time I threw him headlong out of his saddle upon the ground Though the sight of our combat had already made a good many of those that beheld it come running towards us I had time enough to have slain Arsacomes if I had had a mind to it but how great interest soever I had in his death I was not able to give it him being he was no longer in a condition to defend himself and seeing some of the officers of the army come thundering at me I advanc'd a little toward them with a purpose to make my self known and with a hope to moderate their resentments by the sight of my face I found more facilitie in it then I expected by the prudence of Theodates for he no sooner had seen them stirre but casting of his helmet and shewing them his bare head he made toward them with all possible speed crying O Cleorestes O Leotaris whither run you 't is Arsaces your Generall and your best friend The name of Arsaces often reiterated slackned their speed and turning toward him that spoak it they knew him to be Theodates to whom they bore a particular respect and affection They were seis'd with a marvellous astonishment when I coming up to them with my sword in my hand and my head quite unarm'd do you come cry'd I dear friends to take away the life of Arsaces if it be so I refuse not death nor can I receive it from more welcome hands then those of my ancient friends and of my valliant companions These words and the sight of my face stop'd them short at first and put them into a wonderfull irresolution but within a while after they made all other considerations yield to their affection and putting up their swords they came to me with an intention very different from that which before had drawn them This accident had stai'd the march of the army and all the Officers leaving their places with part also of the souldiers ran thronging to that spectacle but the name of Arsaces which spread from one to another through the whole Army presently stilled all their resentments and wakening in them the remembrance of the ardent love they had born me they ran all about me to take my part against Arsacomes his servants and particular friends Cleorestes was the first who finding the affection of the souldiers and incited to it by his own got before all the rest and cryed Long live our Generall Arsaces and may his enemies perish Leotaris seconded him in his cries and in his action and immediarely the name of Arsaces ecchoed through all the plain I was almost overturn'd with the crowd of Officers and souldiers some ask'd to see their Generall Arsaces and some pressed to salute me I stretch'd forth my hands and embrac'd them one after another and calling them by their names I made them see I had dearly preserv'd their remembrance By little and little I was encompassed by the whole army and was fain to go all about without my cask and to show my self to those that were furthest off who with loud cries demanded the sight of their Generall Never was there any change of this nature so sudden nor so wonderfull as that and all that my most affectionate friends could have wish'd to my advantage would not have come near to what Fortune did for me in that encounter In the same place where a few minutes before I had been alone against an enemy that commanded a powerfull army I saw my self triumphant I saw my self ador'd and I saw my self absolute over twenty thousand men whose armes and lives were at my devotion Let Arsaces cryed they confusedly take the command of us again and let him lead us over all the world to serve him we 'l obey no body but him and all his enemies shall be ours Onely Arsacomes his friends and servants terrified with this alteration too weak to shew how they resented it and perchance being in fear of their lives affer'd not to come near me but in all that confusion I was not forgetfull of Master and being very confident he was not dead I prayed Cleorestes if they had not done it already that he would cause him to be taken from the place where he was and make as carefull endeavours be used for his recovery as I could have desir'd for my own After I had given this order I intreated those that stood near to afford me a little audience and having obtained silence with much adoe I spoak to the Principall Officers who came round about me and to as many of the rest as were within hearing My dear and generous friends said I you by whom alone the name of Arsaces ha's gain'd all the honour it can boast of you by whom I am now alive and briefly you to whom with my glory and with my life I owe all and will acknowledge all I should be unworthy of this affection which is my chiefest happiness if I could abuse it and if I should make use of your goodnesse for the defence of an unjust quarrell and a quarrell wherein you your selves had not some interest That which you had done for the King of Scythia and that which I had done for him with your assistance was not so inconsiderable that instead of recompences he should give us shackles he should give us punishments and that after having unworthily wrong'd your Generall in his person and in his reputation after having made him languish in a hard captivity he should send him executioners cruelly to tear away that life which he so often had prodigally hazzarded for his and for the defence of his dominions 'T is true my birth had made me criminall in his opinion and if your thoughts are not more generous then his it will likewise make me so in yours but though I should endanger this life which I hold from you I can no longer be able to disemble the truth and into what necessity soever I can be reduc'd I never will require services from persons to whom I am not known It is true my friends if you can be so after my declaration I make to you it is true I heretofore was Artaxerxes the dear brother and the faithfull friend of your Prince Oroondates but Darius his sonne and Matheus his enemy you are not ignorant what my family and I have done against you but if you have found that in what I have done for this Kingdome at the head of you I have preserv'd the hatred of an enemy I shall not think it strange if you follow the example of your King and if according to the intention he had to do so you take away a life which you have newly given me nor had I kept it hitherto but in hope to recover by your assistance part of that honour and part of that Empire which I lost while I was fighting here for yours but I 'm only to blame to say I kept my life only for that no my valiant fellow souldiers
drawn them to end their quarrel while with the left arm each held fast about his enemies middle with the right they struck a great many blows at one another and fighting then with a blinde heedless furie most of them light upon their armor but som having found the defects of it with new streams of bloud drew also the remainder of their forces then beeing no longer able to keep it they let go their hold and their horses beeing no longer stopt by that potent obstacle which had made them till then unmoveable parted and carried away their riders above an hundred paces from one another That of Oroöndates staied first and his Master turning him about with much ado towards his enemie saw him totter in his saddle and presently after fall upon the sand proud of this victorie hee would have cried I have conquered but hee had not so much strength as to speak those words nor to keep his seat so that tumbling from his hors with very weakness hee had no other comfort in his fall save that of seeing his enemie down a moment before him The disconsolate or rather the despairing Berenice ran to him quite besides her self and pulling off his cask in all haste shee saw him faint and pale losing his senses with his bloud which flowed out at many wide passages O gods how great was her affliction then and what lamentations shee made over the bodie of that dear brother it seemed as if inconstant Fortune had onely given her him som minutes before to make her the more sensible of his loss after so unexpected a recoverie and if the conversation of her honor which shee had saved by that encounter had not been a thousand times more considerable to her then that of her life shee would have detested it a thousand times since the gods seemed to have sent it her for no other end but to overwhelm her in the most killing sorrow her heart was capable to receiv in the person of Oroöndates shee not onely lost a brother but a brother who was really the gallantest of all men living a brother that had ever most dearly loved her a brother to whom shee had such fresh obligations and a brother in whom shee had found her onely refuge in a countrey where shee was abandoned to all manner of disasters and destitute of any sanctuary or any acquaintance shee cast her self upon him without moderation or regard and stain'd her self with his bloud as shee washed him with her tears her beautiful face wherein Nature had carefully set forth her chiefest rarities and which in spite of her long afflictions shined like a fair star but som few minutes before was then the true image of desolation and despair or rather the very picture of her dying brother her hands which would have respected it in her ordinarie lustre knew it not in that condition and were so sacrilegeous as to carrie themselvs insolently against it and leav marks in it of the power grief had over them As soon as her voice had forced the passage which her sighs had long made good against it Fortune cried shee injurious Fortune by what crimes have I so hainously incensed thee and what advantage canst thou draw from thy merciless persecutions didst thou seem to bee reconciled with mee so lately for no other end but to make mee the more sensible of thy cruelties and didst thou restore mee this dear brother onely to take him from mee again with so much inhumanitie Dear brother continued shee closely embracing him and joining her face to his the greatest and most lovely Prince in the whole world must so brave a life have so short a thread and so deplorable an end and have the gods brought us together after so long a separation for nothing els but that I might close thine eies and pay thee thy funeral rites will you forsake mee then in an unknown countrie where I had no other refuge but in you and since you have liv'd for my honor will you not live still for my happiness As shee spoke these words after shee had unbuckled his curass shee laid her hand upon his heart and finding there yet som remainder of warmth Ah! dear brother cried shee there is still som life in you and perhaps the gods will yet preserv you assist mee then you gods you that are all good and all powerful and let not the perfectest of your creatures perish for want of succour With that shee rose up from her brother and running through the wood shee called for aid even to things that were the most insensible while shee was in this sorrowful imploiment the stranger's Squire made most bitter lamentations over his Master and judging that alone hee could not give him that assistance which was necessarie left him to beg som help at the nearest houses Hee was alreadie gon and the night that came on apace redoubled Berenice's confusion and despair and plung'd her soul into inconceivable frights and terrors when her good fortune brought them to her from whom shee quickly received assistance It was Araxes Polemon and som of Lysimachus his servants whom the Princesses cries had drawn unto that place Araxes was in pain by reason of his Master 's long stay abroad and had been som hours in search of him with much disquiet No sooner did Berenice see him appear but shee ran affrighted to him and stretching forth her hands in a beseeching posture Whoëver you are cried shee if there bee any pitie in you succour a dying Prince and your assistance will bee bestowed on one that well deserv's it Scarce had shee spoke these words when Araxes thought hee knew that voice and though the little probabilitie there was in that encounter made him very uncertain in his belief yet did it caus him to look heedfully in her face where notwithstanding that darkness began to steal away the light hee observed so much resemblance to that of Berenice that his suspicions redoubled and were strong enough to make him crie O gods Madam what do I see can it bee you my honored Princess These words and her having met with Oroöndates made his faithful Araxes known to Berenice who received no small consolation by his sight shee was not able to dissemble it but forgetting her greatness and her ordinarie gravitie in a time when so many accidents had perplexed her shee embraced him and gave him a reception hee could not have hoped for from her in another season Araxes said shee 't is even I Araxes and the gods have put mee again into the arms of my dear brother onely to make mee a witness of his death Behold him here continued shee drawing near him behold your poor Prince yielding up his life with his bloud through a great number of wounds If Araxes was surprised with the unexspected encounter of Berenice hee was more sensibly strucken with her words and not losing time to answer her hee ran to him so lost and blinded with sudden
it was no longer defended by so redoubted a Warriour Oroondates gave some tears unto his memory and to the affliction of his fair Barsina but his soul was yet so full of mourning for the losse of his dear Artaxerxes that he was much the lesse sensible of all others Araxes would have continued his Discourse if the night which was very near had not made them retire referring the continuation of it till the next day Lysimachus had hearken'd to him with so much delight and grew to have so much interest in the wonders of the life he related that he very unwillingly yeilded to that intermission but being constrain'd to it by many considerations he return'd into the house and ran to the Chamber of Oroondates whom hee found in a condition good enough for the hope of his recovery but his minde was in so sad an estate that one lesse concern'd in it then he would have been deeply touch'd with compassion he would not make him speak that Evening knowing how much it might doe him hurt and fearing to give him occasion to talk he wish'd him good rest and withdrew into his Chamber where after a light supper he went to bed and pass'd the night as he had done that before The End of the Second Book CASSANDRA BOOK III. BUt sorrowfull Oroondates more nearly touch'd with the loss of his Princess instead of taking any repose in a place which seem'd to have been created purposely for it did there linger out the houres of his condemnation for so he call'd the necessity that constrain'd him to live in pains more sharp and insupportable then death it self Night with it's darkness bringing back horrour and silence into his Chamber brought back also most dismal objects into his minde and represented to him the wretchedness of his present condition in so many and such terrible forms that he was like to lose his life with very grief that he was forced to keep it Then it was that all the passages thereof as well the most pleasing as the most fatall came into his memory and that he saw himself most cruelly assaulted both with a remembrance of the blessings he had lost and a sence of the miseries in which he was overwhelmed He made reflexion upon the strange birth the marvelous progress and the tragical success of his affection and from all three he conjectured that the Gods had never ingaged themselves with so much interest through the whole course of his misfortunes but to shew in his life a dreadfull example of their wrath and of the afflictions into which those men precipitate themselves whom they have forsaken He embark'd again upon that tempestuous sea which had toss'd him for the space of ten whole years and recalling to minde all the most memorable accidents of that time where there was any matter of trouble he afflicted himself really but if there were any occasion of joy or comfort he was so little sensible of that that he easily found his soul being prepossess'd with impressions of grief had no entrance at all left for any thing else nor sence of any other touches then those of dispair But when having overrun all he arrived at the bloody Catastrophe of his love and that after the cruelties absences imprisonments jealousies quarrels and rigorous commands of his Princess he came to imagin her death nay a most certain bloody and inhuman death then it was that his constancy utterly forsook him and that courage which had not yeilded to the rest of his mishaps sunk under the burthen of an affliction of so high a nature He fancied before his eyes that fair and magnanimous Queen remainder of the Illustrious bloud of Persia and widdow to the greatest man that ever was holding forth her naked throat to the sword of Perdiccas and to the bloody executioners of pittiless Roxana he represents her to himself all bloody and disfigured with a multitude of wounds which make that fair body hideous and scarcely to be known he then seeks her in the bottom of a well under a heap of stones that buried her and his imagination working very strongly made him behold her in the strangest and most gastly shapes his minde could possibly conceive Then it was that he plung'd himself headlong into his grief and forgetting his resolution of being cured he sent forth cries of lamentation and gave himself quite over to sighs and groans swimming as it were in a river of tears which streamed from his eyes as two eternal sources He broke the silence that was enjoyned him for his recovery and the absence of Lysimachus Araxes and the Physitians gave his tongue liberty to ease his heart of some part of it's sorrow Fair Queen cry'd he with an interrupted speech if your soul be not utterly unloosed from all earthly thoughts and if you still conserve any remembrance of your faithfull Orontes Fair Queen beautifull Statira divine spirit look yet upon this miserable man and if you be the same Statira so religiously adored by poor Orontes see that I am still the same Orontes by whom the divine Statira hath been so religiously adored Yes I am still the same I declare it to my own shame and confusion I am the same unless I be changed by that meannesse of spirit which I have shewed in surviving you yes dear Princesse I live still though you alas are dead but if you know my affection well you cannot doubt but I will shortly follow you this cowardise of which I accuse my self is only a cowardise in appearance but is indeed an effect of my courage and of my love to you I do resolve to die Statira assoon as you are reveng'd and the numberlesse deaths I suffer in expectation of my last ought to satisfie you better then one alone whereby you have outgon me One death great Queen was enough for you but this unhappie wretch that was the occasion of it this unfortunate cause of Roxana's hatred ought to suffer ten thousand to recompence that one life he made you lose He stopt at these words to turn over a thousand furious resolutions in his minde and to invent as many kinds of revenge which all seem'd too light to his indignation fire and sword seem'd too gentle for his satisfaction and Roxana and Perdiccas too mean too feeble subjects to wreak his anger he wish'd the Gods would resuscitate an Alexander to defend them or that the whole world would take up arms for their protection Nay he who in the whole former course of his life had ever appear'd moderate and most religious fell now to contest with the Gods as if he meant to force them to take the part of his enemies Great Gods said he you who to raise an Alexander to that pitch of glory which never any man before attain'd have destroyed the Royal Family of Persia and beaten down the pride of so many mighty Kings you who have submitted so many Empires and sacrificed so many thousand lives to
whereof your Army chiefly consisted fought with lesse confusion in those narrow places then our Cavalry could do Darius Artabasus and Mazeus found the Error assoon as it was break of day when they saw Alexander nearer then they believ'd him They would have retired to give themselvs more room but 't was too late and the Armies were already so close together that there was no more possibility of going back nor of prolonging the destiny of so many Persians as perished in that bloody day I will not tell you the particularities of a Battel in which you without doubt were one of the first you know both the beginning and the success of it you shall onely hear from me that in the first skirmishes my Prince having left the Athenians went and put himself among the young Persian Nobility who fought without any command either near the Kings person or in other places where they thought there was more danger to be hazarded and more glory to be acquired He was mounted upon Patro's horse which was a wonderful brave and fiery one his Armour was black his Coat of Arms his Plumes and the Horse Tail that serv'd him for a Crest were all of the same colour for since the death of Artaxerxes he would never wear any other I never stirr'd one step from him and I saw him do things which to say truth surpass belief Good King Darius did very gallantly in his own person insomuch that you know he closed up to Alexander himself and that they had fought some time without advantage when they were parted with the throng of their Forces but in that separation Darius was thrown out of his Chariot and surrounded with a great number of Macedonians who would certainly have slain him if he had not been rescued by my Master who fought hard by him and hearing the report of that great Kings danger which came from one to another turn'd his horse furiously against those that were about him and encountring Philotas the first and the most eager to have taken him he rush'd upon him so violently that he sent him among the horses feet he also overturn'd Clytus with his and making room which way soever he moved scatter'd that croud so well that he got Darius from amongst them and making me stop Philotas his horse he gave him leasure to mount him again scarce had he done him that service when Alexander fierce in the pursuit return'd himself to the same place My Prince knowing the danger the King might run secured him in a Squadron of his men and turning about to Alexander went to receive that famous Conquerour with an incredible joy That was the first time ever I saw him and if I remember well his headpiece and the rest of his armour were of such bright and polish'd steel that the Sun-beams striking directly upon them made it almost impossible for ones eyes to endure to behold him He was all enrich'd with Jewels and his Coat of Arms embrodered with Dyamonds his Cask was covered with great white Feathers with a horsetail in the midst of them as white as snow and which reached almost to the Crupper of that he rode This great Prince did not disdain an Enemy like my Master and knowing that it was he who had dismounted Clytus and Philotas and saved Darius from the attempts of the Macedonians he clave the press of his own forces to make way to him Their shock indeed was very strange and their horses having met head to head Bucephalus had the advantage of my Masters and thrust him back upon his gaskins but Oroondates spurring him up again and rushing close to Alexanders right side ran him into the thigh with his Javelin and coming up to him again cut the straps of his Cask with a â—lash of his sword and shewed his head bare to all that were about him 't was then indeed that Alexander was in great danger but he was quickly relieved by his own Soldiers who got before him and all together charged Oroondates and those that were with him Here Lysimachus interrupting Araxes O Gods said he What 's this I hear from you that Cavalier in black armour who wounded Alexander and did so many gallant things in that battel was he your Prince then ' It was even he answered Araxes I am witness added Lysimachus of some of his actions and I was one of those that were nearest to Alexander when he was wounded I was likewise one of them that first opposed his fury nor did I escape some of his blowes he beat down also Craterus and Neoptolemus in our sight and I must tell you true that Ptolemeus Seleuchus and my self were much taken with his courage and would not suffer him to be prosecuted so eagerly as without doubt he would have been but for our hindrance Our King who without knowing him gave him very great praises shewed himself pleas'd with us for that action and talk'd not of him but as a prodigie or a man sent by the Gods for the defence of the Persians My Prince reply'd Araxes hath more obligations to you that you know not 't was thereby you were to knit this friendship which ought to last as long as your lives and 't was only your own vertue that gave you a love to his which was so profitable to him True it is that I perceived the Macedonians pursued us but coldly and my Master in his retreat took notice of their remissnesse which he imputed not unto that cause He retired but he retired like a Lyon and knowing that the King was in a place of safety after many warnings and signals to come off he yeilded to the number of Conquerors and to the darkness which began to overspread the earth and rob the Macedonians of a part of their Victory Yet was it so great an one that Darius lost a hundred and ten thousand men his Chariot of War and all his equipage except what he had left at Damascus which after the taking of that Town fell all likewise into your hands My Master oppressed with grief for the unhappiness of Persia of its King and of the whole Royal Family which was reduced unto so sad a condition would not forsake them in their misfortune but resolved to perish with them since Love Friendship and Honour obliged him to accompany them unto the utmost In this designe he commanded me to follow him and not so much as enquiring after his own baggage which we had left some days journeys off he crossed over the Camp into which your Soldiers already came thronging and informing himself of those that fled which way the King had taken he followed the track of him till the obscurity of the night would no longer suffer him to have the least sight of it The darkness stopt him not nor the weariness of his horse wounded with some light hurts he had also received a few himself but such inconsiderable ones that for the present he was but little troubled with
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
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
and after having staggered a while he fell at his feet where his life and bloud ran forth together Thus died the greatest of all Alexanders successors and the Gods to give a terrible example of their justice decreed he should be slain in that same Town wherin he had unworthily abused his power and by the hands of that same Enemy whose death he a few moments before had attempted with so much injustice and inhumanity He was a man of excellent naturall parts but his passions had extinguished them and the glory of his former actions was much eclipsed by the last minutes of his life His pride was humbled at the feet of his Conquerour but the Prince being moved with pity kneeled down upon one knee close by him and was putting up the Beaver of his Cask to see if he were yet in a condition to receive assistance when Cassander enraged by the losse of his friend or rather his despair comming from amongst his men with his sword up fell upon the compassionate Prince and while he was in that posture charged him with so weighty a blow as made him sink upon the pale dying face of Perdiccas and but for the goodness of his helmet would perhaps have put him in the same condition Oroondates getting up again in very great fury would have run to take revenge but he was already prevented for amongst those many that were animated against Cassander for that base fowle play the Valiant Thalestris who knew him and who still was sensible of the injuries he had done her in the first combats against Orontes made at him with a threatning cry and with the first stroke she gave having cut the straps of his Cask his head remain'd unarm'd and bare to the eyes of all his Enemies The fair Queen who remembred with what cruelty he formerly had rush'd upon her with his Horse after having thrown her down with a violent shock was lifting up her arme to give him a death which he had but too justly deserv'd when Orontes knowing him and calling to mind their ancient friendship received the blow upon his Shield and stepping before her Madam sayd he give me Cassanders life I beseech you And you Cassander continued he yield your selfe to Orontes who was heretofore your Friend Orontes obtained his desires from both the fair Queen conquered her indignation to grant her dear Orontes what he demanded and Cassander presenting his sword unto Orontes did by that action stop all those that were already turn'd against him While these things happen'd Lysimachus and Ptolomeus had run with their men to the house where the great Princesses of Persia were reduced to the utmost perill of their lives and Roxana's Souldiers after having fill'd the Hall with dead bodies were ready to breake open their Chamber door when the two Princes came It would be hard to tell all the particulars of their actions Lysimachus excited by his passion found no resistance capable to stop him he made himselfe way with his sword through the thickest of his Enemies and the violence of his wrath having for that time suspended part of the pity which was naturall to him he sacrificed those cruel men with pleasure to the remembrance of those injuries they would have done to Parisatis After having cover'd the whole Court with slaughtred carkasses he made himselfe Master of the stairs and from thence passing into the Hall he there prosecuted his Victory and his revenge with such successe and Ptolomeus with his soldiers seconded him so courageously that within a little time they were both Conquerors and revenged of their Enemies whom they put almost all to the edge of the sword That sight was horrible and all that house oreflowed with blood when Lysimachus finding no more obstacles in his passage broak open the same doors his Enemies had assaulted and entred all bloudy into the Queens Chamber At that object the two great Princesses resolved absolutely for death and desiring to receive it both together they lockd each other in close embrace which they beleeved to be their last In that posture they cast their eyes upon Lysimachus who out of respect had made a stand as soon as hee was come into the Chamber and the equipage they saw him in having confirmed them in their opinion Whosoever thou art said the Queen that art the minister of Roxana's will defer not the execution of it longer come kill the Wife and perhaps the Daughter of thy King but spare the innocent Parisatis since Roxana ha's no cause to hate her and that she hath no pretensions upon Oroondates Parisatis at these words getting loose from the Queens imbraces Ah cried she to Lysimachus hearken not to that discourse and if any pity can be found in persons that take imploiments like this of thine let me conjure thee to dispatch me first it is not just Hephestions Widow should bee spared when there is no consideration had of Alexanders and though I have no pretensions upon Oroondates I shall have some upon the Empire and I shall have some upon the life of Roxana This generous contestation would have lasted longer if Lysimachus could have longer suffered it it mollified him so that for all his courage he was hardly able to retain his tears but if he was touched with the Queens words his love made those of his Princesse pierce him so deeply and in that posture which begd and commanded both at once he found so much occasion of redoubling his passion that he had hardly any knowledge left or any power to moderate himselfe in that encounter Yet would he no longer suffer those great Princesses to continue in the cruell opinion they had of him but throwing his Cask at their feet and himselfe likewise at the same time he by his action and by the sight of his face made them find how happily they had been deceived in their beliefe I am not said he the minister of Roxana's cruelties and the Gods make use of Lysimachus for more glorious occasions they for the highest pitch of his felicity have permitted him to destroy your Enemies and have made him able now to give you notice that you are free and Soveraignes in Babylon The joy of those vertuous Princesses at the knowledge and at the words of Lysimachus was such as in probability it ought to be for so great and so sudden an alteration of their fortune From a cruell and as they believed an inevitable death they saw themselves in a moment brought into security and into the condition they could have wishd and they received that office from a Prince whom they infinitely esteemd or rather from a Prince whom Parisatis lov'd as much as she was capable of loving to say truth all their moderation hindred them not from testifying their satisfaction and the Queen knowing the respect her sister bore her permitted not a free discovery of her sence of that adventure strove to oblige her to it by her example and casting her own arm