favour you may easily obtain pardon for the many injuries you have so often done me For this onely be not I beseech you so mortal an Enemy for if you desire I should dye I also will not much desire to live and so we may with little labour both receive satisfaction where as on the other side denying me this the memory of your cruelty and my death would be eternalliz'd I verily believe that if you would but follow for a little the impulse of reason you should see how that it 's an act unworthy of a noble and courteous Lady to torment those that offend you not unlesse you can call offence my constancy in loving you and the resolution I have taken of alwayes serving you But if you continue in the same opinion which you have formerly exprest remember a little remember Lucinda the sufferings that I undergo I am confident that if my torments were but considered by you according to what they are you would rather repent them then perpetuallize them with so much severity And really it 's a strange thing and almost incredible that you had rather be cruel to those that love you than be served by those that adore you For did you but condescend to consider the sorrow you return me in recompence of the services I tender to you I assure my self that you would plainly see how in glorious it is to insult in my ruin I conclude this my passionate discourse words being superfluous after that my presence hath presented you with so many demonstrations of my torments Look upon me onely look upon me O beautifull occasion of all my dysasters least otherwise deprived of the blessed gales of your serene looks the desperation which I have of my life provoke me to sollicit the death so much desired by ARNALDO THis Letter being written and seal'd I returned into the Hall where coming in a certain throng near to Lucinda I put it in the slieve of her upper Garment and withdrew to observe how she would entertain it But for a long time that I had watcht her I could observe nothing Whereupon I flattered my self with the hope of some prosperous successe to my attempt I was therefore so distracted with this perplexity of thoughts that I either answered nothing or else besides the purpose to those who entertained me with some discourse of the present Occurrences either of the Ball or Court And he that in that instant had toucht my breast might easily have felt the palpitations of my heart caused by desire and perplexing fear the daughters of a desperate Love The time being come at last that the Ball being ended every one retired to their own house observing that Lucinda would take leave of the Queen I waited on her disguised in an unknown Garb not onely home to her house but into her Chamber without being able to observe any thing in her that contributed so much as an atome to my hope Hence being little inclined to rest for that night I dispatcht Diffilus thither at the same time to bring me back some news of the fortune of that Paper which I had adventured in the slieve of Lucinda but he could hear nothing good or bad Whereupon my natural vigour diminishing by this fixt application and my grief encreasing continually scalding my heart in the inextinguishable flames of sighs I became wholly melancholy and solitary never desiring to see the face of the Sun more out of my Chamber Hereupon Belisa my sister moved to compassion of my misery as one who felt a great part of it her self sitting down close by me one day she weeping said Ah! my dear brother I intreat thee to acquaint me with the fatal cause of this grief which so much afflicts thee Seest thou not that thy affliction is my torment and that the love I bear thee makes me to live for thy sorrow a most unhappy life Thou hast many times confest thy self to be my debter and that thou wouldest recompence my love with a reciprocal affection But you deny me that with your actions which you confirm to me with your words You know very well that such like dissimulation ought not to have place near me make therefore my breast the depository of thy passions And to whom wilt thou commit them if thou wilt not intrust them to me Do but think that if thou desirest death I will not wish for life If thou hatest pleasure I will love sorrow If thou delightest in trouble I will be displeased with repose so that thy malady and my torment are one and the same thing to excruciate my heart If therefore you desire to ventilate your passion with whom better can you do it then with me that am never sparing in wishing your good I am sure that discharging one part of it upon me we shall together be the better able to bear it For if thou hast a desire to weep I will weep if you will comfort your self in your grief I will expedite my consolation and if you desire to conceal and nourish it we two can be better able then thou alone to hide and feed it Shew not I pray thee so little confidence in her which hath nothing in all the world that is not thine and make it believed in the end that thy dissimulation cannot falsify my judgement whilest thy tears and thy sighs thy sadnesse and thy solitude accuse me and too plainly discover that which you seek with such care to hide and conceal It 's certain death ought to be lesse powerfull then brotherly love and that therefore death it self shall be most welcom to me when by it thou shalt come to acquire a joyfull life since that I see thee arrived to that passe that thou canst not long continue alive But I had rather you would assume the spirits of your generosity and cheer up your self considering that fortune is alwayes an Enemy of the happy and favourable to the afflicted and therefore she being by nature fickle and inconstant whereas it befits the fortunate to fear I would have thee accustom thy self to hope in her vicissitude She ever causeth new actions for the tryal of our minds because her puissance is better known by the prosperous then by the calamitous Reserve not therefore thy anxious solitude to thy self alone for if greater is the evil that 's hid than the evil that is manifest thy communicating of it to me may afford thee some succour I intreat thee dear brother I intreat thee let the Key of my counsel open for thee the Door of thy comfort and health the peril that 's concealed being alwayes greater in every occurrence then that which is discovered Speak to me therefore if you love me and love that we should live together whether it be dolefully or cheerfully Here Belisa sighing held her peace I reply'd Thou hast so afflicted me dear sister with thy passion that in some measure to comfort thee I must be forced to tell thee what
to bear the victory from the bravest Cavaliers in the world should'st be overcome by a Feminine feeblenesse And for the further increase of my disgusts I see that thy Soul is that which falsifieth thy faith and tenders thee in a manner a rebel to reason for thou makest thy self the minister to thy own servitude and calamity Fly therefore such extreams of Love which transport thee to an extream unworthinesse not that I would have thee banish it wholly from thy knowledge there being no lesse peril in too much solicitude to avoid it then in too much assiduity to pursue it but that thou esteem it fear it seek it and contemne it with a generosity and liberty worthy of thy noble bloud and of thy great Soul For if Love be of it self a deceitfull affect do thou also deceive him his Laws being such that he who loveth least obtaineth the greatest recompence and who serveth most receiveth the greatest ingratitude In sum I consent that thou shalt follow Love but not make thy self his Slave and that thou despise him not but much lesse that thou trust him at any hand Consider that hope in easie things deceiveth in difficult betrayeth and that Fortune gives an unexpected issue to all humane affairs and therefore seeing it 's the cause of thy sorrow do thou also deceive it in making it the means of thy joy For I assure thee if thou wouldest follow my counsel now that I request thee thou shalt easily by this means obtain that which thou shalt certainly lose by going to my house in which neverthelesse thou art absolute master when and how thou pleasest And certainly thou hast done thy self great wrong to delay so long to contribute to thy comfort knowing that thou art more lord of my will then I am of my own house and for that cause I am obliged to serve thee in all occurrences wherein I may be usefull I shall say no more for words are fruitlesse where my thought is onely of comforting thee and not to perplex thee with talk And therefore now if you so please let us go to make a tryal of my Wit and of thy Fortune Thus said Jersus but whilest I hear'd him talk so sinisterly of Lucinda I felt my heart equally to boil with disdain and my mind to freeze with suspition and jealousie Yet with dissembling speeches he sought to make me believe that superfluity of Love would make me rave in my thoughts So I partly distrusted him partly assured my self that in regard of our ancient friendship he would observe that which he promised Seeing therefore that he had so freely offered me his house I resolved to go live there for some dayes but I soon found my self frustrated in my hopes for with all the diligence I could possibly use I could not in all the time I stayed there come so much as once to the sight of her for whose sake I had removed unto that Lodging Hereupon Belisa afflicted in my present peril by the consideration of my future pain at last investigating the cause of my malady she changed her course of life and without making me in the least privy to her design began to frequent the house of Lucinda with whom she had before upon some other account contracted friendship so that one day she being entered into discourse with her finding her in a good humour she thus spake to her I intreat thee my friend that using thy prudence thou will not blame me for that which I am about to tell thee presuming rather to merit applause then reprehension whil'st my compassion of another's misery excuseth my shame Dear Lucinda my deplorable brother Arnaldo for his great affection to thee dayly increaseth his affliction impaireth his health impoisoning even those remedies which should restore him to it Not that I have the least intimation from him of his Love having alwayes denied the true cause of his torments but yet I have been so sollicitous to sift out the truth that I have come to know that thou onely art the cause of his misery and mayest become the restorer of his life I have for this reason resolved to strain modesty to provide if I can possible for his safety and my sorrow And I professe that if I did not see his life in danger thou shouldest not have known the least hint of my trouble Moved therefore by a compassionate zeal for his conservation and to redresse my own calamity because wanting him who in the quality of an onely brother supplieth the place of my deceased Parents I should be left solitary and disconsolate I come to intreat thee that thou wouldest not at once with his life annihilate my consolation decollate our family acquiring to thy self instead of a perpetual glory an eternal infamy for thy cruelty and his death for certain I am he cannot so ill treated as he is prolong his life beyond the date of a few moneths O consider I beseech thee consider how much thou art oblig'd to him whil'st the more thou slightest him the more he loves thee and onely desireth death because thou art displeased with his life Herein while he for love of thee joyes in his torments and none know that thou art she which so much afflictest him thou art doubly ingaged to him and therefore at last relent into commiseration of his so great indurance and permit not his fidelity to perish by thy ingratiude What though thou art not pleased to receive him to the honour of thy conversation wilt not thou therefore gratify him at least with an answer to his Letter And if yet thou wilt not do it by instinct of a gratefull mind towards him yet do it dear Lucâ—nda for courtesie towards me who in so doing of a faithfull friend that I am thou shalt oblige me to become thy perpetuall slave Let it content thee that it 's now two years that I have languished under these sufferings and restore me since thou maist do it without trouble Lucinda presently replyed My dear friend and companion Thou hast no ground to fear that thou hast in any kind prejudiced thy Modesty whilst the pitty of a Brother and the confidence of a Friend absolves thee of all suspition and frees thee from all aspersion For though thou hast in part offended me with thy propositions thou hast also satisfyed me with thy honest innocence there being more cause thou shouldest grieve at thy brother's misfortunes than for any fault thou mightest commit against my person It exceedingly grieves me that I cannot give thee the satisfaction which thou desirest for although the misery of thy brother afflicts me yet I cannot apply my self to give him a remedy that being a thing would reflect upon my reputation to which I ought to have greater regard than to his health And thou art not ignorant how much the honour of a woman is diminished when to succour Lovers they forget themselves Request me not therefore to do that which thou
to stay awhile in the house of that Lady with an intention of waiting upon him with his Feluca to Athens whither he designed to go the better to inform himself of my proceedings in my own house The Lady made great entertainment for the Knight and perceiving him to be notwithstanding his trouble and melancholly that had so injur'd him the goodliest person in the World in a flourishing age of twenty five years and again having dedicated her self to sensuality she took a conceit to allay her dissolutenesse in this her familiarity She invited him therefore to Dinner an occasion proper by the intervention of Bacchus to introduce the interests of Venus and began with her procacious glances and gestures and licentious and lascivious words to instil into the mind of the Cavalier the incentives of her lust Arnaldo who had alwayes loved more like a contemplative Philosopher then a carnal Amorist not yet knowing what the malice of women was smiled to himself at such pretentions and preserving in his external actions a modest affability he with a marvellous sweetnesse deluded her The woman hereat not a jot discouraged or deterr'd from giving her designs a birth by the Midwifry of some better machinations prevailed so far with the help of Euristhus that she got the Knight to stay there a night longer Which come she deposed all feminine modesty and went to find him in his own bed to throw her self naked into his embraces But not being entertained but rather disdain'd by the generous Arnaldo which would conserve the faith of Matrimony immaculate to his spouse she was mov'd with such scorn that like a dissolute woman she converted her lascivious desire into inveterate hatred contriving for revenge of her repulse the strangest villany that could possibly enter into the heart of woman She made it be signified to the Governour that when he had revok't her banishment she would put into his power her husband's murtherer The Governour accepted the offer desiring to get that Traytor into his hands and she detained Arnaldo with sundry inventions hiding his horse's furniture in her house but yet at last being offended with such entertainment preparing to be gone the Provost of the Citie at the same instant broke into the house with the greatest fury in the World with all his Officers and beset the Knight to carry him to prison Generous Euristhus seeing this put himself upon a daring but imprudent Enterprize bearing away no prize of honour by contracting with such a rout of Catch-poles from whom onely to fly was honourable and ran his sword through the breast of the Provost with such a resolution that he fell senselesse at his feer But all this audacity could not prevent Arnaldo from going to prison and he himself was also stay'd and carried by force to the Magistrates To whom the fact being attested they condemned him as guilty of Treason in the person of a publick Officer to lose his head upon a Scaffold In this state of things I arrived in Eleuxis and understanding the passages by a Gentleman my friend at whose house I had lay'n without taking great thought for Arnaldo knowing assuredly that the Injur'd Lover could not be guilty of such a Crime I was extreamly surprized and confused at the name of Euristhus because my friend representing his case to me as of a very comely and couragious young man I immediatly suspected him to be my dear Euristhus husband to Orsina I rid therefore straight to the Palace where the young man was preparing himself to his last departure and at my request I was permitted to see him but I was so transported that I was nearer death then he finding him in so wretched a condition upon which the last minutes of his life depended On the other side Euristhus rejoyced to see me and was beyond measure ashamed that I should find him in that condition so unworthy of his generosity Yet having not lost the brisk spirit which was so natural to him I apprehended the quality of his Crime and that of a certain the Injur'd Lover was the imprisoned Knight with the presumptive stain of the murtherer of Liviana's husband I ran in all haste with Euridamas the Cavalier my friend to the Governour to whom having disclosed the quality of Arnaldo I intreated him also to suspend the execution of the sentence of Euristhus for having done this in the company of a Knight of so high birth and innocence his own reputation would suffer both in the imprisonment and death of his Camrade The Governour remained exceedingly suspended at the discovery of Arnaldo nor would he at least as he fained give credit to my testimony whereupon that I might not lose a minute of time to Euristhus's prejudice I shewed the Letters just before received from Olympia and produced the Currier himself that brought them me plainly to prove the truth of my depositions And here arose a new mountain of difficulty for the Governour having begun to fear lest Arnaldo once got out of prison and gone to Boeotia might plot some revenge for that injury would not set him at liberty till he had first acquainted the Senate of Athens with these proceedings I perceiving this fear of the Governour took upon me having something to lose in the Dominion of Attica to assure him of the person of Arnaldo for that all the punishment of his affronts falling upon his false accusers he could not with any reason be agrieved with the publick justice This difficulty being overcome I must of necessity presse yet a little farther to defer also the sentence of Euristhus for the getting him out of all danger was almost impossible without a miracle But seeing my prayers and remonstrances profited little I ran to the Governour 's wife a comely and discreet Lady with the whom I had some years before past some services in Athens and so importunatly intreated her that she interposed her own authority with her husband and obtained three dayes time of respit for his reprieve for so much served for my design which was to get an order though there was no need from the Supream Magistrates of Athens to inhibit all proceedings in that cause and to adjourn the judging of it to the same Tribunal Which done and Euristhus being returned to prison I went with the Judge Criminal to the prison of Arnaldo where the Cavalier being examined upon my depositions and sound innocent the Governour commanded that he should be entertained in the Palace desiring at his wife's instigation to satisfie with courteous treatment that over-sight of a constrained imprudence towards him Arnaldo or The injur'd Lover BOOK VIII BUt Who can recount the transports of Arnaldo when knowing of his liberty he knew also by the Judge that it was I that had obtained the Reprieve of Euristhus and procured his freedom And Who can expresse his raptures when as he saw me and heard that his Argosthenia was gone to Athens some dayes before with M throdorus
easily induced to second this enterprise Being come into the Prison I dismist the Keeper with a formall complement and bid her to put off her woman's weeds with which having drest Euristhus and advised them both of my design I held discourse with a Camrade of his to whom I promised and did observe it to prevail in reward of that service that Isabella should manumit him Euristhus went out in womans apparell with a countenance that in the darknesse of such obscure dwellings would have deceived curiouser eyes than those of a rude and simple guard and assisted by his Companion to the Gate I took Lisa up under my mantle for she was so little that we past almost un-discerned and I went out in the obscurity of those walks very happily But being got to the principall Gate in the open light and under other Sentinells they saw that I walked slowly and with some luggage under my long mantle and began to suspect som fraud but not daring to open their mouths because Arnaldo and the other Cavaliers stood in a posture able to terrifie more daring souls they opened the Gate out at which Euristhus suddenly leapt sans complement I followed her seconded by Arnaldo and our other friends with so much alacrity that Lisa putting back one of her feet falsified the secrecy of the Mantle Now the Keepers plainly perceived our design and having neither courage to cry out against persons of such quality nor to stay an hazard of being questioned for that escape they flung away the keys and betook themselves to their heels and ran faster than we into some other place For we mounting upon the Carroche of Euridamas past happily to the Feluca of the Governesse which attended us ready to weigh Anchor So Euristhus being delivered and every one falling to some discourse or other I would have had Lisa took her woman's cloths again but she with a comely smile said If that the Lady Isabella so please since my Fortune hath brought me whither my election formerly led me be you content Sir that I continue as I am to accompany you to see the war of Negropont And you shall not need to fear I shall want the company of women for I will wait upon the Princesse Argosthenia Your company said I since the Lady Governesse is so content shall be very welcome to us provided it be in an appearance and garb becoming your quality and my reputation Do what you please said Isabella for that I took her to be neer me for the Love of you and to you I consign her now that she is at liberty I thanked Isabella for her courtesy and added But How came Antonello to dye so soon said I being so sprightly and lusty She may better tell you answered Isabella laughing than I as better acquainted with it Yet for the present know that Antonello is dead because he was not worthy of the company of so handsome a maid He was become so infinitely Jealous of her that she could not stir out of doors to go to the Temple nor so much as see the air at her window without his grumbling and beating her You know what is wont to happen to such Animals but the goodnesse of Lisa hath never desired though she might to pay him in the Coyn he deserved howbeit not being able to live in so miserable a slavery she found out a way to free her self by placing herself in the Palace neer my person Whereat Antonello took such distast and fell into so furious a rage that meeting me one day at a feast he had the saucinesse to vent his resentments publickly treating me with unworthy names Whereby those Cavaliers at whose house the feast was celebrated were so moved that under pretence of communicating something to him they drew him aside and slew him having learnt by his death all such rash fellows to observe the respect due to Ladies of my quality In sum Antonello is dead and Lisa lives ever at your dispose I having no longer any desire of this charge to keep her for you Dispose of her therefore at your pleasure she being yours but look well to it that you provide her no more Jealous husbands for I know not whether she may be alwayes so good as not to deal with them according to their deserts The rest of the company laughed but Arnaldo sighed at these words of Isabella though it was onely observed by my self that sate next him and knew the peccant humour of his profound melancholly He asked me Who that fair young creature was And I satisfied him that being a Noble Lady of Anaplistum which fell by the death of her Parents into a miserable condition I had took her into my house and marryed her to a young man well descended of Eleuxis who perished in the mis-fortune re-counted by Isabella whereupon he exprest a desire to have her go along with Argosthenia that so he might repay to her part of the obligations which he acknowledged to my person Perceiving whereat he did drive I complyed with him seeing that together with freeing him in a great measure from the inquietude of his jealousie I came also to ease my self of the burden of farther caring for her Answering that he was her Master alwayes provided that she was satisfied because I was alwayes far from offering Violence to the liberty of another's will In this kind of entertainment we came with a felicitous voyage to Athens where Fortune had prepared for us a new vexation After we had waited upon Isabella to her house we took our way towards my own where instead of Argosthenia and Methrodorus we came to encounter with the perfidious Liviana who without knowing who I was had landed there with the Feluca and with a Page of Euristhus Which Page being brought up in my house by reason of his new Masters mis-fortune was fled thither Argosthenia and Methrodorus hearing by the boy of Arnaldo's imprisonment and the condemnation of Euristhus yet knowing nothing of the cause but onely of the death of the Provost they instantly went for Eleuxis to provide the best they could for that occurence But how amazed was Arnaldo and Euristhus when they saw Liviana and how confounded was Liviana to behold Euristhus and Arnaldo I leave for others to imagine She having re-assum'd her banished spirits from her sudden fright betook herself to my Closet and hastily shutting herself in fell a plotting her own death to free herself from the feared ignominy of some scandalous punishment Whereupon I not expecting any other from so furious a Female knowing that Arnaldo and Euristhus were too generous to seek to revenge themselves upon a Woman which agitated by Love or by hatred knew not what she did entred into the Closet another way and snatcht out of her hands the mortall instruments which she had prepared to take away her life and left her at liberty to go whither she would assuring her upon my word that she should not be