with an inward shivering for the approach of her he adored we were at a little distance from the place where the Chariots passed but near enough to to discern Statira and to observe that the King was with her This sight made my Master tremble every joynt and put him again in those disturbing conflicts that had kept him all night awake he changed colour many times and seeing him in such a case as I had never seen him in till then I apprehended the effects of some suddain and violent resolution After he had continued a good while in these trances he began to be a little settled when the Chariots made a stand right against the place where we were Meleager mounted upon a wonderfull handsom hors was talking with the King who sate on one side of the Chariot After some discourse which we could not hear Meleager alighted and the King leaping out of the Chariot went to that gallant horse to get upon him the horse was extream fiery and unruly and though two or three men held him the King had very much adoe to throw himself into the Saddle but assoon as he made him feel the spur he fell a plunging and running so furiously that the Kings strength and skill were both uselesse to govern him he no longer obey'd the hand nor heel and having made 100 bounds without giving the King leasure to cast himself off nor those that were round about to stop him he took a full carrier toward the River the bank whereof was something high and flung himself headlong into the Current But Sir you perhaps were present at this accident and without question you know part of those things that passed there Lysimachus presently making answer I was at that time said he in a condition which would not suffer me to be there and though I have heard part of it I beseech you interrupt not your discourse since I am hitherto ignorant what share your Prince may have in that businesse The horse continued Araxes having thus precipitated himself into that deep and rapid stream went to the bottom with his burthen and within a while came up again without it This mischance did infinitely surprise the whole company and with affrighted cries looking what was become of the King they saw him a little lower strugling with the waves which somtimes tossing him up and sometimes swallowing him again made most of those that were present dispair of his safety you know he could never swim and that he was wont often to complain of the carelessnesse of those that had had the government of him because they had not made him to be taught in his youth many leapt into the river to save him but it was so impetuous and the banks of it so steep that 't was impossible for them to help him and two or three being drowned took off the edg of all them that had yet any desire to hazard their own life for that of their Prince My Master and I were also run to the river side a little below the rest of the company and being likewise witnesses of the Kings manifest danger we were assaulted with very different thoughts I am ashamed Sir to confess my own unworthiness though the peril in which I saw this great Prince struck me with some trouble and compassion as well as the rest yet my Masters interest in the loss of a life which was incompatible with his gave me some touch of joy and made me hope this accident would put an end to his misfortunes but while I was rejoycing at his happiness I saw him plunge himself into the water with a marvellous suddenness dividing the waves with so much force that in a moment he swam unto the King who deprived of sence made no longer any resistance against the violence of the stream that carried him away My Prince catch'd him by the hair and swimming with one hand drew him to the shore with a wonderfull strength and with such difficulty that any other man but he would infallibly have perished in the attempt I had thrown my self into the river after him and knowing his generous intention seconded him as well as possibly I could Assoon as we were gotten to the bank my Master lifting up the King by the feet made him cast up a great deal of the water he had swallowed and recover his sences but with so little understanding that he could not discern any thing that was done in his presence Not being satisfied with this action he took him in his arms and forgetting the caution he formerly had of discovering himself he carried him through the company to the Queen his wife who more dead then alive at this accident did by her tears express her true affection to her husband My Prince laying him gently down before her Madam said he receive yet one service more from him of whom you no longer expected any and by the nature of this acknowledge what you owed to all those others I have done you The Princess was so troubled at the first accident that we could not judge by her countenance whither the amazement we observ'd in it proceeded from her knowledge of my Master or from her former fright neither indeed had we the leisure to learn for rising up instantly he went with all possible hast through the company that stood round about and running to our horses he vaulted readily upon his and inviting me by his example to do the like we clapt spurs to them and riding away full speed lost sight of the company in a moment Lysimachus stopt Araxes in this part of his story crying out Good Gods is it possible that our Age should have produced so vertuous a person And was it your Prince then to whom Alexander was indebted for his life Was he the man who vanish'd from every bodies eyes like lightning he who was thought to have been miraculously sent from heaven for his preservation and he to whom the King and the whole Court afterward offered sacrifices as to a God Did Oroondates to whom the Kings death was of so great consequence and so necessary and he who but a moment before had had such excusable designs against his life hazard his own so visibly for its conservation Certainly this generosity has no example and of all the souls that ever were created none but only his could be capable of it While Perdiccas Meleager Leonatus and many others who were present suffered him to perish without relief he receiv'd his life from him to whom it gave a death and whose own could not be saved but by his destruction Lysimachus holding his peace after these words Araxes took up the thread of his Discourse again and thus went on with it We gallop'd away so swiftly that in lesse then half an howre we were gotten above threescore Furlongs from Alexander and those that accompanied him Yet could we not ride without much trouble the coldness of the water in a season that was
thousand whereof our army was composed beside those wee had left wounded at Callira Orithia chose out eight thousand for the effecting of her enterprise leaving the rest to Clytemnestra with order not to set forward till three daies after our departure From the place where wee were wee had four daies march unto this Town and Orithia having informed her self by those who best knew the countrey in what places wee might lie conceal'd while we were upon the way caus'd our little army to take victual for six daies leaving the rest to the forces that followed us and which were to arrive two dayes after us Shee made provision of ladders brush-faggots and all necessaries for her design and having carefully taken order for every thing and visited all her self in person as soon as night was com wee began to march beeing guided by women of the countrie who were perfectly acquainted with all the by-passages and at break of day wee made a halt in a wood far from the high waies and on the edges of it wee set forth Corps de guard to keep our selvs from being discovered we rested there all that day and the night following continued our march advancing with the same order and the same diligence wee made a stop again as soon as day appeared and so marching onely by night and seizing indifferently upon all persons wee met wee arrived near this Town two hours within the fifth night it was neither very clear nor very cloudy but dark enough to favour our approch and light enough to give us the means to know and discâ—rn objects as much as was necessary When wee were within a few furlongs of the Town wee met som scouts which the enemie had abroad but they were so surpris'd by ours who had prepared themselvs for that encounter that it was impossible for them to get away and carry news unto the Town of our arrival After they were all kill'd or taken and that Orithia by those that escaped the fury of our women had learned how the Town-guards were ordered and how little care Neobarzanes's love had left him for the conservation of the place shee divided the army into four bodies giving the first to Menalippa the second to Arethusa and the third to Amalthea keeping the fourth her self with a design to storm the Town in four several places Menalippa had order to give the allarm on her side which was that wee came in to draw the enemies thither while Orithia took a compass to fall on at her post and while Amalâ—hea and Arethusa drew off to the right and left hand to make their assaults where they were appointed You know that the situation of this Town which shee had formerly taken her self was not unknown to her and that shee was acquainted with all the avenues and the weakest places for my part I desired to fight near her and leaving commands to them of riper years I kept inseparably with her All things were executed as shee had given directions Menalippa came up boldly to the Town and beeing presently discovered by the sentinels gave a very hot allarm faggots were instantly thrown into the moat and some ladders clapt to the walls which as it was believed it would made the greatest part of the souldiers that were within run withall speed unto that place when Menalippa had engaged them in fight shee followed the order that had been given her and knowing that place whither most of the enemies forces were drawn would bee too difficult to bee entred before the rest were assaulted shee managed the business discreetly and contented her self with holding them in play and drawing them thither more and more without running on headlong to no purpose In the mean time wee arrived at our post and Orithia causing the moat to bee fill'd up in little time and finding the curtine almost quite unmann'd shee set a ladder her self and scaled the walls with her sword in her hand as proud Capaneus that despiser of the Gods and of their thunder did at the siege of Thebes or as ambitious Briareus climb'd mountains heaped upon one another to defeat the Gods Wee followed her with a resolution little different from her and endeavored to imitate a valor whereof in spite of darkness shee gave us a thousand proofs The place where wee fell on was not so unfurnished of souldiers to defend it but that wee found a stout resistance yet Orithia's courage overcame all difficulties and after a combate obstinately disputed many ladders beaten down under her and a shour of stones and arrows sustain'd upon her cask and upon her shield shee got to the top of the wall and laying hold of one of the battlements threw her self lightly up then instantly by a crie of victorie inviting us to follow her shee struck a terror into the hearts of our enemies and presently after sent death amongst them both by the blows of her sword and by the falls shee gave them from the top of the wals into the street as soon as they saw her accompanied with a small number of us they lost courage and leaping down themselves or flying away in disorder left the wall without defence and gave the rest of our women leisure to get up without any opposition within a short space all our Brigade was in the Town and Orithia marching at the head of us all bloudie led us to those places where there was yet any resistance and charging the enemies in the rear carried utter destruction and despair amongst them Why should I keep you in a needless relation the victory was ours on all sides and Menalippa having open'd her self a way by our assistance Amalthea and Arethusa found little opposition and were quickly gotten into the Town Then it was the streets began to be overflowed with bloud and that our women glutted themselvs with the revenge they so eagerly had thirsted after All the men were put to the sword nor was it in Orithia's power to save them from the fury of our Viragoes that was all her business when shee found they no longer resisted and though your interest had stirr'd up a most violent anger in her shee could not behold those spectacles of crueltie without being touch'd with much compassion Shee enquired every where for you and promised pardon aloud to whosoâ—ver could bring her where you were no bodie hearken'd to her amidst those cries that horror and their first apprehensions but coming to save the life of one who seem'd to be an Officer Madam said hee in requital of your goodness I will do you a considerable service com presently along with mee if you will prevent the death of your Queen whom desperate Neobarzanes is going to kill with his own hands if you run not instantly to rescue her Orithia enraged as a Lioness at this news followed the man and promising him excessive rewards if shee could save you by his means was speedily guided to this hous and got into your chamber time
say for that 's the name of this unfortunate woman that speaks to you foolish and miserable Hermione what a blindness is this of thine to precipitate thy self with so little reason and discretion into an unruly passion and what a weakness it is to yield thy self with so little resistance to an enemy from whom thou hast no expectation of mercie thou lovest without any hope of easing thy passion nay and even without hope of discovering thy passion thou that art but the mean daughter of Cradates lovest Alexander the Master of potent Kings that conquerour of all mankind and the terrour of the world he to whom the greatest Princesses living are slaves and who nevertheless would not deign so much as to turn the least of his thoughts upon them Thou groundest thy hopes perchance upon the knowledge that Alexander is a man that he is young and that he is not unsensible that thou art born of no contemptible family and that thy lookinglass and thy flatterers perswade thee thou art fair Alas though Alexander be a man though he be young he is a Warrier he is fixt upon his conquests and if he be not unsensible he will be touched with love to another rather than to thee and thou wouldst yet be a veryer fool than thou art if the perswasions either of thy flatterers or of thy glass could make thee imagine thy beauty were in the least degree comparable to that of the Princesses of Persia By this kind of arguing I strove to defend my self against my growing passion and I thence easily drew the knowledge of my blindness but not the power to withdraw my self I perceived with as found a judgement as one unconcerned could have done that 't was utterly in vain to hope for any thing by my love and yet that knowledge could not cure me of it and I saw my self in the end constrained to love without all hope and to love because my reason had not power enough over my Soul to keep me from loving At the second sight of Alexander my passion grew twice as strong as before and at last it became so potent by my indulgence that it made me absolutely besides my self We followed the Army certain dayes but the King being desirous by obligations to engage my Father to his service and testifie the trust he would have in him sent him to the Citie of Maracanda whereof as of the neighbouring Province he gave him the Government with equal Authority to what Governours were wont to have under Darius My Father received this favour from the King with great submission and with an earnest desire to sacrifice himself for his service but I received it as a sentence of death since it absented me from my lovely Conquerour and when Cradates after having received his orders and dispatches departed from the Camp I was like to have ended my life at that cruel separation Yet was it necessary to obey without murmuring and without discovering any thing to my Father of a disquiet which in stead of pity would onely have caused his contempt and aversion toward me I went with him to that Citie which obeyed the Kings Orders without resistance and I looked upon it as the place of my imprisonment or at the least as the place of my banishment Alas how many dayes did I pass there which to me were more gloomy than the darkest nights and which I should have blotted out of the number of my life if all those that succeeded them had not been languish'd out in the like or greater misfortunes that adored Idea came alwayes into my imagination with charms against which my reason was no longer proof sometimes I fancied Alexander at the head of his forces pressing the flanks of Bucephalus with his sword in his hand his head shaded with Plumes and his body glittering with polished steel except in some places where the dust and his Enemies bloud had dulled part of its luster otherwhile I represented him to my self at the top of a scaling ladder laying hold of a battlement and throwing himself over a wall whither he alone carried terrour and ruin to his Enemies I often set him before my eyes swimming on Horse-back through an impetuous river holding two darts in his right hand and casting up a terrible look toward the bank extreamly steep and covered with a million of men in Battalia and in all these forms I imagined him alwayes with a divine aspect and with an air breathing something above humanity but from these reflexions falling into my sadder thoughts Alexander would I say sighing is yet more lovely is yet more sparkling than thou canst fancie him but alas he is not for thee and the higher he is and the more elevated above the common sort of men the less cause hast thou of hope the less cause of consolation I never ended these words without tears and when I hear tell of the dayly progress he made whereof my Father often received news and the perils into which he did precipitate himself I trembled and quaked at the recital and hardly made any prayers unto the gods but to conjure them to divert all those darts and all the points of those swords which might offend my lovely Conquerour I kept my disquiets a long time concealed though they might have been observed in my very face and in the alteration of my health but in the end I discovered them to old Theano my Nurse in whom alone I could with reason have any confidence That good woman blamed my folly and did all that she could possibly to cure me of it but when she found she laboured but in vain and that my passion grew sharper by her opposing she resolved to follow my inclinations and to seek some redress for my discontent as well by her endeavours as by her consolations I lived on this manner till Spitamenes came to Maracanda Spitamenes pursued Hermione with a sigh was not unknown to any of you and they that have passed their lives with Alexander as well as they that have lived near Darius may often have seen him in both Courts you know that he was friend to the treacherous Bessus and that after the detestable parricide of his King whereof he was not absolutely clear he followed his fortune into Bactria but when Alexander was come into that Countrey and that by the force of his arms he had made himself master of it Spitamenes a false friend to that disloyal man betrayed the Traitor in favour of Alexander and to make his peace with him after he had caused his forces to revolt he with Catenes and some others seized upon Bessus and carried him bound hand and foot to Alexander Having found favour with the Conquerour by means of this treachery he continued for some time to follow him but afterward growing weary of the quiet he enjoyed under him and abusing the favours he had received from him he sowed new seditions in the Camp and making the Dahaes rise he
more odious then at this present and if you well remember the hopes I have given you cannot accuse me of a change which neither half a day no nor my whole life ever made me capable of I promised you I would never love any body but your self I promised you that I would marry death rather then Arsacomes but I never made you hope either by my discourses or by my actions that I would fly from my fathers armes to follow you and that I would licence my self in favour of you to doe shamefull actions and such as are unworthy of a Princesse I never demanded any proofes of your affection interrupted I which the strictest severity could condemne but what other remedy could I apply to so pressing an extreamity and what meanes had you to avoyd that mis-fortune which you your self had given me notice of Death replyed the Princesse which shall ever bee lesse cruell to me then the shame you have prepar'd me and though I gave you notice of my mis-fortune I did not demand remedyes of you which you could not give me without ruining me I onely protested to you that I would never be but yours and that promise shall be inviolably performed And which way doe you keepe that promise said I quite transported if you command me to restore you to Arsacomes you shall not restore me to Arsacomes added the Princesse but onely to the King my father whom my honour suffers me not to forsake without his consent and if the King give me to Arsacomes I by my death can oppose his tyranny without offending my reputation Ah! Madame cry'd I stepping back a little and lifting up my hands and eyes to heaven I had rather leave you to Arsacomes then leave you unto death and if one of us must dye 't is onely this forsaken Arsaces this Arsaces who no way but by dying can justifye the cowardise that will reflect upon him for quitting you to his rivall Yes Madame I am ready to give you the cruell proofes of my submission which you demand and if you yet desire any others you shall see me run to them with the same resignation Le ts begone from this place which is more odious to us both then the prison from whence I deliver'd you le ts begone from this place so fatall to your reputation and since you find so much shame and so much mis-fortune in the company of Arsaces let 's go againe to the king of Scythia let 's goe and receive Arsacomes I am ready to sacrifice my interests to sacrifice my life to the glory of that rivall that I may serve Berenice to the utmost as ungratefull and as much chang'd as shee is and it shall never be reproach'd to me that either her ingratitude or her change dispenc'd me from the obedience I owe her With these words I commanded a chariot to be made ready but though my grief or rather my despaire was visible in my face and that my Princesse was deeply touch'd with it yet was she not shaken in her resolution onely she let me see by her teares that it was not without sorrow she parted from me and having look'd upon me a while without speaking You are ungratefull your self sayd she to accuse her of ingratitude and of change who for all you are so great for all you are so worthy to be lov'd loves you better then she ought since shee loves you better then her quiet and better then her life The event perhaps will make my intentions better known to you then they are and you without doubt will learne that though I prefer my duty before your Satisfaction I 'le preferre my grave before any man in the world except Arsaces In another season ths discourse would have been sufficient to content me but in the pressing extreamity I was then reduc'd to there was little probability I could be satisfyed with words neither did I forbeare to testify enough by my actions how little effect they had wrought upon me and how firme a constancy so ever I affected to show her to my latest end that I made no difficulty to obey her I could not be Master of those impetuous motions that drove me head long into rage and not being willing to say any more to Berenice that could make her beleeve I waver'd in the execution of her commands I turned toward Theodates and those Gallant men that had seconded me so bravely Ah! my generous Companions said I with teares in my eyes how unprofitably have I employ'd your valour and how vainly have I engag'd you to shed the blood of your country-men and your own you out of your extraordinary generosity have link'd your selves to the interests of a poore stranger you have march'd cheerfully against your king for the establishment of my repose and of my fortune you have seene the walles of the Metropolis of Scythia nay you have made your selves Masters in a few moments of a Citty the taking whereof by men lesse valiant would have requir'd whole yeares and briefly by the effects of a prodigious courage you have given me this Princesse for whose sake alone I had accepted your assistance but O Gods how little doe I proffit by all you have done for me and how cruell how fatall will the fruit of your victory be to me ah how much more happy had I been to have fallen by the sword of Arsacomes or to have lost my life before the gates of Issedon then to give it up now to the inhumanity of Berenice While I was lamenting on this manner and drew teares of compassion from all that heard me I saw the chariot coming which I had given order for to carry backe the Princesse That sight redoubled my affliction but struggling with my utmost power to get the mastery of it in an occasion wherein I stood in need of all my fortitude I drew nere to Berenice and offering her my hand with a forc'd constancy Come Madame said I let 's go back againe to the King your father stay no longer here in the campe in the tent of his enemy all things are ready for your departure and you are as free as you can desire Berenice's teares with she shed in great abundance would not suffer her to reply but onely taking my hand which I had presented her she went out of the tent in such a condition as made me know it was not without a great deale of reluctance she gave her self up to the severe precepts of her duty when she was gotten into the chariot and Cyllenia with her she strove to breake the silence she so long had kept and looking upon me with drowned eyes You shall quickly know said she that without inhumanity you cannot accuse me and that the action you see me doe ought rather to draw pitty from you then those cruell reproaches you have used Farewell Artaxerxes pursued she forcing her modesty to embrace me leave the care of my destiny to me and
submissions they had not been able to soften our hearts nor make us lose the aversion we had against them I gave no credit at all to their words and yet I was easily perswaded to get on horse-back that I might leave that detested house hoping that in the open field I should finde many more occasions to save my self than in that Prison from whence I went with a hope which had not so strongly flattered me till then Eurimedon had sent away some of his servants the day before and had kept with him besides Astiages and his kinsman who went also with us onely three of his men well arm'd and well mounted With this company we were riding in a way which seem'd to lead us towards Babylon when we saw a Cavalier compleatly arm'd coming upon the same Road. We being desirous to interess all those we should meet in our deliverance had our faces unvailed and that man had no sooner cast his Eye upon Alcione as he was passing by but he stopt short and presently after turning about and coming back again began to ride at a little distance by our Ravishers but keeping his Eyes fixt upon us with an Action that displeased Eurimedon in whom all objects were sufficient to beget a jealousie Friend said he travell on your Road whoever you are and leave not your way to follow us unless you seek your own destruction The stranger was not at all terrified with that threat but looking boldly upon Eurimedon I know the Ladies that are with you answered he and before I go away from them I le know whether they go along with you willingly or by force Ah! 't is by force cried we both together and if you were not too weak against so many Enemies we would implore your generous assistance You shall have it as weak as I am replied the stranger and I will die in the design of delivering you since I am not strong enough to effect it He had not ended these words before his Sword was drawn and with a most warlike Garb had prepar'd himself to receive Eurimedon who transported with anger fell instantly upon him with all his men The Gods guided the first blow he made and though Eurimedon's sword gave him a light hurt in the arm his luckily finding way under Eurimedon's Cask ran him through the throat and opening a passage for his bloud and life together made him tumble dead among the Horses feet The stranger after this gallant blow rush'd into the midst of his Enemies with an admirable courage but they inviron'd him so furiously that he quickly was wounded in many places and his Horse kill'd between his leggs Yet had he the satisfaction to see Astiages Cosin fall to the ground before him who being run quite through the body lost his life for the quarrel of his friend This kindled him with so great a Rage that redoubling his blows upon the valiant stranger who prepar'd himself to dispute his life a foot with the help of a Tree against which he set his back he in spite of that marvellous resistance being seconded by his companions would have seconded the death of Eurimedon and of his friends if the brave Demetrius had not come in to his Relief and had not for the preservation of his life and the Recovery of our Liberty finish'd what he so generously had begun You have heard what he did for our deliverance and how he gave that gallant stranger who presently after was known to be Cleonimus the means to save himself and to kill Astiages his faithless kinsman and his ancient Enemy but not without being so extremely wounded that notwithstanding all the care that has since been taken of him at Polemon's house this is the first day the Physicians have given any hope of his Recovery in which I am concern'd as much as I am oblig'd to be by the service he did me and by the consideration of Alcione whom I dearly love Thus did the Princess conclude her Recital and Arsaces who for all his impatiency at some passages of it had heard it to the end without interruption fell then into a very passionate discourse whereby he let her see how infinitely he was concern'd in the afflictions she had suffred The Heavens be praised said he fair Princess who after having exposed you to misfortunes for which in probability you were not born Restore you now at once this Brother so great and so dearly lov'd and if in the number of youâ— other happinesses I durst count this last your faithfull Arsaces whom by the remembrance of your loss and by the transports of this cruell Jealousie you have been like to lose and for whom you have had the goodness to preserve your self He said a great deal more to that effect and after that Oroondates with the other Princes and Queen Thalestris had seconded him with the like discourses the whole company retired to leave the night to Arsaces who probably stood in need of it having spent the greatest part of the day in this Narration Lysimachus and Ptolomeus waited upon the Princesses to Polemon's house and being afterwards come back into their Tents passed the night all of them if not with a perfect rest at least with less disquiets than those they were wont to feel The next morning Lysimachus Ptolomeus Oxyartes and Eumenes came to Oroondates his Tent where they found Arsaces in so fair a way of amendment as made them hope he would be absolutely cured within a few days All the Princes testified the excess of their joy and after they were set down by the bed-side Lysimachus adressing himself to Arsaces Sir said he I protest to you by all the Gods and by the respect I ow to Parisatis that the most sensible discontent I now am touch'd with is that of having been one of those that have help'd toward the ruine of your illustrious House and that I am tied to you and yours by such powerfull considerations that this cruell remembrance will ever give a check to my most glorious fortunes â—t is true Sir I follow'd Alexander in the Conquest of those Dominions that were the King your fathers and that in the division that has been made of them since the death of Alexander Thrace Pontus and Bosphorus are fallen to my share These Provinces are big enough to form a Kingdom of a large extent but though by the same right I were Possessour of all that are in Asia I would deliver them up freely to their lawfull Prince I therefore devest my self of all the pretensions our division may have given me and since it is not in my power to restore you the whole Empire of the King your father I le serve you to the last drop of my bloud in the Design you may have to recover it Lysimachus had hardly spoken when Ptolomeus who would not appear less generous than he Aegypt said he to the Prince and Arabia with part of Affrick shall also return to the
With these words he rush'd upon him with a fierceness which made him grow pale under his arms and forc'd him to approve of the help he receiv'd from those about him With two blows Oroondates gave him he dyed his Arms in bloud which came streaming from two several places but as eager as he was upon his Victory he could not hinder Perdiccas his friends from thrusting themselves between nor from rescuing him out of his hands half vanquish'd and half dead Oroondates took Revenge for the displeasure he receiv'd upon some of those that caused it and at the same time turning his eye towards his own men he saw Peucestas and Leonatus fall by the hands of Lysimachus and Ptolomeus By these brave Examples the Phrigians Lydians and Pamphilians staid their flight and fac'd about to their Enemies with so great Resolution that they seeing themselves depriv'd of those valiant Commanders who had animated them had not enough to make resistance especially when they saw the brave Demetrius follow'd by a good Body of Horse come thundring upon them and Craterus also at the head of the Macedonians This second charge finding them wavering utterly took away their courage so that of terrible Conquerours which they were a few minutes before they became timorous Run-aways and instead of Victory which by so much bloud they had almost gotten they onely sought to save themselves by flight That Rout amongst them was so general that the stoutest of them shamefully turn'd their backs and even the two chief Leaders of the Argiraspides Antigenes and Teutamus both wounded by the swords of Lysimachus and Demetrius being escap'd out of their hands like feeble birds out of a Falcons tallons fled to avoid the danger that threaten'd them and by their example perfected the routing of their men They are beaten my valiant friends cried Prince Oroondates they are beaten and if you neglect not the Advantages your valour has given you this is the last day of the War and of your Enemies As he had said these words he threw himself among them who yet made opposition the greatest part of which were Macedonians and having with the Troops that vigorously seconded him watred the field with the bloud of those that were most resolute the rest unable to sustain his violence followed the example and the destiny of their companions From this part of the battel and from that where Arsaces Thalestris and Eumenes had fought with the same success the Rout spread over all the field and Perdiccas his whole party gave it self up either to flight or to the mercy of the Enemy nor was there longer any fighting seen but onely execution without resistance and a lamentable slaughter which for a long time the Commanders were not able to hinder The Amazons incensed by the loss of their Companions gave store of bloud to their Revenge and the people of the most cruell natures as the Thracians Arabes and Hircanians not regarding pity covered the ground all over with dead bodies Those that could make use of the swiftness of their Horses sought safety toward the Town but the miserable Foot either lost their lives upon the place or found their deaths in the River where they leap'd in head-long to shun the Sword of their Enemies The waters of Euphrates which before were cleare and pure turn'd red with the bloud of many thousands and seem'd to swell higher with those streams which made a second River upon their banks The renown'd Arsaces carried on by the ardour of the fight had crossed through so many Squadrons that he at last was come near the place where Oroondates by his glorious Actions had given the Victory to his party and seeking for resistance wheresoere he thought he might finde it was brought by Seleucus his good fortune where that valiant man reduc'd to the last extremity of his life was disputing the remainders of it afoot against a company of Souldiers who but for his arrival had certainly made an end of him Arsaces having heard some body name him and knowing him by divers marks he who though he had not known him and for all he was an Enemy would not have suffer'd so brave a man to be slain rode up before all his Souldiers and by redoubled cries stopping the fury of the hottest among them drew near to Seleucus who making use of the respite that was given him set the point of his Sword upon the ground and leaning on the Hilt to take a little rest and breath saw his bloud run down from a great many parts of his body Arsaces putting up the Beaver of his Helmet Valiant Seleucus said he you shall not die nor shall you be overcome Arsaces will repay you part of what he ows you and though he was not oblig'd to you for his life he with all generous men ows his Relief unto your virtue Seleucus knowing him would no longer dispute his life nor his liberty against him but presenting him his Sword I yield my self said he and I yield my self without shame to the great Arsaces with this belief that if he had not ceased to be my friend I should not now have been conquer'd Arsaces was going to reply when he perceiv'd him to grow pale and by little and little to sink into a swown which his weariness and loss of bloud had caused He imbrac'd him presently to hold him up and feeling him faint in his arms he turn'd towards some he knew and making them take him up commanded them to carry him into his Tent and lay him in his Bed with the same care he would have desired to his own person Then seeking Oroondates on every side he found him busied with Lysimachus Demetrius and Ptolomeus to stop the slaughter of so many men who had given over all resistance Spare Friends cryed he running from place to place spare those who were your Countrymen and your fellow-souldiers there has been bloud enough shed already and our Victory for being the more bloudy cannot now be any thing the more entire Arsaces help'd the Prince of Scythia in that imployment and by the care they took they sav'd the lives of many thousand men The Souldiers having long been deaf to those commands began to obey in many places and giving Quarter took some of their Enemies Prisoners leaving the rest free liberty to escape All those that could get off retir'd to Babylon the Gates whereof were set open to them and of all that mighty number of Souldiers which a few hours before had covered all the Plain there remain'd not any without the Walls but what were either dead or Prisoners In short our Princes had as total a Victory as they could have wish'd and if the ardour of Oroondates and Arsaces had been follow'd they that very day would have appear'd at the heels of the Run-aways before the Gates of Babylon but Antigonus Craterus and Polyperchon opposed that Resolution and knowing that it was near night and that the City was not in
plotting the means hee should use both for his revenge and for his contentment In the mean time Queen Statira or Cassandra for she had retained that name with a purpose never any more to take up that of the Princesse of Persia under which shee had been exposed to so many misfortunes was extreamly pressed by Perdiccas his importunities and hee being vext at the little progresse hee had made in his design of gayning her affection and at the ill usage hee had received from her in his last visits went beyond the termes in which he long had kept himselfe toward her and flew out to threats which made her fall into strange apprehensions yet did shee not sink at all from the greatness of her courage when he told her it was not her best way to make him desperate in the condition hee then was nor to drive him to extremities which could not but bring her cause of discontent Think not said she with your threats to fright a Princesse who is not weak enough to feare them and who by the power shee hath over her owne life can secure her selfe from yours whensoever you shall go about to abuse it I know how to die Perdiccas to deprive you of the Empire you have over my body and by my death I shall compleat the anger of both Gods and men against you who will not suffer your crimes to goe unpunished The Gods forbid replied Perdiccas that I should seeke your death or that I should ever consent to it t is not your life I threaten for I would rather expose mine own to all maner of disaster then arme my hand or those of your Enemies against it Yes Madam you are still too deare to mee to bee able to conceive any violent thought against you but you may fear lest that in the end my rage be turned against this Oroondates whom you unjustly prefer before me and lest I powre upon him whatsoever hee can apprehend from a despayring rivall and from an Enemy that hath all maner of power over him hitherto have spared him for your sake and for Roxana's who loves him and out of some sence of generosity but at last all these considerations will bee blowne away by my despair and since the advantages he ha's over me make his life and mine to be incompatible I shall undoubtedly sacrifice his either to my repose or to my revenge The fair Queen could not hear these cruel threats without growing pale nor without testifying by the motions of her countenance how deeply they had touch'd her and indeed they made her lose part of her constancy wherefore looking upon him with eyes swell'd with tears ready to break forth which she withheld with a great deale of difficulty Cruel man sayd she execute then with thine own hand against the unfortunate Cassandra what thou intendest to do against Oroondates and since thou art at last fallen upon the only thought that was left thee to conceive for a conclusion of thy crimes take this wretched life which thou madest show to be willing to spare and preserve that brave and glorious life of the gallantest man that ever was the losse of mine is but of small importance if thou comparest the miseries of it with the wonders of his and moreover they are tyed together with so strong a knot that thou shall never see the seperation of them all the blows thou shalt aym at him will fall directly upon me and the same wound that shall take away his life will infallibly send me to my Grave Ah! my dear Prince continued she not being longer able to retain the motions of her love nor her tears which ran down with violence but breaking forth through that extraordinary effect of her passion with as much liberty before Perdiccas as if she had been all alone Too lovely Oroondates must I be now so near thee for no other end but to see thee so cruelly exposed to the rage of thy Enemies and after having escaped so many dangers into which thou hast thrown thy selfe for my sake after so many causes to forsake me for ever must thou be brought to submit thy selfe to these barbarous people who by the fear of one death alone which they have power to give thee will make me die a thousand times a day The Queen had never made the affection she bore to Oroondates so clearely known unto Perdiccas nor could he hear those words that gave so manifest a Declaration of it without falling into transports of anger and of griefe which tormented him most vehemently He remained a long time unable to expresse his resentments with his tongue but in the end looking upon the Queen with a more troubled countenance then before You could not sayd he have done a worse office to the Prince you love then this of shewing such violent proofs of your affection for though I were sure to perish and to see the whole World perish with me I 'le never suffer him to live when once my hopes are dead I for your consideration will defer my revenge till I have tryed all my utmost endeavours to mollifie you but when all my submissions shall once prove uselesse I 'le never let him triumph o're my ruine and whether I fall by the anger of Heaven or by yours or by that of my Enemies I will at least have the satisfaction to bury my Rivall with me Thou mayest do replyed the Queen utterly transported thou mayest do whatsoever thy rage shall inspire thee but this I declare before the Gods thou shalt never draw other contentment from the death of Oroondates save that of seeing me die with him and I protest to thee moreover that thou never from this minute shalt have word or look from me any more till thou hast given me the means to see him and discourse with him Perdiccas was struck dumb at that reitteration of a demand which the Queen had already made him and fixt his eyes upon the ground deeply musing what answer he should return he could not consent to give her a satisfaction which could not but bee very prejudiciall to him but at last there came a thought into his head which made him change his opinion and hee no sooner had conceived it but turning toward the Queen You shall obtain what you desire said he if I can perswade Roxana to it but hope not that Oroondates shall profit by it since he shall never be permitted to see you but to beg his life of you which depends only upon the usage you shall shew to me if he be wise hee 'l counsell you to forsake him and upon the successe of his counsels shall follow either his death oâ— his preservation After these words he went out of the Chamber and left the Queen so troubled at his threats that if she had not been comforted by the hope he gave her of seeing Oroondates she would have been reduced to a most lamentable condition The Princesse her Sister came
her eyes with shame and knew not how to sustain the looks of her whom she had so little obliged to afford her that noble usage Statira embraced her tenderly anâ— beholding her with eyes that had nothing in them of an Enemy You have wrong'd me more sayd she by the opinion you had of my cruelty then by all your former actions and if you were not enough afflicted already I should complain of the injury you have done me in preferring death before my friendship Live Madam to testifie that you cease to hate me and never fear any thing from me nor mine that can any way trouble your repose Roxana by this confirmation of the Queens goodnesse was absolutely brought to a hearty repentance and receiving her kindnesses with more assurance then before You are worthy answered she of the care the Gods have had of your preservation and I have but too justly merited my unhappynesse in my present estate Madam death without doubt would be my most fortunate condition but yet I 'le live for to obey you nor can I better testifie my repentance then by receiving my life from you and in living at your command notwithstanding the many reasons I have to wish for death Statira's resentment and Roxana's despair were appeased in this maner and they were upon these tearms when a great noyse was heard in the streets and at the same time some of the Souldiers brought notice that Alcetas was returned with part of his men and had again begun the sight against those of Lysimachus and Ptolomeus Lysimachus started at the name of his Rivall and praying Prolomeus to stay for the defence of the Princesses he went from them and ran to his men with as much haste as could be imagined It was true that Alcetas with some Souldiers as desperate as himselfe had already charged in amongst them He had run in vain to all the Gates which were seiz'd upon by his Enemies and after having lost part of his men against them he had been up and down at many other places and every where had found his Foes Victorious He had seen death wandring about on every side confusion disorder and cruelty raigning in all the streets of Babylon He had heard the groans of dying men the cryes and lamentations of tender Mothers Children and weake old men and every where had met with dreadfull pictures of horrible desolation He often had broke in upon his Enemies but had still come off again with losse till he arrived at the place where the unfortunate Perdiccas had lost his life Then by the knowledge of his Brothers death he had banished all the desire he before had had to live and seeking nothing but an occasion of dying honourably he believ'd he could not do it better then in the presence of his Princesse whom he had abandoned and to whom he thought he owed the latest moments of his life With this beliefe forcing all the obstacles that were in his passage he was come back again to that house where he had fallen so fiercely upon Lysimachus his Souldiers that at the first he had layd many of them dead upon the ground Lysimachus being come to their reliefe no sooner knew him but desiring to discover who he was Alcetas cryed he behold Lysimachus turn thy sword against him alone and let 's dispute this last time for Parisatis Alcetas stayd not for a second challenge but receiving his Rivall with a furious cry he ran to meet him with an impetuousnesse as great as his all their men afforded them passage and they closed in sight of either party though so unluckyly for Alcetas that having hurt Lysimachus but lightly in the left hand Lysimachus his sword found the defect of his Arms and ran through his body to the very Hilt Alcetas fell dead with that single thrust and yielded up Parisatis with his life unto his Rivall All his souldiers sought death by his example and were going perhaps to find it amongst Enemies grown cruel by bloud and slaughter when Prince Oroondates Artaxerxes Orontes and Thalestris with their Companions came altogether to that place They had cut in pieces whatsoever had made them any resistance and at the same time Oxyatres Craterus Antigonus Leonatus Eumenes and Polyperchon had made themselves Masters of all the severall quarters of the Town all those that had been obstinate in making opposition were put every man to the sword and Peucestas who had gotten some of the Citizens to take arms having seen a good number of them slain was constrained to ask quarter for the the rest and to yield himselfe to the discretion of Prince Oxyatres The Conquerours had promised the Inhabitants their lives but they had found it very difficult to take off the Souldiers whom desire of Pillage precipitated thronging into every house and at first they met with very little obedience amongst them but in the end they had so carefully endeavoured it knowing how much they should oblige Prince Artaxerxes by sparing the bloud of the old Subjects of his Family that they had saved all them that had escaped from the first fury of their men and after having made themselves Mâ—sters of all places where they could suspect any resistance they had drawn up a great part of their Forces under their severall Standards and Colours Thus the most stately Town in all the World was taken and that proud City which might have held out whole years against a world of Enemies saw it selfe contrary to all humane appearance brought in subjection in halfe a day by the imprudent and blind dissention of its Defendants Yet was it happy in its misfortune since the Conquerours used their Victory with moderation not defacing any of its Beauties and washing of the faults of its Commanders a great deale more with the bloud of strangers then of its Citizens While some of these great Princes were busie in that imployment they in whom the interests of love were the most powerfull had affaires of a different nature to take them up Alcetas was no sooner killed with part of his men and the rest fled quitting the place and Victory to their Enemies but Oroondates drawing near to conquering Lysimachus testified by his joy and by his endearments how much he was concerned in his good successe and Lysimachus having at the same time told him of the liberty of their Princesses of Roxana's repentance and of the Queens goodnesse toward her ravished his heart with an excesse of contentment He hardly stayd the end of his discourse while his Companions appeased the rest of the disorder and saved the lives of those miserable Wretches that implored their mercy but burning with impatiency to see his Princesse free he ran immediatly to that house and went to find her in her Chamber whither she was retired with the Princesse her Sister and Queen Roxana under the Guard of Ptolomeus with a good number of Souldiers Oroondates had no sooner cast his eyes upon her but unarming his
have you received better offices then from this enemy Is it from that Alexander whom you prefer before me and for whom you forsake me Has he left his Estates to serve you has he often sav'd the life the honour and the liberty of both you and yours Outrages then and mortal injuries passe with you instead of obligations and services of the nature of mine are accounted unpardonable offences Hee that has destroy'd your Country burnt your Towns slain your subjects dispossess'd your Father of his Dominions and perchance by this time of his life he that hath kept and doth yet keep your self and all your family in a cruel Captivity has without question both us'd you very well and done you very good service and I am he that hath us'd you unworthily and mortally offended you Alexander loves me say you and I will give my self to him you make him a present which he has highly deserv'd indeed it is a recompence due to the infinite services he hath rendred you and you know his affection to you by many gallant proofs and by a number of great obligatigations nay rather say vvith more truth Alexander is Master of all Asia and of a good part of Europe and I am basely ambitious and inconstant which makes me change vvith the face of fortune and scorn any thing under the Conqueror of the world Oroondates loves me indeed Oroondates hath done me service but Oroondates is vvithout power in his Fathers Dominions and perchance is hated and cast off by him for having lov'd me I will therefore follow the better of these two conditions and forsake him that loves me since he is unfortunate for him that loves me not since he is great happy and victorious 'T is thus you reason with your self Statira and 't is thus that from hence forward I vvill reason vvith my self I vvill forsake Statira not because she is unfortunate not because her Father is dispossess'd of his Dominions not because she is Alexanders Captive but because she has not an heart worthy of her birth because she is base because she is faithless You may well pardon me these vvords Statira since you have so easily pardon'd him whom you now love all the miseries you have suffered by him and that you can so quickly forget both injuries and services He vvould often say many other things which all ended in the design of forgetting so ungrateful and so unconstant a woman and of leaving Persia for ever to return into his own Country and there to recover that repose which he had voluntarily lost for so many years Assoon as I saw him in that minde I endeavored to confirm him in it by all the reasons I could alledge sometimes he vvould seem absolutely resolv'd upon it but within an howre after Statira appearing to his fancy more fair and more charming then ever took away all those former resolutions and I perceiv'd against my vvill that he vvould have a mighty difficulty to free himself of a passion that vvas like to last as long as his life Yet he having a vvonderful great courage his indignation wrought powerfully upon him and seeing himself driven away with so much disdain by a person whom he thought he had so dearly bought and so well deserved he made a conquest over his passion worthy of him and disposed himself in the end not to love her no more for he was not able to pull up a so deeply rooted affection but at least to obey her in depriving himself for ever of her sight In the mean time the Chirurgions laboured effectually in our cure and within a little time they no longer doubted of my Masters recovery But the usage he had received from Darius his daughter hindred him not from thinking upon her father whom he truly lov'd and whose misfortunes he lamented with as much sorrow as his own when he had often inquired news of him he heard that he pass'd through Arbela the same night after his defeat yet that he staid there but a very little vvhile and that since he was gone into Media with a design still to levy new Forces and to fight as long as he had a man or a drop of blood in his body that Alexander had pursued him with a resolution to seek him in what corner soever of his Territories he could retire to judging that the end or the continuance of the War consisted in his person alone and that so long as Darius was alive or at liberty he must not hope for any calm in the States he had usurped from him and this was all we could learn at that time I will not trouble you vvith telling how vve pass'd all the time that our wounds forced us to stay at Arbela it would be but tedious and to no purpose let it suffice if I tell you that they were so great that notwithstanding all the care that vvas had of them vve could not be in a condition to get on horseback in four vvhole moneths true it is that my Master's grief did much retard his cure and made him relapse twice or thrice very dangerously in the apprehension of those that had us in hand yet at last he mended reasonably well and though his afflictions rather then his wounds had made his face hardly to be known he in the end grew able to endure a Journey But when we were preparing to depart vve heard very doleful cries through the vvhole Town and saw our Host come in vvith tears in his eies and gestures of a man in very great sorrow Ah! Sir said he to my Prince as he entred into the Chamber what woful news doe I bring you Poor Darius our good King has ended his life by the treachery of his own subjects and had no other comfort in his death but what his spirit may receive by having been bewailed of Alexander These vvords vvere like a thunder-stroak unto my Master and though his own disasters had in probability left him but small sense of anothers misfortune yet vvas he so deeply touch'd to hear this losse that our Host and all that vvere present thought he vvould have died with grief I will not repeat all his complaints he made no fewer for him then for Artaxerxes and for two whole days he would not suffer any body to speak that came to comfort him the third day being a little settled by the remembrance of his own miseries he permitted our Host to make him the relation in a few words of what he had heard concerning the death of that poor Prince which he did on this manner Sir said he our good King being come to Ecbatana the Capital City of Media where he was often vvont to make his abode in the Summer time found himself destitute of all his Forces except thirty thousand Foot whereof four thousand were Grecians under the command of Patro and three or four thousand Bactrian horse commanded by the disloyal Bessus having made some stay in that Town he
of this day depends the repose or utter ruine of the Scythians If they prevail Alexander will without question have a free entrance into our possessions and that mighty Army wherewith hee marches already against us will advance without resistance into the remotest parts of Scythia and into the secretest places of your abodes and families but on the contrary by their defeat he will give over the design of invading you or if he should persevere in it you will howsoever gain an infinite advantage by having learn'd to conquer those that were never conquered He said many other things to this purpose and finding they had produced the effect he desired he made the Army march in Battalia straight unto the Enemies who advanced likewise in very good order Then it was that I observ'd a chearfulness in his countenance I had never seen there since the unhappy accidents of his life which had quite taken away his lively humour I had never seen him before at the head of an Army under his own command and I considered him there with so much pleasure that it is hard for me to passe over in silence his gracefulness both in commanding and in all the other Functions of his charge He had so noble and yet so lovely a fierceness in his arms that he moved both love and fear in all that look'd upon him when the Armies were drawn near to one another he put on his Cask all covered with plumes and stones of value and setting himself at the head of the Battel hee commanded Arsacomes who led the Van-guard to begin the Charge Scarce had the Trumpets given the Signal when the first Squadrons clos'd with a fury hard to be express'd the Thracians had not the leisure to make use of their Arrows for the Scythians falling in pell-mell forced them to fight at handy-blows This first encounter was very bloody but after having long contested for the better our Cavalry began to putâ— their Foot into disorder when Zopirio perceiving it came up with the main Body of the Army and thundring in upon our men made a terrible slaughter of them before they could be reliev'd by Oroondates I kept upon the right Wing with my three thousand horse and observing the disadvantage of our side I rush'd into the midst of the Enemies and recovered our affairs a little again while my Prince moving forward with his Battalion made the fight something less unequal Zopirio who as well as my Master had parted his Army into three Bodies made his last advance and Theodates by his example and by the Princes command led on the Rere-guard to oppose him Then it was that the two whole Armies being ingaged fought with marvellous courage and obstinacy each having taken a resolution to conquer or perish upon the Field and I may well assure you with truth that of so many thousand men as fell that day there was hardly so much as one that receiv'd his death in running away The Thracian and Macedonian Infantry seeing themselves trampled under foot by the Scythian Cavalry kill'd their horses with Javelins and keeping close together covered themselves with their shields and bore up stiffely against them to hinder their being utterly routed Our Enemies surpass'd us in number and they were much better arm'd then we but the valour of our General and his wonderful readiness in giving seasonable relief where there was most need made them lose all the advantage which their number and the difference of arms gave them over us He had already done miraculous things and by reason of the blood that was all over him could hardly be known but by his stature and the blows he gave when Zopirio seeing the day incline already to our party observed him among all the rest and considering that the greatest part of the Victory consisted in the death of that Commander he broke through his own men and having a strong Javelin in his hand after he had desied him with a loud cry he rush'd upon him and striking him while he was otherwise employed the point of his Javelin passed between the mailes that defended his arm and gave him a slight hurt in the hinder part of his shoulder Zopirio seeing his Javelin engaged in my Masters arms let it go and was already lifting up his sword to second his first blow but my Prince turn'd about to him with so great a fury and so admirable a readiness that Zopirio frozen with fear began to repent his boldness when the blade that seldome fail'd of making a mortal wound finding passage through the defect of his Curass under the arm which he had heaved up ran him quite through the body and made him drop down dead among the horses feet The death of their General did much abate their courage and the Scythians who saw him fall sent forth a fierce cry which struck yet a greater terrour into them and without doubt hasten'd their defeat Certain it is that we found not so much resistance among them as before and that in the end the Victory declared it self openly for us To what purpose is it Sir to keep you in a tedious Relation the Enemies were defeated as without question you have heard but their obstinacy was so great that not one of them ever turn'd his back or ask'd quarter and our Victory was so absolute that after the heat of the Fight my Prince had much ado to save a small number though miserably hack'd by the cruelty of the Scythians Six thousand of ours were slain upon the place and more then ten thousand wounded After this notable Victory my Prince having given thanks unto the Gods retired into his Tent and would not suffer his wounds to be dress'd till the bodies of the principal Officers were sought and particularly Zopirio's which he commanded to be honourably buried as if he had been the best of his friends Of fifty thousand fighting men that had followed him not one as I told you avoided the fury of our arms by flight and all the rest died most gallantly upon the place except those few prisoners which my Prince sav'd from the like destiny whose ransome he paid himself to those that had taken them and set them at liberty giving leave to those that would to stay in his Camp till their wounds were healed allowing them wherewithal to pay for their cure and showing them as much kindness as they could have hoped for from their own kindred He also gave order to have the wounded men of his own Army carefully dress'd to have those that had fought well recompenced according to their deserts and to have the spoil distributed with justice and without confusion He had three hurts himself yet but light ones and such as kept him onely three or four days in bed Assoon as he was well enough to ride on horseback again he made his Army dis-incamp and sending his sick and wounded men to Olbiopolis in Waggons he marched with his Forces towards
least never to appear before her till she be in a condition to receive you I make you judge Sir what effect these words wrought upon my poor Prince he had hearken'd to them with changings of his countenance and alterations able to melt the most frozen hearts with pitty and when he heard the conclusion of them and saw them end in an eternal banishment notwithstanding all the succor he required of his courage he could not get enough from it to make him proof against so violent an assault he broke not forth into cries nor into tears those shewes of grief were too weak for the greatness of his but he had not power enough over his sences nor over his forces to keep them from forsaking him his eyes closed themselves his head sunk gently upon his shoulder and by little and little his whole body fell cold and immovable upon the bed where he was sitting The Queen who had prepared her self for all the worst events that could happen could not see him in that condition without a most sensible affliction not without making war with her fair hair and lovely face which grief had altered almost to an impossibility of being known she spoke the most compassionate words that ever sorrow made those persons utter who have been the most deeply touch'd with it and did some actions which if they had not been excusable by their cause would have been a little unbeseeming her modesty and quality but yet she never stirr'd from her last resolution and disposed her self rather to die then retract the sentence she had pronounced Barsina Cleone and I were about my Prince and laboured to fetch him again by all the remedies that can be made use of in such an occasion but he was in so deep a swoun that it was above an hour ere we could observe the least signe of life in him Though the Queen was once resolv'd not to stay for his complaints and reproaches yet could she not leave him in that estate but assoon as ever she saw him open his eyes she rose up from beside him and wiping away her tears composed her countenance as well as possibly she could and prepared her self to give him the last farwell My Prince having recovered his sences and seeing us all busie about him turn'd his sight slowly on all sides and seeking her out with his eyes when he was come to himself enough to remember the command she had newly imposed upon him he said only these words to her with a feeble dying voice I will obey you Madam never fear it I will obey you The Queen not permitting him to go on I hope so my dear Oroondates said she and with this assurance I give you the last farewell and the last kiss With these words coming close to him she kiss'd him for the last time indeed and getting loose from him without staying for any other answer she went out of the chamber so besides her self that I believe she hardly knew how she got unto her Chariot My poor Master accompanied her with his eyes as far as he could without stirring from his place and cryed out after her with a voice that shewed how weak he was Farewell the most beloved and the most ingratefull of all women living farewell for ever inhuman Statira Farewell since you fear to be present at my death and yet feared not to give it me He uttered many other complaints and was presently seized with a most violent feaver Barsina would not leave him in that condition and though she had purposed to have gone along with the Queen Sysigambis and Parisatis who all departed that very day she made her excuses to them promising the Queen to wait upon her at Babylon assoon as my Prince was recovered thus the Queens went away from Susa and Barsina returning to her house began to take care of my Masters health We had already got him to bed and that good Princess knowing the violence of his Feaver sent for all the most skilful Physitians and imployed them in his cure with a diligence that cannot be imagined she was so handsomely industrious and so affectionately careful about it that she visibly express'd the reality of her friendship to him but the poor Prince vvas so ill handled by his sickness that within a few days the Physitians began to despair of his recovery Do but judge Sir of my affliction and of Barsina's to see a person that vvas so dear to us and whose excellent qualities we were so well acquainted with die in her house and in our arms Certainly it is very hard to represent it to you and when vve reflected upon all the accidents of so marvellous a life and that we saw the admirable events of it end all in so sad so tragical a conclusion vvee appeared to bee more touched with his sicknesse then he himself In the mean time he lay in a continual study and for many days was deprived of all manner of knowledge his frenzy made him speak many extravagant things and the Physitians ascribing all to that made nothing of them though they were able to have discovered some passages of his life They continued many days in a belief that he would die and the Gods are my witnesses that not being able to think of seeing Scythia again without him nor of living after him I took a resolution to accompany him in the grave But when wee least expected it a favourable crisis gave some glimpse of hope to those that had him in hand and to make short that I may not keep you longer in a narration which already exceeds a reasonable length his youth and vigorous constitution saved him and in the end lessened the danger wherein he had lien for many days Assoon as the Physitians began to give me assurance of his recovery and that by the diminution of his feaver my confidence of it was increased I turn'd my thoughts to the settling of his minde in quiet but not seeing the least hope of it while his fortune was such I took a resolution something strange but worthy of the affection I bore my Master and after having a while digested it I came to his bedside and knowing that no body over-heard me Sir said I since the Gods have so visibly delivered you from a death which without their particular assistance was infallibly very near you they have without doubt thought of the establishment of your life and do not restore it you beyond the hopes of all those that have look'd to you in your sickness to make you languish it out in misfortunes and disasters You must live but you must live happy and to that end you must banish all scruples that detain you in your present misery Since Alexanders life is incompatible with yours he must die and you must lose all those considerations that may disswade you from a thought in which alone your safety is to be found if the Queen loves you her desire to be intirely
failed him and the use of speech forsook him with his life Behold in short what the end was of the greatest man the Earth ever bore and of whom posterity to the last ages of the world shall never speak but with astonishment He remain'd cold and unmoveable amongst us and his death dejected us on such manner that we all seem'd to have breathed out our souls with him Never was so great a consternation seen in so generous persons and the courage of so many gallant Princes who in a thousand dangers had made themselves a thousand ways remarkable seem'd to have taken flight with the spirit of Alexander I will not describe the height of our affliction particularly it shall suffice me to tell you that it was suitable to our loss and that the Macedonians bewailed him as their God and the Persians as their lawful King and the greatest that ever had reigned over them And in brief you need only make a little reflexion upon the life of that potent man to comprehend the effects his death produced in all those that knew him For mine own part I will assure you with truth that his loss imprinted such a grief into my heart that I was hardly to be comforted and though I had received such usage from him as was enough to alienate the affections of the most zealous the last testimonies he gave me of his love had wiped them all so clean out of my memory that there remained not the least sign of them and the remembrance of that great Prince his admirable vertues settled so deep a sorrow in my breast as for some time I suspended the thoughts of my love to give them wholly to the consideration of our general loss The next day we met altogether in the Palace with a generall consent and admitting none into our Assembly but the Princes and the most considerable Commanders we began to deliberate what honours should be rendred to the body of our King and who should be his Successor Perdiccas having placed the Kings Chair in the midst of the Hall upon which was his Crown and his Arms laid the Ring there also which the King had given him at his death and by the sight of that object drew new cries and tears from the whole company which of a long time afforded him not that silence he demanded They all were willing he should speak first and when he saw the Assembly settled he began his Discourse with the praises of the deceased King and with the revenge that was fit to be taken for his death upon those Paâ—â—â—cides if they could be discovered who by poison had shortned so brave and so glorious a life He went on with recommending those honours that were to be rendred to his body and to his memory and ended with the care that was to be taken in the election of a Successor worthy to possesse the place of our late King To that end he mentioned Roxana's being with childe and concluded it fit to wait till shee were delivered that her issue might enjoy the Crown of its Father Perdiccas his motion was seconded by some of the company but a great many others opposed it and particularly Nearchus Ptolomeus and my self who knowing Roxana's spirit and her enraged jealousie against Queen Statira and the Princess her sister desired to prevent the storm which threatned them in the authority of that ambitious Princess Ptolomeus represented unto the Assembly that the condition of our affairs would not permit the staying for an uncertain birth nor the Government of a child who perchance would prove of a different sex from that vvhich ought to have the command over us and then proposed to elect a Prince by plurality of voices among those of the blood-Royal and to yeild the Empire to him with an Universal consent I believe that his friendship to me perswaded him partly to give that counsel to the Assembly knowing that by nearness of alliance I was like to have good pretensions to it Ptolomeus his authority procured him instantly the attention of the whole Company and presently after Ariston nominated Perdiccas Alexanders Successor Some of his adherents approved that Election but we opposed it stiffely and Meleager one of the boldest and valiantest Commanders in all the Army but of a factious turbulent nature vvas not satisfied vvith contradicting those that voted in favour of Perdiccas but after having alledged the injury it vvas to other Princes who vvere more considerable he crowded through the press and putting himself among the Soldiery began to stir up a sedition All things were going into a strange disorder vvhen I bethought my self of the wrong that was done to Alexanders lawful heir and though my own interests were sufficient to have stopt my mouth if I had been of an humour to prefer them before justice I could not suffer them to go on farther vvithout proposing vvhat my conscience and the consideration of the deceased King enjoyned me and addressing my self to the vvhole Assembly What need is there said I to waver longer in the Election of a Prince whom the Gods have left us and who is amongst us Is not Aridaeus Alexanders brother and the son of King Philip Why will you deprive him of the Crown which belongs to him by right and by succession And why will you frustrate him of what Reason and Nature have given him These words appeased all the tumult and the Princes having digested them a little though their interests made them of a different opinion believ'd they could not vvith justice oppose so lawful an Election Aridaeus thereupon vvas call'd and Meleager to spite Perdiccas having guarded him into the Hall with an armed Band he vvas saluted King and named Philip by the Soldiers Though this Election appeared most just the Princes vvere not very well pleas'd vvith it and knowing there were such defects both in the body and mind of that Prince as rendred him in a manner incapable of so important a charge they destined it to the sonne that should be born of Roxana vvhen he should be of a fit age and condition to execute it and named Perdiccas and Leonatus his Guardians submitting themselves unto the new King until such time as Alexanders son should be able to hold his place This was that which gave Roxana that authority which hath proved so fatal to us and the consideration of the King her husband hindred me from opposing those advantages which were aimed at for her son This order appeas'd the uproar for a day or two but presently after it broke forth again more strongly then ever Many Macedonians lost their lives in it and Meleager was assassinated in a Temple by the command of Perdiccas who had usurped the greatest authority These disorders obliged us to assemble our selves again and not being able to agree about the Election of a Prince we resolved to share the Territories Alexandeâ— had conquered towards which we had contributed the best part of our
of your affection to him who loves you more then himself ALEXANDER Although this Letter was not written with the Kings own hand it was sealed with the Signet vvhich he vvas vvont to use and the Kings sickness kept the Queen from suspecting any thing She made an end of reading it vvith a loud cry and not wavering at all about the resolution she should take she gave order to have her Chariots presently made ready and by her speedy obedience express'd the greatness and sincerity of her affection to her husband The night was already near at hand and some of her servants perswaded her to defer her Journey till the next day but shee was displeased at that motion and though darknesse began already to overspread the face of the Earth she got up into her Chariot vvith the Princess her sister and set forward on her way being attended by a very small Train Her impatiency to see the King made her caus her horses to be driven at such a rate that she was near Babylon in lesse then three howres but when vve vvere vvithin five or six Furlongs of the town vve vvere environed by a Troup of armed men who having surrounded the Chariot commanded us to retire or they would kill us and putting themselves in a readiness to do as they had threatned they so terrified those fearful souls that the fear of death made them take flight while they turn'd out of the way with the Queen and Princesâ— toward an house of Roxana's without the City But I bore my Mistress a stronger affection then those base servants and I resolv'd to follow her to the utmost and never to forsake her but with my life which I could not value out of her service These good Princesses seeing themselves Captives and alone among those strangers sent forth most lamentable cries and fearing with probability some violence against their honours they would have prevented their destinies vvith their own hands and had done so if they had not been hindred by Cleone who alone had accompanied them because she alone was in the Chariot with them We arrived at that house of Roxana's which I presently knew and from that knowledge drew most fatall presages there they made them alight and the Commanders of that Troup in spite of their cries and resistance forced them to go up a pair of stairs and from thence enter into a room where I had been many times before under favour of the darkness I got in among the rest and not loosing sight of my Princesses I saw them led into that Chamber which we found hung with black and the wicked Roxana in it The Captain of the Troup having discovered his face was known likewise to be Perdiccas and these poor Princesses ignorant as yet what they were destined to waited for the end of the Tragedy with some apprehension but with a great deal of constancy Roxana coming up to them Madam said she to the Queen Alexander is dead if you lov'd him well you will not be sorry to follow him nor is it just that you or yours should one day dispute for the Empire with the heir that shall be born of him 't is against my will I consent to your destruction but I cannot secure my self by other means The Queen was so surprised with Roxana's first words which inform'd her of her husbands death that she had scarcely strength to hearken to the rest much lesse to reply nor indeed had she the leisure given her for Perdiccas making her her sister and Cleone go down a back stair led them into a little Court appointed for their execution while Roxana looked out at a window to be witnesse of that doleful spectacle How shall I be able Sir to relate what in spite of the darkness â— saw with mine own eye yes 't was with mine own eyes J beheld those pitiless Butchers sacrifice those divine Princesses to the malice of Roxana and presently throw their bodies into two Wells and a great number of stones after them These great Princesses receiv'd their death without murmuring but I sent forth cries which quickly made me to be known and caus'd those executioners to turn their swords against me and put me into the condition in which you see me Tyreus would have prosecuted his Discourse to tell me which way he got to Sysigambis's Palace but he was seized with such a weakness as took away his speech with his strength Neither indeed was I in a condition to hearken to him any longer this fatal relation having left me but as much life as was necessary to revenge the Princesses With that design I recollected all my Forces and courage and only crying out Are you dead then Parisatis I went out of Sysigambis's Chamber without speaking a word more I ranne instantly to Perdiccas his house fully resolv'd to sacrifice him first unto my Princesses ghost but I heard he was gone out of the City at the Gate which led towards Euphrates I call'd for my Arms and an Horse and without more company I went after him with a resolution never to return to Babylon but to pierce my heart with my own sword after having dyed it in the bloods of Perdiccas and Roxana Some soldiers I knew whom I met without the Gate assured me they had seen that disloial man passe by alone and that he in their presence had sent away ten or twelve Horsemen that were of his company to whom he had given some Commission or other This news made me ride after him with the greater confidence and within a little while I met him in the place vvhere you retarded my just revenge and where by the hindrance you gave to so lawful a design you urg'd me to an incivility which would have merited no pardon if the cause of it had been of lesse importance but which neverthelesse could not keep you from showing marks of your ordinary generosity to him that had so little deserv'd it and vvho by the happinesse of your encounter hath receiv'd all the consolation he was capable of in the excess of his misfortunes Lysimachus ended his Narration thus and Oroondates vvhom the recital of these last accidents had put into a strange perplexity at first only lifted up his eyes and hands to Heaven and by his actions and silence express'd a sorrow which all the vvords in the vvorld could not represent But after he had continued so awhile Ah! Lysimachus cryed he let us die since our Princesses are dead we have liv'd too long and my soul burns already with impatience to follow that of my lovely Statira He made a little pause at these vvords and then going on of a sudden No no Lysimachus continued he let us not die till our Princesses be revenged my wounds cannot detain me longer and Perdiccas and Roxana have no Sanctuaries that can secure them from our hands Lysimachus answered these transports only vvith some sighs vvhich this renewing of his grief forced from the
little that Warlike dame to whose cheekes shame and anger had given a collour which encreas'd her beauty flew at him more fiercely then before and thrusting her sword at his very eyes with a threatning cry Fly not said she neither be ashamed to have usd thy armes against a Woman who hath often died the feilds in the bloud of such as thou art I am not so weake that thou should'st need to despise me and there is more honour to be wonne with me then thou thinkest for Shee accompanied these words with a storme of blowes and enraged by the contempt she thought Lysimachus showed of her ran upon him with so much fury and so little caution that he was often affraid shee would give herselfe a death with those armes which he no more would turne against her he retired still warding her blowes which the wound in her arm allready made but faint ones and when he saw he was out of their reach and that the faire Amazone was forced to give him some respite to the end shee might take breath Madam said he I will rather turn the point of my sword against my own heart then make use of it against you I know too well what is due to your sexe and to your beauty and I should be glad if I could with a good part of my own bloud repaire the losse of that which my sacrilegious hands have drawn from your fair body if this satisfaction content you not pierce this brest which J offer to you I will take off my cuirasse that you may the more easily doe it and in the sad estate of my fortune which makes me wish for death I cannot hope for a more glorious one then that I shall receive from so faire a hand How excessive soever the anger of this valiant Lady was she could not but abate part of it at so great reparations and so profound submissions and beholding Lysimachus with eyes wherein even through the rage that enflamed them one might observe some gentlenesse I cannot said shee ghesse at the cause why thou slightest me thus thou hast not yet had so much advantage over me as to find reason to contemn me I will never pretend to any greater replied Lysimachus then the occasions of serving you and you are armed so many several wayes to conquer men that the victory will always be yours infallibly I desire none answered the Amazone but what I can winne with the point of my sword and though I be a woman my profession is to fight with men nor have I gained so little reputation in that excercise that you should need to be ashamed of our Combat it shall end here since you will have it so and that it would be ignoble in me to persist in it but I could wish also you would quit the interests of a traytour who never deserved the affection of so vertuous a person as your selfe These words were enough to have renewed the quarrell if a man had spoken them but Lysimachus who had not been able to endure them from one of another sexe and who would have taken up the defence of his friend against the most valiant living thought fit to combat the resentments of a woman with mildnesse and was content with answering thus as he put up his sword I know not what injury you can have receiv'd from him who is really the most generous and the most respective to Ladies of all the men in the world I have ever seen him most averse from such crimes as those you taxe him with and in the recitall which has been made me of his life I did not heare that ever he had any businesse with you but if he be so unfortunate as to have offended you I will engage my selfe that he shall give you all the satisfaction you can desire of him For that I passe my word to you and in the mean time Madam be pleased to accept the offer I make you of a place hard by where your wounds may be dressed I have servants there who are skillfull in that art you may be there more privately and also more conveniently then at Babylon and in that place it is you shall receive all manner of duty and submission from Orontes At these words the Ladies countenance was dyed with a colour which Lysimachus knew not vvhether he should attribute to joy or anger And after having wavered a long time in the consideration of what answer she should return I believe Orontes so far from hence said she and so different from what you report of him that I know not what satisfaction you can make him give me but yet your offers are so civil that I cannot refuse them and since you desire to have it so I will go along with you to get remedy for the wound I have received from you Saying thus she put forth her hand to him and calling her Squires she leaned upon the arm of Hyppolita the person with whom she had talked and who also was a woman and went with Lysimachus too toward the hous it was so near that they got not on Horseback and Lysimachus sending his servant who had been spectator of the Combat before to prepare a Chamber led her thither softly by the Garden Gate They found Polemon there who was come out to meet them and to use the civilities he was obliged to in his house his wife caried the fair Amazone to her Chamber and offered her all the service she could expect from those of her own sex While the women undress'd her to put her to bed Lysimachus withdrawing out of respect went into Oroondates his Chamber That was the first day he had left his bed since his wound and Lysimachus giving him an exact accompt of all that had hapned surprised him with a marvellous astonishment After having lent him a very quiet attention I finde said he two things in this adventure very remarkable Lysimachus his friendship and this womans hatred I believe I have deserved neither of them and as I never obliged Lysimachus so much as to afford me a bare good will so likewise I doe not think that ever I by any of my actions gave this woman cause to hate me these are the effects of chance which blindly sends us both good and evil fortune but since after having so generously defended my quarrel you have also engaged your self for me I will free you from that obligation and if this fair Lady be capable of receiving a reparation for those wrongs she pretends J have done her I will give it her so fully that you shall have nothing more to desire for the dis-engaging of your word I will go into her Chamber with you assoon as she is in a condition to receive our visit and I will submit my self to suffer whatsoever her resentment shall enjoyn me While they discoursed on this manner Lysimachus his Chirurgian waited upon the Amazone Lady and having search'd her wound he found there was
to read it when they were a little farther off they walk'd on gently and taking an Allie they met withal returned into Polemons Garden Araxes led his Master to the Fountain where he had related the beginning of his life unto Lysimachus and when they were sit down by the side of it Araxes drawing out the paper he had taken up See here Sir said he to his Master that which will learn us something of this unknown Cassandra who mingles her misfortunes thus with ours At these words he looked upon the Writing but scarce had he read the first line when giving the paper to his Master Ah! Sir said he what 's this I see Look I beseech you your self upon Characters and words that confound me The Prince taking the paper from Araxes his hand had no sooner cast his eyes upon it but he cryed out Ah! Araxes there is no doubt but this Writing is directly like that of my deceased Queen Read the first words replyed Araxes and without question your astonishment will be increased Oroondates infinitely surprised at this encounter began with strange inward motions to read these words The unfortunate and happy Cassandra unfortunate by the change of her fortune and happy by the fidelity of Orontes To her too faithful ORONTES O Gods cryed the Prince what doe I see Will Fortune mock me or am I that Orontes to whom are directed the words of this Cassandra whose writing and whose thoughts are so conformable to those of my Princesse Ah! no pursued he 't is without doubt to the revived Orontes Prince of the Massagetes and this Cassandra to whom his fidelity is so dear is infallibly the cause of the complaints of the fair Quen Thalestris he whose name I have so long usurp'd must needs have some mixture in my adventures but O Gods is it possible that two persons should write so like and have so equal destinies Read Sir said Araxes that which is under this Inscription and perchance you may draw some farther knowledge from thence The Prince followed his counsel and beginning to read again he went on thus I know not in what manner I ought to looke upon my fortune two different remembrances O faithfull Orontes contest within my soul for you and against you What doe I not owe unto Orontes but also what doe I not owe to my condition and to an illustrious memory my inclination and my duty put my mind into an equall balance and both have very weighty reasons but all the reasons of my inclination yeeld unto my duty and all those of my duty vanish in presence of my inclination Alas if we could make an accommodation between them how happy would be the destiny of Cassandra and how little would she be troubled for the change of her fortune if a more considerable losse had not settled a more lawfull sorrow in her heart she neverthelesse loves her faithfull Orontes as much as he can and ought to desire but she has some scruples remaining which she cannot overcome if she will be worthy of his affection It is a continuation of the anger of the Gods who only present happynesses to her when she is no longer in a condition to receive them We had found a haven indeed my dear Orontes but it is worse then shipwrack and if you love me as I beleeve and as I know you doe you ought not to desire of mee Oroondates turn'd over the leafe to make an end of reading the letter but he saw nothing written on the other side and judgd that the party had either wanted time or will to finish it Alas with how many different thoughts was he assailed at the reading of these words he perused them again many times and being in a confusion full of perplexity he could not expresse it better then by his silence He looked upon Araxes holding his armes acrosse upon his brest and having continued a long time without speaking Araxes said hee at last where am I Sir answered Araxes I am as much surprised as you But replied Oroondates is not this Statira's hand and are not these the very words I ought to have expected from her if she had survived her Illustious husband doest thou not find in this discourse that same severe vertue which made part of my misfortunes and vvhich vvould have prepared new difficulties for me if the Gods should have spared her still unto the world Ah! without question it is her spirit that hath inspired these words into Cassandra and that hath guided her hand to frame Characters so like to hers Araxes answered not his Masters doubts but musing upon this adventure strove to draw from it some cause of consolation for him What doe wee know Sir said he but that the Gods may miraculously have preserved that vertuous Queen and whither this unperfect letter may not by some chance or other have fallen into the hands of these women vve found asleep Ah Araxes replied Oroondates let us not flatter our selves foolishly the Queens death is too certain to be still doubted of and it is now unknown to no body yet I should beleeve she had vvriten these vvords after Alexanders death if two difficulties did not stagger mee the first is that till her own death shee knew not of the King her Husbands and the other this name of Cassandra which brings all out of square and puts me into astrange confusion Whatsoever it be said Araxes I will return if you think fit to the place vvhere vvee light upon this letter and if I find those women there still I may perchance draw something from them to clear our doubts and give you comfort Run Araxes cried the Prince run I pray thee and though I be no longer in an estate to conceive any hope offer at least our assistance unto that person who in so many things is conformable to my Princesses Araxes rising from his Master went out of the garden and the Prince sate still by the fountain so taken up with the consideration of this last adventure that he never in his life had been in so profound a muse After having bethought himselfe every way he could imagine nothing else but that Cassandras letter was without doubt intended to Orontes Prince of the Massagetes and that it vvas neither impossible nor un heard of that the writings and fortunes of two severall person should resemble one another He had continued above an hower in this confusion of thoughts vvhen Araxes came backe to him again and assured him he could not find these vvomen in the place vvhere they had left them and that he had sought them in vain all over the wood and along the bankes of the river Oroondates was exceedingly troubled at it and resolved to seek them himselfe when he had gotten a little more strength After some discourse whereof this encounter furnished them vvith matter enough he rose up and going out of the garden return'd into his Chamber Assoon as he was there he sent to
gave her self so absolutely to thee that Orithia as she was Orithia could not desire any thing she possess'd not entirely We had besieged Phryne a City in Cilicia upon our Enemies Frontiers and our Rams had made a reasonable breach Orithia at the head of six thousand Amazons prepared to assault it I would needs fight by her side and notwithstanding all her prayers to disswade me from it I was so obstinate in my resolution that she was constrain'd to suffer my company She march'd through the midst of our Enemies Darts and Swords with such a fiercenesse as froze the hearts of the Trojans when Minerva shook their Walls and with her dreadful Gorgon carried terror and death into their City She went undauntedly up those ruines defended by valiant men and despising a cloud of arrows and stones that came pouring upon her shee covered me with her shield and encouraging our women by her glorious example in spite of the resistance of our Enemies got to the top of the breach Wee fought already at handy blowes and I may say without vanity that I had already slain some and given proofs of valour considerable enough in one of my age when I was stunned either with the stroak of a club or with some stone and fell down at Orithia's feet without sense or motion and certainly it was my great good fortune to fal so near her since that without her assistance my death had been inevitable Never was Tygresse when robb'd of her young so furiously sensible of her losse as Orithia was observ'd to be by them that were near her from whom I heard it since shee flew with a great cry upon some of the Enemies who went to make an end of me and sheltring me with her body and her Target gave death to all that came near her and having made a Rampart of dead bodies vvhich left her free room enough shee took me up in her arms and turning towards Menalippa one of our vvomen who commanded vvith her Menalippa said shee the victory is ours take care to prosecute it I can neither fight nor live unlesse the Princesse be in safety At these vvords continuing to make way with her Sword she came down with her burthen through the passage she had open'd her self before and carried mee out of the Fight with such impatiency and sense of sorrow as she afterwards express'd to me and as only she was able to represent Assoon as she had taken off my Cask the fresh air I took restored me to my self and Orithia seeing me open my eyes was like then to have died with joy as before she was with grief I observ'd the mixture of joy and fear in her countenance and desiring to assure her T is nothing said I my dear Orithia I was only fell'd and I need nothing but a little rest Her face grew settled at the hearing of these vvords but not being too confident of them she look'd upon my head where she found no wound at all by reason of the goodness of my Head-piece which had defended me and that sight compleating her joy shee took me in her arms and carried me on into my Tent where she laid me upon my bed but all the way her face was firmly cimented to mine and I receiv'd kisses from her vvhich might have made me know the difference there vvas between her affection and that of our other vvomen The Queen vvho vvith a good part of the Army had continued in arms vvithin the Camp to give Orders and who had in vain endeavoured to keep me vvith her no sooner heard the news but she came running frighted to me but finding me reasonable vvell and knowing shee was obliged only to Orithia for my safety she made such dear expressions to her as it is impossible for me to repeat but that valiant Amazone no sooner had seen me in a place of security and learned from our Chirurgians that there was no danger of me but forcing her affection she left me and went back to the assault from which no other consideration but mine could have been able to draw her Her presence there was very necessary and the Enemies who by her absence had recovered heart lost it again at her return and made but a vain resistance against her valour and the new Orders shee gave But as her return was fatall to them so likewise was it very profitable to them and her mercy saved divers of them from the fury of our Women who would have put all to the Sword without exception Orithia opposed their intention successefully and the credit shee had already gained among them made them slacken something of their ordinary cruelty When shee had set the Town in some Order and had left Menalippa to command there shee came back to us and found mee almost recovered of my blow yet was it incommodious to mee for a few days and during the stay wee made at that City which the Queen entred the next morning I kept my bed continually I will not entertain you with the relation of that Warre as long as it lasted I received proofes of this nature from Orithia's affection but it being ended by an advantageous peace wee entred again into our own Territories and took our way towards the Capital City which as the Province bears the name of Themiscira It was about that time Alexander Invaded Asia and as an impetuous Torrent over-ran all those Provinces the greater part whereof submitted to him without drawing Sword Our Neighbours of Cappadocia and Cilicia yeilded without resistance and voluntarily underwent that yoak which he imposed upon all the Earth Alexander us'd them favourably and continud to them their former Governours and their ancient Priviledges The Queen my Mother knowing her self too weak to resist so Potent an Enemy meant to try gentle ways and sent Menalippa and Clytemnestra to him to represent that his generosity obliged him to leave us in our former Liberties and not to imploy those victorious arms which had conquered all Asia against feeble Women Alexander receiv'd our Ambassadors with much civility and having told them that he had no intention to trouble our quietnesse nor our Laws he turned his Forces another way and entred not into our Countrey The Queen was extreamly glad shee had diverted that Storm and shee had taken that course by Orithia's advice who had acquired such a reputation amongst our Women that every body considered her as an extraordinary person and by the sweetnesse of her manners and conversation shee had so gained the hearts of the whole Court that shee was both the delight and admiration of it Shee had been near upon two years amongst us when from her naturall livelinesse shee fell into a deep melancholy She did all she possibly could to disguise it but it was quickly to be perceived in her countenance which was so visibly altered that 't was no longer in her power to dissemble it the affection I bore her made me one of
my threatnings that I kept them from it and gave the Lacedemonians leisure to fetch off their King and deliver him out of that throng from which hee was no longer able to free himself By his retreat the victorie declared it self absolutely for the Macedonians and Antipater prosecuted it so hotly that almost all the Lacedemonians were defeated but their valiant King beeing unwilling to survive that loss alighted out of a litter in which they had put him and though so weak that hee was hardly able to stand hee caused himself to bee carried back into the fight where after hee had don things that surpass belief and raised a breastwork of dead bodies round about him hee sunk at last as his predecessor Leonidas at the strait of Thermophiles and falling tired with conquering upon the heaps of those hee had slain received a death which ought to make him live for ever in the memorie of men I have enlarged my self contrarie to my design upon this passage becaus I was most sensibly grieved at it and that the memorable end of so great a Prince deserved a particular mention of him By that onely victorie Antipater settled Alexander's affairs again in that countrie and believing I had contributed somthing towards it hee did mee honors and shewed mee kindnesses which were considerable enough I continued with him till having no more enemies to fight withall hee began his march back into Macedonia Then I took my leav of him and of his son though they both were very earnest to keep mee with them and offered mee very advantageous conditions A year was alreadie expired since my departure from Themiscira and I had a desire to return into Asia but I travelled a different way from that I came and was willing to spend the time that still remained in seeing those provinces which were yet unknown to mee I went into Parthia and the countries of the Mardes and of the Bactrians whither the disloial Bessus was alreadie retired after the murther of his King from thence I entred into Hyrcania and in the end I came upon your frontiers There I put on womans apparel again and there the first news I heard was that of your captivitie I need not tell you Madam the greatness of my sorrow my passion is sufficiently known to you to give you som guess of it and you may well imagine that had it not been for the promise of the gods and my belief that in this encounter I might finde som occasion to serv you I should have sunk under that affliction I summoned all my courage together to employ it for your service and begging of the gods to grant mee extraordiuarie forces I went with som confidence toward the place where your armie was encamped Before I would discover my self to the other women I desired to learn of Hippolita whom I had ever known to bee most discreet in what estate my affairs were in this countrey and whether I might yet pass for Oritâ—ia I was so happie that I found a favorable occasion as you have heard and received comforts from her which raised my hopes again I learn'd of her and bee this spoken Madam without stirring up your anger that you had bestowed som tears on my departure and that my memorie was not indifferent to you all my afflictions were counterpoised by the joy this knowledg caused in mee and it so redoubled my courage that I accounted all things too weak to retard the design I had to deliver you You have heard from Hippolita all that passed from the time of my arrival to that of your deliverance and I will add to what shee hath told you that as wee marched toward this Town I praied Menalippa and the chief of those women that had access to you not to speak one word of my beeing return'd but to stay till I discovered my self before you heard that news from any bodie els This was it that favored the dissimulation which wee used so happilie for mee and retiring after the fight while the women did their duties to you I found means when you were in bed to speak with Hippolita and to plot that with her which shee so cunningly hath effected to my advantage Orontes ended his storie thus and by that conclusion of it made mee blush again and fetch'd back part of my shame and part of my anger but beeing no longer in terms to dissemble my affection I gave him all the modest proofs of it hee could desire From that day hee carried himself towards mee very differently from his former manner and cutting off all those liberties I had granted him as Orithia never gave mee any caus to blame him for want of respect or of discretion I am too tedious in my relation but I will shorten the rest of it and tell you that beeing carefully dressed and looked to my wounds were quickly cured and not beeing strong enough to keep the field in Cilicia against those supplies which in probabilitie would arrive within a while I contented my self with putting a garrison in that Town and as soon as I was able to endure a chariot I returned into my own territories and took my way toward Themiscira But before I was gotten to my chief citie hee that succeeded Neobarzanes sent to desire peace with mee and the misfortune I had suffered by war together with the counsels of Orontes whose thoughts were very avers from it perswaded mee to grant it him upon reasonable conditions and to establish an alliance with him which since hath not been violated I shall not stand to recount the welcoms I received from my subjects after a sharp and dangerous captivitie nor the honors they rendred to my valiant deliverer whom they beheld as the protecting Goddess of Themiscira shee took again her former lodgings in the Palace and her former servants and had a great deal more autoritie amongst all our women then in times past but shee abused it not and managed their respect to her so discreetly that shee inflamed them all with a violent affection for mine own part I must confess to my confusion that I found so many amiable qualities in her and had so many causes to bee pleased with her love to mee that I preserved not the least remainder of my former inclinations but gave my self to her as much as my virtue and the informations I had received from her self could permit mee wee had no more but one thought and if I may say so without blushing wee had no more but one soul and one will I made no longer any difficultie to open my heart to him and to confess that I loved him more then my self but what advantage soëver he drew from that confession hee never emboldened himself to take those liberties that were forbidden him My women often admired that they no longer saw that familiaritie between us they had formerly observed and though our conversation was more frequent then ever they found but knew not the
never needed it from any body you have don enough for your justification and that severitie for which you pretend to bee praised become's blameable by its object You can no more with glorie give death to him who never defended himself against you nor can you give him life so long as you shall refuse him your affection In these two first letters I saw nothing that could make mee condemn Stratonice for her dissimulation but in the third I found som words that displeased mee they were these or to this purpose The King of Scythia to the Princess Stratonice WHy do you tell mee that I am not indifferent to you since by your actions you testifie the contrarie and why do you suffer mee to conceiv hopes if your intentions bee otherwise disposed I have given my self wholly to you and I have yet obtein'd nothing from you it is time fair Stratonice that you should do somthing in my favor and that of an unfortunate man as hee is you should make him the happiest of all the Princes upon earth whom of your King you have made your slave Matheus The reading of these letters caused in mee an extreme spite at the cunning of Stratonice from whom till then I had never concealed my most secret thoughts and I began to believe that shee had unfitting designs since shee had not discovered them unto mee not that I doubted her virtue I had too much knowledg of it to contradict my former opinion and certainly shee never gave any occasion to have it suspected and I ought to confess since it is a truth that in all the cours of the Kings affection to her shee ever behaved her self exceeding modestly and never exceeded the strictest rules of chastitie I was displeased at her dissimulation and I expressed my resentments to her though with much gentleness At our next meeting I drew her to a window where our discours could not bee overheard and giving her the letters Here couzen said I I restore you what chance and your negligence have caused to fall into my hands and I am very sorrie they have discovered to mee what you with so much prudence have disguised Stratonice was so confounded at these words and at the sight of her letters that as cunning as shee was shee could not dissemble her astonishment her face changed color twice or thrice but when shee had a little recovered her self It is true Madam answered shee of late I have not told you any thing concerning the King's obstinacie to torment mee but 't was becaus I feared I could not make my complaints to you without falling into anger against a person to whom you are so near and to whom both you and I ow all manner of respect I was but little satisfied with that answer and replied smiling you are not so tormented by him but that you give him hopes It is not Cousen that I would go about to disapprove your actions you are discreet enough both to measure your self and to know the Kings intentions but I am so much your friend as to take the libertie to tell you they cannot bee advantageous to you although you are worthie of an extreme good fortune no bodie believe's hee hath a design to marrie you and all other thoughts hee can have must needs bee ruinous to you Stratonice could not forbear shewing som confusion at this discours but having a great deal of wit shee was not long e're shee reassured her self and answered I will endeavor Madam to draw benefit from your good advice and what design soëver the King can have upon mee I will ever have that of neither doing or suffring any thing that can make mee unworthie of your affection or of your good opinion Shee brought forth these words with an alteration which made mee know shee was not pleased with what I had said and presently after our conversation beeing interrupted wee no more sought occasions to begin it again and I contented my self with having made Stratonice see her artifices were not unknown to mee without pressing her any further Shee in appearance bore my reproof modestly enough and carried her self toward mee as shee was wont but within a few daies after the King meeting mee in a gallerie near my lodgings took mee by the hand and drawing mee aside from my maids that followed mee Berenice said hee you are two young to instruct those that have more age and knowledg then your self and I do not like that you should counsel my Mistress to my prejudice These words so surprised mee that I remained a long time silent and full of confusion and fear of having displeased the King by the libertie I had taken but settling my self as soon as I could Sir said I I never had any intention to give counsels to your Majestie 's prejudice and I shall never instruct any bodie but to pay those services and respects that are due to you Berenice replied the King you understand mee well enough without explaining my self any further In short Stratonice ha's no need of your lessons and you ought either to give her advice quite contrarie to that shee ha's received from you or els to give her none at all The King afforded mee not the leisure to make answer but having led mee back to my companie left mee at libertie to digest his discours I was not so much amazed at the sharpness of his words as at the intelligence they discovered between the King and Stratonice I could never have believed shee had so much intimacie with him as to tell him what I had said to her but this assurance would not let mee doubt any longer of the progress the King had made in her minde by his courtship and by the hopes hee had given her I observed the Kings command exactly and from that time forward I never took the libertie to censure Stratonice's deportments shee behaved her self toward mee with very much respect but with more coldness then formerly and I alwaies shewed her an equal countenance and an extraordinarie civilitie The King who no longer concealed his affection from any bodie made many entertainments for her and raised all manner of gallantries to a greater height in the Court then ever hee commonly wore her colors and apparelled himself with more spruceness and braverie then hee had don in his youth and by a thousand actions made all the world know hee had bounded all his thoughts in her alone Hee neither gave nor granted any thing but by her intercession the most important Offices of the Kingdom were bestowed upon her kindred and her brother Arsacomes was presently raised to the highest dignities hee could wish Yet found hee difficulties in his intentions which hee had not apprehended and Stratonice who as ambitious as shee was was nevertheless very chaste never gave him any advantage over her which could wound her reputation and contented her self with having great compliances for him and receiving the honor hee did her with all
bodie if you judg my temeritie criminal accuse not that vanitie of it which I might draw from som advantages I have but a violent passion which a most profound and a most due respect hath made mee cover with a silence of many years I do not represent to your Majestie the state of your affairs nor the need or rather the necessitie you have of a powerful support against a world of interessed enemies who finde their quiet and can finde their safetie in nothing but your ruine this consideration is too weak to use any violence upon your inclinations but I will add that to it if you pleas which you may have for a zeal full of respect and submission which will make mee sacrifice my fortune and my life it self for your interests and for your contentment The Queen stood in need of all her patience and of all her ordinarie moderation to hear this long discours without falling into anger but having ever been of the greatest temper of all the persons in the world and beeing prudent enough to consider the misfortune of her condition and the power Perdiccas had over her shee restrained part of that indignation which in another season would perchance have broken out in another fashion and looking upon Perdiccas with disdain shee withoâ—t beeing much moved replied Have you so soon forgotten O Perdiccas what you â—a wed unto your King and have you by this change of your fortune which you allege to mee lost the knowledg of your self can that particular esteem which hee shewed of you at his death and wherewith you seem to autorise your fault justifie the offence you do him and in short do you no longer remember you are Perdiccas and that you speak to the widdow of Alexander I know answered Perdiccas both whaâ— I ow unto the memorie of my King and what I ow unto the presence of my Queen but by giving her a second Empire over mee of a more noble nature then the first I commit no offence perchance whereof I may not hope for pardon I content my self with the first replied the Queen sharply nay and if you will Perdiccas I 'le quit that too upon condition you will but leav mee in quiet and that you no more will force mee to hearken to words which are an equal injurie to us both I will obey you added Perdiccas as much as possibly I can but you may bee pleased Madam to let mee conjure you to have consideration of the small service I have don you and to remember that but for Perdiccas whom shee disdainâ—s the widdow of Alexander had not now been in the world That reproch incensed the Queen yet more and not beeing able utterly to dissemble it what Perdiccas said shee would you then have mee think my self highly obliged to you for not having cut my throat as you had promised Roxana had I any way offended you or had you any right over mee that should make mee receiv my life from you as a favor Did you defend mee against any other enemies but your self and is there any man in the world that may not challenge the same obligation Do you believ that to have pulled the widow of your King from whom you never received any thing but favors by violence from amongst her servants to have carried her by force unto her enemies to have brought the knife to her very throat and not to have made an end of her are such services that you should upbraid her with them and demand recompences for them do you know any bodie among all the most cruel enemies of our hous from whom I have not received at least as good offices as these If all men added Perdiccas had been as deeply interessed in your death if they had hazarded what I have don in saving you and if a good part of the world had been proposed to them for a reward perchance few would have been found that would have preferr'd your safetie before all these considerations Yet is it dearer to mee then all the Empires of the earth and 't is not to reproch you that I put you in minde of it but to give you som knowledg of the advantage your interests have in mee above mine own and to gain som credit with you for him who will not bee useless to you in this alteration of your fortune Hee would have said much more to the Queen upon this subject but shee commanded him to hold his peace and that with so imperious and so majestick a look that at that time hee had not the confidence to prosecute his discours but going from her with a low obeisance hee returned the same day to Babylon Hee was no sooner gon but the Queen sent for the Princess her sister and mee into her chamber and told us all these passages but with so great indignation that in my life I never saw her so extremely moved Wee are slaves pursued shee I see it plainly and this number of persons here about us is onely to keep us fast and not to defend us If I were free I would not stay a minute in a place where this insolent fellow ha's any power and if hee persist to offend mee thus I will leap over these walls rather then endure his persecutions O Alexander continued shee letting fall som tears if after the loss of thee I were capable of a second affection thy memorie would be less injured in having him thy successor in my heart to whom I had given it before thee then in seeing this place which was thine unworthily possessed by this ungrateful man The Princess at the Queens discours onely shrunk up her shoulders and by that action made her comprehend that shee thought her fortune was very little different The Queen who had begun to take notice of Alcetas his carriage guessed at her sisters destinie and entreating her to let her know the truth of it shee at last confessed that that presumptuous man had entertained her with discours almost like that of his brothers and that to autorise his pretensions hee often alleged that Hephestion's birth was not higher then his nor his person more considerable and that the Queen and shee after their losses and the utter ruine of their hous could not finde any surer support then those two Brothers who had all the Macedonians and the greatest part of the Princes at their disposing After this mutual knowledg of their displeasures these two great Princesses began to deplore their miserie and shewed a greater sens of this last assault of fortune then they had don in their apprehensions of death then it was that they both together condemned their scrupulous severitie and that they repented they had so obstinately concealed themselvs from you and from Lysimachus They would willingly have repaired that fault if it had been possible but they were utterly deprived of means I could not bee permitted to com out of the Castle and for a business of that nature there was no
persecutions After that cruel day wee had seven or eight of intermission but that time beeing expired they began to torment us again they used us as spies and as persons that had som design against the Queens life but mee especially who had been surprised in the manner as I have told you It is certain also that in that accident there was occasion enough to suspect mee but I believed that that which would bee more hurtful to mee was the having heard by the Queens discours the cruel intention shee had since executed against the Princesses and I thought with reason that beeing desirous to conceal to all the world the share shee had in their death which shee caused to bee reported in a way very different from the truth shee would infallibly dispatch mee out of the world if shee suspected mee to bee a witness of her designs I believ indeed it was that which made her resolv upon it for yesterday the Captain that had us in his custodie beeing com into our chamber took off our irons and telling us that hee would set us at libertie hee made us get up behind certain armed men and brought us out of the Town I know not for what reason the Queen caused us not to bee put to death in Babylon as shee might easily have don but whatsoëver it was they carried us a great while along the River side before wee could guess at any thing of our destinie but at last wee came into a Vallie not far from hence where those cruel men having tied us to two Trees after having in vain tormented us to force a confession of what wee had so carefully concealed they were going to execute their last resolution when the gods sent us this valiant Queen who by the effects of her admirable courage saved our lives and restored us our libertie and our Prince who is dearer to us then both life and libertie Toxaris ended his narration thus and the Princes and the Amazone Queen who had hearkned to him with wonder remained sad and pensive at the end of his recital Prince Oroöndates found much matter of thought in it and after having been a good while silent I know not said hee at last by what crimes I can have moved the gods to stir up this woman to torment mee her crueltie ought to bee satisfied with the ills shee ha's alreadie made mee suffer and when I thought I had been secure from all her practises shee revives again to persecute mee more then ever It is probable said Lysimachus shee will not stop at these beginnings and since shee knows you are out of Scythia and that by great likelihood shee may conjecture you are in this Countrie shee will leav nothing unattempted to finde the certaintie and to have you in her power I should think it convenient if you were of the same opinion that to keep your self from beeing known to her and to many other persons who might hurt you your true name should not bee declared but among those whom you shall judg worthy of your friendship and that among others you should bee made to pass for Arsacomes or for som other stranger Prince whose name may abuse those that are less interessed All the companie approved Lysimachus his motion and Oroöndates himself having consented to it at the entreatie of the Princes I do not think added Lysimachus that in the condition Roxana now is it is hard for her to discover you and to do you a miscief if you continue longer here where I do not believ you are in safetie being in a place without defence and so near to Babylon and if your health would permit I should think it good to remove you into one of those Towns which are at our devotion or into the bodie of our Armie It would bee verie dangerous said Ptolomeus to carrie the Prince far in his present estate I know a more easie expedient for his safetie and one that is almost necessarie for us wee must draw our forces hither and encamp our Armie about this hous by that means wee shall guard him till hee bee cured and bring our men from a place where they have hardly any thing left to subsist on You know that where they are victual or forrrage begin to fail them and that on this side all things are in a better condition som of the neighboring Towns are at our disposing and the open Countrie will make no resistance against us the situation of the place is fair and advantageous for us the nearness of the river is commodious for our Camp and since wee yet are Masters of the field wee ought to make use of our time to take all these advantages Our Armie is not so far from hence nor the daies so short but that sending order thither to day our Cavallerie and part of our Infantrie may bee here to morrow Eumenes and Lysimachus presently confirmed Ptolomeus his advice and onely Oroöndates opposed the care they took of him but when hee saw that it was advantageous for them however and that that order was almost necessarie hee consented to their opinion and approved the choice they had made of that place for the encamping of their Armie It was thereupon resolved that Eumenes should instantly go away to the Camp to fetch the forces and such provisions as could bee gotten and that Ptolomeus whose credit was great and whose vertue was much conâ—idered in that Countrie should take hors attended by Araxes Cleantes and som of his own followers to spend the rest of that day and part of the next visiting som neighbouring places from whence they hoped for subsistence This resolution was no sooner settled but it was put in execution and the two Princes taking a short leav of those they left at the same time went two different waies and only Lysimachus the fair Amazone and som servants remained still with Oroöndates Then it was that hee begun his endearments again to Lysimachus with more libertie then before then these two generous friends gave one another a mutual account of their particular adventures and of their most secret thoughts They both asked Toxaris and Loncates manie questions but they could tell them nothing of their Princess and protested to them that till their coming thither they never heard of their being alive that in Babylon everie bodie believed them dead and that their loss had so stirred up the people that nothing but their fear of the forces of Roxana Perdiccas and their associates kept them in obedience that Roxana declared her self innocent of their death and disavowed all that Tyreus had reported before hee died Lysimachus having asked Loncates concerning the order that was observed in the Towns hee told him their guards were verie strict and that the wounds Perdiccas had lately received hindred not Cassander Seleucus Alcetas and the rest from keeping all things in a good condition nor from drawing forces together on all sides this was all the two Princes
person of Arsaces hee had found the rival who had so unjustly robb'd him of his Princesses affections and who had so valiantly disputed them with him this knowledg grieved him very much and remembring what that man had don in favor of his friends hee was afflicted that the gods had not raised him up another enemie against whom hee might without ingratitude let loos all his resentments His sadness appeared in his countenance and his thoughts were known to Ptolomeus and to the fair Amazone hee continued a good while in this perplexitie which discovered it self by his silence and by the motions of his eies Hee considered as much as possibly hee could how much his countrie was indebted to Arsaces his services and called to minde that friendship hee had conceived himself at the recital of Lysimachus and of all those hee had heard speak of him and that reflection was strong enough to griev him very sensibly but it was too weak to resist the impetuousness of his jealousie and at the first assault it made upon him all these powerful remembrances vanished out of his minde What! cried hee furiously is it Arsaces then who steal's from mee the heart of my ingrateful Princess and have the gods decreed that hee who was so officious to my countrie should bee cruel to mee alone and should now bee the unjust ravisher of a happiness I had so lawfully acquired and so dearly bought Ah! hee shall die that injurious supplanter who ha's robb'd mee of a prize which was due to none but mee hee shall die that Arsaces that pitiless enemie for whom I had more gentle and more grateful thoughts and since hee tear's away my â—ife with so much injustice and inhumanitie let him know that our enemies walls are not able to defend him against a rival whom hee ha's precipitated into despair Oroöndates brought forth these word with such a transported action that they surprised the whole companie and Arsaces his Squire was so astonished at them that hee durst not open his mouth in the defence of his Master Hee afterwards rowld over a thousand violent thoughts in his imagination and when they had kept him silent a reasonable while Friend continued hee addressing himself to the Squire thou maiest tell Arsaces that thou hast seen his enemie who reduced him into the condition thou leftest him in and who received these wounds which keep him now in bed from no bodie but him that I prais the gods for having inspired him with the design of putting himself into the partie of our enemies and that to what part of the world soëver hee retire's I will infallibly either bring him death or receiv it from his hands let him know that our lives are incompatible that our combats shall bee eternal and that our war shall never have an end till either hee die to satisfie my just revenge or that I fall to secure his conquest Bid him recover his health and his strength to make an end with mee and tell him that though I am his mortal irreconcileable enemie I will contribute to his cure that I may the sooner see him in a condition to give mee satisfaction and indeed it is not reasonable I should make use of that advantage which chance and the care of my friends have given mee since our wounds were equal it is just our remedies should bee equal too nor should an herb put any difference between the estates of two men in whom valor left none at all at the issue of our combate Take that herb thou seest upon the table caus it to bee applied unto his wounds and bee most certain that thou shalt quickly see him as well as I am if thou distrust the present of an enemie thou needest but look upon my wounds where thou shalt see som of the same and perchance it will bee known by som about him who are not ignorant of the effect it wrought heretofore upon Ptolomeus but tell him that I neither pretend to any acknowledgment from him nor do him this courtesie with any intention to bee reconciled to him but with a firm design shortly to begin the fight again which our wounds have interrupted Oroöndates when hee had ended these words commanded Araxes to give the Squire part of the herb that had been gathered for him and praied Ptolomeus to caus him to bee conducted safely out of their quarters All the companie wondring at this action could not sufficiently admire the greatness of his courage and generous Ptolomeus himself who was ravished at it as well as the rest could not forbear crying out O Gods for whom do you reserv the Empire of the world if you give it not unto this Prince who by so many admirable actions testifie's to men that hee hold's more of your nature then of theirs After this exclamation hee confirm'd the Squire in the knowledg the Prince had given him of the virtue of his herb and the Squire who would shew somthing of generositie as well as they received it upon their word without demanding further proof and thanking Oroöndates with much submission hee went out of the chamber and took his way toward Babylon with the convoy Ptolomeus had appointed him But Araxes who knew his Masters intention would not leav him for fear hee should learn Oroöndates his name of som of those that convoied him and took so good order amongst them that though hee often enquired hee could not possibly inform himself Within a while after Lysimachus coming into Oroöndates his chamber and having heard the recital of what had passed expressed a great deal of trouble that Arsaces with whom hee had made a friendship and of whom hee had a marvellous esteem was in the enemies partie and was himself Oroöndates his particular enemie but in the end the interests of that Prince and his own together stifled part of his grief and disposed him to bear that advantage of his enemies with patience After that day the Princes made som little excursions toward Babylon and began the war with som slight encounters but becaus the enemie kept close waiting for the succors of their Allies and that the parties which were sent forth had order to hazard nothing there happened no memorable encounter It would bee tedious and superfluous punctually to relate all the discourses and all the actions of less importance which passed during the time that Oroöndates his wounds detained him in his bed and before the arrival of those forces the Princes expected it will suffice to know that his cure went on with a prodigious success and that his health returned so suddenly that within a week after his encounter with Arsaces his Squire hee was well enough to leav his bed as hee did with the Chirurgians permission Som three or four daies after that the Princes seeing that of their general Rendezvous draw near and having had notice that their allies advanced with great marches towards the Town appointed Lysimachus and Eumenes went from Polemon's
hee was met with so furious a shock that he tumbled amongst the horses feet which had trampled out his brains if the care of his safetie had not caused many of his soldiers to alight who drew him out of that danger and set him again on horsback though extremely bruised with his fall In the mean time the unresistable stranger had overthrown Ilioneus and Tiridates and falling in amongst the rest cast fear and death into all places whithersoëver hee turned Demetrius sought him with his sword in his hand and strove by his valor to make his small partie subsist but his endeavors were unprofitable and hee could no longer defend himself against those vigorous enemies whose number was four times as great as his if hee had not been seconded by the Amazone Queen who presently stopt the enemies impetuousness and made the combat equal Amongst those that accompanied Cassander were the young Aristander brother to Leonatus Cleophon the son of Cenos Cleomedes the brother of Egelochus and many other men of courage and of noble bloud The brave Thalestris had laid Aristander and Cleomedes on the ground with two several blows Aristander with one of her javelin which ran him through the shoulder and Cleomedes with another of her sword which made him fall under the horses feet shee seconded those two mightie strokes with many others which soon made her to bee taken notice of and forced the boldest of her enemies to turn the point of their arms against her but shee behaved her self with such a furie as made them believ shee could not possibly bee wounded The nois of this supplie and of her valor came quickly to the ears of the furious stranger whose reputation and the slaughter hee had made in another place was alreadie com unto the Queen this mutual report animated these two valiant persons with a desire to get to one another and forcing their passage with their swords they sought the way that might soonest bring them together The two courageous sons of Mazeus who had made themselvs remarkable that day by a thousand gallant actions and who bloudie all over had don things truely worthie of the memorie of their father opposed the strangers passage before hee could com up to the Queen and Cambyses defying him with a loud crie discharged such a weightie blow upon his cask as made his head sink almost to the saddle-bow and scarce had hee recovered his seat when Araspes vigorously seconding his brother laid upon him again in the same place with such a force that beeing shaken before hee was like to have reeled out of his saddle the two brothers proud of those mightie blows alreadie promised themselvs a happie success but fortune seconded not their hopes and the strangers anger was raised to such a pitch that iron and steel were thenceforth too weak to resist the violence of his arm the first hee met withall in that furie was the unfortunate Araspes at whom making a thrust with such a strength as had few equals his sword finding the defect of his curass died it self in his bloud to the very hilts and appeared all crimson on the other side of his bodie Araspes dying opened his arms and calling upon the name of his brother fell without life among those heaps of dead bodies wherewith the field was alreadie quite covered What shall the grieved Cambyses do at that woful object anger and pitie touched him equally on the one side hee would fain lend a hand to his dying brother who called for his assistance and on the other hee fear 's to los◠his murtherer in the throng if hee imploy himself in that office hee was yet wavering in his choice when his irresolution was determined by the same sword which taking his head from his shoulders made him fall with a river of bloud upon the pale bodie of his brother The Amazone Queen was near that place and beeing present at that sorrowful spectacle shee was touched with compassion for the lamentable death of those two noble brothers and with an ardent desire to revenge them Ah! cruel man cried shee to the stranger this inhumaitie shall not remain unpunished and rushing toward him at the same time shee found him most readie to receiv her their first blows shewed marks to all those that were about them both of their force and of their animositie and they redoubled them with such a fierceness that many soldiers of both parties gave over fighting to becom specators of their combat In the mean time the Troups on both sides were weakened by more then half their men and young Demetrius while the brave stranger was otherwise imploied encouraged his so vigorously and charged the enemies with such valor and good fortune that they began to give back a little They of Babylon were sending new squadrons out at their gates but casting their eies toward the plain they saw other Troups coming from the camp which Craterus sent to succor those of his partie and fearing to engage themselvs insensibly in a battel which they were not in a condition to give they changed their design and sending to Cassander to retire contented themselvs with drawing up those forces without the gates to favor his retreat In the interim the stranger and the high spirited Queen had vainly sought their advantages with the sword and not beeing in a place where they could freely bring their combat to an end they let their swords hang by certain chains wherewith they were fastned to their wrists and seizing one another about the bodie they at the same time clapt spurs to their horses and firmly keeping their hold pull'd each other out of their saddles and began to rowl upon the ground The stranger had the advantage of the Queen a little in strength and perchance might have got the better in that strugling but they were not in a place where they could continue it and fearing to bee trodden under the horses feet they rose up with an equal nimbleness and betaking themselvs to their swords again were again beginning their combat on foot when Cassander came thither and knowing the stranger spurr'd on his hors upon the Queen and rushing against her shoulders threw her all along at her enemies feet hee would also have ridden over her but the stranger catch'd hold of his bit and giving his hors a sudden stop made him run back almost like to have reared quite over and at the same time covering the Queen with his shield Ah! Cassander cried hee wilt thou dishonor thy self and the best of thy friends to day In this interim the Queen got up so furious that if Cassander had staid for her hee had been punished for his incivilitie but at that very instant hee received the order from the Town and commanded to found a retreat The Queen casting her eies upon the stranger saw her self separated from him by a croud which it was impossible for her to break through yet getting upon a masterless hors whereof
there was a great number in the field shee rode after him a good way and seeing it would bee hard for her to join with him I will remember cried shee to him that thou art generous but do thou remember also that at our next encounter thou must end this combat with mee wherein all the advantage thou hadst was by the baseness of thy friend The throng was so great before shee had ended these words that shee could not hear the strangers answer onely shee observed that hee put forth one of his arms towards her and followed Cassander who led him away by the other The reinforcement which came from the Camp was alreadie near and that was it which made Cassander hasten his retreat the more The Queen and young Demetrius would have followed them to the very gates but the most prudent Commanders disswaded them and shewing the Troops which stood to sustain them and which advanced gently to receiv them they hindred them from engageing themselvs in the pursuit The valiant stranger retired softly in the rear of his whole partie and as often as hee faced about hee sent terror into that of his enemies Demetrius alreadie obeied the counsels of those that disswaded him from advancing further when a Cavalier of the enemies side galloped single from the Troops that came last out of the Town and advancing straight towards him with his sword drawn For my part cried hee I 'le have no quarter and ending these words hee struck at Demetrius yet with so little force that the blow having hardly made any mark upon his arms slipt thence upon his horses head where it left a very inconsiderable hurt but so was not that hee received in exchange from Demetrius for running imprudently upon his sword which hee held forth against him it gave him an exceeding deep wound in the bodie at which hee cried out and beeing but of a weak constitution sunk from his hors upon the ground O Death cried hee as hee was falling how sweet do I finde thee and how much have I desired thee In these like words hee spoke somthing so lamentable as touched young Demetrius with compassion and causing som of his soldiers to alight hee commanded them to take off his cask and see if hee were yet in a condition to receiv help his men obeying him disarmed the head of the wounded person but scarce had they don so when by long hair and a delicate complexion they discovered that it was a woman Demetrius first by the report of his soldiers and then by the assurance hee had of it himself beeing com close to them was seized with an unparallelled astonishment and leaping from his hors hee ran to the fair wounded stranger with an extraordinarie perplexitie Ah! cried hee coming to her whoëver you are you are most cruel in having made mee imbrue my sword in the bloud of that lovely sex to which I am a slave and an idolater In bringing forth these words hee looked more nearly upon her face and though it began to grow pale with loss of bloud hee found such beautiful such taking features in it that compassion continued not long alone in a heart so readie to receive the impressions of love This young afflicted Prince sitting down by her and unbuckling her curass to trie to stanch her bloud did her that service with a floud of tears and with sighs which powerfully enough expressed the greatness of his sorrow What crime said hee O great gods can I have committed against you that you should inflict so severe a punishment upon mee and why did you not suffer this unworthy sword to finde a passage rather into my own bowels then into this fair bodie Hee spoke these words with a despairing action and the woman who understood the one and observed the other was moved with them her self and turning her eies upon her enemie's lovely face which shee saw drowned in a river of tears whosoever thou art said shee O pittiful conqueror do not envie mee the glorie of dying by thy hand my crimes deserved not so noble a destinie and I am unworthie of the tears thou shedst upon my occasion I sought for death and I have found it but since thou art too full of pitie to hasten it though I should entreat thee suffer it to com of it self without opposing the satisfaction I receiv by its approches and the repose I could not hope for during my life These words pronounced with a tone which though mournful had somthing in them very sweet and pleasing pierc'd the heart of the afflicted Demetrius Hee was of a most excellent nature pitie having at first possest every part of his soul prepared it quickly for that master-passion to which hee had an exceeding strong inclination Hee was about to shew marks of the new effects it began to produce in him when the Amazone Queen who was present at that spectacle and in whom compassion had wrought very powerfully counsell'd him to break off his complaints to think of the wounded Ladies safetie and at the same time calling soldiers caused them to take her up gently upon their bucklers that they might carrie her to the Camp more easily then on horsback Shee seem'd to suffer that assistance onely to satisfie Demetrius whose grief was so obliging to her and by all her actions shee shew'd such an aversion against life that they who did her that office knew they labored but in vain for her Demetrius walked by them on foot and though hee was compleatly arm'd except his cask which hee had thrown off his sword which hee had broken in a thousand pieces it was impossible to make him get on horsback or stir one step from her hee had wounded hee forbore to make her speak for fear of hurting her but hee kept his eies full of tears incessantly fixt upon hers and by their looks drunk in great draughts of that poison which insensibly took possession of his soul Hee vouchsafed not so much as to speak to Eumenes who had brought up the reinforcement for which the enemies were retired and when hee was com to the Camp hee hardly looked upon Prince Antigonus his father and many of his friends who came to congratulate the glorie hee had gain'd that day though hee had great caus to bee satisfied with his good success hee was not capable of tasting the sweetness of it in that extreamitie of sorrow and not so much as hearkning to those that talked to him of it hee went directly to his tents where laying the fair wounded stranger in the best room hee called the Chirurgians and promising them extraordinarie recompences for that cure hee to make them labor the more carefully protested that his life depended absolutely upon it The end of the third Book The Continuation of the third Part of CASSANDRA The fourth Book THe encounter which Queen Thalestris and young Demetrius had with Leonatus and Cassander was not so light but that of Roxana's party
there were fifteen or sixteen hundred slain upon the place and on the side of our Princes above a thousand yet won they the field and the whole advantage and from that glorious beginning drew most happy presages for the continuation of that Warr nor did they neglect to shew their thankfulness to the Gods by sacrifices which they made throughout the Camp both to the Gods of Greece and the Divinities of Persia presently a hundred Altars were seen to smoak and a hundred Victimes slain whose intrails were observ'd and gave no cause of apprehension to the Priests The fair Amazon receiv'd a thousand praises from the whole Camp and most particular endearments from those with whom she had more familiarity they who had seen her that day in the thickest of the fight made reports so much to her advantage that they had some difficulty to gain belief and when they went about to seek Comparisons to express her could finde nothing so proper as Thunder and Lightning Croondates imbracing her all armed as she was Pardon me said he Madam if I cannot hate Croontes since his infidelity has brought us so powerfull an assistance Nor can I added Lysimachus repent the sacriledge I committed in lifting my sword against you since from that crime we have drawn advantages which can never be sufficiently valued The fair Queen replied to these discourses exceeding gracefully and the Princes themselves would needs disburthen her of her Arms and look upon some slight hurts from whence they saw the bloud trickle down she had two upon her body but such inconsiderable ones that they had much ado to perswade her to keep her bed for two or three days By the recitall she made to Prince Croondates of the strangers valour she gave him an ardent desire to try his forces and to revenge the two brave sons of Mazaeus whom both for the consideration of their father and for their own he had always particularly esteemed and indeed they were lamented through the whole Camp their loss much abating the joy for that fortunate beginning As the Amazon Queen receiv'd great praises the whole Army was not sparing of them to young Demetrius and all the World extolled the Actions which in so early a youth he had been seen to perform against men of great experience in Warr and known reputation in terms able to have stirr'd up joy in him if at that time he had been capable of it That poor Prince was then in no condition to taste his Victory and though his Tent was full of Princes and Commanders who were come to visit him he had forgotten all his civility and left all the care of receiving the company to his father while he stirr'd not from the feet of her he had wounded and by whom he was likewise wounded himself in a most sensible place When the Chirurgians were searching her Wound he kept his eyes fixt upon their faces to draw an Omen thence of what he ought to fear or of what he ought to hope and when after they had done he saw them look upon one another with something a dolefull countenance O Gods cried he she 's a dead Woman and your faces promise me no good Well Philip continued he turning towards his fathers Chirurgian no life no safety neither for her nor for Demetrius Sir said the Chirurgian we cannot so soon settle an assured judgement but to morrow at the second dressing we shall speak with more certainty let her rest for four and twenty hours if you have any care of her health and come not into her Chamber till that time be expired Poor Demetrius nearer death than life at this discourse kneeled down by her and taking her by the hand which he bedewed with his tears Madam said he I protest to you by all the Gods that if you die I le live no longer and that you cannot take a more cruell revenge upon your Murtherer than in neglecting your Cure the shame of having kill'd a Woman as you are were enough alone to send me to my Grave but since that to so lawfull a grief the Gods to punish my crime have added the passion I have for you know that now your life is mine that by all my bloud I cannot recompense that which I have drawn from your fair body and that no man shall ever see me out-live the grief of having deprived the World of that which now is dearest to me of all the things that are in it Demetrius brought forth these passionate words so movingly and his beauty added so great an advantage to what he said that the Lady as great an Enemy as she was unto her safety and as much prepossess'd as she was with another passion could not keep her self from being nearly touch'd with them Sir said she you make me receive a death with grief for which I had prepared my self with joy and I protest to you by those same Gods you have invoked that your sorrow does most sensibly aggravate my former afflictions and that if they left the disposing of it unto me I to cure you of your grief would still endure this life which my remorse and my misfortunes make me to abhorr Afflict not your self any longer for me who am unworthy of these marks of your goodness and suffer me to die without other sorrows than those which have brought me to a just despair Demetrius would have replied if the Chirurgians had not perswaded him to retire after having imprinted a fiery kiss upon her hand and used some other blindly transported actions As he went out of her Chamber he gave order that Women should be fetched to serve her and presently some were sent for to Polemons house who came readily to do their best endeavours Antigonus who was acquainted with his Sons nature and who according to the report of all those that have spoken of his life was the most tenderly affectionate and the most perfectly indulgent that ever father was to a son instead of reproving him and blaming his passion was really afflicted with him and gave him the gentlest consolations he could desire then having gotten him to suffer two light wounds he had received to be searched and dressed he at his intreaty left him to his rest and dismissed his friends who came thronging to visit him When Demetrius saw himself alone and that in that solitariness he made reflexion upon the strange caprichiousness of his fortune he fell into such violent thoughts that he was like either to lose his senses or suddenly to end his days Men have been often seen to love said he and Lovers have often been seen to lose by death the person whom they loved but that a Lover should in the same day love see die nay and with his own hand kill her whom he loved is a thing which never happened to any body but Demetrius It was shame enough to Demetrius to dishonour his first attempts by the death of a Woman without adding this bloudy
Archidamus Tell me I pray you said I with a voice interrupted by my sighs tell me Archidamus in what manner your valiant Prince lost his life but do not spare my sorrow nor conceal the most deplorable accidents of it from her whose despair is uncapable of receiving any addition Archidamus with much ado refraining tears satisfied the request I made him on this manner In the condition I now see you Madam I will not mak you a long recitall of the life my Master lead after your separation and since 't is onely an account of his death that you demand I shall deliver it to you in a very few words I will not repeat what his despair made him say during our Voyage the knowledge you have of his passion may make you easily judge he utter'd whatsoever a violent affection and a just sense of his misfortune could put into his mouth He would never hearken to one word of comfort And having nothing in his minde but the ruine of Cassander he never talk'd to us of any thing but the revenge he intended to prepare against him When we were come to Sparta hardly would he tarry there three days either to take a little rest or to put those forces he found there in a readiness to march He would not stay for any Recruits and his impatience was so great that it made him run headlong upon an Enterprise under which being so weak in men as he was he in all probability was like to sink Yet did he march with as much boldness as if he had been followed by a million of men and being entred into the Territories that obey'd Antipater he left most bloudy marks there of his lawfull fury the Forces that defended the Frontier were all cut in pieces and whatsoever opposed his passage met the self same destiny I will not trouble you with the particularities of that War at length but onely tell you that after having defeated whatsoever came in our way ta'n divers places by assault and made such progress in a few days as might have demanded whole years to equal it we saw our selves forced to besiege Megalopolis which was an obstacle to our passage 'T was not the intention of our valiant King to fix us upon Sieges but his Design was to march directly to Cassander and make him â—â—y down his pretensions to you together with his life being ingag'd before that place we heard that Antipater and his Son were coming towards us with Colours flying and an Army half as strong again as ours This intelligence could not terrifie the King but contrary to the advice of his Commanders who counsell'd him either to retire or intrench himself he raised his Siege and went to meet the Enemy with a resolution to give him battel Why should I hold you longer The two Armies fac'd one another and having shew'd an equal desire to fight the chief Officers drew them up according to their wonted order and according to the situation of the places and the numbers of their men which done they presently began the Battel There was a great deal of bloud shed on both sides very quickly and our Prince incourag'd us by so admirable an Example of Valour that we should certainly have conquer'd with him if he had not rather sought for Death than Victory but he abandon'd all care of his men to think of his particular satisfaction and seeking Cassander in the thickest of his Squadrons he brake through all of them to get to him and charging him in the midst of a thousand Swords and Javelins he lay'd him on the ground together with his Horse immediately after he dismounted Antipater and if his fury had not been stopt by a valiant stranger whose Forces was little different from his without question he would have perfected his Revenge He did not all these prodigious Actions without receiving a great number of wounds and in the end he was so weaken'd by them that he no longer was able to sit upon his Horse but had fallen off among the Dead if we had not broke in to him and rescu'd him from among a multitude of Swords which he despised and into the midst of which he with the fierceness of a Lion had precipitated himself Having drawn him out of the throng whither he would or no I put him into a Litter and carry'd him a little out of the heat of the fight but his Litter was presently full of bloud which ran down from an infinite number of wounds and my magnanimous Prince knowing he was near his end would not suffer me to stir from him any more but drawing Paper from some place about him where I believe he carried it for that purpose he pull'd out the head of a Javelin that stuck in his body and with the bloudy point of it he with great difficulty writ those words whereof I have been the fatal Bearer As soon as he had done Archidamus said he giving them to me carry these last Assurances of my Affection to Deidamia and make her the Relation of my Death Scarce had he imposed that Command upon me when we saw our Forces retire defeated more by the absence of their General than by the courage of our Enemies who mingled pell-mell amongst them were eager in the prosecution of their Victory Our valiant King who would not die without resistance nor fall alive into his Enemies power with the remainder of his strength got out of the Litter and with his Sword in his hand went to meet Death with a miraculous boldness In that conclusion of his life Madam he did things which Posterity never will believe and though even at first he was not able to stir out of his place and that within awhile after he fought but upon his knees I may protest to you with truth that his very presence alone stopt whole Squadrons as it had routed them in the beginning of the Battel and that the most daring of them assaulted him onely with Darts and Arrows which the valiant Prince tore out of his body with an invincible courage and threw them back at those by whom he had been wounded 'T was in this manner of Combat that he spent the remnant of his strength which being no longer able to keep him up he let himself sink gently upon his shield over which he lean'd yielding up the ghost rather like a man that was weary or falling into a sleep than to one that was a dying I scarcely heard the last words of Archidamus for I fell into so deep a swown at the end of his Recital that all the company believ'd I had breath'd out my soul to follow Agis All Remedies seem'd helpless for my Recovery and notwithstanding all the care they could take to fetch me again to my senses I continued all the rest of the day with so little sign of life that many persons fear'd I had really lost it the King my father saw me in that condition and the affection he
travelled all the remainder of that first night with so much speed that before break of day we were gotten far enough not to fear falling any more into the power of Arimbas yet did we avoid the great High-waies so long as we were in the Province he commanded but when once we were out of it we rode with less apprehension and I for my part with some hope of seeing the Reliques of our desolate House again and with an ardent desire either to dispute the Empire yet with Alexander or to give up my life to his prevailing fortune He shall die said I to my self that injust Conquerour that wrongfull Usurper of our Dominions shall either fall or kill Artaxerxes with that hand which has been the destruction of all our Familie Perhaps he is not immortal though hitherto he have been invincible nor are we perhaps so utterly forsaken by the Gods but that we may pull a Victorie out of his hands which the cowardly effeminate Persians have so faintly disputed with him doubtless thou wert valiant enough poor Darius to trample down that Enemie if thou hadst commanded more generous Forces and nothing but their want of courage has made thee lose an Empire which is not much to be lamented since it extended it self over none but such mean spirited people Perchance there are yet some corners of thy vast Territories where thou mayest finde men that will shew themselves more truly to be men and 't is with them that Artaxerxes may possibly regain part of thy losses and blot out part of thy dishonour This thought had hardly given me a little comfort when presently I fell into a consideration of the estate I then was in and to my confusion saw those ridiculous hopes all vanish in a moment Ah weak abused Artaxerxes said I again with what fond imaginations dost thou flatter thy self Thou thinkest not of the revolution of thy fortune thou consider'st not that thou hast lost all that thou hast no Countrey left to defend and that thou hast no men left to oppose that Conquerour whom thy Father with innumerable thousands and with his whole Forces united was not able to resist stifle ah stifle these vain hopes and limit them all within the design of either making Alexanders person to run some hazard or of burying thy self in the Ruines of thy Familie These were the thoughts wherewith I was tormented but O Gods O Gods they quickly yielded place to far more cruell ones and scarce had I travell'd three daies journey when I saw both my Voyage bounded and my designs orethrown by the dolefull news of poor Darius his death I heard that lamentable end alas and 't is with shame that I confess I heard it without dying They told me how that great and much to be deplored Prince was fallen by the horrible perfidiousness of his own subjects and had given up both life and Empire to his Enemie Although this sad Relation did not absolutely kill me yet certainly it put me into a condition little different from death and Criton with the rest that accompanied me saw me in such a case as made them believe they had unprofitably hazarded themselves to serve me The recital of those swownings I fell into at this fatal narration of my sighs of my tears and of my mournfull complaints would but wearie you and be very difficult for me to make all that sorrow for the loss of a father who had most dearly lov'd me whose person was exceeding great and amiable for that of a mother who went a while before him and who ended her life in her captivitie for that of an Empire which might almost be call'd the Empire of the world added to my shame of having done nothing for them of not having shed one drop of bloud for their conservation and of not having given them any of those assistances which they receiv'd from the meanest of their Allies can produce in the most tender soul imprinted it self so violently in mine that it was like to have separated it from my bodie and I may well protest to you before all the Gods that nothing but the remembrance of Berenice kept me from my grave and hindred me from going then to seek them after their death whom I had so ignominiously abandoned during their life Thou now art free said I glorious Arsaces now thou art free thou no longer hast any Father to assist thou no longer hast any Countrey to defend or to say better thou no longer hast any honour to preserve all things contribute now to thy repose but O Gods how much were the most cruell deaths to be preferr'd before this repose and how much better had it been for thee to have been really slain in the Battel of Selena than to have shamefully out-liv'd Darius and to have seen the ruine of thy House with so much indifferencie what a horrible reproach to thee is the bloud of so many thousand men as lost their lives in thy Quarrell thou wert fighting against the Nomades while the Persians fell under the Macedonian Arms and thou wert sighing at Berenice's feet while thy Mother thy sisters and all thy familie lay sighing under the chains of fortunate Alexander O shame which all the bloud of Arsaces can never be able to wash out O baseness which all my love to Berenice can never be able to excuse I tormented my self on this manner in my bed whither my sorrow had confin'd me and where my grief was so extremely violent that it had put me into a Feaver for many daies After I had deplored my misfortunes in the most mournfull terms my miserie could suggest and that I had spent some daies in lamentations I began to think what I should resolve to do with my self Shall I not go said I and finde out Alexander in the middest of his victorious Forces which triumph over our disasters and since the anger of the Gods has so decreed that I no longer have men to give him Battel shall I not go and execute with my hand alone what the weakness of my condition and the loss of our Dominions will not suffer me to do at the head of an Army Since I cannot revenge Darius by the bloud of the Macedonians shall I not revenge him by the bloud of Alexander and if I die in the attempt shall I not bear my friends company with the least shame that I can possibly undergo Shall I not run said I again after that Parricide Bessus and shall I not make my way through the middest of those faithless Monsters that take part with him to pierce with a thousand wounds the ingratefull and disloyal heart of that horrible Murtherer of his King Is not that the first satisfaction I ow unto my fathers ghost and can I while Bessus and Narbazanes are alive have other thoughts than those of the rigorous punishments that are due to their perfidious Treason But O Gods concluded I shall I never see Berenice more and if as
receive imbraces which shew'd the company the nearness of that friendship wherewith we were link'd together Arsacomes who as well as the rest was oblig'd to me for his own safety and for the Queen his sisters forc'd his inclinations that he might not appear ingrateful when the King had allow'd every body liberty to welcom me he came to me again himself and reiterating his favours It was impossible said he by the miracles you have done for our preservation that you should be other than Arsaces or else some God such prodigious effects of valour can finde no example but in what you have done for us already yet since we have destin'd to ow our lives to some body I praise the Gods that 't is to my dear Arsaces to whom we may be indebted for them without shame or trouble I had been silent during all the Kings obliging words and endearments but as soon as it was time for me to speak Sir said I your Majesty sets too high a value upon an action which I was too powerfully ingag'd to do both by the remembrance of your favours and by the consideration of my honour I were much to blame if I should think I had done any thing in the preservation of your Majesties life 't is to your own valour you ow it and to the Gods to whom it is too dear to let it be lost and if they were pleased I should be so happy as to be one among your servants at the defeating of your Enemies 't is onely I that have the whole obligation to them as for the most glorious favour they can ever do me Forbear replied the King to rob Arsaces of what is due to him alone we should not now have been alive but for your assistance and I finde as much satisfaction in avowing it as I should do shame if I neglected obligations of this nature I will acknowledge them with all my affection and with all my power and if ever the King of Scythia be ingratefull toward Arsaces I would have him pass through the whole world for the most unworthy man upon earth The King accompanied these words with many others to the same purpose and after all the company had seconded him both in his kindnesses and praises he commanded the dead bodies to be view'd to the end they might see if they could discover who they were that had been his Enemies Among the first whose faces they look'd upon there were found some whom they knew to have belong'd to Cidaris and the King himself being come close to him whose arms I had cut off while he unworthily stretched them forth to take my Princess knew him to be Bandamis the brother of that Parricide He was not yet quite dead and as soon as he perceiv'd the King to be near him he call'd together the remainder of his forces and preventing the questions that were going to be ask'd him If Cidaris be slain said he I keep him company without trouble and die willingly for him as he does for Berenice and for the Reparation of his Honour He to punish the affront that had been done to him would have kill'd a King that had used him unworthily and to content his passion he would have carried away the Princess I serv'd him in this last design while he was attempting the former we have yet another Brother who will revenge our death if he have any courage and if he be so base as to sit down with it he deserves that you should pour forth those Resentments upon him which you have conceiv'd against us Bandamis ended his life with these words and the King who from the beginning had imagined the truth of this Adventure could not but admire the Resolution of those desperate Wretches Cidaris his body was found amongst those of his party and the Princess expressed a great deal of trouble for having been the cause though innocently of the death of so many men and of the danger her Father had been in In the mean time we were invironed by a throng of those whom the noise of this Accident had drawn from Issedon and one may truly say the whole Town was almost empty from the very moment that news came thither all the People came and cast themselves at the Kings feet with tears of joy and by his command they all came afterward to prostrate themselves before me and to do me honours as a man sent by the Gods or as the protecting Angel of Scythia When many things had passed which I am not able to tell you by reason of their length and confusion we took our way toward the City and all the while we were going the King did nothing but imbrace me and ask me the particularities of my Voyage I answered those questions as I before had resolv'd to do and though the remembrance of our ruin'd Family could not come into my minde without drawing sighs from me I dissembled my griefs as well as possibly I could and attributed my long absence to the Captivity in which I was detained by Arimbas Yet was not the King so wholly taken up with me but that he took care of Arsacomes who was wounded in two places my dear Theodates also had some hurts but none that were at all dangerous All the time I had free during the way I spent with him to whom in a few words I gave account of the deplorable success of my Voyage As I could not make him that recital without tears so neither could he hear it without shedding some and he solemnized our misfortunes with all the signs of grief I could demand from a true and perfect friend I durst not make my addresses to my Princess in the Queens presence fearing that company should observe alterations in my countenance which might give them some notice of my passion As soon as we were come to the City we found all the People that were left in it in the streets coming to meet the King and presently they began to make Bonfires in every place and to offer sacrifices and thanksgiving for his safety in all the Temples The King would needs have a lodging appointed for me in his Palace but for the remainder of that day I retir'd to Theodates his house to satisfie the desire I had to imbrace him at liberty to finish the account I had begun to give him of my Journey and to receive particular information of all passages concerning my Princess and how I stood in her favour at that time He satisfi'd my curiosity to the full and assur'd me that during my absence he had not found the least change in her affection 'T is true Sir said he she complain'd often of your want of care to let her hear from you and often testified to me but with an extraordinary trouble how much she fear'd you had forgotten her I put her out of those apprehensions as well as possibly I could but at last I should have had much ado to finde
we left the Front and the left Flank open to the Enemies approach Scarce had we rested there two days which were spent in necessary preparations when our Scouts brought us intelligence that Amasis was coming to quarter that night within a hundred furlongs of us and that the next day he would offer us Battel This news wrought nothing in the courage of our Troops but a generous impatience and an ardent desire to have a bout with those daring Rebells They shew'd a thousand signs of it and in the interim I was carefull to forget nothing that belong'd to my charge and spent the whole time I had remaining to put all things in the order we could desire Cleorestes took off much of that trouble from me and with him Lectaris Mazentes Amisoras and many others in whom for their experience and valour I had a great deal of confidence The Report our Scouts had brought in prov'd very true for the Enemies Army incamp'd so near us that day that in the night time our foremost Troops heard their shouts and discover'd some of their fires As soon as day began to appear the Scythians made all the Plain to eccho with the sound of their instruments and the Officers busying themselves diligently about the Orders I had given them drew up their Squadrons according to the Scythian discipline Their form was exceeding terrible and of all the Souldiers I ever saw never did I meet with any that prepar'd themselves to fight with a confidence like theirs I wore a Suit of Arms that day which the King had given me at my departure the work of them was excellent and the matter very rich but Berenices Scarf was my most pompous Ornament Having learn'd in part what order our Enemies kept with their Troops I drew mine into three Bodies whereof I took the first my self and gave the two others to Cleorestes and Mazentes and when they were all in a readiness I rode bare-headed along the Front of every Division and imploy'd all the eloquence the Gods had given me to represent all the Reasons that might animate them to the Battell My Speech was not without effect for by good fortune I had so gain'd the hearts of both Officers and Souldiers that they cried out aloud I should lead them to the Enemy and that they fear'd not to be overcome while they fought under Arsaces Seeing them so gallantly resolv'd I would not retain them longer but covering my head with a Cask oreshadowed with white Plumes and with a Horse-tail which fell upon my shoulders I arm'd my left hand with a weighty shield and my right with a couple of Javelins and putting my self at the head of my Battalion march'd toward the Enemies when they were already beginning to advance The interview of the two Armies caused a dreadfull noise of voices and instrumennts but when after we had incourag'd them for the last time we gave them the liberty to charge they closed with an impetuousness which admits of no comparison The Enemy had but little Infantry as well as we and so the fight was equal between the Armies for though that of the Enemies was stronger than ours in number of men ours was justified by the goodness of its cause and by the valour of many gallant Officers I had with me The Body I commanded did so well as it presently broke through that which was before us and having routed all the Squadrons of it we after a great deal of Execution got as far as their Baggage The Scythians would have fallen to plunder but I forbad them till after the clear issue of the Battel and it was very happy I did so for scarce had we obtain'd that advantage when we heard that Mayentes his Battalion had given back before that which Amasis commanded in person and that our Enemies General had gain'd an Advantage little different from ours This news made us face about towards them that stood in need of our assistance and leaving those we had defeated at liberty either to fly or rally we went to fly upon conquering Amasis with a fury which he could not easily withstand If I did not fear to offend modesty I should say that the powerfull interest which guided me in that Combat made me do things that are not ordinary and that peradventure I contributed something toward the winning of that Battel Mazentes who was not utterly defeated recover'd courage at our Arrivall and while Cleorestes with his body made good our Advantage against him that was to oppose him we gave Amasis so smart and so fortunate a charge that we quickly raised our party again All the Forces drew insensibly to that place and 't was with a great deal of bloud and with the death of many thousand men that the Victory was there disputed I animated our valiant Warriers the most that possibly I could and after having told them what they ow'd to their honour to the service of their King and to their own safety which by reason of the River that was at their back they could not hope for otherwise than by Victory I indeavour'd to incite them to it by my Example and not sparing to hazard my life in their presence I by the confidence I shew'd oblig'd them to second me generously I did not strive to meet with Amasis for remembring that two of the three Brothers had been slain by my hand already I sought not an occasion to shed the remainder of the bloud of that House Why should I hold you longer After we had fought long and vigorously the Victory declared it self for our party and Amasis knowing that fortune was contrary to him fac'd about with some of his men and by flight sought either for his own safety or for the means of fighting another time In that last Rout the slaughter was very great and the Scythians who naturally love bloud and who seldom spare their Enemies committed cruelties which in many places it was impossible for me to hinder Yet did I do all I could and where I chanc'd to come it was not without success Our Victory was so absolute that of fifty thousand men whereof the Enemies Army was composed there were thirty thousand slain upon the place and we lost not above two thousand of ours After the Event of this Battel a little Town which was not many furlongs from us open'd its Gates without resistance and there we refresh'd our selves for a few days dressed our wounded men and put our Forces again in order to prosecute the Victory I had receiv'd some hurts but such light ones that I kept not my bed above four or five days Our Army was incamp'd near the Walls and all the principal Officers with the wounded Souldiers were lodg'd within the Town where care was taken for Victual and for necessary subsistance I then had reason enough to be satisfied with my fortune and that happy beginning of my Arms advanc'd my Designs and raised my hopes enough to smother part
dearest rate which they so unworthily would have taken away made me do things beyond my strength and I gave few blows that dispatch'd not an enemy out of the fight Cryton and my two Scythians assisted me so valiantly that they laid five or six of them at their feet and the rest were so possessed with fear that they left the passage and the door open to me They followed us down stairs but very coldly and those that came in our way to hinder our going out felt such effects either of our courage or of our despair that the last of them were constrain'd to open the outermost gate to seek their safety in the Towa We rushed out after them without delay and came into the street all bloudy and in a posture that might have caus'd terrour in the most undanted persons My Guards cry'd out in the streets and call'd for help in the Kings name their cries drew a great many people together but the sight of us put them to a stand and when I saw them waver in the resolution they should take People of Issedon said I for you I have often given the better part of my bloud and will you favour my enemies in a base and cruell assassinate or rather will you see him murther'd by trayterous ingratefull wretches who at your Head ha's both fought and conquer'd for you I am your generall I am your fellow souldier Arsaces the very man to whom you so voluntarily submitted your selves and the very man whom you have followed in warre with so much affection As I spake these words I open'd my way with my sword among those enemies I still had left and they wrought such an effect upon the people that whether it were that my face representing yet some Idea of that which had commanded them stirr'd up some remainders of respect toward me or that the cruelty and injustice of the usage which was shew'd me caus'd some horrour and aversion in them or that they had still preserv'd some remnant of that love which they had formerly born me they never stirr'd to do me any hurt nay and there were many among them who to facilitate my retreat pestered my enemies and clear'd my passage as much as possibly they could They would have done more for my safety if they had dared but I made such use of those proofs of their good will that I got a great deal of ground toward the City Gate and kept my emies still out of the reach of my sword All this resistance and all this favour of the Scythians did indeed deferre my death but it was not sufficient to have hinder'd it without heavens particular assistance The news of this adventure was already carried to the King and there was no doubt but he would soon send troops against me I was a foot without other armes save my sword wounded with some light hurts but those that accompanied me had few parts of their bodies free and poor Hyander one of my most faithfull Scythians after he had done actions worthy of eternall memory fell dead by me leaving his fellow in a condition little different from his I already saw more souldiers coming to the relief of their companions and in short I saw evident death before my eyes so that what resolution soever I had taken to sell my life as dearly as I could I should certainly have lost it if the Gods had not sent me a miraculous succour I call it miraculous because in the conjuncture of it there was something very extraordinary which made me observe their particular care of my safety I was striving weary and wounded as I was to prolong my destiny when I saw fifteen or twenty horsemen come up to me at the head of whom I knew my dear Theodates Theodates who I thought had been in the Princes army who was then coming into the Town or rather who was then sent thither by the Heavens for my relief Before he came to us he had heard some rumour of that adventure at his arrivall and his eyes then telling him the truth of it he never stood considering what resolution he should take but gallopping up with his sword drawn he did so scatter those that were before me that he had a free and open passage Courage valliant Arsaces cri'd he we must escape and Theodates must either bring you off from this danger or perish with you He gave me not leasure to reply but as he spake those words made two or three of his men alight and offer'd me their horses for all I was so wounded I got reasonably lightly upon the first Criton took another but poor Theocles his strength fail'd and at that very moment his life forsook him and having stayed but just as long as it was necessary to me The death of these two faithfull servants would have been a great affliction to me if I had then been in a condition to be as sensible of it as I should have been at another time As soon as I was on horseback I beleiv'd my self out of danger and trampling those under my horses feet who would have oppos'd my passage I ran with Theodates and his men to the nearest gate We came thither just as the King sent an order to have it shut and a souldier was thrusting out his arm for that purpose when giving him a good slash with my sword I made him let go his hold and with the shock of our horses overturning those that were in our way we got out of the Town and took toward the field to our outmost speed The swiftnesse of our flight carried us off without further difficulty and before those whom the King sent to pursue us were got on horsback we were already above fifty furlongs from the Town Then we were favour'd by the night which presently overtook us and leaving the high wayes we rode crosse the field and in the dark toward those great forrests that are about three or four hundred furlongs from Issedon As soon as Theodates thought us enough at liberty to converse he suffred me to embrace him and give him thanks for what he had done towards my escape Never were more ardentnor more tender endearments us'd between two friends and though I had not lov'd Theodates so well as I did yet I should have been the most ungratefull man in the world if such a service as that I had newly receiv'd had not made me absolutely his My dear deliverer said I or rather the Genius of Arsaces his life and fortune must you needs happen to be or rather must you appear by miracle in all places where you are necessary to my safety and must I never find an occasion to requite you with an office of the like nature I am so extremely ingaged to you already replyed the affectionate Theodates that you have no cause at all to wish me more oblig'd and I much more justly am indebted to you for a life which shall ever be readily laid
then his Settle thy self said I and do not feare the sight of a single man and of a man whom all thy cruelties have not been able to make thine enemy I neither come with a power nor with an intention to take revenge for so many unspeakeable wrongs I onely bring thee a head which is necessary for thy perfect Satisfaction and a head which with Berenice thou should'st present to Arsacomes Behold my armes which I throw down at thy feet pursued I letting fall my sword and behold at last this Arsaces to whom thou bear'st so implacable a hatred who comes both alone and unarm'd to expose himself to all thy indignation but as it is with no designe to hurt thee so neither is it with any to appease thee that he here presents himself he demands no reparation for the injuries thou hast done him nor does he preten'd to any favour by those thou hast receiv'd from him and he would be a sham'd to receive life from them to whom he ha's been accustomed to give it Powre forth all the effects of thine anger upon this Artaxerxes the sonne of Darius who with thine own forces ha's assaulted thy walles ha's forc'd thy Town ha's pulled thy daughter out of thine Armes and ha's reduc'd thee thy self once more to be beholding to him for a kingdome and for a life which he hath so often preserved but spare Berenice who is not guilty of Arsaces his crimes Revenge not forreigne wrongs upon thine own bloud and since it ha's no affinity with that of Darius wreake upon that of Darius alone whatsoever of greatest cruelty thy rage can thinke Arsaces ha's deserv'd death but Berenice ha's not deserv'd the punishment thou inflict'st upon her or if she have deserv'd it 't is onely for having forsaken me and for having exposed her self a new to the mercy of her enemies Let alone the innocent Berenice then and overwhelm the Criminal Arsaces thou could'st not desire more facility for this revenge to which thou hast run head long by so many base and shameful wayes and besides the conservation of thy life and Kingdome thou hast yet this last obligation to me that I my self have deliver'd thee a person whose ruine thou so often hast in vaine attempted and that I have sav'd thee the labour of seeking out new murtherers to give death to the greatest of thine enemies While I spoake on this manner the whole assembly listend to my words and with a merveilous attention expected what would be the issue of that adventure I will not tell you what Berenices thoughts were at this last expression of my love nor what were those of Arsacomes since they were the Kings that first manifested themselves If he had been astonished at my sight and at the beginning of my discourse he was no lesse at the knowledge of my strange resolution he saw so little likely hood to hope that commanding a potent army wherewith I was in a manner able to dispose of his destiny I should abandon all the meanes I had to frustrate what he had determin'd to come and expose my self alone to his mercy that he could not suffer his beliefe to credit what he saw Wherefore he remain'd a great while in doubt of the truth but when he beheld me alone without caske without sword in the midd'st of a throng of his own followers and that he heard no noise at all in the streets that could make him feare the coming of his enemies he began at last to believe that my love had brought me to that resolution and that my despaire making me despise my life had made me also neglect the meanes I had to preserve it This assurance settled it self in his mind with joy and his feare was no sooner lull'd asleep but his anger was awaked againe The sight of his enemy and the fiercenesse of his words kindled his wrath afresh withal its violence and he had scarce had time to recover his first apprehensions when he open'd his mouth to give it vent Yet wicked wretch cryed he thou shalt dye and this false generosity which thy despaire hath inspir'd into thee shall not save thee from my lawfull fury Yes I will dye replyed I and if I would not have dyed I would have come with a power that might have defended me from thine Boast not of an advantage which thou holdest from no body but my self nor threaten me with a death wherein thou onely seru'st for the Minister of my despaire I rather serve the justice of the Gods answered Macheus and all Kings who are interessed in my quarrel but whether it be from the anger of heaven or from thine own despaire that I have this occasion to revenge me of thee thou shalt not see me neglect it nor for manie considerations spare him that hath seduc'd my subjects and that led an army of rebells and traytours against their Prince into his Citty into his Palaces and even against his owne person He had hardly ended these words making signe to his guard to encompasse me and to hinder my getting out of the Temple when the Princesse who till then had heard us without interruption mov'd from the place where she stood and coming toward me with a countenance animated with an extraordinary confidence You shall not dye alone Arsaces said shee and since you have been so little fearefull to afflict me in lavishing a life that was dearer to me then my own you also shall have the grief to see me run to a death which I owe to nothing but your despaire You ought to have expected the event of what I had resolved to doe for you If I had been so base as to have given my selfe to Arsacomes that basenesse would have been enough to have cured you and if I had preferred death before him you might have followed me to the grave without the blame of having thrown me into it By these words and by my Princesses action so different from her humour and from her usuall moderation I knew the greatnesse of her affection better then ever I had done before and forgetting all that I had taken ill from her I gave my self up againe totally to my love Ah! my dearest Princesse said I what a thought is this of yours and with what a reproach doe you aggravate my sorrowes I defended my life as long as I believ'd you car'd for it and you know that after the losses I have suffred nothing could have made me think of its preservation but the opinion I had that it was not indifferent to you That was it that made me oppose the King your fathers armes which after the ruine of my family I should have welcom'd into my breast that was it that set me at the head of an army and in short that was it that ha's made me do many actions which could not have been expected but from a person that had been much in love with his life Yes Madame I did love it while I
Stratonice's counsell to begin to accommodate thy self to thy fathers humour and thy stealing away whereby I lost all my fortune with thee had not been so easily effected if thou thy self had'st not consented to it Pardon me deare Princesse pursued Arsaces turning toward Berenice pardon me the injury I then did your vertue and consider that the condition I was reduc'd to made me uncapable of any sound or reasonable judgment yet did I strive to repent my opinion but could not doe it without beâ—ying my own eyes and accusing them for having deluded me in that encounter Perchance I may be deceiv'd said I and my imagination prepossessed with the remembrance of Berenice did it may be present some other object to me insted of her Ah! no cry'd I againe immediately after I was not deceiv'd and Berenice's features are too truely graven in my memory to suffer me to be confer'd in the knowledge of her I saw her but too plainly and look'd but too long upon her to be in doubt whither it were she or no. 'T is she and she is now in the armes of my rivall and of my conquerour and if fortune ha's dealt any better with him then with me they now rejoyce together at the victory he ha's obtain'd In this thought seing Criton who was come to my bedside againe I commanded him to relate the true issue of our combat to tell me in what condition I had left my enemy and what became of Berenice Sir said he I must confesse that the distance the trouble I was in during your combat and a vaile she had put down over her face hindred me from knowing it was the Princesse but the woman that was present while you fought no sooner saw your enemy fall who sunk from his horse at the same time with you either dead or in the same case you were but she ran instantly to him with cryes that came unto my ears as farre as I was off and she still was making lamentations over him when I went from you to seek for help but at my return we neither found her nor the body of your enemy This account of Critons wrought too different effects upon me for though it confirm'd my Princesses infidelity it comforted me in the belief that I had slain my enemy or at least that he had not gotten an entire victory Then I turned over a thousand several resolutions in my mind and though they tended all toward death yet the last upon which I fix'd was that if it pleased the Gods I should escape my wounds I would never dye without being assur'd of my revenge or without finishing it by another combat and moreover that I would never dye but before the eyes of the ingratefull Berenice The Princesse who had often blush'd during Arsaces his discourse could no longer forbeare to interrupt him Ah! Arsaces said she how ingratefull were you your self in those cruell thoughts you had of me certainly my humour should have been well enough known to you to make you believe that no body but my brother ought ever to hope for those kindnesses from me which caused your jealousy If I had had any other witnesses but my own eyes reply'd Arsaces I should never have given credit to them but in short I my self had seen that that was as bad to me as death and I was then so unfortunate that the truth of this adventure never came into my thoughts I rather believed that my deare Brother was no longer in the world since in so great a revolution of my sisters affaires we had not heard the least news of him since upon that of her death wherein he was much more concern'd then any body else he had neither appear'd to relieve nor to revenge her and since my sister who it was likely would best have known it if he had been in this country had not said one word to me concerning him This opinion of your death deare Brother which by little and little settled it self in my thoughts was cause of many of those things that have happen'd to me since and confirm'd me in the designe I have to dye assoon as I was certain of my revenge and assoon as I had powr'd those reproaches into the ears of Berenice which I thought due to her infidelity The desire of prolonging my life till I could find occasion to loose it in her presence made me suffer the help that was given me and assist toward my recovery as much as they about me desired Seleucus who interessed himself in it very cordially came back to me the same day and when once I was in a condition to thank him for his care I endeavoured to let him see he took it not of a person that would ever become unworthy thereof by his ingratitude The Chirurgions could not yet settle any certaine judgment about my cure but they found I was so inconveniently in that little house and in a scuruy chamber where I was almost suffocated with the excessive heat of the season that though there were danger in removing me they beleeved there was more in letting me continue in that place Seleucus whose urgent occasions call'd him perpetually to Babilon and who neverthelesse could have been glad not to bee from me consented willing to the proposition of carrying me thither and I had given my self up so wholly to be ordered by them that I did not so much as enquire what they meant to doe with me I knew not whither it was to Babilon or to some other place that they intended to remove me but though I had known I had preserv'd so little care of my affaires and of all other thoughts but those my jealousy in spir'd me with that I should never have opposed them I therefore suffred them the fourth day to put on my cloathes and lay me in a litter to carry me to the Town whither Seleucus going along with me himself made me be brought to his own house where I was very brauely lodg'd and more commodiously attended It surprised me a little to see I was in Babilon but as I have already told you my despaire swallow'd up all my former feares of being known and I judg'd that happen to me what would my condition could not be worse then it was since Berenice's infidelity Yet did I endeavour to free my self from receiving many visites and to that end having made that request to Seleucus he promised I should be seen but by very few The condition I was in hindred me from seing all the preparations that were made for defence against those forces of yours that began to appeare and Seleucus who by reason of Perdiccas his wounds bore the greatest weight of those affaires knowing my weaknesse made me unfit for that entertainment talke nothing of it to me but when by occasion of discourse he could not avoyd it Yet thus much I understood by what I heard him say and by what Criton told me that the Princes Lysimachus Ptolomeus
defeated The valiant Thalestris doing wonders in her own person saw Clitemnestra Amalthea fall dead at her feet and running headlong to their Revenge her Horse was kill'd under her with a multitude of wounds The danger in which she saw her self could nothing daunt her but fighting afoot with an invincible courage she made a heap of bodies which for a while defended her from her foes Yet was she ready to have lost her life not being able to hope for any Relief from her routed Amazons when the Gods brought Arsaces to her assistance The name of Arsaces struck a fear into the Enemies Troops but before he could make his passage to the Queen her Cask was fallen at her feet and her head being unarm'd would certainly have been wounded by the hand of cruell Statanor if the unexpected sword of a Warriour who appear'd upon a sudden had not slash'd off that sacrilegious arm and with a second blow taken the life of that barbaro us man whom the sight of so much beauty had not been able to make relent After this Action that valiant man slew Sinus also the Prince of Susiana who was one of the eagerest to kill or take the Queen and gave the son of Scytheus a mortal wound By these Exploits he scattred the throng wherewith Thalestris was almost orewhelm'd and had already procur'd her means to get upon Statanor's Horse when they saw the foe give way at the arrival of the redoubted Arsaces Arsaces was follow'd by a squadron of Bactrians and Cappadocians who under such a Leader quickly chang'd the face of the Combat for charging into the thickest of Scytheus his Susians and Zogdians he not onely stopp'd their impetuosity but made them lose the design they had against the life of their Enemies to think upon the preservation of their own How many courageous men fell then under the sword of great Arsaces and how much bloud did he pour forth to the fair Amazons Revenge and to Darius his memory Scytheus was one of the first that felt his fury who being run quite through the body fell without breath in the middle of his Troops Arthous Prince of the Pelasgians would have reveng'd his friend but he met a destiny which differ'd onely in this that Scytheus receiv'd his death by the point of Arsaces sword and he his by the edge for both his arms which he had lifted up to discharge a blow with all his force on his Enemies head being cut off close to his elbows he was carried away a while by his unguided Horse and tumbled at last among the feet of the rest where he miserably lost his life That Warrier who had first reliev'd the Amazon Queen seconded Arsaces with blows little different from his and Thalestris being got on horse-back and having put on her Cask again by his assistance labour'd in her own Revenge with marvellous animosity The Amazons rallied in a little time and being incouraged by the Example of their Queen and by the help of the Bactrians and of the Cappadocians their neighbours they came on a fresh with such a fury that the Troops of Statanor the Susians and the Zogdians having lost their chief Commanders were no longer able to withstand them but having fought a while retiring at last turn'd their backs and quitted the Victory and the Field together The Conquerours seeing them routed follow'd their advantage with loud cries but in the interim on the other wing of the Battel the success was very contrary The Argiraspides and Macedonians led by the furious Seleucus Cassander and Perdiccas who then fought there in person after having broken the Lydian and Pamphilian squadrons were already inlarging their Victory upon the Phrigians and by little and little were putting the better part of the Army in a Rout. They still advanc'd like an impetuous Torrent which nothing was able to resist when the Gods for the safety of their foes brought Prince Oroondates to oppose them who with Ptolomeus and Lysimachus came from another part of the Battel where his presence had been necessary O Gods how great was the indignation of the Prince of Scythia when he saw his defeated Troops fly shamefully before the face of their Enemies Certainly it would be very hard to represent his fury but they that came in his way felt the prodigious effects of it he cast up his terrible brow on every side and having a while considered that sad form of Combat he gallopp'd before the chief of them that fled and raising his voice that he might be heard Whither fly you cried he valiant men Whither fly you What Retreat have you if you lose this Battel What Walls to escape the fury of your Conquerours and how will you save your selves either from Death or from eternal infamy Are you the same men that fought under Alexander the Great and the same men who but a few minutes since had so gloriously begun the Victory By what accident and by what losses are you chang'd and weaken'd In speaking these words he opposed their flight with his sword up and stopping one of the chief Lydian Captains by the arm Stay said he and face about see here are thine Enemies By these words animated with an extraordinary gesture and seconded by others from Lysimachus and Ptolomeus he made some of those frighted men take heart again but he encourag'd them a great deal better by his Actions Follow me said he to them do but follow me the way that I will open to you and at the same time having observ'd Seleucus at the head of the Argiraspides he judg'd that a good part of the Victory consisted in defeating him He advanc'd toward him with a threatning cry and Seleucus who saw him coming expected him with a great deal of Resolution the first strokes they gave were reasonable equal but though at another time Seleucus might have been able to make a long resistance Oroondates his force was then redoubled by his violent anger and he shew'd no small proof of it when being closed with Seleucus he lock'd him so strongly in his arms that clapping spurs to his Horse he lifted that gallant man out of his saddle and having carried him above twenty paces let him fall quite astonied among the horses feet Cassander to revenge Seleucus struck Oroondates a blow behinde but the furious Prince turning about to him made his sword come down with such a force upon his head that his Cask was deeply dinted by it and Cassander himself having his face bath'd in bloud reel'd from his Horse among some of his men who were come up to his Relief Perdiccas could not see these Actions without being terrified yet having courage enough to prefer death before infamy he did not turn his back but dar'd to stand the furious Prince who knowing him by many marks flew at him as an Eagle at his prey Thou must die Perdiccas cried he thou must die for Statira since thou art unworthy to live for her
exploits had sought Death and Wounds among so many thousand Swords by a kinde of miracle had hardly any hurt at all and the Princesses had scarce power enough over them to make them keep their Bâ—ds the next day Lysmachus was almost in the same condition Ptolomeus his left Arm was run through with a Javelin and Eumenes his Thigh with a Sword Thâ—lestris had three or four wounds but all slight ones and the Chirurgions who knew her impatiency gave her hope of being cured within a few days Deâ—etrius had received two deep cuts in the right Shoulder Antigonus and Polyperchon were wounded in the Head Craterus and Prince Oxyartes not at all Laomedon and Menander were brought from among the slain with very little hope of life the condition of Artabasus his two sons was little better and there were very few of all the mâ—st considerable Officers that stood not in need of the Chirurgions help But among those that were most carefully looked to Seleucus for all he was an enemy had the advantage of all the rest and Prince Artaxerxes who had caused him to be laid in his own Chamber and who to leave it to him meant to retire himself into that of Oroondates would not suffer his Arms to be taken off till he had been present at the dressing of his Wounds Seleucus was hurt in the head in the body and in the left arm but they judged him not to be in danger of death At which news Arsaces shewed by all his action how great an interest he took in the safety of that gallant man After he had given him all maner of assurance of it and that Oroondates by his example had with excessive civilities testified his esteem of him they left the Chamber free that he might take his rest and obeyed the desires of the Princesses who constrained them to think of their own healths While they were giving this succor to Seleucus Lysimachus and Ptolomeus did the same to Leonatus and Nearchus who were found all wounded among the prisoners and without doubt had lost their lives as well as their blood if they had not been very carefully assisted Lysimachus forgot nothing that was due unto their quality and to his ancient acquaintance with them and laying aside all maner of enmity he used them rather like his old Friends then like his prisoners Craterus Oxyartes and the rest that were not hurt spent part of the night in that imployment and those that were wounded in that rest which was necessary for them The next morning without expecting to be sued to by their enemies as in probability they might have done they freely sent them leave to fetch off or burn the dead of their party and at the same time Craterus with some of those who were able to accompany him went into the Field of Battle to pay the last duty to their Friends There it was that Brothers with tears sought the bodies of their Brothers and that Fathers found their mangled Sons Those Objects were so lamentable that they were able to touch the hardest hearts with compassion and all that day was spent on both sides in mournful imployments The number of the dead which had already began to be computed by the remainder of the living was then confirmed with sorrow and was so great That the Plain lay covered with heaps of bodies for the space of threescore Furlongs Of our Prince's side there were found above twenty thousand among which Philip the Leader of the Hyrcanians Orestes the Brother of Philotas Prince of the Cilicians Cleomenes Ptolomeus his Lieutenant Euristeus Lieutenant to Eumenes Lamachus Antisthenes Leosthenes and Cleobulus the two valiant Amazones Clitemnestra and Amalthea and many more whom their quality and vertue made considerable in the Army But on Perdiccas his side Fourscore thousand men were slain upon the place and amongst them the valiant Python and his son Agenor Sinus the Commander of the Susians Scythens Statanor and Arthius Princes of the Zogdians Drahe's Argeans and Pelasgians Eucrates and Evagoras the sons of Axiarchus and a great number of others who were with much grief brought off by their Friends from the Field of Battel Onely the most considerable Officers or those that had particular Friends were carried to the Camp and to Babylon to receive Funeral Honors and all the rest were with a mutual consent piled up in several heaps and burnt with the usual Orders and Ceremonies While Craterus Prince Oxyartes and old Artabasus were busied in this office the wounded Princes took their rest in Bed as they had been enjoyned And because the Prince of Persia could not that day pay his Civilities to Seleucus in person he sent often into his Chamber to know how he did Oroondates did the same and afterward he sent to visit Leonatus and Nearchus though Lysimachus and Ptolomeus for all they themselves were wounded omitted not to take an extraordinary care of them Berenice that day kept her Brother and her servant company who lay both in the same Chamber and she had thereby the convenience to follow her inclinations without wounding her modesty and render what she owed to her loved Oroondates without being separated from her dear Arsaces Yet before she went to them she had staid a great while with Queen Thalestris to whom she was tyed with a very particular affection and who that day had a throng in her Chamber of all those persons that were so well as to visit her The gallant actions she had done in the Battel were loudly extol'd by all the World but she could not think of the death of Amalthea and Clitemnestra without a great deal of trouble she had seen those valiant Women slain at her feet for her defence and remembred she had been kill'd her self but for the succor of a Warrier who by effects of Valor that were quite extraordinary had saved her from Statanor's Sword and from a thousand others which then were turned against her notwithstanding all the care she had taken to inform her self she still was ignorant to whom she was engaged for that good service and though such famous actions might have given their Author occasion enough to publish them there was no body in the Army that boasted to have done them When she mused a good while upon that adventure she in that relief found something very suitable to what she in former times had received from her lovely Orontes when she was prisoner to Neobarsanes she fancied that Warrier to have something in his action and in his maner of fighting like her dear Orontes and if she had not believed him then to be a great way off she had thought it might have been Orontes himself to whom she was indebted for her life That thought which yet she stuck upon but very little brought all those others straight into her minde wherewith she was continually perplext and having first represented her Orontes constant and lovely and then her Orontes ingrateful and injurious
his affection he could not call to minde that Statira was in his power without yeilding much unto his grief nor without fearing that his rival would revenge the shame of his defeat by those ways which lay open to him for that purpose Lysimachus his thoughts were like to his and those Princes passed the rest of that day in disquiets which opposed their victory The next morning Oroondates and the Prince of Persia believing their wounds too inconsiderable to make them keep their Beds called for their clothes and assoon as they were ready went together into Seleucus his Chamber having first sent to know whether their visit would not be a trouble to him Seleucus received the honor they did him with a great deal of civility and considering Arsaces then both by the greatness of his actions and by that of his high birth and looking upon Oroondates as he of all men living whose vertue had showed it self by the gallantest marks and as he whose forces he had made tryal of himself with very little success he forgot his wounds to render them what he believed their due They no sooner were set down by his Bed-side but Arsaces preventing the thanks he was going to return I could not have taken any rest said he if some slight wounds had been able to hinder me from coming my self to see how you do nor is my health dear enough to me to keep me longer from a Prince to whom I ow all maner of respect for his vertue and to whom I am particularly indebted for my life If I was so happy as to give you any assistance replied Seleucus I was too fully recompenced by the glory of having served you and you have since so generously requited it That the remembrance of that service which gave me the honor of your friendship ought to yeild to that of the Obligation I have to you We are all obliged to the Prince my Brother added the Prince of Scythia and if he had let the valiant Seleucus perish he had let us loose the better part of those advantages the gods have given us I deserved death answered Seleucus since I dared to meet it from your hand and if I had received it when I was so bold as to oppose your valor it would have been so glorious a one that I should have had no reason to lament my destiny You defend your life too well replied the Prince to let any single man have the glory to take it and I ow all the advantage I had over you to the help of my men and to the routing of yours Seleucus answered this modesty of Oroondates with a perfect submission and when from those first civilities they fell into another discourse Arsaces thrust on by Oroondates his Interests and by his love to the remainders of his blood after having embraced Seleucus to win a grant of what he desired Generous Seleucus said he if your friendship to Perdiccas can permit you will you not tell us the truth of the present condition of my Sisters and will you not freely tell us what estate they are in and what usage they receive After the confession Perdiccas himself hath made to you replied Seleucus I may give you that satisfaction without betraying him and withal may let you see by the little confidence he had in me the little share I have in your causes of complaint against him I know not whether Perdiccas thought I would disapprove his proceeding and that the knowledge thereof would hinder me from serving him or whether indeed he was ashamed to own it to me but however it were I may truly protest to you That before the day of our enterview he had not told me a syllable of it and that I was ignorant of the true destiny of Cassandra as well as all other men In effect I believed according to the rumor Roxana had spred abroad That Queen Statira and the Princess her Sister had been kill'd in the night upon their way to Babylon by some of Meleagers faction And though in all these passages I found causes of doubt enough for one that had been curious I ever was one of those that were least inquisitive and blindly tyed my self to serve Perdiccas as I thought my self obliged by a very near and a very ancient friendship But that day of our Parley after we parted very ill satisfied with one another the remembrance of your discourse with Perdiccas touching the liberty of the Princesses and of the confession he had made caused me after some complaint of the little confidence he had in me to ask him the truth of all and then after having often embraced me to drive away the resentment I might have of his distrust asked me pardon for having kept that hid from me which he believed he could not so soon reveal to any body in the world especially to me of whose vertue as he was pleased to say He stood more in aw then of any body else He told me at large all that had passed touching the Princess since the death of Alexander afterward he confessed to me That he had been in love with the Queen even in the Kings life time and that he had all that while concealed an affection which he was then no longer able to dissemble Oroondates having told Seleucus all they had heard by Cleone concerning the Queens adventures obliged him to let them know what they yet were ignorant of and to that intent he continued thus After that Perdiccas was faln upon the ground by the wounds he had received from Arsaces and that Arsaces had lost the Queen his Sister by the encounter of Alcetas who while Arsaces was fighting with his men caused her to be put by force into his Chariot Alcetas leaving his party for fear he should loose what he had in possession and should disappoint his Brothers intentions made the Charioter drive away very swiftly and keeping the way he had resolved to go came to a house hard by the Town where his Brother and he purposed to stay till night that they might enter into Babylon with less danger of having those persons known whom they brought along with them But Alcetas being come to that house found not Perdiccas there as he expected though by his meeting the Queen he was already faln into suspicions which he could not clear himself in by any discourse with her who avoided all maner of conversation with him and within a little after he saw one of his men come in who had been present at the combat and who brought him word in what condition he had left him Alcâ—tas was almost besides himself at the news but it will suffice me to tell you That not knowing how to leave the Princesses he sent some of his servants to the place where his Brother had fought either to succor him or to fetch him away and not long after he saw him brought in upon a Hand-barrow in a condition which made him
sorrowful Lascaris after what you have done for Thalestris will you not have the confidence to cast your self at her feet to ask her a pardon which you have so well deserved and to let her know That since you were criminal toward her you have saved her life both by Land and by Water He made a stop at these words as to expect an answer but seeing that his Master in stead of replying contented himself to testifie by shaking his head that he was not in a condition to make use of his advice At least Sir went he on if you want courage in this occasion you that never wanted it in any other of the greatest danger if you have not boldness enough to present your self before exasperated Thalestris and to labor in your own behalf for a reconciliation with her give me Commission to do it I may perhaps perform the business with more dexterity then you believe I will address my self to Hippolita who was ever very affectionate to you I will address my self to Prince Oroondates who hath promised you his assistance and who is obliged by nearness of alliance and many other considerations to give it you and in fine I will manage your Interest in such sort that your fortune shall perchance be better then ever it was and that you shall joyfully dispose your self to quit this dismal habitation where we seem to have laid aside humanity and live like savage Beasts This strange life and this strange diet you feed upon hath changed you so already that you are hardly to be known You have lost all the freshness of your colour your healthful looks and the better part of your strength and if in this last combat you had enough to execute the things you did there it was from your love you drew it rather then from that lean and weakned Body which falls away and decays every moment and which tends most visibly to the grave Lascaris brought forth these words with tears wherewith Orontes was touched but it was not on the fashion he desired as he quickly made appear by his discourse Thou canst not O Lascaris said he tell me any news more pleasing then that I have now received from thee nor give me notice that I am near my grave without giving me a great deal of contentment How great soever my crime hath been it makes my destiny glorious since in dying for its expiation I have the glory to die also for Thalestris that is the aim I ever proposed unto my self through the whole course of my life and in my utmost misery I shall attain to that advantage which I aspired to in my greatest fortune My soul is but too fast united to this wretched body which it would fain abandon and no longer suffers but with shame the company of this accomplice of its crimes it is true That in this desart we lead a life exceeding different from other men but also I ought no longer to be counted amongst men I who have made my self unworthy of that name and who no longer can without horror endure the light of the Sun which they rejoyce in All that I finde most strange and most troublesome to me in my condition is That I have thee for a Companion in my afflictions and that I make thee bear thy part of my punishment thee who hadst no part at all in my offence and who hast been faulty in nothing but in having too obstinately tied thy self to the fortune of a miserable man and of a man that is hated of the gods but Lascaris thou knowest that nothing but thine own wilfulness hath reduced thee to this misery and that I have solicited thee a thousand times to quit this hideous dwelling and to retire thy self where thou mightst spend thy days more pleasingly That which comforts me for thee in the sad condition of our life is That thy sufferings will not now last much longer I have but few more days to linger out and after thou hast closed mine eyes and covered my body with a little Earth thou mayest go home with a perfect satisfaction and with a perfect glory for having served thy master to the end with an inviolable fidelity yet does there remain one service for thee to do me after my death and then it is that I consent nay and desire thou shouldst present thy self unto Thalestris and that thou shouldst endeavor to obtain that pardon from her which then I may handsomely demand she then will hearken to thee by the intercession of Hippolita and by that of Prince Oroondates and perhaps will not be so obdurate but that the recital of my death may make her cast away some part of her just resentments Orontes brought forth these words in so doleful a maner that a heart of Adamant would have been touched with compassion and that of Thalestris was so mollified that after having permitted her tears to overflow with violence her constancy was utterly at an end and coming hastily out of her dark station You shall not die cryed she you shall not die my dear Orithia Thalestris pardons you without dying and Thalestris will not have your death for the reparation of your faults Orontes quite besides himself at these words at the tone of the voice and at the sight of his Princess started suddenly from his Bed and at so unexpected an adventure fell into so strange an astonishment That his soul lost the greatest part of its functions and of a long time he was not in a condition to know what he should believe or what resolution he should take yet did he look unmovedly upon Thalestris and finding in her face those lineaments which were deeply graven within his heart his surprise and his amazement made him absolutely uncapable of doing any thing At last he threw himself down before her while she strove to stop a torrent of tears that had deprived her of the use of speech and lying prostrate at her very feet without daring to lift his eyes up to her face If you be some god said he whom my sorrowful fortune hath drawn from Heaven into this dismal habitation your pity is unworthily bestowed upon the most criminal of all men living and if you are the divine Thalestris to whom I offered my adorations while I was less guilty I now am altogether unworthy to behold you The Queen who had recovered her self a little by the violence she had used and who no longer wavered in the resolution she was to take put forth her hands to have helped him up and looking upon him with a countenance quite appeased I am Thalestris said she but Thalestris who was less sensible of the wrongs you did me then I am of your last services and of the marks of your repentance If I sought you heretofore to give you a death which in my opinion you had merited I seek you now to give you a life which you have gained unto your self by having preserved it I live
and peaceably yours will make her bear that losse with patience and if she love you not the fear of displeasing her ought not to be more considerable to you then your own life yet to keep you clear from a crime vvhich you might believe you should commit in disobeying her Araxes vvill take that charge upon him and this hand shall free you from that enemy before your own be able to undertake it If I be so fortunate as to do you a service of that importance I shall prefer my condition before that of any man alive and if I perish in the difficulty of that enterprise I cannot fall more gloriously then in sacrificing my life to the repose of him to whom I have wholly devoted it My Master having turn'd his head toward me while I spoke cast his arm about my neck and embracing me a long time Dear Araxes said he I am so neerly obliged to the fidelity of thy affection that thy consideration alone is enough to make me desire to live still that I may requite part of the good services I receive from thee thy thoughts are more generous then they are just and thou doest as much agree with mine in proposing the death of Alexander as thou crossest them in offering thy self to be the actor of it Yes Alexander must dye and my reason no sooner return'd to me again but I decreed his ruine he shall die that Conqueror of the whole earth but he shall die only by the hand of Oroondates I will stay no longer then till I have recovered my strength and I will either oblige Statira's affection by giving her the means to satisfie what she owes me or punish her ingratitude by sacrificing him before her eyes whom she ought never to have lov'd unto my prejudice in this despair whereinto she has precipitated me all considerations are extinguished and I am now quit with both of them by so many actions in their favour and to their advantage I have paid Alexander all I was indebted to him by saving his life which his best friends suffered him to lose and since it is destructive of mine he ought not to think it strange if I assault it fairly I will neither use poison nor have recourse to any shameful ways to send him out of this world but I will divide the danger so that the greater share shall infallibly be mine own If I perish in the enterprise Statira you shall for ever be delivered from the importunities of this miserable man and you shall with tranquility enjoy that greatness for which you meanly have forsaken me He said many things of this nature and knowing his humour I persisted not to contest with him about the Proposition I had made During the rest of his sickness he persevered in this resolution and I know not whether it hastned his cure but in effect by the cares of Barsina and of those that had him in hand hee recovered his health sooner then was expected and left his bed two moneths after the day he sickned but he was yet so weak that of another whole one he was not able to ride on horseback This Relation is too long Sir but to come to a Conclusion of it I will tell you that assoon as he had gotten his strength again and that he found himself able to execute what he had in his mind he prepared for his departure But before he went from Susa the disquietness I felt for his misfortunes perswaded me to consult the pleasure of the Gods for him and for that purpose visiting the Temple of Orosmades where famous Oracles are given after I had made my prayer on his behalf the God commanded us to seek our repose upon the banks of Euphrates and without giving me any other answer sent me back with some little hope and satisfaction My Master also was satisfied with it and knowing that Babylon where Alexander then made his abode was situate upon that River he believ'd his intention was conformable to the will of the God that sent him whither he already had design'd to go You may be pleas'd to dispence with me if I omit to tell you what past at the parting of my Prince and the fair Barsina you may easily judge your self that the sense of her last obligations together with the remembrance of so many former ones put into his mouth the most acknowledging words and the most hearty protestations of friendship he could devise and that he went not from her without expressing his trouble by many tears A whole day was spent in their farewels and my Prince not having discovered his design unto Barsina contented himself with saying he would see her again ere long and that he would not make his Journey toward Scythia without taking leave of her once again That good Princess was a little comforted with that promise but shee could not see him take horse without being extream sorry for his departure Thus did we go from Susa and take our way towards Babylon you may well enough imagine the thoughts that entertained my Prince during that Voiage without my standing to describe them to you he persisted still in his last resolution and his impatiency hastned him on such manner that the speed of his horses scarcely could suffice sometimes when he was most sharply persecuted with his remembrances he could not forbear crying out Thou shalt die Alexander thou shalt die and thou no longer shalt possess her whom thou hindrest me from possessing his sadness was sometimes allayed by this thought and the fierceness that succeeded it was visibly to be found in his countenance Thus did we pass the time till we arrived within three days journey of this place and when my Prince was most animated and most firmly resolv'd upon the death of his enemy he heard that he had ended his life in the arms of his friends and that by the wickedness of some of his domesticks who were suspected to have poisoned him Statira was a Widow he freed of a rival and the Earth depriv'd of the greatest man it ever bore In short there it was we learnt that the great and victorious Alexander was dead at Babylon three days before You will have much ado to believe Sir what I now shall tell you I know you doubt not but that by all manner of reason my Prince should have rejoyced at this losse as the best fortune that could befall him for my part I confess I was infinitly over-joyed at it and was ready to have faln down upon my knees to thank the Gods for the mercy they had granted us but I staid my self by considering my Masters countenance who after having held his eyes long fix'd upon the ground shed tears suddenly and spoke words so far from what in all probability one should have looked for that I should have suspected any other body of hypocrisie and dissimulation but I was so well acquainted with his generosity that I questioned not the reality of
his grief but hearkned with admiration to the moan he made for the death of a man whom he was resolv'd to kill and which he ought to have desired as his own life He understood well enough what an advantage that losse was to him and I believe that at first hearing he was touch'd with some sense of joy but coming to reflect upon the admirable qualities of that deceased Prince his noble soul was so moved with that remembrance that it was impossible for him to refuse what he believed due from all vertuous persons to the memory of the greatest man that ever was This change of his affairs made him also change his resolution and after he had passed the night in the thoughts which that revolution caus'd we took horse assoon as it was day and prosecuted our Voiage This report vvas confirm'd unto us by all wee met and moreover we heard the dispute that rose among the Princes about the sharing of his dominions My Master being come within a days Journey of Babylon dispatch'd Toxaris thither with order to inform himself of what passed and to enquire news of Queen Statira and bring him back word to a place which he appointed him within 3 or four howres riding of that City Toxaris parted from us but he made us wait all the day following without hearing of him My Prince being in pain for his long stay sent Loncates after him with the like Commission Loncates return'd no more then he and my Prince impatient of their delay after having expected that vvhole day also went that way himself with an intention to send me likewise and to stay for my coming again near the place where we met with you and where after the news which in spite of the tears my Prince had shed had rais'd his hopes and had made me believe that we were for ever gotten under shelter from the persecutions of fortune we learnt from your mouth the fatal death of that great and vertuous Queen for whom alone he had preserv'd the remnant of his life Behold Sir pursued Araxes shutting up his relation behold the end of my Prince his adventures if the course of them have touch'd you with admiration the conclusion of them will vvithout doubt touch you vvith pity and you will judge infallibly that never vertue has been so perfectly tryed that perchance never man carried it to so high a point and that fortune never fixt her self so obstinately to persecute any man she never gratified him with any of her favours but instantly shee was ready to throw him headlong into a bottomlesse pit of miseries and when after an infinit number of storms she seem'd to have brought him in to the Haven there it vvas she made him finde his shipwrack and ruined him by the utmost crosse that he could and by the onely one vvhich he had not yet endured Araxes thus finished his long narration and Lysimachus vvhom the recital of so many vvonders had strucken vvith great admiration after he had remain'd for some time deeply buried in a study lifting up his eyes suddenly to Heaven O Oroondates cryed he the bravest of all men living thou miracle both of our age and of all ages past have I prolonged my miserable life to suffer with you as I do in the misfortunes of yours and must I carry to my grave the sorrow I feel for the miseries of so divine a person Was not the consideration of my own strong enough to bring me thither and vvere not my own disasters sensible enough vvithout the mixture of yours Certainly continued he turning toward Araxes if that fortune vvhich followed deceased Alexander vvith so much constancy and affection had but declared her self a little in favour of your gallant Prince he vvould not only have obscured his glory and cut off the course of his great victories but also have blotted out of the memory of men the lustre of all those that went before him and have submitted all the habitable world to his Dominion Alexander had no quality which your Prince possesses not with all manner of advantages and he appears so free from all his vices and from all those that can give the least blemish to his admirable vertue that only his misfortunes make us know him for a man whom so many miraculous actions might with justice make to passe for a God Lysimachus would have said more in the affection that transported him if it had not been already night that consideration made him return into the house that he might not longer lose his company whose transcendent vertue had so powerfully gained him and whose absence he no longer could endure with patience The end of the Sixth Boook and of the FIRST PART CASSANDRA TO CALISTA DOE you not believe Calista that 't is an inhuman thing to trouble the repose of the dead And are you not satisfied that by ceasing to live I cease to dispute with you for any advantage unlesse you violate the priviledge of Tombs and pul me from my grave where I have rested two thousand years to draw homages and acknowledgements from me which hitherto I never owed to any body If they justly are condemned who by words of conjuration call up spirits from the infernal shades what doe you expect for the violence you use to me For to say truth fair Calista 't is you alone that bring me back into the world whence I departed so many ages since the Empire you have ver him who makes me live again recalls mee now out of the dark where my abode has been obscure indeed but full of great tranquillity My former life was subject to so many misfortunes that the remembrance I still retain of them makes me fear this second for which you cause me to be born again but it had likewise so many notable advantages as I cannot with justice complain of him that revives mee though he renew my griefs to publish my glory to the whole world The troubles of the Age I liv'd in the disasters of my family and the brightnesse of that flaming light which in a few years kindled almost all the Universe did in part abate the lustre of it but this neccessity which your commands have imposed upon the Author of my new life makes me come forth from under an heap of arms and of dead bodies from under the ruines of our house and from under the flames that consumed my Countrey to dresse my self up again in my former ornaments and to breath a more gentle air and a more quiet life under your protection I ask you pardon therefore O Calista if my first words expressed some resentment against you you ought to receive them as coming from a person not yet well awake and who having much ado to shake off a sleep of twenty Ages had not yet time enough to know who you were Now that by the beams of your fair eyes this first Cloud of my still dazeling sight is dissipated and that you appear
words with such a flood of teares and expressed my sorrow by such moving actions that not onely Theomiris Cyllenia but even people of the harshest natures would have been touch'd with compassion I spent the remainder of that day in this imployment and would needs have my Cousen lie with me to help to passe away the cruellest night I had ever known in all my life She alledg'd all the arguments she could think of to cure me of my fears and often perswaded me it was not likely the King wonld fly to extremities against a Prince of Artaxexerxes his quality and against a Prince to whom besides that of his life he had other such important obligations that the whole Kingdome so powerfully indebted to his valour would oppose the Kings rigorous intentions and that he was too prudent and too politick to suffer himself to be transported by his passion to such a violence as was without example I found so much reason in this discourse of Theomiris that if my affection had been more moderate I should without question have drawn some comfort from it but it was by her inspirations and by those of Cyllenia that I tooke a little courage and resolv'd to suffer the Kings presence and to receive his words with more spirit then I had done before Having spent the night on this manner and likewise part of the day following I saw the King when I least expected him come all alone into my chamber I rose up and went to meet him trembling but he disdaind my reception and sitting down upon a chair from whence he darted nothing but furious looks at me I come not to visite thee said he ungratefull and disloyall girle I owe not so much civility to the daughter in Law of Darius and from hence forward I cannot desire thy sight otherwise then as that of my most mortall enemy I come onely to reproach thee with thy ingratitude and infidelitie or to examine thee as a criminall convicted of treason against her King Speak wicked creature continued he seeing me daunted and strucken half dead with these cruell words open thy mouth to excuse thy self and justifie thy infidelities if it be possible Didst thou then think the sonne of my implacable enemy more lovely then a Prince whom I had chosen for thee and whose affections I had expresly commanded thee to receive and if thou hadst eyes to judge of the difference there was between Arsacomes and thee hadst thou none to consider that without betraying thy father and shamefully betraying thy self thou couldst not match thy self to the enemy of thy House and to him who had basely abandoned his father and his Countrey to their new enemies to compasse his treacherous practices against their old ones and to seeke that revenge by his secret conspiracies which neither he nor his could ever find in open war While the King brought forth these words with many others of the same kind I summond all my courage to answer him as he commanded me and though I had mâ—ch adoe to recollect my self at last my affection my sence of the ill usage I receiv'd and the resolution I had taken gave me a boldnesse that was not naturall to me and when the King had made an end of speaking charging me expresly to reply Sir said I I would not open my mouth for my justification if your Majestie had not absolutely commanded me but in my prefâ—rring Arâ—aces before Arsacomes I can find no cause at all to repent my self Arsacomes is born my Fathers subject Arsacomes never did me nor mine any considerable service nor have I ever seen any thing either in the actions or person of Arsacomes which ought not to have oblig'd me to hate him Arsaces is born the greatest Prince in the world and born Prince of a thousand subjects more considerable then Arsacomes I owe to Arsaces the life of the King my Father and my own the Queen and Arsacomes himself are indebted to him for theirs and all Scythia for the better part of its tranquilitie and in the actions and person of Arsaces I never saw any thing that ought not to oblige me to love him If he be the sonne of your enemy Sir the services he ha's done you makes you sufficiently to know how farre he is from any of those thoughts you suspect him of if he had desired the ruine of your Kingdome he would not have labour'd with the losse of his bloud for its conservation and if your Maâ—esties life had been odious to him he would not so visibly have hazarded his own fâ—â— its defence I alledge not to your Majestie the ingagements we had to him in the person of the Prince my brother the good offices he did to him passe not in your opinion for obligations and though I were indebted to him for none but those which are common to me and to your self for the losse of his dominions which he perchance might have avoided if your service had not taken him up and for the particular proofes of affection he ha's shown me I thinke that those he ha's receiv'd from mine will not passe for shamefull crimes and that I have confin'd them within such limits that the want of your allowance is all the fault can be objected against me I have lov'd him enough to preferre him before a subject before whom he would have been most worthy to be preferr'd though their qualities and obligations had been equall I have lov'd him enough to approve of his services waiting till such time as those he dayly rendred you should dissipate the hatred you bore his family by the example of the King his father in whom lesse important services in spite of your inveterate enmities begot such tender affections to the Prince my Brother and in short I have lov'd him enough to hope with contentment that after that reconciliation you would make choice of him rather then of Arsacomes and rather then of any other body that should have an ambition like that of his but I have not lov'd him enough to grant him any favours that can make me blush nor to give him either promises or hopes to the prejudice of what I owe unto your Majestie Though Arsaces and I were both at liberty I should be so much Mistresse of my affection to him as to die rather then marry him or goe along with him without your consent but if your will would agree with my inclination I confesse Sir that as much forsaken by Fortune and as much dispossessed of his dominions as he is I would preferre him before all the Princes upon the face of the earth At these last words the King was so enflamed with anger that it was easie to observe it in his face and stamping with his foot as he rose up from his chair with a furious action And I swear by all the Gods said he that I will quickly deprive thee of the libertie of preferring him before any body and thy indiscreet and
disloyall affection shall be more fatall to my enemy then all those ill designes he ha's had against me prepare thy self for his death which I tell thee of my self as thou tellest me of thy perfidious tricks and believe that the onely choice I will leave thee from hence forward shall be that of Arsacomes living or of Arsaces in his grave If the beginning of the Kings discouâ—se had not prepared me for these cruell words they were enough to have made me loose my sences but as well resolv'd as I was I had much adoe to keep my self from falling into a swone and sinking into Cylleni ' as armes who stretched them forth to receive me seeing me change colour I look'd upon the King with a pittifull eye though it were animated with some resentment and struggling against my faintnesse The ashes of Arsaces said I shall ever be dearer to me then the person of Arsacomes and if I must shut up my hopes and my life it self within his tomb I shall esteem my condition happier then if I were possessour of all Europe with Arsacomes These last words absolutely took away all the reason the King had left and though my chiefest desires were bounded in Artaxerxes his safety I innocently procur'd his ruine by these extraordinary marks of my affection The King could hardly retain himself in the violence of his wrath but moderating it by the thought of that revenge he was preparing he was content with expressing his intention by furious looks and went out of my chamber with a face which sufficiently declar'd the action he was going to do I remain'd in an excesse of greif or rather in a mortall agony and all the apprehension I had had for Arsaces before was nothing in comparison of the fears which then assaulted me I knew the Kings relentless nature and his persistance in his cruell resolulutions and that put me into the most sorrowfull condition you can possible imagine Theomiris and Cyllenia knew not which way to comfort me and I think without their assistance I should have been reduc'd to very great extremities I every moment fancied poor Arsaces either dead or dying and the Kings harsh threats had made such an impression in my minde that 't was impossible for me to withdraw my thoughts one minute from that fatall remembrance Oh! King of Scythia said I if thou accomplish thy horrible resolutions thou may'st well prepare thy self for the funeralls of thine own children Berenice will not survive poor Artaxerxes and Oroondates will without question dy for grief when he shall hear that the life of his Brother for the losse whereof he had shed so many tears was preserv'd only to fall under the hands of the King his father I said many other things whose length makes me forbear to entertain you with them and I tormented my self on that fashion from the morning when the King had visited me till it was almost night I did not beleeve he would so soon have gon on to the execution of his threatnings and I thought that to put a man of Arsaces his quality to death there had been need of longer deliberationâ— but I was deceiv'd in my opinion and though my feares were violent they were not of so long continuance as I expected It began already to grow late when there was a great noise in the next Court and amidst a great confusion of voices I heard the name of Arsaces pronounced severall times At that reiterated name my mortall fears were redoubled and I sell immediately into the most fatall apprehension Arsaces is dead cri'd I throwing my self off from my bed Arsaces is dead Cousen and without doubt this confused noise is caus'd by the news of his death As I spoak these words I ran to the window which look'd into the next Cout where I saw a great many people got together who in talking of Arsaces clap'd their hands and did actions that sufficiently express'd their astonishment I then heard a calling for armes and saw a great many of the guard go out of the Palace in hast and in confusion All these things confirm'd me in my fears and I was so affrighted that I had not the heart to open my mouth to ask what the matter was In the end the court remain'd almost quite empty and for a time there was a silence as great as the noise had been before it Theomiris and Cyllenia laid me upon my bed againe in a condition little different from that of persons without life I had not the leisure to expresse my sorrow by any long complaints for before I had been a quarter of an hour upon my bed I heard a second noise in the Palace much greater then the former It wrought the same effect upon me the other had done I ran quite transported to the window where I heard the Officers of the Guard and many others calling for horses with a precipitateness which testified their disorder After I had remain'd a while in a perplexity that cannot be expressed I saw Prince Carthasis my Uncle come into the Court by good fortune he presently cast up his eyes to our window and I no sooner saw that he look'd upon me but I by signs and by a beseeching gesture begg'd a visit from him As soon as he understood my meaning he came up the stairs and finding no hindrance at my chamber door by reason of his quality he entred immediately after He was acquainted with all matters that pass'd both by what he had heard from the King and what I had confess'd to him my self nor had I any cause to repent that he was privy to them seing there were no proofs of affection I could desire of him which he did not give me in all manner of encounters to his utmost power He had a particular esteem and a strong affection for Arsaces and I receiv'd no small assurance of it by his action in coming toward me I cast my self all in tears into his armes but I had not open'd my mouth to ask him the cruel news I apprehended when to put me out of pain he broak silence first Madame said he the King would have put Arsaces to death but his Genius is more powerfull then that of the Scythians and 't is not under such armes as theirs that such a man as he can fall These words began to produce their effect upon me when my Uncle not willling to let me suffer any longer Arsaces is escap'd said he but he ha's made his escape like Arsaces and he ha's appear'd to the ingratefull Scythians the same gallant man that he appear'd to the affectionate Scythians when he fought so valliantly at the head of them They have found him as invincible against them against Armibas and the Tauro-Scithians and if they formerly have seen him winne battels by his sole courage in the front of their armies they to day have seen him alone and unarmed make rivers of bloud run through the streets of their