his grief but hearkned with admiration to the moan he made for the death of a man whom he was resolv'd to kill and which he ought to have desired as his own life He understood well enough what an advantage that losse was to him and I believe that at first hearing he was touch'd with some sense of joy but coming to reflect upon the admirable qualities of that deceased Prince his noble soul was so moved with that remembrance that it was impossible for him to refuse what he believed due from all vertuous persons to the memory of the greatest man that ever was This change of his affairs made him also change his resolution and after he had passed the night in the thoughts which that revolution caus'd we took horse assoon as it was day and prosecuted our Voiage This report vvas confirm'd unto us by all wee met and moreover we heard the dispute that rose among the Princes about the sharing of his dominions My Master being come within a days Journey of Babylon dispatch'd Toxaris thither with order to inform himself of what passed and to enquire news of Queen Statira and bring him back word to a place which he appointed him within 3 or four howres riding of that City Toxaris parted from us but he made us wait all the day following without hearing of him My Prince being in pain for his long stay sent Loncates after him with the like Commission Loncates return'd no more then he and my Prince impatient of their delay after having expected that vvhole day also went that way himself with an intention to send me likewise and to stay for my coming again near the place where we met with you and where after the news which in spite of the tears my Prince had shed had rais'd his hopes and had made me believe that we were for ever gotten under shelter from the persecutions of fortune we learnt from your mouth the fatal death of that great and vertuous Queen for whom alone he had preserv'd the remnant of his life Behold Sir pursued Araxes shutting up his relation behold the end of my Prince his adventures if the course of them have touch'd you with admiration the conclusion of them will vvithout doubt touch you vvith pity and you will judge infallibly that never vertue has been so perfectly tryed that perchance never man carried it to so high a point and that fortune never fixt her self so obstinately to persecute any man she never gratified him with any of her favours but instantly shee was ready to throw him headlong into a bottomlesse pit of miseries and when after an infinit number of storms she seem'd to have brought him in to the Haven there it vvas she made him finde his shipwrack and ruined him by the utmost crosse that he could and by the onely one vvhich he had not yet endured Araxes thus finished his long narration and Lysimachus vvhom the recital of so many vvonders had strucken vvith great admiration after he had remain'd for some time deeply buried in a study lifting up his eyes suddenly to Heaven O Oroondates cryed he the bravest of all men living thou miracle both of our age and of all ages past have I prolonged my miserable life to suffer with you as I do in the misfortunes of yours and must I carry to my grave the sorrow I feel for the miseries of so divine a person Was not the consideration of my own strong enough to bring me thither and vvere not my own disasters sensible enough vvithout the mixture of yours Certainly continued he turning toward Araxes if that fortune vvhich followed deceased Alexander vvith so much constancy and affection had but declared her self a little in favour of your gallant Prince he vvould not only have obscured his glory and cut off the course of his great victories but also have blotted out of the memory of men the lustre of all those that went before him and have submitted all the habitable world to his Dominion Alexander had no quality which your Prince possesses not with all manner of advantages and he appears so free from all his vices and from all those that can give the least blemish to his admirable vertue that only his misfortunes make us know him for a man whom so many miraculous actions might with justice make to passe for a God Lysimachus would have said more in the affection that transported him if it had not been already night that consideration made him return into the house that he might not longer lose his company whose transcendent vertue had so powerfully gained him and whose absence he no longer could endure with patience The end of the Sixth Boook and of the FIRST PART CASSANDRA TO CALISTA DOE you not believe Calista that 't is an inhuman thing to trouble the repose of the dead And are you not satisfied that by ceasing to live I cease to dispute with you for any advantage unlesse you violate the priviledge of Tombs and pul me from my grave where I have rested two thousand years to draw homages and acknowledgements from me which hitherto I never owed to any body If they justly are condemned who by words of conjuration call up spirits from the infernal shades what doe you expect for the violence you use to me For to say truth fair Calista 't is you alone that bring me back into the world whence I departed so many ages since the Empire you have ver him who makes me live again recalls mee now out of the dark where my abode has been obscure indeed but full of great tranquillity My former life was subject to so many misfortunes that the remembrance I still retain of them makes me fear this second for which you cause me to be born again but it had likewise so many notable advantages as I cannot with justice complain of him that revives mee though he renew my griefs to publish my glory to the whole world The troubles of the Age I liv'd in the disasters of my family and the brightnesse of that flaming light which in a few years kindled almost all the Universe did in part abate the lustre of it but this neccessity which your commands have imposed upon the Author of my new life makes me come forth from under an heap of arms and of dead bodies from under the ruines of our house and from under the flames that consumed my Countrey to dresse my self up again in my former ornaments and to breath a more gentle air and a more quiet life under your protection I ask you pardon therefore O Calista if my first words expressed some resentment against you you ought to receive them as coming from a person not yet well awake and who having much ado to shake off a sleep of twenty Ages had not yet time enough to know who you were Now that by the beams of your fair eyes this first Cloud of my still dazeling sight is dissipated and that you appear
he ha's promis'd me repli'd the Princess and in his disobedience foresee the utter ruine of his happiness if so be he ground it upon Statira's friendship But alas continued she weeping and raising her voice a little I know not what it is that my sadness presages and though I strive to put it off because I see you participate in it yet can I not overcome my self so far as to forbear it At these words Artaxerxes being come in again and seeing her all in tears Sister said he you should be ashamed to show so little courage to them whom your grief touches infinitely what could you doe more if you saw one of us carried in a Coffin to receive the last duties of affection from you Ah! cruel Brother cryed Statira with what do you threaten me and with what unfortunate presages doe you redouble my sorrows will you not pardon these small testimonies of them to the friendship I bear you and to that you have given birth to I am very much obliged to you for both replyed the Prince but I should be glad to see you bear this parting with more moderation so excessive a sadnesse besides that it encreases ours may make it be believ'd that in this separation you lament more then a Brother not but that the proofs of affection you give my Oroondates are as pleasing to me as to himself but dear sister these tears were more excusable if you were depriv'd of all hope to see him again and if they were not prejudicial to what we have hitherto so carefully concealed Well then answered she I will endeavor to bear what it is impossible for me to shun but however Oroondates I recommend Artaxerxes to you and you brother have a care of Oroondates since you have commanded me to love him After this Discourse and many others seeing the day draw near they took their last leave of her when she had given my Master a bracelet of her hair which she tied about his arm and which he wore there a long time after notwithstanding all the accidents that happen'd to him At break of day they went to receive the Kings commands who embraced them a thousand times and could not let them depart without much trouble then getting on horseback wee marched after the track of the Army which wee overtook within three days During the whole Voiage they were inseparable yet Prince Artaxerxes who undertook it against his will was commonly so sad that hee had but very little of his good humour left and Oroondates considering to what extremities his passion had carried him and against what enemies he had taken arms was sometimes little lesse then desperate but the remembrance of Statira coming again into his mind blotted out all these considerations and overwhelm'd all his griefs in those which her absence caused in him The Reasons I have already alledged will hinder me from entertaining you with the particulars of this Expedition and from drawing out a War in length which was quickly brought to a conclusion I will content my self with telling you that the Inhabitants of Selena being advertised of our coming to relieve them armed themselves with a valiant resolution and defended themselves so stoutly that they gave us as much time as was necessary for us to come up to their Relief and it was very lucky that that Siege amused so potent an Army which without that obstacle would doubtlesly have much indamaged Persia In the mean time we advanced with great diligence and being within a days march of Selena a Councel of War was call'd and there was a long debate what resolution should be taken but in the end the general opinion was that they should attempt to raise the Siege though with the hazard of a Battel which they thought they might the better venture since the courage of their Soldiers was not yet abated but that with loud cryes they still call'd to be led on straight unto the Enemy Artabasus encouraged by their eagernesse and perswaded by the advice of all the Commanders prepared his Forces for that bloody day and dividing the Army into three Bodies hee gave the Van to his Brother Tiribasus a very valiant man and one who by the long exercise of arms was grown to great experience He left the Rere-guard to Narbazanes and kept the Battel for himself having besides these three given his son Hydaspes the command of five hundred Chariots of War arm'd with sharp Sithes and fill'd with Median Archers who that day did much mischief to the Enemy and to Prince Artaxerxes four thousand horse which being loose from the rest of the Army were to succour those that should have most need of it this was all the imployment he would take though Artabasus with much submission offered to resign what he thought due to his birth and courage Oroondates who desired to bee free from care and to be as little faulty as was possible for him refused all command and placed himself with the Prince that he might fight near his person This order having been taken in our Camp we advanced into a great Plain some thirty or forty Furlongs from Selena free from all kind of Trees and very proper for a place of Battel The Enemy advertised of our coming was already incamped and expected us in very good order for this praise must be given to King Matheus that there are few Princes in the world but must yeild to him in experience and conduct Night being near when we came thither Artabasus gave it wholly to the Army to take their rest and to prepare for the day that was to follow and in the mean time we incamped within sight of the Scythians whose fires we discovered in great abundance but not being ignorant of their custome we set forth strong out-guards that wee might not bee surprised and pass'd almost the whole night in arms Assoon as day appear'd and that the two Armies faced one another they cast forth terrible shouts which witnessing their marvellous desire to fight joyed the Commanders with the hope of Victory yet Artabasus having adored the Sun and causing sacrifices to be made through the whole Camp himself viewed most part of the beasts that were offered whose intrails were all found defective either in the liver or the heart and the fire they were burnt with look'd all blewish accompanied with a black thick smoak and which instead of rising up straight to heaven spread it self in great Clouds through the whole Army Some Victims having received the stroak escaped out of the Priests hands and ran through the Camp with horrible roarings which was the cause of a very great disorder Besides these unlucky Omens which Artabasus and the other Commanders understood very well and which not to strike a terrour into the Soldier they yet feigned not to take any notice of the day was so extraordinarily dark that we had much adoe to see one another and seemed all ready to have put on mourning for
Kings messenger had made very great hast and had been arriv'd there many dayes and Arsacomes who with such lofty hopes had receiv'd so pleasing an order had rais'd his camp from the banks of Boristhenes and was returning straight to Issedon with as long marches as he could He by order from the King had left five or six thousand men upon the frontier which he had put in garrison in some of those Towns that had been recover'd and the rest of the army was about eighteen or twenty thousand It was along the bank of the river Hypanis that we saw the first battalions march and riding with our beavers down we passed without doubt among the first that saw us for horsmen of their army we wore nothing upon our Arms that could discover our quality they were very good but not enriched with any ornament that could make them be taken notice of and we had made choice of such that we might have the liberty of passing every where with lesse danger of being known I had taken no particular order about my design but had only resolv'd to lay hold of the first occasion Fortune should offer me to fight with Arsacomes or kill him if I could do it upon even terms and without any basenesse but see how she behav'd her self in that adventure and admire her capriciousnesse in one of the strangest events you ever heard One part of the army was already pass'd when I saw Arsacomes appear at the head of a good number of Commanders among which I knew the good old Cleorestes Leotaris and some other of those friends I had greatest confidence in He was compleatly arm'd as you know it is the custome among the Scythians never to go without there arms upon a march or in passing upon any duty of their Command but his beaver was up and he was easie to be known by many other marks Assoon as ever I saw 't was he my resentments awaken'd in such manner that I no longer was master of them and though in appearance I could not take a more unseasonable time for my satisfaction I was not capable of all necessary considerations and moreover I beleiv'd that in the extreamity I was reduc'd to and in the nature of the cause that mov'd me I could not stand considering nor seek wayes to facilitate my enterprise and be cautious of my safety without cowardise In this conceit turning toward Theodates Dear Theodates said I I can no longer deferr the execution of my design stir not till you see I have need of your assistance and then do what you shall think convenient I harken'd not to what Theodates alledg'd to disswade me from my rash intent but advancing toward Arsacomes I drew near him without any difficulty I saluted him bowing to my saddle bow and speaking to him without putting up my beaver Sir said I may I have a word or two with you in private to inform you of a thing of great importance for the Kings service Arsacomes acâ—us'd me of unmannerliness or folly for having spoken to him without discov'ring my face and looking upon me with an arrogant fashion he ask'd me who I was You shall know Sir answer'd I and with my name shall also learn the business I have to impart to you if you please to withdraw about an hundred paces from this company that is about you With these words I tur'nd my horse and rode toward the place whither I desir'd to draw him and though they that were present would have perswaded him not to follow me and told him that by so doing he should injure his dignity yet being as indeed he was valiant and desirous of glory he beleiv'd that distrust would show a want of spirit In that opinion he commanded them to march on and forbidding them to follow him he came galloping after me and passing by the place where I had stopt went five or six hundred paces from his men I overtook him in an instant and he turning toward me assoon as I drew near Speak now said he at liberty and since no body overhears thee tell me who thou art and what thou hast to communicate to me for the Kings service I thought I might satisfie part of his demand by letting him see my face and for that purpose thrusting up my bever of my cask I am Arsaces answer'd I and and that name alone thou may'st learn all I have to say to thee Arsacomes was so surpris'd at these words and at the unexpected sight of my face that for all he had a great deal of courage he chang'd colour and appear'd as unmoveable as a statue I would not take advantage of his amazement but to give him leasure to recouer it Come to thy self again Arsacomes said I and know him whom neither the King of Scythia's ingratitude nor thine hath been able to ruine I live still in spite of his orders and in spite of thine I live to dispute Berenice with thee endeavour to defend thy pretensions with thy life make thy selfe worthy by that action of what neither thy birth nor thy services have been able to merit Thou canst never hope to possess her quietly while Arsaces is alive and though oughtest to dispatch him out of the world if thou wilt free thy self of a more fortunate rivall and of an irreconcileable enemy My birth is now well enough known to thee to believe thou shalt not wrong thy dignity by this combat nor is there so little honour to be gotten with Arsaces but that thou may'st reckon this encounter as one of the most glorious of thy whole life By these words I strove to draw him to a greater distance from his troups yet he would go but very little further and having settled himself while I was speaking after he had look'd upon me with a more resolute countenance then before Yes said he I am ready to dispute Berenice with thee and since thou hast escap'd the justice of the King her father I shall be glad to revenge his quarrell and make my sword the instrument of that death which thou oughtest to have suffer'd for the defence of thy countrey This cruell reproach to which I saw my self unhappily exspos'd rais'd my anger to the highest pitch and seeing that Arsacomes put his hand to the hilt of his sword without moving any further I drew mine with all the hast I could and making it glitter in his eyes quickly show'd him that to give me my death was not so easy a matter as he imagin'd I beleiv'd I had not much time to satisfie my revenge and that I should soon have part of the army upon me wherefore desiring to shorten that combat with an extraordinary hast I flew at Arsacomes with more fury then judgment and with two fortunate blows gave him two wounds one in the body the other in the right arme which disabled him to fight and put him in such disorder that rushing fiercely against him at the same
I had receiv'd of it and if we had not waited for the news of Prince Oroondates whose presence was necessary to compleat my fortune I according to the wishes of the whole Court had obtain'd the Kings consent for the entire possession of my Princess Yes Brother 't was nothing but your absence alone that retarded our marriage and how passionate and how impatient soever I was my love to you perswaded me easily to expect your return and to approve with a great deal of satisfaction that respect of Berenice's and that testimony of the Kings consideration of you When I was happie in what concer'nd my love the memory of my honour waken'd in me again and I judg'd that all I had done could not serve my reputation while I suffer'd Alexander to reign peaceably over those countreys which he had usurped from us by the death of the King my father and by the loss of some of my friends This remembrance brought back part of that sadnesse into my heart which my present happinesse seem'd to have banished thence and though I found some consolation in the hope of doing something toward the recovery of my glory and of my fathers Dominions the necessity of parting with Berenice began to afflict me very sensibly yet did I pass over all that my love represented contrary to my glory and having cast my self at the Kings feet Sir said I after the honour your Majestie ha's done me to accept me for your son you should not suffer me to live unworthy of that quality and since the recovery of those dominions I have lost is link'd to that of my reputation you are too much concern'd in both to refuse me the assistance I desire of you Alexander has triumph'd over my fathers Empire and his life and reigns quietly over those territories which heretofore were his Without your help Sir I can neither revenge the death of my friends nor rise to the throne of my predecessours and if your Majestie refuse it me the Princesse your daughter must be the wife of a private man and of a man dispossessed of his inheritance Be pleas'd to grant me Sir for the highest effect of generosity some part of those valiant Scythians who have thought me worthie of their friendship By their courage I hope to repair my shame and to reconquer my dominions That destroyer of our House is an enemie to all Kings in generall he alreadie ha's invaded your frontiers and will without doubt come into the bowels of your Kingdome if we carry not the warr to him into those countries whereof he is yet but ill assur'd I said some other things to the King which he heard with patience and answer'd with a great deal of kindness Doubt not son said he but that your interests shall henceforth be mine own nor but that I will conâ—ribute with my utmost powers and even with mine own person to the recovery of your Empire not to make Berenices condition more advantageous by the lustre of a crown I esteem your person above all greatnesses and I know well enough you wear a sword that can both maintain and conquer Empires but because I judge as you do that your glory is interessed in your design I 'le arm the whole power of Scythia for you and will set you at the head of a hundred thousand men who having such a leader will think nothing difficult but hew you out a way to the regaining of the throne you have lost yet I desire we may stay till we either see or hear some news of Oroondates I mean that he shall march along with you that friend whom you so highly have oblig'd and whose company is not to be despis'd and while we expect him order shall be given to make leavyes for the setting of this army on foot Those I was raising against you and the troups you now commanded shall mak a part of them and the rest shall be ready against my sons return or within the time we will limit for that expectation I was so extreamly satisfied at the Kings answer that I could not dissemble my contentment and to render it absolutelie compleat the King protested he would not suffer me to go from Issedon before I had married Berenice That fair Princesse was afflicted at my resolution but being mistriss of a great deal of reason she yeilded to the necessitie of my affairs and to a thing for which she had ever prepared But alas how little time we had to entertain one another and how short my joies were though my griefs had been of long continuance I was in bed when some hours before day I heard a confused noise about the Palace and an infinite number of cryes which were enough to waken the soundest sleepers I leapt into the floor and running to a window saw a great many torches and heard the voice of many persons who cri'd that the Princess was carri'd away At this news I was very near falling into a swoune but I strove to keep all my forces in the need I had of them for such an occasion and presently after Criton came into my chamber Sir said he the Princess is carried away The grief he felt for my misfortune would not suffer him to say mâ—â—e and I was so strucken that I had not the power to get out one word I threw on a few clothes and ran hastilie to Berenice's lodgings where I found Theomiris with Cyllenia and other maids who by their cries redoubled the rage wherewith I was transported and told me with interrupted words how the Princess had been pull'd by force out of her chamber by seaven or eight arm'd men and that those ravishers had carri'd her away by the back stairs into the garden and so out at a hole they had broken through the wall I ran instantly to those stairs where I found two men dead who were known to be grooms of her chamber and going down I saw the hole in the garden wall through which my cruell enemies came in and had got out again Not knowing what way nor what advice to take I went up again to the Kings quarter where I found him buri'd in an extraordinary sorrow I had but few words with him and those so confusedlie put together that it was easie by them to know the disorder of my heart While he was sending out Messengers every way I put on my arms in his presence and taking a hastie leave of him got on horsback with a great many Courtiers who ran thronging to accompanie me We rode out at the Citie at the nearest gate and not being able to judge by any conjecture what way those ravishers had taken we wandred about all the rest of the night without knowing whither we went and at break of day found our selves at a little Town some two or three hundred furlongs from Issedon There we could hear no news in the world and having taken another way and after that a great many seuerall ones we
will do me in believing it give me the boldness to represent unto you that it is no longer with tears you must remedy your misfortunes they are not perchance so great as your apprehension imagines them though Alexander be a Conqueror and young yet is he a Prince and vertuous he in the person of the Queens and Princesses vvill vvithout doubt consider the Royal dignity and the care of his own reputation In the mean time your Majesty may redemand them of him and offer him Treasures and Provinces for their ransome I will accompany your Ambassadors and visit them unknown to vvhom your interests and my passion make me flye if your offers cannot move him and if by my careful endeavours I cannot release those Illustrious Prisoners out of his power I 'le either kill that Conqueror with this hand which he hath already felt and restore a Calm to your Estates or die gloriously disputing with him to the last drop of my blood the price of my services and the fruit of that infinite favour your Majesty has granted me The King hearkned attentively to him and casting his arm about his neck I doe not doubt Son said he but that you love us very much and that you would cast your self into any danger for persons that are so dear to you neither did I expect any thing from you but such effects as are ordinary with you and I should rather hope to regaine my quiet by your assistance then by the help of all my Forces but how great a change soever your valour might bring unto my fortune I cannot resolve to let you goe away from me in a season wherein your sight is so dear and your consolation so pleasing to me We may use some other remedies and how low soever I seem I have yet powerful means to rise again for though Alexander hath seised on a part of my Dominions I have still ten times as much as ever his Ancestors possess'd I am going toward the Euphrates where I can yet raise a Million of men and will cover the Fields of his new Conquest with such vast numbers that in spite of all his fortune I 'le make him know the difference there is between the Persian Monarch and a petty King of Macedon While you are making those Levies replied Oroondates I 'le labour for the deliverance of the Princesses and if Alexander restore them willingly to your Ambassadors I 'le wait upon them to your Majesty not that I can leave you in this condition without a very sensible grief nor that my passion could draw me from you if my misfortune and the King my Fathers obstinacy had not made me unable to serve your Majesty with more then mine own person for the King of Scythia's hatred and my knowledge of his nature hinder me from offering you his assistance since then I can be no other ways useful here then as a single person be pleased to give me leave to go to Alexander vvhere I may serve you vvith much more efficacy Your Majesty shall give no Battel vvherein if I am alive I will not fight by your side and possibly before you are in those tearms I may have made an end of all your Wars alone They had yet some other contestations which the hazard the King might run if he should have staid longer so near his Enemies made them put an end to and my Master having at last obtain'd his permission to go to Alexanders Camp perswaded the King to get upon fresh horses which were brought him and having taken his leave of him of Oxyartes and the whole company with many tears he saw them take their way toward the Euphrates staying behind with Mithranes and those that were to accompany him in his Embassy We followed the poor King with our eyes and thoughts and my Master having lost sight of him appear'd so sad and so afflicted that if his grief had not been abated by the hope of seeing his Princess quickly he had been utterly incapable of any comfort After this parting I began to think upon our vvounds not judging that my Prince ought in that condition to ingage himself among the Enemies where perchance he might not finde that help and that repose which were necessary for his cure he gave ear unto my reasons and riding with Mythranes toward that little Town which was not far off we got thither within an hower There we had our wounds dress'd and rested the remainder of that day and the day following The morning after we received a Letter which Darius had written to Alexander and another to the Queens to give the more credence to my Master that good King knowing they would not be unprofitable for him and believing hee vvould be glad to carry them himself but the next day Alexanders Forces under the command of Craterus came and summon'd that little Town which finding it self too weak to sustain so much as their approaches cast it self into the arms of the Conquerours We had liberty to march away and going out in the same Equipage we came in we bethought our selves of another retreat where we might stay the cure of our wounds which were not great but grown much worse by our want of care to get them look'd to in time We learn't of the Macedonians that Alexander was gone toward Marathon which he already caus'd to be beleaguered with an intent to be at the Siege in person though he was very much troubled with the wound in his thigh and that he had sent Parmenio with part of the Army to Damascus where all the remaining wealth of Darius his Army with the Wives of the Princes and Satrapes of Persia were under the charge of Artaban the Governour of that Town My Master being yet very unfit to perform his Embassy to Alexander was by this news perswaded to put himself into Damascus which was not above a days Journey and an half from us with an intention to stay there till his wounds vvere cured to see the fair Barsina Widow to the valiant Memnon and many other Ladies of his acquaintance to whom his assistance might perchance be necessary in such an encounter but his last and chiefest motive was a design to use his utmost endeavours to doe Darius some service in the conservation of that place which was of so high consequence and though strong enough to endure a Siege yet he feared in some danger of being lost for having formerly known Artaban in the Court he who could very well judg of men had observ'd something in his carriage which made him believe so great a trust might have been put into better hands These considerations made him take the resolution of going thither yet being unwilling that the solicitation of the Princesses liberties should be so long neglected he delivered Darius his Letter to Alexander unto Mithranes whom he perswaded to go directly to Marathon after he had earnestly desired his secrecy in whatsoevet concern'd him and made an appointment to
communicated to him a designe he had and left a Commander in chief over the Body of Scythians in his stead chose out only a thousand from among them and the most valliant Persians to make use of them assoon as he should find an oportunity The Counsell of War having been held Orders given and Sacrifices offered the King put on his Arms and with him my Prince Oxyartes Artabazus and the Principal Officers of the Army and when they thought it time they got all on horseback except Darius who having seated himself in his Chariot went up and down the ranks every where to animate with his voice and presence the most faint-hearted and raise them to a contempt of danger his countenance had an extraordinary Majesty his voice was louder and clearer then it was wont and because I was very near his Chariot I heard him speak to his Soldiers in these or such like words DARIUS his Speech unto his Army WE have been Masters heretofore of all that the Ocean washes and of all the Hellespont environs but we have lost it all and sight no longer now for the recovery of those Countreys nor for glory which is more Considerable then our estates but for our safety and for our Liberty which is dearer to us then our lives Heretofore we had new supplies and places of refuge we could recover in Cylicia what we had lost near the Granicus we could retire into Syria when we were beaten in Cylicia but now we are reduced to such extreamity that our places of retreat our supplies our Goods our Cities and all our latest hopes are shut up within the circuit of this Camp here therefore it is that we must either Conquer to save what remains or lay our bones in the presence of your wives and children who have no other security but that of your defence This is the fatal day that must either establish or utterly destroy this Empire which for this two hundred and thirty years has been terrible to the whole world The Gods are witnesses that I have done my part for its conservation I have rais'd Forces I have arm'd them I have brought them to face the enemy and now the rest depends on you do but dare to conquer and never be frighted at a vain reputation which can make no impression in men of conrage It is but rashnesse which hitherto you have feared mistaking it for true valour having vented its first fury like Serpents that have lost their stings you shall see it faint and languish This plain discovers that weaknesse which the Mountains of Cylicia concealed behold the thinnesse of their ranks and mark how their wings stretch'd out to the uttermost length have left their battel empty and without defence as valiant as you count them we easily may trample them under our horses feet and if we win this battel the War is ended They have no way to scape being shut up between two Rivers and their Camp burthen'd with our spoils is cumbersome and disabled to retreat what they have taken from us will facilitate our victory in which you will both finde your safety and recover all that you have lost This Alexander whose name strikes such a terrour in the fearful is a man as well as the worst of you happy rather by our cowardise then his own valour Though fortune has given successe to his temerity her favours will not last for ever whereas reason alone makes our felicity durable Perhaps the Gods have thus afflicted Persia onely to make this Empire proud of an universal command acknowledge a Soveraign power and think upon the frailty of humane affairs which in prosperity does often escape our memories Wee have formerly made War against the Greeks upon their Territories now we repel it in our own these are the vicissitudes of fortune but if you be assaulted with them your King hath felt them much more heavily for besides the publick calamities the miseries of my family ought to move you to compassion My Mother and my Daughters your Queen and your Princesses are in the bondage of your enemy who brings them along in triumph that should command you and but that I still reserve my self for you I should say that I my self were a Captive in my better part Deliver my bowels out of slavery and restore me my children for whom I refuse not death My Wife your Queen has already expired in bonds and all that remains of her and mee stretch out their hands to you and conjure you by the Gods of your Country and by the love you bear your own to free them from chains and from a Captivity which is shameful both to you and to them that were born for you I conjure you to the same my self and pray you by your houshold Gods by the eternal fire we carry upon our Altar by the light of the Sun which rises within the limits of my Empire and by the memory of Cyrus who added that of the Medes and Lydians unto it that you would save both the name and Nation of the Persians from its utter ruine and from its utter infamy and leave that glory to your posterity which you received so entire from your Ancestors You carry in your own hands your goods your lives your liberties and your future hopes and in your faces a most assured Victory I read it in your eyes and in your March he that despises death avoids it best and it soonest catches the fearful that fly from it Let 's on therefore fellow soldiers whither so many considerations call us I see the Enemies Army move go and receive them couragiously or rather follow me for I refuse not to lead you on and to be your example either of valour or cowardise The King spoke these words with a great deal of vehemence and the soldiers answered them with a shout that pierced the very clouds from which he drew a good omen of the Victory But the two Armies being so near that they were upon the point of joining battel all the Commanders ran to their charges and my Master parting from the King who gave him his last embrace Sir said he I will either die generously to day or restore unto your Majesty some part of what you have lost Go Son said the King may the Gods take as great care of thy safety as of mine own and be so gracious that I may see you again with as much joy as I part from you with sorrow We left him on this manner and my Prince placing himself at the head of a thousand horse which he had chosen went aside from the rest of the Army while the Signal being given on both sides they presently closed battel with great terror and slaughter I will omit to tell you any thing concerning it you know the beginning progresse and event of it much better then I can tell you besides that I going along with my Master could only be a witnesse of the meeting of the two
as for the felicities he had lost Behold would he say sometimes a youth extreamly well spent and gallant hopes brought into a very fair haven behold a happie successe of so many labours and a fortunate conclusion of a love grounded upon such marvellous beginnings it was exceeding necessary to expose my self so to many crosses and to so many disasters as this miserable life ha's been perpetually toss'd withall to reap this brave this glorious recompence O Statira the best belov'd and the most faithlesse of all woman-kind how generously you have dealt with me and in how fit a season and how handsomly you have again taken up the thoughts of that ancient hatred of our Families certainly you have gain'd an infinit glory by this last action and have fairly reveng'd the Persians of those losses they had heretofore received by the Scythians O how happy art thou Alexander to have attain'd unto the end which I aspired to by ways so contrary to those I practis'd and to have wonn that by bloud by imprisonments and by outrages which I have lost by so much love by so much fidelity and by so many services and how well satisfied art thou Roxana to see thy Predictions accomplished and this ingratefull this brutish and this uncivil man punished according to thy wish with a chastisement that was most justly due to him Thoughts of this nature were his ordinary entertainments and sometimes lying along by the side of a Fountain whose source he often augmented with his tears when the water of it was a little setled from the trouble which their falling into it had caused and that he could read the marks of his affliction in the alteration of his face Were it possible would he say that Statira could see me in this condition touch'd with pitty and that she could behold the change of my countenance and not have some remorse for that of her own heart These were all his pastimes and if he went sometimes a hunting in the Park where there was great store of game he was so insensible of the pleasures which were wont formerly to divert him that we judg'd in the end his disease was utterly incurable He never enquired after the affairs of the State and had so given over all kind of other cares except that of his grief that he seem'd no longer to have any interest in the world I stirr'd not out of the Castle no more then he and though that leave was offer'd me upon condition I would come in no more I would not accept it but persever'd in the resolution I had taken to fix my self inseparably to the good or evil fortune of my Master he lamented my condition and often said to me Araxes be no longer obstinate to accompany my destinie it is so unfortunate that 't will entangle thee in my destruction and I am so sorry to see thee spend thy youth in so unhappy an estate that my griefs do thereby receive a most sensible addition retire from me I prithee and if I be not able as I ought and as I could wish to requite the good services I have received from thee satisfie thy self with my good desires and expect thy reward from the Gods who without doubt will not suffer thy fidelity to go without a recompence These words drew tears out of my eyes but not the designe out of my heart which I had settled in it never to forsake him while I lived A year was already run out since the beginning of our imprisonment when we learn'd by our Keepers that the Macedonians were entred Scythia under the command of Arimbas and my Prince asked the Captain of our Guards what order the King took about it Sir answered he it is but very few days since Arimbas Governor of Pontus for Alexander is come into our Frontiers with an Army of forty thousand men he ha's done no great matters yet and as the King was thinking to raise Forces to send or lead thither himself for the defence of his Countrey he heard that the valiant Arsaces was coming home victorious with his after having done such actions of courage and good conduct against his rebell Subjects as surpass belief The Newes made him change his Designe and instantly he dispatch'd a Messenger with all speed unto Arsaces sending him Order to march with his whole strength against the Macedonians while he rais'd more to come and joyn with him under the command of Arsacomes every body hopes for a happy success of this War by the valour and good fortune of Arsaces and all the Kingdom prepares cheerfully to oppose this enemy of the whole earth Do but see Sir how love and grief those two fatall and ruinous passions had chang'd my Masters mind as well as his body and how they had divested him of all his former inclinations to leave no access for any but themselves In former times he would have been extreamly moved at such an occasion and would not have been able to endure his imprisonment when it was needfull to take up arms for the defence of his Countrey and that the King his Father was fain to ground his hopes and the protection of his Dominions upon the valour and fidelity of a stranger of mean and obscure birth but then he receiv'd this newes as the relation of a Story in which he was not at al concern'd and made no shew in the world either of sorrow for the troubles of his Countrey or of envy to the glory of that Arsaces who possessed his place and rendred those services to his father which in all likelyhood he should rather have expected from him he only said to him that had made him that relation If I were not so criminal as I am and that the King would honour me with this enterprise I would serve him in it perhaps with lesse prudence and lesse valour but at least with as much fidelitie as Arsaces Two months after the advancing of these Forces newes came to Court and to us also that Arsaces had given battel to the Macedonians that he had kill'd their General Arimbas and had gotten so absolute a victory that scarce a man escaped All Scythia made bonfires for this good successe and they of Issedon prepared to receive Arsaces who all covered with Lawrels was returning into a Countrey which he had restored to quiet by many victories gloriously obtained within a few days after we heard that he was come and that the King the whole Court and all the people had rendred him honours worthy of his vertue and services but within a week more we were told how the King without any consideration of his deserts had caus'd him to be put in prison the reason of his disgrace being known but to very few My Prince was sorry for his Fathers ingratitude and would wilingly have disposed himself to help that gallant man if he had had any power to help himself To what purpose Sir shoul Iâ—tire you longer with so tedious a
an Army which happinesse hee yet had never had though he always had most ardently desired it He demanded leave of the King to see the Princess Berenice his sister but it was refused him and the King commanded him not to enquire the cause that made him send him away so suddenly and so secretly The Prince resign'd himself to his Fathers pleasure without murmuring and spent the rest of the day with him in receiving Orders and Instructions for that War The next morning assoon as it was day the King himself led him out of the Castle where my Prince found a very brave retinue and among the Officers appointed for his house he knew Toxaris and Loncates those two faithful servants which he had lost at the battel of Arbela and who a while before were return'd into Scythia after having run through an infinite number of dangers and endur'd a long captivity among the Macedonians My Master was extreamly glad to see them and having used them with great kindness as the faithful companions of his fortune he with much civility embraced all those who by his Fathers election were to attend him The King saw him get on horseback and having taken his leave of him return'd to Issedon assoon as we were gone My Prince being accompanied by Arsacomes Theodates my Father whose name is Cleorestes and two or three hundred of the chief men of all Scythia followed the Army which was two or three days march before us and took the way toward that part of Scythia which is called Sendica and which is situate between the Euxin Sea and the River Boristhenes The fourth day after our departure we got up to our Forces and upon the banks of the River Hypanis my Prince made a generall muster of them he found them very weak and admired the King his Father would send him with so poor a strength against the Conquerors of the whole world The Issedons had arm'd six thousand horse the Sarmates four thousand the Massagetes 5000 the Agatirsians 3000 the Tauroscythians 3000 the Agripeans 2000 the Nomadians three thousand the Hyleans the Basilides and all those that are neer the Lake of Buges six thousand and the Satarchians two thousand he had no Infantry at all for you know the Scythians never make use of any but in great Expeditions and where they are constrain'd to bring up all their Forces The Prince having found by his Muster Rolls that his whole Army consisted of no more then five and thirty thousand horse divided it into three bodies he gave the first of ten thousand to Arsacomes the second of a like number to Theodates Prince of the Sarmates and kept a third of twelve thousand for himself making my Father Cleorestes his Lieutenant and giving him the command of that body in his place whensoever he should be forced to goe to any other part of the Army where his presence was necessary There yet remain'd three thousand horse and my Prince was pleas'd that I should have the honour to command them as a loose reserve to give relief to those that should first stand in need of assistance This being ordered the Army march'd strait to the Boristhenes and having pass'd it over a Bridge of Boats advanced toward the City of Olbiopolis which was then besieged by Zopirio being the onely place that had had the courage to make a generous defence I believe Sir you will be content I should cut off as much of the discourse of this War as I can possibly I will tell you therefore omitting many particularities of small importance that the same day we pass'd the Boristhenes we received intelligence that Zopirio advertised of our hasty advance toward him had raised his Siege from the place which he had block'd up before and was coming to meet us with Colours flying Oroondates gave the Gods thanks for his brave resolution and though he knew the weakness of his Forces yet would he not stay for the Supplies the King his Father had made him hope for but thought he would encourage those he had so well by his example that he should infallibly obtain the Victory with this confidence he march'd strait toward him and to shorten this relation the third night after wee discovered the fires of his Army in a great Plain which is between the Cities of Olbiopolis and Miletopolis and the Boristhenes and the Danube This sight put courage into the Scythians who indeed are the most Warlick of all men living especially for the defence of their Territories My Prince had much adoe to keep them in that night and assoon as ever the Sun began to restore his light unto the world the two Armies saluted one another with such dreadful shouts that the Banks of the Danube ecchoed with them and many birds astonied with the loud shrilness of that noise fell down afrighted among the soldiers feet Oroondates at the very first peep of day had caus'd the signal of the battel to be set up on the top of his Tent which was in a field Gules two crosse Javelins proper The Scythians no sooner saw it appear but they sent forth a second shout full of joy and eagernesse to fight from whence my Prince drew a good presage of the Victory When he was gotten up he offered sacrifices in company of all the Commanders to Jupiter to Apollo and to the Goddess Tellus and to Mars the fairest horses of the Army and having given out Orders to the principal Officers he sent them away unto their charges A while after he put on all his arms except his headpiece which Toxaris carried after him and mounting on horseback he visited all the Troops one after another observing and carefully correcting the defects giving all instructions necessary for the winning of the battel and exhorting them to do gallantly by the most pressing words the desire of Victory could put into his mouth My friends said he to them these you have now to fight withal are not the Persians your ancient enemies whom you alwayes conquered more easily then you could meet with them I will not flatter you nor make any scruple to tell you that which might strike terror into cowards but will only add vigour to that noble courage which always accompanies you upon service and which hitherto has made you victorious over all those that have dared to encounter you They are Macedonians they are Thracians two valiant warlike people and to be plain they are part of those Forces that have made their King the Emperor of the world They are the Vsurpers of all the earth who not being satisfied with that Tyrannous domination they have got by violence over all Asia Africa and the better part of Europe would yet extend their Empire over your liberties and your lives Let this difference of your enemies raise you to extraordinary atchievements you cannot conquer them without difficulty but neither can you conquer them without glory nor without fruit upon the winning or losing
the Gods who have caus'd me to be born a Princesse have taught me the way to die also like a Princess These words struck Alexander with a very great astonishment and she had hardly ended them when rising from before him she went into another Chamber and would neither see him nor hear him any more notwithstanding all the intreaties that were used to her and all the commands she received from the Queen Alexander admiring the greatness of her courage and not being able to contradict the truth of her reproaches was yet so stung with them that he protested before Sysigambis he would never importune her more while he liv'd and that he would change the design he had had for her advantage unto the favor of some other Mistresse So without making any longer stay at Susa he took horse vvith those that had attended him and carrying back Oxiartes with him he return'd unto his Army which was in the same place where he had left it a few days before Before he went away he gave order that the Queen and the Princesses with all the companions of their fortune should be no longer kept as prisoners knowing well that after the death of Darius and the losse of all they had their surest retreat was under his protection he therefore settled great allowances to maintain them and left them in a perfect liberty Hereupon many of the Ladies whose husbands and Fathers had continued still at their own houses or had been re-established in them and their commands by Alexander went home again unto them Roxâ—â—a's Mother was one of that number being sent for by her husband who having retired into his Government had not yet felt the power of Alexander She departed from Susa when she had taken her leave of the Queen and Princesses and took her daughter Roxana along with her Statira who loved her not was not sorry for her going away and though cunning Roxana shed some dissembling tears at that separation the Princess to whom her malice was well enough known showed but very little trouble for parting with her The daughters of King Occhus fair and vertuous Princesses and the daughters of Mentor remained still at Susa Barsina would not forsake Statira with whom sheâ— was knit in a most constant friendship though she heard within a vvhile after that her Father Artabazus with the rest of his Family had been courteously receiv'd by Alexander and placed in the number of his dearest and most considerable friends and certainly his vertue deserv'd that usage for having preserv'd so inviolable a fidelity to his deceased King that the changes of his fortune had never made him capable of change The Court of Susa would at that time have been reasonable fair if it had not been composed of persons whose faces were the true pictures of sorrow and desolation the situation of that Town is very pleasant and the conveniency of the Walks invited the Princesses often to divert part of their melancholy in them They spent a whole year there without being troubled with any new disquiet and hearing every day the marvellous progress of Alexanders Forces they learn'd how he had vanquished the Mardes and conquered all Hyrcania how he had subdued the Draches the Evergetes the Hydaspians and all the people that inhabit near Mount Caucasus how he had also made the Bactrians and Zogdians submit unto him and how all the Territories that heretofore were under Darius had already receiv'd the Macedonian yoak and lived under them in a still calm and a very perfect obedience The most pleasing news they heard was that of the punishment of Bessus whom after hee had seised upon Bactria Alexander had taken by his own cowardise and the conspiracy of his friends and that great King detesting so wicked a fellow stain'd with the murther of his Prince had deliver'd him into Oxiartes hands who to revenge the death of his brother had caus'd that Paricide to be put to death by an extraordinary kind of execution he made four Trees to be bended down by a great number of men and causing the legs and the arms of that disloyal man to bee fast tied unto the branches of them they being all let slip vvith violence tore every one its quarter and dismembred that miserable wretch with marvellous suddenness Alexander pardoned Narbazanes at the intercession of the Eunuch Bagoas who was in greater favor with him then he had been with Darius After this news they heard another at which they were very much surprised and that was the Marriage of Alexander to Roxana which by the hastiness of it fill'd his whole Court and all Asia with astonishment At these words my Prince interrupting the Evnuch What said he has Alexander then married the wicked Roxana Yes Sir answered the Eunuch and learn but in two vvords how that adventure was related to us Alexander being come into the Province of the Roxana's father who was Governor of it after hee had delivered up all the Townes and the whole Country into his hands made him a very stately reception and a most magnificent entertainment His fairest ornament in the Kings eye was his daughter Roxana who accompanied by thirty other Ladies chosen among the most beautiful of all that Province waited upon the King all the while he was at meat and that Prince who had formerly seen her near the Queens with an indifferent eye thought her at that time so attractive that he became passionately in love with her and having by long absence by his great imploiments and partly by disdain quenched the affection he had borne Statira he resolv'd to make Roxana his wife and not deferring longer to effect it he declared his intention to his friends and to the Father of that Princess and having the consent of all either through fear or through compliance hee consummated the marriage the same day and rais'd that proud malicious woman to a fortune which she had never pretended to The Queen and the Princesses were amazed at this news and though they did not at all envy her advancement their knowledge of her humor made them apprehend her power and fear some part of those misfortunes which have since befallen them Yet Statira was exceeding glad that she was by that marriage delivered from Alexanders importunities and began to live with more tranquillity then she had done since the losse of Darius and the belief of your supposed infidelity In the mean time notwithstanding all the care she had taken to blot you out of her remembrance yet could she not utterly do it but you return'd into it in so many and so different forms that she hardly knew you any more Scarce did you begin to appear unto her imagination as that brave Oroondates by whom she had been so perfectly loved and from whom she had received so many services but presently a new fancy represented you as that faithlesse and dis-obliging Prince of Scythia who had so cruelly forsaken her and so mortally injured
to depart the next day at night settled some necessary Orders in the Army and provided himself of what he thought most useful for his Journey two howres before he went away hee wrote this Letter to Arsacomes commanding one of his Officers to give it him after his departure Prince OROONDATES to ARSACOMES MY cruel destiny forces me away from you without having the time or means to bid you farewel you will command the Army which I leave you and which I could not commit into better hands then yours enquire not after the cause of my departure nor the place of my abode and let the King my Father know I forsook not the Army he had given me while this Countrey had any need of my presence and he of the service of OROONDATES We took horse two howres within night and being followed only by Tyreus Toxaris and Loncates we travelled the way toward Hypoleon which is a very noted Haven upon the Euxin Sea and riding by Moon-light we arrived there by break of day We found our Barque in the best readiness we could have wish'd and the wind very right for our design My Prince commended the diligence of him I had employed and promising him great recompences went a Ship-board then making the Marriners hoist Sail we lanch'd out straight toward Byzantium Now Sir make a little reflexion upon my Masters fortunes call to mind the first actions of his life remember the beginnings of his love the marvellous continuation of it and think upon the end which the Gods seemed to have put unto it and from this consideration draw a knowledge of the persecutions of Heaven and of the inconstancy of Fortune He in the course of his affection had suffered all that the courage of man was capable to endure and when Fortune after having taken all from him made shew to promise him some shadow of quiet yet but a false one and bought with the losse of his true quiet and of all his hopes that unstable Goddess envied him even that appearance of repose which she had granted but by force and took that also from him which he enjoyed against her will Behold my poor Master yet once again in the wide world behold him more passionate then ever and behold him burning and flaming even in the midst of the waves that carried him his Barque though it cut them with a wonderful swiftness seem'd too slow by half to his desires and though the winde carried us with a stiffe and favorable gale directly toward Byzantium yet did it not swel our Sails sufficiently to satisfie the eagerness of his love nor blow impetuously enough to second the impatiency that transported him he discovered it by a thousand actions contrary to his former moderation and by a thousand sayings which retain'd but little of the solidity of his wonted Discourse sometimes he seem'd to us reasonably chearful and some glimpse of hope which shin'd yet into his soul through the midst of so many obstacles put him for a few moments into something a more pleasing humour he then revolv'd the passages of his Princesses Letter in his thoughts and calling to mind those words wherein she expressed the remainder of her affection most to the life he laid new foundations for his happinesse upon them and found matter to raise his dejected hopes which had been buried so many years Who forbids me to hope said he but that this Princesse may again take up her affection with the knowledge of my love and of mine innocence but what should make me doubt it since she assures me of it her self does she not confesse that she loves me still and that she will conserve her affection for a punishment of her crime I am certain then she loves me and by consequence I am most assured that I am happie and that I am contented since 't is upon her love alone that I have ever grounded my happinesse and my contentment be satisfied therefore Oroondates since thy Princess loves thee and that moreover she would see thee for to what other end did she cause thee to be sought out with so much care and so much hazard of her reputation and quietnesse and to what intent should she yet write so passionate a Letter to thee if she did not desire to draw thee to her once again She loves thee then and she would see thee comfort thy self therefore and obey her since by that consolation and obedience thou recoverest all that thou hast lost and goest to live in a happier condition then thou couldest hope for This thought would keep him for some time reasonable well pleased but then of a sudden the marriage of his Princesse coming again into his memory together with the consideration of her vertue and of what she owed and would undoubtedly pay to such a husband as Alexander she whom he knew to be of an humour to hold her self to the severity of her dutie though to a man much lesse considerable then so great and so gallant a person thinking also upon the protestation which she made to him of it her self and the assurances wherewith the Eunuch had confirmed it all his hopes vanished and he became more sad and melancholy then before 'T is true said he Statira loves me but she loves me for her punishment and not for my satisfaction this is but a new matter of grief for me if I were still hated by her I should only suffer my own torment but now seeing her languish in an affection which by her own confession must only serve to make her unfortunate I shall be unhappy both through her miseries and through mine own her Letter is only a mark of her acknowledgement and a dutie she renders to him whom she had used so ill and by whom she had been so faithfully served she had been very cruel if so many expressions of my love and the knowledge she has lately had of mine innocence had not extorted from her at least as obliging words as those of her Letter it is a great deal less then she owes me after all that I have done for her and though she had ask'd councel of Alexander himself he would not have taken it ill that she should give me this slight satisfaction so long as she gives her self entirely to him This last thought cast him down again so extreamly that as often as it came into his mind he would lie immovable and stretch'd out upon the deck with very little appearance of life in him then of a sudden coming out of a deep studie in which that remembrance had buried him O Gods cry'd he perchance at this very moment while Oroondates weeps and sighs Alexander is taking kisses from the inviting lips of my dear Princesse and perhaps that face which I have so much adored is at this instant cemented to his who has been the murtherer of her Father and Mother and the destroyer of her whole Family that fair body that excellent mind that admired
not very hot had half benummed us and our Cloaths yet full of it were extraordinary heavy True it is that they disburthen'd themselves of a good part of it by the way and we marked our track sufficiently to discover whither we were gone if any body had had a minde to follow us but they vvere all so concern'd in the Kings condition that I believe their care of him took them up wholly for the present we struck out of the way and rode crosse the Fields and within an howre discovering certain Cottages far from the great Rode my Prince thought good wee should go thither to dry our selves and passe the rest of the day When we had alighted the Master of the house at my intreaty made us a great fire and fitting a couple of such beds as his poverty allowed him we went into them leaving the care of our horses and of drying our cloaths unto Toxaris While wee staid there I could not retain my thoughts nor forbear extolling my Princes generosity to his face expressing how much I had been troubled to see him oppose that happinesse himself which the Gods had visibly sent him But his modesty first cut off the course of those praises I was running on withall and then the greatnesse of his courage quite stopt my mouth Araxes said he to me let us not pretend by base ways to that which is not due to such as are capable of base inclinations if the Gods will not by other means restore what they have taken from me let us resolve rather to bear the losse then recover it with so much shame and meanness of spirit Alexander has no fortune but what he has very well deserv'd and if the Gods who have destined to him the Empire of the whole Earth have not exempted from it what I pretended to let us not oppose their wils or at least let us oppose them with more glory and by the same ways which gain'd him that we would dispute for But Sir replyed I though you should not have observ'd in what manner Heaven laboured so visibly to your advantage what shame had you received by suffering what Meleager Perdiccas and divers others suffered without casting themselves into the danger whereinto you precipitated your self and what caus would Alexander have had to complain if his mortal enemy had not given him that succour which he found not among his chiefest friends I should have been extreamly ashamed answered Orâ—ondates if by my fault I had let perish the greatest of all men living by whom I am injured only through my own misfortune and by whom I have been obliged only through his generosity besides one could not without infamy have avoided the danger there was in helping him nor without inhumanity could I have refused my Princesses tears the safety of a husband whom she loves and whom she ought to love Though Alexander had had no cause to complain of me I should have had a great deal to complain of my self and being my own satisfaction is dearer to me then his the reproach I might have us'â— unto my self for having fail'd to doe a noble action either through fear of danger or consideration of interest would have been much more sensible to me then that I could have receiv'd from him of whom I neither pretend to thanks nor recompences With this and other such Discourse we spent the time till our Cloaths were dry and when the night was near we got our selves ready and taking horse again not long after Sun-set we made our Host bring us into the great High-way and as it grew late rode straight to Susa where we arriv'd within little more then an howre The Gates of the Town did not use to be shut and in spite of the darkness we found our lodging where we alighted Assoon as my Prince was in his Chamber the impatience of seeing his Princess set him upon the rack more then ever and being resolv'd to execute what he had forethought he call'd Tyreus to make use of him in that occasion His so long abode with Darius had gotten him a great number of friends who at that time held the same place near Alexander which they had enjoyed during the life of the deceased King He was most assured of Prince Oxiartes his friendship that of Artabasus was not unknown to him neither did he doubt of Mazeus Oxidates Bagoas and many others to whom he believ'd he might with safety commit his person and the secrecy of his affairs Among the Ladies also hee knew divers to whom he would have made no difficulty to trust himself the Princess Parisatis and even Queen Sysigambis had expressed too much affection to leave him any suspition of their good wils Apamia and Arsinoe then wives to Ptolomeus and Eumenes the daughters of King Occhus and the daughters of Mentor had appeared too affectionate to his interests to make him fear any alteration in them But amongst all these he thought the fair and vertuous Barsina was she in whom hee might have the greatest confidence and from whom he might hope for the best assistance and when he call'd to minde the modest friendship whereof she had given him so many proofs and the report Tyreus had made him of her perseverance in taking his part in the deepest of his disgrace he judg'd he ought not to discover himself to any other and that he ought to give over the care of the remainder of his life to her alone Having taken this resolution he would not defer the executing of it and for that purpose going out of our lodging accompanied only by Tyreus and my self he went unto Barsina's being guided by Tyreus who knew the streets and turnings of Susa very perfectly and who had been often sent by the Queen his Mistress unto her house Tyreus having made himself known to the Porter brought us in and by the help of the Candles that were upon the stairs conducted us into a privat Hall Barsina having supp'd was retired into her Chamber where by good fortune she was at that time without other company save one of her waiting women Tyreus who knew the house and was known by every body in it went up to her without difficulty but no sooner did Barsina see him when surprised at his arrival she ran to him to enquire after the success of his Voiage After she had welcomed him and received him very civilly O Tyreus said she speaking reasonable softly what news doe you bring us None bad Madam answered he but I have left two men below in the Hall who will tell you more certainly what I bring you if please to admit them to speak to you in privat Barsina without informing her self any farther either of their names or condition entred into her Closet and once again bidding Tyreus welcome she prayed him to fetch those persons from vvhom she expected very pleasing news Tyreus came back to us and telling my Prince how Barsina had receiv'd him led us
a week at the farthest he gave the same promise to the Prince of Scythia who burning with impatience to accompany him and bidding him farewell with tears Go Lysimachus said he go dear brother of my misfortunes labour for our common repose and leave me not long unprofitable though I can serve you but as a single man I will serve you as one that is most highly and passionately concerned I prefer your assistance answered Lysimachus before the help of all the world and I shall march more boldly with you then if I were invironed by all the Troups which heretofore accompanied Darius After some other discourse full of affection of protestations of friendship and of an inseparable union in their interests Lysimachus got on horseback and taking his way toward Ptolomeus his Camp left Oroondates sensibly grieved at his departure but having an exceeding firm courage he comforted himself with the hope of his speedy return and the necessity of that separation He vvould not go up again into his Chamber and although Araxes press'd him to it very earnestly he neglected his entreaties and feeling he had strength enough to walk he vvent into the Garden and visited the pleasant Allies which till then he had not seen Araxes helped him in his walk and the Prince having with his assistance taken a turn or two in the Garden vvent out at the little Gate which led into the Wood. Having a while considered the fair spread Trees the Rocks over-grown with mosse and the many little streams which rolled along upon the gravel with a very pleasing murmure What a delightful place is this Araxes said he for one in my condition I dedicate a good part of my time to be spent in it and doe not wonder if Lysimachus found consolation here Having said thus he took a beaten path and following it softly came to the side of a fountain which vvas very beautiful for one that vvas beholding to none but nature he sate down on the bank of it upon Araxes his Mantle and cast his eyes upon a Brook which taking its source from thence emptied it self about two hundred paces off into the Euphrates While he was in his deepest muse he thought he heard some persons talking hard by him and having his imagination still prepossess'd with the remembrance of Statira and the vision he had seen a few days before being still present to his memory he believ'd he heard something of the tone of her voice and of the Princess her sisters he rouz'd himself in a start and lending an ear vvith more attention Didst thou hear nothing said he to Araxes who vvas by him in a study No Sir answered Araxes Ah! without doubt replyed the Prince I deceived my self and only my wounded fancy brought this sound unto my ears He was confirm'd in that conceipt when he could hear no more noise and letting himself loose to the consideration of his misfortunes he continued near an hower in an entertainment suitable to his present estate in the end he grew weary of sitting there and rising up vvith Araxes he vvent on farther into the Wood and following the course of the Brook he came insensibly to the place vvhere Lysimachus a few days before had found the names of Cassandra and Euridice engraven upon the Rocks and Trees Oroondates had been told that adventure by Lysimachus and knowing the place by the tokens he had given him of it Here it is said he Araxes that some unfortunate persons like us give themselves ease by communicating their disasters to things inanimate O Gods have they not reason to complain to them since they finde you so little sensible Whosoever you be continued he casting his eyes upon the names of Cassandra and Euridice afflicted souls comfort your selves by the encounter of such as are in the same condition and suffer not your selves to be cast down by misfortunes which ordinarily persecute the vertuous A sudden fancy that came into his mind hindred him from going on with that Discourse and making Araxes cast up his eye Look here with me I pray thee said he and tell me if these characters are not very like my Princesses the bark and stone upon which one cannot engrave with such facility as one may write upon paper have a little disguised them yet if thy memory be good thou canst not deny but that many stroaks have a great resemblance Araxes was of his opinion and this encounter obliged him to read the same Lymathus had done before he had gone but a very little way in it when he cryed out O Gods Araxes What is this I see Is it possible the destiny of this afflicted Cassandra should agree so much with that of my Princesse if she were yet alive Certainly if the Gods had continued her in the world after the losse of Alexander and that she had preserved me in her remembrance I should have believed she her self had writ these words But alas Araxes shee 's dead and if any spirit under the name of Cassandra hath graved them here to recall her into my memory and to put me in mind of what I owe to her that care is very needlesse since there is no moment but that remembrance and I are inseparable Having said thus he went on with his reading and the farther he read the more he was confirm'd in his opinion After he had spent some time in that employment his restlesse thoughts made him desire to go to some other place so following the current of the â—rook he came to a pleasing grassy place where he found two women asleep their habit was very plain and little different from that of Polemons wife and daughters They were laid along upon their side and embracing one another their faces with the help of their loose hair hid each others mutually Araxes had formerly told his Master the encounter Lysimachus and he had in the Garden of that unknown Cassandra and remembring that she was apparelled as those two women he believ'd it vvas she her self and that Euridice whose name was interwoven with hers in so many places That which Oroondates had read concerning he fortunes of those two women and the resemblance he found in them to those of Statira and the Princesse her sister would have been enough to have stirr'd up a desire of knowing them in a man lesse afflicted but his soul was so taken up with grief that there was no room in it for curiosity besides he believ'd them to be of a quality answerable to the habit they wore and to the condition they were in not being ignorant that Love and Fortune exercise their tyranny equally upon persons of all estates He pass'd on vvithout interrupting them in their repose when Araxes more curious then he turning back to consider them saw an open paper fall from one of their hands which the wind carried presently to his feet He took it up though his Master would have disswaded him from it and bringing it with him
mee the leisure to reply I was so enraged at this Discours that of a long time I was not capable of any reason but I presently recovered my ordinarie resolution and that inviolable design of dying for the defence of what hee threatned the women that waited on mee gave mee counsel to mollifie him and dissemble part of my thoughts which I discoverd with too much sharpness they represented to mee that by that fierceness I should without doubt stir him up to the violence I ought to apprehend and that by managing him with more dexteritie I might perchance banish those pernicious designs I esteem'd their advice very prudent and somtimes was minded to follow it but assoon as that barbarous fellow presented himself before mee as hee did everie day I had much adoo to restrain the motions of my anger and of my just displeasure Yet did I dissemble them now and then and suffred his persecutions a whole month without driving him to extremitie somtimes hee flatter'd mee from flatteries hee often fell to threats but his threats and flatteries were equally unprofitable When hee was fully assured of that and had lost all hope of satisfying his desires by gentle means hee resolv'd upon the violence which hee had till then deferr'd and coming into my Chamber with that intention hee made signs to my women to withdraw and when hee was alone with mee having eied mee awhile with a wandring look It is no longer time Thalestris said hee to dissemble my last intention I am wearie of suffering a pain which I can remedie my self and of suing vainly to her whom I can compel to satisfie mee I have made you offers which you imprudently have disdained and I will offer you nothing now but the choice of death or of my love Though these words surprised mee extreamly yet was I not at all in doubt what answer I should return but looking upon him with more scorn then ever Thy threats said I cannot terrifie mee I prefer death before thy affection and all manner of tortures before that satisfaction thou demandest Since thou desirest death replied hee thou shalt have it and saying so hee rose up and drawing a dagger which hee wore concealed hee lift up his arm to strike it into my breast Notwithstanding I was very indifferent in matter of life yet was it not so odious to mee as to give that Monster the contentment of taking it away and remembring that I had tried his strength before I flew upon him and with my left hand stopping his arm which was up to stab mee I with my other which was free caught hold about his middle and after some struggling laid him in the floor I quickly wrung the dagger out of his hand and was presently in a condition to tear away his infamous life without any difficultie but that base wretch who lov'd it more then I did was affraid of loosing it and begg'd it of mee with word's which sufficiently testified the meanness of his spirit although hee was unworthie of that mercie I thought him also unworthie to receiv death from my hands and instantly making my self Mistress of my just resentment Rise coward said I thou deservest neither death nor pardon from Thalestris and therefore shee will give thee neither but leave 's thee a life which shee cannot without dishonor take from such an one as thou art thou knewest before my strength was above thine and thou shalt know now that my goodness is equal to thy baseness Neobarzanes made mee no answer at all but casting down his eies full of shame and confusion hee went out of my Chamber and left mee Mistress of the dagger I had wrested from him If I had been in another estate this adventure would have afforded matter of laughter there was caus enough to deride a man who so weakly attempted such high Enterprises but the condition I was then reduced to made mee insensible of any diversion and would not suffer mee to draw any joy from the disgrace of that detestable villain nor from the advantage I had over him The women who attended on mee who came running at the nois and who were witnesses of part of the business believed that Neobarzanes would have som sens of the mercie I had shewed him and that without doubt hee would bee touch'd with a favor hee had so little deserved but I knew his baseness too well to expect any good from him and it was rather for my own satisfaction then for that hope I had let him live I remain'd three or four daies without seeing him or hearing from him and I began to believ there might bee som amendment in him when I was surprised with the accident I am going to relate and reduced to very great extremities I was in my bed where I tasted that little repose my disquiets would suffer mee when two hours before day I was waken'd by a dreadâ—ul nois in the street I ask't my women what the matter was but they were as ignorant of it as I and my windows were so grated that there was no possibilitie of looking out to see while I was in som trouble by reason of that nois which still redoubled with horrible cries I heard a loud knocking at my door the first blow was followed with many others which made mee finde they had an intent to break it open I was unwilling to bee caught in bed and casting a loos coat hastily about mee I leapt into the floor and presently laid hold of Neobarzanes his dagger beeing resolv'd to defend my life or mine honor to my last breath Scarce was I gotten into this posture when my Chamber door was beaten open and by the help of certain watch candles which I alwaies kept burning by night for fear of som such surprise I saw Neobarzanes com in with his sword drawn accompanied with a great many of his Followers in the same equipage I straight-way doubted of his cruel intention and in a moment confirm'd my self in the resolution I had taken Assoon as hee perceiv'd mee Thalestris cried hee with a terrible voice I must die since my hopes are dead and since I loos thee and my self I will keep thee from laughing and triumphing at my ruine Hee had hardly ended these words when hee flew directly at mee and without giving mee leisure to reproach his ingratitude after the mercie I had showed him hee made a thrust at mee which had run mee quite through if I had not bowed my bodie to avoid it I escaped that danger by stooping suddenly and striking up the point of his sword with the dagger I held in my hand I made it slip over my shoulder and running under it I seized upon the guard with my left hand and with my right I stabb'd the dagger into his brest unto the very hilt That perfidious wretch fell dead at my feet and his sword remaining in my hand I set my self to dispute my life against those that were com
sight of my enemies I approved the advice hee gave mee and within an hour after having proposed it to Theander I easily disposed him to it Theander and I came hither to visite my Father and my Mother who had been som daies here to divert themselvs and wee spent many delightfully in their company Bagistanes and Astiages remained at Babylon where their rage made them take recours to waies of revenge worthie of their courage and of their virtue Cleoniâ—us came to see us almost everie day and for the most part gallopt over alone the way being but short from hence to Babylon One day going from us when the Sun was readie to set without any other weapon but his sword as hee went out of the wood which is near this hous hee was assaulted by three men on hors-back who threw three darts at him from a good distance and their haste or the will of the gods having made them miss they drew their swords and ran up to him with full speed though that number of enemies might with reason have caused som apprehension in Cleonimus their cowardise made him despise them and beeing resolved to sell his life as dearly as hee could after having avoided the shock of the two first by a little carrier hee took hee closed so luckily with the third that having made his sword slip over his shoulder hee ran his own up to the hilts in his right side Scarce was that enemie down when the two others came back at Cleonimus but their companion 's hors was in their way which hindred them from coming straight upon him and while one of them turned a little aside to set upon Cleonimus behinde hee was so fortunate that with a back blow hee cut off his hand which fell presently to the ground with his sword The third having seen this second stroak turned about and seeking his safetie in the swiftness of his hors begaâ— to fly with all possible speed but Cleonimus pursued him and beeing mounted upon one much fleeter overtook him in a very little time Hee could have thrust his sword into his reins if hee would but hee contented himself with seizing upon the guard of his as hee pass'd by and having easily wrested it out of his hand hee threw it on the ground and opposing his passage laid hold of his bridle wherewith having quickly stopt him Friend said hee what have I don to thee that should make thee desire to kill mee This man in a terrible fear held up his hand and beseeching him to spare his life I have no intention to take it answered Cleonimus but I will know of thee by what offence I have made thee my enemie thee whom I never disobliged nor ever knew in my life The fellow beeing a little assured by these words Ah! Sir said hee I have no caus to hate you and doubtless I have deserved that death which I and my companions would have given you out of a vile consideration Astiages hired us for that purpose and Bagistanes promised us ten talents to kill you Though Cleonimus was astonished at that treacherie yet had hee no difficultie to believ it and knowing the baseness of his enemies hee easily gave credit to that confirmation of it hee cared not to draw any greater proofs and giving the man his libertie hee exhorted him to avoid such like occasions of infamie the other touch'd with a true repentance which hee witnessed by his tears protested that onely the extream povertie to which of late years hee had been reduced was the motive that had incited him to a wickedness which hee had ever detested You might have freed your self from that replied Cleonimus by honester means but to the end it no more may serv you for a pretext to evil actions you shall not lose the recompence you hoped for and you may com to morrow to my lodging and fetch your share of the ten talents Bagistane's promised you This man ravished with Cleonimus his generositie would have cast himself at his feet but hee would not suffer him and sending him away I desire no other requitall said hee but that you would bee an honest man and that by speaking of this business you would not dishonor two men who are nere allied to me and one of which is brother to Theander I have told you this passage a little more at large to make you know of what temper Cleonimus his minde was since hee himself paid his murtherers the hire which they were to have had onely for his death and that after causes of complaint of this nature against Bagistanes and Astiages hee had yet care of their reputation forbad that fellow to defame them True it is that in this last effect of goodness there was som little mixture of interest and that hee was glad to smother that attempt fearing the caus would break forth with the report of it that I might bee too much spoken of in that discours Beeing com to Babylon hee retired to his lodging where hee made no mention at all of what had befallen him and passed the night as I have heard since in his wonted tranquilitie but the next morning as soon as hee was readie hee went to Theander's hous and going up into Astiages his chamber who was not yet stirring hee came to his bed side and drawing open the curtain hee shewed himself to him Astiages dissembling his hatred bade him good morrow as hee was wont to do but Cleonimus seeing there was no bodie with him after hee had look'd a while upon him without speaking Astiages said hee your design ha's not taken effect and the ministers of your intention by the justice of the gods have received another payment then that you made them hope for I com hither neither to take revenge for an intended murther nor to reproch you with it but to make you know that without difficultie and without dishonor I could punish your baseness and to put you in minde that in the qualitie you profess you had handsomer waies to free your self of an enemie I should not want them to free my self of you if you were not as unworthie of my resentment as you are to bee Theander's brother but since his consideration make's mee suppress it it shall also make mee suppress the report of this action not to save a reputation which you have abandoned but to keep a noble bloud in which both friendship and alliance make's mee concern'd from a stain which could not bee gotten out of it Cleonimus having ended these words deigned not to stay for Astiages his answer but going forth of the chamber left him in a marvellous confusion Wee had alreadie learned by certain countrie people that Cleonimus had fought a combate as hee was going back to Babylon the day before and as soon as Theander heard it hee took hors and went presently to him having asked him the particulars of that encounter Cleonimus confessed hee had been assaulted by three men
in the desire I have by declaring my trade to finde excuse for many faults which perhaps would not bee pardonable in a Doctor nor in a man of another profession THE THIRD PART OF CASSANDRA The first Book THe Princess Berenice and the fair Queen of the Amazones having given a part of the night to the relation of the sorrowful Alcione passed the last hours thereof and the first of the day following in a reasonable quiet sleep Berenice whose thoughts though more tender and whole cares though less violent then those of Thalestris had yet a fresher caus awaken'd first and opening the curtain of her bed shee saw Alcione in the chamber who with Hippolita waited till the Princesses were awake that shee might give them the good morrow The countenance and humor of that woman having begot a great deal of good will in her moved her also to som desire of interessing her in her fortune and of putting her into the place of those persons whom shee had lost and to whom alone shee had formerly trusted her most secret and most important thoughts As soon as shee saw her shee called her to her bedside and began to testifie her affection to her by words full of sweetness and by kindnesses which carried a charm along with them against which it was impossible for even the most savage hearts to defend themselvs Thalestris waken'd while they were talking and Berenice finding shee could bee content to sleep a little longer would not disturb her but getting her self readie by the help of Alcione and Hippolita shee went out of the chamber with them Her first care was to call for Araxes to enquire after the health of the Prince her Brother and having heard by him that hee had passed the night indifferent well and that hee was not yet awake shee would not interrupt his rest but going down the stairs with those two women shee let them lead her into the wood and from thence to the river side to take her morning walk There shee ask'd Hippolita divers questions concerning her Mistresses adventures and learn'd whatsoëver the Queen had forgotten in her relation There likewise shee confirm'd the first assurances of her friendship to Alcione and gain'd her absolutely both by the advantage of her offers and by the inevitable allurements which were naturally in the least of her actions They were in this entertainment when they saw a litter com out of the wood conveied by certain men on hors-back which keeping the great high-way toward the Citie were of necessitie to pass close by them Berenice's present condition making her apprehend all manner of encounters shee was alreadie turning her back when the other two who had more curiositie reassured her and alledging that those persons went in an equipage which shewed no evil intention they perswaded her to stay till they were gon by having onely put down avail which without hindring her from the sight of any object serv'd to deâ—end her face a little from the eies of those passengers shee nevertheless retired under certain trees fifteen or twentie paces from the road but by reason the litter went very softly and that it was open on their side that distance hindred her not from observing the person that was in it 'T was a man of so good presence that the like was hardly to bee found and though his sickness or his wounds had diminished part of his fresher looks and caused som alteration in his face Berenice had the image of it too present in her memorie to bee mistaken Shee was so extremely surprised at that sight that her color going and coming twice or thrice in a moment shee sunk down upon Alcione and remained almost without knowledg in her arms Shee and Hippolita seeing her faint turned up the vail which covered her face and there reading the marks of a powerful change they asked her the caus of it Berenice was so troubled that shee was som time in recovering her self and when shee was a little settled before shee answered them shee cast her eie upon the way the litter had taken and seeing it was not yet far off and that it went slowly enough to give her hopes of overtaking it shee turned toward them I must said shee I must necessarily see the man again who is in yonder litter if you pleas to com along with mee Alcione you Hippolita may return unto your Mistress I pray you tell the Prince my brother that this encounter draw's mee from him for a few moments and that I desire him not to bee troubled at my departure for I will quickly return to him with so good news as shall make him excuse it With these words shee walked after the horses leaning upon Alcione who esteemed her self most happie to serv and accompanie her Hippolita would have gon with them but Berenice refused it in such manner that shee believing her self suspected to her in that design pressed it no further but to obey her returned unto 〈◊〉 hous Oroöndates and Thalestris were awake when shee came in but shee went to wait upon her Mistress before shee perform'd her commission to the Prince The Queen was in a great wonder at the recital of Berenice's departure who beeing alreadie very dear to her shee was exceedingly concerned in what might befall her by that encounter Shee was no sooner readie but shee carried the news of it her self to Prince Oroöndates and making Hippolita tell the particulars of that adventure again in his presence put him into a strange astonishment and into as strange a perplexitie This precipitate departure of a sister whom hee loved most tenderly at a time when hee was unable to follow her and to give her any assistance afflicted him very sensibly but hee drew som consolation from her words to Hippolita and hoped for somthing at her return which might make him bear her absence the more patiently when hee had mused a while upon the noveltie of that encounter and having vainly studied to finde out the truth of it hee by the alterations of his countenance and by a silence full of confusion had expressed the diversitie of his thoughts at last by lifting up his eies toward the Queen I give over the care said hee to the immortal gods of whatsoëver from henceforth shall concern mee and in the condition to which my own affairs are reduced I should bee too blame if I remitted the conduct of Berenice's to any other providence but theirs They wrought a miracle in her favor when they sent mee to rescue her and neither their power nor their goodness I trust will bee shortned to her I 'le go hasten after her replied the Amazone Queen and will never give over that pursuit till I have used my endevors to give her that assistance which your present estate forbid's her to hope for from you At these words shee called for two horses and arms and though Oroöndates out of civilitie would have spared her the trouble it was
Thalestris remembring shee had heard the Prince and Araxes speak of those two faithful servants cast her eies upon Hippolita and praising her destinie which in the persons of men had made her do service to a Prince for whom shee had a very great esteem shee appeared extreamly satisfied with this encounter and stretching out her hands to them you are not unknown to me said shee but now I have don you this good office I will also restore you to your Master who affords mee a place in the number of his friends and in whom your fidelitie ha's caused an exceeding trouble for your loss Toxaris and Loncates who had not hoped in so short a time for their lives their liberties and their Master who was dearer to them then both were transported with joy at this promise and having cast themselvs once again at Thalestris's seet testified by thier actions of what nature the affection was which they bore unto their Master The Queen having confirmed her promise commanded them to follow her and the two Sythian's beeing mounted upon two of their slain enemies horses took her way again to Polemon's hous where shee arrived within a little after Lysimachus Ptolomeus Eumenes and Araxes were in the Court when shee came in and as soon as Lysimachus saw her appear hee ran to meet her and helping her from her hors kissed her hand with much humilitie and received her affable salutation with great respect After the first words of civilitie Lysimachus presented his companions to her of whom hee had spoken to them in terms which had strucken them into an admiration of her valor and the names of those great personages were alreadie so well known through the whole world that the Queen by hearing Lysimachus pronounce them presently knew what shee ought to pay them Araxes no sooner saw Loncates and Toxaris appear but hee ran to them full of joy for their return and embraced them with an extream affection The fair Amazone having staid awhile with the Princes in a respectful and obliging conversation was desirous to see Oroöndates both to give him an account of her little voiage and to present him his two servants but Lysimachus by the counsel of Amintas praied her to deferr her visit till the next morning becaus the Prince had that day committed such excesses as were able to impair the health of one less weakned then hee was The Queen had much ado to consent to that delay but in the end did it as well by reason of their entreatie as in consideration of the Prince who was infinitely dear to her and to pass the rest of the day less tediously Lysimachus desired Hippolita to favor both his friends and himself with the recital of her Mistresses adventures and the Queen having given her leav shee recounted them almost in the same manner as they had been told to Oroöndates but as that discours wrought great admiration in the Princes so did it waken sad remembrances in Thalestris and put her som time into a melancholy which made them almost repent their curiositie In the interim Oroöndates joining his sisters departure to his other afflictions and seeing the day pass without hearing any news of her fell into very sensible disquiets hee often enquired after her of Araxes who alone came into his Chamber and seeing hee could learn nothing when night came on hee was excessively afflicted at that accident The next day as soon as the Physitian gave way hee should bee seen Thalestris went into his Chamber followed by the Princes and by the faithful servants which shee brought back unto their Master Oroöndates no sooner saw her enter but hee raised himself upon his pillow as much as hee was able and welcomed her with great respect and submission hee received the Princes with the same civilitie but when after them hee saw the two servants hee had lost upon their knees by his bedside hee was surprised with astonishment and seized at the sight of them with much joy and tenderness Hee cast his arm which lay out of bed about their necks and asking the Queen who presented them to him which way shee had hapned to finde them shee told him the truth of it in a few words At the knowledg of that obligation the Prince broke forth into the most acknowledging expressions hee could invent to give her thanks for so great a favor and shee received them so modestly that shee engaged him almost as much by the civilitie of her discours as shee had don by the effects of her valor Hee afterwards would have enquired concerning Berenice but shee prevented him by relating the success of her short journie and repeating the words of the Oracle that had been given her Oroöndates thereby received a double consolation one by the promise the gods made him to take care of his sister which ought to put an end to all the trouble hee was in for her the other by the hopes they gave Thalestris whose interests were extreamly dear to him When hee had talked with her awhile about the words of the Oracle and had endeavored to finde the gentlest sens of them and a less cruel exposition then that shee made hee entreated the companie to pardon the desire hee had to learn in their presence the caus that had so long retarded the return of his servants which was like to have som important reason and asking Toxaris what it was hee stept back in the presence of so many persons whom hee knew not and made som difficultie of speaking in so much companie touching his Masters secret affairs but hee knowing the caus of his silence and beeing willing to take away his jealousie speak said hee Toxaris and disguise nothing before these illustrous friends who are not at all suspected to mee and from whom I never will conceal any thing Toxaris having received this command came forward again and thus began his Narration The Historie of Roxana WEe were within a daies journie of this place when your Highness after having heard of Alexander's death commanded mee to go to Babylon to enquire news of Queen Statira and of other persons in whom you had an interest I rode thither with speed enough and arrived at the Citie when it began to grow dark I found all full of mourning disorder and confusion and in that general hurliburly I had much ado to get a lodging I will not detain you with the condition in which the King's death had put all things at Babylon you are better informed of that then I and these great Princes whom I see with you whose interests were the most considerable and whose sidings made part of those disorders may have acquainted you with the circumstances of them I will onely tell you that at the first news I asked concerning the Queen I heard shee was at the Castle of Calcis whither by reason of som indisposition shee had retired with the Princess her sister a little before her husbands death Not beeing
death and that the Persians who submitted but by force to the Macedonian yoke will not take arms now for their lawful Princes and use their endevors to restore the bloud of their first Masters to the Throne If the crueltie of this enterprize strike horror in you remember Perdiccas that it is not without example in all Monarchies and that both amongst us and amongst our Neighbors wee have no Age that cannot furnish us with a good number of presidents Did not Artaxerxes whom the whole world held for a verie good Prince and his Successor Occhus both Predecessors to Darius secure their Estates by the bloud of their children and of their brothers and if you would have fresher ones even in your own Countrie did not Queen Olimpias who is yet alive the Mother of our deceased King after King Philip was dead caus her rival Cleopatra to bee put to death having first made a daughter shee had by him to bee killed in her presence becaus shee might possibly have one day raised som trouble in her dominions And did not Alexander himself our dear husband and most honored King whose memorie is most sacred to us and all whose actions ought to bee the rules of our life begin his so glorious Reign by the death of those that were nearest to him and when hee came out of Macedonia did hee leav one of them alive who could disturb the calm hee left there Consider now Perdiccas whether these persons whom I have alleged had so important reasons as ours are and whether they upon light surmises occasions of small weight did not execute that which wee do out of pure necessitie and for the conservation of our lives and of the Empire of the world Those persons replied Perdiccas have by those actions left blemishes upon their lives which all the most gallant ones they ever performed will never bee able to wipe out and all the blackest deeds they ever did can no way parallel the infidelitie you enjoin mee to mee I say who am not onely a kinsman and a subject of Alexander's but who amongst all about him received the last glorious marks of his affection and of beeing preferred before so many other Princes worthy of the kingdoms hee hath left In this action added Roxana you will bee so far from offending Alexander's memorie that you will give him proofs of your fidelitie since it is onely to secure the Empire to his son that you take them out of the world who might dispute it with him And if to this consideration it bee permitted to add that of your own interests Perdiccas remember what you do for your self since the least recompence proposed to you is the soveraign authoritie which you will have over this son whose Guardian you shall bee and which you shall share with his Mother whom you will have established in it Perdiccas demurred awhile before hee answered to this last discours of Roxana's and they walked almost a whole turn in the Allie without speaking but in the end Perdiccas breaking silence I wish to the gods Madam said hee that you could content and secure your self by milder waies these methinks are such strange ones that I cannot dispose my self to follow them but I desire this nights respite to finish the overcoming of those difficulties I finde in my self to morrow as soon as you are stirring I will let your Majestie know my last resolution and I will rather die then give you occasion to repent the trust you repose in mee and the favors you do mee Well Perdiccas replied Roxana I grant you the time you demand and I hope that by your last resolution wee shall both have caus to bee satisfied After these words Perdiccas bade the Queen good-night and retiring to his followers went out of the Garden I might have gon away with him but I was so surprised and astonished at the things I had heard that I thought not of my departure and seeing that the Queen without stirring out of that Allie call'd Hesione whom shee lov'd best of all her women and commanded the rest to stay where they were I had a minde to hear that second conversation whereby I believed I might fully instruct my self touching that detestable design which was in agitation against those poor Princesses Roxana sate down upon a green sodded bank and as soon as Hesione came near her I have much ado said shee to perswade Perdiccas to what I desire for our common securitie and hee sticks at considerations which the ambition of reigning ought to have extinguished in his minde I do not think it strange replied Hesione and that which your Majestie requires hath somthing so cruel in it that I cannot remember it without horror nor without wondring as at a prodigie how the thirst of reigning can have choked in you that pitie which is natural to women and have carried you to such bloudie resolutions against Princesses who have a near relation to you whom heretofore you accounted dear and who have no way offended you Pardon mee Madam if I speak with too much libertie I am so affrighted at this horrible change of your humor that I have not understanding enough left to approve these inhumane reasons of state which demand such violent executions Roxana hearkned to these words of Hesione without interrupting her and having remained awhile without answering otherwise then by two or three sighes Ah! Hesione said shee at last how just would thy wonder bee if thou wert not well instructed in my most secret thoughts and with how much reason might'st thou appear affrighted at this change of my humor if I had not trusted thee with the caus of it a thousand times thou knowest O dissembling Hesione that my inclinations to crueltie are not strong enough to move mee to such bloudie tragedies meerly out of maxime of state and out of a desire to reign that onely servs for a pretext to more powerful incitements and to cover a passion more violent then ambition nor do I love the crown enough to violate both divine and humane Laws for it alone Alas Hesione thou art not ignorant of this truth thou knowest that love hath blotted out of my soul all that was good and reasonable in it heretofore and that my jealousie arms my hand more potently against my rival then ambition doth against my competitor for the Empire the remembrance of ungrateful Oroöndates kindles my indignation against her that took him from mee and his image never com's into my memorie without enflaming my anger against that proud beautie which triumphed over mee in the soul of that inhumane Prince While the hope of her lawful possessing him was forbidden her by the life of the King her husband I bore my misfortune patiently but now that by the death of Alexander the way to it lies open for her and that I see them upon the very brink of that felicitie which I have vainly opposed I had rather shee should perish and that
Spitamenes found meanes to bring in a great part of his forces at several gates and when he had made himself strongest in the Town where the Garrison and the Inhabitants were very weak after he had given those Orders to his men which he resolv'd should be executed he came attended by a great many followers to finde my Father in his Chamber he the day before had told him that he intended to march about the expedition Alexander had imployed him in saying it had been retarded by his Marriage and my Father who saw how much the Countrey was burthened with his Forces was content to let him depart upon hope of a speedy return at that time seeing him come into his Chamber he believ'd he came to take his leave of him but Spitamenes quickly put him out of that errour and having desired to speak with him Cradates said he I have hitherto dissembled my intention because I was not yet in a condition to declare it to you but now I must lay open my heart and by my example oblige you to do what you ought since our ancient friendship and the alliance we have contracted perswades me to move you to it by such ways as I should not have made use of toward another Know then I am Alexanders enemy that the Forces which follow me have taken Arms onely against him and that if you have any love to your Countrey and any consideration of your Son in Law you ought to take Arms for the one and follow the fortune of the other I was present at this discourse of Spitamenes and saw that my Father not being able to suffer the continuation of it How Spitamenes cried he have you betray'd me then and was it onely with this intent that you sought my alliance I asked your Daughter of you said Spitamenes because I lov'd you and 't is because I love you that I yet once again intreat you to imbrace our party and not to make them your enemies who do yet consider you and who are stronger in Maracanda than your self By these words poor Cradates plainly found he was betray'd and instead of answering to Spitamenes his proposition Ah! Traitour cried he the just Gods will punish thy perfidiousness and if I must fall they shall see me die like a man that was faithfull to his Masters till his latest breath With these words he laid his hand upon the Hilt of his Sword but cruell Spitamenes having already drawn his ran him through the body and made him fall dead at my feet weltring in a stream of his own bloud my two Brothers were eager to have revenged him but those that accompanied Spitamenes kill'd them presently upon the place and at the same instant the signal being given they began through the whole Town to drive out and cut the throats of the Garrison I make you Judges my Lords of the condition I was in at that time I saw my poor Father breath out his life in my arms and my two poor Brothers fall murthered with divers wounds the bloud of them all spouted forth upon me and made me all over in a gore but I was not long a beholder of that dreadfull spectacle for having scarcely had the strength to give a shreek I fell upon those dear bodies without sense or understanding I knew not then what was done in the Chamber where these cruelties were committed but when I came out of my swound I found my self upon a bed encompassed with a great many women unto whose charge I had been delivered As soon as I opened my eyes I remembred the wofull objects I had seen and you may believe that at that horrid rememberance I neither spared my hair nor my face and that by all my actions I gave sufficient testimony that in the condition I was left in the world I had but little love of life remaining I had seen those persons murthered before my eyes who were the nearest and who ought to be the dearest to me in the whole world and I had seen them murthered by the hands of him who in spite of all his treacheries and cruelties was still my husband besides the force of bloud and the considerations of friendship the condition I was in by that horrible revolution of my fortune was very lamentable I in those dear persons had lost all the support and all the protection I had and I saw my self miserably exposed and abandoned to the mercy of that monster from whom I expected as bad a destinie At that time I thought not of all these things as being capable of very little sence in that extreamitie of trouble but fixing my self onely upon those so late objects and upon the bloudy Idea's which I had still fresh before my eyes I suffer'd my self to be totally possessed with grief and with astonishment As often as I named my poor Father and my poor Brothers I detested their treacherous murtherer and I made not more complaints for them than I powred forth imprecations against him I kissed the bloud which was yet upon my cloathes and left horrible marks thereof upon my face I should fear to weary you my Lords and perchance I should not have life enough to make an end of my recital If I endeavoured to repeat all the words which my despair made me bring forth and it will suffice me to tell you that I passed all that day and all the night following like a person utterly out of her wits and had it not been for the hinderance my women used when I was so violently transported I had infallibly attempted upon my life I had continued above thirty hours without taking any nourishment at all when I was forced to it by the tears of my old Nurse who hanging about my knees and sighing by me touched even me my self with pity whose condition was wofull enough to move compassion in all the world That second day was passed just as the first and the next after impudent Spitamenes presented himself before me O Gods with what a violence did that cruel sight waken my resentments I felt my strength redoubled and leaping from my bed I ran to strangle that Paricide with my hands and without doubt in the fury that transported me I should have perished by his or should have made him run some hazard but that I was stopp'd by those women who having held me back with much adoe carried me by force and laid me again upon my bed Cruel Spitamenes was not at all moved at my action and being set down at a distance from me he gave ear a long time without reply to the reproaches and imprecations I vented against him after I had said all that rage could put into my mouth Perfect thy crime continued I thou murtherer stain'd with illustrious bloud and with bloud for which thou oughtest to have shed all that whichh runs in thine own veins send the disconsolate Hermione after her Father and her brothers piercet his heart an enemy to that
me and asking me if I were not Spitamenes Wife gave me to understand that they had already notice of my coming After I had told him that I was she he took me by the hand and led me to the Kings Chamber between two long Rowes of souldiers I had no sooner cast my eyes upon him but my passions were violently awaken'd and my love making me bold drove away part of my fears and weaknesses He was attended by a great number of Princes and perhaps my Lords by some of you which makes me believe I shall tell you no new thing and that this Recital will be tedious to those who are not unacquainted with this Adventure Ptolomeus answering to this part of her Discourse It is true Madam said he I was then at Court and present at your coming to the King your beauty ravish'd all the beholders and we began to flock about you with admiration when Alexander being willing to give you a more particular audience commanded us to retire we heard not what you said to him and some of these that hearken to you have never heard speak of this Adventure I will tell you then continued Hermione that I drew a good Omen from that courtious particular audience it pleased the King to afford me and seeing I had all the liberty to entertain him that I could have wish'd I forc'd my self to recover a little courage Before I spoke to the King I cast my self at his feet but he rais'd me up very civily and and with gentle words prayed me to tell the cause of my coming to him I saw well that he had utterly forgotten my face and that he did not so much as know that I was Cradates his Daughter but his kinde Reception having perfectly re-assured me Sir said I behold your slave who comes to lay her life and fortune at your feet This is not the first day I am subject to your Empire and I make it my glory that I have been yours ever since I was capable of understanding Spitamenes his tyranny has not been able to disingage my affections from that sublime pitch to which I had raised them and though I was his by the violence of my Friends I was always Great Alexanders both by a just knowledge and by a most powerfull inclination and to say truth that noble prepossession of my heart made the Vices of Spitamenes in supportable to me and that difference of our manners caused an incompatibility between us which left us no other thoughts save those of destroying one another Spitamenes is at last sacrificed to your just indignation and your Captive was unwilling to come before you without a considerable Present With that of her prayers and homages she brings you Victory she presents all Bactria to you and with it the Head of faithless Spitamenes At these words Theano drew it out of the Bagg and presented it to the King all bloudy and gastly He lent me a favourable attention till that part of my Discourse but he had no sooner heard those last words and seen the cruell Present I offered him when of a sudden he turned away his eyes from me and from Spitamenes his Head and flying away to the other end of the Room testified by all his Actions that he could not endure the sight of me without horrour What said he are you Spitamenes his Wife and do you bring me Spitamenes his Head He spoke the words twice or thrice over without ever looking toward me and struck me into a strange confusion by that cruell revolution of my fortune I strove nevertheless to resettle my self and was preparing to tell him the Causes I had to hate Spitamenes by which perhaps I might have justified my self to him but he would not give me the leisure and turning at last toward me with a furious look Go said he get thee gone thou wicked and detestable Woman and pollute not Alexanders ears with the Relation of thy Paricides I have till now defended my self from any such shame as this thou wouldst fix upon my Reputation and I have conquered my Enemies by open War without destroying them by the treachery of their Wives carry thy horrible affections other where and hope not to finde Monsters amongst us that will approve of thy Disloyalties 't is onely in consideration of thy sex that I spare thy life but lead it so far from me that the glory of mine may never be troubled by thy detestable remembrance When he had ended these words which were to me like Thunder or something yet more dreadfull he commanded me to be put out of his Tent and carried out of the Camp without suffering me to stay there any longer Leonatus executed his Command and making me get up again into my Chariot caused me to be conducted out of the Macedonian Trenches Judge my Lords of the condition I was in at this utmost of my misfortunes and supply my weakness which will not suffer me to express it then it was that I saw my self cast headlong into the greatest of all my disasters and that I fell into my extreamest despair Till then though I had lived miserable I had yet liv'd innocent and though my life had been persecuted I had at least preserv'd my hands and my conscience clean but then I saw them defiled by the murther of my husband and my shame divulged amongst those persons from whom I ought most carefully to have conceal'd it I had dishonoured my self by a crime which notwithstanding the excuses it might have was still exceeding great both before the gods and before men and I saw my self ignominiously driven away from him in favour of whom I had committed it and in whom I had grounded all my hopes I was without any retreat or support in the hands of a few men in whom by reason of the fresh proof they had given me of their infidelity toward their master I was no way induced to have any confidence These considerations were so bitter to me that they were like presently to have put a period to my life and but for the hinderance of Strato and Theano I had cut off the course of my miseries with my own hand I caus'd my self to be helped out of the Chariot when we were got a little from the Camp and casting my self upon the ground I said words and did actions which could not proceed from other than a Soul given over to despair my remorse began to accompany my love and they both joyn'd together to make a pittyless war against me Then I remembered Spitamenes his predictions and the knowledge he had given me of Alexander's humour All that was terrible in his death came then before my eyes and though I could not bewail him yet could I not comfort my self because I had been accessary to the taking away of his life Ah! Spitamenes cried I thou hadst deserv'd death by thy crimes but thou oughtest to have received it from the justice of the gods and
Demetrius had not patience enough to endure these words but running to lay hold of a sword was going to revenge Hermione with the bloud of indiscreet Tiridates if he partly of his own accord and partly by the perswasions of those that were present had not gotten suddenly out of the Chamber Doest thou think cried Demetrius seeing him go out doest thou think cruell man that I will suffer the injury thou doest me and canst thou not be satisfied with Hermiones Death and mine without abusing us also by thy words Ah! would it pleas'd the Gods that by a thousand such Lives as thine or as mine own I could restore her that which I have taken from her As he spake these words he drew near Hermiones bed again and leaning over it imbraced her Knees with so much tenderness and yet with so much violence that he forced all that were in the Chamber to weep and lament by his Example O Gods cried he must Hermione die then and will you not grant unto my tears and and prayers a little of that life which you cruelly cause to perish by my sword Shall Death seed upon that which to me seems the most lovely thing you ever sent into the world and will you grant no delay to the ardent supplication of a despairing Lover Can you not for my sake renew the destiny of Alceste and will you not be appeased if I sacrifice Demetrius for Hermiones safety While he spake on this manner Hermione though weak and dying suffered deeply with him in his afflictions and looking upon him with eyes that began to dazle and to lose part of their lustre by the approach of Death Demetrius said she you force me to confess to you that I die not so absolute a slave to Alexander but that I am very sensible of your affection and that I have certain motions in these last moments of my life whereof my whole life was never capable spare this dying mouth a more ample confession and if it be true that you love me moderate your sorrows by Reason and by my desire in this necessity that parts us 't is the onely proof of it I can or will beg of you for a recompence of the last protestation I make that I give you all the share in my heart which I now can possibly give you This was all that Hermione was able to bring forth distinctly and within a while after she grew so exceeding weak that she could hardly speak a few interrupted words she struggled yet some hours with Death but about the shutting in of the day her spirits departed and she remain'd pale and cold in the arms of Demetrius who in that accident appeared little different from her and who losing his senses and understanding with his strength was carried away to another bed making the Phisicians doubt whether those swownings proceeded from a bare fainting or from a real death The end of the fourth Book The Continuation of the third Part of CASSANDRA The fifth Book IN the mean time Araxes return'd from Babylon the fourth day after his departure as soon as Oroondates saw him come into his Chamber he ran to him with open arms Lysimachus who at that time was with him did the same and both with equal haste inquired news of their Princesses I am still as ignorant of their condition said Araxes as when I went from hence and yet I may truly swear I have not spared any kinde of indeavour to inform my self All the world at Babylon believes yet that they are dead or if they have heard any thing of their being alive 't was onely by your denouncing of war and by your Declaration The Princes were all afflicted at this discourse and looked upon one another with a confusion which was easie to be observed in their very faces O Lysimachus cried the Prince of Scythia we are not yet at the end of our disaster and you are extreme unhappy in having any intermixture with the fortune of Oroondates this communication will be no ways advantagious to you for I shall infallibly draw you into those eternal miseries to which the Gods have condemned me Fortune replied Lysimachus hath not been wont to use me more gently than your self and if our sufferings are contagious you will gain no more than I in this union of our interests Alas added Oroondates perhaps our Princesses may be dead indeed and that the Gods have onely flattered us to make us the more sensible of our Losses by the hopes they have given us The Loves of our Rivals replied Lymachus may secure us on that side they will perish without all question themselves rather than consent to their destruction yet I doubt not but they will do all they possibly can to conceal them a while longer from Roxana They were in this discourse when Ptolomeus Craterus Oxyartes Polyperchon Artabasus Eumenes and Queen Thalestris came into the Chamber the noise of Araxes his return had brought them thither and all of them together desiring to learn the success of his journey he gave them an account of it in these terms After I was departed from hence I got within a short time to Babylon and telling those that were upon the Guard at the Gates that I was come over to their party I found no difficulty to obtain entrance into the Town I had call'd to minde as I was upon the way that I had formerly had a particular friendship with Damocles one of the chief Citizens of Babylon who at my request had by my Masters favour gotten an Office in Darius his Court during the abode we made in that Town That good turn which he had received from my Prince and from my self in part had ingaged him to us with a strong affection and we had receiv'd some proofs of it which made me believe at that rememberance that I might trust him without fear of being betrayed As soon as I was in the Town I went straight to his house where I had been many times and having happily found him without company I made my self known to him he gave me an exceeding kinde welcome seconded with some tears in which joy and grief were equal sharers and at the first declaration I made of the cause of my Voyage he offered to do me all the service I could hope for from an affectionate friend I told him not in what place nor in what condition I had left the Prince my Master making as if I knew neither and onely confessed that I came to Babylon with a Design to learn news of Queen Statira that I might tell it my Prince in case I were so happy as to finde him Damocles told me he had heard nothing of her since the report of her death and that he had yet seen no body that doubted of it After this first Discourse I prayed him that I might remain a few days concealed in his house thereby to inform my self more certainly and letting him know I was in
and that is since he knows the principal end of our taking up Arms is for the liberty of the Princesses he ought either to give it them or put them into the hands of indifferent persons who should deliver them to the Conquerours after the Battel or at the issue of the War Lysimachus holding his peace after these words Clitophon told him that demand was beyond his Commission and that Perdiccas could not deliver the Princesses since they neither were nor ever had been in his power and that he and his friends believed that if they were alive they were with Lysimachus and his confederates and that they made use of that pretext to cover others which moved them to that war In this replied Lysimachus with anger Perdiccas shows that he cannot vary from his nature and that he follows his own inclinations rather than those of his generous friends who have inspired him with the design of a Battel if he would confess the truth to them I assure my self they would counsel him to do what I demand but because it would be very hard to make him wave his particular interests for any consideration of vertue this difficulty shall not break our Treaty and to have a Battel we would descend to conditions much more unjust out of the hope we have that the Conquerours shall give the law to the Conquered and that after the event of the war if it be to our advantage we shall make them give account of the Princesses which they now refuse This was Lysimachus his answer who for hostages offered Alexander the Son of Polyperchon and Cophes and Illyoneus the Sons of Artabasus As soon as they had concluded the Treaty one of Clitophores companions step'd forth and the Company having cast their eyes upon him he was known by Oroondates Ptolomeus and many others to be Arsaces his Squire who some few dayes since had been brought before them and had carried some of Ptolomeus his herb to his Master from Oroondates He looked about to find out the Prince of Scythia amongst the rest and adressing himself to him with a resolute countenance Sir said he Arsaces hath receiv'd your medicine and hath recovered his health by the present you sent him he made use of it without any suspicion and with no other fear save that of being obliged to you whither he will or no if your differences were of another nature he would become your friend but since that change is impossible instead of his friendship he will give you his esteem and that he may not be ingratefull for the favour he has received from you he will shortly bring you thanks upon the point of his sword This confident servant of a gallant Master having spoken on this manner all the Company looked heedfully upon him and Oroondates drawing near him with eyes that sparkled with choller Friend said he thou mayest tell Arsaces that I expect neither thanks nor favour from him and that my intention in obliging him does sufficiently acquit him from any obligation that yet I cannot disdain the esteem of so brave a man and that I think my self better requited by it than by that friendship which I neither can nor will receive from him that at our first meeting we will decide these differences which even unto death oppose our reconciliation and that to defend my self from that sword wherewith he threatens me I wear another by my side which he has no reason to despise This was the reply Oroondates made to Arsaces his Squire and presently after Clitophon having been dispatch'd returned to Babylon with those that accompanied him This news being spread through the whole Camp all the Army began to provide in good earnest for the Battel the Commanders spared no care to keep their forces in a good condition and the Souldiers of themselves inured to war did by the hope of a Battel rouze up that warlike humour which during the life of Alexander had continually possessed them some of them imployed themselves in exercises necessary for the fight others in making clean their Arms and altogether prepared for that great day that was to determine such important differences The Princes with admirable diligence sought whatsoever might be to their advantage they visited their magazines most carefully and took care to deliver Arms to those that wanted or had such as were unfit for service Laomedon and Menander had the charge of getting ready Chariots of War arm'd with Sithes and blades of iron like those Darius was wont to use in his Armies and Polyperchon as a most expert Commander had that of instructing the Officers and training the Souldiers for the fight by exercises that had the form of real encounters Nor had the sun shin'd thrice upon the Towers of Babylon when out of the Gates there began to appear Battalions which they continued to pour forth for two whole dayes together they encamped within thirty furlongs of their Enemies and covered a great part of the plain with men arms and horses the distance between the Camps was not so great but that it was within reach of the eye and the mutual confidence they had in the Truce made divers men of both Parties come within a flight-shot of one another Oroondates had absolutely recovered his strength and felt himself better in case than ever to dispute his lawfull pretensions both against Arsaces and Perdiccas and against all the world he already waited impatiently for the day and prepared himself to let his new Companions see that he had wanted nothing but fortune to raise his Reputation above that of Alexander they were already inclined to that belief and by his conversation discovered every day new Greatnesses in him which made them consider him as a God Lysimachus was little less eager in his expectation of the Day he had so much desired but his joy for that was moderated by some new disquiet which his freinds took notice of in his face He was troubled that Arsaces whose Person he infinitely esteemed and with whom he had made a friendship was of their Enemies party and after he had long studied what course might be taken to deprive them of so considerable an assistance he resolved at last to see him to talk with him and to indeavour to draw him over to his side and reconcile him with Oroondates The difficulties he foresaw in that Design were not able to make him desist and while he was musing upon it the fair Amazon Queen being come to him he made her acquainted with his intention Thalestris to whom the virtue and Person of Arsaces were well known and who had a marvellous esteem of both since the time she had fought under his command in the Battel he gave against Arimbas upon the Frontiers of Scythia approved Lysimachus his Resolution and laboured to confirm him in it by many Reasons she alleadged You will do our Party no small service said she if you can weaken our Enemies by the loss of such a
shoulder to the breast their desolate Fathers were present at that sight and rushing both at the same time upon him that had slain their Children assaulted him with cries full of rage and resentment but fortune was adverse to them and their Genius was inferiour to that of Arsaces for Archesilaus had his hand cut off with a back-blow and Phrataphernes was so forcibly encountred that he came over with his horse and lay without sence or motion While Arsaces strives by such actions as these to repair the disadvantage the first body had received by the Valour of Oroondates and Lysimachus the third and last Battalions march on unto the fight and charged with a fiercenss no way inferiour to their Companions The encounter of Ptolomeus and Eumenes with Cassander and the Valiant Orontes passed without any great advantage on either party for though Ptolomeus lost one of his stirrups by the shock of Orontes Cassander lost both his by that of the brave Eumenes Craterus and Polyperchon fought with more equality against Neoptolemus and Leonatus but all those that opposed the young Demetrius who had taken his place in this last body felt both the weight of his Arm and the effects of his grief In this general mixture of Squadrons and Battalions disorder and confusion quickly were accompanied which wounds and horrour giving dismal shapes to all those objects with a few hours before appeared most pleasing and delightfull the slaughter was so universal that in all the Battels which had ever been fought under Darius or Alexander Death never had reigned with so absolute an Empire as that bloudy day if the Parthian fall by a Syrian Javeline the Syrian is slain by the sword of a Lycian and the dying Hircanian drags the Pamphilian along with him bloud has not onely made the earth loose its colour in the thickest of the fight but flowes in purple streams for many furlongs round about the Chariots had in the beginning done great execution but at last the Commanders on both sides thought best to give place to their impetuousness and killing the horses as they passed made them equally useless to one another After that all the several divisions were engaged the Generals being no longer tied to keep with their particular Battalions where they hardly were any longer obey'd went freely into all places according to the ardor that transported them Oroondates and Thalestris sought every where for Arsaces and Orontes and the furious Prince of Scythia running from one squadron to another made the name of Arsaces resound wheresoever he went his Enemy was no less impatient nor less industrious to find out him but the obstacles that were in their way retarded the execution of their desires and to break through them they did actions that struck terrour into all those that looked upon them and that are as far beyond belief as above expression Oroondates which way soever he turned himself left bloudy marks of his passage when Cassanders two brothers Jolas and Philippus presented themselves before him and would have opposed his fury as a damme at the fall of an impetuous torrent they charged him both at the same time with two blows which scarce made any print upon his Arms but the fierce Prince of Scythia requited them with two others which being given by a more vigorous hand than theirs produced very different effects Jolas was laid along having his shoulder run through with a thrust and with a back-blow Philippus his cask and his head within it were made to rowle together upon the grass they that saw the fall of these two young Princes and knew their quality ran with loud cries to take revenge but Oroondates broak through them with the same fury and before their eyes slew Theagenes the Son of Python Aristocles the brother of Peucestas and made Antigenes and Teutamus Commanders of the Argiraspides to tumble breathless among the horses feet By these prodigious feats he at last opened himself a passage to Arsaces and with a loud voice defied him to the encounter when he on the other side had newly dispatch'd Trasillus and the unfortunate Tiridates These two great Warriers knew one another by their cries and by the actions they saw each other do yet before they could get together Oroondates cleft Erginis his Sons head into two pieces and meeting the Valiant Neoptolemus in his way justled him with so great violence that he sent him astonied among the legs of Arsaces his horse Arsaces could not know his Enemy better than by such marks as those nor did he any longer doubt but it was he and testifying that assurance by a fierce cry he ran to him holding up his sword with such an action as might have terrified any body but Oroondates both of them would have spoken but the extreamity of their anger made them both unable to express themselves and the confused noise of so many voices would not suffer them to understand one another Ptolomeus Craterus and Demetrius on the one side and on the other Seleucus Nearchus and Leonatus with many other Commanders of each party were present at their meeting and all as with a mutual consent suspended their enmity for a few moments to become spectatours of that furious encounter nor did it any way fail their expectation though the businesse was of no long continuance The two enraged Warriers whose thoughts were not upon the defensive cast their shields behind their backs and putting both hands to their swords lifted them on high into the air and brought them down with the utmost of their strength upon each others Helmet At those mighty blows the two swords flew in a thousand pieces their Crests were beaten off their caskes deeply dinted and how great so ever was the fortitude of those to gallant men it was not proof against so infinite a violence Arsaces bleeding both at nose and mouth fell in a swown at Seleucus his feet and Ptolomeus running to Oroondates saw him open his arms and sink without understanding from his saddle into the dust The fall of these two matchless persons caused those of each party to send forth mighty cries and kindled a furious combustion round about them Ptolomeus Craterus and Demetrius sheltred Oroondates with their bucklers and his faithfull Aranes who stirr'd not from him carried him off with the assistance of Iâ—yoneus Menelaus and many others Arsaces his friends did the same for him and then between those six valiant men there began a Combat worthy of more heedfull Spectatours and of larger room to set forth the proofs of their valour with better liberty Ptolomeus having known Seleucus by severall marks spurr'd up to him with a joyfull voice and preventing Demetrius who was going to charge him Seleucus cried he thy old Enemy defies thee and now thou hast a brave occasion to execute thy threatnings Seleucus answered these words onely with a mighty stroke which Ptolomeus quickly repay'd Craterus at the same time closing with Leonatus and
interim labour'd to fortifie the Town and gather'd together all the Forces he had caused to be levied While he was thus imployed the Rebells made themselves Masters of the Field under the Conduct of one Tharritas a valiant Commander and finding no more resistance came audaciously and laid siege before Ambracia where we were all retir'd my father had already put it in a condition to make defence and to wait for the relief of his Allies and 't was that knowledge that made him expect the Enemy without fear The Approaches of that siege were very bloudy and the first Events thereof were doubtfull there were many men slain on either side but our losses were more considerable than theirs and while our numbers decreased theirs grew more potent every day The little understanding I have in War hinders me from making you a long discourse of it and I the more willingly pass over the Relation because 't is of little consequence to the knowledge of my life Among those that held out that siege with us was Neoptolemus the cruell Authour of our misfortunes a Prince of the bloud of the Aeacides as we were and who next to the royal Family was the chief in all Epirus though he wanted a Crown he wanted not a desire to have one and to attain that sovereign dignity he would neither have left any thing unattempted nor have thought any thing difficult to his ambition He from my earliest years had applied himself to serve me and at that time was diligent enough to let me see it whether it were that he really was in love with me or that in our alliance he found advantages and means to support himself in the State Aeacides suffer'd him to proceed without being offended at it because of Neoptolemus his quality which at that time was little disproportionate to ours but yet he had no great desire to that match whether it were that he lik'd not Neoptolemus his person or having but one ouely daughter with whom he flatter'd himself and of whom he had conceiv'd too good an opinion he had some higher aim for her or that perhaps he was willing to comply with my inclinations which were no way bent to love Neoptolemus indeed I saw nothing in his person that was not unpleasing to me and I had taken such an aversion against him as made me receive all the proofs of his affection as so many injuries He was extremely busie in the siege to make himself considerable to us and undertook sometimes to sally forth upon the Enemies but he was always beaten in again and succeeded so ill in all his Enterprises that our condition was thereby much impaired In the mean time our Enemies had great advantages over us they had taken our out-works stopt all passages of Victuals and Relief that might come to us and had shut us up in our Walls with little hope of the Event of that War My father was like to have died for grief and knowing that the King his brother was too far off and too deeply ingaged in his new Conquests the noise whereof had often come to our ears to expect any assistance from him and that he had no news of help from his Allies upon which he had depended he knew not what to resolve upon and for a cruell surcharge of his afflictions he heard that the Forces he had given order to raise in his Provinces were cut in pieces by our Enemies who went to meet them and that on every side all hope was forbidden him This knowledge put the whole Court in very great perplexity and began so to deject the soldiers hearts that it was very hard to make them labour for their own defence our provisions also began to fail us and in short we saw our selves reduc'd to wondrous great extremity Aeacides would not capitulate with his Enemies whither it were that he resolv'd to be faithfull to his brother even to the utmost or that he distrusted the words of those Rebels We no longer had any hope but in the assistance of Heaven when Heaven gave us proof that it had not forsaken us and sent us Relief in a time when without its arrivall we were in no possibility of safety All the passages as I have said already were so close block'd up that no intelligence of it could any way come to us and 't was from the tops of our Towers that we perceiv'd a dust and saw the Arms of our Allies glitter against the sun we waver'd between hope and fear and could not discern whether those Forces were Friends or Enemies when we from far discover'd them fighting with our besiegers and within a little after we receiv'd a more perfect assurance by some of their Horse-men who having slipt aside during the skirmish had found means to get near our Walls and to shoot Arrows into the City at whose heads there were Letters fasten'd which were brought to my father containing words to this effect Agis King of the Lacedemonians to Prince Aeacides I Come to your relief with ten thousand Grecians able to subdue your Rebells expect an infallible Victory over them and to facilitate it sally you forth upon their backs while we are fighting with them on the other side this double assault will without doubt put them in disorder and I hope we shall in one day make an end of the War These words caused such a joy in my father and in all the besieged as can very hardly be expressed and raised their drooping courages so suddenly that they demanded nothing more but Arms to make a sally upon their Enemies By my fathers Orders Neoptolemus at the head of two thousand men went forth of the Gates to fall upon those that were left to guard the Trenches and did it so succesfully that they were constrain'd to quit them and retire to their Companions who already were ingag'd in a sharp Encounter with the Grecians Neoptolemus pursued them and when all the forces were joyn'd they fought a cruell and a bloudy battel they of our party who came off assur'd us afterward that they had seen the valiant Agis do Actions that surpass all belief and all imagination that all the Deeds of Achilles and of other the most renowned Heroes which fame hath deliver'd to our Times could hardly equal those prodigious ones he did that day To say truth he fought so well and was so bravely seconded by his men that our Enemies though more than they by a third part in number were utterly defeated their General kill'd by the hand of valiant Agis and the Reliques of them that escaped the slaughter retired in disorder to certain places that were at their devotion Never was there seen so gallant nor so sudden an Execution and when they brought us news of it and that we heard we were Conquerours and freed from a siege which but four hours before threatned no less than our total ruine we at first could hardly give credit to those miracles yet
proposition of our marriage but notwithstanding all the Kings attempts by gentleness and by violence it was impossible for him to shake my resolution and when he went to terrefie me with his threats Let your Majestie cause me to be put to death said I and I shall be cured of a remembrance more cruel than all the pains you can inflict upon me The King was extremely moved at these words and was sometimes upon the very point of letting loose his anger but he loved me very tenderly and his knowledge of the unjustness of what he demanded wrought something upon him and did a little moderate his indignation Antipater's Commissioners thinking themselves mock'd returned very much discontented after they had publickly complained of their Masters being ill dealt withal and having at their departure expressed that he would not be insensible of it I was also persecuted by Neoptolemus who taking his advantage upon the ruine of Agis his pretensions and upon my aversness to the marriage of Cassander left nothing unattempted either with my Father or with my self to advance his old designs but the King answered him with my obstinacy and I with such strange kinde of usage that the very spite he conceived made him leave the Court with an intention to stir up some trouble in the Kingdom and for that purpose to make use of the peoples ill opinion of Aeacidas About that time the news came to us that my valiant Agis with an Army more powerfull through the courage than the number of men it consisted of was entred into the Countries that obeyed Antipater where by the beginning of his exploits he shewed marks both of his Valour and of the animosity that guided him We heard that in many encounters he had gain'd all manner of advantages that he had taken many places by storm and that after having made himself master of the field he had laid siege to Megalopolis whither Antipater was marching toward him with an Army much more potent than his because it was made up not onely of his own Forces but of many of his Allies and where Agis staid for him contrary to the advice of all his Commanders being less desirous of Victory than of death but most firmly resolved to sell his life at the dearest rate and to make his despair remarkable by actions which posterity never should forget This news made me send forth continual wishes in his favour and all the prayers I made unto the Gods were onely for his safety yet was I tormented with extraordinarie fears and those mortal apprehensions were the true presages of my misfortune Alas they were but too true indeed and since I must abridge a relation which has nothing now in it but sorrowfull and unpleasing events in spite of all my prayers and in spite of all my wishes I heard shortly after with all Epirus that in a bloudy battel whose issue had been disputed by almost all the bloud of either party my beloved my valiant Agis had lost his life upon thousands of men whom he had sacrificed to his lawfull rage Although this report was confusedly brought us you may judge nevertheless what effect it wrought upon my heart and you imagine by the knowledge this fatal storie has given you of my love that I was little less dead than he himself Indeed all signs of life forsook me and complaints not being capable to express the smallest part of my affliction they left that office to faintings and swownings which carried me almost into the very bowels of the grave I had continued many daies in a condition which made by life to be much doubted of when that I might be utterly overwhelm'd they brought a man to me whom I instantly knew to have belonged to that poor Prince and to have been the most beloved of all the servants he had as soon as ever I saw him though it was in the presence of the Queen my Mother I sent forth a crie of a despairing person and presently after fell into a swown in the arms of those that were about me When with several remedies they had fetch'd me to my self again as I opend my eies I cast them upon that man and forcing the sighs which stopp'd the passage of my words Agis is dead cried I Agis is dead Archidamus Yes Madam answered he the greatest and the most generous of all Princes is dead indeed but he shall never die in the memorie of mankinde at his Death he has raised himself a Monument which would render his condition worthy to be envied if he were not dead in your remembrance In my remembrance replied I quite transported Ah! Archidamus Agis shall never die in my remembrance and 't is onely by the remembrance of him that Deidamia now lives herself He commanded me continued Archidamus very sadly to bring you the latest marks of his and if you be so pleased I will acquit my self of the last Commission he ever gave me My grief made me unable to reply and all I could do seeing him put forth his arm to give me a Letter was to lift up my hand to receive it and to imploy the rest of my little strength to open it There were but very few words in it but they were written with his bloud and that sight struck such a chilness into mine that I was hardly able to speak or stir Ah! my dear Agis cry'd I kissing that bloud before I read the words with what dismal Characters have you ingraven these last Expressions of your love and why have you been so prodigal of this noble bloud so dear to Deidamia and of this noble bloud which sustain'd my life more than your own saying thus I cast mine Eyes once more upon it but they were so drown'd in tears that of a long time I was not able to see and 't was with much ado that in the end I read these words Agis to the Princess Deidamia YOur ingratitude has not had power to make you lose your Empire over me I die yours Deidamia and it is to assure you of it that I imploy the remainder of my bloud and of my strength And I le die thine cried I kissing those words again yes I le die thine my too too faithfull Prince and I le confess at the extremity of my life I was as unworthy of these last marks of thy affection as thou wert worthy of a more fortunate destiny These words were follow'd with a sea of tears whose flowing whole hours could not asswage and if I had not been with-held by those that were about me I should without doubt have made these of mine to act some violence against my life After having been a good part of the day in this condition I desir'd to know the particulars of his death and though I was certain that relation would surcharge my grief the resolution I had taken to bury my self absolutely in it made me seek that new occasion to afflict my self and therefore turning towards
To Prince Arsaces The houre of my death is nere my deare Arsaces and to morrow must be the day of my funerall I write these words not so much to tell you this ill nerves as to protest to you that I will persevere to my very grave in my first resolution Take comfort in a misfortune you cannot divert and be at least assured that if Berenice cannot be yours you shall never have the discontent to see her live with Arsacomes It is most certaine that if my anger had not strengthen'd me I should have fallen into dangerous faintings at the sorrowfull reading of this letter and all the sensiblenesse I had ever shored in my most cruell afflictions was a matter of nothing in comparison of this last and indeed I had never been so neare to my destruction nor had I ever had so great reason to feare my utmost mis-fortunes They that saw me then said I was so chang'd that it was not possible to know me and that I did actions so different from my ordinary carriage as nothing but by rage alone could have made excusable How cryed I with a furious action shall I live and shall Berenice be in the armes of Arsacomes shall I stand idle at the head of twenty thousand men while my life is sacrific'd within these walls and breifly shall I suffer my adored Princesse to be violently taken from me and that unworthy rivall to Triumph over my happynesse and over my reputation Ah! no Arsacomes thou shallt not so easily effect so high an enterprise I can teare away that life for all these ramparts which I could have taken from thee at the the head of thy Army and this nuptiall torch shall without doubt be that which must light thee to thy buriall No King of Scythia thou shalt not have the Satisfaction to have so cruelly made an end of the remnants of miserable Darius and that which thou hast not been able to doe by poison by the weapons of thy guards and by the swords of thy assassinates shall not be executed by the violence thou usest against Berenice No my deare Princesse I 'le not abandon you in the extreamity you are brought to for happy Arsaces I say happy since they that thinke they labour for his ruine labour for his glory and for his fortune and that the constancy you show in his favour is a thousand times more deare to him then all the mischiefes which his enemyes prepare him can be terrible Feare nothing vertuous Princesse while Arsaces is a live and beleive there are no walls so strong as to keepe a desperate lover from coming to you While I was speaking these words my tent fill'd with a good number of my chiefest friends and of the principall Officers of the Army whom desire of hearing the newes I had receiv'd and that of the affliction I express'd brought thither The sight of them comforted me very much and not being willing longer to deferre demanding the last effect of their good will Now it is said I my brave and generous freinds that Arsaces challenges the accomplishment of your promises he ha's but a minute more to live unlesse his life be prolong'd by your assistance All that you have done for me hither to is but a preparative to what I desire of you to day and that which I desire of you to day is of such infinite consequence that if you will suffer me to cast my self at your feet and embrace your knees to obtaine it you shall see me abase my self to all manner of submissions to worke upon you Behold said I shewing them the letters I had received which Theodates began to read a loud behold to what estate my affaires are reduc'd and how much time I have left to make use of your freindship You know I have defer'd it as long as possibly I could and that even contrary to your own counsell I have conserv'd a respect toward the King of Scythia for the losse whereof his cruelty would have dispenc'd with me sufficiently How all considerations are quench'd in the despaire into which he ha's throwne me and being no longer in a condition to have any of my own safety I must at length cast away all those that have till now imprudently with held mee I would have said more if that company of generous men had suffered me and if they had not interrupted me altogether crying that I should lead them whither I would and that I should presently declare what I intended with a perfect assurance that it should be excecuted or that they would all perish to the very last man When I saw them in that courageous resolution My deare freinds said I since you will have me use that terme to day I will assault this Town not that I desire the ruine of it or that I would shed the bloud of your countrymen and of a people to which I neither can nor will beare a hatred but I will this day pull Berenice by meere force out of the hands of a cruell father and of an unworthy husband to whom they have destin'd her For this purpose I my self will fall on with three thousand men at this next gate and having open'd our passage by the violence of our Rammes I hope I shall make my way to the Palace for the execution of my enterprise To make it the more feisable you my Gallant freinds must begin the storme in three other places which shall be assign'd to three amongst you You shall advance with your Rammes and present your ladders but being I desire your assault should onely serve to make a diversion and to draw the resistance thither to the end I may find the more facility on the other side you shall not need to prosecute your attempt more obstinately then necessity will require to amase the enemy not desiring as I have told you to expose this Citty where I have a great many very deare freinds to the utmost calamityes and mis-fortunes which usually accompany the taking of places by force Goe therefore if you please to prepare and put all things in the readynesse that will be needfull for this designe but I conjure you let it be done with all the hast that can be possible and since 't is upon it alone my life depends as you desire the Gods should favour you take some care for the safety of him whom you have judg'd worthy of your freindship Leotaris with two thousand men shall attacque the Gate of the Issedons Cleorestes with a like number that of Serey Mazentes that of Mars and Prince Theodates it he please shall stay at the head of our maine body which he shall draw up into Battalia and keepe in a readinesse to reinforce the assault where there shall be need of his assistance Although this resolution proceeded from my despaire yet neverthelesse it was approv'd and all these valliant men ran to execute the orders I had given them with so much affection that I
With these words he rush'd upon him with a fierceness which made him grow pale under his arms and forc'd him to approve of the help he receiv'd from those about him With two blows Oroondates gave him he dyed his Arms in bloud which came streaming from two several places but as eager as he was upon his Victory he could not hinder Perdiccas his friends from thrusting themselves between nor from rescuing him out of his hands half vanquish'd and half dead Oroondates took Revenge for the displeasure he receiv'd upon some of those that caused it and at the same time turning his eye towards his own men he saw Peucestas and Leonatus fall by the hands of Lysimachus and Ptolomeus By these brave Examples the Phrigians Lydians and Pamphilians staid their flight and fac'd about to their Enemies with so great Resolution that they seeing themselves depriv'd of those valiant Commanders who had animated them had not enough to make resistance especially when they saw the brave Demetrius follow'd by a good Body of Horse come thundring upon them and Craterus also at the head of the Macedonians This second charge finding them wavering utterly took away their courage so that of terrible Conquerours which they were a few minutes before they became timorous Run-aways and instead of Victory which by so much bloud they had almost gotten they onely sought to save themselves by flight That Rout amongst them was so general that the stoutest of them shamefully turn'd their backs and even the two chief Leaders of the Argiraspides Antigenes and Teutamus both wounded by the swords of Lysimachus and Demetrius being escap'd out of their hands like feeble birds out of a Falcons tallons fled to avoid the danger that threaten'd them and by their example perfected the routing of their men They are beaten my valiant friends cried Prince Oroondates they are beaten and if you neglect not the Advantages your valour has given you this is the last day of the War and of your Enemies As he had said these words he threw himself among them who yet made opposition the greatest part of which were Macedonians and having with the Troops that vigorously seconded him watred the field with the bloud of those that were most resolute the rest unable to sustain his violence followed the example and the destiny of their companions From this part of the battel and from that where Arsaces Thalestris and Eumenes had fought with the same success the Rout spread over all the field and Perdiccas his whole party gave it self up either to flight or to the mercy of the Enemy nor was there longer any fighting seen but onely execution without resistance and a lamentable slaughter which for a long time the Commanders were not able to hinder The Amazons incensed by the loss of their Companions gave store of bloud to their Revenge and the people of the most cruell natures as the Thracians Arabes and Hircanians not regarding pity covered the ground all over with dead bodies Those that could make use of the swiftness of their Horses sought safety toward the Town but the miserable Foot either lost their lives upon the place or found their deaths in the River where they leap'd in head-long to shun the Sword of their Enemies The waters of Euphrates which before were cleare and pure turn'd red with the bloud of many thousands and seem'd to swell higher with those streams which made a second River upon their banks The renown'd Arsaces carried on by the ardour of the fight had crossed through so many Squadrons that he at last was come near the place where Oroondates by his glorious Actions had given the Victory to his party and seeking for resistance wheresoere he thought he might finde it was brought by Seleucus his good fortune where that valiant man reduc'd to the last extremity of his life was disputing the remainders of it afoot against a company of Souldiers who but for his arrival had certainly made an end of him Arsaces having heard some body name him and knowing him by divers marks he who though he had not known him and for all he was an Enemy would not have suffer'd so brave a man to be slain rode up before all his Souldiers and by redoubled cries stopping the fury of the hottest among them drew near to Seleucus who making use of the respite that was given him set the point of his Sword upon the ground and leaning on the Hilt to take a little rest and breath saw his bloud run down from a great many parts of his body Arsaces putting up the Beaver of his Helmet Valiant Seleucus said he you shall not die nor shall you be overcome Arsaces will repay you part of what he ows you and though he was not oblig'd to you for his life he with all generous men ows his Relief unto your virtue Seleucus knowing him would no longer dispute his life nor his liberty against him but presenting him his Sword I yield my self said he and I yield my self without shame to the great Arsaces with this belief that if he had not ceased to be my friend I should not now have been conquer'd Arsaces was going to reply when he perceiv'd him to grow pale and by little and little to sink into a swown which his weariness and loss of bloud had caused He imbrac'd him presently to hold him up and feeling him faint in his arms he turn'd towards some he knew and making them take him up commanded them to carry him into his Tent and lay him in his Bed with the same care he would have desired to his own person Then seeking Oroondates on every side he found him busied with Lysimachus Demetrius and Ptolomeus to stop the slaughter of so many men who had given over all resistance Spare Friends cryed he running from place to place spare those who were your Countrymen and your fellow-souldiers there has been bloud enough shed already and our Victory for being the more bloudy cannot now be any thing the more entire Arsaces help'd the Prince of Scythia in that imployment and by the care they took they sav'd the lives of many thousand men The Souldiers having long been deaf to those commands began to obey in many places and giving Quarter took some of their Enemies Prisoners leaving the rest free liberty to escape All those that could get off retir'd to Babylon the Gates whereof were set open to them and of all that mighty number of Souldiers which a few hours before had covered all the Plain there remain'd not any without the Walls but what were either dead or Prisoners In short our Princes had as total a Victory as they could have wish'd and if the ardour of Oroondates and Arsaces had been follow'd they that very day would have appear'd at the heels of the Run-aways before the Gates of Babylon but Antigonus Craterus and Polyperchon opposed that Resolution and knowing that it was near night and that the City was not in
such Eminent Persons a Glory that may establish my highest felicity You ever desrv'd it replyed Oroondates but you have made your selfe more worthy of it by your last actions then by those which made you be condemned of your best Friends and that which makes you merit Thalestris may justly make you merit the affections of vertuous persons For my part dear Cousin went he on embracing him I confesse I had very great resentments against you but that repentance which has obtained the pardon of this fair Queen and the obligation we have to you in what you have done for her safety restore you my affection entirely The remorse I have felt answered Orontes for the offences I had committed against my Queen have been accompanyed with a sorrow for having born Arms against the party of my Prince but as I may excuse my errour of the faults I did against my Love my ignorance also was the cause of those I did against my duty and from the very minute I was cured of both I pass'd from my crime into a suddain and severe repentance Let 's talke no longer of your faults added Prince Artaxerxes since she who therein has the principall interest is willing to forget them and since the Noble Actions you have done in her favour ought more justly and more worthily to possesse your remembrance Orontes never wants the power interrupted the fair Queen to save the life of Thalestris he has done but that twice or thrice in your presence which he had done before upon the wals of Phriney and in the Prison of Neobarzanes Alas sayd Orontes not suffring her to proceed how happy am I in having done these petty services for so good and so gratefull a Princesse and how different would my destiny be from what it is if you should judge me with severity They had enlarged themselves further in this conversation if every body had not passionately desired to hear the truth of that Encounter from the Queen and if the Princess Berenice seconded by her Brother and by her Servant had not pressed her to it very earnestly Thalestris disposed her selfe to obey them and though she could not do it without blushing nor without making appeare some inward disturbance in many places of her discourse she made them a full recital of that Adventure and by relating the words of Orontes the place of his abode and the condition she had found him in drew tears from the eyes of the most hard hearted She was making an end of her Discourse when Araxes Hyppolita Menalippa and some other Amazones who had been abroad to seek her came into the Tent if Hyppolita was ashonished to meet Orontes there Menalippa and her Companions were so a great deale more when in his face they saw all the feature of Orithia's and when they found a man in the person of that valiant Lady who had liv'd so long amongst them not but that they had heard some rumour of it both in their Country after their Queens departure and in the Camp since their arrivall there but they had found some little probability in that adventure that they stood in need of such a confirmation as that to lend a perfect belief to that Report They knew not at first how they should receive such a Metamorphosis but in the end being they bore a great deal of affection and respect unto their Queen they submitted to her inclinations and not judging that her love to Orontes reach'd to the destroying of their Laws and Customs they approv'd it without discontent not being able to condemn any thing in it if it were Platonick and if it went beyond those limits they had as little cause to dislike that she should give them a Queen to succeed her of the bloud of a Prince whose vertue was very well known and whose person had ever been very dear to them although they conceal'd part of their thoughts before that illustrious Company they declared the rest by endearments full of affection which they gave to their ancient Companion And Orontes knowing Menalippa and with her some other women whom formerly she had cherish'd and esteem'd imbraced them with motions full of tenderness and shewed them great expressions of his first affection Valiant Menalippa sayd he to what will you condemn this deceitfull Orithia who under false appearances abused your friendship we will condemn her answered Menalippa to love us as she ha's done heretofore and that 's all the punishment we can impose upon this generous imposter to whom we owe the safety of our Queen Hippolita had her full share in the kindnesses of Orontes and Lassaris renew'd his friendships and his acquaintance among the Amazones The arrivall of Orontes and the satisfaction of Thalestris being very considerable to that illustrious company made that whole evenings entertainment and after having spent it in a conversation which afforded them matter enough they all retired into their Chambers to take their usuall rest Orontes was lodged in Prince Oroondates his Tents Artaxerxes would have no other quarter but being the Tents were very spacious they had their Chambers apart with good conveniency the Princesses lay near them within the same inclosure though their lodgings were separated only Apamia and Arsionoe were retir'd to their Husbands and even Thalestris leaving Menalippa to command in the Amazones quarter would not forsake Berenice Deidamia and Barsina with whom she layd aside her Warlike Humour to live in a society more conformable to their Sex During that night and the beginning of the next day the workmen who were in hand with the Bridges hastened their business with such diligence that two hours before Noon they drew near the other bank and only stayd for the forces that were to sustain them and that were to land to place the last Boats and to finish the work Demetrius who remembred the imployment he was to have that day had begun it in the duties of a Captain experienc'd above his Age and using the clear lights of his understanding had begun to put that in practice which afterward he executed with so much reputation he took a carefull review of those forces that had been assigned him and having drawn them up in Battalia upon the bank of the river he divided those that were to pass over to the other side in Boats from those that were to go upon the Bridge at the head of which he meant to fight himself against those that should oppose his discent Alexander and Menelaus to whom the other Bridge was assign'd laboured on their side with the same Care but when Demetrius had taken such order as was necessary upon the bank he resolved to bestow the time he had left before there was matter to imploy him in visiting Deidamia the remembrance of that fair Princess never forsook him for a moment and considering that the chance of war might make him fall in the perill to which he was going to expose himself he demanded of his
his dear brother with acclamations of victory and the Princes who had accompanied him received from the whole army such honours and prayses as were due unto their vertue but when disloyall Nabarzanes appeared before Oroondates Artabasus and those who did yet reverence the memory of Darius his sight transported them in such manner that their high vertue could hardly furnish them with moderation enough to contain themselves all cried out aloud that he should be exposed to the most cruel torments that men were able to invent and scarce was the authority of the Prince sufficient to rescue him from the first fury of those that were most passionate Oroondates turned away his eyes from off his face not being able to look upon it without horrour nor without tears which that tragicall remembrance made him shed and Arsaces being unwilling to condemn him and being unwilling also to acquit him for a crime which his clemency could not mediate for without making it self detestable delivered him up to the judgement of Craterus Antigonus Ptolomeus and Poliperchon none of those that were concerned would have to do in it and those valiant Captains to be exempt from all blame in the punishments they should ordain for a man that seemed to be a prisoner of war would needs have Seleucus who then began to leave his bed and Nearchus whose health was in the same condition to be of the number of his Judges and that they themselves should passe sentence upon a man of their own party This consideration was nothing favourable to Nabarzanes for Seleucus was the first that without having any respect to the design he had had to serve those of his party judged him worthy of the most rigorous torments that could be inflicted Nearchus was of his opinion and then all the rest of them condemned him to the same kind of death which Bessus his horrible accomplice in that fact had suffered This decree which was yet too gentle for his crime was executed with great satisfaction to the Persians who found some comfort in that revenge of their Kings death such was the end of the murtherers of much lamented Darius and the Successours of Alexander did in some measure repair the fault he had committed against the interest of all Kings and against his usuall magnanimity in sparing that Monsters life at the intercession of Bagoas Order was given to cause the dead of each party to be buried or burned the remainder of that day was imployed in preparations for the assault which was intended for the next These last successes had increased their hopes and though their enterprise was one of the greatest that men had undertaken as well in regard of the strength and heigth of the walls they were to storm as of the number and valour of the men that defended them they doubted not of a favourable issue and made themselves ready joyfully for any action the thought whereof might have struck terrour into the most resolute hearts All the Engines were carefully surveyed that they might be fit for service and as soon as it was night Eumenes and Polyperchon set their men to work again and plied them in such a manner that they had made an end an hour before day and the Moat without the Walls of Babylon was filled up and made levell with the counter-scarp in twenty several places for the breadth of above threescore foot No sooner did the Sun discover his earliest beams but through the whole Camp was heard the noise of a thousand warlike instruments which excited the courages of the souldiers for the important action of that day one might see them run on all sides and range themselves under their Standards and Banners with a chearfulnesse full of resolution their valiant Commanders observed it with a great deal of joy and every one amongst his own endeavoured to confirm them in it by all the considerations of honour and of interest the common souldiers in whom the hope of booty produces usually as strong effects as the desire of honour could not think of the pillage of a City proud with the spoils of so many Kings and inriched with the treasures of so many Provinces without preparing themselves for marvellous exploits and they in whose souls more noble considerations were wont to work promised themselves a more perfect glory in this last effect of their valour than that they had acquired in their former conquests The Princes walked about through all the quarters and incited all the Battalions which being drawn up in very good order were advancing already toward the Counterscarp one part of the Cavalry stood in Battalia in the Plain on both sides of the river and the other by order from their Commanders had changed their quality for that day and made a body of infantry to march on to the assault as the rest of the foot those famous Captains having judged that to assault a Town like Babylon defended with twenty thousand fighting men all their forces were no more than necessary Oxiartes had the command that day and the renewing of his flames having added something to his naturall order he seemed to be all fire in the duties of his place and prepared himself to let Barsina see by the actions of that day that without offending the memory of Memnon she well might cast her eyes upon so worthy a successour Artaxerxes Oroondates and Orontes who had no forces to which they were particularly engaged took part in his cares to give him ease and all the other Commanders kept themselves at the head of their men to fall on in the places that were assigned them It was no triviall enterprise to attacque that vast extent of walls on every side and for the exectuion of such a design the Princes in probability stood in need of a far greater number of men than that they had but they likewise made a strong diversion of the enemies forces and all places were not a little weakned which were guarded onely by men that had a circuit of three hundred and sixty furlongs to defend When they had implored the assistance of heaven by the sacrifices that were offred through the whole Camp and that all the forces were in the readinesse that had been ordained they were made to advance at the sound of divers instruments which struck fear into the hearts of those that defended the walls Perdiccas neverthelesse had forgot nothing that belonged to his charge and having found by the enemies working that their design was to give a generall assault he had prepared himself to sustain it and not contented with the souldiery which he had to man the town he had caused the better part of the inhabitants to take up arms Against Craterus his approach he had opposed Cassander Peucestas against that of Oxiartes Andiagoras against Artabasus Antigenes against Antigonus against that of Eumenes his enemy Neoptolemus Teutamus against that of Polyperchon Besides these six principal Posts he had furnished all those
prove him guilty This was it that did the more encourage Orontes who had been his Friend and upon whose promise he had yielded to intercede in his behalfe The Amazone Queen out of complyance used all her power to second him and they both of them had so much with those Persons who had greatest interest in the businesse that Seleucus in consideration of his ancient frienship with Cassander being joyned with them at last in the same request and having help'd them to sollicite those who had too fresh an oblâ—gation to refuse him any thing they in the end obtainned the pardon of that unworthy man upon condition he should not come into their â—ight and that he should depart that very day from Babylon with all his retinue not â—â—aying a minute in those Countries where they had any power Thus did Cassander receive his liberty and went from Babylon with this satisfaction that Oroondates would not take Roxana from him and that by the troubles he would raise in Greece he might bring her more then ever into a condition either to desire his friendship or to fear his power In the mean while by the care of Peucestas and of Seleucus himselfe Perdiccas and his Brother were interred with Honours suitable to their Quality but Queen Statira who had not yet had time to pay those Funerall Rites she owed unto the King her Husband did then perform them with as many tears as his Ghost could require from her affection and with all the pompe that could be imagined All the Princes assisted in that solemn action and after that memorable Ceremony was over the Queen took order to have the Body of that Great King removed according to his last â—ention and the last commands he had given unto the New City of Alexandria which was under the Dominion of Pâ—olomeus Foure or five dayes were spent in these generall imployments which have diverted us from the recitall of particular ones during which Oroondates was cured of his wounds and Babylon was setled again in a condition little different from that it was in before the siege The Forces were drawn out of it by order from the Commanders in Chiefe and none kept in the Town but those that were necessary the rest marching away toward their severall Countries Roxana had obtayned from the Queen that none should visit her but those she was desirous to see and though many would have gone to her out of curiosity yet did they bear her so much respect as not to make her suffer visits which she would have been troubled to receive and she had passed that time in a melancholy and discontented solitariness When she saw all things peaceable in Babylon and that the Queen to whom all the Princes submitted themselves as to their Sovereign had time to hearken to her proposition she entreated Ptolomeus who had been alwayes very ready to serve her that he would do her the favour to speak to her and know if she would not permit her to retire to Queen Olimpias her Mother in Law into Macedonia which of right belonged to the Child that should be born of her if it pleased the Gods to let her see that day Ptolomeus made that motion to the Queen who after she had lent him favourable attention and demanded time to ask advice of all the Princes before she gave her answer You may tell Roxana if you please sayd she that I will not dispute for Macedonia against the child she now goes with by Alexander and that I quit all the pretensions to her which with some appearance I might have upon that Kingdome that she may goe and take possession of it when she will and that in stead of hindring her in that designe we shall be ready to assist her in whatsoever she shall desire of us but I could wish she would stay to lie in heer and that she would not go in a condition wherin she cannot without a great deal of danger expose her selfe to so long a journey Roxana by this message from Statira and the care she took of her health came to a perfâ—ct knowledge of her admirable goodnesse and absolutely lost all those resentments she might have had against a Rivall that deprived her of all her joy yet could she not be perswaded to expect her utmost discontent in Babylon and the rather chose to hazard her childs life and her own also then to stay longer in a place where she beleeved she should shortly see Oroondates married to the Queen That thought alone made her heart to tremble and she would certainly have kild her self if she had had no other way to avoyd that unpleasing spectacle She therfore got the Queen to be again iâ—treated to give way that she might depart the next morning wherupon that obliging Princesse who was unwilling to constrain her sent her word she had full liberty to do what she pleas'd her self Roxana being no longer able to look upon Babylon but with horrour after having once prayd Ptolomeus to ask the Queen pardon if the fear she had to present her selfe again before her whom she had so cruelly offended made her depart without seeing her and to testifie in her behalf that the sence she had of her goodness obliged her to wish her all maner of prosperity began her journey the day following and took her way toward Macedonia under the conduct of Peucestas and Andiagoras who would needs wait upon her with three thousand men that were left of those they had commanded and two thousand Macedonians whom Seleucus permitted to return into their Country The last actions of Roxana had caus'd so generall an aversion against her that very few were sorry for her departure and King Oroondates who was better satisfied with it then all the rest began to breath with greater liberty All things being then setled peaceably in Babylon 't was only Love that made war there and the wounds which he had given were not heald up like those that had been received in the late occasions Oroondates languished in flames at the Queens feet not knowing how to be secured against her scruples after the cause she had given him to fear them in all that had befallen him since the death of Alexander Arsaces lived in a little better assurance with Berenice and was hardly in any doubt at all of establishing his fortune Lysimachus was more uncertain by reason of Parisatis's humour though he began to find by many signes that she really lov'd him Orontes was the best satisfied of them all and knowing his fair Queens affection his impatiency alone caused the greatest part of his discontents Oxyatres was as in good hope of Barsina and finding no repugnance in the inclinations of that fair Princess he expected his felicity with that of his friends by the assistance he beleeved they would afford him Yong Demetrius was the least advanced in his suit and though by his services and by his power to make himselfe be loved he
inseparable companion in all his exercises I was so likewise of his first actions and was so happie as to receiv all the proofs of his friendship I could desire to say the truth I bore him such an affection as would not suffer mee to part from him and having no father whose autoritie could recal mee from the Court of the King my Uncle I there spent my younger years with a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction and was not yet sixteen when the King having rais'd a mightie Armie to go against Darius who had pass'd the Araxis with two hundred thousand men took his Son along with him in that expedition I was too firmly tied to him and alreadie too emulous of glorie to stay behinde at Issedon while hee went to the wars wherefore I departed with the whole Court and the King putting mee as young as I was as the head of the Forces of my Countrie gave mee leav to begin my apprentiship under him I will not relate the particulars of that war there were two battels given whereof the advantage was uncertain and the lost exceeding great on both sides There pass'd many encounters and many skirmishes and in those occasions Orondates and I made our first essaies for his part hee did things whose memorie still last's and will for ever among the Scythians and I may say without vanitie that in my beginnings I had success enough and gain'd som reputation In the end Darius weakned by the decay of his forces which were wasted by fighting and by sickness repass'd the Araxis over many bridges of boats which hee caused to bee provided and King Matheus gave order wee should pass it after him and make the seat of the war in his territories I was one of the forwardest to obey him and marching at the head of my troops I engaged my self with them in that passage where I suffered as it hath since proved a happie shipwrack and died in the opinion of all those that knew mee Scarce had I cross'd part of the river when the boats whereof our bridge was compos'd beeing broak loos from one another the planks sunk under us and the foremost of my men fell with mee into the stream which as I believ devoured a great many of them The weight of my arms though they were not very heavie carried mee to the bottom and within a while after the force of the water brought mee up again I had learn'd to swim from my very child-hood and endeavored to make use of that skill to save my self It fortuned that I was arm'd that day rather for shew and easiness then service and scorning arms of better proof I had onely a little Morion set with stoâ—es and a thin back and brest enrich'd on the same fashion that lightness of my arms was a great help to my safetie and though they were heavie enough to trouble and hinder mee very much in my swimming yet did they not drown mee as without question those would have don which I wore commonly upon service I no sooner saw my self above water but I instantly imploied the strength of my arms and of my breath to reach the nearest bank but the river was so broad and so rapid that after having vainly attempted it I lost the hope of getting thither and feeling my strength and my breath fail mee so that I was not able to struggle against the violence of the waves I suffred my self to bee carried away by the current without resistance and swam with more eas but with less hope of safetie after I had striven a while longer for my life my arms were so tired that they refused mee their assistance and the heaviness of my wet clothes and of my armor beeing no longer supportable sunk mee often to the bottom and made me swallow a great deal of water I had nevertheless this happiness that my senses forsook mee not in that extremitie and beeing at that time exempt from all those passions that can make one hate or despise his life I had no other thought but how I might save mine I was alreadie in despair of it and was hardly able to stirr any longer when I was justled by somthing that beat mee under water and presently after coming up again and casting my arms on every side I met with a piece of wood which I catch'd at with all the strength I had left and joining my right hand to my left rather through instinct then reason I laid hold of the edg of a board and by that help got my head and shoulders out of the water Though that I had drunk in had taken away part of my understanding yet had I so much still as to observ I held by one of the boats of the bridg which beeing untied from the rest was carried down the stream I hung fast upon the edg of it along while not having strength enough to get into it but when I had rested a while in that posture and recovered breath I made a shift to rais my self a little and recalling all the vigor I had left I escaped out of the water and got into the boat as soon as I was there not beeing able so much as to stand upon my leggs I lay all along and giving my self over to the conduct of the gods and to the current of the river I began to take breath after my long struggling and to cast up part of the water I had swallowed within a little after it grew night and that hindred mee from seeing the banks or the way I went The river beeing very impetuous carried mee away exceeding swiftly and having neither oar to row unto the side nor strength to make use of it though I should have had one I was necessitated to let it follow the cours of the stream at the pleasure of my destinie till the return of day and of my strength I was so extreamly weaken'd that a good part of the night was spent before I was able to stand upon my feet but besides my weariness I suffer'd very muâ—h in many other respects the wetness and coldness of my clothes which I was fain to endure all the night together with excessive pains in my head and my stomack caus'd by the water which was got into my bellie and which I could not well get up again brought mee to fainting wherein I was like to have died for want of help In the mean time the boat went down very fast and the night was not quite spent before I was above six hundred furlongs from the place where I fell in At last the day appeared and with it my hopes returned and som part of my strength I sat up and looking about toward the banks on both sides could see no bodie I was carried away in the same manner above an hour longer and in the end I perceived the smoke of a few chimnies and casting my eies toward the shore on the side of Persia I saw certain men
walking the sun was alreadie risen and the day beeing fair and clear they easily discovered my boat I got up with much ado and judging I was too far off to bee hear'd besides that the nois of the waves would not suffer my voice to reach to the bank I lift up my hands as high as I could and then bringing them down again with a beseeching action I continued a long time begging help from them by signs In the end they understood them and two men getting into a little boat which was tied to their bank began to com straight toward mee as they drew nearer I redoubled my signs and though I was carried down very swiftly they rowed so hard that they quickly overtook mee They laid hold of my boat and taking mee into theirs turned back to the shore from whence they came wee there found a venerable old man who judging by my habit that I was of qualitie received mee with a great deal of respect and affection I with a few words in their language which I spoke reasonably well gave him thanks for the obligation I had to them and promised them all the requital they could expect from a gratefull person but the old man who was unwilling to oblige mee to the halves seeing mee benumm'd with cold and that I was hardly able to stand caus'd the two men who had brought mee to land to take mee under the arms and lead mee to his hous which was not above a hundred paces from the place where wee were I was presently gotten to bed and the good old man having observ'd the richness of my arms caused them to bee carefully lock'd up in my chamber for fear the stones that were set in them should tempt som of his servants when I was in bed hee felt my puls and found mee in a violent feaver and though I was of a reasonable strong constitution I had labored so extreamly to save my self and had suffred so much by beeing cold and wet all night that I think it not strange if my health was thereby impaired My charitable friend sent to the next Town for Physicians to undertake my cure and assured mee that hee would bee as careful of mee himself as if I were his own son The effects were answerable to his promises and during all my sickness which was long and dangerous I was waited upon as if I had been in my own hous and amongst my most affectionate kindred The good old man visited mee as often as I could admit him without inconveniencie and hee gave mee his assistance so civilly and so courteously that I shall never forget such powerful obligations Hee was a man of no inconsiderable qualitie who having spent his youth in the war with much esteem and reputation was in his age retired to that hous the situation and building whereof was very pleasant and wherein he liv'd so quietly that hee scarcely heard so much as the noise of arms his discretion was such that hee never ask'd mee my name nor my countrie and I made no great haste to tell him them fearing hee would fall off from his affection and good usage when hee should once know mee to bee an enemie to his nation This doubt kept mee from sending my own partie word what was becom of mee not having any bodie whom I durst trust with such a message and I resolv'd to stay there till I were recovered without saying any thing since the gods had made mee fall into the hands of so charitable persons I will not hold you Madam in the tedious relation of my sickness nor how I passed my time while it forc'd mee to keep my bed all my thoughts which since have nobly chang'd their nature were then bent upon nothing but the recoverie of my health I will onely tell you that I kept my bed above six weeks and that of a month after I was not able to get on hors-back nor to endure the hardship of a journey As soon as I began to walk about my chamber my Landlord whose name was Araspes often afforded mee his companie and beeing of a gentle conversation hee made mee pass many daies delightfully enough Although hee enquired but little after the armies yet beeing but a small daies journie from them and having two sons there hee often heard news from thence I had been almost two months in his hous when hee told mee the Scythian armie was repassing the Araxis to return home and that the Persians were retiring also This news troubled mee very much seeing my self left behinde alone in a strange countrie and that within our enemies dominions but I was comforted by my knowledg of Araspes his virtue whom I believ'd so generous that hee would not alter his former usage though hee should com to know mee When I was able to leav my chamber hee carried mee up and down his hous the lodgings whereof were very fair and the symmetrie skilfully composed One day which I ought to call the first of my life though it was the first of my pains and of those happie suffrings for which I now see my self so gloriously rewarded the good old Araspes led mee into a gallerie beautified with divers pictures after having viewed many rare ones that hung on the one side wee turn'd to the other where were the pictures of certain women drawn by the life which presently attracted my sight and admiration I asked Araspes the names of those fair Ladies you may see them all at the bottom of their pictures said hee and to inform you how they came into my hands know that I have a son in Darius his armie who hath don nothing but travel from his child-hood there are few Provinces in the world which his curiositie hath not made him visit and becaus that among som of those qualities the gods have given him hee is reasonable good at painting hee take's care to draw the pictures of the fairest and most considerable Ladies of those places where hee made any stay and of those whose pictures hee could not take himself hee found means to get them of the most excellent painters in their several countries and at his return hee dress'd up this gallerie with them as you see This discours invited mee to look more intentively upon the faces of those eminent persons and casting my eies upon the meanest I saw a Ladie full of Majestie and in whom notwithstanding the number of her years one might observ remainders of an excellent beautie and underneath Sysigambis Queen of Persia From that venerable person I turn'd unto the next in whose face I found a great deal of handsomness and anâ— extraordinarie sweetness by the reading of her name I found it was Statira Queen of Persia wife to Darius A little below these two Queens I looked upon two faces whose beauties were as different as brown and fair can bee yet in that difference agreed to appear equally the Master-pieces of the gods who never formed any thing