and hinder your progess to the Court whose Glories are too large and ample for Report to build on The noble Youths wond'ring to hear so much of Virtue with Joy prepare to attend on the noble Thersander when Fate to shew her power unhappily crost the expectation of the brave Strangers by a very unlucky accident to discover how much the Resolves of the best of Mankind truckle and submit to the mysterious Commands of invisible Destiny For Aphron that was lately recovered of his Wounds met with a more dangerous and fatal Relapse as soon as the blushing Aurora usher'd in the Morn which he with painful expectation waited for complain'd of a shivering Benumb'dness in all his Limbs his Reason long opprest and haunted with his Sufferings disserted her feeble Mansion in whose Room it entertains only the wild Chimaera's of a sickly Fancy But the Paroxysms of that sharp Calenture being somewhat abated his Spirits retreated to a sweet slumber which Horatio perceiving takes a short Noon-tide Walk to divert his troubled Mind and contemplate the pleasing variety of Nature Who to this end seated himself in the obscure shady Recesses of an aged Oak near which two Virgins bright as the Morn and fresh as the Spring-glories of the flowery Meadows had retired to cool their wearied Bodies and preserve their blooming Beauties from the ravishing Beams of the scorching Sun the pleasing Airs of their well-tun'd Songs charm'd Horatio into a sweet sleep while Fate soon contriv'd by an unlucky Accident to unravel all their mirth by turning the sweet Harmony of their Voices into doleful Shriecks and a dismal Separation For by chance some of the young Lords willing to partake of the pleasures of the morning had remov'd themselves some few miles from the Court and to avoid the heat of the too prevalent Sun betook themselves to the cool protection of a Wood in which Retreat the proud Almanzor Captain of the Princesses Guard wandring too great a distance from the rest happen'd to enter the same Grove where the two unhappy Virgins were retir'd whom as soon as he espied he directs his steps towards 'em with so eager a pace that it justly gave them cause of flight a startling Fury in his face betray'd the unruly Passion that was hid within he seizes Floridella and with impious Rhetorick and hot smothering Kisses strives to assault the guarded Castle of her Virtue in vain she us'd her weak Force and her Prayers and Tears were as little prevalent as that now he summons up all the choice of Eloquence anon he thinks Threatnings the only way to make her surrender Base and Unworthy Whore quoth the lustful Ravisher that out of hate to Virtue deniest me that which thou freely grant'st to every dull rude Swain think not that these false and hypocritical Tears shall deprive me of a Pleasure which the opportunity both of Time and Place tells me I am Master of whilst I offer to stoop thus low as to make thee Mother of a Son that might deservedly be the Glory of thy Family nor art thou thy self ignorant that there is so great a disproportion between us as between Men and Gods Trembling Floridella's Fears gave her just Strength enough to answer him The Powers above the Guardians of Virgin-Innocence that with all-seeing eyes look into the inmost Receptacles of our Thoughts know you wrong me Never the least extravagant Thought or unlawful Desire found entertainment in my spotless Breast I know the difference of our Births but the poor name of Chastity exceeds all the splendid Titles of a glorious Whore who turns the sweet Paradise of her Beauty into a thorny Wilderness or a loathsome Dunghil Think Oh think when Time shall be no more at the last dismal Day if our sacred Laws are more than Fables the loss of Honour will be the loss of my Heaven which if preserv'd our spotless Souls converse with Angels and our Bodies become Temples fit for none but Deities to inhabit But neither Prayers nor Tears could divert his unruly Passion all strength of Oratory was in vain and the poor breathless Nymph was brought to so low an Ebb even almost beneath the power of Resistance had not a young Swain nam'd Menalcas whom the force of Love did often cause to frequent these Groves brought her a timely and unexpected Aid he neither disputes with fear nor policy but with his Sword endeavours the Rescue of the unhappy Virgin till the fatal hand of the proud Almanzor made him fall a Sacrifice to her Chastity Now her Prayers and Shrieks fill all the ambient Air at which Horatio whom Floridella's voice had before charm'd into a sweet slumber startled and directed by the sound hasted to discover what the Uncouthness of the noise might be where when he came he saw poor Menalcas wallowing in his own Blood and trembling Floridella bath'd in her own tears ready to sacrifice her Life with her Virginity Almanzor presently assails the noble Stranger whom true Valour and the Justice of his Cause oblig'd to retaliate here equal Valour bred in both a doubtful hope Victory hover'd long over their heads till it descended and crown'd the righteous Cause which the rest of Almanzor's Followers that came from the next Grove seeing endeavour to revenge his Dishonour by seizing the noble Stranger and imputing Menalca's Death to the wrong'd Horatio They bring him to the Princes Palace where the Seat of Justice was erected the terror of whose Sword could never wrinkle the smoothest Brow since it was guided by the hand of a Princess the frovvns of whose eyes strook more Astonishment than the fam'd Draco's Laws tho writ in blood She sate in purple Robes on a Throne of Ebony interlay'd with plates of Silver which appear'd so mournfully pleasant that it seem'd to delight those sable Souls whom the pale terrors of approaching Death had prepossess'd on each side sate a stern Minister of Fate an impartial Judge whose different Habits represented the lively Hieroglyphicks of Mercy and Justice Silence commanded the undaunted Prisoner was brought forth whose Looks in such a low Ebb of Fortune did discover a Soul fraught with such Virtues as come near the excellence of Angels and such religious hopes and firm confidence that whom Heaven knew innocent it would never fail to relieve But the Friends of the curs'd Almanzor and wronged Menalcas were so importunate Clamourers that not all his Virtue could protect him he must fall an innocent Sacrifice to attone for no other Crime than their invenom'd hate An ominous silence presently struck the pitying Court just before the fatal Sentence was pronounc'd whilst the Royal Eromena strove to stifle her Tears with her Pâ—ssion it was then that the unseen Engine of mysterious Love first mov'd within her 't was first infus'd in the Embrio which soon form'd a divine Idea subsisting in the highest sphear of harmonious Nature Now the Noble Horatio stands on the Precipice of Fate and with an equal calm Mind
't is impossible to express what Raptures she breathed forth how her very Soul went out with her Words and were both drown'd in their own Tears Ah Cruel Father said the languishing Princess thus to rob me of the only Object of my Pleasure and Delight My only Heaven upon Earth is in the Sight and Enjoyment of my dear Horatio and my future Heaven would not be Heaven entire without him too O Pleasures Oh majestick Royalty farewel since he must go without whom all the Pleasures and Pomps of Courts are dull and insipid I ever before accounted Love but the blind Deity of a vulgar Error but I find now That the Voice of Mankind is the Voice of Heaven No Lacedaemonian wert thou the Emperour nay God of the Universe that had'st more Charms than Subjects thou would'st never be capable in the least to vie with my poor lov'd Horatio 'T is true he is a Prince born high fitted for Greatness and created for Command a Soul as great as ever yâ—t inform'd an humane Body yet were he the poorest Subject had he the same Vertues by all the Powers above I should still have the same Love Horatio who had before absconded himself in an adjoyning Arbor with astonishment heard the passionate discoveries of the languishing Princess She never discover'd her Amour to him before but only in speaking Sighs and the pleasing Rhetorick of extraordinary Looks but now he heard the surprizing Story from her own Lips a sudden startling Joy presently seiz'd him but 't was soon converted into a more startling Grief because he was so soon to leave her No My Eromena before I viewed thee with eyes of Wonder and Astonishment Burst forth Horatio in an extasie and still I think thee the very Phoenix of Nature Never was Sparta ' ere now blest with so great a prodigy of Virtue With such an abrupt rhapsody of Words the transported Horatio presently discover'd himself and presently a shower of Blushes fell upon her fair Cheeks Ah! Horatio said she what curst Fate has hitherto attended us What cross Stars shone at our Births and had so ill an Influence upon both our Lives I know not what of us is registred in the Book of Fate but sure I am if my late Dream be true the Gods have yet some greater Happiness in store for us Horatio was as inquisitive as his Place and Condition would permit him to know what it was She who could deny nothing in honour to one whom she so dearly loved gave a true Relation of her mysterious Dream With Wonder he heard so strange a Story and gathered very good Omens from its strange Conclusion But still the fatal Worm gnaw'd within 'em both Horatio's Departure was the Sting within 'em he only expected the pleasure of his Prince when to depart which not long after was brought to his Apartment by a Messenger to have time of Preparation for three Days in which space he receiv'd Orders and Dispatches from his Royal Master for the Management of his Affair The time was come when the mournful Horatio took his leave of the King and Court to set Sail for Lacedaemon But above all the mutual Sighs and passionate Expressions of the Royal Lovers were inexpressible Rivers of Tears fell from her fair eyes Grief ineffable Grief only permitted her to bid him adiew Never a sinful Soul parted from a Body vvith more heavy Pangs and irresistable Reluctancy than these tvvo almost despairing Lovers all her Time and Thoughts vvere taken up and employ'd in Prayers to Heaven for his safe Arrival nor vvas it in the least deaf or frovvard the Rhetorick of her prevailing Oratory caus'd the kind Gods to convey him to his desir'd Port in tvvo days He vvas very nobly and magnificently conducted by the choice of all the Lacedaemonian Nobility to the Princes Palace vvhere vvhen he came he found all the Court in a profound melancholy a Cloud of Grief had dravvn its fable Aspect over all their Faces He vvonder'd at first vvhat it meant but vvas soon acquainted by the Prince's Ministers that their Royal Master lay very sick of a very dangerous Disease and that there vvas very little Room left for of his Recovery HORATIO immediately thought of the Royal Princess's Dream and began impatiently to reflect on its Conclusion when a Messenger the next Morning came to his Lodging and acquainted him of the Death of the Lacedaemonian Prince Horatio presently prepar'd to condole the loss of the Court in the Death of their Master here the Fates prov'd very propitious to his Love now he was assur'd that the Dream was more than humane and not the vain Chimaera's of a troubled Fancy he saw now That even Dreams likewise are from above and that Fate intended some extraordinary Revolution to make him happy by the Death of his too potent and formidable Rival Presently he dispatches away Letters to the King his Master to give him advice of the frustration of his Embassy by the Prince's Death This News was very surprizing to the King who immediately thereupon dispatcht Orders for his coming home This likewise was soon known to the Royal Princess who was now altogether so much transported with Joy as she was before with grief Every minute with Impatience she expected her wish'd Horatio all her Thoughts ran on him his Idea was always in her Fancy as the only Object she ador'd and lov'd He on the other side was no less ravished with the pleasing Remembrance of his former Misfortunes and the eager expectation of the Society and Converse of his Soul's Darling the admir'd Eromena No sooner had he received his Orders but impatient of delay he summons all his Retinue on Board and vvith prosperous Sails in fevv days arriv'd at his vvisht for Haven Novv Love once more resum'd it 's proper Seat and Throne all the Faculties of his Soul were now employ'd in its sublime Mysteries nothing but the lov'd Society of his dear Eromena could content him which he did not long securely enjoy before some too maliciously inquisitive into their Amours envy'd their happiness and discover'd the whole Intrigue and represented it too obscure and odious in the eyes of the King at first he seem'd very averse to every of the least Intimation of it but then recollecting of what a noble and antique Extraction Horatio was and how much he had deserv'd for his signal Services began to be more calm and serene Now the brave Horatio became a greater Favourite than ever though the Princess for a while dissembled her Passion from the eyes of the Court yet the King to make him the more illustrious still caress'd him with new Favours and honour'd him with fresh Titles and new budding Glories All the eyes of the Court were now set on him they all knew his Worth but wonder'd from what Source this Stream and Deluge of Honours might flow they thought that this sudden Exaltation on the Wheel of Fortune was only to give him the greater Fall and render his Ruine the more plain and obvious They little consider'd that the Gods sell nothing to Men but only for Labour and Desert and how great the Merits of Horatio were his Royal Master sufficiently knew and that all the Honours he could confer on him would not be in the least answerable unless the inestimable Gift of his Royal Daughter One day seeing her all alone and pensive he thus accosts her My dear Eromena I have often wondred that in the midst of a Palace so fully fraught with Delights and so great a Croud of Pleasures where you are as much Mistress as I Master you should so far abandon your Royal self as wholly to be given up to Grief and Cares This Posture in this Place must needs be much taken notice of and I know not what cause you might have for such a Behaviour You know all the Pomp and Splendour of the Court attend your Beck and that all the Laws of Nature constrain me since my Life is bound up in yours to give you all the Pleasures and Satisfaction imaginable You need not Sir said she much admire at my Retiredness since the best of Princes are not free from the censorious Tongues of their Inferiours I suppose Sir but I blush in the Relation that the inquisitive Eyes and the more envious Tongues of some have represented the innocent harmless Friendship of Horatio and Me in very dark and odious Characters 'T is true Sir I have seen such matchless Worth in that brave Stranger that I cannot only love but admire him As for his Merits replied the Prince I cannot in the least detract from them but you know that you are the only Heir to my Crown and Dignity and that the only means to preserve them is by an Alliance with some foreign Prince Oh Sir said she is it possible to choose a stronger Prop for a Crown than the brave Horatio Though he be but a Stranger at our Court yet his Vertues deserve not to be a Stranger to a Crown Pardon Sir the Excursions of my Passion since I can no longer hide it all the Happiness and Felicity I desire in this Life is that Horatio might be the sole Partner and Companion of it The Prince knowing the several Inconveniencies that attend forc'd Marriage and still ruminating on the Merits of the brave Horatio confirmed her Choice and praised her Constancy and as soon as ever the Tide of Business that he was then cumber'd with was abated he gave their Loves the wish'd-for Exit where we now leave them the Wonder and Glory of the present and the best Example for future Ages to imitate FINIS ADVERTISEMENT THere is lately published a Satyr called Massinello against the Association and the Guild-Hall Riot in Quarto Also a Pindaric Ode on the Martyrdom of King Charles I. By the same Author In the Press there is an emiment Treatise in Latin concerning Free Will in Opposition to the Calvinists against Predestination which will be shortly published with the Author's Name
least of his Actions being fill'd with a Goodness so sweet and amiable that like the ruines of once flourishing Temples sacred to the Gods the adoring Vulgar reverence their Memory and think nothing more sacred than the demolish'd Monuments of never-dying Antiquity In his Hall hung no Pictures representing the wanton embraces of an obscene Venus nor indeed any thing that had the least resemblance of Softness or Effeminacy the Walls were all adorned with useful and shining Armour which his own Servants valiant and loyal manag'd when ever his Prince and Country requir'd their Assistance and never made use of them against either in a popular Faction whose cursed Seeds were first engender'd by Hell and maintain'd by Ambition His Friend Aphron being recover'd of his Wounds and Horatio's Discontent being quite lost in the splendour and pleasure of the Palace they had no Remora to stay them but only to pay those Acknovvledgments which the Gratitude and Generosity of Thersander requir'd them They were just preparing to take their leaves when a Messenger brings in a Packet to Thersander containing a Mandate from his Royal Master to attend him the next day and that his Appearance at Court might be the more splendid and illustrious by such Attendants he incites in them a strong desire to view the Royal Divertisements of the Court by a Story the fatal Truth of which hath often transferred the Spartans Glory to the utmost Confines of the Universe It was my Fate Sirs said he to be then an Attendant on my Prince when the same occasion that draws him to this place now prov'd at once the Cause of Joy and Grief Not far from hence lies the Vale of Ceres where his belov'd Eromena resides a Lady that Nature only created for Man to wonder at and when created she broke her Mould so that since she has not been able to produce her equal she vvas not more the comfort of his Age than the glory of her Sex But I engage my self in a too tedious Relation vvhich in brief take thus When Beauty was first enrich'd by Youth with manly strength her Royal Mother vvas the happy Partner of his Bed who kept up a flame of Vertue in her Soul that gave light to a Beauty truly great and excellent Some years had now past over 'em since they were first acquainted vvith those private Pleasures that enrich the Nuptial Bed ' ere she made her Offerings at Lucina's Temple Both their good Angels sate in Council for her safety and an universal Joy fill'd the Breasts of both Parents vvith big and pregnant hopes of a Boy to be the Spartan Heir while the Subjects express theirs in exalted Io's and sounds of Triumph But when the preceding Pains told the fair Queen that the imprison'd Infant long'd to be deliver'd all the Gravest Ladies were call'd to her Assistance who afforded Nature all the help of Art but in despair of safety send their Prayers to win relief from Heaven which it soon sent by Harbingers who carry'd the fair Queen to Heaven vvith them whilst her Body only adorns the silent Mansions of the dead for no sooner had the unhappy Babe breath'd its first Salutes to the World ' ere the dying Queen bids it farewel and whiles her languishing Spirit expir'd with every Word she bequeath'd this her last Legacy in these Words Receive this young and tender Infant from thy dying Queen name her Eromena Here Oh here I conjure you by all our mutual Vows let this sweet Babe preserve my Memory within thy Thoughts and since the Powers above within the dark Registers of Fate have ordain'd it that I no sooner am a Mother but must cease to be so I once more request that she may never be under any other Commands than what bear an equal Poize to your Paternal Care and fatherly Affection This this is all that can be left thee of thy dear Lucasia Here in this shall you see my living Picture whilst I putting off the frail Robes of Mortality take my Passage through the cold Grave to mount and mingle with the shining Stars O my Lord Death would be all Charms and seem to me as the Smiles of Fate and I with Pleasure should embrace it would the fatal Sisters but spin the Thred of my Life to a little longer Date that I might see this Infant grow a Woman but oh I feel my dying Heart-strings break and Life bids adiew to my dear Lord and all the various Business of the World to view what Changes lye hid in the Womh of Eternity Thus dy'd the Queen Presently Grief and Convulsions seiz'd the good King and had certainly shook him from the Throne of Life if the cheerful smiles and the pretty innocent looks of his Souls Darling had not recovered his long-lost Mirth and stealing through all the Guards of Grief with Joy renewed her Mothers Image in her smiles But now the Royal Princess having out-grown her tender Infancy needed no other Guardian to steer the Course of her Life than her own innate Vertue which fill'd her Thoughts with heavenly seed and so dispos'd her to all Good that every Action of her Life proclaim'd her Worth and was an admirable Copy for the rest of the Court-Ladies to imitate The King her Father to add Majesty and Splendour to her Vertue assign'd an hundred of the noblest Youths of Sparta for her Guard but Princes are so sacred that their Actions are not in the least censurable by Subjects it was some occult cause that mov'd the Prince to commit so select a Party to the Conduct of one that so ill deserv'd it his Merits bore not the least proportion with his Birth his Thoughts were ever high and soaring beyond the sphear in which it had plac'd him some seeds of Goodness lay here and there scatter'd in his Breast which the Soil too hot with Ambition choak'd and withered now he would seem to covet the Acquaintance and Company of the best anon he is easily seduc'd to the Cabals and factious Associations of the worst of Mankind his Valour has for a long time fill'd the mouth of Fame and born him up on the Wings of popular Applause insomuch that that which has often prov'd the terror of his pale Foes might be justly fear'd he designs to turn to the Ruine of his Friends But that which will scrue up your desire to a greater height than the wish'd society of Valour is a Custom in this Court which some Nations in the World have abrogated and exploded which the excessive love of her Royal Father had rais'd beyond all parallel that as long as this Place is graced by his Residence no Cause although Capital but is heard and judged by the Royal Princess whose Mercy when Despair has shrunk up the Spirits of the Opprest has been their safest Refuge and Asylum But that I might give you a more full and manifest Illustration of her excelling Vertues I would not have any Adventure vvhatsoever take you off