for covering his head with his Shield with his Sword ready to cut out work for the Chirurgion he re-advanced towards his opposite that attended him with an equal resolution but the Prince of Mauritania who had lent attention to the words and regard to the Visage of Candace was willing to do homage to the Empire of beauty in a desire to oblige her and seeing the Combatants in a very desperate condition threw himself between to part them beleiving Caesario with whom he had no quarrel would not strike him and the others truncheon he did not fear Tyridates and Eteocles joyning with him at the same time laid hold of their Bridles and by that means hindred the Progress of the Combat which they fretted at with excessive choler Caesario's appear'd in flashes at his eyes and blushes in his face but at last lending an ear to the words and an eye to the faces of Eteocles who held his bridle and Candace that stood by still crying out Cleomedon Cleomedon immediately he knew them both and with a Joy that broke out into loud Accents seeing his Enemy held by the Mauritanian and Parthian Princes he forgot all thoughts of Enmity and was flying into the Arms of his Princess when they all took a fresh Allarm from fifteen or twenty Horse-men that with their Swords in their hands came up towards them upon the Spur conducted by the same man that fled from the Knight of the Lyons and at him only they all seem'd to bend their unmanly out-rage but the two others then quitting or at least suspending all animosity of Enemies were quickly become parties which known without ballancing the baseness of the act they pour'd themselves upon them all but the first that aborded them carryed away incurable marks of their treachery for they coap'd with such Enemies as were incapable of being dismay'd at such a number The Prince of Mauritania who was the freshest of the three sent the first he met without a head to the ground and cut off the arm of the second just as it was advanc'd in the air to strike him These two first blows gave Caesario time to put on his Casque which Eteocles had given him and the Knight of the Lyons leisure to recover a Sword instead of his own that was broken Which done they both bravely joyned with the valiant Moor and help'd him to distribute death among their Enemies the first that fell under the sword of Caesars son had his head cloven in two pieces and he that died on the other hand was run through the body his point finding a way through the weakness of his Curiass to tumble his Soul from the principal seat of life These were no sooner fallen but Tyridates covering his head with one of their Casques and snatching up a Shield leap'd upon a Horse which a new blow from the gallant Moor had made Masterless and came and joyned his assistance like a considerable reserve to the rest Eteocles with the Prince of Mauritania's Squire follow'd his example onely the Queen and her Maid remained Spectators of the Combat and indeed it was almost a prodigy to see Men so wearied and wounded in a former fight with effects beyond humane puissance in so few moments to reduce such a number of their Enemies to despair of Victory Tyridates though but half arm'd quickly tumbl'd two at his feet and Eteocles couragiously cut his passage through the press and joyn'd himself with the Prince his Master But while these four gallant Warriors stung with brave emulation like so many new Mars's display'd their invincible Valour the Captain of their enemies whom fear of Death had rang'd in the rear coutenting himself to animate with words but not daring to give the encouragement of a personal example chanced to cast his eyes upon the Queen of Aethiopia who was seeing Heaven with her silver tears to rescue her Caesar from the perils that menac'd him he no sooner saw but knew her and and breaking into an out-cry Oh you Gods said he and do you then restore me my Fugitive that was wrested from my hands with so great a danger of my life When presently commanding one of his men that was nearest to follow him he ran to her just as she was thinking for she had spyed him to hide her self behind the Rock but she made not haste enough to prevent that barbarous Villain who rudely seizing upon her and by the help of his companion having set her up before him upon the Pomel of his Saddle he carried her away in spight of all the resistance and struggling she could make for escape his companion would have had no pleasant task to force Clitie to the same posture if her resolution to follow the Fortune of her Mistris discarding the consideration of her own had not made her his easie prey But Gods What sury shot it self into the Soul of Caesario when hearing the out-cries of his Queen and his ear directing his eye he spy'd her in the Arms of her cruel Ravisher who had borrowed all the wings that haste could lend to get ground of his suspected pursuers the whole streugth of his Enemies were now grown feeble to arrest him for having thrown down one that oppos'd his passage with a blow that clove him to the breast he darted himself among the rest with such an irresistible vigour as he soon clear'd the way to his pursuit when by a fresh piece of Fortunes malice his Horse no longer able to endure the many wounds he had receiv'd fell dead under him and so suddenly as falling with his Masters feet engag'd in the Stirrops he expos'd him to the mercy of his Enemies two of which spying the casual advantages were coming to kill him which they had easily effected if the Knight of the Lyons a while before his eager Enemy resigning hatred to a fitter season had not flown to his defence and with two blows laid both his Enemies at his feet the one dead the other with a deep wound and taking one of their Horses by the Reins just as Eteocles had thrown himself down to dis-engage the Prince from his Rise Cleomedon said he and receive this assistance from thy greatest Enemy but such an enemy as is unwilling to owe any thing to thy generosity The Son of Caesar at another time would not have taken this succour from his declared Foe without striving to restore the benefit or at least tendering an ample expression of his resentment but at that moment the loss of his Queen who to his eye had appear'd and disappear'd like lightning wholly seiz'd him and would scarce suffer him to make a fit reflection upon the generous act of this gallant Enemy onely in taking the Horse from his hands and leaping upon him with more agility than his wounds could well allow of I know not said he how to understand thee who in declaring thy self my Enemy hast rendered me the office of an intimate friend but I protest that as
men attend the furious Prince but scarce had he seen the fall of some of them by that redoubted hand but repenting his rashness he trembled waxt pale under his Arms and designed a retreat amongst his Souldiers when the irritated Prince maugre their resistance who would have opposed thrust his Sword through his body chasing thence his disloyal soul not suffering it to rejoyce in the crime of that day After the death of Orchomenes who was seconded valiantly by all his subjects and all cut in pieces by that mighty hand which past from them amongst the Bithinians and seeing the proud Euardes at their head he cast himself like a Lyon upon him and at two blows with his Sword deprived him of life The Bithinians lost courage at the death of their Prince and falling soul on those that followed had caused by their disorder the loss of the whole day if Barzanes on the one side and Merodates on the other had not rallied the fugitives and fortified those trembling Troops with the best assurance they could yet not so happily but that by the valour of Alcimedon and the King his Father and divers brave Princes who fought under their Ensigns a geart part of the Dacian Army were Routed Day now as the time before was Alcamenes greatest Enemy his Victory had been intire if the darkness which covered the face of the Earth had not hindred The Dacians lost more than twenty five thousand men but the Scythians not above ten thousand Barzanes and Merodates caused a retreat to be sounded and Orontes whom the effusion of so much blood had filled with compassion did the like and permitted the Dacians to retire to their Camp But doubtless great Princesses this long relation hath been troublesome to you and if you please I will defer the rest to another day This Princesses who had given great attention to the discourse of Megacles would not permit him to leave off and having assured him that they should hear the continuation without incommodity he causing Lights to be set up in the Chamber by reason the day began to fail thus continued his Discourse The end of the third BOOK THE HISTORY OF ALCAMENES and MENALIPPA BOOK IIII. THE success of this day in all likelihood ought to have given as much satisfaction to the King of Scythia as displeasure and confusion to his Enemies and it is certain that by this notable loss and the little hopes there was left of their remaining forces the Dacians could not expect a favourable event to this War this fill'd him with joy and fortified his hopes but his content could not but be imperfect whil'st he observed the grief or rather the despair of Alcamenes This disconsolate Prince instead of rejoycing at his Victory and the grand actions he had done that day being retired from the place of Battel with all the marks of rage and fury in his eyes and face entred his Chamber which he fastned upon him and threw himself on a Bed not permitting any to see him or search some light wounds he had received The King who was advertized thereof went to his Chamber and by the priviledge of his authority saw him and caused him to permit the dressing of his wounds but could not diminish his sadness nor cause him to enter into any conversation He conceived this violent displeasure proceeded from the dishonour he might fancy the fighting with a woman had brought to his Arms and after he had done his indeavor to comfort him upon this accident supposing time would do the rest he bid him Good night and retired to his Chamber It was some comfort to the Prince to find himself alone and this solitude served to represent the cause of his griefs more lively than before The sight of Menalippa an Amazon and of Menalippa arm'd against his life had rather increased than diminisht his love and the hatred of that irritated Princesse which in likelihood ought to have lessened his affection seemed to have given new forces to torment him She appeared under those Arms and in that condition wherein he had seen her subject to his victorious Sword more charming than ordinary but after he had some time dwelt upon this Idea he remembred that he had fought against this so beautiful and beloved Warriour that he had drawn blood from her fair body and offered his menacing Blade to her adored face this thrust him into an unsupportable grief and from grief he past to a mortal dispair He considered how great a hatred it must be that could drive her to such extremities he call'd to remembrance how fruitless all his submissions were after he had put himself into a posture of approaching her and in what horrible fury he had left her when he was constrained to separate from her From thence running over all the circumstances of his misfortune seeking the cause with incredible torment yet could not he imagine what it might be unless that either Cleomenes had betray'd him which he could not imagine or that he had been betrayed in the place where he lay that night and carried to the Dacian Camp and there constrained to declare that Alcimedon was Alcamenes and that the innocent delusion was discovered which he had made use of as an evasion in that Caprice whereinto Fortune had throwa him he was confirmed in this belief by the words which Menalippa spake in the Combate and by the reproach she cast upon him for his Treasons committed in the obscurity of the Wood and having setled his perswasions here Ah me said he is Alcimedon Alcamenes Son to the enemy of Amalthea but is it true also that Alcamenes is Alcimedon who hath rendred so important services to the Crown of Dacia who hath loved Menalippa a thousand times more than his life and who hath had the happinesse to be loved by her I ought to have believed amiable and cruel Princesse that your affection to Alcimedon would not erace your hatred to Alcamenes and that you were generous enough to stifle in the hatred of your House a particular affection if in knowing me for Alcamenes you knew me for the Son of your Enemy yet you have learnt thereby that Alcimedon was no Impostor when he profest himself to be a great Prince and when he promised to give you the Crown of Scythia But blind that I am said he a little after ought I not to remember an evil that hath cost me so many tears and have I not proved that without the assistance of Alcamenes Alcimedon was sufficiently odious to Menalippa and that cruel banishment wherein I have lingered so many unfortunate days hath it not sufficiently declared the hatred of my Princesse and could I hope that the knowledge of Alcamenes to a heart already pique'd against Alcimedon would produce any other effects than those unfortunate one I now suffer Ah Gods added he if it might be permitted me to murmure against you I would reproach you with the falsity of your promise for
I had restored it to Emilia and not to you However it be Cecinna you ought not to expect it as being the last of all men for whom I should have that compliance I thought indeed replyed Cecinna I should be forced to those extremities with you which the Emperour hath forbidden us and it is with that design that I sought you out resolved to take away either your life or Tullia 's picture This is it I expected from thee replyed Antonius fiercely and which I thought I had so sufficiently obliged thee to as to make thee contemn all other considerations With these words they both layd hands on their swords and drew at the same time there being not any body neer to hinder them They exchanged a many blows with much more fury then circumspection Cecinna fought with abundance of courage but with little good fortune and being over-rash and inconsiderate be received two mortal wounds in the body upon which he fell down at my Brother's feet with very little remainder of life Antonius had no doubt wished the death of Cecinna and had behaved himself in that duel with abundance of indignation and animosity against him but being a person of a great and noble soul seeing him fall with all the mortal signs his anger vanished and compassion took place in his heart into which the passions whereby it was then moved were not against its admittance He came to Cecinna to do him all the good he could and endeavouring to stop his bloud perswaded him to take courage by all the words which might expresse the regret and sorrow he conceived at his misfortune But while he was employed in this compassionate office there comes by an accident you cannot but be astonished at a Chariot full of Ladies to take the pleasure of a solitary walk in the Wood to the place where they were and the Ladies who intended to take a walk being got out of the Chariot came on easily without any jealousie of what had happened to the very place where the unfortunate Cecinna was expiring his last in my Brother's arms You may well imagine what astonishment this sad spectacle raised in the Ladies but it will be hard for you to conceive that of my Brother when with Emilia and some other Ladies of his acquaintance he saw the cruel Tullia that very Tullia whom he had so well engraven in his soul I leave it to you to supply the difficulty of expression I meet with in this strange rencounter so hard is it for me to give you an account of the agitations of these two souls in so unexpected an adventure If Antonius was surprized to see that Tullia whom he adored that Tullia who shunned him with all the cruelty imaginable nay the same Tullia whose Lover that was to be within a few dayes her Husband he had killed you may well think that Tullia on the other side was not less astonished to meet with that Antonius whom she avoided standing over the expiring Cecinna and soiled with the bloud of a man she was to be married to She had not had t is true any violent affection for him yet it is withall certain she had no dis-inclination towards him and since she had been acquainted with the design her Brother had to make her his Wife she had entertained in her heart all the love she thought her self obliged to have for a person that was shortly to be her Husband so that she could not see him weltring in his bloud and expiring at his enemies feet without feeling an extraordinary affliction and whatever her soul was capable of upon an accident of that nature She at first sight gave a great outcry and was ready to swound in Emilia's arms who made a shift to hold her up and a little after casting her eyes on both Antonius and Cecinna on the one with all the demonstrations of compassion and on the other with all those of indignation sheding tears for Cecinna and darting forth her wrathful looks on Antonius she continued for some minutes in an uncertainty as to what resolution she should take whether to avoid what she hated or to succour what she was obliged to love And whereas she seemed to be rather carried away by the aversion she had for my Brother or at least inclined rather to the motives she conceived she had to avoid him then to the affection she had for Cecinna her first reflections seemed to engage her to avoid the face of an enemy especially he being such a one as confirmed himself to be such by the action he had then done But afterwards upon second thoughts she being a Lady that chose rather to be guided by her duty then her passions and conceived her self obliged to relieve Cecinna dying upon her account rather then to avoid Antonius comes to him with a face bathed in tears and by certain broken words entreated him to take heart and to further all he could the design she had for the preservation of his life The expiring Cecinna met with this satisfaction in his misfortune that he breathed out his last in the arms of Tullia and mustering up all the strength he had left him to turn his eyes towards her and to take her by the hand she reached forth to him while one of her Mayds held up his head in her lap Madam said he to her I loose my life by the hands of Antonius but it was through my own fault and seeking and therefore I beseech you to forgive him my death as heartily as I do my self The compassion he takes at my misfortune deserves yours and I dye happy and glorious since I dye at your feet for your sake and in a condition that forces those fair showers from your eyes With much difficulty was he deliverd of these words but with them he lost his speech and some few minutes after breathed out his last leaving in Tullia's soul such violent characters of passion that she hardly knew where she was or what she did My Brother to give her way retired some few paces when she came neer Cecinna and being extreamly moved with pity for his misfortune the affliction he perceived it was to Tullia heightned his own so much and so violently that he had much ado to keep off from despair He at first thought himself obliged to avoid the eyes of that incensed Beauty nay though he was infinitely desirous to have a sight of her yet must he need imagine that as things then stood he could not without inhumanity importune her with his Out of this consideration had he already retired some few paces but his passion growing too strong for him would needs oblige him to speak to her and to make some reparation for the injury he had done her This resolution grew so strong upon him that he could not resist it and so slighting all those reflections that were incompatible with the violence of his love he came some paces neerer he looked on that desolate
of assistance and out of the fear he was in it might so come to pass he importuned Heaven with cries and exclamations and did all that lay in his power to call in some body to our relief Yet were they not his cries that wrought that effect but it happened by an adventure very strange and unexpected whereof for many reasons I thought fit to give the Queen but a slender and imperfect account but shall now relate at large since it hath been your pleasure to command it from me I had already made a shift to open my eies fully though all I could do was only to stir them a little when Eteocles hears the neighing of certain horses and the noise of their going which made him imagine that there were some people coming towards us He thereupon looks about him and perceives a Chariot coming into the field among the dead bodies wherewith it was covered and a man riding on horse-back before the Chariot as if he had been a guide to those persons that were within it Those were only two women one whereof filled the aire with the dolefulness of her Lamentations and there followed the Chariot only three slaves all a-soot At last when they were come quite into the field the heaps of dead bodies hindering the passage of the Chariot the Women that were within it were forced to alight and the Man that was on horse-back having done the like took the more considerable of the two by the arme and led her towards the place where we were Eteocles whom this accident put into a great hopes of relief took very much notice of all that passed and distinctly heard the mournful cries and expostulations of that disconsolate Lady which certainly were such as might have been heard many Stadia's Her hair was loose and dishevelled as if she had been fallen into some extravagance her eies showred down tears her breast almost rent with the violence of her sighes in a word her deportment was no other then that of a person distracted and ready to fall into despair Terrible death cried she implacable devourer of mankind which appearest to me here in so many formes it is possible that in this place where thou hast exercised thy power with so much cruelty thou shouldst forbear to dispatch one miserable creature that defies thee or that thou canst deny her thy assistance after thou hast deprived her of all that could oblige her to shun thy face Insatiable Goddess to whom my malicious Fortune hath sacrificed all that the earth had that was amiable in my sight is it possible thou shouldst avoid an unfortunate Woman as I am while thou cuttest off such noble lives and that more inhumane in thy compassion than thy cruelty thou must needs strike a thousand times at a heart which there needs but one blow to deliver from thy Tyranny Here sighs and sobs made a parenthesis in her discourse for some minutes but soon after reassuming it with an accent much more doleful Teramenes continued she my dear Teramenes where art thou why dost thou conceale thy self from me O thou body that I have loved beyond all things why dost thou hide thy self from her eies that was sometimes so dear to thee Art thou afraid thy countenance covered with the horrours of death may frighten me or that it will be a less delightful object to me in that figure then it was in that wherein I was so much taken with it No no my dearest Teramenes even under that dreadful livery under that irremissible ice of death I shall think thee amiable and it may not haply be impossible I should by my kisses restore to thee some part of that which thou hast lost and reinfuse into thy cold body that soul which thou hadst enflamed with a fire that death it self is not able to put out At this passage she made a little truce with her Lamentations but it lasting not above a minute or two she turns her self to the man that conducted her But Pelorus said she to to him where is then the body of Teramenes You shewed me in this place with a confidence it was that where I should infallibly find it and yet among this vast number of carkases I see not that of my Teramenes Fear not Madam replied the man to whom she spake it will not be long e're we find it for now we are come to the place where I saw him fall yesterday by the hands of Cleomedon No doubt but he came by his own death out of the over earnestnesse he had to revenge that of your Brothers who died by the same hand in the former battle as also out of an excessive desire to have the honour of dispatching with his own hands a Prince of so great a fame Cleomedon falling at his feet drew him upon him and with that little remainder of strength he was yet master of ran him into the throat with a dagger which he had still in his hand Teramenes though mortally wounded with that thrust made a shift to get off the body of the expiring Cleomedon but after he had staggered a little he fell down within some ten paces of him and by reason of the bloud which coming out abundantly hindred his respiration died immediately Ah cruell man cries out the Lady ah inhumane stranger whom I had never any waies injured and that leavest thy native soile to bring death after so many severall waies into the breast of the innocent Erinoe May it please the gods since I have no other revenge either to take or desire upon thee that thy body may be the prey of Vultures and that thy shade may eternally wander amongst the most unfortunate ones without ever obtaining of the infernal Gods any other rest then what thou leavest this miserable woman Thou hadst opened the sluces of my tears by the death of a brother I infinitely loved which thy unmerciful arms had deprived me of not many dayes before but thou thoughtst it not sufficient to assault my self only upon the account of Blood and Friendship without sacrificing to thy cruelty whatever there is in Love that is most passionate and most violent in the death of my Teramenes While she disburthened her grief by such expostulations he who conducted her shewed her the body she looked after which lay not above fifteen or twenty paces from us and it was upon the cruel spectacle that the desperate woman casting her self on the cold body with a great cry fell into a swound which for some time interrupted her lamentations and found those persons that were about her work enough to relieve her For my part I had not the least apprehension of any thing that passed though I had my eyes open wherewith all I could do was to look on the dejected Eteocles But he had not missed one of these words and was infinitely troubled to find himself so far from the relief he had expected upon that accident as not doubting but that I should
my misfortunes and still persecute the Asmonean memory by the shame thou preparest for the last of its Illustrious bloud which thou hast spilt so brutishly Hope not I will assert my innocence no that account must only be rendred to him that knows it and by his goodness will defend it against the calumny of my Enemies believe all of the unfortunate Mariamne wherewith her envious detractors have inspir'd thee Thy cruelties have given me but too much cause to dispence with the justification which I owe to him whom Heaven in its anger gave me for a Husband but do not involve such persons in my misery as have no part in the crime thou imposest and if thy rage demands a victim to appease it seek no other than her whom thou hast taught to desire Death by rendring her Life calamitous The last words of the Queen transported Herod to the farthest degrees of fury and now more than believing the care she took of my justification while she disdained her own could spring from no other root but that of Love he concluded the proof clear enough to convince her and not able so far to over-rule this belief to dissemble his intention Yes perfidious Creature cryed he I will credit all that my eyes and ears and not the envious detractors have told me I will credit all that will convince thee of the most shamefull and blackest of all Treasons and in fine believe that of thee which thou wouldest I should do and disdainst to disavow The care thou takest of that ingratefull wretch which has so basely betrayed me to the prejudice of thy own safety shall suffice for his and thy Condemnation the ruin of that thou holdest so dear shall begin the punishment ofthy disloyalty and the choice of victims due to my just anger shall not be at thy disposal for before thou learnest what to resolve upon thy self prepare to know what I shall execute upon the person of thy Adulterer At these words he flung out of the Chamber with a Countenance so furious as those that met him in the passage could not behold him without trembling Alas how erroneous was the opinion he had of my fortune how remote was I from that Soveraign degree of happiness and how worthy my condition had been of envie had his suspitions been true In the mean time I was at my Lodging wholly ignorant of what had passed at the Palace and employed the rest of that day upon my ordinary diversions The hour of Supper being come I was serv'd after the usual manner and sitting at the Table with some friends of the Court which were come to visit me we had done part of our repast when calling for drink one of the Kings Cup-bearers that was accustomed to serve me presented the Cup with a troubled look and discompos'd countenance I observed this change in his Visage but made no reflection upon it only contented my self to ask him if he was not well and in the mean time taking the Cup from his hands I was carrying it to my mouth when Arsanes enter'd the Chamber and hastily running up to me just as I touched the Cup with my lips he rushed against my arm so rudely as he made me let fall the Cup and spill the Liquor part on the Table and part upon my Cloths this action of Arsanes was so little respectful that knowing his disposition I concluded he had not done it without some powerful motive but he stayed not till I should ask the reason and desirous to hide his intent from those were with me Sir said he I beseech you to pardon the offence which my rash haste made me commit and be pleased to vouchsafe me the liberty of your ear for one moment This said he drew me by the Arm with an action so earnest as I perceived he had some advice of importance to communicate I rose from the Table making a bad excuse to those that supp'd with me and followed Arsanes into my Cabinet which he first entred We were no sooner there but Sir said he nothing but a speedy flight can save your life the Gods in good time conducted me hither to spill the Poyson was prepar'd you but if we stay longer here it will not be possible with the same facility to put by those other dangers that menace you Read this Note which just now I received of the Queens chief Eunuch it is written with her own hand and if the Gods consent that we escape t is to her alone you owe your safety I was amazed at the words and actions of Arsanes and without reply to his Discourse I took the Letter where I found these words written with the hand of my Divine Queen Mariamne to Prince Tyridates THE peril to which I expose my self in writing to you cannot hinder an advice which I owe to your vertue and the proofs of your affection Tyridates if it be possible save your self and stay no longer in a place where Poyson and Sword are employed to give you Death I read over the Billet twice or thrice kiss'd those amiable Characters which that adorable hand had traced and after the perusal I was much to seek whether the cruelty of Herod that sought to destroy me after he had given me shelter or the goodness of Mariamne who took such noble pains to preserve my life with the peril of her own touch'd me deepest I knew not to which of these resentments my soul was to give preheminence but I know well the death that was threatned could not put on so rude a shape as that departure to which I saw my self condemn'd by the hand of Mariamne The grief I felt was too prodigious to be wrap'd in words I stood a long time silent and immoveable which Arsanes who had ballanced the estate of my Affairs disapproving after he had often urged me to resolve What would you I should do said I what Resolution can you wish me to take in so cruel a proposition think you this life which through your care I have miserably drag'd from Court to Court is so dear to divorce me from Mariamne do you believe this separation more easie than that of my Soul from my Body Shall I abandon her for ever whom I can scarce leave for a moment without dying And to avoid one single death shall I carry a thousand in my Brest through all those places where my pitiless Fortune shall lead me Ah! Let us die first continued I walking a great pace without listening to the Reasons Arsanes pressed for departure let us die a ready death since a slow one is much more sensible leave the Body cold and pale in that place which the Soul cannot abandon and since we must die one way let us seek to die in the eyes of Mariamne and if that glory be refused at least give up that Spirit which neither was nor ever shall be but to her as near her as is possible I pronounc'd these words with an
after a great deal of pains taken with him Tyridates opened his eyes which he turned every way in such a manner as caused those that stood about him to judge sadly of it Marcellus called him by his name divers times and seeing that he did not answer him but with dying looks Tyridates said he to him will you not call to mind that you are a man and more than that that you are a man of courage Afflictions may touch you but they should not make you lose either your knowledge or your reason Tyridates made no reply to these words of Marcellus but only after he had tumbled a few turns upon the bed like a person full of agony opening his mouth to give passage to a voice interrupted with sobs O Mariamne said he you are dead and more than that 't is Tyridates who hath hastened your death this was it that remained to conclude his deplorable destiny with an end conformable to the beginnings of his calamities and it was not aggravation enough to the last misfortunes of Tyridates that Mariamne should die but that Mariamne should die for Tyridates his fault I have brought you to your Grave O Queen whom I have so religiously adored and I have not a life precious enough to sacrifice to your memory in change for yours He sâ—opt at these words and recollected himself to receive the favourable death which he desired and whereof he already felt the approaches whilst Marcellus endeavoured to divert his grief Tyridates had no more ears for his discourse nor eyes for the objects which presented themselves before him nor thoughts for things of this world Never possibly did Love produce a more excellent and more marvellous effect than it wrought in this Prince and by the means of his love alone his grief served him in stead of a Sword Poyson Precipices and without requiring any external help death which was desired by him and is to be wished for by unfortunate Men like him offered it self to his assistance and presented it self to him at a time when he received it with a joy which in appearance could have no residence in his soul He perceived the approach of it and took notice of it and giving it entertainment worthy of the good office it did him O death said he with a lower and more feeble voice than ordinary O death how willingly do I receive thee and though I ought possibly to refuse thy help at a time when some remainder of life is necessary to me to tear out the soul of Mariamne's Executioner with mine own hands yet how dear is thy succour and thy coming favourable to me O Mariamne continued he a little after receive this soul which I render you as the only reparation I can make you for having contributed to your death It takes its flight towards you unworthy as it is to present its self before you and in what condition soever you be the purity of yours will never be offended by the last gift I make you of it These were the last words he spake and a little after grief giving its last assaults seized upon his heart in such a manner that that part which lives first and dies last was not capable of sustaining the functions necessary for the conservation of life He only looked a farewell to Marcellus and Arsanes and a little after his eyes were covered with darkness his speech failed him and all his strength having totally forsaken him he remained cold and pale between Arsanes his arms not in a swoon like those whereinto he had formerly fallen but really dead a death which being neither violent nor natural but participating of both did punctually accomplish Thrasillus his prediction a death which freed him for ever from the more tedious and cruel deaths which he had incessantly found in the memory of Mariamne Happy Man in his destiny that he did not survive the person for whom he had only lived and glorious in his end for having given in his death so brave an example of the most pure and real passion that ever any soul was enflamed withall The End of the Fifth Part. HYMEN'S PRAELUDIA OR Love's Master-Piece PART VI. LIB I. ARGUMENT Cornelius Gallus Pretor of Egypt is deeply taken with Candace's Beauty He taketh an opportunity to discover his affection which she receives with much inward trouble and outward coldness The coming of Elisa breaks off their discourse Elisa acquaints Candace with her dream and she gives her her thoughts upon it Walking together in the Garden of the Palace they over-hear the complaints of a fair Slave that attended upon Elisa Their curiosity prompts them to a farther discovery and upon their request she relates the story of her life She speaks her name Olympia and her self Daughter to Adallas King of Thrace Her own Brother falls in love with her and discovers his incestuous desires which she entertains with horror and amazement She opposes his passion with all the strength of Vertue and Reason but in vain She acquaints her Father with it who sharply reproves him and resolves to dispose of her but is prevented by death The young Adallas succeeding in the Kingdom armed his solicitations with authority and threatens to compel his Sister to marry him She with a small retinue flies from Byzantium WHilst Love produced these sad effects at the gates of Alexandria his powers were no less imployed in the City and the ancient Palace of the Ptolomies that Tyrant God found in the two Princesses which Fortune had committed to the care and custody of the Pretor of Egypt a fit subject to exercise himself upon These two admirable Persons from the very first day of their acquaintance had contracted such an amity as had left nothing reserved in their souls and if by the charming conservation of the Queen of Ethiopia the fair Princess of the Parthians could not repress that smarting grief which the loss of her brave but unfortunate Artaban had rendred master of her heart yet 't was certain that in the sweetness which she found in the affection which she had conceived for so extraordinary a person as Candace was she relished some sort of consolation and gave place too to some shadow of hope induced thereto by the discourse which the fair Queen made her of the marvellous events of Fortune and the appearances which might in some sort flatter her with a belief of Artaban's safety Candace's cares though not slight ones were yet more moderate than Elisa's sadness and the remembrance which was fresh in her mind that she had seen her dear Caesario a few dayes before dissipated the greatest part of her grief and she was a thousand times more satisfied to see her beloved Prince escaped from the dangers wherein she had left him at her departure from Meroe than she could be afflicted at the loss of her Dominions or with the other effects of her misfortune which would have produced greater resentments in any other spirit but
demonstration of the innocence and fidelity of Elisena did at the first reflection on it stick a sword into my heart much more cruel than that wherewith I had pierced her brest and the sight of that unfortunate person now no more Cleontes but one of the handsomest Ladies in the World wounded my soul with the most violent affliction that it is capable of Certain it is that some other person endued with a greater tendernesse of mind than I who have ever been of a fierce and harsh disposition had not survived so deplorable an accident and yet such as I was I really felt in my heart whatever a lively and piercing grief can have in it of torment After I had recollected my self for some time in the hands of those persons who had taken away my sword from me as having gathered from the fury of my looks that it was not unlikely I might do my self a mischief I drew neerer to that expiring Lady making signs to others to endeavour to help her when perceiving my intention Stand away cruel man said she to me and come not neer me Thy assistance is more hateful to me then the death thou hast given me and since the unfortunate Elisena whose death I have unhappily been the occasion of is no 〈◊〉 â—iving oppose not the last demonstrations of the friendship I had for her and suffer 〈◊〉 to expire without any other regret than that of having sacrificed to my misfortune a 〈◊〉 so vertuous as she was O Elisena Elisena since my last kisses proved so fatal to thee learn among the dead where I am coming to enjoy thee again that I was 〈◊〉 to survive thee and that I run after thee to continue among the shades that frienâ—ship which was so dear to us here As she uttered these words she saw passing by the body of Elisena which they were carrying out of the Garden and at that sight crying out louder than her weaknesse could bear she withal sent out her last breath in the arms of those that were come about to relieve her Among those that came immediatly after a young Gentlewoman that served her and who after her example disguised her sex by mans cloaths casting her self upon the body as soon as she could get neer it made the aire echo again with her cryes and her lamentations and did a many things worthy compassion which I was not in a condition to take notice of for that at the sight of the body of Elisena which they had very indiscreetly caused to be carryed close by me I grew absolutely senseless and distracted and was conveyed away and cast upon my bed where I was carefully looked after out of a fear I should have fallen into despaire When I had a little recovered my self I ran to the place where they had laid the body of Elisena and giving it thousands of kisses with an affection equal to that I had for her at the beginning of our unfortunate marriage I did all that lay in my power to dye neer her and have a thousand times since wondred that my grief alone should not be strong enough to do that which no doubt I should have done with my sword had I been left at liberty Her innocency and her vertue being then but too too well known to me I became a continual prey to that remorse and those implacable furies which unmercifully torment the soul and looking on my self as a Dragon or some horrid monster I made against my self the most terrible imprecations that a man could make against his most inveterate enemies From the body of Elisena I went to that unfortunate companion and partaker of her death and though I had not had any affection for her while she lived yet had the unhappinesse of her destiny such an influence upon me and she had appeared to me so amiable even in the last minutes of her life and in the last words she spoke that my soul was possessed by something greater then compassion and I was no lesse liberal of my tears for her death then for that of Elisena When I was so far recovered as that I could apprehend any thing was sad to me I was very desirous to know who she was and the Gentlewoman that had waited on her and who after her death had no reason to conceal what she had kept secret while she lived being brought before me though she could not look on me without horrour and detestation and being informed what my desires were gave me this account of her Since you are so desirous to know said she to me who this unfortunate woman whom you have put to death was I shall soon satisfie you to your sorrow for with that you shaâ—l know what enemies you have raised your self by your crueltie She was born among the Parthians of an extraction that is equally noble with any of the subjects of Phraates and was allyed on both sides to the Illustrious Family of the Arsacides Her name was Artesia and her beauty such when it appeared in its meridian lustre under cloaths suitable to her sex that the World can afford but few comparable to her She hath neglected it very much ever since and indeed hath had no great reason to be much in love with it because it hath proved the occasion of all the misfortunes that hath happened to her Being brought up about the Queen as a Princesse that could claime some kindred to her and having in a short time discovered to the whole Court as well the beauty of her countenance as that of her understanding she was there generally beloved but indeed much more than she desired to be insomuch that the amiablenesse of her person having enflamed Phraates with an affection towards hâ—r she became accordingly the object of his cruel persecution She endured the torment of it for some time with an admirable vertue and endeavoured to smother the extravagant inclinations of the King by all those wayes which in any other soul might have produced that effect But her modesty and resistance adding to the eagernesse of the Kings love he would at last needs come to violence and without any consideration of the noblenesse of Artesia's bloud which was no other than a branch of his own he laid a design how to put his wicked resolutions in execution upon her This vertuous Lady whose Father had been dead many years before destitute of all protection against her King and that such a King as to whom after he had put to deaâ—â— his own Father all crimes ought to be easie and familiar had no way but to flye to deliver her vertue from that tempest and there being no way for her to conceal her self from so great a King but by disguising her sex she put on mans cloaths and causing me to do the like 〈◊〉 onely me along with her in her flight and two ancient men-servants of her Fathers whose fâ—delity she was confident of After several journies to and fro wherein she had
he had a free access to her at all hours When we entred her Chamber she was upon her knees by the Beds side praying with an ardent Devotion to the God she ador'd and the Princess her Mother was newly retir'd to her Cabinet The noise we made coming in made her turn her Head that way and having spi'd us she asked Sohemus if he had any thing to say I did not give Sohemus time to answer but approaching with a troubled posture I fell upon my knees before her and taking one of her fair hands joined it to my Lips with an ardour so vehement as bereaved me of the use of speech The Queen finding this Action too familiar and too passionate for a Guard at first repulst me with some disdain but afterwards suspecting a part of the truth and beholding my Face with a serious Eye by the help of those Lights which were set by her beds-side she knew me It was no mean astonishment wherewith this sight surpriz'd her and recoyling some paces back after she had withdrawn her hand from mine Ah! Tyridates said she what mean you to what a Danger have you expos'd your self Danger Madam replyed I Ah! that the Gods would confront me with a thousand times more that I might find occasion to shew you how mean a thing I think my life in relation to your service My calamities reply'd the Queen engaging me to rise are too much in debt to your compassion but I cannot yet quit the fear you have given me and the knowledge I have of Herod 's humour makes me wish from my soul you had not tempted this peril to see me I beseech you Madam said I do not keep those fears for me for believe it while this condition lasts to which your misfortunes have reduc'd me I shall neither fear Herod 's hatred nor desire his Amity I have a long time considered him as a King of whom I hold my life but must now know him for a man that hath used that life a thousand times more cruelly than death it self would have done from which the retreat he gave me hath possibly defended me Till now the obligation disputed with the outrage and in the person of Mariamne 's Persecuter I found my Protector but at last Madam the resentments of what I owe him have quitted what they held within me to such as have a juster Tttle and these last injuries which he Printed in your Grandfathers Murder and your own cruel Captivity have strangled all those considerations which till now my heart suffered to speak in his behalf and have brought me to ask Orders at your feet which I vow to execute without condition or reservation Be not loath then Madam to ordain me all that may be done in your Quarrel and if you please believe that I will not only shut my eyes upon all sorts of considerations but trample upon all difficulties that shall offer to withstand me when once fortified with the honour of your Commands While I spake in this manner the Queen regarded me attentively and though she knew the malicious heart of her Husband and remembred how often she had been deceived by such as acted the part of officious persons and made use of some such terms as mine to sound her intentions with design to carry the Report to the King I was so happy as not to be suspected of so base an ambush and of this she assur'd me by these words I have too good an opinion of you said she and can too well distinguish the Princes of Arsaces bloud from cheap and base persons to suspect the dissimulation wherewith divers others have betray'd me I know your words parted from a true compassion and such generous motions as are familiar with persons of your extraction besides you have given proofs of too great a virtue to leave me the shadow of such a thought and to witness the confidence I have in you I will open my heart to you with a most entire freedom It is true though Heaven hath given me Herod for a Husband I cannot love him and indeed I should be rather insensible than constant or loyal if the Death of my Grandfather Aristobulus of my Father Alexander of my Uncle Antigonus of my Brother Aristobulus and this last of my Grandfather Hircanus should be remembred without stirring my soul against him that murdered them and destroyed the Royal House of the Asmoneans besides these known injuries I have received some more particular but not less sensible There comes not a day wherein I do not look for a Knife at my Throat and this bloudy man at his departure for Rhodes hath given the same command to Sohemus that he did before to his Uncle Joseph to kill me if the Voyage proved unfortunate I have now freely represented my deplorable condition with Herod but I must tell you with the same truth that as much monster as he is he is yet my Husband that my apprehensions of his injuries are not more prevalent than the rules of my Duty and that I am not permitted to desire a revenge against him which Heaven hath reserved for its own appointment If my miseries come once to be pitied by our Soveraign Master he will find power to release me of them and if it be his pleasure they should still continue I shall endeavour so to suffer for the love of him as I may be rendred more worthy of his Love Behold Tyridates the estate of my condition with the temper of my thoughts I am deeply in your score for the propriety you claim in my Misfortunes but let me now beg you will give it over lest the dangerous pity should at last prove fatal to its owner Ah! might it please the Gods cried I wholly transported that your evils might be brought off with the cruellest death that Herod is capable of inventing with what glad heart should I run to embrace those glorious torments which possibly might procure me some small acknowledgment in yours how fair would be my Destiny to pay down my life for this adorable Princess to whom all Lives all Hearts ought to be sacrificed These words with the Passion that helped to pronounce them opened the Queens eyes and shewed her by a prompt reflection on what was past that transports so violent could not spring from a naked pity this Discovery called up a blush into her face and having silently beheld me with an action that betrayed some trouble Tyridates said she do you well consider what you say She let fall these words in so severe an accent that it struck such terrour into me as I lost all my assurance and in stead of answering fell to consider how imprudently I had opened my breast but I had kept too much passion to keep the rest still disguised and in this uproar of thoughts toss'd with love grief and despair I let my self fall at the Queens feet embracing and kissing them a thousand times over without so much power as
could utter one word by this action clearly confirming the suspition my words had given her Oh Gods how sensibly she was touched how violent were her first apprehensions to proceed from so sweet a Soul She took a long time to weigh the resolution was fittest to be taken and I in the mean time the advantage of her silence and immobility to rally my scatter'd Spirits Madam said I keeping my hold at her feet without daring to lift my eyes to her Visage if my Tongue have betrayed my Soul and contrary to my intent displayed a Passion which my whole Life should have preserved a Secret ordain me all the pains that are due to it and I vow by all the Gods to suffer them without a murmur to you I will not justifie a Passion which otherwise might call to its own purity to defend it I will not tell you 't is impossible to look upon you and not incur the fault I have committed nor that the silence of divers years have given some proofs of my respect No I am Criminal if I have contracted your Anger and am worthy of the most cruel Punishments if I have been capable to displease you I had gone further if the now resolved Queen had not stayed my Progress and repulsing me with one hand while she carried the other to her Face to hide some changes there Tyridates said she you are yet more culpable than you believe and if you had known me well you would never have granted your self the License to give me the Displeasure I have now received I will not noise your Folly because I know Herod 's Humour which doubtless would destroy you for it and I pardon him the bloudy injuries he hath so often done me so I forgive the Offence you have so lately committed At these words she rose from her Chair and calling Sohemus who was discoursing with her Maids in the Anti-chamber commanded him to conduct me presently back and so resolving to hear me no more she retir'd into her Mothers Cabinet Oh Gods in what an estate was I when I saw my self thus deserted in what a strange fashion I followed Sohemus when he led me out of the Castle the same way we enter'd it I had scarce the power to embrace him at our parting or to give him thanks for the Courtesie he had done me I found my men got to horse and return'd to Hierusalem with a melancholy darker than the nights blackest shades and with a countenance which I think little differ'd from that of a Condemned man I would scarce hear the comforts Arsanes offer'd me to whom I had recounted my disaster but passed the rest of the night in the most cruel inquietudes that ever tore a Soul I could not remember the incensed looks of my Divine Princess without calling in the same fear that seiz'd me at the first effects of her anger nor think of the displeasure I had given her without letting my self sink almost under the sorrow I resented all the words she spake came flocking to my memory but it galled me to think she should put my offence in the same ballance with Herod's villanies Ah unjust Mariamne said I how unskilful you are in discerning Injuries Could you have judged aright you would have found little cause to associate the cruelties of Herod with the oversights of Tyridates Herod hath wrested the Crown from your Family Herod still blushes with the blood of your nearest Kindred Herod gives daily orders for your own Death and Tyridates gives you his Heart his Soul and himself entire Sure this Offence is not of a Nature so hainous as those you have receiv'd of that Miscreant and methinks you need not the same patience to endure them but why said I repenting my words why do I justifie my Crime Is it not true that I am faulty since my rashness hath merited Mariamnes anger I ought to consider her as a Divinity sublim'd above the reach of humane thoughts I should tremble before her virtue and if it were impossible to see her without falling in love with so much beauty both of Soul and Body yet I should have suffer'd those glorious pains without publishing and not have improved my Misfortune by my indiscreet and rash discovery In such thoughts as these I passed the Night and divers other dayes that followed it in which space I often saw Salome Pheroras with the chief of the Judean Court who strove among themselves who should treat me with most Caresses for the service I had done their Countrey but neither their company nor their kindness could ease the evils which my love inflicted nor sweeten the sorrow I took for the choler and captivity of Mariamne But about that time there came News to Jerusalem that Herod was triumphantly return'd from Augustus that by an artificial Oration full of an affected generosity he had so gain'd upon the spirit of that great Emperour as it procur'd him a specious entertainment and got him little less in his amity than he had before in the affections of Antony Those that had an interest in his good success were more overjoy'd at the news in which a few dayes after they were confirm'd when they saw him arrive with a proud train at his heels and read in his erected looks the satisfaction he receiv'd in that Voyage There was made him a magnificent reception and I mingling my self with those that went to meet him he received me with extraordinary caresses called me the valiant Defender of Judea and promised a grateful remembrance of the services I had rendred to his Crown But alas how little was I sensible of his Offers and Civilities And though indeed I could not but confess he had put me in his debt yet the love of Mariamne and the resentment of her wrongs stifled all his obligations The same day he arrived he restorâ—â— her liberty and burning with Love could not forbear to visit her in the same place which had been her Prison where he spent the night with her and the next day brought her back with him to the City with many open professions of a most ardent affection I understood by Sohemus that at that interview he had made her a most passionate Discourse and after he had excus'd the death of Hircanus with a necessity that constrain'd him so to prevent the design he had to ruine him he deeply protested that the abridgment of her freedom was only meant to secure her person from the attempts of such whose disaffection in his absence might hazard her safety and to disarm the designes of some persons that were likely to make use of hers and her Mothers presence whose turbulent spirit he was well acquainted with to authorize seditiòn and stir up troubles in the State The wise Queen receiv'd this discourse with a becoming temper and if she could not entirely hide her distastes she dissembled part of them lest they should prove as fatal to Sohemus as they had been to Joseph The
Court was then more glorious than ever the King highly pleas'd with the success of his Affairs and having nothing else to subdue that might keep him from getting above the reach of Fortune but the spirit of Mariamne he sought all sorts of occasions to divertize her but if the Queen whose griefs were gone too deep to be sweetned with the vain shadow of pleasure took little notice of it I was not less incapable than she of tasting any jollity and my remembrance kept the deep graven Characters of my Love and her Anger so fresh in my Soul as all the splendor and pomp of Herod's Court wanted power to charm them I still saw her every day because she forbad it not but I scarce durst open my mouth in her presence scarce lift up my eyes to her Face instructing all my actions to inform how deeply the fear to displease her was engraven in my heart yet neither her looks nor her actions exprest any sign of aversion indeed she had a Soul too beautiful too sweet an inclination to loath a man who had only offended with Affection since she had much ado to return hatred where it was deserv'd by such bloody Injuries but believing she could not hear my Love plead farther without offending Virtue she avoided all occasions of Discourse as much as possible and though she still spake to me with much affability yet she never did so but in Company and so contriv'd it that we never exchang'd words without a witness though this behaviour of hers could not give me an entire satisfaction yet it left me no cause of complaint and the knowledge I had of her admirable Virtue having extinguisht with my hopes a part of those flames her Beauty had kindled I learn'd to think my Passion sufficiently rewarded by the esteem she had of me Indeed there was never any person loved with less interest and with Truth I may say I loved Mariamne for her self alone nor in all the process of my Passion did I ever consider Tyridates In this manner I liv'd a whole year and though my eyes did all the Messages of my Love yet she might easily read in all my Actions that it had lost no ardour and that my sufferings were therefore more cruel because they stood in awe of Respect At last my perseverance link'd with discretion which she knew by a thousand marks touched her with compassion I say compassion for Love could never be admitted And what she did since in my favour did all proceed from a motion so purely generous as the most perfect Virtue was engaged to commend it nor could it be censured by any without Injustice Her heart which was neither Stone nor Brass suffer'd it self to be softned with pity but it was never capable of an impression not conform'd to the severe Rules of her Duty she could not see a Prince languishing so many years a Prince dying for her but dying in a fashion so respectful and obliging and dying without complaining of the cause of his death or of death it self and not give some proofs that Nature made her sensible but she would rather have suffer'd him to die nay died her self than let in the least thought to her Soul of pitying him to the prejudice of her virtue I was so happy in the conduct of my Passion and had carried so much caution in all my Actions that Herod the most jealous and distrustful of all men had not yet the least suspition of me and this discretion was not undervalued by the Queen I was one day in her Company with the King Pheroras Salome and some other of the chief Courtiers in the Palace-garden where we had walked a long time and where I had done my best to evade the pursuits of Salome who had then been trying having too much courage to give me her naked Passion to make me spy it in her Actions and understand it by a thousand ambiguous Discourses when the King who had walked all this time with the Queen alone being oblig'd by some important Affairs to retire he call'd me to him and giving me the Queens hand which till then himself had held I leave you to Prince Tyridates saith he and I cannot put that which I tender more dearthan my self into better hands than his Try if you please to divert her from her deep Melancholy To these words I returned no other Answer but an action â—â—ll of reverence and respect and considering how my condition stood with the Queen I durst not adventure to take her hand till she tender'd it her self with a countenance that did put on a world of sweetness And thus I helped her to walk without daring either to open my mouth or to look upon her Her behaviour was a long time like mine but at last she broke silence and took this opportunity to declare what her heart had for me Tyridates said she if the King knew your intentions he would not put me into your hands with so much confidence and since they were known to me I ought to have hindred it I could easily have done so if my will had consented and probably I had too if I had not believ'd I might permit your converse and acquaint you with my thoughts without interessing what I owe to him or my self Know then Tyridates that the first notice I had of your malidy gave me some resentment against you but the progress of it compassion I have truly pitied the estate you are in and cannot without grief see a Prince to whom Heaven hath given such excellent qualities pass his life in a condition so miserable But in fine Tyridates what are your pretences and if you have judged me worthy of your esteem what can you hope for of me Think you I can license in your favour the least Act that may satisfie your Passion I say the least for I did believe you could harbour a thought to my Dishonour I would look upon you as a Monster as a mortal Enemy Do you think the little content I have with Herod and the remembrance of the wrongs he hath done me can turn my affections upon another because less worthy of my aversion Is it upon this thought you build your hopes if so Tyridates disabuse your self and believe that if Heaven hath made me miserable by submitting me to this cruel man I will never consent to merit my misfortunes by my actions though my forlorn hap hath married me to him it shall never match me to his Crimes I would not be so ungrateful to the goodness of Heaven that is ever sending Comfort to my Miseries nor so unworthy of your estimation For my sake Tyridates consider these Truths since they are represented with as much mildness as much affection as I can keep for you with Reasons leave call up the greatness of your courage to give a brave assault upon your self and propose this ruinous passion to your thoughts as an Enemy you ought to fear as an
the Prince with you and two of our men gallop on afore to the Forest of Agria thrust your selves into the thickest part of it and there expect my coming up with good newes the rest of the day I will try to abuse our Enemies and if Heaven favour my intentions hinder their further pursuit of us If you see me not come back to you some time to day at night pursue your voyage under the conduct of the Gods who will not abandon you I said no more and without giving him time to answer made him speed away with the Prince and the two that were to follow them one of which because of known fidelity carried the Jewels and Gold the Queen had given us Coesario who had a most docile ingenuity absolutely obeyed my will and made no scruple to follow Neander because I counselled it I could not see him part so suddenly without letting fall some tears as a tribute to my fearful incertainty of ever seeing him again And in the mean time turning to those that staid with me My Friends said I we are betray'd our enemies are within a hundred paces of us Rodon stays behind to make discovery of them And behold the Traytor shewing them Acetes see the Villain that hath sold us has the confidence to stay among us At these words I flew at him with my Sword in my hand but was prevented by two of my Companions that stepp'd before him as he was preparing to fly and with two blows threw him dead at our Horses feet Rodons Son whom I caused to stay with us though he would gladly have followed the Prince who as I told you was of an equal Age and Stature to him and had much in his looks that over-top'd his Condition beheld the death of Acetes with astonishment when approaching to him and taking him by the Arms I shewed him the Romans that were advancing to us a good swift trot We are all dead men said I if we do not deceive our Enemies by making you pass for the Prince Caesario the personating this Dignity will save your life for if the Romans take you for the Son of Caesar they will onely content themselves to lead you prisoner to their Emperour if you tender your own and our lives favour this just deceit The fear of death had so seiz'd the Youth as it disposed him to follow my fatal counsel which I had scarce ended when the Romans were upon us and spreading themselves upon the Plain began to inviron us and shut up the passage to our flight I then perceiv'd the danger at hand I had exposed my self to and had well fore-seen it before the attempt But the Gods can witness that I felt no regret to hazard my Life for my Prince's Safety that there came no other care to my thoughts but for him and his Conservation At a sign I made to my Companions we all threw our selves from our Horses and putting our knees to the ground we encompassed the Son of Rodon whom I had only caus'd to keep his Saddle The Romans who ran upon us with an impetuous haste perceiving us in that suppliant posture were staid by the command of their Captain attending his Orders without offering a blow but so soon as my voice could be heard Ah! whatever you be cryed I if we have merited your anger turn your weapons upon us onely and sparc great Caesars Son Sacrifice us to your rage if we have offended but give our Prince his life These words with our submissive action turn'd the Roman Swords fatal to the innocent son of Rodon from our throats for the Captain approaching to him with his drawn Sword For you said he we give you your lives but 't is this same Son of Caesar we only seek to take At these words making his way through us he ran the youth through the body with his Sword just as he was about to speak and probably to tell him he was not Caesars Son I cannot remember that poor young man's unripe fall without the sense of some remorse for my own treachery but my Lord it was otherwise impossibe to save our Prince and since one must perish it was but just that the Son of that Traytor should be Sacrific'd to his Fathers Treachery besides I had indeed conceiv'd a hope if hope could shape it self in so short a time that the Romans would forbear the cruelty of his Murder and only content themselves to lead him to their Emperor in the mean time I cast my self upon his body and the better to abuse our Enemies I made my complaints swell to as high a tide as I should have let fall upon the Corps of our own true Prince The Roman Commander being a man of quality as good fortune would have it was touch'd at my piety and protested to me that he had executed Caesars command with regret He oppos'd himself against many of his men that would have cut off the Youths head to present it to the Emperor and told him they might assure him of the truth without exercising that inhumanity upon the Son of Julius Caesar nevertheless at their solicitation he demanded the Jewels which Cleopatra had given us but I reply'd they were in the hands of one of our Companions called Rodon whom we had not seen all that day and that I believed that it was he that had betray'd us At this the Soldiers fell to threaten and began to search us but they sound little about us and their Captain remembring his name was Rodon who in effect betray'd us and knowing the Emperor had design'd him the Jewels as a price of his Treason easily believ'd that he was gone away with them and desiring he should rather possess them by that Title than as the gift of Caesar commanded them to un-hand us restore us our Horses and set us at liberty to retire where we pleas'd And thus his Men marching after him they left us about the unfortunate Son of Rodon upon whom I continued still my Laments When our Enemies were Marched out of sight after we had covered the body of that innocent Youth with a little Earth and indeed contribuuted some true tears to his destiny we remounted our Horses exalted with our happy success beyond expression and followed the track of our true Prince See My Lord what has passed about Caesario's supposed Death they were abus'd that believed he was ever in the hands of Octavius for I dare assure you he never saw him and that if he did consult upon what was to be done with him and resolv'd to put him to Death as you related by advice of Arrius the Philosopher it must either be while Rodon's Messenger was with him or before while the War was hot between him and Anthony during which 't is true he had oft solicited us to deliver the young Prince into his hands or put him to death Two hours after we had thus escaped our Enemies we arrived at the Forrest of
force Cities defended by an Army that out-numbered yours and render the nights themselves famous by your victories are actions conformed to my wishes and worthy of your Courage but thus every moment to lavish such precious blood so oft to expose a life so dear unto me to the mercies of danger when necessity does not bind you are actions contrary to your obedience and the care you ought to take of my repose yet I incline to pardon when I remember you combat for my conquest as well as your own glory and that you owe part of those advantages your valour will give of your Rival to the thought that you fight for Cleopatra These clear proofs of Cleopatra's affection swelled my Masters courage to a greater height and daily carried him to the enterprize of braver exploits for which Fortune offered him fair opportunities and the Gods seem'd willing for his glory that our Enemies by the arrival of a great recruit should be once more able to face us in the field and trusting to the number of their men which far exceeded ours they descended into the plain of Gangaris and presented us Battel Coriolanus though much the weaker in number joyfully accepted the Asturians defiance and ranging his Army with a dexterous prudence he marched against the Barbarians not as to a doubtful Combat but a certain victory I remember he was that day covered with a Coat of Steel so exceedingly bright as the splendor of it mingled with the rays of the Jewels that enriched his arms and both received the Sun-beams formed a flame which seemed to environ him besides there appeared another in several flashes at his eyes that darted their fierce glory with such extraordinary ardor as it was even difficult for his friends to behold them without betraying some kind of fear he wore no Casque to cover his face but only a little Morion after the Greek fashion shaded with twenty white feathers under which his visage appeared that whole day naked to the view and his long curled hair which descended upon his shoulders in gross aâ—ulets seemed to borrow brightness from his warlike ardor he was mounted upon a white horse dappled with black spots which at once express'd both pride and beauty and in his right hand held two darts which he brandish'd against his Enemies in a menacing fashion Thus and more fair than I am able to describe him after he had made an harangue to his troops with an Eloquence that few alive could match he lead them on to the Combat and at his first blow in the view of all his Army gave death to Sillo General of the Asturians a man of an extraordinary force and stature who after my Princes example marching at the head of his forces was pierced through and through with one of his Javelins and fell without a soul at his horse feet Coriolanus accompanied that brave Act with a thousand others which in spite of the throng into which he rush'd with a precipitate fury were remark'd by thousands and so couragiously animated his Souldiers both by his voice and Example as after a well disputed Combat victory declared for us and remain'd so entirely ours as more than 35000 Barbarians died upon the place their whole baggage was taken and all those that escaped the fury of our Souldiers scarce found their safety in the wild shelter of the Forests and Mountains This Victory which by the Romans judgment to whom the news was quickly carried might have challenged a comparison with the most memorable of those that helped to establish their Empire gave a great stagger to this War but it was not capable to end it and though it was long before the Barbarians could recover a condition of fighting again yet they had a great number of strong Cities not one of which would render without resistance so that they cost us no less than a whole years time to reduce them during which we had divers Combats upon parties with the Enemies scatter'd Troops which they sent to set upon us on all sides at last we received intelligence that they had made one great effort for all and having drawn all the forces together they could make they were marching towards us for the last decision of their liberty But while my Master thus bravely busied himself in the service of the Roman Empire and besides the purchase of a glory that carried his name to the remotest limits of it with the applause of the People Senate and Emperour flew at a proud height in Cleopatra's favour which he still received confirmed by daily proofs the malice of his fortune would have it that Tiberius should light upon no worse success in Germany than he had in Spain 't is true he had the advantage to command the valianter Legions and deal with Enemies of far less Strength and Courage than ours whatever it was for my Masters Interests cannot bribe me to debate the just value of his Enemies glory he defeated the Pannonians and Dalmatians in two signal battels took five or six of their chief Cities and reduced them to so feeble a condition as wanting those great resources that so often crested the Asturians and Cantabrians they were constrained to beg their peace of Tiberius and receive those conditions it pleased the Conquerour to impose which the cruel disposition of Tiberius ever inflexible to pity or pardon rendred very rigorous and though indeed he did signalize himself in that Expedition by divers pieces of personal valour he was much censured for spilling of blood without a just necessity and breaking the Articles in his Capitulation however in eight months time with great advantage to the Empire he finished that War and returned to Rome covered with Laurels in so pompous an estate as the triumphs of Caesar Pompey and Paulus Emilius did scarce shew more magnificence His actions to mention them without partiality were certainly far short of my Masters as the stories sequel will inform you but the success not less conducing to Caesars service which the Empress with her whole party cry'd up with loud praises and strow'd the Court with such a noise of his atchievements as if all other mens glory ought to suffer an Eclipse when his was mentioned Caesar made him a reception not unworthy of the service he had render'd him nor the place that he held near his person by his mothers authority and the Princess Cleopatra that she might not be constru'd an Enemy to the State by betraying any trouble for his prosperity by advice of those whom her own discreet choice had given Authority over her received him with a smooth brow Tiberius left out nothing in his language or behaviour that might prove a bait for her affection and try'd all the strength of his power with the Empress in disposing her to sway Caesars Judgement on his side Livia as she had formerly done did for a time resist his entreary eagerly desirous to address his aims at the Princess Julia whose
entire confidence and an absolute power to the disposal and management of his care If Tyribasus by the cunning continuance of his dissimulation had not already strangled all the suspicions I had of him I had opposed all my power against that absolute Authority the King left him and Cleomedon would never have suffered me to stay under the guard of a person so suspected but in all his actions both before his Nubian expedition in his departure and at his return he treated me with a coldness so incompatible with affection as I easily believed there was not so much as one single root of it left alive in his Spirit The King having left this order at Meroe disposed himself to depart with Caesario in his company whom neither he nor I were then any longer willing to detain from the war not that his absence since I lov'd him as dearly as decency would allow did not deeply perplex me but seeing the King my Father was going to expose his own person to the hazards of the War I thought I should sin too much against Caesario's vertue to keep the passage ' gainst him in his way to glory or detain him with me where now he could not stay with any safety to his credit he wasted divers whole days in the repetition of his passionate adiews and if he made me a thousand vows of preserving an invincible and immortal fidelity I requited him with a thousand assurances that I would ever prefer him till death divorced us before all the rest of mankind The day of that cruel separation being arrived I took leave of the King and Cleomedon of me with all the sincerity and tenderest proofs that were ever exprest by affection and the parting with both assaulted my Soul in several places with a grief so violent as receiving the Kings last embraces I was like to fall at his feet in a swoond timerously gathering an unlucky Augury from the exquisite sense of those redoublings of affection the King who perceiving it endeavoured to sweeten my apprehensions with some comfortable words but they were not strong enough to put my griefs to flight nor banish those prophetick fears from my Soul which staid there by the Authority not only of known but undiscovered causes Cleomedon gave me the first adiew and perceiving the rest of the company while he was taking his leave to be all so busied about the King as none were near enough to over-hear him It 's impossible Madam said he I should carry my self away from your presence without a torment too violent for my face to dissemble but I will learn to cashier a large part of my woes if your compassion gives comfort and allows me to hope that neither time absence nor any of those accidents that may cross our Fortune shall ever have power to exercise your tyranny upon that priviledge I hold of your bounty For that said I you have my promise and shall ever know me as inviolable in the observance of it as I hope to find you Loyal and Religious in performing the Vows you have made That confidence said he creates me happiness that infinitely transcends my merit and I hope to carry your beautiful Image into places where it must infallibly gather the bays of a glorious victory I cannot borrow meaner hopes said I from my opinion of valour but among all those dangers you intend to brave do not tye your self so strictly to the thoughts that you are Caesar 's Son to forget the propriety Candace has in you After these words he kissed my hand and having taken his last leave he left me to the King who came with open arms to bid me farewel I had a face overflow'd with tears which might well fetch their pedigree in the common opinion from no other fountain than the Kings departure and those that stole into the flood for Cleomedon's sake ran along with the rest as if they had started from the same source though if I may say it without offending the Laws of a filial piety they out-swelled the rest in number I saw them both mount their horses and really Cleomedon for in that my opinion was the legitimate child of truth and no Way led astray by the Bias of affection appeared in a posture so Heroick as might kindle envy even in those souls to whom nature had lavished the greatest advantages He was that day covered with arms that were rather designed for Parade than service and that was the first time the Roman Eagle was seen to display her wings and proudly erect her two heads amidst the Gold and Jewels that adorned his Casque and Shield Near the imperial Eagle appeared a young one that with a bold wing and open eyes seemed to strain his pinions against the Sun to prove his descent legitimate with these words The worthy Son of such a Father Caesario had only added the Eaglet and Motto to the ancient devise having received those fair Arms at his departure from Alexandria as a gift from the Queen his Mother in whose custody they were left by Julius Caesar after they had faithfully served him in most of those dangerous battels that got him the greatest name among men Under these beautiful Arms the young Warrior advantagiously mounted appeared so fierce and yet so noble as endeared him to the affection and respect of every soul that beheld him but I doat too much upon his Description and indeed Madam to comprehend it right 't is but fit his Pourtraiture should be limned as well to the life in your imagination as my heart has drawn it upon it self This young Heroe marching by the Kings side and circled with the general applause of all the Ethiopians went out of the City and left me half busied in a cloud of sad and fearful apprehensions behind him Tyribasus whom the Physitians had forbidden to ride staid some time with me in the City and implored a great part of it in striving to confute and divert my melancholly thoughts with a face so seriously honest that none could ever think it belonged to a man that was linked to any other interest than the service of his Master I did not then refuse his Converse in which he was so far from uttering a word as he did not so much as mingle one look of love and I was grown so confident in a blind opinion that he had totally disbanded all his passionate follies that displeased me as I began to interess my self in the return of his health and was glad to see his colour and strength coming to their usual vivacity In the mean time you need not doubt but my thoughts were entirely tyed to the remembrance of what I loved and if I sent any vows to Heaven for the King my Fathers safety you will easily believe I forgot not to mention Caesario's whose image was pourtraid so lively in my heart by the innocent skill of a chast affection as the vast distance betwixt us was utterly
my Son since I have nothing more pretious to bestow upon thee Cleomedon putting one knee to the ground took the Kings hand and kissed it but he had not the power to bring forth one single word and the King after a few other short breathed Discourses wherein among other things he commended Tiribasus to him as a man very capable of State-employment his Spirits wasted themselves by degrees to that low Ebb as in fine he lost his speech and within an hour after his Life Pardon me Madam pursu'd Candace with a face cover'd with tears if I cannot pass this Tragick part of my story without paying this watry tribute demanded by Nature and reason to the memory of so sad a loss Madam I lost a Father to whom I was very dear and a Father whose vertues merited the esteem and love of all that knew him he remain'd cold and pale in Caesario's arms and that Prince whose former affection to Hidaspes as his Protector his Benefactor and the Father of Candace was passionately increas'd by his last scene of kindness after his death appear'd in a condition little differing from his as if one Soul had animated both their Bodies and the same time forsook and unfurnished her double mansion from this profound astonishment he succeeded to sighs and then by degrees found a tongue of his griefs which delivered themselves in such doleful accents as wrought as much pity from the company as the loss of their King that caus'd them All the credit that his Governour Eteocles had with him was then grown very necessary and after he had suffer'd him to wast that whole night in Sighs Tears and Plaints whereof I suppose you willing to bate me the recital he could find no other way to reduce him to himself than by presenting me to his memory that proved the strongest bridle to retire the overflowing of his woes and began to lead his thoughts aside from the loss to a reflection upon the Legacy the day following he grew more flexible to those reasons that assaulted his melancholly and at last knocking off the Manacles of his grief and restoring his courage to a perfect liberty which indeed as the general interest of Aethiopia was then tempered necessity enjoyned after he had caus'd the Kings body to be embalmed with an intent to lay him at Meroe with the Ashes of his Ancestors and remembring the Enemy was near by a general consent he took the command of the Army with a solemn Oath in presence of all the Officers that he would never turn his back upon Nubia till he had bath'd his revenge of their Kings death in whole Rivers of the Rebels blood This promise was fortunately followed by effect and the next day having taken a general Muster of his Army and finding it still consisted of more than 10000 Horse and 35000 Foot he put himself in the head of it and marched directly to Tenupsis whither the Enemies Army was newly retir'd It yet amounted to more than 50000 Combatants and their General Evander who had already been advertis'd of the Kings Death with which he fed the fairest hopes of his success and disdaining to fear a Man whose unpractised youth he condâ—ded incapable to manage so great a Command marched up to him with a confidence full of pride and offered him battel Caesario accepted this defiance with a fierce joy and actively appeared at the heal of his Troops in an Armour whose deep black represented the sadness of his Soâ—l though now half turned into a noble anger he led them on the Combat with such a daring and undaunted resolution animated the coldest courages with Examples so brave and beautiful and spy'd them out advantages by such a prudent and quick-sighted conduct as the victory long disputed by hot arguments on both sides listed her â—â— on our party but she came in Scarlet for the greedy fury both of General and Souldier still hunting for blood to quench the thirst of the revenge for the Kings death did that dâ— sacrifice to his Ghost above 40000 Nubians and compell'd the rest that escap'd the slaughter to seek their safety within the walls of Tenupsis which open'd its gates to favoâ—â— their retreat Three days after the victorious Cleomedon though he had taken some slight wounds â—â— the Battel sate down with his Army before it but because the City was strongly fortifiâ— and now defended by above 10000 Men it held his whole Army play for at least the Months time during which Evander who disdained to shut himself up within the walls of a Town dexterously posting in person from place to place where he had his greatest resources was grown as strong in number as before and had once more received a condition to spin on the War to a tedious length At last the besieged City was carried by Storm and all Cleomedon's authority could not hinder the Aethiopians from cutting the greatest part of the Souldiers that defended it in pieces and leaving very cruel marks of their vengeance in that desolate City After Tenupsis Cleomedon besieged it and with less pain took in divers other Cities that were seated upon the banks of Nilus and when he had totally ranged that Country under his obedience he advanced to meet Evander who once more desirous to try his Fortune came up the third time to give him battel Caesario proved again victorious and not to amplifie my story with needless circumstances or over-lade this relation with things that pass my experience in one years time which he spent in recovering Nubia he defeated the Enemies in five signal Battels took ten or twelve of their Cities by force reduc'd all the rest by the terrour of his Arms and for a conclusion of his glorious exploit accepting a defiance from Evander now brought to the brink of his last extremity that challenged him to a single Combat he fought with him in view of both Armies bravely slew him upon the spot and by his death cut up the last root of that Rebellion I have suffered my contracted recital to go down the stream of Cleomedon's actions without touching some other things that pass'd in the interim of much greater concernment to my self than any I have yet mentioned but I trac'd these passages as far as they would reach that I might not distract the method of my story and now I shall step back to some accidents that befel my self whereof the recital will doubtless be less offensive than my late discourse of War which yet I drew within as narrow a compass as my skill would give leave Think it not possible Madam reply'd the Princess Elisa that I can tast any trouble in your narration you tell your story so gracefully and I already feel my self so deeply interessed both in what regards your own person and concerns the adventures of a Prince so accomplished as Caesario as it is only a divertisment of this nature that has power to conclude a short truce betwixt my griefs
through the present prohibition of his liberty by those unlucky wounds The news of Antenor's total defeat quickly flew to Meroe and if Tyribasus was torn with grief and rage for the death of a Brother whom he highly esteemed I did not celebrate my Caesar's success with a mediocrity of joy nor offer the Gods any cold or sluggish vows for a continuation of their assistance Tyribasus half distracted with fury and deeply vowing his brothers revenge made such impatient hast to draw up all his Forces to a general Rendezvouz as before Caesario could quit his bed and march from the place where his wounds had arrested him we beheld above 100000 Combatants drawn together before the Gates of Meroe and Tyribasus after he had set a strong guard upon my person and left another in the City put himself into the head of them and marched against Cleomedon But first he came armed at all points to take his leave of me and methoughts I saw his anger sparkle in his eyes however he struggled with himself in my presence to sweeten the fierceness of his looks Madam said he till now I have spared Clemedon's life because you loved him but the death of a dear Brother hath strangled all the pity I had for him and I am now going to sacrifice him to the ghost of Antenor and mine own repose to which he would be a perpetual trouble should I still suffer him to stay in the world the Tyrants numerous Army and Caesario's weakness of which I was assured by a certain intelligence had already filled me with fear of a sad event that was founded upon too much reason but this last threat that Tyribasus uttered with so proud a confidence froze my soul with a mortal apprehension and regarding him with an eye that could not stay some disobedient tears which crept away upon my cheeks Didst thou go against Cleomedon said I with forces equal to his I would not harbour the least doubt of a certain victory but feeble as he is I hope the Gods in fighting for him will strike in my quarrel with the Sword of Justice Tyribasus quitted my Chamber without a reply and in a short time after the City Cleomedon still kept his bed in a very weak condition near the place where he defeated Antenor's Army when he learned that Tyribasus was coming to fight him in the van of 100000 men his Army scarce consisting of 16000 and of those 10000 wounded besides his own three hurts so excessively pained him as they might well have disabled any other person of a more delicate Complexion to fit on horseback but all these reasons could not oblige him to fly the Combat nor lend any credit to the Counsel of his Governour and Friends who earnestly pressed him to retire as it was yet time enough if he had been willing Were there but the least appearance of a possibility said he to re inforce our Army with any fresh supplies for the Queens service I would providently reserve my life for her interests but since all my hopes are dead onely a few excepted that still breath in your valour I had rather die generously with you than take my life upon shameful terms and carry it where it cannot be useful I shall not blame any for retiring that can be affrighted with death and with the help of those undaunted courages that dare stay with me and affront it I may possibly strike some fear through the Soul of Tyribasus in the very Centre of his Army With this resolution he called for his Arms and mounted on horseback he advanced with that handful of men to meet his Enemies who were all resolved to die in his Company The next day he came in view of Tyribasus Army that covered all the Campania and stretched it self out on either side with two long half Moons to environ him but he took not the least astonishment from that object and turning towards his valiant Companions with as much vivacity and assurance in his looks as if he had gone to triumph My Friends said he we must all die to day for the service of our Queen but in our death find a glory preferrable to the condition of our Enemies and offer Candace as fair a Sacrifice as she ought to hope from her faithful Subjects At these words he charged in through a world of his Enemies who not acquainted with his design to die stood amazed at the prodigality of his Valour they were all presently encompassed by the Tyrants command which they never so much as endeavoured to hinder and Caesario seeking none but Tyribasus made his name sound on all sides and loudly called him to Combat where-ever he addressed his steps or blows Yet he had found it impossible to aboard him by reason of those vast numbers that defended his person if Tyribasus who indeed was a valiant man had refused the challenge In fine Caesario throwing down all before him with blows that might better be called the effects of a desperate rage than a humane valour Tyribasus pressing towards him to facilitate his Enterprise buckled with his Rival in the midst of his men gave him two deep wounds in the body and threw him from his horse to the earth in a swoond but Tyribasus was quickly relieved by a great number of his own men that flew in to his rescue and took him up from the place where he lay and Caesario constrained by the throng to turn his Sword another way received so many blows from his Enemies on all sides as at last by the great effusion of his bloud and the loss of all his forces he fell from his Horse among the dead without either sense or knowledge Scarce one man of his little Army escaped the slaughter but they did things before they died that may justly claim a preheminence in the story of those brave Lacedemonians that acquired so beautiful a reputation by perishing with their valiant King at the battel of Thermopyle Tyribasus lost twice that number of his own men that composed their Army and himself ran a greater risque of his life than ever he encountred in all his former dangers In the mean time I stayed at Meroe busied with fears tears and prayers wherewith I incessantly solicited Heaven for Caesario's safety every thing my thoughts could glance at served to feed those apprehensions that destroyed my repose and I had already worn out many tedious nights without so much as closing my Eye-lids when to redouble my cruel inquietudes the day before I learned the sad news my fears had so often foretold Clitie delivered me a Letter she had newly received from an unknown Souldier as she came back from the Temple suspecting the truth I opened it with a trembling hast and met with these words which the poor Prince had wrote hazarded to that Souldiers fidelity some few hours before he had charged his Enemy Cleomedon to the Queen Candace IF any reason could instruct me how
themselves a breach in spight of all his Courage that denyed them passage Gods what a fearful divination of my succeeding mischief did that object shoot into my soul how quickly did my spirit at the same time take the impression of my misery and release my repose I advanced towards Artaban with little less disquiet in mine than his looks had shown me the noise of my approach made him lift up his head and he knew me in spight of the prepossession of those passions that disputed precedency in his Soul the light of me inraged the storms of those transports that shook him and he had much ado to stop the torrent of his griefs from breaking out into a discovery by a loud out-cry though I often called him by his name as I made my approaches it was long before he could digest his woes into words and instead of advancing to meet me he leaned his back against an Arbour and holding his arms a cross upon his breast he staid my coming up in a posture that pierced my very Soul with pity my affection soon reached me a share in his anguish and it cost me no second thoughts to divine the cause of his inquietude the fear I had entertained to learn something from his mouth that would justifie it self made my tongue turn coward for a time and charactered a disturbance in my looks that were little short of his in fine I first overcame the confusion that shared it self betwixt us and violently putting by my own sad apprehensions that my judgement might have liberty to make a more dexterous application of comfort to his How now Artaban said I are your knowledge and courage both wracked with one gust what have you let your self sink under the weight of a grief that appears in your visage below the knowledge of Elisa At these words Artaban drew up two or three groans from the bottome of his breast and fastning his eyes upon me with a wild and half distracted look Yes Madam I do know you said he with a voice composed of almost as many sighs as words and oh that Heaven had pleased I had known you less or better In fine Madam pursued he a little re-inforcing his spirits the same Gods that took me from you have cruelly torn those hopes from my heart that my indiscretion planted there and a King whom I can neither call cruel nor ingrateful because he is your Father does rigorously punish the same offence your indulgence pardoned his refusal exposes me to a death that might have been far less bitter and more glorious had I received it as a just doom of my boldness from your command but in this my destiny is much more cruel that utterly unable to love the man that pays me no other price but Death for all my services it is not permitted me to hate him that disclosed such a mine of Treasure as your self to the World At this period a shower of tears that violently broke their way stayed the pursuit of his discourse which softened my Soul to such a melting temper as forced me freely to unlock the channels of my own and putting my hand before my face with a purpose in part to hide them Artaban said I my fears were always Prophetick of what has befallen you and though your services esteemed aright I believed ever there could be nothing too great for your expectations yet I know the Kings disposition too well to over-see so sad an augury this I may safely protest and possibly with too much truth that the cause and sense of your sorrows have equally divided themselves betwixt us and since you cannot be ignorant that I love you you may easily guess from that how large a share my heart has carved it self in the sufferings of your disgrace would to Heaven it lay in my power to smooth all the frowns in the face of your fortune and that the Gods had as happily suited the Kings intentions to mine as my will is submitted to the indispensible tyes of duty to an absolute dependance upon his Believe it Artaban you should quickly know that your vertue takes place of all those in my choice that swell the titles of the greatest Kings nor has the whole Universe a capacity to court my soul with a clearer satisfaction than by putting you in possession of that priviledge my wishes design you But since the Gods will not let us be happy at our own Election call upon the greatness of your courage for a resignation to their wills 't is that must create you hopes to calm and quiet your displeasures and doubtless cut you out fairer Fortunes than any can flatter your expectations in the Court of Parthia I cannot see my self reduced Dear Artaban without a sad reluctance to offer you this Counsel but you must not be ignorant how poorly my power can befriend my will in a business of this nature and you know with what a precise obedience maids of my birth are tyed to the austere rules of their duty they are those that subscribe me a blind submission to the will of my Father and my King And they are those interrupted the sad Artaban that reduce me to this deplorable estate which draws tears from your fair eyes no Madam 't is not the power of a King that creates my misfortune had I nothing but that to combat perhaps I might find forces enough to hold up my Buckler which now I must lay down at your feet since you are my opposer it may be I should throw down all other difficulties that stand in my way to happiness and I think the powerfullest impediments would all become the Trophies of my resolution if your consent would vote the Triumph but 't is that I know not how to hope and 't is that too Madam that has made a coward of all my courage to demand it no Madam I dare not ask any thing that crosses your humour in behalf of a miserable man nor pretend to the violation of a duty that forbids me to be happy for though I were born to greater Crowns than those that embrace your Fathers Temples I should not suffer so bold a thought but since a Sword is all the portion that Heaven has given me I should be too unworthy of the glory I have gotten by it in serving you should I ask more than what I have already received of your goodness my desires then Madam are all contracted in this single request continued he throwing himself at my feet that you will only suffer me to go away with the honour of being yours and continue it till one short Scene of my life be acted I shall not long trouble you with keeping the Commission and I promise you to make hast into the arms of Death as the only medicine that is left for all miseries While he spake in this manner I had seated my self upon a bank that was behind me and regarding him in what sad estate with all the
who without measuring danger either by the number or force of those he encountred had made it his custome to charge all that came near him the combat was begun by the Pirates and their shock sustained by our men with a great deal of resolution my ignorance will not let me describe you the fight in parts but Madam shall I give you a short list of my resentments at that present indeed I cannot chuse but tell you that the detestation I still cherished of the very thought to espouse Tigranes and the grief I took for Artaban's misfortunes had left me so little care or love of life as I can hardly say that death looked ugly enough to affright me and if I may assume the liberty to undisguise my criminal thoughts without a reserve I think Artaban's danger was attended with as large a portion of my fears as those that regarded my proper safety In the mean time an interchanged cloud of arrows rained upon both parties the Pirates quickly found a resistance that made them wish the danger unattempted and certainly the advantages they got had cost them a great deal more blood if Orestes as if those famous Arms had refused to do service to their Masters Enemy had not been tumbled dead at the feet of his men by some of the first blows that were struck in the Combat and my conductor Polinices with one of the Median Embassadors suddenly acquitted by divers mortal wounds of the the care to obey their Masters Commission The Death of their Commanders distributed a terrour among the common Souldiers which froze up those Courages that were so hot as the Fights beginning and losing all hope of victory they disputed it so poorly as the Pirates almost had it in possession when they least suspected it They were upon point to board our Vessels wherefore the Decks were then but very faintly defended when inspired with a thought that deafen'd me to the threats of of danger I boldly step'd upon the Deck and heightning my voice that I might be understood by those in Orestes Vessel My friends cryed I if you desire safety or wish victory they are only to be had from the hands of Artaban ease him of those irons that will not suffer him to succour you give him but arms for your own defence and hope for all from his valour that man can do when he once fights at the head of you These words succeeded to my wishes for since Orestes death Artaban had no more Enemies left in the Vessel the Parthians that adored his vertue whom the sole authority of Orestes inforced to keep him captive that had so often taught them the art of overcoming no sooner saw themselves at liberty to restore him his but they ran down in throngs to release him and even envied his own Squire the glory of putting the first hand to take off his Irons while the overjoy'd young man was doing this office to his dear Master others hastily employed themseves in stripping Orestes carkass of those arms he had unworthily usurped and Arno sooner saw his chains unlocked when he felt his manly limbs reinvested in the same armour that had faithfully served him in so many victories and when his warlike dress was compleated lifting up his sword and voice with a fierce cry My friends said he in exchange of this freedom you have given me I do here promise to requite you with victory As he brought forth these words he flew before them at the audacious Ephialtes that had newly boarded the vessel and by that bold act provok'd his fate for the furious Artaban darting himself upon him with a sorce and swiftness like that of Lightning prevented his design with a deadly thrust which finding a default in his Arms pierced him quite through the body when after he had reeled two or three paces backward he fell dead into his own Ship The death of Ephialtes congeal'd the courages of his men but the following actions of Artaban quickly stifled all their hopes of victory and as if there secretly lodg'd a fatality in his Sword to all that opposed him he carried it to no part of the fight wherein he did not cut down Enemies in heaps and change the fortune of both parties with a prodigious promptitude the actions he performed with his own hands his admirable conduct and the strong belief the Parthians had entertained that his valour was invincible brought forth such marvellous effects as in less than one quarter of an hour the Pirates changed their design of assaulting their Enemies to defending themselves and prospered so ill in that too as in less than another they beheld their Ships covered with their fellows carkasses and the Sea painted with their blood So soon as Artaban had chas'd out those Pirates that invaded his Vessel he leap'd into mine and there it was I saw him do things in my defence that would make an Infidel of the easiest credulity In fine the victory became entirely ours the greater part of the Pirates lost their lives two of their Ships were taken and the rest saved themselves by flight or rather by the small regard we took to pursue them Artaban contrary to the Parthians inclinations gave the Prisoners their lives but he left all the booty to the Souldiers and commanded divers of the Pirates into our Vessel to serve in the places of those Mariners that we had lost in the combat Thus after he had set the face of order upon all things that haste would permit him he ran to me all covered with blood in a posture that had half affrighted me if he had not taken off his Casque as he threw himself at my feet and discovered his face wherein me thought the heat of combat had disclosed some new beams of masculine beauty that I never saw there before at least my fancy was so deeply inchanted with that apprehension as it degarded my judgment so far to let the Medes and Parthians then present see me throw my arms about the neck of the kneeling Artaban and lean my head upon his with an action so tenderly passionate as at this very confession of my weakness I feel the warm blood is come into my cheeks to accuse me Madam I will not trouble your patience with the repetition of those disorder'd words that Artaban and I exchanged at that point of time and indeed they were too full of confusions to deserve recital and if his liberty gave him some satisfaction I was so ravished with joy to see him in so different a condition to that he appeared in but a few hours before as I could not express my contentment better than in shewing by a few disjoynted words that I could not express it In fine after I had raised him from his knee and presented him to the Parthians Well Parthian said I do you judge Artaban worthy to return to his chains or enjoy his part of that liberty his valour has given you if you have done
she caused the head of the unfortunate Artibasus to be cut off and sent it to his enemy I pass over these things succinctly as being known to the greatest part of the world and as belonging to the life of that great Princess whereupon we have less occasion to insist As very a child as I was I remembred that this action struck me with such a horrour as by all likelihood I was not capable of and the young Artemisa having received this loss otherwise than might have been expected from her age I continued weeping with her divers days no body being able to get me out of her company as I wiped away her tears I mingled my own abundantly with them and though after their Father's death neither the Prince nor the Princess came any more to the Palace but confined themselves to a sorrow conformable to their condition those who had the care of my education had no quiet with me if they did not continually have me to Artemisa and the Queen who did much indulge me and could not condemn this inclination of mine permitted them to give me this satisfaction as often as possibly they could I said to her then with a countenance as sad as her own You will love me no more now Artemisa and possibly you will bate me after the displeasure you have received from the Queen my Mother I repeated these words to her divers times and she answered me Alexander I will love you still for it was not you that killed the King my Father No Artemisa reply'd I it was not I and I believed I should part with my own life to restore the King your Father his We were about ten years of age when we had this discourse for it was almost about the same time that the final misfortunes of our family happened you have heard without doubt that Caesar came to besiege us in Alexandria and that Anthony having lost all his hopes and believing he had lost the Queen too who was more dear to him than all the world dispatched himself with his own hands and that Cleopatra desiring to avoid the shame of the triumph for which Octavius intended her ended her life by the sting of an Aspik which at that rate saved her from the ignominy that was prepared for her and that Caesar having rendred himself quiet possessor of all things that were in Anthony's power carried us to Rome my Sister Cleopatra my bother and I I mean my brother Ptolomy younger than I by a year for as for the Prince Caesario the son of Julius Caesar and the Queen a Prince incomparable hopeful whose memory you have awakened in me by your sight and by some resemblances which I find in your visages according to the old Idea which remains in my memory he was killed by the cruel order of Augustus by the way to Ethiopia whither the Queen our Mother had sent him Hitherto a out of complacence only and for fear of discovering himself Caesario had heard things which he knew as well as the person who related them but seeing him about to enter upon the discourse of those passages which were not as yet come to his knowledge he gave ear with more attention than before and heard him pursue his narration in this manner Before we departed from Alexandria Caesar sent back the Prince and the two Princesses of Armenia into their Country with an honourable convoy and many presents and testimonies of his amity to the young King of Armenia their brother I was almost as sensible of this separation as I had been of the greatest of our misfortunes and having obtained permission to bid Artemisa adieu I thought I should have melted into tears at her departure she embraced me divers times and according to the liberty indulged to our tender years she permitted me to render her my caresses in the same manner Artemisa said I with a rationallity somewhat above my age you are going at your liberty but we remain slaves but I assure you my captivity is not that which afflicts me most and amongst all our miseries I find nothing so unsupportable as our separation This was at least the sense of what I said to her but I know not whether I could range my words in this order at that time or not Artemisa seemed to be moved with them and accompanying the tears I shed with some of hers Alexander said she I would with all my heart you might go with us and I am sensible that I shall be much afflicted when I shall be deprived of your sight Ah Artemisa replyed I you will remember me no more and when you are grown bigger than now you are you will be served by so many Princes that you will entirely forget your poor Alexander you leave behind who loves you so dearly I will never forget you replyed Artemisa and if you love me still when you are grown a man come and see me and you shall know whither I have lost the affection I have for you I will do it Artemisa I will do it answered I with precipitation I will come one day and put you in mind of the promise you have made me and if I had now liberty to wait upon you nothing in the world should separate me from you This was our conversation after which I was constrained to let her depart and I staid behind with all the grief that at that time I was capable of A few daies after their departure Octavius took us with him to Rome we arrived there and since I must needs confess our shame we served as an ornament to the triumph of our Vanquisher if we had been of ripers years we had without doubt according to the example of the Queen our Mother avoided by our death the ignominy they made us suffer but besides that our youth took from us almost all sense and knowledge of our condition we find some excuses for it and accuse fortune only for the calamities whereinto we were fallen through her cruelty Not long after the vertuous Princess Octavia sister to Augustus and Wife to Anthony our Father whom he had forsaken for Cleopatra and who in spight of the unworthy usage she had received from her Husband had alwaies taken his part at Rome against her Brother although he took up arms partly for her quarrel dwelling still in his house and managing his estate as if they had agreed the best in the world received us not as if we had been her Husbands children but as her own she put us entirely into the possession of Anthony's estate which Caesar had left him and she treated us in the same manner as she did her Son Marcellus and her Daughters as well those which she had by Marcellus her former Husband as those two which she had by our Father we began according to her will to converse with her Family as if we had been all Brothers and Sisters but the Empress Livia finding somewhat extraordinary in the Princess Cleopatra
my sister by the permission of Angustus took her to Court and bred her in a garb little different from that of the Princess Julia. We were brought up with as great a care as we could have been in the greatest lustre of our Family and if at Rome we were not called Kings of Kings and had not titles full of pride and vanity nor a numerous train of Princes as at Alexandria yet it is certain that we were educated like Marcellus Tiberius and the greatest young Princes that were bred in Rome and through the generous care of Octavia there was nothing wanting that might form our nature to things worthy of our birth My Brother Ptolomy and I had towardly inclinations and a disposition great enough to learn as well the exercises of the body as those sciences wherein they employed our minds and we proceeded in both with a very general approbation Augustus having extinguished in the death of Anthony all the hatred he bare him looked upon us and treated us as really as if we had been the Sons of Octavia and according to his example all the persons of the greatest importance in Rome or of the most illustrious families took it as an advantage to be allied to ours and considered us almost in the same manner as they could have done in the time of Anthony's greatest fortune In the mean time that I may return to give an account of the inclination I had to Artemisa in my very infancy I will tell you that the tender youth wherein we were separated being not capable of a strong and solid settlement Time as you may well imagine did partly wear out of an Infants mind an impression which it could not long conserve it was a hard matter that at nine or ten years old a firm affection should be formed in my Soul but certain it is that the continuation of time was never able to banish this memory out of my spirit and though I grew to a more rational age the Image of Artemisa never returned into my thoughts without leaving some tenderness and passion behind it without drawing sighs from me and without putting me for some time into the sweet thoughts of my infancy I carefully likewise preserved a Ring and a Bracelet of her hair which I had received from her and whatsoever coldness theee arrived in a passion which at an age like ours could not strongly establish it self I desired alwayes to carry about me with high respect the precious marks of the affections of a great Princess This is all that war left of it then and it is probable that no more could have remained of it and that this remembrance would have been totally laid to sleep if it had not been awakened again afterwards as I will relate unto you In the Interim if Ptolomy and I grew in stature and divers qualities wherein according to the judgement of the Romans we had sufficiently profited Cleopatra our Sister arrived to such a degree of beauty that the general voice of Rome published it for the most rare and the most accomplished that ever appeared within the circumference of the Empire and all those who had formerly pretended to handsomness yielded her the advantage at an age when she had hardly had time to shew her self Amongst a great number of illustrious Adorers that she had acquired Tiberius the Son of Livid by Drusus her former Husband and Juba surnamed Coriolanus the son of Juba sometimes King of Mauritania were the most considerable Marcellus as I believe at the first had a very strong inclination for her but his compliance to Augustus his will who had designed his Daughter Julia for him or as others believe the amity he had for Coriolanus obliged him to disingage himself frrom it and Tiberius and Coriolanus stood single to dispute their affections in publick though Tiberius was a person worthy of esteem for his birth and many qualities he was master of yet I confess my inclinations were entirely for Coriolanus and that Prince hath such great and amiable parts in him that it is impossible to know him without being absolutely his I could tell you some things both of his valour and the vertues which accompany it which possibly would make you prefer him before all the persons in the World but I will reserve a more full relation till another time and will only tell you at this present that the advantage which in my judgment he had over Tiberius and all other persons that I knew made me take his part and obliged me to favour him in all that possibly I could Those of either side signalized themselves by their addresses in divers actions of gallantry and we began to appear amongst them when we approached our sixteenth year and to put our selves forward in all things even beyond what our Age did seem to permit the Emperor approved our forwardness proceeding as he said from courage worthy of our birth and Marcellus and Coriolanus shewed us as much favour in it as possibly could be At last I attained to the seventeenth year of my age and I began then to desire some occasions to acquire a little reputation and seek out means to advance my self by some actions of valour I already perceived my self strong and valiant enough to undertake and support all things and the glory of Coriolanus Marcellus and Tiberius who had their essayes in arms at an age not much different from mine and by a thousand brave effects had already rendred themselves commendable to all the Romans spurred me on with emulation Fortune quickly gave me the means to satisfie my self and upon some combustion that happened then at Rome between Coriolanus and Tiberius about the love and the pretensions they both had for Cleopatra the Emperor to regulate their differences and to encourage them to his service by their mutual jealousie and the hopes of gaining Cleopatra gave them two equal employments and sent them to command two Armies Tiberius was designed for Germany against the Pannonians and the Dalmatians and the Son of Juba against the Austurians and Cantabrians At first my resolution was to follow Coriolanus in his expedition but the Emperor at the entreaty of his sister Octavia who saw me at that time a little indisposed refused to give me leave and forced me to stay at Rome till the departure of Tiberius who went for Germany I had no inclination to march with Tiberius seeing I could not go with Coriolanus but the Empress Livia having told me about that time that if I would essay my fortune in arms with her son she would obtain me permission I thought I could not handsomly refuse this occasion of going to the wars and I feared that the difficulty I should make of it would rather have been attributed to some other motive sooner than to the inclination I had to march with Coriolanus rather than with Tiberius I resolved then upon that voyage which was in some sort contrary to my humour
had so little confidence in and acquaintance with those that guarded me that I would never ask them any thing upon that account One day having some thoughts that I was not beloved by Artemisa and being more sad than ordinary the Gods sent me some comfort and one of my Keepers coming neer the bed whereupon I then lay and seigning to stoop down to take up something that he had let fall on purpose Sir said he to me softly confide in me if you please I desire to serve you and for a beginning see what Narcissus hath sent With these words he stretched forth his arm a little and let fall a paper upon my bed I immediately clapt my hand upon it and with my other laying hold of Souldiers arm Friend said I I will not be unthankful for thy good office I could not look upon the Letter presently for fear of making the Souldier suspected but a little after causing Tidus to bring a light and drawing the paper from under my cloaths as if I had had it a long while I opened it and found these words written with Artemisa's own hand Princess Artemisa to the Prince Alexander THEY would not have me see you they would not have me speak for you they would not have me love you they may hinder me from the sight of you they may prohibite me to speak to you but my dear Alexander they cannot hinder me from loving you this declaration is very free but possibly the condition to which my love hath reduced you may warrant me to do it and I will add this too that my destiny shall be the same with yours and Artaxus shall execute nothing against you which shall not be equally fatal to Artemisa I will try all means to destroy your liberty and if all things fail me upon that design you shall see me run the hazard of your fortune without repugnance Receive my dear Alexander the assurance I give you of it and expect whatever may be done by her who will undertake all things for you as cordially as for her self O Gods what sweet consolation did I receive at the reading of that Letter and with what transports did I behold the dear marks of the remembrance and affection of my Princess the acknowledgement only due to so great a goodness might have produced puissant effects in a soul prepossessed but with a slight passion but in mine that was all on fire and inflamed with love this knowledge could not find place without bringing a satisfaction along with it that made me cherish my pains and rendred me more glorious in my imprisonment and sufferings than other persons would have been in the most sublime and illustrious fortune Let us not complain any longer said I of our destiny and since my adorable Princess so sweetly assists us in supporting our captivity let us prefer it before the most absolute liberty and never desire an end of it seeing by that means we receive so precious an assurance of our happiness Ah! Artemisa a thousand times more generous than your brother is inhumane by what proofs of love or by what services can I have merited this passion which you express for my interests and what blood can I shed by the cruel orders of Artaxus which can acquit me from so dear and pressing an obligation but though to acquit my self to my Princess I should willingly die her servant and be totally hers even to death when will it be in my power to disengage my self Upon these thoughts I cast mine eyes once more upon the Letters and finding occasion in every word to out-brave fortune and to dispise my disgraces I read it over again with an action wholly conformable to the ravishment of my soul After I had bestowed some hours upon this employment I thought of writing an answer there was no body hindred me from writing and I might do it upon pretence of easing my thoughts upon the paper but if my keepers had known that I had sealed delivered my Letters they would either have been read or carried to the King I had need therefore to make use of the same secrecy to deliver mine as was observed to give me Artemisa's Letter and in the mean time having called for paper to divert my self in writing somewhat as I said I made the Princess this answer Prince Alexander to The Princess Artemisa MY Enemies may exercise all the cruelty against me that their resentments can inspire them with and I defie them to render the ill they intend me equal to the least part of the felicity you have bestowed upon me I only conjure you my divine Princess that you would be pleased to moderate it a little since the value of a thousand such lives as mine is too much below your generous sentiments The Gods preserve me from the displeasures of seeing you inveloped in my disgrace and let them make me the object of their most formidable vengeance rather than permit you to participate of my misfortunes they have lost that name since they have caused your pity and I desire that you would be pleased not to complain of them since by them I am exalted to the most sublime fortune that ever I could aspire to After I had written this Letter I closed it without folding it up as if it had been some other thing and in the evening when no body could dream of it I delivered it to my Keeper almost in the same fashion as I had received mine and with a Jewel of good value to oblige him to persevere in his good offices by his means I received some other Letters which afforded me all the consolation in my displeasures that I could desire but it was impossible for me to have a sight of the Princess though she expressed a great desire of it on her part and the two Commanders to whose custody I was committed being stern and inexorable men executed their Masters will with such a severity as they could not be taken off from by any entreaty or consideration whatsoever One day having some talk with the more bruitish of the two who was called Eurilochus after some discourse wherein he had sufficiently discovered his rude and savage humour to me I know not said I why the King spins out the time of my imprisonment so long I think he might do well to give me speedily either death or liberty As for liberty replyed Eurilochus I believe you have no cause to hope for it and as for death I should think you might wait his leisure who hath the power over your life This uncivil and cruel answer provoking me against him who gave it me Artaxus hath this power answered I because I have given it him my self and if I had preferred my life before what I sought for in his Dominions both he and all Armenia besides had been too weak to reduce the Son of Anthony under his power who hath often seen as high born Princes as Artaxus is attending upon
to the passion of an inhumane brother and Cleopatra that Cleopatra which by her cruelty authorized Artaxu 's shall never accuse me amongst the shades below for approving against her blood of the revenging of the injury which she did to our family She spake some other words besides after which having employed all the rest of the day almost in seeking unprofitably for some expedients for my assistance at last she abandoned her self to desperate resolutions All this while I was in prison where about the end of the day my sentence was pronounced to me and I was advertised to prepare my self for death the terrible countenances of those that brought me this news could not refrain from shewing some signs of compassion and according to their report they found something extraordinary in my face which made them regret my destiny I will not tell you that I received this sad intelligence without being troubled at it and whatsoever courage Heaven bestows upon a man when his mind is not prepossessed with despair it is a difficult thing for him to endure the face of an horrible and shameful death without astonishment and trouble I was young and more happy in the affection of Artemisa than I had confidence to wish and in a likelyhood to improve my life to the best advantages these reasons without doubt made me find death of a more hard digestion than usually it is to those whose misfortunes smooth the face of it I confess I was troubled and that I had a combat with nature wherein reason at first did not prevail without some difficulty and I could not dispose my self without regret to abandon my hopes but yet after I had yielded a little to humane frailty I was sooner resolved than many persons very timorous would have been and at last I made use of my courage to let my enemies know that all the ill they could do me was not capable to cast me down After I began to speak O Cleopatra said I 't is just that since I have received my life from you I should render it back for the reparation of your faults And afterwards turning my self towards them that had brought me news of my death Artaxus said I doth very vigorously revenge the death of his father and hath taken a great deal of pains and run a great many hazards for his own satisfaction but tell him that he should have taken his course by way of arms both against Anthony and the deceased King of the Medes for the liberty or the revenge of his Father and that this which he now takes upon me can neither repair the baseness he hath committed in suffering this injury for the time past nor give me so much regret for my death as to oblige me to be beholding to him for my life if he should be in the humour to give it me yet let him know that his cruelty shall not remain unpunished and that I shall leave persons behind me who shall more nobly and more generously call him to accompt for this offence I sent them back with these words and staying with those of my ordinary guard I began by little to surmount all the difficulties that I found in this passage Night was come on when the Keeper that was wont to give me Artemisa's Letters by the means he was accustomed to use presented me with the last which she had written an hour before and with the Letter he gave me a little Vessel wrapped up in a paper the little necessity I had at that time to dissemble my affairs made be presently open the Letter and at the sight of those dear Characters which I immediately kissed not being able to forbear some tears O Artemisa said I 't is just that your goodness should continue as long as my life but after my death wish you a repose which may never be crossed by any remembrance of Alexander and after I had given some kisses more to this precious writing I read these words The Princess Artemisa to Prince Alexander YOu must die my dear Alexander and I would not send you this news but that I am resolved to die with you all my hopes are extinguished Artaxus is inexorable and I see my self at last reduced to that deplorable condition I so much feared Let us die since Heaven hath so decreed it but let us not suffer Artaxus and the People of Armenia to glut their eyes with the cruel spectacle By this poison that I send you you may avoid the shame they intend you and I have kept as much for my self to avoid the shame I should have to survive you Adieu my dear Alexander and if by my death I do not acquit my self of what I owe to yours let your affection supply that defect and believe that if my life were far more precious I should have given it you with all my heart There was hardly any need either of dagger or poison to take away my life at the reading of this Letter and I was so struck to the heart that grief alone wanted but a little of immediately contenting the rage of my Enemies these last testimonies of Artemisa's unmoveable affection rendred me the most happy of men but they made me find some regret too in my death which without doubt I should not have done if she had not loved me and seeing her as she sent me word in a resolution to die I was seased with so violent a displeasure at it that there was no room for comfort in my soul I took the Vessel wherein the poison she sent me was and delivered it to Tideus to prepare it in a potion receiving this present from Artemisa with a great deal of satisfaction as likely to free me from the shame wherein a great part of the punishment to which I was destinied did consist After I had sufficiently tormented my self at the Princesses design wherein I found sufficient reason to die desperate if I should not divert her from it I desired to give her the last assurances of my fidelity in a Letter which I wrote unto her in these terms Prince Alexander to the Princess Artemisa I Am ready to die my dear Princess and I part from this life without any other regret than of quitting you for ever I shall die but half if you preserve that part of me which I leave you and death it self cannot take from you but I shall die twice and the most cruel death that can be imagined if you suffer me to part in that fear whereinto your fatal resolution hath put me I have dearly received the present you sent me but I conjure to employ the remainder for other uses than for the destruction of the most perfect Master piece of the Gods a loss so inconsiderable as mine should not give a Princess of your quality occasions of despair and you cannot conceive a thought of it without rendring my end full of horrour and giving me greater resentments against your cruelty than against
I saw divers of those that guarded me weep at this discourse and turning my self to the Commander I bad them shew me the way I was to go they conducted me out of my Chamber amongst a great number of Javelins and having passed the stairs I found at the gate a Chariot covered with black which waited for me and in that I was mounted to march to the great place I was followed and environed with a great number of men both on foot and on horseback and in this manner I advanced into the streets where by reason of the throng of People we could pass but very slowly there were few persons amongst those that met me in my passing but shewed divers signs of compassion and highly blamed the cruelty of their King some spake in pity of my youth wherein they saw me cruelly snatched from the fairest hopes others paused upon something of gallantry that they saw in my face and the greatest part reflected upon my birth and the inconstancies of fortune which from the height wherein I had been formerly seen had thrown me down into so extraordinary a misfortune We arrived at last at the place where I saw the fatal scaffold erected and the press was so great that we could not get thither without a great deal of trouble I lighted from the Chariot and mounted upon the scaffold with a very assured countenance to shew my enemies that the fear of death had not much staggered me and when I was at the fatal place where I was to lose my life I walked a little and turned my eyes on every side upon the standers by who had filled all the place and windows adjoining I looked upon them a while without speaking and then on a sudden addressing my discourse to those which were neer enough to understand me Armenians said I since it is the destiny of the innocent to suffer for the culpable I believe you will one day undergo the punishment of your Kings cruelty as I am exposed to the resentments he might justly conceive against my relation you may possibly see your blood shed in his quarrel as I am upon the point of giving mine for Cleopatra I do not wish this to you nor to Artaxus himself because as unworthy as he is he is the Brother of the Princess Artemisa but I very well foresee that the cruelty of your Prince will not remain unpunished and I advise you his people and subjects either to arm your selves for his defence or to quit his party These words were heard by Artaxus himself who out of an horrible baseness had placed himself in an house adjoyning and from behind a glass window saw all that passed in the place The infamous Ministers of my death were already upon the Scaffold and the chief of them coming to me told me that it was time for him to do his duty and prayed me to let him bind my eyes with a cloath he had for that purpose Friend said I to him I am not so much afraid of death that I cannot see its approach without being frighted at it I will receive it with my eyes open without putting thee to the trouble of closing them before death does it After these words disposing my self to take my last farewell O Artemisa said I I give you my life as willingly as you will bestow some tears upon my death These words were followed with a mournful murmur of the greatest part of the standers by and immediately after putting my self into a posture to receive the fatal blow I commanded the Executioner to do his duty and stretched out my neck under the instrument of death which he lifted up into the aire to separate my head from my body O Gods cryed Caesario at this part of Alexander's Narration O Gods is it possible that you should escape death after you were reduced to such great extremities and that fortune which had brought you to so near a precipeice should be ready to succour you in such a desperate condition You shall hear replyed Alexander a very strange event and I am about to tell you of an action that can hardly be parallel'd by all antiquity Divers attributed it to folly others to a real and uncommon generosity and it is to that vertue that in memory of him who did it for my sake I will absolutely impute it instead of robbing him of a glory which is due to him which in ages to come they cannot deprive him of My neck as I told you was stretched out and the Executioner had already lifted up his arm to give the fatal Blow when he was stopped by a voice which cryed out Hold two or three times He stopt his hand which he had advanced believing it was some order from the King and turning that way from whence he heard the voice he saw a man who mounted upon the scaffold with a naked sword in his hand who presently ran him through the body and tumbled him dead at my feet At the noise he made in falling down by me I turned my self towards him who had done that action and no sooner cast my eyes upon his visage but I knew him to be Cepio who animated by the most generous courage in the world came to repair his imprudence by the boldest attempt that ever was undertaken Narcissus followed him but could not get near the Scaffold by reason of the press which environed it and the great number of Souldiers that hindred his passage Cepio had no sooner dispatched the Executioner but he seized upon his sword and coming to me Alexander said he here 's Cepio who having by his imprudence brought you to your death comes to suffer with you I cannot preserve you from it but I will change the manner of it and you will be more satisfied to die with a sword in your hand than by an infamous arm Before he had ended these words he had already cut the cord which tied my hands and gave me a sword I felt my self animated by this assistance with an extraordinary courage and looking upon Cepio with a countenance full of acknowledgment I am sorry Cepio said I that you run upon your death and you do not owe me such a reparation as this for the ill you have innocently procured me but since through your generosity we must die together let us sell our lives dearly to our most cruel enemies We had not time to make any longer discourse and we saw already the Commanders of those that guarded me followed by divers of their Souldiers mounting the Scaffold with their swords in their hands I no sooner knew the cruel Eurilochus and his companion at the head of the rest but being seized with a motion of joy for the occasion that offered it self to me to revenge those indignities they had done me I flew to Eurilochus with a threatning cry Barbarian said I I have promised to be thy death and thou shalt receive it at my hands before I fall at the
differences which in his former surpize he had not discerned he perceived his mistake but he perceived it with such a grief as he was not able to support and lifting his eyes to heaven in a pittiful manner O Gods said he with a feeble voice O fortune will you eternally make your selves sport with this miserable wretch He hardly uttered these words and from the posture wherein he was letting himself fall to the ground his face became pale his eyes closed up and he continued sensless at Artemisa's feet At this sight pity took full possession of the Princesses soul and sitting down by the Unknown to give him assistance she her self threw upon his face divers times the water which Tideus and Leucippe brought her from the fountain the Unkown continued a great while before he recovered his spirits and in the interim those that employed themselves in his succour had the leisure to consider him and they viewed him with a very particular attention Through the mortal paleness which had overspread his countenance they perceived as gallant a Mine as ever their eyes had beheld all the lineaments of it were formed with a compleat and just proportion and when his eyes were freed from those dark clouds wherewith at present they were inveloped with a sweetness that was natural to them they breathed something noble and great enough to imprint respect in the beholders his hair that was long and neglected by reason of his afflictions which took from him all cares of small importance did admirably well become his visage and he was of the tallest streightest cleanest making that can be imagined his age seemed to be about two or three and twenty but they perceived well that his complexion which was naturally very fresh had received great changes by his toils and troubles After that he had been some while in the hands of those that succoured him that the Princess making a comparison between this rancounter and that she had a few days before with Caesario officiously interessed her self on his behalf he came again to himself and turning his eyes round about him he perceived together with the truth which was past the obligation he had to that fair person which a few moments before he had taken for Delia. If upon the first Idea he formed to himself of her he had her in veneration at the second view he conceived no less respect for her and after he had beheld her a while with an attention which confirmed him in all the thoughts he might have of her raising himself out of the posture wherein he was to accost her in another less unhandsome I know not said he but you may be a Divinity descended from Heaven to my assistance in regard of the first errour whereinto I am fallen concerning you I am afraid to commit new faults and those beauties that dazled me at the first sight have more conformity with the heavenly beauties than those of mortal persons This Beauty replyed Artemisa modestly is too mean to express any more than its own nature and 't is the resemblance it may have to that of the person you love which causes you to judge so advantagiously of it 'T is true replyed the Unknown that I have seen some features in your face which in a soul totally possessed with the memory of Delia immediately brought back her whole Idea and certainly the resemblance is not so small but that in a troubled imagination as mine is it might very well produce these effects 't is that which made me commit a fault which possibly hath created you some trouble and put me into a condition of having need of those assistances which you have tendred me with so much goodness out of the acknowledgment I owe you I would present you with this life in the preservation whereof you have so officiously employed your self if it were not too unhappy to be offered to your service and he that should offer it too unfortunate to hope from heaven any occasion of expressing his acknowledgment to you The Unknown uttered these words with such a grace that Artemisa was extraordinarily taken with them and desiring to answer his civilities according to the esteem she had already conceived of him The assistance I have rendred you said she is due to all men and particularly to those who carry in their faces the marks that appear in yours but if you believe that I have an obligation upon that account which permits me to require any recompence of you I would only desire of you that you would use some moderation in that excessive grief which we have observed in your discourse and actions and take some pains to search out in your own courage and the examples of those who are more unfortunate than your self the consolation that is necessary for you Alas replyed the Unknown with a sigh alass how just is this grief that is the cause of my death and how difficult will it be to banish it out of a soul over which it hath possessed it self of a most lawful Empire I do not require that attempt from you replyed the Princess and the cause of it may be such as it might be difficult for you to make an absolute conquest of it but yet your reason may furnish you with remedies to sweeten it and if you be not afflicted by some loss wherein all hopes are extinguished you may expect favourable changes in your condition with more likelyhood possibly than divers persons whom I my self have seen raised up contrary to their expectation from the uttermost extremities of misfortune to their highest selicity Examples of that kind are not so rare but that you may set a good number of them before your eyes and by all likely conjectures I believe you have courage enough to serve your self successfully with them if you will employ you self about it I am too much obliged replyed the Stranger to the judgement you make of me by marks not altogether infallible but though the Gods had given me the courage to enterprise the highest difficulties I have had so much occasion to employ it in the crosses which my bad fortune hath raised me that in the miseries wherein I am now engulphâ—d I receive but small assistance from it 't is not because my last hopes have abandoned me nor that I am assured of a loss after which all humane considerations would not be able to preserve my life one moment It may be my good Fortune may be still in the hands of the Gods but after so much unprofitable pains as I have taken I have so little likelyhood to hope it from them that I have no rational ground to do it 'T is a difficult thing added the Princess to see a man in your garb in so great an affliction without taking a great share with him or without desiring a more perfect knowledge of a person concerning whom our first sight and this first discourse hath given us very advantagious impressions
me found no attention and I could not so much as think that Delia was ready to be taken from me by a strange death without abandoning my self to a rage which could leave me nothing but furious resolutions Sister said I to the Princess if Delia die you will shortly be left alone in the royal family of Cilicia this cruel father who precipitates me to my grave shall show me the way thither himself and with the same sword which my hand ought to draw against this unfortunate heart I will pierce that Barbarian's who only gave me life to make me die cruelly These words were criminal and horrible if they had been spoken at a time when reason had had any command upon my spirit but in the condition I then was all things were pardonable and I was capable without doubt of executing whatsoever I said in the transport that possessed me In brief I made such complaints as drew tears from all that heard me and I interrupted them every moment to run to Delia's chamber door to enquire news of her health Amongst those that came to me upon the report of my affliction of whom there was a great number seeing Adrastus whose vertue and affection were dear to me Adrastus said I with a visage which sufficiently expressed the disorder of my soul you may tell the King that he hath found out the assured way of destroying his Son by the most cruel death that the most perfidious enemies could have invented Tell him that I look upon him no longer as my Father but as upon a Tiger who tears my enteral and pulls out my heart Tell him that I renounce with horrour and detestation all the ties of bloud I have to him and that if Delia dies he ought to look upon his Son as a man who only desires to live to revenge her death Adrastus and the rest shrunk their shoulders at these words and I made them some other discourse afterwards so full of trouble and the mark of my despair that the most rocky souls would have been moved to compassion at it At last Delia growing weaker and weaker and believing that her last hour was come desired to speak with me and caused me to be called I entred into her chamber and drew near her bed with a feeble and ill assured pace I fell upon my knees by her so forlorn and cast down that I was hardly able to hearken to what she had to say to me yet I did my endeavour and Delia likewise striving to express her intentions with the little strength she had left Philadelph said she I should die with some regret if I should leave you in the belief that I have been insensible of your affection and I have observed so much purity and so much vertue in it that nothing could hinder me from the acknoledgement that is due to you I protest to you before those Gods whose will it is to snatch me from you that I have esteemed you more than all the persons in the world and that if it had been in my power to express my more particular thoughts and to accept the offers which you made me I should have made you lose the opinion you have alwaies had of my ingratitude to you this is a declaration which I owe to truth and to the end that you may find satisfaction in it I will make you one more which I owe to your affection before I die wherein possibly you may find justifications against the reproaches that might be laid upon you for having too much debased your thoughts No Philadelph continued she with a great deal of pain Delia was not so unworthy of your affection as the King your Father imagined neither have you sinned so much against your self that either you or any of your relations need be ashamed after my death of the resentments you have had for me you have possibly rendred that to me before you knew me which was partly due to me and though you see me a stranger and abandoned by Fortune yet at the period of my life where I now feel my self arrived I will tell you She could hardly finish these words and when she would have proceeded she was hindred by violent fits accompanied with such cruel convulsions that I made no doubt but that she was ready to breath her last Then I fell upon her bed embracing her knees with such transports of love as brought my soul every moment to my lips and when I was constrained to leave her to give them leave to give her their last assistance I tore my face and rent my hair and did a thousand actions so full of rage and despair that my best friends trembled and did not think themselves safe near me Delia cryed I Delia stay for me or let me go before thee to the grave thou canst not leave me without cruelty and if I did not owe the remainders of my life to thy vengeance I would instantly lead thee the way to that death which ought to be common to us both I was in this condition when they presented a man to me from the King who sent to enquire concerning me I could hardly forbear from flying in the face of that hateful messenger and having been held back by those which were near me I took him by the arm and leading him to Delia's bed in a very terrible fashion See said I see the condition wherein I am by that wherein thou seest this innocent Victim of thy Masters cruelty tell that Barbarian tell that Monster that he should come and glut his eyes with this agreeable spectable he will receive a double satisfaction in seeing both her which innocently crossed his intentions and him who of his Son is now become his most cruel enemy die here before his face Sir replied the man all amazed and moved with tenderness at what be saw You do the King your Father great wrong to accuse him of this cruelty he doth not only protest before all the Gods that he is innocent of it but he hath solemnly sworn that if he can discover who are culpable of it he will cause them to be punished without any consideration I made no answer to these words nor hardly gave any attention to them being so intent upon Delia in whom at that time nature was at its utmost plunge that I was not capable of any rational discourse The Princess my Sister and those who were most affectionate to me had drawn me by force into the next chamber and I had staid there above an hour in such transports and impatiencies as you may imagine having nothing but death before my eyes in all its most horrible shapes when by a favour of Heaven which I expected not my fortune began to change and one of the men who was employed in waiting upon Delia entring hastily into my Chamber Courage Sir said he Delia may do well I made a cry at this discourse which sufficiently expressed the speedy effect it had
advanced thee that puts thee besides the knowledge of thy self but know that I shall find ways to humble thee as much as I have unjustly advanced thee and that I shall lay thee so low if thou dost not cease from provoking me that possibly thou shalt serve for an example to those whom immoderate presumption makes to transgress the limits which their birth hath prescribed them Ending these words full of disdain and outrage to an heart like mine he turned another way without giving me time to reply I should have done it for all that how Tragical soever the reply would have been to me if Artamenes had not opposed it and with divers others of my friends which had been present at this conversation had he not led me to my Tent so inflamed with choler and transported that I was hardly capable of suffering the violence they did me with any moderation When I was in my Tent and that I had made a reflection of some few moments upon my adventure and the unworthy usage I received turning my self to Artamenes and those that were with him My friends said I to them behold me subjected to more outrage and indignity than I ought to expect from my services and besides the injurious words wherewith Artaxus had a mind to humble me I see my self by the death of these two unfortunate men which he is about to sacrifice to his cruelty exposed to the most sensible displeasure that my soul is capable to receive I do little esteem the words and disdain of Artaxus upon whom I never had any design to bottome my Fortune Henceforward the favours of a King is he is shall be less dear and glorious to me and I dis-esteem them too much to purchase them with the least compliance or to receive them when they shall be offered me but in things wherein my honour is engaged I will spend my blood to the last drop to defend it and though I should infallibly lose my life in this design I will leave nothing unattempted to save the two Cilicians whom I have imprudently delivered up to his cruelty All those that heard my words could not condemn my resolution but they saw me in no capacity to execute it and I was able to do it so little alone against Artaxus that all I could devise in this design proved but ridiculous propositions Artamenes endeavoured to represent so much to me and appeared interessed in my displeasure as much as a good and generous friend could be but he could not bend my spirit to an unworthy and base complyance with the intentions of a cruel ingrateful King and I could not conceal from him that I was resolved to arm a party of the Souldiery whose affections I might conceive I had gained and go and free the Prisoners by force from the place where they were detained or of I could not find sufficient courage and affection in the hearts of the Souldiers for so bold an execution I would go and make my self be killed in defence of these infortunate men whose death in my opinion ought eternally to be objected to me as a reproach Artamenes wanted no reasons to oppose against this resolution neither was he forgetful of them but our dispute was as unprofitable as any design and presently after I had quitted Artaxus this cruel man or rather monster of cruelty whether it were that his spirit was more exasperated by the resistance I made against his will or that he feared lest I should attempt and execute something for the safety of the prisoners sent the Executioners who beheaded them in Prison without any further delay The memory hereof makes me tremble as well for the compassion I had of the destinies of these two men and the horrour I have had all my life of cruel actions as for the reproach I might receive from my own conscience though I was innocent for having contributed to their destruction after I had promised them life and usage conformable to their condition Artamenes and the rest of my friends were still in my Tent when I received this news and I confess they saw me break out into discourses and actions wherein there appeared no remainder of reason which made them fear some Tragical event from the grief and choler which transported me In these first emotions I thought and threatned no less than to revenge the blood of those poor wretches upon the person of Artaxus from whose cruelty the remembrance of my services could not free them and if those which were present at these menaces had not been my real Friends upon the least intelligence given to Artaxus I had undoubtedly found the death I despised Artamenes would not abandon me and guarded me all that day as if I had been a mad man doing all he possibly could to quiet my spirit from these violences by his discourses indeed he made me abate the rashness of them and put me into more moderate terms than before but for all our friendship he did in vain oppose the resolution I had taken to quit the service of Artaxus for ever and to go over to the Enemy it the remembrance of the mischief I had done them would permit me to hope for a reception there I will sooner suffer a thousand deaths said I than continue any longer in the service of this Barbarian this blood-thirsty Tigre whom a man cannot serve without rendring himself a complice of his cruelties this ungrateful Prince who requites mens services with disdain rage and unworthy usage The only cause which might make me own his interests ought not any longer to engage me Arsinoe disdains me as much as her Brother and if I cannot cease from loving her yet I ought to cease from seeing and desiring to please her and to seek a cure far from her which possibly I may find in an eternal absence and in other employments than in suffering unprofitably at her feet Although in the complaints which I made against Artaxus I mingled some too against Arsinoe yet I know well how to put a difference between them and I did not confound the ingratitude and inhumanity of the Brother with the severity of the Sister who was really born with all the great qualities which might render a Princess accomplished I was not cured of my passion by the usage she had shown me but I was desirous to be cured and I did so confirm my self by the injuries which I received of her Brother that I not only desired but conceived hope to find repose in my mind by separating my self both from Artaxus and Arsinoe for ever My destinies whereby I was called to something more important than these beginnings of my life which I have related unto you gave birth to this design and it was by my destinies that I was disengaged from Artaxus and Arsinoe to be conducted into places where fortune was as advantageously serviceable to me as I could desire where I found honours and dignities above my
in memory of them we can refuse nothing Though I am ignorant of all other crimes I cannot be ignorant of this wherewith my conscience reproaches me that I have lifted up my sword against thee and my friendship which is not altered by the attempts which thou hast made against my life though thou knew'st me will never pardon me those which I made against thine though I knew thee not Whilst Coriolanus spake in this manner Marcellus who had stay'd himself after he had seen him cast away his sword looking upon him with an hundred different motions which were remarkable in the changing of his countenance but his soul being pre-possessed with an opinion which made all the discourses of Coriolanus to pass for false and full of artifice they did not work that effect upon his spirit which according to the excellency of his nature they should have done and after he had hearkned to him with impatience enough taking the word with an action altogether passionate Ah unworthy and unfaithful Friend said he to him to what end doth this dissimulation serve thee hast thou found any thing in this encounter which thou didst not expect and canst thou hope for any remainders of friendship in the soul of Marcellus after thy ungrateful and unworthy usage of him and hath he made it appear in the affairs thou hast had with Caesar that his interests were more dear to him than thine and could he have any thought of depriving thee of Cleopatra after he had done all that he had done to make her thine No Coriolanus never seek farther for an artificial disguisement of a perfidiousness which thou wouldst not have concealed from any man Retake rather that sword which thy remorse and not the remainders of thy friendship hath made thee quit and if it be not to defend a life which was more dear to me than my own let it be to make him perish who as long as he lives will justly reproach thee with thy infidelity But tell me said Coriolanus interrupting him Tell me in the name of the Gods what infidelity is that which I have committed against Cleopatra and against my self What is the crime for which I wander up and down as a vagabond and exposed to all manner of misfortunes without having received any knowledge of it and what have I done that could make those persons for whose sake only I live to become my most cruel and implacable enemies I desire O Marcellus either this favour of thee or my death and in stead of that resistance which thou desirest of me that thou mayest give me the more honourable death I will cast away not only my sword but these arms too which oppose the passage of thine The resentment and the natural goodness of Marcellus made at that time a combat in his Spirit which Coriolanus might take notice of by some tears which trickled from his eyes and all the indignation that transported him could not hinder him from seeing in the visage of his Enemy the resemblance of that person whom he had most dearly loved in the World Yet he opposed himself to these motions as much as possibly he could and beholding him with eyes wherein through his choler and despite something of tenderness and compassion might be discerned Go unworthy Man said he to him the Gods shall punish thee for me and seeing it is not for the hand of Marcellus who unfortunately was thy friend that the vengeance of thy crimes is reserzed Heaven which begins to punish thee with evils which I never wish thee will bestow upon thy infidelity better than I can do the pains that are due unto it With these words without looking any more upon Coriolanus he ran to his horse which was not far distant from him and getting upon him with admirable readiness he put him to full speed and in a few moments disappeared from the eyes of Coriolanus The Prince remained so confounded and so afflicted both together at this last accident that he could find no means to serve himself of that great courage from which in the misfortunes of his life he had received so great assistances and repassing his memory in a moment over the deplorable condition of his life and those things which had happened unto him that day from the astonishment which these strange events produced in him he fell into a passion of grief that all his constancy was not able to support Besides that Cleopatra was incensed or changed and ravished from his eyes by her barbarous Enemies he found Marcellus in whose amity alone he had founded his last hope more changed than Cleopatra and as much his Enemy as Tiberius could be He could not make this reflection without abandoning himself to grief and breaking silence wherein his astonishment had kept him a long time Ah cryed he This is it to dispute too much against the destinies there is a necessity of dying since our life is odious to all the persons we love and the earth which might furnish me with places of refuge from the powers of Augustus hath none for me against the hatred of Cleopatra and the enmity of Marcellus I must content this pitiless Fortune which after it had raised me enemies which I might have resisted by force and valour arms Enemies to my utter ruine against which my courage and my valour are not capable to defend me I owe my blood to Cleopatra to repair that offence whatsoever it may be which I have committed against her I owe my bloud to Marcellus to wash away that infidelity wherewith he reproaches me and I shall give it unto them both without regret if by my death I may justifie my life and testifie unto them by my end that I never had a soul capable of ingratitude and treason He took up then full of a deadly resolution the sword which he had cast upon the ground and in the transport which then possessed him he had possibly executed some horrid thing against himself if he had not called to mind at the same time that Cleopatra was the prey of Barbarians amongst whom her Honour and her Life were in hazard and that he owed her his assistance even to the extremity of his life This remembrance stay'd the effects of his despair and fixing all his thoughts in an instant upon the assistances which he he owed to this Princess Stay Marcellus said he I will acquit my self towards thee when I shall have acquitted my self towards Cleopatra I have no less a quarrel with her than with thee and besides the reparations which I owe to the infidelity wherewith she reproaches me as well as thou I am obliged in the condition wherein I have seen her to succour her to the last of that bloud which thou demandest of me At these words sheathing his Sword he dreamed of nothing more than to pusue after the ravishers of Cleopatra but by a redoubled misfortune he found himself on foot and casting his eyes upon his horse
commanded the greatest part of my Troops this young Warrior who in an age scarcely distinguishable from infancy might already be really accounted the most valiant that ever wore a Sword quitted my service and to my misfortune carried elsewhere the effects of an admirable valour which would have been very necessary for me against the re-inforcement of my Enemies The course of my good successes was stopt and my Enemies being stronger than I had some advantages which made me lose all that I had gained in Media and after some Combats wherein Fortune was not very favourable unto me I was constrained to retire upon my frontire where I made preparations for the last decision of our quarrel when Augustus employed his authority to appease our differences and sent Mecenas and Domitius with order not to depart from our Countries before they had concluded a peace between us I had that repugnance against it that you know of and the Kings my Enemies bing exasperated by the death of some of their near Relations whom I had sacrificed to the Ghost of Artibasus had no more disposition to it than my self But we must needs yield to the will of Caesar and when it was declared on his part that he would arm in favour of him who submitted first against him who made most resistance neither of us was bold enough to oppose it any longer and having signed the Articles which Mecenas and Domitius presented to us we both of us laid down arms and contented our selves to keep our animosity in our breasts without making it appear any more I retired to Artaxata whither a little after Caesar whether it were that he desired to have them as hostages of the treaty we had made or that from the relation he had heard made of them he had conceived a desire to see them and have them with him sent to demand of me the Prince Ariobarzanes my Brother and the Princess Arsinoe my Sister to have them brought up at Rome to frame in them inclinations to the Roman party and to treat them like divers Sous and Daughters of the Kings his Friends and Allies which were brought up with him and the Empress Livia This effect either of the amity of distrust or Caesar troubled me at first and yet the pretence was so fair that I could not handsomly refuse that which he demanded and the Prince and Princess at the first proposition which was made to them of it having expressed no unwillingness to the Voyage I caused a magnificent equipage to be prepared for them and sent them from Artaxata they crossed a part of Armenia and coasted Licia and Pamphilia by Land and afterwards they embarqued upon the Egean Sea but they embarqued in an unlucky hour and a few days after by means of a terrible tempest they suffered a cruel shipwrack and lost under the Waves their lives which were worthy of a better destiny You may well believe that an accident so deplorable the relation of blood only might produce in me very sensible displeasures but besides this natural resentment Ariobarzanes and Arsinoe were two persons so uncommon and so accomplished in the perfection of mind and body that it would have been hard for any to have known them without shedding abundance of tears for their death The Gods took out of the world all that was great and amiable in our family and depriving me of a Brother and a Sister worthy of the esteem and the affection of the whole world they have left me only one Sister worthy of the general scorn a Sister which by her baseness and infidelity hath stained with a shameful blot the illustrious blood from whence she is descended and hath raised me all these troubles of spirit for which I have abandoned my Kingdom and by the means whereof I find my self in a strange condition Time had now given some consolation to the grief which I had suffered for the sad shipwrack of half our family and I believe in peace though against my will at a time when I might have ruined Tigranes by joyning with the King of Parthia his enemy against whom he made War with successes wherein Fortune diversly sported her self if I had not been hindred by the authority of Augustus who would never permit me to break the peace which he had made me make with the Medians nor to give my assistance to the Parthians the cruel Enemies of the Roman name with whom he could not endure that his friends should have any alliance I passed my life I say in this forced tranquility when to overthrow my repose and blast the honour of our Royal house Alexander the Son of Anthony and Cleopatra a worthy object of my lawful vengeance came unknown to my Court with a design to give me yet more subjects of hatred than those I had against him and his for the cruel death of the King my Father Tyridates interrupted the King of Armenia in this part of his discourse Alexander the Son of Anthony said he to him who was believed to be lost at that time when I was at Rome or at least there was no news of him was in Armenia then He was there but too fatally replyed Artaxus and Fortune which in appearance presented him to me to satisfie my just resentments served her self with him to render them more violent and to carry on my displeasure to the last extremities I know you will condemn my rigour in the design I had to render what I ought to the Manes of Artibasus and the Oath I had made but that shall not hinder me from relating to you the naked truth nor from expecting from you that you should approve part of that I would have done out of a sense of pity or paternal love and honour it self too much interessed in the bloody injury which he had received After these words he recounted to him all that had passed at Artaxata after he had known Alexander there the taking of that Prince his cruel imprisonment the solicitations of Artemisa for his safety the extremity of danger whereunto he arrived and in fine all that which Alexander himself related to Caesario till his departure from Armenia and the carrying away of Artemisa Tyridates did not hear this relation without great pain though it was made by a person interessed who did partly sweeten the greatest strangness of his actions by the excuses he made for them and besides that he naturally detested cruelty the friendship he had contracted with Coriolanus and the acquaintance he had at Rome with the Princess Cleopatra Prince Ptolomee and the greatest part of young Alexander's kindred put him into great fear for him in the recital of the dangers he had run and made him very averse from the cruelty of Artaxus The impatience he had to hearken to him sufficiently appeared in his countenance but when he saw Alexander escape from the rage of his Enemy he composed himself and all the complacence which probably he ought to have
follow the destiny of your Father I see my self reduced by my destiny to hearken to discourses whereunto possibly at another time and amongst other persons I should not have been exposed but I support it with patience and it is just that I should suffer something from him who hath received so cruel a displeasure from my relations If by my discourses replyed I you suffer any thing the Gods are my witnesses it is not by my intention and it shall never be out of revenge that I give you my heart and despoil my self of my liberty Your powers are too well known by your self to let you find any strangeness in this change and though you have not contributed to it by your own design yet you will not be innocent of it if you do not look with pity upon the evil you have done me Cleopatra then composed her countenance to gravity and severity more than before and looking upon me with a coldness accompanied with some disdain You shall never be in a condition said she to me to have need of my pity and it shall never be my intention to reduce you to it I shall be very much obliged to you if for my sake you would abandon the desires of revenge you have conceived against the remainders of our family but if you please I will pass by that or if I require any effect of your goodness it is only this that you would cause us to be conducted to Alexandria the passage over thither is very short and there without doubt you shall receive thanks from Caesar for the good office you have rendred to persons who are not indifferent to him These word of Cleopatra did not presently receive an answer and the request she made to me was very unconformable to my intentions Fortune had put her into my hands by a too extraordinary adventure to make me lose all the advantage of it so quickly and if her beauty had freed her from my choler I could not consent that her return to her Friends should so speedily rob my love of her I saw that in the very place where she was subject to my power and where in respect of the danger she had run she had some cause to fear me she appeared little disposed to any compliance with my love and I had reason enough to fear that when she should be no longer in the place where I might serve my self with those advantages which fortune had given me near her she would reject my affections with disdain whereof I had noted some marks in her visage and her last expressions This consideration made me resolve not to have her back to Alexandria till I had better sounded her inclinations and judged whether I might hope for any acknowledgement of my love from her when she should be at liberty yet as my passion made me affraid to displease her I dissembled my design to her and after I had told her that I was disposed to obey her will I prayed her to pass out of her own vessel which was broken and unprofitable for navigation into mine which was in a condition to do us service The Princess passed into it with her Maids and the few men that were left the rest having lost their lives in the resistance which they would have made against us Of two Chambers that were in the vessel I left her the best where having intreated her to repose her self a while I retired my self into the other with my men and having caused those to be called who had the care of conducting the vessel I commanded them to sail slowly towards Alexandria but not to land and to keep themselves along the coast some furlongs from the City I caused them to take this way though as I told you my intention was not to go to Alexandria partly not to allarm the Princess and partly because the wind stood that way and was quite contrary to our return for Armenia A little after night came on and we having cast Anchor in a place where we found ground we passed the night at so near a distance that if the darkness had not hindred us we might have seen the walls of Alexandria Some while after I returned to the Princess from whom I could stay no longer without great constraint and being entred into some discourse with her she prayed me to inform her what displeasure I had received from Prince Alexander her Brother for whom she was extreamly in pain having heard no news of him since the arrival of his Equipage at Rome after his return from Pannonia I made some difficulty at the first to satisfie her desire fearing to incense her against me by the use I shewed to her Brother but because I naturally hate to dissemble I was willing to let her understand the truth and beginning to speak after a short interval of silence Madam said I I cannot give you a more perfect testimony of the power you have over me than in making the relation you require I fear truly that by recounting what I have done and what I would have done against your relations I shall incur your aversion and if you do not excuse me by the just subject of my resentments without doubt you will condemn them of effects contrary to clemency but seeing it is impossible to disobey you and my humour shall never be to conceal my most secret thoughts from you and lastly what I have done against your Brother is less criminal than that which I have undertaken against you I will inform you of all without any disguise After these words I related to her all that had happened to her Brother in Armenia in the same manner that I related it but now to you and though I endeavoured in some places to smooth over the roughness of my proceedings I could not do it so but that the Princess was troubled very often and found in the confession which I made to her great cause to hate me During my discourse I took notice of it divers times by the change of her countenance and by some exclamations which she made in those parts of my relation wherein she saw her Brother in the greatest extremity of danger but when I was at the end of my narration looking upon me with eyes wherein her new resentment was expressed whatsoever she did to disguise it I must needs tell you said she and I cannot hinder my self from doing it that to have been capable of what you have recounted to me you must have been the issue of a Lion or some thing yet more cruel and this perseverance to make an innocent Prince die a shameful death joyned with an obstinacy against pity which so many objects and so many reasons ought to have introduced into your soul expresses an harshness of nature which I should never have suspected in the Son of a King If my cruelty against your Brother replyed I merits the horrour which you express at it you will hardly excuse
sweetness as I could possibly I represented all things to him which might strike some horror of it into him with all the amity of a Sister and a rationality above my age But my endeavours were in vain and he parted from me protesting that death only should cure his love and that he would renounce his life if I would not preserve it for him by an affection equal to his own After this day he lived with me as a declared lover and though his Love partly blotted out of my Soul that friendship which nature had established there and began to render him odious to me as a man whose thoughts were detestable yet such was his Birth that I could not avoid him as I might have avoided any other person if I had had the design to do it and besides whilst I expected that time or reason or the Kings authority should procure some remedy I did all that possibly I could to conceal a thing of which as I thought half the shame reflected upon me and upon this consideration I could not openly express with what repugnance I received the Prince's visits because I would not divulge the cause yet I could not hinder it from being quickly known and he grew so blind in his passion that he lost all manner of discretion and by his ill conduct made all the court sensible of that which he should have concealed at the rate of his own life The King had knowledge of it by a thousand too visible marks and when I was no longer able to support the persecutions of my brother I took my last resolution to complain of him and to discover to my Father that which out of my care of his repose I had alwayes concealed from him When he was fully confirm'd in this knowledge and when upon the discourse he made me concerning it I was constrained to confess it my self to him he was transported with anger and testified his displeasure by divers marks which wrought no effect upon the Princes spirit He caused him to be called and after that he had signified to him with divers words full of sharpness the grief he had to see him fall into and persevere in so uncommon a crime he represented the deformity of it in such terms as were capable to reduce him to reason if he had been in a condition to hearken to them but after he had given a very quiet audience to the Kings discourse and surmounted the confusion which his reproaches might have caused in him making an effort upon the fear which the character of a father ought to have imprinted upon his Spirit Sir said he I wish with all my heart I were in a condition to testifie to your Majesty the submission I have to your will and I would strip my self of my strongest passions to render what is due from me to my Father and to my King if reason acknowledgment had preserved power enough over my spirit to retain it within the limits of its duty But Sir by the rigor of my destiny I see my self reduced to such terms that I have no power left to comply with you but only by making an end of my life if that be disagreeable to you 'T is true Sir that I love Olimpia and I love her in such a manner that nothing but death can free me from that passion which you condemn 'T is in this that my condition is more worthy of pity than reproach and seeing my self conducted by my ill Fortune to the love of a person of whom I am not beloved a love condemned as a crime by the King my Father I see no safety nor refuge for my self but in death alone nor will I seek it else where but since I am so unhappy as not to find pity neither in the Soul of a Sister nor of a Father I will escape by the only remedy wherewith my passion can inspire me from the long calamities to which it would expose my life if the course of it were not cut short by my final resolution He pronounced these words with so much violence that the King was so much troubled at them and feared some violent effect of his despair being well acquainted with his boyling and impetuous humour This fear made him act with the more sweetness to endeavor to reduce a Spirit which was not in a condition to be restrained by violence but all the things he could alledge to him to make him submit to reason were but in vain and his love as it seemed being spurred on by the resistance that it found grew stronger every day and by its augmentation augmented my displeasure I passed above a whole year in this condition that neither the treatments that I made him to extinguish his hopes nor the Kings dealing with him who from flattery when it was without effect oftentimes fell to threatning nor any humane consideration be able to remedy this disaster of our Family In fine the King believing that it was his last and surest expedient resolved to marry me to some one of the neighbouring Princes amongst whom there were divers that desired his alliance and he judged that by this separation from the eyes of my Brother his passion might be mortified and that all his criminal thoughts might be dissipated by impossibility when he had executed his designs I know not what would have happened thereupon if the poor Prince could have acted this resolution but to my misfortune it was hardly formed when he was seized by a violent Feaver which laid him in his Grave within ten dayes Before he dyed amongst divers instructions that he gave his Son for the government of the Kingdom he left him he exhorted him the most tenderly that possibly he could to quit himself of the love he had for me and threatned him with all manner of misfortune if he persevered in it Adallus seeing the King near his end dissembled his thoughts and feigning that he was moved with these expressions of his Fathers last will promised him all that he desired of him The King Preached to me too upon the same Text and expresly charged me never to suffer that his Family should be polluted with an incestuous Marriage But this command was not necessary and the horror of my Brothers intentions was so deeply engrave in my heart that I had no need of the King's sollicitations to dispose me rather to death than to his shameful consent The good King died to my great regret and his peoples grief whom he had governed with a great deal of Justice and sweetness I will not entertain you with the complaints which this loss caused me to make you may judge Ladies that they were excessive and besides the grief which the nearness of blood could not but make me sensible of in the loss of so good a Father I was particularly interessed by the loss of his protection who had till then defended me against the pursuits of my Brother He was publickly crowned in
't was not without trouble that I began at last to speak I am very much satisfied said I to see you in a condition so different from that wherein you appeared to me yesterday and that succour upon which you set too high an esteem produces in you an acknowledgment which exceeds the benefit I could wish it had been rendred to you to greater purpose and that you had received that from us for many years which neither you nor we are like to enjoy but for a few daies Those few daies replied the Unknown with a sigh and an action wherein there appeared something of an interessed person will be very different to me from those I have passed hitherto and I do not believe that the Gods by your assistance would have saved me from a common or single death to make me perish by a death which will give me great cause to accuse them of cruelty I would not suddenly penetrate into the sence of these words though the action of him that uttered them and mine own inclination made me partly suspect what they meant I answered him likewise in such terms as might make him judge that I did not understand them We entred into a conversation full of civility the handsomness of his person and the marks of as high birth which appeared in his countenance having wrought in me as much consideration as I could have had for a great Prince The day being clear and fair and very much different from those which had preceded it we went out of our Lodging and walked up and down the little Island which in some places we should have found agreeable enough if we could have looked upon it otherwise than upon the place of our Scpulture Eurilus caused some to stand Centinels upon the top of the Rock to discover some favourable Vessel sent by Heaven for our succour and our little company did incessantly make vows to Heaven to obtain assistances from thence of which they had little hope This day being passed the succeeding night filled my mind with importunate thoughts and the Idea of the fair Unknown presented it self and fixed it self there more pertinatiously than I would have desired his gallant mind and the sweetness of his countenance intermingled with Majesty his noble deportment and the admirable grace which attended his discourse and action came again into my memory in a very advantagious form and made good their possession maugre my endeavour to expel them thence Leave me said I leave me troublesome Idea which presentest thy self to my imagination so inconveniently and unseasonably it must be in some other Spirit than mine that thou mayst find part of that complacency which thou seekest for but in Olympia's thou shalt never produce any effect if the Gods do not forsake her If this Unknown be handsome if he be amiable if he be admirable in all parts what doth it concern the unfortunate Olympia And what interest can she take in a man with whom her acquaintance is out of a days standing whom she cannot know but for a few daies more and whom she would not know at all if that knowledge must disturb her repose Let him serve himself against some other heart than mine with all the advantages that he hath received from Heaven and Nature and let him work admiration and love every where else but let him leave a mind in peace to which neither nature hath given nor her Fortune left any dispositions to receive the thought which he would introduce there By this reasoning with my self I put off for some moments this persecuting remembrance and embraced as I thought very strongly a resolution never to think upon him more But a little after maugre my resolution this importunate Image came again into my memory and made me fix my thoughts in spite of my teeth upon the consideration of those marvels which I had found in the person of the Unknown This agitation of my spirit permitted no access to sleep and seeing the greatest part of the night was passed and I had not been able to close my eyes I began to be really angry both with these thoughts till then unknown to my spirit and with him that caused them What said I shall this Unknown usurp that already with authority which possibly he would not have sufficiently purchased all his life-time Have I scarcely seen him and must he oppose my sleep and encroach upon my repose and liberty In a condition of life when I ought to think upon nothing but death shall he alone be capable to withhold my thoughts and shall he possess them so that I should lose my sleep my repose and liberty Ah! my liberty Ah! my repose ye are but weakly grounded in my soul if the first sight of a man can so easily overthrow you and if you abandon me for having seen a man a few moments in whom possibly all appearances are deceitful a man that possibly hath nothing amiable but that outside which blinded me at first sight a Man it may be of no Birth or Vertue a Man which loves me not nor possibly ever will whilst he lives Wilt thou Olympia hazard thy affections upon such doubtful terms and are they of so little value that thou oughtest not to settle them in a place conformable to thy birth and the profession which hitherto thou hast made of a large share of vertue It would have been much better for thee if thou hadst been buried under those Waves which have spared thee or if they had swallowed up this Enemy which they have driven upon this shore to ruine thee and if thou findest thy self so weak as to suffer thy self to be so taken with the seducing charm which appears in his face thou must hate him as a Monster ready to devour thee or at least thou must avoid him as an enemy ready armed for thy destruction With these words I really gave way to some resentments and some motions of choler against him and making a very violent effort upon these importunate thoughts I delivered them in such a manner that a little after I fell fast a sleep But in my sleep I was more strongly assaulted and I was hardly asleep but the cruel enemy of my repose presented himself before me with something more great and more extraordinary than all I had observed till then and looking upon me with a countenance which as full of passion as it seemed to be did yet express a great confidence in his fortune Olympia said he in vain dost thou arm thy self against me let the destinies take their course 't is to no purpose to oppose them 't is the will of Heaven that you should love me 't is for me only that thou hast been brought upon this shore I am not unworthy of thy affections and howsoever thou wouldest dispose of them I tell thee from the Gods that 't is for me that they are absolutely reserved It seemed to me that as he finished these words and was
befall my self and Elisa without doubt is able to cause the same disorders in my soul and Fortune that Cleopatra had caused in Coriolanus's I have all the reasons that can be to fear it seeing in the space of one night and a day that imperious beauty hath ruined my repose which to all appearance was so well established and hath made a greater progress in this little time than another could have done in divers years I feel and suffer already all that persons grown old in Love can feel and suffer and if in the very beginning my passion handles me with so much violence what may I expect when its forces are augmented and its powers are absolutely established over this heart which it spares so little already Ah! continued he a little after though I should have all the reason that might be to be afraid of this fatal engagement of my heart yet it is too handsome for me to make any attempt to break it off and that destiny that brings a divine beauty from the farthest parts of Asia and from out the midst of our cruel enemies to work that upon my soul which the Roman beauties could not do binds me up already so powerfully that it hath not left my will so much as one single motion or desire to disengage my self As he uttered these words he laid himself down at the foot of an Oak being resolved to pass away the rest of the night there for it was at that season of the year when they are at the shortest In this place he used some vain endeavours to catch some sleep which fled from him and the Image of Elisa which gained an absolute power over his spirit more and more did not a great while permit him to find any repose in the least conformable to the first violences of his Love What said he with a little motion of choller or resentment have I lost all in so little a time and will sleep approach my eyes no more since the beauties of Elisa have fatally appeared to them Well pursued he let us submit to the force of our destiny and seeing we must watch let us watch with the Stars which bear us company and which can only bear witnesse of our sighs and the words which love draws from our mouth Agrippa spake these words as he thought very loud certainly believing that at such an hour and in that desart place he was not over heard by any body and that he really had only the Stars as witnesses of the effects which his passion might produce but he was deceived and that night being to him a night of adventures 't was the will of Fortune that a few paces from him there lay a man under the trees passing the rest of the night and expecting the approach of day in imployments not much different from his This Man whose soul was much more enflamed with love than Agrippa's was and possibly as much as a soul was capable of no sooner heard the amorous words which Agrippa had uttered but he found some consolation in that rancounter and after two or three impetuous sighs beginning to speak loud enough to be distinctly heard by Agrippa Alas said he is it possible then that I am not the only man whom Love causes to spend the night in this dark and solitary place whilest sleep Exercises its Dominion over the whole Earth Agrippa who expected not that accident was a little surprized at it at first thinking that he had been in a place where he might freely discover his thoughts to the face of Heaven yet being of a Spirit not easily daunted he quickly recomposed himself and finding as well as the unknown some consolation in meeting with an amorous person he thought it not amiss to enter into a discourse with him that might render their solitude the more comfortable and returning an answer to those few words he had spoken without stirring from his place No said he you are not the only man whom Love causes to sigh at these hours in solitude and though fortune hath conducted me hither yet 't is certain that Love only keeps me company and takes up all my thoughts They cannot be more worthily employed replyed the Unknown and even amongst those whom hope hath almost deserted there are some which find all the entertainment of their life only in the thoughts of their Love As for those answered Agrippa whom hope hath abandoned their thoughts cannot but be very full of grief and affliction and hope doth not ordinarily leave us but in such extremities when we hardly can tell what to think upon Yea divers persons believe that after the loss of hope Love cannot be easily preserved and as hope in Love cannot be intirely lost but by the loss of the Object beloved so by the same losse it is probable that Love abandons us together with our hope Alas added the Unknown with a sigh how little experience have you so far as I can judge in the effects of this passion to which neverthelesse it seems You have submitted your Spirit 'T is true answered Agrippa that I have passed a good part of my Life in liberty enough and 't is not long since that my soul hath been made Loves subject by such powers as have disarmed my heart at the first sight and which at the very beginning have already made me feel whatsoever others have felt most violent in whole years I easily believe it replyed the Unknown and I do not doubt but that at the first sight a heart may be disarmed and submit it self to Loves greatest cruelty I have had experience enough of it my self to make me believe it upon anothers account but if Your passion be yet in its infancy upon which all Souls do not equally fix themselves at first or at least if you be not so far ingaged that you have no power left over your Spirit avoid if it be possible for you any farther engagement and stop the course betime of an infinite number of paines and sufferings in comparison of which all others are trivial and by which life is rendred worse than the most painful death O Gods continued be with a new supply of sobs how different would mine have been from this deplorable condition wherein I miserably spend my dayes if I had followed the counsel which I venture to give to others how many evils had I been spared from under which my unfortunate Soul alwayes groaned how many troubles both of body and mind had I avoided under which both have deeply suffered And yet O my adorable there he stopt because he would not name her and yet O dear Mistriss of my heart how sorry should I have been if I had followed these counsels which were profitable indeed as to my repose but contrary to the glory and the satisfactition which I find in passing my dayes for your sake in these miseries which are a thousand times more sweet and more dear to me than all the pleasures
wherewith he was engaged were willing to give him free liberty to entertain her and looking upon her with eyes almost sparkling with the ardency of his affection Divine Delia said he Delia the only aym and the only cause of my life where shall I begin to declare to you the thoughts of my soul or desire to know yours upon which my days are inseparably fixed Shall I blame you for that cruel flight by which you have made me wander so long in the most deplorable condition that ever an unfortunate Lover was reduced to Shall I represent to you the grievous sufferings wherein I have passed my life occasioned by the loss of your sight and almost all my hopes Or rather shall I ask of you if there remains still in your Spirit any remembrance of my love any reliques of pity or any favorable intention for your faithful Philadelph Alas 't is upon this last point only that I ought to insist my complaints will work no more effect upon your Spirit than they did heretofore in Cilicia you will apprehend nothing of the pain which your absence hath made me suffer but what you know already by the knowledge you have of my love All that is past is pleasing to my memory when I call to mind that 't is for you that I have suffered all and in stead of calling it to mind by my discourse 't were much better Delia that I should ask you and expect from your mouth the destiny of Philadelph But O Gods here it is that my courage fails me and I continue without resolution or assurance in expectation of a sentence upon which my life or death doth certainly depend I am still ignorant whether amongst the thoughts of acknowledgement which work some effect upon such a soul as yours there was formerly intermingled any motion of a particular affection I know not whether those thoughts whatsoever they might be continue in the same condition in relation to me as they were discovered to me in Cilicia whether your departure out of our Country was not caused by something that destroyes all the hope which my love had permitted me to conceive whether that heard-heartedness which you always had for me be not increased by absence or rather Delia and I tremble in speaking it to you both for fear of offending you and for fear lest my suspicions should be too true whether all the avenues of that heart which I have so vainly attempted with so much love be not blocked up against me by some other affection which received its birth since our separation or before our acquaintance Philadelph spake these words with some pain and finished them with his eyes cast down to the ground with an action that signified to Delia a great deal of fear and confusion the fair Lady looked upon him a while in that condition without returning him any answer and a little after smoothing her countenance with a little more than ordinary sweetness and serenity and giving the passionate Prince a look able to recal him from the grave Be pacified Philadelph said she and believe that if my Spirit was ever capable of any affection or may be so for the future it never was nor ever shall be but for you by this assurance you may be secured against all your fears with part of which I could find some occasion to be offended if the obligation I have to you did not make me easily pass over slight considerations As to the reproach you make me concerning my departure out of Cilicia I thought I had been partly justified by the reasons which I alledged you for it in the paper which I gave you at our parting and I believe that you would find enough there to excuse a procedure which appearances made you condemn Ah! Madam cryed the Prince interrupting her I understood nothing upon that account and if the Gods had left me that means to let me know my fortune it may be I had not wandred so long in search of you with so much misery and grief that sacred paper wherein the secret of my life was inclosed was taken from me by an incredible misfortune and the religious observation of the prohibition which you made me when you gave it me caused me a loss whereof I was more sensible than I should have been of the loss of my Fathers Crown Upon that he related to her how he lost the Cabinet where the paper was inclosed and he made her that discourse in such terms as made her more and more acquainted with the violence of his passion and when he had done speaking Delia who had quietly hearkened to him taking up the discourse with a smile You have lost nothing said she since by our meeting the address I gave you to inform your self of me is rendred unnecessary If you might be accused of the negligence for having ill kept a thing which in regard of the interest you take in it ought to be of some importance to you yet the respect you had to the request I made you when I gave it you ought to satisfie me and I receive it as no slight proof of your affection which shall always be as dear to me as you can desire I did a little wonder to hear you talk in such a manner as might make me judge that you were still ignorant of those things which you might have understood by that means you shall shortly understand them from the mouth of a person who is too much obliged to you to use any disguise with you whilst she lives and then I will acquaint you with the adventures which have besallen me since our separation which weer the cause that you failed of finding me in the Country where I was born which I did not conceal from you Philadelph even surfetting with a joy which his soul was hardly able to contain was about to answer Delia's obliging discourse when the brave unknown who looked upon him with a countenance full of all the marks of amity rode up to his side and came to participate in their conversation Philadelph who upon another account would have looked with love and admiration upon the wonders that appeared in his person and who naturally had a soul as full of sweetness and courtesie as any man in the world beheld this man with a repugnance which he could not dissemble and seemed as little sensible of the testimonies of esteem which he gave him as if he had lost his judgement and knowledge The meeting of a man as highly accomplished as ever any nature framed in Delia's company and the familiarity that seemed to be between them was so much suspected by him that had it not been for the respect he bare to Delia he had made the effects of his jealousie appear against him without any farther delay and whilst Agrippa and Cornelius looked upon him as an admirable man and as one that did equal at least all the compleatest persons that ever they saw all
is stretched to its uttermost dimensions and I will know this day whether a heart which is invincible by love and pity can be tamed by any other ways Upon these wordâ— I know not whether his action was premeditated or not as in probability it was or whether the occasion prompted him to the design having made a sign to his Brother and another of those which followed him they came at the same time to pull Ericlea and Melite from off my arms who held by me on both sides and Antigenes putting himself in Ericlea's place began to lead me by force towards the most private part of the Wood whilst his Brother and one of his Men held my two Women by violence This action made me desperately afraid and believing that in such an extremity a disguise was no longer necessary Antigenes said I think of what thou goest about and look no more upon me as an Unknown Delia but as the Daughter of a great King and as a Princess who in what part soever of the world thou shalt retire to will make the vengeance of thy crime light heavy upon thy head I believe that Antigenes gave no credit to these words which he thought I was inspired with by the pressing necessity wherein I was to draw him off from his design by the respect which they might imprint in him Howsoever it was he did not seem to be moved at them and not vouchsafing so much as to give me a reply and continued dragging me with all his force towards the most solitary part of the wood In this extremity I made the wood to Eccho with my cryes and my Women whom they hindred from coming to my assistance were as loud as I Their cryes and mine without doubt did us more good than our resistance could have done and they drew a man to us who was retired into that thick and solitary place whom we presently knew to be the same whose complaint we had heard a little before He came out from between the trees where he sought for silence and obscurity and casting his eyes upon us he presently saw the cause of our cryes and the violence they offered to us and his grief not being capable to extinguish generous resentments in his soul and the remembrance of the succour that was due to oppressed Maids he ran to us with more speed than could have been expected from the languishing and dejected condition wherein he appeared to us Antigenes seeing him come and fearing the hindrance of his design more than any other harm he could do him being accompanied as he was called his brother who leaving my women in the hands of two of his men came to Antigenes with the rest This number did not trouble the Unknown but addressing himself to Antigenes without so much as looking upon the rest Base fellow said he with an impetuous voice stay and do not oblige me to give thee thy death for a punishment of thy crime Antigenes seeing himself fortified by the number of his companions mocked at the pride of the Unknown and not vouchsafing to forbear from his design for him he made a sign to his brother either to stay him or punish him but he had to do with a man who was not easily corrected in that manner and though he had no more then Antigenes and his companions had only his sword without any other arms he presently presented it to the eyes of his enemies and fell upon them with as much assurance as if he had been backed by a greater number than theirs O Gods Philadelph what proofs of valour did he give us in a few moments and what speedy execution did he make before our eyes of five or six men who seemed as nothing in his single hands The first that fell under his sword was the brother of Antigenes whose right arm he cut off at one blow and made a large passage in his side through which his soul bare his blood company and almost at the same time having avoided a blow which another enemy made at him he thrust his bloody sword into his body up to the hilts I could see that action and those he did afterwards because perfidious Antigenes no sooner saw his brother fall but leaving me with a cry he ran either to revenge his death or to bear him company These two which were left to guard my women ran to Antigenes at his cry and these three enemies fell upon the valiant Unknown just as he had cloven the head and half the face of the last of the others with a back blow He cared as little for these as he had done for the former and picking out Antigenes between his two companions he gave him a mortal wound into the throat with which he fell at his feet and presently after was choaked with his blood and dyed My valiant defender received at the same time a slight wound upon his side which did but encourage him the more and hastened the death of him who gave it for as he was just turning his back to run away he thrust his sword into his reins and laid him dead close by Antigenes The last seeing so bloody an execution had not confidence any longer to resist so terrible an enemy and committing his safety to the nimbleness of his heels he ran cross the wood in a deadly fright I cannot tell you whether was greater in me the astonishment at so prodigious a valour or the joy of seeing my self delivered from the hands of my treacherous ravisher or the horror of being amongst so many dead men who had lost their lives upon my occasion I was so amazed and so troubled that I had not so much as power to return thanks to my valiant deliverer and I continued in a confusion not knowing how to begin to speak to him when he approaching to me with his bloody sword in his hand and with a colour which the heat of the combat had raised in his face Your enemies are dead Madam said he and if there remains any thing to do for your service I have strength enough still to free you out of a greater danger He spake no more because astonishment cut off the thread of his discourse and he had no sooner cast eyes a little nearer upon my face but he was full of amazement and confusion My surprize was no less than his when having looked upon him with attention and discerned the tone of his voice manger the change which three or four years and an extraordinary paleness might have wrought upon his countenance I thought I knew him for that brave and valiant Britomarus of whom I made some small mention to you in my discourse who by his miraculous actions of valour in a few months attained to the highest martial employments in the service of the King my brother and quitted it out of a generous resentment against the cruelty which caused the King your Father's hatred against our family the very same who being
augmented by this Relation Why should I detain you any longer upon this passage I consented before we parted from that place that he should love and serve me and I permitted him to hope either for those few dayes which in probability were left us or for a longer time if Heaven should please to give it us that I would do all that my Duty could handsomly permit me to do to express my acknowledgement and esteem to him He seemed to be contented with this hope which I gave him and ever since that moment he continued to serve me with so many marks of real Love so much discretion and respect and so much grace in all his actions that I still found more fuel to encrease my flame And yet he lived so with me before the persons of my Retinue that no body could find any ground to suspect his real thoughts only Ericia who was acquainted with mine too had knowledge of them I confess at last by his admirable parts and handsome way of carriage towards me he perfected the Conquest of my heart so that at last I was constrained to avow to him without dissimulation that I loved him as much as I was permitted to love him and to promise him that I would do all that my Duty would suffer me to do never to have any other Husband but himself I could make him this promise with so much the more liberty because I had neither Father nor Mother living by whose will mine ought to have been regulated and the obedience which after their death was due to the King my Brother seemed to me to be perfectly extinguished by his intentions which were so unconformable to that degree of Proximity which might have given him that Command over me In fine my fair Princesses If there was too much facility in this engagement of my Soul I will not study to excuse it and though possibly I might find some part of an excuse in the extraordinary merit of Ariobarzanes yet I will not make use of it to secure my self from the blame which you may lay upon me for my weakness This union of our spirits which was so well formed would have given us mutual satisfaction if the fear of approaching death had not cruelly crossed it and as I perceived that the fear which Ariobarzanes was in for me was the ground of all his grief and the cause of all his complaints so I confess that I loved him so well already that my regret was no less upon the consideration of his loss than for my own He did all that possibly he could to dissemble part of his affliction before me and he flattered me every day with some hope of succour but when he came to consider that in all probablity I had but a few dayes to live all his Constancy was dissipated and his great Courage could not hinder him from shewing all the marks of sensibility 'T is certain too that in this Adventure the weakness of my Sex did not hinder me from expressing as much Resolution as he and I was often reduced to give him comfort of which by little and little he rendred himself uncapable Ah Madam said he to me one day How different are the Subjects of our grief And how much greater ought my regret to be than yours there being such an inequality between the losses we are like to suffer You are in danger of losing a life which as precious as it is hath not been hither to over-dear unto you but with my life I lose the fairest Hopes and the most glorious Fortune that ever any man aspired to As he spake these words he removed his eyes from off my face to fix them upon the ground and I saw them at the same time so overflown with tears that I was extraordinarily moved at them Ariobarzanes said I to him I would have you conform your self to the will of the gods who can succour us still and possibly will do it if we have merited their assistance if they have determined the end of our dayes we must submit to it without repugnance and I desire you that you would not let the grief which you apprehend for my loss make you excced the limits which your Courage ought to prescribe to it Ah! Madam replied the afflicted Prince How highly is your Resolution to be commended but as much Constancy as you have received from Heaven how hard would it be for you to make use of it if the loss of Ariobarzanes were to you as the loss of the Princess Olympia is to Ariobarzanes Do not doubt said I but that I shall be as sensible of the loss of Ariobarzanes as you can desire But I shall support it more patiently because it must be accompanied and probably preceded by mine than if I should continue in the World in the regret which that might cause me Alas cryed he suddenly Can it be possible that within a few dayes I should see these fair eyes closed up by death Having uttered these few words he continued by me like one half dead and what endeavour soever I used to reduce him to a better condition it was impossible for me to get any thing else from him but sighs intermingled with sobs and looks cast up towards Heaven We were oftentimes in a day upon this sorrowful Conversation but our affliction was much augmented with our fear when all our provisions were quite spent and we had nothing at all to keep us alive but a little Fish which our people took with a great deal of difficulty and it was so little that there was not enough for half the persons there were of us and that little being seasoned with nothing that might give it any relish you may judge how long our dayes were like to continue with nothing but that nourishment and a little water As I did not take the same care of all the persons that were with me as I did of my self so there were some that were more sensible of our misery than I. My Governess was the first who being enfeebled with Age and but of a weak Complexion beside yielded to our misery and after two dayes sickness only breathed her last in my presence I received this loss with all the sorrow I was capable of in the condition whereunto I saw my self reduced and looking upon her whil'st she exspired with my face overflown with tears Adieu Mother said I I shall shortly bear you Company and were it not for that belief your loss a loss which I have been the cause of would not be supportable The good Eurilas her Husband being cast down with grief for the death of his Wife and enfeebled by our miserable manner of life survived her but two dayes and left me deprived of his Conduct and the comfort I received from him in respect of his Age his Prudence and the Affection he had to my interests Then it was that I looked death in the face as the approaching end of our miseries
unknown is this possible that you tell me and shall I be so happy as to be able to render you part of that which you have bestowed upon me Upon these words Ariobarzanes briefly acquainted him with the Shipwrack we had suffered the condition we were in for want of provisions and a Vessel to carry us off and the expection of our certain death if his Arrival had been deferred but a few dayes longer he made him this Discourse without telling him either his own name or mine being resolved not to discover himself before he knew my pleasure and the stranger without asking him any thing at that time more than he desired to tell him expressing an extraordinary joy in his look I praise the gods said he for the good Fortune they send me beyond my hopes and I protest before them that I will make such use of that no body shall ever possibly accuse me of ingratitude I will not only carry you and the persons which are with you out of this place but if the absolute Command which I offer you in those places where I can claim it cannot cause you to stay there I will cause you to be conducted to any part of the World whether you would retire and in all respects I will expres the acknowledgment which is due to the miraculous preserver of my life having spoken these words he would have gone along with Ariobarzanes to look for those persons which he had signified to him to be so considerable but Ariobarzanes seeing that he was weak and lost blood prayed him to retire into his Vessel to cause his wounds to be bound up supposing that it might be more commodiously done there than in the little Island where we were not provided of any thing necessary for that purpose whil'st he went to seek us to conduct us into his Vessel The unknown gave way to Ariobarzanes's will and some of his men being gone to put the Skiff into the water he passed into his Vessel with his men whil'st the joyful Ariobarzanes came back to us to acquaint us with his good fortune and ours You need not doubt but that the fear which I had during the Combat was succeeded by an excessive joy when I perceived the success of it and that from the place where I was I could observe that it suited with my desires though I was not without some trouble for fear Ariobarzanes might have received some hurt I saw that the Commander of those men whom he had assisted being followed by all his Company came to him and though I did not hear their Discourse yet I conceived and partly knew by their action that it expressed their thankfulness I had two causes of joy at the same time almostequally great the one to see Ariobarzanes escaped from that great danger with so much glory after he had performed such actions as made me know him to be one of the most valiant men in the World and the other to see our selves probably upon the point of being freed from the danger of death which had so long threatned us and from which we had so little hope to escape I began for all that to wonder when I saw all the men go away and reconduct their Captain to the Vessel without taking us with them and I apprehended that all was not well when I saw Ariobarzanes come to us His Cloaths in some places were covered with the blood of his Enemies and the heat of the Combat had overspread his Cheeks with a colour which made him look more handsome than ordinary I did not know what to expect from him when by the chearfulness of his countenance I guessed he had no bad News to tell us he expressed as much in coming to us throwing himself at my knees with Transports full of violence Madam said he to me you shall not dye and 't is not without reason that I alwayes hoped for particular assistances from Heaven for you I will not render you continued he with tears of joy the Office for which you designed me and it shall not be in this Island that you shall recieve from Ariobarzanes the Duties of a Burial He used many more expressions of joy and transport but in all the actions which were occasioned by his joy he made it alwayes sufficiently appear that his contentments were much greater for my safety than for his own my satisfaction was not inferiour to his and believing that it was unnessary to dissemble it before him and Ericia Ariobarzanes said I I rejoyce as I ought to do to see escaped out of so great a danger with so much glory and I am sensible as you may very well judge me to be of the happiness we have in being rescued from the death which we expected I look upon both occasions of joy with little difference and you ought not to believe that I am less contented to see Ariobarzanes Conqueror in so gallant a Combat than to vnderstand that we are upon the point of getting off from a place where we believed we should lay our Bones I was too favourable in my expressions without doubt if you censure them with any Rigour and Ariobarzanes's joy was so augmented by them that it would have broken out into excess if he had not taken notice of the coming of those few persons that were still left of my Retinue who upon the report of that great Combat which one of them had related to his Companions came all about me to receive my Commands I ordered them to go and fetch those things of ours which were worth the carrying and the gods know away they ran with excessive contentment and were no long time returning these poor people being quite transported to see themselves almost miraculously delivered from a death which they believed to be inevitable did such things as sufficiently signified the disorder which joy had occasioned in their Souls and this spectacle did so move me to tenderness that I could not hinder my self from shedding tears after their example In the mean time we enquired of Prince Ariobarzanes if he was not wounded and after he had retired aside to search himself he told us he had a little hurt upon his left Arm and the skin of his body a little razed in two or three places I praised the gods for this good Fortune and when our little Company was come together we marched towards the shoar where we found the Skiffe which waited for us to conduct us into the Vessel We passed into it thanking Heaven for our Fortune and though I looked upon the Rocky Island which we left behind us as upon a place where a few moments before I thought to have found my Grave and where I had lost some persons whose remembrance did very sensibly afflict me yet I confess I could not hate it when I remembred that it had bestowed Ariobarzanes upon me and the Prince as he hath told me since looked upon it with tenderness when he
wonder my Princesses That having made you a long Relation of the great Combat wherein the King my Brother received his wounds I have not told you the cause of it nor who the persons were against whom he fought but indeed the King himself was ignorant of it and so were all those that were with him and the Kings wounds having hindred him in the time of the Victory from thinking to take some Prisoners who might have acquainted him with the Truth when he had an intention to do it afterwards it was too late and he could find no body that could give him any information At the beginning of the Combat he thought they had been Pirats who had set upon him but he perceived afterwards that his Enemies aimed more at his life than at booty and they were too cruelly violent in the pursuit of him to be carried on by no other interest but the desire of Pillage as ordinary Pirats are At that time they could make no further discovery but time and things which hapned afterwards acquainted them with the Truth as you shall likewise understand by the Sequel of my Discourse The King knowing very well that there were in his Kingdom some persons ill-affected to his Service and that at his departure he had left things disposed to some Insurrection fearing lest his long absence and the uncertainty of his life might cause a great prejudice to his Affairs sent some of his Followers in his Vessel to go and assure his people That he had a design to return very speedily to them and to retain them within the limits of their Duty as much as possibly they could In the mean time the Chyrurgions employed themselves with a great deal of care in the curing of his wounds they were not dangerous but the Sea and the violent passions wherewith the Kings mind had been disturbed had exasperated them and rendred the cure of them more difficult In this place every one was ignorant of the Name and Quality of the King and the Countrey being very quiet his Equipage did not make him suspected and his Servants were ready with an Answer telling those who asked them That he was a Lord of Quality born upon the Frontiers of Thrace and had been wounded by Pirats who were frequently met withal upon those Seas In the interim I was guarded like a Prisoner though in all other respects I was treated served like a Queen and the King who remembred what I had undertaken a little before and fearing to lose me by a second flight or being afraid lest Ariobarzanes who might be concealed in that Island should use some endeavor to see me and possibly to get me out of his hands caused me to be so strictly watched that I had scarce liberty to go into my Chamber which joined close to his and during all the time that his Chyrurgions permitted him to see any body I was forced to be continually by his Beds-side and consequently always exposed to his cruel persecution Yet when he saw my spirit exasperated with a little more than ordinary violence he gave me a little intermission and protested to me that he would inviolably observe the promise he had made me not to force my inclinations but that was not capable of giving me any repose but was perpetually disturbed by his pursuits which I could not endure without horrour And if I may dare to confess it my fair Princesses that was not able to comfort me for Ariobarzanes absence His Image since I must conceal nothing from you continued in such a manner engraved in my memory and the remembrance of his Excellent qualities and the testimonies which he had given me of his love were so present and so dear to my memory that nothing could intermingle with them though but for a few moments without causing me a displeasure The Conversation which I had with my faithful Ericia was all my comfort and those hours when I had the liberty to converse with her without Witnesses I used all the expressions that a real affection could put into the mouth of a person that is very sensible of it and received from her mouth all that in that condition could afford any consolation to my sorrows Alas How many times hath she dryed up the tears which the consideration of my misfortunes made me shed promising me some change in my condition by the sight and by the cares of Ariobarzanes And how often against her own thoughts hath she flatter'd a grief which she judged to be capable of bringing me to my Grave The Name of Ariobarzanes was Musick in my ears but I could not so much as fancy a real hope of seeing him again and I found so little probability of it and so little safety for him that I could not comprehend how it might be done and indeed I did not know whether I might desire it or not Ericia said I sometimes to that Maid My misfortunes are real and my happiness is nothing but illusion I know that I am really tormented by the cruel persecution of Adallas that I did really expose my self to the mercy of a tempestuous Sea that I suffered ship wrack in an Island where I had almost perished by famine with those persons who were dear to me and I know very well that by the countenance of my ill Fortune I am really fallen into Adallas's power but as for all that concerns Ariobarzanes it seems no more to me than a Dream or a Vision But alas such a Vision as hath imprinted deeper Characters in my heart than the most real things In the very Arms of death Ariobarzanes appeared to me like a flash of lightning he inflamed me the first moment and in a short time after disappeared from my eyes with the same suddenness Whatsoever Beauty Valour Wit and all the most excellent qualities could contribute to accomplishment was presented to me in the person of a man unknown and at a time when I expected nothing else but death this admirable Master-piece of perfection immediately opened himself a passage to my heart and it seems my destiny shewed him to me by so extraordinary a way only to subdue a Soul till then in vincible to that passion and when it had wrought its effect when the miserable Olympia was upon such terms whereunto she never thought to see her self reduced the same destiny snatched away Ariobarzanes deprived me of that which made me in love with life and deprived me of it so that I shall see him again no more No Ericia I shall never see him more and the gods who have sent him to me by a prodigious Adventure do not work Miracles every day in our favour I will not suspect the spirit of Ariobarzanes of inconstancy or infidelity and I believe what you tell me That he will be alwayes faithful to me but what Advantage will that be to my happiness And how can he serve me without exposing himself to that death wherewith Adallas hath so
not inferior to thine Ariamenes had leasure to make this Discourse to Merodates and the two Chieftains were no sooner met but as if they had made an agreement together it seemed that the Troops which they commanded had suspended all their interest to see their Fortune decided by the hands of their Generals they both expressed a great deal ' of joy to see them so disposed and having confirmed them in it on either side by a publick Order which they gave that none should stir out of their places whil'st they were a fighting they advanced one towards the other like two Lyons or like something more terribly and with the first blows they shivered in pieces the Javelins which they had taken into their hands and afterwards lifting up their redoubtable Swords all dyed with the blood which they had shed they gave each other such blows as struck a Terror into the Spectators of either side I am no better skill'd in the Relation of a particular Combate than of a Battel and though this be worthy of eternal memory yet I will report no more particularities to you but will only tell you what I have heard since from Ariobarzanes That Merodates gave Testimonies of an admirable Valor in that Combate and reduced him oftent mes to such terms as not to hope for the Victory but at last â—t declared it self for Ariamenes and the valiant Merodates whose puissance as they say never yielded to any but the great King Alcamenes after he had given his Enemy divers wounds received one from him at last in the body which made him fall from his Saddle cold and pale and deprived him of life in a few moments Ariobarzanes who was desirous of the Victory but not of the death of that great man was very sensibly afflicted at his destiny but not being in condition to give any long Testimonies of it he contented himself to give Command that they should take up the Prince to give him all the assistance he was capable to receive and bestowing his thoughts upon his present necessity he with his men sustained the utmost fury of Merodates's Troops who being resolved to revenge their Prince or to perish with him fell up on ours with such an impetuosity as deprived Ariamenes of the opportunity to put in execution the desire which he had to compleat his Victory without shedding any more blood if it were possible This fury of his Enemies was no great Remora to his Victory and the Thracians having Routed them with a great deal of Valor besprea'd all the Field with their bodies and lest none of them alive but what their Generals pity made them spare In the mean time Ariamenes who in the greatest heat of the Combat preserved his judgment sound and entire having a Design in his Head which he desired to bring to pass when he saw that the Victory could be no longer disputed against him commanded Eusthenes to hasten away at all full speed with Three hundred Horse to the Gates of that little Town where the King was detained Prisoner and to take Order that no body should enter there to give the King intelligence of that dayes Success The business was done as he desired and Eusthenes did so closely block up all the Avenues to the Town that not a man could carry in the News of what had passed A little after the Conqueror Ariamenes having put his Camp in necessary order as well in relation to the wounded men the Prisoners and the Booty as to render to Merodates's body the honors which were due to him advanced in the Evening towards that little Town with part of his Troops and presented himself at the Gates in a condition that caused Terror in those that guarded them He presently gave order to parly with those that commanded in the place and some Officers coming out to him upon faith given he informed them what had passed and shewed them such evident marks of his Victory that they could no longer doubt of it In brief he shewed them the means he had to force them in an hours time and told them that he would be very glad to spare their blood and to give them free liberty to march away provided they opened the Gates immediately and engaged themselves upon their lives to take order that the King that was Prisoner there should have no intelligence of what had passed before he had seen him These men being intimidated were joyful to find safety and liberty in Ariamenes's Proposition they promised him all that he desired and punctually executed it So that Ariamenes in less than half an hour entred into the Town with a Party of those that followed him and went to wait upon the King before he could learn any News of what had passed Adallas supported his imprisonment with a great deal of impatience and reflecting upon the great interest that Merodates had to put him to death to confirm his dominion over the Thracians he was in continual fears and expected every-day with a great deal of Terror what should be resolved in relation to his destiny His unjust passion for me was not extinguished by his imprisonment but he was the less fixed upon that because he was constrained to bestow part of his thoughts upon the pressing considerations of his Fortune and though he was still jealous of Ariamenes yet he had often repented that he had Treated him so knowing what mischief he had done himself by depriving himself of the service of that great man Ever since that moment when I set Ariamenes at liberty he had employed the time with so much diligence and made so little stay at Bizantium and upon his march that the King to whom those that guarded him had no Commission to relate all the Truth had no time to be advertised of it So that when he saw Ariamenes come into his Chamber he was as much surprized at his sight as at the most unexpected thing in the World and not knowing how to take it well or ill he remained quite astonished and confounded Immediately at the sight of this formidable Rival his jealousie revived and so strongly moved him that he could hardly contain himself looking upon him as his most cruel Enemy though he had rendred him all the Offices of the firmest Amity He was very much troubled to see him at liberty and looking upon himself at the same time as a Prisoner his Captivity seemed a great deal the more insupportable but reflecting likewise upon the generous humour of Ariamenes and considering that this man notwithstaning the displeasures he had done him seemed to have been born on purpose for his conservation a little interest forcing its way through his passions made him hope that this third view of Ariamenes would be as advantagious to him as the two former These various cogitations agitating his spirit at the same time and keeping him uncertain and unresolved did likewise keep him a great while unmoveable and silent and by his
though he had made War against the King her Father and was a near Kinsman and a Friend to Tigranes King of the Medes yet the Relation she had heard of his Vertue should cause her to give him such a reception as was due to him She had hardly finished this Discourse when Agrippa entred into the Chamber leading the Princess Arsinoe by the hand and with them Ariobarzanes and Philadelph whose gallant Garb as well as the admirable Beauty of the Princess at the first dazled the eyes of those they came to visit but their admiration was mutual and the relation that Philadelph and Ariobarzanes had heard of Elisa's Beauty was so far below what they found them selves and what they observed at the very first sight in the fair Queen of Ethiopia that they could not express their first astonishment but by silence Their first expressions were in such terms as are ordinary upon such an encounter amongst persons of that quality and all the Discourses which a rationally conceived esteem in so few moments could put into their mouths were uttered with a great deal of grace and civility by these admirable persons Arsinoe found in the entertainment of Elisa and of the fair Queen that which her rare and excellent qualities acquired her every where and particularly amongst persons capable to render without envy and injustice that which is due to an extraordinary merit and the vertuous Delia seeing in the faces of the two Princesses some things beyond her imagination expressed her astonishment to them in such a charming manner that they could not choose but give her a great share in their affection at this first meeting They were likswise very well satisfied in the gallant mind of Philadelph but the Relation they had heard the day before of the brave Actions of Ariobarzanes having caused them to cast their eyes upon him with haste and attention they found him far more Comely and farr more Handsome than Olympia had represented him to them In the mean while that Princess who to see what passed without being seen kept her self close in the obscurest part of the Chamber was extasied with an unconceivable joy and not doubting by the things she saw but that this fair Princess who had caused her so much jealousie in so little a time was the Sister of her well-beloved Prince and the same Sister upon whose death she her self had bestowed so many compassionate tears she undeceived her self of her suspitions so agreeably that she could hardly comprehend the satisfaction of her Soul but her contentment was little less to see sadness painted in the countenance of Ariobarzanes and observing how that prince who was of a pleasant and charming humor in Company carried himself in this with a dejected countenance and all the marks of a profound Affliction She sweetly flattered her self with the assurance that the was the cause of it and she could hardly forbear at that time from running to him with open Arms and crying out to him Behold your Olympia but the presence of so many persons before whom she durst not use that liberty kept her in an uncertainty what to do and made her observe attentively what passed in expectation of an opportunity to discover her self handsomly to the Prince Candace in the mean time being not so sad as Elisa and more capable to interiss her self in another's Affairs looking upon her from time to time to view her countenance and to discover part of her thoughts was resolved to leave her no longer in that condition and supposing that she should do her no displeasure in freeing herfrom it she put the Company who had now ended their Discourses of civility upon the shipwrack of Ariobarzanes and the Princess his Sister which had perswaded all Asia to believe their death and after she had expressed to the Princess the joy she received upon her Account at the falseness of the Reports she obliged her to acquaint them in a few wordshow she was preserved from that shipwrack and to make them a brief Relation of the obligations she had to Prince Philadelph and of her most important Adventures They equally admire in her Discourse the grace of her utterance and the Adventures which she related but when she had partly satisfied the curiosity of those that heard her they turned their eyes all at once vpon Ariobarzanes who knowing what they desired of him I would make you said he a Discourse of my Adventures which possibly you would find to be very strange and as surprizing at least as my Sisters if my mind were in the same condition with hers and if as she is Iwere re-united to the thing I love or if I could only hope to see that person agaio for whom the remainders of this unfortunate life are preserved O how agreeably did these words sound in Olympia's ears and how much was she troubled to defer the discovery of her self a few moments longer Yet she had the patience to hearken to the rest of Ariobarzanes's Discourse who stifling some sighs and sobs which had interrupted him Nevertheless I will not refuse pursued he to give you that satisfaction if you desire it of me and when this illustrious Company shall give me order I will acquaint you at large with the story of my misfortunes You would very much admire said Candace interrupting him If some of this Company should know almost as much as your self and should not be ignorant of any particular almost of your love to the Princess Olympia of your Contests with the King her Brother of your signal Victories against Merodates and divers Accidents of your life which you suppose to be unknown to all the World Truly Madam replied the Prince changing colour I am very much amazed already at what I hear you say and I did not believe that the report of those things which have befallen me had reached so far as you I know added the Queen a great deal more than common fame could acquaint me with and so particularly too that Olympia her self scarcely knows more Ah Madad said the Prince quite transported In the Name of the gods inform me who it was that gave you such good intelligence and give some beginning to the effect of those hopes which I have conceived to find some consolation in Alexandria I have been conducted hither by an uncertain shadow of hope conceived upon some words that were spoken by the Barbarians when they forced my Princess from me and if it please the gods that I may hear some News of her through your goodness I shall not despair of their assistance We learned what we know replied Candace from a slave which serves the Princess Elisa but she speaks of your Affairs in such a manner that it seems she hath been very much interessed in them Ah Madam cryed the Prince more transported than before do not deny me the favour to let me see that Slave it may be she is one of the Maids of that unfortunate
began to enter into the Woods where the shade and coolness was more agreeable than in the beginning of their walk 'T was in this place that the way turned a little from the Sea and betwixt the Wood and the shore there were divers houses built and amongst them there was that wherein the unfortunate Tiridates made his last abode Clitie who had taken upon her the care of finding it out did not fail to take notice of an Alley which fronted the Rode and advertised the Princesses that this was the place which they sought for but the better to conceal their Design they thought it fit to pass on and continue their walk an hour longer with an intention to return the same way and to execute their resolution as they came back Candace could hardly prevail so far upon her impatience but she knew of what importance it was to her to be careful in concealing whatsoever concerned Cesario The business was done as she desired and after they had spent almost an hour upon the same Rode she caused the Chariot to turn about and returned the same way Clitie took exact notice of the path and as the Princesses after they had made the Chariot to stay were deliberating whether they should go to the house or send Clitie to enquire News of Prince Tiridates they saw one of the Officers of that poor Prince coming from the house whom Clitie knew immediatly having seen him with his Master during the short abode she had made at that house When he was come near to the Chariot and Clitie had called to him he knew her and the Queen her Mistriss too and as according to the effect which merit ordinarily produces he had taken as great a share as he was capable of in the displeasure of his Master for the Queen being carried away so he was joyful to see her in that place and in a condition conformable to a person of Quality The Queen having caused him to come close to the Chariot that the might speak to him without being over-heard by the Cavaliers who guarded the Chariot and who out of respect and their Masters order kept themselves at a distance Friend said she Wilt thou tell us no News of the Prince thy Master and whether we may be permitted to give him a Visit and to have a moments Discourse with him The afflicted Servant instead of returning an Answer to these words let fall abundance of tears and a little after forcing himself to speak Ah! Madam said he with a voyce interrupted with sobs Tiridates is dead he expired two dayes since in that unfortunate house which you see before you and that love wherein he hath been engaged for divers years hath brought him at last to his Grave Candace was struck with this Discourse as with a Thunder-clap and resented the death of this poor Prince with a very violent grief Elisa who had never seen him not being able to resist the force of blood and having much esteemed her Uncle upon the Relation she had heard of his vertue was very nearly touched with this News and joyned her tears with those which the fair Queen of Ethiopia shed in abundance for a Prince to whom she was beholding for her life and whose merit was very considerable to her Ah! Madam said Candace to the fair Elisa turning sadly towards her If you know how worthy this Prince was of your amity and how deplorable his loss is to all those persons that were acquainted with him I assure my self that you would bestow a great many tears upon him Doubtless I ought to do so answered Elisa but they have been so usual with me of late that the poor Prince would be little obliged to me for those I should shed for his loss Upon these words they continued a great while without speaking whil'st the desolate Servant repeated succinctly to them what Arsanes had reported concerning Mariamnes's death and the sudden and the sad effect which it wrought upon the amorous spirit of Tiridates Oh! Example cryed the fair Queen at this lamentable Relation of the most firm and real love that ever heart was inflamed with Oh Fidelity pure and entire to the very end poor Prince And upon these words pity made the two Princesses redouble their weeping with so much violence that for a long time they were not able to speak When they had recovered the use of their speech they enquired of the Servant how his body was disposed of and in what place they intended to render him the honours of a Funeral At this instant said the Servant Arsanes who was the Princes's Governor and whom we obey since his death is employed in one of the Chambers of the house in causing his body to be imbalmed to be carried into Parthia to be interred in the Tomb of the Arsacides and those parts which could not endure the Voyage for fear of corruption are lately laid in a Tomb which we are a raising for him about Five hundred paces hence upon the shore where Prince Marcellus who was present at his death would have us leave this Monument of the loss of our Prince Madam said the afflicted Elisa to the Queen I should not have Courage enough to go and see the body of the Prince my Uncle and I am very sensible that I could not see it without a great deal of emotion and some fear But if you think good I should be willing to visit the Tomb which they are erecting for him upon the shore and to render there to his Manes the last Devoirs they can expect from the Arsacides You have reason said Candace not to be willing to go into the house where all objects would be very doleful and where considering our visit would be useless too there is no need that we should shew our selves to the persons that may be there We may with more facility and handsomness go visit the Tomb as you desire and I will willingly bear you Company thither Upon these words they caused themselves to be conducted that way which Tiridates's Servant guided them and passing by the side of the House they had not gone Five hundred paces but they saw the Tomb and the persons that were employed about it Arsanes had sent for Workmen from the City the day before and because the work was plain and without curiosity 't was almost finished 'T was a Tomb of fair stone without any workmanship and upon it a Pyramid of the height of a man upon which they had newly fixed an Epitaph upon a Copper-plate The Princesses alighted before they approached that doleful place and taking one another by the hand they advanced towards the Tomb on foot They which were still at work about it being moved with respect at the sight of those Beauties and being advertised by Tiridates's Servant retired to their quarter to leave the place free to the Princesses who falling upon their knees washed the cold stone with those tears which this sad object
themselves by their Companions of the truth of this adventure and though they could not deny to the misfortune of this Princess some marks of compassion yet could they not refuse the satisfaction which they received for a Prize for which only they had left Armenia and which in all appearance might make them hope for proportionable acknowledgement from the King their Master There remained still Nine or ten of those whom the King had brought from Artaxates there being no greater Number of Servants beside Mariners these served the Princesses with respect enough being unable to refuse to Artemisa in disgrace as she was that which they thought due to the Sister of their King and knowing well the intention of Artaxes that Cleopatra should be honoured amongst them as a goddess they left her the Chamber wherein the King lay during the time of his Navigation and gave them the liberty of entertaining themselves without troubling their Conversation whil'st some went out of the Vessel to advertize the King whose Retreat they learned by one of the Officers of Tiridates of the double Prize which they had taken and to receive the Orders which he pleased to send The two Princesses were no sooner at liberty to entertain themselves out of the presence of those odious faces but they threw themselves upon a Bed casting their Arms mutually about each others Neck and mingling tears together began by these Caresses their sorrowful Conversation Artemisa appeared the most desolate both because her Courage was naturally less firm than Cleopatra's and also that in appearance she had great Subjects of sadness having proved the rigor of her Brother even before she had rendred him the sensible displeasure of her flight with Prince Alexander She had reason to fear all things and her knowledge of the Kings inflexible humors so lively represented the misfortune that threatned her that she was full of mortal apprehensions but though this fear violently shook her yet the remembrance of her Alexander was nothing less sensible and considering how her fair hopes were shipwrack't in the Port and how even upon the point when with apparent reason she believed to spend her dayes with her dear Alexander in legitimate sweetnesses and in sweetnessess sweetned by so many difficulties one reverse of Fortune so little foreseen had taken away all her expectation and in probability had deprived her of her Alexander for ever here she had no Constancy which bowed not under the consideration of so prodigious a Misfortune through the assistance of these reasons Artemisa believed her unhappiness greater and more extraordinary than Cleopatra's who in appearance ought less to redoubt the presence of a King a Lover and Idolater of her Beauties than that of a King irritated and furious and less to regret the distancing of Coriolanus whom she fled and whose infidelity she detested than the the loss of her Alexander whom she loved more than her self and whose fidelity she had never so much as suspected This opinion of Artemisa was not without foundation but she saw not clearly into the sentiments of Cleopatra part whereof were kept in by the greatness of her spirit and as she was ignorant that the sight of Artaxes a Lover was more terrible to that Princess than the presence of Artaxes an Enemy and that she was resolved with more joy to see him again his Sword in his hand with those funest designs against her life as he appeared the first time than to behold him in a suppliant posture representing to her the violence of his love Neither knew she that in the Soul of this great Princess the resentments how great soever they were and how just soever they appeared were uncapable to eradicate an affection which through the many tokens of her love to Coriolanus declared the depth of its root or at least if they had strength enough to take away all thoughts of recognizance and all advantagious designs which she had entertained for this Prince whil'st his fidelity appeared to her without spot yet were they too weak to reduce her spirit into terms of receiving a new impression or to make her suffer without horror the thought of a second affection Moreover how much soever prepossessed as she was by that enemy Opinion which had destroyed all her joy yet could she not forget that which appeared to her eyes both in the Encounter at Syracusa and in the Adventure of this last day signifying the contihuation or at least the return of Coriolanus's love She remembred those passionate words by which he endeavoured to clear his innocence and placed before her eyes that admirable Valor wherewith he fought in her defence and which appeared most mournful to her remembrance she could not forget how she had left him fallen under his Enemies and in a condition that with great appearance she might imagine he had sacrificed the Reliques of his life for her interests Though Jealousie had been strong enough in her spirit to place hatred in the seat of love yet this thought of the death of Coriolanus could not but become Funest to any Soul that bare the Image of Cleopatra and though the infidelity of that Prince had been much more clear than it appeared by those proofs she had yet was she of too excellent a Nature to think him slain in her defence without contributing to that thought all that the most lively grief could produce in a Noble and acknowledging Soul Ah! Son of Juba said she within her self whil'st the grief of Artemisa rendred her more uncapable than she of all converse since thou art unfaithful whereof I am not permitted to doubt wherefore return'st thou to persecute me both at Syracuse and also upon the Banks of Alexandria wherefore endeavourest thou by new obligations to kindle those flames which thy Infidelity would have extinguished wherefore indangerest thou thy life in my defence or wherefore concluded she with a sigh hast thou possibly lost it for my sake having first soyled it by the Crime wherewith I reproach thee having first deprived it of that which formerly rendred it more dear than mine own Dost thou envy mine Innocence and would'st thou that I live a Criminal like thee in receiving without acknowledgment so precious a Service or that I live miserable in suffering by this last of thine Actions the return of an affection which cannot but become the shame and misfortune of my life Ah! Coriolanus whom I have so much loved Ah Coriolanus whom I cannot yet hate to what extremities would'st thou reduce me what new Victory demandest thou over my heart And for what reasons incomprehensible to my spirit comest thou by new Services to combate those miserable Reliques of repose which thy Infidelity hath left me after what manner must I live if our misfortune hath deprived thee of life for my sake Shall I drown my self in tears for a perjured man who hath terminated the most beautiful affection by the blackest of all Infidelities And shall I only bestow
you imagine that my Captivity alone compleats my Grief And judge you that I bestow not on Coriolanus whom you have seen it may be dye in our defence an equal portion of tears with yours for Alexander If you consult my thoughts replied Artemisa you will be doubtless more affected than I thought you had been for the marvels which I have observed in his person during the little time that I have seen him assisted by those you a few moments before related to me of the great actions of his life and Noble proofs of his love makes me judge that you ought to deplore his loss at least as much as I deplore my Alexanders but after the Treatment you have given him in my presence and the complaints I have heard you utter against his Infidelity whereof you have given me no light by your Discourse I imagined your Soul so over-charged that there remained not the least favourable inclination for him and though you were touched with the danger whereunto we saw him exposed and whereof I my self was very sensible yet generosity alone I supposed to be the cause and not any reliques of affection Generosity alone replied the afflicted Cleopatra might certainly have produced this effect and had my Soul never been touched with the least affection for the son of Juba or had all that which his great Services could have introduced been torn up by his Infidelity to the last root I could not have seen him in the condition wherein we left him for our interests without suffering great inquietudes for his safety and without expending many tears for his death if my cruel destiny commands that he suffer it for the love of me But Artemisa believe that besides what we owe to generosity and compassion the ancient and only affection which my Soul hath ever received hath not left it tranquill enough nor sufficiently dispolyed of all the tender resentments wherewith it inspired her to see Coriolanus perish upon my account with the same sensibility I should have for the rest of mankind By his Infidelity he may root out of my Soul the sweet and acknowledging thoughts I bare him and possess me with horror for his Perfidy and cast me into a resolution of addicting my whole life to the consideration of my misfortune without ever turning to the remembrance of the tokens of his love unless it were to render his Treason more odious to me yet scarce could it intirely blot out of my Soul the Character of an innocent affection which I thought I had with reason received and which I cannot retain but to my misfortune But my Sister added the fair Artemisa will you not tell me what Infidelity this is wherewith you reproach him and whereof I have seen so little appearance in your Discourse and much less in this Incounter and the last actions of that Prince I intended answered the Princess to have given you a Relation yesterday in the Wood where we passed almost the whole day and where we had this fatal meeting I learnt in that place replied Artemisa part of your Noble adventures and you forgat nothing as I believe of the most memorable passages which hapned until the wounding of Tiberius and the leave which Coriolanus took of you in the Garden of Octavia and his departure from Rome for Mauritania to conquer the Kingdom of his Ancestors it was just at this separation that our Discourse was interrupted so well as our walk by meeting the sleeping Prince and to a less adventure I believe I had never consented to remit its continuation Since my Discourse answered Cleopatra finished where you mention it is certain you have heard nothing but what speaks advantagiously of the love of Coriolanus and would to Heaven that the gods had here terminated the course of my life but in that part whereof you are ignorant whose Relation I will no longer defer if I have strength enough to make it and you patience enough to give this intermedium to your grief you will but too clearly behold this Infidelity which composeth all the misfortune of my life and which I should more bitterly detest did I not fear that he who committed it is dead for my sake and if this fear did not make some part of my legitimate resentments give place to compassion At these words the fair Princess was silent and Artemisa having not only testified that she would hearken with attention but that her displeasures by this Discourse would receive a sensible allevation she bethought her self some momencs on the order of her recital which a little after she began on this manner The Continuation of the History of the Princess Cleopatra IT is certain that before the unfortunate Voyage wherein the Fidelity of Coriolanus was ship wrack't I had reason to be satisfied with all the Actions of his life and even in those whereunto glory seemed to pretend with the greatest right He alwayes reguarded me as his only mark no! Glory it self could not rival me in his heart for he in such a manner despised the powers which govern the Earth and the offer which Emperor made him of the Crown of his Ancestors and threw himself for my sake into perils so great and manifest thatany one less easie than me would have been perswaded of the grandure and verity of his affection I can also say that I appeared not insensible at these proofs of his love believing that the point to which it was come and the vertue which I had always observed therein might secure my acknowledging thereof without blame So great it was and so true that Coriolanus himself reasonable as he then was durst not demand more I had so well as he refused very considerable establishments and I had so well as he irritated the soveraign powers without considering what I ought to fear or hope It is true his love made all the fortune and all the designs of my life and as I caused all my felicity to consist in the knowledge which I had of his affection so I made it the whole imployment of my thoughts to render him what I thought was his due and to second with all my care the strong inclination which I had for him Alas how many tears did this true affection cost me at that mournful departure How many did it cause me to expend during the time of his dolorous absence And what a Spring hath it for ever establish't in these eyes which seem not to have been conserved but for this use only What proofs gave I not to this ungrateful person of an inviolable affection and fidelity when after the cure of Tiberius I saw the persecutions of Livia begin again arming against me more than ever the whole Authority of Augustus With what constancy did I resist their flatteries promises and threatnings And with what Resolution armed I not my self at last when being reduced to the utmost extremities by the power of Cesar I feared not to declare openly how much I
Phrataphernes and Orosmenes with the Inhabitants of Pont and the Basternes commanded the first Barzanes alone with the Dacians Getes and Gelones Subjects of Amalthea made the second Pharnaces and Orchomenes with the Sarmates and Nomades their Subjects took the third place and Merodates who had learnt that Orontes was in the fourth Body would be his opposite hoping to terminate this War by his Valor and the Scythian-King's death and Euardes being joined to him composed their fourth Body of the Bithinians and Tauriques All agreed that on the day of Battel as the Queens Representative the Prince Barzanes should be General yet not to claim a propriety of the place for the future and they rather chose to submit to him than that the pretenders to Menalippa should obey each other This Army was stronger by a fifth part than that of the Scythians and commanded by valiant Princes each of which might with reason entertain hopes of Victory The Queen of Dacia could not without trembling think of the event of this great day and had she not believed the Oracles which promised the Crown of Scythia to the Princess Menalippa her perplexity had been far greater All the pretending Princes made a Parade before their Princess and there was not one of them that promised her not the King Orontes's Head they all seemed very angry that the Prince Alcamenes was not in the enemies Camp against whom they had made so many menaces and upon whose death they hoped to raise Trophies of Reputation Amalthea who had heard the Valor of the Scythian Prince spoken of with fear and admiration received the News of his absence with a proportionate joy and a happy Omen of a good success of her own Dacians she retained Four thousand for hers and the Princesse's Guard causing them to stand in battalia before their Tents which she ordered to be invironed with a Ditch such a one as could be cast up in so short a time At length both Armies being drawn into Battalia the Chiefs of each marched towards each other in excellent order but when they came in sight they sent their Salutes by dreadful shouts and exclamations Orontes and Barzanes having quitted their particular charges to give general orders caused the Signal of Battel to be given so that Phrataphernes and Orosmenes on the one side and Mandates Prince of the Massagetes on the other began this cruel day They amused themselves for a while with a Combat of Arrows but both parties being experienced and the impatience of their Chiefs which breathed nothing but Victory the one in a just defence of his Countrey the other for the Conquest of Menalippa brought them quickly to a conjunction and here it was that the fight became terrible and bloody The second Bodies followed the first and after those the rest impatient for the danger and consequently for the glory hardly expected orders for the on-set but falling on with a terrible impetuosity gave death a perfect dominion on every side It will be hard for me great Ladies and troublesome to you to relate all the particulars of this Battel I will pass over that which is not necessary for you to know and relate only what imports much the continuation of this History and that which composeth one of the most remarkable parts thereof The Plain was already covered with dead bodies and drowned with blood on all sides the Air resounded with the cryes of wounded and dying men and every where the Battel put on a terrible and hideous face Here the Dacians sunk under the Arms of the Scythians and there the Scythians turned their backs to the Dacians the mixture of different Nations and their different manner of fighting increased the confusion and a great part of the day was past ere it could be discerned to which side the Victory would incline when the Princes Rivals in Menalippa's love impatient of the Victory and desiring to signalize themselves in carrying the prize of this glorious day began to make extraordinary Assaults the Princes of the Satarcheens and Arimaspes fell under the Swords of Phrataphern and Orosmenes those of the Aseens and Edoniens lost their lives by the hand of Euardes and Pharnaces Orchomenes wicked as he was fought with very much Valor but the brave Merodates though he had already slain the Chiefs of the Agripeens and Antarians and defeated the Enemy wheresoever he addrest himself yet not satisfied with his Valor unless it had performed some more important Service and knowing that the death of the King of Scythia was the price of Menalippa it being the most equal revenge of the King her Fathers death he sought him on every side and desired nothing more than to sacrifice his life to Amalthea's resentments nor was it hard to find him for this valiant Prince maugre the dignity of his Age which though still vigorous might well have cooled that boyling heat that commonly hurries men into such dangers ran from Rank to Rank carrying Death and Victory wherever he went and bathing himself in the blood of his Enemies Merodates having pierced many Squadrons and Battalions met him at last and knowing him by divers marks King of Scythia cryed he I come to receive death from thy hands or to sacrifice thee to the Ghost of Decebalus and the resentments of Amalthea disdain not to turn thine Arms against me I am Merodates King of the Taurique Chersonese The King of Scythia had neither intent nor leisure to answer these words but covering himself with his Buckler prepared to receive his powerful Adversary and to overthrow with him the effect of this cruel menace At the first stroaks these two Princes mutually knew each others Valor and though Merodates was in the flower of his Youth and valiant amongst the most valiant yet he soon understood that this Victory was not so soon or easily to be obtained as he imagined but whilst these two Princes fought obstinately in despight of the throng of those who indeavoured to part them and Orontes busied wholly to defend his life against the fury of Merodates was constrained to quit the function of a General Barzanes taking advantage of this disorder charged the Scythian Troops with so much vigor and was so well seconded by Phrataphernes Euardes Pharnaces and Orosmanes that defeating the Etheens Cameens and the Histians with their Princes made the Scythian Army stagger and at length visibly give ground Barzanes and his valiant Companions knowing their advantage made use thereof with prudence and courage and at last perceived a large path to Victory but on that side where the King Orontes fought with Merodates advantagiously enough they saw appear a body of Cavalry of some two thousand Horse conducted by a man covered with black Arms who entring the Battel with an impetuosity to which the already wearied Troops were forced to give place carrying a terrible disorder to that side against which he addrest himself he that headed these succors struck like lightning or
excessively afflicted ran to her Mistress loosening her cloaths to bring her to her self her pains were for sometime useless but at last the Princess opened her eys and returned from her faintings She cast her self again upon this dying body and by chance Leander at the same time perceived some remainder of life in him At least my Lord said she discover those Murtherers those Monsters that have reduced you to this condition The poor Cleomenes brought to his last sigh endeavoured to speak and desiring as I believe to discover the truth of this adventure Alcamenes Prince of Scythia said he with a voice so low that it was scarce intelligible Alcamenes Prince of Scythia repeated he but could say no more and death in this moment deprived him both of speech and life At the same time two or three Peasants who by the priviledge of the Truce had ventured to come and cut wood and who had seen all which hapned in the murther of Cleomenes came and offered their service to the Princess and unasked told what they saw and how that this man was slain by more than twenty Horse-men without having time to think of his defence so that Menalippa at that moment wherin she thought Alcimedon gave up the ghost remembred that she heard him name Alcamenes Prince of the Scythians and beleived he had murthered him which the wicked Peasants also confirmed and that he was accompanied by twenty men See how strongly Fortune sported against Alcamenes and think it not strange if the afflicted Princess accused him of the death of Alcimedon 'T was here where grief alone was a sufficient conduct to the Tomb and where the adjuncts of rage and fury rather diverted and hindered than advanced the violence of its effects and helpt to recall those forces which had left her to run to that vengeance which she breathed rather than to Death which was ready to imbrace her She arose from the ground quite furious and casting upon this exspiring body a funest and mortal glance How Alcimedon said she dost thou dye before my eyes by the treason and cruelty of Alcamenes if I love thee not sufficiently to survive thy losse I should be weak and cowardly to run to death rather than to thy revenge This Barbarian whose courage hath been so much admired and with so much injustice fearing the Combate he was to maintain against thee this day hath murthered thee basely and inhumanely in the obscurity of the Wood and shall Menalippa to whom by the just anger of Heaven his treason is discovered deplore like a Woman and dye weakly like one of the people instead of executing that vengeance for which the gods have reserved her Ah! no Alcimedon expect not this imbecillity from a Courage which was never sufficiently known to thee I have it possibly comparable to that of men and this arm which hath given death to Bears and Boars shall Arm it self to destroy that Monster who hath snatched from me my Alcimedon She stopt here rowâ—ing in her mind a thousand furious thoughts whilst Leander and Belisa with a River of tears solemnized the Funeral of Alcimedon and the despair of Menalippa who after a long contest being resolved and wipeing off those tears which trickled from her fair eyes wherein rage and grief had an equal stock 'T is no time to weep Menalippa said she 't is on indifferent griefs we should bestow our tears ours requires blood 't is with blood they must be washed away but with Menalippa 's it demands also that of Alcamenes Finishing these words she turned towards Leander and beholding him with eyes swoln from whom in spight of all her resistance a river of tears perpetually flowed Leander said she Alcimedon is dead for me and I ought to be reproacht with his death since it was my Enemy and my interests that took him out of the world I have loved Alcimedon Leander and I scruple no longer to let you know it I have loved him living and I love him still dead as he is more than I love my own life Oh! would to the gods that by the lesse of this unfortunate life I could save that of my faithful my beloved Alcimedon and Oh! would that he breathed in the stead of that unfortunate wretch who now deplores in vain his decease but since it is not permitted me to recall his breath by the exchange of mine I will revenge his death for the Gods have not acquainted me with it and discovered its author by ways so extraordinary but to let me understand that to me only is reserved this vengeance But in telling you my design O Leander O Belisa I also declare that if you indeavor to hinder it you shall see me plunge this steel in my brest and so you 'l make me doubly miserable in taking away the consolation which I hope for before my death speak not one word therefore to divert me from my resolution and help to Arm me with those unfortunate Arms beneath which my poor Alcimedon hath given up the ghost I have strength enough to carry them and to rule his Sword and it was doubtlesse for this action to which the Gods reserved me that I used my self to the chase of wild Beasts and exercises more sutable to men than persons of our sex it was not without mystery that I received from heaven a composition and force of body nothing ordinary and I will make use of in this occasion of that which possibly is not ordinarily placed in a woman when I am Arm'd and have left you expect here my return in two or three hours and if I comenot in that time put this precious body in the Chariot and conduct it into our Tents there to receive the Funeral rites See what I have resolved and fail not in the obedience which I desire if you intend not to hurry me to the utmost extremities of despair The desperate Princess speaking thus Belisa and Leander observed something so terrible in her eyes and face that they lost all the courage and resolution they had taken to contradict her and certainly in those sad moments Love and the Graces had forsaken the beauties of Menalippa to give place to those furies which tormented her and she appeared to those afflicted persons in a posture so terrible that fear overcame them and they durst not oppose that resolution which they condemned Leander at her reiterated command despoyl'd the cold bloody body of its Arms and Casque and Belisa having taken from the Princess her long encombring habits she covered her head with the Casque though bloody in some places and with Leanders help she buckled about her the Arms which she kist and washt with tears as she put them on Being Arm'd she appeared like some Bellona or something more dreadful and by the fury which doubled her forces she seemed no more troubled with the Arms than if she had used them all her life I have told you that her stature was extraordinary
the World by the most unworthy and barbarous treason all that I could love amongst men and all that could carry me to these extremities which may make it appear to thee that I am weary of my life Thou shalt know no more and Heaven is my Witness that I would never have said so much to any one else dispose now of my destiny at thy pleasure preserve only in my death the respect due to the modesty of my Sex and the dignity of my Birth The tears which the remembrance of Alcimedon drew from Menalippa's eye stopt the course of her words and the King shaking his Head at her Discourse testifying the little Credit he gave to it Those reproaches of Treason and Unworthiness said he wherewith thou abusest Alcamenes will find little faith amongst men with whom his Actions are clear enough and if he hath slain any one that was dear to thee it must have been in Battel or in some of those Combats which thy Rage hath raised against him But Alcamenes is not yet dead and if it please the gods to leave him with me I shall have generosity enough to return thee free into thy Countrey and forget in favour of thy Sex and Beauty and Alcamenes love the bloody injury thou hast done me but if my Son dyeth of the wound received from thy hand by the immortal gods I will not leave his death unpunisht were Alcamenes dead I would lose that life without regret which I only preserve for his ruine and in which there remains nothing which can make me desire its conservation These words made the King judge that the Soul of Menalippa was possest with a powerful despair and he began to believe that her hatred might have another foundation than the King her Fathers death yet quite transported with grief and anger as he was he commanded them to take away the Irons from her hands and feet and to give her Garments conformable to her Sex if she would and instead of the Goal an Apartment in the Palace with order to guard her carefully yet so that she might taste nothing of Captivity save that of a Prison Menalippa praising the moderation of Orontes and unable to disapprove his resentments had some regret for his grief and being discharged of her Irons she retired into the appartment they offered her where she put on womans Cloaths not those they presented because they were her Enemies but such as she caused Belisa to carry with her she refusing any other attendants Whilst the wounded Prince disputed betwixt life and death his wound being so great that a complexion less robust than his could not have one moment survived the cruel stroak he passed the Night with great weakness and the day following when they took away the Playsters the fear ceased not and the Chirurgions only said as the day before there were some hopes and though his cure was difficult yet was it not impossible As they permitted not the Prince to speak so they permitted only such to stay in his Chamber that were necessary for the present necessity and it was in this solitude and silence that they perceived this poor Prince whose judgment in spight of his feebleness and violent Feaver was intire and sound studying upon his adventure unable to imagine by all conjectures that his wound came upon any other account save Menalippa's The King would not tell him what he knew for fear the News should increase his misfortune and affliction by letting him know that Menalippa had been charged with Irons and dragg'd to a Prison but that which the Princes thoughts were most busied on was that the Sword wherewith he had been wounded remaining after the blow in his body he believed that by this Sword he could clear himself of part of his suspitions and having called one of those which served him he commanded to bring it to him it was remarkable enough through the beauty of the Hilt to have caused some one in the Chamber to have it carried it away but by Fortune it was left and presented to the Prince who no sooner cast his eyes upon it but he knew it for the same he had along time worn under the Name of Alcimedon and which he had given to Cleomenes with the rest of his Arms and which he saw in Menalippa's hand in the first Combat This sight made him imagine that it was by Menalippa's hand he had been wounded and calling to mind that little of her face which appeared as she fell on him and remembring the Letter which Merodates received from her by Leander whom he believed to be still in her Service he no longer doubted but that it was from Menalippa that he received the wound This knowledge was the Parent of different thoughts and if it redoubled his grief to see the continuation of Menalippa's hatred he received also much consolation through the belief he had that to please Menalippa before he dyed he could not dye more gloriously than by her hand he rouled this thought sometime in his mind without speaking at last raising his voyce with a weak and an unassured tone Ah said he the gods be praised I dye by the hand of Menalippa He repeated these words divers times and a little after Well Menalippa added he since 't is your Will that I dye by your hand I willingly imbrace it and shall receive my death with an intire joy if I may be permitted to kiss the hand that gave it He stopt at these words casting his eyes sometimes on the fatal Sword and sometimes on those that stood round about him who conjured him to be silent if he desired to preserve his life but they were much more astonished when after he had kept silence sometime But why said he do I oppose my self to Menalippa's Will since she thrust not this revenging Sword into the odious body of Alcamenes but that he should dye thereby What should oblige me to suffer these Remedies which are contrary to Menalippa's intention In saying thus he would have carried his hand to the binding of his wound to tear them off but those which were with him knowing his intention had laid hold of his hands which by reason of his weakness were easily mastered whilst others went to advertize the King who was in a Chamber by and who never but almost by force left his Sons Bed-side Alcamenes stayed his hand when he saw the King for whom he had alwayes a great respect and this afflicted person who came to know the cause of his Despair telling him with are proach full of tenderness that he could not neglect his own life without hazarding that of his Fathers Alcamenes instead of answering to this Discourse beholding the King with a passionate Aire My Lord said he Menalippa is in your hands in the Name of the gods hide not from me where Menalippa is The King who imagined he could not long conceal the Truth confest it all and told him that for his sake
already acquainted you with Are you so much in love with my grief as to be delighted with the unhappy demonstrations I give you of it Or would you have me out of a reflection upon so many acknowledgements as I have made of my unhappiness weaknesse and cowardice to dye for shame and confusion before you If it must be so my dearest Emilia I am content and since you are and ever shall be while I have a minute to breathe the onely person to whom I shall discover my misfortune I am willing my most secret imaginations should passe out of my heart into yours and wish you may be moved with pitty for the misery which my inflexible destiny hath forced me into I say my destiny Emilia for it is that onely that I can justly charge with all the misfortunes I am fallen into Do not imagine it any effect of the celestial vengeance upon me for the rigour I expressed towars Julius Antonius Though I have contribted very much to his absence and am charged as the occasion of it yet have I not been troubled with the least remorse for any deportments of mine towards him Being Cicero 's Daughter I could not upon the first addresses of his affection to me be obliged to entertain any such thing from him and reflecting on the death of Cecinna whom being to be my Husband within three daies he killed in my sight upon my account I was certainly dispensed from whatever the expressions of his love might require of me in his favour And yet the powers of Heaven are my Witnesses that I never hated him that I never wished him any ill fortune that I have acknowledged his great worth and that I do at this day confess notwithstanding my present sentiments that he is as great as to point of merit and as amiable as to his person as Ptolomey is himself So that there is no ground to imagine that the gods should inslict all this as a punishment of my cruelty but that it proceeds meerly from my destiny which in this emergency acts against me as it hath done through all the misfortunes that have happened to our house But my dearest Tullia replied Emilia since you would not be flattered in your passion may it not be represented to you that the same reasons which you alledged against the love and merits of Julius Antonius before he became an impardonable criminal by the death of Cecinna might with much more ground be urged against the affection which you have conceived for his Brother since that not being obliged to him for any the least demonstration of love you cannot but look on him as the Son of Anthony which he is you know no less than his Brother I am no question replyed Tullia obliged by the same reasons to do the one as the other at least in some part for yet I might tell you did I stand upon my justification that Ptolomey is not by his birth such a criminal to us as his Brother was since that he is Son to Queen Cleopatra who contributed nothing to the death of Cicero and not to Fulvia who alone engaged Anthony in that design and exercised her cruelty upon the body of my Father even after death by a many abominable indignities but such was my misfortune that I could not make use of them and I need not tell you that in those of this nature the assistances of reason are not always infallible You may further argue that I have hardly seen Ptolomey above once that he is a Prince younger than my self by five or six years and a person that neither does nor haply will love me while he lives All the answer I have to make to these Objections is That my misfortunes are so much the more to be bemoaned and that the rather out of a consideration that I have not contributed any thing thereto my self and have endured this violence to tyrannize over my heart without the least complyance of my will Pitty me then if you please Emilia and charge me not with an offence which I see no reason I should take upon me T is not in the power of either Vertue or the Study of Philosophy to make us uncapable of passions but onely teach us how to struggle with them and if they have not been able to make good the little garrison of my heart against the assaults of that which now disturbs my quiet they will so weaken it as that it shall not produce therein any effects that may stain my reputation at the present or my memory hereafter I have been able to look on the Son of Anthony but it seems under an unhappy constellation which made me indeed but too sensible of what I thought amiable in his person I have been able to preserve the remembrance of it too dearly for my own quiet I cannot think of him without tenderness I can speak of him with delight I can communicate my sufferings to you I can sigh and as you see weep and bewayle this sad exchange of my condition But this Emilia is all that this destructive passion can work in my soul so that all the tempests it is able to raise there shall not eclipse those lights of wisdom which it is not in the power of any blindness to extinguish I can pine away yet conceale from all the World Emilia only excepted the reason why I do so and if I must endure even to death it self I can easily do it not onely rather than open my lips but rather than become guilty of a wish that should any way stain my reputation or cast a blemish on the former part of my life But when all is done replies Emilia to speak sincerely could you not wish that Ptolomey loved you or can you with all your Wisdom and Philosophy oppose such a wish To this Tullia could not for some minutes make any positive answer but having a little after shaken off that suspence and reassuming the discourse with a certain blush wherewith Lentulus could perceive her face all covered The desire of being loved said she by that which one loves is a thing so natural in us that I durst not tell you that I did not wish my self loved by Ptolomy but you are withal to assure your self that this wish is so innocent as not to injure my vertue nay I must adde thus much that though it should prove effectual yet would not my condition be any thing the more fortunate and that Ptolomey himself though he should love me should not know while he lived that I ever had any affection for him I should avoid him as an enemy though he were dearer to me than my own life nay though it shoúld cost me this very life I should keep to the last gasp from the knowledge of all the earth those sentiments which have broke forth to that of all the Romans But what is then your meaning replyed Emilia what course do you intend to take in order to your own
and I beseech you by all the good inclnations you have for me never to aggravate the miseries of my captivite by such discourses as haply the King your Brother will oblige you to entertain me with on his behalf I shall not tell you that by his horrid cruelties as well towards my Brother as your self he hath rendred himself unworthy both of the affection he expects from me and the assiâ—tance which he hopes you may afford him Nor shall I adde to that as I very well might how that by the same cruelty whereof I have been acquainted with the abomâ—nable circumstances both from the relations of Alexander and your own he hath raised in my heart the greatest horrour that may be for him whence it comes that I look on him rather as a Tyger than a great King But I shall not stick to tell you plainly that though his life were not stained with any base or reproachable action though his manners and disposition wanted not that mildnesse and affability I should require though his person were more than ordinary amiable and that to his single Crown he could adde the Roman Empire he should never have any part in this heart which I have once bestowed and never can do a second time Coriolanus hath had the first spoiles of it and shall carry them with him to the grave whether he be living or dead constant or inconstant he onely shall have that advantage And if by his infidelity I am dispensed from the affection which I ought to have continued to the very last gasp had he persevered in his oram by his death disengaged as to him of a friendship which it is needless to observe towards the shades there is nothing can disengage me from my self that is from what I imposed upon my self when I first submitted to that innocent affection and consequently nothing can set my soul at liberty in order to a second choice or into a condition to entertain any new impression of love T is enough that the great Clcopatra hath once given way to love and been taken with the great perfections of the most amiable amongmen but the justification which I might find for my former weaknesses would not haply be accepted for the latter Expect not therefore from me my dearest Sister what I could not obtain of my self for my self though I should pretend a greater interest it should be so than that which you represent and imagine that there cannot be any felicity hoped from an affection contracted by such extraordinary ways To do you what service I can with the King your Brother and to oblige him to treat you with more civility I shall conceal part of my resentments and the aversion I have for him and therefore you ought to be satisfied with me when you shall see me do that for you which I should never endure to do one minute for my self and consider the violence I do my self for your sake as no slight demonstration of my Friendship Artemisa gave Cleopatra many thanks for the promise she had made her to force her inclinations upon her account and begged her pardon for what she had said concerning her own concernments and in requital made a protestation to her that she would never speak to her more on the behalf of the King her Brother and that she had too great an esteem for those resolutions of fidelity and constancy which she had taken ever to be guilty of any design to oppose them Thus were they engaged in discourse when of a sudden they heard a very great noise in the ship and not long after that it was upon occasion of the Kings coming into it What lectures soever they might have read one to another of constancy they both grew pale and were a little startled at this news and looking one upon the other without speaking they were at a loss as to all resolution yet so as that there might be some difference in their thoughts and if the soul of Cleopatra was burthened with a more lively grief that of Artemisa was subject to more fear At last Cleopatra whose courage was greater than that of Artemisa was the first that brake forth into any resolution and looking on Artemisa with a countenance that spoke something of more confidence Sister said she to her Let us rely on the assistance of Heaven in our misfortune and in the mean time summon together all our vertue and let us not forget the resolution we have taken Artemisa had not the power to make her any answer nor indeed had she time for immediately thereupon their chamber-door being opened the first thing they saw was the dreadful countenance of the King of Armenia He was somewhat of a pale complexion and lean'd as he came along upon one of his men but his paleness was dispelled at the sight of that object by which he was enflamed and he made a shift to forget all his weakness to get near Cleopatra who at first coming in was risen from the place where she fate Artaxus saluted her with abundance of respect and Cleopatra who was glad to continue him in that humour and loath to force him to those extremities which she might justly fear from a man so violent returned him though with a sad and serious countenance what was due to his quality from a Princess of hers Before he spoke to Cleopatra he cast his eyes on Artemisa who trembling for fear had her eyes fixed on the ground not having the confidence to look him in the face The fear and confusion he perceived her to be in added not a little to his joy but however he thought fit to speak to Cleopatra before he addressed himself to the other and looking on her with a countenance wherein he endeavoured to moderate some part of his natural fierceness and to take off somewhat of that which was most dreadful in him Madam said he to her my love forces me to waite on you though the justice of the gods hath made you mine to be disposed as I please even in the late accident you might have taken notice of so much and you ought to forget your own resentments of it out of a consideration of the blood I have lost to preserve you I shall never believe answered Cleopatra that it is to be attributed to the justice of the gods that a free person and one of my birth should become your Prisoner without any war and contrary to the Laws of all Nations You might have observed no less your self in this very adventure where it hath cost you so much blood and it is impossible they should approve the unjust violence you do me if they are as it is believed the assertors and patrons of Justice and Innocence What violence replies Artaxus can he be said to do you who casts himself at your feet Or wherein does he violate the Law of Nations when he gives you a full right and absolute power over both his Heart and his
bemoaning empressions were the burthen of their carkasses and reciprocally wiping off one anothers tears they reiterated their kisses with so much love that a person the least subject of any in the World to suspicion would never have been 〈◊〉 but that there might be yet a further familiary between persons so passionaâ—â— Foâ— my part I made not the least question of it and from that fatal spectacle concluding my unhappiness undeniable I gave way to the rage then gaining ground upon me and 〈…〉 moment to consult upon the resolution I was to take to revenge my injured love 〈…〉 the loss of my honour I seldom went any where without my sword as ill fortune would have it I had it then about me I drew it transported with fury and running to one of the doors of the Arbour with so much hast that those two amorous persons had hardly the time to break off their kissing You must dye base perfidious wretches cryed I you must dye and putting my fury in execution upon the first object that offered it self it self it fell upon the unfortunate Elisena whom running with my sword in at the breast there needed not much strength to force it in up to the hilts Cleontes had the time to get out at one of the doors of the Arbour had got away as soon as he saw me appear with all the speed he could make but the unfortunate Elisena who stood neerest to me receiving the mortal wound fell down at my feet in a torrent of blood â—s she fell fastening on my knees she held me so that I could not get off from her to run after Cleontes In the mean time Elisena expiring strove as much as she could to speak and with abundance of difficulty made a shift to bring forth these words Zonodorus said she to me thou hast spilt innocent blood which will cry out for vengeance against thee but far be it from me to desire it of the gods and I forgive thee my death which my own imprudence and thy want of recollection hath brought me to thou wilt find that I have not injured thee and therefore content thy self that thou hast taken away my life and meddle not with Cleontes who is ............ She would have said somewhat else but ere she could bring it out both voice and life had taken their leaves of her This spectacle you may well imagine was deplorable enough to move me to some pitty and the love which I had formerly had for Elisena whom I saw expiring at my feet beautiful even in her paleness and amidst the very looks of death as amiable as ever she had been in her life must in all likelihood force me to some compassion But rage and fury being grown predominant over my soul and I looking on the loss of my honour as a thing infallibly certain and from the last words of Elisena when she recommended unto me the life of Cleontes and seemed so indifferent as to her own drawing no other conclusion than that of the excessive love she had for him my fury derives new strength from that cruel confirmation and leaving the body of Elisena in the hands of her Women who were come in at the noise out of a place where they waited hard by I pursued Cleontes with the sword all bloody in my hand that way that I had seen him run away He was gotten far enough from me and I should have found it no small difficulty to overtake him if at the same time a noise had not been spread about the Garden that Elisena was dead At this unhappy news Cleontes stayes not desirous to save his life after the misfortune which he had been the occasion of as I came into the Knot of the Garden I saw him coming towards me tearing his cloaths pulling his hair and filling the place with his lamentations Instead of avoiding my sword he would run upon the point of it and presenting his naked brest to me he therein received the mortal thrust which ran him through and through After he had gone two or three paces backward staggering he fell down at the feet of a Diana of Alablaster which stood at one of the corners of the Knot and as he fell embraced it Goodesse of chastity said he receive this life which I offer up to thee and if I stain it with my blood thou knowest it is pure and innocent There was something in these words that seemed so mild and withall so mournful that the better part of my fury was thereby abated and while a many persons were running to the place where I was the expiring Cleontes turning his eyes from the statue and fastening them on me Barbarous man said he to me hope not that the gods will pardon thee the death of the innocent Elisena though I forgive thee mine and since I have not life enough left me to convince thee of her innocence acknowledg it upon the sight of what I had never shewn any man and which thou of all mankind art the most unworthy to see With these words contracting together all the strength he had left he made a shift to open or to tear that which covered his stomack and by discovering to us a neck and breasts whiter then the Alablaster which he embraced easily satisfied us that he was a Woman Artaxus interrupting Zenodorus at this passage Heavens Zenodorus said he to him what is this that you relate to me and what an unfortunate adventure was this of yours Till now though there were things deplorable enough in your relation yet had I not been moved to compassion at any and I thought there was so much reason in all proceedings that I could not bemoane the distiny of two persons whom I conceived worthy the chastisement they received at your hands But these last words of your relation having changed the whole scene of the adventure and though there lies no more guilt on you then there would have done â—ad it been otherwise yet I must confesse you are so much the more to be pittyed You may very well think it my Lord replyed Zenodorus and with the same labour comprehend some part of what I was not then able to expresse At that sight that fatal sight that fatall and too slow discovery I was in a manner more like a dead carkase then those I had deprived of life and not able to oppose all the passions which then made their several assaults on my soul with as much violence as can be well imagined nor expresse them by wordâ— I was almost grown immoveable and senselesse in the arms of those persons that were about me I apprehended my self at the same to be the murtherer of two Women of two beautiful and amiable persons and two innocent persons whereof one had been my own Wife whom I had loved as dearly as my own soul and the other meerly upon the account of compassion had already raised in me an affection towards her This
knew my voice Whereupon having called me softly by my name he acquainted me with his own and not long after with his person whereof I had an impression so well graven in my memory that it would not have been very hard for me to dave discerned him in the greatest darknesse While Clitia gave this account of Caesario the beautifull Queen was in a manner overwhelmed with an excesse of joy which by a pleasant authority got the dominion of her Soul and though fear and disquiet endeavoured to disturb it yet was there a necessity they should give place to the first sallies of that passion and suspend their effect till the first violence of the other were spent The Queen casting one arme abount Clitia's neck Ah Clitia said she to her it is certainly decreed that it is from you I must expect all the most happy tidings and it was you that heretofore brought me word into the garden at Meroe of the life and return of Caesario at a time when I bewailed his death and that I had renounced all the enjoyments of life After she had said these words she would have put a hundred questions to Clitia and that all of a sudden upon that accident but she told her that the time she had was to be otherwise spent and that she must resolve either to see Caesario at the place where he expected her return or permit him to come into the chamber Now was it that fear begâ—â— to disturb her joy and if on the one side she were satisfied to see her self so near the Prince she dearly loved she trembled on the other when she considered that he was in a Palâ—â—â— whereof Augustus's Lieutenant had the command and that a place where he must expeâ—t no less than to lay down his life if he were discovered This fear made her to shake again and put her to such a loss that she knew not what resolution to take looking sometimes on Elisa sometimes on Clitia as if it had been to ask their advice what she were best to do The fair Princess of the Parthians who had received so great consolations from the Queen together with such remarkable demonstrations of Friendship conceived her self extreaâ—â—y concerned not onely in the joy but also in the fear which she now strugled with and would have been as glad as the other to find out a way to see Caesario with as little danger as might be But after they had continued for some time in uncertainty and at a loss what course should be taken they at last thought it the safest way that he should be brought into the Chamber it being then such a time of the night that it was not likely they should be troubled with any more visits especially there being conveniences enough to hide him in case it were necessary and that Clitia proffered as soon as she had brought him into the Chamber to go out upon the terrace along with Cephisa and to walk there a while to see if any body came by whom they might be surprised Besides all which it made something for the security of the Prince that he was not only not known in Alexandria but also his death was more firmly believed there than in any other part of the world Upon all these grounds summed up together yet not without a great deal of doubt and terrour the Queen commanded Clitia to go fetch him in whereupon Elisa thinking her self obliged in discretion and civility to go into her own Chamber that they might be at a greater freedome in that interview would have done it but Candace embracing her would not permit it and entreated her to be present at her felicity as she had been at the happy meeting between her and her Artaban Elisa at the entreaty of Candace staies in the room and presently after Clitia returns bringing along with her the son of Caesar into the Chamber At that first sight these two excellent souls felt in a moment all that a passion such as theirs could produce in a longer space of time and their first looks communicated one to another of an instant what their hearts meant of greatest tenderness and passion As soon as ever the Prince appeared at the door the Queen ran towards him with an action whence he might easily infer how welcome his presence was to her and the son of Cleopatra kissed her hands and embraced her knees with such transportations of joy as might well convince her that his Love had not admitted of the least diminution or remission Candace after she had embraced him very earnestly with both her armes while he was yet in that submissive posture raised him up and entertained him with all those Caresses which were suitable to her dignity and modesty considering withal the violence of her affection During the first expressions of their mutual satisfaction and joy their discourse was accordingly confused and incoherent but when the violence of those were over Candace retreating some few paces back as it were to take the better notice of the Prince What Cleomedon said she to him the gods it seems have thought fit to restore you to me after so many dangers as I had run through my self and so many others wherein I had left you But Madam replies the Prince it was then decreed I should find you after I had so unfortunately lost you and what is more I do not only find you living and full of goodness for me but I meet with you in Alexandria in the Palace of my Fathers and in that very Chamber wherein I drew the first mouthful of air and saw the first beams of light 'T is an accident I must confess replies Candace that speaks something extraordinary and if you are surprised at it I must needs be not a little moved thereat O how does this second life which I here receive added the Prince make the Palace of the Ptolomey 's much more dear and precious in my apprehension then the former which I ought it and how easily can I bear with the loss of the command of it when I find therein what is a thousand times more dear to me then thousands of Empires and thousands of lives To this discourse he would have added much more to the same effect and the beautiful Queen whose affection was not inferiour to his though out of the civility and reservedness suitable to her sex she moderated her self the more looked on him with a certain delight and had pleasantly seconded him her self in the expressions of his love had she not thought it unhandsome to suffer any more before the Princess of the Parthians till Caesario had taken notice of her and saluted her Upon that account mildly interrupting him she obliged him to turn towards Elisa and prepared him to salute her as the greatest Princess upon earth and the best friend she had in the World Caesario however he might be transported at the sight of Candace was astonished and in a manner dazled
be discovered and known by those exasperated persons if they saw me and that in the rage which then possessed them they would take away those small remainders of life there were in me rather then any way relieve me On the other side he saw me drawing towards my end was sensible he should dye himself if he were not assisted and in that perplexity nor knowing what resolution to vain to take he lifted up his eyes to Heaven and desired that of the gods which he thought it expect from men In this interim the woman comes to her self again and immediately discovered it by her mournful groans and lamentations she embraced the frozen carkase and bestowed thousands of kisses on a face all covered with bloud and that with such transportation as from whose violence Eteoclss could infer no lesse then that that of her love had been extraordinanary Dearest Teremanes said she sometime the enlivening light of my dayes but now a Luminary eclipsed by the interposition of eternal darknesse Are these the happy Nuptialls that were prepared for our loves and after the faithful test of so many traverses misfortunes is it in this fatal field that I was to enjoy thee Dear shade which by an unhuman thrust hast quited this body the object of my truest affections and wandrest yet about these shores in expectation of sepulture Infinitely beloved shade dost thou forsake me for ever And is it possible thou shouldst seek rest while thou leavest me in disturbances a thousand times more insupportable then that death which snatches thee from the embraces of thy faithful Eurinoe Many other exclamations to the same effect fell from her such as were the sad effects of her despair and which Eteocles would have hearkned to with more patience but the danger wherein we were or rather the desperate condition of our lives took up his thoughts so much that he could not afford her any longer attention But indeed it was not long e're he had another motive to discover us when the man that waited on that affiicted Lady being come neerer me and having presently known me out of a confidence he was of that I had fallen in that place and knew me very well by sight perceived withal that my eyes were open and that I was not quite dead They had not stripped me naked because of the abundance of bloud that was about my cloaths but they had taken away the excellent armour wherein I had fought and whereby I was so remarkable in the battel Eteocles had wiped the bloud off my face so that the man could with lesse difficulty know me again and thereupon returning immediately to his Lady Madam said he to her if revenge may abate any thing of your greif lay hold on the opportunity which the gods favour you with to offer a noble sacrifice to the Manes of Teramenes Here behold not onely his murderer but the murderer also of your Brother is yet alive and the just gods seem to have reserved those little remainders of life which he hath yet left purposely that they might in some measure satisfie your revenge Never did any Tigress fly out with so much fury at those that had carried away her young ones as that exasperated and desperate Woman did upon those cruel words She laies hands on a dagger which she spyed lying on the ground among other armes and running to the place where the man pointed she was immediately with me looking on me with eyes sparkling with indignation yet so as through which satisfaction she conceived at her intended revenge did in certain intervals shew it self Teramenes cryed she I am now going to sacrifice to thee all that is remaining of thy Executioner and shall meet with thee again with greater joy when I shall have appeased thy Manes with this victime With these words she comes up close to me who was lying on my back with my face directed to Heaven and my eyes open which I weakly fastened on the objects yet so as that I was not able to discern what past and lifting up her arm to thrust the weapon into my breast it was coming downwards upon me when Eteocles lifting himself half up put forth his hand and laying hold of hers with greater force then in all probability he seemed to have had in him Hold thy hands cruel Woman said he to her spare the blood of the gods and do not by thy cruelty shorten for some few minutes the noblest life in the World Eurinoe was so surprised both at the action and the words of Eteocles that the dagger fell out of her hands and she was at such a loss as to all resolution that she could only look on the man whom the gods seemed to have purposely raised up to prevent the effect of her resolution But at last her passion being still the most predominant in her mind her rage grew more violent then it had been before and running to another weapon which she saw not far from her Do not hope said she to Eteocles thou shalt divert me from the sacrifice which I owe my Teramenes and be content with this comfort that his Executioner hath but those weak remnants of life where as I should wish him a hundred lives that I might take a nobler revenge of them altogether With these words she comes to me on the other side and at a place where the assistance of Eteocles would have stood me in no stead desirous to execute her revenge with a greater satisfaction she would needs look upon me and so as she lifted up her arm fixed her eyes on my countenance Eteocles hath told me since that even in that languishing posture wherein I then appeared to the sight of Eurione there was something in me more beautiful then ordinary my eyes looked more gently because I looked more dejectedly then I should have done otherwise and my hair stained with blood in some places playing with my cheeks by reason of a little wind that then blew heightned the little beauty which still remained in my face whereof the paleness must needs be thought an extraordinary whiteness in a Country where ordinary degrees of whiteness are thought rare and admired I fine for my part I know not with what advantage I appeared in the sight of that incensed Woman but the arm she had lifted up remained in that posture and at the same time having gently turned my eies upon her with a feeble groane her indignation was disarmed at that object and the weapon fell out of her hand the second time The man that waited upon her thinking he did her a very acceptable service in egging her on to take the intended revenge put the weapon into her hand the third time and encouraging her to the action she would have done was ready to help her to put it in execution when the woman looking very passionately upon him Hold thy hands said she to him it is not the pleasure of the gods that I should put
him setting themselves before him many were laid on the ground that I was forced to dispatch to come up to his person At last we came together notwithstanding the opposition of our men and running at him full of fury The day is now come Tyrant said he to him that thou must render up the Crown with thy own life into the bargain He made me some answer which I could not hear by reason of the noise and the heat I was then in and received with me a resolution not much different from what I brought But being ever and anon hindred by our men who came in between us and that especially by his who fell upon me on all sides I grew the more eager to determine the difference and that was it had almost cost me my life I had made two blows at Tiribasus with such good fortune that they gave two wounds whereupon he began to look on me as one that sought with a certain confidence of victory when my horse by reason of many hurts he had received sell down so of a sudden that I had much ado to get my feet out of the stirrups and to stand before Tiribasus who taking me at that advantage was upon the point of running over me I could not avoid the shock of his horse in somuch that he had almost overthrown me but in that posture leaning on my own horse that lay dead between my legs with my left hand I with my right thrust my sword into the belly of his so that when he was coming at me he felt him falling down under him In that interim I closed with him to avoid the shock of his men and in that disorder finding a place unarmed I run him with my sword through the body Tiribasus stretched forth his arms as he was falling with his horse but in regard that I stood neer him he very furiously cast himself on me and by his weight forcing me to the ground he fell upon me as he breathed out his last and fastned on me in such a manner that I found it no small difficulty to get from under him all goared and covered with his bloud The danger I was in by reason of that disadvantage had been very great had I not been relieved by diverse stout men who rescued me from the rage of Tiribasus's friends and notwithstanding all they could do got me on horseback again This Madam was the fate of Tiribasus the usurper of your Dominions and your precious Liberty and you may see in it how that the just gods decreed he should perish by his hands to whom of all men that revenge was most due Upon his death those that were of his party were so lost as to courage and resolution that the most eager in the cause could hardly be gotten to fight much longer When I saw the resistance they made was very weak and that some were running away in the streets casting away their arms I considered Madam that they were your subjects and thereupon out of a desire to spare their bloud I cryed and caused it to be cried up and down that if they laid down their arms the Queen would give them their lives would forgive all that was past Som particular friends of Tiribasus would not accept of this proffer but would needs be killed and among the rest Eurinoe's Brother whose life I would gladly have saved for his Sisters sake but all the rest perceiving there was no safety but by that means and having for the most part sided with Tiribasus purely out of fear laid down their arms and cried up and down God save Queen Candace I immediately thereupon sent orders every where that none should be put to the sword and it was so religiously observed that after some few minutes there was no more bloud spilt All those of Tiribasus's party went in among the Citizens who had laid down their arms as soon as I was gotten out of the Palace and our men though in arms and victorious began to treat the others as their Country-men and companions Oristhenes who having been set on horseback again by the relief which I had sent him had joined with me and behaved himself with abundance of valour rid all about the City by my order and so appeased the remainders of the disorder that when the dead bodies were removed out of the streets it could hardly be imagined there had been any fight All things being thus composed I sent out orders that the more considerable of those that had followed Tiribasus as well Citizens as souldiers should come to me in one of the most spacious places in the City and after I had entertained them with a discourse which it were not fit to trouble you with a recital of wherein having in the first place represented to them the greatnesse of their crime I made them in the next apprehensive of that of your goodness who were gratiously pleased even at a time that they might be punished with severity to pardon them so horrid an infidelity and forget all that was past provided that for the future they did those things which were expected from them And that I exhorted them to do with a true remorse and to repair their crime by a fidelity as remarkable as their defection had been All the inhabitants answered me with cries and tears and pronouncing your name on their knees they called all the gods to witness the sincerity of their intentions and protested they had done nothing against you but by force and out of the fear they were in of the power of Tiribasus The souldery for the most part returned me the same answer so that after I had taken a new oath of allegiance from them all in your name I dismissed the Assembly permitting all to follow their occasions and such as had friends dead to bury them I also gave way that those that pretended a more particular affection to Tiribasus should take away his body in order to an honourable enterrement as knowing Madam your generosity to be such as permits not your resentments to go beyond death And thereupon having my thoughts wholly taken up with you and yet not thinking it safe to leave Meroe that very day for fear of the accidents that might happen upon so sudden a revolution I sent Clinias Expresse to you to give you an account of all that had past and to intreat you to remain at Bassa till the next day at which time I should have waited on you bringing along with me your people of Mâ—roe who were infinitly desirous of your return Having gone so far I spent all the rest of the day and some part of the night in pacifying and composing all things and considering the shortnesse of the time there was such order taken that it was hardly perceiveable that there had been any revolt in Ethiopia But what grief it was to me what distraction I was in the gods onely know the next day when I found Clinias
him you see that Coriolanus is innocent and that it was not without some ground that I was satisfied of it before I had understood so much from the mouth of Volusius I acknowledge the indulgence of the gods replies Marcellus as great towards me in this as in the greatest favour they ever did me and I take them to witnesses that what you and Volusius have perswaded me to of the constancy of Julia hath not caused in me such a satisfaction as what I have understood of the fidelity of Coriolanus How replyed the Princess with a certain transportation not suitable to her ordinary moderation it is then infallible that Coriolanus whose pretended infidelity cost me so many tears hath ever been constant to his Cleopatra and that Princess who by her misapprehension thought her self condemned to eternal afflictions may now re-assume those joyes and hopes she had before broke off all acquaintance with Here would she have taken occasion to open her soul for the reception of a passion which of a long time had not had any entertainment there but that joy was soon eclipsed by an interposition of grief and a certain reflection which filled her heart with all the sadness it was capable of when she thought on her cruel deportment towards that Prince the deplorable effect it had produced as having proved the occasion of the loss of his Crown and of all her hopes and that fatal resolution which he had expressed to Volusius that he intended to take and whereof he had given her some notice at their last parting In a word being thus convinced of his fidelity she could not call to mind the cruel entertainment she had made him at Syracuse when enflamed to the highest pitch of love and thinking it a thousand times more glorious to be her servant then that so noble a conquest and the recovery of his Kingdoms had made him he had passed through thousands of dangers to come and offer her those very Kingdoms she could not think on the cruel and injurious speeches wherewith she had received him and the sad condition wherein she had left him without a mortal wound in that heart which nothing but the love of that Prince could ever make any impression in For that doleful reflection calling to mind how she had met him in the Woods of Alexandria the day that he relieved her with greater valour than success against those that afterwards carried her away and lastly remembring the meeting she had had with him in the King of Armenias's ship whereof she represented to her self all the particulars after another manner then they had appeared to her while she was still prepossessed of her cruel mistake as well out of a consideration of that long swounding into which her sight and words had put him as the discourse full of a generous confidence he had made to her and the admirable resolution he had taken and gone through with by fighting alone for her liberty against so great a number of enemies with such prodigious valour and by the last words he had spoken to her at their parting wherein as well as in his actions his innocency was but too too apparent And from these things whereof her eies had been but too too faithful witnesses diverting her thoughts to others that were of no less consequence such as the loss of a great Kingdom which he had conquered for her and which he neglected to maintain through the despair she had reduced him to that which he had expressed when he cast himself into the Sea because he would not survive his disgrace and the shame he thought it that he was not able to rescue her from her Ravishers the miserable condition he was brought to having no place of refuge no relief nor any comfort in the World and lastly the resolution he had discovered to Volusius and her self of his unwillingness to have her any longer engaged in his misfortunes and to seek out the remedies thereof only in death which for a courage such as his was it should not be hard to find she could not fasten her thoughts on all these truths which were but too importunate upon her memory without giving way to such a grief as neither all her own great constancy nor yet the joy she conceived at the innocence of Coriolanus were able to abate After she had for some time smothered the disordered agitations she was in being not able to hold out any longer and conceiving she might freely disburthen her self before Marcellus whom she was confident of and whose soul during that time was persecuted by imaginations much of the same nature Coriolanus is innocent said she breaking forth into a rivulet of tears But O ye Heavenly powers such is my cruel destiny that Coriolanus cannot be innocent but I must at the same time be the most criminal person in the World That Prince the most amiable the most generous and the most vertuous of men hath continued inviolately constant to me and hath still persisted in the same perfect affection which had at first taken in my soul and yet unfortunate wretch that I am I have had the cruelty for to banish him my presence as a Monster I have had the inhumanity to see him in a manner expiring at my feet and never could be moved at it and I have at last reduced him to such extremities as have proved the occasion of loosing that Kingdom which he had designed for me have made him a restless Vagabond all over the Earth made him seek out precipices and now make him resolve to seek in death a Period of these deplorable miseries into which I only I have brought him O Cleopatra unfortunate Cleopatra what pretence of joy canst thou find in the justification of Coriolanus since it must needs expose thee to the most cruel regrets that ever persecuted guilty souls It were much more for thy satisfaction at least if it were not for thy satisfaction it would be much more to thy advantage that thy Coriolanus had been found unconstant and that thou shouldst be found innocent thy self and since that thy innocence and his are things inconsistent either he ought to be guilty or thou have continued in the misprision which thou hadst been perswaded to O cruel Vuolsius cruel in thy malice and cruel in thy remorse thou art in both equally the messenger of death to me and I find fatal poison in this appearance of life which thou bringest me when thou tellest me that Coriolanus is constant to me Let us then till death bewail the misfortune which attends us as well in the one as in the other condition and never entertain any comfort since that is a kind of happiness which guilty souls are never to expect Here the tears interrupted the course of her speech and fell from her in such abundance that she was forced to allow them a free passage and to let them express some part of what she felt within her In that interval
disposition to re-inforce my heart with a new supply of Hopes But Despair having possessed it self of the place it would have proved a hard attempt to get in any So that at last not able to endure company nor resist the violence of my affliction I thought it my only way to prosecute the design I had resolv'd on some days before and engage in the War then breaking forth in Pannonia I thought it best to depart thence without taking leave of any one and forbear going to Rome though I was not sufficiently furnished with things necessary yet had enough for one defi'd Death so much that he cared not how soon he met with him as not doubting but that Cicero and Scipio and all my Friends would use all possible endeavours to divert me from my Design and put such rubs in my way that it would prove hard for me to execute it To this end Cicero having appointed a Hunting-match the next day I thought a fairer opportunity to be gone could not be expected it being likely no notice would have been taken of my departure and that having given my people order to expect me with my Horses at a place I should appoint them upon the way I intended to take I might easily slip aside and meet with them without any bodies observing it before night For the rest I referred my self to the disposal of my Destiny that which was most occurrent to my thoughts being that I was without any further consideration to run upon my own Death Having thus setled all things in order to my Design I writ that night a Letter to Tullia to be delivered to her after my departure whereof the words were these LENTULUS to TULLIA I Am now preparing for my death inexorable Tullia since it is the only remedy I can imagine wil put a period to my misfortune and I shall not complain either of that Destroyer of Man-kind or of You if while I die for your sake I have the happiness to please you after I had displeased you while I lived I charge you not with my misfortune but sacrifice what I am now going to lose in some measure to the grief I have for yours The Gods know that if the remedies that should abate it had been possibly attainable I should gladly have sacrificed the remainders of my quiet to gain them and that I should have resisted my own misfortunes had they not been multiplied upon me by a fatal conjunction of yours If the Fates reserve you for a better Fortune I heartily pardon them their malice to me And as my Mind was disseated out of my self to be the more constantly attended on you so is it for you alone that it breaths out its last wishes and that it desires of the Gods you may find that which I never could for my self Farewel fairest Tullia I hasten to my death without any regret other than that of being eternally banished your presence and since Death it self can never force your fair image out of a faithful Mind have the compassion to bestow some few minutes of your precious remembrance on the memory of the unfortunate Lentulus Having written this Letter and given some order to my people about my departure yet without acquainting any of them with my Design I went to bed and having passed away the night in such disturbances as you may well imagine I got up in the morning long before any of those whom the love of Hunting had awak'd How fully soever I might be setled in my resolution yet could I not see Scipio and Cicero without some motion of grief and tenderness when I bethought my self I was so to leave them as never to see them again But my Despair having the absolute command of my Soul tyrannizing over all other impressions it might be capable of I soon silenced those that were any way contrary to my Design and having given my Letter to one of my men whom I was to leave behind with order to deliver it to Tullia two hours after our departure I got on Horse-back with the rest and follow'd them to the place where the Hunters met It was not long ere a Stag was put up and Cicero and Scipio being out of emulation earnest upon the pursuit thought it not strange that considering the weak condition I was in I should lag a little behind and were gotten a vast distance from me without the least jealousie of my Design When they were gotten out of sight after I had with the tears in my eyes mutter'd some few words whereby I took my last leave of them I wheel'd about and made towards the way I had resolved to take intending to lodge that night at Vellium where I had appointed my people to meet me and whence I should have sent one to Rome with order to meet me three days after at a place to be named to him with what Equipage were thought necessary for me To speak clearly and truly I knew not well what my intention was as having not determined any thing but with much confusion though this for one thing I had fully resolv'd never to appear among men again and to go and run upon a death that should prove much less cruel to me then the life I was so weary of As I rode along taken up with thoughts I called to mind the Destiny of Julius Antonius who six or seven years before had taken the same course for the same Tullia and left Rome with such another intention as mine and had not been heard of ever since Having made a comparison betwixt his Fortune and mine and reflected on the conformity between them Well said I lifting my eyes to Heaven since it is the Destiny of those that love Tullia to go and seek in Death the determination of their afflictions let us submit our selves thereto without repining and be not much troubled to meet with a Fortune suitable to that of Julius Antonius While my thoughts were entertained with these sad reflections getting still further from the place where I had left my Friends I was surpriz'd by a violent shower of Rain which in a short time made its way through my cloaths and met me as far as that liquid substance could find a passage The condition I was in took off much of the reflection I should have made on that inconvenience as to the body but at last it grew so great a Tempest together with Thunder Lightning and impetuous showrs of Hail that it was impossible to follow any way so that insensibly straying out of that which I was in and not able to get into it again I followed another which instead of carrying me further brought me nearer Cicero's House At last not able to go any further and my Horse being in a manner tired by reason of the Hail and Tempest falling heavy upon him I was forced to turn into certain houses which I perceived not much out of the way to stay till the violence of the weather
and spared those that forbore further resistance nay permitted them to relieve and look after their Prince if so be he were capable of it Having no more Enemies to engage with he alighted and running to Ismenia's Chariot he presented himself before her covered over with bloud and dust and in a condition that might have frightned her if â—he had not immediately called to mind the countenance of Arminius The joy he was in smother'd his speech but taking her by the hand he kissed it with such earnestness as would not suffer him of a long time to quit it Ismenia as having greater command of her self spoke first and endeavouring to overcome the disturbance that spectacle had raised in her apprehensions aâ—d to re-assume the wonted serenity of her looks Arminius said she to him I see you in a terrible posture after so strange a manner that I know not whether I can rejoyce at such a meeting with you If Arminius reply'd he be more dear to you then Marobodes you have reason to rejoyce but if you love Marobodes better then you do Arminius I confess you have but little ground to be glad I had no love for Marobodes replies Ismenia and Arminius cannot doubt but he is precious in my affections but I put a Father into an implacable indignation I am in the hands of a Lover whom he is an enemy to and I am the cause of all the bloud that hath been spilt in my sight Yet does not this hinder but that I am what I ever have been to you but it should not seem strange to you that all these things should disturb the joy it is to me to see you again and to escape the danger I was in never to have been yours Arminius answered this discourse of the Princess with words full of transportation and embraced her knees a long time notwithstanding her endeavours to make him forbear it My dearest Princess said he to her it stood not with the goodness of the Gods to suffer the injustice was done me and they have made the cruelty of Segestes contribute to my happiness Let all the world now arm it self against me nothing shall trouble my Fortune since I am at the feet of my Ismenia The Princess interrupted his transportations by asking him whether Marobodes were dead and she put that question to him with a disturbance whence he could not but perceive the compassion she was moved to Arminius called into her presence those who had taken care of him and they informed her that he was not dead but in great danger if he were not looked to Ismenia ordered him a Chariot wherein were some of her Women to carry him to the next Town where he might be relieved and discovered to those were left of his party the pity she had of his misfortune They departed with their Prince in the Chariot and Arminius himself expressed to them how much he was troubled for his wounds Upon which Ismenia desired to quit the place where the engagement had happened as conceiving a horrour at the sight of the dead bodies but when she was gone some distance from it causing the Chariot to stay and speaking to Arminius who rode by it Arminius said she to him I pray let me now know what your intentions are No other Madam reply'd he than to submit to yours even to death But how reply'd she do you intend to dispose of me I conceive says the Prince to her there is no place where you may be more sure or more powerfull than where you are to regin over the Cherusci and over Arminius since I cannot think you would return to Segestes I haply ought to do it reply'd she and dif I fear onely the treatment I might receive no doubt but I should But I am confident if ever I should see Segestes again I shall never be yours and that he would take such order hereafter as not to fear such an accident as hath now happened to him What reproach soever therefore I may make to my self for leaving a Father to go with a Lover I am resolved not to come near him nor shall I on the other side stay with you and you ought not to take it ill that having offended against Decency in the things that are most essential being by the malice of my Fortune forced thereto I should observe it in those I may without putting you into any danger of my loss Having uttered those words she cast her eyes on the countenance of Arminius and saw he looked earnestly on the ground with all the marks of a mortal affliction that he sigh'd not knowing what to answer her and could hardly refrain certain tears which would force their passage out What ails you Arminius said she seeing him in that posture speak Arminius and give me your advice to find out a secure and honourable place for my retreat in expectation of the change of my Fortune and the humour of Segestes I thought says Arminius to her after the saddest manner in the world that you could not have found one either more secure or more honourable than to be with a Prince whom you are willing to make your Husband and performing the Ceremony thereof put your self out of all fear both as to the reports of people and the displeasure of Segestes But since I have been so much mistaken and that haply I am still as unfortunate as ever I was in my life let us go Madam let us go to what part of the earth you think fit to retire to let us go if you think fit even into the arms of Segestes I shall be able to conduct you any where without repining leave you when you command me to do it and be the Authour of my own death without complaining when I shall have lost all my hopes He spoke these words after so pressing a manner and accompany'd them with so great discoveries of his grief that Ismenia's constancy immediately gave way and after she had continued a while as it were in suspence without answering him of a sudden taking her resolution and reaching him her hand Arminius said she to him I am yours and no question had you the full reward of your Love and Vertue you were worthy something of greater value than Ismenia Let us go to Clearchus since you desire it should be so I shall follow you thither without any repugnance and am satisfied that with such a Husband I shall not need fear ought as to the displeasure of a Father or the reproaches of men 'T were impossible for me to represent to you the joy Arminius conceived at this discourse of Ismenia's and I should spin out my relation to a tedious length to entertain you with all the particulars thereof I shall therefore onely tell you that after he had thousands of times embraced her knees and spoke the most passionate words imaginable to express his resentment to her he caused the Chariot to drive on and rode by it with his
Honour he made a sudden halt as it were to consider what he should do and it coming in his mind that Friendship obliged him no less to relieve his Brother then to revenge him he fastned on that which was most honourable and most lawful and alighting he goes to Tiberius whose loss of blood continued still by reason of the many wounds he had about him But if this accident had raised an astonishment in Drusus and all that were present that which the Emperor conceived was greater then that of any of the rest and put him for some time into such a posture as added to the admiration of all those that were about him On the one side he saw the Son of Livia for whom he had those respects and compliances as occasioned the report all over the Empire that he divided the Soveraign authority with her lying along at the foot of a tree with several wounds about him through which it was to be feared his life might leave him with his blood and on the other not many paces from him the enemy had put him into that condition but the same enemy who having trampled on his Authority even in Rome it self and reduced the same Tiberius to a condition sad as that wherein he then saw him had raised two great Kingdoms against him had forced them from his Jurisdiction with the loss of so many Milions of men who was the only person had checked the progress of his requests and that fortune which had made him Master of the Universe and who even when he was thought lost and ruined in his misfortunes was come again with the same pride and insolence not only to present himself before him but in his sight to be the death of a Son of the Empresse's a Prince he looked on as his own This consideration and all these reflections forcing themselves upon the Emperour's thoughts wrought on his spirits with so much violence and precipitation that he was not able to repress the impetuosity thereof or contain himself within any limits of moderation His displeasure broke forth at first with a certain joy and looking up towards heaven in a posture dreadful to behold I acknowledge your justice you divine Powers cryed he since you bring under my power this insolent African who with so much scorn defiedit and when I was out of all hopes to punish him for his enormous crimes you are pleased he should deliver himself up to my justice and appear before me in a condition and covered with a blood which leaves not any thing for lenity to urge on his behalf Let him be taken continued he turning to the Officers of his guard and loaden with chains conveyed to a Dungeon to be brought thence to the punishment I intend him Augustus was a person admirably kind to his Friends and good to his Subjects and govern'd all with such mildness as made them look on him rather as a Father then a Soveraign But if he were a good Emperour and a good Friend he was on the other side an implacable Enemy and in all the progress of those Wars whereby he had raised himself to that height he had never pardoned any one of his Enemies Upon this consideration all those that were about him conceived that without something of miracle there was little hope of life for Coriolanus The more vertuous could not forbear deploring his misfortune with all the discoveries of a real grief and the most considerable among them as the King of Scythia Agrippa the King of Armenia and divers others resolv'd to employ all manner of perswasion to appease the Emperours wrath but they thought it unseasonable to attempt any thing till the first erruptions of his violence were over Onely Coriolanus seemed unmoved at the danger which made that illustrious company tremble for him as well out of the natural greatness of his courage as the addition it might have received from his despair Insomuch that when in pursuance of the Emperour's command the Officers of the Guard went to him and demanded his Sword My Sword said he looking scornfully on them never leaves me but with my life and since I am to expect nothing less then death 't were better for me to lose my life while I defend it then reserve it for an ignominious punishment And perceiving those words deterred not some of the more daring from coming nearer to disarm him he gave the most forward of them a blow over the head which made him fall at the feet of his companions with a deep wound Caesar was so much incensed at that action that being at a loss of all patience and moderation and discovering in his sparkling eyes the indignation he was transported with Kill him cryed he kill him and that without any further delay Whereupon Alcamenes Arippa Ariobarzanes Artaban and others in whom the greatest actions of the son of Juba had raised a love and veneration for him came before the Emperor intreating him with the greatest earnestness and importunity possible to moderate his displeasure and to give them the hearing but of some few minutes but their intercession proved ineffectual and Augustus's rage being more enflamed by that opposition reiterated the commands he had given his guard to kill the African Prince and upon this last peremptory order the points of hundreds of swords and javelines being turned against him he would soon have lost his life if a horseman all armed had not stept before him and exposed himself to the thrusts and blows would have been made at made at him He was soon observed by Alcamenes Artaban and Arminius and known to be one of the three valiant men who before their arrival and in their company had fought so couragiously in defence of the Princesses but having taken off his Casque which he hastily snatched off his head he was known by the Emperour for him who of all the world was most dear to him his beloved Marcellus Turn said he discovering him self turn against me only the points of your swords and find a passage through my body to life of my Friend The Emperors guard had that respect for Marcellus that of so many Arms as were up to give Coriolanus his death there was not one which drew not back upon sight of that darling of the Romanes Nay the Emperour himself was upon the first apprehension so astonished at it that he knew not what to think of it as being in suspence between the different passions he strugled withal No doubt it was an excessive joy to him to see the face of a Prince dear to him as his own life but it could not withall but adde to his rage to find a Prince who should be sensible of his interests as himself so earnest in the defence of his enemy and that one against whom ever since the unworthy trick put upon him by Tiberius he had thought him sufficiently exasperated It was some time ere he was able to express what it was that troubled
thereto To that end he sent away one of the trustiest instruments of his cruelty in the head of a party whom he was confident of with a recommendation to the King of Media for the delivery of Artanez if need were While the Queen continued her discourse Artaban was in no small torment through the respect which hindred him from interrupting her insomuch that at last not able to Master the disturbance he was in Ah Madam said he to her will you not pardon the affection which obliges me to interrupt you to ask you whether it can be possible I should be so unhappy as to occasion the ruine of Prince Artanez I am not a little glad at that disturbance says the Queen to him as much confirming what we have been inform'd and what I am to acquaint you with though you know it better then my self had no great reason to conceal it from us You are then to know Daughter and you also Artaban that the King expecting Artanez to be brought in continued the massacres of all those whom he discover'd to have held any correspondence with Artaban insomuch that he was grown so exorbitant in his cruelty that the Parthians began to to murmur to threaten and at last to rise and particularly several Officers of the Army who had lost their Friends by those bloudy executions and who daily themselves expected the same fate At last through the indignation of Heaven the business came to that height that one day the greatest part of the Inhabitants of the City Praaspa where we then were together with the Souldiery seeing one of their companions carried to execution furiously took up Arms killed those that conducted the Prisoner and march'd violently towards the Palace The King having notice brought him of this Insurrection slighted it but being a man soon fired into displeasure he immediately went out of the Palace attended by his ordinary Gaurds and march'd towards the place where the Insurrection was with a design to put all the Traytors to the Sword But the Gods had otherwise ordered things to come to pass and thought fit that having met and charg'd them in a spacious place he was mortally wounded with two Arrows whereof one had taken him in the throat the other in the heart so that he fell down dead among his own who discouraged at his fall fought but little after The people who were encouraged by this and who after the death of their King were not deliberate what they were to do run upon the instruments of Phraates's cruelty and of those that came within their reach few escaped their fury They had haply been heightned to some more cruel resolutions it being no easie matter to quiet a Populace by just grounds forced into Arms if some eminent persons such as for whom they had no aversion had not interposed themselves and represented to them that they had no more enemies to engage against nor further subject to exercise their fury on that all then left in Praaspa were their Friends and that by death of the King and those inflexible creatures of his who had served him in his barbarous intentions they were sufficiently revenged for the loss of their Friends and and Kindred that of the Bloud-Royal there was not any person left on whom they might with reason exercise their revenge that their Princess was absent and worthy their services and respects rather then of their resentments and that for the Queen her Mother and Widow to the King they had killed they knew what a disconsonancy there was between her nature and her Husband 's how dearly she had ever loved them and to what dangers she had many times exposed her self to appease the King on their behalf The People and Souldiery contrary to their ordinary carriage hearkened to this discourse and were beginning to submit themselves thereto when Prince Artanez conducted by those who were employed to take him and had fortunately executed their Commission was brought to Phraaspa His conductors finding the face of things altered cast themselves at his feet begging their lives which they easily obtained of him but with much ado of the People who would needs punish them for the readiness of their inclinations to execute the cruel Orders of their Prince Artanez being respected by them as one of the Blood-Royal of their Kings loved by them for his vertue and that so much the more by reason of his being hated by the King and ready to be delivered up to execution as their Friends and Kinred whom they had revenged had they surrounded him with acclamations calling him Arsacian Prince worthy the Bloud of Arsaces and declar'd their readiness to obey him Artanez finding them so good an humor entreated them to lay down their Arms promising them upon that condition impunity for what had past and with the assistance of Timagenes and other considerable persons who before his coming had endeavoured to pacific things he managed all so successfully that before night all the people were gotten into their houses and the City was as quiet as if nothing had happened Artanez who had looked on that day as the last of his life and by a revolution which he could not attribute to any thing but divine Justice saw himself followed by all the Parthians with applause used his good fortune with much moderation and generosity and having caused the Kings body with much respect to be taken up and given order for the burial of the rest comes to the Palace where notwithstanding the aversion I had for the Kings death I was ore-whelmed with the grief which so unexpected an accident must needs have raised in me and where I stood in expectation of death through the fright I was in to see an armed Populace which had not spared the life of their King I trouble you not with a discourse of what I felt during that time because it would not onely prove tedious but not any way requisite in order to the discovery of those things which I am yet to acquaint you with Having received a punctual acount of what was done by the care of Zoilus Timagenes and divers other faithful persons who had provided for my safety and endeavoured to comfort me I knew that Artanez was innocent as to the Kings death and afterwards understood what pains he had taken to appease the exasperated multitude and the respect he had expressed towards the Kings memory though he might well have a just resentment against him so that seeing him coming in the posture not of a Prince of the blood of Phraates but of the humblest of his Subjects I embraced him with much affection acknowledged his generosity and recommended to him the memory of the King my Lord and the concernments of my daughter Artanez assured me that all the mischief was over that it was to be looked on as a stroke from heaven and that there was nothing to be feared provided the promise which he with Timagenes and divers
others had made were observed which was that what was past should be pardoned and that the people should not be called to account for a misfortune which the King run himself upon first by his cruelty and afterwards by his imprudence in hazarding himself as he had done and assaulting with so much animosity and so little foresight an armed and an exasperated multitude That for his own part he assured me of his fidelity to the last gasp and protested he was not glad at the Kings death though he had pronounced the sentence of his against him and that that day might haply have been the last of his life if the Gods had not by so unexpected a resolution prevented it That the people were ready to honour and acknowledge me for their gracious Queen that the most eminent persons were the more confirmed in that sentiment and that all desired the Princes might be sought out and setled in the throne of her Ancestors with a husband fit to govern them Such favourable dispositions in the hearts of our Subjects delivered me from all my fears and somewhat alleviated my misfortune and in fine Artanez did so well with the assistance of other well-affected persons that the next day all things were wholly appeased and the next to that the Kings body was disposed among the Monuments of the Arsacides with little pomp but with the same Ceremonies and as if he had dyed a natural death Two dayes after Artanez on whom I dis-burthened my self of some part of the government tels me that the most eminent among the Parthians and with them the people though ready enough to obey me desired a general Assembly wherein it might be considered what were to be done for the recovery of the Princess and the joyning of her to a husband that should succeed Phraates and govern them with more moderation then he had done I thought their desires very just and suitable to my own intentions since that they thereby discovered that they looked not on Venonez Phraates's natural son who was brought up at Rome with some pretence to the Crown so that a day being appointed all the principal Nobility among the Parthians met with several representatives of the people having all freedome of debate about what the whole Nation was concerned in The first thing resolved on was to oppose the pretensions of Venonez if so be he had any and to maintain against the Bastard the right of the lawful Princess to the last man This passed it was taken into consideration how the Princess should be found out and that to that purpose such persons should be imployed as the State were assured of and afterward it was proposed that she might make choice of a husband worthy her and the rank she is to be of But it was generally declared by all that it should not be Tigranes that he was a stranger an Allie if not a dependent on the Romanes and which is more that he was their enemy and not affected by the Princess who was not to be denied the liberty of her own choice There were those among the Souldiery who gave their Votes that Artaban should be their King that he was a person not hated by their Princess that the Crown was due to his valour and that under such a Prince as Artaban was they should fear neither the Medes nor the Romanes nor all the forces nor powers of the World This Discourse was no sooner started but the Assembly rung again with the name of Artaban so that the major voice was that Artaban should be chosen King But all the most eminent persons among the Parthians being present and among those many that were allyed to the House of the Arsacides who were flatter'd with a hope of being preferred before persons of a lower rank then themselves there was a considerable number of them that opposed the Proposition made in favour of Artaban and represented to the multitude that desired him That Artaban was indeed worthy the Government design'd him that upon the account of his Valour he might aspire to any thing and that his worth was such as that nothing was too great for him but that they would not have an unknown person placed in the Throne of Arsaces which had never been possessed but by Princes of the most illustrious bloud in the World and that those very persons who so much desired him would in a short time think it a regret to obey a Man whose Birth was nothing above their own Several persons had heard this discourse and it began to get credit among the multitude when Artanez who should have been the most likely to countenance it as being by reason of his Rank and the Bloud-Royal whereof he was the most concerned in it having with much patience heard the opinions of all the rest assumes the discourse and looking on the Nobles and People with such an action as whence they imagined he had some great matter to acquaint them withal I approve said he to them the fidelity of the Parthians and the zeal they express for the welfare of the State and the interest of their Queen and I am to acknowledge it the goodness of the Gods that I am this day in a capacity to satisfie both according to their just intentions These gallant Souldiers and brave Men who by their Swords have maintained this Monarchy have reason to desire for their Prince the same Artaban under whose conduct they have gain'd so many famous Victories and those whom Blood hath raised to the highest Dignities of this Kingdome desire with justice a Prince for their Soveraign But to satisfie all I am now to declare that Artaban is not onely a Prince born but a Prince of the same Blood with their Kings that he is descended from the great Arsaces as well as Phraates and that this truth will be undeniable when it shall be acknowledged that he is my Son It is certain O ye Parthians continued he Artaban is my Son and there are many persons among you who may call to mind that they have seen a Son of mine of that very name of Artaban which was also that of my Father and of the same age who about his tenth year accompanied me in my escape and whom since to elude the cruel designs of the King who attempted his life as well as mine I sent to be brought up in strange Nations He came back to me about the beginning of the War between the Parthians and the Medes and out of the resentment I had against the King who desisted not his persecutions of me even in my solitude I sent him to the service of the King of Media where by his Valour he soon came to the highest Commands in the Army Yet thought I not fit even then to discover this truth but have still conceal'd it though I have had secret conferences with Artaban as with a Friend and not as with a Son Nay I had caused it to be given out that
towards me nay though I am satisfied that neither Caesar nor Queen Cleopatra had any hand in the last misfortunes of Pompey and that it is not unlikely Caesar would have been moderate in the advantages of his fortune if that of Pompey would have permitted it yet I entertaine the proffer you make me of your friendship as a pure effect of your Vertue and am to assure you that next to the obligations I have to Candace there is not any thing I more value Whereupon embracing one another upon the new confirmation of their Friendship Artaban gave Caesario a short account of the particulars of his birth and the assurances he had of it as he had received them from Briton By this time night was drawing on and the Princes having caused a distribution to be made of what provisions there were in the Castle found much to their grief there was hardly to afford a light repast for so many persons and that the next day they must either be miraculously supplyed from heaven or suffer through hunger what they had avoided by the sword The Princesses and Princes made that poor meale with much constancy neither Cleopatra nor Candace discovering any thing of weakness upon so strange a misfortune Coriolanus and Caesario seem'd the only persons troubled as reflecting it was upon their account that their Princesses and Friends were fallen into that extremity and the grief which seemed to be legible in the countenances of Artaban Drusus and Alexander proceeded from their remembrances of Elisa Antonia and Artemisa rather than the danger that threatned them Drusus and Alexander discovered so much the less because they had left their Princesses safe among their Friends and feared not any thing might happen to them but Artaban was much in disturbance and though he were resolved out of a consideration of honour to perish with his Friends if he could not avoid it and had a courage great enough to face death without any trouble yet could he not reflect that Elisa was in the power of Augustus and that to be revenged for the injury he had that day received he might force her to marry Agrippa without an affliction that proved extremely a torment to him He was upon the rack of those considerations when Coriolanus and Caesario came to communicate their grief to him and ask his advice in the extremity they were reduced to and all the Princes being called to deliberate together what resolution should be taken it was without any contradiction resolved that when the night was a little advanced they should endeavour to force their way through the Guards and with the Princesses and all the men that were in the Castle endeavour to break through the Enemy on that side which led to the Ethiopian ships not but that the execution of this enterprise would prove difficult and dangerous yet was it to be embraced before the death they were assured of in the Castle being of that kind which was most unworthy their courage This resolution taken about an hour after they set things in order for the execution of it and the Princes having satisfied the souldiery of the necessity there was they should behave themselves gallantly Coriolanus Artaban and Caesario led them on and ordered the two Princesses with their women to come behind conducted by Marcellus Drusus and the three sons of Anthony That illustrious company consisting of what was most great in the world either as to Valour or Beauty went in that posture out of the Castle with a courage no less remarkable in the Princesses than the Princes and the three Chiefes who had severally commanded so great armies and were now all reduced to the command of so small a number fell in with such fury upon a guard placed almost at the end of the bridge and immediately forced it with such success that having cut some to pieces the rest fled in disorder to the next post This not only encouraged the souldiers but put their valiant commanders into some hope but when turning their faces towards the sea they would charge those that kept the passage that way they found their attempts would prove ineffectual the wayes being made up with barricadoes and great beames and maintained by above two thousand souldiers commanded by valiant men So that having set upon them very desperately but to little purpose and perceiving it impossible to get through and that upon the loss of some of their men the rest were unwilling to advance upon a design absolutely desperate they were forced to make what hast they could towards the Castle having out of a prudent foresight lest Briton and Eteocles at the end of the Bridge with fifty men to prevent the enemy from getting into it during the engagement and accordingly Marcellus Drusus and the Sons of Anthony conconducted the Princesses thither while Artaban Caesario and Coriolanus made their retreat so as to keep the Enemy in play till they came to the Castle gate into which they were the last that entred Upon this last act of misfortune was it that griefe and exasperation wrought their saddest effects in the two Princes who saw so many illustrious persons that were dear to them exposed to certain death upon their account Caesario fell at the feet of Candace to divert her from the design she had to dye with him and intreated his Brothers to leave him in an extremity wherein he could make no advantage of their generosity He pressed the same thing to the Great Artaban putting him in mind of his obligations to Elisa and representing to him that he should slight all things for the service of that Princess But the son of Juba was transported in such manner as would have raised compassion in the most insensible hearts and betraying what might be thought the effects of weakness in him had he been reduced thereto out of any respect to himself he endeavoured both by words and tears to prevail with those persons in whom the expectation of sudden death produced no such effect to leave him to his own misfortunes He lay prostrate at the feet of Cleopatra washing them with his tears and with much ado recovering the freedome of speech if ever said he to her Love begat compassion in any soul and if you would have me at the period of my life flatter my self with the glory of having been loved by my Princess my adored Princess by that love which I shall inviolably preserve in the other life by all you acknowledge sacred and in submission to those Deities whom you have ever reverenced and now incense by the injustice you do me force me not to die the most terrible kind of death my Enemies could have invented for me and think it enough that after the example of the Queen your Mother you have satisfied the world how easily you can slight death for his sake whom you love without exercising to the utmost this strange kind of cruelty upon me For in fine imagine not that when
preserve it but I should commit too great an offence against the Gods I should injure a precious memory which I have a more then ordinary veneration for nay I should injure your self whom I value above all things if attributing to my self a glory which is not due to me I deprive you of that which belongs to you You may remember that while yet a child though I was content you were believed my Son yet was my demeanour towards you with more respect and consideration then Fathers usually express towards their own children and you may call many particulars to mind which will engage your belief of the discourse I shall make to you in the presence of the Queen and Princess if they will give me leave and whereof I shall evince the truth by those discoveries that cannot be denied Whereupon Briton held his peace and seeing the Queen the Princess and Artaban hearkened to him with much astonishment and confident silence as it were to engage him to speak he comes up nearer to the Queen and Princess and plac'd himself so in the Closet as to be as much as he could distant from the door that he might not be heard by those who were in the other Chamber and seeing that they gave him a favourable audience he thus reassumed the discourse The History of BRITON and BRITO MARUS MY discourse shall be short because the accidents of most importance whereof it consists are known to all the world and that there are onely some particulars requiring no long relation which are not come to your knowledge You may have understood Madam from Artaban himself since I doubt not but he hath acknowledged what he thought himself to be that I was born among the Gauls and that after my Countrey was desolated by the arms of Julius Caesar the resentment I had against the Conquerour of my Countrey made me engage my self in the Army of Pompey the great his enemy I endeavoured upon all occasions to do him the greatest services I could and was so happy by the assistance of my fortune and my diligence therein as not only to be known as other persons of my rank who fought for him but also oblige him to afford me some particular demonstrations of affection to receive me into his house among those whom he most respected and not long after to bestow on me a Wife of considerable quality one that had been brought up with the vertuous Cornelia his own Wife In fine my fortune became such and the favours I received from so good a Master were so great that in a short time though a stranger there were few Romans about him in whom he had a greater confidence or whom he put upon more honourable employments I shall not insist on those actions of his life which are known to you since they are also known to all the World nor trouble you with the defeats of Carbo Perpenna Domitius Tigranes Mithridates so many Kings and so many different Nations upon the Accompt of so many battels and so many transcendent actions whereby he hath with so much justice acquired the name of GREAT and which gave him a Triumph over three parts of the Universe with a glory which never any other attained unto but hasten to his deplorable end and onely tell you that in the unfortunate battel of Pharsalia in which with the Fortune of the great Pompey the Roman Liberty was defeated after I had kept close to his person during the fight I was one of that small number of his that accompanyed him in his flight when after we had crossed the Valley of Tempe he took the Sea in a fisher-boat which carried him to a ship commanded by Petitius which he met by chance wherein he passed to the Isle of Lesbos there to take in the vertuous Cornelia his Wife and young Sextus one of his Sons by the former whom he had left at Mitelene I was the person whom he sent to Cornelia to give her an accompt of his misfortune and to prepare her to come with all expedition into the ship to avoid the pursuit of his enemy and I was the person who held her a long time swouning in my arms at the sad news which I was forced to bring her I attended her to the Vessel I was present at their sad interview and whatever else happened during the rest of that unfortunate voyage You know Madam by the report which hath been spread all the world over of it that after consultation about the place where that great man should take his refuge he resolved to retire to Egypt which was not far hoping to be received by King Ptolomey whose Father he had cast extraordinary obligations upon and that after this resolution taken he parted from Cypras in a Galley of Seleucia with Cornelia and Sextus and a small number of servants and made towards the City Pelusium where Ptolomey was at that time You know how he sent him notice of his coming when you have understood Madam with all the world who hath deplored his fortune how the greatest of men having been received in a small Bark of Achilles and Septimius with onely Philip his libertine and being brought towards the shore by those Barbarians was in the sight of Heaven and to the eternal shame of that Nation run through in several places with a Sword in the presence of the unfortunate Cornelia who with Sextus her step son and all the rest of those that came along with him were by the will of Pompey left in the Galley in expectation to receive his Orders when he had seen Ptolomey I do not conceive it any way necessary to represent unto you our astonishment nor to insist on the affliction of the unfortunate Cornelia Having all been Witnesses of that deplorable spectacle and through the horrour we conceived thereat being in a manner as dead as he who had discharged himself of his soul in our sight neither I nor those with me whose trouble at that loss was equal to mine were in a condition to relieve Cornelia or take care of Prince Sextus and it was well that we had in our Galley and in the other which had followed us other persons that were less concerned or at least less disturbed by that terrible accident who minding our safety weighed anchor immediately taking all the advantage they could of a favourable wind to get into the main Sea and to make out of that satal channel with the greatest speed they could possibly Neither Cornelia nor young Sextus did contribute any thing to this care of their welfare and while the young Prince was impatient between some of his servants who found work enough to hinder him from being his own death the desolate Princess was laid down as dead having her head in Herennia my Wife's lap whom she loved beyond all that had any relation to her and who had kept her company in all that voyage As soon as I had recovered my self not
out of my grief for my soul feels it to this very day but the disturbance which so strange an accident had raised in me I turned my thoughts to what was remaining of my Master and endeavoured to do him further service either in the person of his Son or that of his Wife and seeing people enough about Pompey and my Wife with some others busie about Cornelia who had not recovered her sentiments and who in a manner discovered no sign of life I came near her and contributed my endeavours to those of the rest to bring her to her self It was long ere we could promise our selves that comfort and when she had opened her eyes she saw us busie about her in order to her relief turning her fatal looks upon us she opened them to a rivolet of tears which it hath not been in the power of many years to dry up Though she were a person naturally of an admirable constancy and had a courage much beyond her Sex yet was it beyond both her courage and her constancy to oppose the violent assaults of a grief raised by so insupportable a loss Nor was there any person who either durst or would oppose so just lamentations but were inclined rather to accompany them than condemn them The saddest expressions that can proceed from the greatest misfortune come not any thing near the complaints of the afflicted Cornelia and it were impossible for me to make you apprehend it if you do not your self imagine it out of a consideration of the loss she received for indeed never had woman such a loss never had woman lost so great a Husband nor after so cruel a manner neither did she charge any thing but fortune with the fall of her illustrious comfort and as before her marriage with the great Pompey she had been the young Widow of Crassus who with his Father had been killed among the Parthians she said that her fortune had been fatal to her Husbands that she had been fatal to the House of Crassus and to that of Pompey and that it was meerly through the cruelty of her Destiny that the earth had lost two extraordinary men But being withal a person of admirable vertue and exemplary piety towards the Gods she offered not to repine at their decrees and amidst the discoveries of the most sensible grief that ever soul was moved to she added thousands of a miraculous moderation She never enquired what place they carried her to and the Vessel was come to Cyprus before she had diverted her thoughts for so much as one minute from the fatal object which wholly took them up nay she would have refused what is necessary for the preservation of life as thinking nothing more detestable than the continuance of it had she not thought her self oblig'd to some care of it out of the affection which she had for Pompey and to express her endeavours to preserve the only fruit of their love and marriage which she had carried for some moneths in her womb For you are to know Madam that she was some four or five moneths gone with child and though there were no great appearance of it and that she had discovered it to very few I was one of that small number that knew it and had been told it by Herennia to whom she communicated all her secrets She then endeavoured to keep it more secret then before and made many of those who had heard of it believe that she was mistaken in the opinion she had of her being with child but in the mean time the inconvenience it occasioned her and which troubled her the more by reason of her grief and the foul weather she had been in at Sea on which she had made a long voyage for a person in her condition cast her down at Amathus a City of Cyprus whither we were retired into a sickness which she conceived would prove long and which she would have wished more dangerous if out of the love she had for what was left of Pompey she had not been so far desirous of life as to bring it into the World Mean time having a great respect to the memory of the great Pompey in whatever he had left behind him though Prince Sextus was not by her yet she minded his preservation no less then if he had and fearing the pursuit of the Conquerour who might conceive such a jealousie of the Children of Pompey as might oblige him to take away their lives she would have him sent away with all diligence from Cyprus to seek his refuge either in the Navy which still continued loyal or with her Father Scipio Cato and King Juba who was of their party or with Cenius Pompeius his elder Brother who was in Spain Sextus would not haply have been perswaded to leave her as having a greater respect for her vertue than an alliance which ordinarily raiseth not very solid Friendships between stepmothers and step-children had he not imagined that there was no danger for her and that the triumpant Caesar would not extend his victory so far as to the Wife of the great Pompey Sextus left Cyprus with the greatest part of those that remained both of the friends and servants of his Father and upon the desires of Cornelia I was one of the small number who stayed with her and continued to serve her with the affections I had for her great and illustrious Husband She kept her bed all the time she stayed at Amathus where all the world did her honour suitably to her dignity and vertue and where she understood somewhat to her comfort that Caesar instead of countenancing the murtherers of Pompey had destroyed them all that Ptolomey himself had lost his life and that there was not any one left of those infamous counsellors who had engaged him in that detestable action She kept her bed though she was sufficiently well in health the better to conceal her great belly but at last perceiving it impossible for her to keep it always secret in a City where she was visited by so many persons upon pretence that the Countrey air might do her much good she would needs be carried in a Litter to a certain great House which stood a days journey from Amathus and and which one of the principal inhabitants of Amathus accommodated her with for that time Her resolution was to Lie-In there as being unwillng to venture upon the Sea in the condion she was in and conceiving there was no place more fit to conceal her delivery Her reckoning came upon her sooner than she expected for the seventh moneth after conception was hardly expired when she feels coming upon her the pains and throws of Child-bearing and not long after without any other assistance then what she received from her woman she was safely delivered of the same Britomarus whom you now see before you It is true Artaban continues Briton observing his astonishment as also that of the Queen and Princess in their