as a task and so constrain'd that her behaviour seem'd to condemn me of that unkindness which her modesty would not permit her words to do But one evening I receiv'd a testimony of her friendship proportionate to that Character she had given me of it 'T was a little note which she convey'd into my hand and though many were present yet it was so artificially that 't was impossible any could take notice of it The words were these ZEPHALINDA to ARTABANES SUrena has not onely discover'd where you love but that you are lov'd again he is resolv'd whilst you seemingly make your addresses to me to make his real ones to Parthenissa and gain the King of his party This you cannot resent as an injury from either having publiquely declar'd a Passion to one for whom you have none You had best therefore suddenly break off the false and manifest the true Flame before Arsaces appear too openly for your Rival who then may look on your affection as a contempt to his authority Tell me Artabanes does not the betraying of a Brother the advancing of my Rivals and the ruining of my own hopes at least deserve your friendship and yet that is all I demand since the impossibility of expecting more would be as great as the sin of doing so AS soon as I had done reading these few lines I communicated them to my Princess who did not onely much approve of the advice but more of the gallantry of her that gave it The same night I waited upon Zephalinda and taking an opportunity I made her Parthenissa's and my own retributions for so unimitable a friendship but time being exceeding precious and there being then with Zephalinda Surena Sillaces Lindadory Parthenissa and many others the chiefest of the Court I resolv'd no longer to delay that which was design'd between us and having privately advertis'd Zephalinda of my intention I began a discourse of the importunity of Lovers as a Rise to effect it The subject was so copious that there wanted no matter of entertainment but that we insisted upon most was occasion'd by Zephalinda's saying that she admir'd at those who when their Mistresses declar'd they could not love them would yet continue their loves as if importunity could ingender Affection To which Surena as believing himself most concern'd reply'd I should Sister have an ill opinion of that General who designing to take a Town would upon its refusal to yield at the summoning raise his Camp and march away 'T is just so in this case what our desires cannot perform perseverance must and since modesty and practice does allow Women at first to deny their Servants 't would be a great want of discretion to take that for their disdain which is but their Passion Madam said I there may be something more added in this particular for since by daily experience we find that a high Passion ingenders a proportionate Scorn the first giving the Power if not the Cause unto the last why may not we as well expect that an opportunity may beget an affection the difference being but equally great That which you say answer'd Zephalinda is a clear mistake for certainly never any Woman hated a Man for loving her but she having some aversion to the person he imputes it to his Flame but to that which my Brother says I must confess I think it a madness where there is an affection to abandon it upon the first refusal but sometimes Men are apt to give our bashfulness a longer being than indeed it has and have so good an opinion of themselves that they often call that which is our aversion our modesty and by making us better natur'd than we are trouble themselves more than they should for my part I would deal ingeniously with my Lovers if I had any and tell them what is modesty and what is aversion that they may owe their suffering to themselves and not to me for I think it a Tyranny to make Mens Torments the witnesses of my Beauty I must confess Madam I reply'd if all your Sex would practice what you declare we should have as much cause to admire their goodness as their beauties but that which deludes many is that some Women have hated two or three years sometimes more and then at last have loved those whom they so long slighted and though examples of this quality be very rare yet some proving the possibility of it every one flatters himself with a belief it may be his fate just as in War where though but one amongst a hundred thousand raises himself from a common Soldier to a General yet the success of that one does raise more expectations than the miscarriages of so many others doe deject Besides Madam said Sillaces other Women whose beauties have not charms so strong but their Rigor may prove their Lovers cure do often hold on their Servants by expectation and so by Art supply the unkindness of Nature but where so many perfections reign as you are Mistress of that declaration which you would have pass as an excess of goodness and perhaps mean it so may appear as high a mark of your power for knowing your servants to be surely charm'd you may well advise them to assume their liberty and they be no more oblig'd to you for it than when a Gally-slave is bid by his Keeper to get free and yet is still kept fast in Chains I should too much trespass on your patience did I tell you all the particulars of that entertainment I will therefore onely acquaint you that some words were spoken which gave me a fit opportunity to beg Zephalinda that since she had made a declaration of dealing clearly with her Servants in what related to her resolutions concerning them she would give me my sentence by acquainting me what return that Passion I so justly paid her might expect Truly Artabanes she answer'd with a gesture as full of disdain in appearance as it was obliging in effect I thought my actions would have exempted my words from that trouble but since you will have it in as much plainness as reality you must know I cannot receive your passion but if my saying will be a diminution of your grief that it proceeds not from any defect in you or from any aversion to you in particular but out of a general aversion to Love I may very truly profess it Ah Madam I reply'd you are cruel in thinking to be merciful and at once load me with so much misery that I must sink under the burthen You should have prepar'd me by degrees for my ruine and thereby have lessen'd it at least of one misery which is the suddenness and unexpectedness of it But Madam do not think that my discontent is of so mean a nature that the consideration of the cause can lessen the effect No fair Zephalinda that with which you would console me does but augment my Torments for had you been capable of Love I should by Zeal
obscurely made me imagine was more elevated than till then I had believed it all which concurring or else my body of its own constitution then inclind'd to sickness cast me into so dangerous a one that for six days I gave my Servants and Physicians as little hope as I had desire of life but the seventh day the malignity of my fever was mitigated and in as many days more I was in so promising a way of recovery that understanding one of Monyma's Pages desired to give me a Letter from his Lady with his own hand I gave him admittance and he presented me with the Letter whose superscription was this To the generous CALLIMACHUS And knowing the hand to be Monyma's having kist it with transports I found it contained these words That same duty which first necessitated me to decline your visits and then your conversation now makes me give my self away to the Pontick King When it was so powerful as to make me do that for Diocles 't is not strange it could make me do this for Mithridates who transcends him as much in merit as in quality believe me Calimachus I am troubled to wear a Crown since 't is not from you that I receive it for whom I had such inclinations that had the gods render'd it no sin to follow the dictates of them I should have prefer'd a private condition with you to the greatest Empire of the World without you And since you can no longer legitimately continue that affection you once honour'd me with Nor I that which your merit and my inclinations made me once pay you permit me at least still to continue in your memory and esteem as whilst I live you shall be the most precious thing as far as honour will permit in the thoughts of the unfortunate Monyma As soon as I had done reading this fatal Letter I look't distractedly upon all my Servants which were present and upon him that had deliver'd it who I knew was one that Monyma repos'd a peculiar confidence in thereby endeavouring to ask that from the company by my looks which my words could not At first I believed the reliques of my fever had distracted me which when I found it had not I Wisht it had then thinking I had read by a false light I made them open the Curtains of the bed and windows and re-perus'd those killing words which finding the same I had found at first I sunk down into my bed and fixt my eyes upon the youth which had brought me the cause of these disorders and seem'd by a silent mournful contemplating him to reproach his having assumed so cruel an employment but when I observed him weeping so bitterly that it made me give him some of that pity his Message render'd him unworthy of I fancied there was something of mysterious in it and in that flattering imagination I commanded all my Domesticks out of my Chamber and then conjur'd the disconsolate youth to inform me why he would assume an employment which could not but occasion that grief in which he so sympathized and what could invite his Mistris to so precipitate an inconstancy if what was in the paper he had brought was a real truth and not to palliate some necessitated proceedings of hers which I hop't he was sent to acquaint me with Alas Sir the Page reply'd what you have read is but too sad a truth and my tears are not shed upon that account which you seem to ascribe them to but to Monyma's electing of me for so unthankful a message and to the grief which invaded her at the writing of that Letter and you at the reception of it yes Sir he continued had you but seen how cruel a conflict she was in between her duty and affection and in what agonies she wrote unto you when the first had got the victory over the last you might perhaps imitate me and perhaps pity what you detest Thereupon he told me at large how Mithridates during my indisposition had made so solicitous an address to her that many thought his desire of a permission to employ such Vessels of War of Miletus as would serve him for affection or pay was rather the pretence than the cause of his Voyage How after he had found that the infinite Beauty he admir'd was guarded by a proportionate Virtue he had chang'd his purpose and endeavour'd to appropriate what he had endeavour'd to destroy which he might legitimately do the Princess Calamis being dead six months before having some fifteen years past presented him with the Prince Pharnaces the Prince Atafernes the Princess Roxana and the Princess Statira and the Princess Cleopatra How as soon as so unexpected an overture was made to Philopomanes he had embraced it with a greediness which shewed both his wonder and his joy and had so incessantly press'd his daughter to embrace so high a Fortune that this day vanquish't by his intercessions or rather persecutions she has promis'd to morrow to give her self to the Pontick King who seems to be much more satisfied at it than any other concerned in it and that she had esteemed it fitter for her own Letter to inform me of it than that any thing else should over which she reigned such showers of tears that had I seen them I must have concluded that could not be her design which was so much her torment I leave you to judg continued Callimachus whether this accession to my former miseries had left Fortune any thing more than life to inflict upon me But lest this Page should be sent to observe my actions as well as to acquaint me with his Mistris's I resolved to bear my loss in his sight with a constancy which should when she knew it invite her to believe I was unworthy of such an usage and that though she had given heâ self the Victory yet I would deny her the triumph of it Therefore with as much composedness as those various agitations I was under would permit me I forced my self to tell him Go and acquaint your Lady in my Name she should not have assured me That as she would never give her self away without Philopomanes consent so she would be never given away by him without her own or having given me that engagement she should not have sent me this Letter for they are inconsistent tell her also the same duty which has hitherto made me obey all her Commands I know will make me to obey this last I dismist him with these words and endeavoured to find in my reason and resentment the power of performing what I then spake But alas some expressions in that Paper which had brought her desires of declining my passion too much contributed to the impossibility of performing it and continued me in disputes too painful to be related The next morning though my indisposition were not a little increast by the precedent days Agitation yet I commanded one of my Servants to bring me an account of that ceremony which was
to others will loose that property where I am concern'd The virtuous Callimachus here interrupted him by saying I shall not much wonder that your miseries are great since your diffidence of the Gods is so They are never more offended than when men despair of their Providence nor readier to assist then when there is no visible relief and yet a firm reliance on it The Deity being never more apparent than in doing things as well beyond the Expectation as the deâert of Man Then taking the Stranger by the hand he begg'd his pardon for so necessary an interruption beseeching him to believe that great Truth which both his profession and experience made him utter The Stranger found this reprehension to be as just as civil and after having assur'd Callimachus that 't was his melancholly not he that had offended did offer him as a Penance to relate his Fortunes Callimachus being highly satisfied with it answer'd him You see how much the Gods are pleas'd with those which assume their quarrel for my performing it has not only produc'd the ambition'd effect of making you perceive your fault but hath besides procured an engagement I was almost as impatient of and would it might please those Powers to give me the means as certainly to remedy your misfortunes as I am confident I shall be a sharer in them By that time this Civility was answer'd they were come into a Walk so cover'd with Yew and Cypress that it appeared a fit Scene for so sad a Story where Callimachus's silence made the Stranger begin this ensuing Relation The Story of Parthenissa and Artabanes THough my misfortunes are of so sad a quality that I should rather publish than conceal who I am since I might find by divulging my self that cure from my Enemies resentments the Gods have hinder'd my own from performing yet because they have commanded me to learn my destiny from this Oracle I am determin'd not to contribute any thing which probably may hinder it and if by that answer it gives me I find my Death as necessary as I now believe it I had rather also erect to be oblig'd to my own hands for my Cure than to those of my Enemies 't is upon these considerations onely that before I proceed any further I must beg your secresie my actions as you will understand by the sequel of my discourse having rais'd me Enemies whose power is as great as their malice Callimachus would here have made him Protestation of that inviolable silence he desir'd but the generous Stranger would not permit him believing himself sufficiently certain of it by having acquainted him now necessary it was And therefore not to give the holy Priest any time for so needless an assurance he thus continu'd his Story My name is Artabanes I was born in the Reign of Orodes the present King of Parthia who is also called Arsaces which is the name appropriated to all those Kings in honor to Arsaces the first Founder of that Monarchy I had my education with Orode's eldest son the Prince Pacorus whose favour I possess'd in no unconsiderâble degree while I had the honour to be near him My Father whose name is Moneses might now by a just succession wear the Crown of Media did not a nobler Principle invite him to decline it He was Unkle to Tigranes the last King of that flourishing Countrey and onely Brother to Tiridates his Father who by the infusions of evil Counsellors had received so great a jealousie of mine that to vindicate his innocency and to remove his Brothers suspitions he retir'd into Parthia where Orodes's entertainment was worthy the great Blood of the Arsacides of which Moneses hath the honour to be descended and in a short time gave him his only Sister the Princess Ebuzara who having presented my Father with the unfortunate Artabanes three years after with Lindary she dyed but Arsaces affection for her Husband did not and he multiplyed his favours on my Sister and me so abundantly that a long while we little found the want of so excellent a Mother his transcendent care so well supplyed that loss Moneses had his education among the Grecians whose Customs he so highly valu'd that I was no sooner fit to learn than he had by liberal Pensions procured many of that Countrey to render my Education perfect in all which exercises as well of the Mind as of the Body those that flatter'd me would say I was no ill Proficient One day as I was waiting on the King there came in a Lady in Mourning who presented a Petition to him But oh Gods with so much majesty and humility together that I admir'd how two such distant things could meet in one subject her Eyes had antipathy to the Liberties of our Sex destroying all those that beheld them her shape and motion had peculiar Charms and she had a certain vivacity and air in her countenance that assur'd me her wit was not inferiour to her beauty and yet one might easily perceive that Time which is the ruine of all other Faces would but improve hers she being not then above fifteen years old I must ingenuously confess my heart by some extraordinary motions foretold proportionate events and the sight of so many perfections made me inquisitive of her name which possest them A Courtier which stood by soon satisfied my curiosity by acquainting me her name was Parthenissa that she was the onely heir of the generous Miraxtorses who had been long General of the Parthians that this young Princess petition'd the King for a continuation of that Principality which had been enjoyed by her Father who from all his services and victories deriv'd no other advantage than the honor of acting them and at his death had left no other Wealth behind him but that of a high Reputation While the King was reading her Petition I took the opportunity of saluting her and after some little civilities of telling her Madam I find two things since my coming into this Chamber worthy of my wonder that Miraxtorses's deserts should Petition for a Reward and that you should present it or if I am singular in both these causes of admiration I have a third in which I shall have as many of my opinion as beholders of what creates it If Sir reply'd she with a little redness I had no better hope of success in my desires to the first than I have no pretence to the last cause of your admiration I should despair of my request or at least onely expect that from the Kings favour which I now assure my self to receive from his Justice Madam said I you have so good a Title both to what you petition for and to all I ascribe unto you that I shall think you do more wrong the fair Parthenissa by disclaiming so great a truth than Fortune has by necessitating you to desire or Arsaces can though he declin'd granting it which least he should I humbly beg you not to refuse the duty
onely I do extoll your choice but wish my Sex were chang'd that I might be your Rival For the Beauty of her Mind equals if not transcends that of her Body and what my compliance yesterday approv'd in you this day my Reason does Dear Sister said I interrupting her though I am ravisht with this description of Parthenissa how imperfect soever it be yet I must deprive my self awhile of the lesser happiness and beg to learn the greater which is to know if for this pleasing joy you put me in I am not more indebted to your kindness than hers This you must tell me truly for you cannot long deceive me and if once I find you do by all that 's holy I 'll take so severe a revenge upon my self you cannot but repent you were the cause of it for deprivation of hope is the highest misery but deprivation of possession Therefore Dear Lindadory I conjure you by your affections tell me really what interest I have in the Felicity before you tell me what the Felicity is for I have none the knowledge how great the Blessing is will but proportionately increase the Torment of being deny'd it and if I have any you are too cruel thus long to keep me in suspence My indiscretion said he would equal your impatience should I praise a happiness you so justly ambition if I knew you should ne'r possess it but since you enjoyn me so powerfully to tell you what I have done you shall first learn I have acquainted Parthenissa that you love her but with a Passion as far above all others as the Beauty is which creates it and to confirm her in that belief I presented her with your Letter which she made some scruples to receive but my importunities supprest them that at last she read it and then told me I have so little title both to the perfections and the power your Brother ascribes unto me that I receive them rather for Civilities than Truths Oh gods I cry'd out interrupting her can she be ignorant of that which is so visible Or can so high a virtue be capable of as high a dissimulation Brother said Lindadory your impatience makes you practice in your self what you but now condemn in me Can you blame I reply'd so necessary an interruption Shall Modesty be esteem'd a greater virtue than Justice Or are they inconsistant together But I beseech you proceed and grant me now your pardon for which I will engage my self not a second time to need it I had no small trouble said Lindadory to make her confess she believ'd your affection was such as you describ'd it but the labor was far more difficult to procure from her any thing to you that might give you that assurance But she continu'd to obey your injunction I will not give you all the particulars by retail knowing that to relate the means is onely pleasing but as it conduces to the end which is that I have brought you a Letter from Parthenissa Ah Sister said I starting up How many obligations have you contracted in this one then calling for a Lamp after having a thousand times kist and idolatriz'd the fair Character I read these ensuing words PARTHENISSA to the Prince ARTABANES IF by a loss of the greatest part of your Blood you have discover'd that which was an offence you have discover'd too that which is partly the reparation since what acquainted me with the fault acquainted me with the punishment of it and if I have now any resentments they will sooner be satisfied by your preserving than by your shedding that which is left Alas said I having ended reading I may with much greater Justice say of this Letter that it has more of Civility than Affection then she of mine that it had more Civility than Truth Then letting my self fall into my bed again I continued Unfortunate Artabanes thou art yet as miserable as ever for here is not a enough kindness to make thee live nor cruelty to make thee dye I now perceive there may be cruelty in not being cruel enough that a little kindness may be a great cruely and that suspension may be so order'd that it may prove as great a misery as deprivation If your complaint were just said Lindadory I should be so far from condemning that I should participate with you in it Take heed Artabanes lest you offend the gods and that by not valuing this high favour you thereby provoke them to recall it If every day you make an equall progress to this believe me the wound of your mind will be sooner cur'd than that of your body Remember if she were as soon obtain'd as askt that might in the future trouble you as much as the fear of the contrary does at present Since 't is in Love as in War where the greater the difficulty is in the success the greater is both the satisfaction and Glory of it If said I Parthenissa's perfections needed a foil to set them off there might be some reason in what you think has so much But in the possession of Parthenissa all joyes are included and not one without it so that nothing but the end here can be term'd Felicity I must confess that in meaner Affections so much Nourishment as this would preserve Hope from Death but where the cause of the Love and the Love it self is so infinite if all things else be not resembling my sufferings must The wanting of never so little less then what will of necessity suffice is as bad as if all were wanting as well in then Food of the Mind as of the Body therefore to be kind and not kind enough does too deservedly lose that name and operation You must not therefore measure my condition at the same rate with other Lovers but proportionately to the Beauty I adore and then you will conclude as right as now you do the contrary All the Arguments Lindadory could use were not of sufficient force to moderate my despair me-thought Parthenissa's Letter had so much of indifferency in it that I could not have too much of sorrow for it and that which prov'd no small accession to mine was my sisters confession how difficult it was to obtain so little which too I receiv'd rather from her importunity than Parthenissa's favour These and âany such reasons which my despair furnish'd me withal created in me âbelief that it were to be cruel to my self not to die of those wounds which were such that they made the way to Death far easier than to recovery and consequently it had been a weakness equal to the punishment would have attended it if when the means to end all miseries was easie and the way to begin miseries was as difficult as to persevere in them I should have declin'd the first to embrace the last in which resolve my Body so well seconded my Mind that my Fever so increast all that night as the next day when my sister came to visit me I was
so near losing my life it had almost cost her her own for she fell into divers fits of swounding and the last was of so long a duration that Symander who stood by imagin'd she had led me the way to death but when she was recover'd from her seeming one she begg'd me with a throng of sighs and tears not to cast my self away out of an imagination I was miserable when really I was otherwise which if I would give her a little time to evince I should be assur'd it from Parthenissa Ah! sister I reply'd if you could perform what you say my recovery would be as certain and speedy as my death will be without it Dear Brother said Lindadory give me but one days respite and if I do not satisfie my engagement inflict on me what punishment you please and I will willingly endure it All the penance I reply'd which I will impose on you if you prevail not is That you will give me leave to die for then you cannot more oppose my doing so then my condition will require it While we were in this discourse one of my sisters servants came and acquainted her that Parthenissa was come to give her a visit Lindadory turning towards me told me softly receive this as an earnest from the gods of their future blessing who have doubtless sent her hither purposely to contract the time of your suspension Immediately after she went to her Chamber where Parthenissa was who perceiving by my sisters eyes as well as countenance that some grief sat upon her heart she told her Madam the place from whence you now came and the effect of some great sorrow which is too visible in your face makes me apprehend something of danger in your brother Would it might please the gods reply'd Lindadory that you would as soon apply the remedy to my grief as you have found out the occasion of it which if you will be but resembling to your power you may perform as easily as desire for my brothers danger is the cause of that effect you seem somewhat concerned in for though those wounds Ambixules gave him are very dangerous yet those you have given him are much more so and creates his and my greatest apprehension Therefore Madam consider the ruinous estate he 's in without the felicity of your Favour and receive this as a certain truth that unless you assure him of it now it will be too late to do it hereafter Give I beseech you to my prayers and his condition what I am confident you would hereafter to his services if he could live to pay you them and then gratitude will act in him what hope would Lidadory's reason and the sad extremity I was in furnish'd her with so many arguments both to move Parthenissa's judgment and pity that at last with much difficulty she acknowledg'd never to have had a higher esteem for any than for me and her inclinations wereof such a quality that by my services and fidelity I might in time procure no unfruitful return of them This declaration was as pleasing to Lindadory as my recovery for indeed it was in effect the same thing she begg'd her therefore to give me a visit and assure me of what she had then said Parthenissa would have left that employment to Lindadory but she excus'd herself by alledging it would be too good news to be credited from any but herself adding further that she might perform a visit of that high concernment with so much secrecy that none could ever discover it there being a back-stairs which went out of her Chamber into mine where no company then was least it might interrupt my rest and I am the more pressing in it continu'd Lindadory not onely as it will be the efficient cause of his preservation but that seeing him in the forlorn condition he is in you may never hereafter quarrel with your modesty for condescending to that now which if any longer delay'd would prove ineffectual Then without so much as seeming to suspect a refusal she took her by the hand and having led her into my Chamber she opened the Courtain and told me Brother I here present you with the rarest Physitian in all Asia whose skill I believe your very sight will convince you of I could not fancy that this rare Physitian was Parthenissa and knowing all others disability in my sickness I did not so much as turn my eyes that way but being somewhat offended that she who knew so well the nature of my disease should be so mistaken in the means of my cure I reply'd Sister I perceive that Parthenissa has rejected your Prayers and that you have as a last Essay brought this Physitian to practice on me as on a lost Patient but 't is in vain I that feel the power of her Beauty will never so much wrong the effects of it as to believe any can cure my wounds but she that made them let me therefore desire you to implore this last favor from her that before I die she would look upon the miserable Artabanes and give me leave once again to see that Beauty the cruel but fair cause of my Martyrdome which I have so much reason to hate and yet have more not to do it that she may hear how zealous I 'll pray for the preservation of my murderer and that she may live in joyes as great as she has the power to confer on me These sad words had a powerfull influence on Lindadory who fancying it a sin to jest so cruelly begg'd me to turn about with such earnestness that at last I did but great gods How was I surpriz'd My amazment was such that joy had lik'd to have perform'd what grief but begun Lindadory's raillery and this surprize was of very much use to Parthenissa who was so confus'd when she consider'd the action she had undertaken that though the time of her silence was long yet as she told me often since she was as long before she was able to speak to me but perceiving I was at least in an equal perplexity that did somewhat assure her and then approaching to my Beds-side she told me I am come to know Artabanes whether the power you said I had over you was a Civility or a Truth but I too visibly perceive it is onely the first or else your recovery before now had assur'd me the contrary Ah! Madam said I reproach me not the crime you your self make me commit for 't was not your commands alone could make me live but something added to them which I thought fitter and easier for you to imagine than I to name but your not taking notice of it alass did to too much and being depriv'd of my hopes I resolv'd under an appearance of cruelty to be merciful unto my self and by yielding to one death to free my self from a thousand Neither Madam can I think you will be offended at that Election since by disobeying you once I render my self for ever
God's were hinder'd from seeing or relieving either party There were a thousand things perform'd which did better merit the Sun for Spectator in all his Glory than those sad and gloomy Clouds But the Victory which was a long time in suspense at last seem'd to declare it self on the Armenians side by the valour of a young Gentleman who with near 3000 Horse carried Death to his Enemies and Victory to his Friends wheresoever he appear'd So much Gallantry I thought was a fit Object for our Swords and turning to my friends I told them so with this litle addition T is too low to imitate those that have done well Let us be examples to them to do better for you see the day is lost unless recover'd by our Valours and Victory will now be so precious it cannot be too dearly courted They all unanimously approv'd my resolution and presently I led them where Artavasdes was for so was this young Conqueror call'd who perceiving our design and guessing by our Countenance we were not Men to be slighted presently rallied all his Soldiers who were eagerly pursuing the Parthians By that time he had drawn them up I charg'd him telling my companions I would not invite them to that which I would not be a sharer in I was so well seconded by those which follow'd me that after a generous resistance we broke those victorious Troops and had the execution of them as long as they had had it of ours and I was so far engag'd in the pursuit of this Rout that at last I perceiv'd the Standard-Royal which was guarded by at least 8000 select Men which was to me rather an invitation to attempt it than the contrary but least many might have been of a different principle I told my Troop-Companions 't is true their number surpasses ours but you have just now learn'd that Victory is won by Virtue not by Multitudes you have done things which will not be believ'd but by some such powerful Witness for to our own Glory but to our Countreys shame we are not onely the Actors but almost the onely Spectators and as your Valours have no limits let your success be resembling By one general Acclamation they protested they would follow me to Death or Victory I gave them no time to cool but by a successful Charge I made a breach for them to enter they lost not the occasion but with Vigor and Resolution improv'd it As we had almost effected our design the same Artavasdes who had done such noble Actions in the beginning of the Battel and was beaten by his Mens Fears not his own for they had carried him away in the Throng rallied again some of his resolutest Troops and was come with them to relieve the King which he did with so great fury that my Men lost all the Glory of their former Actions by an ignominious flight I could not believe it at the first but seeing it was in earnest I cryed out 'T is your Swords not your Feet must save you which you may effect by almost your desiring it for the Enemy are not oblig'd to their Valours for this disorder but your Fears If you doubt this Truth do but turn your Faces and their Flight will assure you it But when I perceiv'd they were as deaf to me as to their Honors I told some which were running by me Is it thus then that you perform your engagement of following me to Death or Victory I will never live to see your shame nor to participate with you in it Assure the Prince and my Father I will sell my life so handsomely that it shall neither disgrace my Countrey nor my Bloud Having so said I thrust my self into the midst of the Enemy with a resolution to dye and invoking the fair Name of Parthenissa my Rage made me do things which my Courage onely could not have perform'd for I made a Lane through the thickest Troops and my blows were so happily directed that wheresoever they did light once they needed not to do so a second time Many of those which fled hearing my last words turn'd about to know what I would do but when they saw my resolution and the unexpected success which attended it many who were gallant found my designe so much so that they returned to share in it and others who perceiv'd that those which thought to preserve their Lives did lose them and that he which indeavour'd to lose his did preserve it the same cause which made them decline the Fight made them return to it I must confess I was as much surpriz'd as pleas'd when I found my self so well followed I imputed it to the invocation of Parthenissa and was assur'd that the same power which hath occasioned the greater change which was to make those that fled to fight again would also perform the lesser which was to make those that return'd to fight overcome an enemy they had so lately worsted Whilst this heat lasted we engag'd our selves so far that Fear produced the effects of Courage there being no safety but in Victory so that I had much ado to credit my Eyes the last testimony of my companions valour having quite defaced the former of their want of it At last I perceived one who by the care they all shew'd of his preservation I resolv'd was the King which made me cry out There fellow Soldiers there is that which will make the conclusion of the day more Glorious than the Progress and will both finish our dangers and reward them too They were so sensible of what I said that their valours gave an undeniable proof of their being so and the greedy desires I had to merit the Title of Parthenissa's Servant made me address my designs onely at the King concluding all consisted in the taking of him and though Nature had deny'd me a Crown yet by my Courage to present one to Parthenissa I knew would be more pleasing to her generous disposition which much more esteemed the effects of Virtue than those of Fortune or Birth To be short after I had received some Wounds which were rather marks of Honour than Danger and after Revolutions and Confusions which were deriv'd from the mingling amongst us of another King of Armenia at least one exceeding like the first in his Armour and Furniture as well as by the Horse he rid on and disresembling him in nothing but what more pregnantly confirm'd me he was the real Artabazus since the highest Valour was fittest for the highest Title I dismounted this second Commer whereby the first found and made opportunity of escaping which the last no sooner observed than he told me Generous Enemy though my Body is at your Mercy my Liberty is not this Sword more kind than Fortune will soon ease me of all the miseries this day hath involv'd me in unless you will grant me one condition which if you do not I will deprive you of all those advantages you do pretend unto by my Captivity It
inspire me by your Commands that I may perform things worthy your looking on and remember if I dye in the acting of them you lose the faithfullest servant that ever your perfections did acquire you But she was so perplext whether through apprehension or any other cause that she onely answer'd me in Tears which nevertheless coming from her fair Eyes enflam'd me with as high a Fire as ever they shot into any Lovers Heart Celindus by this time was come so near that I had only leisure to conjure the King that he and the Princess would fly to Artaxata whilst I amus'd the Enemy and having left 50 Horse for their Guard I divided those that remained into two Bodies as the Enemy had done theirs and having in few words told my companions how highly they were oblig'd to their fortunes that had furnisht them with an occasion to shew their valours before for the greatest Monarch of the East and the fairest Princess of the World and how the Victory which was the onely way to preserve them was as certain as their cause was just I began the Charge and fighting under the conduct of Justice Honour and Love I soon made a breach for my valiant friends who being carried on with a generous desire routed that Wing we attempted and thereby made a passage for Nearchus who lost no opportunity but got by with the King and Princess But Stratolis who commanded the left Wing of our Horse had not so good success for though he disputed the business with sufficient courage yet he was over-power'd and at last worsted so that in effect we were but as we begun for what I had gain'd he had lost onely the King and Altezeera by my good fortune got that other of passing by We instantly rallied again and determin'd onely by skirmishing to make good our Retreat and not to hazard all at one Charge lest if foil'd the King and the Princess might not recover Artaxara Our resolutions had such good success that I held the Enemy in play long enough for Nearchus design had not the subtile Celindus imagin'd that I would send the King and the Princess away with a small Guard and with the rest justify the retreat which caus'd him to lay a hundred Horse in Ambush betwixt us and the Town who falling suddenly upon Nearchus so terrified his Men that most of them were cut off before they put themselves in a posture of resistance One of the Run-aways fled to me and with a countenance which acquainted me with his fear told me all was lost if I did not instantly remedy it I left most part of my Horse with Stratolis whom I commanded to amuse the Enemy and with thirty of my friends ran to the place where my help was so needful But alas the first thing I saw was a rude Soldier who had dismounted Artabazus and was going to plant his Ponyard in his Breast This impious action gave me so just a resentment that I clove with one stroke the offenders Head in too and leaping off my Horse mounted the King upon him and seized on another that ran about the Field without a Master But gods to how unparallell'd a height was my anger rais'd when the piercing shreeks of the fair Altezeera reacht my Ears For Nearchus being kill'd one of Celindus Officers had seiz'd on her and was carrying her away I profess ingeniously my dear Artabanes that sight did so transport me that I think a Legion could not have hinder'd me from relieving her danger or killing the causer of it So that having made a passage through the throng I soon made another through him and by that thrust depriv'd him both of his Life and Hopes Then taking the overjoy'd Altezeera behind me I went to the King whom we overtook retreating towards Artaxata but when we were come within some ten Furlongs of it we discover'd a Body of near Five hundred Horse coming towards us in a cloud of Dust as fast as they could gallop Altezeera who had generously oppos'd all perils now began to faint but I told her Madam the god's who have hitherto protected you have therby taught you not to despair and I am confident you are so highly cherisht by them that if nothing but a Miracle can effect your preservation yet you shall not be deny'd it or fall into your Enemies hands at least that Fate shall not be yours whilst I have a Sword or Life to oppose it my duty and a higher consideration exacting it from me I begg'd her therefore not to contribute to the danger by being astonish'd at it nor to let go her hold for I was confident fighting for so transcendent a perfection my courage would proportion my cause Having thus said she embrac'd me with so great a satisfaction for the transported Artavasdes that had it proceeded from Love as it did from Fear I had wanted little of perfect happiness but though the effect came from a wrong cause yet I blest the danger that gave me so high a contentment But alas her apprehension soon ended and my joy with it for we found it was the young Amidor my Brother who by my Fathers command was come out to rescue us having received that advertisement I had sent him In this general satisfaction I alone was extreamly perplext having bought the publique security at too dear a rate for my particular yet the consideration that by it Altezeera was out of danger whose contentment I still preferr'd before my own did soon banish all those sad thoughts and having sent 200 of those Horse under my Brother to help Stratolis with the rest we marched to Artaxata where Anexander and all the City receiv'd us with Faces that spoke their contentments It were superfluous to tell you what Artabazus said to my Father and all those with him in my favour I will therefore onely acquaint you that Altezeera whose Beauty was grown to such perfection that it made me almost irreligious by desiring to see no other happiness having led me aside told me Artavasdes I should too much wrong my resentments if I coulp hope to describe them To save me from Tuminius's insolency and his Passion are obligations of so high a Nature that they resemble his Virtues which conferr'd them on me Madam I reply'd in serving you I have perform'd my duty and receiv'd my reward But Madam had Tuminius the confidence to make his addresses to you He had said she and would have perswaded me that this enterprize was onely the effects of his Love not his Fathers Ambition Alas Madam I answer'd then he was pardonable if at least he is so that cannot avoid committing of his fault How said Altezeera now you know the cause of his Crime you seem to approve it No Madam I reply'd but pitty his inevitable fate I say inevitable because experimentally I find it so This I spoke in disorder and trembling but alas I had immediately much more cause for both when I
excels all others so the Beauty which inspires it may abundantly find by Obedience the visibility of that distinction to be as great in the Effect as in the Cause But Madam I humbly conjure you if in the duty of preserving you I fail in that other of obeying you ascribe it to the real Cause and give my death that sensibility which you have deny'd my Life This is a Mercy which Compassion may obtain if not Cloak and though I should ambition the last yet I dare not hope it and implore your pardon for presuming to name it I shall know said Altezeera hastily how to distinguish between what seeks you and what you seek And therefore believe me if I find you guilty of the last I shall deny your death not onely the first of those two things you mention'd but both These last words she deliver'd going away into her Closet and her eyes were so cover'd with tears and her cheeks with blushes that I knew not whether compassion or a more obliging cause carried her so hastily away As soon I found I was alone which I had not for a good while so much my doubts my fears and my hopes were predominant I went to give the necessary orders for the reception of Celindus the certainty of whose intended assault next morning I had that night confirm'd unto me by repeated Intelligences Aurora did but begin to give the World notice of the days approach when the shrill Trumpets and other Warlike Instruments invited the Soldiers to draw out of their Camp and to march to the storming of Artaxata which if taken would end the War and satisfie both their avarice and ambition Celindus to animate his Army made them a short speech and therein acquainted them That their interests as well as courages invited them by one gallant Action to conclude that War which time would render more difficult and perhaps unfeasible That his happiness or misery depended upon their Swords as well as their reward and honour did upon his Fortune That since the ties were mutual the hazard would be so likewise That therefore he would be as well a Companion with them as a Commander over them and would have as great share in the danger as the glory which he doubted not was as certain as it would be great having those whose courages would court victory so handsomely that her Injustice must be as high as their Valors if she did not fling herself into their arms The Soldiers encouraged by so obliging words testifyed their Resolutions by a shout which was almost as loud as their guilt and Celindus with the generous Phanasder his Lieutenant-General having order'd the manner of the Storm the first Troops advanc'd and discharg'd a shower of Darts upon those which I had appointed to man the Walls and playing without intermission upon the Battlements they did under favour of their shot advance their Battering-Rams their Rolling-Bridges and their Scaling-Ladders which were all order'd with so much advantage that the Rams having made a breach Celindus in person at the head of Four thousand Men presented himself at the mouth of it with so assur'd a countenance that the dull Inhabitants and some Soldiers which had the guard of that quarter fled and left him the passage clear Whilst these things were acting on the North side of Artaxata I was disputing against Phanasder the weakest place of it which he had assaulted with so much fury that I atttibuted our Victory to the justice of the gods rather than to any humane means and I had but newly beaten him off when a Soldier that fled from the Breach which the Enemy had enter'd came running to me and told me that Celindus with near half his Army was within our Walls This news as you may easily imagine did not a little surprize me and having leisure to exclaim against Fate that thus endanger'd Altezeera I took most of those men with whom I had defeated Phanasder and ran with them to the place the Soldier guided me unto where I found that Celindus had possest himself of that Street which led directly from the Breach unto the Palace and was already beginning to force open the Gates of it when I cry'd out hold Celindus do not think the gods have so much abandon'd the innocent as to permit the King and Altezeera to fall into thy Power the ill success of Phanasders Forces shews that they are under the protection of Divinity and if that argument will not make thee credit it thy own defeat shall Finishing those words we thrust our selves into the thickest Squadrons where my valiant Friends so well acted their parts that we soon cloathed them with their own Livery despair But I must give Celindus that due that what Troops our Resolution disorder'd his rally'd again To be brief we were so tir'd with our former action and this too that we had been absolutely vanquish'd had not Amidor come to our Rescue who having defeated those Assailants that had storm'd his Quarter and learn'd the danger I was in came with 1000 Men to my relief so seasonably that it was when we fought not in hopes to avoid being defeated but to avoid deserving to be so This supply so disheartned Celindus that he began to think of a Retreat which almost as soon was put in practice but the Enemy were much astonish'd when they heard a hideous cry behind them which was occasioned by some 500 Men that Amidor had sent secretly out of a Salliport who unexpectedly falling upon those that guarded the Breach made them fly to Celindus for safety We so husbanded this disorder that we absolutely routed the Rebels and the slaughter had been much bloodier had not I been the occasion of hindring it for during the Fight I receiv'd some wounds out of which ran such abundance of Blood that in following the execution I fell down pale and speechless and suddenly a rumour being dispers'd that I was kill'd Amidor and all the rest were so much concern'd in my loss that they neglected increasing Celindus's who in our disorder found his safety When Amidor and the rest of my Friends came to me they saw me environ'd with dead Bodies and with as little sign of life as those I was amongst yet they carried me to my Chamber and lay'd me on a Bed The news of Celindus's defeat and my death came at the same time to the Palace and as two contraries of equal strength the one destroy'd what the other rais'd onely the King and Altezeera especially the latter seem'd to be more concern'd in my loss than their own safeties The former consider'd me as one whose past service had render'd me considerable and whose present condition made him think my help would have prov'd so which were the grounds whereon he built his grief But the latter besides those considerations added that of her Friendship and perhaps affection which drowned all the lesser ones as the Stars are not seen when the Sun
were so great that whereas in other affairs the ignorance of things hinders us from describing them here the knowledge of them produc'd the same effect In brief our Passions so increast that we thought all conversation but our own was as troublesome as that was pleasing and therefore studied how to be private without discovering that Flame which we at least as much endeavor'd to preserve so till a fit opportunity were offer'd to move Artabazus to unite our hearts by an Hymenaeal tye as firmly as they were already join'd by sympathy and inclination One morning whilst the Sun was yet but rising I waited upon my Princess into a Garden of Pleasure contiguous to the Palace and adorn'd with all that Nature and Art was capable of there the Company separating themselves to take that divertisement which was most agreeable to their fancies Altezeera and I by degres left those that waited on us and entring to an earnest discourse we engag'd our selves unawares into a little Wilderness in the center whereof was a spring whose water was receiv'd into a Cistern of Alabaster which was held by a statue of a Nymph cut in white Marble There we might perceive a Gentleman whose postures as well as actions exprest his troubles and though we could not discover his face yet we might his tears running down it into the Cistern and in such abundance as if the Fountain and his eies strove which should most load the fair Nymphs Arms. Such an unexpected accident had made us desire to learn the cause of it and fetching a small compass by the help of some Orange Trees we came so near that without being seen we might see him and hear him and as his mind was exceedingly agitated so we were not long in expectation till we heard him fetch a deep sigh and then casting up his eyes to Heaven cry'd out Miserable Amidor for 't was he indeed shall not the Divinity which dwells upon her face thy friendship nor his engagements suppress thy Passion Shall the highest Beauty make thee commit a resembling Crime O no rather than interrupt so pure a Love deprive thy self of Life and by a gloririous Death settle their quiet and confer on thy self thine own Then he paus'd awhile and suddenly striking his hand upon his breast he sigh'd and said O it cannot be her eyes inspire no Flames which reason can extinguish he knows their power is not to be resisted and being instructed with the cause if he be reasonable he cannot blame the effect and if he be not he is not worthy of thy friendship but alas thou talkest as if he were the onely obstacle when thy own defects will perhaps more fight against thee than thy fidelity unto thy friend or thy Mistresses to him Then weeping awhile he continu'd What shall the apprehension of ill make thee as miserable as the real ill Fie Amidor can a courage capable of loving her be capable of fear No 't is not in thy nature nor thy custom to apprehend but this timerousness is the effect of thy treachery to thy friend and since the gods so punish the thoughts of wickedness how much more will they the wickedness it self Cast away then so criminal a Passion or if that be impossible at least by concealing of it so torment thy self that if before or after thy death they discover it they may rather pity than condemn thee Having so said he borrow'd some of that water he had given the Nymph and having washt his eyes that they might not betray what he resolv'd to keep secret he went away but not in a greater trouble than he left Altezeera and I in for we found by his discourse that the object of his Love was to the object of his friends and that his friendship and affection were the causes of so noble and sad a conflict But we could not sufficiently admire his resolution which we esteem'd so generous that we assur'd our selves a reward equal to his virtue would crown it and being both much concern'd in him we determin'd by a curious inspection into all his actions to discover who they were that caus'd his disorder but if that course did not succeed then by acquainting him with what we knew engage him to tell us what we were ignorant of that we might employ our selves the better to serve him In this design we return'd to the Palace where we found that many of the Inhabitants of Artaxata had petition'd to Artabazus to commiserate their condition since by their wants they were reduc'd to such misery that if by some means a Peace were not concluded with Celindus or the Siege rais'd they must yield to him rather than to Famine The perusal of this Paper much perplext the King as well from the consideration of his Subjects wants as the knowledge of their impudence and the fear of their treachery but before he made them any return he consulted with those about him who were all except Crasolis of opinion that a mild answer should be given them and by kind usage and assurances of a speedy remedy to all their grievances endeavor to keep them within the limits of their duty But Crasolis whom we too apparently suspected was a friend to Celindus represented that under the formal humility of a Petition there might be treachery conceal'd that the not suppressing of such insolent demands in their very birth would authorize their growth that lenity insuch a case would appear fear and that would introduce a ruine That if on the other side a vigorous remedy were apply'd it would not onely extinguish the first sedition but deter the people from a second and therefore he was of opinion that some of the chiefest contrivers of the Petition should be instantly executed in the Court of the Palace Thus Crasolis would have rais'd the Kings Enemies within the Walls as well as without that Celindus might make use of the disorder yet he would have that pass for his courage and honesty which indeed was his treachery But the moderate advice took place and the people upon the Kings engagement of soon remedying their miseries return'd with blessings for him whose ruine was design'd by Crasolis in their petitioning The night which succeeded this day was not half spent when the advancing of Celindus's Army to Storm Artaxata the second time gave us a hot alarum but being advertis'd of his design he found us prepar'd to oppose it Perhaps he thought that darkness would be more favourable to his Arms than light that his Men not seeing the danger would go more resolutely on it or that the enterprize would be more formidable unto us when obscurity the ingenderer of confusion was join'd to the horror of an Assault But my dear Artabanes I will not so much trespass on your Civility as to particularize all the accidents which happen'd in that bloody Night it shall suffice to tell you that after the Town was won and lost three times we at last remained the
to grant it is that I cannot sufficiently wonder at the best construction I can make of those who are of that opinion is that their fears exceed their judgements may be their honesty Shall his defeats be the steps to his ambition and shall our having given them drown our Courages the gods forbid But Sir allow we were as low as these Mens spirits are which gave that counsel what heavier yoke can we groan under than that we would now submit unto shall our fears give that to Celindus which his Courage ne'r could purchase and shall we by a preposterous apprehension count all those deliverances the gods have hitherto sent us as so many Omens of our ruine or else Sir have these Men seen any coldness in our courages on which they build their despair if not why do they so much wrong them what shall Altezeera who is a recompence too high for Vertue be a sacrifice unto Rebellion O Sir do not by such a recompence invite your Subjects in the future to revolt what guilt can be so ugly that such a reward will not invite us to imbrace let us not then by contributing unto the Crime make our selves worthy of the punishment not let these mens timerousness perswade you to that which if once acted the gods must never after protect you unless they have design'd to appear as unjust as they would have you be to your self and the Princess who are more threaten'd by their fears than our condition But as I was going to continue my discourse upon those subjects that related to the suppressing of the mutinous people and my Fathers particular a Gentleman came in and told Artabazus there was one which wore Celindus Colours being well mounted was scap'd from the Camp and though followed by five or six of the Enemy had recover'd the Port and begg'd earnestly to be presented to the King alledging that it was about affairs of high concernment and which could admit of no delay Artabazus commanded forthwith that he should be brought in The Man no sooner heard the permission for he waited at the door than he flung himself at the Kings feet and told him Sir Anexander after a thousand difficulties which nothing could render supportable but the consideration of him for whose sake he endured them has brought an Army of 30000 Men into Thospia where a violent Feaver envious of his glory has flung him into his Bed and though his torments are very great yet he resents none so fully as those which proceed from the impossibility of his serving you in person but since his fatal sickness as if all things had contributed to increase that misfortune there has happen'd so high a dispute betwixt Stratolis and Falintus who should have the happiness to command the Army for your relief that some sad events are thereby already fall'n out and hourly will be augmented unless Artavasdes who they all beg for their General during Anexanders indisposition be instantly sent to take the charge of the War and lest your Majesty should doubt the truth of what I now deliver I shall humbly desire you to peruse this Ticket which being presented we found 't was sign'd and written by Anexander and onely begg'd the King to credit whatsoever he should relate The joy we all receiv'd at the assurance of so powerful an Army's being ready to relieve us did mitigate our sorrow at the hearing of Anexanders not being able to Head it But Artabazus and the Council to lose no time thought best to dispatch Celindus's Messenger without the honour of an Answer which they concluded was the fittest they could return his ambitious desires and to send me that night away though the wicked Crasolis oppos'd the latter alledging that the Town would doubtless be lost if I were once out of the Walls that probably I might be taken or kill'd endeavouring to pass the Enemies Guards that then not onely Artaxata but the Army would lose its Head and chief Defender and therefore he was of opinion 't were better to send a Commission joyntly to Stratolis and Falintus to command the Army than to expose all to so great a hazard This advice was not given out of any affection to the publique or my particular but that he believ'd by joyning of Stratolis and Falintus there would arise such distractions as Celindus might injoy the advantages of them But as I told you this Council at that present took not place and to omit no opportunity I went to take leave of the King and assur'd him that within fourteen days I would either make him absolute Monarch again or by my death evince that 't would not be the defect of my desire but of my Power and since the time was so short I begg'd him to give me an assurance that he would not before those days were efflux'd admit of any Treaty with Celindus The King having satisfy'd my request embrac'd me very affectionately and conjur'd me not to fail at the time appointed lest the people should force him to accept of those conditions his Reason and Inclination made him equally detest which having faithfully promis'd I went to my Princesses Chamber who not being able to conceal her grief had commanded all her servants out of the room and lay upon a Bed abandoning her self so excessively to sorrow that I surpriz'd her in the greatest height of hers and told her Madam if I could admit any doubts of an ill success where your safty is concern'd so bad an Omen as your sadness is would infuse them into me To which she answer'd I must confess Artavasdes that when I consider the many dangers you must expose your self unto and the many more that you will I find my Tears so just that I esteem it a sin to redeem them neither can you believe the assurances I have given you of my affection to be as real as indeed they are without considering my grief as a necessary Tribute of my Love and not an Omen of your ill success My Princess I reply'd your sadness could not but kill me did I not look upon it as the effect of so happy a cause but pardon me if my zeal to you be so great that I even condemn the demonstrations of my own felicity when they prove troublesome to you Alas said Altezeera what would you have me do not to deplore your absence is inconsistent with my affection and to do it is prejudicial to your contentment but since 't is impossible to suppress the first at least by a quick return make the last cease which can admit of no ease during your absence Madam I reply'd the gods shall be my witness that I will neglect no time nor shall any thing but death hinder me above fourteen days from coming to adore you at your feet Celindus and his Army shall feel what fury possesses me at this separation and my their sufferings know how dangerous it is to oppose Artavasdes when Altezeera's safety is the quarrel
an absolute ruine Madam said Parthenissa to Lindadory I much apprehend if Artabanes can have no other inducements to obtain Moneses's permission of declining Zephalinda and making his addresses to me than her imperfections and my having none that the argument may be justly reverted by your Father who may more aptly apply that to Zephalinda which your goodness confers on me My Princess I reply'd there could be no greater joy befall me than that Moneses were to consider both with the eyes of justice and that I were to possess his election you will then quickly find how injurious to your self modesty has been and how vast a felicity his judgement will confer on me I have said Parthenissa so good an opinion of yours that I will banish those apprehensions the knowledge of my own defects do raise in me and they being supprest I have nothing to say against the fair Lindadory's advice 'T is not enough I reply'd that you have nothing to say against it but if you will have it observ'd Madam you must strictly enjoin it me for I have so great a reluctancy to that action that it must be some powerfull Charm as your Commands which can make me undertake it Since reply'd Parthenissa the performance is so necessary and that you assure me the onely means that must enable you to do it is my Commands I do enjoin you it but my affections make me I fear uncharitable to Zephalinda by wishing you may quickly find as many defects in her as I desire perfections to merit your esteem Madam I reply'd the first of your wishes is as unnecessary as the last for when Zephalinda is to be paralell'd to you it would be as difficult to find no imperfections in her as to find any in you Having taken this resolution I began to apply my self to put it in practice and that which gave me some probability of its success was that Zephalinda had as much aversion to Love as Beauty to create it The first addresses I made her were receiv'd with a coldness proportionate to her practice and my desires But I must confess I contributed as much as I could to it and apprehended nothing so much as that which most men in Parthia would have esteem'd their highest Felicity I know not whether that which I intended as the means to want her affection procured it for I have been told that some Women where they find but an indifferency make it their design to bring it to an extreme and so mens coldness does often ingender their Flame But whatsoever was the cause I began too soon to perceive that which I too much fear'd and knowing now she once honor'd me with her affection it would be difficult if not impossible any longer to conceal mine I resolv'd forthwith to acquaint Parthenissa with it who I found exceedingly satisfied with the ingenuity of my proceeding and by the greatness of her contentment for an action she could but in justice expect I somewhat believ'd she had a diffidence whether that which was begun as a pretence were not turn'd into a reality having once taken up this opinion I cast out some words which might give her a rise to conceive it and she who had as piercing an inspection as any Creature was capable of soon conceiv'd my suspitions and as readily acknowledg'd the justice of them but with words so aptly appropriated to her design that she made that little jealousie the highest obligation she could place on me as proceeding from a proportionate Passion and to say truth Zephalinda was capable of shaking a constancy less firm than mine for besides her Beanty which was fitter for wonder than description she had a freeness and a grace in all her action peculiar to herself and surpast by none but Parthenissa her wit and virtue were resembling unto all her other qualities and in a word she enjoy'd so many perfections that had I not been prepossest with a former Passion I had esteem'd hers as great a happiness as I then thought it a misfortune But perceiving by Parthenissa's words that she had contracted some little diffidence of me and knowing that where there is once a jealousie every thing contributes to the growth of it I told her Madam since I find that there may be an ill construction made of that which I undertook but by your commands I am resolv'd with your permission which I humbly beg to take away all occasion of such a misfortune for being innocent I would not look like guilty The way Madam which I would propound is freely to acquaint Zephalinda with our Passions and truly I have discover'd so much virtue and discretion in her since my feign'd addresses that my duty to them if not you would confine me to this and which proceeding will not onely take off her resentment for what is past but invite her assistance in the future and that in my opinion can in no way be so effectually done as by obtaining from her to use me with a disdain so unsufferable that my declining her may appear as just to my Father as it will be necessary to me Parthenissa would not grant my desire till first she had received reiterated assurances from me that I made it not to satisfie her suspition which my expressions had not done sufficiently but as I held it a justice to Zephalinda and the best way in order to our affairs This was no sooner fixt upon than I apply'd my self to out an opportunity to act it and not many dayes after I lighted upon one such as I desir'd for going to wait upon Zephalinda I found her alone in her Closet where having shut the door I flung my self at her feet and told her Madam I know not with what face I shall disclose a secret to you neither do I well know how I can longer conceal it Your goodness makes me desire to tell it and the same goodness makes me a asham'd to do so but since persevering in my crime will make the mercy I beg of you an injustice I will no longer conceal it 'T is Madam though I have made my addresses unto you I have given my heart and liberty to Parthenissa I was forc'd to this crime to obey Moneses and disguise a Passion as great as the offence by which I did so but that which somewhat extenuates my sin is that as soon as I had the honor to know you I made my self known unto you and as a testimony of the high and just opinion I have of your virtue the same instant in which I declar'd I have injur'd you I trust you with the power to punish it my ignorance of you made me commit my crime and my knowledge of you makes my pennance which I am confident is more severe than your justice can be The gods shall bear me witness had I not been preingag'd I should have implor'd the joy of your affection with raptures as worthy the felicity and I do ill deserve it but
his Enemies found his satisfaction in his very torments But they were no sooner perceiv'd by Izadora and Perolla than both of them with many Tears and passionate actions begged my Prince that their Irons might be taken off which was no sooner motion'd than granted though those which kept them alledged that they were the Men which had spilt most of their companions bloud at the assault then my dear Master desir'd Perolla to acquaint him what high relation could produce such rare demonstrations of affection as he expret at their captivity to which he reply'd Sir I must acknowledge that Gentleman shewing Blacius to be the fair Izadora's Father and the other shewing Pacuvius to be mine though truly they have retain'd nothing but the name and the power of Parents they are those which we have reason to hate and yet cannot and though they have stifl'd all the dictates of nature and oppos'd the purest flame that ever burned yet we preserve out Duties to them so entire that we resent any affliction which befalls them with a grief proportionable to their joy if the self-same accidents had arriv'd to us Spartacus being inform'd of their qualities saluted them with much respect but he perceiv'd assoon as they had learn'd to whose intercession they owed that favour that the means of their deliverance supprest the contentment of it This action made him extreamly admire what strange causes they were which could have so unusual an operation and having found at last that each of them rely'd upon the justice of his cause he desir'd to hear their difference to which the Fathers willingly consented as being confident in their right and having heard a true character of my Prince's Justice as on the other side Izadora and Perolla willingly submitted to it on the same grounds The next morning then being appointed for this Audience my Prince having conducted our virtuous Lovers to his own Quarters which when he had surrender'd them and there as a mark of his confidence and friendship acquainted Perolla with the word he withdrew himself to settle and secure his new Conquest leaving them in as high an admiration of his Gallantry as he had conceived of theirs The next day was not many hours old but he was inform'd by the messenger he had sent to complement the generous Lovers That they expected with much impatiency the Judge of their Felicity or Misery to satisfie their longing he waited immediately on them bringing with him their Fathers where finding by the Chirurgeons that so long a disourse as their fortunes must amount unto might prejudice Perolla's health they prevail'd with Izadora to undertake the Relation which a general silence inviting her to perform she began it in these words PARTHENISSA THE FIRST PART BOOK IV. The Story of Izadora and Perolla I Must Sir as a friend to Truth as well as to our Fathers inform you That their hatred is not a purchas'd but an hereditary one and bears so antient a date that the original cause of it as absolutely forgotten as the sad effects it has produc'd are recent that what was but passion or resentment in the beginners of this fatal difference has turn'd to nature in their Children that our Parents have inherited their predecessors Malice as well as their Estates and as if fortune had hitherto affoded instruments to nourish this sad difference in seven descents successively our Ancestors have always left heirs male to perpetuate this quarrel whereby many of our Families have sacrific'd their lives to the blind rage of the authors of them but at last the gods having given Pacuvius no other heir than the generous Perolla and Blacius than the unfortunate Izadora all those which were concern'd in these domestick differences began to make it their hopes as well as 't was their prayers that by an union of us two this antient animosity might be extinguisht but alas the higher Powers it seems had otherwise decreed for Blacius more troubl'd that he wanted a Son to inherit his hatred than his estate imagin'd since my Sex exempted me from those violent resentments which he held so necessary to his blood he ought to collect in himself all the resentments of those which should have succeeded him and act some design suitable to his hatred and despair that the effects of it might be always recent enough in Perolla's Family to supply the expiration of his own Pardon me Sir said Izadora addressing herself to her Father if I speak those words which you have your self so often reiterated And on the other side Pacuvius seeing but one man of his Enemies alive reâolv'd to be reveng'd on him in such away that the manner of his death should be as deplorable to his friends as the very extinction of his Family I must beg your pardon to Sir said Izadora addressing herself to Pacuvius because you are the Father of my Perolla though what I say your professions as well as actions have endeavoured abundantly to justifie These Sir continu'd Izadora speaking to Spartacus were the reasons and resolutions of our Parents when Perolla and I were in an age as innocent as that we now are in is miserable and as a further evincement of their hatred I have been often told that Blacius was angry with nature for having given me this little Beauty least it might tempt Perolla and Pacuvius was the like at the inevitable charms of his virtuous son lest they should raise in me a Passion which might create that union they so abundantly fear'd therefore what education they thought fit to give us was in private in which if we made any progress Pacuvius and Blacius thought it as great an injury to have it publish'd as other Parents would to have had it conceal'd Judge Sir on the other side if ever there could be a higher hatred than that which subverted the dictates of Blood and Nature and on the other if there could be a greater affection than what conveted antipathy into sympathy I must before I proceed any further acquaint you That though Salapia and Capua be near thirty miles distant yet Pacuvius has a vast Estate there as well as here and as if all things had contributed to nourish the distraction of our Families Blacius has the like there too lest as I believe by being separated their rage might want that flame which the sight of each did inspire To hinder me therefore from the knowledge of Perolla's increasing excellencies Pacuvius sent him to Capuas and remov'd thither himself shortly after where whilst his gallant Son was making a large proficiency in all those realities and ornaments which have since made him the greatest glory of our Times Hanniball that victorius Captain who had made Spain his first Conquest for the Carthaginians undertook Italy should be the next and having past such dangers which to believe is almost as hard as to have overcome them and suffer'd miseries to invade the Romans which no Nation else would have undergone but
to have avoided them he at last scal'd the Walls of Italy the Alpes which indeed was a very strange thing most men believing it a task as difficult to enter this Countrey that way as to subdue it when gotten in and having with Fire and Sword made wayes where natures self had deny'd them in four set Battles at Ticinum Trebia Thasimene and Cannae vanquish'd the Consuls Puicus Cornelius Scipio Sempronius Longus Caius Flaminius Terentius Varro and Paulus Aemilius whose defeat invited the Attelanian the Calatinians the Samnites the Brutians the Lucanians and divers other people of Italy to submit to that yoke they esteem'd it impossible to resist and had the great Captain follow'd Maherball's the General of his Horse advice and marched directly to Rome he had without all dispute possest himself of that triumphant City which since has given Laws to those that might have impos'd theirs on her but having mist his opportunity and thereby the Romans having chang'd their fears into nobler Passions he apply'd himself wholly to the Conquest of Capua the second Rome where Pacuvius's hatred to Blacius soon furnish'd Hanniball with an opportunity proportionable to his desires For my Father has been always so inviolable a friend to the Romans that he almost rejoyc'd at heir defeats since they furnish'd him with an occasion to jâstifie he was ty'd to them not to their posterity and though Pacuvius were very much their friend yet he was much more his Revenges which Passion was so predominant that it made him act things both his reason and interest condemn'd and which no other consideration could have seduc'd him to To confirm this truth when he found that Blacius was unalterable to this Empire and that their probable ruine did rather confirm than shake him he resolv'd under an appearance of securing himself and Capua to ruine my Father to which action he was the apter to incline by Hanniball's Letters which assur'd him if by his power Capua were deliver'd into his the Citizens should find no alteration but the difference of their Protectors which small change should be recompenc'd sufficiently with many Immunities the Româns had deny'd them and that for his own particular he would make him no positive offers since that were to confine to certain Articles the recompence of his merit and put limits to those rewards which he resolv'd should have none I must do Pacuvius that right as to profess I believe though these glittering promises advanc'd the putting his design in execution yet his revenge was the onely cause of it which made him determine rather to ruine his Countrey and Enemy together than preserve both Alas What miserable events has that blind fury produc'd and How has it darken'd those many other virtues which would else so clearly shine in our Fathers The fair Izadora could not speak these words without shedding some Tears which did not onely abundantly manifest the goodness of her disposition but as much prov'd that grief it self when it dwelt in her face could not but relish of the place in which it resided but this disorder being vanquish'd she thus continu'd Pacuvius had no sooner recev'd Hanniball's Letters than he assembl'd the chiefest of Capua where Blacius then was and by too great an Eloquence for so ill a subject so represented the forlorn condition of the Romans the triumphant one of the Carthaginians the advantages of accepting the Conquerors offers and the miseries of declining them that at last the Capuans fears and Hanniballs Armies advancing to besiege them helping his destructive Oratory all the Citizens resolv'd to buy their safety by the loss of their Faiths and present their new Master with their Keyes and Liberty and though Blacius by a world of arguments endeavour'd to divert so fatal a determination yet all the advantage he deriv'd from it was to manifest his affection to the Romans and to make it evident that the Capuans submitting to the Carthagineans was an action as opposite to reason as honesty Magius also my Fathers Brother betwixt whom there was always as great a difference in humours as nearness in blood in this design join'd with Blacius but to no effect the Capuans having shut their ears to all motions but those of becoming slaves to Hanniball who being informed by Pacuvius that Capua was at his devotion made into it a triumphant Entry many thousands of people resorting thither to behold that Man in whom such virtue dwelt and upon whom fortune so constantly attended that whilst his courage was subduing his Enemies in one place his Fame effected the like in another But whilst these solemnities were performing Blacius withdrew himself into this city more out of apprehention that his death would be pleasing to Pacuvius than to decline sacrificing himself for the Roman Empire But Magius continu'd still at Capua and his Counsels being told to Hanniball by Perolla's Father so exasperated him that as a testimony of his fury and power he demanded Magius of the Senate whose fear clouding their justice deliver'd him up and who immediately he caus'd to be executed in the Market-place For this Death Hanniball's cruelty was not so much condemn'd as Pacuvius'S whose hatred to our blood was so exorbitant that though Magius did ever oppose Blacius and was always oppos'd by him yet the being my Fathers Enemy was so prevalent with Pacuvius to save him as being his Brother was to condemn him Thus by this sad tragedy the Capuans found sufficient cause to repent though not to repair their inconstancy But now Sir I shall tell you a passage which perhaps will be as much admir'd for the gallantry as the rareness of it Hanniball who indeed had contracted a real friendship with Pacuviâs either as esteeming his interest in the Capuans necessary to confirm and augment his Conquests or his virtues worthy that honor or both but as a mark of his esteem and trust he lodg'd in his house without the ordinary guards which attended his person In the mean time Perolla who always had a high inclination to the people of Rome and consequently detested his Fathers actions began to project the death of Hanniball in which nothing made him irresolute but the violating of the Laws of hospitality and since the consequence was of so generous a design it will not be amiss to acquaint you with some of his reasonings before he elected it What said he to himself shall I kill the upholder and revenger of our blood Shall his friendship to my Father be the cause of his ruine and Shall he receive his death from those with whom he trusts his life Shall I to revenge the Romans stain my own reputation with a Murther and ruine my own Family Who cannot 'scape being sacrific'd to the Carthagineans fury Shall Rome owe her safety to a cause which if she approv'd rendr'd her unworthy of it Shalt thou kill a Conqueror whom the gods have freed from their own immediate punishment Thunder by covering him with Laurel Shalt thou
when I called Strato to me and told him I was resolv'd before I left Salapia to see the fair Izadora which I fancied could not be very difficult since she lay for the coolness of the Lodging it being then Summer in a lower Chamber next the Garden Strato who consider'd my safety above my satisfaction earnestly though vainly disswaded me from it therefore we went silently to the Garden door which answered on a by-lane then having pickt the lock I got in and was conducted by Strato to that window where he assur'd me Izadora lay I commanded him then to return and give me warning if he should discover any thing worthy my knowledge he was no sooner gone but I walkt softly to the place he directed me to lest some company might have been with her but as the gods would have it she was all alone having retired her self into her Closet which was joyning to her Chamber there looking in I discovered her by the light of a small Taper sitting on a Chair leaning her Cheek upon one hand and wiping her Tears off with the other I was amazed to âind her in such a posture but suddenly my wonder was turned into joy at least as much as I was capable of when she was so drown'd in sorrow finding by her discourse that I was the object of hers Alas she said accompanying her words with a heavy sigh perhaps at this instant that I onely but deplore Perolla's absence I may have cause to lament his death through Blacius's cruelty by acting himself his revenge or by giving Haânibal the means to do it Wretched Izadora must the not knowing whether thou art miserable make thy misery and must thy doubts of being unfortunate render thee really so No no I fear they are not only bare suspitions make me thus unhappy but that my eyes weep by Prophecy what they must shortly by Evidence I must confess said Perolla though it were a crime thus to intrench upon her retirement yet I found in that fin a more obliging joy than I could in the reward of Virtue and doubtless I had longer continued my transgression had I not thought it a greater to leave her in a sadness I could so soon remove Therefore making a little noise I told her Madam if your apprehensions for Perolla be the blest and sad cause of your Tears you may now silence them since he is in a condition of apprehending nothing but your disdain Never to my remembrance did I see so strange a surprize as those words were to that excellent Beauty to whom they were spoken who though she a long time nicely consider'd me yet could she not fancy I was Perolla for her Father to destroy that friendship she honour'd me with had given her so much cause to despair for my life that her sense could not convince her belief I was living but at length her disorder was so far supprest tht coming to the window she askt me softly whether I was really what I pretended to be and if I were what made me so evidently endanger my life and consequently hers Madam I reply'd I am the happy Perolla that which I have heard since I came to this place makes me assume that Title and I am come to know how you will dispose of a life which you are pleas'd to be so much concern'd in You live then gallant Perolla she said and Blacius after all his threatenings has preserv'd your life No Madam I answer'd 't is not Blacius but Izadora which has done it that glorious confession she made him in my favour was the essential cause of it all that Blacius did was that he kill'd me not but 't was his unequal'd Daughter give me my life by giving me that which makes me value it and I should be more unworthy the gift had the apprehension of any danger hindered me from acknowledging at her feet that as I hold it by her so I Will only preserve and employ it for her If said Izadora you had given me so large an Empire over you before this visit I should have enjoyn'd you to trust my justice in believing your goodness rather than thus hazard your safety for the expressing of it Madam I reply'd I should more endanger it by going away without assuring you of this duty than I do in the paying of it for that might have ruin'd me in your good opinion which I more fear than all that my Enemies can act against me You are she answer'd so deeply fix'd in my esteem that hardly any action of yours much less one which hinder'd you from danger can prejudice you in it But fair Izadora I reply'd may not your Fathers hatred my unfortunate extraction and my own unworthiness raise your justice to the suppression of your present mercy and the ruine of my Felicity Ah Perolla she answer'd with a little blush can you then suspect my constancy Silence I beseech you all such doubts for you need not fear I will commit a fault in the which I shall find my punishment neither can you believe I will prefer any other before you without doing as great a wrong to my judgement as my happiness but she continued may not I Perolla suspect that Blacius's cruelty may induce you to withdraw your Passion from his Daughter and that your revenge may be more predominant than your affection Madam I reply'd I attest the gods if my words have given you the least doubt that I fear'd you would prove inconstant they did not express my meaning for if I have any suspition 't is not of your Virtue but of my Felicity and if I were jealous of your change I am not so rude or partial to my self as to call that your inconstancy which would be but your justice but if I had had any suspitions of that nature what you have been pleas'd to say would make me rather cherish than condem them since they are the cause of my receiving assurances of an affection as far transcending my hope as my desert As to those doubts you mention'd of your Fathers hatred raising any resentments in me I attest the self-same powers I even now invok'd that as long as I am blest with your esteem I can be capable neither of misfortune nor change and though I have lost Pacuvius and Blacius yet when I consider what I have thereby obtain'd I shall never repent the purchase We had certainly past the night away in so pleasing a conversation had not Izadora's Woman interrupted it by knocking at the Closet-door and telling her That Blacius at his coming home for he was then abroad would doubtless visit her and if he found her up at so unseasonable an hour it might raise suspitions which would hardly be supprest This fatal summons I receiv'd with extream reluctancy but Izadora who knew the truth of it and who apprehended my discovery told me 't was time to retire and having made me a thousand protestations of her constancy she strictly forbad
inclin'd to believe any thing rather than that he dissembles especially since in not crediting his vows I cannot injure him more than I do my own felicity At this reply Blacius could no longer suppress his Choler but with Eyes and Looks which had terrified me in a Cause less just than I now defended he told me You are not then only contented to preserve a criminal Flame in your Heart but you must publish it too and to raise your insolence to an inaccessional height you voluntarily acknowledge that you find your contentment in that which divests me of mine but since by your disobedience you will force me to use my paternal power I will make you e'r long not only know but practise your duty Finishing these words he went out of my Chamber and left me in as great a trouble at his rigor as he could resent for my constancy I must confess that my Affection made me say things which I should have condemn'd upon any other score and which after my resentment was a little over I endeavoured to wash away with Tears But no passions of Love or Repentance were hardly more predominant in me than those of Rage and Fury were in Hannibal who could not reflect upon the injury done his Authority and Revenge by forcing a Prison in his Head-Quarters and taking thence his capital Enemy upon the Eve of the Execution which Perolla had done by surprize and by the assistance of a few resolute friends he had in Salapia who were all disguis'd as well as he without abandoning himself to an excess of choller which made him utter things unworthy his Place and Reputation neither for two days together could those which had most intimacy and power with him obtain of him to appear in publick or so much as to take sufficient nourishment to preserve Nature nor had his despair been so soon vanquisht had not his Officers engag'd themselves not only to find out the Offenders but the Prisoner too if he would publish a Proclamation which might promise large Rewards to those which should effect either upon which the Carthaginians set forth a Manifest of this Tenor. HANNIBAL General of the Carthaginians in EUROPE WEre not Ingratitude a crime of so high a quality than nothing can be of a higher than to pardon it that same clemency which induced us heretofore not only to forgive Blacius but restore him to his Estate might have now again extended it self to him But our above-specified Principle and his unparallel'd Treachery makes him so unfit for a repetition of Mercy that 't would lose that name and turn to Injustice were it conferr'd on him who was not contented to be guilty himself but hath so involv'd others in his offences that he has in having forc'd our Prisons by his Complices as much violated the publique Iustice as his private Engagements These great wrongs done to the Carthaginian Empire through me their Minister are well merited if endur'd which to avoid I hereby solemnly protest before the gods by the Glory of Carthage and my dead Fathers memory That whatsoever Person shall reveal where the persidious Blacius is conceal'd or who were the Contrivers Caâsers or Actors of his Liberty shall have any one thing that the said party can desire and we can grant and receive besides some such other mark of our favour that all Men shall know we are as much concern'd in rewarding of Fidelity as in punishing the want of it I Know not whether the promise of so unlimited Rewards or the Justice of the gods who would not let Blacius enjoy that liberty he had been so unthankful for to the Bestower of it was the cause of his discovery but two days after he had relisht the blessing of Freedom he lost it again by a Squadron of Soldiers who violently breaking open the doors went so directly to a secret Vault where he had conceal'd himself that it manifested their search for him proceeded from their knowledge and not from their suspitions from thence they conveyed him bound in Irons and with words as ill to be digested as their usage to Hannibal's own Lodgings where a Guard of barbarous Affricans newly come from Carthage were set over him who no more understood the Roman Language than what belong'd to Humanity For Hannibal you may in some sort guess at his joy by what his trouble had been but for my part I was so drown'd in sorrow that when you can imagine the highest operation of grief I can truly affirm mine did make that good And indeed when I considered my unfortunate Father in the hands of those whose fury would not be quencht but with with his Bloud and that Perolla's usage made me esteem it as high a sin to engage him in any further attempt for Blacius's relief as my ignorance where he was made it impossible to send to him I found in my Judgement and Duty such strong arguments for sorrow that I had no way better merited the misfortune than not to have deplored it in the sublimest degree In the mean while the cruel Carthaginian to avoid all accidents and to hasten the satisfaction of his Revenge caused my Father the next day to be brought with ignominious cruelty to a Scaffold he had erected in the Allarm-place and as well to avoid those tumults which the Salapians affection to Blacius might raise as to satiate his Eyes with his Enemies Bloud he had raised another Scaffold near the first and there waited on by his Guards be intended to become a Spectator of that execution of which he had been the Judge Whilst these things were performing in publique an antient friend of Blacius's came to visit me and to give me that consolation my duty and affection so abundantly wanted After some discourses of a nature fit for the subject I was very inquisitive whether the Revealer of my Fathers retirement was not yet found out To which he answered me that though he had declin'd no ways imaginable for that discovery yet his endeavours had been fruitless but he continued though I cannot tell you the offender yet I can I am confident shew you the cause of the offence and thereupon pull'd out the Copy of that Proclamation I even now acquaint you wit Though my grief were of a quality which hardly permitted my Eyes to do any thing but weep yet as the gods would have it I stopped a while their employment to read that fatal Proclamation which as soon as I had ended I reflected upon some words in it that I thought might prove of great advantage to me and immediately after asked this charitable friend whether he thought the execution were yet done To which he answered he was confident it was not for just then he came from the place where it was to be performed his antient friendship rendring him uncapable of seeing such a Spectacle where some of the assistants had told him the usual Ceremonies that are practised in such Cases would take up
that you will not perform your engagement to him that shall reveal who was Blacius's Deliverer and therefore I shall make no scruple to acknowledge that it was I and the reward that I expect for this discovery is that you will suppress all thââe cruel thoughts you have taken up against the fair Izadora who through an excess of duty condemns her self to free her Father You that have been just Sir to your Enemies will not now I hope be the contrary to your self especially when the subject you are to employ your virtue on merits adoration sooner than Pardon and whose only crime is her Charity Instead then of so unfit a victim to appease your fury I offer that Perolla who had at Capua depriv'd you of life if his Sword had prov'd the more fortunate and had not his Fathers Tears and Dissimulation preserv'd you Who at Pettely rais'd his reputation by the destruction of 10000 Affricans who at Cassilinum made you send Blanks where you had denyed any conditions Who by the destroying of 25000 of Allies and Soldiers forc'd from you the Samnites Lucanians and Appulians who took that Cassilinum by storm which you only won by Famine in a word I present you that Perolla who was not only content to offend you in all these particulars but came even into your Head-Quarters and in the Center of your Army broke open your Prisons kill'd your Guards restor'd your Capital Enemy to his freedom and was now come to have stopt the progress of your revenge upon him by owning the action and by tying you unless you would violate your Faith to give me his life for the reward of this discovery which I had too effected had not his generous Daughter by her own confession necessitated me to imploy that Petition for her safety which I had designed for her Fathers Gods into what confusions did this resolute acknowledgement cast me into That death which I was prepared to suffer appeared far more supportable than this action of Perolla's for it reduced me either to imploy my request for my Fathers and so lose my friends Life or if I preserv'd Perolla's I must lose Blacius's and that which was an aggravation to this misery was that by what was done already I was necessitated to survive the loss of one of them unless I would prove my own executioner Alas how sad a conflict had I betwixt my Duty and my Affection Nature pleading for the one and Gratitude for the other What said I to my self wilt thou destroy thy Father to save his Enemy wilt thou not preserve that Life that gave thee thine wilt thou satisfy thy debts with thy Fathers Bloud and shall the tyes of Friendship be more prevalent than those of Nature But on the other side shall the name of Father make thee act that which will render thee unworthy that relation shall that breath which even now Perolla gave thee be employed to save anothers life by the ruine of his Unfortunate Izadora hast thou no way to perform thy duty but by a murther and hast thou no no way to perform thy gratitude but by a Paricide must the satisfaction of thy gratitude be the ruine of thy Father and must the satisfaction of thy duty be the loss of thy Friend must to be grateful and ungrateful prove an equal crime and must the paying of one debt render thee uncapable of paying the other I take the gods to witness that I would joyfully put an end to this fatal dispute but that of my life and have embrac'd that fate with a satisfaction equal to that of Martyrs who know their punishment is but the way unto their Glory but the time was so pressing that I was necessitated to spend what remained not in complaints but resolutions therefore I thus continu'd Perolla came to preserve Blacius though my unfortunate duty made him change his design and that generosity which once made my Father to esteem his life his misfortune because his Enemy conferr'd it on him though only by his courage will make a repetition of that favour create a higher trouble in him when the purchase of his safety is his Enemies voluntary death his Virtue doubtless will make him decline an obligation where what makes him receive it deprives him of all power to express his resentments for it 'T is but just too that that life which has so often preserv'd Blacius's should now be preserv'd by his Yes yes Izadora let Perolla find his safety from one of that Family in which he hath hitherto found his misery act now thy Fathers part and upon the score of his Virtue perform that for Perolla whose effects may demonstrate their cause and let him find now thou art in Blacius's room that that cruelty thou didst condemn in him thou wilt not practise for him and in this one action show what thy Fathers resentments should be and what thine own are Then when this debt is discharged satisfy thy own as generously and by ending thy life with his that gave it thee convince him and the World that as thou valu'st thy life short of thy duty which shouldst thou any longer enjoy would bring that truth in question and make that relish of self-interest which is of a contrary quality But alas I continued how will Perolla resent this proceeding he 'll alledge that what thou termest Gratitude is Cruelty that the way thou tak'st to save his life is the certainst means to lose it and that instead of repairing Blacius's injuries thou art more injurious far than he These and a world of such thy Friend will object against thee to which thou hast no reply but that thy Fate having invironed thee with excess of miseries thou electest those that to thy judgement are the least and that thou hadst rather dye by acting what may merit his esteem than live in a contrary unhappiness Whilst I was thus debating and had fixt upon this resolution Perolla was all the while conjuring Hannibal to observe his Promise and to make him the object of his Cruelty so he made me that of his Justice and in order to this told the Carthaginians such reasons that I apprehended nothing more than he would find his destruction in his Eloquence and so raise his enemies fury that he would sacrifice the violation of his Oaths and Faith to his revenge In this fear I interrupted him from proceeding by addressing my self in these terms to the Carthaginian Sir If I have been thus long silent you will I hope pardon it when you know that a dispute betwixt Gratitude and Nature was the occasion in the end the first has been victorious but to make it so I was necessitated to act my Fathers part who I know is too generous to let Perolla suffer for him when by his own sufferings he may hinder his and 't were too much wrong to the generosity of Perolla's action not to let it instruct my Fathers to an imitation of it These words too fully
inform'd my friend of my intentions to let him permit my proceedings any further which he hinder'd by leaving Hannibal and by prostrating himself before me where as soon as his disorder would permit him he cry'd out Ah Madam do not I beseech you by so unjust a Victory blemish your Virtue nor make me so wretched as to find my misery in that which perhaps you intend as an argument of your Affection to preserve your Fathers and your Life nay your Fame too are cause too glorious to deplore any effects which may proceed from them do not then envy me a death by which I shall always live and by losing only an uncertain Being obtain an Eternal one If I had not I reply'd taken up this resolution that which you do to suppress would have created it and in this fresh proof of your Virtue I find a greater invitaion to continue than alter my intentions Blacius would live more miserable with such a debt than he can dye by paying it and I cannot deplore his destiny which makes that Life which even now was to be an oblation only to Hannibals fury to prove a sacrifice to Gratitude If said Perolla the payment of that Gratitude be addrest to me I take all that 's holy to witness I shall find in the design only a larger and more pleasing payment than in the action Alas Madam consider too I beseech you what all Mankind will say of you they will doubtless condemn that Virtue which has been hitherto their admiration and that which you think will raise their esteem will absolutely suppress it besides if you proceed in your design 't will be so far from hindering that it will but hasten my death do not then I beseech you force me through despair to spill that bloud which now may be shed for a Subject that out-weighs the loss I shall find I reply'd in your silence a stronger inducement to obey you than in your words espicially if they be of this nature and for your apprehension of my prejudicing in this action that little Virtue I possess I have fixt upon a resolve shall still preserve if not increase it and I have so order'd all things that your last Declaration is now my only trouble which forces me to make use of that power you have so often assur'd me I have over you to beg and if that be not sufficient to command you by our passions which have been as pure as great and by all other conjurations that are most powerful whatsoever happens to me use no violence upon your self nor leave this life till the gods do call you to a better this I implore with the more earnestness because posterity shall judge of your love by your obedience Then without staying for his answer whose quality I read in his amazement I went to Hannibal and having laid open all the most pressing terms I could compose to illustrate the unworthiness of a violated engagemeut I conjur'd him as a recompence of what I had reveal'd to give Perolla his life and liberty who having followed me and hearing my request detesting to derive his safety from the cause he esteem'd in me so unnatural thus spoke to the Carthaginian By a true confession Sir how Blacius was relieved I am confident you find no other had a hand in it but I at least Izadora had not who was so far from either contriving or knowing it that when I presented him to her she was weeping him for dead and admir'd as much at his deliverance as he himself did As for that Letter she alleadges which was the cause of his Liberty I protest by all the gods it commanded me only to make use of the Consuls favour for Blacius's redemption by offering some Lybian prisoners or for a suspension of his death by threatening all those he had to follow his destiny so that she was no more the cause then the effect of her Fathers freedom neither can she pretend any title to the benefit of your Proclamation by discovering who was the Actor for when I brought Blacius to her I was so covered with Armor that she could not possibly know me and as an argument of this truth she call'd me Roman when as yet I never saw Rome and had my birth in this City therefore Sir none but I has any interest in your manifest which obliges you no less to preserve inviolate your vows and promises than to punish those which have offended you Ah Sir said I flinging my self at his feet I hope you are too judicious not to distinguish betwixt an accusation which proceeds from Generosity and one which proceeds from guilt and consequently not to impute this of Perolla's to one of the first quality but yet lest you should want light to see so much Virtue I beseech you reflect upon whose Son he is and you will find in his extraction cause to invite him rather to destroy Blacius by the hazard of his own life than to save him by a certain loss of it Yes Sir I blush in his behalf to acknowledge that the little Beauty and Virtue which the gods have given me converted his inclinations and made him cherish what he would otherwise have destroyed so that I am apparently the cause of that freedom which created your resentments besides I have a title to my request discovering who was the Actor For as to that allegation that I was weeping my Fathers loss when he presented him to me I may truly answer my affection had as large a share in those Tears as my Duty for I could not reflect upon Blacius danger and Perolla's courage but it was impossible to retain them and though indeed at his coming into my Chamber he was covered with Arms and Bloud yet his Gallantry discover'd what his unkind Armor would have conceal'd and in his actions I found as great an assurance that it was Perolla as I could have had in seeing his Face so that my calling him Roman proceeded not from my ignorance but fears for I was informed after my Fathers rescue such strict Guards were plac'd about the City that I apprehended my generous friend was not gotten out of it so that if by any misfortune he fell into your power I would not by precisely acquainting you who he was have given you so great an accession to that hatred you had already contracted for him besides I might aptly enough call him a Roman his inclinations and actions having always been for that Empire Thus Sir have I clearly demonstrated the interest I have in your engagement which gives me the confidence to conjure you by these Tears and by that word which you have hitherto so religiously observed give Perolla that Life and Liberty he would so meritoriously have lost which is the Petition I humbly make for my discovery neither can you satisfy that request he has already made you without yielding to mine too for that life he has begg'd is so united to his that it
cannot admit of a different Fate To which Hannibal reply'd Madam Perolla may with reason be credited since 't is not likely he would disclaim a Truth which would save his life and therefore as I have been just to him in granting his desires for you so permit me now to be just to my self by sacrificing an offender who is not only contented to be so but glories in it and out-braves my Justice Yes Sir said Perolla since you have saved the fair Izadora inflict on me all the torments your Revenge and Fury can inspire you with and I will embrace them with more joy than they are imposed nay commend that justice which by my sufferings exempts the perfectest creature from induring any This generous reply so incen'sd the barbarous Hannibal that he commanded his Guards to bind Perolla and carry him to receive a death whose torments might be as great as his crime The Guards at those barbarous Orders advanc'd to seize upon Perolla who perceiving their intentions went half way to meet them and holding out his Arms told them Here here Soldiers obey your General and bind up those Arms which when they were at liberty were as much his fear as now they are his satisfaction and which yet were I disposed to âell my life might make him tremble in the midst of you but I will not impose that in which I find my Glory Those words he spoke with so furious a look that though unarmed and invironed with his Enemies yet it struck such a damp into their Hearts that their trembling was the greatest proof they were alive But Perolla instantly disarming himself of all his fury with an Humility great as my grief kneel'd at my feet and told me The gods shall be my witness Madam that the onely thing which made me cherish my life was out of a hope that it might prove serviceable to you and now it is so fortunate not only to save you but pardon me if I say so to keep you too from a stain which might blemish all your other Virtues I resign it with more joy than I kept it but yet I must confess when I reflect upon our separation I find a strong aversion to it and am forc'd to run for my Consolation to the necessary causes of it Must then I reply'd interrupting him with a shower of Tears must then the unequall'd Perolla have so hard a fate that he finds his Consolation in the destruction of my Felicity unjust Heaven who will ever adore friendship when it turns to be the ruine of him that possest it in the highest perfection Ah Madam said he call me rather your Votary than your Friend and then you need not fear this President will prejudice Posterity for Men sooner adore than decline a Deity by the example of a Martyrdom But Madam you may convert my trouble into my felicity by permitting this voluntary death to preserve me alive in your esteem which will be a nobler existence and render me an object fitter for your Joy than Tears You shall not only have my esteem I reply'd but my company since 't is a greater misery to out-live the loss of so much Virtue than to dye with it But Sir said Izadora speaking to Spartacus perhaps I make the relation only of these accidents as tedious and troublesom to you as they themselves were to us but I will repair that fault by contracting the sequel of our Adventures To which my Prince reply'd Madam if I am in any trouble it only proceeds from sympathizing in those disasters you were fallen into and the difficulties I find in your being delivered out of them of which I am so impatient and concern'd that I shall beg you henceforward to believe that as long as you prosecute your Story you will as much oblige me as by interrupting it you will do the contrary Izadora with an action which testified her acknowledgement thus continued her Relation I will obey you Sir and it may be in my following discourse you will find that our perplexities were cur'd by as strange an accident as that which created them For Hannibal all this while continu'd in a deep silence which I attributed to his being a Judge rather than a Lover but the gods who magnify their power by producing great Effects from small Causes made us find in this poor Beauty the redress of those disorders which it had occasioned for at the first when I presented my self unto the Carthaginian I was as my condition required all vail'd and continu'd so till Perolla's cruel Gallantry forc'd me to uncover my Face in which Hannibal fancy'd as many charms as it wanted and by the help of his own imagination so abundantly supply'd the unkindness of nature to me that in his wounds we found our remedy And truly for it to vanquish any Heart was strange but to captivate Hannibal's who hated our Sex as much as he did the Romans and to divest him too of his fury and revenge appear'd so great a Miracle that had not some visible effects been the witness of that Truth I had found in my imperfections too many Arguments to have doubted it and without question 't was such Passion as his that made Love be painted blind but many that stood by and were not so ingaged as I was observ'd at first that which I no way suspected or perceiv'd till Hannibal who found Perolla was as much his Rival in Love as in Glory after having laid down all those motives he esteemed most prevalent to induce me rather to employ my request for my Father than my Friend perceiving me so unshaken in my resolves and so pressing in my Tears and Prayers and guessing at my disposition by his own which hardened it self by opposition at last when the Guards were carrying away the generous Perolla he told me Madam If I have labour'd to prove you had no Title to my Proclamation 't was only to shew you that you had a power over me from yourself greater than you can derive from thence and that you may command upon the score of your Beauty that which you only beg by virtue of my manifest Alas Sir I reply'd I am too well acquainted with this unfortunate Beauty to believe it can have so high an influence on so great a Conqueror pardon me then if I dare tell you I shall be diffident of its power unless I am convinc'd of it by a demonstration If you suspect said he that which carries its authority with it and if you can doubt that Truth which Hannibal's Captivity does witness command me any other tryal and you shall find in my obedience how great a wrong you have done the fair Izadora So high a civility I answered merits a proportionate return and therefore I shall employ that power you give me for your own advantage and only beg you to be just unto your vows by giving Perolla his life Madam said Hannibal though in saving him I shall preserve by what
I have observed as great an opposer of my Felicity as of my Conquests and thereby too create as many Enemies as Soldiers in my Army yet I will observe your Orders Yes Madam I give Perolla's life to your commands and I give you Blacius's without them who for having bestowed so great a perfection on the World merits rather my esteem than revenge My zeal to your service stays not in that dull method of only obeying what you command it lays hold on that which it thinks is your Will without the revealing it I could not have the patience to let him proceed his Words and Actions were too generous to delay my acknowledgements for them which I exprest prostrate at his feet in the most moving and humble manner I was capable of I will not Sir said Izadora trouble you with the repetition of them though they were so satisfactory to him to whom they were addrest that as an acknowledgement of it he went immediately himself unbound both Blacius and Perolla and presented them to me with an humility so far beyond his practise that the standers by admir'd as much as I was pleas'd at it But to obscure this joy some of Pacuvius's friends seeing the danger his generous Son had been in went to his House to inform him of it for he out of gallantry would not be present at his Enemies death though he had Hannibal's example to authorize that action As soon as he had notice of it he went with so great haste to the place of Execution that those which saw it thought that his affection and not his hatred was the cause of it The croud about the Scaffold was so great that it was with much difficulty and with an often repeating of his name to which all paid a deep respect that he got at last to Hannibal and it was just at that instant that the Carthaginian had unbound Perolla and given him to me Pacuvius was suddenly informed of all that happened which every one assured themselves would render him a large sharer in the general joy but alas he soon put them out of that belief by thus speaking to Hannibal I were Sir unworthy the friendship of so great a Conqueror did I value any relation above it 't is upon that principle that I have detested Perolla who hates as much your Person as your Glory and if I hitherto conceal'd that horrid attempt against you which he himself has now publisht 't was not Because he was my Son but out of a belief that I might convert him for I knew a courage which was capable in so green an age to attempt so bold and high a design which was more advantageous to you to be gained than destroyed but since that valour the gods have given him has been imployed to ruine what it should have advanc'd I am come to implore your justice against one who is as much an Enemy to nature as to Carthage punish him for intending your destruction in a place where not to have sacrific'd himself for you had been as great a sin Yes Sir punish him for designing your death and punish me in him not onely for concealing but likewise for not revenging it and let one execution repair both our crimes you see generous Hânnibal how I contemn my own interest when yours comes in competition with it which I imbrace with such a concern that I had rather extinguish my Family than continue it by leaving so great a stain upon your Justice and danger to your person as the saving of Perolla will amount unto Besides Sir shall that courage which hitherto found nothing so easie as to conquer leave the blemish behind it of having been vanquisht by the eyes only of one of our enemies shall the Romans derive their Triumph from a Sex which never merited higher than your pitty ãâã such a pleading Desire as Revenge and such a Virtue as Justice be supprest by an unworthy passion which like madness none believe they ever were possest with when they 'r cur'd of it Let not Sir I beseech you the cause of your disorders be worse than the effects but by a generous Conquest over your self shew you are capable to vanquish all obstacles and let your enemies in that very action which they esteemed would prove your shame find an argument that you are invincible so he that can overcome Hânnibal cannot but be thought to do the like to Rome and all the World The Carthaginian who knew no other cause of Pacuvius's hatred to his Son than what he had alledged not only upon that account excus'd his passion and expressions but replyed had I not already given Perolla's life to the fair Izadora's commands I now had bestowed it on Pacuius's generosity and find in what he alledges more cause to suppress than to creat my Revenge He that could sacrifice the hopes of his posterity for my interest had too much misplac'd his friendship if for a return to it I would not silence a Revenge especially when the acting it will prove the destruction of so generous a Family in which my misfortune is the onely fault of any one of it for Perolla wants not Virtue but I the felicity to merit it and though he continued with a smile you upbraid me with being vanquisht yet I cannot but acknowledge I am more pleased in this defeat than with all my former victories I have too this satisfaction that I was never conquered but by a Sex which the gods themselves could not resist who if they can for their subjection produce thus much beauty they carry their justification in the cause of their fault if it be one so that I commit none unless it be one to imitate those we adore I will not particularize all the dispute betwixt them since it serves but to acquaint you that Hannibal remained unshaken in what he had done and then came to me and told me I should Madam with the lives of Blacius and Perolla have given you too their liberties were it not that the grant of the first of these has been too great an exasperation to my Army to increase it at the same time by the last I will therefore hope for your pardon if I obey you but by degrees since otherwise I might hazard the losing of a power which is not so dear to me upon any score as out of a confidence it may serve you yet still for your sake they shall have no other Prisons but their Lodgings and as soon as I have fashioned my Officers to approve of their liberty I shall restore it to them with as much joy as I have lost my own Though this hard Declaration however moderated both by reasons and civilities did extreamly perplex me yet I only begg'd him to shorten their sufferings as much as might be and to perfect what he had so generously begun for I durst not be too earnest on so tender a subject lest it might create his suspitions that my love as much
declare him free But Madam he continu'd interrupting that return I was about to make him for so transcendent an obligation may not I fear your Love has as great a share in your melancholly as your Duty That friendship I reply'd which I pay Perolla is too pure to be deny'd and he has done so many things for the preservation of him to whom I owe my duty that without an offence to it I may give him as an acknowledgement a share in my sadness Call you that Madam said Hannibal but an acknowledgement which made you on the Scaffold prefer his life before your Fathers I did not I reply'd prefer him but Gratitude before my Father Ah Madam he answer'd take heed what you say for if you so much undervalue yourself as to believe any services can deserve your Gratitude you will perhaps give me a title to that by Justice which I never could expect but from your Mercy For Perolla when he sav'd Blacius the first time knew not who he was and the second time did it to obey his Mistris and offend his Enemy But I not only knew that in preserving him I preserv'd my mortall'st Enemy and did it without any inducement except a belief that it might be pleasing to you but also sav'd that Perolla too for whom you would have sacrific'd not only your Father but your self and by which I found I cherisht my own destruction but my obedience was too perfect to stand upon Reason or if it did it found nothing which more deserv'd that name than to obey you Yes Madam I consider'd my destruction too glorious to deplore it if thereby I might settle your Contentment Judge then fair Izadora if I have not cause to say that there is some desparity between our Services and whether I may not upon that belief expect that you will at least commiserate the captivity of my Mind as much as of his Body who certainly is unworthy his felicity if he can find room to entertain a grief having the highest preservative from it the blessing of your affection Sir I reply'd those obligations you have conferr'd on me are of so transcendent a nature that to think to define is to injure them and if they have any defect it proceeds only from their greatness which by a necessity of gratitude casts me into as high a misery as they took me out of Yes generous Hanniball I can truly say that when I reflect upon your obligations and find not only a want of power but of hope to make them of proportionate return I am struck with a melancholly equal to the joy I resented when you conferr'd them on me and perhaps I should not lye if I profest that these thoughts are as large a cause of my sadness as any other Would to the Gods Madam said he that your will to oblige me were but equal to your power I could soon then exchange my fears for joys in very contemplation whereof I quickly lose my self Yes fair Izadora those that gave you the power to command have given you too the power to reward and I find should in an Hymeneal Crown an bundant recompence for my services and sufferings this union should give the World Peace or you the World which is a far easier Conquest than that of Izadora whom I durst promise to make Empress of that by Arms which by virtue she has so just a title to for if only if only to obey the Carthagineans and to satisfie my own inclinatiâ I have already so far proceeded she cannot doubt but to justifie her choice and merit the glorious title of her Souldier I would perform miracles almost as great as the cause of them Though the words of this Declaration were very confident yet the Declaration it self was not for Hannibal maugre his high Courage was all the while it lasted as pale as guilt and made it with so great a trembling and constraint that he had as much of my pity as of my anger but after a little silence which rather shew'd my resentment than irresolution I told him My apprehensions of being ungrateful were now I perceive too well grounded for that you do me the honour to mention is not in my power to grant I know this confession to a Prince less generous might produce a contrary effect than I am confident 't will in you from whom I have receiv'd such memorable obligations hat I had rather have your disesteem by acknowledging a Truth than continue your favour by a dissimulation which would render me unworthy of it That Heart which is below the great Hannibal is so given to another that were it revocable 't were upon that score if not on any other unfit for your acceptance for I must be unconstant to be kind and I know you have a greater Passion for Virtue than for Beauty Alas Madam he eply'd fetching a deep sigh Why did you make such haste to give your self away knowing the influence of your Eyes which would create as many Servants as Beholders Why did you prove unjust to one of them to be the like to all the rest for to give all to the happy Perolla is as great an injustice in one extream as to reserve none for the residue of your Adorers is in the other Sir said I you may easily perceive the great distinction I place between your and Perolla's actions for by undertaking to reward his I shew at how low a rate I value them and by acknowledging that the impossibility of my satisfying what I owe you is as great as my desires to pay it I acquaint you with the largeness of my resentments and do perhaps in my very ingratitude it self in some degree prove grateful Ah Madam he answer'd do not lessen your power to the increase of your cruelty nor render my services uncapable of reward by esteeming them above any No fair Izadora let me not find my ruine in that which was my duty and shall be my ambition let not my performances like bubbles encrease to nothing But at last Hannibal who perceiv'd that his replies did rather confirm than lessen my constancy and that he had unfortunately taken a time which my melancholly made unfit for his addresses told me I should be too partial to my self Madam did I expect to suppress one flame in you and create another any way but by perseverance I will therefore no more importune you with my Passion nor make use of any other Orators than my services and sufferings neither shall I despair but by their help to vanquish your disdain for I find in my very fear an ample cause of hope since the impressions of nature are as firm as those of our own acquisition and Perolla by his services and glory having vanquisht your aversion to his blood it gives me a confidence by the same ways to produce as high effects the disproportion being at worst but equally great I will go then Madam and peform things of such Virtue that
had been but preparing what he shortly intended to act and thereupon informed him how that he had got so great an interest in Perolla that he doubted not but to employ it for his certain ruine if at least Hannibal redoubled his assiduity towards me and whatsoever my usage were that he would not only put on a countenance which might relish of satisfaction but cast out words which might make all the Salapians believe and talk of the change which when once divulged and none permitted to visit Perolla but such as would credit and relate what they heard he would so Husband that report that if Perolla's constancy were not his nature it must inevitably be ruined Hannibal exceedingly approv'd of this advice and so admirably acted his part that not only most of the Salapians believ'd I had a real passion for him but also Blacius did so This great alteration soon flew like Lightning through the City and at last came to Perolla whose amazement as it proceeded rather from his finding so many were mistaken in me than that he himself was so But Oristes who attributed his to the cause he desired and not to the true one came one day to Perolla's Chamber where after having with great vehemency protested to him an unequall'd friendship he conjur'd him by it to cast off a melancholly which would rather increase my Triumph than make me repent my crime and that if he were so unfortunate as yet to have a passion for one which was so unworthy of it and desired to reclaim me he should rather than constantly continue seemingly divest himself of his Flame and contemn me for Woman-like Kings were more concerned to subdue a Rebel than to make a new Conquest I am sorry Perolla coldly reply'd that I have an opportunity to place so high a justice upon the fair Izadora's constancy as not to suspect it when Oristes does But he continued is it possible that a perfection more apparent than this Calumny can be so unhappy as to be doubted by Men of judgement and honesty Ah! unjust Heaven why did you establish the Throne of Virtue in the Heart and not in some conspicuous place where to be virtuous and to be known so had been the same thing but perhaps the highest proof of virtue is undisturbedly to endure the reproaches of Vice and if goodness were visible our In-Interests and not our Inclinations might make us embrace it whereas when it has no witness but the possessor it is a nobler invitation to it But Oristes lest your should persevere in your crime know that constancy is Izadora's nature as well as practise and I having no Title to her affection but her goodness I should be as foolish to doubt the foundation of my felicity as miserable if it fail'd I wish reply'd Oristes Izadora had a constancy worthy so noble a Flame and if this be not the object of my belief it shall be at least of my Prayers You speak said Perolla as if you had still some doubts of her Passion for me Would to the gods he coldly replyed folding his Arms and casting down his eyes that mine were but doubts and then unfolding them and looking up cheerfully again but I am too blame he continued to make you miserable before your time and to let my words be so unfortunate as to acquaint you with what her actions will Ah Oristes Perolla cryed out I conjure you by all the gods inform me of your suspitions and be confident if I receive any trouble from them it can proceed onely from the knowledge that my friend has injured what he should admire for in what concerns my particular I am as far from believing she can be criminal as she is from being so No no Oristes I beseech you tell me your suspitions that I may remove them and that for your good opinion of her I may be oblig'd as mch to your Reason as your Faith and the sooner to induce you to this I must tell you plainly that to be my friend and Izadora's Enemy is inconsistent The wicked Oristes perceived by these generous replies that he had undertaken a task as difficult as dishonest but knowing himself too far engaged to retire he told Perolla with a deep sigh I had rather renounce all things than the blessing of your friendship and therefore what I thought to have acquainted you with as an effect of my care I will silence as an argument of my respect but perhaps Izadora's flame for Hannibal may tell you a truth which the excess of your passion makes me decline to do neither would I have so much as mentioned this did I not know it is already as publique as true and consequently that you have heard it That I have heard it said Perolla is not more certain than that I do not believe it but alas he continued is it possible that Oristes does If I did not apprehend he replyed to offend you by acquainting you with my belief I should inform you of it and accompany it with such pregnant reasons as perhaps it might turn to be yours too I conjure you said Perolla hastily to impart it to me for I find 't is as impossible to remove your jealousies till I know them as 't were for you to have any of Izadora if you knew her I will then said Oristes tell you freely that not only I believe she has gas given her self to the Carthaginian but also wonder you do not consider I beseech you that Inconstancy and Ambition are the Hereditary Vices of her Sex that you are a forlorn Prisoner that your Rival is a Triumphant Conqueror which are two extreams that can hardly avoid creating those two others in your Mistriss Reflect I beseech you upon the difference between the imaginary Crown of Constancy and the real one of Empire For though Hannibal be not born of a King yet his Virtue makes him the disturber of Kingdoms which is a more glorious power than any that can be deriv'd from Succession or Birth Remember also that a Woman is more pleas'd with the Power than with the Merit of her Lover the first being an advantage which she participates in but the last one which he wholly ingrosses to himself This said Perolla interrupting him is the character of some of her Sex but 't is not of Izadora whose Reason as much as Nature detests so black a crime I say her Reason for the cannot decline a Crown of Vertue for one of Gold but the reflection on the purchase will deprive her of all the joy of it and though a Crown of Empire be more glittering than one of Constancy yet the just gods by conferring many real advantages on the latter have abundantly repair'd the seeming ones of the former for the first being material is subject to the inconstancies of Fortune but the last being a speculative Blessing is exempted from the power of that blind goddess yes doubtless a Crown of Constancy is the noblest as
much willingness as justice and beg you to believe that whilst my life is dear unto you it shall be so to me and that I will never undertake to dispose of it as long as it bears the glorious Title of yours I know continu'd Izadora that had not Perolla's nature been of an admirable temper my Fathers former proceedings might have rais'd some jealousies in him that what he would have had taken for an effect of his Gratitude was one of his Malice and that turning him over to Pacuvius's consent here mov'd his hopes to as great a distance as ever and did it too to make Perolla contract a higher hatred for his Father by declining what his very Enemy seem'd to confer upon him but his generosity was so perfect that he has often protested those imaginations were as little on his Heart as his Tongue To hasten to a conclusion that morning after I had inform'd Perolla of all things which had arriv'd me since our separation and of those barbarous threatenings Hannibal made against my Honor which inflam'd him with an unextinguishable revenge he left me and having again kist my Fathers hands he return'd to the Roman Camp in expectation to obtain from the Consul a Pardon for Pacuvius revolt and an Order to enjoy his Estate in Salapia and Capua which might give his generous Son a safe opportunity to implore his consent For he being then at Tarentum a Garrison of the Enemies he durst not trust himself to Hannibal's and his Fathers resentments but at his coming to Crispinus he found him on the point of yielding up the Ghost which he did some few hours after having first writ to the Senate an ample and just Letter in his praise which did no little contribute to the immediate chusing of Clodius Nero Consul who had married Pacuvius's Sister the other Consul was Marcus Livius whom the People had formerly banisht and whose Service they now implor'd a Fate common to ungrateful States and Princes who not learning Gratitude rom Virtue must be taught it from Necessity The first thing which Nero perform'd was an unfortunate justice to Porolla's Gallantry which has been the source of our second Miseries for he so truly and so highly extoll'd the whole series of his Nephews actions and particularly that last of preserving Salapia which came to his knowledge by Fame and not by the Actor that he procur'd a congratulatory Letter to him from the Senate which was a favour he declin'd for Blacius though his wounds spake his fidelity and courage which he would not permit his words to do lest the world might believe he esteem'd his Eloquence greater than his performances This action of the Consuls whether it proceeded from his embracing the interest of his Family above that of the State or the design he had thereby to break that new contracted Friendship betwixt Perolla and Blacius or his ignorance of the latters generosity in that action I cannot certainly determine but this alas I too well know that my Father receiv'd such deep impressions of his slighting which his own friends perswaded him was an effect of Perolla's being more ambitious of Glory than of his Daughter and which Pacuvius's on the other side fomented and concurr'd in to break an union which their hereditary malice made them detest that Blacius who was not so perfectly recovered of his aversion for Perolla as to be uncapable of a relapse immediately tore from his Heart a Friendship which began but to take root for his spirit was too high to preserve a good opinion for one which both his Friends and his Enemies acknowledg'd was greedier of a little Fame than of Justice his esteem or alliance O gods said Izadora raising her voice could you find out nothing but Perolla's virtue to be the cause of Perolla's destruction a misery so much the greater by how much since that provok'd you it was impossible for him ever to do othewise But Sir she continu'd addressing still her discourse to Spartacus Pardon I beseech you a digression which the sense of our succeeding misfortunes extorted from me which began by Blacius commanding me to banish from my Heart a Flame that was not to be extinguisht but with my life That cruel Injunction had like to have effected both but I preserv'd the latter because it was inseparable from the former and though I represented Perolla's innocency as clear as it was yet Blacius passion had so clouded his judgement that like a false Optick it represented all objects to be of the same colour of the Glass which was lookt through and indeed I deriv'd nothing from my attempts but the raising of his hatred for me instead of suppressing his for Perolla whose trouble I judg'd by my own and therefore was almost as much perplext to let him know my Fathers change as I was at it at length I determin'd by my silence to preserve him as long as might be from the knowledge of his misfortunes in expectation that some favourable accident might intervene which would restore Blacius to his justice and so Perolla might avoid knowing he had been unfortunate till he were so no longer but alas out of an apprehension of creating his trouble I continued it for by not letting him know my Fathers suspitions I denied him the means of suppressing them and Blacius not ascribing his silence to his ignorance of his displeasure but to a contrary cause so confirmed himself in his jealousies that the aversion they produced has been ever since unremoveable But in this proceeding I could not be more faulty to Perolla than I was obliging to Rome which by his continuing ignorant of what was past received a benefit from his Valor that perhaps it had fail'd of had I acquainted him with his misfortunes for I believe they would have necessitated him to have made use of all that courage to struggle with him which ignoring he employed against Hannibal for 't was he that under Nero drave him from the Salentines and Apulians into the Country of the Brutians 't was he which was the chief Actor in those famous exploits at Grumentum and Venusia and 't was he that rendred it impossible for Hannibal to march any further than Canusium to join with his Brother Asdrubal who having left the Government of Spain to his Brother Mago and Asdrubal the son of Gesco had already crost the Perenean Mountains all Gaul and the Alpes and had with a powerful recruit of Lygurians laid siege to Placentia The Consuls on this intelligence drew lots who should oppose this Torrent and it fell to Livius who with near 50000 Horse and Foot went to meet so redoubted an Enemy Asdrubal informed of it raises his siege to shorten the Consuls march who having thereby relieved his Friends was very wary how he dealt with his Enemies and though he left Rome to take possession of his Command he told the great Fabius who advised him to protract the War that he was resolved to fight
Agreement as soon as they see a probability of building their Fortune by the ruine of their Faith they do thereby instruct the Romans to reduce them to a condition of not being able to violate a Peace before they grant them one But continued Scipio all this I speak to Carthage and not to Hannibal to whose desires I will give what I will deny my own judgment and that is Peace provided that my first Concessions be the Articles of it and that an equal satisfaction be made for those injuries we have sustained by their Infidelity I am not come Hannibal reply'd to cheapen a Peace I come to offer what I esteem just and as I have done it at first word so I will not recede from my first overture if thou esteemest it unreasonable the god of Battels must be our Judge 'T is to him then Scipio briskly reply'd I refer our difference who I believe thou wilt find more untractable than I am for he cannot be a god if he favor an Army which comes more loaden with Inâidelity than Arms and from whom Victory will flie lest she be thought as blind as Fortune Then the Consul laying by his serious looks told the Carthaginian smiling But if at my return to my Army every one be as well satisfied with this conclusion as a Gentleman that commands those Horse pointing to his Guards I shall find as general a joy at the assurance of a Battel as at the possession of a Victory and if every Soldier had his resolution and design Hannibal would not avoid his particular Fate whatever the Gods determined of the publick Who is this said the Carthaginian that is so great an Enemy to Peace and to Hannibal 'T is Perolla said the Consul Oh Gods the Aârican reply'd what strange accident makes him abandon his Izadora But may I not generous Scipio by your favor be satisfied from his own mouth Yes said the Consul I will send him to you but first I must exactan engagement from you and then the like from him that whatever your discourses be you shall pass no farther I do Hannibal answer'd faithfully promise it for since I am certain in so short a time to have so many thousand witnesses of my revenge I would not confine the sight of it to so few This confidence said Scipio I will leave Perolla to answer who immediately shall meet you then taking leave of Hannibal he told him Remember Carthage pulls down her own destiny by decliming a Peace which she implor'd with tears and when I ask no other satisfaction for their treachery but to restore what they took from us by it Remember said the Carthaginian 't was Citizens not Soldiers which beg'd made and broke the Peace and 't is Hannibal you have now to deal with who intending to keep his bargain will make it accordingly and has offered you what before next Sun does set you will repent you have declin'd The Consul would not hear this reply but came immediately where I waited for him and there told me the publick transactions and my Rivals desire which he gave me leave to satisfie but first engaged me to the same conditions Hannibal had submitted unto which having faithfully promis'd I gallopt to the place where he attended me and where truly I was receiv'd by that great man with a civility and countenance which had nothing of an Enemy and Rival I saluâed him with an high respect and with an humility proportionable to the difference of our qualities but I could not suspend that just hatred I had contracted against his barbarous usage to a perfection greater than that sin which the seeing him so infinitely increast that had I not remember'd my engagement to Scipio I had then either ended our differences or my life but whil'st I was in those thoughts they were interrupted by Hannibals telling me Is then Perolla your Hate greater than your Love that you abandon your Mistriss to prosecute your Rival Or has that high justice of Izadora's which esteem'd Hannibal unworthy of her taken up the same belief of you Sir I reply'd that affection which I confess is an injustice for the fair Izadora to confer on any man forces me to seek out the high interrupter of it which yet is no argument that my desire of revenge is greater than my flame for the cause being alwayes more noble than the effect my passion which makes me endeavor to vindicate the object of it cannot be esteem'd less great than that which it forces me unto neither could I by any one action render my self more unworthy the beatitude of Izadora's Love than in not declining my joys to revenge her wrongs which to effect I will fling my self into dangers as high as those pleasures I have lately abandonâd Ah young man said Hannibal thou art as little sensible of as worthy thy felicity Canst thou possess Izadora's Love and think of any thing besides Were I in thy blest condition nor Revenge Empire or Glory should one minute separate me from a felicity which I could not render my self more unworthy of than by abandoning nay I would quarrel with any thought which should interpose much more remove me from it but since thou âast left all to follow thy Revenge if thou hast the courage to act it to morrow I 'll present thee the occasion Oh Gods I cry'd out if I have the courage to act it Alas he that did not want it to vindicate an injur'd Empire will not certainly when 't is to right a perfection as far above an Empire as she is any thing else that 's mortal Yes Hannibal thou shalt find a heart that 's fill'd with so divine an image cannot be capable of so low a sin as Fear but on the contrary 't will inspire me with resolution enough to seek thee out even in the center of thy Troops I will said Hannibal spare thee that pains thou shalt find me at the head of them where I will more handsomly punish those miseries thy better stars have cast upon me and by thy death before 200000 witnesses evince thou hadst more Fortune than Merit in thy Love and by destroying the object of Izadora's flame punish her ingratitude to mine Do but I reply'd assault my life in so generous a way I will excuse thy attempt upon it by Oristes and never implore a greater certainty for the punishment of thy Crimes than to have thee defend them with thy Sword The apprehension I had continu'd Perolla that my passion might transport me beyond my promise made me after having again summon'd Hannibal of his engagement gallop away to the Consul who I found by an excess of civility was become the Captain of my Guards as I had been of his he made me too that generous Compliment and after I had by an humility resembling the cause of it exprest my gratitude I inform'd him as we were returning to the Camp what had past betwixt my Rival and me whilst he was
produc'd so sad an effect but the joy of her alteration meeting with a Body too much weakn'd to receive so transcendent a blessing This new and perhaps unexpected Gallantry more troubl'd Izadora than had he made use of that power Blacius was so willing to furnish him with for she found it far more difficult to oppose Virtue than persecution and indeed her perplexity was such that for a while she answer'd him in nothing but weepings which the generous Flamminius observing and perhaps fancying the cause of her disorders begg'd her to believe he was more sensible at her Tears than she could be for their subject that all he said or hoped for was but to obtain a pardon for what his Passion and Misfortune had cast upon her that she would not so much contribute to his Torment as to manifest she was sensible of it nor to his Recovery as shewing him a Beauty which was capable of greater miracles This discourse confounded Izadora on the one side to destroy so perfect a Virtue and on the other to preserve so dangerous a Ryval for Perolla was a strange perplexity besides to give him hopes was to cast herself into as great a danger as she exempted him from and to make him despair was by Blacius's vows against your Life to involve you in a resembling misfortune but at length considering that he had virtue enough to give her a confidence that by it he might in time suppress his Passion or if that which was so strong in all other occasions should prove so weak in this that yet her and your condition would be but as desperate as without that Essay she resolv'd to save a life that the gods but by Izadora had not the power to preserve In this relation she told Flamminius blushing and trembling I will pardon you all things so to dye be not one of them O Madam hereply'd are my Crimes so great that you deny me too that way of avoiding farther punishments No said Izadora your Virtues are so that I can better suffer your passion than your ruine I could not but sigh at those words said Perolla but Callione did not or would not hear me Ah Madam she continu'd Flamminius reply'd do not you think me past recovery and in that faith do like Physitians to Patients which are so permit them any thing or may not I fear I owe this preservation to your duty not your mercy But I carry my fears too far and make them perhaps as injurious as my hopes which have no greater ambition than to have the Divine Izadora for the object of their adoration and that she will promise me in the same moment she forbids me that felicity I may as by her Commands end my life with what gives the relish to it This said Izadora hastily and in disorder I promise you And this promise said Flamminius kissing her hand I do more joyfully receive than that health and life it will restore me to Izadora gave Flamminius that engagement because it was nothing conclusive to your prejudice and because Blacius who was impatient to learn the event of their discourse was coming towards them who might have forc'd his fair Daughter to a more binding one or to as great a danger by her declining it To shorten my relation Blacius though he had many protestations from Flamminius that his Truth and not his complyance publish'd that Izadora as far above his hopes as merit had made him happy and that his health should be suddainly a visible effect and evincement of what he profest yet upon his return he confin'd Izadora to her Chamber till by Flamminius recovery he was convinc'd of his Daughters obedience which yet he durst not manifest to be his intention before Flamminius who he knew would revenge any Tyranny upon himself that was impos'd on his Mistriss But upon his first visit which was not long after so powerful a charm were Izadora's words she was restor'd to that freedom her Servant never knew she had lost but it was upon condition that she should receive Flamminius addresses and the same minute she manifested any aversion for them to be one of the vestal Nuns of Diana which you know is a society that admits of no return to the world to any that are once ingag'd in it If it had not been for Perolla this threatening had lost that quality and the pennance had invited her to the Sin but she knew to be in the World and not his was as inconsistent with her inclination as Vows and that the way was easier for him to follow her to Elizium than to the Nunnery but yet the hope she had in his Fortune and Courage made her look as at a distance though as at a certainty upon the latter and dispatch an express to acquaint him with her resolution if his arrival prevented it not But whether Blacius has heard of this messenger or whether his apprehension that your now accession of Glory which came to his knowledge last night by a Spye he kept about you would make the Senate consider your particular as a publick Concernment accelerated the Nuptials I cannot tell but this I can that there was no intentions of them so suddenly and that Flamminius had never the confidence to ask Izadora's consent but contents himself with not learning her aversion for them and in observing in her countenance a joy which has not only deluded him but all those that have consider'd it but alas it was but the better to palliate her fatal resolution which is in the Nuptial Bole that is offer'd to Venus to drown her life or else perhaps she does not counterfeit but her exterior satisfaction proceeds from an eternal one that she dyes a Martyr for Perolla and for Constancy which I hope his arrival will prevent and convert our fears into nobler passions For my part I shall not tell you either the Office Izadora impos'd on me or the resolution I form'd on it since I am confident you have heard both Yes said I fair Callione I have and you must practice neither I will act a part that will exempt you from acting any Then lifting up my Eyes and Hands I thank ' the gods for having communicated so much Divinity to a Creature and implor'd them to direct my actions for her satisfaction though to my own ruine This short ejaculation finish'd I begg'd Callione that I might have the felicity to see and talk one minute with Izadora which she promis'd and was no further on her way towards the satisfying her engagement than her Closet door but Izadora came into the Chamber waited on by Flamminius Great gods what tremblings did that sight cast me into which I saw through the crevice of the door I was once going to have made him no more my Rival or to have been his no longer but the presence of Izadora and Flamminius virtue ty'd up my Arm neither though my reason had not supprest my disorders had I enjoy'd the
ever giving any other Yes Sir 't is his Body that we are carrying back and his Murtherer is fled who could I have overtaken I would never have implor'd any other Sword of Justice for my revenge than my own and either punish'd the killer of my Brother or not resented the misery of surviving him That word of Brother made us soon know 't was Vixores that spoke it and truly he so mingl'd his grief with his expressions that Arsaces who you know doted on that Favourite was so inflam'd that he protested by a world of horrid Oaths you should never enter into his Dominions but to bring your head upon a Scaffold Then running to Surena's Body he flung himself upon it and by kissing his pale and bloudy Face and a thousand such other extravagancies publish'd his Frienshdip and his Grief I know not whether the motion in carrying or Arsaces tormenting him was the cause but we soon perceiv'd that he began to breathe and suddenly after faintly to open his Eyes Oh gods into what transports did this discovery cast Orodes in truly he was thereby so overjoy'd that he perform'd many things unworthy of his years and Majesty but that these good symptomes might be improv'd a Litter was instantly brought Surena put into it and carried to his own Palace accompani'd on foot by Arsaces and all the Court The Chyrurgeons having immediately search'd and bound up his wounds told the impatient King that till the third dressing they could make no positive judgement of his life but they assur'd him if his cure lay in the power of Art they durst boldly promise it I was present whilst all this was acting and as soon as I found they left Surena to his rest I stole out of the company and went to Parthenissa in hope to learn the subject of your difference but alas I found her so drown'd in weepings that I forgot a while the cause of my visit to bear her company in that sad employment at length observing that my weakness did but augment hers I interrupted her Tears by desiring to learn the subject of them for if she knew no more than I she had no just cause for so immoderate an affliction Alas Sillaces she reply'd have not you then understood what I came from being inform'd of that Artabanes has kill'd Surena and being fled Arsaces had solemnly bound himself by sacred Oaths that the reparation of his offence shall be a perpetual banishment Madam said I 't is true indeed Arsaces in his passion when he thought Surena dead swore what you say but since 't is found that 't was only a long swound he was fallen into and that the hopes of his life are greater than the âears of his death so that I believe the King will repent and recall his vows But Sillaces she hastily reply'd do you tell me this as a Truth or to flatter my grief I tell you it Madam said I as the former for I pay you too high a respect to delude you into a greater sorrow which I should unavoidably perform did I give you a false subject of joy Then she said one of my greatest fears is supprest but I am doubtful I shall not so easily silence the other which is for to you I dare boldly tell my thoughts I apprehend I am the innocent cause of this disorder and that Surena finding the advantage Artabanes had over him in my affection has taken this fatal way to destroy his Rival No no Madam I reply'd though I cannot tell you the cause of their difference yet I can assure you that which you mention is not it for Vixores relation to the King made us evidently understand that the challenge came from Artabanes Oh gods she imediately reply'd what it Sillaces that you tell me you have made my admiration as great as my grief thereupon she began to renew her weeping with such violence that I have often since believ'd some Divine fore-knowledge of your suspitions produced her Tears for my particular I was at first as ignorant of their cause as perplext at their effect but at last remembring her grief to repair my error I told her perhaps Madam Vixores relation had more of design than truth and knowing that the Kings Edicts were only rigorous against the Senders and not the Acceptors of Challenges he to exasperate Arsaces fury and extenuate his Brothers Crime made that to be Artabanes which was Surena's Offence Alas said the fair Parthenissa would your conjecture were certain 't would exempt me from fears which makes me tremble But Sillaces she continu'd if you have any sense of that affliction my suspence has cast me into I conjure you to enquire certainly and particularly what has happen'd for I verily believe the knowledge of what I apprehend could hardly prove a higher misery than are my doubts I was so earnest to obey her that immediately I went to Lindadory's as well to satisfy my Inclination as my Duty to Parthanissa's command for I was confident your Sister was as well instructed with your affairs as any other could be but alas I discover'd nothing there but fresh causers of sadness and found by a melancholly experiment that the resentments of Nature are as violent as those of Love or Friendship and at my first coming in though I had arm'd my self against all weaknesses of that quality yet the fair Lindadory's Tears were so eloquent that I thought it no sin to imitate them and having mingl'd ours together for our common loss I began to do that for her which I needed as much my self in brief I so fortify'd her hopes by assuring her you could not be dangerously wounded since you had strength enough to fly from Arsaces choller and that Surema being in a probability of recovering 't was not unlikely to make him recall a rash vow where the performance would be a greater sin than the breach of it that in the end I moderated her afflictions and then acquainting her how I was employ'd by the unconsolable Parthenissa she permitted me to follow my enquiry which though extream diligent was absolutely fruitless for though I ask'd of Zephalinda and she of all her Brothers Servants and Confidents yet we could no more discover the occasion of your difference than suppress the troubles it created All this while Arsaces sufferings were not inferior to ours that unfortunate Prince never abandon'd his Fvorites Chamber and by promisinâ excessive rewards to the Chiurgeons courted their Art and Diligence but now the time was come in which they were to give their positive Judgements of Surena's life and whilst they were taking off their Plaisters the poor Orodes stood all pale and trembling and in a far worse perplexity than if their sentence were to have been pronounc'd upon himself at last Surena's wounds being perfectly view'd the Chirugeons found they were exceedingly inflam d and so many symptomes of their being inwardly ganginâd that they all with Tears in their Eyes acquaited Arsaces
that it lay not in the power of any thing but a Miracle to recover him at this fatal declaration the King fetching a deep sigh fell speechless on the ground and Surena perceiving so high demonstrations of his favour made such excellent and passionate retributions for them and so admirably exclaim'd against Fate not for ending his life but for not permitting him to end it in so generous a Princes service that all which heard him found his impiety rather a justice than a crime Arsaces being by many remedies recovered from his fainting was before he had the strength to speak carried out of his Favourites Chamber who no sooner perceiv'd it empty of all but his Domesticks sent one of them for the Princess Zephalinda who being come was conjur'd by him to obtain from Parthenissa for him the honor of a visit to whom he protested he had some secrets of Importance to communicate which should he dye before they were reveal'd would leave too great a horror on his Conscience The fair Zephalinda immediately obey'd his injunction and came to wait on Paâthenissa when she and I were admiring at the occasion of your silence The sadness which so visibly appear'd in Zephalinda's Face was at first attributed by us both entirely to that unimitable Friendship that generous Princess paid you but we soon found that Nature had a large share in it When she had inform'd Parthenissa with the occasion of her visit your fair Mistriss was extreamly starl'd at it whether it proceeded from a Prophecy of what she afterwards learn'd out of sympathy with Zephalinda or from that sad banishment which would inevitably follow by your Rivals Death but to contract your suspension I will not inform you of all those pressing motives his generous Sister us'd to obtain her desires since 't is enough you know they were successful But Parthenissa was no sooner retir'd into her Chamber to make her self ready for the intended visit than one of her Servants came to inform me that a countrey-man which had sought me at my own house and mist of me there being acquainted where I was was come to speak with me having a Packet which he said was of some consequence zephalinda though she knew 't was you which had reduced her Brother to that extremity never lessen'd her friendship but was so generous as to profess she was confident 't was âurena not you that was the cause of her misfortune and was so earnest with me to satisfy her opinion which was that those letters were from you that to obey her I was uncivil and left her alone to go and receive them The superscription I scarcely lookt upon when I knew it to be your hand and transported with joy I ran up to Zephalinda and with her into Parthenissa's Chamber where I assur'd them that not only I should now know your condition but the cause of your Duel but alas assoon as I open'd my Pacquet I found a Letter for the King and another for Zephalinda but none for her which did most desire and most merit one I confess my disorder at it was not far short of hers but she attributing your silence to any subject rather than the true one and believing my Letter might discover the cause conjur'd me to peruse it But oh gods what astonishment was mine when I found what it contain'd it made me a long time continue silent and trembling and Zephalinda had no sooner ended hers but it ingender'd the same effect Parthenissa who could not fancy since you were living as appear'd by your Letters what strange accident could produce such an operation broke her own silence to learn the occasion of ours Alas Madam I reply'd you will be more happy in theignorance than the knowledge of it If said she I knew not Artabanes to be living your words would make me suspect he were dead No no Madam Zephalinda answer'd the certainty he is alive is not greater than having committed his Crime he is unworthy to continue so Is it possible said Parthenissa that he can commit a crime which may render him worthy of death in your judgement Yes Madam she reply'd and when you have read this Letter presenting him to Parthenissa I believe you will be of my judgement whilst he was the destroyer of Surena I excus'd the action upon the belief I had that he was invited to it by justice but now I have discover'd he can suspect your Constancy and convert a passion of Love unjustly into one of hatred he shall find I can from his Friend become his Judge and when his actions are ill not fear to term them so Whilst Zephalinda was thus speaking the unfortunate Parâhenissa read her Letter and no sooner found what was in it than fetching a languishing sigh from the botton of her heart she only said alas Artaâânes how ill do you reward the purest Flame and then fell down at our Feet without giving any signs of Life Zephalinda who thought the sight of her Letter would have rather inspir'd her with resentment than grief a thousand times condemn'd her own rashness and by an abundant weeping discover'd her repentance for it but at last what with her help and mine we brought Parthenissa to her self again but indeed she employ'd that life we restor'd her to to torment her self so excessively that we found our charity was a disobligation Yes Artabanes had you but seen how she deplor'd your inconstancy and how transeendent her passion was even when she thought you unworthy of it I am confident the knowldege how yor were lov'd would have sufficiently punish'd your belief that you were not Surena in the mean while finding his forces very much diminish'd and apprehending he should not have life enough left to disclose that which would make his death a less misfortune sent a servant of his to know the cause of Zephalinda's stay who finding Parthenissa so well recover'd as not to need her help went to give her brother an account of her employment but he hardly was inform'd of what had happen'd when he conjur'd his Sister with fresh impatiencies to beg Parthenissa to afford him the blessing of seeing her before he dy'd for he had something to reveal which might set a period to her grief and which he protested was of so high a concernment that she should never repent the visit With this message Zephalinda return'd and though Parthenissa was in extream disorder yet we both so effectually employ'd our Prayers that we obtain'd what they desir'd and were no sooner come into Surena's Chamber than he begg'd all but your fair Mistriss to go out of it which being perform'd he told her Madam I know the incivility of putting you to this trouble and of leaving you alone in this room is so great that nothing but my weakness could render it excusable I know too that as some expressions of my joy for this transcendent Honor I should cast my self at your Feet but Madam what is my
in despair of her recovery but in the middle of her highest ravings she would often excuse and condemn you and in such passionate terms that in her frenzy I almost learnt the subject of it but at last the gods who shew'd us our fears to indear our joys heard our Tears and by a happy Crisis asswag'd and at last took away her pain and danger I say our Tears for Lyndadory Zephalinda and I had hardly any other employment during her sickness and that generous Princess was so much more concern'd in Parthenissa than in her Brother that as often as possibly she could she left Surena to wait on her Rival Whilst we were thus paying our duty and care to your sad Mistriss Arsaces was not less vigilant and concern'd about his Favourite who it seems was by those powers which were concern'd in your Loves reduced into a danger of Death only to extort a discovery from him which nothing else could have had the power to do for no sooner was his Treachery disclos'd than an Arabian Physitian who certainly has farther pierâ ' into the secrets of Nature than any which ever have been of his profession understanding Orodes grief and the subject of it came boldly to him as he was returning from the Temple where he had been sacrificing for Surena's health and told him that he would undertake to end his fears by recovering his Favourite if for his cure the King would build a Colledge for Physitians and endowe it with a competent Revenue for their maintenance Arsaces who easily saw that to grant the Araâian his desire was but to oblige his people in obliging himself greedily yielded to his request and promis'd him rewards which though they were immense yet were but short of his merit for by an admirable Art onely dipping some Linnen in Surena's bloud and by covering it with a Powder which he turn'd the Sympathetick in eight days to our wonder and Orodes joy brought your rival out of all fear of death but the Parthian Physitian who envy'd what they could not imitate gave out that his cure was not the effects of Knowledge but of Magick but the skilful Arabian to make their malice as apparent as their Ignorance promis'd to publish a Treatise which should evince that for his receipt he was only beholding to Art His Enemies therefore who imagin'd that he which could perform a cure could tell the means how it was wrought one night privately murther'd him in his Bed and so that excellent remedy is I fear for ever lost and only appear'd to make us think it a misfortune But assoon as Parthenissa was in any condition fit to be spoken to Lindadory Zephalinda and I begg'd her with such incessant importunities to discover to us what Surena had to her that at length she granted our request Alas what disorders were we in at that relation they were indeed so great that for a time Parthenissa attributed what was meerly our astonishment to a tacite condemning of you but Zephalinda's resentments against Surena gave her soonest the power not only to condemn her brother but to draw Parthenissa out of that error our silence had lead her into by telling her But Madam since the gods so mercifully have discover'd your and Artabanes's delusion why do you so long let him continue in torments whose greatness you may know by your own sufferings and which are too high a punishment where his crime as much his design as 't is his misfortune Madam said Parthenissa who condemn'd you but to learn more Arguments for your pardon it seems then by your discourse that Artabanes is not faulty which I must inform you is a far different opinion from mine for was it a sufficient inducement to think me unconstant because his Rival said I was so if he thought me guilty why did he not accuse me and if not why did he condemn me is an accusation then a sufficient convincement No no Madam when I consider the slight foundations his suspitions have I must believe he has resign'd his liberty to some new Conqueror and that which he ascribes to my inconstancy is but an effect of his own Ah reply'd Zephalinda interrupting her how unjust are you now to Artabanes as well as to your self had he any such criminal design he would not have expos'd his life to Surena's Sword that was too dangerous a counterfeiting No Madam he was deluded so artificially that he merits rather your pity than your resentments for 't was not only Surena said you were inconstant but Zianthe your Confident too whose flight has confirm'd her guilt besides your wearing my Brothers Picture and transcendantly cherishing the Glass which contain'd it above all things of that quality your absenting your self from his Company when it might have been the last time of your enjoying it and when all Ninive knew of his departure your making his Rivals house your lodging and his next days accepting a challenge to justify your election as he alleadg'd were such strong temptations that I should rather have admir'd if they had not succeeded than that they did whilst I thought him faulty I was the frist to condemn him but now I find him only unhappy I am become his Intercessor and if I prove not a successful one I will publish to all the world that 't was not the gods cruelty but Parthenissa's ruin'd Artabanes Madam said Parthenissa your friendship makes your partial and you could not but âondemn what you excuse did you reflect upon it with an unprejudicate opinion for he that could think me uncapable of Constancy I must make him so of my affection and since his believing me guilty of change is his fault I am resolv'd it shall be his punishment If reply'd the perfect Zephalinda you are determin'd to be rigorous let him rather know his error than conceal it for whilst he thinks you faulty he may find his cure in that belief but to learn the contrary will prove a torment almost great enough if 't were plac'd on Surena to punish his Treachery Madam said Lindadory who all this while was drown'd in Tears by an efflection on your sad condition will you make my Brother miserable because others have made him unfortunate will you make him bear the punishment of Surena's fault and will you not grant him your forgiveness because his rival has reduc'd him to a condition to need and deserve it Would to the gods Parthenissa answer'd I could find as much reason as I have inclination to pardon him but Madam the cause of his fault is of so misterious a quality to me that perhaps in forgiving this crime I may discover him guilty of a greater and what I inteâd as a Charity may prove an offence Madam said I you ought then the sooner to clear your doubts neither will we become his Sollicitors if he obey not your first summons and if at your Feet he do not acknowledge the infelicity of your credulity and the continuation
he told Sillaces You have vanquish'd me generous Friend yes I will go to Parthenissa for since 't is she I have offended 't is unfit any other but that injur'd innocence should pronounce my sentence neither can she doubt how sensible I am of my crime since I make her both the Party and the Judge and offer my life unto Arsaces fury only to preserve it to her justice you will find said Sillaces with extasies of joy and a thousand embraces how little cause you have to be apprehensive of either for as Parthenissa's goodness has pardon'd your offence so if Orodes justice does not imitate her example let it be my care to preserve your being in Parthia from his Knowledge My generous Master being brought to this good temper we thought it high time to inform him that the Romans had in a manner besieg'd us and that the vastness of our Army had so exhausted the Island of all Provisions that our necessities if not our courages must invite us to force our passage Spartacus heard this advertisement which till them we had deâlin'd giving him reason by of his sickness and melancholly with a singular satisfaction and about some four or five days after having recover'd sufficient strength to make use of a Horse he came out of his Tent which the Soldiers celebrated with so loud a shout that the Romans apprehended their besieg'd were coming to be their Assaulters neither do I believe their fears had been any thing lessen'd had they known the true cause of that Allarm for I dare justly affirm they more apprehended my Princes recovery than a Battel But Artabanes having taken 10000 Men for his Guard went to view that miraculous Trench which he more admir'd than fear'd but lest his Officers might misinterpret his silence he told them That Crassus doubtless had more Pioneers than Soldiers in his Army that since he never declin'd a Battel he rather thought the Romans secur'd themselves than besieg'd him that 't was impossible any people could take that pains bât for their own preservation yet lest the world might believe the contrary he would in few days evince the truth by a demonstration and was more pleas'd to know where he might fight with Crassus than troubl'd at those difficulties he must surmount to do it And indeed not long after when he had perfectly recover'd his strength and when all his Army despair'd of disingaging themselves from so ruinous a labyrinth in a stormy night when the earth was cover'd with Snow he gave orders to all his Forces to be ready to march and whilst he was putting on his Armor he told Sillaces Come generous Friend let us make Crassus defeat the way to assault Rome and having taken it let us retire into Parthia where I will manifest that I prefer not the greatest Empire of the world before lying prostrate at Parthenissa's Feet nay that I relinquish'd it for so glorious and advantagious an exchange yes Sillaces I will in few daâs so cover my self with Palmes and Laurels that my criminal jealousie shall not be seen and do such virtuous actions that her justice shall pardon my offence or my Bloud shall expiate it These words were scarce spoken when he put himself at the head of the Army and without the least stop led on those Troops who under such a General could not but be victorious in effect Sillaces and he were the first in person which pull'd down the Roman Eagles planted more fortunate Ensignes in their places and without giving their success any leave to cool with their Swords perform'd so great an execution and so strew'd the ways with Roman Carcasses that the effects of their valour almost hinder'd the progress of it and had they not had a nobler design they might have besieg'd the living Romans with the dead and made as famous a Trench by their victory as Crassius had done by his labour but the unequal'd Friend so much undervalu'd a Conquest where nothing was considerable in it but the number of the Dead and so abhorr'd all things which retarded their return into Parthia that leaving Crassus to deplore and admire his defeat they took the direct way to Rome which was to be the crown and limit of their Conquests but alas that fatal poyson which the Traitor Canitius had given our Soldiers began now to shew how strangely it had diffus'd it self and though Granicus a considerable Officer of our Army were not of his conspiracy yet imagining that Crassus loss had made him uncapable to revenge it and finding the Soldiers prepar'd for any Mutiny he so well husbanded their disorder that the second night as we were in our march towards Rome he revolted with 13000 Men from our Army and campt with them near the Lake of Lucania with intention to set up for himself Spartacus was extreamly enrag'd at this and none appear'd more violent to punish it than the false Canitius who inwardly rejoy'd at so unexpected an advantage and immediately advertis'd Crassus of it lest he might lose that favourable opportunity but though my Prince was sensible of so great a dismembring of his Forces yet the belief he had that in them all the Traytors of the Army were out of it he consol'd himself knowing that they were less dangerous in a distinct body than under his Colours and to satisfy those that prest him to be reveng'd he told them That he knew no way more probable for their punishment than their having put themselves out of his protection and that he doubted not but in their very offence they would receive the reward of it Therefore believing himself for all that loss strong enough to carry Rome by storm he determin'd the next morning to continue his march almost as much troubl'd that Granicus had hinder'd it a day as at his Revolt but the first Squadrons were hardly drawn out of the Camp when advertisement was brought that Crassus who now fought for revenge and the preservation of Rome was fall'n upon Graniâus with so much fury that 't was impossible but in it he must find his ruine This Allarm so mov'd the gallant Spartacus's generosity that though Canitius and Crassus who by that time was corrupted too begg'd my Prince to permit the Romans to become his Executioners yet considering the danger and not the cause of it and remembring Granicus's Courage and not his Revolt he lead his Ensignes back to the relief of those who had so often been victorious under them and though his only appearing made Crassus return to his Camp in a hasty march yet it produc'd no other considerable effect for Granicus and all his Soldiers were kill'd before Spartacus's arrival not one receiving a wound in his back or dying out of his rank preserving that Order with their Bodies which they could not with their Lives their Deaths manifesting whose Soldiers they were and their defeat what General they had abandon'd and indeed my Prince was so taken with their resolution that
remainder of my Prince's Army I assur'd him those in the Camp were in a readiness for some exploit that 't was not impossible but they would make a desperate Sally to fell their Lives handsomely and that I told him this the more freely because I was resolv'd to abandon his enemies for ever being assur'd of my Life and Liberty by the prisoner I had brought off Crassus for this Intelligence and at Artavasdes's request who accompany'd me to him confirm'd what the prisoner promis'd and immediately put all his Camp in Arms in apprehension of a Sally which abundantly contributed to my poor companion 's escape For all the Romans being only intent on the east side of our Camp which was the only place for an attempt permitted those on the West which was the way that lead to the River to make a more facile flight 'T was in this sort continu'd Symander that all things happen'd in that famous Battel of the Trenches I know some Romans gave out that Spartacus was cut in pieces others and more truly affirm'd that after the Battel his Body was never found and some too knowing none could contradict them for there was no Quarter given and to receive a reward cut off a Head which they said was my Prince's carried it to Rome and fix'd it on the Gate of the Capitol To conclude this part of my Story I will not tell you all those desires Artabanes had to return to those Men which escap'd unto the Brutain Mountains whose courage and fidelity he admir'd and with whom he was confident to repair the misfortune of Canitius and Castus's Treacheries 'T is enough you learn That had not his wounds hinder'd him a while and their defeat afterwards he would never have return'd to Parthia without having redeem'd that loss which was his misfortune not his fault The next morning as Crassus was preparing to repeat his Assault news was brought him that his Enemies had abandon'd the Camp at which his discontent was greater in appearance than in effect for we had not so ill defended our selves the precedent day as to make any thing which avoided a second storm appear a misfortune Three days Crassus spent to repair the disorders of his Army and to bury the dead leât if left without Sepulture the numbers being great they might infect the Air in which time my Prince acquainted the generous Artavasdes with his Fortunes who admir'd asmuch to find Artabanes the famous Spartacus as he was joy'd to have been the instrument of saving him When Crassus had ended his charitable and necessary Office he return'd to Rome by easy marches which gave Sillaces and my Prince the means of accompanying Artavasdes thither and where they had enter'd in Triumph if their Success had proportion'd their Virtue When Symander was in this part of his Relation one of the Priests of Venus came in great haste to advertise him and Callimachus that Artabanes was return'd and had brought with him a stranger that yielded nothing to him in the blessings of Nature that they were both much wounded but yet they seem'd in the joy of having found out each other to have forgotten the danger they were in Callimachus therefore perceiving Symander's impatiency to satisfy it and his own immediately went to learn the cause of this fresh accident and provide necessaries for persons which rendr'd his Charity as much a Duty as 't was a Virtue The end of the Second Part of Parthenissa PARTHENISSA A ROMANCE THE THIRD PART To my Lady SUNDERLAND MADAM THe first time Parthenissa saw the Light 't was to enjoy a higher contentment than of entertaining you with her Adventures In which Madam she told me you receivâd some such seeming or real satisfaction that to continue the latter or to be reveng'd on you for the former she has perswaded me to present you with a Part of them This Madam had not given me the presumption of obeying her had not Altezeera also joyn'd her Prayers to Parthenissa's and both assur'd me it would not be amiss that you should see the Beauty of one of your Sex has acted more than one of mine could fancy the first of which you might as perfectly know in your self as the last in this Book That to write of you is worse than to write to you this being but an injury to your Person that to your Memory Though indeed the former has nothing of misfortune but that 't is not as durable as the latter which yet we cannot reproach you with it being our infelicity as much if not more than yours That I had injur'd Altezeera as much in her Actings as in their Relations and having done so much against her I could only but this way do something in proportion for her they further added if my Writings needed no Protection they were fittest for your sight and if they needed any you were ablest to give it And though to all this I represented That if their ambition of being known Madam unto you had not entirely silenc'd their Iustice they could not have believ'd a Crime against you could have prov'd an obligation to them and that in my thus obeying them I should necessitate many to conclude I had an endless quarrel to those which were the most perfect of your Sex by injuring such of them as are dead in my Book as such of them as are alive in the Dedications of it Against this they enjoyn'd me to remember the example of that excellent Genius who presented you his Oblations under the fair Name of Sacharissa who was guilty of both those crimes writing of you and to you only to please himself of which they sollicited me to be guilty but only of one and that also the least to please and repair them and yet was not only pardon'd but admitted the high Honor of your Conversation But Madam though I were concern'd to say little against my obedience to them the more to invite you to pardon it as being an offence of Ignorance rather than Knowledge yet I could not but let them know I consider'd that usage Madam of yours was only more and more to convince him of the greatness of his Crime and of the greatness of that Mercy which had pardon'd it That Cloud of Sacharissa which some ascribe to his modesty I do to his Iudgement for thereby he was believ'd a perfect describer of Fancy whereas otherwise he would have been known a defective describer of Truth Yet I must say the greatest fault he committed in attempting your Character was his attempting it for in the necessity of his crime he had this satisfaction That whoever had assum'd his Design must have commited his Offence and come as short of him as almost he has of you For Madam you are above being describ'd which condition though it be the most unhappy as to us yet is the Noblest as to you and consequently we cannot deplore an Ignorance which is occasion'd by a Perfection that even in degrees
transcends it I hope a part of it will be manifested in forgiving a Confidenc which is impos'd and not sought and has indeed no title to your Mercy but that is great enough for it which though infinite cannot exceed the Ioy with which it will be receiv'd nor the Truth which presumes Madam to tell you that I am Your most Humble most Faithful And most obedient Servant PARTHENISSA THE THIRD PART BOOK I. THE News which the Priest of Venus brought to his Superior and Symander was very true for whilest the last was acquainting the first with his generous Princes Adventures he himself as has been related was retir'd into a solitude which that morning he had discover'd where by Fortunes giving him some ease the better to enable him to support her longer cruelties he was fallen into a slumber and though his cares were so unusually civil as not to interrupt it yet it was suddenly by a noise of Horses and clashing of Swords and Arms which reach'd his ear which invited him to take his Horse and gallop to the place from whence this Alarm came to learn the subject of it the continuance of the noise and the swiftness of his Horse faithfully and suddenly bâought him to see a Combat which struck him both with admiration and anger the first was caus'd by a single Valor which could not be but transcendent since it had such an Admirer and the last was occasion'd by six armed men which endeavor'd to destroy the possessor of it who to sell his life at a rate worthy so high a purchase and to make his Enemies deplore the destruction of so great a Courage or the effects of it had already kill'd two of them with blows that struck as great a terror into the rest as the very example of those deaths but finding at last that his Courage might be worsted by though not yield to his Enemies numbers he was retir'd to a little Thicket that shelter'd him behind and his Horse being kill'd in the retreat defended his right side doing him service even after death 't was in this little fortification and posture Artabanes found him and there being no greater invitation to his generous mind for the relieving of virtue than to find it in distress he instantly took up one of the dead mens Helmets to join himself to the opprest stranger who as he was coming full speed towards him thinking the now wearer of the Helmet as much his Enemy as he that had so lately worn it cry'd out to Artabanes Make haste make haste and help those whose hearts are as ill as their cause and who need relie on their number since they cannot on their quarrel Our Hero esteem'd it more handsom and necessary to shew the generous Stranger his error by his actions than words and at his first strokes so abundantly did it that he which he reliev'd thought his mistake a greater misfortune than that which he had now more than hopes to be freed from and indeed Artabanes perform'd things so far above his strength though not himself that three of the surviving four left the Stranger to employ their Swords against an Enemy who they concluded would render the odds as needful as it was dispoportionate but the valiant Stranger finding he had to deal but with one and that his relief might endanger the Bestower of it suddenly abandon'd his intrenchment and as suddenly made his Adversary abandon his life but his Horse he made use of to assist his unknown Friends who was already in a condition not to need it for he had killed one of the three and the other two perceiving how powerful an addition was coming endeavor'd in their Horses feet to find a security they despaired of from their own hands Artabanes and the Stranger followed them awhile but finding more difficulty in the Chace than the Quarry merited and that the way they had taken to avoid their resentments rendered them unworthy of them they gave over the pursuit and then the Stranger having with as much grace as civility beg'd a Pardon from Artabanes for a mistake created by the Arms he had on told him Though my life is rather a misfortune than the contrary yet my obligation to my Deliverer is nothing inferior and what my miseries made me desirous to lose though not in so unhandsom a way my gratitude now obliges me to preserve since I esteem the giver of my lite has too great a share and title in it to dispole of it without him Aâtabanes extremely satisfied with so obligaing a civility told the maker of it I have generous Stranger as little title to your life as to your relief and if by drawing my Sword in your quarrel I have done any thing it deserves rather your resentment than your thanks since I have contributed but to a Victory that was certain without my assistance and under a pretence of serving you âob'd you in part of a glory which your courage only had won Were not your performance the Stranger reply'd of a quality that manifests you injure your actions when you decline their merit I might as easily evince that Truth as acknowledge it and if you refuse that Present I offer you as having receiv'd it from you I shall esteem your declining it as high a misfortune as any that has made me esteem my life so If said Artabanes there be any obligation in what I have done it wholly reflects upon me that have more obliged my self than you in serving so prodigal a gratitude but he continu'd perceiving some blood dropping from the Stangers wounds as well as from his own let us not lose the benefits of your safety by disputing who you deriv'd it from and though I am a Stranger in these Parts as well as you and as much your Equal in misery as you are my Superior in those virtues of which that ought not to be the reward yet I can offer you a retirement till your health or business invites you to prosecute your journey I am reply'd the Stranger so miserable a creature that nothing can increase my being so but the belief that you are a more and though I accept of your civility till my wounds be healed yet I must beg your pardon if I first learn from whom I receiv'd them Are you said Artabanes yet ignorant of that Yes said the Stranger and cannot fancy any that knows me and are my Enemies can be so much mistaken in their revenge as to think killing me is any 'T was such discourses as these that brought them where the marks of their Courages and Victory lay where the Stranger pulling off all the Murtherers Helmets to learn if he knew any of them found himself as ignorant in their faces as in the cause of their malice yet one of them by the benefit of the Air and by the turning of his Body faintly open'd his eyes and being ask'd of the Stranger who 't was that had invited them to so unfortunate
hence only to eclipse your Fathers glory but also to raise that of Tygranes I will acquaint you with an intelligence as strange as the manner of my learning it You are not ignorant that Regeliza my chiefest Confident has as much judgment as beauty the last of which has so infinitely inflam'd Crassolis eldest Son that he has not long since acquainted her with what effects it has produc'd and though his Virtues and Birth might have made her consider and condemn that Declaration as a confidence yet the power she has over herself made her suppress all resentments of words in hope to acquaint him with hers in a more sensible way the better to effect this after by many Artifices she had induc'd the young Lover who she knew his Father doted on to believe all her doubts were that his passion was rather an appearance than a reality and that what confirm'd her in that belief was his never communicating any of those secrets in which he was a principal Agent and which he could not conceal were not his heart and word strangers she so admirably acted her part that this morning her servant to silence her reproaches and doubts clearly inform'd her that Artabazus was sent out of the way but to place Tygranes in the Throne That though Crassolis had not yet as great an influence over that young Prince as over his Father yet he was confident of obtaining it by the obligation of a Crown and of Liberty That Artabazus was too easie to be a good Friend and was as facile to be lost as won That on the contrary though Tygranes was hard to begain'd yet being so he was hardlier lost That Crassolis had done too much privately not to apprehend the discovery and having merited death his Adversaries were too diligent and too considerable not to fear it That Anexander was so successful and powerful that either he would obtain or assume the Authority either of which would be his Fathers ruine That Palisdes and Tygranes were perfectly reconcil'd and had join'd their interests That Artabazus and Artavasdes absence would give them the opportunity to be Governors where they were Prisoners and that Crassolis to leave as little in the power of fortune as he could and to seem to follow what he lead was to be made a Prisoner by his Friends to have this mutation appear his punishment not his design thereby not to lose the Father if the Son lost himself and that all this was immediately to be put in execution lest the delay of the Conspiracy might be the ruine of it Regeliza seem'd to approve this Plot lest her Lover might have suspected she condemn'd it but he was no sooner gone than she being more faithful to her Mistriss than her servant came this morning and acquainted me with what I have you which was the cause of that deep melancholy you found me in and which your presence here will continue and increase The fair Altezeera said Artavasdes had no sooner done speaking than I found that the Kings absence was the cause of so solitary a Court that Artabazus was an enemy to reason and to gratitude or to Artavasdes and that Phanasder was not to the two latter 'T was therefore that I humbly beg'd Altezeera to make Artemita her Sanctuary and not expose herself amongst those to whom Loyalty and Nature were only words But my fair Princess absolutely opposed it alledging that there was more hazard in a flight from Artaxata than in a continuance in it That if she did remove Regaliza must do so too and consequently lose all intelligence or by leaving her behind raise a jealousie in Crassolis son of the Cause and thereby inevitably ruine what it should perform That she had sent already an Express after Artabazus with the intelligence and an assurance that she would to continue it reside where she had learn'd it till either his Commands called her from thence or his Forces render'd it a secure habitation that if after such an Engagement she should flie away with me who all men knew had a passion for her it might raise too pregnant jealousies that her love and not her fear was the occasion of her remove and that since she knew there was nor could be nothing intended to her prejudice she had no reason to contribute to it by her own Actions and to put herself in danger to be safe when she was already so without any I then propounded my going immediately to Artemita which was not above 200 Furlongs off and with Phanasder's Forces attempt to suppress the Rebellion before it appear'd To which my Princess answer'd That could I effect my Proposition what proofs could I bring of the intended Conspiracy but Regeliza's saying it which would be too invalidated by her servants denial and be look'd upon ãâã an Act of my hatred to Crassolis But my Proposition was so far from being feasible that Tygranes and his Partisans had above 4000 select men already in Artaxata who would execute their design before I could tell it Phanasder she therefore conjur'd me since my continuing with her would but increase her fears and my danger and that my being out of Artaxata might probably contribute to the speedy reduction of it and her deliverance that I would immediately leave off all thoughts of the former and embrace the latter This sad command went much against my inclination but it went more against my duty to disobey it therefore as soon as we had form'd all our resolutions and setled our affairs and correspondency I kist my Princesses hands and having beg'd her to consider of the merit of my obedience by the torment of it that thereby I might find my consolation in my very sufferings I took my leave and going out of the Palace I met my faithful Philanax to whom I made my self known and whose joy at it had like to have been as prejudicial to me as if it had been treachery but finding his error he immediately repair'd it and after he had told me that Lindesia with all her Family was remov'd to Thospia Anexander's Government the place too where he had found both his sickness and his health and that I had commanded him silently and with some Jewels to follow me to Artemita without any disaster next morning by Sun-rise I arriv'd there where the generous Governor made me a reception in which I read both his satisfaction and heart The Night following Philanax came to me and acquainted me that what I knew of in design was turn'd into action This true Alarm made me think my immediate repair to the King and Anexander requisite and whil'st I was fitting my self for my intended journey Phanasder sent some Troops of Horse to beat the wayes who did too a Party of the revolted leaving 100 on the place and presenting him with half as many Prisoners from some of which we learn'd that a Post was intercepted with a Packet for the King and that Crassolis's eldest Son was
my gratitude Oh gods continu'd Artavasdes you only know my transports at those ravishing words which were no sooner spoke than I prostrated my self at my Kings feet embrac'd his knees and told him ah Sir I beseech you do not mention reward or gratitude when you do the Princess Altezeera nor so much wrong the blessing of your gift as to term it a recompence since it is so far above manifesting you are grateful that by it I am render'd uncapable of ever being so Great gods I cry'd out lessen my felicity by some affâiction left I do not long possess it Yes Artavasdes my King reply'd you shall possess Altezeera your not demanding her increases your Title to her and I find my self as much ty'd to this gratitude by your humility as by your services but to limit that joy whose greatness you apprehend may destroy it self and to shew how soon the gods have granted what you so earnestly implor'd you must a while suspend the fruition to act that which may induce my Kingdom to esteem me as just in conferring my Sister on you as I do therein esteem my self Thereupon commanding me to rise he gave me a Letter from Annexander to him and another directed to me both which I read and found they contain'd that he had been receiv'd at Rome with a magnificer ãâã which testify'd his welcome but in the highest of his negotiating the gods had struck him with a lingring sickness which most of the Physitians assur'd him would be astedious as irrecoverable that therefore he implor'd that I might be sent if Armenia were in peace with Power and Instructions to perfect the Treaty in case he ended his life before it and commanded me to do him the last office of closing his Eyes or if I came too late for that duty yet at least to celebrate his Funerals Consider I beseech you how sad an influence this unfortunate Pacquet had on me and how in one moment the gods convinc'd me that neither joy nor grief could destroy me I should for ever have acknowledg'd the confining my felicity by ãâã and the qualifying my sorrow by happiness had been their providence if since I had not found it their cruelty for they made me able to conquer those extreams but to preserve me for greater what need I tell you more than that my duty to my King my Countrey and my Father made me pass an engagement to undertake the voyage and to mittigate the cause and trouble of it Artabazus by many assurances accompany'd by as many vows told me at my return I should be establish'd in a felicity which he long'd as much to confer on me as I could to possess it I omitted to acquaint you there was another Letter to Lindesia from Anexander who receiv'd the news of her Husbands sickness with a constancy that render'd her unworthy the affliction but as soon as I retir'd from Artabazus I went to my Princess who perceiving so high a sadness in my Face was so much a friend to my passion as to believe nothing but a misfortune in it could have created so large a one and in that Faith ask'd me whether he Brother had been so unjust as to esteem his allyance a greater reward than my services merited I was infinitely asham'd at this question and that I should be capable of so transcendent a melancholly having my felicity granted as to induce my Princess to suspect it had been deny'd In this perplexity I continu'd in a silence that increas'd her doubts but as soon as I was able to suppress them I did by acquainting her what had past betwixt my King and me and how that I was never so near my Blessing and yet never was so like to be distant from it This separation and Anexander's danger the fair Altezeera concluded was very sensible since the joy of Artabazus Grant could not intirely console me which induc'd her to suspend her own affâictions for Anexander's condition to lessen mine that by the knowledge of hers could not but receive a large accession But when she came to discourse upon my absence and to bring reasons to qualify the hardness of it alas they were so far from bearing that name or from producing that effect that her esteeming they were so or that they could be thought so by me created a greater misery than she endeavour'd to silence But the necessity of my journey to Rome either as a Son or as a Subject made me more firm in my resolution of undertaking it than Altezeera's not appearing sensible of it and though perhaps she lessen'd her disorder that it might have a resembling operation on mine yet it produc'd a contrary effect and made me tell her she had more Fortitude than Love But though I apprehended nothing more than leaving my Princess yet for three days during which my dispatch was making I did nothing when I was out of her company but wait upon my King to hasten it the evening of the last day coming to his Chamber I found him writing and in great perlexities sometimes blotting out what he had written then flinging away his Pen and tearing his Paper I was something surpriz'd at this but at last turning his looks by chance where I was he seem'd as much surpriz'd at my having seen his disorder as I was at it but having somewhat compos'd himself he call'd me to him and told me smiling Artavasdes it may be you do as much wonder at that little fury I am in as you will at the cause which I will tell you not only that you may remove it but be convinc'd that I have nothing of reserve from my Brother for that name I will henceforth give you Know then that what Altezeera's Eyes have acted in you another Lady's have in me and though by many vows I have profest to have now a Passion only for her yet as an argument of her Power or distrust she will receive no satisfaction but of a Letter to my abandon'd Mistriss that I have deserted her and of another to her self that I only adore her which hard sentence I was obeying when you came in but having never been blest with a fortunate expression I found my self more troubl'd to act my obedience than to undertake it and since you are so happily present I will make use of your stile that my Mistriss may be as much satisfy'd with it as with my passion I was more perplext to obey his commands than to learn them for I was not ignorant Artabazus was addicted to a Passion which if plac'd upon a perfect object for a legitimate end deserves a nobler name but knowing that the Flames of Kings are apter to consume virtue than cherish it I was unwilling to shew my ignorance in a cause which I too much detested to serve at so dear a rate and therefore excus'd my self of the former by the latter but Artabazus was so pressing that at length being more vanquish'd by his importunities
the strange innundations which happened then facilitated our overtaking you but your march to Rome so Alarm'd it that the Senate invited Annexander to remove into the Capitol left the City might not prove a secure Sanctuary but that generous Prince declin'd it to convince them he understood their compliment as 't was meant which rather to manifest their care than their apprehension At length that fatal day came wherein I lift up my prophane Arm against the perfectest of Men and in which I had receiv'd the reward of an ignorance I could not excuse since I could not attribute without injustice the miracles Spartacus did to any other Sword than that of Artabanes had not he thought the greatest punishment was to shew me my offence Artabanes could not hear those civilities without interrupting them which he did to tell Artavasdes you might more justly say generous Friend that for ignoring by your prodigious valour who was the master of it and for preserving my self so long after having out-liv'd my defeat you punisht both those Crimes by sparing a life which if then taken away had been exempted from torments that can never cease but with it I believe said Artavasdes it will be a less trouble to you to hear the continuation of my Adventures than to find out matter to commend me and in that Faith I will prosecute them But because the virtuous Callimachus had heard all till our arrival at Rome I will from thence continue my relation As soon as Crassus was return'd to the Senate who deny'd him the honor of the Triumph not but that his success merited it but because as they said the persons did not against whom 't was won and that he himself had refus'd the Ovatio-Triumph which he esteem'd as much too-low in one extream as his Lords esteem'd the other too-high in a contrary one He was immediately dispatch'd with his Army towards Parthia taking Greece and the lesser Asia in his way and though Annexander by servent Commands enjoyn'd my return with the Roman General and to leave his death or recovery to the gods yet my duty submitted to my passion and that which made me confident that the latter would not be suspended by the former for above a Moon was the Physitians confident assuring me within that time Annexander would be past hope or past danger I know too that Crassus marching with a vast Army I might give him so much advance and yet overtake him before he could begin the War besides I esteem'd it my duty to endeavour the Prince Tygranes's deliverance who was daily expected at Rome but my highest motive of continuing longer there was to enjoy the blessing of Artabanes's conversation whose company made me so much a friend to my self and none to gratitude as to rejoyce at his wounds and pray against their speedy cure and since I have begun to tell you my crimes I will not conceal any of them for I was too in some manner satisfy'd that by your Kings cruelties you were out of a capacity of commanding the War and of preserving him in a power to continue it which though from thence I promis'd my self success yet my joy had not so poor a cause but deriv'd its being from a certainty that thereby I should not imploy my life against the preserver of it all these motives the gods rais'd for my ruine which happen'd by my continuance in Rome where I receiv'd a loss which neither the Empire of it nor all those of the world can repair As soon as Crassus had past the Adriatick Sea the same Fleet which transported his Army out of Italy brought Pompey's into it he was receiv'd all the way in Tryumph but especially at Rome where not withstanding the generous Ventidius and my Prayers the unfortunate Tygranes compos'd a part of it This miserable Prince who had in short time resented the two greatest extreams was no more able to endure the latter than he had been to keep the former and though he were not blest with resolution enough to oppose the vice yet he was to avoid the shame of it which he evinc'd by the sad demonstration of becoming his own executioner The gods shall be my record that I shed Tears of grief for the death of him that would have shed some of a contrary nature for mine though too by his fall I was then in a certainty of possessing Armenia which by a legitimate succession was to descend to the fair Altezeera for though Artabazus had a Son call'd Artaxias and that he was born after his Master was Crown'd Queen yet being be gotten unlawfully which blemish the King esteem'd the Marriage would deface all the Armenian Nobility consider'd him rather as their Princes shame than his successor especially too when to be unjust to Altezeera was to be so unto themselves since to have declin'd her rule was to have declin'd the rule of Virtue But though Tygranes dy'd not like a Prince yet he was interr'd like one and no sooner were the solemnities finish'd of that Funeral than I fell into so violent a sickness that Ventidius who never was from my Bed-side believ'd my own would be the next to be celebrated neither for above half a Moon could he find any cause to retract that opinion but asson as my amendment began to dissipate his fears I assum'd them for him and indeed to the best of my memory I never observ'd so strange an alteration in so short a time For that quickness in his look which was admir'd where ever it was seen now was as much for the change his Eyes were dull and languishing his humour was resembling them his discourses were as void of reason as formerly they had been replenish'd with it in a word I cannot describe the condition he then was in than to the contrary in which I first had the honor to know him I suspected a while his care and continual watching had created the alteration and in that faith I apprehended the clearing of my doubts but lest I might by ignoring the occasion of his disorder not offer him my assistance to suppress it I cast out some oblique words which might acquaint him with my desires but he was so far from esteming them a Rise to disclose his pain that he continu'd in a perfect silence from all things but sighs This proceeding induc'd me to believe his sufferings were for me because he appear'd so unwilling to discover them to me I therefore told him I was apprehensive his care of had created mine for him Yes Artavasdes he reply'd with a languishing accent my care of you makes me take none of my self nor deserve it and then with Eyes big with Tears he left me but my admiration at it did not for three days during which time he never gave me the favour of a visit So strange a proceeding had cast me into a relapse but that I esteem'd my health necessary to find Ventidius out and learn what the avoiding
that nothing hardly could prove a preservative for the Sound or a cure for the Infected so that to be Sick and to be Dead were the same This strange contagion so suddainly devour'd our Forces that Phanasder himself consented to capitulate but our Enemies knew too well our conditions to grant us any so that many began to think that Plague no misfortune But Phanasder to make Arsaces believe both his intelligence and his hopes were false placing the Women on the Walls with all the Men and Gallantry of the Garrison he made so furious a Sally that above 4000 Parthians were sent into the other World to lament their Kings being inexorable in this and doubtless we had carry'd our success to the heighth of making him as much need our humanity as we did his had not the Prince Pacorus passing with all his Army over a Bridge of Boats on the River Nicephorus which separated the City and the two Camps come not only to his Fathers râief but rescue for Phanasder had taken Arsaces with his own hand but as he was retreating with the Father the Son fell with all his fresh Troops on ours which were tir'd and shatter'd and forc'd not onely the King but the Victory from us though Phanasder not to lose his Prisoner did almost his Life for he receiv'd some such unhappy wounds that making the retreat with our Swords just as he was enter'd the Gates he totter'd upon his Horse and had doubtless fall'n but that I caught him in my Arms till further help came to carry him to his Bed whither he was no sooner brought than my wounds as dangerous as his sunk me down into a swound by him And though his Action was great yet because his success was not he fell into so deep a melancholly and despair that nothing but Theoxcena's safety which she protested was involv'd in his could induce him to permit the Chirurgeons to search and dress his wounds Arsaces on the other side assum'd a rage as great as the danger he had lately been in and by reiterated vows left himself as little power as will to be merciful Pacorus having receiv'd the Elogy due to his Sucess and Gallantry return'd to his own Camp from whence that day he had not mov'd but that those which were to give him a false Alarm did it so unfortunately that their intention was both discover'd and punish'd but though their loss in the Parthian Armies were great yet their joyes were so too for they consider'd our last attempt as if it were to have been so neither indeed were they false Prophets in that conjecture for the Soldiers by losing Phanasder not only lost their Leader but their Inspirer and before his wounds permitted him the power of revenging them or increasing their number those of the Garrison were so diminish'd that he could hardly command or obey any but himself In this extremity when we expected a general ruine we found a general safety The gods be prais'd I cry'd out interrupting him for though I were not present yet I was a sufferer in the Danger Ah Sir said Falintus you are too prodigal of your Gratitude for when you are instructed in the cause of our preservation I fear it will involve you in greater troubles than we were freed from but not to anticipate your griefs I will tell you my Story in order The same day in which Phanasder purchas'd so much Glory and so little advantage amongst many of the Armenians which then receiv'd their Fate Crassolis's only Son was pierc'd with so many wounds that though we made our retreat with so flow a pace that we might have fetcht off any of our wounded yet that young Gentleman was so mortally that none of his Friends esteem'd him worthy the carrying home or declin'd the doing it out of an apprehension of reviving his Fathers affliction by so sad an object This unfortunate Youth fell to the share of one of Pacorus's Favourites whose Servants having stripp'd him of his Apparel found about his Neck a Box all sett with Diamonds which contain'd within it the Picture of a Beauty more bright than those Stones that cover'd it This Excellence they presented to their Lord and he esteeming it one did the like to his Prince who no sooner saw the Picture but he became as moveless as it and continu'd in that extasie till he broke it to learn who 't was it represented but therein he found all about him as ignorant as himself and suspecting their silence proceeded from their knowledge not their ignorance he told his Favourite 'T is in vain Labienus 't is in vain now to conceal who it is has wounded me for were her extraction as far below my Bloud as her Beauty is above my adoration were she an Enemy as well to my Nature as my Flame nor these nor as many obstacles as she has charms shall deterr me from my Passion whose greatness none can condemn without declaring himself as much an enemy to Reason as to Pacerus do not therefore add so much to the affliction of my Love as to conceal who has inspir'd it for though I should never learn who is my Conqueror yet I must always give her that Name and cary the effects of her power though I should never behold the Possessor of it All that heard these extravagancies were perfectly ignorant of her name which created them but one of those who had shar'd in the rifling of Crassolis's Son after his Companions were gone found some weak symptomes of life in him and either out of Charity or Avarice endeavour'd to preserve what he thought was not absolutely hopeless towards which he had caus'd his Prisoner and Patient to be transported into his Tent and being by profession a Chirurgion had so well practis'd his Art that young Crassolis began to open his Eyes and at last to recover his Senses but the first thing he did when they were restor'd was to search for his Picture which he no sooner mist than he began to tear his wounds to open a passage for a Soul which detested its dwelling after and seem'd to sympathize in so sensible a loss This strange extravagancy made the only witness of it enquire the cause which he had no sooner learnt than he told him how the richness of the Case had perhaps made him lose what it contain'd but if he would be contented with the Picture he would endeavour the restitution Alas said the young Crassolis the Picture is all I desire and to invite you to restore it I do faithfully engage my self to give you as many Diamonds as can be pil'd upon it This large reward made him to whom it was offer'd flye to his Companion to acquaint him with it who he found about Pacorus when he was in the torment of so unhappy an ignorance which the Chirurgion perceiving and deploring punctually acquainted him with all he knew which immediately when the Prince had learnt bidding his Treasurer give him higher rewards
both Arsaces and Artabazus together I will not said Falintus tell you all Pacorus's reasons since they appear'd none to his Father who esteem'd the best advantage of a victory was to win and not to merit a Kingdom and indeed that violent Prince was so far from pardoning his Enemies that he almost reckon'd Pacorus in their number for making so merciful a Proposal In the horrors of this denial he return'd to his Tent where after he had spent an hour in the highest disorders that ever man was capable of on a suddain his Face assumed a joy which Labienus who only was present knew not unto what to ascribe it but it sprung from a cause which rais'd Gallantry to a height it never knew before and if Altezeera's constancy could have been capable of excuse this performance had been a sufficient one for her new Lover finding Arsaces unremovable by his having given him a flat refusal of what he even begg'd with Tears which till then he never had That generous Prince the night before a general Assault was to be given the breach being wide enough and wanting hands to defend it accompanied only by Labienus his Confident as if he went to view it came into Tygranocerta by it and having deliver'd himself up to the Guards desir'd them to bring him to the Princess Altezeera to whom he said he had some affairs of singular importance to impart The Captain which commanded the Post immediately brought him to the Palace where the Princess who then was with her Brother at their Devotions expecting never to see another night but an eternal one being inform'd that a Gentleman of quality which both his Meen and Cloaths spoke him was stol'n from the Camp to give her an intelligence came into a great Hall to receive it but as soon as she appear'd the poor Pacorus found how short Art had been of Nature and that if he had had cause to love the Picture he had more to adore and admire the original though some few days before either an indisposition or some other Melancholly had cast her into a Feaver which but then she had got out of but there is a Beauty in Lillies as well as in Roses and that little paleness did but better set off the blackness of her Eyes which shot so piercing and bright a Flame into the trembling Parthians heart that his silence and disorder gave the fair Altezeera as great an astonishment as her Beauty had him But his being somewhat dissipated he esteem'd the making an Apology for that fault was a greater than he had committed since his offence was of a quality which carried its justification with it therefore with as much Grace as Humility he only told Altezeera Madam He which has employ'd a part of his life against you presents unto you all of it and will esteem your Pardon a Cruelty if you preserve his but to employ it perpetually in your service Yes Madam you have now in your power the criminal Pacorus who oppos'd your Brother's Arms but he neither had the power nor the desire to resist yours to which he renders his mind as much a Prisoner as his Body Judge then fair Princess of the authority of my Conqueror who extends her power over that which is immaterial and has no existence but in speculation Punish Madam Arsaces's cruelty in Arsaces's Son or if what I have done induces you to believe though I am ally'd to him yet I am not to his crimes shew it I beseech you by commanding me to oppose it at the breach that if he enter it may be through me and so necessitate him to a Victory he must celebrate in Tears as well as Bloud My life which has been so often employ'd against you cannot expiate that sin but by being sacrific'd for you however you have now wherewithal to make or rather to impose your conditions on Orodes who perhaps had rather lose Armenia than Pacorus Oh gods continu'd Falintus is it possible to tell you the fair Altezeera's wonder and surprize all the while the Prince of Parthia was speaking No no it is not for were it describable it would be less than it was but left he might from some strange belief of her perplexities and silence she told him Whatsoever Sir you ascribe your coming hither unto I must not to your submission but to your power which is more evinc'd by entring this City alone than with an Army or else perhaps 't is to increase the Ardor of yours by joyning the liberty of their Prince to the winning of Tygranocerta Ah Madam said Pacorus I have so lost my liberty that it lies as little in my Armies Power as in my own Will to recover it and if I have flung my self within these Walls 't was rather to deterr the Parthians from entring them than to incite them to it you raign too absolutely in my heart not to know this Truth and if you desire I shall dye fighting against Arsaces 't is rather to satisfy your revenge than you doubts but if I am so unfortunate as not to fall in your defence you have still wherewith to act your revenge Your Beauty gives you as much the power as my past crimes gives you the justice Since said Altezeera you will have me believe you are come to preserve those you have hitherto endeavour'd to destroy I will do it but it proceeds more from my obedience than my Reason though I must acknowledge I have had so high a Character of the Prince Pacorus's Gallantry that I should have thought him capable of all but this which he has now acted and which is of a Nature that to suspect 't is too great to be true is to oblige it when it proves so Madam the Prince reply'd if you suspect my Professions but to invite me to evince their reallities by my actions you will as much oblige me upon that score as injure me if your doubts proceed from any other Whilst the Princess and Pacorus were thus discoursing Labienus was brought to Artabazus to whom he told his Princes Story and how by giving him Altezeera he had not only wherewith to save his Crown for the present but to secure it in the future The King at so unpresidented an accident was cast into admirations as great as his fears but having reflected a while both on the Virtue of Pacorus's performance and on the advantage of his Alliance he gave Labienus an answer which gave him large hopes for he was concerned in his Princes felicity and by having seen Altezeera he found his Passion was as commendable as great but Artabazus esteeming it high time to visit his voluntary Prisoner went with Labienus to him and found his person was as handsome as his action There Pacorus by reiterated and passionate expressions implor'd a Pardon for a Crime which his ignorance made him commit and which his knowledge did sufficiently revenge 'T was in discourses of that quality they spent the residue of
practice only in her Chamber but in the greatest Assemblies which clearly manifested her resolutions were not as strong as her Grief or Guilt Regeliza told Theoxcena too that she had several times surpriz'd Altezeera in such agonies that had you seen them they would have converted your resentments into sorrow One evening too Theoxcena found she had not made her Prince's condition worse than it really was for coming to visit her and finding no body in the Chamber she stole to the Cabinet door where looking through a crevice of it she discover'd Altezeera acting sorrow so to the life that she apprehended 't would have prov'd her death and indeed Theoxcena found in that sight as much cause to pity as to condemn her inconstancy which had so strong an operation over her that the immediately retir'd apprehending lest the visibility of her disorders might have manifested she had discover'd the Princesses But she was no sooner return'd to her own Palace than she was visited by the generous Phanasder and I where having told us what she had so freshly disclosed which in our judgements evinc'd Altezeera had more inclination to repair than continue her crimes Phanasder after a short debate with himself propounded that which I extreamly relisht but which Theoxcena did not which was that he would cause a powerful insurrection in Armenia which should necessitate the Parthian Army to continue in it and consequently Altezeera not to go out of it that seemingly to suppress it he would raise Forces to joyn with Pacorus's Army that in the mean time upon some pretence of affairs into Syria I should from thence go directly to Rome and inform you of all that had happen'd to desire you to make of your particular interest one of State and to press Crassus who we heard was to invade Parthia to advance speedily into Armenia and to hinder an alliance which if not prevented would render his Conquests impossible and if prevented as facile and lastly to assure you that upon your appearance either with the Romans or singly all the seeming Rebels and his Forces should declare for you and thereby force Alterzeera to as great a necessity of giving her self to you as she pretended there had been to give her self unto Pacorus or at least make it clearly evident her inconstancy was her choice and not her constraint which too you might have the power to punish in him that was the creator of it This generous motion as I told you I infinitely approv'd but the fair Theoxcena seem'd as much averse to it both as induc'd thereunto out of that high concern she had in Phanasder's safety and perhaps reputation which might both run no small hazard in this action as out of a doubt too that it might appear to you rather a disobligation than the contray who perhaps by thus having lost the hope of possessing her had also lost the desire To these and many as pregnant arguments we represented the duty of Friends and the inclination of a Lover the first not more powerfully inviting our assistance than Altezeera's melancholly would the continuation of your Passion and the freeing her from Pacorus's Yet for all this we obtain'd Theoxcena's consent rather by her silence than her granting it Having thus elected this resolve under a pretence of paying a vow to the god Aesculapius when I recover'd of my wounds I begg'd and obtain'd leave from Artabazus to go into Syria to a Temple Dedicated to him which stood upon the Banks of Euphrates Phanasder would have accompany'd me the first days journey which I absolutely declin'd lest it might give a suspition of that which were absolutely ruin'd if any were taken of it we therefore took leave in Tygranocerta from whence in three days he determin'd to depart to put that in execution which we had in design but instead of going to that Temple I went but two days on the way thither and the third without any Servant because 't was a pilgrimage I took the shortest way to Tyre where having hir'd a swift Quinquerem Gally the wind too blowing fair at East till we came to the length of Tarentume to which we sail'd and row'd in sixteen dayes so signally did the gods favour my employment I caus'd the Mariners to put into this Gulph which though I thought a misfortune I now find is a providence and hope you will so improve it as not to make the gods repent they have conferr'd it on you 'T was thus said the generous Artavasdes to Artabanes and Callimachus that Falintus finish'd his Relation which I hope you have too just an opinion of me not to remember and though it be of my telling yet that it was in his words since many of them were so flattering that I could not have been vain enough to have spoke them of my self neither will I trouble you with any of my sorrows or disorders otherwise than by a brief and true assurance that they were proportionate to my loss which to repair or revenge I determin'd to make use of that excess of Gallantry which the generous Phanasder had offer'd me and to effect it immediately to return with Falintus in his Gally But alas this resolve was no sooner form'd than the thought of leaving Artabanes in Rome and of retiring without him destroy'd it suddainly again and that too with more reason than 't was form'd But Ventidius observing my trouble and fancying the cause so absolutely undertook my excuse and the care and protection of you for continu'd Artavasdes you know by your permission I had acquainted him who you were that in the transports of an injur'd and hopeful Lover I at last receiv'd Ventidius's assurances as satisfactory and having again by vows confirm'd him my permission to serve Vdosia and my assistance to obtain her I staid no longer than I writ to my dear Artabanes that I referr'd the cause of my fault and the care of his and the generous Sillace's safety to Ventidius's relation and Friendship which being finisht I went immediately without any Servant but Philanax to Falintus's Gally where after a million of embraces and vows of an eternal friendship I took a final leave of Ventidius who promis'd to apologize for my abrupt departure to the Senate by the advantage they would probably derive from it and who immediately departed for Rome as we did for Asia The same wind which had hinder'd Falintus's Navigation so favour'd ours that in eighteen days we landed at Alexandretta from whence with extraordinary diligence in six days more I arriv'd at Satala a Principality which was fall'n to me by the generous Annexanders death and in which Vdosia resided whom I went purposely to see and to give her those just impressions of Ventidius which should fortify her Heart against the reception of any others I saw her my dear Artabanes and found in that sight how much injury the Painter had done her and how much right Ventidius had done himself in his election
for indeed never Beauty did both promise and give so much at once as Udozia's which in a word possest such transcendent perfection that had it not been for the reliques of my Passion I might have found the honor of being her Brother would not be greater than the misfortune After these professions which my relations and esteem made me make I began to conjure her by both that she would fix her thoughts upon a person which I not only esteem'd most worthy of them but which was really so and which she might be in some degree confirm'd in when his interior graces were at least equal to those perfections of Nature of which I presented her an imperfect Copy thereupon I gave her Ventidius's Picture in a Box so precious that nothing could be more but what it contain'd and then gave her a character of him which thought it were short of Truth which had been an inevitable error to whosoever had undertaken it yet it fail'd not to produce that effect which a more proportionate one to his desert had done for Udozia whilst I was speaking with her Cheeks dy'd with a perfect Vermillion so concernedly consider'd the generous Ventidius's Picture that I thought she would be wounded in the same way in which she had wounded him and I was no sooner silent than she told me I know not Sir whether I have more cause to be satisfy'd with your care or to be the contrary in so evident a demonstration that you doubt my obedience and affection since in this one Command concerning Ventidius I find pregnant arguments of both for your election cannot more abundantly demonstratethe former than your so earnestly commanding me what is as much an effect of my judgement as obedience does the latter Dear Udozia I reply'd embracing her I am not so much an enemy to my own Felicity as to doubt your Affection but if I did your giving your self to any man at my request had abundantly supprest in me that belief since when you scruple not to be unjust for I esteem it too transcendent a reward to be a kind of injustice and your giving your self to any Mortal is that rewarad to raise in me that Faith I cannot decline making it mine without revenging on myself my own incredulity Udozia still retaining her blushes which this discourse continu'd in as high a quality as my request for Ventidius had created them in made me a return as full of flattery as mine was void of any and then gave me a positive assurance of an absolue resigning her âelf to my dispose I thought it then high time to let her know the generous Annexander's death which till then I had declin'd because Grief was an ill preparative to Love being of a contrary quality and because I thought if she receiv'd the former it would so entirely possess her heart that the latter would not have so dangerous an admittance at last by degrees I acquainted her with that fatal intelligence which having forc'd us to mingle our tears together by little and little I began to dry my own and she hers in imitation of me but knowing that to divert a sorrow is to lessen it I resum'd again my discourse of Ventidius to whom I told her I would and to whom I then did dispatch an Express to acquaint him with his Felicity which I assur'd her he was determin'd to come and implore at the head of fifty thousand Romans whose courages so led would soon invest her in Empires as large as the Heart which ador'd her I then began to enquire in what posture Armenia stood for Satala was upon the frontiers of it and the first place in the Kingdom I had rested in Udozia told me all things were in a general quiet that the Parthian Army upon the intelligence that Crassus lay about the famous Temple of Hierapolis intending suddainly to invade their Countrey were all with Arsaces return'd into it but 10000 Horse which remain'd as Guards to Pacorus and Altezeera who were shortly to follow and which had hitherto been interrupted by a fresh indisposition of the latters who yet was now so well recover'd that in three days she with Pacorus intended to leave Tygranocerta and to begin their journey for Parthia on the frontiers of which Empire Arsaces with all the gallantry of it had publish'd he would meet them and that all this she had receiv'd by an Express the day before from Lindesia I was not more astonish'd to learn Armenia was in so perfect a tranquility than joy'd to find Altezeera had not yet left it and after a short reflection on both I ascrib'd the former to the latter and that the gods by having so obligingly detain'd her had induc'd Phanasder to suspend that Insurrection he intended another cause producing the effect for which only that was design'd Neither was my Fancy so little flattering as not to create in me some hopes that Altezeera's indisposition was rather a pretence than a reality and purposely contriv'd to give me time to come to her rescue and my own felicity In this Faith I esteem'd it not requisite to invite Crassus's invasion who too being in this place was at too great a distance to answer so suddain an occasion as mine but rather to flye to Tygranocerta and there to form my resolutions according to my Intelligence Therefore having found Udozia had as much discretion as Beauty to let her know that was my belief I privately sent for Cleomen the Governor of Satala who I commanded thenceforth to obey Udozia's Orders to whom I left entirely the Care and Governof all Cleomen gave me a million of thanks for so pleasing a Command and publish'd himself exceedingly satisfy'd that what he had hitherto done by inclination he should now do by duty Then after having given Udozia fresh assurance of a passionate affection and friendship and conjur'd both her and Cleomen to keep my being in Armenia a Secret with fresh Horses and only with Falintus and Philanax in four days I crost the lower Armenia and came to Tygranocerta late at night the first place I lighted at was at the Palace of Theoxcena with whom I was confident to find Phanasder or learn where I might and by the advice of so good Friends and Judgements fix upon the best resolution but there I learnt Theoxcena had that day left Tygranocerta with Artabazus and all the Court who were gone to accompany Pacorus and Altezeera towards the frontiers of Parthia Oh gods what horror did this fatal news strike me with but not to contribute to my misfortune I determin'd having given our Horses a little refreshment to follow that Beauty which fled both from my Passion and me and therefore went directly to Phanasder's Lodgings for I could not learn at Theoxcena's any intelligence of him but that he was not gone with her Falintus who went in first got me a private Apartment in which I continu'd til he return'd who soon brought me word that
create your felicity by the ruine of his own He does not therefore come to conjure you not to give that blessing to the greatness of Pacorus's Title which you a thousand times have promis'd to the greatness of his Passion for he alwayes esteem'd it so unjust you should bestow the divine Altezeera on one who is almost as much her Subject by the advantage of her birth as by that of her beauty that he would have kill'd himself that he would have dy'd to prevent in her so criminal a mercy and if he hath liv'd in a contrary flattering hope 't was only because he esteem'd no sin so great as to disobey her Whil'st I was speaking a thousand things of this quality which too I utter'd in the pressingst Accents that ever the highest grief and flame was capable of Altezeera was so surpriz'd and astonish'd that had her affection remain'd as fix'd as her body then did I had been exempted from transcendent torments by resembling felicites nor did she awhile after I had ended speaking give me any Answer which might have resolv'd my doubts whether her silence proceeded from a cruel or obliging cuase for all she said when she broke hers was only Oh gods Is this Artavasdes that I see Yes Madam I reply'd 't is that Artavasdes who has given the divine Altezeera so absolutely his life that he durst not without her permission put a period to it though what she has of late acted has made him languish in such torments that the best way of making them cease next to that of the blessing of her esteem is to make them cease next to that of the blessing of her esteem is to make them cease by the blessing of death 'T is therefore Madam I present you this Poniard that if you will not be just to your vows and promises yet at least that you will be charitable to him to whom they were made and if I implore any thing before I die 't is only that I may do it with the consolation of receiving my ease from her from whom I have my sufferings and that she will declare I dy'd as innocent as unfortunate This fair Princess if your justice does now deny me your pity cannot long for my languishings will evince death is the lesser ill Neither Madam do I implore it on any score but yours for my sufferings proportionating my loss will make such deep impressions in you that your joyes in your intended Nuptials will receive a resembling disturbance at least if you have not as absolutely banish'd Compassion from your heart as Love thereupon kissing the hilts of the Poniard I offer'd that part of it to her and presenting her my breast I implor'd her to make what had been the Scene of her highest Empire now that of a proportionate pity But alas she declin'd making use of that Weapon to wound me with a more curel one I mean her words which accompany'd with an inflam'd look told me Traytor Artanasdes though thy Crimes merit I should become thy Executioner as well as thy Judge yet I decline being the former to make them appear the greater and if as thou say'st thou dost esteem no sin higher than to disobey me I command thee evince the truth of that profession by never coming again into my sight Then rising up hastily she went out of the Chamber by the same door she came into it and though her remove was very sudden and that my amazement was as great yet I cry'd out Stay Altezeera though Altvasdes know himself innocent yet because you do not think him so behold how he will punish not his guilt but his misfortune Then running to that Poniard she had flung away I took it up and in the horror and despair of my condition I had sheath'd it in my heart if Evaxes who listen'd at a back-door had not hasâily come in and snatching it out of my hand prevented it Though it be a transcendent wrong when one is in proportion at misery to take away the cure of it yet my rage not having so absolutely blinded me but that knowing what was in its own nature an offence was intended for a charity I only told Evaxes having first furiously look'd on him 't is in vain Evaxes 't is in vain you think to keep mefrom death by having only took from me one means of acting it when the wayes which lead unto the Grave cannot be more than the causes which invite me to it Then turning from him and observing Altezeera was gone I ran precipitately after her but alas she had lock'd the door upon me and thereby I found she had not only excluded me from the hopes of possessing her but from those of clearing an imaginary guilt to which she implicitely ascrib'd that fatal deprivation In the rage of so strange an usage I was a thousand times about to have forc'd it open had not Evaxes hinder'd me by representing that if Altezeera had not apprehended my vindication she would neither have then deny'd listning to it nor debar'd me the means of discovering how passionate I was to evince it That since her Actions so evidently demonstrated that Truth I ought to impute her objecting Crimes to my charge but as a cloud for her own and consider that to be her inconstancy which she disguis'd under the name of her resentments That since she was of so volatile a disposition 't was better I had made that discovery in the condition I was yet in than in that which Pacorus was so near embracing since I might consider that as my felicity which he could not learn but as his torment That it was still an Argument she loved me when she declin'd imposing those miseries on me my desires ambition'd to confer them on another whose subsequent troubles I should pleasingly disclose those I had so happily avoided These reasons would have appear'd so to any but me and would too so to me had I but listen'd to them which then I did not for all the while he was speaking I was so too sometimes resolving to go and punish Artabazus for having been so far from hindring his Sisters inconstancy that he sollicited and provoked it but then the reflection on the greatness of the Sin hinder'd me from acting it especially too when that reflection was fortify'd by that on his quality which made it a greater injustice not to act for the safety of his Subjects in general than to do it for any one of them in particular so that I had no just cause to be offended with him for having of two evils elected the least My fury not finding a fit object in him I began to contemplate Pacorus as one who was not only the cause of Altezeera's inconstancy but the continuer of it and whose destruction would both revenge me on him and her But then the reflection on the occasion of his Sin appear'd a sufficient Apology for it and knowing how impossible 't was to see and
I do not extinguish your desire of revenge I may present you wherewithall to act it Oh gods reply'd Phanasder lifting up his eyes why do you give unto guilt the same expressions with which innocency should be cloath'd Then turning them to me he told me Artavasdes thou wilt not then by ending of my torments shew methou hast some pity if not friendship for me No I reply'd for should I so put a period to yours I should create in my self greater than I cen extinguish in you Remember then he reply'd that there being no way to end those I groan under but by my death or thine that denying me the former thou necessitatest me thereby as much as by thy crimes unto the latter which I will perform though thou shouldst conceal thy self in that heart which thou valu'st more than thine own then turning about his Horse he thrust himself into the Wood full speed my pity at his condition not being greater than my ignorance of what created it I follow'd him to learn what he had twice deny'd me and when I found I could not overtake him I endeavored to make my voice do it which was so far from retarding that it did but hasten his course so that I soon lost sight of him yet for above four Furlongs I follow'd by the track of his Horse but then mine began to faint and suddenly after fell dead under me by a deep wound he had received in the fight and which my earnest prosecution of Phanasder made me not observe 'T was thereafter my heat was mitigated that I began to find how much the gods took delight to torment me and after I had a little reflected on those strange Accidents which had arrived me in so short a space I could not abstain from saying Great gods was it not enough misery for the unfortunate Artavasdes to lose his Princess but you must add unto it the losing of his friend And were not both those losses sufficient to glutt your hatred but that you must give me resolution and fortitude to survive them Ah cruel Powers did you give me Innocency but by punishing it as Guilt to change mine into it And are you so sollicitous to make me blaspheme that you make Innocence unfortunate to invite me to it But I continu'd after a short silence if I have offended you let the world read my sin in my punishment but since I have not offended either Altezeera or Phanasder why would you induce the world to believe I have by making them my Persecutors 'T was with as many extravagant Reasonings as these that I fed my despair and my rage not permitting me to rest I found my self out of the Wood as soon as I remembred I had been in it and seeing a Village not far off I went thither where having hired a Horse I prosecuted that journey Phanasders strange distemper had interrupted As soon as I came into my Inn I found that Falintus and Philanax having met with no obstructions were gotten thither before me from whom I was informed that though they could not find by any intelligence they had learnt that my being in Armenia nor my having been at Evaxes Castle were known yet they had cause to believe both were for Crassolis that morning was retir'd from the Court neither could they any more discover the cause of his departure than the place of his retreat so that Falintus told me I might be confident Artabazus would not deny me justice for my Fathers murther since Crassolis to think his own guilt only not my knowledge of it made him flie and in that faith he might return which as soon as he did then was the time of demanding justice For the giving of it then would give me revenge with it and to implore it now were absolutely to miss of the latter by a concession of the former since to condemn him were but giving him advice to secure himself These Reasons since I could not suspect either them or the Author of them I determined to obey I then told Falintus what as unfortunate as strange an Accident had arrived me with Phanasder which he admir'd at as much as he was ignorant of the cause and told me This morning Sir I met him coming from the Princess Theoxcena's Apartment and with a countenance whose disorder he could not conceal after he had by some short embraces and expressions congratulated my happy return he then precipitately asked me where you were for he had some business of high concern to communicate unto you I told him that both Philanax and I continued at Court purposely to learn and send you things of that quality and that if he were over-harrast with his late journey and that he would acquaint me with the secret I would overtake you that night and stop you till his coming To this Phanasder replyed That he would trust me with his heart but that the business he had with you was of a nature which would lose its virtue if it were delivered you by any but himself and therefore he passionately conjured me to let him know which way you had took and to pardon a silence which I could not condemn when I should be instructed in the cause I did therefore satisfie both his requests and 't was by my information that he so unfortunately found you out but could not you Sir continued Falintus in his passion collect something which might tell you what created it No I replyed though by reiterated intreaties I conjur'd him to tell it me and with faithful promises if I were guilty to contribute to and not oppose his revenge but all was in vain and I could collect nothing but that he was as confident I was criminal as I am that I am not The best part of the night we entertain'd our selves in resembling discourses which at length I put a period to by conjuring Falintus to continue about the Court to endeavor to learn the cause of Phanasder's change that though his carriage render'd him not absolutely worthy my care yet thinking the knowledge of his error would not only punish the Criminal but restore unto me the gallant Phanasder I was passionately concerned therein That he would enquire after Crassolis and send me constant intelligence to a Solitude near Satala which I had elected in a great measure by his persuasions and reasons and where I would pass away the reliques of my melancholy and love Falintus would have accompany'd me thither which I absolutely declin'd and then he having as absolutely promised to obey my former requests the next morning we separated our selves he taking the way to the Court and I to Thospia where I intended to visit Lyndesia before I secluded my self from the World There that excellent Woman gave me such admirable Reason for the suppressing of my Passion that I must havebeen entirely divested of the former had I not divested my self of the latter which whil'st I did not for I shall not scruple to
confess that sometimes I made a start into Love by the reflection on Lyndesia's reasoning I acknowledged my self void of any and knowing my self to be so I excused my fault in the knowledge of my condition Neither did she only give me precepts but example against the assaults of Fortune and what she would have had me practice in Altezeera's case she did in herself Anexanders though in it she found so little reason to fortifie herself with that perhaps that was the only reason with which she did it neither did her calmness in so high an essay appear anything like insensibility no it shew'd its cause in its effect and the gods did in some degree repair her loss by making it so largely evidence her virtue I have been continu'd Artavasdes somewhat the more particular in Lyndesia's character because her perfections are of a resembling quality as also to oppose a Maxim as absurd as common which is the declining the praise of those to whom we have a near relation whereas those that have not any can hardly make an exact character and by this low rule the chief if not the only way by which we must attain to the knowledge of a perfection must be the Argument for not publishing it I continued two dayes at Thospia with Lyndesia from whose actions as well as words I received that consolation I fear'd she would have needed The third day I took my leave and desired her to continue Udozia where I had given her an absolute power not only as it was a place near which I intended to reside but being on the frontiers Ventidius whose passion I had not only at large acquainted her with but made her approve upon the making his Addresses to Udozia might not be necessitated to put himself in any hazard by coming unaccompanied or Armenia by coming with an Army This Lyndesia having granted I left Thospia and in twelve days came to my little retirement where retaining none but Philanax with me and two or three servants for necessary uses I began to make a fierce War against my Passion and my Sadness which I found were Enemies easier to be conquered than extirpated and like some barbarous people were invisible when any power was extant to oppose them but when that power appeared no more they instantly did and assum'd as high a Sovereignty as if they had been Conquerors This made me incessantly continue in Arms and those I made use of were the remembrance of the services I had rendered Altezeera of her vows and of her unconstancy for which I found so little excuse that what had given the wrong I thought would also repair it A thousand times in this resolution I was going to abandon my Solitude and by a publick undisturbed serenity evince I rob'd her of so much of her triumph as that my sorrow compos'd no part thereof but alas immediately I fancy'd Altezeera in all her charms and captivating my resolution with the same eyes with which she had my liberty with whose influences my trayterous fancy so conspired that though I were at too great a distance to receive their real impressions yet by that false helper I carried still their effects about me Never man endured those torments the miserable Artavasdes did and his fate was so particular that whil'st he yet disputed the Victory he resented more pregnant sufferings than he could have in the very losing it And if mine received any intermission 't was from the visits of Vdosia in whose sight and conversation I had some good intervals which continu'd me in some charity to the Sex by receiving from one of it the ease of those pains another had made me resent 'T was thus for a long while that I languish'd away my time during which I received frequent and faithful intelligences from the generous Falintus his first was that notwithstanding a scrutinous enquiry and search he could never learn either waht was the cause of Phanasder's change or what was become of him That the fair Theoxcena as Author of or participater in his discontents had retired herself either absolutely or conditionally from the world and that he was as ignorant of the place of her retreat as of what was the occasion of it That Altezeera had been solemnly married to the Prince of Parthia immediately after her arrival in that Kingdom And that Crassus had lost his Army and his Life in a furious Battel against the Parthians who had been assisted by a visible Divinity that vanish'd as soon as did the Roman hopes These three Intelligences were as sensible unto me as any others I was capable of for in the first of them I lost my friends in the second my Mistriss and in the third my hopes of revenging or repairing that loss I will pass over the many sighs and complaints I gave to those accessions of sorrow to let you know that the Solitude which Reason could not make me abandon Friendship did For I received an advice from Udozia that Ventidius with an Army as formidable from the Nation as the numbers which compos'd it had already crost the Hellespont and was so far advanc'd into the letter Asia that if intended to see him before he entered Armenia I could not any longer delay my visit This Alarm I joyfully receiv'd and in some degree I was reconcil'd to the gods who though they had deny'd me the establishment of my own felicity had yet blest me with the power of setling my friends In two dayes I had fitted my self to leave my retirement which I could not do without some reluctancy as an acknowledgement of those uninterrupted hours of melancholy I had spent in it my first journey was to Satala where having formed my Equipage and receiv'd those reiterated assurances from Udozia which were to settle Ventidius's and my felicity I crost the mountain Scordicus which separates Armenia from Cilicia and in two dayes after came to Tharsus the Metropolis of that Province where Ventidius then lay who having Advertisement of my Arrival drew out all his Army which consisted of 50000 natural Italians into a large Plain on the East-side of the City where he receiv'd me with a million of Embraces at the head of them and where I found nothing more worthy admiration than the Forces but their General 'T was at this first meeting after I had saluted all the Roman Tribunes and as we were riding to Tharsus that he told me If my dear Artavasdes I have so long abstained from acknowledging Udozia's victory at her feet 't was only to evince my respect equal to my Passion and not to declare my self her Subject till I presented her with an Army that might make those so by her commands which were unworthy to be so by her sight The gods know how just this duty is by esteeming it fitter to abandon their Rome in Crassus's defeat than that I should be any longer suspended from paying it Yes my Artavasdes I am now come to implore
he gives you not a rise to oblige him and such an one too as may apologize sufficiently for your doing so you shall not hazard your destruction to manifest your civility All said Ventidius I will desire since he is in the blessing of fair Udozia's concern is that he will not by being an Enemy to Rome provoke me to disobey her commands or after such a provocation by not doing so render my self unworthy to have been honor'd with them But he continu'd is there no other way but by Artavasdes's absence to settle Armenia No I reply'd I believe mine will accelerate this great work better than any others 'T were to be too prolix to tell you Udozia's retributions and mine to Ventidius with his civilities on them I will therefore only acquaint you that being ready to take horse I recommended the care of Ventidius to Udozia and enjoin'd her so to use her Prisoner that he might have no desires of altering that name Ventidius answer'd me for her 't was impossible she should deny me that request since 't was so that he should ever desire a more noble Title Then after having beg'd me to tell Artabazus from him that for some powerful considerations he would desire no greater pennance for his past fault than to repeat it which was to continue a Neuter I began my journey which prov'd not very long because above my expectation I found the King at Cammona whither the necessity of his Affairs by the intelligence of Ventidius being on the Frontiers drew him all the Court admir'd at my coming to it and Artabazus when he saw me come into the Palace Garden where he was then walking with some of his Council was as much surpriz'd one way as after I had told him the occasion of my visit he was the other He made me a thousand excuses for the necessity of his Crime for so he term'd what he had done with Altezeera and with as many embraces acknowledg'd my care and my affection when as he said he was so far from meriting either that he did the contrary In a word after I had told him on what terms he might have Ventidius his friend not only with raptures of joy he condescended to them but by a Letter to him acknowledg'd he had twice deriv'd both his safety and his Crown from his generosity to Artabazus and friendship to Artavasdes As soon as I had thus setled my business to my Kings liking as well as Ventidius's for the latter could not more joyfully embrace the occasion offerving Udozia than the former did the friendship of the Romans against whom he was so ill provided by the absence and discontents of Phanasder and as he said of Artavasdes too that he was determin'd to have submitted to their mercy to avoid doing so to their force I took leave of the King without letting him know how I had refus'd that Title or imploring his justice against Crassolis who I learnt was still conceal'd and which consequently I thought had been a fruitless and probably a prejudicial request Artabazus who found me positively resolv'd to depart seem'd to be as much griev'd for my leaving him as he had been pleas'd at the cause and the result of my visit and to invite my continuance he offer'd me large advantages amongst many others that of commanding during my life the Armenian Militia yet this as well as the rest I entirely declin'd for though I thought nothing could dispense me from a general care of Armenia and the King of it yet I esteem'd my wrongs might not only excuse my not living at Court but also my refusal of any Command which was not conducing to my revenge on Pacorus who though he had by giving me my life thereby confin'd me to act nothing particularly against his yet by his having render'd it my torment I esteem'd my self thereby not concluded from ending it by his hands at the head of an Army besides I resolv'd my self not a little disenfranchis'd from that obligation by restoring him so many considerable Prisoners after the Battel on the Banks of Euphrates and by the care I had of his person before and in it 'T was therefore that I implor'd the King to excuse my not accepting a Command which though of infinite honour yet was consider'd by me less out of that respect than from an assurance I thereby receiv'd that he thought I was not his Enemy though he had given me the highest provocation to be so which good opinion he had contracted of me I could not better merit than by declining so advantageous an offer to put my self in a far meaner condition for his service which I esteem'd my attending on Ventidius was and would prove and for the doing of which I humbly beg'd his permission Artabazus granted me my request because I would not grant him his and having again convinc'd my belief that he would not be an Enemy to the Romans by many pregnant reasons and by others I took a final leave and with as great expedition in my return to Sattala as in my going from it I safely arriv'd there and found during my absence that Udozia had so well discover'd her servants merit and perfections that any intercession of mine for him could not have been more just than 't was unnecessary Ventidius seem'd almost as much satisfied with the success of my journy as with my return and finding by the former he could not make a longer residence at Sattala without as largely intrenching on his honour as by his abandoning it he should on his felicity he declar'd the next morning he intended to force himself from his joyes to return to his Army This resolve and my former observation made me esteem it as fit as I did believe it would not be difficult to obtain an assurance from Udozia that when Ventidius did crown himself with Lawrel she would with Myrtles and make him a Conqueror in Love after he had made himself one in War to make her confess to me this was her resolution was far more facile than to make her do it to Ventidius but at last the passionate conjurations of a meritorious servant united with those of a beloved Brother were so prevalent that they extorted a declaration which she could not deliver with more blushes than he in whose favor 't was made receiv'd it with extasies and Transports I remember amongst many other expressions of the generous Ventidius's this was one I bless the gods my fair Princess that they have made it my destiny to fight against a Nation which never yet was vanquish'd that the world may be convinc'd this high conquest was reserv'd for Udozia's Soldier who can no more be deny'd Victory bearing that most glorious Title than it can be that that Title is so These necessary Productions of a transcendent Joy and Passion were no sooner qualify'd than I assur'd Ventidius I would wait on him in this War to fatisfy my Friendship as well as Revenge This promise
none our new dispute seem'd a second Battel and Ventidius found he must obtain two Victories to win one I cannot with Truth decline telling you That observing the General of the Parthian Horse who was much more remarkable for his Courage than his Arms which yet were in the beginning all cover'd with Rubies though now with a nobler but resembling colour I rid up to him and having singl'd him out I endeavour'd to take a revenge of those many deaths he had given divers which serv'd under me but those which were spectators of our Combate fear'd and believ'd I would increase his Victories rather than punish them I must confess his first strokes were so unintermissive and brisk that I might have made that my own opinion too and perhaps the rage of its being mine did not a little contribute to the giving of those wounds which soon made the beholders to alter it but in bestowing on him some which were very dangerous I receiv'd many which were so but mine were so much more obliging or my constitution so much stronger than his that uniting all his Forces to give me one blow which might revenge my having so much diminsh'd them as his Sword was in the Air to act it his Spirits abandon'd him his Arms fell softly to his side and then he himself fell off his Horse on the ground some Romans according to their barbarous custom ran to cut off this valiant Parthian's Head to present it to their General but perceiving their intent I lighted hastily to prevent it but I found my self so weaken'd by the loss of Bloud that I no sooner toucht the ground with my Feet than I did the like with all my Body yet as the gods would have it remembring the cause why I had abandon'd my Horse I crept where the generous Parthian lay where not being able to defend him by my Commands I did it with my Sword and receiv'd some wounds to preserve him who had given me so many my assistance had been fruitless to him if Ventidius had not then come to mine of whom I had only strength enough to beg as he lov'd Udozia or Artavâjdes that he would preserve my valiant Enemy which words I had no sooner utter'd than I fell off my knees by him and almost in as unpromising a condition as he was in Ventidius one of the most generous Friends thought he could not better merit that Title than by having as much care of my desires as of me this made him at the same instant in which he sent for the Chirurgions to beat off those Soldiers who endeavour'd by the death of the Parthian to revenge my supposed one and many of their companions real deaths which he had that day acted Ventidius found so much difficulty to effect this that as he afterwards confest had not my pressing conjurations inviolably engag'd him to it he had given his Soldiers a liberty which the Parthian usage to Crassus made it almost as high an injustice to deny them as did the sad condition this had reduc'd me to but at lângth having made himself to be obey'd he caus'd and help'd me to be carried to my Tent and set up another near mine to which he made my Enemy be brought but he was so sensible of my danger that he was no longer so of his Glory and Success for commanding the Tribunes to prosecute the Victory and bring him an account at what rate they had bought it and how dear the Parthians had lost it to my Tent he immediately return'd thither again where he found me so much restor'd as that I had strength enough to congratulate his glorious success which was so much the more so by his having chiefly and almost solely purchas'd it and to ask him afterwards what was become of my valiant Enemy whose usage I implor'd from him once again might be as reâembling to mine as his danger was Ventidius gave me that account of him which I have given you which made me send one of my Domesticks to enquire after a Life I was as much concern'd to preserve as I had lately been to destroy my Messenger brought me word that as yet he was not recover'd from his fainting but that the Chirurgions by some certain symptomes found he would not long continue in it I was as glad at the last part of this information as troubl'd at the first and observing that Ventidius only call'd him the Parthian prisoner I ask'd him whether he had not yet learnt his Name and Quality I have not Ventidius reply'd discover'd either but I am confident all the rules of Phisiognomy are false if his Quality be not answerable to the richness of his Arms for the Chirurgions to stop his bleeding having taken off his Helmet I perceiv'd in spight of his paleness a Meen and Features which could not but be charming in a perfect health since they were almost so in the condition he was then in This Character continu'd Artavasdes would have made me suspect it was Artabanes but that my success secur'd me from that fear and as I was begging Ventidius to enquire scrutinously who the Parthian was Septimus came in and assur'd his General that by the least partial computation on both sides the Romans had lost 2000 and their Enemies 27000. Ventidius finding me in so promising a condition suspended awhile the duties of a Friend to act those of a General but he had no sooner hastily dispatch'd his Spies to learn the Countenance and intentions of the Enemy and settl'd his Guards than he return'd to me again and gave me no small hopes but those he had employ'd would next morning satisfy my curiosity and learn who the Prisoner was with this flattering expectation we entertain'd one another till the hour prescrib'd me for sleep which I could not do till I had first sent to enquire how the Parthian did and learnt that he was restor'd to Life though not to his Sences The next morning the Sun was hardly risen when Ventidius came hastily into my Tent and having sent out all those in it he told me with a Face cover'd with joy At length Artavasdes at length the gods have manifested themselves to be so by having given you wherewithal to revenge your wrongs and that Altezeerâ in a posture to repair those she has so unjustly loaden you with Yes Artavasdes that Prisoner which yesterday was made one by your Courage is Pacorus who understanding of my intention to decide our quarrel by a pitcht Battel came in post from Selutia and from Altezeera to the Parthian Army which also he was the more invited to by its being commanded by Labienus his Favourite This is confirm'd by three several Spies who all assure me that the Gentleman with the Arms cover'd with Rubies is Pacorus whoseloss the Parthians as much lament as that of the Battel and of their General of whom as yet they can learn no news you will have also continu'd Ventidius the Felicity of seeing your
if there were any Justice in my shedding some Tears for her loss it should proceed from a contrary cause than to that you ascribe them to I have Pharasmanes my heart too much contracted to tell you now what it is that does it but if to morrow you will visit me you shall know what I believe will invite you to excuse my not being able to acquaint you with it now Altezeera had no sooner ended those words than in fresh weepings she did retire hastily into her Cabinet and it being somewhat late I did to my Chamber where I past the Night in a thousand several conjectures what this strange accident might be but it so perfectly merited that Name that I was so far from imagining it as I could hardly believe it when Altezeera told it me At length as soon as the impatiented hour came I went to the Princesses Appartment I found her on her Bed all alone and in passions of Grief which transcended those I had left her in which thereby I concluded had a high cause when a proportionate Judgment and Fortitude made time bring an accession to them The Chamber though it were day had nothing of Light in it but what it receiv'd from a few silver Lamps and the Princess who as soon as she saw me and that none else was in the Room which she had expresly given charge of she told me Come Pharasmanes and see the miserablest Creature living one which so justly possesses that Name that though the gods granted me my wishes they could not yet divest me of it Would to the gods Madam I reply'd struck to the heart with those sad words that my Death could restore you your quiet you should soon and experimentally know there is nothing so dear unto me No Pharasmanes she said 't is my Death not yours must restore my quiet if any thing has that power nor would I be long from receiving that remedy did I not apprehend it would prove none to me I must Pharasmanes I must languish in Torments for they are as fit for my Crime as my Justification but that you may know my despair is just I must communicate a secret to you though I apprehend your knowledg of it will infect you with so transcendent a sorrow that it may even bring an accession to mine Regeliza the Princess continu'd finding her self past hopes of recovery importun'd me by so many several Messages to come and visit her that at last I did it though I fancy'd all the effect it would produce would only be an aggravation of my Grief and no diminution of hers which alas though in a different way prov'd too sad a Truth I was no sooner come into her Chamber than she desir'd all the rest to leave it and then with some deep sighs she thus told me I should Madam despair of the gods pardon in the other World did I leave this without obtaining yours and though what I have committed be of a quality which was authoriz'd by duty and extenuated by the event yet I cannot but call it a Crime and nothing shall make me term it otherwise but your esteeming it none which if you do I shall leave the World with as little regret as if you do the contrary I shall with horror Know Madam That not long after Artavasdes went to Rome Artabazus sent for me privately into his Closset where after all those flatteries which he thought most effective he told me Regeliza My satisfaction and that of Armenia now entirely is in your hands both of them consist in the breaking that Passion which is between my Sister and Artavasdes Whilst I consider'd Tygranes as my Successor I was as much concern'd in the consummating of that Marriage as now I am in the interruption Whilst Altezeera was like to be a subject I esteem'd none that was so more worthy of her than him she had elected but since Tygranes Crimes both against me and the Romans has render'd him as unworthy my care as their Mercy I consider Altezeera now as what she shall be and in that quality I cannot without horror contemplate her placing her self in a lower degree by her election than the Gods and Nature have destin'd her unto nor in one performance so much injure my Sister as to deprive her of her best Subject to make her self one This continu'd Artabazâs I would have told Artavasdes before his departure had I not apprehended his despair would have involv'd Armenia in new Wars and that Altezeera was too far ingag'd in her Passion and Vows to let any political consideration absolve them I therefore elected to effect that by Art which I concluded was any other way unfeizable and therefore before Artavasdes departure pretending a flame for a new Mistris and that she would not be convinc't of it but by a slighting Letter to my former and an assurance of my Passion to her self under my hand one day in Artavasdes sight I so well counterfeited an indisposition to Write and so extol'd his Stile above my own that having acquainted him with what I have you at length I procur'd two Letters from him to those effects I desir'd and mention'd which I said I would copy but which indeed I have reserv'd for another use for by their help and yours I make no question but to raise such a Fraction between the Lovers as nothing but a miracle shall discover it or unite them This said Artabazus I have done by the advice of Crassolis who is confident and so am I if you will place Artavasdes Cypher on one of the Letters and contribute to the delivery of it by a Servant of his whom we have suborn'd for that effect and who will leave him in his Journey to Rome it may shake her constancy which soon after we my ruine if the other Letter which addresses it self to his new Mistris be presented to Altezeera by you as miraculously found in Theoxcena's Closet who we have thought the fittest person to give Altezeera a jealousie not only for her perfections but that Artavasdes before his leaving Armenia so assidiously visited her though we know 't was on Phanasders score This will doubtless produce the effects we mention and when it has I will engage the Prince Pharnâces the great Mithridates Son to make his addresses to her which in the rage of her Lovers inconstancy will certainly prove successful and when once she is Married I will not much apprehend the disclosure of the Fallacy If continu'd Artabazus you esteem of my Friendship you will not deny me this proof of yours and if you value Altezeera's advantage you will grant it me upon that score neither can your refusal prevent it for if you should reject this Design you will but constrain me to act it a more offensive and perhaps bloodier way for I am determin'd at whatsoever rate to perform my intentions This was the effect Madam continu'd Regeliza of what Artabazus spake to me though he gave
it there would be two inducements to it but since that which should revenge it would not only make it publick but indelible and that the highest good in such an ill was not to know it since there was no possibility of proving a Woman Chast he esteem'd it handsomer and better to tell Altezeera of her Faults that she might banish both me and them or by her doing neither render the disclosure of her offence so necessary that the necessity of it might render it a proportionate Justice But Labienus durst not use too many reasons to prove Silence was good lest that might have prov'd one to Phraates not to keep it Whilst they two were disputing of our Sin I came to my self again and discover'd that which gave a rise to one of them to call it and to the other to believe it one but the restauration to Life had been much worse than Death where at least my griefs had ceas'd as well as my hopes which had been an advantagious bargain had not immediately my Princess too recover'd for Nature finding none come to her assistance went to her own Oh gods How was I surpriz'd to find my self in a posture of Felicity and not in a rellish of it and how confounded was I as well as Altezeera to find how much more obliging the effects of my misfortune had been than those of my Constancy and Innocence but alas I had much more cause to be so when not only the Princesses Women came running in to her assistance but when they also found her in a high Fever that threaten'd to cast her into an eternal Death as soon as she was restor'd from a temporary one So many witnesses hinder'd her from speaking to me and they beginning to undress her hinder'd me from continuing longer in the Chamber which I left without receiving any other fruit of my being Innocent than the knowledg that it had been more for my quiet I had never been so Ah when I was retir'd to my appartment what did I not say against the cruel Destinies which had form'd mine so perversly that transcendent punishments attended as well my real Fidelity as my seeming want of it The next Morning I knew by the publick voice of the Court for I durst neither satisfie my apprehensions or duty by a personal Visit or by employing any of my Domesticks to do it that the Princess was in a Fever which by giving so little hopes in the beginning made the Physicians with tears apprehend the conclusion but it was too violent to continue long our suspensions and I was satisfied of her recovery before any symptoms of it by knowing the gods would not give me so certain a cure of my Misery as the Death of my Princess and consequently mine At last her Fever left her when the Physicians had done so and the generous Pacorus who had ty'd his Fate to Altezeera's began to cherish his own Life when he was assur'd of hers but till then he contributed all he could to accompany her and the more certainly to effect it he had seiz'd on a Poniard which he lay'd by him in expectation of the fatal News 'T was in this I disclos'd and perhaps Altezeera too the disproportion of our Passions for I needed but the bare knowledg of her Death to act my own whereas Pacorus to reach his must have been necessitated to make use of his Resolution as well as Love It may be this knowledg invited Phraates a while to a silence which his Virtue would not have kept Pacorus and I who were most concern'd in Altezeera's Health as if it had been by a sympathetical operation recover'd our own proportionately as she did hers This was the cause that the first day I went into the Palace-Garden upon which my Appartment answer'd Altezeera went thither also 't was the first time I had seen her since her sickness or recovery I will omit my confusions and my disorders whilst I congratulated the latter which as soon as I had as if it had been without design by degrees she separated her self from the Company and after having received some fresh convincements that I was Artavasdes she acknowledg'd no small joy that I was restored from a Sickness which she justly consider'd as a tribute to hers but being determin'd not to lose so happy an opportunity to learn my Fate which the Authors of it too presented me I told her If I consider Madam my recovery with any Joy 't is only because you seem to do so and out of a hope that that Life which has by twice preserving Pacorus's twice establish'd the felicity of yours is still continu'd by the gods for the same end though by the same way Yes Madam I am ready not only to employ my Life but to lay it down in so glorious an occasion though it were as full of Felicities as in those happy days wherein my Princess was as much mine by Promise as she is now my Rivals by possession But Madam Did I not conclude the gods restor'd my Health upon this or some resembling-score I should esteem it as transcendent a Misery as I shall a Blessing if they have done it for that end Neither need I for the only cure of my Miseries be oblig'd to my Resolution but Reason which convinces me 't were a less Misfortune to have Artavasdes in the Arms of Death than to have him see the fair Altezeera in Pacorus's The gods shall be my Witnesses she reply'd pulling down her Vail to cover her blushes that if I yielded not to my last Sickness 't was more upon Artavasdes's account than my own who had I known him still to be what he is neither the safety or satisfaction of Pacorus Artabazus or Armenia should have made me hazard his or recede in the least degree from those professions which his Person and Services but much more my inclinations induc'd me to make him but alas the gods contributed to my delusion You cannot doubt Artavasdes but 't was one and not a Design for 't is not rational that I should willingly act what turn'd most to my own Torment Yes Artavasdes I say my own Torment Judg then what that grief must be which makes my being the Wife of so generous a Prince as Pacorus be esteem'd one by me I have liv'd purposely to tell you this for perhaps you may resent some satisfaction by knowing she that has divested you of all your felicity has in that very performance done the like to her own These words and some Tears which accompanied them were so sensible to me that I could not abstain from saying in a higher tone than before Great gods Have not you already render'd Artavasdeâ sufficiently miserable by the loss of his Princess's affection but you must make him more so by the restoration of it And are you so inveterately bent to continue me so that rather than not act it you will make contraries produce the same effect 'T is now
Madam I find that the ending of my life will be the most considerable Service it can render you You had never been unfortunate had not the gods ty'd your Fate to mine remove the cause and the effect will cease That which restores your quiet will settle mine either of these inducements especially the former will give me resolution and invitation enough to end it Those powers can have no more any pretence to afflict you when you are as single in your Fortune as in your Perfections 'T is not Madam my despair but if it be permitted me to say it my Love which makes this Motion Nor can you give me a greater testimony that I am in the blessing of your esteem than to enjoyn or permit me to oblige both of us in one performance Can you then believe Altezeera reply'd with a Look which had something of resentment in it that because I have lost my Title to you I have lost my concern for you or that what will render my sorrow unconsolable will suppress it Cruel Artavasdes if neither of those are your Thoughts why by so strange a motion do you invite me to believe they are The Death of the Innocent Artavasdes would much more trouble me than when I esteem'd him the guilty That was a loss which my then belief would have render'd none But that which he now threatens me with is of a quality that if I can receive any consolation in it it proceeds from the impossibility of my surviving it If Madam said I the miserable Artavasdes's Death could either prove a misfortune to you or to him I am convinc'd by many experiments that the gods would have long since acted it and their having so miraculously kept me from it proves abundantly 't is a Blessing But my Princess What then will you determine of a Life which you would confine me from ending Do not you then believe that the horror of contemplating you in the embraces of my Rival will make my grief act that which you would tye my resolution from And having now manifested my Innocence which is not only the highest Blessing your condition permits me to aspire unto but the only which made me so long languish out my time Permit me my Princess to die in your esteem since I cannot in a nobler Felicity and since I can extend my Hopes no higher why will you let me any longer extend my Life He dies not amiss Madam that has nothing to expect or desire and your condition and your Virtue keeps me from both Ah Artavasdes she reply'd you are not what your words would make you one that considers âo one 's Felicity but his own have you then nothing to hope or desire when I have told you the continuation of your Life is dear and considerable to Altezeera I have almost as much cause to have spoke those words as you and if I declin'd them 't was upon the same score which I believ'd would have made you do the like We must Artavasdes attend the leisure of the gods if there be no cause to hope in Reason there is yet reason to hope in a Miracle for they will not give so pregnant an Argument against their Providence which is themselves as to let so perfect a Constancy as yours continue eternally fruitless I was upon replying when we found our selves at the end of a Walk which answer'd another where we perceiv'd Pacorus with Phraates coming towards us we therefore went to meet him where he again began to tax me of that in Railery which alas too soon lost that Name for the next day that Gayety which proceeded from his humour and which might have much more from his condition began to turn into so deep and obscure a Sadness and so constantly increas'd that to let you know how uncapable it was of intermission it receiv'd none in the fair Altezeera's Visits who so exactly sympathiz'd in his distempers that she even assum'd them by deploring them and the gods thereby made me know that the cause of Altezeera's Sicknesâ would prove as transcendent a Misfortune as the effect This visible declination of Pacorus's made what created it as visible to Labienus but his judgment had been so infinitely deluded by his Sight that what was a production of Altezeera's Love he imputed to one of her shame and in this Faith so long continu'd that Error that his Princess's Death had like to have prov'd the punishment of it But the gods who âere as much concern'd in the preserving the felicity of Pacorus's Life as the Torment of mine made the Princess one day send for Labienus who she thought knew Pacorus's heart as absolutely as she possess'd it she receiv'd him in her Cabinet which having lock'd she told him Labienus That my Lord and yours has some strange distemper is not more visible to me than I am certain the occasion of it is to you for whom I am resolv'd he has nothing of reserve My Reason would perswade me I am the cause of his Disorder did not my Innocence more powerfully do the contrary for as often as I have conjur'd him to tell it me he has only answer'd me in Sighs and groans and thereby increas'd instead of resolving my doubts 't is therefore that I apply my self to you for the latter and to invite you to it I attest the gods I can no longer be thought criminal than I am ignorant of my Crime the knowledg of my offence and of my innocence will be unseparable Yes Labienus you cannot more certainly absolve my guilt than to let me know it This I tell you presupposing I may be the innocent cause of his Disorder which only his Silence and the vastness of his grief make me conjecture but if it has another Creation I shall almost be satisfy'd in knowing he could grieve as much for something else as for Altezeera since in that knowledg I shall be convinc'd she is not the occasion of giving him so much trouble The Princess told Labienus much more of this quality who being thereby convinc'd that he attributed her sorrow to a wrong cause to obtain a pardon for that fault confess'd it and having acquainted her with what I have acquainted you added He was confident Phraates had disclos'd all to his Brother since nothing but a vast Distemper of the Mind could have so proportionate an influence on the Body and that it was something reflected on her honour that he could conceal it from her or did from him To undertake to decypher Altezeera's astonishment or grief were to engage my self in impossibilities but having a little collected her Thoughts and supprest her Resentments she told him I was not then mistaken Labienus when I judged such violent effects could hardly proceed from any other cause but his Love 't was his Silence told it me but I had much rather his kindness had that would have relish'd of confidence whereas this may of the contrary I must too Labienus somewhat
Pacorus who found his Choler had somewhat transported him begg'd his Princess's pardon for a zeal which perhaps might carry its excuse in its cause Labienus though he were very much troubl'd at his Prince's Rebuke yet he was much more the contrary to observe what created it and being more satisfy'd that Altezeera's Virtue needed no justification than he was to have found one continu'd in a joyful Silence But the Princess observing the latter told Pacorus I must begg you Sir to command Labienus to continue what you interrupted for I am oblig'd to prove that by demonstration which you have already by Faith the latter ties me to the former and the former cannot prejudice the latter but confirm it To believe me Innocent after I had evinc'd I was so could not be more Just than to believe I was so before I prov'd my self so was obliging Had you thought me guilty I might perhaps have left your Sin your Punishment but your concluding me Innocent invites me to reward your believing it by my proving it Neither Sir is this upon your score for the way in which you have confer'd your Obligation renders me uncapable of returning it 't is therefore to satisfie the World that I beg Labienus may satisfie us for those that have not Virtue enough may believe I have none and I should be sorry that my Virtue should be the cause of other Mens Sin and which was one of your fears that your granting my desires will extinguish Pacorus oppos'd this with many pregnant Reasons but they serâ'd only the better to illustrate his obedience for at length he yielded to Altezeera's Commands which as Labienus understood he told his Prince After Sir I had learn'd that the Princess's Women came in throngs to her assistance I concluded they had receiv'd an Advertisement of her Condition and knowing as absolutely none knew it but Phraates and I as that they receiv'd it not from me I resolv'd it must come from him which I was more confirm'd in when I learn'd from Arismaze that both she and her Companions understood of the Princess's indisposition from the youngest of the Palurus's whose eldest Brother as you know waits on Phraates in his Chamber and is not little in his favour The Faith I had that they were too well instructed in their Lessons to make a voluntary acknowledgment of them made me send privately for the younger to my Chamber from whom with some threatnings and promises in your Name I drew a confession that he had been employ'd by his elder Brother to give the Princesses Women notice of her Distress I therefore immediately sent for him and retain'd my Insormer with me whose Brother assoon as he came and saw him with me fell into some Disorders which I determin'd was an opportunity not to be omitted and which I did so effectually improve that he confest to me upon my engagement that Phraates should never learn it that by his Orders he had sent his Brother to advertise the Princesses Women of her condition This continu'd Labienus I promis'd because in the first place I resolv'd 't would be no small punishment to Phraates to perceive you were not mov'd with that which he was confident would produce a contrary effect and that 't would be no small advantage to you to know your Enemy without his knowing that you did so which might in time furnish you with an opportunity not only by standing on your Guard to prevent the effects of his future Malice but by surprizing him in the attempts make your punishing him for this and his other offences a publick Justice Labienus having done speaking Altezeera told him If this did as much evince my Innocence as Phraates Malice you would then have satisfy'd your Ingagement but alas this does not the former but the latter Madam said Pacorus it is absolutely unnecessary the gods are too just to let there be any other proof of your Innocence than your Innocence it self it carries its own justification so purely that it leaves us no way to suspect you can Sin but by our committing one Sir said Labienus Though I am absolutely of your opinion yet because all have not the Virtue of Pacorus or the knowledg of Altezeera's it is not therefore Charitable that missing those Blessings they should be permitted to endure the Curse of doubting her Chastity 't is only upon that scorâ I am solicitous to evince it which I am confident I have in what I have already told you for if Phraates believ'd as he told me that the Princess and Pharasmanes were fallen asleep by a stupifaction of their Senses through the excess of their Joys what needed he have sent in so many Witnesses not helpers of their condition which needed none and if he knew as both their succeeding and dangerous Sicknesses manifested that they were in a mutual fainting what needed he so artificially have interpos'd himself between the light of that one Lamp he had left unextinguish'd from shining on their Faces which if they had been asleep would have the better prov'd his Allegation as their not being so discovers his wickedness These Sir continu'd Labienus had I no other inducement but my Judgment to clear the Princess would invite me sufficiently to do it 't is now no more Faith but Reason and this discovery makes me suspect who 't was so lately attempted against your Life for that Crime and this are so resembling that perhaps they may not be erroneously attributed to one Father Truly said Pacorus You have made some Inferences which I did not because I was concern'd not to make them for 't was more fitting and I am certain as secure to credit Altezeera's Innocence without any other proof but the knowledg of her Life which has been so immaculate that her past Actions are the Testimonies of her future as those will be of what are past like Prophecies where things past evidence those to come and those to come will ascertain those which are past I will not continu'd Artavasdes deduce by particulars all the passages of this Conference whose event so clearly settl'd all Misunderstandings that they all three separated themselves with that satisfaction which their Virtues merited Altezeera had the contentment too to receive an assurance from Pacorus That had he thought her Vicious he could no longer have done so and they then concluded to keep the discovery of Phraates's Crime from his knowledg upon those Reasons Labienus had alledg'd who undertook so to husband this Silence as to make it of singular advantage But alas this Calm created a Storm against the unfortunate Artavasdes for Altezeera's scrupulous Virtue by this accident receiv'd so strong an Allarm that she determin'd at whatever rate to secure her self in the future from a resembling one but this determinaton was far more easie to be assum'd than practis'd and I had that consolation and infelicity to find 't was with a proportionate trouble to mine that she resolv'd on my
unwilling as unable to divest my self This and the apprehension that if I went not alone Artabazus might discover and thereby necessitate me to disoblige him or my self was the cause that I left Euphranor's Castle unaccompani'd in which condition I travel'd till I came into that Wood where the generous Artabbanes found me so unequally assaulted that I began to fancy Euphranor's belief was true and that at the Temple of Hierapolis I should find my satisfaction But though his Sword suspended me from it one way yet it gave me another by saving me from a Death that would have secluded me from Artabbanes Conversation which in the condition Altezeera is now in is the highest Felicity the Cruel gods have made the miserable Artavasdes capable of The End of the Fourth and last Book of the Third Part of PARTHENISSA PARTHENISSA A ROMANCE THE FOURTH PART PARTHENISSA THE FOURTH PART The First BOOK THE generous Artavasdes had no sooner finish'd his Story which had produc'd no common operations in the hearers than Artabbanes told him If the sin of not-believing Artavasdes were not greater than the vanity of believing my Sword could contribute to a victory his was acting I should not make the last of those my faith which since to avoid the first I must do I shall to extenuate the necessity of that crime protest That I will no more exclaim against the gods for having so extraordinarily preserved me from death since now I find 't was to preserve Artavasdes from it for whom I am so justly concern'd that I shall cherish the continuation of my miseries if they contribute to the continuation of his life which though replenish'd with many sensible misfortunes yet are as far short of mine as an unhappiness that time and many accidents may cure is of one which the very gods themselves cannot If said Artavasdes my miseries till now were not equal to yours this assurance had made them so for the accession to my past misfortunes that yours transcend them gives mine the Precedency Callimmachus who apprehended this generous dispute would suspend him from learning what would enable him to determine of it acquainted them with his fears to which Artabbanes told him Alas Sir I shall by not obeying you do it for by not being able to tell you what should determine it you cannot but do it on my side I am also the more concern'd in this victory since by the loss of it I shall be depriv'd of this only consolation in my miseries that my generous friend's are not equal to them But the Night being already too far spent to begin a fresh relation he not only perswaded them to defer their curiosity till the next morning but also to permit Symander to satisfie it whose fidelity had render'd him an unsuspected hearer of Artavasdes's Adventures and whose interest in his Princes life and secrets render'd him a fit Relator of them Callimmachus and Artavasdes having exprest a greater sorrow that Artabbanes was not able to tell his own story than that he did it not and a little time being spent in discourses of that quality and of the different opinions they all had what could make the Prince of Parthia so intent upon Artavasdes's Death as to hire Assassinates to act it which he had told Callimmachus and Artabbanes one of them had confest with his last breath The generous Priest took leave of the two Friends not only to afford them a liberty which he apprehended his company something limited but also to perform some ceremonies of his office and to be the earlier ready to summon Symander of an eâgagement which he in part had already so well satisfied that it gave him a just impatience till he had done it entirely The night therefore had no sooner resign'd her Empire to the Sun than Callimmachus came to Artabbanes and Artavasdes Appartment where he found that his fear of Incivility proceeded from a different cause than from that he apprehended for the latter of them was so far from believing it too-early that he had already expected him above an hour with all the impatiencies of a concern'd friend and the former having left Symander to satisfie his promise was already retir'd into a Gallary contiguous to his Chamber to avoid the hearing of his unparallel'd miseries and of observing the influence they would necessarily have over his generous friends Smyander by Artavasdes's command seated himself between him and Callimmachus and there being summon'd by them both to continue the Relation of his Princes Fortunes having first remember'd the generous Armenian that by his arrival he had been interrupted from the prosecution of them at their entrance into Rome after the victory of Crassus from thence thus began his discourse addressing it to Artavasdes The sequel of Parthenissa's and Artabbane's Story AFter that for the recovery of your health and the extenuating your grief for the loss of a Father which but too justly merited it you had retir'd for a few days to Ventidius's Palace and that my Prince was assur'd by the Chyrurgeons his wounds were in such unfortunate places that for at least two Moons he should be unable to travel To oblige the generous Sillaces who was then perfectly recover'd and to silence those fears which so long an absence had doubtless contracted in the fair Parthenissa but especially in Lyndadorie he conjur'd him to begin his journey into Parthia and to leave his cure to the help of time and of the Chyrurgeons Sillaces though he were too much a Lover not to esteem a separation from his Mistress a misfortune yet he was also too much a friend to leave one that was so to him in so dangerous a place and condition and besides fearing Artabbanes had made him that request more to satisfie him than himself he absolutely declin'd it but when by many pressing protestations my Prince had remov'd those doubts it was not long after that Sillaces taking the benefit of a Roman Galley which was bound from Ostia to Tyre left Artabbanes having first concluded amongst themselves of what he should say and do in Parthia and having receiv'd from him a Letter to the fair Lyndadory so fill'd with approbations and extolments of her election and of implorings in his favour and advantage that had she but only lov'd her Brother she could not but have done the like to her Servant 'T was by my Princes command that I waited on the generous Sillaces to Ostia where having seen him aboard I return'd to Rome the same day and passing by the Capitol to go to Artabbane's lodging I perceiv'd at the gate of it a great confluence of people my curiosity led me to enquire the cause of it from one who told me it was from a Salapian Lord who had begg'd of the Senate the head of Spartacus which he was then taking down This information made me imagine 't was the generous Perolla who I soon after perceiv'd all in Mourning in a Chariot that was so and
Madam with Arsaces I am convinced would make you wish when perhaps too-too late that you had prevented it by greater troubles than I hope you will suffer in your journey for I have so well deluded him that you may take your own hours of travel and that which will end yours will be a Castle of Merinzor's in Media the first place to which we intended our flight had not an unhappy accident prevented it and Media Madam being the Kingdom your Artabbanes must one day possess I elect to wait on you thither that your Reason if not your justice may be secured of the innocency of my designs for had I any which were criminal I would not have chosen that place for the Scene to act them where your happy servant cannot want hands to act his Revenge Surena said Parthenissa told me many things of this quality and so protested his ambition was to solicite not force my Affection that I determined since I could not prevent the former not to provoke him to the latter which the uttering of my just resentments I apprehended would 't was therefore I told him Though your past Crimes might invite me rationally to conclude you capable of any yet I will not disbelieve your vows and professions which if ever you design to violate I have the power and the resolution to prevent Do not necessitate me to owe that safety to my self which I am not unwilling to derive from you nor attempt to practice that which you so justly condemn in another and which you esteemed so foul a Sin that to prevent it you esteemed Rebellion None Madam said Surena did it not too much wrong the Beauty of Truth to arm it with many protestations I should by reiterated ones bind my self by Religion to that which I am sufficiently confined unto without it and were it lawful for Surena to repine at any thing the fair Parthenissa says he had now but too abundant an occasion to do it for she must believe him as wicked as unfortunate to conclude he stood in need of any other Argument to deter him from attempting against her honour than the greatness of the Crime but Madam my deportment shall be so innocent that you will in the future esteem your doubts as great an injury to your self as I can now esteem them to me I found though his Expressions were humble that he was highly mov'd at the cause of my fears 't was therefore I replyed I hope Surena you will not much condemn me for running into an error where the discovery of its being one will prove my satisfaction Your satisfaction Madam said Surena shall be still more considerable to me than my own and since I have that invitation as well as that of virtue I shall as much apprehend any criminal designs as the fair Parthenissa does detest them thereupon having wish'd me but as much rest as I could confer on him he withdrew himself to leave me to mine But I took none out of an apprehension that I had done amiss in acquainting him with my fears for 't was not impossible but to think him capable of that Sin was to provoke him to it since the very performance could not raise in me a worse belief of him than that was of fearing he would perform them This reason and many another of a resembling efficacy made me conclude that my having declared my doubts was a greater prejudice than those assurances I had from thence derived was an advantage You may believe in such disturbances of the Mind the Body could not but participate so that I was earlier up than he that was more concerned in my being so and I quitted my Bed not only because I could take no rest in it but that I resolved to add to the obligation of virtue that of trust and to go freely to what else I knew I should be constrained unto Surena therefore found me dress'd when he came to tell me all things were ready for our Journey if I was which having told him he led me to the Chariot that had all the Journey the same 30 Horse for Convoy that it had at first Surena begged and had my permission to ride with me in it The Fifth day after we had left the Castle of Eden we came into Media which we learned was all involved in a Domestick War This made Surena travel with more caution than he had thitherto observed so that constantly he left a couple of his Guard some four or five Furlongs behind and sent half a score before that he might not be surprized The third day after he had settled this order one of those to whose care all Intelligence which should happen in the rear was left came full speed to acquant his Prince that his Companion had been killed by a Party of Horse which followed him a round Gallop Surena at this Intelligence leap'd out of the Chariot and whilst he was arming himself made me many apologies for so rude a proceeding but he was no sooner fitted to receive his Enemies than he perceived them who without any cheapening charg'd him so roundly that he found he might need those Ten Horse for the Fight which he had sent for Intelligence one of his Pages went therefore to call them but two of the unknown Party having charged through all Surena's came to my Chariot and having beg'd me to pardon a rudeness which was for my service one of them immediately killed the Driver of it and the other with his sword cut the Traces asunder but this performance cost them their Lives which they lost by Three of their Enemies who feared those came not to hinder my flight but to contribute to it The Combat being performed by Men of singular valour was very bloody and in less than half an hour were reduced to so few as only the chief of either Party He of the unknown one by his unimitable courage had reduced his Adversary to a condition which needed help when the generous Artabbanes interposed himself for their reconciliation and then from an Intercessor became a Party not knowing he that was vanquished was guilty but he abundantly repaired that mistake by defending after the return of those Ten Horse which were recalled a Life I am much more concerned to have preserved than to have Surena's destroyed 'T was thus said Symander that the fair Parthenissa put a period to a relation which had as much taken up Artabbanes and Sillace's wonder as attention I will not tell you how infinitely the first of them exclaim'd against the perversness of his Fate for having rendered the acting his Revenge as great an offence against his Friendship as the omission of it was one against his Love But the fair Parthenissa who desired no greater punishment for Zephalinda's Brother and who indeed could wish him no greater than to be out of his protection and under his Rivals conjured him to be contented with that Revenge with which she was Artabbanes was
Murtherer he will become his own Have the gods been so miraculously your Preservers to make you become as miraculously your own Destroyer Have I endangered my life to save yours and is this the return you make me Are we not miserable enough by our Destinies but we must make our selves more by our Despair Cruel Artabbanes if Death only can give us ease was there ever any such disproportion in our Judgments as should induce you now to believe a disproportionate Fate shall create a resembling satisfaction Or do you detest my Constancy that you take so sudden and âatal a Course to avoid beholding it Great gods she continued raising her voice and her hands if already my afflictions have not evidenced my fidelity give me Tryals of it as great as it self and let the residue of my Life be spent in such sufferings as may manifest that immutability which it seems my past ones could not My Prince said Symander more wounded with these words than he was with his Enemies Swords having first obtain'd from Parthenissa that she would sit upon his Bed with as many sighs as words told her It is time my Princess it is now time if it had not been before to act what you are come to interrupt Can I live but in a higher Crime than to become my own Murtherer after you interpret a production of my Flame and Care to be one of my hatred and jealousie Alas those are both equal and impossible Sins That I can hate the fair Parthenissa is so egregious a misbelief that but to name is to confute it and to doubt her Constancy is to doubt what by a sad and happy experiment I have found is as transcendent in perfection as to suspect it is the contrary in an opposite extream No Madam what I was doing proceeded absolutely from my love to my Princess and from my knowledg of her Constancy The first of these made me esteem it both just and rational to set a period to an unfortunate Life which experimentally I found had hitherto rendered hers so and the last made me esteem it as just and rational since her Constancy by what she had so often and so recently performed would confine her to a Fate which the gods had confined to eternal misfortunes to cut off the cause of their Cruelty and leave them thereby as little excuse for the continuation of it as while she so infinitely misplaces the blessing of her affection she affords them too much In brief Madam I was prectising but what you approved in Surena for I was but taking away a Life that had indanger'd yours which is so great a Duty that without a proportionate Injustice you cannot hinder it Are you then Artabbanes the Princess replyed so ignorant of my affection as to believe I can survive the object of it the gods by what they do but indanger our Lives but you by what you design will inevitably end them can an evincement that I love you more induce you to love me and your self the less We are not miserable enough to despair when we can make our selves more so and what you so fatally design will abundantly do it The gods as they have hitherto tryed our Constancies will in the future reward them if what you intend prevent it not Do not therefore my Artabbanes doubly injure them by doubting of their Mercy and by hindering them to act it I do not tell you this that I decline bearing you company no I am ready to do it By killing your self you cannot more certainly go before me to another life than I will the same moment follow you neither can you suspect that she who has been your Companion in the sufferings of Virtue will decline being so when you go to receive the reward of it I should never finish my Relation said Symander did I particularize all their discourses I will therefore only tell you their result which was That after many reasons Parthenissa's prevailed but then my Prince's retributions had almost proved as fatal as his Despair for forcing himself to make them in a posture fitting their condition not his a great wound he had received in the side unfortunately opened out of which there issued such a flux of blood that the Chyrurgeons could not be more troubled at it than they were to stop it and one of the remedies they prescribed for that end was that Parthenissa should leave the Chamber which she obeyed after she had received many reiterated protestations that Artabbanes did leave off all violent designs against his own Life and consequently against hers I will not continued Symander any longer usurp upon your patiences which I fear my just concerns in every particular action of my Prince's has already made me do too much you shall therefore only know that my wounds by the fair Emilia's care were recovered before my Princes wherby I was freed by being enabled to wait on him from a greater trouble than they themselves had been Surena not only knew what belonged to a Gentleman but practised it by a constant visiting of Artabbanes and by demonstrating as much care in his recovery as if it had been to have restored him to hopes and not to have deprived him of them And truly except his Crimes in love I never knew him guilty of any nor never act what was unworthy the noble Title of Zephalinda's Brother but in his Flame he was as criminal as unsuccessful though his Partizans alledged that only therein being so it was not his Nature but Passion which offended During my Prince's danger Surena permitted Parthenissa unrestrainedly to visit him either out of Civility or Revenge the first that he might be denyed nothing conducive to his health and the last that she might see that he wanted it but as soon as that was restored he lost a conversation which made him think it a misfortune but this was so handsomly carried that it was only in Surena's absence who went to the Frontiers to receive his Brother and his Army and perhaps he elected that course to induce Parthenissa to with for his return as also in his absence to hinder an union which had so narrowly been interrupted The fair Emilia and I were the constant Ambassadors between the generous Lovers and by the excellent example of their Passion learned to form our own Surena having met Vixores sent him and his Forces to joyn with Merinzor but being himself more concerned in Love than Glory returned to Arsacia where he received the intelligence that Tygranes before sillaces and Zenophon were joyned with him being impatient at Mârinzor's in some manner besieging him had put his Fate to a Battel which he had lost and with exceeding difficulty recovered the walls of Eâbatan under which it had been fought that when the king was reduced to the last extremity the Parthian Ambassador with 5000 of Zenophon's Army had forced the Guards of the Camp and flung himself into the City which he despaired
but on his Princess's whose grief and despair he apprehended would receive no little accession by becoming a Witness or a hearer of his suffering neither could he in so sad an exigent have told how to have behav'd himself for if he had di'd without emotions as on the one side it had eclips'd his Enemies revenge so on the other it had done the same to the evincement of his resentments for so sad and fatal a deprivation and should he manifest the latter he could not but have contributed to a satisfaction the greatness of which would have proportionately created his own trouble but the Captain 's assurance was so probable that he believ'd it for though he esteem'd Surena would be vindicative yet he could not think he would be barbarously so The Commander of the Guards knowing how little Time Artabbanes had left thought it unfit by * his Company to rob him of any part of it and therefore withdrew himself but he made me a sign to follow him into the next room which I did where he told me that for certain the following Night was destin'd for my Prince's Death and that he had declin'd acquainting him with it himself as believing it an information fitter for my discovering I had only words enough to thank his care for my grief stifl'd the rest in the very birth My generous Master at my return into the Chamber knew some new Misfortune was come to my knowledg and constrain'd me though in as many sighs as words to acquaint him with it which I did and which I had no sooner done than he only told me I had obligingly deluded him since by the excess of my sorrow he thought I had assum'd it for some fresh danger of the Princess's Whilst things were in this posture in the Castle those in the Palace were in as sad a one for Parthenissa's ignorance of my Prince's condition was more deplorable to her than the knowledg of it was to him she expected every minute the Messenger of her Death in the messenger of his and her affection was so high and perfect that it needed not the help of her resolution to follow his fate and though Emilia gave her very pregnant consolations yet they were too weak for so strong a Melancholy which necessitated her to keep her Bed whereby she was ignorant of that fatal Theater which was erecting within sight of her Window out of which Emilia unfortunately looking discover'd it and in the consequences that sight inspir'd her with she sell into a fainting the noise of her fall made the Princess look what was the cause of it which when she had discover'd she call'd some of the Servants to her assistance which proved so effectual that it gave her strength enough to tell Parthenissa what depriv'd her absolutely of hers Emilia soon repented what she had said and had much more cause to do so when after an hours trial of her prescriptions for ending a swound she found them all fruitless But Nature at length did what Art could not and the first sign the Princess gave of her recovery was a sign of her affection to my Prince of whose condition she pressingly askt the ignorant hearers their silence was not ascrib'd to that cause but to a more dangerous one out of which faith Emilia remov'd her by protesting they knew nothing of what she demanded neither of the cause of erecting the Scaffold which none of those were about it could tell and therein she spoke the truth for though she often askt out of the Window for what end those Men were set a work yet she could never learâ it Artabbanes in the mean time had taken me into a Closet contiguous to his Chamber whereby the pressingest conjurations he was capable of he enjoin'd me not to give him so pregnant an evincement of my disaâfection to him as to deplore his going to a better place That I would coâcern'dly endeavour to console the fair Parthenissa for the like grief on the same cause and that whilst she would do me the honour of retaining me near her person that I would not decline it 'T was only in Tears that I answer'd these impossible commands and if he thought I promis'd to observe them he deriv'd that belief from my silence not me The hour of rest being come Artabbanes laid himself down on his Bed with as little disorder as if he had been as near his ordinary as eternal sleep only the fair name of Parthenissa stole sometimes out of his mouth but never unaccompani'd with some sighs to demonstrate for whom he breath'd them Oh gods said Symander it were almost as hard to describe the fears I was in that fatal Night as to believe how free my Prince was from any who about the dawn of day was awakened by the noise of some who open'd the doors and guessing at their design by what I had acquainted him with he rose up and told me Come Symander we must part but this one Testimony of my Enemies power and malice will eternally free me from resenting another let the rememberance of so high an advantage extinguish all repinings the purchase of it may inspire Do me too I conjure thee this last obligation as to tell my Princess I di'd with Parthenissa in my Mouth and that my breath expir'd in repeating the fair name of her for whom only I drew it These words were hardly spoken when Surena waited on by some of his Guards came into the Chamber whom he commanded out again and then came to my Prince and told him Artabbanes I must acknowledg I have twice receiv'd my Life at your hands the first when you had taken from me the Victory and the second when you had taken from me what I valu'd a thousand times more and though some have represented to me that the former proceeded from your Revenge and the latter from your Ignorance yet I hold it fit to make my acknowledgment the giving you both your Life and Liberty I am confin'd unto this if that information be true by the dictates of virtue and if false by those of gratitude I know you are not only my Rival but even successfully so and I know how vast a prejudice this will bring both to my passion and my affairs I tell you thus much that you may be convinc'd I am not ignorant of what I do and I tell you no more lest I might lessen the merit of the action by repeating it Great gods continu'd Symander you only know my joy at so unheard-of a Gallantry and you do consequently know that it was greater than his on whom it was confer'd The time and the strangeness of the thing made me suspect I did dream but it was so pleasing a one that I apprehended the doing of any thing which might tell me whether I did so or no I esteem'd it too great to be real yet was loth to interrupt what gave me more satisfaction than ever any receiv'd in that which
Rivals celebrated their victory and deliverance by many embraces which were given with so good grace that it created a general quarrel to Fortune for having so long defer'd it and which in the future was to break it again One would have guest by my Prince's retributions that his Life had been precious to him but those that knew Parthenissa was in Surena's hands knew withal that it was to his Gallantry not his own safety that he paid them I amuse not my self to particularize those signal expressions those two generous Enemies made one another before their separation which was perform'd by eithers contracting too good an opinion of his Rival for their unfortunate condition But Surena's was at least silenc'd if not supprest by his return that day to Parthenissa to whom my Prince by a private Messenger gave so ample and handsome an account of that days proceeding that his reception relish'd more of having assum'd Artabbanes's felicity than of having been his Protector and his ignorance from whence so obliging an usage was deriv'd inspir'd him with hopes which could not have a more flattering than false foundation My Prince in the mean time with a Guard Surena had fore'd him to take for his Defence continu'd his journey by a hasty Travel towards Chrisapolis where he heard Zenophon was levying Forces to relieve his King and to bring the Fate of Media to a more equal dispute than Tygranes's precipitation had already allow'd it Artabbanes was no sooner arriv'd at Chrisapolis than he discharg'd Surena's Convoy with rewards more proportionate to the Giver than Receivers He made his entry into the City by night only waited upon by me and having taken up a retir'd lodging enquir'd of the Master of it the News that was then stirring who told him That Zenophon but six days before had receiv'd an express from Tygranes which told him their chiefest Magazine of Victuals in Ecbatan had been destroy'd by a Traytor that had the Care of it which had reduc'd him to such extremity that if not immediately relieved his hopes were not to live but die a King that he despair'd not but by a small accessional relief to revenge his former disgrace in the same place in which it had befallen him and that therefore Zenophon with whatever Force he could make on the place should advance by incessant Marches towards Ecbatan This was so true and pressing an Intelligence that Zenophon having formerly appointed a general Rendezvous too late for this necessity took of his Army about Eight thousand Horse and Foot which were the nearest and readiest Forces and with those two days since advanced to the relief of his King having left order that the residue should follow with an expedition which might evidence the cause from whence it proceeded My Prince was very pensive at this information and much more sorry the destiny of Media should be decided without him he being in it Whilst he was engag'd in such thoughts mine were employ'd how to remove their cause and at last resolving that in so emergent a necessity he ought publickly to avow himself to see what influence Moneses's blood had over the Medians and to have Arms in his hands to oppose Merinzor should the gods make him the Instrument of punishing Tygranes's Ingratitude to my Prince's Father as also to dispute Parthenissa with Surena with more equal Arms than those by which he had lost her I concluded too that Zenophon would not intrust so considerable a concern as Chrisapolis into any hands but those whose inclinations he was as confident of as of his own and therefore Artabbanes ought not to apprehend the disclosing himself to the Governour of it and to head those Forces which were embodying as Seconds to Zenophons's flying Army These reasons were so pregnant to me that I acquainted my generous Master with them to whom they appear'd the same and who therefore immediately commanded me to invite the Governour to give him a visit which he would have then paid him had he not esteem'd it fitter to receive his advice in private than go and perhaps render himself uncapable of observing it by desiring it first in publick I went with joy to obey these orders and being without much difficulty admitted into the Governours Chamber I drew him aside and told him the cause of my doing so He receiv'd the Intelligence with great astonishment but I soon found his was deriv'd from an obliging not a dangerous Cause for 't was in eloquent and passionate returns that he thankt the gods for sending and me for bringing him such News he went therefore follow'd by all the Gentlemen and Officers then about him to my Prince's Lodging but by the way the Flame being diffus'd over the City there was hardly any in it but those that waited on the Governour or that went upon the same employment I purposely omit the exceeding deep submissions and the proportionate acclamations this throng of Friends made my Prince and utter'd for his return The Governour an old and unalterable friend to Moneses and his family told him The gods Sir have doubtless reduced this Kingdom to so low an ebb to evidence your restauration was of more concernment than the quiet of it since they have depriv'd it of the last to act the first and it is more than probable that they will acquaint us 't was your absence involv'd us in Wars by making your return give a period to them We are therefore come Sir to offer you our Swords and Lives which we doubt not under such a General will vanquish greater obstacles than your courage will now encounter which has already acted too many things to leave us the least pretence of doubt it is uncapable of performing any Artabbanes in words and actions altogether sensible and obliging made them find their affection and civilities were not unfruitfully placed and to let them know he ambition'd nothing more than to engage his Life in that Country in which he found so many willing to adventure theirs with him as also to give Merinzor's first infusions the lye in a way which also should punish it he conjur'd them that the next Morning all such Forces of Horse as they thought fit to honour him with and as could be rendezvouz'd by then might be so with which he despair'd not to overtake Zenophon and to share in his Countrys Fate The Governour immediately commanded all the Officers to see those Orders obey'd and in the future to receive theirs from Artabbanes who that night he permitted not to continue in those Lodgings but brought him to the Castle where his reception spoke the heart with which it was made The Sun the next morning was not risen when all the streets of Chrisapolis eccho'd with the noise of Trumpets and Clarions and not above an hour after a great Plain on the North side of the City was covered with Three thousand Horse whereof a third part were Voluntiers which the only Name of Artabbanes drew under
was Orodes's Faith as well as his who therefore seem'd to be more troubled than pleased at his success and who every day disclosed some such symptoms of his being not well satisfied with him that it was generally thought those signs would turn into effects which Surena's high Carriage would not a little contribute to the accellerating Artabbanes who knew Surena had almost as much discretion as Love concluded he would not so far incense his King as that it should be publickly taken notice of unless he were prepared for some high Design and sought but a provocation to begin it This rational belief put the possessor of it upon an irrational resolution that of beginning a Journey to Selutia before he was well able to walk in his Chamber and against the advice and Prayers of the Chyrurgeon who protested it would at least more than hazard a Relapse longer than his first indisposition But my King though he were deaf to us yet after his first days journey he could not be so to his Pain and weakness both which told and made him believe what he would not from us And indeed his Indisposition was so great and so long like to continue so that we removed him to a private Countrey-house that we then were in being too common of it self and seated in a Road that was so Artabbanes's removal from his first residence and his then taking so retir'd a One made him justly apprehend he should be deny'd the satisfaction of his Friends Intelligences he therefore commanded me to go to Selutia to acquaint Sillaces with his removal and perfectly to learn all the transactions and intricacies of the Court which he said he thought could no way be safelier nor better effected than by employing me To obey this Command immediately I took Post and upon the Third Day towards the Close of the Evening I came to the end of my Journey but as I past along the Streets to a Friends House whom I durst only and whom I did entirely trust I saw strange murmuring Crouds of People and amongst others so deep a consternation that I concluded 't was no common Cause which had so extraordinary a production On my arrival at my Friends whom I happily found at home I enquired what created these unusual effects He was as much surprized at my Question as I was at his Answer which was That Orodes having assumed some high Jealousies of Surena either upon a score of Love or Power had that day seized on him and after a short hearing and Sentence had but even then put him to Death which so strange and sudden a proceeding was the cause of those unusual Crouds in the City the very Commonalty admiring the vicissitude of Fortune which in few hours produced so strange a revolution that he for whom so recently Scaffolds were built to behold his triumphs now had some to behold his execution Neither is this the only cause of what you enquire the reason of since 't is firmly reported That even in this moment Orodes is forcing a Felicity from Parthenissa which her Constancy has so resolutely deni'd him but this is so improbable a Crime that many believe 't is divulg'd by Surena's Partizans to make his Martyrdom appear the clearer and the more certainly to have it reveng'd You may believe I was not a little surprized at this relation which the more I reflected on the more I found cause to conclude that the latter part of it was true because the former was and that Arsaces would not so precipitate his Favourite's Execution but for an end which was more considerable than that loss and I knew nothing could appear so to him but the satisfaction of his Flame 'T was therefore that hastily abandoning my Friend I went up so to the Palace resolving by my own Death or by Orodes's to prevent a Misfortune I much more justly apprehended than either But oh gods as soon as I came within the Guards of the Court I found them melting in tears from whence I concluded 't was some strange thing which had so proportionate an influence This general Grief produced so general a neglect of all things but of the celebrating it that without so much as being question'd I came by the knowledg I had of all the Palace to Parthenissa's Anti-Chamber from whence I heard in the Room where she lay so many and so high evincements of sorrow that I concluded that which then invaded me was but too-justly grounded The first operations of mine being a little mitigated I took the confidence to look into that sad Chamber But great gods I had no sooner done so than I fell into it my spirits abandoning me at the sight of the fair Parthenissa's being dead on a Couch and Zephalinda by her The fair Emilia too with disshevel'd hair drown'd eyes and wringed hands acting grief so passionately that I concluded 't was more easie for her to have been dead than to live in a Misfortune which render'd the being so so necessary The noise I made in my fall made some of the Princess's women run to learn from whence it proceeded one of them in charity flinging some water on my face wash'd off that colour with which I was disguis'd and thereby discover'd who I was having formerly known me My senses being return'd she that had been my Physician went and told the disconsolate Emilia of my being there who in a languishing pace came towards me and with a voice which was so told me At length Symander at length the gods have wearied themselves with having persecuted a Virtue as great as the Cruelty which has done it and made the Tyrant Arsaces know that when they deny a sanctuary to Innocence Death will afford it one His not believing this Truth hath forc'd the Divine Parthenissa to act it the effects of whose high Constancy for your Prince is yet clouded by a performance of the fair Zephalinda who thought Death so unconsiderable if it came in competition with her Friendship that not to have the last suspected she has embrac'd the first Here the fair Emilia's sighs performed what they had so often attempted I mean cut off her relation which yet was as efficaciously continued by her tears which spake both the sadness of the Story and evidenced what was due unto it The faithful Symander at the remembrance and repetition of these fatal passages so sympathiz'd in the grief of which he was making a description that it hinder'd him from continuing it which was a performance both Artavasdes and Callimachus could not condemn because they sympathiz'd in it It was almost a quarter of an hour before the Auditors could beg the Speaker's continuance of his Narration or that he could obey them which at length he thus did My impatience said Symander was too high to continue any longer ignorant of the Cause of our Loss especially when what was the impediment as to me was the aggravation of it I did therefore conjure the fair
courage proportioned his insolency this usage had no unfruitful return and though it deserved a signal punishment yet he received an honour that was so dying by the hand of Artabbanes By this time the Stranger had mounted himself upon the Horse of the first man that was killed and furiously thrusting into the midst of his enemies by two unresistable blows lessened as many of their number the rest amazed at our assistance and at those admirable deaths made so faint a defence that the Combat soon ended with their Lives The Stranger then lifting up his Helmet which was shaded with a great Plume of Feathers of Aurora colour as his Armour was of the like and garnish'd with such refulgent Stones as sufficiently manifested their Master was of no small Quality came to Artabbanes with so much Grace and Majesty that I was charm'd with it and told him Generous Stranger I owe you my Life and will at any time pay you that debt with as much satisfaction as I contracted it but I must beg your pardon if a consideration much higher than my Life does now force me from you which I should acquaint you with did I not justly fear the time it would take up would hinder me from paying a duty to a Princess who before the obligation you placed on me merited all mine and even yet does merit the most of it But that I may not hereafter be guilty of that ingratitude which my highest concern makes me seem guilty of now I must desire to know my Protector 's Name that when the Beauty I serve has no further employment for my Sword and Life I may know where to offer both to him to whom I acknowledg I owe them and for whom I will with much more joy employ them Artabbanes extreamly satisfied with this Gallantry and as much mov'd with the Cause of that haste the Stranger seem'd to be in repli'd My Name Generous Stranger is as inconsiderable as the little Service you are pleas'd to think I did you But were it as great as your acknowledgments I should yet conceal it lest you might thereby believe I pretended to a debt you have but too abundantly satisfi'd already You retribute so much for so little and you thereby appear so worthy to be oblig'd that I cannot but offer you my service in the relief of that Princess you are so intent upon the inequality of your late Combat makes me believe your Enemies are not acted by the Principles of Honour and therefore if not for your own sake yet for hers you so much value and who perhaps sets a greater value upon your Life than you do on your own refuse not the assistance of a Sword which has been fortunate enough against all but him that wears it This strange conclusion had doubtless given the Stranger a curiosity of desiring to know what occasion'd it if the great haste he was in had not supprest it which was such that it hardly gave him leisure to make this Reply You cannot be so unjust to your self and me as to conceal your Name upon the score you mention and therefore I believe some high Cause invites you to it which shall suspend my desire of learning it Your Virtue I am confident will guide me to you as certainly as your Name and upon better considerations that way of enquiring after you will be more noble and as sure I confess I have the high Felicity of being valued by the Beauty I adore and the misfortune of having an Enemy and Rival who cares not by what ways he reaches his ends but by your valour you have cut off his chiefest assistance and his Crimes are such that I should injure the Justice of the gods if I thought a single Sword which strikes with Justice were not able to act my Revenge and my Princess's Deliverance Besides I am so much your debtor both by act and offer that I should give my self a greater trouble by becoming more so than by undertaking alone the destruction of those few Enemies your Courage has left me That is a consideration said Artabbanes which your civility only has rais'd but your Valour is such that by those effects of it which I have seen I can hardly doubt of any other I wil therfore only beg your pardon for having done your Rival more service by delaying you than I have done you in endeavouring to assist you and that you will give me so obliging a Proof of your having granted it me as the acquainting me with your name I should obey you said the Stranger if it were not to make my self fruitlesly known unto you which would be a manifesting of my self too low both for the obligations and the sense I have of them Permit me therefore to decline that honour till I derive it from my services which I will seek you over all the world to pay you as soon as I am put into a capacity of doing it by having paid mine unto my Princess the necessity of whose condition I beg may appologize for my now leaving you which nothing else could make me hope for or invite me to Thereupon saluting my Prince with much humility and haste he turn'd about his Horse and followed the Tract of a Chariot with such celerity that we soon lost sight of him Artabbanes was so much taken with the good Meen and civility of the generous Stranger and so sympathized in his concerns that he suspended his usual melancholly to entertain me with them which yet he did but for a little time and then in his accustomed manner continued his journey hither where we arrived without meeting any thing else worthy your knowledg and where my King has received an Oracle which makes me hope what I considered as an invention of mine was an inspiration of the gods 'T was thus Symander ended the History of his King's Life and then beg'd Pardon from his generous Hearers for the length of his Relation and for all those faults he had been or those omissions he might be guilty of Artavasdes and Callimmachus having both took notice with much civility of Symander and acknowledged how well he had acquitted himself went to Artabbanes in the Gallery who though they found in an excess of sadness yet by the knowledg of its cause they were so far from condemning that they participated in it But the good Callimmachus who knew the gods promises to him and their power of performing them on those two Subjects endeavoured by the assistance of Artavasdes to change his sorrow into Faith which yet prov'd but a fruitless attempt For Artabbanes knew the utmost extension of Faith was to act above reason not against it and therefore found in his own condition two high a certainty of its admitting a change Several days were spent in such successless employments and to recover the two Princes out of a dangerous relapse into which they were fallen whose cure had retarded their intended Sacrifice ordain'd them by the Oracle
Mithridates youth made his Court the most delicious place not only of Asia but of the whole world My Father too being in an age very susceptible of all the charms of such a place it was not strange he had so high an opinion of it since all sort of gallantries shined there in their greatest lusture The next night after Nicomedes came to Pergamus then the residence of Mithridates he was informed that the ensuing one the King presented Fontamyris with a magniâick Ball the great discourse of such a meeting and the greater of that beauty who was the cause of it gave my Father the curiosity to be a looker on but he no sooner saw the fair Fontamyris than he became one indeed and what his curiosity had extended over the whole Assembly a more pressing cause confined to one of it And though Nicomedes the more unobâervedly to gaze on his new Conqueror had retired himself into the throng yet his good Meen and the advantage of his stature was such that amongst many who considered him upon those scores as well as for his being a stranger the fair Fontamyris did it so intently that not only Nicomedes observed and was concern'd in it but Mithridates did the like too and they had both much more cause for both when the fair Fontamyris by the rules of the Ball was to elect one to dance with she chose my Father out of the throng who as much confounded as joyful at it having with a deep humility acknowledged the honour she did him in the Pontick tongue also which he spake as naturally as his own he afterwards acquitted himself with so much grace and unconstrainedness in the Dance and observed the Cadence with so much justness and regularity that the Courtiers who found how much his having done so disgusted Mithridates could not find in their envy and malice the least rise to manifest either for the more curiously and nicely they examined what he had performed the more cause they found to esteem and admire it And that Fontamyris might have as much occasion to be satiâfied with his civility as he had to be with hers whilst he was leading her to her place he again made her so many handsom retributions for the honour she had done him that if she had reason to be pleased with what he did in the Dance she had at least as much to be so with what he had done after it Nicomedes being obliged by the Rules of the Ball to take out another Lady he took one who âate next to Fontamyris with whom he Danc'd and then having saluted Mithridates and all the company with much humility but Fontamyris with much more he retired into the throng where he continued as long as the Ball and in distempers which till then he had never been acquainted with But said Callimmachus not having undertaken Nicomede's story but mine I will be as brief in his as I can with obedience to what you have commanded me concerning mine own and therefore I shall in short acquaint you that my Father was so far engag'd in his passion to Fontamyris and so successfully made his Court that at length it was not only her opinion but confession that the difference between the Kingdoms of Mithridates and Nicomedes was not near so great as that between their persons for my Father had informed Fontamyris and Cephines of his real quality though he and they had conceal'd it from the Pontick King who never knew thereof till Nicomedes had secretly carried away the Princess into Bithynia which he did both by hers and her Father's consent who yet durst not publickly own it lest Mithridates resentments might have vented themselves against him who only was in his power Soon after in Nicomedia the Nuptials were re-solemnized openly and with all the magnificence a young King and a successful Lover could invent But alas those joys were but of short duration and like glorious mornings which are the soonest over-cast and turned to tears for the lightning of this Nuptial-Torch was the flame which set all Asia on fire was the original of that fatal war which afterwards the world too well knew by the name of Mithridatick and was the occasion or pretence of drawing the Roman Eagles out of Europe into the East where they have since extended their wings into the Euphrates over which 't is believed they had long since flown had not the Domestick differences of her proud Citizens done more for Asia than the blood and swords of all her Inhabitants This great people jealous of their glory or thirsting after a pretence to encrease it and their Empire so highly resented Mithridates not assisting Mannius Aquilius and Lucius Cassius in the recovery of Bithynia and Cappadocia that they commanded those two Generals to invade Pontus and to make the loss of that great Kingdom the Penance of the King's disobedience But knowing the Roman Army was too small for so great a design by a solemn Embassy they invited Nicomedes to joyn his Arms to theirs and to suppress the Enemy both to his Family and Person Nicomedes who owed his Crown to the Romans who knew Mithridates Resentment would proportion his Loss That if he omitted this opportunity of depressing him he would probably never meet with such another and perhaps in a heat of youth ambitious to mingle Laurels with his Myrtles invited by Gratitude Policy and Glory added a Bithynian Army to the Roman over both which the Senate made him General which they the more confidently did because his Education was Roman and this Action made them believe his Inclination was the like Nicomedes Mannius and Cassius found Eupater on the Frontiers of Pontus with a vast Army which he had raised to invade his Rivals Kingdom but now to his grief and wonder he found must be employed to defend his own The Retail of this War would be endless I shall therefore omit all the battels sieges and encounters of it to tell you the event of that signal day on the success of which both parties had set up their Reâts The Consequence being great the Forces which composed both Armies were the like under Mithridates Ensigns there were Two hundred thousand foot and One hundred thousand Horse rais'd in Pontus Lidia the two Scâthia's Mesopotamia Armenia the less and even the Bactrians and the farther Eastern people came to his help against the Romans their common Enemy to all which Craterus a great Captain had brought him One hundred and thirty Chariots armed and fortified with sharp Sithes an invention which till then the Romans and Bâthinians had never been acquainted with and which did more against Nicomedes Army than all Mithridates's besides These great Forces were led by Commanders whose Gallantry rendered them as formidable as their Numbers besides Craterus there was Dorilaus who led a Phalange of Foot so considerable both for the number and order that the Romans both feared and admired it Neoptolemus led Thirty thousand Horse and
the happiness to surpass my companions whose stupidity only I fear gave me that precedency But sometimes to divert our selves we used to hunt the wild Boar which was a Game that Countrey was but too fruitful in for often those furious Beasts when press'd by hunger or by those which pursued them would accompany their own deaths with some of their Hunters which made Telamon very unwilling to afford me often so dangerous adivertisement neither would he ever permit it me but accompanied by most of those young Gentlemen over whom my larger proficiency and the rate at which I lived which was eminent gave me some superiority He himself too keeping always by my side One day a hunting-match being agreed on we found a Boar of so immense a size and so largely arm'd with Tusks that the boldest of our Huntsmen would have willingly resign'd the hopes of the quarry to have avoided the danger of the chase had not the fear of shame been more prevalent than the fear of the Boar who having cast off all his followers but me for Telamon's Horse had strained himself so unhappily that he could no longer gallop the inraged beast took along a High-way which came out of a neighbour-wood at the next extremity whereof I perceived some Gentlemen and Ladies by the magnificence of whose equipage I easily judged were of no mean Quality The Boar not deterr'd at the sight of so much company boldly runs into the midst of them and thereby so terrified all the Horses that they fled back into the Wood where one of them cast his rider which the Boar no sooner perceived than he ran furiously to her Her great danger and her greater beauty invited my assistance which without balancing I ran to pay her but finding my Horse might offend her whom I intended to protect I leap'd off of him and with a Javelin in my hand I placed my self between that beauty and the danger which threatned her and darted my Javelin so happily at the Boar that piercing him through and through it put some stop to his course and gave me leisure to draw my Sword with which during his amazement I ran him in at the mouth and sheath'd the blade of it in his body which though it gave him his death's wound yet before he died with one of his Tusks he struck me into my left side so deep and so very near my heart that his not having done me more harm could not be so strange as the grief which invaded the beauty I had delivered was that he had done me so much I had that consolation and misfortune together to observe she was more concerned in my danger than she had been at her own thereby evincing I had freed her from one trouble but to cast her into a greater Never beauty had so many surprizing charms as that of the fair Monyma which yet received some little accession by the condition and dress she was in For her shape and stature which was capable of no addition was perfectly discovered to the obliged and ravish'd sight by the clothes she then wore which were such as the goddess Diana is represented with in her celebrated Temple of Ephesus when in dreams she manifested her self on Latmus to the sleepy Endymion that little paleness which her danger and disorder disobliged her with was yet so well repaired by the reflection of some falls of carnation-feathers which shadowed her face that she seemed to be no loser thereby In a word she was such as made me more apprehend a wound from her than that I had already received In the amazement of that silent Fear the fair Monyma came to me and perceiving my clothes all bloody she told me I fear Sir your highest civility has involved you in a resembling danger but believe me your having so freed me from trouble has made me a great sharer in yours Madam I replyed sensibly moved with so much obligingness you might much sooner ascribe the small service I have paid you to my duty than my civility for 't was but just I should free you from that hazard I only had occasioned and if any thing troubles me in this performance 't is only from its looking so much like my debt that it leaves you no rise to attribute any part of it to my inclinations which Madam are such for your service as they would joyfully manifest themselves by courting danger though it were as high as that goodness which makes you so sympathize in mine I had hardly strength enough to speak these words neither was I able to make an end of them without leaning upon my Sword which being too weak a support I fell at Monyma's feet who by a great shriek acquainted me her trouble at it was the like As soon as her grief permitted her reason to act she perceived a spring of blood issuing out of my side and believing that ebullition occasioned my fainting she tore off some of her linnen and by holding it to the orifice of the wound endeavoured to stop the bleeding But though her care was strangely kind yet it had been fruitless if her reiterated cryes had not drawn a Gentleman to her assistance who having learnt the cause of her concernment for me afforded me so much of his that by it and the help of a Chyrurgeon which happily waited on him my wound was dress'd and my senses restored The Stranger whose care and civility had so largely contributed thereunto immediately came and made me such signal and handsom acknowledgments for what I had done for the lovely Monyma that I concluded by the greatness of his gratitude his concerns for her were not little and though his riper years might well have exempted me from certain emotions I never till then was acquainted with and knew not whilst they disordered me what they were or from whence they proceeded yet after they ceas'd which they did not till Monyma her self told me he was her Father I found they proceeded from a small jealousie to the cause of which I was so meer a stranger that I knew not even enduring the effect of love that I was at all engaged in that noble passion But as soon as ever I understood Philopomenes relation to the beauty I admired I made him such humble retributions that he protested my civility had as much confin'd him to be my friend as the service I had done his daughter and to manifest his care of me was greater than mine of my self he forced me from an entertainment which I esteemed more pleasing than that recovery the Chyrurgeon assured him it was an enemy unto and putting me into his Chariot for though he and the fair Monyma rid when I met them yet it was only the better to enjoy the freshness of the morning he accompanied me to my House in Miletus notwithstanding all my reiterated Prayers to hinder it By the way I met the afflicted Telamon who by the immense sorrow he assumed at my danger
I had against Diocles over whom thereby I might believe my advantage was sufficient without seeking any greater from my Sword Whilst I was thus evincing my gratitude and entertaining my apprehensions Monyma went out of the room as she told me to call one of her Women left Philopomanes by finding us alone might not only suspect the cause of Diocles's going away but prohibit her receiving any visits from me to prevent his receiving the like disgust in the future Her return with what she went for was so sudden that it then silenc'd one of my doubts and because I had received as much satisfaction as I could have promis'd my self from that day's waiting on her that I had a witness which deni'd me the liberty of those discourses which I took most pleasure in and that the hour of meeting Diocles drew near I kist the fair Monyma's hands and went not long after to the place we had agreed on where instead of finding Diocles I found a guard of Soldiers who convey'd me to my own house and by their placing themselves at my Gate made me know it was my prison soon after a friend of mine came to advertise me that Diocles had preceded me in the like usage At first I repin'd against Monyma who I knew was only acquainted with our difference and who I learnt afterwards went out of the Chamber purposely to send notice thereof to the Officers of Justice apprehending she denied me the repetition of a Victory my Sword had once conferr'd on me But then my thoughts changing I began to believe as Lovers still are apt to flatter themselves that her being more a friend to my safety than my honour had occasioned this proceeding and in that faith I found in my trouble my satisfaction But said Callimachus to continue this part of my Story in that brevity which I have hitherto practised I shall tell you That after the Magistrates had declar'd we should not be freed till we had mutually sworn never to fight against each other and that all our friends had long and unsuccessfully endeavour'd to extort that promise from us wearied with our confinement more with our not waiting upon Monyma but most of all to obey her command we past that assurance before her and continued as much friends as persons which had so little cause for it could be The next day after this reconciliation Monyma sent to me to meet her at Irenes with whom she was perfectly reconcil'd having discover'd her mistake where she told me she had received a positive command from Philopomanes never to admit any of my visits and therefore henceforth those I pay'd her must be where I then was and that too both privately and seldom left the priviledg of going to see her friend might be also denied her She further told me she was confident this had long since been resolv'd though but that morning only enjoin'd for her Father knew too well how much an alliance with so considerable a person and so vastly rich as Diocles was would be to his advantage and settlement in Miletus not to prosecute it with his utmost endeavours and that had he given her that command before the reconciliation it would for ever have hinder'd it for knowing I should have been eternally depriv'd of her company I would probably have declin'd that agreement which must have involv'd my Rival in the like infelicity she then too acquainted me with that which her disorders at my former visit had made her omit which was that before Diocles made any expressions of his passions to her he had conjur'd her to acquaint him whether she had any inclinations for or engagements to me that if she had he might not be so rude as to give any interruption to a person whose satisfaction should always form his To which she assur'd him she had not which then was a real truth my not waiting on her having made her believe I had supprest my inclinations for her which had invited her to silence any she honoured me with This information made me much lessen that aversion I had for Diocles who I till then thought had designedly endeavoured to be my Rival but on the other side I was struck with so deep a sadness foreseeing those obstructions my passion would contend with that neither some fresh favours of Monyma's nor Irene's promising me all her assistance could any way divest me of my melancholly which made the first of them tell me she thought my affection was not near so high as I represented it since she too visibly found my fear was greater than my love and that the apprehensions of things to come were more prevalent to make me sad than her friendship was to hinder me from it I was much asham'd to have this reprehension but much more to have deserved it which to do so no longer I forced my self to divert those two persons I so justly esteemed which yet I did so constrainedly that I gave them more cause of pity than satisfaction I had some time the happiness of thus waiting on Monyma at the fair Irene's and of receiving reiterated assurances from her that neither Diocles's address nor Philopomanes commands could any thing prevail to the prejudice of my passion And as she was determin'd not to give her self to any without his consent so she would not be given to any without her own 'T was by such entertainments as these that at length my grief was conquer'd and almost the two Moons of Telamon's absence during all which I had not heard any thing of or from him which gave me occasion both of trouble and wonder But alas not long after this tolerable condition I was told by Monyma that her vigilant Father having discovered these hours of entertainment we enjoyed at the fair Irene's he had so expresly prohibited her ever to speak to me again that now there was no way left of communicating our minds but by Letters which too must be manag'd with much circumspection and art lest that Expedient of acquainting each other with our thoughts might be also denied us But now I must make a little digression to inform you of what brought as great as unexpected a change not only in my then passion but in all the subsequent Actions of my life When Sylla had pacified Asia and made conditions with or rather impos'd them on Mithridates two of which were that Ariobarzanes should be restored to Cappadocia and Nicomedes to Bithynia he shipt his Army for Italy in the resigned-up Fleet of the Pontick King and left Murena and Cotta with two Legions only either to shew how absolute his conquest had been or that he could spare no more from his intended one to settle those Princes in their Thrones and to order those other affairs which his precipitate departure had denied him time to effect These two Roman Commanders summon'd Mithridates to withdraw his Garisons and Army out of those two Kingdoms which at first he seem'd to
have desired from me out of custom I must beg of you upon a stronger motive for doubtless your City cannot have so much cause to apprehend losing their liberty by me as I have to lose mine by you And therefore as I have sworn to you to leave it in as perfect a freedom as I found it in permit me to implore you the promise that I shall receive no worse usage from you And if after having seen so much beauty I could have had any room left for wonder I should have entertained no small proportion to find that a people jealous of their Liberty should yet permit a person to reside amongst them who is so certain a Conqueror of it Monyma was so highly disorder'd by this unexpected entertainment that she was not a little oblig'd to the Magistrates who by coming to salute the Pontick King detained her from making any reply But after Mithridates had performed the uneasie Ceremonies due to such people he went again to Monyma and Irene and leading of them both he desired some to shew him the way to their Houses that he might wait upon them thither which he performed though they and the Magistrates often and earnestly beg'd of him to decline it This was not thought strange by those who knew him since he was so great an admirer of Beauty that he had twice already only upon that account married Ladies of less quality than either Monyma or Irene of the first of which before he left her he desired the permission of frequently waiting on her whilst he resided in Miletus And having learnt whose daughter she was he went to Philopomanes embraced him and told him for her sake he pardon'd all that was past and promis'd him as large a share in his esteem and trust as ever The morning of this ceremonious day I had received a Letter from Monyma all other ways being rigorously forbidden her wherein she acquainted me she was assured I had some new dispute with Diocles which many apprehended would be decided by the Sword and therefore she conjur'd me to secure her that day from those fears that belief had raised in her and that if she had an interest in me I should evince it by not exposing to any hazard a life which was as dear to her as her own This information had some little ground for Diocles and I had exchanged the night before at a Ladies house some words which doubtless had occasioned a duel had not our pre-engagement hinder'd in both any thought of that nature But finding her concerns of a quality that it was both a duty and kindness to silence them as soon as I could I forthwith writ her a Letter to ascertain her of my obedience and went with it that evening to Irene's where I was confident to meet her or at least to get the Letter convey'd unto her I had not been there long when Monyma came in accompanied by Philopomanes and Diocles the first being very vigilant over her having had some noise of our renewed quarrel I am now continued Callimachus changing his voice come to the relation of an accident that befel me and which I believe never had nor never will have a parallel The time of Telamon's promised return was that evening to expire and therefore I then carried about me the Letter which he left with me that was to tell me such strange and unexpected things in case he came not back by the time limited this Letter by chance was about the same bigness with that I was to deliver Monyma and put into the same pocket so that by a sad misfortune whilst Diocles and Philopomanes were discoursing together at one end of the Chamber and Monyma and Irene were doing the like by the fireâ side thinking I had found a favourable opportunity to deliver my Letter I took out the wrong one and walking carelesly to them I stole the Letter into Monyma's hand who being intently speaking to Irene and not minding me finding something unexpectedly touch her hand she shriek'd out and let it fall which noise made both Philopomanes and Diocles turn about who perceived the cause of it as well by the Letter which lay on the ground as by the disorder Monyma and I were in but she soon coming to her self again took up the Letter hastily and scornfully and sealed as it was cast it into the fire which immediately consumed it This proceeding made my satisfaction rather than my trouble knowing she had no better an expedient left to remedy what had happened than thus to use me And the better to contribute to this delusion I went away abruptly and in a seeming high discontent At which her Father and her Servant were so pleased that they both acquainted her with their being so by passionate and sensible expressions And the obliging Irene following and overtaking of me made me know the true cause of Monyma's proceeding and offer'd if I had any thing to acquaint her with she would perform the duty of that unhappy Letter which I did and having acknowledg'd the unmerited friendship she honoured me with I went to my own house joyful that even misfortune it self had more contributed to the diâguising of our Loves than our inventions could and troubled at nothing but at Telamon's absence which perhaps I might learn the occasion of in reading the Paper he had left me which I then might lawfully do the time he had limited being then effâuxt But O gods what was my astonishment when having open'd it I found it was the Letter I had writ to Monyma and consequently 't was Telamon's Paper which she had burnt I cannot tell you what a throng of several thoughts came into my fancy and how many misfortunes this one made me apprehend sometimes I fear'd Monyma would believe I had discover'd something in that Letter so much to my disadvantage that my fatal mistake was but to conceal it from her Sometimes I trembled to think that by my oath to Telamon being obliged to perform a journey mentioned in the burnt Letter before I made any engagement to Monyma by that sad loss I was confin'd from an Hymeneal union should she condescend to one and not temporarily but eternally should Telamon be lost which I was more than apprehensive he was his last assurance to me being That if he liv'd he would be with me by the time limited Sometimes so ingenious I was to torment my self I fear'd he affection'd me so exceedingly and disgusted so much my alliance with Monyma for whom he knew that I had an unextinguishable passion that not having any means able to suppress it he had made himself away or banished himself thereby to confine me in observance of those solemn Oaths I had taken from that union These and many resembling considerations I suggested to my self against my self besides the vast trouble I was in for the loss of Telamon as well as for the ignorance of my own condition which his last words
Pharnaces and thereby end both Wars before he had begun one Neither was I altogether indebted to my hopes for so flattering an imagination but to my reason also for Lingarus had so intently and actively imploy'd himself that when I was come within a days march of Nicomedia he overtook me with the flower of the Nobility of Bosphorus who perhaps thereby endeavoured to let Mithridates see they were too considerable not to be continued his friends or to be made his enemies But alas my satisfaction then could not transcend my sorrow soon after when by an Express from the King I understood that the same morning on which the Letter was writ the Prince Atafernes being furiously assaulted by the Enemy who knowing their condition admitted no recovery if they were not conquerors of Nicomedia and of one Army before the other had joined with it and having with wonderful resolution beat them off had so far and so briskly followed this dawning success with all his horse that before he saw his mistake he was not in a capacity of remedying it the whole Army having interposed between him and his retreat which finding 't was impossible to make he and his were resolved so to signalize their defeat that his foes might have as much cause to mourn as to rejoice at it This design he had fully acted and at length he and all that followed him overpressed with multitudes were every one kill'd or taken and whether he himself had fallen into the first or last of these misfortunes was yet uncertain so that the Forces in Nicomedia being deprived of him seem'd to be deprived of what had animated them defending now the Enemies renewed and universal assault with such coldness that 't was deeply apprehended their ressistance would not be long enough to render my relief worthy that name Oh Gods you alone can tell my trouble at this sad advertisement having of two persons I most valued lost one and being but in too high a probability of losing the other But I had not time given me to deplore my unhappiness nor hardly enough to prevent the encrease of it Therefore immediately marching away all the Horse I had and appointing Megabizes a gallant and experienc'd Officer to follow me expeditiously with the Foot I bent my course with all imaginable celerity toward Nicomedia resolv'd to put a period to the danger of those in it or to my life By the dawn of the day I was come near enough to hear the shouts and cryes of the Assailants and Defendants and soon after to see all Nicomedes Army except those employ'd in the storm under their Colours By this I knew the place was not lost and that the Enemy had no small hopes that it would soon be won Thrust on by this apprehension and elevated by that joy I flew to charge a Body of near Ten thousand Horse which lay ready to receive that relief they believed Mithridates needed and I would bring him I strictly order'd all my Soldiers not to follow any success the gods and their courages should give them farther than might contribute to our entring of the City which was then only our design The Fight was furious and bloody the hopes of both parties depending upon the event of it but at last I singled out the General of their Horse and in sight of both parties kill'd him at which our Enemies gave ground and soon after so precipitately lost all that we entred Nicomedia not having lessened our Numbers above four hundred and having lessened five times as many of our Adversaries But as if Fate had designed that both the Streets and the Fields should be equally moistned with human blood as I entered the West-gate Nicomedes in person entred the East having left the generous Craterus for dead in the mouth of the breach and fill'd up the graât with the dead bodies which had so resolutely defended it thereby having rendered those which had been the obstacle of their entrance now the means of having it more easie Had you seen the faces of the Nicomedians you might have read their condition for they equally participated of joy and fear their friends being triumphant at one end of the Town and their Enemies at the other But the last News coming earlier to Mithridates than the first he thought it no longer courage but frenzy to expect relief in a place which he now esteemed uncapable of any He therefore hastily abandoned the Palace with the Queen the Princess Statira the Princess Roxana and the young Princess Cleopatra and flying with them towards a little Fort which stood at the extremity of the Street I was entred and commanded the Sea to which Element he now only hoped to owe his deliverance he met me at the head of my Forces covered with dust and blood as most in the first Ranks were The posture we were in joyn'd with the intelligence of the Enemies having entred the City made him no longer doubt but that his Fate was come and in that belief he was going to act it with his own hands but perceiving his mistake by the flight of those few Guards he had left and by the cryes of the Princesses lifting up my Helmet and turning the point of my Sword to the ground I rode up to the King and conjur'd him not so much to wrong the gods and his own Soldiers as by abandoning Nicomedia to evidence he doubted the goodness of the one or the courages of the other their having so freshly defeated a considerable part of the Enemies Forces and their now having so opportunely sent him a more considerable part of his own were such good earnests of future mercies if not themselves present ones that to doubt a deliverance afterwards were but to provoke them to deny it Never words had a more fruitful effect than these not only upon Mithridates but even upon the fair Statira too who lifting up her fair eyes eclips'd with weepings fix'd them so obligingly on me that my felicity was thereby higher in my own apprehension than their late danger had been in hers Here generous Princes continued Callimachus I must acknowledg my crime for I could not but bless the gods which had cast her into such misfortunes since they had destin'd me to free her from them As soon as I was alighted the King flew into my arms and in expressions great as his joy he began to give me acknowledgments of the same nature but he was cut off in the midst of them for by this Nicomedes had so far enter'd the City that her Inhabitants and Garison by their hasty flight and confused cryes seem'd to acquaint him all was lost I had only time to conjure him to return to his Palace which he was not many paces from and to beg him to rest assur'd of a Victory which our Swords had in some measure begun and were now going to perfect Mithridates whilst he was acting my desire gave me so many assurances of his confidence
the meanest capacities there which made the motion be received with Military shouts at the conclusion whereof we chearfully left Nicomedia by the same Gate by which we had entred it We were not above two furlongs on our March when we discovered many Divisions of Horse drawn up to intercept us and all the Residue of Nicomedes's Army who easily foresaw our intention moving to join with those we were therefore hastily advancing to charge which we did with such fury that all their resistance contributed but the more to their loss and our glory We had no sooner disintangled our selves from this bloody Impediment than we prosecuted our intended design and with such diligence that Nicomedes not being able to overtake me with his Foot thought it was the more safe adviâe to give his men refreshment whilst I * was harrasing of mine that they might be the fitter next day to attempt the City if I did not return or to give me Battel if I did 'T was therefore that uninterruptedly I joyn'd with Megabizes whom I met about thirty furlongs from the place we had so lately fought in and with whom I found such brave accessional Forces which Lingarus's credit had drawn under out Ensigns that I return'd with a firm resolution no longer than the next Day to decline a general engagement and an hour before the Sun was set I camped in some great inclosed Fields contiguous to the Walls of Nicomedia where I order'd my Soldiers to take as much rest as their vicinity to so many ill Neighbours would admit And having assembled a Council and resolved in what form we should give the intended Battel leaving Megabizes the command of the Camp I went into the City taking Lingarus with me whom I presented to Mithridates with those Elogies I esteemed due to his merits The Kings actions shewed he believed my words and that gallant Man received so many kindnesses from his Prince that it brought no small increase to the zeal he had already assumed for his Service Whilst Mithridates was entertaining himself with him and giving him many Professions that his present services had totally wiped away his preceding fault one of those many Officers I had employ'd amongst the Prisoners to learn some intelligence of Atafernes sent to speak with me in an anti-chamber to whom I went hastily and from whom I received information that by a Prisoner of quality he was assured that generous Prince had been taken alive but much wounded and yet not so dangerously as to make the Chirurgeons despair of his recovery Transported with this happy News I fled unto the King and acquainted him with it who sending forthwith to the first Informer of this joyful Advertisement and having received from him a full convincement of the certainty thereof he told me Go Callimachus and stop the poor Statira's tears with this obliging assurance This almost as obliging a Command I hastned to obey and having obtained the Princess's permission of waiting on her I entred her Chamber but did find her so drown'd in sorrow that for a while it made me forget my own grief and that I was come with what would mitigate hers but when I had found the âncivil cruelty of such a sympathizing I told her I was once Madam coming to implore the priviledg of mingling my tears with yours for our common Loss and of lamenting till I could revenge it But now Madam I am come to tell you That the Prince Atafernes hath not lost his life but his liberty which misfortune I hope by this time to morrow so to free him from that you will have no trouble but in beholding of his when he shall know those tears his Captivity has made you shed and if he prefers not your satisfaction above his own he cannot but believe his wounds and loss of Liberty a cheap price for discovering so high a friendship as thereby he experiments the Princess Statira honours him with for my part though I value him at the rate his virtues merit yet if I can by restoring him to his Freedom give her as great a contentmeat as the loss of it did give her a trouble I shall hardly so much repine at his Fate as I shall glory in my own The Princess either did not or would not hear my last words but interrupting them told me O gods Callimachus is it then possible that Atafernes is alive or do you think my sorrow was so near sending me to bear him Company that to deny that only remaining happiness you this way endeavour to suspend me from it now and to morrow hope by repeated Victories I shall not find room enough to entertain a killing grief in so general a cause of Joy Madam I reply'd the Truth I have told you is as great as therefore my satisfaction is and your generous Brother wants I hope but that Freedom which ere long he will enjoy since Fortune which has honoured my Sword with some success when 't was for your service will not deny it the like when 't is for your satisfaction You have said the Princess done so much already for us that I know not any thing which we may not expect from your Courage and Civility and the next happiness to seeing my Brother at Liberty is to receive an assurance of it from you but yet Callimachus have a care you give me as good an account of your self as your promise for your preservation will be as requisite for my satisfaction as for the publick safety Madam I answered transported with what she had spoken till these glorious words I never was acquainted with any thing which might flatter me into a belief that my preservation could be useful to the publick or as much as to my self the gods having kept me a stranger to my own extraction and yet at the same time having given me a heart to aspire to what the sublimest only can legitimately pretend unto yes Madam I have such transcendent aims that I thought I could undertake nothing which was not inferiour to them till the gods destin'd me to your service which goodness I must at the same instant acknowledg and deplore since for to make me useful to you they have eclips'd the condition you were born unto and have thought fit rather to diminish your greatness that thereby I might become in some poor measure useful to you than continue it whereby I should have been deny'd that honour and since I find by so unhoped-for yet obliging experiment that such a manifestation is not indifferent unto them nay rather than not evidence it they have shaken the greatest Empire of the World and troubled a Princess fit to be inthron'd in it I shall no more doubt they will finish what they have begun than I should rejoyce that my Opinion might have the honour to be yours or if it be not that you will pardon its being mine All the while I was speaking I was much more concern'd in Statira's looks in what I
their Birth and rendred them guilty only in design not in act But I was then as much troubled what to say as I had been what not to say and finding no better expedient than to attribute it to the pain of my wound I made use of that whereat she assumed so high a grief that I perswaded my self she could not then entertain any other guest Mithridates observing the visible sadness in the Princess's eyes and looks came towards her and ask'd her What could in such general causes of joy make her express so little of it To which she replyed Whilest the recovery of her Brother's wounds was so uncertain and mine so dangerons the dictates of Nature and Gratitude would sufficiently apologize for her sorrow The King answered there is so little fear for the one and so much glory in the other that I must not only desire but expect that you will divest your self of whatever may render you unlike that Statira whose shadow has conquered the King of Cyprus The Princess made no reply but by bowing her self seemed to say she had too long practis'd obedience than to decline it The King at least I believe placed that interpretation upon what she had done for he suddenly after went to the Port to receive his designed Son-in-law who made so magnifick a descent from his Fleet that all concluded he could not be less than a King and a Lover In the mean while the fair Statira continued alone in Atafernes Chamber her Sister after Mithridates was gone returning to Monyma who otherwise had been left unaccompanied That generous Prince who perfectly lov'd her beginning then to consider that to be Ascanius's for so the Cyprian King was called he must de deprived of her told her Would to the Gods Statira you did not consider duty above friendship for then I might be certain to enjoy your Company whilest I enjoy'd my life but now a Fathers power will give that happiness to a Stranger which otherwise I should have possess'd and that affection I have for you must endure an absence which cannot more bless him than trouble me These words he spoke so loud that I not only heard them but also that she thus answer'd him If it were lawful to break those Tyes the gods have confined us unto the King of Cyprus should have been exempted from giving both himself and me this trouble but since the violating a Divine Rule cannot bring a satisfaction so great as the sin is I shall strive to evidence as little discontent in obeying Mithridates as I am certain I should have done if he had commanded me not to receive any addresses which are to banish me from Atafernes in whose affection and company I find so high a contentment that I am capable of begging no higher than to be continued in it Since reply'd the Prince you are devoted to that obedience ah that Callimachus were King of Cyprus I could then find some consolation in my loss and without reluctancy part with my best happiness to him I esteemed best worthy of it Blush not Statira at what I have spoke for since I am unable any way to evince my friendship in Actions deny me not the priviledg of doing it in wishes This continued Callimachus was so strange and unexpected an expression and consequently had so universal an operation on me that my wound gush'd out a bleeding and thereby so entirely conquer'd those few spirits I had left that casting open my arms and fetching a deep groan I fell into a swound The Princess was not so confounded at what her Brother had spoke but that she had heard my last manifestation of life so that turning her eyes towards me she saw my condition and therefore shrieking out she went hastily into the Anti-chamber and called in all the servants which waited there by whose help I was soon brought to my self again and the Chirurgeons which some ran for having bound up my wound desired all persons to leave the room lest I might repeat the like sad accident Statira who possibly was glad of such a pretence civilly to decline her Brothers company whilst he was addicted to discourses of that nature having first desired me to take a special care of my self which the more powerfully to invite me to she told me she should receive it as an obligation immediately withdrew and left me to contend with difficulties too strong for me though I had not been reduced to a weakness which for the many causes I had to despair I rather wish'd were greater than less Atafernes not to oppose the prescriptions the Chirurgeons had made continuing silent thereby gave me the uninterrupted leave of entertaining my own thoughts which were so confused that for a while I could not reduce them to any method but as soon as I had in some degree composed them I began to consider that Fortune continued her usual practise and by mingling felicities and torments gave me still at once cause to adore and hate her The glories which the beginning of that day had thrown upon me and the miseries which the conclusion of it had involved me in appear'd so admirable that though I enjoyed those and felt these yet I could hardly believe either but when I began to consider that all my Victories made but an easier way for my Rival to possess Statira that the nearer I had acted to deserve her made my deprivation of her the more sensible and when that by a miracle her generous Brother had let fall expressions whereby without a crime I might in some measure have disclos'd what her thoughts were towards me before she had pass'd any engagement to Ascanius or have found so much cause of despair as I might no longer have flattered my self into a suspence more unsupportable than the highest effect of it then to fall into a fainting which had hinder'd it I could no longer contain my self but by loud exclaimings condemn'd that Fate which I wanted power to prevent or alter Atafernes finding thereby that his silence was so far from contributing to my good that he apprehended it had done the contrary soon broke it and after some introductory discoursers having first commanded all those which in the outward Chamber might have been within hearing to keep at a greater distance told me That friendship Callimachus which we have contracted merits we should have nothing in reserve to each other and if it does not confine you to tell me all the secrets you know yet at least it does to acquaint me with the truth of those I shall discover In a word either my observations have strangely deluded me or you have something in your breast which though I may be concern'd in yet I am kept a Stranger unto and though possibly I might hitherto have had but cause to suspect it yet what these few hours has produced makes me confident of it so that if any thing can perswade me to excuse your so long silence it will
that little blood I have spent in your service is too prodigally pay'd by what you now are pleased to act and speak and had I known my wounds had so sensibly touched you they would have been more painful to me upon that account than their own I should she answer'd blushing have believed those words had they been spoken to me at Miletus or were I a person not far from hence who though I must confess merits them better yet perhaps would not receive them with that satisfaction I should if I thought them not words of Civility rather than Truth Madam I replyed being somewhat moved to be still struck by her in so sensible a place and if possibly to make her think she was mistook permit me to say that had you never given me cause any more to doubt your words than I have given you to doubt mine you had been free from the trouble of such discourses and I from the unhappiness of your believing I deserved them Alas Callimachus said she interrupting me why do you delight so much to torment me as not only to mind me of my unhappiness but to acquaint me you think I was the Author of it No I attest the gods I would now even with joy descend from the Throne to be that to you which I am to Mithridates and rather be his who deserves the greatest Empire of the World than his who possesses it but she continued letting some few tears steal from her eyes since the gods have otherwise designed it I beg but this That you will esteem it a punishment sufficient for me to have lost you and do not augment it so much as to let me see another has got you this is all the unfortunate Monyma desires and if there be any unreasonableness therein ascribe it to a passion which makes me act more illegitimate things for you than I ask of you She went away at the end of these words without staying for an answer and telling the company a relapse of her indisposition was going to assault her she hastily retir'd to her apartment and not long after the hour of rest being come Atafernes enjoyning me to try if I could take any and endeavouring the like himself thereby gave me a licence to reflect upon some things past which so powerfully entertained my thoughts that I could not for some time so much suppress them as by sleep to enjoy that refreshment my mind and my body but too much wanted These last words of the Queen I soon concluded sprang from a passion which would not be easily quenched and which had a being would so much interrupt any progress in that I pay'd the fair Statira that it self would have been a sufficient impediment had I conquer'd the misfortune of many greater I was too proud at my insensibility when I saw a Queen weeping before me and one so full of youth and beauty that she could not be a greater wonder for her Charms than I was in resisting them I must confess I was a little grieved that so signal an evincement of my constancy should not be known to her who was the cause of it but then when I consider'd that the misfortune could not be greater than consequently the merit of it was I concluded she deserved all I could suffer and therefore I had more cause to rejoyce I had done so much than to be troubled that she knew no more Whilest I entertain'd these parts of my fate it was only with sorrow but when I thought upon those parts which related to Ascanius how he was come to rob me of my hopes which was all I had left or indeed ever had and how a few days would invest him in that felicity I was to lose Rage and Resentment so entirely govern'd all my faculties that if I did not follow the extreamest dictates of them 't was only because I thought them too low and disproportionate to their cause At last not having strength enough to persevere in such entertainments sleep by degrees began to conquer me and held me a Prisoner for some few hours which yet it could not have so long done but by letting Dreams continue what my waking had begun whereby and by the emotion of the precedent day the next Morning I found my wound was so inflamed and my Body so feaverish that the Chirurgeons doubted of my Life and informed Atafernes so much who easily imagining the cause having freed the Room of all which waited in it told me so many flattering things and then so reiterately vowed if I mended not he would tell Statira what caused my languishments that partly through hope but much more for fear of that I began patiently to receive those Medicines which the Physicians the Chirurgeons prescrib'd whereby in few days I was past all danger of Death as I wish'd I had been of Life I knew not with what design I liv'd and yet I could not oppose my doing so carried on by an internal motion whose cause I was as ignorant of as unable to resist its effects Mithridatia every day she visited her Brother had so much humility as to enquire of me of my own health and as my answers were of its impairing or mending so her looks put on melancholy or satisfaction Atafernes was so generous as constantly to enquire of the Princess what progress Ascanius had made in the acquisition of her esteem yet could never learn any thing from her but that her duty to Mithridates had left her nothing but obedience This strange perseverance and submissiveness that generous Prince acquainted me with and thereby prepared me to receive a stroak which soon after wounded me but alas not enough to relieve my pain but increase and continue it 'T was with the fatal News that at the expiration of fourteen days Mithridates had publickly declared the Nuptials between Statira and Ascanius should be celebrated who thereupon sent half of his Fleet into the Euxine Sea to conquer what that Element had saved of Nicomedes Ariobarzanes and Murena's ruins The revolt of Archilaus and Neoptolemus having depriv'd the Pontick King of most of his Naval-forces and his design'd Son-in-law's being so strong that he rather thought that proportion of the largest than the least reserving also the residue to carry back his Queen with more pomp into Cyprus which happy Countrey had been once destin'd to the Queen of Love and now to a Beauty which more justly merited that Title In the mean while Pharnaces returned with his Army more troubled that his Father had by Atafernes received his deliverance than if he had entirely failed of it and if he had any thoughts which refresh'd him they were only those which did rise from the speedy probability of Statira's removal and consequently of his Brother's being thereby deprived of his powerfullest Friend and therefore he so incessantly prest the speedy celebration of the Nuptials that thereby he gained as high an interest in Ascanius as a performance so acceptable
being the noblest part of Friendship I had rather practise it though it might afflict you than the contrary though it might please you That I reply'd fetching a Sigh which you now have told me has been hitherto my highest Apprehension and by your telling it me it becomes as high a Certainty aâd since it is so How can Statirâ enjoyn me to Live If she says I have been too presumptuous in daring to lift up my Eyes to her I am so far from denying it that I would have Dyed that I would have Killed my self to have revenged her and to have punished my self And possibly a voluntary Death embrac'd by an Offender should be a sufficient expiation for an unavoidable Offence 'T is in this only obliging Nerea that I will now beg your Assistance and since so many invincible Impediments deny me the expectation of obtaining her Esteem I will not despair but by your Intercession to obtain her Mercy and that is her Permission to Dye Possibly said Nerea you could hardly ask any thing of her which she would not sooner grant you I say any thing whatever and even all those Obstructions I so lately particularized might be sooner vanquish'd than this one Request yielded unto No Callimachus she has a Value for you and such a one that had her Inclinations the Liberty of a free Acting possibly you would not have too much cause to complain Think not therefore to employ my Services in so fatal and ungrateful a Request for she that to save your Life so recently expos'd her own to an eminent Danger will not by a voluntary consent give that away which she has shewed is not indifferent to her I was strangely surprised at these words and therefore raising my self up hastily I begg'd her to explain what they meant She therefore told me what Tomsones had concealed from me and thereby fill'd me with so much Trouble Satisfaction and Amazement that for a while I remain'd as Moveless and Speechless as after I came to my self I found I had too much cause to wish I had eternally continued As soon as I could speak I cryed out Great gods Was I not miserable enough in the disability of not preserving Statira's Liberty and in surviving that Crime and Misfortune but that thereby I must also have been the occasion of hazarding even her Life Ah! Farewel those Griefs which hitherto tormented me Mithridates's Authority Statira's Obedience Ascanius's Felicity and my own concealed Extraction These deserve no longer that Name nor can any longer act their usual Effects compar'd to what now I have resented Those only related to me but this to my Princess for whom my Concerns are higher than any I can have for my self as much as she is above me or my Designs above my Birth or Merit Nerea who hoped what she had acquainted me with would have had a contrary Effect to that she now too late found it had produced in me left no Reasons unspoken to suppress that Despair she had so unexpectedly cast me into and though she did long insist upon the too great Right and Empire which Statira had over that Life she had saved for me to destroy it without nay against her Permission and how by that Action of hers I might be convinced my Preservation was not inconsiderable to her since even to preserve an unfortunate Life as I term'd it she eminently indanger'd her own Yet it was a long time ere she could reduce me to any moderate Thoughts neither had she ever brought me to that desired Condition but upon reiterated promises of her Assistance and of embracing my Concernments with her best Care and Affection which by that high and great esteem Mithridatia had for her gave me some hopes but such faint ones that though I could not but entertain them yet I could not tell why I did so Nerea having staid much longer than she had used or than she had designed no sooner found me fit to be trusted with my self but she left me to my self The only Company I could justly desire and the worst I could keep The End of the First Book of the Sixth Part of PARTHENISSA PARTHENISSA THE SIXTH PART The Second BOOK I Fear continued Callimachus thus retailing my Story I shall make the Relation of it as unsupportable to you as the Events in it are to me I will therefore acquaint you that after a few days I recovered Strength enough to walk the length of that Gallery which was between my Lodging and the Princess's Apartment and welcoming that dawning Health I then injoy'd only as 't was an effect of my Obedience to her Commands and in hope that I might by it be inabled to serve her I sent to beg her Permission to wait on her which she was pleased to send me and I soon after to make use of By accident there was none but Nerea with her when I came into her Chamber and therefore with the less constraint I had the opportunity of Kneeling before her and of telling her I am come Madam to lay that Life at your Feet which is yours upon so many Accounts that I durst not end it without your leave much less against your Commands though by its great unhappiness in having fail'd serving you and it s infinitely greater in thereby having engaged your Goodness to indanger yours it merited a thousand Deaths and if I can support its being unextinguished 't is only because thereby I suffer a more signal Punishment than by the most tormenting Death could be inflicted on me Statira having made me Rise by her repeated Commands was then pleas'd to answer me Since by your belief that I have a Right to your Life I have thereby obtained a power to preserve it I will not deny a Title which though no just one yet is very advantageous and obliging to me and though as yet I see no visible means for my deliverance yet I will not despair of it the gods having given me so powerful an earnest of it as your recovery of Health which when you injoy'd I have been freed from a more hopeless and more unpleasing Condition than now I am in Madam I reply'd That eminent Virtue and Innocence which has shined so bright in the whole course of your Life may well invite you to believe though the means of your speedy Releasment is not now visible yet it is certain But alas Madam my Crimes make me despair of the honour of contributing to it for he that could not rescue you at first from being a Prisoner and could afterwards survive that Infamy cannot I fear be reserved for a happiness even too great for a Person of the most unblemished Fortune But yet Madam this I do promise you if ever I am bless'd with the opportunity once more to draw my Sword for your deliverance if I be not so happy as to Act it I will avoid being so miserable as to out-live it and by a second Attempt repair You or punish
on my Self the misery of my unsuccessfulness But Madam since yet we hear nothing from Ascanius nor that the generous Ataphernes has yet a probability of getting together a Fleet able to force his passage with an Army hither Why may there be no endeavours used by Treaty to win Nicomedes to pay you the Duty of restoring you to Freedom since with so much cheerfulness he pays you every one else And though the way by which you lost it being by Arms seems to require by the like way your Restauration and that by no other means but those I have so much as an expectation to serve you yet so much I prefer your Satisfaction before all things else that I cannot but pray for any way which may lead to such an End I confess said the Princess that Nicomedes's usage is so full of Generosity that since there wants nothing to compleat the Evidencing of his but restoring to Liberty a Person whose loss of it is neither considerable to him or his Enemies neither would her Recovery of it be otherwise I have admired at my Detension especially Ataphernes having so far prevail'd with Mithridates as to offer him so high a Ransom for me with the choice of having it either in Treasure or the Value thereof by restoring some Towns and Countries in Bythinia to his immediate Possession But it seems nothing will satisfie Nicomedes in Exchange for me but the intire Resignation of all Bythinia and Cappadocia so that by asking so much I begin to fear he has no mind to part with me nor can I ever get out of his hands but by force and therefore could I any way contrive your Inlargement I should hope that a Fleet led by Ataphernes and Callimachus would soon win what an unfortunate Fleet had the unhappiness to lose And in this desire I have not been Idle though I have been Unsuccessful for though Niâomedes over-values me yet he knows justly how to value you and therefore though but a little before your coming now to visit me I was impowered by Ataphernes to propose to him as much for your Releasment as Ariobarzanes offer'd for his when he was my Father's Prisoner yet I received a positive Denial with an assurance that nothing could put an end to your Imprisonment but the end of the War between him and my Father and that his Friends in Nicomedia by presenting you unto him had given him that which he more valued than his Victory over the King of Cyprus and my Brother and his having made them both his Prisoners Madam I reply'd prostrating my self again at her Feet from whence she immediately made me rise I am not able sufficiently to admire your Goodness or deplore my own Infelicity that where I owe both my Life and Liberty I must instead of paying them to you receive them from you and though those immense offers you were pleas'd to make Nicomedes for a worthless Person be above all things but your Goodness and my Wonder and Confusion at it yet I cannot but esteem my self more obliged to him in the refusal than I could have been in the acceptance of them For I know not if I were at liberty whether my usual unhappiness might not involve me in that greatest of being unable to serve you but by being in restraint I have the honour to suffer with you and therefore I had rather have a certainty of this than run a hazard of that But I confess Madam I have not been without Thoughts Why so active a Prince as Nicomedes hitherto hath been has continued so long uselesly here after his Navy was repair'd and after his late Victory had offered him so large a cause for hope if in the heat of that Success he had vigorously improved it It may possibly give me occasion to believe there is something in this place which he prefers to his Revenge his Glory and the Recovery of his Throne I admire also at his setting a Value upon what is above all for nothing can fully pay the setting you at liberty but the satisfaction of having done that Duty without any other Consideration but the honour of the performance Nicomedes has Acted a double Ill to detain you a Prisoner at all or daring to detain you to offer your Redemption at any Rate And Madam if I may presume to tell my humble Apprehensions I must say I know not which has done worse Nicomedes since he will Sell you asking no more or Mithridates since Nicomedes will Exchange you proposing so little The Kingdoms of Bythinia and Cappadocia ought not to be put in Balance with one moment of your Trouble much less with your Liberty The common Consequences of Battels are the winning of Kingdoms which is a happiness not to be named in comparison with the Guilt of letting the Princess Statira continue a Prisoner Ah! Madam Why have the gods made those only which have the Power to serve you so unwilling to do it And him that has so highly the Will so little the Power to do it Were Bythinia and Cappadocia mine and were the giving up those two Crowns the Price of your Ransom I would pay it with an unexpressible Contentment and resent more Happiness in being so divested of Monarchy than any could injoy by possessing that of the whole World That which I had spoke of my Apprehensions concerning Nicomedes's continuance in the Island and what I had spoke in the latter part of my Answer had covered Mithridatia with Blushes and therefore the sooner to take me off from an intent considering of them She reply'd with a little smile I perceive Callimachus though I am unlikely to recover my Liberty being Nicomedes's Prisoner I should have been much more unlike had I been Yours for by condemning my Father in refusing so much you thereby shew you would have demanded more But let us not mispend our time in discoursing of things which are past and on things that will not be but rather imploy it to mind what may be that is your Deliverance and as a consequence of that I shall hope for mine 'T is not improbable but some of those Officers to whose Care you are committed may have their Fidelity to Nicomedes conquer'd by that Ransom Mithridates was offer'd him for you and that I will assure them of if they will act your Releasment any way Madam I answer'd Possibly in what I said you might have found more cause to believe I detested Nicomedes's Crime than that I would have increased it had it been in my Power Could such a vast Misery have again befallen you as to be a Prisoner And could such a vaster Guilt have befallen me as to have made you mine You could not I hope imagine I would practise more wickedly that Sin I condemn in another nor that I would part with Kingdoms to purchase you from a misfortune which had I the Power to exempt you from I would continue you in Let it Madam I most humbly conjure you
accompanying it as of Trouble that now I must forsake either my Princess or highly Disobey her The unhappiness of this ill Choice entertained me till an hour before Midnight when I was interrupted by my Doors being opened and by seeing Nerea come into my Chamber who in many Blushes for so undue a Time to give me a Visit told me She now did it because Ostanes a little before had whisper'd to her there was a very great and real necessity of her coming to me immediately where possibly she might hear of things not unpleasing to her but that she was to come then or never She told me that having inform'd the Princess thereof she had forthwith injoyned her to come to me which Orders she had obey'd being conducted to the Door by Ostanes who had open'd and then was waiting at it for her Return After that I had paid her my Acknowledgments for the favour of her Visit which could not be so unseasonable but that her Virtue would preserve it from being thought so by any that had the happiness to know her I gave her an Account how that above my Expectation and even above my Desires also a certain way was offer'd me of escaping that Night the Overture whereof I could not decline listning to because it was Mithridatia's repeated Commands but that I so much preferr'd being a Prisoner when she was one before Liberty when she was deni'd hers that at the same time I told her probably I could Escape I begg'd her leave not to do it though by being of late deprived of the high Duty and Happiness of waiting on her I had been deprived of my only comfort in my Imprisonment which yet I supported without repining as a righteous Judgment for having been Guilty of the Princess's Nerea told me she would carry my Message and durst tell me my Answer before she had received it To be brief she went immediately to Mithridatia's Chamber told her what I had said and brought me a positive Command to lay hold of that opportunity which was so happily presented me by which she now had more than hopes of soon being restored to her Liberty also Nerea told me at the same time if I should delay my Obedience to these Orders it would trouble the Princess almost as much as her restraint She did acquaint me too with a particular I did think somewhat strange which was that as she was returning to me passing by Pharnaces's Chamber-door she perceived Nicomedes gently coming out of it who no sooner saw her but he hastily shut the Door again and seem'd by his Looks to be in no small disorder at his having been seen by her at that hour in that place I had not much leisure then to reflect upon this assurance being so incessantly press'd by Nerea to that Obedience Statira had commanded me and so concernedly expected from me which at last I resolved to pay her and begg'd Nerea to acquaint her therewith who immediately retired to do it And not long after Ostanes came into my Chamber with a Livery-coat of one of Nicomedes's Guards which I put on and being led by him I past all the Soldiers and came to that Creek where the Vessel staid for me and all things being in readiness the Wind too favouring us I desired them to direct their course for Nicomedia to which City in two Days we arrived without meeting any Impediment I went first to the Appartment of the generous Atafernes whom I found in a deep Melancholy in his Closet and because he protected to me my Absence and Imprisonment did partly cause it he forthwith cast off so large a proportion of it as did evidence the reality of that assurance and after many Embraces he honoured me with and many Inquiries after the Princess Statira's Health and Condition he was pleas'd to acquaint me how many ways he had endeavour'd to to get a Naval Force able to Land his Army in the Island of Scyros to restore his Sister his Brother and me to our Liberty But that the late Victory Nicomedes obtained had so terrified all Auxiliaries from serving against him that even in that Success he not only ruin'd the Cyprian Fleet but almost the hopes of ever getting another together to oppose him He further told me That as soon as Ascanius was defeated he had prevailed with Mithridates to post away Betuitus then somewhat recovered of that tedious Indisposition he had so long Languish'd under into Cylicia to engage all the Naval strength of that Nation in which Betuitus had been so diligent and successful that whilst Ascanius was here Visiting the King and Court acknowledging the high Favour of his inlargement excusing his Loss to them and making many positive Assurances of repairing his Defeat and restoring Statira and Pharnaces to their Freedom Betuitus had so far engaged the chief Cylician Sea-men that when Ascanius was return'd to Cyprus he found in his own and his Brother's unsuccessfulness his Maritim Strength so exhausted that he was necessitated to send to hire a foreign Help but he could procute none by reason of their pre-ingagement to my Father's Admiral But the Cylicians hired by âetuitus are not near enough with that little Sea-strength Mithridates has left to form a Fleet strong enough of themselves to oppose Nicomedes so that though by preventing Ascanius we have not done our selves much good yet we have hinder'd him from wholly ingrossing that Force which is necessary to reduce the Island of Scyros Betuitus who is a faithful Servant to our Family and particularly affectionated to Statira and me having receiv'd a private Advertisement from me how passionately I desir'd her Deliverance without being indebted to Ascanius for it but only to himself had no sooner assur'd the Cylicians to Mithridates's Service than he forthwith went to the Phoenicians and has prevail'd with many of them to come under my Fathers Pay and whilst these are sitting their Galleys he is returning to Miletus where if he can have the like Success he assures me not only to have a Fleet able to oppose Nicomedes but to have it ready before Ascanius has his who by a double disappointment in Cylicia and Phoenicia has been compell'd to send into Egypt to hire Galleys there And now continued Atafernes We hourly expect to hear of Betuitus's Arrival at Miletus and what Success his endeavours will meet with there I was not said Callimachus a little pleas'd to find what I most desir'd in so hopeful a way towards a good Result nor was the Prince less pleas'd when in Obedience to his Commands I had acquainted him how by the means of Ostanes I had acted my Escape even when I had not only lost the hopes but the desires of it neither would he be satisfied till I had called in Ostanes to him whom he Embraced with many Thanks for what he had done for I never mentioned any thing to him of Nicomedes because of my solemn Vow and forced him to take such
had Orders sent forthwith Wind and Weather serving to Rendezvous in the Great Bay before Miletus there to expect further Commands The taking up these Resolves and the dispatches for putting them in Execution took us up a full hour so that by the time I came to Monyma's Chamber I found the two Princesses and all the Company had left it which necessitated me wholly to disobey her Commands and break my own Ingagement or else to do that which next to an Incivility and breach of Promise I most apprehended Whilst I was debating with my Self what to do one of the Queen's Women who thought my stay near the Door was only to know whether the Queen was at leisure to receive my Visit was so-over officious as to go in to Monyma and to tell her I waited at the Door to kiss her Hands Monyma forthwith sent the same Woman to desire me to come in which cut off all Debates and made me follow my Guide who led me into the Queen's Bed-chamber who no sooner saw me but she rose and came to meet me But so lovely and so charming that had not the remembrance of her Inconstancy been as much my Preservative as my Flame to my Princess I must then have Acted that Sin myself which was my only quarrel to her An hundred Crystal Lamps shined in the Chamber and yet gave it a less Light both in degrees and quality than the Queen's Eyes Her Dress was at once so negligent and advantageous that I found a great Art consisted in seemingly declining of any Her Looks had an equal mixture of Sorrow and Obligingness and yet I never saw any Face cover'd with Joy inhabited with more Lustre and Empire I must confess what I saw made me often willing to have exchanged the hopes of the Glory of Triumphing over such an Enemy to have avoided the Temptation of her Conquest and if ever I knew the power I had over my self or rather the power the fair Statira had over me 't was in that Night remaining I will not say Unmoved but I may say unvanquish'd After my little Disorders were over I told the Queen Madam I should not have been guilty of twice troubling you in one Day had not the honour of your Commands occasion'd it nor have paid you this last Duty at so uncivil an hour if the King had not unexpectedly kept me so Late and enjoyned me to begin my Journey so Early that I must now have obey'd you or else have been uncapable to do it Monyma walking towards a part of her Chamber where though some of her Women had continued in the place they were yet they could neither see nor hear us and there seating her self under a great Cloath of State she told me I did indeed Callimachus expect this favour from you somewhat Earlier and your staying thus long might have made me doubt you would not have come had I not remembred that you so detested a forced breach of Promise in another that you would not have acted a Voluntary one your self But you see Mithridates has the power to hinder you from performing at your own time your intentions to me as well as to hinder me from observing mine to you I am so good Natur'd she continu'd with a Smile mixt with a serious Look that what she said might be taken either way that I freely forgive your failer and I will hope that your Reason your good Nature and my Example will invite you to practice the like towards me This Answer said Callimachus made me judg what the whole entertainment of my Visit would consist of and though it was but what I expected yet it was also what I fear'd and therefore the less to intangle my self in Discourse I only chose to answer such parts of hers as might give her the least Rise to dwell upon those particulars on which I apprehended she would most insist I therefore only reply'd I will hope Madam by that power you have found Mithridates has you will the sooner pardon an Incivility in me which is but an effect of that Cause I shall never reply'd the Queen esteem your Visits an Incivility but an Obligation yet lest you should think them otherwise for I find you have some Thoughts of me concerning you which you ought not to have to silence those Scruples I do grant you whatever forgiveness you desire Then listing up her Eyes and fixing them on me she said May I have that satisfaction to receive from you as full a forgiveness as I have given you This is the second time I have asked it and if your Answer be not as positive as the Desire whatever words your Civility or Wit may disguise it in I shall esteem it a flat Denial and deplore it at that Rate Then casting down her Eyes which began to swell with some Tears she added Callimachus before you make me any Return remember what I acted was in obedience to the highest Duty was a performance of necessity not choice and is a punishment as great as the fault At the end of these words Those Tears which a little before had but appear'd in her fair Eyes now began to give way to those which were to follow which did so in such abundance that though she strove by wiping them away to conceal them or at least their excess yet both were so visible that they melted the violence of all my Resentments And in an Accent which might as much evidence Truth in one of my Sex as Weeping could in one of hers kneeling at her Feet I told her Whatever Madam my Griefs whatever my Resentments have been I hope neither of them have been so rude as to make you doubt my Obedience to any of your Commands If they have been so undesignedly unfortunate they have as much Wounded me in you as for you and if an assurance of an intire observance of those Commands you have mention'd to me can repair that unhappiness I shall find in my Duty my contentment At the end of these words Monyma casting one of her Arms over me she reply'd Callimachus What you have promised cannot be a greater Justice than it is an Obligation an Obligation of so noble a Nature and Efficacy that I ought to cast my self in the like posture to speak my Gratitude as you have been in whilst you perform'd that which caused it I was not continued Callimachus a little confounded and surprised at what Monyma said and did But though I were in the Arms of one of the greatest Beauties of the World and of the greatest Person in it th' Effects of whose kindness in the then Dictates of it I might possibly have carried to a higher degree yet I had so intirely resigned up my self to the fair Statira that the highest satisfaction I took in the Queen's favours proceeded from a knowledg I attain'd thereby that nothing was capable to alter or diminish my Passion for my Princess since Monyma's Charms and Kindness wanted that
Figure I advanced with my own Admiral-Galley to wait on her And as soon as I saw she was there I descended into my Barge and in unconceivable Raptures went aboard hers where casting my self at her Feet I did more by Actions than Words endeavour to shew her my Transports at her Restauration and at my having been Instrumental in it She had the goodness to receive me with that Empire and Modesty which still accompanied her highest Favours to me and having with acknowledgments dismist the Cappadocian and Bithynian Nobility which had till then waited on her as Ariobarzanes notwithstanding the pain of his wounds had done to the Barge she ascended my Galley and in it went to the Fleet who received her with shouts and clashing of Arms and all the other Military Evincements and Complements of Joy Nay all the Flag-ships struck their signs of being such and only let them fly again when she commanded to show that she only gave Laws where I was Admiral All Ceremonies of her return being ended she retired unto the Stern-Cabbin of the Galley and none being present but Nerea I did again prostrate my self at her Feet and told her Madam I now find the Honour of fighting in your Quarrel cannot be greater than is the Certainty of Success in so glorious a Cause and if I failed of that happiness once it proceeded from the mercy of the gods which though intolerable to me when dispensed yet by what hath happened since I have found abundant cause to admire But could I have prevented my highest misery at so Criminal a Price as by wishing of your suffering I should have esteemed that sin equal to this Success for such is the Respect and Veneration I pay the Princess Statira that to have prevented her Captivity I would joyfully had it been left at my Election have suffered what the gods destined her Captivity should prevent The fair Statira by her blushes seemed to tell me she understood what I meant and she had too the condescension to give me this Answer If you have received any advantage by a Captivity you then so much deplored and would have so fatally revenged on him who had been so far from acting it that he almost lost his life to prevent it I shall find that contentment in it upon your score which I could not on my own for 't is but reason that he who frees me from Captivity should receive some consolation in my having undergone it and that my sufferings should pay some of that Debt which my Actings could not And since by experience you have Learned that even the bitterest things which the Gods cast upon us have by patient waiting on them a sweetness in the Result I will nope that thereby we shall be prepared with an entire Resignation to submit to whatever portion they snall think fit to allot us 'T is in the force of this Duty that I find strength to submit to the loss of the unhappy Ascanius and though he perished for my Relief and though by designation of my Father his nearness to me might apologize for my Tears nay render them a Duty yet so much I mind that hand from whence I received that stroke that in as little Emotions as the frailty of my Nature is capable of I desire to submit unto it At these words said Callimachus her Eyes were obscured which made me say Madam In those admirable Expressions you do not more evidence your piety to the gods than by those unvaluable Tears you manifest your kindness and Esteem for Ascanius whose fall thereby is Celebrated with nobler Obsequies than all his Friends and Subjects can design for him To be loved by the Princess Statira whilst he was alive and to be wept by her when he was dead are Felicities which render him a fitter object of Envy than of Sorrow And since Madam you are so Charitable and Just to the Dead Permit me to beg you to be the like to him that yet is alive which is to believe though had I got as much by your Captivity as the King of Cyprus lost yet even therein I should have condemned your Fate and my own too for being so mistaken as to think I could raise any joy by your sorrow In that particular the power of Destiny is limited for it can present nothing of contentment to me which is caused by your suffering Could you Madam believe the contrary To lead you out of that injustice pardon the Zeal of that expression I would elect Eternally to be miserable rather than be made happy by a cause which might confirm you in that misbelief and might reproach me with having valued my self above you But Madam I continued whilst I ought to imploy all my time in expressions of my Trouble that you were made a Captive and of my Joy that you are no longer one will you pardon me if I employ some of it in imploring a concession from you which only can be granted by you and which I fear you may with Justice deny me 'T is that by your Order I may enjoy a part of this dayes Victory which by the Law of Arms is mine already yet only by your decree can Authentickly be made such The Princess again was cover'd with Blushes fearing my Confidence had been greater than my Success and that my implorings would have been more suted to my desires than my merit therefore to free her from those wounding imaginations I told her by the fate of War Ascanius lost his Flag and by the chance of War I recover'd it 'T is the Effigies of a Venus ascending from the Sea but a Venus so like the Princess Mithridatia that no Production of Art was ever comparable to it I thereupon presented her with the King of Cyprus's Flag which contained a Copy nothing but the Original could transcend She consider'd it a while more I believe to gain time to form her Answer than on any other score for her Glass could alwayes entertain her with a nobler Prospect though whilst she was unresolved what to say she might the sooner be induced to grant my suit than give Reasons for denying it and therefore I did with no small importunity seek a Return to my Request which at last obtained from her these words I am wholly ignorant Callimachus of your Maritine Laws but I suppose you are so just as not to ask any thing from me contrary to them and since you are on that Element where you give the Law I must not contradict what you assure is yours by it though in my own Judgment I think it little just that two Fleets which came to Fight in the same Quarrel the misfortune of the one should compose the Trophies of the other Madam I reply'd expecting at least as much reservedness as I found 't is not time but possession which gives Armed numbers a Title to what they possess else those which did wrong the longest should have the greatest Right to what in wrong-doing
that Gallant Nobility and Youth which was in it to Arm themselves and follow me This was immediately performed and our Boats had no sooner set some fifty of us on Shore but we were too well guided by the Shreeks of some Women to the Center of the Wood where we found all the King's Guards kill'd or routed and by one that was flying away we learned that about three Hundred select Men had lain in Ambush in the Wilderness And when the King with the Prince Atafernes the Queen the Princess Nisa and the Princess Cleopatra were diverting themselves in that pleasant Place they were forthwith assaulted by unknown Men And the Guards running to their Rescue not being able to make use of their Horses by reason of the thickness of the Wood were after a brisk Fight killed and dispersed only the King and Prince with some of their Attendants getting into a Summer-House where the Queen and Princess were defended the door of it in hope of Relief but he had even then seen it forced and many of the Enemy enter it This Relation he told us whilst we were running to their Rescue and lest our endeavours might be fruitless I sent forthwith Orders to my Galley which was advanced a League before all the rest of the Fleet to make all possible diligence to the Western part of the North-west Promontory to hinder any Vessels from escaping that way for the place in which this Attempt was made easily perswaded me to believe it was from the Sea that these Enemies were come These Orders given we continued our March with such speed that we discovered our Enemies whom immediately we assaulted and who received us with that Resolution which became Men that attempted their Design The Fight was bloody and my small Troop being heightened by the glory of so Noble an occasion to evidence their Courages did it in so unresistable a degree that the resolutest of our Adversaries began to lose their Ground as well as their Number though still fighting and retreating towards the Sea-side I easily judged thereby that their intentions was to recover their Vessel and therefore by a resolute Charge we so discomposed them that they turned their backs and made precipitately to their Boats into two whereof some of them got and immediately Launced out towards a Galley which then we discover'd riding in a Creek in the Promontory The trouble we received by their then Escape was raised to a height above my description when by one of our Prisoners we learned that in the largest of those Boats they sent away the King and Prince much wounded and all the Princesses Prisoners 'T was time to act and therefore though we had cause yet we had not leisure to grieve we seized upon one Boat that remained and pursued after them as well as four Oars could carry us which were all we could find But alas we soon found how fruitlesly we labour'd for before we could get half way to their Galley we saw them enter into it with their Noble Prize and cutting their Cables with as much hast as Oars and Sails could lend them bent their course for Greece Whilst we were in the trouble of this Prospect I was revived by the fight of my own Galley doubling the Point Her Celerity in the obedience of my Orders was unspeakably welcome I hastily got on Board told the fair Statira what we had done and what we had failed of and promising all the Slaves their Liberty if they overtook the flying Galley they so powerfully plied their Oars that we immediately found we gained visibly of them The rest of my Fleet which were above twenty Furlongs behind seeing me alter my course and not knowing the cause of it for though I saw the Galley I pursued and my Fleet saw mine yet by the interposition of the Head-Land they saw not what I chased And having positive Order to sail directly into the Bay of Nicomedia and none to the contrary continued their Course thither so that by the time I was gotten within half a League of the Enemy they could discover no Veslel was within two Leagues of me and therefore scorning to flye from a single Galley saved me the labour of following them and turning about their Prow came as fast towards me as a little before she had fled from me Over-joyed with this unlooked for Gallantry I went into the Princesses Cabbin and told her I hope now Madam telling her what the Enemy had done to do you that Service on the Sea that I failed of paying you on the Shore and I am come now only to beg you to permit the lights of your Cabbin to be stopt up lest any Darts or Javelins of the Enemy might fly into them You see Callimachus she replied how the sins of our Family afford you too often occasions to oblige it and you may perceive how fallacious even the best judgments are in Humane things when you could yesterday believe I was in a Condition above your Services and this Day all the Royal House of Pontus depend upon your Sword The gods I reply'd who have destined it to so high a Glory will I question not give it a proportionate Success And having only permitted the Royal House of Pontus to receive some of their frowns that it may be the more sensible of their smiles they had rais'd it so high that it being uncapable of accessions they have subjected it to Changes and then to Restaurations that in those vicissitudes the impossibilities of additions might be repaired Your Virtues Madam are a security to your whole Family and since I now fight to restore them and to preserve you to doubt Success were to intitle me to a denial of it The Princess at the end of what I had spoke perceiving some blood trickle down from a Wound I had received in my left Arm had the mercy to lament it and the condescension to take off a Ribband of her own and to bind it up which unvaluable Civility was no sooner conferred than Demetrius came to the Cabbin-Door to tell me the Enemy was at hand I therefore hastily took my leave and was scarce got at the head of my Men when our Galleys shook one another with their Brazen Prows and then as if it had been by mutual consent grappled so strongly that nothing but Victory was able to unloose them never possibly in so little Room was performed so great things our Numbers seemed equal and our Resolutions the same which were to Conquer or to Die Twice they got into my Galley and once oftner I got into theirs which in the End proved fatal to them for perceiving with how much difficulty we had purchas'd that advantage we as resolutely kept it and so many of mine got in after me that the Commander of our Enemies called Enastes who was a Lord of Pontus who was in highest esteem with Nicomedes and his Vice-Admiral perceiving since they could not keep us out it would be
a conquered Fleet. But I owe the avoiding of that unhappiness to your Civility and Courage which I can in no way requite but in owning it to all the World and in assuring you That what I owe unto you I will on all occasions imploy and hazard for you and in acquainting you that my chief Motive to this Voyage and Disguise proceeded from a passion I had assumed at the Noble and high Character which Ascanius when last in Aegypt gave me of the Princess At this very word continued Callimachus the Prince of Aegypt's senses abandon'd him which made Photinus and I hasten to afford him all the help we could but finding ours was not proportionable to his necessity we called in the Physician and Chirurgeons which were in the next Room who having done all that their Art suggested to them desired us to withdraw and to leave him to that silence the breaking whereof had cast him into that faintness Photinus and I observed a little before that his words came more languishingly from him than when he began his Narrative But both of us attributing it to the sense he had of his being reduced to need my assistance in that Battel in which he had promised himself so much Glory we did neither of us desire him to forbear prosecuting his Relation till the swound he fell into put a period to it I was not a little concerned to ask of Photinus one word more than his Prince had spoke But he protested to me that was as great a secret to him as it was to me He only knew that as Ascanius had fallen in Love by the sight of a Picture his Prince had assumed the same passion by a Relation of the King of Cyprus but who the Object of his Passion was he was a perfect stranger unto Photinus having accompanied me to my Appartment returned to pay his Duty to his Prince and left me in no small perplexities which had he spoke one word more might have been increased or supprest I was not without my Fears that the Princess Statira's Beauty had ingaged him in this Voyage for since the Description which had kindled his flame had been made by Ascanius 't was but too likely he would most exalt that Perfection which in captivating him had evinced it self to be the greatest as well in Truth as in his Estimation Neither could I believe that the fear of speaking the Truth to Auletes might have any Operation on the King of Cyprus in raising him so dangerous a Rival since he had already engaged Mithridates and secured his raptures to a degree above the apprehension of Danger I was too the more confirmed in that belief by reason that Auletes kept himself disguised to Ascanius as well as any other which sure he had not much cause to do if his Aims had not been such as necessitated him to such a proceeding for if his Love was paid to any else he might expect from the King of Cyprus's assistance a powerful help which by his not discovering himself to him he was certainly to fail of This consideration left me abundant cause to believe my apprehensions were but too rational and therefore in Auletes's Person and Quality I found cause to think Ascanius had raised me as powerful a Rival as himself and I remained only with this consolation That by Ataphernes's favour I should know my Fate before the Prince Auletes could be an obstacle to the felicity of it With these thoughts I went to wait upon my Prince who though I had left in his Bed yet I found him not in his Chamber Some of those Gentlemen that waited on him in it telling me he was gone to Mithridates's Apartment in no small pain I fear'd I was the cause of this trouble for the time of making my request was to end the next day and he had undertaken my Destiny I learned also That all that time I had spent with the Prince of Aegypt He had entertained in private the Princess Statira I resolved therefore in his Chamber to expect his return which I did in impatiencies and fears that were almost equal I never had been in such troubles When I was ignorant to what the gods had reserved me to and when I thought they had alotted for me the deepest Affliction as now I was in when I was positively to learn what I was designed unto My entertainments on this subject were so confused and irrational that I will not trouble you with a repetition of them neither did they cease till the Gentleman came from Mithridates to call me to him I found the King of Pontus in his Bed and the Prince Ataphernes sitting by him as soon as I came in the King commanded every one besides to withdraw then calling me to him he told me Callimachus you may conclude it was an important Affair which made me send to my Son to come to me considering the indisposition he is under and to let you see I will have nothing in reserve for you I will now communicate to you what I have imparted to him for owing all that I have to you I will conceal nothing from you There is at this hour in this Palace three persons disguised who have brought me strange news and presented to me glorious offers they are all three Romans The first is Martius Variuâ Lieutenant-General to the Great Sertorius the other two are Lucius Mannius and Lucius Fannius Senators of Rome and Cabbinet-Councellors to Sertorius They assure me the gods by an immediate judgment of their own have taken out of this World my only dreaded Enemy Cornelius Sylla which has filled not only Rome but even all the Roman Empire with such high confusions as every one is now striving to diminish that entire greatness which so lately every one endeavoured to augment Sertorius has already appropriated to himself all the Kingdoms of Spain and raised so powerful an Army there and of his other Confederates as even at that distance the Capitol does tremble He has got together so many of the Senatorian Order that he has already constituted a Roman Senate in Spain and disowns any Senate but that so that he has not alone the power but the Authority of the Roman People He intends immediately to carry his Ensigns to Rome it self and wants not Friends and Confederates there nor at the East and Western-feet of the Alps so that he is not only confident of an uninterrupted passage thither but of Success and Victory when he comes there Yet to expose his attempts to as little incertitude as actions of War can admit He has sent to invite my assistance assuring me that if my Forces from the East and his from the West do unite in one common Design the success cannot be more great than it will be certain But then we must move at once He offers me for my Part and to confirm it by a Decree of the Senate That I shall for ever without acknowledging any thing to Rome