heat of passion in love was far from thought of sorrowing for the death of his father The more she thinks to comfort him the more he is displeased the more she courts him the more he seems to be importuned and although she strives as much as may be to cover with a false joy a true sadness yet could he not hinder but his face his actions and words betrayed him making it appear to those which had least of apprehension that there was I know not what in his thoughts which tormented him Elise sees this and is in an agony inconceivable She thought it was a wrong to her husband to esteem he had any ill opinion of her she is too innocent to find in herself any subject of discontentment that she had ever given him and there is nothing she thinks less on then the true cause of this alteration Jealousie of Isabel she had none for she believes that time hath healed Philippin of this old impression But in the end the many matches made for hunting made her plainly see they were not without design and the other visits to Vaupre made her to know the fire by the smoak the beast by the foot but so late that the evil was almost without remedy On the other side Philippin was in extreme agonies for the way of the perverse is sowed with a thousand thorns All seemed contrary to his desires The cunning Isabel which saw she had returned him into her net and that she held him in her goal by means as full of subtilty as Elise was full of simple innocence who made as if she saw not that which she did but too well perceive Isabel seems not to take notice of that which doth clearly appear and by her flying and fained retiredness adds desire in Philippin to see her Industrious Galatee that drawest in flying and hidest in shewing thy self For coming to Bellerive to visit Elise and then he seeing her at Vaupre it was always in the presence of his wife or of her father or brother that he spake to her which was an extreme torment to this passionate This damosel full of vanity took pride tormenting him without giving him any hope to quench the least spark of this great fire in his breast Judge but the craft of this creature Here is a Tantalus dead with drougth in midst of waters and like the Page of Alexander he is constrained in silence to burn It serves him not to speak with Eyes language which she hath heretofore well understood now fains not to understand by a deafness as great and greater then that by which she is beloved The good of Philippin is his hurt For this liberty to see that which he desired redoubled his passion and makes him perish with a death and languishing grief by the object which is the cause All his study is to make known to this malitious creature the renewing of his antient flames but that in such a fashion that neither Elise Pyrrhe nor Harman understood any thing yet all see clearly like Eagles The jealousie of a wife is not to be feared The valour of Pyrrhe and Harman are not unknown to him although his Vassals they are noble and Gentlemen full of honour and that rather then abate the least point would lose a thousand lives Oh how true it is that evil men travel by ways stubled and full of stops and difficulties and attain much weariness in the end of their iniquities If once his courtings be but perceived by so many eyes as watch him all is lost there will be nothing but tempests within and shipwrack without If he but consider the end of his unjust pretension it is but an assured loss of his reputation and may be of his life For if Elise perceive it once farewell friendship and peace but that is the least he thinks of If either her father or brother should suspect any thing there 's no more frequenting nor visits no more duty nor acknowledgment A quarrel that would set all the Gentlemen upon him thereabouts and make him odious to Scevole and to all that knew the rare vertues of his wife And to revenge himself there is no hope He is too far in the business his passion holds his foot at his throat he is fallen and lost he is altogether undone To dissemble his ill he cannot any longer he cannot without death and to dye without daring to complain or make known who is the cause he cannot resolve Here is our Ixion on the wheel It is most true that a disordered spirit is his own hangman he gets much by ruling his actions and motions He loses his countenance at the aspect of the Basilisco whose sight kills him This moving he cannot hinder betrays He speaks to her enough but not enough as much as becomes him but not enough for 't is not that he would or cannot or dares not manifest to her She seeâ— him nevertheless and seems ignorant Learn the cunning of women by this same So that our passionate Philippin dies of a sickness obscure and hidden in midst of all these commodities and remedies that opportunity seems to present him In the end the imposthume grows That which he cannot intreat for with his tongue he borrows with his pen being an interpreter of his thoughts which cannot blush That makes known to the artificious Amazon what she knew already but as she loved her honour and was jealous of her reputation she struck against the rock of a chaste resolution these first points making all these considerations recoil before the impenitrable buckler of a holy cruelty The glory of having captived so great a courage left not to flatter her seconded with pride of a secret joy that she had in her hands the means to be revenged of Philippin for the wrong she thought he had done her in leaving her for one of meaner beauty And as there needs to infernal Archimedes but one point out of the earth for to raise all the earth it was by this large gate of vengeance that he convey'd into the soul of this maiden the Trojan horse the funeral-torch that put all her reputation in ashes What dost thou Isabel in stead of sending back his Pacquets thou receivest and concealest them without giving any notice to thy father or brother Ha! this is not the course of a wise Maiden which like the Mother of Pearl ought not to open but to receive the dew of heaven nor to receive other courtings but those of a legitimate marriage with the permission of her parents You will hide serpents in your breast and then complain you are stung very ill you let in the thieves and then complain of being robbed you put in fire and then are astonished if it burn you Where is your wisdom Isabella I well perceive you are of that unfortunate band that are not wise but in doing ill whilst you are parlied with you intend to yield you betray your self in capitulating with a Traitor
this first as more ingenious and less infamous Who hath ravished the peace I felt in this sweet languishing for to draw me an innocent offering to the war of a sacrifice as bloody as unjust O Elise must thou be the scandal of thy blood the dishonour of ancestors What is become of thy pomps thy greatness and honours O my dearest Philippin was it not enough that I lost thee without seeing my self not only accused as the cause of thy loss but condemned as guilty of thy death Ha cruel Andronico that the honest respects thou hast heretofore offered me are become now hurtfull and that thy conversation heretofore so sweet is changed into cruel bitterness O how dearly do I pay the interest of my simplicity and inconsideration Ah barbarous thou knowest well the contrary of thy accusation But thou wast not satisfied with the life of the husband if thou dost not quench thy enraged thirst with the blood of his wife Yet if thou hadst done to me as to my husband thou mightst make me lose my life without tearing mine honour from me but thou must needs add this to the measure of thy insatiable cruelty Ah Judges why can you not see into my innocence One day but it will be too late the just heavens that see the outrage your injustice doth to me breaking the vail of a false accusation will let you see it and then you will render to my ashes the honour that you now ravish from me We would pursue further the end of these complaints yet more pitttifull then they can be imagined if we did not fear to beget pitty in these dungeons where inflexible cruelty makes its eternal residence The presence of a Dominican for the religious of this order as they are in great esteem every where so principally in this City where this sad adventure hapned tempering by his words the extreme grief of her who complains thus without comfort brought her in small time to acknowledge that this disaster was not hapned to her without some secret providence of God which could not turn but to her greater good so that she did not take that on the left which should be on the right nor seized not the brand there where it burned most Good Father quoth she it is not death that I fear knowing that is the end of all humane miseries On the contrary I have desired it heretofore with no less impatience against the outrages of my ill fortunes and if the laws of God did not forbid to have recourse to a voluntary trespass I should have fled it it as to a safe port But that this death makes me run a double infamy crimes of which I am accused although I be exempt both of the one and the other stain This is it that makes my griefs unconsolable and hinders me to frame in my soul a good resolution And that which is hardest to me is that the shame of this stain reflects on so many persons of quality to whom I have the honour to appertain in this place For to speak truth the grief of the death of my body is nothing comparable with this bitterness that assails at once all my understanding Madam replied the religious man If it be the cause that makes the martyr and not the pain if you are innocent of that that is imposed on you you ought not to fear the loss of your honour nor any shame for he that draws light from darkness knows well a time that his providence hath determined to make known your justification to those very same that have condemned you The disciples of an antient Philosopher grieving to see him condemned innocently Alas my friends said he would you have me die guilty That which you esteem a high point of desolation ought to be according to my judgment the strength of your consolation If you but cast your eyes upon the Example of Christians the Saviour crucified is there anything comparable to Innocence that defies all the most mortal enemies to reprehend it with any fault And can there be any grief equal to his suffering What his adversaries had procured to obscure his glory proves the height of his greatness and the gibber of the Cross before so ignominious is now the most precious ornament of crowns and diadems The judgment of men should not trouble you it is God that judges you and them and their judgments too They are ordinarily false in their ballances but the time will come that the hidden secrets of the dark shall be revealed and the thoughts of all hearts manifested and then every one shall be praised or blamed according as they have truly deserved Mean while Madam imploy this little time that remains to you of life not in inutile complaints for the cutting off your days not in protesting your innocence nor in exclaiming against your ill fortune nor in reprehending the sincerity of your Judges that have condemned you according to their laws that make the rule of their consciences since the Lord before whose tribunal you are going to appear will that we be at peace and accord with our enemies whilst we are in the way of this life otherwise he will not be pleased with the sacrifice you go to offer him of your heart and body Take heed you harden not your heart to day when you hear the voice of the heavenly Bridegroom that knocks at your ears by my tongue for it is written that those that have their hearts hardned will make an ill end This discourse was preferred with so much devotion by this good Friar whom we give the name of Symphorian that the courage of Elise strengthened on the one part against the assaults of death and ignominie was also sweetned on the other towards Andronico ready to pardon him her death without considering that she was more cause of the loss of this Gentlemans life then he had been of hers After having discharged her conscience in the ears of this good Father and protested before God and that tribunal of penitence where it is a fault inexpiable to lye unto the Holy Ghost that she was not any way consenting to the murder of Philippin yet nevertheless adores the will of God to whom she submitted herself with all her heart as to the rule of all justice She embraces the cross of him that would die on the tree dishonorably for her salvation The whilst Elise is thus disposing herself Andronico is brought to the same point of resignation and reconciliation by a venerable Priest whom we will name Cyrille who having seen that this Patient drew no other consolation of his death but the pleasure to be revenged of his enemy after having plucked from his heart this malicious humour with which if he should have dyed it had endangered his loss eternally Why but Father do I ill to rejoyce to see that this unworthy Elise is fallen into the pit she had prepared for me and that herself is brought into the precipice where
removed from his heart But as youth is like soft wax that receives all forts of impressions and keeps not one so Philippin promises what one would have him being resolv'd not to maintain any thing that the apprehension of fear makes him say his love being far stronger then his fear When retired from his fathers sight like a Criminal from the Tribunal of his Judge it was then he blamed himself of weakness and want of courage and giving himself a thousand injurious names accusing his fearfulness and protesting a new loyalty and service to this Idol which swam in his fancy he rubbed his sore and invenomed his wound by this constraint disanuling all he had said in prejudice of his promise he renews his meetings and secret practises with Herman But being sold by his Lacquays in whom he trusted most who for hansel of their treachery put many of his letters and those of Isabels into the hands of Timoleon by which he understood that reciprocal promises had been given on both sides which made him enter into such an extream choler as he had never had the like sometime threatning to ruine Pyrrhe and all his house and then to be revenged on his son for this disobedience as also to publish the shame of Isabella Being transported to these extremities by his choler he calls his son the second time and after having reviled him with all the outragious speeches that could be imagined esteemed this relapse worse then his first fault This young Lyon having taken courage for the shame of his last flight like him which said of himself If I fled at the first encounter it was to return the second time to fight with more resolution setting aside those invective speeches of his father which his duty bound him to endure after some holy protestations of the honour and reverence which he would always give him he told him plainly and in a fashion of that height more then the spirit of Timoleon could endure that he would lose a thousand lives rather then to fail in the least point of his love that his honour was engaged by word and by writing and that his soul should never receive other impression but that of Isabella's the which was a Gentlewoman and of that birth as she could receive no reproach for her Nobility having no other wants but the goods of fortune esteeming rather to chuse a wife which had vertues and perfections in abundance then one with great wealth which should have nothing more unpleasing then herself and that this affection of his was led rather by reason then passion honour and marriage having been the end of his pretensions and if there Were any thing worthy reprehension it was his carriage not any thing in Isabella or Herman and for himself he was resolved never to leave their friendships for all the violence could be used on him chusing rather to suffer the extremity of cruelty and the worst of indignities which should be like flames to purifie his fidelity to the proof And as God lives answered Timoleon we will see whose head is best yours or mine How now Gallant what scarce born and are you at your defiance with me I 'll make thee as supple as glove and to bend to my will and break that stubborn will of yours though it cost me my life and goods and yours too I will teach you the duty of a son and the authority of a father said he And so turning from him he commanded to put Philippin in a chamber which served for a prison to the end to teach this young bird to sing another tune Philippin goes very joyfully contented to give a testimony of his firmness and constancie of his flames But that which put him in an extream agony was to hear that his father having searched his chamber and his secret Cabinet wherein were his sweetest tyes amongst a thousand Letters seised of the Promise of Isabella at which he made a trophie of mockery and laughter and would have made a sacrifice of it and of his choler to the fire For now as being transported what says he not against his father and his ill fortune and against heaven Truly those things which ought not to be repeated but throughly blamed Yet nevertheless comforting himself upon the word of his Mistress which he esteemed beyond all the writings in the world he resolves upon the common remedy of all the ills of the world Patience Not but that the wearisomness of a prison was extreamly sensible to this stirring spirit active and full of heat yet in this extream youth which is nothing but fire and life the tediousness is redoubled by being deprived of news which served at least in this his constraint of liberty to diminish his flame Before he hoped all and feared nothing now fears all and hath no hope But in the faith of the brother and sister He fears that those Letters should come to the hand of Pyrrhe and Valentine they would not take occasion to ease their childrens ill His thoughts are so troubled as when he rests in this prison he thinks he is invironed with a thousand thorns he suspects all which come near him as he had reason being made so many spies by Timoleon's means He wants wherewith to corrupt them this metal which changes courages fails him and his servants whom his father had made his dare not yield to pitty this young Lord. He thinks to entertain them with discourse yet seeing pitty dead in some and affection in others refused all to entertain himself with his own private thoughts the onely recreation that accompanied him which in stead of diverting him nourished his displeasures 'T is Musick which hath that property to make them merry which are content and those which are sad more melancholy He plays reasonable well on the Lute and sings well enough for a young Cavalier who was more given to violent exercises then to these sweet and peaceable One day for to expell the grief he felt in these words expressing Hopeless and helpless in my sad distress I sink my griefs admitting no redress Thus the imprisoned Philippin comforted himself the best it was possible But at last being not able to bear this weak and melancholy life nor having any with whom he might freely converse his thoughts giving way to the vehemencie of his desires he was constrained to yield himself to the mercy of a sickness which brought him so low as within a foot of his grave had it not been for his youth good temper and strong disposition with the help of the Physitians and good means applied he was even at the last point to lose his life and that most affected the sad father to see at point of death his onely son Knowing the cause which brought him to this pittifull estate he repented a thousand times the cruelties he had used an hundred times he promised him but with words far from the thoughts of heart to give him Isabel to wife
seduce Pyrrhe enters into a new fury which made him speak wonders But Timoleon was so glad to have gotten into his hands the Paper which so angred him that he thought as they say to have the Wolf by the ears so that giving way to the passion of Pyrrhe to gather scum at his pleasure he was content only to answer him thus coldly That he was content to have him for his Vassal but not for his Companion and that he knew the means how to humble him at his pleasure as time should serve that for the present he was content to return him the Promise of his daughter counselling him if he esteemed the honour of his house to deal with her in that sort as that she should not be so liberal of her promises and writings otherwise he would hardly find her a husband These words spoken with somwhat a satyrical tone bit outragiously cruel our Pyrrhe never answering but with taunts and bravado's making himself laught at by those which heard him for although a Gentleman he was nevertheless so inferior to Timoleon as they were not to measure their swords together The Promises rendred there was no more cause of pleading Pyrrhe gave a disavow of what his daughter had done and Timoleon the same for his son friends of both sides seek to make peace with the vassal and his Lord. Timoleon for his part seems not unwilling Pyrrhe who knows of what importance it is to him to be reconciled lets himself be easily drawn words of precipitation are given in choler they part friends Here are all the strings of Philippin's bow broken what shall he do he is like the bird tyed by the leg the more it flutters the more it is pinched and more it strives the more strangled Pyrrhe arrives and keeps such a life against his son and daughter such as one may judge of a proud man having lost his pretensions and being returned with having engaged a piece of his honour Whereas Timoleon triumphs on his side and tells of his intention to match his son with Elise she was both vertuous and rich which are two qualities which both the world and reason esteem more then beauty He knew not how to withstand his father by contradiction his youth told him this was another Lea that they would put upon him instead of his fair Rachel for truly this Maid had not so much of beauty as to be esteemed fair and yet enough to warrant her from the title of being ilfavoured although she was so in the opinion of Philippin not being fair his thoughts are continually occupied in the idea of Isabel whose only name spake beauty it self and was able to make the brightest star appear to him deformed What shall he do for this grief is incident to all He feigns to be touched in conscience with many scruples not contented with the restitutions of their Promises he will have an act of Justice for his justification Timoleon demands it of Scevole who obtains it incontinently by his credit and by reason and justice This is not enough he says it was their parents which have made restitution of the Contracts but he held not himself disengaged if first he saw not a writing of Isabel by which she acquitted him of his promise by words esteeming that a man or worth is as much bound to preserve his word as his writ the writing being nothing but a visible testimony of faith given Said this young Lord to himself Isabel will never sign to such a disavow and if she should he might have just occasion to complain of her and to accuse her of inconstancie and aptness to change Timoleon who saw that this was the last rampire of his sons obstination having promised his father to think of Elise if this Disavow were but obtained anew sollicites Pyrrhe desiring him to oblige him so much as to procure him a declaration from his daughter importing the return of his sons word given her although it were no way necessary but to satisfie the scruples of the conscience of Philippin promising to acknowledg this courtesie by those good offices which should bind him to believe their reconciliation was not fained Pyrrhe which saw himself sought to by his Lord and in a thing wherein he believed to return that which he thought he had engaged his reputation in at their last meeting promised to Scipion incontinently who was imployed in this business to give him that which Timoleon demanded But he counted without his Host forasmuch as he found more resistance in Isabella in this then he had ever done before For judging well by this as she was wise that Philippin sought all possible means to defer the marriage with Elise of which she had already had news being now common in City and Country she plainly shewed her unwillingness saying that was unnecessary and that she would not give a writing which might prove prejudicial to her honour But in the end Pyrrhe and Valentine her mother threatned her so much that having drawn from her many Letters which gave testimony enough of her constrained writing to that effect at last contented themselves with this where she seemed to open herself with more freedom and liberty addressing herself to Timoleon thus My Lord MY duty ties me to the obedience of my parents I write to you by their commands to free my Lord your son of those scruples of conscience whereby he might any way be touched for those Promises with which it pleased his affection to overtake my credulity My Lord both he and I are so much theirs who have brought us into the world that it seems not only our lives but also our fortunes our wills and words depend absolutely on their authority Methought it had been enough to have rendred the promises in writing without pressing me any further to renounce by letter his protestations to me the which I do for your satisfaction and his and to content my father who commanded me This is not to complain but rather to give a testimony of joy that I receive in the news of the marriage which I understand you intend to imbark him in I wish to God it may prove as happy to him as I desire it If I were free and that my presence might not bring any hindrance to your joy I would be one in that assembly to raise by the shadow of my defects the brightness of this chain of gold you 'll put about his neck I believe the feast will be great and will not pass without those exercises of which I promise my self I should give a testimony of my skill and courage which would raise me far beyond those of my condition But because this cannot be without troubling your content and his conscience I will give you a testimony of it by the freedom of this disavow That although I am not rich enough to be your daughter-in-law I have yet courage to disdain the quality in leaving the possession to another and suffer
first and before her father she strongly dissembled the grief which pinched her very heart shewing so constant in apparence that you would have said this action of Philippin's was in different to her But when she was retired into her private Cabinet and this retreat without testimonies gave her liberty to recall her passion saying those words and using those actions which she ought neither to have done nor said if she had had but any reason left there wanted not much that her soul had not stollen from her in her abundance of tears and that the sobs and sighs had not stopped her breath I will not with a lazie pen fill the pages of this book with reciting the inutility of her complaints we must leave them to the divining of those souls outraged by feeling the like disgrace How many different projects rolled in her thoughts Sometime she would in a sute of her brothers go find out this perfidious Lord to grapple with him like a Fury revengetrix and to cover him with reproaches of his weakness and inconstancie But as she was of a great spirit the consideration of her honour held her within the bounds of modesty knowing well that such a habit would wrap her in an everlasting infamy But then shall she dye an obscure death not only deprived of enjoying her legitimate pretensions but also of revenge I assure you that between these two extremities her understanding was thrown into strange convulsions In this outrage she became invironed with so strong a melancholy that she would neither see any nor be seen of any if she could have separated herself from herself she would willingly have done it So she fell into a profound slumber forced by a thousand griefs nor thinking of ought but of displeasures which continually pelled her patience Sad specters did her soul affright With the black horrors of the night Which through the casements of her eyes Diffus'd a thousand jealousies So that the light being gone her sense did fail Hope did expire and her fear prevail A thousand thoughts of things transacted Of promises broke and kept distracted Her spirits so perplex'd with grief Th'admitted not the least relief Which like the 'larum of a Watch did keep Her mind in motion and debarr'd her sleep These crimes which from the horror of a black And clouded conscience all the senses rack Transcend those tortures which poor miscreants feel In setters chain'd or broken on the wheel Since crimes increase and make affliction higher Like heaped fewel on a flaming fire Frighted with dismal dreams she passeth ore The solitary night and doth deplore Her pitteous state so that her poor heart lyes Floting half-drown'd i' th' deluge of her eyes The sum of all her joyes being but to think Those joyes are shipwrack't and her soul must sink Thus the unfortunate Amazon tormenting herself without comfort nothing pleases her being so displeased with herself Nights are tedious to her having lost her accustomed repose and Day as unwelcome because it makes her see too cleerly her disaster This is not that Atalanta that destroyed by her valour the number of Bores in this our Thessaly The horror of the woods which heretofore were so pleasing while the eye of day looked favourably on her is now become most fearfull She troubles no more the dark solitary Forrests the assemblies of hunting are no more lightned with this star and that which most of all displeases is that every one spends their judgments and makes discourses according to their fancies of this her change of life and humour She hates the publike light but silence loves And lonely shades of solitary groves Her parents which knew the cause of grief yet having no remedy were much affected Valentine principally which saw the flowers fade in the face of this Virgin whom she loved so dearly was excessively tormented cursing the hour that ever she knew Philippin But Pyrrhe and Harman who knew that this strange manner of life gave occasion of talk to many men are touched with a more lively feeling Poor men if the thorns prick you being scarce shot forth how will you endure them when they become more hard and less corrigible she will be cause of your loss of life and honour But let us leave her desolate in her melancholy to see what is done in the City touching the marriage of Philippin There he is imbarqued by the commandment of his father in the research of Elise But how can we call it a research which is already agreed on by their friends Timoleon is agreed with Scevole who offers him a blank promising such a dowry as should quite disengage his house making his daughter his universal heir and putting her in possession of more then he could imagine Oraculons I dol who doth not adore Thy shrine and reverence the refulgent Oar He that said Liberty is a blessing he would not sell for all the good in the world is deceived in more then the half of the just price because in the world there are as many and more chains of gold then of iron For is it not gold which makes the servitude of idols against which the Apostle cries so loud Philippin goes to make experience who marries more to satisfie the covetous eyes of his father then for his own desires marries rather coffers and wealth then the person of a woman nor doth he go to this alliance but with one wing being there is nothing more displeasing then an affection ordained for interest and good of others Will being of a quality so free that commanded it is to put it in a swound Harsh law of that Authority which restrains And binds our dearest Liberty in chains What can we not defend our selves but must Submit to Tyrant-Duty though unjust 'T is sad yet teaches that we should obay Where Rigor and Severity bear sway So Timoleon judged it would very hard to draw such lively flames as the first by the beauty of this second makes Philippin take Elise as a sick man doth a medicine and as Laban gave Leah to Jacob without almost seeing her Not that she was unworthy to be considered not being so unpleasing but she might deserve the love of any but truly how she could be loved with the love of friendship I will not say but very hardly by that of love by a heart already enjoyed as was this of our young Courtiers He nevertheless sees her more satisfied with her vertue then amorous of her person and entertains her like a man whose affection is rather in his looks then in his heart It is a simple thing to make love by commandment in the end he enters like a fish into a net even as forced not having any will that the beginning should tie a knot of necessity which could not be broken but with the sharpness of death and with all the repentings in the world could not be dissolved during life for it is not in humane power to disjoyn those which the
redouble their torment we must not approach a smoaking torch with fire if we will not have it lighted The greatest secret the Apostle knows to prevent fornication is to flie those which love peril will perish Elise why dost not thou by thy wisdom find some invention to prevent this disaster which thou goest to gather in this funeral-voyage But when a misfortune will follow one says a grave Antient it seems his wisdom is shadowed and his judgment blinded not being able to prevent his headlong ruine Being come to Bellerive all the Gentlemen thereabouts but especially those which held of Timoleon as his vassals came to render their last obedience to the sâ—pulchre of their Lord. O dead ashes is it possible that from the midst of this coldness should come forth so many coals as to burn the heart of thy miserable successor The fair Amazon now as free as a man by the death of Valentine which was gone to God during this residence at Gold-mount being become unseparable company to her brother Harman and Pyrrhe her father came with them to the funerals of Timoleon which was her honour and the happiness of Philippin for the appear'd clothed in a mourning habit so advantagious to her natural graces that one would have said what she had done simply to honour the funeral pomp and wearing the mourning for her mother made with such art seem'd exceedingly to grace her Mourning hath the property to make the fair appear more fair and the unpleasing more deformed then they are Under these black vailâ— Isabel lanched forth looks more shining then the forerunner of thunder lightning sent from a dark black cloud And for a pittifull encounter Elise which had no beauty but in her vertues shewed with an extreme disadvantage to her natural disposition under these mourning habits withall being much affected for the loss of her father-in-law whom she honoured infinitely and loved with an incomparable affection Nothing defaces so much the beauty of the face as a true and sincere grief For to appear fair and pleasing she must have been content too and happy So that just as the bargain is half made with the second merchant when we are displeased with the first the desires of Philippin revolted against reason by this enterview of which the one rubbed with the wings of sadness hath lost her ordinary effect to draw the iron of his heart the other armed with a thousand drawing spirits raised and transported him in a moment from his true being Their looks messengers of their intentions made their hearts speak which were reduced to ashes by these sparkles framed by this unhappy collection The furious Lion roaring and watching without cease to devour us that Dragon that seduces us by these artificious idea's filling our thoughts with malicious illusions that Spirit sworn against our salvation which loses no time to indammage us covering the eyes of Philippin with double deceit made this illegitimate object appear far more pleasing then she was and on the other side made her which he should and ought justly to have loved appear hideous to him that he conceived a secret horror against her not being able to comprehend with himself how he had continued so long And truly her grief and the estate she was in which we hold will make the most fair seem unpleasant with this habit so little favorable to the mediocrity of the form of Elise contributed to this dislike of Philippin The other strangely insolent by the knowledge of her preheminences like a Peacock with her tail covering and crowning herself with pride throws shame upon other birds glorying in her victory and loaden with trophies of her new conquest retires home triumphing leaving Philipin in the most strange unquietness that can be imagined When we throw a stone into a still water it multiplies the circles infinitely This sight forms a thousand impressions in the soul of this young man till now so peaceable and quiet O Philippin 't is here thou shouldst resist this evil which fights against thee 't is here thou oughtst to take antidotes against this poison which slides through thy veins and will trouble the rest of thy bones and the health of thy flesh If thou dissemblest thy intrails will become rotten and old and the spiritual gangrene giving death grace is unavailable But unfortunate thou flatterest thy misfortunes and angrest thy ulcers with scratching Prevent these shelves and flie that fatal shore Where nought hath less of life or of death more He will do nothing his sickness pleases him better then his health he prefers a tempest before a calm and death before life the prison before liberty This Syren hath sung him asleep in so deep a lethargie as it quite transformed him although a captived will yet voluntarily he yields to this servitude and holds it his greatest happiness He foresaw many ills which threatned this change but he shuts the eyes of his judgment not to take knowledge of them What doth comport with conscience or comply With honour he disdains whose thoughts grow high By contradiction while he will gainsay That which he ought not loathing what he may Thus the huntsman always altered with a new prey leaves that which he had already taken to follow â—iercely that he hath not Here is this young Lord respected like a new star rising in the horison of this Country his Vassals come to give him homage whilst he meditates how to make himself Companion to his Vassal He appears free and yet is more a slave then when he was under the jurisdiction of his father A horse broke loose without either bit or bridle a ship without a stern a cloud full of black water of blind passion blown by the wind of covetous ills Already he receives the innocent embraces of Elise against his heart and as sick men that loath the meats which they have been greedy of during their healths so that which was here to fore his contentment is now become insuppportable His eyes armed with scorn never looked on her but to disdain her her presence is odious her prudence suspect her care and good huswifery avaritiousness her modesty a beastly defect And as all we see through a coloured glass appears of the same colour as the middest that deceives our sight even so not considering her vertues but on the contrary judging by this secret change which will shortly change into a formal hatred she appears odious to him like vice it selfs Whose Beauty mockt his dreaming soul like Lies Pourtraying Truth forth in a false disguise Already this Leah although fruitfull is nothing to the imagination of possessing a fair Rachel all the hony that he had heretofore gathered in the company of Elise changed into bitter forgetfulness Elise easily perceives this coldness but as she was good and simply discreet she threw the cause upon the death of Timoleon which she thought affected Philippin although her grief were far greater then his for that loss whose boiling
the mouth is most sharp to wounds and as there is nothing more scalding then oil when it is hot so these outrages coming from your mouth are so much more grievous by how much I have received consolation and gratification Must I be so unhappy to see the fire of my wounds come from the place from whence I expected my healing Is it possible after such a metamorphosis that you retain the name of that Elise that professed so much love to me then when it was less lawfull to love me of that Elise which I so devoutly honoured and against all these contradictions I cherish yet more then my proper life I cannot tell more how to name you nor know not what term to find expressing enough in any idiom that can set forth as it ought such an inconstancie At least Madam let me know the reason that hath caused so long time your pitty to be deaf at my prayers and after this knowledge let heaâ—en cut my life by the knife of your cruelty when it pleases him This is the smallest favour I may hope of you seeing I can draw so much from cruelty it self there is nothing more just then to make known to an offender the cause of his suffering nor any thing more unjust then to conceal it from him If a small cloud can take from our eyes the sight of the sun that is so great replied Elise it is easie with a small fault to shadow out one of a greater importance But that God that sees all and which knows the secrets of hearts and dives into the dark corners of our reins that is served with things of smaller appearance to make known the most covered and which can draw the light of the truth from midst of the thickest obscurities of falshoods will also be served with my goodness and the consideration of that love which I have heretofore born thee for to give thee means to shun a shamefull punishment and to withdraw thee quickly from this place where 't is wonder that thou causâ— have so much assurance having committed so great a fact my silence and thy retreat will be more safe then my discourse and thy stay I would to God you had not done that which I dare not tell you because I have not forehead enough to blush for the loss of thine Content your self that my honour being tiâ—d to your life not to lose the one I will conserve the other although the one is as precious to me as the other is detestable In all this there was much said yet nothing of what should have been said And what is he that would not wonder at these delays and at the length of these circumlocutions For since Passion is a labyrinth it is no marvel if it have many turnings Andronico having had some feeling of the reports which ran to his disadvantage upon the death of Philippin doubts it might be about this accusation comforts himself in the hope to see an end of this Mine that threatned a great descent after it had taken wing being founded on the truth of his innocence So that for fear to anger this woman knowing there is nothing more fierce then a Bee when it is moved which puts her life in the wound she makes and never stings that she rests not wounded to death he fains to be ignorant of the end of this her fury in saying to her That when one endures a pain deserved it is made so much the more tolerable that one believes to extinguish a sin is to suffer without desert it would be hard but more insupportable to suffer innocently and again in being ignorant of the cause of his sufferance And then kneeling down at the feet of Elise with a voice somthing higher then before or then the place where he was and the presence of Sophie although not neer seemed to permit him Madam says he I will die here or learn from your mouth what can be the cause that puts me into so fierce a disgrace nor will I ever leave you till you give me this satisfaction to let me know of what death I shall die for I take heaven to witness I find not my self guilty of any thing that may be prejudicial to you I beseech you not to give way to calumnies and reports to the prejudice of my sincerity Elise surprised to see him in this estate and before her mother did not know on what side to turn her wherefore intreating him to rise which he refused to do she says to him softly Content yourself that I cannot speak without offending mine honour and your life And that in the midst of the hatred with which I detest your vileness I reserve this spark of my antient affection for the conservation of them both to which I found my self bound not so much for any good I wish you but for the respect I owe my modesty Madam replied the unfortunate Andronico this is not to give me light but to plunge me into a new obscurity I beseech you discover these riddles and not to tell me again in other terms the same thing you have already told me for what can he fear that doubts not death but on the contrary if I lose your favour I desire it to free me of a life which will be more troublesom then it being deprived of your love All that astonishes me is your honour which you say is engaged to my conservation and in that it may be you have said better then you think For when the purity of my intentions shall be known the greatness of my affections the sincerity of my soul and how many dangers I have run to give you proof of my service and that you have recompenced me with despair that will take my life it will be hard for you to remove this stain of ingratitude which like an eternal infamy will remain on the pureness of your understanding If ever it happen not that I attempt but only think any thing that might never so little prejudice your honour for the conservation whereof I 'll spend a thousand lives I desire that the heavens never pardon me any fault May I be rais'd by fortune or cast down By fate being object of thy smile or frown Though the disastrous destinies should combine To annihilate and ruine me and mine Nought can divorce my affection or divert Th'unfain'd devotion of a faithsull heart It will be easie for me to resolve to die after being deprived of that I held dearer then life What do I say Truly it will be harder to me to resolve to live or rather to outlive such a loss yet to lose my life without knowing the cause for which I die this is that I cannot resolve on if I do not bury my self with the quality of the maddest of all humane creatures Wherefore I intreat you to permit me to press you with all sort of importunity to declare to me the ground of my condemnation otherwise I shall believe that the