She never granted Benoni to tell him the cause of her tears but dissembling with prudence she believed that she ought not to increase his evils in discovering the authour thereof I cannot forget a discourse which added almost to the plaints of Genevieva the losse of her life One day as this child played in his mothers bosome and flattered her amorously with his little hand he demanded her my mother you command me often to say Our father which art in heaven tell me who is my father Oh little Innocent what do you this demand is capable to kill your poore mother indeed Genevieva was upon the point to sownd at these words notwithstanding hugging this dear child in her bosome and casting her arms about his neck she said unto him My child your father is God have I not told it you already look upon that fair Palace behold his house the heaven is the place where he dwelleth but my mother doth he know me well Oh my son replyed Genevieva he can do no otherwise he knows you and he loves you how comes it then answered Benoni that he doth me no good and that he permits all the evils that we suffer My son it is to deceive our selves to believe that goods are the proof of his love far be it from us to have such a thought the necessities which we endure denote a fathers heart on our behalf seeing that riches are no other thing but the means to destroy us with which God punisheth sometimes the wicked reserving his blessing for his friends in the other world The little Benoni heard all this discourse wth much attention but when he heard her make the difference of the good and the bad and of another world he could not chuse but thus interrupt Genevieva And what hath my father other children besides me and where is that other world my son answered the holy Countesse God is a great and rich father who hath many children yet is he not lesse powerfull for all that for asmuch as he hath infinite treasures to give them Although you never were out of this wood you must know that there are Towns and Provinces which are full of men and women whereof some fellow vertue and others leave themselves to go after vice Those who respect him as true children shall go one day to heaven to enjoy there with him a thousand contentment on the contrary those that offend him shall be punished in hell which is a great place under earth full of fire and of torments Chuse now which you will be we have reason to be of the first for those who are miserable as we provided they be so willingly and because that God will have it so are assured to go into Paradise which is that I called the other world Benoni could not hold from asking her when they should go into this Paradise It shall be after our death replyed the mother This poore Innocent was very far from comprehending all that which his mother had said unto him if the goodnesse of God had not serv'd him for Master enlightning inwardly his little soul and laying naked to him these fair knowledges which we learn not but with a long study and much labour He had never seen any and yet he comprehended presently what these Towns and Provinces were as perfectly as if he had travelled all the world if he had heard some phylosophie upon the immortality of the soul he could not better have comprehended its essence and its qualities he had even some knowledges of which his age was not capable Experience had never taught him what death was but it wanted not much that he had not a sorrowfull example thereof in the person of his mother some few dayes after the long troubles the ordinary griefs and the want of all things had consumed a body which could not be but delicate as having been nourished in the delights of a Court She had sustained six whole Winters and as many Summers insomuch as scarce could she know her self To see Genevieva and a sceleton was as the same thing the roots whereon she fed had composed her body all of earth Judge if a little sicknesse accompanied with all these in commodities could not ruine a body which having been worn out by extreme dolours extenuated by insupportable austerities and gnawn with thousand boyling cares had need of more than a puffe to overthrow it And yet behold a violent feaver which laid hold on that little blood which rested in her veins and enflamed it with so burning a heat that the poore Genevieva expected nothing but death Benoni seeing the languishing eyes of his mother her colour extreamly defaced betook himself so strongly to his cryes that he might well be heard of that soul which was fled already and besides he shed so many tears that it was to be feared that so much might well extinguish that little heat which remained to him At last Genevieva returned from a long sownd fixed for some time her eyes upon the amiable subject of her griefs and after having told him that he was the son of a great Lord and all that she had concealed from him untill then she added My son behold the happy day that comes to put end to my pains I have no cause to complain of death having no reason to desire life I am going to leave the world without regret as I have lived therein without desire If I were capable of any displeasure it would be to leave you without remedy and without support in the sufferance of those evils which you have not meerited Not to lye for the matter this consideration would touch sensibly my heart if I had not one more high which constrains me to put my interests and yours into the hand of him who is the good father of orphans and the powerfull support of the innocent It is to him that I leave the care of your Infancy it is from him that you ought to expect your assistance cast your self amorously into his arms and put all your confidence in his goodnesse I will not have you retain any thoughts of a poore mother who hath not brought you into the world but to suffer all the evils thereof yet if you desire to render something to my cares behold what I demand of you for an acknowledgement I conjure you my dear son to bury with my body the resentments of my injuries since there is none but God alone that knows their greatnesse there is none but he that can ordain them their punishments The punition of an injustice is never just when we our selves are the authors of the revenge and the subject of the offence And then my dear Benoni the injury that they have done me is of a strange nature seeing you cannot be pious without offending piety nor revenge your mother but by the outrage of your own father In this case it would be to wash your hands with blood to make them clean and to
thought unchaste for being fair or the perfection of her body do injury to that of her soul could she not be seen without desire nor slandered without being convicted of a crime whereof her very thought was not culpable Should an apple render the wife of Theodosius criminall was that an inevitable misfortune to Queen Elisabeth loving the vertue of a Page to love an object that was not chast deserved Cunegonda to handle fire for proving that her heart burned not with any evil flame the daughter of the great Anthemius could not she do good to her sister without losing her reputation nor drive the Devil from her body without putting him into her soul who can conceive why God permitted that Marina should be punished for a sinne whereof she was not capable and which was as far from her will as from her sex Soft humane reason take heed how thou think that an essence all good and all perfect should produce any evill if there flow sharpnesse from that inexhaustible spring of sweetnesse it is either to wean our affection from the vanity of pleasures or to make our vertue merit in the martyrdome of sufferings Our griefs are not more sensible unto us than unto God if we are assaulted he resents it if we are wounded he complaineth he doth indeed seem sometimes not to know us but it is to the end to render us known to all posterity he permits detraction to spot our honour but to the end to dravv the rayes of our glory from our own obscurity you know it faire soules who glitter novv like so many Suns in that great day of eternity Is it not true that God loves not our abasement but to raise us up again our contempt but because it may be glorious to us Our losses but because vve may derive advantage from them our evils but because they doe us good The Bees suck honey aswell upon the Thyme and Wormvvood as upon the Roses the Lillies and holy soules make their infirmitie prosper as well as their good fortune but the first being of a nature more refined God vvill not be niggardly unto us of a favour vvhich vve can so vvell improve Who knoweth not that a great virtue hath sometimes thrust those who possessed it into presumption and that innocence mistaken and calumniated hath found its conservation in that which seemed to destroy it The life of the Nightingale which nourisheth not it self but with melody is very delightfull that of the Swan is not to be despised though he lives not but with melancholly God takes pleasure that we should lead a life like unto this sorowful Bird provided that we be so white in Innocence as he is in his plume he careth not to see us swime in the waters of our grief Nothing pleaseth him like our sighes he loves perfectly that musick of which himself gives the measure and indeed there are those visages who weep with so good a grace that they should never be without this ornament our eys ravish not those of God but by tears which he seeks with a great care and which he gathereth with an incredible joy The tears fall to the ground and mingle themselves with the dust but their restuction gos unto the firmament mounteth above the stars so as they are the pearls of heaven which form themselves in the salt waters of our bitternesses as a great Wit hath said It is the delicate wine of the Angels the delights of Paradise and the voice that goes even to the ear of God For this reason he commanded one of his Prophets that the apple of his eyes should appear unto him continually for as much as he takes an inexpressable content at the sweet violence with which they constrain him if we knew well to weep we should know to vanquish our enemies to drown our sins to ruin the devils to extinguish hell and sweetly to force heaven to the sense of our requests The sinner hath no stronger arms than in his eyes seeing that God himself may be wounded with them The Athenians offered plaints in one of their sacrifices for my part I believe that it was to that unknown divinity which the Apostle instructs them to be the true God for as much as they cannot present him an offering more acceptable then tears which are no sooner drop'd from our eyes but they enter into his heart How can he not love these liquid pearls these melted diamonds this subtle sweat of the soule that aâ—stils it self through the fires of love to the end to offer him an essence more precious a thousand times than that of the Iasmin I do not say that chastity plants it self in our hearts as the lillies who have no other seed but their tears and that vertues appear there onely when this dew of our eyes makes them to bud there After all this we should no more wonder if God takes pleasure in the sighes of an afflicted Innocence since we finde so remarkable an instruction in his example so advantagious a profit in his merit then if God will that we suffer is it not great reason to consent thereunto If our displeasures delight him ought we to seek out the cause thereof Alas we shut up the Birds in the Cages to the end to draw joy from their plaints Can it be that they are more ours than we are his that their liberty is more subject unto our tyrany than ours is to his Empire O how happy should a creature be if God taking pleasure in his tears he might weep eternally the History which we have to set forth can give rare examples of this truth and advance most profitable instructions from this practise To the Reader MY dear Reader in expecting a Work whereof I give you here but one of the least parts I conjure you to suspend your judgment upon this History and not to take the effects of an all adoreable Providence for the Fictions of a Romance Raderus in his Baviere Ericius Puteanus and many other Authors can warrant the principall circumstances thereof and I assure my self in time to make you understand that there is nothing in the whole piece which is not as true as divertising ERRATA or faults escaped in the printing PAg. 3. line 6. those her sex read those of her sex pag. 5. l. 24. the great perfections 1. the perfections p. 7. l. 16. exposed r. proposed p. 13. l. 18. part r. depart p. 23. l. 2. souldiers r. folds p. 26. l. 14. Narbonana r. Narbona p. 31. l. 28. as of a Comeâ— r. as that of a Comet The Innocent Ladie OR The Illustrious Innocence IN one of the Provinces of the * Gaule Belgick which was sometime the countrey of the Tongrians about the time that the glory of the great Lodowick began to be obscured that the children of this Lion degenerated into beasts much lesse generous was born a daughter in the most illustrious family of the
these extremities without the least comfortto her grief but the liberty to lament it If her own sufferings were sensible unto her those of her child were insupportable and certainly I know no patience that could undergo so many evils and be silent The day seemed not to shine but to shew her the horrour of the place where she was the night filled her spirit with shadows as well as her eyes with darknesse Nothing represented it self to her imagination that was not full of affright and terrour the puffe of a Zephire the motion of a leaf formed to her monsters more terrible than those of Lybia The care of her Benoni augmented much her fears considering that he had already lain two nights at the foot of an oak having but the grasse for bed and a few boughes for defence All the accidents that might arrive unto her presented themselves to her thought to produce the same effects that grief could make there That which touched most sensibly her soul was to hear the third day this little creature whose sighings demanded the succour of her breasts but alas they were dry all what he could draw from thence was nothing but a little corrupted blood It was but then that she permitted thus her grief to speak My God my Saviour canst thou suffer that this Innocent dye for want of having one drop of water whilst the authors of his misery surfet with blessings where is that providence which makes thee to take care of the ravens and the worms If thy word deceive us not thou owest the same favour unto him that thou dost to those animals seeing his birth is no lesse considerable nor his condition worse than theirs Look upon pitifull Lord look upon this Infant his father hath acknowledged him no more than the raven his young behold him creeping upon the dust and take compassion of his evils either to finish them or to allay them wilt thou permit it to be said that the generall care of thy providence hath excepted this miserable from the infallible rule of thy mercies permittest thou that the Innocents perish with hunger whilst thy enemies abuse thy benefits and provoke thy Iustice it is in a manner the doing of evil to do good to the wicked and to hate vertue to see it persecuted without pity Where is it that my grief carries me pardon my Saviour pardon this blasphemy to my impatience it is sufficient that thou wilt a thing to render it just since it pleaseth thee that he dye I will it also In saying this she reposed her son on the earth retiring her eyes from that subject of so many miseries but as she had marched some paces into the wood the sweet murmure of a brook assured her that there was a spring near enough that place which obliged her to take again her son to seek it out having found it she refreshed the mouth of the Infant and retained his soul ready to quit his body for want of nourishment Behold one of the effects of Gods providence there must be also a retrait to these poore banished creatures Genevievieva found one near enough to the fountain it was a den whose entrance was covered with a thick bush where the mother and her sonne marked out their lodging for seven years Yet it was necessary to have some nourishment O goodnesse of heaven how sweet art thou and how amorous are thy cares whilst our poor Princesse wearied her spirit with this thought she heard a noise as if some horseman had brushed behind the bushes which made her afraid untill she saw appear a hind who without affright approached to her her astonishment encreased much more when she saw that this beast looked upon the Infant with compassion and coming near to the mother fawned upon her as if she would have said that God had sent her there to be her nurse Whereupon perceiving that her udder was full of milk she took her son and cherishing the beast with her hand put him to suck Oh! how necessary it is to have a good heart you may believe that Genevieva received this benefit with resentments of joy which wiped away all her passed sorrows The contentment of this first favour encreased much when she knew by experience that the hind came twice a day without receiving any other salary for her good offices but some handfulls of grasse and the caresses of the Countesse I could say that sometimes she spake unto her as if she had been endued with reason and that she gave her testimonies of amity as if she had been capable thereof Some one will be very glad to know why God ordinarily uses the service of hindes to nourish his servants in the desart this curiosity is commendable and it pleaseth me well to satisfie it a mean Lecture migh have made this observation and though we should have no other example but that of Saint Giles our question would have foundation enough It is certain that God can derive our nourishment from whatsoever thing it shall please him and that he who hath created four elements to this effect can serve himself with the least of their pieces to furnish us with delicates It is he that hath made honey to be sucked out of the stones it is he that nourished all the people of Israel with dew it is he that made three children to live in flames as so many Salamanders it is he that sent every day a raven to the great father of the desart Saint Paul it is he that can draw our life out of death it self and our nourishment from poyson which is the most certain ruine thereof Notwithstanding his conduct is sweet and taketh nothing of violence it is therefore he accommodates himself to the power of second causes and follows the inclinations thereof Those who have written the secrets of nature report that the hind never brings forth if the heaven serve not for Midwife to the birth of her fruit by a puisant clap of thunder from whence we derive two or three fair knowledges the first that it is no wonder the Harts Hinds are fearful beyond all other Animals since it is fear onely that puts them into the world the second serves to the question which we propose as a great personage hath observed The difficulty which the Hind hath to produce her fruit proceeds not but from its greatnesse whence it happeneth that the Fawn having followed his dam very little time forsakes her to go to pasture leaving the sweetnesse of the dugge for that of liberty The Hind having abundance of milk seeks to discharge her self thereof even so farre that they say she oftentimes suffers her self to be sucked by the animals of another kind to the end to ease her God who hath given her this inclination for her interest makes use thereof sometimes for our necessity thrusting her forward by a secret instinct to be prodigall to us of a good which would be dammageable unto her This was the
his infidelity in exposing him to the rage of his dogs which are the simbole of its contrary and then considering that his sinne had beginning from the infamous fires of love it seemed reasonable unto him to cover them with the ashes of his proper body or to quench them in the waters of the River All these punishments were great but his crime was no lesse Sifroy thought not to be sufficiently revenged if the effects of his vengeance had not had something of extraordinary At last having long wavered thereupon he concluded to make him dye in this manner There was in the Palatines Herd four of those salvage oxen which the black Forrest nourished which were brought by his Command and being coupled tail to tail the miserable Golo was tyed by the arms and legges which were presently separated from his body whose infamous reliques found their Tomb in the stomach of the Crows by a just judgement of God to the end that the body of so wicked a man might be so ill lodged after his death as his soul had been during his life Behold the punishment of a man who was not unfortunate but by too much good fortune See the ordinary fruits that falshood produceth behold the precipices whereunto a wicked Passion carries us behold the shipwracks whereinto the winds of prosperity drive us behold the sports of fortune which flatters not our hopes but to seduce them Deceive not your selves herein if she shew you a a fair visage remember that the Sirens do the same is she allures by her caresses the Panther doth it also if her amorous plaints invite you the sighs of the Crocodile should serve for your instruction if she shineth her brightnesse is no more aamible then that of the fals meteors miserable Golo I see thee added to the example of those whom this traitresse hath deceived O how happy had thy condition been if it had been lesse eminent and how thy life had been assured if favor had not exposed it let us seek I pray you the first step of his misfortune and we shall finde that it was the authority which he had acquired in his Masters house the second too great a liberty to behold that which he should not desire and the last a love without respect whence proceeded a demand without honour a pursuit without successe a hate without cause a calumny without judgment and a punishment without mercy on the other side if we look upon the innocent Countesse we shall see virtue smutted but for its glory constancy shaken but for its setlement sanctity despised but for her security and moreover we shall acknowledge that the triumphes of vice are short and its confusion very long and that it is not once onely that God hath withdrawn the innocent heads from the sword of the Executioner to the end to crown them Those who were found accomplices to Golo received punishments proportionable to their faults and those who had shewed themselves favorable to the affliction of Genevieva met with no lesse gratitude in her then the others of severity in the spirit of the Palatine that poor maid who had pity of the Countesse and had brought her ink found her benefit written otherwise than upō paper Death hindered Genevieva to recompense those who had given her life in not taking it away for as much as the one of them was deceased the other received all the acknowledgement of that good action These recompenses and pains were followed with the contentments of all those that loved virtue The little Benoni was he that found more fortune in this change the very pleasures of a Solitude made him to tast the delights of his house with more sweetnesse Never had he been so happy if he had not been miserable notwithstanding his spirit stayed not so much on his contentments that he took not the tincture of all the good qualities with which Nobility might advance his merit Nothing of low was observed in this little courage for having been brought up in poverty nothing of wildnesse for having been bred with the bears The father and mother took a singular pleasure in the good inclinations of this son aiding him wth their wholsom instructions From the accord and correspondence which was in this house was bred a generall peace every one of the servants had no lesse than a golden age I would say that they were fully satisfied and content There was not any person who thought not himself well recompensed for his passed sorrows Genevieva had onely more of merit than of recompence the World having made her suffer all her evils had not goods enough to render her that which was due unto her heaven therefore took care to think on the price of her patience You comprehend well that I would speak of the death of our Countesse God who would not honour the World longer with so great a vertue resolved to retire her to her originall but it was after having advertised her thereof One day as she was in prayer it seemed unto her that she saw a Troop of virgins and of holy women amongst which her good Mistris held the chief rank having all the others for Ladies of honour their Majesty ravished presently our Saint but their sweetnesse charmed her much more sensibly there was not one of them that gave her not Palms and Flowers and the Virgin holding in her hand a crown embroidered with precious stones seemed thus to speak unto her My daughter it is time to begin an eternity of pleasures behold the crown of Gold which I have prepared you after that of thorns which you have worn receive it from my hand Genevieva understood very well what this visit signified which caused in her an incredible satisfaction the subject whereof notwithstanding she would not declare to Sifroy for fear to cast a cloud on his joy Her prudence concealed from him the causes thereof but the disease which had lesse discretion told it him within a few dayes It was a little feaver which seised our incomparable Countesse and gave him a more clear expression of her revelation To describe unto you the contentment of Genevieva it would be a thing no lesse superfluous than it would be impossible to expresse the displeasures of Sifroy Must I lose said he a treasure which I have so little possessed It is true that I am unworthy thereof my God and that I cannot complain of injustice since you take not from me but what I hold of your pure mercy and not of my merit But alas had it not been more desirable not to have it all than to have it for a moment soft and fair Sifroy soft fair it is no time to deplore keep your tears for anon if you will give them to the justest grief of nature I deceive my self boldly empty all the humour of your eyes you should be asham'd to give so little of it to the losse you are to make Small griefs may be lamented but great
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