promised her to hold him in his arms and to have a great care of him she consented to it She was no sooner out of the Town but this Traytor who carryed the young Prince began to get before and by little and little going farther from the Charet as if he had not done it of purpose Sarraida lost the sight of him This infortunate Princess seeing her son no longer began to fear without knowing wherefore whereupon she commanded her Charet-man to drive as fast as he could but whereas he was suborned he obeyed not at first howbeit she threatened him in such anger as he was constrained to do what she would have him but this speed was that which retarded her design the more for the axletree as I have told you being half broken and the Charet going violently on it broke sooner then otherwise it would have done Sarraida beholding it overturned and no longer seeing her son never consulted on that which she was to do so that abandoning her Charet and walking on foot followed by two women that accompanied her she continued in the way which she had taken with a trembling of her heart and an extream grief And whereas she was carryed by affection she went so fast as but one of her women could follow her She arrived then neer to the Grand Signior's Tombs but alass what was the object which she encountred there she beheld her son strangled still warm panting and almost in the last pangs of death This deadly spectacle touched her in so strange a manner as she fell down as it were dead upon the body of her son In the mean time he that had driven Sarraida's Charet being returned to the Town and the remorse of his crime making him to answer those from the purpose which demanded of him where the Princess was a great part of the Town men and women went themselves to learn some news of her so much was this vertuous Princess beloved in that place They found her still in a swoon neither the woman that served her nor another that was come thither by chance and had seen the death of Mustapha's son having been able to bring her to her self again The care which they altogether took about her got her to open her eyes and so far to recover the use of reason as to understand from the woman which she found there with what constancy that young Prince had resolved to dye She recounted unto her how going to Prusa and feeling her self weary she had rested her self in one of the Niches of the Mosque and that being fallen asleep there she was wakened with a noise that an horse made that she had seen a man holding this young child in his arms who as soon as he was alighted had shewed him a Bow-string and had told him that he had a Command from the Grand Signior to put him to death that upon this discourse the child was no whit daunted and said that it was not Soliman but Heaven that would have it so and that therefore there was nothing more resting for him but to obey and yield his neck to him as he had done with a marvellous constancy that for her part she had done what she could to hinder so horrible a fact but it was impossible for her that as soon as the child was dead his Executioner got to horse and fled away withall speed that afterwards she could not find in her heart to abandon this poor infortunate child for fear lest some wilde beast should devour him Sarraida having heard this woman first lift up her eyes to Heaven then casting them down on the body of her son she suddenly closed them up without shedding so much as a tear grief suffocated her in such sort as all that she could say was Mustapha is dead and his son is no longer living let as follow them then willingly since there is nothing left for us to lose After this she never spake more but dyed in the same place where her son had yielded up the ghost so that they were both carried back to Prusa where this accident caused so general a mourning and touched every one so sensibly as there was not any testimony of affection or mark of honor which they of this Town did not render to the Corps of Sarraida and her son which of their own authority they layd in the Sepulchres of the ancient Emperors a thing without example The chiefest amongst them went in all haste to pursue the Murtherer of this young Prince but he was already gotten far enough off with Rustan who no sooner understood that his Commandment was executed but away he posted to carry Roxelana the news of it who received it with unspeakable joy Now whereas the Sultan was to arrive within two days she counselled him to conceal himself until she had appeased his displeasure In the mean time she willed him so to order the matter as it might be believed that the death of Mustapha's son came by the Commandment of Soliman for fear lest he being suspected for it should draw the peoples hatred upon him who would easily be perswaded of that which they were willing should be As indeed the most part were of that opinion though it were otherwise for that Slave of Rustan's not â—ong since confessed it on his death bed Soliman at his return understanding the death of Mustapha's son testified a great deal of sorrow and anger for it but Roxelana accustomed to prevail over the spirit of this Prince with her wiles and tears told him that this action it may be was not too much disadvantageous to the quiet of his Empire for she had been informed that Sarraida since her being at Prusa had continually inspired her son with thoughts of revenge that all they of that Town whensoever he passed through the streets did nothing but wish him a longer life then his father to the end he might revenge his death and mount up to a Throne which appertained unto him that without doubt some man zealous for his Highness had undertaken this bold action and therefore according to her sence the Author of it was not to be much looked after This discourse which should have begot a suspicion in the mind of Soliman perswaded him and was so prevalent with him as there was no further enquiry made of this crime which confirmed the people in the opinion that it had been committed by his Order After this Roxelana did her uttermost endeavor to obtain Rustan's grace but she could not possibly do it In the mean time the vertuous Achmat having understood more particularly the extream affection which Prince Mustapha and Prince Gianger had born to Axiamira to shew how dear their memory was unto him had obtained the permission to see her which he hath done as often as his occasions would suffer him And it is by him also that we have understood how Soliman would not since his return let any body speak to him of business being
the frontiers of Amasia but he wrote unto Soliman that Mustapha had gained all the Soldiers that they would receive no command but from him that all was full of conspiracies that the people were every where ready to revolt that he was not in a condition to oppose so many Enemies and in conclusion that his presence was absolutely necessary for the calming of this storm Now that which made Rustan advertise Soliman of all these things was because he certainly knew that the vertue of Mustapha was so generally beloved in all that Province as if he undertook to go with open force against him he would be in danger of being lost and of utterly ruining Roxelana's designs He considered withall that if he conducted the Prince to Constantinople all the Bassa's all the Janizaries and all the pâ—ople joyning together might peradventure cause a genâ—ral revolution if they enterprized the taking away of Mustapha's life This consideration of his succeeded but too well for Soliman no sooner understood so much from him but he resolved for his voyage Howbeit that which powerfully carryed hâ—m to do what Rustan desired was the intelligence he gave him how by a second Letter from Mustapha's Governor he was informed that the Princess of Persia was in his hands So that Soliman filled with choller and jealousie and thinking that as Rustan had escaped shipwrack so Axiamira not being dead might be in the hands of his son who was fallen in love with her parted instantly away with all the Troops and Janizaries which he had about him leaving no more behinde then such as were necessary for the ordinary guard of his Sâ—rraglio But before he went from Roxelana she made him promise her that he would forget all things to think of his own security Vertuous Achmat told us since that Soliman had a strange combate within himself and that Nature and Reason a long time opposed the wickedness of this woman But at length she made him see the peril so great and so neer unto h m as in parting from her she got him to promise her two things the one that he should not see Mustapha and the other that he should sacrifice him to his own proper safety With this deadly resolution he went and joyned with Rustan these things nevertheless were not so closely carryed but the Bassa Achmat was advertised how this tempest was going to fall upon the head of Mustapha so that at the very same time when as Soliman being encamped neer to Aleppo had sent the Prince a Command to come unto him to render him an account of the Princess of Persia Achmat dispatched away a Post to advertise him that some great design was plotting against him and that he was accused of something wherein the Princess of Persia was mentioned but not able to tell him precisely what it was all that he could do in this occasion considering the state wherein he saw things was to counsel him not to come I leave you to judg generous Ibrahim whether receiving at one and the same instant Soliman's command and Achmat's advertisement the Princes and the Princess were not strangely surprized And so much the more because that Persian was on the very same day brought back to Mustapha whom Axiamira had returned to Prince Mahamed and had been taken upon the frontire for a spy though he beleeved that it was for that it had been discovered how he had slain that Officer of Mustapha's which came out of Persia with him so that he no sooner saw the Prince but he cast himself at his feet confessed his crime begged his pardon for it and recounted unto him the combate between that Turk and him as I have related it unto you But whatsoever was demanded of him he still maintained that he whom he had killed had not thrown away any Letters during the combate as we had beleeved which made us fear more then before lest some one had gotten them after his death and sent them to Soliman Prince Gianger was even in despair to see his brother in trouble for the love of him Axiamira was in an affliction which I cannot represent unto you the fear of falling into Soliman's hands made her resolve for death and the thought of being the cause of the ruine of two Princes to whom she was so much obliged augmented her grief far more Sarraida who loved her husband more then her self was wholly dissolved into tears out of her fear of the danger whereunto she saw him exposed Mustapha though more constant yet was sensibly touched with the tears of the rest and as for me if I may be permitted to name my self after so many illustrious persons I was so afflicted as my own misfortunes were never so sensible to me In the mean time we knew not what resolution to take Gianger would go and present himself to the Grand Signior to justifie his brother and confess that he alone was culpable but as soon as he came to think that he should abandon Axiamira that he should either let her return into Persia or put her into the hands of Soliman who was both his Father and his Rival he could by no means resolve on it but fell again into his despair Axiamira on her part found no way to escape this peril she would fain have saved these two Princes and saved her self too but not able to go into Persia neither to see Soliman nor rest safe in a place where she was no longer unknown she found that death alone could draw her out of so many miseries As for Mustapha his greatest sorrow was to see the affliction of his brother and the fear he was in that his Palace would not be an inviolable sanctuary to the Princess Axiamira for touching the rest said he unto her I am not much troubled If Soliman deals rigorously with me it will always be with injustice knowing as I do that I have never had a thought against the service which I owe to him and after this satisfaction I fear not death But that which afflicts me continued he is the doubt that if I go and present my self to Soliman they will come and do you some wrong in my absence and that is it for which I do not see how we can finde a remedy Sarraida hearing her husband speak in this sort cast her self at his feet to disswade him from this design and to pray him to remember said she after she had craved pardon of Gianger how exceedingly Roxelana had sought for a pretext to undo him that having met with one he might be assured she would make use of it to his ruine and that it was better for him to stay in Amasia and there to defend himself or fly away then to expose himself to so evident a danger But Mustapha's generosity not permitting him to resolve either for the one or the other it becomes your affection answered he to counsel me in this manner but it becomes not the courage of Mustapha to be
make them change their resolution Seeing then that her prayers her tears and perswasions were all to no purpose with her father-in-law Hamet and that Muley Zidan her husband told her how he could not but follow him in this War who had given him birth that he was not an enemy to Mahomet but only an obedient son that it was not for children to ask who were the enemies of those to whom they owed their lives but only to hazard them against whomsoever they were for the conservation of the lives of them who had given them theirs This wise Princess seeing I say things in this estate abode in Marocco and without making vows for the victory either of the one of the other she wished that their Arms would fall out of their hands and that Reason might be stronger in them then ambition But things went not after this sort for after many encounters wherein the Kings of Marocco and Taradant had each in their turn had the better and the worse the chance of war being fallen in the end on Hamet she saw Muley Zidan her Husband return almost alone of all his whole Army which had been utterly defeated and acquaint her with tears in his eyes that his Father and a Brother which he had named Muley Buaçon were prisoners in the hands of Mahomet This vertuous Princess hearing this news had generosity enough to weep for the victories of her Father and when as she saw that her Husband after he had assembled together all the Alfaquis Cavaliers and Captains that were in Marocco to advise on that which might be done found out no expedient which could be commodious for him she presented her self unto the Councel and demanded the permission to go and cast her self at the feet of Mahomet her Father to endevor the effecting of a peace or to offer her self and three children she had for the ransom of Hamet or to obtain a◠least that she might serve him during his captivity if her tears could not move her Fathers heart So generous a proposition was approved of by the whole Assembly and Muley Zidan went himself to conduct his wife and his children forth of the Gates of the City yet was h◠in some trouble to part with her out of the fear he was in lest Mahomet knowing how ardently she was beloved of him should retain her without rendering up his Father and without harkening to peace But she assured him that when as she could no longer be useful to her Father-in-law nothing but death alone should keep her from returning back to him again The voyage of this sage Princess was not fruitless and albeit that her Father was one of the greatest Politicians in the World and one of the most ambitious Princes on the Earth yet her Reasons her Tears and her Prayers drew him to grant her the liberty of Hamet and Muley Buaçon and by a Treaty as reasonable as if Hamet had not been a prisoner they contracted a peace which seemed inviolable But scarcely was Mariama re-entred into Marocco as it were in triumph after she had brought the King thither again scarcely had Muley Zidan her Husband rendred her thanks for so brave an action but that Hamet began to assemble new forces and to say that whatsoever he had promised in prison was not to be kept and for that effect he went out of Marocco to go and make new Levies himself but at this time the victory fell to the juster side For during Hamet's absence Mahomet having been advertised of his designs came to Marocco and made himself Master of the City partly by force and partly also by the revolt of some who could not approve of Hamet's changings So that when he thought to return to Marocco with Muley Zidan who had followed after him with an intent to divert him from the design he had to make war he understood that he was a King without a Kingdom and that the people who ever follow the victorious party had acknowledged Mahomet for King of Marocco This Prince was so mightily strucken with this adventure that abandoning all things he retired to one named Cidy Ben Cecy who lived solitarily in the Mountains and past amongst them for a very great and holy person As for Muley Zidan he retired to the King of Fez their confederate In the mean time Mariama who was in the City when it was taken carryed by her ordinary generosity and fearing lest she should have been suspected for contributing somewhat thereunto cast her self at her Fathers feet to obtain leave of him to follow the infortunate party And when as he refused her she suborned one of the Captains that guarded the gates and accompanyed with two women and some of her servants she got out one night and went to Cidy Ben Cecy's retirement This action so touched Mahomet's heart as it carryed him once again to treat with his Brother but it was upon condition that he should not re-enter into Marocco because he had promised so much to the inhabitants who feared to be ill-intreated by him But not to prolong this discourse any further you shall understand that Hamet recommenced the War four or five times and that so often Mariama obtained his liberty and always followed his and her Husbands fortune Howbeit in the end Mahomet after he had conquered the Kingdom of Fez took him in the last War and committed him to close prison with four of his children and three of Mariama's because he accused Muley Zidan her Husband for having succored the King of Fez whil'st he made war upon him And the unhappy Zidan having been taken lost his life by the command of him whose daughter he had marryed True indeed it is that it was by the counsel of Aly who afterwards was Abdalla's favorite and in the absence of Mariama who at that time was not with her Father In fine not to aggravate the sorrow of this excellent Princess Mahomet dyed a little while after and Abdalla the eldest of his children succeeded him having ordained by his Testament that after him the second of his sons should succeed and in order all his other brothers without any pretence to be made by any of Abdalla's children to the Crowns of Marocco Fez and Taradant as long as their Uncles lived At such time as Mahomet dyed Abdalla was not at Marocco so that when the news of his death arrived there Aly who commanded in the City and was Visier of the Kingdom which is the next dignity to the King fearing lest the people should revolt and should draw Hamet and Mariama's children out of prison to set them on the Throne which appertained to them carryed by an inconsiderate zeal and an extream cruelty caused the infortunate Hamet and his children together with Mariama's to be put to death for the assuring of the Crown to Abdalla whose favorite he would be as he had been Mahomet's And truly it was not hard for him to be so for whereas this man
all the torments which ever have been invented I shall give you thankes in enduring them Arsalon hearing him speak thus lifted him up very kindly and unloosing the Bassa of the Sea himself I should not have done a grace to Alibech sayd he unto him if I had not done it to you too since your life is hers In sequele hereof my Lord it is easie to imagine what these three persons and Arsalon said who certainly for his part shewed such marks of his repentance and spake so many generous and obliging things as it was easie to perceive that he had not alwayes been a Pirate Now my Lord that I may not prolong this relation any further you shall understand that Arsalon not only pardoned his daughter promised an inviolable affection to the Bassa of the sea and his sonne but also took the resolution to cease from being a Pirate For which effect he obtained the Bassa of the seas permission to dismiss all them that had ranged themselves under his obedience who although they were sorry to lose so courageous a Chieftain yet were they comforted with the greatness of the booty which he left them and embarquing himself in the same vessell whiâ—â— had brought Alibech thither without reserving any part of the riches which he had gotten You see said he smiling to the Bassa of the sea and his sonne how I render my self at discretion and how I confide in your generosity After this my Lord they went to the Fleet where was so universall a rejoycing as the like hath never been heard spoken of In the mean while whereas a part of the Gallies and Vessels had been bruised with the tempest we made to land that we might put them in a condition to follow the first design And it was there generous Ibrahim where we learned that your Victory had no need of our succour This good news being made known to Arsalon who had been acquainted by Alibech with the obligation wherein she was engaged unto you he desired the Bassa of the sea to obtain of you that if any treaty of peace were to be made between the Sultan and the Sophy you would be pleased to take the care of making his and getting him the liberty to go and end his dayes in his country from whence love in times past had banished him I desire this grace of you then on the behalf of Arsalon of the Bassa of the sea of Osman and of the vertuous Alibech who beseeches you that you will be her protection yet a second time Morath having given over speaking left Ibrahim and Ulama so ravished with his relation and the generosity of Alibech as they thought they should never have done praising her Ibrahim promised Morath to re-establish Arsalon and having sent him back again the next day because he assured them that he should find them stil abiding in the Port where he had left them he commanded him to bring Arsalon to him with as much speed as possibly he could and to assure all those generous persons that he should never be contented till their vertue were worthily acknowledged And verily it might be sayd that Ibrahim knew what would happen for scarcely was Morath a dayes jourâ—ey from the Camp when as he was advertised that there were Deputies from Sultania that desired to speak with him he was told also that these deputies were all in mourning and seemed to be extremely afflicted This novelty surprised him and wheâ—eas Ulama was not present at such time as this message was delivered unto him he sent for him in all hast and when he was come to his Tent and the Deputies likewise one amongst them after he had begun his discourse with an Elogium of Ibrahim the better to prepare him not to refuse them that which they purposed to crave of him acquainted him with all that had past at Sultania since the battell of Niphates wherewith Ulama and he were strangely surprised And truly this relation was extraordinary enough to beget no mean amazement For it had fallen out that after that day which had proved so glorious to Ibrahim and so fatall to the Sophy the death of Deliment and the displeasure for having been vanquished possessed him with so much grief as he fell sick at the very same instant As for the ambitious Perca she reioyced in her heart at the death of Deliment as a thing which she had long wished for the sicknest of Tachmas did not disquiet her but contrarily she beleeved that the less able he should be to direct the more power she should have As for the stupid Ismael she did not regard him as any great obstacle to her design she was notwithstanding very much vexed when she understood of him after the loss of the battell that in the heat of the fight Ulama had given him his life and his liberty in drawing him out of the hands of a greâ—t many souldiers who would have either taken or killed him For albeit she forbad him to publish this action yet was so filled with joy for his escape out of that perill as it was impossible for her to keep him from telling it to divers persons though it was not out of any acknowledgement Perca was not ignorant that Ulama had a number of secret friends who watched but for an occasion â—o declare themselves for his advantage She knew likewise that all which were of Mahamedes and Axiamiraes party sought but for a pretext to stir so as she feared that this action comming to be known in the estate wherein things were use might be made of it for the making of some propositions to Tachmas vvhich might be prejudiciall unto her in the design which she had to reign But this infortunate Prince was not long in a condition to think of the affaires of his Empire for albeit his Physitians had imployed all their skill for the preservation of his life yet could they not possibly save him and the fourth day after the loss of the battell death stiffed that passion in his heart which had made him do so much injustice As soon as he had given up his last breath Perca without amusing her self in unprofitable tears took great carâ— to conceal it untill suâ—h time as she was assured of the minds of the principall persons of Sultania for as for the men of command so great a number were slain in the day of battell as there scarcely rested any considerable enough strongly to oppose what she meant to undertake She caused the Councill then to be assembled in the name of the Sâ—phy where she and Ismael appeared in mourning and whereas she had wit and subtilty after she had with feigned tears made the hearts of those that heard hâ—rpliant she acquainted them with the death of the Sophy â—raved their assistance for the direction of Ismael and in conclusion shewed them a paper which indeed sâ—e had made Tachmas to sign without knowing what he did whereby he declared that in case
remember the order that we held in the streetes howbeit I was told afterwards that Sinibaldo divided his men into two parts and that I was placed in the midst of them where Rhodolpho and Doria had in charge not to abandon me whatsoever should arrive Sinibaldo put himself into the head of the Troop and my father marched in the rear to the end that on what side soever they were assaulted a man of command and courage might still be there But whereas the Spinolaes knew not that we were retired to Rhodolphoes house they never thought of lying in wait for us so that we got to Sinibaldoes without any bad incounter After I was laid in bed he and my father advised that it would be easier for Rhodolpho to get away to Monaco as soon as it was day than if he stayed longer because his enemies had not had leisure yet to think and consider of all that might hurt or help them to that purpose they judged it fit to disguise him like a Mariner and to put him into a Feluca which might easily carry him to that place of safety Rhodolpho consented to whatsoever they thought good and Sinibaldo took upon him the care of dispatching the business He sent then to the Port as soon as day began to appear to hire a Feluca upon condition it should part presently and that the Master of it should lend one of his habits the money which was offered to this man was so much as ravished with this incounter and without further inquiry he said that he was ready to part and that for one of his habis he would lend it so as he might be permitted to goe home to his house because he had none there He that made the bargain agreed he should do so but for fear he should discover any thing he would goe with him The Master of the Feluca who thought of nothing but his gain was contented with it away they went together to fetch that habit and that done he left that man in the guard of one of his fellowes whom he had brought thither with him and came and rendred an account of his voyage Immediately Rhodolpho disguised himself and seeing it pretty far day he took his leave of Sinibaldo and my father who both of them promised him to doe in his name all that they had resolved on and whatsoever else they judged would be requisite to procure his liberty Lodovico and he shewed so much generosity in this separation and spake so obligingly one to another as Sinibaldo could not forbear telling them that Spinola could not have been lost more profitably for the Common-Wealth seeing his death had served to make two so great and excellent men become friends When they had answered to this civility Rhodolpho came to me with so much kindness and such testimony of acknowledgement and friendship as I was sensibly touched therewith He assured me once again with oathes that his daughter should be the reward of the blood which I hâ—d shed for him provided I did not change my resolution The weakness wherein I was did not keep me from rendring him thanks as I ought for so obliging a discourse but at length he went away to find out the Master that waited for him Sinibaldo did not let him go without a guard he caused six of his servants to follow him a loof of and he himself went to the Port for to see him part Rhodolpho was so fortunate that he crost through the City without meeting any one that knew him he imbarqued himself then with all possible speed and in a little time arrived safely at Monaco where he was received by his subjects with joy As soon as the Councell was set they vvould have complained in Rhodolphoes name but they found themselves prevented by the space of a quarter of an hour onely and that the father of him vvhom I had killed had accused me for the death of his sonne for though our fight vvas in the night yet vvas I knovvn by my voice and the follovvers of him that vvas slain had marked hovv he and I vvere ingaged in a particular combat This accusation appeared at first so unlikely to the Judges as they gave no credit at all unto it and vvhereas they vvere not ignorant of that inveterate hatred which was between the Justinianoes and the Grimaldies they could not comprehend how I should be induced to fight for mine enemy As they were in this pain my Father presented himself to demand justice of them for the violence had been done me and to colour the matter he told them that passing by chance along the street I had seen Spinola set upon Rhodolpho with so much advantage as my generosity not able to indure it I presently resolved to labour the hindring of that mischief or if I could not to side with the weaker party as I have done that in this occasion I had been dangerously hurt that nevertheless knowing the power of the Spinolaes and fearing lest the Senate should be misinformed of the truth of the matter I had absented my self till such time as justice was done me My Father made this discourse with such earnestness and so advantagiously for Rhodolpho as it was easie to discern that he was no longer his enemy But whereas the affair was important in regard it concerned three of the principall Families of the City they resolved nothing for the present but referred the matter to the next day with order notwithstanding to the Spinolaes to cause their witnesses to be examined the day following This news was instantly spread over all the City with so much admiration and astonishment as no body could believe it the first time they heard it contrarily all those of Genoua said openly how it could not possibly be for that the hatred which passeth successively into the minds of men cannot be extinguished in a moment and that by consequence it was not credible that I could pass from one extremity to another in an instant and that I should render to the greatest of mine enemies all that the dearest of my friends could expect from me But as nothing can be long concealed it was quickly known that love had begot friendship and that the passion which I had for Isabella was the noble cause of this adventure In the mean time the whole Common-wealth was divided and although the faction of Sinibaldo were the stronger and most considerable and that it was absolutely for us yet could it not hinder the passing of an express order for the searching out and apprehension of us And whereas the dead party is alwayes regarded all the grace we could obtain was that the affair should not be precipitated and that it should be prolonged as much as the forms of Justice would permit Whilst things past in this manner I wrote every day to Isabella who answered me with so much wit and sweetness as I could not be but happy in the constraint wherein I lived But at length
live her husband Or if thy Highness will render my end more profitable and glorious command me to seek out death in the midst of thine enemies and I shall not be long without testifying by the loss of my life that I am not ingratefull but because I cannot be acknowledging And to incense thy just wrath I will say further that the chastisement which I demand will be instead of grace to me since that in depriving me of light I shall no longer be sensible of all the misfortunes wherewith I am so heavily oppressed I shall cease to live but I shall cease also from being rebellious to thy pleasure I shall restore the life which I ow to the incomparable Asterin and I shall dye for the glory of Isabella In brief my Lord since I cannot be Asteriaes because my love doth oppose it and my Religion doth forbid it and since I cannot likewise live for Isabella because my duty doth tie me to thy service both by a generall right and by a particular obligation death is the onely remedy that remains for me to get out of so many miseries If thy goodness had not broken off my fetters and that I were still thy slave now when that I know that the constancy of Isabella hath triumphed over the artifice of our enemies that I reign still in her heart and that on me alone her felicity or her happiness doth depend I would employ all my endeavour to free me of my chains by a ransom But my Lord I am tyed to thee by stronger bonds the obligations wherein I am ingaged to thy Highness the benefits which I have received from thee the honours thou hast done me and the last degree of glory whereunto I am mounted are too certain proofs of thy love and of thy confidence for me not to be retained in my duty It is then by these sacred bands that I am tyed unto thee and which I cannot break without sacrilege Finally my Lord the thoughts of liberty which pass for a just desire in the minds of all men were an horrid crime in me and I may well promise thy Highness that I will never so much as dream of it And as I am generous enough not to doe any thing that may blemish my love so am I yet more not to doe any thing that may wrong my duty There is no need then of guards to keep me from going out of thy Empire being fully resolved to sacrifise all my pleasures rather than doe any thing unworthy of the name which I carry and the choice which thy Highness hath made of my person for to be the first in thy favour as I am in thy Estates But without further deferring pronounce the sentence of death so just and so much wished for Ibrahim having given over speaking Soliman rose up fell to walking a great pace and with his eyes fixed on the ground continued in so deep a muse as the Bassa doubted that he should obtain the effect of his request but he was not long in this uncertainty for the Sultan standing still and beholding him in a manner that testified more grief than anger and more compassion than wrath said unto him with all imaginable kindness that he held himself infinitely unhappy in that possessing so great an Empire that being so victorious and triumphant and that being able to give felicity to so many people yet could not render the onely man whom he could love happy Upon this so obliging a discourse Jbrahim would have fallen on his knees but he would not suffer him saying unto him that he would fain have obtained so much resolution of himself as to part for ever from a man who was so dear unto him that he had debated the same in his mind when as he walked in that manner as he saw but that at last the affection which he bore him had surmounted his generosity and that it was impossible for him to resolve on so grievous a separation that he conjured him to excuse the effects of his friendship as he excused those of his love and to testifie unto him that as well as himself he did all that he could he would permit him to goe atd see Jsabella provided he would pass his word unto him to return again within six monthes with this promise also that if during his absence he could accustom himself to this privation he would give him his liberty wholly and intirely The Bassa was so surprised and so transported with joy as having cast himself at the feet of the Sultan he was a good while without speaking but at length after he had recovered the use of his tongue he rendrâ—d him thanks for so notable a favor and told him that none but Soliman could vanquâ—â—â— Soliman that this victory which he had gotten over himself was so glorious to him as all that he had done till then was nothing in comparison of it that battailes were gained by the valour of Captaines and Souldiers buâ— in this occasion he owed this victory to none but his own proper vertue As for the rest if he would permit him to go to Monaco he would ingage his faith to render himself at Constantinople within the time that he had prescribed and that he was not to fear that he would break his word with his Highness since he would keep it with his very enemies After this assurance the Sultan told him that he did not doubt of it but that which obliged him to require an oath of him for it was the knowledge that he had of the force of the passion which reigned in his heart and that his friendship would be secured against this enemy of its content Jbrahim swore then solemnly that nothing but death alone should keep him from accomplishing his promise That done Soliman told him that he would not have consented to his voyage knowing that his affairs were not composed at Genoua had he not had the meanes to have the sentence revoked which had been given against him And when as Jbrahim besought him to to let him understand how he thought to perform so unexpected a a thing the Sultan told him that to comprehend his design he was but to remember how one of his Chaoux returning out of France and staying at Genoua had been murthered in the streetes by a popular commotion so that having been advertised thereof by one of them that accompanied him who instantly imbarqued himself away he had caused all the Vessells of the Genoueses that were found in his Ports to be arrested and that for the better favouring of his design an Ambassador was the day before arrived from his Republique whom he had caused to be put in prison at Pera being perswaded that he had done nothing unworthy himself therein since the Genoueses had first violated the Law of Nations in the person of his Chaoux how it was for to communicate this affair unto him that he had sent for him in the morning but the sadness
things incompatible but in regard of that vvhich he had told him he vvould aftervvards forbid his reason to judge any more upon apparances Hovv it vvas notvvithstanding true that he had believed that he vvas not absolutely culpable but hovv it vvas certain also that being unable to conceive this adventure he had been troubled to think in vvhat terms he should dare to inform and clear himself therein Ibrahim answered that he would easily forgive him this injury seeing he himself could not in a manner conceive by what means or by what wayes fortune had conducted him to the point wherein he then was That in the mean space not to lose time which was to be so precious unto him it was fit he should tell him that Soliman had been so good as to permit him to go and see Isabella and that he might do it with glory and safety the Sultan had found out an undoubted expedient to cause the Sentences which had been pronounced against them to be revoked But whereas Doria could not easily believe that which he heard Ibrahim recounted every thing unto him from point to point just as it had been resolved in the Sultans Cabinet but he did not discover unto him that he had ingaged his word for his return within six moneths for fear he should be afflicted at it for as for his fidelity he no way misdoubted it Doria finding that he purposed to return out of hand to Genoua told him that he had lost a very affectionate friend in the person of Sinibaldo who was dead of sickness as the Slave of Monaco had informed him but that he had left a sonne behind him the heir of all his vertues and one that promised great matters Is he not called Giovanni Lodovico replied Ibrahim after he had bemoaned the death of Sinibaldo Yes said Doria and he was not above a dozen years old when you went away and yet then there was great hope of him Hereupon one brought Ibrahim word that the Slave of Monaco was come which made Doria represent unto him that being to return to Genoua he held it not fit that this Slave should see him in the habit he wore because he could not possibly forbear publishing of it which might prejudice him much or at leastwise oblige him to make a publick manifestation of his adventures Ibrahim agreed with him therein so that he charged him who brought him that message to carry this Slave to the quarter where the Officers of his house were lodged which was a great way off from his own with order to use him well and not to let him go out of his chamber without his express command That done he turned himself to Doria and desired him to work in such sort as he might have the Letter which the Princess had wrote to him by this man to the end he might be assured of her fidelity Doria told him that the matter vvas not very difficult and that to oblige him to deliver it he need but let him knovv hovv he vvas still alive and because also hee vvas to see him during their Voyage it vvas requisite to tell him that hee had been a slave as well as they and freed in the same manner that he might not be surprised when he should see him abord the vessell Ibrahim approved of this counsell of his friend and prayed him to go instantly and labour to bring him that pretious treasure which was able to make him happy Doria condiscending thereunto the Bassa caused him to be conducted by four slaves to the place where that of Monaco was who a good while would not part with Isabellaes Letter till he saw Justiniano because he could not beleeve that a man whom he had gone to seek for at Naples should be at Constannople but Doria swore so seriously unto him that Justiniano was alive and that he should see him within a few daies as at length knowing him to be a man of great quality and Justinianoes friend he suffered himself to be perswaded and delivered him Isabellaes Letter which he had with much ado preserved all the time of his captivity presently whereupon Doria returned to Ibrahim who attended him with extreme impatience as soon as he perceived him and that they which conducted him were retired he lovingly imbraced him and conjured him no longer to defer his happiness but Doria without answering him rendred him that precious gage of Isabellaes fidelity which possessed our Illustrious Bassa with such joy that he could hardly obtain so much tranquillity from his mind as to read this Letter But at last after he had kissed it with transports that cannot be imagined but by those who know the force of this noble passion which reigned in his heart he opened it and saw that it was thus The Letter of Isabella Princess of Monaco to Iustiniano SInce it is not enough for the felicity of Isabella to know that you are living but that she must also know whether she still liveth in your memory I have sent the Lieutenant of my Guard to inform himself thereof and to clear it unto me to the end that by his return and by his answer I may regulate the rest of my dayes conserve my self for you if you be faithfull or punish my self for loving you if you be faulty being fully resolved if you live no longer for me to live no longer for the World and to deprive my self for ever of it as soon as you shall have deprived me of the hope of seeing you again I do not undertake to paint forth all the miseries which I have suffered by the persecutions of my Lovers and of mine Enemies by my Parents and by your absence since if it be true that it hath been able to destroy in your soul a love which ought to last eternally it would but adde more to my confusion and to your crime raise up a trophy my self for mine Enemy follow voluntarily the Chariot of the Conqueror and serve for an ornament to the triumph of some stranger who it may be hath vanquished you But if nevertheless it should happen that my fear and suspitions should render me faulty towards you that you should be alwaies Justiniano as I am alwayes Isabella that this so noble and so pure a passion which I had given a being unto in your soul should reign there still as it doth still reign in mine I durst beseech you if Monaco seem too weak to defend you or too near to Genoua to live there in quiet to let me understand in what place of the earth you will have us live together for in fine I shall alwaies quit my State without regret for to conserve unto my self the Empire which you have given me over your heart Let me know then what I am to expect from my fortune with a promise if it be so that I have no longer a place in your remembrance never to murmur more at my misfortune but accuse my defects for your change and
fully enjoy their liberty and their goods as heretofore For otherwise be you assured that with all the power of our flourishing Empire our Highness will come and abase your pride make himself be obeyed in Person and destroy your Republique Given at our Imperiall City of Stambol in the year of Egira nine hundred and sixty the twelvth day of the month Ramadham Soliman This Letter inspired all them that heard it with fear justified the Ambassadors zeal and confirmed all the Assembly in the resolution to receive Justiniano as the Deliverer of the Republique so that when the Duke had propounded the matter and that according to the custom he should have gone to collect the voyces in particular they sayd all that in affairs where opinions might be divided it was good to hold that course but now that the whole company had but one and the same voyce they were not to amuse themselves about this superfluous ceremony it being fitter to go with all speed and assure Justiniano and Doria that they were still Citizens of Genoua for fear lest they should by this retardment imagine that they had been hardly drawn to sign their grace They advised then what order they were to hold and they judged that to take away all suspition from Justiniano they were to send him a publique Act signed by the Duke and all the Senate whereby he should be assured of the revocation of his sentence but the Ambassador having told them that Justiniano would rely on his word they changed their purpose and commanded Jannetin Doria to take a Galley in the Port for to go and receive him as far from the Citty as possibly he could They ordained also that the Ambassador should put himself into a Feluca to the end he might go before and advertise Justiniano that he was attended with impatience and should be received with joy And whereas it was resolved that some should accompany Jannetin who represented Andrea Doria his Uncle that was Generalissimo and absent from Genoua at that time the Count of Lavagna would be one of them that he might renew his acquaintance for he was not muâ—h more then a child when Justiniano went away The Commanders of those vessels whom he had redeemed would not go home to their houses before they had conducted their Deliverer into their Citty to the end that as in the antient Triumphs the Victorious were followed by the Princes whom they had vanquished so Justiniano should be accompanied vvith the Citizens which he had delivered but with this glorious difference that the one touched them with compassion which looked on them and that the others inspired all them that beheld them with joy the former were freemen that were made slaves and these were slaves to whom liberty was given And if heretofore at Rome he was crowned with glory that saved the life of a Roman Citizen what crown and what glory was not Justiniano worthy of who by his generosity hindred not onley the death of so great a number of men but the utter destruction of his country And indeed â—e was received with so many acclamations as never was so universall a joy seen in Genoua before This while the Ambassador being set forth in a Feluca with Alphonso and some others and having a good way out-gone Jnnetins Galley made with all speed to Justiniano who since they parted from him had scarcely spoken to Doria so much was he taken up with the thought of Isabella As soon as they were neâ—r enough to be understood they began to talk to him of triumph and glory not having the patience to stay till they were aboord the vessell to let him know the happy success of their voyage Doria answered this interrupted discourse with cryes of joy but Justiniano made it appear by the moderation of his that his liberty was not the term of his desires he received his friends for all that with a great deal of civility and without attending their further relation he would have rendred them thanks for their care and affection but they had too much to say to permit him to speak The Ambassador would have discharged the Senates Commission Alphonso would have acquanted him with the generosity of his father another would have described unto him the extasie of the people and maâ—ger the coldness of the Nation the impatience they were in to speak all together made a confusion amongst them which yet kept not Justiniano from clearly perceiving that his generosity was acknowledged and his grace signed But whereas the Galley still approached Justiniano sayd that it was not just they should stay from going to meet those Illustrious friends who came to restore him to life in restoring him to his liberty He commanded them to weigh Anchor which being presently executed they made towards the Galley that carryed along with sayls and oares reached them in a little space There it was where Justiniano felt an extraordinary emotion upon the sight of the young Count of Lavagna whom the Ambassador shewed unto him he whose father had alwaies been the protector of his house This sight gave him a great deal of joy but mingled with grief by the remembrance of Simbaldoes death Now as soon as his vessell came close to the Galley he instantly without attending Jannetins order leaped from the hatches into her and after he had complemented with the Delegates of the Senate he embraced the Count with so much testimony of affection as it was easie to know that absence destroyes not a friendship which is solidly established in a generous soul for at the very time when he rejoyced to see him he lamented his fathers death The Count on his part assured him that he would have the same respect for him as Sinibaldo had had and conjured him to shew him the same favour On the other side Doria though he were not well satisfied with Andrea Prince of Melphi nor with Jannetin his Nephevv yet carryed he himself curteously unto him and then went and received the civilities of his friends During all these caresses Jannetin desiring to give some mark of esteem and joy to Justiniano caused a largess to be distributed amongst the slaves to the end they might row with the more speed Justiniano received this gallantry very civilly and withall assured the slaves that when he came home he would remember that they had brought him to the Port as accordingly he sent them the next day two thousand Crowns As soon as they approached to Genoua all the vessels that were in the Port having received a commandment to shoot off all their Cannon when Justiniano should appear failed not to salute him the Galley answered them with four peeces of Ordnance and a volley of Musket-shot and the like did all that were on the walls If one would describe the number of Citizens that were at the Port the acclamations of joy the thronging that was there to see these resuscitated men the tumult that was amongst them in
History and all because he was not yet well resolved whether he should deliver the truth of things to Isabella in the mean time whereas she was in much impatience and that night began to come on she desired him not to lose such precious minutes but to prosecute his discourse I would willingly have had you dispence with me answered Justiniano for leading you once more to the wars but since you will be acquainted with all my fortunes I am to let you understand that being absolutely determined not to wear a Turbant unprofitably for Christendom I had no other thought but to divert the Arms of Soliman from Hungary where I knew he had a design to imploy his greatest forces the loss of Axiamira furnished me soon after with means to put so just a resolution in effect For whether it were that some of the Princesses women were saved by a prodigious good hap and had acquainted Tachmas with the cause of the death of his daughter or that the aboad or sudden departure of Rustan who had alwayes past at Mazanderon for a Merchant of Constantinople had begotten some suspition of the truth advertisement came that Tachmas was levying a mighty Army The Truce which had been so long between these two Princes could be no obstacle to this war for it had never been observed exactly and some particulars had often committed acts of hostility on either part so that according to the Maxims of State a plausible pretext could not be wanting for an Army to march into the Orient as often as Soliman had a mind to it In the mean time it happened that the Georgians having past over Euphrates did much spoil in Comagena robbing all that went to or came from Mesopotamia so that the Sangiacs of the Province having complained of it and seeing that Soliman took no order therein they passed to Diarbech where in all the Countrey about Birtha they did great havock and rendred that with usury which the Georgians had lent them This conjuncture seeming too favourable unto me to be neglected I repaired unto Soliman who notwithstanding the advertisement he had received that Tachmas had put himself into Arms could not be drawn for all that to think of this war the image of Axiamira reigned still in his heart he could not resolve to fight with the Father whose daughter he had caused to perish and if some resentment of glory had not been still remaining in him I think he would rather have let Tachmas invade his Empire than oppose himself against him But to shew unto you how hardly this Prince was drawn to make a war which he believed to be unjust I have no more to say than that after I had used all my address to remonstrate unto him that the war of Persia was a thing no longer in his choice since knowing what his Governors had done in Diarbech and Tachmas having an Army on foot he was not to doubt yea though he wre ignorant that he was the innocent cause of Axiamiraes death but that he would fall upon him that after I had told him how it was alwayes advantagious for great Princes to begin the War that it was a mark of love to his Subjects not to suffer the fire to be brought into their houses and that I had made him also to consider that at last it would be better to be in an estate to shew grace to his Enemy than to receive it from him that in this occasion it did not concern his particular glory alone but that of the Empire that being innocent of the misfortune of Axiamira he was not to fear that heaven would be contrary to him and that if this death was to be lamented it would suffice to imploy his tears and sighs therein without beholding the blood of his Subjects shed After all these things I say he made no other answer but Axiamira is dead for me I must sacrifice a part of my State for her and that my Subjects may not murmure at the Conquests which I shall suffer Tachmas to gain upon me I will labor to obtain others of the Christians without obliging thee as I have promised to serve me therein I vow unto you Madam that this discourse surprized me extremely not knowing which way to oppose my self against a will so fully determined And that which put me into further despair of being able to execute my design was that the Mother and Wife of the Emperour hated me with a secret hatred because I had always favoured Mustapha and Gianger excellent Princes and the children of Soliman for though this last be the sonne of Roxelana yet leaves she not to hate him because he loveth Mustapha This hatred was the cause then that these two women opposed the voyage of Persia onely to contradict â—e with so much address and violence as I stood in need of some extraordinary mean to destroy all their artifices The first represented unto Soliman that the wars of the Orient had always been infortunate to the Othomans that his Armies would be exterminated with hunger and thirst if he carried them to a place from whence his father Selim although victorious brought back no other advantage than the loss of his best souldiers As for Roxelana she imployed nothing but her tears wherewith alone she was more powerfull than reason it self so that all these things being joyned to the loss of Axiamira wrought in such sort as I saw almost an impossibility in diverting the storm which was ready to fall on Christendom But in the end after I had tried all wayes in vain I bethought my self how Soliman being mightily perswaded that Judiciary Astrology is a Science which men may practise with certainty I might peradventure bring him to what I desired if I could get an Arabian to come from Damascus that was an excellent Astrologer and Mathematician called Mulé Aral whom the people accused of Magick by reason of the wonders which every day he did hoping after I had won him with gifts to make him say unto Soliman whatsoever I would have him I sent then secretly unto Damascus not knowing how to meet with any other expedient that could satisfie me otherwise and whereas my orders were as well executed as the Grand Signiors it was not long before he was brought to me In the mean space I was resolved to speak no more of this war to Soliman untill such time as that which I projected should utterly fail me As soon as Mulé Aral was arrived at Constantinople I talked with him in private and after I had ingaged him absolutely to do what I would have him I discovered my design unto him which nevertheless I covered with the good and glory of the Empire to the end too he might serve me the more faithfully But this man told me how he held it fit that the Stars should be observed and his books consulted with a little about this war because it might so happen that without any imposture or lying
seeing him in this case conjured him again with more earnestness to acquaint her with the cause of all these alterations in him that they might labor to give some remedy unto it Alas Madam said he unto her with somewhat a low voice that he might not be heard by one of the Princesses women who was at the other end of the Cabinet the knowledge which I shall give you of my disease will not make you find a remedy for it for it is of a nature not to be cured but by death Yet if I should suffer it my self alone I would not complain of it but I am afraid that it would be contagious for you that the knowledge which you should have of it would increase my grief by causing yours that I should be more infortunate in your person than in mine own and that in conclusion you would be yet more to be lamented than I who deserves the miseries which oppress me since I am the cause of all yours The Princess judging rightly by this discourse that there was some great matter to be known commanded her woman that was still in the Cabinet to go and stand at the door for to keep any from coming to interrupt her This order given she turned back to Justiniano and scarce knowing what to say or what to demand in so unexpected an occasion she beheld him a while without speaking neither durst he likewise open his lips but after she had recollected her spirits and knew that it concerned not the sickness of the body having a great and generous soul she said unto him with a firm and assured voice What mark have you had my dear Justiniano of my little affection or of my weakness that you fear so much to give me a part in your griefs No no cast off this fear and permit me to tell you before you acquaint me with that which I can neither divine nor comprehend that besides the loss of your affection there is no misfortune wherein I shall not receive some comfort partaking it with you Ah! Madam said Justiniano interrupting her cease to be unjust in being too good to me and believe that when you shall know the point where at this present we are you will finde that I have reason to be greatly troubled in resolving to acquaint you with it Why said the Princess exceedingly impatient concerns it life liberty or honor if it be the first provided I may die before you I have felt sorrows sharper than death if it be the second and that I may be a slave with you I will accustom my self to wear irons but if it concerns honor I confess that we have reason to despair and that to conserve it any thing is to be done you see said she unto him that I am prepared for the greatest misfortunes and for such as seem to be the furthest off from me hold me no longer then in pain if it be true that I have any power over you Justiniano seeing he could not avoid it went on with his History from the point where he had left it he recounted unto her his pains his unquietness and his joys when as he knew that she was not inconstant that not knowing what els to do he had been constrained to acquaint Soliman with his whole life and consequently that the permission which he had obtained to come and see her was but for six months only having ingaged his word to that Prince to return unto him precisely within that time Judge after this Madam said he with sighs that well neer suffocated him and that scarcely suffered him to speak whether my complaints be not just whether I am worthy of your favour and whether death alone be not the remedy which I can find for my miseries For consider I beseech you the pitifull estate whereunto I am reduced which way soever I turn me I see you still infortunate but unhappy and infortunate only for the love of me Ah Madam if you knew how touching this object is how sensible and grievous it is you would easily apprehend the evill that I suffer it is so great as there is no expression strong enough to represent it well You have believed me to be dead and I have thought that you were inconstant your vertue hath been tryed by a long absence and my crime hath been punished with slavery but when as fortune seemed to be weary of persecuting us when as your constancy was sufficiently known and when as my crime was punished enough she made some truce with us I knew that you lived for me and you were not ignorant that I always lived for you I am returned Madam but must I repeat it once again I am returned a Slave fortune hath but lengthened my chain and not broken off my irons You seem Madam continued he by your silence to tell me that I had done better for your rest not to have returned and to have left you in the belief of my death than to come for to assure you that I do live but that I do not live for you I think Madam that reason is on your side but it is a reason which I cannot follow My voyage is not an effect of my reason nor of my will I never stuck at the taking of this resolution I followed my sense and my love and my passion so mightily blinded my reason as my soul abandoned it self wholly to joy I no longer thought that I was to return again to Constantinople but only that I was going to Monaco that I should have the pleasure to see you there and that afterwards I could not be unhappy In fine Madam I have not done that which I ought but I have done that which I could not choose but do In the mean time I have no sooner seen you but I have beheld you as a good which I was to lose and as a person which I have made unhappy For Madam if I break my word with Soliman I am an infamous creature I shall put your State and your Honor in danger and if I abandon you I am treacherous to you and cruell to my self and to say all I am so unhappy as death alone can succor me But for all that Madam it is you that must pronounce my sentence and dispose of my life Justiniano then felt himself so prest with grief as he could say no more The Princess who had heard him with a great deal of attention astonishment and sorrow was also a good while without answering him agitating in her self so difficult a thing to be resolved She was then leaning with one arm on a little table of ebony looking on Justiniano who durst not lift up his eyes for fear of incountring those of the Princess which were full of teares But at length this generous person who had a great and noble soul brak off her silence and said unto him with a constancy which hath scarce any example I confess my dearest Jusâ—iniano that our miseries
was thus The Marquis his Letter to Aemilia AFter the knowledge you have had of my humour you will doubtless finde it strange that the passion which you begot in my heart at Monaco should be conserved there still in Genoua and that an absence of three days hath not destroyed that which you established in a moment I am for all that constrained thereunto by a necessity which I never tried before and though my mind be not changed yet am I forced not to change you Make use fair Aemilia of a good which fortune presents you with for not to abuse you albeit you have the fairest eyes in the world and that in the thought I presently am in you are the most charming person that I know my fidelitie is for all that rather an effect of my inconstancy than of your beauty for there being never a woman in Genoua whom I have not loved I am compelled to love you still and to fear that Destiny will force me to become faithfull But at least I can assure you that if this misfortune should arrive unto me there is none in the world that could render it so supportable unto me as you and the passion I am in for your beauty is so strong that I wish I may not be put to so hard a tryall as not to be able to be absent from you for fear I should be constrained to quit Italic or at leastwise Genoua rather than quit my inclinations I must confess said Doria that I never saw a Love-Letter of the stile of this same and how pressing soever it be for you to send it away to Monaco I am resolved not to let you have it again till all our friends have seen it The Marquis resisted it a while but at length consented thereunto and in regard the Assembly met not very soon the Marquis sent not away his Letter till just the day before they thought the Princess would have died So that when La Roche was arrived at Monaco and entred into the Castle he was much amazed to see them all in teaâ—s And whereas in this occasion the Officers had no care of any thing he went even to the Princesses chamber without any impediment where he saw Justiniano he not seeing him for grief so absolutely possessed him as he was incapable of all knowledge but of that of his own misfortune He could not indure the sight of the Princess neither could he also keep from her so that he was in a continuall agitation In the mean time the Physicians desiring to do their uttermost endeavour still carefully observe the estate she is in they consult with their books and in so desperate a disease they resolve to have recourse unto extreme remedies so that abandoning ordinary Physick one amongst them who was an excellent Empirick made her take so wonderfull an essence that after it had caused her to sleep eight hours it rectified the blood diminished her Fever restored her strength and put her quite out of danger The indifferency she had shewed at the approaches of death seemed the same when as the Physicians assured her that she should not die of this sickness and she gave them greater thanks for their affection to her â—han for their saving her life Howbeit they were not without thanks for this reâ—â—rrection for Justiniano received so great a satisfaction from it as he could noâ— give them thanks enough of his acknowledgement His joy nevertheless was miâ—gled with a great deal of bitterness and his soul was not in an estate of tasting a â—uiet pleasure This while La Roche whom the Marquis had sent hearing thâ— the Princess was out of danger went to Justiniano's lodging for to render him â—â—e civilities of his friends and to assure him that they knew nothing of his affâ—â—ction Justiniano received him with more coldness than his friendship to them seâ—med to permit but the displeasure wherein he was dispenced with him from being regular in his complements he willed la Roche for all that to render his back â—nto all them from whom he had received any and to pray them not to think it strange if he returned not to Genoua before the Princess were fully recovered That dont la Roche went to Aemilia to deliver her his Masters Letter which she received with a great deal of joy For the Princesses amendment had put her mind into so favourable a posture for him as she told la Roche that she would return an answer thereunto albeit the Princess was not yet in case to have her permission demanded for it and without further delay she caused Paper to be brought her by a Maid that served her and answered the Marquis in these tearms Aemilia's Letter to the Marquis IT would be too much vanity in me to pretend unto the obtaining of that from you which so great a number of fair persons could not oblige you to render unto them Do not believe then that I regard you as a conquest which I may never lose but contrarily I am resolved to do in this occasion as great Captains use to do who after they have taken a place which they think they cannot hold set it on fire and destroy it themselves to get some advantage still by this loss And whereas there was never place so hard to be kept as your heart I purpose in order to that you have written me to bring new flames unto it rather than to resolve to lose you altogether There will be shortly at Genoua a fair kinswoman of mine whom I conjure you to love when as you shall no longer judge me worthy of that honor to the end that in losing your love I may at leastwise comfort my self with your sight with your conversation and with your friendship Aemilia This Letter being sealed she gave to la Roche who presently departed for to return unto Genoua without speaking to the Princess for ever since she was out of danger the Physicians had absolutely forbidden any one from talking to her no not so much as Justiniano who saw himself very soon kept from it by a stronger reason For whether he had been too long without eating or sleeping or that grief alone had been the cause of his indisposition he found himself within a short time in a sickness as desperate as that of the Princess who not seeing him about her was very inquisitive to know where he was The Physicians and Aemilia who feared she would afflict her self too much if she knew the truth told her that Justiniano having seen her quite out of danger and being prest by an important affair which had be fallen him at Genoua was gone thither with an intent to have returned back again before she should have taken notice of his departure But when they saw Justiniano's sickness grow dangerous and that the Princess was as much troubled with hearing no news of him as she could have been if she had known the condition wherein he was they conceived it was sit
be unusefull for the intelligence of hers Axiamira consenting to it caused Felixana to sit down by her and Halima began to speak in these terms The History of Bajazet and Roxelana THey which know the birth breeding and first inclinations of Roxelana cannot marvail at the last things which she hath done but contrarily they would have reason to find it strange if she had not undertaken any thing to satisfie her ambition which is the onely passion that reigns in her soul and for which she sets all the rest on work never making use of love hatred envy and jealousie but to satisfie that Now to shew you that she hath dravvn this inclination from her Father who brought her up and confirmed her in the opinion that greatness was the soveraign good of this life and that to attain unto it vertue and honor were to be despised You are to know that in times past Roxelanaes Father was in reasonable good favour with the Emperor Selim Father to Soliman and that after the death of Selim Soliman also had a great care of his fortune And certainly he had rendred him one of the most considerable of this Empire had he had as much fidelity for his Master as he had address for to please him cunning to conserve himself and dissimulation to conceal his vices from a Prince vvho never had any and who was never carried to any violence but by that of love But withall it must be acknowledged that this passion hath often perverted all his inclinations or at leastwise hath forced him to do things quite contrary to the sense of his soul when as it is peaceable But to come again to Bajazet so was the Father of Roxelana called after he had by an hundred artifices which would be too long to recite arrived at that height about Soliman which I have told you and that there was not any charge whereunto he might not have raised his hopes It hapned for his ill fortune that Soliman sent him to carry his directions to Scutary vvhere the Beglierbei of Natolia who vvas there at that time committed to his conduct the fairest Slave that ever was seen for to present her in his name to the Sultan to the end that if he adjudged her worthy to be of the number of those that are destined to be his women he should receive her into his Seraglio Bajazet accepted of this imployment with joy without any other design at that time than to do a thing which he thought would not be disagreeable to Soliman who was then in the prime flower of his age and one of the goodliest Princes of the world But when the day of his departure was come and that the Beglierbei of Natolia had put the Slave into his hands who according to the custom of those which are to be presented to the grand Signior was most gorgeously set forth he was so mightily taken with the sparkling of her eys as if the Beglierbei who was named Amurath had noted his carriage he might wel have known that he was too sensible of the attracts of beauty to be made the conductor of a slave that was able to subject the whole world for as I have heard say she was as fair as Roxelana whom I have sometimes seen on the terrace of the Seraglio which looks on the Sea where ordinarily she is when publike rejoycings are celebrated But certes it must be acknowledged that Soliman is excusable for loving her maugre her artifices for indeed she is the greatest beauty that imagination it self is able to conceive This Slave of whom I speak being then as fair as I describe her to you and being remitted unto the conduct of Bajazet for so long a journey he became so desperately in love with her as notwithstanding the respect which he owed to Soliman and without fear of the chastisements of an offended Prince he resolved to possess her and not to render her unto him howbeit he resisted so dangerous a temptation for some time but his wit that was but too fertile in inventions having furnished himself with one which he believed was good enough to make his design succeed without danger he thought of nothing els but of executing it and behold the way which he took to bring himself to it This Slave destined to the grand Signior had been sold to Amurath the Beglierbei of Natolia a little before Bajazet's arrivall by certain Pirats who not so much as knew of whence she was though by her pronunciation it was gathered that she was of Persia but whereas her language was not understood of any one and that it appeared also how she understood nothing that was said to her he judged that she knew not they were carrying her to the grand Signior So that using her with a great deal of kindness during all the voyage and testyfying much affection unto her she seemed to be comforted in her misery at leastwise she shewed a more quiet countenance He took exceeding care then that she might not understand by signs that which she could not understand otherways and whereas he had been sent upon a secret expedition he was but little accompanied which served very much too for the furthering of his design When as they approached to Constantinople he took his measures so right that arriving too late he seemed to be constrained to lie at an house that he had some four or five miles from the City where out of jealousie he had caused a young woman to be kept whom he had exceedingly loved but indeed his intent was not to enter into Constantinople for a secret reason which I am going to acquaint you with He arrived then at this Countrey-house wherein none lived but that woman an old Eunuch that looked to her and two slaves that waited on her all his retinue being at his house in Constantinople where according to the permission of our Religion he had also two wives with whom the imperious Alicola so was she named that abode thus in the Country could never agree She was beautifull and of a great spirit but had such a disdainfull look and so ambitious an inclination that there was need of Bajazets humour for one to have had any love for her This conformity which was between them did not for all that produce a reciprocall affection for howsoever he had endeavoured to make himself be beloved of her for the space of a year and more that she had been in his hands yet could he never do it whether it were that she had a naturall aversion for him or that having found two other wives already in his house which had all the authority over it she could not indure to be the last so it was that she could not love him She was a Persian by Nation and by what adventure she came into Bajazet's hands I am not able to say but it sufficeth to let you understand for the intelligence of the History which I am recounting that she
learned were combated by the wisdom of her mother whom I have alwayes called the fair Slave because my memory could not give you her name This woman was good and vertuous and did all that she could to make Roxelana resemble her as well in the qualities of the soul as in the features of the face which Bajazet perceiving and having in vain forbidden her to reprehend her daughter for her bad conditions he fell into such a hatred of her as he could not indure her and having looked upon her in former times as the object of his love he considered her no longer but as an obstacle of his ambition But to keep her from destroying that which he had established in the young heart of Roxelana he thought it would be requisite to make her hate her And to that end he dextrously perswaded her that her mother standing yet upon her beauty was jealous of seeing hers surpass it that her reproving her was an effect rather of hatred than affection and that therefore she should beware of hearkning to her Remonstrances there needed no more to stifle all the motions of Nature in so depraved a spirit and to carry her to insolency Roxelana to obey her father was to do no more than follow her own humour but to content her mother she was to fight with all her inclinations The first was the easier and made her hope that it would produce great things and the other being harder and without other recompence than that which gives us the satisfaction to do what we ought she had not much adoe to resolve upon the despising of vertue and imbracing of vice Behold her then abandoned to her own sense and to the evill counsells of Bajazet and the fair Slave almost reduced to be a Slave to her daughter who within a while used her so cruelly that she fell sick with grief upon it Now to make a tryall of what she could do in dissimulation as long as there was any company with her mother she seemed respectfull affectionate and obedient but as soon as they were gone she mocked openly at her goodness and with an hundred bitter jeers struck a dagger into the heart of her that had given her life This prudent woman was for all that so good as not to publish the cruelty of her daughter who in the opinion of all them which saw her was as vertuous as beautifull Bajazet seeing so fair a beginning in Roxelana caressed her extraordinarily and by this cruell proceeding still advanced the death of her whom he had loved so much before At last that deadly moment wherein she was to leave this life being arrived this infortunate one called to her the Slave who hath recounted all these things unto me and that had wit and some vertue and secretly commanded her not to abandon her daughter after her death because it might happen that this first heat of youth being over she might peradventure be capable of following the counsell which she had given her that for this effect she prayed her to doe two things the one was not to bewail her death for fear it should oblige Roxelana to turn her away and the other that she should not directly oppose her will for fear of incensing rather than correcting her but to wait upon her till she was of a more reasonable age This Sâ—ave promised to perform all that she desired and indeed kept her word with her Presently thereupon this woman dyed and left Bajazet in full possession of Roxelanaes heart who with feigned tears testified so much grief for the loss of her mother as she moved all them to pity that saw her though in her mind she was very joyfull She lived two years in this sort after the death of her mother being then about fifteen during which time she was beloved of all the young Gallants where she dwelt she perswaded them all that she loved them without ingaging her self for all that in any thing and taking delight in giving them great hopes to put them into despair afterwards she made some dye with grief others killed one another by means of the hatred that she sowed amongst them and the jealousie which she her self gave them when as they importuned her and that she would be rid of them And all this with so much address as all the world believed her to be innocent of all these crimes and attributed iâ— to nothing but the excess of love which her extreme beauty had begot in the heartâ— of all those that beheld her But at length being arrived at the age which I have noted unto you Bajazet called her to him one day in private and after he had told her that the time was then come wherein he was to reap the fruit of his travells and she to put in practise that which he had so often taught her to the end she might that way become the chief of all the Orient Roxelana answered him that he was but to explane his intention unto her and then he should be sure to have it executed Whereupon he recounted all his History to her which she had never understood well before and after that elevating his voice and taking her by the hand Thou seest then my dear child said he unto her that love did heretofore undo my fortune and that a Slave which I took from the grand Signior took from me all my hopes and banished me from my Country But to find out my re-establishment by the same way that caused my undoing love and a voluntary Slave shall restore me into grace with Soliman And not to conceal my thoughts from thee I purpose to present and give thee to the Grand Signior leaving the rest to fortune and thy address I know that this Prince being advanced in age is become yet more sensible of love than he was fifteen years ago when as he was but nineteen for out of the design which a long time I have had I have carefully informed my self thereof He is still young he is handsome he is full of spirit he is couragious he is liberall and what is most considerable he is one of the greatest Princes of the world If thou makest good use of the lessons which I have given thee continued he and of those which I will give thee thou mayest become Sultanâ— and crown the rest of my days both with honor and wealth Bajazet stopping here Roxelana answered him according to his desire and assured him that if she couâ—d be received into the Seraglio she would make no doubt of the rest and for a conclusion she so prest him to part away that in a little after having found out a Vessell which was bound for Constantinople he imbarqued himself in her with his daughter and the slave to whom her mother had recommended her who had so insinuated her self into her affection as she had often believed her in things which contraried her inclinations At length they arrived at Constantinople and went to the
The news of his death was soon carried to the Seraglio Roxelana shewed a great deal of sorrow for it and out of a sense of interest she was really grieved thereat But in a few daies the markes which the Grand Signior rendred her of his affection comforted her For whereas she did not regret him but because she had believed him to be usefull for her greatness when as she hoped that she might attain thereunto without him she quite forgot him Yea and was glad that she was discharged of the care of his fortune and to have nothing to think of but her own Roxolana had not been fifteen daies in the Seraglio but she so absolutely possessed the Grand Signior as none of the rest of the Sultanaes could pretend to a favourable regard from him but by speaking well to him of her or that he knew they had been somewhat gratious with her which possessed them with no little jealousie and no less spight But that which vexed them more was that they could not find occasion to missay of her amongst themselves whereby they might at leastwise have been eased with this weak remedy For she was excellently fair she seemed extreme gentle she had an agreable and entertaining wit she was civill to the Sultanaes liberall to the Slaves most respectfull of Soliman and in all her actions affected an extraordinary devotion She lived a while in this sort without any cross in her good fortune and with so much satisfaction to Soliman as there was never any joy equall to that which appeared in his humor But at length the Sultanaes seeing that the love of the Grand Signior was not allayed by the enjoying her and that contrarily it augmented daily they combined together and forgetting all the jealousie and secret hatreds which they had had one against another they indeavoured to destroy the person that destroyed them She that incited them the most thereunto was the chief of the Sultanaes the mother of Mustapha who at that time was brought up in the Seraglio and was then about six or seaven yeares old This wo-woman who had a great and generous spirit could not indure to see that she who had given Soliman a Sonne and a successor to the Empire should be less considerable than Roxelana It was by her interposition then that all the other Sultanaes joyned with her and promised never to omit any oportunity that might annoy Roxelana This counsell or to say better this conspiracie could not be so secretly made but that Roxelana by her liberality to the Slaves which brought her presents from their Mistresses and that much affected her was advertised thereof But hear I pray you in what manner she opposed this storm vvhich vvas rysing up against her and I am sure you vvill acknovvledge that she vvas then as ingenious as she hath been vvicked since This conspiracy nothing daunted her she seemed neither more unquiet nor more pensive and all the change vvhich she brought to her life was that she never saw Soliman without speaking some good of one or other of the Sultanaes She praised the beauty of one the humor of another the gracefulness of this and the stature of that but particularly she seemed very much to esteem of the mother of Mustapha and so caressed that young Prince as it had been impossible at that time to have foreseen by the apparences that which hath since fallen out And whereas she knew that the mother of the Sultan had a great power over him she wonne her wholly to her self Now Roxelanes design was to destroy by this aâ—tifice all the ill which the Sultanaes could say of her to Soliman For said she when he shall see that they for whom I do so many good offices to him would hurt me he wil have them in horror and think the better of me The matter failed not to succeed as she had imagined it For one of the Sultanaes whom Roxelana had the most commended having understood that she had sent a little coffer full of jewells out of the Seraglio which is not permitted in that place she advertised Soliman of it who scarcely hearkning to what she said called her ingratefull and disacknowledgledging and without obliging Roxelana to the justifying of her self he sent her a present of importance After this none of the Sultanaes durst venture upon any such like adventure But Roxelana who was not contented with keeping them from doing her hurt and that placed her supremest felicity in doing hurt to others absolutely gained to her three Slaves two Eunuchs and suborned also two of the Sultanaes who went jointly together and advertised Soliman of this secret counsell which was held against Roxelana without making shew for all that of her knowing any thing of it Soliman recompences them for this advice commands them not to speak of it and whereas this crime was too generall he resolved to punish them who had committed it and by one onely way which was to make Roxelana richer greater and more happy than she was He sends for her recounts unto her that which she knew better than he by telling her what had been done against her and in conclusion assures her that nothing can destroy the affection he beares her Roxelana after she had heard this discourse intreates Soliman to pardon them this crime who had committed it and with a false generositie so powerfully charmes the heart of this noble Prince as it was more at the disposing of Roxelana than of Soliman himself But to come to the end of my discourse a little while after she found her self with childe and the time of her lying down being come she brought forth Soliman a sonne who was named Mahomet Untill then she had never thought of any thing but maintaining her self but when she came to consider that Mustapha would reign one day and that according to the custom of the Empire her son should be strangled this awaked her former ambition and all her designs tended no longer but to be speedily the wife of a Prince of whom she was the absolute Mistress to the end that in this illustrious estate she might the more easily destroy Mustapha for her son to reign And mark a little whereunto ambition carried this woman who thought already of setting the Crown on the head of a child who knew not as yet that he was living howsoever it was not out of the absolute power that she had over the mind of Soliman that she attained to her desire but by an artifice which I am going to relate unto you She knew that in one of the books of our Religion the Soveraign is forbidden the possessing of a free woman and she knew also that in another a Slave is not permitted to build either Mosque or Hospitall or to do any other thing that may be available for the other life Upon this foundation she built her design and knowing that the Muphti carried a great stroke vvith the Grand Signior she vvon him
perceiving that his mother did eat nothing he besought her not to afflict her self so much and that she would eat something for the love of him Saying so he presented her with some of those impoysoned fruits which were prepared for him he little dreaming of any such thing The poor afflicted Mother thinking it a crime to refuse her sonne takes the fruit which he presents her with and to content him eats it vvith her eyes all bathed in tears But the infortunate Mustapha knevv not that he gave death to her vvho had given him life and that this crime vvhich he committed so innocently should be one day severely punished in his person though he vvere never accused for it Having been in this occasion like those innocent offerings upon whom in times past amongst certain Nations the crimes of all the people were charged The poyson which Roxelana had caused to be prepared was slow to the end it should make no noise and that when Mustapha should be out of the Seraglio and Soliman should be told that he was sick she might make him beleeve that change of air had caused this malady But destiny would not have the matter go so for in fine not to prolong this discourse any further Mustapha went out of the Seraglio in good health with no little grief to Roxelana vvho had been advertised that he had not eaten of the impoisoned fruit As for the mother that never troubled her for though she fell sick the very same day and dyed a moneth after no body beleeved there was any thing extraordinary in her death because Roxelana had caused it to be bruited how the sorrow for Mustaphaes cloignment was the cause of it and how since that day she had never been well as indeed she lyed not and this was so generally beleeved as the sick Sultana her self sayd so much to them that came to visit her she never suspecting any wickedness Behold Madam Roxelanaes first persecution of the Prince Mustapha Indeed it is true that he was not sensible of it for he never knew any thing of that which I have told you Now you must not imagine that this violent desire which she hath alwayes had to destroy Mustapha whereby her children may reign is a sense of affection for them she hath not so legitimate a design and the only thought which she hath is to remain the mother of an Emperor after the death of Soliman because she knows very well that this quality gives alwaies a great credit to those which possess it and brings them into veneration amongst us I should never have done if I would relate all her wickednesses unto you But at length Mustapha in spight of all her artifices lived was brought up with great care maryed an excellent Princess of the bloud of the antient Kings of Capadocia whom he loved passionately and proved as you know as excellent a Prince as ever was And the hate which she bore him could not keep the Prince Gianger from having as much good will for him as she had aversion But to strengthen her self still the more as soon as her daughter had attained the age of thirteen yeares she got Soliman to mary her to the traitor Rustan who for all that hath not forborn often betraying her self for he seekes his own greatness and not hers Behold Madam what the first wickednesses of Roxelana have been for as for the rest you know them but too well And it may suffice that I have onely shewed you her inclination This woman never incountred person that opposed her violences but the grand Visier Ibraehim who ever since he hath been amongst us hath had so much power with Soliman as she could never he being the most vertuous of men make any of her wicked devices succeed either against him against Mustapha or Gianger for he loved them both dearly untill such time as for our ill fortune he went away some six monthes agoe upon a secret expedition whereof all the world talks diversly for seeing the mischiefes which have arrived by his absence it is feared lest she hath caused him to be murthered by the way It being very certain that if he had been here the rage which she had long shut up in her heart had not broken out so deadly as it hath done Alas said Axiamira interrupting her how much hath he whom you speak of been wished for in vain of the Prince Gianger And how often hath he spoken to me of him with a world of praise But mother continued she you have recounted so many things unto me as Soliman me thinks should be above an hundred yeares of age and yet he seemed not so old unto me on that unhappy day wherein I saw him It is answered Halima because I having enchained two Histories in one and begun to speak of Soliman at the age seaventeen yeares your mind by the length of my narration and the number of things which I recounted hath thought that which you say But if you please I will let you see the contrary Soliman was seaventeen yeares old when Bajazet put the supposition of the Slave upon him at the end of sixteen yeares when Roxelana was presented unto him he was thirty and three she fifteen and Mustapha seaven So that if you are ignorant of all these things you will find that Roxelana is not above seaven and thirty yeares of age Mustapha was nine and twenty Gianger eighteen and Soliman is fifty and four though he seem not to be more than forty And that which is strange in this Prince is that he is at this present of a more amorous humor than he was in his younger yeares I shall not have much ado answered Felixana who had not spoken yet to believe that which you say and I know but too well by mine own experience that there are men in whom age doth rather stir up passions than appease them With such like discources Halima indeavoured to divert the Princesses melancholy but remembring that she had not eaten any thing of all that day she went to give order for the serving up of dinner On the other side Ibrahim who had not forgot the design which he had and the request of Ulama after he had spent part of the morning at the Divano which was held that day and the rest of it with the Grand Signior without speaking of any other thing than the war of Persia he returned to his Palace there to take along with him the Slave which Ulama had sent to him that he might carry him to the Castle of the seaven Towers whither he went with an intention to ease the miseries of others since fortune would not let him find a remedy for his own The end of the fifth Book IBRAHIM OR THE ILLUSTRIOUS BASSA The Third Part. The First Book WHen as Ibrahim arrived at the Castle of the seven Towers where Axiamira and Felixana were prisoners he commanded the gate to be opened to him as they used
case I should not be discreet enough to conceal this secret from others he would be so confident as to disavow all that he had said to me For Deliment he had a long time before won an old Satrap in whom the Sophi very much confided for the affairs of the Empire and who had oftentimes perswaded him by Deliment's direction that the Law which had caused Arsalon to be banished was very judiciously made for his subjects but not for him perswading him that Kings which did not marry their daughters to forraign Princes were never to admit the noblest and the greatest of their subjects into their alliance because that most commonly was to take Tutors in taking sons in law of an high birth and that for the good of the Prince of the State and of the Princesses it would be better to do otherwise For said he unto him one day coming to particulars if by example the Princess Axiamira had marryed Deliment what a felicity would yours be to have a son-in-law that should owe all his glory to you and absolutely depend on you and what an happiness would it be for Axiamira to have an husband without having a master it being certain that the inequality of their conditions would always keep Deliment in the terms of duty and obedience With such like reasons as these it was that this wicked man had caused the minde of the Sophi to be prepared before he would discover his love unto him But whereas he had understood by his Agent that he had not rejectâ—d those propositions the morning that he had been to see the Princess which was the same wherein the Sophi discovered to him the love which he bore to me he wrought so dextrously with him as he made him comprehend that if he had a passion in some sort unworthy of his rank he on the contrary had one that was far above all he could pretend unto and that would not permit him to hope for any thing He spake this to him with so much cunning as he designed Axiamira unto him yet without engaging himself so far but that he might interpret his discourse after another manner if he perceived the Sophi to be offended at it But he had too much need of him for me and his minde was too much possest with maxims of State which were advantageous to Deliment for him to be so and indeed far from being displeased with it he embraced and told him that his hopes might go so high as that he permitted him to lift up his eyes even to the Princess Axiamira For said he unto him since Nature hath not given me children which can govern this Empire I would be willing that love and fortune would give me such a one as Deliment who may if not be Sophi after me at least-wise counsel him that shall be Deliment cunning and dextrous as he was made as though he did not beleeve that which the Sophi said to him and out of a fâ—â—gned respect not seeming to acknowledg that to be his passion the Sophi said unto him to oblige him thereunto that it being not so far from him to the Princess Axiamira as from me to the Sophi of Persia he was not to fear that he would thence forward oppoâ—e an unâ—qual affection seeing he had discovered his unto him But when as Deliment continued saying that respect was stronger in him then all other things the Sophi that he might know whether it were Axiamira indeed whom he was in love withall carryed him to her lodging and it was then that this rash man was so audacious as to speak with such insolency to the Princess For whereas he had tryed that love could not move her he beleeved that ambition might and that the hope of reigning over Persia would move her more then the certainty wherein she was of reigning over his heart As for the Princess Perca they had a long time before treated together and he had perswaded her that the Crown of Persia was to be shâ—red between her and her sister and for that effect she was to be kept from marrying any man whose generosity for so it was that he spake should carry him to let stupid Ismael or blinde Mahamed reign And when he made a shew of seeking out who in the Court might be Axiamira's husband he play'd his part so well that he led her as cunning as she was to the point he desired For after she had mused awhile as well as he what need have we said she unto him to seek so far off for that which we may finde in the person of Delâ—ment He seeming to have no other interest in this affair then the good of the Princesses held off a good while that he might be the more prest unto it But at length being come to agreement about their conditions they judged that albeit Ismael was not capable of rendering a party much stronger then if he were not of it yet it would be advantageous for them to seize upon his spirit and Perca took the care to do it As indeed she easily perswaded him that it was requisite Axiamira should be marryed to a man that depended on him and not on Mahamed who after the death of the Sophi might trouble him in demanding a great portion as if he were not blind so that to weaken his party it would be good to marry Axiamira to Deliment who would tye himself wholly to his interests Behold my Lord the motives and the causes of Deliment's insolency to Axiamira of the discourses which he made to me touching the love of the Sophi of the perswasions of Perca and Ismael and of the unquietness which this unpleasing entanglement gave us For being advertised of part of these things which we understood much better afterwards Prince Mahamed Axiamira Vlama and I who was also of the counsel resolved that the Princess should always treat Deliment with a great deal of coldness and indifferency without giving him for all that any notable cause of complaining That the best would be carefully to avoyd all occasions wherein the Sophi might speak of this man it being more expedient that the matter should not break forth but upon extremity because it might arrive that it would not have a sâ—quâ—l so grievous as we foresaw it That in the mean time we should labor to let Perca know that Deliment did not intend to use her better then Ismael and Mahamed That for me I should receive the discourse which he should make me concerning the Sophi's love as a thing I did not beleeve and that I would not have to be true and that I should give him as little occasion as I could to speak to me of it I offered the Princess to retire to my father under pretext of a supposed sickness but if the good-will which she bore me opposed it Prince Mahameds love hindred it absolutely In regard whereof they represented unto me that if I should do so it
exception but of her alone would be an impossible thing as well as to recount unto you that which I said in this occasion the lamentation that Prince Mahamed made the pardons that he begged of me and the sorrow Axiamira was in to see her self deprived of the onely man in whom she confided and withall it would be too long and too wearisom a discourse but in fine the Princess having caused that Slave to relate unto her in what manner Vlama went out of the Palace told him That if he had any thing to say to me from his Master he might do it without fear and I having confirmed that which the Princess said to him he gave me a Note which I shall never forget and whose very words were these ULAMA'S Note to FELIXANA IF you had not betrayed me I should have dyed with grief rather then have absented my self from you but after your infidelity my banishment is a grace since I quitted not Felixana till Felixana abandoned me I cannot for all that resolve to part without telling her once for all that I part the most infortunate of all men living and that if the end of my life may assure her felicity she shall soon be in the estate that I desire her to be in The end of the reading hereof was to me the beginning of the sharpest grief that ever I felt And the alone thought of being beleeved unfaithful by a man for whom I refused the Crown of Persia was so strange a torment to me as my reason is not strong enough to retain the resentment which I had of it What! Madam said I to the Princess can you live in a place where such wickednesses are committed and against persons that appertain to you Was it not enough to banish Vlama without perswading him by some imposture which is unknown to me that I had betrayed him and it may be it is I which causes him to be banished This artifice doubtless hides some greater design then the separating of us and I greatly fear that this violence will quickly be followed by another and that after they have taken from you the onely defender which you had here you will know by your experience that you have as much interest as Felixana in the conservation of Vlama For surely Deliment thinks not so much of contenting the Sophi's passion as of satisfying that which he hath for you And this Insolent regards you without doubt as a reward that was destined to him for the conquest which he pretends to make of me but I am right certain that death shall deny me her succor or he shall never triumph in this sort The Princess seeing a great deal of probability in that which I said could not chuse but accompany my tears with hers and Mahamed was so afflicted as athwart my sorrow I saw his resentment But at last for the better clearing of the matter it was demanded of that Slave what Vlama had done all the day and what he had seen Then he related how one of Prince Mahamed's Officers came unto him had talked with him in secret and given him some letters which very much afflicted him and that immediately after he had received the commandment to be gone But in what place is Ulama at this present said the Princess Mâ—dam answered the Slave as soon as he had written at one of his friends house the two Notes which I have brought he presently took horse and departed after he had commanded me to meet him this night at a place where he is to lie This man said the Prince must not be retained any longer for fear lest Ulama's melancholly should make him change his resolution This advice seeming good the Princess commanded me to go and write to him in her Cabinet as she also would do and whereas I looked upon her scarce daring to tell her my thought I understand you well enough said she unto me you would have me justifie you to Ulama and I said Mahamed interrupting her would have Felixana excuse me to him In conclusion generous Ibrahim the Princess wrote to Vlama and so did I but with so many protestations of mine innocency as if for that once his minde was not fully satisfied yet was it at the least more quiet and his despair was turned into a more moderate affliction Mahamed also would gladly have been able himself to have sent some marks of his friendship to Vlama but he was fain to assure him by the hand of the Princess that he would always be his friend without ever being his Rival again These Letters being written the fear lest they should be intercepted came into my minde so that to prevent it the Princess sent for an old Slave whom she had proved to be very faithful and having given them to him she commanded him to attend that of Vlama at that gate of the Ciâ—y where he was to pass and there to deliver them to him in such sort as no body might perceive it This providence was not in vain for this Slave of Vlama's was no sooner come forth of the Princesses lodging but he was arrested by Deliment's order and asked for the Letters which he caâ—ryed to Vlama but knowing very well that he had none he answered without daunting how he was ready to make it appear that they were mistaken and said further that his Master having had no time to take his leave of the Princesses and none of his servants being with him but he he had sent him with a complement to thâ—m and whereas he was hard by Perca's lodging he would have gone in there to give the more colour to this officious lye howbeit they would not permit him till they had throughly searched him all over to see if he had spoken the truth And when they found that he had not that which they thought he had had they let him go and so he finished his voyage after he had taken our Letters from him to whom we had committed them As for us seeing the matter in these terms we resolved that the Princess should assure her self of them whom she beleeved were faithful unto her by new protestations of the affection they had promised her That I should write secretly to my Father to the end that if we were enforced to have recourse to extream remedies and that slight was the onely one that rested for us Mazanderon might be in an estate to receive us That in the mean time to prevent the Sophi before he had taken his last resolutions we should publish the business complain to all the world of Deliment's insolency and that the next morning she should go and request the Sophi to forbid him from ever seeing her again because it might be that he duâ—st not so easily then propound a thing to her whereunto she shewed her self so averse as when disguising her thoughts in the maner she had always done he might seem to be ignorant that she had so much repugnancy unto it
ignorant how the Sophi had loved him very much and was obliged to him for more then one victory He knew lâ—kewise that my Masters party was not so weak at Court but that if it came so extream violence it might peradventure cause a general revolution of the State which would not be advanâ—ageous to him So that to provide for all the misfortunes which might arrive unto him he had recourse to artifice And to that purpose just at the time when as the Sophi commanded Vlama to repair unto him Deliment made him be several ways advertised of the bad designs which were upon his life and carryed the matter so dextrously as the faithfullest of my Masters friends served to the wickedness of this man who in stead of keeping the design of ruining Vlama very secret caused it to be bruited with address abroad â—wo days before he who was to carry the commandment to Vlama set forth towards him So that when he came to Vlama he had already received advice from many not to come to the Court. Even Mahamed himself had caused him to be written unto about it but with so many circumstancâ—s as made him see his undoubted ruine if he obeyed in so much as it was impossible for him to suspect that there was any artifice in all these things Some counsellâ—d him to seek out a place of retreat amongst strangers promising to labor the justifying of his flâ—ght whil'st he was absent Others would have had him fortifie himself in his Govâ—rnment But none advised him to trust to his innocency I leave you to think Madam whether Deliment's wickedness could have had a more favorable success and whether all these things were not capable of bringing to pass the design which he had so to order the matter that Vlama should not onely not repair to the Sophi but should also render himself effectively culpable in the eyes of all the world who after this would not be so forward in â—ndertaking his interests Vlama in this cross conjuncture knew not what resolution to take for if on the one side he considered the peril whereunto he should be exposed by going to put himself into his â—nâ—mies hands if he thought I say that you not being at Court his party would thereby be the wâ—aker and Deliment's the stronger on the other side he saw that in not obeying he lâ—ft his Enemy Master of the Field that he furnished him with Arms to destroy him that he should behave himself as if he were guilty and to say all that he should abandon you and qâ—it Felixana This last thought made him resolve to go couragiously to the Court howbeit he was kept from parting so soon by a sickness wherewith he was taken but at length finding himself better he set forth on his way with a purpose to oppose Deliment's malice as much as he could and to forget nothing that might conduce thereunto But scarcely had we made two days journey for as you know Madam I have never abandoned him when as we encountred one of his dearest friends who came in all haste to acquaint him that all the Court was filled with the news of your loss and Felixana's That in the Royal House it was said how going a fishing you were cast away but that such as looked farther into matters beleeved that your loss was a meer supposition and that without doubt you were â—â—pt shut up in some part That it was an effect of the Sophi's passion and of Deliment's violâ—ncâ— that in the fashion as the matter was carryed there was no remedy to be sought for it that going to the Court he should sacrifice himself unprofitably for you and much to the advanâ—age of Dâ—liment and that in conclusion the best he could do was to seek a sanctuary with some Prince mighty enough to defend him and just enough to acknowledg his merit Juâ—g Madam in what manner my dear Master received this deadly news and how much he resâ—nted â—n adventure whereby he for ever lost the hope of seeing you again and whereby he saw Felixana in the possession of another His grief was so great that if I could describe it unto you I am sure the recital of it would make you shed tears At first he appeared more insensible then afflicted his silence his paleness the little motion that he had after he had understood this sad news and his immovable look would not permit me to be able to judg what new misfortune it was that had arrived unto him for this man had spoken very softly But I no longer doubted of it when as suddenly breaking his silence and speaking with much precipitation Let Fortune said he do with me as she will I am very certain that she cannot make me more unhappy then I am Then turning himself to him who had acquainted him with your loss wholly transported with grief and quite changed in his countenance Let us go said he dear friend let us go and dye in some remote place since I am separated for ever from Felixana At this word he fell down dead in my arms and I beleeved seeing him in this pitiful estate that grief had done that which his despair would have executed By good hap we were not very far from a Country house whither having carryed him with the help of his friend we brought him out of his swoon but it might be said that it was some cruelty in us to bring him to his senses again because withall we restored him to his sorrow and despair Oh said he Felixana is in a condition that the best she can be for me is not to be at all Oh Felixana is in the arms of death or in the power of the Sophi Ah! no no let us not be so base as to support this grief If Felixana be dead let us follow her generously and if she be anothers let us not survive our ill fortune Then on a sudden beginning again after he had held his peace a little What shall the Princess Axiamira the glory of her sex and of our age be the wife of a man unworthy to be her Slave and shall we live after we have so often sworn to her to dye for her service and to defend her from the insolency of Deliment Ah! that may in no sort be and since I cannot succor her I know at least-wise how to testifie to her by my death that the fear of losing my life hath not kept me from opposing her Enemies Saying so he walked up and down a great pace and seemed to have some strange design upon himself But perceiving that his scimitar was gone which by chance was fallen from him we not being aware of it as we were carrying him in a swoon to that house Think ye said he unto us to keep me from dying by taking my arms from me Ah! no no continued he I shall easily finde wherewithall to end my life and my miseries Generous Vlama answered his friend unto him we
was due to a Princess of whom I borrowed the name We lived some time in this sort with content enough that is to say as long as the Princes visits kept us from thinking seriously of our misfortunes For when we were alone the remembrance of what was past and the fear of that which was to come gave us but little rest The presence of the Prince was oftentimes also somewhat grievous to me especially at such time as he pressed me by his entreaties to tell him by what adventure I had suffered shipwrack upon that Coast having much ado to finde excuses to dispense me from it being not yet well resolved on that which we were to tell him This Princes love likewise began to possess Axiamira with unquietness out of the fear she had lest the ignorance of her condition should carry him to some design which might be disadvantageous to her But for me who saw so much vertue and wisdom in this Prince I feared nothing from him and I made it appear to my Lady that this love which gave her so much apprehension should rather give her some assurance since being retained by the respect which he thought he owed to me and by the love which he bare her he would never enterprize any thing which might anger her or displease me In the mean time my health being recovered sooner then I would have had it and Axiamira's in too good an estate to be dispensed withall from travelling Prince Gianger fearing lest notwithstanding his providence the Emperor should come to know that the Princess of Persia was in his hands propounded unto me with the most address and civility that possibly he could the conducting of me to Constantinople to the end said he unto me that the Emperor rendering unto you the honors which are due to a person of your birth may send you back to the Sophi with an equipage proportionable to his greatness and your condition My Lord said I unto him exceedingly surprized and without consulting Axiamira so do as owing you our lives we may also owe our liberty to you and without conducting us to Constantinople permit us to return unknown into Persia Gianger had no minde to grant me this request for besides that reason of State and his own conservation would not suffer him to do so his love would not consent that he should for ever lose the presence of one who was so dear to him as Axiamira was And the thought which he had had to conduct me to Constantinople seemed so much the juster unto him because he should thereby retain in his Country the person whom he loved I observed how he looked upon the Princess Axiamira when I made this motion unto him and that changing colour he sighed twice or thrice But at length after he had endevored to answer me he gave me such pressing reasons to let me know the injustice of my request as not able to destroy them I at least-wise desired some time of him to resolve my self for it which he granted me very kindly We were no sooner at liberty but the Princess beholding me with tears in her eyes What say you now Felixana said she unto me do you know any other way but death to avoyd the miseries that are prepared for us and whose rigor is so great that I have not so much as the satisfaction to finde any whom I can accuse for it seeing Gianger doth nothing but what he ought to do Madam said I unto her we must make use in this occasion of the Princes error and with the precious stones that are on your clothes suborn some one of the Guards that are about us to let you escape and conduct you away either here or during the voyage we are going to make where you will not be so observed as I shall be Ah my dear Girl said she unto me in what place of the Eâ—rth shall I finde a refuge If I go into Persia I shall meet with a cruel and incensed father an infamous fellow for an husband and shall see my self there without any other protection then that of a blinde brother since Vlama is no longer at Court If I go to Constantinople I shall there finde a Prince who caused me to be forcibly carryed away that I might be shut up in a Serraglio like a slave And if I escape out of the hands of Gianger which I do not think is very easie to wander like a vagabond without knowing where to seek out a retreat unto what strange adventures do I expose my self And then do you beleeve that Axiamira could she finde safety by her flight would abandon you and leave you in the power of a Prince who transported by the affection that he bears me would ill entreat you afterwards Aâ— no Felixana death hath something sweeter then all the remedies you present unto me as also it is that alone whereunto I will have recourse Madam said I unto her for so much as regards me it would be too much glory for me to dye for your service And if I saw that flying might be advantageous to you I would press you further unto it but since by your reasons I come to know the greatness of your misfortune were it not better for us to confide absolutely in Prince Gianger and to tell him not only that it is you who are indeed the Princess of Persia but also that Soliman his father is in love with you under my name that Rustan carryed you forcibly away for him and that in the end you suffered shipwrack as they were transporting you to Constantinople This Prince loves you passionately and if I be not deceived reason of State will give place to his love which doubtless will be yet more augmented by the knowledg he will have of your condition by the confidence you will put in him and by the jealousie he will have of his father In conclusion Madam I can never beleeve that Gianger will conduct you to Soliman when he shall know the truth of things and I hope that regarding him as his Rival and not as his King and as his Father he will suffer himself to be moved with your tears and his own interest And then Madam if the vertue of this Prince and his love shall refuse us our liberty I will be the first to shew you the way to death by my example finding as well as you that it is sweetâ—r then a life thwarted with so many miseries But how do you think said the Princess unto me to perswade Gianger that you are not Axiamira that I am verily the daughter of the Sophi and that it was Soliman's design to have me forcibly carryed away Truth answered I hath lights which makes her to be easily known and the freeness and ingenuity wherewith I mean to speak to Gianger will perswade him if I deceive not my self that I am no other then Felixana and that you are Axiamira For the next it is not possible but that
cruel and unjust a Commandment or whether contrarily he posted not with an extream precipitation to obey him Achmat perceived wâ—ll by his countenance that the order which he had received was not displeasing to him but he did not suspect that the matter would have gone so hastily on so that albeit he was in some unquietness at this proceeding yet desired he to make profit of his absence and stay by Soliman He no sooner saw himself alone with him but he undertook the defence of Mustapha again when as Soliman in choller charged him to speak no more to him of him Whereupon Achmat would have retired but the Sultan commanded him to stay and fell a walking sometimes very fast sometimes more leasurely one while he stood looking on Achmat without saying any thing unto him by and by he lifted up his eyes to Heaven then suddenly turned them down to the ground at last after so violent an agitation both of body and mind he leaned on Achmat and beholding him with more marks of grief then of anger Must I said he unto him after I have lived until now exempted from all the crimes of my Predecessors be constrained by Mustapha to lay a stain upon my life and must it be said of me that I have dipt my hands in the blood of my son Achmat surprized with this discourse and willing to make use of so good a motion cast himself at his feet and said so much unto him that neither his Reasons nor the good nature of this Prince being any longer combated by the malice of Rustan he told him with tears in his eyes that he feared he had been but two well obeyed and that his repentance came but too late And then after he had confessed unto him the Order he had given Rustan he commanded him to go with all speed to revoke it But my Lord there was no more time for it because as soon as Rustan had gotten permission to exercise his cruelty the wicked man had taken four Mutes along with him having each of them a Bow-string in his hand for in that manner it is as you know that the children of the Royal Family are here put to deatâ— and carried them to the Tent of Mustapha from whom at the first they had required his Scymitar which he had given them without resistance This Tyger staying without the Tent with them that had accompanied him as well to keep any body from entring as to hear what this miserable Prince would say in breathing out his last his Executioners began to attempt the accomplishing of their charge When Mustapha first saw these four Mutes enter he made no doubt but he was lost yet being strong and courageous he could not resolve to suffer himself to be strangled without some defence The first that would have put the string about his neck he layd at his feet the like he did to the second and having put himself in a posture that he could not be seized upon behind he not a little troubled his Executioners He had already taken three of their strings from them and it may be he might have defended himself so long till Achmat might have arrived soon enough had not the Traytor Rustan put his head into the Tent and by signs threatened the Mutes to do their duty Mustapha hearing this voyce and knowing it left his Executioners to go to Rustan which was the cause that those four men falling all upon him overthrew him the more easily to the ground and put the string about his neck This deplorable Prince had the leasure yet to say in strugling with them as some of them who accompanied Rustan have reported Do so much at least wise thou cruel man that I may be the only sacrifice to appâ—ase the rage of Roxelana and that my death may obtain the lives of Gianger Sarraida and Axiamira of Soliman With these last words which interceded for anothers life Mustapha lost his own and in his person dyed one of the greatest and most excellent Princes of the World The people have bruted abroad how by a communication that was there from Soliman's Tent to Mustapha's that Prince had the cruelty to excite the Mutes to strangle his son but very far from that Achmat arrived within a moment after Mustapha expired who as I have told you came to change the fatal Order which Rustan had but two well executed This Prince was no sooner dead but Rustan as if some glory would have redounded to him by so barbarous an act went to render Soliman an accompt of it without knowing ought of the alteration of his mind for Achmat had been so surprized and afflicted to find this Prince to whom he was bringing life already dead as he had not said any thing to him of a matter which could then serve to no purpose This first motion of sorrow being over the vertuous Achmat believed that he owed the conservation of Gianger to the memory of Mustapha he wâ—nt then with speed to him for fear lest being acquainted with this lamentable news by another he should take some strange resolution In the mean time the report of this death being spread over the Camp all the Janizaries came flocking to Mustapha's Tent where finding him dâ—ad they rendered him all the testimonies of grief which affectionate Soldiers could render to their General All the Commanders did the like there were nothing but cries and lamentations some threw themselves upon his body and embracing him wet him with their tears others said aloud that they must revenge his death teer out Rustan's heart remove Soliman from his Throne go and burn Roxelana in her Serraglio and declare Mustapha's son Emperor though he was but a child Some again less violent and seditious threw down their arms made a vow never to bear any and having thereof framed as it were a Trophy which they erected to the vertue of this Prince they layd his body upon it and abode round about it weeping the loss they had sustained Never was there a more general consternation seen all the Soldiers continued four and twenty hours without eating and if the prudence of Achmat had not shewed it self in this occasion Soliman's Throne had been overturned and his person in danger As for us we heard indeed a great noise but it was impossible for us to comprehend what it might be and they whom Rustan had left to guard us were so faithful unto him as they would not clear it unto us We imagined with our selves that peradventure Prince Gianger having made one part of the Soldiers to rise endeavored to deliver Mustapha to the end he might come afterwards and deliver us also and in this estate we were between fear and hope In the mean while Rustan was gone back to Soliman who seeing him enter alone demanded of him what Mustapha said of his clemency My Lord answered he mightily surprised Mustapha is no longer in a condition ever to say any thing to thy
Highness that may displease thee Ah! infortunate that I am and most base as thou art continued Soliman how readily hast thou obeyed me in a wicked action He asked him then whether he had not seen Achmat and having understood that he arrived not till after the death of the Prince he shewed such excessive grief as the like was never seen Rustan amazed at so sudden a change would have represented unto him how much this death assured the quiet of his Empire but the Sultan exceedingly moved with choller chased him from his presence and forbad him for ever appearing before him again In the mean time Soliman not knowing whom to make his moan to about his crime and his misfortune commanded Achmat to be sent for again to him He was sought for and found with Prince Gianger much busied in moderating the violence of his grief for he had acquainted him with the death of his brother These two Princes had always loved so dearly together as never was there a more perfect and dis-interested amity then theirs so that it is easie to imagine the despair Gianger was in when he knew not only that his brother was dead of a violent death but that which touched his heart more nearly that he dyed for his sake without being culpable of any thing but of too much loving him Ah! my Lord that I could repeat vnto you all that this afflicted Prince said in so lamentable an adventureâ— but you will see but two well the resentment he had of it by one only action of his without my insisting on the relation of his discourse unto you Felixana observing that Axiamira and Ibrahim had their cheeks all bedewed with tears as well as she told them that it was not time yet to shed them all for Madam said she to the Princess you know that I have that still resting to deliver which is not unworthy of your sorrow and which without doubt will possess this illustrious Bassa with pity and grief Whereupon she held her peace to wipe her eyes and to give them leasure also to do as much and when her sighs and theirs had had all the liberty could be required for them and that a sad and heavy silence had renewed their attention she proceeded in this sort Achmat having received the Sultan's command for his repair to him thought it was fit for him to obey He left Prince Gianger then in the guard of five or six of his followers with order carefully to observe him and not to leave him out of their sight In going from his Tent to the Grand Signior's he discerned the beginning of a Tumult amongst the Soldiers he heard not onely their lamentations and their cries but also the propositions which they made against Rustan and even against the Emperor himself So that being come to him and perceiving by his tears and discourse his true repentance for his violences he represented unto him how it was requisite for his safety and for the good of the Empire that he should shew unto all his Soldiers the sorrow he was in for the death of Mustapha That he could not do it better then in taking care to preserve that which had been dear to him in his life-time to which effect he was to give a place of retrent to Sarraida have a good regard of Axiamina and labor to appease the grief of Gianger who was come with them to the Camp and whose affliction was so great as it was capable of putting him into despair Soliman not knowing what to do in this occasion retained Achmaet with him and sent to offer Gianger by the Aga of the Janizaries all Mustapha's Governments But this excelâ—ent Prince abhorring the enriching of himself with the spoyls of a brother who was dead for the love of him generously refused them demanding no other portion of Soliman said he then the same string wherewith his brother was strangled At the same instant the Sultan was advertised how the Soldiers who knew not that Sarraida was in Rustan's Teâ—t thrust on by the fury that mastered them were going to set it on fire So that to hinder this mischief Soliman sent Achmat to let the Soldiers understand how Sarraida was in that Tent and that in seeking to revenge Mustapha they were upon the point of burning his wife and his son But to take from them an object which might exasperate their grief Achmat held it convenient not to leave Axiamira Sarraida or Mustapha's son any longer in the Camp so that having drawn Soliman to like of it and kept the Soldiers from offâ—ring any violence to the place where we were he came to Axiamira to assure her from Soliman that she should be entreated by him with the respect which was due to her condition and that in attending till they might advise what was fit to be done therein he desired her she would be pleased to suffer her self to be conducted to Constantinople As for Sarraida he told her with tears in his eyes that the Grand Signior permitted her to chuse a retreat in what place of his Empire she would assuring her that he would have as much care of protecting her as he had had violence in the person of Mustapha Sarraida no longer doubting of the death of her dear husband after this discourse and Axiamira being but too well assured of it as well as she they both of them said things that were stronger then the constaâ—cy of Achmat. He wept with these two great Princesses and recounting to them the matter as it had past excusing Soliman as much as he could he made them comprehend that Rustan waâ— the cause of all this mischief In the mean time Axiamira in the midst of her affliction demanded news of Gianger and after she had been assured that he lived and that the Grand Signior had none but good thoughts for him she craved pardon of the infortunate Sarraida for having been the cause of her miseries and made this discourse with so much tenderness and grief as Sarraida her self was moved with her resentment Mustapha's son yet further augmented the Princesses displeasure for albeit this childe had not attained to the tenth year of his age he seemed to be so afflicted for the loss of his father and said such generous and reasonable things as it might be said that he would have as much resembled him in the qualities of the minde as in the features of the face if Fortune had permitted him to live He assured Sarraida that he would one day revenge the death of his father he grieved that he had not so much strength as courage and that he could give her nothing but tears in this occasion I should never have done my Lord if I should repeat all this conversation unto you but in the end Achmat having assured Axiamira that it was not to the Serraglio they would conduct her and having made her apprehend that she would be better at Constantinople then in the Camp he also caused
Sarraida to promise that she would conserve her self for her son So that being resolved for that which they could not avoyd the Princesses consented to their voyage and Sarraida chose the Town of Prusa for her retreat not enduring to return unto Amasia Achmat commanded charets to be brought appointed men for theâ—r convoy and offering his assistance to the two Princesses Axiamira earnestly requested him to have a care of Prince Gianger and to assure him that she esteemed her self infinitely unhappy in being the cause of his misfortunes After this Sarraida and she bid one anothâ—r adâ—eâ— or to say better they onely mingled their tears together and with that dumb and sad language took their eternal farewel Sarraida was put into her charet almost in a swoon and Axiamira entred into that which was prepared for her so besides her self as I beleeved she would have dyed in my arms In the mean space the preparation for our departure had not been made so secretly but that the bruit thereof was spread over the Camp and whereas news do change the further they go from him that first delivers them it was noised amongst the most part of the Soldiers That they were conducting Axiamira to the Serraglio that Soliman purposed to repudiate Roxelana and declare the Princess Sultana Queen In this belief they testified so much joy by reason of the hatred they bare to Roxelana as being an Enemy to Mustapha that though she was the mother of Gianger yet knowing how dearly he had loved his brother some amongst them went inconsiderately to declare this false and deadly news unto him He no sooner heard it but he beleeved it and losing the little reason he had resting he got out like a mad man spight of them whom Achmat had left with him and without knowing whither he went he found what he sought for that is to say the body of Mustapha which could not yet be drawn out of the Soldiers hands who had layd it as I have already told you upon a great heap of their arms As soon as Gianger approached to it they made way for him to pass through them and redoubling their cries and lamentations some of them offered him to revenge this death and all of them together protested that they would have the same affection for him they had had for his brother But he without harkening to their complaints their offers or their prayers throws himself upon his brothers body wets him with his tears then looking round about him as it were to seek for something he espyed a dagger amidst that great number of arms which he layd hold on and then lifting up his voyce with a more quiet countenance then before Let some of you O Soldiers said he if the memory of Mustapha be dear unto you declare unto Soliman that in giving my brother his death he hath put this steel into my hand and let the Princess of Persia know also that I did not dye till I had lost the hope of possessing her saying this he stab'd the dagger into his heart no body being able to prevent him and fell down dead upon the body of his brother Alass my Lord I know this truth but too well for by ill fortune the charet wherein we were passed so neer to that place as I saw Gianger when as he stab'd himself This sight and this action then made me give a great skriek Is there said the Princess unto me who did not look that way some more new misfortune befallen us Ah! Madam said I unto her the greatest that can happen to you in the estate wherein you are We heard a redoubling then of the wailings lamentations and cries of the Soldiers who making the name of Gianger to resound all about said so much of his death as they had acquainted her but too well what this misfortune was without putting me to the trouble of telling it her She commanded the charet wherein we were to stand still but the confusion was so great and the noise so dreadful as her Order could not be heard besides they that conducted us took such care to get us speedily out of the Camp as I beleeve if they had heard what she said they would not have obeyed her so that we went away in this manner without more particularly knowing the death of this miserable Prince having not learnt all that I have recounted unto you and all that I shall tell you hereafter till we came hither where the generous Achmat imparted it unto us It is easie my Lord to comprehend what the grief of Axiamira was That great and generous Soul which never fainted under her own misfortunes found it self then too weak to support those of another For though love had no place in her heart amity compassion and the obligations wherein she stood engaged to Prince Gianger produced the same effects in her upon this occasion What said she not to testifie her affliction or to say better what did she not that she might not survive this last mishap she absolutely declined the care of her preservation she refused to eat and I dare say she would never have resolved to live if with my tears and prayers I had not conjured her not to leave me in the hands of a Prince which might entreat me as one culpable It was not because I was possest with that fear but seeing this Princess no way sensible of her own conservation I beleeved that the same generosity which made her despise her life to lament anothers misfortune would induce her to preserve it for the easing of mine As indeed after that she suffered me to take a care of her and without abandoning her grief she resolved to attend death and not to seek it We in this sort arrived at this place where we are and where afterwards we understood that Gianger had no sooner stabbed himself to the heart with a dagger but the Soldiers affliction anger and fury redoubled far more They which had thrown down their Arms took them up again maugre the vow which they had made and testified by their threats that they had strange designs It seemed to them that they had a second time lost Mustapha in the person of Gianger for the love of these two Princes was so generally known as they regarded him as another himself This tragique news was instantly carryed to the Sultan who received it with so much grief as the abundance of tears which he shed in that occasion hath almost defaced his crime and if Achmat had not provided for his conservation he would peradventure have let the Soldiers gone on in their fury without applying any remedy unto it But whereas he was faithful unto him and had no less prudence then affection he counselled him not to conceal his tears to shew himself to the Janizaries and with his presence to calm a storm which certainly had caused some strange disorder if this wise servant had not dissipated it For the matter went so
excess of their goodness doth make their oppressors commit afterwards who ordinarily augment their violences when as they see they are dissembled What do we further expect O generous Citizens May it be to have the Government and all kind of Authority in the Republique to be utterly lost May it be that you will have the heart to place Jannetin in the Throne To see the Ministers of his fury go and take your goods out of your houses ruine your families attempt upon your lives dishonor your wives and commit those wickednesses which may justly be attended from a Tyranny that is born for the ruine of the Country nourished by the publique dissention increased by the miseries of the Citizens and established by the death of so many good men Are our courages so base and so low brought Have our swords so little edg as we cannot cut off the infamous life of him who makes a glory of our shame who triumphs over our misfortunes and feeds on our miseries Shall we not pluck out of Jannetin's body that cowardly heart which hath contrived so many Treasons and which may be termed the scource of all our mischiefs Shall we suffer a simple Citizen to be our Tyrant let him trample us under his feet and subjecting us unto him as his Slaves dispose of our lives and deaths as he pleaseth For me I profess freely unto you that I hold it more glorious to buy liberty with a great peril then to sweeten servitude with idleness and patience And as I take it for a glory that our Enemies have a design to add the loss of my life unto that of the Republique so do I consecrate my life with joy for the liberty of my Counâ—ry acknowledging that I should be unworthy of enjoying it if I could prefer it before the publique utility I desire only O illustrious Citizens to discover a resolution in you if not worthy of your courage at leastwise proportionable to the danger wherein you are In fine whether you will have me for a Soldier or a Captain if you will go before me I will follow you if I shall go before you do you follow me Besides whether you be sensible of honor or that you only think of your safety you are always forced to take up Arms for since I must deliver things unto you as they are this resolution as to generous men is glorious for you as to men of little courage is commodious for you and in what manner soever it be is necessary for you I do not call you to an enterprize that is unforecasted or ill conducted I have long since considered the end and means of it And I have not only examined the sequel of it but I have assembled troops for it and having distributed them in the most commodious places for execution it is rather inviting you to the pleasing spectacle of a certain victory then to the peril of a doubtful fight But without animating you by the hope of that is to come I know very well so as you will call to mind the outrages of the Nobles and the insolency of Jannetin I know very well I say that the desire of revenge being rouzed up in your Souls you will come to fight with so much heart as our Enemies shall to their damage admire the valor of those whom they despised and you on the contrary shall know by your own experience whether they have as much force in warlike occasions as they have weakness in abandoning themselves to voluptuousness in the time of Peace Let us go then generous Citizens and let this be the end of my discourse and the beginning of your victory Let us go out of this Palace and descend into the City where we are attended by a great number of our friends for the ending of an enterprize so well begun The gates are in the power of the Soldiers whom I have gained to me the Gallies upon a Signal given will fall into the hands of a Troop of men as hardy to render themselves Masters of them as prudent to conserve them We have in the City fifteen hundred inhabitants which are armed for us and even now that I am speaking to you there are in the Suburbs two thousand of my Subjects and as many of the Duke of Placentia's which are come to succor us Let us go then my companions and call the people again to liberty let us return to the sweetness of our ancient Government let us exterminate the Nobles and Jannetin's Tyranny and in one only night more shining then the fairest days of our lives have been let us re-establish the glory of the popular families in their first splendor let us for ever deface out of the memories of men our past faint-heartedness But if any of you as I cannot believe be so audacious so cowardly both together as to oppose a design so glorious for us and advantageous for our Country let him behold round about him this dreadful company of Arms and Soldiers and let him imagine that he sees at the very same instant the points of all our swords leveled at his heart Yea my Companions I do protest it openly we must of necessity either fight or dye And that blood which shall be ingratefully denyed to the succor of our Country so neer to ruine shall be shed in this very place to wash away the stain of such perfidiousness Yea I say it once again the first sacrifice which shall be consecrated for the publique safety shall even here have his throat cut with my hand if any one undertakes to oppose my will These dreadful menaces amazed those to whom they were addrest they beheld one another and then that great number of Soldiers which environed them and after they had been a while without speaking they cryed all with one voyce two excepted that they would follow the Count even to the death that they would be the companions of his triumph or of his fall and in conclusion that they would never abandon him but would obey him in all things The Count embraced them then with a great deal of joy and testimony of satisfaction and being turned towards those two which as yet had said nothing they besought him to have pity of their weakness with words wherein fear appeared so visible as the Count could not forbear smiling They represented unto him that the request which they made him was advantageous to him as well as to them because being so uncapable of fighting they should hurt him more then they could help him that their fear might beget the same in others and their flight give an ill example to his Soldiers Briefly they gave him so many marks of their affright and terror as changing his determination he only contented himself with reproaching them for their cowardise in a bitter jear and for the security of his enterprize he caused them to be shut up in a chamber where he left them under a Guard which should keep them
the company is exceeding dear to me tell me what recompence do you demand I desire said he unto her that before I relate that unto you which befell me you will let us know what discontent that was which made you quit Genoua to go to Albengua what moved you to marry a man whom you did not love and banish one whom you did not hate For to speak freely unto you it hath been imparted unto me at Genoua in such a manner as gives me a great deal of curiosity and makes me desire to know whether I have been told the truth or no. As for me said Hipolita I have intended a long time since to intreat Leonida she would acquaint me with it but Fortune hath so cruelly persecuted us as we have scarce had any leasure but to feel new miseries without remembring those which were already past Certainly added Doria it I durst joyn my intreaties to those of the Company I would request Leonida to grant us this favor For my part said Sophronia I have not the same curiosity for I am so fully informed of this History as I do not know any thing that hath hapned to my self better If the company said Leonida to her will needs know it I shall make advantage of it if you will take the pains to relate it unto them for as for me I am fully resolved not to expose my self a second time to the vexation which this relation hath been the cause of to me Do not reproach my old error unto me said Alphonso interrupting her and to deliver you from this unquietness and for fear lest I should find my self too weak to hear a thing without grief which hath given me so much I will go and walk in the Garden or entertain my self with a Book Alphonso after he had said this went without attending Leonida's answer forth of the Cabinet and would not return thither again though the Marquiss called him more then once His absence did not for all that change Leonida's opinion and whatsoever could be said unto her she would not recount her own History but she requested Sophronia to take the trouble of it upon her This fair maid seeing that the whole company desired this complacency of her resolved to satisfie them after she had prayed Leonida that if she forgot any thing she would put her in mind of it and Leonida having promised her to do so she then made the Marquiss to swear that as soon as ever she had finished her relation he should begin his And when as he had assured her that he would not fail therein and had told her that he had at leastwise as much desire to recount his adventures unto her as she had to know them Sophroniâ— began and spake in this sort The History of LEONIDA THe Adventures of Leonida have something so extraordinary in them as they are to be related in somewhat a particular manner for to render the recital of them the more agreeable and intelligible unto you I am not to say any thing to you yet of the beginning of her life of her first Conquests nor of her marriage but only acquaint you with Alphonso's love which I believe took its beginning presently upon Justiniano's return and a year and half after the death of Leonida's husband This Conquest without doubt was not disagreeable unto her for as you know Alphonso hath merit wisdom and wit and if after these which certainly are the greatest and most essential good things it is fit to consider the rest you are not ignorant that Alphonso is rich enough and of a race illustrious enough to touch a heart on the side of interest and glory as well as of affection In fine whether Leonida were capable of love or ambition she found in the person of Alphonso wherewith to beget these two passions in her heart and wherewith to render them excusable If Leonida were not present I would tell you that whereas she hath a great deal of wit Love in this encounter was introduced into her Soul rather by Reason then by sense and inclination But not to stand upon small things you shall understand that Alphonso who you have always seen so assidual in serving her after he had rendred her all the testimonies of love that a worthy person can desire of a man infinitely passionate he knew at length from her own mouth that his vows were not rejected and that he was not forbidden to hope After the day that she had permitted him to entertain her openly with his passion it is certain that Leonida had continually all the complacency for him which a vertuous woman was capablâ— of And whereas you know that Leonida hath naturally a gallant wit and a very â—ovial humor sh oftentimes gave him the pleasure to hear her jeer his Rivals in his presence and an hundred times made her Conquests serve for his glory Alphonso then lived in this sort with more content then the extream love which he bore her seemed to permit for as I have heard it said this passion seldom leaves any great tranquillity in the Souls of those whom it possesseth But for Alphonso he was the most generous Lover that ever was his inclination had not been blind all the world approved of his choyce he loved an amiable person and was beloved of her she took care not to give him any cause of jealousie his very Rivals served for his delight and felicity by the usage that she gave them his father did not contradict his affection Leonida was of a free condition and might dispose of her self yea and to keep him from being deprived of the pleasure of hoping for the possession of a person that could render him contented Leonida to assure her self yet further of his love would not so much as let him make use of his friends for the motioning of their marriage In so happy an estate methinks it is hard to imagine what could trouble his felicity especially when I shall have told you that Leonida used him still as favorably as before and without any change arriving in her yet there arrived a change in him I well perceive continued Sophronia after she had been a while without speaking that you cannot divine what it was which troubled Alphonso's happiness and certainly I cannot think it strange seeing according to my sense this adventure is so extraordinary as it is impossible to conjecture it You shall understand then that one day Alphonso being gone to see a kinsman of his whereas the person beloved is a part of all conversations and a man infinitely amorous speaks without choyce and judgment of his Mistress to every one he came to speak of Leonida to his kinsman though to say truth he was not worthy of that honor for this man is both malicious and blockish According then to his humor and stupidity he rudely asked of Alphonso whether he beleeved that he had been the first which ever had been affected of Leonida Now
it self in the end so weak as he absolutely resolved to speak to Isabella of his passion I know very well said he to himself that this is to betray the friendship which I have promised to Ibrahim but I know withall that it would be the betraying of my self and the cause of my death if I should bereave my self of the hope which I have of prevailing one day with Isabella In this resolution Soliman went to the Princesses chamber on a time when as the Sultana Asteria was come from her and that none but Emilia was with her When as first the Princess saw him she changed colour and Soliman on his part who very much respected her and that still loved Ibrahim thought to alter his resolution and in this sort fear troubling Isabella and respect silencing Soliman they were a while unable to speak to one another The Sultan was he at last that began the Conversation in craving pardon of Isabella for the constraint wherein she lived My Lord said she unto him since it concerns the quiet of thy State I dare not murmur at it and though the privation of my friends be a displeasure sensible enough I do endure it without complaining of thy Highness I do accuse Fortune and do justifie Soliman who without doubt will never be but equitable Would to Heaven said he unto her I might be sure that you would speak thus always My Lord replyed she this is a thing which will absolutely depend on thy Highness it being most certain that I shall ever be reasonable and not be so inconsiderate as to think ought to the disadvantage of thy Majesty if I be not constrained thereunto by thy self I could have wished replyed Soliman that without exception you had promised me never to think amiss of me for it may be you will learn from mine own mouth that I am faulty Isabella blusht at this discourse and casting down her eyes without daring to look any more on Soliman and being unable to answer him she was a pretty while in this incertainty but on a sudden Soliman carried away by his passion resolved to discover it unto her I know full well said he unto her that I am going to destroy my self that in acquainting you with my thoughts I am going to make you hate me but I would sain have you tell me added he before I confess my crime unto you whether an error which is not voluntary merits as much chastâ—sâ—mâ—nt as a prâ—mâ—ditated malice My Lord answered Isabella all persons that have great Souls like thy Highness can never commit faults but voluntarily There is nothing that can â—orce Reason when one will make use of it and the most violent passions without doubt are but the pretext of weak ones when as they will excuse the bad actions which they do it being certain that it is not impossible to furmount them I knew well enough said Soliman interrupting her that you would be a rigorous Judg to me that you would judg of others by your self and that you would condemn in another that which is not found in you But amiable Isabella continued he you are unjust to deal so seeing it is impossible that ever your Soul should be put to so difficult a tryal as that is which I have encountred You have but weak enemies to sight with and a great deal of vertue to resist them your Reason in what a occasion soever you find your self is always on your side but amiable Isabella in this wherein I am my Reason is my cruelest enemy It is not because she hath not opposed all my thoughts as much as she could and this is it which puts me out of all hope of vanquishing having no longer arms to defend me For my Reason hath been so absolutely surmounted as it is rather by her then by my passion that I am resolved to discover my hurt unto her which hath caused it Let thy Highness take heed said Isabella to him then that in discovering it thou make it not the worse and that that which thou believest would be a remedy for thy grief be not a means to increase it That which you say answered Soliman may easily fall out but continued he what would you have a Prince do who is no longer Master either of his heart of his soul or of his will who seâ—s his death indubitable if he conceals the disease wherewith he is stricken and who is absolutely resolved to dye or to move the person whom he adores with love or pity Isabella knowing not what to answer to a discourse which she understood but too well for her rest fetched a great sigh in lifting up her eyes to Heaven as it were craving succor from thence which Soliman having obâ—ervâ—d I perceive said he unto her incomparable Isabella that you have understood me that you are not ignorant of the Conquest you have made and I thank Fortune for that she hath not compelled me to tell you that I love you so to make you know it for it is certain that I should have been much troubled to execute the resolution which I had taken for it But after I have perswaded you continued he without giving her leasure to answer him that Soliman adores you suffer not that which hath accustomed to be beneficial to all Lovers to be prejudicial to me For added he I see very well that the more I shall perswade you that I love you the more you will hold your self injured by mâ— But to take away at leastwise the means from you of reproaching me with my crime I will acknowledg divine Isabella that I know being your Protector I ought not to be your Lover that loving Ibrahim as I do I ought not to be his Rival that respecting you as I ought I should not use any discourse to you that offends you that loving glory I ought not to endure an affection which may blemish it but I know more then all this that love never shews it self either greater or more perfect then when it destroys friendship forces Reason and without considering either honor or glory carries us to dye or to make our selves be beloved of the person whom we adore This incomparable Isabella is the estate whereunto you have reduced my Soul but if notwithstanding I may be permitted to employ Reason for the obliging of you to pity remember that you would be unjust in causing the death of a Prince who heretofore hath saved Ibrahim's life and that cruelty can never pass for a vertue Be then in some sort indulgent to my passion and at leastwise bemoan the hurt which you have done me Soliman holding his peace and Isabella being somewhat come to her self again Is it possible said she unto him that this which I hear is true and that the greatest Prince of the Earth should be the weakest amongst men No I cannot think it and the discourse which thy Highness hath used to me is doubtless a design to prove my constancy and resolution
But my Lord to oblige thee no longer to continue so dangerous a fiction know that if it were true that thy Highness had for me the violentest affection that ever was heard spoken of it should not serve but to hasten my death it being most certain that the most terrible and horriblest torments that can be imagined should never carry me to be wanting either to that which I owe to Ibrahim to my self or to thy Highness No my Lord I should never be a Complice of great Soliman's fault and for his own interest I ought always oppose my self against him But continued she it is in some sort an injury to thy Majesty to answer so precisely to a discourse whose foundation is not truâ— Would to Heaven replyed Soliman both for your content and mine that it were so But amiable Isabella it is but too true what I say and if there be any feigning in my discourse it is that I have not said all that I feel I confess that I am faulty towards Heaven that I am so towards Ibrahim that I betray the friendship which I have promised him that I forget the care of my glory and honor and that I betray my self but in conclusion being faulty towards all the world I am innocent towards you since it is certain that a violent love to speak reasonably can never offend the person that hath begotten it And how constant soever you be for Ibrahim how rigorous foever you be for me you cannot without injustice but take pity of the deplorable estate wherein I am I do not demand of you your love as yet but some compassion and at least bemoan me if you cannot love me Great Princes replyed Isabella ought to be sensible of pity but they never ought to put themselves into a condition of being the object of it to others Neither will I be drawn to beleeve that Soliman hath a thought so unworthy of himself For my Lord how can I think that thy Highness will stab a Poignard into the heart of Ibrahim after thou hast saved his life if it should be so it had better both for him for me and for thy Highness that he had been left to languish in his irons or to dye of melancholy then to save him for to kill him the more cruelly Let thy Majesty consult well with thy self and thou wilt find without doubt that thy heart agrees not with thy mouth that thy words betray thy thoughts and that Ibrahim is yet more powerful in thy Soul then the fatal beauty of Isabella No said Soliman interrupting her do not justifie me in this sort since in the terms wherein I am I have no other design then to let you know that I am the most faulty of all men in perswading you that I am the most amorous Ah my Lord said she to him weeping doth not thy Highness consider that at this very time it may be wherein thy Highness useth so strange a discourse unto me Ibrahim is fitghing with thine enemies is hazarding his life for thy service and shedding his blood for a Prince who makes me shed tears and who without doubt will bring me to my grave if his unjust love doth continue Soliman being moved with so pressing a discourse stood a while without answering thereunto but at length his passion still surmounting his vertue in this occasion I know said he unto her that Ibrahim's life ought to be dear unto me but I know withall that mine ought to be considerable to me and I am certain that what exploits soever he can do in Persia I have done more yet in consideration of him I have fought for him against my self I have felt my self in the flame without daring to complain love and friendship have torn my heart and I know no torments so terrible which I have not endured since the first instant that I saw you rather then to do any thing against the affection which I bear him But being come to the terms either of dying or speaking I chose the last and so much the rather because I do not think but a man who could abandon you at Monaco to come unto me to Constantinople will easily enough resolve to quit you for the saving of a Princes life to whom he is indebted for his own Ah my Lord I cryed Isabella if Ibrahim be faulty in this occasion it is against me and not against thy Highness who by this very fault art yet the more straitly obliged not to commit one against him For what doth not a man deserve who rather then he would fail in his word which he had given thee resolved to abandon not only his Country not only his Friends but the only person whom he could love who was in stead to him of all the world and without whom his life had been irksom and death the term of his desires No my Lord continued she flatter not thy self in this occasion think better both of Ibrahim and of Isabella and be most assured that as I am certain he would dye a thousand times rather then abandon me so should I do the like rather then be unfaithful to him And if by some prodigy which I cannot fear should happen Ibrahim should consent to thy passion if he himself should speak to me of thy love yet let thy Highness know that I am not capable of failing by example I should cease to love Ibrahim if he ceased to be generous but I should love thee never a whit the more contrarily I should regard thee then both as having outraged me and as having bereaved me of a vertuous Lover Isabella was going on in her discourse and Soliman was going to interrupt her when as the generous Asteria entered And whereas the Sultan had still some respect for Isabella he would not command the Sultana to withdraw but being unable withall in the estate wherein his Soul was to begin an indifferent Conversation he went away leaving Isabella with an affliction that may be better imagined then described He was no sooner departed but Asteria who had observed a great deal of alteration in Isabella's and Soliman's faces demanded of her with much impatience and grief what it was that had caused the trouble wherein she saw her Alas answered the Princess how have my fears been too well grounded and how true have your suspicions been and then she recounted unto her what had past betwâ—â—n her and Soliman with so many testimonies of resentment that the Sultana Asteria was exceedingly moved therewith This misfortune did not altogether surprize her for all that bâ—cause she had sufficiently observed in divers occasions that the Sultan her father was desperately in love with Isabella but she had nevertheless conserved some remainder of hope that his reason and the friendship which he bore to Ibrahim would surmount his passion or at leastwise keep him from discovering it to her Isabella for her part had thought as much so that being equally surprized one might almost say that
at this distance Vlama after he had obtained permission of Ibrahim for it severed himself from the Army and went directly towards the Enemies with his Scymâ—tar in his hand but scarcely was he advanced fifteen paces when as Deliment having also severed himself from his party came and encountred him in the same sort and these two brave Cavaliers joyned together just in the middle of the place of battel The two Armies made a stand to see this combat which was beheld by both parts almost as an infallible prefage of the victory to that side of them two which should carry it from the other As soon as Vlama and Deliment were met they fell to fighting either of them having too great a heart for to stand reproaching and reviling one another At first Deliment fought like a desperate man and Vlama like one who without losing his judgment or otherwise transported made it nevertheless sufficiently appear by the manner of his carriage that he was resolved either to vanquish or to dye Signs of fury were seen in the one and proofs of an invincible courage in the other the first struck with violence and inconsiderately and the last exposing himself valiantly some times to his Enemies blows assaulted him with judgment and warded with address But at length after they had made an hundred passades to no purpose had tryed in vain to gain the crupper and had been a long time without hurting one another Vlama seeming to be vext for staying so long from vanquishing or dying redoubled his endevors and pressing his Enemy more vively then before he had at length the satisfaction to see his blood first with a blow of his Scymitar which he layd at his shoulder but lighted on his thigh This first advantage more augmented Vlama's courage and redoubled Deliment's rage for after that it was impossible to discern the blows they gave each another Deliment was in continual action Vlama no more then he lost not a minutes time and without eithers recoyling or taking breath they fought very neer an hour and yet it could not be judged to which side the victory inclined Vlama's Turbant was all in pieces he had also received a wound on his left arm his Scymitar was dyed with the blood of Deliment whom he had hurt in two places when as in an instant flying violently at him he discharged so great a blow with his Scymitar on his neck that falling from his horse he extended him dead at his feet This fall made all those of Vlama's party to shout for joy but he without longer tarrying in that plâ—ce galloped back to Ibrahim and with as much tranquillity of spirit as if he had not fought at all said to him smiling that he came from rough-hewing the victory for him If I obtain it replyed the illustrious Bassa it will be less glorious to me then that which you have gotten since you share it with none whereas I shall owe the other both to your valor and to that of an hundred thousand men that follow me After this Ibrahim having observed that Vlama was wounded on the left arm by the blood which came out of it would not have had him fought but Vlama not consenting thereunto onely caused his arm to be bound up with a piece of linnen cloth of a Turbant and placing himself by Ibrahim and all the Trumpets Drums and Attaballes having sounded a charge they began to march with those great cries which all the Oriental Nations make at the beginning of battels but yet with this difference that Ibrahim's Soldiers seemed to be almost assured of the victory whereas the others on the contrary seemed to have no other design in fighting then to revenge the death of Deliment It was not for that he was beloved but because the Sophy shewed so much resentment for it as it passâ—d even into the hearts of his men In the end these two Armies being provoked the one by the desire of glory and the other by that of revenge they encountred together And to give yet a further courage to Ibrahim's forces it happened that Tachmas being arrived first in the field had seized on an high piece of ground upon the which he had planted his Ordnance but that which he conceived would have been advantageous proved unprofitable unto him for when as the two Armies caused their Cannon to play on either part that of the Persians did no hurt to the Turks because all the shot passed over their heads in regard it was planted too high Ibrahim's Ordnance wrought another effect and his first discharge lighting just in the midst of that Sqâ—adron where the Sophy was in person cleared all the ranks with the slaughter of a world of men But when as the Sophy who lost not his judgment in this occasion had commanded those behinde to take the place of them before Ibrahim on his side caused two battalions behinde the which were the rest of his Ordnance to open and the Soldiers having accordâ—ngly divided themselves to the right hand and to the left the remainder of his Ordnance discharged all together through the voyd space that was between the ranks and put his Enemies into so strange a disorder as the like was never heard of And truly it was advantageous to the Persians that the thickness of the smoke and dust which enveloped these two Armies kept them from seeing the horridness of this execution for otherwise peradventure they would not have had so much heart to fight as they testified afterwards At length Tachmas having formed his battalions anew for repairing of the disorder which the great Ordnance had made and Ibrahim's Soldiers having re-assumed their stations these two Armies came to cope with one another Ibrahim followed by Vlama gave first into the battalion behinde the which was that broken squadron where the Sophy and Ismael were in person And it was there where out of a prodigious valor he did things which would not finde belief with posterity if they were written He made way through all opposition and not contented with carrying fear and terror wheresoever he went with defending his own life and giving death to his Enemies but took care also for the conservation of his own party He saved the Bassa Sinan from being killed by discharging a great blow with his Scymitar upon him that was striking him now though he performed the Soldier in this encounter yet left he not for all that to behave himself like the General of the Army and to have an eye to all things Sometimes he sent to succor those that stood in need sometimes he went to them in person and joyning both prudence and valor together it might be said that never two several men exercised them so nobly as Ibrahim in his person alone made them to appear in this occasion And the course that he held was such in sending his directions to every part as it might also be affiâ—med that he was in all the fights that
were in the field and that he might with reason be termed the soul of his Army Vlama in like manner worthily seconded his valor and all the Janizaries seeing in the head of them so couragious a Chieftain performed their parts so well in this encounter that they pierced quite through this battalion and so absolutely defeated it as all that the squadron which was behinde it could do was to set the person of Tachmas out of danger But whil'st Ibrahim fought so prosperously the Beglierbey of Amasia who commanded the left wing had not the like fortune for finding himself opposed to the best Soldiers of the Enemies Army who were commanded by one Basingir a man of great consideration with the Persians his battalion had been broken at the very first and the Enemies intermingling amongst them had killed part of them and made the rest to fly in beating them even to the body of their battel Ibrahim having been advertised of this disorder left Vlama to prosecute the victory which he was already well entred into and mounting on a horse he went galloping followed onely by an hundred Accangis whom he drew from their body towards the place where the greatest disorder was When he arrived there and saw his men basely flying and suffering themselves to be killed scarcely making defence he went directly to them with his Scymitar in his hand but being loth to cover them with shame in lâ—tting them see that he percâ—ived their cowardice You mistake said he Fellow-Soldiers your valor transports you too much the Enemy is not that way turn about and follow me This speech filled them with confusion and this confusion having redoubled their courage they rallyed themselves about him But when as notwithstanding he saw that those words were not sufficient to make them fight valiantly enough he went to one of those who carryed the Arms of the Empire and taking the Ensign out of his hand he threw it with all his force into the midst of the Enemies and turning about to his men Come Fellow-Soldiers said he unto them we must dye or recover it This action gave new strength to the Turks for whereas amongst them the greatest disgrace that can arrive to their Troops is to let the Enemies with whom they fight take the Arms of the Empire the design of recovering this Ensign which Ibrahim had thrown amongst the Enemies infused the desire of glory and fear of infamy into their souls At length the one side purposing to keep it and the other to regain it there began so fierce a sight betwixt them as it was in this place where the greatest slaughter was made Wounds in stead of weakening those which received them seemed to incense their fury There were men seen covered all over with blood and hurts who in falling down dead gave death unto others They too who had already lost their lives served still to make others lose thâ—irs for divers encountering with this great number of bodies under their feet stumbled many timâ—s against their wills and so gave their Enemies the opportunity to run them through and of all this infinite company of men that fought in this place there was not one which was not dyed either with his own blood or that of his Enemies But at last after a very long conflict the very same hand which had thrown the Turks Ensign to the Persians wrung it out of the hand of Basingir who had seized upon it by depriving him of his life and he not onely recovered his own Standart but he also gained that of the Enemies This so noble and brave an action abated the courage of the Persians and augmented that of the Turks so that after this those which had sled in their turn pursued the very samâ— adversaries who had routed them and Ibrahim went beating them to the very place wherâ— he had left Vlama who on hâ—s side had almost made an end of vanquishing all that had madâ— resistance against him Howbeit he remembred in this occasion that he was Tachmas subject for having found Ismael inclosed by five or six Turks who seeing that he would neither defend nor render himâ—elf would without doubt have killed him he drew him out of their hands and reprâ—aching them for standing in that sort upon the getting of so weak a victory having so many Enemies yet to fight withall he gave him the opportunity to escape to his own party In â—he mean time the Bassa Pialli who commanded the left wing was still bickering with one named Alamut who commanded the Persians left wing and they had fought with so equal an advanâ—age as it could not be said to which side the victory leaned But the Grand Visier being her favorite in this battel she followed him also in this occasion His arrival made the face of things to change the Persian Horse basely fell off and a battalion of Foot was wholy overthrown the Accangis in this encounter did wonders the Timariots likewise performed their duty and albeit the Persian Cavalry is better then the Turks yet this day they proved the weaker The Sophy seeing his whole battel broken a great part of his men dead and fear in all the rest thought no longer but of making a retreat and putting his person in safety that he might not fall into the power of his Enemies and to facilitate the means thereof he commanded six thousand Horse which were coasting the Army to set upon Ibrahim's Reer-guard who had not yet fought thinking thereby to make a diversion and give him the means to retire with some order things being no longer in terms for him to hope that he could keep the field But this design succeedâ—d no better then the rest for these six thousand Horse having encountred those which Ibrahim had commanded to ride up and down about his Camp there fâ—ll out a particular fight betwixt thâ—m wherein the Persians were also vanquished So that Tachmas missing of this hope too thought no longer of retreating but of flying And whereas of all apprehensions fear is that which more speedily passeth from one heart to another amongst the Soldiâ—rs the Sophy was no sooner seen to think of retiring but his Troops were straightway possest with terror The Enemy appeared more redoubtable to them then before and losing the hope of victory they lost the will to fight Ibrahim in the mean while omitted no time and perceiving by the Enemies countenance that they were no longer carryed by the desire of vanquishing but onely by that of saving themselves he redoubled his endevors and causing all the Troops of his Army which had not yet fought to fall on all together he put that of the Enemies into so fearful a disorder that it was no longer either fighâ—ing retreating or flying but to say better it was all the three together For in one place a battalion was seen to stand firm and continue fighting in another a Squadron that retired without breaking but almost every where the Horse
doubt of nothing but Pirates and Tempests Doria Horatio and Alphonso prepared themselves for all that might happen with constancy enough the French Marquis began already to talk according to his accustomed humor when as Justiniano who was not so well assured of his good fortune but that he had as much fear as hope began to cry out that they were pursued and that he saw a Galley which made towards them amain Indeed he discovered Rustans Galley even as they were near to that strait where the two Castles of Sestos and Abydus are situated which the Turks at this day call Dardanelli Justiniano having seen this Galley turned himself to Jsabella and asked her whether she would not permit him to dye in defending her Your death sayd she unto him him I may not endure but that excepted I will consent to any thing rather than to fall again into the hands of Soliman After this discourse Justiniano and his freinds began to prepare themselves for defence and though he had but few men for to carry the business the more secretly he durst bring no more yet were they not easie to be vanquished for as well slaves as Merchants were sufficiently obliged to fight and the others had not only their lives liberties to defend but their Sisters their Mistrisses too On the other part Rustan knowing that this vessel was the same which he sought for and fearing that the Christian slaves which were in his Galley would not row speedily enough he promised them their liberty if they imployed all their force in this occasion and that by their means he might stay Ibrahim so that carried by this hope and without inquiring whether those which they would take were Turks or Christians they rowed with so much vigor as in a little time his Galley was within Cannon shot of Ibrahims Vessell And to keep him from flying he discharged a piece of Ordnance to advertise them that were of the Guard in the Castles of Sestos and Abidus that enemies vessells were in that place This device failed not to work the expected effect for Ibrahim knowing that there were on both sides of this straight forty pieces of Ordnance planted even with the water which without doubt would after this signall discharge upon him if he attempted to pass found himself strangely troubled For of one side he feared lest he should see Isabella carried away with a Cannon-shot on the other Rustans violence was little less terrible to him and in this unquietness he commanded his Pilot to doe one thing and by and by unsayed it again Isabella would have had them expose themselves rather to the fury of the Cannon than to fight with Rustan but they were not long in an estate to choose what they had to doe for this Galley which pursued them having overtaken them and spite of their utmost indeavours to the contrary having grapled her self to them Ibrahim followed by his friends performed such things in this occasion as surpassed the valour of the most illustrious Heroes He wounded Rustan with his own hand all those that presented themselves against him fell presently dead either at his feet or into the Sea All Rustans souldiers fled from his incounter and chose rather to set upon ten others than defend themselves from him alone In the mean time fresh succor came to Rustan for they of the two Castles of Sestos and Abidus hearing the piece which he had caused to be shot off came in Frigots with a great number of souldiers to see what the matter was and finding a Christian Vessell set upon by Turks they never inquired further but joyned with them and Ibrahim seeing his enemies redoubled redoubled his courage too One would have said that he had recovered new forces he past from one place to another in an instant he maintained his own men assaulted his enemies and fighting desperately yet without losing his judgement he might peradventure have wearied and vanquished them that assaulted him had not Rustan whilst he was busie in defending himself from fix which fought with him together bethought him of a wile which alone made him victor He went with some souldiers to the Captains Cabbin with his Scymitar in his hand where the Princess and her dear friends were more dead than alive in attending the event of the fight When first he entred Isabella gave a great skriek but this cruell man without hearkning to her complaints drawing her with one hand and holding his Scymitar in the other pulled her to the Cabbin-door and calling to Ibrahim who turned his head that way Resolve thy self said he unto him to render up thy arms or if thou dost it not to see the head of her I hold here taken from her shoulders This dreadfull speech made Ibrahim stop a little during the which Jsabella without daunting prayed him not to yeeld for to keep her from death seeing she desired it But Jbrahim being about to advance towards Rustan and seeing him lift up his arm to strike Isabella hold said he unto him throwing down his arms and tendring his hands to them that invironed him spare the life of this person since I did not fight but to preserve it set her free and make me a slave and if I may obtain this of thee I will not complain of thy cruelty Alas cried Jsabella then the laying of you in irons is not giving me liberty nor is the putting your life in the power of your enemies the preserving of mine In the mean time Doria Alphonso Horatio and the French Marquis were still indeavouring to doe their uttermost but Jbrahim fearing lest some out-rage should be done to Jsabella cryed to them to render themselves which they were constrained to doe for Jbrahim fighting no longer and being loaden with chains by Rustans commandment they had all the enemies upon them so that fight how they could number prevailed over valour and Rustan made himself Master of the Vessell and of the persons whom he sought for and having forced them to pass into his Galley he returned to Constantinople These infortunate ones had yet the consolation to make this voyage together without being separated for Rustan busied about stopping the blood which he lost at the wound he had received had not the inhumanity to keep them from talking together Jbrahim was likewise as well as Horatio Alphonso Doria and the French Marquis loaden with chains which had been knocked off from some of those slaves who had been the cause of their taking by rowing with such speed Jsabella and her friends being with them and not able to succour them augmented their torments yet more with the extreme affliction that appeared in them Alas said Jsabella to Jbrahim if I were sure that death would be the greatest misery that can arrive unto me in the place whither we are going I should easily comfort my self yea and I should regard it as an happiness rather than a misfortune but the crueltie of our enemies will
not stay there for whereas Soliman knowes that I fear neither torments nor death he will make me suffer in your person and that makes up all my grief Fear not for me said Jbrahim unto her but onely think of preserving your self Soliman loves you labour then to move his heart rather than to incense it and be confident that death cannot be grievous to me if I were assured of your life No no answered Jsabella this is not the way I mean to hold and you would blame me without doubt if I should follow your counsell I will die as well as you and if my prayers can obtain any thing of Soliman it shall be that we may die together Augment not my torments replyed the Illustrious Bassa and speak not of your death if you will not have me advance mine live my dear Jsabella and let me alone perish I live cried Jsabella Ah! no no Jsabella knows not how to survive her glory and Justiniano which are the only things that can make her life agreeable without the which she wil not preserve it I may added she live unhappy infortunate laden with chains exiled from my country without means and without liberty but I cannot live without honor and without Justiniano so that if Soliman will ravish me of my glory and bereave me of the onely person that I love I shall not waver between death and life and I know what coâ—rse I am to take Ah! too generous Isabella cryed Ibrahim then why have I loved you to cause you to fall into so many miseries Why have I not alwaies been your enemy to keep you from having such cruell ones But what say I sensless man continued he I merit the torments which I suffer if I can repent me of having loved you No Madam I cannot doe it I would that my death might hinder yours I would that I might indure all things for you but I cannot wish that I could not adore you That wish would be unjust replyed she and would questionless doe great wrong to our affection which is not the cause of our misfoâ—tunes it is two pure and too innocent to bee punished for a crime and the onely thing which comforts me in our miseries is the belief I am in that wee doe not deserve them and that Heaven sends them to us rather to try our vertue than to correct our faults But added she before we are seperated as without doubt we shall be promise me that what artifice soever our enemies may use to perswade you unto any thing to my disadvantage you will never beleeve it For hold it for most assured that Isabella will dye a thousand times rather than do any thing unworthy of her vertue and yours Let me then have the satisfaction to hope that the malice of our persecutors shall make you beleeve nothing to my prejudice Ah! Madam cryed Ibrahim it is for me to demand this favour of you for whereas I have not rendred you so many markes of my affection as I have received from your vertue you may the more easily doubt of it But beleeve Madam that I will dye adoring you and if the loss of my life may oblige Soliman to restore you to your liberty as I purpose to beseech it of him I shall dye even with pleasure Let us not separate our destinies anfwered the Princess either let us live together or let us dye together After so sad a discourse the excess of their affection forced them to hold their peace and their displeasure being shut up in their heart they felt it more vively than they did whom as they eased themselves with their complaints The unhappiness of the persons which were ingaged in their misfortune afflicted them the more and they saw all about them so many occasions of dispair as it might be said that never was the vertue of a person put to so hard a triall Hipolita Sophronia Emilia and Leonida were wholy dissolved into teares Alphonso Doria Horatio and the French Marquis were also infinitely afflicted and if Rustan could have been touched with any compassion hee had been doubtless with so lamentable an object But far from having any humanity for another he was cruell to himself for though he were wounded yet the desire which he had to destroy Ibrahim and to finish a thing which he had so well begun made him in stead of repayring to his house to look to his wound to goe directly to the Serraglio assoon as he arrived at Constantinople and to behave himself so as if he had not been hurt at all Presently upon his landing hee sent to advertise Soliman of his return and of the success of his voyage And whereas this Prince had increased his fury with his solitariness he instantly commanded that Ibrahim and Isabella should be brought into the Seraglio and put into severall places with a sure guard and that all those which had followed them should bee put likewise into another place Never was so deplorable a thing seen as the execution of this commandment Isabella would not quit Ibrahim he too would not abandon her and though they had well enough foreseen that they should be separated yet could they not for all that consent thereunto Their frends likewise would not leave them and if Soliman could have been a spectator of so sad a conversation hee might peradventure have been moved to pitty But at length Ibrahim and Isabella being constrained to resolve for that which they could not avoyd took their farwell of each other as persons that were never to see one another again and following each other with their eyes as far as they could they svvare unto themselves to dye loving one another as faithfully as they had mutually promised After Rustan had conducted Ibrahim to one quarter of the Seraglio caused Isabella to bee carried to another and their friends to a third he went to Soliman whose minde had never been quiet since he knew the success of his voyage For seeing Jbrahim and Jsabella in his hands he scarcely knew what resolution to take for in the estate wherein things were he must destroy the Bassa or render him his Mistress Regarding him as the Lover of Jsabella he desired his death considering him as a fugitive he sound it just but remembring the affection which he had born him hee had much ado to resolve to destroy him What shall I do said he to himself with this ingratefull creature who after so many favors which he hath received from me so many honors which I have conferred on him so many marks which I have rendred him of my good will goes out of my Empire without my leave This perfidious man cried he should have considered me-thinks how I had heretofore broken his chains to share my Empire with him and how he to whom he owed his life and his liberty ought to have obliged him to a more exact fidelity But this wretch preferring the possession of a woman before the greatness wherein
I had set him and my friendship quits and abandons me and not content to steal a person from me whom I love and without whom I cannot live he gets him away it may be with intelligences that he hath in my Empire to make war upon me and to recover from me that which he saith appertains unto him But he was never of the Race of the Paleologues And then continued he if he could perswade me to it that would be yet a further reason to oblige me to destroy him It behoves he should die out of reason of State as I pretend he shall die out of reason of Love If I regard him as a slave I have power over his life since every slave that breaks his irons deserves to lose it If I regard him as my subject he is worthy of death for going out of my Empire without my consent If I regard him as a Christian I cannot hate him enough and if I consider him as an Enemy-Prince it behoves he should die that the end of his life may make an end of setling my Throne to my successors Soliman having as it seemed to him setled his resolution firmly enough felt some rest in his minde Howbeit suddenly some beam of light coming to him again he was ashamed of his own thoughts yet would he not oppose them but rather sought how he might fortifie them nevertheless there was one thing that retained his fury for a while Suppose said he that I resolve to destroy Jbrahim that he be already punished for his ingratitude and perfidiousness that the end of his life hath ended the love which he bears to Jsabella let us see after this whether in thinking to do our self service we do not hurt our self For can she love a Prince who bereaves her of the person that is dearest to her in the world But can she continued he love any other than Ibrahim as long as he is living No no sayd he raising his voyce it behoves hee should dye and I shall alwayes have this consolation that if shee love not mee shee shall at leastwise love nothing in the world But cried he again after he had continued a while without speaking he whom I will destroy is the same Jbrahim who hath done me such important service and whom I have so much loved howbeit continued he it is Jsabellaes Lover it is a fugitive slave it is a revolted subject it is a Prince my enemy or it may be an impostor In such like thoughts as these was the Grand Signior when as Rustan came to him who out of his malice carried him to further violence against Jbrahim by forging matters which he affirmed he had heard him speak against him Presently therupon Roxelana entred who making as if she did not know that there was any interest of love in the hatred which Soliman bore to Jbrahim spake not but of the good of the State and of the glory of the Empire She represented to Soliman how mightily he had alwaies protected the Christians in all occasions that had been presented as indeed she lyed not But although the most part of those things were done by Solimans consent in the favor of Jbrahim yet was this Prince so unjust as to hearken to this accusation as if he had been acquainted with new crimes After then that this wicked woman had made him resolve to put Jbrahim to death she told him moreover that if hast were not made to take away his life the people undoubtedly would rise to save him for said she out of the design which he hâ—th had to usurp the Empire he hath alwaies taken great care to make himself to be beloved of them Soliman seeing himself upon the point of absolutely resolving the matter felt a new combat in his heart love hatred jealousie friendship shame and glory did their last and uttermost endeavor to vanquish one another but at length vertue was surmounted in this occasion by the wickedness of Roxalana and Rustan And Soliman consented that without further delay he should go and execute this fatall sentence which their hatred rather than he pronounced against the illustrious Jbrahim Away he went with a great deal of speed for fear lest the Sultan should alter his mind Nevertheless not daring wholly to fall in the usuall form he sent for Jbrahim to come to supper and this perfidious wretch who feared a revolt kept all that were in the Seraglio from going forth In the mean time Jbrahim being set at table as the rest Rustan in the midst of the meal presented him with a robe of black velvet which was an undoubted mark that the end of this fatal feast should be the end of his life For after this manner is the news of death denounced to persons of quality that are to lose their lives in the Seraglio Jbrahim seeing his ruin certain received this robe for all that with a great deal of constancie And whereas it was presented to him by Rustan because no body else would tender him this strange present I receive it sayd he unto him without fearing the death which it presageth and without being any whit surprised therewith knowing full well that it is a dependance of the charge which I have possest and that few Grand Visiers have dyed otherwaies But I receive it with grief because it blemisheth the glory of a Prince whom I have loved and for that it is offered to me by the hand of Rustan This ceremony much afflicted all them that saw it yet did not Ibrahim rise til the time which custom requires in such like occasions was past nor forbear talking to some Officers of the Empire which were at this fatal supper by Rustans order in the grand Signiors name for he feared if they should have gone forth and acquainted the people that Ibrahim was going to be put to death they would have risen before he had been executed And truly this design was not amiss for whereas Ibrahim was infinitely beloved their eys were all bedew'd with tears and certainly had they had arms they would have attempted to succor him or at leastwise would have lost themselves with him Never was there a more deplorable feast than this same none that were present at it did eat any thing they seemed all to be condemned to death and Ibrahim only testified by the tranquillity of his countenance and by his constancy that he was in case to comfort the rest Four mutes which were to strangle him stood before him with each of them a black silk bow-string in his hand which was to serve for that deadly office Now though this object possest all those that considered it with terror and pitie Ibrahim seemed no more sensible of fear than Rustan was of compassion This Illustrious Bassa was seen with an admirable tranquillity and with a constancy without affectation he indured his misery without murmuring he beheld the tears of others without shedding any and if any sign of sadness appeared in
doth not live it will appear to thee by the same reason that during the said time Ibrahim may dye without breaking of thy Highness word The Sultan hearing him speak thus beleeved that this man knew not very well what he would say but the other nothing daunted and speaking to him with as much confidence as if he had been inspired from Heaven My Lord said he unto him it is a matter whereof no body is ignorant that Sleep is called the brother of Death by all Nations and in all Languages and truly it is not without cause that he is termed so it being certain that a man which is asleep cannot with reason be said to be living since we see that he is deprived of all the functions of a reasonable life which alone is the life of man I confess indeed how in that estate he still enjoys the life of plants but not that of man which consists not but in the use of Reason whereof he is wholly bereft in that estate Sleep equals Kings and Shepherds as well as Death the stupid and the witty the happy and the unhappy good men and bad and there is no difference seen between them but that sleep is a short death and death an eternal sleep Wherefore it being evident that a man asleep cannot to speak reasonably be said to be living I conclude from thence that thy Highness without breaking thy word may take away Ibrahim's life when as sleep hath throughly benummed thy sense and Reason Roxelana failed not to approve of this advice and maintained that he had spoken judiciously But for Soliman he yielded not with so much facility he made many objections to the Muphti whereunto he still answered with as much cunning as wickedness Thus although this Prince had a very piercing wit in all other things yet the desire which he had to make away Ibrahim perswaded him that the Muphti had Reason and that he might put the grand Visier to death when he was aslâ—ep For this wicked man said to him thy Highness hath not absolutely promised him not to put him to death but only that he should not dye a violent death as long as Soliman lives and Soliman shall not live when as the Bassa shall dye This design being concluded it was resolved that they should tarry till night was come for the executing of it For whereas sleep is not a voluntary act they thought it requisite to attend till the time of sleep was come In the mean season Ibrahim had been brought back to the place which served him for a prison not knowing whether grace would be shewed him or whether his execution was but deferred This incertainty was almost as displeasing as the assurance of an approaching death had been grievous to him yet did he not ask any thing that regarded himself directly but only enquired after Isabella who on her part was not without a world of grief She had understood that Ibrahim had been lead to a place where oftentimes the grand Visiers had been deprived of their lives and that made her to be as much afflicted as if she had already seen him breathe out his last It may be said she that now whil'st I am speaking Justiniano is defending himself against his Executioners it may be he is yielding up his last breath and is thinking of me once for all Ah! if it be so cryed she I beseech Heaven at leastwise to spare me the affliction that I may not hear of his loss and by my death to keep me from the grief of lamenting his Howbeit I fear said she that my prayers will not be heard and that Soliman's cruelty will let me live to persecute me But let him arm his Executioners let him invent torments I will complain no more after this sorrow he that shall acquaint me with the loss of Justiniaeno shall render me insensible to all others Alas what say I added she it seems in hearing me speak that I will conserve my life after he shall be deprived of his no no Isabella will not survive Justiniano and that which the rage of Soliman will not do grief alone shall execute Let this unjust Prince do what he will I hope that I shall get out of his power by getting out of my life Heaven is interessed in the prayer which I make unto it I beg this grace of it to preserve mine innocence and if my despair be a fault I hope it will pardon it in regard of the greatness of my misfortune of the purity of my affection and of mine own weakness In this deplorable estate Isabella having understood that Ibrahim had been brought back to his quarter hope began again to find some place in her Soul and she beleeved that Soliman having desired to see him had peradventure been moved to compassion Sophronia Hipolita Leonida Emilia and the rest of their Troop which were in another place had the same hope hearing what had past But the matter went otherwise for as soon as night was come Rustan who wholly governed this deadly ceremony went himself a second time to fetch Ibrahim by the Grand Signior's Command He led him then into the same Hall where formerly he had been and having left him in the company of four mutes which were to strangle him as soon as Soliman was asleep he returned to this Prince who had at that time no greater a longing then to make away Ibrahim As for him although he did not fear death and was exceeding peaceable yet had his Soul great agitations Ah said he to himself I shall never see Isabella more I and I shall not only be deprived of her sight but I shall abandon her to the violence of a Prince who I beleeved had been her Protector and who it may be provoked by her vertue will take away her life as well as mine for since Soliman can consent to my death he may well sign hers Alas continued he to what an estate am I reduced If I wish that she should live I make wishes against her glory I consent to the exposing of her to the rigor of a violent and amorous Prince I cannot wish her her life without doing her wrong and then again not only I cannot desire her death but I cannot so much as think of it without a despair that is not to be parelled If this Prince who is my Rival could be her husband I would make vows against my self and I love Isabella so much as to be willing to save her life with the loss of all my felicity But as the case stands she cannot be his not only without infidelity not only without infamy but with an horrible crime Alas added he if it were not so my loss should not be without comfort loving me as she doth she would live without pleasure but also without shame She would bewail my death without other interest then that of conserving my memory and fear having no place in her heart the grief alone of having
speak not of your death if you will not have me dye in despair Let us go Madam let us go rather to beg your liberty of Soliman and obtain of him that the loss of my life may be the price of it I will not have it without you answered she wherefore persist not in wishing to save me In the mean time they arrived at Soliman's Chamber whom they found still leaning on a Table and in a posture that they could not see his face As soon as they were there Ibrahim and Isabella cast themselves at his feet My Lord said the Princess if I may obtain the grace of thee that I may dye with Justiniano I will not complain of thy Highness but contrarily I will praise thy justice I am guilty my Lord and of an horrible crime against thee I have made thee despise the friendship which thou barest to Justiniano I have made thee abandon Reason I have put a stain on thy life I have blemished thy glory I have troubled thy rest and I have constrained the greatest Prince of the Earth to oppose all his inclinations which carry him to vertue for to follow an unjust passion Thou plainly seest my Lord that wrath ought to have a more just foundation in thy soul then this Love which afflicts thee and persecutes me Change thy passion in my favor but in such sort that as I have been the object of thy love so I may be likewise of thy hate Think of revenging thy self on the true cause of thy unquietness think of destroying and not of gaining me the last is impossible and the other is very easie for thee It is not because if my tears could move thee I can yet assure thee that hate should have a place in my soul For know my Lord that even Justiniano from whom thou wilt take away both his honor his life and my person which is as dear to him as both the other yet cannot hate thee I have seen it in his eyes I have known it by his discourse he complains of fortune he accuses that which thy Highness calls beauty in me he names that weakness which another would name injustice in fine my Lord being ready to dye innocently by thy directions and command yet am I well assured that he will dye without hatred and that even in dying he will make vows to obtain of Heaven an advantageous change for thee Judg after this whether thou oughtest to refuse me the grace that I may dye and that he may be saved since I am guilty and he is innocent My Lord said Justiniano interrupting her harken not to the vertuous Isabella but to admire the greatness of her courage and suffer not thy self to be perswaded to that which she desires of thee I will not stand to examine whether I am culpable or whether I am not since to be hated of thee is to be so but my Lord I will onely tell thee that if the sentence of my death shall be pronounced by thy mouth I will not murmur at it I confess my weakness to thee my Lord I cannot yet believe but that all that which I have seen since my return is an inchantment and not a truth For how can it be imagined that great Soliman who hath loved me so tenderly and given me so glorious marks thereof can be carryed at this present to such unjust designs That with the same hand wherewith he broke my chains and put the reyns of his Empire into mine he can put about my neck the string which is to strangle me Doth thy Highness no longer remember the thoughts which thou hadst at such time as seeing me ready to enter into the grave rather then displease thee with craving my liberty of thee thou resolvedst to have the incomparable Isabella be brought away by force Was it then my Lord out of a design to ravish her from me to persecute her to blemish thy glory and to take away my life in having unjust thoughts for her Think not my Lord of the services I have done thee but of those which I purposed to do thee yet think not of them my Lord for to pardon me but think of them to save Isabella Restore her to her liberty make not me the cause of her undoing send her back into her Country and after that put me to death here But grant me at leastwise the grace to pronounce my sentence unto me for I confess to thee once more that I doubt whether it be possible that thou shouldst be the same Soliman which hath so dearly loved me It is in vain for you to desire said Isabella that we should be separated that thought is unjust and does wrong to our affection it is a motion whereof I repent me and whereof you ought to repent you Beg then of Soliman that we may dye or that we may live together for provided he will grant us this I will attend his sentence without grief and without unquietness You shall live said Soliman then to her discovering his face which he had all bathed with tears you shall live generous Princess Ibrahim's vertue hath surmounted me Approach said he unto him and if it be so that thou dost not hate me still beliâ—ve for a certain that the good-will which I have born thee is recovering its place in my Soul Repentance which was a motion unknown to me chases the love of Isabella from it therein to re-establish my friendship to Ibrahim I feel it coming my Reason re-assumes its use I see my injustice and my violence with confusion I see the vertue of Isabella and no longer see her beauty she strikes me with admiration and no longer strikes me with love I wish I could imitate her generosity and no longer desire the possession of her In fine said he to Ibrahim know that of all the marks of affection that which thou receivest from me at this present is without doubt the greatest and to give no bounds to it and to make thee see that knowing my fault I will punish it and to keep my self from falling into it a second time I do not onely give thee thy life which I would have unjustly taken from thee but I do also give thee thy liberty as well as that of the incomparable Isabella Oh! my Lord cryed Ibrahim I hear the voyce of Soliman they which spake to me from him have betrayed his true thoughts No continued Ibrahim let us speak no more of this doleful adventure but as of a fable and without thâ—nking of that which is past suffer me onely to give thee thanks for thy clemency As for me added Isabella who eternally remembers benefits and very easily forgets injuries if it be so that great Soliman hath vanquished himself I promise thy Highness to make vows as long as I live for thy glory Doubt not of that which I say replyed Soliman and the better to assure you thereof I permit you said he unto her with a voyce interrupted with
sighs to go out of my Empire when you please I should also be generous enough to share it with Ibrahim to whom it appertains more justly then to me if I could infuse into the hearts of my subjects the thoughts which are in mine During this discourse Rustan was in a strange unquietness and when as he believed that Soliman had his minde busied and did not think of him he would have slipt out of the Chamber to go and advertise Roxelana of that which was doing But Soliman perceiving it Stay said he unto him infamous wretch and then he commanded him to be turned out of the Serraglio without permitting him to speak to any body and charged him with a great deal of fury never to shew himself more before him After this he sent for the vertuous Achmat and the Sultana Asteria It is by these two persons said he to Ibrahim that I will be counselled to know what way we may take that Justiniano may cease to be Ibrahim without making a noise amongst the people which might prejudice my State For as for my self continued he sighing it is so little a while since my Reason hath recovered its place as I dare not yet rely upon it Ibrahim whom we will call most commonly hereafter Justiniano answered the Grand Signior with as much generosity as joy for wheras he had exceedingly loved this Prince how great soever that was which he felt to see Isabella escaped from so great a danger yet was he not a little glâ—d also to see in Soliman the marks of his ancient vertue again In the mean time after that the Sultan had acquainted the sage Achmat and the generous Asteria with the business in question in such terms as well declared the repentance of his soul and after they had commended the resolution he was in and mightily confirmed him in the design which he had to restore Justiniano and Isabella to their liberty Achmat who never knew of Justiniano's disguising till then counselled since the matter was so far advanced that the people should be made to believe how the Grand Signior had put Ibrahim to death upon some discovery that he had held intelligence with the Emperor Charls and favored the Christians in all things yea and that some letters too should be forged which should be said he had been made to confess by which means the matter would easily be credited because it was true that every one knew how the illustrious Bassa had always protected the Christians He said moreover that if the business was not carryed in that sort it would be impossible to finde out a plausible pretext to keep the people from suspecting some trick in the absence of Ibrahim which might produce dangerous consequences Thâ—s advice being approved of yet because Justiniano and Isabella could not be sent away towards Genoua presently it was thought requisite to have them secretly conveyed to Pera and there to remain concealed with those Greek Priests whom Justiniano had so much favored until such time as a vessel could be made ready for them This farewell could not be taken without shedding of a world of tears Soliman craved pardon of Justiniano and Isabella who after they had anâ—wered him with tenderness and submission and assured him that they would forget what was past desired him he would be pleased to give their friends their liberty which the Sultan having granted them they were sent for and conducted along with them to Pera. The Sultana Asteria and Isabella said to one another all that a most strict friendship could make two generous persons say in such like encounters And the prudent Achmat charging himself with the conduct of Justiniano and his Mistress conveyed them with all their Troop aboard a Barque which carryed them to Pera. Soliman could not for all that see Isabella part without following her with his eyes nor could he see Ibrahim go away without forgetting Isabella it being most certain that never was there a truer repentance then that of this great Prince In the mean time to make it be beleeved that Ibrahim was dead a black Standart was set up before the gate of his Palace Achmat fearing a sedition put all the Janizaries into arms and gave them to understand that Ibrahim was a Traytor that he had gone about to overthrow the Empire and that his death had been absolutely necessary for the preservation of the State He shewed them also certain forged Letters to give the more credit to that which he said But whatsoever he could say no sooner was the black Standart seen before the gate of his Palace but all the people began to murmur There was nothing but weeping and crying all over Constantinople Those Janizaries that had been the best perswaded left not for all that to be exceedingly afflicted for he was so universally beloved as there was not any body which did not lament and commend him Some said that Roxelana without doubt was the cause of this mischief and that she still remembred how he had been the Protector of Prince Mustapha Some cryed out to have at leastwise the body of their Defender given unto them others that his Executioners might be delivered into their hands and all of them together agreed in the belief that Soliman had lost the force of his Empire and the support of his State During this tumult Rustan passing through a street the people who had understood by some that had been in the Serraglio how it was he which had been made use of for this deadly Ceremony and that he had put Ibrahim to death fell upon him with so many imprecations and with such fury as they tore him in a thousand pieces From thence they went to his Pâ—lace to set it on fire but at length the prudent Achmat having appeased this sedition returned to the Serraglio where he found that Heaven had made an end of revenging Justiniano on his enemies For Roxelana having understood that he was not dead and that Rustan had been torn in pieces by the people this fierce and proud spirit was so sensibly touched with spight for that she could not exercise all her whole fury that after she had continued three hours together without speaking a word she dyed for very rage and madness and Justiniano had the satisfaction to know that he was lamented of all the world and that the only persons which could rejoyce at his death had been punished for their injustices In the mean time Achmat by Soliman's Command caused the same Christian Vessel to be made ready which Justiniano had formerly used to get from Constantinople and in one night he sent aboard her all the riches of Ibrahim's Palace and a great deal more which he was constrained to accept of against his inclination The Sultan wrote also with his own hand to the illustrious Bassa and again assured him of his repentance and affection whereunto Justiniano and Isabella answered with a great deal of generosity The death of Roxelana touched
was very great in riches most mighty in friends of an extraordinary courage having a great deal of prudence and wit and much more ambition there would have been folly and no little hazard for whomsoever would have enterprized to disoblige him Abdalla though grieved with that which Aly had done yet named it an excess of zeal and affection rather then inhumanity and continuing him in his Commands committed unto him almost the whole sway of his Kingdoms But in some sort to repair this cruelty he took care to dry up the tears of the Princess Mariama inforced her to return to the Court made her to be reverenced as the Queen of all his States would have perswaded her that Aly was not altogether culpable of the death of Hamet and her children and would exact no other thing of her but to live in good terms with Aly. This Princess who was no less prudent then vertuous made as if she believed that which the King her Brother told her albeit in her heart she bare an irreconciliable hatred to Aly. And indeed she lived so well with him without doing any thing for all that unworthy of her great minde as it was believed that the consideration of her Brother and her own vertue had made her forget that Aly had counselled the death of her Husband and had caused her Father-in-law and her children to be killed But you shall perceive by the sequel of this History that she had other manner of designs Behold then Madam the estate wherein the Court of Marocco was at such time as we were driven thither by tempest Abdalla was peaceable in his Estates the Princess Mariama was very powerful with him and Aly shared with her in Abdalla's heart I think that after this you will the less marvel when you shall come to know that this vertuous Princess set her self so strongly and so readily to protect us in regard she was carryed thereunto both by her own vertue and the hate she bare to Aly as you shall understand by the sequel of this discourse But to come to that which touches us directly I am to tell you that whether Sophronia's extream affliction had rendered her eyes less powerful then they used to be or Leonida's negligence had taken off some of her charms or that my sister having a complexion not so clear as her fellows was the more suitable to that of the Country it was she that made Abdalla and Aly her Slaves and who by consequence was the cause that we were so too You have promised said Horatio interrupting him to be a faithful Historian wherefore without digressing from your subject relate onely the effects of Hipolita's beauty and not establish your self the judg thereof The Marquis could not forbear laughing at this discourse no more then Sophronia and Leonida nor Hipolita blushing and all out of different apprehensions but at length after some civilities had past betwixt them Doria continued his discourse in this sort Hipolita then having seemed beautiful both to the King and to his Favorite they had both of them a design not to give liberty to a person who had already somewhat engaged theirs But whereas this first sense of love was not yet very strong in their soul they said nothing of it to one another and onely resolved together that we should be retained as Slaves but whereas ill fortune had brought us to Marocco and that we were not their Enemies but because we were Christians therefore we should be treated very gently yea and hope given us that in time we might obtain our liberty This resolution taken all our Soldiers and Mariners were the next day committed to safe custody without any other ill usage offered unto them and for us they contented themselves with leaving us under the guard they had formerly assigned us with this difference nevertheless that we were separated from Sophronia Leonida and Hipolita for it was Abdalla's absolute pleasure that they should abide in the service of the Princess Mariama and that they should lie in her lodgings but with this grace for us that we should be permitted to go sometimes and see them or they to come and visit us This extraordinary favor having been granted to us against the custom of the Country by the goodness of Mariama whom these new Slaves always found ready to render them all kinde of good offices It is certain that this separation was grievous unto us and seeing the terms wherein we stood we were almost sorry that we had not suffred shipwrack at least-wise me-thought I observed such like apprehensions in the mindes of Horatio and Alphonso But as for the Marquis it is to be spoken for his glory that never man was so soon comforted as he and I was not a little surprized to hear him say laughing a quarter of an hour after we were returned from conducting the persons who were so deer unto us to the Princess Mariama's lodgings that the Affricans Love could tell how to use his how better then he of Europe it being very true said he that he had never been so suddenly strucken to the heart as he had lately been by the charms of a sister of the Princess Mariama who was called Lela Mahabit onely with seeing her at a window For me said the Marquis interrupting him who had neither Sister nor Mistress to grieve for nor was afflicted but out of a sense of friendship I am not to be blamed if to render my self more like unto those with whom I conversed I suffered my self to be surprized with the passion which possessed their Souls If I be always interrupted in this manner said Doria iâ— will be hard for me to relate this day that which you desire to know of me Isabella finding that Doria had Reason made all the company pass their word that they would not speak any more until he had ended their History so that every one keeping silence and Isabella having renewed her attention Doria prosecuted his discourse in this sort These new Slaves were no sooner come to the Princess Mariama's lodgings but Abdalla who visited them very often repaired thither accompanyed with Aly. And whereas he found her with them and that therefore they would out of respect have withdrawn he would not permit it telling them that the name of Slave which he had imposed upon them was rather an artifice to retain them about the Princess his sister then a design to keep them in servitude This complement was seconded by another which Aly used to them and with a sincere protestation made to them by Mariama for the treating of them as her sisters rather then as her Slaves This second view yet more augmented the love which the King of Marocco and Aly already bore to Hipolita and whereas Aly was cunning and dextrous and had out of a sense of ambition for a long time before taken great care to observe all Abdalla's motions he quickly perceived that the beauty of Hipolita had touched