not inferior to thine Ariamenes had leasure to make this Discourse to Merodates and the two Chieftains were no sooner met but as if they had made an agreement together it seemed that the Troops which they commanded had suspended all their interest to see their Fortune decided by the hands of their Generals they both expressed a great deal ' of joy to see them so disposed and having confirmed them in it on either side by a publick Order which they gave that none should stir out of their places whil'st they were a fighting they advanced one towards the other like two Lyons or like something more terribly and with the first blows they shivered in pieces the Javelins which they had taken into their hands and afterwards lifting up their redoubtable Swords all dyed with the blood which they had shed they gave each other such blows as struck a Terror into the Spectators of either side I am no better skill'd in the Relation of a particular Combate than of a Battel and though this be worthy of eternal memory yet I will report no more particularities to you but will only tell you what I have heard since from Ariobarzanes That Merodates gave Testimonies of an admirable Valor in that Combate and reduced him oftent mes to such terms as not to hope for the Victory but at last â—t declared it self for Ariamenes and the valiant Merodates whose puissance as they say never yielded to any but the great King Alcamenes after he had given his Enemy divers wounds received one from him at last in the body which made him fall from his Saddle cold and pale and deprived him of life in a few moments Ariobarzanes who was desirous of the Victory but not of the death of that great man was very sensibly afflicted at his destiny but not being in condition to give any long Testimonies of it he contented himself to give Command that they should take up the Prince to give him all the assistance he was capable to receive and bestowing his thoughts upon his present necessity he with his men sustained the utmost fury of Merodates's Troops who being resolved to revenge their Prince or to perish with him fell up on ours with such an impetuosity as deprived Ariamenes of the opportunity to put in execution the desire which he had to compleat his Victory without shedding any more blood if it were possible This fury of his Enemies was no great Remora to his Victory and the Thracians having Routed them with a great deal of Valor besprea'd all the Field with their bodies and lest none of them alive but what their Generals pity made them spare In the mean time Ariamenes who in the greatest heat of the Combat preserved his judgment sound and entire having a Design in his Head which he desired to bring to pass when he saw that the Victory could be no longer disputed against him commanded Eusthenes to hasten away at all full speed with Three hundred Horse to the Gates of that little Town where the King was detained Prisoner and to take Order that no body should enter there to give the King intelligence of that dayes Success The business was done as he desired and Eusthenes did so closely block up all the Avenues to the Town that not a man could carry in the News of what had passed A little after the Conqueror Ariamenes having put his Camp in necessary order as well in relation to the wounded men the Prisoners and the Booty as to render to Merodates's body the honors which were due to him advanced in the Evening towards that little Town with part of his Troops and presented himself at the Gates in a condition that caused Terror in those that guarded them He presently gave order to parly with those that commanded in the place and some Officers coming out to him upon faith given he informed them what had passed and shewed them such evident marks of his Victory that they could no longer doubt of it In brief he shewed them the means he had to force them in an hours time and told them that he would be very glad to spare their blood and to give them free liberty to march away provided they opened the Gates immediately and engaged themselves upon their lives to take order that the King that was Prisoner there should have no intelligence of what had passed before he had seen him These men being intimidated were joyful to find safety and liberty in Ariamenes's Proposition they promised him all that he desired and punctually executed it So that Ariamenes in less than half an hour entred into the Town with a Party of those that followed him and went to wait upon the King before he could learn any News of what had passed Adallas supported his imprisonment with a great deal of impatience and reflecting upon the great interest that Merodates had to put him to death to confirm his dominion over the Thracians he was in continual fears and expected every-day with a great deal of Terror what should be resolved in relation to his destiny His unjust passion for me was not extinguished by his imprisonment but he was the less fixed upon that because he was constrained to bestow part of his thoughts upon the pressing considerations of his Fortune and though he was still jealous of Ariamenes yet he had often repented that he had Treated him so knowing what mischief he had done himself by depriving himself of the service of that great man Ever since that moment when I set Ariamenes at liberty he had employed the time with so much diligence and made so little stay at Bizantium and upon his march that the King to whom those that guarded him had no Commission to relate all the Truth had no time to be advertised of it So that when he saw Ariamenes come into his Chamber he was as much surprized at his sight as at the most unexpected thing in the World and not knowing how to take it well or ill he remained quite astonished and confounded Immediately at the sight of this formidable Rival his jealousie revived and so strongly moved him that he could hardly contain himself looking upon him as his most cruel Enemy though he had rendred him all the Offices of the firmest Amity He was very much troubled to see him at liberty and looking upon himself at the same time as a Prisoner his Captivity seemed a great deal the more insupportable but reflecting likewise upon the generous humour of Ariamenes and considering that this man notwithstaning the displeasures he had done him seemed to have been born on purpose for his conservation a little interest forcing its way through his passions made him hope that this third view of Ariamenes would be as advantagious to him as the two former These various cogitations agitating his spirit at the same time and keeping him uncertain and unresolved did likewise keep him a great while unmoveable and silent and by his
excessively afflicted ran to her Mistress loosening her cloaths to bring her to her self her pains were for sometime useless but at last the Princess opened her eys and returned from her faintings She cast her self again upon this dying body and by chance Leander at the same time perceived some remainder of life in him At least my Lord said she discover those Murtherers those Monsters that have reduced you to this condition The poor Cleomenes brought to his last sigh endeavoured to speak and desiring as I believe to discover the truth of this adventure Alcamenes Prince of Scythia said he with a voice so low that it was scarce intelligible Alcamenes Prince of Scythia repeated he but could say no more and death in this moment deprived him both of speech and life At the same time two or three Peasants who by the priviledge of the Truce had ventured to come and cut wood and who had seen all which hapned in the murther of Cleomenes came and offered their service to the Princess and unasked told what they saw and how that this man was slain by more than twenty Horse-men without having time to think of his defence so that Menalippa at that moment wherin she thought Alcimedon gave up the ghost remembred that she heard him name Alcamenes Prince of the Scythians and beleived he had murthered him which the wicked Peasants also confirmed and that he was accompanied by twenty men See how strongly Fortune sported against Alcamenes and think it not strange if the afflicted Princess accused him of the death of Alcimedon 'T was here where grief alone was a sufficient conduct to the Tomb and where the adjuncts of rage and fury rather diverted and hindered than advanced the violence of its effects and helpt to recall those forces which had left her to run to that vengeance which she breathed rather than to Death which was ready to imbrace her She arose from the ground quite furious and casting upon this exspiring body a funest and mortal glance How Alcimedon said she dost thou dye before my eyes by the treason and cruelty of Alcamenes if I love thee not sufficiently to survive thy losse I should be weak and cowardly to run to death rather than to thy revenge This Barbarian whose courage hath been so much admired and with so much injustice fearing the Combate he was to maintain against thee this day hath murthered thee basely and inhumanely in the obscurity of the Wood and shall Menalippa to whom by the just anger of Heaven his treason is discovered deplore like a Woman and dye weakly like one of the people instead of executing that vengeance for which the gods have reserved her Ah! no Alcimedon expect not this imbecillity from a Courage which was never sufficiently known to thee I have it possibly comparable to that of men and this arm which hath given death to Bears and Boars shall Arm it self to destroy that Monster who hath snatched from me my Alcimedon She stopt here rowâ—ing in her mind a thousand furious thoughts whilst Leander and Belisa with a River of tears solemnized the Funeral of Alcimedon and the despair of Menalippa who after a long contest being resolved and wipeing off those tears which trickled from her fair eyes wherein rage and grief had an equal stock 'T is no time to weep Menalippa said she 't is on indifferent griefs we should bestow our tears ours requires blood 't is with blood they must be washed away but with Menalippa 's it demands also that of Alcamenes Finishing these words she turned towards Leander and beholding him with eyes swoln from whom in spight of all her resistance a river of tears perpetually flowed Leander said she Alcimedon is dead for me and I ought to be reproacht with his death since it was my Enemy and my interests that took him out of the world I have loved Alcimedon Leander and I scruple no longer to let you know it I have loved him living and I love him still dead as he is more than I love my own life Oh! would to the gods that by the lesse of this unfortunate life I could save that of my faithful my beloved Alcimedon and Oh! would that he breathed in the stead of that unfortunate wretch who now deplores in vain his decease but since it is not permitted me to recall his breath by the exchange of mine I will revenge his death for the Gods have not acquainted me with it and discovered its author by ways so extraordinary but to let me understand that to me only is reserved this vengeance But in telling you my design O Leander O Belisa I also declare that if you indeavor to hinder it you shall see me plunge this steel in my brest and so you 'l make me doubly miserable in taking away the consolation which I hope for before my death speak not one word therefore to divert me from my resolution and help to Arm me with those unfortunate Arms beneath which my poor Alcimedon hath given up the ghost I have strength enough to carry them and to rule his Sword and it was doubtlesse for this action to which the Gods reserved me that I used my self to the chase of wild Beasts and exercises more sutable to men than persons of our sex it was not without mystery that I received from heaven a composition and force of body nothing ordinary and I will make use of in this occasion of that which possibly is not ordinarily placed in a woman when I am Arm'd and have left you expect here my return in two or three hours and if I comenot in that time put this precious body in the Chariot and conduct it into our Tents there to receive the Funeral rites See what I have resolved and fail not in the obedience which I desire if you intend not to hurry me to the utmost extremities of despair The desperate Princess speaking thus Belisa and Leander observed something so terrible in her eyes and face that they lost all the courage and resolution they had taken to contradict her and certainly in those sad moments Love and the Graces had forsaken the beauties of Menalippa to give place to those furies which tormented her and she appeared to those afflicted persons in a posture so terrible that fear overcame them and they durst not oppose that resolution which they condemned Leander at her reiterated command despoyl'd the cold bloody body of its Arms and Casque and Belisa having taken from the Princess her long encombring habits she covered her head with the Casque though bloody in some places and with Leanders help she buckled about her the Arms which she kist and washt with tears as she put them on Being Arm'd she appeared like some Bellona or something more dreadful and by the fury which doubled her forces she seemed no more troubled with the Arms than if she had used them all her life I have told you that her stature was extraordinary
I had restored it to Emilia and not to you However it be Cecinna you ought not to expect it as being the last of all men for whom I should have that compliance I thought indeed replyed Cecinna I should be forced to those extremities with you which the Emperour hath forbidden us and it is with that design that I sought you out resolved to take away either your life or Tullia 's picture This is it I expected from thee replyed Antonius fiercely and which I thought I had so sufficiently obliged thee to as to make thee contemn all other considerations With these words they both layd hands on their swords and drew at the same time there being not any body neer to hinder them They exchanged a many blows with much more fury then circumspection Cecinna fought with abundance of courage but with little good fortune and being over-rash and inconsiderate be received two mortal wounds in the body upon which he fell down at my Brother's feet with very little remainder of life Antonius had no doubt wished the death of Cecinna and had behaved himself in that duel with abundance of indignation and animosity against him but being a person of a great and noble soul seeing him fall with all the mortal signs his anger vanished and compassion took place in his heart into which the passions whereby it was then moved were not against its admittance He came to Cecinna to do him all the good he could and endeavouring to stop his bloud perswaded him to take courage by all the words which might expresse the regret and sorrow he conceived at his misfortune But while he was employed in this compassionate office there comes by an accident you cannot but be astonished at a Chariot full of Ladies to take the pleasure of a solitary walk in the Wood to the place where they were and the Ladies who intended to take a walk being got out of the Chariot came on easily without any jealousie of what had happened to the very place where the unfortunate Cecinna was expiring his last in my Brother's arms You may well imagine what astonishment this sad spectacle raised in the Ladies but it will be hard for you to conceive that of my Brother when with Emilia and some other Ladies of his acquaintance he saw the cruel Tullia that very Tullia whom he had so well engraven in his soul I leave it to you to supply the difficulty of expression I meet with in this strange rencounter so hard is it for me to give you an account of the agitations of these two souls in so unexpected an adventure If Antonius was surprized to see that Tullia whom he adored that Tullia who shunned him with all the cruelty imaginable nay the same Tullia whose Lover that was to be within a few dayes her Husband he had killed you may well think that Tullia on the other side was not less astonished to meet with that Antonius whom she avoided standing over the expiring Cecinna and soiled with the bloud of a man she was to be married to She had not had t is true any violent affection for him yet it is withall certain she had no dis-inclination towards him and since she had been acquainted with the design her Brother had to make her his Wife she had entertained in her heart all the love she thought her self obliged to have for a person that was shortly to be her Husband so that she could not see him weltring in his bloud and expiring at his enemies feet without feeling an extraordinary affliction and whatever her soul was capable of upon an accident of that nature She at first sight gave a great outcry and was ready to swound in Emilia's arms who made a shift to hold her up and a little after casting her eyes on both Antonius and Cecinna on the one with all the demonstrations of compassion and on the other with all those of indignation sheding tears for Cecinna and darting forth her wrathful looks on Antonius she continued for some minutes in an uncertainty as to what resolution she should take whether to avoid what she hated or to succour what she was obliged to love And whereas she seemed to be rather carried away by the aversion she had for my Brother or at least inclined rather to the motives she conceived she had to avoid him then to the affection she had for Cecinna her first reflections seemed to engage her to avoid the face of an enemy especially he being such a one as confirmed himself to be such by the action he had then done But afterwards upon second thoughts she being a Lady that chose rather to be guided by her duty then her passions and conceived her self obliged to relieve Cecinna dying upon her account rather then to avoid Antonius comes to him with a face bathed in tears and by certain broken words entreated him to take heart and to further all he could the design she had for the preservation of his life The expiring Cecinna met with this satisfaction in his misfortune that he breathed out his last in the arms of Tullia and mustering up all the strength he had left him to turn his eyes towards her and to take her by the hand she reached forth to him while one of her Mayds held up his head in her lap Madam said he to her I loose my life by the hands of Antonius but it was through my own fault and seeking and therefore I beseech you to forgive him my death as heartily as I do my self The compassion he takes at my misfortune deserves yours and I dye happy and glorious since I dye at your feet for your sake and in a condition that forces those fair showers from your eyes With much difficulty was he deliverd of these words but with them he lost his speech and some few minutes after breathed out his last leaving in Tullia's soul such violent characters of passion that she hardly knew where she was or what she did My Brother to give her way retired some few paces when she came neer Cecinna and being extreamly moved with pity for his misfortune the affliction he perceived it was to Tullia heightned his own so much and so violently that he had much ado to keep off from despair He at first thought himself obliged to avoid the eyes of that incensed Beauty nay though he was infinitely desirous to have a sight of her yet must he need imagine that as things then stood he could not without inhumanity importune her with his Out of this consideration had he already retired some few paces but his passion growing too strong for him would needs oblige him to speak to her and to make some reparation for the injury he had done her This resolution grew so strong upon him that he could not resist it and so slighting all those reflections that were incompatible with the violence of his love he came some paces neerer he looked on that desolate
Honour he made a sudden halt as it were to consider what he should do and it coming in his mind that Friendship obliged him no less to relieve his Brother then to revenge him he fastned on that which was most honourable and most lawful and alighting he goes to Tiberius whose loss of blood continued still by reason of the many wounds he had about him But if this accident had raised an astonishment in Drusus and all that were present that which the Emperor conceived was greater then that of any of the rest and put him for some time into such a posture as added to the admiration of all those that were about him On the one side he saw the Son of Livia for whom he had those respects and compliances as occasioned the report all over the Empire that he divided the Soveraign authority with her lying along at the foot of a tree with several wounds about him through which it was to be feared his life might leave him with his blood and on the other not many paces from him the enemy had put him into that condition but the same enemy who having trampled on his Authority even in Rome it self and reduced the same Tiberius to a condition sad as that wherein he then saw him had raised two great Kingdoms against him had forced them from his Jurisdiction with the loss of so many Milions of men who was the only person had checked the progress of his requests and that fortune which had made him Master of the Universe and who even when he was thought lost and ruined in his misfortunes was come again with the same pride and insolence not only to present himself before him but in his sight to be the death of a Son of the Empresse's a Prince he looked on as his own This consideration and all these reflections forcing themselves upon the Emperour's thoughts wrought on his spirits with so much violence and precipitation that he was not able to repress the impetuosity thereof or contain himself within any limits of moderation His displeasure broke forth at first with a certain joy and looking up towards heaven in a posture dreadful to behold I acknowledge your justice you divine Powers cryed he since you bring under my power this insolent African who with so much scorn defiedit and when I was out of all hopes to punish him for his enormous crimes you are pleased he should deliver himself up to my justice and appear before me in a condition and covered with a blood which leaves not any thing for lenity to urge on his behalf Let him be taken continued he turning to the Officers of his guard and loaden with chains conveyed to a Dungeon to be brought thence to the punishment I intend him Augustus was a person admirably kind to his Friends and good to his Subjects and govern'd all with such mildness as made them look on him rather as a Father then a Soveraign But if he were a good Emperour and a good Friend he was on the other side an implacable Enemy and in all the progress of those Wars whereby he had raised himself to that height he had never pardoned any one of his Enemies Upon this consideration all those that were about him conceived that without something of miracle there was little hope of life for Coriolanus The more vertuous could not forbear deploring his misfortune with all the discoveries of a real grief and the most considerable among them as the King of Scythia Agrippa the King of Armenia and divers others resolv'd to employ all manner of perswasion to appease the Emperours wrath but they thought it unseasonable to attempt any thing till the first erruptions of his violence were over Onely Coriolanus seemed unmoved at the danger which made that illustrious company tremble for him as well out of the natural greatness of his courage as the addition it might have received from his despair Insomuch that when in pursuance of the Emperour's command the Officers of the Guard went to him and demanded his Sword My Sword said he looking scornfully on them never leaves me but with my life and since I am to expect nothing less then death 't were better for me to lose my life while I defend it then reserve it for an ignominious punishment And perceiving those words deterred not some of the more daring from coming nearer to disarm him he gave the most forward of them a blow over the head which made him fall at the feet of his companions with a deep wound Caesar was so much incensed at that action that being at a loss of all patience and moderation and discovering in his sparkling eyes the indignation he was transported with Kill him cryed he kill him and that without any further delay Whereupon Alcamenes Arippa Ariobarzanes Artaban and others in whom the greatest actions of the son of Juba had raised a love and veneration for him came before the Emperor intreating him with the greatest earnestness and importunity possible to moderate his displeasure and to give them the hearing but of some few minutes but their intercession proved ineffectual and Augustus's rage being more enflamed by that opposition reiterated the commands he had given his guard to kill the African Prince and upon this last peremptory order the points of hundreds of swords and javelines being turned against him he would soon have lost his life if a horseman all armed had not stept before him and exposed himself to the thrusts and blows would have been made at made at him He was soon observed by Alcamenes Artaban and Arminius and known to be one of the three valiant men who before their arrival and in their company had fought so couragiously in defence of the Princesses but having taken off his Casque which he hastily snatched off his head he was known by the Emperour for him who of all the world was most dear to him his beloved Marcellus Turn said he discovering him self turn against me only the points of your swords and find a passage through my body to life of my Friend The Emperors guard had that respect for Marcellus that of so many Arms as were up to give Coriolanus his death there was not one which drew not back upon sight of that darling of the Romanes Nay the Emperour himself was upon the first apprehension so astonished at it that he knew not what to think of it as being in suspence between the different passions he strugled withal No doubt it was an excessive joy to him to see the face of a Prince dear to him as his own life but it could not withall but adde to his rage to find a Prince who should be sensible of his interests as himself so earnest in the defence of his enemy and that one against whom ever since the unworthy trick put upon him by Tiberius he had thought him sufficiently exasperated It was some time ere he was able to express what it was that troubled
my misfortunes and still persecute the Asmonean memory by the shame thou preparest for the last of its Illustrious bloud which thou hast spilt so brutishly Hope not I will assert my innocence no that account must only be rendred to him that knows it and by his goodness will defend it against the calumny of my Enemies believe all of the unfortunate Mariamne wherewith her envious detractors have inspir'd thee Thy cruelties have given me but too much cause to dispence with the justification which I owe to him whom Heaven in its anger gave me for a Husband but do not involve such persons in my misery as have no part in the crime thou imposest and if thy rage demands a victim to appease it seek no other than her whom thou hast taught to desire Death by rendring her Life calamitous The last words of the Queen transported Herod to the farthest degrees of fury and now more than believing the care she took of my justification while she disdained her own could spring from no other root but that of Love he concluded the proof clear enough to convince her and not able so far to over-rule this belief to dissemble his intention Yes perfidious Creature cryed he I will credit all that my eyes and ears and not the envious detractors have told me I will credit all that will convince thee of the most shamefull and blackest of all Treasons and in fine believe that of thee which thou wouldest I should do and disdainst to disavow The care thou takest of that ingratefull wretch which has so basely betrayed me to the prejudice of thy own safety shall suffice for his and thy Condemnation the ruin of that thou holdest so dear shall begin the punishment ofthy disloyalty and the choice of victims due to my just anger shall not be at thy disposal for before thou learnest what to resolve upon thy self prepare to know what I shall execute upon the person of thy Adulterer At these words he flung out of the Chamber with a Countenance so furious as those that met him in the passage could not behold him without trembling Alas how erroneous was the opinion he had of my fortune how remote was I from that Soveraign degree of happiness and how worthy my condition had been of envie had his suspitions been true In the mean time I was at my Lodging wholly ignorant of what had passed at the Palace and employed the rest of that day upon my ordinary diversions The hour of Supper being come I was serv'd after the usual manner and sitting at the Table with some friends of the Court which were come to visit me we had done part of our repast when calling for drink one of the Kings Cup-bearers that was accustomed to serve me presented the Cup with a troubled look and discompos'd countenance I observed this change in his Visage but made no reflection upon it only contented my self to ask him if he was not well and in the mean time taking the Cup from his hands I was carrying it to my mouth when Arsanes enter'd the Chamber and hastily running up to me just as I touched the Cup with my lips he rushed against my arm so rudely as he made me let fall the Cup and spill the Liquor part on the Table and part upon my Cloths this action of Arsanes was so little respectful that knowing his disposition I concluded he had not done it without some powerful motive but he stayed not till I should ask the reason and desirous to hide his intent from those were with me Sir said he I beseech you to pardon the offence which my rash haste made me commit and be pleased to vouchsafe me the liberty of your ear for one moment This said he drew me by the Arm with an action so earnest as I perceived he had some advice of importance to communicate I rose from the Table making a bad excuse to those that supp'd with me and followed Arsanes into my Cabinet which he first entred We were no sooner there but Sir said he nothing but a speedy flight can save your life the Gods in good time conducted me hither to spill the Poyson was prepar'd you but if we stay longer here it will not be possible with the same facility to put by those other dangers that menace you Read this Note which just now I received of the Queens chief Eunuch it is written with her own hand and if the Gods consent that we escape t is to her alone you owe your safety I was amazed at the words and actions of Arsanes and without reply to his Discourse I took the Letter where I found these words written with the hand of my Divine Queen Mariamne to Prince Tyridates THE peril to which I expose my self in writing to you cannot hinder an advice which I owe to your vertue and the proofs of your affection Tyridates if it be possible save your self and stay no longer in a place where Poyson and Sword are employed to give you Death I read over the Billet twice or thrice kiss'd those amiable Characters which that adorable hand had traced and after the perusal I was much to seek whether the cruelty of Herod that sought to destroy me after he had given me shelter or the goodness of Mariamne who took such noble pains to preserve my life with the peril of her own touch'd me deepest I knew not to which of these resentments my soul was to give preheminence but I know well the death that was threatned could not put on so rude a shape as that departure to which I saw my self condemn'd by the hand of Mariamne The grief I felt was too prodigious to be wrap'd in words I stood a long time silent and immoveable which Arsanes who had ballanced the estate of my Affairs disapproving after he had often urged me to resolve What would you I should do said I what Resolution can you wish me to take in so cruel a proposition think you this life which through your care I have miserably drag'd from Court to Court is so dear to divorce me from Mariamne do you believe this separation more easie than that of my Soul from my Body Shall I abandon her for ever whom I can scarce leave for a moment without dying And to avoid one single death shall I carry a thousand in my Brest through all those places where my pitiless Fortune shall lead me Ah! Let us die first continued I walking a great pace without listening to the Reasons Arsanes pressed for departure let us die a ready death since a slow one is much more sensible leave the Body cold and pale in that place which the Soul cannot abandon and since we must die one way let us seek to die in the eyes of Mariamne and if that glory be refused at least give up that Spirit which neither was nor ever shall be but to her as near her as is possible I pronounc'd these words with an
see the end before you pass a disadvantagious Judgment if I had not condescended to see you as I had many reasons to disswade it I had missed the occasion of preventing such attempts for the future which I will now do by putting an Order in force for my own repose and yours too if it be possible At these words she stopp'd and while her Discourse lasted having recover'd a little assurance I took the advantage of her silence and lifting up my eyes to her face which till then I had not dared to behold but by stollen glances Madam I confess said I that I am yet more culpable than your words have made me and though my intents have been innocent the ills you have suffered through my occasion do render me the most criminal amongst all men I am therefore come Madam to protest at your feet that all my Blood that a thousand such Lives as mine can never requite the least of your displeasures and to conjure you by all that is capable to perswade that I may have leave to spend this poor Life to purchase the repose of yours employ the courage of Tyridates to break the Chains of your Calamities I know I have committed a fresh offence in seeking means to petition your Goodness for this last favour which I never have nor shall ever merit but it is not just nor can my Passion excuse it that after having been the cause of so many of your misfortunes I should securely retire from the pursuits of Herod and abandoning you to his Cruelties leave you by shameful flight in his savage hands to seek a Refuge at Rome while you stay here expos'd to his fury This only consideration Madam hath had power to shut my eyes upon that danger against which you have exposed such a miracle of goodness and in fine I have learned to believe that if any man may unfetter you from your Miseries you ought to hope it from none but Tyridates as a Glory only due to him I am now no longer retain'd by Hospitality nor aw'd with the memory of my first Obligation Herod's Sword and Poyson have cancell'd those either of which would have infallibly destroy'd me had not your adventurous pity prevented the Blow To you only my Divine Queen this Life such as it is is indebted for its Being and you would have me have carried it away without offering the Sacrifice where it was due it was yours by Gifts yours by preservation and can you think it reasonable that I should wander with it among the Romans instead of coming to submit it to my Sovereign Ah! no continued I casting my self at her feet do not reject that which would reject its own being but for you and that which you cannot justly disavow do not grudge it the hazard of Herod's rigour by dooming my soul to those gloomy Woes a thousand times more black than the night in which he would have clos'd my eyes for ever or if the presence of this wretch does importune or discompose your quiet give leave that death may free you of him from which you have but in vain preserv'd him in Judea since he must infallibly receive it elsewhere from the rigour of this separation I had said more in the transport to which I had abandon'd my self if the Queen who suffer'd with repugnance full of deadly fear had not set bounds to the spacious Discourse I meditated and after she had interrupted me with a command to rise Cease Tyridates said she to make these offers which I cannot so much as hear without offending Virtue and remember I have told you a thousand times that the Crime of Herod cannot authorize mine if I owe nothing to him as to the quality of a Husband yet the debt to my God and my self can never be satisfied I will quit the World when it pleases Heaven to release me without the Crimes of these Miseries or if it have decreed them a longer date I must still have patience to endure them 't is this I oppose in few words to the desires you express to wipe away my displeasure I am neither permitted by Law Divine or Humane to serve my self of your assistance for that which regards your departure know Tyridates it is an indispensable necessity that you suddenly resolve it that I am now half constrain'd to an action unbecoming my quality and duty and can no more consent to see you with so much danger of life and reputation and in fine must intreat you never to see me more Be not astonished at these words you have courage enough to be prepared for them and possibly affection enough too for me to weigh all the reasons that oblige me to this Entreaty I will not speak of my Life which can never be safe while you are in Judea for it was never happy to be worth the prizing if my honour be dear to you if you can ballance the prejudice of your own repose and remember the suspitions of Herod the malice of Salome and the knowledge my self hath of the fault you have committed you must conclude that the stay of Tyridates must be incompatible with the reputation of Mariamne She stopp'd at these words while I stood stiffe and motionless to hear the rigorous sentence of my Death and after I had sometime beheld her with an action that would have let in pity if too strong a resolution had not deny'd it entrance Then Madam said I you condemn the unfortunate Tyridates to a perpetual banishment and you believe you are more gentle than Herod in commanding him never to see you more Ah! if you have that thought for the Gods sake lose it and do not believe that any Duty can with reason oblige you to that which you would not do but for want of affection The affection I have born you reply'd the Queen with an unmov'd aspect is not probably such as you have pretended to nor could it justly oblige me to that I have already done to please you content your self that I have not been sparing in the acknowledgment of your deserts nor the esteem of your reason that therein I have pass'd the precise limits my estate prescrib'd me and since a perpetual separation permits me to avouch it I have not been so insensible but if Heaven and my Parents had left me in a condition to my own choice and Tyridates embraced the true Religion I had preferr'd him above the rest of Mankind The Queen us'd some violence to bring forth these words though they all wore the Badge of Innocence when my Soul drew all the consolation it had then capacity to hope for Ah! Madam said I how glorious is my Destiny and how little cause of complaint hath this Declaration left me But Gods yet glorious as I am I must be banished for ever Oh hard Sentence that alone can ballance the glory you have given me rigorous doom of my Death which I cannot and yet I ought to undergo without a
the Prince with you and two of our men gallop on afore to the Forest of Agria thrust your selves into the thickest part of it and there expect my coming up with good newes the rest of the day I will try to abuse our Enemies and if Heaven favour my intentions hinder their further pursuit of us If you see me not come back to you some time to day at night pursue your voyage under the conduct of the Gods who will not abandon you I said no more and without giving him time to answer made him speed away with the Prince and the two that were to follow them one of which because of known fidelity carried the Jewels and Gold the Queen had given us Coesario who had a most docile ingenuity absolutely obeyed my will and made no scruple to follow Neander because I counselled it I could not see him part so suddenly without letting fall some tears as a tribute to my fearful incertainty of ever seeing him again And in the mean time turning to those that staid with me My Friends said I we are betray'd our enemies are within a hundred paces of us Rodon stays behind to make discovery of them And behold the Traytor shewing them Acetes see the Villain that hath sold us has the confidence to stay among us At these words I flew at him with my Sword in my hand but was prevented by two of my Companions that stepp'd before him as he was preparing to fly and with two blows threw him dead at our Horses feet Rodons Son whom I caused to stay with us though he would gladly have followed the Prince who as I told you was of an equal Age and Stature to him and had much in his looks that over-top'd his Condition beheld the death of Acetes with astonishment when approaching to him and taking him by the Arms I shewed him the Romans that were advancing to us a good swift trot We are all dead men said I if we do not deceive our Enemies by making you pass for the Prince Caesario the personating this Dignity will save your life for if the Romans take you for the Son of Caesar they will onely content themselves to lead you prisoner to their Emperour if you tender your own and our lives favour this just deceit The fear of death had so seiz'd the Youth as it disposed him to follow my fatal counsel which I had scarce ended when the Romans were upon us and spreading themselves upon the Plain began to inviron us and shut up the passage to our flight I then perceiv'd the danger at hand I had exposed my self to and had well fore-seen it before the attempt But the Gods can witness that I felt no regret to hazard my Life for my Prince's Safety that there came no other care to my thoughts but for him and his Conservation At a sign I made to my Companions we all threw our selves from our Horses and putting our knees to the ground we encompassed the Son of Rodon whom I had only caus'd to keep his Saddle The Romans who ran upon us with an impetuous haste perceiving us in that suppliant posture were staid by the command of their Captain attending his Orders without offering a blow but so soon as my voice could be heard Ah! whatever you be cryed I if we have merited your anger turn your weapons upon us onely and sparc great Caesars Son Sacrifice us to your rage if we have offended but give our Prince his life These words with our submissive action turn'd the Roman Swords fatal to the innocent son of Rodon from our throats for the Captain approaching to him with his drawn Sword For you said he we give you your lives but 't is this same Son of Caesar we only seek to take At these words making his way through us he ran the youth through the body with his Sword just as he was about to speak and probably to tell him he was not Caesars Son I cannot remember that poor young man's unripe fall without the sense of some remorse for my own treachery but my Lord it was otherwise impossibe to save our Prince and since one must perish it was but just that the Son of that Traytor should be Sacrific'd to his Fathers Treachery besides I had indeed conceiv'd a hope if hope could shape it self in so short a time that the Romans would forbear the cruelty of his Murder and only content themselves to lead him to their Emperor in the mean time I cast my self upon his body and the better to abuse our Enemies I made my complaints swell to as high a tide as I should have let fall upon the Corps of our own true Prince The Roman Commander being a man of quality as good fortune would have it was touch'd at my piety and protested to me that he had executed Caesars command with regret He oppos'd himself against many of his men that would have cut off the Youths head to present it to the Emperor and told him they might assure him of the truth without exercising that inhumanity upon the Son of Julius Caesar nevertheless at their solicitation he demanded the Jewels which Cleopatra had given us but I reply'd they were in the hands of one of our Companions called Rodon whom we had not seen all that day and that I believed that it was he that had betray'd us At this the Soldiers fell to threaten and began to search us but they sound little about us and their Captain remembring his name was Rodon who in effect betray'd us and knowing the Emperor had design'd him the Jewels as a price of his Treason easily believ'd that he was gone away with them and desiring he should rather possess them by that Title than as the gift of Caesar commanded them to un-hand us restore us our Horses and set us at liberty to retire where we pleas'd And thus his Men marching after him they left us about the unfortunate Son of Rodon upon whom I continued still my Laments When our Enemies were Marched out of sight after we had covered the body of that innocent Youth with a little Earth and indeed contribuuted some true tears to his destiny we remounted our Horses exalted with our happy success beyond expression and followed the track of our true Prince See My Lord what has passed about Caesario's supposed Death they were abus'd that believed he was ever in the hands of Octavius for I dare assure you he never saw him and that if he did consult upon what was to be done with him and resolv'd to put him to Death as you related by advice of Arrius the Philosopher it must either be while Rodon's Messenger was with him or before while the War was hot between him and Anthony during which 't is true he had oft solicited us to deliver the young Prince into his hands or put him to death Two hours after we had thus escaped our Enemies we arrived at the Forrest of
have you done to what a torment have you put me in behalf of your safety I have done that replyed my Prince which were it undone I would do again at the hazard of a thousand lives and possible I have not yet done it to purpose since Tiberius is still alive Indeed he is not dead answer'd Marcellus but there is so little appearance left of Life and his wound is prov'd so deep and dangerous as none have yet seen it without despair Do not then torment your self said Coriolanus for my safety my own hand has carved it for me in that action nor should I ever have enjoyed it had Tiberius espous'd Cleopatra I do not so much as pity that man reply'd Marcellus since his life was an Enemy to your repose but how will you now dispose of your intentions and what can we do for you in this Extremity to which you have hurried your Affairs if we were not able to serve you when they rode at Anchor in a calmer Ocean You shall do reply'd Coriolanus what you have ever done still continue to love me still assist me in the person and opinion of Cleopatra and leave the rest to the conduct of the Gods who will not abandon me nor can they involve me in a worse condition than what this happy blow has so lately prevented but do you believe your self in any safety at Rome added Marcellus and though the vast extent of the City has often conceal'd other persons do you think to defraud the diligence of so many spyes who are both Ey'd and wing'd for a narrow search by the promise of a rich reward for your discovery For the time I intend to stay at Rome reply'd Coriolanus I hope to find it a safe retreat and since I have employed the three days that Caesar gave me as my wish contriv'd it I will now quit it without another displeasure than those I resent it being divided from Cleopatra and Marcellus In the mean time I shall find other places enough that will lend me entertainment and if I thrive in one design perhaps I shall have no need to borrow it I will only intreat the sight of Cleopatra which you may easily obtain in my behalf once or twice before my parting and then repose that dear trust with some comfort in your hands till the success of my affairs will restore her to my Eyes Marcellus took some time to study upon this and then taking the word I believe said he since my Mother and all her family are at your devotion you have no more to do but go to the little door at the brink of Tiber which you are well acquainted with and stay there till I bring you some news I will come and open it my self after I have spoke with Cleopatra and dispos'd her to meet you in the Garden My Master finding this contrivance very expedient for his purpose returned a thousand thanks to his friend and giving him leave to go upon his own design he released him upon promise to meet at the place appointed and when we were got about an hundred paces from thence he alighted and commanding Strato to stay for him with the Horses in Mars's field which was not far from thence we walked upon the bank of Tiber still expecting when the opening of the door should invite our approaches indeed it cost us less patience than we appointed and Marcellus the most real and therefore the most diligent of all his friends in half an hours time made all things ready as my Master wished them To make good his promise himself opened us the door and we were no sooner entered the Garden but the light of the Moon shewed us the Princess Cleopatra followed by her Sister the Princess Antonia youngest Daughter to Antony and Octavia with Camillia the Darling of her Maids going into one of the Arbors Octavia had come her self if the consideration of her Brother and the Dignity of her own person had not advised her to suborn ignorance to excuse it Cleopatra was half undrest and yet that disadvantage by the help of an imperfect light was not able to conceal her Beauty nor did ever the Star that ruled at the interview in all her Celestial travels behold a mortal beauty that could equal her My Master no sooner came near but falling at her feet and embracing her knees I ask your pardon my adorable Princess said he for what I have done to preserve you and could I have kept you out of his power without spilling the blood of a man that loved you I would have bought off his loss at the expence of my own but since there was no other way to save the life that is yours and defend you from a yoak that would have been impos'd against your consent do not you still give me leave to appear in the dress of my former Innocence The Princess took some time to answer my Master when suddenly lifting up her head and looking upon him with a languishing action Ah Coriolanus said she how rash you have been how well might you have spared me a displeasure by curing our common misfortune with means less violent If I thought you bemoaned the fate of Tiberius replyed my Prince I could be content to retrieve his safety by staking my life to the same danger that threatens his my regret for Tiberius said the Princess stretches no farther than because I love not blood nor desire the death of my cruellest Enemies you cannot but know that what you have done has made me a prey to very sensible perplexities that your self has robb'd your own desires of the means to see me and blocked up your way to the fruition of a happiness which you aimed at in the death of your Rival I am better acquainted with the dangees that menace you here than to suffer your longer aboad at Rome and you know too well how dear you are to me to ignore the grief that will gall me at our separation I am willing to believe that in your absence you will keep me that affection pure and undeflowred which I prefer'd before the offers of Livia and do still prize above all the gay things wherewith the world can tempt me but what comfort can be left me in so cruel and dangerous an absence in so sad an incertainty of your return Besides the merciless orders of Augustus will reach to all and there are few corners of the Earth can hide you securely so long as he is your Enemy what shall become of me in these woful apprehensions I shall suffer for you and which of the Gods will promise me I shall ever be permitted to see you again Heavens pursued she with some warm pearls that broke away from her fair eyes did the faults of unfortunate Anthony and Cleopatra so highly incense you as your pitiless anger must still pursue the reliques of their deplorable family A throng of sighs cut off the course of her words and hindered the
entire confidence and an absolute power to the disposal and management of his care If Tyribasus by the cunning continuance of his dissimulation had not already strangled all the suspicions I had of him I had opposed all my power against that absolute Authority the King left him and Cleomedon would never have suffered me to stay under the guard of a person so suspected but in all his actions both before his Nubian expedition in his departure and at his return he treated me with a coldness so incompatible with affection as I easily believed there was not so much as one single root of it left alive in his Spirit The King having left this order at Meroe disposed himself to depart with Caesario in his company whom neither he nor I were then any longer willing to detain from the war not that his absence since I lov'd him as dearly as decency would allow did not deeply perplex me but seeing the King my Father was going to expose his own person to the hazards of the War I thought I should sin too much against Caesario's vertue to keep the passage ' gainst him in his way to glory or detain him with me where now he could not stay with any safety to his credit he wasted divers whole days in the repetition of his passionate adiews and if he made me a thousand vows of preserving an invincible and immortal fidelity I requited him with a thousand assurances that I would ever prefer him till death divorced us before all the rest of mankind The day of that cruel separation being arrived I took leave of the King and Cleomedon of me with all the sincerity and tenderest proofs that were ever exprest by affection and the parting with both assaulted my Soul in several places with a grief so violent as receiving the Kings last embraces I was like to fall at his feet in a swoond timerously gathering an unlucky Augury from the exquisite sense of those redoublings of affection the King who perceiving it endeavoured to sweeten my apprehensions with some comfortable words but they were not strong enough to put my griefs to flight nor banish those prophetick fears from my Soul which staid there by the Authority not only of known but undiscovered causes Cleomedon gave me the first adiew and perceiving the rest of the company while he was taking his leave to be all so busied about the King as none were near enough to over-hear him It 's impossible Madam said he I should carry my self away from your presence without a torment too violent for my face to dissemble but I will learn to cashier a large part of my woes if your compassion gives comfort and allows me to hope that neither time absence nor any of those accidents that may cross our Fortune shall ever have power to exercise your tyranny upon that priviledge I hold of your bounty For that said I you have my promise and shall ever know me as inviolable in the observance of it as I hope to find you Loyal and Religious in performing the Vows you have made That confidence said he creates me happiness that infinitely transcends my merit and I hope to carry your beautiful Image into places where it must infallibly gather the bays of a glorious victory I cannot borrow meaner hopes said I from my opinion of valour but among all those dangers you intend to brave do not tye your self so strictly to the thoughts that you are Caesar 's Son to forget the propriety Candace has in you After these words he kissed my hand and having taken his last leave he left me to the King who came with open arms to bid me farewel I had a face overflow'd with tears which might well fetch their pedigree in the common opinion from no other fountain than the Kings departure and those that stole into the flood for Cleomedon's sake ran along with the rest as if they had started from the same source though if I may say it without offending the Laws of a filial piety they out-swelled the rest in number I saw them both mount their horses and really Cleomedon for in that my opinion was the legitimate child of truth and no Way led astray by the Bias of affection appeared in a posture so Heroick as might kindle envy even in those souls to whom nature had lavished the greatest advantages He was that day covered with arms that were rather designed for Parade than service and that was the first time the Roman Eagle was seen to display her wings and proudly erect her two heads amidst the Gold and Jewels that adorned his Casque and Shield Near the imperial Eagle appeared a young one that with a bold wing and open eyes seemed to strain his pinions against the Sun to prove his descent legitimate with these words The worthy Son of such a Father Caesario had only added the Eaglet and Motto to the ancient devise having received those fair Arms at his departure from Alexandria as a gift from the Queen his Mother in whose custody they were left by Julius Caesar after they had faithfully served him in most of those dangerous battels that got him the greatest name among men Under these beautiful Arms the young Warrior advantagiously mounted appeared so fierce and yet so noble as endeared him to the affection and respect of every soul that beheld him but I doat too much upon his Description and indeed Madam to comprehend it right 't is but fit his Pourtraiture should be limned as well to the life in your imagination as my heart has drawn it upon it self This young Heroe marching by the Kings side and circled with the general applause of all the Ethiopians went out of the City and left me half busied in a cloud of sad and fearful apprehensions behind him Tyribasus whom the Physitians had forbidden to ride staid some time with me in the City and implored a great part of it in striving to confute and divert my melancholly thoughts with a face so seriously honest that none could ever think it belonged to a man that was linked to any other interest than the service of his Master I did not then refuse his Converse in which he was so far from uttering a word as he did not so much as mingle one look of love and I was grown so confident in a blind opinion that he had totally disbanded all his passionate follies that displeased me as I began to interess my self in the return of his health and was glad to see his colour and strength coming to their usual vivacity In the mean time you need not doubt but my thoughts were entirely tyed to the remembrance of what I loved and if I sent any vows to Heaven for the King my Fathers safety you will easily believe I forgot not to mention Caesario's whose image was pourtraid so lively in my heart by the innocent skill of a chast affection as the vast distance betwixt us was utterly
who without measuring danger either by the number or force of those he encountred had made it his custome to charge all that came near him the combat was begun by the Pirates and their shock sustained by our men with a great deal of resolution my ignorance will not let me describe you the fight in parts but Madam shall I give you a short list of my resentments at that present indeed I cannot chuse but tell you that the detestation I still cherished of the very thought to espouse Tigranes and the grief I took for Artaban's misfortunes had left me so little care or love of life as I can hardly say that death looked ugly enough to affright me and if I may assume the liberty to undisguise my criminal thoughts without a reserve I think Artaban's danger was attended with as large a portion of my fears as those that regarded my proper safety In the mean time an interchanged cloud of arrows rained upon both parties the Pirates quickly found a resistance that made them wish the danger unattempted and certainly the advantages they got had cost them a great deal more blood if Orestes as if those famous Arms had refused to do service to their Masters Enemy had not been tumbled dead at the feet of his men by some of the first blows that were struck in the Combat and my conductor Polinices with one of the Median Embassadors suddenly acquitted by divers mortal wounds of the the care to obey their Masters Commission The Death of their Commanders distributed a terrour among the common Souldiers which froze up those Courages that were so hot as the Fights beginning and losing all hope of victory they disputed it so poorly as the Pirates almost had it in possession when they least suspected it They were upon point to board our Vessels wherefore the Decks were then but very faintly defended when inspired with a thought that deafen'd me to the threats of of danger I boldly step'd upon the Deck and heightning my voice that I might be understood by those in Orestes Vessel My friends cryed I if you desire safety or wish victory they are only to be had from the hands of Artaban ease him of those irons that will not suffer him to succour you give him but arms for your own defence and hope for all from his valour that man can do when he once fights at the head of you These words succeeded to my wishes for since Orestes death Artaban had no more Enemies left in the Vessel the Parthians that adored his vertue whom the sole authority of Orestes inforced to keep him captive that had so often taught them the art of overcoming no sooner saw themselves at liberty to restore him his but they ran down in throngs to release him and even envied his own Squire the glory of putting the first hand to take off his Irons while the overjoy'd young man was doing this office to his dear Master others hastily employed themseves in stripping Orestes carkass of those arms he had unworthily usurped and Arno sooner saw his chains unlocked when he felt his manly limbs reinvested in the same armour that had faithfully served him in so many victories and when his warlike dress was compleated lifting up his sword and voice with a fierce cry My friends said he in exchange of this freedom you have given me I do here promise to requite you with victory As he brought forth these words he flew before them at the audacious Ephialtes that had newly boarded the vessel and by that bold act provok'd his fate for the furious Artaban darting himself upon him with a sorce and swiftness like that of Lightning prevented his design with a deadly thrust which finding a default in his Arms pierced him quite through the body when after he had reeled two or three paces backward he fell dead into his own Ship The death of Ephialtes congeal'd the courages of his men but the following actions of Artaban quickly stifled all their hopes of victory and as if there secretly lodg'd a fatality in his Sword to all that opposed him he carried it to no part of the fight wherein he did not cut down Enemies in heaps and change the fortune of both parties with a prodigious promptitude the actions he performed with his own hands his admirable conduct and the strong belief the Parthians had entertained that his valour was invincible brought forth such marvellous effects as in less than one quarter of an hour the Pirates changed their design of assaulting their Enemies to defending themselves and prospered so ill in that too as in less than another they beheld their Ships covered with their fellows carkasses and the Sea painted with their blood So soon as Artaban had chas'd out those Pirates that invaded his Vessel he leap'd into mine and there it was I saw him do things in my defence that would make an Infidel of the easiest credulity In fine the victory became entirely ours the greater part of the Pirates lost their lives two of their Ships were taken and the rest saved themselves by flight or rather by the small regard we took to pursue them Artaban contrary to the Parthians inclinations gave the Prisoners their lives but he left all the booty to the Souldiers and commanded divers of the Pirates into our Vessel to serve in the places of those Mariners that we had lost in the combat Thus after he had set the face of order upon all things that haste would permit him he ran to me all covered with blood in a posture that had half affrighted me if he had not taken off his Casque as he threw himself at my feet and discovered his face wherein me thought the heat of combat had disclosed some new beams of masculine beauty that I never saw there before at least my fancy was so deeply inchanted with that apprehension as it degarded my judgment so far to let the Medes and Parthians then present see me throw my arms about the neck of the kneeling Artaban and lean my head upon his with an action so tenderly passionate as at this very confession of my weakness I feel the warm blood is come into my cheeks to accuse me Madam I will not trouble your patience with the repetition of those disorder'd words that Artaban and I exchanged at that point of time and indeed they were too full of confusions to deserve recital and if his liberty gave him some satisfaction I was so ravished with joy to see him in so different a condition to that he appeared in but a few hours before as I could not express my contentment better than in shewing by a few disjoynted words that I could not express it In fine after I had raised him from his knee and presented him to the Parthians Well Parthian said I do you judge Artaban worthy to return to his chains or enjoy his part of that liberty his valour has given you if you have done
she caused the head of the unfortunate Artibasus to be cut off and sent it to his enemy I pass over these things succinctly as being known to the greatest part of the world and as belonging to the life of that great Princess whereupon we have less occasion to insist As very a child as I was I remembred that this action struck me with such a horrour as by all likelihood I was not capable of and the young Artemisa having received this loss otherwise than might have been expected from her age I continued weeping with her divers days no body being able to get me out of her company as I wiped away her tears I mingled my own abundantly with them and though after their Father's death neither the Prince nor the Princess came any more to the Palace but confined themselves to a sorrow conformable to their condition those who had the care of my education had no quiet with me if they did not continually have me to Artemisa and the Queen who did much indulge me and could not condemn this inclination of mine permitted them to give me this satisfaction as often as possibly they could I said to her then with a countenance as sad as her own You will love me no more now Artemisa and possibly you will bate me after the displeasure you have received from the Queen my Mother I repeated these words to her divers times and she answered me Alexander I will love you still for it was not you that killed the King my Father No Artemisa reply'd I it was not I and I believed I should part with my own life to restore the King your Father his We were about ten years of age when we had this discourse for it was almost about the same time that the final misfortunes of our family happened you have heard without doubt that Caesar came to besiege us in Alexandria and that Anthony having lost all his hopes and believing he had lost the Queen too who was more dear to him than all the world dispatched himself with his own hands and that Cleopatra desiring to avoid the shame of the triumph for which Octavius intended her ended her life by the sting of an Aspik which at that rate saved her from the ignominy that was prepared for her and that Caesar having rendred himself quiet possessor of all things that were in Anthony's power carried us to Rome my Sister Cleopatra my bother and I I mean my brother Ptolomy younger than I by a year for as for the Prince Caesario the son of Julius Caesar and the Queen a Prince incomparable hopeful whose memory you have awakened in me by your sight and by some resemblances which I find in your visages according to the old Idea which remains in my memory he was killed by the cruel order of Augustus by the way to Ethiopia whither the Queen our Mother had sent him Hitherto a out of complacence only and for fear of discovering himself Caesario had heard things which he knew as well as the person who related them but seeing him about to enter upon the discourse of those passages which were not as yet come to his knowledge he gave ear with more attention than before and heard him pursue his narration in this manner Before we departed from Alexandria Caesar sent back the Prince and the two Princesses of Armenia into their Country with an honourable convoy and many presents and testimonies of his amity to the young King of Armenia their brother I was almost as sensible of this separation as I had been of the greatest of our misfortunes and having obtained permission to bid Artemisa adieu I thought I should have melted into tears at her departure she embraced me divers times and according to the liberty indulged to our tender years she permitted me to render her my caresses in the same manner Artemisa said I with a rationallity somewhat above my age you are going at your liberty but we remain slaves but I assure you my captivity is not that which afflicts me most and amongst all our miseries I find nothing so unsupportable as our separation This was at least the sense of what I said to her but I know not whether I could range my words in this order at that time or not Artemisa seemed to be moved with them and accompanying the tears I shed with some of hers Alexander said she I would with all my heart you might go with us and I am sensible that I shall be much afflicted when I shall be deprived of your sight Ah Artemisa replyed I you will remember me no more and when you are grown bigger than now you are you will be served by so many Princes that you will entirely forget your poor Alexander you leave behind who loves you so dearly I will never forget you replyed Artemisa and if you love me still when you are grown a man come and see me and you shall know whither I have lost the affection I have for you I will do it Artemisa I will do it answered I with precipitation I will come one day and put you in mind of the promise you have made me and if I had now liberty to wait upon you nothing in the world should separate me from you This was our conversation after which I was constrained to let her depart and I staid behind with all the grief that at that time I was capable of A few daies after their departure Octavius took us with him to Rome we arrived there and since I must needs confess our shame we served as an ornament to the triumph of our Vanquisher if we had been of ripers years we had without doubt according to the example of the Queen our Mother avoided by our death the ignominy they made us suffer but besides that our youth took from us almost all sense and knowledge of our condition we find some excuses for it and accuse fortune only for the calamities whereinto we were fallen through her cruelty Not long after the vertuous Princess Octavia sister to Augustus and Wife to Anthony our Father whom he had forsaken for Cleopatra and who in spight of the unworthy usage she had received from her Husband had alwaies taken his part at Rome against her Brother although he took up arms partly for her quarrel dwelling still in his house and managing his estate as if they had agreed the best in the world received us not as if we had been her Husbands children but as her own she put us entirely into the possession of Anthony's estate which Caesar had left him and she treated us in the same manner as she did her Son Marcellus and her Daughters as well those which she had by Marcellus her former Husband as those two which she had by our Father we began according to her will to converse with her Family as if we had been all Brothers and Sisters but the Empress Livia finding somewhat extraordinary in the Princess Cleopatra
my sister by the permission of Angustus took her to Court and bred her in a garb little different from that of the Princess Julia. We were brought up with as great a care as we could have been in the greatest lustre of our Family and if at Rome we were not called Kings of Kings and had not titles full of pride and vanity nor a numerous train of Princes as at Alexandria yet it is certain that we were educated like Marcellus Tiberius and the greatest young Princes that were bred in Rome and through the generous care of Octavia there was nothing wanting that might form our nature to things worthy of our birth My Brother Ptolomy and I had towardly inclinations and a disposition great enough to learn as well the exercises of the body as those sciences wherein they employed our minds and we proceeded in both with a very general approbation Augustus having extinguished in the death of Anthony all the hatred he bare him looked upon us and treated us as really as if we had been the Sons of Octavia and according to his example all the persons of the greatest importance in Rome or of the most illustrious families took it as an advantage to be allied to ours and considered us almost in the same manner as they could have done in the time of Anthony's greatest fortune In the mean time that I may return to give an account of the inclination I had to Artemisa in my very infancy I will tell you that the tender youth wherein we were separated being not capable of a strong and solid settlement Time as you may well imagine did partly wear out of an Infants mind an impression which it could not long conserve it was a hard matter that at nine or ten years old a firm affection should be formed in my Soul but certain it is that the continuation of time was never able to banish this memory out of my spirit and though I grew to a more rational age the Image of Artemisa never returned into my thoughts without leaving some tenderness and passion behind it without drawing sighs from me and without putting me for some time into the sweet thoughts of my infancy I carefully likewise preserved a Ring and a Bracelet of her hair which I had received from her and whatsoever coldness theee arrived in a passion which at an age like ours could not strongly establish it self I desired alwayes to carry about me with high respect the precious marks of the affections of a great Princess This is all that war left of it then and it is probable that no more could have remained of it and that this remembrance would have been totally laid to sleep if it had not been awakened again afterwards as I will relate unto you In the Interim if Ptolomy and I grew in stature and divers qualities wherein according to the judgement of the Romans we had sufficiently profited Cleopatra our Sister arrived to such a degree of beauty that the general voice of Rome published it for the most rare and the most accomplished that ever appeared within the circumference of the Empire and all those who had formerly pretended to handsomness yielded her the advantage at an age when she had hardly had time to shew her self Amongst a great number of illustrious Adorers that she had acquired Tiberius the Son of Livid by Drusus her former Husband and Juba surnamed Coriolanus the son of Juba sometimes King of Mauritania were the most considerable Marcellus as I believe at the first had a very strong inclination for her but his compliance to Augustus his will who had designed his Daughter Julia for him or as others believe the amity he had for Coriolanus obliged him to disingage himself frrom it and Tiberius and Coriolanus stood single to dispute their affections in publick though Tiberius was a person worthy of esteem for his birth and many qualities he was master of yet I confess my inclinations were entirely for Coriolanus and that Prince hath such great and amiable parts in him that it is impossible to know him without being absolutely his I could tell you some things both of his valour and the vertues which accompany it which possibly would make you prefer him before all the persons in the World but I will reserve a more full relation till another time and will only tell you at this present that the advantage which in my judgment he had over Tiberius and all other persons that I knew made me take his part and obliged me to favour him in all that possibly I could Those of either side signalized themselves by their addresses in divers actions of gallantry and we began to appear amongst them when we approached our sixteenth year and to put our selves forward in all things even beyond what our Age did seem to permit the Emperor approved our forwardness proceeding as he said from courage worthy of our birth and Marcellus and Coriolanus shewed us as much favour in it as possibly could be At last I attained to the seventeenth year of my age and I began then to desire some occasions to acquire a little reputation and seek out means to advance my self by some actions of valour I already perceived my self strong and valiant enough to undertake and support all things and the glory of Coriolanus Marcellus and Tiberius who had their essayes in arms at an age not much different from mine and by a thousand brave effects had already rendred themselves commendable to all the Romans spurred me on with emulation Fortune quickly gave me the means to satisfie my self and upon some combustion that happened then at Rome between Coriolanus and Tiberius about the love and the pretensions they both had for Cleopatra the Emperor to regulate their differences and to encourage them to his service by their mutual jealousie and the hopes of gaining Cleopatra gave them two equal employments and sent them to command two Armies Tiberius was designed for Germany against the Pannonians and the Dalmatians and the Son of Juba against the Austurians and Cantabrians At first my resolution was to follow Coriolanus in his expedition but the Emperor at the entreaty of his sister Octavia who saw me at that time a little indisposed refused to give me leave and forced me to stay at Rome till the departure of Tiberius who went for Germany I had no inclination to march with Tiberius seeing I could not go with Coriolanus but the Empress Livia having told me about that time that if I would essay my fortune in arms with her son she would obtain me permission I thought I could not handsomly refuse this occasion of going to the wars and I feared that the difficulty I should make of it would rather have been attributed to some other motive sooner than to the inclination I had to march with Coriolanus rather than with Tiberius I resolved then upon that voyage which was in some sort contrary to my humour
I saw divers of those that guarded me weep at this discourse and turning my self to the Commander I bad them shew me the way I was to go they conducted me out of my Chamber amongst a great number of Javelins and having passed the stairs I found at the gate a Chariot covered with black which waited for me and in that I was mounted to march to the great place I was followed and environed with a great number of men both on foot and on horseback and in this manner I advanced into the streets where by reason of the throng of People we could pass but very slowly there were few persons amongst those that met me in my passing but shewed divers signs of compassion and highly blamed the cruelty of their King some spake in pity of my youth wherein they saw me cruelly snatched from the fairest hopes others paused upon something of gallantry that they saw in my face and the greatest part reflected upon my birth and the inconstancies of fortune which from the height wherein I had been formerly seen had thrown me down into so extraordinary a misfortune We arrived at last at the place where I saw the fatal scaffold erected and the press was so great that we could not get thither without a great deal of trouble I lighted from the Chariot and mounted upon the scaffold with a very assured countenance to shew my enemies that the fear of death had not much staggered me and when I was at the fatal place where I was to lose my life I walked a little and turned my eyes on every side upon the standers by who had filled all the place and windows adjoining I looked upon them a while without speaking and then on a sudden addressing my discourse to those which were neer enough to understand me Armenians said I since it is the destiny of the innocent to suffer for the culpable I believe you will one day undergo the punishment of your Kings cruelty as I am exposed to the resentments he might justly conceive against my relation you may possibly see your blood shed in his quarrel as I am upon the point of giving mine for Cleopatra I do not wish this to you nor to Artaxus himself because as unworthy as he is he is the Brother of the Princess Artemisa but I very well foresee that the cruelty of your Prince will not remain unpunished and I advise you his people and subjects either to arm your selves for his defence or to quit his party These words were heard by Artaxus himself who out of an horrible baseness had placed himself in an house adjoyning and from behind a glass window saw all that passed in the place The infamous Ministers of my death were already upon the Scaffold and the chief of them coming to me told me that it was time for him to do his duty and prayed me to let him bind my eyes with a cloath he had for that purpose Friend said I to him I am not so much afraid of death that I cannot see its approach without being frighted at it I will receive it with my eyes open without putting thee to the trouble of closing them before death does it After these words disposing my self to take my last farewell O Artemisa said I I give you my life as willingly as you will bestow some tears upon my death These words were followed with a mournful murmur of the greatest part of the standers by and immediately after putting my self into a posture to receive the fatal blow I commanded the Executioner to do his duty and stretched out my neck under the instrument of death which he lifted up into the aire to separate my head from my body O Gods cryed Caesario at this part of Alexander's Narration O Gods is it possible that you should escape death after you were reduced to such great extremities and that fortune which had brought you to so near a precipeice should be ready to succour you in such a desperate condition You shall hear replyed Alexander a very strange event and I am about to tell you of an action that can hardly be parallel'd by all antiquity Divers attributed it to folly others to a real and uncommon generosity and it is to that vertue that in memory of him who did it for my sake I will absolutely impute it instead of robbing him of a glory which is due to him which in ages to come they cannot deprive him of My neck as I told you was stretched out and the Executioner had already lifted up his arm to give the fatal Blow when he was stopped by a voice which cryed out Hold two or three times He stopt his hand which he had advanced believing it was some order from the King and turning that way from whence he heard the voice he saw a man who mounted upon the scaffold with a naked sword in his hand who presently ran him through the body and tumbled him dead at my feet At the noise he made in falling down by me I turned my self towards him who had done that action and no sooner cast my eyes upon his visage but I knew him to be Cepio who animated by the most generous courage in the world came to repair his imprudence by the boldest attempt that ever was undertaken Narcissus followed him but could not get near the Scaffold by reason of the press which environed it and the great number of Souldiers that hindred his passage Cepio had no sooner dispatched the Executioner but he seized upon his sword and coming to me Alexander said he here 's Cepio who having by his imprudence brought you to your death comes to suffer with you I cannot preserve you from it but I will change the manner of it and you will be more satisfied to die with a sword in your hand than by an infamous arm Before he had ended these words he had already cut the cord which tied my hands and gave me a sword I felt my self animated by this assistance with an extraordinary courage and looking upon Cepio with a countenance full of acknowledgment I am sorry Cepio said I that you run upon your death and you do not owe me such a reparation as this for the ill you have innocently procured me but since through your generosity we must die together let us sell our lives dearly to our most cruel enemies We had not time to make any longer discourse and we saw already the Commanders of those that guarded me followed by divers of their Souldiers mounting the Scaffold with their swords in their hands I no sooner knew the cruel Eurilochus and his companion at the head of the rest but being seized with a motion of joy for the occasion that offered it self to me to revenge those indignities they had done me I flew to Eurilochus with a threatning cry Barbarian said I I have promised to be thy death and thou shalt receive it at my hands before I fall at the
commanded the greatest part of my Troops this young Warrior who in an age scarcely distinguishable from infancy might already be really accounted the most valiant that ever wore a Sword quitted my service and to my misfortune carried elsewhere the effects of an admirable valour which would have been very necessary for me against the re-inforcement of my Enemies The course of my good successes was stopt and my Enemies being stronger than I had some advantages which made me lose all that I had gained in Media and after some Combats wherein Fortune was not very favourable unto me I was constrained to retire upon my frontire where I made preparations for the last decision of our quarrel when Augustus employed his authority to appease our differences and sent Mecenas and Domitius with order not to depart from our Countries before they had concluded a peace between us I had that repugnance against it that you know of and the Kings my Enemies bing exasperated by the death of some of their near Relations whom I had sacrificed to the Ghost of Artibasus had no more disposition to it than my self But we must needs yield to the will of Caesar and when it was declared on his part that he would arm in favour of him who submitted first against him who made most resistance neither of us was bold enough to oppose it any longer and having signed the Articles which Mecenas and Domitius presented to us we both of us laid down arms and contented our selves to keep our animosity in our breasts without making it appear any more I retired to Artaxata whither a little after Caesar whether it were that he desired to have them as hostages of the treaty we had made or that from the relation he had heard made of them he had conceived a desire to see them and have them with him sent to demand of me the Prince Ariobarzanes my Brother and the Princess Arsinoe my Sister to have them brought up at Rome to frame in them inclinations to the Roman party and to treat them like divers Sous and Daughters of the Kings his Friends and Allies which were brought up with him and the Empress Livia This effect either of the amity of distrust or Caesar troubled me at first and yet the pretence was so fair that I could not handsomly refuse that which he demanded and the Prince and Princess at the first proposition which was made to them of it having expressed no unwillingness to the Voyage I caused a magnificent equipage to be prepared for them and sent them from Artaxata they crossed a part of Armenia and coasted Licia and Pamphilia by Land and afterwards they embarqued upon the Egean Sea but they embarqued in an unlucky hour and a few days after by means of a terrible tempest they suffered a cruel shipwrack and lost under the Waves their lives which were worthy of a better destiny You may well believe that an accident so deplorable the relation of blood only might produce in me very sensible displeasures but besides this natural resentment Ariobarzanes and Arsinoe were two persons so uncommon and so accomplished in the perfection of mind and body that it would have been hard for any to have known them without shedding abundance of tears for their death The Gods took out of the world all that was great and amiable in our family and depriving me of a Brother and a Sister worthy of the esteem and the affection of the whole world they have left me only one Sister worthy of the general scorn a Sister which by her baseness and infidelity hath stained with a shameful blot the illustrious blood from whence she is descended and hath raised me all these troubles of spirit for which I have abandoned my Kingdom and by the means whereof I find my self in a strange condition Time had now given some consolation to the grief which I had suffered for the sad shipwrack of half our family and I believe in peace though against my will at a time when I might have ruined Tigranes by joyning with the King of Parthia his enemy against whom he made War with successes wherein Fortune diversly sported her self if I had not been hindred by the authority of Augustus who would never permit me to break the peace which he had made me make with the Medians nor to give my assistance to the Parthians the cruel Enemies of the Roman name with whom he could not endure that his friends should have any alliance I passed my life I say in this forced tranquility when to overthrow my repose and blast the honour of our Royal house Alexander the Son of Anthony and Cleopatra a worthy object of my lawful vengeance came unknown to my Court with a design to give me yet more subjects of hatred than those I had against him and his for the cruel death of the King my Father Tyridates interrupted the King of Armenia in this part of his discourse Alexander the Son of Anthony said he to him who was believed to be lost at that time when I was at Rome or at least there was no news of him was in Armenia then He was there but too fatally replyed Artaxus and Fortune which in appearance presented him to me to satisfie my just resentments served her self with him to render them more violent and to carry on my displeasure to the last extremities I know you will condemn my rigour in the design I had to render what I ought to the Manes of Artibasus and the Oath I had made but that shall not hinder me from relating to you the naked truth nor from expecting from you that you should approve part of that I would have done out of a sense of pity or paternal love and honour it self too much interessed in the bloody injury which he had received After these words he recounted to him all that had passed at Artaxata after he had known Alexander there the taking of that Prince his cruel imprisonment the solicitations of Artemisa for his safety the extremity of danger whereunto he arrived and in fine all that which Alexander himself related to Caesario till his departure from Armenia and the carrying away of Artemisa Tyridates did not hear this relation without great pain though it was made by a person interessed who did partly sweeten the greatest strangness of his actions by the excuses he made for them and besides that he naturally detested cruelty the friendship he had contracted with Coriolanus and the acquaintance he had at Rome with the Princess Cleopatra Prince Ptolomee and the greatest part of young Alexander's kindred put him into great fear for him in the recital of the dangers he had run and made him very averse from the cruelty of Artaxus The impatience he had to hearken to him sufficiently appeared in his countenance but when he saw Alexander escape from the rage of his Enemy he composed himself and all the complacence which probably he ought to have
is stretched to its uttermost dimensions and I will know this day whether a heart which is invincible by love and pity can be tamed by any other ways Upon these wordâ— I know not whether his action was premeditated or not as in probability it was or whether the occasion prompted him to the design having made a sign to his Brother and another of those which followed him they came at the same time to pull Ericlea and Melite from off my arms who held by me on both sides and Antigenes putting himself in Ericlea's place began to lead me by force towards the most private part of the Wood whilst his Brother and one of his Men held my two Women by violence This action made me desperately afraid and believing that in such an extremity a disguise was no longer necessary Antigenes said I think of what thou goest about and look no more upon me as an Unknown Delia but as the Daughter of a great King and as a Princess who in what part soever of the world thou shalt retire to will make the vengeance of thy crime light heavy upon thy head I believe that Antigenes gave no credit to these words which he thought I was inspired with by the pressing necessity wherein I was to draw him off from his design by the respect which they might imprint in him Howsoever it was he did not seem to be moved at them and not vouchsafing so much as to give me a reply and continued dragging me with all his force towards the most solitary part of the wood In this extremity I made the wood to Eccho with my cryes and my Women whom they hindred from coming to my assistance were as loud as I Their cryes and mine without doubt did us more good than our resistance could have done and they drew a man to us who was retired into that thick and solitary place whom we presently knew to be the same whose complaint we had heard a little before He came out from between the trees where he sought for silence and obscurity and casting his eyes upon us he presently saw the cause of our cryes and the violence they offered to us and his grief not being capable to extinguish generous resentments in his soul and the remembrance of the succour that was due to oppressed Maids he ran to us with more speed than could have been expected from the languishing and dejected condition wherein he appeared to us Antigenes seeing him come and fearing the hindrance of his design more than any other harm he could do him being accompanied as he was called his brother who leaving my women in the hands of two of his men came to Antigenes with the rest This number did not trouble the Unknown but addressing himself to Antigenes without so much as looking upon the rest Base fellow said he with an impetuous voice stay and do not oblige me to give thee thy death for a punishment of thy crime Antigenes seeing himself fortified by the number of his companions mocked at the pride of the Unknown and not vouchsafing to forbear from his design for him he made a sign to his brother either to stay him or punish him but he had to do with a man who was not easily corrected in that manner and though he had no more then Antigenes and his companions had only his sword without any other arms he presently presented it to the eyes of his enemies and fell upon them with as much assurance as if he had been backed by a greater number than theirs O Gods Philadelph what proofs of valour did he give us in a few moments and what speedy execution did he make before our eyes of five or six men who seemed as nothing in his single hands The first that fell under his sword was the brother of Antigenes whose right arm he cut off at one blow and made a large passage in his side through which his soul bare his blood company and almost at the same time having avoided a blow which another enemy made at him he thrust his bloody sword into his body up to the hilts I could see that action and those he did afterwards because perfidious Antigenes no sooner saw his brother fall but leaving me with a cry he ran either to revenge his death or to bear him company These two which were left to guard my women ran to Antigenes at his cry and these three enemies fell upon the valiant Unknown just as he had cloven the head and half the face of the last of the others with a back blow He cared as little for these as he had done for the former and picking out Antigenes between his two companions he gave him a mortal wound into the throat with which he fell at his feet and presently after was choaked with his blood and dyed My valiant defender received at the same time a slight wound upon his side which did but encourage him the more and hastened the death of him who gave it for as he was just turning his back to run away he thrust his sword into his reins and laid him dead close by Antigenes The last seeing so bloody an execution had not confidence any longer to resist so terrible an enemy and committing his safety to the nimbleness of his heels he ran cross the wood in a deadly fright I cannot tell you whether was greater in me the astonishment at so prodigious a valour or the joy of seeing my self delivered from the hands of my treacherous ravisher or the horror of being amongst so many dead men who had lost their lives upon my occasion I was so amazed and so troubled that I had not so much as power to return thanks to my valiant deliverer and I continued in a confusion not knowing how to begin to speak to him when he approaching to me with his bloody sword in his hand and with a colour which the heat of the combat had raised in his face Your enemies are dead Madam said he and if there remains any thing to do for your service I have strength enough still to free you out of a greater danger He spake no more because astonishment cut off the thread of his discourse and he had no sooner cast eyes a little nearer upon my face but he was full of amazement and confusion My surprize was no less than his when having looked upon him with attention and discerned the tone of his voice manger the change which three or four years and an extraordinary paleness might have wrought upon his countenance I thought I knew him for that brave and valiant Britomarus of whom I made some small mention to you in my discourse who by his miraculous actions of valour in a few months attained to the highest martial employments in the service of the King my brother and quitted it out of a generous resentment against the cruelty which caused the King your Father's hatred against our family the very same who being
began to enter into the Woods where the shade and coolness was more agreeable than in the beginning of their walk 'T was in this place that the way turned a little from the Sea and betwixt the Wood and the shore there were divers houses built and amongst them there was that wherein the unfortunate Tiridates made his last abode Clitie who had taken upon her the care of finding it out did not fail to take notice of an Alley which fronted the Rode and advertised the Princesses that this was the place which they sought for but the better to conceal their Design they thought it fit to pass on and continue their walk an hour longer with an intention to return the same way and to execute their resolution as they came back Candace could hardly prevail so far upon her impatience but she knew of what importance it was to her to be careful in concealing whatsoever concerned Cesario The business was done as she desired and after they had spent almost an hour upon the same Rode she caused the Chariot to turn about and returned the same way Clitie took exact notice of the path and as the Princesses after they had made the Chariot to stay were deliberating whether they should go to the house or send Clitie to enquire News of Prince Tiridates they saw one of the Officers of that poor Prince coming from the house whom Clitie knew immediatly having seen him with his Master during the short abode she had made at that house When he was come near to the Chariot and Clitie had called to him he knew her and the Queen her Mistriss too and as according to the effect which merit ordinarily produces he had taken as great a share as he was capable of in the displeasure of his Master for the Queen being carried away so he was joyful to see her in that place and in a condition conformable to a person of Quality The Queen having caused him to come close to the Chariot that the might speak to him without being over-heard by the Cavaliers who guarded the Chariot and who out of respect and their Masters order kept themselves at a distance Friend said she Wilt thou tell us no News of the Prince thy Master and whether we may be permitted to give him a Visit and to have a moments Discourse with him The afflicted Servant instead of returning an Answer to these words let fall abundance of tears and a little after forcing himself to speak Ah! Madam said he with a voyce interrupted with sobs Tiridates is dead he expired two dayes since in that unfortunate house which you see before you and that love wherein he hath been engaged for divers years hath brought him at last to his Grave Candace was struck with this Discourse as with a Thunder-clap and resented the death of this poor Prince with a very violent grief Elisa who had never seen him not being able to resist the force of blood and having much esteemed her Uncle upon the Relation she had heard of his vertue was very nearly touched with this News and joyned her tears with those which the fair Queen of Ethiopia shed in abundance for a Prince to whom she was beholding for her life and whose merit was very considerable to her Ah! Madam said Candace to the fair Elisa turning sadly towards her If you know how worthy this Prince was of your amity and how deplorable his loss is to all those persons that were acquainted with him I assure my self that you would bestow a great many tears upon him Doubtless I ought to do so answered Elisa but they have been so usual with me of late that the poor Prince would be little obliged to me for those I should shed for his loss Upon these words they continued a great while without speaking whil'st the desolate Servant repeated succinctly to them what Arsanes had reported concerning Mariamnes's death and the sudden and the sad effect which it wrought upon the amorous spirit of Tiridates Oh! Example cryed the fair Queen at this lamentable Relation of the most firm and real love that ever heart was inflamed with Oh Fidelity pure and entire to the very end poor Prince And upon these words pity made the two Princesses redouble their weeping with so much violence that for a long time they were not able to speak When they had recovered the use of their speech they enquired of the Servant how his body was disposed of and in what place they intended to render him the honours of a Funeral At this instant said the Servant Arsanes who was the Princes's Governor and whom we obey since his death is employed in one of the Chambers of the house in causing his body to be imbalmed to be carried into Parthia to be interred in the Tomb of the Arsacides and those parts which could not endure the Voyage for fear of corruption are lately laid in a Tomb which we are a raising for him about Five hundred paces hence upon the shore where Prince Marcellus who was present at his death would have us leave this Monument of the loss of our Prince Madam said the afflicted Elisa to the Queen I should not have Courage enough to go and see the body of the Prince my Uncle and I am very sensible that I could not see it without a great deal of emotion and some fear But if you think good I should be willing to visit the Tomb which they are erecting for him upon the shore and to render there to his Manes the last Devoirs they can expect from the Arsacides You have reason said Candace not to be willing to go into the house where all objects would be very doleful and where considering our visit would be useless too there is no need that we should shew our selves to the persons that may be there We may with more facility and handsomness go visit the Tomb as you desire and I will willingly bear you Company thither Upon these words they caused themselves to be conducted that way which Tiridates's Servant guided them and passing by the side of the House they had not gone Five hundred paces but they saw the Tomb and the persons that were employed about it Arsanes had sent for Workmen from the City the day before and because the work was plain and without curiosity 't was almost finished 'T was a Tomb of fair stone without any workmanship and upon it a Pyramid of the height of a man upon which they had newly fixed an Epitaph upon a Copper-plate The Princesses alighted before they approached that doleful place and taking one another by the hand they advanced towards the Tomb on foot They which were still at work about it being moved with respect at the sight of those Beauties and being advertised by Tiridates's Servant retired to their quarter to leave the place free to the Princesses who falling upon their knees washed the cold stone with those tears which this sad object
through all the actions of his life any thing deserving this treatment and he had always known Menalippa too reasonable to be carried to such extremities against him without any apparent cause First he thought himself discovered for Alcamcnes and that first thought something bridled his astonishment but afterwards calling to mind Menalippa's cruel words and remembring she call'd him unknown and reproach'd him with her preference of him before so many great Princes he knew that it was to Alcimedon not Alcamenes that these cruel words were addressed Just gods cryed he being confirmed in this opinion Is it possible that in so few moments my Fortune should receive so strange a Revolution and that Menalippa so just so generous and who an hour since by a welcome so sweet and by reguards so favourable assured me of the continuation of my happiness should pass into so cruel an extremity against her faithful her innocent Alcimedon Here he buried himself in a profound recovery endeavouring to find out the cause of his unhappiness and never thinking on what passed between Barzancs and himself judging it uncapable to perswade Menalippa that he was unfaithful so that all his study taught him only this that he was the most unhappy of men without being able to ghess the cause Ah Destinies said he Ah Fortune which hast been too favourable to me I ought to have believed that a Fortune so promptly established could be of no long continuance Alcamenes hath not merited those Fortunes where with thou hast favoured Alcimedon and it is just that by the fall of the unfortunate Alcimedon Alcamenes should become the most miserable of all men Ah! fair hopes too lightly conceived Ah! foundations of a great Fortune laid upon sand must you disappear must ye perish in a moment and must the unfortunate Alcamenes be ignorant whence this unprovident Ruine comes How Menalippa added he a few moments after must I obey your cruel Command must I never see you more Ah! if for the punishment of my disobedience to this Command I had nothing to fear save the loss of that life which you threaten you should see how much I despise Death in comparison of a separation from you He arrested his thoughts some moments on this consideration and to flatter himself would believe that the Princess had been prejudiced by some false appearance or the report of an Enemy and therefore it were better to indeavour his Justification than to obey a Command made in the first passionate motion which leaves the mind rather to the guidance of fury than reason but as he loved the most passionately of all men and was inviolably punctual in his love and respect he thought he could not do it without offending both and rendring himself worthy of his cruel destiny through his disobedience He balanced these things a while and had almost perswaded him into some hope that possibly Menalippa might alter her humor when he saw Belisa enter his Chamber and present him with a Billet from the Princess he received it trembling and having k ssed it he put one knee to the ground and read these words MENALIPPA to ALCIMEDON ENdcavour not to justifie thy self with me but depart this Enemies Countrey so soon as thou hast received my last Command thy refusal will but more peremptorily declare thy infidelity and carry me to extremities which thou wilt repent if there remains any spark of vertue in thee These cruel words shot death into the desperate heart of Alcamenes who kissing again the Billet not without some tears which he could not retain Yes Madam said he I will obey you then turning towards Belisa who regarded those marks of his sadness with pity he would have said something to her but her Maid though toucht with his misfortune acquainted him that she had order from the Princess to hearken to nothing and thereupon left the Chamber immediately Alcimedon paused not on what he ought to do only lifting his eyes to Heaven with a desperate regard Let us dye Alcimedon said he let us dye but first let us obey Menalippa after those few words he entred into his Cabinet where he writ a Letter to be given to Menalippa after his depart and having called his two Scythian Squires he commanded them to provide the three best Horses they could to depart immediatly then taking Leander his Dacian Esquire aside Leander said he My love to thee would not have suffered me to leave thee here were not thy stay absolutely necessary to the repose of my Soul give therefore to morrow or when thou canst this Letter to Menalippa and pass the rest of thy dayes in her Service if she will honour thee with it but I desire thee by the affection thou bearest me not to acquaint any with what thou knowest of this business between Menalippa and me I am sorry that I cannot requite thy Services to my desire or thy desert the gods will do it for me and till then keep this Ring for my sake saying these words his face sprinkled with tears which he could not retain he gave the Letter to Leander and a Ring worth more than twenty Talents The afflicted Squire received the one and the other with a deluge of tears deploring as much his Masters misfortune as his own in not being permitted to follow him Alcamenes satisfying the other Officers of his House with the furniture thereof and of some Jewels armed him self took Horse and departed accompanied only with his two Scythian Squires Leaving Tenasia on this manner which but the day before he had entred with Triumph Applause and a thousand fair hopes The End of the Second Book of the Eighth Part of Cleopatra The Eighth Part of CLEOPATRA BOOK III. NExt ensuing Night the Princess Menalippa passed in the most cruel inquietudes a Soul can be possessed with all that a furious Jealousie can produce in a heart wholly given up to it tormented hers with a pitiless violence there were some moments wherein she seem'd to repent her rigor and her rash banishing a man whom she still loved more than her life Belisa informed her with what respect he received the cruel order she sent him how much the pitied him and how dear the vertues of Alcimedon were to her and failed not to relate the grief and despair she observed in the Face Discourses and Actions of Alcimedon This Recital had somthing softned a heart which was still tender with affection towards him at least it gave the Princess some regret for her too quick proceeding beside reflecting on the cause of her anger she could see in any thing that Barzanes spake very little reason to suspect Alcimedon of infidelity or that he should leave her for Alithea so that there were some moments wherein she imagined him innocent In this uncertainty and agitation of spirit she passed the Night without rest and falling asleep in the morning it was late ere she waked and then calling Belisa she put her upon the Discourse of
Phrataphernes and Orosmenes with the Inhabitants of Pont and the Basternes commanded the first Barzanes alone with the Dacians Getes and Gelones Subjects of Amalthea made the second Pharnaces and Orchomenes with the Sarmates and Nomades their Subjects took the third place and Merodates who had learnt that Orontes was in the fourth Body would be his opposite hoping to terminate this War by his Valor and the Scythian-King's death and Euardes being joined to him composed their fourth Body of the Bithinians and Tauriques All agreed that on the day of Battel as the Queens Representative the Prince Barzanes should be General yet not to claim a propriety of the place for the future and they rather chose to submit to him than that the pretenders to Menalippa should obey each other This Army was stronger by a fifth part than that of the Scythians and commanded by valiant Princes each of which might with reason entertain hopes of Victory The Queen of Dacia could not without trembling think of the event of this great day and had she not believed the Oracles which promised the Crown of Scythia to the Princess Menalippa her perplexity had been far greater All the pretending Princes made a Parade before their Princess and there was not one of them that promised her not the King Orontes's Head they all seemed very angry that the Prince Alcamenes was not in the enemies Camp against whom they had made so many menaces and upon whose death they hoped to raise Trophies of Reputation Amalthea who had heard the Valor of the Scythian Prince spoken of with fear and admiration received the News of his absence with a proportionate joy and a happy Omen of a good success of her own Dacians she retained Four thousand for hers and the Princesse's Guard causing them to stand in battalia before their Tents which she ordered to be invironed with a Ditch such a one as could be cast up in so short a time At length both Armies being drawn into Battalia the Chiefs of each marched towards each other in excellent order but when they came in sight they sent their Salutes by dreadful shouts and exclamations Orontes and Barzanes having quitted their particular charges to give general orders caused the Signal of Battel to be given so that Phrataphernes and Orosmenes on the one side and Mandates Prince of the Massagetes on the other began this cruel day They amused themselves for a while with a Combat of Arrows but both parties being experienced and the impatience of their Chiefs which breathed nothing but Victory the one in a just defence of his Countrey the other for the Conquest of Menalippa brought them quickly to a conjunction and here it was that the fight became terrible and bloody The second Bodies followed the first and after those the rest impatient for the danger and consequently for the glory hardly expected orders for the on-set but falling on with a terrible impetuosity gave death a perfect dominion on every side It will be hard for me great Ladies and troublesome to you to relate all the particulars of this Battel I will pass over that which is not necessary for you to know and relate only what imports much the continuation of this History and that which composeth one of the most remarkable parts thereof The Plain was already covered with dead bodies and drowned with blood on all sides the Air resounded with the cryes of wounded and dying men and every where the Battel put on a terrible and hideous face Here the Dacians sunk under the Arms of the Scythians and there the Scythians turned their backs to the Dacians the mixture of different Nations and their different manner of fighting increased the confusion and a great part of the day was past ere it could be discerned to which side the Victory would incline when the Princes Rivals in Menalippa's love impatient of the Victory and desiring to signalize themselves in carrying the prize of this glorious day began to make extraordinary Assaults the Princes of the Satarcheens and Arimaspes fell under the Swords of Phrataphern and Orosmenes those of the Aseens and Edoniens lost their lives by the hand of Euardes and Pharnaces Orchomenes wicked as he was fought with very much Valor but the brave Merodates though he had already slain the Chiefs of the Agripeens and Antarians and defeated the Enemy wheresoever he addrest himself yet not satisfied with his Valor unless it had performed some more important Service and knowing that the death of the King of Scythia was the price of Menalippa it being the most equal revenge of the King her Fathers death he sought him on every side and desired nothing more than to sacrifice his life to Amalthea's resentments nor was it hard to find him for this valiant Prince maugre the dignity of his Age which though still vigorous might well have cooled that boyling heat that commonly hurries men into such dangers ran from Rank to Rank carrying Death and Victory wherever he went and bathing himself in the blood of his Enemies Merodates having pierced many Squadrons and Battalions met him at last and knowing him by divers marks King of Scythia cryed he I come to receive death from thy hands or to sacrifice thee to the Ghost of Decebalus and the resentments of Amalthea disdain not to turn thine Arms against me I am Merodates King of the Taurique Chersonese The King of Scythia had neither intent nor leisure to answer these words but covering himself with his Buckler prepared to receive his powerful Adversary and to overthrow with him the effect of this cruel menace At the first stroaks these two Princes mutually knew each others Valor and though Merodates was in the flower of his Youth and valiant amongst the most valiant yet he soon understood that this Victory was not so soon or easily to be obtained as he imagined but whilst these two Princes fought obstinately in despight of the throng of those who indeavoured to part them and Orontes busied wholly to defend his life against the fury of Merodates was constrained to quit the function of a General Barzanes taking advantage of this disorder charged the Scythian Troops with so much vigor and was so well seconded by Phrataphernes Euardes Pharnaces and Orosmanes that defeating the Etheens Cameens and the Histians with their Princes made the Scythian Army stagger and at length visibly give ground Barzanes and his valiant Companions knowing their advantage made use thereof with prudence and courage and at last perceived a large path to Victory but on that side where the King Orontes fought with Merodates advantagiously enough they saw appear a body of Cavalry of some two thousand Horse conducted by a man covered with black Arms who entring the Battel with an impetuosity to which the already wearied Troops were forced to give place carrying a terrible disorder to that side against which he addrest himself he that headed these succors struck like lightning or
men attend the furious Prince but scarce had he seen the fall of some of them by that redoubted hand but repenting his rashness he trembled waxt pale under his Arms and designed a retreat amongst his Souldiers when the irritated Prince maugre their resistance who would have opposed thrust his Sword through his body chasing thence his disloyal soul not suffering it to rejoyce in the crime of that day After the death of Orchomenes who was seconded valiantly by all his subjects and all cut in pieces by that mighty hand which past from them amongst the Bithinians and seeing the proud Euardes at their head he cast himself like a Lyon upon him and at two blows with his Sword deprived him of life The Bithinians lost courage at the death of their Prince and falling soul on those that followed had caused by their disorder the loss of the whole day if Barzanes on the one side and Merodates on the other had not rallied the fugitives and fortified those trembling Troops with the best assurance they could yet not so happily but that by the valour of Alcimedon and the King his Father and divers brave Princes who fought under their Ensigns a geart part of the Dacian Army were Routed Day now as the time before was Alcamenes greatest Enemy his Victory had been intire if the darkness which covered the face of the Earth had not hindred The Dacians lost more than twenty five thousand men but the Scythians not above ten thousand Barzanes and Merodates caused a retreat to be sounded and Orontes whom the effusion of so much blood had filled with compassion did the like and permitted the Dacians to retire to their Camp But doubtless great Princesses this long relation hath been troublesome to you and if you please I will defer the rest to another day This Princesses who had given great attention to the discourse of Megacles would not permit him to leave off and having assured him that they should hear the continuation without incommodity he causing Lights to be set up in the Chamber by reason the day began to fail thus continued his Discourse The end of the third BOOK THE HISTORY OF ALCAMENES and MENALIPPA BOOK IIII. THE success of this day in all likelihood ought to have given as much satisfaction to the King of Scythia as displeasure and confusion to his Enemies and it is certain that by this notable loss and the little hopes there was left of their remaining forces the Dacians could not expect a favourable event to this War this fill'd him with joy and fortified his hopes but his content could not but be imperfect whil'st he observed the grief or rather the despair of Alcamenes This disconsolate Prince instead of rejoycing at his Victory and the grand actions he had done that day being retired from the place of Battel with all the marks of rage and fury in his eyes and face entred his Chamber which he fastned upon him and threw himself on a Bed not permitting any to see him or search some light wounds he had received The King who was advertized thereof went to his Chamber and by the priviledge of his authority saw him and caused him to permit the dressing of his wounds but could not diminish his sadness nor cause him to enter into any conversation He conceived this violent displeasure proceeded from the dishonour he might fancy the fighting with a woman had brought to his Arms and after he had done his indeavor to comfort him upon this accident supposing time would do the rest he bid him Good night and retired to his Chamber It was some comfort to the Prince to find himself alone and this solitude served to represent the cause of his griefs more lively than before The sight of Menalippa an Amazon and of Menalippa arm'd against his life had rather increased than diminisht his love and the hatred of that irritated Princesse which in likelihood ought to have lessened his affection seemed to have given new forces to torment him She appeared under those Arms and in that condition wherein he had seen her subject to his victorious Sword more charming than ordinary but after he had some time dwelt upon this Idea he remembred that he had fought against this so beautiful and beloved Warriour that he had drawn blood from her fair body and offered his menacing Blade to her adored face this thrust him into an unsupportable grief and from grief he past to a mortal dispair He considered how great a hatred it must be that could drive her to such extremities he call'd to remembrance how fruitless all his submissions were after he had put himself into a posture of approaching her and in what horrible fury he had left her when he was constrained to separate from her From thence running over all the circumstances of his misfortune seeking the cause with incredible torment yet could not he imagine what it might be unless that either Cleomenes had betray'd him which he could not imagine or that he had been betrayed in the place where he lay that night and carried to the Dacian Camp and there constrained to declare that Alcimedon was Alcamenes and that the innocent delusion was discovered which he had made use of as an evasion in that Caprice whereinto Fortune had throwa him he was confirmed in this belief by the words which Menalippa spake in the Combate and by the reproach she cast upon him for his Treasons committed in the obscurity of the Wood and having setled his perswasions here Ah me said he is Alcimedon Alcamenes Son to the enemy of Amalthea but is it true also that Alcamenes is Alcimedon who hath rendred so important services to the Crown of Dacia who hath loved Menalippa a thousand times more than his life and who hath had the happinesse to be loved by her I ought to have believed amiable and cruel Princesse that your affection to Alcimedon would not erace your hatred to Alcamenes and that you were generous enough to stifle in the hatred of your House a particular affection if in knowing me for Alcamenes you knew me for the Son of your Enemy yet you have learnt thereby that Alcimedon was no Impostor when he profest himself to be a great Prince and when he promised to give you the Crown of Scythia But blind that I am said he a little after ought I not to remember an evil that hath cost me so many tears and have I not proved that without the assistance of Alcamenes Alcimedon was sufficiently odious to Menalippa and that cruel banishment wherein I have lingered so many unfortunate days hath it not sufficiently declared the hatred of my Princesse and could I hope that the knowledge of Alcamenes to a heart already pique'd against Alcimedon would produce any other effects than those unfortunate one I now suffer Ah Gods added he if it might be permitted me to murmure against you I would reproach you with the falsity of your promise for
already acquainted you with Are you so much in love with my grief as to be delighted with the unhappy demonstrations I give you of it Or would you have me out of a reflection upon so many acknowledgements as I have made of my unhappiness weaknesse and cowardice to dye for shame and confusion before you If it must be so my dearest Emilia I am content and since you are and ever shall be while I have a minute to breathe the onely person to whom I shall discover my misfortune I am willing my most secret imaginations should passe out of my heart into yours and wish you may be moved with pitty for the misery which my inflexible destiny hath forced me into I say my destiny Emilia for it is that onely that I can justly charge with all the misfortunes I am fallen into Do not imagine it any effect of the celestial vengeance upon me for the rigour I expressed towars Julius Antonius Though I have contribted very much to his absence and am charged as the occasion of it yet have I not been troubled with the least remorse for any deportments of mine towards him Being Cicero 's Daughter I could not upon the first addresses of his affection to me be obliged to entertain any such thing from him and reflecting on the death of Cecinna whom being to be my Husband within three daies he killed in my sight upon my account I was certainly dispensed from whatever the expressions of his love might require of me in his favour And yet the powers of Heaven are my Witnesses that I never hated him that I never wished him any ill fortune that I have acknowledged his great worth and that I do at this day confess notwithstanding my present sentiments that he is as great as to point of merit and as amiable as to his person as Ptolomey is himself So that there is no ground to imagine that the gods should inslict all this as a punishment of my cruelty but that it proceeds meerly from my destiny which in this emergency acts against me as it hath done through all the misfortunes that have happened to our house But my dearest Tullia replied Emilia since you would not be flattered in your passion may it not be represented to you that the same reasons which you alledged against the love and merits of Julius Antonius before he became an impardonable criminal by the death of Cecinna might with much more ground be urged against the affection which you have conceived for his Brother since that not being obliged to him for any the least demonstration of love you cannot but look on him as the Son of Anthony which he is you know no less than his Brother I am no question replyed Tullia obliged by the same reasons to do the one as the other at least in some part for yet I might tell you did I stand upon my justification that Ptolomey is not by his birth such a criminal to us as his Brother was since that he is Son to Queen Cleopatra who contributed nothing to the death of Cicero and not to Fulvia who alone engaged Anthony in that design and exercised her cruelty upon the body of my Father even after death by a many abominable indignities but such was my misfortune that I could not make use of them and I need not tell you that in those of this nature the assistances of reason are not always infallible You may further argue that I have hardly seen Ptolomey above once that he is a Prince younger than my self by five or six years and a person that neither does nor haply will love me while he lives All the answer I have to make to these Objections is That my misfortunes are so much the more to be bemoaned and that the rather out of a consideration that I have not contributed any thing thereto my self and have endured this violence to tyrannize over my heart without the least complyance of my will Pitty me then if you please Emilia and charge me not with an offence which I see no reason I should take upon me T is not in the power of either Vertue or the Study of Philosophy to make us uncapable of passions but onely teach us how to struggle with them and if they have not been able to make good the little garrison of my heart against the assaults of that which now disturbs my quiet they will so weaken it as that it shall not produce therein any effects that may stain my reputation at the present or my memory hereafter I have been able to look on the Son of Anthony but it seems under an unhappy constellation which made me indeed but too sensible of what I thought amiable in his person I have been able to preserve the remembrance of it too dearly for my own quiet I cannot think of him without tenderness I can speak of him with delight I can communicate my sufferings to you I can sigh and as you see weep and bewayle this sad exchange of my condition But this Emilia is all that this destructive passion can work in my soul so that all the tempests it is able to raise there shall not eclipse those lights of wisdom which it is not in the power of any blindness to extinguish I can pine away yet conceale from all the World Emilia only excepted the reason why I do so and if I must endure even to death it self I can easily do it not onely rather than open my lips but rather than become guilty of a wish that should any way stain my reputation or cast a blemish on the former part of my life But when all is done replies Emilia to speak sincerely could you not wish that Ptolomey loved you or can you with all your Wisdom and Philosophy oppose such a wish To this Tullia could not for some minutes make any positive answer but having a little after shaken off that suspence and reassuming the discourse with a certain blush wherewith Lentulus could perceive her face all covered The desire of being loved said she by that which one loves is a thing so natural in us that I durst not tell you that I did not wish my self loved by Ptolomy but you are withal to assure your self that this wish is so innocent as not to injure my vertue nay I must adde thus much that though it should prove effectual yet would not my condition be any thing the more fortunate and that Ptolomey himself though he should love me should not know while he lived that I ever had any affection for him I should avoid him as an enemy though he were dearer to me than my own life nay though it shoúld cost me this very life I should keep to the last gasp from the knowledge of all the earth those sentiments which have broke forth to that of all the Romans But what is then your meaning replyed Emilia what course do you intend to take in order to your own
demonstration of the innocence and fidelity of Elisena did at the first reflection on it stick a sword into my heart much more cruel than that wherewith I had pierced her brest and the sight of that unfortunate person now no more Cleontes but one of the handsomest Ladies in the World wounded my soul with the most violent affliction that it is capable of Certain it is that some other person endued with a greater tendernesse of mind than I who have ever been of a fierce and harsh disposition had not survived so deplorable an accident and yet such as I was I really felt in my heart whatever a lively and piercing grief can have in it of torment After I had recollected my self for some time in the hands of those persons who had taken away my sword from me as having gathered from the fury of my looks that it was not unlikely I might do my self a mischief I drew neerer to that expiring Lady making signs to others to endeavour to help her when perceiving my intention Stand away cruel man said she to me and come not neer me Thy assistance is more hateful to me then the death thou hast given me and since the unfortunate Elisena whose death I have unhappily been the occasion of is no 〈◊〉 â—iving oppose not the last demonstrations of the friendship I had for her and suffer 〈◊〉 to expire without any other regret than that of having sacrificed to my misfortune a 〈◊〉 so vertuous as she was O Elisena Elisena since my last kisses proved so fatal to thee learn among the dead where I am coming to enjoy thee again that I was 〈◊〉 to survive thee and that I run after thee to continue among the shades that frienâ—ship which was so dear to us here As she uttered these words she saw passing by the body of Elisena which they were carrying out of the Garden and at that sight crying out louder than her weaknesse could bear she withal sent out her last breath in the arms of those that were come about to relieve her Among those that came immediatly after a young Gentlewoman that served her and who after her example disguised her sex by mans cloaths casting her self upon the body as soon as she could get neer it made the aire echo again with her cryes and her lamentations and did a many things worthy compassion which I was not in a condition to take notice of for that at the sight of the body of Elisena which they had very indiscreetly caused to be carryed close by me I grew absolutely senseless and distracted and was conveyed away and cast upon my bed where I was carefully looked after out of a fear I should have fallen into despaire When I had a little recovered my self I ran to the place where they had laid the body of Elisena and giving it thousands of kisses with an affection equal to that I had for her at the beginning of our unfortunate marriage I did all that lay in my power to dye neer her and have a thousand times since wondred that my grief alone should not be strong enough to do that which no doubt I should have done with my sword had I been left at liberty Her innocency and her vertue being then but too too well known to me I became a continual prey to that remorse and those implacable furies which unmercifully torment the soul and looking on my self as a Dragon or some horrid monster I made against my self the most terrible imprecations that a man could make against his most inveterate enemies From the body of Elisena I went to that unfortunate companion and partaker of her death and though I had not had any affection for her while she lived yet had the unhappinesse of her destiny such an influence upon me and she had appeared to me so amiable even in the last minutes of her life and in the last words she spoke that my soul was possessed by something greater then compassion and I was no lesse liberal of my tears for her death then for that of Elisena When I was so far recovered as that I could apprehend any thing was sad to me I was very desirous to know who she was and the Gentlewoman that had waited on her and who after her death had no reason to conceal what she had kept secret while she lived being brought before me though she could not look on me without horrour and detestation and being informed what my desires were gave me this account of her Since you are so desirous to know said she to me who this unfortunate woman whom you have put to death was I shall soon satisfie you to your sorrow for with that you shaâ—l know what enemies you have raised your self by your crueltie She was born among the Parthians of an extraction that is equally noble with any of the subjects of Phraates and was allyed on both sides to the Illustrious Family of the Arsacides Her name was Artesia and her beauty such when it appeared in its meridian lustre under cloaths suitable to her sex that the World can afford but few comparable to her She hath neglected it very much ever since and indeed hath had no great reason to be much in love with it because it hath proved the occasion of all the misfortunes that hath happened to her Being brought up about the Queen as a Princesse that could claime some kindred to her and having in a short time discovered to the whole Court as well the beauty of her countenance as that of her understanding she was there generally beloved but indeed much more than she desired to be insomuch that the amiablenesse of her person having enflamed Phraates with an affection towards hâ—r she became accordingly the object of his cruel persecution She endured the torment of it for some time with an admirable vertue and endeavoured to smother the extravagant inclinations of the King by all those wayes which in any other soul might have produced that effect But her modesty and resistance adding to the eagernesse of the Kings love he would at last needs come to violence and without any consideration of the noblenesse of Artesia's bloud which was no other than a branch of his own he laid a design how to put his wicked resolutions in execution upon her This vertuous Lady whose Father had been dead many years before destitute of all protection against her King and that such a King as to whom after he had put to deaâ—â— his own Father all crimes ought to be easie and familiar had no way but to flye to deliver her vertue from that tempest and there being no way for her to conceal her self from so great a King but by disguising her sex she put on mans cloaths and causing me to do the like 〈◊〉 onely me along with her in her flight and two ancient men-servants of her Fathers whose fâ—delity she was confident of After several journies to and fro wherein she had
knew my voice Whereupon having called me softly by my name he acquainted me with his own and not long after with his person whereof I had an impression so well graven in my memory that it would not have been very hard for me to dave discerned him in the greatest darknesse While Clitia gave this account of Caesario the beautifull Queen was in a manner overwhelmed with an excesse of joy which by a pleasant authority got the dominion of her Soul and though fear and disquiet endeavoured to disturb it yet was there a necessity they should give place to the first sallies of that passion and suspend their effect till the first violence of the other were spent The Queen casting one arme abount Clitia's neck Ah Clitia said she to her it is certainly decreed that it is from you I must expect all the most happy tidings and it was you that heretofore brought me word into the garden at Meroe of the life and return of Caesario at a time when I bewailed his death and that I had renounced all the enjoyments of life After she had said these words she would have put a hundred questions to Clitia and that all of a sudden upon that accident but she told her that the time she had was to be otherwise spent and that she must resolve either to see Caesario at the place where he expected her return or permit him to come into the chamber Now was it that fear begâ—â— to disturb her joy and if on the one side she were satisfied to see her self so near the Prince she dearly loved she trembled on the other when she considered that he was in a Palâ—â—â— whereof Augustus's Lieutenant had the command and that a place where he must expeâ—t no less than to lay down his life if he were discovered This fear made her to shake again and put her to such a loss that she knew not what resolution to take looking sometimes on Elisa sometimes on Clitia as if it had been to ask their advice what she were best to do The fair Princess of the Parthians who had received so great consolations from the Queen together with such remarkable demonstrations of Friendship conceived her self extreaâ—â—y concerned not onely in the joy but also in the fear which she now strugled with and would have been as glad as the other to find out a way to see Caesario with as little danger as might be But after they had continued for some time in uncertainty and at a loss what course should be taken they at last thought it the safest way that he should be brought into the Chamber it being then such a time of the night that it was not likely they should be troubled with any more visits especially there being conveniences enough to hide him in case it were necessary and that Clitia proffered as soon as she had brought him into the Chamber to go out upon the terrace along with Cephisa and to walk there a while to see if any body came by whom they might be surprised Besides all which it made something for the security of the Prince that he was not only not known in Alexandria but also his death was more firmly believed there than in any other part of the world Upon all these grounds summed up together yet not without a great deal of doubt and terrour the Queen commanded Clitia to go fetch him in whereupon Elisa thinking her self obliged in discretion and civility to go into her own Chamber that they might be at a greater freedome in that interview would have done it but Candace embracing her would not permit it and entreated her to be present at her felicity as she had been at the happy meeting between her and her Artaban Elisa at the entreaty of Candace staies in the room and presently after Clitia returns bringing along with her the son of Caesar into the Chamber At that first sight these two excellent souls felt in a moment all that a passion such as theirs could produce in a longer space of time and their first looks communicated one to another of an instant what their hearts meant of greatest tenderness and passion As soon as ever the Prince appeared at the door the Queen ran towards him with an action whence he might easily infer how welcome his presence was to her and the son of Cleopatra kissed her hands and embraced her knees with such transportations of joy as might well convince her that his Love had not admitted of the least diminution or remission Candace after she had embraced him very earnestly with both her armes while he was yet in that submissive posture raised him up and entertained him with all those Caresses which were suitable to her dignity and modesty considering withal the violence of her affection During the first expressions of their mutual satisfaction and joy their discourse was accordingly confused and incoherent but when the violence of those were over Candace retreating some few paces back as it were to take the better notice of the Prince What Cleomedon said she to him the gods it seems have thought fit to restore you to me after so many dangers as I had run through my self and so many others wherein I had left you But Madam replies the Prince it was then decreed I should find you after I had so unfortunately lost you and what is more I do not only find you living and full of goodness for me but I meet with you in Alexandria in the Palace of my Fathers and in that very Chamber wherein I drew the first mouthful of air and saw the first beams of light 'T is an accident I must confess replies Candace that speaks something extraordinary and if you are surprised at it I must needs be not a little moved thereat O how does this second life which I here receive added the Prince make the Palace of the Ptolomey 's much more dear and precious in my apprehension then the former which I ought it and how easily can I bear with the loss of the command of it when I find therein what is a thousand times more dear to me then thousands of Empires and thousands of lives To this discourse he would have added much more to the same effect and the beautiful Queen whose affection was not inferiour to his though out of the civility and reservedness suitable to her sex she moderated her self the more looked on him with a certain delight and had pleasantly seconded him her self in the expressions of his love had she not thought it unhandsome to suffer any more before the Princess of the Parthians till Caesario had taken notice of her and saluted her Upon that account mildly interrupting him she obliged him to turn towards Elisa and prepared him to salute her as the greatest Princess upon earth and the best friend she had in the World Caesario however he might be transported at the sight of Candace was astonished and in a manner dazled
of assistance and out of the fear he was in it might so come to pass he importuned Heaven with cries and exclamations and did all that lay in his power to call in some body to our relief Yet were they not his cries that wrought that effect but it happened by an adventure very strange and unexpected whereof for many reasons I thought fit to give the Queen but a slender and imperfect account but shall now relate at large since it hath been your pleasure to command it from me I had already made a shift to open my eies fully though all I could do was only to stir them a little when Eteocles hears the neighing of certain horses and the noise of their going which made him imagine that there were some people coming towards us He thereupon looks about him and perceives a Chariot coming into the field among the dead bodies wherewith it was covered and a man riding on horse-back before the Chariot as if he had been a guide to those persons that were within it Those were only two women one whereof filled the aire with the dolefulness of her Lamentations and there followed the Chariot only three slaves all a-soot At last when they were come quite into the field the heaps of dead bodies hindering the passage of the Chariot the Women that were within it were forced to alight and the Man that was on horse-back having done the like took the more considerable of the two by the arme and led her towards the place where we were Eteocles whom this accident put into a great hopes of relief took very much notice of all that passed and distinctly heard the mournful cries and expostulations of that disconsolate Lady which certainly were such as might have been heard many Stadia's Her hair was loose and dishevelled as if she had been fallen into some extravagance her eies showred down tears her breast almost rent with the violence of her sighes in a word her deportment was no other then that of a person distracted and ready to fall into despair Terrible death cried she implacable devourer of mankind which appearest to me here in so many formes it is possible that in this place where thou hast exercised thy power with so much cruelty thou shouldst forbear to dispatch one miserable creature that defies thee or that thou canst deny her thy assistance after thou hast deprived her of all that could oblige her to shun thy face Insatiable Goddess to whom my malicious Fortune hath sacrificed all that the earth had that was amiable in my sight is it possible thou shouldst avoid an unfortunate Woman as I am while thou cuttest off such noble lives and that more inhumane in thy compassion than thy cruelty thou must needs strike a thousand times at a heart which there needs but one blow to deliver from thy Tyranny Here sighs and sobs made a parenthesis in her discourse for some minutes but soon after reassuming it with an accent much more doleful Teramenes continued she my dear Teramenes where art thou why dost thou conceale thy self from me O thou body that I have loved beyond all things why dost thou hide thy self from her eies that was sometimes so dear to thee Art thou afraid thy countenance covered with the horrours of death may frighten me or that it will be a less delightful object to me in that figure then it was in that wherein I was so much taken with it No no my dearest Teramenes even under that dreadful livery under that irremissible ice of death I shall think thee amiable and it may not haply be impossible I should by my kisses restore to thee some part of that which thou hast lost and reinfuse into thy cold body that soul which thou hadst enflamed with a fire that death it self is not able to put out At this passage she made a little truce with her Lamentations but it lasting not above a minute or two she turns her self to the man that conducted her But Pelorus said she to to him where is then the body of Teramenes You shewed me in this place with a confidence it was that where I should infallibly find it and yet among this vast number of carkases I see not that of my Teramenes Fear not Madam replied the man to whom she spake it will not be long e're we find it for now we are come to the place where I saw him fall yesterday by the hands of Cleomedon No doubt but he came by his own death out of the over earnestnesse he had to revenge that of your Brothers who died by the same hand in the former battle as also out of an excessive desire to have the honour of dispatching with his own hands a Prince of so great a fame Cleomedon falling at his feet drew him upon him and with that little remainder of strength he was yet master of ran him into the throat with a dagger which he had still in his hand Teramenes though mortally wounded with that thrust made a shift to get off the body of the expiring Cleomedon but after he had staggered a little he fell down within some ten paces of him and by reason of the bloud which coming out abundantly hindred his respiration died immediately Ah cruell man cries out the Lady ah inhumane stranger whom I had never any waies injured and that leavest thy native soile to bring death after so many severall waies into the breast of the innocent Erinoe May it please the gods since I have no other revenge either to take or desire upon thee that thy body may be the prey of Vultures and that thy shade may eternally wander amongst the most unfortunate ones without ever obtaining of the infernal Gods any other rest then what thou leavest this miserable woman Thou hadst opened the sluces of my tears by the death of a brother I infinitely loved which thy unmerciful arms had deprived me of not many dayes before but thou thoughtst it not sufficient to assault my self only upon the account of Blood and Friendship without sacrificing to thy cruelty whatever there is in Love that is most passionate and most violent in the death of my Teramenes While she disburthened her grief by such expostulations he who conducted her shewed her the body she looked after which lay not above fifteen or twenty paces from us and it was upon the cruel spectacle that the desperate woman casting her self on the cold body with a great cry fell into a swound which for some time interrupted her lamentations and found those persons that were about her work enough to relieve her For my part I had not the least apprehension of any thing that passed though I had my eyes open wherewith all I could do was to look on the dejected Eteocles But he had not missed one of these words and was infinitely troubled to find himself so far from the relief he had expected upon that accident as not doubting but that I should
be discovered and known by those exasperated persons if they saw me and that in the rage which then possessed them they would take away those small remainders of life there were in me rather then any way relieve me On the other side he saw me drawing towards my end was sensible he should dye himself if he were not assisted and in that perplexity nor knowing what resolution to vain to take he lifted up his eyes to Heaven and desired that of the gods which he thought it expect from men In this interim the woman comes to her self again and immediately discovered it by her mournful groans and lamentations she embraced the frozen carkase and bestowed thousands of kisses on a face all covered with bloud and that with such transportation as from whose violence Eteoclss could infer no lesse then that that of her love had been extraordinanary Dearest Teremanes said she sometime the enlivening light of my dayes but now a Luminary eclipsed by the interposition of eternal darknesse Are these the happy Nuptialls that were prepared for our loves and after the faithful test of so many traverses misfortunes is it in this fatal field that I was to enjoy thee Dear shade which by an unhuman thrust hast quited this body the object of my truest affections and wandrest yet about these shores in expectation of sepulture Infinitely beloved shade dost thou forsake me for ever And is it possible thou shouldst seek rest while thou leavest me in disturbances a thousand times more insupportable then that death which snatches thee from the embraces of thy faithful Eurinoe Many other exclamations to the same effect fell from her such as were the sad effects of her despair and which Eteocles would have hearkned to with more patience but the danger wherein we were or rather the desperate condition of our lives took up his thoughts so much that he could not afford her any longer attention But indeed it was not long e're he had another motive to discover us when the man that waited on that affiicted Lady being come neerer me and having presently known me out of a confidence he was of that I had fallen in that place and knew me very well by sight perceived withal that my eyes were open and that I was not quite dead They had not stripped me naked because of the abundance of bloud that was about my cloaths but they had taken away the excellent armour wherein I had fought and whereby I was so remarkable in the battel Eteocles had wiped the bloud off my face so that the man could with lesse difficulty know me again and thereupon returning immediately to his Lady Madam said he to her if revenge may abate any thing of your greif lay hold on the opportunity which the gods favour you with to offer a noble sacrifice to the Manes of Teramenes Here behold not onely his murderer but the murderer also of your Brother is yet alive and the just gods seem to have reserved those little remainders of life which he hath yet left purposely that they might in some measure satisfie your revenge Never did any Tigress fly out with so much fury at those that had carried away her young ones as that exasperated and desperate Woman did upon those cruel words She laies hands on a dagger which she spyed lying on the ground among other armes and running to the place where the man pointed she was immediately with me looking on me with eyes sparkling with indignation yet so as through which satisfaction she conceived at her intended revenge did in certain intervals shew it self Teramenes cryed she I am now going to sacrifice to thee all that is remaining of thy Executioner and shall meet with thee again with greater joy when I shall have appeased thy Manes with this victime With these words she comes up close to me who was lying on my back with my face directed to Heaven and my eyes open which I weakly fastened on the objects yet so as that I was not able to discern what past and lifting up her arm to thrust the weapon into my breast it was coming downwards upon me when Eteocles lifting himself half up put forth his hand and laying hold of hers with greater force then in all probability he seemed to have had in him Hold thy hands cruel Woman said he to her spare the blood of the gods and do not by thy cruelty shorten for some few minutes the noblest life in the World Eurinoe was so surprised both at the action and the words of Eteocles that the dagger fell out of her hands and she was at such a loss as to all resolution that she could only look on the man whom the gods seemed to have purposely raised up to prevent the effect of her resolution But at last her passion being still the most predominant in her mind her rage grew more violent then it had been before and running to another weapon which she saw not far from her Do not hope said she to Eteocles thou shalt divert me from the sacrifice which I owe my Teramenes and be content with this comfort that his Executioner hath but those weak remnants of life where as I should wish him a hundred lives that I might take a nobler revenge of them altogether With these words she comes to me on the other side and at a place where the assistance of Eteocles would have stood me in no stead desirous to execute her revenge with a greater satisfaction she would needs look upon me and so as she lifted up her arm fixed her eyes on my countenance Eteocles hath told me since that even in that languishing posture wherein I then appeared to the sight of Eurione there was something in me more beautiful then ordinary my eyes looked more gently because I looked more dejectedly then I should have done otherwise and my hair stained with blood in some places playing with my cheeks by reason of a little wind that then blew heightned the little beauty which still remained in my face whereof the paleness must needs be thought an extraordinary whiteness in a Country where ordinary degrees of whiteness are thought rare and admired I fine for my part I know not with what advantage I appeared in the sight of that incensed Woman but the arm she had lifted up remained in that posture and at the same time having gently turned my eies upon her with a feeble groane her indignation was disarmed at that object and the weapon fell out of her hand the second time The man that waited upon her thinking he did her a very acceptable service in egging her on to take the intended revenge put the weapon into her hand the third time and encouraging her to the action she would have done was ready to help her to put it in execution when the woman looking very passionately upon him Hold thy hands said she to him it is not the pleasure of the gods that I should put
him setting themselves before him many were laid on the ground that I was forced to dispatch to come up to his person At last we came together notwithstanding the opposition of our men and running at him full of fury The day is now come Tyrant said he to him that thou must render up the Crown with thy own life into the bargain He made me some answer which I could not hear by reason of the noise and the heat I was then in and received with me a resolution not much different from what I brought But being ever and anon hindred by our men who came in between us and that especially by his who fell upon me on all sides I grew the more eager to determine the difference and that was it had almost cost me my life I had made two blows at Tiribasus with such good fortune that they gave two wounds whereupon he began to look on me as one that sought with a certain confidence of victory when my horse by reason of many hurts he had received sell down so of a sudden that I had much ado to get my feet out of the stirrups and to stand before Tiribasus who taking me at that advantage was upon the point of running over me I could not avoid the shock of his horse in somuch that he had almost overthrown me but in that posture leaning on my own horse that lay dead between my legs with my left hand I with my right thrust my sword into the belly of his so that when he was coming at me he felt him falling down under him In that interim I closed with him to avoid the shock of his men and in that disorder finding a place unarmed I run him with my sword through the body Tiribasus stretched forth his arms as he was falling with his horse but in regard that I stood neer him he very furiously cast himself on me and by his weight forcing me to the ground he fell upon me as he breathed out his last and fastned on me in such a manner that I found it no small difficulty to get from under him all goared and covered with his bloud The danger I was in by reason of that disadvantage had been very great had I not been relieved by diverse stout men who rescued me from the rage of Tiribasus's friends and notwithstanding all they could do got me on horseback again This Madam was the fate of Tiribasus the usurper of your Dominions and your precious Liberty and you may see in it how that the just gods decreed he should perish by his hands to whom of all men that revenge was most due Upon his death those that were of his party were so lost as to courage and resolution that the most eager in the cause could hardly be gotten to fight much longer When I saw the resistance they made was very weak and that some were running away in the streets casting away their arms I considered Madam that they were your subjects and thereupon out of a desire to spare their bloud I cryed and caused it to be cried up and down that if they laid down their arms the Queen would give them their lives would forgive all that was past Som particular friends of Tiribasus would not accept of this proffer but would needs be killed and among the rest Eurinoe's Brother whose life I would gladly have saved for his Sisters sake but all the rest perceiving there was no safety but by that means and having for the most part sided with Tiribasus purely out of fear laid down their arms and cried up and down God save Queen Candace I immediately thereupon sent orders every where that none should be put to the sword and it was so religiously observed that after some few minutes there was no more bloud spilt All those of Tiribasus's party went in among the Citizens who had laid down their arms as soon as I was gotten out of the Palace and our men though in arms and victorious began to treat the others as their Country-men and companions Oristhenes who having been set on horseback again by the relief which I had sent him had joined with me and behaved himself with abundance of valour rid all about the City by my order and so appeased the remainders of the disorder that when the dead bodies were removed out of the streets it could hardly be imagined there had been any fight All things being thus composed I sent out orders that the more considerable of those that had followed Tiribasus as well Citizens as souldiers should come to me in one of the most spacious places in the City and after I had entertained them with a discourse which it were not fit to trouble you with a recital of wherein having in the first place represented to them the greatnesse of their crime I made them in the next apprehensive of that of your goodness who were gratiously pleased even at a time that they might be punished with severity to pardon them so horrid an infidelity and forget all that was past provided that for the future they did those things which were expected from them And that I exhorted them to do with a true remorse and to repair their crime by a fidelity as remarkable as their defection had been All the inhabitants answered me with cries and tears and pronouncing your name on their knees they called all the gods to witness the sincerity of their intentions and protested they had done nothing against you but by force and out of the fear they were in of the power of Tiribasus The souldery for the most part returned me the same answer so that after I had taken a new oath of allegiance from them all in your name I dismissed the Assembly permitting all to follow their occasions and such as had friends dead to bury them I also gave way that those that pretended a more particular affection to Tiribasus should take away his body in order to an honourable enterrement as knowing Madam your generosity to be such as permits not your resentments to go beyond death And thereupon having my thoughts wholly taken up with you and yet not thinking it safe to leave Meroe that very day for fear of the accidents that might happen upon so sudden a revolution I sent Clinias Expresse to you to give you an account of all that had past and to intreat you to remain at Bassa till the next day at which time I should have waited on you bringing along with me your people of Mâ—roe who were infinitly desirous of your return Having gone so far I spent all the rest of the day and some part of the night in pacifying and composing all things and considering the shortnesse of the time there was such order taken that it was hardly perceiveable that there had been any revolt in Ethiopia But what grief it was to me what distraction I was in the gods onely know the next day when I found Clinias
disposition to re-inforce my heart with a new supply of Hopes But Despair having possessed it self of the place it would have proved a hard attempt to get in any So that at last not able to endure company nor resist the violence of my affliction I thought it my only way to prosecute the design I had resolv'd on some days before and engage in the War then breaking forth in Pannonia I thought it best to depart thence without taking leave of any one and forbear going to Rome though I was not sufficiently furnished with things necessary yet had enough for one defi'd Death so much that he cared not how soon he met with him as not doubting but that Cicero and Scipio and all my Friends would use all possible endeavours to divert me from my Design and put such rubs in my way that it would prove hard for me to execute it To this end Cicero having appointed a Hunting-match the next day I thought a fairer opportunity to be gone could not be expected it being likely no notice would have been taken of my departure and that having given my people order to expect me with my Horses at a place I should appoint them upon the way I intended to take I might easily slip aside and meet with them without any bodies observing it before night For the rest I referred my self to the disposal of my Destiny that which was most occurrent to my thoughts being that I was without any further consideration to run upon my own Death Having thus setled all things in order to my Design I writ that night a Letter to Tullia to be delivered to her after my departure whereof the words were these LENTULUS to TULLIA I Am now preparing for my death inexorable Tullia since it is the only remedy I can imagine wil put a period to my misfortune and I shall not complain either of that Destroyer of Man-kind or of You if while I die for your sake I have the happiness to please you after I had displeased you while I lived I charge you not with my misfortune but sacrifice what I am now going to lose in some measure to the grief I have for yours The Gods know that if the remedies that should abate it had been possibly attainable I should gladly have sacrificed the remainders of my quiet to gain them and that I should have resisted my own misfortunes had they not been multiplied upon me by a fatal conjunction of yours If the Fates reserve you for a better Fortune I heartily pardon them their malice to me And as my Mind was disseated out of my self to be the more constantly attended on you so is it for you alone that it breaths out its last wishes and that it desires of the Gods you may find that which I never could for my self Farewel fairest Tullia I hasten to my death without any regret other than that of being eternally banished your presence and since Death it self can never force your fair image out of a faithful Mind have the compassion to bestow some few minutes of your precious remembrance on the memory of the unfortunate Lentulus Having written this Letter and given some order to my people about my departure yet without acquainting any of them with my Design I went to bed and having passed away the night in such disturbances as you may well imagine I got up in the morning long before any of those whom the love of Hunting had awak'd How fully soever I might be setled in my resolution yet could I not see Scipio and Cicero without some motion of grief and tenderness when I bethought my self I was so to leave them as never to see them again But my Despair having the absolute command of my Soul tyrannizing over all other impressions it might be capable of I soon silenced those that were any way contrary to my Design and having given my Letter to one of my men whom I was to leave behind with order to deliver it to Tullia two hours after our departure I got on Horse-back with the rest and follow'd them to the place where the Hunters met It was not long ere a Stag was put up and Cicero and Scipio being out of emulation earnest upon the pursuit thought it not strange that considering the weak condition I was in I should lag a little behind and were gotten a vast distance from me without the least jealousie of my Design When they were gotten out of sight after I had with the tears in my eyes mutter'd some few words whereby I took my last leave of them I wheel'd about and made towards the way I had resolved to take intending to lodge that night at Vellium where I had appointed my people to meet me and whence I should have sent one to Rome with order to meet me three days after at a place to be named to him with what Equipage were thought necessary for me To speak clearly and truly I knew not well what my intention was as having not determined any thing but with much confusion though this for one thing I had fully resolv'd never to appear among men again and to go and run upon a death that should prove much less cruel to me then the life I was so weary of As I rode along taken up with thoughts I called to mind the Destiny of Julius Antonius who six or seven years before had taken the same course for the same Tullia and left Rome with such another intention as mine and had not been heard of ever since Having made a comparison betwixt his Fortune and mine and reflected on the conformity between them Well said I lifting my eyes to Heaven since it is the Destiny of those that love Tullia to go and seek in Death the determination of their afflictions let us submit our selves thereto without repining and be not much troubled to meet with a Fortune suitable to that of Julius Antonius While my thoughts were entertained with these sad reflections getting still further from the place where I had left my Friends I was surpriz'd by a violent shower of Rain which in a short time made its way through my cloaths and met me as far as that liquid substance could find a passage The condition I was in took off much of the reflection I should have made on that inconvenience as to the body but at last it grew so great a Tempest together with Thunder Lightning and impetuous showrs of Hail that it was impossible to follow any way so that insensibly straying out of that which I was in and not able to get into it again I followed another which instead of carrying me further brought me nearer Cicero's House At last not able to go any further and my Horse being in a manner tired by reason of the Hail and Tempest falling heavy upon him I was forced to turn into certain houses which I perceived not much out of the way to stay till the violence of the weather
and spared those that forbore further resistance nay permitted them to relieve and look after their Prince if so be he were capable of it Having no more Enemies to engage with he alighted and running to Ismenia's Chariot he presented himself before her covered over with bloud and dust and in a condition that might have frightned her if â—he had not immediately called to mind the countenance of Arminius The joy he was in smother'd his speech but taking her by the hand he kissed it with such earnestness as would not suffer him of a long time to quit it Ismenia as having greater command of her self spoke first and endeavouring to overcome the disturbance that spectacle had raised in her apprehensions aâ—d to re-assume the wonted serenity of her looks Arminius said she to him I see you in a terrible posture after so strange a manner that I know not whether I can rejoyce at such a meeting with you If Arminius reply'd he be more dear to you then Marobodes you have reason to rejoyce but if you love Marobodes better then you do Arminius I confess you have but little ground to be glad I had no love for Marobodes replies Ismenia and Arminius cannot doubt but he is precious in my affections but I put a Father into an implacable indignation I am in the hands of a Lover whom he is an enemy to and I am the cause of all the bloud that hath been spilt in my sight Yet does not this hinder but that I am what I ever have been to you but it should not seem strange to you that all these things should disturb the joy it is to me to see you again and to escape the danger I was in never to have been yours Arminius answered this discourse of the Princess with words full of transportation and embraced her knees a long time notwithstanding her endeavours to make him forbear it My dearest Princess said he to her it stood not with the goodness of the Gods to suffer the injustice was done me and they have made the cruelty of Segestes contribute to my happiness Let all the world now arm it self against me nothing shall trouble my Fortune since I am at the feet of my Ismenia The Princess interrupted his transportations by asking him whether Marobodes were dead and she put that question to him with a disturbance whence he could not but perceive the compassion she was moved to Arminius called into her presence those who had taken care of him and they informed her that he was not dead but in great danger if he were not looked to Ismenia ordered him a Chariot wherein were some of her Women to carry him to the next Town where he might be relieved and discovered to those were left of his party the pity she had of his misfortune They departed with their Prince in the Chariot and Arminius himself expressed to them how much he was troubled for his wounds Upon which Ismenia desired to quit the place where the engagement had happened as conceiving a horrour at the sight of the dead bodies but when she was gone some distance from it causing the Chariot to stay and speaking to Arminius who rode by it Arminius said she to him I pray let me now know what your intentions are No other Madam reply'd he than to submit to yours even to death But how reply'd she do you intend to dispose of me I conceive says the Prince to her there is no place where you may be more sure or more powerfull than where you are to regin over the Cherusci and over Arminius since I cannot think you would return to Segestes I haply ought to do it reply'd she and dif I fear onely the treatment I might receive no doubt but I should But I am confident if ever I should see Segestes again I shall never be yours and that he would take such order hereafter as not to fear such an accident as hath now happened to him What reproach soever therefore I may make to my self for leaving a Father to go with a Lover I am resolved not to come near him nor shall I on the other side stay with you and you ought not to take it ill that having offended against Decency in the things that are most essential being by the malice of my Fortune forced thereto I should observe it in those I may without putting you into any danger of my loss Having uttered those words she cast her eyes on the countenance of Arminius and saw he looked earnestly on the ground with all the marks of a mortal affliction that he sigh'd not knowing what to answer her and could hardly refrain certain tears which would force their passage out What ails you Arminius said she seeing him in that posture speak Arminius and give me your advice to find out a secure and honourable place for my retreat in expectation of the change of my Fortune and the humour of Segestes I thought says Arminius to her after the saddest manner in the world that you could not have found one either more secure or more honourable than to be with a Prince whom you are willing to make your Husband and performing the Ceremony thereof put your self out of all fear both as to the reports of people and the displeasure of Segestes But since I have been so much mistaken and that haply I am still as unfortunate as ever I was in my life let us go Madam let us go to what part of the earth you think fit to retire to let us go if you think fit even into the arms of Segestes I shall be able to conduct you any where without repining leave you when you command me to do it and be the Authour of my own death without complaining when I shall have lost all my hopes He spoke these words after so pressing a manner and accompany'd them with so great discoveries of his grief that Ismenia's constancy immediately gave way and after she had continued a while as it were in suspence without answering him of a sudden taking her resolution and reaching him her hand Arminius said she to him I am yours and no question had you the full reward of your Love and Vertue you were worthy something of greater value than Ismenia Let us go to Clearchus since you desire it should be so I shall follow you thither without any repugnance and am satisfied that with such a Husband I shall not need fear ought as to the displeasure of a Father or the reproaches of men 'T were impossible for me to represent to you the joy Arminius conceived at this discourse of Ismenia's and I should spin out my relation to a tedious length to entertain you with all the particulars thereof I shall therefore onely tell you that after he had thousands of times embraced her knees and spoke the most passionate words imaginable to express his resentment to her he caused the Chariot to drive on and rode by it with his
disclaim it to those who might have a perfect knowledge of it And on the other side he thought it imprudence to discover what might be yet doubtfull and by that confession run the hazard of losing Candace who was dearer to him then his own life and without whom life signifi'd nothing with him Between these two considerations he was in some suspence what resolution he should take when Augustus observing what doubtfulness and perplexity he was in It is to no purpose said he to him to dissemble with us or to consult whether you should let us know you are Caesario we know all even to the least circumstances and Candace her self does not deny but that Cleomedon is Son to Caesar and Cleopatra Upon the hearing of these names of Candace and Cleomedon the Prince was fully satisfi'd of his misfortune and being unwilling to deny what he thought Candace had acknowledg'd 'T is very true said he to him Cleomedon is Son to Caesar and since Candace hath thought fit this truth should be known it is too advantageous for me to disclaim it I am Caesario and I am also Cleomedon Under this name I have haply done those actions which render me not unworthy the bloud of my Ancestors and the name you bear You are onely by adoption what I am by birth and bloud and name are common to us though our fortunes are much different I have not envied yours as thinking my own glorious enough in the service of Candace and purely out of the extraordinary inclinations I have had for her alone I have without any regret seen you in the place of him that brought me into the world I am apt to believe what you say replies the Emperour and withal willing to acknowledge that the noble actions of Cleomedon are not unknown to us and that they no less discover you to be the Son of Caesar then the resemblance you have of him in your countenance but you will give me leave to require some reason of your abode unknown in Alexandria and you are not to be much astonished if it hath raised some jealousies in us When you know replies the Son of Caesar that I serve the Queen of Aethiopia you will not much wonder I should endeavour to find her out even in Alexandria nor can you think it extraordinary I should conceal my self if you reflect on the Orders you sometime gave out against my life at a time when it was not fear'd I could do you much prejudice The same observations of policy replies the Emperour whereby the actions of persons of my rank are regulated may change their resolutions according to several times and exegenes and there may have been of the Orders you mention in one season a necessity in another none Howere it may be you will give me leave to examine those things whereof the knowledge does so much concern me and to find out how I may with safety treat you suitably to my inclinations rather then according to Maximes of State which are sometimes rigorous even contrary to their intentions who are obliged to follow them With those words he commanded Levinus to conduct him to a Castle not for from Alexandria where were commonly disposed Prisoners of quality and whither they had the day before carried the Prince of Mauritania but as he went away he bid him not fear any thing and commanded Levinus he should be treated and attended as Caesar's Son This personated kindness did Caesario look on as more dangerous then menaces and open discoveries of displeasure insomuch that he doubted not but Augustus had resolv'd his death though hedissembled his intention He departed without making him any reply and march'd away in the midst of the Guards which receiv'd him at the door towards the prison whither he was sent As he passed through the great Hall he met full butt with Candace led by Eteocles who transported with grief was come to give her notice of that misfortune and the fair Queen being wholly at a loss thereat and not thinking any observance of decency and feminine reservedness obliged her to smother her sentiments upon that occasion was running to the Emperor resolv'd to participate of the danger with her beloved Prince though her resolution were the greatest of any of her Sex yet could she not see him surrounded by a Guard without being so troubled thereat that for some time she was no better then in a swound though held up by Eteocles But seeing the Prince carried away she overcame her weakness and runing before him What Cleomedon said she to him is this the condition wherein you appear to me 'T is not Cleomedon replies the Prince 't is Caesario that is carried to Prison and it may be to his death it being in vain for me to conceal my name from Caesar after your acknowledgement of it to him Who I replied the Queen I discover your name to Caesar Ah Cleomedon or Caesario since you will have it so assure your self I know nothing of what you say and that before I should be guilty of a confession so prejudicial to you I would have endured all the torment that mans invention could have put me to And not be assured of this would speak more cruelty in you then in our mortal Enemies And if he who puts you into Chains shall be moved neither by my intreaties nor a respect to my dignity you shall find whether I make any difficulty to run fortunes with you May your preservation be the care of the Gods reply'd the Prince with a gesture wholly passionate but if it be their will I should die upon this occasion they know I shall do it without any other regret then that of losing you If you die replies the Queen you shall not die alone I shall as gladly accompany you to Death as to a Throne She would have said more if Levinus who was afraid his suffering that conversation might give offence after he had made some excuse to her caused the Prince to march on and carried him immediately out of the Hall leaving the Queen so struck at that cruel separation that notwithstanding all that great constancy whereof the had made so many discoveries she fell into a swound between their arms who stood about her to hold her up She was in that condition and the unfortunate Eteocles between the desire he had to relieve her and that of following Caesario was at a loss what to do when the Princess Julia comes into the Hall accompanied by the Princess Andromeda Ismenia and some other Ladies Being a person the most officious in the world she runs to the Queen with much earnestness and having understood from those that were about her the cause of that accident her thoughts were divided between her compassion and astonishment thereat Mean time the Queen by the help of those that were about her recovers her self and seeing the Princess Julia very busie and earnest to relieve her after she had looked on her
thereto To that end he sent away one of the trustiest instruments of his cruelty in the head of a party whom he was confident of with a recommendation to the King of Media for the delivery of Artanez if need were While the Queen continued her discourse Artaban was in no small torment through the respect which hindred him from interrupting her insomuch that at last not able to Master the disturbance he was in Ah Madam said he to her will you not pardon the affection which obliges me to interrupt you to ask you whether it can be possible I should be so unhappy as to occasion the ruine of Prince Artanez I am not a little glad at that disturbance says the Queen to him as much confirming what we have been inform'd and what I am to acquaint you with though you know it better then my self had no great reason to conceal it from us You are then to know Daughter and you also Artaban that the King expecting Artanez to be brought in continued the massacres of all those whom he discover'd to have held any correspondence with Artaban insomuch that he was grown so exorbitant in his cruelty that the Parthians began to to murmur to threaten and at last to rise and particularly several Officers of the Army who had lost their Friends by those bloudy executions and who daily themselves expected the same fate At last through the indignation of Heaven the business came to that height that one day the greatest part of the Inhabitants of the City Praaspa where we then were together with the Souldiery seeing one of their companions carried to execution furiously took up Arms killed those that conducted the Prisoner and march'd violently towards the Palace The King having notice brought him of this Insurrection slighted it but being a man soon fired into displeasure he immediately went out of the Palace attended by his ordinary Gaurds and march'd towards the place where the Insurrection was with a design to put all the Traytors to the Sword But the Gods had otherwise ordered things to come to pass and thought fit that having met and charg'd them in a spacious place he was mortally wounded with two Arrows whereof one had taken him in the throat the other in the heart so that he fell down dead among his own who discouraged at his fall fought but little after The people who were encouraged by this and who after the death of their King were not deliberate what they were to do run upon the instruments of Phraates's cruelty and of those that came within their reach few escaped their fury They had haply been heightned to some more cruel resolutions it being no easie matter to quiet a Populace by just grounds forced into Arms if some eminent persons such as for whom they had no aversion had not interposed themselves and represented to them that they had no more enemies to engage against nor further subject to exercise their fury on that all then left in Praaspa were their Friends and that by death of the King and those inflexible creatures of his who had served him in his barbarous intentions they were sufficiently revenged for the loss of their Friends and and Kindred that of the Bloud-Royal there was not any person left on whom they might with reason exercise their revenge that their Princess was absent and worthy their services and respects rather then of their resentments and that for the Queen her Mother and Widow to the King they had killed they knew what a disconsonancy there was between her nature and her Husband 's how dearly she had ever loved them and to what dangers she had many times exposed her self to appease the King on their behalf The People and Souldiery contrary to their ordinary carriage hearkened to this discourse and were beginning to submit themselves thereto when Prince Artanez conducted by those who were employed to take him and had fortunately executed their Commission was brought to Phraaspa His conductors finding the face of things altered cast themselves at his feet begging their lives which they easily obtained of him but with much ado of the People who would needs punish them for the readiness of their inclinations to execute the cruel Orders of their Prince Artanez being respected by them as one of the Blood-Royal of their Kings loved by them for his vertue and that so much the more by reason of his being hated by the King and ready to be delivered up to execution as their Friends and Kinred whom they had revenged had they surrounded him with acclamations calling him Arsacian Prince worthy the Bloud of Arsaces and declar'd their readiness to obey him Artanez finding them so good an humor entreated them to lay down their Arms promising them upon that condition impunity for what had past and with the assistance of Timagenes and other considerable persons who before his coming had endeavoured to pacific things he managed all so successfully that before night all the people were gotten into their houses and the City was as quiet as if nothing had happened Artanez who had looked on that day as the last of his life and by a revolution which he could not attribute to any thing but divine Justice saw himself followed by all the Parthians with applause used his good fortune with much moderation and generosity and having caused the Kings body with much respect to be taken up and given order for the burial of the rest comes to the Palace where notwithstanding the aversion I had for the Kings death I was ore-whelmed with the grief which so unexpected an accident must needs have raised in me and where I stood in expectation of death through the fright I was in to see an armed Populace which had not spared the life of their King I trouble you not with a discourse of what I felt during that time because it would not onely prove tedious but not any way requisite in order to the discovery of those things which I am yet to acquaint you with Having received a punctual acount of what was done by the care of Zoilus Timagenes and divers other faithful persons who had provided for my safety and endeavoured to comfort me I knew that Artanez was innocent as to the Kings death and afterwards understood what pains he had taken to appease the exasperated multitude and the respect he had expressed towards the Kings memory though he might well have a just resentment against him so that seeing him coming in the posture not of a Prince of the blood of Phraates but of the humblest of his Subjects I embraced him with much affection acknowledged his generosity and recommended to him the memory of the King my Lord and the concernments of my daughter Artanez assured me that all the mischief was over that it was to be looked on as a stroke from heaven and that there was nothing to be feared provided the promise which he with Timagenes and divers
others had made were observed which was that what was past should be pardoned and that the people should not be called to account for a misfortune which the King run himself upon first by his cruelty and afterwards by his imprudence in hazarding himself as he had done and assaulting with so much animosity and so little foresight an armed and an exasperated multitude That for his own part he assured me of his fidelity to the last gasp and protested he was not glad at the Kings death though he had pronounced the sentence of his against him and that that day might haply have been the last of his life if the Gods had not by so unexpected a resolution prevented it That the people were ready to honour and acknowledge me for their gracious Queen that the most eminent persons were the more confirmed in that sentiment and that all desired the Princes might be sought out and setled in the throne of her Ancestors with a husband fit to govern them Such favourable dispositions in the hearts of our Subjects delivered me from all my fears and somewhat alleviated my misfortune and in fine Artanez did so well with the assistance of other well-affected persons that the next day all things were wholly appeased and the next to that the Kings body was disposed among the Monuments of the Arsacides with little pomp but with the same Ceremonies and as if he had dyed a natural death Two dayes after Artanez on whom I dis-burthened my self of some part of the government tels me that the most eminent among the Parthians and with them the people though ready enough to obey me desired a general Assembly wherein it might be considered what were to be done for the recovery of the Princess and the joyning of her to a husband that should succeed Phraates and govern them with more moderation then he had done I thought their desires very just and suitable to my own intentions since that they thereby discovered that they looked not on Venonez Phraates's natural son who was brought up at Rome with some pretence to the Crown so that a day being appointed all the principal Nobility among the Parthians met with several representatives of the people having all freedome of debate about what the whole Nation was concerned in The first thing resolved on was to oppose the pretensions of Venonez if so be he had any and to maintain against the Bastard the right of the lawful Princess to the last man This passed it was taken into consideration how the Princess should be found out and that to that purpose such persons should be imployed as the State were assured of and afterward it was proposed that she might make choice of a husband worthy her and the rank she is to be of But it was generally declared by all that it should not be Tigranes that he was a stranger an Allie if not a dependent on the Romanes and which is more that he was their enemy and not affected by the Princess who was not to be denied the liberty of her own choice There were those among the Souldiery who gave their Votes that Artaban should be their King that he was a person not hated by their Princess that the Crown was due to his valour and that under such a Prince as Artaban was they should fear neither the Medes nor the Romanes nor all the forces nor powers of the World This Discourse was no sooner started but the Assembly rung again with the name of Artaban so that the major voice was that Artaban should be chosen King But all the most eminent persons among the Parthians being present and among those many that were allyed to the House of the Arsacides who were flatter'd with a hope of being preferred before persons of a lower rank then themselves there was a considerable number of them that opposed the Proposition made in favour of Artaban and represented to the multitude that desired him That Artaban was indeed worthy the Government design'd him that upon the account of his Valour he might aspire to any thing and that his worth was such as that nothing was too great for him but that they would not have an unknown person placed in the Throne of Arsaces which had never been possessed but by Princes of the most illustrious bloud in the World and that those very persons who so much desired him would in a short time think it a regret to obey a Man whose Birth was nothing above their own Several persons had heard this discourse and it began to get credit among the multitude when Artanez who should have been the most likely to countenance it as being by reason of his Rank and the Bloud-Royal whereof he was the most concerned in it having with much patience heard the opinions of all the rest assumes the discourse and looking on the Nobles and People with such an action as whence they imagined he had some great matter to acquaint them withal I approve said he to them the fidelity of the Parthians and the zeal they express for the welfare of the State and the interest of their Queen and I am to acknowledge it the goodness of the Gods that I am this day in a capacity to satisfie both according to their just intentions These gallant Souldiers and brave Men who by their Swords have maintained this Monarchy have reason to desire for their Prince the same Artaban under whose conduct they have gain'd so many famous Victories and those whom Blood hath raised to the highest Dignities of this Kingdome desire with justice a Prince for their Soveraign But to satisfie all I am now to declare that Artaban is not onely a Prince born but a Prince of the same Blood with their Kings that he is descended from the great Arsaces as well as Phraates and that this truth will be undeniable when it shall be acknowledged that he is my Son It is certain O ye Parthians continued he Artaban is my Son and there are many persons among you who may call to mind that they have seen a Son of mine of that very name of Artaban which was also that of my Father and of the same age who about his tenth year accompanied me in my escape and whom since to elude the cruel designs of the King who attempted his life as well as mine I sent to be brought up in strange Nations He came back to me about the beginning of the War between the Parthians and the Medes and out of the resentment I had against the King who desisted not his persecutions of me even in my solitude I sent him to the service of the King of Media where by his Valour he soon came to the highest Commands in the Army Yet thought I not fit even then to discover this truth but have still conceal'd it though I have had secret conferences with Artaban as with a Friend and not as with a Son Nay I had caused it to be given out that