looking upon her with eyes which partly signified his intention But Madam said he now I have acquainted You with these small trifles which You desired to know of me shall I be too curious my self or rather shall I be indiscreet if I take the liberty to enquire of You the name and the condition of this admirable person to whom by my good fortune I have rendred some small service without knowing of her and who though unknown is in as high esteem with me as if she were the Wife or Daughter of Caesar 'T is not upon any design of abusing it that I express this curiosity to you but only out of a desire of finding greater opportunities to serve you in a more plenary knowledge of You. Cornelius spake in this manner and the Queen who was already prepared for this rancounter and had premeditated with Clity what to say seemed very little surprized at Cornelius his discourse She did so far acknowledge the Obligation she had to him as to have declared to him the truth of her life and the condition of her fortune if she could have done it without interessing and endangering her dear Caesario whom she knew to be in that Country and to have all Caesars friends for his declared enemies Upon this precaution which she believed was due to the safety of her beloved Prince she resolved to conceal her name her birth and the greatest part of her adventures and upon this design after she had signified to Cornelius with obliging expressions that his curiosity was not importunate to her she told him that she was born in Ethiopia of very noble Parents who during the life of King Hidaspes had enjoyed the highest dignities of that Kingdom but that afterwards being desirous to testifie their fidelity to the Queen Candace his Daughter when she was deprived of her Kingdom by Tyribasus that Tyrant being too powerful for them had ruined them and so eagerly pursued them that they were constrained to put themselves upon the Nile with part of their most portable goods from whence sailing down into the open Sea with an intention to seek out a Sanctuary from his Tyranny they fell into the hands of the Pirate Zenodorus After this passage she concealed nothing of the truth of him but only what would have obliged her to make mention of Caesario and relating to him the dangers which she had escaped by reason of the Pirate's insolence and the flames of the Vessel which she had fired and the Waves into which she had cast her self she powerfully moved him upon divers accounts and filled him full of admiration at her vertue and greatness of courage When he had given due praises to that noble resolution of sacrificing her life to the preservation of her honour looking upon her with an action much more passionate than before I should be ungrateful to the Gods said he if I should not be thankful to them as long as I live for the favor they have done me in guiding me to the occasions of serving you and in giving me the means to conduct you into a place where I can offer you part of what you seek but if my interest might be considered to the prejudice of yours and if I might afflict my self as much at my own ill as I ought to rejoyce at your good fortune possibly I would say that in this rancounter I have no more cause to commend than to complain of my destiny and that it is as much for my loss as for your safety that the Gods caused you to land upon this Coast and lead me into the Wood where I defended you against the violence of Zenodorus Gallus spake in this manner and the Queen though she almost comprehended his discourse and received it with a very great grief pretended for all that that she did not understand him and that she might not continue without a reply she answered him without being moved I should be very sorry that my arrival in this Country should occasion any damage to a person to whom I engaged for the preservation of my life and honour and to prevent the future since it is not in our power to recal what is past I shall depart without regret from a place where you have given me refuge if my continuance here be never so little offensive to You. Alas replyed Gallus with a sigh how unprofitable would your departure be now since you cannot carry away the wound that I have in the midst of my heart together with the eyes that made it or rather how cruel would it be to me now since in parting from me you will deprive my days of all that makes them desirable to me and possibly bereave me of a life whereof all the remaining moments are dedicated to you Whilst he spake thus the Queen oppressed with a violent grief upon this occasion of new crosses which former passages made her foresee in a moment studied for terms to explain her self both according to the greatness of her courage and the condition of her present fortune whereby she saw her self absolutely subjected to Cornelius his power and when he had done speaking composing her countenance to a more serious posture than before which with the Majesty that Gallus observed in it strook him into some awe I am obliged to you said she to him for my life and honour and I should be much more engaged to you if you would preserve the glory of your benefit entire and not diminish the price of it by the offence you do me If it be an offence to love you replyed the Pretor and if it be an infinite offence to love you infinitely I confess that there is not a man in the world who hath offended you more than Cornelius but if love in the Country where you were born be not different from that which we have observed in ours if it makes a man abandon his liberty to bestow it upon that he loves if it makes him forget his own proper interests to sacrifice himself entirely to the Person beloved and in fine if it produce no other effects than what we have seen it produce in those places where I have passed my life I cannot easily comprehend the ground of the offence which you can find in the love I have for you I know not replyed the Queen coldly either the effects or qualities of that passion but the discourse of it is not conformable to my humor and I should be very much obliged to you if you will find some other matter of entertainment Cornelius though a little repulsed with the answer which made him partly understand the difficulties he should have to conquer the spirit which he had attempted prepared himself to speak when he saw the Princess Elisa approach who having understood that Candace had been walking upon the Terrace a great while had made her self ready with all speed to come and find her to enjoy in her company that little consolation which she
service to those persons to whom I owed and had vowed a great deal more but as for this valiant Prince you have little reason to believe that you are reduable to me for it and this victory which hath regained your liberty is the effect of your own valour and the assistance you gave us rather than of any thing I could have done without your help Ariobarzanes answered the modest discourse of Britomarus with the like submission and after a conversation full of civility and as many caresses as two men could use who were under the tyranny of grief they desired we might pass into our Vessel which was not so much imbrewed with blood not so full of Tragical spectacles as the Pirats was in which Britomarus intended to put things in order and set the slaves at liberty restoring them the goods which were taken from them Amongst them there were two Medes whom as we retired inour Vessel we saw fall down-at Britomarus's feet and express divers signs of astonishment and joy to meet him Whilst Britomarus was discoursing with them Ariobarzanes and I retired our selves into my Chamber where presently we began to give one another an account of the successes by which we were saved from shipwrack and of those things which had happened since our separation I made a relation of my adventures first being unwilling to deprive Britomarus who was absent and well acquainted with mine of the satisfaction he might receive in hearing Ariobarzanes's story The Prince was sensibly touched with my discourse and upon the relation I made him of what you had done for me in your Kingdom he received so much resentment and so much affection for you that often brake out into exclamations and protested to me that he never more earnestly desired any thing than to see you and to express his acknowledgement to you for your generous bounty He himself in some passages blamed my procedure of a little too much severity and circumspection but he was partial Philadelph and of the opinion of all other men to whom the rules of our duty are not known or rather to whom the practise of them is not agreeable We had passed two or three hours in discourse without seeing Britomarus and when we enquired for him they told us that after he had entertained himself a while with the two Medes to whom he had restored their liberty and the goods which the Pirats had taken from them he shut himself up in the Cabin of the Vessel and prayed them to let him alone a few hours without interrupting him The acquaintance I had with him which rendred his sadness very familiar to me made me receive this news without astonishment and I was not at all surprized at it presently after they served in supper and part of the night was spent and yet we had no sight of him We bestowed the rest of the night in sleep I having certified my brother that we could not do a greater displeasure to Britomarus than to trouble his solitude But the next day we were no sooner awake but we saw him come into the Cabin in such a condition as presently filled me with fear and pity His countenance was so changed that it could hardly be known and one could hardly have imagined that the space of divers days could have wrought that change which appeared there in a few hours his complexion was pale wan his eyes wild and rouling in his head with a fierce look and in all his countenance there was the true image of a man not far from the brink of despair Yet he used some endeavours to refrain himself before us and forcing some sobs that opposed the current of his speech Madam said he though I had no inclination to appear again to the world in this sad condition which makes my company insupportable yet I have a design to render you the service which I owe you and I should not have left you till you had been conducted to the place where you would have pleased to make your residence The Gods are my witnesses that the wretched remainders of my life were employed in that office with a great deal of satisfaction and I should never have neglected the opportunities of doing you service upon any consideration of mine own interest But seeing that the Gods have more advantagiously provided for your conduct than when they called me to that honour and have permitted me to commit you into the Prince your Brothers hands who may conduct you into your own Country a great deal more conveniently than I can do give me leave if you please to run that course which my destiny calls me to my condition and the state of my mind are so much changed since yesterday that I have no comfort nor remedy left in the world but only what I am now going in search of I leave you this Vessel furnished with all necessaries and of all these persons of whom you may have need in the rest of your voyage I will have only three of my servants along with me and the rest shall continue at your service in this Vessel that which we have taken from the Pirates shall serve my turn with the assistance of some persons that I have met there who will guide me to there whither I must needs make all the hast I can Pardon Madam pardon generous Prince continued he addressing himself to Ariobarzanes the hastiness of my departure and believe that the necessity which constrains me to it renders me more worthy of your pity than of your displeasure for this incivility Having spoken these words he parted from us without giving me time to reply to thank him for his generous assistance and to express my sorrow for the redoubling of his grief Ariobarzanes having continued a while very much surprized and full of passion arose from the place where he lay to run after him but he was already gone into the Pirates vessel and having caused it to be disengaged from ours was put off to Sea at full sail See in what manner the valiant Britomarus went from us and not heard of him ever since leaving us in a very great regret for his departure a just resentment for the obligations we had to him and an admiration of his vertue which makes us preserve the memory of him as of a miraculous person Ha! Madam cryed Prince Philadelph at this passage how much reason have you to preserve this esteem and how willingly would I purchase opportunities to spend my blood for the interests of a man to whom I owe my Princess If you were acquainted with his person replyed the Princess you would say more and you would judge that Fortune would not have denyed him to have been born to a Crown but only because they are all inferior to his courage and vertue I am very happy Added the Prince smiling that he was no longer my rival and though he was not born to a Crown I should be more affraid of him
me to preserve my life for Ariobarzanes and promised me that by the goodness of the gods I might be permitted to see him once again I continued in such a condition for all that that no body could know me I always thought that this sickness was my greatest happiness and I have thanked the gods a Thousand times for sending it me as a defence of my honour for it did so efface that little beauty which the Commander of the Pirates had observed in my face and upon which he had some Design that finding some remainders of it and seeing that in a Months time I did not mend at all he judged me more proper for the Grave than for his Love and so left me at quiet At the Months end we did not fail to go to Alexandria where the Pirate valuing me no more than another in the condition wherein he saw me sold me to some Merchants of Alexandria with whom he had Commerce and some dayes after those Mercants sold us to Cornelius in whose Service we have continued with the rest of his Slaves above Two Months just as you see us I would not discover my self nor use any endeavour to recover my liberty because I remembred that Ariobarzanes had heard as well as I when the Pirate who carried me away promised to be at Alexandria and I did not doubt but if he could recover his liberty by any means he would have affection enough for me to look after me and to come to Alexandria in hope of hearing some News of me The gods have been pleased that the effect should be conformable to my expectation for this day have I seen Ariobarzanes and I know that he is in Alexandria If they permit that he be unfaithful to me I shall only have prolonged my life for my greater misfortune and to finish with a more violent grief than I should have been sensible of amongst the waves but if he hath preserved his Fidelity as I am willing to expect from his Vertue and very great probabilities I hope for a change in my Fortune as advantagious as I can desire and such a one my fair Princesses as I would wish to see in yours The End of the Second Book HYMEN'S PRAELUDIA OR Loves Master-piece PART VII LIB III. ARGUMENT Olympia having finished her Story Candace and Eliza return to their Lodging where they are visited the next Morning by Agrippa and Cornelius who present the two famous Poets Virgil and Ovid to the Princesses Divers hansom Discourses pass amongst them which being ended Elisa and Candace desire Cornelius to give them liberty to take a solitary walk along the Sea-shoar He grants their Request though somewhat unwillingly but appoints a Convoy to attend them at a distance to secure them from all ill accidents As they are preparing to go Olympia comes into the Chamber and immediately after Philadelph Ariobarzanes and Arsinoe come to visit the Princesses Their mutual Complements being ended Olympia takes an occasion to discover her self to Ariobarzanes who is infinitely surprized with joy at the sight of her She goes with Ariobarzanes and Arsinoe to their Lodgings and leaves Elisa and Candace to their intended Jorney When they are all gone Agrippa takes Ovid with him to his Chamber and there engages him to give him a Relation of what had passed between the Princess Julia and himself which having promised his love to Cipassis he does at large and at the end of the Story Agrippa is invited by Cornelius to ride out and meet the Princesses at their return from their walk THE Princess of Thrace concluded the Relation of her Adventures in this manner and the two fair Princesses who had hearkned to it with attention and astonishment no sooner heard the end of it but they were very desirous to express what interest they took in her Fortune whatsoever it might be The Queen being not so sad as Elisa was and consequently more capable to participate of anothers misfortunes or at least to express her self upon that occasion began the Discourse and pressing Olympia's hand with an Action full of the marks of her Amity My fair Princess said the I see very well that Fortune hath spared you no more than us and that you may make the third with us amongst persons of our Rank who have be en the most exposed to her cruel persecutions but the gods be thanked that your mishaps are arrived at their period and by the coming of your well-beloved Prince your condition is likely to be happily changed I shall look upon that change with a great deal of joy added the sad Elisa or at least said she recalling her self with all the joy that can be resented by a mind quite swallowed up of affliction I do not despair replied Candace but that we shall shortly receive the same consolation upon your Account and if I may give credit to the presage which I have of your Fortune you may very well expect it May it please the gods answered the dissolate Princess that your hopes may be well grounded but I have so little hope left that no good will ever happen to me which will not infinitely surprize me I said as much to you replied the Queen when I believed by all the probabilities in the World that Cesario was slain in the Battel which he fought against Tribarzus and I had not much greater grounds to hope added the Princess of Thrace when Ariobarzanes and I in the little Island were reduced to extremities from which we could not escape but by miracle Elisa being unwilling to oppose their opinion or at least their Discourse made them no Reply but with som tears which she let fall from her fair eyes and leaning her Head against Candace's shoulder with a pitiful and languishing Action she obliged her to bear her Company in her sad employment When they had taken a little Truce with sorrow they renewed to Olympia the offers they had made her and after that they stayed a few moments longer with her they bid her good Night and retired themselves into Elisa's Chamber where they intended to lie together that Night They were no sooner come thither but Candace who had the desire of going to seek out Cesario whom she certainly believed she had seen the day before alwayes present in her mind began the Discourse of him again to the Princess of the Parthians and representing to her the comfort she her self would receive by the sight of Prince Tiridates her Uncle found her absolutely disposed to accompany her in her walk that way Candace believed she might oblige Cornelius to give them that liberty without bearing of them company when she should intreat him with the power she had over him to comply so far with Elisa's sadness who desired some hours of solitude They were troubled how they should do to find out Tiridates's house by the name not knowing the name of that Inhabitant of Alexandria to whom it belonged nor desiring to acquaint
which afterwards carried us into Media I did what he desir'd and would have done more but he intreated me to forbear lest he might raise against him both Tigranes and Phraates as expecting no quiet or security but in the condition wherein he was In fine amidst all the revolutions of my misfortune our Friendship was continu'd by a correspondence by Letters and I found his upon all occasions such as he might really have had for that Son whose name he had bestowed on me and which I have kept to the contempt of my own as well for his sake as for the honour I have had under that name to consecrate my life to the service of my Princess Thus Madam have you an account how I am Son to Artanez thus have you seen how I am a Prince descended from Arsaces Imagine with your self with what regret I disclaim an honour which would be envy'd by all the Princes in the world but an honour withal which is much more considerable to me upon the account of the Princess Elisa then upon that of the Parthian Crown were the Empire of the Universe annexed thereto Artaban disburthened himself of these lastwords with those discoveries of tendernesse which all the greatness of his courage could not smother and the Princess was so troubled thereat that it was hard for her to dissemble the effect they produced in her thoughts Not long before she had been incensed against him for disclaiming a name whereby he should become her Husband with the consent of all but having during his discourse examined his intentions and the openness of his soul which suffered him not to be guilty of falshood towards his Princess in an emergency of that importance and to purchase her and a great Empire by an untruth and a cheat she might afterwards have reproached him with she had other thoughts of him and was more and more confirmed in the admiration she had for the transcendency of his soul Yet would she not say any thing before the Queen as respectfully desirous to know her thoughts before she discovered her own and the Queen in whom the procedure of Artaban had heightned the esteem she had for him was extremely troubled at his disacknowledgment of a birth that so much furthered the inclinations she naturally had for him The affliction she conceived thereat made her continue a good while silent having her eyes fastened on the ground with an action which sufficiently discovered her disturbance which caused those which were much more cruel in Artaban but at last lifting them up and fastening them on Artaban's countenance after a manner wholly passionate Might it have pleased the Gods said she to him that you had been less generous and suffered us to continue in errours so much to our satisfaction and your advantage I should have died rather replies Artaban and though I were no enemy to falshood as I naturally am yet had I disclaim'd a life a thing I could much more easily part with then such glorious pretensions rather then basely surprize a Princess I adore by a cheat which she would never have pardoned and it will be much more easie for me to recover the loss which I may derive from this acknowledgment of the truth though nothing but death can give me perfect ease thenit would have been for me to pardon my self a treachery which no passion no pretension whatsoever could justifie The Queen hearkened to those words with admiration which in a manner convinced her that a person so extraordinary must be of a birth much beyond what he seemed to be She thereupon continued silent a while as one in a strange suspence what to think and at last looking on the Princess her Daughter with an action which satisfied her of the uncertainty she was in Daughter said she to her you see me in a great distraction of thought and trouble out of which I find it hard for me to disengage my self You may contribute much to my quiet and by the assurance you have that I have ever furthered your desires you may let me know your resolutions I neither could nor ought to have made any such discourse to you while you were under the power of a Father but now that you condition is otherwise and that the Parthians acknowledge you for their lawful Queen and her whose consent is to give them a King I am to deal otherwise with you and leave you at liberty to discover your own intentions The blushes that spread into Elisa's countenance hindred her a long time from speaking but at last doing her disposition a little violence upon that occasion of that importance Madam said she to the Queen it is neither the death of the King my Father nor any other consideration whatsoever shall dispense with the obedience and submission I owe your commands but I shall inviolably comply therewith how contrary soever they may be to my most violent inclinations Artaban can assure you that I have persisted in that resolution and that neither a respect to his services nor the affection I may have for him have prevailed with me to do any thing beyond it but if out of the goodness you have ever expressed towards me and to which I would owe all things rather then to any change of my condition you give me the liberty to satisfie you of my inclinations and the resolution I should take if my will depended not on yours I am to tell you that Artaban though not a Prince born seems to me greater upon the account of his Vertue then all the Princes upon earth and that such as he is when it comes to my choice I shall prefer him before all the men in the world Elisa spoke this with confidence more then natural in her nor could Artaban hear the closure of her discourse without casting himself on his knees before her and rendring her adorations proportionable to the greatness of the favour she did him The Queen for some short time seemed as it were surprized at the discovery she had made but soon after recovering her self into her ordinary serenity Daughter said she to her you have taken a resolution of great weight such as no doubt on which you have bestowed much reflexion before you were fixed therein Those who would not approve it might haply find reason enough to oppose it as there is on the other side much to justifie it but what ere may may be the issue I shall for my part further it and am so well satisfied as to the worth of Artaban and have so dear a remembrance of the services we have received from him as not to disallow the declaration you make in his favour For Daughter though Artaban were not a Prince born yet is he worthy your affection meerly upon the account of his vertue and the services he hath done us and among all mankind you could not have made a more rational choice nor haply one more suitable to my inclinations Onely I shall
see the end before you pass a disadvantagious Judgment if I had not condescended to see you as I had many reasons to disswade it I had missed the occasion of preventing such attempts for the future which I will now do by putting an Order in force for my own repose and yours too if it be possible At these words she stopp'd and while her Discourse lasted having recover'd a little assurance I took the advantage of her silence and lifting up my eyes to her face which till then I had not dared to behold but by stollen glances Madam I confess said I that I am yet more culpable than your words have made me and though my intents have been innocent the ills you have suffered through my occasion do render me the most criminal amongst all men I am therefore come Madam to protest at your feet that all my Blood that a thousand such Lives as mine can never requite the least of your displeasures and to conjure you by all that is capable to perswade that I may have leave to spend this poor Life to purchase the repose of yours employ the courage of Tyridates to break the Chains of your Calamities I know I have committed a fresh offence in seeking means to petition your Goodness for this last favour which I never have nor shall ever merit but it is not just nor can my Passion excuse it that after having been the cause of so many of your misfortunes I should securely retire from the pursuits of Herod and abandoning you to his Cruelties leave you by shameful flight in his savage hands to seek a Refuge at Rome while you stay here expos'd to his fury This only consideration Madam hath had power to shut my eyes upon that danger against which you have exposed such a miracle of goodness and in fine I have learned to believe that if any man may unfetter you from your Miseries you ought to hope it from none but Tyridates as a Glory only due to him I am now no longer retain'd by Hospitality nor aw'd with the memory of my first Obligation Herod's Sword and Poyson have cancell'd those either of which would have infallibly destroy'd me had not your adventurous pity prevented the Blow To you only my Divine Queen this Life such as it is is indebted for its Being and you would have me have carried it away without offering the Sacrifice where it was due it was yours by Gifts yours by preservation and can you think it reasonable that I should wander with it among the Romans instead of coming to submit it to my Sovereign Ah! no continued I casting my self at her feet do not reject that which would reject its own being but for you and that which you cannot justly disavow do not grudge it the hazard of Herod's rigour by dooming my soul to those gloomy Woes a thousand times more black than the night in which he would have clos'd my eyes for ever or if the presence of this wretch does importune or discompose your quiet give leave that death may free you of him from which you have but in vain preserv'd him in Judea since he must infallibly receive it elsewhere from the rigour of this separation I had said more in the transport to which I had abandon'd my self if the Queen who suffer'd with repugnance full of deadly fear had not set bounds to the spacious Discourse I meditated and after she had interrupted me with a command to rise Cease Tyridates said she to make these offers which I cannot so much as hear without offending Virtue and remember I have told you a thousand times that the Crime of Herod cannot authorize mine if I owe nothing to him as to the quality of a Husband yet the debt to my God and my self can never be satisfied I will quit the World when it pleases Heaven to release me without the Crimes of these Miseries or if it have decreed them a longer date I must still have patience to endure them 't is this I oppose in few words to the desires you express to wipe away my displeasure I am neither permitted by Law Divine or Humane to serve my self of your assistance for that which regards your departure know Tyridates it is an indispensable necessity that you suddenly resolve it that I am now half constrain'd to an action unbecoming my quality and duty and can no more consent to see you with so much danger of life and reputation and in fine must intreat you never to see me more Be not astonished at these words you have courage enough to be prepared for them and possibly affection enough too for me to weigh all the reasons that oblige me to this Entreaty I will not speak of my Life which can never be safe while you are in Judea for it was never happy to be worth the prizing if my honour be dear to you if you can ballance the prejudice of your own repose and remember the suspitions of Herod the malice of Salome and the knowledge my self hath of the fault you have committed you must conclude that the stay of Tyridates must be incompatible with the reputation of Mariamne She stopp'd at these words while I stood stiffe and motionless to hear the rigorous sentence of my Death and after I had sometime beheld her with an action that would have let in pity if too strong a resolution had not deny'd it entrance Then Madam said I you condemn the unfortunate Tyridates to a perpetual banishment and you believe you are more gentle than Herod in commanding him never to see you more Ah! if you have that thought for the Gods sake lose it and do not believe that any Duty can with reason oblige you to that which you would not do but for want of affection The affection I have born you reply'd the Queen with an unmov'd aspect is not probably such as you have pretended to nor could it justly oblige me to that I have already done to please you content your self that I have not been sparing in the acknowledgment of your deserts nor the esteem of your reason that therein I have pass'd the precise limits my estate prescrib'd me and since a perpetual separation permits me to avouch it I have not been so insensible but if Heaven and my Parents had left me in a condition to my own choice and Tyridates embraced the true Religion I had preferr'd him above the rest of Mankind The Queen us'd some violence to bring forth these words though they all wore the Badge of Innocence when my Soul drew all the consolation it had then capacity to hope for Ah! Madam said I how glorious is my Destiny and how little cause of complaint hath this Declaration left me But Gods yet glorious as I am I must be banished for ever Oh hard Sentence that alone can ballance the glory you have given me rigorous doom of my Death which I cannot and yet I ought to undergo without a
made Tyridates respectively withdraw because she supp'd in her Bed and deeming her weariness requir'd what was left unspent of the night for repose he bad her good night but before he left the Chamber It is not just said she you should longer be ignorant of her Name and Fortune whose Life was so lately your Gift and that since seconded by a noble entertainment Eteocles continued she pointing at the man that was preserved with her shall begin the Relation and when you have learned those Adventures that have preceded mine whereof no man is better instructed than himself you shall know the particular accidents of my Life from my own mouth Tyridates civilly return'd his thanks for this promis'd favour and quitting the Chamber return'd with Eteocles to his own whom he compell'd to sup with him though upon knowledge of his quality he would modestly have refus'd the honour After Supper he caus'd him to be conducted to his Chamber and himself went to Bed where he passed that night in his ordinary inquietudes So soon as he waked the next Morn he saw Eteocles in his Chamber that came to give him good morrow whom the Prince courteously received made him come nearer and remembring that from his mouth he was to expect the beginning of those Adventures he long'd to understand invired him to a Seat by his Beds-side and having forced him to sit down You see said he a very inquisitive Man loath to dispence with the Charge the Queen hath given you and I can neither find time nor place more commodiously favourable than this to require satisfaction for it will not be a civil hour to visit the Queen till two or three be expir'd Sir said Eteocles I believe what she suffer'd yesterday will ask this mornings repose to unweary her the time I cannot better employ than in rendring proofs of my obedience to both your Commands And after a preparation of a short silence he thus began his Discourse The HISTORY of Julius Caesar and Queen CLEOPATRA BEfore I can enter the Relation of that great Queens Adventures whom I have now the honour to serve I must of necessity go back to the Life of another Queen Illustrious for Greatness Beauty and the Accidents of her Life above all others that ever preceded her You may easily judge it is the Queen Cleopatra I intend to speak of whose Name is not only known in this Countrey that was under her Dominion but has stretched it self to the remote corners of the World and will doubtless be a task for the Memory of Fame till the last Age. Of the Accidents that befel her with Anthony none are ignorant I shall only therefore lightly touch them but because her Enemies have endeavoured to black her Reputation with what happen'd in her greener years with the great Julius Caesar I am oblig'd in Conscience as he of all men with whom the Truth is best acquainted to defend her memory from that Calumny and give you a faithful account of those passages compriz'd in as few words as possible The Queen Cleopatra was Daughter as sure you have heard to King Ptolomee sirnamed Auletes and descended with King Ptolomee her Brother from that glorious stock of Kings that since the great Ptolomee friend and successor of Alexander hath continually sway'd the Aegyptian Scepter This Princess was born with all the graces that the Gods could bestow upon a mortal person the Beauty of her Body could not be match'd upon Earth nor had that of her Spirit less advantages and the greatness of her Courage infinitely rais'd it self above her Sex I would say more if Renown had not sav'd me a Labour and those Gifts of Heaven been too fatal to let me dwell delightfully upon the Story But the Prince Ptolomee her Brother was not so by inclination but being naturally prone and propense to Vice he suffered his flatterers by pernicious Counsels to corrupt and deface all that impression of good that his high Birth had left upon his Spirit which in fine tumbled him headlong in his last misfortune He receiv'd the Crown very young by the death of the King his Father and the unbridled liberty which he found in that absolute power sunk him in all his vices The Aegyptian people discontentedly considering these sad beginnings of his Reign and sighing to see themselves subjected to a Prince so unworthy to Command began to turn their eyes upon the Princess Cleopatra and perceiving how much she differ'd from her Brother in Spirit Majesty and all things else that might render a person worthy of a Scepter they repin'd that her Sex was an obstacle to their wishes and every meeting would freely confess to one another how much more they thought she deserv'd their allegiance than Ptolomee or rather Pothinus Theodorus Ganimed with the rest of the Rabble of vile flatterers which he took up from the dust to lift them to the highest Dignities or rather to give them the Sovereign Authority This unworthy Crew having once perceiv'd that Cleopatra's Credit was like to extinguish theirs in every Aegyptian Breast began to render her suspected to her Brother and easily perswaded that poor spirit that it was fit she should perish The ungracious Prince suddenly resolv'd to give the blow but having notice of his evil intention she retir'd from the Court and sought a refuge among those Aegyptians which she believed did best affect her nor did they abuse her confidence for a great part of the Realm arm'd it self in the quarrel divers Cities declar'd for her and if her party was not the most puissant at least it was compos'd of the honester sort of Aegyptians that a long time kept her safe behind their Bucklers against all the Forces the King could make At last after the inequality of number had given Ptolomee some advantage he besieg'd the Princess his Sister in the City of Pelusium whither she was retir'd At that Siege he was busied when the infortunate Pompey a dreadful example of Fortunes inconstancy that great man that had triumphed over three parts of the World and by an infinite number of Victories had justled for precedency with the renown of Alexander flying from the Battel of Pharsalia came to throw himself into his Arms there to seek an Asylum against the pursuit of his victorious Enemy Indeed all sorts of honovr and assistance were due from Ptolomee to the dignity of that Grand Captain and doubtless any Soul but his would have receiv'd him that a few dayes before was the greatest of all men with a submiss respect to his precedent condition but that disloyal man only prizing his present Fortune and not his Virtue hearkning to the pernicious counsels of Pothinus Theodorus and Ganimed that represented how advantagious an amity the death of Pompey might gain him with his Enemy butchered that unfortunate Prince upon the shore of Pelusium in the sight of his Wife Cornelia who hardly escaped by the Succours of her own men from the same destiny
and prevailed as if the gift of the Crown of Aegypt had augmented her dominion in his heart Of this he daily gave her fresh assurances and Cleopatra who by this last obligation felt her self engag'd to receive them with a deeper acknowledgment than formerly liv'd with him in a fashion as much obliging as she could without offending vertue One day he was with her by her Beds side when after divers other Discourses the length of which would weary your attention taking her fair hands and joyning lips unto them I die fair Queen said he with an action wholly passionate I die if your pity does not draw me from my Tomb and I vow by those fair Eyes which I adore with respective Veneration that 't is impossible my life should longer continue if your mercy does not strengthen the thred of it I should be much afflicted said the Queen to see it in any danger the gratitude I owe to great Caesar and the particular esteem I have of his Person will never suffer me to refuse means within the bounds of possibility to comfort him 'T is in your power replyed he not only to comfort but create me the happiest of all men in making your self the reward for what I have given you no other price can gratifie the present I have made you I mean not of a Crown upon which I never set an esteem but of a heart and a soul which can never be but to you and of a heart and a soul which I have made yours with a resignation so entire as I have reserv'd no power to my self of a further disposal This glorious Present replyed the Queen can never be requited with the price you demand a thousand such Lives as Cleopatra's can never weigh with the heart and soul of Caesar yet Sir I would bestow my self upon you as you demand pursued she letting fall her eyes with a kind of shame if honour could shew me the way to do it I am born a Princess Daughter to a long succession of Kings by your bounty I am now a Queen and which is yet more glorious by his proper confession I have triumphed over the Soul of mighty Caesar Sir these advantages having plac'd me in one of the foremost ranks of Women do oblige me to preserve my self there in a reputation pure and spotless and should I render my self unworthy of my Birth my present Dignity and the affection of great Caesar should I yield up my self unto him in any other way than what his vertue can approve of She stop'd at these words supposing she had said enough to be understood and that Coesar could well enough construe her intentions yet being by the maximes of State and the tyes he had to the common-wealth forbidden to make a more ample Declaration he stood as if surpriz'd at Cleopatra's words nor was he yet resolv'd to espouse her fearing that Rome would disapprove the alliance and it might prove prejudicial to his design to make himself Master of it as he did in a short time after but perceiving himself oblig'd by Cleopatra's words to declare his intention he remain'd silent a while not knowing in what manner to evade the protestations he had made her but at last he recover'd his speech and lifting his eyes from the Earth where they had been fix'd You do merit said he a condition yet more glorious than what would render the favours I demand lawful the world cannot afford a Spouse to Caesar more worthy of that quality than the Queen Cleopatra and I do vow by truth it self that were I free in that Election I should soon make it known with what passion I desire that advantage but I am now so tyed by Interest to the Republique that I cannot apprehend it expedient to make my conjugall choice without its approbation nevertheless I shall endeavour to express how much I desire to be entirely yours and passing by these considerations in few days if it be possible make known the truth of my Affection At these words Caesar retir'd without giving the Queen leave to reply but after that she liv'd with him in a fashion more reserv'd than she had done formerly and would no longer license those petty liberties which before she had permitted him He observ'd this change with much displeasure but so soon as he complained of it to Her My Lord said she you are too just to desire those things of me which I cannot consent to without my own ruine and since I must pretend to a quality that may authorize them give me rather leave to return the Crown you have given me and resign the repose and the life it self which I hold of you than license such Crimes as neither your greatness nor all the obligations I have to it can ever excuse This Discourse again struck Caesar dumb but after she had oft repeated her resolution it wrought such an effect upon his spirit as made him resolve what he executed a few days after One day after he had sent to desire a particular audience of the Queen he entered her Chamber only followed by Lucius Metellus and Caius Albinus two of his friends in whom he repos'd the greatest confidence he found the Queen prepared to receive him in the manner he demanded only accompanied with her two dear Maids Charmione and Iras my Father and my self Caesar that knew us and in what manner we were ty'd to the Queens Interests was well pleas'd to have no other witness of his intended action and after he had pay'd his ordinary Civilities to the Queen Madam said he I have been too long restrained by such reasons as forbad me to render what was due to my own Love and your Vertue I am now resolved to tread upon those inhumane Maxims that play the Tyrants with me and to present my self to you in that Honourable and Lawful way that my ardent Passion did ever truly intend But because this Marriage which I desire to consummate with you cannot be promulg'd without destroying my design to set the Crown of the Universe upon your Head let me intreat your consent that it may now be known to no other persons than those I see about you and these two friends whom I have brought to witness this action In the Gods and their presence if you consent I will presently espouse you and if it may but remain a secret amongst us till I enter Rome and there establish my power as my designs have framed it it shall then be published with all the Pomp and Magnificence your wishes can invent To these words Caesar added many other affectionate expressions to render the Queens spirit flexible to his intreaties and help her over all the difficulties she found in that proposition She took a long time to ballance the resolution she was to take and in fine betook her self to the Counsel of her Maids my Father and if I may dare to say so my self but above all other perswasions the belief prevail'd
had ended these words and given a respective reverence to the Prince without staying for an answer he departed the Chamber though the Prince called him back and follow'd to speak with him and immediately mounting his Horse he quitted Meroe with the Aethiopian Court and was never seen there since Tyridates stay'd Eteocles at this passage I am deeply deceived said he if I be not able to learn you news of this Britomarus you speak of and they are such and so great as I wonder they should miss the way to your Ear but this merits a particular Discourse and I will not interrupt yours Eteocles was going on with his Story when one told him the Queen was awake and had call'd for him which made him take leave of Tyridates for some moments In the mean time the Prince called for his Clothes and quitted his Bed where Eteocles Story had detain'd him longer than ordinary HYMEN'S PRAELUDIA OR Loves Master-Piece PART I. LIB IV. ARGUMENT The sight of Alexandria renews Candace 's complaints for her Caesars loss Tyridates invites her to take the fresh air with the promise of a pleasant walk where preparing to go on with her Story she is interrupted by the arrival of a strange Knight who is known by Tyridates to be Coriolanus Prince of Mauritania He ignorantly rescues Zenodorus from Britomarus as he was ready to kill him while the Knights fight the Pyrate escapes Tyridates interposes his perswasions invain The arrival of Caesario disorders the Combat and for a while makes it Tripartite His Cask is struck off by Britomarus and Candace knows him They are parted Zenodorus returns with twenty Horsemen who assail the Knights while he carries away Candace Britomarus saves Caesario 's life who spurs away in pursuit of Zenodorus The Pyrates men are all slain but three by the prodigious valour of the Combatants Candace is miss'd by Tyridates who ingages the rest to joyn with him in pursuit of the Ravisher Their search proves vain and they all return to Tyridates house IF the fair Queen walk'd late that day it was not so much to be imputed to her weariness of the former as to her cruel cares that refus'd to be charm'd by sleep till day was ready to break the consideration and complaint of her disasters had almost swallowed the whole night and that courage that had shewn it self great in all the accidents of her life could not sometimes deny Homage to a grief too just to be condemn'd The troubles of a Kingdom either lost or very staggering could not feed her griefs so high but the continual fears for the loss of that which her soul indulg'd batter'd it with more violence These just and cruel apprehensions not onely drew sighs from her breast but laments from her mouth with a brook of tears from her fair eyes which they let fall in such abundance as her pillow was wholly steep'd in the stream Good Gods said she What are the offences have provoked your impetuous rage against me And what could a poor Maid commit worthy of so many marks of your protracted anger Was it so great a crime for Candace to love the Son of Coesar that the loss of one of the fairest Crowns in the World such unparallel'd persecutions of my sex and condition with so many dangerous hazards that I have run both of my life and honour could noâ— expiate it but I must still be tortur'd with the remembrance of perils to which you have exposed that which is more dear to me than my self Alas continued she 't is too probable my dear Caesar lives not for if Heaven did not send him particular assistance he could not but be crushed with so many dangers joyned with his sorrow for my loss that my malicious fortune has thrown upon him Ah! if it be so just Heaven do not suffer the wretched Candace to survive him one moment snatch her no more out of the jawes of Neptune nor the hands of her Enemies by a rescue a thousand times more cruel than that death from which you have guarded her The fair Queen had inlarged her complaints if the Maid that lay with her who had much influence upon her had not turn'd their current by the sweetest comforts she was able to apply Candace would hear her both because she dearly loved her and besides delighted to have her misfortunes flatter'd and to stay her self upon the hopes she gave her of the recovery of her Empire and the safety of Caesario And thus they wasted the greatest part of the night till a little before the Birth of day sleep came to becalme her cares and drew the Curtains of her bright eyes which she kept shut about four or five hours At the end of which being awaked and feeling no indisposition that could perswade her to lie still she caus'd Clitie to rise that was the name of her Maid and give her her Cloaths a part of which when she had put on she quitted her Bed and in that estate took some turns in the Chamber at last she opened a window whence the eye might freely spread its view over the adjoyning Sea and the stately City of Alexandria The sight of that City heretofore the abode and legitimate inheritance of her dear Caesario awaken'd her Complaints and after the Prologue of two or three sighs tying her eyes to those proud Walls that Alexander built Desolate Alexandria said she since thou hast lost thy fairest Ornaments since thy Anthony's Cleopatra's and Ptolomee's dwell no longer with thee but in thy dust Pompous and triumphant as thou wert thou dost now languish under Tyrannick Yoke Oh! that I could at least repair part of thy losses in restoring that to thee which thou gavest to me Within thy bosom my young Caesar first saw the light to thee I owe the education of his tenderest years and of thee I received him with all those lovely graces that he brought among us and now I am come without him to thy forsaken Walls to expose my self to the reproaches thou mayst throw upon me for having unjustly detain'd him from thee But pardon me my Beloved's native Soil if I cannot restore what my self hath lost He is pull'd from me by the cruelty of my destiny and I bring thee as much of him as is possible by offering thee a heart where he hath as lively and perfect being as in that place he now inhabits Ah! my eyes said she wiping away some tears that had newly forced their passage must every object give a fresh warning to your tears Can you present nothing to my imagination but what renews my disquiets Since you first became Fountains you have been so lavish of your streams as your spring might well be exhaust but you still over-flow as much as when my miseries first alarm'd you Ah! could my dear Caesar yet come and dry you up I should delightfully remember with what fidelity you have kept me company in my Disgraces and then how zealously should I
him in an estate which doubtless will plead pity enough to overthrow all the resentments your Passion can arm against him but in such an estate as bids me fear that the assistance which my hopes promise from your goodness will arrive too late for his recovery Cleopatra who truly lov'd my Master grew tender at this discourse which Marcellus understood from her aspect yet desirous to dissemble it Come I know your friend said she with a forced smile cannot be so sick as you would make him He is fallen so low answer'd Marcellus with a sadder gravity than his looks had yet exprest as I fear his life is in the hands of a merciless danger and though I know it is in your power to apply the remedy yet I doubt it will not come time enough to heal the wounds you have given him He brought forth these words with so serious an Emphasis as the Princess convinc'd of the truth and knowing by divers marks to what extreams my Masters passion was capable to carry him she suffer'd his danger to soften her heart and turning towards Marcellus with a gentle look My quarrel to Coriolanus said she is of no such nature to call his life in question or provoke me to refuse him a remedy if it may be found within my power and apply'd with the safety of my honour At these words Marcellus fell upon his knee before the Princess and redoubling the force of his reasons the length of which perswades me to leave them out at last he vanquish'd her and wrought so powerfully as he dispos'd her to write him a Letter which if I mistake not spoke in these terms The Princess Cleopatra to Prince Coriolanus MArcellus who has endeavoured to excuse you will justifie me to you and witness there is more innocence on my side than yours yet I do not cherish such implacable resentments against you as not to desire the return of your health make haste to be well then as soon as possible and your recovery shall give me as much joy as your impatience did displeasure Marcellus having obtain'd this Letter for my Master was desirous to take yet a greater strain for his satisfaction and assay'd by the most pressing arguments his reason could urge to gain him the Scarf which the Princess had taken from Tiberius but he found it impossible to prevail as well upon the aversion that high spirit cherish'd to the grant of such favours as the fear she had wisely entertain'd of giving cause of complaint to Tiberius which might kindle a quarrel betwixt the two Princes In the mean time it fell out that Marcellus had spoken truer of my Masters malady than he believed for the torments that he infflicted upon himself that night had enrag'd his Feaver to such a height as the next day it manifestly threatned his life yet he persevered notwithstanding the earnest entreaty of his friends in a resolution to refuse all remedies and the opinion he had of Cleopatra's inconstancy had made so cruel an impression in his spirit as he sought after nought but death and certainly had soon found it it Marcellus had not seasonably arrived with the remedies that were requisite for his cure so soon as he approached his bed whence the other visitants were then with-drawn Rise Coriolanus said he you must be no longer sick after I have told the news I bring you at these words of Marcellus Coriolanus turned his head that way and regarding him with a languishing look Ah! Marcellus said he what pleasure do you take to sport with misery If you call it sport reply'd Marcellus sitting down upon his bed I believe you will not think the game unpleasant and before we part I hope to have better entertainment of your face than it now affords me all you have to do is to get up as fast as you can and go and ask Cleopatra's Pardon for the offence you committed or rather to pay your thanks to her goodness that has so easily remitted an injury that merited a longer penance My Master listened to this language in a suspence betwixt joy and diffidence but Marcellus no longer willing to detain his happiness wrapt in uncertainty after he had prepared his attention began to relate what befel him with Cleopatra and repeated word for word all the Discourse he had with her My Master abandon'd himself to a painful joy when he learned that Tiberius received not the favour from Cleopatra but when the sequel told him of his unluckly adventure with the rigorous treatment he receiv'd from the Princess it seiz'd his soul with a ravishment too deep to be put into words but suddenly returning from these transports to converse with some distrustful thoughts that insinuated there was more design than truth in Marcellus words on purpose to reconcile him to the care of his own health he intreated him with a serious look not to abuse his credulity nor raise him with Romantick hopes to an estate from whence a relapse would threaten more danger than the former malady What proofs would you ask said Marcellus to avouch this truth I would have a confirmation replyed my Master under Cleopatra's hand You shall have it then said Marcellus and no longer willing to defer his contentment he delivered him Cleopatra's Letter at the sight of which with the knowledge of the Character and the reading of the words my Master had like to have lost his Senses and by an excess of joy which he was not able to contain he staid a long time motionless and mute as if he had been dazled with his happiness When he came again to himself he first stretched out his arms and greedily seized upon Marcellus elegantly expressing his resentments in the humble language of embraces from these his joy succeeds to words wherewith he confirm'd it in a discourse so passionate as it drew tears from Marcellus eyes it would make my story tedious to repeat the whole Dialogue of kindness betwixt them In fine by the vertue of this delicious remedy his mind was perfectly cur'd but his body was not so and the Physitians that were called presently after judged that the extremity of his joy had redoubled his Feavour yet we were encouraged to hope the best by my Masters ready disposition to suffer the Medicines were prescribed him in effect he resigned himself up to their disposal that took care of his recovery but his body could not take example by his mind for his Malady visibly increasing in a short time it menaced much danger the Prince having now no farther cause to hate his life did all that he was able to gain a recovery and restore himself to a condition of visiting his Princess but his will found little obedience in his body for the violence of his grief to which he had given himself up a willing prey had contaminated all his blood and his Feaver grew at last to such a height as the Physitians with a common consent expressed more feare
them both too weak to maintain the ground she had gotten her pursuer had recovered the space betwixt them and already stretched out his Arm to seize her garments behind when she first heard the noise of divers Horses and presently after saw eight or ten Cavaliers coming up upon the spur whom the Chase had led into that Wood and the Queens cries conducted thither to her rescue He that appear'd and really was Master to the rest pausing a while upon the object and placing his eye upon the Pyrats action ran to him with his Sword in his hand and flew upon him with a brave anger the Barbarian grew pale at the sight and cry of his Enemy and almost at the same time felt himself pierc'd through with his Sword and thrown to the ground with the shock of his Horse his companion presently turned his back upon the danger and fled it with the speed of a villains fear to be overtaken and the fair Queen in one auspicious moment saw her self and Servant at liberty yet her striving to out-run the Ravisher and the rude toyl she suffered in getting loose from his loathed embraces had wrought her to so much weariness as her forces fail'd just at the arrival of rescue and she no sooner saw her Enemy fall but her weakness reduced her a few paces from him to make choice of the same posture whither Clitie presently came to repose her self at her Ladies feet The principal of her preservers whose face spake well in his behalf and exposed the Index of an eminent dignity no sooner beheld her in that condition but he and part of his men left their horses and advancing towards her his eyes accepted the invitation of her face where he found employment for a delightful contemplation but he had not gazed many moments before he paid the homage of astonishment and wonder to that admirable beauty at first his amazement could command no better expression than his silence with a look that spoke it self over the shoulder to his companions but a desire to untie the hands of his reason on purpose to studie the object better dissipating his first surprizal he approached the Queen and saluting her with an action full of civility I know not your quality said he that have forced the admiration of persons who thought themselves able to see the fairest things in the world without astonishment but whoever you are I am so sensible of the first encounter and to see you yet in an estate so little conformed to the judgement I have passed upon your person and condition as if it were not in my power to offer you comfort I would learn to think my self very unfortunate At this discourse the fair Princess raised her eye to the visage of him that made it and finding something there that might claim the respect due to an uncommon person she beheld him with a regard that began her acknowledgement for his protection this double consideration so far abridged her weakness of its due as to raise her self half from the earth Whatever I am replyed she in the same language he spake wherein she was perfectly skilled you see an unfortunate person that owes you her life and possible something else more pretious what you have done in my defence has fairly charectered your generosity but there is yet something more to do that will add new graces to its beauty and invite it to a brave employment in carrying succour to some persons whose worth will deserve your assistance which not far from hence were basely assaulted by a great number of his fellow villains whom your Sword so lately punished The Queens discourse was delivered with charms too invincible to fail in the design that framed it nor was the person that received it less obliged by them than the duties of his charge to grant her desires but he had already so fast'ned his heart to those delicacies he found about her as her face disputed against her tongue and rendered her entreaty incapable to divide him so soon from her presence only turning towards his followers which by the addition of fresh commers in were already swelled to the number of twenty he commanded the better part to take the Queens instructions where to find and help her distressed friends and keepin the rest about his person He presented a couple of Horses to her self and Clytie with a well-framed intreaty to accept a more befitting and safer retreat than any Aegypt could else afford but perceiving by her face that her thoughts agreed not in their votes to that proposition To clear all your scruples said he of receiving my services I am obliged to let you know that I am Cornelius Gallus Praetor of Aegyt and by Caesar 's commission absolute Master of this Province from me you are and ought to hope all sorts of comforts nor can your wisest fears make choise of more security against your Enemies or the menaces of any other danger than my Alexandria does promise the City is not many furlongs hence and if you will give your patience the injury to wait it I will send for a Chariot to conduct you thither The Queens inclinations intirely bent her to that place where she might examine her Caesario's danger which yet she could not resolve to act without too blunt a rejection of the Praetor's civilities and the tie of so great an obligation linked with the awe of his authority shewed her too much reason in her fears to refuse his proffer besides she then found her self no longer Mistress of her own actions nor could Cornelius be accounted a friend to his honour by his permission to humour her own desires in going unguarded from a danger from which he so lately defended her by the advice of these thoughts after she had turned a glance upon Clitie that signified she was not yet at liberty to own her intentions she told Cornelius that the confidence she reposed in his vertue and the remembrance of so fresh an engagement had left no scruple to oppose her consent of encreasing his train to Alexandria and their accepting the retreat for a few days he had so nobly offered her she refused to stay the Chariots coming Cornelius would have sent for and suffering her self to be set upon a Horse was presented with two men to sustain her on each side she accompanied the Troop to Alexandria where within a quarter of an hour they arrived At the entrance of that proud City Candace felt her heart grow tender at those visible hints of her Caesario's Interest but that remembrance stuck it self there with a deep sense when she saw her self in the Palace where he was born and had been nourished Cornelius who had already learn'd from his new-born passion the requisites of an extraordinary respect to the Lady conducted her to a rich and pompous lodging where the great Queen Cleopatra had passed a part of her days and by fortunes contrivance the very same where she
Princess not unworthy of your affection I shall not scruple to confirm what you have already learn'd from my mouth but will repeat you my purpose that if you can oblige the King to approve your design I will submit my self to his command without the least repugnance to receive you Caesario did not throw himself at my feet to thank me for this promis'd favour for he had not stirr'd from thence since he enter'd the Arbour but my words had committed such a rape of joy upon his senses as it was long before he could get any language at liberty to express it yet at last it brake loose though much out of joint with excess of passion which yet me thought told the tale of his affection better in that disorder'd Elegance than I ever understood it before from its untroubled composure and confirm'd my resolution to prefer him if ever my disposal were released to my self above all the persons in the world Since that day he lived with me not usurping Licence from Success to enlarge his liberty of behaviour for he still kept himself exactly within the bounds of that respect which was born a twinn and had ever since grown up with his passion and had he chanc'd to break beyond them I knew how to reduce him so handsomly as I could leave him more confidence of his happiness a sweeter repose and riper hopes than ever Being yet too young to do it with Decorum he thought it not fit to trust his intentions to the King till some important service might state him so powerfully in his brest to repair the defect of those Crowns he had lost and help him up to that pitch in his opinion which he might have flown at before the disastrous fall of Anthony and Cleopatra In this expectation he passed above a year in our Court and thrived so happily in his design to indear himself to the King as he could not have received more indulgence though all the blood in his Veins had stream'd from no other Fountain but Hydaspes and with me his lovely qualities prevailed so successfully as at last he had got as large a possession in my heart as he could fancy in his forwardest wishes indeed it was no easie task to defend my self from him for Caesario is struck so full of incomparable graces in both the faces and features of body and mind as it is impossible for the severest Judge of worth to see and frequent him and not quickly confess him a person in whom the Divine bounty has treasur'd the marks of an extraordinary grandeur and to these rare endowments were added a complacence and assiduity and a discretion so uncommon as by a sweet violence were able to enforce affection even in those Cynical Souls that are most incapable to take the true height of merit of me he received all the spotless testimonies of affection that innocence would avow and though they were precisely confin'd within the limits of severity enough yet his knowledge of my humour shew'd him cause to content himself with what I was willing to allow him he would sometimes grow very melancholly when his thoughts chanc'd to reflect upon his battered Fortunes and I remember when I asked him the cause of his indisposition he has often answered me to this purpose Madam would he say it does not trouble me to be in debt for all I have to you and yours nor would I lay out one single wish for a fortune that comes not either from you or for you but when I look upon my self as I am dispoil'd by that giddy Deity of all those Grandeurs and Dignities that inviron'd me at my birth and find that I am stript of all at a time when their service was so necessary to prefer me to yours I cannot dissemble my displeasure nor lift my Eyes to you with any assurance when my memory wakes those cruel thoughts that tell me if your generous Father had not given me a Sanctuary I should now be destitute of a retreat among men that I have now no proper estate no rank nor any of those Scepters left me my Ancestors possessed that he who has rob'd me of all that usurps the throne of my Father and the same that took away the Crown and Life from the unfortunate Cleopatra does proudly brood our spoils and peceably sway the better part of the Universe while Fortune fastens me to such a feeble condition as denys me the power of recovering my swoonded honour or my lost estate in revenging my friends by the ruine of my enemies In fine Madam I cannot see you serv'd by a Man whom Fortune has tumbled to so low a condition without blushing with the blood that is nearest my heart and if I had not some sparks of hope in the King your Fathers assistance that are yet unquench'd and a little confidence in the courage of a Prince who cannot want it and be still the Son of Caesar to repair the shame of my life I should despair of comfort Such Discourses as these my Caesar often made me upon this subject but I rais'd all the power of my reason to combat those melancholy thoughts as well because they afflicted him as that they drove him upon the dangerous rock of a resolution which my judgment told me he would never have power to conduct to a happy period Think not said I that the loss of your Crowns has made you less considerable than if you were still vested in that purpl'd prosperity of your Royal house your Vertue may restore you what your blind Enemy has taken nor has she power enough in her whole stock of malice to blot out those Characters which in your person are far more remarkable than all the glittering Crowns whereof she has plunder'd you So long as there are store of those to be adquir'd among men you have still the same right to assert and arm your just pretences but if you only level yours desires at those on purpose to ennoble your amorous claim know you need not the addition of those fading glories since I find that in your self alone which will give you the upper hand in my thoughts of him that commands the Universe besides your Honours has no Interest in your misfortunes for you suffered them at an age so helpless and insensible as allows you no right to go any share in the shame or the glory of good or bad success if the Gods shall one day furnish you with forces to receive the quarrel you may yet dispute the Empire of the world with that Usurper of your right and Persecutor of your life and if they refuse you the means and break down the stairs by which you should remount the throne of your Fathers you may possible ascend another that is large enough to bound a reasonable ambition The Son of Caesar received some comfort from this discourse yet not so clear a satisfaction to hinder him from perplexing me with his daily protestations that
Queen and Princess were Prisoners The King of Media is taken by his Rival and released again in exchange for Elisa and her Mothers liberty He gains two signal Victories beside Makes an entire conquest of Media and drives Tigranes to seek refuge and beg aid in the Courts of Cappadocia and Cilicia He is triumphantly received by Phraates Boldly solicites his love suit to Ehsa Is abetted by Urinoe and at last wins her consent to demand her of her Father He receives a rude repulse from Phraates which provokes hot words and they procure his banishment Media is invaded and re-conquered by Tigranes assistants Peace concluded upon his marriage with the Princess Elisa Artaban loses his labour and liberty by endeavouring to hinder it His strange adventures upon the Sea Elisa is delivered from the Pirates and brought to Alexandria ARtaban having taken his leave of the King began to march towards Media and the next day we parted from Nisa to remove to Cassiâ—pe where the King frequently passed his Summer and where the Court was commonly the fairest and better accommodated than in any other City of the Kingdom The Image of Artaban as well in our Voyage as after our arrival was perpetually before my eyes but my fancy according to the alternate rule of anger and affection received it in very different forms and the pique I took against him for a crime whereof my haughty spirit at least pretended him guilty had no such absolute authority in my soul but it still had a loving enemy to combat I could not wake the remembrance of the declaration he had made me without a flat falling out with his audacious enterprise and yet when I called to mind the grandeur of his actions the importance of his services and the constellation of his excellent qualities both of mind and body it abated the swellings of my heart and softned my resentments Can I do lesse than hate that arrogant wretch would I say that flies at an Eagles pitch from a common nest that unknown thing nay possibly that Cottage Creature who because he has borrowed greatness from his Masters bounty thinks he may justifie his ambition in taking his aim at me Taking his aim did I say he is yet a thousand times more criminal had he only sinned in thought and covered his passion with a respective silence it had been pardonable but to breath his fancies flames at the mouth to declare his love in clear and intelligble terms and all this to the Princess of Parthia 't is a boldness 't is an insolence that cannot be justified Discretion and Honour require it that I banish the presumptuous and inconsiderable man from my sight and memory for ever and if he crouds into my presence against my will that he be received as an idle insolent who by his foolish ambition has made himself worthy of my eternal scorn and enmity Such thoughts and words as these were the eldest Children of my anger and at first they had the upper hand of all others that contested against them for whole dayes together but in sequel the softer passion got the victory and some favourable Demon to Artaban overthrew all the breast-works that my resentments had raised against him And yet that audacious Wretch would I say that bird of a common nest that borrows his greatness from his Master's bounties is the very same that rescued the Crown of Media from the King my Father's hand and since saved that of Parthia from an evident ruine 't is he who scarce arrived at so many years as upon the common account would stile him Man has already travelled in his fame to the remotest parts of the World by the death of 20000 and the winning of four or five signal Battels and in fine both by the throwing down and supporting of Empires as if the Gods had only commissioned his sword to cut out their destiny Say more Elisa 't is the same that saved thee from the violence of the Medes to whose victorious Fortune thy Life and honour might have proved a double sacrifice 't is he that made thee the generous offer of thy liberty to give it thee exposed himself to all the darts that one great danger could throw at him braved the indignation and puissance of a King that then had all his fears and hopes in his custody forsook his party to fight for thine and after having re-assured thy Father in his tottering Throne and untied the bands at the price of his blood and the peril of his life 't is still the very same that is gone again to repeat his dangers and improve the number of his victories for thy interests nay possible to make a Province of Media to the Parthian Crown and after all this 't is he that may promise Empires to himself from his own valour that may lift him to an equal dignity with thine to these considerations Elisa thou maist add that he is a man in whose mind and body are jewelled all the admirable qualities that the skil and bounty of Heaven can inchase in a mortal person a man whom to know and not to love is half a miracle and a man in fine to whom in spite of thy self thou dost already feel in thy self an extraordinary inclination My revisal of this last thought brought forth a blush and the shame of being conquered at these weapons often called in choler again to take my part against him While I was tossed upon the stream of these irresolutions that regarded Artaban we received intelligence of the sudden and marvellous success of his arms and had scarce heard that he was entered Media when there came an express that told us he had taken two of the strongest places upon the Frontier by assault and just as he was setting down before the third having learned that Phraates one of Tigranes Lieutenants was coming up with a puissant Army to relieve it he had drawn off to go meet him and since overthrown him in a battel with so great a slaughter of the Medes as gave the rest cause to fear that the entire loss of their Country would succeed it The King received this news with a marvellous satisfaction published his desire of an universal joy by all the exterior marks of his own and powered out Artaban's praise in the presence of all men with a greediness of gratitude But in spight of all my arguments of anger against him I could not chuse but own a particular concernment in his happy success and then it was that I clearly discovered to my own shame and consusion that this man with whom I thought I had been angry instead of holding the place of an Enemy in my thoughts had gotten possession of the dearest and most reserved hold about my heart and I think the Gods themselves favoured his incroachment for the same night that this news arrived after I was gotten to bed my Governess faining some pretence to stay in the Chamber when the rest were
him That time is past with you said the insolent Eurilochus and since fortune hath now submitted you to those who heretofore attended upon you you must do by them as they did once by you and expect your destiny from their will as they expected and received from Anthony's These words full of Pride and reproach put me into such choler against him that spake them that I could not dissemble but looking upon him with an eye full of disdain and indignation both together 'T is thy interest said I to him to oppose my liberty and if it pleased the Gods that we were in another condition assure thy self thy life should pay for thy insolence Eurilochus though he was in a condition not to fear my threatnings looked pale at this discourse and seeing something in my face which in spight of the condition wherein I then was forced him to some respect he held down his head and turned himself another way without reply After that day I had no more conversation either with him or his companion but I entertained my self only with my two faithful servants who were acquainted with the whole secret of my life and sometimes when I could by stealth with the Keeper that brought me the Princesse's Letters In fine after some scurvy formalities that Artaxus made use of in his proceedings by his cruel orders I was condemned to lose my head upon a scaffold in the great place of Artaxata the rumour of it presently spread it self through the whole City but I assure my self that the most pitiless of the inhabitants did not approve that cruelty Cepio by whose imprudence I was reduced to this condition who since that time had not stirred from Artaxata was one of the first that heard that news He almost died with grief when he considered himself as the cause of my misfortune and the only cause of his stay in the Armenian Court was to seek some occasion to make some reparation for the fault he had committed When he understood the cruel sentence passed against me he went boldly to present himself before Artaxus and without fear of the danger he might incur by provoking him King of Armenia said he I understand that you have condemned the Son of Antony to a shameful death but take good heed how you execute that sentence which will be your ruine and give no way to the death of that Prince except you desire to see the destruction of your People and the absolute desolation of your Dominions And who shall lay desolate my Dominions replyed the King of Armenia with a scornful look who shall ruine my people and execute thy threats Augustus answered Cepio and all the principal persons of Rome who either by blood or friendship have interest in Alexander the whole Empire the whole World will arm with them for the revenge of that Prince and you will see such powers fall upon you upon this quarrel as will infallibly ruine you Augustus replyed Artaxus ought rather to be a friend to me than to the son of his enemy and the remainders of the blood of Anthony will not be more considerable to him than the Kings of Armenia his most ancient Allies Iâ— Augustus be dis-interessed as without doubt he is I do not much value the rest and to those powers thou talkest of I shall oppose others that shall protect me from the effect of thy menaces but let what will happen the Son of Cleopatra shall die to morrow and thou shalt have thy part in the spectacle if thou hast a mind to it in the publique place Yes bluntly replyed Cepio I will have my share in the Spectacle and seeing the young Prince is fallen into this misfortune by my imprudence I will hazard my dearest blood in endeavouring the reparation of my fault With these words he went from the King who had left hearkning to him before and would not have suffered him to have said so much if those about him had not perswaded him to give way a little to the humour of this hair-brain'd man In the mean while the Princess no sooner understood that the sentence of my death was passed and that I was to die the next day without delay but she flew out of her chamber transported with grief with an intention to make use of the last remedies that were left her As she was going to the King she found him upon the top of the stairs and she no sooner saw him but running to him with an action full of the marks of her grief and casting her self at his knees which she embraced and moistened with her tears Sir said she once my brother full of tenderness and affection and now a King inaccessible to pity either command my life to be taken away in your presence or give me Alexander ' s. The barbarous King was not at all moved to compassion at this spectacle but rudely snatching himself out of his Sisters arms Die if thou wilt said he woman without resentment or honour and believe that in the dis-esteem thou hast caused me to have of thee I shall be so far from giving thee Alexander 's life that I would not give the life of the least of my enemies to save thine With these words he flung away without so much as looking upon her more and the Princess rising up full of grief and despair Yes Monster cryed she I will die and death will be a thousand times more sweet to me than the life I can lead with a Tiger and a Barbarian I will die seeing thou wouldest have it so but by my death I will furnish thee with revenging furies which shall eternally torment thee At these expressions breaking out a fresh into tears and being in a condition that imprinted a tender compassion in all that were present at this action she ran to her appartment where she threw her self between the arms of Leucippe and the rest of her women and was ready to expire there through the violence of her grief What Alexander said she shalt thou die and shall this unfortunate creature for whom thou hast exposed thy self with so much love not have the credit with a brother to divert the inhumane instrument of death from thy head Doth this day onely remain to thee of that life which thou hadst so generously bestowed upon me and shall I behold the bloody preparatives of thy death without preventing it Ah no Alexander hope better of my courage and do not suspect me of a baseness whereof I am not capable I might possibly have lived or lingred out a few days in grief if any other kind of death had separated us but dying here and dying only for my sake who wert always faithful to me since our first acquaintance I am engaged both by my affection and by my honor to bear thee company it shall never be laid as a reproach upon me that I drew thee hither by the command I did once lay upon thee to sacrifice thee in our Country
stopt at these words and having put my self during her discourse into a condition to reply Madam said I those sufferings and those dangers which you esteem so highly are not worthy of the smallest effects of your goodness and I thought to account them a thousand times more dear than my life since 't is by them 'T is enough said the Princess interrupting me and I am forced to break off your discourse Time calls upon us to be gone but in the first place Alexander I will tell you before Sarpedon to whom I am obliged for all I do in relation to your safety before my Maids and your Servants that together with your liberty I will give you Artemisa and that I am disposed absolutely to follow your Fortune as you are a Prince whom before these Witnesses I here receive for my Husband before Artaxus his cruelties I should have found a great resistance in my self against this action and though I had born you never so much affection I should never have received you for my husband without his permission but now that by his horrible actions he hath effaced all the characters of respect and friendship that were due to him from me and that he hath reduced me to such terms as that I cannot live with him but as with a monster or a savage beast I will make no difficulty to abandon him to follow you upon the confidence I have in your love and vertue nor to espouse you when we shall arrive at Augustus his Court or at any other place where you shall make your retreat If the sight of Artemisa if her former words had filled me with astonishment and joy judge you Cleomedon to what a height of both I was raised by this discourse and passing in one moment from a prison and the expectation of a cruel death not only to liberty but to the possession of Artemisa her self which I preferred before a thousand liberties and a thousand lives in what manner I could receive this strange alteration of my condition Truly it would be as hard for me to represent it to you as it was then to express it to Artemisa and I will content my self to tell you that being full of confusion and transport I threw my self the second time at the Princess's feet so amazed at the excess of my good fortune that I could give no intelligence of my thoughts but by my countenance After I had continued a while in this condition fixing my mouth upon one of her fair hands which I held betwixt mine Madam said I you have put me into such a condition as is impossible for me to express and the fortune which you offer me is so far above those hopes I might reasonably conceive that I cannot receive it without trouble and confusion yet from thence I received this so little deserved favour and since it pleases you out of an excess of your divine bounty to advance me to a quality whereof I am so unworthy I protest before the same persons whom you call as witnesses of my fortune that I will submit my self all my life long to your will with an absolute obedience and that I shall be ambitious of the honour to wait upon you and conduct you to those places where possibly you shall have no cause to regret the loss of any thing that you leave in Armenia I shall never regret any thing replyed Artemisa so long as I have a part in you and in your company from whom I hope all manner of fidelity and discretion I shall never be unhappy but let us remit these mutual assurances till another time and let us be gone from hence without any farther delay our stay may yet ruine all and I shall be in no quiet till we be better assured of our liberty With these words not expecting a reply she gave me her hand and causing those to march before that carryed the lights she guided me her self being conducted by Sarpedon down a little pair of stairs which till then were unknown to me into the street where we put out our lights and there about fifty paces from the Gate we found a Chariot with six good horses and those that were needful for Sarpedon my servants and the two Keepers that followed us and seven or eight horsemen besides being the Princesse's most faithful Officers attending upon the Chariot She made me enter presently with her two maids and Sarpedon and the rest being mounted on horse-back we set forwards and marching with great speed under the conduct of one of the Princess's men who was very well acquainted with the way we were to go We left Artaxata behind us in a very small time and when we saw our selves in the open fields we made away with all the speed our horses could At the break of day we came to a passage of the River Araxes where we had boats attended us and when we had passed the River we brake the boats in a thousand peices to deprive our enemies of the means to pursue us About half a days journey farther we found fresh horses which had been sent thither before and those we made use of instead of our own which were already tired with the great haste we had made We marched on still a great pace the rest of that day and all the next on the way to Cilicia for we would not take the way to Rome supposing they would pursue us that way and besides we had intelligence that Augustus and all his ordinary Court was in Asia with whom I hoped to find those persons that were nearest and dearest to me next to Artemisa But why do I amuse you any longer We passed out of Armenia without any hindrance and as we entred into Cilicia we were informed that Augustus was then or was to be shortly at Alexandria This was the most convenient way we could go and this way we took having informed our selves of all passages and expecting in that place the best retreat we could desire I will not repeat to you the conversations full of sweetness that I had with the Princess during our Voyage 'T was from her that I understood the means wherewith she had served her self for my deliverance and from her I knew that having gained Sarpedon by her caresses by her presents and the inclinations he had to vertue she disposed him to set me at liberty and to follow her fortune and mine throughout the World and that to this end having drawn Theogenes his companion into a house without the City he made him be detained prisoner there by some Souldiers that were at his dispose and returning into the City about the beginning of the night he placed all his guards except those that were privy to his intentions upon the stairs of the great Gate of the prison with order to attend there upon pain of death till his return and by this means he had the passage as free for us as we could desire I thanked Sarpedon
that I interceed Sir she urges her departure more earnestly a thousand times than her most cruel enemies and if she would have permitted me to attend her neither she nor I Sir would have been in your Dominions You would have received more sensible displeasures if she had not opposed them and you are obliged to her Sir not only for serving your intentions more powerfully than you your self can do but for punishing me too by her disdain of me and of all that I can offer her more severely a great deal than you could do for my disobedience In brief Sir I desire either death at your hands or the liberty to see Delia I shall infallibly obtain either the one or the other and I am not so fond of my life without Delia but that I will sacrifice it at your feet as soon as you shall deprive me of all hope of prevailing with you I have stayed Gesippus as he was about to execute your commands and he could not have found a passage to go and do outrage to Delia but through my blood he still waits upon your will if that be not conformable to that which pity and the proximity of bloud inspire you within my favour you may be very well assured Sir that you are not like to have a Son long in the world All the while that I spake in this manner and when I had one speaking too the King walked up and down hastily he lifted up his eyes to Heaven and stamped with his foot and by all the gestures of his countenance expressed his indignation and the divers agitations of his soul The small disposition he saw in me to follow his inclinations and to satisfie the Queens desires by whom he was daily tormented put him into so much choler as made him partly forget what the nearness of bloud presented to him on my behalf and carried him out to more cruel resolutions than the former but at last as he really loved me and had placed all his hopes in me alone as his only Son he feared likewise the Tragical effects of my passion and perceived himself inclined to some indulgence towards me in spight of his own heart After that his irresolutions had a long time appeared in his countenance he turned himself suddenly towards me and breaking his long continued silence If I should hearken to reason said he to me rather than to fatherly infirmity which I cannot well resist I should make thee suffer such exemplary punishments as are due to thy disobedience rebellion and baseness but I will give thee a few days longer to reduce thy self to thy duty with less violence and to experiment whether thou canst do that by thy vertue which at last I will do by my authority when I perceive that my indulgence is unprofitable Having spoken these words after he had commanded Gesippus to retire he entred into his Cabinet without entertaining any longer discourse with me I saw Delia a little after and told her all that was passed not being able to conceal any thing from her and I found her in her ordinary humour from which she could never be unfixed upon any consideration Some days passed without any great Crosses as to me and the Kings choler though it was not extinguished seemed yet to be a little pacified He saw the Princess my Sister upon whom he cast a very severe countenance and made a very sharp complaint of her favouring me in my foolish affections Andromeda apologized for her self and protested to the King that it was none of her fault that my mind was not cured and that she employed all her perswasions to reduce me to the obedience I owed to him You should then said the King have sent Delia away from you since you knew that it was my design and you know well you cannot retain her contrary to my intention without displeasing me Sir replyed Andromeda I could not quit my self of Delia without making you lose the Prince my Brother and if your Majesty had seen the condition wherein he appeared to us every time I proposed it to him and that Delia pressed me to give her leave to be gone without doubt you would have judged as well as I that you could not deprive him of Delia without taking away his life But Andromeda answered the King your Brother has a design to marry her and that Maid who receives too much honour by being in your service raises her pretensions already to the Marriage of your Brother and to the Crown of your Ancestors I know not said the Princess whether my Brother hath any such intention but I can justly answer you for Delia that she will never give her consent without you and all those persons whom her birth hath given any command over her agree to it Whatsoever her Parents are added the King they will easily agree to this alliance and without their consent or mine a Crown hath lustre enough to dazle the eyes of a more constant mind than that Maid is of You are not yet acquainted with her Sir replyed Andromeda and she doth so much despise that dignity which you suppose is capable to blind her that it will never oblige her to any the least complacence towards it as long as she lives The King admired at Delia's vertue but his admiration reached no further than to astonishment and he did not cease to make me be tormented to tear that passion out of my soul by all manner of wayes I hardly visited Urania any more and if at any time I happened in her company I entertained her only with words of respect without intermingling any thing of love The Queen was so moved with despight at it that not being able to dissemble it she spake no more to me and looked upon me no otherwise than as an enemy but she continually whispered in the Kings ears that could not connive at the slight esteem I made of his will without entirely abandoning his authority and that he ought by all means to hinder me from making that unknown Maid Queen of the Cilicians She was not only of a proud and malicious nature but she had bad Spirits about her and I believe it was by their solicitation that I received the displeasure to which I saw my self exposed a few daies after The King after he had tried divers means in vain to cure me of my passion at last despaired of doing it and either out of the resentment he had of it or by the pernicious counsels of interessed persons he permitted his spirit to be enclined to things contrary to his nature through the desire he had to retire my heart from its agreeable servitude those who to please him or to follow their own inclinations had engaged themselves in Delia's service appeared no more and after the publick declaration of my love and usage I had shewed Antigenes there was none so bold as to present himself to her I visited Delia oftner than before I had quitted
age could not possibly have charged on horse back more vigorously than my self nor have better come off from a troublesome piece of business wherein a strong constitution was necessary My father who was conscious of it feared lest I should give him the slip and possibly I should have done it after I had oftentimes unprofitably assayed to obtain his permission but at that time whether it were for this consideration or to find a retreat where he might peaceably pass his dayes or for other reasons to me unknown he quitted Egypt and led me into places where I could not be tickled by near occasions with a desire to take up arms whereby he was afraid to lose me he would not retire himself into any of the Kingdoms interessed in either of the two parties he likewise avoided all those which had any dependance upon the Roman Empire and taking our way along the banks of Nile he went to establish our abode in Ethiopia We arrived at Meroe where the Kings ordinary residence was and it was in this Court that my father made no difficulty to produce me believing through the affection wherewith he abused himself that I had qualities whereby I might advance my self and reap some fruit of the generous inclination which he believed he saw in me I was likewise so much favoured by Fortune that in a small time I was more favourably looked upon than I could expect from my condition and my Father by his acquaintance which his vertue easily procured him at Meroe having found a means to cause me to be presented to the King this Prince found me so much to his liking that after he had seen me divers times and marked in me as he said something above my birth by his special favour he placed me among divers young men of mine own age born of the noblest bloud amongst the Ethiopians which he particularly dedicated to the service of the Princess Candace his only Daughter and the Inheritrix of his Crown Tyridates who till then had heard and beheld the Unknown with great suspicions finding the confirmation of them in these last words I doubt no longer said he interrupting him but that you are Britomarus and I find in your fortune your humour and your person all things so conformable to the relation I have heard made of him that I take you for him with an almost entire certainty The Unknown though a little surprised with this discouse replyed to Tyridates without being moved It is true said he that my Father gave me the name of Britomarus something near his own and which divers persons of his Country and Consinguinity too had born but I never thought I should have found persons here who would possibly have known it It is sufficiently known replyed Tyridates and together with this name I know also the most remarkable adventures which befell you in Ethiopia and part of the first actions you did in other Countries but besides that the relation I have received is very confused the King of Mauritania understands nothing of it and you may if you please continue your narration without interruption though some things may be come to my knowledge I will obey you answered Britomarus and though the first action of my life may scarce be worthy your attention yet I will recount them unto you that you may comprehend the order of my Fortune which in the course of my whole life hath contracted an habit in my affairs from which she never departed I was no sooner in the service of the Princess Candace but that by all sorts of cares I endeavoured to merit the honour which I had received and though according to my ambition all things of my capacity seemed below me yet I found this Princess so worthy of all services which could be rendred her in all sorts of conditions that I made my lofty humour comply without repugnance to all the employments which my companions had near her There was none more astiduous nor more industrious to seek out occasions to please and obey her and though my inclinations carried themselves to arms a great deal more than to other employments they themselves in a short time engaged me in a place and to things which I had never staid upon but only in consideration of my Fortune Candace was really one of the fairest persons in the world and I would say she was the prime beauty of the Earth if some beauty had not afterwards appeared to my eyes which might equal it and possibly in some respect surpass it To the perfection of the body was conjoined that of the mind and all the qualities which might render a Princess accomplished I know not whether it were through the propension which we naturally have to love things beautiful that I suffered my self to be taken or through my pride which perswaded me that I could love nothing more low than the Daughter of one of the greatest Kings of the world This presumption was ridiculous in me and though alwayes in all the other actions of my life I may possibly have managed it with reason enough yet it was never possible for me to vanquish it Howsoever it came to pass I became really amarous of the Princess of Ethiopia and to accuse my self the more I will say that all the appearances whereby I might condemn my love were not strong enough to oblige me to resist it and that I never opposed my reason against the birth of a passion whereof I could not probably expect any good success I believed I might love Candace without offending her and I thought my self of as great a value as a Prince although the conditions of a Prince was elevated above mine What tyranny said I ought to oblige me to offer violence to a gallant inclination and what consideration can hinder me from loving Candace if nothing but she alone seem amiable unto my eyes If I have not birth I have a courage worthy of her and if by my courage I cannot supply the default of my birth it is better to perish nobly rather than to abase my thoughts What know we for what the Gods reserve us and why may we not hope all things if we find our selves capable to undertake all things In this sort I flattered my self in my audacious thoughts and if at any time by the reflection which I made upon the state of my condition I desired to regulate and submit them to more reasonable terms I repented a moment after and blushed for shame to have offended as it seemed to me that courage by which my desire was to equal my self with the greatest All the Ladies attending upon the Princess whom I might regard with more equality and amongst whom there were some who might pass for very beautiful if the brightness of their Mistress had not defaced theirs were not capable of possessing my thoughts for one moment and if at any time I turned my eyes upon them it was with so much indifferency or
be put into our hands and open us the Gates at the end of the Combat The King of Armenia who out of the animosity which carried him on to this War rejected all sorts of Propositions seeing himself in a season wherein by reason of the cold and the incommodities of the winter which was very near at hand he should be shortly constrained to retire accepted this and although the report was long before spread even in our Army of the valour of the Medes who was to fight he made no difficulty to oppose one of his men against him and believed he should find as valiant as he in his own Troops Divers brave Armenians presented themselves to their King to obtain this employment and I cast my self at his feet among the first to demand it of him I know not whether he chose rather to hazard the life of a Stranger than of the principal of his own Subjects or indeed the good opinion he had of me rendred my prayer more efficacious than other mens but however it was I obtained this honour being preferred before all those that demanded it and I received a permission to go put my self into a condition to fight the valiant Mede in whom our Enemies had established part of their hopes I clad my self for this occasion in very fair Arms and then it was that I began to carry these Lions which my Fortune hath rendred famous enough and which have appeared since in an hundred Combats wherein Victory never abandoned them I will not detain you with the particular relation of this Action having so many of greater importance to recount unto you that I can only pass over this very lighty All the conditions being agreed upon and the day come I appeared upon the Field assigned in view of the two Kings and both Armies and after the accustomed Ceremonies I fought with the Mede and by great good Fortune made him tumble dead almost with the first blows I gave him This action was glorious and solemn enough to tickle my ambitious desires and I received praises for it from the King and all our Troops wherein a soul like mine might find its entire recompence The King that very day gave the City which I had gained for him by this Combate and protested publickly that there was no employment in his Kingdom superior to me to which I might not lawfully aspire A few daies after by the rigour of the season the Armies were forced to leave the Field and the King of Armenia having put good Garrisons in the places which he had taken retired into his own Country and took me along with him to Artaxata where he kept his ordinary residence At my coming through the advantagious relation which was there made of me I was treated better without doubt than I deserved and instead of being looked upon as a poor stranger without name without estate and without any advantage of Fortune I was considered as a man rendred worthy in a few moneths of Commands which the best qualified persons could hardly obtain in a great number of years I had access at my first coming to all the Grandees of the Court and the King giving me ample Pensions to maintain my self in an honourable condition and according to the rank he would have me bear I was as well received both among the Courtiers and the Ladies as persons of greater dignity than my self I was likewise well entertained and particularly caressed by all the Royal Family and through my ambitious humour the caresses of these persons made me despise all others and did so powerfully fix me that I hardly cast my eyes upon the rest The Royal Family was at this time composed of persons admirably handsome made the King though he appeared something unpolished in his aspect yet he had a high and lofty deportment but the Prince Ariobarzanes his brother and the two Princesses Arsinoe and Artemisa his Sisters were admirable Master-pieces of nature for their bodies minds and inclinations Ariobarzanes was sixteen years of age Arsinoe one year less and Artemisa one less than her Sister it would be certainly a difficult thing to find any thing in the world more beautiful than the young Prince and the two Princesses and all that which I had sometimes admired in the beauties of Candace seemed to be parallel'd by those of Arsinoe and to have very little advantage over those of Artemisa Other persons would possibly have bestowed longer time in passing a judgment upon these two Princesses and the difference was not so great that one could easily adjudge the superiority to either but whether it were by my inclination or by the truth that I remained convinced I did not doubt to give the preference to Arsinoe and to judge her in all things more amiable than her Sister Arsinoe was so composed that the eyes of Envy it self could find nothing to carp at in the regularity of the lineaments of her Visage nor in all the structure of her whole person her eyes black but full of the quickest fire wherewith hearts are enflamed had in their motion and conduct something so sweet and so imperious both together that they cast but few regards without effect and it was hard to defend ones self against their powers if one were not fortified by some extraordinary assistance Their blackness with that of her hair being of the same colour was made remarkable by a complexion to which it gave a lustre which nevertheless had no need of its assistance to dazle the eyes of the Beholders and to carry away the pre-eminence from all the purest whites that nature ever produced her mouth her neck her proportion and all her parts were compleat even to the height of perfection but the beauties of her mind were yet much more perfect then those of her body and if chastity and modesty were depainted in her face they were likewise so deeply engraved in her heart and with them vertue was established in her soul with so fair an Empire that according to the judgment I could make of it at that time by appearances and not by occasions all the most powerful considerations would have been too feeble to sway her spirit from the least rule of her duty All her discourses were accompanied by a reasoning infinitely above her age and although her courage was sublime above her Sex yet it was elevated without pride and full of a generous goodness In fine she was amiable in all parts and you will easily perceive by the following part of my discourse that I praise her now without passion and without any other interest than what I have in the truth I had at this time through despight my youth absence and warlike employments to which I entirely gave my self banished Candace from my heart and if at any time she presented her self there she found a resistance in my resentments which did not permit her to recover there the Empire which sometimes she had possessed Impressions are
pursue with fire and sword the hateful bloud of those who contributed to the death of King Artibasus At this time by the great advantages we gained Media began to totter and Tigranes was really in great danger to see himself entirely ruined if the Gods had not sent him succour The King of Cilicia his ally and the Prince Philadelph his Son came with a puissant army to his assistance and revived his almost dying hopes By so great a supply the face of things began to be changed and we having to deal with a power greater than our own we proceeded with more caution than before and thought now upon defending our selves whereas before all our thoughts were only bent upon assaulting the Enemy Several bettels were fought the success whereof was doubtful wherein the advantage inclined sometimes to the one sometimes to the other party but in the last wherein I was for the King of Armenia's service the glory was intirely mine which not withstanding was counterballanced with one of the most sensible displeasures that ever I received in my life Ariston and Theomedes two Nephews of the King of Cilicia being departed from their Camp with 2000 Horse and 5 or 6000 Foot to go and surprize a small place which we had taken the year before and the King of Armenia having intelligence of their march and the condition they were in thought good that with a number of men little different from theirs I should go and encounter them and fight them as I should find occasion I departed I marched with great diligence and met the enemies before they were arrived at the place which they went to surprize The fight began and was maintained doubtful a long time but at length the victory fell to us and it fell to us so entire that almost all the Souldiers of the enemy were cut in pieces and the two chief Commanders being preserved alive in the battel by the care I took of their safety remained my prisoners I comforted them for their disgrace I promised them all manner of good usage and I returned from thence with my troop being victorious and laden with spoils to the King of Armenia he made me a wel-come which sufficiently testified what notice he took of this action and expressed an excessive joy for my good success and the taking of the two Cilician Princes whom he presently put under a strict guard and employed almost all the rest of this day in praising and caressing me Upon the morrow I no sooner appeared before him but he fell again upon my praises and in terms full of Elogies extolled in the presence of the Principal Commanders this last action promising me for it excessive recompence I then took my time for a request which I had to make and after that I had answered the praises he gave me with as much modesty as I possibly could Sir said I to him this slight action whereupon your Majesty sets so high an esteem is too well recompensed by the goodness you shew in accepting of it but if your Majesty judges me worthy to obtain any thing as a reward of this petty service I request of you the liberty of the two chief Commanders of the enemy which I brought prisoners and which yielded themselves to me upon the hope I gave them of being treated conformable to their condition Britomarus replyed the King to me with an action which expressed the little intention he had to grant me what I had desired of him your services are worthy without doubt of a greater recompense than what you desire of me and I shall requite you for them in such a manner that you shall have no reason to judge me ungrateful but I cannot grant you this you demand of me without violating an oath which all humane considerations are not capable to make me infringe and I do not so much esteem the other fruits of your victory and all the progress we have in the beginning of this Campania as I do the means I have to let the King of Cilicia know by the present I will send him of his two Kinsmen's heads after what manner I mean to make war with him and how ill advised he hath been to bear arms against a Prince which never offended him These cruel words of Artaxus made me tremble and beholding him with some horror What Sir said I to him can you find in your heart to put to death two prisoners of war so highly descended as Ariston and Theomedes And though I should not request their lives of you for all the services I have rendred you can you take them away from Princes escaped from the heat of the battel taken with their Swords in their hand in a just war and which never did you any particular offence The King did not approve of the liberty of my speech and answered me with a more serious countenance than before I shall be able to do it without doubt and in revenge of my Father I shall yet do things which may seem to you more cruel which nevertheless pass for just in my lawful resentments but do not alarm your self any more at it and be not so earnest for a thing wherein you have so little interest Have I but little interest in t it Sir replyed I Ah! I have interest in it as in the defence of my own life as in the conservation of my own honour and when either of them shall be in the extremity of danger I shall not be more interessed It is by my means that you have these prisoners in your power it was to me they rendred themselves whilest yet they had their arms in their hands whereby they might have found either safety or a glorious death and I cannot see them come to be put to death upon my parole without exposing my self with them to the greatest cruelty that your resentment prepares for them you forget your self said Artaxus to me bending his brows and possible it would be better for you to contain your self within the bounds of respect and not fly out in this manner for enemies which must and shall Perish though all the world should joyn their solicitations with yours for their safety And I will perish with them replyed I so transported that I had hardly any understanding left to consider his dignity and I cannot part with my life with less regret than in sacrificing it to my word and compassion for these men and the displeasure to see my services so ungratefully acknowledged you have received them from my inclination and not from my duty and it is by my own will only that I am engaged to give you that respect you require of me which by my birth you cannot exact of a man that was not born your subject The choler of the King of Armenia was mightily moved at these words and looking upon me with eyes sparkling with indignation Insolent said he to me it is the rank whereunto by an excess of favour I have
advanced thee that puts thee besides the knowledge of thy self but know that I shall find ways to humble thee as much as I have unjustly advanced thee and that I shall lay thee so low if thou dost not cease from provoking me that possibly thou shalt serve for an example to those whom immoderate presumption makes to transgress the limits which their birth hath prescribed them Ending these words full of disdain and outrage to an heart like mine he turned another way without giving me time to reply I should have done it for all that how Tragical soever the reply would have been to me if Artamenes had not opposed it and with divers others of my friends which had been present at this conversation had he not led me to my Tent so inflamed with choler and transported that I was hardly capable of suffering the violence they did me with any moderation When I was in my Tent and that I had made a reflection of some few moments upon my adventure and the unworthy usage I received turning my self to Artamenes and those that were with him My friends said I to them behold me subjected to more outrage and indignity than I ought to expect from my services and besides the injurious words wherewith Artaxus had a mind to humble me I see my self by the death of these two unfortunate men which he is about to sacrifice to his cruelty exposed to the most sensible displeasure that my soul is capable to receive I do little esteem the words and disdain of Artaxus upon whom I never had any design to bottome my Fortune Henceforward the favours of a King is he is shall be less dear and glorious to me and I dis-esteem them too much to purchase them with the least compliance or to receive them when they shall be offered me but in things wherein my honour is engaged I will spend my blood to the last drop to defend it and though I should infallibly lose my life in this design I will leave nothing unattempted to save the two Cilicians whom I have imprudently delivered up to his cruelty All those that heard my words could not condemn my resolution but they saw me in no capacity to execute it and I was able to do it so little alone against Artaxus that all I could devise in this design proved but ridiculous propositions Artamenes endeavoured to represent so much to me and appeared interessed in my displeasure as much as a good and generous friend could be but he could not bend my spirit to an unworthy and base complyance with the intentions of a cruel ingrateful King and I could not conceal from him that I was resolved to arm a party of the Souldiery whose affections I might conceive I had gained and go and free the Prisoners by force from the place where they were detained or of I could not find sufficient courage and affection in the hearts of the Souldiers for so bold an execution I would go and make my self be killed in defence of these infortunate men whose death in my opinion ought eternally to be objected to me as a reproach Artamenes wanted no reasons to oppose against this resolution neither was he forgetful of them but our dispute was as unprofitable as any design and presently after I had quitted Artaxus this cruel man or rather monster of cruelty whether it were that his spirit was more exasperated by the resistance I made against his will or that he feared lest I should attempt and execute something for the safety of the prisoners sent the Executioners who beheaded them in Prison without any further delay The memory hereof makes me tremble as well for the compassion I had of the destinies of these two men and the horrour I have had all my life of cruel actions as for the reproach I might receive from my own conscience though I was innocent for having contributed to their destruction after I had promised them life and usage conformable to their condition Artamenes and the rest of my friends were still in my Tent when I received this news and I confess they saw me break out into discourses and actions wherein there appeared no remainder of reason which made them fear some Tragical event from the grief and choler which transported me In these first emotions I thought and threatned no less than to revenge the blood of those poor wretches upon the person of Artaxus from whose cruelty the remembrance of my services could not free them and if those which were present at these menaces had not been my real Friends upon the least intelligence given to Artaxus I had undoubtedly found the death I despised Artamenes would not abandon me and guarded me all that day as if I had been a mad man doing all he possibly could to quiet my spirit from these violences by his discourses indeed he made me abate the rashness of them and put me into more moderate terms than before but for all our friendship he did in vain oppose the resolution I had taken to quit the service of Artaxus for ever and to go over to the Enemy it the remembrance of the mischief I had done them would permit me to hope for a reception there I will sooner suffer a thousand deaths said I than continue any longer in the service of this Barbarian this blood-thirsty Tigre whom a man cannot serve without rendring himself a complice of his cruelties this ungrateful Prince who requites mens services with disdain rage and unworthy usage The only cause which might make me own his interests ought not any longer to engage me Arsinoe disdains me as much as her Brother and if I cannot cease from loving her yet I ought to cease from seeing and desiring to please her and to seek a cure far from her which possibly I may find in an eternal absence and in other employments than in suffering unprofitably at her feet Although in the complaints which I made against Artaxus I mingled some too against Arsinoe yet I know well how to put a difference between them and I did not confound the ingratitude and inhumanity of the Brother with the severity of the Sister who was really born with all the great qualities which might render a Princess accomplished I was not cured of my passion by the usage she had shown me but I was desirous to be cured and I did so confirm my self by the injuries which I received of her Brother that I not only desired but conceived hope to find repose in my mind by separating my self both from Artaxus and Arsinoe for ever My destinies whereby I was called to something more important than these beginnings of my life which I have related unto you gave birth to this design and it was by my destinies that I was disengaged from Artaxus and Arsinoe to be conducted into places where fortune was as advantageously serviceable to me as I could desire where I found honours and dignities above my
commanded the greatest part of my Troops this young Warrior who in an age scarcely distinguishable from infancy might already be really accounted the most valiant that ever wore a Sword quitted my service and to my misfortune carried elsewhere the effects of an admirable valour which would have been very necessary for me against the re-inforcement of my Enemies The course of my good successes was stopt and my Enemies being stronger than I had some advantages which made me lose all that I had gained in Media and after some Combats wherein Fortune was not very favourable unto me I was constrained to retire upon my frontire where I made preparations for the last decision of our quarrel when Augustus employed his authority to appease our differences and sent Mecenas and Domitius with order not to depart from our Countries before they had concluded a peace between us I had that repugnance against it that you know of and the Kings my Enemies bing exasperated by the death of some of their near Relations whom I had sacrificed to the Ghost of Artibasus had no more disposition to it than my self But we must needs yield to the will of Caesar and when it was declared on his part that he would arm in favour of him who submitted first against him who made most resistance neither of us was bold enough to oppose it any longer and having signed the Articles which Mecenas and Domitius presented to us we both of us laid down arms and contented our selves to keep our animosity in our breasts without making it appear any more I retired to Artaxata whither a little after Caesar whether it were that he desired to have them as hostages of the treaty we had made or that from the relation he had heard made of them he had conceived a desire to see them and have them with him sent to demand of me the Prince Ariobarzanes my Brother and the Princess Arsinoe my Sister to have them brought up at Rome to frame in them inclinations to the Roman party and to treat them like divers Sous and Daughters of the Kings his Friends and Allies which were brought up with him and the Empress Livia This effect either of the amity of distrust or Caesar troubled me at first and yet the pretence was so fair that I could not handsomly refuse that which he demanded and the Prince and Princess at the first proposition which was made to them of it having expressed no unwillingness to the Voyage I caused a magnificent equipage to be prepared for them and sent them from Artaxata they crossed a part of Armenia and coasted Licia and Pamphilia by Land and afterwards they embarqued upon the Egean Sea but they embarqued in an unlucky hour and a few days after by means of a terrible tempest they suffered a cruel shipwrack and lost under the Waves their lives which were worthy of a better destiny You may well believe that an accident so deplorable the relation of blood only might produce in me very sensible displeasures but besides this natural resentment Ariobarzanes and Arsinoe were two persons so uncommon and so accomplished in the perfection of mind and body that it would have been hard for any to have known them without shedding abundance of tears for their death The Gods took out of the world all that was great and amiable in our family and depriving me of a Brother and a Sister worthy of the esteem and the affection of the whole world they have left me only one Sister worthy of the general scorn a Sister which by her baseness and infidelity hath stained with a shameful blot the illustrious blood from whence she is descended and hath raised me all these troubles of spirit for which I have abandoned my Kingdom and by the means whereof I find my self in a strange condition Time had now given some consolation to the grief which I had suffered for the sad shipwrack of half our family and I believe in peace though against my will at a time when I might have ruined Tigranes by joyning with the King of Parthia his enemy against whom he made War with successes wherein Fortune diversly sported her self if I had not been hindred by the authority of Augustus who would never permit me to break the peace which he had made me make with the Medians nor to give my assistance to the Parthians the cruel Enemies of the Roman name with whom he could not endure that his friends should have any alliance I passed my life I say in this forced tranquility when to overthrow my repose and blast the honour of our Royal house Alexander the Son of Anthony and Cleopatra a worthy object of my lawful vengeance came unknown to my Court with a design to give me yet more subjects of hatred than those I had against him and his for the cruel death of the King my Father Tyridates interrupted the King of Armenia in this part of his discourse Alexander the Son of Anthony said he to him who was believed to be lost at that time when I was at Rome or at least there was no news of him was in Armenia then He was there but too fatally replyed Artaxus and Fortune which in appearance presented him to me to satisfie my just resentments served her self with him to render them more violent and to carry on my displeasure to the last extremities I know you will condemn my rigour in the design I had to render what I ought to the Manes of Artibasus and the Oath I had made but that shall not hinder me from relating to you the naked truth nor from expecting from you that you should approve part of that I would have done out of a sense of pity or paternal love and honour it self too much interessed in the bloody injury which he had received After these words he recounted to him all that had passed at Artaxata after he had known Alexander there the taking of that Prince his cruel imprisonment the solicitations of Artemisa for his safety the extremity of danger whereunto he arrived and in fine all that which Alexander himself related to Caesario till his departure from Armenia and the carrying away of Artemisa Tyridates did not hear this relation without great pain though it was made by a person interessed who did partly sweeten the greatest strangness of his actions by the excuses he made for them and besides that he naturally detested cruelty the friendship he had contracted with Coriolanus and the acquaintance he had at Rome with the Princess Cleopatra Prince Ptolomee and the greatest part of young Alexander's kindred put him into great fear for him in the recital of the dangers he had run and made him very averse from the cruelty of Artaxus The impatience he had to hearken to him sufficiently appeared in his countenance but when he saw Alexander escape from the rage of his Enemy he composed himself and all the complacence which probably he ought to have
for Artaxus could not hinder him from discovering some part of his thoughts I am sorry said he to him that I am constrained to displease you by the confession I am about to make and I profess that if your interests do forbid me to hear of the carrying away of the Princess your Sister with joy I cannot afflict my self with you to see Alexander escape from the punishment you had prepared for him He was altogether innocent of your displeasures and the Gods which are interessed in his protection would not permit that a life free from any crime should suffer the punishment which they themselves had inflicted upon the culpable Alexander replyed Artaxus was not innocent in my thoughts after the Oath I had made seeing he was the Son of Cleopatra neither was he so in effect seeing he came into my dominions with designs whereof he hath made one part appear and would have put the other in execution if Heaven which watches for the preservation of Kings had not prevented the effects by the knowledge which it gave me of my disguised enemy However it be mark the sequel and admire at the capriciousness of my fortune in the relation I am about to make you All expression would be too weak to make you comprehend the displeasure I resented by the double injury I received in the flight of Alexander and Artemisa Theogenes the companion of the traitorous Sarpedon was the first that received the punishment either of his weakness in suffering himself to be abused or of his infidelity in consenting to their escape and few of all those that were apparently suspected escaped the justice which I caused to be executed upon them These testimonies of my grief were publick but the secret effects which it produced in my heart were yet more contrary to my repose and possibly no mind was ever agitated with more violence than mine Whilst those whom I sent in pursuit of my two fugitives ranged up and down the Country in vain I was tormented with despight which had almost carried me to extremities against my self and I had not one moments sleep but what was interrupted by my cruel disquiets What said I in Artaxata in my prisons upon the point of being sacrificed to my just vengeance doth the Son of Cleopatra alone disarmed without the assistance of any of his Friends not only escape my Justice and deprive me of the pleasure and the glory of having rendred to my Father's Ghost part of what was due to it but together with his life he robs me of my onely Sister and aggravates the displeasures which we have received from his race by the last outrage he doth to ours Is it not enough for this audacious Enemy to be born of the cruel murtherers of my Father but that he must needs come into my Dominions to redouble my resentments by the only injury he could do me and that he must have good success in so bold a design at the instant that his neck was stretched out under the axe and when I thought that all the power of man was not capable of guarding him from it But O Gods that which I am most sensible of is that my own relations contribute to my grief and Heaven in causing the rest of my family to perish hath left me a Sister onely to make her serve as an instrument to my shame by her own and it must needs be that in the Royal house of Armenia there must be found a Princess base enough to abandon the interests of her blood and to abandon her self to the Son of the executioners of her Father Ah! at least if this perfidious Ariadne might find in the person of her suborner an unfaithful Theseus by whom Heaven might revenge me of her Treason I should receive no small consolation if the young deceiver should leave her exposed in some desart and savage Isle or rather O ye Gods that by your indignation they might both perish in the waves how would my grief be eased and how heartily would I forgive fortune part of the injuries that she hath done me But O unworthy as I am said I to my self a little after why do I expect from my Enemies why do I look for that from the Destinies which are against me that which I ought to seek for and find in my self alone It is Artaxus himself who is called to carve out his own revenge it is by Artaxus himself that it must be executed he must pursue himself both his unfaithful Sister and the young Seducer and go kill them both in those places where they have sought their refuges For by the memory of this affront the repose of his life will be eternally crossed and he cannot pass it either with honour or pleasure as long as his Enemies triumph over him so many ways whilest he hath made no attempt to satisfie himself This thought did not lightly pass out of my mind it fixed it self there so strongly that at last I resolved upon it and after I had considered that I could receive no reparation from Augustus when I should make my complaints but what would come too late I took a firm resolution to pursue after my Enemies my self I pondered a long time with much irresolution upon the course I should take at first I would have armed all my forces but I knew not whither to conduct them and not doubting but Alexander and Artemisa were retired to Augustus I found my self too weak to pluck them thence by open force and I could not with any likelihood so much as suffer it to be propounded At last after I had sufficiently consulted I pitched upon a course somewhat extravagant but yet it seemed more agreeable to my mind and I resolved to part from Armenia unknown and with such an Equipage as might not render me suspected to seek out the Court of Augustus who made his Progress through Asia and if I could there meet with my fugitives as I did not doubt but I should I determined to destroy them both You will tell me that I must needs be animated with a very violent passion that could carry me to such extremities to abandon a Kingdom wherein by my absence great troubles might be raised to expose my self to vexations and dangers wherein I might probably find the death which I went to inflict upon others I will confess to you that I was yet more passionate and that to content my resentments I was capable of stronger resolutions At last I confirmed my self and in the space of one single day putting my most important affairs in some order as much as my passion would permit me I parted from Artaxata only with twenty horse carrying with me but this small number of my Servants which I had chosen out among the most affectionate and the most daring In this equipage after I was gone out of Armenia I crossed a part of Cilicia where I kept my self very private not being ignorant that by reason
in all respects in spight of the displeasures I had received from him I had no unwillingness to become his friend after he expressed a desire of it and requested it with so good a grace In â—ffect after this day we began to converse together not only as two persons which had no quarrel to each other but as two men which had a particular esteem of each other Drusus accosted Julia no more but only to render her that which was due to Caesar's daughter without any other interest and he never expressed either by discourse or action that any thing of his passion was yet remaining Livia being extraordinarily animated against Julia and losing the hope of being more closely allyed to Augustus confirmed her son in his resolution and counselled him to seek by other ways a fortune which could not escape his birth and good qualities At this time I lived in some repose with Julia receiving from her all manner of proofs of her good will and expecting from Caesar within a few dayes the conclusion which should finally remedy my passion The Princess Cleopatra of whom I am obliged to speak to you had likewise time to take breath after the persecutions under which she had so much suffered and though she were still exposed to the attempts of Tyberius she was no longer affraid of them seeing they were no longer upheld by a tyrannical authority and Caesar keeping himself exactly to the Oath which he had made permitted Tyberius only to act by his services without offering any violence to the inclinations of Cleopatra It was not but that he caused her to be sollicited in favour of his Wife's Son and offered her such advantageous conditions in espousing him as might content the highest ambition but it was always by ways of sweetness without employing his authority in it and by these means as well as by the former he wrought so little effect upon the spirit of this constant Princess that Tyberius despairing to conquer her resolved to quit Rome with an intention as it was reported to go seek out Coriolanus in Africa and call him to an account not only as an obstacle to his felicity as far off as he was but also for the wound he had given him by which he was reduced to the extremity of his life and for which he was engaged in honour to require satisfaction He was upon the point of departure and I in the condition and posture I told you of when the news came to Rome of the great Victories which Coriolanus had obtained in Africa 'T was known that after he had vanquished all Volusius his Lieutenants in divers Battels he had at length in the last totally defeated him and taken Volusius himself prisoner that the two Mauritania's had generally submitted to his arms and that nothing resisted him in his Fathers Dominions whereof he was then the peaceable possessor Whatsoever interest I took in the Emperor's affairs the amity I bare to Coriolanus was more strong and though I was obliged to conceal part of my thoughts that I might not totally incense the mind of Augustus against me I felt a joy for the good success of mv friend equal at least to what I could be sensible of for mine own I expressed it to Cleopatra continually and that generous Princess though for the conquest of a Crown she could not more esteem of a Prince whom she loved for the onely qualities of his person yet she rejoyced in the part she took in his glory and we entertained each other with our mutual satisfaction when we received the knowledge of the little cause we had to interess our selves in the good fortunes of that unfaithful Prince and that by the black treason which he committed against each of us he obliged us to change our former affections into great resentments and a violent hatred against him You are about to understand Tyridates the cause of this change which hath amazed you and as I pass to the last effects of the inconstancy of Julia I will likewise relate to you the black perfidiousness of this ungrateful friend whose defence you have undertaken without knowledge of him whom I cannot call to mind without afflicting my self with too just a grief HYMEN'S PRAELUDIA OR Love's Master-Piece PART V. LIB IV. ARGUMENT Marcellus heing about to continue his story is interrupted by the return of Arsanes from Judea who brings the sad news of Mariamne's death Tyridates is struck to the heart with it and commands Arsanes to give him the particulars He relates Salmoe's plots to abuse Herod's jealousie to Mariamne's ruine Mariamne inconsiderately reproaches Herod with the bloody orders he had left with Joseph and Sohemus to kill her if he miscarried This heightens Herod's jealousie which is blown into a flame by Salmone's malice He imprisons Mariamne and sends Judges to examine her She rejects him which puts him into a rage Philon and Sohemus are put to the torture who confess something concerning Tyridates Herod by Salome's instigation gives order to put Mariamne to death which is immediately executed Mariamne dyes with an unexampled constancy Arsanes having finished his story Tyridates expires and fulfills Thrasillus his prediction MArcellus would have gone on with this narration and Tyridates who out of the interest he took in the justification of Coriolanus had heard this passage with impatience disposed himself to great attention when he saw a man come into his chamber by the sight of whom all the curiosity he had to hear strange adventures was dissipated and at whose sight he appeared all amazed and astonished This was Arsanes that faithful Servant to whom he had such grand obligations whom a month before he had sent into Judea to learn news of the Queen Mariamne Tyridates no sooner knew him but the trouble of his soul discovered it felt by divers signs and by this powerful seizure almost forgetting the presence of Marcellus and raising himself up to Arsanes Ah! Arsanes cryed he what news do you bring me Arsanes who possibly upon the way was prepared to disguise to his Master the truth of the news he had heard being touched at his sight with an extraordinary tenderness had not constancy enough to hold the resolution he had taken and instead of making him the answer which he had premeditated to no purpose by a silence full of trouble and confusion and a visage full of the deepest characters of sorrow he made him comprehend that he had none but bad news to tell him yet he would have forced himself to dissemble some part of it and opened his mouth twice to speak against his thoughts but by the constraint which he would have laid upon himself his disorder was redoubled and not finding courage enough to perform what in vain he had attempted he let fall some tears from his eyes which he held fixed upon the ground and continued mute with the countenance of a Man forlorn This was speech enough to make himself be understood by
longer nor constrain an Husband who loves thee too well to abandon thee to the rigours of Justice which will bring us both to our graves He pronounced these words with a very terrible gesture but the Queen was not affrighted at it but looking upon him with more disdain than before Neither thy threats said she nor thy caresses shall ever move me and thy threatnings are more dear to me than the protestations of thy love thou dost more naturally act this latter part than the former and there is no necessity for thee to constrain thy self for a person to whom the death which she expects from thy cruelty will be a thousand times more pleasing than all the proofs of thy affections Thou shalt dye then since 't is thy will cryed Herod full of fury and transport thou shalt dye Woman unworthy of the care I took of thy safety unworthy of my love and now devoted to the justice of a King and an Husband who hath been injured in the most sensible part I was too weak to interess my self in the conservation of thy life but now thou hast nothing to ground any hope of it upon but only thy justification and the evident proofs of thy innocence My friends continued he turning himself towards them to whom he had given Commission to be her Judges perform now your charge with all liberty and do not any longer look upon this woman as the spouse of Your King but as a woman which hath base and shamefully violated her duty to the Law of God her own honour and her Husbands love Having spoken these words he went out of the Chamber so terrible that he made all he met in his passage tremble for fear Only Mariamne seemed little moved at it and when the Judges according to Herod's last command would have examined her she did not vouchsafe to open her mouth but only to pray them to be gone and leave her in quiet Herod was no sooner returned to his lodgings but he was visited by Salome and Pheroras and he had no sooner told them that which he called the last effect of his weakness and the last proofs he had received of Mariamnes inflexibility but the revengeful Salome and Pheroras being interessed by the envy they had alwayes born to the authority of Mariamne after they had a long time blamed him for the action he had lately done as ill-beseeâ—ing his dignity and being contrary to all the laws of prudence they represented to him as vehemently as they could that he ought no longer to be negligent and that if he left so obstinate an enemy any longer in the World she would infallibly attempt against his life what she had already attempted and possibly executed against his honour Herod drunk with rage gave ear to them but too patiently and when he had understood that the Queen had refused to answer those who had the charge to examine her and that they were gone out of the prison without getting one word from her by the pernicious Counsel of Salome he commanded to put Sohemus and the Eunuch Philon to the torture with order to omit no kind of torment to draw out of their mouths a confession capable to condemn the Queen with some form of Justice Joseph in regard of his birth was not exposed to the rack but Herod in an hasty rage sent executioners that strangled him the same day in the prison though he were not convinced of any crime but of having revealed his Masters secret to Mariamne This sudden execution would have amazed the Jews if they had not been used to see such actions proceed from their King every day and if they had not known too well that death was familiar with him upon the least motion of his passions Alexander moved at the misfortune of her Daughter as in all likelihood she ought to be used all means for justification but she had not Herod's ear which her enemies had possessed and by all the power she had over her Daughter she could never oblige her to take any care to verifie her innocence or to be reconciled to her Husband All the world believed that it had been but willing to have endeavoured it and as resolute as she was not to seek the friendship of this cruel man he would never possibly have consented to her death if the things which happened afterwards had not cruelly contributed unto it I am very unwilling Sir pursued Arsanes looking pitifully upon Tyridates to let you know the part you have in the death of this great Princess and if I could without disobeying you and without varying from the truth which you will understand from other mouths I would spare you the displeasure you may receive from thence Make an end said Tyridates with a deadly look my grief is not in a condition to receive any augmentation by the particularities of thy discourse and since Mariamne is gone out of the World the ways whereby she went cannot at all change my condition I will tell you then since it is your pleasure pursued Arsanes that before they put Sohemus and Eunuch Philon to the torment Salome gave express order to those who had the charge of the business to examine them and press them by torments upon what had passed betwixt the Queen and Prince Tyridates believing that if she could represent that a little to Herod 's memory she should carry him to any thing she would desire Her orders were punctually executed and the two men were fearfully tormented but whatsoever they made Sohemus suffer to make him reveal the favours which they pretended he had received of the Queen whereby he had been obliged to betray his Master's secret they could not draw one word out of his mouth but what tended to the glory and advantage of Mariamne He confessed that out of weakness or out of compassion which he had of the miseries of that Princess he had permitted himself so far as to discover to her the cruel orders which Herod had given him and that he never intended to put them in execution but when they questioned him concerning his or Joseph's love to the Queen he denyed it to them with so much constancy and answered them with so much candor and resolution that they easily judged both the Queen and himself to be innocent by his answers The Eunuch though inferior to him in strength of body and courage endured the first torments with resolution enough and having nothing to say of the Queen to this purpose but what served for her justification he kept to the naked truth whatsoever pains they made him suffer but at last being examined upon what had pass'd between the Queen and Tyridates and the torments being renewed with more cruelty than before upon the solicitation of Salome he was not able any longer to resist them but said to those which tormented him that if they would give him a little respite he would declare all he knew concerning that business The torments
to his love that I gave it way to encrease to conceive hopes and to form designs which offended Heaven and Nature But when with a little more Age I had gained a little more knowledge I observed in his affection and in his caresses some things that did not please me and I began to distinguish the transports of a violent passion from the effects of a pure and innocent amity I hardly began to doubt but that I received assurances from his own mouth and one day after he had continued a good part of it expressing his thoughts with more ardor than I desired at his hands finding my humor more repugnant to his kindnesses than he had observed before he took notice of my sighs What is the matter Sister said he and what have I done that can have diminished your affection as much as mine is augmented Is it because I love you too well that you cease to love me Brother said I I shall never cease to love you neither is it necessary that you should love me too much for all excesses are to be condemned and I shall alwayes content my self with a moderate and rational amity such as a good Brother may have for his Sister Ah! Olympia said he for the name of a Sister is cruel and cross to me how far is that moderate friendship which you require from that which I have for You and how contrary is Heaven to me in not causing you to be descended from the greatest stranger in the World rather than from the King our Father You wish me ill replyed I dissembling my thoughts and making as if I knew not his and if I were born of any other Parents I should not be your Sister That would be my greatest felicity answered Adallus the nearest of blood is the greatest obstacle that hinders the repose of my mind and the peservation of my Life Yes Olympia I love you I do not love you as a Brother with a weak and languishing amity but as an inflamed Lover and as a man so desperately in Love that if your pity doth abandon me I shall abandon my self to despair Be not amazed Olympia at this Declaration my passion is not without example even in our own family the laws of Love are stronger then those of blood and those that may retain common persons are not powerful enough to bridle Kings and oppose themselves to the repose and lives of Soveraign Princes upon a weak and slight consideration This discourse the understanding whereof I could no longer dissemble stroke me with an an unparallelled astonishment and troubled me in such a manner that for a long time I was not in a condition to reply You terrifie your self added the Prince seeing me in that confusion but if your affection doth but a little correspond with mine You will find nothing strange either in my discourse or my designs Juno was the Sister and the Wise of Jupiter amonstg our ancestors a like proximity did not hinder a more particular alliance and at this day amongst divers nations of the World brotherhood is no impediment to marriage To these words he added divers others upon the same subject at the close whereof having had time to compose my self a little and looking upon him with an eye that sufficiently signified the repugnance I had against his horrid propositions Adallus said I to him for the name of Brother in you is as little conformable to your discourse and designs as the name of Sister in me you fill me with so much shame and confusion that I know not how to behave my self one moment in your presence since I heard the words you pronounced but now Heaven Nature you and I are offended by them in such a manner that I would willingly give the best part of my blood that I could give my ears the lie and restore innocence to the most criminal thoughts that ever fell into the mind of a Prince Ah! Sir if you have any sense of vertue left oppose the motions of a horrid passion and do not dis-honour your life with a stain so black that all your blood can never wash out I find no shame replyed Adallus interrupting me in loving that which the Gods have made most amiable in the World and beauty in the person of my Sister is as powerful upon my Soul as in a Stranger Princesse we have so many examples of a passion like to mine that I shall but little fear the reproaches of men for a love which I feel no regret in my conscience which would be the first to accuse if there were any thing of criminal in it and in fine though it were a crime and a shame to love you I am carried to it by a power which I am not able to resist and engaged by a necessity which will force me to love you to my Grave without any consideration of reproaches or all the obstacles that you can oppose me with And for my part replyed I I am obliged by vertue and the nearness of blood which makes me look upon your intentions with horror and detesttation to fly from You henceforth as from a monster that would devour me and to offer violence to that amity which the relations of blood and reason had wrought in me to a Brother by the aversion I ought to have even to my Grave against Your detestable thoughts You may do it added the Prince and you may behold my death with the same eye that You look upon my passion and I do not know in which of these two actions you will be the less criminal either for having loved you brother or for having caused your Brothers death You will not dye said I when you shall render your self Master of this horrible passion which causes all the shame of your life and though you should dye upon that account I should be very innocent of a death to which I shall have contributed nothing but what I owe to my honour which is dearer to me than Your life or mine own I believe replyed Adallus that You will easily comfort Your self for it I shall comfort my self better for that answered I very briskly than I should do for the crime which you propose to me and though together with the loss of your Life I mustconsent to part with mine own I should more easily resolve upon itthan upon a detestable action the only proposition whereof makes me to tremble I did not believe replyed he I should have found you of so bad a nature possibly time may alter it and make you to consider that it is not so bad a crime as you imagine to throw a Brother and a lover into his Grave I must part with my life for my Brother said I I will do it without repugnance but as for a Lover in the person of a Brother I will avoid him as long as I live if it be possible as my most dangerous Enemy We had more discourse besides by which with as much
Bizantium and he had handsome parts enough to give his people good hopes of his government he is comely of his person naturally endued with spirit and courage and if that irrational love and the effect it hath produced had not laid a blot upon his life that he will never be able to wipe off he would not be the least considerable amongst the Kings who at this day wear a Crown He began his government with the ordinary forms he rendred suneral honours to the King our Father with a great deal of magnificence and bestowed divers dayes about affairs of State and the establishment of his dignity giving me time to lament the death of my Father without interrupting me in that sad exercise by his persecutions And truly he made me conceive some hope that I might for the future be exempted from them and that the Kings last words oâ— the change of his condition had produced this effect upon his Spirit But I saw my self cruelly deceived in this hope and whereas before I had only the pursuites of a Brother to suffer who had no command over me I found my self subjected to the power of a King who demanded that of me with authority which before he had sought by the wayes of love and sweetness Yet the first marks he gave me of the continuation of his love were upon the former terms and he was minded to make use of the civilities of a Lover before he had recourse to the power of a Tyrant I will not tell you Ladies for my narration would be of too excessive a length all the amorous discourses that he made me divers months whereby he thought to change my mind and make me consent to marriage nor the answers I made him at that time to make him comprehend the foulness of the crime which he proposed and to imprint in his heart the shame of an action that would be detested by all the world He alledged to me instead of all reasons that Kings were not subject to the Laws they made themselves and that they governed themselves by other Maxims than they did their people At last having observed that the wayes of sweetness were to no purpose and that instead of expressing any desire to comply with his intentions I conceived every day more horror against his design he resolved to employ his authority and declared to me that seeing neither as a Brother nor as a a Lover he was able to move me either to love or pity nor make me consent to a thing whereupon the preservation of his life depended he was constrained to act as a King in his dominions and to seek his own safety by that power which the Gods and his own birth hath bestowed upon him At this cruel declaration I continued rather dead than alive and looking upon him with eyes that signified my grief and just resentment what Sir said I will you make use of Your authority to force your Sister to an action which will draw upon you the indignation of Heaven and the detestation of the whole World will you not consider that I am tyed to you by such a nearness of blood that you cannot desire any greater alliance with me without rendring Your self abominable And will you not call to mind that I am descended from too noble a blood as well as you to be exposed to that violence which is not practised against the meanest Subjects If I had any other wayes repyed Adallus to perswade you I should not have recourse to those you force me to make use of and you know your self that I have forgot nothing which was probably capable to prevail with you but in the extremity whereunto you have reduced me by the hardness of your heart either I must needs die or serve my self with the power which I have received from Heaven to serve my self Ah Sir replyed I transported with displeasure you will not die but this unfortunate creature which hath so unluckily troubled your repose and by her beauty such as it is reduces you to the necessity of committing horrible crimes will die without doubt if other means be wanting to deliver her from that authority with which you threaten her 'T was in you that I hoped to find protection against any forreign power but since the Gods permit that in the person of a Brother I find a persecutor and a cruel Enemy they leave me those wayes to free my self that are open to all the world The King was a little touched at these words but he was not a jot staggered in his resolution and looking upon me with an eye divided between submission and authority You have no reason said he to throw your self into despair for these testimonies of my love which any other person but your self possibly would not call persecution I think You cannot hope to marrie a Prince with whom Your condition would be better or more sublime than with me and as for the crime which You fear if there be any it will lye all upon me who cause You to do a thing contrary to Your incilnations by the power which I have in my Dominions This will be Your justification before the people and Your defence against the reproaches of Your Conscience which You fear I will not proceed to extremities whatsoever impatience I suffer from my love before I have once more tried the ways wherewith I have hitherto served my self and by which I hope I shall mollifie and change Your mind but when I have practised them a while to as little purpose as I have formerly done do not think it strange Sister that for the preservation of my life I make use of all my rights to work You to a thing which You ought willingly to embrace He left me half dead with grief at these cruel words and the tears which he saw in my eyes at our parting were not capable to move him to divert him from his cruel intentions I abandoned my self to sorrow all the rest of that day and for divers others and not being able to digest this violence from that person in the world from whom I ought to have feared it least I wanted but a little of throwing my self into Tragical resolutions What said I shall the Daughter of a King be used with such tyranny as is not exercised upon the vilest persons and shall that Brother whose power ought to secure her from violence and oppression be the person by whom she shall see her self exposed to outrage and indignity shall Olympia in whom the Gods have implanted some love to Vertue and inclinations averse from vice and thoughts though never so little criminal suffer her self by her weakness to be exposed to publick shame and the reproach of the whole World Ah! no Adallus no Tyrant for the name of a Brother is not due to thee because of the outragious violence which thou committest against a Sister who possibly was not unworthy of her birth neither dost thou deserve the
desires and vertuous inclinations About this time as you know the King my Brother prompted by a very just desire of revenge made war upon the King of the Medes your Allie and in the first year he had some advantages which made him hope the absolute ruine of his enemies 'T is true by what we could understand he dishonoured them by his crueltie and the Gods likewise to punish him for it stopt the course of his good fortune by the succours you gave Tygranes which changed his fortune and forced him to be gone out of the Dominions of your Allies 'T was at that time that he committed that action which hath been so much condemned by all vertuous persons to cut the throats of two Princes of your bloud prisoners in a just war and against whom he could have no lawful resentment This was that which made him lose the valiant Britomarus whose valour had been so favourable to him in the first year of the war and upon the relation which was made me of the generous quarrel he had with the King for the safetie of his prisoners what cause soever I had otherwise to blame the presumption of that young warrior I could not but have his vertue and greatness of courage in admiration and that esteem made me forget some part of the resentment I had against him Ariobarzanes who by the Kings command continued at Artaxata as well because of his Youth which as yet was not capable of bearing arms as to keep the Armenians in obedience whilst the King made war in forreign Countries wept for regret and grief at the relation of this crueltie and made all those judge who saw him at that time that his inclinations would be very different from those of the King his Brother I enlarge my self particularly upon this action of Artaxus because it was upon this account that the hatred of the King your Father was so violently exasperated both against him and his and it was upon the resentment of this action that he made an oath never to pardon any person of the bloud or Alliance of Artaxus whom fortune should cause to fall into his hands and it was upon this knowledge and out of the fear of this choler that I obstinately resolved upon so long a disguise in Cilicia You know better than I what were the last successes of that War and how at last it was ended by Augustus's authority who by the terror of his power made these Kings who were cruelly bent to ruine each other to lay down their arms and forced them to peace when the weakness of them both might sufficiently have disposed them to it if their hatred had not maintained the war rather than their forces 'T is true said Philadelph interrupting the Princesses discourse that the King my Father retired with so much grief and resentment against Artaxus for the death of Ariston and Theomedes his Nephews that to revenge himself of that cruelty there was no cruelty but he would have exercised and I believe if fortune had made you your self fall into his hands with this miraculous beauty and these divine graces which might have disarmed the rage of a hunger-starved Tygre he would have made you to have felt the effects of his indignation without any respect Do not think it strange then if I was afraid of him replied Arsinoe and do me the favour to believe still that the consideration of my life was not the cause of the greatest fears and I had not thought it due to my honour which in his indignation an implacable enemy might possibly have exposed to ignominy to take the more severe revenge upon Artaxus's cruelty I should not possibly have had this fear of a man born of a Royal bloud and of one that was your Father if it had not been confirmed in my Spirit by the knowledge he gave me of it as you shall understand in the sequel of my discourse You know that a little while after this forced peace Augustus sent to demand Ariobarzanes and my self to be brought up at Rome near him with divers Kings Children which were educated there in the same manner and were kept by Augustus near himself either to testifie his affection to their Parents or to have a greater assurance of their fidelity by means of those hostage Artaxus knew not presently what to judge of it but he durst not disobey Augustus's will of which in all probability this was an obliging effect on his part and having communicated to us the order which he had received he found us not unwilling to go the voyages Ariobarzanes being naturally amorous of great things joyfully received the proposition which was made him of going to that stately City Mistris of the greatest part of the Universe to pass some years in that pompous Court where almost all the Kings in the world came to pay their homage and besides he had small inclination to the severe dealings of Artaxus but being of a sweet and pitiful disposition he could not live without repugnance with a man so cruel and in exorable towards those who had offended him These were the reasons which obliged Ariobarzanes willingly to undertake the voyage to Rome and his good will easily gained mine without him I should hardly have ventured upon this enterprise but ever since we were little ones there was contracted so near an amitie between us that we could hardly live one without the other and I did more easily resolve to go all the world over with Ariobarzanes who was as dear to me as my self than to stay at Artaxata without him It would be to no purpose to relate to you the preparations for our Voyage and regrets which Artaxus and Artemisa expressed at our departure it will suffice me to tell you that all things were ordered as they should be with an equipage beseeming our birth we departed from Artaxata upon the way towards Italy and marched as far as the Egean Sea where we embarqued after we had crossed a good part of Armenia and coasted Licia and Pamphilia by land without any memorable accident From the Egean Sea in stead of passing over the Streight to descend into Macedonia and to take Shipping again upon the Adriatique Gulph as that was our most direct way fearing the tediousness of those long Voyages by land and wherewith we were already tired we turned upon the left hand towards Peloponnesus and descended into the Mediterranean Sea believing that though it would be the longer yet it would be the easier way not being obliiged to embark and disembark so often It was rather our destinies that would have it thus and the Gods who reserved Ariobarzanes and I for other adventures had not ordained that we should see the banks of Tyber We had been but a small time upon this Sea when we were seized upon by that furious tempest wherein we suffered that shipwrack which you have heard spoken of and lost our lives in the opinion of so many persons
puffed up with the glory of his gallant actions had the boldness to raise his eyes to me and the same whom as I told you I repulsed with choler and disdain only for the meanness of his birth not finding any thing else in his person which might not make him aspire to the highest fortunes I have heard much talk of Britomarus said Prince Philadelph upon this passage of the Princesses relation and besides the esteem which the same of his great actions hath given me for him the obligation I have to him for this last adds to it an acknowledgement and an affection which will render him dear and considerable to me as long as I live but why must it needs fall out that the punishment of the perfidious Antigenes should be reserved for any other hand than mine and how could it be just that any other but Philadelph should free his Princess from the danger whereinto she was fallen by the imprudence of the King my Father It was not necessary replyed Arsinoe that you should add that obligation to so many others for which I am reduable to you and I had received sufficient proofs of your affection without having need of this last which without doubt your vertue only would have prompted you to upon the score of an unknown person reduced to the same extremity I doubted still that my eyes did abuse me in the knowledge of Britomarus but he cleared my doubts in desiring to satisfie his own and after he had looked upon me a long time with an attention that signified the surprize of his Spirit O Gods cryed he upon a sudden can it be possible that you should be the Princess Arsinoe I am Arsinoe answered I but is it true that you are Britomarus Yes Madam replyed he I am Britomarus and Britomarus much more happy than he durst hope to be in the deplorable condition whereunto he is now reduced since he is permitted to see a Princess living whose death is published all over Asia and since he hath had the fortune to render you a service which may partly repair the offence by which I formerly merited your indignation These wordâ—s recalling what was past to my remembrance made a blush mount up into my face but did not hinder me from returning him an answer in these terms The offence you did me might be repaired by repentance and discontinuation and the service which you have rendred me is of such a value that it may not only repair such an injury but command all the acknowledgement that is due to the generous defender of my life and honour I spake these words with a real resentment as without doubt was due to the importance of so great a service and yet I was not without some displeasure to see my self fallen again into the hands of a man that had made love to me and though by the knowledge which I had of his vertue I thought my self secure from those violences and dangers which I had lately escaped I was affraid of the company of a man whom I could not look upon with a particular affection without being ungrateful to Philadelph's love and betraying my own courage which made me formerly so much disdain his presumption I believed too as we are apt to flatter our selves in the good opinion we have of our selves that I might have partly caused either by my disdain or by the report of my death his sadness and solitude and I did not make a sudden reflection upon the words which I had heard him speak a few moments before which might partly have freed me from that suspition I know not whether my countenance did any way express the thought wherewith my Spirit was at that time disquieted or whether Britomarus observed any thing by it but howsoever it was he spake to me as if he had seen my very heart and resuming the discourse after he had been a while silent If the discontinuation of my fault said he may make me hope for pardon I hope Madam that you will look upon me without anger and though such impressions as are received from such divine powers as yours can hardly be arased out of a soul yet 't is certain that mine hath repented of its boldness and the fear of your displeasure and other adventures wherein my life hath been since employed have wrought that change upon me that I need not to be any longer odious to you Do not make any difficulty then to receive those services of me which I am able to render you and which may be necessary to you in the condition wherein I meet you and be fully assured that during the time that I shall be obliged to bear you company either to compleat your delivery from your Enemies power if you have any yet left or to re-conduct you to the place whither you designed to retire you shall see nothing in my actions that may importune you or at least make you fear the return of that passion which you justly condemned These words of Britomarus made me very joyful and having a good opinion of him as all those had who were acquainted with his vertue I presently gave absolute credit to them and made no difficulty to commit my self to his discretion in the urgent necessity wherein I was at that present but speaking to him with a more assured countenance than before I shall never doubt said I to him but that vertue will be your guide in all your actions and you are so habituated in the practise of it that I should be much too blame if I should be affraid to find any thing troublesome or disagreeable in you The change you have received in that passion which I condemned out of a natural repugnance I had against it rather than out of any disdain of your person adds a new obligation to the service which you have rendred me and in this condition you may believe that I shall esteem and respect you as long as I live as the merit of your person and the importance of the assistance I have received from you do oblige me I do not refuse the generous offers which you make me and though I have suffered much for having committed my self to the conduct of men I will not be affraid to trust my self with you because of the knowledge I have of you After these words which he received with a great deal of respect he asked me what my intention was and I having told him that I would return no more to my Enemies house where I had been a long time captive and in the danger out of which he had rescued me by his valour he told me that he was lodged but a few furlongs from that place at a friends house who was a native of that Country where he had been staid by a sickness which detained him there some days and that if it pleased me to take my retreat there I should be secured from all manner of Enemies to the last drop
looking upon your benefits as favours which I have not merited I will likewise look upon the usage which I have received from the King your Brother rather as a just Chastisement than as an injury That which my memory may retain of it shall not hinder me from employing my life still in his Service and though I may expect to be requited for it as I was for the rest of my former Actions yet I find a very glorious recompence in the honor of obeying you and I will neglect nothing that I may worthily acquit my self of the employment which you bestow upon me having such a Number of persons about you amongst whom you might make a more just Election This was the Answer which he returned me in the presence of all the Company and rising up at my Request he went out of the Prison and being followed by a numerous multitude of people he reconducted me to the Palace Though Love at that time was possibly the most powerfully predominant in him yet his first cares were employed in the functions of the charge which he had reassumed and with an admirable Generosity trampling under foot the injury which he had freshly received from Adallas he had nothing so strongly imprinted in his spirit as the desire of restoring his liberty and with the hazard of his own life to endeavour the defence of his Enemies Subjects and Dominions He spent the rest of that day in visiting the Magazines of Arms and Provisions in reviewing the Forces which we had left and the Number of the Inhabitants capable to bear Arms in that important necessity of State in giving orders for the curing of the wounded for furnishing those with Arms who had lost them for recruiting the Companies and choosing new Officers in the places of those who had been killed or taken and briefly in all such things as a person well versed as he was in the Art of War might practice upon such an occasion He found good store of Arms and Provisions and by the supputation which he made of the Souldiers and the Inhabitants he found that upon our urgent necessity he could raise of the one and the other above Fifteen thousand men This discovery having filled them with joy and confidence of the success of his Designs he resolved not to permit the ardour of the Inhabitants to languish which might in time grow cold but to lead them out to fight whil'st Merodates was weakned by the loss he had received in the last Battel He communicated his resolution to the chief of them that were about him by whom it was approved and after he had given them instructions and necessary orders to dispose all things he came in the Evening to give me a Visit You may judge my Princesses how joyful I was that I could discourse freely with him in my Chamber and in the Palace of the Kings of Thrace who could not do it before but only in a little desart Island where the fear of death which was alwayes before our eyes was capable to disturb our Conversations His contentments likewise seemed to me more absolute than those he tasted in his first acquaintance with me and when he saw himself near me where no suspitious person could over-hear him expressed his thoughts in such passionate terms that I was perswaded that few persons till that time had loved more strongly and more really than he When his passion had given vent to its first emotions and I had assured him that my acknowledgment and affection towards him was as great as he could rationally desire I began to blame him for the little care he had had of his life and the interest which I had in it in coming to expose himself as he had done to the mercy of a jealous and implacable Enemy having used no precaution to conceal himself in the Dominions of a man who by his Oath was in a manner engaged to destroy him and from whom according to former probabilities and the remembrance of the former effects of his ingratitude he could expect nothing but all mannrr of ill usage By this Reproach and the Request I made to him besides Ariobarzanes being engaged to give me an Account of what he had done since our parting in the Isle of Cyprus and how he came into Thrace and into the Army which Eurimedes commanded informed me in a few words That after the King had dismissed him at Carpasia retiring from us he spent some dayes in a private place of the City to find out some means to see me but afterwards seeing that his endeavours were but in vain and that I was so strictly Guarded his Design was to go and stay for us in Thrace not doubting but that immediately after the King was cured we would take our way thither hoping he should find some favourable occasion there to see me again possibly to do some other Service for Adallas which might mollifie his heart and make him express more acknowledgment for it than he had done for the former He told me that he was confirmed in this intention by the Discourse which he heard a few dayes after amongst some Merchants of the Isle of Lesbos from whom he understood that there was a War begun in Thrace that the Prince of Taurica Chersonesus was entred with an Army into those Countries which Adallas had taken from him and that there was a great deal of likelihood that by reason of the Kings Absence the Countrey would be exposed to great Desolations He told me likewise that he made his advantage of this Discourse without discovering any thing to the Lesbians or to any other persons that he kept company with what he knew concerning the King of Thrace supposing that it was his Design to conceal himself and being unwilling to do him a bad Office A few dayes after seeing those Lesbians ready to return into their own Countrey he prayed them to receive him into their Vessel and to let him bear them company into their Island which he had a Design to see which they did very willingly and being arrived at Lesbos by the assistance of those Merchants he sold part of those Diamonds which he had in his Picture-Case and by that means had wherewithal to put himself in a good Equipage and to furnish himself with all things necessary From Lesbos he easily got into Thrace where he found all the Frontiers towards Chersonesus in Arms there he took Servants bought himself Horses and fair Arms and entred himself in our Troops where he continued a while unknown and without any intention to discover himself but afterwards having the happiness to do some signal Actions he declared himself under the Name of Ariamenes and Fortune having been so favourable to him under the conduct of Eurimedes as to let him render some important Services to the King and Countrey of Thrace he hoped before his Arrival he should do something for him so great and considerable that he might present himself to
action and the changes of his countenance made Ariamenes take notice of his distraction The Prince saluted the King with all the Civility and Respect that could be due to him in his better Fortune and the King having received him with that trouble which I have endeavoured to represent to you after he had strove a little to dissipate it What Ariamenes said he Have my Subjects betrayed me then And hath their infidelity not only set you at liberty but do you come likewise to affront me whil'st I am my Enemies Prisoner Sir replied Ariamenes your Subjects have not betrayed you in restoring liberty to a man from whom you have been accustomed to receive the most Important-Services and possibly you know me well enough to believe that I do not come to brave you in your misfortune seeing I never presented my self to you but for the preservation of your life or your Dominions I know it to my sorrow answered Adallas but I am no less sensible that the loss of my Crown and life too would have been more sweet and more supportable to me than the injury you do me You know it as well as I but in short What is your Design now And do you come to me as a Friend or as an Enemy I come replied the Prince to give you your choice and to ask your counsel what I am to do 'T is true your people have freed me out of the Prison to which you had committed me your Subjects have made me their General to defend them against your Enemies and theirs I have not possibly been very unwilling to resume my former resolution and I am come against Merodates with strength and courage enough to recover all that he hath gained from you In brief I dare undertake within three dayes to restore you your liberty and your Crown and not to leave one of your Enemies in Thrace but either dead or Prisoner I will engage my life and honour for the perfomance of this Proposition But Sir this is only your interest and if I may be permitted to dispute mine own with a Prince to whom I am so little obliged I will tell you That if I do not fight for your advantage I can compass my own without fighting and Merodates hath offered me that which without doubt I should never receive from you though I should readvance you from a Prison to a Throne I can choose whether I will hazard a Combat against a valiant man who esteems me and never did me wrong for a Prince who hath ingratefully and injuriously used me I can revenge my self of a cruel Enemy and which is more considerable I can do it without danger I can acquire Olympia who is all the aim of my life whom I can never expect from the Services I can render you Behold Sir continued he presenting Merodates 's Letter to him behold the offers of your Enemy and be pleased to take the pains after you have looked upon them to give me your Advice what resolution I should take The King hearkned to this Discourse of Ariobarzanes with so much astonishment that at present he knew not what Reply to make him and only taking Merodates's Letter he read it over three or four times making particular reflections upon those places of it where he promised him the possession of Olympia with such a Transport as might easily be perceived by his exterior Action At last having readd over those words often enough which seemed so cruel to him or rather having bestowing some time in moderating his resentment and meditating what to say to Ariamenes upon this Subject I see very well said he restoing him the Letter what Propositions my Enemy hath made you and I acknowledge besides That in the condition whereunto my miserable Fortune hath reduced me if you join with Merodates you may be revenged of me you may acquire Olympia and you may do all things without any difficulty But Ariamenes Where is that Generosity where is that Courage which after the first effects of my ingratitude made you so Nobly expose your life for the defence of my Dominions And with what honour can you take that Revenge which is proposed to you against a King in Prison and against a Prince whose absolute ruine doth depend upon you Ariamenes being touched home with this Discourse had much ado to persevere in his Dissimulation and yet considering how necessary it was for him There is no consideration of Honour and Generosity replied he which obliges me to hazard my life any more for a Prince who after such Services as I have rendred him confined me to a cruel Prison and had already condemned me to dye as a Malefactor There are but few men in the World who after such usage would neglect the opportunity of being revenged and though I should have so much vertue as not to desire the utter ruine of a helpless captive-King yet I should not be blamed if I did not bear Arms any longer for his Service But to this consideration of Revenge is added the possession of Olympia and to the hope of that it is that I have devoted my whole life I shall infallibly obtain my desire if I lend an ear to the Proposition of Merodates and if I fight with Merodates if I drive out your Enemies if I restore your liberty and if I resettle you upon your Throne I shall not only render this Service to a cruel Enemy who hath nothing but imprisonment and death for my recompence but I shall put him into a condition to hinder me forever from the possession of Olympia or rather I shall deprive my self for ever of all hope of possessing Olympia Nevertheless I have not accepted the offers of Merodates though I have obtained permission of him to see you I am still in a condition as I told you before to expel every one of your Enemies and to restore you to the peaceable possession of the Crown of your Ancestors but you must redeem your Scepter your liberty and possibly your life at a rate which you are unwilling to give If I do not perform what I promise you I demand nothing of you but if in three dayes I put you into the condition which I have propounded to you I demand the Princess Olympia of you as my recompence if you can overcome that passion which dishonors you and draws the indignation of the gods and the aversion of men upon you Do not fear to disparage your blood by an unworthy alliance 'T is Ariobarzanes the Son of the late and the Brother of the now King of Armenia who hath served you under the Name of Ariamenes with as much respect as the meanest of your Subjects could have done and this is a Truth wherein you shall be clearly satisfied before I demand the performance of your promise consider now what resolution you will take and do not think it strange that reflecting upon your former Actions I desire to engage you and assure
made at him at the same time yet 't is certain that as he was his Friends admired him and his Enemies feared him In the mean time Elisa more like to a dead than a living Creature and Candace very sensibly afflicted for her sake beheld the Combat with all the emotion that a deadly fear could create in them and sent up a Thousand cryes and vows to Heaven for the preservation of their Defenders Elisa might easily have secured her self from Tigranes by flight and Cephisa being not so couragious as she counselled her to do so but she could not endure to be told of leaving Artaban engaged in Combat upon her occasion and chose rather to expose her self to all the ills that threatned her than to the reproach of having ungratefully abandoned him She had reason a few moments after to repent her self of her commendable resolution if Repentance for a good Design could have found any room in her Soul and Tigranes plainly perceiving that the Victory was not so Cock-sure as he imagined and fearing that whil'st he obstinately pursued his vengeance against Artaban he might lose Elisa who might make an escape during the Combat after he had given order to the chief of his men not to let his Enemy escape and had told them the place where he should find him he rode towards the Princess with two of his men and making one of them alight he commanded him to take Elisa and lift her into his Arms. The Mede obeyed his Prince and the fair Elisa notwithstanding her exclamations and all the resistance she could make was carried from the place where she was and put into Tigranes's Arms. The King of the Mede departed with his prey being followed only by those two men who seconded him upon that Design and Elisa who was not of so strong a complexion as to escape out of his hands by strugling filled the Aire with her outcries and called both gods and men to her Assistance Tigranes held her fast betwixt his Arms and though with sweet expressions he endeavoured to qualifie the violence he did her yet he held her so that it was impossible for her to escape Artaban who heard her cryes and turned his Head that way from whence they came perceived with a mortal grief the loss he had or was likely to receive if he did not use some sudden remedy Great gods cryed he lifting up his eyes to Heaven Will you deny me your assistance in this extremity wherein I implore it And speaking these few words he began to cut out that passage which was denied him by a fatal blow which he gave to the forwardest of his opposers in the breast which instantly deprived him of life and seconding that blow with others no less furious than that at last he made himself way enough to run to the assistance of his Princess and never debating with himself whether he might with honour desert those men in a Combat wherein they were engaged for his defence he pursued Tigranes with all the speed that his Horse could make but the advantage which the King of the Medes had gotten before him was so great that it had been impossible for him to overtake him if he had met with no hindrance and he was gotten to the skirt of the Wood before that Artaban perceived that Elisa was carried away The fair Princess made the Woods to eccho with her exclamations and her outcyes were not in vain for they caused a man to turn his Head that way who was passing amongst the Trees on Horse-back and by the paleness of his countenance seemed to be in no better condition than Artaban This man had no sooner seen Elisa between the Arms of her Ravisher and lent some attention to her complaints but he understood the violence that was offered her and though he was called another way by very urgent Affairs and was in no good condition to pick a quarrel yet vertue prompted him to afford that assistance which was due to a distressed Lady and riding up to the place where Tigranes must needs pass to stop his passage Stay said he to him whosoever thou art and do not believe that I will endure the violence thou offerest Tigranes being enraged at this new obstacle and seeing that he could not clear his passage with his Sword without letting the Princess go he set her gently upon the ground and approaching his new Enemy with his Sword in his hand Thou hast sought thy death said he by hindering my Design And with these words he intended as he passed by him to run him into the body with his Sword but the unknown who had not yet drawn his closing up to him and seizing upon his Bridle gave him so strong a thrust that the Horse mounting before and Tigranes being a little intangled in the Reins the Horse fell backwards upon him and almost killed him with the fall The two Cavaliers that followed Tigranes instead of going to relieve him fell at once upon the unknown who receiving them without fear though he had no other Arms but his Sword thrust in into the throat of the formost with so much success that it came out at the other side of his Neck and seeing the second rush upon him with the same violence after he had put by with his Sword a blow that the other made at his Head he thrust his through the Visor of his Helmet and tumbled him dead upon the Sand. Having made this sudden execution and approaching to Elisa who had had no time to remove her self Madam said he What do you desire that I should do more for your Service Elisa was about to return an Answer when they saw Artaban come posting in with such an impetuosity as sufficiently signified the passion which animated him The countenance of the Princess expressed her joy at the sight and the unknown who perceived him having asked her if this was one of her Enemies No said she This is my Defender to whom you have rendred a considerable piece of Service by putting me again into his hands I will leave you with him then replied the unknown if you have no farther use of me for I have not so much liberty as to stay any longer with you if new occasions of doing you Service do not detain me With these words he was preparing to depart when Artaban came up close to him They had no sooner viewed each other but one knew the other and though the unknown had had such great quarrels with him as not to look upon him as a Friend yet he could not repent of the Service which he had rendred him and the Nobleness of his heart made him find all the satisfaction that he could receive by doing a good Action Artaban was going to accost him though the other retired with a great deal of impatience when he saw the two Troops coming up to him which he had left engaged in fight Tigranes's men being absolutely resolved to pursue him
any decessity Alcamenes having heard the King with much respect answered that he had rather lose his life than cast the least stain upon his honour which he had alwayes dearly preserved that he knew Alcimedon for a Prince full of valour and for a man whom the greatest Prince upon earth could not refuse without dishonour To these words he added many more so pressing that the King being naturally very generous was constrained to yield yet much less to the force of his perswasions than to the opinion of his valour against which he believed that of the unknown Alcimedon could make no long resistance The Prince sent an Herald immediately to the Camp of the Dacians to acquaint the Queen that having received the challenge of Alcimedon which her Herald had made in his absence he accepted it and would wait him at the place of Combate an hour after Sun-rising between both Armies with one Judge on his side and only a thousand Horse for the Guard of the Field The Queen Amalthea promised the same thing on the behalf of her Champion and the business being thus setled Barzanes was chosen Judge for Alcimedon and the Prince of the Massegetes for Alcamenes The night passed in the expectation of both parties of the event of so memorable a Combate and the knowledge which they had of the valour of each others Champions made them to expect this spectacle with extraordinary impatience The morrow so soon as the day brake all things were prepared though Alcamenes provided for this feigned Combate with repugnance and a divination of some misfortune Amalthea who was charged with all things that concerned Alcimedon made ready for him with no less diligence but the Gods had otherwise disposed of the event of this day than men had appointed for the unfortunate Cleomenes covered with the Arms of Alcimedon as Patroclus with those of Achilles had a like destiny He departed at the appearance of day from a Country-house where he had passed the night and to obey the Prince he marched with all diligence towards the Dacian Camp he was so fierce under these brave Arms of his Prince that he almost conceited he was metamorphosed into him but this innocent pride lasted not long for scarce had he made some paces in the Wood where the day before he had exchanged his Arms but he saw twenty Cavaliers making towards him who having encompassed him before he had time scarce to think on them cast him to the earth and pierced him through with their Javelings in a moment The cruel men stopt not there but part of them alighted ran upon him and lifting up the vizor of his Helmet they gave him several stabs in the face and throat When they thought he was dead they took Horse and made towards the Dacian Camp not touching either his Horse or Arms. The perfidious Orchemanes Prince of the Nomades the wicked enemy of Alcimedon partly for and in revenge of his Brother's death and partly for his own imprisonment had sent those Assasines to expect on the way by which the Prince must return into the Camp as he had learnt promising them for their performance great rewards and these cruel men had but too well acquitted themselves had not the Gods to whom the life of Alcamenes was dear prevented it by the fall of the unfortunate Cleomenes The Princess Menalippa having been troubled this night with some unlucky dreams and being very melancholly both for the Combate which Alcimedon was to undertake the next day with Alcamenes and out of the displeasure she received for not having spoken to him the day before To cure him of the fear of her displeasure she arose early in the morning seeking some divertizement amongst her Train which attended her She caused a Chariot to be prepared to take the Air and would only permit Belisa and the faithful Leander who remained still in her service and who by chance was not in the Queens Tent the day before and so mist the happiness of seeing his Master to wait upon her Menalippa accompanied with only these two persons giving order to tell the Queen when she awaked that she was gone to take the air in the Fields and would return after the Combate between Alcamenes and Alcimedon was ended desiring not to be present at it after which orders given passing through the Dacians Tents she caused her Chariot to be guided towards that Wood which was within sight of the Camp and wherein the unfortunate Cleomenes lay slain as the distance was not great the Chariot was quickly in the Wood and the Princess causing it to stay alighted and began to walk amongst the Trees leaning upon Belisa's arm and her spirit being possest with sad I dea's her converse was full of sadness and was disposing her self to disburthen her troubled heart when she saw a gallant Horse sadled and bridled feeding at liberty and lifting up his head to approach the Chariot-Horses he filled the Wood with sneezings this Horse being that whereon Alcimedon used to charge Leander thought he knew it and the nearer he came the more he was confirmed in his opinion he told the Princess what he thought but the had already cast her eys upon a Buckler which she saw lye some paces from the Horse and she no sooner beheld it than by its famous devize familiar to all the Dacians she knew it for Alcimedons She recoyled at this sight and calling Leander Thou shewd'st me Alcimedons Horse said she and I can shew thee his Buckler and by what we see we may judge he is not farr off Scarce had she pronounced these words when she saw the miserable Cleomenes under the Arms of Alcimedon and believed effectively that she saw Alcimedon strecht at the foot of a Chestnut Tree She thought he had been a sleep and making no difficulty to approach him intending to charm all fear which the suspition of her anger might have left upon his heart and to make him satisfaction for the ill treatment she had given him when drawing near this feigned Alcimedon she saw the ground covered with blood round about him and the great bubbles which issued out of the defaults of his Cuirass from those wounds which he had received in the face This spectacle forced cryes both from Menalippa and Leander and running on him together with precipitation they took off his Casque and Cuirass and Leander with a cloath wiped his face covered with blood and wounds and since in an other condition he very much resembled Alcamenes being of the same age and his hair of the like colour 't is not difficult to suppose that it being now disfigured with wounds he might be taken for Alcimedon All the courage of Menalippa made too weak resistance against this deplorable sight and whilst Leander cast forth cryes and tore his hair Menalippa more sensible than he though not less couragious lost all sense and knowledge and fell in a swoon upon the couragious pretended Alcimedon Belisa though
and 't is certain that at this time the difference was so small that she might easily have been taken for Alcimedon When the Princess saw her self in this posture as she desired and that Leander had brought the Prince's Horse and Buckler she bowed towards the beloved body and took her last adieu with a tenderness able to cleave with pitty the most savage hearts and conjuring Leander and Belisa to remember her commands and to declare nothing that they knew till the time she had prescribed she took Horse and being no Novice in that exercise she spurr'd him forward to the address of the strongest men and ran with so much impetuosity that they presently lost sight of her The field of Battel was already covered with the Souldiers of both parties who with great diligence had fastened the Barriers and erected a Scaffold for the Judges there were two of them one for the King of Scythia and the other for the Queen of Dacia and the Princes of her side and the Barriers were invironed with a thousand Horse of either Army The Judges had already taken their seats with much civility and a little after the King Orontes on the one part although he had some wounds which would have kept in bed any person of a less robust complexion and the Queen Amalthea on the other with the Princes of her Train placed themselves upon the Scaffold at the sound of a hundred Trumpets that attended them and which made the fields of Nicea eccho they expected only the two Combatants who seemed a little slow and 't is certain that Alcamenes marching not to this Combate with that ardour and fierceness which used to accompany him in others it being only a fiction and dissembled action was not over-hasty to take the Field yet he appeared a little after the appointed time but it was not with his accustomed boldness and gallantry nor with that menacing Mine which darted fear into the most assured His Arms were enriched with Gold and some stones his Buckler of the same without any device his Casque was covered with a shade of Plumes and he alwaies kept the vizor of his Helmet down because of Barzanes who from the Scaffold might easily have known him though he affected nothing terrible in his gate yet could the God of Battels have pleaded small advantage over him and Barzanes concluded with the Prince of the Massegetes that nothing could match him unless the brave person who was to fight him this day had the good fortune Alcamenes walked a long time in the Field ere his Enemy appeared and all the world began to condemn the sloath of Alcimedon and those to whom he was not well known made sinister censures on his courage Amalthea who was out of humour and in some trouble for the Princess the cause of whose walk the could not divine and prickt with delight at Alcimedons delay and the more in that the Princes his Enemies indeavoured to stain his courage and openly blamed his sloath the perfidious Orchomenes who with the life would also have taken away the Honour of his Enemy said he knew him better than the rest and had alwaies made a judgment of him different from that of others and that he believed he would not come at all Barzanes who dearly loved Alcimedon supported impatiently their murmures and still assured the Prince of the Massegetes that he would not fail to appear usless some important adventure hindred Alcamenes himself was astonisht at the delay of Cleomenes and for some moments thought that he wanted courage for this enterprize at last he heard the most remote say that Alcimedon was come that Alcimedon was hard by and a little after they saw him approach or rather the furious Menalippa in his Arms in a posture so terrible that it had been easie to have perceived with a little observation that she was agitated with some other passion than the desire of glory the Dacians gave a great shout at his arrival and Orchomenes believing himself betray'd by his Servants beheld him to whom he had given the commission with a menacing eye and by an inflamed regard reproacht his fidelity So soon as Menalippa was in the Field not musing her self with formalities she road to the end of the Barriers and fastning her self in the Saddle she started with a mighty impetuosity imploring assistance from the Gods she might pass her Javelin through the throat of her Enemy Alcamenes started at the same time but having no design to hurt Cleomenes he had chosen the weakest Javelin he could find and instead of addressing it to the Vizor or any other dangerous place he threw it against the middle of the Buckler where it brake without any further effect Menalippa aim'd hers directly at Alcamenes's Vizor but whether it were by the fury of her course or passion or the little experience she had in this exercise which made her fail in the attempt her blow sliding by his Casque it past without doing any harm then drawing her Sword she made to her Enemy who expected her in the same posture She aimed many blows at him which he put by with his Buckler and wherein he perceived if not more force at least more fury than he could have expected from Cleomenes struck only at those places where he found her covered with her Buckler being very careful not to hurt a man who only sought to serve him and as he had not been accustomed to sport and feign in such occasions he was quite ashamed of the person he represented being obliged in this Combate to dissemble that valour which on all occasions he so prodigally testified At last the impatient Menalippa breathing nothing but fire made a furious blow which he avoiding it fell upon her own Horse and the Blade being exceeding good it gave him such a wound that the inraged Beast ran with all his force to the end of the Field yet not so swiftly but the Princess had leisure to quit her Stirrups and alight Alcamenes joyful to see his enemy on foot ready to terminate the Combate after the manner he had designed with Cleomenes alighted and approached Menalippa with his drawn Sword The desperate Princess cast her self upon him with so much fury that the Prince could not prevent her Sword meeting with the default of his Arms a light wound Alcamenes was astonisht at this fury of Cleomenes and seeing that all the spectators were too far to understand what they said Friend said he thou sparest me not and if thou fightest long thou wilt not represent amisse the person of Alcimedon These words confirmed the Princess in the belief she had against Alcamenes and not induring a discourse wherein he seemed to play with the destiny of poor Alcimedon Ah Traytor said she hast thou imagined that the obscurity of the Wood could hide thy Treason or dost thou think to save thy self by thy deceit Give me death immediately or expect to lose thy life by the hand of thy
bemoaning empressions were the burthen of their carkasses and reciprocally wiping off one anothers tears they reiterated their kisses with so much love that a person the least subject of any in the World to suspicion would never have been 〈◊〉 but that there might be yet a further familiary between persons so passionaâ—â— Foâ— my part I made not the least question of it and from that fatal spectacle concluding my unhappiness undeniable I gave way to the rage then gaining ground upon me and 〈…〉 moment to consult upon the resolution I was to take to revenge my injured love 〈…〉 the loss of my honour I seldom went any where without my sword as ill fortune would have it I had it then about me I drew it transported with fury and running to one of the doors of the Arbour with so much hast that those two amorous persons had hardly the time to break off their kissing You must dye base perfidious wretches cryed I you must dye and putting my fury in execution upon the first object that offered it self it self it fell upon the unfortunate Elisena whom running with my sword in at the breast there needed not much strength to force it in up to the hilts Cleontes had the time to get out at one of the doors of the Arbour had got away as soon as he saw me appear with all the speed he could make but the unfortunate Elisena who stood neerest to me receiving the mortal wound fell down at my feet in a torrent of blood â—s she fell fastening on my knees she held me so that I could not get off from her to run after Cleontes In the mean time Elisena expiring strove as much as she could to speak and with abundance of difficulty made a shift to bring forth these words Zonodorus said she to me thou hast spilt innocent blood which will cry out for vengeance against thee but far be it from me to desire it of the gods and I forgive thee my death which my own imprudence and thy want of recollection hath brought me to thou wilt find that I have not injured thee and therefore content thy self that thou hast taken away my life and meddle not with Cleontes who is ............ She would have said somewhat else but ere she could bring it out both voice and life had taken their leaves of her This spectacle you may well imagine was deplorable enough to move me to some pitty and the love which I had formerly had for Elisena whom I saw expiring at my feet beautiful even in her paleness and amidst the very looks of death as amiable as ever she had been in her life must in all likelihood force me to some compassion But rage and fury being grown predominant over my soul and I looking on the loss of my honour as a thing infallibly certain and from the last words of Elisena when she recommended unto me the life of Cleontes and seemed so indifferent as to her own drawing no other conclusion than that of the excessive love she had for him my fury derives new strength from that cruel confirmation and leaving the body of Elisena in the hands of her Women who were come in at the noise out of a place where they waited hard by I pursued Cleontes with the sword all bloody in my hand that way that I had seen him run away He was gotten far enough from me and I should have found it no small difficulty to overtake him if at the same time a noise had not been spread about the Garden that Elisena was dead At this unhappy news Cleontes stayes not desirous to save his life after the misfortune which he had been the occasion of as I came into the Knot of the Garden I saw him coming towards me tearing his cloaths pulling his hair and filling the place with his lamentations Instead of avoiding my sword he would run upon the point of it and presenting his naked brest to me he therein received the mortal thrust which ran him through and through After he had gone two or three paces backward staggering he fell down at the feet of a Diana of Alablaster which stood at one of the corners of the Knot and as he fell embraced it Goodesse of chastity said he receive this life which I offer up to thee and if I stain it with my blood thou knowest it is pure and innocent There was something in these words that seemed so mild and withall so mournful that the better part of my fury was thereby abated and while a many persons were running to the place where I was the expiring Cleontes turning his eyes from the statue and fastening them on me Barbarous man said he to me hope not that the gods will pardon thee the death of the innocent Elisena though I forgive thee mine and since I have not life enough left me to convince thee of her innocence acknowledg it upon the sight of what I had never shewn any man and which thou of all mankind art the most unworthy to see With these words contracting together all the strength he had left he made a shift to open or to tear that which covered his stomack and by discovering to us a neck and breasts whiter then the Alablaster which he embraced easily satisfied us that he was a Woman Artaxus interrupting Zenodorus at this passage Heavens Zenodorus said he to him what is this that you relate to me and what an unfortunate adventure was this of yours Till now though there were things deplorable enough in your relation yet had I not been moved to compassion at any and I thought there was so much reason in all proceedings that I could not bemoane the distiny of two persons whom I conceived worthy the chastisement they received at your hands But these last words of your relation having changed the whole scene of the adventure and though there lies no more guilt on you then there would have done â—ad it been otherwise yet I must confesse you are so much the more to be pittyed You may very well think it my Lord replyed Zenodorus and with the same labour comprehend some part of what I was not then able to expresse At that sight that fatal sight that fatall and too slow discovery I was in a manner more like a dead carkase then those I had deprived of life and not able to oppose all the passions which then made their several assaults on my soul with as much violence as can be well imagined nor expresse them by wordâ— I was almost grown immoveable and senselesse in the arms of those persons that were about me I apprehended my self at the same to be the murtherer of two Women of two beautiful and amiable persons and two innocent persons whereof one had been my own Wife whom I had loved as dearly as my own soul and the other meerly upon the account of compassion had already raised in me an affection towards her This
no justice to force the inclinations of a Princess of the equality and worth of Elisa after he had given him leave to say all he would Tigranes said he to him You have had some grounds to be assured that I should do you no injustice and you shall find from me whatever you can with reason expect I shall not give way that any should take away or detain from you the Princess of the Parthians and I shall put her into your hands as soon as she shall be willing to go along with you To that end you are at liberty to dispose her thereto as soon as you shall think fit and you will find no further obstacle if you but once get her consent But you ought not to hope and I imagine you do not that to further your design I should do her any violence both in regard the action in it self would be contrary to the equity which I shall punctually observe and that Elisa is a person of that Rank as neither can nor indeed ought to give me that freedom This is a thing you know as well as my self And you may take notice further that if Marcellus were in your condition I should treat him no otherwise then I do you and that were it my own Son had the gods been pleased to have blessed me with any I would not to oblige him offer any violence to such a Princess as that of the Parthians 'T is the least she can hope to be at liberty in a place where she demands my protection you have the same freedome and if you can gain her consent you shall meet with no other opposition To this effect was the discourse of Augustus to him as who knew well enough how contrary the inclinations of Elisa were to the affections of Tigranes so that the afflicted King of Media growing pale at the hearing of those words received them no otherwise then as the Sentence of Death though he had in all likelihood already foreseen some part of his misfortune Nor could he dissemble the affliction he conceived thereat and looking on the Emperour though with a certain respect yet such as through which his resentments were easily discernable What my Lord said he to him do you think it any violence to permit a Husband to take his Wife to him in your Territories and what rank soever Elisa may be of do you think it any force done her by putting her into his hands on whom her Father and all her Friends have bestowed her with all the ceremonies and solemnities ordinary upon such occasions Had she been born in any place within my jurisdiction replies Augustus or any Kingdom dependant on the Empire I might have disposed of her according to your desires but being the Daughter of a Monarch over whom we have no power or authority and being such in her person as nothing is able to exempt even my self from the respect due to her from all men you ought not to think it strange I should leave her to her own disposal and be unwilling to do that for you which certainly I should be loath to do for my self 'T is enough my Lord replied the Median and you cannot better assure me that you have resolved my ruine then by telling me that you leave my fortunes at the disposal and mercy of Elisa The intentions she hath towards me I am very well acquainted with and since she hath left me her lawful Husband to wander up and down the world with Artaban I doubt not but that for the same Artaban 's sake she will shun me to the end of the world But my Lord is it possible that an Emperour so great and so just can so easily sacrifice the enjoyments and glory of a King whose Life and Crown hath ever been at his disposal to the satisfaction of a Souldier of Fortune whom I have my self raised out of the dust to the honour he hath so unworthily abused a Souldier I say whose most considerable actions have been done in the service of your enemies That Souldier replies Augustus is not to be slighted by those who have any regard to Vertue and there are few Kings in the world to be preferred before him if it be referred to the judgement of the greatest men What he hath done against you for the enemies of the Roman Empire cannot prevail with me to abate ought of the esteem I have for him and you are the person that of all men have least reason to think so meanly of him But what ere he may be it matters not you may take this further from me that it is not any way to promote his design that I leave the Princess Elisa at the liberty of her choice and that I shall not interpose between you as to what concerns her affections Prevail with her if it be possible by love and services and use all imaginable industry to gain her violence onely excepted which I absolutely forbid you in my Dominions both against her and against Artaban and which you cannot make use of without rendring me your enemy The Median King ready to burst with grief and exasperation at this discourse was going to reply haply with a violence which might have incensed him when the Emperour perceives coming into the Room Ariobarzanes King of Armenia Prince Philadelph and King Archelaus and as he was turning towards them to salute them comes in King Alcamenes Caesar leaving Tigranes went to entertertain him which he did with the civility he was wont to expresse towards him telling him it was his design to give him a visit in his own Chamber and that it troubled him he was prevented Alcamenes received that civility of the Emperour with a submission accompani'd by all the marks of a real Greatnesse of Soul and after some discourse together the Emperour having word brought him that the Empresse was ready and that all the Princesses were with her went to her Lodgings follow'd by all that noble company She being one of the most ingenious and understanding of the Sexe and able to manage the Government of the Empire as well as the greatest men the Emperour had more then ordinary compliances for her and she received them with such an admirable design and artifice that taking no notice of his Amoretto's both towards Terentia and other Ladies whom he had lov'd she accordingly made it her main businesse to satiate his ambition which was the predominant passion in him and flatter Augustus's humor in such manner as that she might continue her authority over him and be in a condition to raise her Sons to the height of advancement When this noble company entred her chamber all the Princesses were there and the Emperour having very submissively saluted them all said to every one of them some word by the way relating either to her Beauty or Adventures and not long after perceiving that the King of the Scythians was fallen into discourse with the Empresse he comes up close to Elisa
and were not but too well satisfied that I cannot slight Glory without being my self slighted by Ismenia I shall not only tell you that a slave of the Romans deserves not to be yours nor is it the aversion I have for that yoak whence proceeds my greatest unhappiness But being confident that my Father will run the hazard to loose all his Dominions with his life into the bargain rather then submit thereto I cannot embrace it with Segestes without proving false to a Father and renouncing a Duty wherein my Honour is inseparably concerned 'T is therefore this Honour that I must part with or quit those dear hopes of being happy in the enjoyment of Ismenia See my fairest Princess what a misfortune I am involved in between these two cruel extremities and command me to do what I ought by all the power you have over my heart For in fine though Love and Honour may be at difference in my apprehensions yet do I feel a certain suggestion that tells me the obedience I owe you will decide it and settle all my irresolutions To this effect was the discourse of Arminius delivered by him with such a grace as rendred him more amiable then ever in the eyes of the generous Ismenia And when he had given over speaking the fair Princess looking on him with an action infinitely obliging Arminius said she to him I equally participate with you as well in your grief as your generous sentiments and I am not more troubled at our common misfortune then I am satisfied as to the justice of your suspence Love Honour Arminius no less then you do Ismenia and assure your self that it is onely Honour that Ismenia can love as much as she does you I have for you an affection which I dare acknowledge before all the world since it is countenanc'd by the consent of my Father nay it is such as I should haply be as much troubled at your loss as you might be at mine But in regard I set an equal value on your Person and your Honour fear not I shall upon any account of the power you have given me over you determine ought against either As Daughter to Segestes I cannot advise you to engage your self in a party contrary to his as sensible as I ought to be of of your affection I cannot out of any consideration desire you should leave me and as having a great tenderness for your glory I cannot condemn in you what you shall do for the preservation of it Whether you will be guided by the inspirations of your Love or those of your Vertue be it your consideration but be withal assured that what side soever you take the affections of Ismenia are inviolably yours Arminius was in a manner transported at this generous discourse of Ismenia and when he had heard the conclusion of it and found it so obliging and so consonant to his own desires Ah Madam cryed he how shall I be able to acknowledge the obligations I receive from this excessive goodness in you whereby you raise my crushed hopes And what fear or what interest can move me if nothing can deprive me of my Princess What I have said replies Ismenia relates onely to my affections and not to my person this is in the power of a Father who may dispose of it as he thinks fit but he hath not the same right over my affections and having commanded me to bestow them on you it were in vain for him by a second Command to order me to dispose of them to any other Be therefore confident that no consideration of merit service interest no not of any command my Father may lay upon me shall ever engage me to love any other then Arminius But imagine not I shall bestow my self on you against his consent and think not I forget my own Duty while I advise you to do yours Ah! Madam replies the afflicted Prince how truly great and generous is what you say but how different is it as to me from what I thought I had understood I Yet is it so rational replied Ismenia that I am confident you approve it and by the repugnance you find in your self to quit the party of your Father and renounce your Duty you but too well know at least to condemn it what I am obliged to in relatâ—on to my Father and my Duty 'T is very true Madam says Arminius to her that I have discovered to you the aversion I have for unworthy actions but I think I have withal declared to you that my resolutions depend on your commands and I should not be in any suspence whether I ought to obey had I the knowledge of them You cannot therefore with any justice alledge that unhappy example to destroy all my hopes and how great soever may be the love I have for Liberty Countrey my Father and my Glory all shall comply with the affection I have for you and thereâ—s nothing I shall not renounce to preserve it inviolably yours while I live It will be better replied the prudent Ismenia that we â—oth do what we are in duty obliged to and continue our affection but unchargeable even with that reproach which we may make to our selves Fortune will not haply be so malicious against us as we imagine she may and the inclination of Segestes which hath already suffered so sudden and unexpected a change to thwart our designs may suffer a second to further them But if that happen not it is not impossible but that the same considerations which have prevailed with my Father may also with yours and that he will of himself be inclined to hearken to an Alliance with the Romans if they offer it him upon advantageous and honourable terms If things come so to pass you may without reproach suffer the love you have for Liberty and for your Countrey to give way to that you have for me and I should have just cause to be dissatisfied with your proceedings if out of pure obstinacy would continue in a party contrary to that which your Father had embraced But if that happen not far be it from me to desire or approve in you an engagement in our interests against those of your Father and your Honour which I am no less tender of then your self I know my Father would never consent to your Alliance while yours should disapprove it and were not his Friend and I have already told you that all I can do in this unfortunate posture of my affairs would be to continue my affection inviolably yours without suffering a change for any other whatsoever but that I cannot dispose of my person without the consent of Segestes Arminius found so much prudence vertue in this discourse of Ismenia that could he not condemn her that fair Princess exercised the power she had over him with so much discretion that he could not but approve the design she had to keep within the limits of her Duty while she left him at liberty
were dead and that Segesces who hath already a Son by the Wife he lately married designs him to inherit his Dominions not thinking any more of Ismenia nd thus much I have understood as to what you are concerned in I shall endeavour by all the ways I can imagine to learn what is become of Ismenia and since Varus is the person by whom she was taken or at least the sorces under his command I shall haply come to the knowledge of something by his means he being now in Alexandria and am confident she will not conceal the truth from me Arminius entertained this discourse of Agrippa with all the discoveries of a real acknowledgement looking on him not onely as a person he was so much oblig'd to but as one of the greatest men in the world My Lord said he to him I receive these effects of your Goodness as so many assurances of the Greatness of your Soul on which the compassion you have for my misfortunes hath doubtless a greater influence then the esteem you may upon the relation of Inguiomer have conceived for my person His affection is haply greater to me then to have spoken of me without passion it may be partially but he hath been faithfull to truth if he hath told you that I am of all men the most miserable The deplorable condition my fortunes are in which hardly vouchsafs me any sentiment of things even of greatest importance cannot yet hinder but that I have the sense I ought of your generous favors as also of the proffers of your assistance and authority to find out Ismenia among the Romans and by the directions of Varus who can discover more then any other to get some account of her What I expect must certainly be dolefull and deplorable it being not improbable she may have been exposed to those miseries during her captivity then which death it self might be more supportable to her such as have haply forc'd her to sacrifice her life for the preservation of her honor How ere it may be I am resoved to die or find out the truth of it and though I were to wander all over the world I will never return into my native country without Ismenia I would intreat Inguiomer to see it again and accept which I gladly resign him the Soveraignty over the Cherusci and I wish the Gods were so pleased I had some great Empire to present him with to requite the obligations I have received from his Friendship T were unjust he should be perpetually involved in my miseries he hath suffered enough by a harsh and cruel captivity the infamous exercise out of which you relievedus to exempt him from anyfurther engagement in my errant fortune which will carry me all over the world either to find out Ismenia or if my endeavours prove ineffectual death Arminius having uttered these words could not but burst into tears whereat Agrippa was extreamly troubled Whereupon Inguiomer turning to him with a dissatisfied look Do not Arminius said he to him do not offer so great a violence to our Friendship by the aversion you express for my company and the injurious proffers you would make me I shall be equally able with you to support the injurious proffers you would make me I shall be equally able with to support the inconveniencies of our fortune and it is long since you might have been assur'd that I value your Friendship beyond the Soverainty of the Cherusci They were thus engag'd in discourse when an Officer of Agrippa's causing torches to be brought into the Closet gave him notice that the Princess Julia accompany'd by several other Princesses was come into his Chamber and that her visit proceeded out of a curiosity she had to see those two famous strangers whose adventure had made so much noise that day in Alexandria Agrippa somewhat surpriz'd at it turns to Arminius and being infinitely circumspect and generous in all things It is far from my thoughts said he to him that you should be oblig'd to any thing disconsonant to your own inclinations and though the Princess Julia be a person the most abliging and officious in the world and that I dare assure you her presence will contribute much to your satisfaction yet if in the condition you are in you have any aversion thereto I will go and make your excuses and am confident it will not be taken amiss Arminius had indeed some aversion for such a company as then came to see him and would gladly have avoided it but he was willing to comply with the civilities of Agrippa seeing with what circumspection he treated him And to that end wiping the tears that were still in his face he told him that had he known he were desirous of any such thing he would have gone himself to wait on the Princess Julia and those other persons whom he was willing he should see He had hardly said so much when the Daughter of Augustus was come to the door and enters the Closet followed by the two Princesses of Armenia Olympia Andromeda Vrania and several other Ladies who ordinarily kept her company Agrippa ran to meet her and the two Cheruscian princes made low obeisances to give her the salute due to her quliaty The comelinesse of their persons heighten'd by garments suitable to their condition appear'd to that illustrious Assembly much otherwise then it had seem'd to those who had seen them in the Amphitheatre though there broke forth ablushing into their countenances out of a reflection on the ignominious treatment they had that day receiv'd Julia was infinitely satisfi'd to see them and was going to speak to them with her ordinary civility when of a sudden she perceives a change in the countenance of Arminius and that so remarkable as that he seem'd to be wholly transported and in a manner at a loss of all apprehension He retir'd some paces back staggering and lifting up his hands and eyes to Heaven but while the Princesses were observing his action not without astonishment they heard a noise behind them and turning about to see what the matter was they perceived the fair Cipassis who came along with Julia to make that visit falling into a swound between Andromeda and Sulpitia and discovering but with much more weakness a surprize not inferiour to that of Arminius While the Noble Assembly were in suspence what to think of that accident Agrippa having with some precipitation ask'd Arminius the reason of the disturbance he was in Ah my Lord said he with a transport he was not able to suppress I see Ismenia And immediately not minding the respect he should have observed in the presence of Julia and so many great Princesses which upon any other occasion he had not been a wanting to and quite forgetting the care he had till then taken to conceal himself from the Romans he runs to Cipassis whom Sulpitia held in her arms and calling her by the name of Ismenia he fell down at
digestible The Princess Cleopatra who was present at this conversation and notwithstanding what at that time burthen'd her thoughts desirous to do Marcellus all the favour she could preventing his reply as being unwilling Julia should have left him in the humour into which the beginning of that discourse might have put him Madam said she to her let me intreat you not to charge Prince Marcellus with any thing further till you have heard him and to assure your self upon my engagement that he is not chargeable with any thing so much as the offence of having lov'd you with some little excess of violence That violence replies Julia with a more appeased countenance might have produced effects that were more supportable but howere the case may stand this is not a place to press things any further and you know I have that confidence of you as in some measure to be perswaded to what you would have me The place where this conversation happened and the coming up of all the other Chariots endeavouring to get near that of Cleopatra permitted them not to continue it any longer so that after Antonius and Alexander had saluted Julia who receiv'd them with much civility all the Princes got on Horseback and rode by the Chariots till they came to the Gates of Alexandria But all had not equal advantages for if Ariobarzanes Philadelph and Arminius had the opportunity to speak to Olympia Arsinoe and Ismenia Artaban and Agrippa mutually envy'd one another the discourse of Elisa For Prince Marcellus he had the liberty to entertain Julia without any interruption and in regard all had a respect and affection for him and that his pretensions were known and countenanc'd by all and by the Emperour above any there was not any one to disturb him in the conversation he had with the Princess and he made that advantage of it that before they were come to the City he was assur'd of a reconciliation with her and that he should be as much in her favour as ever he had been It was almost night ere this illustrious company got to Alexandria but that return was much different from their departure And as there were few who were not in some measure troubled at or concern'd in what had happen'd that day all went to their Lodgings with much distraction and melancholy nay even the most fortunate such as Ariobarzanes Philadelph and Arminius neither durst nor could enjoy themselves and though they passed away the evening with their Princesses yet was all their discourse concerning the misfortune of Coriolanus and affliction of Cleopatra The Empress went immediately to those Lodgings whither Drusus had caused Tiberius to be convey'd where finding that Son of hers whom she lov'd and highly esteemed upon the account of relation and the many excellent endowments whereof he really was Master laid on a bed with several great wounds about him such as much endanger'd his life and all aggravated by a grief and confusion that his design had prov'd so unsuccessful a reflection no less prejudicial to his recovery then the wounds he had receiv'd from his enemy all that greatness of mind she naturally had was not able to exempt her from the assaults of a violent affliction and after she had several times embraced that beloved Son and bath'd his face with the abundance of her tears she sate down by him and continu'd in that posture a good while not able to speak one word to him Tiberius looked on her with a countenance wherein was remarkable the indignation and discontent he was in and endeavouring to suppress both to speak to a Mother that had so much affection for him Madam said he to her Let me intreat you not to afflict your self for a Son who hath been far from deserving all this tenderness from you I deserv'd in some measure the misfortune that'ts happened to me by engaging my self in an enterprize nothing but my passion can excuse and Fortune whom I have ever found favourable in those occasions that were honourable hath opposed me in this with justice Be not frightned at my wounds I have in my life receiv'd such as have been much more dangerous and be pleased to employ that goodness you express to me to purchase me the pardon I am to beg of the Emperour for an action that derogates from his Authority and the respect due to him The Emperour replies Livia will be sooner appeased then you recovered of your wounds and the trouble he conceives at these argues him not to be much incensed against you All his wrath as far as I can understand is bent against your Adversary and if the hope of revenge may give you any satisfaction in your misfortune it shall not be long ere you have all the comfort you can upon that score expect Though Tiberius was a person remarkable for a malicious and cruel inclination yet had he withal a certain greatness of mind and though his present resentment might induce him to wish the ruine of his Enemy yet reflecting on his late generous proceeding towards him he durst not desire it and with that consideration looking on the Empress I have had said he to her upon many occasions reason to wish the death of Coriolanus and this affront I have received from him is no doubt more insupportable to me then all the rest But besides the justice he had this day of his side I remember it was in his power to have taken away my life which yet out of an excess of generosity he would not do though I refused to accept it at his hands and his carriage hath been so noble towards me that I cannot with any honour desire to be revenged of him Drusus who was present at this discourse of Tiberius heard it with much satisfaction as finding him inclined to those sentiments which he had wished in him But Livia's thoughts ran in another Channel though she had a soul much above her Sexe and fastening her consideration more upon the wounds of her Son and the danger wherein she found him then on the generosity of his Adversary If it be not honourable for you said she to him to press your own revenge I shall do it for you and what would not be glorious in you will no doubt be such in a Mother and a Wife to the Emperour While they were in this discourse the Chirurgeons coming in searched the wounds of Tiberius and found such as were great enough to raise a distrust but not to take away all hope of his recovery Tiberius suffers himself to be dressed and heard the consultation of the Chirurgeons with much courage and in all his deportment there appear'd much more rage and confusion for his misfortune than fear of death by his wounds He was hardly quite dressed ere his Chamber was full of such as came to visit him whereof some were really his Friends others such as the respects they had for Livia oblig'd to that compliance Not long after came thither
world to whom I conceive my self obliged to give an account of my life then the person I now have the honour to speak to and I shall accordingly when you please to command it acquaint you with all hath hapned to me since my departure from Rome but you will give me leave to tell you not out of any design to exempt my self from that Relation that my Discourse will not afford any thing that wer plesant or divertive that I shall only let you know that having left Rome through the violence of an insupportable passion I have strugled with that passion for the space of five or six years opposing it with my reason my resentments and all I could fortifie my self with against it and that at last after incredible sufferings I have got the victory over it in such manner that I find my self in a condition to see again that inexorable person without any disturbance I shall tell you that I have travelled unknown and changing my name with every Country I came into into Germany and all through Europe up as far as Bizantium where I crossed over into Asia which I have visited all over that I have seen Cappadocia Cilicia Armenia Media Mesopotamia Pamphilia and divers other Kingdoms shifting still into those Countries where I heard there was any thing of War stirring having been egaged in many occasions wherein if I may say it with modesty though a stranger I might have acquired a more then ordinary reputation if I had not changed name as often as I did places or had other designs then that subduing that cruel passion which was such a torment to my soul by putting my self apon all the employments I thought likely to produce that effect but in all this Discourse I shall not have a word to say of any amorous adventure nor indeed ought that may afford you any diversion The Particulars of what I now tell you in brief I shall give you when you please to desire it as far as my memory will prove faithful to me begging your pardon in the mean time that I cannot entertain you with any thing that is pleasant Julia could not forbear smiling at this discourse of Antonius which Marcellus observing In troth Madam said he to her if Antonius had spoken for me he would have told you the same thing he hath said for himself it having been my fate also to travel into several Nations though not neer so many as he and not to have met with any adventure worth the relation I have seen both Mauritania Libia and I am so stung with regret and confusion at what caused my departure and egaged me in that progress that I shall as much as lies in my power avoid all occasious of making any mention thereof Nay then for ought I perceive replies the daughter of Augustus you are not either of you much disposed to give us the relation we desire you should and if it be such as you tell us I think we may excuse you or at least reserve it for another time when we shall be more inclined to hear of wars and travels Thus were Marcellus and Antonius dispensed with as to the relation of their adventures and not long after Julia falling into some private discourse with Marcellus and Antonius Alexander Ptolomey and Ovid with Antonia Artemisa Marcio and Agrippina while the Queen of Aethipio whispering Cleopatra in the ear was telling her that failing to see Caesaria that night she had given Clitia order to send him by Eteocles an account of all had hapned to them Agrippa who had kept silence all the time and had been very pensive all the night found an opportunity to come at Elisa who out of the sweetness of her disposition and the respect she had for his vertue durst not shun him as she would have done some other person and laying hold of an occasion which he met not with so often as he desired he laid to her all that a violent yet respectful passion such as his could inspire him with and satisfied her of the violence of his sufferings much beyond what he had ever done before Elisa entertained that confirmation with abundance of grief and an affliction so much the greater for that Agrippa was a person vertuous and powerful and one she would not dis-oblige if she could avoid it Whence it came that she answered discourses with much moderation and mildness but when she found her self too far urged and reduced to a necessity of expressing her self more fully looking on him with a countenance wherein he might observe much more regret then aversion for his person My Lord said she to him the favours you have out of your goodness done me are extraordinary and I doubt not but I ought in some measure to make my acknowledgments to you for the protection I have found from Augustus against the persecutions of Tigranes but you will give me leave to complain of the violence you do me since I cannot interpret otherwise the perseverance you express in pressing me to things which it is impossible for me to grant and to make it my suit to you with the greatest importunity imaginable that you will content your self with the esteem the acknowledgments and the respects I shall have for you while I live and not to persist any longer in a passion whereof you will never have any satisfaction and by which you will make me the most unhappy creature in the world Elisa delivered these words with such an action as convinced Agrippa they came from her heart and he was accordingly more troubled thereat then at any accident had ever happened to him He continued a while without making her any Answer but at last re-assuming the Discourse May the Gods said he to her send me death rather then the least occasion that may contribute to your mis-fortune and if my love be any hindrance to your happiness may it end with my life that I may no longer disturb the enjoyments I so heartily wish you Whereupon not able to suppress his grief and excusing himself upon indisposition not feigned but real whereof he then felt his first assaults he took leave of the Company Julia with the Daughters of Octavia the Brothers of Cleopatra and Artemisa not long after withdrew also and Elisa and Candace staid some time longer with Cleopatra not able to give over speaking so soon of their common adventure I ever had a jealousie saies Candace that Cornelius had some design upon me but could never have imagined that in the Court nay I may almost say in the presence of his Master he would have attempted any such thing I was very much afraid added the Princess of Parthia Tigranes should have engaged himself in such an enterprise as he hath but being so neer Caesar I thought my self so secure as that I needed not fear any such thing And I had reason says the Daughter of Anthony to fear all things from Tiberius and know not how
which necessity forces me to be the occasion of and whereof the consequences will not haply be so fatal as you imagine With which words he commanded Mecenas to conduct the Queen to her Lodgings and having saluted the other Princesses went on without any further stay Candace was accordingly carried to her Chamber where she was in a most deplorable condition as hoping not any thing of favour from the discourses of the Emperour and imagining them more dangerous then open threats Cleopatra whose opinion thereof was the same and who was no less troubled thereat could afford her no comfort and Elisa conceiving their grief proceeded from too just a ground and being also burthened with her own misfortune wept with them without saying ought to either It was not long ere they were visited by all those persons whose generosity was greater then to fear Caesars displeasure for visiting such as he was dissatisfied with so that of that illustrious company of Kings Princes and great Princesses there was a considerable number whom that consideration could not deter from acquitting themselves of the civilities due to the merit and quality of those great Princesses Julius Antonius Alexander and Ptolomey were among the first that came to them and if the two younger bewailed the misfortune of a Brother whom they had not many dayes been made acquainted with Antonius thought himself but too much concerned in the affliction of his Sister and Brothers not to make upon that occasion discoveries of affection great as those of Alexander and Ptolomey Marcellus though a person the most engaged in the interests of Augustus was with them almost as soon as the three Brothers and while he was comforting the two Princesses with the protestations which might be expected from a generous and daring Friendship Candace looking very sadly upon him and speaking to him by her countenance no less than by her discourse My Lord said she to him all the hope Cleopatra hath of the safety of her Servant is in you but she withal implores your assistance for her Brother and I who am a wretched stranger here am content to derive all from her recommendation It is not unlikely you may know he is such a Brother as is not unworthy the blood that runs in his veins nor the name he bears and it is from you in fine that we expect all the happiness we are capable of Madam replies the Son of Octavia I wish my mediation may prove as effectual with Augustus upon this occasion as it hath sometime been upon others of less consequence you might be confident of obtaining your desires but be what will the issue of it no consideration of either fortune blood or life shall divert me from endeavouring the rescue of these two Princes out of the danger you fear they may come to and as I am oblig'd upon the account of honour friendship to relieve one of them I am tyed to do all that I can for the other for your sake and out of the affection I have for the Princess Cleopatra and her Brothers whom I have ever looked on as my own engaged to do all that lies in my power for the other Marcellus was upon this Discourse when the Princess Octavia a person of generosity great as that of her Sons comes into the room with all the Princesses and not long after her the King of Armenia with the Princesses his Sisters Olympia and Philadelph Presently after came in the King of the Scythians with King Archelaus and whereas Drusus thought himself obliged to keep away rather out of a Punctilio of honour then any fear of displeasing the Emperour he entreated the gallant Cressus to assure the Princess Cleopatra that though Brother to Tiberius and son to Livia he allowed their sentiments no further then he was engaged in honour and that haply his desires to serve her were not inferiour to theirs who had the opportunity to make a freer profession thereof Artaban came not among them as having left Elisa's Chamber immediatly after Augustus and being gone into the most solitary walks of the Palace Garden to pass away the time in a solitude more suitable to the humour he was in then would have been in a company wherein he could not easily have smothered his resentments Candace desired of Octavia the same assistances which she had done before of Marcellus and she found in that truly great and vertuous Princess sentiments consonant to the assurances which all the world had of her admirable vertue All the illustrious persons that were present profered the contribution of their endeavours with a generosity which upon such an occasion it was only for such noble minds to discover Ariobarzanes and Philadelph betrayed a more then ordinary zeal and earnestness to serve the Illustrious distressed persons and King Alcamenes who bore the Princess Cleopatra a respect full of admiration and who in all things expressed a devotion to vertue protested he would make it no less his business then if it were for the preservation of his own life These two accidents hapning in a manner on the same day had chang'd the face of Alexandria and interrupted all the divertisements that were intended there The unfortunate Coriolanus was shut up in the Castle with a strong and strict guard upon him though attended in all things as a Prince having also Aemilius and Strato who was returned to wait upon him Caesario had the same accommodations though in another part of it and both were in a manner at the same point of despair as to matter of life Their two Illustrious Princesses were overwhelmed with grief and raised in all that came near them a compassion for their sufferings Elisa moved to pitty at the misfortune of her so dear friends and as much as might be disordered through the love of Agrippa and Augustus's prosecution of it thought her self as much at a distance with happiness as they Agrippa grown extravagant through the love he had for Elisa and in a manner lost to all hope entertained the assistances of Caesar with some dissatisfaction and put his friends into a fear what might be the issue of his sickness Tiberius and Tigranes wounded in their beds and abhorred by the Princesses they adored found torment enough in their rage and exasperation Drusus having a violent love for Antonia but neither the opportunity to see her as often as he desired nor to follow the inspirations of his vertue and affection thought himself sufficiently miserable Alexander orepressed with grief at the misfortunes of Coriolanus and Caesario was incapable of those enjoyments which had it not been for that he would have had in the sight and presence of Artemisa Marcellus for the same reasons was equally unfortunate and could not be at rest while his friend was in danger though Julia who had a natural aversion for sadness endeavoured to divert him from it as much as lay in her power Ariobarzones Philadelp and Arminius had been indisputably happy as
had had so much horrour nor the joy which she might conceive at her being delivered from the danger that threatned her could hinder from paying that tribute for the loss of a Father Yet was her suffering but little in comparison to what she should have felt had it been for a father of a different nature from that of Phraates nay unless it were in a disposition excellent as hers that news had rather met with joy and consolation Artaban himself who in all probability should not have been dissatisfied thereat and who indeed was not extreamly troubled receiv'd it with so much moderation that even in the apprehension of the Queen he seem'd to be griev'd though he had not observed any discovery of sadness among all the persons of her retinue at last when the Princess had recovered her self so as to give attention to the Queen and that she had her self wiped the tears that stuck in her face she thus re-assumed the Discourse The History of PHRAATES IT is to our regret Daughter that we must acknowledge that King Phraates my husband and your Father leaves a memory behind him that blasts the glory of the Arsacides and makes his death look'd on as a remarkable stroke of divine justice He was no sooner come to an age fit to command but to secure himself in the government he cut off all his Brothers defiling the royal house with their innocent blood and it was with much ado that Prince Tiridates made a shift to escape his fury by a flight that lasted as long as he lived King Orodes his father whom he had divested of all authority supported not without much grief the death of so many of his children whom he saw dispatched by their Brother and being forced by a just resentment to reproach him with his cruelty this unnatural Son had no more respect to the Father then he had had to the Brothers but caused the wretched old man to be strangled whose life had indeed been but too long since the end of it was to be so horrid spectacles 'T is so much the more horrour at least to me to reflect on these things for that these actions have been committed by a person whose memory we ought to honor For which reason it is that I slightly pass them over nor shall insist much on any of the actions of his life which have raised him to the reputation of the most cruel Prince upon earth You know Daughter the pains I have taken to remit the savageness of his inclinations by all the power I could derive from the affection he had expressed towards me as also how often by opposing his intentions when I saw him bent upon some unjust and cruel resolution I have been in danger to run the same fortunes with his Brother I have often run that hazard during the course of his Reign though out of the respect I bore him I kept it from the world as much as lay in my power but more particularly for my endeavours to divert him from the resolution he had taken to have you married to Tigranes You know all I did to hinder it and cannot charge me Daughter that either out of fear or any other consideration I neglected to make the greatest advantages I could of the small credit I had with him I spoke I intreated I wept I was no less troubled at it then your self and you may well remember there was little difference between the discoveries of your grief thereat and those of mine Yet could not all divert him from his cruel design and I was in the same extremities not long after when I would have hindred him from sending Artaban loaden with Chains to the King of Media his professed enemy I sufficiently represented to him what thoughts all the world would have of his ingratitude towards a person who had preserved his Crown and made him Master of that of his enemy I then endeavoured to make him sensible of all the particular obligations we had received from that gallant person and from that first action of his whereby he engaged us to him to the last he had done for us I omitted not any whence he might derive sentiments contrary to the cruelty he exercised upon him But all my discourses instead of pacifying exasperated him the more and after he had cast it in my teeth that I favoured the unworthy inclinations of his daughter he threatned me so highly that I had reason to stand in fear of a thing which upon the least eruptions of his displeasure was so familiar with him as death You may call to mind in what a sad condition you left me at that strange departure and how unfortunate soever you might think your self yet you concluded my condition to be no happier than your own Some days passed away wherein Phraates as it were cloy'd with the revenge he thought he had taken of Artaban seemed to be pacified insomuch that he permitted me to spend them in solitude to bewail with more freedome the departure of a Daughter whom I loved so dearly and saw so unfortunate Those he admitted to his counsel had several times represented to him that having but one only Daughter and in all probability to be Heir to the Crown he should either marry her to some Prince of the Royal Blood of Parthia and not to Tigranes who was a stranger thereto a Prince less powerful than himself and partly dependent on the Roman Empire or if he were resolved to bestow his Daughter on him he should still detain her with him as Heir to a Monarchy incomparably greater than that of her Husband But though he saw much reason in this discourse yet did he slight it and told his Councellors that he would first punish Elisa for her unworthy carriage in loving a person inferiour to her and conceiving inclinations contrary to those of her Father that he would send her away as not being able to endure her sight without aversion and that he looked not on her as his Heir hoping yet to have others his age being such as that he might a long time entertain that hope Nay he said further to some of his confidents from whom I have had it since his death That if he had any design to leave the Crown to Elisa he would have taken care it should not come to Tigranes that he was not so weak in matters of pocy as to make such a choice and that if he despaired of other Heirs of my body his intentention was to put me away or by some other course dispatch me and marry a young Wife that should bring him Sons fit to succeed him This was really his design so that Tigranes had vainly hoped with the enjoyment of Elisa the possession of the Parthian Crown His thoughts ran upon it and he had haply pitch'd upon her in his mind who was to succeed in my place when we find the Medes to whom he had delivered you to be conveyed to Tigranes
others had made were observed which was that what was past should be pardoned and that the people should not be called to account for a misfortune which the King run himself upon first by his cruelty and afterwards by his imprudence in hazarding himself as he had done and assaulting with so much animosity and so little foresight an armed and an exasperated multitude That for his own part he assured me of his fidelity to the last gasp and protested he was not glad at the Kings death though he had pronounced the sentence of his against him and that that day might haply have been the last of his life if the Gods had not by so unexpected a resolution prevented it That the people were ready to honour and acknowledge me for their gracious Queen that the most eminent persons were the more confirmed in that sentiment and that all desired the Princes might be sought out and setled in the throne of her Ancestors with a husband fit to govern them Such favourable dispositions in the hearts of our Subjects delivered me from all my fears and somewhat alleviated my misfortune and in fine Artanez did so well with the assistance of other well-affected persons that the next day all things were wholly appeased and the next to that the Kings body was disposed among the Monuments of the Arsacides with little pomp but with the same Ceremonies and as if he had dyed a natural death Two dayes after Artanez on whom I dis-burthened my self of some part of the government tels me that the most eminent among the Parthians and with them the people though ready enough to obey me desired a general Assembly wherein it might be considered what were to be done for the recovery of the Princess and the joyning of her to a husband that should succeed Phraates and govern them with more moderation then he had done I thought their desires very just and suitable to my own intentions since that they thereby discovered that they looked not on Venonez Phraates's natural son who was brought up at Rome with some pretence to the Crown so that a day being appointed all the principal Nobility among the Parthians met with several representatives of the people having all freedome of debate about what the whole Nation was concerned in The first thing resolved on was to oppose the pretensions of Venonez if so be he had any and to maintain against the Bastard the right of the lawful Princess to the last man This passed it was taken into consideration how the Princess should be found out and that to that purpose such persons should be imployed as the State were assured of and afterward it was proposed that she might make choice of a husband worthy her and the rank she is to be of But it was generally declared by all that it should not be Tigranes that he was a stranger an Allie if not a dependent on the Romanes and which is more that he was their enemy and not affected by the Princess who was not to be denied the liberty of her own choice There were those among the Souldiery who gave their Votes that Artaban should be their King that he was a person not hated by their Princess that the Crown was due to his valour and that under such a Prince as Artaban was they should fear neither the Medes nor the Romanes nor all the forces nor powers of the World This Discourse was no sooner started but the Assembly rung again with the name of Artaban so that the major voice was that Artaban should be chosen King But all the most eminent persons among the Parthians being present and among those many that were allyed to the House of the Arsacides who were flatter'd with a hope of being preferred before persons of a lower rank then themselves there was a considerable number of them that opposed the Proposition made in favour of Artaban and represented to the multitude that desired him That Artaban was indeed worthy the Government design'd him that upon the account of his Valour he might aspire to any thing and that his worth was such as that nothing was too great for him but that they would not have an unknown person placed in the Throne of Arsaces which had never been possessed but by Princes of the most illustrious bloud in the World and that those very persons who so much desired him would in a short time think it a regret to obey a Man whose Birth was nothing above their own Several persons had heard this discourse and it began to get credit among the multitude when Artanez who should have been the most likely to countenance it as being by reason of his Rank and the Bloud-Royal whereof he was the most concerned in it having with much patience heard the opinions of all the rest assumes the discourse and looking on the Nobles and People with such an action as whence they imagined he had some great matter to acquaint them withal I approve said he to them the fidelity of the Parthians and the zeal they express for the welfare of the State and the interest of their Queen and I am to acknowledge it the goodness of the Gods that I am this day in a capacity to satisfie both according to their just intentions These gallant Souldiers and brave Men who by their Swords have maintained this Monarchy have reason to desire for their Prince the same Artaban under whose conduct they have gain'd so many famous Victories and those whom Blood hath raised to the highest Dignities of this Kingdome desire with justice a Prince for their Soveraign But to satisfie all I am now to declare that Artaban is not onely a Prince born but a Prince of the same Blood with their Kings that he is descended from the great Arsaces as well as Phraates and that this truth will be undeniable when it shall be acknowledged that he is my Son It is certain O ye Parthians continued he Artaban is my Son and there are many persons among you who may call to mind that they have seen a Son of mine of that very name of Artaban which was also that of my Father and of the same age who about his tenth year accompanied me in my escape and whom since to elude the cruel designs of the King who attempted his life as well as mine I sent to be brought up in strange Nations He came back to me about the beginning of the War between the Parthians and the Medes and out of the resentment I had against the King who desisted not his persecutions of me even in my solitude I sent him to the service of the King of Media where by his Valour he soon came to the highest Commands in the Army Yet thought I not fit even then to discover this truth but have still conceal'd it though I have had secret conferences with Artaban as with a Friend and not as with a Son Nay I had caused it to be given out that
careless of all things Having had this account from Arsanes we suffered him to pursue his voyage and quitting our course towards Lybia made for Alexandria where after a dangerous voyage by reason of foul weather wherein we were like to have been lost I am at last safely arrived and as happily as I could have wish'd since I find my Daughter and with her Prince Artaban both in a condition to pass away your lives according to my wishes and inclinations and to go and satisfie the desires of the Parthians who impatiently expects you to put upon your heads the Crown of their Monarchs This was the closure of the Queens discourse and she had no sooner given over speaking but Artaban cast himself at her feet and embrac'd her knees with all the discoveries of the greatest and humblest acknowledgement which she could have expected from the meanest of her subjects The Queen embraced him as a Son and looking on him as the person who within a few days was to be King of Parthia she could not receive those submissions from him but forced him to rise and seat himself as before He obey'd her not till he had done the same homage to the Princess with greater expressions of love and respect then he had ever discovered before But though he saw her in countenance the marks of a joy she could not well dissemble yet was there not the least appearance of any in his and instead of entertaining with any excess of gladness the discovery of a happiness to which he aspired but with very doubtful hopes he continued in the same posture he was in before the Queen's discourse nay seemed rather to be somewhat less chearful Elisa and the Queen were not a little dissatisfied thereat insomuch that the Queen having a greater confidence then her Daughter upon that occasion asked him Whether he found any thing in the discourse she had entertained him with whence he might derive any sadness Artaban knew wll enough what had given the Queen occasion to put that question to him and making her answer with certain sighs which forc'd their way out Madam said he to her the Fortune you bring me tidings of is such as whereof there is not any among men nay not among the Gods lif may presume so highly can entertain the discovery with moderation but with all this I can conceive no other joy thereat then what might proceed from a pleasant Dream or rather being built upon a Foundation I shall my self presently shake I cannot rejoice thereat I might Madam said he to the Queen and I might Madam continued he addressing himself to the Princess suffer you to continue in an errour which for ought I perceive you are much satisfi'd in nay an errour which makes infinitely for my advantage But may it not please the Gods how great soever the Fortune may be whereto you would raise me that I should purchase it by a Cheat and may all my hopes be defeated with my life before I put any Trick upon my Princess If Artaban descended onely of Noble Bloud or rather if Britomarius whose Fortune consists in his Sword be worthy the glory to serve you dispose of his life and make his condition such as you desire it but if to merit the Honour you would do me I must be a Prince descended from Arsaces reserve it for some other whose Birth hath been happier than mine Not but that I feel something stirring in my heart as great as if I were a Prince of that Bloud but in fine Madam I must disclaim it Artanez is not my Father and I were too unworthy the Fortune you offer me should I be won to endeavour it by falshood and an unjust pretence These words of Artaban which he uttered with a courage wholly admirable struck a paleness into the Princess 's countenance and fill'd her heart with a sudden grief She cast her eyes on Artaban but with a look such as wherein he could not but observe her displeasure through her grief and presently after fastened them on the ground out of an astonishment that suffer'd her not to speak But the Queen was not in a like distraction and after she had a while looked very earnestly on him Artaban said she to him do you think the Present made you so inconsiderable that to avoid it you will disclaim a glorious birth and prefer the condition of a private person before that of a Prince of the Bloud of Arsaces together with Elisa and the Parthian Crown I prefer replies Artaban the Glory to serve Elisa before the bloud of the Gods and the Empire of the Universe but if that glory be reserv'd for a Prince descended from Arsaces it is not for the unfortunate Britomarius to pretend thereto Britomarius is the name I receiv'd at my birth under that name of Britomarius I passed away my younger years in the service of the Queen of Ethiopia under that name I first serv'd in the Wars under the King of Armenia and I have had the happiness to make it remarkable therein by some advantages I derived from my Sword and Fortune And I will discover to you in few words if you will give me leave how I came to that of Artaban which I have continu'd out of a respect to the honour I have had to serve the Princess Elisa under that name and which for that very reason I have preferr'd before that of Britomarius This discourse shall not take up many words and as I looked on this particular of my life as that of least importance so is it that onely which my Princess hath not had an account of After I had rendred some considerable services to the King of Armenia in the War he was engag'd in against the King of Media and which made the name of Britomarius known in his Armies and Dominions by some fortunate successes having not been able to disswade him from a cruelty he exercised on certain Princes I had taken prisoners and having dis-engag'd my self from him upon the opposition I would have made of a most injurious and ungrateful treatment I much dissatisfi'd quitted his service and left his Dominions with a design to follow the Wars elsewhere and fasten on the occasions of acquiring Fame which I preferred before all things With these thoughts I took my way having not many persons about me as being unwilling to make any advantage of the services I had done that cruel King when coming to the Frontiers between that Kingdome and Media and crossing a thick Wood I at first heard a confused noise accompany'd with certain cries and soon after coming up to see what the matter was I found several persons engaged in an unequal combat or rather in a base and villanous assassinate Divers men arm'd all over and well mounted had set upon a single man who without any other arms then his Sword was Hunting in the Wood with some Servants no better furnished than himself and being a person of much valour
to the Castle and without further Ceremony put to death Coriolanus and Cesario and to bring away thence Cleopatra Marcellus and Drusus by violence He at the same time ordered Geminius to go and find out Varus who guarded Artaban and to carry him under a strong guard to the Castle where the other Princes were secured and where they were to dye that day and commanded Norbanus to secure the children of Anthony out of a fear that to prevent the death of their brother Cesario and to serve their sister Cleopatra they might endeavour to make an insurrection in Alexandria where the blood of the Ptolomies was in a sacred veneration and the government of the Romans abhorred He issued out these Orders with so much precipitation and noise that they were immediately known all over the Palace and thence spread into the City before the persons whom he had entrusted with the execution thereof were in a condition to effect it Queen Candace who had her Spies every where and was ingaged in an enterprise worthy her great courage had present notice brought her whereupon not losing any time as knowing there was very little to lose she left her chamber and the Palace taking Clitia with her and ran a foot as she was to that quarter of the City where Etcocles expected her Orders with the Aethiopians and a considerable number of the Inhabitants of Alexandria whom having tampered with he had engaged to hazard all things to save the blood of their Kings from being spilt As she went out of the Palace she met Alexander and Ptolomey ready to take the alarm upon a confused noise that was come to their ears Upon the first sight she runs to them and speaking to them with a courage infinitely transcending her Sex Alexander and Ptolomey said she to them sons of Cleopatra and brothers to Cesario will you suffer your brother to be put to a cruel death and your selves to be thrust into chains as Cesar hath given order No we will rather lose our lives with him replies Alexander and go undaunted where our blood and honour require our assistances Come then along with me said she to him and I will shew you a way to save him and haply to free your selves from tyranny With these words she took the two Brothers in both her hands and walked between them towards the quarter where Eteocles was with the Aethiopians guided by Clitia who was acquainted with the design The two Princes led her along with a resolution worthy themselves and their just resentment made their eyes sparkle with a fire which was not ordinarily observable in them The people seeing them pass by in that posture flocked about them upon which the two Princes discovering themselves were easily known to be the children of Anthony and Cleopatra so that the Queen thinking it not amiss to say somthing to them People of Alexandria said she as she passed by will you suffer what is remaining of the blood of your Kings to be this day spilt Cesario sometimes your beloved Prince is in prison where the executioner is haply now cutting his throat by order from your Tyrant and see here his Brothers who expect the same fate if you rescue them not Though she said this without making any halt yet did it prove in some measure effectual and the Princes adding thereto somewhat to the same effect they found the people naturally affectionate to their Princes and abhorring the Roman usurpation so well disposed that before they were come to the place where Eteocles expected them they were followed with three or four hundred persons armed as people are wont to be upon the like occasions All histories that have made mention of Candace have given her the character of a Queen of a very great courage and one that durst engage in the greatest enterprises and acquainted the world with the great actions she did some time after against Petronius Governour of Egypt carrying on the War in person and gaining great advantages upon him insomuch that what she attempted and did upon that occasion ought to be entertained with more credit then if it had been performed by a person not so extraordinary The pressing extremity she was then reduced to occasioned the hastening of a design which she had resolved to put in execution that night as conceiving her self not strong enough to attempt it in the day time which was with Eteocles and the three hundred Ethiopians who attended Caesario to Alexandria and whom Eteocles had secretly brought out of the ships and the assistance of a good number of the Inhabitants of Alexandria drawn in by Eteocles to storm the Castle in the dark Eteocles having to that purpose provided scaling ladders and faggots to fill the Moat where it was of least depth No sooner had that faithful Governour seen the Queen appear with the two Brothers of Caesario but he imagined what was to be done as conceiving by the posture they were in and that of the people following them that all was desperate as to the safety of Caesario and that they must be forced to the extremities on which they had resolved though the time was not so favourable as that which they had appointed The Queen having confirmed him in that judgment by the few words she said coming up to him he commanded the Ethiopians out of the houses where he had lodged and considering that the successe of his enterprise consisted in expedition and that the Castle was to be forced before the Pretorian bands which were quartered in the Suburbs and about Alexandria could be gotten together to relieve it unless the whole City should take up arms for them which he durst not presume he immediately caused to advance both those that had any arms and those who carried the Fagots and Ladders The two Princes having in few words encouraged them led them on and could not hinder the courageous Queen from marching with them telling them She scorn'd to be safe if they miscarried and that she would rather die then fall again into the hands of Caesar The three hundred Ethiopians were well armed and marched in very good order followed as well by those who were come in to the Queen as those whom Eteocles had gained which were above five hundred Citizens in arms of whom she had employed two hundred to carry the Faggots and Ladders Their forces increased through a report that was spread about the City that the children of Queen Cleopatra were to be put to death and the two Princes with the Queen were gotten into the head of above eight hundred men and advancing towards the Castle when passing through a spacious place they discovered a party of Souldiers about a Chariot upon which the Queen having asked a man that came before bitterly weeping and whose countenance she imagined she knew who those persons were whom she saw appear the man who was Briton the faithful Governour of Pompey's Son told her they were carrying the valiant
I dye I shall quarrel at Augustus all he can do is to put me to an ordinary death a thing I have often defied in occasions hazardous enough but you would make it such to me by your fatal resolution as no courage can endure without falling into the worst of despair Consider that to the injuries you do me you add an irrepairable offence against Heaven and that all nature is concerned in your cruelty when you destroy what the Gods and she had made most beautiful in the Universe that Heaven Earth all Nations all ages will blame me for the injury I do them and that thousands such lives as mine ought not to be preserved with the least danger of yours And thou cruel Friend added he turning to Marcellus thou who consirmest her in this fatal resolution by the cruel example thou gavest her wert thou not satisfied with the miseries which I should at my death derive from the considerations of my Love but must aggravate them by the effects of an unfortunate friendship or is it not to heighten the cruelty of Augustus rather than to assure me of thy friendship that thou art guilty of this barbarism towards me Example of inhumanity what wouldst thou reduce me to What is there in the loss of this wretched life that can in any degree recompence the world for what I deprive of it when it is that which was most precious in it Wouldst thou not give me a dearer and more noble demonstration of thy friendship in diverting Cleopatra from her fatal design and in living to serve and comfort her in the misfortunes whereto she may be reduced then in tormenting my eyes just when they are to be closed to eternal darkness with the delightful spectacle of the death of Cleopatra and Marcellus To these Expostulations the exasperated son of Juba added a many others which his affliction furnished his tongue withal but if those to whom he addressed them were moved thereat it was with something contrary to what he would have had them produce and that fair Cleopatra looking on him with eyes drier than his own though not wholly free from tears Trifle not away Coriolanus said she to him in complaints and fruitless resentments the small remainder of our lives and if it be any satisfaction to thee to be assured that Cleopatra loves thee enjoy it to the last gasp without troubling her as thou dost by a torment thou to no purpose inflictest on thy self Consider that thou art unjust and cruel to thy self in thy desires and if thou believest I really love thee nay so well as to dye with thee reflect what my life would signifie to me after the loss of thine Or to what wouldest thou expose me when thou desirest I should continue it after thy death Shall I live to forget thee shall I live to marry Tiberius can that hope comfort thee or if after thy death I prove constant in the affection I have for thee shall I live to bewail thy loss to my grave or dost thou think that condition happier for me than the death I would suffer with thee Consider Coriolanus that grief distracts thee and that thou canst not desire I should survive thee without doing me an injury in imagining me either capable of comfort or that I can forget thee or which is worse make me too unfortunate by condemning me to eternal degrees Forbear therefore to press me any further who with the consent of my Brothers that hear us have not given thee the name of Husband but with a resolution never to forsake thee but endeavour to prevail with Marcellus whose fortunes should be happy if with time he may overcome the grief he may conceive at the loss of his Friend He hath not the same reasons which I have to alledge to thee and hath no doubt those obligations to Julia which I have not to any I shall leave in the world behind me Represent to Drusus what may be expected from him by Antonia to Alexander what from him by Artemisa to Ptolomey what from him by Marcia and to Julius Antonius what from him in order to the continuance of an illustrious blood whereof he is the first As to what Julia may expect from me said Marcellus interrupting her it cannot dispence with me as to what I owe my friend These obligations are not inconsistent besides that I can owe no less than my self for the reparation of an injury I have done my self by persecuting a too faithful too unfortunate friend And I can owe no less than my self to the revenge of Augustus's cruelty who will needs sacrifice his life whom he loves as his son to his unjust resentments and cruel maxims For my part saies Drusus I am not any way to be pityed since I am Son and Brother to those who are the occasions of your ruine and that by this action I assure Antonia of what all the precedent of my life could never perswade her to And for us added Prince Alexander speaking for himself and Ptolomey we cannot expect any acknowledgment for our contempt of death for besides that we could with honour but engage our selves in the concernments of a brother and sister whom the Persecutor of our House would put to death with so much cruelty he had ordered us also to be secured haply with the same intention So that it is designed then cryes out the desperate Coriolanus all should perish and that my misfortune must drag both Cleopatra and Marcellus and Drusus and all the house of Anthony to inevitable death He struck a little at that consideration and at last assuming the discourse with an action more doleful What added he shall Cleopatra Marcellus and so many illustrious persons dye through my means and shall so many excellent lives be sacrified to one so wretched as mine No no Cleopatra no Marcellus you shall never see me exposed to the misfortune you threaten me with and I will prevent it though all the earth should contribute to my unhappiness I will never see the fair eyes of Cleopatra closed up by death nor shall I expect till that horrid enemy against whom our valour avails us nothing hath wrought any change in her countenance I despair not yet with the assistances of Heaven and my own courage to secure what Love and Friendship make so dear to me since I cannot imagine I shall want them in so just a design With those words he walked up and down one while in the Chamber another in a Gallery adjoyning to it and in that manner tormented himself till it was day not entertaining the least comfort from the discourses of either Cleopatra or Marcellus Cesario was in a condition not much different through the grief he was in for Candace and Artaban though loath to forsake such illustrious Friends was nevertheless resolved to force his way through ten thousand swords or receive his death from the points of them but he would find out Elisa and deliver
satisfaction to what flattered her humour but afterwards returning to her diffidences and resolutions Flatter me no longer my dear Emilia said she I must die 't is the only remedy I know to get out of my miseries and the onely one whereto without shame I can have recourse Thus did Tullia pass over some days during which through the little love she had to life she really brought it into some danger but she was opportunely relieved and by the continual attendance and consolations of Emilia her body and mind receiving some refreshment she grew somewhat better and within a small time gave hopes of a perfect recovery From the time that I first understood from Emilia that she was sick I either sent or went my self every day to Emilia's to enquire after her health And Emilia having several times acquainted her with it she flattered her self into an imagination that Ptolomey whom I daily conversed with might be somewhat concerned in that civility insomuch that I have been told that imagination wherein Emilia confirmed her all that lay in her power contributed not a little to her recovery As soon as any were permitted to visit her Emilia whom I daily sollicited to that purpose took me along with her yet representing it to me as a very particular favour and making me believe that Tullia as yet suffered but very few persons to come to her She still kept her bed as being not thought strong enough to get up though her Fever had left her some dayes before But even in the condition she seemed to be in though she were very pale by reason of her sickness yet my love enlightening my eyes and imagination represented her to me more beautiful then any thing that pretends to beauty The sight of her raised a little disturbance in me and her looking on me bringing Ptolomey into her mind it might be perceived she was somewhat troubled and surprized Coming near the bed Emilia who presented me to her assuming the discourse Lentulus said she to Tullia was so officious to releive you in that accident which occasioned your indisposition that it is but just he should be admitted among the first to visit you and that he should congratulate the recovery of your health proportionably to the affliction he conceived at your sickness I was in such a disturbance through the earnestness of my Passion or to say better at such a loss that not able to add any thing to Emilia's discourse I suffered Tullia to second what she said who gave me thanks as well for the assistance I had afforded her in Lucullus's Garden as the tenderness I had expressed towards her during her sickness and the pains I had taken to visit her I replyed to her discourse in the complements ordinary upon such occasions and which I repeat not because that kind of entertainment deserves not to be brought upon the Stage a second time nor indeed any thing of the conversation that passed between us at that first visit which was onely about things indifferent Onely I am to tell you that I went away much more sick then I had been before and that this second sight and the discourses of Tullia widened my wound to above half what it was before Two daies after that visit I gave her another upon my own account and by the conversation we had together making experience of the admirable excellencies of her mind if before I was in love it might have been now said I had lost my self in it No doubt but my eyes and certain sighs which I was not able to keep in might have given her some notice of what I suffered in my heart but my tongue was far from the like confidence as having put me into such a fear at the first as made me dumb as soon I would open my mouth to discover my self I bethought my self therefore to manifest my intentions by other ways more solemn then those of discourse so that the day being come on which is celebrated the birth of Augustus by divers magnificent spectacles wherein the young Nobility of Rome is wont to appear with abundance of splendour and to adorn their persons and their equipage with the Liverties of the Ladies they serve I resolved to make my appearance in the Shews with the Liveries of Tullia disposing of them all about as well on my self as my Chariot and all the persons of my retinue I may presume to affirm that I was not to be numbered among those that made least appearances there and if Drusus's magnificence had not obscured all that was to be seen that day I might haply have been observed as well as divers others The Colours of Tullia are white and green which I interlac'd all about with her characters disposing them as well upon my Arms as upon whatever belong'd to me intermingled with Mottoes and Devices which as they expressed my Gallantry so were they also in some manner the demonstrations of my Passion I shall not need to trouble you Madam with any relation thereof because I doubt not but that the Princess Cleopatra hath given you a particular account of the magnificences of that day since she hath acquainted you with the Loves of Erusus who carried away all the glory of it Ptolomey who was present when I put on my cloaths and took order for all things that day and who onely knew what none else could imagine of what I had in my thoughts could not though he withal bemoan'd my case forbear laughing at the earnestness I discover'd towards a person that was at such a distance from the affection I might expect from her and in whom haply he by reason of his a version had not observ'd those excellencies which have prov'd Charms and Chains to me Many persons took notice in the solemnities of that day that my appearance therein was in the quality of Servant to Tullia though they were ignorant whether it proceeded from Love or was a pure piece of Gallantry as it might have hapned But the next day going to Emilia's whom I constantly visited and whose favour it was my main business to acquire as soon as ever she saw me You are very much to be commended said she to me for being so mindful of those that are sick and absent and I shall take occasion every where to celebrate your Generosity which hath made you neglect so many fair Ladies that were in health and present at the solemnities to bestow the honour of your magnificence on one that was absent and indisposed whom we may be haply acquainted with No question but she is of your acquaintance reply'd I very seriously but you were not very familiar with my intention if you call that Generosity which proceeds from a far more powerful cause and I may very well have endeavour'd to bestow one day with the greatest solemnity on her to whose service I have devoted those of my whole life Are you in good earnest replies Emilia or is it yet a
small remainder of Gallantry whereof to the honour of my Friend you made so great ostentation I speak to you reply'd I but with too much sincerity and as I dare acknowledge my self to you guilty of a Passion full of love innocence and vertue without derogating from the respect I owe you so I despair not your pardon if I tell you that I am and shall be while I live infinitely in love with Tullia Upon that expression Emilia putting on a serious countenance I think my Kinswoman very happy said she to me to have gain'd the affections of a person equal as to worth and extraction to Lentulus and certainly I could not have wish'd any thing more to her advantage But since the esteem I have for you is extraordinary and that I am truly tender of both your fortune and satisfaction I conceive my self oblig'd to tell you that Tullia's mind is much different from the apprehension you may have of it and it is much my fear that as things stand you will not make those advantages of your merit and the demonstrations of you Love which I could wish you might and consequently though I am as much as may be a Friend to Tullia I would advise you if it be possible to dispose your affections elsewhere This discourse of Emilia added nothing to the difficulty I had foreseen my self and assur'd of the sincerity wherewith she spake to me I was the more inclin'd to make a further discovery of my condition to her and to beg her assistance While things stood thus between us comes in Scipio of whose Friendship having a more then ordinary confidence I made no difficulty to proceed before him in the discourse I had begun to his Lady having repeated to him what I had already said of my inclinations for Tullia and protested to both that that Passion should never expire but with my life I begg'd their assistance in a design whereat their Friend could take no offence and to further my acquest of her Heart which was the only thing I wished in the world as being resolved not to make any application to her Brother till she should approve my so doing and favour my pretensions her self Emilia and Scipio listned to my discourse with much attention and seemed to be troubled at the knowledge they had of my being thus engaged but not both equally in as much as Scipio being ignorant of Tulliaes Passion for Ptolomey and foreseeing nothing might so much oppose my intentions as Tullia's severity conceived a hope that with time and a constancy of addresses it might be overcome But Emilia who knew much more then her Husband judged otherwise of the business and was almost at despair of all good success She alledg'd to me all the reasons she could concealing onely those which she knew to be most pressing and perswasive to divert me from that affection I knew them as well as her self but thought it not sit to discover so much out of an opinion that she had not acquainted her Husband with that secret of her Friend and a conceit that it was yet too soon to give her an account of the knowledge I had of it In fine they promised me all the assistance which their interest with Tullia could procure though Emilia sufficiently discovered that it was with little hope of success that she made me that promise and that it was apparent in the carriage of Scipio that the unfortunate issue of the design he had been engaged in to serve Julius Antonius in his addresses to that inexorable Beauty had much deterred him from undertaking the like employment for any other that should pretend to her affections And yet they might both very well undertake to do me some favour in my affairs without any injury to the Friendship they had for Tullia and if I may be allowed to speak it my self both as to birth and whatever else is of importance in order to marriage the advantage of the Match lay rather on my side then Tullia's nor could Emilia though ever so much concerned in her affairs do any thing more truly advantageous for her Friend then by endeavouring to wean her out of an affection contrary to her content glory and establishment to engage her into another wherein she might find whatever she lost in the other From that very day did she endeavour to represent as a very great obligation what I had done for her honour at the publick Shews and to perswade her that it was not as she would needs interpret it an effect of pure Gallantry Tullia was as earnest in the contrary opinion and maintained very stifly that there was yet less probability it should proceed from any love to her and that in all likelyhood I could not have fallen in love with a person I had no oftner seen and whom when I had I had found in a condition more likely to raise compassion then love After a long contestation wherein Emilia thought it not fit to acquaint her with the confession I had made to her I should be very glad added she pretending to comply with Tullia's judgement my opinion should prove false and yours true and whereas Lentulus is no doubt a person of very much worth and deserves a very good fortune all that know him are obliged to wish for his sake that he would not address his affections where they are so slightly entertained You are much in the right answers Tullia and it is the greatest misfortune could have happened to Lentulus to love an unfortunate wretch that shall never be capable of any sentiments for him other then the esteem due to his Merit and one whose heart is already unhappily engaged for that remainder which she expects of life It may be hoped replies Emilia that that engagement will not bear date with your life and besides the assistance you may expect from your courage it is not impossible but that the services of some worthy person that casts his affection on you will force out of your mind the memory of a man that neither loves you nor you would by any means affect Ah my dear Emilia replies Tullia let 's have no more discourse of it you are too well acquainted with my misfortune to be really of that opinion nor is it for me to flatter my self any longer in the misery whereto I am reduced With these words she so burst forth into tears that Emilia deploring her condition was obliged to fall upon some other discourse While Tullia continu'd thus in a fruitless consumption for Ptolomey I might be truly said to die a gradual death for Tullia and what was worst I lay still dying and durst not open my mouth to discover to her the disease that hasten'd me to my Grave Not that I am naturally a wanting as to confidence or that I was afraid to offend Tullia by acquainting her with the passion I had for her but the knowledge I had of her unfortunate prepossession benumb'd my heart
he to do my self that right which you deny me and no doubt but my endeavours had proved effectual if Fortune had not been so much against me What reply'd Augustus with a little fally of indignation would you presume in my Court nay in my sight to put so unjustifiable an enterprize in execution and shew so little respect to Caesar in a place where you know you are absolutely at his disposal I have ever my Lord. replyed the Midian thought it lawfull in any place for me to take my own Wife to me and that Caesar notwithstanding his absolute power could not with reason detain her from me You have been extreamly mistaken in your account reply'd the Emperour and did I not find you in a condition whereby you are in some measure punished for your temerity I should make you know you know you ought not upon any right or ground whatsoever have attempted any thing against a Princess I had into my protection With those words turning to the Captains of his Gaurd he commanded he should be carried to Alexandria and a strong Guard set upon him And coming up to Cornelius who full of rage and confusion durst not look him in the face And thou said he to him Praefect of Aegypt is it thus thou dost behave thy self in thy Charge and oppose the violences that are committed in the Provinces over which I had entrusted thee The much grieved Cornelius endured divers other reproaches from his incensed Lord and at last deriving courage from his despair and having defied all fear through the rage which then possessed him My Lord said he to him I am guilty of a miscarriage but Love hath made greater men then Cornelius commit greater Take what remains of my life if you think sit for the expiation of my crime and assure your self that when it is taken from me the loss will be of a thing I do not value No doubt replyed Caesar but thy crime is such as nothing less then death can satisfie for but thy death is unworthy my displeasure and not enough to repair the injury thou hast done me thou shalt if the persons who are concerned in the affront thou hast done me will permit it but thou shalt live without Honour since thou hast lost it upon so dishonourable an account without a Government which I from this moment dispossess thee of and without that Friendship where with I have so undeservedly honoured thee Whereupon without any regard what effect his words might produce in the apprehensions of the afflicted Cornelius whom some of his Friends caused to be conveyed away with Tigranes he rides up to the Princesses and by words full of mildness and civility expressed the joy he conceived at the defeat of their enemies and his resentment for the injury had been offered them in his Court assuring them no consideration whatsoever should divert him from doing them justice as they should desire themselves Cleopatra left her two companions to answer the Emperour as having her thoughts in no small disturbance upon the sight of Coriolanus whom she thought she had known but it became much greater when the Princess heard several times the name of Tiberius pronounced and mentioned by some of the wounded and it was told her that he went aside from the main engagement with the valiant unknown person who first and alone had undertaken their rescue and that in all probability they were gone to prosecute with more freedom the Combat they had begun This discourse being made in the presence of Augustus was no sooner heard by Drusus but he immediately departs to find out his Brother and went with a considerable number of his Friends that followed him towards the place where he thought he might find him The three valiant unknown persons who had so gallantly seconded the Son of Juba in the rescue of the Princesses and who kept at a distance from the Emperour's Retinue without discovering their faces departed at the same time upon the same account and Artaban and Alcamenes who had observed the prodigious actions performed by him followed those that went with Drusus out of an intention to prevent the soul play which might haply be offered that valiant man Ariobarzanes Philadelph and Arminius immediately follow'd them whereupon the Emperour perceiving so many going that way and imagining there there might be somwhat to do on that side would needs go thither himself and having left some of his Guard about the Princesses he got on Horseback and put forward with such speed that he soon overtook the most The Princess Cleopatra who in those extremities thought not her self obliged any longer to conceal the real affection she had for Coriolanus conceived she ought not to forsake him in that distress and so effectually represented to those that were about her that it highly concern'd her to follow the Emperour that the Officers of the Guard willing to please her found one to supply the place of the Chariot-driver and after they had taken out the Horse that was killed they made a shift with the others to drive on the Chariot after the main body which went before them It was not long ere the Emperour and his illustrious attendance came to the place where the Son of Juba and the Son of Livia had put a period to their combat and they came up to them just as Coriolanus having worsted his enemy gave him a life he seemed to scorn was going to him to help him to get up Upon the appearance of such a multitude he would have gotten away but his own Horse was killed and that of Tiberius was got into the Wood far enough from the place he was in And as it would have been hard for him to get away on foot from so many men on Horseback so was it as much out of his power to conceal himself having his head disarm'd and his face bare He therefore soon resolved on what was to be done and leaning with his back to a tree at the distance of some few paces from the place where Tiberius was fallen stood with his Sword in his hand and his face turned to those that were coming towards him in the posture of a man whose courage was not to be danted by any kind of danger He immediately knew the Emperour but his presence which upon a more fortunate occasion had not been able to frighten him caused not in him so much as a change of his countenance though it came upon him at a time when he had so little desire of life and though he seemed to be not far from the period of it yet would he expect the utmost with a resolution worthy the greatness of his Soul and past actions Drusus was the first that came near him but though he loved his Brother so well as that he would have endeavoured to revenge him though with the hazard of his life yet finding his enemy in such a condition as that he could not do it with
Honour he made a sudden halt as it were to consider what he should do and it coming in his mind that Friendship obliged him no less to relieve his Brother then to revenge him he fastned on that which was most honourable and most lawful and alighting he goes to Tiberius whose loss of blood continued still by reason of the many wounds he had about him But if this accident had raised an astonishment in Drusus and all that were present that which the Emperor conceived was greater then that of any of the rest and put him for some time into such a posture as added to the admiration of all those that were about him On the one side he saw the Son of Livia for whom he had those respects and compliances as occasioned the report all over the Empire that he divided the Soveraign authority with her lying along at the foot of a tree with several wounds about him through which it was to be feared his life might leave him with his blood and on the other not many paces from him the enemy had put him into that condition but the same enemy who having trampled on his Authority even in Rome it self and reduced the same Tiberius to a condition sad as that wherein he then saw him had raised two great Kingdoms against him had forced them from his Jurisdiction with the loss of so many Milions of men who was the only person had checked the progress of his requests and that fortune which had made him Master of the Universe and who even when he was thought lost and ruined in his misfortunes was come again with the same pride and insolence not only to present himself before him but in his sight to be the death of a Son of the Empresse's a Prince he looked on as his own This consideration and all these reflections forcing themselves upon the Emperour's thoughts wrought on his spirits with so much violence and precipitation that he was not able to repress the impetuosity thereof or contain himself within any limits of moderation His displeasure broke forth at first with a certain joy and looking up towards heaven in a posture dreadful to behold I acknowledge your justice you divine Powers cryed he since you bring under my power this insolent African who with so much scorn defiedit and when I was out of all hopes to punish him for his enormous crimes you are pleased he should deliver himself up to my justice and appear before me in a condition and covered with a blood which leaves not any thing for lenity to urge on his behalf Let him be taken continued he turning to the Officers of his guard and loaden with chains conveyed to a Dungeon to be brought thence to the punishment I intend him Augustus was a person admirably kind to his Friends and good to his Subjects and govern'd all with such mildness as made them look on him rather as a Father then a Soveraign But if he were a good Emperour and a good Friend he was on the other side an implacable Enemy and in all the progress of those Wars whereby he had raised himself to that height he had never pardoned any one of his Enemies Upon this consideration all those that were about him conceived that without something of miracle there was little hope of life for Coriolanus The more vertuous could not forbear deploring his misfortune with all the discoveries of a real grief and the most considerable among them as the King of Scythia Agrippa the King of Armenia and divers others resolv'd to employ all manner of perswasion to appease the Emperours wrath but they thought it unseasonable to attempt any thing till the first erruptions of his violence were over Onely Coriolanus seemed unmoved at the danger which made that illustrious company tremble for him as well out of the natural greatness of his courage as the addition it might have received from his despair Insomuch that when in pursuance of the Emperour's command the Officers of the Guard went to him and demanded his Sword My Sword said he looking scornfully on them never leaves me but with my life and since I am to expect nothing less then death 't were better for me to lose my life while I defend it then reserve it for an ignominious punishment And perceiving those words deterred not some of the more daring from coming nearer to disarm him he gave the most forward of them a blow over the head which made him fall at the feet of his companions with a deep wound Caesar was so much incensed at that action that being at a loss of all patience and moderation and discovering in his sparkling eyes the indignation he was transported with Kill him cryed he kill him and that without any further delay Whereupon Alcamenes Arippa Ariobarzanes Artaban and others in whom the greatest actions of the son of Juba had raised a love and veneration for him came before the Emperor intreating him with the greatest earnestness and importunity possible to moderate his displeasure and to give them the hearing but of some few minutes but their intercession proved ineffectual and Augustus's rage being more enflamed by that opposition reiterated the commands he had given his guard to kill the African Prince and upon this last peremptory order the points of hundreds of swords and javelines being turned against him he would soon have lost his life if a horseman all armed had not stept before him and exposed himself to the thrusts and blows would have been made at made at him He was soon observed by Alcamenes Artaban and Arminius and known to be one of the three valiant men who before their arrival and in their company had fought so couragiously in defence of the Princesses but having taken off his Casque which he hastily snatched off his head he was known by the Emperour for him who of all the world was most dear to him his beloved Marcellus Turn said he discovering him self turn against me only the points of your swords and find a passage through my body to life of my Friend The Emperors guard had that respect for Marcellus that of so many Arms as were up to give Coriolanus his death there was not one which drew not back upon sight of that darling of the Romanes Nay the Emperour himself was upon the first apprehension so astonished at it that he knew not what to think of it as being in suspence between the different passions he strugled withal No doubt it was an excessive joy to him to see the face of a Prince dear to him as his own life but it could not withall but adde to his rage to find a Prince who should be sensible of his interests as himself so earnest in the defence of his enemy and that one against whom ever since the unworthy trick put upon him by Tiberius he had thought him sufficiently exasperated It was some time ere he was able to express what it was that troubled