to keep in awe the violent effects of his grief when after he had smoothly acknowledged her obliging complacence to the Princess and handsomly complemented Alexanders freedom in parting thus with his secrets to a stranger he disposed himself to receive him The Princess modestly conceiving that some parts of the story were not fit for her presence left the Chamber to go walk in the Garden with her two women and Alexander making choice of a feat near Caesario's bed after he had called the Chirurgions and taken their assurance that neither the noise of his words nor the Princess attention were in any danger to controll the approaches of his health he began the history of his life in these words The History of Alexander and the Princess Artemisa THey have much truth on their side that say we have no stronger inclinations than those which first establish themselves in our spirits and 't is certain that they take much deeper root in a heart which never received any other impressions than in those who having been long acquainted with passions have found out the means of fortifying themselves against their powerful assaults you will see a sufficient evidence of this in the discourse I have to make you and you will find in this conjuncture of my life somewhat so various and possibly so extravagant that I should hardly find examples to authorize what it hath made me do if I should have need either of authorities or excuses after the success of my enterprize I was born in Alexandria upon the same day with the Princess Cleopatra my Sister and I came into the World at a time when possibly no Family whatsoever could boast of a Fortune which might equall that of ours I had scarcely faluted the light but I had a great train of Princes at my service and we could hardly go but the Queen our Mother being prepossessed with the excessive affection she bare us or that Pride which without doubt drew down the indignation of Heaven upon our House instead of making us to be educated like Princes she caused us to be reverenced in Alexandria like little Gods she made us take their very habits and oftentimes presenting my Sister and my self to the People under the form of Apollo and Diana she made us receive servile adorations from them Anthony being preoccupated with the extream love he had for her approved all her actions and by her solicitation in our very infancy we were declared publickly Soveraigns of the greatest Kingdoms of Asia and the Prince Caesario our Brother the Son of Caesar and Cleopatra was proclaimed King of Kings and brought up in those hopes which afterwards the event did cruelly frustrate I pass these things slightly over both because they are known to all the World and also because the memory of them is unpleasing and in some sort shameful to some who saw themselves afterwards and do still see themselves reduced to a far different fortune Nevertheless I am obliged to make some stay upon my infancy since in that age it was that I received though imperfectly the characters which I carry at this day and shall eternally carry in my heart You may possibly have heard the relation how Anthony at his return from the War which he made against the Parthians wherein though he gained many victories he received very considerable losses whereby he was obliged to return into Egypt without any fruit of his expedition made high complaints against the King of Armenia accusing him for being the cause of the loss of his Army by not sending those assistances and supplies which be was obliged to furnish him with according to their league and agreement and for favouring the Parthians in all things out of envy to his glory and in fine after he had published the reasons which he had or believed he had to accuse him he surprised him and took him Prisoner with part of his Family and brought him as it were in Triumph to Alexandria where he presented him to the Queen laden with chains of Gold and detained him in an hard captivity I have heard something of that said Caesario who knew all those things more perfectly than Alexander and yet seeing him pass them succinctly over would not interrupt him and there are few persons who have not heard of the puissance of Anthony at the time of your birth as also of his expedition against the Parthians and the unfortunate imprisonment of Artibasus King of Armenia This knowledge of yours replyed Alexander will spare me many things which I must have declared to a person less acquainted with the affairs of our Family and I shall only tell you that there were taken with Artibasus three of his children a Son of ten years old and two Daughters of the age of seven or eight years these three young persons were three miracles in beauty wit and all the qualities which can be remarkable in children the little Ariobarzanes for this was the name of the young Prince had a mind so excellent and sublime and did already shew so much vivacity and greatness of courage in the meanest of his actions that there were wonderful hopes conceived of him and the two Princesses at that age gave all that saw them cause to judge of their beauty that it would one day rank them amongst the most soveraign beauties of the Universe I was about their age and yet notwithstanding my tender youth I remember very well all things which came to my knowledge I was near the Queen when Artibasus was brought into her presence And I too said Caesario within himself I saw continued Alexander how he threw himself at her feet being followed by his three children and how the Queen after she had received him with disdain enough and given him some reproaches for his want of friendship to Anthony sent him back to the place appointed for his securement and commanded him to place all his hopes in Anthony's goodness and to support his fortune with patience This great and powerful King but much inferior in all things to Anthony's who possessed with an absolute authority the moity of the world'd Empire continued prisoner at Alexandria and endured his misfortune with a remarkable constancy his confinement being of great importance he was guarded with a great deal of care and his Son likewise was very straightly looked to though he were but the youngest and the eldest Artaxus heir to the Crown continued in Armenia Anthony failing of getting him into his power as he did the rest of the Family but the Daughters enjoyed as much liberty as they could wish and they were brought up at Court not as Prisoners but as the Companions of the Princess Cleopatra my sister There was little difference in their beauty and yet some there were which gave the Princess Arsinoe some advantage over her sister Artemisa nevertheless though I were acquainted with the admirable qualities of Arsinoe my inclinations without knowing any reason for it directed
from an exile which I cannot support without a bleeding grief The Queen exprest her self in these terms when the young Prince throwing himself at her feet protested he would rather die than abandon her that in stead of leaving her exposed to the menaces of so much peril he had courage enough to run her Fortune and Antony's The Queen drawing new arguments from the discourse and action of this brave Spirit and excellent Nature felt a painfull increase of her affection and turning her eyes from his face where they did but gather fresh causes of grief Great Caesar said she if thou beest rank'd among the Gods since he carries so many worthy marks of thy life protect the Son that thou hast left me And then turning to her Son at first she gently strugled with his resolution but perceiving that would not do she sternly imployed all her authority and after she had absolutely forbidden his further opposition of her will she commanded me carry him away by force if he refus'd to follow Young Caesario bearing such a respect to the Queen as knew not how to dispence with obedience submitted to this last command and only in tears exprest his grief to forsake her I shall not further inlarge upon the Queens and our regrets to which and to our preparations for departure we dedicated the rest of that day the Queen sent by Iras and Charmione her two faithful Maids that died with her with such constant fidelity as will be the wonder of all ages a Cabinet full of Gold and some rich Jewels which she trusted to my hands and so soon as the Night approach'd after she had uttered her last adieu to us bath'd in a River of Tears she bruis'd the Prince in her arms and and when she had left her last kiss upon his cheek Go said she young Prince where thy destiny calls thee the Gods will undertake thy protection in the mean time forget not thy Fathers greatness and let none of Fortunes rude blows over-tame thee to actions unworthy of thy Birth After these words the last I heard from her untying her self from her Sons embraces she caus'd us to mount on Horse-back in her presence and without further delay to quit the melancholy Alexandria My Lord the beginning of Caesario's adventures carrying much resemblance to yours like your self he was forc'd to fly his Country in an age little differing from that wherein you quitted Parthia He went out of Alexandria with not above a dozen Horses in his train and he that a while before with so much pomp had been proclaim'd the King of Kings in divers Nations was forced to abandon his native Country and in that petty equipage to seek a Covert for his life in a foreign Land This sudden and strange revolution of Fortune may serve for a memorable example to those that trust to her favours and suffer themselves to be blinded with treacherous Prosperity The magnificence of Antony and Cleopatra had been excusable if they had not stain'd that Grandeur that placed them in the chiefest rank of Mankind with actions that pull'd the Divine Anger upon their Heads and those that a little before saw so many Kings at their feet bereaving one of his Crown another of his Head as the unfortunate Antigonus King of Judea and the wretched Artabasus of Armenia beheld themselves reduced to attend his destiny in the last City that was left them and a few dayes after constrained to take the succours of death from their own hands which Cleopatra to compleat her calamities had much ado to obtain and did at last by an Artifice We parted from Alexandria almost at the same time that Octavius Caesar encamped on the other side in view of the Walls and had we longer delay'd the Voyage we had found no passage free Young Caesario had so long practis'd Horse-manship under those Masters that taught him his exercise as it rendred him the less unfit to undertake the toil of such a Journey besides he had inured himself to travel by his custome to follow the chase which he would do with much eagerness being of a constitution strong beyond his age and this proved very serviceable to our design The first Night we strive to reach so far as any person less hardy than himself would have been weakned with weariness and about the break of day we staid at a Village three or four hundred furlongs from Alexandria where we found it fit to let the young Prince repose himself while we refreshed our Horses In that place we staid three or four hours which expired we again got to Horse but had not marched many furlongs before I spyed the Princes Horse with my own Rodons and three or four others in the company to halt and not so much as dreaming of the treachery was intended us I only imputed it to the weariness they had contracted with hard riding and extraordinary hast We might have taken those that continued sound but loath to part with so many necessary officers and besides ignorant of the mischief that pursued us we were constrained to march so softly that we had much ado in that whole day to reach another Town that was not distant above one hundred fifty furlongs from that where we rested in the morning and there arrived our Horses scarce able to sustain themselves we were compell'd to stay that night but sending for some Smiths that lived there to search them we found that they were all pricked and the nails that hurt them no sooner drawn out but they were much mended yet not so recovered as to endure that nights travel I then began to entertain some suspicion and to believe this an intended Treachery to retard our Voyage but yet I knew not whom to distrust our little Troop was compos'd of no persons but such from whom indeed we had reason to hope an untainted fidelity my self excepted Rodon and Neander were the principal Rodon was made the Princes sub-Governour in his tenderest years and had not a less part in his education than my self besides he had a Son there of the same age with the Prince that was brought up with him and then followed him in that Voyage Neander was a man of approved fidelity and the rest all eminent Officers of Cleopatra's House as she had culled from such as she thought most true yet even among those we found Monsters capable of the blackest Treason and the most prodigious villany that ever was hatched by humane invention After I had almost wasted that night conversing with cares too restless to admit sleep I threw my self from my Bed in which I was laid in my cloaths and passing into a little Gallery adjoyning to our Chamber I opened a window to see if I could spy the approach of day under this window was a Garden in which I over-heard some persons discoursing and though I had little room for curiosity unless such as regarded my Princes safety yet then and peculiarly then I
and if the latter does not rise from a root in our nature it often springs from the womb of an irregular ambition which usurping the throne of the will excites all thoughts that are the legitimate race of Reason and shuts the eyes of those that are possessed with this Devil upon every consideration that Piety Justice and Honour it self can represent to their intoxicated judgement the proofs of the truth are but too conspicuous in our Family and if I derive some glory from a birth that has few equals in the world I have received shame enough from the cruelties of him that gave it to convince me that he has left me no cause to boast my extraction The King Phraates my Father was born with qualities great enough and in the first bloomings of his youth and given such hopes of his future bravery as made him pass in the opinion of men for an equal to his generous brother the Prince Pacorus who fell in the flower of his age under the Roman arms after he had made them know by divers memorable advantages that they were not invincible The old King Orodes my Grandfather after the death of Pacorus ignorant of his destiny had transplanted his chief affection upon Phraates then the eldest of divers Brothers and with it resign'd the entire management of all State-affairs to his disposal he had been married some years before and I had already liv'd about six or seven when his greedy desire to Reign alone and remove that fear of a Rival in ambition transported him to that horrible piece of cruelty which report has told to the whole world you know it but too well Madam that the cruel Phraates to make the Crown sit fast which his bloody jealousie told him did but tremble upon his head while so many of his Brothers lived put them all to death only Tyridates the youngest then absent from court who being spared by the mistaken piety of him that was sent to be his assassin has since wandered from Court to court begging sanctuary against the inhumane persecutions of his Brother The Queen who had received this truth from the mouth of Tyridates was yet resolved not to trouble the stream of her relation by interposing what she knew and deeming it requisite to keep the news of her Unkle till the closure of her story and then impart or reserve it as discretion counselled she lent a silent attention to the sequel The cruelty of Phraates pursu'd Elisa could not so quench its thirst with the blood of his Brothers but the old King Orodes whose long life seem'd to tire the expectation of his heir compleated the Sacrifice to his jealous ambition and lost it by the horrid command of his own Son I confess I am willing to contract the relation of this unnatural act in as few words as will barely serve to tell it and indeed could be content to leave it intirely out if my design to draw you the perfect pourtraiture of my life could allow it Phraates having thus secur'd his Throne by hewing down the stock with all the royal branches that grew near it began to play the Prudent as well as the Paricide to preserve his acquest the terrour of his arms made a quick distribution of its self among his Neighbour Princes and the bad success of Anthony who with a part of the Roman puissance brought the War into our Country where he lost his whole Army and with much ado sav'd himself by a shameful retreat struck a general fear through all those that probably might nurse any thoughts of attempting the Crown of Parthia In the mean time I was trained up by the Queen my Mother whose inclinations were ever sweet and vertuous with a very discreet care and that good Princess perceiving docility enough in my Spirit forgot not to season my education with all other sage lessons that might frame me a disposition suitable to her intentions her affections told her that I had not played the truant in the School of Vertue and by the help of that blindness which is the usual disease of a Parents indulgence fancying some qualities within me which I dare not pretend to in me she stored up all her love all her delight After me that was the Eldest of all her Children she had divers others of both sexes but the Gods perhaps to punish Phraates by the misfortunes of his Fathers family cut them all off in the dawning of their infancy and of five or six Brothers that succeeded me at several births scarce one of them attain'd to a full years age before they were laid in their little Sepulchres This mishap of our house rendered me more considerable and a short time after the Queen though still in the flower of her age going over child-bearing I was regarded by the Parthians as the presumptive Inheritrix of that weighty Crown 'T is true the King had a Bastard Son that was called Vonones but he did not behold him with an eye that designed his succession and though he fail'd not to endeavour the gaining of a faction that might prop his pretences he was generally known to be born within the Marriage of the King and could therefore hatch no apparent hope of being declared legitimate I will not trifle with your patience so much to give you the account of my Infancy but stepping over the Prologue of my life wherein there befel me nothing memorable I shall only tell you I had worn out fourteen years of it when my Father invaded Media the hatred had been long hereditary betwixt the Kings of that Country and those that wore the Crown of Parthia and though they had taken breath in some intervals of Peace since the fall of the unfortunate Anthony and the coming of Augustus to the Empire they were still ready to obey the beck of every trivial occasion to pick a new quarrel which they both embraced with their old animosity Phraates complained that at the Median Kings solicitation Cleopatra had murthered his Ally the King of Armenia and though he that did it was since dead and his Heir succeeded to the Throne he thought he might justly entail his revenge upon the Son since Fate would not suffer the Father to stand the shock of it and the new King of Media not less eager than he to revive the quarrel whereto his young courage was whetted by divers reasons on his side there broke out a cruel and bloody War betwixt them The beginnings were very doubtful much blood spilt on both sides in divers Encounters and some Battels wherein Fortune seemed to stand in a study on which side she should list her smiles At length after a years uncertainty wherein she had kept the ballance equal she apparently lean'd to the Parthian party and the King my Father swollen with some late successes began to advance towards the heart of Media carrying ruine and desolation to all places where he waved his Ensigns divers blows had been given
more inclination to acquaint us with good than evil we should offend them without doubt if we should not rather expect good than evil upon an occasion when they leave us more room for hope than fear Candace spake in this manner partly against her own thoughts and Elisa out of the belief she had in that fair Queen did what possibly she could to receive part of the consolation which she desired to administer to her From this discourse which was of some longer continuance between them Elisa passed to that which she had had with the Slave of whom she made such a mention to the Queen that she made her desire to see her presently She commanded her to be called and a little after she came into the Chamber and presented her self before the two Princesses They beheld her then in a perfect light and with more care than they had had for her before and they found in her person where withall to entertain their eyes and their attention In the condition whereunto the miseries of her life had reduced her the beauty which she might have received from Heaven could not appear in its ordinary lustre she had almost lost all her flesh and the vivacity of her complexion was almost spoyled by the length of the grief and troubles wherewith her mind and body hath been perplexed her lips did not blush with that pure Carnation which formerly had covered them and her leanness had lengthened her visage and changed the features of it so that upon a sleight view nothing could be seen in her face which might give any ready knowledge of the beauties which she had once been Mistress of But after that the Princesses had more nearly and more carefully observed her they took notice of something in that almost decayed complexion that was wonderfully delicate in the form of her mouth and the composition of the features of her face though they were altered by the loss of her flesh they remarked an admirable regularity and when she lifted up her eyes to answer the demands they made her they saw lustres or rather lightnings proceed from thence which dazled their sight As languishing and cast down as they were yet they were full of that potent fire against which Souls have little power of resistance and if their languishing had taken some what from the force of their regards it had made them lose nothing of their sweetness but seemed to have added something more tender and moving to them they were of a bright gray as Elisa's were and her hair very near the Princesses her proportion was stall and streight and finally by the ruines of this beauty one might judge considering it attentively that it had been one of the most excellent in the World and according to the youthfulness of the Slave who seemed not to be above twenty years of age might return to its former condition if the cause of those sorrows which had thus defaced it were removed Candace looked upon her with a particular curiosity and when she had observed in her countenance some things which moved her to a different consideration from that which we have for persons of that condition Fair Maid said she I have understood some things concerning you from the mouth of this Princess that have created a great desire in me to see you and the report she hath made me of your person and the vertue which appears in your discourse hath wrought an interest in me for you that will make me willingly seek out the means of administring comfort to you in your present condition Madam answered the Slave this effect of your goodness is very conformable to the grandeur and nobleness that appears in your person and as I believe that it is very difficult to find any in the World equal to your self and the Princess who hath made you this advantagious relation of me so I do not doubt but that in the honour of serving you both I may find all the ease of my miseries that I can hope for in the condition I now am But O Gods continued she with some tears that fell from her fair eyes how hard is it to apply any remedy to my displeasures and how much are my griefs above ordinary consolation You are not replyed Candace the onely Maid that fortune hath ill used and possibly you see an example in us of the the greatest rigors that ever she exercised against persons of our Sex and Birth If the cause of your grief proceeds from your servitude we will employ our credit to make you change your condition and possibly we shall have power enough with the Pretor continued she smiling upon Elisa to obtain your liberty of him They would have spoken more and Candace being moved with tenderness to the Slave and less oppressed with grief than the Parthian Princess would have pressed this Maid to a more ample declaration of her self if Cornelius after he understood that they were in a condition fit to be seen had not entred into the Chamber The Princesses received him with civility and though the knowledge of his love began to work some repugnance in Candace she thought her self obliged by the necessity of her present condition to lay some constraint upon her self After the first complements of salutation and reception Cornelius told the Princesses that he came to impart to them the news that he had received from Augustus he informed them that Caesar departed from Cyprus to come to Alexandria where he had been long expected had been assailed by a furious tempest probably the same that brought the Princesses upon that shore that great part of his Vessels were either cast away or scattered and that he being by a singular favour of Heaven preserv'd with a few others was landed at last at Pelusium where he staid a few dayes to refresh himself before he came to Alexandria and thence had sent him command to stay for his coming thither and not to meet him as he was resolved to have done He told them likewise that it was believed that by that shipwrack divers important persons were lost and amongst the rest the Princess Cleopatra of whom they could hear no news and for whom the greatest part of the Emperor's Court was in great sadness Candace was mightily moved at this news out of the interest she took in all the Kindred of Caesario and having asked Cornelius how Cleopatra had been enveloped in that Shipwrack seeing the principal persons had escaped it She was replyed Cornelius in Octavia's Vessel whom she accompanied in that Voyage and some hours before the tempest that Princess with all her attendants having passed into Caesars Vessel Cleopatra who that day found her self indisposed or melancholy and unfit for greater company stayed in Octavia's Ship with some Maids that served her and the Seamen A little after the Tempest surprized them with so much suddenness and violence that the Vessels could never joyn again and since that time the Ship
not renounced Do not undervalue your self then before me who prize and esteem you more than half the Senate but believe that with the advantages you possess and the respect you observe you may have the liberty to look upon any thing Neither is it for the difference that is between a Roman Knight and Cesars Daughter that I have obliged you to be secret I should have dealt in the same manner with the greatest Princes of Europe if I had esteemed them so far as to have any secrecy with them for 't is from Marcellus only that I am permitted to receive Services in Publick and it may be I might expose them to Augustus 's displeasure if I should favour any with a particular affection I express my thoughts to you with a great deal of freedom continued she looking upon me with a smile and thereby I sufficienly signifie to you the esteem I have of you and the confidence I repose in you The presence of those persons which followed us and beheld all our Actions could very â—ardly hinder me from throwing my self at Julia's feet and if I had been in a place â—here I might have had my own liberty I should have continued whole hours at her knees â—â—ender her a small part of what was due to the grace she did me but not having the â—â—â—eniency of doing what I did desire I was content to make her this Reply with a proâ—â—â—d Reverence The Favours which I receive from your Grandeur are so unproporâ—onable to the merit of my person and the strength of my understanding that if your justice doth not moderate them for ought I know they may absolutely deprive me of the knowledge I should have of my self I am the most happy and the most glotious of men and I conceive my Fortune to be better than Prince Marcellus's to whom the gods and Cesar have designed the most sublime amongst Mortals since that notwithstanding the Engagements you have to the excellent qualities of that Prince who is as great in all things else as in his Fortune you can reserve one of your precious moments to think upon poor Ovid whose acknowledgment is so great for those blessings which are above all value that he will not conceive Marcellus to be more happy in the possession of you than he shall be in yielding up his last breath in the Service of the Divine Julia. I pronounced these words with an Action full of vehemence which was observed by the Princess and made her judge that I was touched with a real passion She put on a more pleasant countenance than before and bestowing a few moments in viewing of my face You are in earnest then said she and I need not any longer be in doubt but that Ovid hath forgot Cipassis I will never forget said I what is due to the Merits of Cipassis but the may content her self if she please with my esteem and henceforth leave my Adorations for the goddesses I should have had the happiness of a longer Conversation with the Princess who hearkned very favourably to me if we had not seen the Empress appear whom Julia went to wait upon out of Civility and if Marcellus had not come a little after who proffered his hand to the Princess and deprived me of the opportunity of entertaining her for the rest of that day But I retrived it often enough through Julia's goodness who receiving my respectful Vows with as much indulgence as I could desire put me into the most happy condition according to my humor that if ever I durst aspire to yet she always preserved the Dignity of Augustus's Daughter and her Favors never extended farther than favourable looks and obliging expressions But that which from another Lady would have been inconsiderable was so great coming from Julia that I could not look upon it nor receive it otherwise than as a thing of the highest value alwayes judging it to be the greatest Glory I was capable of to see my self favoured with a particular good will by the greatest Princess of the Universe They that would make the world believe that I made such advantages of it as gave me occasion to write those Elegies which some of the Romans have seen under Corinna's Name do it malitiously to bring me into disgrace with Cesar and Prince Marcellus and since I am come to mention it one day or other for your diversion I will acquaint you with the adventures and passages which concern Corinna and my self though neither her name nor person be known at Rome because she was never there and 't was in a very remote Province that I knew her in the Expedition which Vincius made into Germany where I bare Arms under him I will not repeat to you all the Conversations I had with Julia whom I saw and entertained every day with all facility as often as Marcellus left her liberty or when she was not engaged in the Company of so many great Princesses as silently sighed at her feet and whose sighs though her chiefest affectionr were for Marcellus were not disagreeable to her As she was indued with a very excellent wit so our Conversations were pleasant and meerly ingenious and for that reason having discoursed with her one day upon a very subtile Subject she told me that Marcellus could have no cause to be jealous if she had some affection for a man whose Soul she loved and who did not pretend to any thing that concerned the body But it may be you will ask me what I conceive of her thoughts for Marcellus And as for that I will tell you as far as I can judge That certainly the Prince alwayes possesses the supream place in her heart above all others who have onely made attempts and the real foundation of love which it may be is in her Soul is for him only to the prejudice of all the rest and yet 't is true that she is no lover of constraint nor is she willing to be bound up to him by such an exact and rigous fidelity but that she may be permitted to let her mind a little range towards those objects which might please her yet she alwayes reflects upon the former passion which hath the deepest foundation and I believe too that she would never absolutely flie from it but would confine all her inclinations to the merits of that brave Prince if love only without any other interest had been the cause of their Engagement and if the Emperor had not interposed his Authority and Endeavours to tye up their affection with a Design to unite them by Marriage So certain it is that Love is an Enemy to every thing that wears but the Vizard of Tyranny and it will act with liberty it self though it destroy all liberty besides its own To this purpose one day when she had had some Quarrel with Marcellus who could not choose but give her some Testimonies of Jealousie which he had ground enough for I remember that she said
retired having left him the sole command of the Army he gain'd a memorable Victory terminating that War by the most glorious successes could be desired These marvellous beginnings fam'd the reputation of Alcamenes through all the neighbour Kingdoms they talked every where of Alcamenes as of a prodigie of valour and the noise overtaking all places arrived in Dacia possessing the irritated Queen with a mortal displeasure fearing this young Prince as a potent obstacle to her designs of one day possessing his fathers Territories and this rendred the name of Alcamenes both to the Mother and to the Daughter as odious as that of the King his father The Scythian Monarch who had a great and generous soul view'd with an incredible joy these transcendent actions of Alcamenes and beholding in him nothing but grand and elevated above the rest of man-kind treated him as an extraordinary Son a Son given by Heaven for the glory and consolation of his dayes and as a Prince who would bear the honour of Soythia to a higher degree than it ever yet arrived and moreover being acquainted with the Queen of Dacia's practices and the preparations she made against him who with those succours she hoped to draw by her Daughters beauty was not to be despised he believed himself furnished in the person of Alcamenes with a valiant desender and disdained more than formerly the evil designs of his adversaries He had often spoken of it to the Prince and perceived him burn with a generous resentment against those enemies of his Family and a vehement desire to measure his Sword with whomsoever the perswasions of Amalthea or the beauty of Menalippa had armed against his father desiring rather to carry the War into the enemies Countrey than expect it in their own The King who was as moderate as valiant and who now loved peace as well as formerly he had done the Wars reprov'd without condemning the noble heat of his Son alledging that he ought after the examples of his Predecessors contain himself within the justice of his cause and expect the enemies on-set before he endeavoured their ruine and besides he had compassion on a Queen whose resentments could not be condemned though they were not entirely reasonable and who transacted more through the love she bare her husband than out of any hope she could conceive to conquer Scythia Alcamenes in whom generous resentments found all manner of approbation troubled not himself to combate these reasons and easily excusing the revenge of Amalthea and Menalippa both through the respect he bore to their sex and by the report he heard of the beauty of the Daugther and vertue of the Mother so that turning his anger against those Princes who had embraced their interest he no more solicited the King his father to begin this War Besides this consideration which prevailed upon the spirits of these two Princes they understood that the irritated Queen instead of being in a condition to fight them was imbarked in another War against the Prince of the Sarmates and the Prince of the Nomades upon some dispute they had with Amalthea about the extent of their Frontiers The King Arontes might have taken this advantage against his Enemy and others possibly would have done it but he judged it unworthy his courage and the Prince his Son boyling as he was for occasions to get glory had not the least thought to lay hold on this advantage But although the King of Scythia tasted the greatest satisfaction in the company of a Son so brave and so lovely he was forced to part with him through the necessities of his affairs and ordered him a journey into some Provinces where the Father's or Son's presence were absolutely necessary Alcamenes departed from Palena where the King then made his abode and transported himself into those places whither he was sent by his presence he reduced all things into an entire tranquillity But having bravely acquitted himself of his Commission given by the King his Father instead of returning where he was expected he found himself prest with an ardent desire to travel and visit unknown some stranger Courts few persons 't is possible have known his true designs which came not to my knowledge and I have thought with the rest of the world that curiosity only and a youthful desire led him to that resolution which many have condemned But whatever was the cause he writ a Letter to the King wherein with many excuses he begg'd his pardon for this sally of youth professing that he left him only to render himself more worthy to serve him by the experience he hoped to reap by his Travels promising not to absent himself longer than a year and during that not so far from Scythia or Dacia but easily to observe the motions of his enemies in which case he would abandon all things to render his King that service to which his duty obliged him he accompanied these promises with words full of humility and submission to efface the resentment which the King might conceive for his fault and having given the Letter unto the principal of his servants with whom he returned all his retinue retaining only two Squires to accompany and serve him in his Voyage and on this manner maugre the resistance of all his attendants he leaves them and takes his way by the side of the Boristhenes to go towards Bizantium I 'le not entertain you with the return of his People to the King nor the Kings grief at this unhappy news you may believe it was excessive and Orontes had need of all his courage to resist this displeasure yet he had a firm confidence in the Princess promise and knew his courage too well to believe any thing could recall him save the War that threatned his Father he only feared those dangers to which he might be daily exposed in an equipage so little conformable to his dignity and turning all his thoughts this way he not only caused publick vows to be offered to the gods for his preservation but commanded some persons in whom he had most confidence to march after him with express order not to leave him what commands soever he gave to the contrary whilst this Prince Adventurer carried with a youthful desire to see the world visited a part of Thrace under the name of Alcimedon which he would take to disguise his own and seeking occasions to signalize himself in some Wars wherewith this Kingdom was troubled by divers actions of extraordinary valour he rendred the name of Alcimedon famous through all Thrace obliging the old King Adallas Father of this which now reigns to entreat him to come to his Court. Alcimedon went and by his good Mine added greater credit to the fame of his actions receiving all manner of Carresses from this good King he would not here make any long abode though they offered him charges as much as they thought above him as they were indeed below him the fear of being known in a Court
whence it came that he stood so much upon his extraction before Augustus I should say more of him did not the same bloud run in my veins as if I thought his modesty would pardon my insisting on those advantages without any necessity You know that during the calamities of Cermany whereof the greatest part by a Fate common to them with so many other Nations hath been reduced under the yoke of the Roman Empire the Cherusci have ever maintained their LIberty with extraordinary constancy and valour and if sometimes they have been forced to submit to the contrary Fortune yet have they at some other by an invincible courage recovered themselves again and have in fine defended their Rights so well that they are at this day in a condition equal to what they were in before the Roman Power was known in Germany It was in those Provinces that Arminius was born among the Cherusci where I also had my birth some seven years before and twenty years after the Prince his Father and my elder Brother Though I am really his Uncle yet is not the difference between our ages so great but that I may say we were in a manner brought up together besides that Arminius having out of a transcendency of courage from his very infancy slighted those employments that are pardonable in such an age grew by degrees more and more ambitious of the conversation of men contracted solid Friendships and perform'd those things which might well become a much more mature age I shall say of him since he is absent that he was born with the greatest and noblest inclinations and such a height of courage as nothing could ever abate Nay that which was most laid to his charge was a natural excess of fierceness and before Love had moderated what seemed somewhat harsh in his disposition he was generally look'd on as one rather hewn out for the Wars then design'd for the enjoyments of a civil life And indeed it was on the War that all his thoughts were bent and amongst those things which he was taught as requisite and commendable in a Prince he was much more desirous tobe well skill'd in the exercises of the body then in the Sciences though it might be said he is not ignorant of the most necessary and particularly what concerns the Languages wherewith he is well furnished but in fine he was much less inclined to read then to ride a Horse or be medling with Arms which gave all those that saw him occasion to conclude that his inclinations were wholly martial He accordingly became Master in those things whereto his affection naturally lead him insomuch that in the fifteenth year of his age it might have been said there was not any man in Germany commanded a Horse with more grace and vigour then he was more expert at the casting of a Dart or better knew the use of all sort of Arms in all kinds of engagements He was also desirous to harden his body by laboriousness accustoming himself to the weight and inconveniences of Armour passing away whole nights and days together on Horseback and slighting those delicacies where-in a Prince of his Rank might have been brought up But I shall say no more of him as to that particular and were he present his modesty would have been much exercised to bear with this discourse His Brother Flavius younger then he by two years had been sent to Rome a Hostage for the performance of a Treaty made between us and the Romans while yet a very child and hath been bred up there ever since so that as it is reported he hath shaken off all the inclinations he might have to his own Countrey to embrace those of the Nation wherein he hath had his education For my part since you expect I should give some account of my self in this discourse I am to tell you that having been brought up by the Prince my Brother and Soveraign with as much tenderness as if I had been his own Son and having in some measure answered his expectations from me as soon as I was arrived to an age fit to bear Arms I went into those parts of Germany where the War was then hottest as Pannonia and Dalmatia where in some engagements of no small consequence I was so fortunate as to gain some repute in our Nation The Cherusci had enjoyed a Peace of some years when their Prince desirous of a fast correspondence with his Neighbour Princes and to enter into a kind of association with them against that Power which had so long attempted our Liberty made an Alliance with Segestes the nearest of them Soveraign Prince of the Ingriones and the Casuares a People lying between the Rhine the Adrana and the mountains of Melibocus a person of very great name and authority in Germany Segestes is a man born with great endowments of abundance of courage constancy to his resolutions and much experience in military affairs but of a violent nature and implacable when once incensed There had been for many years together between him and Clearchus a very intimate Friendship and they thought the surest way to make it indissoluble and eternal and withal to unite their interests against the common enemy was to negotiate a match between young Arminius and Segestes's Daughter of whom there were miracles reported all over Germany though she were two years younger then Arminius Having taken that resolution with a design to execute it when Arminius who was thenbut fifteen years of age were come to greater maturity Clearchus and Segestes were jointly desirous he should be brought up for some years in Segestus's Court the better to accommodate his inclinations to those of the Princess design'd for him and to work in those two young persons that consonancy of affection which the Father 's wish'd in them as an introduction to their future happy Marriage Upon these terms was Arminius sent to Segestes's Court with a retinue suitable to his quality and being my self not long before return'd from the wars of Dalmatia and having contracted a Friendship with him much different from that which ordinarily finds place in persons of his age he desired my company along with him which finding me as willing to grant him he was extreamly satisfi'd thereat We were very nobly receiv'd by Segestes magnificently lodged in his own Palace and Arminius looked on as a Prince of great hopes and designed to marry the Princess But it is now time I give you some particulars of that excellent person since she is the onely cause of all the great Adventures of Arminius And my onely fear is I shall not be able to speak worthily enough of her nor conformably to the passion of Arminius Certain it is that there is no beauty in all Germany that yields not the precedence to that of Ismenia nay that she may find a place among the most eminent in the Universe But the excellencies of her soul are yet much more considerable then those of her
than of those whom Fortune had best befriended that way You need not fear any thing answered Arsinoe for besides your birth and your Crowns you are endued with all the qualities which may make a person considerable and more than that you have the advantage of so many services and of so many precious proofs of affection that I should be the most ingrateful person of the world if I should not prefer you as long as I live before the Masters of the Universe But to finish my narration I will tell you that we would have continued our voyage towards Armenia but the Prince my brother prayed me first to hear the relation of his adventures and having discoursed them to me in the same place where he acquainted me with as great and as wonderful things as ever I heard of which you shall hear at better leisure either from his mouth or mine he let me know at last that he was necessarily obliged to be at Alexandria with all possible speed believing that in that place only he might hear news of a person to whom he had absolutely devoted his life and without whom he could have neither repose nor comfort Though I had a great desire to return to my native Country and though the memory of you might make me fear on your behalf that if I had any place still in your thoughts you would seek for me in Armenia to no purpose yet my brothers interest was so urgent and of great importance as you will understand when I shall acquaint you with it that I should have been absolutely void of friendship and respects towards him if I should have expressed the least repugnance to go that voyage before I went to Armenia Ariobarzanes gave me to understand that we went to seek in that Country for what he had lost that being the only part of the world where he believed he might receive intelligence and that if the Gods would permit him to find satisfaction there we should go into our native Country full of joy and contentment but if fortune crossed him he would reconduct me out of Egypt into Armenia the shortest and the easiest way I loved Ariobarzanes so well that I desired his repose as much as mine own and by the relation which he made me of his strange adventures I did so much interess my self in the fortune of that person for whom he sought that I was the first that urged that voyage and told him that all the trouble I could endure upon that account was not considerable in relation to a design of that importance Ariobarzanes embraced me with tears in his eyes as well in respect to the marks of affection which he found in me as to the memory of the deplorable condition of his fortune wherein I did so participate that he hardly seemed to be more afflicted than I. We turned about our Vessel and the wind not being contrary to us in a short time we entred into the Syrian Sea but as ill luck would have it either the troubles of my mind or the toyl of my body made me fall sick and it came to such an extremity that Ariobarzanes notwithstanding the impatience which carried him along in that voyage perceiving that in that condition I could not brook the Sea landed us at Sidon where to make as quick dispatch of a thing of so small importance as I can possibly whatsoever care I took to forward my recovery I was not in a condition to endure the Sea for above a month After that time we put to Sea again where contrary to my expectation I suddainly recovered my health The man which Britomarus left us accompanied and served us all the voyage with a great deal of affection and by the diligence and good conduct of his Mariners without any adventure worth speaking of we arrived yesterday in the evening upon this coast But our Vessel was in so bad a condition having born the brunt of a furious Tempest but a few days since that we did not think we could lye there all night in safety and leaving the care to our men to re-accommode it we came out of it in that condition wherein you met us to come to this City but it was so late that night surprized us in the Wood and so dark that not knowing the way we were constrained to take up our lodging under the trees where we spent the night and whither our common destiny conducted you to render you what you sought for with more trouble than I deserved and to give me the comfort of seeing a Prince again who for so many reasons ought to be most dear to me and highly esteemed by me as long as I live Arsinoe ended her discourse in this manner and when she had done speaking the passionate Prince throwing himself at her feet and embracing her knees with tears of joy expressed himself with so much ardor that the Princess to whom the testimonies of his love were not disagreeable was more moved to tenderness than ever she had been before and gave him all the marks of affection that he could expect from so eminent a vertue as Delia's was The end of the Sixth Part. HYMEN 'S PRAELVDIA OR Loves Master-piece PART VII LIB I. ARGUMENT Candace and Elisa bestow a second Visit upon the Princess Olympia and find her in a very hopeful way of recovery At their desire she goes on with her Story and acquaints them that the fair Stranger whose life she had saved in the desart-Island is Ariobarzanes Brother to the King of Armenia She relates their deplorable Condition in that place and the strange manner of their Delivery out of it Ariobarzanes saves Adallas 's life and is like to lose his own by Adallas 's Jealousie but is dismissed with a strict prohibition never to set foot in Thrace nor to see Olympia Adallas being detained in Cyprus by his wounds sends into Thrace to know the Condition of his Kingdome Intelligence is brought that his Kingdom is invaded and almost quite lost Adallas hastning homewards is hindred by a Tempest but after a long stay for a Wind he puts to Sea again and near the Coast of Thrace meets some of his Subjects who inform him That by the incomparable Valour of a Stranger named Ariamenes now their General the remainder of his Dominions was preserved and the progress of his Enemies retarded Adallas understanding the Coast to be clear continues his Voyage and arrives at Byzantium THE fair Princess of the Parthians and the beautiful Queen of Ethiopia had conceived so much esteem and amity for the Princess Olympia that they could not permit her to continue long in the trouble wherein they had seen her without disposing themselves to render her a second Visit as soon as might be and to use all possible means to administer some ease and consolation unto her This was no slight effect of Olympia's excellent qualities to have produced in so smal a time this interest for her
Fortune in the minds of two persons so strongly and so justly prepossessed with their own and 't is certain that Elisa and Candace had cause enough absolutely to employ their memory upon the consideration of their own mishaps and in the care of their own affairs but their souls were of the most exquisite temper and they were not so totally taken up with the natural sense of their own misfortunes but that there was room left still for compassion towards a person of Olympia's birth and merit Besides by that affection which bound them up to her interests they had given entrance to a curiosity which upon the score of a less extraordinary person and more common adventures it would not have easily found in their spirits and they could not call to mind the admirable beginning of that Princesse's Fortunes and the passage wherat her Relation had been interrupted without being moved with a great desire to understand the Sequele which according to apparences could not but be composed of very strange Accidents and in particular to know the name of the Unknown which Olympia had at her Tongues end when she was forced to break off the Thread of her Discourse This Reason though indeed more weak than the former made them resolve to steal that Evening from Agrippa and Cornelius whose Visits they much feared to give it intirely if they could possibly to this afflicted Princess and upon this design having taken a light Supper together in Elisa's lodging they charged the Maids that waited upon them to say That the Princess of the Parthians being a little indisposed they were gone to Bed together not doubting but by these means to secure themselves from being interrupted by persons full of discretion and well-versed in all the Rules of Civility After they had given this order wherein in regard of the Quality of the persons whom it concerned they observed a great deal of Circumspection they went into Olympia's little Chamber and as the gods would have it they found her in a better Condition than they hoped This Princess who naturally had as gallant a spirit as any person of her sex and who solidly relied upon a real vertue and an absolute resignation to the will of the gods had made a reflection upon the transports wherinto the first ebullitions of her Passion had cast her and by an endeavour not very usual in a spirit strongly prepossessed she had found room to combat with that cross-opinion which at first had made such a disorder in her soul contrary apparences to the return of her repose had very much tormented her and she had found cause enough in Ericia's report to suspect the infidelity of the person which she loved but other considerations and other more important remembrances wherby she had reason to be confirmed in a quite contrary opinion had powerfully taken his part and if they could not cure her of those cruel impressions which those apparences had wrought upon her they had at least disposed her to seek without precipitation a more evident clearing up of the Truth and in expectation of the knowledge which the next day might afford her to incline her spirit rather towards hope than towards a deadly fear the first effects whereof had been so contrary to the quiet of her mind the health of her body and her ordinary moderation Certainly few spirits would have so readily submitted to the Empire of reason but indeed few spirits were like to hers and in all the course of her life she had given examples of her gallantry wherein her constancy and admirable resolution had no less appeared than in this last Adventure By this little calm which she gave her mind her body likewise received ease and in fine she was so sensible of it that when the Princesses came into her Chamber her Feaver was gone They were very joyful to understand by Ericia as they approached the Bed this change of her health and they had no sooner opened their mouth to enquire of it but the fair Princess looking upon them with a much more composed countenance than before My fair Princesses said she I have had a great Combat against those cruel apparences which hurried me to despair and if I have not gotten the Victory over them at least I have disposed my spirit to wait for a more certain assurance of my mishap before it fall into those extremities from which I should hardly keep it if I had received any confirmation of it Whatsoever report they have made me of the beauty of that person whom the Prince which I have loved so well accompanies and though I have been told of their mutual Caresses I can hardly believe that a Prince in whom I have observed so much Vertue and who by so many great and dangerous difficulties which he hath gone through with an admirable Courage hath given me such fair proofs of his Love could in the time which is past since our separation fall so lightly into an infidelity so contraryto the sense of that sublime Vertue which he practises And though he could become unfaithful I doubt whether he would come to shew his perfidiousness in a place where certainly he had hope to find me where I expected him and where I would bid him seek me if it should please the gods that he still continues faithful I would perswade my self to imagine that Ericia 's eyes were deceived or that the person which she saw him embrace is related to him by some ancient Amity which might engage him in other Tyes than those of Love And however it be I will still expect from Heaven to which I have absolutely abandoned my self what it shall Decree concerning my destiny and not hasten my misfortune by a promptitude which might make me commit such faults as possibly might be hard to repair The two Princesses extreamly approved of Olympia's resolution confirming themselves more and more in the esteem they had for her and whil'st Elisa sitting down in a Chair which was at the Beds-head felt her pulse with one of her fair hands Candace being sate upon the Beds-side My dear Princess said she You do sufficiently assure us both by all your Discourses and by all the marks which you give us of your thoughts that your Vertue is not ordinary and those gods to whom you have abandoned your self with so much Courage and Piety must needs be cruel and unjust if by an unfortunate success they should deceive the confidence you have in their goodness I confess that upon the like occasion I should do the like if it were possible And I do so approve of your Resolution That I do almost certainly promise you the most happy success you can desire I have the same hope that you have added the Princess Elisa and 't is upon a ground very far from Envy that I foresee that of us three I only shall remain unfortunate I have some confidence replied Candace for you in your Fortune and my heart