Naples p. 62. LXXVI There are no greater Instances of Revenge saith Sabellicus than in the factious Citys of Italy where the chiefs of one faction falling into the hands of the other it was a great favour to be beheaded or strangled Pontanus adds that he has heard his Grand-Mother tell how in certain mortal differences betwixt some families one of the opposite faction being taken he was immediately cut into small gobbets his Liver was broiled upon the Coals and being divided into little morsels it was distributed among their friends who were invited to breakfast to that purpose after which execrable feeding there were brought Cups in which some of the blood was mingled then followed congratulations amongst themselves laughter Jests and witty Passages to season their Viands and to conclude they blasphemously drank to God himself as if he were the favourer of this their horrible and tremendous revenge Wierus Op. p. 830. LXXVII Having thus seen the dismal effects of revenge let us next consider the base Ingratitude of some unworthy Persons which was accounted so great a crime among the Ancients that they judged Ingratitude ought to be punished with death and very worthily it deserved to be so at least in the Persons of some who have been dreadfully guilty of this base and unworthy crime LXXVIII In the time of the bloody Popish Massacre at Paris one of the Murtherers with some Companions of his came to the City of Orleance and went to the house of a noble Counsellor inviting themselves to Supper the Counsellor Ignorant of their intent made them very welcome but when Supper was ended with horrible blasphemies they murthered him and then plundered his house Clarks Martyr p 348. LXXIX Humfry Banister was brought up and exalted to promotion by the Duke of Buckingham his Master the Duke being afterward driven to extremity by reason of the Separation of his Army which he had mustered against Crookbackt Richard fled to this Banister as his most trusty friend not doubting to be kept secret by him till he could find an opportunity to escape there was a thousand pound propounded as a reward to him that could bring forth the Duke and this Ingrateful Traytor upon hope of this sum betrayed the Duke his Benefactor into the hands of John Metton Sheriff of Shropshire who conveyed him to the City of Salisbury where King Richard then was and soon after the Duke was put to death but as for this ingrateful Monster the vengeance of God fell upon him to his utter ignominy and shame in a very visible and strange manner for presently after his Eldest Son fell mad and died in an Hog-sty his Eldest Daughter was suddenly stricken with a foul Leprosy his second Son became strangely deformed in his Limbs and lame his youngest Son was drowned in a Puddle and he himself was arraigned and found guilty of a Murder though saved by reading his neck verse as for his thousand pounds King Richard gave him not a farthing saying That he who would be so untrue to so good a Master must needs be false to all others Beards Theat LXXX In the Persecution of Germany a worthy Protestant Divine for reproving his Prince sharply for his cruelty was condemned by him to be hanged and a bloody Gentleman with a Troop of Souldiers was sent to see Execution done upon him the Gentleman coming to his house Saluted him very kindly pretending that he came to make good cheer with him for he was a good House-keeper and the Gentlemen in the Country did often resort to his House the Minister in a short time prepared a Sumptuous Banquet for them whereof they did eat freely Dinner being ended the Gentleman said to his men Take this Priest our host and hang him up without delay the Souldiers were astonished at this Command and abhorring to do the deed said God forbid that we should Commit such a Crime as to hang him that hath used us so courteously it is a wicked act thus to render evil for good but the Gentleman still provoked them to execute his Command then said the Minister I beseech you use not such cruelty toward me but rather carry me to my Prince before whom I doubt not but to clear my self from any thing shall be laid to my charge neither do you so violate the Laws of Hospitality which I have shewed you and other Noblemen who resort to my House Consider what a sting this ingrateful act will leave in your Consciences for I have truly and faithfully taught the Doctrine of the Gospel which is the Principal cause that my Prince bears me this ill will but whatsoever this good man could alledge in his own behalf the furious Gentleman continued in his Resolution calling upon his Servants to accomplish it and withal said to the Minister You shall gain nothing by your Preaching in this manner for I am fully resolved to fulfil the will of the Prince at last the Servants took the Minister and with great Lamentation and mourning hanged him upon a beam in his own House the Gentleman standing by and looking on Clarks Martyr p. 280. LXXXI In the Bohemian Persecution some Popish Souldiers coming to the House of another Protestant Minister he entertained them courteously and made good Provision for them but when they knew he was a Minister they first beat him cruelly and then killed him stript him and plundred his House they also burned his Library and would not suffer his body to be buried for Seven weeks space during their abode there Idem p 184. LXXXII In the third Primitive Persecution under the Emperor Adrian there was a noble Christian Captain called Eustachius whom Trajan the Predecessor of Adrian had sent to war against some Barbarians and after he had subdued his Enemies and returned homeward with Victory Adrian for joy of his success went to meet him and bring him home in Triumph but by the way the Emperor would needs Sacrifice to Apollo for the Victory obtained requiring Eustachius to do the same with him but when by no means he could be persuaded thereto as soon as he came to Rome he with his Wife and Children suffered Martyrdom for the Christian Faith by the command of this Ingrateful Emperor Idem p. 30. LXXXIII When Xerxes had resolved on his expedition against Greece he caused his Army to make their Rendevouz at Sardis in Lydia and when he had assembled to the number of seventeen hundred thousand Foot and eighty eight thousand Horse as he entred the Country he was by one Pythias the Lydian entertained who out of his Flocks and Herds of Cattle gave food to Xerxes and his whole Army the Feast ended he also presented him with two thousand Talents of Silver and four Millions in Gold then Pythias besought Xerxes to spare one of his five Sons from his attendance into Greece because himself was old and had none whom he could so well trust as his own Son but Xerxes like a barbarous and ingrateful Tyrant
angrily said First let me know before I suffer myself to be imbraced by you whether I am come to a Son or an Enemy and whether I am a Captive or a Mother in your Camp Much more she added after this manner with tears in her Eyes he moved with the tears of his Mother Wife and Children imbracing his Mother You have conquered saith he and my Country hath overcome my just anger being prevailed upon by the intreaties of her in whose Womb I was conceived And so he freed the Roman Fields and the Romans themselves from the sight and fear of those Enemies he had led against them Plutarchs Lives p. 230. XXXII There happened in Italy sath Causin as it often happens a great irruption of Mount Aetna nowcalled Mount Gibel it murmurs burns belches up flames and throws out its fiery Entrails making all the world to fly from it it happened then that in this violent and horrible breach of flames every one flying and carrying away what they had most precious with them Two Sons the one called Anapias the other Amphinomus careful of the wealth and goods of their Houses reflected on their Father and Mother both very old who could not save themselves from the Fire by flight and where shall we said they find a more precious Treasure than those who begat us The one took up his Father on his Shoulders the other his Mother and so made passage through the flames it is an admirable thing saith my Author that Almighty God in consideration of this Piety though Pagans did a miracle for the Monuments of all Antiquity witness that the devouring flames stayed at this spectacle and the fire wasting and broiling all about them the way only through which these two Sons passed was tapestried with fresh verdure and greenness and called afterward by Posterity The Field of the Pious in memory of this Accident Causins Holy Court Tom 1. XXXIII There were three Brothers whoupon the death of the King their Father fell out amongst themselves about the Succession in the Kingdom at last they agreed to stand to the judgment and determination of a Neighbour King to whom they fully referred the matter he therefore commanded the dead body of the Father to be fetcht out of his Monument and ordered that each of them should shoot an Arrow at his heart and he that hit it or came the nearest to it should succeed the Elder shot first and his Arrow past through the Throat of his Father the second Brother shot his Father into the Breast but yet missed the heart the youngest detesting this wickedness I had rather said he yield all to my Brothers and utterly resign up all my pretences to the Kingdom than to treat the body of my Father with this Contumely this saying of his considered the King passed Sentence That he alone was worthy of the Kingdom as having given evidence how much he excelled his Brothers in Virtue by the Piety he had shewed to the dead body of his Father Leon. Theat p. 278. XXXIV A Roman Praetor or Judge had sentenced to death a Woman of good birth for a Capital Crime and had delivered her over to the Triumvir to be killed in Prison the Jaylor that received her moved with compassion did not presently strangle her but permitted her Daughter to come often to her being first diligently searched lest she should convey in any sustenance to her the Jaylor expecting that she should die of Famine when therefore divers days had passed wondring within himself what it might be that might occasion her to live so long he one day set himself to observe her Daughter with greater curiosity and then discovered how with the milk in her Breasts she allayed the Famine of her Mother the news of this strange spectacle of the Daughter suckling her Mother was by him carried to the Triumvir and from him to the Praetor who brought the cause to the Judgment of the Consul who pardoned the Woman as to the Sentence of death passed upon her and to preserve the memory of that act where her Prison stood they caused an Altar to be erected to Piety Plinys Nat. Hist XXXV When the City of Troy was taken the Greeks did as became gallant men for pitying the misfortune of their Captives they caused it to be proclaimed that every free Citizen had liberty to take along with him any one thing that he desired Aeneas therefore neglecting all other things carried out with him his Houshold Gods the Greeks delighted with the Piety of the man gave him a further permission to carry out with him any other thing from his House whereupon he took upon his shoulders his Father who was grown old and decrepit and carried him forth the Grecians were extreamly affected with this fight and deed of his and thereupon gave him all that was his own confessing that nature itself would not suffer them to be enemies but Friends to such as preserved so great Piety toward Heaven and so great a Reverence to their Parents Aelian Var. Hist XXXVI Otho the second Emperor of Germany had a Son named Luitolphus a valiant and haughty young man who taking offence at his Fathers second Marriage rebelled against him being assisted by many considerable Persons hereupon Otho raised a great Army to suppress them but Luitolphus not finding himself able to encounter his Father in the Field betook himself to the City of Mentz where his Father besieged him for the space of threescore days and severely battered the City which yet was as valiantly defended against him but at last the Besieged made a motion for Peace whereupon a Truce was granted during which Luitolphus and his Partizan found an opportunity in the night to leave Mentz and betake himself to Ratisbone the Emperor without one days delay followed them to Ratisbone which was better fortified and provided than Mentz and so the Siege was more difficult and doubtful and in the Assaults and Sallies many brave men perished on each side yet soon after Luitolphus sued to his Father for Peace and Pardon which the Emperor at length by the mediation of some Prelates limited to a certain time wherein his Sons faults and offences should be examined and a Treaty should be held to conclude all matters upon which Luitolphus surrendred the City and absented himself from his Fathers presence till he saw the issue but before the time prefixed was expired the Emperor being hunting Luitolphus having been convinced and really sensible of his Fault without any security from his Father came before him in the Fields bare-headed and bare-footed and kneeling at his Fathers feet wept the Father being amazed at this strange and unexpected rencounter stood still and the Son at last recovering his Spirits intreated him to have compassion on him acknowledging his faults and offences to have been very great and rather deserving a thousand deaths than any pardon but being heartily sorry for the same he like the Prodigal Son presented himself
Augustus had taken Adiatoriges a Prince of Cappadocia together with his Wife and Children in War and had led them to Rome in Triumph he gave order that the Father the elder of the Brothers should be slain The designed Ministers of this Execution were come to the place of restraint to this unfortunate Family and there inquiring which of the Brethren was the eldest there arose a vehement and earnest contention between the two young Princes each of them affirming himself to be the Elder that by his death he might preserve the life of the other when they had long continued in this pious Emulation the Mother at last not without difficulty persuaded her Son Dyetentus that he would permit his younger Brother to die in his stead as hoping that by him she might be more probably maintained Augustus was at length certified of this great example of Brotherly love and not only lamented that act of his severity but gave an honourable support to the Mother and her surviving Son Heywoods Hist Women XLIII Heliodorus the Brittain had afterward the Sirname of Pius upon this occasion the People provoked with the Cruelty and Avarice of Archigallus had deposed him and raised Heliodorus to the Throne of his Brother one time when the King went on hunting he accidentally met with his Brother Archigallus in a Wood whose altered visage and ragged cloths gave sufficient evidence of his afflicted condition as soon as the King knew him though he was not ignorant how he had sought his Restoration both by force and fraud yet he lovingly imbraced him and caused him privately to be conveyed into the City The King pretended he was sick and giving forth that he would dispose of the Affairs of the Realm by his last Will and Testament he called his Nobles together he then signified that he would confer in private with each of them singly and as every man entered into his Chamber he caused him to be laid hold on threatning him with death if he would not consent to the sparing of his Brother and that he should resign the Throne and Kingdom to him having by this means gained an universal assent he then opened the business in the presence of them altogether so that Archigallus was restored to the Kingdom and he dying in few years Heliodorus succeeded him with equal Justice and Glory Fulgosus Examples p. 634. XLIV There was a Soldier in the Camp of Pompeius who in the War with Sertorius perceiving a Soldier on the other side to press hard upon him he sought with him hand to hand and having slain him he went about to strip him of his Arms which when he had done he found it was his Brother who had fallen under him whereupon having a long time curst his unhappy Fate he carried his dead Brother into the Camp and having covered the Body with a precious Garment he laid the Corps upon the Funeral Pile and put fire to it which done he immediately drew the same Sword wherewith he had slain his Brother and thrust it into his own Breast and so falling prostrate upon the dead Body of his Brother they were both burned together Valerius Maximus p. 146. XLV There was a report though a false one that Eumenes King of Asia was slain by the fraud of Perseus upon the news whereof his Brother Attalus seized upon the Crown and married the Wife of his Brother but being informed of Eumenes his return he went forth to meet him not without apprehensions of fear in regard of what he had done in his absence Eumenes made no shew of his displeasure only whispered him in the Ear That before he married another Mans Wife he should besure her Husband was dead This was all and not long after dying though by his Wife he had a Son of his own yet he left the Kingdom to his Brother together with the Queen his Wife Attalus on the other side that he might not be surpassed in Brotherly love though he had many Children by his own Wife yet he educated that Son she had by Eumenes to the hope of the Kingdom and when he came of sufficient Age freely resigned up all to him and lived a private life many years after Burtons Melancholy p. 564. XLVI Darius King of Persia being extreamly provoked by Crimes of an extraordinary nature had pronounced Sentence of death upon Ithaphernes his Children and the whole Family of them at once the Wife of Ithaphernes went to the Kings Pallace and there all in tears was so loud in her mournful Lamentations that her cries coming to the Kings Ear moved him in such manner to compassion that the King sent her word That with her own he gave her the life of any single Person whom she would make choice of among the condemned the Woman begged the life of her Brother Darius wondred that she should rather ask his life than that of her Husband or any of her Children and therefore asked her the reason who replied That since her Father was dead she could never hope for a Brother more if she should lose this but that her self being but young as yet might hope for another Husband and other Children Darius was moved with this answer and being inclined to Brotherly love as well as prudence he gave her also the life of her eldest Son Heywoods Hist Women XLVII Tiberius being at Ticinum and hearing that his Brother Drusus lay sick in Germany he immediately put himself on an hasty Journey to give him a visit he passed the Alps and the Rhine and changing his Horse night and day he travelled outright two hundred miles with only one Person in his Company as his Guide Drusus though at that time labouring for life being informed of his coming commanded his Legions with their Ensigns to march out and meet him and to salute him by the Title of Imperator or Emperor he ordered a Praetorial Tent to be erected for him on the right hand of his own and gave him the Confular and Imperial name at the same time yielding this honour to his Brother and his Body to death Valerius Maximus p. 146. XLVIII Great was the love of Timolaeon the Corinthian to his Brother for when in a Battel with the Argives he saw his Brother fall down dead with the wounds he had received he leaped over the dead body of his Brother and with his Shield he protected the body as it lay and though in this enterprize he was sore wounded himself yet would he not retreat into any place of safety till such time as he had seen the dead body of his Brother carried off from the Field Fulgosus lib. 5. XLIX Neither has the extraordinary Love of Servants toward their Masters wanted great Examples some of whom have discovered eminent Fidelity and Virtue so that Fortune may seem to have treated them injuriously not to allot them as great advantages as their Masters they lived under for we read that the Servant of Vrbinius Panopion knowing
suspecting asked his Friends if her Son had not something to say to her whereupon he told her the business when she heard it she laughing said How comes it to pass thou hast concealed it so long come come put me streight into a Ship and send me whither thou wilt that this body of mine may do some good unto my Country before crooked Age consume it without profit Cratisiclea for so was her name being ready to depart took Cleomenes into the Temple of Neptune imbracing and kissing him and perceiving that his heart yearned for sorrow of her departure O King of Sparta said she let no man for shame see when we come out of the Temple that we have wept and dishonoured Sparta whilst she was with Ptolomy the Achaians sought to make peace with Cleomenes but he durst not because of his pledges which were with King Ptolomy which she hearing of writ to him That he should not spare to do any thing that might conduce to the honour and safety of his Country though without the consent of King Ptolomy for fear of an old Woman and a young Boy Plutarchs Lives CII Darius the Son of Hystaspis had sent Ambassadours to Sparta to demand of them Earth and Water as a token of their Subjection to him who were so inraged thereat that they took the Ambassadours and cast some of them head-long into a Dangeon others into Pits and bid them take from thence the Earth and Water they came for after which they had no prosperous Sacrifices and having for a long time endured great calamities they at last met in a full Assembly wherein it was proposed whether any would die or venture their lives for the good of Sparta upon which Sperthies and Balis who were of birth and equal Estate with the best freely offered themselves to undergo such punishment as Xerxes the Son of Darius who then reigned should inflict for the death of his Ambassadours The Spartans sent them away as Persons hastening towards their death being come to Susa they they were admitted into the presence of Xerxes where first they refused to adore him and then told him That the Spartans had sent them to suffer death in lieu of those Ambassadours whom they had put to death at Sparta Xerxes replied That he would not do as the Spartans had done who by killing Ambassadours had confounded the Laws of all Nations that therefore he would not do what he had upbraided them with nor would he by their death absolve the Spartans from their guilt Herodotus lib. 7. CIII A Spartan Woman had five Sons in a Battel which was fought near unto that City and seeing one that came out of the Fight she asked him how affairs went All your five Sons are stain said he Vnhappy wretch replied the Woman I ask thee not of their Concerns but of that of my Country as to that all is well said the Soldier then said she let them mourn that are miserable for my part I esteem my self happy in the prosperity of my Country Plutarchs Lives CIV Sylla being overcome by Marius in a Battle commanded all the Citizens of Praeneste to be slain excepting one only who was his intimate Friend but he hearing the bloody Sentence pronounced against the rest stepped forth and said That he scorned to live by his favour who was the destroyer of his Country and so went forth amongst the rest which were slain Fulgoszlib 5. CV Having thus discovered the effects of love in the extensive acceptation thereof I shall next proceed to relate some of the choicest instances of the most intire Friendship and because saithful Friends may seem in this Age to be gone on Pilgrimage as Bishop Mâ—rton says we must therefore be content to borrow Presidents from the Histories of former Ages Titus Volumnius a Gentleman of Rome was the friend of Marcus Lucullus who was slain by the command of Mark Anthory because he had followed the Party of Brutus and Cassius and though he had a sufficient time to provide for himself by flight yet he remained by the body of his dead Friend and lamented him with such abundance of sighs and tears that particular notice was taken of him by the Officers they therefore dragged him to Anthony unto whose sight and presence he was no sooner come but Command me Sir said he to be forthwith carried to the body of Lucullus and to be thereslain for I ought not to survive him since I was the only Person who persuaded him to take that unfortunate side He easily prevailed with Antonius to grant his request he was therefore led to the place he desired where when he came he kissed the right hand of Luculius took up his head that was cut off and put it into his Bosom and then stretched out his own neck to receive the blow of the Executioner Valer. Maxim lib. 4. CVI. Cambyses King of Persia making War against the Aegyptians overthrew them in a great Battel and took the Royal City and therein the King Psammenitus and all his Family and Nobles after which he kept him Prisoner in the Suburbs and then caused the Daughters of the Nobility and among them the Kings Daughter clothed in ragged Apparel to fetch water in Tankards from the River which when their Parents saw they all broke forth into grievous weeping only Psammenitus with his Eyes fixed upon the ground shewed no sign of sorrow Then did Cambyses cause the Noblemens Sons and amongst them the Son of Psammenitus to be led to execution tied together by the Necks with Ropes Bridles put into their mouths hereupon their Parents again broke forth into grievous Lamentations only Psammenitus stood quiet as before but presently after seeing an old man his intimate Friend begging in the Streets he broke forth into grievous Lamentations which Cambyses observing sent to him to know what was the reason that he when he saw his Daughter so abused and his Son led to death he mourned not but now when he saw this poor man that was no kin to him begging he made such heavy moan To whom Psammenitus answered My Domestick evils were greater than that I could express my sorrow for them but the calamity of my Friend deserves my tears for that now in his old age from an high estate he is brought to such extream poverty Herodotus Hist CVII I think saith Mr. Hakewell that no former Histories of the Graecians or Romans can afford such another example of constant and faithful Friendship as that betwixt Barbadicus and Trivisanus two Gentlemen of Venice in memory whereof there is a large inscription in Latine in that City allowed by Authority in 1627. This example was held so strange that several learned men have published Narratives thereof one of which take as follows Nicholas Barbadicus and M. Trivisanus two Patricians of Venice of great reputation in respect of their own Virtues the splendor of their Families and the Dignities and Offices they had honourably born in the
by the neighbours who starting out of their beds and breaking open the doors found them in the very act before the body was cold for which they were apprehended and laid in Prison Fettered with heavy Chains After their condemnation for this horrid fact the morning before the time appointed for Execution the Father strangled himself and the Mother was carried by the Devil out of the Dungeon in the Prison and her body was found dead in a stinking ditch with her neck broken asunder Beards Theater p. 72. XXX In 1620 There was a young Gentleman whose name was Duncomb that fell in love with a Gentlewoman to whom he vowed his heart and promised Marriage but her fortune not answering his Fathers humour he threatned to disinherit him if he married her and the better to alienate him from her he sent him as a Souldier in the Earl of Oxfords Regiment into Germany hoping that time and absence might wear out those Impressions that his present fancy had fixed upon him charging him at his departure never to think of her more lest with the thoughts of her he lost him for ever The young man being now long absent from her and having his heart full with the remembrance of her could not contain himself but let her know that no threats or anger of Parents should ever blot her memory out of his thoughts which he illustrated with many expressions of love and affection but the careless young man writing at the same time to his Father superscribed his Fathers Letter to his Mistriss wherein he renounced her and his Mistrisses Letter to his Father wherein he admired her the Father swoln with rage and anger against his Son sent him a bitter Letter back again full of threats and whether that or the shame for his mistake that she should see he renounced her whom he professed to Love did overcome his reason is not known but he hereupon killed himself to the great grief of all the English there and by this example Parents may see what it is to be too rigid to their Children for it was not the young mans hand but the old mans hard heart that killed him Hist Great Brit. p. 140. XXXI There was a Peasant a Macedonian by Nation named Rachoses who being the Father of seven Sons perceived the youngest of them played the little Libertine and unbridled Colt he endeavoured to reclaim him by fair words and reasons but finding him to reject all manner of good Counsel he bound his hands behind him carried him before a Magistrate accused him and required that he might be proceeded against as an Enemy to Nature The Judges who would not discontent this incensed Father nor hazard the life of this young man sent them both to the King which at that time was Artaxerxes The Father went thither with a resolution to seek his Sons death where pleading before the King with much earnestness and many forcible reasons Artaxerxes stood amazed at his Courage But how can you my Friend said he endure to see your Son die before your face he being a Gardiner by Trade As willingly said he as I would pluck away Leaves from a rank Lettice and not hurt the root The King threatned the Son with death if his Carriage were not better and perceiving the old mans zeal to Justice of a Gardiner made him a Judge Causins H. Court p. 112. XXXII Epaminondas the Theban being General against the Lacedemonians it fell out that he was called to Thebes upon the Election of Magistrates at his departure he commits the care and government of the Army to his Son Stesimbrotus with a severe charge that he should not fight till his return The Lacedemonians that they might allure the young man to fight reproach him with dishonour and Cowardice he impatient of these Contumelies contrary to the commands of his Father ingages in a Battel wherein he obtained a signal Victory The Father returning to the Camp adorns the Head of his Son with a Crown of Triumph and afterward commanded the Executioner to take it off from his Shoulders as a violator of Military Discipline Plutarch XXXIII Philip the Second King of Spain out of an unnatural and bloody zeal suffered his eldest Son Don Carlos to be murthered by the Fathers of the Hellish Inquisition because he favoured the Protestant Religion which when the Pope heard of he abusively applied that Text of Scripture to him He spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all Acts and Monum XXXIV One of the Sons of Pyrrhus King of Epyrus being but a Boy asked his Father one day to which of his Sons he would leave his Kingdom to whom Pyrrhus answered To him that hath the sharpest Sword an answer not much unlike that Tragical Curse of Oedipus toward his Children Let them for me divide Both Goods and Rents and Lands With glittering Swords and bloody blows By force of mighty hands XXXV In the year 1551. at a Town called Weidenhasten in Germany Nov. 20. A cruel Mother inspired by the Devil shut up all her doors and began to murder her four Children in this manner she snatcht up a sharp Ax and first set upon her eldest Son being but eight years old searching him out with a Candle behind an Hogshead where he had hid himself and immediately notwithstanding his lamentable Prayers and Complaints clove his Head in two pieces and chopped off both his Arms next she killed her Daughter of five years old in the same manner another little Boy of three years seeing his Mothers madness hid itself poor innocent behind the Gate whom as soon as this Tyger espied she drew out by the hair of the head into the floor and there cut off his Head the youngest lay crying in the Cradle but half a year old him she without all compassion pluckt out and murdered in the same manner these Murders being committed this Devil incarnate for surely no Humanity was left in her to take punishment of her self for the same cut her own Throat and tho she lived nine days after and confessing her horrid Crimes died with abundance of Tears and great repentance yet we see how it pleased God to arm her own hands against her self as the fittest Executioner of Vengeance Beards Theat p. 225. XXXVI Fausta the Wife of Constantine the Great fell in love with Constantine her Son in Law whom when she could not persuade unto her Lust she accused unto the Emperor as if he had solicited her Chastity for which this innocent young man was condemned and put to death but the truth being afterward discovered Constantine ordered her to be put into an hot Bath and suffered her not to come forth till the heat had choked her revenging upon her own head her Sons death and her own Unchastity Idem p. 225. XXXVII Robert de Beliasme delighted much in Cruelty an Example whereof he shewed on his own Son who being but a Child and playing with him the Father for
Vnparalleld VARIETIES Or the Matchless Actions and Passions OF MANKIND Displayed in near Four Hundred Notable Instances and Examples Discovering the Transcendent Effects I. Of Love Friendship and Gratitude II. Of Magnanimity Courage and Fidelity III. Of Chastity Temperance and Humility And on the contrary the Tremendous Consequences IV. Of Hatred Revenge and Ingratitude V. Of Cowardice Barbarity and Treachery VI. Of Unchastity Intemperance and Ambition Imbellished with Proper Figures By R. B. Author of the History of the Wars of Eng. c. Remarks of London c. Wonderful Prodigies c. Admirable Curiosities in England c. Extraordinary Adventures of famous Men and Surprizing Miracles of Nature and Art in the Heavens Earth and Sea c. London Printed for Nath. Crouch at his Shop at the Sign of the Bell in the Poultry 1683. Unparaleld Varieties Iulius Caesar Slain in the Senate by Brutus Cassius others Page 15. London Printed for Nath Crouch TO THE READER IT is an usual saying that Variety Delights but especially in History and more it may be in this Age than in any other before wherein a great many seem to scorn the dull heavy humor of their Ancestors as they please to call it and therefore have not patience to read large Histories admiring their own briskness Ingenuity and Wit though much of it is altogether invisible but only to themselves and their own vain imaginations However since the light French Airiness is now so modish it may not be thought improper so far to comply therewith as to present the Reader with this brief Compendium out of many great Volumes of abundance of short delightful Relations and Instances upon various Subjects which may prevent both tediousness and charge and may likewise furnish the mind with apt matter both for Discourse and Instruction in brief here they may as in a Glass discover the excellent rewards of Virtue and the dreadful punishments of Vice in all Ages of the world and thereby be persuaded to follow and practise the one that they may escape the unavoydable consequences of the other and if it have this admirable effect I shall then reckon my time and pains well imployed in writing of it neither will the Reader repent of his in the Reading thereof R. B. CHAP. I. The Transcendent Effects of Love Friendship and Gratitude discovered in several Memorable Examples LOve and Friendship are the chief Bonds of Humane Society without which Mankind would be Wolves and destrovers of each other I shall therefore give some instances of the extraordinary Effects thereof in all Ages and that in the most large acceptation of it as of the Passion of Love between different Sexes the disquiets whereof have sometimes made deep impressions upon divers Persons of the singular Love of some Husbands to their Wives and Wives to their Husbands of the Indulgence and great Love of some Parents to their Children and the reverence and Love of Children to their Parents of the extraordinary Love of Brethren and of many Servants to their Masters of the signal Love of some Persons to Religion and Truth and their hatred of Flattery and Falshood the Love of several to Peace Justice and to their Country together with the choicest instances of the most intire Friendship and the grateful dispositions of some Persons and what returns they have made of the benefits received these shall be the particulars of this first Chapter wherein the variety of the Relations cannot but administer some profit as well as delight since they are collected from Authors of undoubted Authority and Credit I shall therefore proceed in order and first as to Humane Love or that strictly called the Passion of Love I. Eginardus was Secretary of State to Charlemaign Emperour and King of France and having placed his The Emp. of Ger. Daughter caryes her Lover on her back to prevent Discovery Page .1 Affections much higher than his Condition admitted made love to one of his Daughters who seeing this Man of a brave Spirit and a grace suitable thought him not too low for her whom merit had so eminently raised above his Birth she affected him and gave him free access to her Person so far as to suffer him to have recourse unto her to laugh and sport in her Chamber on the Evenings which ought to have been kept as a Sanctuary where Relicts are preserved It happened on a Winters night that Eginardus ever hastning his Approaches and being negligent in his returns had too much slackned his departure in the mean time a â—…ow had fallen which troubled them both for when he thought to go forth he feared to be known by his feet the Lady was unwilling that such prints of steps should be found at her door they being much perplexed Love which taketh the Diadem of Majesty from Queens made her to do an Act for a Lover very unusual for the Daughter of one of the greatest Men upon Earth she took the Gentleman upon her shoulders and carried him all the length of the Court to his Chamber he never setting foot to ground that so the next day no impression might be seen of his footing it fell out that Charlemaign watched at his Study this night and hearing a noise opened the Window and perceived this pretty prank at which he could not tell whether he were best to be angry or to laugh the next day in a great Assembly of Lords and in the presence of his Daughter and Eginardus he asked what punishment that Servant might seem worthy of who made use of a Kings Daughter as of a Mule and caused himself to be carried on her Shoulders in the midst of Winter through Night Snow and all the sharpness of the Seasons Every one gave his opinion and not one but condemned that insolent man to death the Princess and Secretary changed colour thinking nothing remained for them but to be flead alive but the Emperour looking on his Secretary with a smooth brow said Eginardus hadst thou loved the Princess my Daughter thou oughtest to have come to her Father the disposer of her Liberty thou art worthy of death and I give thee two lives at this present take thy fair Portress in Marriage fear God and love one another these Lovers thought they were in an instant drawn out of the depth of Hell to enjoy the greatest happiness in the World Causins Holy Court Tom. 2. II. Pyramus a young Man of Babylon was exceedingly in love with Thisbe the Daughter of one that lived the very next House to his Father nor was he less beloved by her both Parents had discerned it and for some Reasons kept them both up so streightly that they were not suffered so much as to speak to one another at last they found opportunity of discourse through the Chink of a Wall betwixt them and appointed to meet together in a certain place without the City Thisbe came first to the place appointed but being terrified by a Lioness which passed by she
thing Mahomet commanded him the Author of that Counsel forthwith to do so Moses taking the Child from the Nurse strangled it with pouring water down the throat thereof The young Lady understanding the death of her Child as a Woman whom fury had made past fear came and in her rage reviled the Tyrant to his very face shamefully upbraiding him for his inhumane cruelty when Mahomet to appease her fury requested her to be content for that it stood with the policy of his State and willed her for her better contentment to ask whatsoever she pleased she should forthwith have it but she desiring nothing more but in some sort to be revenged desired to have Moses the Executioner of her Son delivered unto her bound which when she had obtained she presently struck him into the Breast with a Knite crying in vain upon his unthankful Master for help and proceeding in her cruel execution cut an hole in his right side and by piecemeal cut out his Liver and cast it to the Dogs to eat to that extremity did she resent the death of her beloved Son Knowls Turkish Hist XXIV Aegeus stood upon an high Rock whence he might see a great way upon the Sea in expectation of the return of his Son Theseus from Creet having made him promise at his departure That if all things went well with him at his return his Ship should be set forth with Sails and streamers of a white colour to express the Joyfulness of his return The old man after his long watching at last did discern the Ship making homewards but it seems they had forgot to advance the white Colours as they had promised when therefore Aegeus saw nothing but black concluding that his Son had miscarried in his journey and was dead not able to endure the grief he had conceived thereof he threw himself into the Sea from the top of the Rock whereon he stood and so died Langii Polyanth p. 848. XXV Solon was a Person famous throughout all Greece as having given Laws to the Athenians he being in his Travels came to Miletum to converse with Thales one of the wise men of Greece these two walking together upon the Market-place one comes to Solon and tells him That his Son was dead being afflicted with this unexpected as well as unwelcome news he fell to tearing of his beard hair and cloths and fowling of his face in the dust immediately a great confluence of People came about him whom he entertained with howlings and tears when he had lain long on the ground and delivered himself up to all manner of expressions of grief unworthy the Person he sustained so renowned for gravity and wisdom Thales bid him be of good courage for the whole of the Relation was but a contrivance of his who by this experiment had desired to try whether it was convenient for a wise man to marry and have Children as Solon had persuaded him to do but that now he was sufficiently satisfied it was no way necessary seeing he perceived that the loss of a Child might occasion a Person famous for wisdom to discover all the signs of a madman Sabel Exercit. lib. 3. XXVI Charles the Great was so great a lover of his Sons and Daughters that he never dined and supt without them he went no whither upon any Journy but he took them along with him and when he was asked why he did not marry his Daughters and send his Children abroad to see the world his reply was That he was not able to bear their absence Zuinglius Theat vol. 1. XXVII Artobarzanes resigned the Kingdom of Cappadocia to his Son in the presence of Pompey the Great the Father had ascended the Tribunal of Pompey and was invited to sit with him in the Royal Seat but as soon as he observed his Son to sit with the Secretary in a lower place than his Fortune deserved he could not endure to see him placed below himself but descending from his Seat he placed the Diadem upon his Sons Head and bid him go and sit in that place from whence he was newly risen at these words tears fell from the Eyes of the young man his body trembled the Diadem fell from his Head nor could he endure to go thither where he was commanded and which is almost beyond all credit he was glad who gave up his Crown and he was sorrowful to whom it was given nor had this glorious strife come to any end unless Pompeys Authority had joined itself to the Fathers will for he pronounced the Son a King commanded him to take the Diadem and compelled him to sit with him in the Throne Valer. Maxim p. 152. XXVIII Socrates was one day surprized by Alcibiades childishly sporting with his Son Lamprochus and when he was sufficiently derided by Alcibiades upon that account You have not said he such reason as you imagine to laugh so profusely at a Father playing with his Child seeing you know nothing of that affection which Parents have for their Children contain your self then till you come to be a Father your self when perhaps you will be found as ridiculous as I now seem to be Lang. Polyan p. 847. XXX Agesilaus was above measure indulgent to his Children and the Spartans reproached him that for the love of his Son Archidamus he had concerned himself so far as to hinder a just Judgment and by his intercession for the Malefactors had involved the City in the guilt of being injurious to Greece he used also at home to ride upon an Hobby-horse with his little Children and being once by a Friend of his found so doing He intreated him not to discover that act of his to any man till such time as he himself was become the Father of Children Plutarchs Lives XXXI And though it may be we may not find so many instances in History of the Love Reverence and Piety of Children to their Parents yet we read of some in all Ages who have this way intituled themselves to the promise of God and have thereby had a kind of earnest given them of being worthy and prosperous Persons as may be seen in divers of the following Examples Marcus Coriolanus having well deserved of the Commonwealth of Rome was yet unjustly condemned whereupon he fled to the Volsci at that time in Arms against Rome and being made their chief Commander he presently rendred himself very formidable to the Romans Ambassadours were sent to appease him but to no purpose the Priests met him with intreaties in their Pontifical Vestments but were also returned without effect the Senate was astonished the People trembled as well the Men as the Women bewailing the destruction that now was sure to fall upon them Then Volumnia the Mother of Coriolanus taking Volumnia his Wife along with her and also his Children went to the Camp of the Volsci whom as soon as the Son saw being one that was an intire lover of his Mother he made hast to imbrace her she
before his Father who had also a Father in Heaven by whom he hoped to be forgiven and if he would please to grant him his life he would assure him to be ever after a Loyal and Obedient Son who lived and would continually live in a constant forrow for what was past and if he intended to deal otherwise with him he yet desired him to remember That he was his own flesh and blood and that though the offence were only his yet the just Father must needs bear a part of the punishment inflicted upon the guilty Son but that in shewing mercy no inconvenience could ensue and that if he should be inexorable he should lose the most Obedient Son that ever Father had having ended these and many other words to the same effect he with great humility prostrated himself upon the Earth expecting his Fathers Sentence either of Life or Death this struck so great an impression into the Emperors heart to hear and see his Son shew such humility and to shed so many tears that he could not forbear to do the like and commanding him to arise from the ground with joy mixed with tears both from himself and his Attendants he immediately pardoned him and restored him to his Grace and Fatherly love and to the same Offices and Dignities he had before and from thence forward the Son continued constant in that Loyalty and Duty which he owed to his Father and Soveraign Lord so long as they lived together Imperial Hist p. 423. XXXVII A Son of the Lord Montpensier an Italian going to Puzzuolo to visit the Sepulcher of his Father was so overcharged with Passion that after he had washed all the parts of his Monument with his lamentable Tears he fainted and fell down dead upon the Sepulcher of his Father Guichardine Ital. Hist p. 261. XXXVIII Decimus Emperor of Rome had a purpose and earnest desire to set the Crown upon the head of his Son Decius out he utterly refused it saying I fear lest being made an Emperor I should forget that I am a Son I had rather be no Emperor and a dutiful Son than an Emperor and such a Son as hath forsaken his due obedience let then my Father bear the Rule and let this be my Empire to obey with all humility whatsoever he shall command me By this means the Solemnity was put off and the young Man was not Crowned unless you will say that his signal Piety towards his Parent was a more glorious Crown to him than that which consisted of Gold and Jewels Valer. Maxim lib. 4. XXXIX In the Civil Wars of Rome between Augustus and Mark Anthony as it often falls out that Fathers Sons Brothers Brothers take contrary part so in that last Battel at Actium where Augustus was Conqueror when the Prisoners as the Custom is were counted up Metellus was brought to Octavianus whose face tho much changed by anxiety and imprisonment was known by Metellus his Son who had been on the contrary part withtears therefore he runs into the imbraces of his Father and then turning to Augustus This thy Enemy said he hath deserved death but I am worthy of some reward for the service I have done thee I therefore beseech thee instead of that which is owing me that thou wouldst preserve this man and cause me to be killed in his stead Augustus moved with this piety though a great Enemy gave to the Son the life of the Father Lonic Theat 273. XL. Demetrius the King of Asia and Macedonia was taken Prisoner in Battel by Seleucus King of Syria after which Antigonus his Son was the quiet possessour of his Kingdom yet did he change the Royal Purple into a mourning habit and in continual tears sent abroad his Ambassadours to the Neighbouring Kings that they would interpose in his Fathers behalf for the obtaining of his Liberty he also sent to Seleucus and promised him the Kingdom and himself as an hostage and security if he would free his Father from Prison after he knew that his Father was dead he set forth a great Navy and went out to receive the body of the deceased which by Seleucus was sent toward Macedonia he received it with such mournful Solemnity and so many tears as turned all men into wonder and compassion Antigonus stood in the Poop of a great Ship built for that purpose cloathed in black bewailing his dead Father the Ashes were inclosed in a golden Urn over which he stood a continual and disconsolate Spectator he caused to be sung the Virtues and Noble Atchievements of the deceased Prince with voices form'd to Piety and Lamentation the Rowers also in the Gallies so ordered the stroaks of their Oars that they kept time with the mournful voices of the others in this manner the Navy came near to Corinth so that the Rocks and Shores themselves seemed to be moved to mourning Plutarchs Lives Thus far of Paternal and Filial Love let us proceed to that between Brethren XLI It is usually counted rare to see Brothers live together in mutual love and agreement with each other and it is likewise commonly observed that their Animosities have been managed with greater rancour bitterness than if they had been the greatest Strangers on the other side where this Fraternal Love has rightly seated it self in the Soul it has appeared as real and vigorous as any other sort of Love whatsoever of which there want not very remarkable Instances In the year 1585. the Portugal Ship called St. Jago was cast away upon the Shallows near St. Lawrence and towards the Coast of Mosambique here it was that divers Persons had leapt into the great Boat to save their lives and finding that it was overburdened they chose a Captain whom they swore to obey who caused them to cast Lots and such as the Lot fell upon to be cast overboard there was one of those that in Portugal are called New Christians who being allotted to be cast overboard into the Sea had a younger Brother in the same Boat that suddenly rose up and desired the Captain that he would pardon and make free his Brother and let him supply his place saying My Brother is elder and of better knowledge in the World than I and therefore more fit to live in the World and to help my Sisters and Friends in their need so that Thad rather die for him than live without him at which request they saved the elder Brother and threw the younger at his own desire into the Sea who swum at least six hours after the Boat and though they held up their hands with naked Swords willing him that he should not once come to touch the Boat yet laying hold thereon and having his hand half cut in two he would not let go so that in the end they were constrained to take him in again both these Brethren I knew saith my Author and have been in company with them Linschotens Voyages p. 147. XLII When the Emperor
Child that we are Baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity let us not lose the Garment of our Salvation lest it be said cast them into utter darkness where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth for that pain is to be dreaded that never endeth and that life to be desired that always lasteth The Youth was so incouraged hereby that he persevered patient in all his sufferings till in the midst of his Torments he gave up the Ghost and many by this Ladies Exhortations and Example were converted to Christianity and animated in their sufferings Not long after Cyrillus the Arrian Bishop of Carthage stirred up Hunrick the Tyrant against the Christians telling him That he could never expect to enjoy his Kingdom in peace so long as he suffered any of them to live hereupon he sent for seven eminent Christians to Carthage whom he first assaulted with flattery and large promises of Honour Riches c. if they would imbrace his Faith but these Servants of Christ rejected all his offers crying out One Lord one Faith one Baptism saying also do with our Bodies what you please torment them at your will it is better for us to suffer these momentary pains than to indure everlasting Torments Before this Hunrick sent his Commissioners to impose the following Oath upon them under the utmost penalty You shall swear that after the death of our Lord the King his Son Hilderick shall succeed him in the Kingdom whereupon some cryed out we are all Christians and hold the Apostolical and only True Faith and seeing further into the subtlety of this Oath refused it other well meaning men offered to take it whereupon they were divided asunder and committed to custody the names of both Parties and of what Cities they were being taken in writing and soon after the King sent them this Message As for you that would have taken the Oath because you contrary to the rule of the Gospel which saith swear not at all would have sworr the Kings Will is that you shall never see your Churches nor Houses more but be banished into the Wilderness and there shall till the ground But to the refusers of the Oath he said Because you desire not the Reign of our Lord the Kings Son you shall therefore be immediately sent away to the Isle of Corse there to hew Timber for the Ships Clarks Martyr XXXII In the eighth Primitive Persecution under Valerianus Sixtus Bishop of Rome with his six Deacons were accused for being Christians whereupon being brought to the place of Execution they were all beheaded St. Lawrence also another Deacon following Sixtus as he went to Execution complained that he might not suffer with him but that he was secluded as the Son from the Father to whom the Bishop answered That within three days he should follow him bidding him in the mean time to go home and if he had any Treasures to distribute them among the Poor the Judge hearing mention of Treasures supposing that Lawrence had great store in his Custody commanded him to bring the same to him Lawrence craved three days respite promising then to declare where the Treasure might be had in the mean time he caused a great number of poor Christians to be gathered together and when the day of his answer was come the Persecutor strictly charged him to make good his promise but valiant Lawrence stretching out his Arms over the poor said These are the precious Treasures of the Church these are the Treasures indeed in which Christ hath his Mansion But O what Tongue is able to express the fury and madness of the Tyrants Heart how he stamped stared raved like one out of his wits his Eyes glowed like Fire his Mouth foamed like a Boar he grindeth his Teeth like an Hell-hound and then he bellows out Kindle the fire make no spare of Wood hath this Villain deluded the Emperor Away with him whip him with Scourges jerk him with Rods buffet him with Fists brain him with Clubs what doth the Traytor jest with the Emperor Pinch him with fiery Tongs gird him with burning Plates bring out the strongest Chains and Pireforks and the grate of Iron set it on the fire bind the Rebel hand and foot and when the grate is red hot on with him rost him broyl him toss him turn him upon pain of our high displeasure do every man his Office O ye Tormentors Immediately his command was obeyed and after many cruel Tortures this meek Lamb was laid I will not say upon a Bed of fiery Iron but on a soft down Bed so mightily did God work for his Servant and so miraculously did he temper this Element of Fire that it was not a Bed of consuming pain but of nourishing rest unto Lawrence so that the Emperor and not Lawrence seemed to be tormented the one broyling in the flesh the other burning in his heart when this Triumphant Martyr had been pressed down with Fire-forks for a great while in the mighty Spirit of God he spake thus to the Tyrant This side is now roasted enough Turn up O Tyrant Great And try whether roasted or raw Thou thinkst it's better meat By the couragious Confession of this worthy and valiant Deacon a Roman Soldier was converted to the same Faith and desired to be Baptized whereupon he was called before the Judge Scourged and afterward be headed Acts and Mon. XXXIII In the Arrian Persecution in Africa there was one Saturus a Nobleman eminent for Piety whom the Tyrant much laboured to withdraw from the Christian Profession but he refusing the King told him that if he presently consented not he should forfeit his House his Lands his Goods and his Honours that his Children and Servants should be sold and his Wife should be given to his Camel-driver or one of the basest of his Slaves but when threats prevailed not he was cast into Prison and when his Lady heard her doom she went to her Husband as he was praying with her Garments rent and her hair dishevel'd her Children at her heels and a sucking Infant in her Arms and falling down at her Husbands feet she took him about the Knees saying Have compassion O my sweetest of me thy poor Wife and of these thy Children look upon them let them not be made Slaves let not me be yoaked in so base a Marriage consider that what thou art required to do thou dost it not willingly but art constrain'd thereunto and therefore it will not be laid to thy charge But this valiant Soldier of Christ answered her in the words of Job Thou speakest like a foolish Woman thou actest the Devils part If thou truly lovedst thy Husband thou wouldst never seek to draw him to sin that may separate him from Christ and expose him to the second death know assuredly that I am resolved as my Saviour Christ commands me to forsake Wife Children House Lands c. that so I may enjoy him and be his Disciple And accordingly he was
who was of a fierce and violent disposition made War upon his Brother Alphonsus overcame and took him Prisoner and thrust him into a Monastery constrained Religion lasts not long and therefore he privately deserted his Cloyster and in company only of one Earl he fled for protection to Almenon King of Toledo who was a Moor and an Enemy to the others Religion but there had been Friendship and Peace betwixt him and Ferdinand the Father of this distressed Prince and upon this account he chose to commit himself unto his Faith and was cheerfully received by him he had not been long with him when in the presence of the King the hair of this Prince was observed to stand up an end in such manner that being several times stroked down by the hand they still continued in their upright posture The Mâ—orish Sooth sayers interpreted this to be a Prodigy of ill signification and told the King that this was the man that should be advanced to the Throne of Toledo and thereupon persuaded to put him to death the King would not do it but preferred his Faith given to the fear he might apprehend and thought it sufficient to make him swear that during his life he should not invade his Kingdom a while after King Sanctius was slain by Conspirators at Zamora and his Sister Vratta being well affected to this her Brother sent him a Messenger with Letters to invite him to the Kingdom advising him by some craft with all speed to quit the Country of the Barbarians where he was Alphonsus bearing a grateful mind would not relinquish his Patron in this manner but coming to Almenon acquainted him with the matter And now said he noble Prince compleat your Royal Favours toward me by sending me to my Kingdom that as hitherto I have had my life so I may now also receive my Scepter by your generosity The King imbraced him and wished him all happiness But said he you had lost both Crown and life if with an ungrateful mind you had fled without my knowledge For I knew of the death of Sanctius and I silently waited what course you would take and had disposed upon the way such as I should have returned you back from your flight had it been attempted But no more of this all I shall require of you is that during your life you shall be a true Friend to me and my elder Son Hissemus And so sent him away with Money and an honourable retinue this Alphonsus did afterward take the City and Kingdom of Toledo but it was after the death of Almenon and his Son Lipsius Mon p. 321. LIX Antaff King of some part of Ireland warring against King Ethelstan disguised himself like an Harper and came into Ethelstans Tent whence being gone a Soldier that knew him discovered it to the King who being offended with the Soldier for not declaring it sooner the Soldier made this answer I once served Antaff under his pay as a Soldier and gave him the same Faith I now give you if then I should betray him what trust could your Grace repose in my Truth let him therefore die but not by my Trechery and let your care remove your Royal self from danger remove your Tent from the place where it stands lest at unawares he set upon you Which the King did and the Bishop pitching in the same place was that night with all his Retinue slain by Antaff hoping to have surprized the King and believing he had slain him because he himself knew his Tent stood in that place Speeds Chrocle p. 381. LX. Henry King of Arragon and Sicily was deceased and left John his Son a Child of twenty two months of Age behind him intrusted to the care and fidelity of Ferdinand the Brother of the deceased King and Uncle to the Infant he was a man of great virtue and merit and therefore the Eyes of the Nobles and People were upon him and not only in private discourses but in the publick Assembly he had the general voice and mutual consent to be chosen King of Arragon but he was still deaf to these proffers alledging the right of his Infant Nephew and the custom of the Country which they were bound the rather to maintain by how much the weaker the young Prince was to do it yet he could not prevail though the Assembly was adjourned for that time they met again in hopes that having time to consider of it he would now accept it who being not ignorant of their purpose had caused the little Child to be clothed in Royal Robes and having hid him under his Garment went and sate in the Assembly then Paralus Master of the Horse by common consent did again ask him Whom O Ferdinand is it your pleasure to have declared our King He with a severe look voice replied Whom but John the Son of my Brother and withal took forth the Child from under his Robe and lifting him up upon his Shoulders cryed out God save King John and commanding the Banners to be displayed cast himself first to the ground before him and then all the rest moved by his example did the like Camer Horae Subs p. 154. LXI John the first K. of France was overthrown in Battel and made Prisoner by Edw. the Black Prince and afterwards brought over into England Here he remained four years and was then suffered to return into France upon certain conditions which if he could make his Subjects submit to he should be free if otherwise he gave his faith to return he could not prevail to make them accept of the hard Terms that were offered whereupon he returned into England surrendred himself up and there died Fulgosus ex p. 44. LXII Flectius a Nobleman was made Governor of the City and Castle of Conimbria in Portugal by King Sanctius 1243. This Sanctius was too much swayed by his Wife Mencia and over-addicted to some Court Minions and Favourites by reason of which there was a Conspiracy of the Nobles against him and the matter was so far gone that they had got leave of Pope Innocent to translate the Government of the Kingdom to Alphonsus the Brother of Sanctius hereupon followed a War the minds of most men were alienated from their natural Prince but Flectius was still constant induring the Siege and Arms of Alphonsus and the whole Nation nor could he any way be persuaded till he heard that Sanctius was dead in banishment at Toletum for whom now should he fight or preserve his Faith they advised him therefore to follow Fortune and to yield himself and not change a just Praise for the Title of a Desperado and a Madman Flectius heard but believed them not he therefore beg'd leave of Alphonsus that he himself might go to Toletum and satisfy himself It was granted and he there found that the King was indeed dead buried and therefore that he might as well be free in his own conscience as in the opinion of men he opened
the Sepulcher and with sighs and tears he delivers the very Keys of Conimbria into the Kings hands with these words As long O King as I did judge thee to be alive I endured all extremities I fed upon Skins and Leather and quenched my thirst with Vrine I repressed or quieted the minds of the Citizens that were inclining to Sedition and whatsoever could be expected from a faithful Man and one sworn to thy interest that I performed and persisted in only one thing remains that having delivered the Keys of the City to thine own hands I may return freed of my Oath and to tell the Citizens their King is dead God send thee well in another and a better Kingdom This said he departed acknowledged Alphonsus for his lawful Prince and was ever after faithful to him Lipsius Monit p. 324. LXIII King John had made Hubert Burgh Governor of Dover Castle and when King Lewis of France came to take the Town and found it difficult to be overcome by force he sent to Hubert whose Brother Thomas he had taken Prisoner a little before that unless he would surrender the Castle he should presently see his Brother Thomas put to death with exquisite Torments before his Eyes but this Threatning moved not Hubert at all who more regarded his own Loyalty than his Brothers life then Prince Lewis sent again offering him a great sum of Money neither did this move him but he kept his Loyalty as faithfully and inexpugnably as he did his Castle Bakers Chron. p. 110. LXIV Sanctius King of Castile had taken Tariffa from the Moors but was doubtful of keeping it by reason both of the Neithborhood of the Enemy and the great cost it would put him to there was with him at that time Alphonsus Guzman a noble and rich Person a great Man both in Peace and War he of his own accord offered to take the care of it and to be at part of the charge himself and the King in the mean time might attend other affairs A while after the Kings Brother John revolted to the Moors and with some Forces of their's suddenly sate down before Tariffa the Besieged feared him not but relyed upon their own and their Governors valour only one thing unhappily fell out the Son and only Son of Alphonsus was unfortunately taken by the Enemy in the Fields him they shewed before the Walls and threatned to put him to a cruel death unless they speedily yielded the Town the hearts of all men were moved only that of Alphonsus who cried with a loud voice that had they a hundred of his Sons in their power he should not thereupon depart from his Faith and Loyalty and saith he Since you are so thirsty for blood there is a Sword for you throwing his own Sword over the Wall to them away he went and prepared himself to go to Dinner when upon the sudden there was a confused noise and cry that recalled him he again repairs to the Wall and asking the reason of their amazement they told him That his Son had been put to death with barbarous Cruelty Was that it then replied he I thought the City had been taken by the Enemy And so with his former unconcernedness and tranquillity he returned again to his Wife and his Dinner the Enemies astonished at the greatness of his Spirit departed the Siege without any further attempt upon the place Lipsius LXV Boges the Persian was besieged in his City Etona by Cimon General of the Athenians and when he was offered safely to depart into Asia upon delivery of the City he constantly refused it lest he should be thought unfaithful to his Prince being therefore resolved he bore all the inconveniences of a Siege till his Provisions being now almost utterly spent and seeing there was no way to break forth he made a great fire and cast himself and his whole Family into the flames of it concluding he had not sufficiently acquitted himself of his Trust to his Prince unless he also laid down his life for his Cause Herodot p. 417. LXVI Liamgzus the Conductor of the Rebel Thieves had seized the Empire of China taken the Metropolis Peking and upon the death of the Emperor had seated himself in the Imperial Throne he displaced and imprisoned what great Officers he pleased amongst the rest was one Vs a venerable Person whose Son Vsangueius led the Army of China in the confines of Leatung against the Tartars the Tyrant threatned this old man with a cruel death if by his Fatherly power he did not reduce him with his whole Army to the acknowledgment of his Power promising great rewards to them both if he should prevail wherefore the poor old man writ thus to his Son Know my Son that the Emperor Zunchinus and the whole Family of Taimingus are perished the Heavens have cast the Fortune of it upon Licungzus we must observe the times and by making a virtue of necessity avoid his Tyranny and experience his liberality he promiseth to thee a Royal Dignity if with the Army you submit to his Dominion and acknowledge him as Emperor my life depends upon thy Answer consider what thou owest to him that gave thee life To which his Son Vsanguineus returned this answer He that is not faithful to his Soveraign will never be so to me and if you forget your duty and fidelity to your Emperor no man will blame me if I forget my duty and obedience to such a Father I will rather die than serve a Thief And immediately he sent an Ambassador to call in the aid of the Tartars to subdue this Usurper of the Empire Hist China p. 277. CHAP. III. The Transcendent Effects of Chastity Temperance and Humility discovered in divers notable Histories THere is no Vice whatever that is easy to overcome but that of the Lust of the Flesh seems to have a peculiar difficulty in the Conquest of it as being born with us and which accompanies us all along from the Cradle to the Tomb for the most part having so firmly fixed its roots within us that not one of manyis able to prevail against it by how much the more strong therefore the Enemy is and the more intimate and familiar he is with us the more noble is the Victory and the Conquest more glorious which yet some in all Ages have attained as may appear by the following instances I. Scipio had taken the City of New Carthage where besides the rest of the Spoil there were found a number of Boys Girls the Children of the Nobility amongst the rest one Virgin was brought presented to Scipio whose marvellous beauty had attracted the Eyes of all men whithersoever she went it was supposed this would be no unacceptable Present to the young General but he as soon as he looked upon her said only thus I would accept and enjoy this Virgin were I a private Person and not in such command as I am for the Commonwealth keeps my mind sufficiently imployed
Nature and the bloodiness of their disposition XXVI Artaxerxes King of Persia had fifty Sons by his several Concubines one called Darius he made King in his own life-time contrary to the Custom of that Nation who having sollicited his Father to give him Aspatia his beautiful Concubine and being denied by him he stirred up all the rest of his Brothers to join with him in a Conspiracy against the old King it was not carried so privately but that the design came to Artaxerxes ear who so incensed thereat that casting off all Humanity as well as Fatherly affection not contented with Prisons or Exile he caused them all at once to be put to death and thus by his own hand he brought a woful desolation into his House which was so lately replenished by so numerous an Off-spring Sabel Exem p. 132. XXVII Ptolomy Phiscon having fetched his eldest Son out of Cyrene he put him to death lest the Alexandrians should set him up King against him whereupon the People pluckt down his Statue and his Images And Ptolomy supposing that this was done by the instigation of his Sister and Wife Cleopatra and not well knowing how to be revenged any other way he commanded his Son Memphitis who was an ingenious and hopeful Child and whom he had by her to be slain before his Eyes and cutting off his head hands and feet put them into a Chest close covered with a Soldiers Coat and gave it to one of his Servants to carry it to Alexandria and to present it to Cleopatra at the Festival of her Nativity when she was in the height of her Jollity this was a sad and grievous Spectacle not to the Queen only but to the whole City and it struck such a damp upon their merry meeting that the Court on a sudden was overcast with a general sadness and the Nobles turning their Festival into a Funeral shewed the mangled Limbs to the People to let them see what themselves were to expect from their King who had thus murthered his own Child A. B. Vshers Annal. p. 494. 28. In the reign of Queen Mary there was one Julius Palmer a Religious man and afterward a Martyr for the Protestant Profession who being driven from the Town of Redding in Barkshire where he taught School went to Evesham where his Mother dwelt hoping to obtain a Legacy which his Father had left him in her hands his Mother hearing before hand what was the occasion of his coming when upon his knees he asked her Blessing she said Thou shalt have Christs curse and mine where-ever thou goest He being amazed at this heavy greeting paused a while and then said Oh Mother your curse you may give me which God knows I never deserved but Gods curse you cannot give me for he hath already blessed me Nay said she thou wentest out of Gods blessing when thou wast banished out of Oxford for an Heretick and now for the like knavery art driven out of reading Alas Mother said he you are misinformed I resigned my places of mine own accord and Heretick I am none for I stand not stubbornly against any truth but defend it to my power well said she I am sure thou dost not believe as thy Father did and as I do nor as our fore-Fathers did but as thou art taught by the new Law in King Edwards days which is damnable Heresy indeed said he I do so believe but it is not Heresy but the truth and not new but as ancient as Christ and his Apostles well said she get thee out of my house and sight and ne're take me for thy Mother more as for money I have none for thee thy Father bequeathed no Legacies to Hereticks Faggots I have to burn thee and more thou gettest not at my hands Mr. Palmer for her cursings returned blessings and Prayers for her and so weeping abundantly he departed from her this so mollified her hard heart that she threw an Angel after him saying Take that to keep thee a true man Book Martyrs vol 3. 29. Doctor Otho Melander reports this horrible Parricide to be Committed in the year 1568. at a place called Albidos in Saxony there lived saith he a Father who had two Sons the one he brought up to Husbandry the other in Merchandise both very obedient dutiful and thriving the Merchant traded to Lubeck where in few years he got a very fair Estate and falling sick even in the chief of his trade he made his will wherein he bequeathed to his Brother about five hundred pound and to his Father ten and some few hours after he had setled his Estate he died but before his death he sent to his Brother to come in Person and receive those Legacies the Father not knowing how things were disposed of dispatched away his other Son with all possible speed to Lubeck being more coverous after what his Son had left him then sorrowful for his death though he were a youngman of great expectation the surviving Son who was the younger arrived at the City and having first deplored the death of his Brother he takes a Copy of the will and receives all the money to a penny and with this new stock he joyfully returns into his own Country where at his first arrival he was gladly welcomed by his Father and Mother who were overjoyed to behold the bags he had brought but when by the reading of the will they saw how the money was disposed and that so little came to their share they first began bitterly to curse the dead Son and then barbarously to rail on the living outfacing him that he had changed the will by altering the old and forging a new one which the innocent youth denying and excusing himself by telling them that the Original was upon record and by that they might be fully satisfied yet all would give them no satisfaction till very weariness made them give over their heavy Cursings then the Son offered them the whole to dispose freely of it at their pleasure which they very churlishly refused and bid him take all and the Devil give him good with it which drew tears from the Sons Passionate Eyes who after asking their blessing which they denied he parted very sadly from them he was no sooner departed from them but they wickedly contrived to get this money by murdering him that very night and when he was innocently asleep in his bed they both set furiously and violently upon him stabbing him with daggers into the breast so that with the Agony of the wounds he opened his Eyes and espying both his Parents with their hands imbrued in his blood he with a loud exclamation uttered these words or to the same purpose O Gold to what dost thou not compel mankind What villany dost thou not persuade them to act for thou causest Parents to sheath their weapons into their own bowels even those of their own Children these dying Speeches were uttered with such a doleful and shrill voice that they were heard
a Pastime put his Thumbs into the Childs Eyes and crushed out the Balls thereof Speeds Chronicle p. 448. XXXVIII Next as to undutiful and unnatural Children to their Parents it is certain that six hundred years from the building of Rome the Name or Crime of Parricide or killer of their Parents was not so much as known amongst them Paulus Maleolus was the first saith Livy amongst the Romans who was known to have killed his Mother and who underwent the punishment instituted by the Ancients in that case they ordained that the Parricide should be first scourged till the blood came and then sown up in a Sack together with a Cock a Dog a Viper and an Ape and so thrown headlong into the bottom of the Sea but notwithstanding the severity of this Law and those of other Nations against a Crime of this nature there are too many instances of unnatural Children as in part will appear by what follows XXXVIII There was a young Duke of Gelders named Adolph who took his Father Duke Arnold one night as he was going to Bed and led him fifteen miles on foot bare legged in a marvellous cold night and laid him in a deep Dungeon the space of six months where he saw no light but through a little hole whereupon the Duke of Cleve whose Sister the old Duke that was Prisoner had Married made sharp War upon this young Duke Adolph the Duke of Burgundy sought by divers means to reconcile them but in vain In the end the Pope and the Emperor began to stir in the matter and the Duke of Burgundy under great Cures was commanded to take the old Duke out of Prison which he did accordingly the young one not being able to prevent it I have often seen them together saith Philip Comines in the Duke of Burgundies Chamber pleading their Cause before a great Assembly and once I saw the old man present the Combate to his Son the Duke of Burgundy being desirous to make an agreement offered the young Duke whom he favoured the Title of Governor of Gelderland with all the Revenues thereof save a little Town near Brabant called Grave which should remain to the Father with the Revenues of three thousand Florens a yearly Pension of as much more and the Title of Duke as was but reason I saith Comines with others wiser than my self were appointed to make report of these conditions to the young Duke who answered us That he had rather throw his Father headlong into a Well and himself after him than agree to such an appointment alledging That his Father had been Duke forty and four years and that it was now time for him to goverâ— Notwithstanding he said he would agree to give him a yearly Pension of three thousand Florens upon condition he should depart the Country as a banished man never to return and such other lewd speeches he used Soon after the young Duke in disguise left the Duke of Burgundies Court to repair home to his own Country but as he ferried over a water near to Namur he paid a Gueldon for his passage whereupon a Priest there present began to suspect him for his liberality and soon after knew him so that he was taken and led to Namur where he remained a Prisoner till the Duke of Burgundies death after which by the men of Gaunt he was set at liberty and by them carried before Tournay where being weakly accompanied he was miserably slain in a skirmish in full revenge of his impiety toward his Father Philip de Comines p. 105. XL. When I was in Valentia in Spain saith Mr. Howel a Gentleman told me of a Miracle which happened in that Town which was that a proper young Man under Twenty was executed there for a Crime and before he was taken down from the Gallows there were many gray and-white hairs which had budded out of his Chin as if he had been a man of threescore It struck amazement into all men out this Interpretation was made of it That this young man might have lived to such an Age if he had been dutiful to his Parents unto whom he had been barbarously disobedient and unnatural Howels Letters p. 211. XLI Martin Luther reports of his own knowledge this wonderful History that a young man a Lock-smith growing vicious and debauched to main tain himself therein was so villanously unnatural as to murder his own Father and Mother with a Hammer to get their Mony and Estate after which cruel deed he presently went to a Shoemaker and bought him a pair of new Shoes leaving his old behind him to be by Divine Providence his Accusers for after an hour or two the slain bodies being found by the Magistrate and inquisition made for the Murderer there being not the least suspition of him because he seemed to make so great lamentation thereat but God who knows the secrets of the heart discovered his Hypocrisy for the Shoemaker observing that some of the blood which ran from his Parents wounds had besprinkled his old Shoes made a discovery thereof which caused first some doubting and from thence the examination of the young man who being confounded with the horrour of the Fact confessed the same for which he was justly executed Beards Theat p. 224. XLII Another Son at Basil in Switzerland in the year 1560. having bought a quantity of Poyson from an Apothecary ministred it to his own Father whereof he soon after died but when he had effected his wish upon him the Crime was detected and instead of possessing his Goods which he aimed at he suffered a vile and shameful death for he was drawn through the Streets burnt with hot Irons and tormented nine hours on the Wheel till his life forsook him Beards Theat p. 224. XLIII Scander late King of Georgia in Persia saith Mr. Herbert had by his Lady three hopeful Sons Scandercan Trebeg and Constandel all born Christians but for preferment the two last were circumcised and turned Mahometans Trebeg served the Turks Constandel the Persians Constandel was naturally deformed but of such an active Spirit that his bodily imperfections were not noted but his hateful ambition rendred him more than monstrous it happened that Abbas King of Persia had vowed some revenge against the Turks and to that end gave order to Allycawn to trouble them Constandel perceives the occasion right to attempt his hellish Resolutions and therefore after long suit got to be joined in Commission with the Persian General Through Georgia they go where Constandel under a pretence of Duty visits his sad Parents who upon his Protestation that his Apostacy was counterfeit joyfully welcomed him but he forgetting that and all other ties of nature next night at a solemn banquet caused them to be murdered till the Georgians saluted him King perpetrated all sorts of Villanies imaginable but how secure soever he stood in his own sancy the dreadful Justice of an impartial God retaliated him the rest of his life after this hated
Parricide was infinitely miserable for first near Sumachan Cycala's Son the Turkish General wounded him in the Arm and by that gained the Victory over the Persians the same night he was also assaulted in his Tent by his inraged Countrymen who in his stead cut a Sod omitick Boy his cursed Bed-fellow to pieces missing him who at the first Alarum made his escape and though he so far exasperated the Persians to revenge that he brought the whole Army into Georgia resolving there to act unparallel'd Tragedies yet was he over-reached in his stratagems for upon Parley with the Queen his late Brothers Wife he was shot to death at a private signal given by that Amazon to some Musquiteers ambushed on purpose betwixt both Armies a just punishment for such a Viper Herberts Travels p. 291. XLIV Justin tells of a certain African called Cartallus who by the Vote of the People was raised to an eminent degree of Dignity and was soon after sent upon a solemn Ambassy into a place where his Father with many others were banished he looking upon himself at that time like a Peacock gloriously furnished out with the Cloths and Ornaments of his Imployment thought it was not suitable to his Honour to admit his Father so much as to see him though the old man desired it with great earnestness the unfortunate Father became so much inraged with this contempt of himself and the proud refusal of his Son that he instantly raised a Sedition and mustering together a tumultuary Army of banished men he fell upon his Son although a Magistrate took him and condemned him to death he presently prepared a high Gibbet and attired as he was in Gold and Scarlet with a Crown on his head he hanged up this young disobedient Gallant as a strange spectacle to all beholders Causins Holy Court p. 112. XLV A certain degenerate and cruel Son longing and gaping after the inheritance of his Father which nothing but his lifehindered him from used this villanous means to accomplish his desire he accused his Father of a most abominable Crime namely that he had committed beastliness with a Cow knowing that if he were convicted thereof the Law would take away his life wherein he was guilty of a twofold wickedness one in going about to take away his life whom by nature he ought to have preserved the other in robbing him of his good name which would likewise redound to his Posterity he notwithstanding being possessed by Satan goes before a Magistrate and accuses his Father of this horrid Crime which he says was upon his own knowledge the poor innocent Father is seized and denying all as well he might he is put upon the Rack to extort a confession from him who not being able to endure the torment thereof accused himself but as soon as he was off he absolutely denied it again however this his forced Confession stood for Evidence and he was condemned to be burnt with Fire which was speedily executed and constantly endured by him exclaiming still upon the false accusation of his Son and his own unspotted Innocency as by the issue thereof clearly appeared for his Son not long after fell stark mad and hanged himself and the Judge who condemned him with the witnesses who evidenced his forced Confession on the rack died all within one month after in a most wretched and miserable manner and thus it pleased God both to revenge his death and also to clear his Reptitation and innocency from ignominy and discredit in this world Beards Theat p. 223. XLVI An unnatural Son pretended to keepd is Father in his old age but used him more like a slave than a Father and thought every thing too good for him one day a dainty dish of meat being brought to the Table the Son conveyed it away because his Father should not partake thereof and ordered more ordinary victuals in the room thereof but observe what his dainties turned to when the Servant went to fetch it again he found instead of meat snakes and instead of sawce Serpents to the great terror of his Conscience and further one of the Serpents leaped on his face and catching hold by his lip hung there till his dying day so that he could never feed himself but he must likewise feed the Serpent Idem p. 155. XLVII It is reported of a certain unkind perverse Son that he one time beat his aged Father and drew him by the heir of the head to the threshold who when he was old was likewise beaten by his Son and drawn by the hair of the head not only to the threshold but out of doors into the midst of the street and that be reflected then upon himself saying He was rightly served only that his Son was more severe to him for he left his Father at the door and did not drag him out into the dirt thus did his own mouth bear record of his Impiety Another disobedient Son provided a Hog trough for his poor aged decrepit Father because forsooth he did not eat his meat cleanly enough which his little Son observing asked for what use it was he replyed it was made for his Grand-Father What said the Child must I make you such a one when you are old At which words he was so disturbed that he presently threw away the Hog trough Idem p. 156. LXVII One Garret a Frenchman and a Protestant by Profession was given to all manner of debauchery for which he was cast off by his Father yet he found entertainment in a Gentlemans house of note in whose Family he became a Sworn Brother to a Young Gentleman that was a Protestant soon after Garret came to his Estate and then turned Papist of whose constancy because the Papists could hardly be assured he promised his confessor to prove himself an undoubted Catholick by setting a sure seal to his Profession whereupon he plotted the death of his dearest Protestant friends and thus effected it he invited his Father Mounsieur Seamats who was his sworn Brother and six other Gentlemen of his acquaintance to dinner all dinner time he entertained them with Protestations of his great obligations to them but the bloody Catastrophe followed dinner being ended Sixteen armed men came up into the room and laid hold on all the Guests and this wicked Parricide seized upon his Father and commanding the rest to hold their hands till he had dispatched him he stabbed the old Gentleman crying to the Lord for mercy four times to the heart and then with his Poniard kill'd all the rest but three who were dispatched by these armed Ruffians at their first entrance and then they flung the dead bodies out at a Window into a Ditch Clarks Mirrour p. 78. XLVIII Tarpeia the Daughter of S. Tarpeius betrayed her Father and the Castle whereof he was Governor to Tatius King of the Sabines who then beseiged it upon condition that she should be rewarded with all that the Sabine Soldiers wore upon their left Arms
the French to the Berengarians Others say that Sergius did this to Formosus because he had also opposed him in the Election Heylins Cosmogra p. 107. LXVI Cyrus making War against Tomyris Queen of the Massagetes he had by a stratagem taken her Son Spargapises for he had left part of his Army with plentiful provisions of Meats and Wine on purpose to be seized upon These Troops Spargapises had cut in pieces and that done set his Army to Feasting and Carousing and while they were secure asleep and enfeebled by drinking Cyrus set upon them killed and took most of them Spargapises being brought Prisoner before Cyrus desired that he might be unbound which done and his Hands at liberty being extremely grieved for the discomfiture of his Army he presently slew himself after which Tomyris in a great Battel overthrew the Forces of Cyrus and having found him amongst the dead in revenge of her Sons death she caused his Head to be cut off and to be thrown into a Vessel full of Humane Blood with this bitter scoff Satiate thy self with Blood which thou hast so much thirsted after Herodotus writes she said thus Thou hast destroyed my Son taken by craft and guile while I am alive and victorious but as I threatned I will satisfie thee with Blood Justin Hist LXVII As I went from Rome with my Company saith Camerarius passing through the Marquisate of Ancona we were to go through a City called Terni as we entred the City we saw over the Gate upon an high Tower a certain Tablet to which was fastened as at first it seemed to us a great many Batts or Reremice we thinking it a strange sight and not knowing what it meant one of the City whom we asked told us There was said he in this City two Noble Rich and Mighty Houses which of a long time bore an irreconcileable hatred toward each other their malice passed from Father to Son as it were by Inheritance by occasion of which many of both Families were slain and murdered at last one of the Houses not many years since resolved to stand no more upon murdering one or two of the adverse Party by surprize but to run upon them all at once and not to leave one of them alive This bloody Family secretly gathered together out of the Country adjoyning with their Servants and such other Hectors as many Italians keep in pay to imploy in the Execution of their Revenges these were privately armed and had notice to be ready at a word About midnight they seize upon the Person of the Governour of the City and leaving Guards in his House go on silently to the House of their Enemy disposing their Troops at the end of every Street about Ten of them take the Governour into the midst of them as if they had been the Archers of his Guard whom they compelled by setting a Dagger to his Throat to command speedy entrance he caused the Doors to be opened for they seeing the Governour there made no refusal which done they call their Complices who stood not far off and putting the Governour into safe keeping they enter the House of their Enemy and kill them Man Woman and Child yea the very Horses in the Stable that done they force the Governour to command open the City Gates and so they depart and disperse into private places amongst their Friends some fled to the next Sea Ports and so made their escape but such as staid any whit near were so diligently searched for that they were found drawn out of their Holes and put to death with grievous Tortures after which their hands and feet being cut off were nailed to that Tablet as a lesson to Posterity and the Sun having broyled those limbs so fastened makes Travellers that know nothing of the Tragedy to suppose they are Reremice Camer Op. Subse p. 390. LXVIII Ranimirus the Bastard Son of Sanctius the Great was fetched out of a Monastery by those of Tarracon in 1017. and made King after which in an expedition against the Moors having taken his Shield in his left hand and his Launce in his right he was bid by some Nobles about him to take the Bridle of his Horse How can I said he unless I hold it in my Teeth my hands being already full At this the Nobles fell into a laughter and he thereupon conceived such displeasure against them that having sent for eleven of the chief of them to Ostia he caused their heads to be struck off only saying The Fox knew not whom he played with Zuinglius Theat LXVIX Altobel a Citizen of Todi in the Dutchy of Spoleto in Italy made War upon his Fellow-Citizens and seized upon the City and Government after which he behaved himself with great Cruelty amongst them both towards Rich and Poor many inroads he also made upon the Neighbour Territories spoiling and rifling many other adjacent Cities at last he was defeated and taken Prisoner by the Popes Army and forthwith was bound stark naked to a Post in the Market-place to the end that all whom he had wronged might revenge themselves upon him in what manner they pleased thither ran the Mothers whose Sons he had killed who like so many wild Beasts begin to tear his body with their greedy teeth others wound cut and slash him some in one sort some in another The Fathers Kindred and Friends of such as he had Massacred pulled out his Eyes Heart and Entrails not forgetting any point of extream rigour he with a Courage desperately obstinate endured these Torments with Constancy saying between whiles That no new thing had happened to him and that long since he had foreseen within himself this punishment Being dead they put an end to their fury by cutting his body into morsels which like flesh in a Butchers Shop were sold by weight and afterward eaten by those that bought them Leander in his description of Italy saith this fell out in his time Camerarius LXX Conrade Trincio Lord of Fulingo in the same Dutchy of Spoleto hearing that the Captain of the Castle of Nocera had slain Nicholas Trincio his Brother upon suspicion of Adultery came and besieged this Captain so very close and streightly in his Castle that being out of all hope to save himself he first cut the Throats of his Wife and Children and then threw himself down from an high Tower that he might not fall alive into the hands of his Enemy but Conrade seeing himself frustrated of the means to torment him according to his intention set upon his Kindred Friends and Familiars and as many of them as he could take he tortured without all mercy and after he had murdered them plucked out their Bowels chopt their Bodies into small parcels hung up their Quarters upon the High-ways and their Bowels and Guts upon Bushes and places of concourse for people to gaze on behaving himself with that savage and outragious cruelty that no man can call it a punishment or revenge but
sometimes create sudden shifts he espying the Ladder against the wall presently apprehends what had been whispered of Fryer Johns love to the Knights Lady and lifting him on his Shoulders by the help of the same Ladder he carries him into the Porch of the Knights Hall and there sets him afterward secretly conveying himself back into the Monastery the same way he came not in the least suspected by any while this was doing the Knight being perplexed and troubled in Conscience could by no means sleep but calls up his Man and bids him go listen about the walls of the Monastery forth he goes out of his Masters Chamber and having passed the length of the Hall designing to go through the yard he finds Fryer John sitting upright in the Porch and starting at the sight he runs back affrighted and almost distracted and speechless tells the news to his Master who being no less astonished could not believe it to be so but rather his mans Fantasy till he himself went down and became an Eye-witness of this strange object At which being extreamly concerned he ressects on himself that murder is one of the crying sins and such a one as cannot be concealed yet recollecting his Spirits he resolves to try a desperate adventure and put the discovery upon chance he remembers he had an old Stallion then in his Stable one of those he had used in Service in the French Wars and likewise a rusty Armour in his Armory these he commands instantly to be brought with a Case of rusty Pistols and a Lance the Horse is sadled and Caparison'd the Armour is put upon the Fryer and he fast bound in his Seat with strong new Cords the Lance is tied to his wrist and the lower end put into the rest his Head-piece is clasped on and his Beaver is put up being thus accoutred like a Knight compleatly armed Cap-a-pe they designed to turn him out of the Gates both he and his Horse without any Page or Esquire to try a new Adventure whilst these things were thus fitting Fryer Richard in the Monastery was no less perplexed in his mind than the Knight about the Murther and much dreading the strictness of the Law summons all his wits about him to prevent the worst and at length concludes with himself that it is his best and safest way to fly for his life he likewise remembers that there was in the Fryery a Mare imployed to carry Corn to and from the Mill which was about half a mile from the Monastery and being somewhat fat and doubting his own footmanship he thinks it better to trust to four legs then two and therefore calls up the Baker that had the charge of the Beast and tells him he understands that there was Meal that morning to be fetcht from the Mill which was grinded by that time therefore if he would let him have the Mare he would save him that labour and bring it back before morning the Fellow being willing to save so much pains caused the back Gate to be opened the Fryer gets up and rides out of the Monastery Gate just at that instant when the Knight and his Man had turned out the Fryer on Horseback to seek his fortune the Horse presently scents the Mare and after her he gallops Fryer Richard looking back was amazed to see an armed Knight follow him much more when by the light of the Moon and the Beaver flying up he perceived that it was Fryer John who was thus armed and thereupon away flies he through the Streets and after him or rather after the Mare speeds the Horse a great noise there was in the City insomuch that many being awakened out of their morning sleep looked out at their Windows at length it was Fryer Richards ill fate to ride into a certain turn-again Lane which had no passage through there Fryer John overtakes him the Stone-Horse covers the Mare which causes a terrible noise among the rusty Armour Fryer Richards guilty conscience accuses him and he cries out aloud Guilty of the Murder at the noise of Murder the People being amazed ran out of their Beds into the Street they apprehend Miracles and he confesses Wonders but withal he freely tells them of the horrid and inhumane Act he had committed in murdering one of his own Convent the former Grudge that was between them is generally known and the apparent Justice of Heaven the rather believed Fryer John is dismounted and sent to his Grave Fryer Richard is committed to Prison he is Arraigned and in pursuance of his own Confession is condemned But before his Execution the Knight knowing his own guilt and concern in the business he posts instantly to the King makes his voluntary Confession and hath his life and estate for his former good Services granted to him Fryer Richard is released and this notable Accident still remains upon Record Hist Women II. In the reign of Queen Mary Sr. Walter Smith of Shirford in Warwickshire being grown an aged man at the death of his wife considered of a Marriage for Richard his Son and heir then at mans Estate and to that end made his mind known to Mr. Thomas Chetwin of Ingestre in Staffordshire who entertaining the motion in the behalf of Dorothy his Daughter was contented to give five hundred pound with her But no sooner had the old knight seen the young Lady but he became a suiter for himself offering five hundred pound for her besides as good a joynture as she should have by his Son if the Match had gone forward this so wrought upon Chetwin that he effectually persuaded his Daughter and the Marriage ensued accordingly it was not long ere her affections wandring she gave entertainment to a young Gentleman of about Twenty two called Robinson of Drayton Basset and being impatient of all that might hinder her full enjoyment of him she contrived how to be rid of her husband having therefore corrupted her waiting Gentlewoman and a Groom of the stable she resolved by their help and the assistance of Robinson to strangle him in his bed and though Robinson came not the designed night she no whit staggered in her Resolution for watching her husband till he was fallen asleep she called in her complices and casting a long Towel about his neck caused the Groom to lye upon him to keep him from strugling whilst her self and the maid straining the Towel stopped his breath having thus dispatched the work they carried him into another room where a close stool was placed upon which they set him an hour after the maid and Groom were got silently away and to conceal the business this Lascivious bloody woman made an outcry in the house wringing her hands plucking her hair and weeping extreamly pretending that missing him sometime out of bed she went to see what the matter was and found him in that posture by these feigned shews of sorrow she prevented all suspition of his violent death and not long after went to London
The Lady riding naked through Coventry Together wit the natural and artified rarities in every County in England with several curious Sculptures Price One Shlling IV. VVOnderful Prodigies of Judgment and Mercy discovered in above 300 memorable Histories containing 1. Dreadful Judgments upon Atheists Blasphemers perjured Villains c. As of several forsworn Wretches carried away by the Devit and how an horrid Blasphemer was turned into a black Dog c. 2. The miserable ends of many Magicians Witches Conjurers c. with divers strange apparitions and illusions of the Devil 3. Remarkable predictions and presages of approaching Death and how the event has been answerable with an account of some Appeals to Heaven against unjust Judges and what vengeance hath fallen upon them 4. The wicked Lives and woful Deaths of several Popes Apostates and Persecutors with the manner how K. 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setting so high a value upon her beauty that Robinson became neglected but within two years following this woful deed of darkness was brought to light in this manner the Groom before mentioned was entertained with Mr. Richaro Smith Son and heir to the murdered knight and attending him to Coventry with divers other Servants he became so sensible of his Villany that when he was in his Cups out of his good nature he took his Master aside and upon his knees besought him forgiveness for acting in the murder of his Father declaring all the circumstances thereof whereupon Mr. Smith discreetly gave him good words but wished some others he trusted to have an Eye upon him that he might not escape when he had slept and better considered what might be the issue thereof notwithstanding which direction he fled away with his Masters best Horse and haâ—…ing presently into Wales he attempted to go beyond Sea but being hindred by contrary winds after three Essays or trials to lanch out he was happily pursued by Mr. Smith who spared no cost in sending to several Ports that he was found out and brought Prisoner to Warwick as were also the Lady and her Gentlewoman all of them with great boldness denying the fact and the Groom most impudently charging Mr. Smith of endeavouring to corrupt him to accuse the Lady his Mother in Law falsly to the end he might get her great jointure but upon his arraignment being smitten with the apprehension of his guilt he publickly acknowledged it and stoutly justified what he had said to be true to the face of the Lady and her maid who at first with much seeming confidance pleaded their innocency till at length seeing the particular Circumstances thus discovered they both confessed the fact for which having Judgment to dye the Lady was burnt at a stake on Woolvey Heath near Shirford Lordship where the Country People to this day shew the place and the Groom with the maid suffered death at Warwick Dugdale of Warwickshire p. 37. III. The debauched life and fatal death of Sultan Ibrahim Father to the present Emperor of the Turks is very remarkable his Brother Sultan Amurath or Morat after a fever of eight days continuance caused by an excess of Debauchery in wine having on the 8 of February 1640 expired his last breath his Mother called Kiosem comforted her self with the thoughts that her son Sultan Ibrahim still lived and was the sole surviver and undoubted heir of the Ottoman family to whose succession that it might be the more facile and without disturbance she consulted with all the Grandees requesting their consent and assistance in the lawful promotion of her remaining Son to the throne of his ancestors for she had understood that Morat always abhorred the ill shaped body and weaker mind of his Brother envied him the dignity of the Ottoman Scepter and therefore had bequeathed the succession to the Tartar having in the heat of a debauch and fumes of his wine compelled his Bashas to swear to the performance of his Testament and therefore the Queen was forced to use very many arguments to persuade them of the danger and unlawfulness of rejecting the right heir with which being convinced they all cryed out Let Sultan Ibrahim live herewith the great Council breaking up the Viziers accompanied with all the Officers and attendants of the Seraglio went with shouts and loud acclamations to the Prison of Ibrahim to salute him Emperor for he poor Prince had now for four years remained a sad recluse in a dark room where he had received neither light nor air but what came from a little window which sometimes in favour was opened to him from above and what was worse the continual expectations and fear of death without Friends Conversation or hope rendred those apprehensions worse than death it self which dayly were represented him in that solemnity as might terrify a mind more constant and firm than his so soon as he heard the shouts and voices of a multitude near his door he immediately conceived that the fate was now come which he had so long expected and therefore he barred his door and denied to give entrance and when the viziers proclaimed him Empe. fearing it might be some artifice of his Brother to see with what joy he would entertain the news he answered That he did not so much as think of the Empire nor desire it but only prayed that Sultan Morat might live to whom he pretended not to be a Brother but a slave and when he perceived that they began to force the door though with terms of respect and observance he still endeavoured to keep it close for nature had taught him to conserve a life however miserable and void of Consolation he continuing thus resolute not to open reverence to his Person commanded them to forbear any ruder violence until the Queen Mother overhearing all this stir descended her self in Person and first causing the dead Corps of Sultan Morat to be extended before his door with gentle compellations and confident assurances she satisfied him of the death of his Brother the voice of his Mother began to dissipate his fears and being in part already convinced by his ears he adventured to peep at the door and giving then entire credence to his Eyes his heart and Spirits revived and so retiring back into his Chamber he willingly received the Congratulations of the Ministers and Souldiers which being past he readily applied his Shouldiers to the Coffin of his dead Brother and having bore his share of that dear burthen to the gate of the Seraglio he there resigned it to his Domestick Officers who buried him in the Sepulcher of Sultan Achmet From thence he took boat and passed to the Mosch of Jubs Seraglio where in eight days he compleated all the Ceremonies of his Coronation and afterward according to the custom of his ancestors he rode through the City to his great Paliace but whether it were for want of practice or by reason of a posture natural unto fools he sate so ridiculously on his saddle as moved rather the laughter than acclamation of the People In fine being entred the Seraglio he began to breath and enjoy the air of liberty with so much contentment and Satisfaction that he was unwilling to lose the least part of it by thinking or attending on business and as if he enjoyed sufficient committed all to the management of his Mother howsoever being desirous to handle something of Government he did it with so little grace dexterity that it plainly appeared that that Soul animated a body not fit to sway or weild a Scepter yet he indulged his luxurious and wanton appetite to the highest excess of sensuality for having been accustomed to a Prison and restraint he knew not how to enjoy the freedom he had recovered but by subjecting it to the imperious servitude of his lusts this humour the Viziers and great Ministers of state cherished in him by continual banquets