make your self wounds to heal your self I know that it is hard to suffer evil without complaining of it this also is not that I desire of you be sensible of your evils nature wils it but resent them not seeing that vertue forbids it have more regard to the good will of God which permits our afflictions than to their evil will who procure them us If nature invite you to the desire of revenge grace will remove you from it if humane reason commands it divine forbids it if impatience perswades it sweetnesse abhorres it if the example of men carries you thereunto that of God should draw you from thence We ought rather to obey the judgement in this than the will and to hear reason than to hearken to our senses I hope that the mercy of God will do us justice and that it will give all the world to understand that you are son of a mother very little guilty to be in so ill esteem and too innocent to be so unjustly afflicted Moreover my son after having laid this body in earth do that which God shall inspire you if he will that you return to your father make no difficulty thereat you have those qualities which will make you acknowledged the resemblance of your visage to his will not permit him to disclaim you if he remembers yet what he is as for me from whom you cannot expect other good but my desires and benedictions I give them you as abundantly as heaven can distribute them unto you In saying this she put her Benoni on his knees moystening his little visage with the rest of her tears Represent to your selves the pity of this spectacle the poore Genevieva attended the end of her miseries and Benoni the beginning of his dolours Death seeing them in this posture advanced himself to give the last stroke of his rage Stay cruell it is not time yet to cut off so precious a life attend to give her her death till the justice of God hath rendered her her honour What spoils canst thou hope from so miserable a creature her body hath no more flesh to nourish thy worms thou wilt gnaw her bones grief hath done that already thou pretend'st perhaps to encrease the number of thy phantosmes and of thy shadows let her live it is no more any other thing Whilst that our Countesse expected death two angels more fair than the sun entred into her Grott who filled it with odour and light Being approached to her little bed of boughs he who was tutelar of the sick said unto her in touching her Live Genevieva God will have it so then opening her dying liddes she perceived these Angels who gave her not time to be considered leaving her with health the astonishment of this miraculous cure God doth nothing which hath not its last perfection contrary unto men who travell by little and little and who drive away a disease by remedies which are sometime violent evils The great Physician of heaven gives a full and perfect health by the sole command which he gives the sicknesse to retire his medicines are without disgust and his cures without weaknesses so soon as the Angels departed from the cave of Genevieva she departed from her poore bed as strong as she was before this last sicknesse To see her rise one would have said it was a resurrection that was made and not a cure The child wept for joy to see his mother revive and Genevieva sighed with sadnesse to see her self driven back again from the port into the tempest Afflict you no more Genevieva God contents himself with your sufferings he doubts no more of a fidelity which he hath known by so long a patience Your evils are finished your crown is atchieved the fire of your glory hath been long enough buried in the bottome of the pit of calumny it is time that it break forth and make appear the fair and innocent rayes of its light It was near upon seven years that Sifroy Genevieva suffered the one in the horrours of a crime which he had not committed but through ignorance the other in the miseries which she endured not but by injustice God willing to make appear the innocence of the one the error of the other permitted that that wicked Sorceresse with whom he had seen the imaginary sinne of his wife was taken accused â—nd convicted of hainous crimes which she could not deny though they were false for the most part Being upon the point to expiate her offences by the flames and already tyed to the infamous stake of punishment she dâ—manded permission of the Justice to say some last words which was granted her After the confession of some crimes she declared that of all the evils which she had ever committed that of rendring an innocent person guilty pressed her most The Ministers of Justice laid hold of these words and commanded her to expresse her self on this last point which she did avouching that the Palatine Sifroy had put his wife to death upon a suspition which the illusions of her Magick had given him The Sorceresse dyed upon this protestation which was presently reported to the Count who was no lesse sorrowfull for this news than comforted to see that though he had lost his wife without recovery she was at last dead without reproach Who con describe the rage that seised his spirit the menaces of his choller against Golo and the sweet plaints that he made unto his wife and his son oh cruel Hangman was it not enough to ruine my House without hazarding the Honour thereof If thou hadst malice to massacre the Innocent why found'st thou not meanâ— more honest to thy cruelty if thou hadst not been as impudent as unjust in thy calumny wouldst thou not think to have done sufficient Oh that thou hast not a hundred lives to expiate the horrour of this crime perfidious traitor thou shoudst lose one of them in the flames another under the sword a third between the teeth of my dogs and all in as many kinde of deaths as thy malice hath had diverse artifices in her calumnies but you are still dead deplorable victimes thou art dead my deere Genevieva thou art dead innocent Lamb which I have as soon made to die as to live Your blood cries vengeance unto heaven against me and marks upon my front the shame of villany O shall I beg your pardon of a fault which my credulity onely hath committed And why should I not hope this favour from your mercy seeing that you are as good as innocent if an extream sin can revenge it self by an extream punishment Oh I promise you to expiate mine and to wash my hands in the barbarous blood of him who iâ— the cause thereof It would be an infinite thing to tell you all those maledictions which his choler made him pronounce against Golo yet considering that we should not cry after the Birds which we would take he made his passion to be governed
his infidelity in exposing him to the rage of his dogs which are the simbole of its contrary and then considering that his sinne had beginning from the infamous fires of love it seemed reasonable unto him to cover them with the ashes of his proper body or to quench them in the waters of the River All these punishments were great but his crime was no lesse Sifroy thought not to be sufficiently revenged if the effects of his vengeance had not had something of extraordinary At last having long wavered thereupon he concluded to make him dye in this manner There was in the Palatines Herd four of those salvage oxen which the black Forrest nourished which were brought by his Command and being coupled tail to tail the miserable Golo was tyed by the arms and legges which were presently separated from his body whose infamous reliques found their Tomb in the stomach of the Crows by a just judgement of God to the end that the body of so wicked a man might be so ill lodged after his death as his soul had been during his life Behold the punishment of a man who was not unfortunate but by too much good fortune See the ordinary fruits that falshood produceth behold the precipices whereunto a wicked Passion carries us behold the shipwracks whereinto the winds of prosperity drive us behold the sports of fortune which flatters not our hopes but to seduce them Deceive not your selves herein if she shew you a a fair visage remember that the Sirens do the same is she allures by her caresses the Panther doth it also if her amorous plaints invite you the sighs of the Crocodile should serve for your instruction if she shineth her brightnesse is no more aamible then that of the fals meteors miserable Golo I see thee added to the example of those whom this traitresse hath deceived O how happy had thy condition been if it had been lesse eminent and how thy life had been assured if favor had not exposed it let us seek I pray you the first step of his misfortune and we shall finde that it was the authority which he had acquired in his Masters house the second too great a liberty to behold that which he should not desire and the last a love without respect whence proceeded a demand without honour a pursuit without successe a hate without cause a calumny without judgment and a punishment without mercy on the other side if we look upon the innocent Countesse we shall see virtue smutted but for its glory constancy shaken but for its setlement sanctity despised but for her security and moreover we shall acknowledge that the triumphes of vice are short and its confusion very long and that it is not once onely that God hath withdrawn the innocent heads from the sword of the Executioner to the end to crown them Those who were found accomplices to Golo received punishments proportionable to their faults and those who had shewed themselves favorable to the affliction of Genevieva met with no lesse gratitude in her then the others of severity in the spirit of the Palatine that poor maid who had pity of the Countesse and had brought her ink found her benefit written otherwise than upō paper Death hindered Genevieva to recompense those who had given her life in not taking it away for as much as the one of them was deceased the other received all the acknowledgement of that good action These recompenses and pains were followed with the contentments of all those that loved virtue The little Benoni was he that found more fortune in this change the very pleasures of a Solitude made him to tast the delights of his house with more sweetnesse Never had he been so happy if he had not been miserable notwithstanding his spirit stayed not so much on his contentments that he took not the tincture of all the good qualities with which Nobility might advance his merit Nothing of low was observed in this little courage for having been brought up in poverty nothing of wildnesse for having been bred with the bears The father and mother took a singular pleasure in the good inclinations of this son aiding him wth their wholsom instructions From the accord and correspondence which was in this house was bred a generall peace every one of the servants had no lesse than a golden age I would say that they were fully satisfied and content There was not any person who thought not himself well recompensed for his passed sorrows Genevieva had onely more of merit than of recompence the World having made her suffer all her evils had not goods enough to render her that which was due unto her heaven therefore took care to think on the price of her patience You comprehend well that I would speak of the death of our Countesse God who would not honour the World longer with so great a vertue resolved to retire her to her originall but it was after having advertised her thereof One day as she was in prayer it seemed unto her that she saw a Troop of virgins and of holy women amongst which her good Mistris held the chief rank having all the others for Ladies of honour their Majesty ravished presently our Saint but their sweetnesse charmed her much more sensibly there was not one of them that gave her not Palms and Flowers and the Virgin holding in her hand a crown embroidered with precious stones seemed thus to speak unto her My daughter it is time to begin an eternity of pleasures behold the crown of Gold which I have prepared you after that of thorns which you have worn receive it from my hand Genevieva understood very well what this visit signified which caused in her an incredible satisfaction the subject whereof notwithstanding she would not declare to Sifroy for fear to cast a cloud on his joy Her prudence concealed from him the causes thereof but the disease which had lesse discretion told it him within a few dayes It was a little feaver which seised our incomparable Countesse and gave him a more clear expression of her revelation To describe unto you the contentment of Genevieva it would be a thing no lesse superfluous than it would be impossible to expresse the displeasures of Sifroy Must I lose said he a treasure which I have so little possessed It is true that I am unworthy thereof my God and that I cannot complain of injustice since you take not from me but what I hold of your pure mercy and not of my merit But alas had it not been more desirable not to have it all than to have it for a moment soft and fair Sifroy soft fair it is no time to deplore keep your tears for anon if you will give them to the justest grief of nature I deceive my self boldly empty all the humour of your eyes you should be asham'd to give so little of it to the losse you are to make Small griefs may be lamented but great
spirit was nothing but patience as his body was nought but grief retained alwayes his affections in an equal resignation he permitted notwithstanding his tongue to complain of his miseries and to say that his members were not of brasse God himself in the cruelties of death would that his plaints should be a proof of that which he was for fear the opinion of his insensibility might take away the belief of the least of his natures Let us imitate his example in his submission as well as in his complaints our tears and our sighes shall not hinder our patience to be a vertue O how Genevieva conformed her self perfectly to this example her constancy was a marble inflexible but this marble yielded tears and witnessed by her sighes that it was not a statue that suffered she accorded all just plaints to her grief but her grief never gave any thing to impatience in a word she accused no lesse sweetly her evils then a Lute which men touch onely because her sighes are agreeable unto them One day as the Image of all her miseries represented it self to her fancy making of her eyes two fountains of tears she cast her self at the feet of her Crosse and said amourously unto it How long my God how long wilt thou suffer that virtue be so cruelly treated Is not five years of miseries sufficient to be content with my patience though I should have overthrown thy altars and burned thy temples my tears would have quenched thy choller if it were not that my sighs would kindle it the more I made my self believe that my sorrows should last no longer than my joyes and that the end of afflicting me should be that of not being able to suffer more I know well now that thou gavest me formerly delights but to make me taste my bitternesses with more displeasure and to render them more sharp by the remembrance of my prosperity Is it not time to make appear that thou art the protector of innocence as well as the revenger of crimes It is five years that I have endured a martyrdome which ceases not to be extreamly cruell for being extreamly slow nothing in the world hath comforted my grief all the creatures seem to be my engaged enemies to the end to encreas my afflictions A good discours can charm a grief but behold I have almost forgoten the use of speech in being separate from al other conversation then that of the beasts the night hides with her shadows the half of our evils sleep dares not approach mine eys fearing to drown it self there or at least to meet there inquietudes It seems that my misery is contagious so much every thing fears to approach it hunger cold nakednesse make the least part of my evils the misfortune of this little innocent is more insupportable unto me than all that Oh Lord if thou wouldst afflict the mother for some fault which to her is unknown why wouldst thou not take unto thee the protection of the child since thou knowest that he is as litle culpable of my sin as capable to bear the punishment thereof Pardon me my God if grief snatches these plaints from my mouth I have believed since I know not the cause of so many evils that I might finde the ease thereof from that mercy which rejecteth no body In pronouncing these sorrowfull words she bathed her Crucifix with the torrent of her tears which spake much more than her tongue The little Bononi mingling his tears with his mother they brake forth into groans so pittifull that the rocks were not hard enough not to be touched therewith At last the poore Genevieva continuing her regreets and embracing amourously her crosse said unto it My God alas my God what have I done unto thee that thou treatest me with so much rigour Miracle Whilest the Countesse spake she heard the image of our good Saviour which replyed to her And what my daughter what cause have you to complain You demand what crime hath brought you hither and tell me what sin hath nailed me to the crosse Are you more innocent than I or your evils are they greater than mine have been You are without crime and am I culpable You never thought of the infamy with which they have sullied your reputation am I perhaps a seducer and Magician as they reproached me You receive no censolation from the creatures is it not enough from that of the Creatour No body hath compassion of your evils who hath had any of mine The very insensible things have horror of your affliction and the Sun refused he not so much as to look upon mine Thy sonne encreases thy sorrows believest thou that my mother lessoned my torments Comfort thee my daughter and leave me the care of thy affairs think sometimes that he who hath made all the good things of the world hath suffered all the evill if thou comparest thy cup to mine thou wilt drink it with pleasure and wilt thank me for the favor that I do thee to make thee live in dolours to die in the joyes of a life laden with the merits of patience It would be a superfluous thing to tell you the confusion that this little reproach put into the spirit of our St but I think it will be profitable to tell you that this discourse gave her so much courage and resolution that all the thorns seemed unto her but roses her bitternesse but sweetnesse her torments but pleasing delights this also was the design of God to animate her unto patience and not to thrust her into despair by this reproach From this time forward Genevieva asked not but griefs from God and God gave not but sweets to Genevieva To witnesse to her that her vertue was not unknown unto him and that her Innocence was very near unto that which the first man possessed in the delights of Paradise God wholly submitted unto her the rage of the savage beasts and the liberty of the birds It was an ordinary thing from her first entrance into the Forrest that the Hind came to give suck to the child and to ly every night in the Cave with the mother and the Son to the end to warm their leie members but since this last favour the Foxes the Hares and the Wolves came to play with the little Benoni The birds strived together which should leave himself to be taken first The Cave of Genevieva was a place where the Bears had no rage nor the Stagges fear on the contrary one would have said that our holy Princesse had changed their nature through the compassion of her evils and given some sense of reason to the beasts to understand her necessities One day putting on an old garment on her son in the presence of a Wolf this beast departed presently from the den and went to choak a sheep whose skinne he brought to Genevieva as if he had had the judgement to discern what was proper to warm the body of her child The Saint received this
She never granted Benoni to tell him the cause of her tears but dissembling with prudence she believed that she ought not to increase his evils in discovering the authour thereof I cannot forget a discourse which added almost to the plaints of Genevieva the losse of her life One day as this child played in his mothers bosome and flattered her amorously with his little hand he demanded her my mother you command me often to say Our father which art in heaven tell me who is my father Oh little Innocent what do you this demand is capable to kill your poore mother indeed Genevieva was upon the point to sownd at these words notwithstanding hugging this dear child in her bosome and casting her arms about his neck she said unto him My child your father is God have I not told it you already look upon that fair Palace behold his house the heaven is the place where he dwelleth but my mother doth he know me well Oh my son replyed Genevieva he can do no otherwise he knows you and he loves you how comes it then answered Benoni that he doth me no good and that he permits all the evils that we suffer My son it is to deceive our selves to believe that goods are the proof of his love far be it from us to have such a thought the necessities which we endure denote a fathers heart on our behalf seeing that riches are no other thing but the means to destroy us with which God punisheth sometimes the wicked reserving his blessing for his friends in the other world The little Benoni heard all this discourse wth much attention but when he heard her make the difference of the good and the bad and of another world he could not chuse but thus interrupt Genevieva And what hath my father other children besides me and where is that other world my son answered the holy Countesse God is a great and rich father who hath many children yet is he not lesse powerfull for all that for asmuch as he hath infinite treasures to give them Although you never were out of this wood you must know that there are Towns and Provinces which are full of men and women whereof some fellow vertue and others leave themselves to go after vice Those who respect him as true children shall go one day to heaven to enjoy there with him a thousand contentment on the contrary those that offend him shall be punished in hell which is a great place under earth full of fire and of torments Chuse now which you will be we have reason to be of the first for those who are miserable as we provided they be so willingly and because that God will have it so are assured to go into Paradise which is that I called the other world Benoni could not hold from asking her when they should go into this Paradise It shall be after our death replyed the mother This poore Innocent was very far from comprehending all that which his mother had said unto him if the goodnesse of God had not serv'd him for Master enlightning inwardly his little soul and laying naked to him these fair knowledges which we learn not but with a long study and much labour He had never seen any and yet he comprehended presently what these Towns and Provinces were as perfectly as if he had travelled all the world if he had heard some phylosophie upon the immortality of the soul he could not better have comprehended its essence and its qualities he had even some knowledges of which his age was not capable Experience had never taught him what death was but it wanted not much that he had not a sorrowfull example thereof in the person of his mother some few dayes after the long troubles the ordinary griefs and the want of all things had consumed a body which could not be but delicate as having been nourished in the delights of a Court She had sustained six whole Winters and as many Summers insomuch as scarce could she know her self To see Genevieva and a sceleton was as the same thing the roots whereon she fed had composed her body all of earth Judge if a little sicknesse accompanied with all these in commodities could not ruine a body which having been worn out by extreme dolours extenuated by insupportable austerities and gnawn with thousand boyling cares had need of more than a puffe to overthrow it And yet behold a violent feaver which laid hold on that little blood which rested in her veins and enflamed it with so burning a heat that the poore Genevieva expected nothing but death Benoni seeing the languishing eyes of his mother her colour extreamly defaced betook himself so strongly to his cryes that he might well be heard of that soul which was fled already and besides he shed so many tears that it was to be feared that so much might well extinguish that little heat which remained to him At last Genevieva returned from a long sownd fixed for some time her eyes upon the amiable subject of her griefs and after having told him that he was the son of a great Lord and all that she had concealed from him untill then she added My son behold the happy day that comes to put end to my pains I have no cause to complain of death having no reason to desire life I am going to leave the world without regret as I have lived therein without desire If I were capable of any displeasure it would be to leave you without remedy and without support in the sufferance of those evils which you have not meerited Not to lye for the matter this consideration would touch sensibly my heart if I had not one more high which constrains me to put my interests and yours into the hand of him who is the good father of orphans and the powerfull support of the innocent It is to him that I leave the care of your Infancy it is from him that you ought to expect your assistance cast your self amorously into his arms and put all your confidence in his goodnesse I will not have you retain any thoughts of a poore mother who hath not brought you into the world but to suffer all the evils thereof yet if you desire to render something to my cares behold what I demand of you for an acknowledgement I conjure you my dear son to bury with my body the resentments of my injuries since there is none but God alone that knows their greatnesse there is none but he that can ordain them their punishments The punition of an injustice is never just when we our selves are the authors of the revenge and the subject of the offence And then my dear Benoni the injury that they have done me is of a strange nature seeing you cannot be pious without offending piety nor revenge your mother but by the outrage of your own father In this case it would be to wash your hands with blood to make them clean and to
evils have no tongue When one knows well to speak his evill the sense thereof is not extreme nor the regret unfeigned Alas Genevieva is already dead I see her stretched out upon her poore bed without vigour and without motion her eyes are no more but two starres eclipsed her mouth hath no more Roses her cheeks have lost their lillies Oh that it is not possible for me to call all the beauties of the world about this bed I would say unto them behold the remains of that which you cherish with so much passion behold the ashes of that fire which burns the world behold an example of that which you shall be behold an image of which you shall soon be the resemblance make ye make ye now Divinities of that which death shall change one day into worms and putrefaction But I deceive my self Genevieva is not dead a violent trance had onely withdrawn her soul for a time she comes to her self again this gives belief that nature is yet strong enough to drive away the evil provided that it be assisted with some remedies Think not that any thing was spared She must depart God will have it so and her stomach which could not suffer but Herbs and Roots nourished her Feaver and advanced her death The good Princesse knew it and desired it she called her dear son Benoni whom she blessed and her Husband to whom she said this adiew able to make Tigers and Panthers weep My dear Sifroy behold your dear Genevieva ready to dy all the displeasure that I have 〈◊〉 leave this life comes unto me from your tears weep no more I shal go away content If death would give me leasure I would make appear unto you by the contempt of that you lose the little cause you have to lament your losse But sinâ—â— the time presseth me that there rests unto me but three sighes I have but this word to sâ—â— unto you Weep Sifroy as much as I merit it and you shall not weep much notwithstanding I conjure you yet that having forgotten that little dust which I leave you would remembeâ— that Genevieva goes to heaven to keep yoâ—â— place there and that the Husband and Wife making but one it may be that God calls â—â— to draw thither the other part Adiew haâ—â— care of Benoni After these languishing words 〈◊〉 that her weaknesse permitted her was 〈◊〉 receive the sacred body of her good Master which was no sooner entred into her mouth but she fixed her eyes on heaven where her heart was already thrusting her fair soul forth of her fair body by a last sigh of love It was the second of April in the very year of her restauration that she knew perfectly the merit of her patience Benoni had no sooner seen the dead members of his Mother but he cast himself upon the bed breaking forth into such sharp cryes that he pierced the heart of all the assistants It was impossible to withdraw him from thence what indeavour soever they used thereunto On the other side Sifroy was on his knees holding fast the hands of his dear Wife which he watered with his tears All the domesticks were round about her like so many Statues of Marble whom grief had transformed yet must they give to the earth what the soul of Genevieva had left it they made themselves ready to bury this holy body which was found clad in a rude hair-cloth capable alone to consume members so delicate as hers When they carried the Herse out of the House it was then that the Palatine made his grief break forth more visibly than the torches which lighted the Funerall pomp nothing was heard but sighs every where nothing was seen but tears In the end after that Sifroy and his son had laid their hearts into the same Tomb with Genevieva the followers endeavored to withdraw them from the Church where this holy body remained in depository the regret of this losse was not so peculiar to men that it was not common to the beasts the birds seemed to languish with grief and if they singed sometimes about the Castle it was no more now but plaints I cannot omit one thing which seems unto me worthy of admiration the poor Hind who had served the Countesse so faithfully in her life expressed no lesse love unto her at her death They hold that this kind of beast casts forth but one grosse tear at death it must be granted then that this Hind dyed more than once at the decease of her dear Mistris It was a pitifull thing to see this poore beast follow the Bier of Genevieva more deplorable to hear how wofully she brayed but most strange that they could never bring her back to the house remaining day and night at the doors of the Church where her Mistris was The Servants carried her Hay and Grasse which she would not so much as touch suffering her self thus to dy wth hunger They brought the news thereof to the Palatine who betook himself to weep so tenderly as if his Wife were dead once again for recompence of her fidelity he made her to be cut in white marble and laid at the feet of Genevieva All that notwithstanding comforted not the affliction of Sifroy it was in vain to tell him that nature being satisfied it was time to hearken unto reason The remedies of his griefs caused him new griefs if they represented unto him that it was no more a love of Genevieva to lament in this manner but a hate of himself he answered that the regret to have lost so holy a woman could not be commendable if it were not extreme This was not enough he sought all the means to entertain his passion having never more pleasing Idea's than those which represented him his Genevieva If he went unto the Church it was to make unto her a sacrifice of his eyes if he returned to his house he retired himself into his chamber speaking to every thing that had been hers Behold the bed of my Genevieva said he behold her cabinet behold her mirrour then looking into her glasse he sought there the visage of his dear wife calling continually Genevieva Genevieva but Genevieva answered not from the chamber he passed into the garden which was sometime all her pastime but it was in the greens of eternity that he must seek her to find her If the soul of the Saint had been capable of any other passion than of joy it had been of a tender compassion to see the deep Melancholly of Sifroy without doubt her love would have been the remedie thereof as she was the cause thereof One afternoon as he was in his ordinary indispositions a page came to tell him that there was a Hermit who requested covert The Count who had not been accustomed to shut the door unto works of mercy nor to drive away good actions from his house was very glad to meet the occasion thereof He commanded then that they should cause him to come up O