spirit was nothing but patience as his body was nought but grief retained alwayes his affections in an equal resignation he permitted notwithstanding his tongue to complain of his miseries and to say that his members were not of brasse God himself in the cruelties of death would that his plaints should be a proof of that which he was for fear the opinion of his insensibility might take away the belief of the least of his natures Let us imitate his example in his submission as well as in his complaints our tears and our sighes shall not hinder our patience to be a vertue O how Genevieva conformed her self perfectly to this example her constancy was a marble inflexible but this marble yielded tears and witnessed by her sighes that it was not a statue that suffered she accorded all just plaints to her grief but her grief never gave any thing to impatience in a word she accused no lesse sweetly her evils then a Lute which men touch onely because her sighes are agreeable unto them One day as the Image of all her miseries represented it self to her fancy making of her eyes two fountains of tears she cast her self at the feet of her Crosse and said amourously unto it How long my God how long wilt thou suffer that virtue be so cruelly treated Is not five years of miseries sufficient to be content with my patience though I should have overthrown thy altars and burned thy temples my tears would have quenched thy choller if it were not that my sighs would kindle it the more I made my self believe that my sorrows should last no longer than my joyes and that the end of afflicting me should be that of not being able to suffer more I know well now that thou gavest me formerly delights but to make me taste my bitternesses with more displeasure and to render them more sharp by the remembrance of my prosperity Is it not time to make appear that thou art the protector of innocence as well as the revenger of crimes It is five years that I have endured a martyrdome which ceases not to be extreamly cruell for being extreamly slow nothing in the world hath comforted my grief all the creatures seem to be my engaged enemies to the end to encreas my afflictions A good discours can charm a grief but behold I have almost forgoten the use of speech in being separate from al other conversation then that of the beasts the night hides with her shadows the half of our evils sleep dares not approach mine eys fearing to drown it self there or at least to meet there inquietudes It seems that my misery is contagious so much every thing fears to approach it hunger cold nakednesse make the least part of my evils the misfortune of this little innocent is more insupportable unto me than all that Oh Lord if thou wouldst afflict the mother for some fault which to her is unknown why wouldst thou not take unto thee the protection of the child since thou knowest that he is as litle culpable of my sin as capable to bear the punishment thereof Pardon me my God if grief snatches these plaints from my mouth I have believed since I know not the cause of so many evils that I might finde the ease thereof from that mercy which rejecteth no body In pronouncing these sorrowfull words she bathed her Crucifix with the torrent of her tears which spake much more than her tongue The little Bononi mingling his tears with his mother they brake forth into groans so pittifull that the rocks were not hard enough not to be touched therewith At last the poore Genevieva continuing her regreets and embracing amourously her crosse said unto it My God alas my God what have I done unto thee that thou treatest me with so much rigour Miracle Whilest the Countesse spake she heard the image of our good Saviour which replyed to her And what my daughter what cause have you to complain You demand what crime hath brought you hither and tell me what sin hath nailed me to the crosse Are you more innocent than I or your evils are they greater than mine have been You are without crime and am I culpable You never thought of the infamy with which they have sullied your reputation am I perhaps a seducer and Magician as they reproached me You receive no censolation from the creatures is it not enough from that of the Creatour No body hath compassion of your evils who hath had any of mine The very insensible things have horror of your affliction and the Sun refused he not so much as to look upon mine Thy sonne encreases thy sorrows believest thou that my mother lessoned my torments Comfort thee my daughter and leave me the care of thy affairs think sometimes that he who hath made all the good things of the world hath suffered all the evill if thou comparest thy cup to mine thou wilt drink it with pleasure and wilt thank me for the favor that I do thee to make thee live in dolours to die in the joyes of a life laden with the merits of patience It would be a superfluous thing to tell you the confusion that this little reproach put into the spirit of our St but I think it will be profitable to tell you that this discourse gave her so much courage and resolution that all the thorns seemed unto her but roses her bitternesse but sweetnesse her torments but pleasing delights this also was the design of God to animate her unto patience and not to thrust her into despair by this reproach From this time forward Genevieva asked not but griefs from God and God gave not but sweets to Genevieva To witnesse to her that her vertue was not unknown unto him and that her Innocence was very near unto that which the first man possessed in the delights of Paradise God wholly submitted unto her the rage of the savage beasts and the liberty of the birds It was an ordinary thing from her first entrance into the Forrest that the Hind came to give suck to the child and to ly every night in the Cave with the mother and the Son to the end to warm their leie members but since this last favour the Foxes the Hares and the Wolves came to play with the little Benoni The birds strived together which should leave himself to be taken first The Cave of Genevieva was a place where the Bears had no rage nor the Stagges fear on the contrary one would have said that our holy Princesse had changed their nature through the compassion of her evils and given some sense of reason to the beasts to understand her necessities One day putting on an old garment on her son in the presence of a Wolf this beast departed presently from the den and went to choak a sheep whose skinne he brought to Genevieva as if he had had the judgement to discern what was proper to warm the body of her child The Saint received this
those vain apprehensions which love puts ordinarily into the spirit of those that love Lanfroy will tell you the good fortune of our Arms and the just reason that hinders me from seeing you above all my dear girl I conjure you to wipe off your tears and to stop your sighs which come from so far to seek me otherwise I shall not believe that you would take any part in my good fortune if you divide not the contentments sthereof with me To the end you may have some cause to be pacified I offer you the present with which it hath pleased our invincible Generall to honour my courage and the emulation I had to do well I knew not to present it to any body so dear unto me as your self if you receive it with the good will which I promise me I shall draw from thence as much satisfaction as if they should erect statues to my valour and as if all the mouths of fame were imployed but to speak of my merit this is the esteem that I desire you to have of my affection adiew my Girl and conserve me the fairest life of this age Leave we Sifroy to depart for Provence and come we to find the Countesse with Landfroy who was not long on his way before he was with her VVhen one came to tell her that there was a Gentleman arrived from her husband she was walking in the windings of a Labyrinth to loose there her sorrows or at least wise to charm the troubles thereof Lanfroy was by misfortune habited in black that day which made Genevieva to sownd assoon as he appeared but having observed by his countenance and gesture the testimonies of joy rather than the marks of sadnesse she demanded of him with a trembling voice how Sifroy did After that the Gentleman had made an humble reveence he presented his packet Madame behold the Letters that will speak it with a better grace than I Having opened them she withdrew her self a little into an Alley and read them two or three times stopping very long on every word notwithstanding her joy was not entire considering that her Palatine was absent The curiosity of a thousand demands presented it self to her spirit she called Lanfroy who by her commandment told her that his Master was at Tours upon the point to go unto Avignon to besiege the rest of the Sarazines who were retired thtiher and from thence to Narbona against Anthime who held that strong plaâ—e All this discourse pleased not much the Countesse who judged well that these sieges of Towns would detain her husband long time lastly having understood that they feared yet the coming of another King named Amorus who brought succours to his Nation she saw well that the return of Sifroy was not to be hoped till the following year which made her resolve to dispatch unto him his Gentleman some dayes after with this answer Sir if the Letter which you writ unto me gave consolation to my evils I will have no other witnes therof but he who rendered it me but if it hath caused me new apprehensions there is nothing but my love that can tell it you Surely as I desire your return beyond all things so the assurance which I have of your retardment causeth me as true griefs as your return gives me vain joyes was it not enough to conceal me the time that might make me hope without telling me that I must be miserable a full whole year and that I shall see you only when you have vanquished an Hydra that springs up again every day alas it may be that my miseries shall not go on so far and that this time shall be longer than my life VVhen the first news of that great defeat was brought unto us and that the bloud thereof was come almost to flow at the foot of our house I could not expresse unto you how many fears assailed my spirit and with how many distresses my heart was seised I heard continually my thoughts that said unto me Genevieva believest thou that death hath spared thy Palatine amongst so many thousand men as her fury hath devoured if her blindness takes from her all knowledge and leaves her not any discretion thou hast no cause to hope that she hath conserved a life which was unknown unto her That tempest is passed that storm is dissipated and you cast me into new despairs Oh that you would apprehend a little that which exposes me an hundred times a day to the hazard of being a widow consider my dear Sifroy that fortune hath no means more ordinary to make her favours appear than their little continuance her constancy not able to be assured she should be suspected of you VVhat know you if the glory of these honours which she presents you is not of the nature of those fires that shine not but to lead into precipices Oh how much better it had been that it had left your courage without recompence than to offer it new motives to destroy it self I am not ignorant of the justice of your Arms and that heaven is obliged to make them prosper if it will maintain its own quarrell but who knows not also that very often it makes us encounter our enemies to the end to break us seeking in our losses either the revenge of our sinnes or the merit of our patience I do not oppose my self obstinately against that which the will of God seeks from our obedience notwithstanding whilst that it shall not be known unto me reason will that I have care of your safety not willing to forget mine own Not to lye if your absence were more profitable to the service of God than it is dammageable to my repose I would make all my Inteests give place unto his and would not desire onely to be happy at the least disadvantage of his glory but now that France is propped with an Arm upon which all the Crowns of the earth might repose the care of their conservation can I permit you to encrease its assurance without being Accomplice of the evill which you do me If I should consent thus to mine own misfortune you have too much knowledge of your merit not to esteem me unworthy of your amity and without doubt you would accuse my iudgement if I had so little wisdome Esteem me not ignorant as to this point for I know that whole Rivers of the enemies blood are not worth one drop of yours and that it should not be desirable although it might be profitable to finish the death of all these Barbarians by the least hazard of your person This thought makes me to hope that you will guard your self from your own courage which is the most redoubtable of your enemies for fear to expose may be three persons to the same death But if you have resolved to seek all the occasions to dye attend at least till this little creature which I believe to carry in my womb be out of the danger to make thereof its
make your self wounds to heal your self I know that it is hard to suffer evil without complaining of it this also is not that I desire of you be sensible of your evils nature wils it but resent them not seeing that vertue forbids it have more regard to the good will of God which permits our afflictions than to their evil will who procure them us If nature invite you to the desire of revenge grace will remove you from it if humane reason commands it divine forbids it if impatience perswades it sweetnesse abhorres it if the example of men carries you thereunto that of God should draw you from thence We ought rather to obey the judgement in this than the will and to hear reason than to hearken to our senses I hope that the mercy of God will do us justice and that it will give all the world to understand that you are son of a mother very little guilty to be in so ill esteem and too innocent to be so unjustly afflicted Moreover my son after having laid this body in earth do that which God shall inspire you if he will that you return to your father make no difficulty thereat you have those qualities which will make you acknowledged the resemblance of your visage to his will not permit him to disclaim you if he remembers yet what he is as for me from whom you cannot expect other good but my desires and benedictions I give them you as abundantly as heaven can distribute them unto you In saying this she put her Benoni on his knees moystening his little visage with the rest of her tears Represent to your selves the pity of this spectacle the poore Genevieva attended the end of her miseries and Benoni the beginning of his dolours Death seeing them in this posture advanced himself to give the last stroke of his rage Stay cruell it is not time yet to cut off so precious a life attend to give her her death till the justice of God hath rendered her her honour What spoils canst thou hope from so miserable a creature her body hath no more flesh to nourish thy worms thou wilt gnaw her bones grief hath done that already thou pretend'st perhaps to encrease the number of thy phantosmes and of thy shadows let her live it is no more any other thing Whilst that our Countesse expected death two angels more fair than the sun entred into her Grott who filled it with odour and light Being approached to her little bed of boughs he who was tutelar of the sick said unto her in touching her Live Genevieva God will have it so then opening her dying liddes she perceived these Angels who gave her not time to be considered leaving her with health the astonishment of this miraculous cure God doth nothing which hath not its last perfection contrary unto men who travell by little and little and who drive away a disease by remedies which are sometime violent evils The great Physician of heaven gives a full and perfect health by the sole command which he gives the sicknesse to retire his medicines are without disgust and his cures without weaknesses so soon as the Angels departed from the cave of Genevieva she departed from her poore bed as strong as she was before this last sicknesse To see her rise one would have said it was a resurrection that was made and not a cure The child wept for joy to see his mother revive and Genevieva sighed with sadnesse to see her self driven back again from the port into the tempest Afflict you no more Genevieva God contents himself with your sufferings he doubts no more of a fidelity which he hath known by so long a patience Your evils are finished your crown is atchieved the fire of your glory hath been long enough buried in the bottome of the pit of calumny it is time that it break forth and make appear the fair and innocent rayes of its light It was near upon seven years that Sifroy Genevieva suffered the one in the horrours of a crime which he had not committed but through ignorance the other in the miseries which she endured not but by injustice God willing to make appear the innocence of the one the error of the other permitted that that wicked Sorceresse with whom he had seen the imaginary sinne of his wife was taken accused â—nd convicted of hainous crimes which she could not deny though they were false for the most part Being upon the point to expiate her offences by the flames and already tyed to the infamous stake of punishment she dâ—manded permission of the Justice to say some last words which was granted her After the confession of some crimes she declared that of all the evils which she had ever committed that of rendring an innocent person guilty pressed her most The Ministers of Justice laid hold of these words and commanded her to expresse her self on this last point which she did avouching that the Palatine Sifroy had put his wife to death upon a suspition which the illusions of her Magick had given him The Sorceresse dyed upon this protestation which was presently reported to the Count who was no lesse sorrowfull for this news than comforted to see that though he had lost his wife without recovery she was at last dead without reproach Who con describe the rage that seised his spirit the menaces of his choller against Golo and the sweet plaints that he made unto his wife and his son oh cruel Hangman was it not enough to ruine my House without hazarding the Honour thereof If thou hadst malice to massacre the Innocent why found'st thou not meanâ— more honest to thy cruelty if thou hadst not been as impudent as unjust in thy calumny wouldst thou not think to have done sufficient Oh that thou hast not a hundred lives to expiate the horrour of this crime perfidious traitor thou shoudst lose one of them in the flames another under the sword a third between the teeth of my dogs and all in as many kinde of deaths as thy malice hath had diverse artifices in her calumnies but you are still dead deplorable victimes thou art dead my deere Genevieva thou art dead innocent Lamb which I have as soon made to die as to live Your blood cries vengeance unto heaven against me and marks upon my front the shame of villany O shall I beg your pardon of a fault which my credulity onely hath committed And why should I not hope this favour from your mercy seeing that you are as good as innocent if an extream sin can revenge it self by an extream punishment Oh I promise you to expiate mine and to wash my hands in the barbarous blood of him who iâ— the cause thereof It would be an infinite thing to tell you all those maledictions which his choler made him pronounce against Golo yet considering that we should not cry after the Birds which we would take he made his passion to be governed
the Sun out of the cloud I see her cherished like a wife served like a Queen adored like a Saint what say you now Is God good behold if he be just All the kindred and friends of Sifroy failed not to visit him in his palace where they met with a far greater subject of joy than they hoped when they knew their good kinswoman and understood the means which God used to declare her innocence there was no body that rendered not thanks unto God for so great a benefit some saluted the mother others were alwayes glued on the cheeks of the childe nothing was forgotten of all that could encrease this rejoycing The feast dured a whole week entire the joy whereof was not troubled but with the displeasure onely to see that the Countesse could not taste either flesh or fish All that which her strength and stomack could endure was herbs and roots a little better accommodated then those she eate in her solitude Some dayes being thus passed away in pleasures and delights the Count commanded that they should draw Golo out of prison who had not been then entire if he had not reserved him to a punishment more rigorous they brought him into the chamber where the Countesse was withall this Nobility which was come to visite Sifroy It was there where all the terrors of an evill conscience seised this wicked man his artifices served him no more he could not deny a crime which had men the beasts and the fishes for witnesses The hope of a pardon seemed unto him a new sin the fear of torments tortured him already the image of death put him into transies the goodnes of Genevieva gave him a thought of his safety but the horror of his offence crossed it and represented to him that it was as little reasonable to expect mercy as he was worthy of pardon Her piety made him to hope it but his own cruelty took from him all his confidence The amity of the Count endeavoured to give boldnesse but his just indignation filled him with fear he would fain finde in his heart the assurances of pardon but his eyes his voice and all his visage spake not to him but of Gibbets and of punishments at last daring not so much as to fix his sight upon her whom he had so unworthily treated he fell down with fear and faintnesse Sifroy kindling all his countenance with choller and thundering forth fearfull threatnings after having reproached him for his infidelity condemned him to die It was here that goodness came to combat with malice prudence with artifice compassion with cruelty sweetnesse with all the resentments of nature and clemency with equity it self Genevieva not able to see a wretch without pitty indeavoured to revoake the Sentence of death speaking unto Sifroy in these tearms Sir said this good mistresse although good successes justifie not evill intentions I have notwithstanding some cause to beg of you the life of Golo for the great good which he hath procured me I confesse that all his proceedings being unjust I cannot finde his pardon but in your goodnesse but if you look upon the favors that I have derived from thence I believe that he may have recourse to another vertue than mercy I disguise not his fault to give it a fair visage Golo hath offended Genevieva he would have ravish't from her her honour with her life to whom belongs it to pursue the revenge of this crime but to her self if you say that her injuries are yours and that you enter into all her interests I answer that you should not take a lesse part in her desires and as there is nothing in the world that I desire with more passion than the life of Golo I must expect this contentment from your goodnesse as he hopes this favour from my benefits Permit that I adde to that little virtue which I have the glory to vanquish my self in the thing which is most sensible to me that is to give life unto him who used all the means he could to take mine from me but if you are fixed to the designe of punishing him I know no means more proportionable to his crime then to leave him under the hands of his own Conscience which will furnish him with a thousand executioners and a thousand punishments In a word my dear Sifroy I desire that he live and that he owe his life to these tears which I give to his misery Who would not have yeelded himself to the prayers of so fair a mouth Golo began to hope all the company expected the pardon of his crime This discourse could not contradict the expectation of the company without giving it admiration the poore malefactour was so touched therewith that he cryed out falling at the feet of Genevieva Madame it is now that I penetrate better than ever into the goodnesse of your heart and the malice of mine alas who would have dared to hope that she whom so many just reasons oblige to my ruine would desire my preservation miserable Golo it is at this instant that thou art unworthy of thy life since thou would'st have ravished that of this holy Princesse No no my good Mistris suffer me to dye ordinary regrets and displeasures cannot expiate my offence it is fit that the rigour of a shamefull death revenge its cruelty Blood is necessary where tears are unprofitable since I cannot merit my pardon permit that I suffer my punishment I have attempted your honour the violence of passion might serve me for excuse Your courage having resisted my pursuits I have slandered your innocence this sin is very black yet it may be forgotten I was not content to make your vertue to be doubted but I endeavoured to take away your life truly this crime ought not to find pardon having no pretence at all It is not that your goodnesse is not great enough to grant me this favour neverthelesse seeing that I am altogether unworthy thereof I have not the desire So my dear mistris all that I beg of you in dying is that my crime live no longer in your memory and that my blood wash away the resentment thereof in your heart As he had ended these words or to speak more properly the sobbes having interrupted them his eyes powred forth so many tears that it was to be believed he would have melted at the feet of the Princesse Golo took Genevieva for that which she was extremely sensible but if she had much pity Sifroy had no lesse zeal God who is as just as mercifull would give by this stroke an example unto men and harden the heart of the Count who believed to have need of all the goodnesse of his wife for his own pardon Behold then his condemnation confirmed they led him unto prison to attend there the execution of the Sentence Sifroy who would punish the extraordinary crimes by torments which were not common found himself troubled about the manner of his death sometimes he would revenge himself of
how happy wert thou Sifroy at the same time that thou op'nedst thy gate unto charity thou openedst thee that of glory may be that this encounter makes the knot of your predestination Whil'st that supper were making ready the Count kept company with this holy man who entertained him upon no other subject but the miseries of the world and the bitternesses which are mingled amongst it's greatest delights Though these discourses were sharpe yet they seemed unto him full of sweetnesse Supper being ready the Count made the Hermit fit at the higher end of the table although his modesty had chosen the lowest place he believed that his virtue required the chief so do all those who despise not virtue for being ill cloathed Every one having taken place according to his quality and eaten according to his appetite our Religious man took notice that Sifroy did nothing but mourn and complain without tasting one morsell of meat He believed that he nourished not himself but with sighes or at least he made shew to believe it That notwithstanding hindered him not to ask him the cause of his tears which obliged much the Count who took no pleasure but in the remembrance of his dear Genevieva After having made the recitall of his lamentable History he concluded thus Now my Father have not I cause to shed everlasting tears can any one finde it strange that so precious a losse should afflict me Sir replyed the Religious man It would be to overthrow the first law of nature to deny tears unto those to whom we ow something more Patience hinders not to complain but onely to murmur you have reason to resent your affliction but how long is it since my Lady deceased It is six moneths answered the Palatine Pardon me then if I say that your grief is too long or that your courage is too weak there is somewhat of excesse when tears reach so far Oh father that would be true if I had made a common losse but having lost in Genevieva a wife a Saint even by my fault I cannot sufficiently complain my misfortune That very thing said the Hermit should comfort you and wipe away entirely your tears Permit me if you please to discourse with your grief and to examine its justice you have lost a wife ought you alwayes to possesse her They have ravisht from you a Saint what right gives you the enjoyment thereof have you so little profited in the consideration of the worlds changes to be ignorant that man being not made to last alwayes must end once your judgment is too good to exact from death a priviledge which is impossible on every side where we cast our eys we see nothing but tombs and ashes Soveraign Princes have indeed some power upon life but none at all upon death yea her greatest pleasure is to overthrow a Thron to break a scepter and to pull down a crown to the end to render her puissance remarkable by the greatnes of those whom she hath ruined Be we born in the purple or in the spiders webs inhabit we palaces or dwell we in cottages death will finde us out every where the great may be distinguished in the condition of living but they shall never have a difference in the obligation of dying I say not but that there are many things which may make us look upon death as a good to be desired and life as the subject of all our fears I stop at the reasons which are particular to you for fear that my considerations may be too generall What cause have you to take it ill that a mortall thing should dye you find nothing here to object but that it is too soon as if you would that death should have the discretion not to displease you but when you pleased And know you not that death being born to the ruine of nature we should not expect favour from her cruelty if not to make us dye quickly for fear of languishing If this knowledge be pass'd unto your spirit whence comes it that you take it ill that a woman hath not lived beyond what she should live and that she hath lived but a little to the end not to dye longer it is not the death of a woman that afflicts you but a Saint who might acquire her self a greater crown in heaven and do many good actions in the world Are you assured that what had been well begun should finish well My Lady was loaden with merit might she not fall under the burthen her treasures of vertue were great might she not fear thieves she was firm in grace but feeble in her nature her piety was well supported but not immoveable her will was constant but it was capable of inconstancy what know you if God who hath no other thoughts but for the good of his creatures hath not taken from her the leasure to sully the glory of her former actions Believe me Sir vice and vertue follow one another like the day and the night the night may precede the day but this terminates again in the darknes I wil believe that the merit of her whom you lament could not be changed but by a great prodigy but it could not also be conserved but by a great miracle I see no cause at all to murmure against God if he takes pain to keep for you a thing which you might lose Consider now the weaknesse of your tears and I assure my self that you will resolve rather to follow her than to hope that she should come again where you are Her example in conforming it self to the will of God leaves you a straight obligation to imitate it her constancy will not that you should weep longer it is that which she her self would say unto you if you could hear her it is that which a person councells you who hath no other interest in your repose but that which charity gives him Seek it in the honest divertisements of hunting of visits and of recreations which cannot hurt you if you take them with moderation which is to be expected from a person to whom vertue ought to be as naturall as it is necessary The Palatine left not escape one sole word of this Discourse which gave him a medicine that time it self had denyed him The Table being taken away after some communication every one retired himself The next day Sifroy having demanded where the Father was the servants answered that he walked in the garden but being come thither he found him not The Count would not believe that he was gone thinking him too honest to commit an incivility and acknowledging enough not to be ungratefull When the day was pass'd and no news of him he knew not where to fix his belief that which filled his spirit with admiration was to find his habit in the chamber The profit which he drew from his good words sweetned much the sowernesse of his resentments All the contentments which were full of gall before seemed unto him afterward