extent than the limits of a Chamber strongly grated with Iron my two Squires came presently to serve me in my imprisonment but Narcissus kept himself close both because he was an Armenian and so would have been worse used than servants that were strangers and also because being at liberty he continued in a condition to do me greater services than if he had been in prison with me I know not well generous Cleomedon how to express to you what my thoughts were at that time the fear of Death did not much intimidate me and Heaven had given me courage enough to meet it in all its most horrible appearances but having at that time no misfortunes in my life which might make me hate it and on the contrary having seen my self a few moments before in a most glorious condition and the fairest hopes in the world I could not be deprived of them so suddenly without regret nor change the favours of Artemisa for a common prison from whence according to Artaxus his threatnings I could not hope to come but only to my death Being young as I was and in a flourishing condition of life these thoughts were hard of digestion and I could not think that possibly within a few days I should lose my head in publick and draw the people of Armenia to the spectacle of my death without losing some part of my constancy and yielding to something that favoured of youth and the infirmity of nature but again when I reflected upon the cause for which I suffered and that I came to think that it was for Artemisa's sake only that I saw my self exposed to this danger I found a sweet consolation in that thought I would suffer more yet for Artemisa said I if it were possible and it ought to be indifferent to me which way I part with my life for her which I have given her without condition But if I were sensible of some grief which was almost entirely grounded upon the regret I had to quit Artemisa the Princess as I have been informed since was so much afflicted at my misfortune that she could hardly bear it with any moderation She loved me before this disgrace as well out of a remembrance of our former affections which continued deeply engraved in her mind as out of an acknowledgement which she believed was due to what I had undertaken for her but after the arrival of this unlucky accident and that she saw me fallen into great danger upon her occasion the moderate affection she had for me before was changed into a violent passion and as she naturally had as generous inclinations as any person in the World so she believed her self obliged not only to love me better than before and to engage all her credit for my safety but to perish her self if she could not divert my destruction No Leuoippe said she to that faithful Trustee of her most secret thoughts I make no difficulty to confess before thee and will confess before the whole World if need be that now I love Alexander more than my self and that Artaxus could not redouble the affection I had for him with more violence than by the effects of his cruelty one hour of imprisonment one moment of danger hath gained more for Alexander upon my spirit than a year of service could have done and I cannot think that he is in prison for love of me and that for my love only he is possibly upon the point to satiate the rage of his enemy without acknowledging by bestowing my heart upon him that I cannot pay him so much as a part of what I owe him Let us dispose our selves therefore to render him part of what he hath done for us let us not permit our selves to be reproached that after we had drawn him into danger by our former amity and the command we laid upon him in our infancy we have basely and ungratefully abandoned him let us try all manner of ways for his safety and if they be all unsuccessful let us perish couragisly with him and not dream of living without him seeing we are not permitted to live with him as we had resolved Upon this design she began to set all manner of Engines at work for my safety and the first thing she did was to send her most faithful servants post to advertise Augustus of my misfortune and to interess Octavia Marcellus and all my nearest friends in procuring my liberty and because they were uncertain which way to take because of a rumour that had passed some days for current that Augustus was departed from Rome to make his progress through the Provinces of Asia which are under the obedience of our Empire she sent divers persons several ways with the like commission but this way to save me was too long by reason of the hast they made to frame my process and the Princess desiring to essay all other means gained with all the address she could possibly all those of the Armenian Court that had the most power over the Kings inclinations to oblige them to sweeten him and divert him from the fatal design he had against me She endeavoured most of all to gain those who had the charge of guarding me working this effect by her caresses to the chief of them and her presents to those of inferiour condition In all these businesses she made use of the address and the fidelity of Narcissus whom she had known a long time and though he kept himself concealed part of the day yet when he was in less danger of being discovered he employed himself in those commissions she gave him with wonderful care and affection In the mean time Artaxus resolved or rather continued in the resolution he had already taken to put me to death and besides his will was to an ignominy to the punishment and to make the head of Cleopatra's son to be publickly cut off by the hand of the Executioner as by the command of that Queen Artibasus had received the like or little different usage in Alexander He proposed his design to some persons of his councel not to govern himself by their advice but to acquaint them with his will the greatest part of his Counsellors either out of a repugnance which they really had against this cruelty or out of respect of Artemisa who had solicited them before in my behalf endeavoured to divert him from this resolution and represented to him that he would render himself odious to all the world by shedding innocent blood and putting to death one of the greatest Princes of the Universe for anothers fault that he would put himself in danger to draw upon him many powerful enemies and in particular Augustus who as they were informed loved me and supported me no less than those who were nearest to him that he ought not to be too hasty in an action of this importance which without doubt would cause a late and unprofitable repentance They used many more arguments besides capable to
and am well pleas'd to find my opinion not erroneous and lest you should believe her a mean Person that hath engaged so great a Prince to this long Narration I shall let you know before I give a more ample Relation of my life that I was born a Princess and am lawful Queen to one of the most puissant and Rich Empires of the world At these words Tyridates rose from his Chair and making an obeisance as low as the verge of her Robe demanded pardon for the faults his Ignorance had committed the fair Queen made him the same excuses and when they had allow'd some time for this Discourse Tyridates being return'd by the Queens intreaty to his Seat thus pursu'd his Story I was born under an unfortunate Planet and those which consulted the Stars at my Nativity did all find me menaced by most malicious influences especially the Mathematician Thrasillus who before his Youth had done blooming had acquir'd a great reputation in that Science and does at this day pass for one of the Worlds living Wonders he saw me in Armenia which I visited in one of my unfortunate Voyages after he had perused some lines in my Hand and Face and been inform'd of the day and hour of my Birth he foretold my Miseries should not end but with my Life that neither should long continue that I was threatned with a Death which should be neither Violent nor Natural but participating something of both In my first Childhood I was nourished in the King my Fathers Court with a great number of Brothers of which I was the youngest Pacorus and Phraates being 16 or 18 years elder than I. I was not 8 years old when my Brothers the Princes Pacorus and Labienus broke into the Territories of Asia that obeyed the Roman People defeated Saxa and swel'd with their lucky success ravaged Cilicia with a part of Syria it may be you have heard of the progress they have made in so short a time But the end was much different for the following year they were defeated and unluckily slain by the Roman Army commanded by Ventidius Lievtenant to Antonius After the death of Pacorus the Prince Phraates my Brother not much short of his Age being already married succeeded to the Helm of the Parthian affairs for the King our Father beginning to stoop under his years desired the Comforts of a Calm Age and to be releas'd of the Troubles which his Youth had sustain'd At my tenth year the King sent me to a little City upon our Frontier where usually the Parthian Royal Infants were educated and there the Prince Pacorus had learn'd part of his Exercises I took some pains at mine with a success fruitful enough to content my Tutors and after I had there imployed about four years time and began to think of being called home to my Fathers Court I understood it had been lately dyed with bloud and that bloud Royal newly drawn from my poor murthered Brothers this Act hath been too well known to all the world for the honour of Arsacides whose name to all ages will stand blotted with eternal Obloquy the cruel and ambitious Phraates unworthy of the Race and Memory of Arsaces desirous to make sure of that Authority which he feared his Brothers might one day find means to disturb caused them to be barbarously slain and the aged King our Father for making his grief appear in his just complaints and declaiming against his detestable Inhumanity in some terms that displeas'd provoked him to compleat the Horror of this Age and the Infamy of Royal Dignity by the addition of Parricide thus punishing no other Crime in his murder'd Father than the giving life to that Cut-throat of him and all his Off-spring I had shar'd the same Fate with my Brethren if he that was dispatch'd with the bloudy Commission to the City where I was had not been touched with the sense of vertue and a respect due to the Extraction of Kings In stead of executing Phraates command he sav'd me from his Cruelty and having inform'd me in few words of my Brother 's deplorable Murther for that of the King my Father was not yet perpetrated with the charge he had given him But Arsanes said he will sooner choose a thousand ways to perish than consent to dip his hands in his Masters Bloud let us save our selves Young Prince and evade the dire design of that savage Monster that would destroy us I intirely resigned my self up to his conduct and being followed by my Governour with five or six Servants that were willing to run my Fortune I got to Horse and though I had scarce attained to 14 years I exposed my self to the hardship of a painful Journey uncertain to save a life which I never yet could own with comfort Thus I first grew miserable and began at an early age to inure my self to Banishment and thus I have learn'd to hope no better than to finish my disgrace and my dayes together Arsanes first conducted me to the Court of Armenia where the King keeping no very friendly correspondence with Phraates and not willing in his behalf to violate the right of Nations received me into his protection In that Court I enjoyed some Tranquility Besides what the King allowed me Arsanes had brought a quantity of Jewels valued at about a thousand Talents which the King my Father to whom he disclos'd the design he had to save me had given him at his departure but Fortune soon shew'd how much my repose displeased her by the Calamities that befell the good King that had given me shelter who most unfortunately fell with all his Family into the hands of Antony her Enemy and was led bound to Queen Cleopatra who some time after with most barbarous Inhumanity caus'd his head to be struck off This Disaster which doubtless you have heard being important enough to spread over the whole Earth sent me to seek another Sanctuary which Arsanes would needs have to be the Court of Media betwixt whose King and the King Orodes there was some alliance there I found the retreat I desired and staid two or three years In that time there happened the ruine of Antony and Cleopatra the establishment of Augustus Caesar in the Roman Empire and many other Revolutions in which the whole World was concerned The cruel Phraates often sent to demand me of the Median King but could never dispose him to put me into his hands yet after he had made many Incursions upon his Territories he at last obtain'd his promise to protect me no longer At Praaspa the Capital City of Media I receiv'd his Orders to retire colour'd with divers excusive reasons which laid the blame upon Necessity From whence I went into Bithynia where I was received by the old King Pharnaces who for two years time treated me with Humanity enough but at last the baseness of his nature shew'd it self And indeed what faith could I hope for from a disloyal wretch that
in favour of the Romans had betray'd his own Father the great Mithridates and inhumanely constrain'd him rather to give himself Death by his own hands than fall into his This perfidious man suffering himself to be gained by Phraates promises who spightfully pursu'd my unhappy wandring life with an inflexible cruelty at last promis'd either to poyson me or deliver me up These practices were not carried so secretly but Arsanes begun to scent them and detesting such barbarous infidelity after he had given me notice we made use of the night to save our selves and got out of the Confines of his Kingdom with our best diligence After this we long wandred from place to place till at last we arrived in Judaea which then groan'd under the Scepter of Herod who was formerly supported by Antony and is now favoured by Augustus And thus I have passed my disastrous Youth wandring from Province to Province and begging shelter from Court to Court for this wretched life which was never worth the pains I took to preserve it I have hitherto Epitomiz'd the recital of my Voyages which had I drawn at large must needs have tir'd your Attention but now my discourse must take a larger scope to relate the Accidents befel me in Judaea since they are the Authors which compos'd my present condition I had plenty of reasons to seek a Sanctury with Herod for he was the greatest Enemy Phraates had and had indeed receiv'd such sensible Affronts from that Parricide which were all fresh in his memory that he sought all wayes to breath his Revenge A little before my arrival at his Court Phraates had not only supported his Enemie Antigonus and lent him force to make War upon him but had invaded his Dominions spoil'd his Provinces that were contiguous to Parthia and took Hircanus and Phasolus Prisoners the later of which rather than remain in that Tyrants power chose to beat out his own brains against a Rock Besides these he had done him other injuries which though Herod being then perplext with other affairs had little power to repay yet he laid them up in his memory with a resontment so violent as he would willingly have given a large part of his Dominion for an occasion to requite his mischiefs Of this he gave a clear proof in the reception he made me which was imputed by one that understood his humors rather to the Reasons I have given than any natural inclination to goodness Indeed he did heap extraordinary favours upon me allow'd me large pensions for subsistance and not only promis'd me protection from my Brother but Forces to make War upon him and take vengeance for his cruel persecutions I received those offers with a becoming acknowledgment the whole Court by his command treating me with much Respect and thus I began to live with tranquility enough I say I began But alas the Repose was not long-liv'd for if my body enjoy'd a peaceable Retreat my Soul was encountred with a cruel War or rather fell into the hardest Captivity that ever Soul resented Ah! how much better had it been that I had abandon'd my self a willing prey to Phraates greedy Cruelty than expos'd my self to such rending torments as have since cost it so many Groans How justly might I say to avoid the least of evils at least the shortest liv'd I have thrown my self headlong upon the greatest of all Calamities and I would say the bitterest if the glory to suffer so did not poise the misery In fine Tyridates was doom'd to die by a brighter Weapon than any Phraates had and receiving the Wound that conducts him to his Tomb he took it with a respect so profound as judged it a Sin to murmur Herod had espoused the Princess Mariamne sprung from the glorious bloud of the Asmoneans and Macchabees Grandchild to the two Kings Hircanus and Aristobulus indeed a Cien truly worthy of so illustrious a Stock from which Herod following Antipater's steps by the help of the Romans had usurped the Judaean Crown 'T is possible you have heard what waies he took to arrive at that height how his father Antipater after he had divided the two Brothers Hircanus and Aristobulus at last made use of the Roman power to ruine both and whilst Aristobulus sighed in his Chains at Rome after he had served for an Ornament to Pompey's Triumph he took advantage of Hircanus weakness to invade the Soveraign Authority and make way for his Son Herod after the destruction of all the lawful Heirs to mount the Throne He had then newly made an end of the miserable Reliques of the Family Alexander the eldest Son of Aristobulus being escaped out of Prison at Rome and having got some Forces together was unluckily surpriz'd and slain by his Enemies and the unfortunate Antigonus his Brother the same that fled for refuge to Phraates and the last King of the Asmonean race being faln into their hands had his head cut off by the barbarous command of Antony who being Herods Friend believed he could not otherwise assure him the Crown Though Mariamne had a just resentment against this Cut-throat of her Family yet she was forced to marry him in obedience to the Princess Alexandra her Mother and old Hircanus her Grandfather who being escap'd out of Parthia where he was Prisoner with Phaselus liv'd at Jerusalem in the condition of a private man and in that womanish softness that made him tamely sit down with the loss of a Crown both from him and his and thus the old mans weakness and the womans ambition sacrific'd her to their interests But they could never bow her soul to love that Husband whose disproportion of manners and inequality of birth with the bloudy outrages he had committed in butchering her Kindred and the usurpation of a Crown which in right belong'd to young Aristobulus her Brother induc'd her to regard with a version and disdain Yet she had liv'd in a most admirable moderation with him and with an excess of vertue done violence upon her inclinations by enduring him whom Heaven and her Parents had given her for a Husband till by one horrid act of cruelty she defac'd all that a forc'd obedience had Character'd it was the death of the Prince Aristobulus Brother to this fair Queen whose vertue and excellent qualities contriv'd his destruction for Herod the subtilest of men growing Jealous of the peoples inclination to this amiable Youth that was now 18 years of age caus'd him to be cruelly strangled in a Bath There was never beheld a more goodly and accomplish'd thing than this young Prince No wonder then if his Sister exprest her resentments in a sharper tone for so dear a loss yet Herod clear'd himself of it before Antony but in such a manner as all the World still thought him guilty and Alexandra and her Daughter beheld him as the poor Princes Hangman The Court and Family of Herod were in this condition when I came thither and I soon knew all
Diligence and having gained that Victory with the slaughter of 50000 of his Enemies and the loss of but fifty of his own Souldiers he was return'd to Rome where he had made three Triumphal Entries the fame of these great deeds pleasingly flatter'd the Soul of Cleopatra and she dismissed all her anxieties with a confidence that such a man could not be capable of infidelity In the mean time no longer able to hide the swelling fruit of her Womb and unwilling to contract the ill opinion of her Subjects she was constrain'd openly to declare the truth of her Marriage and instead of the shame and confusion her Fear suspected from that Discovery she found her Aegyptians possessed with new joy in the expectation of such a King from her Loins as might prove a perfect Copy of Caesar and Cleopatra The Queen was brought to Bed in Alexandria almost at the same that Caesar made his Entry into Rome of a Son not only worthy of his Father and Mother but of all that the most fruitful hope should conceive never did the light salute a thing so beautiful the Astrologers never knew a Birth so advantagious for this Royal Infant immediately became the admiration and delight of all that saw it but because his Childhood was but the spring to that lustre which hath since appeared in him with riper advantages I will not stay upon the beginnings of his Life because they are of less importance By a general consent he was call'd Caesario and we all hop'd that though there was little difference between his and his Fathers Name there would be yet less in their qualities and the greatness of their actions the Queen took a marvellous care of his Education and made the whole world to be searched for the most expert and knowing persons in all Sciences and Exercises wherein he was to be instructed when his Age permitted him and though I did but weakly merit that Honour and a better choice might have been made among the Aegyptians she was pleased to make me his Governour for my Father was too old for that employment and only desired it for my self In the mean time the Queen whatever consolation she tasted in the enjoyment of her Son was galled with bitter grief seeing there appear'd no proof of Caesars promise Not long after she understood he had given the last blow to that War by the defeat of Pompey's Sons that in Rome he had usurped the Soveraign Authority and forced a Master upon that proud City the imperious Mistris of so many Kings and so large a part of the Universe Then her hopes began to swell with the expectation of his Promise and Caesar by frequent Letters endeavour'd to confirm them excusing his absence from her delights with very specious Reasons which for a time appeased her but when she saw a whole year wasted and yet no haste made to accomplish his Vow she began to lose her patience and complain of his infidelity yet before she thought fit to make her resentments speak lowder she sent my Father Apollodorus to Caesar as well because he was the faithfullest of her Servants as that in his presence Caesar espoused her and might therefore better than any other reproach the violation of his word This Voyage of my Fathers proved ineffectual yet when Caesar saw him he hugg'd him in his Arms entertain'd him nobly gave him rich Presents and often mentioned the Queen with dear resentments of affection but could afford him no other reasons for his delay than what he had written to Cleopatra He protested that so soon as he had felt himself sit sure upon his Imperial Throne he would accomplish his promise but in that condition while his Monarchy was yet infant feeble and staggering he found it not safe to enterprize any thing against the consent of the People and Senate whom he had already exasperated with imposing his Yoke Cleopatra was contented for a time to flatter her self with the likelihood of these excuses but in fine after her patience had learned another Lesson as tedious as the first she broke into reproaches against him gave her self up to the sway of a just passion and probably was hatching thoughts to make it known in some deadly blow when news came that Heaven had revenged her and that her faithless Caesar was murdered in the Senate-house with twenty three wounds by those that he thought his dearest friends This report fell like a Clap of Thunder upon her spirit and all her Choler could not disswade her from receiving it at first as the greatest blow that Heaven and Fortune could contribute to her overthrow She solemniz'd this loss with a deluge of tears and such actions as could best express most passion and would possibly have abandoned her self to grief if the last marks of Coesar's ingratitude had not brought her comfort for she learn'd that a little before his death he had adopted his Nephew Octavius who is now the great Augustus Caesar for his Son declar'd him his Heir and oblig'd him to take his Name and Dignity without making the least mention of his Son Caesario or Cleopatra This last assurance the Queen received of her Husbands ingrateful disesteem kindled a despite that dry'd up all her tears and shewed her cause to rejoyce in the same death she so lately bewailed however she ceas'd to bemoan his loss in publick though she rendered to Caesar's memory the Funeral Honours which she believed due as to her lawful Husband but her resentments against the Father descended not to the Son for she nourished the little Caesario with as dear indulgence as if his Father had been still faithful and remembring that perjur'd as he was he had been the greatest of all men in his face she beheld the Image of his mighty Sire as another dawning of her Comfort To him her resolutions intended the Crown of Aegypt and though the Aegyptians perceiving the Ptolomean Race was almost extinct did oft petition her to make choice of another Husband she alwaies denied their entreaties and at last so won upon them by her mild and prudent Government as they were content to approve her Design of passing the rest of her Life in Widowhood Alas how happy had the poor Queen been had she held her resolution she had avoided those famous misfortunes that made so much noise in the World and her miseries with the lamentable Catastrophe of her Life had not forc'd tears from her rudest Enemies Sir I suppose you know that a few years after Julius Caesar's death the unfortunate Antony having shar'd the Empire of the world with young Caesar since called Augustus and with him reveng'd the murder of their Predecessor by the defeat of the Conspirators and by that bloody Triumvirat which produc'd such fatal effects in Rome passing through Cilicia to make war upon the Partbians he summon'd Cleopatra to appear before him and because the Queen was too weak to resist the puissance of that great Master of half
intirely divided it according to the sway of several affections two greater powers than these never met in opposition and the World never regarded an event with so much interest as that which was to decide its Empire My Lord you have understood the beginnings of this War with the divers encounters wherein Fortune sometimes listed her self in one sometimes in the other party till the Battel of Actium where after she had long ballanc'd her good will she declar'd for Caesar The miserable Antony was betray'd both by Love and Fortune and whatever courage the Queen disclos'd in the spring-tide of her Life was all resign'd to the horror of that one Battel where she assisted in Person whence flying with sixty Sayls in her company she drew along the amorous Antony who rather chose to abandon with the Victory the Empire of the World then to lose his Cleopatra You must needs have heard how after that signal deleat they were forsaken by all their Troops and sure same has told you of the pitisul effects that errour produced among them how upon a false report of Cleopatra's death spread by her self with design to cure Antony of an unjust suspition he had conceived of her that desperate Prince slew himself with his own hand and breathed his last between the arms of his dear Cleopatra in the Tomb wherein she had shut up her self you have heard it related how Caesar having rendred himself Master of Alexandria came to visit her brought her comfort and intreated her to hope for all the civil usage his power could afford all which the great-hearted Princess couragiously disdained and not induring to survive her dear Antony nor to see her self in danger to be led to Rome in triumph she called Death to her Rescue which she gave her self by an Aspick 's tooth for want of other weapons and how Caesar after he had pacifi'd Egypt and left Cornelins Gallus Governour at Alexandria returned to Rome whither he led Alexander Ptolomee and Cleopatra the Children of Antony and our Queen Thus compris'd in a few words I have given you the lamentabie destiny of this infortunate Prince but you are yet to understand that of Caesario and I assure my self you believed with the greatest part of the World that Augustus had caus'd him to be put to Death as same did openly divulge it 'T is true said Tyridates and I had my belief from the general confidence at Rome that it was so where I have often heard that Caesar having taken Alexandria and advising with his friends what he should do with Caesario the Philosopher Arrius who was in great credit with him whisper'd some words in his ear that alluding to a verse in Homer might thus be interpreted Plurality of Caesars is not safe And from that hint Augustns fearing that he might one day dispute the succession of his Fathers Empire put him death Such replyed Eteocles was the general opinion and we are happy that it got so much credit among the Princes Enemies who possibly without that prevention would have made their pursuit and persecution reach to the place that protected him But to you I shall unmask the truth what ever danger the discovery may threaten knowing well I do not hazard my Prince in declaring the truth of his Life to another Prince that equals his vertues and it was but to come the right way to his adventures that with a few words I touch'd a part of the Queen his Mother The History of Caesario and the Queen CANDACE AFter the loss of the Battel of Actium and the disloyal falling away of the greatest part of the Forces the unfortunate Antony and his Queen shut themselves up in Alexandria and there attended the approaches of their victorious Foe with the rest of their Forces resolving to defend it to the last Man and the latest moment of their lives their courage was not revolted with their fortune for they might yet have protected their Fate and again debated the Worlds Command if the prevention of that disastrous mistake had not contrived their ruine Nevertheless the Queen not able to refute her just fears of a sudden wrack began to cast an eye upon her deplorable Family that in so short a time were tumbled from the sublimest pitch of Fortune to the foot of Calamity Oh Gods what words that were fittest to shew the marks of a signal grief did she not give to those sad considerations There was much reason in her fears that the Victor would make his hatred reach to the Children of his Enemy and so choak all the seeds of War that might grow up to give another shock to the tranquillity of his dominion by rooting out the whole Antonian race and these suspitions made her oft solicit that the Children might be put in some place of safety and either sent to the King of Aethiopia a great and puissant Prince their friend and allye who had neither felt nor fear'd the Roman Arms or to Herod a faithful friend to Antony or at least to some others whom the change of fortune had not perswaded to disavow their Amity But Antony who tenderly indulged his Children could not resolve to see them so pluck'd from him or send them to seek their safety from the hands of a stranger he represented to the Queen that the Gods that were yet able to send them succours contrary to the opinion of men might miraculously repair the ruines they had made and should such a change arrive in their favour they should repent the exposing them to a flight whose success was uncertain that if Heaven had resolved to compleat their destruction they might expect a better fate for their Infants from the clemency of their Enemy than the loyalty of any barbarous Prince whose friendship the Child of their Fortune no doubt would follow it to the Conquerours party Cleopatra perceiving his resolution not to be mov'd and her self not able to wrest the disposal of the Children from him fell to consider of his preservation whom he had no part in and judging with much prudence that though Augustus might pardon the Progeny of Antony yet he would not do so to the Son of Julius Caesar who professing himself the off-spring of a lawful Marriage while he lived would at least be armed with Justice to bid fair for his Fathers succession which the other possessed by no other right than that of adoption the lawful power of his disposal sfolely remaining in her self for Antony pretended not to it she concluded that it was not safe to trust him to the mercy of that enemy and could find no other way but such a flight to secure him Caesario was five or six years elder than the rest and then newly arrived at the fifteenth year but at that age was become the most accomplished of Princes his beauty never found an equal among those of his own Sex in the vivacity of his eyes and all the features of his visage was seen an ayr
the Prince with you and two of our men gallop on afore to the Forest of Agria thrust your selves into the thickest part of it and there expect my coming up with good newes the rest of the day I will try to abuse our Enemies and if Heaven favour my intentions hinder their further pursuit of us If you see me not come back to you some time to day at night pursue your voyage under the conduct of the Gods who will not abandon you I said no more and without giving him time to answer made him speed away with the Prince and the two that were to follow them one of which because of known fidelity carried the Jewels and Gold the Queen had given us Coesario who had a most docile ingenuity absolutely obeyed my will and made no scruple to follow Neander because I counselled it I could not see him part so suddenly without letting fall some tears as a tribute to my fearful incertainty of ever seeing him again And in the mean time turning to those that staid with me My Friends said I we are betray'd our enemies are within a hundred paces of us Rodon stays behind to make discovery of them And behold the Traytor shewing them Acetes see the Villain that hath sold us has the confidence to stay among us At these words I flew at him with my Sword in my hand but was prevented by two of my Companions that stepp'd before him as he was preparing to fly and with two blows threw him dead at our Horses feet Rodons Son whom I caused to stay with us though he would gladly have followed the Prince who as I told you was of an equal Age and Stature to him and had much in his looks that over-top'd his Condition beheld the death of Acetes with astonishment when approaching to him and taking him by the Arms I shewed him the Romans that were advancing to us a good swift trot We are all dead men said I if we do not deceive our Enemies by making you pass for the Prince Caesario the personating this Dignity will save your life for if the Romans take you for the Son of Caesar they will onely content themselves to lead you prisoner to their Emperour if you tender your own and our lives favour this just deceit The fear of death had so seiz'd the Youth as it disposed him to follow my fatal counsel which I had scarce ended when the Romans were upon us and spreading themselves upon the Plain began to inviron us and shut up the passage to our flight I then perceiv'd the danger at hand I had exposed my self to and had well fore-seen it before the attempt But the Gods can witness that I felt no regret to hazard my Life for my Prince's Safety that there came no other care to my thoughts but for him and his Conservation At a sign I made to my Companions we all threw our selves from our Horses and putting our knees to the ground we encompassed the Son of Rodon whom I had only caus'd to keep his Saddle The Romans who ran upon us with an impetuous haste perceiving us in that suppliant posture were staid by the command of their Captain attending his Orders without offering a blow but so soon as my voice could be heard Ah! whatever you be cryed I if we have merited your anger turn your weapons upon us onely and sparc great Caesars Son Sacrifice us to your rage if we have offended but give our Prince his life These words with our submissive action turn'd the Roman Swords fatal to the innocent son of Rodon from our throats for the Captain approaching to him with his drawn Sword For you said he we give you your lives but 't is this same Son of Caesar we only seek to take At these words making his way through us he ran the youth through the body with his Sword just as he was about to speak and probably to tell him he was not Caesars Son I cannot remember that poor young man's unripe fall without the sense of some remorse for my own treachery but my Lord it was otherwise impossibe to save our Prince and since one must perish it was but just that the Son of that Traytor should be Sacrific'd to his Fathers Treachery besides I had indeed conceiv'd a hope if hope could shape it self in so short a time that the Romans would forbear the cruelty of his Murder and only content themselves to lead him to their Emperor in the mean time I cast my self upon his body and the better to abuse our Enemies I made my complaints swell to as high a tide as I should have let fall upon the Corps of our own true Prince The Roman Commander being a man of quality as good fortune would have it was touch'd at my piety and protested to me that he had executed Caesars command with regret He oppos'd himself against many of his men that would have cut off the Youths head to present it to the Emperor and told him they might assure him of the truth without exercising that inhumanity upon the Son of Julius Caesar nevertheless at their solicitation he demanded the Jewels which Cleopatra had given us but I reply'd they were in the hands of one of our Companions called Rodon whom we had not seen all that day and that I believed that it was he that had betray'd us At this the Soldiers fell to threaten and began to search us but they sound little about us and their Captain remembring his name was Rodon who in effect betray'd us and knowing the Emperor had design'd him the Jewels as a price of his Treason easily believ'd that he was gone away with them and desiring he should rather possess them by that Title than as the gift of Caesar commanded them to un-hand us restore us our Horses and set us at liberty to retire where we pleas'd And thus his Men marching after him they left us about the unfortunate Son of Rodon upon whom I continued still my Laments When our Enemies were Marched out of sight after we had covered the body of that innocent Youth with a little Earth and indeed contribuuted some true tears to his destiny we remounted our Horses exalted with our happy success beyond expression and followed the track of our true Prince See My Lord what has passed about Caesario's supposed Death they were abus'd that believed he was ever in the hands of Octavius for I dare assure you he never saw him and that if he did consult upon what was to be done with him and resolv'd to put him to Death as you related by advice of Arrius the Philosopher it must either be while Rodon's Messenger was with him or before while the War was hot between him and Anthony during which 't is true he had oft solicited us to deliver the young Prince into his hands or put him to death Two hours after we had thus escaped our Enemies we arrived at the Forrest of
already entered every vulgar ear in the Roman Empire nor have I gleaned any thing from the common report that could content my desire to be better instructed in the single passages of your fortune I know not if my curiosity be pardonable It is said the Prince interrupting him nay more I am not loath to present it with a clear satisfaction indeed not willing after the receipt of such generous favours with the rare proofs you have given me of your vertue to debar your knowledge of the least particular 'T is true you may have learned some accidents of my life that are but too well known but 't is impossible you should understand those of the most importance unles you receive them either from mine or the mouth of Emilius from whom I have nothing concealed It shall be then from Emilius if you please reply'd Tyridates I will take this satisfaction as well because he has told me you have taken little rest this night and therefore it will require a good part of this day to repair your loss of sleep as because he will give the relation more at large and possibly more true than your modesty will condescend to which in all likelihood would either silence or disguise some of your bravest actions I have done nothing said Coriolanus which the greatest modesty might not own and utter but since Emilius has more credit with you than I I am contented he should give you the full recital of my life without the least reserve of any particular After this permission Tyridates thanking the Prince quitted his Chamber and took Emilius with him who was willing he should have that morning given him to recover his rest but before Tyridates would engage his attention to this story he went to visit the gallant Stranger for whom his care was not less than the Prince of Mauritania his observation of so many marks of grandeur in him made him regard him with a high respect and a marvellous esteem but at the Chamber door he met the Chirurgion who disswaded that visit telling him he had great hope of his cure but it was not safe for him to receive pay the Civilities of any Person that morning because striving to speak might impair his present condition and retard his recovery Tyridates stop'd at these words and after recommending the continuation of their care to his officers he retired to his Chamber with Emilius and forcing his respect to accept of a seat Since the Prince your Master said he has given permission let me desire an entire relation of his life without omitting the most trivial passage your memory can hint or interrupting the narration of such things as you may think have already reached my knowledge for I have taken nothing but confused notions from publick Rumour which often disfigures the truth of things not perfectly known Sir said Emilius though I see my self engaged to a long narration I shall strive to pay obedience to yours and the Prince my Master's commands as well as I am able At these words making a little pause to range with some method in his memory the things he had first to utter he began his discourse in this manner The History of Prince Coriolanus and the Princess Cleopatra NEver had any life so sad a beginning as my Master's and in so small a number of years as compose his age never did Fortune play so many tricks with a Princes Destiny yet this I may say and truth can witness it my Master ows nothing to her but has lost all by her at his birth she took away his Crowns Parents and Liberty she has since endeavour'd and does still continue to do him mischief more sensible than his first losses but all the favours she ever granted him were still forc'd from her by his vertue He was born poor though lawful Heir to two great Kingdoms born a slave though Son to the most potent King in all Affrica he saw the light and his own shame together and commenced his life to appear in an action which made Cleopatra resign up hers nor would himself have done less had his age been capable to have shewed himself the ignominy The great King Juba whose memory still keeps its beauty without a blemish was Monarch of both the Mauritania's and supported himself with a puissance that struck terror into his Neighbours and would have made him considered by the whole Earth as Master of the greatest part of Affrica if his unlucky choice of the weakest party had not ruined him and his fortune done homage to that great mans for whom fate had reserv'd the universal Empire His Dominion was of a grand extent his Court pompous and flourishing and that Authority which the terror of his war-like vertue exercis'd upon his borderer's render'd himself little less than Sovereign of the third part of the World In this estate he lived with an untroubled glory when after the defeat of the great and unfortunate Pompey the fragments of his scattered Forces rallyed themselves again in Affrica under the Conduct of Scipio and Cato King Juba either out of Friendship to Pompey's memory or jealousie of Caesar's greatness joyned with his Enemies and helped to swell their thin Forces with a puissant Army Backed with this considerable addition they three opposed the torrent of Caesar's Fortune and not only arrested the course of his victories but by some remarkable advantages they got at the beginning of the War the whole World began to question his success At last their malicious fortunes conducted them to the plain of Thapsus near to a City of the same name where prided with a vain shadow of prosperity they offer Caesar Battel Indeed they had much reason to hope a favourable event but the Gods struck in his quarrel for whom they had designed the Worlds cammand and maugre all the Affrican puissance made Victory perch her self upon Caesars Standards there did King Juba and his companions lose 50000 men and in one day saw themselves and their hopes ruined beyond repair This gave them a resolution to seek no further than Death for a remedy and though they might have hoped a better destiny from the clemency of Caesar they rather chose to quit the World than take their life as a gift from the Conquerors mercy Scipio killed himself with his own Sword upon the spot Cato being shut up in Utica stabbed himself and a while after tore out his own bowels to defraud their care that endeavoured his recovery and the King of Mauritania with the poor remnant of his shattered Forces took his flight to one of his nearest Cities where seeing himself hotly pursued by the victorious Army after he had striven in vain to re-assure the courage of his Affricans who had taken too much fear from the Roman Fortune resolved too to snatch his share in the common fate and in pursuit of this intention having caused a magnificent Feast to be made for Petreius a Roman Captain who
had been of his Party and was then a Companion of his Fortune at the end of their repast regarding him with a visage that breathed nought but Death Petreius said he 't is fit we dye to preserve our liberty for if we stay on earth but a few days we shall have no power left to put by the shame is prepared us I demand no other proof of thy affection but Death from thy hands and as my Fortune is now stated I cannot receive a greater from thy Friendship Here stab this breast pursu'd he presenting his naked bosom pierce this heart which the Arms of our Enemies have unluckily spared and make a KING fall by thy friendly hand whose courage scorned to bow under the fortune of a puissant Enemy He mingled these words with some others so pressing that Petreius could not refuse the fatal courtesie but without farther delay ran him through with his own sword the King not so much as turning his eye aside nor letting fall the least action unbecomming the grandeur of his spirit Petreius when he had seen him breath his last turned the same point against his own breast and throwing himself upon it with all his force fell dead at his feet thus were the festival Ornaments discoloured with Royal blood and thus did this great King catch up the shield of of death to defend himself from ignominy A few days after the victorious Caesar rendered himself Master of both the Realms and with them of the Queen his spouses liberty whom he designed for one of the principal Ornaments of his Triumph she was gone some months with child when the King her Husband lost his life and was brought to bed of the Prince my Master two days after her arrival at Rome whither Caesar sent her two months before he made his triumphal entry Thus was my Prince begotten free and the Son of a King but born a slave and between his Conception and Birth happen'd that deplorable revolution of his Fortune Some days after his Birth he was carried along as one of the most remarkable Ornaments of Caesar's Triumph happy in his misfortune that as yet he understood not the shame they made him suffer being then of an age incapable of resenting the loss of his Crowns his brave Father or the death of the Queen his Mother who resigned her life a few days after she had disclosed the little Heir of her misfortunes to the World But there wanted not persons that took care of his bringing up for the great Caesar from whom the disastrous fate of his Parents had drawn some compassion caus'd him to be brought up at Rome in the garb of a Kings Son and bestowed such a particular care upon him that scarce any of his neerest kindred in that high swoln prosperity was trained to a braver Education I will yet say further and believe I shall not injure truth in affirming that the losses of his estate were in part repaired by the gallant Education he receiv'd among the Romans wherein that tender age escaping the impression of the Affrican customs and the Company of such persons which falling far short of the Romans politeness might have given him a taste of the Barbarian his excellent nature contributed such marvellous assistance to the care of those that were ordained to form him that before his age could promise it he became as accomplished in all requisites of a Prince as wish could fancy and rarely skil'd in every undertaking to which his vertuous inclination carried him In his earliest Infancy Caesar would often cause him to be brought into his presence and observing that someehing Majestick and Heroical was already risen with that morning of his excellent beauty he let him get ground in his affections to that degree as one day he broke into an earnest protestation that if the little Juba for at his birth they gave him his Father's name seconded those hopes he had already begun he would restore him the Crowns of his Ancestors but he took special care to mould him to the Roman fashion and deface all such unpolished manners as his inclinations might possibly borrow from his Affrican blood Besides to fortifie the friendship he would have him bear to the Republick he gave him a Roman name and because he was brought up in the Martian Family illustrious among the Patricians and derived from the famous Coriolanus whose valour survived him in so glorious a reputation he would have the young Prince called by his name that the appellation of Juba which sounded harsh and barbarous to a Roman ear might be covered with that of Coriolanus In all likelyhood the affection and bounty of that great Dictator would not here have stopped and doubtless the Prince had gathered the fruits of those promises if Death had not robbed him of that Protector or rather that Father before he attained to his fourth year an age that hardly rendered him capable to dream of those hopes were given him That man the greatest that ever liv'd was murder'd in the Senate-house by the ingrateful conspiracy of those that his own generosity and nobleness had rais'd from their knees all the world knew it self interessed in the loss of him who had made himself Master of it with his Sword yet held it in so gentle a subjection After Caesar's death the little Coriolanus for so was always called wanted no protection for the Senate succeeding Caesar in his Patronage took up that care of him which his death had let fall and trained him up with the Sons of divers Kings that were Friends and Alleys to Rome without making the least difference in their Expence or Equipage though their Fathers had still their Crowns in possession Divers children of noble Exteaction and an equal age descended from the families of Roman Knights were placed in his Service of which number I was appointed one and as I was always brought up near his person so his affection did me the honour to take me nearest to his heart During those cruel and dismal disorders of my Country that bloody Civil War which revenge kindled for Caesars murder the prodigious effects of that horrible Triumvirat which overflowed Rome with the blood of her noblest Citizens and that famous contest betwixt Antony and Octavius Coesar the young Prince grew up with a success miraculous Never did Eye behold a youth of those years handle his Arms with so great a grace or perform any Bodily Exercise his Tutors taught him with a dexterity comparable to his his propension led him with so much advantage to the study of Sciences as he became so learnedly vers'd in Astrology and Philosophy so critically skilled in all kind of History as the World could scarce afford another to match him and for Eloquence that famous Orator that lost his life in the heat of the Triumvirat by the cruel command of Antony could hardly challenge preheminence nor had he qualities disproportioned to these rare endowments of body and mind so that
no longer to hide the cause of his affliction but Marcellus after he had staid a while in his first posture gave a sudden leap out of his arms and when he was gotten some five or six paces from him he drew his Sword and presenting the pommel to my Master Coriolanus saide he since thou art proved the most disloyal friend that ever infected the world and hast so cruelly belyed my opinion of thy vertue here finish thy Crime by my Death and pierce the heart of thy unfortunate friend that so unluckily trusted thy dissembled amity thou hast done that already that may clear all thy scruples of consenting to this and believe it this last piece of cruelty will merit a gentler censure than the former Marcellus spake in this manner and my Master however his discourse and action surprised him yet recovered himself so readily as his face scarce confessed the least astonishment and regarding Marcellus with a cold and composed look Since I am that base and faithless friend said he that has so perfidiously betraid your Confidence and Amity why do you offer me the wrong end of your Sword and not rather sheath it in my brest 'T is the heart of a Traitor that ought to feel the point and not of a deceived and guiltless Friend While the Prince of Mauritania spoke this he held his arms a cross upon his breast and beheld Marcellus with a mind so assured as it would have been easie for a person less dim'd with passion to have read in his looks the contents of his Innocence but Marcellus distracted with cruel jealousie could not be so soon disabused yet he grew so tender at the Discourse and Countenance of his friend as instead of pursuing his passionate obstinacy he set some tears the marks of weakness at liberty which presently over-flowed his visage and letting himself fall upon one of the Seats behind him Ah! Coriolanus cry'd he was I to expect my ruine of you did I not offer fairly to our friendship in quitting Cleopatra without releasing Julia too I had never bent my aims that way but to abandon that to you which I loved above my self my inclinations have since voted my design to please you and the Gods to reward my good intentions have given an after-birth of sweetness in that affection where my hopes looked no farther than a toyl for your repose and when by the help of time and my service I had gained some interest in the heart of that inconstant Princess you have carried her from me with a cruelty that suits not with your self and reduced me with Cleopatra and Julia to render up my life which must now become a sudden sacrifice to despair Marcellus had enlarged himself upon this subject if his sighs had not cut off the passage of his words and my Master who had not heard him all this time without letting in a grief to his Soul little short of his after he had wiped away some tears which he had no power to bridle Marcellus said he the estate you are in will scarce give me leave to upbraid you with the injury you do me and the injust opinion which has prepossest you may speak your excuse for the outrage you have offered me but I am comforted in this that every thing pleads my justification admit I could grow faint in my friendship to Marcellus yet still I love Cleopatra too well to change her for Julia and say my heart could draw off from Cleopatra yet my Marcellus is too powerful there for me to affront his pretences and now you force me to avow what respect and discretion devoted to silence if there be some levity in Julia's spirit the Gods can witness that in stead of indulging it I have still carefully rendered what amity required even when civility and good manners forbad it however I perceive my dear Marcellus in two things I am extreamly infortunate first that your friendship was not strong enough to defend me from the cruelty and injustice of your suspition and then that I wanted occasion to evidence mine in such clear proofs as yours was stamped in for in quenching for my sake the affection that Cleopatra kindled you inflicted rigour upon your self to strangle the passion but in flying the sight of Julia for the love of you I do no more than quit a person to whom bateing your interests I scarce carry a single good will would to Heavens could I do it without betraying my fidelity to Cleopatra that I had now as much affection for the Daughter of Augustus as you had for Antonyes I would find out a better way than I can now make use of in quitting a person that I do not love to witness my amity not inferiour to yours all that I can now do for your quiet and my devoir is to abandon not the love for that would be impossible to me and unprofitable to you but the sight of Cleopatra and since I cannot be near her without hurting you to remove my self beyond the reach of Julia's eye I am content to leave that Princess whose absence will not be a milder misery than what you offered While my Master spoke in this manner though Marcellus could not be cured of the grief that tormented him yet he felt some ease by the dissipation of his jealousie and reflecting at the same time upon the free and faithful disposition of his friend the cold composure of his late actions to Julia much short of the wonted deferrence he usually paid her and the strong passion he kept for Cleopatra which daily broke into clearer proofs he entertained a belief he might be innocent and suffering himself by these appearances with the help of that affection he bare him to be insensibly perswaded he repented his suspition and throwing his arms about his neck with a passionate and tender action Pardon dear Brother said he forgive the offence you have received from a spirit discomposed with its own misfortune and reduced by despair to interpret all things in the worst sense indeed I ought to have understood you better but you see that with the knowledge of my friends I have lost mine own and as my condition is now stated I am scarce Master of a reasonable motion I doubt not but your friendship is able to give proofs of a greater difficulty but I will never consent to accept those you offer and will rather suffer all things than condescend that you should absent your self from Cleopatra because you fly Julia no let the Gods keep my repose if nothing will redeem it but yours and let me rather be an eternal mark of Julia's disdain than recover her affection by your displeasure I shall never be displeas'd reply'd the son of Juba by suffering any thing for my friend nor will my misery be so great as your imagination shapes it since in leaving Cleopatra I shall travel at the same time for your happiness and mine own glory besides 't is not
to him all dismay'd and finding he was in a deep swoond after I had often jogg'd and call'd him in vain I ran to the Fountain that was not far off and brought back water which I threw in his face in abundance at last his faculties return'd to their several functions and perceiving himself between my arms Prithee let me alone Emimilius said he I would fain die So you shall Sir said I if this mishap that spurs you to it can shew you a just cause to pick a quarrel with your life but by the Gods assistance I shall not suffer it before you can make a clearer construction of your misfortune and what greater illustration can I ask reply'd he in a languishing tone than I have already receiv'd from Cleopatra's mouth who in terms that needed no comment has sentenc'd my my life in condemning me to see her no more with that he looked about for his Sword which by a timely precaution I had seiz'd before and the Gods were willing his grief assisted by the malady that then began to assault him should subdue his strength to such an Ebb and the tender affection I had ever for him so redoubled my mind as whatever strugling he made he could neither wrest mine nor his own from my hands 't is true his unwillingness to hurt me would not let him employ all his puissance which I could never have resisted but I would my self into such a posture as he would have found it hard to have forc'd my resolution unless he had killed me since thou wilt not suffer me said he to fall by my own Sword thou shalt see me run otherwise to my death wherein thou canst not stop me At these words whose every syllable was divided with sighs he roll'd himself upon the grass still pouring forth complaints capable to have melted the savagest Hearts that ever gave a rocky resistance to pity After I had suffered him to take a long tiring upon his grief without interruption Sir said I if you humour this obstinacy to run so eagerly upon your death for one single proof of Cleopatra's anger you will shew less Courage and Vertue than the meanest Woman had death divorc'd you from the person you loved were she married to Tiberius or any other whose felicity had power to murder all our hopes despair might then be pardoned but for a single fit of Choler that may resolve into the aery nothing that begot it for the Caprichio of Spirit who as it hath strayed from Love to anger may step back again with the same facility from Anger to Affection or a Malady whose Cure you carry about you for a Disease which rising from no other womb but Report and foster'd with a false opinion will give way to a single justification and flye like a thin mist before the beams of truth to throw your self upon Death is a design unworthy of your Courage unbecoming the lustre of your Judgement and disproportion'd to those great endowments the Gods have given you I allow Queen Cleopatra Cato and the King your Father bravely fled the world to flye the shame that was intended them but that a petty birth either made by Jealousie or any other motive in affection should rashly procure a self-sacrifice Ah Sir and where should be the Judgement where the Vertue where the Resolution in adversity and where the Constancy I have so often known you preach to others Coriolanus was too great a Master of reason not to discern some in this Discourse but sorrow had so entirely prepossess'd his Soul as reason and truth both lost their influence and had I not added the interest of honour of which he had ever been more sensible than of all things else my endeavours had doubtless been too weak to draw him from the precipice of Despair Sir said I I know it must be some treacherous practice against your quiet that has rais'd this storm in Cleopatra's breast try to dis-invalue the truth which once discovered will either help you to disabuse the Princess and wipe out those impressions have been given her of you or guide your revenge to those artificial Enemies that plotted this mischief against you Sir I assume the liberty to tell you that your honour binds you to allow these reasons nor can you without sinning against your Courage resign to Tiberius whom I suspect the Author of your disgrace a treasure which none but his subtility can carry from you All that I said to my Master though ill express'd was yet so strongly built upon truth and reason as he could find but little to resist it and he listened so eagerly to the proposal I made him of seeking his revenge upon those that had destroyed his repose as at last he concluded to prolong his dayes only in homage to that intention and after he had taken some time to ballance this resolution in his thoughts Yes Emilius said he I will live and but live to no other purpose than to give death to those whose perfidie has drop'd so many stains upon my innocence yet I feel my grief grown strong enough to post me from the world before it lends me the leisure to act these thoughts unless a timely succour prevents it O Death pursu'd he lifting up his eyes to heaven as they swam in their own tears if by thy means Cleopatra may be satisfi'd my heart shall receive thee with open embraces and thus he went on enlarging his laments which would never have ended if perceiving the night at hand I had not conjur'd him to remount his Horse and return to the City where I hoped his woes would find a lenitive as I still press'd him more eagerly to retire by chance I touch'd his arm and found by the high distemper of heat that a violent Feaver had seized him this fomented a fear of his life that encreas'd my importunity which at last prevailed so far as he grew contented to quit that unlucky place where he had received so bloody a displeasure to go learn the cause of his misfortune at Syracusa and find out Tiberius whom we both suspected guilty of laying the train earnestly inferring these hopes I got him on horse-back and at last drew him to the City which we entered without any precaution because the night had already shed her shades upon the earth we had some trouble to find our lodging because the City was so every where pestered and stuffed with perpetual throngs of people we were no sooner gotten thither but perceiving my Princes malady encrease I quickly got him to bed he would not be perswaded to take any thing nor did I much press it because his Feaver was grown very violent but the next day it raged to that height as I really feared his life and within three more it was almost despair'd by all those that undertook him I had no easie Province to combat his aversion to remedies but the desire of surviving the revenge he intended upon those that had
my Son since I have nothing more pretious to bestow upon thee Cleomedon putting one knee to the ground took the Kings hand and kissed it but he had not the power to bring forth one single word and the King after a few other short breathed Discourses wherein among other things he commended Tiribasus to him as a man very capable of State-employment his Spirits wasted themselves by degrees to that low Ebb as in fine he lost his speech and within an hour after his Life Pardon me Madam pursu'd Candace with a face cover'd with tears if I cannot pass this Tragick part of my story without paying this watry tribute demanded by Nature and reason to the memory of so sad a loss Madam I lost a Father to whom I was very dear and a Father whose vertues merited the esteem and love of all that knew him he remain'd cold and pale in Caesario's arms and that Prince whose former affection to Hidaspes as his Protector his Benefactor and the Father of Candace was passionately increas'd by his last scene of kindness after his death appear'd in a condition little differing from his as if one Soul had animated both their Bodies and the same time forsook and unfurnished her double mansion from this profound astonishment he succeeded to sighs and then by degrees found a tongue of his griefs which delivered themselves in such doleful accents as wrought as much pity from the company as the loss of their King that caus'd them All the credit that his Governour Eteocles had with him was then grown very necessary and after he had suffer'd him to wast that whole night in Sighs Tears and Plaints whereof I suppose you willing to bate me the recital he could find no other way to reduce him to himself than by presenting me to his memory that proved the strongest bridle to retire the overflowing of his woes and began to lead his thoughts aside from the loss to a reflection upon the Legacy the day following he grew more flexible to those reasons that assaulted his melancholly and at last knocking off the Manacles of his grief and restoring his courage to a perfect liberty which indeed as the general interest of Aethiopia was then tempered necessity enjoyned after he had caus'd the Kings body to be embalmed with an intent to lay him at Meroe with the Ashes of his Ancestors and remembring the Enemy was near by a general consent he took the command of the Army with a solemn Oath in presence of all the Officers that he would never turn his back upon Nubia till he had bath'd his revenge of their Kings death in whole Rivers of the Rebels blood This promise was fortunately followed by effect and the next day having taken a general Muster of his Army and finding it still consisted of more than 10000 Horse and 35000 Foot he put himself in the head of it and marched directly to Tenupsis whither the Enemies Army was newly retir'd It yet amounted to more than 50000 Combatants and their General Evander who had already been advertis'd of the Kings Death with which he fed the fairest hopes of his success and disdaining to fear a Man whose unpractised youth he condâ—ded incapable to manage so great a Command marched up to him with a confidence full of pride and offered him battel Caesario accepted this defiance with a fierce joy and actively appeared at the heal of his Troops in an Armour whose deep black represented the sadness of his Soâ—l though now half turned into a noble anger he led them on the Combat with such a daring and undaunted resolution animated the coldest courages with Examples so brave and beautiful and spy'd them out advantages by such a prudent and quick-sighted conduct as the victory long disputed by hot arguments on both sides listed her â—â— on our party but she came in Scarlet for the greedy fury both of General and Souldier still hunting for blood to quench the thirst of the revenge for the Kings death did that dâ— sacrifice to his Ghost above 40000 Nubians and compell'd the rest that escap'd the slaughter to seek their safety within the walls of Tenupsis which open'd its gates to favoâ—â— their retreat Three days after the victorious Cleomedon though he had taken some slight wounds â—â— the Battel sate down with his Army before it but because the City was strongly fortifiâ— and now defended by above 10000 Men it held his whole Army play for at least the Months time during which Evander who disdained to shut himself up within the walls of a Town dexterously posting in person from place to place where he had his greatest resources was grown as strong in number as before and had once more received a condition to spin on the War to a tedious length At last the besieged City was carried by Storm and all Cleomedon's authority could not hinder the Aethiopians from cutting the greatest part of the Souldiers that defended it in pieces and leaving very cruel marks of their vengeance in that desolate City After Tenupsis Cleomedon besieged it and with less pain took in divers other Cities that were seated upon the banks of Nilus and when he had totally ranged that Country under his obedience he advanced to meet Evander who once more desirous to try his Fortune came up the third time to give him battel Caesario proved again victorious and not to amplifie my story with needless circumstances or over-lade this relation with things that pass my experience in one years time which he spent in recovering Nubia he defeated the Enemies in five signal Battels took ten or twelve of their Cities by force reduc'd all the rest by the terrour of his Arms and for a conclusion of his glorious exploit accepting a defiance from Evander now brought to the brink of his last extremity that challenged him to a single Combat he fought with him in view of both Armies bravely slew him upon the spot and by his death cut up the last root of that Rebellion I have suffered my contracted recital to go down the stream of Cleomedon's actions without touching some other things that pass'd in the interim of much greater concernment to my self than any I have yet mentioned but I trac'd these passages as far as they would reach that I might not distract the method of my story and now I shall step back to some accidents that befel my self whereof the recital will doubtless be less offensive than my late discourse of War which yet I drew within as narrow a compass as my skill would give leave Think it not possible Madam reply'd the Princess Elisa that I can tast any trouble in your narration you tell your story so gracefully and I already feel my self so deeply interessed both in what regards your own person and concerns the adventures of a Prince so accomplished as Caesario as it is only a divertisment of this nature that has power to conclude a short truce betwixt my griefs
and if the latter does not rise from a root in our nature it often springs from the womb of an irregular ambition which usurping the throne of the will excites all thoughts that are the legitimate race of Reason and shuts the eyes of those that are possessed with this Devil upon every consideration that Piety Justice and Honour it self can represent to their intoxicated judgement the proofs of the truth are but too conspicuous in our Family and if I derive some glory from a birth that has few equals in the world I have received shame enough from the cruelties of him that gave it to convince me that he has left me no cause to boast my extraction The King Phraates my Father was born with qualities great enough and in the first bloomings of his youth and given such hopes of his future bravery as made him pass in the opinion of men for an equal to his generous brother the Prince Pacorus who fell in the flower of his age under the Roman arms after he had made them know by divers memorable advantages that they were not invincible The old King Orodes my Grandfather after the death of Pacorus ignorant of his destiny had transplanted his chief affection upon Phraates then the eldest of divers Brothers and with it resign'd the entire management of all State-affairs to his disposal he had been married some years before and I had already liv'd about six or seven when his greedy desire to Reign alone and remove that fear of a Rival in ambition transported him to that horrible piece of cruelty which report has told to the whole world you know it but too well Madam that the cruel Phraates to make the Crown sit fast which his bloody jealousie told him did but tremble upon his head while so many of his Brothers lived put them all to death only Tyridates the youngest then absent from court who being spared by the mistaken piety of him that was sent to be his assassin has since wandered from Court to court begging sanctuary against the inhumane persecutions of his Brother The Queen who had received this truth from the mouth of Tyridates was yet resolved not to trouble the stream of her relation by interposing what she knew and deeming it requisite to keep the news of her Unkle till the closure of her story and then impart or reserve it as discretion counselled she lent a silent attention to the sequel The cruelty of Phraates pursu'd Elisa could not so quench its thirst with the blood of his Brothers but the old King Orodes whose long life seem'd to tire the expectation of his heir compleated the Sacrifice to his jealous ambition and lost it by the horrid command of his own Son I confess I am willing to contract the relation of this unnatural act in as few words as will barely serve to tell it and indeed could be content to leave it intirely out if my design to draw you the perfect pourtraiture of my life could allow it Phraates having thus secur'd his Throne by hewing down the stock with all the royal branches that grew near it began to play the Prudent as well as the Paricide to preserve his acquest the terrour of his arms made a quick distribution of its self among his Neighbour Princes and the bad success of Anthony who with a part of the Roman puissance brought the War into our Country where he lost his whole Army and with much ado sav'd himself by a shameful retreat struck a general fear through all those that probably might nurse any thoughts of attempting the Crown of Parthia In the mean time I was trained up by the Queen my Mother whose inclinations were ever sweet and vertuous with a very discreet care and that good Princess perceiving docility enough in my Spirit forgot not to season my education with all other sage lessons that might frame me a disposition suitable to her intentions her affections told her that I had not played the truant in the School of Vertue and by the help of that blindness which is the usual disease of a Parents indulgence fancying some qualities within me which I dare not pretend to in me she stored up all her love all her delight After me that was the Eldest of all her Children she had divers others of both sexes but the Gods perhaps to punish Phraates by the misfortunes of his Fathers family cut them all off in the dawning of their infancy and of five or six Brothers that succeeded me at several births scarce one of them attain'd to a full years age before they were laid in their little Sepulchres This mishap of our house rendered me more considerable and a short time after the Queen though still in the flower of her age going over child-bearing I was regarded by the Parthians as the presumptive Inheritrix of that weighty Crown 'T is true the King had a Bastard Son that was called Vonones but he did not behold him with an eye that designed his succession and though he fail'd not to endeavour the gaining of a faction that might prop his pretences he was generally known to be born within the Marriage of the King and could therefore hatch no apparent hope of being declared legitimate I will not trifle with your patience so much to give you the account of my Infancy but stepping over the Prologue of my life wherein there befel me nothing memorable I shall only tell you I had worn out fourteen years of it when my Father invaded Media the hatred had been long hereditary betwixt the Kings of that Country and those that wore the Crown of Parthia and though they had taken breath in some intervals of Peace since the fall of the unfortunate Anthony and the coming of Augustus to the Empire they were still ready to obey the beck of every trivial occasion to pick a new quarrel which they both embraced with their old animosity Phraates complained that at the Median Kings solicitation Cleopatra had murthered his Ally the King of Armenia and though he that did it was since dead and his Heir succeeded to the Throne he thought he might justly entail his revenge upon the Son since Fate would not suffer the Father to stand the shock of it and the new King of Media not less eager than he to revive the quarrel whereto his young courage was whetted by divers reasons on his side there broke out a cruel and bloody War betwixt them The beginnings were very doubtful much blood spilt on both sides in divers Encounters and some Battels wherein Fortune seemed to stand in a study on which side she should list her smiles At length after a years uncertainty wherein she had kept the ballance equal she apparently lean'd to the Parthian party and the King my Father swollen with some late successes began to advance towards the heart of Media carrying ruine and desolation to all places where he waved his Ensigns divers blows had been given
Queen and Princess were Prisoners The King of Media is taken by his Rival and released again in exchange for Elisa and her Mothers liberty He gains two signal Victories beside Makes an entire conquest of Media and drives Tigranes to seek refuge and beg aid in the Courts of Cappadocia and Cilicia He is triumphantly received by Phraates Boldly solicites his love suit to Ehsa Is abetted by Urinoe and at last wins her consent to demand her of her Father He receives a rude repulse from Phraates which provokes hot words and they procure his banishment Media is invaded and re-conquered by Tigranes assistants Peace concluded upon his marriage with the Princess Elisa Artaban loses his labour and liberty by endeavouring to hinder it His strange adventures upon the Sea Elisa is delivered from the Pirates and brought to Alexandria ARtaban having taken his leave of the King began to march towards Media and the next day we parted from Nisa to remove to Cassiâ—pe where the King frequently passed his Summer and where the Court was commonly the fairest and better accommodated than in any other City of the Kingdom The Image of Artaban as well in our Voyage as after our arrival was perpetually before my eyes but my fancy according to the alternate rule of anger and affection received it in very different forms and the pique I took against him for a crime whereof my haughty spirit at least pretended him guilty had no such absolute authority in my soul but it still had a loving enemy to combat I could not wake the remembrance of the declaration he had made me without a flat falling out with his audacious enterprise and yet when I called to mind the grandeur of his actions the importance of his services and the constellation of his excellent qualities both of mind and body it abated the swellings of my heart and softned my resentments Can I do lesse than hate that arrogant wretch would I say that flies at an Eagles pitch from a common nest that unknown thing nay possibly that Cottage Creature who because he has borrowed greatness from his Masters bounty thinks he may justifie his ambition in taking his aim at me Taking his aim did I say he is yet a thousand times more criminal had he only sinned in thought and covered his passion with a respective silence it had been pardonable but to breath his fancies flames at the mouth to declare his love in clear and intelligble terms and all this to the Princess of Parthia 't is a boldness 't is an insolence that cannot be justified Discretion and Honour require it that I banish the presumptuous and inconsiderable man from my sight and memory for ever and if he crouds into my presence against my will that he be received as an idle insolent who by his foolish ambition has made himself worthy of my eternal scorn and enmity Such thoughts and words as these were the eldest Children of my anger and at first they had the upper hand of all others that contested against them for whole dayes together but in sequel the softer passion got the victory and some favourable Demon to Artaban overthrew all the breast-works that my resentments had raised against him And yet that audacious Wretch would I say that bird of a common nest that borrows his greatness from his Master's bounties is the very same that rescued the Crown of Media from the King my Father's hand and since saved that of Parthia from an evident ruine 't is he who scarce arrived at so many years as upon the common account would stile him Man has already travelled in his fame to the remotest parts of the World by the death of 20000 and the winning of four or five signal Battels and in fine both by the throwing down and supporting of Empires as if the Gods had only commissioned his sword to cut out their destiny Say more Elisa 't is the same that saved thee from the violence of the Medes to whose victorious Fortune thy Life and honour might have proved a double sacrifice 't is he that made thee the generous offer of thy liberty to give it thee exposed himself to all the darts that one great danger could throw at him braved the indignation and puissance of a King that then had all his fears and hopes in his custody forsook his party to fight for thine and after having re-assured thy Father in his tottering Throne and untied the bands at the price of his blood and the peril of his life 't is still the very same that is gone again to repeat his dangers and improve the number of his victories for thy interests nay possible to make a Province of Media to the Parthian Crown and after all this 't is he that may promise Empires to himself from his own valour that may lift him to an equal dignity with thine to these considerations Elisa thou maist add that he is a man in whose mind and body are jewelled all the admirable qualities that the skil and bounty of Heaven can inchase in a mortal person a man whom to know and not to love is half a miracle and a man in fine to whom in spite of thy self thou dost already feel in thy self an extraordinary inclination My revisal of this last thought brought forth a blush and the shame of being conquered at these weapons often called in choler again to take my part against him While I was tossed upon the stream of these irresolutions that regarded Artaban we received intelligence of the sudden and marvellous success of his arms and had scarce heard that he was entered Media when there came an express that told us he had taken two of the strongest places upon the Frontier by assault and just as he was setting down before the third having learned that Phraates one of Tigranes Lieutenants was coming up with a puissant Army to relieve it he had drawn off to go meet him and since overthrown him in a battel with so great a slaughter of the Medes as gave the rest cause to fear that the entire loss of their Country would succeed it The King received this news with a marvellous satisfaction published his desire of an universal joy by all the exterior marks of his own and powered out Artaban's praise in the presence of all men with a greediness of gratitude But in spight of all my arguments of anger against him I could not chuse but own a particular concernment in his happy success and then it was that I clearly discovered to my own shame and consusion that this man with whom I thought I had been angry instead of holding the place of an Enemy in my thoughts had gotten possession of the dearest and most reserved hold about my heart and I think the Gods themselves favoured his incroachment for the same night that this news arrived after I was gotten to bed my Governess faining some pretence to stay in the Chamber when the rest were
Ephiastes die or rather let the wretch be taken alive and suffer such punishments as are cryed for by his bloudy crime This barbarous doom was no sooner given but a hundred swords were drawn upon Artaban who daring all with a brave derision and shooting a furious look at the face of Zenodorus Yes Pirate I will die said he if be that killed Ephiastes must not live but before I dismiss mine perhaps I shall send thy black soul to keep thy Nephews company at these words he flew at Zenodorus through the throng of his men for he knew it impossible for himself to escape Zenodorus avoided Artaban's thrust by starting aside yet he could not throw himself so far from his reach but he catched him in his strong arms and desperately pressing towards the deck he threw himself and his Enemy as his revenge had tied them together backwards into the Sea but the waters would not suffer him to perfect his intent and separating those hateful embraces in the fall Zenodorus not incumbred with arms easily kept his head above water by swiming till his men brought him succour and the unfortunate Artaban carried to the bottom by the weight of his did there sink down with himself all my hopes all my joys When the Princess arrived at this deplorable passage she selt it impossible to pursue her story before she had paid such lamentable Obsquies to the death of her dear Artaban as touched the fair Aethiopian's tender heart with a true grief for her misery and instead of staying the course of Elisa's tears she mingled the stream with a silver shower of her own let loose by a just compassion It was long before Elisa's sighs and tears would let speak but when she had once cleared the passage for her words Thou didst die said she my faithful my generous Artaban and I stay here among the living to consecrate the wretched reliques of a languishing life to regester and repeat what I owe to thy dear and illustrious memory in thee I have lost all that in my eye was lovely upon earth and I think the world could not have parted with any thing greater and more truly estimable than thy self but Artaban I must adventure to say that thou didst not totally die since there is still a part of thee unravished by the hand of death in the heart of Elisa and so long as that little parcel of life shall last to which the Gods have condemned me thy memory shall ever be as dear and never die but with her self After this Rapsody of grief she dried her eyes and turning towards Candace What remains to tell you Madam said she besides that my own weakness acquaints me with a necessity of drawing to a period is very inconsiderable I was present at all that past had heard the Pirates words to Zenodorus trembled at the cruel command he gave them and turned pale at Artaban's furious resolution but when I saw him fall into the Sea I fell too into a desperate swoond that snatched all the knowledge from me of what had passed the recovery of my spirits rowsed the remembrance of my loss and I regained the use of my tongue to no other end but to breath complaints that would have softned any thing with pity but the rocky souls of Pirates when my senses returned I found my self laid upon a course bed with Urinoe and Cephisa standing on either side and only them two the Pirates could not fright from my attendance who had resolutely told them they would sooner choose to throw themselves into the Sea than forsake their Mistress they had put the rest of my Servants into another vessel and divided them into several shares before I knew how they were used as a part of the booty Zenodorus essayed to give me comfort but when he saw I was utterly incapable of receiving it he left me to his Lieutenants care himself appearing with the marks of a deep discontent in his face for something that had befallen him It was the loss of you Madam that touched him to the quick and I think with design to learn what had befallen you after he had rode at Anchor in the same place the rest of that day without going nearer the shoar the night following he secretly landed with twenty of his men leaving me in the Vessel under the guard of his Lieutenant whom he commanded to attend them there and not to stir from that place till he came back again This Pirate permitted me during the remains of that night to take such repose as my sorrows would licence but coming the next day to my beds side where I lay breathing out my soul in sighs and melting into tears the winds and ways of grief for my loss resolving a quick dispatch of my life by shutting up my tears from comfort and my mouth from nourishment he began to make love to me with a brutish rhetorick if my force had equalled my spight I think I had torn out his eyes however weak as I was I made shift to handle him coursly enough to put him to a cold retreat but a few hours after he renewed the assault and by the hateful prosecution of his suit taught me so true a repentance for surviving Artaban as if Urinoe and Cephisa had not violently rescued me from my own desperate resolution I had infallibly thrown my self into the Sea he was content for a few hours more to attend his Captains return but at last perceiving Zenodorus came not and spurred by a base and bestial inclination to rob him of the prey he had committed to his keeping he quitted the place where he promised to attend him put off to Sea and took a contrary course to Alexandria with all the hast his Canvas wings could make When once he saw himself absolute Master he easily resolved to abuse his authority and after he had lost some breath in perswading my consent to his will he began to make force his executioner of the black purpose which certainly would have made me run blushing to my death if the Gods had not sent some ships to my succour commanded by Cornelius to scour the Sea upon report of Pirates that infested it by these Romans the Sea robbers with their Captain were all cut in pieces and thus the unfortunate Elisa was snatched from the gulph of her greatest danger conducted to this City and brought to these lodgings where she had the honour to see and embrace the great Candace from whose dear society alone she has already received more comfort then she could ever have hoped while her soul and body are companions And now Madam continued she I have brought my woful story to a period and acquainted you with accidents rarely found in the fortunes of a Princess of my age and extraction you have heard the confessions of my faults and though perhaps they have justly incurred your censure I have laid them naked before so perfect a candour as I can hope for
she caused the head of the unfortunate Artibasus to be cut off and sent it to his enemy I pass over these things succinctly as being known to the greatest part of the world and as belonging to the life of that great Princess whereupon we have less occasion to insist As very a child as I was I remembred that this action struck me with such a horrour as by all likelihood I was not capable of and the young Artemisa having received this loss otherwise than might have been expected from her age I continued weeping with her divers days no body being able to get me out of her company as I wiped away her tears I mingled my own abundantly with them and though after their Father's death neither the Prince nor the Princess came any more to the Palace but confined themselves to a sorrow conformable to their condition those who had the care of my education had no quiet with me if they did not continually have me to Artemisa and the Queen who did much indulge me and could not condemn this inclination of mine permitted them to give me this satisfaction as often as possibly they could I said to her then with a countenance as sad as her own You will love me no more now Artemisa and possibly you will bate me after the displeasure you have received from the Queen my Mother I repeated these words to her divers times and she answered me Alexander I will love you still for it was not you that killed the King my Father No Artemisa reply'd I it was not I and I believed I should part with my own life to restore the King your Father his We were about ten years of age when we had this discourse for it was almost about the same time that the final misfortunes of our family happened you have heard without doubt that Caesar came to besiege us in Alexandria and that Anthony having lost all his hopes and believing he had lost the Queen too who was more dear to him than all the world dispatched himself with his own hands and that Cleopatra desiring to avoid the shame of the triumph for which Octavius intended her ended her life by the sting of an Aspik which at that rate saved her from the ignominy that was prepared for her and that Caesar having rendred himself quiet possessor of all things that were in Anthony's power carried us to Rome my Sister Cleopatra my bother and I I mean my brother Ptolomy younger than I by a year for as for the Prince Caesario the son of Julius Caesar and the Queen a Prince incomparable hopeful whose memory you have awakened in me by your sight and by some resemblances which I find in your visages according to the old Idea which remains in my memory he was killed by the cruel order of Augustus by the way to Ethiopia whither the Queen our Mother had sent him Hitherto a out of complacence only and for fear of discovering himself Caesario had heard things which he knew as well as the person who related them but seeing him about to enter upon the discourse of those passages which were not as yet come to his knowledge he gave ear with more attention than before and heard him pursue his narration in this manner Before we departed from Alexandria Caesar sent back the Prince and the two Princesses of Armenia into their Country with an honourable convoy and many presents and testimonies of his amity to the young King of Armenia their brother I was almost as sensible of this separation as I had been of the greatest of our misfortunes and having obtained permission to bid Artemisa adieu I thought I should have melted into tears at her departure she embraced me divers times and according to the liberty indulged to our tender years she permitted me to render her my caresses in the same manner Artemisa said I with a rationallity somewhat above my age you are going at your liberty but we remain slaves but I assure you my captivity is not that which afflicts me most and amongst all our miseries I find nothing so unsupportable as our separation This was at least the sense of what I said to her but I know not whether I could range my words in this order at that time or not Artemisa seemed to be moved with them and accompanying the tears I shed with some of hers Alexander said she I would with all my heart you might go with us and I am sensible that I shall be much afflicted when I shall be deprived of your sight Ah Artemisa replyed I you will remember me no more and when you are grown bigger than now you are you will be served by so many Princes that you will entirely forget your poor Alexander you leave behind who loves you so dearly I will never forget you replyed Artemisa and if you love me still when you are grown a man come and see me and you shall know whither I have lost the affection I have for you I will do it Artemisa I will do it answered I with precipitation I will come one day and put you in mind of the promise you have made me and if I had now liberty to wait upon you nothing in the world should separate me from you This was our conversation after which I was constrained to let her depart and I staid behind with all the grief that at that time I was capable of A few daies after their departure Octavius took us with him to Rome we arrived there and since I must needs confess our shame we served as an ornament to the triumph of our Vanquisher if we had been of ripers years we had without doubt according to the example of the Queen our Mother avoided by our death the ignominy they made us suffer but besides that our youth took from us almost all sense and knowledge of our condition we find some excuses for it and accuse fortune only for the calamities whereinto we were fallen through her cruelty Not long after the vertuous Princess Octavia sister to Augustus and Wife to Anthony our Father whom he had forsaken for Cleopatra and who in spight of the unworthy usage she had received from her Husband had alwaies taken his part at Rome against her Brother although he took up arms partly for her quarrel dwelling still in his house and managing his estate as if they had agreed the best in the world received us not as if we had been her Husbands children but as her own she put us entirely into the possession of Anthony's estate which Caesar had left him and she treated us in the same manner as she did her Son Marcellus and her Daughters as well those which she had by Marcellus her former Husband as those two which she had by our Father we began according to her will to converse with her Family as if we had been all Brothers and Sisters but the Empress Livia finding somewhat extraordinary in the Princess Cleopatra
towards heaven O Artibasus cry'd he O deplorable Father of a Son who was too weak to give thee succour If hitherto thy Manes have been unsatisfied with my cares and if I have not been able to appeale them by part of that hateful blood behold me now in a condition to sacrifice to thee the most agreeable and most just victim that could ever be afforded to thee And afterwards turning himself towards me with an action full of terrour I am sorry said he that thou hast but one life to satisfie and if the Gods had bestowed more upon thee I might make a more agreeable sacrifice of them to the soul of a King whom against all manner of right thy Parents put to a cruel death since it hath been the will of heaven that the cruel executioners of the greatest King of Asia should escape my vengeance but not from that of the Gods who have brought them to an end suitable to their crimes I will take such as they please to send me and will make such an example of thee as all the world shall take notice of Artaxus spake in this manner but I was not at all intimidated by his threatnings and without being troubled I replyed Artaxus I will not justifie nor excuse my Parents actions before thee if they caused thy Fathers death 't is possible they were induced to it by some lawful occasion thou knowest I was then of an age that was capable to take little cognizance of it but if notwithstanding I was absolutely innocent of the displeasure done thee thou findest in me any matter to satiate the resentments follow the motions wherewith they inspire thee and do not expect that I should beg thee to reflect upon the birth of a man who is not born thy inferiour or upon the vicissitudes of fortune which may yet throw thee into the power of my relations as I am fallen into thine Neither the consideration of his birth answered Artaxus nor of the inconstancy of fortune to which Cleopatra her self was shortly after exposed could guard my Father from her cruelty and when she took off his head by the hand of an Executioner she had not the death of a Father to revenge as I have nor the least occasion to violate upon his account what is due to the Persons of Kings when upon so just a motive of revenge I shall do what she did out of a base desire to oblige the King of the Medes no Person will blame me and thou art not innocent because thou art the Son of the murtherers of my Father but to this reason which might give thee a thousand deaths thou hast added another by continuing disguised as thou hast done in my Dominions thou couldest not have continued concealed and unknown as thou hast done in the Court and near the Person of thine Enemy upon any good motive Tell us the occasion of this brave design and do not hide from us a truth that we shall force out of thy mouth if thou dost not make a voluntary confession of it I valued thy power too little replyed I to content thy curiosity out of fear of thy menaces and though the occasion which hath brought me into thy Dominions hath glory enough in it to justifie it to the World thou shalt be the last to whom I will make confession of it Young man replyed the King with a smile full of sharpness we shall see if this resolution will accompany thee to the last and then turning himself towards the Princess his Sister who had hearkned to our Dialogue more like a dead than a living person and by the divers changes of her countenance expressed a part of her thoughts Madam said he this Egyptian was not unknown to you whom I suspected at the first sight and whose part you took so earnestly If he had been known to me answered the Princess I should not have permitted him to continue so long so near an Enemy whose inclinations I was acquainted with If yours replyed the King were such as they ought to be you would have a resentment equal to mine against the murtherers of the King your Father but you sufficiently discover to me by your countenance your discourse your past actions that instead of a just enemy as you ought to be Alexander hath found you a person more affectionate than your duty did permit 't is you alone without doubt that have retained him with you and this intelligence you hold with him is the effect of that amity you contracted with him whilst your Father's head was cutting off These words sensibly touched the Princess but she having a courage that could hardly dissemble her thoughts and believing it a baseness upon this occasion absolutely to deny them made no difficulty in part to discover them and looking upon the King with a countenance void of fear I have contracted no amity with Alexander answered she wherewith I may fear to be reproached and I call the Gods to witness that during his continuance with me I knew him for no other than Alcippus but when I knew him to be Alexander the resentments which are common to us both against the culpable were not extended to the innocent and if upon my account he hath exposed himself to the danger whereinto he is fallen next to my honour I have nothing so dear that I would not have given to save him from it Artaxus became almost mad at this discourse of the Princess and not being able to dissemble his rage Madam said he since you are so pitiful to your Enemies you shall have matter enough shortly to exercise your compassion Carry him to prison continued be turning himself toward the principal Officers of his Guards whom be called by their names and upon pain of your Lives see that he be kept laden with Irons till by a publick spectacle I make all Armenia see their Kings revenge I did not vouchsafe a reply to these cruel words of the Armenian and only casting a look upon Artemisa where by I declared as much as possibly I could that I died for her without repugnance I marched in the middle of the guards that environed me towards the Prison whither they conducted me Thus as you see I passed from felicity to danger in an instant and that supreme happiness to which Artemisa some moments before had advanced me ought to be counterbalanced by some misfortune my projects hitherto had been crowned with too prosperous success and this too great a calm was without doubt the presage of a urious tempest I was according to the intention of Artaxus really conducted into the common Prison and not into those places of restraint for the custody of Princes or any persons of a considerable condition and though out of the respect or pity of those who had the command to do it I was not loaden with Irons as he had ordered yet I was kept under so severe and strict a guard that all my liberty had no greater
that I had scarcely any thing left by which my friends might know me and that I spake words so far from my ordinary manner of discourse that they feared I would quite lose my reason and fall into the extremities of fury and despair In my most moderate intervals or rather when my tired body had no more strength to torment it self complaining in such a manner as moved all those to pity that heard me Delia cryed I O Delia I have lost thee then for ever and of all that I have seen and suffered and hoped there remains nothing but an eternal flame in my soul and the Idea of a flash of lightning which hath set me on fire as it passed by and then dis-appeared from my eyes for evermore Thou hast fled from me as from the most cruel enemy from me who would have fled from all things yea from life it self to follow thee and it was in this flight that I ought to have established the hopes thou gavest me Ah Delia ab ingrateful and unacknowledging Delia what will become now through thy cruelty of this miserable wretch whom thou exposest to the worst misfortunes and what remedy shall he find against that devouring fire thou kindledst in his heart what good Angel did guide him to trace out thy steps and what favourable Star will discover to him thy retreat But retracted I a little after why should I accuse Delia for the fault I have committed my self she is not the cause that I am ignorant of that which might yield me comfort I should know now the place of her residence and I should possibly be more satisfied than ever I was in my life if I had not lost all by my own negligence and if I had not imprudently trusted to things subject to the accident which is befallen me that which I ought to have trusted to nothing but my own heart From this discourse I passed to actions which expressed a great deal of fury and really if that may find any excuse in a just subject of displeasure mine was pardonable enough and my condition had something in it so strange that it was hard to reflect upon it without being transported I had not only lost Delia I was not only ignorant where I might learn news of the place of her retreat but I may truly say that I loved more ardently than ever man had done without knowing who it was I loved and without having any means of coming to the knowledge of it Delia's family her condition her country it self though she had hinted the frontire of Armenia were unknown to me and the name of Delia was not sufficiently known in the world that I might go seek her by the name of Delia only I was resolved upon it for all that and I fixed my self upon the design of seeking her throughout the whole earth and never to receive any repose till I had found Delia or my death This resolution was pitched upon and I caused the messenger that brought this sad news to relate the particulars of Delia's departure wherein I could not find any thing that might clear up my ignorance when Archelaus and Tygranes upon the report of my grief the news whereof was spread all over the Camp having left their quarters came together into my chamber and found me in such a condition as would have made me ashamed if I had been capable of other passions than those which absolutely possest me at that time I discovered my misfortune presently upon them and as they were neither of them ignorant of the evils which were caused by love in stead of entirely condemning my displeasure they partly excused it and did all that possibly they could to give me comfort they could not approve of the design I had to go seek out Delia and they alledged all the reasons they could devise to divert me from it but their disswasions were in vain and I desired to have my head no more troubled about it nor to see my self reduced to break through the obstacles which they would have opposed me with disposed my self to be gone without bidding them adieu and the next morning before day after I had written a note wherein I prayed them to take charge of the troops I left them and not trouble themselves at my departure and a Letter for the King my Father and another for the Princess Andromeda wherein after I had reproached them with the little care they had of my safety I protested to them that they should never see me more before I had found Delia I mounted on horseback without any other company but Dion and another of my Squires resolving to find Delia or to wander over all the world My first design was to visit all Armenia because Delia had made mention of it and though the King of that Country was our mortal enemy the danger I might incur was not capable to stay me and in the Equipage I then was 't was hard for them to know me or to suspect me to be the Prince of Cilicia I will not entertain you with the particulars of my journeys nor of the complaints which eternally proceeded out of my mouth the relation would be endless onely be pleased to know that in Armenia which I travelled all over I found no person that so much as knew the name of Delia and whatsoever description I gave of her no person could give me any light in what I demanded Full of grief or rather of rage and abandoning my self to the Gods and Fortune I turned my course whither they were pleased to guide me being resolved that though I saw but little probability of success in what I desired yet I would employ my whole life in that research Out of Armenia I entred into Assyria which I visited quite through without rest and to no purpose After I had been in Assyria I went into Syria which I passed through from one end to the other but in vain I saw Tyre and Sidon I had a sight of Phoenicia and Palaestina and coasting the Sea I am come into Aegypt with an intention to search exactly the most private places of this Kingdom and if Fortune be as much my enemy here as she hath been elswhere I will go to Sea and seek among the waves either Delia or a Shipwrack which may give an end to my vain researches This Madam is the narration of my life past and the estate of my present condition that which is past of it hath had some crosses and the present is deplorable I love without knowing the person beloved I search without knowing in what part of the world to seek and my Fortune is like to a dream of which there remains nothing in the mind but uncertain confused Idea's She hath presented Delia to me to torment my soul she permitted me see her till I was absolutely enflamed and hath ravished her from me without leaving me any light to find her again and I should say any hope if
the unfortunate Tyridates At this sight a mortal shivering ran through his whole body and he accounted himself condemned by this mournful silence more certainly than by a fatal sentence all the fear which the troubled thoughts of the precedent days and the terrible dreams of the last night had imprinted in his mind returned upon him in a moment with mortal terrors and he remained before Arsanes in a posture which sufficiently expressed the cruel agitation of his soul After he had a while beheld the countenanc of his faithful Servant whereupon he saw his misfortune lively painted out he retired a few steps back looking upon him with a very pitiful gesture Ah! Arsanes said he I am undone and without doubt you have none but sad news to tell me Arsanes for all this discourse did not as yet see himself in a condition to reply and the compassion which he had for the grief which he himself was about to cause in his dear Master produced such tender effects in his spirit that he was forced to give a fresh course to those tears which before he had endeavoured to restrain with violence The afflicted Tyridates reading the confirmation of his misery in these sad marks of so strong a grief Ah! cryed he let us enquire no farther we must dye without doubt either Mariamne detests me or else Mariamne hath no longer a being in the World At these words he let himself fall upon a chair where he continued like a man forlorn and in a condition which touched the soul of Marcellus with a tender compassion In the mean time Arsanes used his utmost endeavours to compose himself and having recovered courage enough to be able to speak after he had dryed up his tears in part and attempted to fix some marks of constancy upon his countenance Sir said he to his Master the affection I bear you hath betrayed me and Your presence hath made me lose all the resolution I had taken to spare you or at least a while to keep from you a violent grief I might have concealed from you for a time the sad news I had to tell you but in fine I could not keep you from the knowledge of it and it is of such importance that the report of it will quickly be spread over all the World I much wonder that it is not already come to your ears by some other mouth than mine and it is by the cruelty of his destiny that the most affectionate of your servants sees himself reduced to give you the most sensible displeasure that you can possibly receive Arsanes stopt at these words and Tyridates finding in them whatsoever of cruelty his fears had suggested to him lifted up his eyes and hands to Heaven with an action full of transport Mariamne is dead said he with a great cry Mariamne is dead without doubt and for a disaster of any other nature Arsanes would never have lost his courage You have but too rightly divined replyed Arsanes Mariamne is not any longer in the World and by a deplorable destiny I am condemned to acquaint You with this fatal truth These words were like the blow of a thunder-bolt wherewith the unfortunate Tyridates saw himself struck dead and Arsanes had no sooner uttered them but the Prince his strength utterly failed him his eyes grew dim and he remained cold and pale between Marcellus his arms who seeing him faint stept out to help him the desolate Arsanes and the Roman Prince could not see him in this condition without being touched with a tender compassion and Marcellus who instead of the comfort that he was made to hope for saw himself conducted by his ill fortune to this pitiful spectacle received this addition to his displeasures with great resentments He strove as much as the compassion of humane miseries and the motions of his particular generosity could oblige him to give assistance to the Prince being fallen into a trance he threw water in his face divers times and used all the ordinary remedies to make him recover his senses but it was no such easie matter and the Prince was in so deep a swoon that for a whole hour they could not make him come to himself At length by tormenting him they forced him to open his eyes but he opened them only to terrible objects and there was nothing in the world but what was odious and horrible to him Grief was too strong in his soul to produce common effects and it was not expressed by exclamations or terms death only which at the first presented it self to the despairing Prince and such a death as Thrasillus had formerly foretold seemed conformable to his thoughts and was received by him as his only remedy and as his only consolation He turned his eyes which already looked wildly and were bepainted with the colours of death towards Arsanes who stood by him melting into tears and stifling some sobs which would have hindred the passage of his speech Is Mariamne dead then said he and doth Tyridates stay one moment in the World after the loss of Mariamne Arsanes had not the assurance to give an answer to these words and Marcellus well considering that it was unjust and unprofitable to oppose the first motions of so lively and so just a grief kept the like silence and contented himself to stay by Tyridates whom during his trance they had laid upon the bed and to observe his actions for fear lest in the violence of his despair he might make some attempt upon his own life He made no sign of having any such design and perceiving that death approached of it self without being otherwise invited he attended it with a satisfaction which partly moderated his grief hardly any complaints issued out of his mouth he only uttered sometimes the name of Mariamne and continuing in a profound meditation upon his calamity he drew on as much as he could possible by these fatal thoughts the remedy which must re-unite him to his beloved Queen After an hours silence which had something in it more doleful than the most mournful cries and lamentations having called Arsanes to him Inform me said he to him what was the end of the Queen Mariamne tell me whether the Gods or Men advanced it and do not forget the particularities of it which are come to your knowledge Ah! Sir said Arsanes spare me if you please that displeasure and stay till your spirit be in another condition to hear a relation which without doubt will redouble your grief That stay will be unprofitable replyed Tyridates my resolution is already taken and the condition neither of my grief nor life can be changed by your discourse He uttered these few words with a very lamentable look and action and Arsanes having in vain alledged some excuses to be dispensed withall from this sad narration upon an absolute command disposed himself at last to obey him Tyridates prepared himself for it with an apparent constancy which caused admiration in Marcellus and
without doubt proposed a recompence to them which hath made them despise what they could expect from me and not fear that death which they affronted in betraying me It was not by a present of small price that thou hast corrupted those persons which had been always most faithful to me and Joseph who is one of the most eminent ranks in Judea as being my near ally and Sohemus whom by my bounty I had put into a condition not to aspire to Riches by so dangerous a Treason could not have been seduced by any Power inferior to thy beauty these are the charms which have gained them and thy favors only have made them contemn the dangers which might divert them from their Treason Herod pronounced these words with an impetuosity which sufficiently expressed the cruel agitation of his Soul and the Queen having hearkned to him with an admirable patience Say what thou wilt said she to him against a Person who is no longer in a condition to receive new offences either by this action or by thy discourse and God hath discovered to me the fatal orders which thou gavest against my life by other ways than thou imaginest and those whom thou suspectest to have revealed thy secret are not they by whom thy cruel intentions are made known unto me This is thy custome replyed Herod crying out more than before to excuse thy lovers in the bloody out-rages they do me and thou takest care of their love who never hadst any care of thy Husbands repose or thine own reputation Thou wouldst have rendred the like office to the perfidious Tyberius and those favours which thou hadst prodigally bestowed upon a Barbarous Prince are since communicated to my allies and descended to my Domestiques This is the high spirit this is that pride which hitherto hath made part of our divisions and the haughty blood of the Asmoneans which disdained a King her husband hath debased it self even to Sohemus In conclusion he gave her a thousand reproaches full of injuries against which the Queen did nor vouchsafe to justifie her self but looking upon him with more disdain than 〈◊〉 Thou may'st believe said she whatsoever thy rage can inspire thee with against me the outragious reproaches which thou layest upon me shew the baseness of thy soul and of thy birth and I scorn thee too much to take any care to defend my self against thy unworthy accusations Thy care would be but in vain replyed the Jewish King and thou mayst reserve thy justifications for the defence of a Life which I have spared but too long the time is come that I will mock at th◠scorn and thy infidelities shall be punished that love which hitherto hath guarded thee against my too just resentments shall no longer oppose it self against my justice and I have lost that fatal passion which created all my misfortunes since I have discovered amongst thy lovers the basest of my Domestiques they shall pay me part of the offences they had done me by their blood and torments shall draw such verities out of their mouths as shall make thy shame and perfidiousness appear to the world Having spoken these words to which the Queen had not time nor possibly any design to reply he called the Officers of the Guard and commanded them upon pain of death to conduct the Queen presently to the Prison to which they were wont to commit Persons of Quality The Queen submitted to this command with less repugnance than she had to come into his chamber and she followed the officers whither they would have her without speaking a word or changing countenance At the same time he sent other Officers to seize upon Joseph and Sohemus and though the former had married his Aunt and was of a considerable rank amongst the Jews yet he used him with no more gentleness than Sohemus but sent them both into several parts of the Prison He had hardly given these orders but the wicked Salome having learned by her spies whom she had ordinarily about him part of what he had passed came to see him in his Chamber where she found him in the violent agitations of rage and transport He no sooner saw her but coming to her with a disfigured countenance Sister said he I am very sorry that I did not follow your counsel long since and I had freed my self of those mortal displeasures which torment me if I had not suffered my self to be so much blinded with the love of this Woman which Heaven hath given me for the scourge and Plague of my Life 'T is not only upon Tyridates that this ungrateful Woman bestowes her affections she descends to Jews of a much inferior Birth than that Barbarian Prince and at last debases her self even to my Domestiques Salome made as if she were amazed at this discourse and by a mischievous and dangerous address whereby she gave more room and credit to her artifices she fainted at first as if she would have excused the Queen and not have given credit to so apparent accusations Herod who though prudent and subtile in all other things had incredible weaknesses in things of this nature fell into the snare which she laid him and opposing her seemingly officious humor with the testimonies which he believed he had of Mariamnes infidelity he related to her with a discourse full of vehemence and impetuosity what had passed at this last visit that she had rendred him he confessed to her that upon the knowledge he had of Anthonies amorous inclinations and the advice he had received that Gallus had carried the Pourtracture of Mariamne to that Prince to make him affect her at his departure to go to him at Laodicea he commandeth Joseph if he died in this Voyage to put Mariamne to death not being willing that she should survive him to enjoy with Anthony the fruit of a death which possibly she might have procured him and that upon the same consideration he had given the same order to Sohemus when he went to Rhodes to appear before Augustus but that he had commended the secret to them both in such a manner and had engaged them besides to the fidelity which they owed him by so many benefits that Mariamne could not have perverted them but by favours exceeding his and by proofs of affection which made them both despise the friendship of their King and death which they might infallibly expect for betraying him Salome shrank her shoulders at this discourse and feigning to be of the Kings mind against her will It is very difficult said she to guard ones self from the misfortune which it pleases Heaven to send us and principally in things so little foreseen and so far from appearance I never doubted but that Mariamne loved Tyridates but I should not have believed that she had fallen so low as Sohemus if in the discourse you have made me I did not see proofs sufficiently convincing Ah disloyal woman continued she after she had kept silence a while
longer nor constrain an Husband who loves thee too well to abandon thee to the rigours of Justice which will bring us both to our graves He pronounced these words with a very terrible gesture but the Queen was not affrighted at it but looking upon him with more disdain than before Neither thy threats said she nor thy caresses shall ever move me and thy threatnings are more dear to me than the protestations of thy love thou dost more naturally act this latter part than the former and there is no necessity for thee to constrain thy self for a person to whom the death which she expects from thy cruelty will be a thousand times more pleasing than all the proofs of thy affections Thou shalt dye then since 't is thy will cryed Herod full of fury and transport thou shalt dye Woman unworthy of the care I took of thy safety unworthy of my love and now devoted to the justice of a King and an Husband who hath been injured in the most sensible part I was too weak to interess my self in the conservation of thy life but now thou hast nothing to ground any hope of it upon but only thy justification and the evident proofs of thy innocence My friends continued he turning himself towards them to whom he had given Commission to be her Judges perform now your charge with all liberty and do not any longer look upon this woman as the spouse of Your King but as a woman which hath base and shamefully violated her duty to the Law of God her own honour and her Husbands love Having spoken these words he went out of the Chamber so terrible that he made all he met in his passage tremble for fear Only Mariamne seemed little moved at it and when the Judges according to Herod's last command would have examined her she did not vouchsafe to open her mouth but only to pray them to be gone and leave her in quiet Herod was no sooner returned to his lodgings but he was visited by Salome and Pheroras and he had no sooner told them that which he called the last effect of his weakness and the last proofs he had received of Mariamnes inflexibility but the revengeful Salome and Pheroras being interessed by the envy they had alwayes born to the authority of Mariamne after they had a long time blamed him for the action he had lately done as ill-beseeâ—ing his dignity and being contrary to all the laws of prudence they represented to him as vehemently as they could that he ought no longer to be negligent and that if he left so obstinate an enemy any longer in the World she would infallibly attempt against his life what she had already attempted and possibly executed against his honour Herod drunk with rage gave ear to them but too patiently and when he had understood that the Queen had refused to answer those who had the charge to examine her and that they were gone out of the prison without getting one word from her by the pernicious Counsel of Salome he commanded to put Sohemus and the Eunuch Philon to the torture with order to omit no kind of torment to draw out of their mouths a confession capable to condemn the Queen with some form of Justice Joseph in regard of his birth was not exposed to the rack but Herod in an hasty rage sent executioners that strangled him the same day in the prison though he were not convinced of any crime but of having revealed his Masters secret to Mariamne This sudden execution would have amazed the Jews if they had not been used to see such actions proceed from their King every day and if they had not known too well that death was familiar with him upon the least motion of his passions Alexander moved at the misfortune of her Daughter as in all likelihood she ought to be used all means for justification but she had not Herod's ear which her enemies had possessed and by all the power she had over her Daughter she could never oblige her to take any care to verifie her innocence or to be reconciled to her Husband All the world believed that it had been but willing to have endeavoured it and as resolute as she was not to seek the friendship of this cruel man he would never possibly have consented to her death if the things which happened afterwards had not cruelly contributed unto it I am very unwilling Sir pursued Arsanes looking pitifully upon Tyridates to let you know the part you have in the death of this great Princess and if I could without disobeying you and without varying from the truth which you will understand from other mouths I would spare you the displeasure you may receive from thence Make an end said Tyridates with a deadly look my grief is not in a condition to receive any augmentation by the particularities of thy discourse and since Mariamne is gone out of the World the ways whereby she went cannot at all change my condition I will tell you then since it is your pleasure pursued Arsanes that before they put Sohemus and Eunuch Philon to the torment Salome gave express order to those who had the charge of the business to examine them and press them by torments upon what had passed betwixt the Queen and Prince Tyridates believing that if she could represent that a little to Herod 's memory she should carry him to any thing she would desire Her orders were punctually executed and the two men were fearfully tormented but whatsoever they made Sohemus suffer to make him reveal the favours which they pretended he had received of the Queen whereby he had been obliged to betray his Master's secret they could not draw one word out of his mouth but what tended to the glory and advantage of Mariamne He confessed that out of weakness or out of compassion which he had of the miseries of that Princess he had permitted himself so far as to discover to her the cruel orders which Herod had given him and that he never intended to put them in execution but when they questioned him concerning his or Joseph's love to the Queen he denyed it to them with so much constancy and answered them with so much candor and resolution that they easily judged both the Queen and himself to be innocent by his answers The Eunuch though inferior to him in strength of body and courage endured the first torments with resolution enough and having nothing to say of the Queen to this purpose but what served for her justification he kept to the naked truth whatsoever pains they made him suffer but at last being examined upon what had pass'd between the Queen and Tyridates and the torments being renewed with more cruelty than before upon the solicitation of Salome he was not able any longer to resist them but said to those which tormented him that if they would give him a little respite he would declare all he knew concerning that business The torments
after a great deal of pains taken with him Tyridates opened his eyes which he turned every way in such a manner as caused those that stood about him to judge sadly of it Marcellus called him by his name divers times and seeing that he did not answer him but with dying looks Tyridates said he to him will you not call to mind that you are a man and more than that that you are a man of courage Afflictions may touch you but they should not make you lose either your knowledge or your reason Tyridates made no reply to these words of Marcellus but only after he had tumbled a few turns upon the bed like a person full of agony opening his mouth to give passage to a voice interrupted with sobs O Mariamne said he you are dead and more than that 't is Tyridates who hath hastened your death this was it that remained to conclude his deplorable destiny with an end conformable to the beginnings of his calamities and it was not aggravation enough to the last misfortunes of Tyridates that Mariamne should die but that Mariamne should die for Tyridates his fault I have brought you to your Grave O Queen whom I have so religiously adored and I have not a life precious enough to sacrifice to your memory in change for yours He sâ—opt at these words and recollected himself to receive the favourable death which he desired and whereof he already felt the approaches whilst Marcellus endeavoured to divert his grief Tyridates had no more ears for his discourse nor eyes for the objects which presented themselves before him nor thoughts for things of this world Never possibly did Love produce a more excellent and more marvellous effect than it wrought in this Prince and by the means of his love alone his grief served him in stead of a Sword Poyson Precipices and without requiring any external help death which was desired by him and is to be wished for by unfortunate Men like him offered it self to his assistance and presented it self to him at a time when he received it with a joy which in appearance could have no residence in his soul He perceived the approach of it and took notice of it and giving it entertainment worthy of the good office it did him O death said he with a lower and more feeble voice than ordinary O death how willingly do I receive thee and though I ought possibly to refuse thy help at a time when some remainder of life is necessary to me to tear out the soul of Mariamne's Executioner with mine own hands yet how dear is thy succour and thy coming favourable to me O Mariamne continued he a little after receive this soul which I render you as the only reparation I can make you for having contributed to your death It takes its flight towards you unworthy as it is to present its self before you and in what condition soever you be the purity of yours will never be offended by the last gift I make you of it These were the last words he spake and a little after grief giving its last assaults seized upon his heart in such a manner that that part which lives first and dies last was not capable of sustaining the functions necessary for the conservation of life He only looked a farewell to Marcellus and Arsanes and a little after his eyes were covered with darkness his speech failed him and all his strength having totally forsaken him he remained cold and pale between Arsanes his arms not in a swoon like those whereinto he had formerly fallen but really dead a death which being neither violent nor natural but participating of both did punctually accomplish Thrasillus his prediction a death which freed him for ever from the more tedious and cruel deaths which he had incessantly found in the memory of Mariamne Happy Man in his destiny that he did not survive the person for whom he had only lived and glorious in his end for having given in his death so brave an example of the most pure and real passion that ever any soul was enflamed withall The End of the Fifth Part. HYMEN'S PRAELUDIA OR Love's Master-Piece PART VI. LIB I. ARGUMENT Cornelius Gallus Pretor of Egypt is deeply taken with Candace's Beauty He taketh an opportunity to discover his affection which she receives with much inward trouble and outward coldness The coming of Elisa breaks off their discourse Elisa acquaints Candace with her dream and she gives her her thoughts upon it Walking together in the Garden of the Palace they over-hear the complaints of a fair Slave that attended upon Elisa Their curiosity prompts them to a farther discovery and upon their request she relates the story of her life She speaks her name Olympia and her self Daughter to Adallas King of Thrace Her own Brother falls in love with her and discovers his incestuous desires which she entertains with horror and amazement She opposes his passion with all the strength of Vertue and Reason but in vain She acquaints her Father with it who sharply reproves him and resolves to dispose of her but is prevented by death The young Adallas succeeding in the Kingdom armed his solicitations with authority and threatens to compel his Sister to marry him She with a small retinue flies from Byzantium WHilst Love produced these sad effects at the gates of Alexandria his powers were no less imployed in the City and the ancient Palace of the Ptolomies that Tyrant God found in the two Princesses which Fortune had committed to the care and custody of the Pretor of Egypt a fit subject to exercise himself upon These two admirable Persons from the very first day of their acquaintance had contracted such an amity as had left nothing reserved in their souls and if by the charming conservation of the Queen of Ethiopia the fair Princess of the Parthians could not repress that smarting grief which the loss of her brave but unfortunate Artaban had rendred master of her heart yet 't was certain that in the sweetness which she found in the affection which she had conceived for so extraordinary a person as Candace was she relished some sort of consolation and gave place too to some shadow of hope induced thereto by the discourse which the fair Queen made her of the marvellous events of Fortune and the appearances which might in some sort flatter her with a belief of Artaban's safety Candace's cares though not slight ones were yet more moderate than Elisa's sadness and the remembrance which was fresh in her mind that she had seen her dear Caesario a few dayes before dissipated the greatest part of her grief and she was a thousand times more satisfied to see her beloved Prince escaped from the dangers wherein she had left him at her departure from Meroe than she could be afflicted at the loss of her Dominions or with the other effects of her misfortune which would have produced greater resentments in any other spirit but
name of a King by reason of the injustice which thou beginnest to practise against persons who ought to be least subject to it Nâ— Barbarian thou art not yet absolute enough in thy Dominions to extend thy authority over spirits and such a Spirit as Olympia 's I am not ignorant of the wayes to escape oppression and to defend that which thou assaultest I will arm my self with a courage which possibly thou didst not think to have found in a young Princess and the Sister of a man so little conformable to but disposition In this manner I bemoaned my self and deplored my misfortune night and day with a flood of tears But all in vain the Barbarous man was not moved at them and the repugnance I expressed to Marry him augmented his desire and seemed to redouble his passion I spent divers months in this manner during which time he saw me every day and tormented me perpetually Sometimes he intreated me and when by his design he fell to threatning and protested to me that he was resolved to make use of his authority without any longer delay A few moments after he grew milder seeing some tears fall from my eyes his love having given me some power over his Spirit There is no necessity that I should detain you any longer upon this accompt when he saw that all his flatteries were to no purpose and that he was past hope of making me consent to his desires he resolved in good earnest to put his threats in execution and commanded me with a terrible countenance to dispose my self to marry him within eight dayes without any longer delay I wept but to no end I threw my self at his feet but in vain after that cruel command all this was not able to move him but he protested to me before the chiefest persons of his Court that since I abused the indulgence he had for me in this manner nothing could hinder him from making tryal whether he was King in his Dominions or not I passed the eight days he had given me in the saddest imployments in the world and when I gave any intermission to my regrets 't was but to invent some means to save my self from his tyranny I was fully resolved if all other ways failed me to imbrace death rather than to consent to an action upon which I could not cast a thought without horror but I was minded first to try whether I could preserve my self from my misfortune by flight I knew well that I could not find any sanctuary in my Brothers Dominions against his power but I verily believed that if I could escape out of the places under his command and be so happy as to get as far as Cilicia I should find a retreating place there with the King who was Brother to the deceased Queen our Mother and probably though my Brother was near to him in the same degree would not desert me in so just a cause There was some uncertainty in the success of this enterprise there was danger to run and trouble to support and difficulty to save my self But yet this seemed to me more sweet than death and finding no other way at all but death or flight I preferred flight before death out of a fearfulness incident to my sex and age Before I had well taken this resolution the time he had given me was almost expired and I had not put those things in order which were necessary for the execution of my enterprise At last when I was fully resolved upon the design I shewed the King a little better countenance than I had done before and having seen him in my Chamber the seventh day of the eight which he had given me after I had again made trial of prayers and tears which wrought as little effect as before feigning that I suffered my self a little to be overcome and fixing my eyes upon his with a kinder action than ordinary I see well Sir said I that I do resist Your will in vain and am too weak to oppose the power of a great King in his Dominions I confess I find a great repugnance in my nature as to the thing you desire of me which hitherto I have not been able to overcome but at last I must resolve after I have made all possible resistance against an absolute authority and all that is necessary to justifie my self from an action to which you constrain me I desire eight days longer of you which I will imploy to surmount the difficulties which yet remain as impediments to an ultimate resolution and after that time Sir I promise you you shall find in me no contradiction of your desires The King was transported with joy at this discourse and expressed an excessive deal of contentment in his countenance and in his words he easily granted me the eight days I desired and protested to me that I should be the most happy Princess upon the earth with a Husband who would adore me whilst he breathed I confirmed the promise I had made to him with a very sad countenance for fear he should discover my policy by too quickly a change After I had begun to put my affairs thus in order I desired to lose no more time knowing well that which I had gotten was necessary to make preparation for my departure but then it was that I saw my self reduced to no small trouble For though I had divers persons in my service that were very affectionate to me yet I doubted whether I should find any bold enough to oppose the King in serving me upon this occasion and to expose themselves to ruine as they would apparently do by favouring me and accompanying me in my flight I feared likewise that those to whom I should discover my self would betray me and by discovering my design to the King deprive me of the means of putting it in execution This fear kept me one day in a strange perplexity but at last I was resolved to put it to the venture and I cast my eyes upon Eurilus the most ancient of my servants and Husband to a Lady that was my Governess I had observed in him by divers marks a great affection to me and I believed that I might better confide in him than in all the World beside I sent for him into my Closet and having represented the sadness of my condition which was not unknown to him I acquainted him with my design and the desire I had to thrust my life and whatsoever was more precious to me upon his affection and conduct Eurilus was amazed at my bold resolution and represented to me the difficulties and the dangers of it but seeing that all things relished better with my spirit than the violence that would have been done me he declared to me that he thought himself highly honoured by the confidence I reposed in him and that he would willingly embrace the occasion of hazarding all yea and of dying too for my service After this he named me the persons
augmented by this Relation Why should I detain you any longer upon this passage I consented before we parted from that place that he should love and serve me and I permitted him to hope either for those few dayes which in probability were left us or for a longer time if Heaven should please to give it us that I would do all that my Duty could handsomly permit me to do to express my acknowledgement and esteem to him He seemed to be contented with this hope which I gave him and ever since that moment he continued to serve me with so many marks of real Love so much discretion and respect and so much grace in all his actions that I still found more fuel to encrease my flame And yet he lived so with me before the persons of my Retinue that no body could find any ground to suspect his real thoughts only Ericia who was acquainted with mine too had knowledge of them I confess at last by his admirable parts and handsome way of carriage towards me he perfected the Conquest of my heart so that at last I was constrained to avow to him without dissimulation that I loved him as much as I was permitted to love him and to promise him that I would do all that my Duty would suffer me to do never to have any other Husband but himself I could make him this promise with so much the more liberty because I had neither Father nor Mother living by whose will mine ought to have been regulated and the obedience which after their death was due to the King my Brother seemed to me to be perfectly extinguished by his intentions which were so unconformable to that degree of Proximity which might have given him that Command over me In fine my fair Princesses If there was too much facility in this engagement of my Soul I will not study to excuse it and though possibly I might find some part of an excuse in the extraordinary merit of Ariobarzanes yet I will not make use of it to secure my self from the blame which you may lay upon me for my weakness This union of our spirits which was so well formed would have given us mutual satisfaction if the fear of approaching death had not cruelly crossed it and as I perceived that the fear which Ariobarzanes was in for me was the ground of all his grief and the cause of all his complaints so I confess that I loved him so well already that my regret was no less upon the consideration of his loss than for my own He did all that possibly he could to dissemble part of his affliction before me and he flattered me every day with some hope of succour but when he came to consider that in all probablity I had but a few dayes to live all his Constancy was dissipated and his great Courage could not hinder him from shewing all the marks of sensibility 'T is certain too that in this Adventure the weakness of my Sex did not hinder me from expressing as much Resolution as he and I was often reduced to give him comfort of which by little and little he rendred himself uncapable Ah Madam said he to me one day How different are the Subjects of our grief And how much greater ought my regret to be than yours there being such an inequality between the losses we are like to suffer You are in danger of losing a life which as precious as it is hath not been hither to over-dear unto you but with my life I lose the fairest Hopes and the most glorious Fortune that ever any man aspired to As he spake these words he removed his eyes from off my face to fix them upon the ground and I saw them at the same time so overflown with tears that I was extraordinarily moved at them Ariobarzanes said I to him I would have you conform your self to the will of the gods who can succour us still and possibly will do it if we have merited their assistance if they have determined the end of our dayes we must submit to it without repugnance and I desire you that you would not let the grief which you apprehend for my loss make you excced the limits which your Courage ought to prescribe to it Ah! Madam replied the afflicted Prince How highly is your Resolution to be commended but as much Constancy as you have received from Heaven how hard would it be for you to make use of it if the loss of Ariobarzanes were to you as the loss of the Princess Olympia is to Ariobarzanes Do not doubt said I but that I shall be as sensible of the loss of Ariobarzanes as you can desire But I shall support it more patiently because it must be accompanied and probably preceded by mine than if I should continue in the World in the regret which that might cause me Alas cryed he suddenly Can it be possible that within a few dayes I should see these fair eyes closed up by death Having uttered these few words he continued by me like one half dead and what endeavour soever I used to reduce him to a better condition it was impossible for me to get any thing else from him but sighs intermingled with sobs and looks cast up towards Heaven We were oftentimes in a day upon this sorrowful Conversation but our affliction was much augmented with our fear when all our provisions were quite spent and we had nothing at all to keep us alive but a little Fish which our people took with a great deal of difficulty and it was so little that there was not enough for half the persons there were of us and that little being seasoned with nothing that might give it any relish you may judge how long our dayes were like to continue with nothing but that nourishment and a little water As I did not take the same care of all the persons that were with me as I did of my self so there were some that were more sensible of our misery than I. My Governess was the first who being enfeebled with Age and but of a weak Complexion beside yielded to our misery and after two dayes sickness only breathed her last in my presence I received this loss with all the sorrow I was capable of in the condition whereunto I saw my self reduced and looking upon her whil'st she exspired with my face overflown with tears Adieu Mother said I I shall shortly bear you Company and were it not for that belief your loss a loss which I have been the cause of would not be supportable The good Eurilas her Husband being cast down with grief for the death of his Wife and enfeebled by our miserable manner of life survived her but two dayes and left me deprived of his Conduct and the comfort I received from him in respect of his Age his Prudence and the Affection he had to my interests Then it was that I looked death in the face as the approaching end of our miseries
unknown is this possible that you tell me and shall I be so happy as to be able to render you part of that which you have bestowed upon me Upon these words Ariobarzanes briefly acquainted him with the Shipwrack we had suffered the condition we were in for want of provisions and a Vessel to carry us off and the expection of our certain death if his Arrival had been deferred but a few dayes longer he made him this Discourse without telling him either his own name or mine being resolved not to discover himself before he knew my pleasure and the stranger without asking him any thing at that time more than he desired to tell him expressing an extraordinary joy in his look I praise the gods said he for the good Fortune they send me beyond my hopes and I protest before them that I will make such use of that no body shall ever possibly accuse me of ingratitude I will not only carry you and the persons which are with you out of this place but if the absolute Command which I offer you in those places where I can claim it cannot cause you to stay there I will cause you to be conducted to any part of the World whether you would retire and in all respects I will expres the acknowledgment which is due to the miraculous preserver of my life having spoken these words he would have gone along with Ariobarzanes to look for those persons which he had signified to him to be so considerable but Ariobarzanes seeing that he was weak and lost blood prayed him to retire into his Vessel to cause his wounds to be bound up supposing that it might be more commodiously done there than in the little Island where we were not provided of any thing necessary for that purpose whil'st he went to seek us to conduct us into his Vessel The unknown gave way to Ariobarzanes's will and some of his men being gone to put the Skiff into the water he passed into his Vessel with his men whil'st the joyful Ariobarzanes came back to us to acquaint us with his good fortune and ours You need not doubt but that the fear which I had during the Combat was succeeded by an excessive joy when I perceived the success of it and that from the place where I was I could observe that it suited with my desires though I was not without some trouble for fear Ariobarzanes might have received some hurt I saw that the Commander of those men whom he had assisted being followed by all his Company came to him and though I did not hear their Discourse yet I conceived and partly knew by their action that it expressed their thankfulness I had two causes of joy at the same time almostequally great the one to see Ariobarzanes escaped from that great danger with so much glory after he had performed such actions as made me know him to be one of the most valiant men in the World and the other to see our selves probably upon the point of being freed from the danger of death which had so long threatned us and from which we had so little hope to escape I began for all that to wonder when I saw all the men go away and reconduct their Captain to the Vessel without taking us with them and I apprehended that all was not well when I saw Ariobarzanes come to us His Cloaths in some places were covered with the blood of his Enemies and the heat of the Combat had overspread his Cheeks with a colour which made him look more handsome than ordinary I did not know what to expect from him when by the chearfulness of his countenance I guessed he had no bad News to tell us he expressed as much in coming to us throwing himself at my knees with Transports full of violence Madam said he to me you shall not dye and 't is not without reason that I alwayes hoped for particular assistances from Heaven for you I will not render you continued he with tears of joy the Office for which you designed me and it shall not be in this Island that you shall recieve from Ariobarzanes the Duties of a Burial He used many more expressions of joy and transport but in all the actions which were occasioned by his joy he made it alwayes sufficiently appear that his contentments were much greater for my safety than for his own my satisfaction was not inferiour to his and believing that it was unnessary to dissemble it before him and Ericia Ariobarzanes said I I rejoyce as I ought to do to see escaped out of so great a danger with so much glory and I am sensible as you may very well judge me to be of the happiness we have in being rescued from the death which we expected I look upon both occasions of joy with little difference and you ought not to believe that I am less contented to see Ariobarzanes Conqueror in so gallant a Combat than to vnderstand that we are upon the point of getting off from a place where we believed we should lay our Bones I was too favourable in my expressions without doubt if you censure them with any Rigour and Ariobarzanes's joy was so augmented by them that it would have broken out into excess if he had not taken notice of the coming of those few persons that were still left of my Retinue who upon the report of that great Combat which one of them had related to his Companions came all about me to receive my Commands I ordered them to go and fetch those things of ours which were worth the carrying and the gods know away they ran with excessive contentment and were no long time returning these poor people being quite transported to see themselves almost miraculously delivered from a death which they believed to be inevitable did such things as sufficiently signified the disorder which joy had occasioned in their Souls and this spectacle did so move me to tenderness that I could not hinder my self from shedding tears after their example In the mean time we enquired of Prince Ariobarzanes if he was not wounded and after he had retired aside to search himself he told us he had a little hurt upon his left Arm and the skin of his body a little razed in two or three places I praised the gods for this good Fortune and when our little Company was come together we marched towards the shoar where we found the Skiffe which waited for us to conduct us into the Vessel We passed into it thanking Heaven for our Fortune and though I looked upon the Rocky Island which we left behind us as upon a place where a few moments before I thought to have found my Grave and where I had lost some persons whose remembrance did very sensibly afflict me yet I confess I could not hate it when I remembred that it had bestowed Ariobarzanes upon me and the Prince as he hath told me since looked upon it with tenderness when he
remembred that within its little compass a passion had received its birth which caused all the care and engagement of his life As we entred into the Vessel Ariobarzanes who led me understood that the Master of the Vessel and of the persons that were in it was in his Cabin with the Principal of his Retinue where he had already caused his wounds to be dressed and waited with great impatience to see the valiant Defender of his life again We went immediately thither without staying amongst the rest of the persons but as soon as the door was open the first man that met us had no sooner cast his eyes upon my face but stepping backwards all amazed O gods cryed he This is the Princess Olympia At the name of Olympia his Master who lay upon his Bed though much incommodated with his wounds raising himself up and turning his head toward me repeating the name of Olympia made me see that which I avoided with the hazard of my life and that was the face of the King my Brother Imagine my Princesses the greatness of my astonishment or rather fancy to your selves the greatest that ever any Soul was surprized with and you will conceive a part of mine At the sight of this face which was so terrible to me I was suddenly blasted my Visage grew pale my Tongue was immoveable I trembled all over and wanted but little of losing all sence and understanding The most hideous thing that I saw upon the waters when we were exposed to their fury and the most cruel thing that I imagined in the approaches of that death which I had lately escaped was nothing so dreadful to me as this Encounter and I wished divers time in that moment rather to be exposed again to the fury of the waves and the merciless famine than to have been in Adallas's presence but I was not alone in my surprize never was there a more general astonishment in any Company and if mine was easie to be observed in my countenance Adallas's was no less depencilled out in his and Ariobarzanes's was as great as either Adallas looked upon me with a variety of passions which he could not express and he looked upon Ariobarzanes with an emotion which was legible in his eyes and the troubledness of his countenance I looked upon Adallas not only as my Persecutor whom I had fled from by Sea at the mercy of so many dangers but being sensible of some small reproach or at least some accusation because of Ariobarzanes's presence and the affection I bare him I looked upon Adallas as my Judge with so much fear that I durst hardly fix my eyes upon his face and I had not so much confidence as to look upon Ariobarzanes and Ariobarzanes who by what he saw did already comprehend the Truth looked upon Adallas not as my Brother but as my Lover and as his Rival and cruel Enemy and out of the fear he had to displease me and the part he took in my confusion he durst not raise his eyes up to my face All these looks proceeding from so many different passions were accompanied with an equal silence throughout the whole Cabin and all the persons which were there discoursed with their eyes instead of their tongues in an amazement whereof they all participated and as they were all persons interessed either in Adalla's thoughts or mine they all waited with fear or uncertainty for the end of this silence and the event of this interview Ariobarzanes had no opportunity to speak first I had not the confidence to do it and 't was Adallas at last that brake the silence which had been so long observed Yet he continued a good while considering which of all his passions should put the first words into his mouth and as to my misfortune his love was the most prevalent so that was the first that desired to make it self appear and express some marks of his joy for my recovery rather than of his displeasure for my flight or of his growing jealousie at the meeting of Ariobarzanes O gods cryed he Do you then restore me back Olympia whom I despaired of seeing any more and in the Arms of death which I beleived to be inevitable do you cause me to find Olympia He made a stop at these first words to observe by my eyes how I had received them but seeing me cast them down without replying with an action which sufficiently confirmed him in the knowledge he might have of my displeasure I see very well Olympia replied he I see very well that you are still Olympia that is that cruel and pitiless Princess whim I have not been able to mollifie by all the effects of my passion that implacable Enemy that flies me throughout the World as a Monster that to avoid me casts her self into the most dreadful dangers and at present is more afflicted with meeting of me than she was without doubt with the fear of that death which she had present before her Eyes when Fortune conducted me to her assistance In the time he was speaking these few words having recovered some Courage and looking upon him with more confidence than before Yes Sir said I to him I am as much afflicted at the meeting of you as I should be comforted if I found you such as you should be towards a Sister The gods know that if you had recovered your rational thoughts or had never fallen into those which cause so much horrour in me I should have been so far from throwing my self into danger to avoid you as a Monster that I should have exposed my self to all manner of sufferings rather than have seperated my self from the presence the friendship of my Brother but to avoid those detestable persecutions which have made me despise and hate my life all that hitherto either tempest or famine could threaten seems so light to me that to escape a lesser mischief I should willingly throw my self into far more manifest dangers Those very dangers replied Adallas by which you prove to me the greatness of your hatred do equally declare to you the greatness of my love and if to avoid me you exposed your self to the fury of the inconstant Seas and to other miseries by which possibly the gods had a mind to punish your cruelty to seek you I have not only thrown my self upon the same Sea and into those cruel Adventures wherein you saw me to day and by which I am reduced to this condition wherein you see me now but together with my person I hazard a whole Kingdom which I abandoned for love of you and left to run after you upon the point it may be of a greater Revolution But Olympia continued he raising his voice and delivering himself with a more terrible accent I need not seek any longer for the last causes of your flight your hatred was not the only ground of it and love without doubt had a share in it I had good reason to doubt that
in the hands of the gods and that he ought not to dispose so confidently of that which he will do after the Victory and yet his threatings shall not hinder me from praying to the gods for the prosperity of his Arms and the interest of my Countrey but let him consider more than twice what will be the event of the design which he hath against Ariamenes 's life and let him expect if he treats him ill to draw upon himself a greater and more puissant Enemy than Merodates is I will not trouble you with the Relation of my fears and inquietudes but to abridge this Narration I will pass to Adallas's Camp and will tell you that the King my Brother seeing his Forces augmented and those of his Enemy weakned thought himself strong enough to give him Battel and his passion depriving him in part of his ordinary rationality and hindring him from foreseeing all the consequences that might happen thereupon he dared Merodates to an Encounter and marched out of his Camp to advance towards him Merodates being a very valiant and well experienced Captain and who might with less hazzard give Battel in his Enemies Countrey than if he had been in his own joyfully accepted of it and marched to meet Adallas in the best order that can be imagined I will not entertain you either with the preparations or the particulars of that dayes Action having too little skill in War to be able to give you a pertinent Account I will only tell you that after both Princes had provided on either side whatsoever they thought necessary for their advantage they gave Battel The Engagement was cruel and doubtful the Commanders and Souldiers did wonders and disputed the advantage with the effusion of a great deal of blood and the death of divers thousands of men But at last the same Fortune which had accompanied Merodates in the two former Battels attended him likewise in the third and about the end of the day our Troops turning their backs abandoned the Victory to him and the liberty of their King Who scorning to owe his safety to a base flight and fighting with a great deal of Valor was thrown to the ground and taken Prisoner with divers of his Souldiers who were resolved to be Companions of his destiny Behold the success of the proud and insolent Propositions of men and behold this ingrateful and audacious Prince who a few hours before hasting as he thought to a Victory only to go and sheath his Sword in the bosome of his Benefactor saw himself the same day a Prisoner to his Enemy and to such an Enemy who to confirm his Conquest which was but ill-assured so long as the lawful King of Thrace was living was very likely to make use of the same designs against him which he had against Ariamenes and might do it with so much the more Justice because that in putting him to death he should only destroy an Enemy whom a Conqueror could not in policy permit to live and not the Deliverer and Defender of his State and life I do not doubt but that the unfortunate Adallas made these reflections in his imprisonment and was cruelly tormented with Sorrow Fear and Repentance Yet Merodates treated him very civilly and though the greatest Polititians about him counselled him to send him out of the World as soon as might be and represented to him that after his death he need not feare any opposition in Thrace where otherwise he could never hope to be quiet as long as Adallas was living yet he was not forward to frame any such resolution but believed that the death of a great King was not of so small a consequence to be so suddenly and so easily resolved upon Besides in gaining the Victory he had lost almost as many men as we and his Forces not being in a condition to make a hot pursuit gave time to ours to retire under the conduct of some of their Commanders who led them back towards Bizantium in good order This consideration making Merodates judge that as yet he was not absolute Master of Thrace especially as long as Ariamenes whose Valor he was too well acquainted with and whose confinement he had heard of was in the service of his Enemy hindred him from determining what to do with him and contented himself at present to keep him in secure Custody causing him to be served like a Prince in his condition He had the curiosity to see him the same day that he was taken and though in other things he carried himself very modestly towards him yet he could not forbear to tell him That the gods had punished him for two Crimes wherewith his Reputation was very much blemished in the eye of the world which were his unjust and irrational love to his Sister and his ingratitude towards his Benefactor and to these words added he You were much to blame to deprive your self in a time of necessity of such an assistance as you had received from the Valor of Ariamenes had it not been for him I had been long since Master of Thrace and if he had commanded your Troops this day I durst not have promised my self that I should have been Victorious The King being full of grief and confusion gave no Answer to Merodates's words wherein he knew there was a great deal of Justice and Truth and Merodates not desiring to make any insolent use of his Fortune did not importune him any farther In the mean time my fair Princesses you may partly conjecture what my thoughts were when this News was brought to Bizantium and how my Soul was divided between the passions which assaulted it 'T is certain that I was sorry to hear of the defeat of our men the loss of a Kingdom which in all probability was upon the brink of ruine and the Captivity of a Prince who though he had not those intentions for me which he ought was nevertheless my Brother and my King The gods are my witnesses that I was very much afflicted at his misfortune and ours but they will pardon me and you too my princesses if I confess to you That the repugnance which I had against Adallas's love the resentment wherein I did very much interesâ— my self of his ingratitude to Ariamenes and theâ— sear I was in for Ariobarzanes's life did so suspend the judgment I should have made of my Fortune that certainly I did not bestow all the tears I should have done upon the calamity of our Family and which at another time without doubt I should have shed I could not think with my self that the King my Brother was a Prisoner to his Enemies and in great danger of his life that the Affairs of the Kingdome were in an undone condition and that we were in all probability upon the point of seeing our selves exposed to the miseries of Tyranny and Captivity without being sensible of a great deal of displeasure But upon the other side I could not conceive that I was
depart with the pitiful circumstances that accompanied it but the sad Princess felt her self struck as with a Clap of Thunder How said she to Leander Is not thy Master in Tenasia And you may add Madam replied he Is he any longer in the World being unable to imagine he departed from Tenasia upon any other design than that of dying To these words he added many more which had almost lodg'd death in the heart of this afflicted Princess who learning with what despair he departed yet also with how much resignation and respect to her command she became the Subject of grief fear and repentance She mightily indeavoured to shadow part of her passions from Leander and believing that after this Adventure Alcimedon would have less care to disguize himself she asked Leander whether he knew the true condition of his Master I never knew it replied he nor desired to learn since it was his will I should be ignorant and as all things declare the greatness of his birth so the magnificence of a Present he made me ere he went confirms me in the opinion of the grandure of his Fortune whereupon he shewed the Ring Alcimedon gave him and Menalippa with Belisa having beheld it both judged that such a Present could not come but from a great Prince after several Discourses which the Princess with great agitation made Leander said she I do not think that in that little time since your Master departed he can be far from hence go therefore and follow him with all possible speed and if you become so happy as to overtake him give him from me a Letter which I am going to write I should be sorry that Dacia should lose so valiant a man and one from whom we have had so many obligations if it lyethin my power to call him back do what you can to find him but if you succeed not happily return to give me an account and stay in my Service since it is the desire of your Master being the least acknowledgement we can render for those Services he hath done us She sealed these words with a gift and obliged him instantly to take Horse and follow upon the Tract of his Master having given him a Letter which she writ in his absence After Leander was gone Menalippa commanded that Visitants should know she was indisposed that she might remain peaceably in her mournful solitude and desiring the Queen also to leave her this day free she consumed it wholly in tears and laments wherewith she celebrated the sad departure of Alcamenes it would be difficult great Princesses to relate all the complaints she made on the lightness of her belief and the promptness of her anger But if in these first dayes whil'st there remained any hope of the return of Alcimedon by Leanders diligence she afflicted her self moderately her grief became excessive when after a Months search she saw the afflicted Esquire return without any News of his Master All that a sensible grief could produce in a Soul capable of the most violent passions like that of Menalippa tormented hers with most violent assaults and had not the discreet Princess imputed the cause of her sadness to her indisposition whereinto her grief had really cast her she had been discovered to the Queen and Court of Dacia where though she was the most afflicted for the departure of Alcimedon yet was she not singular in her resentments the Queen who beside an inclination she had to for his vertue having lost so valiant a man and on whom she had founded so much hope became unspeakably sorrowful at the News of his departure Barzanes who loved him as his Son and who saw the hopes he had entertained of his alliance vanish could receive no consolation All were at a loss in guessing the cause what care soever they took to discover it only their griefs were seconded by the general sorrow of all Dacia for the loss of so valiant a man The Queen understanding that the Forces of her Allies were on their march prepared her self for the Scythian Voyage and mounted those Troops she had long since designed for that Expedition and found a way to encrease her power by an addition of that of the Sarmates and Nomades whose Kings were by the Valor of Alcimedon still in her Prisons these two Princes sent her word that if she would restore them their liberty they would serve her with all the Force of their States in the Scythian War The Queen by the advice of her Council hearkned to these Propositions and a little after having generously freed them they left Tenasia and marched with diligence towards their Kingdoms where they had Troops ready for the Field and in a condition to march so soon as any of the rest who had been so long a preparing before them At last to abride my Discourse Merodates entred Dacia with Four thousand Horse and Eight thousand Foot and Orosmenes with Six thousand Horse but no Infantry and at the same time the Queen understood that the Prince of Bithinia with Three thousand Horse and Twelve thousand Foot and the Prince of Pont with Fourteen thousand Foot and Two thousand Horse would be in a few dayes at the Rendevouz appointed Amalthea raised in Dacia and amongst the Getes and Gelons her Subjects more than Eight thousand Horse and Five and twenty thousand Foot scarce were they ready when in execution of their promises Pharnaces King of the Sarmates and Orchomenes King of the Nomades appeared the first with Three thousand Horse and Seven thousand Foot the latter with Two thousand Horse and Eight thousand Foot This numerous Army composed of more than Eight and twenty thousand Horse and Sixty five thousand Foot and commanded by many valiant Kings and Princes had probability enough of overpowring Scythia or any other Countrey it should fall into and the Queen Amalthea could not see her self at the Head of such an Army without giving absolute credit to the Oracles which promised the Crown of Scythia to Menalippa She committed the charge of the Dacians Getes and Gelons to the Prince Barzanes which made the greatest one part of the Army and she could not have given them a more valiant or experienced Chief but she sighed for grief not to see Alcimedon on her side fancing her Troops unvincible had this great person fought at their Head But if the absence of Alcimedon afflicted the Queen and Barzanes it incomparably more tormented the inconsolable Menalippa but for Merodates Euardes Phrataphernes and the other Rival Princes it became a Subject of rejoycing to them and particularly the disloyal Orchomenes Prince of the Nomades in whom injuries had made an impression against his Conqueror more than all his civilities during his Captivity resolving to indeavour his destruction by all wayes possible without any consideration of honour or the rank of Prince which he held Over this numerous Army composed of so many different Nations and commanded by so many Princes there wanted a
already acquainted you with Are you so much in love with my grief as to be delighted with the unhappy demonstrations I give you of it Or would you have me out of a reflection upon so many acknowledgements as I have made of my unhappiness weaknesse and cowardice to dye for shame and confusion before you If it must be so my dearest Emilia I am content and since you are and ever shall be while I have a minute to breathe the onely person to whom I shall discover my misfortune I am willing my most secret imaginations should passe out of my heart into yours and wish you may be moved with pitty for the misery which my inflexible destiny hath forced me into I say my destiny Emilia for it is that onely that I can justly charge with all the misfortunes I am fallen into Do not imagine it any effect of the celestial vengeance upon me for the rigour I expressed towars Julius Antonius Though I have contribted very much to his absence and am charged as the occasion of it yet have I not been troubled with the least remorse for any deportments of mine towards him Being Cicero 's Daughter I could not upon the first addresses of his affection to me be obliged to entertain any such thing from him and reflecting on the death of Cecinna whom being to be my Husband within three daies he killed in my sight upon my account I was certainly dispensed from whatever the expressions of his love might require of me in his favour And yet the powers of Heaven are my Witnesses that I never hated him that I never wished him any ill fortune that I have acknowledged his great worth and that I do at this day confess notwithstanding my present sentiments that he is as great as to point of merit and as amiable as to his person as Ptolomey is himself So that there is no ground to imagine that the gods should inslict all this as a punishment of my cruelty but that it proceeds meerly from my destiny which in this emergency acts against me as it hath done through all the misfortunes that have happened to our house But my dearest Tullia replied Emilia since you would not be flattered in your passion may it not be represented to you that the same reasons which you alledged against the love and merits of Julius Antonius before he became an impardonable criminal by the death of Cecinna might with much more ground be urged against the affection which you have conceived for his Brother since that not being obliged to him for any the least demonstration of love you cannot but look on him as the Son of Anthony which he is you know no less than his Brother I am no question replyed Tullia obliged by the same reasons to do the one as the other at least in some part for yet I might tell you did I stand upon my justification that Ptolomey is not by his birth such a criminal to us as his Brother was since that he is Son to Queen Cleopatra who contributed nothing to the death of Cicero and not to Fulvia who alone engaged Anthony in that design and exercised her cruelty upon the body of my Father even after death by a many abominable indignities but such was my misfortune that I could not make use of them and I need not tell you that in those of this nature the assistances of reason are not always infallible You may further argue that I have hardly seen Ptolomey above once that he is a Prince younger than my self by five or six years and a person that neither does nor haply will love me while he lives All the answer I have to make to these Objections is That my misfortunes are so much the more to be bemoaned and that the rather out of a consideration that I have not contributed any thing thereto my self and have endured this violence to tyrannize over my heart without the least complyance of my will Pitty me then if you please Emilia and charge me not with an offence which I see no reason I should take upon me T is not in the power of either Vertue or the Study of Philosophy to make us uncapable of passions but onely teach us how to struggle with them and if they have not been able to make good the little garrison of my heart against the assaults of that which now disturbs my quiet they will so weaken it as that it shall not produce therein any effects that may stain my reputation at the present or my memory hereafter I have been able to look on the Son of Anthony but it seems under an unhappy constellation which made me indeed but too sensible of what I thought amiable in his person I have been able to preserve the remembrance of it too dearly for my own quiet I cannot think of him without tenderness I can speak of him with delight I can communicate my sufferings to you I can sigh and as you see weep and bewayle this sad exchange of my condition But this Emilia is all that this destructive passion can work in my soul so that all the tempests it is able to raise there shall not eclipse those lights of wisdom which it is not in the power of any blindness to extinguish I can pine away yet conceale from all the World Emilia only excepted the reason why I do so and if I must endure even to death it self I can easily do it not onely rather than open my lips but rather than become guilty of a wish that should any way stain my reputation or cast a blemish on the former part of my life But when all is done replies Emilia to speak sincerely could you not wish that Ptolomey loved you or can you with all your Wisdom and Philosophy oppose such a wish To this Tullia could not for some minutes make any positive answer but having a little after shaken off that suspence and reassuming the discourse with a certain blush wherewith Lentulus could perceive her face all covered The desire of being loved said she by that which one loves is a thing so natural in us that I durst not tell you that I did not wish my self loved by Ptolomy but you are withal to assure your self that this wish is so innocent as not to injure my vertue nay I must adde thus much that though it should prove effectual yet would not my condition be any thing the more fortunate and that Ptolomey himself though he should love me should not know while he lived that I ever had any affection for him I should avoid him as an enemy though he were dearer to me than my own life nay though it shoúld cost me this very life I should keep to the last gasp from the knowledge of all the earth those sentiments which have broke forth to that of all the Romans But what is then your meaning replyed Emilia what course do you intend to take in order to your own
quiet To dye answered the Daughter of Cicero to dye my dearest Emilia if occasion require and I am very much unknown to you if you imagine that I think my life so considerable as not to sacrifice it to preserve my reputation But I shall do what lies in my power to struggle with this enemy that hath possessed himself of my heart and if the strength and assistances of heaven which I daily implore prove such as that I may not gain the victory you shall find Emilia whether I have not learned to dye rather then be guilty of faults which might make you blush for my sake I have acquainted you with the secret of my heart because there hath not been any transaction there which you have not known but did I imagine it should come to the knowledge of any other person in the World besides your self I should think one hour along time to survive the shame I should conceive thereat and you should bestow on my death those tears which compassion obliges you to shed to accompany those which my unhappiness forces from me As she made an end of these words she could keep in no longer those showers of tears which fell down from her eies in abundance which yet hindred not but that Lentulus who looked on her with attention or rather with transportation thought her so beautiful in that condition and was so much moved at her discourses the grace wherewith she delivered them and the fortune that obliged her thereto that pitty which had by degrees taken place in his heart was of a sudden changed into a violent passion For though he had seen Tullia several times before yet did it not raise in him any inclinations for her other than what her merit might raise in all that knew her but now in this little interâ—â—el wherein grief appeared so amiable in her countenance he became her absolutely devoted vassal and in love with her after such a manner that he had not the least strength to oppose it and was not able to hear the reason which should have disswaded him from loving a person whose affections were otherwise disposed of and one from whom either upon occasion of that discovery or out of any consideration of her own humour he was in all probability never to expect any thing In a word Love here knew no degrees but as soon as he could be said to love he might be said to do it violently insomuch that sympathizing with her in the affection wherein he saw her involved he participated thereof so far that when he turned toward Ptolomy my Brother perceived his eyes were red and big with tears For his part he had not been at all moved either at Tullia's words or the discoveries of her affection whether it proceeded from the resentment he had in heart against that Lady or that naturally he had a soul not over-susceptible of love or that all the affection it was capable of was already devoted to Marcia a Princess of excellent beauty and one to whom he ought abundance of obligations He was already desirous to remove from that place when Lentulus fearing they might be surprised and perceiving by the discourse of Tullia that it would trouble her infinitely if she should discover that Ptolomey had heard her took him by the arm and carryed him away They went thence as softly as they had come thither and made so little noise that they were not perceived or heard They went out of the little Isle and walked a good while ere they spoke one to another Ptolomy know not what to say of that adventure so much was he surprized at the strangeness of it and Lentulus whose soul was wounded by what he had seen and whose spirits were in some disorder by reason of his newly-conceived passion could not think of words whereby to express himself and was content only to look on Ptolomey in whom he could not perceive the least alteration upon that accident and knew not whether he should out of considerations of compassion advise him to love Tullia or out of those of his own love and interest entertain him with the sentiments he had for her himself At last having taken some few turns they were just falling into some discourse when coming to the end of a walk that abutted upon that wherein they were they met full-but with the two Ladies who had left the Arbour in a manner as soon as they had and without the least fear that they had been over-heard by any one had reassumed their walk They were all very much surprised at that meeting and particularly Tullia as being the least prepared for it and the most concerned in it Her eyes were still red with weeping which Lentulus perceiving and consequently the condition she was in could not look on her without a certain trouble and disturbance They were so neer one another that it was impossible to pass by without salutes and Lentulus submitting to the Ascendent which now began to govern him could not follow Ptolomey who after a salute full of respect turned aside Emilia who took notice of his carriage not consulting at this time so much decorum as minding the friendship she had for Tullia called him and having obliged him to turn back What now Ptolomey said she to him do you shun the Ladies No Madam replyed he but it is not fit that the Son of Anthony should come near the daughter of Cicero Enmities replyed Emilia should not be eternal and I shall not be friends with Tullia if she make no distinction between the Children of Cleopatra and those of Fulvia who alone wrought all the unhappiness of their house Both the one and the other are equally guilty by their birth replies Ptolomey nay though they were innocent enough to deserve that Tullia should wish them no hurt they cannot be so far such as to hope for any of her conversation This fierce young man not guilty of that tenderness he was in civility obliged to would needs out of an affected malice repeat the same words to Tullia which she had sometimes said to his Brother as he had heard it related so that after this last complement he went away and would have no further discourse with Emilia In the mean time Tullia had not spoken at all though Lentulus had come to her but had fastned her eyes on the ground as being in some doubt whether she should approve the proceeding of Emilia whose intention seemed good to her but her action indiscreet enough So that her courage and the affection she had for my Brother raised no small distraction within her but when she heard those last words and saw him go away with so much disdain her face was of a sudden deprived of all colour and grief and vexation pressed upon her heart in such manner that after she had with some precipitation said to Emilia that she was not well and was not able to stand she fell into a swound in her
still inviolatly kept the secrets of her adventure she at last came into your territories It was not her designâ—â— make any long stay therein but she immediately charmed by the vertue of Elisena and in prâ—cesse of time coming to a perfect knowledge of her and conceiving her a person with whom sâ—â— might safely enter into solid friendship and in whom she might repose a great confidence sâ—â— discovered her self to her acquainted her with her Fortune and revealed to her what sâ—â— had so carefully concealed from all the World Elisena entertained these demonstrations of her affection and confidence with an admirable goodnesse and offered her all the assistance thâ—â— lay in her power This was meerly the effect of her generosity as to a stranger but not long after the vertue and excellent endowments of Artesia having wrought their effect on the spirit of Elisena as those of Elisena had upon that of Artesia it became the cement of such a perfect friendship between these two amiable persons that the present age could hardly have furnished us with a nobler example The mutual demonstrations which they gave thereof one to another with less circumspection than persons whose intentions are criminal â—â—â— wâ—nt to observe raised jealousie and suspicions in you insomuch that upon the first 〈◊〉 you made thereof they consulted together and consâ—â—â—red whether â—â— were safe to discover the truth to you and acquaint you with the sex and 〈◊〉 of Artesia But after 〈…〉 Elisena her self thought it not either safe or seasonable and kâ—â—â—ing that you 〈◊〉 some fear of the power of Phraates and that your â—â—trarchy â—ying â—eâ—r 〈◊〉 Eâ—pâ—râ— it concerned you very much to hold a good correspondence with him did not 〈…〉 that secret should be communicated to you as being in some 〈◊〉 thâ—â— either 〈…〉 obligation upon Phraates or to avoid the occasion of making him your 〈…〉 discover to him that Artesia was in your power and haply have sent hâ—r back to him The sincere friendship which Elisena had for Artesia inspired her with that fear which indeed became so great afterwards that upon your relapse into jealousie and the second discoveries you made thereof she chose rather to be deprived the sight and company of her friend than that you should be acquainted with the secret of her life and consequently expose it to any danger This separation could not but occasion a violent grief on both sides insomuch that when you unfortunately took them in the Arbour they were taking their last leaves one of another with thâ—se demonstrâ—tions of friendship which proved so 〈◊〉 to them You are but too well acquainted with what followed I desire to be excused as to any further discourse with you and your leave to return to that body which I so much loved when living to render it my last services and to take some course for the carrying of it away out of cruel country and since it is now beyond all fear of the violences of Phraates dispose â—t among the monuments of her Fathers Such was the discourse of the desolâ—te Gentlewomâ—n whereby coming to understand as well the extraction as vertue of Artesia I felt 〈…〉 which I thought violent enough before assuming new strength torment me the more I was in a perpetual posture of sighing and sobbing which being peâ—t up in the â—ranies of 〈…〉 forced out their way with the greater violence bringing forth with them words so â—â—â—â—ful that it raised a certain compassion in all those who upon 〈…〉 of my mistake had conceived a horrour for me I continually 〈◊〉 upon 〈…〉 of Elisena and with that of Elisena I oftentimes brought out thâ—â— of Artesia whose lamentabâ—â— adventure I was no less troubled at then I was for the loss of my Wife whom I 〈◊〉 thought so amiable and accordingly so dearly loved I shall not tire you my Lord with â—edious discourses of my complaints or with râ—lations of all those things which I did for some dayes during the extravagance of 〈◊〉 affliction and shall only tell you that those who know me at this present and 〈◊〉 what course of life I have led for these many years together would not 〈…〉 lieve the strange effects it wrought in me The Gentlewoman who had waited â—â— â—â—tesia and her two ancient servants having caused the body to be embalmâ—◠〈…〉 away into their own Country and that of my Elisena was disposed into a 〈…〉 nument which I caused to be built for her I visited it every day and spent 〈…〉 in washing it with my tears embracing the cold Marble and doing 〈…〉 which sufficiently discovered my love melancholy and despaire There was noâ— nothing from which I could derive any comfort in the day time I 〈◊〉 the society oâ— men and in the night me-thoughts I saw perpetually at my bed heâ—â— the unfortunate images of Elisena and Artesia shewing me their wounds and loading me with the most bitter reproaches that might be During these imaginations I was many times in a manner distracted insomuch that in time if I were not grown absolutely mâ—â— I was at least so far gone that I had nothing of mildness nothing of a sociable humour left in me By degrees I became more and more savage and barbarous much more than I was naturally inclined to be and out of an imagination I had that all the World ought to abhorre me I began to abhorre all the World Accordingly from that time all things fell out contrary to my expectations and my crime was such that Fortune declared her self my enemy as well as men The King of the Parthians who was infinitely troubled at the death of Artesia immediately resolved to ruine me and Herod who watched all occasions to possess himself of my Tetrarchy to joyne it to his own dominions whereof he conceived it should be some part having no pretence of war against me himself promoted underhand the designes of the Parthian King gave a passage through his Country to the Army he sent against me and supplyed them with provisions out of hopes of getting my estate into his hands Things fell out in a manner as they had designed they should so that I who in the height and favour of fortune had not been able to oppose the forces which the King of the Parthians sent against me could hardly in the misfortune I was fallen into lost as to friends courage and all things make any resistance against them The Parthians forced me out of my country and Herod having gotten it into his hands upon some treaty there had past between him and Phraates he not long after went and begged it of Augustus alledging that he had some interest in it during the time that Lisanias was in possession thereof It was bestowed on him and he was put into possession thereof by the Emperour who sent Sosius to settle him quietly in it and who accordingly maintained him therein against the pretentions of the King of the Parthians This was the occasion of
so free as to give you this advice which assure your self proceeds from a heart full of grateful apprehensions as also if I presume to beg no other love from you then such as you would afford a Brother since that you perceive by the posture of my affairs that I cannot love you otherwise then as a Sister I had not till then spoken in such terms to Eurinoe whence it came that she was the more surprized thereat in somuch that for a long time she was not able to make any reply And yet I think she had bethought her of something to say when our discourse was interrupted by a little noise which we heard behind the hedg-row against which we were sate and not long after by the appearance of a man who being come into the walk made all the hast he could towards the place where we were Eurinoe's thoughts being empâ—oyed at that time much more than mine I took notice of the man before she did and saw that he was of a very goodly presence a noble and majestick air and had a very fair countenance for a man of that Nation though he seemed to be weak and brought very low and discovered in his eyes some dreadful resolution Being for my part ignorant what occasion might bring him thither I was very glad of a sword I had by my side which Eurinoe had given me the day before I had begun to wear it but that very day to make use of â—f need were in a Country where I was to suspect all things but Eurinoe who had thought before that it was either Eteocles or Pelorus cast not her eyes on him till such time as he was come up almost to us At the same time the woman that was with her gave a shriek which she hearing and endeavouring to find the cause of it in the countenance of that man she immediately found it when she knew him to be her unfortunate Teramenes on whose death she had bestowed so many tears and on whose body she had made so much lamentatition and done things that sufficiently argued her extravagance and despair At this sight she gave a great â—hriek and she brought forth the name of Teramenes and the terrour she conceived thereat was so great that she fell into a swound upon the seat where she was sate Her action that of the woman that was with her and the name of Teramenes which they pronounced put me into an imagination it might be his ghost or haply he himself preserved by some miracle During that uncertainty retreating back a little when he was come up very neer us and putting my hand to the hilt of my sword Stand there said I to him and if thou art only the ghost of Teramenes disturb not any further by thy approaches those whom thy presence hath frightned Were I only the ghost of Teramenes replied the man it were to thee that I should address my self as having been my murtherer but since I am Teramenes living and recovered of the cruel wound which I received from thee in the battle thou shalt not need to fear in this deplorable condition him whom thou couldest look upon without any dread in the head of an Army I am Teramenes the over-faithful Lover of that faithless Woman whose heart thou hast gotten from me after thou hadst taken away my life not only in her opinion but in that of all the world besides I was thine Enemy upon the concernments of Tiribasus who was my Friend I became thy Enemy upon the wound I received from thy hands which hath brought me to the extremities of life and death and I have yet a more just ground to be thy Enemy for the injury thou hast done me in Robbing me of the affections of Eurinoe which I was in possession of and had well deserved I must further acknowledge that this last injurie though thou hast done it innocently had armed me against thee and that I came abroad this day though the first of my stirring with a resolution which might have proved fatall to one of us but the words that have fallen from thee and which I have over-heard have wrought a change in my thoughts and I have found so much vertue prudence and goodnesse in them that they have taken off all the indignation I had coâ—ceived against thee I come therefore no longer as an enemie but as a person that hath a veneration for thy vertue and as one that is an humble suitor to that generosity which thou discoverest as well in thy actions as thy words to beg that heart of thee which thou hast taken away from me without making any advantage thereof and which thou keepest from me yet wouldst rather be without it Restore to me Cleomedon a thing which thou hast no mind to preserve or if thou wouldst be further revenged on the Friends of Tiribasus behold the sacrifice which I shall now offer at the feet of an ungratefull woman of a life which must now be as detestable to her as my death was grievous at the last moments of her affection While Teramenes disburthened himself after this manner and that I hearkened to him with attention and astonishment Eurinoe by the assistance of her woman and that of Eteocles and Pelorus who came in at the same time was come to her self again and might have heard some part of what Teramenes said while Pelorus who had cast himself at her feet assured her that he was really living and craved her pardon for having put such a tick upon her The woman was so strangely at a losse between horrour astonishment shame and possibly grief into the bargain for the return of a man she had then no affection for that she knew not in a manner where she was was not able to speak and had not the confidence to look upon him With this she found it no small difficulty to be perswaded that Teramenes was living though Pelorus had by protestations assured her of as much as but too too well remembring the last kisses she had given his cold and bloody body and the orders she had given for his enterrement While she was in this perplexity Teramenes comes towards her though by her shrieks she sufficiently discovered the fear she was in he should come near her and thereupon stopping at the distance of some few paces from her because he would not disturb her any further and looking on her with a countenance where in his passion was extreamly visible Is it possible Eurinoe said he to her you should be so much affrighted at Teramenes living when you could find in your heart to give him kisses when he was dead and wash his face with so many tears But can I think that change any miracle cruel and ungrateful Euninoe when I am so well acquainted with that of your soul and that I am not ignorant how that in the same minute you were seen to pass from the effects of the most violent passion in the world
horses for that day that the next day towards the evening finding himself a little stronger he got out of his bed with an intention at the same time to seek out both Candace and Cleopatra and was got to one of the windows wheâ—ce casting his eye upon the adjoining wood he had seen a Chariot passing by wherein he had perceived the Queen with the fair Princess of the Parthians whom he knew not that upon that happy sight joy taking its former place in his soul friendship had submitted to love and the losse of Cleopatra troubled him the lesse by reason of the recovery of Candace That he wold immediately have run after her but not long after Eteocles coming into the room and having communicated that good news to him had intreated him to have a little patience and to give him leave to run alone after the Chariot to find out the truth of that adventure That accordingly Eteocles got on horseback and followed the track of the Chariot and those that conveyed it into Alexandria whither having got in undiscovered he had informed himself so well of all things that he understood how the Queen was in the Palace with the Princesse of the Parthians that she had been rescued out of their hands that had carried her away by the Praetor Cornelius and that she was attended with all manner of respect though she had discovered her self onely so far as that she was a Lady of great quality born in Ethiopia that these tidings reâ—toring him as it were to a new life had also restored him in some measure to his health and strength and that having that very day sent Eteocles into the City to speak with her if he possibly with any convenience could he returned some time after with news that he had seen her getting up into a Chariot wherein she went out of the City to take the air along the river side and would come within a small distance of the house where he was That upon that news he was not able to keep in any longer and that notwithstanding the reasons alledged by Eteocles who would by all means have hindred him he got on horseback and rid forth into the wood in hope of some opportunity to see her out oâ— a confidence he should not meet with any one that knew him That it was as he crossed the wood up and down upon that design that he first heard certain out-cries and afterwards saw the Princess Elisa in the hands of Tigranes That though he knew not who she was he had done her that service which he ought her and that he had not sorsaken her had he not seen Artaban and a company of men on horseback coming behind him That being unwilling to be discovered by them he withdrew but that he had taken particular notice of Artaban and that looking on him as the most concerned in the relief of the Princesse he was very glad that he had done him that good office as well out of a consideration of the satisfaction a man takes in doing what he is in honour obliged to as out of a remembrance that in the engagement they had had together against the Pirate Zenodorus and his men Artaban had relieved him and helped him on horseback after his own had been killed under him That afterwards he had wandered up and down the wood in hopes to see the Queen but that having observed some appearance of Agrippa and Cornelius with their Troop he would not by any means be met with by them and thereupon retired til night at which time through the help of the darknesse he made a shift to get into the City and knowing what part of the Palace the Queen was lodged in he without any difficulty sound her out having once gotten upon the terrace where he had met with Clitia Thus did Cesario put a period to his relation and when he had given over speaking the Queen looking on him with a countenance wherein her thoughts were in some measure legible Caesario said she to him you have had your traverses and extremities and we badours which I shall not trouble you with any relation of because you have understood them already from Eteocles If I have suffered much for you I must yet confesse you have endured more for me besides that by your attempts and valour you have regained me a Kingdom which I gave over for lost It is but just it should be a present made to you as it were in some sort to reward your care and conduct and might it please the gods I had any thing to present you with that were more considerable and more precious that I might requite as I ought to do those so many noble demonstrations of your affection Madam replies Caesario it is beyond the merits of my blood nay indeed of my life to deserve the expressions I receive of your favours and goodnesse and I am very much ashamed to expect so many great things from my noblest Queen when I am able to offer her nothing but a miserable wretch discarded and despailed of that which now makes up so many Monarchies and a ............ T is enough saies Candace interrupting him let me hear no more of that discourse if you have not a set purpose to displease me and take it for granted that your person is of a value high enough to be preferred by the greatest Princesses in the Universe before that of the â—super who is now possessed of your Fathers Palace Having by these words engaged him to silence she fell upon some other discourse wherein she discovered to him what trouble she was in for the danger whereto he exposâ—d himself by coming into Alexandria where he must expect no lesse then death if he were once known as also her displeasure to see him so carelesse of his health as being not sufficiently recovered as might be seen in his countenance to venture on horseback and take such pains as he did The Prince after he had thanked her for the afflictions she was in for his sake as being the pure effects of the tendernesse she had for him For the hazard whereto I expose my self said he to her it is not so great as you imagine it and besides the difference there is between the face of a child of fourteen years of age and that of a man of four and twenty the report that is scattered up and down the world of my death hath taken such root and is particularly so much credited by Augustus that it were no small difficulty to perswade people to the contrary and for my health I find that through the joy which the gods have been pleased to afford me by meeting with you again I have recovered my strength in such a measure that within three or four dayes I shall be in as good plight and condition as ever I was either to do any thing in point of arms or to waite on you by sea into Ethiopia Eteocles hath within
him you see that Coriolanus is innocent and that it was not without some ground that I was satisfied of it before I had understood so much from the mouth of Volusius I acknowledge the indulgence of the gods replies Marcellus as great towards me in this as in the greatest favour they ever did me and I take them to witnesses that what you and Volusius have perswaded me to of the constancy of Julia hath not caused in me such a satisfaction as what I have understood of the fidelity of Coriolanus How replyed the Princess with a certain transportation not suitable to her ordinary moderation it is then infallible that Coriolanus whose pretended infidelity cost me so many tears hath ever been constant to his Cleopatra and that Princess who by her misapprehension thought her self condemned to eternal afflictions may now re-assume those joyes and hopes she had before broke off all acquaintance with Here would she have taken occasion to open her soul for the reception of a passion which of a long time had not had any entertainment there but that joy was soon eclipsed by an interposition of grief and a certain reflection which filled her heart with all the sadness it was capable of when she thought on her cruel deportment towards that Prince the deplorable effect it had produced as having proved the occasion of the loss of his Crown and of all her hopes and that fatal resolution which he had expressed to Volusius that he intended to take and whereof he had given her some notice at their last parting In a word being thus convinced of his fidelity she could not call to mind the cruel entertainment she had made him at Syracuse when enflamed to the highest pitch of love and thinking it a thousand times more glorious to be her servant then that so noble a conquest and the recovery of his Kingdoms had made him he had passed through thousands of dangers to come and offer her those very Kingdoms she could not think on the cruel and injurious speeches wherewith she had received him and the sad condition wherein she had left him without a mortal wound in that heart which nothing but the love of that Prince could ever make any impression in For that doleful reflection calling to mind how she had met him in the Woods of Alexandria the day that he relieved her with greater valour than success against those that afterwards carried her away and lastly remembring the meeting she had had with him in the King of Armenias's ship whereof she represented to her self all the particulars after another manner then they had appeared to her while she was still prepossessed of her cruel mistake as well out of a consideration of that long swounding into which her sight and words had put him as the discourse full of a generous confidence he had made to her and the admirable resolution he had taken and gone through with by fighting alone for her liberty against so great a number of enemies with such prodigious valour and by the last words he had spoken to her at their parting wherein as well as in his actions his innocency was but too too apparent And from these things whereof her eies had been but too too faithful witnesses diverting her thoughts to others that were of no less consequence such as the loss of a great Kingdom which he had conquered for her and which he neglected to maintain through the despair she had reduced him to that which he had expressed when he cast himself into the Sea because he would not survive his disgrace and the shame he thought it that he was not able to rescue her from her Ravishers the miserable condition he was brought to having no place of refuge no relief nor any comfort in the World and lastly the resolution he had discovered to Volusius and her self of his unwillingness to have her any longer engaged in his misfortunes and to seek out the remedies thereof only in death which for a courage such as his was it should not be hard to find she could not fasten her thoughts on all these truths which were but too importunate upon her memory without giving way to such a grief as neither all her own great constancy nor yet the joy she conceived at the innocence of Coriolanus were able to abate After she had for some time smothered the disordered agitations she was in being not able to hold out any longer and conceiving she might freely disburthen her self before Marcellus whom she was confident of and whose soul during that time was persecuted by imaginations much of the same nature Coriolanus is innocent said she breaking forth into a rivulet of tears But O ye Heavenly powers such is my cruel destiny that Coriolanus cannot be innocent but I must at the same time be the most criminal person in the World That Prince the most amiable the most generous and the most vertuous of men hath continued inviolately constant to me and hath still persisted in the same perfect affection which had at first taken in my soul and yet unfortunate wretch that I am I have had the cruelty for to banish him my presence as a Monster I have had the inhumanity to see him in a manner expiring at my feet and never could be moved at it and I have at last reduced him to such extremities as have proved the occasion of loosing that Kingdom which he had designed for me have made him a restless Vagabond all over the Earth made him seek out precipices and now make him resolve to seek in death a Period of these deplorable miseries into which I only I have brought him O Cleopatra unfortunate Cleopatra what pretence of joy canst thou find in the justification of Coriolanus since it must needs expose thee to the most cruel regrets that ever persecuted guilty souls It were much more for thy satisfaction at least if it were not for thy satisfaction it would be much more to thy advantage that thy Coriolanus had been found unconstant and that thou shouldst be found innocent thy self and since that thy innocence and his are things inconsistent either he ought to be guilty or thou have continued in the misprision which thou hadst been perswaded to O cruel Vuolsius cruel in thy malice and cruel in thy remorse thou art in both equally the messenger of death to me and I find fatal poison in this appearance of life which thou bringest me when thou tellest me that Coriolanus is constant to me Let us then till death bewail the misfortune which attends us as well in the one as in the other condition and never entertain any comfort since that is a kind of happiness which guilty souls are never to expect Here the tears interrupted the course of her speech and fell from her in such abundance that she was forced to allow them a free passage and to let them express some part of what she felt within her In that interval
she repented her of her last reflections and assoon as she was in a condition to reassume her discourse I crave thy pardon said she with a voice imperfectly accented with sobs I crave thy pardon faithful Prince for so unjust an apprehension and what ever I may fear from my own remorse and the reproaches thou maist justly make me yet must I needs acknowledge that it is more satisfactory to me nay a thousand times more satisfactory to me to be found criminal by thy innocence then to be found innocent by thy infidelity for I set such a value on thy affection that nothing can repair the loss of it nor counterballance the happiness it were to me to recover it I am content to be though guilty of all that the artifices of my enemies have occasioned me to commit and shall not seek for any excuse either in my errour or my repentance but onely flatter my self with this comfort that thou hast ever loved me lovest me now and wilt love me to the last gasp It is not therefore in thy justification that I would be thought unfortunate because then the guilt lies on my side but I acknowledge my self unfortunate in the ingratitude I have expressed towards thee in the misfortunes I have occasioned thee in the irrecoverabled losses I have caused thee and the cruel resolutions I have forced thee upon It was by my means that at Syracuse thou wert reduced to those extremities that brought thy life into danger upon my account hast thou lost a Kingdom which thou didst design for me thou hast spent thy daies in wandring up and down the World with much misery thou hast sought death among the Waves and thou art still resolved to run thy self upon death meerly because thou wouldst not either by thy presence or memory disturb the enjoiments thou wishest me Ah Coriolanus 't is in that resolution thou art unjust and cruel no lesse then I have been and thou oughtest not by loosing thy own life imagine to add any thing to my happiness since it is from thee alone that all the happiness of my life is derived Thou hast but little acquaintance with Cleopatra if thou canst think the loss of thy Kingdom able to abate any thing of the value I set on thee I have ever preferred thy person before all the Monarchies of the World and supposing the condition thou art reduced to as miserable as can be imagined I would run fortunes with thee with no less satisfaction then if thou hadst the universe at thy disposal Do not therefore court thy own death Coriolanus if thou dost it not to rid thy hands of an unhappy woman whom for her ingratitude thou hast reason to abhor or if thou proposest to thy self greater felicity in death then in Cleopatra let us go to it together and know that as well as thy self I am come from a house wherin the examples of voluntary death are but too too familiar for me to be daunted at any such thing With these words she as it were opened the flood-gates to that grief which was ready to over-run her and cast her self on her bed after a most pitiful manner insomuch that Marcellus who had never seen her so unable to command her passions being astonished at it and rising from the place wher he sate came to her with an endeavour to recover and comfort her Is it possible Sister said he to her that so unreasonable a grief should have such a powerful influence on your imaginations whom I have known with so much constancy resist the assaults of a just affliction and cannot you entertain an account of Coriolanus 's innocency with some moderation who have supported his infidelity with so much settledness and resolution Can it possibly come to pass if the affections of that Prince were ever dear to you that you should not with joy entertain this change of your condition and that the remorse you conceive at the miscarriages that have happened through your misapprehensions should have a more powerful operation on you then the assurances of a fidelity which you have wished with more earnestness than you could have done any thing relating to your own life Ah Sister if these must be the effects of your regrets let them fall only upon me who am ore-burthened with crimes by the engagement I have had in your mistake for that it was upon my sollicitation principally that you came to hate a Friend who loved me beyond himself It was I that travelled up and down several Kingdoms and crossed many seas to find him out purposely to dispatch him when in the mean time I was dearer to him than his own life and that was it that all my attempts were bent to cut off even while by the force of his Friendship he contributed to the execution of my design by presenting his naked breast to me to satisfie my cruelty Let therefore all those arrows of remorse be stuck in my brest with all the care of the reparation we owe him and take heed you do not incense heaven by not entertaining with the acknowledgments you ought a favour you have put up so many suits to the gods for I entertain Brother replied the Princess this favour from the celestial powers with all the resentments I ought to have for it and cannot but acknowledge that there is not anything could be more dear to me than the innocence of Coriolanus but Brother after what manner would you have me consider the miserable condition whereto he is reduced for my sake and upon my account and with what constancy can I hear of the fatal resolution which he sends me word he intends to take to run upon death meerly to prevent his being any way a hindrance to my felicity For what concerns his Fortunes replyed Marcellus what lownesse soever they may now be reduced to it is not impossible but that they may be recovered to their former greatness by such another revolution as that whereby they were ruined and that either by open hostility or those other ways he practised formerly he may yet reascend into the throne of his Ancestors But supposing all this were nothing but pure matter of imagination and should never come to pass he hath those Friends who will never have anything of fortune to dispose of which they shall not divide with him and will disclaim all they can pretend to in the world if all be not common among them For his fatal resolutions we must endeavour to divert him from them and since that he is not far from this place hovering hereabouts in hopes to meet with Tiberius I am in some confidence that seeking him out diligently he may be met with That care ought to be mine and I accordingly take it upon me and in order to that design I immediately take my leave of you with this protestation that I will never return while I live till I have met with Coriolanus till I have obtained his pardon for the
in Germany T is very true saies Agrippa interrupting him that your name was soon known among us and that your reputation was spread among the Romans with an esteem such as rankâ—d you among the greatest men of our age I deserved not this great Elogy from the mouth of the great Agrippa replies Inguiomer very modestly but certain it is that in most of those engagements I fought with a suceess which raised me into the esteem of the Prince my Brother his Subjects and all our Neighbour-Princes much beyond my desert But that is not the thing I am to insist upon there being in the adventures of Arminius what is far more worthy your attention which is the reason I so slightly passed over what related to his birth and the first sallies of his affection as looking on the particulars thereof as inconsiderable in comparison of what I have yet to relate to you He liv'd happily in the enjoyment of Ismenia's company there being nothing to disturb it but his impatience and desires of greater happinesses then those he enjoyed and which were denyed him upon no other account then that of his youth It was his hope indeed they should not be delayed much longer as being now arriv'd at the eighteenth year of his age But then was it Fortune thought fit to cross his designs by such traverses obstacles as he could not have foreseen The love of Glory and that which he naturally had for his Countrey had already wrought much upon his martial inclinations and if the passion he had for Ismenia had not detained him he would hardly have spent his time idlely in Segeste's Court when he heard of my successes against the common Enemy and that I made my way for that Fame which he was no less in love with then with Ismenia He was already ingaged upon some thoughts of a return to Clearchus as well to procure his mediation to Segestes for the accomplishment of his felicity as to court in the occasions of fighting for the Liberty of his Countrey that of signalizing his own Valour when he meets with employment for it in in the place where he was and that for the concernments of Segestes and Ismenia which were indeed no other than his own The Roman Forces that were in Germany meeting together from all parts into one body took the field in expectation of Tiberius who was to come with a very powerful Army to give the last assault to the Liberty of Germany and some part of those Forces being under the command of Curius entred the Territories of Segestes surprized him so much through his not fore-seeing that Tempest that upon the first thoughts of it he was in very great extremities However he took order against them with sufficient diligence and being a person of great courage he quieted his people raised Forces with all the expedition he could It was a certain satisfaction to Arminius to meet with that opportunity to exercise his Valour which was much abated by the peace wherein he had spent his younger years and Segestes having as his first employment given him the command of the whole Cavarly he undertook it like a young Mars and seeming in the War as it were in his proper Element he within few days became remarkable for those actions which at an age that few persons have drawn a Sword in got him the reputation of one of the most gallant men in the world There happened no engagement wherein he did not things extraordinary where he grew not famous either for the death of the most considerable of the Enemy or by some other remarkable action and wherein it was not generally acknowledged that his noble example was that which made his party victorious One time with a party of Eight hundred Horse he put to the rout a Legion commanded by Norbanus leaving above Two thousand men upon the place Another time at the passing of a small River having charged the Enemy upon their retreat he pursued and cut in pieces a great part of the Rear and got all the baggage which he distributed among his Souldiers Some days after Curius having laid a siege before a place which he hoped within few days to reduce as being but weakly fortified Arminius fell upon him in the night in his Camp kill'd above Three thousand men and put so considerable a relief into the place that Curius despairing the taking of it and ashamed at the loss he had received raised the siege two days after Segestes looked on these beginnings with admiration and Ismenia who had a soul truly great and generous understood them with a joy suitable to the affection she had for Arminius By these actions did Arminius put Segestes into a capacity to maintain his Countrey with a power equal to that of his Enemies and by those which followed he so strengthen'd his party that at last after many engagements of less importance he came to a pitch'd battel against Curius and gain'd it by the conduct and valour of Arminius who commanded the right wing of his Army and that day twice saved his life and relieved him with his own hands out of the power of Curius I give you the briefer account of the noble actions of Arminius as not doubting but they are come to your knowledge and so shall only adde that at last Segestes was free from and victorious over his Enemies when news came to him that Tiberius was in Pannonia with an Army consisting of the best Legions such a Power as whereto in probability all Germany was to submit He understood that the Boij the Vindelici and the Curiones upon the noise of his advance had submitted to the yoke they had shaken off and that his next Neighbours the Vangiones were already treating with the Romans and were finding out a way to recede from the Alliance they had made with him so that he was with some reason afraid that that Tempest would in all likelihood fall heavy upon him and that he was too weak to oppose it Though he were a person of much courage yet was he startled at that news especially when he was informed that the Vangiones had concluded their Treaty with the Romans and that there was only the Mein that divided the places under their jurisdiction and those under his While he was in this uncertainty as to what resolution he should take those who had concluded the Agreement with the Vangiones upon conditions honourable enough made an overture of an accommodation with him proposing That if he would enter into an Alliance with the Romans and joyn interests with them against those of his Neighbours who acknowledged not their Empire he should not only continue quiet possessor of his own Countrey confined by the Rhine the Adrana the Mein and the Mountains of Melibocus but that he should have withal part of the Countrey of the Catti who were those of his Neighbours whom he was most jealous of These propositions and divers others
were dead and that Segesces who hath already a Son by the Wife he lately married designs him to inherit his Dominions not thinking any more of Ismenia nd thus much I have understood as to what you are concerned in I shall endeavour by all the ways I can imagine to learn what is become of Ismenia and since Varus is the person by whom she was taken or at least the sorces under his command I shall haply come to the knowledge of something by his means he being now in Alexandria and am confident she will not conceal the truth from me Arminius entertained this discourse of Agrippa with all the discoveries of a real acknowledgement looking on him not onely as a person he was so much oblig'd to but as one of the greatest men in the world My Lord said he to him I receive these effects of your Goodness as so many assurances of the Greatness of your Soul on which the compassion you have for my misfortunes hath doubtless a greater influence then the esteem you may upon the relation of Inguiomer have conceived for my person His affection is haply greater to me then to have spoken of me without passion it may be partially but he hath been faithfull to truth if he hath told you that I am of all men the most miserable The deplorable condition my fortunes are in which hardly vouchsafs me any sentiment of things even of greatest importance cannot yet hinder but that I have the sense I ought of your generous favors as also of the proffers of your assistance and authority to find out Ismenia among the Romans and by the directions of Varus who can discover more then any other to get some account of her What I expect must certainly be dolefull and deplorable it being not improbable she may have been exposed to those miseries during her captivity then which death it self might be more supportable to her such as have haply forc'd her to sacrifice her life for the preservation of her honor How ere it may be I am resoved to die or find out the truth of it and though I were to wander all over the world I will never return into my native country without Ismenia I would intreat Inguiomer to see it again and accept which I gladly resign him the Soveraignty over the Cherusci and I wish the Gods were so pleased I had some great Empire to present him with to requite the obligations I have received from his Friendship T were unjust he should be perpetually involved in my miseries he hath suffered enough by a harsh and cruel captivity the infamous exercise out of which you relievedus to exempt him from anyfurther engagement in my errant fortune which will carry me all over the world either to find out Ismenia or if my endeavours prove ineffectual death Arminius having uttered these words could not but burst into tears whereat Agrippa was extreamly troubled Whereupon Inguiomer turning to him with a dissatisfied look Do not Arminius said he to him do not offer so great a violence to our Friendship by the aversion you express for my company and the injurious proffers you would make me I shall be equally able with you to support the injurious proffers you would make me I shall be equally able with to support the inconveniencies of our fortune and it is long since you might have been assur'd that I value your Friendship beyond the Soverainty of the Cherusci They were thus engag'd in discourse when an Officer of Agrippa's causing torches to be brought into the Closet gave him notice that the Princess Julia accompany'd by several other Princesses was come into his Chamber and that her visit proceeded out of a curiosity she had to see those two famous strangers whose adventure had made so much noise that day in Alexandria Agrippa somewhat surpriz'd at it turns to Arminius and being infinitely circumspect and generous in all things It is far from my thoughts said he to him that you should be oblig'd to any thing disconsonant to your own inclinations and though the Princess Julia be a person the most abliging and officious in the world and that I dare assure you her presence will contribute much to your satisfaction yet if in the condition you are in you have any aversion thereto I will go and make your excuses and am confident it will not be taken amiss Arminius had indeed some aversion for such a company as then came to see him and would gladly have avoided it but he was willing to comply with the civilities of Agrippa seeing with what circumspection he treated him And to that end wiping the tears that were still in his face he told him that had he known he were desirous of any such thing he would have gone himself to wait on the Princess Julia and those other persons whom he was willing he should see He had hardly said so much when the Daughter of Augustus was come to the door and enters the Closet followed by the two Princesses of Armenia Olympia Andromeda Vrania and several other Ladies who ordinarily kept her company Agrippa ran to meet her and the two Cheruscian princes made low obeisances to give her the salute due to her quliaty The comelinesse of their persons heighten'd by garments suitable to their condition appear'd to that illustrious Assembly much otherwise then it had seem'd to those who had seen them in the Amphitheatre though there broke forth ablushing into their countenances out of a reflection on the ignominious treatment they had that day receiv'd Julia was infinitely satisfi'd to see them and was going to speak to them with her ordinary civility when of a sudden she perceives a change in the countenance of Arminius and that so remarkable as that he seem'd to be wholly transported and in a manner at a loss of all apprehension He retir'd some paces back staggering and lifting up his hands and eyes to Heaven but while the Princesses were observing his action not without astonishment they heard a noise behind them and turning about to see what the matter was they perceived the fair Cipassis who came along with Julia to make that visit falling into a swound between Andromeda and Sulpitia and discovering but with much more weakness a surprize not inferiour to that of Arminius While the Noble Assembly were in suspence what to think of that accident Agrippa having with some precipitation ask'd Arminius the reason of the disturbance he was in Ah my Lord said he with a transport he was not able to suppress I see Ismenia And immediately not minding the respect he should have observed in the presence of Julia and so many great Princesses which upon any other occasion he had not been a wanting to and quite forgetting the care he had till then taken to conceal himself from the Romans he runs to Cipassis whom Sulpitia held in her arms and calling her by the name of Ismenia he fell down at
scorn'd at his hands when he hears a great noise of Horses which till then the distance and earnestness of the combat had hindred them from hearing and thereupon looking about him he finds himself surrounded by a considerable number of Horsemen the best part of that illustrious party which came that day out of Alexandria The end of the Eleventh Part. HYMEN'S PRAELVDIA OR Loves Master-peice Part. XII LIB I. ARGUMENT Augustus sends away Tigranes under a Guard to Alexandria whither Cornelius is also convey'd by his Friends Augustus comes to the place where Coriolanus and Tiberius had ended their quarrel Coriolanus is discovered the Emperour commands him to be disarmed and taken which he opposing he orders him to be killed when comes before him Marcellus who discovering himself prevents it till at last upon the intreaties of Cleopatra he flings away his Sword and upon the mediation of Marcellus Alcamenes Ariobarzanes Artaban and all the Princes about the Emperour his punishment is delayed and he conducted a Prisoner to Alexandria One of those three armed men who came in to the relief of Coriolanus in the rescue of the Princesses is discovered to be Julius Antonius who had been forced away from Rome six or seven years before by the rigour of Tullia and is by Marcellus Ptolomey and Alexander carried to Cleopatra The Empress hearing Tiberius was wounded and carried to Alexandria hastens thither He is visited by the Emperour who threatens the ruine of Coriolanus Cleopatra is visited by all the Princesses Julius Antonius gives a short account of his Travels Agrippa makes a further discovery of his passion for Elisa who expressing her constancy to Artaban he falls into a Fever and is visited by Augustus who sollicites both Elisa and Artaban on his behalf Tigranes is visited by Philadelph to whom he relates the manner of their Design upon the Princesses Cornelius despairing of Augustus 's favour dies having before written a Letter to him wherein he discovers Caesario who is thereupon taken and carried before the Emperour and by him sent Prisoner to the Castle of Alexander NOr did the Ravishers of the Princesses find Fortune more favourable to them in the other Engagement but Number overcome by Vertue the juster party became victorious The great King of Scythia discovering upon so noble an occasion that Valour which had made him so famous all over the World had dealt in a manner as many deaths as blows The invincible Artaban fighting for Elisa nay fighting for himself had shown himself to be the same Artaban on whose Sword depended the fates of Empires The valiant Arminius no less gallant in those emergencies wherein his Glory then where his Love and the Liberty of his Country were concerned had performed actions truely miraculous And their three generous Companions whose Arms kept their faces from being discovered though they were not known had made themselves remarkable as well to those against whom they were engag'd as those who had seconded them in their design for three of the most valiant men in the world They had already covered the ground with the bodies of their enemies and had but little further employment for their valour when the same Fortune which had brought thither Alcamenes Artaban and Arminius led into the same place Agrippa and Drusus and not long after appeared the Emperour with the greatest part of those accompanyed him Upon this sight what was remaining of the Enemies hardly put those last come to the trouble of drawing their Swords and sought in their flight a safety which it would not be hard for them to find as having to do with enemies that had no great desires to pursue them Onely one among them more faithfull then his Companions not daunted at the danger he was in would not stir from his Master who was laid along at the Foot of a Tree by reason of a blow he had received over the head from the dreadfull Artaban and being carefull of him out of the affection he had for his service he quite forgot in the extremity wherein he saw him the design he had to conceal himself and taking off his Casque to give him more air discovered him to be Tigranes King of Media Having been onely put into some disorder by the weighty blow he had received on the head and that the wounds he had in some other parts were not considerable he recovered himself as soon as he had his head disarm'd and looking all about him he saw the greatest part of his men laid on the ground and was thereby satisfi'd of the miscarriage of his enterprize The grief he conceiv'd thereat forced a deep sigh from him but his affliction became more insupportable when he saw Artaban of the victorious party among the rescuers of Elisa and call'd to mind that it was from his hand he had receiv'd the dangerous blow which made him fall among the dead The rage he was in hindred him to speak he onely asked the person from whom he had receiv'd that assistance what was become of Tiberius and Cornelius and the man not able to give him any account of Tiberius shew'd him Cornelius who with much ado made a shift to get up after the blow he had receiv'd from the King of Soythia and who still bleeding for better support was forc'd to lean against a tree Neither party had the time to make long reflections on their fortune and the valiant defenders of the Princesses were hardly returned to them while Agrippa and Drusus having taken notice of Tigranes and Cornelius who to breath more freely had put up the visour of his Casque were giving order they should be reliev'd when Caesar came in with all his glorious attendance and seem'd extreamly astonish'd at so strange a spectacle He saw on one side the three Princesses not recover'd out of the fright they had been in though they had their Champions about them whereof the three last he soon knew but not the three former whom by reason they were all armed he could not have the knowledge of and on the other above thirty men either dead or dying of the wounds wherein was remarkable the strength of those arms that had been the occasion of them and among others Tigranes and Cornelius whom their hurts and the grief they conceived at the ill success of their enterprize had made neglectfull of concealing themselves and their engagements in an action for which they were in all likelihood to fear the effects of his just resentment He briefly understood from Agrippa some part of what had happened and desirous of further information from Tigranes himself after he was come up close to him yet without alighting What is it I see Tigranes said he to him and upon what occasion have you received those wounds The confusion the King of Media was in would not for some time suffer him to make any reply but the Emperour having put the same question to him a second time I have endeavoured my Lord replyed
he thought himself obliged to the attempt of his enemies upon him since it had proved an occasion of his gaining my acquaintance and that if he might purchase my Friendship he would value it beyond all he had lost through the cruelty of the King of Parthia Having in consequence to this had an account of my Fortune and understood that I had neither Countrey nor any Revenues but what I derived from my Sword he intreated me with affectionate tears to become Master of all that Fortune had left him told me that Death having deprived him of his onely Son he should think him self but too happy if I would take his place and be to him in stead of a Son that he desired not I should pass away my life in solitude and that it was but just I employ'd to advance my self a Sword which would haply one day raise me to a Throne but in the interim that I would accept in order to the prosecution of my designs part of what he had to dispose and that if Fortune either by the change or death of Phraates restored him to those great possessions which he had left among the Parthians I should have as much command there as if I were his own Son and that it would be the greatest satisfaction in the World to him he might leave them to me at his death as if I were descended from him The acknowledgments of that good Prince moved me in such manner that I could not receive so many discoveries thereof without confusion and they withal raised in me so much affection and respect for him that had I really been his Son I could not have honoured him more He in a short time recovered of his wounds but it was impossible for me to part with him so soon and had he not been jealous of my reputation and perswaded I was born for great things he would never have been content I should have left him During my abode with him we understood that the King of Armenia had been beaten out of all the advantages he had gain'd by the relief which his enemy had received from the Prince of Cilicia and King of Cappadocia and that thereupon a Peace had been concluded between them by the interposition of Augustus who had employed his Authority to reconcile them But soon after came news that Tigranes had hardly the time to breathe by the peace made with the Armenian but the King of Parthia dissatisfied with him upon some slight occasions and as was reported partly for the refuge he had afforded Artanez brought a War upon him and went in person into Media with a powerful Army putting all to Fire and Sword and leaving every where the horrid examples of his cruelty Having heard all the world speak with horrour of the inhumanity of Phraates and that the affection I had for Artanez obliged me to hate his persecutor I immediately felt a certain inclination within me to serve Tigranes against the King of Parthia and all my thoughts being bent upon the War I thought I could not meet with a nobler occasion nor one more suitable to my humour to give Artanez some assurances of the acknowledgments I had for his Friendship I had no sooner made the Proposition to him but he approv'd it and that so much the rather for that this obliged me to be nearer him then would those occasions of War which I should have sought out elsewhere and when he saw that his concernment and the aversion I had couceived against his enemy in some measure obliged me thereto it much heightned the affection he had for me But telling him upon the discovery of my design that if I engag'd my self in the service of Tigranes I would change my name as having under that of Britomarus done service for the King of Armenia against Tigranes which no doubt had made it known to him and might have raised some resentment in him against me I am clearly of your opinion said he to me and think it not fit you should present your self to Tigranes under the name of Britomarus or at least not discover it to him till such time as you have by some signal action forced out of his thoughts the resentment which your past actions may have raised in him against you But since you think it requisite to change your name let me intreat you by all the Friendship you have promised me and by all that I have for you to take that of Artaban who was my Son by bloud but as to affection was not more mine then you are it is by that name of Artaban that I first called you and I have a certain inspiration that under that name of Artaban I shall one day see you advanced beyond your own expectations I willingly took on me the name which Artanez was pleased to give me with this protestation that he who had born it had not had a more sincere respect for him then that which I should have while I lived But to what end Madam should I tire you with a long discourse of a businesse of so little consequence In fine though I was much against it Artanez treating me as his Son as he had given me his name ordered me a Retinue much more noble then what I had brought with me out of Armenia went himself along with me to King Tigranes and presented me to him as a person of admirable valour and one whom he was obliged to for his life He made no mention to him of Britomarus but gave such a character of me as obliged him upon his aecount to put me upon a very honourable employment What happened to me afterward is Madam come to your knowledge and you have not forgotten that Tigranes was unfortunate and lost several Battels and part of his Kingdome while I had but an inferiour command about him But when by certain degrees which I run through suddenly enough I came to the place of General and that Tigranes trusted me with the absolute command of his Army you know Fortune put on another face I gained many Battels and so proceeded to those other actions of my life which you have had an account of During that time I often saw Artanez who with an excess of joy was confirmed in the hopes he had conceived of me and when Tigranes's breach of promise the service of the Princess and my own Destiny had made me quit his party to come into yours Artanez's affection towards me continued the same Nay I prevailed with the King to suffer him to live in his solitude and to forbear all further attempts on his life but durst not sollicite for his return into Parthia not out of a fear of incurring the displeasure of Phraates for I would have run a greater hazard to serve such a Friend but least I might unadvisedly expose him to the mercy of a man near whom I could never have thought him secure what engagement soever he might give me thereof During the War
very Kings who by the loss of so many millions of men have satisfied all the world of the hatred and detestation which they have for the Roman name Our security is all I endeavour and not the revenge of those injuries which we have received from those of that Bloud and Nation those I am willing to forget and to enter with you and also with him who shall marry the Princess Elisa into the Alliance you so much desire and by the means to assure you that the Imprisonment of Artaban is not likely to prove dangerous to him as being no more then a precaution to secure the quiet of a great Empire You may if you please continue among us till the discovery which I expect oblige me to set him at liberty and if your intentions are otherwise you are free to depart and shall receive from me all manner of assistance and accommodations to return into your own Dominions To this effect was the Emperours discourse much to the astonishment of the Princess and the Queen her Mother and he had hardly put a period thereunto when Tigranes addressing himself to him with a confidence derived from the intelligence which was between them My Lord said he to him though Artaban be my professed enemy yet shall I not say any thing to you as to his imprisonment or the reasons that have obliged you to secure him but as to the departure of the Princess Elisa you will give me leave to oppose it and to demand justice of you both against a Mother and against a people that design her any other Husband then him whom she hath solemnly received from the King her Father The desire I have ever had to continue such legal pretensions and that passion which I have not been able to master forced me upon an enterprise contrary to the respect which I owe you and since you have had the goodness to pardon it you will also have the justice to restore me my Wife or at least give me leave to dispute her with all those who would take her away from me The Queen was going to make Tigranes some answer when the Princess by a submissive gesture having demanded permission to answer him her self and putting on a resolution which was more then natural in her Tigranes said she to him I know not why you continue your cruel persecutions against a Princess that hath deserved neither your hatred nor your affection you know the Emperour hath already acknowledged the injustice of your pretensions and I have his own word and promise whereby he hath assured me of his protection against you You have saith the Emperour interrupting her slighted that protection and ought not to alledge it in such an occasion wherein I cannot refuse those justice who demand it of me The Queen enduring this discourse with much impatience as being injurious to her Dignity If Tigranes be your Vassal said she to the Emperour you may do him justice but you know that the Kings of Parthia never demanded any such thing of the Romans and that their power is not derived from any but that of the Gods so that though we are now exposed to yours in our present fortune yet you will give me leave to tell you that you have no right to dispose of my Daughter nor yet to detain her since she is neither by birth your subject nor by War your prisoner I know replies the Emperour not a little vexed at that discourse that she is neither my subject nor my prisoner and it is for that reason that if she be Wife to Tigranes I cannot take her away from him to put her into your power nor deny him the liberty to demand his Wife no more then I can you of demanding your Daughter Elisa is my Daughter replies the Queen of Parthia but she is not Wife to Tigranes and if she were there were no need of your Authority to oblige her to follow a Husband whom her duty would force her to run fortunes with all the world over You are not ignorant that formalities observed towards Ambassadors without any consent of my Daughter cannot make any absolute Marriage that the design which her Father had to effect it hath not been effected and that Elisa being freed by his death may well refuse that man for her Husband whom she would not accept during his life These Reasons replies the Emperour are such as you might alledge before those whom the Gods or your own choice shall establish Judges of your differences but in the mean time since it belongs not to me to do justice in this case you will not take amiss that I forbare the doing of injury and violence to a King who notwithstanding what I had done against him in the behalf of the Princess Elisa hath nevertheless a confidence of my impartiality The Queen and Princess were satisfied by this discourse that the Emperour was resolved to detain them though they could not but imagine that it was the concernment of Agrippa and not that of Tigranes that so much prevailed with him and it was with much a-do that they expressed a moderation when so great an injustice was done them and forbore to tell him that it was upon the account of Agrippa that he did it and not upon that of the King of Media But considering withal that it were not safe for them to incense a person who could do any thing and that their intention was not to depart from Alexandria and leave Artaban a prisoner there they endeavoured to smother their resentment yet could not do it so but that in some measure it appeared in their countenances and in some measure in the discourse of the Queen I see then said she to the Emperour rising off the chair where she was sate that we are not to expect much favour from you and that we as well as Artaban are prisoners in Alexandria but the Gods who sees the intreatment we receive and the right you have to do it will be Judges between us and will haply deliver us out of a misfortune into which we are fallen meerly out of the confidence which we have had in the Laws of Nations and the respect due to Royal Dignity With these words the went out of the Closet together with the Princess after she had demanded leave of the Emperour to visit Artaban which he durst not refuse her as unwilling to make too manifest a discovery of injustice and animosity They would needs go to him before they returned to their Lodgings and in their way met the King of Scythia the the King of Armenia and the Prince of Cilicia who had been at their Lodgings to give them a visit and were desirous to see them to assure them of the concernment which they took in what had happened to them As they were coming towards them Elisa acquainted the Queen her Mother who they were who with much joy entertained Princes of so great fame especially Alcamenes whose reputation
was so full of miracles The worthinesse of their persons satisfied her that what she had heard of them was but their due and thereupon she received them according to their worth and rank in the world These great Princes being such as from whom it could not be expected they should have a servile compliance for any man such as out of any base consideration or fear to displease Caesar should hinder them from following their own generous inclinations especially the the King of Scythia who knew no superior in the world They satisfied the Queen and the Princess her Daughter how much they concern'd themselves in all had happened to them as well to the death of Phraates and the acknowledgment of Artaban to be a Prince of the Bloud-Royal of Parthia as to the imprisonment of Artaban and what might be the consequence thereof as real Friends and Princes whom nothing should oblige to conceal their own sentiments According to the present exigence of their Fortunes they proffered them all the assistance they could and as to the sequel thereof all that they might hope for from Allies The Queen having given them thanks with all the civility due to such illustrious persons and Princes who expressed their inclinations towards them in so ticklish a conjuncture Alcamenes intreated the Queen and Princess to pardon him if he expressed more joy at the acknowledgement of Artaban to be of such birth as he had ever wish'd him then trouble at his imprisonment wherin he saw not any thing to fear doubted not but that he should soon see him King of Parthia and that he would confirm with him the Alliance they had already designed together Ariobarzanes and Philadelph expressed themselves much to the same purpose and having understood that they went to visit him they were desirous all three to accompany them but being come to the door Varus how much soever he might respect their Dignity told them that he durst not admit them in without order from the Emperour who had onely commanded that the Queen and Princess might be allowed to visit him The three Princes went away from the door with loud discoveries of their resentment at the refusal and expressed their discontent in words which sufficiently signified that they were not slaves to the Fortune of Augustus But though these great Princes were denied entrance another person being alone and not richly clothed made a shift to get in either as belonging to Artaban or the Princess and was not so much observ'd as to oblige Varus to hinder him from coming in Artaban comes out of the Closet where they had left him alone to receive the Queen and Princess in the Chamber and being come to them fell on one knee before the Queen and with much submission acknowledged the honour she did him The Queen raising him up embraced him and discovered to him that she as well as the Princess had her countenance bathed in tears That of Artaban seem'd the same it had ever been insomuch that he was not any way moved but by the grief which he observed in their countenances The Chamber being full of Souldiers and Artaban having told them that he had the freedom of the Closet they would needs go into it to avoid the presence of those unwelcom witnesses leaving two or three of their Women in the Chamber to hinder any from coming to the Closet door to over-hear their discourse But the person who was gotten in with the Queen followed her into the Closet and kept behind the Women that went in with her The Queen and Princess having their thoughts taken up otherwise took no notice of him nor did Artaban observe him as taking him for one of the Queens retinue When she was sat down and the Princess by her Artaban with much acknowledgement and submission renewed his thanks for the favour they did him and after he had made the greatest expressions he could of his resentment thereof he intreated them not to fear any thing as to his imprisonment which in all likelihood would not prove dangerous to him telling them it was onely an effect of Augustus his Friendship towards Agrippa and the desire he had to disturb his Fortune to divert it to his Favourite that those things were acted no question without the knowledge of Agrippa whose vertue was such as he would not permit them if he were acquainted therewith that it could not come into his thoughts that Augustus should resolve his ruine since that thereby he in all likelihood quitted all hopes of Elisa's being married to Agrippa and as for the pretence which he had taken from his intelligence with Caesario it was of no great concernment since he could only be charged with being present at a discourse where the Princess Elisa and the Princesse Cleopatra had been also and whereof the particulars since they were come to the knowledge of Augustus were enough to vindicate him To this Artaban added many other reasons to clear the minds of the Queen and Princess of the obliging sadness which he observed in them and when he had given over speaking the Queen whom all his discourses could not satisfie no more then the Princess her Daughter acquainted him with the visit which they had made to the Emperour how they had there met with Tigranes and all the conversation which had there passed between them as well with Augustus as the King of Media Artaban out of respect hearkened to their discourse with much patience though he found it no small difficulty to suffer without resentment both the injustice of Caesar and the proceedings of Tigranes and seeing the Queen expected what he would say upon that occasion Madam said he to her if you and the Princess continue towards me that goodness whereof I receive such glorious expressions I shall little fear the competition of Tigranes as being confident that Augustus hath no thoughts of favouring him and onely brings him upon the Stage meerly to retard your departure and making his advantage of time endeavour with some appearance of justice the satisfaction of Agrippa All this business is full of Artifice and unworthy a great Soul and were I but once more in the head of those very Parthians whom I have commanded in your service I should not onely make the King of Media quit all his pretensions but haply find trouble enough for him that sets him on work and fondly believes that all the earth should submit to his power I am apt to believe added the Queen that the power of the Parthians should not be despicable in the apprehension of the Romans and that they have felt it such though things were not carried on by the conduct of an Artaban it is the assurance which Augustus hath of your valour that puts me into the greater fear for you it being not unlikely he should rather wish that the Parthians had such a King as Tigranes then as Artaban But the Artifice he is forced to make use of to detain
have for Elisa This desire of the Queens is so just added the Princess that I cannot imagine you will make any difficulty to satisfie it and my confidence in the affection you have for me is such as I dare hope greater demonstrations of it Artahan all submission for the commands of Elisa immediately smothered all the repugnances he had to conceal the glorious name of Pompey And though his thoughts were already upon such designs as would make it more known in the world than haply it had been in the triumphs of his Father nay to make it a terrour even to those who had ruin'd him yet finding much reason and likelihood in the Queens discourse and reflecting how highly he had been obliged by the Princesses who had not slighted him for a husband and son in law while he was yet but son to Briton he thought he could not without ingratitude but comply with their desires and thereupon assured them that how glorious soever it were to him to make the world sensible of his being son to Pompey yet all gave way to the obedience he had for the advice of a Queen and Princess to whom he both was and would be obliged for all things and that what condition soever they might out of their goodness raise him to he should never forget the generosity they had exprest towards a person who had received nothing from Fortune but his sword nor to the last gasp quit that happy name of Artaban under which he had the glory to serve the Princess Elisa After such expressions of himself and that resolution taken the Queen dismiss'd him to the caresses of Briton who was so transported with joy that he could hardly contain himself Artaban on the other side satisfying him that though he ceased to be his son yet was the affection he had for him no less than if he had been his true father as finding greater reasons to love him upon the account of his education and his faithful and generous deportment towards him then upon the obligation of birth The Queen and Princess entertained him with great demonstrations of their esteem and all put him into hopes that his last days should be more happy and more glorious then all the precedent part of his life had been Mean time Sempronius had acquainted Caesar with Cleopatra's resolution concerning the way proposed to her to save Coriolanus's life by a marriage with Tiberius upon an assurance from Coriolanus's own mouth that he would accept of his life upon those terms Augustus Livia nay Tiberius himself conceived little hope from that answer of Cleopatra's as concluding from the knowledge they had of the great courage of Juba's son that questionless he would prefer death before the loss of Cleopatra and so they imagined it was only to have the opportunity to see the Prince that she had sent Sempronus back with that message They were a good while in consulting whether they should permit that interview it being Tiberius's fear it might destroy all that had been done in order to his satisfaction but at last they thought it should be granted though but to oblige Cleopatra to make an absolute discovery of her intentions that it could not be prejudicial as things stood with her and the Prince nay that it was not impossible but that the fear of present death and that such as appears with a much different face from that which it hath in combats might shake Coriolanus's constancy It was therefore resolved that Cleopatra should visit Coriolanus in the Castle where he was in restraint that Sempronius should attend her thither and that she should not speak to the Prince but in the presence of Sempronius and Levinus Sempronius was the person employed to bring her this order She received him in her chamber where she was with her brothers Queen Candace Antonia and Artemisa She hearkned to Sempronius with much patience and moderation And when he had delivered his message I am content Sempronius said she to him to go along with you to the Prison where Coriolanus is I shall speak to him in your presence as having nothing in my thoughts which I dare not discover and do any thing he shall desire me to save a life which I value much beyond my own With those words she immediately prepared for her departure inflamed with impatience to see her beloved Prince whom she had so little seen since the discovery of his fidelity had set him right in her thoughts The Princesses her Brothers would have accompanied her and Antonia and Artemisa would have gone along but Sempronius told them the Emperour had given him order to the contrary The two Princesses were extremely troubled at it and the three Princesses loudly exprest their sentiment of the rigorous treatment they received in a City which brought into their memory all the old injuries and might put them upon a design to shake off the unjust yoke imposed upon them Candace who was no less desirous to see Caesario then Cleopatra was to see Coriolanus sent to the Emperour to desire his permission to do it but it would not be granted upon which cruel refusal almost out of her self with grief after she had detested the inflexibility and injustice of Augustus she out of the greatness of her courage sought out the means to oppose his Tyrannie and deliver her Caesario out of the captivity and danger he was in by other ways than intreaties and tears The incomparable daughter of Anthony went out of the Palace alone attended by her women and Sempronius with some of the Emperours Guard and taking leave of her Brothers and the Princesses she left in her chamber she embraced them and bid them adieu as if she had been to go a long and dangerous journey The old Castle of Alexandria where the Princes were secured was at an extremity of the City that had on one side the sea and was fortified towards the City with a deep and broad moat having been the seat of the ancient Kings of Egypt before the late Ptolomies built the sumptuous Palace which Queen Cleopatra had finished it was commodious enough to serve for other uses than what it was then put to there being in it some Lodgings not only convenient but magnificent There were the sons of Juba and Caesar in restraint both with little hope of deliverance thence other than that of death as having learnt either by experience or the reputation spread abroad of him that Augustus was no less implacable towards his enemies and those whom upon consideration of policy he was jealous of then kinde and obliging towards his friends and those whom no concernment of State put him into any fear of Upon this reflection they both had present death in their thoughts yet how cruel soever it might be to persons in the height of blood and youth all its terrours troubled not their mindes so much as the remembrance of their Princesses Notwithstanding the danger they were in the lively
love for Antonia as to have the courage to embrace the resolution you have taken I know the affection and enjoyment of Antonia ought not to be expected by the son and brother of the persecutors and implacable enemies of her house but am sensible withal that I cannot but dying quit the hope I had conceived thereof and I will satisfie both Antonia and your self who do me all the justice you should upon this occasion how little I am concerned in the cruel design of your enemies by exposing my self first to their cruelty and punishing that of Livia by the death of Drusus as you would that of Augustus by the loss of Marcellus Prince Marcellus admiring this generous design of Drusus came to him with his arms spread and embracing him with much tenderness Ah Drusus said he to him your vertue fills me with shame and confusion but the discovery you now make of it was more then needed to produce the effect you desire and as I am satisfied that your sentiments have ever been different from those of Livia and Tiberius so are you to assure your self that our resentment was never directed against you and that we never had any intention to make you lose what you had but too highly deserved from the affections of Antonia Live for her sake since she hath been so fortunate as to gain such a heart as yours and be confident that all the misfortunes whereto the authority of Livia hath exposed us cannot change the inclinations we have for your vertue nor make us repent the joy we have conceived at the good fortune of our sister What you say proceeds from abundance of generosity replies Drusus but it is as contrary to your intentions as it is favourable to mine since I must entertain sentiments so obliging with more acknowledgment then can admit my desertion of their interests and fortunes to whom I am so highly engaged Ah Drusus saye the Princess Cleopatra to him with much mildness preserve your self though but to comfort Antotonia in the grief which no doubt the will be in at our loss I owe replies the Prince this demonstration of a love whereof she hath hitherto received but slight expressions and certainly this opportunity is no more then I stood in need of to perswade her to that which all my past actions have not been able to do Coriolanus who had not yet spoken to Drusus thinking himself obliged to express his sentiments of what he did I durst not said he to him joyn my entreaties to those of Cleopatra and Marcellus out of a fear they might not be well taken by a brother of Tiberius's but I can assure you that as all the inconveniences I have by his means undergone have not diverted me from the acknowledgment and esteem I should have for your vertue so do I not to perswade either Marcellus or any of the house of Antonia see any necessity of the discovery whereto you expose your self If you have had an esteem for me replies Drusus I assure you I have ever admired you and that all the concernments of my brother have not hindred me from paying that to your worth which all acknowledg due to it This reason may add somewhat to all the rest to perswade you if you will not receive me as a Hostage against your enemies to entertain me as a companion of your fortune and if Sempronius stays only for this declaration that he may give Cesar and Livia a full account of our resolutions he need stay no longer Nor shall I says Sempronius to him but go and with Cesar and Livia amaze all the world that two Princes such as Marcellus and Drusus should disclaim the interests of Cesar and their own house to joyn with their enemies Whereupon he left the room and going out of the Castle went to the Palace to give Cesar an account of what passed among those Illustrious persons The whole Court was in sadness and disturbance when he came thither especially all the house of Octavia That generous Princess after she had ineffectually made her application to Augustus with whom the interest of Livia made the sollicitations of all others fruitless was preparing to go to the Castle with her daughters the children of Anth. to get Cleo. thence but the Emperour staid her out of a confidence that Marcellus would bring her along with him upon which hope they were in some impatience for the return of Marcellus when Sempronius came thither immediately gave Augustus a true relation of all that had passed not disguising any thing and by that discourse instead of raising any tenderness in him at the action of Marcellus he put him into the most violent indignation he had ever been in What cryes he Marcellus that Marcellus whom I loved not only as my son but haply as my self that Marcellus for whom I designed both my daughter and the place I have in the world disclaims my party to embrace that of my enemies and persers the friendship of a Babarian before that of Caesar his Father and Benefactor Ah unworthy ah ungrateful person continued he walking up and down extreamly incensed I will punish thy ingratitude and baseness and will begin thy punishment by the death of that African which he shall suffer before thy face While he was speaking he perceives the Empress coming into the room and going to meet her Madam said he to her you are treated by Drusus as I am by Marcellus and your son guilty of an ingratitude great as that of my Nephew disclaims all friendship with his brother and mother and betrays his honour to take part with that enemy who hath so often sheathed his sword in his brothers breast Livia who had a greater affection for Drusus then she had for Tiberius was extremely troubled at that account of him but being one that had an excellent command of her wit she in some measure stifled her grief before the Emperour the better to perswade him that she was less sensible of what had happened to her self then what had befallen him My Lord said she to him Drusus's offence is yet more heinous then Marcellus's and though he may pretend the love he hath for Antonia as a colour for this extravagance and so neglect the revenging of a brother upon a man who had never been his friend as he was to Prince Marcellus yet am I less troubled at his ingratitude then at that of Marcellus because you should be less sensible of it and that the injury you receive from Marcellus is so much the greater by how much his person is dearer to you I shall make him know added the Emperor that I am his Master when I cease to be his father and before this day be over he shall bewail in tears of blood the offence he hath committed Upon which words unwilling to delay any longer the effects of his resentment and the resolution he had taken he commanded Petronius and Aquilius to go along with Sempronius
towards me nay though I am satisfied that neither Caesar nor Queen Cleopatra had any hand in the last misfortunes of Pompey and that it is not unlikely Caesar would have been moderate in the advantages of his fortune if that of Pompey would have permitted it yet I entertaine the proffer you make me of your friendship as a pure effect of your Vertue and am to assure you that next to the obligations I have to Candace there is not any thing I more value Whereupon embracing one another upon the new confirmation of their Friendship Artaban gave Caesario a short account of the particulars of his birth and the assurances he had of it as he had received them from Briton By this time night was drawing on and the Princes having caused a distribution to be made of what provisions there were in the Castle found much to their grief there was hardly to afford a light repast for so many persons and that the next day they must either be miraculously supplyed from heaven or suffer through hunger what they had avoided by the sword The Princesses and Princes made that poor meale with much constancy neither Cleopatra nor Candace discovering any thing of weakness upon so strange a misfortune Coriolanus and Caesario seem'd the only persons troubled as reflecting it was upon their account that their Princesses and Friends were fallen into that extremity and the grief which seemed to be legible in the countenances of Artaban Drusus and Alexander proceeded from their remembrances of Elisa Antonia and Artemisa rather than the danger that threatned them Drusus and Alexander discovered so much the less because they had left their Princesses safe among their Friends and feared not any thing might happen to them but Artaban was much in disturbance and though he were resolved out of a consideration of honour to perish with his Friends if he could not avoid it and had a courage great enough to face death without any trouble yet could he not reflect that Elisa was in the power of Augustus and that to be revenged for the injury he had that day received he might force her to marry Agrippa without an affliction that proved extremely a torment to him He was upon the rack of those considerations when Coriolanus and Caesario came to communicate their grief to him and ask his advice in the extremity they were reduced to and all the Princes being called to deliberate together what resolution should be taken it was without any contradiction resolved that when the night was a little advanced they should endeavour to force their way through the Guards and with the Princesses and all the men that were in the Castle endeavour to break through the Enemy on that side which led to the Ethiopian ships not but that the execution of this enterprise would prove difficult and dangerous yet was it to be embraced before the death they were assured of in the Castle being of that kind which was most unworthy their courage This resolution taken about an hour after they set things in order for the execution of it and the Princes having satisfied the souldiery of the necessity there was they should behave themselves gallantly Coriolanus Artaban and Caesario led them on and ordered the two Princesses with their women to come behind conducted by Marcellus Drusus and the three sons of Anthony That illustrious company consisting of what was most great in the world either as to Valour or Beauty went in that posture out of the Castle with a courage no less remarkable in the Princesses than the Princes and the three Chiefes who had severally commanded so great armies and were now all reduced to the command of so small a number fell in with such fury upon a guard placed almost at the end of the bridge and immediately forced it with such success that having cut some to pieces the rest fled in disorder to the next post This not only encouraged the souldiers but put their valiant commanders into some hope but when turning their faces towards the sea they would charge those that kept the passage that way they found their attempts would prove ineffectual the wayes being made up with barricadoes and great beames and maintained by above two thousand souldiers commanded by valiant men So that having set upon them very desperately but to little purpose and perceiving it impossible to get through and that upon the loss of some of their men the rest were unwilling to advance upon a design absolutely desperate they were forced to make what hast they could towards the Castle having out of a prudent foresight lest Briton and Eteocles at the end of the Bridge with fifty men to prevent the enemy from getting into it during the engagement and accordingly Marcellus Drusus and the Sons of Anthony conconducted the Princesses thither while Artaban Caesario and Coriolanus made their retreat so as to keep the Enemy in play till they came to the Castle gate into which they were the last that entred Upon this last act of misfortune was it that griefe and exasperation wrought their saddest effects in the two Princes who saw so many illustrious persons that were dear to them exposed to certain death upon their account Caesario fell at the feet of Candace to divert her from the design she had to dye with him and intreated his Brothers to leave him in an extremity wherein he could make no advantage of their generosity He pressed the same thing to the Great Artaban putting him in mind of his obligations to Elisa and representing to him that he should slight all things for the service of that Princess But the son of Juba was transported in such manner as would have raised compassion in the most insensible hearts and betraying what might be thought the effects of weakness in him had he been reduced thereto out of any respect to himself he endeavoured both by words and tears to prevail with those persons in whom the expectation of sudden death produced no such effect to leave him to his own misfortunes He lay prostrate at the feet of Cleopatra washing them with his tears and with much ado recovering the freedome of speech if ever said he to her Love begat compassion in any soul and if you would have me at the period of my life flatter my self with the glory of having been loved by my Princess my adored Princess by that love which I shall inviolably preserve in the other life by all you acknowledge sacred and in submission to those Deities whom you have ever reverenced and now incense by the injustice you do me force me not to die the most terrible kind of death my Enemies could have invented for me and think it enough that after the example of the Queen your Mother you have satisfied the world how easily you can slight death for his sake whom you love without exercising to the utmost this strange kind of cruelty upon me For in fine imagine not that when
you are still Agrippa and that you discover the greatness of your soul no less in the conquest of your passions then in reducing the enemies of the Empire Whereupon turning to the Queen of Parthia Madam said he to her you have heard the discourse of Agrippa and accordingly since his desires are so rational it shall not be my sault if Artaban be not happy and you satisfied I crave your pardon for the trouble I have caused you upon an account which will in some measure oblige you to excuse it when you shall understand it and I hope you will not refuse me the friendship and alliance I intend to make with you before you leave our territories Elisa's satisfaction was so great at this discourse of Augustus that all her modesty was not able to smother it and the Queen in whom her expressions of it were more allowable made her acknowledgments to the Emperour in the most obliging terms she possibly could In the mean time Coriolanus Cleopatra and Mercellus were at the Empresses feet to thank her for the favour she had done them acknowledging themselves obliged to her for their enjoyments and lives and though she looked on the credit of Marcellus with some jealousie yet had she embraced him as her Son assured Coriolanus that she could not forbear loving a person who had saved the Emperours life and said to Cleopatra that since she was not willing to be her daughter by a marriage with Tiberius she expected she would be by the affection she would ever have for her She told him further that what Drusus had done for them should remit somewhat of the resentment they had against her and which she was willing to pardon for their sakes and Antonia's This past the Emperour turned to the King of Scythia and craved his pardon that he had been so backward to comply with his desires intreating him to forget it and continue his friend While he was speaking to him Octavia and her Daughters embraced one while Cleopatra another Marcellus and caressed them as persons returned out of the other world and such as they had lamented as either dead or ready to suffer death After those mutual embraces of the Sisters Marcellus and Drusus did their submissions to Julia and Antonia and if Marcellus observed in Julia a certain dissatisfaction that he had done that upon the account of friendship which he had never done upon that of love Drusus on the contrary read in the countenance of Antonia that she was sensible in the highest manner that could be of what he had done for her Relations These entertainments might well have taken up the whole day but it was fit they thought of the besieged Princes and Queen Candace for fear any thing should happen that might interrupt their joy The Emperor immediately sent officers to draw off the forces that were about the Castle and would needs have Marcellus Coriolanus and Drusus go themselves with Mccenas Domitius and divers others to conduct the Queen and Princes from the Castle to the Palace They departed without anydelay and their diligence was no more than needed for just as they were got before to the Castle and that according to the Emperours orders the Officers made way for them the surious Artaban and the valiant son of Cesar with the three sons of Anthony preserring the death they might receive from the points of their enemies swords before starving and encouraged by Queen Candace her self who would not expect death behind dead walls were letting down the draw-bridg to run desperately upon the first party they met with and the terrible Artaban was already come over the bridg with a fury which notwithstanding their number struck a terrour in those who were first to oppose his passage when the Princes his friends discovered themselves to him and his valiant companions and they at the same time saw the Emperours forces drawing off according to the orders they had received Artaban and Caesario made a halt somewhat astonished at the sight and Marcellus running to them and embracing them with transportations of joy acquainted them with the happiness of Goriolanus and their own with a passion which satisfied them that he was no less glad thereof than they might be themselves Though the Princes entertained the news with that great courage which neither misfortune could abate nor prosperity heighten yet could they not but be sensible of such good fortune but much more out of a respect to the Princesses they loved than themselves and if Cesario were glad to see his fair Queen escaped the death which had threatned her not long before the son of Pompey could not without an excess of satisfaction understand that he was called to the enjoyment of Elisa and that his fortunes were in such a posture as to defie all obstacles Yet was there still one rub in his way though inconsiderable in comparison of those he had over-mastered for assoon as the three Princes were gone out of the Palace-hall and the noise which these great adventures had raised there a little abated Tigranes came to the Emperour and after he had made his complaints to him that he had bestowed Elisa on Artaban without minding his interest he intreated him not to doe him the injustice and to permit him to prosecute those hopes which some dayes before he had encouraged him to conceive But the Emperour interrupting him at the beginning of his discourse Tigranes said he to him I advise you not to oppose any longer the fortune of of Artaban the Queen would have him for her son Elisa for her husband the Parthians for their King and you are not desired by any You will find it no easie matter to overcome all these difficulties though you were more powerful then you are and besides you are not disengaged of your promise to the Princess of Cappadocia nor have decided the difference there is between you and the King her Brother who whether friend or enemy is not to be slighted Follow my counsel endeavour your own quiet by performing your promise and satisfying a Friend whom you are obliged to for you Crown all will countenance you in that design where as in the other you meet with opposition of all sides To this discourse of the Emperour Ariobarzanes as also Alcameues joyning with them represented so many things to Tigranes that despairing the enjoyment of Elisa he told him that if Archelaus and Urania would forget the injury he had done them and never urge it against him he would make good his promise and marry Urania The Emperour undertook for Archelaus and having thereupon caused those two Kings to embrace one the other he determined their differences and setled that marriage to the satisfaction of many persons especially Philadelph Things were thus far composed when Queen Candace Artaban Cesario and their companions entred the Palace Augustus went to meet them and coming to Artaban first Are you content to be my friend said he to him if
lover who passed not away the evening with the person he particularly loved even to Tigranes who with some confusion renewed his addresses to Urania There seemed to be some rub in the happiness of Philadelph by reason of the scruples of Arsinoe who made some difficulty to marry him though she infinitely loved him before he were assured of his Father the King of Cilicia's consent whom she knew to be much averse to the Alliance of Armenia but as good fortune would have it the next day after these great accidents had happened there arrived at Alexandria certain Deputies from the Kingdome of Cilicia whose business it was to acquaint the Prince with his Fathers death and his being King of Cilicia so that Philadelph having rendred to nature what might be expected from him resigned himself absolutely to the embraces of his amiable Delia and proffered her with his person the Crown which was then fallen to him The Emperour made also some difficulty to bestow Ismenia on Arminius as being Daughter to an Allie of the Romans and one that mortally hated Arminius conceiving he should not do an Allie such a displeasure as without his consent to bestow his Daughter on his enemy but Julia and Agrippa who much concerned themselves in the enjoyments of those two Lovers took away that obstacle by obliging Arminius to make an Alliance with the Romans and protest he would court that of Segestes as of his Father Arminius promised friendship and service to the Romans Varus only excepted who had made him a Gladiator with whom he desied all reconciliation and assured the Emperour that he would never engage in any War against his subjects conditionally he would never send Varus into his countrey which if he did he would not undertake to lye quiet but by all manner of wayes Prosecute the aversion he had against that cruel enemy who of a soveraign Prince had made him a Gladiator Augustus excused the earnestness of his resentment and was content he should upon these terms marry Ismenia before he left Alexandria assuring himself that he would engage Segestes s consent thereto He had some intentions also to defer the marriages of Marcellus and Drusus till his return to Rome where he would have them celebrated in the sight of the People of the City with that of Agrippa whose indisposition suffered him not to think so soon of marriage But those two Princes cast themselves at his feet and made it so earnestly their suit to him that their felicity might not be deferred any more then that of all the rest that at last he was content and would honour the City of Alexandria with the marriage of his Daughter as also with those of all the most considerable persons upon earth But to what end should I spin out any longer the closure of these adventures At last after the impatient expectation of so many illustrious Lovers the happy and so much desired day being come the City of Alexandria saw the greatest solemnity that ever any City in the world did and the Temple of Isis was made celebrious by the noblest assembly and most important ceremony that ever had been seen in any age There it was that the indissoluble knot was ty'd between Coriolanus or Juba for with a Crown he resumed the name of his Ancestors and his divine Cleopatra Artaban and the excellent Elisa Caesario and Queen Candace Marcellus and the Princess Julia Drusus and the fair Antonia the King of Armenia and his Olympia Philadelph King of Cilicia and his amiable Delia Alexander and Artemisa the King of Capadocia and the vertuous Andromeda the King of Media and Urania and the valiant Arminius and his dearest Ismenia Never certainly had the Universe seen so solemn a festival never had so many Beauties appeared together before that glorious star which shed on them that fortunate and remarkable day and never had there been such a Conjuction of Beauty Love Vertue Valour dignity and real worth in one City and in the same age The City of Alexandria prouder of the glory it had received that day then what it derived from it's Founder saw with joy the happiness of so many great Princes who after so many traverses of fortune found within its walls the sweet recompence of their sufferings and met with the enjoyments of those Beauties for which they had sighed so much Their felicity can better be conceived then represented and more may be learnt from Imagination then discourse The Emperour deferred to be celebrated at Rome with the marriage of Agrippa that of Domitius with Agrippina that of Ptolomey with Marcia though the young Prince discovered but little forwardness thereto and that of Lentulus with his fair Tullia As for Julius Antonius whom the rigours of Tullia had made insensible of any amorous inclinations he would hear nor talk of marriage and it was a long time after that he married one of the Emperours Neeces Augustus with his own hands crowned Juba King of the two Mauritanias Artaban received the Crown of Parthia from the hands of the Queen Mother to Elisa and Cesario that of Ethiopia from his fair Queen The Emperour invested Alexander in a great part of Egypt with the City of Alexandria in soveraignty dependent on the Empire left Petronius his Lieutenant in the rest of Egypt The Kings of Parthia and Scythia solemnly confirmed the alliances which Alcamenes had proposed the like was done with the Kings of Mauritania and Ethiopia and since inviolably observed What time these illustrious persons stayed afterwards in Alexandria was wholly spent in divertisements magnificence and confirmations of so many great and important Alliances And when they were to separate to resign their soveraigns to the Nations which expected their return upon the same day Augustus with the Kings Marcellus and all the Romans took their way towards Rome and all those great ones with their fair conforts went their several ways towards their Kingdomes to govern and felicify the people under their jurisdiction Their governments were excellent and flourishing as we have received from the Historians of their times but the design I have proposed to my self not to exceed the limits of my scene suffers me not to wait on them in their several travels homeward nor to give my Readers any account of the glorious reign of Artaban over the Parthians among whom to comply with the desires of Elisa he passed for the son of Artanez and was content the world should believe him descended from Arsaces nor of that of Juba over the Moors whom he governed with admirable lenity and made dreadful to all Africk nor that of Caesario over the Ethiopians and the happiness of his fair Queen whom many years after Heaven was pleased to illuminate from above as we find in sacred Historians Nor am I to say any thing of that of Ariobarzanes over the Arminians of Philadelph over the Cilicians of Archelaus over the Cappadocians and those of so many other Nations that lived happily under their jurisdiction In like manner must I be silent as to the marriages that were celebrated at Rome the happiness and glory of Drusus who not long after came into great reputation by his gallant actions as also the consequences of the noble friendship between Marcellus and the King of Mauritania which no doubt the world had heard much more of had it not been soon after terminated by the death of that illustrious Roman the marriage of Agrippa with Julia after the death of Marcellus and the fulfilling of the predictions of Thrasyllus by Tiberius's attainment of the Empire I think I have done enough to bring so many illustrious Lovers into the Haven after so many storms whereby their noble Lives were crossed and to have haply with success enough considering the greatness of the undertaking put a glorious and happy period to the adventures of my Cleopatra The End of the twelfth and Last Part of CLEOPATRA FINIS
thou hast begun to speak to me I have thought the sound of thine to be so like a mans with whom I have had long acquaintance and whom I very much esteemed that if there were any probability that he might be in this Countrey at the hour and in the condition I meet thee I should certainly have taken thee for the same Man For my part I have no intention to conceal my self and I have no Enemies that can oblige me to deny that I am Agrippa Upon this discovery the Unknown continued a while without speaking but a little after resuming his discourse Your voice hath not deceived me said he and I knew it at the first to be Agrippa 's but the time of night and the condition wherein I meet You made me have reason to doubt of a truth which seemed to me as improbable as that I should be here alone by night and on foot in a place which my misfortune hath made my Enemy I tell You enough to make a perfect discovery of my self to You and I suppose You are not ignorant now that I am the unfortunate Juba Corolianus upon whom You once bestowed a share of Your friendship and who probably may have lost it by becoming Caesars Enemy The confidence which I have in Your vertue and the small reason I have to be in love with my Life banish all the fear I might have had of discovering my self to You in a Countrey where I cannot be known without manifest danger but though You should be of the mind of my most cruel Enemies which I have all the reason in the World to believe since the change of Marcellus and Cleopatra though you should acquaint Caesar that I wander alone and unknown in his Dominions and though by declaring my self to you I should run upon the infallible loss of my life in losing this wandring and unfortunate life I shall lose nothing but what is odious to me and which I would have sacrificed my self to my grief this deplorable day if I had not thought it my duty to employ the remainders of it in the service which I owe to that ungrateful Creature to whom I have devoted it all Whilst the valiant King of the Moors was speaking in this manner with a throng of sighs and sobs that accompanied every word Agrippa hearkned to him with an amazement and irresolution which kept him a time immoveable and quite astonished He owed all he had to Caesar's bounty and he could not without some offence to his vertue conserve any amity for his greatest Enemies but besides the esteem he alwayes had for the admirable qualities and the sublime vertue of Coriolanus he thought he should brand himself with a detestable baseness if in so deplorable a condition as he saw him in which he partly knew by the loss of his Dominions and by what was represented to him in his discourse he had conserved the thoughts of an Enemy and had looked upon him according to the consideration due to his Fortune rather than according to that compassion which is due to vertuous men in misery After he had made a short reflection upon it which by reason of his excellent nature and the greatness of his soul wrought a much more sudden effect upon him than it would have done in a person of more common thoughts he alighted from his horse judging it not to be civil to sit on horse-back before such a Prince as he as long as he stood on foot and accosting him with an action which expressed the consideration he had for him as much as the obscurity of the night could permit I cannot said he without a very great astonishment see You in Your Enemies Countrey in a condition so disproportionable to Your Birth and the rank You held some moneths ago 't is true I am bound to Caesar by such strong obligations that without ingratitude I can make no distinction between his Enemies and my own but the esteem I have alwayes made of Your vertue and of your person hath opposed those resentments which probably ought to be common to me with him to whom I owe all and besides I have found so much justice in one part of your actions and even in those which have made Caesar Your Enemy that at the report of those great things which You had done for the recovery of your Dominions I was not moved as possibly I ought to have been by the part which I ought to take in the interests of Augustus You might have received some proof of it in this that I have avoided the occasion of going to bear arms against You and if I had not expressed some repugnance as to that employment Domitius possibly had not commanded that Naval Army which You defeated and I should have had the charge of that expedition as well as of divers others which I joyfully undertook and from which I returned with success enough I was afterwards afflicted at your ill Fortune more possibly than is honest for the servants of Caesar to confess and I could heartily have wished that by a happy reconciliation he would have left You at peace in a Kingdom of Your Fathers You have put your self into no danger by discovering Your self to me and instead of doing You hurt in a condition which obliges all vertuous persons to comfort You I will serve you in what I am able without wronging the fidelity which I owe to my Master 'T is certain he is Your Enemy and Your life would not be in security if you should be known in these Countries either depart speedily from hence or keep your self concealed if You be stayed here by any necessity of Your affairs and in the mean time let me understand what service You desire of a person who will always respect as he ought both your birth and the eminent qualities of your person Agrippa expressed himself in this sort and Coriolanus after he had meditated a little upon an answer I did not almost doubt said he but that I should find in you still all the marks of that generosity whereof all the World hath taken notice I am too much obliged to those remains of friendship which hindred you from employing against me that valour of Yours against which without doubt I should not have had the same success which Fortune gave me against Domitius I have little resentment against those who during my abscence have deprived me of a Kingdom which I could not go to defend and of which I can make no great account since the loss of my repose neither do I desire any proof of your amity which may clash with your duty to Caesar I shall alwayes esteem you too much to desire any thing of you that may hinder your fortune or diminish the esteem you have acquired all the World over and I am not so fond of my life or any thing that is left me besides to seek any security or refuge by your means at a time when
I look for it no where but in death but only I would desire of you without any longer discourse for the pressing condition wherein I am in doth not permit me to converse any longer with you the means of pursuing the Ravishers of Cleopatra who was lately carried away in my presence having been too faintly defended by me What said Agrippa interrupting him are you then that valiant man who alone and without arms slew so many armed men for the defence of Cleopatra I am that Wretch replyed Coriolanus which had not valour enough to guard that Princess from the violence of a few Barbarians I have now arms upon my back but I am on foot and I have so wandred in the Wood that I cannot find the way back to the place where I might recover Horses to post to the assistance of that Princess Such a grand action answered Agrippa as that whereof we saw the marks upon the place where it was done must needs proceed from such a hand as Yours I was going as you were to Cleopatra's assistance and just as You did I wandred and lost all my company in the turning of the wood the obscurity of the night If You could stay till day You should find all manner of assistance amongst us but in that urgency which You express I can only offer You this Horse which you may make use of as one of the best the World affords to go whither Your desires or Your Fortune shall direct you Coriolanus what necessity soever he had at first refused Agrippa's offer making some difficulty to leave a man of that importance alone on foot in the Wood and in the dark But Agrippa being offended at his modesty When you are upon a business of such consequence said he you ought not to stand upon punctillio's I would not deal so with you upon the like occasion and You use me as an an Enemy if You refuse any longer that which is now in my power to offer You You will constrain me to follow You on foot if You continue obstinate my attendants are not far off the worst that can come to me is to pass the rest of the night here in expectation of them at a season when my stay will not be incommodious I have no reason to fear any accident in a place where all persons are my friends and where I shall find no body from whom I may not receive assistance Though Agrippa had added a great many more and more pressing expressions Coriolanus would never have suffered himself to be overcome if he had had any other business in hand but the assisting of Cleopatra but upon a necessity of that importance at last he closed his eyes against all that civility could possibly represent to him and receiving the horse which Agrippa presented to him Both You and my bad fortune said he constrain me to do an action which I would never have consented to for the recovery of my Kingdom the Gods will recompense You for it if I cannot and in the mean time rest assured that during the small remainder of my life I will treasure up in my heart as I am obliged to do the memory of so generous an action As he ended these words he put his foot into the stirrop and mounted into the Saddle Agrippa holding the Bridle of the Horse himself and promising him that when he found his Men he would post after him to Cleopatra's aid Adieu generous Agrippa said Coriolanus to him at parting pardon this action which You force me to do and believe that if I live never so little while I will not die ingrateful for this good office Having spoken these words he parted from him and turning the head of his horse that way which he thought might lead after Cleopatra he posted away amongst the trees with as much speed as the darkness would permit Agrippa remained amazed at this accident as well to find that Prince in so strange a condition and in so unexpected a manner in a place where there was little likelihood of his being found when he thought him to be a great way off as to hear him express so much interest and so much earnestness for Cleopatra to whom he thought as well as a great many others that he had been unfaithful He reflected then upon it not having had time during the conversation they had together or at least Coriolanus his impatience not having permitted him to enquire why he tormented himself so for a person whom according to the vulgar opinion he had ingratefully forsaken This consideration took up his thoughts a good while before he could pass any judgment upon the uncertainty which this adventure afforded but a little after he believed that Coriolanus whose generosity was known to all the World might do that meerly upon the score of Verture which another would have done for love and that having seen the Princess whom he had dearly loved in some danger he had fought for her and was so passionate to assist her onely out of the motions of his Vertue He did not find it strange knowing himself to be capable of doing as much and easily guessing by his own inclinations at the thoughts of vertuous persons he meditated a while upon this accident and turning his memory with compassion upon the divers revolutions of Fortune who did so differently sport her self in the life of this brave African whom ever since his birth she had made the object of her inconstant Capricio's making him fall before he was born from Royalty into servitude favouring him in a thousand gallant actions which had acquired him immortal glory amongst men and after she had caused him to remount his Throne maugre all the forces of the Empire tumbling him down again with the same suddenness into the loss of all into misery and that deplorable condition wherein he had met him he could not but be very much moved at it and lifting up his eyes to Heaven with a sigh O Gods said he how incomprehensible are Your judgments and how inconsiderable is the life of man since the greatest and most vertuous are subject to so many misfortunes 't is in the Fortune of this Prince the bravest person that ever the Sun shined upon that the instability of humane things is easily remarkable and thence we learn a very observable lesson how little confidence we ought to have in things so inconstant and so apt to perish He had stayed longer upon this consideration which produced powerful effects in such a soul as his if his new passion which at that time left little room for other thoughts had not insensibly banished thence another mans interests to take full possession of his mind it self By the misfortunes of Coriolanus which love alone for the most part had produced he foresaw what he might fall into himself by the same passion and making a short meditation thereupon Alas said he that which I deplore in another may possibly ere long
to a mortal oblivion of him that had adored you with so much fidelity and to new inclinations for a dying man whom you had never seen before and one that had 〈◊〉 the death of those persons whom you thought dearest to you I return Eurinoe I return almost from Hell to reproach you with your prodigious inconstancy and the gods have been pleased to restore me to life contrary both to your expectation and my own that I might come and represent to you the many oaths and protestations wherein you have called them to witness to your promises of an eternal affection for me Is it possible that you can call them to mind without remoâ—se and confusion and can so many demonstrations of my love which you sometime valued at the highest rate come into your memory and not raise in you either a secret grief or a secret repentance Your hand was lifted up to thrust a dagger into the heart of my Murtherer and by an extravagance of passion you were hurried into extremities not ordinary to your sex when that fatal sight gave a check to your cruelty and that new love possessing it self of your soul in an instant forced thence the unfortunate Teramenes in such manner that you hardly remembred he had once lived In the mean time my life was preserved to my greater misfortune and I wish it had pleased the gods to have put a period to it at that very minute when your affection ceased and that their assistance and that of men had not proved so effectual as to restore it me to make me fall into the greatest unhappiness that ever man groaned under Do you imagine Eurione that Heaven hath not a punishment for so strange an infidelâ—ty and that the cries of a desperate and an injured Lover will not bring upon your head those misfortunes which his Love permits him not to wish you To this effect was the discourse of Teramenes which fell from him with a certain action that raised in me abundance of pittie and he would have said more had not the excess of his grief prevented him when Eurinoe having quite recovered her self as convinced both by the things which she heard and by what Pelorus had told her would needs stop the torrent of his words Whereupon smothering that confusion and remorse which had tied up her tongue so long she looked on Teramenes not without some remainders of the fright he had put her into and not long after venturing to speak though with difficulty enough Whatever thou art said she to him whether the Ghost of Teramenes or Teramenes himself alive thou hast killed my soul with terrour and astonishment I cannot look on thee in that condition after I had honoured thy cold and bloody body with the last demonstrations of my Love but I must needs be disturbed at so strange an adventure Assure thy self therefore that what thou hast observed in my countenance is meerly the effect of that trouble and not of that confusion and remorse which thou dost reproach me with and though it might haply have proved more advantageous to my self to have continued my affections to thee even after thy death since it was decreed thou shouldst come to life again yet is it certain that thou hast lost them by a misfortune which I have not any way contributed to With what justice Teramenes canst thou charge me with any infidelity towards thee Have I been any way backward in the Love I had promised thee to the very last minute of thy life or did we perswade one another that our Love should last beyond this life What law is that which engages one to this eternity of affection towards the dead or by what symptomes could I judge that thou shouldst return to life after I had caused thee to be brought out of the Field in order to thy burial Those demonstrations of love which I gave thee and what else thou maist have understood from the unfaithful Pelorus were they the effects of an ordinary passion and was there not ground enough thou shouldest be satisfied with a passion which engaged me to do things beyond the bounds of Reason To revenge thee I became contrary to my natural inclinations more cruel than a Lyoness and would have attempted the life of an expiring Prince at whose sight even Tygresses would have been moved to compassion If I therefore were moved thereat if the will of the gods and generosity obliged me to assist him and if since as thou art too well informed to be denied any thing his excellent endowments or some superiour irresistible power have forced my inclinations and taken that place in my heart which was not to be eternally kept empty for one that was dead dost thou find in this misfortune that horrid infidelity which thou reproachest me with or didst thou imagine that my obligations were as great to thy ghost as they were while living to thy self No Teramenes think not that thou canst accuse me with any justice and if thou hast been so unhappy to loose my affections by an adventure so prodigious quarrel with heaven whose will it was it should be so and not with my will which hath contributed nothing thereto As to the misfortune which thou bewailest so much my condition is not a jot happier than thine thou maist elsewhere find a better fortune than thou canst expect with the unfortunate Eurinoe while in the mean time it is destined she should be eternally miserable and exposed to that chastisement of heaven which thou saiest must fall upon me and which indeed I have already felt The period of this discourse of Eurinoe's was a shower of tears which it lay not in her power to keep in any longer Whereupon Teramenes whom it put to the extremity of grief by reason there could not be a greater confirmation of the reality of his unhappinesse casting a dreadful look upon her No no Eurinoe said he to her I shall accuse you no longer but acknowledge with you and submit to that irresistible power which hath forced your inclinations But in regard my life might do your reputation some prejudice in the world though my tongue were silent and that it is not to be doubted but that I am now as abominable as ever I was amiable in your sight it is but just my life should here determine and that in such a manner that you may not be therein mistaken a second time The greatest regret I now have at my death is that I leave you an unfortunate woman and if the vertue and constancy of Cleomedon could but give him leave to forget Candace to enjoy you as you have to gain him forgotten Teramenes the last intreaty I were to make should be that he would be lesse cruel to her and not aggravate any further a revenge which I desire not you should take With these words he drew out a dagger he had about him and lifting up his hand would have thrust it into his breast