that otherwise Anaxander could not acquire the glory he aims at from so generous an action and that it would be said he is of intelligence with you and that you are resolved to render that to him which he lends you in the same time he gives it to you Democrates answered Sestianes that all those reasons could not satisfie the scruple he had in him that posterity did not always do justice and that very often it was misinform'd of the truth that it made him almost despair to see the glory of his friend hazarded for ever whilst that the truly guilty liv'd in safety he brought out those words with an air that made Sestianes believe he intended them to be spoke to him which was the cause that he did what we shall tell you in the succession of this History As soon as Sestianes was departed Democrates went to see his Mistresse whom he found all alone he went to cast himself down at her feet but Sestiana prevented his doing it and told him with a great deal of fiercenesse and scorn that after what had befell him she could no longer hearken to his sighs without wounding her glory nor suffer a criminal to entertain her with his passion Ah! Madam replied Democrates to her with an air extream full of respect and as sorrowful as passionate if all the wretched are Criminals I avow to you I am the most guilty of all men since I am the most unfortunate but yet not so much for having been unjustly suspected of the most shameful basenesse imaginable but because I have no longer the glorious advantage of being beloved by the most beautiful and most equitable person in the earth Since you believe me equitable answered Sestiana to him you ought not to complain of me I see plainly reply'd that unfortunate Lover to her that though to this present I always thought my self to be innocent that I had never brought any reproach to my glory and that also now I do not know my crime yet I must needs be a grand Criminal since you doubt of my Innocence I doubt it with Justice reported to him the provoked fair one and if what Anaxander has written in your favour was sufficient to get you out of prison and to restore you your life it is not sufficient to render you your honour nor is it enough to make me believe that I should not love in you a man blasted with a most hatefull crime it is not enough to hinder me from doubting your innocence and it is not enough for my satisfaction for my repose and for my glory Ah! wherefore have I ever seen you wherefore have you discovered your flames to me wherefore have I loved you wherefore have you been able to constrain me in spight of my self to show you my tenderest affections wherefore have you put me in a capacity of regretting all my life the love I have born you and wherefore shall I speak it yes to punish you for your crime to punish you for having known how to constrain me to confess my Love to you and to make you suffer if you still love me wherefore but whence is it that my heart cannot speak it without sighing wherefore base man wherefore notwithstanding all my despite have I still more love for you then I ought to have Though I read in your countenance that this discourse is not displeasing to you pursued she with eyes inflamed with dispite with love and rage and that you meet with nothing in it to punish you yet know that this new confession of my flame ought to make you suffer more then you imagine if you loved me truly since there is nothing in the world can oblige me to give you my hand before your innocence be so fully justifyed that I shall have no further room to doubt of it for in a word continued she though you be pardoned yet you are not sufficiently justifyed When one has once lost one 's honour it is not so easily recovered and there is need of more convincing proofs then what a friend writes who would gladly sacrifice his glory to the friendship he has for you and who possibly would speak otherwise if he once saw himself charged with fetters This discourse gave Democrates both a sensible affliction and as sensible a joy for if on the one side he was even ravished to learn that Sestiana had loved him always and to see that notwithstanding all her despite she had not the power to conceal her love from him on the other side he resented a most incredible grief to see himself not in a condition to possesse her nor that he knew any ways in the world how to justine his innocence so fully that it might be impossible for his fair and beautiful Mistress to be able to doubt of it These thoughts for some time took up his minde and occasioned him for some moments not to answer her but at last he broke off his silence and said to her I do not know any thing Madam that can better prove my innocence to you and that can better make it known to all the world then the passion I have for you and which I have been so hardy as to declare to you A heart that had found it self culpable would not have had a sufficient assurance to give you the marks of his flame and to demand of you the permission and honour to sigh for you it would not have dared to adde this crime to that which it would have been sullied with and it would have apprehended that your wit and your eyes which penetrate all things and which have a particular power of discerning would quickly have found out both its crime and its most secret sentiments Do not endeavour interrupted Sestiana to seduce my â—â—â—pite by this flattering discourse and if you will oblige me let me alone to enjoy it till such time that I shall be no longer able to doubt of your innocence I must then replied Democrates to her wait if so be I can do it without expiring till fortune which has rendered me guilty makes a discovery of my innocence possibly it will labour my justification when I shall least think of it in the same manner as it has laboured to eclipse my glory when I as little suspected it As this inconstant Deity often makes persons guilty that so she may divert her self with the trouble and confusion into which she casts them she is also pleased to restore them their innocence when they believe their virtue shall never be known and when they dispair to see themselves again in the same degree of honour as they were before they had the unhappiness to be attacked by that flitting goodness This time will come Madam and you will know then that I am not altogether unworthy of the Love you bear me Ah! why is not this time come already cried Sestiana to her self do not you imagine replied she immediately that Love makes me speak in
of Democrates When those who came to interrogate him were gone he made reflections upon the Letter they had showed him by which he understood that the Author of the conspiracy was of his acquaintance and one of his friends he run over in his mind all those he knew to see if among his friends there was any he could think capable of this baseness and upon whom he might fasten his suspicions but not having found any he remembred what Sestianes had come and told him some time before he was taken prisoner and immediately suspected part of the truth which greatly troubled him and gave him cruel inquietudes for if on one side he was almost ready to dispair to have any reason to suspect the father of his Mistress of an action so foul and so unworthy a man of Honour on the other side he thought himself obliged to tell all he knew and was perswaded that it was to make himself a criminal and to wound his honour to keep it undiscovered yet after he had consulted with himself what he should do he saw very well that he ought not to accuse a man of the quality of Sestianes without any proofs and upon a simple conjecture and that if the evil treatments he had received from the Prince Theomedes made his Enemies believe it was he who had conspired against him it was a motive strong enough to make his friends believe that he was suspected unjustly and that without knowing the truth would be to draw consequences to his disadvantage absolutely contrary to his glory and injurious to his reputation wherefore after he had well consulted prudence to see what he had best do it gave him only the advice to be silent and not to speak of what it was impossible for him to prove and that which might undoubtedly make him lose the heart of his Mistress yet possibly had he hearkned lesse to the Counsels of prudence and had said all he knew that Sestianes astonished confounded and surprised as ordinarily most criminals are when they see they are discovered would not so well have known how to hide his surprise and trouble and that his countenance would have discovered his crime but as he had no proofs it might be not only to run the hazard of losing the heart of his Mistress but also be in danger to be looked upon as an Impostor for uttering that he could not make out not but that if Democrates had been happy fortune might have made him prosperous in acting after this manner but as he proposed to himself that he would follow prudence in all things and not put any thing to hazard he ought not to undertake that which might be in the least perillous In the mean time whilst that this criminal without a crime or rather this innocent victim of misfortune gave himself up holy to his inquietude and sought out means to get rid of the doubt that was upon his spirit Sestianes on his part was in a fear and trouble very difficult to be exprest Sometimes he thought Democrates knew his crime and that the Love he bore his Daughter kept him from speaking of it sometimes he fancied he knew nothing of it and then again he was perswaded that he could not be very long Master of his secret but would be constrain'd to declare it His mind being tost about with all these different thoughts successively gave up it self to fear grief torment and hope without ever getting it dispossest of those wracking Inquietudes no not in those very moments wherein he flattered himself that Democrates knew not any thing or if he had acquainted him with all his love would have kept him from making any discovery Though Sestianes was still in fear and his disquiets were great and though the troubles and cares of Democrates were much more smart and pungent and his griefs by far more sensible yet all those torments came not near the cruel displeasures that Sestiana resented and as glory was a thousand times more dear to her then her life and love it was only despite that caused all her sighs she was more deeply touched at Democrates's being imprisoned because she had loved him then because she did love him and she had a most unexpressable regret that she had suffered a person to get her esteem and tenderness whom she Judg'd unworthy of it and whom she thought was guilty of the most shamefull and horrid baseness in the world This generous Person did not resemble those who cannot hate the objects they have loved and who cannot see the crimes that Lovers do commit after they have once known how to gain their hearts but with the eyes of their love that is to say only to excuse them she looked not upon the pretended crime of Democrates with any other eyes then those of her choller and only aim'd to be reveng'd both of him and of her self for that he had been able to constrain her Love and to make her declare to him the weakness of her heart in bearing him so ardent an affection wherefore she took up a resolution never to marry him although he should get out of prison and be perfectly restored into the Kings favour unless she should be fully purg'd of that injurious suspition with which his reputation had been sullied Whilst Sestiana gave up her self wholly to her despite Democrates was several times interrogated but he still shew'd an equal assurance and resolution and the Prince Theomedes not doubting but that he had some secret Enemies took so great a care over himself that those who had a design to take away his life could not finde any favourable opportunity to put their purpose in execution The Imprisonment of Democrates who could not be thought guilty of a crime so unworthy of him and so contrary to the great reputation he had acquired extreamly troubled several of his friends and above them all Anaxander who was a stranger of an Illustrious Family and whose Name is known throughout a good part of Europe They had made some Voyages together and had contracted so great a friendship that I know not how to express it but in saying that all the Histories have said of the most strongest friendships in the world cannot equal that which was between them It had been already a good while that this stranger had designed to go back into his own Country and his departure had not been retarded but through the great affection he bore to Democrates whom he could not then tell how to leave But yet now he did resolve to go seeing his friend in prison but it was only for his service as you will finde in the sequel This generous and faithfull friend made his departure with all the precipitation he could and went out of the Kingdome without taking his leave of any person and even without saluting the King to whom he was very well known because all these things he thought might be advantagious to him in the designe he had to
person that Anaxander could not make himself guilty but out of generosity and to save his friend and he also did much doubt of the reasons which had induc'd him to give that advice that he had put at the end of his Letter to the Prince Theomedes The King who as I have already told you began to retrive his esteem for our Heroe and who was of opinion that Anaxanders Letter might be relied upon after he had made Theomedes to consent to it who was the most interessed in this affair declared that Democrates was innocent and gave order he should be let out of prison This generous unfortunate person was no sooner set at liberty but he went to throw himself at the King's feet I know Seignior said he to him how dear the liberty which I now receive has cost the glory of the most perfect friend that ever was that too obliging Anaxander has not made himself guilty but to make me innocent all his crime is my unhappiness he has thought he ought to give me at the expence of his reputation those illustrious almost incredible marks of his frendship but too disadvantagious for himself since they make him lose the esteem he had acquired among men I will resume my setters to render him back his glory and his innocence mine will be powerfull enough to free me from 'em or if in spight of all its power I am constrain'd to perish I shall not have the sensible and cruell displeasure of living and of knowing my self the cause of a crime which will be unjustly imputed to the most virtuous of all men You deserve replied the King to him amaz'd at this discourse to have chains put on you far more heavy then those you now have quitted not so much for the crime of which you are possibly too justly suspected as for the trouble and confusion you endeavour to throw into the breast of a King who does all he can to defend you from those perils you are threatned with I cannot secure you from them with justice but in finding another guilty who justifies you and yet when I have found him you implore your Rhetorick to perswade me that he is innocent and do all you can to destroy what I have been hitherto doing for you Cease ungrateful your opposition to my bounties and if you will not do it because I desire it do it then either out of pity to your self or from the obedience you owe me and do not give me the regret of making him perish who has been heretofore honoured with my Confidence Though you should believe Anaxander is innocent yet receive the testimonies of that friendship he gives you and do not publish that he is not guilty but leave it to time to justifie him it renders justice to all the world it does not suffer it self to be corrupted but oftentimes brings to light the innocence of those who have been thought culpable and the crimes of those who pass not only for innocent but likewise for most virtuous Think upon what I say and take you heed of pulling down my anger upon you which should be so much the more violent as you shall have forc'd it to break out The King said no more to him but left Democrates in an inquietude and perplexity from which he found it very painful to relieve himself He was hardly got to his own house but he complain'd of fortune which had too dearly sold him the liberty he had then so lately received insomuch that he did as earnestly desire as ever he had done to be sent back into the prison from which he was but newly delivered and also complain'd of the Kings favours to him which he then found too cruel What said he to himself in reflecting upon what that Prince had told him ought I to suffer so faithful a friend as Anaxaender who gives me such powerfull and generous marks of his friendship to lose for my sake the reputation he has gotten in the world ought I to suffer his name to be dishonoured and posterity to doubt of his Innocence but on the other side ought I to oppose the commands of my Prince ought I to deny him that which he requires of me ought I to despise his bounties and cause a moment of inquietude to a King who hath so much loved me and from whom I have received so many signal benefits no no I owe too much to that Royal Benefactor I cannot without a crime resist his commands but though he should have never bestowed any favour on me he is my Prince and I am his subject and in that quality I owe him all Love and friendship ought to give place to duty Subjects owe all to their Prince and we owe him obedience preferably to those who brought us into the world Democrates thus entertain'd his thoughts when Sestianes came to visit him to congratulate him for the good fortune of being set at liberty After he had payd his compliments Democrates told him what had taken up his imagination before his arrival and the scruple he had to suffer it to be thought that so perfect a friend as Anaxander was should be capable of the most base and infamous of all crimes and the most unworthy the title of a gallant or generous man Sestianes who fearing lest he should be discovered had wished with all his soul they had never spoke of this conspiracy and that Anaxander who was absent had still been thought culpable answered him that if that friend was criminal he ought not to have that scruple and that he was extreamly too blame to conserve it if he was not The generous added he always receive a great deal of renown from their famous actions Anaxander in doing what he has done for you hath labour'd more for his own glory then for yours that interessed generous person in saving your life and in restoring the honour of it to you puts you but in the condition you were before suspected but what does he not do for himself since by it he obtains the immortal glorious happiness of passing in the ages to come for a grand example of friendship since he will have the glory of having been the most generous man in the world and of having done the most remarkable action that ever was and which will make his memory live and posterity speak of him with admiration and Elogies do not you put so many obstacles pursued he to so ma-many glorious advantages that he would presently purchase at the expence of a little honour which he will only lose for a time and which will be restored to him with much more lustre then it will be lost with ignominy this is the fruit he expects from the service that he shall have rendred you and this is that which he will gain in serving of you if you do not oppose it Do not speak any more of crime or guilty and let the remembrance thereof for a time lie dead since
it to one of his relations houses who had been very serviceable to him the former time when he had been a prisoner and who since his last misfortune had found a means to let him know in his prison that he would imploy both all his Estate and all his friends to make him fully convinced of the share he took in his intrests As Democrates was just at his house he met him coming out to acquaint him with all that had happened he told him that his Judges knowing the esteem the King had for him and being fully perswaded of his Innocence by the answer he had made them had declared that they believed him Innocent and said that tho he should have been a Criminal yet things were in such a posture that they could not Judge him with any justice He added that Prince Theomedes having been desired by several persons of quality whom he named to him to consent to his being set at liberty that Prince thought himself oblig'd to sollicite for him for fear of making to himself any more enemies in seeking with too great an earnestness and resolution the ruine of a person whose crime was not averred and who possibly had never been his enemy Our Heroe having understood all these things went to return his acknowledgment to the King for all the favours he had shown him He likewise thought himself obliged to go and thank Prince Theomedes which he did after he had been to wait upon the King and the next day he went to visit all those that had interessed themselves in his favour and after all he sent one of his servants where he suspected Anaxander to be to advertise him of all that had happened but he gave him no letter for fear lest fortune which has persecuted him with as much fury as blindness should invert the proofs of his innocence to render him guilty After he had done all that either civility or duty exacted from him he had a great desire to answer the demands of his love to give his flame some satisfaction and to go and see his Mistriss But what Sestianes had done to ruin him made him see so much unworthyness in that visit that he durst not grant any thing to his love for fear of bringing any blemish to his glory Never did any Lover see himself in a greater and more cruel perplexity he would very fain see Sestiana and yet he would not see her love her and yet not love her put her out of his thoughts and yet keep her in them What said he to himself reflecting upon the miseries that his love did make him suffer must I love the Daughter of a man that not only hath desired my ruin but all whose actions have too much encouraged me to believe that he is guilty of the crime of which he has made me twice unjustly suspected but what said he entertaining himself still with his thoughts if Sestianes is base and perfidious Sestiana is one the most generous and most vertuous persons in the world but how can so much virtue and so much baseness be found in one and the same blood noe noe I only help to abuse my self I fall into the same snares that Love sets for me and that Tyrant who is resolved to make me love her makes me see in her such vertues as she has not since she is the Daughter of Sestianes she must needs resemble him and be perfidious and wicked as he is but alas though she be of his blood she is still one of the most charming persons in the creation the Crime of her Father has not changed the beautiful lineaments of her face she loves me I ought to love her since that Love can only be repaid by love Perhaps I have done her an injury when the crime of her Father makes me doubt her virtue it is no new thing to see wicked parents have virtuous children nor wicked children to have virtuous parents After he had strengthened himself in this opinion and had resolutely determined not to banish from his heart the love he had for Sestiana he fully concluded not to recriminate upon Sestianes but to sacrifice his choller and his resentment to his love He was no sooner setled in his resolution but he perceived Sestianes coming up to him That sight awakened again his choller and notwithstanding the resolution he had taken not to discover his resentments to him yet he could not refrain uttering these words to him You ought not said he to him with so much eagerness to lay hold upon all occasions of ruining me for fear lest I should accuse you and I have been secret I think for a sufficient time to oblige you to believe that I could still be so I do not know replied Sestianes to him with a look full of disdain what it is you mean and if I am guilty of any crime of which I ought to be accused it is only in your fancy but I should be too blame to wonder at it added he what my duty has obliged me to do against you very likely may not inspire you with any thing to my advantage but revenge may possibly have made you seek out all ways to ruin me but my innocency secures me from all that you can say against me and those persons that are disinteressed will still know when you speak after the manner you do now that it is only revenge which makes you capable of having any such discourse as for my part continued he though I am very sorry I have lost your friendship yet I shall never repent my having done what I ought for the safety of the Prince Theomedes we owe all to persons of his blood and in the like occasion we are obliged to do the same thing for all the World Have you that confidence to speak to me in this manner replied Democrates to him and have you forgot what you told me some time before I was taken prisoner the first time that I was unjustly suspected whatsoever I might have told you reported Sestianes to him with a very great assurance I never told you I was a criminal and if I had been so and you had known it I should not have had that presumption to carry to the King the Letter that you wrote to Anaxander and as it was by meer accident that I met with it I could to serve you have made it not to be seen and I had done it without doubt if my duty had not obliged me to the contrary howsoever I am extreamly overjoyed that those great proofs of your crime have not produced against you the fatall effects you could not but expect from them But as I am not indued with less virtue then my Daughter I am not willing to have for my Son-in-Law a man who is not clear'd but by favour of the crime of which possibly with too much justice he may have been suspected I take my self to be quit of my promise after what has happened
came to sound him and to endeavour to know cunningly of him if it were true or not that he was acquainted with all the conspiracy thereby the better to order his affairs Sestianes answered that nothing of all this was true and that if he had been to wait upon Democrates to hold such a discourse with him he should not have dared to act against him as he had done for fear he should have recriminated upon him and that since he had said nothing of it all the time he lived whilst it was supposed that he had said those things to him which very likely would have ruined him and that he had not so much as spoke of them when he was dying it was very easie to see that it was a meer falsity that was imputed to him He added that it was no wonder if Anaxander did seek to take away his life for having put into the hands of the King the letter that Democrates writ to him that he had done things much more considerable to secure the reputation of his friend and that since he had rendered himself guilty for his sake though he was Innocent he might very easily be induced to tell a lye to be revenged of a person who had acted against him who was not able to bear his crime without horror and who likewise could not refrain showing the proofs he had of it Never were persons seen in a greater perplexity and confusion then were the King and Prince Theomedes after they had heard the answer that Sestianes made they were clearly of opinion that he might justly be suspected but they did not see which way he could be convicted and as all probabilities signifie nothing without positive proofs and that it is a most unjust thing to condemn a person upon a bare suspicion they could not tell how in the world to get out of this trouble that Sestianes put them into by his confidence and undaunted resolution What said Prince Theomedes must I confound the Innocent with the guilty believe the most generous of all men are the most base and the most perfidious and that the most perfidious base are the most generous must I think Anaxander to be an Imposter and must I think Sestianes a wicked and perfidious wretch that has determined my death he who to serve me declared against his designed Son in Law and must I in a word by a cruel necessity do an injury to the memory of Democrates and doubt his Innocence who all his life was never known to be guilty of an action unworthy an honourable person But what said he again presently must I be always in fear daily exposed to danger and wait till he whose life I dare not yet take away come and run me through Yes I ought always to be exposed to danger and not fear the fury of those who aim at my life fear is unworthy of a Prince and much more of a generous man Princes ought not to be too careful to secure themselves from the danger that threatens them their courage and their virtue ought to be their guard and to answer for what befals them and that which is looked upon as foresight in others will in them be counted baseness and Cowardice Prince Theomedes after he had a pretty while abandoned himself to his inquietude began to hearken to those sentiments which generosity usually inspires into persons of his Rank and Quallity and went to demand of the King that the most Criminal of all men might be set at liberty when word was brought that one of the five hundred prisoners who had been taken in the late conspiracy where there were ten thousand that rose up against all the Royall house accused Sestianes of the Crime which Democrates had charged him with as he was dying This undaunted Criminal who was ignorant who he should be said as soon as ever he heard of it that this fellow was some cheat and impostor that he did unjustly accuse him and that he would make him to confess the contrary and deny all he had said Whereupon Cleobis for so was that prisoner called was brought before him but he was greatly surprized when he saw that it was one of those who had been of the conspiracy with him and that it was the same person who we were mentioning before was missing and for whom he was so much concerned since that he knew not what was become of him and also that it was him of all the Number whom he most suspected The sight of him had even almost made him change his countenance and his emotion went very near to discover what he had always concealed with so favourable a success Yet notwithstanding his confidence having immediately banished the fear that had begun to seize upon his heart he looked upon Cleobis with an air full of fierceness and a contemning scorn mixt together and said with a disdainfull smile though in the condition I am in at present I might fear all things from my Enemies and that the imposture which may justly be tearmed the innocents executioner makes use of all the most cruel and artificious ways of malice to take away my life yet it is sufficient to scarter my fear that it is only Cleobis who presents himself and is the man that accuses me I do not believe the King nor the Prince Theomedes will easily give any credit to him for any one may very well think that if I had conspired I should not have discovered the secret to a man so much to be mistrusted and it is very apparent that he does not now accuse me but only to prolong his life and by this artifice to hope that Prince Theomedes thinking himself greatly obliged to him will demand his pardon of the King I have been assured by some persons of my acquaintance that my Enemies and the Relations of Domocrates has promised to get his crime pardoned provided he would say that which he had been so hardy to utter against me and which he still neither durst nor can maintain But though all this should not be true pursued he it is very well known that he has formerly been my greatest Enemy and that he was forced to seek my friendship All these circumstances do discover that his former hatred had not now been awakened but that he saw he had a most convenient opportunity for it nor that he had accused me but either from the prospect he had thereby to obtain his pardon or from the satisfaction he should have to see me perish with him and that there ought not to be any credit given to such a person whom so many several reasons do induce to accuse an innocent If before that Cleobis had accused Sestianes the King and Prince Theomedes's perplexity was great this discourse of that subtil and ingenious Politician gave a greater accession to it and he had still so much good fortune that he made use of those things which were most likely to ruin him to