Selected quad for the lemma: house_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A35232
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Female excellency, or, The ladies glory illustrated in the worthy lives and memorable actions of nine famous women, who have been renowned either for virtue or valour in several ages of the world ... : the whole adorned with poems and the picture of each lady / by R.B.
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R. B., 1632?-1725?
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1688
(1688)
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Wing C7326; ESTC R21134
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117,568
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206
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Chamberlains had conspired to murther him and in all probability their Treason had succeeded but that Mordecai the Jew happily discovered the whole Conspiracy for which the Traitors received their deserved punishment At the recital of this passage the King was somewhat moved and asked whether there were no mention of any honour or reward bestowed upon Mordecai as a recompence for this worthy service who replyed That he found nothing set down of that kind neither had he as yet received any reward upon that account Hereupon in the morning the King demanded who was in the Court and being told Haman was there who came thither more early than usual to beseech the king that he would please to give him leave to put Mordecai to death The K. commanded him to come into his presence to whom he said That as his faithful friend and servant he desired him to advise what honour and dignity was fit to be bestowed on that Person whom the K. had a very great favour respect for Haman who did not in the least doubt but the person designed to be thus advanced was himself made this confident-reply The man to whom your Majesty intends so much honour as to be counted the Kings Friend and Favourite ought to be mounted upon one of your own Horses and to be clothed with the Royal Robes with a Chain of Gold about his neck and the Imperial Crown upon his head and let one of your most Worthy Princes go before him through all the streets of the City and make proclamation That thus it shall be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honour The King liking the proposal commands Haman to go instantly to Mordecai that sate at the gate and to invest him and proclaim before him according to his own advice Haman with a heavy heart performs the Kings Orders through the whole City and Mordecai returned triumphantly to the Pallace Haman hastned home confounded and ashamed at what had happened and with tears related his strange misfortune to his Wife and Friends who all concluded That it was a very ominous accident for Mordecai was of the seed of the Jews and since he had begun to fall before him it was much to be feared that it would end in his ruin because God was with that Nation to save and defend them from their Enemies While they were thus discoursing a Messenger came from Esther to call Haman to the Banquet The King seated at this second Entertainment began again to be earnest with Esther to declare the petition and request she had to make to him since he was fully resolved to gratifie her therein yea to divide his Crown and Scepter with her rather than deny her suit To whom Esthe after a sad sigh declared the danger she and her people were in to this purpose If in the bounty of your Princely grace Your sad Petitioner may find a place To shroud her most inutterable grief Which if not there may hope for no relief If I have favour found O let my Lord Grant me my life my life so much abhorr'd To do him service and my peoples life Which now lye open to a Tyrants knife Our lives are sold 't is I 't is guiltless I Your Loyal Spouse 't is she and hers must dye The spotless bloud of me your faithful Bride Must swage the swelling of a Tyrants pride The King inraged at her discourse asks who was the man that had thus conspired the destruction of her self and all the Jews she replyed Even that wicked Haman to whom your Majesty hath given your Seal it is that perfidious Traytor that hath caused bloudy Letters to be written not to banish or sell us for Slaves for then I should have held my peace but that we should be cut off by the Sword in the Provinces of the Empire Who is the man that durst attempt this thing Where is the Traytor what am I a King May not our Subjects serve but must our Queen Be made the Subject of a Villains Spleen Is not Queen Esther bosom'd in our heart What Traytor then dares be so bold to part Our heart and us who dares attempt this thing Can Esther then be slain and not the King Reply'd the Queen the man that hath done this That cursed Haman wicked Haman is The King rose furiously from the Table and went into the Garden when Haman began to beseech Esther to intercede for him and forgive the offence he had committed and being very earnest he fell down on the bed where the Queen was when the King returning hastily back and finding him in that posture was much more displeased than before and cryed out O thou most cursed among men wilt thou ravish my Queen also Haman was so confounded at these words that he could make no reply and the Officers covered his face Hereupon one of the Chamberlains stept forth and told the King that Haman had erected a Gallows fifty foot high at his own house whereon he designed to have hanged Mordecai whereupon Ahasuerus commanded that Haman himself should be hanged thereon which was instantly executed accordingly For says the King it seemeth just and good To shed his bloud that thirsteth after bloud Who plants the tree deserves the fruit 't is fit That he who bought the purchase hansel it Hang Haman there for it is his own wood So let the Horse-leech burst himself with bloud And herein was the Justice of Heaven manifested ' not only in punishing the wickedness of Haman according to his deserts but in causing him to fall into that snare and pit he had prepared for an innocent person This was the end of that great but wretched Favourite who by abusing the interest he had in the Kings breast brought woful ruin upon himself and his whole Family his goods were given to the Queen who bestowed them on Mordecai whom the King understanding to be her Uncle he was called to the Pallace and had Hamans Ring given unto him and succeeded in his dignity After this Esther humbly intreated the King to command Letters to be sent through all the Provinces to countermand those contrived by Haman for the utter destruction of the Jews for how said she can I endure to see the ruin of my Nation and all my Relations This her request was thought very reasonable and the King granted it adding that as he had hanged Haman because of his bloudy intentions against her people so she her self should write on their behalf in his name and by his Authority to all the Governors of his Kingdom to reverse the dreadful sentence that was gone out against them In pursuance whereof the Secretaries of State were instantly imploy'd in that affair and writ to all the Magistrates of the Kingdom to this purpose Ataxerxes the Soveraign Lord and King of all the Nations that are from India to Ethiopia To the Princes and Governors of the seven and twenty Provinces of our Empire Greeting Whereas many through
against them and at length arriving at the Palace he stood at the gate it being unlawful for him to enter in that dress with many of the Jews in his company and in the same mourning attire The news hereof coming to the Queen she was much surprized and sent an Eunuch to bid him change his garments which he absolutely refused till the cause of his putting them on was removed Whereupon she again dispatcht her servant to him to know what sad occasion had induced him to put on that dispairing habit and to pour out such lamentable and incessant cries Upon which Mordecai sent her an account of the terrible edict lately published against the Jews and proclaimed through all the provinces by the Kings command with the great Sum of money which Haman had offered to pay into the Exchequer whereby he had purchased the utter desolation of the Jewish Nation and herewith he delivered a Copy of the Edict to the Messenger with a strict injunction to Esther to cloth her self in the most abject fashion and to present a petition to the king for the saving her people from the deplorable destruction decreed against them Esther having received this advertisement sent again to Mordecai to tell him That she knew not when she should be called for by the King and to presume to come into his presence without order would undoubtedly indanger her life unless the king should happen to extend the golden Scepter of mercy to her Mordecai returned answer That she ought to venture her own safety for saving the lives of her whole Nation assuring her that if she neglected their security yet Heaven would do it by some other means and she and her fathers house should be destroyed by those she had slighted and contemned Says he Go tell the Queen it resteth in her powers To help The case is hers as well as ours Go tell the fearful Queen too great 's her fear Too small her zeal her life she rates too dear How poor's th' adventure to ingage thy bloud To save thy peoples life and Nations good Who knows if God on purpose did intend Thy high preferment for this happy end If at this needful time thou spare to speak Our speedy help shall like the morning break From Heaven together with thy woes and he That succours us shall heap his plagues on thee Upon this severe reprimand the Queen sends to Mordecai commanding him to call a general assembly of the Jews to Shushan and to injoyn them to fast and pray three days for his safety and good success assuring him that she her servants would do the same and that at the end thereof she would present her self before the king and says she If I perish I perish Mordecai according to her direction caused the people to fast and pray for her and he himself made earnesâ— supplication to the Almighty To have compassion on their desolate and distressed Nation and as he had formerly preserved them and pardoned ther offences so he would graciously please to deliver them from that imminent destruction which now hung over their heads since they were now condemned to death not for any iniquity of their own but meerly because he only had incensed proud Heman against them in refusing to pay that honour and adoration to him which was due to God alone for which he had contrived this severe revenge against the whole Nation of the Jews to cut them all off from the face of the Earth The people likewise beseeched God to secure them from the outrage intended against them And Esther cast her self prostratstrate on the earth clothed in Sackcloth devoutly imploring the God of her Fathers to assist and defend her that when she should come before the King she might mollifie and perswade him to have pity upon her and her distressed people The three days being over she threw off her mourning and adorned her self in the most majestick manner that was possible and attended by her Servants went into the presence Chamber where the king sate on his Throne the splendor and glory whereof did at first somewhat astonish her When Ahasuerus holding out the golden Scepter revived her fainting Spirits and drawing near she touched the top thereof and the King very endearingly asked her What her request to him was She replyed That she only desired his Majesty to honour her with his presence at a Banquet she had prepared for him and that his dear Friend Haman might likewise attend him The King readily consented and Haman joyfully came thither Now in the midst of the Treat when the King became warm with wine he commanded Esther to declare her suit unto him assuring her he would deny her nothing she should demand Esther at present declined to discover her intent but humbly beseeched the King to come again next day with Haman and partake of another Banquet when she would fulfil his desire Ahasuerus promised to revisit her and Haman went home with great joy that he onely had the great happiness to feast with the King and Esther an honour which none of the Nobility of the Empire had ever arrived to But in his return observing Mordecai at the Court gate who would not shew him the least respect his great heart sweld with indignation against him Arriving at his house he called for his Freinds and his wife Zeresh to whom he related the glory of his riches and the greatness of his dignity whom the K. had advanced above all the Princes of the Realm and that Esther suffered no man but himself to come with the King to the Banquet and that to morrow he was again to attend his Majesty thither to a second entertainment Yet saith he all this avails me nothing nor am I in the least contented when I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the Gate and refusing to rise or shew the least reverence to me Zeresh his wife being as full of revenge and pride as he pronounced a sudden and short sentence against Mordecai advising him To cause a Gallows to be set up fifty foot high in his own Court and the next day if he did but desire the King to let him hang Mordecai thereon no doubt but it would be granted and then he might go and sup with the Queen with a merry heart This counsel pleased Haman very well and the Gallows was soon erected but Divine Providence had prepared other business for him to dispatch to make him know That no body designs the ruin of another without hastning his own destruction The evening bofore this fatal day the K. was laid upon his bed to repose himself but could get no sleep all night long without having the least appearance of care or trouble on his spirit and to imploy himself caused his Secretary to bring read before him the Chronicles of his Realm wherein among other Transactions in the reign of his Ancestors and his own he found it recorded that Bigthana and Teresh two of the Kings