either you were not pleased to expresse it or else you would not seeme to know it for doubt of being induced to yeeld to what you might by irrefuteable arguments be perswaded unto The Gods with your gracious pardon are not that instrument though they be indeed the Authors and the end thereof nor in giving it us give they us themselves but their assistant grace whereby we are made capable of using it nor yet have they been pleased to bestow it upon us in an incomprehensible way beyond the capacity of our senses as they themselves are lest we should then impudently deny it as they themselves have beene sometimes impiously renounced to prevent which they have naturally engrafted it in us and withall made us doubly sensible of having it in our heart and in our intellect Conscience that witnesse against our selves is that instrument that conscience which I will terme Naturall to distinguish it from the Religious one By this Naturall Conscience I meane that remorse common to all creatures which though voide of reason are not for all that deprived of a certaine knowledge of the evils they commit more or lesse according to the degrees of their capacities and such a conscience is singular in us in the yeares of our infancie A Religious Conscience I intend to be that whose object is Divinity but for being built upon divers lawes contrary or disaccording cannot be so generall as to forme this instrument Naturall Conscience then as a common immutable principle shall serve us for a rule in our affaires without neglecting for all that the use of the religious one when we treate of the Gods or of their operations in us Let us now then first see if Princes and people be indifferently bound to conserve those their dominion these their present state or if the pretext of predestination or divine will doth constraine them to runne to ruine for default of defending themselves For the Princes my Prince here beleeves there is no reason for it since their owne interesses will make them use the meanes For the people he speakes neerer the quick of the seeming trueth for he holds them exempted of all defence for not receiving any change thereby as touching the naturall conscience and for not opposing the divine will in obsequiousnesse to the religious one But I being under correction of a contrary opinion say that they ought to shunne by all meanes any new principality for being by the religious Conscience thereto bound by oathes of fealty and obedience And the alleadging that the beginnings of Monarchies were violent is a reason that under favour proves not his but my opinion since when the Law declareth things unowned to be his that first comes to the enjoying of them it shewes cleerely the property thereof to be by naturall reason such or such a ones And the same Law that by the selfe same reasons would take away all occasions of contentions that might spring from old pretensions gives us likewise prescription of time which being expired declares the things in controversie to be under the dominion of the last possessor But I admit not this violence much lesse beleeve it to have bin a degree to the first Signiories For if it be true that golden ages first were and afterwards degenerated 't is strange to me since I finde them not now degenerated nor abased but rather reduced to a finer caract and a better state than ever they were before in Nature desires Monarchy and will needs have it wee see not any one thing that depends not on another The Sunne lords over the Planets among beasts the Lion rules and of birds the Eagle is soveraigne The secondary causes also depend on one prime singular the affects and temperatures are subject to one predominating Element the soule rules the body the father his children and family if then every litle house hath by nature its King why shall not then a City a Province nay a whole Nation have one The first that reduced men together did it not to lord over but to instruct and disciplinate them nor can indeed a Teacher discharge well the function of a Teacher without jurisdiction over his Disciples and the Heavens that would have a Monarchy among men as in other things brought in for Monarches elevated wits which were the first that began to oversway the depressed and servile And though I did admit which I doe not that the streame of Monarchies sprung from the fountaine of tyrannie yet might I gather thence the learning of good government by bad as by the infirmity the medicine and by it the restauration of health which being an inestimable treasure let us endeavour as much more to conserve it as in procuring its reduction from tyrannie to a legitimate and necessary Magistracie whereby and by whose meanes man-kinde is governed and made happy So farre therefore are those that first ruled out of the reach of accusation that even antiquity it selfe hath to eternize their memories honoured them as Gods The people then ought for the religious conscience's sake to obey their Princes and for the naturall one to doe the same for their owne peculiar interesses Never was there State seene passe from one government to another without its owne proper violence of Lawes or customes which being so violated breakes the peace and ingenders factions and sometimes insurrections by reason of the Subject's being restrain'd to new lawes and orders contrary to the first a passion in Nature intollerable Besides that a new Prince though he enter never so peaceably cannot yet otherwise choose but come arm'd so as the Subject's goods and houses remaine to be exposed to the Souldiers and justice in the hand of new Ministers under new termes and lawes And if the change chance to be from a bad Prince to a worser or from a good to a bad one should not then an indifferent and easie servitude be preferr'd before an heavy and intollerable one The comparison demonstrating unto us that a great difference in things though of the selfe-same species makes them become not onely unequall but opposite My Lord the Prince counsels as a Druide that which as a Prince hee surely would not doe which is that considering the confusion and ill intelligence among Princes and seeing the signes of the divine will to threaten as it were their ruine it would prove their best course quietly and patiently to endure the yoake of the divine will and withall as willingly to subject themselves to the hand of man for feare of perishing But I would faine know who will or can assure me of the will of the Gods or in case I might be thereof assur'd yet who will calculate me the degrees thereof or shew me the limits of its extent But will they needs have me undone howsoever Indeede if I looke into my owne demerits it will be no difficult matter to induce me to beleeve it nay I doubt me that by this reason most if not all the world
to have place in your Majesty since at the very name of God I see you shake off the shackles of that benumming droopingnesse wherewith you were fettered Humane afflictions have Royall Madame two most potent arguments or rather meanes of shunning extreames the one practised through the helpe of Philosophicall vertue the other infused by celestiall grace that common to all this onely to those whom God communicates it unto From the first we may learne that ordinary accidents should not in any extraordinary measure afflict us that the gifts of Nature are bestow'd upon us for use not possession that riches children and honours are more suddenly lost than gotten that prudent and discreete persons receive from reason that consolation in an instant which others are wrought unto by time and perswasion and that such comfort too depends on our imagination and our imagination on us so as the prefixing to our selves things either burthensome or light is to shut or open the gates of comfort The second teacheth us that the death of the just is precious before God that humane capacity conceives not the joyes of such as have an eternall seate amongst the blessed that the life of such is not taken away but conserved till that long expected day which must bring us being freed from the tyrannie of time and fortune to the enjoying of a truly-perfect life that that death which terminates the course of an holy life is not properly death considering the sweete quietnesse that ensues it the faire advantagious exchange it makes and the undoubted assurance it receives of it that the good are called before their time for ridding them out of the hands of the wicked and from being by them either molested or corrupted that God makes no difference betweene the rathnesse and latenesse of time but that man arrived to the terme prescribed him becomes old even in his very childehood and that therefore we should with a cheerefull mind accept what he sends us to offer him in gift what we owe him of duty The Queene listned unto the Priest with great attention and seeing him now silent with a countenance composed to constancie whose milde serenity shewed shee had chased away the cloud of passion shee return'd him this answer Father I yeeld the Gods hearty thankes for having voutchsafed to remember mee through your meanes I could not I confesse answer your arguments if I had the power to practize them but wanting it it behoves me to search for it in the secret of your precepts And first I beseech you to teach mee how I shall conceive to bee ordinary that which never was heretofore I lament not as I am a woman the generall death of man but bemoane as a mother the particular death of my sonne I know that it is an ordinary thing that every man dye but to dye in youth to breake the order of Nature to have befall us in our more pleasing yeares that which should not happen us before our decrepit loathsome old age is I am sure no ordinary thing For the gifts which wee receive alas I grieve not for being debarrd the possessing them which I pretend not but for being deprived of the use of them which was violently taken from me If it were ordinary for mothers to bee deprived of their sonnes the world would then be soone ended for in one sole age there would not be either fathers or sonnes to be found that worldly things are transitory our very sense shewes us but ere sense can renounce the griefe that followes the privation of them Nature must first forbeare the forming it of passions For the discreete I know not in what sense to conceive them conceive them perhaps I might if the proprieties of affects were punctually knowne but who can fit mee one pleasure or one paine to two that be just equall to them and reduce withall their constitutions to such a parity that tense make not a difference of them which if it could be done too yet could there be no great matter of prudence in it since wee are tyed to worke with such equality And againe if it cannot be done I must then call it rigidnesse of nature declination of sense stupidity or defect of apprehension at the least The procuring in fine that meere imagination should bring us to comfort is beyond the reach of my understanding And I would faine know if such an effect shall be conformable to its cause which if it be then must such a consolation needs be false the imagination being formed of things not true To your second Arguments I make no answer their authority being but too great and their truth most manifest But the supreame truth not being comprehensible otherwise than by the minde it should not me thinkes seeme strange to you if I for being governed with the sharpe sense of my griefes comprehend it not in its owne rayes whereunto I for all that submit both my selfe and my griefes so I be but permitted to evaporate them a litle lest the principall be exceeded by the interest Vpon the hearing of these words the Assistants who till this time were all tongue-tyed by a drooping silence made resound the Cube of a confused lamentation the aged Priest weeping with the rest Till observing a litle after that the Queene dryed up her teares and that return'd to her former quiet temper shee stood expecting some further speech of him he thought to reply when shee continued the file of her speech saying Father there are some passions which have more need of sword than shield which a man must either quite defeate or still live withall which if it so bee where then shall I alas for shunning such deadly company finde Armes to defeate mine ere I be first by them quite ruin'd Philosophicall reasons are God wot but feeble wards they are shields fram'd by wit which many times either speakes what it is not sensible of or practiseth not what it speakes 'T is but too difficult a thing to put off the habit of humanity there is not any man that disburthens himselfe of it without sorrow at parting from it In heaven answered the Priest where in the hight of blisse lives the glorious Prince Corideo you Madame by that time I have assured you of your glory shall finde this vitall sword And being asked how hee could know it and if the places appointed for the happy were not the Elizean Fields These are mysteries said hee which I should indeede conceale if the imparting them you were not the unguent wherewith I should heale you The ordinary place then appointed for the happy is indeed the same you now mentioned but yet there are of them others granted but to a few for but few such are there as was the Prince Corideo The soule Madame is a fire a ray or sparkle taken from the divinity infused by the Gods into bodies in different degrees the cause of the differences that are seene betweene soule and soule All the
new thoughts for being caught with the graces of the faire Princess without daring to manifest it upon examination with himselfe of her tender yeares and customes both those and these being incapable of any such affect And withall which seemed most averse to him of a nature farre from an amorous inclination a contemner of men and a mortall enemy of such of her sex who for conforming to their lovers passions shewed themselves any thing pliable to their loves And though hee hoped that time might alter her yet did the suspence of the selfe-same time also torment him for being unable to suffer the agony of such long-expecting and uncertaine hopes hee being but a traveller without either state or meanes deprived of any certaine place of abode yea and of all power to resolve of any thing excepting such as fortune might favour him withall But being unable to contrast with heaven upon re-examined deliberation with himselfe hee determined to serve her in a somewhat more than usuall manner and withall to smoother his flames by assaying if approached her they could by any meanes without her knowledge warme her Or in case nought else come of it yet should he not neede to despaire wholly were it but for the content that he hoped to receive from her most lovely presence and yet more lively because unparalled gestures and though the worst that could happened yet should hee not be the first that for nourishing his amorous hopes had beene voluntarily deceived for not yeelding himselfe up to deaths tyrannie The princely Mayden on the other side far God wot from any such thoughts beheld him with an indifferent eye onely fretting her selfe for his being such as shee could not hate Her youthfull spirit ruminated on nought else save warre and death with cruell revenges of wrongs which poore women every day as shee conceived received from men She held the subjection of her sex to be tyrannicall and conceiv'd that both Nature and the Law were therein deceived and that onely for being abased by tyrant custome it shew'd not its native vertue That it was now high time to let the world see it and by reacquiring their lost liberty to make the so inured female sex if not superior equall and companion to the other in favour whereof shee was egg'd on by examples Well knew shee that in Egypt where shee then abode the Kings had effeminated the men put them to domestick services to the distaffe and spindle to free themselves from dangers and suspitions shee had also read the Amazon's valorous enterprizes and thereupon contemplating the greatnesse of her owne spirit was confident of accomplishing the full of her intentions Wherein shee perceived but one sole difficulty which was to deprive women of their naturall feares though she beleeved them to be rather habituall than naturall Her selfe shee knew to be valorous not so much by the force of her body as by the courage of her heart shee comprehended that valour consisted in being neither carefull of ones person nor incumbred with the feares of death That the sensibility of wounds enfeebles the forces and blunts the edge of courage seeing it is the sole cause that makes it effeminate and backward in assailing and disadvantagious and slow in defending Shee therefore concluded them onely to be more valiant than the rest in whom had taken deepest roote the indifferencie of either living or dying confirmed in such an opinion by the nature of irrationall animals whereof the fiercer are not the stronger but the more courageous Since that for being endued with more force than men they would merit the title of fortitude rather than they if such vertue had its seate in bodily force that then since women were equally capable of the conceits of the minde wherefore then not of their effects too Such were her internall discourses which if they sometime tooke a turne about any passages told her of divers effects of love shee then ever sparkled out disdaine against the shee-lovers and could have found in her heart to have torne in pieces such of her sex as being rejected or slighted tormented themselves with love an affect to her thinking neither necessary nor necessiting but a simple proposition of free will an incompatibility by consequence unnaturall to love one that hates the person loving which if it be not conceiv'd shee a frensie must needs be an infirmitie of the braine to be cured with penance and fasting The day being come and the horses saddled the young woman there waited in a readinesse with her coates gathered up for the better trudging a-foote which the Princesse abhorring and failing to perswade her to make use of the benefit of the channell was therefore faine to consent that shee came along with her upon the importunity of her entreaties accompanied with such a quantity of teares that never mother shed so many for the losse of her children Causing her therefore to be put on horse-backe behinde Carasio shee asked her who shee was and whither shee meant to goe having already understood how shee was found and runne-away from Carasio she considering that no evasion could any thing steed her resolved now though not without being thereof ashamed to recite in the termes of truth the story of her selfe in such like words I redoubted Sir am the most miserable woman that ever was yet borne since whereas others miseries proceede from fortune mine spring meerely and wholly from my selfe so as though but too unworthy in all other respects yet in this above all I deserve to be pittied of no man in so much as if the unfained repentance of my faults had not enabled and prepared mee for supporting the pennance due for them with an intention to impose on my selfe others somewhat greater I should then not onely finde my selfe to be in a desperate case but should also have together with a perverse minde a lying tongue that in steede of faults and dishonour would blazon my merits and honours not so much to conceale from your knowledge my dishonesties which should indeede be buried in the center of the earth as to finde pitty in you and to gaine your better opinion At the hearing of these words the Princesse kindled as fiery-hot embers was about to make her hold her peace till upon her becomming more pliable because of Coralbo's expectation and shortning the longsomnesse of the way shee gave way to her relation My name said shee is Diatistera by Nation a Grecian and by birth of the noblest blood in Chio not because my Father possessing himselfe of its liberty became tyrant thereof but for that no other one Family in all Ionia is of more ancient memory than ours nor any ancestours more remarkeable for vertue nor renown'd for trophies than are our Forefathers I was conceived in a private estate my father then conformable to the stiles of republiques being himselfe but a Citizen though in greater estimation than the rest yet marked with no titulary dignity of
me that I should never suffer any more such paines my incommodious delivery having so bruised me within and its sorenesse so augmented by my naturall heate as deprived me of all possibility of conceiving any more I made many trialls of my selfe according to my Physitians direction especially of certaine suffumigations of Mirh Incense and Storax which passing from the inferior parts of the body to the mouth and nose denotes a possibility of conceiving but through me to my but too great discontent they passed not though upon experimenting it on one of my Gentlewomen I found a different effect Missing thus of the Direct way I turn'd to the Oblique and to the supplying with cunning the defects of Nature For I caused to be laid waite for in three severall places three women great with childe litle or nothing differing in their time my Physitian serving me faithfully in that employment and making each of those women beleeve that he would reare it up as his sonne in performance of a Vow he had made to Esculapio And my will was that they should be three out of the likelihood that one of them might be a boy and that I might in case one of them died have my choyse of the other two so then I tooke on me to be great with childe to the Kings so great pleasure and joy that hee went neere to grow wilde thereat I wanted you may well imagine no symptoms being therein helped by certaine vomitive pils which by me swallowed downe in the morning wrought on me at so measured a time as they began their operation just at my rising off the table In the night time likewise by taking halfe a glasse-full of certaine water privily laid by one of my women at my beds head I awakened with my vomiting the King who forgetting what he was served me for a servant and waiting-boy That which beguiled him others and well neere my selfe too was the comming no more of my ordinary visits the appearing of milke in my brests within two moneths after insomuch as I beleeved that I was with childe in good earnest but my Physitian soone lopp'd off that pleasing branch from the tree of my conceit by letting me see that the veines being over-stuff'd with blood which should have runne else-where had transmitted it up into my brests where it converted into milke which in case it for my not purging my body continued would occasion mee a dangerous and violent disease Delivered that one of the three women was by night and by good fortune of a goodly male-childe he was brought mee by the Physitian and handsomely conveyed under my coates close to me with all circumstances needfull for keeping the plot undescried my Midwives and nurse-keepers I had ready at hand and one Lady that the Queene put with mee to see mee delivered by me long before so beguiled as shee now no more doubted of my being great with childe For I having lately caused to be taken away from too kitlings newly littered the clawes and tongues and handsomely fitted them under my smocke made them feele thereabouts with their hands whilst they made just such another motion as babes doe in their mothers wombe No sooner was my Physitian departed than that I shriked out such loud cries as waked all the Pallace I hastily roame to my bed where I lay in such a plight as they tooke me for dead so handsomely did I counterfeite my selfe for such by my fast-grasped hands and eyes so rowled up as nothing but the white of them appeared They all-to-be-rubb'd me over and kept such a doe about me as they had kill'd the little creature but for the moistnesse of the blood that discovered it Lifting up the bed-clothes they found nothing wanting in me for manifesting my being delivered The King hearing I was on the point of death came running into my Chamber the same did also the more than me dead Queene it behooving her in spite of her heart to make a shew of gladnesse on this birth which pierced her very heart and of sorrow for that evill which would have proved the supreamest of her joyes if this had beene the last and extreamest disease that ever I should be sick of The babe being wash'd escaped hardly the being smothered by the Kings hugging and kissing it At the newes of this adored birth-day the night was turned into day every body stirring abroad and all the City with lights in all their balcons and bonfires in all their streets though not before that my Physitian to whom alone I would needs give the honour thereof had with his counterfeite medicines cured my counterfeite disease Vp risen that I was from childe-bed my first businesse was to hasten the repudiating of the Queene and next my wedding not as yet obtained because wise though potent Kings will not at all times doe what they both can and have a desire to doe They have their owne ends and yet will give the people satisfaction and discreetly waite for the opportunity of time to put in execution such things as they are sure cannot please them Yet well might I upon this occasion have beene married if the Gods had beene pleased to have permitted my wickednesse to have rested perpetually concealed The King had neere his person a great Lord named Gobria his contemporary for age bred up with him from his infancie and his companion in Armes in all enterprizes This Lords integrity was never shaken with those infernall blasts Avarice and Ambition for the King never gave him so much as that his liberality gave him way to enrich himselfe therewithall neither did ever his dignities and favours make him either so proud or discourteous as to neglect to any man any respect due to him He was naturally a mortall enemy to all corruption ill-speaking and ill-speakers but above all things to dissembling and treason never saw hee the King incensed against any man that in an humble and prevailing manner he excused him not so he but thought he deserved it Or if at any time he seemed to accuse any man it then was but to second his Prince's nature which he knew to be more apt to pardon upon confession than excuse of errours so as it is not knowne that ever he did any prejudicing office against any man but upon great and sound reasons hee being in all his deportment more satisfactory and familiar than indeede befitted either his greatnesse or the statelinesse of the Persian customes And yet he that never in his lives time had harmed any body was neverthelesse the instrumentall cause of my utter ruine My Physitian had infore-speaking the women as you have heard made every of them beleeve that because he had no children of his owne he would bestow nursing and breeding on what they should bee delivered of so it were a boy so as the first that was delivered observing how hasty he was to disburthen her of hers and how that without as much as binding up his
the impatient longing they had to returne into Sardinia The Court of Egypt was at that time one of the most flourishing of the Vniverse frequented by brave and doughty Knights drawne thither formerly by the lasting and victorious enterprizes of King Ptsemitide and at the present by his liberality and by the free carriage and beauty of the Ladies of that Court. Never was there Prince that joyned greatnesse with familiarity or familiarity with gravity better than hee the meere ordinary Guard of his body formed a sufficient Army he had five severall orders of Souldiers and among them three of Nobility and Gentry the first composed of foure fallanges of Knights and Gentlemens younger sonnes the first-borne in Egypt as in many other kingdomes bearing away the whole faculty Heere as in Academy in the most tranquill and calme peace was exercised Martiall discipline with as strict order and rigorous observance as others use in the ardor of the most dangerous warre They were constantly remov'd and changed every three moneths the novices of them being usually spread over the neighbouring Garrisons and the other three Regiments in Memphi warding the City and Pallace royall From this Seminary sprung Captaines Camp-masters and sometimes even Generalls themselves Of the other foure two were Knights the one of the new and the other of the old Band who gloried to have recommended to their loyaltie in peace valour in warre the sacred person of their Royall Soveraigne The fourth of Halberdiers clad with the Royall device and so many in number as reached divided into two files on either hand along the staires and all the way from the grand portall to the great Hall The last of Light-horse-men covered with coates enriched with Embroyderies of a colour and forme suitable Through these Guards was the way to the Kings withdrawing Chamber and thence into a Gallery a quarter of a mile long of a breadth and hight proportionable with its lights towards the Nile adorned betwene its stately balcons with lively pictures of the most noble and fairest Cities of the world Heere entertained himselfe the King throng'd with a great concourse of ennobled Cavaliers insomuch as it was many times hard to know which of them was the King the Egyptian Nobility might easily be discerned from the rest by the pompe and curious inventions of their habits delighting more in the sight of their Prince than doth the Eagle in beholding the Sunne never was the Court seen so solitary that it had attending it lesse than three thousand Nobles and Gentlemen sumptuously apparalled and compleatly equipaged The Queenes side on the other part being no lesse numerous and frequented her Chamber of presence never empty to Cavaliers and Ladies never shut so as the whispering noyse of so many softly-speaking tongues might bee aptly resembled to that humming the Bees make in their Hives at such time as they are most busied in working of their Honey Ptsemitides was growne all hoary but yet in full vigor with lively spirits and an indefessible able body and withall though match'd with the fairest wife that that part of the world could afford him yet was hee almost continually employed in some new love or other his Queene being reserved meerely for use of childe-bearing and for that cause beloved That Court then was in respect both of it selfe and the nature of its Prince the most joyfull and amorous of as many as ever were many sonnes had hee but by wedlock onely the Prince then a babe and one daughter whose towardly nature and sweete disposition was not equalled by any in that great Monarchie Shee passed not much fifteene years of age yet had shee an aged-seeming because well experimented spirit in the more worthy perfections sucked almost with her brest-milke by perpetuall conversation of refined wits and her onely delight of various reading wherein she consumed her houres with a gust that exceeded her age sex Polimero and Eromena had already seene the King but so had not Lindadori nor Coralbo who comming likewise to see him were met by the others and so left the Court to be private together as was told you There dwelt neere to their lodging an ancient Knight who observing the two couple that though unknowne manifested yet their greatnesse by their exterior qualities would needs courteous as he was goe visit them conceiving that their being strangers obliged him thereunto for his quality he was a great Souldier favoured by the King for his valour and therefore highly esteemed of all the Court and understanding that they knew no body he would needs present them before the King who received them without any distinction taking them all for Knights observantly eying though their youth and beauty whereof hee saw no paragon in all the Court Hee stood discoursing with them in Greeke for a good while and as one quick-sighted in discerning of persons suddenly judged the foure younger to be of no ordinary quality which made him very desirous that the Queene might see them nay more he would needs bring them in himselfe an unwonted favour done to none save Princes and so taking Polimero by the hand hee drew all the rest after him those Lodgings being so full that two could hardly passe a-brest through them The Queene was seated at her beds-feete with her daughter by her side accompanied with foure Princesses of the Blood-royall encircled with many Lords standing about them when Eromena presented her selfe before her Polimero dexterously drawing back to give her the honour of precedencie They were by her received all of them with royall courtesie Elitrea the Princesse following her example in honouring them but exceeding it with Lindadori Shee liked well those like-her-owne tender innocent beauties and a well-becomming carelesse carriage of hers which made her so heede her that superficially passing over the rest shee taking her for a Knight desired to entertaine her alone whilest the Queene enterchanged complementall courtesies with Eromena with the very same both beliefe and affection The King after having jeasted a short while with some of the Ladies retir'd him thence and the two indeede Knights observing the Queene and Princesse their prodigious inclination towards the two maskers withdrew themselves apart as it were for good manners sake with the foure Princesses of the blood who received them with exceeding great courtesie Eromena upon discovering of the Queenes minde knew not well what countenance to frame shee answered to the demands shee made her with that extraodinary grace which the Heavens had with extraordinary priviledge granted her above all other women Lindadori being simple and in such affaires a novice not building on others fancies but altogether intent about the well-representing of a mans person marveiled at the customes and carriage of the young Princesse in whom besides a more than ordinary courtesie shee observed a more than usuall freenesse and else-where-unknowne liberty gravity in that Countrey being reputed an imperfection or defect or at least taken for a dependant
not dead and bemoaned him not The Queene who as a childe of her owne deerely tendred him was even heart-broken with griefe for him The King sollicited the Physitians for fresh Pittims and new Cordialls but nothing avail'd him since they penetrated not into the nature of the disease nor its true occasion Ridden hee had and danced too that morning but without excesse exercises to him ordinary Dined he had too but yet sparingly repletion and disorder had no place in him Deadora seeing him in such a plight too late now repenting her being the causer of it taking him by the hand warm'd it betweene hers calling to him with so many throbs and teares that happy he had he but seene them Nor did such demonstrations any way impeach the reserved modesty of her sex their neernesse in blood education and domestick amity sufficiently priviledging her so to doe At length hee came to himselfe just in that time when litle better than abandoning him for dead every ones thoughts were busied more about his funerall than life for now the King Queene Princesse and Princes were all of them parted save onely Vincirco who staid behinde with the Physicians and was now set a weeping over him as dead The King having notice thereof returned with the rest and finding him laid in warme cloathes in a feaverish fit shaking every joynt of him he began to hope the best of him And because the throng of Courtiers that came in with him might not disturbe his cure he tooke them all againe out with him leaving there onely the Queene with Deadora The former where of being told by the Physicians that the accident proceeded from some great oppression of the heart much marveyled thereat for that shee had observed him to be ever merry yet beleeving that some internall humour falling on that part had caused that accident shee ranne to her lodgings for a most delicate paste made for that purpose leaving with him her daughter and Vincireo Shee seeing the Physitians retired and her selfe all alone with Vincireo whom shee cared not for concealing her selfe from accoasting his bed-side cures the wound given by the weapons of her former sharpe by the balme of these her milder words My Princely Lord and deerest Cozen said shee I confesse my selfe faulty and pronounce my selfe most worthy of chastisement for having beene against all reason the cause of endangering your life by bringing you thus to deaths doore I confesse yea I now from my soule confesse your interesses to be full of love and most worthy of being really corresponded with an equall affection Behold mee here now my endeer'd Lord most ready to make you plenary amends Cheere then up your selfe I beseech you for loe I am disposed and immutably resolved to goe whithersoever you please Banish then from you all melancholy since I am ever yours and never will be any others which that you might be the more assured of I have not you see abhorr'd the testimony of the Prince of Pontus your Cozen and mine here present which shee expressed with an affection so sincerely-ardent as both amazed Vinciero and restor'd Gradamoro to life It is naturall for an oppressed heart to disgorge in teares in the very instant of its being eased that maligne humour that suffocated it a token of health and a signe that Melancholy departing leaves roome and way for joy to enter Right so befell it now the Prince of Cyprus hee stood a good while taking first the Princesse's hands betweene his and distilling rivulets of teares out of the fountaines of his eyes and then affectionately kissing them return'd her this answer I know not incomparable Madame when I shall be ever able to serve you conformable to the great obligation to your more than excelling courtesie You Madame cannot be faulty where you have soveraigne power nor bee subject to punishment whereas you sway the scepter over all the lawes of my affections Your nobly vouchsafing to comprehend in the better sense my interesses and out of your goodnesse to accept them in good worth is to me a supreame favour but your benignely daigning to correspond them surpasseth even all expectation of mine much more the slendernesse of my merits so as I am so farre unable from really requiring your nobly-obliging favours by deeds as I cannot finde apt words to expresse or acknowledge them For the rest could I but have thought nay hoped that the King your Father upon any earnestly-sollicitous Embassie of mine could have beene wrought to bestow you on mee I then would I protest unto you never have presumed to have preposed you your flight but being promised as you are alas what likelihood is there for you to have by his consent other husband than Erpandro And the example of your mother that I proposed you with the revenge that thereupon ensued were never by mee intended for arguments to perswade you since I knew them farre from being availeable in that behalfe but to shew you how by them you might assure your selfe that your resolution should be lesse blamed and censured Besides that I pretend not to robbe what 's any other mans for so you Madame be but pleased to make me by your noble assent but worthy I will marry you ere wee part to the end our faults if such they be may seeme by so much the lesse in the eyes of both heaven and the world The Princesse resolved both to felicitate and cure him here thus interrupts him Well my Lord to the end you may see that there is no neede of justifications behold me here at your disposure therefore so you be therewith pleased marry me a-Gods-name right now in the presence of your Cozen here who astonished to see them at that point without imparting any inckling thereof to him till then taking off his finger a rich Diamond Gradamoro having then no Ring ready reached it him to marry her therewith as instantly he did remitting the rest to another time The Physicians being called found his pulse at a good passe and the Queene come he would needs take what shee brought him to make her the Authresse of his health and then got out of his bed the day following so healthsome and blithsome as if he had not beene sick at all But then Vincireo could not forbeare from taxing him with discourtesie for the small signe of love he shewed him in this occasion of making use of him When he craving him pardon told him that at first he had concealed it with out knowing himselfe the reason why having entred into this businesse beyond all expectation and that afterwards doubting that hee would have disswaded him he was confirmed in his silence judging it a lesser evill to offend by concealing his affection than after communicating it not to follow his counsell or be in some way ruled by him And being thereupon demanded how he meant to carry the businesse now that his resolution had excluded all other either deliberation or counsell He answered