thus matched by a Youth inraged and ashamed that he should be so long in conquering one over whom though his valour should render him victorious yet he should not merit the title of a Victor summon'd together all his active powers and with united force gave such a blow on Pandion that all the protection he could receive from his well-managed Sword was to moderate the violence of the stroak which yet nevertheless lighted on the side of his Head with such a force that it dispossessed his memory of its bruised habitation and drove him some few paces from the place where he stood which Clausus perceiving resolved not to neglect such an opportunity but pursued him with redoubled blows and reunited power But Pandion as if his veins had been filled with Spirits as fast as they were emptied of Bloud mustring all his strength skill and courage together being to give a gallant Farewell like the last blaze of a dying light ran with such a vehement courage upon Clausus that he not aware but rashly prosecuting victorious Fortune the Sword run thorough his Heart or rather he ran his Heart upon it conqueâ—ing himself just when he was triumphing on the conquest of his enemy which when the Knights of the Castle pâ—rceived not regarding the Laws of Arms â—lew in â—o defend their Captain or rather themselves knowing that on the thrid of his Life hung all their Privileges which â—ut in two must needs fall to the ground which consideration made them fall inconsiderately on Pandion which Periandâ—r seeing enraged with contempt of their Dastardly baseness to set upon a wounded man gasping for Life and more to think that such cowards should be allotted him to be the Subjects of his valour and most of all to think that his friend and he should receive their Deaths from the hands of such miscreants Being near over-pressed with the multitude he rushed upon them with such a torrent of violence as drowned whomsoever he encountred withall in a lake of their own bloud though surrounded with them he could not avoid receiving some blows yet they served but to encrease his rage to the extremity so that with a mad violence or furious madness all the powers of his Soul and the Strength Dexterity and Activity of his Body transfer'd to the one arm he dislived some and disarmed others his valour being crushed between the two extremes necessity of preserving his Friends and his own Life and the difficulty of accomplishing it made it so swell within his breast with the madness of a terrible fury that to the destruction and admiration of his enemies he went beyond himself in his atchievements killing where he hit and hitting where he pleased separating some not only their Souls from their Bodies but their upper parts from their nether others that were aiming where to lodge their blow with the greatest advantage he deprived of blow and sight and all Whilst Pandion not able to assist his friend was forced to refresh his fainting body by resting himself upon the ground But they were soon assisted by the Knights imprisoned within the Castle who knowing that their Jaylors were imprisoned by Death and seeing Pandion bestrid by Periander and he beset with their enemies they unanimously assaulted them all agreeing in the means of their preservation their enemies destruction though all disagreeing in the end some fighting to preserve their own honour disdaining to be enslaved by such unworthy Villains others for their Ladies some out of Love to the Commonwealth to quit it from such a nest of Pestilent Fellows others out of hatred to their enemies so that in fine there grew a desperate combat as it must needs the Combatants growing desperate the Clausian Knights resolving rather to lose their lives by whole-sale on the point of the Sword than retail them out by the hand of Justice which they knew would befall them should they surrender grew fearless through fear so that Courage in the Valiant grew desperate and despair made the Coward couragious that at length the conflict grew so cruel that the very ground was overflown with a deluge of bloud and the earth that was wont to bury mens bodies mens bodies now buried the earth so that it seemed like Mars's sowing time the seeds of cruelty being implanted in each Breast and watered with Bloud but like Deaths reaping time such an Harvest of Bodies there lay in heaps serving as Bridges to transport over Rivers of Bloud that streamed in the pavement Hard it was to determine which way the ballance of victory would poize Fortune for a while carrying her self a Neuter till at length Periander being a too partial Umpire by the mediation of his valour decided the controversy sending such throngs of Souls of the Clausian Knights that were loth to answer for their unanswerable crimes before Melampus his Tribunal to receive their eternal doom that the small remainder yielded craving mercy which they found Then Periander receiving the Keys of the Gate gave the Captives that were the Keepers to the Keepers that were the Captives till Pandion whose right it was to command should otherwise order who appointed Sentinels on the wall and a watch for that night intending the next morning to march in triumph to King Melampus's Court. But no sooner had each man took his Station but their Ears were arrested with the crys of a Female voice which as well as they could understand demanded entrance the Gates being opened they all straight knew her to be Roxana their Kings Daughter who seeing the event of the Combat came with speed to the Castle to perform her last obsequies to Theon and to return thanks to Pandion and Periander for their hazardous adventure And being admitted into the Castle she was received with all respect and joy by all the Knights and Ladies there but especially by Pandion who blest her ears with the happy tidings that Theon was yet alive pointing where his Chamber was who would have said more but the transporting joy not only divorced all sorrow from her Heart but her Body from the place so that both his words and thoughts were prevented with her sudden â—light calling as she went Theon Theon her Tongue not being able any more to express her unexpressible passion but as soon as the eyes of Theon nay his Heart nay his Soul was ravished with the sight of Roxana as if her beauty had been some divine quintessential extract or some ray of that celestial fire that inspired life into Prometheus Image he felt a vigour infused into all his fainting limbs and the Darts of Beauty to triumph over the Darts of Death and her words to blow up the dying sparks of Life into a flame so that assembling all his powers together he cast himself into her Arms his Legs being unfaithful and feeble supporters of his Body But alas as their arms were linked each in other and their very Souls intwin'd by a sweet sympathy Theons Spirits that like the dying
he dare to Arouze my anger he shall soon find its Lion-like roarings shall awake him out of his dream of imaginary dignity and then hee 'l wish his ambitious thoughts had flown at lower distance Thus the King stormed for a while but recovering himself he began to consider that it was not safe to continue his Daughter and family under the command and inspection of Danpion that sought so basely both to blow up her honor and his power and that it was less safe to call him before the Tribunal of publike Justice his affairs being now in such a distracted posture ready to be beleagured with a potent Army and therefore he had more need endeavour union amongst his men and by that means to fortifie himself against his common enemy than to diminish his strength by augmenting and fomenting more divisions which he feared would follow if he should on the sudden totally degrade him and confer his honor on another And therefore to avoid this Scylla and Charybdis he resolves to couch his resolutions underneath his secret thoughts and send for Danpion from the Palace and put him upon something that could not be effected without the loss of his honor or life or both And this way he counted the more secure remembring that such Court Minions that like Stars of the greatest magnitude move in so high a Sphere are seldom eclipsed and obscured by the interposition of a new Favorite but rather by the bright lustre of the rays of Majesty To prosecute his intents he sends for Danpion who in obedience to his summons marches from the Palace and as he thought from all his honors hopes and preferments but being of an unconquerable spirit bears it with as much magnanimity as he was able and comes to the Kings Camp but above and beyond all his hopes and expectations the King looks upon him with a smooth brow and tells him he had found him to be a man of an impavid spirit and greedy of renown and therefore he had sent for him to perform a piece of service the very attempt whereof would redound to his great honor but the execution of it would not only crown him with immortal fame but be highly advantageous to the Kingdom Danpion see-such an unexpected event began in his thoughts to insult over this result of Fortune and thus replyed Great Sir said he I were unworthy of either life or honor should I refuse at your commands to part with either since to your exceeding munificence I owe more than both neither can all I were able to do could I accomplish more than Hercules return such retributions as might compensate those transcendent favours your Royal goodness hath been pleased to confer upon me Therefore were it to scale the heavens and fetch Atlas thence to conquer the Rebels your enemies though your valour needs it not yet were it your commands I would do it or dye in the attempt Then said Hiarbas I am informed that Pandion hath an inchanted Standard whose Magical force so ingages all the Subterranean powers Pluto's black Legions on his side that he is invincible untill some valiant Knight by his single fortitude takes it from him and I know none in my Army or Kingdom whose great undanted courage would provoke them to undertake such an enterprise except your self If that be all said Danpion my sword shall soon cut the Charm in sunder and send the infernal spirits themselves down to their dark mansions Whereupon he went and furnished himself with Horse and Armour and all things requisite for his encounter Pandion being come with his Army in ken of his enemies draws them up into a Battalia intending to fight which Hiarbas having notice of before by his Scouts he draws his men also up into a form and after a brave Oration to incourage them to fight he himself in person marches before them into the field Where as if the very fight of their enemies had been a Loadstone to their courage their Martial spirits were so provoked as that it was difficult for their Commanders to restrain them from making an untimely onset Sabillus and Bonosus p 141. Sabillus enraged that he had thus snatch'd his victory out of his hands lifted his Arm intending to have cleft Bonosus's head but the sword by an accident flying out of his hand only cut off his Nose which unexpected blow so stunnied Bonosus as in an amazedness looking on one side and the other to see which way the blow came as if he would not take the advice of his eyes now he had lost the Moderator that used to interpose betwixt them and in a fury ran forward and as the Proverb hath it followed his Nose and ere he himself or Sabillus were aware thrust him thorough the throat Here lay shivered Lances and broken swords and there dead Horses and Carcasses of men mangled as if they had been newly anatomized In one place lay Heads deposed from their soveraignties yawning and staâ—ing as if they looked for their Bodies In another heaps of mutilated Arms Hands and Legs as if Death had there kept its Shambles Long did the fight continue dubious Fortune equally sharing the Laurels untill at length it began something to incline to Hiarbas which Memnon a valiant Warrier and great Commander under Pandion espying rage and contempt so burned in his bosome that his eyes flamed as if they had contained the whole Element of fire and he thundered forth a roring voice as if his Lungs had sucked in the middle Region of the Air and with his breath he could blow away a World upbraiding the Soldiers for their base pusillanimity to give ground to such a dastardly crew as he conceived his enemies to be and running into the mids of Hiarbas men with such a boisterous madness as if with his single valour he could send an Army to Tartarus and by his strength could unhinge the Poles and stop the mobile's career he slaughtered all that stood within the reach of his weapon decollating some making them shorter by the head and dissecting others some he thrust thorough with his Sword pointing out plainly what death they should dye and cleft others skulls and thus he unmercifully triumphed over his enemies till at length Death put an end to his victory by a flight of Arrows that feathered with destruction lighted upon him And thus was he slain by this winged Army which otherwise would have slain an Army had he lived and at his Death haled hundreds of souls out of their claiy prisons and compelled them to attend him in the other world His followers provoked by his example to make good what he by his valour had gotten had engaged themselves so far in the mids of their adversaries that at length they were surrounded on all sides by Hiarbas his policy who had caused his men before to retreat some paces backward for that end Danpion who had all this while been butcherring of his enemies in the rear intending to cut
would be brim-full with a raging pang which would struggle for birth but in striving to vent all it could vent nothing but only stop the passage of her speech till at length her breath would be delivered of a Groan which capring thorow the Bowes and Leaves would be re-bounded to her Ears by Eccho which Glycera hearing the better to pass away the mournful hours of the night began thus to entertain a Dialogue with her which because the Knight thought worthy the relation to Pandion as well as I can remember I shall relate to you Who is that said Glycera derides my misery I said Eccho Who is that I Is it Eccho â—Tis Eccho What dost thou mock at woe No. No sure thy own woes might make thee pity mine Pity mine Thy griefs indeed would extort pity from the â—â—intiest heart but oh What grief 's like mine Mine â—Tis true thine might extract the tribute of a bleeding-eye I. But sure my sorrows need pity too Need pity too Tell me then Eccho must these griefs still perâ—â—ver Ever Ever That 's a sad doom what must my miseries alwayes proceed Seed What no sooner â—ipe and blown but Seed again Gain Gain indeed to exchange a few joyes for a million of sorrows but yet O that Heaven would release me of my Bargain Bare gain Bare gain certainly to sell my Soul for sighs and Tears but oh when shall I find release Lease What not till my lifes Lease is out But when that 's done whither shall I then fly High What to the Elizium of eternal bliss Yes When once arrived there what shall my Soul enjoy Joy What joyes are those that inhabit the Heaven Empyreal Real Mean time will not Heaven hear my cry Cry That I have oft done but yet had no reply Ply What if I should Ply it still what Medicine will Heaven apply to my Disease Ease What if I shall forbear vocal or mental Prayer Erre Why will not Heaven hear the shrill moans of distreâ—t Innocence No sense Why are there any cryes more shrill Ill. Ill cryes aloud for vengeance but oh the sweet perfumes that ascend from the chast Innocent No sent What can such sweet exhalations yeeld no sent No sent Why is it that such a redolent Balm as Innocencye which ascends to Heaven as a perpetual Sacrifice should yeeld without Prayer no sent Without Prayer nocent When the nocent prayes what return doth Heaven make to his desire Ire What Answer will Heaven return if the Innocent pray Ray. A Ray of Love or Light or both Both. Which of the Powers sublime can affect a Mortal All. When a beam of Love shines from Heaven into a Mortal what part doth it comfort Fort. The Fort or Life where the soul chiefly retires which is that part Heart How long will such Divine consolations stay Ay. For ay will they abide Bide Oh Heavenly newes But Echo how com'st thou to be of Heavens Privy-Counsel Didst e're fly so nigh the Gods as to read the Records of Destiny Nigh Thou art mortal as well as I art thou not Not. Art thou not born below among the Trees and Dens and Caves re-sounding when we hollow Low But prethee Echo tell me what made thee pine for coy Naâ—cissus love Love And what became of thy sweet body O dy Where went thy soul when thou grieving saw'st thy Narcissus tears so many shed Vanished What inchanted Charms were in his beauteous Face to effect so strange a transformation Ah shone And could his shining-beauty thee so soon annihilate Late What didst thou do when thou sawest him Metamorphosed into a Flower Lowre And what when thou heardst his last groan Groan And what did the Woods do when he pin'd with the sight of his own beauty in the Spring Ring And what hast thou done ever since Heaven did transmute thy shape Ape Since then thou art nothing but a Mortals Ape how knowest thou Heavens Decrees so well Well How canst thou pry into their Designes who all earth-born Mortals in wisdom so surmount Mount And will the Gods above none from their Counsels exclude Lewd Art thou not lewd that for fond Narâ—issu's love dost moan incessantly Lye Sure such unchast affection is not holy Oly. But I have vowed to live for ever chast Haste And doth not such a vow oblige to chastity Tye tye Well since it tyes me so I 'll hence be gone Be gone And through Heavens assistance perform what I have vowed to do Do. Thus did poor Glâ—cera sâ—rive to divert the thoughts of her misery somtimes by discoursing with Echo somtimes be â—oaning to her self her own hard fortune somtimes praying to Heaven for relief somtimes wishing for Death and if she chanced to heaâ— a whisâ—râ—ng wind flutter among the Leaves her sorrow would perswade her fancy to conceit it to be some Messenger of Heaven or Death to bring her the tidings of a reprival or removal from her state of woe and if a whispering blast chanced to re-bound to her from the Leaves presently grief would represent to her fancy Deaths Arrowes singing her Elogies as they flew to her obvious heart Thus did she spend that night in wayling weeping sighing sobbing grieving groaning till Titan's fiery Steeds had chased away the lesser luminaries that had usurped his Throne but yet no Day-break of hope dawned upon her with beams of comfort but in that woful despairing condition did she run through invious Woods rocky Desarts and hollow Caves where night kept house with mournful solitariness and over hills and mountains inhabited only by the Clouds until at length she came into a pleasant Vale incircled with a murmuring River which seemed with silent mutterings to repine at her sorrows and over-spread with a gloomy shade by reason of hanging Rocks that defended it from the Suns invasion seemed as it were dâ—essed in funeral-attire to mourn for Glycera's sorrows Glycera observing this Vale to be a fit place where she might bid her Adieu to the world and all sublunary contentments resolved there to sit her down and dye For of four dayes and nights that she had wandred through those Desarts had she not received the least sustenance and therefore her fainting spirits too weak Chains to fasten her Soul to her Body were oft ready to let loose their Prisoner By this River she sat down and prayed to Heaven to let loose the bands of Life and not to retard slow-pac'd Death any longer but to consort her among the shades that wander in the Elizium Plains And further begg'd That when Death should crumble her body to Atomes and resolve it into individual Units that then her soul might be united to the great and only Eternal Individual and dwell among those beatified Souls that float like Atomes in the Sun-shine of his resplendent glory This having said she laid her down upon the Brink of the mournfully-grumbling River and closed her Eyes thinking never more to behold the loathed Light and hourly expected the sweet Gaol-delivery
passions but recovering her self she thus began to complain What fatall Star is this whose Pestilential influence doth afflict me with succedaneous sorrows and makes me daily fill the air with Complaints as if my soul were griefs Exchequer Misery and despair hath arrested all my powers that all my words and thoughts are steeped in brine sorrows and not a part of me but is forced to bear a part in this Consort to make a horrid harmony in woe My tongue the Organ of my soul blown by the sighing Bellows of my heart never ceaseth its mournful tones whilst the tears flow in such unmeasurable measure from the floud-gates of my Eyes as if my very Soul would be disfused out of those perpetual streaming sluces Not a thought but is sacrificed to him on the Altar of a constant mind And that that confounds me with endless woe and makes my woes endlesly profound is not only an utter despair of ever being blest with the fruition of him which alone were able to kill a lip-sick Lover who with quaint Rhetorications can paint his Mistress face and curl her hair with better art than she her self and think her tears love philters each sentence a heart-charming Exorcism and every frown to dart a death but that my affections should be insnated by one for fading skin-thick beauty whose worth and valour and all that might render him excellent I am wholly ignorant of But Ah! my Soul how darest thou entertain a dishonorable thought of one by externals Natures Minion and thy darling would Nature have Compiled so beautiful a fabrick to be a receptacle for a deformed soul Certainly she would not have made such a Cabinet but to place a Jewel in it and that of no mean value neither do we not see how she hath framed the heavenly Orbes of a more pure quintessential nature than these course-grained Elementary bodies set with glistring spangles garnished with millions of golden Scutchions and all to be a fit Pavilion for the Sun the worlds great General And what is this dull blockish earth but for blind Moles Dens of wild Beasts graves of dead putrisying Corps and at best for man to tread on and as for Trees Plants and Flowers do we not see how they not induring to be imprisoned within its bowels break forth striving to ascend and leave it but that the Earth as loth to part with them fetters them by the roots And wherefore hath she made this Microsm Man the Epitome and total summ of all the worlds Excellencies but that it may befit to contain such an Angelical Soul And will she now be so preposterous as to make Pausanias excell all in beauty but that he excels all in vertue But what 's all this to me I do but Tantalize my self with these fond thoughts since cruel Fortune separates me from him Thus she walked regardless whither she went until she was surprized with a glimmering light appearing through the leaves and boughes the suddenness whereof silenced her incomposed thoughts so that now she be took her self to see what should cause these twinkling sparks of light and having gone some few paces forward she came to a little Plain at the foot of a Hill where lay the Relicks of a stately Edifice as might plainly appear by the ruins of it upon which there stood a Chapel defaced by Antiquity so that it was rather venerable than beautiful only the situation of it made it seem one of the sweetest places in the earth neer the Chapel there was a Crystall Rivulet whose curled streams ran softly along murmuring that their Envious pursuers would crowd them thence so soon And passing through a Grove she came to the Chapel and entering into it she espyed a Lamp and an Inkhorn and Paper lying upon a Table of Stone she took the Paper and looked into it in which were written these Verses Then must I live and will none pitty lend By ending me at once to put an end To these my pains and tears which ne're will cease Untill by death my Soul obtains release Then when O Soul wilt flye and leave these Chains Wherewith this Body cloggs thee and these pains These never ceasing pains tormenting fires Which daily burn to feed some fond desires But Ah! poor Soul long since th' art fled and gone To her 'twixt whom ther 's such an union Made by affection that although by death I should this body to the grave bequeath Yet sooner can thy self dissolved be And loose that knot of immortality Which makes thy woes eternal than be able To loose that Union which Love makes so stable Passions are like the flame which once being felt Within the breast the Soul like Wax both melt Th' Idea is th' Impression which receiv'd Of it the spirit ne'er can be bereav'd What then if thou above the Clouds wert fled And left this clayie body pale as Lead What wilt avail if when thon dost divest Thy self of it thou canst not be at rest Though left this Prison if these passions fly And still bereave thee of thy liberty If when this body 's burnt and in an Urn Yet then with greater endless fires dost burn Only this hope remains that though they may Ascend great Natures dictates to obey When thou their flaming Center dost attain They with that fiery Element will remain Mean while to all vain pleasures bid farewell Since th' art exil'd from her that doth excell What Earths vast Wombe or Heavens influence Did e're produce all other excellence Is but an Empty name if not in her She is the substance others shadows are They 'r wise fair vertuous if like her for she Is Wit and Beauty patience chastity Then since by cruel fates we parted are Henceforth I will be wedded to despair She read the Verses and her own Experience made her to pity the Author so that more out of Compassion than desert she commended them considering also they were the lines of one submerst in sorrows and therefore unable to soar aloft on the wings of an airy fancy And having paused a while she heard a sigh accompanied with a silent but a deep-fetcht groan which was eccho'd back by another from her being moved thereto by the thoughts of her own hard fortune which thoughts made her the more to pity him whose condition so neerly resembled hers insomuch that a Pearl-like tear was ready to distill from her Eyes but her curiosity putting her upon a farther inquiry she took the Lamp and went to the place whence the air convey'd those sad accents to her ears The first Species that presented it self to her view was one in black upon a bed and seeing him possess'd with Sleep Deaths image together with his pale looks sorrows continual concomitant she almost thought he was a Carcase not a man but that she remembred she heard him sigh About his wrist was a Bracelet of Hair in which were wrought in Letters of Gold these verses Though cruel fortune makes us part
that runs through the whole machine of the universe seldom connives at the wrongs of distrest Vertue The bloody wretch had no sooner sent his Ponyard as a messenger of death to her but heaven stabbed his soul with horrors that in a frenzy he leaps from a Rock and dashes his body into as many pieces as his soul was torn with Fuâ—ies So apt a death did heaven prepare for one whose rocky heart had broke the neck of a Ladies chastity Polienus who as I said had been divinely informed of this Ladies misery awakens out of his dream and seemes to have a bloody mist before his eyes that represents all things to his surprized fancy horrid and tragical so that in amazement he arises slips on his morning Gown takes his sword in his hand and hasts he knows not whither to assist he knows not what But the heavenly powers who make use of earthly instruments to execute their reasonable decrees whilst men only act their own unreasonable passions and range humane disorders into a divine kind of order so ordered his disorderly steps as that in a short moment he came to a place where he heard a mournful groan which ushered in these words Heavens separate my spotless soul from this defiled body and as my life doth so oh let the extravagant follies of my youth pass out together Oh! Receive me where vertue shall ever be defended from all Villous invasions Polienus hearing this runs in a deep amazement some paces farther till he finds this poor Lady in a condition to have confirmed an Atheist but conâ—uted a Stoick by converting him into a weeping Heraclitus For she lay imbalmed in her own blood her hands entangled in her hair and in her shoulder there stuck a Ponyard that made a passage for such streams of bloud as deluged those beauties that inhabited her skin Polienus seeing this woful spectacle stood as if a profound sense of her misery had struck him into an insensibility At length recovering himself he runs to her snatches out the Steel that lay bathed in a fountain of blood and stops up the wound and feels her pulse to see if life had yet forsaken its fortress the heart where it last retires and perceiving the living bloud to move in her veins and sent as an Envoy from the heart to acquaint him that though life was streightly besieged in its Cittadel with squadrons of pangs yet it had not quite surrendered to the government of death he repairs the bloody breach as well as he could and runs home and fetched men from his Castle that conveyed her thither with all speed upon a downy Couch where her sent for Chirurgions with speed to her who with their extraordinary care and skill in a few days restored her to her primitive health and beauty When Polienus saw that she was recovered and no pretence of weakness could hinder his enquiry what should be the cause of her misery he using something more freedom of discourse than ordinary requested her to acquaint him whether some direful chance arm'd with merciless and inevitable fate or some accursed hand had endeavoured to put that untimely date to her life and happiness Glycera considering what great engagements he had laid upon her and that she might be justly thought ungrateful if she should deny so poor a request and therefore related to him the whole story of her misfortunes how she fled from the Nunnery in Thessalia to avoid the tedious Love of Pandion and how snatcht up by a Pirate who at Sea endeavoured to ravish her and then how in his rage being disappointed of his desires he threw her over-board but then how she was most miraculously preserved by a Dolphin that faithful friend to mankind in adversities upon whom she had rid up and down for the space of several hours without any hope of succour how she was relieved by a Fisherman and by him brought to Cyprus but when he had conveyed her hither how in all particulars he misused her not permitting her to go ashore and then to make amends for all his abuses how at last he sold her to a deformed Swain that carried her to his cottage and how the next day as she was going to be joyned with him by Hymens bands in Venus Temple a Knight came and rescued her from him but then what a tumult there was raised with the rusticks roaring and how that occasioned a combate between the Knight and others that thought to have forc't her from him as he had from Lacon how at length he was forc't to resign her up to them by that means to save himself but then how when they had obtained their prize they could not agree among themselves but fell upon one another with as much fury as before they did upon the Knight and how she perceiving an opportunity for escape fled into that Forest where she had wandered succourless and hopeless of succour for several days and nights But when she came to relate the dismall story of her dishonor poor Lady the tears fell from a cloud of sorrows that over-spread the heaven of her beauty just as if that transparent cloud that encircles heavens hollow arches had been condensed into â— Crystal shower and her faltring tongue left it to her countenance in sorrowful and yet bashful signs to declare her misery and there you might have plainly seen the pourtraicture of her bleeding honor adumbrated to the life in her blushing Cheeks Polienus observing her passionate grief grew more inquisitive about the cause so that with vehement importuning he scrued thus much from her in a broken manner that a villain would have forced her and would have killed her As soon as Polienus heard this he felt his heart even divided between the two passions of pity and revenge at length pity augmenting revenge gave that the soveraignty over his will so that in a fury he kneels down and implores heaven that the vengeance due to such an accursed act might light on him if he permitted that to the unrevenged and with that Glycera having given him a Character of him as well as she could he takes his sword and mounts his Steed and so rides out into the Forest in pursute of this wretch but ere he had gone a quarter of a mile he found him dead upon the ground having broke his neck with the fall from the Rock When Polienus saw this he was glad that heavens vengeance had found him out but sorry that any one had been the executioner besides himself but however he goes home to his Castle and commands his men to fetch the body and give it to his dogs Justice thus being done upon him Glycera began a little to allay the pangs of sorrow that daily had wont to stir up some great commotions in her brest and to entertain some small familiarity with miâ—th which had so long been exiled from her so that in a short time she was restored to her health and priâ—â—ine beauty
and ready to yield himself a prisoner unto death less cruel then his enemies as appeared by his pale looks which had no other redness than what they received from his own and enemies bloud Which sight did so animate Perianders courage as that with a Lyon-like fury he flew upon the first and sheathed his sword in his bowels but ere he could recover his weapon he was wounded in the shoulder by another which Periander feeling it so increased the flames of his fury within him as that it flew in sparks from his Eys enraged he fell upon him never ceasing till he had separated his murderous Soul from his body made both him and the other the Trophies of his Valour Periander leaving them weltering in their gore turned to Athalus for so was the young Knight named thinking to revive his dying Spirits and to acquaint him with the death of his enemies But Athalus that before was fainting and sowning and even at the confines of death with the presence of this strange Knight began to revive as if he had received life from him as well as owed his life to him after millions of thanks returned desired him to accompany him to his Castle which was not far distant from them so that Periander accerting of the invitation they in a short time there arrived which for its magnificence might more properly be termed a Palace being invironed with a Wall of Stone whose height enviously seemed to hinder them from beholding the Fabrick it did encompass The Pillars on which the Gate was hung were made of purest Marble on the top of which were ingraven Gilded Griffons whose Wings spread with the shutting and closed with its opening by the means of a secret Engine as if they had been indued with life When they were entred in they came into a stately Court paved with checquered Marble through which they passed into a second far surpassing the former in which there stood a Tâ—wâ—â— imbraced with wanton Ivy spread with fragrant â—â—â—lantine entrailed with Roses and suppâ—â—â—ed with Pillars resembling Atlas The Arched Roof was decked with Flowers Arbors and Groves underneath there were engraven the Nine Muses each holding a melodious Instrument in her hand wherein the Artificer seemed to excell himself for underneath the Pavement there was a secret bubling Spring whose Streams were through Pipes conveyed to each Statue so that at the turning of a Silver Cock as if they had been inspired with life from Heaven like Prometheus Image all the Instruments would sound with such melodious consent and harmony as charmed Periander into an extasie of admiration so that with what he saw and heard he imagined himself in a Paradise where the more he admired the more he desired to stay to satisfie his Curiosity and yet the longer he stayed the more his admiration was augmented But Athalus faintness would not permit any long delay so that into the Castle they went where the spacious Rooms were hung with Arras Tapestry and Cloth of Tissue adorned with lively Pictures After Athalus had taken some repose and repaired the bloudy breaches the late battery had made Periander entreated him to relate the occasion of the quarrel at whose request Athalus thus began Sir said he the obligements I have received from you are of so high a nature that I cannot but acknowledge them above requital there being nothing of an equal worth with Life which I must acknowledge I have received from your Valour and therefore I cannot but account your desires as Commands and my disobedience to them as Rebellion against the Laws of Nature therefore to satisfie them know that in the Lordship of Parrhasia where I dwell there lives a young Nobleman Son to the Lord of the place called Plivio in whose friendship I was once as happy as now unhappy in his hatred Bred up we were together and as our stature so our affection encreased Youth is tender and readily receives the impressions of education but though it easily receives them yet it difficultly pâ—rts with them so it was with us that affection which was ingraffed when we were young grew and increased untill our mature Age insomuch that once we thought the Stars should sooner have fell from Heaven and sunk into the Ocean there to have extinct their light Stones ascend and supply their places the Sun rise in the West and the order wherein Nature hath placed all things be perverted than our love dissolved but as love conjoyned us so love parted us for hapning once to espy Aâ—ritesia and Matilda the two beautiful daughters of Pirotes walking dallying and discoursing in the Fields our affections were captivated with their Beauty he with Arritesia the elder I with Matilda fain we would have concealed our passions but Love will not be hid its nature is such that it is most revealed when most concealed for sometimes we must be commending one and then the other one while Arritesia was judged most beautiful and then Maltida would seem to carry it with the greater grace one while we compared them both together and then singling out a Feature as if that had surpassed the rest in excellence but then a second seemed to excel that a third exceeding them both In fine Plivio was so deeply entangled with Arritesia as not being able to conquer it he discovered it in frequent sighs and heart-betraying looks often would he extoll Matilda but then when he spake of Arritesia he would accent every sentence with a sigh which I perceiving thinking to please him would answer all his commendations with complyance and when he sighed I could not but sigh too he out of affection to her and I out of cordial love to him but still he misconstrued all and there wherein I thought I most pleased him I most offended him he interpreting all I did to him was done to her so that though his love to me was not presently converted to raging jealousie yet it soon begot suspition which is jealousie in its infancy which I assoon perceived by the constant watch his eyes kept Home we returned to try what success Fortune would crown our loves withall but as if the Staâ—s had conspired at once to cross our affections and our happiness together Matilda had placed her delight in Plivio and Arritesia the object of Plivios delight was pleased to esteem of me far above my deserts and above Plivio so that this was the spring and source of all our future unhappiness for Plivio's jealousie by this was daily augmented and begot hatred and hatred made him put the worst construction upon each thing I said or did He took my visits to Matilda to be only pretences thereby the more securely to rob him of Arritesia and the cold entertainment and slights he received of her to proceed from thence which latter was truth though I was both innocent and ignorant All my vows and protestations wherewith I laboured to clear my self did but the more confirm him
in his opinion so that as our love encreased our love diminished Beauty is like the Sun whose Beams darting upon a fire extinguishes it so its rays piercing the soul enkindles the flames of love and with their heat expels all other fires For as the heat of his own affection to Arritesia daily did augment so it caused the flames of our former Friendship to languish At length unfortunately it happened that we both met at once at Pirotes his house As soon as ever we saw each other anger and jealousie made our blood so boil within us as our passions were ready to over-flow the banks of civility and make us commit an Act of the highest rudeness to quarrel in our Mistresses presence which I feaâ—ing and also to avoid a future quarrel parted from them But Plivio who all this while viewed how Arritesia had fixed her eyes upon me as also how affectionately she desired my stay not being able to contain himself followed me and as I was mounting my Horse made me this challenge Athaluâ— said he now thy base unworthyness and unfaithfulness to thy friend is apparent which hitherto thou hast masked with hypocritical pretensions to Friendship Falsely with oaths making me believe that which thy actions contradict therefore know such injurious affronts I cannot but resent neither canst thou make me any satisfaction but by meeting me in the Field which if thou hast either worth or valour in thee thou wilt not refuse So I told him that for the accusations wherewith he charged me they were as false as dishonourable and that I wore by my side wherewithall to give satisfaction to him since nothing else could And so accordingly we appointed the time place and weapon the placâ— was where you found me beseâ— Now which shewed the least Worth Valour and Fidelity I leave you to Judge By that time Athalus had finished his story night had covered the Hemisphere with her dusky Manâ—le and all things look of an Aethiopian hue when suâ—â—er being ended they all retired to their lodgings Periander having spent some time with Athalus his wounds being cured he resolved to depart whom Athalus after many fruitless endeavours for his stay accompanied some miles of his way Having travelled some distance from the Castle riding thorough a wood on the sudden they heard behind them a noyse of Horses trampling and men discoursing thâ—t newly rushed from under the Trees like men that had lâ—id in Ambush and looking behind them they saw a Troop of Horsemen armed with Lances and Spears whom they took to be Huntsmen as indeed they proved but they were the prey they sought after for they were as soon taken as overtaken and no sooner overtaken but disaâ—med and bound Athalus and Periander amazed at this unexpected accident demanded what they meant they answered that they came to revenge the bloud of their Friends whom they had murthered and that nothing should satisfy them but their lives which they had no sooner spoken but one of them pierced Athalus body with a Spear so that he fell down dead before them Periander seeing this wounded in his soul with heart-breaking grief craved of them the freedome to perform his last obsequies to his friend I crave not my life said he for that I scorn now he is dead whom I prefer above it I only beg this small request which humanity cannot deny After many intreaties they granted Periander perceiving his hands at liberty suddenly snatched a Sword out of the Villains Scabbard that stood next and therewithall presently procured a Lance and then fiercely charging amongst them killed two of them with one shock The rest amazed with this sudden accident thought there had been a mutiny and were ready to oppose themselves against their enemies but who they were they knew not until they were informed by Perianders blows who had no sooner made some understand who was their Antagonist but he put them past all understanding At length the survivers animated with fury revenge and shame unanimously assaulted him with such violence that he noâ— being able to stand before such a torrent of fury was re-taken Valour it self may be over-pressed with the weight of multitude Now they resolve to execute upon him the most savage cruelty their inhumane minds full of revenge could devise Some counselled one thing others another all agreeing that he should dye a horrid death but all disagreeing in the manner of it thus extremity of cruelty was for a while a stop to their cruelty But as these barbarous Senators were thus sat in consultation a Stag swiftly rushed through the Woods which put them all into such a fright that disburthening themselves of their Arms they all fled leaving their condemned Prisoner behind them and happy was he that was swiftest Thus guilt makes all things seem to menace danger and like a false Medium represents every thing as in an armed posture ready to bid defiance to the guilty Periander seeing himself thus miraculously released arms himself and mounted pursues his jaylers and those whom he could overtake he sent to the inâ—ernal prison to answer for this their horrid barbarity But long he could not stay to satisfie himself with the slaughter of his bloud thirsty enemies but he returned to pay his last debt to his friend and to see whether the wound was wholly mortal or not but when he found the cruel Spaer had thrust his Soul out of his Body how did he fall down and embrace him and kiss his pale cheeks how did he sigh as if with those sighs he could breathe new life into him and groan as if with those groans he could awake him out of his endless sleep At length he was so overcome with grief that he fell down senseless upon his more senseless friend But he continued not long ere his spirits returned to the performance of their natural function and he thus bewailed his condition Hard hearted fate said he that wouldst suffer such vile miscreants to dislodge so brave a Soul what a spark of Honour hath this stream of Bloud from his side extinguished thus doth Fortune make me a mark to shoot her invenom'd Arrows at as if the separation from Florinda was not enough to torment we with endless and unsupportable torture but I must be robbed of my dear friend Athalus Ah Athalus can I sigh forth thy Death and not my Soul expire with the cadence of that deadly word better had it been for thee to have died before couragiously fighting when thy enemies carkasses would have been monuments of thy valour than thus to be barbarously assasinated by inhumane Villains more savage than the Beasts that inhabit this wilderness Oh why did my Spirits return from that pleasing trance to make me thus sensible of my miseries Fortune I see will compel me to survive the Funerals of my own happiness Periander laments for Athalus page 26. etc Periander whose sobbing Breast was filled with sorrow for the death of Athalus little
down all opposition that shall withstand his attaining your Kingdom and the greatness of your force will serve him but to erect the Pyramids of his renown so much the higher And however my Lord you may â—latter your self with thoughts that you need ingage against none but his person conceiving that his death will put a period to all your troubles and be the onely means to invest you with the Soveraignty of Thessalia as the Oracle fondly advises you I tell you if you inquire of Reason the only Oracle placed in the Soul for man to follow it will inform you that in stead of opening a Gap to enter and possess his Kingdom it will open the floud-gates for a torrent of ruine to rush upon you but the best and only way to consummate all their misery and salve their State sores for whilst he lives all those dissentions divisions and distractions which already have brought the Kingdom to a gasping condition so that they are fain to address themselves to you for redress will be rather augmented than diminished For as in the Body Natural so in the Body Politick ill vapors are not contented alone to distemper the head but thence as from a Limbeck distilling disperse themselves into the whole body and there beget faction the mother of ruine and that which above all things strikes at the vitals of a Commonwealth by indeavouring to clip asunder that bond of Union which knits Soveraigns and Subjects together and so if you view the present condition of his estate with an impartial Eye you will find that that Kingdom which while all private concernments flowed in one stream of publike good was able to bear down all opposition before it is now cut into so many small rivulets of private interests as that if it obstruct not their course by War but let each stream flow in its own Chanel the whole power of that Kingdom will soon be dryed up Whereas were he dead those who now out of contempt and hatred forsake the Father would if not out of loyalty and fidelity yet out of pitty adhere to the Son and all those factions which like mists obscure the lustre of that Government will then all vanish before the rays of that rising Sun and if he be once seated in his Throne you will find it a more than Herculean labor to crowd him out from thence or to wrest the Scepter out of his tender hands Rather submit and part with part than be forced from all which will inevitably be the event if you follow your intended resolutions Were ever thy Eyes spectators said the other or thy Ears of any dishonorable action of mine that thou hast such mean thoughts of me that my heart can sâ—oop to a serviâ—â— submission either thou must imagin my worth very little and folly great that I will hearken to thy perswasions though containing never so little reason and honor in them or thy folly must be great to think that after a twenty years illustrious Reign in honor and applauâ—e I shall now begin to degenerate and what though blind Forâ—une hath hitherto câ—owned him wiâ—h success all his victories shall attend as Captives at my triumphant Chaâ—iot or else shall be as gemsm to adorn my Crown and give it the greater lustre And if my Kingdom hath â—urfetted by a long continued peace and contracted many malignant humors what can there be better than to let them bloud by War where the sharper the Lance the less is the wound Besides thinkst thou my presence nothing if my men are so stupidly base that neither honor victory the preservation of their lives and fortunes which will be all at stake will not stimulate them to the performance of actions of a higher and more noble nature than ordinary yet add to all this which is equal to all to see me in the midst of the greatest hazards confronting and encountring the greatest dangers surely will engage them to act something worthy the name of my Subjects and to be owned by me And if I dye what then better dye with honor than live with shame when if I dye it will be such a death as will give life to my name and after death I shall survive by an â—â—mortal fame But if I submit as you would have it and live it will be such a life as will be worse than death to be buried alive in the obscure Grave of Inâ—amy Besides hath Fortune Garlands for no Brows but his or is his Armor impenetrable or his Sword Inchanted if not why is it impossible for me to conquer Submit must I that were the ready way to be trampled uâ—on by all domineeâ—ing Princes superior in discipline of War though inferior in all other respects Tell not me of such ignoble things I hate to hear the mention of any thing so unworthy and infinitely beneath any who are endued with the smallest portion of a Royal spirit No though all Heavens winged Heralds should proclaim my destruction and accent each sentence with thunder yet would I undauntedly prosecute my resolutions when if I am forced at last to surrender the world may rather commiserate me for want of Fortune thâ—n condemn me for want of Valour Pardon My Lord said the other if I used an expression too â—ar below a person of your Royal dignity and Heroick spirit I endeavoured not to perswade you to any dishonrable reconcilement out of mistrust to your Valour which should I in any measure doubt of I deserved to perish by it and to give the proof of it by mine own destruction as I doubt not but Agis will With that Agis that had so long sacrificed his ears to their discourse and with such greedy attention devoured each sentence being now fully informed by hearing his own name mentioned who was the subject of their discourse resolved with all secresie and celerity to return to his Army and send a party to surprise them but as he was riâ—ing to return it was his unhappy Fortune to stumble and fall upon two boughs which as it were out of revenge for their blow with a rushing noise betrayed him to his enemies who having their discourse interrupted by such a sudden noise between fear and amazement arose and no sooner risen but as well as the Nights darkness would permit they discerned Agis newly recovered from his fall whom though they knew not yet thinking he might be some Sâ—ie from their enemies party or one at least who upon examination could inform them they apprehended him and with speed conveyed him to Megapolis the Metropolitan City of Hiarba's dominions which was not far distant from thence where they committed him to safe custody untill the light should discover what the darkness concealed No sooner did the morning appear and the light dispell the darkness but this Royal prisoner was called forth to give an account to Hiarbas who and what he was I should be guilty of too much profuseness both of words and time if I
of my Cave and with all speed came running to me I was no less astonished at the beauty of the youth than amazed to see him in such an unfrequented place for during thirty years that I spent in this solitary place I never beheld the face of any here before him whom after my mean manner I have entertained for some years not being able to direct him to the Foresters habitation This story told with so much gravity and deliberation so moved Periander to compassion as that he resolved to accompany young Pandion into Thessalia and there by all means endeavor his restauration which however if he could not effect yet he would render himself renowned for his high Attempt and therefore blessed his Fortune which though hitherto had been adverse to him yet now had presented him with such an happy occasion and so fit a place for a Theatre whereon to Act the Heroick Exploits which were already transacted within his thoughts Neither was Athalus less desirous of acting a part in that honorable enterprise so much of his spirits had not steamed forth from those streams of bloud as to enfeeble both his body and mind but still he was as propense to embrace any action that required valour for its performance as ever but the weakness of his body would not permit him to undertake any thing proportionable to the greatness of his mind For though the care and diligence of the Hermit had brought him from a despair of life yet not out of danger of death should he be too negligent of himself so that with a seeming unwilling willingness he yielded to Perianders and the Hermits perswasions rather to return to his Castle and when necessity should require assist them with Forces from thence And though it was the wound uncured in his body that was the pretence it was chiefly the wound incurable in his heart that made him withdraw which nothing could heal but a Sympathetick Plaister applyed to the Dart that gave the wound and that was Matilda's Beauty and therefore to her must he return if he will ever find ease which accordingly he determined to do Having made these conclusions among themselves they walked abroad to refresh themselves and Athalus who for several days had not tasted the fresh Air the Hermit entertaining them with discourses one while of the vanity of Sublunary delights how that their greatest perfection is but imperfection and in their best injoyment attended with annoy and how â—â—itting transitory and fading and how unreasonable for a reasonable Soul of such a depurate immaterial and supercelestial Nature and therefore a fit soil for the most sublime thoughts and enravishing affections to spring up in to delight it self in such course embracements Then he would be lavish in the praises of a contemplative life the happiness and sweet repose of solitude how that freed from the worlds tumultuary distractions and Corroding cares the Soul doth mount aloft upon the Wings of Contemplation above the Star-glistring Heavens and satiate her self with Angelical delights that reside in a higher Sphere than Nature and thence descending taste what excellency Heaven and Earth will present which as a solemne repast after such transporting and rapturous delights fills and dilates the Soul with excess of joy and contentation Can any humane Artifice said he please and delight the eye as it doth the intellectual eye of the Soul to see with what unwearied swiftness the rowling Heavens whirl the sparkling Globes of light and with such violence as if it meant to sling them out of the Universe had not Nature there unmoveably riveted them to see how the envious Moon as it were repining at her brothers glories strives maliciously to obscure and hide them from the view of the admiring world by interposing her opake body between it and the Suns refulgent Beams and then how the Earth to requiâ—e that maligne interposition wrappeth her in a misty shade and makes darkness triumph over her and plunder her of all her resplendent lightsomness and render her invisible that gives visibility in the mids of darkness to all sublunary beings To read the events of all things written in Golden Characters by the hand of the All-seeing Deity To see how the revolutions and alterations of persons and actions depend upon their circumvolutions what earthly Palace can compare with that where the worlds great Monarch keeps his Court invironed with an Aethereal Wall whose ten arched stories borders upon the Empyreal Palace moated with a Crystalline Ocean guarded with hoasts of twinkling partizans whose gilded shields and glistering Spears reflect back the Suns radiant glances to see the flaming Courtiers clad in golden Treasses dance to the Musick of the Spheres roving and traversing the transparent floor with such confused order as if they measured each pace by the sweet Charmes of the Musicks modulations whose harmonious accents consist of disagreeing concords so they are most constant and regular when most irregularly inconstant Neither are there wanting Tiltings and Turnaments and feats of Chivalry for how often doth the Sun himself mounted in his glory-beaming Chariot sâ—od with burning bosses run the Celestial Ring with all his flaming attendants pursuing after in their full career through Heavens arched Galleries The Air is his Kitchin where his Cates are prepared the Clouds the steam that ascends from his boyling Caldron Thus they went the Hermit beguiling the time with his grave discourses till they came to the top of the Hill which proudly elevating it self above the humble valleys and levelling plains blest their Eyes with the most delightsom prospects the Country could afford there might you have seen Art and Nature joyn in Consort and strive to present a most beautiful Harmony to the eyes There were the natural Theatres of lofty Hills where the most refined gusts of air would dance to the warbles of the winged Choristers chirping under the green Canopies of shady Groves Vales treasuring up silver Rivers which gently gliding would steal away beholders senses by which the Shepherds would sit feeding their Flocks whilst the wanton Lambs would dance to the Musick of their Oaten Pipes Not far distant stood a pleasant Town on the side of a Hill compassed with green Meadows water'd with the â—ilver streams of little bubling Rivers that strayed to and fro in wanton Meanders the streets so intermixed with shady Trees seemed as if the Woods had left their melancholy retiredness and grown sociable meant to inhabit the Town or as if the Town had left its chearful sociablenesse and grown to a kind of civil wildness meant to inhabit the Woods or rather as a marriage between both Hither did Periâ—nder Pandion and Athalus repair to furnish themselves and Pandion especially with Armour and all acouttements fit for their intended undertakings having first taken leave of the good old Hermit and returned millions of thanks for his charitable kindness telling him that they counted their present unhappiness chiefly to consist in this that thereby
they were put in an incapacity of giving due testimonies of their gratitude to him and that if their Fortunes might be raised equal to their desires it should be that they might be able to return requital equal to his deserts The Hermit answered that as his deserts were small in themselves so they would be less should he be so mercenary as to shew kindness in expectation of a requital but however if he had merited any thing that they had sufficiently repaid him by their sweet conversation Thus after some ceremonies past between them they left the Hermit who at parting could no longer retain his gravity nor refrain from weeping tears of joy and sorrow of sorrow to part with them all but especially Pandion whom he had so long entertained as his Pupil and instilled those excellent principles the effects whereof shall be made apparent in the sequel of the story but of joy through the conceived hopes of his future prosperous Fortune These three noble Consorts having travelled for some few days together came at length to a parting way which might properly be so called for it was the means of parting Athalus from the other two whom we shall also part from for a time and leaving him associate our selves to Pandion and Periander who amongst many other adventures they encountred withall in their journey this was one Travelling along one scorching day the Sun darted his rayes with such vehement violence as that they were forced to betake themselves to a neer adjoyning shady Grove for protection where the spreading boughs so embraced each other as if they had combined together to exclude the Suns proud beams from entring there where being invited by the pleasantness of the place and their own wearisomness to refresh themselves they lighted off their Horses and having pulled their bits out of their mouths turned them to feed upon the Grass which there grew in great plenty whilst themselves being overcome with the murmurings of the sweet bubling streams and the whilstlings of the quivering leaves were lulled asleep But long they had not yielded to sleeps pleasing charms when their ears were suddenly filled with a sudden shriek which pierced and rent the air with such a dividing shrilness as plainly appeared it came from a heart pierced rent and divided with sorrow and withall so small and clear as they knew it came from some Female Breast neither came it alone but was presently followed by a train of doleful groans which pursued it with hue and cry as a Thief for stealing her joyes from her They no sooner heard it but they arose and guided their steps by the mournful noise till they came to a place where they saw a beautiful Lady lying along upon the ground leaning upon her elbow Nature had painted her Face with more than ordinary Beauty so that Sorrow seemed to appear in the liveliest colour her Face Gestures Sighs and Tears and all made apparent that sorrow had tuned her heart to so high a Key that the strings were near cracking Loath they were to interrupt her and yet desirous to serve her At length they heard her fetch a groan and that seconded by a sigh and both ushered in these words Hard-hearted enemies could your tyrant minds invent no other way to vent your merciless cruelty but by being thus cruelly merciful to leave me behind to weep his obsequies what wrong did you ever receive from his guiltless hands as nothing could satisfie your boundless rage nor satiate your thirsty souls but his dearest bloud and if it was I that did the wrong why did you not sheath your Swords in this breast that my Death might expiate his and why do you not come and steep your sulphrous souls in my diffused bloud that so both they as well as their horrid actions their monstrous of-springs may be of a Crimson dye O ye celestial powers since 't was your pleasure to joyn our Hands and unite our Hearts by Hymens sacred and inviolable bands dislodge this Soul of mine and take it up into that heavenly Chorus whereof he is one that so out of the reach of dull-browd sorrow we may sing prolonged Anthems of Peace together and being no longer intangled with this Worlds turmoyles my Soul may be involved in that bottomless Abyss and boundless Ocean of immortal happiness Oh sweet Death come and welcome put a period to my Griefs and rid me of this dying life oh how the thoughts of thy approach revive me frustrate then not my hopes and expectations the way to kill me is to let me live Oh then augment not my griefs by adding new let me not ever languish here in perpetual anguish but come oh come and if my enemies have extracted the quintessence of all cruelty and swilled it up into their parboyl'd Souls that so there is none left for thee what then it is mercy not cruelty that I crave for what greater mercy can there be than to unloose a soul intangled and hamper'd with griefs and sorrows oh then unty this knot of dull mortality that pineons my soul and makes her flutter here below and let her fly to him who is my Life my Heart my Joyes and all that my highest desires can attain unto And if with killing him thou hast spent thy Arrows for sure his great soul would not surrender up her mansion on too easie terms here 's Shafts within my Heart shot both from Love and adverse Fortune enough to fill thy Quiver and let that remain full still Come then and draw thy Bow and give that wound that shall heal all other wounds And therewithall she gave a sigh as if Death had indeed made a divoâ—ce between her Soul and Body and her tender heart had bid adieu to this lower world and fled into the Empyreal Regions But proceeding Charon said she prepare thy Boat to waft me over the Stygian Lake and if thou fearest it is too shoul to transport such a Cargo of Woes and Griefs as I am filled withall here 's tears enough that flow in uncontroled Streams from Griefs Fountains to make it at its lowest Ebb over-flow the Banks and if that will not suffice open my Veins drain my Heart dry rather than let me tarry behind for what Joys can ever accrew to me now Theon in whom my Joys are plac't hath bid farwell And then she stopt giving a groan as if her Heart had been rest in sunder and folding her fair Arms as if she went about to imbrace death Pandion and Periander hearing this no longer able to contain discovered themselves to her and craving pardon for their intrusion begged to know the cause of her sorrow telling her they would spend their dearest bloud to purchase her desires Oh then said she my desire is to be with my dear Theon hand me to the Elizian Plains where he resides I desire not your death but my own for alas what comfort can I have to tarry here behind Never more shall these
his way thorough them to come to the Standard-bearer perceiving so great a breach and Chasm as it were in his enemies party improves the benefit of opportunity and rides up to the Standard-bearer kills him and in the fight of all his enemies carries away the Standard which Phoedon a Commander of Horse under Pandion espying pursued with full speed with all the men under his command Others that knew not of this accident seeing their Standard flying and so great a party fled after thought the day was lost and time to secure themselves and thereupon flung down their weapons and hasted after the rest with such confusion as put them into no less disorder than themselves With that a party of the Hiarbian Horse to compleat their victory pursued them and put them so to the rout that they leâ—t few to complain of their harsh usage and some rescued Danpion who being overtaken having indeavoured to keep his prey in despight of his adversaries that invironed him had almost resigned it up had he not been relieved by this fortunate chance In the mean time those few that were inclosed by the Hiarbians were sacrificed to appease the revengful fury of their enemies The victory being thus obtained and Danpion contrary to Hiarbas hopes and expectations won the Standard by this valiant act got so much renown that he was more admired than before the general applause of the Army so cried him up that Hiarbas grew more jealous of him than ever and resolved if that which his Daughter had writ was true to cast him out of favour wholly and put him in an utter incapacity to accomplish any of his high projects But though these were his secret intentions yet he carried himself with as much external serenity towards him as before and arriving with great triumph at the palace after he had abode there some time he secretly inquires of his Daughter whether any one else could affirm what she had writ to be truth She told him every circumstance of it and how that Florinda was come to her rescue before he had fled from her and that she presumed that she was able to inform him more distinctly of his intentions than her self to whom she was and ever should be an utter stranger With that a Lady was presently dispatched as a messenger to Florinda to acquaint her that the King desired a few minutes conference with her in Amphigenias Gardens where he stayed expecting her coming Florinda obeys the summons and accompanies the messenger to the King who after some private converse with her is exceeding inquisitive to know of her whether she could give him any particular information about Danpions design whether she ever had dived into his thoughts and could tell whether he had any aim at the Soveraignty or not and many other questions to the same effect he demanded of her Florinda gives him little or no satisfaction to all his Quaeâ—ies but endeavours to confirm his suspition what she could and inveighs against Danpion with more bitterness than Amphigenia and at length suggested to the King this Counsel that since they had no reasons to convince any man of Danpions treachery and disloyalty but what was grounded chiefly on suspition if his Majesty would deign to honour their advice with his acceptance she would inform him a way â—how he might ransack his very intrals and discover all his intentions and read the very inside of his heart The way she said was this that the King would please to counterfeit himself suddenly seized upon with a malignant distemper and for a time retire himself in his Chamber and admit none of his greatest favourites to wait upon him nor visit him but only the princess his Daughter and her self that so there might be no grounds of suspicion for Danpion and in conclusion to feign himself dead And then she said she questioned not but that she had such an influence upon him by reason of more than ordinary affection that Danpion bare to her as in his presence to make him confess to her if he had any thoughts tending to Amphigenia's dishonour or of disloyalty to the King This advice was accepted of both by Hiarbas and Amphigenia and accordingly put in execution So that suddenly the ears of all were filled with the sad news that the King was fallen dangerously sick The Courtiers swarm like Bees at the King Chamber door to perform their Allegiance to him but none admitted amongst whom Danpion was a constant visitant but as constantly as the rest repulsed In fine Danpion was secretly informed that the King was dead and that care must be taken for establishing his successor before his Death should be divulged lest the knowledge of it should cause any broils and tumults in the Kingdom which it might be apt to occasion there being such swarms of discontented persons and those that affected novelties and alterations though for the worse And if he received not this information for truth his eyes should convince him if he would come to his chamber for Amphigenia they told him durst not disoblige such a potent person as himself who might hazard to interrupt her succession These things being privately buzzed and whispered into Danpions ears by some that were Florindas engines he accordingly repairs to the Kings chamber where he finds him stretched out on a bed of State and covered with a Pall of black Velvet the body lying in a posture lively representing Death and none but Florinda in the room Danpion having contrived all this before hand and by the assistance and fidelity of Florinda thus far effected it was not now to seek in the latter part of his plot but thus begins to confer with Florinda Since Heavens said he seignedly weeping have thus deprived us of our King and me of my Royal Master accounting us unworthy of him and him more worthy to inhabit among the celestial dwellers than such as we are it is both our wisdom and duty first to proclame his Daughter Amphigenia lest an interregnum should occasion any insurrections among this people prone to rebellion and disorder And then to honour his Memorial with the celebration of his Funerals in as great State as may be both to testify to the World our Loyal affections to our deceased King and also that our Forein and Intestine wars have not so exhausted the publick treasury but that we are able to support and maintain the honour of our King and Country Tell not me my dearest said Florinda of State affairs they belong not to our Sex but if I have found any place in thy Heart let me conjure thee by the many vehement protestations of affection to disclose a secret to me the faithful revealing of which I shall esteem as a far greater confirmation of thy loves reality than ten thousand asseverations Prethee be free and ingenuous in thy expression and leave not my thoughts a prey to their own anxiety to doubt will more torment me than all thy
from the Yards the Yards and Masts shivered in splinters and the Shrowds snapt like burnt twine mean while the raging Surges mount and roâ—l as if Death were making waâ—ry tombes wherein to intert these heaven-besieged Souls At length a breaking Billow came tumbling along and boarded the ship with such a force as split her in pieces and rent her stemm from her stern The poor drowning men to save their lives catcht hold some on the Prow others on the Poop some on the Masts others on the Boat But Neptune bowl'd his waves so fast that they were soon overwhelmed and made a prey to the greedy fishes as the Master had sworn The Master whose execrable villany had brought this deâ—truction upon his men had notwithstanding awhile saved himself in the Long-boat and began to bless himself with the hopes of escape but just Heaven would not permit such wickedness to go unpunished nor Glyceras death to go unrevenged but sent a furious gust which transported a breaking billow into the boat and both transported him to the Port of death and that his death might be the more signal there came two Shaâ—kes just as he was thrown out of the Boat and contending for his body tare it in pieces No sooner had heavens blustring executioners put their just doom in execution but there grew a truâ—e between the Winds and Seas the Sun giving his Beams as Hostages for the heavens the Sea demolishing its lofty rampiers and both â—eas and Skies smiling each on other in token the powers above were pacified Many small vessels that were fishing some on the coast of Pelopennesus others by Cyprus and others amongst the Aegean Islands were cast away in this storm some wrackt on the shore others foundred in the Seas some over-set and others sâ—lit against the Rocks so that few or none escaped excepting one small fisher Boat that had seasonably disburthened it self of her Masts and goods and all things that might make her swim deep in the Sea and with a small Sail fastned to the main Yard that then served for a Mast spooned afore the Wind and by that means nimbly mounting over the lofty waves and again gently descending into the low valleys it saved it self in the midst of that hideous tempest but yet was driven from the Euxine promounts to the place where this Ship was wracked that is between Peloponnesus and the Island of Cyprus This Vessel thus tossed hither by that time the raging Winds were appeased and the Seas allayed might discern some ribs of the torn Carkass of the Ship floating to and fro on Neptunes bowling-green and here and there Bailes of goods Chests and Trunks swimming up and down which the Fishermen perceiving conjecturing that they were the goods of some Ship tossed in the late storm they loaded their Vessel with those things that were of most worth and sailed towards Cyprus intending there to Merchandise their spoils but by that time they had sailed about three hours the weather growing more and more â—erene the Sun in his most glistring attire couâ—ting the Sea and the Sea to appear more lovely smoothing her face from wrinkles and the sky clipping and embracing the Sea with a clear Horizon they might discern in a prospective glass at a great distance something move upon the Sea like a man and as they thought casting his arms to and fro to cry for succour they with all speed make to him and within half an hour came so neer as to perceive it to be a woman by her dishevelled hair but still as fast as they sailed to overtake her she made from them that in the end they thought her to be some Mermaid so that they were clapping on all the Canvass they had saved in the storm to make haste from her but by that time they had sailed some few leagues they descryed her â—aking towards them with so much swiftness as they thought it in vain to flye from her but rather determined to stay untill she came up with them which was in a short time for by that time they had put their Sails in the wind she was come so neer as they might discern it to be a sorrowful Lady sitting as on horseback on a Dolphin her face the Index of a grieved mind seemed to be beauties Coffin wherein in lamentable Characters there seemed to be engraven this Epitaph Here lys heart-enthralling beauty murdered by heart-breaking sorrow Fain would her breath formed into words have broken the sweet prison of her trembling lips but grief their tyrannous Jaylor would not permit it but converted them into groans At length giving liberty to her tongue to Midwive the dolours which her heart pregnant with was in travel withall she with lamentable demeanor thus spake Ah wo is me wo is me said she but then the tears interrupted her speech and her eyes to assist her fainting voice in sorrows doleful language discourst her griefs but then tears again as it were ratifyed into sighs and sighs framed into words she thus lamented her condition Ah said she little did I ever think that heaven had thus many plagues in store for me Never was poor woman distrest like me as though one death were not enough to kill a poor dying woman but I must daily be tormented with partial deaths that methinks tear my soul piece-meal from my body Oh! shew some mercy to a miserable wretch a helpless hopeless forlorn forsaken woman beset with remediless doloâ—â—â— and pity my sorrows as you would ever hope that heaven should commiserate you when you are besieged with the terrors of death-threatning calamities which how soon may be your lot is known only to the great disposer of our fates These doleful expressions expressed so dolefully by a Lady beleagured with extremity of misery would have scrued tears from a Rock and made an Adamant turn Niobe but yet took no impression upon the Master but he rather like an inhumane Churl commands them to sail away What said he have we nothing to do but to mind a foolish womans babling let her alone to prate to the Dolphin and mind you your employments But no sooner had he tacked about to be gone but the poor Lady gave a shriek would have rent a heart in sunder and cryed out to them as loud as her feeble voice could utter Oh! said she have your hearts made a league with cruelty though your ears should be deaf to the lamentable crys of a distrest woman yet methinks your eyes might intercede a little for me with your rocky hearts Oh that ever so much barbarous immanity should lodge in humane souls methinks it might shame you to see a Dolphin more merciful than your selves Shame do I say alass shame is vertues attendant and resides not where vertue is exil'd and vertue is ever exil'd from an obdurate heart Oh you powers above will you give no truce to my sorrows must I be quite bereft of all relief and then she gave a groan
as if she had torn her vital strings and lifting up her eyes and hands she thus implored Heaven Since it is your will said she to drench and pickle up my soul in Briny sorrows to preserve it pure and untainted and that the stormy gusts of adverse fortune must drive me through a Sea of Tears ere I can arrive at the Haven that shall put an end to the turmoiling Navigation of this life Oh then said she let this also he your will that when that atome of time that inconsiderable instant that links past and future shall unlink my soul from my body then oh then let it arrive at that blest Elizium where one eternal indivisible moment chains refined souls to an immortality of unconceivable felicity The Fisher-men hearing these woful complaints began to be enraged at the Masters savage cruelty and in a mutinous manner with threatnings compelled him to relieve her the Dolphin all this time as if by some instinct from Heaven swimming so near the Vessel as that they could cast a Rope to draw her in which in the end they did the Master not daring to oppose The Vessel thus fraught with more Treasure than all the Eastern Junks or Caravans her Eyes rich Caskets of Diamonds containing more Gems and her Breath more Aromatick Spices than ever yet adorned and perfumed the Orient moved with soft and gentle Gales thus smoothly slyded along the Seas Briny surface for the space of 48 hours at the end of which they arrived at Cyprus The Master who while he was at Sea terrified with the bold threatnings of his men durst not vent his Cruelty towards this poor Lady yet being at Cyprus he resolved to revenge the affronts he received for her sake upon her and to that end one night when he had after great intreaties given her his promise for permission to go ashore he unknown to any sold her to an ill-favoured Rustick that had all the marks of Deformity almost about him who in a rude manner haled her ashore and that night conveyed her to his Cottage some miles distant from the Sea intending the next morning to compleat his felicity by marriage But when Glycera saw that Heaven had redeemed her out of a Purgatory of misery to fling her into a Hell of calamities Oh with what doleful lamentations did she sad Lady consume the night Now wring her hands and groan as if she rang her own Knell and then weep and sob as if her Eyes and Lungs rivalls in Sorrow had contended which should express most to the life a killing Passion Sometimes her fainting spirits as not able to endure the intollerable tyranny of domineering Grief would seem condensed into Tears which diffused through the flood-gates of her Eyes would leave her surprized with dying languor but then her senses restored to their natural functions sorrow with a vigorous impetuousness would break the damms of moderation and like a Torrent for a while restrained return with greater fury Sometimes she would begin to importune Heaven for mercy O thou great Rector of our Destinies said she must my heart be the Rendesvouz where all miseries meet Thou art the Circumference from whence these black lines of Adversity stream must I be the Centre where they terminate Oh let not tyrannizing sorrow usurp thy Prerogative over all my Faculties and subject those Powers to its Rule which onely ought to obey thy Divine Impositions Oh destroy not the soul which thou hast made nor let my Perdition anticipate that Glory which thou didst propose to thy self in my Creation but shew mercy if ever shew mercy shew mercy to one submerst in misery Having said this she would pause a while as it were listning what Answer Heaven would return and with some faint sighs seem as it were to parley with Death and then a chilly Paleness would arrest her Countenance as if Heaven mindeful of her Petitions had hung out their white Flagg of Truce and displayed it in her face as a Token of that inviolable League should ere long be contracted between her soul and eternal Bliss and that now they were sending their black Embassador Death to sign and seal the Articles Dear Danpion excuse me if I am thus Copious in the relation of this sad Ladies misfortune but truly when I heard the story first related by the Knight that as I told you lately came from Cyprus and heard her self relate what his eyes were not spectators of I could not but silently bequeath some drops to the ground drops do I say Alas had I not been in Pandion's presence but where I might have let loose the reigns to my Passion I could have drowned my self in Tears for methoughts I felt my vey soul transformed into sorrow it self But to proceed thus I say She lamentably spent this lamentable night in Weeping Sighing Sobbing Groaning Praying till the bright morning had dispelled the shadowes of the misty night and Aurora wrapping up her face in a Vermilion-mantle silently bewailed her sorrows in Crystal Tears When Lacon for so was the Rustick named awaked by his own loud snoring called to mind his new Bride and ravished with joy his heart clambring up into his mouth almoast choaked him with excess of contentment he arises and in haste runs to bless his Eyes with the sight of her Beauty and ere he or she was aware stumbles upon her who had chosen the darkest corner in the Cottage to lament her miseries and when she saw her self thus surprized modesty so sweetly apparelled her Face in a Vermilion vesture as that her Cheeks besprinkled with Tears looked like Roses impearled with Heavenly dew No sooner did Lacon behold his new Sweet-hearts sweet-heart-attracting feature but her Eyes that might vye Stars with Heaven darted such sparkling glances as soon set on fire the tinder of his Affections so that transported with the Extasies of love he boystrously seizeth on her and after his rude manner proffers to fix the Seal of his Affections on her melting Lips Come said he sweet Lombe let me buss thy Honny-combe Lips and with that by force he smackt her as if he was sucking the sweet contained in those Vermilion Hives of Beauty Much of the day being spent in this manner Lacon Wooing and Glycera Weeping he slabbering her Cheeks with his frothy Lips and she bedewing his with her Pearly Tears at length he resolved to consummate his joyes with Marriage and compels her to go with him to Venus-Temple to sacrifize a pair of Turtle-Doves thereby to procure the Goddesses Benediction But all the way as she went such a Mart of Beauties met in her sweet Countenance as purchased her as many Admirers as Beholders and Beholders as Persons her Eyes inviting all eyes to behold and her super-eminent Excellencies alluring all Beholders to adore her so that few there were whose Sex rendred them not incapable to enjoy her Perfections but would have even pawned their souls to have bought so rich a Treasury of Beauties Her
beautious Face wherein shined the Perfection of all Perfections was a visible heart-melting Musick which as if composed of Charmes entranc't Spectators and struck Harmonious Raptures into adoring mindes Thus were the Eyes and Hearts and Tongues of all led Captive by her Beauty and forced to pay the Tribute of looking loving and commending to the soveraignty of her Excellencies At length Superstition wedded to Admiration begat a conceit in their mindes that sure she was more than what her external form spake her to be for there seemed a greater mixture of Divine Exellencies in her Beauty than ever frail Mortality could boast of and her transcendent Glories seemed to run Parallel with those that have bribed Superstitious souls to asâ—ribe Divinity to Venus so that in the end they thought it the highest degree of Sacrilege for any Mortal whatsoever to monopolize those Treasured in the pure vivid Temple of her Beauty which are only consecrated to the Gods but much more for such a deformed Adonis as Lacon to enjoy so fair a Venus Amongst the many Captives that were enthralled by Glyceras Beauty whose hearts were drawn by its magnetick force it seems this Knight was one who as I told you is the relater of of these sad tydings whose fortune it was to espie her as she passed along to the Temple But no sooner were his eyes fixed on her but she as a burning Mirour wherein all the rayes of Beauty centred inflamed his heart with the pure fire of chast Affection and perceiving her Eyes with an inundation of Tears ready to overflow their own Beauties and with silent lamentation to bewail her persecuted innocency for though she endeavoured to suppress any insurrections of Passion what she could yet Nature would exact some tears that wonted Tribute that grief extorts in such like Accidents but I say observing that internal sorrow she disclosed in her Countenance which as he rightly interpreted it could be for nothing but that she such a miracle of Beauty should be linked in Hymeneal Conjunction with such a Monster of deformity he said was so moved with compassion that he thought he felt the quintessence of each tear distil down into his Soul and disdaining that such a wonder of Ugliness should be his Corrival in affection who might more aptly have contended in Rivalry with some of Pluto's fiends for deformity he drew his Sword and compelled him to resign her up to himself unless he prized a moments sight of her above his life No sooner Lacon saw the naked steel but he flies like an Arrow out of a Bow not for his swiftness but for the resemblance his shrimpish-slimgut body had to an Arrow as each legg had to a Bow and all the way as he goes he howls and yells as if he had been beset with armed Theeves so that in a short space such a concourse of People surrounds the Knight and his Lady as if some wonder had dropped down from Heaven some coming to behold the beauty of the Lady whose perfections fame in so high a style had proclamed in their ears but could not obtrude upon their belief others to see what was the reason of that Tumult So that though at first Glycera was the wonder that drew the concourse yet at length the concourse it self became the wonder And as is the manner of such Plebeian disorders they seldom end without some slaughter and so it happened here For seeing the Knight with his Sword drawn many thought he would have offered violence to the Lady others hearing Lacon's roaring thought he had murdered him others that were no less wounded with her Beauty than the Knight that had ravished her from Lacon and thought their Swords might purchase them as good a Title to her as he resolved either to have her or his life or both so that in an instant there was nothing to be heard but clashings of Swords cryes of dead men and all the symptomes of reigning confusion The Knight that for a great space had gallantly defended himself and his Lady making many of the bodies of his Opposers fall and do homage to his rage and their souls which to what their bodies had done would not consent he sent to Tartarus there to endure an eternal Vassalage under Pluto But yet having no other Bulwark than his Buckler to fortifie himself against the incursions of his Enemies he at last received a Wound out of which such plenty of Blood effused that he was forced to surrender up himself and his Lady to the mercy of his Opponents and by that means he escaped from amongst them But now the quarrel grew as hot amongst themselves which should bear away the Prize every man accounting the loss of his blood a cheap price to purchase so rich a Treasure thus there grew no end of their disorders till at length some Officers from the King came and with the Point of the Sword of Justice put a full point and Period to the rude scufflings of this Rabble But when enquiry was made after Glycera no newes could be heard of her for taking her opportunity when her bloody Suters were all pleading their Interests with the Swords sharp-peircing Rhetorick she escaped away in the Crowd and fled to a Wood not farr distant where she spent all that night in bewailing her sorrowful estate where her Soul would quaff in huge draughts of woe which as not able to concoct she would pour out again in Tears Tears that fell like melted Stars from the Heaven of her Beauty Thus did she give up her self to the dominion of an unreasonable Passion which yet her Passion perswaded her was reasonable Sometimes grief would permit her thus to lament her Woes Oh Me of all women distrest Must I be she in whom miseries combine together to make miserable Must all things have their stint but my griefs alone be boundless The Sea hath its shore the Winds their limits the Earth its centre and this spacious Globe of Heaven and Earth its circumference but Ah! No shore no limits no centre no circumference to my sorrows No shore to the Seas of my Tears no limits to the Wind of my sighs no centre to my deep-rooted griefs nor no circumference to the infinity of my miseries But I am become Fortunes Ware-house where she hoords up her store of sorrowes Hells Butt where my Innocency is the White at which they shoot their invenomed Arrowes Winged with Malice and Piled with Destruction and Heavens Tennis ball when if with the vehemency of the blow my Soul chance to bound upwards towards a Heaven of hope for grief is ever at the lowest when it is at the highest and extremity of misery is ever the dawning of mercy I say if it chance to bound some dismal Accident takes me at the re-bound and tosses me into a Hell of calamities Come then Death come quickly bend thy Bow and send thy sharp-piled Arrowes into this Pile of Dust that entombs my Soul But then her Breasts
of her soul but the Destinies that had inter-woven and twisted the Threeds of her life and misery so together as neither could be clipped asunder without clipping both resolved that the bottom of her life and misery should not yet be unwound by the wounds of Death but nevertheless a little to apâ—ease the ragings of an uncontroulable Passion they arrowsed a humid Vapour out of its moist bed of dirt and sent it to unlock her Pores and usher in a gentle sleep But no sooner had sleep allayed the surges of Passion but Morpheus began to form strange â—â—antasms in her imagination Somtimes he would erect a high precipice in her Fancy so high as the blended Clobe of earth and water would look like an Atom and then tumble her down from thence into some profound abyss peopled with Adders Toads and Snakes and other venemous vermine and then she would start and give a shriek that the whole Forest would reâ—ound with the Eccho but then the purlings of the silver stream would hush her asleep again and then the drowsie Deity would Plant a Forest in her Brain where he would digg dens for Lions Bears and howling Wolves and build nests for Owls Batts and Night-Ravens and other Birds of darknesse and then the howling roaring bellowing shrieking croaking of these wild inhabitants would attach her faculties with hideous terrors and imprison them in amazement Thus in a confused manner she spent the greatest part of the night till about the time when Orion begins to bath himself in the Ocean and the Lamps near consumed she heard a rustling among the leaves and boughs which putting her in mind of her dream obtâ—uded on her fancy a conceit that it must needs be some wild beast that roving through the Forest sought for prey wheâ—eat exceedingly astonished she flyes as if fear and amazement had added wings to her heels but ah to overtake her own sad fate for as she was passing by a hollow cave hollow-hearted indeed to her though otherwise repleat with mischief there suddenly issued out a savage Ruffin that ere she was aware catcht her about her waste and not at all regardiâ—g her â—uful cries and groans such as would have meltâ—d a Rock of Adamant such as would have inâ—used a sâ—nse-diâ—tracting grief into a Fury though hardened with quotidian cruelty he flings her upon the ground and draws out a sharp Ponyard and threatens with that to peirce her heart if she speedily surrendred not hâ—r body that sweet Temple where Vertue lay inshrined and spotless thoughts were the pure obâ—â—ions offered on the Altar of a chast heart to the pollâ—tions of his filthy lust Glycera perceiving her inability to contend by force by reason of her faintness with a voice that shewed a heart fearless of death returned him this reâ—ly Lustful Villain said she dost thou think that the pâ—ircing of a heart can be a piercing terror to a heart already peirced with killing sorrow the Antipathies between life and death are too much reconciled in me by the terrors of assiduous deaths ever to be terrified with thy death-threatning savageness sharpen thy Ponyard then with the Whetstone of thy Marble-hearted cruelty and when thou hast done sheath it in my heart but then know that it shall prove a Pandora's box filled with thousands of miseries which shall flutter forth out of that wound and by heavens vengeance glewed to thy soul shall at length possess thee with a terror that will make thee exercise a death upon thy self more horrid than this that hell now prompts thee to exercise upon me and the very steams that will ascend from my reaking blood shall become a thunder which wheresever skulkt shall find thee out and â—end thee into more pieces than hell will have Furies to torment Foolish woman said he tell not me of heaven hell or Furies I know no other heaven but satiating my desires no other hell than such dilatory interruptions of my pleasure when extremity of desire breeds impatiency nor other Fury than a pestilent imperious woman such as thou therefore I tell thee once more resign up thy self to my lust or by heavens if there be any I 'le take thee by storm as impregnable as thou thinkst thy self and quench the flames of my lust in thy heart bloud The fear of death she replyed hath impression upon none but such Villains as thou whose smutty souls horror striking guilt corrodes but as for me my soul is carryed on the wings of Vertue out of the reach of those terrors therefore if thou wilt or if thou durst broach my heart and make thy soul drunk with cruelty thou wilt but make a passage for my soul to fly to those mansions where happiness dwells essentially Thy vertue said he flatter not thy self wiâ—â— that for I 'le plunder thee of that totally and oh that my Steeletto could reach thy soul too I 'de nail it to the ground from whence it should never fly to fetch revenge but no matter when I have poured out my lust into the kennel of thy body I 'le wash away with thy blood those pollutions wherewith thy soul in the commixture may have stained mine This said he binds her fair hands with her hair that lovely hair that had fettered and bound so many hearts must now bind her own hands and tears her garments and in despight of all her shrieking groaning crying weeping he at length unloads his lust and not content only to plunder her of her honor after he had thus demolished the Cittadel of her vertue but he with his Ponyard disenthrones those powers that should govern her faculties and seals pale death in the majestick throne of her Beauty and thus he leaves her like a fair flower nipt with the mornings Frost hanging down her head as if ashamed of her declining glory her face covered with hoary paleness as if deaths cold blast had congealed the dew of her tears into a hoary Frost But by this time the Sun having notice of the Tragedies acted in his absence by Nights permission had sent the morning as his Scout to draw the Curtain of the night and descry whether any such horrid Villanies as even resounded thorough the arches of heaven were committed under the protection of the Night whilst he came after with an Army of beams to depose her from her Throne of Jet but no sooner had he shaken his dewy locks wet with toying too long with Thetis in her watery bower but he beheld this ravished wounded Lady and no sooner beheld than he sent his light to call away a loytring dream that was sent of an Embassie from heaven to Polienus a great Nobleman of Crete that dwelt in that Forest to inform of this cursed act and to command him to revenge her When a deep silence hath fixt an intenseness upon the souls faculties then is the fittest time for divine impressions Though exemption from sad fates is not alwaies entailed upon innocence yet that unseen Nemesis
was hurried away in the Coach with so much swiftness as to prevent being overtaken with the nimblest Foot-man yet not so as to prevent their ears from overtaking the voyce which like winged Pegasus rode on the ayr and cryed Help Amphigenia Help Amphigenia This sight and voice so filled the eyes and ears of the new arrived company did so distract and confound them with amazement and all those Passions that astonish spirits with amazing confusion at such sudden accidents as that whilst their hatred to Danpion but love and duty to Amphigenia prompted them both to kill the one and save the other and at once to do all things the swelling Torrent of Amazement dammed up the Current of their desires and compelled them to do nothing Some would pursue Amphigenia whilest themselves were overtaken with a raging grief others would fight with Danpion whilest themselves were conquered with a mad rage Thus the fight continued for a time to 〈◊〉 destruction of many but the admiration of all Danpion encountring with the multitude for Amphigenia as Hercules once did with the many-headed Hâ—dra for the Hesperides golden fruit till at length just as he was going to surrender up himself there came running among them a Horse bâ—oken loose out of the Coach that carried away Amphigenia who not regarding the multitude ran furiously among them as if it had been one of Phaeton's mad Palfreys and killed some trampled on others and disperst them all so that Danpion watched his opportunity catched hold of the Reigns and wanting neither agility of body sprightfulness of mind nor skill in horsman-ship nimbly vaulted upon him and in the â—ight of them all made his escape By this time newes was fled to the King that Danpion had carried away by force his Daughter and with her the princess Celania and how that Dokimastus was much wounded in their defence and many others slain and how that his just revenge for all these villainous acts was anticipated by Danpion's flight But as if these wounding words Force and Flight had forc'd his Reason to flight he so unreasonably stormed as he seemed nothing but anâ— odd composition of Passion What said he Amphigenia gone And with that he stampt on the ground with his foot and made the earth quake with his fury whilst fury made an Earth-quake in him But then he went on Amphigenia The life of all my Comforts the stay of all my Hopes and the very treasury of my Joyes and is she gone Gone Nay ravished ravished Nay dead for ought I know Oh! Deadly word Dead and I live and live to see all this unrevenged Oh! Tyrant-heaven Was it not enough to rob me of my Daughter My only Daughter but you must plunder me of all means for revenge too For Revenge for Justice if it be not just to rid the world of such a Monster I know not what is just and if so Why did you blindly put the Sword of Justice into my hands But oh you Powers If you will tyrannize I am your Vice-gerent and am warranted by your example and with that he commanded his Courtiers speedily to pursue them and threatned to hang them if they came back without one or both But now to return to Danpion who had overtaken Amphigenia by that time the Coach was arrived at Pandion's Castle so that some of the Souldiers that were upon the Walls seeing a gallant and beautiful Lady hunted by a man on Hors-back with a drawn Sword for Danpion by reason of the madness of the Horse had not time to imprison it in the Scabbard and loath he was to disarm himself knowing not what future accidents might require its service they ran presently out of the Gates and commanded them to yieldâ— Danpion not being accustomed to surrender on such easiâ— terms began to treat with them in the churlish language of War and dispute his Title to Liberty till at last he was confuted by the sharp Sophistry of multiplyed Swords who after they had argued a while in the school of War at last prevailed and led them to Pandions General who at the first view of these two excellent and beautiful Personages was possest with such extreme wonder that every beam of their Beauty was a bright Key that lockt up his senses in the Prison of amazement As for Danpion though his Habit became not one of his Birth and Greatness yet he so became his Habit as he seemed to put a Majesty on Poverty that whilest his garb presented him as anothers servant all those excellent endowments that give height of mind in the lowest fortune attended on him His Eyes were graced with such a verecundious sternness as seemed at once to allure and threaten some terrifying flashes would glance from them but yet with such a mixture of a well-becoming suavity as inflamed the heart with a greater admiration of his Beauty His Countenance in which appeared no common Ayr though somthing clouded not with a dejecting but rather such a tumid grief as usually attends those great souls whom no fortunes can discompose but those that deprive them of the exercise of Vertue yet thorow those Clouds there shined such Rayes of an undaunted Majesty as might well deserve the highest admiration in those mindes that esteem nothing vulgar But as for Amphigenia she seemed a Person so incomparably excellent t is fitter to leave the Soul extasied with the contemplation of her Beauty than to attmept its Delineation since no Tongue nor Pen can pourtray them but must be vast debtors to her Perfections And that that added no smal lustre to her Excellencies was her Magnanimity under this misfortune chusing rather that her heart should break within than her sorrow break out and resolving that Death should ravish her Soul from her Body sooner than the saddest accident her Vertue from her Soul and making it the chiefest point of Vertue to be commander of her inward Passions whilest her outward estate was a servant to Fortune And this present misery though circumstanced with all the evils that envy could wish for or her self detest not only her Person but her Chastity being at the disposal of one whom a double Antipathy both as a man and an enemy made infinitely hateful yet by foyling it with her Vertue she made serve but as an Ornament to the beauty of her Vertues So that the Clouds of sadness in her Countenance made the brighter reflections of the beams of a stately Majesty Whilest Pandion was taken up with the Prospect of such Heavenly Aspects the Coach-man that had been the Charon that had hurried this sad Princess to such a Hell of misery comes to him and humbly craves a minutes conference He consenting the Coach-man informs him who that beautiful Subject of his admiration was and by what and whose means and for what end he had conveyed her thither and as for the other he presumed he was some Attendant of the Kings by whose command he pursued them This news was as a