Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A31737
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The Character of love guided by inclination, instanced in two true histories / translated out of French.
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1686
(1686)
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Wing C2020; ESTC R32589
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50,690
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135
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justifying and clearing himself would discover the Cheat which had made him to suspect the Innocence and Faithfulness of Philismena and being also prest with remorse of Conscience she was tempted to declare all publickly and to lessen the Crime accuse her self whilst she was in this uncertainty Lisidor approached the Bed wherein Philismene lay in a strange disorder which increased at the sight of the terrible Change he observed in her Looks It is I then said he who have brought you into so deplorable a Condition I who am not able to repay with the loss of my Life the Goodness you have had for me No no cryed out Madonte with a Voice which shewed her Grief and the violence of her Despair it is I said she addressing her self to Philismene it is I alone who have been cause of Lisidors Crime and who have brought you into this miserable condition it was my jealous Rage which made you to pass for unfaithful in the mind of Lisidor there is no kind of Torment great enough to punish my Treachery She spoke these words with so loud a Voice that they were heard into the next Chamber where the Mother of Philismene was who returning into her Daughters Chamber found Madonte in a Weakness which took away both Motion and Speech from her She ordered her to be carried into her own Chamber and after having known the cause of so great a disorder she leaves our two Lovers in a full freedom of Conversation It was then said Philismene with a Voice weakned by her Sickness the Jealousie of Madonte which has been the cause of all my Misfortunes and I shall at last have this content in dying that it is not to you alone that the grief which kills me is to be imputed Oh Lisidor could you give credit to the relations of a suspicious and an interested Person How could you believe that I who loved you at a time when you had nothing to recommend you but your Person and at a vast distance removed from me should cease loving you at a time when the Reputation of your Name and Employments render you more amiable and that a glorious Elevation does bring you nearer to an Equality with me Could you mistrust me in so favourable a Conjuncture I see your Repentance in your Tears It is enough Lisidor comfort your self for the loss of a Life which did belong to you but which naturally could not last long I was born with too tender a Health thô Heaven gave me a Heart to love you always yet it has given me a Life which cannot be of long continuance Nothing replied Lisidor can lessen my Crime or my Grief should I have hasten'd your Death but a minute a Life like mine no not my whole Life can repay one minutes loss of so precious a Life as yours Oh Heavens unjust Heaven jealous Fortune hold cried Philismene in raising her Voice do not draw down upon you the vengeance of that Soveraign Power which disposes of us do not disturb these last moments which seem happy enough to me since they restore me all your Esteem and all your Kindness What a Reconciliation cryed Lisidor is this which reunites our Hearts only to separate them again with more cruelty His Grief had gone on further if having still some hopes of the life of Philismene he had not feared her Sickness would have increased by a longer Conversation he calls her Women restores her into their hands and conjures them to double their Care of her Lisidor was scarce gone out of the Chamber before she relapsed into a Weakness which proved mortal and she being full of the Image of Lisidor seeks him round her Bed with distracted and dying Eyes and imagining she saw him she directed her last farewells to him with so tender and moving a Languishment that it almost killed with grief and pity all those that heard her So soon as Lisidor had heard of the Death of Philismene he was so afflicted at it that looking upon himself as the principal occasion of this Misfortune he abhorred himself he would no more see any body and think of nothing but removing from all that can put him in mind of his Loss or of his Crime he begs the King to give him his Audience of Leave in private and to dispense with his appearance at Court in the disorder he was in The King notwithstanding this Resolution which he had taken of having him near his Person could not refuse him this Request Alcander having given some time to his Grief for the Loss which he had suffered of his Illustrious Friend being prest very much by his Relations to chuse a Match amongst all those proposed chose Rosolinda and having obtained her he endeavoured comfort himself for the Death of Philismene and the Retirement of Celintha by the Possession of a Beauty which was far beyond the other's The Second HISTORY IN the tempestuous Times which were in France when the Princes of Bourbon being fallen from the Greatness and Priviledges due to their Birth the House of Guise and the House of Montmorency raised to the highest Dignities gave a natural birth to so many Factions and Jealousies the natural Springs of fatal Changes and great Revolutions These Troubles were maintained and augmented by the sudden and precipitate Death of Henry the II. who after having given Peace to France was unfortunately killed in a Turnament by Montgomery The Weakness of Francis the II. and afterwards the Minority of Charles the IX the Jealousies about the Government between the Princes of the Bloud those of Guise the Constable and Queen Katherine de Medicis raised new Disturbances which at last brake out into a Civil War Yet amongst these Dissentions in the midst of these Fires which were kindled in all Parts Love did kindle many others as if Heaven had a mind thereby to unite Hearts as Ambition endeavour'd to divide them The Passion which Henry the II. had for Diana Dutchess of Valentinois is very well known He was more imployed about this Love than the Laws of his Kingdom and this Dutchess was seen to have so great a power with the King that the Duke of Guise sought in her Alliance the surest foundation of his Greatness and the Constable could find only in the same Alliance wherewith to balance the Interest of his Competitor These two Rivals with the hazard of making themselves odious to the Publick were resolved to unite with the Bloud of Diana whom the Covetousness of possessing the Government and Riches had render'd odious to all France The Duke of Aumale a Brother to the Duke of Guise married one of her Daughters one of her Neeces being married also to the Lord of Argile the Constable's second Son Diana in so great a Post giving her self wholly up to the Pleasures of the Court which a Favour without bounds had furnished her with in abundance inspired every where an Air of Gallantry and drew all the World after her by her Example This
I thought fit to premise to give some Idea of the Genius of that Court and of the spirit of the Scene where the Adventure happened which I am going to relate Two Gentlemen of Quality united by an ancient Friendship and for a long time having espoused the Interest of the Royal Family of the Bourbons were desirous to find a new occasion of uniting their Families more firmly by the Marriage of their two Children whom Heaven seemed to have made for each other The one had a Son whose Name was Octavius and the other a Daughter called Henrietta Octavius was born with a Physiognomy which gave great Hopes and with too fine Features and Complexion for a Person of his Sex His Beauty increased with his Age without his having any of those Faults which commonly accompany Beauty in Men. He avoided with great care all that might make it be thought of him that he affected the looking handsom or that he flatter'd himself with being so But there appeared in him with his fineness of Feature a noble and charming Greatness and a meen of Quality Henrietta was born with an extraordinary Beauty and that which she had of singular was a kind of a tender and languishing Air which was equivalent to the most sparkling Vivacity This languishing way of hers was neither fearfulness nor weakness but an agreeable impression of the sweetness of her mind which manifested it self in her face and did not want a firmness and greatness of Courage which nothing was able to shake With this Equality of Birth Quality and Merit it was not difficult to form a perfect Intelligence between Octavius and Henrietta and such a one as their Parents would doubtless wish for one day to unite them by Marriage In order to prepare them for this Union Heaven had given to each for the other so violent an Inclination that no History can give a more singular and great Example of this sort of Love This was not all The Death of the Mother of Henrietta served very much to keep up and fortifie this happy Sympathy Her Father whom we shall here call Gaston which was his proper Name although he most commonly lived in the Countrey would not leave his Daughter there and so soon as he saw himself forc'd to follow the Court to manage all opportunities of serving his Party in a time when two powerful Factions were in a continual motion he carried her thither with her Governess and put her into the hands of Octavius his Mother Henrietta was now entring into her 8th year and Octavius was very near the same Age. So soon as they met there did not appear in their Faces that reserved and cold air which is commonly observed in Children at the first sight of Persons they do not know There was no need of the Governour and Governess taking care to teach them mutual civility a sudden motion a hasty attraction pushes them forwards towards one another they run to salute and to embrace each other like Friends who had been acquainted for a long time I need not tell you by how many sensible signs and by what a conformity of opinions thoughts and desires they made appear every moment the effects of this wonderful Sympathy they did so resemble in mind and in heart that the most exact Picture could less resemble its Original so that the World was apt to believe that that which was only the effect of a natural Inclination was rather that of a studied Imitation There was no difficulty in making them agree in their Pleasures and Diversions The first of them who named the Diversion was followed without hesitation by the other for when one shewed to have a mind to any thing there was always found in the other an implicit complyance There was not to be found between them those Jealousies which are usually seen between Children about the Presents Caresses or Praises which are given to them they put them off from one to the other with a becoming and sincere modesty when they vyed in their application to the Studies which were common to them both as History and Geography This emulâ—tion was nor the effect of the desire of the one to go beyond the other but of a violent desire of each to become the more amiable unto the other It may be easily judged by the things that I have now said what a trouble it was to them when the different imployments of a different Sex forced them to part and what trouble they underwent by suffering the shortest absence and by the impatience they had of seeing each other again So soon as they pass'd their Childhood Age had given to Henrietta more light to know her self and that that Inclination which was disguised under the mask of a bare Friendship made it self be felt as a dangerous Passion That Reason which she had supported by a becoming Bashfulness which usually accompanies the fair Sex made her apprehend the disorders which commonly follow the greatest Passions Although hers was allowed by her Parents yet she thought that she ought to retrench a little that great familiarity she had with her Lover and conform her self to the decency of an Age which required a more reserved and cautious Behaviour But all these Reflections were of very little effect against that Inclination which carried her away continually towards Octavius so that her Governess for this Reason was forced to make use of all the severity of her Lessons and her Authority and Octavius who owed a part of his time to the Exercises which his Age call'd him to was forced against his will to deprive himself of the pleasure which he had of seeing her at all hours They could comfort themselves sometimes with the joy which they had of seeing each other from time to time and by the certain hopes oâ— their Marriage which their Parents very earnestly wished for and only waited for a favourable opportunity to accomplish But observe to how many Changes their Fortune was exposed by the Tyes which it had with that of the State The Prince of Conde who was of an unquieâ— stirring humour and capable of under taking any thing in order to gratifie hiâ— revenge and to make himself still greateâ— having rendred himself suspected by thâ— height of his Fortune and by his Coâ—duct to have a share in all the Commotions which the Hugonots had stirred 〈◊〉 in the State and especially the Conspâ—racy of Amboys provoked Katherine de Mâ—diciâ— and the Princes of Lorrain so muâ—â— against him that they thought after mâ—ny uncertain and unsetled Deliberatioâ—… it was absolutely necessary to be rid of him to secure the King's Authority and the Constitution of the Government To effect so difficult and so dangerous a Matter many Artifices were made use of They resolved to hold a general Assembly of the three Estates and to draw the Princes of the Blood thither who were retired from Court There were very favourable Declarations publisht which lull'd asleep the