your love Sir said I I am not unthankfull and vvould you bring this man to me I should acknowledge my selfe farther ingag'd so parting from him I went home where meeting vvith my Aegyptian slave I soundly bepummelled him on the face with my fist and with threatning language compelled him to confesse all that Charmides had told mee vvhich vvhen I had extorted I cast him into gaole By this time was Chaereas returned with Gorgias his servant to whom I willingly disbursed the money as a revvard due to them for their good tidings but said I heare my opinion concerning this your medicine a potion you know vvas the cause of her sicknesse wherefore in my judgement it vvere not fit that her bodie should be weakned by any more physicke but goe to mingle your ingredients here that wee may see what they are which if you doe you shall have halfe your pay beforehand You do well quoth the servant to feare the worst yet such things as I shal give her I would have you know are common and such as we usually eate for the same quantity which I shall give her I will first take my selfe so immediately hee named every ingredient and sent for them by a messenger which vvhen they were brought hee pounded and mingled before us and dividing them into two parts the one hee said hee would first take himselfe the other hee vvould give the maide which as soone as she had taken she should rest well all that night and in the morning not onely be freed from sleepe but also from her disease which he straightway did and went to sleepe having first had halfe his money which I promised him he should have before the cure and the other halfe after and left prescription how Leucippe should take the rest The evening drawing on for that was the time prescribed when Leucippe should drink her potion taking the cup in my hand thus I said O medicine which sprangest from the goddesse Tellus and wast bestowed on mankinde by Aesculapius may thy vertue bee greater than the large promises of this Physician be propitious and expell from her stomacke this salvage and barbarous poison that I may againe enjoy my Leucippe Having with these words compacted as it were with the physicke for her recovery and kissing the cup againe and againe I administred it which she had no sooner received but as the Physician had before told us shee fell asleepe then taking my place by her I askt her these questions as if she had beene awake Wilt thou againe recover thy lost senses wilt thou any more acknowledge me shall I hear the melodious harmony of thy voice tell me prophesie in thy dreame for so thou didst yesterday when thou exclaimd'st against Gorgias tell me I say for now thou canst best seeing thy dreames savour of wisedome thy words and actions of folly and madnesse While I thus spake the long-lookt for day appeared and Leucippe awakened and called me by name whereat I starting from my seat ranne nearer to her and askt her how she did but she not knowing it seemes what had past stood a great while wondering how shee came bound by this perceiving her to bee fully recovered I speedily loosed her bonds and related to her the whole story of her madnesse which when she heard she blusht thinking her selfe still to be mad but I cheering her up bid her be of good comfort and discharged the expense of her sicknesse for those moneyes which wee had tooke with us to fray the charges of our journey Satyrus had kept safe in the midst of our shipwracke nor did Menelaus or I after that take any thing from the theeves The shepheards whom you heard even now had got the victory were not long after by fresh supply of souldiers sent from the chiefe Citie utterly overthrowne and their Cities ransackt whereby wee being freed from the feare of robbing set forward once more for Alexandria taking Chereas along with us whom for his extraordinary love wee kindly intreated admitted into our familiarity he was by profession a fisherman of the Iland Phares who in the sea fight against the shepheards for his skill in Navigation served as a souldier and that ended was dismist So as before I told you the coasts being clear and the feare of robbing which for a long time had staved us off from our intended voyage being past we stroke saile Then the noise of the Mariners the singing of the passengers the pleasantnesse of the river whose streams more smooth than the Marble seeming as it were keepe holyday gave us no small delight at that time desiring to know the sweetnesse of the river Nilus I dranke some of the water not mixing any wine with it least it should be an hindrance to mee in descrying the nature or discerning the taste so I fil'd a Christall glasse with the water which seem'd to mee more cleare than the glasse to the taste it was cold yet sweet and pleasant withall so that the Aegyptians having store of this water feele no want of wine nor doe they drinke it in cups as we doe but in the hollow of their hands for the mariners lying along fill their hands with it and cast it into their mouth which they were so expert at that they spild not a drop One thing I saw about the river worth the taking notice of a creature farre fiercer than the horse of Nilus the name of it is a Crocodile in shape it resembles both a fish and a foure-footed beast he is of a great length but his breadth is no way proportionable to it his skinne is rough with scales his backe of a darke colour like a rocke his breast white his foure legges bend outward as the legges of a land Tortoise his taile is thicke and long not much unlike the rest of his body which being part of his backe bone as it were is hard set with a row of teeth on the top like a saw this in taking his prey he useth as a whip or scourge striking such beasts as hee would devoure and at one blow making many wounds his necke is immediately joyned to his shoulders that you can perceive no space betwixt them Nature having conceal'd it the rest of his body is of a horrible shape especially when he opens his jawes for you would thinke him then all mouth and when he gapes not he lookes as if he were all head when he feeds he moves only the upper jaw which is observable in no other creature his teeth are many set like the teeth of a comb which they that have numbred have found to be so many as there be daies in the yeare how vast and strong hee is if you saw him on the land for he is of those kinde of beasts which we cal Amphibia you would think almost incredible The end of the fourth Booke THE FIFTH BOOKE The Argument Chereas being admitted to the familiarity of Clitophon sets Pirats to steal away Leucippe
hands all this I will confesse it is granted that he bought her Melite released her is there any thing else you would aske him surely no why then Sosthenes is dismist But now let mee turne my speech to Melite and Clitophon What have you done with my servant you stole from me for she was mine and no mans else this Thersander craftily put in by the way that if Leucippe were yet alive shee should still continue in his service he added this moreover Clitophon saith he kild the maid Melite denies it but her the maids testimonies confute for if it appeare as it doth already that Melite gave them the charge of her and they never restored her what must be become of her why she was sent out sent out to whom that they tell you not is it not therefore palpably manifest that she was delivered into some mans hand to be slaine which it is likely was concealed from the maids lest many being privy to it there would incurre a greater danger of having it divulged for they left her among a company of theeves where it is very probable they durst not stay to see what would become of her Againe he tels you a flim flam tale of a fellow prisoner of his who should make mention of this murder but who should this bee which should tell him all and the Iudges never a word had he not denyed that he knew him he might perhaps have beene bidden to produce him and have beene caught in a lye How long will your grave and judicious eares suffer themselves to be abused with such trifles and gewgawes as these are can you thinke that a man should accuse himselfe were he not guilty and did not the gods by speciall providence compell him to it Here when Thersander had made an end of speaking and had taken his oath that hee knew not what was become of Sosthenes it seemed good therefore to the chiefe of the Iudges hee was of the bloud royall and sate still in capitall causes concerning life and death though hee had some other of the elders of the Citie which did assist him in the administration of justice and with whom he frequently consulted it seemed good to him I say after he had imparted the matter to his colleagues that I should suffer death according to the law which had provided that in case a man did accuse himselfe of murder without any other evidences he should straightway bee put to death some other punishment they intended for Melite after they had examined her and for Thersander they injoyned that the oath hee had taken concerning Sosthenes should be registred but for mee it was decreed that I should bee wrackt to confesse whether Melite were guilty of the murder or no so my cloathes being taken off I was mounted upon an engine where I hung while some brought whips some fire another a wheele Clinias all this while stood by weeping when suddenly the Priest of Diana was seene to come into the market place crowned with a laurell which is a signe alwayes that there are some strangers come from forraigne parts to doe sacrifice to the goddesse Diana this accident if it happen while any malefactor is about to be punished causes his execution to bee deferr'd till the sacrifice is ended therefore at that time I escaped Now who doe you thinke was chiefe author of these solemnities but Sostratus Leucippes father for when the Byzantians by the helpe of Diana had got the victory over the Thracians with whom they waged warre they thought fit by way of gratitude to the goddesse for her assistance to offer her some great sacrifice besides Diana her selfe had privately appeared to Sostratus in a dreame foretelling him that hee should at Ephesus finde his daughter and his nephew At the same time Leucippe perceiving the doores open where shee was and fearing lest Sosthenes whom she saw goe forth should stand before the doore shee was fearfull to steale away at last seeing he came not in againe shee tooke heart of grace for recounting with her selfe how many times before and how unexpectedly she had been freed out of greater dangers and when she was almost past all hope she decreed to take hold of this faire opportunity fortune offered her for the temple of Diana being not farre distant from the place where shee then was out she went and thither betooke her selfe This Temple heretofore durst no woman who was free borne enter but to men and maidens it was alway open yet was it lawfull for such women servants as were accused by their masters for any crime to flie thither as to an Asylum or place of refuge then did the Iudges give sentence betweene the servant and her maner for if it did appeare that the master had not wrong'd her hee vvas injoyned by them to receive her againe into his service and solemnly to sweare that hee vvould never any more so much as thinke of her running avvay but if the maids complaint vvere just then shee should continue there ever after and attend the altar of the goddesse While Sostratus vvas leading the Priest who had commanded the Court should breake up towards the temple Leucippe entred in and mist but a litle of meeting her father When the assembly was broke up and that I was set free a great multitude throng'd about mee some of them pitied my case others prayed for me others asked me questions amongst whom Sostratus standing as soone as he saw me knew me for as I told you at the beginning of my story hee was sometime at Tyre when the festivals of Hercules were celebrated and there stayed a great while before our flight by reason whereof hee might easily know mee especially being told in a vision that hee should finde us both here So comming nearer to mee hee said Here truly is Clitophon but where is my Leucippe Then I knowing him cast my eyes on the ground while those that stood about mee told him all that I had accused my selfe of which he hearing sighed deeply and smiting himself on the head flew in my face and almost digged my eyes out meane time I was so farre from resisting him that I held my face to him while hee strucke mee But Clinias stepping forth held his hand and asked him what he meant so violently to fall upon one who loved Leucippe far dearer then he did himself and profered to dye because shee was supposed to bee dead Many other arguments he added also to appease his fury But hee calling often on Diana began thus to complaine Didst thou O goddesse bid me come hither for this end were these thy predictions I did beleeve thy dreames till now to bee true and was confident that I should have found my daughter here and see in stead of her I finde her murderer Clinias hearing him make mention of a dream was not a little glad and wisht Sostratus to be of good cheare telling him that the goddesse would not falsifie her word
bee said of those that are beautifull in whose embracements there is an indifferencie of infelicitie for beauty doth a little qualifie the calamitie it being the onely good amongst so much evill But if as you say she bee ill-favoured the misery is farre greater and no man able to endure it especially a proper man and in the spring of his youth as you are By all the gods Caricles make not a slave of thy selfe nor suffer the flower of thy age to bee cropt before its time doe not as thou lovest mee spoile thy selfe by letting so fresh a rose bee pluckt by the hand of so rude a husbandman Then Caricles answered This hath beene as much my care as the gods who I thanke them have given me respite to bethinke my selfe so at my leasure I will consider better on it but now I must to the horse-race for as yet I have not tryed the horse which thou gavest me this bodily exercise may perhaps somewhat asswage the griefe of my minde so he departed and run his first and his last race Now I proceed to tell thee Clinias how my affaires stand with me how I fell in love the satiety I had in seeing Leucippe the hearty meale I made on her beauty and now me thinks I speak I know not what my griefe having distracted me for love hath poured all his fury on me not allotting me so much time as to sleepe Leucippe is still in my minde still in my sight nor is there any hope of release since the cause of my griefe lives at home with me Sure saith Clinias these are the words of a madman could you desire a fairer opportunity for your love seeing you need not stirre out of doores nor use a spokesman for you to your mistresse Fortune hath not onely bestowed her on thee but hath put her in the same house with thee other lovers count it a great happinesse but to see her whom they affect and getting but an houres conference they thinke they have attained the full height of that happinesse but thou seest her talkest with her art ever in her company dinest and suppest with her yet complainest wherein thou arguest thy selfe guiltie of the greatest offence that can bee committed against Love to wit ingratitude for doest thou not know that beauty is far more pleasant to the eye than the hand to the sight than the touch For while the eyes look mutually each on other they receive the images of our bodies like looking-glasses whence those sparkes of beauty being sent and conveyed into our soules through our eyes they are united though our bodies be separate which conjunction is farre more sweet than that of the body The event as I guesse will be very successefull for the eyes being as it were loves factors your living with her will be of much consequence company and society being so prevalent that the very bruit beasts being among men a while wax tame and shall not a woman Againe you have another advantage in as much as you are both of one age But you must commend her above measure for every maid would faine be accounted faire and is never gladder than when shee is wooed and will still be praising her sweet heart as the witnesse of her beauty and if there bee any with whom no man was ever in love shee scarce beleeves that she is handsome though perhaps shee bee Therefore I counsell you to make it your chiefest care to possesse her so farre forth with your minde that she may perceive you love her and you shall see that not long after shee will follow your example and love you again But by what meanes may I effect that which you tell me you have given me a remedy but I would desire you that you would prescribe me how I shall apply it for you have been a scholler in Loves schoole longer than my selfe What shall I doe or what shall I say You need not saith Clinias learne of others for in this case every man is his owne master children are not taught to sucke for by naturall instinct they know there is milke provided for them in the dugge so young men being first pregnant with love need not the helpe of a midwife to bring them to bed Though thy torment grow greater by delay yet feare not thou shalt have a happie deliverie onely take some generall notions of such things as are common and need not the opportunitie of time to further them which are in briefe these First be sure you talke not obscenely to her but dispatch your loves with silence for women though they be most lascivious and wanton yet in this they are modest detesting to heare that spoken which they make no bones of doing accounting the words more filthie than the deed Those that have made shipwrack of their virginitie will suffer you to talke more freely and perhaps will in plaine termes reveale their minde but maidens have other preludiums to their loves a nod or a becke Therefore if you talk wantonly to her she will blush and be much offended esteeming it a great injurie to her honour and though she may entirely love you yet shame not suffering her to give consent you may quite take off the edge of her affection Next if you have tried any other means and thereby have displeased her so that shee chide you make no reply but by little and little draw neare and get a kisse from her For a kisse to a willing minde is a silent petition to an unwilling a prayer Againe if you see her resisting yet doe not you give off for in this matter much circumspection is requisite yet be sure if you see her obstinate use no violence being that shee is never past all perswasions how backward ere she may seeme Lastly if nothing will prevaile dissemble with her and I doubt not but thou mayest bring to passe thy intended purpose Then I replyed thou hast furthered me much O Clinias in my love but I feare this happinesse will turne to my mischiefe and more enflame me which if it do what course shall I take I cannot marrie her for my father hath betrothed me to another and shee none of the unhandsomest but I at this time can no more judge of her beauty than a blinde man nor can I see ought any where but Leucippe by reason whereof I am distracted betwixt love to Leucippe and obedience to my father how shall I decide this controversie seeing necessitie fights against nature I would give sentence on my fathers side but I have so potent an adversarie I cannot hee threatens to torment me pleading his cause with arrowes and torches in his hand I will obey him father for I am encompassed with flames of fire thus did I reason about the god Love when suddenly one of Caricles familiar friends came in in whose countenance you might reade some ill message whom as soone as Clinias saw he said certainly some ill is befalne my friend Caricles
part we saw two rare pieces of Evanthus the painters drawing whose picture also hung there in the one wherof was Prometheus bound in the other Andromeda which was the reason I thinke the painter had joined them together though in other parts and circumstances there was much analogy betwixt them both of them had a rocke for their prison both were manacled each had his executioner at hand and each had a Grecian champion to deliver them the one Perseus and the other Hercules the one whereof shot at the Eagle Iupiters bird on the ground the other at the whale Neptunes fish in the aire the rocke was hollowed no more than to containe the virgin and so curiously done that it seem'd not to bee artificiall but naturall for the painter had made it cragged and uneaven as the earth uses to produce it in it sate the virgin of so comely an aspect that would you onely looke on her beauty the very picture were worthy your admiration but if on the chains wherwith she was boūd and the whale ready to devoure her you would count it an object scarce worth your sight as representing you a rude and disorderly sepulchre She was faire and yet pale withall her beauty being plac'd chiefly in her eye her palenesse in her cheeke which was not yet quite destitute of the red tincture wherewith before it had beene dyed nor did her eyes so sparkle but that you might discover in them as in violets lately gathered a kinde of languishing and drooping to expresse in her a modest feare of what shee was to suffer her hands which being bound to the rocke were stretched out the prominent veines whereof making them to incline to a purple blew colour seemed to hang on her armes like grapes on a vine thus was the face of her exprest which every minute expected death shee was attired like a bride as being about to bee married to Pluto in a garment downe to her heeles white as snow and for the subtilty of the weaving like the spiders cobweb not made of the sheepes fleece but such feathers as the Indian women kembe off the trees Over against her appeared the whale with his head onely above water yet the shadow of his shoulders the ranks of his scales the bending of his backe and the wreathing of his tail might be discerned throgh the water his nose was wrinkled like a snarling dogges and his mouth being wide open reached to his shoulders betwixt the virgin and this ugly beast came Perseus flying downe from heaven naked onely a scarfe over his shoulders on his feet he had winged shooes and a hat on his head like a helmet in his left hand he held the Gorgons head which served him for a buckler it looked most grimly with a gastly countenance shaking its haire and wreathing the serpents up and down so that the very picture were enough to have affrighted you in his right hand he had a certaine kinde of weapon which was made in the manner of a sword and a sickle from the hilt to the middle it was like a sword then it was divided and one part was crooked toward the point the other straight so that at the same blow hee would wound and draw to him thus was the story of Andromeda set forth Prometheus was tied to a rock with iron chains by him stood Hercules with his bow and arrows in his hand the Eagle preyed on Prometheus breast still opening it wider and wider digging in further with his beake to finde out more of his liver a great part whereof the painter had made appeare through the wound upon one thigh stood the Eagle whilst he shrinking up his side and lifting it up gave her talons the more hold his other thigh was stretcht out wherein you might discerne each sinew and veine nor were these all the postures that might expresse the greatnesse of his torture for he frowned bit his lips gnasht with his teeth all which were so lively done that the very picture would have moved you to compassion While he was in this distresse Hercules was ready with his bow and arrow who with all his might drew the string to his right dugge and shot at the Eagle which he did so speedily that at the same instant hee drewe his arrow to the head and discharg'd it at the marke Prometheus himselfe full of feare and hope cast his eyes one while on his wound and another while on Hercules on whom they would still have dwelt had not his torment violently snatcht them away to the contemplation of it also Now when we had stayed here a pretty while and had refresht our selves after the misery wee had suffered by shipwracke we hired an Aegyptian pinnace for we had some money left and sailing on the river Nilus steering our course toward Alexandria intending there to live hoping also to finde some of our friends whom happely wee supposed the violence of the tempest might have cast on those shores but when we came to a certaine towne wee heard a great noise at which the mariners crying out The shepheards are upon us and making as if they would goe back the bankes were filled presently with a company of rude and salvage fellows very tall not quite so blacke as the Indians nor tawny as the Aegyptians but betwixt both they were bareheaded their feete were very little their bodies great their language barbarous where our Pilot affirming that we were all dead men stayed our ship for it had beene to no purpose to have gone forward the river being so narrow So immediately there came foure of them aboard our ship who carried away all the goods and moneyes that were in it and went their wayes leaving us bound in the custody of some other of their companions that the next day we might be brought before their King for so they stile the master of the theeves Now he dwelt two dayes journey from that place as we understood by some others who were taken captives vvith us in the meane time the night drew on and our keepers were asleep by reason vvhereof I had a good opportunity to bevvaile Leucippe's calamity wherefore considering my selfe to be the chiefe cause I sighed deeply and not daring to utter my griefes aloud spake softly thus You gods if there be any in this place is our offence so great that in so short a time you should afflict us thus you have given us over into the hands of Aegyptian robbers vvhose heartes are so obdurate that we may utterly despaire of finding any mercy from them how many be there vvho have pacified the mercilesse fury of their inraged enemy vvith their prayers For the tongue pleading for the griefe of the minde is a strong motive to divert the fury of the adversary but alas vvhat prayers shall vve poure forth vvhat vows shall vve make though our speeches vvere sweeter than the Syrens or the musick of our tongues more harmonious than that of the spheres
it vvere so far from prevailing that it vvould not be understood by these parricides I must begge for mercy by a nod or some other gesture of my body oh misery beyond compare but for mine ovvne misfortunes though they be greater than can bee imagined I grieve not so much as for thine my deare Leucippe vvith vvhat mouth shall I complaine vvith vvhat eies shal I vveep seeing thou hast proved so constant and so kind to me thy most unhappy lover See what stately preparation here is for thy marriage to wit a dungeon for thy bride-chamber the earth for coastly bedding for thy chaines and bracelets ropes and cords in stead of a bride-boy see thy jailour lies by thee Wee were much to blame to thanke thee O sea seeing they whom thou swallowed'st up are in better case than wee which thou sparedst thus to save us what is it but more cruelly to slay us envying as it were that we should fall by the hand of any but these theeves This I uttered veru softly but for teares the fountaine whereof in greater griefes is dryed up I shed none For in lesser evils they flow apace whiles begging favour though they prevaile not yet doe lessen the griefe as an ulcer when it is broken brings ease to the patient but in greater ils they flie backe and forsake the eyes being stifled with sorrow and compelled to returne with it to the inmost and retiredst corners of the heart Afterwards turning my self to Leucippe who all this while spake not a word I said Why art thou so silent my Leucippe Shee answered that it fared with her as it useth to doe with those that are sick unto death who immediatly before their departure usually are speechlesse While wee talked the day drew on when suddenly there came in a strange fellow with long blacke lockes riding upon an horse with shagg'd hair without either bridle or saddle for so your thieves ride hee as it seemeth was sent from their King who told us if there were ever a Virgin taken captive shee should bee brought to him to bee made an expiatory sacrifice for their whole army then the keepers cast their eyes on Leucippe but shee taking mee about the middle and holding fast by mee fell a weeping and crying out whllst some of them drew her away others beat me so by violence they carried her thence and some two houres afterwards they led us away but by that time wee had gone half a mile or there about on our way we heard a great shouting also the noise of trumpets and immediatly wee descryed an army of Souldiers comming towards us which as soone as the thieves saw they put us in the midst of their company least we should runne away and provided to fight with them Not long after there stepped me out fifty men armed cap a pe some with targets which covered their whole bodies others with shorter the thieves which were more then the souldiers fell a flinging clods of earth at them which in Egypt are so hardned with the sunne that they are as good as any weapon for the unevener parts thereof being prominent make not onely a wound but cause a swelling about it but the souldiers warding off their blowes with their targets cared not for them but as soone as they saw them wearie with flinging opened their army so those which vvere but sleightly armed rusht out and threvv darts at them aftervvards they joyned battell and to fighting they vvent blovves and vvounds there vvere given and taken on each sides but the souldiers vvere too hard for the theeves vvho though they vvere not so many in number yet vvere better experienc't in the vvarres Meane time vvee that vvere captives perceiving the thieves to bee put to the vvorst gathered our selves together in a troupe and broke their rancks and ran over to the enemies side vvho not knovving vvhat vve vvere vvould have killed us but seeing vvee vvere bound and therby guessing hovv the case stood vvith us admitted us into their army and plac't us in the reere that so wee might bee free from all danger In the meane time the horse-men came upon the theeves and slew the greatest part of them some of them lay dead upon the ground others halfe dead fought as well as they could the rest were taken prisoners Toward evening the Captaine of these souldiers whose name was Charmides examined every particular man what he was and how hee fell into the hands of these theeves to whom every one laid open his case and I mine when he had throughly sifted us hee commanded us to follow him promising also that wee should have weapons given us for he had determined as soone as his munition and more men came whom he expected every houre to set upon the greatest receptacle of these theeves wherein as it was reported was above ten thousand men Now I having formerly had some skill in riding desired a horse might be given me which as soone as I had I praunced about the rankes of souldiers and shewed Charmides my horsemanship which he highly commended injoyning me for that night to be his guest While we were at supper hee desir'd me more particularly to relate what had happned to me which when he heard he much commiserated my case For so it happens oft time that hee which heares of anothers misery doth almost suffer with him now this compassion begets a good will towards him whom hee pitties which good will is many times vented in a reall expression of some extraordinary favour Thus it fared with mee for I wrought so much upon Charmides with my story that hee did not onely weepe at the relation but gave me an Aegyptian servant to wait upon me The day after he provided to go forth to battaile and assayed to stoppe up the trench which was between us and the enemy for on the other side he had discovered a great number of theeves up in armes these theeves had built an altar of clay and digged a sepulchre two of them led a virgin bound toward the altar whom because they were in armour I knew not but the virgin I discerned to bee Leucippe they poured oyle on her head and omitted not any ceremony while an Aegyptian Priest sung an hymne for so I ghest by his making of faces and wry mouthes immediately a watch-word was given and each man stood a pretty distance from the altar then one of those which led her made her fast to a stake like Marsyas whom the potters frame in clay bound to a tree who stabbing her in the breast ript her downewards till hee came to the paunch so that her entrailes started out which they snatching up speedily threw upon the altar and when they had boiled them cut them in peeces and eate them up dividing to each man a share When the souldiers and Captaine saw this they could not chuse but cry out at the horridnesse of the fact but I was amazed and astonisht at it for
Pirates and sold to Sosthenes I deny not for every tittle of what he said ere he came to tell how he was consenting to Leucippes death I can safely justifie also that it is reported she is dead but how or by what meanes whether she be slaine or againe stole away by pirates or whether shee bee yet alive it is uncertaine but that Sosthenes was in love with her and not obtaining his will on her did most severely use her will appeare by witnesse now Clitophon supposing he hath lost her utterly is willing to dye and therefore feignes himselfe her murderer for by his owne confession the sole cause which hath moved him to accuse himselfe is the grief he conceives for her departure Consider with your selves againe and againe I beseech you whether it bee probable in any likelihood or reason that a man should desire to dye with one which hee hath killed or that any one should bee so lovingly malicious as to take pitty on the party hee hath slaine such hatred is not so soone appeased By all the gods beleeve not what he saith and adjudge not one to execution who should rather be an object of your pity than your justice if it be so that he hired one to doe the murder let him produce the party or shew the dead body but if he can doe neither why should you judge this to be murder I loved Melite saith he and therefore I slew Leucippe but then I would faine know why hee should call her name in question whom he so much loved why hee should dye for Leucippes sake whom he caused to be slaine what doe you thinke any man so senslesse that he would love whom he hates and hate whom he loves should one not rather thinke that a loving man would deny the fault though he were convicted that he might save her life whom he loves lest the griefe for her death might cost him his life it were worth the examination also why he should accuse Melite if shee bee not guilty But I beseech you againe and againe that you construe not my speech as tending to the disgracing of this woman but rather to the opening of the cause Melite was in love with this young man and before her husband who had beene long at sea returned there was talke that they should have beene married but this young man was so farre from consenting to her unchaste love that he would by no meanes bee inticed to marry her besides having found his sweet-heart with Sosthenes whom he supposed to have beene dead hee began more and more to sleight Melite who seeing the maid but not knowing her to be Clitophons sweet heart tooke pitty on her loosed the chaines wherewith Sosthenes had bound her and because she saw her lookes to be ingenuous and speak her free-born courteously entertained her and afterwards sent her to her Country house to oversee some gardens she had there since which time shee was never seene That what I now speake is truth not only Melite but the two maids which were sent along to accompany her can testifie and that which makes the poore young man so desperate is he suspects that Melite hath caused Leucippe to be slaine which suspicion of his hath beene much augmented and hath incensed him not onely against Melite but himselfe by this occasion There was a fellow-prisoner of his yesterday who bemoning himselfe and his fortunes told him that as he travailed on the way he chanced to fal in company with a cutter who had beene hired to kill a maid shee that hired him was Melite shee that he slew was Leucippe which story how true it is is not yet knowne it were good you would search it out it is a matter of no great difficulty to finde out especially having this prisoner in your gaole who saith he was in company with this murderer whom in my judgement it were very fit you examine Sosthenes also may be summoned to appeare and those maids may bee brought into the Court of him you may enquire how hee came by Leucippe of these how she came to be made away before all these witnesses are throughly examined it is neither just nor right that you put him to death upon no other grounds than his madde speeches for griefe hath quite distracted the man and bereft him of his senses So Melite caused the maids to be brought and desired that Thersander might produce Sosthenes whom Melite thought the likelier of the two to kill Leucippe for those who pleaded Melite's cause put in that condition But Thersander fearing least all should come to light sent one of his servants privately to Sosthenes that he should with what speed he could get him out of the way before those who were sent out to apprehend him should come thither The servant rides to him tels him the danger and withall that he was likely to be strictly examined if he suffered himself to be taken Sosthenes was then by chance with Leucippe seeking by his smooth and flattering speeches to ease her afflicted minde Wherefore after much knocking and calling out hee came at last where understanding how the businesse went full of fear and supposing the apparitors to bee at his heels already hee tooke horse and went straightway to Smyrna the messenger returned to Thersander But ere I goe further let mee tell you that the proverb is true FEARE is the mother of forgetfulnesse For when Sosthenes was in this fright hee forgot his businesse in hand and did not so much as thinke upon shutting the doore where Leucippe was kept for your slavish natures when they are in the least dangers are most timorous After this Thersander omitting the first condition mentioned by Melites advocates began to plead on this manner This young fellow whosoever hee bee hath plaid the lawyer wisely But I wonder much at your stupidity who seeing the murderer manifestly deprehended in the fact though his owne confession bee a farre greater evidence against him keep him in ward so long and send him not to execution but sit listning to this dissembling jugling fellow who hath as good a facultie in lying as in weeping whom I begin to suspect to have had a hand in the murder himselfe but I am unwise to make so many words seeing the case is so cleare what I feare is this I shrowdly suspect that hee hath done another murder since this for that Sosthenes whom they so call for hath not beene seene in my house this three dayes it is not unlikely that they have plotted to make him away too because at my first comming home he told me of my wifes loose behaviour therefore my adversaries knowing I cannot produce him have cunningly put in this condition well I would Sosthenes were alive that I might bring him as a witnesse but goe to let us now suppose Sosthenes to bee here all that you can aske him is this whether hee bought the maid and whether Melite tooke her out of his