the fierceness of the beginning my Mother more than feared the End would be fatal and therefore had sent two Expresses for the Doctors That I came then from waiting on her but I had found her so altâ—r'd as the change had amazed me since I thought I saw the image of Death in that face which till then had been all life I added that in a whisper she had desired me to send him speedily to her and that I would so order it as to entertain my Mother while she herself was speaking alone to him since she had something on her heart to say that till she had told him and received his answer on it she should be in torments At first my Brother seem'd unmov'd at her danger and request but I at length prevail'd with him to go where we found my Mother all in tears the violence of Victoria's Fever so greedily increasing on her The vastness of my Mothers affliction was no ill preparative to melt my Brothers heart when he came to Victoria's â—ed she resign'd to him her place and I to allow them the freer liberty to discourse drew her to a Window under pretence of seeing from thence if either of the Doctors were coming I never could learn what in particular past between them but I saw him at last kneel down by her for my eyes were still turned that way and laying his lips to her burning hand seem'd thereby to seal her Pardon But my Mother who apprehended such Visits might be hurtful to the fair Patient ordered us both to retire I cannot better parallel his Grief than by telling you Madam it was equal to his late Fury and as we walked together into the Park he discovered to me how the day before he was secretly married to Victoria for he knew he could never have obtain'd my Fathers consent to do it since her Beauty and Virtue was all her Portion He further told me with groans that he trembled to think 't was his Brutishness had reduc'd her to the deplorable state she was then in and informed me afterwards of their Assignation her failing and his resentments at it a Relation which alas I knew better than himself That though he more than feared 't was his outragious Passion had flung her into the Fever yet she could not be brought to acknowledge to him it had done so But she had beg'd his forgiveness for deluding him in such moving Words Actions and Tears as those confest to him that Truth which he could not extort from her Mouth That he had beg'd her Pardon on his knees for his Crime which she had granted him with a tenderness so charming that her forgiving him in such a manner had wounded him as deeply as his Barbarity had her This Account he gave me in so much affliction and disorder that it brought on accession to my griefs which till then I believ'd were uncapable of any The share which he thought I bore in his misery heightned his friendship and made him beg of me a thousand Pardons that he had till then concealed his Marriage from me which was the first and should be the last offence he would be guilty of but that now my lively sense of his grief had extorted from him that Confession which else he would not have made for he fear'd when ever his father knew it if he should also learn I was acquainted with it 't would involve me in his disgrace the apprehension of which only had hitherto sealed his lips sâ— that he never had been seemingly unkinâ— to me but to be really the contrary We then in many embraces renew'â— our friendships Soon after we saw one of the Doctor Gallop by us we hastily followed him to learn his judgment of Victoria's conâ—dition upon which both our own depenâ—ded In brief Madam the Physitian awhile felt her Puâ—se and shook his Head and having apply'd all that his art and kindness could dictate he told my mother the seventh day in great grief That his Patient had more need of a Priest than of him And that his skill deluded him if some distemper of the Mind had not reduc'd her Body to so dangerous a state But Madam Brandon continued I perceive your Generosity and Compassion has made you too large a sharer in poor Victoria's sufferings I shall not therefore augment it by particularizing all the fatal passages of this Story 'T is too much you know all the Physitians Care and Art all my Mothers Kindness and Assiduities all my Brothers Pardons and Tears and all my Groans and Submissions could not in the least prevail with Victoria to live her scrupulous Virtue made her judge my Clinic was her own and having lay'n one night in my Arms she concluded herself unworthy ever after to lie in my Brothers and that she was only fit for those of death To which she hastened with such earnestness and resolution that those who knew not the cause admired at the action and I who knew it deplored it with such excess that the effect of my sin was believed singly the product of my good Nature The Ninth day of her Sickness was the last of her Life and had like to have been of my Brothers and mine For before she locked herself up with her Confessor and after she had taken an eternal Farewell of my unconsolable Father and Mother she gave one half hour of her hasty time to me and one full hour to my poor Brother but what she said to him to mitigate his sorrows heighten'd them since to lose for ever so much Beauty Virtue and Goodness was above the power of Consolation and from the hour of her death he courted his own What she said to me was consonant to her admirable Virtue and made me more in love with her Mind than I had â—ver been with her Person The nearer her illuminated Soul approached to the happiness she now enjoyes the greater the lustre of it did shine and though she spoke to me innumerable excellent things yet I shall relate to you but this one She conjur'd me to flie from Sin for when it is committed none can foresee how productive it is in Evil nor the utmost conâ—sequences which attend it You thoughâ— she added that I had been unchaste anâ— that gave you the opportunity to be sad Buâ— you did not imagine that by satisfying on voluptuous desire it should plunge you 〈◊〉 Incest the death of your Mistriss anâ— alas I fear that of your Friend and Broâ—ther All these were not your design but 〈◊〉 one Sin they became your guilt and by youâ— sorrow I see they are your punishment However she continued puâ—â—ing towards mâ— her pale and trembling hand I forgivâ— you and have in tears beg'd of God to do it Ah! by this so pregnant a Sin be for ever frighted from committing another This is the last Request I shall make you and if you grant it 't will be the greatest blessing you can bestow upon your self The
too since it never ended but with their Lives The fair Lady who had asked the question was so pleas'd that she owed her safety to one of the Royal Blood and with the celerity and chearfulness he had paid to her commands that she could not but express her joy and gratitude at both but in words and actions so taking that if any part of our Kings heart did remain unconquer'd until then it continued so no longer And therefore begging to know her name she told him it was Izabella yâ—t that she was Daughter to my Lord that she was come from London the usual place of her Fathers residence to visit some Companions of hers at a Palace near the Forest that to divert the Ladies and Gentry of the Neighborhood they were engaged to Act a Play called Endimion in which she was to represent Diana and therefore to try her Habit was drest in it that morning when walking to enjoy the freshness of it they had been more than Witnesses of her disaster for they generously freed her from it Brandon then in obedience to her commands told her his Name and that he was a younger Son of a Noble Family that one of the pleasingst and fatalst accident that the invention or malice of Destiny could possibly contrive had necessitated him to Travel into Foreign Countries to subdue or at least mitigate his melancholy And then to divert the fair Izabella's more particular inquiry and to satisfie his own impatience beg'd her with a visible concernment to let him know who the happy Gentleman was who had possest the honour of attending her before her danger and was guilty of forsaking her in it The King who knew nothing of this before and was not a little alarm'd at Brandon's sighing when he asked the question continued in a deep silence expecting her answer which she made smilingly and by desiring him to consider if he were not too curious to press for that a second time which she had denied the first Brandon beg'd her Pardon which she assured him of if he would as they returned to Charleton for that was the name of the Palace to which she intended to go acquaint her with that Story by Retail which what he had said of it in Epitomy made her desirous to hear Brandon conjur'd her more than once to dispense with his obedience therein since it would renew his grief and he fear'd infect her with it But this Reply adding to her Curiosity he was at last vanquished by her and the Kings intreaties having put herself in the midst and walking softly towards Charleton Brandon having cast up his eyes to Heaven and fetch'd a groan from the very bottom of his heart began the ensuing Relation THE HISTORY OF Brandon THat many Men run into high Crimes designedly cannot be a greater Truth than it is that others fall into them both against their inclination and intention This latter is what I can experimentally aver but whether it proceeds from the influence of the Stars at our Nativity or from a Fatality to which all Men are subjected or from some other occult cause I dare not determine but this I know that the crime I fell into was not so much my sin as it is my punishment But before I proceed to acquaint you with the particulars which I more than hope will incline you to be of my belief I must beg you that what I am to tell you purely to obey you may be kept as great a secret as otherwise I resolved it should eternally have been and as you will easily perceive the nature of it requires Izabella and our Monarch having promis'd what he asked he thus continued My Father having spent much of his time and blood in our late sad and intestine Wars abhorring the necessary cruelties in them and loathing the vicissitudes of a Court-life retired for ever to a Castle of his own in Glocestershire where he determined to bury himself alive But one day being drawn to a Kinsmans Wedding by the importunity of a bosome friend he saw at it a Gentlewoman so handsom that what all the beauties of England which doubtless is their highest Sphere could not perform on him in twenty years she did in a moment for Madam 't is the fate of some Families to fall in Love at first sight My Father passionately inquired of his Friend if he knew her and being assured he did and that if she were not his neaâ— Kinswoman he would not scruple to affirm he knew no person in the World whose virtue and softness of humor exceeded hers but withall told him the calamities of the Civil Wars had so ruin'd her Parents fortune as they were unable to give her a Portion in the least answerable to her birth and merit My Father who knew that happiness has its solid Throne only in the mind and that wealth is an excess which may often be more dangerous than useful courted this Lady and having found the character his Friend had given him of her exactly true at last married her from that Union my elder Brother and I descended whose Educations were such that if we were no great Proficients in our Studies and Exercises it was our own faults possibly never any Friendship was greater than that between my Brother and I we seem'd to have but one Soul which actuated both our Bodies and we were dearer to each other by the tyes of Friendship than by those of Blood We were never admitted to see a Court or an Army and my Father who had taken a Surfet of both gave our earlier years such ill impressions of â—hem that we joyfully dedicated the hours of our vacancy to no other pleasures but those of Hunting and Hawking and such harmless divertisements of a Countrey life In these innocent employments my Brother attain'd to his twentieth and I to my nineteenth year but as if Fortune had envied us this little tranquility a near Friend of my Mothers dyed and left to her care her onely Daughter which Legacy she sent her at the last gasp with the little she had saved out of the general shipwrack occasion'd by the bloody contentions of the two Roses My Mother manifested the esteem she had of the dead by her care of the living nor could that generosity be nobliâ—r employ'd than on this young Gentlewoman whose name was Victoria for she was so charming and lovely that the very first hour she came to live with my Mother my Brother and I began to feel a passion in our hearts which till that moment we had never been acquainted with Could I draw you Madam her Picture to the Life you would excuse our being so soon vanquish'd for I thought then nothing could be so perfect and should have still continued in that belief had not my sight this day convinc'd me of my Error My Brother never told me of his passion neither did I acquaint him with mine which was the first and onely Secret we kept in reserve
abler to give fear than to receive any impressions of it but those of being then disappointed of his promised felicity But on a sudden the Vacarme ceased Howard retired and Leticia having adjusted the fair Izabella's Hair and Cloaths lead her cover'd with blushes where our impatient Monarch expected her The Maid was order'd out of the Anti-chamber and Leticia having deliver'd the paâ—tiâ—g Prey into the Royal Hunters hands with great modesty and discretion retir'd into her own Chamber saying That so lovely a Subject could not be safelier left than under the protection of her own King Let us imitate Leticia's discretion and not intrude into a Monarchs secrets But while he and Izabella were doing whatever it was Leticia who had engaged some jovial Companions to entertain Goodman in the Cellar while the Company was dancing out of a reasonable apprehension the Assembly might râ—â—ent their being left without the Master or the Lady of the House and so abruptly break up went down for a moment to see that nothing was wanting and to assure them Izabella began to recover out of hâ—â— distemper and had commanded her â—â— pay them all those respects and services which it had hinder'd her from preâ—â—nting them Howard afflicted to the last degree aâ— his Mistresses indisposition was retâ—â—d out of the Dance and longing to be satisfied from her own mouth of what heâ— Confident had assured the company sâ—ole out of it and being perfectly acquainted with all the passages of the House weâ—â— up the Back-stairs to Leticia's Chambers which join'd to Izabella's and gently opening the door went softly toâ—â—â—â—â— her Bed the Curtains whereof were shut on the side Our Monarch who heard one treading warily in the Chamber concluded it could be no other but Leticia and he being then out of Function but ravish'd with those delights which had necessitated him to that Cessation and haâ—ing a lively sense of Gratitude for her who had been the chief Agent of his felicity said Come come Leticia and receive a promise from thy King of making thee happy in the effects of his faâ—â—â— as thou 〈◊〉 â—â—de him by those of thy care the fair Iâ—abella shall be the witness of this inviolable promise and this Ring taking a great Diamond from his finger shall be an earnest of the performance Howard who too well knew the voice and too clearly heard the words remain'd astonish'd and trembling as if he had met his Mother's Ghost But the King who admir'd Leticia came not to receive the offer'd security of his favor open'd hastily the Curtains and with amazement saw his mistake This Action of our Monarchs recover'd Howard in part out of his consteâ—â—ation at least as much as a Man could be who saw his Mistress false and in the embraces of a Rival on whom he durst not discharge his resentments and fury Izabella at the sight of Howard shreek'd and the King attributing it to her despair at having such a witness to her kindness leapt off the Bed in fury and had in that instant given his Favourite some fatal proofs of it had not Izabella seasonably interpos'd and had not Leticia also who was newly return'd into her own Chamber hearing from thence the shreek of her Lady which she was not so ignorant as to imagine was the Product of a Rape on her Chastity come also into the Room hastily where a while she stood amazed to find Howard with the King and Izabella he with his Sword drawn and she restraining the hand which held it but her astonishment ceasing she became her Ladies Assistant in so charitable an office Howard having recovered his wite resolved to put this misadventure into the least ill fold which he could therefore lifting up his Eyes and Hands and stepping two or three paces back sigh'd and said Have I Sir in one moment so lost your favour that because fortune has brought me to see your happiness I must therefore be deprived of my own Alas Sir if this be your resolution be pleas'd to mitigate so much cruelty by one act of mercy and if you will take away your favour take away a life which can last but by it Yet Sir vouchsafe to know my Crime is occasioned by my Duty for not being ignorant of your Passion for the fair Izabella I was ambitious to bring you early and true assurances â—hat her danger was vanish'd for I knew when you heard of the one unless the other accompanied it it would be fatal to you But now I find the danger of her death is metamorphos'd into an Intrigue of Love I will presume to hope since my intention to serve you produc'd my sin your generosity â—ill excuse an effect of which that only is the cause These words spoken with a melancholy which was visibly real and great not for hiâ— fault but for his Mistresses together with her intercessions and Leticia's so conquer'd our Henry as at length to evidence he was appeas'd Howard was made the Coufident in that Love wherein he had been at first the principal the justice of Destiny punishing his unfaithfulness to his King by making an evidence of his favour his torment and yet obliging him to be seemingly thankful for it While these Disorders were thus pacifying and while they were advising on new Expedients to give our Monarchs other charming appointments in which Cabal one may think our young Norfolk without offending him was but a sorry Counsellor Fortune who usually delights to favor those whom she has begun to oblige presented them with an Accident much better than all their united and best inventions could have contrived Many Flambeaux being in the Roomâ— and Cellars where the Dancers and Drinkers entertain'd themselves the House by the negligence or drunkenness of some which held them took 〈◊〉 on â— sudden in two places and the flame 〈◊〉 greedily devour'd all that fed it as it was impossible for the King Izabella Howard and Leticia to fly out of it either by the Great or Back-stairs Denny who knew his Princes danger leap'd out of the lower Window of the Room in which they were dancing and running into the street by the gift of a handful of Gold got a Ladder clapt up to the Window of our Lovers and running it up nimbly freed them from a ruine which till then they thought inevitable Our Monarch more concern'd for his Mistriss than himself tore down the lights of it in which Howard was also very active and making a large passage that she might the less uneasily get out she first then our King and then Howard Leticia and Denny got all safely down at the Backside of the House the Confident bringing with her in a small Casket all her Ladies and her own Jewels Leticia no longer terrified at the danger took the King aside and advised him in the confusion which all the company and the street was in to convey his Miâ—triss to his own Apartmenâ— and while the World believ'd she perish'd in the Flames