she but fifteen but more in qualities and conditions for he was by nature perverse and chollericke but she milde courteous and gracious Againe they differed much in the lineaments and proportion of their bodies for Alexandro like his Father was short crook-backt and hard-favour'd and Perina resembling her mother tall straight-wasted and faire so as it being a principle and Maxime in Nature that parents for the most part love those Children best who best resemble them as the mother Eleanora preferr'd Perina in her affection before Alexandro so contrariwise their father Arconeto did Alexandro before Perina But as God had called Eleanora out of this life and left her husband Arconeto to survive her so Alexandro's joy prov'd his sister Perina's miseâ—…y and affliction for he was so happy to see himself tenderly cherished and affected and she so unfortunate to perceive her selfe slighted and disrespected of her father wherein as I praise Arconeto's intimate love to his sonne so I cannot but discommend and withall pitty his immerited and unnatural neglect to his daughter wherein as Alexandro triumphed in the one judge judicious Reader if Perina had not cause enough to grieve and lament at the other But as the drift and scope of this History looks another way so for my part who have uâ—…dertaken to pen it it is the least of my intent 〈◊〉 purpose to give instructions and direction how parents should beare themselves in their affections towards their children onely because I may not here too palpably bewray mine ignorance in my silence I hope nay I am confident that with as much truth aâ—… safety I may conclude it is a happinesse both for parens and children where parents beare their affâ—…ctions equally to their children for loving one and hating another the joy of the one proves oftentimes the others sorrow and in giving that too mucâ—… hope we many times administer this too much cause of despaire or if the inclinations and affâ—…ctions of parents be more narrowly tyed and strictly linked to preferre and love one child above the other yet sith they are the equall issue of their loynes and wee the onely parents of their youth wee should bee as well cautious in the distribution of our favors a in the demonstration of our disrespects towards them But enough of this digression and now againe to our Hâ—…story As Alexandro growes up in yeares so he doth in ambition and ostentation for if he play the Bravâ—…sho abroad among Gentlemen and Ladies so authorizd by his fathers hatred of his sister he at home becomes a petty tyrant to her yea his carriage is so sterne and imperious towards her as if she were rather his slave then his sister or his laundres and hand-mayd then any part of himselfe which notwithstanding it was both a daily griefe to her heart and a continuall torment to her thoughts yet Perina's sweet perfections and gracious vertues and behavior make her digest and brook all with wonderfull constancie and an admirable patience for wel she knowes that if she should complain 〈◊〉 her father of her brothers unkindnes towards her she should thereby reape no other remedy and redresse but this that the one would laugh and the other triumph thereat and that the issue therof would proove her complaints to be the May game of the one and mocking-stock of the other But God hath ordayned briefly to ease her of a great part of her undeserved discontents and afflictions for lo her brother Alexandro debauching and surfeting at a Banquet at Susa returnes home surprised of a hot pestilent Fever which notwithstanding the care of his Father or the art of his expertest Physicians hee in three dayes is taken out of this life And now guided by the light of nature and the instinct of common sense and reason who would not surmise or thinke but that Arconeto having buryed his sonne Alexandro should now love his onely daughter and child Perina farre dearer and tenderer then before But alas nothing lesse for hee is not so kinde and therefore shee cannot be so happy yea which is worse although his words be her commands and his pleasure her law yet hee contemnes both her and her obedience and never lookes on her with love and affection but still with disdaine and envie yea in a word his distast is so extreame and bitter against her as hee is never best pleased then when shee is furthest from him so as her absence may delight and content him but her presence cannot Which unnaturall disrespect and unjust cruelty of her father towards her doth so nip the joyes of her youth and the blossomes of her health and beauty as poore young Gentlewoman she becomes infinite melancholly and extreme weake and sickly which being observed and pittyed of all her kinsfolkes and friends as being her Fathers onely child and heire to all his Lands and Riches an Aunt of hers being her mothers sister and likewise her God-mother termed the Lady Dominica a Widow-woman of the same City workes so with her brother in law Arconeto that hee is content to permit his daughter Perina to reside and dwell with her whereat as the Aunt is not a little glad so the Neece beyond measure infinitely rejoyceth and triumphs thereat both hoping that her absence may and will procure her fathers affection which her presence could not and that having more liberty and lesse bondage shee might againe in a short time recover her former health and content or else that God out of his divine providence and pleasure in heaven might call and allot her out some gallant Husband here on earth with whom in the contents and pleasures of Marriage shee might end her future dayes in as much tranquillity and felicity as she had formerly lived in discontent and affliction and indeed the events though not in the first yet in the two last poynts answereth their expectations The Lady Dominica hath formerly contracted a Daughter of hers named Dona Bertha to a Cavallier of the City of Nice termed Seignior Bartholomeâ—… Spelassi by descent noble and of good revennues and wealth And now the appoynted time is come for their Marriage to which end up comes Spelassi from Nice to Saint Iohn de Mauriene assisted and followed by many gallant young Gentlemen of his kinsfolks and friends and in a word with a Trayne well befitting his ranke and quality where these Nuptialls are solemnized with great variety of pompe and pleasure as Feasting Dancing Masks Running at the Ring and the like for in these amorous and Court-like Revels the Savoyards as participating both of the French and Italian humours take a singular delight and felicity But as many times one Wedding occasioneth and produceth another so Fortune or to speake more properly and truely God ordayned that the Lady Dominica appoynted her Neece Perina to conduct the Bride-groome her Sonne in law Spelassi to the Church and hee had allotted one of the noblest and eminent Cavalliers that came with him named
the foule and enormious vices of La Hay with the sweet and resplendant vertues of La Frange he as much disdayning that match as desiring this for his sonne very hastily sends for him into the Arbor where purposely attending him he with lightning in his lookes and thunder in his speeches layes before him the simplicity and the sottishne sse of his resolution in preferring La Hay before La Frange a strumpet before a virgin and a Pedlers brat before a rich gentlemans onely daughter and heyre shewes him the infamy of the first and the glory of the last match there his unavoydable misery here his assured happinesse in the first his utter ruine and shipwracke and in the last his infallible prosperity and felicity and so intermixing threats with teares with a passionate paternall affection he endeavoreth to perswade him to leave La Hay and to marry La Frange or if not hee vowes and sweres wholly to disinherit him and from thence-forth never repute or esteeme him for his sonne But de Salez his foolish vanity and vaine affection in himselfe towards his new contracted Love La Hay is so great and consequently his filiall obedience to his father so small as not withstanding this his wholesome advise and counsell he is still resolute and constant to preferre La Hay before La Frange the beauty of the one before the deformity of the other his owne content before his fathers and Soulanges estate and byrth before the great wealth and noble extraction of De Clugny but this rashnes indiscretion and ingratitude of his will cost him deare Now if Argentier have perfect intelligence and curious notice of his sonnes familiarity with that faire yet lewd Courtezan La Hay no lesse hath la Frange who poore soule is so deeply enamored of de Salez as the very first newes and conceyt that another should enjoy him and not her selfe for very grife and sorrow shee seemes to drowne her selfe in the deluge of her teares His father is chollerick thereat she mournfull he incensed she afflicted he inraged she perplexed and tormented his passions and anger proceeds from suspition that he shall so soone find a daughter in law in la Hay her sighes and teares from feare that she shall so soone loose her Love though not her Lover his sonne de Salez Againe the argument of his choller is la Hayes unchastitie and povertie and the cause of her disconsolation de Salez his wealth and vertues likewise she sees that Argentier hath no reason to hope that his sonne will marry her selfe such is her deformitie and againe that he hath all the reasons of the world as well to doubt as feare that hee will wed la Hay such is her beauty But sith de Salez will beare no more respect to his father nor affection to la Frange leave we therefore his father Argentiers passions and la Franges perplexities to be appeased and qualified by Time or rather by God the Authour and giver of Time who out of his all-seeing providence and sacred pleasure onely knowes in Heaven how best to dispose and manage the actions of earth and so come wee to other unexpected occurrents and events which like so many enterjecting and intervening poynts are contained within the circumference of this History I have so long insisted on the affections of de Salez and la Hay as but to the judicious and temperate Reader it would seeme to appeare that the Baron of Vaumartin hath wholly forgotten to remember his to his Lady La Frange But to put that doubt out of question and this question out of doubt we shall see him returne too too soone to act a part not so religious and honourable as bloody upon the Theatre of this History For by this time both his creditors and his debts are growne so clamorous and his reputation and lands so neere forfeited for want of disingaging as to secure the one and provide for the other hee knowes no other invention not meanes but to gaine La Frange to his wife when as it were provoked and precipitated on by the necessity of this exigent his thoughts leave heaven to fly to hell and consequently fly from God to Sathan to consult how either by the bye or the maine hee may obtaine her yea though with the perill and hazard of his owne life to cut off theirs who seeke therein to prevent his desires and designes In which hellish ratiocynation he as devoyd of Reason as that is exempt either of Grace or Piety thus reasoneth with himselfe De Clugny hates me for seeking to marry his daughter and that time may remedy for me but which is worst of all she loves De Salez and seekes and desires to marry him and this I must remedy in time if I ever expect to obtaine or enjoy her and so resolves to make him away but is as yet irresolute how to perpetrate and in what manner to finish so execrable a businesse But this is not onely the voice of his malice but the sentence of his revenge that De Salez must die wretched Vaumartin unworthy to beare the name of a man much lesse of a Baron but least of all of a Christian in that because De Salez hates La Frange and she loves him that therefore thou wilt not love but hate him or because she loves him and not thy selfe that therefore thou wilt kill him that she may love thee See see rash and inconsiderate Nobleman how treacherously the Devill hath hood wink'd yea inveigled thy judgement and besotted thy senses to kill one that loves thee to kill I say a Gentleman who hath not offended thee but is every way thy friend no way thine enemy or if thou thinke it wisdome that covetousnesse must redeeme thy former prodigality alas alas canst thou yet be so cruell to thinke it either lawfull or religious that future murther should either occasion or authorize it But the Devill hath so farre prevailed with his impious resolutions that againe he resolves De Salez must die and yet thou thinkest poyson as unworthy of him as he is worthy of thy sword so had thy last resolution been answerable to thy first assure thy selfe thou hadst made thy selfe more happy and not so miserable for as poysoning was the invention of the devill and is practised by none but his agents so this dishonourable point of honour to fight Duels was never instituted by God nor professed by those who really professe his Gospell yea it is not only truely to dishonour God in seeking falsly to preserve our own Honour and reputation but we assuredly stab at the Majesty of the Creator in seeking to deface man his creature and to use but a word as it is repugnant both to Nature and Grace so though it begin in the heat of passion and pleasure it many times terminates in Repentance but still in true Infamy and misery But Vaumartins faith being so strong with Sathan and so weake with his Saviour he will not take
and counsell and to send it him by the ordinary Carrier of Tholouse which was then in that Cittie bound thither from Paris his letter spake thus 〈◊〉 to DE SALEZ IT is out of a fatherly and as I may say a religious care of thy good that I now send thee these few ensuing lines for thy Youth cannot see that which my Age knowes how many miseries are subject to wait and attend on Vice and how many blessings on Vertue if La Frange be not faire yet she is comely not contemptible but sith her defects of Nature are so richly recompensed with the Ornaments of Fortune and the excellencies of Grace why should thy affection preferre La Hay before her who hath nothing but a painted face to overvaile the deformity of her other vices If thou wilâ—… leave a Saint to marry a strumpet then take La Hay and forsake La Frange but if thou wilt forsake a strumpet to take a Saint then marry La Frange and leave La Hay for looke what difference there is betweene their births thou shalt finde ten times more betweene the chastity of the one and the levity of the other If thou espouse the first thou shalt find Content and Honour if the second shame and repentance â—…or I know not whether La Frange will bring thee more happinesse or La Hay misery This letter shall serve as a witnesse betwixt God myselfe and thee that if thou performe me not thy promise and oath I will deny thee my blessing and deprieve thee of my lands ARGENTIER De Salez having received this his fathers letter in Tholouse exceedingly grieves to see him disgrace his mistresse by the scandalous name of a strumpet which hee knowes she is not and therefore will never beleeve it yea he vowes that if it were any other in the world who had offered him that intollerable affront hee would revenge it though with the price and perill of his life La Hay perceives this discontent and alteration of mirth in him but from what point of the Compasse this wind proceeds she neither knowes nor as yet can conceive but withall determineth to make the discovery thereof her greatest Ambition and not her least Care which she now well knowes it behooves her to doe sith she finds De Salez lesse free and more reserved and pensive in her speeches than accustomed But when in vaine she had hereunto used many smiles and feâ—…ches loâ—… here falls out an unlook't for accident which bewrayes her the very pith and quintescence of the Mistery For on a time when hee lay slumbering on the table shee as accustomed diving into his pockets for sweet meats or rather for gold of both which he many times went well furnished she finds his fathers aforesaid letter which she knew by the direction and so flying into another chamber and bolting the doore after her she there reads it both with griefe and choller when stunge to the quicke and bitten to the heart and gall to see her reputation and Honour thus traduced and scandalized by the father of her pretended husband she with teares and interjected sighes and grones flies backe to De Salez and holding the letter in her hand like a dissembling and impious strumpet as she was there shewes it him takes Heaven and Earth to beare witnesse of her innocency and of the irreparable and extreame wrong his father hath offered her in seeking to ecclips the Glory of her chastity which she sweares she will beare pure and unspotted not onely to his bed but to her owne grave But Alas alas these are the effects and passions of dissimulation not of truth of her prophanenesse not of her piety which time will make apparent to De Salez though now her beauty and teares be so predominate with his judgement and folly as he cannot because he will not see it So being still as constant in his â—…ottishnesse as she in her hypocrisie he gives her many sweet kisses and with a Catalogue of sugred words seekes to appease and comfort her whom he hath farre more reason to excerate and curse But for her part her heart is not so afflicted for remembring her selfe still her â—…its are her owne and so remembring the conclusion of the letter and fearing that De Salâ—…z his promise and oath to his father might infringe and contradict his to her she tels him that her love is so fervent and infinite towards him as shee can give no intermission nor truce to her teares before he reveale her his oath and promise which his fathers letter informed her he had formerly made him De Salez seeing himselfe put to so strict an exigent and push doth both blush for shame and againe looke pale for anger when for a small time irresolute how to beare himselfe in a matter of this different Nature wherein hee must either violate his obedience to his father or infringe his fidelity and honour to his mistris hee at last consenting with folly not with discretion and with Vanity nor with Iudgement doth so adore her beauty and commiserate her teares as he sottishly reveales her his oath given his father Verbatim as we have formerly understood it adding withall that she hath far more reason to rejoyce than grieve hereat That a little time shall cancell his said late promise and oath to his father and confirme his former to her For sweet La Hay quoth he come what come will two moneths shall never passe ere I marry thee when sealing his speaches with many kisses our hypocriticall afflicted Gentlewoman is presently againe come to her selfe and in all outward appearance her discontents are removed her choller pacified her teares exhaled and her sighes evaporated and blowne away But all this is false like her selfe and treacherous like her beauty For this letter of Argentier to his sonne and his promise and oath to his father hath acted such wonders in her heart and imprinted such extravagancies in her thoughts as she cannot easily remove or supplant it nor difficultly forget or deface it whatsoever she speake or make shew of to the contrary for thus she reasoneth with her selfe That 〈◊〉 whoredomes are already revealed to Argentier and for any thing she knowes â—…y likewise be discovered to his son how closely soever she either act or conceale them That La Franges descent wealth and vertues will in the end overprise and weigh downe her meane extraction poverty and beauty and in the end that the wisdome of the father will infallibly triumph ore the folly of the sonne except her pollicy interpose and her vigilency prevent it which to prevent and effect she sees no other obstacle to her content nor barre to her preâ—…erment but only La Frange for quoth she if La Frange shine in the firmament of De Salez affection La Hay must set or if La Hay will shine La Frange must set againe if she fall not I cannot stand and if she stand I must needs fall and as the skie is
conclusion is foure are of opinion that this cure is repugnant to the grounds of Physicke and the principles of Chirurgery and therefore impossible to be effected the other two are of a contrary judgement and held it feasable and that many times God blesseth the Art and labours of a man not onely beyond expectation but also beyond hope and reason so De Clugny seeing that these two with Michaele were three against foure hee in respect of the tender care and affection he bore his daughter resolves to imploy him and gives him an hundred double Pistollets in hand to attempt it with promise of as much more when he hath performed it whereof this miscreant and hellish Empericke Michaele being exceedingly glad he betakes himselfe to this businesse visits the young Lady who promiseth him to reduble her fathers summe if he make her body straight when to reduce his impious contemplation into infâ—…rnall action he outwardly applieth playsters and seare-clothes to her body and inwardly administreth her pills and potions and O griefe to write it therein infuseth deadly poyson which hee knowes at the end of ten dayes will assuredly make a divorce betweene her body and soule and so send that to the death of this world and this to the life of that to come So this sweete and innocent Lady wishing good to her selfe and hurt to none in the worâ—…d first finds a giddinesse and swimming in her head and within some six dayes after in which time the poyson had dispersed it selfe throughout all the veines and pores of her body many sharpe gripes and bitter throwes and convulsions whereat her father grieves and she weepes onely that gracelesse villaine her Empericke bids them be of good comfort and that the more paine and griefe she suffered the better and speedier hope there was of her cure but yet inwardly in his devillish heart knowes that the poyson effectually operated and wrought with her as hee desired and expected and that by these infallible signes and simptomes his patient drew neere towards the period of her end Whereupon hee repaires secretly to La Hay and bids her provide the rest of his mony for that La Frange could not possibly live two dayes to an end whereat she triumphing and rejoycing with much alacrity againg promiseth it him and indeed the hellish Art of this execrable Empericke doth not now deceive him though in the end the malice of the devill his Doctor will For just as the tenth day was expired this harmelesse sweet yong Lady dyes to the incomparable and unspeakable grief of the good old President her father for that she was the staffe of his age and the chiefe and onely comfort of his life who disconsolatly and mournfully seemed to drown himselfe in his teares hereat cursing the houre that he first saw this accursed Empericke Michaele who had robbed him of his only joy and delight of his deare and sweet daughter La Frange But this murdrous Michaele having learnt of the devill to feare no colours meanes not to step a foot from Tholouse and so sends privately for Lâ—… Hay of whom he craves the performance of her promise for that quoth he he had performed his Why quoth La Hay is that crookbackt dwarfe La Frange dead She is gone quoth Michaele to her eternall rest when La Hay not able to retaine her selfe for excesse of joy runs to him gives him the other hundred crownes together with many kisses which take quoth she as a pledge of my continuall good will towards thee when again swearing secresie they both take leave each of other and part The newes of La Franges death ratlâ—…th and resoundeth over all Tholouse her kinsefolkes grive at it her frinds lament it and all who eyther know her or her fame bewayle it onely De Salez and execrable La Hay excepted who knowing her to have beene the onely stop and hinderance of their mariage they are so ravished with joy heereat as they seeme to contest and envy each other who shall first bring the newes hereof each to other yea the excesse of De Salez his joy is as boundlesse as that of La Hayes delight so that he seemes to flye to her to her fathers house where she with out-spread armes receives and entertaines him and there they mutually congratulate each other for this her death he affirming and she beleeving that La Frange being gone to heaven it shall not bee long ere the Church make them man and wife on earth In the meane time he being wholly ignorant of her poysoning and yet the olde President her father and the rest of her friends suspecting it they cause her body to be opened and although they find no direct poyson yet remarking a little kind of yellow tincture on her heart and liver as also some show thereof through her frozen veines They cause Michaele to be apprehended and imprisoned and so procure a Decree from the Parliament to have him rack'd At the newes whereof La Hay is extreamely tormented and perplexed as well foreseeing and knowing that her life lay at the mercy of his tongue wherefore to fortifie his secrecie and thereby to secure her owne feare and danger she by a confident friend of his sends him a hundred French crownes more and promiseth him to give him a rich Diamond worth as much againe who as before being extreamely covetous and the Devill resembling himselfe still haâ—…ping to him on that string which most delights him his heart is so devillishly obdurated and his fortitude so armed and prepared as his patience and constancy not onely endures but outbraves the crueltie of his torments and so he is acquited of this his pretended crime but he hath not as yet made his peace with God And now is De Salez resolved to make a Journey to Paris to draw his fathers consent that he may marry La Hay but the wisedome of the father shall anticipate the folly of the Sonne for he having heard in Paris of La Franges death and still fearing that because of his frequent familiarity with that strumpet La Hay he will in the end marry her He in Paris buyes a Captaines place for him in the Regiment of the Kings Guard and likewise dealt with a very rich Counsellour of that Court of Parliament named Monsieur de Brianson that his sonne may marry his eldest daughter Madamoyselle de Plessis a very sweet and faire yong Gentlewoman and the old folkes are already agreed on all conditions onely it rests that the young sees and loves To which end Argentier writes away with all speed to Tholouse for his sonne De Salâ—…z to come up to him who before he had received his fathers letter as wee have formerly understood was ready to undertake that Journey La Hay infinitly fearefull and jealous to lose her pray with Crocodile teares in her eyes and Hyena aspects in her lookes informes De Salez that she feareth that his father hath provided a wife for him in Paris
but he vowes and sweares to her that neither his father nor the whole world shall make him marry any other than her selfe and so after many embraces and kisses he takes horse and leaves Tholouse Being arrived at Paris his father very joyfully bids him welcome and referres to conferre with him till the next morning but such is De Salez rashnesse and folly as hee hath no sooner supped in company of his father but hee prayes to speake with him When the servants voyding the chamber he earnestly and humbly beseeching him sith that La Frange is dead hee will now be pleased that hee may marry La Hay whom quoth he I onely affect and love before all the maides of the world His father exceedingly incensed hereat vowes that he had rather see him fairely buried in his grave and that of all the females of the world he shall not marry La Hay and so for that night they betake themselves to their beds the father grieves with his sonnes folly the sonne with his fathers aversenesse The next morne Argentier calls for his sonne When the doores shut hee bids him shut his eyes to his foolish familiarity with La Hay and now to open them to the preferment he hath purchased him and so relates him how hee hath procured him the honour of a Captaines place in the Regiments of the Kings Guard as also a very faire young Gentlewoman for his wife tearmed Madamoyselle de Plessis the eldest daughter of Monsieur de Brianson one of the richest Counsellours of Paris But De Salez having his eyes and thoughts wholly fixed on La Hay with a discontented looke returnes his father this perverse and disobedient replie That he will not accept of the Captaines place nor once see De Plessis but that hee is constantly resolved either to wed La Hay or his grave whereat his father is so extreamely incensed as with much passion and choller he commands him henceforth not to dare so much as to name him La Hay swearing by his Saviour that if hee for his obstinacy and disobedience hee will disinherite him as indeed hee might having himselfe purchased three parts of his lands and revenewes through his care and industry in his profession and so much discontent and cholleâ—… leaves in his Coleagues of Tholouse who are already wayting and attending his comming De Salez is all on fire at this his fathers bitter resolution against him and stormes and fumes not only beyond the bonds of reason religion and humanity but also beyond himselfe For sith La Hay is his sole delight and joy and that his father hath vowed he shall never marry her his affection to her makes him resolve to dispatch his father yea his head conceives such murtherous thoughts and his heart atracts and assumes such degenerate and devillish blood against him that like an execrable wretch and a hellish sonne disdayning to take Counsell from God and therefore taking it from the devill his bloody Tutor and Abettor he vowes he will forthwith rid his hands of his father and that he will therfore send him into another world because he would give him no content in this Oh wretched monster of Nature Limbe of the devill nay a very devill thy selfe thus to resolve to take his life from him that gave thee thine Foule staine of mankind bloody Paracydious miscreant can no respect either of thy naturall and filliall obedience to thy kind and deere father or of his white haires and venerable old age restraine thee or no consideration of thy consceince or thy soule of heaven or hell deterre thee from this bloody inhumane and damnable designe of thine in laying violent hands on him O me where are thy thoughts where thy senses where thy heart thy soule to act so execrable and infernall a Tragidie on him with whom thou hadst not been on thy father whom by the laws of Heaven and Earth thou oughtest both to love honour reverence and obey But De Salez being resolute in this inhumane rage and implacable malice and furie watcheth how he may take time at advantage to effect and finish this his bloody businesse and one a night after supper hearing his old father complaine that he found himselfe not well and commanding his Clarke De Buissie very earely in the next morning to carry his water to Doctor Salepin a famous Physician whose chamber was farre off in the place Maubert he himselfe lying in Grennelles street De Salez thinks this a fit opportunity to dispatch his father the which O a thousand griefes and pitties to speake off he accordingly performeth For the morne appearing his father having sent away his Clarke with his water and betaking himselfe to sleepe till his returne His watchfull and murtherous sonne having purposely made himselfe ready and through the key hole and cranies of his Chamber doore espying his father sleeping he intends that this shall be his last sleepe When softly stealing into his Chamber he incouraged and animated by the divell and approaching his bed as exempt of feare or grace without any more delay or circumstance stifles his father betwixt tow pillowes when leaving him breathlesse in his bed his face exposed to the ayre and the doore shut goes downe gives the master of the house the good morrow and so trips away as fast as he can to the signe of the swan within Saint Honnoryes Gate and from thence rides away to Saint Clow two leagues distant from Paris to see Gondyes gardens fountaines and house wherein that execrable and damnable Iacabine Frier Iaques Clement murthered Henry the third king of France but with an intent to returne to his fathers lodging immediatly after dinner and to plead ignorance of the fact and withall if occasion serve to stand upon his innocency and justification as indeed he did Now his fathers Clarke De Buissye returning in the morning from Doctor Salepin entering his masters chamber finds him starke dead and almost cold in his bed whereat he makes many bitter outcries and grievous exclamations the man of the house hereat ascends the chamber infinitly laments grieves at this sorrowfull accident and spectacle Vowes to De â—…uissye that hee saw none whosoever in his house much lesse in his masters chamber and that his sonne Mounsieur De Salez departed assoone as he himselfe they search his body and find it no way wounded so they beleeve and resove that some angue hath carried him away Yet they hold it rather wisedome than folly to acquaint the Lievtenant Cryminall therewith fearing lest hee might after suspect either violence or poyson So hee comes conferres with his sonne De Salez with his Clarke De Buissye and with the man of the house hee visites the deadbody findes onely his head somwhat swollen which his Physicions affirme may be his striving and strugling with death When the Lievtenant out of his zeale and integrity to Justice having informed himselfe of Doctor Salepin of De Buissyes being with him as also from
hee will die his faithfull servant But wee shall see him have more grace than to keepe so gracelesse a promise Carpi flattering himselfe with the fidelity and affection of his Laquay resolves to stay in the City but hee shall shortly repent his confidence Hee was formerly betrayed by Fiesco which mee thinks should have made him more cautious and wise and not so simple to entrust and repose his life on the incertaine mercy of Lorenzo's tongue but Gods Revenge drawes neare him and consequently he neare his end for he neither can nor shall avoid the judgement of Heaven Lorenzo on the gallowes will not charge his soule with this foule and execrable sinne of murther but Grace now operating with his soule as much as formerly Satan did with his heart hee confesseth that hee and the Baron of Carpi his Master together with the Knight Monte-leone and his Laquay Anselmo murthered the Captaine Benevente and his man Fiamento and threw them into the Quarrie the which hee takes to his death is true and so using some Christian-like speeches of repentance and sorrow he is hanged Lorenzo is no sooner turned over but the Criminall Iudges advertised of his speeches delivered at his death they command the Baron of Carpi his lodging to be beleagred where he is found in his study and so apprehended and committed prisoner where feare makes him looke pale so as the Peacocks plumes both of his pride and courage strike saile He is againe put to the Racke and now the second time hee reveales his foule and bloudy murther and in every point acknowledgeth Lorenzoes accusation of him to be true So he is condemned first to have his right hand cut off and then his head notwithstanding that many great friends of his sue to the Viceroy for his pardon The night before he was to die the next morne one of his Judges was sent to him to prison to perswade him to discover all his complices in that murther besides Monte-leone and his Laquay Anselmo yea there are likewise some Divines present who with many religious exhortations perswade him to it So Grace prevailes with Nature and Righteousnesse with Impiety and sinne in him that he is now no longer himselfe for contrition and repentance hath reformed him hee will rather disrespect Caelestina than displease God whereupon he affirmes that she and her deceased sister Fidelia drew him and Monte-leone to murther their father and his man Fiamento and that if it had not beene for their allurements and requests they had never attempted either the beginning or end of so bloudy a businesse and thus making himselfe ready for Heaven and grieving at nothing on Earth but at the remembrance of his foule fact he in the sight of many thousand people doth now lose his head This Tragedy is no sooner acted and finished in Naples but the Judges of this City send away poast to those of Otranto to seize on the Lady Caelestina who in the absence of her husband for the most part lived there A Lady whom I could pitie for her youth and beauty did not the foulenesse of her fact so foulely disparage and blemish it She is at that instant at a Noblemans house at the solemnitie of his daughters marriage where she is apprehended imprisoned and accused to bee the authour and plotter of the Captaine her fathers death neither can her teares or prayers exempt her from this affliction and misery She was once of opinion to deny it but understanding that the Baron of Carpi and his Laquay Lorenzo were already executed for the same in Naples shee with a world of teares freely confesseth it and confirmes as much as Carpi affirmed whereupon in expiation of this her inhumane Paracide she is condemned to have her head cut off her body burnt and her ashes throwne into the ayre for a milder death and a lesse punishment the Lord will not out of his Justice inflict vpon her for this her horrible crime and barbarous cruelty committed on the person of her owne father or at least seducing and occasioning it to be committed on him and it is not in her husbands possible power to exempt or free her hereof Being sent backe that night to prison she passeth it over or in very truth the greatest part thereof in prayer still grieving for her sinnes and mourning for this her bloudy offence and crime and the next morne being brought to her execution when she ascended the scaffold she was very humble sorrowfull and repentant and with many showres of teares requested her brother Alcasero and all her kinsfolkes to forgive her for occasioning and consenting to her fathers death and generally all the world to pray for her when her sighs and teares so sorrowfully interrupted and silenced her tongue as she recommending her soule into the hands of her Redeâ—…mer whom she had so heynously offended shee with great humility and contrition kneeling on her knees and lifting up her eyes and hands towards heaven the Executioner with his sword made a double divorce betwixt her head and her body her body and her soule and then the fire as if incensed at so fiery a spirit consumed her to ashes and her ashes were throwne into the ayre to teach her and all the world by her example that so inhumane and bloudy a daughter deserved not either to tread on the face of this Earth or to breathe this ayre of life She was lamented of all who either knew or saw her not that she should die but that she should first deserve then suffer so shamefull and wretched a death and yet shee was farre happier than her sister Fidelia for shee despaired and this confidently hoped for remission and salvation Thus albeit this wretched and execrable young Gentlewoman lived impiously yet she died Christianly wherefore let vs thinke on that with detestation and on this with charity And here wee see how severely the murther of Captaine Benevente was by Gods just revenge punished not onely in his two daughters who plotted it but also in the two Noblemen and their two Laquayes who acted it Such attempts and crimes deserve such ends and punishments and infallibly finde them The onely way therefore for Christians to avoid the one and contemne the other is with sanctified hearts and unpolluted hands still to pray to God for his Grace continually to affect prayer and incessantly to practise piety in our thoughts and godlinesse in our resolutions and actions the which if wee be carefull and conscionable to performe God will then shrowd us under the wings of his favour and so preserve and protect us with his mercy and providence as we shall have no cause to feare either Hell or Satan GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND Execrable Sinne of Murther HISTORY XV. Maurice like a bloudy villaine and damnable sonne throwes his Mother Christina into a Well and drownes her the same hand and arme of his wherewith he did it rots away from his body aad being discrased of
for the death of her eldest Sonne Don Pedro for the disobedient flight and clandestine Marriage of her Daughter Cecilliana to Monfredo who is now murthered but by whom shee knowes not and seeing her sayd Daughter thereby made a sorrowfull Widdow shee as an indulgent and kinde Mother forgâ—…ng what she had formerly done and beene and now desirous to comfort her and to bee comforted of her againe sends her sonne Don Martino to Valdebelle to solliciâ—…e his Sister to returne and to live with her in Burgos Who detesting this pâ—…ject and resolution of his Mother is very sorrowfull thereat but seeing that shee will be obeyed he rides over to Valdebelle to his Sister and there delivereth his Mothers will and message to her but in such faint and cold tearmes as shee thereby knowes hee is farre more desirous of her absence than her presence and of her stay than her returne yea and to write the truth of her minde his very sight strikes such flames of feare into her heart and of suspicion into her thoughts that shee still assumes and retaines her old opinion and confidence that hee is the absolute Murtherer of her brother Don Pedro and her husband Don Monfredo but herein shee now holds it discretion to conceale her selfe to her selfe and so gives him kinde and respective entertainment shee prayes him to report her humble duety to her Mother that she will consider of her request and either send or bring her 〈◊〉 resolution shortly but inwardly in her heart and soule she intends nothing lesse than either to hazard her content upon the discontent of her Mother or which is worse her life on the inveterate malice of her brother Don Martino And now we approch and draw neere to see the judgements and justice of God overtake this our wretched Don Martino for these his two most lamentable and bloudy Murthers And now his sacred Majestie is fully resolved to detect them and his Arrow is bent and Sword whetted to punish him for the same for wee must understand that the very same day which her brother Don Martino was last with her at Valdebelle his Confessor Father Thomas dyed and some three dayes after his Sister Cyrilla according to his dying order rides over to the Lady Cecilliana and delivereth her the Priest her brothers Letter at the receipt whereof Cecilliana findes different emotions in her heart and passions in her minde 〈◊〉 going into the next roome she breaks up the seales and finds therein these Lines FATHER THOMAS to CECILLIANA WEll knowing that the Lawes of Heaven are farre more powerfull and sacred than those of Earth as I now lye on my Death-bed ready to leave this life and to flie into the Armes of my Saviour and Redeemer Christ Iesus I could not goe to my Grave in peace before I had signifyed unto thee that very lately thy brother Don Martino in Saint Honoria's Church delivered unto me in confession That he had first poysoned thy brother Don Pedro with a paire of perfumed Gloves and then after murthered thy husband Don Monfredo with his Rapier in Burgos And although I must and doe acknowledge that he was in his Fit of Lunacie and Madnes when he thus made himselfe a witnes against himselfe hereof yet no doubt the immediat finger and providence of God led him to this resolution as an act which infinitly tends to his sacred Honor and Glory I send thee this Letter by my Sister Cyrilla whom I have strictly charged to deliver it to thee three dayes after my buriall because I hold it most consonant to my Profession and Order that not my Life but my Death should herein violate the seale of Confession and thou shalt shew thy selfe a most religious and Christian Lady if thou make this use hereof that it is not my selfe but God who sends thee this Newes by mee FATHER THOMAS Cecilliana having o're-read this Letter and therein understood and found out that her brother Don Martino is the cruell Murtherer both of her brother Don Pedro and her husband Don Monfredo her griefe thereat doth so farre o'resway her reason and her malice and revenge her religion as once shee is of the minde to murther him with her owne hand in requitall hereof but then againe strangling that bloudy thought in its conception shee vowes that if not by her owne hand he shall yet infallibly dye by the hand of the common Executioner When Love Pitty Nature Reason Griefe Sorrow Rage and Revenge acting their severall parts upon the Stage of her heart shee findes a great combate in her heart and reluctancie in her soule what or what not to doe herein when with many teares and prayers by the Advice and Counsell of God shee enters into this consultation hereon with her selfe Ahlas unfortunate and sorrowfull Cecilliana It is upon no light presumption or triviall circumstances that I believe my brother Martino to be the inhumane murtherer of my brother Don Pedro and husband Monfredo for besides that God ever prompted my heart and whispered my soule that this was true yet now here is his owne Confession to his Ghostly father and his Ghostly Fathers owne Letter and Confession to mee to the same effect Evidences and Witnesses without exception as cleere as noone day and as bright as the Sunne in his hottest and brightest Meridian that hee and onely he was the Murtherer of them both but Oh poore Cecilliana quoth shee to what a miserable estate and perplexity hath these his bloudy facts and crimes now reduced mee for he hath murthered my brother and husband shall I then permit him to live but withall he is likewise my brother and shall I then cause him to dye True it is I cannot recall their lives but it is likewise as true that I may prevent his death for as the first lay not in my power to remedie yet all the world knowes that the second meerely depends of my pity courtesie and compassion to prevent but Ahlas saith she the tyes of heaven are and ought to be infinitly more strong than those of earth and the glory of God to be far preferred before all our naturall affections and obligations to our best Friends or neerest or dearest Kinsfolkes whosoever Therefore as to detect these Murthers of his thou art no friend to Nature so againe to conceale them thou thereby makest thy selfe an enemy to Grace for assure thy selfe unfortunate Cecilliana that God will never bee appeased nor Iustice satisfyed untill their innocent blood be expiated and washed away in his who is guilty thereof because as by detecting Murther wee blesse and glorifie God so by concealing it we heap a fatall Anatheâ—…a and curse upon our own heads As Clouds are disâ—…pated and blowne away when the Sun ariseth and moâ—…teth in his Verticall lustre and glory so Cecilliana having thus ended her consultation with her selfe and now began her resolution with God she leaves Valdebelle takes her Coach and dispeeds away to Burgos where in steed of
of the deare affection and tender respect which I beare you will then fall on my knees to my Father to hasten his consent to our marriage that in seeking my content you may therein find your owne and this is my resolution wherewith if yours concurre and sympathise Heaven may but Earth shall not crosse our desires LA PRATIERE Valfontaine receives this second Letter from his Mistris with smiles and frownes with smiles to see her inviolable constancie and affection with frownes to behold his brother Quatbrissons continuall malice and treacherie towards him the which considering as also because it so neerely concernes him hee resolves to taxe him thereof and to see whether by faire requests and perswasions hee may reclaime him from affecting his faire and deere La Pratiere and so to give over his sute to her but first hee knowes himselfe indebted and obliged to returne her an answer to this her last Letter the which he doth in these termes VALFONTAYNE to LA PRATIERE IT is every way your affection no way your duty sweet La Pratiere which againe advertiseth me of my Brother Quatbrissons perseverance in his treachery towards mee by seeking to betray and bereave mee of your selfe in whom my heart and thoughts imparadise their most soveraigne earthly felicity and your resolution in nipping his hopes and your Fathers will by electing me or your grave for your Husband doth so ravish my heart with joy and so rap my conceits in an extasie of sweet content as I am confident God hath reserved La Pratiere to bee Valfontaines sweet Wife and he to bee her deare Husband But as I know not whether my unkind and treacherous Brother will yet farther bewray you his folly in exercising your patience with his importunity so to save you that labour and penance which for my sake and love you are ready to impose to your selfe I am both ready and resolved not onely to fall on my knees to your Father but also to your sweet selfe that our marriage be hastned for as your resolution herein is and ever shall be mine so our hearts and thoughts sympathising in these wishes I hope that both Heaven and Earth have resolved not to crosse but shortly to consummate and finish our desires VALFONTAINE He having thus dispatched and sent away his Letter to his sweet and faire Mistresse hee now resolves to have some conference with his unkind Brother to see what a brazen face hee either will or can put upon this his ingratitude and treachery But Quatbrissons policie will anticipate and prevent him for he having his heart and contemplations deepely fixed on La Pratieres beauty and having ranne over all the inventions of his art and affection how to make her forsake he coynesse and so how to obtaine her for his wife hee at last resolves to faine himselfe sicke and so then to reveale to his brother Valfontaine that it is his deare and fervent affection to La Pratiere which is the cause thereof To which purpose hee keepes his bed and in his perfect health is twice let blood thereby to looke ill when sending for his brother to his Chamber and exempting all other company thence he acquaints and informes him That since he first saw La Pratiere hee still most tenderly loved her and that hee must now die because she will not affect and love him He prayes and conjures him by vertue of all the same blood which equally streames in both their bodies for the saving and preserving of his life that hee will now abandon his affection from her and so yeeld him up all the power and interest that hee hath or pretends to have in her and that in requitall thereof if occasion require hee shall still find him ready not onely to expose all his meanes but his dearest blood and life at his command A request so unjust and a proposition so devoid of common sense and reason as Valfontaine observing it and therein seeing his brothers impudencie now growne to the height of basenesse and folly hee exceedingly incensed thereat with a disdainefull looke returnes him this sharpe and bitter yet deserved reply Was it not enough that I understood your treachery by my faire and deare La Pratiere in seeking and attempting to bereave me of her but that thou art thy selfe become so sottish to â—…ake thy tongue the Advocate as well to plead and apologise thy treachery to me as to publish thy shame to thy selfe and to the whole world in seeking and desiring me to surcease my affection to her and to renounce my interest of her to thy selfe No no base Quatbrisson for henceforth I highly disdaine to terme or esteeme you my brother I give thee to understand and know that in heart and in honour she is mine and I hers and therefore you shall die and damne before I will permit thee to inrich thy selfe with my losse of her whom I affect and prise a thousand times dearer then my selfe or then all the lands and treasures of the world when without any other farewell he hastily and chollerickly flings forth his Chamber from him Quatbrisson seeing his brothers furious departure and remarking his peremptory and incivill answer to him hee in his heart and thoughts vowes revenge and in his resolutions sweares to make him repent it To which effect forsaking his bed and abandoning his counterfeit sicknesse his choller hardly affording his patience three dayes to recover his blood and strength but knowing his brother to be now at Nantes with their Vncle De Massy hee seekes out a deare and intimate friend of his named Monsieur La Roche whom ingaging to be his second in a Duell against his owne brother Valfontaine they ride over to Nantes when comming to 〈◊〉 small Parish termed Saint-Vallerge within a league of the Citie he writes a Challenge delivers it to La Roche and so dispeeds him away with it to his broâ—…r La Roche comes to Nantes finds out Valfontaine at the President his Vncles â—…use being in the company of a very intimate friend of his of that Citie naâ—…ed Monsieur de Pont Chausey and delivereth him his brothers Challenge fast sealed â—…e which hee hastily breaking open and perusing hee finds that it speakes this â—…guage QVATBRISSON to VALFONTAINE â—…N regard it is impossible for both of â—…s to enjoy the faire La Pratiere to wife therefore it is fit that one of us dye that the other may survive and live to be enriched with so â—…ious a treasure and crowned with so inestimable a blessing and felicity which considering as also because my modest requests have undeservedly met with thy incivill carriage and beene requited with thy malicious execrations Therefore find it not strange to see affection give a Law to Nature and mine honour to contemne thy contempt and malice in enviting thee and thy Second to meet me and mine with your single Rapiers to morrow twixt two or three after dinner in a faire meddow at the East end of
Bellinda with the aid of her Gentlman Vsher Ferallo poysoneth her Husband De Mora and afterwards she marieth and murthereth her said Husband Ferallo in his bed so shee is burnt alive for this her last murther and her ashes throwne into the aire for the first GODS REVENGE AGAINST THE CRYING AND Execrable sinne of Murther HISTORY XXVI â—…mperia for the love she beares to young Morosini seduceth and causeth him with his two Consorts Astonicus and Donato to stifle to death her old Husband Palmerius in his bed Morosini misfortunately letting fall his gloves in Palmerius his chamber that night which he did it They are found by Richardo the Nephew of Palmerius who knowes them to be Morosinies and doth thereupon accuse him and his Aunt Imperia for the Murther of his Vnkle So they together with their accessaries Astonicus and Donato are all foure of them appehended and hanged for the same THose Intemperate and lascivious affections which savour more of Earth than Heaven are still attended on with shame and repentance and many times followed by misery and confusion For God being our Maker by Creation and our Saviour by Redemption consequently should be of our loves and affections and the true sole object in whom only they should begin and terminate For Nature must be a handmaid not a Mistresse to Grace because God in his Divine decree and creation of man hath made our bodies mortall but our soules immortall And the like Antithesis which there is betweene Lust and Charity the same there is betweene sinfull adultery and sanctified mariage But where our youthfull affections beginne in whoredome and end in murther what can be there expected for an issue but ruine and desolation Crimes no lesse than these doth this ensuing History report and relate A History I confesse so deplorable for the persons their facts and punishments that I had little pleasure to pen it and lesse joy to publish it but that the truth and manner thereof gave a contrary Law to my resolutions in giving it a place among the rest of my Histories That the sight and knowledge of others harmes may the more carefully and conscionably â—…each us to avoid and prevent our owne THe free Estates and Common-weales of Italy more especially the famous Seigniory of Venice which for wealth and power gives place to no other of Christendome holds it no degree of disparagement but rather an happy and honourable vertue in their Nobles and Gentlemen to exercise the faculty aâ—…d pâ—…ofession of Merchants the which they generally performe in Turkie and all other parts of the Levant Seas with as much profit as glory to the admiration of the whole world and the envie of their private and publike enemies Of which number of Venetian Gentlemen Seignior Angelo Morosini is one a young mâ—…n of some twenty foure yeares of age descended of a Noble name and family and if reports be true from whence ours here in England derives their Originall He is tall and slender of stature of a lovely sanguine complection a bright Chestnut-coloured haire but as yet adorned with a small apparition of a beard He is active of body of a sweet carriage and nimble wit and a most pleasing and gracefull speech and hee is not so young but he hath already made two severall voyages to Constantinople and Alexandria in both which he resided some five or six yeares and through his wisdome and industry wonne some wealth but more reputation and fame in so much as his deportments and hopes to the eye and judgement of the world promiseth him a fortune equall if not exceeding his bloud and extraction Holding it therefore rather a shame than a glory as yet to marrie or which is a thousand times worse to passe his time vainly and lasciviously at home among the Ladies and Courtisans of Venice upon whom by the way of a premonition and precaution he saw so many deboshed young Gallants to cast away their Estates and themselves he assumes his former ambition to travell and so undertakes a third voyage tâ—… Constantinople He embarkes himselfe upon a good ship named the Little Saint Marke of Venice and in company of Seignior Astonichus and Seignior Philippo Donato likewise two young Gentlemen Mearchants of Venice of his deare and intimate acquaintance with a pleasant gale and merry wind they set saile from Malanoca the Port of that City and so direct and shape away their course for the Islands of Corfu and Zant where they are to stop and take in some commodities and from thence thorow the Archipelagus by Candy and Cyprus to the Port 〈◊〉 the Greaâ—… Seignior But as men propose and God disposeth of all terrestriall aâ—…ons and accidents so they are overtaken by a storme and with contrary winds put into the Harbour and City of Ancona a rich populous and strong City which belongs to the Pope and which is the Capitall of that Province of the Marâ—… 〈◊〉 from whence it assumes and takes its denomination and wherein there are well neare three thousand Jewes still resident who pay a great yearly Revenue to his Holinesse The wind being as yet contrary for our three Venetian Gallants and they knowing that our Lady of Loretto the greatest and most famous Pilgrimage of the Christian world was but fifteene small miles off in the Countrey whereas yet they had never either of them beene they in meere devotion ride thither their ship now being fast anchored and mored in the Peere of Ancona which stands on the Christian side upon the Adriatique Sea vulgarly tearmed the gulfe of Venice And here it is neither my purpose or desire to write much either of the pretended pietie of this holy Chappell of Loretto which the Romanists say was the very Chamber wherein the Virgin Mary brought up her Sonne our Saviour Iesus Christ or of her Picture which they likewise alleadge was drawne by the hand and pensill of the Apostle Saint Luke and both the one and the other as they affirme miraculously brought over the Seas from Palestine by Angells and first placed by them on the Hills of Recagnati three little miles thence and long since by the said Angels translated and placed here in this small Towne of Loretto But as for my selfe this legend is to weake to passe current with my faith much lesse to esteeme it as an Article of my Creed Only this I will confesse and say That as it was devotion not curiosity which carried our Morisini Astonicus and Donato thither so it was my curiosity not my Devotion which made me to take the sight thereof in my Travells Where in the rich and sumptuous Quire of a stately Cathedrall Church I saw this little old Bricke Chamber now termed the Holy Chappell verie richly adorned with great variety of massie Gold and Silver Lampes and this Picture of the blessed Virgin in a Shrine of Silver most richly decked with Chaines and Robes imbroidered with Gold and Silver and set with pretious Stones of
doth therefore verily hope and pray that hee may speedily die in his house or else hee hath already swapt a bargaine with the Devill to murther him thereby to make up the breaches and tuines of his poore and totteri gestate He finds it a worke not onely of difficulty but of impossibility to know what rich stuffe hee hath in his Casket and Cloak-bagge because hee still keeps it under his pillow and yet gathering and wresting from him that hee is a Goldsmith of Dijon and that hee came now from Franckford Mart he therefore beleeves that he hath store of Gold and Jewels about him His poverty and his covetousnesse gives the switch to the Devill and the Devill gives the spur to him to raise his uncharitable contemplation into bloudy actions and his thoughts and resolutions as so many lines runne to terminate in this one onely Centre which is that of De Lauriers death He sets his wits and invention on the Tenter-hooks to discover this imagined Indies but he finds him to be as cautious and secret in concealing as hee himselfe is curious to bewray it Hee purposly keeps all company from him and will not so much as permit his Physitian or Apothecary to speake a word with him but hee will still bee present to heare and understand it Hee with oylie words and silken speeches pryes into his deepest secrets and purposly endevoureth to insinuate and screw himselfe into his familiarity But De Laurier doth rather feare than love him and so esteemes the revealing of his Cold to be the accelerating of his danger to which end with many colourable excuses and evasions he puts him off the knowledge thereof But hee is so miserable to see his miseries approach because the violence and impetuosity of his Feaver doth every way advance no way retire and now it is that his hopes of the recovery of his health doe fade not flourish and rather quaile than prosper Hee resolves to bee as Religious as hee is sicke and therefore prayes his Hoast Adrian to bring him a Priest to give him the Sacrament Adrian performes his request but brings him a Priest named father Iustiniâ—…n of his owne humour and complexion and who loves Whores and Wine better than he doth either Heaven or God so this unspirituall Father gives him the extreame Unction and prepares him for his journey and transmigration from Earth to Heaven His continuall vanities and prodigalities hath likewise made him poore so being equall with Adrian both in Vice and Poverty he is likewise equall and sympathizeth with him in hope and desire to repaire his Indigence and to enrich himselfe by the supposed treasure and death of De Laurier But as this deboshed Priest is malitious in this his policy so he is also polititike in this his malice for imagining that Adrian levels and aimes with him at the same Butt and marke he dares but yet will not acquaint him with his bloudy purpose to contract a hellish league and confederation with him for the violent dispatch and inhumane and untimely dispeeding of him away from Earth to Heaven Whiles thus De Lauriers sicknesse and weaknes encreaseth and his Priest and Adrians covetousnesse begins wholly to weigh downe their soules and resolutions to hasten his deplorable death as the Priest is ready to breake his minde to Adrian how and in what manner they should finish and compasse this bloudy businesse Adrian contrariwise yea and directly contrary to the rules of Nature and Lawes of Grace breaks his minde hereof to his vertuous and Religious wife Isabella whom he seeks to draw in as an Actor in this mournfull and as an Agent in this cruell Tragedy He is as gracelesse as impudent in this foule and fatall attempt of his for he sets upon her with the sweetest speech and smoothest perswasions that either Art could suggest or the malice of the Devill invent or dictate to him and therein ever and anon leaves not to conveigh and distill in her minde yea and to imprint in her memory their fore-past wealth their present poverty and misery and the undoubted great riches of Gold and Jewels which De Laurier had with him in that as formerly we have observed he very carefully day and night kept his Casket under his pillow and in a hellish eloquence represents unto her the facility of this fact either by Ponyard or poyson adding withall that the danger thereof would infallibly die with him with a thousand other damnable alluring speeches conducing and looking that way which I am farre more inclinable to silence than expresse But wretched Villaine and execrable miscreant that hee is hee speaks not a word no not a syllable of God or his Justice of Heaven or Hell or of the foulnesse of that fact or the just revenge and punishment incident and due thereunto His vertuous wife Isabella is amazed and astonished at this bloudy and inhumane proposition of her Husband and all trembling with sighs and teares receives it from him with no lesse true affliction and sorrow than he delivered it her with cruelty and impiety Her cheeks were as red for shame as his were pale with envie thereat when God infusing as much goodnesse into her heart and tongue as Satan had cruelty into his soule and resolutions she fell on her knees to his feet and with her eyes and hands erected towards Heaven delivered him this vertuous and Religious speech That it was with infinite griefe and amazement that shee understood this his bloudy position to her which he knew she could derive from none but Hel and Satan She represents to him with much griefe and passion that as punishment is ever the reward of sinne so that of all sinnes murther was the foulest and the most pernitious and diabolicall She tels him farther that covetousnesse is the root of all mischiefe that for her part she is as thankfull to God as he is displeased with himselfe for their povertie and that shee would ever choose rather to live in want than to dye in shame and misery and which is worst of all either to live or dye in the horrours and terrours of a guilty and ulcerated Conscience That it is a prophane and prodigious impiety to violate the lawes of Hospitality but a fearefull yea a horrible crime to kill any one under our owne roofe and who in the right of humanity and christianity comes to us for shelter and protection When rising againe from her knees shee takes him about the neck and bedewing his cheekes with her teares conjures and prayes him by the remembrance of her youth and beautie which had formerly beene so deere and pretious to him by the memory of their sixteene yeares sweet cohabitation and conversation together in the holy Estate of Wedlocke yea for his owne sake for his soules sake and for Gods sake that hee would defie this divell which thus with his two bitter sweet pills of Covetousnesse and Murther mocked and sought to betray him and that
hee being once dead undoubtedly the faire Dominica will fall for his share and wife So hee is resolute in this his bloody and damnable designe and consults with himselfe whether hee should doe it by himselfe or by some second instrument but finding it dangerous to effect it by another beeause he must then commit his life to his courtesie and seeing that his Gout had now forsaken him hee therefore resolves to doe it by himselfe But first hee thinkes it not improper rather pertinent for him to write Roderigo a letter the which hee doth in these tearmes and sends it him by one of his owne confident Servants HIPPOLITO to RODERIGO WErt thou informed but of the hundred part of my deere affection to the faire young Lady Dominica and reciprocally of hers to me thou wouldst if not out of honour yet out of Iudgement surcease thy suite to her and not make thy obstinacie ridiculons by thinking to obtaine her to thy Wife and although shee feede thee with the sugar oâ—… many sweet protestations and promises to the contrary yet if I have any eyes in my head or thou judgement in thine to discerne the truth hereof thou hast farre more reason to rely upon the integrity of my age than the Vanity and inconstancy of her youth And wert thou not a Gentle â—…an whom I love for thine owne and honour for thy Fathers sake I had not so long permitted thee to frequent her company nor so often to converse with her to the prejudiâ—…e of my content and thy discretion and if this friendly Ambassador of my heart my Letter will not yet induce thee to leave her to mee whom Heauen and Earth God and her Mother have given mee I will then either by thy Father or by the usuall course of Iustice take that order with thee therein as shall redâ—…d as much to my honour and fame as to thy infamy and disreputation HIPPOLITO Roderigo having received and read this Letter of Hippolito hee cannot refraine from smiling and laughing to see his sottish errour and ridiculous ignorance herein for he perfectly knowes that both Dominica and the Lady Cervantella her mother are long since resolved to heare no more either of him or of his sute and therefore hee holds it more worthie of his laughter than of his observation likewise to see that this old dotard when nature is ready to wed him to his grave that his lust should yet bee so forward to desire to marry so young and beautifull a Lady as Dominica The which considering once hee thought to returne him no other answer but silence but at last respecting his age and Quality more than his indiscretion or power after he had shewne his letter to Cervantella to Dominica and her brother Don Garcia who all concur in opinion with him to make it the publike object as both it and himselfe were the private cause of their generall laughter hee calles for pen and paper and rather with contempt than choller by Hippolito's owne servant returnes him this answer RODERIGO to HIPPOLITO I Have as small reason to doubt of thy affectiâ—…n to the young Lady Dominica as to beleeve that hers is reciprocally so to thee and therefore I see no just cause in honour or solid ground in Iudgement to surcease my sute towards â—…er much lesse to deeme my obstinacy ridiculous in hoping to obtaine her to my Wife And although it bee in thy pleasure yet it is not in thy power to make mee doubtfull of her fairewords or to call in question or suspition her sweet promises and protestations to mee sith that were to prophane the purity of my zeale to her and of her true and sincere affection to mee the which yet to doe thee a courtesie I will rather excuse than condemne in thee because I am consident it exceeds thy knowledge though not thy feare and in this behalfe and assurance thine eyes cannot so much prevaile with my Iudgement but that I will more rely upon the integrity of her youth than the vanity of thy Age. As for thy love to mee or honour to my Father when I finde it so I will acknowledge it to bee as true as now I conceive iâ—… feigned but for thy threates to mee in thinking thereby to make mee forsake the conversation and company of that faire and vertuous young Lady I doe rather pitty than esteeme them and every may moré contemne than care for them assuring thee that I cannot possibly refrâ—… from laughter to see thee so devoid of common sence as to thinke to bee able either to scarre mee with the power of the Law or to daunt me with the prerogative and authority of my father in making mee to forsake her whom in life and death I neither can nor will forsake resolve therefore henceforth to prevent thy infamy and disreputation for I will bee left to my selfe to establish mine owne content and honour as I please RODERIGO Hippolito upon the receit and consideration of this peremptory letter of Don Roderigo is so inflamed and incensed against him to see that perforce he will make him weare a Willow Garland as without any more delayes or expostulations understanding him to bee that very same night which hee received his Letter with his Lady Dominica at her mothers house the Devill causeth him to gather all his malice wits and strength together about him that night to murther him as he issueth forth to goe home which bloody stratagem of his to effect and finish hee chargeth a pistoll with three bullets and hee waites his comming thence but Don Garcia accidentally issuing forth all alone privately to goe visit a friend of his not farre off this wretched old villaine Hippolito taking him to bee Roderigo lets flye at him and all three bullets pierce his body so hee falles downe dead to the ground The blow is heard and the breathlesse body of Don Garcia is found reeking in his blood whose mother sister and Don Roderigo are amazed and astonished at this deplorable disaster and ready to drowne themselves in their teares for sorrow thereof So Roderigo leaving some Neighbours to comfort them hee takes order to finde out the murtherers and goes himselfe speedily throughout the street to that effect When the good pleasure and providence of God directs his course to finde out this old execrable wretch Hippolito going lirping and limping in the street having throwne away his Pistoll and only holding his darke lanthorne in his hand which then the better to collour out this damnable fact of his hee opened to light him Roderigo measuring things past by the present and finding Hippolito there in the streets all alone at this undue and unseasonable houre of the night God prompts his heart with this suspition that hee in likelyhood was the murtherer of Don Garcia and so layes hold of him and causâ—…th him to be committed to the prison notwithstanding all the entreaties meanes and friends which hee could then possibly make to the
in the very centre of his heart and thoughts hee beginnes to make his private affection to her publike and so having already wonne her heart from her selfe hee now endeavoureth to winne her from her friends and then to marry her But old Seignior Sturio his father is no sooner advertised of Brellati his death of Bertolini's flight and of his sonnes affection and intent to take Paulina to wife but disdayning hee should match so low and withall so poore as also fearing that this might likewise ingage his sonne in some quarrell betwixt him and Bertolini hee resolves privately to convey him away out of Rome in some retired or obscure place from whence hee should not returne till his absence had cooled and extenuated the heat of his affection to Paulina and of his malice and Revenge to Bertolini to which end three weekes are scarce past but taking his sonne with him in his Coach under colour to take the ayre in the fields of Rome beyond Saint Pauls Church hee having given the Coach man his lesson commands him to drive away and having two Braves or Ruffians with him they dispose or rather inforce the humour of his son Sturio to patience as despight him selfe they carry him to Naples where a Brigantine being purposely prepared hee shippeth over his sonne for the Iland of Capri or Caprea where long since Seiarâ—… his ambition caused Tiberius to sojourne whiles hee played the pettie King and domineered as Emperour at Rome in his absence and gives him to the keeping and guard of Seignior Alphonsus Drissa Captaine of that Iland with request and charge not to permit him to returne for the maine for the terme of one whole yeere without his expresse order to the contrary It is for none but for Lovers to Iudge â—…ow tenderly Sturio and his sweet Lady Paulina grieve at the newes of this their sudden and unexpected separation yea their sighes and teares are so infinite for this their disaster as all the words of the world are not capable to expresse them As for Paulina shee had so long and so bitterly wept for her brothers death as it was a meere cruelty of sorrow to inforce her to play any farther part in sorrow for the departure and captivitie of her Lover Sturio but her afflictions falling in each on the necke of other in imitation of the waves of the sea occasioned by the breath and blast of Boreas threaten her not onely with present sicknesse but with approaching death Againe she understands of Bertolini's safety and prosperity in Cicilia where hee triumphs in his victory for killing her brother Brellati and like a base Gentleman continually erects his Trophees of detraction upon the ruines and tombe of her honour and these considerations like reserved afflictions againe newly afflict and torment her so as having lost her jewell and her joy her brother and her Lover Brellati and Sturio shee beginnes to bee extreame sicke weake and faint yea the Roses of her cheekes are transformed to Lillies the relucent lustre of her eyes to dimnesse and obscurity and to use but a word not onely her heart but her tongue beginnes to faile and to strike saile to immoderate sorrow and disconsolation Her parents and friends grieve hereat and farre the more in respect they know not how to remedy it and for her selfe if shee enjoy any comfort in this life it is onely in hope that shee shall shortly leave it to enjoy that of a better Thus whiles sorrow â—…tion and sicknesse make haste to spâ—… out the thred and webbe of her life if her griefes are extreme and insupportable in Rome no lesse are those of her Lover Sturio in Caprea for it â—…rets him to the heart and gall to see how his father hath bereaved and betrayed him of his Mistris Paulina's presence the onely content and felicity which this life or earth could afford him a thousand times hee wisheth himselfe with her and as often kisseth her remembrance and Idea and then as their affections so their malice concurring and sympathizing hee againe wisheth that hee may bee so happy to fight with Bertolini for the disgrace of his Lady Paulina and shee for the death of her brother Brellati and in that affection and this revenge hee with much affliction and no comfort passeth away many bitter dayes and torments in the misery of this his inforced exile and banishment and although his curiosity affection or subtilty could never crowne him with the happinesse or felicity to free himselfe of his guards and captivity and so to steale away from that Iland in some Foist or Galley for the maine yet understanding that two dayes after there was one bound for the Port of Civita Vetcha hee to testifie his affection constancie and torments to his deare and faire Paulina takes occasion to write her a Letter to Rome the which that it might come the safer to her owne hands he incloseth in another to an intimate deare friend of his The tenour of his Letter was thus STVRIO to PAVLINA I Know not whether I more grieve at my absence from thee then at the manner thereof yet sure I am that both conjoyn'd make me in this Iland of Caprea feele the torments not of a feigned Purgatory but of a true Hell It was my purpose to condole with thee for the untimely death of thy Brother it is now not onely my resolution but my practice to mourne with my selfe for thy banishment or rather with thee for mine and when my sorrowes have most neede of consolation then againe that consolation findes most cause of sorrow for thinking of Bertolini me thinkes I see thy false disparagement on his malicious tongue and thy Brother Brellati his true death on his bloudy Sword and yet have neither the honour or happinesse to revenge either and which is worse not bee permitted to know where hee is that I may revenge them but I wish I were onely incident and obliged tosupport this affliction conditionally then wert exempt thereof or that I might know the limits and period of our absence thereby to hope for an end and remedy thereof which now I can finde no motives to know nor cause to hope O that I have often envyed Leanders happinesse And if Love could make impossibilities possible the Mediterranean Sea should long since have beene my Hellespont my Body my Barke my armes my â—…res to have wafied me from my Abidos to thy Sestos from my Caprea to thy Rome to thee sweet Paulina my onely fayre and deare Hero And although the constancie and fervencie of my love to thee suggest me many inventions to escape the misery of my exile yet the Argus eyes of my Fathers malice in that of my Guardians jealousie cannot bee inchanted or lulled asleâ—…e with the melody of so unfortunate a Mercury as my selfe but time shall shortly act and finish that which impatience cannot till when deare and sweet Paulina retaine mee in thy thoughts as I doe thee in my heart
O here they enter into devillish machinations and hellish conspiracies against him for as hee plots their discontents so doe they his destruction Fidelia and Caelestina see their blood and cause one and therefore so they pretend shall be their fortunes they would reveale their intents and designes each to other but the fact is so foule and unnaturall as for a whiles they cannot but they need no other Oratory then their owne sullen and discontented lookes for either of them may read a whole Lecture of griefe and choller in each others eyes till at length tyred with the importunity of their father and the impatiency of Carpi and Monteleone Fidelia as the more audacious of the two first breakes it to her sister Caelestina in this manner That shee had rather die then bee compelled to marry one whom shee cannot affect that the Baron of Carpi is not for her nor shee for him and that sith her father is resolute in this match although shee bee his daughter shee had rather see him laid in his grave then her selfe in Carpies bedde There needs not many reasons to perswade that which we desire For Caelestina tells her sister plainely that shee in all points joynes and concurres in opinion with her adding withall that the sooner their father is dispatched the better because shee knowes they shall never receive any content on Earth till he be in Heaven and so they conclude he shall dye But alas what hellish and devillish daughters are these to seeke the death of their father of whom they have received their lives who ever read of a Parracide more inhumanely cruell or impiously bloody so if ever murther went unrevenged this will not for wee shall see the Authors and Actors thereof most severely punished for the same Men and women may be secret in their sinnes but God will be just in his decrees and sacred in his judgements what a religious resolution had it beene in them to have retyred and not advanced in this their damnable attempt but they are too prophane to have so much pitty and too outragious to hearken to this religious reason yea they are too impious to hearken to Grace and too revengefull and Bloody minded to give eare either to Reason Dutie or Religion So now like two incensed and implacable furies they consult how and in what manner they may free themselves of their father Fidelia proposeth divers degrees and severall sorts of murthers but Caelestina likes none of them in some she finds too much danger in others too little assurance and therefore as young as she is she invents a plot as strange as subtil and as malicious diabolicall as strange she informes her that to be rid of her father there cannot be a securer course then to engage the Baron of Carpi and the Knight of Monteleone to murther him Fidelia wonders hereat saying it will be impossible for them to be drawn to performe it sith they both know and see that the Captaine their father loves them so well as will or nill they must be their husbands But Caelestina's revengefull plot is further fetcht and more cunningly spunne for she hath not begun it to leave it raw and unfinished but is so confident in her devillish industry as shee affirmes she will perfect and make it good Fidelia demands how Caelestina answereth That they both must make a feigned and flattering shew to change their distaste and now to affect Carpi and Monteleone whom before they could not that having in this manner drawne them to their lure when they attempt to urge marriage they shall both agree to enforme them that it is impossible for them to obtaine it whiles the Captaine their father lives sith albeit in outward appearance hee make a faire shew to make them their husbands yet that he meanes and intends nothing lesse for that he hath given them expresse charge and command at any hand not to love or affect them which is the maine and sole cause that hath so long withheld them from making sooner demonstrations of their affections towards them and this quoth shee will occasion and provoke them to attempt it adding that by this meanes they may give two strokes with one stone and so not onely be rid of our father but likewise of Carpi and Monteleone who peradventure may bee apprehended and executed for the fact and for our safegard and security wee will powerfully conjure and sweare them to secresie There is no web finer then that of the Spider nor treachery subtiller than that of a woman especially if she contemne Charity for Revenge her Soule for her Body God for Sathan and consequently Heaven for Hell how else could this young Lady lodge so revengefull a heart in so sweet a Body or shroud such bloody conceits and inventions under so faire and so beautifull complexion But the Panther though his skinne bee faire yet his breath is infectious and we many times see that the foulest Snake lurkes under the greenest and beautifullest leaves Fidelia gives an attentive eare to this her sisters bloody Stratagem and designe shee findes it sure and the probabilities thereof apparant and easie and therefore approves of it So these two beautifull yet bloody sisters vow without delay to set it on foot and in practise It is the Nature of Revenge to looke forwards seldome backewards but did wee measure the beginning by the end as well as the end by the beginning our affections would savour of farre more Religion and of farre lesse impiety and we should then rejoyce in that which we must now repent but cannot remedy They take time at advantage and pertinently acquaint Carpi and Monteleone with it The passions of affection proove often more powerfull then those of Reason they suffer themselves to be vanquished and led away by the pure beauty and sweet Oratory of these two discontented and treacherous Ladies without considering what poyson lurkes under their speeches and danger under their tongues They commit a grosse and maine error in relying more on the daughters youth then the fathers gravity on their verball then his reall affection and so they ingage themselves to the daughters in a veryshort time to free them of the Captaine their father It was a base vice in Gentlemen of their ranke to violate the Lawes of Hospitality in so high a degree as to kill him who loved them so dearely and entertained them so curteously and it is strange that both their humours were so strangely vitious as to concurre and sympathize in the attempt of this execrable murther But what cannot vice performe or Ladies procure of their Lovers at least if they love Beauty better then Vertue and Pleasure then Piety Captaine Benevente is many times accustomed after dinner to ride to his Vineyard and now and then to Alpiata a neighbour village where hee is familiarly if not too familiarly acquainted with a Tennants wife of his whom he loved in her youth and cannot forsake in
her middle age perseverance in vice never makes a good end a single sinne is distastefull but the redoubling thereof is both hatefull and odious to God Carpi and Monteleone take their two Lacquaies Lorenzo and Anselmo with rhem assoone as they know the Captaine to be abroad onely accompanied with his confident Gentleman Fiamento and disguising themselves they watch him at the corner of the wood where of necessity he must passe The event answereth their bloody expectations and desires they see Benevente and Fiamento approaching riding a soft trot when like so many Fiends and Devils they all foure rush forth the thickets and without any other forme with their Swords and Pistols after some resistance kill them dead to the ground but this is not the end of their hellish malice and envie neither is the unsatiable thirst of their revenge yet quenched for they take these two murthered bodies who are a fresh reeking and weltring in their blood and carry them to a neighbour hill and so throw them down into a deep quarry full of thicke bushes brambles wheras they thought no mortall eye should ever have seene them more and then and there they consult upon their flight Carpi resolves to take poast for Naples and there for a time to shroud himselfe among the multitude of the Nobility and Coaches which grace and adorne that Citie And Monte-leone resolves to hye towards Brundusium with intent that iâ—… these murthers were revealed and himselfe detected and accused he would there embarque himselfe either for Venice or Malta but hee hath not as yet made his peace and reckoning with God Leave wee Carpi and his Laquay poasting for Naples and let vs see what accident will speedily befall Monte-leone It is impossible for murther to goe long unpunished Monte-leone and his Laquay Anselmo shall ere they ride farre see this position verified in themselves He is provided of two faire Gennets one for himselfe the other for his Laquay and having taken his leave of Carpi away he goes for Brundusium but hee hath not ridden past twelve miles before his owne horse fell downe dead under him which doth something afflict and amaze him but this is but the least part of his misery and but the very beginning of his misfortune hee is enforced to make a vertue of necessity so he rides his Laquayes horse and he followes him on foot It is impossible for a guilty conscience to be secured from feare he rides narrow lanes and by-wayes but at last neare the Village Blanquettelle he meets with a swift Ford which is passable for horse but not for foot Here Monte-leone is constrained to take up his Laquay Anselmo behinde him which he doth but being in the midst thereof the horse stumbles and fals with both of them under him which is done so suddenly that Montelâ—…e had no time to cast off his Laquay and so they are both drowned and have neither the Grace nor power to breathe or speake a word more Gods judgements are secret and inscrutable had they had time to repent they had onely lost their lives whereas now it is rather to bee feared than wished they likewise runne the hazard of their soules But as it is a vertue to thinke and censure charitably of the dead so it must needs bee a vice to doe the contrary Heretofore they thirsted for bloud and loe now they have their fill of water All Elements are the servants of God but these two of fire and water are the most terrible the most impetuous Wee have but one way to come into the world but divers to goe out of it This is a testimony of our weaknesse and of Gods power By this time Captaine Benevente and his man Fiamento are found wanting and no newes to be heard of them his house rings and resounds with sorrow all his servants and friends mourne and lament for his absence and his two accursed daughters they seeme to be all in teares hereat but we shall shortly see this their hypocrisie and dissimulation both detected and revenged They lay all the Countrey to purchase newes of their father and speedily by poast advertise their brother Alcasero hereof at Naples who amazed hereat comes away with all possible speed and expedition His two sisters and himselfe wonderfully mourne and lament for the absence of their father and now seing five dayes past and no newes of him they beginne to suspect and feare that he is made away and murthered â—…nd because Fiamento was alone with him they suspect him of the fact which â—…hey are the sooner induced to beleeve in regard he is fled and not to be found â—…ut they shall soone see the contrary and that as hee was a faithfull servant to â—…eir father his master during his life so hee was a true companion to him in â—…is death And although Alcasero his sonne use all possible zeale and industry to â—…de out his father yet sith Earth cannot now Heaven will reveale the newes â—…d sight of him For as some neighbouring Gentlemen his kinsfolkes and â—…iends are hunting of a Stagge neare Alpiata they pursue him on horseback some five or six houres and at last being tired hee runnes for refuge and shelter thorow the bushes and bryers into the same old Quarry where the dead bodies of Captaine Benevente and his man Fiamento were throwne The Gentlemen Hunters descend from their horses and with their Swords drawne enter purposely to kill the Stagge which they performe when casting aside their eyes they see two dead mens bodies one neere the other whose legges hands and faces the Crowes had pitifully mangled and defaced They are amazed at this mournfull and unlooked for spectacle when approaching to discerne them they by their clothes finde and know them to bee Captaine Benevente and his Gentleman Fiamento They are astonished and amazed hereat and so one of them rides backe poast to Otranto to acquaint Alcasero his sonne hereof who melting into teares returnes with him neare to Alpiata where to his unspeakable griefe hee sees the dead bodies both of his father and Fiamento which before all the Hunters hee caused to bee searched and findes that his father with a Pistoll bullet was shot thorow the head in two places and run thorow the body with a Rapier in three and that Fiamento had five deepe wounds with a Rapier and once shot thorow the head Alcasero and the whole company grieve and lament at this sorrowfull newes they know well that Fiamento did not set upon the Captaine his father and that neither of them had Pistols and though they might imagine it done by theeves yet they were quickly cleared of that jealousie and suspition because they finde rich Rings on his Masters fingers and store of gold in his pockets So they referring the discovery of this bloudy and damnable murther to Time and to God the Author and giver of Time Alcasero causeth the dead bodies first of his father then of Fiamento to be laid in a
chiefest Mannor house with eight hundred Crownes of yearely Revenew and all his Goods and Chattels To Hautemont his second son he gave his second Mannor house worth foure hundred Crownes yearely and fifteene hundred Crownes in his purse by his Testament Estates which though it came short of their bloud yet it exceeded that of most of the Gentlemen their neighbours and is held in France at least the double if not the triple of as much here with us in England So having neither the happinesse or the care to be accompanied with any sister or other brothers they interchangeably sweare a strict league of brotherly love and deare affection each to other which by their Vertues and Honours they sweare shall never receive end but with the end of their lives They many times consult together for the conduction and improving of their Estates which they promise to manage with more frugality than lustre and with more solide discretion than vaine ostentation or superfluity and not to live in Paris or to follow the Court but to build up their residence in the Countrey To which end they cut off many unprofitable mouths both of servants horses and hounds which their father kept They likewise vow each to other to bee wonderfull charie and carefull in their mariages as well fore-seeing and knowing it to be the greatest part of their earthly felicity or misery So here we may see and observe many faire promises rich designes and resolutions and many sweet covenants voluntarily drawne up betweene these two brothers which if they make good and performe no doubt but the end thereof will bee successefull and prosperous unto them or if otherwise the contrary But before I wade farther in the streame and current of this History I must first declare that by the death of Vimory the father and by the custome of France we must now wholly abandon and take away the title of Hautemont from the second brother futurely to give him that of Harcourt the eldest and that from Harcourt the eldest to give him that of Vimory their father for by the right and vertue of the premised reasons these are now become their proper names and appellations which the Reader is prayed to observe and remember A yeare and halfe is not fully expired and past away since their father past from Earth to Heaven but the eldest brother Monseiur De Vimory being extreamly ambitious and covetous of wealth and understanding that a rich Counsellour of the Court of Parliament of Dijon named Monseiur De Basigni was dead and had left a very rich widow of some forty yeares of age named Madamoyselle Masserina he earnestly seekes her in marriage Shee is of short stature corpulent and fat of a coale-blacke haire and if fame towards her bee a true and not a tatling goddesse she hath and still is a lover of Veâ—…s and a Votaresse who often sacrificeth to Cupids lascivious Altars and Shrines Harcourt is very averse and bitter against this match for his brother They have many serious consultations hereon Hee alleageth him the inequality of her age and birth in comparison of his her corpulency the ill getting of her Husbands goods who was held a corrupt Lawyer and as the voyce of the world went who gained his wealth by the teares and curses of many of his ruined and decayed Clients and when he saw that nothing would prevaile to disswade his brother from her he rounds him in his eare that it was spoken and bruted in Diion that she was not as chaste as rich nor so continent as covetous Vimory is all enraged hereat and chargeth Harcourt his brother to name the reporters of this foule scandall vomited forth quoth he against the vertues and honour of chaste Masserina Harcourt replies that hee speakes it wholly upon fame no way upon knowledge much lesse upon beleefe so Vimory being wilfully deafe to his brothers advice and requests and preferring Masserina's wealth to her honesty hee marries her But shee is so wise for her selfe as first both by promise and contract shee ties him to this condition that he shall receive all her rents which are some twelve hundred Crownes per Annum she to put her ready money to Use into whose hands she pleaseth and he also to have the one halfe of the interest money but the principall still to remaine in her owne right propriety and possession and as well in her life as death to be wholly at her owne disposing Not long after Harcourt being at a great wedding of a Gentleman his Cousin Germaine at the City of Troyes in Champagne he there at the balles or publike dancing espies a most sweet and beautifull young Gentlewoman whom he presently fancieth and affects for his wife He enquires what shee is and findes her to be named Madamoyselle La Precoverte daughter to an aged Gentleman of that City tearmed Monseiur de la Vaquery Harcourt courts the daughter seeks the father finds the first willing and the second desirous but at last he plainly and honestly informes Harcourt that his daughters chiefest wealth are her vertues and beautie that he hath not much land and lesse mony that hee hath two great suits of Law for store of Lands depending in the Parliament of Diion which promise him store of money and that he will futurely impart a great part thereof to him if he will marrie his daughter the which for the present he tels him he is content to make good confirme to him both by bond contract Harcourt loves his faire young Mistresse La Precoverte so tenderly and dearly as he is ready to espouse her on those tearmes but he will first acquaint his brother Vimory therewith and take his advice therein Vimory informes his brother Harcourt that he knowes Monseiur De Vaquery of Troyes to be a very poore Gentleman that most of his lands are morgaged out and in great danger never to be redeemed that his law suits are as uncertaine as the following thereof chargeable Harcourt extols the beauty of La Precoverte to him to the skie Vimory replies that beauty fades and withers with a small time and that those who preferre it to wealth are many times enforced to feed on repentance in stead of content and joy and to looke poverty in the face in stead of prosperity But Harcourt having deeply setled his affection on La Precoverte he rejecteth this true and whole sâ—…ne counsell of his brother and so marries her When forgetting his former promise to his brother hee in a small time turnes a great Prodigall abandoneth himselfe to all filthy vices and beastly course of life and as a most deboshed and gracelesse Husband within one yeare hee for no cause quarrelleth very often with this his faire and deare wife then whom neither Champagne nor Burgundie had a more beautifull or vertuous young Gentlewoman shee was of stature tall and slender of a bright flaxen haire a gratious eye a modest countenance a pure
Rings from him out of a cupboarde the locke whereof he cunningly pickt and shut againe vallued at foure thousand Crownes and the same night fled upon that robbery towards Mascon thinking there to put himselfe on the River of Soan and so to slip downe to Lyons and from thence over the Alps into Italy De Boys makes a speedy and curious research for his thiefe whom as yet he could not finde or discover When hearing of this Mountebancke Tivolie his sodaine departure and flight he takes him to bee his thiefe pursues him in person and within foure leagues of Mascon apprehends him having to that end brought two Provosts or Sheriffes men with him in their Coats with their pistolls at saddle bow to assist him De Boys findes many of the Iewels and Rings about Tivoly and divers others wanting the which he could never recover So being brought backe to Sens hee was first imprisoned and then examined by the Senshall and the Procurer Fiscall When having neither cause nor colour to deny this robbery of his hee therefore freely confessed it the devill still assuring or rather betraying his hopes confidence and Iudgement That it is very possible and he thinkes very probable and feaseable to corrupt his Iudges with some of the Iewels which hee had closly conceald and hid about him But he shall speedily see the contrary For they seeing this Itallian Empericke by his owne confession guilty of this great and remarkeable robbery they condemne him to bee hâ—…nged the very next day for the same So having a Cordelier or Gray Fryer sent him that night to pryson to prepare his soule for Heaven Hee the next morning according to his sentence of condemnation is brought to his execution Where on the Ladder he to free his Conscience and soule doth constantly and sorrowfully Confesse that hee had formerly poysoned Madamoyselle La Precoverte daughter to Monseiur de La Vaquery of Troyes and that he was hired to doe it by the Lady Masserina of whom at Pougges he received two hundred and fifty Crownes and a small Saphir Ring to performe it as also fifty Crownes more which she gave him for his charges from Nivers to Troyes and so hee dies in the constant confession of this his foule and lamentable murder and is hanged for his Robbery and his body afterwards burnt for destroying and poysoning of this young Gentlewoman La Precoverte whom many Gentlemen and Ladies there present well knew and exceedingly bewayled for the goodnesse of her sweet nature and pure beauty as also for the excellencie of her honourable perfections and religious vertues And although the Spectators of this wretch Tivoly his death expected some speech from him at the taking of his last farewell of this world yet besides his former confession hee spake nothing but mumbled out some few words to himselfe which were not understood And thus he lived wretchedly as he dyed miserably giving no testimony of his contrition or sorrow to the World or of any sparke of griefe or repentance towards God Now before his body was fully consumed to ashes This our Wretched and bloudy Gentlewoman Masserina together with her old Lover but new Husband Harcourt are by order of the Judges of Sens apprehended and taken prisoners in their owne house of Saint Simplician as they were walking and Kissing together without any thought of danger muchlesse of death They hereat looke each on other with griefe and astonishment especially Masserina who understanding by some of those that apprehend them That it was the Italian Mountebanke Tivoly who at his execution accused her but not her Husband Harcourt for having and causing him to poyson her Sister La Precoverte shee then sees her selfe to bee a dead woman and no hope left her in the world of her life But every way a firme assurance and confidence of her death yet seeing Tivoly dead she resolves to stand upon her Iustification Shee is all in teares at this her lamentable disaster curseth the name and memory of Tivoly for ruining her with himselfe and now when it is too late shee blames herselfe of indiscretion for neglecting and not dealing effectually with Tivoly in prison to conceale this her fact and name As for her Husband Harcourt hee knowing himselfe absolutely Innocent of this murther hee grieves not for the death of his first wife La Precoverte but now extreamely mourneth and lamenteth to thinke of this of his second wife Masserina for live hee feares she cannot He bids her yet bee of good comfort and whispereth her secretly in her eare that hee will give all his estate and meanes to save her life or else that he will dye with her shee thankes him with a world of sighes and teares and rounds him as privately in his eare with many deepe oathes and asseverations that her tongue shall never dare to speake any one word or sillable to her Iudges which shall tend to the prejudice of his reputation safety or life and so they are by their apprehenders separated and then severally conveyed to the prison of Sens Masserina is first arraigned by the Iudges where according to her former resolution she not with teares but with high words and speeches stands upon her Innocency and Iustification they informe her how strongly Tivoly at his death declared shee had given him two hundred and fifty crownes a Saphir Ring and fifty crownes more to pay his charges at Pugges and how he at her instigation and in favour of this her gold poysoned La Precoverte at her father Monseiur La Vaqueris house at Troyes She termes Tivoly witch and devill yea worse then a thousand devils thus to accuse her fasly of this murther of her sister Precoverte whereof she vowes to God and the world to Earth and Heaven that she is as Innocent as that damned Italian was guilty thereof but the Iudges notwithstanding all these her great fumes and crackes doe presently condemne her to the racke the which as soone as shee saw and considered the sharpe nature of those exquisite torments then God was so mercifull to her soule by his grace though shee was not so heretofore to her body by the perpetration of her foule sinnes that shee would not permit her tender dainty limbes to be exposed to the misery of those cruell tortures but then and there confesseth her selfe to bee the author of poysoning La Precoverte her sister as Tivoly was the actor thereof when being here by her Iudges farther demanded whether her last Husband Harcourt were not likewise accessary with her in poysoning of his first wife La Precoverte shee with much assurance and constancy cleeres him hereof and is so kinde and loving to him as shee speakes not a word to them of his pistolling to death of her first Husband his Brother Vimorey So for this her foule and bloudy fact of hers she is condemned to bee hanged the next morning and for that night againe returned to prison where shee and her sorrowfull
visit her with affection and zeale for this desire of hers and request of thine is so honourable so reasonable as my Father should be guilty of unkindnesse to deny the one and my selfe of ingratitude not to grant the other Or if he will yet continue to crosse our affections I will then make it apparant to the world that I will not feare him the thousand part so much as I will love her and that I will ambitiously strive and resolve to make my affection to her to equalize thy zeale and her passion to mee and that I cannot receive a greater felicity and honour than to see her my Wife and my selfe her Husband I have given an answere to her Letter and very shortly I will give her my selfe every way answerable to her merits to thy expectation and my promise RODERIGO His Letter to Dominica was charged and fraughted with these lines RODERIGO to DOMINICA To deface thy sorrowes for thy Brothers death and thy miseries for my absence and likewise to preserve thy ioyes in their blossomes and thy hopes in their riper age and maturity I am fâ—…ly resolved very shortly to grant thy request in leaving Asnallos to live and dye with thee in Granado and thou doest offer a palpable wrong to the truth and an immerited disparagement to the purity and candour of my affection to thinke that I any waâ—… preferre my obedience to my Father before my affection to thee or consequently his content to thine Therefore prepare thy selfe to kisse not to chide mee for else I will resolve to chide and not to kisse thee at my returne My best endevoure shall write on the prosperity of thy Mothers affaires and my best love and service shall eternally attend on her Daughters pleasure and Commands and judge thou if my zeale to thee doe not exceed thine to my selfe sith Earth is not so deere to mee as the Honour of thy sight nor Heaven as the felicity of thy company RODERIGO Hee hath no sooner dispatched these two Letters to his Mistris and her Mother but the very next day after hee enters into a resolution with himselfe that hee shall not doe well so soone to disoblige and disobey his father by so speedily precipitating his returne from Asnallos to Granado as urging this reason to his consideration and proposing this consideration to his judgement that Dominica's affection and beauty can difficultly make him rich but that his Fathers discontent and displeasure towards him may easily make him poore Whereupon resolving to cherish his constancy to her and yet to retaine his obedience to him hee holds it no sinne if a little longer hee dispence with his content and promise to temporize for his discretion and profit as grounding his hope upon this confidence and his confidence upon this presuming infallibility that his Lady and Mistris Dominica is as chast as faire and will prove as constant to him as she is beautifull in her selfe But she is a woman and therefore she may deceive his hopes and he is a man and therefore it is possible that her beauty may betray his judgement the which prediction and prophesie to his griefe and sorrow and to her shame and misery wee shall shortly see made true and verified the manner thus Dominica as wee have formerly understood being of a wanton disposition and carriage and very unchastly and lasciviously enclined shee finding Roderigo's stay in Asnallos to exceed his promise and her expectation shee cannot live chast shee will not remaine constant in his absence but hath a friend or two I meane two proper young Gentlemen of Granado to whom shee many times privately imparteth her amorous favours and affection the which shee acteth not so closely but the Lady her Mother being a Lincy-eyed and curious observer of her actions hath notice thereof and thinking ro reclaime her from this foule sinne of fornication and whoredome which threatens no lesse than the ruines of her fortunes and the shipwracke of her reputation she first attempteth to perswade her by faire meanes with teares and prayers but seeing shee could not thereby prevaile with her then shee gives her many sharpe speeches and bitter threates and menaces as wholly to deprive her of her Fathers portion and either to make her spend her daies in a Nunnery or end them in a Prison That shee is not worthie to tread upon the face of earth or looke up to Heaven because this her foule crime of fornication makes her odious to God and an infinite shame and scandall to all her Parents and friends in generall and to every one in particular with many other reasons looking and conducing that way the which for brevities 〈◊〉 I resolve to omit and bury in silence But this lectuâ—…e of the Mother prevailes not with the Daughter but rather inflames than quencheth the fite of her inordinate and lascivious lust the which shee perceiving and to prevent her owne scandall in that of her daughters shee as a carefull Mother and a wise Matron me weth her up in her chamber where Dominice for meere griefe and choller to see her selfe thus debard of her pleasures in the restraint of her liberty shee growes very ficke lookes exceeding wanne pale and thinne and sokeepes her bed the which the Lady Cervantella takes for a fit occasion and opportunity againe effectually to write to Roderigo to hasten his returne to Granado as doubting least her Daughters Belly should chance to swell and grow big in his absence This her Letter to Roderigo reported her minde and represented her desires to him in these tearmes CERVANTELLA to RODERIGO THou doest thy selfe no right but mee and my Daughter infinite wrong in staying so long from Granado in regard it is contrary to thy promise to my expectation and to her deserts and merits For her affection is so entire and fervent to thee because shee conceives and hopes that thine in requitall is so to her that shee hath this many moneths languished in expectation of thy returne whereof now beginning to dispaire that dispaire of hers hath strucke her into so dangerous a consumption that I feare it will shortly prove fatall to her for already the Lillyes have banished the Roses of her cheekes yea her cheekes are growne thinne and those sparkling starres her eyes have lost a great part of their wonted lustre and glory so if thy affection will not yet pitty should move thee to hasten thy returne to see and comfort her especially sith thou wilt scarce know her when thou seest her in regard I may almost justly affirme that shee is no longer Dominica but rather the living Anotomy of dead Dominica How thou canst answer for this her sicknesse to thine honour which is occasioned by thy unkindnesse I know not but sure I am if shee goe to her grave before thou come to her thou canst never sufficiently answer it to thy conscience nor thy conscience to God In her sicke bed thou art the only Saint to whom shee
Chimney and so dispatcheth and kils her in her bed without giving her any time to commend her soule unto God and so very hastily rusheth forth the doore Pomerea fearing that which was happened lights a candle and ascends up the Chamber where shee sees the lamentable spectacle of her Murthered Grand-Mother hot reeking and smoaking in her bed whereat shee is amazed and makes most wofull cries and mournefull lamentations when wringing her hands and bitterly sighing and weeping shee knowes not what to doe or what not to doe in this her bitter and wretched perplexity in which meane time Alibius going for his horse findes onely the halter for his horse is grazing in the Meddow hee diligently seekes him but cannot a long time set sight of him which indeed doth much astonish and amaze him but at last hee findes him and so gallops away to Brescia where the better to delude the World and to cast a mist before their eyes hee is againe dy sixe of the Clocke in the morning waiting upon the Podestate and conducting him to the Domo or Cathedrall Church of that City But this policy of his shall not prevent his detection and punishment In this meane time Pomerea runnes to the neerest neighbours and divulgeth the Murther of her Grandmother Many of the neighbours flock thither to see this bloudy and woefull spectacle the Corrigadors of Spreare are acquainted herewith they send for Chirurgions who visit the dead body and report shee is both poisoned and beaten to death they examine poore Pomerea who relates what shee sees and knowes theâ—… send every where to search for the Murtherer By this time the newes hereof comes to Brescia Alibius like a counterfet miscreant is all in teares yea hee sheweth such living affection to the memory of his dead wife as hee sends every where to find out the Murtherer But God will not have him escape for in due time wee shall see him brought forth and appeare to the world in his colours Alibius notwithstanding his teares in his eyes having still a hell in his conscience is afrayd least Emelia his daughter measuring the subsequent by the antecedent hold him to bee her mothers Murtherer and because the Corrigadors of Spreare suspecting her have taken sureties for her apparance he the better to insinuate with her useth her with more then wonted courtesie and affabillity imagining that if her mouth were stopped he needed not feare any others tongue But this politike sleight of his shall not prevaile Now by little and little Time the consumer of all things beginnes to were away the crying rumor of this Murther and so Alibius thinking himselfe secure e're three moneths be fully expired forgetting Merilla takes Philatea to his second wife which being knowne in Brescia many curious heads of that City though not upon any substantiall ground but onely out of presumptive circumstances vehemently suspect that Alibius had a deepe hand in the Murther of his late wife Merilla but they dare not speake it alowd because hee was well beloved both of the Podestate himselfe for that yeere being and generally of all the Senators But as Murther pierceth the Cloudes and cryes for revenge from Heaven so wee shall see this of Alibius miraculously discovered and e're long severely punished for when hee thought the storme past and saw the Skies cleere when I say hee imagined that all rumours and tongues were hushed up in silence and that hee thought on nothing else but to passe his time sweetly and voluptuously with his new and faire wife Philatea then when all other meanes and instruments wanted to bring this his obscure and bloudy fact to light Lo by the Divine providence of God we shall see Alibius himselfe be the cause and instrument of his owne discovery For after hee had married Philatea which I take to bee the first light of suspecting him of his wife Merilla's Murther if my information bee true as I confidently beleeve it is this is the second Alibius under the pretext of other businesse sends for one Bernardo of the parish of Spreare to come to him to Brescia Now for our better light and information herein as also for the more orderly contriving of this History we must understand that this Bernardo was an old associate and dissolute companion of Alibius whom as it is well knowne by those who knew them hee had many times used and made his stickler and agent in many of his former lewde courses and enterprises not that I any way thinke hee had any hand in the present Murther of Merilla for then I know such is the Candour and Wisedome of the Corrigadors of Spreare and such is the cleere judgement and zeale of the Senators of Brescia to justice that hee had never escaped but had beene apprehended and brought to his tryall Wee must farther understand that this Bernardo was likewise a companion of Emelia's husband yea scarce any one day past but they were knowne and seene together in tippling houses and other such lewd and vicious places whereas drinke was still a most treacherous and unsecret Secretary It may bee that what Merilla told her husband privately hee discovered it publikely to Bernardo who comming as wee have formerly heard to Brescia after his conference with Alibius hee fell to his old vaine of tippling and carowsing and there without the North gate of Brescia which lookes towards Bergamo having more money then wit and more wine then money in the middest of his cups told hee was a Contadyne or Countreyman of Spreare that hee knew Alibius as great as now hee bore himselfe and that hee Murthered his poore wife in the Countrey to have this fine one in the City Which speeches of his hee reiterated and repeated often yea so often as they fell not to the ground but some of his â—…ewd companions tooke notice thereof and one amongst the rest being inwardly acquainted with Alibius went and secretly advertised him hereof who under-hand sends away for Bernardo where hee was and wrought so with him as since that time he was never seene in Brescia But this report of his remained behind him A second light which Alibius gave to the discovery of this his Murther was that thinking the way cleere and all suspicion vanished he converted his affection into contempt and his courtesie to disrespect and unkindnesse towards his daughter Emelia by taking away the greatest part of that small meanes hee gave her towards her maintenance which uncharitable and unnaturall part of his threw this poore woman into so bitter a perplexitie as knowing in her conscience that her father was her Mothers Murtherer shee exceedingly apprehended and feared lest hee would attempt to dispatch her likewise the which shee farre the more doubted because her father had bayled her but not as yet freed her from her appearance before the Corrigadors of Spreare But here as simple as shee was shee enters into many considerations with her selfe that to accuse her father would be as great
a disobedience in her as it was a cruelty in him to Murther her mother She is a long time in esolute either to advance or retire in this her purpose and enterprise and here shee consults betwixt nature and grace betwixt the Lawes of Earth and heaven what shee should doe or how she should beare her selfe in a matter of so unnaturall a nature It grieves her to bee the meanes of her fathers death of whom shee had received her being and yet shee sorroweth not to reveale the murtherer of her mother of whom shee enjoyed her life But though sense and nature cannot yet Reason and Religion will reconcile and cleere these doubts yea evaporate those mists and disperse these clouds from our eyes and makes us see cleere that Earth may not conceale Murther sith God receives glory both in the detection and punishment thereof Some will say this daughter did ill to accuse her father But who will not affirme that he did farre worse to Murther her mother Neither was it a delight but a torment to her to effect it for shee enters into this resolution with teares and persevereth therein with sighes and lamentations but if shee were at first resolute herein this resolution of hers is exceedingly confirmed when shee sees her father so suddainely married and her mother in law ready to lay downe her great belly especially when shee heareâ—… the reports of his suspicion bruted in Brescia So now shee can no longer containe her selfe but goes to the next Corrigador and reveales him that her father Alibius was the Murtherer of her mother Merilla The Corrigador being a wise and grave Gentleman wondering at this lamentable newes retaines Emelia in his house and writes away to the Podestate of Brescia hereof who receives this news on a Saturday at night The Sunday morning he acquaints the Prefect and chiefest Senators therof who repayre to his house The probabilities and circumstances are strong against Alibius So they all conclude to imprison him he is at the doore ruffling in his garded gown and velvet cap with his silver wand in his hand as if hee were fitter to checke others then to be controuled himselfe wayting to conduct the Podestate to the Domo Alibius little dreames how neere hee is to danger or danger to him hee is by an Isbiere or Serjeant called in to speake with the Podestate and although his conscience inwardly torment him yet hee puts a good or at least a brazen countenance on all and so very cheerefully comes before him at his first arrivall his velvet cap and silver wand those dignified markes of honour and justice are taken from him and consequently his office because these are rewards onely proper to vertue and not to vice hee is examined by those worthy Magistrates who beare gravity in their lookes wisedome in their speeches and justice in their actions Alibius hath many smooth words for the defence of his crime which with the ayd and varnish of his gracefull gesture hee strives to extenuate and palliate but in vaine for hee hath to doe with those Magistrates who cannot bee deluded or carried away either with the sugar of a lye or the charme of an evasion So they commit him close prisoner where hee hath both time and leasure to thinke on the foulenesse of his fact and the unnaturalnesse and barbarisme of his cruelty The Munday following the Corrigadors of Spreare send Emelia to Brescia where the next day the Podestate Prefect and Senators examine her they first exhort her to consider that shee speakes before God and although Alibius bee her earthly father yet he is her heavenly they conjure and sweare her to speake the truth and no more and because they see her a simple illiterated woman they informe her what the vertue and nature of an oath is When Emelia falling on her knees wringing her hands and stedfastly looking up towards heaven she bitterly weeping sighing for a pretty while had not the power to utter a word The Prefect with milde exhortations and speeches encourageth her to speake when with many teares and inrerrupted sighes she at last proffereth these words My father hath often beaten my Mother and even layne her for dead and at other times hee hath given her poyson and hee it is and no other that hath now Murthered her One of the Senators some say it was the Podestate who as much favoured Alibius as hated his crime bade Emelia looke to her conscience and her conscience to God and withall to consider that as Merilla was her Mother so Alibius was her Father Whereat shee bitterly weeping againe said that what she had already spoken was true as shee hoped to injoy any part of heaven So they binding her to give evidence at the great Court of the Province which some foure moneths after was to be held in the Castle of their Citie they dismisse her In which meane time Alibius is visited in prison by divers of his acquaintance yea some of the chiefest Senators themselves afford him that honour and charity they deale with him about his crime but in vaine for hee takes heaven and earth to witnesse that hee is innocent yea hee seemes to bee so religious and conscionable in his speeches as hee drew many of inferiour ranke and understanding to beleeve that his accusation was not true and his imprisonment unjust and false But God will shortly unmaske his hypocrisie and to his shame and confusion lay open and discover to the whole World his unnaturall and bloudy cruelty And now the time is come that the Duke and Seigniory of Venice are used to depute and send forth Criminall Iudges to descend and passe thorow the provinces of their territories and dominions to sit upon all capitall malefactors and to punish them according to their deserts A custome indeed held famous not onely in the Christian but in the whole universall world and whereby the Venetian Sate doth undoubtedly receive both glory vigour and life sith it not onely preserveth their peace and propagateth their tranquillity but also rooteth out and exterminateth all those that by their lewd and dissolute actions seeke to impugne and infringe it Thus these high and Honourable Iudges being in number two for every division having dispatcht their businesse or rather that of the Seigniories in Padua Vincensa Virona and Bergamo are now arrived in Brescia in the Castle whereof which is both beautifull and conspicuous to the eye they keepe their Forum and Tribunall And because this Citie is exempted from the Province as being particularly indowed with a peculiar jurisdiction and honoured with many honourable priviledges and prerogatives therefore Merilla being Murthered in the Province Alibius is fetched out of his first prison and by one of the chiefest and gravest Senators deputed for that purpose by the Podestate and Senate conducted and conveyed to the Castle there to bee arraigned by those two great Iudges and although this aforesaid Senator was so wise and religious as