him she lived with so much anguish that if Alphonso had known her most secret thoughts he would have been healed of his jealousie and would have been assured that she did not grieve more for the death of Octavio then for the loss of his affection It was in this sort then that Leonida and Alphonso lived until that infortunate day wherein we were constrained to forsake Genoua And I make no doubt but that Alphonso's despair induced him to follow us as well as the generosity which he testified to us in this occasion in not abandoning us in the sorrow we were in since he absented himself from a place where Leonida was not You know in like manner what that Tempest was which luckily for him drove us to Albengua neither are you ignorant how the compassion and generosity of Leonida obliged her to imbarque her self with us But doubtless you do not know what Alphonso's and her thoughts were when as after they had had the goodness to lament our misfortunes they had the leasure to think of the terms wherein they stood For whereas we had scarcely been upon the Sea without a Tempest without fear of death and without extream sorrow for the loss we sustained there they had never talked together in private during this troublesom Navigation but when we were at Marocco and at those times wherein we had the liberty to see and speak to one another Leonida who desired to conceal the terms wherein she was with Alphonso entertaining him with indifferent things found that his understanding was as deeply wounded at Marocco as it had been at Genoua with this difference nevertheless that at the first time he spake to her he moved her to anger and the second time he moved her to pity What is the reason said he to he with tears that I can neither continue loving you nor begin to hate you and wherefore since you are capable of some affection for me must I not only share it with another but I must owe it wholly to him and without being able either to change my passion or revenge my self I must eternally be the most wretched of men He that imposeth a necessity on himself replyed Leonida cannot complain with reason seeing he himself is the cause of the evil that arriveth to him Ah cryed Alphonso that you said true and that I could dispose of my thoughts Yes Leonida said he unto her would I could love you less to the end I might love you always and live happily in sharing your affection with another But to endure that in speaking to me you should always think of Octavio that whil'st I sigh for love you should sigh for affliction and having absolutely given you my heart I should have but a piece of yours is that which I cannot suffer But how is it possible said Leonida interrupting him unjust and cruel Alphonso that a man who is no longer in an estate to have any affection for me can give you jealousie You do not comprehend replyed he what is the true cause of jealousie the affection Which any one should bear you would not displease me it is of your thoughts that I am jealous and not of those of others I would be willing chat you should be loved and that you should be adored but I would have you love none but me I should not care to see you have an hundred Lovers provided I were alone in your heart I do not hate my Rivals in their person but in yours only it is you that can increase or diminish the hatred which I have for them by the good or bad usage you shall give them and whereas you may love Octavio as well though he is not in being as if he were living you are not to think it strange that I am jealous In fine continued he you reduce me to those terms that I had rather you should not love me at all so as you would love nothing then to love me as you do in loving Octavio better then me But Octavio is no longer in being said Leonida to him sighing Yet he is still in your Soul answered Alphonso and this sigh which you fetched testifies it but too much unto me No no Leonida said he unto her that which I suffer is without remedy one may sometimes make present mishaps cease and decline those which may happen unto us in time to come but when we are unhappy by the remembrance of that which is past death alone can finish our pains It is not in your power to forbear sighing shedding of tears and to say all loving of Octavio more then Alphonso wherefore marvel not if it be not in your power to cure my mind of the jealousie that possesseth it It was much after this sort that the first conversation ended which Leonida and Alphonso had together at Marocco But whereas Leonida affected him and saw the estate whereunto this fantastical jealousie reduced him she opened her heart to me and having asked my advice what she should do I counselled her I think as she desired to be and as indeed was just I told her then that she was to do all that she could to set his heart at rest that this caprichiousness proceeding meerly from an excess of love she was to pardon so bad an effect since it came from so noble a cause and labor to restore his Reason to him which she had deprived him of I agree with you said she unto me that Alphonso is to be eased but in what manner do you think I may do it if he were jealous of the French Marquiss of Doria or of any other it would not be difficult for me to satisfie him The coldness which I would shew to them should soon set him at rest and if there were no other means for it I would deprive my self absolutely of their company to preserve it but as the case stands I know no remedy for it It is from my self that Alphonso hath learnt the affection which I have born to Octavio I cannot unsay it and if I should be so base as to swear to him that I have not loved him so much as he imagines I should tell a lye to no purpose it being very certain that he would give more credit to my tears then to my latter speeches and then again that is a thing I could never do Counsel me then continued she how I shall carry my self I profess unto you that I was then very much perplexed what counsel to give her for I saw no assured means that could cure Alphonso Nevertheless after I had mused a little my opinion was that the only thing which she could do was to endeavor to perswade Alphonso that she loved him as much as she had loved Octavio as indeed I think I did not oblige her to tell an untruth At first Leonida told me that this would serve to no purpose but finding nothing to stand with more reason she resolved to follow my advice So that the
and that was it which perswaded Horatio and the rest that Alphonso's melancholy proceeded from the jealousie he was in of the affection which Aly seemed to carry to Leonida but indeed it was that which I have declared unto you The Marquis seeing that Sophronia held her peace and that Leonida was going to speak as if she would have excused Alphonso It must be acknowledged said he that there is a marvelous diversity amongst men and that which makes me most to wonder is to see by example that Alphonso who in all other encounters hath a great deal of wit and discretion and would in indifferent matters without doubt think the same things that I do should fall into in imagination so far distant from all good sence I think answered Leonida smiling that in matter of love it may be said that you are both of you an object of admiration and wonder the one to the other but with this glorious difference for Alphonso that his fantastical jealousie was not derived but from an excess of passion and that your inconstancy proceeds not but from a defect of love If the very excess of Reason replyed the Marquis comes near to folly I believe that this excess of love is not far from it and if it be true that by the effects one may judg of the cause acknowledg fair Leonida that this inconstancy which you call defect of love in me gave you not so much unquietness when I abandoned you for another as this excess of passion hath been the cause of to you and confess withall at least that it were better to be loved of a man of my humor then of that of Alphonso It would be more advantageous replyed Leonida very roundly because as long as one should not be loved but by an inconstant man as you are one should not be exposed to the hazard of too much engaging ones self in this affection And then again continued she there is this difference betwix you too that I have cured Alphonso of his error and that nothing can cure you of yours You believe it to be just and you finde it pleasant judg then whether your disease be not incurable For my part said Hipolita who according to her humor always took jealousies part I cannot condemn Alphonso nor should I be sorry that a man would render me this proof of affection You speak in this sort said Doria interrupting her rather out of temperature then reason but whatsoever you can say I do not think that Horatio will become jealous out of complacency and will open Tombs to finde a Rival there It would be easier for me questionless to enter into them never to come out again answered Horatio then to give this unjust mark of love to the person I affect I believe what you say replyed Hipolita it being likely enough that a man who could see an hundred Lovers at the feet of his Mistress without being disquieted at it would be never a whit moved to know that she should grieve for a dead man As for me added the Marquis smiling if by an inversion of all the ages it might come to pass that a person whom I should love had been beloved of all the Heroes of antiquity that they had all dyed for her and that the ashes of the Cesars and the Alexanders had been the object of her tears and of her love I should be less jealous thereof then of the least amongst the living and there is not a man how mis-shapen soever he could be that would not more disquiet me to see him on his knees before my Mistress then Alexander would in the state wherein he is should he raign in her heart as he raigned over all the Earth I confess said Sophronia laughing as well as the rest of the Assembly that in this occasion I am of the Marquis his side for I cannot but follow Reason wheresoever I meet with it I perceive said Leonida then that all the world abandons me and that I have need of Alphonso's assistance for the vanquishing of so many Enemies I am generous enough answered the Marquis to go and fetch him my self and saying so he went and called Alphonso who was almost ashamed to come unto the Company again making no question but that they had condemned his jealous humor And whereas Leonida perceived it Fear not said she unto him as long as I am on your side you will have no Enemies which you may not overcome and doubt not that the remembrance of an error which I have pardoned can make me angry with you I believe you to be too just replyed he for me to suspect you of any such thing onely I fear that you will be accused for using too much goodness towards me and that by this means I should be the cause of condemning a vertue in you which makes one to be commended in all the world besides If we engage our selves in making of complements said Sophronia interrupting him the Marquis will not be able to pay me that to day which he ows me and so we should spend the time less pleasingly then otherwise we might do if we gave him audience for I assure my self that he cannot tell us any thing but what will delight us I do not know answered the Marquis whether this discourse be advantageous to me or no howsoever since I have promised to relate that unto you which befell me here in Constantinople I will not break my word And then again continued he to speak sincerely unto you I shall have a share in the pleasure which I shall give you it being most cerain that I am of a humor to receive more satisfaction by recounting the adventures which have happened unto me be they never so happy then I had at such time as they arived unto me In fine continued he I comfort my self for mishaps in telling them to others and I augment my good fortune in publishing it Seeing it is so said Leonida haste you to satisfie Sophronia in satisfying your self and be not of the number of those who make one hope so long for an indifferent pleasure as one is not obliged to them for it All the Company having added their intreaties to Leonida's discourse the Marquis acquitted himself of his promise in this sort The History of the too good Slave NEver was any so happy in servitude as I and never did happiness produce an effect like unto that which I am going to recount unto you You remember without doubt that when we arrived all at Constantinople and landed at the Port there was a man who rightly imagining by the chains we had on us that we were destined to be sold and finding something in my person that pleased him bought me for the price that was demanded of him This man who was my first Master carried me home to his house and whereas he was one of the mightiest men in Constantinople I was comforted in my misfortune to see that at leastwise
least-wise I flatter my self with this opinion that by a particular priviledg and to render her conquests the more illustrious she purifies all the hearts which she enflames that she darts forth a beam of that divinity which I adore in her and therewith illuminates them that come neer her that in making her vertues known she communicates a part of them and that one is no sooner her Slave but he is worthy to command others The Princess Lela Mahabid not able to forbear from blushing at the Marquis his discourse would at leastwise make a gallantry of it I leave you to judg said she unto him how much you would make your Mistresses modesty to suffer if she were here since I could not chuse but change colour at this excessive praise though I have no part in it I fear Madam replyed he that in this occasion you take one vertue for another and that this change which hath appeared in your face be not rather an effect of your great heart then of your modesty seeing it may be you take it not well that a Slave should lose the respect which he ows you so far as to dare to entertain you with his passion You speak so agreeably hereof said the Princess Mariama interrupting him that if my sister will be perswaded by me she shall always be your Confident I am not inconsiderate enough for that answered the Marquis and the thoughts of respect and adoration which I have for her will not permit me to commit this fault Sophronia seeing that hereupon there was a great silence amongst the company which might trouble the Marquis said to him with a great deal of address that she was glad to see a passion in him which made her hope that at last he might be constant since finding in a person whom he loved all the beauties of the body all the graces of the minde and all the vertues of the soul it was impossible for him to meet with any thing that was amiable in another which was not in her You have Reason answered the Marquis but not altogether to renounce my natural inclination though I love none or to say better adore none but this excellent person yet have I found the means to mingle an inconstancy with the love I bear her whereof she cannot be jealous I have much ado to conceive this new mystery added my sister and I do not think that she who is the cause of your love will reign in a divided heart My heart is wholly hers replyed the Marquis and to explain my thoughts unto you know that the person whom I adore is so marvelous as it would be a crime in me having but one heart and one affection to offer to love all that is amiable in her at one and the same time so that to love her the more perfectly and in some sort also to follow this inclination which predominates over all mine I give every day a new object to my passion To day I adore her eyes to morrow I love the beauty of her shape the next day I suffer my self to be charmed with the graces of her minde another time her goodly aspect ravishes me and by this means yielding my heart wholly to each of those excellent qualities which she possesses I shall love her as much as she deserves to be and without being inconstant to her I shall yet be always so much as never to be weary of my servitude This new way of loving so mightily surprized all the company as albeit they had no great cause of joy yet could they not forbear laughing at it I should never have done if I should rehearse all the pleasing passages which the Marquis delivered in all the visits which he gave to these two Princesses it shall suffice then to tell you that the Princess Lela Mahabid had all the esteem and all the affection for him which a Princess gallant enough and who for all that was vertuous was capable of In the mean time you are to know that Aly had not failed in rendering an account to the King of the commission which he had given him but whereas he was a Lover and cunning he had disguised the truth of that which he had said to Hipolita and of that which Hipolita had answered him For though my sister had testified sufficiently unto him that Abdalla's affection could never please her yet he feared that if the King should undertake to speak to her himself she might at length be perswaded so that to keep him from it he told him that albeit Hipolita had not favorably received the declaration which he had made her of his love yet he held it not absolutely impossible to touch her heart it having seemed unto him how he had observed that the greatest fear Hipolita had was lest the Princess Mariama should perceive this affection Wherefore my Lord said he unto him it must be by me that she must be acquainted with all the thoughts which you have for her until such time as by great hopes we have chased away this fear from her heart For there is no doubt added he considering the estate wherein I saw her minde if you enterprize to speak to her your self but you will be very ill satisfied of her for the reason I have told you Abdalla though very amorous and consequently very impatient and very suspicious yet made do question of Aly's discourse and remitting himself absolutely to his conduct he conjured him to remember that on the conquest of Hipolita all his felicity depended In the mean while albeit he had promised Aly to gâ—ve my sister the least testimony of his affection that he could yet was it impossible for him to conceal his passion for he no sooner entred into Mariama's lodging but he asked for Hipolita he no sooner saw her but a new joy appeared in his face Hipolita's looks guided his whether he would or no he followed her with his eyes wheresoever she went and seldom did he make a visit without praising some beauty or some vertue which he said he had not yet marked in her These praises did not please Aly at the beginning nevertheless seeing he could not hinder them whereas soveraign prudence or to say better extream cunning consists in making all things serve for the design that one hath he labored to draw some advantage from the love which the King seemed to bear to Hipolita But before I acquaint you with it I am to tell you that after many conversations which he had with her wherein he always shewed how much he esteemed of her vertue and approved of the refusals she had made of the Kings love one day when as he found her the most civilly disposed for him as he thought and the most incensed against the King he undertook to discover unto her the passion he was in for her And whereas she was exceedingly surprized with such a kinde of discourse and hath naturally an imperious spirit Is it possible
me speak without fear in this occasion I will beseech thine Highness to consider whether I can without ingratitude and without being the basest of all men abandon a person who hath abandoned all for me and that as one may say hath made her self a slave to deliver me since that remitting her self to my conduct and relying on my word it was no longer in her power to alter her mind but was necessarily to follow my will Can I consider that even at this present I should be loden with Irons exposed to the insolency of Pirates and the cruelty of Arsalon if this woman had not broken my chains and not have for her all the affection and all the acknowledgment whereof I am capable As soon as I was a captive she began to do me good I was wounded she had a care of me with her charitable offices she healed the wounds which her father had given me I no sooner saw her but I knew her vertue she comforted the afflicted took care to relieve them and to say all in a word she bewayled the Victories of her father because she beleeved them not to be just I confess ingenuously that the beauty of her mind moved me more than that of her face and finding my self surprised by the lustre of so great a vertue I engaged my self in such sort unto her as nothing can be able to change it But if vertue be the foundation of the love I bear her that which she bears me hath had no less noble a cause She saw me constant enough in my misfortune she saw me wounded a captive and ready to be sold into a strange Country and knew though she seemed to be ignorant of it that I loved her much the gorgiousness of my clothes did not win her for they were all torn in the heat of the fight I was wan and disfigured she saw me abandoned of my father of whom I had no news ill-entreated by Arsalon because he had lost the hope of my ransom and fâ—nally in a more deplorable estate than ever man was seen Love then did not enter into her heart by voluptuousness but I can say it was introduced thereinto by goodness acknowledgement and compassion for if she had not been pittifull she had not assisted me when I was ill she had not loved me if she had not been acknowledging she had despised the love of a slave that had not the liberty to do her any service and if her heart had not been tender she had not been moved with my misfortunes nor given an end to them It is true that she is the daughter of the Pirate Arsalon that she hath quitted her father to follow me that she hath been brought up amongst cruell and bloody men and that she is the daughter not only of a Pirate but of a Persian But my Lord all this which seems to make against me makes for me in this occasion for what greater mark can one desire of a solid and immoveable vertue than to see a woman of eighteen years of age whose inclinations are not corrupted amidst so many vices and whose innocencie is preserved so entire as she could not so much as excuse cruelty in her father It is true that she hath followed me but it was to see no more murthers nor fights and because she saw a juster temper in my mind She hath not betrayed her father to follow a slave but she hath quitted the Pirate Arsalon to deliver a husband for having promised to be so unto her nothing but death alone can keep me from it Moreover my Lord she is not to be suspected of thy Highness for though she be the daughter of a Persian it is of a Persian the enemy of Tachmas who hath for these eighteen years waged War against him I will not stand to say that this woman albeit the daughter of a Pirate is for all that of a noble extraction because the Mussulmans make Nobility personall and beleeve that it ought not to pass unto children but I vvill only say that in the estate wherein my fathers fortune now is all that can be desired in a woman is contracted in this same she is fair she loves me and she is vertuous It is true that she is without wealth and without parents but she hath lost them for the love of me and whereas by thy bounty my father hath no need either of support or of riches what can I wish for more in a Wife If I take one that is rich it may be she will abandon me if I should happen to fall into misery but this that I have chosen wil be the companion of all my misfortunes without any fear that ever she will quit me I know that I ow a great deal of respect to my father but I know that I ow my life and my liberty to this woman I must then love both the one and the other or keep my word which I have given her for if my father will not suffer himself to be perswaded we will go voluntarily into banishment we are already accustomed to misfortune and the misery that we shall endure together will no doubt be more supportable to us than greatness and riches would be if we were separated As for the generous Slave to whom I have promised liberty I know not by what reason my father can pretend any right to deprive him of it he is neither his slave nor mine and by the severest law of War he can lay no claim at all unto him He is a Christian I acknowledge but all the Christians here in Constantinople wear not fetters he is a captive but that is to Arsalon and not to him and a captive too who after a breach of promise might with justice break his chains nor hath he sought for liberty but to give it me and that is it peradventure that hath made my father his enemy It is true also that he took me but it was in a just fight by that reason I am his slave rather than he is mine Let thy Highness so order it if it be possible that I may acquit me as I ought Behold all the crimes my Lord that I have committed my father would have me perfidious and ingratefull and I had rather my father should hate me with injustice than love me unjustly The generous Alibech seeing that Osman had made an end of speaking and having observed by the Bassa of the seas countenance that the discourse had rather incensed than perswaded him turned her self to Osman with tears in her eyes and conjured him to obey his father I will not sayd she unto him have you faulty for the love of me and since our affection cannot be innocent extinguish it in your heart and leave me the care of conserving it in mine remember that you are the sonne of the Bassa of the sea and that you are not yet my husband you cannot dispense with your self for that first duty and fortune doth dispense
him But to favour the impatience he was in to be with Isabella let us only say without particularizing his course that after he was come to all the Vessells which the Grand Signior had caused to be arrested and drawn out of captiviy all the Christian Slaves which were found in the severall Ports where they touched by vertue of an absolute power that he had from the Sultan after I say that he had passed the Archipelago and left Ciprus on the left hand this prosperous Fleet arrived in a few dayes within sight of the Land of Genoua There it was where the Ambassador began to reap the fruit of his voyage by the pleasure he took in thinking that he was going to enter into his City as it were in triumph by bringing thither again those so many Vessels which restored to the People their kindred and friends to the Nobility their children and their riches and to the Senate the Grace of the Grand Signior and the lives of two Illustrious Citizens As for Doria he felt that motion in his soul which Nature gives to all those who see their Country again after a long exile and that not troubled by the unruliness of passions following without resistance the thoughts wherewith she inspires them he had then an extreme pleasure but yet it was a quiet pleasure But for Justiniano it was not so with him he did not look upon this Land as the place of his birth but as the residence of Isabella and in an instant he passed over again in his memory all that had arrived unto him there and his transport was so great that joy produced some effects of grief in him he changed colour divers times he was unquiet and musing and if Doria had not forced him to speak and express his minde by his discourse it was to be doubted in beholding him whether it were hope or whether it were fear that agitated his soul whether he regretted Constantinople or desired Genoua so certain it is that violent passions pervert the use of the senses Tears which ought not to be but the marks of sorrow serve sometimes for joy and silence which seems so proper for sadness is often the effect of an extreme pleasure but as we come to one and the same place by divers wayes they were made contented by different causes and expressed their joy in severall manners In the mean time they came still neerer to Genoua but not holding it sit that Justiniano and Doria should enter into the City before the deliberation of the Senate was known the Ambassador caused his Vessell to cast anchor three miles from Genoua and going to pass into another after he had assured them that he would obtain their liberty or be exiled with them he observed that Alphonso Spinola Captain of one of those redeemed Vessells and brother to him whom Justiniano had slain in defending Rhodolpho hung back and would not follow him whereupon he would needs know the cause of it but Alphonso whose generosity was extreme seeing himself obliged for his life and for his liberty to Justiniano who during the voyage had testified unto him with much resentment the grief he had had for the misfortune wherein he had been ingaged and knowing likewise that the death of his brother had hapned with some justice he besought the Ambassador not to think it strange if he did not attend upon him to Genoua being absolutely resolved never to enter into it without his Deliverer that knowing his Father as he did he was well assured that he would with all his power oppose them that would revoke the Sentence which had been given against Justiniano so that to hinder his violence he purposed to write unto him that if he would have his sonne again he must pardon his enemy that his fortune was conjoyned with his and that he would never have such a reproach laid upon him as that a man who had drawn him out of fetters and brought him back into his Countrey should not injoy the liberty which he had given him Alphonso pronounced this speech with so much earnestness as all that heard him were ravished with his resolution and Justiniano was so charmed therewith that not able to forbear imbracing him and not suffering him to say more he conjured him that he would not force him to be ingratefull that if nothing but his blood would satisfie the revenge of his kindred he would be most ready to shed it for his sake but having some hope to serve them more profitably in his person when occasion should present it self he would spare no care nor good office for it so as it might be done without offence to his honor that he had performed a gallant action in desiring to stay with him but that he should do an unworthy one and full of inhumanity if he should consent unto it and that therefore it was more just that he should go and dry up his fathers tears and moderate his fury by the joy which his sight would bring him than to do a thing that would procure him his hatred Alphonso did not yeeld at first to the desire of Justiniano but the Ambassador and Doria siding with him he was constrained to submit to their sense and to let his inclination be overcome by anothers reason These illustrious friends parted with so much adoe as if Doria had not perceived by Justinianoes watch that the time of the Senates Assembly pressed the Ambassador to depart if he would have audience as soon as he should arrive they would have spent a great part of the day in this noble contestation whereof all the glory consisted in obliging his enemy But whilst this Fleet reasumed their course to aboard Genoua let us go to the Port and see what the people think of it and whether this agreeable surprize will make them send forth shouts of joy in answer to those of the Mariners As soon as these Vessells began to appear a confused noise was heard amongst those that were present on the shore whereby it appeared that they expected not so happy a success of their Ambassadors voyage the one said that the Senate was to be advertised of it others that Merchants Vessells came not in so great a number together some that Pirats durst not approch in that manner if they were not followed by the body of an Army and all of them together that the best was to give intelligence thereof to the end some might be sent to discover them there were those likewise whose imagination was so troubled with fear as they verily believed that they distinctly saw Turkish Galleys and half Moons In the mean time whereas the Fleet came still neerer they might easily discern that it was the Standard of the Republique which these Vessells carried the sight whereof dissipated their fear but it took not from them their amazement being not able to imagine how they should be so neer unto them whom they believed to be in chains and
and for that effect he caused a generall assault to be given And though there were a body of the enemies Army in the field he commanded nevertheless that they should not care so much for the guard of the Trenches as for the attacquing of the place and the reason of this was because the enemy had never appeared nor had used indeavour either to cast Troops into the City or to raise the siege In the mean time it hapned that an hour after the assault was begun and that above twenty times there had been already lost and regained five or six foot of ground which was to render Soliman Master of the Town there was heard notwithstanding the dreadfull noise of Cannons of armes and of the cries of them that fought towards the Grand-Signiors quarter a great volley of musket shot which put much fear into our souldiers hearts Soliman who was present at this fight for to give direction in person confirmed them the best that possibly he could and after he had commanded the Bassa Sinan to continue the assault he went to see what the matter was followed only by two thousand Janisaries but he was quickly cleared in it for he had not marched fifty paces but that he saw the rest of his souldiers come in disorder having avoided the fury of the enemy who was pursuing them still Soliman no longer doubted then but that this was Zellebis his Army which attacqued his Camp and being a Prince of a great and generous spirit he purposed to fight with them But as he was ready to march directly to the enemy he was much surprized to behold from the Towns side that not only his souldiers had abandoned the assault but that Zellebis in the head of those of Chientaya went beating them before him in a terrible disorder As for me who always followed the Prince without other arms than a light chain which I wore on one of my legs I assuredly believed that he was lost as indeed without almost a supernaturall assistance it is certain that he could not have escaped He was closed up in the midst of his enemies his Army was dispersed fear had seized upon his Troops and if an advantagious plot of ground had not been met withall to put part of his Forces and his Person in safety this mischief had been without remedy But Madam must I tell you how it was by my means that this day so unlucky in the beginning had a glorious end Yes Madam I must tell it you and since my valor was but an effect of my despair and that you were the cause thereof it is just to let you understand how it was by you that I saved both the life and the glory of great Soliman Remember then if you please this verity in the process of this Narration to the end I may not be accused of vanity in delivering things which I had not executed without you I shall tell you then Madam that in this universall disorder I conserved so much judgement to observe that on the left hand of that quarter where we were there was a place which Nature had so well fortified as with very little defence it was impossible to be forced I advanced then boldly to the Grand Signior and maugre the press I let him see what I had already noted and caused him to perceive that in attending the rallying of his troops he might be there not only in assurance but in an estate to keep those of the town from joyning with them that were without This advice having satisfied him he commanded to go and seiz on that plot but as if the enemy had been acquainted with this design he advanced to dispute it with us There it was Madam that I ceased to be slave for to be a soldier for having taken a scimitar which I found amongst the dead bodies I got into the head of our troops with so much resolution so much good fortune as I did things there which I dare not relate in the end Madam I inspired our soldiers with such valor as reasuming courage we repulsed the enemy seized on the place whereof I have already spoken to you But when I saw Soliman in safety I went and cast my self amidst some of our forces which were fighting still with those that were come out of the City and perceiving that our souldiers were preparing to flie in hope to get to the place where Soliman was I threatned to kill them if they returned not to the fight This so extraordinary a discourse being seconded by some effects which seemed marvellous unto them they resolved to follow me Behold me then the head of this couragious Brigade whom I conducted so fortunately as I made them carry that in two hours which a whole Army could not do in six weeks before At last Madam being resolved to perish or do some great matter I so hotly pursued the enemies that after we had killed a great number of them made the rest to flie and put fear into all the remainder I drove them even into their town where being entred alone with them certainly I performed things which made me plainly see that despair is more powerfuller than valor but whatsoever I could have done doubtless I should have fallen there if I had not called to minde that the breach being abandoned I might through that place cause our forces to enter thither I made then with extreme speed and finding none on the Ramparts but disarmed people who were there assembled to see the success of the business I easily got to it and presently discovering those which had followed me to the City-gate I cried unto them Victory Victory for to oblige them to turn head towards me When as they knew me by my slaves habit they were so surprized to see me still living as no way doubting but that I was a man sent by their Prophet to succour them they resolved to abandon me no more and superstition mingled it self so happily amongst them to excite their valor as I can say that I never saw souldiers more couragious They came then unto me with incredible speed and were no sooner mounted on the breach but I pulled down an Ensign which the enemies had set up on the wall to put one of Solimans in the place of it and having left some for the guard of the breach I went with the rest to seize on the gates of the town and their Magazine of Arms. The people no sooner heard long-live victorious Soliman cried in the streets but their weapons sell out of their hands assuredly believing that their Army was defeated and that the Emperors was in the City In the mean time Zellebis used all his endeavour to put heart into his souldiers again but seeing it altogether impossible he resolved to flie fearing nothing so much as to fall alive into Solimans hands As soon as the people knew that their Defendor had forsaken them we had no further resistance except
perill of ones life and which is not under the dominion of Kings Let thy Highness pardon me then if I refuse thee a thing which I would not doe for the possession of the whole Universe no nor at the sight of a death the most terrible and most dreadfull that can be If I should refuse thee continued I either my blood or my life which are the only things whereof I can dispose I should think my self guilty of the blackest ingratitude that ever was but being far from so base a thought I most humbly beseech thee permit me to go and affront the Army of the enemy to try the first of all his fury and his rage and if it be possible to grapple with Zellebis and sacrifice his life to thy vengeance or mine to thy service Thy Highness hath but too well made known unto me how thou remembrest that when I was loaden with chains I had the good fortune to vanquish thine enemies do thou judge then by what I have done of that which I will do in this occasion whenas so many testimonies of affection render me indebted to thy Greatness and that being no longer fettered with irons I may make use of all my address and of all my force Let a Scymitar then my Lord be only given me and let me be placed in the formost rank of thine Army and to oblige thy Highness from requiring that only thing of me which I can refuse thee do but consider seriously and consult with thy most secret thoughts and then demand of thy self if the good hap of Christendom had been such as that thou wert powerfully perswaded of the truth of our Religion whether thou wouldst be capable of changing it for the conquest of all the world But it is too much importuning thy Highness to ask a just thing of thee with so many reasons and it is as it were to commit a crime to make any doubt of obtaining it Soliman heard me with a great deal of unquietness and when I had done speaking he was a pretty while without answering me And although the thoughts of men are hard to be known yet I well observed that choler reason and amity reigned successively in his heart but at length after he had disputed with himself he said unto me with somewhat a more quiet countenance That not being able to change his mind nor being able likewise to rid himself of the affection he bare me he had found out an expedient which I could not refuse him unless I were resolved to incur his hatred and which he would grant me if the Muphti who is the head of their Religion thought he might do it without offending the Prophet He propounded then unto me only to take the habit of the Turks to the end that being believed to be so he might confer Charges upon me and keep me about him And to perswade the people that I had changed my Religion he would so order it that the Muphti should assure all the world that he had performed the ceremony of it in private in the Mosque of the Seraglio that he was confident this man loved his head too well to reveal a secret of so great importance that in the mean time I might live a Christian under the habit of a Mussulman and render him the happiest Prince of the Earth I confess that I had more ado to answer to this last proposition than to the other howbeit I requested him to remember that dissimulation was not to go so far as to the Altars that love and war did many times permit such things but that Religion required much sincerity and that in the same which I professed there was an express Commandment to publish it openly I would have proceeded but choler so surmounted the Sultan as I was constrained to hold my peace for fear of incensing him further I well enough perceived that amity had still a place in his soul maugre his fury I saw tears of spight and kindness in his eyes and how violent soever his discourse was he always intermingled things amongst it which made me easily discern that he had an affection for me which could never be destâ—oyed He said unto me then vvith a precipitated voyce that I should make no further reply unto him that all the grace he could do me vvas to permit me to go and consult vvith the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Religious men of Pera about an occasion vvherein they had as much interest as I for it may be said he unto me after I have favoured them so much in consideration of thee I may very vvell destroy them for the same cause and on them revenge my self of thy insensibility and of the anger I am in for that I cannot leave loving thee to the end thou mightst punish thy self But go continued he and let me hear thy last resolution within two dayes for otherwise I shall be able to take one which may make thee repent that thou hast so ill acknowledged the affection that I still bear thee mangre thy obdurateness When he had given over speaking I withdrew with a profound respect and considering with my self what I had to do it seemed just unto me not to rely upon mine own proper sense in a matter of so great importance Those menaces of Soliman would not have shaken me had they been addrest to noâ—e save my self but the fear of involving so great a number of innocents in a mischief which ought not to have regarded any but me made me resolve to have recourse unto the reason of others mine not being free enough nor sufficiently disinteressed to operate justly in this incounter The aversion which I had for life being absent from you helped to perswade me too that my Religion permitted not that which was desired of me I assembled then the Patriarch of the Greek Church and his principall Calviers for the Latin is not yet established in Constantinople and whereas I had seen them oftentimes after I was there I propounded the matter unto them with all the circumstances which I believed was necessary to tell them to the end they might the better understand the importance of the affair I let them know the extreme affection which Soliman bare me the menaces he used against them in consideration of me the promises I had received from him if I did that which he desired at last I exposed the matter sincerely unto them just as it had past and without disguising my sense I gave them to understand that provided they might be in safety I should be glad they would find that I could not satisfie Soliman but with the loss of my life They began a dispute then which lasted a good while they would not trust to their memories but would look over their books and not judge tumultuously of the affair The opinions were divided for an hour and more and either side seemed to have very strong reasons to maintain their party but in the end
of his Vessell which the waves had brought to Land so that despairing of any comfort he went to the habitation that was nearest to the place where he was and stayed there certain days to make search if at least the body of Axiamira might have been found as also to meet with some means for him to return to Constantinople As for the Princess all his care in vain he found indeed some dead Souldiers and Mariners along the shoar but of her he never could have any tidings so that the unhappy Axiamira is doubtless without life and without sepulture In the mean time Rustan thinking of his return although he were neer to a place where Prince Gianger the youngest of Solimans sonnes was residing yet would he not demand any assistance from him for fear he should be obliged to tell him a thing which was to be concealed wherefore he had recourse to the Governor of a small Town that was not above four miles from thence where he had suffred shipwrack who furnishing him with all things requisite for his journey he returned by Land to Constantinople with so melancholick a countenance as at first sight one might easily perceive that his enterprize had not been prosperous I was at that time with his Highness and I have not lost the remembrance of so dolefull a conversation As soon as Rustan had made an end of relating to the Grand Signior that which you have heard he would have excused himself for having forcibly carried away Axiamira without his order but Soliman said unto him with a face wherein grief and choller equally appeared Speak no further unto me thou base and infamous ravisher and know that if thou hadst not maried my daughter Chimeria thy death should have satisfied for that of Axiamira Ah poor Princess said he how deplorable is thy face and how unhappy is mine Then turning himself towards me who was present at this mournfull relation do not reproach me my dear Ibrahim said he unto me for not giving credit to thy counsell which I remember but too well for my content and the estate wherein I am punisheth me sufficiently for my imprudence Can any innocent be found more infortunate than I But what say I innocent continued he I cannot be so of the death of this Princess it is I that have delivered her into the hands of Rustan it is I that have exposed her to the tempest and it is I that have been the cause of her loss Could I be ignorant that she was not an ordinary person No Ibrahim I could not I loved her under the name of Felixana but I was to adore her in my heart as a great Princess I saw something so high and so majesticall in the air of her face as I cannot be excusable for not knowing her for howsoever if the possession of Axiamira was necessary for my felicity she was to be intreated after another manner and if my love would have constrained me to have recourse unto violence I should have gone in person in the head of an hundred thousand men to make so noble a conquest with honor she should have been brought in a triumphant Chariot and not in the Vessell of a Traytor and impious man I should not have thought of possessing her till I had set a Crown upon her head and if I could not have obtained her I should have changed my love into respect and with admiration have looked upon a bliss that was forbidden me But Rustan did not believe that I was capable of such noble apprehensions he hath judged of my minde by his own he thought because he is violent that I should be wicked he hoped for a recompence of his crime and out of an inhumanity which is without example he hath betrayed an innocent Princess he hath put a stain upon my life which I shall not be able to deface and hath reduced my soul to an estate never to be comforted Then addressing his speech to the Princess as if she â—ould have heard him and calling to mind her last words which he had caused to be repeated to him more than once he cried out with an exceeding transport Yes Axiamira thy death shall be the cause of the revenge which thou desirest and the grief which I shall have for it all my life shall be instead of an eternall punishment unto me There needs no Arms to invade my State there needs no proclamed Enemy to fight with me I carry oâ—e in my bosom which shall alwayes surmount me repentance and sorrow shall be inseparably with my spirit and the image of so unhappy and of so beautifull a person shall accompany me even to the grave Soliman having been constrained by the excess of his displeasure to give over speaking I did what I could to restore tranquillity to his soul but his grief was so vive and so strong as I needed a great deal of time to vanquish or to say better to moderate it Behold Madam the History of the unfortunate Axiamira all the particulars whereof which I have told you I learned from Rustan and more too from one of his souldiers who returned a little after him and was saved almost in the same manner Isabella could not then forbear interrupting of Justiniano to lament the misfortune of Axiamira but after she had satisfied her compassion she desired to make an end of contenting her curiosity and intreated Justiniano to continue his discourse which he did in this sort The Sequele of the History of Iustiniano I Will not stand Madam to relate unto you how I imployed my self after my return from Natolia in regard I know that Doria purposeth to let you understand that Ibrahims Palace was built by my direction and how it was in that intervall of peace and assoon as I was Grand Visier that I caused the ornaments thereof to be made having seen that work finished but a little before Doriaes arrivall at Constantinople It is true said Doria that I have a desire to describe that inchantâ—d Palace to her Excellency and to acquaint her with all the magnificences and all the grandeurs which you have quitted for her sake and to make her comprehend a part of what I say I am but to present her with that which the Grand Signior hath seâ—t her saying so he drew out of his pocket the box of gold which Soliman had delivered unto him and having opened it he let her see one of the goodliest things in the world Isabella was so surprized with the richness of this present as she would not have received it but at length Doria having told her laughing that he was not determined either to keep it or to carry it back to Constantinople she was constrained to accept of it Doriaes jesting made Justiniano fetch a great sigh beginning already to apprehend the end of his narration and for that cause had spun out that of the Adventures of Axiamira as much as possibly he could in exactly recounting her
History and all because he was not yet well resolved whether he should deliver the truth of things to Isabella in the mean time whereas she was in much impatience and that night began to come on she desired him not to lose such precious minutes but to prosecute his discourse I would willingly have had you dispence with me answered Justiniano for leading you once more to the wars but since you will be acquainted with all my fortunes I am to let you understand that being absolutely determined not to wear a Turbant unprofitably for Christendom I had no other thought but to divert the Arms of Soliman from Hungary where I knew he had a design to imploy his greatest forces the loss of Axiamira furnished me soon after with means to put so just a resolution in effect For whether it were that some of the Princesses women were saved by a prodigious good hap and had acquainted Tachmas with the cause of the death of his daughter or that the aboad or sudden departure of Rustan who had alwayes past at Mazanderon for a Merchant of Constantinople had begotten some suspition of the truth advertisement came that Tachmas was levying a mighty Army The Truce which had been so long between these two Princes could be no obstacle to this war for it had never been observed exactly and some particulars had often committed acts of hostility on either part so that according to the Maxims of State a plausible pretext could not be wanting for an Army to march into the Orient as often as Soliman had a mind to it In the mean time it happened that the Georgians having past over Euphrates did much spoil in Comagena robbing all that went to or came from Mesopotamia so that the Sangiacs of the Province having complained of it and seeing that Soliman took no order therein they passed to Diarbech where in all the Countrey about Birtha they did great havock and rendred that with usury which the Georgians had lent them This conjuncture seeming too favourable unto me to be neglected I repaired unto Soliman who notwithstanding the advertisement he had received that Tachmas had put himself into Arms could not be drawn for all that to think of this war the image of Axiamira reigned still in his heart he could not resolve to fight with the Father whose daughter he had caused to perish and if some resentment of glory had not been still remaining in him I think he would rather have let Tachmas invade his Empire than oppose himself against him But to shew unto you how hardly this Prince was drawn to make a war which he believed to be unjust I have no more to say than that after I had used all my address to remonstrate unto him that the war of Persia was a thing no longer in his choice since knowing what his Governors had done in Diarbech and Tachmas having an Army on foot he was not to doubt yea though he wre ignorant that he was the innocent cause of Axiamiraes death but that he would fall upon him that after I had told him how it was alwayes advantagious for great Princes to begin the War that it was a mark of love to his Subjects not to suffer the fire to be brought into their houses and that I had made him also to consider that at last it would be better to be in an estate to shew grace to his Enemy than to receive it from him that in this occasion it did not concern his particular glory alone but that of the Empire that being innocent of the misfortune of Axiamira he was not to fear that heaven would be contrary to him and that if this death was to be lamented it would suffice to imploy his tears and sighs therein without beholding the blood of his Subjects shed After all these things I say he made no other answer but Axiamira is dead for me I must sacrifice a part of my State for her and that my Subjects may not murmure at the Conquests which I shall suffer Tachmas to gain upon me I will labor to obtain others of the Christians without obliging thee as I have promised to serve me therein I vow unto you Madam that this discourse surprized me extremely not knowing which way to oppose my self against a will so fully determined And that which put me into further despair of being able to execute my design was that the Mother and Wife of the Emperour hated me with a secret hatred because I had always favoured Mustapha and Gianger excellent Princes and the children of Soliman for though this last be the sonne of Roxelana yet leaves she not to hate him because he loveth Mustapha This hatred was the cause then that these two women opposed the voyage of Persia onely to contradict â—e with so much address and violence as I stood in need of some extraordinary mean to destroy all their artifices The first represented unto Soliman that the wars of the Orient had always been infortunate to the Othomans that his Armies would be exterminated with hunger and thirst if he carried them to a place from whence his father Selim although victorious brought back no other advantage than the loss of his best souldiers As for Roxelana she imployed nothing but her tears wherewith alone she was more powerfull than reason it self so that all these things being joyned to the loss of Axiamira wrought in such sort as I saw almost an impossibility in diverting the storm which was ready to fall on Christendom But in the end after I had tried all wayes in vain I bethought my self how Soliman being mightily perswaded that Judiciary Astrology is a Science which men may practise with certainty I might peradventure bring him to what I desired if I could get an Arabian to come from Damascus that was an excellent Astrologer and Mathematician called Mulé Aral whom the people accused of Magick by reason of the wonders which every day he did hoping after I had won him with gifts to make him say unto Soliman whatsoever I would have him I sent then secretly unto Damascus not knowing how to meet with any other expedient that could satisfie me otherwise and whereas my orders were as well executed as the Grand Signiors it was not long before he was brought to me In the mean space I was resolved to speak no more of this war to Soliman untill such time as that which I projected should utterly fail me As soon as Mulé Aral was arrived at Constantinople I talked with him in private and after I had ingaged him absolutely to do what I would have him I discovered my design unto him which nevertheless I covered with the good and glory of the Empire to the end too he might serve me the more faithfully But this man told me how he held it fit that the Stars should be observed and his books consulted with a little about this war because it might so happen that without any imposture or lying
her robe she caressed him very much and prayed him to remember that he left a Mistress at Monaco shewing him Aemilia The Marquis answered laughing that he should not fail therein and to the end she might not doubt of it he would take the libertie to vvrite unto her I shall be glad of that said the Princess and vvill enjoyn Aemilia to receive your letters In the mean time Doria vvho vvas in love vvith the Counts sister-in-lavv named Sophronia began to be in some unquietness for that he did not return unto Genoua vvhich being observed by Justiniano he conjured him to abide no longer at Monaco and to go along vvith the Count. Doria vvithstood it a vvhile but at length he suffred himself to be persvvaded to that vvhich he desired The Marquis vvas so dextrous as he took the opportunity vvhilst the rest vvere complementing vvith the Princess to approch unto Aemilia for to assure her a little more seriously than he had used to do that he had such thoughts for her aâ— he had never before but onely for tvvo or three of all that great multitude of vvomen vvhich he had loved in his time it is likely he vvould have said more unto her had not the Count gone avvay They departed out of the Princesses chamber accompanied by Justiniano vvho conducted them to the Port vvhere they imbraced one another vvith a great deal of kindness and also renevved their friendship vvith nevv protestations Having vveighed anchor upon the Counts Signall given the slaves fell to rovving and in an instant the gally vvas carried far from the shoar and from Justiniano vvho in returning to the Castle began to fear that the Princess vvould press him to declare the end of his History and likevvise to consider vvith astonishment the deplorable estate he was in but going insensibly along tovvards the Princess he found himself in her chamber before he vvas avvare that he vvas comâ— thither This sad thought had already painted such a melancholy in his face as Isabella perceived it as soon as he entred and for vvich she quarrelled vvith him saying that it proceeded from the absence of his friends Justiniano surprised vvith this discourse laboured to recollect himself and told her he had been so accustomed to sâ—dness that assoon as he vvas but a moment out of her sight it still regained some empire over his heart And to keep the Princess from speaking to him of ending his history he besought her to be so good as to relate to him all that had arrived unto her during so long an absence Alas said she unto him what do you ask of me Doth it not suffice that you know you were not here that I believed you to be either inconstant or dead and that being in a place wherinto I could forbid an entrance to all the world I have scarce had any other adventure than to weep all day long at leastwise since the death of my mother and the unlucky love of the Prince of Masseran which Doria hath recounted unto you as also that of some other Soveraignes of Italy where nothing hath past more remarkeable than the coldness which I have used towards them And truly in so austere a solitariness I wanted not imployment the remembrance of our felicities past and of our then miseries furnished me but with too much entertainment of my self and I may say that the memory of our good fortune was more cruell to me than the sense of our ill fortune But continued she these thoughts are too dolefull for so happy a season as this is wherein I see you and we are not yet so far eloigned from the time in which we thought to have suffered shipwrack as to look upon this Sea without dread or grief The adventure of the Prince of Salerno and of Don Fernando de Mendoza said Aemilia interrupting her is not so inconsiderable as that you should not be obliged to impart it unto a person who hath rendred you so exact an account of his life but if either your modesty or your compassion doth hinder you from acquainting him with the effects of your beauty and the mischiefes which you have caused without thinking of them I do offer to make him a faithfull recitall thereof You will be unjust Madam answered Justiniano if you will not permit that I shall know what hath befallen you and you will give me cause to fear that remembrance of some one of my Rivalls doth touch you but too sensibly The Princess did what she could to remit the matter to another time but Justiniano who sought to shun the occasions of speaking of the end of his adventures was willing to oblige the Princess to let him understand hers When as she saw then that he was resolved for it she took a pretext to go and write to Leonardo the Count of Lauagnes wife to the end she might not be present at Aemiliaes relation Justiniano complained for that she deprived him of the sight of her but whatsoever he could say she entred into her Cabinet saying she would punish him for his obstinate curiosity She was no sooner gone but Aemilia having first been permitted by Isabella so to doe began to speak in this sort to Justiniano The History of Isabella SEeing the Princess hath commanded me to render you an account of her life I am very willing to obey her having nothing to tell you that is not advantagious for her and also for you I will not repeat her first adventures since I know that you are not ignorant of the Prince of Masserans love Juliaes violence and artifices Felicianaes treason Doriaes generous resentment the death of that infortunate lover and consequently that of Julia. But I will onely tell you that when she saw she was Mistress of her self by the loss of her mother and that she had in vain sent to seek for you in Germany she resolved to go no more to Genoua but to live alwaies at Monaco to avoid the counsells and propositions which she foresaw would be urged upon her for to draw her to mary though she had ingaged her faith to you For whereas your long absence had made all the world believe that you were dead there wanted no reasons to be alleged unto her for the perswading of her to the change of her resolution As indeed notwithstanding all the care she had taken to bar an entrance into Monaco of all those which might speak to her of such like matters yet the fame of her beauty and vertue was spread abroad in such manner as there was not a Prince in all Italy which sent not unto her for a permission to visit and serve her But she who feared her Lovers more than her Enemies brought so much care to the frustrating of all their designes as none of them could ever obtain so much as the liberty to see her She lived in this austere retiredness untill such time as about a year ago or little less there ran a
with him before my window or in all other places where I might have you for a witness that his love did not displease me No Horatio I have omitted none and the affection which I bore you made me have recourse to this artifice hoping I should know by giving you some cause of jealousie the force of your passion but I have not seen though you have seen all these things that you had any sense of them and albeit I knew that by this untoward experience I should be in danger of losing you if you were sensible yet chose I rather to resolve upon it and to assure my self of your love than to conserve you with a luke-warm and indifferent affection I have ever heard that jealousie is the daughter of love yet do I not say that love cannot be without jealousie Questionless you will tell me that by my own reasons I am unjust in complaining of you since it is possible that you may have love without having jealousie But alas this discourse hath not so much as an apparent reason neither can I suffer my self to be perswaded to that which I desire so passionately And to shew you that I cannot force my mind to deceive my self hear a thing which hath made me to think upon this matter I have been perswaded then that love alone cannot produce jealousie and how it is necessary that jealousie should have a mother which may contribute to her birth this mother if I be not deceived is occasion and as love without her cannot produce jealousie so she without love canot beget jealousie This reasoning seemes so powerfull to me as you cannot make any objection which it destroyes not for in fine you may well have love without jealousie when as you have no occasion for it but I having given it you and you not having taken it is to say absolutely that you have had no love Ah! fair Hypolita answered Horatio how I doe rejoyce at these complaints of yours for the more reasons you have brought to maintain your opinion the more have you established my felicity You say then amiable Hypolita continued Horatio that there can be no love without jealousie and because I have not been jealous I have had no love you shall pardon me if you please if without losing the respect which I ow you I dare take the libertie to contradict you in maintaining with reason that the perfectest and sincerest reason is that which admits of no jealousie It is a thâ—ng known of all reasonable and dis-interessed persons that he who loves truly loves only to love and not to be beloved or ro expect any recompence for that thought is too base and abject for so noble a passion Now if the love of beauty which is that whereof we speak springs from an object that is pleasing to the sight it followes that so long as this object seems amiable unto us so long will our love continue and whether the person beloved answers our affection or answers it not this love shall be still the same love But that I may make use of a comparison as well as you a man sees a fair Lady and love arises in his heart is it necessary for him to examine whether this Lady be ingaged to another in affection it is certain that it is not and it is every day seen that love doth subject us to them whose love is ingaged otherwhere so that one may wel judg from thence that a man ought to persevere in his love though some cause be given him of jealousie since when he was not beloved and that he was induced to love by the only sight of beauty he left not to be infinitely amorous And if I may be permitted to make use of History in this encounter what sympathy or what affection could that young Athenian expect who became so desperately in love with a beautifull Statue and whose passion was so extreme as the like was never heard of It is very certain that he loved only to love seeing the object of his passion was absolutely incapable of any correspondence Now then if it be true that a Lover is satisfied in knowing that he loves he is most assured that jealousie is not of power enough to destroy his love and that this jealousie is rather an effect of a defective than of a perfect love And to speak freely unto you tell me I pray you who can be so hardy after a worthy person hath had the goodness to receive our services favourably and to testifie some affection unto us as to suspect she should have the same thoughts for another Ah fair Hypolita the gallantry and civility which you have used to the eldest of the Adornes could not oblige me to draw so bad a consequence against you And to comprehend all the rest of my reasons in one alone I am but to say that he who by his discourse gives some marks of his jealousie to his Mistress names her inconstant facile and almost infamous Judge now fair Hypolita whether these be words agreeing with a Lady In the mean time it is most undoubted that in what tearms soever jealousie is expressed it cannot be expressed but in this manner whereas quite contrary this confidence which we have in the person beloved which makes us to approve of all her actions is the true mark of perfect love and indeed merits the most acknowledgement if I may be permitted to say so I have not suspected you then beautifull Hypolita of inconstancy because I have esteemed you very much and if I had had as good a place in your heart as you have had in mine you would questionless have done me justice â—n not accusing me of infidelity Hypolita was not sorry to find Horatio's reasons stronger than hers but whereas she was high-minded she would not let him see that she began to repent her but contrarily making shew as if she thought it strange her brother should leave her so long entertaining Horatio she called him for fear she should be constrained to say something that would be too obliging unto him And whereas Doria could not satisfie himself he came out of his Sisters Cabinet and went down to wait on Horatio whom she could not let part without beholding him in such a sort as he might easily perceive that he was in better terms with her than when he came thither for it is the custom of those that are easily angry to be as easily pacified to accuse that one may justifie himself and to complain that ' they may be satisfied In the mean time Doria had no sooner left Horatio but the Marquis came to him for to show him a Letter which he had written to Aemilia Why said Doria unto him do you think of her still I must needs think of her said the Marquis in the necessity I am in But before you marvelâ—t my constancy read that which you shall finde written in this paper and halving opened it he saw that it
behold him with a strange insolence I dare not undertake neither the reproaches which Amurath gave to Bajazet for the Treason he had committed But at last after they had said all that the divers passions which mastered their souls inspired them with Amurath caused Bajazet to enter into the Chariot and the fair Slave with him whose fall had brought her more fear than hurt for she had but a little bruise upon one of her arms Alicola mounted then on a horse and her slave on another all Amuraths people marched on both sides of the Chariot and he with Alicola rode four or five paces behind as it were leading the prisoners whom he conducted in triumph They arrived in this sort at the gates of Constantinople where having made Alicola alight he sent her together vvith Bajazet and the fair Slave to his Palace and there after he had caused them to eat he went to give Soliman an accompt of hir voyage As soon as the Sultan was advertised of the state of things he commanded these offendors to be brought before him which immediately was executed You may immagine the severall apprehensions that all of them had Bajazet was in a great deal of confusion to appear before his Master whom he had betrayed before a friend whom he had deceived before a woman whom he had loved and that was going to convince him of perfidiousness but that which most afflicted him was the grief of the fair Slave Alicola was exceedingly vexed to appear before a Prince that had despised her yet did she comfort her self vvith the thought that she deprived him of a man whom he loved Amurath had his heart filled with his new flames which made him to be not without unquietness for he feared that Soliman punishing Bajazet would also punish Alicola since she had helped to deceive him As for the fair Slave the fear alone of losing Bajazet made her shed tears But at length they arrived all before Soliman And whereas none of them durst so much as lift up their eys it was the Sultans pleasure they should speak separately and first he commanded Bajazet to render an account of his doings Whereupon falling down on his knees he spake much after this manner for I think that I have heard him repeat it over above an hundred times As love only hath been the cause of my crime so love only must also be my defence for my Lord said he unto him I know but too well that reason and justice are absolutely against me I have contemned the counsell of the first and I have not been afraid of the second I have betrayed a Prince who is not only my lawfull Prince who is not only the greatest Prince of the World but who for the greater aggravating of my fault is a Prince which hath alwaies loved me and whose goodness hath been so great towards me as it hath scarce set any bounds to my hopes Now if after so great a crime it is requisite to consider the rest which I have committed I have betrayed a man that confided in me I have abandoned a woman whom I had loved long and have made her pay very dearly for the testimonies of my affection with unheard-of rigour and to say all I have abused the simplicity of a Slave which was destined to thee and depriving her by my artifices of the honour of being thine I have wronged her more than all the rest In fine my Lord which way soever I turn me I see the marks of my crime but if notwithstanding it would please thy Highness to consider by what violence my reason hath been forced to carry me to such strange things thou wouldst doubtless have some pitty of my misfortune For if it be true that we have some compassion of a man whose imagination hath been troubled with melancholy why shall we not have it of a man whom love hath bereaved of his understanding What imports it whether the cause of his folly be interior or whether it proceeds from without so it is that I have not failed till love had seduced my reason till I had lost my judgement till my will was no longer in mine own power till all my desires perswaded me to the crime which I have committed till all my senses betrayed me till occasion favored my design and till nothing apposing my felicity I had not strength enough to despise it as I was obliged to doe seeing I could not enjoy it without being the most faulty of all men In conclusion if thy goodness will permit it all my crimes shall be comprised in one alone word I have loved I doe not for all that refuse the chastisement which I merit and to that end I lay my head at thy feet Bajazet had no sooner made an end of speaking but Alicola said unto Soliman with a bold and firme voyce as for me the crime which I have committed is of such a nature as I can never repent me of it and the onely grief I have left me is that I have committed a crime to no purpose I know that in desiring the honor to be thy Slave I wished for a good which I was unworthy of but I hoped that if my beauty was not able to touch thy Highness powerfully yet the greatness of my soul might please thee and I attended from mine eyes but this onely advantage to be received into the number of thy Slaves remitting my good fortune to the knowledge which time should have given thee of the thoughts of my heart Finally my Lord I was shewed a way which might have led me to glory I followed it and would follow it still had I new meanes presented me to doe it But if neverthelesse so noble a designe deserves chastisement I may say that the punishment which I have already received for it is greater than the evill I have done I will not reckon up the rigors of Bajazet for I am too generous to aggravate his fault before a Prince whom he hath but too much provoked but I will only beseech thy Highness to remember those cruell words and that bitter jeere which thou usedst to Bajazet when as thou didst refuse me words which I understood but too well though I made shew that I understood them not And to punish my self also in thy presence I am but to call to minde how thou saidst that I was fitter to conduct Amazons to the warrs than to live in a Seraglio that I looked more like a Soldier than a woman that thou fearedst my valour would equall thine that when as thou wouldest give me markes of thy affection I would render thee some of my courage and at last that I was more capeable of making prisoners of warre than prisoners of love Ah my Lord if thou knewest what a punishment that is which a vvoman doth resent that is of an high spirit and thinkes her self faire vvhen she heares such like things spoken of her thy Highness vvould not be troubled
vvith presents vvhich she sent him secretly and so being sure of his assistance vvhen shee should have need of it behold hovv shee proceeded therein She sent to the Muphti who is the man that takes cognizance of all matters of Religion to let him understand that she had an extreme desire to build a Mosque and an Hospitall where all poor Pilgrims might be lodged and fed but before she would undertake it she would fain know whether this would be pleasing to the Prophet The Muphti answers according to her desire and as she knew that he would answer that the thing would be pleasing to the Prophet but absolutely unprofitable for the second life of her soul because she was the Grand Signiors Slave and that whatsoever she had being Solimans and not hers all that she should do in this estate would be to the advantage of the Grand Signior and not of her This answer received she feigns to be exceeding melancholick she deprives her self of all her ordinary delights and when the Grand Signior visits her she lets her self be surprised still in some muse whereat she seems afterwards to be somewhat grieved and to strive to break her self from it At last she playes her part so dextrously as the Grand Signior began to be troubled upon his observing this change of her humour At first he was contented to ask of her what it was that made her so sad but she answering that it was an effect of her temperature it put him into further pain He inquires of the slaves that serve her whether any one hath given her cause to complain they answer that they know of none but how it is true that their Mistress had been for a good while so melancholick as they did not think she could live long in that sort For indeed when Roxelana was alone with them she always seemed exceeding sad to the end that being the first deceived they might the more easily deceive others fore-seeing rightly that Soliman would inquire of them that served her what she ailed But because she would not be always in constraint she shut her self up the most part of the day in her Cabinet and this unaccustomed retirement served yet very much to make it be credited that she had some hidden grief Soliman being advertised then of all these things began to fall into extreme unquietness he conjured Roxelana to acquaint him with the cause of her sadness and not to conceal the secrets of her heart from a Prince who had given his so absolutely to her he told her that if any one had wronged her he would revenge her for it and in conclusion that there was nothing which she might not obtain from him Hereunto she answered that the respect alone which she bore him kept her from obeying him and that she had always rather die than displease him So pressing a discourse failed not to work the effect which she attended from it Soliman was mightily moved with it and beholding her with eyes which shared with her in her grief he swore that he would not part from her till he knew what it was that troubled his felicity She resists yet a while he presses her the more and speaks to her with such earnestness as she thinks it was high time to discover her self She falls then at his feet beseeches him to pardon her and at last frames a discourse filled with artifice whereby she causes him to comprehend that having had a design to imploy the treasures which he had given her for the honor of the Prophet and her own salvation in building of a Mosque and an Hospitall for Pilgrims she had understood that she was incapable thereof because she was his Slave whereas for that purpose one ought to be of a free condition That she confessed unto him how the fear of the second life had so seized upon her soul as she doubted she should not be able to answer the two black Angells and how the thought that she could never be able to do any thing for her salvation troubled her in such sort as it was impossible for her to hope for one hour of tranquillity in all her life Soliman hearing her say thus lifts her up complains for that she hath so long concealed so just a desire from him and in the end assures her that within a short time she should be contented As indeed the next day he sent her a Patent of her Affranchisement vvhich he had caused to be dravvn up in the most authenticall form that is used amongst us and vvithall ordered so much money to be delivered unto her as she vvould demand Behold her then the most contented vvoman that ever vvas seeing so prosperous a beginning of her enterprize She thinks no longer in apparence of any thing but her buildings she communicates her designs to Soliman vvho on his side esteemed himself very happy in having been able to cure the mind of Roxelana of so black a melancholy But vvhen as a little after he vvould have her come and pass the night vvith him at his lodging he vvas much abashed to see her being alone vvith him cast her self at his feet and vvith her eyes full of tears and a voyce interrupted vvith sighs hear her say unto him I knovv full vvell my Lord that thou art the Master of our goods of our bodies and of our lives and that thy vvill ought to be absolute Mistress of ours But my Lord it novv concerns the Ordinances of Heaven the Precepts of our Prophet and the Lavv vvhich vve profess vvhich vvill not permit thee to dispose of me being free Give heed then my Lord to that which I say and draw not the indignation of Heaven upon thy head for a crime whereof I should be the cause For rather than I will resolve to commit this fault I am capable of taking away mine own life so much do I fear lest it should prove unlucky and fatall unto thee As long as I was thy Slave I never resisted thy pleasure knowing that both divine and humane Laws commanded me unto it But now that I am free and that therefore I cannot be thine without transgressing the Law I think that I do as I ought in this my opposing thee Soliman was so surprised with this discourse as he knew not what resolution to take His passion was strong but his respect to matters of Religion was also very great and the tears and prayers of Roxelana fortified it in such sort as he resolved to obey the Law if it proved to be so He sends for the Muphti propounds the question to him and commands him to examine it well But this man who had already been made and instructed by Roxelana tells him that this question was fully resolved that the Soveraign could not possess a free woman without marying her or without committing an horrible crime He reports the passage of the Alcoran to him fortifies it with reasons which he had premeditated and at
the frontiers of Amasia but he wrote unto Soliman that Mustapha had gained all the Soldiers that they would receive no command but from him that all was full of conspiracies that the people were every where ready to revolt that he was not in a condition to oppose so many Enemies and in conclusion that his presence was absolutely necessary for the calming of this storm Now that which made Rustan advertise Soliman of all these things was because he certainly knew that the vertue of Mustapha was so generally beloved in all that Province as if he undertook to go with open force against him he would be in danger of being lost and of utterly ruining Roxelana's designs He considered withall that if he conducted the Prince to Constantinople all the Bassa's all the Janizaries and all the pâ—ople joyning together might peradventure cause a genâ—ral revolution if they enterprized the taking away of Mustapha's life This consideration of his succeeded but too well for Soliman no sooner understood so much from him but he resolved for his voyage Howbeit that which powerfully carryed hâ—m to do what Rustan desired was the intelligence he gave him how by a second Letter from Mustapha's Governor he was informed that the Princess of Persia was in his hands So that Soliman filled with choller and jealousie and thinking that as Rustan had escaped shipwrack so Axiamira not being dead might be in the hands of his son who was fallen in love with her parted instantly away with all the Troops and Janizaries which he had about him leaving no more behinde then such as were necessary for the ordinary guard of his Sâ—rraglio But before he went from Roxelana she made him promise her that he would forget all things to think of his own security Vertuous Achmat told us since that Soliman had a strange combate within himself and that Nature and Reason a long time opposed the wickedness of this woman But at length she made him see the peril so great and so neer unto h m as in parting from her she got him to promise her two things the one that he should not see Mustapha and the other that he should sacrifice him to his own proper safety With this deadly resolution he went and joyned with Rustan these things nevertheless were not so closely carryed but the Bassa Achmat was advertised how this tempest was going to fall upon the head of Mustapha so that at the very same time when as Soliman being encamped neer to Aleppo had sent the Prince a Command to come unto him to render him an account of the Princess of Persia Achmat dispatched away a Post to advertise him that some great design was plotting against him and that he was accused of something wherein the Princess of Persia was mentioned but not able to tell him precisely what it was all that he could do in this occasion considering the state wherein he saw things was to counsel him not to come I leave you to judg generous Ibrahim whether receiving at one and the same instant Soliman's command and Achmat's advertisement the Princes and the Princess were not strangely surprized And so much the more because that Persian was on the very same day brought back to Mustapha whom Axiamira had returned to Prince Mahamed and had been taken upon the frontire for a spy though he beleeved that it was for that it had been discovered how he had slain that Officer of Mustapha's which came out of Persia with him so that he no sooner saw the Prince but he cast himself at his feet confessed his crime begged his pardon for it and recounted unto him the combate between that Turk and him as I have related it unto you But whatsoever was demanded of him he still maintained that he whom he had killed had not thrown away any Letters during the combate as we had beleeved which made us fear more then before lest some one had gotten them after his death and sent them to Soliman Prince Gianger was even in despair to see his brother in trouble for the love of him Axiamira was in an affliction which I cannot represent unto you the fear of falling into Soliman's hands made her resolve for death and the thought of being the cause of the ruine of two Princes to whom she was so much obliged augmented her grief far more Sarraida who loved her husband more then her self was wholly dissolved into tears out of her fear of the danger whereunto she saw him exposed Mustapha though more constant yet was sensibly touched with the tears of the rest and as for me if I may be permitted to name my self after so many illustrious persons I was so afflicted as my own misfortunes were never so sensible to me In the mean time we knew not what resolution to take Gianger would go and present himself to the Grand Signior to justifie his brother and confess that he alone was culpable but as soon as he came to think that he should abandon Axiamira that he should either let her return into Persia or put her into the hands of Soliman who was both his Father and his Rival he could by no means resolve on it but fell again into his despair Axiamira on her part found no way to escape this peril she would fain have saved these two Princes and saved her self too but not able to go into Persia neither to see Soliman nor rest safe in a place where she was no longer unknown she found that death alone could draw her out of so many miseries As for Mustapha his greatest sorrow was to see the affliction of his brother and the fear he was in that his Palace would not be an inviolable sanctuary to the Princess Axiamira for touching the rest said he unto her I am not much troubled If Soliman deals rigorously with me it will always be with injustice knowing as I do that I have never had a thought against the service which I owe to him and after this satisfaction I fear not death But that which afflicts me continued he is the doubt that if I go and present my self to Soliman they will come and do you some wrong in my absence and that is it for which I do not see how we can finde a remedy Sarraida hearing her husband speak in this sort cast her self at his feet to disswade him from this design and to pray him to remember said she after she had craved pardon of Gianger how exceedingly Roxelana had sought for a pretext to undo him that having met with one he might be assured she would make use of it to his ruine and that it was better for him to stay in Amasia and there to defend himself or fly away then to expose himself to so evident a danger But Mustapha's generosity not permitting him to resolve either for the one or the other it becomes your affection answered he to counsel me in this manner but it becomes not the courage of Mustapha to be
she owed her all things and since Ibrahim could not acknowledg it to her himself it was for her to do it Asteria who certainly had wit generosity and more address then the retirement wherein she lived seemed to permit answered her that her sight and acquaintance recompenced her beyond that which the service she had rendered her deserved That pity being a sense so natural to the sex whereof she was she merited no great glory for having had compassion of so gallant and handsom a man as Ibrahim For continued she although I know very well that they talk amongst the Christians of us as if we were barbarous yet I can assure you that this rule is not so general but it hath exceptions And pity which is a thing quite opposite to that which is beleeved of us is one of the first precepts of our Religion it extends even to unreasonable creatures and there are found amongst us such careful Observers of the Law as they buy up Birds to let them fly Judg after this whether that which I have done deserves to be ranked in the number of extraordinary things and whether contrarily there had not been cause to wonder if seeing a man carried to dye whose countenance so little resembled a Slayes or Malefactors I should not have had the thought to save him And then again added she if any one ought to recompence me for this action it must be the Sultan since I have preserved him a man whose brave actions have rendred his Empire famous and whose merit and conversation hath made up all his felicity ever since he was here For as for you continued she I do not see how you are obliged to me if I had been contented with saving of Ibrahim's life you might well have said so but since it was I that was the cause of the Sultan's seeing loving him and retaining him in his service methinks I ought rather to demand pardon of you for robbing you of him then to attend thanks for his preservation Isabella who did not think that Asteria was acquainted with all her history knew not how to answer her which the Sultana perceiving desired her not to marvel if she understood by her discourse that she was not ignorant of all her adventures She told her then how the Sultan her father had been almost constrained to impart them unto her for a reason which she would tell her another time it being unjust to keep her any longer from the liberty of lamenting an absence which could not chuse but be very grievous unto her Isabella was so satisfied with the civility and wit of Asteria that she felt some consolation in finding a reasonable person in a place where she imagined there had been nothing but stupidity so that to oblige her she requested her with a great deal of tenderness and respect not to leave her for that reason nor to defer to another time the acquainting her with that which she would fain hear although she knew it Asteria then recounted unto her what Ibrahim had already told her namely that Soliman had purposed to have married her to him but she particularizing the matter further unto her in letting her know how this business had not been so hastily carried but that some days were past after the Grand Signior had spoken to her of it when as Ibrahim's discourse obliged him to propound it sooner unto him then he had intended That whereas he could not foresee how this marriage should be disagreeable to Ibrahim he had resolved to have had her conducted to his Palace upon the day of his Triumph to the end he might do the more honor to the grand Visier but that he had been hindred from it by a Persian named Alibech who came to demand Justice of him against the Bassa of the Sea and had kept him till it was night in the Hipodrome That having learnt all these things from the Sultan's own mouth and seeing afterwards that nothing came of all this she had cast her self at Soliman's feet and besought him to let her know for what cause Ibrahim had refused her and that after many intreaties having had experience of her discretion in other encounters he had declared unto her the truth of the matter That after this she had far more esteemed of the Bassa then before and that his fidelity to her had in such sort touched her heart as far from being incensed against him for the refusal he had made of her she had commended him for it in her talk with Soliman Do not disquiet your self said this Sultana to Isabella if I dare say to you that I have been your Rival that Ibrahim's glory had touched my inclination and that I could have resolved with joy to have been his wife since I had not thus opened my heart unto you if it had not been free enough to offer you all manner of service and to assure you that that which I felt for the Bassa could not be named Love but a simple desire to marry a gallant and vertuous man Do not regard me then as your Rival seeing that could not be without hatred but as a person that hath no stronger a passion then to serve Ibrahim in you You are too generous answered Isabella and Ibrahim too happy for him to be indebted to you I should condemn him nevertheless continued she for not failing in his fidelity to me had he had the honor to know you but his misfortune hath made him commit this fault Do not accuse him then for want of judgment in preferring my conservation before your Conquest since his ignorance hath been the cause of it and seeing you know my whole life as well as I lament us without accusing us But what say I added Isabella reprehending her self rather admire Ibrahim's good fortune in that he could oblige you to save his life and afterwards gain the affection of the greatest Prince of the Earth and to joyn our good fortunes as our interests are joyned I must add further in having procured me the honor of your acquaintance This conversation having lasted an indifferent long time combined the Sultana Asteria and the Princes in so strait a league of friendship as they were almost inseparable so long as Isabella continued in the old Serraglio The day after she was come thither Soliman visited her and by this last sight made the chains which captived him stronger then before The incertainty he was in wholly ceased and the combat which he had in his heart between his fâ—iendship to the grand Visier and the passion he was in for Isabella was at an end and love remaining absolutely victorious his mind had some more peaceable moments so thâ—t he had no other thought then of the Conquest of Isabella But whereas he knew that to make himself be beloved he must first please he complyed so far with her as not to speak of any thing but Ibrahim in this first visit He craved pardon of the Princess for
the Crown unto him And grant also that the wickedness of this man should prove contageous to the King be assured that I will never abandon you and will hazard all things to keep you from having any violence offered unto you These fair Slaves gave her thanks for a discourse that was so advantageous unto them commended her vertue and her generosity lamented the misfortunes that had arrived unto her detested the cruelty of Aly and making an exchange of their own sorrows it might have been said that Mariama felt their miseries more then her own and that these fair Slaves who were no less generous nor less sensible then she had as much sense of her past fortunes as of their present mishaps After that so sad a conversation had lasted some time and that out of the compassion which they had one of another they had in some sort mitigated their griefs the Princess Mariama told them smiling how it would not be just that whil'st she was thinking of their protection one of their Troop should undertake to revenge Hipolita of the Kings love with another love desiring them to advertise the Slave which danced with so good a grace that the Princess Lela Mahabid was her sister because she believed that either he knew not so much or that he had forgotten it Sophronia perceiving by Mariama's speech that she meant the Marquis and that she also had taken notice of his inclination to the Princess Lela Mahabid thought it was best to acquaint her with his humor to the end she might not be offended if he continued the gallantry he had begun Sophronia then drew the Marquis his picture so agreeably and so advantageously for him as the Princess told her that she was very glad of the conquest her sister had made and that she might in some sort share with her thereâ—n it was fit she should more particularly know so extraordinary a man and so the Princess Mariama and Sophronia became his Confidents without having any purpose to be so and procured him the pleasure to see the Princess Lela Mahabid almost every day at the Princess Mariama's lodging The first time he was there I remember that we brought him thither with some kinde of repugnancy for he had understood from Sophronia her self in what manner she had spoken of him It is not said he unto us because I am angry that Sophronia hath spoken the truth but it is because I do not feel my self in a disposition to make it appear by experience that I am as inconstant as she hath described me it being very certain that I am perswaded I cannot love any think here but the Princess Lela Mahabid With this little vexation the Marquis was brought to Mariama's lodging where all those fair Slaves were present as well as the Princess Lela Mahabid who received him with a great deal of civility At first Mariama commended his address and rememb'ring how admirably he had danced in the last Assemblies she marvelled how he could in so short a space surmount all the Moors in gallantry and a good grace The Moors said he unto her Madam have not had so good a Master as I. And when as Mariama had demanded of him who he was he answered her that Love had taught him all that he knew it being most sure as he said that without him he had been the ignorantest of all men For continued he the sole desire to please the person whom I loved hath taught me all that I know If that be so answered Mariama and that which hath been told me of you be true you should be one of the most universally knowing men in the world since by that reason the diversity of persons whom you have loved should have taught you a wonderful diversity of things Truly Madam you have Reason replyed he but that which makes me know them but superficially is because I have stayd so little a while in one school as I have had no more leasure then to learn to speak a little of things without any perfect knowledg of them The first person of whom I was enamored loved valor and that was the cause why I took care not to appear cowardly She that touched my heart next loved musique and instantly I learned to sing to play on the Lute and the Gittern Another placing her greatest delight in reading of verses inspired me with the desire of making some One of my Mistresses loving Romanzes above any thing else possessed me with the desire to furnish the subject of one with mine own adventures I learned also to be fit for all compliance I became a Painter an Astrologer and a Mathematician Love made me learn languages by him I grew many times eloquent liberal discreet and pleasing in fine I do not know a vertue for which I am not indebted to this noble passion I profess said the Princess Mariama that this is the finest way of commending ones self that ever was heard of But said she to the Marquis how comes it to pass that in so little a time as you have been here you have so perfectly attained to that which the Granadins who are our masters in gallantry are so long a learning for as you say your self there are things which you understand but superficially because your love to those that affected them was not long enough It is Madam answered he because I have at this present a greater desire to please then ever I had in all my life She that hath given you this desire said the Princess Lela Mahabid unto him should have a great deal of merit or should be very much obliged to you She hath so many excellent qualities replyed the Marquis as I may say that in this illustrious person I love all those whom I have loved in all my life-time it being most certain that I have never admired any thing in all the others whom I have served which I do not finde yet more eminently in her whom now I adore She is wonderfully fair she hath a spirit as full of brightness as her eyes are of light and there is seen in her whole person a charm so powerful and so extraordinary that it is impossible to conserve so much reason as to remember that one ought not to have any other then veneration for her one must of necessity give place to love she cannot inspire other thoughts and not working like ordinary beauties which makes one pass from admiration to esteem and from esteem to love she renders her self at the first instant absolute Mistress of all their souls that behold her One cannot have indifferent thoughts for her one must either not see her or adore her and from the very first moment that I beheld her I had all at once both admiration esteem and love I was no longer mine own I was absolutely hers and though I know full well that I am unworthy of this honor yet can I not imagine that I am faulty It seems to me also at
that one of the Guard who had more brain then the rest perceived that although three several men had presented themselves for to go out of the City yet it had been still with one and the same horse so that he certainly bâ—liâ—ved there was some mystery in this adventure and how it might wâ—ll be that Aly was not far off This Soldier having imparted his thought to him that commanded the gate he conceived that his opinion was not ill grounded wherefore to clear himself therein he made shew of being perswaded by the intreaties of this man who dâ—sired to be let forth but whil'st to gain time he made yet some new difficulties he sent for three horses to the end he might follow him a far off with two of his companions which were no sooner come but having let him go out and set them elves to follow him they saw that contrary to the custom of all such as fear â—o be followed he went on still without turning his head to the place from whence hâ— parted so great a desiâ—e he had to arrive where the unhappy Aly waited for him Sâ—eing then that they might follow him without his being aware of it they approached neerer to him then they would have done if he had behaved himself otherwise and quitting the high-way as well as he when they came neer to a wood whither this man seemâ—d to have a purpose to go they espyed a woman who having discovered them hid her self in the thickest of the bushes This action made him that was carrying the horse to Aly turn about his head who knowing that he was followed would have takâ—n more on the left hand and not have gone to the place where he was attended but this trick would not serve his turn howsoever it was not because those which had observed her bâ—liâ—ved that this woman was effectively Aly but being neer unto it they would needs know certainly what this adventure was The Captain then having given order to the two Soldiers to seize on this man went to the place where he had seen the woman hide her self and had not gone fifty paces but he found her at the foot of a tree where keeping down her vail still about her she besought him in counterfeiting her voyce not to do her any violence And when she saw that this man had no intent to use her civilly and seemed fully resolved to discover what she was she would have tempted this Captain with the hope of a great recompence so that suddenly lifting up her vail Thou seest said she the infortunate Aly who can make thee happy if thou beest wise for if thou wilt resolve to let me escape I will put thee in a condition that thou shalt never need to ask any thing more of Fortune This Captain who was faithful or it may be did not believe that Aly in the case he was in could recompence him as much as he said answered him that he would never enrich himself by a Treason and without further delay he called his companions who having tyed the man on whom they had seized to a tree went to help him to take the miserable Aly who though without Arms left not off resisting them for while But at last they brought him to Marocco and having conducted him before Abdalla this Prince reviled him with all imaginable reproaches And whereas Aly had always been happy this one blow of unhappiness so mightily surprized him as that judgment and prudence which had rendred him so considerable in his prosperity wholly abandoned him in his misfortune so that in stead of seeking to colour his fault he confessed it as it was and related unto Abdalla all that he had said and thought just in the same manner as I have delivered it unto you for the Princeâ—s Mariama had the goodness to recount it unto us afterwards in so much as Abdalla regarding Aly not onely as a Traytor but as his Rival the tenderness which he had at other times had for him was of no power to excite any thought of pity in his heart but contrarily the remembrance of the good-will he had born him incensed his minde the more At last love anger interest of State and jealousie made the King without further delay as soon as Abdelcader was app ehended even the very same day take off the ambitious Aly's head who seeing his loss inevitable resolved for it with constancy enough Thus was the Princess Mariama revenged on this man for his cruelty and Hipolita delivered from one of her persecutors Aly was no sooner dead but the Princess Mariama always generous went and cast her self at the Kings feet to beg Abdelcader's life of him which he granted to her tears upon condition that he should remain for some time a prisoner For albâ—it he was guilty of high Treason as well as Aly for intending to usurp the Kingdom during his life yet was there this difference that Abdelcader was Abdalla's Brother and was not his Rival But Madam to make an end of telling you at once both the goodness of Mariama and our fortune you shall understand that in the confusion wherein all the City of Marocco was this day when as the Princess Mariama entred into a Chamber where these three fair Slaves were and saw them all in tears especially Hipolita who knew well that she was in part cause of all this disorder this Princess I say seeing them in this estate had so much generosity though she loved them very tenderly as to deprive her self for ever of them It may be also that the design of taking from the King an object of passion which might trouble his rest from Abdelcader that which had made him fail in this duty and from the Princess Lela Mahabid another which might make her in some sort forget the rank which she held carryed her to this resolution But in conclusion a little interest and a great deal of generosity made her tell them that profit was to be made of others misfortune so that before the King had leasure to ask for them she caused them to be secretly conveyed to the house of a man who absolutely depended on her and having advertised us to repair thither we continued concealed there above eight days She in like sort caused the Mariners and Soldiers which we had brought to Marocco to be delivered for the ambitious Aly being dead the Princess Mariama was as powerful in the State as the King himself The day following Abdalla seeing the Princess Mariama with a feigned melancholy in her face which yet he believed to be true demanded of her whether revenge which is said to be one of the greatest pleasures of Kings did not give her some My Lord said she unto him present misfortunes are doubtless more sensible then past pleasures the loss of the Slaves which you gave me is cause of more grief to me then that of Aly hath made me feel joy So strange a discourse surprized the King extreamly
whereas Alphonso had been a long time in the voyage from whence Justiniano brought him back he had understood nothing of what had hapned to Leonida for being fallen in love with her presently after his return no body had been so uncivil as to say any such thing to him It was not as you shall know by the sequel of this History because that which arrived unto Leonida was not glorious for her but because love is a passion that renders the spirit so sensible and delicate as it is impossible to hear that the person whom one loves should have affection for another without some sense of griâ—f And verily Alphonso tryed it but too well in this occasion he beleeved at first notwithstanding that this was an effect of the malice of his kinsman who regarding his succession had perchance a design to do what he could for the rendring Leonida less amiable but when as continuing his incivility he had told him that one named Octavio of the House of the Pallavicins and who was dead since had in times past loved her and that he had been infinitely loved of her he did not beleeve that this man durst have told him things so precisely if they had not been true At length Alphonso having made his visit retired with some unquietness nevertheless whereas he had not yet lost his Reason he did not find that he had any cause to complain of Leonida for that she had been loved of Octavio or for that she had loved him in a time when as he was not known to her For said he I should be unjust to desire that the eyes of Leonida should not have begun to make Conquests before they captivated me and I should be unreasonable to desire also that she should have been absolutely insensible of the affection of a man who it may be was of more worth then my self Now whereas Love is ingenious to torment those which are under his Empire Alphonso did not complain of having a Rival that had not been hated but for that Leonida had made a secret of it to him This unquietness was not for all that very strong but you shall understand by the sequel of my discourse that it carried him to another which put him to a great deal of pain Alphonso had no sooner the commodity to speak with Leonida in private but making shew as if it were without design he took occasion to name Octavio this name which had been so dear to Leonida could not be heard of her without touching her heart and her heart could not be moved without giving some marks of it in her face For her Sense preventing her Reason she blusht and â—â—â—hed both at an instant howbeit desiring to conceal this disorder from Alphonso she layd her hand over her eyes and endeavoring to change discourse he was thereby perswaded that this touched her heart exceeding sensibly augmented his curiosity and made him resolve to testifie it to her plainly In pursuance of so precipitous a design Alphonso without deferring the execution of it any further said unto her I would fain fair Leonida be assured that after my being dead for your service my name should be so happy as to make you blush and sigh as the blessed Octavio's hath done You should do better answered Leonida sighing a second time to call him infortunate Octavio Whosoever hath been loved of you replyed Alphonso could nâ—ver be unhappy notwithstanding any thing that could arrive to him otherwise I wish for all that said Leonida that you never make tryal of the like felicity But continued she with an altered countenance why have you spoken to me of Octavio Let us leave him to enjoy that rest which he could never finde in this life let us not trouble ours in troubling his and let us I pray you have so much regard to him as to leave his ashes in peace Please you to pardon me said Alphonso then unto her if without losing the respect which I owe to you I dare crave of you for a mark of your affection that you will take the pains to relate exactly unto me that which Octavio in times past bore unto you that which you bore to him and briefly all that besell you till the time of his death otherwise you will give me causâ— to complain of you Leonida would not at first accord to Alphonso that which he desired of her for as she knew how highly her heart had been touched for Octavio so she know likewise that it would be impossible for her to remember all their felicities and all their misfortunes without a great deal of unquietness wherefore she excused her self from it as much as she could nevertheless seeing that Alphonso took this refusal for a wrong she promised to grant him his desire so as he would give her some time and in this sort many days past away Alphonso being unable to make her keep her word with him But at length his curiosity being grown the stronger by Leonida's resistance he testified unto her one day so seriously that he should hold himself disobliged by her if she continued in the resolution which she seemed to have as having appointed him a time to come to her for that purpose she resolved to content him If one had then demanded of Alphonso why his curiosity was so strong he could not have told at least-wise he hath acknowledged so much to Leonida since For whereas he was perswaded that she had loved Octavio both by that which his Kinsman had told him by that which he had also learned other-where concerning it and by the marks which he had seen of it in her countenance if in her speech nevertheless she had disguised the truth that lying would have given him a great deal of unquietnâ—ss and yet he felt in his heart that if contrarily she should avouch unto him that she had loved him very much this discourse would not please him But at last carryed by a secret motion which he could not resist he went with an extream impatience to the assignation which Leonida had given him He found her more sad then ordinary for whereas her imagination was filled with displeasing idea's that charming and jovial ayr which she hath usuâ—lly in her face was somewhat changed After she had caused Alphonso to sit down and had told him that she was going to render him the greatest proof of her affection that he had ever yet received she was ready to impart unto him what her fortune had been when as Alphonso before he would give her leasure so to do conjured her once again not to omit any part of all that which had arrived unto her But he had no need to intreat her thereunto for Leonida had no sooner began to speak but forgetting that she was recounting her History to her Lover she suffered herself to be charmed with her own relation and shewing grief or joy according as the matters which she related gave her occasion for she omitted not
any thing of all that happened unto her She imparted to him that Octavio's house being neer to hers she had no sooneâ— opened her eyes but she was acquainted with him and that he had no sooner beheld her in his tendrest infoncy but he was pleased with her That their Fathers being friends they had a thousand times seen one another in that innocent age wherein decency did not require one yet to live with so great a restraint and that then without knowing what it was to love they sorbore not carrying affection to each other She told him further that in this age wherein feigning and dissimulation have no part and wherein the inclinations of the Soul appear such as they are so great a correspondence was seen betwixt Octavio's and hers as no difference could be found therein But said she to Alphonso sighing neither he nor I knew that this sympathy which so straitly united our hearts and mindes should disunite us eternally that this springing love shâ—uld one day be the cause of his death and cost me so many tears and without dreaming of any such thing the pleasure alone of seeing one another and talking together took up all our Souls We knew not as yet for all that added she what those thoughts were which we had one for the other neither did we perceive them till decency would not permit us to see one another so often The privation of a good makes us know the greatness of it and the design which we had to conceal our affection began to make me suspect thâ—â— there was something in it more then good-will I did then all that I could to disengage my minde from a passion which I had always heard to be very dangerous but whereas it was more ancient in me then Reason Reason was not strong enough to chase it out of my Soul but contrarily it was she which engaged me further in it and that speaking to me of Octavio drew the picture of the worthiest man that ever was She told him moreover that which she felt in her heart when as by any reason of honor or business he was constrained to be absent from Genoua the small delight she took in Assemblies when he was not there and how much she enforced her self to seem merry during his absence She acquainted him also how exact Octavio was in following her pleasure in all things what care he used to take from her all occasion of suspecting his fidelity and with what discretion he still demeaned himself towards her all the time of his serving her But said Alphonso interrupting her had you never any of those petty disorders which augment love rather then diminish it No no answered Leonida Octavio never gave me cause to complain besides our affection had no need of that artifice to render it the stronger since it is certain that never any person loved more perfectly then we Alphonso would fain have assured Leonida that he loved her yet better then Octavio had loved her but his minde was so unquiet as he could scarce speak And then again Leonida gave him not leasure to do it for she was so attentive in exactly relating all that had past betwixt Octavio and her as she never took heed of all the several changes which her discourse made in his face She continued then telling him that after an indifferent long love Octavio having obtained permission of her to demand her of her parents believed that his happiness was so sure as he had no doubt at all of it for whereas his Father and hers had always lived as good friends together and their fortunes were equal he could foresee no impediment in it But he knew not said Leonida then looking on Alphonso that a passion less noble then that which raigned in his heart opposed his and that avarice which is far more powerful in the mindes of old men then love is in that of young folks should destroy his and my hopes and should finish our love by his death for to settle a grief in my soul which I shall conserve there eternally In sequel hereof Leonida likewise declared to Alphonso that one named Livio of the Family of the Frigozes a man very rich in the goods of fortune but very poor in those of the minde being touched with her beauty without any thought of discovering his affection to her or gaining her favor went the very same day that he fell in love with her and demanded her of her Father prescribing him no other conditions then that of giving him his daughter and that this old man who knew Livio's wealth being more mightily touched with the love of riches then Livio was with the beauty of Leonida had promised him to bestowed her on him and had engaged his word to him in such sort as nothing was able to make him break it So that Octavio arriving an hour after that Livio was gone and making his proposition he was wonderfully surprized to learn from Leonida's Father that he had promised his daughtar and that it would be in vain for him to hope he might make him change his resolution Octavio could not apprehend that Leonida could be promised to any one and she not know of it and on the other side said Leonida to Alphonso my fidelity was so well known to him as he durst not doubt of it In so deplorable an estate continued she he left my Father and came and found me out at an Aunts of mine who favored our affection and where I had appointed him to come and acquaint me with the answer he should receive But O Heaven I cryed she I did not foresee that this sentence should be that of Octavio's death and of the loss of all the felicity that I attended from it He came then but with so much melancholy in his face as at first I made no doubt but that he had some fatal news to impart unto me When as he had obtained permission of his grief to speak to me and that he had acquainted me that not onely I should not be his but that I was already anothers my affliction was so strong that albeit Octavio's was exceeding great yet was it for him notwithstanding to comfort me He told me that our misfortune it may be was not without remedy and that if I had as much stedfastness as he had love I should vanquish my Fathers rigor Alass said I unto him sighing I will not bewail the tears which I shall shed if they may move his cruelty but if they prove unprofitable to me continued she what arms shall I make use of Of those of your constancy said the infortunate Octavio to me Alass cryed Leonida in making this relation to Alphonso how often have I repented me for not believing him I and rather chusing to obey my Father then to be faithful to my Lover After this transport of affection she recounted unto him all the resistances she had made against her Parents pleasure her grief and despair
in your own dispose as in mine wherefore then if you have not deceived me do you not obey me When as I promised you that which you say replyed Alphonso I hoped that I might if not raign in your heart at leastwise not be surmounted there by any body Leonida perceiving then that jealousie was the disease that tormented him and knowing that she had given him no reasonable occasion for it fell a smiling and reaching him her hand with that gallantry which is so natural unto her Affict not your self said this amiable creature nor fear that I will be displeased to understand that you are jealous I know said she unto him still smiling that we fear to lose the good which is extream dear to us that jealousie is an undoubted sign of a strong passion and of the merit of the person whom one loves because if she were not amiable she would have no Lovers and consequently she would give no cause of jealousie And I am the less offended continued she to see you touched with this passion in regard it is easie for me to help you For to speak more seriously to you added Leonida you have no Rivals which can keep me from giving you the pleasure when you will to hear me termed by them cruel inhumane rigorous and inexorable In fine said she unto him you have a malady whereof you shall no sooner have acquainted me with the cause but you shall be cured of it I do not think answered Alphonso with as much anguish as Leonida had gallantry that it is as easie for you to restore tranquâ—llity unto my Soul as it was easie for you to deprive me of it for continued he I have no Rivals whom you can ill intreat and yet I am the most jealous that ever was I do not understand you said Leonida to him with more coldness then before and if you do not explain your self better I shall beleeve that either you have lost your Reason or that with a premeditated design you purpose to break off with me But take heed Alphonso of leaving me long in this suspicion for fear lest whereas I am proud and disdainful I do not prevent you and it be too late for you then to have recourse to my goodness Alphonso surprized both with Leonida's discourse and the manner wherewith she spake resolved at length freely to tell her the cause of his grief I know very well said he unto her that I am going to speak in vain for my self and indeed it is rather out of despair then Reason that I am carried to obey you Know then continued he that I am jealous and that I shall be so eternally since the Rival that surmounts me in your heart can never dye for to conceal the truth from you no longer the blessed Octavio is the object of my jealousie The tears which you shed for his memory are the cause of those which I shall pour forth all my life time the sighs which you fetch for him shall always make me sigh and his past felicity shall beget the misery of all the rest of my days You have loved him so much continued he and you love him so much still that I can find no place in your Soul He much raign there alone for indeed you do not suffer me there but only to conserve the memory of him the better Ah cruel man cryed Leonida hearing him speak in this sort is it possible that you have the inhumanity to open the Tomb of Octavio to persecute me and in stead of weeping with me or at leastwise of bemoaning and comforting me you are so audacious as to give me marks of your hatred to a person whom I have so much loved and whose memory is still so dear unto me and yet in grateful as you are said she to him you owe the affection which I bear you to that little resemblance you have with Octavio but as this infortunate creature hath been the cause of it so shall he likewise give an end to it for in regard of that which you have said to me I ordain you never to speak to me and never to see me more Why do not you shut your self up then in Octavio's Tomb answered Alphonso since you can love none but him Reply no further to me inhumane that you are said she to him and take from my sight the persecutor of Leonida and the enemy of Octavio Alphonso seeing Leonida in such choller and not able to give her a good reason either for the maintaining of his error or for the obtaining of his pardon went away more jealous then before Alas said he to himself how sensible she is on that side I what a powerful mark of her love is her choller if she had loved me she would have used me after another manner she would have taken pity of my weakness she would have given me some new proof of her affection but she could not disguise her heart all her thoughts have been for Octavio and all her words have been against me In this opinion Alphonso got him home with an intent to obey Leonida exactly and never to see her again As indeed he came no more at her and that be might avoyd meeting with her any where he feigned himself sick Leonida seeing to what a madness this ill-grounded jealousie carried him desired at leastwise to conceal it from the eyes of the world and to that effect she advanced a voyage which she was to make to Albengua where as you know she hath some means and affairs She departed then from Genoua so incensed against Alphonso that she could not so much as resolve to do him the favor to complain of him by a Letter Her departure did not cure Alphonso of his frensie but contrarily it augmented it for he beleeved that Leonida did not abandon Genoua but to bewail Octavio with the more liberty This thought for all that was not the most powerful in his heart the impossibility of seeing Leonida redoubled his desire of it and love being stronger still then jealousie he purposed an hundred times to go to Albengua to cast himself at Leonida's feet to crave her pardon and to obtain an oblivion of his fault of her But no sooner did the Phantom of Octavio present it self to his imagination no sooner did he call the tears and sighs of Leonida to remembrance but he re-entred into his former furies He made an hundred impossible wishes which destroyed one another and led a very irksom and melancholick life During that time he wrote divers Letters to Leonida according to the divers thoughts wherein he was but when as she perceived so great an inequality in his mind and such marks of an unsetled Reason she returned no answer thereunto and although she loved Alphonso so much as to be extreamly grieved to lose him yet could she not imagine how she might cure him of this fantasie so that finding no expedient for it and being very much incensed against
could behold his picture without tears and sorrow I should rather then have shunned you with care then received you favorably had I not been forced by a power which I could not resist You make me new wounds said Alphonso thereupon to her in seeking to cure the old for if it be true that you have this intention why do you tell me that the sight alone of one of Octavio's pictures hath made you weep I told it you replyed she to let you see that a man which could comfort me for so excessive a grief must needs have a great deal of power over my soul Alphonso not able to contradict Leonida suffered her to continue her discourse You perceive very well then said she unto him that in the beginning of our good-will I gave you more marks of a strong inclination then ever Octavio received of me seeing when I loved him I was in an age wherein flattery complacency and gallantry do extreamly touch the minde Octavio was my first conquest and the first man that told me I had something that was pleasing in me and by this reason it was almost impossible for me not to have admitted of his affection But for yours I accepted of it in such a manner as would not permit you to doubt of mine if you be reasonable And to pass from the beginning to the progress of it tell me I pray you what is that I have done for him as long as he lived All things answered Alphonso and whereas more marks of affection are given by grief then by joy without running over all the complacencies which you have had for him I will only say that you hâ—ve wept an hundred times for him and that all the love which I have born you hath not cost you a tear It is not time yet to discover my weakness unto you replyed Leonida and to answer precisely to that which you say as long as we lived well together it is true that I have not wept but it was because you were not unhappy and I doubt not but if our affection had been thwarted as Octavio's and mine was I should have had the same sorrow And then again you have this advantage over that infortunate man that I have not forsaken you as I did him for indeed if I had known how to love perfectly I had not marryed Livio I had not abandoned Octavio I had not been the cause of his death Therefore it is answered Alphonso that to repair that failing in not loving Octavio enough you love his ashes and his Tomb you cannot speak of him without tears you cannot think of him without sighing and it may be if I should lose my life I should not give you a minute of unquietness Ah cruel creature I cryed Leonida must I acknowledg my weakness unto you Yes insensible as you are said she unto him I will resolve to do it to the end I may cure your minde or have so just an occasion to complain of you as absolutely to cease from loving you It is true said she unto him that I have wept for Octavio but it is true too that spite of the grief which your capricious humor hath possessed me with I can assure you not onely that I should dye with affliction if your death should happen but that I cannot call that a life which I have led since thus unjust passion hath troubled my rest in troubling yours In fine Alphonso I have shed as many tears for the fear alone of losing your good-will though you were faulty towards me as ever I shed for Octavio who dyed for my sake so that if I am unjust it is onely to him and no way to you It is true that he hath rendred me all the testimonies of affection that I could attend from him but it is true also that I have not done the same I abandoned him to marry Livio and I have been capable of a second love which without doubt must be stronger then the other was because it hath been able to comfort me for the loss I had sustained For you Alphonso it is not so you have no occasion to complain of me I have done for you all that reasonably I could do and when I gave you a mark of my desire to please you it is come to pass that out of an unheard of inhumanity you have made use of the same Arms which I gave you to combat me my ingenuity hath been thâ— cause of your malice and mine innocency hath made your crime In conclusion Alphonso said she unto him with a countenance wherein appeared more grief then choller you must resolve upon the choyce of two things either to quit your error or never to see me more For continued she I can no longer endure to see you in the disposition you are in but know unjust and cruel as you are that if you chuse the last you will peradventure be constrained to have whether you will or no ere it be long more affection for the ashes of Leonida then you have had for her her-self Alphonso touched with so obliging a discourse and not able to resolve to see Leonida no more cast himself at her feet and having not the power eithâ—r to repent him of his error or to crave pardon for it or to say any thing that might shew he was not yet cured of it he gave her so many testimonies of an extream love both by his silence and by his tears as Leonida being sensibly touched with compassion asked of him once again what it was he desired of her I know not answered he onely I know that I can never cease from loving you nor ever separate my self from you Be reasonable then said she unto him and believe that nothing in the world is so dear to me as Alphonso Have pity of my weakness answered he and if you will have me comfort my self say not that nothing in the world is so dear to you as Alphonso but say without reserve that nothing is so dear to you as Alphonso I know not said she unto him whether I have ill expressed my self or no but my intention was such as you would have my words to be I should never have done if I should repeat all Alphonso's questions and all Leonida's answers it shall suffice me then to say that after an hundred odd precautions to assure himself of the love of Leonida against Octavio's phantosm whereunto this amiable creature out of her goodness answered seriously he returned to Reason and certain days after craved pardon of her for his error and absolutely promised her never to fall into it again I believe notwithstanding that he was not so soon rid of it and though he hath not spoken to Leonida since of it because it was one of their conditions yet he hath not for all that left off having many times very odd thoughts This dispute and this peace were so secret amongst us that I was she alone who was acquainted with it
the vertuous Alibech that I may be permitted to call her my daughter Could you remember the time said he to her when I forbad you my house and yet could you resolve to give your liberty for a man who once treated you as a slave My Lord answered she it well appeares by what hath arrived this day that you had reason to be unwilling I should be your sons wife since that fatall marriage is the cause of your unhappiness But said she turning her self towards her father if I dare put you in mind of that tendernesse which you have had for me I humbly beseech you that without regarding either the generosity of the Bassa or the prayers of Osman you will choose me alone for the object of your anger and revenge and will set them at liberty What said Osman unto her then can you desire that we should be separated Yes said she unto him I can for since we cannot live happy together it is best that you should injoy your liberty and that I alone should be infortunate Dispute not hereupon ingrateful child as thou art said Arsalon interrupting her for if thou art mine by the law of nature he who is also my slave my guilty slave shal also be the companion of thy punishment Alas my Lord said she unto him for I dare not call you father of what crime can you accuse Osman Would you have had him refuse the liberty which I offered him Do not justifie me said Osman interrupting her I alone am culpable it was I that stole you away it was I thaâ— caused the Slave whom Arsalon loved so much to fly away in fine it was I thaâ— have done all these things so that my father being innocent as well as you I am to demand justice for you both render it unto them then in this occasion said he to Arsalon and let me suffer all imaginable torments for provided I may see these two persons set at liberty I shall dye willingly and without grief We will noâ— have it with the price of your blood cried then both the Bassa of the Sea and the generous Alibech and to save you we are even ready to shed ours Why will you not have me deliver my Father said Osman to her then For that answered Alibech as I am the cause of his misfortune it is just I should be so too of his liberty But said she to Arsalon consult no further hereupon Osman loves me to that height as he will never yeeld but by violence And fear not my Lord said she unto him to give him his liberty you will punish him enough in punishing me and the irons which I shall wear will be more heavy to him without doubt than to me Arsalon not able to forbear from being moved with so much generosity and Alibech having incountred his eyes where she saw as she thought some marks of tenderness continued her discourse and redoubled her prayers My Lord said she unto him I believe that I my self labour mine own ruin and that confessing my self guilty without seeking excuses for my crime I render my self unworthy to obtain that which I desire of you Wherefore continued she permit me for the lessening of my fault to put you in remembrance of that blessed time when as the Pirate Arsalon was a Satrape of Persia you know my Lord that my Mother abandoned her Parents to follow you and that then you called that excess of love and generosity in her which now you term an horrible crime in me It is true that I have followed Osman but it was not as a slave it was as my husband and let heaven be my witness whether in abandoning you I do not quit a part of my self and whether I have not ever since made vowes for your preservation This mighty Fleet which is ready to set upon me said Arsalon to her who yet did not yeeld is without doubt an effect of your prayers and affection Alas answered Alibech if Osman would have fought with you he would not have come and put himself into your hands without Arms. Consider then my Lord if there be any sense of pity resting in you whether you can with justice resolve the destruction of a man who seeing his father in captivity hath notwithstanding had that respect for you as not to fight with you because you were mine you see too that he is not an unnaturall sonne since he comes himself to offer you his liberty and his life to deliver his father I conjure you then by the memory of the onely person of the world whom you have most dearly loved and who gave me life to surmount your resentment in this occasion and to vanquish us in generosity you may do it my Lord if you will and a greater cannot be than to vanquish ones self If you regard us as your children you will easily pardon us and if you consider us as your enemies we are so wretched and so absolutely depending on you that compassion will be of more power in your soul than the desire of revenge it being most certain that a generous spirit cannot resolve to oppress the feeble And then again my Lord if you consider it well you cannot tell how to punish us in puniâ—hing us If you retain the Bassa still a prisoner you will do but that which he demands for he will not have his liberty unless his sonne doth injoy it too If you load Osman with Irons you satisfie the desire he hath to testifie to his father that he would do any thing for him and if you lay them on me they will be in stead of a favour to me being absolutely resolved to follow the fortune of these infortunate ones What Arsalon cried the Bassa of the sea then shall not the generosity of this woman which would move a Barbarian move a father What my Lord added Osman cannot Alibechs tears obtain her and my fathers liberty at leastwise yet let the loss of my life oblige you unto it During this discourse and this noble dispute where the prize of the victory was the loss of liberty Arsalon had his mind filled with divers thoughts the desire of revenge and a will to pardon agitated his soul but in the end whereas reason and nature were both of a side he began to be moved He could no longer behold his daughter but with tears in his eyes and both Osmans and his fathers generosity possessing him with confusion whereas naturally he loved glory and was not cruell but out of an habit and despair he suddenly changed his thoughts and embracing his daughter with tenderness I am overcome said he unto her thy vertue is stronger than my cruelty This happy change begot shouts of joy not only from the Bassa not onely from Alibech not onely from Osman but from all those of the vessell In the mean time Osman casting himself at the feet of Arsalon My Lord sayd he unto him load me with Irons and joyn together
and falling dovvn upon her brothers body she ceased to be ambitious in ceasing to live These conspirators being entred into the Palace and having learned from some of the Princess vvomen the cause of Ismaels death and likevvise that of Perca they redoubled their cryes and testified asmuch joy as if all their enemies had been defeated In the mean time the wisest and the most considerable of Sultania had begun to oppose the people although they loved not Perca but comming to understand the success of the business they held it not fit to incense them but rather in so strange an accident to make use of their zeal in favor of Mahamed and Axiamira After then that they had let them know how there was no further need of taking up armes since the object of their hate was no longer in an estate to hurt them after that for the calming of their fury they had removed the bodies of Ismael and Perca out of the way and after that they had promised speedily to settle a peace for them and call home their exiled Princes every one retyred to his own house and the Councell being set it was advised that it was no time any longer to defer the propounding of a peace because if the newes of this strange accident should be spread over the Provinces it might furnish them with a pretext to revolt and work the utter subversion of this Empire and that in fine it was better to yeeld something unto the enemy than to put in hazard the losing of all After this they chose the most understanding amongst them to bee sent as Deputies to Ibrahim with an absolute power to treat of all things The grand Visior as I have said having received them in the presence of Vlama and they having acquainted him with this horrible adventure he that spake for all the rest added further that knowing his generosity they came to propound a peace unto him upon reasonable conditions and to demand Prince Mahamed the Princess Axiamira and Vlama of him for the restoring of them to the ranck which they ought to hold That if so be Soliman was their protector hee was to testifie it in this occasion that to draw an unjust advantage from these illustrious persons being in his power would bee the violating of the Law of Nations and naturall equity since they were there as those that fled to him for refuge and not as prisoners but to be contented with the glory of vanquishing and restoring of those to the Sophies Throne which might lawfully pretend unto it was to do a brave and famous action that there were more examples found of such as had conquered Empires than of such as had rendred up Kingdoms and that there were more which knew how to vanquish their Enemies than surmount their own ambition After that this man had said all that he believed was capable to advance the business which he propounded Ibrahim answered him that being thoroughly informed of all the Sultans intentions and having power to resolve on any thing without receiving new directions he could assure them that they should have cause to commend him that his grief was he could not keep Mahamed and Axiamira from receiving this peace with tears since they had so lamentable an occasion for it but whereas this affair directly concerned them they were to treat with them about it that in the mean time he held it requisite that one of them should return to Sultania to assure the people that ere long they should see their lawfull Princes again and that the rest should go to Bitilisa to do their duty to Mahamed and Axiamira that to comfort them for the grief which so dolefull an accident would bring them Ulama should take the pains both to conduct them thither and also to accompany the Prince Princess and Felixana back when they returned Ulama perceiving that Ibrahim in turning himself towards him seemed to demand his consent for that which he had spoken assured him that he was very ready to do it And whereas he was generous I doubt not said he but the Prince and Axiamira will be sensibly touched with this loss since I that am not obliged thereunto by so strict bonds and that have seen my self the object of the hatred and persecution of those whom I bewail cannot choose but be grieved at the accident which is befallen them After that Ulama had given sufficient proof of his generosity by his sorrow and that Ibrahim had commended him for so noble a resentment he gave him commission to take care of the Deputies of Sultania till the next day when he thought it fit they should depart for to go and fetch Mahamed which accordingly was executed Ulama parted with those that were to accompany him carrying Letters from Ibrahtm to the Princess one of the Deputies went to Sultania and the Grand Visier remained with a joy that cannot be exprest for whereas he was perswaded that the beginning of his felicity depended on the happy end of this war seeing the favourable means which fortune presented him with to terminate it speedily and with glory he could not render thanks enough to heaven for so advantagious a success And whereas he knew that the people generally desired peace he was assured that the treaty of it would be agreeable to every body not knowing that Soliman had any other interest in this war than that of the glory of his Arms. In this thought it might be said that never any Lover absent from his Mistress was so happy as he whilst he entertained himself with so sweet a hope In the mean time Ulama arrived at Bitilisa presented the Deputies to Prince Mahamed and the Princess Axiamira and delivering Ibrahim's letter to her and acquainting them with the loss they had sustained they being generous instantly forgot all the persecutions they had suffered and no longer remembred ought but that Tachmas was their father Ismael was their brother and Perca their sister in the thought whereof they were extremely afflicted with their loss But at length Ulama having imparted to them the generous designs of Ibrahim and how necessary their presence was to their people for their consolation against so many miseries as they had indured they set forth on their way As for Ulama the sight of his dear Felixana comforted him for the loss of his enemies and the Princes and Princesses sorrow was to both of them their greatest displeasure In the end after they had travelled with as much speed as the accommodation of Axiamira would permit they arrived at Ibrahims Camp who understanding that they were at hand went to receive them with three thousand of his own quarter and to testifie the more respect unto them he appeared that day in mourning and said so many generous and obliging things unto them as they were constrained to acknowledge that if fortune had done him right he should have been King of all the world When as Ibrahim had conducted them
Soliman less then it would have done at any other time For as he could not but remember that she had been the object of his affection so could he not but much more remember that she had been the cause of all his misfortunes and of all his crimes and that she would have carried him to put to death the only man of the world whom most he loved This feigned death of Ibrahim was carried with so much address by the prudent Achmat that every body beleeved it to be so and that is it which hath made Paulus Jovius and all those which have spoken of the raign of Soliman to say that the grand Visier perished in that sort but indeed the matter past as I have delivered it For a Greek Caloyer who had this History from Justiniano's and Isabella's own mouth left a relation thereof which is come even unto us In the mean time three days after the feigned death of Ibrahim the true Justiniano Isabella Sophronia Hipolita Emilia Leonida Horatio Alphonso Doria the French Marquess and a number of Christian Slaves whose liberty Justiniano had obtained imbarqued themselves one night and set sail for Genoua without fear of other enemies then the winds and the Seas but Fortune had made too much tryal of their vertue for to inflict new disasters on them and indeed she was so favorable unto them that never was there a more prosperous Navigation heard of During this Voyage thâ—se illustrious persons had no other entertainment then to talk of the dangers which they had avoyded And whereas Justiniano and Isabella had promised that they would be inseparable in their felicity as they had been in their unhappiness that Horatio and Hipolita had done the like that Sophronia and Doria had sworn never to quit one another and that Alphonso and Leonida following the others example had taken the same resolution it fell out that only the French Marquiss and Emilia remained without matching together yea and that would never match with any For one day as this fair company were talking together in the Captains Cabbin Leonida having demanded of the French Marquiss laughing what end he propounded to â—â—mself in the affection which he bore to Emilia No other answered â—e but that of loâ—ing her as long as my inclination shall carry me thereunto I am of the sâ—me mind replyed Emilia and I could never without aversion behold a man who of my 〈…〉 become my Master or at leastwise mine Equal O cryed the Marquiss how 〈…〉 for this humor for to speak freely and acquaint you with a secret which I have never told to aâ—y body know that the true cause of my inconstancy hath been the fear of marriage I haâ—e always been so afraid of engaging my self therein as to avoyd the occasions of it I have useâ— to change Mistress often But if I can obtain of Emilia that she will not oblige me to be her â—usband I will be eternally her Slave All the company then burst out a laughing and beleeâ—ing that their discourse was nothing but sport every one feâ—l to pressing of Emilia that sâ—e would make him become constant in not marrying him Whereupon the Marquess and she made a Satyre against marriage wherein on either part they said very pleasant things â—nd for a conclusion that which was beleeved to be but jesting proved to be their true thougâ—ts and they took as much care to promise one another that they would never marry as â—e others took to obtain of their Mistresses that as soon as they should come to Genoua theâ— would render their fortunes inseparable as indeed they did The wind having been extâ—eamly favorable to them they arrived in a few days at Monaco where the Princess was receâ—ved of her Subjects with as much astonishment as joy The brute of their return being presenâ—ly got to Genoua the chief of the Senate came thither to visit them These illustrious persons concealed â—o much of their adventures as they thought was not fit to be spoken of and having been intreated by their friends that they would after so many misâ—ortunes celebrate the ceremony â—f their nuptials at Genoua Isabella yielded thereunto with blushing for which effect they parted away the next day and shortly after the Marriages of Justiniano and Isabella of Horatio and Hipolita of Doria and Sophronia and of Alphonso and Leonida were solemnized with all possible magnificences The French Marquiss and Emilia promised anew an inviolable friendship to one another with an oath that neither of them would ever marry and during certain days there were nothing but Balls running at the Ring and publique Feasts After which Justiniano and Isabella being re-entred into the possession of all that belonged unto them they were conducted with a great deal of state to Monaco where they lived with as much satisfaction they had had mishaps Justiniano esteeming himself more happy in the possession of Iâ— lla then if he had reconquered the Empire of his Fathers But by a revolution which â—monly arrives in all things it is come to pass that the Principality of Monaco is return 〈◊〉 â—nto a branch of the House of the Grimaldies which possesseth it at this day under the protection of Spain nothing remaining of Justiniano but the memory of his glorious actions which certainly are great and famous enough to oblige Posterity never to lose the remembrance of THE ILLUSTRIOUS BASSA