he suffer deeds of such horrid nature to passe unpunished in this world what vengeance soever he without true repentance reserveth for them in the world to come as it is observable in this present History for Lewis the fourth the thirty third King of France by lineall discent comming to the Crowne being the sonne to the before-named Charles the simple and loath that so grosse a treason committed against his father should be smothered without some notable revenge being very ingenious he bethought himselfe how with the least danger or effusion of bloud in regard of the others greatnesse and alliance how to bring it about and therefore he devised this plot following He caused a letter to be writ which he himselfe did dictate and hired an English-man who came disguised like a Poste to bring it unto him as from the King his Master at such a time when many of his Peeres were present and amongst the rest this Herebert was amongst them this suborned Poste delivereth the letter to the Kings hands hee gives it to his principall Secretary who read it privately unto him who presently smiling said openly Most sure the English-men are not so wise as I esteemed them to be for our Brother of England hath signified unto me by these letters that in his Countrey a labouring-man having invited his Lord and Master to dine with him at his house and he vouchsafing to grace his Cottage with his presence in the base requitall of so noble a curtesie he caused him to be most treacherously slaine and now my Brother of England desireth my counsell to know what punishment this fellow hath deserved In which I desire to be instructed by you my Lords that hearing your censures I may returne him the more satisfactory answer The King having ended his Speech the Lords were at first silent till at length Theobant Earle of Bloyes was the first that spake and said that hee was worthy first to be tortured and after to be hanged on a Gibbet which sentence all the Lords there present confirmed and some of them amongst the rest much aggravating the punishment which also Herebert Earle of Vermendoys did approve and allow of whereupon the Kings Officers who by his Majesties appointment then waited in a with-drawing roome of purpose seised upon him with an armed guard at which sudden surprise hee being much amazed the King raising himselfe from his seat said Thou Hebert art that wicked and treacherous labourer who didst most trayterously insidiate the life of my father thy Lord and Master of which felonious act thine owne sentence hath condemned thee and die thou shalt as thou hast well deserved whereupon he was hanged on a Gibbet on the top of a Mountaine called Lodan which since his execution is called Mount Hebert to this day Bajazet the great Emperour of the Turkes who in his mighty pride thought with his numerous Army to drinke rivers dry and to weight the mountaines in a ballance who had made spoyle of many Nations and with tyranny persecuted the Christians dispersed through his vast dominions who compared the world to a Ship and himselfe to the Pilot who commanded the sayles and secured the helme yet afterwards being met in battaile by Scythian Tamberlaine and his Army being quite routed his person also taken prisoner in the field the Conquerour put this untamed beast into an iron cage and caused him to be fed from the very fragments and scraps from his table and carried along with him whither soever hee marched and onely then released him from his imprisonment when he was forced to stoope and humble his body as a blocke to tread upon whilest Tamberlaine mounted upon his steed but here ended not Gods visible Judgements against this Usurper Persecutor and Tyrant who in despaire rayling upon his Prophet Mahomet in whom he had in vaine trusted against the Iron grate in which he was inclosed beate out his owne braines and wretchedly expired Infinite are the examples to the like purpose but I will leave those Forraine to come to our Domestick extracted out of our owne Chronologers and first of King Bladud Who was the sonne of Lud Hurdribras and after the death of his father was call'd from Rome where hee had studied darke and hidden Arts and was made Governour in this Isle of Brittain in the yeare of the world foure thousand three hundred and eighteene For so testifieth Gualfride Polichronicon and other ancient remembrancers This Bladud was altogether devoted to the study of Magick and Necromancy and very expert in Judiciall Astrology by which he is said to make the hot Baths in the Towne then called Caerbadon but now Bath which Citie he is said to have erected This King caused the Art of Magick to be taught through his Realm and ordained Schooles and Schoole masters to that purpose in which hee tooke such pride and presumption as that he thought by it all things were possible to be done so much the Devill the first master and founder of that Art had deluded him so farre that at the length having called a great confluence of his people about him he made an attempt to flie in the arre but fell upon the Temple of his god Apollo where he brake his neck his body being torne and bruised after he had raigned twenty yeares leaving a sonne called Leire to succeed him and continue his posterity Goodwin Earle of west Saxon in the time of Edward the sonne of Egelredus was of that insufferable ambition by reason of his great revenues and numerous issue for he had five sonnes and one daughter that he swayed the whole Kingdome and almost compulsively compelled the King his Soveraigne to take his daughter Edith to wife After rebelling against the King and forced with his sonnes to depart the Land yet after he made such meanes that hee mediated his peace and was reconciled to him 〈◊〉 but amongst all his other insolencies he was accessary to the death of the Kings brother or at least much suspected to be so which was the first breach betwixt his Soveraigne and him But so it happened in the thirteenth yeare of the raigne of this King Edward Earle Goodwin upon an Easter Monday sitting with diverse other Lords and Peeres of the Kingdome at the Kings table in the Castle of Windsor it happened one of the Kings Cup â—eaâ—â—â—s to stumble and yet well to recover himselfe without falling and not spilling any of the wine which Earle Goodwin observing laughed aloud and said There one brother helped the other thereby intimating that the one leg or foot had well supported the other from falling To which words the King instantly replyed and so might my brother Alphred have bin still living to have helped and supported me had not Earle Goodwin supplanted him by death At which words being startled as conceiving that the King suspected him of his brothers murder thinking to excuse himself of that horrible act he said to the King Sir I perceive
himselfe to have the like congresse with them being a young man he was a scandall to all those whom he made his companions and they reciprocally were scandalized by being in his company These with infinite others of his licentious irregularities are recorded by Lampridius Hee had also as the same Author testates three hundred Concubines of selected forme and feature chosen out of the families of the Senatours and Patritians and as many choice young men of sweet aspect and undespised proportion taken out of the best of the Nobility and with these hee did continually riot drinke and wanton in his Pallace where were used all immodest postures and uncomely gestures that the very Genius of lust could devise so that his Court shewed rather a common stewes then the royall dwelling house and mansion of a Prince Gordianus Iunior who wore the Imperiall purple with his father absenting himselfe from all warlike imployment lived in lazinesse and ease giving himselfe solely to voluptuousnesse and carnall concupiscence having at once two and twenty Concubines and by every one of them three or foure children at the least for which by some he was called the Priamus of his age but by others in scorne the Priapus And Proculus the Emperour in one expedition besides many other spoyles tooke captive an hundred Sarmatian Virgines all which hee boasted not onely to have vitiated and deflowred but to have perpetrated or more plainly got with childe within fifteene dayes for so Flavius Vopiscus reports of him as also Sabellicus in Exemplis Heliogabalus that Monster of nature gathered together Bawdes Whores Catamites Pimps Panders Rounsevalls and Stallions the very pest and poyson of a Nation or People even till they grew to a great multitude to which he added all the long-nos'd vagabonds and sturdy beggars he could finde for these they say have the greatest inclination to libidinou filthinesse and these he kept together and maintained at his great charge onely to satisfie his brutish humour Therefore Lampridius writing to the Emperour concerning his prodigious Venery useth these words Who can endure a Prince who committeth lust in all the hollowes of his body when Roomes Cages and Grates the receptacle and dennes of wilde beasts cannot amongst them all shew a beast like him He also kept cursors and messengers who had no other imployment but to ride abroad and seek out for these Masuti and to bring them to Court that he might pollute and defile himselfe amongst them But these whose dissolute and floath-infected lives have growne to such an execrable height of impudence have not escaped Gods terrible Judgements by miserable and tragick ends as you may read in the premises where I have had occasion to speake of the same persons though to other purpose I will prosecute this further by example wherein the effects of this dull and drowsie vice of idlenesse and sloath shall be better illustrated and in none more proper then that of â—Egistus and Clitemuestra for Agamemnon King of Mycena and brother to Menelaus King of Sparta the husband of Helena ravisht thence by Paris one of the sonnes of King Priam being chosen Generall of the Grecian Army in that great expedition against Troy for the rape of that Spartan Queene In his absence he left Aegistus to governe his family and mannage his Domesticke affaires who lull'd in ease and loytring in idlenesse and she a lusty Lady and lying in a widdowed and forsaken bed such familiarity grew betwixt them that at length it came into flat adultery of whom the Poet thus ingenuously writes Quaeritur Aegistus quare sit factus adulter In promptâ— causa est Desidiosus erat c. Aske any why Aegistus did Faire Clitemnestra woe 'T is answer'd he was idle and Had nothing else to doe Now this Egistus was before espoused to a young Lady the daughter of Phocas Duke of Creophen whose bed he repudiated and sent backe to her father For the love of this Queene of Micena of whom he begot a daughter called Egiona and in the absence of his Lord and Master supported by the Queene tooke upon him all regall authority and was obeyed as King Now Agamemnon had a young sonne called Orestes who was then under the tuition or guardianship of a worthy Knight called Fultibius who fearing lest the adulterer and the adulteresse might insidiate his life he conveyed him out of the Land and brought him to Idomeneus King of Creet a pious and just Prince who undertooke to bring him up educate and instruct him like the sonne of such a father and protect him against all his enemies whatsoever Imagine now the ten yeares warres ended Troy sackt and spoyled rak't to the earth and quite demolished and Agamemnon at his returne the very first night of his lodging in the Palace cruelly murdered in his bed by Egistus and the Queene By this time Orestes being of the yeares able to beare Armes and having intelligence how basely his father was butchered and by whom he made a solemne vow to avenge his death upon the Authors thereof and to that end besought aide of the King Idomeneus his foster father and protector who first made him Knight and furnisht him with a competent Army To assist whom came Fultibius his first Guardian with all the forces he could levy as also Phocas whose daughter Egistus had before forsaken These sped themselves so well that in few dayes they entred the Land and after laid siege to the chiefe Citie called Micene where the Queen then lay for Aegistus was at that time abroad to solicit aâ—d against invasion which he much feared but finding the gates shut and the wals manned and all entrance denied they made a fierce assault and though it was very couragiously and valiantly defended yet at length the City was taken and the Queen surprised in the Palace who being brought unto the presence of her son all filiall duty set apart and forgetting the name of mother he saluted her onely by the title of Adulteresse and Murderesse and when he had thundered into her eares the horridnesse and trocity of her crime having his sword drawn in his hand he suddenly transpieâ—â—'d her body and left her dead upon the pavement as an explaâ—ion or bloody sacrifice to appease the soul of his dead farher Some would aggravate the fact and say that he caused her breasts to be torne off she being yet alive and cast to the dogges to be eaten but that had been a cruelty beyond nature for a son to exercise upon a mother now whilest these things were in agâ—â—ation Aegistus had gathered an Army for the raising of the â—â—ege and reclaiming the City of which Orestes having intelligence ambuâ—hed him in his way and had such good successe that having incompassed him in he set upon his Forces both before and behinde routed them and took Aegistus prisoner whom after he had put to the greatest tortures that humane apprehension could invent or devise he commanded his body
noise not so much as a sigh or groane hee began to imagine that shee was dead and so indeed it prov'd hee then more incivilly then before rapt at his Ladyes chamber-doore and wakned her telling her that shee had now the event of her bloudy and cruell desires for by reason that there was a still silence in the Dungeon hee perceived the poore Virgin had expired her life At which words being startl'd and strangely mov'd she rose from her bed and calling for store of lights caused the Dungeon doore to be opened where they might behold a most ruthfull and samentable spectacle the maid throwne upon her backe and foure great Snakes wrapt about her one of an extraordinary bignesse wound about her neck another had twinde it selfe encompassing both her legges a third like a girdle imbrac'd her waste or middle a fourth stuck upon her jawes stretching its selfe to its utmost length which no sooner taken thence but was found dead having so ingorg'd it selfe with her bloud that it swel'd and burst asunder At whichsight the Lady strook with the horrour thereof from a suddaine melancholy grew into a meere madnesse and in a raging fit soon after dy'd Strange were that act abroad which cannot in some sort be parallel'd with us at home At Gainsborough in Lincolnshire it happened that a Gentleman of the Town had occasion to ride up to London about his Term businesse and as the custome is in the Countrey the night before a man takes his journey his neighbours and friends will send in their meat and sup with him and drinke to the hope of his safe returne and so they did to him Now this Gentleman had in his house a young gentlewoman sent thither to bee tuter'd and withall to learne good huswifrie and was about the age of fourteen or fifteen yeares at the most The next morning before hee tooke horse when hee call'd for water this maid brought him the Towell and Bason and held it till hee had wash'd onely in rubbing of his hands he sprinkled a little water on her face which his wife observed after Breakfast the Gentleman road on his journey and the woman in whom this slight accident strooke a deepe impression of devillish Jealousie soon after call'd to the maid to deliver her an account of her linnen us'd the night before which was her charge she having hid a Napkin or two out of the way of purpose to pick a quarrell with her The Girle sought in every roome and could not finde them then she bid her looke in the next Chamber but shee was no sooner up staires but after followes the Mistresse like an incens'd Virago and shut the doores fast upon her then casts her upon the Bed and threw another Feather-bed upon her and spying a Scotch Pocket-Dagger hanging by the Walls shee tooke out one of the knives and casting her selfe upon the upper bed turn'd up the bottome where she fell most unwoman-like to worke with her maid making her quite uncapable of future marriage and this was done withinin memory for to the womans great ignominy and shame in the same Towne I have heard it reported and been shewne the very house where the deed was done The horridnesse of which Act makes me that I cannot conceale her name shee was call'd Mistris Brig house In this intrim a Serving-man comming in and hearing his Mistris was in great displeasure and distemperature gone up with her maid and knowing her froward and hasty disposition he went to the doore and knockt but hearing none but one as it were miserably forcing breath for life he lookt in either at some chinke or the key-hole where he saw his Mistris in the same posture I before described with a knife in her hand and one pittifully bleeding under her He broke open the doore being Wainscot and casting her off from the Bed to the floore tooke up the Maid nigh stifled and carried her to a neighbours house where Chyrurgeons were sent for and she in time recovered of life though shee had made her utterly unable of Conception But what gain'd shee by this her uncivill cruelty she was after abhorr'd by all good and modest women asham'd to looke out of her owne doores neither would any of fashion converse with her but held it a scandall to be but seen in her company But now to return to the Judgments inflicted upon adultery and to shew what our own countrey relates as those perpetrated and committed in this Land King Locrine who succeeded his Father Brute in the Kingdome tooke to his Bride Guendolina daughter to Corinaus Duke of Cornwall who lived in great conjugall love together having a young Prince to their issue call'd Madan but after the King having rest and ease in his age with which his youth was scarce acquainted with he was greatly enamoured of a delicate faire Lady whose name was Estrild the daughter of one Homber a Dane who with a great power invading the Land the King gave him battaile and having routed their whole Army they were forc'd to take that great River which parteth Lincoln-shire and Holdernes and runnes up to Hull in which he with his people being drowned left to the same River his name unto this day To returne to the matter Locrine had by this Lady Estrild a daughter call'd Sabrina but this close packing could not be long conceal'd but by some who thought to insinuate into the favour of the Queen who was of a haughty and masculine spirit all was told her for which being mightily incensed no mediation could appease her implacability but she first incensed her Father and then all her owne particular friends whom by her bounty or favour shee had before obliged to make Warre upon her Husband and prevailing in her purpose shee gave the King Battaile in which his party was discomfited and he himselfe slaine in field This revenge to any of reason might seeme sufficient but here her anger rested not but shee caused the faire Estrild and her Daughter Sabrina to be brought unto her Tent where having reviled them both one with the name of Whore the other of Bastard shee in her heat of bloud and height of rage commanded them both to be throwne into the River neare unto the place where the Battaile was late fought where they were both drowned the River upon that accident losing the name and after the Daughter Sabrina hath beene called Severne even to this day Brithricus the first King of the West Saxons began his Reigne in the yeare of our Lord seven hundred threescore and eighteen and the tenth of Charles the Great then King of France who took to Wife Ethelburge one of the Daughters of Off a King of Mercia he was a valiant Prince and renowned for many Warlike exploits but especially for beating the Danes and compelling them to avoid the Land But what can Valour or Prowesse availe against a wicked and cursed woman who the more freely to