of this Towne he most affied in and to whom he did most freely impart his negotiation my Sister the woman that pleased him best finding her excellently faire well graced of a pleasing discourse and an vnderstanding aboue the rest This inclination grew to a loue in which he gouerned himselfe so well and so well disguised it that he escaped all suspition He resolued to impart it to my Sister but with such fitnesse as none but shee or some most trusted woman should know it And knowing the common curiosity and sudden suspitions that ordinarily follow neere frequentations in those kinds might soone ruine his hopes he retained still his ordinary modest fashion and seemings But the Carneuall drawing neere the Masques and daunces were also more frequent and gaue him more conuenience to speake to her entertaine her as hee did yet so disguized as though hee was knowne to bee in the troupe yet hee was vnknowne to all but her to whom finding or presuming that she was not displeased hee should make more estimation of her then the rest hee gaue a signe to know him by which made the meanes of his approaches more easie And after hauing enough by generall and doubtfull words giuen her the chiefe end and aime of his desires at last hee reuealed himselfe wholly to her To bee short his discretion so managed his affaire for him as that helpt with the force of his vertue and noblenesse and the seruice of my Sisters Nurce whom hee found meanes to gaine and make the messenger of his letters hee led my Sister to such composition as that conuenience and safetie permitting shee gaue him promise of sight and speech with her in more priuacy Such as are practised in Italy and Spaine vnderstand well enough what such permissions doe promise to those that women haue a will to fauour To bring this to passe there happened a very fit meane which was the necessitie of an affaire of import for the Kings seruice wherein hee was to send to Rome out of hand to his Holinesse The Marquesse and the Counsell by his aduice iudged my Brother fitter then any other for this purpose whereupon soone as the Carneuall was ended my brother made that voyage where hee was fiue or sixe weekes in which time the Marquesse taking the occasion found meanes to visit my Sister by night following her permission which stretch't at length euen to the point whither they say loue pretends with such continuance as that euery second night he visited her without euer hauing bin discouered by any but my Sisters Nurce who lay in her Chamber and I in her inner Chamber by reason of a sickenesse I had that made me leaue the Monastery a while to bee the better tended in my Brothers house And who not being yet throughly recouered slept not so soundly but I sometimes heard soft noises of doores and murmures of words which put me into a little suspition with some other things that I had already beene imployed about which kept mee still in doubt In such sort as one day I cast out a word to my sister who so rebuked me that I neuer after durst speake any more to her of it But neere vpon the time that my Brother was expected backe againe shee offered occasion of speech with mee to that purpose expressely coniuring mee to harbour no such opinions in my fantasie and not to frame any false and iniurious tales of her I that loued and honoured her more then any other thing and had all the obligation of nature and loue from her to make me doe so gaue her all the assurances that shee could desire of what shee commanded mee telling her by way of discourse what I had seene here which so satisfied her seeing I had both ingaged my selfe and had besides a little knowledge of the world as she promised mee if time gaue her proofe of the faith I profest her shee would one day speake more freely to me then yet she would as afterward she did which ye shall heare But first ye must know that my Brother being returned this practise betweene them ceased not their loues but vertue was of both sides so reciprocally obeyed as their pleasure nor desire had not the power to carry them beyond the limits of respect nor had they other commerce then by letters and those but seldome Not long after Easter the Marquesse hauing dispatch't the affaires hee had in charge was called home by the King his Master which summons honour and duety both commanded him to obey You may imagine what an affliction was this eternall separation both of them despairing euer to see one another againe I will onely adde this for one of the rarest and most notable examples of discretion and constancy in them both that I thinke hath beene euer seene vpon the like occasion that in a feast which the Signory of the towne made him before his departure whither the Ladies were inuited and among the rest my Sister whom he led in the gran ballo or Measures and in whose pauses or times of rest this sad subiect serued them for entertainement that neither there in taking their leaues nor here in this place where hee saw her afterwards as if it had beene by chance comming to bid our Abbesse farewell none could euer by either of their faces or gestures perceiue any alteration in their mindes or any appearance so differing from their accustomed fashion as might giue any the least suspition of the truth He being gone and my Sister big with child and drawing neere her time she came hither to see me and tooke of me the greatest assurances she could deuize of secrisie of what I should receiue from her Which I haue hitherto most inuiolably kept and should still had not this occasion pluct it from mee besides that yee and I owe an equal respect vnto her memory and all other danger is long since past She fpake to me in this sort Sister you may remember when my husband was imployed to Rome wee had speech together of a conceipt you had then taken and I promised so you would haue patience for the present I would hereafter talke more freely to you The occasion is now come that hauing had many testimonies of your loue though peraduenture your youth might giue cause to question your discretion I shall repose my selfe vpon the assurances and trialls that I haue had of your affection in the thing that more concernes mee then my life assuring my selfe it cannot light into more faithfull more fit or more safe hands then into yours Then she relates to me the loues of the Marquesse and her and how the childe with which she was then great was his as hee knew and not my Brothers but because shee was not aboue three weeks gone with child before my Brothers returne it was easie to conceale it Neuerthelesse shee desired the Marquesse should know as was agreed betweene them what issue her great belly should come to
which shee determined her selfe to doe if God gaue her life but if it pleased him by her death to depriue her of the meanes shee desired me to discharge this office and to this purpose three dayes after she should be brought a bed a Pilgrime should come faining to bee returned from Ierusalem bringing images and other things of deuotion and should aske almes to make his voyage to Saint Iaques in Spaine whom you shall find meanes said shee to take into your chamber and giue him this little cofer whereof this is the key there is in it a Iewell his picture and his letters at the bottome of one of which you shall write a sonne or a daughter according as I shall be deliuered and you shall so discharge him without more words to him If I die you shall be freed of this trouble and shall only keepe this boxe which she opened and read his letters to mee the best written I thinke that euer were seene the Iewell was this Diamond which you haue so much desired and I haue euer promised you she gaue it mee at her death in the presence of my Brother to keepe for you till your Marriage Now you must note that the Marquesse was to send some one of trust to Naples about the time of my Sisters lying in who clad like a Pilgrime should temporize and dissemble himselfe for a time in all but the place where hee was certainely to bee found out by those hee should bee sent vnto from though he knew them not God would that soone after his arriuall she was deliuered of you Neece so happily as she had the meanes to see him dispatch't herselfe But she left the cofer with mee still which I kept till her death shee commanded mee to burne within a while after all that was within it as I did and gaue me the Iewell as I haue told you the which my Brother beleeued she had had of her Borther the Bishop of Ostia when she went to see him on his deathbed a little before her being with child of you Behold the trueth of the History to which I sweare to you I haue added nothing of my owne but deliuered the simple trueth of all as it past being one of the seldomest seene and rarest passages carried in this kinde that I thinke hath beene lightly heard or reade of and by relation whereof I hope I shall not haue diuerted or slact either of you in the offices of that amitie which the mutuall opinions of your neere alliance each to other hath engendered betweene you and wherein though ye may in trueth discouer the mistaking of your beleefes hitherto yet your vertues I know will smoothe ouer greater errours for the honour of your house and the memorie of so worthy a woman as she was Isabella through this discourse faining to bee much displeased with her Aunt said to her pardon me Aunt if I bate you a little of the respect I bore you to the end to giue the cinders of my dead Mother their due which command mee to tell you that I hold the story you haue told as repugnant to trueth as all those that haue knowne her haue euer iudged her actions conformable and obedient to vertue And you can not more plainely forbid mee your conuersation then by defaming the honour of one I owe so much to as a Mother No no Neece said the Nunne I pray you doe not thinke I haue discoursed any thing to you that is not most true or haue spoken at all to offend you or blemish the honour of my dead Sister in the reuerence whereof though you be her Daughter you shall neuer exceed me 'T was by chance I fell into this discourse and vpon the occasion your words gaue me and vpon that assurance that ought to be betwixt vs which I imagined too great to haue suffered any such distrusts to haue stept betweene vs. The experience that the world and more yeares may giue you will shew you that such and stranger accidents than these are nothing impossible Although I must confesse if I had imagined it would haue so much offended you I had withheld my selfe from speaking any thing of this matter I would not Sister said Hipolito for the better halfe of my life but you had brought me this vnexpected quiet and drawne me out of the conflict my soule was in and rebellion against mee and my destinies against all my dearest desires nay against Heauen it selfe for hauing plunged me into a gulfe of miseries so deepe as no other thing but the remedie this your discourse may prepare for me can deliuer me out of Behold answered the Nunne to what passe I am come for my owne part I hold you both deare and loue you with so equal an affection as I cannot make any distinction between you and hauing at once pleased the one and offended the other I am as much afflicted with that distast as glad of the other contentment But had I knowne the occasion of these contrary motions perhaps my small vnderstanding had prompted me to haue so fitly spoken that I had remained equally accepted of you both I pray Aunt said Isabella let vs leaue this ill subiect 't is not onely to you Neece said she but to me deare Goddesse answered Hipolito who proposing to my selfe from hence all my happinesse will beleeue that my Sister is miraculously falne vpon this discourse to draw backe my life not from the graue but which is worse from the for-euer languishing griefes whither the mischiefe of my desperate condition was leading me Then began hee to discourse anew of his loues as if he had not yet imparted them to the Nunne who the better to giue the last accomplishment to this worke had sent word that her Neece was to sup with her and that the Coach should not a wait her returne till the euening She obserued well the Maids countenance during Hipolito's discourse and beleeued her heart meant him no ill though she often interrupted him as desirous they should beleeue the contrarie in the end she enforced her selfe to this speech Was it not enough that you had digrest so much from what you ought as to haue followed the direction of so vnreasonable an opinion and so farre presumed as to haue thus often importuned mee but that you must now be transported beyond the limits of modestie and your owne honour in daring to lay open all this to her before whom the least thought of it should make you blush I beseech you be satisfied with my patience and your own impudence without going farther The Nunne beleeuing she said this rather forced then heartily interrupted her saying Neece scornes doe not alwaies sit well vpon modest women nor ought they to light indifferently vpon all those that offer them their seruice The honestie birth wit iudgement good fashion with other faire parts and vertues of such as possesse them ought to commend make them more acceptable then others lesse
Coria a Spaniard who stayed there some time during which he made loue to my Mother and gained such interest in her as that during the absence of Signior Fabritio her Husband in a Voyage hee made to his Holinesse his affection had arriued to what the affections of men doe vsually pretend For in this time I was begotten I call God to witnesse of my wordes and that I speake a perfect trueth My Mothers Nurse and her Sister in Law the Nunne are yet both liuing who are neither of them ignorant hereof But to alledge a proofe that may at all times bee produced I assure my selfe there may bee found among the Registers of the Towne-Treazor the day of the departure of Signior Fabritio to Rome and of his returne to Naples and by his charges and their discharge in his imployment and the expedition hee obtained of his Holinesse may be seene the day of my Birth in his papers and that of my Baptisme in the Registers of the Church where I receiued it Let these bee brought and it will bee found that it cannot bee I should bee his Daughter since by the immooueable Lawes of Nature a childe to liue must of necessitie bee borne either vpon the seuenth ninth or eleuenth moneth after Conception And so farre was it from any of these as in the beginning of the eight after his returne I was borne a time altogether insufficient and incapable of giuing life to a childe Being not Daughter to Fabritio I am not Neece nor of kinne to Hipolito Now since freedome and libertie begets the will the will consent and consent the Marriage and that all this hath giuen me for wife to Hipolito Since no alliance can bee any barre betweene vs since force or violence drawes or workes no obligation and since by that onely I was cast vnder the bondage and seruitude of Pompeio why shall it not bee lawfull for mee to redeeme my libertie from the vniust vsurpation of him that hath too long abused and enioyed by violence what was none of his and restore my selfe into the hands of him to whom God the Lawes my Election and my Faith hath giuen me The contentment that I giue my selfe in being able to worke my release from mine enemies makes me resolue to suffer with cheerefulnesse all the iniuries of Fortune of the Heauens of the Time of Necessitie and all that can happen me in a strange Clime Where resolued to goe confine my selfe and end the rest of my dayes I beg of my friends no more then to forget my name and imagine me dead This Euidence being read shee was asked what shee intended with those poysons she said shee made them to take if shee were pursued so narrowly as shee could not saue her selfe to the end to barre her enemies the contentment and preuent the mischiefe of falling aliue into their power After shee had confest much more and more voluntarily then shee was questioned the Vncle said since you determined to bee your owne executioner and punish your owne dishonestie it were pitie though you haue beene preuented in the execution of so wicked an enterprise that you should bee frustrated too in the iust punishment you haue so well deserued and so prouidently prepared for your selfe and therefore you are speedily by the meane of your owne appointment to receiue your death where-with taking one of the pilles which her Vncle presented her shee answered them it is for them that haue either pleasure or desire of life to seeke the meanes to keepe it and for such as haue lost both the one and the other to hasten the end of it and flie to death which is so farre from being a thing odious to mee being depriued of my Hipolito as that were ye as inclinable to pitie and should deny it mee as you are bent to cruelty and to giue it me I would beseech you to let mee take it with my owne hands Now after all the trecherous and ignoble courses you haue taken against me I must confesse my selfe much bound to you for shortning my miserable life whose end is as pleasing to mee as the course hath beene vnfortunate hoping that as God doeth affoorde you by this meane the triumph of your desires ouer me and mee the end of my afflictions hee will also please to giue my soule her rest in eternall blisse which I humbly craue of him and that the long paines of my life and vniust Martyrdome of my death may obtaine mee his pitie and my sinnes their pardon Shee spake these words with so resolute and vnmooued a face and fashion that all those about her were seized with astonishment and pitie Her Vncle himselfe and Husband began to speake to her testifying a moderation of their doome and rage when she swallowed the Pill and with a nimble hand taking two more said One is too few and nothing is hard to doe that giues vs contentment and barres our enemies the pleasure of a long vengeance Soone after the force and quantitie of the poyson wrought his effect and seizing all the Vitall parts left her onely power to speake these last words Receiue receiue my Hipolito these last proofes of my affection and know by my death what power a faithfull loue hath in a soule resolued and vpon that word yeelded vp the ghost in the same chaire where they had set her leauing her memory no lesse admirable for the constancy of her end then remarkeable for the bouldnesse of her desperate enterprise Here Reader with Isabella's end would I end too so wearied I am with the already too sad relation of these vnhappy Louers fortunes and most vnwilling to adde hereto the lamentable end of the poore Hipolito whom my Authour tells mee his Isabella's death made so desperat a despiser of his owne life as to forsake all his hopes meanes of sustenance friends and allies and die an exile to his Countrey for her reuenges sake For I finde that within few weekes after her death hee slew her Husband and his Vncle vpon their way in a iourney to Rome for which fact neither his Brothers who being questioned about him were driuen to much trouble for him nor any other friend or his Countrey durst owne him but hee was constrained being opprest with extreame want to returne himselfe into the State of Venice where fiue yeeres after Isabella's death to auoide staruing he was inforced to Marry a Widdow that had some reasonable meanes to sustaine him a while with but no more then what hee had in a short time so farre wasted as shee as well out of discontentment thereat as also discouering perhaps withall the many degrees of comparison betweene the loue shee found hee bore her and might imagine hee might beare to an Isabella or one more worthy of him then she who was neither handsome nor well natured poysoned him as it was thought with a messe of broath shee caused to bee made for him one morning that hee had taken a little Physick for some indisposition of body he complained of There was found in his Study after his death a table which it seemed hee had not long before caused to be made wherein there was Painted his Isabella lying along dead with her eyes closed and himselfe kneeling at her feete with certaine verses vnder written speaking it seemes to her eyes The verses were to this purpose SLeepe in your lids ye loued shades Of my vail'd Sunnes I vow 'T is not to spare my bloud that thus I spill my teares on you Griefe and affliction onely due To me are iustly bent To giue me a wasting life t' indure A lasting languishment That when mine eyes can weepe no more My heart might bleede and I Because I liu'd the longer life A longer death might die FINIS