open and naked like an incensed fury drawes out her Ponyard and uttering these words Thou wretched Whore-master and Murtherer this life of mine owne honour and the death of my deare Knight and husband thy some And so stabbing him at the heart with many blowes shee kills him starke dead and leaves him reeking in his hot bloud without giving him time to speake a word onely hee fetcht a screeke and groane or two as his soule tooke her last farewell of his body Which being over-heard of the servants of the house they ascend his chamber and finde our inhumane Perina issuing foorth all gored with the effusion of his bloud having the bloudy Ponyard which was the fatall Instrument of this cruell Murther in her hand They are amazed at this bloody and mournefull spectacle so they seize on her and the report hereof flying thorow the City the Criminall Iudges that night cause her to bee imprisoned for the fact which she is resolved no way to denye but to acknowledge as rather glorying then grieving thereat Ierantha at the very first understanding hereof vehemently suspects that her two poysoning Murthers will now come to light and so as great as her belly is she to provide for her safety very secretly steales away to a deare friends house of hers in the City which now from all parts rattleth and resoundeth of this cruell and unnaturall Murther yea it likewise passeth the Alpes and is speedily bruited and knowne in Saint Iohn de Mauriene where although her father Arconeto would never heretofore affect her yet he now exceedingly grieves at this her bloudy attempt and imminent danger but her irregular affection and
conclusion is foure are of opinion that this cure is repugnant to the grounds of Physicke and the principles of Chirurgery and therefore impossible to be effected the other two are of a contrary judgement and held it feasable and that many times God blesseth the Art and labours of a man not onely beyond expectation but also beyond hope and reason so De Clugny seeing that these two with Michaele were three against foure hee in respect of the tender care and affection he bore his daughter resolves to imploy him and gives him an hundred double Pistollets in hand to attempt it with promise of as much more when he hath performed it whereof this miscreant and hellish Empericke Michaele being exceedingly glad he betakes himselfe to this businesse visits the young Lady who promiseth him to reduble her fathers summe if he make her body straight when to reduce his impious contemplation into infâ—…rnall action he outwardly applieth playsters and seare-clothes to her body and inwardly administreth her pills and potions and O griefe to write it therein infuseth deadly poyson which hee knowes at the end of ten dayes will assuredly make a divorce betweene her body and soule and so send that to the death of this world and this to the life of that to come So this sweete and innocent Lady wishing good to her selfe and hurt to none in the worâ—…d first finds a giddinesse and swimming in her head and within some six dayes after in which time the poyson had dispersed it selfe throughout all the veines and pores of her body many sharpe gripes and bitter throwes and convulsions whereat her father grieves and she weepes onely that gracelesse villaine her Empericke bids them be of good comfort and that the more paine and griefe she suffered the better and speedier hope there was of her cure but yet inwardly in his devillish heart knowes that the poyson effectually operated and wrought with her as hee desired and expected and that by these infallible signes and simptomes his patient drew neere towards the period of her end Whereupon hee repaires secretly to La Hay and bids her provide the rest of his mony for that La Frange could not possibly live two dayes to an end whereat she triumphing and rejoycing with much alacrity againg promiseth it him and indeed the hellish Art of this execrable Empericke doth not now deceive him though in the end the malice of the devill his Doctor will For just as the tenth day was expired this harmelesse sweet yong Lady dyes to the incomparable and unspeakable grief of the good old President her father for that she was the staffe of his age and the chiefe and onely comfort of his life who disconsolatly and mournfully seemed to drown himselfe in his teares hereat cursing the houre that he first saw this accursed Empericke Michaele who had robbed him of his only joy and delight of his deare and sweet daughter La Frange But this murdrous Michaele having learnt of the devill to feare no colours meanes not to step a foot from Tholouse and so sends privately for Lâ—… Hay of whom he craves the performance of her promise for that quoth he he had performed his Why quoth La Hay is that crookbackt dwarfe La Frange dead She is gone quoth Michaele to her eternall rest when La Hay not able to retaine her selfe for excesse of joy runs to him gives him the other hundred crownes together with many kisses which take quoth she as a pledge of my continuall good will towards thee when again swearing secresie they both take leave each of other and part The newes of La Franges death ratlâ—…th and resoundeth over all Tholouse her kinsefolkes grive at it her frinds lament it and all who eyther know her or her fame bewayle it onely De Salez and execrable La Hay excepted who knowing her to have beene the onely stop and hinderance of their mariage they are so ravished with joy heereat as they seeme to contest and envy each other who shall first bring the newes hereof each to other yea the excesse of De Salez his joy is as boundlesse as that of La Hayes delight so that he seemes to flye to her to her fathers house where she with out-spread armes receives and entertaines him and there they mutually congratulate each other for this her death he affirming and she beleeving that La Frange being gone to heaven it shall not bee long ere the Church make them man and wife on earth In the meane time he being wholly ignorant of her poysoning and yet the olde President her father and the rest of her friends suspecting it they cause her body to be opened and although they find no direct poyson yet remarking a little kind of yellow tincture on her heart and liver as also some show thereof through her frozen veines They cause Michaele to be apprehended and imprisoned and so procure a Decree from the Parliament to have him rack'd At the newes whereof La Hay is extreamely tormented and perplexed as well foreseeing and knowing that her life lay at the mercy of his tongue wherefore to fortifie his secrecie and thereby to secure her owne feare and danger she by a confident friend of his sends him a hundred French crownes more and promiseth him to give him a rich Diamond worth as much againe who as before being extreamely covetous and the Devill resembling himselfe still haâ—…ping to him on that string which most delights him his heart is so devillishly obdurated and his fortitude so armed and prepared as his patience and constancy not onely endures but outbraves the crueltie of his torments and so he is acquited of this his pretended crime but he hath not as yet made his peace with God And now is De Salez resolved to make a Journey to Paris to draw his fathers consent that he may marry La Hay but the wisedome of the father shall anticipate the folly of the Sonne for he having heard in Paris of La Franges death and still fearing that because of his frequent familiarity with that strumpet La Hay he will in the end marry her He in Paris buyes a Captaines place for him in the Regiment of the Kings Guard and likewise dealt with a very rich Counsellour of that Court of Parliament named Monsieur de Brianson that his sonne may marry his eldest daughter Madamoyselle de Plessis a very sweet and faire yong Gentlewoman and the old folkes are already agreed on all conditions onely it rests that the young sees and loves To which end Argentier writes away with all speed to Tholouse for his sonne De Salâ—…z to come up to him who before he had received his fathers letter as wee have formerly understood was ready to undertake that Journey La Hay infinitly fearefull and jealous to lose her pray with Crocodile teares in her eyes and Hyena aspects in her lookes informes De Salez that she feareth that his father hath provided a wife for him in Paris
both cry and groane which he did very mournfully and which indeed was soone over-heard by a man and a maid-servant of his who only remained in the house who hearing their masters voyce and hastily running up at these his pittifull and lamentable out cryes steping to his assistance they heare him with his best power utter these fearefull speeches That Strumpet my wife hath kill'd me O that shee-Devill my wife hath murthered mee Whereat they cry out at the windowes to the neighbours for helpe alledging that their master is murthered The neighbours assemble and heare him report so much so they send away for his Confessor and the Lieutenant Criminall to both whom he againe confesseth That it is the Strumpet his wife who hath murthered him And then raising himselfe up in his bed with as much strength as his dying wound would permit him he taking them both by the hands with infinite signes and teares reveales to them that he it was who at the seducing of the Devill had stifled his father Argentier to death in Paris that he did it onely to marry this whoore his murtherous wife La Hay that the killing of his father yea the very remembrance thereof infinitely grieves his heart and soule and for the which he infinitely repenteth himselfe and beseecheth the Lord of mercy in mercy to forgive it him and likewise prayed all that were present to pray unto God for him and these were his last words for now his fleeting and fading breath would permit him to say no more All that were present are amazed at this lamentable confession of his to see that hee should murther his father and his execrable wife well neere himselfe so they all glorified God for the detection and discovery hereof But the Lievtenant Criminell and the Counsellors his Associates step to the window and consult to have him hanged whiles he is yet living for the murthering of his father But De Salez saves them that labour for there and then he sinkes into his bed and dyes away before them so they instantly search the house and City for this wretched Murtheresse La Hay whom impious and bloody strumpet they at last find in the Dominican Friers Church at a Sermon from whence with much obloquy and indignity they dragge her to prison where they charge her with the murther of her husband De Salez which the Devill as yet will not permit her to confesse but being adjudged by them to the Racke she at the very first torment confesseth it Upon which severall murthers the Criminell Iudges of the Tournells proceed to sentence so first they adjudge the dead body of De Salez for so inhumanly murdring his father Argentier to be halfe a day hang'd by the heeles to the common gallows and then to bee burnt to ashes which is accordingly executed then they adjudge his wife La Hay for murthering him the next day to bee strangled then burnt so that night some Divines deale with her in prison about the state of her soule whom they finde infinitely obdurated through the vanity of her youth and the temptations of the Devill but they worke effectually with her and so at last by the mercies of God draw her to contrition and repentance when willing her not to charge her soule with the concealing of any other crime and shewing her the dangers thereof she very freely yet sorrowfully confesseth how she it was that for three hundred crownes had caused the Empericke Michaele to poyson La Frange for the which she told them she was now exceedinglie repentant and sorrowfull Whereof the Divines sith it was not delivered them under the seale of Confession advertising the Judges they all wonder at Gods providence to see how all these murthers are discovered and burst forth one in the necke of the other so they alter her sentence and for these her double murthers they condemne her to have her right hand cut off and then to be burnt alive and so they make curious inquiry and research to apprehend this old bloody varlet Michaele In the meane time that very afternoone this miserable and murtherous Curtesan La Hay though to the griefe of her sorrowfull father and sisters yet to the joy of all Tholouse is brought and fastned to her stake where her hand being first strucke off she with many sighes and teares delivereth these few words That her crimes were so foule and odious as she was ashamed to looke either God or man in the face That she was very sorrowfull for causing La Frange to be poysoned as also for murthering of her husband De Salez whose wealth she onely affirmed she loved but not himselfe the which she wholly attributed to the lust and vanitie of her youth to her neglect of prayer and forsaking of God which made the Deuill so strong with her and she with the Deuill and which was the sole cause and ground of this her miserable ruine and destruction she with teares and prayers besought the Lord to be good unto her soule and lifting up her eyes and hands to Heaven likewise beseech the whole assembly to pray heartily unto God for her when recommending her soule into the hands of her Redeemer the fire being alighted her body was soone consumed to ashes whose lamentable yet just end and punishment caused a number of spectators to weepe as yet pitying her youth and beautie as much as they detested the enormitie of her crimes And now for this devillish and murtherous Empericke Michaele although as soone as he heard of La Hayes imprisonment he to save him selfe left Tholouse and fled towards Castres disguised in a Friers habit with his beard shaven yet by the care of the Court of Parliament or rather by the immediate finger and providence of God he is found out and brought backe to Tholouse where for poysoning of La Frange the which he now without the Racke confesseth he is adjudged to be broken on the Wheele there to remaine till he be dead and then his body to be throwne into the River of Garrone the which the same day is accordingly executed and performed to the infinite joy of all the spectators but as hee lived an Atheist so he desperately died a Devill without any shew at all either of contrition or repentance onely hee vomited forth this wretched speech That because the world had so much to say to him he would say nothing to the world but bade the Executioner dispatch him Now by the sight of this mournefull and bloody History the Christian Reader may observe and see how Gods revenge doth still triumph against murther and how he in his due time and providence doth assuredly still detect and punish it It is a History which may serve to deterre and forwarne all yong Gentlemen not to frequent the companies of whores and strumpets and all sonnes not to transgresse the will of their parents much lesse not dare to lay violent hands on them It is a glasse wherein yong Gentlewomen and Wives may
besought Leonardo and Valerio to forgive him in respect he knew he was the cause of their deaths because he was sure they should not long survive him He likewise forgave his foole as being assured that it was not hee in the Letter but God in him that had revealed the Letter for his just punishment and confusion And lastly he with many teares forgave his wife and Lady Clara whom hee affirmed from his heart was by farre too vertuous for so dissolute and vilde a husband as himselfe He blamed himselfe for neglecting to love her and cursed his Queans and Curtizans as being the chiefe cause of all his miseries when requesting all that were present to pray for his soule he was turned off But his Judges seeing that hee had added murther to murther they held it Justice to adde punishment to his punishment and so he is no sooner cut downe but they cause his body to be burnt and his ashes to be throwne into the aire which is accordingly performed Now because the Lord in his Justice will punish as well the Agents as the Authors of murther whiles Albemare is acting the last Scene and Catastrophe of his Tragedy His wretched hireling Leonardo and his execrable servant Valerio are likewise aâ—…ed found guilty and condemned to bee hang'd for their severall murthers oâ—… 〈◊〉 and â—…ro and so the very same afternoone they are brought to their Executioners where Leonardo his former life and profession having made him know better how to sinne than repent he out of a souldier-like bravery or rather vanity thinks rather to terrifie death than that death should terrifie him he begging pardon for his sinnes in generall of God and the world and then bidding the hang-man doe his office he takes his last adiew of the world When immediately Valerio ascends the ladder who having repentance in his heart and griefe and sorrow in his looks as neare as could be observed and gathered spake these words That being poore both in friends and means the only hope of preferment under his master made him at his request to poyson Pedro in prison That many times since he hath heartily grieved for it and now from his very soule repents himselfe of it and beseeching the Lord to forgive it him That hee was as guilty of this murther as innocent of Baretano's yea or of the knowledge thereof before his Master was imprisoned for the same and that as this was his first Capitall crime so sith he must nowdie he rejoyced it was his last and so praying all servants to beware by his miserable example not to be seduced to commit murther either by their masters or the devill and beseeching all that were present to pray for his soule he resigning and commending it into the hands of his Redeemer was likewise turned off And these were the miserable yet deserved ends of these bloudy murtherers and thus did Gods justice and revenge triumph over their crimes and themselves by heaping and raigning downe confusion on their heads from heaven when the devill falsely made them beleeve they sate secure yea when they least dreamt thereof on earth Oh that the sight and remembrance of their punishments may restraine and deterre us from conspiring and committing the like crimes so shall we live fortunate and die happy whereas they died miserably because they lived impiously and prophanely And here fully to conclude and shut up this Historie and therein as I thinke to give some satisfaction to the curiosity of the Reader who may perchance desire to know what became after of the faire and vertuous Clara. Why her sorrowes were so infinite and her quality and Nature so sorrowfull as being wearie of the world and as it were weighed downe with the incessant vanities crosses and afflictions thereof she notwithstanding the power and perswasions of her parents assumes her former resolution to retire sequester her selfe from conversing with the world and so enters into the Nunnery of the Annuntiation so famous in Millan where for ought I know or can since understand to the contrary she yet lives a pensive and solitary sister GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND Execrable Sinne of Murther HISTORY XIII La Vasselay poysoneth her waiting maid Gratiana because she is jealous that her husband De Merson is dishonest with her whereupon he lives from her In revenge whereof shee causeth his man La Villete to murther him in a Wood and then marries him in requitall The said La Villete a yeare after riding thorow the same Wood his horse fals with him and almost kils him when he confesseth the murther of his master De Merson and accuseth his wife La Vasselay to be the cause thereof So for these their bloudy crimes he is hanged and she burnt alive HOw falsly nay how impiously doe wee tearme our selves Christians when under that glorious and sanctified Title wee seeke to prophane and deface the glory of Christ in cruelly murthering our brethren his members effects not of Zeale but of Rage not of Pietie but of Madnesse invented by the Devill and perpetrated by none but by his Agents lamentable effects yea I say bloudy and infernall crimes which still ruine those who contrive and confound those who finish them For let us but looke from Earth to Heaven from Satan to God from Nature to Grace and from our Hearts to our Soules and wee shall assuredly finde it very difficult for vs to define whether Charitie be a sweeter Vertue or Malice a fouler Vice whether that be more secure or this pernicious fatall dangerous whether that be a more apparant testimony of Gods saving Grace towards us or this of our owne inevitable perdition and reprobation And as it is an odious sinne and displeasing sacrifice in the sight of God for a stranger to kill another O then how much more execrable and diabolicall must it be for a Gentlewoman to poyson her Waiting-maid and for a servant to pistoll his master to death at the instigation of the same Gentlewoman his wife for murthers no lesse ingratefull and cruell doth this subsequent History report and relate wherein we shall see that God in the Triumphs of his revenging Iustice and out of his sacred secret providence hath in all points made their punishments as sharpe and severe as their crimes were bloudy and deplorable May we then reade it to Gods glory and our owne consolation which we shall assuredly performe if we hate the like crimes in others and detest them in our selves IN the faire and pleasant City of Mans being the chiefe and Capitall of the Province of Maine in France in the very latter yeares that the Marshall of Boys-Daulphin was Governour thereof under the present King Lewes XIII his master there dwelt a Gentlewoman aged of threescore and three yeares termed La Vasselay being well descended and left very rich as well in lands as moveables by her late deceased husband Monsier Froyset who was slaine in the behalfe of the Queene
both accuseth 〈◊〉 condemneth himselâ—… for the same For the very Image of that conceit 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 â—…s his feaâ—… did his phrensie and madnesse hee in thâ—… 〈◊〉 of those fiâ—…s aâ—… the height of that Agony and Anxietie driâ—… out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Mâ—…ther in the Well I have drowned 〈…〉 he suffer you to hang me I speake it on Earth and by my part of Heaven what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is true Which words 〈◊〉 sooner esâ—…aped his 〈◊〉 â—…ut he â—…nstantly â—…nes againe to his out-cries of phreâ—… and madnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…d the rest 〈◊〉 â—…ed at these fearefull 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which 〈◊〉 that they attribute to madnesse yet they lead him to the Hospitall he still raving and crying as hee passeth the streets But oh Let us here farther admire with wonder and wonder with admiration at the providence and mercy of God here againe miraculously made apparent and manifested in this execrable wretch Maurice for he who outragiously cryed in his prison and licentiously raved in the street is no sooner entred into the Hospitall but the pleasure of God had so ordained it as his Madnesse fully fals from him and he absolutely recovereth againe his wits and senses in such firme and setled manner as if he had never formerly beene touched or afflicted therewith His Gaolers make report to the Magistrates first of his confession of drowning his Mother and then of his sudden and miraculous recovering of his perfect memory judgement and senses as soone as hee set foot within the Hospitall Whereupon they as much astonished at the one as wondring at the other doe instantly repaire thither to him and there arraigne and accuse him for that inhumane and bloudy fact of his whereof his owne Evidence and Confession hath now made him guilty But they take him for another or at least hee will not be the same man He denies this horrible and bloudy crime of his with many oaths and asseverations which they maintaine and affirme he hath confessed sayes that they either heard a dreame or saw a Vision whereof hee neither dreamt not thought of and that hee was ready to lose all the bloud and life of his body to finde out and to be revenged of the murtherers of his mother But the Magistrates are deafe to his Apologie and considering the violence of his madnesse by its sudden abandoning him as also his free and uninforced confession of drowning his Mother they conceive that Gods providence and Justice doth strongly operate in the detection of this foule and inhumane murther and therfore contemning his requests and oaths in the vindication of his innocency they cause him to bee refetched from the Hospitall to the Prison and there adjudge him to the Racke when although his heart and soule bee terrified and affrighted with his apprehension and accusation Yet the devill is so strong with him as he cannot yet finde in his heart to relent much lesse to repent this foule and inhumane crime of his but considering that he acted it so secretly as all the world could not produce a witnesse against himselfe except himselfe hee vowes he will bee so impious and prophane in his fortitude and courage as to disdaine these his torments and to looke on them and his Tormentor with an eye rather of contempt than feare But God will be as propitious and indulgent to him as he is rebellious and refractory to God for here we shall see both his Conscience and resolutions taught another rule and prescribed a contrary Law yea here we shall behold and observe in him that now Righteousnesse shall triumph over Siâ—…e Grace over Nature his Soule over his Body Heaven over Hell and GOD over Satan for at the very first sight of the Racke the sight and remembrance of his bloudy crime makes him shake and tremble extremely when his soule being illuminated by the resplendant Sun beames of Gods mercy and the foggie mists of Hell and Satan expelled and banished thence he fals to the ground on his knees first beats his brest and then erecting his eyes and hands towards Heaven he with a whole deluge of teares againe confesseth that hee had drowned his mother in the Well from and for the which he humbly craveth remission both from Earth and Heaven And although there bee no doubt but God will forgive his Soule for this his soule murther yet the Magistrates of Morges who have Gravity in their lookes Religion in their hearts and speecheâ—… and Justice in their actions will not pardon his body so in detestation of this his fearefull crime and inhumane parracide they in the morning condemne him that very after-noone to be hanged At the pronouncing of which sentence as he hath reason to approve the equity of their Iustice in condemning him to die so he cannot refraine from grieving at the strictnesse of the time which they allot him fot his preparation to death But as soone as wee forsake the devill we make our peace with God All Morges and Losanna rings of this mournefull and Tragicall newes and in detestation of this mournefull inhumane and bloody crime of our execrable Maurice they flocke from all parts and streets to the place of execution to see him expiate it by his dearh and so to take his last farewell of his life The Divines who are given him for fortifying and assisting his soule in this her flight and transmigration from Earth to Heaven have religiously prevailed with him so as they make him see the foulenesse of his crime in the sharpenesse of his contrition and repentance for the same yea hee is become so humble and withall so sorrowfull for this his bloody and degenerate offence as I know not whether hee thinke thereof with more griefe or remember it wirh detestation and repentance At his ascending the Ladder most of his Spectators cannot refraine from weeping and the very sight of their teares prooves the Argument of his as his remembrance of murthering his Mother was the cause Hee tells them hee grieves at his very soule for the foulenesse of his fact in giving his Mother her death of whom he had received his life He affirmes that Drunkennesse was not onely the roote but the cause of this his beggery and misery of his crime and punishment and of his deboshed life and deserved death from which with a world of sighes and teares hee seekes and endevours to divert all those who affect and practise that beastly Vice He declares that his Mother was too vertuous so soone to goe out of the world and himselfe too vitious and wirhall too cruell any longer to live in it that the sinnes of his life had deserved this his shamefull death and although he could not prevent the last yet that he heartily and sorrowfully repented the first Hee prayed God to be mercifull to his soule and then besought the world to pray unto God for that mercy when speaking a few words to himselfe and sealing them with
Saint Saviours and that his name is Seignior Pedro de Castello which being as much as they sought for putting their seruants to watch ouer this foot-man that he might not escape to give the least inkling of their demands to his old Master Idiaques they presently send away poast to Saint Saviours for Castello and in honour to Justice these two Corigadors as Christian Magistrates having put all things in order for the vindication of the truth of these deplorable matters that very night Idiaques arrives at Coimbra and descends from his Coach to the house of one of these Corigadors where the dead body of his daughter Marsillia lay at whose mournfull fight as soone as his passionate griefe and sorrow had caused him to shed and sacrifice many rivolets of teares when hee least dreames or thinks therof these two Corigadors cause him to be seized on and instantlycommit him close prisoner without acquainting him with the cause hereof where all that night his guilty heart and conscience as so many Fiends and Furies assuring him that it was for poysoning of his owne Lady Honoria there horror and terrour griefe and despaire and sorrow and anguish doe act their severall parts upon the Theatre of his soule The next morne Castello Mathurina's father likewise arrives to Coimbra to whom the Corigadors communicate this Letter of Don Ivan to his wife which he sent her from Spaine wherein they tell him the murther of his daughter Mathurina seemes probably and strongly to reflect upon Idiaques and his daughter in law Marsillia when they farther acquainting him with her tragicall death as also with his imprisonment Castello with a world of teares and cries exclaimes that undoubtedly they were the authours if not the actors of his daughters lamentable murther and so very passionately and sorrowfully craves justice of them on Idiaques for the same which they are as willing to grant and performe as hee to desire So after dinner in the publike Tribunall of Justice they send for Idiaques legally and juridically there to appeare before them where this sorrowfull father with much passion and more teares doth strongly accuse him for the murther committed and perpetrated on his daughter Mathurina the which Idiaques with many high and stout answers denieth he alleageth many oylie words and sugred and silken phrases to justifie and Apologize his innocencie Which these Corigadors led by the finger of God hold rather to be far more ayrie than solide and farre more plausible than reall or true so they still remembring his sonne Don Ivans Letter to his wife Marsillia doe without regard to his quality or age adjudge him to the Racke The which Idiaques fearing infinitely more the murther of his owne Lady Honoria than that of Mathurina endures the tortures and torments thereof with a fortitude and resolution farre beyond his strength and age and with an admirable constancie stands firmly to the deniall of this fact and accusation so seeing the Racke taken away and himselfe from the Racke he is therefore very confident and joyfull that his danger is likewise o're past and o're blowne But these vaine hopes of his will yet both deceive and in the end betray him for as yet his conscience hath not made peace with God For the griefes sorrowes of this mournfull father for this lamentable murther of his daughter have now made him both industrious in his solicitation and religious in this his prosecution against Idiaques towards these Corigadors to whom againe he becomes an earnest and yet an humble Petitioner that they will give him eight dayes time more to fortifie his accusation and that all that time he may still remaine prisoner without Baile or Surety which they finding reasonable and consonant to all equity and law they freely grant him When Castello having God for his Councellor and whom in a small time Idiaques shall finde for his Judge calling to minde some words of his deceased daughter touching the suspition of poysoning her old Lady by her Husband to make way for this match with Don Ivan hee doth no more accuse him for murthering of his daughter Mathurina but some two dayes after he frames and presents a new Inditement and accusation to his Judges against him for poysoning his old wife the Lady Honoria Which these Judges admiring and wondering at they then partly nay almost confidently beleeve that there is some great crime and foule fact in this businesse against Idiaques which God will in fine detect and bring to light by the solicitation and industry of this honest poore Gentleman Castello So they admit againe of his second Inditement against him and by vertue hereof convent him before them at their Tribunall of Justice Idiaques understanding hereof his guilty conscience now denounceth such thundering peales of feare and amazement to his appalled heart and trembling soule as they will give no peace either to himselfe or them and the Devill who had ever heretofore promised him his best aid and assistance now flies from him and leaves him to stand or fall to himselfe And here it is that his courage begins to faile him and that his feare and shame is almost resolved and ready to proclaime himselfe guilty of this his last and worst accusation the poysoning of his owne wife the Lady Honoria But againe the hope of life is yet so sweet to him as the feare of death is displeasing and bitter and therefore with a wretched resolution and a miserable confidence he againe artificially endevoureth to bleare the eyes of these his Judges with his chiefest Eloquence and sweetest Oratory who having given him his ful carreer to speake in his owne defence and justification when they perfectly knew he yet spake not one valuable word or reason either to defend or justifie himselfe Then one of these cleere-sighted Corigadors in the behalfe of both of them returnes him this grave reply and pious exhortation That as they have not the will to accuse him so they have not the meanes or power to excuse him for being at least accessary to both or either of these murthers of his Lady Honoria or Mathurina that the sudden death of the first and the violent and untimely one of the last the voluntary absence of his sonne Don Ivan in Spaine with his killing of De Perez there and now the fearefull and lamentable end of his daughter in law Marsillia whose body is yet unbursed and her blood scarce cold left a dangerous reflexion and a pernitious suspition on his life and actions at least of Adulterie and Incest if not of Murther whereof his Sonne Don Ivans Letter which hee writ to his wife Marsillia which they have there to shew isa most strong and pregnant witnesse and that the least of these crimes are capable to ruine a greater personage than himselfe That he could cast no mist of delusion before Gods eyes though he artificially endevoured and laboured to cast a vaile before theirs That the shedding of innocent blood
pure and religious soule towards God makes her send many teares to earth sighes to heaven Once she thought to acquaint her brother Vimory herewith but then fearing that his just choller might peradventure exasperate him against her Husband she againe as soone forsakes that opinion and intent as holding it more discretion and safety to be silent herein towards him And yet consulting her griefes and afflictions with God whose sacred advise and assistance how to beare her selfe in this action and accident shee religiously implores she at last deemes it a part both of her affection duty and conscience to use her best zeale and endevours to reclaime them from this their abhominable and beastly course of life And in regard her poverty weaknesse and sicknesse will not according to her desires and wishes permit her to ride over to them in person to Genâ—…va shee therefore commits and imposeth that charge to her pen to write both to her Husband Harcourt as also to his lews Sister or rather his lascivious Strumpet Masserina to see if her letters by the permission and providence of God may prevaile with their hearts and soules to reforme and draw them home the which she purposely and expresly sends by a confident messenger and with the greatest secresie she possibly can devise Her Letter to her Husband intimated this LA PRECOVERTE to HARCOVRT YOur flight and Adultery with that graceles Strumpet Masserine is so displeasinâ—… to God as I cannot but wonder that his divine Iusticewil permit Geneva or any other place of the world to containe you without punishing you for iâ—… yea when in this foule crime of yours I consider her by my selfe and you by your Brother Vimorye I finde that his griefe proves myshame and myshame his griefe and that you and her are the true causes of both I have examined my thoughts and actions my heart and soule and cannot conceive that I have any way deserved this your ingratitude towards me and therefore faile not to certifie me why and wherefore you have undertaken this vitious and lewd course of life which in the end will assuredly produce thy misery as now already it doth your infamy except your contrition to God doe speedily redeeme it And in regard that you are my Husband and that I both hoape and beleeve it to be the first fault in this kinde and nature I therefore hold you more worthy of my pitty than of my hatred and of my prayers then of my curses So if you will abandon your deboshed Sister and come home and live with me who am thy chaste and sorrowful wife my armes and heart shall bee as open as ever they were both to receive and forgive you yea I will wholly forget what is past and prepare my selfe to welcome you home with a thousand Smiles and Kisses if you will resolve and remember henceforth to love mee as much as formerly without cause or reason you have neglected and hated me LA PRECOVERTE Her Letter to Masserina bewrayd these passions LA PRECOVERTE to MASSERINA NOe longer Sister but lewd strumpet was it not enough for thee to abuse thine owne Husband but that thou must likewise bereave me of mine who is his owne and onely Brother as if a single sinne and ingratitude could not content thy lascivious lust or satisfâ—…e thy inordinate desires but that thy impiety to God and prophanenesse and obscenity to thy selfe should make thee guilty of so foule a crime as Adultery and which is worse of such a foule and base Adultery as comes very neere to the worst kinde of Incest wherof thy thoughts and heart can informe thee and thy conscience and soule assure thee it will hereafter make thee as truely mâ—…serable as now thou fasly thinkest thy selfe happy Wherefore triumph not to have made my griefe thy glory and my affliction thy felicity for God who is as just as powerfull will requite my wronges in thy Person and when thou least dreamest thereof his Divine punishments will sharpely scourge and revenge thy lascivious pleasures except thou deject and prostrate thy selfe at the feeâ—… of his sacred mercy with true contritioâ—… and at the Altar of his saving Grace with unfeined repentance for the same by restoring my Husband to me and thy selfe to thine and by making thy peacewith God whom so highly and hainously thou hast therein offended which if thou doe thou mayest then reestablish thy fortunes anâ—…â—…edeeme thy reputation or els for ever assuredly ruine both them and thy selfe So if I seethee to imbâ—…ace this chaste and to follow this vertuous and religious course I will againe assume the name of a Sister and leave that of a Strumpet towards thee yea I will wholly forget these thy almost unpardonable wrongs and disgraces which thou offerest mee and for ever bury them in perpetuall silence and eternall oblivion LA PRECOVERTE Her Messenger arriving at Geneva he first findes out Noell and then secretly delivers these two Letters to Harcourt and Masserina who much musing and more wondring thereat withdrawing themselves into their Inner Chamber they there breake up the seales and peruse them Whereat their hearts galled and their Consciences so netled and stung as they cannot refraine from blushing for meere shame and then againe from not looking pale with meere anger thereat Thus looking stedfastly each on other their owne guiltinesse doth for the time present somewhat afflict and perplex them Harcourt wondereth at his wifes boldnesse in wriâ—…ing to him and Masserina is not a little dismaid and daunted to see that her husband hath not written unto her Harcourt is discontented with his wifes peremptory Letter Masserina is apprehensive and fearefull of her husbands silence when againe changing their conceits and thoughts which inconstantly alter and extravagantly range without any intrinsicall peace or tranquility Harcourt thinking of his Brother Vimoryes silence attributes it to contempt and hatred and Masserina contemplating and ruminating on her sister La Precovertes choller reputes it to extreame griefe sorrow and Indignation But at last consulting together hereon they both of them concurre and fall upon this resolution that to colour out their lascivious life they by their answers to her must overvaile it with much seeming chastity and pretended sanctity and piety And the better to prevent any danger which may proceed from Vimories silence or revenge they must remove from Geneva and speedily resolve to forsake and leave it When feare giving life to their despaire and despaire adding wings to their feare they call for pen and paper and each returne La Pecoverte their severall answers by her owne messenger who had strickt charge and command from her to see them but not to dare once to speake or exchange a word with either of them the which according to his duty hee very honestly and punctually performed onely to shew her gratefulnesse to honest Noell she gave precise order to him to render him many hearty thanks from her for his true respect
Dorilla receiving this Letter from Castruchio she puts it into her purse and promiseth him her best care and fidelity for the delivery thereof to Seignior Borlari although she confesseth that she neither knew him nor his house But see here the providence and mercy of God which cleerely resplends and shines in the deportment and action of this beastly old bawd for she meeting with some of her gamesters and gossips in the street though contrary to the custome of Italy away they goe to a taverne where they all swill their head and braines with wine especially Dorilla So the day being farre spent her businesse for Castruchio is ended ere begun for shee forgetting her selfe cannot remember his letter but as fast as her reeling legges will permit her away shee speedes towards her owne house which was some halfe a mile off in the Citty But when she was in the streets and had a little taken the aire then she cals Castruchios letter to minde and her promise to him to deliver it but to whom through her cups she hath quite forgotten for she cannot once hiâ—… on the name Borlari But at last remembring the letter to be in her purse and she by this time in the midst of the Citty she takes it out in her hand seeing a faire yet sorrowfull young Lady to stand at the street doore of her house all in mourning attire and no body neere her after she had done her duty to her she reacheth her the letter and humbly requesteth her to tell her the Gentlemans name to whom it was directed when God out of the profundity of his power and immensity of his pleasure having so ordained and ordered it that this faire young Lady was our sweet Felisanna who for the death of her deere husband Planeze had dighted her selfe al in mourning attire and apparel thereby the better to make it correspond with her heart who reading the superscription therof and finding it directed to Seignior Borlari by some motion or inspiration from heaven her heart could not refrain from sending all the bloudof her body into her face when demanding of this woman from whom this letter came Dorilla as drunke in her fidelity and innocency as shee was guilty of her drunkennesse tels her that the letter came from an Apothecary who lay in prison named Castruchio At the very repetition of which name our Felisanna againe blusheth and then palleth as if God had some newes to reveale her by this Letter because shee remembreth that this Castruchio as we have formerly understood was the very same Apothecary who gave her husband Planeze physicke a little before his death Whereupon she praying Dorilla to come with her into her house because she purposly and politikely affirmed she could not read written hand herselfe but would pray her father to doe it she leaves her in the utter hall and herselfe goes into the next roome where breaking up the seales of this letter she at the very first sight and knowledge that her husband was poysoned and by whom and that God had now miraculously revealed it to her through the ignorance and drunkennesse of this old woman she for meere griefe and sorrow is ready to fall to the ground in a swoone had not her father and some of his servants who over hearing her passionate outcries come speedily to her assistance which yet could not awake Dorilla who had no sooner sate her selfe downe in a chaire in the hall but being top heavy with wine she presently fell a sleepe Miniata rousing up his fainting and sorrowfull daughter brought her againe to herselfe and seeing her in a bitter agonie and passion of sorrow demands of her the cause thereof when the brinish teares trickling downe her virmilion cheekes she crossing her armes and fixing her eyes towards heaven had the will but not the power to speake a word to him but reacheth him the Letter to read Miniata perusing it is as much astonished with griefe as his daughter is afflicted with sorrow at this poysoning of her Husband and his sonne in Law Planeze so enquiring of her who brought her this letter she after many sighes and pauses tels him that it was the mercy and providence of the Lord who sent it her by a drunken woman who was forth in the Hall They both goe to her and finding her fast sleeping and snoring Miniata puls her by the sleeve and wakes her and then demands of her before his daughter and servants where and from whom she had this letter who as drunke as this Baud is she is constant in her first speech and confession to Felisanna that she had it from Castruchio an Apothecary who lay in prison but she had forgotten to whom she was to deliver it and then prayes them both to deliver and give her backe her letter againe But Miniata seeing and knowing that it was the immediate finger of God which thus strangely had revealed this murther of his sonne in Law Planeze he calls in two Gentlewomen his next neighbours to comfort his daughter Felisanna and so leaving Dorilla to the guard of two of his servants he with two other Gentlemen his neighbours takes his Coach and having Castruchio's Letter in his hand he drives away to the State-house where he findes out the Podestate and Prefect of the Citie and shewing them the Letter which revealed the poysoning and poysoners of Planeze his sonne in Law they in honour to justice and out of their respect to the sorrowfull Lady his daughter take their Coaches and returne with Miniata home to his house Where they first examine Felisanna and then Dorilla who is constant in her first deposition Whereat these grave and honourable Personages wondring and admiring that a Gentleman of Barlari his ranke and quality should make himselfe the guilty and bloudy Authour of so foule a Murther they likwise admiring and blessing Gods providence in the detection thereof doe presently send away their Isbieres or Serjeants to apprehend Borlari and so they goe to their Forum or seat of Iustice and speedily send away for Castruchio to be brought from the prison before them Who at the very first newes of their accusation of him and the producing of his Letter to Borlari he curseth the person and name of this old Bawd Dorilla who is the prime Authour of his overthrow and death and then confesseth himselfe to be the Actor and Seignior Borlari to be the Authour cause and Instigator of this his poysoning of Planeze but never puts his hand on his conscience and soule that the strange detection of this lamentable murther came directly from Heaven and from God The Serjeants by order from the Podestate and Prefect finde Borlari in his owne house ruffling in a new rich suit of apparrell of blacke Sattin trimmed with gold buttons which he that day put on and the next was determined to ride to the City of Bergamo to seeke in marriage a very rich young widdow whose Husband lately died
drowning himselfe as it were in pleasure and security without so much as once thinking of his poysoning of Planeze or how he was revealed to be the Authour thereof by Castruchio his Letter sent unto him by Dorilla He is amazed and astonished at this his apprehension now beating his brest and then repenting when it was too late that ever he embrewed his hands in the innocent bloud of Planeze So both himselfe and Castruchio are brought to the State house where the Podestate and Prefect first examine them a part and then confront them each with other Where finding that neither of them deny but both of them to confesse themselves guilty of this foule murther they pronounce sentence of death against them and condemne Borlary to have his head cut off and then his body to be burnt and Castruchio to be hanged and his body to be throwne into the River of Addice whereon he was first taken the which the next morning was accordingly executed All Verona is as it were but one tongue to talke and prattle of this foule and lamentable murther and especially of Gods miraculous detection thereof by this drunken Bawd Dorilla who having heretofore often brought Castruchio to whores willingly now at last she brings him to the gallowes against her will The morning they are brought to their execution where there flocke and resort a world of spectators from all parts of the City And although the charity of their Judges send them Priests and Fryers to direct their soules for heaven yet this miserable wretch Castruchio seeming no way repentant or sorrowfull for this his foule fact uttered a short prayer to himselfe and so caused the top-man to turne him over which he did and within two houres after his body was throwne into the River But for Borlary he came to the scaffold better resolved and prepared for with griefe in his lookes and teares in his eyes hee there delivered this short and religious speech That he grieved in heart and was sorrowfull in soule for this lamentable murther of his committed on the person of Planeze as also for seducing of Castruchio to effect it by poyson for whose death he affirmed he was likewise exceedingly afflicted and sorrowfull That it was the temptations of the flesh and the devill who first drew him lustfully to affect the faire chaste and vertuous Lady Felisanna and consequently to murther her husband in full hope afterwards to obtaine her for his Wife or for his Curtesan That he was infinitely sorrowfull for all these his enormous crimes for the which he religiously asked forgivenesse first of God and then of the Lady Felisanna and likewise prayed all those who were there present to pray unto God for his soule that he was more carefull of his reputation towards men than of his salvation towards God and that his neglect of prayer and of the participation of the blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist was the originall cause of this his misery So againe commending himselfe to the prayers and recommending his sinfull yet sorrowfull soule into the hands of his Redeemer the sword of the Executioner at one blow made a perpetuall divorce betweene his soule and his body which pious and Christian speech of his was as great a consolation to the vertuous as his death as that of Castruchio was a terrour to the vitious spectators and Auditors So to confirme the sentence the dead body of Borlary is presently burnt And thus was the bloudy lives and deserved deaths of these three irreligious and unfortunate persons Of Romeo the Laquey Of Borlary the Gentleman and of Castruchio the Apothecary And in this manner did the justice of the Lord of Hosts in due time justly triumph o're their execrable crimes in their sharp punishments and shamefull ends Pray we that we may reade this their History with feare and as religious and godly Christians remember these their lamentable Murthers with horror and detestation GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND Execrable sinne of Murther Beaumarays and his brother Montagne kill Cahmpigny and Marin his Second in a Duell Blancheville the widdow of Champigny in revenge thereof hireth Le Valley servant to Beaumarays to murther his said Master with a Pistoll which he doth for the which Le Valley is broken on the wheele and Blancheville hanged for the same LEt all Religious Christians examine their hearts and soules with what face we can tread on Earth or looke up to Heaven when we stab at the Majestie of God in killing and murthering man his image a bloudy crime so repugnant to nature as reason abhorres it a scarlet and crying sinne so opposite to grace as God and his Angels detest it And yet if ever Europe were stained or submerged with it now it is for as a swift current or rather as a furious torrent it now flowes and overflowes in most Kingdomes Countries and Cities thereof in so much as in dispight of divine and humane Lawes it is now almost generally growne to a wretched custome and that almost to a second nature A fatall example whereof this ensuing History will report and relate us Wherein Gods Iustice hath so sharply and severely punished the perpetrators thereof that if we either acknowledge God for our Father or our selves for his children and servants it will teach us to be lesse revengfull and more charitable by their unfortunate ends and deplorable judgement I Will now relate a sad and bloudy History which betided in the faire Citie of Chartres the Capitall of the fertile Countrey of Beausse so famous for her sumptuous Cathedrall Church dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary as also for that Henry the fourth that great King and unparalleld Captaine of France during the combustions of the league was despight of the league crowned therein In which faire and pleasant City as there still dwell some Noblemen and many Gentlemen in respect of the sweet aire and goodly Champaigne Countrey thereabouts second for that to no other in France So of late yeares there resided two rich and brave young Gentlemen well descended being both of them heires to their two deceased fathers The one of them named Monsieur De Champigny and the other Monsieur De Beaumarays and their Demaines and Lands lay within seven leagues of this City in the way towards Vendosme Now the better to see them in their true and naturall Characters They were both of them tall and slender and of faire and sanguine complexions and very neere of an age For Champigny was twenty six yeares old and Beaumarays twenty foure and yet the last had a beard and the first none and of the two Champigny was by farre the richer but Beaumarays the Nobler descended Now to lay this History upon its proper seat and naturall foundation we must understand that there was a very rich Counsellour of the Presidiall Court of Chartres named Monsieur De Rosaire whose wife being dead left him no other childe but one faire young daughter of the age
sees by no other eyes but by those of malice and revenge towards her Sister shee thinkes every day an age before shee heare of her dispatch At the expiration of which time according to their former agreement Bernardo arrived by night at Streni's house in Florence and at one of the Clocke after midnight hee findes the little Garden doore open and his Pierya there purposely to receive and welcome him so they beginne their meeting with kisses Shee leades him by the hand to the outer doore of her Ladies chamber and they two having agreed on the manner how to stifle her in her bed shee had there to that purpose provided two pillowes keepes one and gives him another to effect it These miserable wretches for the more secrecie put off their shooes and out the candles and the darknesse of the Moone and the obscurity of the night seeming to conspire to their conspiracie they softly enter her chamber goe one by one side and the other by the other where unfortunat Babtistyna lying soundly sleeping and snoring they stifle her with their Pillowes and then a little whiles after thrust a handkercher into her mouth and their fury and malice was so fierce and implacable towards her as shee hath neither the grace to speake nor the power once to screech or crye Thus she who had formerly poysoned her elder Sister Iaquinta is now also cruelly murthered by the treachery of her youngest Amarantha which makes me crie out and say O Lord as thou art immense in thy mercie so thou art inscrutable in thy judgements and that therfore as wee ought not so we cannot resist his divine power and eternall preordination Bernardo and Pierya as two limbes of the Devill having finished this cruell murther on Babtistyna they leave her breathlesse body on her bâ—…d and then withdrawing themselves from her Chamber they softly pull fast the doore which had a Spring locke and then shee secretly throwes in the key within side at a private hole or crannie when her Sweet-heart and her selfe descend the stayâ—…es and with wonderfull silence stalke away to the Garden without the Posterne doore whereof his horse tyed up to an Iron ring in the wall awayted and attended him where with a multitude of kisses they part he faithfully promising her to returne to her againe at Florence within a moneth after at most and then to marry her So whiles Pierya now in the depth and dead of this dismall night betakes her selfe to her bed and there as devoyd of feare as of grace sleepes soundly her sweet-heart Bernardo that very obscure night gallops thorow the streers of Florence towards the gate which leads to Pistoia where God in all seeing providence causeth his horse to stumble and fall with him to the ground whereof hee brake his necke and presently dyed and his horse then rising flyes from him straglingly in the streets leaving the breathlesse corps of Bernardo in the street having not the happines either to crie or utter one word at this his sudden disastrous death God having so ordain'd and decreed in his Star-chamber of heaven that although for the murthering of the Lady Babtistyna he deserved a more shamefull end yet that this poore horse which brought him to Florence should at the same time and place be his executioner as also that there was scarce one houre between his crime and his punishment between her murther and his own death An act and example of Gods justice worthy of all men to know and of all Christians most especially to remember so secret and sacred are the judgements of the Lord of Hosts All that night Bernardo's dead body lay gored in his blood which abundantly issued forth his mouth as also in the dirt of the street unespyed of any mortall eye but as soone as the morning began to appeare thorow the windowes of heaven then it was found and likewise to bee done by the fall of a horse whereof his necke the beholders saw was broken the which the sooner they were induced and led to believe because they likewise found a horse neere him stragling in the streets without his rider This his dead body is therefore presently exposed to the Criminall Iudges of that faire and famous City who forthwith cause his Pockets to be searched where in stead of gold they by the direction of God find the before nominated promise of a yearly Annuity which we have formerly understood Amarantha gave him Whereupon they knowing the Lady Amarantha to be Seig. Leonardo Streni's daughter by this note confidently believing this dead man to be the same Bernardo and he to be Amarantha's servant they without once suspecting or dreaming of any murther committed by him hold it a part of their office and duety to acquaint Streni herewith But the newes of this dead found Corps ratling thorow the streets of the City it devanceth this care of theirs and so speedily arrives to Streni's house before them whereat Pierya looking for nothing lesse takes so hot an allarum of griefe feare and despaire that her guilty thoughts and conscience like so many Blood-hounds still pursuing her she seeing this unlookt for disaster and death of her Bernardo to bee an act of God and a blow from heaven which infallibly predicted both her danger and death she therefore presently flies out a doore and with much celerity and more feare betakes her selfe to the least frequented and most remotest streets of the City for her safety By this time the Criminall officers are arrived at Streni's house whom they acquaint with this mournefull accident shew him this assurance of Annuity and inquire of him if it bee the Lady Amarantha his Daughters hand as also the dead Corps and if this were her servant who with a countenance composed of astonishment feare and sorrow acknowledgeth to them that it is his Daughter Amarantha's owne hand writing and the dead personage to bee her Servingman Bernardo Whereupon they confidently believe and hee sorrowfully feares that this death of his and that assurance of hers doth either import or include some greater disaster and misfortune whereupon they againe modestly yet juridically demand of him for his Daughter Amarantha and her Chamber-mayd Pierya who returnes them this answer that the first is at his Mannor of Cardura neere Pistoia and the second here in his house and now serving his eldest Daughter Babtistyna they demand to speake with Pierya whom hee causeth to bee sought in all places of his house but shee is not to bee found so hee sends to looke her in his Daughters chamber her Mistresse but his servants returne and report that the doore of that Chamber is fast lock'd and that they can get no speech either of her or of the Lady Babtistyna which answer of theirs doth exceedingly augment the jealousie of the Iudges and the feare of the Father So 〈◊〉 all resolve to ascend themselves to that Chamber where they aloud againe calling both the Lady and her Mayd and
either shortly thou returne me my said Sonne from 〈◊〉 or speâ—…oily take â—…ee to thy selfe in heaven But yet O my blessed Saviour and Redeemer not my but thy will be done in all things She having thus privately to her selfe vented her sorrowes but not as yet found the meanes either how to remedy or appease them because her husband is no Changeling but is still resolute in this ingratefull unkindnesseand cruelty towards her she is now resolved though with infinit griefe and reluctation to acquaint the Preacher of the parish and some two of her husbands deerest and neerest kinsfolkes to speake with him againe and to acquaint them with his pernitious relapse into all his old vices of drunkennesse whoredome and fighting and to desire them to use all their possible power to divert him from it wherein her resolution hatâ—… this just â—…cuse that if they cannot worke it none but God can But all their câ—…e aâ—… and â—…eale cannot prevaile with him For he with the filthy dog returâ—… to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with the brutish swine againe to wallow in the durt and 〈◊〉 in the mire of his former vices and voluptuousnesse For now her husband Vasti is oftner at Cleraux with his Salyna then at home at Fribourg with his wife who as formerly we have understood still makes him pay deare for his pleasures and as a subtle rooking strumpet emptieth his purse of his gold as fast as he foolishly filleth it he being not contented to waste his body to shipwracke his reputation to cast away his time but also to cast away his estate and himselfe on her the which his vertuous wife cannot but observe with sorrow and remember with griefe and vexation but she sees it impossible for her how to redresse it For she is not capable to dissemble her discontent to him so privately as he publickely makes knowen his cruelty to her wherefore her thoughts suggest her and her judgement prompts her to proove another experiment and triall on him To which end she tels him that if hee will not henceforth abandon beating of her forsake his old vices and become a new man and a reformed husband that then all delayes set apart she will speedily by some one of her neerest kins folkes send poast to Rome to his brother Captaine Andrew Vasti that her Sonne George returne home to her to Fribourg the which shee is more then confident upon the receipt of her first Letter he will speedily and joyfully performe Her husband Vasti is extremely galled with this speech and netled with this resolution of his wife Hester because wretched villaine as he is he but too well knowes hee hath already sent his Sonne to heaven in a bloody winding sheet and therefore both feares and knowes that by this his wifes sending poast to Rome his deplorable and damned fact will infallibly burst forth and come to light the which therefore to prevent hee as bad and cruell hearted as the Devill himselfe is execrably resolved to heape Ossa upon â—…elion to adde blood to blood and murther to murther and so now to poyson the Mother his wife as hee had lately pistolled his and her onely Sonne to death O Hester it had beene a singular happinesse for thee that thou hadst not thus threatned thy husband Vasti to send to Rome forthy son George but that thou hadst either bin dumbe when thou spakest it or he deaf when he heard it for hereby thinking to preserve thou hast extremely indangered thy selfe and hoping to make thy Son thy refuge and champion I feare with griefe and grieve with feare that thou hast made thy selfe the ruine of thy selfe For Vasti is so strong with the Devill and so weak with God in this his bloody designe to murther his wife Hester as neither Grace or Nature Religion or God the feare of his bodies tortures in this life or of his soules torments in that to come are able to divert him from it he having no other reason for this his damnable rage nor no other cause for this his infernall and hellish cruelty but this triviall and yet pittifull poore one that his wife Hester is an eye-sore to him because his Salyna is so to her A wretched excuse and execrable Apologie and no lesse execrable and wretched is he that makes it So he turning his backe to God and his face and heart to the Devill provides himselfe of strong poyson and cunningly infusing it into a muske Mellon which he knew she loved well and resolved to eate that day at dinner shee greedily eating a great part of it before night dies thereof When very subtlely he gives out to his servants and neighbours that she died of a surfet in then and there eating too much of the muske Mellon and so all of them confidently beleeve and report Thus we have seene with sorrow and understood with griefe that this execrable wretch Vasti hath â—…layed the part of a Devill in poysoning his vertuous and harmelesse wife Hester and now we shall likewise see him play the part of an Hyâ—…rite to conceale it as if it lay in his power to blind-fold the eyes of God as â—…ll or as easily as to hood wincke those of men from the sight and knowledge thereof He seemes wonderfull sorrowfull for his wifes death dights himselfe and his servants all in blacke provides a great dinner and performes her funerall with extraordinary solemnity But notwithstanding God lookes on him with his eye of Iustice for both these his cruell and inhuman barbarous murthers of his son and wife and therfore now in his Providence resolves to punish him sharply and severely for the same As marke the sequell and it will instantly informe us how Our debauched and bloody Vasti immediatly upon his wifes death and buriall doth without intermission haunt the house and company of his lascivious strumpet Salyna at Cleraux as if the enjoying of her sight presence and selfe were his chiefest delight and most soveraigne earthly felicity Hee spends a great part of his estate on her and to satisfie her covetous and his lustfull desires hee is at last enforced to morgage and sell away all his Lands For as long as hee had money she was his but when that failed him then she as a right strumpet acted a true part of her selfe failed in her accustomed kindnesse and familiarity towards him and casts him off The judgements of God and the decrees of Heaven are as secret as sacred and as miraculous as just which we shall see will now by degrees be apparantly made good and verified in this Monster of men and Devill of Fathers and Husbands Vasti For his mansion house and all his utensills and moveables in Fribourg are consumed with a sudden fire proceeding from a flash of lightning from heaven as also all his granges of corne and stacks of hay and yet those of all his neighbours round about him are untouched and safe His corne also which growes in the field brings
they doe her to accept and receive her owne They tell her they have not the power to grant her the first and she replies that shee then hath not the will to embrace and entertaine the second They acquaint Morosini herewith who by their order and by their selves doe strongly perswade her hereunto but her first answer and resolution is her last that shee willaccept of no life if he must dye neither will hee refuse any death conditionally that shee may live to survive him The two Friers and two Nunnes use their best Art and Oratory to perswade her hereunto but they meet with impossibility to make her affection to Morosini and her resolution to her selfe flexible hereunto Her life is not halfe so pretious to her as is his for if shee had many as shee hath but one shee is both ready and resolute to lose and sacrifice them all for his sake and would esteeme it her felicity that her death might redeem and ransome his life The Judges out of their goodnesse and charity afford a whole day to invite and perswade her hereunto but shee is still deafe to their requests and still one and the same woman desirous to live with him or constant and resolute to dye for him Therefore when nâ—…thing can prevaile with her because dye he must so dye shee will to the which shee cheerefully prepares her selfe with an equall affection and resolution which I rather admire than commend in her So the next morning theyare all foure brought to the place of common execution to suffer death Where Donato is first liftedup to the Ladder who being fuller of paine than words said little in effect but that he wished he had either died in Constantinople or Aleppo or else sunke in the sea before he came to Ancona and not to have here ended his daies in misery and infamy The next who was ordered to follow him was Astonicus who told the world boldly and plainly that hee cared lesse for his death than for the cause thereof and that hee loved Morosini so perfectly and dearely that he rather reioyced than grieved to dye for him only he repented himselfe for assisting to murther Palmerius and from his heart and soule beseeched God to forgive it him and so he was turned over Then Morosini ascends the Ladder â—…ad in a haire coulour sattin sute and a paire of crimson silke stockings with garters and roses edged with silver lace being so vaine in his carriage action and speeches as before hee once thought of God hee with a world of sighes takes a solemneleave of his sweet heart Imperia and with all the powers of his heart and soule prayes her to accept of his life and so to survive him He makes an exact and godly confession of his sinnes to God and the world and yet neverthelesse hee is so vaine in his affection toward Imperia as hee takes both to witnesse that had hee a thousand lives he would cheerefully lose them all to save and preserve hers As for Imperia such was her deere and tender affection to him as she would faine look on him as long as he lives and yet she equally desires and resolves rather to dy than to see him die and because she hath not the power therefore she turnes her â—…ace and eies from him and will not have the will to see him dye When he having said his prayers and so recommended his soule into the hands of his Redeemer he is also turned over Now although our Imperia bee here againe and againe solicited by the Iudges Friers and Nuns to accept of her life yet she seeing her other selfe Morosini dead shee therefore disdaines to survive him shee hath so much love in her heart as she now hath little life and lesse joy in her lookes and countenance Shee ascends the Ladder in a plaine blacke Taffeta Gowne a plaine thicke set Ruffe a white Lawne Quayfe and a long blacke Cypresse vayle over her head with a white paire of gloves and her prayer booke in her hands When beeing farre more capable to weepe than speake shee casting a wonderfull sad and sorrowfull looke on her dead lover Morosini after many volleyes of farre fetchd sighes shee delivers this short speech to that great concourse of people who from Citty and Country flocked thither to see her and them dye Good People I had lived more happy and not dyed so miserable if my Father Bondino had not so cruelly enforced mee to marry Palmerius whom I could not love and to leave Morosini whom in heart and soule I ever affected a thousand times deerer than mine owne life and may all fathers who now see my death or shall hereafter heare or reade this my History bee more pittifull and lesse cruell to their daughters by his Example I doe here now suffer many deaths in one to see that my deere Morosini is dead for my sake for had hee not loved mee deerly and I him tenderly he had never died for mee nor I for him with such cheerefullnesse and alacrity as now we doe And here to deale truly with God and the world although I could never affect or fancy my old husband Palmerius yet noâ—… from my heart and soule I lament and repent that ever I was guilty of his innocent and untimely death the which God forgive me and I likewise request you all to pray unto God to forgive it me And not to conceale or dissemble the truth of my heart I grieve not to dye but rather because I have no more lives to lose for my Morosini's affection and sake I have and doe devoutly pray unto God for his soule and so I heartily request and conjure you all to doe for mine Thus I commend you all to happy and prosperous lives my selfe to a pious and patient death in earth and a joyfull and glorious resurrection in Heaven when signing her selfe often with the signe of the crosse she pulls her vaile downe over her face and so praying that she might be buried in one and the same grave with Morosini she bad the executioner performe his office who immediatly turnes her over And if reports be true Never three young men and one faire young Gentlewoman died more lamented and pittied then they For Morosini died with more resolution than repentance and Imperia with more repentance than resolution thus was their lives and thus their deaths May wee extract wisdome out of their folly and charity out of their cruelty so shall wee live as happy as they died miserably and finish our daies and lives in as much content and tranquillity as they ended theirs in shame infamy and confusion GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND Execrable sinne of Murther HISTORY XXVII Father Iustinian a Priest and Adrian an Inne-keeper poyson De Laurier who was lodged in his house and then bury him in his Orchard where a moneth after a Wolfe digges him up and devonres a great part of his body which father Iustinian and Adrian
owne pressing wants hee now seemes to affect and court a thousand times more familiarly and tenderly than before whereof shee is infinitly glad joyfull For having a long time loved him in her heart and mind and therefore desiring nothing so much under heaven as to see him her Husband here on earth and having to that end her secret eyes and spies every where abroad upon his life and actions she is at last advertised that there is some great distaste and difference fallen out betweene him and the Lady Vrsina as also that being farre from his home hee wanteth monyes to defray his Port and expences in Naples shee being of a sharp wit and deepe judgement thinkes that the last of his defects was the cause of the first and that peradventure Sanctifiore having attempted to borrow some money of her father Seignior Placedo and received the repulse hee therefore was fallen out and become displeased and discontented with his daughter And although her conceit and judgement missed of the truth herein yet the better to estrange Sanctifiore from Vrsina and consequently the more powerfully and strongly to unite and tye him to her selfe shee well knowing that her owne father De Tores exceedingly loved him and desired him for his sonne in law as much as shee did for her Husband shee therefore as much in love to him as in disdaine and malice to Vrsina doth under hand deale so politickly and yet so secretly with her Father to lend Sanctifiore some monyes that hee meeting him the very next day in his house hee takes him aside in his study and told him that in regard of his absence from Capua and his long stay and great expences here in Naples it was rather likely than impossible that hee might want some monyes and therefore hee freely lent and then and there laid him downe 500 double pistolls adding withall that if hee needed more hee should have what hee pleased and repay it him againe when hee pleased and that if hee would honour him so much as to marry his daughter hee would give him all the lands and wealth hee had This great courtesie of De Tores to the Baron of Sanctifiore hee held was redoubled to him in the value in that hee lent it to him so freely and undemanded as also for that it came so opportunely and fitly to pay his debts and satisfie his wants as after a long and respective complement betweene them Sanctifiores necessitie so easily prevailes with his modesty that hee most thankfully takes this gold of De Tores and likewise gives him more hope than despaire to his motion of marrying his daughter the Lady Bertranna wherewith the one rests well satisfied and the other exceeding well contented This point of courtesie being thus performed betweene them Sanctifiores joy thereof was so great I may say so boundlesse as he presently finds out his new Mistris Bertranna and with a frolick countenance and cheerfull voice relates her how much her father had obliged him and from point to point what had past betweene them and immediately after no lesse doth her father the musick of which newes was so pleasing to her mind and so sweet to her heart and thoughts that she hereupon flatters her selfe with a confident hope that hee will shortly marry her and in this hope doth hee still feed and entertaine her being seldome or never from her but ever and anon both together billing and kissing drowning his judgement so wholly in her company and his heart ranging and dreaming so fully on her youth and beauty and on her fathers great wealth and estate that hee hath not the grace no nor which is lesse the will or good nature once to thinke of his poore desolate and forsaken Vrsina of whom in her turne I come now to speake Wee have formerly understood with sorrow and our sorrowfull and unfortunate Vrsina hath to her griefe too too soone seene how unkindly Sanctifiore hath used and how basely and treacherously abused her in the points of her honour and his infidelity and yet all this notwithstanding her love and affection is still so deare and constant to him and her hopes so confident of him that all this discourtesie of his to her is only but to try her patience and that considering what familiarity hath past betweene them it is impossible for him to bee so cruell hearted towards her as in the end not to marry her She hath likewise acquainted him that she is with child by him and when all other reasons and persuasions faile shee hopes this will prevaile to reclaime his affection to her and to induce him to take pitty of her and compassion of his unborne babe within her But to resell and dissipate all these her flattering and deceitfull hopes and which is worse to make her lose all hopes of this her desired happines and good fortune from him his new contracted and incessant familiarity betweene him and the Lady Bertranna is not so privatly carried and hushed up in silence betweene them but shee hath secret and sorrowfull notice thereof which so inflames her mind with hot jelousie and likewise afflicts her heart with cold feare and apprehension that shee hath seduced and drawen his affection from her to himselfe as also that hee will utterly forsake her to marry Bertranna that shee fully beleeves that the wind of his discourteous absence from her proceedes from this point of the compasse Wherefore fearing that which shee already knowes but far more that which shee knowes not of this their familiarity betweene them all her hopes of Sanctifiore are almost vanished and banished and her heart is as it were wholly depressed and weighed downe with bitter griefe and sorrow thereof She dares acquaint no body with her disgrace much lesse her Father and her looking on her great belly doth but infinitely augment her sorrowes and increase her afflictions in regard that that which should have beene the cause of her joy and glory shee now knowes will shortly prove the argument of her shame and misery A thousand times a day yea I may truly say as many times an houre shee wisheth shee had beene more chaste and lesse faire and not so easily to have hearkned to Sanctifiores sugred oathes and temptations as to have lost her honour and fortunes in seeking to preserve them in her affeâ—…tion to him shee would faine draw comfort from all these â—…er calamities or from any one of them and yet shee knowes not from whom except from her Sanctifiore when presently shee checks her folly and reproves her ambition for tearming him hers when shee beleeves she hath far more cause to feare than reason to doubt that hee already is or shortly will bee Bertrannas husband And yet againe because the excesse of her sorrowes hath more eclipsed her joyes than her judgement and more dulled and obscured her heart than her understanding therefore judging it a master peece of her policy if shee can sequester and reclaime
taking a solemne and sorrowfull farwell of all the world shee puls downe her vaile over her snow-white cheekes and then often crossing her selfe with the signe of the crosse and saying her last in manus â—…ua the executioner with a flaming torch sets fire to the straw and fagots whereof shee presently dies and in lesse than an houre after her body is there consumed burnt to ashes at which all that great concourse of people and spectators in favour to her youth and beauty as much affecting the piety of her death as they hate and detest the cause thereof I meane the infamy and crueltie of her life doe with far more sorrow than joy give a great shout and out-cry When the judges of that cittie now upon knowledge of this Ladies first horrible crime of poysoning her first Lord and husband Don Alonsâ—… De Mora they in detestation thereof being not able to adde either worser infamy or more exquisite and exemplary torments to her living body they therefore partly to bee revenged on her dead ashes doe cause them curiously to bee gathered up and so in the same place by the common hang-man before all the people to bee scattered and throwen in the aire where at they rejoyce and praise God to see the world so fairly rid of so foule and bloody a female monster And thus was the untimely and yet deserved end of this lascivious and cruell hearted Lady Bellinda and in this sharp manner did the Lord of heaven and earth triumph in his just revenge and punishments against her for these her two foule and inhumane crimes of murthering her two husbands May God of his best and divinest mercy make this her history and example to serve as a chrystall mirrour for all men and especially for all women of what condition and qualitie so ever And now Christian reader having by Gods most gratious assistance and providence here finished this entire and last volume of my six bookes of tragicall histories if thou find that thou reape any profit or thy soule any spirituall benefite by the reading and perusall thereof then in the name and feare of God I beseech thee to joyne thy prayers and piety with mine that as in Christian religion and duty wee are bound so for the same wee may jointly ascribe unto God all possible power might Majesty thanksgiving dominion and Glory both now and for ever Amen Amen FINIS Augusti XVIII 1634. REcensui hunc librum cui titulus The sixt booke of the triumphs of Gods revenge upon Murther qui quidem liber continet folia 99 aut circiter in quibus exceptis quae delentur nihil reperio sanae doctrinae aut bonis moribus contrarium quò minus cum publicâ utilitate imprimi queat sub eà tamen conditione ut si non intrà annum proximè sequentem typis mandetur haec licentia sit omnino irrita Guilielmus Haywood Capell domest Archiep. Cant. a Psal 23. 1. b Psal. 100. 3. c Mat. 25. 34. 41 d 1 Ioh. 2. 16. e Col. 3. 5. f 1 Pet. 5 8. g Revel 12. 9. h Ioh 12. 31. Ephes. 6. 12. i 2 Cor. 11. 14. k Luk. 4. 6. 7. l Gen. 1. 27. Psal. 115. 6. m Ioh. 10. 21. 11. 25. o Gen. 2. 7. p Gen. 1. 28. q Isay. 43. 21. r Heb. 13. 14. s Psal. 102 3. Isay 40. 7. t Psal. 39. 5. u 1 Cor. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 x Coloss. 3. 〈◊〉 y Ephes. 6. 〈◊〉 b Rom. 5. 3. c Iames 1. 2. d Iam. 1. 13 14. e Psal. 73. 23. f Psal. 9. 10. g Psal. 18. 2. h Hos. 6. 1. i Iames 1. 12. k Psal. 125. 1. l 1. Ioh. 2. 11. m 1 Ioh. 4. 10. n Ephes. 4. 26. o 1 Pet. 3. 9. p Coloss. 3 13. r Psal. 145. 8. s Gen. 4. 8. t 2 Sam. 11. 17. u 2 Sam. 3. 27. x 1 Kin. 21. 13. y 2 Kin. 21. 1. z Psa. 7. 14 15 a Iam. 5. 13. b Psal. 61. 8. c Exod. 15. 15 c Deut. 30. 20. d Psal. 104. 31