Selected quad for the lemma: country_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
country_n	city_n	great_a	village_n	1,731	5	9.2720	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16156	Donzella desterrada. Or, The banish'd virgin. VVritten originally in Italian: by Cavalier Gio. Francesco Biondi, Gentleman Extraordinary of his Majesties Privy Chamber. Divided into three bookes: and Englished by I.H. of Graies Inne, Gent; Donzella desterrada. English	Biondi, Giovanni Francesco, Sir, 1572-1644.; Hayward, James, of Gray's Inn.	1635 (1635)	STC 3074; ESTC S107083	279,563	246

their being unacquainted with the roomes marr'd all their designe for they beleeved that my comming in was through the ordinary doore through which they had entred which also made them misse of me many nights before that they had spent in watching my comming not without suspition that Cripasso to revenge himselfe of me had maliciously invented this slander whereupon some dispute fell betweene them till hee causing mee to be search'd for in my chamber understood that I was gone thence though he was yet confident that I must needs have come in the right way through the lodgings which indeede I did never so as he made full account to penne me in since having as he thought but one way to enter they had now left me none at all to goe out through The Dutchesse's withdrawing chamber butted on an arch erected on a backalley through which no man passed it had anciently served for a passage to another house which till it happened to be burnt was a member of the Pallace the arch remaining ever sithence unusefull and its doore shut and so covered with the Arras-hangings as there was none but her selfe and some of her ancientest servants that knew there was any such On the out-side of this Arch stood an old ladder to get downe by which wanted in some places one and in other two rongues the roome was very low full of filth and rubbish and o're-growne with brambles weedes and briars having two other roomes adjoyning to it the foremost whereof was assured with a good lock and key through which I secretly came and return'd without any danger Those that pursued me were foure Cripasso the two brothers and one servant but the foremost of them was Cripasso who came running after me with sword in hand faine as live would I have turn'd to strike at him but doubting to bee overtaken by the brothers whom I had no will to injure I went fairely onwards fortune favouring mee beyond either my expectation or imagination for being slowly pursued because of their conceiting to penne me up in the farther chamber where-hence they saw no way for me to get out I had leisure to descend the ladder without any danger for in drawing onely the Arch-doore together after me I deprived them of the time although it were but shut with a latchet of hindering my descent Cripasso marveiling to see me gotten so low downe unacquainted with the place but much more with the defects of the ladder the torch which the servant carried not sufficiently illuminating all those darkesome by-corners and he withall seeing but very litle for being very weake-sighted tumbled for the extreame haste that he made to pursue mee headlong downe from one end of the ladder to the other whereat I resolved now neither to lose any time nor to faile to kill him as I did the other time before runne him for making the surer worke of him at two thrusts through the neck and brest in the later whereof I ranne my sword up to the hilts conformable to my desire whilest the rest of his company stood immoveable spectators from above for feare of the precipice This done I went my wayes keying fast after me the doore that had the lock on it to hinder them from pursuing me and so hying me to the City walls I got me out without any great adoe and then during all the rest of the night travelled a-foote the speediest pace I could towards that part of the country where its territory was narrowest for I thought my selfe safe enough in any other dominion Continuing this my journey I chanced to meete by good fortune a Knight with whom I had beene acquainted at Parthenope who by occasion of certaine lands was a great enemy to Cripasso to this Knight enquiring the occasion that he saw me so a-foote I unmasked the whole businesse save that in steede of the Dutchesse I made him beleeve that I went to enjoy her woman and was faine to save my selfe with Cripasso's death Whereupon the Knight affectionately embracing mee told me hee was much bound to me inviting me withall to his Castle where he assured me that I should not neede to feare or doubt of any thing I thankfully accepted the invitation but desired for his safegard aswell as mine owne to abide there undiscovered whilest he suddenly dispatch'd away a discreete Gentleman to goe learne if Cripasso were dead indeede and how slaine The Gentleman after a few dayes return'd and told him That fortuning to bee entertained and lodged by a Knight who was an intimate friend of his and a bosome one of the brethren he had not onely beene informed but was also by him favoured to see under the seale of secrecie the whole truth of the fact which was That Cripasso was dead for certaine That the brothers having dragg'd the Dutchesse's Gentlewoman to the top of the ladder had tumbled her downe headlong over it and then slaine her upon Cripasso's corps martyrizing her with so many wounds that her body was seene all over pierced through with stabbes That the Dutchesse could neither with authority nor entreaty obtaine life for her but was oh unnaturall cruelty her selfe the day following by them-themselves cruelly strangled and the Coffin happening to be too short for her one of them stept up on her legges that reached out of the Coffin and with his feete crush'd them to pieces that the Chest might containe them and all because shee was taken with me they having beene before advertized by Cripasso of all the particulars by me related Now though they had not published the case to bee as it was indeede they giving out they had surprized me with the Gentlewoman and that the Dutchesse extreamely affrighted to see her slaine before her face died in the place for meere feare yet had they for all that imprudently communicated the truth to most of their friends so as the people came to know it by having their conjecture in that behalfe confirmed by the coffin's being nail'd up and pitched ere any body was suffered to see it Cripasso's corps were embalmed up and solemnly sent to his owne barony upon a chariot of black velvet drawne by eight horses covered and trapp'd with the same downe to the ground accompanied with two hundred Gentlemen clad they them selves and their Coursers with their head-stalls plumes and trappings all in black with unbraced drummes sordine trumpets trailed standards and mournefull musick On would Coralbo have proceeded in his story but here interrupted with sudden sobbings he was forced to reiterate by the dropping of a few great pearle-like teares his in this manner many times re-solemnized funeralls of his beloved Crisanta Polimero therefrom not diverting him for his conceiving the not giving way to just griefes to be a thing too farre distant from humane putty but soone after the water being soaked away with the drought of reason stopp'd of it selfe and then hee blushing to see himselfe according to the opinion of some contrary to a

his purpose he bought it ministring thereby matter to the poore Alchimist to waste his braines about his endlesse search of his rich gold-hatching Elixar though the others conscience made him esteeme this water farre more precious than the Philosophers-stone itselfe yet never was he favoured with the opportunity of making use of it all the time of his long imprisonment in Sardinia nor yet in Arelate till the very night that should have preceded his ignominious death But then being cast into a low prison not much pestered with company as in sundry places is usuall and ordinary to the end the condemned may dispose of what they have and prepare themselves for death he having by his waters vertue made brittle and beaten to pieces first his manacles and shackles and then his heavy boults escaped sheere away And then not knowing either whither to goe or what course to take his worse than bad inclination depriving him of the least good thought brought him to rob on the high-way but being weary of the Gaules he passed the Alpes and got into the faire Provinces of Ausonia where growne to be for his infamy famous he in a short time assembled all the murtherers and theeves of that Countrey by whom he being proclaimed king of the fields usurp'd the authority of commanding often contributions and exactions not onely from Villages and Castles but even from walled Townes and strong Cities till such time as being desirous of a staid life he entred into the pay of the Eugaenean Republick entertained by them to confront other theeves like himselfe that pestered their sea coasts but hee neither obeying them in any thing committed to his charge nor going whither he was by them directed and sent but busying his braines about the sacking of Cities that he might afterwards retire againe to his wonted haunts and sheltering groves was ere he could execute his purpose set upon unawares by the Generall of that noble people and constrain'd to flie away with but sixteene of his consorts leaving the rest a prey to the fish and Vulturs whereof when sixty of them were hang'd the rest were reserved for the galleyes Hee in the meane time chanced to be wind-driven into Ericusa where lighting on a Barke that launching out of the Illirian Bay was bound for Peucetia laden with horses he robb'd her of them and then mounting thereon his confederates was as hee stood busied in putting them in order to disorder the Iland unexpectedly arrived on by his old betrayed Master Don Elcimos whose physiognomy and countenance though not seene by him long time before neverthelesse so stung his horrid conscience with a feeling of his owne infamous treachery as his eyes unable to endure the justice-menacing-lookes of his betrayed Lord forced him to fly his presence but was as speedily pursued by him who with prompt counsell mounted on one of the very same horses and fiercely chased him till the hapning of what hath beene already related Iust that very morning had Feredo put off his habit of Priesthood so as it was now lawfull for him in his comming downe to buckle on his armour which hee alwayes kept in a by-roome for that purpose thinking nor did he therein thinke amisse that such a store was no sore as might steede no lesse a peaceable man in conserving his quiet than a man of a contrary inclination to a contrary use Yet had hee now no occasion to make use of them the troupe of theeves being before he came put to route and forced to yeeld so as he needed to take no other care than about Don Elcimos wounds which though not very deepe did yet somewhat trouble him in minde because he had not wherewithall to cure them but the patient himselfe making no reckoning of them for having beene used to be his owne Chirurgion courteously thanking them all for their carefull loves suffered himselfe to be convayed to the house where with Turpentine incorporated with the yoalke of an egge an easie and soone made medicine hee in a few dayes cured himselfe Causing in that meane space to be brought before him all Catascopo's companions and enformed by them at full of their quality and beeing he determined to let them goe free for not knowing what to doe with them now that he had already restored the horses and barke to the Merchants that owned them Having therefore admonished and perswaded them to leave off that wicked course of life he licensed them to depart when one of them speaking for the rest after having humbly thanked him for so great a favour said thus unto him My life's Lord we have promised you to leave off the wicked life which hitherunto we have led and that surely with a sincere and fraudlesse intention because if nothing else induced us so to doe our very being wearied therewith necessarily enjoynes us thereto besides the being impossible that fortune also be not as much wearied in conserving us But yet no man can be bound to doe more than he can doe wee are now in such a case as wee cannot live anywhere safe since that the eye of justice being bent towards our past life will without making any reckoning of our present internall repentance punish us wheresoever we be resident The proposition therefore of reducing us to a civill life is though weebe most obsequious thereto a thing even unpossible for us to performe since we enjoy not the least assurance of our secure living by such a life our offences being innumerable our enemies infinite there being no Prince by us unoffended and our selves though accustomed to toylsomnesse and sufferings yet be not enured to the miserablenesse of poverty or want the sole motive that compels many men to take leude and desperate courses of life Nay give me leave to tell you yet further that any he of us that shall have the greatest desire to be reduced to a good course of life cannot attaine thereto but by wicked meanes and that is by the murthering of one or more of us his companions without whose deaths it is certaine he is sure not to obtaine the impunity of his delicts therefore as it lay in your hands to give us both life and liberty so may you also if you please conserve those lives of ours to a good use without suffering them to be the meanes of greater misdeeds You have here Catascopo dead his head so your goodnesse be pleased to give it us is of a value sufficient not only to restore us to our liberties and procure us our free pardon in our owne Countries but also to raise us to a competent estate which may serve us to live honestly withall it being worth many talents which shall be among us equally shared This request of their 's no whit displeased Don Elcimos who freely granting it gave them leave to depart with it and use it as they pleased Whereupon they taking it off the trunke emblamed it to preserve it from putrefaction and then carried it to