make us open our Jaws which they effected by little and little with certain Engines which they invented At the end of four daies we arose but looked like the shadows of other men and so yellow and magre vve vvere that once we were taken to be the Offspring of the Fathers of the Desert We spent most of our time in paying our thanks to Heaven for redeeming us from the Captivity of the cruel Cabra praying that never any Christian might fall into his Tyrannick hands We related sometimes to Don Alonso all his Maxims against Gormandizing although the miserable Cabra was never guilty of that sin and we made him laugh heartily when we told him that when he taught us the Holy Commandment one of which sayes Thou shalt not kill he still added mark ye said he Kill Kill what not only Men but Patridges Pheasants and Capons or any thing else indeed that he would not give us to eat After we had been three moneths at Don Alonso's he took a resolution to send his Son to compleat his Studies at Alcala and asked me if I would attend him I was never more pleased than to be sent far enough from the sound of the very name of this persecutor of Stomachs and I humbly accepted the Service and to live with him as long as he should command me Alonso allotted his Son a Steward whose name was Aranda to govern his Affairs with a Bill of Exchange on a Merchant called Julian Merluche and accordingly we took Coach At Alcala Don Diego received a Letter from his Father in which there was one also for me which came from one of my Uncles named Archos Rampion a very vertuous Man and well known in Segovia by the justicial Office he exercised for all which had been done these four years passed through his hands not to tell you a lie he was Hangman there but an Eagle in his Profession and few men that ever saw him practice but were ambitious to be hanged by him I will read you what he writes My dear Nephew Paul The continual Occupations in which the King emploies me in my Function of my charge have hindred me from Writting to you sooner you know that his Majesties Service ought to be preferr'd above all things I am though with much regret obliged to acquaint you with some ill news Your Father died eight daies since with more courage and resolution than ever any shewed against the Attacques of Death I can speak it to my certain knowledge as one who rais'd him up and was his Supervisor He mounted on an Ass without putting Foot in Stirrup the Robe which serves on these occasions seemed to have been made for him He went with much gravity he looked on the Windows as he pass'd saluting all who quitted their Occupations to see his Procession he twice turned up his Mustachios bid his Confessors take Breath and observ'd the most remarkable points of their Discourse to him which they were glad to hear and prais'd him highly for it He arrived to the Gallows and ascended the Ladder with as much dexterity as the best Cat in Christendom could do and perceiving one Round of the Ladder to be broken he descended again and with a graceful presence of Wit applied himself to the Officers of Justice minding them to get it mended for some others because every one had not as much agility as he I cannot express the admiration which his Bon-graces attracted from the whole World Being sat on the top of the Ladder he turned back the folds of his Robe then he took the Halter and put it about his own Neck and seeing that the Thealin one of a religious Order would again preach to him said he good Father I account I have had preaching enough let us dispatch I pray for I desire not to appear Prolix in my Affairs He recommended to me the placing of his Bonnet on his Ear and to wipe well his Face when he was dead which I faill'd not to do He fell without opening his Legs or making the least grimace and all with a gravity without example I quartered him and gave him the High-wayes for his Sepulcher Heaven knows the dolor which I resent to see him there to keep open Table for the Jayes and Crowes but I hope that the Pastry Cooks of this Country will give us some Consolation and put him into Paste in their pettit Pattees I might almost tell you the same of your Mother although she survives him for she is in the Inquisition at Toledo she is charged with disinterring the Dead and going every night to have a Benediction at the Sabbal which is the Conventicle of Witches there has been found with her more Heads Legs and Arms than in a Chappel of Miracles I am much afflicted that she is such a dishonour to all of us and more particularly to my self that am a Minister of his Majesties for such Kindred are a great prejudice to the dignity of my Employ There rests here some Money concealed from your Father which may amount to about 400 Duckets I am your Uncle and all I have shall be for you I advise you on receipt hereof that you make a turn hither with what Latin and Rhetorick you have learnt for you will become a singular man in the art of Hangmanship â—â—dress to me your suddain answer in the mean time Heaaven preserve you So I remain Your good Uncle Archos Rampion I cannot deny but this News did very much afflict me but that which brings me some comfort at least to mitigate some part of my sorrow is the hopes and honour of my Uncles Letter which I confess is full of brave and learned Expressions which made me withdraw from the presence of Don Diego to write him an answer and I thought it would become my prudence not to acquaint him with the purport of it for who does know whether in this prying Age he or some other great person by their interest at Court of the powerfulness of Purse might not prevail with his Majesty or the Magistrates of Segovia to get the Reversion of that high Office from me which my honourable Uncle seems to design for me so writing my thoughts I found it much trouble to shew some Eloquence being not used to it nor knew I well how to address it then I began to write my Letter Dear Vncle phsa said I that is not well begun and looks too Citizen-like Honoured Vncle And this begins as it were wrote to an ordinary Gentleman Most Honourable Vncle ay that sounds very well and is fit for a person of so high Quality and Education so having blotted out the two first I fairly wrote it over and resolved to address it For the Honourable Archos Rampion His Majesties High Officer of Justice at Segovia Most Honourable Vncle YOUR generous Lines were so emphatically welcome that I kiss'd them a million of times that done I assumed Pen Ink and Paper to present to you my
in my furious indignation I might not give her time to justifie her self That same Maid related also to me how Auristella had oblig'd him to do what he did because that hearing of the knocks I gave at the Gate which one of my people had shut unawares she apprehended that I would enter into some just suspition of her Ah! dear Bennato said she wherefore did your prudence permit it self to be governed by the ill grounded fears of a Woman I was a thousand times about to take vengeance on my self of the tragical end of my friend but Heaven thought it not fit that it might reserve me for something more cruel I could not yet have any news of Auristella whom I sought in vain therefore I concluded 't was best for me to hide my self so leaving the House in that confusion as cannot easily be imagined I went to the Convent of the Carthusian Fathers who recieved me with all possible humanity and secur'd my unhappy Life which has been destined to infinite troubles a thousand times worse than death it self I was privately visited by my particular friends who took all imaginable pains to represent my innocence and procure my pardon Auristella was retired to a Nunnery as soon as she recovered her fall into the street which was not without much hurt and with some difficulty first got as well as she could to a House which she saw open and there discovered to the master what she was who charitably received her But the next morning they were informed with what diligence the Officers of Justice searched after her and me and therefore they thought it convenient to lead her to a Nunnery I had notice thereof all most as soon as it was done which gave me as much comfort as I was capable to recieve but Heaven would not that I should long have it and I was but at the beginning of my miseries All these mortal discontents so strongly seiz'd on Auristellas heart together with the dismal bruises she receiv'd by her fall that she fell into a great sickness her memory perpetually tormenting her with the consideration to find her self exposed to the evil tongues of the people guessing at what risque her Honour and Reputation was subjected so that in few dayes there was a period put to her unhappy Life But first she applied her self to the superior of that Nunnery to whom she gave sealed written with her own hand and requested that it might be instantly delivered unto me I received it about the same time as I heard of the deplorable news of her death Nothing is capable to express the griefs of my Soul the alination of its Faculties and the subversion of my Senses I was a long time as it were hovering betwixt death and life which was protracted onely to bring eternal afflictions on me And to conclude this mournful Discourse behold what remains to be further known in the proper terms of the Letter to me Auristella to Philander THE Day is come my Dear Philander on which I must pay to Death an inevitable Debt 'T is an execution of that rigour which no person can be exempted from Although I have resentments of all that humane weakness can on such occasions produce he who stands ready to be my Judg truly knows that the greatest torment which I suffer is to be separated from your amiable Company and my chiefest sadness is not able once more to see you to bid you farewel to clear up your suspitions and to assure you of my fidelity which has been inviolable ever since the happy day of our Marriage to the last moment of my Life And since I am come to the time to speak the truth which relates to the Eternal Salvation of my Soul It is but just dear Philander that you be informed as well as the whole world of a Secret which I have so long concealed to the prejudice of my Conscience Read carefully this Letter and you will pardon my offence if it be true that it was done against your Honour to have done a thing which was executed against my consent against my will and before vve vvere married I persvvade my self that you vvill do Justice to my Innocence that my Reputation be not stained either before you or before those vvho shall have notice of my misfortune I doubt not but you still remember the unhappiness which so much afflicted our Family on the day you came to Toledo which possibly might prognosticate the present disgraces You may call to mind also the diligence which was used to find the Assassinate of our Andreo the Biscaner which then proved unsuccessful and still might be so to the Day of the last Judgment if this which is my last did not oblige me to declare and protest that my unhappy Self was his Murdress his infamous Treachery will I hope obtain my pardon at the Sovereign Tribunal next to my extream and hearty repentance for my sins Know then dear Philander that no sooner had the Biscaner been informed of my Fathers Return and that our Marriage was concluded on but he fell sick of a Feaver which in the beginning seemed very dangerous my Parents who loved him as their own Child procured the most renowned Phisitians of the City to attend him who could find no remedy that could relieve him and said his Malady proceeded from an excess of Melancholy which made our whole Family very mournful for him The Night before you came thither he made me know to my utter ruine what it was that reduced him to that miserable condition It was about Midnight yet I was not asleep that I heard some walking in my Chamber where to my sorrow I was that Night without a Bed-fellow and opening the Curtains of my Bed I saw our sick Biscaner appear whom I supposed to have some Delirium by the excess of his Feaver and I not seeming to be angry for his audacious coming into my Chamber and so late at night when I was laid in Bed spoke to him in as affable a manner as if I had been his Sister and far Heaven knows from suspecting any ill design against me But he with a profound sigh looking on me with a furious eye spake to me in these Terms It is most certain Auristella that the grief I feel can have no remedy but from your hands in which is my Life You have obligations enough which I hope will deter you from being ungrateful to me for the good offices and services I have rendred you and in a time too when your cruel Father treated me with so much rigour I waited not for a requital of the pains I took in your Education nor of that which I suffered in his absence towards the subsistance of his Family with honour all which I did with a kind of delight and satisfaction in hopes nevertheless of some acknowledgment at least to have granted me to pass my remaining daies in the beloved Company of the fair Auristella which
it was morning and time for us to rise At six a clock the Segnior Cabra call'd us for to say our Lessons Fear had made me leaner in one day than others in fifteen My Shoulders and my Stomach did already swim in my Doublet my Legs had need of seven pair of Stockins my Teeth were become of an Orange colour the true colour of despair He made me read the first Lesson to the others and my hunger was so great that I broke my Fast in eating half of the words All this may be easily believed by him who shall know what his Man told me that he had seen tvvo fat pad Nags put to him to keep vvhich three daies after were become so lank that they might as 't were fly through the Air Also two fat Mastiff-dogs that within a daies space went out more slender than Grey-hounds He did assure me that all this was true and I who began to be acquainted with the Inne did easily believe it Cabra at length heard that there were many murmurrings in the City against him for the bad chear he made us resolved it should be better and to that end he got a Box made of Tin full of holes in which he put a little Bacon and having fastned a little string to it he let it hang a little while in the Pot but finding that it was too expensive he believed it to be sufficient only to shew it the Bacon without putting it in Don Diego and I being not able longer to support our hunger which had afflicted us for a moneth feign'd our selves sick not of a Feaver for it might be easily observed we had none and to complain of Head-aches or Aches of the Teeth that was not sufficient to get us more meat At length we concluded to say that we had great griings in our Guts for having not been at stool in a long time hoping that for saving of six pence to provide us remedy he would rather be prevailed with to send us to Don Diego's Fathers House but the Devil ordered it otherwise for Cabra had inherited a Receipt from his Father who was an Apothecary and so sent for an old Hag of seventy years old who was his Aunt who served him as a Nurse-keeper whom he ordered to prepare each of us a Clyster they began with Don Diego who could not resist them and the old Nurse instead of putting it into his Body pusht it between his Skin and the Chine of his Back and spouted it up to the Nape of his Neck in as much as that which should have served him for inward Furniture served to garnish him without which made the poor Lad to cry for help but Cabra coming in bid her give the other Clyster to me and then they would prepare another for Don Diego I had put on my Clothes purposely to avoid it but that would not serve my turn for Cabra himself with a Crew he had got hold on me in such manner as I could not stir and the Nurce gave it me with as much dispatch as she could but I presented a good part to her Nose before she had leisure to get out of the way The Master thereupon fell into a rage against me and threatned to put me out of doors but it was not my good fortune to be so used We made our complaints to Don Diego's Father but Cabra sent him word it was only because we would not study so that all we could do or say proved unsuccessful He made his old Aunt the Governess of the Family and to dress our provision for us and to serve his Pensioners and turned away his man because on a Friday he perceived some few Crumbs of Bred to be on his Clothes Heaven knows what we suffered under this damned Hag. She was exceeding deaf and blind moreover she was so great a mutterer of Pater Nosters that one day the string of her Beds being broke they fell into the Pot which made her serve us with the devoutest sop that ever I eat in my life some said look here what black Pease we have without doubt they are Ethiopian Pease Our master was the first who tasted and having got one of them into his mouth and biting it broke one of his Teeth she would ordinarily put the Fire-pan into the Pot instead of the Ladle I commonly found hairs little sticks and rolls of flocks that she usd to spin which I fancied she put in on purpose to cram our Bellies the more All these miseries we endured until the Lent following the beginning whereof one of the Pensioners fell fick Cabra to avoid expence delayed sending for a Physitian till the poor Patient had need of and requested a Confessor at length he had procured a Mountebank to come who feeling his Pulse said that Famine had by little and little killed the young man they brought him the Holy Sacrament and when he saw it he who had not spoke in a whole daies time said my Lord and Saviour it was necessary that I saw you enter into this House for to convince me that it was not Hell and after the receiving it he died and was poorly buried because he was a stranger which grieved us exceedingly The Rumour of this pitiful Death spread through the City and came to the Ears of Don Alonso who having no other Child but Don Diego he became disabused of the Cruelties of Cabra and gave credit to two shadows for we were reduced to that Estate and quickly came to take us from this detestable Inne where although he saw us before his eyes yet asked of us our selves where we were but when he came to the perfect knowledg of us he treated the Graduate Cabra in very foul terms then he got us carried from thence in a Chair and our miserable companions followed us with their eyes with the same sentiments as the Slaves at Algire do when they see the departure of such as are Redeemed Being arrived at Don Alonso 's House they put us very gingerly into Bed least our Bones should get out of their places and fall on the Ground Spies were sent for to pry into what part of our Faces our Eyes were hid And as my sufferings had been greatest and my hunger imperial for I was alwaies treated as a servant it was a long time e're they could find my Eyes Physitians were speedily sent for who strait ordred that the dust on our mouths should be brushed off with a Foxes Tail as is usually done from Pictures then they directed to give us some substance especially good Jellies It is impossible to tell the illuminations of Joy that our Bowels received on the first Nourishment which we took They forbad chiefly that during nine daies any one should speak aloud in our Chamber because our stomacks being hollow every word made an Eccho With these and some other precautions we began to amend and to recover a little motion but they had much adoe to
him the good service he had done and particularly during his absence that I could not condemn the resentments of his unfortunate End nor the strange reception I found This occasioned hower the delay of our Marriage for two daies which seemed so many long years for having seen the fair Auristella and enjoyed her lovely society my desires were inflamed with greater violence At last the happy day was come and the night so mutually desired But alas no sooner was I faln asleep but the hands and cries of Auristella awakened me in a strange afright lowdly calld me to the assistance of her Fathers House which at the same time was consuming by dreadful flames I hastily put on my Gown and immediately ran from my Apartment being lighted by the sparkling Flames that this pitiless Element sent upwards to its Sphear then running to the place where they appeared most violent I met Lorenzo his Wife and others of the Family and in a moment the Bell giving the occustomed Signal all the Neighbourhood being alarmed came and used all possible diligence to put some stop to the force of the Fire All the House being filled with noises and cries in that confusion I saw and heard my Auristella my greatest and chiefest care in this misfortune was for her to whom I came being called by the sad Ecchoes of her Sighs I found her in a Swoon between the arms of her loving Mother near to a deep Well where all the servants were which redoubled my afflictions when they told me that the cause of that mortal Aecident was no less dolorous than the death of the miserable Biscaner and that a young Damosel named Mariana servant to Auristella employing her self among the rest to draw water out of the Well to give it to others to quench the Fire was faln into it in the sight of her Mistris and was therein drowned before she could be taken up but when with much adoe she was taken out it did so much augment the Tears of the Mother and Daughter who loved her dearly having bred her in their service from her Childhood that nothing was able to comfort them and I could add less consolation to them than others in the pitiful Estate which these sad adventures had reduced me to In fiine Time which is a Grand Master heald all these troubles though they still seemed present to my remembrance as sad Auguries and unhappy Presages of our Marriage Having passed some months at Toledo I received Letters from my Father to require my return and Auristella took leave of her Parents which was not performed without many Tears We set forwards and Bennato with us who returned from the Court to Seville from whence he went about the same time as I did he came very opportunely and was so kind as to keep us company by which means our Journey seemed very agreeable At length we came to my Fathers House where we were expected with much impatience by whom and our Kindred we were received with many marks of the greatest welcome which much contributed to moderate the griefs which Auristella by being now removed from her own Parents We had convenient Lodgings assigned us where we were daily visited by my dear Friend Bennato I lived so contented a life with my dear Auristella that I could hardly consent to be one moment from her but the Fates envying my Repose permitted me not longer to enjoy the pleasures which I had done above four years past The friendship which was contracted between Bennato and my self was so great that seldome a day passed without an interview he coming to me or I to him and we lived with such conformity as if we had lain in the same Belly and been nourished with the same Bloud But one day that Bennato could not meet me nor I him being as it were jealous of each other attributing it to some neglect which would at the same time give some marks of our careful respect and seeing it was late I resolved to wait for him at his Lodging and he at the same time came to mine with design not to stir from thence till I returned Auristella who was indisposed kept her Bed near whom Bennato staid expecting my return whilst I weary with expectation of him at length came home remitting my Visit to some other time But finding the Door shut which was never done when I was abroad I knockt several times e're it was opened I must protest that this gave me some slight suspition I drew near to a little Crany which appeared through the ill-joyned Boards to see or hear what passed in the House would Heaven had rather made me blind than permitted me to have had such a Curiosity I saw a Slave descending carrying a man on his shoulders towards the Garden-door where leaving him he came and opened that at which I stood One may judg of the trouble and alteration that this sight gave me I no sooner entred but I ran to the Garden where I perceived a man to hide himself among the Myrtles which more than my Transport was the cause of his Death For being not well able to put himself in a posture of Defence nor disengage himself from the Branches of the Trees I with my drawn Sword gave him three thrusts through the Body e're I could through excess of my blind passion observe that he called me by my name or tell me who he was At length falling at my feet I observed it was my intimate and faithful Bennato whom I had treated with this inhumane severity I was so surprised that I remained dying as he who with a feeble voice requested me to cause a Confessor to come unto him I had lost all sense knowing the Crime I had committed and could not but with some pain hearken to his last words which proved his Innocence and my Injustice My dear Philander said he is it possible that Heaven should consent that the Sword of my best Friend should give my mortal Wound In what has your Bennato offended that you with so much cruelty should resolve to avenge your self But I wrongfully complain against you I forgive you my Death it was a scruple ill-grounded that I had that being alone near Auristella and your Door being shut you might not suspect her hnour or my fidelity which I call Heaven to Witness has alwaies been for you inviolable Death gave him no more time but shut his Eyes he yielded up his Soul within my arms I know not how that mine took not the same way being so oppressed with Grief and Repentance I was at length constrain'd to quit this unfortunate Corps and went to Auristellas Apartment where I found her not nor in all the House through which I heard nothing but the cries of her Maids who were seeking their Mistress when suddenly one of them told me she had cast her self in her Shift out of the window into the street having been inform'd of the death of innocent Bennato fearing that