to bear the victory from the bravest Cavaliers in the world should'st be overcome by a Feminine feeblenesse And for the further increase of my disgusts I see that thy Soul is that which falsifieth thy faith and tenders thee in a manner a rebel to reason for thou makest thy self the minister to thy own servitude and calamity Fly therefore such extreams of Love which transport thee to an extream unworthinesse not that I would have thee banish it wholly from thy knowledge there being no lesse peril in too much solicitude to avoid it then in too much assiduity to pursue it but that thou esteem it fear it seek it and contemne it with a generosity and liberty worthy of thy noble bloud and of thy great Soul For if Love be of it self a deceitfull affect do thou also deceive him his Laws being such that he who loveth least obtaineth the greatest recompence and who serveth most receiveth the greatest ingratitude In sum I consent that thou shalt follow Love but not make thy self his Slave and that thou despise him not but much lesse that thou trust him at any hand Consider that hope in easie things deceiveth in difficult betrayeth and that Fortune gives an unexpected issue to all humane affairs and therefore seeing it 's the cause of thy sorrow do thou also deceive it in making it the means of thy joy For I assure thee if thou wouldest follow my counsel now that I request thee thou shalt easily by this means obtain that which thou shalt certainly lose by going to my house in which neverthelesse thou art absolute master when and how thou pleasest And certainly thou hast done thy self great wrong to delay so long to contribute to thy comfort knowing that thou art more lord of my will then I am of my own house and for that cause I am obliged to serve thee in all occurrences wherein I may be usefull I shall say no more for words are fruitlesse where my thought is onely of comforting thee and not to perplex thee with talk And therefore now if you so please let us go to make a tryal of my Wit and of thy Fortune Thus said Jersus but whilest I hear'd him talk so sinisterly of Lucinda I felt my heart equally to boil with disdain and my mind to freeze with suspition and jealousie Yet with dissembling speeches he sought to make me believe that superfluity of Love would make me rave in my thoughts So I partly distrusted him partly assured my self that in regard of our ancient friendship he would observe that which he promised Seeing therefore that he had so freely offered me his house I resolved to go live there for some dayes but I soon found my self frustrated in my hopes for with all the diligence I could possibly use I could not in all the time I stayed there come so much as once to the sight of her for whose sake I had removed unto that Lodging Hereupon Belisa afflicted in my present peril by the consideration of my future pain at last investigating the cause of my malady she changed her course of life and without making me in the least privy to her design began to frequent the house of Lucinda with whom she had before upon some other account contracted friendship so that one day she being entered into discourse with her finding her in a good humour she thus spake to her I intreat thee my friend that using thy prudence thou will not blame me for that which I am about to tell thee presuming rather to merit applause then reprehension whil'st my compassion of another's misery excuseth my shame Dear Lucinda my deplorable brother Arnaldo for his great affection to thee dayly increaseth his affliction impaireth his health impoisoning even those remedies which should restore him to it Not that I have the least intimation from him of his Love having alwayes denied the true cause of his torments but yet I have been so sollicitous to sift out the truth that I have come to know that thou onely art the cause of his misery and mayest become the restorer of his life I have for this reason resolved to strain modesty to provide if I can possible for his safety and my sorrow And I professe that if I did not see his life in danger thou shouldest not have known the least hint of my trouble Moved therefore by a compassionate zeal for his conservation and to redresse my own calamity because wanting him who in the quality of an onely brother supplieth the place of my deceased Parents I should be left solitary and disconsolate I come to intreat thee that thou wouldest not at once with his life annihilate my consolation decollate our family acquiring to thy self instead of a perpetual glory an eternal infamy for thy cruelty and his death for certain I am he cannot so ill treated as he is prolong his life beyond the date of a few moneths O consider I beseech thee consider how much thou art oblig'd to him whil'st the more thou slightest him the more he loves thee and onely desireth death because thou art displeased with his life Herein while he for love of thee joyes in his torments and none know that thou art she which so much afflictest him thou art doubly ingaged to him and therefore at last relent into commiseration of his so great indurance and permit not his fidelity to perish by thy ingratiude What though thou art not pleased to receive him to the honour of thy conversation wilt not thou therefore gratify him at least with an answer to his Letter And if yet thou wilt not do it by instinct of a gratefull mind towards him yet do it dear Lucâ—nda for courtesie towards me who in so doing of a faithfull friend that I am thou shalt oblige me to become thy perpetuall slave Let it content thee that it 's now two years that I have languished under these sufferings and restore me since thou maist do it without trouble Lucinda presently replyed My dear friend and companion Thou hast no ground to fear that thou hast in any kind prejudiced thy Modesty whilst the pitty of a Brother and the confidence of a Friend absolves thee of all suspition and frees thee from all aspersion For though thou hast in part offended me with thy propositions thou hast also satisfyed me with thy honest innocence there being more cause thou shouldest grieve at thy brother's misfortunes than for any fault thou mightest commit against my person It exceedingly grieves me that I cannot give thee the satisfaction which thou desirest for although the misery of thy brother afflicts me yet I cannot apply my self to give him a remedy that being a thing would reflect upon my reputation to which I ought to have greater regard than to his health And thou art not ignorant how much the honour of a woman is diminished when to succour Lovers they forget themselves Request me not therefore to do that which thou
favour you may easily obtain pardon for the many injuries you have so often done me For this onely be not I beseech you so mortal an Enemy for if you desire I should dye I also will not much desire to live and so we may with little labour both receive satisfaction where as on the other side denying me this the memory of your cruelty and my death would be eternalliz'd I verily believe that if you would but follow for a little the impulse of reason you should see how that it 's an act unworthy of a noble and courteous Lady to torment those that offend you not unlesse you can call offence my constancy in loving you and the resolution I have taken of alwayes serving you But if you continue in the same opinion which you have formerly exprest remember a little remember Lucinda the sufferings that I undergo I am confident that if my torments were but considered by you according to what they are you would rather repent them then perpetuallize them with so much severity And really it 's a strange thing and almost incredible that you had rather be cruel to those that love you than be served by those that adore you For did you but condescend to consider the sorrow you return me in recompence of the services I tender to you I assure my self that you would plainly see how in glorious it is to insult in my ruin I conclude this my passionate discourse words being superfluous after that my presence hath presented you with so many demonstrations of my torments Look upon me onely look upon me O beautifull occasion of all my dysasters least otherwise deprived of the blessed gales of your serene looks the desperation which I have of my life provoke me to sollicit the death so much desired by ARNALDO THis Letter being written and seal'd I returned into the Hall where coming in a certain throng near to Lucinda I put it in the slieve of her upper Garment and withdrew to observe how she would entertain it But for a long time that I had watcht her I could observe nothing Whereupon I flattered my self with the hope of some prosperous successe to my attempt I was therefore so distracted with this perplexity of thoughts that I either answered nothing or else besides the purpose to those who entertained me with some discourse of the present Occurrences either of the Ball or Court And he that in that instant had toucht my breast might easily have felt the palpitations of my heart caused by desire and perplexing fear the daughters of a desperate Love The time being come at last that the Ball being ended every one retired to their own house observing that Lucinda would take leave of the Queen I waited on her disguised in an unknown Garb not onely home to her house but into her Chamber without being able to observe any thing in her that contributed so much as an atome to my hope Hence being little inclined to rest for that night I dispatcht Diffilus thither at the same time to bring me back some news of the fortune of that Paper which I had adventured in the slieve of Lucinda but he could hear nothing good or bad Whereupon my natural vigour diminishing by this fixt application and my grief encreasing continually scalding my heart in the inextinguishable flames of sighs I became wholly melancholy and solitary never desiring to see the face of the Sun more out of my Chamber Hereupon Belisa my sister moved to compassion of my misery as one who felt a great part of it her self sitting down close by me one day she weeping said Ah! my dear brother I intreat thee to acquaint me with the fatal cause of this grief which so much afflicts thee Seest thou not that thy affliction is my torment and that the love I bear thee makes me to live for thy sorrow a most unhappy life Thou hast many times confest thy self to be my debter and that thou wouldest recompence my love with a reciprocal affection But you deny me that with your actions which you confirm to me with your words You know very well that such like dissimulation ought not to have place near me make therefore my breast the depository of thy passions And to whom wilt thou commit them if thou wilt not intrust them to me Do but think that if thou desirest death I will not wish for life If thou hatest pleasure I will love sorrow If thou delightest in trouble I will be displeased with repose so that thy malady and my torment are one and the same thing to excruciate my heart If therefore you desire to ventilate your passion with whom better can you do it then with me that am never sparing in wishing your good I am sure that discharging one part of it upon me we shall together be the better able to bear it For if thou hast a desire to weep I will weep if you will comfort your self in your grief I will expedite my consolation and if you desire to conceal and nourish it we two can be better able then thou alone to hide and feed it Shew not I pray thee so little confidence in her which hath nothing in all the world that is not thine and make it believed in the end that thy dissimulation cannot falsify my judgement whilest thy tears and thy sighs thy sadnesse and thy solitude accuse me and too plainly discover that which you seek with such care to hide and conceal It 's certain death ought to be lesse powerfull then brotherly love and that therefore death it self shall be most welcom to me when by it thou shalt come to acquire a joyfull life since that I see thee arrived to that passe that thou canst not long continue alive But I had rather you would assume the spirits of your generosity and cheer up your self considering that fortune is alwayes an Enemy of the happy and favourable to the afflicted and therefore she being by nature fickle and inconstant whereas it befits the fortunate to fear I would have thee accustom thy self to hope in her vicissitude She ever causeth new actions for the tryal of our minds because her puissance is better known by the prosperous then by the calamitous Reserve not therefore thy anxious solitude to thy self alone for if greater is the evil that 's hid than the evil that is manifest thy communicating of it to me may afford thee some succour I intreat thee dear brother I intreat thee let the Key of my counsel open for thee the Door of thy comfort and health the peril that 's concealed being alwayes greater in every occurrence then that which is discovered Speak to me therefore if you love me and love that we should live together whether it be dolefully or cheerfully Here Belisa sighing held her peace I reply'd Thou hast so afflicted me dear sister with thy passion that in some measure to comfort thee I must be forced to tell thee what
Lucinda appeared accompanied with so numerous a train of servants that I esteemed it a thing almost hopelesse to get any occasion to speak to her Now while she was approaching to my seat me-thought that my heart skipping within me would have leapt out of my breast and they that at that time had observed my face would have judged me mortally wounded it was at that instant overspread with so strange a palenesse Yet in the end Lucinda was come close to me and by the singularity of my dresse and deportment believing me to be a Lady of great quality courteously saluting me she sate down close by me But what I answered to her civil Salute I cannot remember my spirits being at that time lost in consideration of the presence of her who was the sole cause of all my enthusiasms so that they were disabled to all external functions Yet recollecting by little and little my banished forces more by the benefit of the nights obscurity than by any violence I knew how to offer on my self being assisted also by the sollitude in which Lucinda remained the croud of her servants being withdrawn into several parts of the Temple I began plainly in this manner to expresse my mind Dear Lucinda if Fortune shall but grant me as much ability to expresse my torments as you have power to make me feel them I should repute my self no lesse fortunate then you be fair It will therefore concern your affability not to regard the confusion of my speeches but to consider the afflictions of my heart that compels me to pronounce them I know not courteous Madam what profit you can expect from my ruin nor what good you can extract from my evil The tearing of my Letter was truely an impetuous motion of an offended mind but the continual rending of my heart can be imputed to no lesse then an excess of cruelty If this agree to a beautifull Lady I leave you your self to judge And what excuse can you find that may stand you instead to defend the severity of your treatment towards him who loves you above his own life or rather that as to his Terrene Goddess consecrateth upon the Altar of his fidelity his heart in a perpetual Holocaust You might easily Madam openly discover in my languishing looks what be the torments occasioned no less by your beauty then by your rigour and yet the suffering them grieves me not a jot I am onely displeased that you are not pleased to accept my sufference Sweeten I implore you with the drop of some favour the bitterness of such severity for that Lady spots not the candor of her honesty which with a single syllable of courtesie favours the affects of a noble Cavalier her Adorer Other favour Madam I request not of you than verbal It sufficeth me you be still served by honouring me with the Title of your Slave and some declaration that my services are not indifferent to you blessing me now and then with a compassionate look It 's but a poor word it 's but a transient glance to one whom it may recal from death to life Thus proceeded I with a languishing voice intermingling my prayers with my tears But Lucinda I believe that indignation would not permit her before to reply when she perceived me thus run on with a trembling and discomposed voice a sign of great agitation of spirit thus interrupted me Arnaldo I answer at this time to your propositions to the end you deceive not your self in the judgement you may passe upon my intentions and lest perhaps presuming upon my silence you may not nourish some fallacious hope to your prejudice and my own dishonour I shall know of a truth that you love me if with desisting from your unadvised enterprize you will cease to trouble me It is not for me to teach you what means you should use to cure this amorous infirmity but if you be but as discreet in your desires as with your sighs you pretend to make me believe you are passionate you would be able of your self to investigate the same I use not to you that tigour which I ought because I reverence your birth but provoke me not in coming in this form for you shall draw with security little satisfaction from your boldnesse Consider therefore and remember that deceivers are wont to fall into the Nets of the deceits they intended for others This answer of Lucinda was like Oyl which powred upon my burning heart made the flame of my dolours to soment the more since the more her words diminished my hope the more they increased my desire of possessing her Thence by considering the Divine beauty of her countenance and by hearkning to the grace of her celestial discourse ravisht out of my self I retained not in me any part of life but onely Memory which attentively waited if it might be able to draw any thing of benefit from that congression But she neverthelesse having done speaking and making as if she would be gone if immediatly I did not obey her I retired most disconsolate out of the Temple and being returned to my house I shut my self into my Closet and there reasoned to my self Miserable Arnaldo What hope can be able still to flatter thy disconsolate heart to mislead thy tormented spirit Perceivest thou not O wretch that thy unbridled desire having led thee too high menaceth thee with some miserable precipice And canst thou with open eyes behold this ruin without procuring to thy self at least that assistance which reason offers thee of freeing thy self from the snares of this perfidious Love which onely to render thee unhappy is come to disturb thy peace with his importunate furies Alas Alas too vain are my thoughts and too rash my purposes It 's impossible that I can ever heal this amorous infirmity if beauty it self which bred it in my breast do not cure it But not daring to hope that what remains but that I miserably perish My disconsolate spirit wherefore stayest thou any longer in this thy miserable abode now that it is become a ruthlesse Hell of uncomfortable afflictions Unfortunate Arnaldo When thou beginnest to want strength thou beginst to augment thy torments and instead of seeking a Salve to thy evils by the constancy of a generous Cavalier thou losest thy self in the weaknesse of vulgar Lovers And how long hast thou served Lucinda that she ought to give thee her Love With the price then of a few moneths of servitude wouldest thou go about to purchase the reward of her favour The gifts of Love are not obtained with so little labour And again Ladies desire to try the fidelity of their servants with slighting them but after the Tempest of contempts follows the serenity of favours which they concede to their faithfull Lovers Love therefore thy Lucinda and since thy passions are not of a kind that do offend the Laws of the World or of Heaven hope that the World and Heaven ought to assist thee
would be a folly to immagine it For a person dead therefore which first with betraying you for another person and after with dying hath thereby confessed her self unworthy of you would you cast away your self by leading a life no better than a perpetuall death depriving your illustrious family this Kingdom and your self of the glory of your prowesse to the good of mankind Such gifts of Heaven so prodigally showred down upon your gentle person ought these I say to be so miserably abused by a vain passion to the unexpressible detriment of your renowned blood of the age and of your self Ah Sir re-assume at last reassume those generous spirits which your birth instilled into your breast and by your birth Heaven and if so miserable a losse of your high honours hath been overpast by a weak inamoured youthfulnesse let the glorious reparation of a maturer age dart out of these shaddows into the noble serenitie of brave enterprises For if in youth it s a less shame to err more glorious also will the redresse of those errors appear which would environ your temples with the crown of a most noble principality To this mutation of life and fortune the benigne Ghost of your sister counsells you and to this by the aid of Argosthenia Destiny inviteth you which for no other cause permitted that you should be deprived of Lucinda by her own Infidelity but for to open you the way which she would perpetually have shut up to you of passing from the desarts of Boeotia to the Throne of Negropont Arnaldo seemed whilst I was speaking by his deep sighs and by the admiration exprest in his face partly to approve my sayings whereupon when he saw me silent he added Friend In a short compasse you have comprised things very different and worthy of greatest consideration In that part therefore which pertains to the invalidity of my griefs for an exanimate and faithlesse beauty the cause of so many miseries to me I should easily be brought to acknowledg my simplicity occasioned by a false opinion fixed in my head by youthfull Vanity and a melancholly constitution that took root in my birth and is now almost converted into Nature by the infelicity of my tragicall adventures But of the novelties succeeded in the Principality of Negroponte of the exile and death of Periander and his sister and of the right of Argosthenia to that Crown as also of the pretension I might nourish towards her person it 's not necessary we should discourse with such confusion and haste but rather let us find out a time and place to inform our selves of necessary contingences For though we should suppose that I did propound and that Argosthenia should not reject this match yet it would be good to know if the Dutchesse would consent that a Lady who is not known so much as to be in the World should succeed her in the Principality And were we certain she would acknowledge her and consent that she succeed her yet is it a question whether she would permit her to match her self into the house of a strange Knight which may pretend by right of blood to the succession of the Kingdom of Thebes Here Arnaldo held his peace and I replied Sir He who too critically distinguisheth in grand enterprizes doth frustrate them before they be half effected It 's good therefore that prudence take place but yet it 's necessary to leave something to the arbitrament of Fortune Argosthenia already holds by birth a right to aspire after the Dutchesse to the Crown of Calcides nor can all the violence in the World deprive her of this right of nature She liveth not at present at the Dutchesse's disposall which as yet doth not know in what part of the world she is conceal'd or rather hath forgot all thoughts of her person as if she had never been born Let us say nothing to the young Lady of this secret and let us onely with the help of Olympia drive on your marriage with her for this done we shall have time enough afterwards of disclosing so grand a secret and of imparting the truth to the Dutchesse who when she shall hear that she is already espoused to a Cavalier so well accomplished will have no occasion for which to repute her unworthy of Succession to the Principality through the suspitions which their flight might beget in the minds of the people as if that for actions unworthy of her she had fled from Negropont Then as to the right of birth which you also pretend to the Crown of Thebes the interests of State will declare in your favour giving you a ground to hope one day by means of this match if not in your person in that of your descendents to unite all these Provinces under one onely Crown For although by reason the Kingdom of Thebes is far greater than the Dukdom of Negropont there might some obstacle arise from the fear of becoming of a Soveraign State a subsidinate Province there would not want opportune means to adjust such differences by assuring the Calcidonians that they should never be commanded by Theban Ministers as subjects but should be alwayes governed as a free State by persons of the Royall Family But such like considerations are at present unseasonable and it shall suffice to know that there never want evasions and pretexts for Soveraigns wherewith they may satisfie the pretensions of the people The point on which your prudence ought to insist is to rouse your self out of this unprofitable obscurity and to procure the alliance of Argosthenia before that the news from Calcides of her family do arive to her notice Leave the rest to the care of Heaven of Fortune and of your own Valour Arnaldo hearing this replyed Friend He that adviseth to any enterprize should know above all things how to investigate the means requisite to execute it If you think a Marriage with Argosthenia to be a good act in me I will confesse that she already is possest with some inclinations in favour of my person and that Olympia being my Mother's sister may promise us all good successe To you I refer my self and because we are just at the bounds of my Forest and upon the passing into that of Olympia I will return to my house and you may as Conductor of my people who cary Argosthenia her prey introduce your self into the acquaintance of that Lady That will suffice and this will serve you for a Token of security with Olympia that you treat with her by my consent about such a proposition And so saying he took a Diamond from his finger and put it upon mine I received it and taking my leave of the Knight forded the Brook with the conduct of four servants which carried to Argosthenia upon a rurall Barrow of sticks the Stagg that she had slain As soon as I had set foot upon the champain I thought that the liberty of the open air did replenish my soul with unusuall resentments of