the good old man thought that some Diety mask'd in a humane form was making towards him Hail gentle Shepherd quoth Sophronia Silvanus Pryapus Pan Pales and all the Silvan dieties and indeed in naming one I name all be propitious unto thee and thy faire flock and heaven said Crates for so was the Shepherd called give thee faire Lady the full fruition of all thy desires My present condition quoth Sophronia will not permit me gentle Sir to be tedious in my orratory for that I expect every minute to be surprised by a barbarous Earle of this Country from whose hands I have this day escaped for the preservation of my chaste honour be pleased therefore to afford me an homely russet Coat in exchange for these gawdy Garments together with shelter for some few dayes in thy Cottage till this storme be blown over and to gratifie thy love take these Jewels of sufficient vallue to make thee Lord of all this champion Country as my gift For your Jewels quoth Crates I must not dare not accept of them they are the Plague and Poison of honest mindes but if my homely Cottage may be worthy of the acceptance of so divine a creature command it Lady as my self and all I am master of Away went Sophronia with Crates to his Cottage which was builded by a bank side at the root of a Sycamore Tree whose broad branches quite overshadowed his shallow roffe the Cottage it selfe was erected of grasse Turfes so curiously contrived that it seemed rather framed by Nature then by Art being all over of a verdant hew Entred therein she espied many shelves of Cheeses and pans of Milke with large flitches of Bacon Phillida Crates wife was exceedingly abashed to behold a creature of such bright beauty so gloriously apparalled enter her homely habitation imagining that Juno or Latona had descended from Heaven as of old when the Innocency of Shepherds made them worthy the society of the deathlesse Dieties to visit their humble dwelling but Crates soon took off her wonder informing her the occasion of her arrivall then Phillida heartily welcomed her and spreading a homespun cloth upon an unpolish'd Table she adorned it with Cream with Butter with her choysest Cheese and finest Bread and taking a brown Bowle borrowed out of the body of an Almond Tree repleated it brimfull of healthfull Sider Crates and Phillida with many congeis and ducks proclaiming her welcome Having refreshed her selfe with these rurall Cates she put off her gorgeous habbit and atired her selfe in a Coat of russet-gray binding up her golden haire in a packthread Cawle and putting homely Buskins upon her feet taking a hook in her hand she led forth her Sheep day by day folding them each night in as seemly a manner as if she had been Crates not Almonios Daughter Exceedingly pleased with this rustick life sitting one day upon a bank of Flowers her Flock grazing by her she sang these verses in the praise of the country life While I the glad and smiling ground doe strew In these most pleasant Groves whose verdant hew Allure great Pan and Pales here to sport Forgetting quite the pleasures of the Court Resting securely void of ghastly feare How well were I were my Amandus here No Souldier here doth wipe his Sanguine Blade Made drunk with blood no Lording doth invade The poore mans House or Land no foule Sedition No Edict Remora or Inhibition Vexeth my quiet peace my Flocks I keepe Secure and dreadlesse of all danger sleepe The fruitfull Vine the Poplar tall doth clip Wâ—o bowes his head sweet Nectar for to sip The lowing Heards far off I doe behold Feeding on Meadowes all off burnishd Gold My head with mellow Apples I adorne And Peares more ruddy then the blushing morne When Jove forceth his Thunder through the Skie To empt the store of his Artillery Into a Grove of Bay I doe retire And reverence not fear his noise and fire O happy country life thrice blest they are Who are contented with their houshold Lare And wrapt in Goats skins as securely rest As those that doe on Tyrian Taâ—stry feast And sleep on quilted Down Beds all the Pride Of Norimberge or Turky sought to hide Their glorious nakednesse oh happy Fate That still attends the humble Shepherds state Crownes are compos'd of cares and Honours be But the insâ—aring Gins of Destinie The purblind Goddesse takes delight to wrong None save the rich the haughty and the strong Here without shew of feare securely I Doe rob the earth of her Embroyderie The Primrose Lilly Calaminth are here The Violet Paunsy Pagle and Kings-Speare Smooth Ladies Smocks with Hare hels and the Flower That cheifly springeth in Adonis Bower The Myrtle Spiknard Gowlands and the Rose Sops dipt in Wine Oxe eye the lips of Cowes This is the life that 's free from cares and feare Oh that my sweet Amandus were but here Here leave we Sophronia and look back to Verona and see how the rumor of Clodomers death is resented Castrill having declared the time when the place where and by whom Clodomer was made away the Nobles were so farre from deploring that heavie Accident being now grown weary and ashamed of Clodomers absurd unkingly deportment that they lift up their hands to heaven thanking the great power that had benignly bereaved them of so besotted a Prince and the common people who are ever delighted with change sang Paeans to Providence that had taken off their burthensome Head without hurt to the Body politick but neither the one nor the other had any true cause of rejoycing though Clodomer had forfeited the essence of a King by giving too much scope to his fond loving Lunacie for the Girpids being assured that Amandus was wandring about the world and that King Clodomer was dead resolved to break in peices the yoake of bondage that Amandus had put upon them and to invade those that had vassalized them CHAP. VI The description of Agenors Castle he declareth to Amandus the reason why he proposed the Riddle as also that no Women inhabited there containing the History of Sinoris and Eugenia Agenors Kinsman ariving from Spaine declares newes very pleasing to Amandus he and Pallante furnished with a Ship and all other necessaries set saile for Verona the Lombards receive him triumphantly as King Sophronia having been much sought after by Amandus at length discovers her selfe the mutuall joy of the two Lovers the cellebration of their Nuptials and Cororonation NOw if my compasse and my card be true I shall ere long put in at the wished Port. You have heard before of the strange entertainment that Amandus and Pallante found in the Flowry Iland and that Agenor the Lord of that Country courteously conducted them to his Castle which was scituated on an high promontory surrounded with all sorts of Trees set in seemly rankes in the midst whereof ranne a demi-River watring those pleasant plants The Castle was framed all of Median stone of Ovall forme yet so
by their Generall Amandus hand Grief and Wonder like two contrary winds striving for Soveraignty a long time maintained a Civil War within them but at length Griefe got the upper hand and so prevailed over their Senses that for some minutes their tongues wanted the use of their Creation but at length recovering themselves like another distressed Priam with his forlorne Hecuba they set forward to visit their dead Son whom when they beheld what griping pangs their hearts endured only those can imagine whom Fate hath exposed to the like affliction Clodomer could not speak for weeping but Lucinda falling upon her dead Sonne tore her haire bathing his bloudy wounds with briny drops making this pitifull complaint over him Ah my deare Sonne said she is this the fulfilling of that expectation my Selfe thy Father and all Lombardy had cause to have of thee Could the cruell Destinies finde no other subject whereon to practice their Tyranny save thee Poore Lucinda why did Lucina pitying thy pangs propitiously ayd thee for the production of a Son predestinated to so direfull an exit She would have said more but the greatnesse of her grief at once bereft her both of speech and life so that she fell down dead by her murthered Son This to behold so exasperated the King Clodomer that like one bereft of his wits he ran raving up and down the City beseeching his subjects to take pity on their distessed Soveraigne and unanimously to ayd him in the discovery of Amandus and Pallante who had at once bereft them of a most hopefull Prince and a gracious Queen It was not long ere he had levied a Power which he put under the command of Lucius and Pamelius sometimes renowned Captaines though now by reason of their Age they affected privacie who marshalling his Forces marched towards Amandus and Pallante who with their handfull of men had intrenched themselves on a plaine three Leagues distant from the City The King himselfe resolving to fight in person leading them on as their chief Guide and Captain Amandus perceiving their approach resolved to give them Battell and disposed his Forces accordingly Both Armies being now so neare one another that they might easily heare the disputes passing on both sides the King chusing a piece of ground by nature elevated above the rest of the continent so that he might see and be seen of his whole Army began to say as followeth I Dare be confident that none of my loyall Subjects here who according to their duties are congregated with me for the captivating and punishing the treacherous bloudy-minded Amandus and his trayterous Associate Pallante but are able and willing to attest with what Gentlenesse and Paternall care as becommeth the Father of his Countrey I have hitherto governed them As also what an hopefull Prince and what promising Vertues were obvious in my Son Rhoxenor and that my Queen Lucinda excelled all former Queenes for the Love and affectionate Zeale she demonstrated to me her King and Husband and to the Subjects of this Nation both which are made away by meanes of the afore-mentioned Traytors Therefore I shall not endeavour with elaborate orarory my loyall Subjects to kindle courage in your hearts or to make you sensible that besides the losse great and infinite shame not to be expiated by any after performances will brand us all with the deepest tincture of infamy unlesse we take just but severe vengeance on these sanguine homicides Not doubting therefore of your courage in so good a cause goe on and may Heaven crown your attempts with Victory Neither was Amandus slack to encourage his men but standing in the midst of them made this Oration My fellow Subjects VVHom Love to wronged Amandus and in him to Justice and Honour hath invited to hazard your Lives and Fortunes be confident that I desire not War or have requested your Ayd for the Vindication of any private grudge or sinister ends of mine owne but meerly for the preservation of my own Person and your Rights both which unlesse defensive armes prevent it are like to be swallowed up in that bottomlesse gulfe of Kingly Prerogative and Arbitrary Power It is not unknown to you I am sure with what faithfulness I have ever served this faithlesse King how often I have brought him home conquest putting the necks of his enemies under his feet And is it my reward to have her whom I love dearer then my life whose Vertues are so splendid that envy it self cannot fully them thrown into a nasty Gaole and branded with the ignominious Epethites of Whoore and Strumpet and all because she denied to satiate Rhoxenors beastly Lust whom Justice and not my hand hath sent to the other World If this be tolerated not one of you here present shall claime the least propriety in her whom he affecteth Time will not permit me to dilate my self suffice you fight with me in a just and righteous cause the truth whereof I hope your swords will prove though your enemies treble you in number On then couragiously in the name of Heaven Having finished this Oration he led on his Army to joyn Battell with the Kings dividing them being all foot into foure Battailes The first himself guided the second Pallante took charge of and the third and fourth followed Venantius and Palladius Clodomer ordered his Army after the old Roman manner in the fashion of an half-moone the hornes whereof were managed by Lucius and Pamelius and the main Body by himself Both Armies joyning it was Amandus hap to encounter Lucius and Pallante Pamelius all save the King being on foot on both sides for the suddennesse of the action would not permit the mounting of men or to observe the method of Martiall Discipline Amandus had soon made an end of Lucius cleaving his head that his brains dropt out at his feet and Pallante had given Pamelius so deadly a blow on the face that he cut his jawes clean in sunder The King Clodomer shewed himself very valiant with his own hands having killed Venantius and Palladius and massacred above an hundred of the vulgar sort white Amandus and Pallante mowed down all before them so that their hands were weary of the work of death their weapons were drunk with bloud and their bodies were burdened with bloud and sweat so that notwithstanding their forces were clean cut in peices being raw unexperienced souldiers meere Citizens who till now had never been accustomed to the rigour of War they had by their single valours vanquished the Kings forces and taken himselfe Prisoner had not an huge multitude from the City appeared to his reliefe armed with prongs pitchforks and bils who come on so furiously that it was impossible and had been madnesse to oppose them And therefore overpowred with numbers Amandus having even then encountred Clodomer on foot and forced him to forsake his horse who was presently protected by those about him leapt into the Saddle taking Pallante up behind him being forced on a
desperate adventure to take an Arm of the Sea and swam over to a part of that continent belonging to the King of Polonia and Clodomer having gained this bloudy Victory returned with those of his Army whom the late conflict had spared to the Citie THE LOVES OF AMANDVS AND SOPHRONIA The Third Book CHAP. 1. Rhoxenor and Lucinda are sumptuously Interr'd Alphonsus King of Poland refuseth to deliver up the persons of Amandus and Pallante Sophronia brought to her Triall is acquitted Clodomer loves her CLodomer having thus vanquished but to his great vexation not captivated his enemies cladding himselfe in purple as the manner of Kings is to mourne and commanding his whole Court to put on Sables caused his Sonne and Queen to be embalmed by the Skill of his ablest Physitians who involved them in lead the King causing two Stately Tombs to be erected of the purest Pharian Stone framed by the hands of cunning Architectors who adorned them so sumptuously that either of them equalled Mausoleus his Sepulcher reputed one of the wonders of the World in the Cathedrall Church dedicated to the memory of St. Sebastiona and Albovino two ancient famous Kings of that Countrey which having finished he dispatched Embassadours to Alphonsus King of Poland to let him know that he harboured his deep enemies viz. Amandus and Pallante Traytors to his Crown and Dignity whose persons as he tendred the perpetuity of the Amity betwixt the two Crowns of Lombardie and Poland he willed him to deliver up to condigne punishment But Alphonsus retaining a noble temper knowing Amandus to be a man every way accomplished and sensible of the wrongs offered by Rhoxenor the perpetration whereof had occasioned his death and Amandus Infortunity permitted Amandus and Pallante lest the protecting of their persons might draw a war upon him to depart his Kingdome without molestation furnishing them with horses and Arms and all things befitting the use of such Knights of Fame But Clodomer finding he could not get their persons into his hands resolved like another salvage Neoptolemus who Sacrificed an Innocent Princesse on his Fathers grave to be revenged on Sophronia Amandus Mistresse and for his sake imprisoned for his Sons death and therefore he appointed a day when accompanied with all his Nobles he would cause her to be brought as a Delinquent and proceeded against as a Strumpet to publick censure And therefore he caused many Scaffolds to be erected in the Pallace yard with a Seat of Judicature for himselfe and his Peers where comming with those whom he had nominated for her Judges he commanded her to be guarded from prison thither as the place appointed for her trial The most vertuous Sophronia having newes brought her the night before that she was to prepare her self against the morrow to plead before the King and Councell was not a whit daunted thereat so great courage doth Innocencie inject and so strongly are those fortified against mundane calamities whose soules assure them they are falsly calumniated but attired her selfe all in black with a veile of the same colour cast over her head which habit was so far from eclipsing that it added to her excellent Splendor as Diamonds set in Jet are not a whit darkned nor doth the Topaz lose its Lustre though set in lead In this manner she set forward with her Guard never was so sweet a prisoner brought to the Bar a thousand Cupids though unseen waited on her all the way Venus her self wept and the Graces condoled her afflictions in sanguine teares the people thronging in heapes to see her yet amongst that multitude not a dry eye Such a silent mourning as the Grecians practised when they beheld Agamemnons daughter faire Iphigenia in funerall attire standing at the Altar ready to be Sacrificed to Aeolus was heard amongst this people every one assoiling her Innocencie and bewailing her misery Comming to the place appointed she was placed at the Bar where turning up her veile and discovering her rare Beauty which was so celestially splendid that it cast a light round about her all mens eies being fixed upon her as if some shaghair'd Comet had thrust forth his head in the Hemisphere The King was exceedingly ravished to behold her the fire of love burnt about his heart by degrees corroborating more and more till it became one flaming lump of flesh his colour went and came a kind of trembling seized upon all his body But disguising his passions as well as he could he commanded her Charge to be read which contained these two Heads 1. That she had been guilty of Incontinencie with Lord Cheribrerts Groome being taken in the very act of shame 2. That she had plotted and conspired with Amandus and Pallante Capitall Traytors and guilty of the horrid murther possitively of Prince Rhoxenor consequently of the Queen Lucinda and probably of Lord Cheribrert for the perpetration and performance of the aforesaid treasonable devillish and unparell'd crimes To this after a little pause making obeysance to the King and Counsell she answered That I may not be condemned as a Mute and because the Party silent is thought to assent to what ever is proposed I wil breifly though sincerely make my defence in the presence of the high Immortall Truth and this Assembly else I could have been contented to have suffered in silence assuring my selfe that before the Judge of Soules I appeare immaculately Innocent My conversation from my Infancy till of late months assure my selfe is not unknown to many here I have indeavoured alwaies to accrew an unspotted Fame and I doubt not had retained the same to this very minute had it not thus happened Here she surveyed the Counsell and being ignorant of what had lately happened not seeing Rhoxenor there demanded that he might be brought before her face to face To which the King though his thoughts told him she was innocent returned answer That her pollicy could not wipe away her guilt she knew that Rhoxenor as she had plotted with the cursed Traytor Amandus was cruelly murthered To which with a sober smile she answered Be it knowne unto all here that Lord Amandus being absent in the wars against the Girpids in the defence of his Country unto whom I acknowledge my selfe affianced the Prince Rhoxenor finding that all his perswasive allurements were to weak to remove my firme fixed constancy conspiring with Lord Cheribrert a man superlatively wicked by a treacherous wile having corrupted the faith of my waiting-womon Flavia hath wrought the present ruine of my fame and honour by Flavias aide they one night entred my Chamber my self fast asleep bringing with them a fellow whom they had subborned for that purpose who entred my Bed which he had no sooner done but Rhoxenor and Cheribrert as before they had plotted with loud cries awaked me upbraiding me with lewdnesse and terming me the blot and stain of all Ladies in the world And lest the fellow moved with remorse or otherwise should reveale their cursed complot