much more earnestly have wish'd that some Macedonian Javeline might have stopt his flight and that he had lyen gnawing the earth upon which he had left a good many of his companions Look there said I Theano seing him enter the Gates behold the Valiant man that prepared me such bloudy sacrifices Oh how pleasing would this sacrifice have been to me if he had been the Victime In this interim he was retired into the Town with some of his men and the Macedonians who but for that obstacle would have forced their enterance at their coming up were stopt by their Enemies entrenchments That hinderance kept them in the plain judging that those out-works could not so easily be taken and in the mean time all their Forces arrived and the Commanders disposed the order of their encamping In that imployment my eye still sought for Alexander and me thought I knew him by the brightness of his Arms by the number of Macedonians that followed him and by his performing the Office of General I saw white Feathers wave upon his cask whose shining opposed to the sun-beams could not but dazle the eyes of those about him I saw him come through a cloud of Arrows to the very edge of the works where I am confident he froze a thousand hearts and by his presence struck a terrour into thousands of men whom the depth of their moats were not able to defend against so dreadfull an Enemy O Gods how did that sight renew my wound and how gracefull did I think him in that encounter though the distance was a little too great to make any particular observations I sigh'd I trembled I changed colour a hundred times in a moment and by all my actions I let Theano see that I was no more my self Ah! Mother said I 't is he without doubt and though he were not to be known by so many marks my heart shows me him better than my eyes that slave to an illustrious Master instantly felt his approaches and by a miraculous instinct found him out in the middest of all his Troups do but consider that divine presence of the Son of Jupiter Hammon behold that brow proud of so many Laurels which he lifts up towards us with such a lovely fierceness observe how he puts forth his right hand toward the ramparts and by that threatning action sends mortal terrour into the Soul of these revolted wretches the brave Achilles never looked like him when on the deck of the Grecian ships he by his presence alone deprived the Trojans both of courage and of victory and made them forsake the fire which already was devouring their men of War Ah! my gallant Conquerour continued I thou art ignorant of part of thy victories nor knowest thou that the advantages thou winnest upon our out-works are much less entire than those thou hast already got within our walls I had no rampart able to defend me against thee nay I even yielded my self to thee without putting thee to the trouble of a blow Ah would it pleas'd the gods these Gates were as open to thee as my heart is and that without incurring any danger thou wert as much master in this Citie as thou art in this Soul of mine I brought forth these words with so much vehemence and Theano's eyes and mine accompanied my thoughts so fixedly that we perceiv'd not Spitamenes his entering into the Chamber He had harken'd to the last words I spoke and not being able in that confirmation of my love and in the ill humour he was in for the loss he had sustain'd to retain the furious motions of his choller he ran to me with his sword drawn and preparing himself to take away my life Now it is cried he O disloyal woman that thou shalt receive the reward of thy infidelity and that thou shalt give that impure Soul unto thy Alexander which thou already hast abandoned to him I confess I was more surprised at this accident than I can tell which way to represent and though till then I had not much feared death his presence made it so gastly to me that I was quite void of courage or reply Spitamenes catch'd hold of my hair with his left hand and lifting up his right wherein he held his sword was going to part my head from my shoulders when he felt his arm laid hold on behind he turned about furiously toward him that hindered the effecting of his resolution and saw Timocrates standing by him in whom of all his Captains he had greatest confidence What will you do Sâ— said Timocrates Let me alone replied Spitamenes more furious than before let me kill this faithless woman before she rejoice in my utter defeat and in the shame she prepares me With those words he got loose from Timocrates and would infallibly have executed his design if many others of his friends had not come into the Chamber and opposed his intentions they altogether had enough to do to disswade him and he still dragg'd me by the hair who was nearer death than life abating nothing of his obstinacie for all their intreaties Hermione in this part of her recital was interrupted by the passionate Demetrius who cried out O gods where were all the thunders at that time or if you wanted thunders where was Demetrius The young Lover said onely these few words with an enflamed look and Hermione prosecuting her storie The more earnestly Spitamenes his friends continued she importuned him to spare me the more inexorable did they find him but when they had long press'd and conjured him not to be so hasty in a business which he might execute another way I grant you said he at last some part of what you desire not the life of this false woman who shall surely die for the expiation of her crimes but the delay you begg and a change of the kind of her death my revenge would neither be handsome nor perfect if I should foul my hands in her impure bloud therefore I will have her die by hands that are dearer to her to morrow I 'le make a sally upon the Enemies where she shall march at the head of our party and receive the first storm of their encounter she shall either fire her Alexanders Tent her self or fall under the Arms of the Macedonians and if she give back or refuse to advance this sword shall still be ready to execute what you have deferr'd Prepare thy self for this kind of death pursued he turning toward me and freely offer to Alexanders sword that heart which thou hast given him I cannot do thee a more acceptable service than to deliver thee to thy Lover and I my self will take care to conduct thee to his Tent. This was his last resolution notwithstanding all the attempts of his friends to divert him from it 't was impossible for them to obtain any more of him Before he went out of the Chamber he put me into the hands of the Eunuch Strato Captain of his Guards a
to read it when they were a little farther off they walk'd on gently and taking an Allie they met withal returned into Polemons Garden Araxes led his Master to the Fountain where he had related the beginning of his life unto Lysimachus and when they were sit down by the side of it Araxes drawing out the paper he had taken up See here Sir said he to his Master that which will learn us something of this unknown Cassandra who mingles her misfortunes thus with ours At these words he looked upon the Writing but scarce had he read the first line when giving the paper to his Master Ah! Sir said he what 's this I see Look I beseech you your self upon Characters and words that confound me The Prince taking the paper from Araxes his hand had no sooner cast his eyes upon it but he cryed out Ah! Araxes there is no doubt but this Writing is directly like that of my deceased Queen Read the first words replyed Araxes and without question your astonishment will be increased Oroondates infinitely surprised at this encounter began with strange inward motions to read these words The unfortunate and happy Cassandra unfortunate by the change of her fortune and happy by the fidelity of Orontes To her too faithful ORONTES O Gods cryed the Prince what doe I see Will Fortune mock me or am I that Orontes to whom are directed the words of this Cassandra whose writing and whose thoughts are so conformable to those of my Princesse Ah! no pursued he 't is without doubt to the revived Orontes Prince of the Massagetes and this Cassandra to whom his fidelity is so dear is infallibly the cause of the complaints of the fair Quen Thalestris he whose name I have so long usurp'd must needs have some mixture in my adventures but O Gods is it possible that two persons should write so like and have so equal destinies Read Sir said Araxes that which is under this Inscription and perchance you may draw some farther knowledge from thence The Prince followed his counsel and beginning to read again he went on thus I know not in what manner I ought to looke upon my fortune two different remembrances O faithfull Orontes contest within my soul for you and against you What doe I not owe unto Orontes but also what doe I not owe to my condition and to an illustrious memory my inclination and my duty put my mind into an equall balance and both have very weighty reasons but all the reasons of my inclination yeeld unto my duty and all those of my duty vanish in presence of my inclination Alas if we could make an accommodation between them how happy would be the destiny of Cassandra and how little would she be troubled for the change of her fortune if a more considerable losse had not settled a more lawfull sorrow in her heart she neverthelesse loves her faithfull Orontes as much as he can and ought to desire but she has some scruples remaining which she cannot overcome if she will be worthy of his affection It is a continuation of the anger of the Gods who only present happynesses to her when she is no longer in a condition to receive them We had found a haven indeed my dear Orontes but it is worse then shipwrack and if you love me as I beleeve and as I know you doe you ought not to desire of mee Oroondates turn'd over the leafe to make an end of reading the letter but he saw nothing written on the other side and judgd that the party had either wanted time or will to finish it Alas with how many different thoughts was he assailed at the reading of these words he perused them again many times and being in a confusion full of perplexity he could not expresse it better then by his silence He looked upon Araxes holding his armes acrosse upon his brest and having continued a long time without speaking Araxes said hee at last where am I Sir answered Araxes I am as much surprised as you But replied Oroondates is not this Statira's hand and are not these the very words I ought to have expected from her if she had survived her Illustious husband doest thou not find in this discourse that same severe vertue which made part of my misfortunes and vvhich vvould have prepared new difficulties for me if the Gods should have spared her still unto the world Ah! without question it is her spirit that hath inspired these words into Cassandra and that hath guided her hand to frame Characters so like to hers Araxes answered not his Masters doubts but musing upon this adventure strove to draw from it some cause of consolation for him What doe wee know Sir said he but that the Gods may miraculously have preserved that vertuous Queen and whither this unperfect letter may not by some chance or other have fallen into the hands of these women vve found asleep Ah Araxes replied Oroondates let us not flatter our selves foolishly the Queens death is too certain to be still doubted of and it is now unknown to no body yet I should beleeve she had vvriten these vvords after Alexanders death if two difficulties did not stagger mee the first is that till her own death shee knew not of the King her Husbands and the other this name of Cassandra which brings all out of square and puts me into astrange confusion Whatsoever it be said Araxes I will return if you think fit to the place vvhere vvee light upon this letter and if I find those women there still I may perchance draw something from them to clear our doubts and give you comfort Run Araxes cried the Prince run I pray thee and though I be no longer in an estate to conceive any hope offer at least our assistance unto that person who in so many things is conformable to my Princesses Araxes rising from his Master went out of the garden and the Prince sate still by the fountain so taken up with the consideration of this last adventure that he never in his life had been in so profound a muse After having bethought himselfe every way he could imagine nothing else but that Cassandras letter was without doubt intended to Orontes Prince of the Massagetes and that it vvas neither impossible nor un heard of that the writings and fortunes of two severall person should resemble one another He had continued above an hower in this confusion of thoughts vvhen Araxes came backe to him again and assured him he could not find these vvomen in the place vvhere they had left them and that he had sought them in vain all over the wood and along the bankes of the river Oroondates was exceedingly troubled at it and resolved to seek them himselfe when he had gotten a little more strength After some discourse whereof this encounter furnished them vvith matter enough he rose up and going out of the garden return'd into his Chamber Assoon as he was there he sent to
enough to do you a service of the same nature with those you had alreadie received from her Scarce did I give Hippolita leisure to make an end of this discours but cried out O Gods Hippolita what doest thou tell me was it Orontes then to whom I am yet once more endebted for my life was it Orontes himself whom I saw do so many wonders for my safety at the head of our women and was it Orontes who projected managed and executed this enterprise 'T was even Orontes himself answered Hippolita nor had hee vanish'd from your sight without making himself known but for fear of displeasing you after the rigorous commands you had laid upon him beleiving unfortunate man that hee had not don enough for the expiation of his crime hee came onely to save you not to present himself to you and though your kinde remors and last inclinations were not unknown to him hee durst not hazard himself in that presence from whence you had banished him for ever How Hippolita replied I extreamly moved are not my last inclinations unknown to him and from whom did hee learn them From me Madam answered shee coldly to whom you imparted them What said I raising my voice with an angrie tone have you then told Orontes my sorrow for his absence and the affection which I really have born him since his departure It is true Madam answered Hippolita that I told him all to comfort him in his affliction and to animate him in an enterprise upon which your safety depended the fidelitie of his love touch'd mee with a sens of pitie and I believed I ought no longer to conceal his happiness from him who gave us his life so liberally I am not able Sr to represent the trouble these words produced in mee nor how much I was ashamed to see my passion discovered It was impossible for mee to dissemble it and looking upon Hippolita with an angrie eye Ah! thou indiscreet and disloiall wench cried I is this the care thou hast of my reputation and hast thou made this use of a secret wherewith I so freely trusted thee hast thou thus fixt an eternall reproch upon my daies and wilt thou make mee blush for ever for a fault which I discovered to none but thee alone Ah! never hope for pardon from mee nor let him for whom thou hast dishonored mee ever expect any for the confusion hee make's mee suffer by his imprudence this last service might have obtain'd it both for his disobedience and for his former faults but my reputation whereof thou hast been so lavishly prodigal forbid's ever to see him any more who not content to have displeas'd mee by his love to have deceiv'd mee by his disguise and to have disobey'd mee by his return hath known to my shame that hee had made mee sigh that hee had made mee in love and that hee had made mee foolish Ah! no Hippolita let him never com before mee again if hee bee innocent of thy fault hee is guiltie of mine and I am resolved yet once more to banish him who to aggravate all his crimes hath learn'd from thy mouth that I lov'd him I had rather put my self again into the condition from which hee hath delivered mee then bee obliged to see him becaus I am engaged to him for my life go thy waies therefore indiscreet Hippolita go and repair thy fault by forbidding him to see mee and resolv either to free mee from his sight or to absent thy self from mine for ever I ended these words with so loud a voice that they were easily to bee heard into the next chambers and Hippolita who knew my weakness and my first motions very well seem'd but little moved with them and when shee had heard mee patiently of a sudden putting her handkerchief to her eyes Ah! Madam said shee how lawful is your anger and 't is with a great deal of justice the Gods have taken away this unfortunate man from your resentment 't is well for him the destinies have call'd him hence since after so many services you prepared him so unworthie a compence bee no longer offended Madam bee no longer in choler against that unhappie man hee is rather in a condition to draw tears from you then imprecations and the death hee hath newly suffered for you secure's him from all your anger and satisfie's you for all the offences you have received from him I was so troubled at this discours that I could not permit the continuation of it and turning suddenly toward Hippolita How said I Hippolita is Orontes dead Hee is Madam answered Hippolita sadly and with my own eyes I saw him breathe out his life of those wounds he received for your deliverance his bloud hath wash'd away our common faults and his last words were the first hee spake to mee to assure you that hee died yours and that hee died with glorie and satisfaction since hee was so happie as to die for you These words went so near mee that I lost both sens and knowledg and my strength forsaking mee I remain'd cold and in a swoun in Hippolita's arms she would not call in help but running to water that stood in my chamber threw so much of it in my face that shee fetch'd my spirits again no sooner did I open my eies and my mouth but I imploied them in tears and cries and not believing my self longer in an estate to dissemble my grief or rather my despair I did all the actions and spoke all the words that could be expected from those who are most deeply touch'd with it Dear Orontes cried I art thou dead then and doth this wretched woman who is indebted to thee for two lives survive thy death Hast thou yielded up that faithful soul which my ingratitude was not able to repuls from an affection I had so little deserved and didst thou return from these places whither my crueltie had confined thee to accompanie the life thou regavest mee with the loss of thine own Ah! cruel if there were a necessitie of thy dying why diedst thou not far from hence and of som death unknown to mee and why camest thou to open those wounds again by this last effect of thy love which time had alreadie half closed up I had suffered enough for thee before and yet wouldest thou aggravate my sorrows by the last my heart was capable to feel Yes dear Orontes this shall bee the last of all my afflictions and if by my ingratitude I have made my self unworthie of thy love I will testifie to thee by my death that I am not insensible of that affection wherewith thou mai'st lawfully upbraid mee I accompanied these words with so many sighs that one must have been extream hard-hearted not to bee moved with som compassion but Hippolita used reproches to mee in stead of consolations and abusing the affection I bore her you are to blame Madam said shee to afflict your self for a thing you had before decreed and whereof
sentence whereby shee had condemned her self to so many torments but that great Princess stopping my mouth as soon as ever I mentioned it It is just said shee that I should suffer since I have committed faults which deserv the punishment the gods have sent mee but it is unjust that Oroöndates should return and I know very well both how to suffer and how to die if it bee necessarie rather then revoke a sentence which my dutie alone hath pronounced This indeed was the Queen's own resolution but shee was also confirm'd in it by the Princess her sister to whom shee had totally open'd her heart with all manner of freedom and who having in all her actions but particularly in the applications made to her by Prince Lysimachus and Hephestion appeared as a prodigie of sublime virtue gave no counsels to the Queen that were not most conformable to what shee had practised all her life Wee spent our time thus in solitude and in ignorance of all that passed other where when the whole earth almost changed form by the Death of Alexander the Great to whom the Queen his wife had at her departure innocently given her last farewells receiving from him his last embraces I believ it was by the express order that was taken in it that wee alone were ignorant of a loss wherein the whole world was interested when one of the King's guard came to the Castle where wee were with a letter from his Master Cleone would have prosecuted her narration and have told the Prince what hee alreadie had learn'd from Lysimachus but Oroöndates who hearken'd to her with impatience and who was willing to spare her the pains of relating what hee knew before interrupted her in this place I am not ignorant said hee which way you were deceived nor how you were brought before the wicked Roxâ—na and died in the opinion of every bodie but I know not how you were saved nor how the Queen hath lived since and that 's it if you pleas which I desire to learn without troubling you in the recital of things I have heard alreadie These words shortned Cleone's relation and Oroöndates telling her what hee knew when shee had confirm'd it shee proceeded thus I will add to what is com to your ear from the mouth of Tireus that after Perdiccas had put the Queen the Princess her sister and mee into the chariot and was com into it himself with his brother Alcetas and another of his companie hee made it take the way toward Roxana's hous and seeing those poor Princesses express their grief and their apprehension by tears and cries full of despair hee whispered the Queen in the ear so low that hee could not bee overheard but by his brother and the Princess Parisatis Bee not afraid Madam said hee they would destroy you but I will save you with the peril of my fortune and of my life The Princesses were so troubled that they scarcely understood those words which were sufficient either to reassure them or fright them more and in the mean time they drove so fast that within a short space wee arrived at Roxana's hous I will not tell you again the Queens encounter with her nor the words of that cruel woman which in spite of Perdiccas his promise were enough to have struck a mortal terror in persons whose love of life had not been quite extinguish'd but the Queen in whom the fatal news of the King's death had absolutely taken away all desire of it hearkned to her threats unmoved and not hoping for any safetie shee followed Perdiccas and Alcetas who led us out of the great chamber down a back stair while cruel Roxana placed her self at the window to feed her eies with a sight shee had so inhumanely prepared 'T was with much ado that Perdiccas kept her from going down into the Court her self and her interest in the death of Darius his daughters was so great that shee could not believ it certain unless shee were present Wee were half way down the stairs that led into that fatal Court when coming to a chamber door Perdiccas made us go in and leaving us there in the custodie of his brother hee took certain women out from thence with him which hee before had put under the guard of three or four of his men in whom hee had a great deal of confidence They were slaves as wee have heard since which hee had clothed in habits little different from those the Princesses were wont to wear and having plotted with his brother and those whom hee trusted most how hee might abuse the eies of Roxana's sight whom hee was necessitated to obey for very important reasons hee had caus'd them to bee brought into that chamber secretly by men of whose fidelitie hee was most assured With these miserable wretches it was that those cruel murtherers went down the rest of the stairs into the Court stopping their mouths with hankerchiefs for fear their cries should discover the deceit and 't was by the bloud of those unfortunate creatures that they contented Roxana's in humane ambition and deluded her sight true it is that the darkness and distance contributed very much though Roxana stirred not from the window till the end of the execution and that there were lighted torches in the Court but it is certain that in open day and in another place it had been very difficult to carrie the enterprise on that manner In the mean time wee continued in the custodie of Alcetas and of som of his men and for fear the nois wee might have made should discover the Princesses to their enemies they led us out of that first chamber into another further from the stairs Wee were in so great a trouble that neither fear nor hope had leisure to take place in our souls and wee remained for som time so stupified that neither the apprehension of death nor the desire of safetie could work any thing upon us but in this confusion the Queens grief was more powerful then all her other thoughts and remembring the news cruel Roxana had told her of the death of the King her husband shee was so nearly touch'd with it that shee hardly had strength to stand upon her legs and indeed shee cast her self presently upon the side of a bed that was in the room and the Princess Parisatis and I beeing set down by her shee began to solemnize her loss with a river of tears which could not draw its source from any thing but a most sensible and a most real sorrow No Sir I know you will not bee offended when I tell you the Queen was in as great an affliction for the death of that Illustrious husband as could bee expected from so virtuous a Princess and that shee was as deeply strucken with it as if that affection had been settled in her heart from her earliest years and had neither been crossed by the remembrance of her losses nor by her thoughts of you Neither
there was a great number in the field shee rode after him a good way and seeing it would bee hard for her to join with him I will remember cried shee to him that thou art generous but do thou remember also that at our next encounter thou must end this combat with mee wherein all the advantage thou hadst was by the baseness of thy friend The throng was so great before shee had ended these words that shee could not hear the strangers answer onely shee observed that hee put forth one of his arms towards her and followed Cassander who led him away by the other The reinforcement which came from the Camp was alreadie near and that was it which made Cassander hasten his retreat the more The Queen and young Demetrius would have followed them to the very gates but the most prudent Commanders disswaded them and shewing the Troops which stood to sustain them and which advanced gently to receiv them they hindred them from engageing themselvs in the pursuit The valiant stranger retired softly in the rear of his whole partie and as often as hee faced about hee sent terror into that of his enemies Demetrius alreadie obeied the counsels of those that disswaded him from advancing further when a Cavalier of the enemies side galloped single from the Troops that came last out of the Town and advancing straight towards him with his sword drawn For my part cried hee I 'le have no quarter and ending these words hee struck at Demetrius yet with so little force that the blow having hardly made any mark upon his arms slipt thence upon his horses head where it left a very inconsiderable hurt but so was not that hee received in exchange from Demetrius for running imprudently upon his sword which hee held forth against him it gave him an exceeding deep wound in the bodie at which hee cried out and beeing but of a weak constitution sunk from his hors upon the ground O Death cried hee as hee was falling how sweet do I finde thee and how much have I desired thee In these like words hee spoke somthing so lamentable as touched young Demetrius with compassion and causing som of his soldiers to alight hee commanded them to take off his cask and see if hee were yet in a condition to receiv help his men obeying him disarmed the head of the wounded person but scarce had they don so when by long hair and a delicate complexion they discovered that it was a woman Demetrius first by the report of his soldiers and then by the assurance hee had of it himself beeing com close to them was seized with an unparallelled astonishment and leaping from his hors hee ran to the fair wounded stranger with an extraordinarie perplexitie Ah! cried hee coming to her whoëver you are you are most cruel in having made mee imbrue my sword in the bloud of that lovely sex to which I am a slave and an idolater In bringing forth these words hee looked more nearly upon her face and though it began to grow pale with loss of bloud hee found such beautiful such taking features in it that compassion continued not long alone in a heart so readie to receive the impressions of love This young afflicted Prince sitting down by her and unbuckling her curass to trie to stanch her bloud did her that service with a floud of tears and with sighs which powerfully enough expressed the greatness of his sorrow What crime said hee O great gods can I have committed against you that you should inflict so severe a punishment upon mee and why did you not suffer this unworthy sword to finde a passage rather into my own bowels then into this fair bodie Hee spoke these words with a despairing action and the woman who understood the one and observed the other was moved with them her self and turning her eies upon her enemie's lovely face which shee saw drowned in a river of tears whosoever thou art said shee O pittiful conqueror do not envie mee the glorie of dying by thy hand my crimes deserved not so noble a destinie and I am unworthie of the tears thou shedst upon my occasion I sought for death and I have found it but since thou art too full of pitie to hasten it though I should entreat thee suffer it to com of it self without opposing the satisfaction I receiv by its approches and the repose I could not hope for during my life These words pronounced with a tone which though mournful had somthing in them very sweet and pleasing pierc'd the heart of the afflicted Demetrius Hee was of a most excellent nature pitie having at first possest every part of his soul prepared it quickly for that master-passion to which hee had an exceeding strong inclination Hee was about to shew marks of the new effects it began to produce in him when the Amazone Queen who was present at that spectacle and in whom compassion had wrought very powerfully counsell'd him to break off his complaints to think of the wounded Ladies safetie and at the same time calling soldiers caused them to take her up gently upon their bucklers that they might carrie her to the Camp more easily then on horsback Shee seem'd to suffer that assistance onely to satisfie Demetrius whose grief was so obliging to her and by all her actions shee shew'd such an aversion against life that they who did her that office knew they labored but in vain for her Demetrius walked by them on foot and though hee was compleatly arm'd except his cask which hee had thrown off his sword which hee had broken in a thousand pieces it was impossible to make him get on horsback or stir one step from her hee had wounded hee forbore to make her speak for fear of hurting her but hee kept his eies full of tears incessantly fixt upon hers and by their looks drunk in great draughts of that poison which insensibly took possession of his soul Hee vouchsafed not so much as to speak to Eumenes who had brought up the reinforcement for which the enemies were retired and when hee was com to the Camp hee hardly looked upon Prince Antigonus his father and many of his friends who came to congratulate the glorie hee had gain'd that day though hee had great caus to bee satisfied with his good success hee was not capable of tasting the sweetness of it in that extreamitie of sorrow and not so much as hearkning to those that talked to him of it hee went directly to his tents where laying the fair wounded stranger in the best room hee called the Chirurgians and promising them extraordinarie recompences for that cure hee to make them labor the more carefully protested that his life depended absolutely upon it The end of the third Book The Continuation of the third Part of CASSANDRA The fourth Book THe encounter which Queen Thalestris and young Demetrius had with Leonatus and Cassander was not so light but that of Roxana's party
my heart all the acknowledgment I ow him for it heretofore I should have passed Seas to acquit my self of a less Obligation and now I would go down as far as Hell to sacrifice him to my just Resentments to whom I have so great an ingagement This misery of my life Lysimachus ought to move pity in you and obtain pardon for a choice which my love which my jealousie which my rage forced me to make against my former inclinations and against my affection to you Arsaces uttered these passionate words with an action which fetch'd tears into Lysimachus his eyes but his astonishment was redoubled by them and considering that Arsaces could not justly use those Reproaches to Oroondates who better than all the men in the world had deserved the possession of Statira in whose service Arsaces could not have spent more than some short moments of his life he was in a marvellous confusion and being desirous to draw more particular light from Arsaces his mouth I am as sensibly touch'd with your displeasures said he as with my own but either I cannot comprehend their cause or else I can see but little justice in them This Rival against whom you have so violent an indignation complains of you with more appearance of Reason than you can have unless there be some mistake in your affairs and there are few persons but know that he hath spent his whole life in the service of that Princess whom you have won from him in an hour his despair is much better grounded than yours when he remembers the admirable Actions he hath done for her and that being just upon the point of receiving the recompence which was due to him he sees her by a prodigious inconstancy in your arms and findes himself ingratefully forsaken for you who have done her but very little service and who are hardly so much as known to her How cried the impatient Arsaces have I done my Princess but little service and am I hardly so much as known to her Lysimachus was going to reply and they were like to have come to a more perfect clearing of businesses if an unexpected accident had not interrupted their conversation the cause thereof was this The Amazon Queen when she had stood a while at a distance listening to their discourse at last resolved to go up to them and Arsaces his companion by her example moved from the place where he made his stand when they were come a little nearer to one another than they had been before Thalestris casting her eyes upon that Cavalier saw upon his shield the dreadfull Impress of the Vultures the reputation whereof was already as much known by the valour of him that bore it as his name was unknown by his so late coming into those parts and his having been ever since in the Enemies Quarters The Queen presently remembered her Combat with him and with what generosity he had defended her from the soul play offered by Cassander being glad of this Encounter she had a minde to make a more particular acquaintance with him with that intent she spurr'd on her Horse and putting forth her hand as she came up to him Valiant Sir cried she since I have tried your force in fight I desire to be better known to you and to make a friendship if it be possible with so brave and so generous an Enemy The stranger who for civility yielded to no man in the world advanced toward the Queen at this discourse and seeing that she put her hand toward the Beaver of her Cask to discover her face he thrust up his and let her see his face at the same time The aspect of the dreadfull Gorgon never wrought more strange effects than this sight produced mutually in these two persons and if the stranger was surprised to see the Queen the Queen was strucken with the height of amazement when in the strangers face she beheld all the Lineaments of her faithless Orontes They instantly were seized with so strange a confusion that they seemed like two Marble statues being neither able to speak nor stir they continued a great while looking upon each other with inward motions very different from their ancient tendernesses and by the fiery glances of their eyes gave one another knowledge of the violent thoughts that stirr'd them up They could not absolutely believe their sight and that uncertainty kept them for some time irresolute silent and unmoveable In the end they no longer doubted of the truth of this Encounter and the Queen less Mistris of her furious Resentments than Orontes took hold of the handle of her sword and casting a look up toward Heaven with a most terrible action O Gods cried she at last you have brought me that disloyal man who hath so impiously invoked you in the falsness of his Oaths and drawing her sword after she had often call'd Orontes Traitour she flew upon him with a fury like that of a Tygress when she is robb'd of her young Orontes at last came to himself and flying both the looks and approach of Thalestris O! my eyes cried he must you then behold this faithless Woman again Yet though he was no less moved than she he was more moderate and having still a respect to the sex and even to the person of her whom he had so dearly loved he left his sword still in the scabberd and onely held forth his shield retiring from the blows she made Leave me cried he leave me false ingratefull Woman and discharge not thy rage against a man who is innocent of the loss thou hast sustained The Queen replied not with any distinct words but rushing upon him with confused cries and redoubled abuses made him quickly see she either meant to give him his death or receive hers from him Arsaces and Lysimachus turning about at this noise were quite surprised at so unfore-seen an adventure and Arsaces observing the manner of that combat was something ashamed and troubled to see his Valiant Companion who had so brave a reputation retire or rather fly before an Enemy He leaped upon his horse and advanced toward him by Lysimachus his example who ran presently to the Queen when Orontes seeking sanctuary by him deliver me O! Arsaces cried he deliver me from the sight of this perfidious woman who is much more cruel to me than that death she strives to give me Ah! monster of infidelity replied Thalestris quite besides her self hope not that the assistance of Arsaces nor of all the men in the world shall save thee from my just indignation As she spake these words she made her self passage between Arsaces and Lysimachus with such a fury that those two Valiant men were too weak to withhold her Both of them because they had heard something of their adventures began to suspect the truth and being desirous to trie some remedy against so sudden and so violent a mischief they used all their strength and all their perswasions to stop and pacifie
healthful constitution patient of cold heat and all other incommodities indefatigable on foot or on horseback nay to such a degree that at that age he had many times continued whole days and nights compleatly arm'd and had already given many proofs of an undaunted courage He wanted no opportunities to shew them for the implacable War which was between the King his Father and the King of Persia gave him a thousand occasions to exercise that matchlesse valour wherewith the Gods had particularly blessed him Not but that you have heard speak of a War the beginnings whereof are as ancient as those of this Empire Cyrus the first Monarch of the Persians laid the Foundations of it and promising himself the same facility in subduing that Warlike Nation he had found in conquering the cowardly and effeminate Lydians perish'd in the enterprise with his whole Army Darius first of that name desiring to repair that losse and the dishonour of the Persians lost an Army there of 100000 men and if this cruel War had any respit during the Reigns of their Successors it was their mutual weakness or the multiplicity of their other affairs rather then any end of their discord which gave them that intermission But this old hatred being renewed in the hearts of the late King Darius and of the King my Soveraign those two exasperated Monarchs solemnized it by the death of so many thousand men that the Land of the Massagetes will look white yet for many ages with the bones of Persians and Scythians which there ended unfortunately their days It was in these occasions that young Oröondates passed his apprentiship and that being scarcely out of his Infancy he made himself famous in so many encounters by a thousand actions of courage and discretion that the King his Father considering him as a man sent miraculously from Heaven the more to animate and improve him did not think much before he was full seventeen to give him the command of some part of his Cavalry We had repulsed Darius to the hither side of the Araxis who a while before was entred in person into our Countries where hee had lost fifty thousand men and we lay upon the Bank of that River encamped and entrench'd almost within sight of one another and fix'd in the eternal design of doing each other mischief There pass'd few days without some light skirmishes encounters or single combats but no occasion in which Prince Oröondates made not himself remarkable by some glorious action One day a day alas most fatal to our quiet and which so many other unhappy ones have succeeded the King was advertised that the enemies Army either through the negligence of their Commanders or some other reasons unknown to us kept not so strict Guards as the Neighbourhood of so terrible an Enemy seemed to require This intelligence made the King resolve to assault them by night in their Trenches knowing well that for actions of that nature the Scythians have the advantage above all other people of the Earth The Councel of War having been held and all Orders given for that design assoon as it was night the Forces destin'd for the execution of it began to march leaving in our Camp onely such as were necessary for its defence The Enemies Scouts having discovered us ran to give the Alarm to their Camp yet their diligence could not prevent us so far but that having forced their Out-Guards we were already upon the edge of their Entrenchments e're they had notice of us Their Works were but of small defence and their little Trenches being fill'd up with brush Faggots which we carried for that purpose our Cavalry entred in a manner without resistance The horrible noise of our Martial Instruments together with so unexpected a Surprise struck such a terrible fright into the Persians that before they could recover their fear part of their Army was already defeated Indeed this way of making War was so different from theirs that I doe not think it strange if in the horrour of the dark an assault so little foreseen did cause some confusion among Soldiers that were fast asleep There was a great number slain in the first onset but in the end Mazeus one of Darius his principal Commanders Rallying some Forces as well as possibly he could held part of ours in play and gave Darius leisure to draw up the rest into some form of Battel But being desirous to confine my Discourse to Oroondates actions and speaking of others only inasmuch as they are necessary to my Relation I will tell you that having charged at the head of three thousand Horse he beat down all that endeavoured to make any resistance disdaining through generosity to embrue his own or his Soldiers Swords in the blood of men asleep and without defence Hee was easie to be known though in the dark by a great white plume of Feathers that waved over the Buttock of an Horse whiter then Snow and by a Stone extreamly precious among the Persians which they call a Pyrope and which fasten'd on the top of his Head-piece cast such a flaming light as was deservedly to be wondred at How many actions did he in that obscurity worthy of the brightest day and of the whole world to be Spectators His Soldiers taking courage by his example strove all to follow him and imitating that spirit which thrust him on among the thickest blowes were by that consideration enabled to doe actions which surpass'd the ability of men I was then with my Master and to speak truth one of the nearest to his person which makes me the more knowing in those things that happen'd that fatall night To be brief his courage transported him so far that hee discovered Darius Tents and knew them by the number of the Guards that defended them two thousand Athenians besides the Persians of the ordinary Guard had taken that charge that night by Darius Order under the command of one Patro who was also an Athenian and had been some little time under his pay This sight stirr'd up a violent desire in the minde of our Prince of winning honour and in that of his Soldiers of gaining so remarkable a Booty as the Equipage of the Richest and most Luxurious King in the whole world These two different considerations carried them on to this assault with so much eagernesse and resolution that after a long and sharp resistance in which wee lost the better part of our men and wherein all the Athenians fell with most honourable wounds we at last remained Conquerours and were ready to break into the Tents with a confused throng if the Prince who strove to hinder that disorder and desired to pay Darius what was due unto his quality had not stopt us by entreaties and threatnings The profound respect which every one bore him as to a divine person caused an obedience without murmuring and then alighting from his Horse accompanied only by fifty of us which he chose whereof I had
they were astonished at themselves for having been so long before they knew him 'T is he cri'd Sysigambis 't is he Yes Madam reply'd the Prince I am he who having committed against you an irreverence unworthy of forgiveness come now to present my self at your feet rather to expect punishments then receive recompences from you They were ready to have answered him if the King and his son already instructed in the cause of their admiration and transported more then can be imagined had not interrupted them to do him honours which it is impossible for me to relate Oxyartes Artabasus Nazeus and all those that were neer Darius saluted him with great expressions of friendship and respect Even Memnon himself Hydaspes and the rest of those he had dismounted passed many Complements with him and shewed much joy to have yeilded only to that hand which in one night had preserv'd Darius his whole family The King openly call'd him the Angel Guardian of his House and I remember that at that time he brake forth into these Prophetick words to those that were about him It cannot possibly be said he but that so great and unexpected a happiness must needs threaten me some very strange misfortune He stuck but a while upon this thought and getting up into his Chariot again made Oroondates accompany him to his Pallace where he caus'd Lodgings to be appointed him though he used great endeavours to avoid that honour when they were come thither the King entred into his Closset whither calling only Artaxerxes and my Master he made the dore be shut and seeing himself alone with them It is impossible said he to my Prince that being a Vassal and Kinsman to the King of Scythia you should have left his Court to retire to that of his mortall and irreconcileable Enemy without very strong and pressing considerations I beseech you hide them not from me and believe that what cause soever can have brought you hither you in my Court shall have both all manner of power and a most assured retreat The Prince of Scythia after having with all humility given the King thanks for his most obliging offers made him this answer which he had contrived beforehand The Gods are my witnesses that in the two small services I had the honour to do your Majesties Family I had no other aim but that of my duty and the respect I thought my self obliged to bear to persons of so high a quality and that I never proposed unto my self the glorious recompence I receive for them without having merited the least part of it Yet those whom I had most frequented and who had least cause to suspect me made not the same judgement of them for assoon as I was return'd unto the King I was slandered for those two actions by those very men that had accompanied me in them whether it were that their brutishness disapproved things so contrary to their nature or that they envied me the favours the Gods had granted me or as it is most probable that they conceived this spleen against me for having hindred them of the spoyle they pretended to in prizes of such inestimable value whatsoever it were they accused me of treason and of holding intelligence with your Majesty and by their practises so stirred up the King against me that he resolv'd to put me to death I received divers advertisements of it from many of my friends but I despised them all trusting to mine own innocence till walking one day with the Prince of Scythia that young Prince who ever loved me and with whom I was brought up having led me aside to a by-place where his action could not be observ'd by any body wrote upon the ground with the point of a Javeline he had in his hand these few words which I read as fast as he wrote them Flye Orontes or thou art but dead but flye to day if thou wilt not die to morrow and having put out the writing with his foot assoon as he saw that I had read it he left me quite confounded and went back to the rest of the Company This advertisement had more power with me then all the rest and made me believe that that young Prince being bound by Oath not to tell his Fathers secrets had made use of that device to save me without exasperating the Gods against himself I then saw plainly it was a truth and considering the danger that threatened me I departed that very night with as small a retinue as possibly I could without having any other designe then that of flying from the Kings anger The next day being already got a great way from our Camp I remembred the Prince of Persia's goodness and the promise he had made me after the slight service I had done him I also call'd to minde the good fortune I had had in the Encounter of the Queens and perswaded my self that being in disgrace only for thâ—se two occasions I should not at all do unhandsomly in making your Majesty my Sanctuary and that you would be so gracious as to protect an innocent Prince banished from his Countrey by the calumny of his Enemies He added many other words to this discourse at the end of which the King said to him If we did not receive a great advantage by your Disgrace we should condole it with you but how great soever our Obligations to you are wee cannot utterly lay aside the affection we bear our self though the King of Scythia were not mine Enemy I am bound by so many considerations to protect you that I will hazard my Empires and my life it self for your defence and because it were not just you should be uuhappie only for having obliged us with so much generositie believe that you shall finde as advantageous conditions here as among the Scythians and that for the Province of the Massagetes which you lose I will give you choice of the best of mine without pretending to engage you either to reveal the secrets of your Prince or to bear arms against him Oroondates casting himself at the Kings feet kiss'd his hand in a thankfull acknowledgement of his favours and retiring to his quarter found order was already given to settle him a houshould Presently they provided him an Equipage worthy of his true quality and so great Pensions were allowed to entertain him that he could not have been better fitted with all things in the Court of the King his Father See in what manner my Prince was received and staid by Darius with so much satisfaction for his happy beginnings that he lost the remembrance of all the dangers to which he exposed himself and of all the difficulties he had yet to overcome I had forgot to tell you that the name of Orontes Prince of the Massagetes was not an imaginary one the Massagetes had really had a Prince of that name of Oroondates age and bred up with him but they had lost him at the first passage of the Araxis
addition to my afflictions by giving me the knowledge of you at a time wherin I cannot as I could have wish'd expresse how considerable it is to me and if you judge not of my heart by the generosity of your own you will without doubt believe that the necessity of his affairs his weaknesse and the fear of his enemies make a conquered King devested of the best part of his estates abandon'd by his friends and ready to fall himself into the power of his adversaries receive a friendship now which the hatred of our families and the losse of a dear son might perchance have made him reject in his prosperity but if with the Royal dignity which the Gods have not yet taken from mee they have also left any credit to the word of a King I swear to you by Orosmades that knowing you as I do in what condition soever I had been the losses I have sustained by your Father should never have extinguish'd mine inclinations to your self nor should the injuries I have received from him ever have blotted out the obligations I have to you This is all I can protest to you in the state you now behold me and if you can yet desire the alliance of a Prince reduced to such pitiful tearms I offer it to you with protestation that by my consent that daughter of mine which you honour with your affection shall never be but yours and that I will no longer esteem you but as my son and as the person that is dearest to me in the whole world My Prince more over-joyed then one can imagine at such obliging words and such advantageous promises cast himself at his feet again and embraced his knees with transports of an incredible affection but the King having helped him up embraced him tenderly and then Oxyartes followed his example and all the rest were preparing themselves to do him honour and to rejoyce at their knowledge of him as much as their present sorrow would permit when they saw a Troop of horse-men come toward them whom they presently knew to be Megabises and some of those that had accompanied him to convoy the Queens and Princesses This sight made the King to startle and going towards him without staying till he came up Well Megabises cryed he to him Where are the Ladies Megabises casting down his eyes answered him with a trembling voice Alas Sir They are no longer ours How replied the King very much troubled Are they no longer ours No Sir said Megabises They are Alexanders prisoners Alexanders prisoners cryed the King again Yes Sir answered Megabises for scarce had I gotten them five hundred paces from the Camp to conduct them to Damascus as your Majesty had commanded me but I was followed by Parmenio with part of Alexanders Cavalry we could not make our retreat from them by reason of the Ladies and of the incumbrance of their Chariots so that we were constrain'd to sustain the Shock of the valiantest Macedonians they fought like gallant men and the Doriphores your Majesty gave me like fearful women who after a faint resistance faced shamefully about and Parmenio not troubling himself to pursue them ran to the fair prize they had abandoned The Gods are my Witnesses I would have perish'd there if my death could have done the Queens any service but seeing my self alone and wounded in five or six places I thought fit to imploy the life I had left in telling you what perchance you might have heard from some other body with lesse certainty The King hearken'd not to these last words but being too sensible of this new assault of fortune he threw himself upon the ground and muffling his face with his mantle began to lament with sighs and groans which would have rent the most stony hearts with pity My Prince leaâ—â—ng against an Oak and crossing his arms lifted his eyes pitifully to Heaven and in his thoughts accusing it for that sudden alteration of his fortune express'd his griâ— more truly by his looks and by his silence then he could have done by all the words in the world Oxyartes Cohortanus and Artabasus accompanied his sorrow with theirs and all there present were so strucken and confounded that woe and desolation never appeared in a more perfect form The King after having continued some time in the posture I have told you discovered his face and sitting upright It is too much O fortune cryed he it is too much though thou didst persecute me as a King thou oughtest to have spared me as a private man and to have contented thy self with the losse of my estates without burthening me also with the losse of my family It was enough that Alexander triumphed over my Empires thou neededst not have made him triumph also over the honour of my daughters and over mine own too and thou shouldest have been satisfied with bringing him into my Throne without bringing him likewise into my very bed This thought violently tormenting him made him do things mis-becoming the gravity and dignity of so great a Personage he tore his hair and his cloaths and jealousie made him utter such desperate words that all that were present trembled for fear and wept for compassion When he was a little settled he made Megabises begin his Relation again but not having patience to hear the end of it Ah! Coward cryed he to him hast thou then preferr'd a shameful infamous life before a brave and glorious death and when thou mightest have fallen so honourably at the feet of thy Queen couldest thou desire to prolong thy days only to shorten mine by so fatal a news and so prejudicial to my honour and quiet With these vvords darting a furious look at him he put his hand upon the hilt of his Sword but Megabises quite beside himself with fear got out of his presence and by that second flight escaped the danger that threatned him I could not in this accident but admire my Masters courage and the power hee had over himself I doubted not having so much knowledge of his love but that his grief was at least equal to that of Darius yet how violent soever it was his constancy of minde was so great that he never let slip one word that could accuse him of weakness or increase the affliction of a King who being both Husband Son and Father seem'd utterly to give himself over to it When he saw the first brunt of his sorrow a little past he came up to him vvith a vvonderful temper and said with a fashion vvhich discovered the greatness of his courage Sir although my passion for the Princess your daughter and the favour your Majesty has lately granted me had not made me so highly concern'd in this your last and greatest loss the Gods can tell how large a share I should take in your affliction and with what pleasure I should lay down my life to recover the repose of yours The Truth of this and the Honour I hope your Majesty
we began to dispose our selves in good earnest to the battel For this purpose the King visited all his Squadrons in person caus'd Arms to be delivered to such as wanted and made his Chariots to be armed with sharp sithes and heads of Javelins but while he was taken up with these businesses and that with a marvellous diligence he gave those Orders that were necessary a man was brought unto him whom his Sentinels had taken as he was coming over from Alexanders Camp to ours His eyes were full of tears and when he was near enough to be observ'd the King my Master and many others knew him to be Tyreus the Eunuch who having been taken with the Queens had continued with them ever from that time The sight of him and the sadness that appeared in his countenance wrought so upon the King that fearing some misfortune he durst hardly inform himself of the occasion of his coming and yet wanted patience to expect what he would say foreseeing he had brought some fatal newes In the end after having looked long upon the Eunuch trembling Thy face said he presages something mortal but I prithee disguise not the truth from me and flatter not him whom custom ha's made ready to receive all manner of disasters Doest thou not come Tyreus to tell me the dishonour of my house and to afflict a husband or a father with the ignominy of his wife or daughter Tyreus answering with much adoe and lifting up his eyes which till then had been fixed upon the ground I weep not Sir said he for the dishonour of your Familie it hath suffered none but that of Captivity and truly hath received from the Conqueror all those respects and marks of honour which it was wont to have while with your Majesty but Sir I weep continued he redoubling his sighs I weep for the death of an Illustrious Queen your dear Consort and my good Mistress who hath lately breathed out her soul in the armes of your daughters and of the Queen your mother Although Darius had taken a strong resolution to resigne himself wholly to the will of the Gods and with a Royal courage to bear all the miseries they sent him yet could he not at this so new and so sensible affliction remember that brave determination but receiving this loss as an arrow that had struck him to the heart he sunk almost without signe of life in the arms of those that were about him and when he recovered his sence and speech he made such wofull lamentations as touched them all most deeply with compassion and the whole Camp learning this misfortune of one another was fill'd in a moment with groans and Funeral cryes My Prince bewailed that Queen as her vertue the proofs she had given him of her love the interest of his Princess and that of Darius together with his own good nature obliged him But seeing the King in such a mortal grief he dissembled part of his own to give him that consolation which he received more willingly from him then from any other Darius was a long hour sighing and tormenting himself not able to speak one word with a setled judgement and when by the assistance of my Master of Oxyartes and the rest his passion was brought to a little less violence he reflected upon his loss and still doubting though what Tyreus had said might have made him hope the contrary that his vertuous Queen died for the defence of her honour O Alexander cryed he what have I done against thee or thine that should make thee use me with so much inhumanity was I one of the Murtherers of King Philip or of any other person that was dear to thee thou hatest and persecutest me though I have given thee no cause to do either But though thou dost assault me in a fair War what glory canst thou draw from this defeat and what trophyes of honour canst thou acquire by the death of a poor woman who never injured thee and who only defended that by duty which thou perhaps didst attempt by violence The Eunuch hearing these words addressed himself unto the King and said Sir I beseech you use not Alexanders vertue with so much indignity and do not so ill requite those honours he hath paid to the deceased Queen and to the rest of your Majesties familie yet remaining with him he hath serv'd them all with great respect and for her death shed not many fewer tears then your Majestie I protest to you Sir before all the Gods Alexander received this newes as you have done and was as much afflicted at it as for his brother or for his own son he rendred the same duties to her corps which the Queen his mother could have expected from him and for his grief one could hardly have discerned a difference 'twixt yours and his The King looked earnestly upon the Eunuch while he spoke and having hearkned to him attententively he fell in a moment out of one supicion into another and his jealousie joyning it self unto his grief began to torment him with exceeding violence He rose up from the bed he lay upon and taking the Eunuch by the hand led him into an inward chamber where seeing himself alone with him Now it is Tyreus said he that I require proofs of thee both of the fidelity thou owest me and of the zeal thou hast had for the service of my Family behold the face of thy King and if thou yet find'st any Majesty in it or any cause of reverence which the change of my fortune cannot exempt thee from speak to me with the truth thou owest both to thy past oaths and to the presence of the Gods that hear us I do not threaten thee with torments to force it from thee for if the misfortune of the Persians have not made thee turn Macedonian the command of thy natural King will sooner draw it from thee then fear of torture I conjure thee therefore by the power of Orosmades by the light of the Snn which we adore and by all that thou dost acknowledge to be most holy and most sacred to discover unto me the true cause of Alexanders lamentations and of the sorrow he expressed for the death of the Queen thy Mistresse for what so moving pitty can he have for the wife of his enemy who ha's not the least spark of it for the deaths of so many thousand men as he sacrificeth to his ambition without having been at all offended by them how can her losse so deeply touch him whom my misfortunes my entreaties and my offers could not move at all and in short what chaste friendship can a young Conqueror have with the wife of a man whom he uses with so much cruelty Tyreus who understood the Kings meaning by these words cast himself instantly at his feet and shedding tears upon them Ah! Sir cry'd he deal better with the memory of the most vertuous Queen that ever was and dishonour not her after her death
to that purpose But at the first overtures she made to him concerning it he fell into such a passion and washed her feet with so many tears that she left all hope of making him resolve easily upon it but not the designe of resolving her self upon what she believ'd she ought to do I think indeed it was not without strange conflicts of minde that this remembrance of her dutie carried it from her affection and we found by the changes of her countenance and by the sadnesse which for many days preceded her declaration that she brought not her self to it without exceeding violence About that time she received Letters from the King who having destroyed the Cosseans was gone toward Babylon and entreated her to come thither to him assoon as she could possibly This desire of his which she received as a most absolute command perplexed her minde with different thoughts and gave my Prince matter of contriving new expedients to continue the life he led Barsina who meant to accompanie the Queen whethersoever she went offered him the same assistance at Babylon he received from her at Susa but my Master knowing how great an inconvenience it was to her would not abuse her goodness toward him he nevertheless was resolved to make the same voyage and to seek out some other inventions to continue his life which thenceforth seem'd only to subsist by the sight of his Princesse and by those remainders of affection which she yet testified unto him But in the interim this vertuous Queen was a little more reserv'd then ordinary in her carriage to him and no longer afforded him her sight and conversation without marks of a very deep sadness and actions which visibly expressed with how great constraint she contributed what she believ'd she ought not to his repose My Prince could not perceive it without such grief as cannot be represented and drawing an evil omen from her silence which of late time was grown usual to him he ask'd her the cause of that alteration but he ask'd it with so much fear and so little assurance as made her sufficiently know that he was more afraid then desirous to learn it The Queen suffered her self to be urged for some days but when that of her departure toward Babylon was come after she had arm'd her self with a strong resolution she went unto Barsina's my Prince who expected her there with impatience having receiv'd her with his ordinary joy threw himself down before her and endeavoured by all the words his passion could suggest to drive away that melancholy humour in which of late she had seem'd buried after she had been long pressed to it the Queen lifting up her eys which were fixed upon the ground and casting them upon my Masters strove all she could to retain her tears and having studdied a while for tearms to express her self she spoke to him on this manner I take the Gods to witness Prince Oroondates that I have lov'd you hitherto with the most pure and perfect affection a soul is able to conceive that I do still love you more then my self and that I will love you all my life as the services you have done us the affection you have testified to me and my own inclination oblige me If I speak not truth ô Oroondates I wish the Sun whom we worship may never shine upon me more and that great Orosmades may bury me in destruction with those of my Family that are gon before me After this protestation which I conjure you to believe I will also protest to you with the same truth that it is not without extream violences and grief of heart which I am not able to expresse that I declare my intentions to you and that I most earnestly beseech you by all the love which yet you bear me not to impute to inconstancy of minde or want of affection what I do that I may not be the most lost of all women living and the most unworthy of your good opinion and of that greatnesse to which the Gods have raised me With this caution I will declare unto you that if the heavens had made me to be born for you my desires were most readily disposed to it I would have despised the hope of all the Empires of the world and all the felicities which the most happie creatures yet ever knew to have that of being yours but since my cruel destiny hath opposed it and that contrary to all appearance and to my first intentions it hath given me to another you ought not to think it strange if I withdraw that from you which you can no longer lawfully keep and which I can no longer afford you without the loss of my reputation the loss of a quiet conscience and the loss of my self I confess I owe you much but I have not now the ability to pay you and be your reproaches whatever they can it is fit I should represent unto you that the husband whom the Gods have given me is not so little considerable but that he deserves all my affections what rights soever your past services and my inclinations have given you over my life you have now no longer any to dispute them with him nor I still to grant you what can be no bodies but his Give me leave therefore Sir to conjure you with these tears which it is impossible for me longer to refrain to forbear the courses which we cannot continue any more without our ruine and not to think any more of this unhappie woman who is no longer worth your cares nor in a condition to requite them or if you wil yet preserve any remembrance of her that you would carry it far from hence and no longer waken by your presence those flames which dutie ought already to have extinguished and which death shall extinguish for it if it cannot draw that power from your absence besides the consideration of what I ought to do the estate you are in the pains you take and the hazards to which you expose your self for some shadow of favour so light and empty that it merits not the least of your endeavours do really strike me with compassion of you you are destin'd to beter imployments and worthy of a better fortune and the Gods would punish it upon me if I should longer retain in so pittiful a condition the most accomplish'd person they ever created Go then Sir carrie to some other place those admirable qualities which had gained you this unfortunate Princesse and which yet will gain you one more lovely and more happie and leave her to the conduct of her wretched destinie who can no longer pretend lawfully to you and from whom you can no longer pretend any thing I make you this request by all that you acknowledge to be most sacred and conjure you by all the friendship you heretofore have promised me and by all the Empire you have given me over your will to leave this miserable creature for ever or at
least never to appear before her till she be in a condition to receive you I make you judge Sir what effect these words wrought upon my poor Prince he had hearken'd to them with changings of his countenance and alterations able to melt the most frozen hearts with pitty and when he heard the conclusion of them and saw them end in an eternal banishment notwithstanding all the succor he required of his courage he could not get enough from it to make him proof against so violent an assault he broke not forth into cries nor into tears those shewes of grief were too weak for the greatness of his but he had not power enough over his sences nor over his forces to keep them from forsaking him his eyes closed themselves his head sunk gently upon his shoulder and by little and little his whole body fell cold and immovable upon the bed where he was sitting The Queen who had prepared her self for all the worst events that could happen could not see him in that condition without a most sensible affliction not without making war with her fair hair and lovely face which grief had altered almost to an impossibility of being known she spoke the most compassionate words that ever sorrow made those persons utter who have been the most deeply touch'd with it and did some actions which if they had not been excusable by their cause would have been a little unbeseeming her modesty and quality but yet she never stirr'd from her last resolution and disposed her self rather to die then retract the sentence she had pronounced Barsina Cleone and I were about my Prince and laboured to fetch him again by all the remedies that can be made use of in such an occasion but he was in so deep a swoun that it was above an hour ere we could observe the least signe of life in him Though the Queen was once resolv'd not to stay for his complaints and reproaches yet could she not leave him in that estate but assoon as ever she saw him open his eyes she rose up from beside him and wiping away her tears composed her countenance as well as possibly she could and prepared her self to give him the last farwell My Prince having recovered his sences and seeing us all busie about him turn'd his sight slowly on all sides and seeking her out with his eyes when he was come to himself enough to remember the command she had newly imposed upon him he said only these words to her with a feeble dying voice I will obey you Madam never fear it I will obey you The Queen not permitting him to go on I hope so my dear Oroondates said she and with this assurance I give you the last farewell and the last kiss With these words coming close to him she kiss'd him for the last time indeed and getting loose from him without staying for any other answer she went out of the chamber so besides her self that I believe she hardly knew how she got unto her Chariot My poor Master accompanied her with his eyes as far as he could without stirring from his place and cryed out after her with a voice that shewed how weak he was Farewell the most beloved and the most ingratefull of all women living farewell for ever inhuman Statira Farewell since you fear to be present at my death and yet feared not to give it me He uttered many other complaints and was presently seized with a most violent feaver Barsina would not leave him in that condition and though she had purposed to have gone along with the Queen Sysigambis and Parisatis who all departed that very day she made her excuses to them promising the Queen to wait upon her at Babylon assoon as my Prince was recovered thus the Queens went away from Susa and Barsina returning to her house began to take care of my Masters health We had already got him to bed and that good Princess knowing the violence of his Feaver sent for all the most skilful Physitians and imployed them in his cure with a diligence that cannot be imagined she was so handsomely industrious and so affectionately careful about it that she visibly express'd the reality of her friendship to him but the poor Prince vvas so ill handled by his sickness that within a few days the Physitians began to despair of his recovery Do but judge Sir of my affliction and of Barsina's to see a person that vvas so dear to us and whose excellent qualities we were so well acquainted with die in her house and in our arms Certainly it is very hard to represent it to you and when vve reflected upon all the accidents of so marvellous a life and that we saw the admirable events of it end all in so sad so tragical a conclusion vvee appeared to bee more touched with his sicknesse then he himself In the mean time he lay in a continual study and for many days was deprived of all manner of knowledge his frenzy made him speak many extravagant things and the Physitians ascribing all to that made nothing of them though they were able to have discovered some passages of his life They continued many days in a belief that he would die and the Gods are my witnesses that not being able to think of seeing Scythia again without him nor of living after him I took a resolution to accompany him in the grave But when wee least expected it a favourable crisis gave some glimpse of hope to those that had him in hand and to make short that I may not keep you longer in a narration which already exceeds a reasonable length his youth and vigorous constitution saved him and in the end lessened the danger wherein he had lien for many days Assoon as the Physitians began to give me assurance of his recovery and that by the diminution of his feaver my confidence of it was increased I turn'd my thoughts to the settling of his minde in quiet but not seeing the least hope of it while his fortune was such I took a resolution something strange but worthy of the affection I bore my Master and after having a while digested it I came to his bedside and knowing that no body over-heard me Sir said I since the Gods have so visibly delivered you from a death which without their particular assistance was infallibly very near you they have without doubt thought of the establishment of your life and do not restore it you beyond the hopes of all those that have look'd to you in your sickness to make you languish it out in misfortunes and disasters You must live but you must live happy and to that end you must banish all scruples that detain you in your present misery Since Alexanders life is incompatible with yours he must die and you must lose all those considerations that may disswade you from a thought in which alone your safety is to be found if the Queen loves you her desire to be intirely
gave her self so absolutely to thee that Orithia as she was Orithia could not desire any thing she possess'd not entirely We had besieged Phryne a City in Cilicia upon our Enemies Frontiers and our Rams had made a reasonable breach Orithia at the head of six thousand Amazons prepared to assault it I would needs fight by her side and notwithstanding all her prayers to disswade me from it I was so obstinate in my resolution that she was constrain'd to suffer my company She march'd through the midst of our Enemies Darts and Swords with such a fiercenesse as froze the hearts of the Trojans when Minerva shook their Walls and with her dreadful Gorgon carried terror and death into their City She went undauntedly up those ruines defended by valiant men and despising a cloud of arrows and stones that came pouring upon her shee covered me with her shield and encouraging our women by her glorious example in spite of the resistance of our Enemies got to the top of the breach Wee fought already at handy blowes and I may say without vanity that I had already slain some and given proofs of valour considerable enough in one of my age when I was stunned either with the stroak of a club or with some stone and fell down at Orithia's feet without sense or motion and certainly it was my great good fortune to fal so near her since that without her assistance my death had been inevitable Never was Tygresse when robb'd of her young so furiously sensible of her losse as Orithia was observ'd to be by them that were near her from whom I heard it since shee flew with a great cry upon some of the Enemies who went to make an end of me and sheltring me with her body and her Target gave death to all that came near her and having made a Rampart of dead bodies vvhich left her free room enough shee took me up in her arms and turning towards Menalippa one of our vvomen who commanded vvith her Menalippa said shee the victory is ours take care to prosecute it I can neither fight nor live unlesse the Princesse be in safety At these vvords continuing to make way with her Sword she came down with her burthen through the passage she had open'd her self before and carried mee out of the Fight with such impatiency and sense of sorrow as she afterwards express'd to me and as only she was able to represent Assoon as she had taken off my Cask the fresh air I took restored me to my self and Orithia seeing me open my eyes was like then to have died with joy as before she was with grief I observ'd the mixture of joy and fear in her countenance and desiring to assure her T is nothing said I my dear Orithia I was only fell'd and I need nothing but a little rest Her face grew settled at the hearing of these vvords but not being too confident of them she look'd upon my head where she found no wound at all by reason of the goodness of my Head-piece which had defended me and that sight compleating her joy shee took me in her arms and carried me on into my Tent where she laid me upon my bed but all the way her face was firmly cimented to mine and I receiv'd kisses from her vvhich might have made me know the difference there vvas between her affection and that of our other vvomen The Queen vvho vvith a good part of the Army had continued in arms vvithin the Camp to give Orders and who had in vain endeavoured to keep me vvith her no sooner heard the news but she came running frighted to me but finding me reasonable vvell and knowing shee was obliged only to Orithia for my safety she made such dear expressions to her as it is impossible for me to repeat but that valiant Amazone no sooner had seen me in a place of security and learned from our Chirurgians that there was no danger of me but forcing her affection she left me and went back to the assault from which no other consideration but mine could have been able to draw her Her presence there was very necessary and the Enemies who by her absence had recovered heart lost it again at her return and made but a vain resistance against her valour and the new Orders shee gave But as her return was fatall to them so likewise was it very profitable to them and her mercy saved divers of them from the fury of our Women who would have put all to the Sword without exception Orithia opposed their intention successefully and the credit shee had already gained among them made them slacken something of their ordinary cruelty When shee had set the Town in some Order and had left Menalippa to command there shee came back to us and found mee almost recovered of my blow yet was it incommodious to mee for a few days and during the stay wee made at that City which the Queen entred the next morning I kept my bed continually I will not entertain you with the relation of that Warre as long as it lasted I received proofes of this nature from Orithia's affection but it being ended by an advantageous peace wee entred again into our own Territories and took our way towards the Capital City which as the Province bears the name of Themiscira It was about that time Alexander Invaded Asia and as an impetuous Torrent over-ran all those Provinces the greater part whereof submitted to him without drawing Sword Our Neighbours of Cappadocia and Cilicia yeilded without resistance and voluntarily underwent that yoak which he imposed upon all the Earth Alexander us'd them favourably and continud to them their former Governours and their ancient Priviledges The Queen my Mother knowing her self too weak to resist so Potent an Enemy meant to try gentle ways and sent Menalippa and Clytemnestra to him to represent that his generosity obliged him to leave us in our former Liberties and not to imploy those victorious arms which had conquered all Asia against feeble Women Alexander receiv'd our Ambassadors with much civility and having told them that he had no intention to trouble our quietnesse nor our Laws he turned his Forces another way and entred not into our Countrey The Queen was extreamly glad shee had diverted that Storm and shee had taken that course by Orithia's advice who had acquired such a reputation amongst our Women that every body considered her as an extraordinary person and by the sweetnesse of her manners and conversation shee had so gained the hearts of the whole Court that shee was both the delight and admiration of it Shee had been near upon two years amongst us when from her naturall livelinesse shee fell into a deep melancholy She did all she possibly could to disguise it but it was quickly to be perceived in her countenance which was so visibly altered that 't was no longer in her power to dissemble it the affection I bore her made me one of
That great losse did so exasperate me against Neobarzanes and his soldiers that I was blindly obstinate in the pursuit of them true it is that I disdained all the rest to fix upon the person of the Chief and by killing or taking him prisoner to decide our eternal quarrel This desire made me fall in eagerly among the run-aways and not considering that I was followed by but few of my Amazons I ingaged my self in a Wood where Neobarzanes had rallied part of the Cavalry he had left I found my errour when I was in the midst of them but 't was too late to help it and the Enemy having discovered the smalness of the number that pursued them made an halt and inviron'd us on all sides I may say without vanity that we in that occasion did all that valiant and desperate persons could do in such a like encounter I made part of them that opposed me fall at my feet and getting to Neobarzanes in spite of them I dismounted him a second time but he was instantly taken up by his men and our resistance serving only to exasperate them against us they charg'd us so furiously on every side that all our Women were slain upon the place and my horse being killed with a thousand wounds left me upon the ground at the mercy of my Enemies I expected nothing from them but death and I should certainly have receiv'd it if Neobarzanes had not commanded them to take me alive They presently went about to do it and it was impossible for me to hinder them so that after having vainly defended my liberty I was taken disarm'd of my sword and tyed upon an horse which was presently sent away for feare I should bee rescued by the Troups I had left behinde they caried me away with so much speed that within an howre I was brought to Phryne that same City which before we had taken by the valour of Orithia and which the Cilicians had afterward recovered from us There it was that Neobarzanes gathered up his run-aways and shut himself in with them though the place was not yet very well fortified but he knew our broken Forces were not in a condition to besiege it nor to attempt any thing upon his Territories without fresh Supplies This consideration made him resolve there to expect the event of that War that hee might give Orders upon the Frontiers till more strength came to him from Tharsus Judge Sir of my grief and shame to see my self in the power of my most cruel Enemies and of the imprecations I uttered against fortune that had suffered me to fall into their hands and not to perish in the Fight with the valiantest of my Women I began to deplore my Captivity with the saddest words my sorrow could bring forth when I was led before Neobarzanes some light hurts I had which they vouchsafed not to get dress'd nor I to desire that favour or to hope for any from them after the losse they had sustain'd Assoon as Neobarzanes saw me he could scarce forbear revilings and the remembrance of a brother whom he had dearly lov'd and whom I had killed before his face was so powerfully renued in him that he was ready to have put me instantly to death but having cast his eyes upon my face hee found something there that mollified part of his anger and restrain'd the impetuousness of that fury which caried him headlong to my destruction Yet could he not so well contain himself but that looking upon me with eyes sparkling with wrath The Gods bloody woman said he have at last delivered thee into his hands whom they have destined for the revenger of thy cruelties and if the death of my dear brother and of so many thousand of my soldiers which cries for vengeance against thee cannot be satisfied with that of one woman I shall at least have this satisfaction to punish the head for the crimes of the whole body and to appease my brothers ghost by the blood of her that deprived me of him I heard these words without being terrified and having look'd a good while upon him with a disdain that might have incensed him more I replied at last without being moved I expected neither favour nor good usage of thee Neobarzanes and I should think it a shame to receive that from thee which thou never shewedst to any body doe not believe thou canst affright me with thy threats Fortune the Goddess thou adorest and vvho puffs up such empty souls never had any Empire over mine and can neither deject it nor subdue it to thee thou alone art guilty of those cruelties with which thou reproachest me I have defended my Territories which contrary to the Law of Nations and thy promise given thou unjustly didst invade and if thy brother and thy soldiers have fallen in thy quarrel they died like valiant men and have received that punishment for thy crime from which thou feedest thy self by flight These words were enough to redouble his fury and carry him to extreamities against a person who braved him and injured him though a prisoner But that little beauty wherewith some had flatter'd me upon which he cast his eyes with most base and guilty designs suspended his anger and hindred it from breaking forth with violence but not him from answering with a sharp and dangerous smile Wee will see whether thy constancy will hold out to the end and if thou wilt be as couragious in the certainty of thy death as thou art in the expectation of a pardon which thou vainly hopest for by reason of thy sex Though he spoke these words with a cholerick voice hee cast looks at me which were sufficient to make me doubt his violence and commanding me to be taken away he had also the care to give order that Chirurgians should be sent to dress my wounds I was carried back into the Chamber which was given me for my prison and though my Captivity caus'd as much grief in me as a couragious heart was capable to feel some remainder of that desire which vve have naturally for life made me give way to the care that was taken of my wounds Assoon as I was in bed they were search'd and dress'd but they were such sleight ones that the Chirurgians did not doubt but they would be healed in a few days I was not a little confirm'd in my belief that Neobarzanes his anger was asswaged when I saw women sent to wait upon me from whose sight I receiv'd much consolation That was the thing I had most desired in my misfortune and I feared nothing so much as to see my self among men whose conversation I was not used to and from whom I apprehended violence The second day of my Captivity I learn'd from the Women that served me that they did not believe that Neobarzanes would put me to death and the third they told me he had sent to enquire after my health As I had not been terrified by his threats
if you should have wrought this miracle in favor of mee what should I offer upon your altars and what should I do to acknowledg a mercie of that nature After these words and som others full of transport hee repeated all those passages in his minde from whence hee could draw any assurance of his good fortune and examining his last encounter particularly hee found it so agreeable to Perdiccas his words that hee no longer doubted but that woman which rid behinde the Cavalier whose apparel was so like Cassandra's and whose voice was so like Statira's was really Statira her self Beeing fortified by these last considerations in that opinion hee gave himself over to his joy with such excess as might have caused his death if in the same encounter hee had not met with strong occasions to repress it True it is that after having heedfully considered all things hee believed hee had found Statira again in the person of Cassandra and of the woman who had passed by him that very day but hee could not give way to that thought without making room for another which was able to counterpois a good part of his happiness nor believ Statira to bee living without believing her to bee in the power of that Lover with whom Perdiccas reproched her and whom hee had seen her embrace in his own presence This opinion settling it self with the other produced little different effects and as joy had banished all fatal thoughts out of his minde the jealousie that accompanied it banished the greatest part of that joy out of the same minde Statira is alive said hee with a discontented look but shee is not alive for mee that ungrateful Princess is in the arms of a new Lover and shee who after so many years service hardly granted mee the slightest favors hugg's and embrace's a new-com servant without modestie or discretion Suffer not thy self therefore to bee carried away with the excessive joy thou feltest for the recoverie of that inconstant woman the gods restore her not to Oroöndates though they restore her to the world and 't is but for the interests of a rival that thou hast made thy vows and that thou rejoicest without sence or reason His jealousie increasing by the strength of appearances grew then so insolent as to dispute for superioritie with his joy and indeed it had not so little power but that it held his minde for som time wavering in suspence but in the end the excellencie of his nature and of his affection which was absolutely pure and disinteressed gave joy the upper hand and made him more satisfied with the life of his Princess then afflicted with her inconstancie hee thereupon repented his former thoughts and striving to suppress them O! my affection said hee again pardon mee this weakness I am not yet loosned enough from humanitie to forget all my interests and 't was base in mee to consider my self in the safetie of my Princess let her live for mee if it bee possible and if that hope bee forbidden mee let her live however and let onely Oroöndates die since hee is incapable of living without her How Let onely Oroöndates die added hee within a minute after Ah! that design is unjust Oroöndates will not die alone that happie rival who triumph's over so many suffrings over so many years service shall infallibly accompanie him to his grave I 'le follow him into what part of the world soëver hee shall go and carrie death into that same brest where hee ha's lodg'd the image of my Princess As hee brought forth these words his face was inflamed with an excessive color anger and hatred came to mingle themselvs among the other passions which had found place in his soul Hee then turned over a thousand different thoughts and that change of his fortune putting him into a condition of taking new resolutions and of crossing the order Lysimachus and hee had agreed upon plung'd him into a deep studie which kept him above an hour upon the bank of the river where hee was set down At last hee arose from thence as much confounded and unresolved as before and walked again toward Polemon's hous but leaving it upon the left hand hee followed the cours of the river till before hee was aware hee got above a dozen furlongs from it when hee began to com to himself again hee found hee was close by the side of a wood the shade whereof suiting well with his pensive humor begot in him a desire to visit it hee sought out the thickest and most retired places to which hee communicated his new causes of joy and his new causes of sorrow and after having wavered a while in the diversitie of his thoughts hee resolved in the end to give Lysimachus notice of that adventure and to follow the track of his rival to spend the last drop of his bloud in disputing with him for a conquest hee had so easily and so unjustly obtained with this design hee had alreadie turned about to finde his way home again when from one of the remotest places of the wood hee heard the voice of certain persons who spoke with a great deal of vehemence and these last advantages having taught him to neglect nothing for the knowledg of his fortune hee lent som attention to them to see if from thence hee could draw yet somthing more toward the clearing of his doubts for that purpose hee directed his steps that way where hee still heard that nois and had not gon far when through the boughs hee perceived a man armed compleatly except his cask which lay upon the grass fitting by a Ladie to whom hee talked with very much action as soon as hee was near enough to hear what they said hee thought hee knew their voices and that conceit made him creep a little nearer under favor of som trees which hid him From that place hee overheard their discours and endeavored to get a sight of their faces but scarce had hee cast his eie upon them when hee was strongly confirmed in his suspicions and forced to contradict all probabilitie to give credit to his eies and ears yet though these voices and faces were perfectly known to him hee accounted that adventure so exceeding strange and so surprising that hee could hardly believ it in this confusion hee heard the conversation of those two persons and quickly lost his doubts by a most assured confirmation the attention hee lent permitted him to understand their words distinctly and to observ all their actions so that hee heard that fair Ladie after shee had roughly pulled away her hand from the man who held it between his speak to him on this manner Think not unworthie man thy threats can terrifie mee no more then thy flatteries have won mee I cannot love thee nor will I bee afraid of thee and as thy wickedness give 's mee an aversion against thee so the hope I have in the justice of the gods free 's mee from the
a welcom and not beeing at all terrified by it from my design No cruel man aaswered I I will never let you rest till you restore mee him you have unjustly taken from mee Turn not away Theander but if you have yet the least remembrance of that affection you once bore mee tell mee by what fault I have deserved your hatred Hee with whom you reproched mee and who without doubt hath disturbed the tranquilitie of your minde shall give you no more disquiets nor no more suspicions and shee who in your opinion is most criminal will either ceas to bee so if you pleas or ceas to live if you continue your late usage to her While I spake these words I did all I could to make him turn toward mee but that poor abused man whose reason was half lost by the violence of his jealousie was not at all moved with them and pulling one of his hands away from mee which I had taken Fear not said hee fear not any wors usage from my resentment then what you have already received my grief may well send mee to my grave but it shall never make mee injure her I have too dearly and too perfectly loved whatsoâ—ver is fatal in my resolutions shall be turned against my self and you may live with securitie but live without my friendship which you have so ungratefully disdained These words utterly banished from my soul that smal desire of life which yet remained in mee and believing I should pass the rest of it onely in torments that would make it a thousand times wors then death I resolv'd to end it in the sight of that ingrateful man both to satisfie his resentment and to blot out of his minde by the last of my actions those jealousies hee so unjustly had conceived In this design without consulting further I arose from the place where I was and seeing a knife upon the table I went thither and taking it in my hand while Theander having his face turned on the other side gave mee sufficient conveniencie I drew near the bed again and throwing open the Curtain with an action that testified my despair Ingrateful man said I hard-hearted and perhaps disloial Theander turn thy eies upon her whom thou accusest of falshood and thou shalt see the satisfaction shee will give thee for that infidelitie wherewith thou reproachest her if I have betrai'd thee it is just I should perish between my innocence and my crime I know no mean nor will I make use of that goodness which make's thee spare her whom thou hast too dearly but not too perfectly loved Thou darest not give mee that death thou desirest I should have but I can tell how to finde it since thou wishest it yet know Theander that thou art the most cruel and most ingrateful of all men living that by thy ingratitude and thy inhumanitie thou hast made thy self unworthie of the most pure and most real affection that ever was and that by thy unjust suspicions thou loosest both the best friend and the most loial wife in the whole world I die to gain thy belief of this protestation or rather I die to please thee since death is the onely expiation thou canst demand for the crimes thou suspectest mee of Although Theander was most obdurate hee could not hear these last words without beeing moved the fear they put him in made him turn toward mee and sit up in his bed but though hee saw mee lift up my arm and that with a great crie hee leapt into the floor to save mee hee got not to mee so soon but that I had alreadie stab'd the knife into my breast with all my strength I fell down presently all bloudie the sorrowful Theander who had not been able to prevent my fall cast himself down by mee and joyning his face to mine hee by his cries and actions of despair made mee know as weak and fainting as I was that my loss gave him thoughts very different from his last expressions After having spoken som words full of rage hee drew the knife out of my wound and raising his voice that I might hear him Dearest Alcione cried hee thou hast been but too faithful to thy barbarous ingrateful husband I esteem thee as innocent as thy murtherer is guiltie and my last affliction is that I can give thee nothing for thy life but that of thy executioner As hee made an end of these words hee lift up his arm and though his cries had alreadie call'd som of his servants into the Chamber that encounter amazed them so that they had neither wit enough to divert his resolution nor readiness enough to hinder him from striking the fatal knife yet died and warm with my bloud up to the very haft in his own body Here Alcione's Narration was interrupted by a floud of tears which ran from her eies at that sad remembrance and which caused such a tenderness in the two Princesses that their compassion forced them to keep her companie in that mornfull exercise After they had a little settled themselvs and that Thalestris by som words of consolation had endeavored to abate Alcione's sorrows shee at her entreatie wiped her eies and went on thus with her discours My poor Theander fell down by mee and his last care was to testifie to mee by his embraces that hee believed mee innocent and worthie of his affection Although I was exceedingly weakned I had not lost my understanding but having enough to discern that action I felt redoublings of my grief more cruel then that death which I thought my self very near I used all the strength I had to sit up and looking upon my poor husband whose bloud mingled it self with mine and who by his last endearments strove to express his lost thoughts to mee I opened my mouth though I was half dead and forced these words out with a great deal of pain Theander said I dear cruel Theander was not my death painful enough without your making it a thousand times more sensible by beeing guiltie of yours My pale weak husband looking upon mee with dying eies and endeavoring to press mee between his arms with the little strength hee had remaining Dear Alcione said hee it was not just that the innocent should diâ— and that the guiltie should continue in the world Ah! replied I with a tone like his I am no longer innocent since I am guiltie of your death Wee should have endeavored to say more if Theander's servants and my women who were all com about us and in whom this accident had imprinted the true image of death had not taken us up and laid us both upon Theander's bed Wee were all bathâ—d in bloud and while som of them were busie in stanching it the rest ran to fetch Chyrurgians They came within awhile after and my Father and Mother came almost as soon as they At this woful spectacle they sent forth cries which redoubled the desolation of the hous they wept over mee
the Princes upon earth and of whom no bodie ought henceforth to speak without detestation the base poisoner of his Master and of his King doe's not onely finde safetie amongst those who were nearest to him and amongst those who hold all their honor and all their fortune from him but also a support against those that were his faithful servants and a protection that would bee refused him even among the greatest Enemies of his memorie Roxana whom hee honored with his bed and with the participation of his Crowns whom from the daughter of Cohortanus hee raised to bee the wife of Alexander and whom from Captivitie hee exalted to the highest degree of honor that ever woman attained Perdiccas whom hee favored during his life and whom hee honored at his death with the chiefest marks of his affection and esteem and a great many others who are little less indebted then they to the ashes of their Master arm themselvs in the defence of his poisoners of his parricides But was there any less to bee expected from those who by actions of the same nature have sufficiently testified that they were of the same inclinations and that they would yet prosecute Alexander in the person of them that were as dear to him as his life Did not Perdiccas and the rest of Roxana's accomplices by a violence without example force the great Queen Statira and the Princess her Sister out of the hands of their attendants to murther them before the eies of that pitiless woman Did they not even bring the knife unto their throats And if Perdiccas out of consideration of his own interest spared their lives hath hee not changed the pain of their death into that of a cruel and unworthie Captivitie Those great Princesses who were so dear and considerable to our mightie King now languish in slaverie to his subjects who impose shameful Laws upon them and who from the bloud of Darius and from the alliance of Alexander would make them stop to that of the meanest of his Followers These are the onely considerations that make us take up arms with a firm protestation before all the world and at the foot of our Altars that wee will never lay them down till Alexander bee revenged and the Princesses freed and satisfied And if our Enemies would perswade indifferent persons that wee make use of these pretences to cover our ambition or other less lawful causes of division let them do justice themselvs upon the murtherers of Alexander and restore the Princesses to their libertie and to their former autoritie and they shall finde us most readie to withdraw our forces from these Countries and leav them in a perfect tranquilitie The Princes having caused a great many copies to bee taken of this Declaration and made them bee spread abroad through the Army and were careful to send them to all places where they desired the justice of their quarrel should bee known The next day they proceeded to the election of a general and to make choice of a Prince among them that should give orders and command the rest with an absolute power but in this enterprise there was no small difficultie and their contestations were very different from those which are usual in the like occasions all of them equally avoided that advantage and that glory which elswhere is wont to bee so much envied found nothing but aversion and disdain among those generous souls All with a joint consent yielded that honor to Prince Oroöndates and protested to him with great submissions that they would not march with him unless they might obey him Ptolomeus Lysimachus Oxyartes Eumenes and many others pressed him to it with most ardent entreaties but hee resisted them with so much modestie and constancie that 't was impossible for them to move him It is enough said hee that you do mee the honor to suffer mee amongst you and I receiv that favor with great acknowledgment I who am useless among you and who am here utterly destitute of forces in the midst of so many Princes the weakest of whom have brought whole Armies Although I had with mee all the strength of Scythia I should still make it my glory to obey men so worthy to command mee and I should bee as firm as I now am in refusing an honor which you cannot offer mee without making mee remember my want of abilitie By such like reasons Oroöndates rejected the command but not one of the Princes could bee perswaded to take it from him and Ptolomeus Lysimachus and the rest were no less obstinate then hee in denying to accept of that autoritie At last by voices of all the Officers the supreme power was put into the hands of six among them who should command by turns every one his day These were Prince Oröondates Prince Oxiartes Ptolomeus Lysimachus Craterus and Antigonus Eumenes Polyperchon Queen Thalestris Old Artabasus and Laomedon who might with justice have pretended to the same dignitie refused it so absolutely that 't was impossible to make them com into the number Artabasus excused himself by his age Thalestris by her sex Eumenes by his humor which was an Enemie to command and by the union between him and Ptolemeus to whom hee remitted the whole care Polypercon and Laomedon by other considerations The six Princes seeing themselvs constrained to submit to that election condescended to it at last protesting to their companions that they accepted nothing of that charge but the care and trouble and that for the honor of it they would alwaies yield it totally to them That day beeing spent in this election all retired to their Tents and the next morning certain Scouts that had been sent abroad brought word to Craterus to whom by reason of his experience of his credit with the Souldierie which hee still preserved since Alexander's time and of Oroöndates his indisposition all his companions had given the first day that they had seen a bodie of seven or eight hundred hors com out of the Citie who made as if they would draw near unto their Camp byasing toward the side of the hill The young Demetrius thrust forward by a generous boiling heat asked leav of Craterus to go with alike number of men to drive the Enemies back into the Town or draw them to a fight and having with som difficultie obtained it from his Father Antigonus who loved him with an extraordinarie tenderness and who could not without great repugnance see him go into danger hee took hors with eight hundred of his men proved to have the honor of striking the first blow in that war hee would not take a greater number with him for fear the inequality of the partie should make the Enemies retire without fighting and rob him of the glorie hee sought besides that the place was proper for his intention and that in an open Campagn hee could not fear any ambushes which in another place the Enemie might have had a design to draw him into The beautiful
I neither an Amazon by birth nor of a stronger and more warlike constitution than the rest of women 't was onely despair that put a sword into my hand and a curass upon my back under which my death hath been my first assay The beginnings of my life were very different from this last profession and if my misfortunes had not altered my face perhaps it would not be unknown to some among you since it hath heretofore appeared to my shame and confusion in places where you have past part of your life and from which my body or my mind ha's never been absent since that fatall engagement of my heart to which I owe the greatest part of my miseries The unfortunate Cradates Prince of the Caspians was my Father his name I am sure is not unknown to you nor what he did against you in all the Battels Darius fought against Alexander he was born his subject and I may truely say he was held in some consideration both by him and by all the Princes of his Court he also serv'd him with an inviolable fidelity till the end of his life and till after his death never yielded to Alexanders fortune But I am to blame continued she to say it was to his fortune since to say truth it was to his merit that he yielded Ah! who was able to resist him that Conquerour of men that Master of bodies and of souls and that sovereign Arbitratour of our destinies Oh that it had pleased the gods that fatall merit which hath drawn me into this labyrinth of disasters had been less known to us and that they had suffered poor Cradates to fall in that famous battell of Arbella wherein he shewed so many proofs of his valour and of his affection to the service of his King without prolonging his dayes to entangle his wretched family in those miseries which accompanied it to the very last It was I say after the death of great Darius that my Father with his houshold and the remainder of those Troups he had commanded came to cast himself at the Conquerours feet Alexander received him very graciously and by the kindness of his reception did in part abate his sorrow for the lamentable end of his Master and wrought an ardent desire in him to serve him also with a fidelity like that which he had born to his deceased King I have begun my Storie in this place without making any mention of the first years of my life wherein there is nothing considerable enough to be told you and the rather because the condition I am in forces me to be thrifty of my speech and strength that I may be able to relate the more important accidents of my life and not spend them in the recital of those which are but of small importance I had lived till those years quietly enough in the Province my Father commanded but at that change of our condition mine also received a particular change and by a fatal sight I lost that repose which I had still preserved in all the troubles of our Countrey I am going to make a confession to you my Lords which perhaps will rather draw mockery from you than compassion but if my folly cause some laughter in you the sad effects of it will in the end oblige you to some pity and will make you impute both my folly and my misfortunes to the cruelty of my destinies I will tell you then that even in the remotest part of our Province the reputation of Alexander had begun to cause some disquiet in my mind and that being born with high spirit enough and bred up with a fame of some beauty and of some qualities which made me be accounted to have something lovely in me I had also lofty thoughts but lofty with excess and even with blindness The flatteries of those which called themselves my adorours had so puffed me up that I disdain them all to fix my whole esteem upon that Alexander whose person was yet unknown to me but whose reputation was already spread over all the earth I heard his exploits recounted with admiration and when they talk'd to me of the greatness of his courage of that boiling and generous ardor which made him rush headlong into the thickest of his enemies of his moderation in victory of his gallant fashion of his youth and of the grace which accompanied all his actions I felt my heart insensibly won and became an enemy to my Countrey lest with it I should pray for the ruine of that lovely enemy who began to extend his victory as far over my heart as over our territories This esteem settled it self in my soul with some disquiet and began to work desires in me which as innocent as they were rob'd me of my former repose I could not forbear to take the part of that great King even before those who wished his destruction nor to set forth his praises in the hearing even of his mortall enemies I remember I was often reprehended for it by those who had power over me yet by their going about to suppress my desires they did but kindle them so much the more In these terms I stood when my Father called me to him and when he communicated to his family the design he had to cast himself at the conquerours feet I was the first who with a more specious pretence covering the desire I had to see that Prince embraced Cradates his knees and said all that my passion could suggest to fortifie him in that resolution If these beginnings of my folly were so powerfull judge what the progress of it was after the sight of Alexander I believed him more handsome and more lovely than he had been presented to me me thought fame had done him wrong and that what she published of him was infinitely below the truth O Gods with what a Majesty did he receive our submissions and with what a grace did he raise us up when we prostrated our selves before him I know not whither my heart prepossessed with its former opinion of him received that impression through the powerfull inclination it had to it or whither it were an effect of the merite of that Great man or a decree of my destiny but whatsoever it were that moment was the last of my liberty and from an adorour of Alexanders gallant actions I really became Alexanders captive his great imployments would not suffer him to hold any long conversation with us yet was it not so short but that I heard him discourse a good while with my Father and had leisure enough to swallow great draughts of that poison which by degrees seized upon my heart and quickly left no part of it untainted When we were come away his image remained still present to my remembrance and when by reasoning I would have made some attempt to drive it thence it settled it self there with a more absolute Empire and tormented me with more violence and Tyranny Foolish Hermione would I
his advantage and the destiny of Bessus should have serv'd for an Example to the Wife of Spitamenes With such like Discourses Spitamenes aggravated my sorrows and having by the length of them given me time to shake off part of my astonishment I at last recovered courage and looking upon him with a more assured countenance than before Think not said I to confound me by thy Reproaches nor to terrifie me by thy Threats these Crimes thou accusest me of are not new unto thy knowledge this is not the first day thou knewest that Cradates his Daughter was the mortal Enemy of his Murderer this Attempt thou upbraid'st me with is onely against the Butcherer of my nearest Friendst and not against my Husband The Gods forbid that ever I should acknowledge thee by that name their Bloud has washed out all the marks thou hadst of it and if I were guilty of that affection thou condemnest me of it should be to the Gods and not to thee that I should justifie my self for it I ow no fidelity to him who by horrible Paricides has extinguished all those Obligations and I ceased to be thy Wife from the time that thou divestedst thy self both of the nature and quality of my Husband After the misfortune of Cradates who was neither more guilty nor less in thy power than I thou needest not think it strange that I try all manner of ways to get out of thy hands and that I call for help to him who of all men living is best able to give it me and from whom being interessed in our misfortunes as he is I may most lawfully hope to obtain it if thou hast shed the bloud of a faithfull servant and of the innocent Messenger of thy intentions be neither the more fierce nor the more satisfied for that and believe thou aggravatest thy Crimes onely for thy greater punishment and that if thou lettest me continue in the world I will be revenged for him as also for my Father and my Brothers This Torrent of words which I pour'd forth impetuously and in which Spitamenes for all his rage and fury saw a great deal of justice abated his violence a little and if they were not able to make him more milde or more cholerick than before they were powerfull enough to strike him to confusion yet did he strive to dissemble it and labouring to put himself into his former termes Think not wicked Woman said he to justifie thy self by these weak Reasons thou alleadgest thou art but too plainly convinced of two crimes the least whereof is worthy of Death and persevering as thou doest to work my ruine thou wouldst perchance scarce finde one in the whole world from whom thou couldst hope for so much mercy as thou receivest from this cruell this barbarous man I will let thee out-live thy Crime to the end thou mayst have no advantage over me and that henceforward our Reproaches may be equal since our faults are equal when thou tellest me of Cradates I le put thee in minde of Alexander but know thou hopest in vain both for his help and his affection I am content to let thee live so long as thou live for none but me but if I sink under Alexanders fortune thou shalt be sure to keep me company to my Grave nor will I leave thee in the World in a condition to laugh with thy Lover at the Defeat of thy Husband pray therefore to the Heavens for my prosperity if thou wilt pray for thine own safety I give thee this wicked Womans life continued he pointing to Theano and though she deserve Death I am satisfied with having punished her by her sons for the counsel and assistance she has given thee Having said these words he went out of my Chamber and left me little moved with his threatnings but deeply afflicted both with fear of never seeing Alexander and grief for poor Theano whom for a reward of her services and of the nourishment I had received from her I unfortunately had deprived her of her onely son The poor Woman lay upon the floor keeping the Head in her hands and mingling her tears with the bloud which still ran from it was a hideous and horrible sight to behold I took her in mine arms and adding my tears to hers with much affection Mother said I I am not able to give you any valuable comfort in this loss I have caused you and unless I could restore you what I have robbed you of I know not how in the world to make you amends but I protest to you by all the Gods that hear us by the soul of Cradates and by the tender affection I have ever born you that your interests shall from henceforth make the best part of mine that I will be as eager to revenge you as my self and that I will perish very shortly or appease the Ghosts of my Father and of your son by the bloud of their Murderer Though these words were not sufficient to quiet that poor Woman yet did I perceive they had wrought something upon her and that she found some sweetness in the promise I made her I spent the rest of the day with her in condoling the disaster of that poor young man whom I unhappily had sacrificed to my misfortunes and the day after we had imployments of another nature Spitamenes having notice that Alexander had sent Menedemus against him and that he was already upon his march toward Maracanda with his Forces resolved to go forth with his to meet him and to wait for him in some advantageous place fit for an ambush which he meant to lay and into which Menedemus must necessarily fall The Troups were no sooner ready but Spitamenes compell'd me to go out of my Chamber and putting me with certain women into a Chariot encompassed with Guards took me along with him the way he march'd he had with him four thousand Bactrian hors-men whom he caused to carrie behind them as many Dahaes lightly Arm'd and expert Archers who yielded little to horses in swiftness and who had order to alight at the very beginning of the charge and to enclose the Enemies on the right side and on the left That day having made a very long march we came to the place of Ambush in the beginning of the night and the very next morning imprudent Menedemus arrived there I will not entertain you my Lords with the particularities of that business I have already told you that I am but a Souldier by accident and besides those passages are as well known to you as to my self You have heard that Spitamenes his Stratageme took the effect projected that the Macedonians were shut up on three sides and that the sudden surprise of the Dahaes deprived them of all means to fight that Menedemus seing himself overeach'd and ashamed to have an Enemy more subtill than himself made amends valiantly with his own person and after having slain a great many of his Enemies fell dead
number of Guards seeing that in the depth of all my miseries that consolation was refused me and that Theano was still obstinate in disswading me from dying by my own hands I resolved to seek Death in the War and Theano was ready to accompany me in that Design not persisting any longer to make me languish out this miserable life Two days ago we were inroll'd in Perdiccas his Troops where to conceal our sex we still kept retired from all company as much as possibly we could and Theano notwithstanding her Age loaded her weak shoulders with Armour as well as I. The other night unfortunate Spitamenes appeared to me in a Dream all bloudy and hideous to behold and looking upon me with a threatning eye I expect thee Hermione said he and thou shalt shortly come to decide the remainder of our Quarrels with me I abhorr'd my life so much that me thought I was not at all terrified with his threats but stretching out my hand to him without any fear Yes said I Spitamenes expect me we will go together and end our Differences before Alexander After this Vision I waken'd in a start and the next day which was yesterday we came out of the Town with those that went to second Cassander but poor Theano going to put forward her Horse amongst the rest fell down at the feet of those that came after her who advancing hastily trampled her to death in my presence I should have been very sensible of that loss but that I was ready to accompany her therefore instead of staying to weep by her whose affection did well deserve my tears O Theano cried I stay for me I le quickly keep thee company and spurring on my Horse before all the rest of my Fellows who had newly received a Command not to stir further from the Gates I ran alone to you Demetrius from whom I received this favourable wound which has so much afflicted you but has given the unfortunate Hermione the onely satisfaction she now could hope for Behold the life of this unhappy Woman on whom Demetrius you blindly have bestowed your affection now that you know her better you will without doubt be delivered from those disquiets which you express for her Death the Gods are my Witnesses that that 's the strongest of all those considerations which moved me to this recitall and the last fruit I hope for from it is that by this knowledge I have given you of my miseries which perchance never had such an interrupted succession in any other life you will bear the loss of mine without any trouble and confess with me that in the condition to which my Disasters have reduced me Death is the onely happiness I could now desire Thus did Hermione conclude her sad Relation which begot both astonishment and compassion in all that heard her They began to pass their opinions of it and to justifie her with a general consent for the Death of Spitamenes by those powerfull Reasons she had to deliver her self from him when amorous Demetrius who had hearkened to her with strange impatiencies interrupted their conversation and replying to Hermiones last word You have told me nothing said he that can diminish the passion I have for you and you were infinitely deceived if you believed you should make your self criminal in my thoughts by your Narration That Monster with whom the Gods had so unfitly matched you that barbarous that faithless Spitamenes did not onely deserve the Death which he received but a thousand worse Deaths alltogether and if you be faulty in any thing 't is in that you so long deferred the Revenge you owed your Father and in that you so long persisted to love a man who did so ill requite your affections as much greater as he was than other men he was too happy in the thoughts you had for him and if he had known you as well as I do he would have forgot the care of all his Conquests to give himself totally to you Ah! I would it pleased the Gods that some small part of that passion he unworthily received had been reserved for the unfortunate Demetrius and that he might die for love alone without the mixture of his griefs and of his remorse which makes his Destiny most terrible to him The passionate Demetrius spake on this manner when he saw Hermiones face grew pale and within a while after her eyes closed up with a fainting fit that seized upon her Her afflicted Lover seeing her in that condition and believing her to be either dead or dying cast himself upon her bed notwithstanding the presence of his Father and of the other Princes that were with him and forcing the obstacles they used to stop his transports and the respect which in a less extremity he would have had for the person whom he loved he imprinted her pale Lips with a thousand ardent kisses able to have restored that heat which had forsaken them And indeed so they did in part for Hermione coming out of her swown found her self in his arms whereof she was much ashamed and putting him back with a feeble hand Ah! Demetrius said she add not shame to the other passions which accompany me to my Grave and content your self that I know your affection by other marks than these which are very indecent and which so little become a dying person Demetrius seeing himself reprehended by these words retired into his place but he was so full of trouble that it almost deprived him of understanding Hermiones strength decayed visibly and the Chirurgians and Women that tended her seeing it was almost night desired the Company to withdraw Demetrius obeyed them with great unwillingness and all Antigonus his authority was necessary to perswade him to it he would not eat one bit but going to bed by his fathers command passed that night in much more violent disquiets than the former The next morning his body being come into that Chamber from whence his minde had never stirr'd he found Hermione so weak that he no longer doubted but she would die and the Chirurgians had no longer confidence to disguise the truth from him he saw but too well that his fair star was going to be eclipsed and to bring into his soul a gloomy night and a night of mortal darkness Alas with what an excess of grief did he receive this assurance and with what passionate fits did he express his despair he walked up and down the Room in a frantick manner with wilde and wandring looks pull'd off his hair tore his Clothes and did nothing but furious Actions Antigonus vainly imployed his words and even his tears to quiet him he was as deaf to the one as blinde to the other and Tiridates who was then in the Chamber coming toward him and taking an unseasonable liberty Why how now Demetrius said he will you die then for a Woman nay more for a Woman of the Enemies party and for a Woman unworthy of the tears you shed
Demetrius had not patience enough to endure these words but running to lay hold of a sword was going to revenge Hermione with the bloud of indiscreet Tiridates if he partly of his own accord and partly by the perswasions of those that were present had not gotten suddenly out of the Chamber Doest thou think cried Demetrius seeing him go out doest thou think cruell man that I will suffer the injury thou doest me and canst thou not be satisfied with Hermiones Death and mine without abusing us also by thy words Ah! would it pleas'd the Gods that by a thousand such Lives as thine or as mine own I could restore her that which I have taken from her As he spake these words he drew near Hermiones bed again and leaning over it imbraced her Knees with so much tenderness and yet with so much violence that he forced all that were in the Chamber to weep and lament by his Example O Gods cried he must Hermione die then and will you not grant unto my tears and and prayers a little of that life which you cruelly cause to perish by my sword Shall Death seed upon that which to me seems the most lovely thing you ever sent into the world and will you grant no delay to the ardent supplication of a despairing Lover Can you not for my sake renew the destiny of Alceste and will you not be appeased if I sacrifice Demetrius for Hermiones safety While he spake on this manner Hermione though weak and dying suffered deeply with him in his afflictions and looking upon him with eyes that began to dazle and to lose part of their lustre by the approach of Death Demetrius said she you force me to confess to you that I die not so absolute a slave to Alexander but that I am very sensible of your affection and that I have certain motions in these last moments of my life whereof my whole life was never capable spare this dying mouth a more ample confession and if it be true that you love me moderate your sorrows by Reason and by my desire in this necessity that parts us 't is the onely proof of it I can or will beg of you for a recompence of the last protestation I make that I give you all the share in my heart which I now can possibly give you This was all that Hermione was able to bring forth distinctly and within a while after she grew so exceeding weak that she could hardly speak a few interrupted words she struggled yet some hours with Death but about the shutting in of the day her spirits departed and she remain'd pale and cold in the arms of Demetrius who in that accident appeared little different from her and who losing his senses and understanding with his strength was carried away to another bed making the Phisicians doubt whether those swownings proceeded from a bare fainting or from a real death The end of the fourth Book The Continuation of the third Part of CASSANDRA The fifth Book IN the mean time Araxes return'd from Babylon the fourth day after his departure as soon as Oroondates saw him come into his Chamber he ran to him with open arms Lysimachus who at that time was with him did the same and both with equal haste inquired news of their Princesses I am still as ignorant of their condition said Araxes as when I went from hence and yet I may truly swear I have not spared any kinde of indeavour to inform my self All the world at Babylon believes yet that they are dead or if they have heard any thing of their being alive 't was onely by your denouncing of war and by your Declaration The Princes were all afflicted at this discourse and looked upon one another with a confusion which was easie to be observed in their very faces O Lysimachus cried the Prince of Scythia we are not yet at the end of our disaster and you are extreme unhappy in having any intermixture with the fortune of Oroondates this communication will be no ways advantagious to you for I shall infallibly draw you into those eternal miseries to which the Gods have condemned me Fortune replied Lysimachus hath not been wont to use me more gently than your self and if our sufferings are contagious you will gain no more than I in this union of our interests Alas added Oroondates perhaps our Princesses may be dead indeed and that the Gods have onely flattered us to make us the more sensible of our Losses by the hopes they have given us The Loves of our Rivals replied Lymachus may secure us on that side they will perish without all question themselves rather than consent to their destruction yet I doubt not but they will do all they possibly can to conceal them a while longer from Roxana They were in this discourse when Ptolomeus Craterus Oxyartes Polyperchon Artabasus Eumenes and Queen Thalestris came into the Chamber the noise of Araxes his return had brought them thither and all of them together desiring to learn the success of his journey he gave them an account of it in these terms After I was departed from hence I got within a short time to Babylon and telling those that were upon the Guard at the Gates that I was come over to their party I found no difficulty to obtain entrance into the Town I had call'd to minde as I was upon the way that I had formerly had a particular friendship with Damocles one of the chief Citizens of Babylon who at my request had by my Masters favour gotten an Office in Darius his Court during the abode we made in that Town That good turn which he had received from my Prince and from my self in part had ingaged him to us with a strong affection and we had receiv'd some proofs of it which made me believe at that rememberance that I might trust him without fear of being betrayed As soon as I was in the Town I went straight to his house where I had been many times and having happily found him without company I made my self known to him he gave me an exceeding kinde welcome seconded with some tears in which joy and grief were equal sharers and at the first declaration I made of the cause of my Voyage he offered to do me all the service I could hope for from an affectionate friend I told him not in what place nor in what condition I had left the Prince my Master making as if I knew neither and onely confessed that I came to Babylon with a Design to learn news of Queen Statira that I might tell it my Prince in case I were so happy as to finde him Damocles told me he had heard nothing of her since the report of her death and that he had yet seen no body that doubted of it After this first Discourse I prayed him that I might remain a few days concealed in his house thereby to inform my self more certainly and letting him know I was in
thou representest unto thy self still amiable is that same Orontes who after having abandoned thee to despair disdains thee and flies thee with contempt and with indignity and who even in his very sleep can utter nothing of thee but injurious speeches 't is therefore that same Orontes that must die but I will not suffer his sleep to rob me of part of my revenge I mean he shall feel the death that I will give him and the last minutes of his life shall be imployed in hearing my last reproaches She settled in this final determination and for fear Orontes should get away as he had done before she stept to the horse and cutting the reins of his bridle turned him loose and so deprived his Master of the means to make use of him After this precaution she came back to him and speaking aloud to waken him Rise said she Orontes but rise to die The sudden noise of these words waken'd Orontes in a start and lifting up his head he saw one standing by him with a sword drawn and in a threatning posture The apprehension he had of so unexpected a sight made him get up hastily and pulling out his sword to defend himself against that Enemy whosoever thou art said he perchance thou hast waken'd me to thine own destruction but scarce had he cast his eyes upon Thalestris when he knew her the beaver of her Cask being half way up This unlucky encounter troubled him exceedingly and letting fall the point of his sword he retired three or four steps in hast crying out will 't thou torment me for ever woman whom I abhorre a thousand times more than death I will never cease to torment thee replied the Queen till thou ceasest to live and the end of thy torments is now come with the end of thy life She accompanied these with a blow which Orontes warded with his sword and flying at him with a blind impetuousness forced him to seek his safety among certain trees Defend thy self base Coward cried she and think not I will take thy flight to proceed from any remainder of respect to me thy treachery and unworthy usage are a thousand times more cruel than any resistance thou could'st make and though thy sword should cut one from the world 't would onely finish what thy perfidiousness hath shamefully begun As she spoake these words she ran headlong after him among the trees with so much fury and suddenness that she reduc'd him to a necessity of either standing upon his defence or letting himself be kill'd How great soever his hatred was to Thalestris he could never resolve to lift his hand against her and being weary of flying so long to save a life which he no longer car'd for he made a firm stop and presenting his breast unto the furious Queen Strike cruell woman said he strike the heart which I had blindly given and since thou art so extreamly thirsty of this bloud which I so often have shed for thee take take this life which by thy shameless infidelities thou hast made more odious to me than that death thou strivest to give me I meet with no new thing in this thy cruelty nor ought I to think it strange that thou wouldst drive me out of the world after having forsaken me with so much baseness and with so much infamy This soul which thou so obstinatly endeavour'st to banish from this body will depart from it unstaind and clear of those infidelities thou upbraid'st me with and thine after having dyed it self quite black by the most ignominious of all crimes can add nothing to its foulness by cruellty and murther Do not remember I am that Orontes who gave himself to thee with so perfect a resignation and to whom thou didst promise thy self entirely with so many oaths and so many protestations but look upon me as Orontes absolutely chang'd and as an Orontes who not being able to banish thee out of his memory keeps thee there for no other end but to hate and detest thee I could defend my life against thee if thou hadst left me any love of it and this neglect I show of my own safety comes neither from the love I formerly bore thee nor from any consideration I have of thy sex but meerly out of contempt of that which thou wouldst take away Or ontes had all the liberty he could desire to prosecute his discourse for from the the time he began it the Queen was in a manner strucken with his words and had hearkend to them without interrupting him so much as by the least motion of her body In this ' discourse as bitter and violent as it was she with some tenderness heard the tone of her Orithia's voice and even in the midd'st of his most sharp and stinging words there resounded something so sweet and so effectually moving that she could not be Mistris of that compassion which fought in her heart against her cruell resolutions yet found she to the great aggravation of her sorrow how firmly Orontes persisted in hating and abusing her with Reproaches full of indignity and this assurance kindled her anger afresh which before was a little abated and stirr'd up her desires of Revenge more violently than ever she waver'd yet a while in these irresolutions and perchance at last they would have been fatal to poor Orontes if they had not heard a noise of Horses at which looking about they saw themselves invironed by Prince Oroondates Lysimachus Ptolomeus and Hippolita Oroondates instantly seiz'd upon the Queens Sword and having easily taken it away by reason of the trouble he found her in he cast his eyes upon Orontes whose face he presently knew in spite of a ten years absence not but that time and his discontents had made a great deal of alteration in it but his being in that Country which he had heard his Arms which had been describ'd to him and the sight of this adventure put him clearly out of doubt His affection began to work strongly in him at the encounter of that Prince whom he had so dearly lov'd and not being able to dissemble it Pardon me Madam said he to the Queen if I cannot forbear to imbrace your Enemy and belive that the Gods have brought me hither to make him lose that name and quality With these words he discover'd his face and running to Orontes he imbraced him with great demonstrations of friendship Orontes return'd his kindnesses with some amazement but when he had fix'd his eyes upon his face and that he had a little recovered the features which time had almost worn out of his rememberance his astonishment was beyond comparison and retiring a step or two to clear his doubt Sir said he is it you Yes Cousin answered the Prince doubt no longer of it I am Oroondates He had hardly got out these words when Orontes would have cast himself at his feet but the Prince took him fast about the middle to hinder him and redoubled his
indearments with much affection Orontes receiv'd them with an humble respect and when he was got loose from his imbraces and that he was preparing to express the joy he felt for having met him Oroondates drew back and put on a more serious countenance Cousin said he let us defer this conversation which is not seasonable in the condition I found you in and in the presence of this Queen with whom you have matters of greater importance I have given these first testimonies of my friendship to your merit to our near affinity and to the breeding we had together but now I must speak to you as I am oblig'd by my duty by my promise and by the care I have of your repose and of your honour it self This fair Queen at my most humble request will moderate for a while those just resentments she has against you and I will protest to her yet once again in your presence that if in your infidelity you have not been betray'd your self I cannot choose but be your Enemy In short Orontes your perfidiousness ought to arm all the best friends and all the nearest kindred you have in the world against you and unless I will declare my self for your crime I can no longer keep within the terms of our ancient friendship If I lose your friendship reply'd Orontes briskly the loss will be more sensible to me than all those I have sustain'd since that of this ingratefull womans affection but though with it I should also lose my life which she prosecutes with so much hatred I cannot repent my having abandon'd her when she abandon'd her self so lightly as she did and I rather think it strange that you should disapprove my indignation since loving virtue as you do it is impossible you should approve the cause of it and that you should preserve so much as an esteem of her whose defence you undertake against him that has the honor to be nearly ally'd to you I lov'd her but too faithfully and too religiously and would it had pleased the Gods that the first moment of my love had been the last moment of my life I for her had lost the rememberance of all that I had formerly lov'd and even of my very self she was endebted to me for her liberty her life her honour and I should no way injure modesty if I should say I had deserved her affection nay she had given it me in appearance and when with some kind of justice I hoped for the utmost proofs of it this ungratefull woman to the prejudice of my services betrayes herself unworthily to betray me and precipitates herself into dishonour that she might precipitate me into dispair what would she therefore have of me now and what is the cause of that hatred which nothing but my death can satisfie did I ever trouble her in her new affections did I oppose the contentment she received thereby and have I so mortally offended her by seeking that repose in banishment which she had robb'd me of for ever she requires my bloud Ah! I would it pleased the gods continued he turning toward the Queen I would it pleased the gods O inhumane Thalestris that thou hadst shed it to the very last drop and that that were the most sensible injury I have received from thee after my former losses that is but little to be considered and thou mayest now give thy self a liberty O barbarous woman to exercise thy utmost cruelties for they will all be gentle in comparison of those thou hast used against me already Orontes had not constancie enough to utter these last words without letting fall a showr of tears nor had the Queen patience enough to hear them without interrupting him Come tell us Traitour cried she tell us what is that cruelty and that infidelity I have showed thee let these Princes know who hear us and whom the gods have sent as judges of our differences by which of my actions have I been able to deserve this usage thou offerest to a Queen who had committed no other fault but that she had given thee her heart too easily Discover here before the face of heaven those shames and those infamies wherewith thou hast reproached me both in thy letter and in thy discourse and no longer spare this woman who by the loss of her honour has made herself unworthy of thy affections and who will live no longer after the knowledge of thy calumnies If thy despair replied Orontes proceed from the death of Alexander I protest to thee by all the gods that I contributed nothing towards it and that if thou hadst lyen whole ages in his Arms I would never have come to pull thee thence That gallant voyage thou tookest to him to renew that ignominious custom thou oughtest to have abolished in favour of me and to begg an inheritrix for thy Crown before he had any affection to thee that voyage I say which was the Tomb of thy reputation was made too publickly to escape the knowledge of such an interessed Lover as Orontes and how brave a man soever that Alexander was to whom thou madest that glorious present and that shamefull request the greatness of his fortune ought not to have raised him in thy heart above Orontes if he had served thee if he had lov'd thee nay if he had but so much as known thee thy lightness would have been more excuseable if he had come to seek thee in thine own Countrey if he had woed thee if he had made suit for that he had of thee thy crime would have been less horrible but when he never so much as thought of thee to cross through spacious Provinces to go to him to become a Petitioner and to embrace his knees to proffer him that which with justice thou mightest have refused him though he had spent his whole life in thy service doest thou believe Thalestris that these are light causes of affliction and inconsiderable injuries to Orontes He would without doubt have enlarged himself upon this invective if from the beginning Thalestris had not grown pale and if within a while after she had not fallen in a swown into Lysimachus his arms These words of Orontes were so cruel to her that she was not able to hear them without fainting and the Princes were so sensibly troubled at it that they could not but behold Orontes with an accusing eye While Hyppolita took off her Arms they ran to the fountain to give her help and Orontes who as jealous and as angry as he was was yet tainted with a wound whereof he had no hope he should be ever cured was so strucken at that accident that he had neither confidence nor strength to go nearer to her but turning his looks another way he leaned his head against a tree the bark whereof he washed with his tears unto the very foot At last the Queen came to herself again and being a little recovered by Hyppolita's care of her she sought Orontes
to appear but Queen Thalestris got her selfe made ready and taking Horse with Orontes Ptolomeus Eumenes and Hippolita she rode to the Amazones quarter having sent before to Menalippa to draw them together when the rest of the Forces were dismissed they had been kept behind for the design the Queen intended to effect that day and she no sooner was come thither but she found them all in the readynesse she had commanded When she saw she might be heard by all her Women and that she had prepared them to give her a quiet audience she began to explain her intentions to them with a great deale of Eloquence and Facility First she represented to them the shame and misery of their condition and with it the errour of their Predecessors who having thought by the institution of their Lawes to free themselves from the Tyranny of men had submitted themselves unto it with infamy and had reduced themselves to run after them over all the Earth and to prostitute themselves unto them in a most ignominious maner instead of having preserv'd that Empire amongst them which their Sex in all other places had maintained She exaggerated whatsoever was most odious in that Custome in â—earms that were capable to make them abhor it and in spite of that confidence their institution had bred in them she made some of them blush at the remembrance of things which they had done When she perceived that that discourse which had alwayes been most odious amongst the Amazones was heaâ—kned too with attention she excitâ—d them to take a generous resolution for the recovery of their Honour and either to cast off men for ever or to suffer them only by lawfull means and such as were approved through all the world She told them that their institution had proceeded only from the despair of certain women not from any reasonable motive and that in the condition the affairs of Asia were reduced to since the death of Alexander they could no longer hope their Monarchy should subsist Then she promised them the alliance of their neighbours who would receive them with open arms as Eumenes who at that time was absolute over Cappadocia and who was present at her discourse to confirm it to them and with their alliance an eternall repose in all their families and a sweetness in imployments more conformable to their sex She at last declared how she was resolved to marry Orontes aswell in regard of the services he had done her and of the love she bore his person as of the shame she had discovered in those Laws to which she would no more submit her self Yet did she protest she had undertaken nothing to the prejudice of what she owed them and that if by her example they could not oblige themselves to abolish their customes she was ready to deliver up the Crown to them and retiring with Orontes into his Country leave them the liberty of choosing a Queen under whom they might live in their ancient Priviledges She sayd a great deal more to them which they hearkened to very favourably and when she had done speaking they deliberated a good while what resolution they should take Some amongst the most zealous of them opposed that alteration but those that were lesse passionate found so much reason in it and the Queen had already so well gain'd the Chiefe of them amongst whom she was esteemed as a person altogether Divine that her party in the end was found the strongest and by little and little the desire of Novelty easily imprinting it selfe in in the minds of Women added to the imagination of many delights which they fancyed to themselves in that change of life in a short time drew them all to yield to her desires When they were confirmed in that intent they all cryed out aloud that they would obey their Queen that they had rather change their custome by her example then submit themselves to the Authority of another and that they would with joy receive him for their Prince whom they formerly had loved and honoured as Orithia The fair Thalestris found marvelous cause of satisfaction in this event and after having promised her Women a sweetnesse and tranquility of life very different from that they had enjoyed she alighted from her Horse and embraced them almost every one with testimonies of a very tender affection After that they gave her new assurances of the desire they had to obey her punctually and to make all the rest of them that were in Themiscira follow their example and when the Queen had setled them in that determination as firmly as was possible she returned into the City and before the Queen and the Princesses were quite dressed she arrived at the Palace where they had all been lodged since Roxana's departure That Day the lovely Daughters of Darius having cast off all the griefe in which they long had languished did also lay aside that mournfull colour and that sad attyre which had accompanyed their sorrow and to appear to the eyes of their illustrious Lovers in the highest splendor of their Beauty they set it forth at their request by all those embellishments which the misfortunes of their life had made them to neglect Then Gold and Jewels of inestimable value glittered with a Magnificence suitable to the Quality of those Great Princesses and their Beauty receiving its former luster by those exteriour Ornaments after having been a long time buryed in afflictions shew'd it selfe like the Sun when after tedious Storms and foggy Mists it breaks forth of the Cloud that had obscured it and appears to our eyes again with it usuall brightnesse Berenice by reason of the late death of the King her Father cloathed her selfe in a much graver habit but her eyes shot Rayes surpassing those of Diamonds and her naturall dresse had far more comelynesse then all that the power of Art could have added to it Thalestris having quitted her Martiall Apparel conform'd her selfe to that of her own Sex and appeared no lesse charming in that estate then she had before been terrible in Battle Deidamia and Barsina decked themselves at the entreaty of their Lovers and both of them discovered such Beauties as out of that fair Company could find no parallells When all of them were ready to come forth they were conducted together to Juno's Temple where that memorable Ceremony was to be performed and where the people flocked with so great a croud as cost the lives of many persons Those that had been the Subjects of Darius could not behold his Son and Daughters in that condition without sending forth loud cryes and shouts that pierced the Heavens accompanyed with tears of joy and tendernesse and whether it were among the Souldiers or amongst the Citizens there was a generall rejoycing observed little different from that of those who were most concern'd The fair Widdow of Alexander was led by Seleucus Berenice by Antigonus Parisatis by Ptolomeus Thalestris by Eumenes Deidamia by Craterus and
my life Roxana made a stop at these words and the Prince seeing she expected his answer I do not deny said he but that these proofs of affection which you alledge are very different from those I have received from Queen Statira I never looked for any such from her and if she had been capable to give me them I might have been capable to lose the report and the passion I had for her it was in permitting me to see her and to serve her that she expressed her goodnesse to me better than by crimes which could never have come into her thought without horror and by the knowledge I had of her I received those favours as graces that were above a reasonable ambition I wondred not that she should cease to love him when she believed him ingratefull and perâ—idious who in his greatest fidelity was unworthy of her affection and by means of your cruel deceipt I was guilty enough in her opinion to deserve a thousand deaths with the banishment she condemned me to if she hated me so long as my innocence was unknown to her if she married Alexander you alone were guilty of the crime and if since her marriage she bounded all her affections in the person of the King her Husband and could neither love me nor suffer me after my justification I accused nothing but her virtue onely and did not think it strange that a Princess who could not commit a fault would not for my sake go beyond the limits of her duty In short Madam though it were true that that great Princess had ill requited my passion she is such an one as merits an eternal service without the least hope of requital and I am too proud of the advantage I have had above all other men to give a moment of my life to the thought of another glory or of another felicity These inclinations replyed Roxana have hitherto been very contrary to your repose and the miseries wherein you have passed your life ought perchance to have diverted you from that imprudent perseverance These miseries answered Oroondates shall ever make my most glorious fortune and that which I have suffered for my Princess is above the highest recompences I could propose unto my self in a design less noble than that of devoting my whole life unto Statira You might perhaps imploy it with better fruit added Roxana and though Statira were yet more worthy of it than she is perchance she may never be in a condition to acknowledge it she is in the power of a man who will rather perish than abandon her and you your self may consider that you are my Prisoner I am a prisoner said Oroondates but this captivity of the body reaches not unto the soul or if my soul be a prisoner it is in a prison out of which it neither can nor ever will be set at liberty thus it is you share Oroondates with Statira but her part will eternally be hers and you may happen quickly to lose yours by the succour of a great number of gallant friends that fight for my deliverance That succour of your friends replyed Roxana is not so infallible as you believe and the success of this day may perchance have coolâ—d them for a great many others but I hope you will not need it and that I shall make your prison so pleasing to you that you no more shall wish for liberty it is with that design I desired you should be my prisoner particularly nor would I leave that advantage to enemies you have among us whose interest in your ruine would perhaps have been more powerfull in them than the consideration which ought to be had of your person After these words Roxana who desired first to try gentle ways not being willing to exasperate Oroondates by a longer conversation took leave of him when she once more had promised him all the good usage he could hope for from the person that in all the world was most affectionate to him and going out of his chamber left him at liberty to reflect upon that past entertainment and upon his present condition Aâ— she retired to her own lodgings with torches which were already lighted she in a Gallery met Cassander and Alcetas they both knew of Oroondates his being taken which was divulged through the whole town and they also were not ignorant that the Q. had been to visit him Alcetas presented his hand to her on that side that hers was free to lead her back unto her chamber and Cassander who by reason of former passages between them had not so easie an accesse kept at a farther distance but he looked upon her with eyes which the rage of his jealousie had kindled and not knowing how to dissemble his resentments Your Majestie said he comes from doing an action generous even to excesse and if you had seen your prisoner to day before our walls in the posture we saw him animating his men by his voice and by his example to the ruine of our party and perhaps even to your own it may be you would not have made such extraordinary haste to visit him The Queen who hated both the discourse and person of Cassander answered him something briskly I have rendred that without generosity which I in reason owed to a man of Oroondates his quality and I have rendred him nothing whereof he is not very worthy both by his birth and by his virtue He is yet the more worthy of it replyed the jealous Cassander by the happinesse he hath not to be hated of you but I will tell your Majesty once more that he appeared very ingratefull to day to your affection and that you could not have honoured an enemy with it more fierce and eager to procure your ruine so generous an enemy as he said the Queen exasperate by that discourse in what condition soever he can appear is a thousand times more lovely than a cowardly friend and I should be lesse ashamed of loving such an enemy as Oroondates than such a friend as Cassander Cassander would have answered that sharp reply and perhaps with too much bitterness if they had not been just then at the Queens chamber-door into which he would not enter so the Queen went in not staying for his answer leaving him in furious transports of anger and jealousie Instantly his thoughts ran all to the death of Oroondates and he more considered the facility he might have to execute his design in the condition he then was than the shame he might undergo by killing a prisoner He shall die said he walking fast up and down the Gallery he shall die that proud Usurper of Roxana's affections he that unjustly robs me of what he himself disdains though he be unworthy of it and though by this womans ingratitude I am little obliged to embrace her interests I in my revenge will give her hers and punish this insolent man for his contempt of her I upon Oroondates will revenge both Cassander and
Roxana and perchance I shall also revenge my self even upon Roxana by giving death to Oroondates if she be reasonable shee 'l think her self beholding to me in what I shall have done for her reparation and if she persist in her ingratitude towards me I shall be satisfied in having punished her by the death of my enemy He was talking on this manner to himself when Perdiccas returning from the Town where he had given all the Orders that were necessary for the guard that night came into the Gallery Cassander saluted him with so troubled a countenance that Perdiccas soon took notice of it and having asked him what the matter was Cassander in a few words told him how he had met the Queen and repeated all the discourse that had passed between them She uses me added he afterwards as a man of no account and as a man unable to retort the injuries she does me but she shall find her self deceived and shall see that I yet am powerfull enough to do her a very sensible displeasure You are the most violent man in the world replied Perdiccas and you take a very wrong course to effect your intentions this is not the way to gain the affections of a Princess and the Queen must needs have had strong inclinations towads you if after the violence of your proceedings she could suffer you without aversion I have tryed answered Cassander all ways of gentleness and of respect with as much patience and submission as Roxana could have looked for from the meanest man alive but that submission and that patience have been as fruitless to me as these violences you reproach me with While you kept your self within those terms said Perdiccas the Queen was engaged with a Husband and with a Husband great enough to take up all her affections and since his loss you have hardly given her leisure to come to her self Say rather replyed the jealous Cassander and say so with a great deal more truth and reason that both during the life and after the death of that Husband she was prepossessed with the passion she hath for our common enemy say 't is her prisoner or ours with as much justice as hers that robs me of Roxana as he does you of Statira and say in fine that the onely way we have left is to make him perish for the repose of us both I 'le agree with you answered Perdiccas that Oroondates is indeed the greatest obstacle to my designs and that he is my rival a great deal more than yours since he hath as strong a passion for Statira as an aversion against Roxana and I will also agree with you that by his death I should find advantages which I can hardly hope for while he is alive but you must know withal that I cannot be the authour of it and that I am engaged to Roxana by a promise that will not suffer me to attempt any thing against him I must be fain to let Oroondates live thereby to secure the life of Statira without which I could not preserve my own nor can I take arms against my rival without arming Roxana and all her powers with her against hers I know said Cassander what plot you both have contrived against my happiness I am too much concerned in it to have been ignorant thereof till now and I doubt not but Roxana will leave you Statira to have Oroondates for her self but hope not for your satisfaction by those ways and rather expect it by your rivals death than by his matching with Roxana neither indeed is there any probability of seeing a Scythian joyned in marriage with the Queen of the Macedonians and the posture her affairs will be brought into by the birth of a son of Alexander's will not permit her to think of the alliance of that Barbarian it were much securer for you that Oroondates were no longer in the world than that he should continue in it to be still seen and still in a condition to be loved by Statira perhaps I may do something both for you and for my self and if your promise keeps your hand from serving you in that occasion mine shall be imployed in it without consideration and without repugnancâ—e Cassander said many other things of this nature to Perdiccas who for his own interest could not disapprove that intention and though he was hindered by the promise he had made to Roxana from confirming him in it yet did he not do what he might have done to disswade him from it He parted with him presently after to go and see Roxana to whom he had something to communicate and Alcetas whom Cassander had stayed for came to him then out of her chamber Alcetas would needs go immediately to see the Princesse Parisatis and Cassander for all he was so much transported went along to serve him in a design they had laid together to discover how she stood affected towards Lysimachus They found her not in her own lodging for all that day she had not stirred from the Queen her sister with whom she had had matter of discourse enough concerning Oroondates his being taken they passed on to the Queen's chamber into which they had free entrance alwaies by their authority yet the Queen by reason of the suspicions that were had of Cassander for the death of the King her husband could not suffer his presence without horror nor would she have permitted him to visite her in a place where she had been Mistresse they then had newly supped but had eaten very little in regard of the disturbance this last accident had caused in them and they were rising from the table when Alcetas and Cassander came into their chamber After some words of civility which they spake at their first coming in Parisatis who thought she might more handsomely than the Queen ask news concerning Oroondates prayed Cassander to tell her the truth and to let her know some particulars of the manner of his taking Cassander though he could not hear the name of Oroondates prayed Cassander to tell her the truth and to let her know some particulars of the manner of his taking Cassander though he could not hear the name of Oroondates without trembling yet did he master himself to satisfie her and to make the plot take which Alcetas and he had agreed upon so after having told her what he knew of the truth we had not that advantage alone continued he nor are we better pleased with the taking of Oroondates than we are with having slain and wounded the chief of his companions Ptolomeus Eumenes and Polyperchon have lost their lives in this last action Antigonus Craterus and Demetrius are wounded and we our selves saw Lysimachus who was getting up after Oroondates hurt with a great many arrows and thrown down under the ruines of a battlement with the ladder and all those that followed him into the Moat from whence he was carried off by some of their souldiers without any sign of life The