to seek him at his Lodgings when he had walked about half a mile he found himself on the top of a Hill whence after having looked a while on the adjacent Town and with a curious Eye searched out that part of it which his admired Beauty made happy with her presence he laid him down under the shade of two or three large Trees whose spreading Boughs nature had woven so close together that neither the heat of the Sun nor storm of the fiercest Wind could violate the pleasant shade which was made as a general defence no less against the scorching of the one than the nipping of the other they seemed to have been first planted there for the shelter of those who came thither to drink for just by there bubbled up a clear and plentiful Spring of which from an ancient Irish Chronicle let me give you this Story Cluaneesha the only Child of Macbuain King of Munster was accused of having been too familiar with one of her Father's Courtiers the Fact was attested upon Oath by two Gentlemen that waited on the King's Person and to confirm it the Princess her self had such a swelling in her that few doubted but their Witness was true and would soon be proved by her being brought to Bed Her Father being old and sickly was desired for the prevention of Civil Wars after his Death to nominate a Successour The People shewed their unanimous consent to confer the Crown on her Uncle because they would not have a Strumpet for their Sovereign so the old King was perswaded to proclaim his Brother Heir Apparent and condemn his Daughter to a Cloister The Courtier fled beyond Sea and went a Pilgrimage to the Saint at Posnanie the very night that he arrived there one appeared to the Mother Abbess in the form of a Nun glorified and told her that she was Edith Daughter formerly to King but now in happiness that she loved Chastity and Innocence while she was on Earth and therefore defended it still that she was constrained to leave the seat of Bliss to protect Vertue injured in the Person of Cluaneesha that the Persons who swore against her were suborn'd that the swelling of her Belly was but a Disease and that if she and the witnesses would go and drink of a Well which sprung out of a Hill near Clonmell there she would convince all the Spectators that what she now told her was true The Abbess told this the next day to the King's Confessor and he told it the King the King ordered one who was Confessor to the two Witnesses to enjoin them for their next pennance to drink no other Liquor but the Water of this Well for a Week together they obey'd him but it was their last for it made them swell as if they were poisoned in the mean time the Mother Abbess came down thither with her Royal Novice She charged them with the Perjury and they confessed publickly that the King's Brother taking the advantage of that swelling which he thought was but a Tympany suborned them to swear against her Chastity expecting that either it would kill her or at least it might deceive the People so long till the King was dead and he in possession of the Crown A certain Citizen of Clonmell who came among the rest to see them dying and heard the Confession admiring the strange virtue of the Water went immediately home to his Wife and telling her that he was suspitious of her Honesty and desired that to satisfie his Jealousie she would drink a draught of Water and wish it might be her last if she were unfaithful She not having yet heard of the others punishment and willing to clear her self drank of it as he desired but swell'd with it as the others did and dyed soon after in great torment When the Well had grown famous by the exemplary deaths of the Perjured Witnesses and the Adulterate Citizen the Princess declared she would drink of it too and that the clearing of her self might be as publick as her accusation was she sent up to the King who was then at Cork to desire that her Uncle himself might be present when she drank to witness her innocence he excused himself and would not go but a great many of the Court coming thither to see the Princess clear her self she went in solemn Procession barefoot from the City to the Well and taking up a glass full of the Water she protested her Innocence and using the same imprecation with the others if she did not speak the truth drank it off but instead of working the same effect on her it in a little time cured her of the Disease she had recovered her Health and with it brought her so much Beauty that all the neighbouring Princes were Rivals for her She had design'd to build a Nunnery by that Well but her Father dying left her the cares of a Crown which diverted her from it But the Well was long after reverenced and for the quality it had of discovering Unchastity it was much resorted to for the Inhabitants of Ireland how barbarous soever the partial Chronicles of other Nation report 'em were too nice in Amour to take a polluted Wife to their Bed as long as this Well would shew them which was a chast one but the wickedness of after times grew too guilty to bear with such Tryals thence by difuse this Well lost its Fame and perhaps its Vertue And now I will no longer tell such Tales but leave the uncertain Lover to take his Lot as it comes Pretty near this Well the Prince lay down and being pleased with the murmuring of its Stream running down a descent of the Hill that and his want of Sleep the night before tempted him to take it now Morpheus was ready at his call and waving his Leaden Rod over him lull'd all his Senses till a greater power than he rescued him from sleep to Charm him in a more prevailing manner for as he waked he heard one hemm and found it was in order to Sing for presently the unknown with a ravishing Air began this Song YIeld Souldier yield give up your Sword And don't rebel in vain Yield on all conquering Beauty's word And take what quarter she 'll afford And you shall wear the lighter Chain Why do you put such trust in Art In vain fond Wretch you Arm And think Steel proof ' gainst Beauty's dart Which will like light'ning pierce you Heart yet do your Coat of Mail no harm The excellency of the Voice and the suitableness of the Sence to his own condition made him lye still to hearken to her that Sung it and listening very attentively he over-heard another Voice which breaking silence began thus I thank you dear Marinda for the Song I like the Tune you have put to it and either that and the sweetness of your Voice do make me partial or else the Song is very good I like the Authority it carries with it for I am
the Enemy both of our Country and Religion I told them 't was to him that both their Priest and I owed our safety that he kill'd the Man who hurt my Father and with a great deal of care dressed his Wound I desired therefore that for our sakes they would give me his Life These words perswaded them to leave him to me as soon as they were gone I went out to see how things went and brought him word that a great Party from the Mountains was come to our assistance and that all who set foot on our Land were killed And Madam said he shall I be the only man who goes home and carries the news of so great a defeat Or shall it be said that ever a Spaniard let a Woman beg his Life of an Indian Not of one Indian said I for you were over-powered by numbers No one but you said he should have given Astolfo his Life but since I receive it from you I 'll make that use of it I should by serving you and revenging my self of my Enemies for this loss and disgrace I have suffered I told him that since he confessed his Life was mine and that I had preserved it it was not generous to use that Life against my Country however I left him to his liberty and promised him that at Night I would send him over in a Canoe to the other side When Night came I was as good as my word and calling two trusty Men I ordered them to row the Stranger over the River telling them that his presence would be enough to secure them from the danger of their Enemies At our parting he expressed himself very thankful to me for my generous usage of him and told me that e're long he would make me a return in the mean he desired me to wear that about my Neck pulling a Gold Medal with a Chain of the same Metal I who had heard of the Spanish Covetousness gave him a large Golden Wedge and desiring him never to be my Country's Enemy or put himself into the like danger I took my leave and left him to his Fortune the Men came back before morning and brought me word that they had set him safe on shore and that all the other side of the River was covered with Men This news which they told about the Town alarm'd us and that Party which came down from the Mountains to our assistance waited to receive them some of our Scouts who rowed as near the other side as they durst brought us word that they had abundance of Canoes fill'd with Men which made us think they design'd to Land by force where the others had by Night but this was but to amuse and draw our Men that way for they had provided a great number of Planks about 20 mile higher and having lighted on a place where the River ran between two Hills and therefore could not extend it self a quarter of a Mile they made a floating Bridge and on that they passed over some Men before ours knew any thing of it they took such care to surprize the Natives that no one came to bring us Intelligence of their being Landed till some of the Planks which came floating down the River made us suspect something we sent some Scouts up the River to discover what was the matter and they brought word that the Enmy was on this side of the River Ours marched towards them as fast as they could to fight them before any more came over and having joyned Battel the first news we heard was of a great Victory we had gained over them and a great many Prisoners brought us as the proof of its being true The Indian Prisoners were kept up to feed our Gods but some few Spaniards that were taken as being the Nobler Captives were to be feasted on as it was our Custom to tye our choice Prisoners to a Tree and a great Fire being made just by the Priest was to cut off Slices from the more fleshy parts of them and distribute them about to the People to broil and eat If the Captive shewed any signs of pain or groaned at his Sufferings we counted him of a base Spirit and after burning his Body we scattered his Ashes in the Wind but if he endured bravely to see his Flesh eaten we dryed the Sinews and Bones and hanging them upon the Mountains we deify'd them and went Pilgrimages to them There were ten Spaniards brought to my Father and two or 300 Indians who were all tyed and secured by a Guard set over them the Indians to be a Prey to the Bellies of our Gods and the Spaniards to those of our Souldiers As soon as they were brought in my Curiosity prompted me to see them but very little to my satisfaction for the first I set my Eyes on was he whom I had set at liberty before I was both concerned and amazed to see him there and uncertain whether I should do any thing in his favour or no therefore I pretended not to know him till he making as low a bow as his being tyed would permit asked me did I not know him whose Life I had saved Are you he said I whom I set free but a few days ago I thought your good usage might have made you our Friend or at least your dangerous escape might have been a fair warning to you but since you are the second time come amongst our Enemies and are still plotting my destruction you shall suffer for your ingratitude and to shew how little I pity you I will go to see you Sacrificed and eat the first bit of you my self As for the danger of coming again answered he a Spaniard fears none but I was so far from plotting your destrustion that I hung that Medal about your Neck for my Souldiers to know you by I had indeed a design upon your Countrey but for you my greatest desire was by saving you and your Family to shew how much I aimed to ingratiate my self into your favour These are all but Wheedles said I to save your Life but they shall not serve No they shall not said he for since you can entertain such mean thoughts as these of me I scorn to take my Life all the repentance my attempt has brought upon me is that it has displeased you I thought to have requited you for giving me liberty and to have made you amends for the loss of your Country by bringing you to a better but since this ill success has prevented me all that I desire is to dye in your favour The way to do that reply'd I is to dye undaunted for then you shall be one of our Gods I will do so said he be you there and shew but the least sign of pity at my death and I 'll go off with such a Courage that him whom you slighted whilst he was alive you shall adore when he is dead Though in a Man's mouth who was at liberty this would have looked like
a Boast yet coming from one who did not know but he might suffer next day it appear'd so brave that I could not but admire it The others held their Tongues but looked so fierce as if they kept silence out of disdain I went thence with a great opinion of their Courage and a secret horrour in my self at the cruelty of our Nation which gave brave Men such barbarous usage I called to mind his professing a design to save me and carry me to a happier place and his telling me of the thing about my Neck for a Token to know me by made me believe it was true and when I considered of this I imagined I ought to save his Life but I could not tell how to do it without my Father's consent As I came into the Room where he lay ill of his Wound there was one brought him word of the death of his only Son who was found after the Battel among the Slain with a Bullet lying in him I shewed my sorrow in all the extravagancies which our Nation commits on the like occasions but my Father only gave a groan or two as it were to rouze up his anger and said that he would comfort himself for his Son in revenging his Death since all his grief could never raise him to Life again That all the Spaniards who were in the Battel were killed except ten who were in his Custody and he would sacrifice each of them because he would be sure that his Sons Murderer should not escape for since he was killed with a Bullet he did not doubt but it was a Spaniard shot him We lay all that Night awake grieving for my Brother but the next day when the first Fury of our grief was over and my Father began to talk with me about our Prisoners Suppose Father said I the Spaniard who saved our Lives should be one of them If that should come to pass said my Father he had better staid where he was than come over to seek his Death here the second time But Sir said I gratitude would oblige us to save his Life who saved ours first That we have done already said my Father and so we have returned his kindness and if after so hard an escape he should be come again he does not deserve his Life neither would I be guilty of so much injustice to my Son and my Countrey as to save that Man's Life who has been the Death of the one and has made a second attempt to be the Destruction of the other This arguing of my Fathers seemed so reasonable and his Indignation so just that I could not gainsay it and therefore said no more to him but went back to my Prisoner and told him that I did intend to save him and his Companions for his sake but that my Brother's Body being found shot had so incensed my Father that I could not prevail with him to spare them and therefore I told them they must prepare their Courage to dye as soon as my Father's Wounds would suffer him to assist at the Solemnity Well says he since I must dye and it does not lye in your power to help it I am sorry you told me you attempted it for that shews so much kindness that it makes me desirous to live I was willing to dye when you upbraided me with the begging my life but now I can no longer be suspected to flatter you out of any such hopes since you say it is not in your power to help me I own that my Death is no grievance to me only as it prevents my living for you and all that I 'll now desire of you is to let me dye the first that I may not behold the Cruelties exercised on my Country-men The Love and Courage which I perceived in these words quite altered the thoughts I had of giving him up to my Father's resentments and from that time I found something within me so strong on his side that it over-ballanced the Duty I should have paid to my Father's will and my Brother's Blood I went to my Father and told him that he who saved his Life was there and urged to him how ingrateful we should be if we did not restore him to his Liberty but my Father answered me with the same Arguments he had done before Then I endeavoured to corrupt him that was Captain of the Guard that looked to them but he was a Blood-thirsty violent natured Man and not only refused me but complained to my Father who was so angry that I should endeavour to release so many of our worst our most formidable Enemies the Spaniards that he threaten'd the next time I attempted the like he would have me condemned to suffer with them as the Enemy of my Country I knew his violent temper too well to venture any farther and gave over all hopes of saving my Prisoner The next morning four Indians were to be carried to our Gods to feed upon they drew Lots for their Lives they were blind-folded when they drew and I held the Cistern and decided who the Lot fell upon and it often grieved me to doom the poor trembling Slaves my Prisoner seeing me picking out some of them for Death told me he longed to know when his turn would come I told him that his must come as well as the rest that I had incurred my Father's displeasure on his account and left nothing undone which I thought might be for his safety that I hoped this was all he could expect and desired him to own before his Death that I was out of his debt yet I had resolved with my self to keep him till the last in hopes that before that time the Guards might be changed or else my Father's anger might be mitigated when most of them had been sacrificed to it Two or three days had now past over in which time my Father had given the Guards particular charge to beware of the Spaniards for fear I should free them the day come that he found himself well enough to perform the Sacrifice and our Spaniards were brought out in the midst of their Guards to draw Lots which of them should make our Banquet by ill chance it fell on my Prisoner I changed the Lot and sentenced one of the others in his stead but not so cleverly but that my Father perceived it The poor wretch was cut to pieces slice after slice and lived long enough to see his own Flesh broiled and eaten by the Company you must think this was a terrible sight to the rest who saw by their Companion what they were to suffer I expected to keep him the same way I had the first day and went on the morrow with the same design little dreaming what would happen for my Father who had seen me play the Jugler the day before would hold the Pitcher himself and the first black Lot was again drawn by my Prisoner Upon that the Fire was made to broil his Flesh he was stript
the Siege should continue I will not set down how many of these Fits of Joy and Grief he had whilst he was in the Camp neither will I Romance so much as to white down all the thoughts he had of her and all the many wise Dialogues he had with himself about her those the Reader can better imagine than the Author tell at least if he has any of the same Passion the Prince was possessed with That will make him sympathize exactly with his Highness's thoughts as two Clocks well made keep time with one another Thus much I know that they were so importunate with him that they could neither be lull'd asleep by the stillness of the Night nor diverted by the terrors of the Day They kept him company continually followed him even into the Enemies Trenches and when Shot of all sorts flew thickest about his Ears they were neither still'd by the noise of the greater nor frighten'd away by the small Among all these thoughts he did not forget those of writing to her nor had he been three Weeks away when calling to him one of his trustiest Servants he ordered him to take Horse for Clonmell and with all the privacy imaginable deliver her this Letter To the most Charming MARINDA IF I could think that Absence would have the same effect on you it has on me I should be but too happy Might I hope that it has lessened your Disdain as much as it has encreased my Love I should be over paid for all the restless hours and melancholly thoughts it has cost me But this is too good Fortune for me to flatter my self with nor is it likely that she who shuns her present Lover should cherish his memory when absent We have block'd your Enemies up won a Fort from them and daily gain more ground And O that I were as certain of Conquering you as of taking the Town But you my lovely stubborn Enemy hold out against all my endeavours All the Assaults I make serve but to shew your Obstinacy and my Weakness and help to confirm the improbability of my gaining you Yet Despair it self shall not make me give over but like a resolute General who will rather dye in the Trenches than rise from before the Town which he has once laid Siege to so after all your Repulses my worst of Fortune shall but make me dye at her Feet whose Heart I could never gain entrance to But do not rashly resolve on my Ruin but consider my Lovely Princess whether it is not juster for your Pity to indulge that Passion which your Disdain cannot destroy And so instead of proving the death of your Lover give him his Life in letting him live to be Yours S g. The Prince awaited the return of his Messenger with a great deal of Impatiency The next Evening as he came from an Assault his Man came to him and having told his Highness that he had performed his Message to Marinda he gave the Prince a Letter from her which he opened after kissing the Seal and with a great deal of Pleasure read these words To the Prince of S g. WHen I received the Honour of a Letter from your Highness I was in a great strait whether to return an Answer to it or no If I did I thought it would look like Presumption if not like Incivility In this hard choice I thought it best to err on the kinder side and rather incurr the censure of Rudeness than that of Ingratitude How little I am guilty of the latter your Highness too well knows by being witness to a discourse which I never design'd for your Ears but since it came to them I cannot recant it And though your Highness talks of despairing to take the Town I can't think you should when you know how much you have gain'd of it already But your Highness deals harder with this than you do with Limerick you 'll offer no Conditions because you expect it will surrender upon Discretion you hope that in vain for though a Traitor within takes your part and all the cunning you have assaults it from without yet these ways will not render your Highness Master of this Fort which will never yield but upon Honourable Terms Your Highness's Most humble Servant Marinda The meaning of this Letter was too plain to have any false Constructions made upon it and the Prince who saw that he must retire or engage too far had now a greater conflict with his thoughts than he had before with the Coyness of his Mistress he was so equally divided betwixt Love and Interest that they governed his Breast by turns sometimes one having the better and sometimes the other He thought however that so kind a Letter as this seemed to require an answer and therefore upon the Army 's taking the Irish-Town supposing that a little more time would render the King Master of Limerick he wrote her this answer to prepare him a kind Reception when the Camp should break up TO THE Most Charming Marinda AS our taking the Irish-Town has prepared our way towards the taking of Limerick so I hope the Surrendry of Limerick will prepare mine towards the taking that which I value above all the Cities of the Vniverse my Lovely Marinda and my hopes will be mightily cross'd if one Month does not put me in possession both of that and her She shall then see how much better conditions we 'll give her than we do to our Enemies when we shall make them accept of what Terms the Conquerour pleases to impose but my Beautious Fortress even when she has Surrender'd shall chuse her own Conditions and impose what Laws she pleases on her Conquerour Since as he receives that Title only from her Favours so will he any time exchange it for that of the Humblest of her Servants S g. In this Letter the Prince spake what he truly thought that Limerick would soon be taken for the King had sent for some heavy Cannon to the Camp to throw down the walls and a breach once made there were thousands of English bold enough to have dared all the Enemies Shot and force their way into the Town in spite of all the resistance But Fortune had otherwise ordered it for Sarsfeild with an unusual Bravery marched with a small Body of Horse farther into that part of the Country which was Subjected to the English Power than they suspected he durst surprized the Convoy and cutting them to pieces burnt them their Carriages and Provisions which they brought for the Army to ashes some of the Carriages he nailed up and burst the rest and the Army wanting them to batter the walls and the hasty approach of the Winter not giving them time to send for others they raised the Siege his Majesty went for England his Forces retired to their winter Quarters and our Prince to his Mistress I trust the Reader will not think it prejudicial to our Prince's Honour to come back without taking the Town