that would undoe you in feyning to love you They present to you your misfortune farre greater then it is and employing your noblenesse against your selfe make you beleeve that you are reduc't to that point that you have neyther heart nor faith if you are yet capable of hoping and living Stop your eares against these Impostors beleeve your friends and be confident that you have no malady absolutely incurable Your Physitians promise the curing of your wound and I will doe as much for your amorous misfortunes You adore the beauty of the person that makes you despayre and some adventure to fill the history of your life restoring to you that worthy Subject of your affection will give you more content then you thinke to have lost in losing the hope of reviewing it Bajazet sighing often at Iphidamantus words It will be very hard for me said he not to suffer my selfe to be perswaded by his eloquence that doth not lesse charme the Eyes then the Eares I will beleeve you my deare Iphidamantus I cannot doubt of the truth of your promises without distrusting a power which I set immediatly under that which is infinite Zelmatida who had beene a long time silent seeing that Bajazets despayre was not cleane voyd of hope suffered himselfe to be overcome by his ordinary imaginations and expressing them by words as sad as themselves were 't is for thee alone deplorable Prince said he to whom there remaines neyther hope nor comfort The most miserable are not deprived of that Thou only as a prodigy in Nature as well as in Love thou despairest not and yet livest void of any the least hope Thou knowest none but death can give thee any rest or at least insensiblenesse of sorrowe and yet goest thou drawing out a life through the one and the other World and dar'st not take that last resolution which farre lesse miseries then thine have put into the hearts of the most cowardous and fearefull Polexander turning his eyes on Zelmatida with such lookes as seemed to condemn the injustice of his complaints told him without speaking that despaire as well as hope was a genus under which divers species were inclosed That that despayre was the sweetest which depriving us of all hope and unlinking us absolutely from all life resembled those unpoysoned potions which by little and little freezing the blood and the Spirits and confounding death with sleepe make those beleeve whom they kill that they doe but slumber See Zelmatida what manner of one yours is said he but mine is of a kinde farre more prodigious It proceeds from hope it selfe It divides my Spirit and as I might say teares it in peeces imitating those cruell executioners that at once torment all the members together and doe so that of many tortures they frame one dreadfull that hee which suffers dies as many times as his body hath parts Diceus imposing these Lovers silence too ill handled by their passions intreated Bajazet to take a little rest and to give to the remedies and Nature time to perfect that which they had so well begunne The two brothers and Zelmatida taking this spoken as well to them as to Bajazet tooke leave of him and retyred into their ordinary lodgings Bajazet passed the night without eyther disquiet or raving The next day the Princes visited him and found his countenance so good that they no more doubted what Diceus had promised The following dayes gave them new assurances and being no more in trouble but for themselves they felt their ills growe worse by degrees as Bajazets diminished But Polexander when he had no more the diversion which that Princes wound gave him he cast himselfe altogether on the consideration of his owne He represented to himselfe that there were no kinde of obstacles where withall his desires had not beene crossed still as he overcame them and that for the height of despayre he attempted a thing which neyther wisedome nor courage nor force could ever bring to passe These melancholy thoughts which for some yeeres had beene the sole entertayning of his minde made him distaste all kinde of pleasures and have an aversion to all company And since he was in the Pyrats Islandthere was not a day passed in which he had not beene among the rocks and deserts of that place to give himselfe in prey to the fury of his disquiets He went forth all alone and leaving himselfe to be guided by two passions equally blinde lost himselfe so that he was constrained to passe the night eyther in the deepe bottome of some precipice oâ—… on some point of a rock The faire slave of Alcidiana bore him company in his retyrements but â—…t was rarely because our Hercë would as well hide himselfe from him as fâ—…om Zâ—…lmatida and Iphidamantus and in his afflictions avoyded all other witnesses but thâ—…e that were incapable of comforting him One day going out of the Fort with the â—…re Pallantus he was tempted with a desire to know the true inclinations of Alcidiâ—…na but condemning as soone that curiosity must said he to himselfe Alcidiana make a â—…cond Declaration to have thee know that thou art unfortunate and that 't is her absolâ—…te wâ—…ll that thou perish Pallantus infallibly heard those last words for at the inâ—…nt that they were ended he turn'd him to the Heroë and as if hee would be willing â—…o answere him I wonder said he at the obstination with which you resist all that â—…n give you any comfort Beleeve me Polexander you are not sick of any of those â—…ases which are not cured but by extreame remedies You have but this to doe to 〈◊〉 much and not to despaire I have made you a proposition some dayes past which should be extreamly deare to you and in the meane while I see that you eyther conteâ—… it or feare it will not bring you out of the troubles wherein you are 'T is neyther the one noâ—… the other reply'd Polexander but when I come to thinke that Alcidiana would have me die and that my very name is so odious to her that by a solemn declaâ—…ation she hath forbidden it to be pronounced within her territories I avoyd all that may lessen my despayre and strive to rid me of a life for which all moments make me a â—…ll since they are so many witnesses of the little obedience I beare to the commandements of Alcidiana Ah Polexander answered Pallantus perish but doe not murmure Alcidiana is a Divinity which is no lesse just when it punisheth then when it recompenceth Her virtues are exempted from those faults which proceede of humane frailty she doth well to pursue you as one guilty since your passion having offended her virtue by a little too much liberty hath oblieged her to chastise you by distance and silence But O! How advantageous is this to you for to consider matters well is it not true that since you cannot be belov'd of Alcidiana for men must not pretend to that happinesse 't is an
death and though the Serpent had enfolded his armes and legs he made him feele the weight of his blowes but his resistance was all in vaine for he was torne in pieces for all his Armes and devour'd by the Monster This strange accident fill'd all the towne of Benin with desolation and feare Almanzor was with Andromeda when the newes came of Bellerophon's death He had ever dearely lov'd that Knight being as his companion in all his exercises You may imagine whether he were mov'd at his losse Truly he was so much that it drew teares from him But his love not being satisfied with these demonstrations made him resolve on others more worthy his valour and the memory of Bellerophon He therefore prepar'd him to avenge his death and his high Spirit carying him to great undertakings he would by so faire an occasion give a beginning to the miracles of his life The generous Prince would willingly have communicated his designe to me but imagining I would not approve of it he conceal'd it from me and one day secretly withdrawing himselfe unknowne to any man he went to finde out that dreadfull Serpent even among the Palme trees and to fight with him took only his sword his bow and his arrowes You wil hardly give credit to what I must relate though there is nothing more true Almanzor went alone into the wood of the Sun approacht the Serpent with an heroicall confidence look'd on his hugenesse and deformity without astonishment and by his noise calling him to the combat by some arrowes he let flye towards his den would give him time to defend himselfe The Monster animating him by beating the earth with his tayle rays'd his crown'd head and throwing at once venome and fire from his eyes made the Cedars and Palmes to tremble againe Almanzor stood firme and with himselfe consulted how he might best encounter that monstrous adversary Straight he nock'd an arrow and lifting his eyes to heaven I doe what I can said he doe thou the rest and let thy powerfull hand conduct the shaft which mine lets goe at hazard He was heard That arrow was so well guided that it pierced the Monsters tongue and there stuck fast The next was more fortunately addressed It strooke out the other eye and with the meanes of bringing himselfe on tooke that away of his defence Almanzor mark'd what he had done and doubting no longer of his victory shun'd the grapling of the blinded Serpent After he had long time fought with the trees and his rage turning on himselfe had extreamely weakened him by his owne blowes he lay extended on the earth and discovered a part of his white and yellow panch Almanzor perceiving so fit a marke for his arrowes shot him through and left not till he laid him dead When he was secure of his victory he went out of the wood and after his thanks to heaven and vow to hang his bow and arrowes with the Serpents skin he return'd to the City and told all those he met there was no more to be feared for the Serpent was dead Whilst the better hearted went to see whether Almanzor spake truth he came to the Palace and there found every body much troubled about him He presented himselfe to Abrinzias and falling at his feet Sir said he I humbly beseech your Majesty to pardon the fault I have commited I come from the fountaine of the Sun and the Serpent is dead Imagine Polexander how Abrinzias was affrighted though he saw Almanzor unhurt He enquir'd who had advis'd him to fight with the Serpent and who went with him to that Enterprise Bellerophon's death replied he sighing drew me to revenge it I could not live and suffer the murtherer of my friend to survive him Heaven hath favoured me so much as to acquit the debt I owed him Abrinzias lifted up his eyes with admiration and joy and to satisfie his curiosity asked Almanzor how all things had hapned He related it to him as I have to you but it was with so much modesty that Abrinzias foreseeing then what Almanzor hath done since My Son said he imbracing him search out new Kingdomes and Provinces worthy thy valour This little corner of Africa deserves not to containe thee With that he brought him to the Queene and recounting so heroicall an action oblig'd her to shed at once both teares of joy and sorrow the one for her love to Almanzor and the other for that of her owne Son The excesse of Abrinzia's contentment made him not forget what he owed to his people He sent his Heraulds through the towne not onely to publish the Serpents death which had so much annoy'd them but to make knowne to all the Author of their deliverance and the publique happinesse and after that went out of the towne waited on by all the Court and most of the people and so came where the Serpent lay slaine The multitude not forgetting their old use appear'd very hardy where there was no danger and running on the dead Monster cut him in pieces and by that meanes made Almanzor but imperfectly performe the vow he had made But whilst the people made themselves sport with their dead Enemy and vented all their fury on his skin Almanzor bewail'd the death of Bellerophon and in a generous piety gathered up his bones and broken armes scattered through the wood and giving both the one and the other to his particular friends follow'd them himself to a place fit to preserve the reliques memory of that valiant Knight The good Abrinzias was much mov'd to see so many verall vertues breake forth of thaâ—… young Prince and had esteem'd himselfe the happiest of Kings but that the defects oâ—… his owne Son and his vicious inclinations cut from him the best part of his happinesse But heaven who would recompence in the person of Almanzor the injury it had done him in that of Perseus gave him every day new causes to blesse the arrivall of my Prince and to forget the imperfections of the legitimate through the admirable qualities of the adopted But while Almanzor liv'd the joy of the people of Benin the admiâ—…ation of the rest of Africa the envy of all generous Princes and that the greatest Potentates sent Ambassadors to Abrinzias to rejoyce with him for Almanzor's honour and the delivery of his Countrey the ambition of Spaine an enemy to all mens quiet which runs through Sea and land to drive thence both peace and liberty came unfortunately to disturbe the delights of the best King in the world Vasquez de Gama Generall of the Portugall Fleet returning from Calecut was by a storme driven into the River of Benin In lieu of leaving to the Inhabitants that peace he found there he landed out of his ships men more cruell then the Serpent which Almanzor had slaine That young Prince hearing of the Portugals iâ—…rode ran to oppose them and by his exploits then made appeare yet farre more then by his first combat that
to the top of a rock whence he might easily ken her straight he perceiv'd the purple and gold imbryodered sayles which truely appear'd as waving flames betwixt the azure of the skie and the water Withall he mark'd Alcidiana's golden Pavillion which was fix'd to the maine mast and saw shine in a thousand severall places that Queen of birds which was not only the device but the symbol of Alcidiana The Ship with her artillery saluted the Port and that on shore answering a great company ran to the sea side to see the arrivall of that rich and stately Ship Polexander covertly retir'd to his palace and there expected when the Clergies officers came to advertise what he was to do In the mean time the strength of his imagination or to say better the violence of his love so troubled him that he felt himselfe suddenly strucken with some strange fit and fell on his bed as pale and cold as he had been giving up the ghost Diceus seeing him in that case How said he what will become of you when you shall present your selfe before Alcidiana since you are not able to indure the presence of her Embassadors Friend reply'd Polexander I thought thou wouldst not have ingag'd me to become Master of my former thoughts Yet I must neverthelesse in good time prevent such disorders as they may cause and by long preparations accustome my mind to take in most extream contentments and yet not seem sensible of them This discourse having as it were blunted the edge of our Heroës imagination his senses return'd to their usuall functions and then he thought himselfe able enough to constrain his deportment before Alcidiana's Embassadors Assoon as they landed they were entertain'd by such as had that charge and Polexander being called to the Temple by the dignity he exercis'd there put on his ceremoniall habit to meet those famous Embassadors He acquitted himselfe better then he thought he should have done of a charge so thorny and nice for him and by the extraordinary and obliging civility wherewithall he us'd to winne all hearts instantly acquir'd the love of all those strangers The next day every one rose very early to be at the ceremonies of the sacrifice of Allyance At day-break the priests came to the Temple and sun-rising the high-priest appear'd with his clergie in the most eminent place of the great Portico there to receive the Embassadors That done the same things were perform'd to them as had been to the Embassadors of the King of Gheneoa in bringing them into the Temple The chief priest then taking his place the feigned Araxes his and the priests theirs the Embassadors bare headed and kneeling at the foot of the high Altar did that homage to the Sun to which the Kings of the Inaccessible Island had oblieged themselves After that those who bore the offerings came in one after another The six first carried so many great vessels of crystall of the rock full of perfumes Eight following bore on their shoulders a table of gold on which was imboss'd the shape of the Inaccessible Island The ninth had in his hands a table of brass whereon was ingraven the termes wherewithall the person who represented the King of the Inaccessible Island renew'd and confirm'd his allyance between the hands of the chiefprelate The tenth carryed a heart of silver on which were seen drops of bloud naturally figured After these offerings march'd forty or fifty slaves chain'd with chaines of gold which plac'd on the twelve lesser Altars somewhat of the most rarest things in their kind which nature produc'd or art gave to the inhabitants of the Inaccessible Island Those oblations ended they celebrated the unbloudy sacrifice It began with thanksgivings was continued by burning of severall perfumes and ended in supplications and prayers The chief priest presented them to the living Deity after the wonted manner and after a benediction on all the assistants every one retir'd to his quarter All the remainder of the day the Temple stood open that the inferiour Pilgrims might performe their devotions and offer their offerings At night the archprelate sent for Alcidiana's Embassadors to entertain them according to the ancient custome Polexander supp'd with them and the recitall of what he had done for the safety of the Island was to his discontent the whole discourse of their feast The Embassadors look'd on him as if they could not have their fill and the more they regarded him the more increased their admiration The houre of retirement arriving all the company sever'd As the chief prelate was going to bed the famous pilot Lynceus came into his chamber and besought him for a private audience presently the archpriest commanded away his servants Speak then said he and feare nothing Before I make known reply'd Lynceus the cause that obligeth me to hinder your repose you must if you please ingage your faith that for no cause nor necessity whatsoever you shall reveale the secret which the Queen my Mistris hath commanded mee to intrust you withall Impose if you please this tye on your selfe and without retaining any reservation that may dispense with you for your oath swear by the Deity in whom you believe that you will rather suffer death then betray the innocencie of a Princesse who for the discharge of her conscience will intrust you with a matter that doth not permit her to injoy any rest Alcippus who had a great desire to know this important secret and who by I know not what inspiration was perswaded it concern'd Polexander The Queen said he to Lynceus is most judicious in being desirous in matters of great consequence to observe all that wisedom can advise her But she would not require these oathes or security from me if she knew that one of the principall injunctions in my charge is to keep as a pledge deposited by heaven such secrets of conscience as are made known to me No no Lynceus let not Alcidiana feare it Neither hope nor feare nor love nor hatred nor death nor life shall ever be able to make me violate a law on which depends the eternity of my blisse or wretchednesse I sweare by the sacred power of the chief priesthood and by the faith I owe to heaven that no person whatsoever shall ever know from me that which you have commanded to discover Lynceus made confident by so inviolable an oath My Lord said he the Queen though she never did act contrary to the rules of verue nor could not so much as inure an ill thought without stifling of it in the birth yet hath her conscience troubled and feeles I know not what remorse which both accuseth and torments her But to the end you may give her Majesty such remedies as are fitting for her disease 't is necessary that I make knowne to you the originall of it Some three yeares since the famous King of the Canaries was by a tempest cast on our coasts That Prince whom without flattery wee may call the
desires and thine own will to the safetie of thy Countrey 'T is a businesse resolv'd in heaven thou must swallow this potion which hath no bitternesse but whilst thou refusest it on then and let not thy brave heart faile thee at need taste those sweets thy vertues have deserv'd O new age of gold O Island truly fortunate O Slave worthy the regall throne O Princesse happily deceived O glorious alliance O illustrious posteritie In all likelihood Alcidiana at the reading of this Prophesie might have receiv'd some contentment but she renew'd her sighings and unable any longer to refraine from tears even let them fall down on the Prophesie in such an excesse as if she had beleev'd she could with the Characters have drown'd all the misfortunes they seem'd to threaten her Rhadiotez seeing her discontent spoke all he thought fitting to quiet her afflicted minde but Alcidiana not induring his discourse Retire father said she and assure your selfe that I have not so little profited in your schoole but that I know well how we must die when we can live no longer but with dishonour I was borne free and you propose to me something worse then death when you propound I am not to live but by making my selfe the slave of a Slave Rhadiotez willing to give the Princesse time to advise with her selfe and more seriously to meditate on the Prophesie return'd to his palace and Alcidiana seeing her self then at libertie began again her lamentations and turning to her confident Come Amintha said she am I not now at last arriv'd at that utmost point of misfortune which long since my visions my disrests and melancholy foretold me O cruell Fate certainly thou too tyrrannically abusest that soveraigne power which is given thee from above on us poore mortalls What wilt thou shall become of me But doe what thou list my good or ill shall not depend on thee the command I have over my selfe is no lesse absolute then thine I will keep it in spight of all thy violence and since death hath depriv'd me of all that could make me in love with life 't is in vaine by the object of greatnesse and felicities to bustle with my resolution and tempt my courage Cast thine eyes on me deare and worthy subject of my sorrow turne thine eyes on me and upbraid me of falshood if thou read'st in my soule any motion that counsels me to forsake thee for another The Princesse's confident seeing her teares and sighes had taken away her power of speech Polexander said she to her is worthy of these testimonies of love you bestow on his memorie and Madam he having lov'd you what said I lov'd having ador'd you as he hath done I doubt not but amidst all the pleasures which inviron him hee resents your displeasures and seeing you afflicted is even pensive and sad in the very source of all happinesse Ah deare Amintha cry'd the Queene how doe thy words pierce me and mournfully re-imprint in my memorie the remembrance of my folly and ingratitude She could not speake further for word was brought her the multitude was round about the palace and threatned to breake the gates if they were not let in All conspires against us Amintha said she to her confident but let us resist to the last and at least shew that faire soule which lookes on us from heaven that we abandon not his party though it be to the weakest With that she went out on a great Terrasse which ran along the first court of her palace and commanded the gates to be opened Presently the people rush'd in headlong but at sight of the Princesse whom they never look'd on without respect and wonder they rain'd in their fury and fell all on their knees Alcidiana seeing them in such a reverence commanded them to stand up and declare the cause of the tumult the multitude after their wonted manner speaking in confusion began to cry out that the Deliverer which had beene promis'd the State even from Heaven was at the towne gate and they besought the Queen's permission to goe meet him to see him and petition him for an end of their present calamities Alcidiana unable to indure the continuation of their discourse How my subjects said she all inraged you doe not thinke of me then otherwise then as of an enemie or at least as of one without power What doe you expect from a wretched stranger what you hope not from my vigilancie from my forces nor your owne courage who is the seducer that hath impoison'd your minds with a prediction as idle as it is intricate You see at hand the safetie my care hath acquir'd you and yet you tread underfoot what is sensible to run after Chimera's and meer leasings Assure your selves the date of your misfortune is pass'd the revolt is buried in the graves of the authors and the strangers are no more in case to annoy us have a little patience and you shall soone see them shamefully quit our coasts and carrie nothing of their crimes with them but their griefe for committing them The people repli'd she promis'd no happinesse but what was most certaine but that she might not be unworthy of it 't was fitting the person should be honour'd who had wrought it That reply absolutely angring the Queene she withdrew without giving the people any contentment and shutting her selfe up in her closet with Amintha onely O ingratefull people cry'd she that have neither thought of me nor my predecessors Reeds shaken with all winds minds adoring novelties you are then wearie of my Government and without the knowledge of what is beneficiall or hurtfull to you desire a Slave for your King and that Alcidiana who would not bestow her chaines on Polexander should offer her Crowne to Araxes Here she was silent and after a little musing threw her selfe weeping on her confident's neck And my poore Amintha said she see I pray thee with what eagernesse my misfortune pursues me and thinke what I should resolve on to avoid the accomplishment of our dismall Prophesie Doest thou imagine that Alcidiana hath so base a spirit as to preferre before death a Slave who without doubt is come from among that barbarous nation which wretchedly inhabits the in-land deserts of Africa No no let Fortune arme the whole universe to force me to that necessitie I will see my kingdome all of a flame if my bloud cannot quench the fire rather then undergoe the reproach of doing an act unworthy of Alcidiana Amintha desirous to intertaine the Queen in this just aversion There is nothing said she but your Majestie is bound to suffer rather then the dangerous beliefe which is slid in among your subjects Weak minds as your Majestie knowes are susceptible of all we need but propose things to them beyond their understanding to fill them with foolish admirations and from those idle wondrings carry them to beliefes more ridiculous and extravagant If once your subjects strongly conceive that their fafetie
to him of which Fortune onely is guilty Farewell my deere Master live and by undergoing my death with a true constancy practise that faire doctrine which thou hast so profitably taught me and with these words he pierced himselfe to the heart with his sword and by so speedy and bold a blow surmounting his haplesse fortune he got that victory for which she had so long contested with him I threw my selfe on him but too late and stopping his wound with my hand strove to stop the bloud which gushed out in great bubbles and clots he thrust away my hand and falling on his bed with a countenance wherein you might behold a mixture of extraordinary joy and death got together at least said he do thou Almandrian keepe thy pro Hee dyed before he could finish the word and left me with a powerfull example for the contemning of life I had not heart enought to make use of it but my cowardise covering it selfe with a specious pretext of my faith made me beleeve that I could not kill my selfe without suffering in hell those tortures which are reserved for the unfaithfull I resolved then to live till I had fully executed the last will of the King my Master and though my despaire oftentimes opposed me in it I am yet so happy that before my death I see my promises accomplished There remaines some part of the will of that Prince not performed but it is from thy noblenesse that Almanzor expects the execution Be then sensible of his supplications of his teares and bloud Polexander ended not the fluxe of his teares with the period of this sad story but turning to Iphidamantus who was no lesse afflicted then himselfe and wooing him to teares and sorrow Let us bewaile my deare brother said he Let us weepe for the losse of Almanzor and since t is not in our power to restore him his life let us deerely preserve that which remaines of him And in thus saying he tooke the Princes heart and fixing his eyes on it As cold as thou art said he poore heart thou yet retaynest thy first fire and shewest by thy rich prison that thou wilt still weare the glorious setters of Alcidians be confident that if I become fortunate thou shalt have a share of me that thy vowes shall be accomplished and that faire Princesse shall know how farre both living and dead thou hast religiously adored her Polexander finished this promise just as his trustfull Diceus for so they called him of his domestiques whom he best loved entered his Cabin and the excesse of his zeale and joy not permitting him to observe all the duties befitting his condition he stept nimbly to his Master and Sir said he I am certainely blinde or just now I have discovered the vessell of Alcidiana Polexander lost no time in asking him questions but comming out of his Cabin got on the upper deck and by that propriety which seemes to be fastened to the eyes of all lovers cast his sight presently on the vessell of Alcidiana He knew her and seeing her take a course contrary to his tack about tack about cryd he to his Pilots and at this time let every one testifie how much he affects me His command and the execution of it was one same thing But the winde that complyed not so well with him as they changed not but was the cause why his great ship made but slow way after that belonging to Alcidiana He was all the rest of the day in wrestling against a North-East winde and raging for being so neere his happinesse and not obtaining it The night changed the winde and gave it him so favourable that he doubted not the taking of Linceus though the darkenesse tooke from him the sight of his vessell He might easily have overcome this difficulty if a greater and more powerfull had not yet once more envyed his good fortune in the very instant when he thought himselfe most assured For at breake of day instead of the vessell of Alcidiana he saw a great fleet of Turkish Gallies and Affrican ships After he had mused a while he called his brother and concealing his resolution from him we must said he seperate and by divers courses try to make our way through so many enemies Iphidamantus approved of his councell because his friends and himselfe had mutually bound themselves not to leave one another till they were in a place of safety Getting then aboard his owne ship he found all those there in an equall astonishment His presence heartened them and the speech he used to them wrought upon their wavering minds the same advantage he got by his first Oration Hereupon they armed themselves and despising danger in confidence of the valiant Iphidamantus resolved themselves to what sad disaster soever fortune should prepare for them The Mariners perceiving that the vessell of Polexander plyde to the South-west took a contrary way and taking downe the Christian colours which they carryed put the halfe Moone in the place to try if in this occasion a little cunning might not be more advantagious then power The successe of their enterprise was conformable to their conceived hope They were taken for Turkes and as such were neither fought withall nor staied but without any hinderance sailed through the fleet When they were in the Van they saw another Army composed of many great Gallions and of all kind of vessells aswell with oares as sailes over which waved the Standdards of Castile and Portugall Iphia mantus râ—…vished with this encounter t is now said he to his companions that we have no more cause of feare See the accomplishment of our ordinary prophesies and the Army which we saw though far off from the place where we were prisoners hath without doubt broaken our chaines and finished our slavery Yet let us not be reproched to have seene the enemy so neere without fighting shew them that we know how to make a retreate but not how to fly Whilst he spake thus his ship got farther off the vanguard of the Turkes and to tell them that he was none set up the Crosse upon his vessell and with his owne hands in sight of the enemy threw the halfe moone overboord and commanded to salute them with all his Artillery The Turkes no sooner knew the trick that had deceived them but they gave them from their fleet above two hundred Canon shot Foure Galliots by the command of the Generall were sent out to seise on that Christian Vessell but all the industry of the Turkes was but to their owne confusion for Iphidamantus retired fighting behind the vanguard of the Christian fleet Presently as it he had attended but that signall they put themselves in Batalia The Turke made his cressant without stirring from the place he had chosen and both the one and the other receiving command to fall on began the fight in a marvelous good order The wind as messenger of that absolute power which almost continually causeth
victory he obtained brought into the number of his slaves many Princes which before by meanes of a small and inconsiderable tribute were absolute Lords of their estates Of those Zelmatida brought him twelve prisoners with thirty thousand of their Subjects and gave him a particular accompt of what he had done Two daies after his arrivaâ—…l being alone with him My Lord said he the Gods present you a faire occasion to imitate their clemency and to a way to attaine to that supreame dignity whereto their good deeds have raised them You have in your prisons Princes whom you may retaine as slaves or put them to death without injustice for humane Lawes would that Malefactors should be punished But if you give them their lives and forget their faults shall you not doe an act more glorious for your selfe and so much the more just the neerer it resembles that mercifull goodnesse wherewith the Gods support us and pardon our offences Beleeve me send back these wretches to their owne homes to doe pennance for the fault they have committed against their faith as well as against your Majesty And to leave them an eternall sorrow for it free them from the servitude of tribute which they were wont to pay to your Crowne Quasmez was so exceedingly movedwith the extreame noblenesse and wisdome of Zelmatida that the very next day he called before him all the Caciques and mounted on a Theater with Zelmatida commanded a Herauld to proclaime the deliverance of the prisoners The Herauld after silence made spake thus Quasmez Soveraigne Monarque of the Lands between the two Seas of the Mines of Emeralds and of gold and of the fishing for pearles after that by the victories of his Son he hath made slaves all the Caciques which were before but tributary to him declares that he gives them all their liberty which justly they had lost and discharges them and their successors from all the tributes to which their Provinces were engaged Thinke with your selves what the joy was as well of the Princes as their people after this Proclamation They all fell on their knees to signifie their resentment of this grace and when they were risen againe engaged themselves to pay double the tribute that Quasmez had taken from them Eight daies together they celebrated a feast for this peace so glorious to the Conquerors and so profitable to the conquered and the Caciques being all returned to their severall homes filled their Provinces with the praises of their deliverers Quasmez this while tormented with an unknowne griefe languished in the midst of his triumphes and the more cause of content he found in the person of my Lord the Inca the more still his displeasures and disquiets increased At last the Gods touched with the humility and the zeale which accompanied the prayers of that religious Prince heard him then when he began to leave off all hoping One day while he was talking with Zelmatida there came one to advertise him that the great Prophet Tisnatidez whom he tought so many yeares dead was newly arrived and desired his permission to see him Quasmez no sooner heard this newes then he commanded that he should be brought The while lifting his eyes and his hands to Heaven Great Gods cried he I confesse I have of late murmured and distrusted your providence I have offended but you know that never crime was more remissible then mine since I committed it not in doubting of your all-sufficiency but in thinking my selfe unworthy of your protection The King was not a little troubled to see Quasmez in such extraordinary transports without his knowing the cause but he was not in it so long He saw enter into the place where he was a man of the age of fourescore yeares white as a Swan leane as a Skeliton clad with the skin of a wild Beast and girt with a great chaine of gold This old man regarding the King with eyes that shewed an inward joy and without saying ought to him addressed himselfe to Quasmez and speke thus I know great Prince how many times you have beleeved me a lyer or to say better how often you have not beleeved your selfe enough happy to hope for that good successe that our Gods have promised you by my mouth But the long time that you have passed without seeing me since the losse of the innocent and unhappy Xaira hath caused you to thinke nothing which I had not foreseen and for which you may well be pardoned And our Gods have not so much remarked what you spake through the diffidence you had of your selfe but that they tooke notice through your frailty of the greatnesse of your zeale and the opinion you had of their all-powerfullnesse For this they promise you this day the accomplishment of all your desires and they advertise you not to feare to expose this young Prince to the hazards of a most difficult enterprise By him the prison of the infortunate Xaira shall be burst open the hopes of your enemies deceived and your Realme more flourishing then ever At this word turning him to the Inca goe said he whether the goodnesse of the King invites you who hath been to you in lieu of a Father The enterprise to which you are destinated is perillous but it is one of those that is preserved for such as have your courage and fate When the Prophet saw that Zelmatida gazed on him with amazement no no added he you are not the Son of Quasmez but by adoption and love and though he hath bred you as his owne childe yet t is another that was the Author of your life Doe not aske me who he is he only knowes it to whom nothing is hidden and who taught me the time and the place where the guard of this King should finde you Content your selfe that your birth is illustrious and that another day leaving the name of Zelmatida which Quasmez hath given you for another which shall not be lesse famous you shall attaine the Throne of an Empire which shall be as great as the Earth if it were not ordayn'd in Heaven that it must soone fall into the hands of a Nation which is yet unknown to us But before this misfortune befall you shall fill both the one and the other World with the same of your great actions and shall restore to the virtuous Monarch that hath bred you that incomparable treasure which his enemies have as vainly as perfidiously forc'd and stoln from him Whilest this old Prophet spake thus Quazmez wept at once both for hope and feaâ—…e The love he bore to his owne blood strove with that he bore to the King and no sooner had he put himselfe in case to thanke his gods that they had heard his prayers but that he afflicted himselfe for their being heard He fear'd all the perills by Sea and Land and some times even wished he could forget the thralldome of his daughter that he might not be constrained to expose my deare Master to such
the first that shall deliver the Maiden into the hands of our enemy Hismalita at that word interâ—…upting the King her husband I know said she an expedient far more easy then all that T is fit that the death of one single person should save the lives of a whole Nation and that we secure our owne and our Empire by cutting off those that are to deprive us of them O never have so horrible a thought replied Montezuma it is expresly forbidden us to lay violent hands on the Virgin She ought to be more pretious to us then our owne lives and I have learnt from the very mouth of the great Mirzenia that in the very same instant that this Innocent shall die I shall meet the full period of my daies Know then what we must doe answered Hismalita let us send her to my Brother and conjure him to keepe her for us as carefully as he doth the valiant Inca which those of Quito put into our hands after the death of Guina Capa We shall have cause to live at quiet when this misfortunate Protectresse shall â—…e so far from all mens knowledge and seeing that the captivity of Alisma who without doubt is the to-be-feared stranger with whose fury the gods doe threaten us hath made us live these twelve yeeres in a tranquâ—…y which hath not beene interrupted but by your bondage let us be confident that the imprisonment of our Daughter will make our good daies everlasting I should be of your minde replied Montezuma if Mirzenia had spoken to me but of one stranger but I take notice of two in his prediction and when I shall beleeve that Alisma may passe for one of them I must yet feare a second And that second is no other then that invincible stranger who may terme himselfe more then I the absolute Master of my Empire To put him to death besides that it is expresly forbidden me I cannot consent to it since I have no moâ—…e life nor other Crowne then what his valour hath given me I am not said Hismalita swaied by these considerations unworthy of a royall soule but I am resolved by the menaces of Mirzenia Make me see that that stranger cannot die without the losse of our selves and I will make you soone knowe that Kings ought not to have any consideration but for themselves and as they are above all the services that can be rendred them they are so too above all the conceptions that nature gives to common persons May the gods this very day accomplish all their threates said the King to her rather then I consent to those mischievous Maximes No no the stranger shall never perish by my will nor shall the life that he hath given me be the cause of his death Thâ—…t which we have to doe is to intertaine him in such sort that our people may know that we are neither so weake spirited to be jealous of him nor so ingrate to deny him the recompence of his labours T is possible that time may cleare our doubts and make us see that we interpret ill the will of our gods Galtazis after he had thus faithfully related the discourse between Montezuma and Hismalita advised him to stand on his guard and not to trust so much in the goodnesse of the husband but that he should be alwaies armed against the malice of the wife My deare Master thinking lesse on his owne conservation then that of Isatida but Galtazis said he where is the faire Mistris What doth she with Hismalita is it impossible for me to see her And should she be taken for the Virgin mentioned in this impertinent prediction To all this said the Dwarfe I can give you but little satisfaction My faire Mistris is more strictly guarded then her Sisters she lies with the Queene her Mother and goes not out of her Chamber She weepes she sighes she pities your misfortune more then her owne and knowing in what perplexity you are she sends me to entreat you either that you will goe out of Mexico or secke not the meanes to see her As for that which belongs to the prediction I cannot tell you whether Isatida be the Virgin so necessary for the conservation of Montezuma but I will tell you that I most passionately wish it for if she be the Maiden I feare not any more that terrible anger which I read in the eyes and all the actions of Hismalita For other things prepare you selfe for the honours that Montezuma resolves to conferre on you and faine so well that he may not perceive that you doe dissemble I will informe you to morrow if I can the councells which the night shall give to my faire Mistris Galtazis tooke back againe the letter after he had given this advise to Zelmâ—…ida and returned to the Pallace The Inca was left alone and knowing not what to resolve on passed in a moment from pity to indignation and from love to all hatred At last reposing all his affaires in that providence which had never forsaken him let us suffer Zelmatida said he to himselfe and prepare our selves for all the injustices that fortune is capable of provided that the hope to see Isatida again be not taken from us we may vaunt our selfe sufficiently strong to overcome all things These speeches and others the like intertaining him all night he rose without taking the least rest He was no sooner out of his bed when five or six of those old Princes who during the siedge of Mexico had beene witnesses of his noble actions came to him and said that Montezuma had sent them to accompany him to the triumph that all Mexico did owe to his incomparable vaiour Zelmatida much surprised at so great a change begun his discourse by very obliging demeanures and continued it by as humble thanks which he besought the Princes to present to Montezuma I know said he that all that which comes either from gods or Kings ought to be received by men with as much amazement as glory and t is a most proud humility to reject their presents under pretext that they doe not deserve them The king yet I hope will have so much goodnesse as not to constraine me to a thing which I refuse not because I am unwotthy of it but I would refuse it because my condition of a banished man and the calamity of those that brought me into the world permit me not to be fortunate Those Princes used aâ—… their eloquence to get him to receive that honour and grew so earnest in it that they deputed one from among them to give notice to Montezuma of Zelmatida's refusall The weake King if ever there were any going from one extreamity to another came himselfe to the lodging of my Lord the Inca and after he had asked his pardon for his retirement told him that he had not kept himselfe alone two daies but to the end that he might passe all the rest of his life in the others company Your
clad after such a fashion that a man must have beene voyde of all curiositie that would not earnestly have regarded him He had an habilliment imbroydered with gold and silver made in so particular a fashion and so becomming that you could not have seene any thing fayrer He wore a kinde of Helmet after the ancient manner on which waved a great plume of feathers of all colours and about his neck he had a coller of gold in which was written in letters of Diamonds Alcidiana gave it Two the like circles served him for garters and to those were fastned two long chaines of gold which were carried by two dwarfes As soone as he came before Bajazet he presented to him a linnen Roule and before he unfolded it I am said he the slave of Alcidiana The richnesse of my chaines may let you know the greatnesse of her that makes me weare them I goe from Country to Country to publish her mervailes and for feare lest the incredulous and jealous should accuse me of flattery I alwaies carry her picture to make all eyes witnesses of those truthes I proclayme A tempest throwing me on this Isle I had neere neglected to come on shore for feare of prophaning the beauties of Alcidiana in shewing them to Barbarianâ—… But when I understood it was the seate of famous Bajazet I presently set foote on shore to lay open to his eyes all that which nature and the Sun ever yet made most worthy of admiration Unrole then that linnen cloth and see or rather imagine in seeing an Image though imperfect of that divine Queene what thinke you should she be her selfe Bajazet ravished with the discourse as well as with the faire presence of the slave unfolded the cloth that he held and discovered so faire a picture that he was forced to cry out that Art had gone beyond all that Nature could doe You blaspheme said the slave to him for if ever fortune bring you a shore on the Inaccessible Island and that you have a sight of Alcidiana you will cry out more justly O how farre hath Nature gone beyond all that Art is able to produce I My exclamation replyed Bajazet is an effect of my astonishment and not of my incredulity I doubt not but Alcidâ—… is farre fayrer then she is in this portraict and if you wanted another witnesse then your selfe to confirme me in that opinion there is a Prince in this place that will not refuse you his testimony A Prince replyed the slave and who may that Prince be never other then Polâ—…xander hath beene so happy to sâ—…e Alcidiana It may be I speake of him said Bajazet The Slave would have gone on with his discourse when Polexander pale and trembling as a man in the cold fit of a violent ague presented himselfe before him and kissing the fetters he wore yes said he O most happy Pallantus I am the unfortunate Polexander whom destiny judgeth not only unworthy to review thy incomparable Mistris but also to carry as thou doest the markes of her glorious servitude The Slave after he had some while considered Polexander threw himselfe at his feete and against his will kissing them What Prince said he reignes there this day on the Earth who owes not this homage to him whom the divine Alcidiana hath acknowledged worthy of her esteeme as well as of her anger Ah Pallantus replyed Polexander thou hast not joyned the â—…steeme of thy divine Queene with her anger but to imitate those cunning Phisitions who to make their bitter and unsavory pills or potions to be taken mingle it with somthing pleasant and sweete But I am too much used to bitternesse to imagine that thing that is offered me can have any kinde of sweetnesse Tell me then deare Pallantus the most cruell of all my destiny and without flattering me with an esteeme that I shall never deserve let me know that which the just choler of Aâ—…cidiana hath reserved for my rashnesse Pallantus would willingly have hiddâ—…n from Polexander that which he knew of his fortune but fearing to offend by his discretion the blinde obedience which he had sworne to Alcidiana Doe not doubt said he to our Heroe but that my faire Queene esteemes of your valour and heares not without astonishment that which Fame speakes of your noblenesse But your daring hath not pleased her and when she knew that you respected her not with all the fâ—…are and all the reverence that we ought to beare to sacred things she hath resolved by a long absence to chastise the irregularity of your desires Her indignation had beene satisfied by putting you to this affliction if the impudency of her Subjects had not oblieged her to take from you for ever the contentment of seeing her What said Polexander was it not enough for me to be punished for my offences without engaging me to beare the iniquity of others No answered Pallantus the faults of your friends being mixt with your owne hath set you for a marke to which aymes all the most rigorous justice of Alcidiana The errors of Amalthea the solicitations of Pisander the teares of Amintha and the irregular love of a people made foole by your valour have brought my Queene to forbid you the comming into her kingdome and to condemne you to death if you ever chance to violate what she hath forbidden O errors O solicitations O teares O popular blindnesse said Polexander how much am I beholding to you that have obtayned for me a favour that I value not much lesse then the love of Alcidiana Yes faire Queene he added casting his eyes on the picture of Alcidiana yes I will die of that death to which you have condemned me and will die if I can without displeasing you by disobedience Polexander stopping at these words seemed to expect Pallantus answere but perceiving that the Slave repented him of what he had spoken Goe not about said he by your word to disguise the passions of your Princesse Remember t is she alone to whom you owe both your respect and complying and that in mincing those things which her Majesty commands you you violate the purity of your faith and make your selfe unworthy of those faire chaines which your unsoyled loyalty hath acquired you Say then boldly that Polexander must perish and that Alcidiana her selfe hath designed to pronounce his Sentence of death But Pallantus to the end that none may doubt of the will of that Princesse conceale no longer my just condemnation let me see the termes that begot 〈◊〉 in what words 't is contained and be assured that I shall receive it as the most glorious signall by which my life hath yet ever beene honoured I will satisfie you answered Pallantus since Alcidiana will have it so and that at the same time I make her beauty to be adored I cause her power to be redoubted In saying this he unfolded a great volume sealed with a golden Medal where was the portraict of Alcidiana on one side on
of thy Masters I will returne in spite of all Mexico to chastice thy disloyalty and to bury the pride of thy Towres and Pavilions underneath their owne ruines From this transport he fell into another He repeated the name of Isatida hundreds of times He called on Death as often and I doubt not but he would have given that to himselfe if he had not feared to disobey the Princesse At last the day of his departure arriving he tooke leave of Montezuma and went out of Mexico accompanied with all the Court and the most part of the people He went to lodge at Tlacopan where he was received as he had been the King and the next day followed by two men that Tumanama had left him and fifty slaves to carry his baggage he tooke the way of the Province of Cotosta which is fifty Leagues from Mexico towards the East He had already travelled two daies and two nights when he fell into an ambuscado which infallibly Hismalita had laied for him He was assailed in a vally by a great many theeves and enforced to use all his endeavours to defend his life Tumanama's two men were there slaine and fifteen or twenty of his slaves He himselfe there received divers sleight woundes but he did such things in this encounter that are beyond humane beleefe and went beyond the force even of Giants After neer a whole daies resistance he became Master of the field and retired into the next Village with the remainder of his Traine He was compelled to abide three or foure daies there that he might not anger or inflame his woundes but he underwent in that place a greater hazard then he escaped in the field Two nights together his lodging was beset by unknowne people and assayled with so much fury that but for the helpe which the Inhabitants brought him it had beene certainly mastered and entred These last assaults causing him to reflect on the first he judged they could come from none but the expresse command eyther of Hismalita or Montezuma and by consequence that he could hardly avoide Death His high courage made him respect this danger as he was wont to doe others and made him resolve to surmount it in making shew that he contemned it He came forth therefore in the open day from his lodging and buying some slaves in stead of those he had lost gave the Inhabitants of the Bourg to understand that he had not gotten himselfe so many Enemies had he not saved all Mexico from the fury of the Theviciens and other Rebells Those few words wrought such an Effect in the mindes of those Mexicans that they all went into the field with him left him not till he came to Cotosta Tendilly who was Governor thereof for Montezuma came forth to meet him and did him so many extraordinary honors that if Zelmatida had been capable of feare or suspition he might well have doubted that Hismalita was contriving some new plot on him And indeed his Death had been unavoydable if the very party who was to murther him had not preferred the life of this Prince before the hope of a great fortune He came into Zelmatida's chamber whilst he slept and awakening him my Lord said he arise and save your selfe there are here twenty men sent to kill you The Prince casting himselfe out of his bed tooke a Javelin which he carried as he travelled and turning himselfe to the stranger where said he are those traytors Doe not stay nor amuse your selfe replyed the stranger by fighting with them but follow me and know that thou hast not a greater Enemy then our Governour Zelmatida beleeved the man got out of Cotosta without giving notice to his slaves and forsaking the common way slipped yet once more from the rage of Hismalita He got into the Deserts of Calcicoëca with his guide Ten or twelve of his slaves escaping the hands of Tendilly fled from Coâ—…osta and ignorant what way to take followed the first that they sawe They were yet so fortunate that without any such intention they came to the Port of Calcicoëca They had not beene there two houres as they told me when I arrived with the first vessell that touched the firme land of our world But be pleased to let me make a necessary digression to cleare you of some things which doubtlesly you have stumbled at and that leaving the Inca my Master in the Deserts of Calcicoëca I relate to you my adventures Although I speake Arabian yet was I borne at Cusco and sonne of the Iâ—…ca Miâ—…raïc the last of the brothers of Tupac Inca Yupanquy Soveraigne moderator of the Empire of the Incaes Nature bestowing on me nothing good but an incredible desire to see other countries then mine owne and other manners then those of my country-men I stole from Cusco at the age of seventeene yeares and went thence with certain Merchants which traffiqued along the coasts of Chily We were driven from the land by a tempest and after we had beene above fifteene dayes at Sea we were shipwracked against a desert Island which is farre from the maine Land Those that could save themselves by swimming got to the Island but finding it Desert and not inhabited they saw well that they had not escaped their first shipwrack but to fall into a second Of twelve that remained of us sixe died in foure daies and the two next dayes ensuing five more followed them When I sawe my selfe alone and equally depressed with griefe and hunger I ranne to the top of a Rock to find within the waves the end of my afflictions but at the same time I descryed a great vessell in full sayle comming right to me I gave the gods praise for so unhoped a succour and descended to the haven to meere it That ship had great sayles made of Palme-leaves and many huge Anchors of wood and seemed so unwiedly and heavy that it was scarcely shooke by the Tempest It came at last into the haven and I presently besought the ayde of those were in her and by signes having made them understand the wofull estate into which I was brought I got them to succour me They tooke me very humanely into their vessell and after they had given me to eate asked me the name of the Island I made knowne that I was throwne on it by a tempest and that they should not finde therein eyther man or beast They were it seemed very much grieved at it and abode all the rest of the day in their shippe not knowing whereon to resolve At last they put to Sea againe and taking to their first course were more then thirty daies without seeing land They arrived the three and thirtieth at the Island Junagava and being knowne there made a solemne Sacrifice on the Shoare and a feast to all those of the Island that would be assistants I learnt in a small time the languâ—…ge of my Conductors and understood that parting from a great Island called Japan or Japon
desires is to see that so many honest men had rather perish then to forsake so miserable a wretch as I. Those words drew teares from the most insensible of our Saylors and we all told him with one voyce that we thought our selves too happy to be in such an estate as not to survive so good a Master If my Soule said he were capable of receiving a new affliction your love and friendshippe would redouble my despayre Whilest we were thus talking our vessell was sometime driven towards the East and then to the South At last the Tempest ceasing and our Mariners perceiving themselves in that fearefull extent of Sea which separates the old World from the new came and told me that they were not farre off from Cape Vert and that it be hooved us to try to land there They had already fitted their sailes for it when they descryed Bajazets fleete and being afraid of that encounter steered for the Canaries yet were we assayled as you have eyther seene or heard and forced to yeeld not so much by the courage of our vanquishers as by the shew of Zelmatidaes obstinacy not to defend himselfe At this word Gurruca speaking more softely a see said he to the Princes the principall part of our Kings adventures I have passed by many excellent particularities and clouded the raies of his heroicall life by my simple relation but you are enough cleere sighted to discover the splendour of his actions through the obscurity of my language This accomplisht Favourite ending in this manner his relation left Polexander Iphidamantus Bajazez and Alcidiana's slave in an admiration so great that they could no otherwise expresse it but by their silence They then arose and went to finde Zelmatida who was still walking on the terrasses of the Castle They heard him complaining and now and then invoking the name of Isatida I live said he and thou art dead O weake and traytrous Zelmatida I How long wilt thou be a faith-breaker Polexander came first to him and witnessing to him the part he tooke in his grievances and the admiration of his whole life Doe not suffer cried he your sorrow to governe you so absolutely that it makes you forget what you owe to the memory of Isatida T is fit that Mexico should know by her propeâ—…ruine rather then by that of her enemies how much Zelmatida is to be feared Entertaine then by a vengeance that should last as long as your selfe a passion eternall and give to the prophesies of your Prophet an explication worthy the virtues of Isatida Bajazet and Iphidamantus who were of the same opinion advised to the same purpose and amongst the praises they gave Zelamtida did all they could to winne him from despairing of Isatida's life The chances of the world said Iphidamantus to him have such strange revolutions that every day our feares are as much deluded as our hopes and I know by mine owne proper adventures that we accuse the heavens for the death of those we love whilst yet their goodnesse is doing miracles for the preservation of their lives Fortune is thus pleased to crosse our contentments and to play with that false providence whereby we would imitate the Sages Zelmatida comming from his musings at the discourse of the Princes yet replied to it as little as if he had not understood them but answering his owne thoughts Yet I live said he and my cowardize hath made me criminall that all the Mexicans deaths with mine owne cannot expiate my last faultes But whither doe my vaine imaginations carry me Must I yet thinke on the world I who came into it but only to dye and who endure life as a long and violent torture to which the justice of heaven hath condemned me at that very instant when I tooke a resolution to leave Isatida These discouses had beene seconded by many more and the sad thoughts which these infortunate Lovers communicated to one another by an amorous infection had furnished them with new matter of entertainement but that a furious winde arising threatned them with one of those tempests to which all the Coasts of Africa and the neighbouring Isles seemed particularly to be condemned This tempest accompanied with lightning and thunder took soone from the Princes the sight of the heaven and the starres The aire seemed all on fire The sea carrying his waves even to the places where the thunders framed strove to quench the flames The shores roared and the Isle it selfe trembling under the feet of her Inhabitants seemed to breake those eternall bonds which had fastned it to the Center of the earth and would by her flight steale from the fury of that conflagration In effect they saw fire fall from heaven in divers parts of the Island but the raigne as suddainely following it smothered the ill in its birth Our foure Lovers having far other enemies to contest with then the toilsomnesse and varieties of that Climat retired to their chambers and having no other witnesses of their actions but themselves gave their griefs all the liberty that constraint and civility had tyrannically taken from them The end of the fourth Booke The first Part of POLEXANDER The fifth Booke POlexander seeing his intention crossed by the violence of the tempest could not sleepe all night He accused innocent things for the ill which his passion made him suffer and imputing the ordinary agitations of the windes and the sea to the cruelties of Fortune perswaded himselfe that Nature and Heaven Demons and men looked on him as their common enemy He threw even on Alcidiana's a version the cause of his misfortunes and ascribing to her by an amorous Idolatry that absolute power which is reserved to the Divinity I feele cride he oftentimes I feele faire Queene the effects of your anger The Elements who are no lesse sensible then men search out occasions to please you and affect the glory of being your servants They are armed to destroy me They are affrighted with the threats of your declaration and looking on me as a traytor pursu'd by your justice they feare least that in favouring me they may become my Confederates At that word he remembred he had lodged Alcidiana's slave in his chamber and that thought smothered the rest of his complaints But the generous slave beginning Leave said he your complaining on Alcidiana and Fortune They seeme to be your enemies but I doubt not at the last they will discover what they have concealed and declare themselves for you I know some things which in spite of your scruples all your distrusts and all the conceipts touching your selfe shall be able to comfort you I expected wee should have gone from this Island to have acquainted you with them But if the storme compells us to stay I will relate to you some particularities which have never come out of my Princesse Cabinet and which are not knowne but to her selfe Amalthea and Me. Polexander that could hope for nothing answered the faire slave
Iphidamantus as well as Polexander and Zelmatida was deceived in the explication of those words They tooke them as if Bajazet had a desire to live but that passion which cannot be praised in a brave courage was too much contemned by him to cause thence the least lament in the world He shewed an anger that his weakenesse had surmounted him at that time and strove againe to take the little paper and the cover of the box which he felt in his bed Faine would he have shut the box and put in the little Roll he had but Polexander helped him since Bajazet found himselfe unable to doe it As soone as he had put backe the box where 't was wont to be he cast his eyes on the Princes and holding his hand out weakely to them see said he how fortune playes with us and our hopes But what It is no lesse injustice to complaine of her cruelties then here is of weakenesse if we follow her when she smiles Whilst he spake thus Diceus was behind Polexander who intreated him to hinder Bajazet from further talking Polexander wrought so that Bajazet tooke notice of Diceus and so fitly that it tooke effect Indeed the generous sick-man apperceiving it I am still said he and so on all hands that your eyes aske my silence Yes my friends I grant you that favour as I would doe you greater were I in the same case I was three dayes since During this sad converse the night came on and every one thought it best to leave Bajazet to his rest There were no more but the Princes and five or six of Bajazets most affectionate servants that staied neere him His Chyrurgions watched with him till day breake and thought it fit to take off the second dressing Polexander Iphidamantus and Zelmatida came in when they were on that resolution They intreated Bajazet patiently to suffer the paine they might put him too and assured him he should soone be in far better health Bajazet only smiled at that discourse and let the Chyrurgions doe what they pleased Diceus himselfe having seene the dangerous wound was in as little hope as the rest And the Princes seeing in what extremity their friend lay could not so well containe themselves but that they let fall some teares as often as they turned their eyes on him He alone was the man least sensible of his hurt and who looked on the dressing of his wound with so great a strength of spirit that you might have said he saw some strangers body dressed or that his owne was impassible Whosoever came neere him he presently comforted and by his ordinary remonstrances left them nothing to say that came prepared to resolve him for death The day ensuing this dangerous night was no more favourable to him then thâ—… three former The Fever left him not his ravings redoubled and all his friends looked on him as they had already seene him in his coffin After so many ill houres the fourth and fift dressing gave his friends the hope they had lost and Bajazet himselfe confessed that he found some kind of ease He would not lose that good moment and therfore prayed that instantly some should advertise all his Captaines that before his death â—…e desired to have once more the contentment to see them and to instruct them in â—…ose things which were necessary for their common safety and his particular consolation His command was executed with an extreame diligence and two houtes after his chamber was full of those old Corsaries who by their long services had attained 〈◊〉 the charges of the sea and war Bajazet seeing them about his bed caused the curtaines to be opened and shewing to all a constancy that death it selfe was not able to shake in this manner spoke to them I have not my Companions sent for you to be witnesses of the consent I bring to this inexorable necessity which wills that I forsake with the command that you gave me the felicities I promised my selfe from your 〈◊〉 and assistance To speake in generall there is a great deale of glory to looke on death with contempt and to receive it with pleasure But when a man hath lived some time among you this vulgar magnanimity loseth the most part of his luster and wee learne that the contempt of life and death is but the first essay of courage to which yet you beleeve there is due not the meanest praises I dye then without telling you that 〈◊〉 sorrow not for life and that of all the afflictions which my precipitated destiny throwes on me I will disclose to you only two since I cannot bury them with me without losing that repose which accompanieth the eternity of the second life The one is the griefe to dye before I had acquitted me of the extraordinary obligations by which you have plucked me from the outrages of fortune and made me conceive high hopes in the very extremity of my despaire The other which not to lye to you would make me wish for a continuation of life if that wish could preserve me is that I dye ingratefull and perjured and leaving in danger an innocent which my fury hath ingaged my death makes me guilty of her losse and throwes on my memory the curses of all faithfull soules T is in your power my friends to free me of these troubles to hinder the crimes which destiny would have me perpetrate to disengage my faith to save mine honour and in briefe that after death I may live love and fight Promise me then but sweare it to me by the holynesse of your great Prophet that without any further particular information of those things wherein I would engage you You will execute them under the command of Polexander and Iphidamantus Interrupt me my friends and give me if you please the last proofe of your generous obedience Bajazet could goe no further the vehemency of his action having exhausted the little strength that was left in him He was therefore constrained to lye downe againe and to shut his eyes to stay his spirits that began to be dissipated Polexander and his brother that were at his beds head gave him some ease and intreated the Pirates by their usuall generosity not to deliberate longer on so just a request Bajazet opened his eyes at the speech of those two Heroës and witnessing by his sighes how impatiently he waited for the Rovers answer either hasten said he by a favourable blow that lingering moment that must give an end to my feares and wishes or graunt me that which I aske you that so without any despaire I may endure the flownesse of that clocke which must strike the houre of my departure The Pirates unwilling that their Generall should againe solicit them at once lifted up their hands for a signe that they accorded to what he requested them Those that were neerer to him spake for the rest and told him that God was too just to heare the prayers of Mahomets enemies and to
of three Dimonds which the Portingalls valued at more then a hundred thousand crownes These liberalities ended the foure Princes at last tooke leave of each other Iphidamantus aboade with Bajazet Polexander and Zelmatida being shipped in one same vessell began a voyage wherein they proposed to themselves none other end but the continuation of their afflictions The End of the first Part of Polexander The second Part of POLEXANDER The first Booke THat blind and capricious power which hath chosen for the foundation of its Throne the instability of the waters was so cruell to our despairing Lovers that from Bajazets Isle till he came within ken of the Coasts of Morocco would not oblige them with any apparance of a tempest Polexander vexed with so fatall a gratification made continuall prayers against the calme and his life And Zelmatida sending to Heaven a thousand pitifull supplications besought it with teares by a sudaine death to deliver him from the misfortune of not seeing Isatida Whilst they thus vainly afflicted one another their ship passed from the torrid Zone to the temperate and leaving behinde them the fearefull plaines of the Ocean came neere the Coastes of Africa The Marriners had already descryde the smoaking point of that Mountaine the highest in the world which the Spaniards call Pico de Teyda and Polexander was come out of his Cabin with the Indian Prince to shew him that wonder of the Isle of Teneriffe and by consequence a part of his Dominions When he saw shine among the waves I know not what that sometimes seemed to him glistering as gold and otherwhile red as fire This strange object interrupted his sad meditations and holding him fixed by his eyes gave him such impatiencies and curiosities where withall a minde so abated as his in all likelihood was not capable After he had beene sometime in this contemplation he that was on the scuttle cryde out that he saw a ship on fire At that noise Polexander turned away his eyes from the object which he scarce any longer saw through his long earnest looking on it and by this diversion almost recovering his sight tooke notice that that which had so long amazed him was the vessell which the Sentinell had discovered Presently he commanded his Pilot to beare up to it and when he was at a distance proportionable to his sight he knew that the ship was not on fire as the Sentinell imagined but that it bore sayles of the colour of fire and glittered with gold in divers places This vessell said he to himselfe is too stately and rich for a ship of warre or merchandize The Princes of Morocco have none so brave It cannot be Bajâ—…zets O heaven Shall I beleeve it said he Yes most assuredly t is the sacred ship of Alcidiana He stopped at that word and musing a while on his imagination doubt not said he aloud in striking Zelmatida on the arme 't is the very same What Said Zelmatida is that there Our Heroë came to himselfe and beseeching the Prince to pardon his transport Either all likelihood deceives me or the vessell which you see is the same which for the space of two yeeres I have unprofitably sought after Goe up to it then replide Zelmatida I intend it said Polexander But wee must have a care that she doe not escape us as she hath done divers times And in finishing these words he was come so neere her that he noted the Devices that were painted on the sailes You might see shine againe that immortall Bird that seemed to have made her a Crowne with the very Beames of the Sun and they read in some places some Arabian words which signified I am sacred for I am Alcidiana's Wee need doubt no more cryde Polexander to your armes my Companions let every one prepare him to doe his best But let none what ere he be dare to shoote till I command him Whilst he yet spoake the proud vessell presented her right side and gave him foure vallies of Cannon one after another He ran the hazard to be taken off by a bullet which striking along the ship from the prowe to the poope pierced two of the sayles and carried away a peece of one of the Masts For all that Polexander would not have his Artillery discharge but commanding his Marriners to clap on all their sayles thought that Lynceus being prepared for fight had no desire as at other times to save himselfe by flight Whilst he was thus reasoning with himselfe those that were in the rich vessell offended that a little ship should dare to carry her sayles aloft before her would have satisfâ—…ction and to bring her to her duty discharged all her ordinance at her which pierced her in three places and killed Polexander fifteene or twenty of his men and two of Zelmatida's This act of hostility should have obliged Polexander to repell force by force Yet he did not But aboording the proud ship without shooting he called for Lynceus divers times and crying aloud to make himselfe understood Wee come not up to you said he as enemies wee know that you belong to the most potent and fairest Queene of the world and that knowledge obligeth us to respect you as sacred persons Give over then to war with us since wee are as well as you the slaves and adorers of Alcidiana and if you doe not please to receive us into your ship yet at least accept of us to serve you for direction or convoye Scarce had Polexander finisht these words but a man armed with armour of gold who carried on his buckler the portraict of a Queene presented himselfe on the side of the ship and lifting up his sword I would know said he adressing him to Polexander who are those that dare take to them the glorious title of Alcidiana's slaves The Prince insteed of answering stood as fastned on the buckler of the Knight with the golden armour because he knew that 't was Alcidiana who was there pictured and adoring that face which could not be seene without admiration O thou Sun cryde he that only givest light to mine eyes when shall I be permitted to burne my selfe in thy divine flames He had not ended the last word when the golden Knight stroake with his sword so weighty a blow on his head that if it had not beene covered with a very good Casque he had surely cloveâ—… it in sunder This blowe awakened him from his extasie and forced him to take his weapon in his hand Thy rashnesse is great said he presently to him that strooke him but if thou be either subject or slave to Alcidiana I beare her respect enough to endure this injury I am sent by Alcidiana replide insolently the golden Knight to correct those bold fellowes like thy selfe which dare to vaunt themselves to be the slaves of Alcidiana To me alone appertaines so illustrious a quallity and if thou doe not throw thy selfe at my feet to aske me pardon for being so audacious Know
either your paâ—…ience learning or chaâ—…ity Yâ—…u may finde in me cause sufficient to put all those perâ—…ctions in practise I am very ignorant in our mysteries and 〈◊〉 yet more unfortunate The Dervis beginning to speake with the tone of a voice so weake and trembling that I thougâ—…t him to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ick The esteeme said he which you deigne to make of me is a proofe of your goodnesse aâ—…d though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ingenuously that I deseâ—…ve it not 〈◊〉 yeâ—… I 〈◊〉 that it is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be well in the opinion oâ—… so wiâ—…e anâ—… so generous a Princesse But that which 〈◊〉 this good fortune the moâ—…e deare to me is that by a happy continâ—… 〈◊〉 obligeâ—… you to shew some compassion on my griefe 〈◊〉 said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heaven iâ—… self put a hand to the recoveâ—… 〈◊〉 wâ—…l quickly 〈◊〉 incurable 〈◊〉 if you 〈◊〉 Madam that being 〈◊〉 and day to conâ—…est with such sensible griefes I can neither dispose of mine owne spirits 〈◊〉 yet be in case to instruct and comfort I have neede my selfe that some charitable friend should not only free me from many doubts and withdraw me from many errors which my malady begets in my minde but that he should likewise raise my courage by his consolations and give me the strength to resist the violence of my afflictions It I carry away nothing else I replyde by your communication yet at least I shall take with me this satisfaction that it is not my sexe alone that shewes so much weakenesse since that a man who by the greatnesse of his soule could dispose himselfe of all his affections and of himselfe could not yet uncloathe him wholy of all humanity noâ—… lose the sense of paine in losing that of pleasure It seemes well Madam answered he that I have not the honour to be well knowne to you I am quite otherwise then your charity imagineth I am a feeble weake man a man so tide to himselfe and to his affections that to preserve them more pretiously and to imploy his dayes and nights in so faire and delightfull an occupation hath banished him from the world and chasen a retreate in the horrour of these Mountaines But Madam I should never have done if I tooke the boldnesse to tell you the story of my infirmities I have intimated but too much already and you shall be exceedingly good if after the confession that I have made you will deigne to take the paines one day to revisit so deplorable a creature That which you have now told me I answered makes me desire to know more but it shall be for another day In the meane time get your health if you can or at least have the courage to suffer constantly and if you neede a very rare example to make you to make you resolve it study the life of Ennoramita and you shall finde that though she be a woman she is able couragiously to support faâ—… greater afflictions then yours and to expect without despaire those remedies that time will afford her I will strive to follow so generous councell replyde the Dervis but time must quickly bring me that succour it intends me if it prepare for me any other then death My heart begins to faile me with my hope and if the eternall wisdome which watcheth eternally for the good of his creatuâ—…es had not by a miracle vouchsafed to signifie to me this day that my life is yet deare to him I protest to you Madam that I would not have preserved it any longer The more I heard this Hermet talke the more my curiosity increased I thought that all his words were so many mysteries and that he concealed from me the knowledge of something that might be very availeable and pleasing to me Yet I tooke my leave oâ—… him and promised in going away that he should quickly here from me or I would come to see him my selfe Let it be as soone as may be Madam said he sighing â—…or if your presence renew not againe within few dayes the miracle that hath beene done since you entred into this Caverne assuredly you shall not finde me living I returned thâ—… 〈◊〉 the Pallace of the Desert for so they called my Prison and meeting there with Nepâ—…zus in a humour as I may say good If I compare it with that which was ordiâ—…y with him related to him the adventure of my walke He had presently a desire to vâ—…sit the desolate Hermit and appointing it for next day intimated that he desired to goe thither with me The time being come wee got to horsbacke and in lesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 houres came to the narrow passage by which only you could clime to the Dervis his Caverne He was in the same caâ—…e that I left him and though Nephizus had given him notice of his comming yet was he constrained if he would see him to goe to his bed-side He spoake to him with words obliging enough for a Soveraigne and reprâ—…nting the extreame desire some had given to gâ—…t to the knowledge of him asked 〈◊〉 what had forced him to make so rigourous a retirement The anger of heaven 〈◊〉 the Dervis and my despaire and the Authors of it But are you noâ—… 〈◊〉 Nephizus the same in these Mountaines that you were in the world Feeâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your afflictions as you have felt them heeretofore Aâ—…e you more absolutely Master of yoâ—… passions Or doe you beleeve that since you have turned your back to forâ—… gives over to pursue you My Lord answered the Dervis I conâ—…e I am in this Deâ—…rt 〈◊〉 same I was in the City My griefes are as shaâ—…pe as ever My passions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 me as they were wont But I must confesse to you that since I â—…gan to leave 〈◊〉 â—…ing of â—…une she hath given over to be so averse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the woâ—…ld 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pleasure to affâ—…ct me but since I inhaâ—… among 〈◊〉 Roâ—… she seemes to have an intent to favour me I understand what you would say replyde Nephizus That fortune since she can take nothing from you leaves you somewhat at quiet and gives over working since she findes no more subject whereon to exercise her action There is something true answered the Dervis in your interpretation but the favours I receive from fortune if to accord with the ordinary manner of speech wee must call that fortune which is a pure effect of the providence which governes in heaven are more sensible then you can imagine them She doth only oblige me in ceasing to afflict me but she obligeth me effectively and gives me at least the sight of those felicities which I have heeretofore enjoyed That is said Nephizus because you now not being distracted among these obscure and solitary places your imagination so strongly represents you the happinesse which you enjoy no more that it seemes you enjoy them yet I have farre more then that said the Dervis for I recover in this Cave and really enjoy the good which
Nephizus hath unworthily repudiated me The Old Narcissus hearing these last words of Ennoramita lifted his hands to his eies to cope thence his teares and having often sighed My Lord said he to Polexander casting himself at his feet I should be unworthy that Name of a faithfull Servant which this Princesse vouchsaf'd to give me if even in that trouble and astonishment which her presence causeth in me I did not preserve enough of Judgement to give to her Innocence that testimony she expects from my mouth True Sir this Princesse deserves to be protected since she is unjustly prosecuted But J am deceiv'd in saying so She hath no more need of protection for shee hath not any persecuter Narcissus in saying so renew'd his teares and was a long time ere he could dry them Ennoramita moved with the sorrow of that Man who had alwayes mildly treated her besought Polexander to retire into his Closset that Narcissus might tell him in private those things that were not fit to be published The Eunuch joyn'd his intreaties to those of the Princesse and Polexander arising led her into his chamber Narcissus follow'd them and every one retâ—…ring to leave them at liberty The good old man moistning againe his leâ—…n cheekes with a long current of tears on this manner began the History of Nephizus Secrets That eternall Justice which is not allwaies fear'd because it is not allwayes busied in the punishing of wicked men hath at last made the poor Prince of Fez to feele that it chastiseth with a great severity when it long time defers his punishments That power made him fall into the pit which himselfe had digged and to make it selfe re-doubtableto those Princes that live hath suffered one of the greatest Princes of Affrica to dye so miserably that even to this houre we can know no other thing of him but that he is dead What doe you tell me cride Perselida What Narcissus is the Prince of Fez dead He is dead Madam reply'd the Eunuch weeping and all that I can say of his unhappy end is that he hath served for food to the Monsters of the Ocean Ennoramita made it well appeare on this occasion that a generous Soule is out of her Element when she is constraind either to resent her of the injuries or to deny her compassion to those which are fallen though justly into any mis-fortune No sooner was the Princesse assured of the death of her greatest enemy but she lost the memory both of all the wrong she had received and the protestations she had made to be avenged for them She remain'd a while recollected in her selfe and casting downe her eyes would have hid the teares that a true greife drew from her At last she declared her selfe and after divers sighes I confesse said she with a marvelous moderation that I cannot chuse but bewayle the unfortunate death of that young Prince J forgive him with all my heart the wrong he hath done me and beseech the dreadfull Majesty before whom he is to give an account of the actions of his life not to deale with him according to the rigor of his Justice Polexander admir'd this excesse of goodnesse and praysing so fair a change intreated Perselida to be pleas'd that he might be cleard of a thing he had heard in Bajazets Jsland The Princesse replyde that he might doe all that he thought fit Thereupon Polexander tooke the old Eunuch by the hand and intreated him to tell why Nephizus had forsaken his country and his wife and whither it were on the Mediterranean Sea or the maine Ocean that they thought he had suffered shipwrack I can satisfy your curiosity replyde Narcissus and in doing so shall acquit my selfe of that whereto my Soveraigne Lady lately engaged me Ennoramita having bestow'd farre more then she owed to the memory of her marriage set her neer to Polexander and Narcissus related to them what they desired to know in these termes About a yeere before I left you in the Pallace of the Desert sayde he addressing him to the Princesse of Tunis my Lord the King waâ—… solicited by Abdelmelec to renew their ancient intelligence and by a necessary warre to free their country and even their Father from the slavery wherein five or six Tyrants made them to languish Nephizus who was but too facile to be carried to any mischiefe met with his brother and by a parricidiall resolution engag'd himselfe to put the kinde and meeke Hely from his Throne and make him renounce by force that authority which he kept too long This Attempter had the successe he deserved for Nephizus forces were discomfited and himselfe taken prisoner But the too indulgent Hely unwilling to consent either to the death or imprisonment of his rebellious Sonne satisfied himselfe with keeping him under guard some few dayes after which never remembring what had passed he shewed him more love and more confidence then before and utterly to undoe him the too facile and weak Hely shewed him I dare not say indiscreetly a young wonder of whom as old as he was he was become passionately amorons I would tell you the story of that fatall beauty because t is most strange but it serving nothing to my purpose I will content my selfe with the relating to you that she arrived on the coasts of Morrocco in the midst of the flames of a burning ship as presaging the fires and flames that she was to kindle in that country Nephizus had noe sooner seen that stranger but he not only trod under foot the respect he was bound to carry to the passion of his father but he forgot that which he lawfully ought to love and what he had other times affected The desire to enjoy this stranger wholy possessing him and making him to lose all reason he thought that by cunning and glosing it might be easie for him to come to the End of his pretentions and being young and faire should without much difficulty get this marvell out of the hands of the good old man his Father But after he had imployed in it all his wits and all his confidents he found himselfe farre short of his reckoning For having to doe with an old Man jealous suspectfull and sensuall and by consequence that was igno rant in nothing that was to be practisd to win a woman his wyles were soone discovered and he to save his life constrained to fly At that time he writ to mee by one of his Mutes that I should shut you up more strictly then before and in saying thus he bow'd his head to Ennoramita's foot that I should not suffer you to be seene by any body and on the penalty of my life I should not suffer any person whatsoever to come neere the Advenues of your prison He writ me not the cause of that rigorous command but I discovered it since Abdelmelec took me into his service I will tel it you because it serves for the cleering of many things which may have come
Assembly who are men of courage to have pity of my mis-fortune and to employ their valour for the deliverance of my Princesse Every one being moved with this preface gave double attention and promising to himselfe to heare something that should be strange made known to Median that they had a great minde to heare him He thereupon after he had discovered the Picture of the Princesse of Telinfin that was painted on his Buckler went on thus There is none in this Assembly who knowes not the greatnesse of the Kingdome of Telensin and who in some way hath not heard that the Kings of it have made themselves redoubtable to their Enemies He which now raigns What said I He which raigns No he raignes not for the fury of his Subjects excited by the Sorceries and predictions of a false Prophet come out of Tefesca hath loaden him with Irons and dispoyld him of his Government The poore Habdulac-Numen so is that Prince called hath one only daughter of whom I dare say nothing for feare I should not speake as I ought This Angell of Light is called Arzila and should not have been put amongst the List of mortall things if the affection which she beares to the least of men had not cut off somewhat from the opinion they had conceived of her Divinity I was that Happy man though an unworthy object for Arzila's affection I received that favour with the respect that I ought and not being able to deserve her by any service I never vaunted of any thing but that I could not merit her I was even on the point to be elevated unto heaven when a Divell gotten loose from hell I meane the false Prophet of whom I have spoken ruined all my hopes and buryed my felicities under the ruines of the Royall Progeny Habat Elmely so was that cruell Tyrants Name covering his ambition and Pride with a falle and pernicious piety entred into Telensin with a great company of his Sectaries and after he had there preach'd his Heresies gain'd the Brutish and inconstant people and made them rise in armes against heir Soveraign I Joyn'd my selfe with those that were loyall and did my best endeavour tBut after divers defeates and being left for dead in the feild of the last Battle Abdulac Vmen was taken prisoner loaden with Irons and thrown into a horrible Dungeon The false Prophet presently took on him the Royall Authority and since that he had acused to be published at the beginning of the War that he was come from Heaven and the great Prophet Mahomet to teach the truth to the Telensiens and by the marriage of himselfe with Arzila beget them Kings that should chase all the Christians out of Africa he commanded that in what place soever that Princesse should be retyr'd they should bring her to him and declar'd that not only he which conceal'd her should be impal'd alive but also that if she came not in within foure dayes Abdulac Vmen should be flead alive in the great place of Telensin At this last newes Arzila who passionately lov'd her Father left the place where she was in safety thought it good in appearance not to dis-allow of the false prophets designe came to him to his Palace only with two Women and casting her at his feet Behold said she the Maiden for whom thou hast testified hitherto so much respect and affection reduc'd to submssions and prayers If the desire to raigne which hath made thee forget the Loyalty thou owest my Father hath not made thee lose the Love thou didst beare the Daughter repent thy selfe for having displeased him and setting a period to his mis-fortune give him cause to acknowledg so great a service I present not my selfe before thee to make use of that absolute power which my birth and thy affection gives me over thy will but I beseech thee as a Subject and submit to all thou shalt ordeine me Provided thou restore to me the King my Father Ought not the false Emely to have beene moved by the prayers and tears of that faire Princesse He was not a jot though he feigned to be so His infamous brutality seeing it self at the point to be satiated made him dissemble his hatred and advis'd him to promise Arzila all that she requested to the end that she might the more willingly sacrifice her self for the safety of her Father He then led her into a place where she could be heard by no body and taking her by the hand said I keep not Abdulac prisoner not have I taken on me the title of a King but to oblige you not to be cruell to me Have pity of one that is unfortunate succour a man desperate pay with some small favour so many yeares services which I have given you though my discretion hath hindered me from making it appeare to you and dispose as you please of the Crown of Telensin I restore it you with your Father and renounce for ever all other glory but that of enjoying you He added many other immodest and lascivious words to those and seeing himselfe sweetly refused began to be moved and told the Chast Arzila that she should not hope to see againe her Father on the throne if she did not grant him what he had so many yeares search'd for The Princesse hiding her just displeasure threw her selfe again at the feet of that abhominable wretch in Lieu of answering him and melting into teares My Lord said she consider what t is you require of me thinke who I am and do notmake me beleeve that thou hast ever lov'd me The Tyrant laugh'd at the Princesse virtue and raising her from the ground you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 me invane said he if you havenot a will to fulfill my desire I have a long time observâ—… all the Lawes which Love and respect imposed on me You must now receive mine or we must be equally miserable At those words Arâ—…ila be came red as fire and stepping a pace or two backwards My honour then said she is the only ransome thou desirest for thy Princes liberty I ever beleev'd that thou wert an in famous fellow and a Traytor But expect not that the feare of death nor the hope of reseeing Abdulac in the throne shall ever bring me to lose that which I love more then the Crown or my life The King my Father would disavow me for his Daughter and would be his owne executioner should he know I had reestablish'd him by so sordid so shamefull and execrable a treaty The false Prophet enraged to see himselfe so farre from his purpose caus'd Arzila to be taken away by some of his guard brought her into the Dungeon where her father lay and to affright her more and by other wayes then by threatnings commanded her Fathers Nose to be cut off At which horrible spectacle Arzila tore her haire cast her selfe into her Fathers Armes be-bloodied her face against his and after some lamentations able to make the heart of a common Executioner
they soone changed their opinion for presently after they saw come in divers foot-boyes and many horses which among the black that cover'd them made some shew of flames The Captaine of this Brigade was mounted upon a Roane horse with Caparisons of black Velvet imbroider'd with Gold and Silk of the colour of fire The Armes he bare by the industry of the Workman represented a furnace wherein the fire was nourished by a little mizling raine that fell into it His shield was black in many places and the rest bloodied with the long tresse of a Comet This Devise had for motto to it these three Latin words Vt perdat lucet Polemander so was the Knight call'd so deadly inflamed came to the place prescrib'd and easily obtaining the Audience he desired said that he was come out of the Mountaines which separate Spaine from France to give to the faire Infeliciana the last testimony of his love Truely his constancy deserves from us extraordinary prayses For though the object of his passion was during her life full of grace and merit yet we must confesse that there was a miracle in so long a perseverance Infeliciana enjoyed in the highest degree all that which the fairest Ladies either Greek or Spanish had of allurement or fire yet whoever di-sinteress'd should Judge will acknowledge the beauty of that Lady to be nothing in comparison of the wonders of her wit and the sweetnesse of her conversation This magnanimous Knight charm'd with so many divine qualities had neither soul nor life but what he receiv'd from the Eyes or discourse of Infeliciana When he was absent from her he did nothing but languish His melancholy and heavinesse made both the Court and the light odious to him and made the King of Navarre of whom he was passionatly belov'd to take notice of it That Prince by all manner of offers and favours would faine have won him to discover the cause of his disquiet but all in vaine After he had long time mused on it he doubted that the sadnesse of his favorite came from love and himselfe being then extreamely in love with a young Lady call'd Ismenia who wanted no allurements he imagin'd that Polemander kept not his love private for any other thing but because it had originall from her beauty Presently the King grew jealous and so extreamely jealous that to free him of all his suspitions he made use of all the wit and subtlety wherewith his love could furnish him But it was all in vaine that he made use of his great promises his feined compassion and his other artifices The discretion and silence of Polemander triumph'd over all those enemies and confirmd the King in that opinion he had too lightly conceiv'd He secretly look'd on Polemander as his Rivall He forgot what he was to him He threatens him and suffering himselfe to be transported by his former motions deliberated already on the execution of him which but lately he lov'd as his owne person On the other side his fury made him think strange things of Ismenia He accused her for being crafty to desire more then one Lover and but to feine as often as she promised him her affection some dayes passed during which the Prince was able to containe him but the excessive torments which his silence added to those his jealousie made him undergoe compel'd him at last to make known his sufferings and discover to all Navarre the cause of his vexation He brake out in the end even against Polemander and not content to revile him for those things whereof he never thought told him that if he gave not over his love he would make him feele all that which could be expected from the just indignation of an offended Monarch This perfect lover seeing himselfe thrust at tott'ring on all sides would not give place to violence but abiding in his first resolution intended to perish rather then to faile of that secrecy he had promised to Infeliciana Whilst all the Court was troubled at the Melancholy and Châ—…'ler of the King and that the Enemies of POLEXANDER accusd him aloud to be too indiscreet Infeliciana admir'd the generousnesse of her Lover She confesseth that he only is worthy to be beloved and laugh'd at the blindnesse of those cowardly and perfidious minds that have no other light but what they have from Envy and detraction Polemander who well saw how much his discretion made him miserable protested to Infeliciana never to forsake her and rather to lose the Kings favour then to violate his faith or those commands which she had justly impos'd on him He kept his word so truly that the most crafty and curious Courtiers of them all were as well caught as the rest and made no difficulty to beleive that Ismenia was the true cause of Polemander's passion But if their preoccupation had not made them see things far otherwise thenthey were it had been very easie for them to have been dis-beguild when Infeliciana was taken from the Court to be given to a German Prince to whom she had been promis'd by her parents Truly death is not so horrible as the departure of Infeliciana was to Polemander He fail'd but little of being lost to himselfe and had infallibly done injury to his owne person if that beautie's forbiddings and the hope of re-seeing her had not staid his Tragicall resolution In spight of himselfe he therefore gave himselfe life but unwilling to keep it but as an Enemy which he would persecute he did him those ills and went on to such extremities that none would ever beleive it but such as have lov'd so truly as he The day that Infeliciana parted he went out alone from the City and taking on him the habit of a Begger put himselfe in the way she was to pass As farre off as He saw her Chariot he tore his hair gave most fearfull shriekes and beating his head against the trees and stones lay as dead in the midst of the high-way Those that rid before Infeliciana pittied him and taking him for a man afflicted with some strange sicknesse commanded their Servants to remove him those that were chosen to doe that worke of charity were so base that they had almost kild him in Lieu of assisting that poor Lover They did him a many mischiefes in drawing of him and with the extremity of their dragging made him recover his senses Presently he rose up as a man enraged and getting out of the hands of those unpitifull men ran even to Infeliciana's Chariot In her presence he renewed his cries and fury and spake such things that the most barbarous mindes could not hear without releâ—…ting On an instant he cast himself under the Chariot which the Charioteer had stop'd and as he lay there besought them to crush his head in peices under the Wheeles to terminate by so glorious a death a life that was odious unto him in this speech he intermingled the Name of Infeliciana and repeated it so often
her till she were sayld far into the Mediterranean They dis-embarqu'd her on the Island Tenedos with Polexander and Cydaria and after they had treated her with all unworthy usage return'd toward Constantinople Axiamira that had no other object then the Coffin wherein she her selfe had enclos'd the body of Periander nor other thought then that of his death and the taking away of Iphidamantus spent the dayes and nights in continuall teares and lamentations Polexander made shew of griefe enough but it was a generous sorrow and a griefe accompanied with threatnings Comfort your selfe said he to his Mother If I live the Kings death shall be reveng'd and the Tyrants offending you shall not go unpunished Notwithstanding the desolate Axiamira return'd hither and having promised to my selfe but a mournfull successe of her Journey I was not surpriz'd to fee her come on shore with the body of my dead Master She swoonded assoone as she saw me and in that case was caried to the Palace Assoon as she came to her selfe she ask'd where they had done the body of the King her Husband and could not be in quiet till they had brought it into her Chamber When she was a little recovered and setled I earnestly besought her to be as well a good Mother as a good Wife to divide her love between her Children and her Husbaud and not to forsake those that stood in need of her to follow one who was no more in case to desire the proofes of her affections Speak not to me said she of any thing in the world but of perpetually bewayling the irreparable losses which I have undergone I know what I owe to Polexander and Cydaria For the last I will have all the care which the weaknesse of her age and the memory of Periander can exact from me And for Polexander I put him into your hands The King his Father had chosen you to make him worthy that high fortune to which he is destinated Let it appeare by your care and instructions that the love you bare to so good a Master is not dead with bim Above all I give you in charge that Polexander never heare any thing of the Empire of his Ancestors and that you never make known to him those unfortunate designes which have shortned the dayes of Periander I had many things to answer to Axiamira's Propositions but she stopt me and said that unlesse I meant to make her run desperate I should speak to her of nothing whatsoever but of the Kings death When I knew her resolution I left her and dedicating my selfe to the good of the charge of Polexander I apply'd my dayes and nights to so honourable an imployment When his Court was ordered I causd an Assembly to be made wherein the Deputies of all the Islands acknowledg'd him for their Prince And between his hands swore to him their oath of fidelity After that I distributed the Government of the Isles among the ancient Servants of Periander and intreating them to continue to the Son the affection they bare to the Father dismis'd them with all that was necessary to hinder all revolts and surprizes In the meane time I confin'd my selfe to the Palace with my young Master and after I had gotten from France and Italy men of most eminency for the instruction of a Prince began carefully and diligently to improve so rare a plant But I must confess that Prince as I have already said had almost neither need of teaching or Study And I beleeve that Nature reveald to him all that the most able of men acquir'd not but in growing old on their books and in imployments If his wit were admirable his body was not much lesse At the age of ten yeares he was so strong and active that were it at the race were it at wrastling or any other exercises he was not out-gone by any of his owne age or of others of some more yeares Towards the end of his twelfth yeare the Kings of Spaine but especially that of Portugall made many attempts to drive him from the Canaries By the intelligence of some Merchants of Madera his men surpriz'd the Isle of Palmes and fortified themselves there so strongly that it was impossible for the Governour to make them quit it After I heard of these proceedings and withall seeing that it was of too dangerous a consequence to suffer those Spaniards so neer â—…s I levyed a good Army to dislodge them and to the end that the Kings presence should the more hearten the Souldier and make them fight the more cagerly I brought him to the Isle of Teneriffe which is next to that of Palmes Presently webesiegd the Portugalls in their Forts The beginning of the Warre succeeded marvellous well with us for in two moneths we burnt five and twenty of the Enemies ships took nine won two Forts and put eight hundred Portugalls in chaines But when we thought to make our selves Masters of the last Fort the Navy of Portugall strengthned by a great number of men and Vessells set on the Isle of Teneriffe and five or six hundred Portugalls landing in Polexanders Quaâ—…ter attempted to it at full day 'T was on that occasion the Prince made known he was a man and an extraordinary one though he was but at the beginning of his thirteenth yeare Assoone as he heard newes the Enemy came to assault him my deare Governour said he let 's go meet them I answered Sir your Troops have command to give them good entertainment but in asmuch as the chance of warre is alwayes uncertaine t is not unfit that for the safety of your Majesty we retire into the fortresse of Periander t is a place which the late King caus'd to be rais'd opposite to that in which the Portugalls would have secur'd themselves what is 't you would say quoth Polexander my deare Governour no no I will rather perish then my Enemies shall vaunt to have made me flye You shall not flie I repli'd though you retire What terme soever you give to that which you would have me do answer'd the Prince yet will it be a busines dishonourable Come come let 's fight it behoves us keep here either by a faire death or a faire victory In this said may it please your Majesty you are not to be hearkned to for I am answerable for your life to the Queen your Mother and to all your Subjects and if any ilaccident should betide 't would be imputed either to my treachery or insufficiency To what do you then reserve me said the Prince Heaven pâ—…eserves your Majesty I reply'd for thousands of brave actions when you shall make appeare the greatnesse of your courage assoone as you shall be of age to put them in execution What age said he would you wish me to begin those brave exployts I grant I am yong but I am strong enough to make use of my sword Admit it said I yet must you not rashly â—…st your selfe into danger Kings have
on the present and the other of what was passed Yet remained he not long in this kinde of darkenesse His soule opened her eyes as soone as those of his body were unshut He remembred his boxe and his verses and put his hand where he thought to finde them But deceived in what he attempted â—…e arose all startled he searched upon and about him he turned whence he came his eyes are fixed on the sands he tosseth and turneth all the leaves and flints and scratcheth and removeth the least leafe of grasse Then he be thought him of the noise he had heard and said to himselfe that what he had taken for the flight of a Lyon or some other beast was that of the Theefe which had carried away all the remainder of his treasure He would faine have followed but knew not what way to take Yet he ran to the Mountaine and being got very hye whether goe I said he to himselfe what doe I looke after Will these deserts and forrests tell me newes of it Presently he returned to the sea side got into his shalloppe and commanded the Marriners to carry him aboard his ship As soone as he was there he entred his Cabin without speaking to any of us and casting him on his bed Thou couldest doe me no other outrage said he But cruell Fate thou ruinest â—…hine owne power in destroying those Subjects over whom thou exercisest it and in depriving me of that only thing 〈◊〉 desired to preserve thou â—…akest from me all that feare which hath so often made me have recourse to thy protection Alcippus imagining by these words that his Master had received some new displeasure came neere and besought him to make knowne the cause of his affliction O friend said Polexander some one hath stolen from me Alcidiana's picture Doe but reflect on that disaster and oblige me noâ—… to unfold it to thee Alcippus at first thought his Master talked idely but hearing him a midst his sighes to cast forth the word of Theefe of portraict of Alcidiana he thought doubtlesly the Prince had lost his boxe and that the robbery of which he newely spoke was true indeede He told it me and I relating it to Diceus it went quickly through the ship One of our Marriners at the same instant saw a ship comming out of the River of Senega and ignorant whether he spoke true or false or whether he should speake it or no cried out the theefe was running away and 't was fit they should make after him The ship was thereupon made ready for the winde began to rise and the sea men who looke after nothing but confusion and prey agreeing with their companion cried out with him that 't was not fit to suffer the theefe to escape Alcippus hearing these clamours came out of his Masters Cabin and being told the cause of the noise presently ran into Polexander to advertise him of it and by that newes false or true drew him from his deadly melancholy Hereupon he left his Cabin came on the deck and understanding from whence the other ship came Be confident said he that 's the Theefe follow him and if you love me endeavour he may not escape us Wee gave the ship chase three dayes and three nights and comming up to her the fourth engaged her to strike saile and yeeld â—…o our discretion Polexander first boorded her and offring his sword at the Commanders throat told him there was no other way to save his life but by restoring what he had stolne I am ready to obey you said the prisoner but remember if you please that I have but lent my hands and an absolute power hath commanded me to undertake the theft Well well replied Polexander restore it 't is no matter by whom it was commanded or acted so I have restitution and with that urged his prisoner to performe quickly what was required of him The poore man all pale and trembling drew out of his bosome a ring and a letter and presenting the first to Polexander see said he my Kings high prized Seale and then giving him the letter This is that he added which hath cost the death of the writer and had we not beene met withall and interrupted by you was going to be the instrument oâ—… a more execrable Massacre Polexander amazed at these things and full of choller to see himselfe so far from his hopes keepe thy letter and thy ring said he to his prisoner and give me the boxe thou stolest from me The boxe which I have stolen replied the prisoner Ah noble Sir if it be your pleasure that I shall perish doe not search for that pretext I am guilty enough already without the imputation of a crime whereof I am innocent What said Polexander exceedingly angry didst thou not steale it whilst I sleept on the banckes of Senega I perceive now said the prisoner that you take me for another and truely 't is an admirable act of the eternall Providence which continually watcheth for the preservation of Innocents Doe then my Lord doe what that commands you Punish a traytour and assassinate who to satisfie his ambition hath exiled from his breast all sence of honour and pâ—…obity and made himselfe the executioner of a Monsters cruelties who hath but the appearance of a woman Polexander thought then he was certainly mistaken and was at the point of setting the man at liberty but considering that such a freedome might be the cause of some great wickednesse he tooke the ring and letter which till then he had left in the hand of his prisoner and made him come with him into his owne shippe where not knowing what to doe further bid his Pilot steere whither he pleased for all courses were alike to him Whilst Alcippus the Pilot and my selfe were consulting of the speediest way for our quick returne to the Canaries Polexande passed the time with his prisoner and required from him an 〈◊〉 of his former speeches The African knowing he had spoken too much â—…o hide the rest and the feare of death besides having brought him to a repentance of his â—…ormer life he made no scruple of discovering such secrets as he intended no more to make gaine on I am said he a Subject to the King of Senega The gâ—…ddy humours of that Prince have many times throwne me from the top of all prosperity to the botome of all disgrace and then againe raised me to the height of all greatnesse This inconstancy made me feare some blowe that would prove mortall to me at last and to avoid it I thought it best to betray what most concerned him to advance the interests of that famous 〈◊〉 whom he hath set in the place of the virtuous Almanzaira This new Queene is called Zelopa who extreamely politicke knowing that Zabaim was not possibly long to be held in without a great many bonds hath fettered him with such strong ones that she â—…eares noâ—… his flitting from her She hath got him to proclaime
of Africa Polexander had begū to take breath after all these turmoiles whē a new enemy as much to be feared as all the Portugals together ingaged him to exercise once more his valor T was the generous Almanzor Prince of Senega I have told you he found Polexander sleeping neer the sea shoar and how he took away his box Alcidiana's picture 'T was a fatal theft to him He saw himself takē as soone as he had takē for Alcidiana's admirable beauty communicating to her picturs some beame of her light a part of her power stroke those with love that had never seen her flash'd forth flames from a cold piece of copper and a few dead colours As soone as Almanzor had made tryall of that prodigious adventure he coveted nothing no not life but for Alcidiana and turned all his youthfull valour against a Rivall whom he thought to be more graced then himselfe Nor was he tormented with that sole Demon for those of honour and renowne did not lesse afflict him His generous disposition upbraided him with his these and represented to him his poorenesse of spirit which could not sufficiently be condemned for stealing and robbing a man that was a sleepe These two motives with his jealousie and repentance made him leave his owne Territories the very day of his Coronation and forced him to crosse an unknowne sea in quest of Alcidiana and Polexander The last he met withall as I told you and fought with him unknowne But after they were seperated by the tempest he knew it from out Italian Painter which was left in his ship and then he thought of nothing else but of finding him againe As soone as he was in the roade of Teneiffe he sent back the Italian to Polexander and by him a letter so full of excuses for his fault committed and so many testimonies of his repentance that by the accusation and humiliation the King my Master knew the magnanimity of that Prince At the end of his letter he spoake to him of the greatnesse of his love and said his passion had reduced him to that point that he could not without death restore a thing which he himselfe confessed could not be detained without the losse of his honour Polexander sent Alcippus to him with the Italian to assure him of the estimation he held of his courage and intention to intreate from him the honour to enter his Territories and assure him he would contribute to his contentment all that did not oppose the service he owed to Alcidiana Almanzor grew almost desperate to heare all these generosities and made shew of an extreame sensibility of what his Rivall had offered him called himselfe a most unfortunate man to have to contest with so high a virtue and at last told Alcippus he most humbly besought Polexander to give him the happinesse to make an end on Land of that fight which they began at Sea Alcippus set all his wits on worke to alter that Princes resolution but seeing 't was all in vaine I will said he goe and make knowne to my Master the King the true cause of my voyage I beseech you doe so replied Almanzor and after his imbracie would have loaden him with jewells But Alcippus very civilly refusing them got himselfe to be landed and so went to give an account to his Master of what he had done with Almanzor That brave and great King sent him back with new complements to his enemy and till the day of fight treated him as if he had beene Zelmatida or Iphidamantus The Indian Prince smiled at the old Pimantus addresse and intreated him to relate the combate betweene those two illustrious Rivalls The particulars answered the Vice-roy deserve your curiosity Those two Princes met at one instant on the place of combate armed at all points and mounted on two of the best horses in all Africa They threw away their speares after the first course and with their swords beg◅n so furious a comba◅e that I cannot expresse it to you but in saying it was the dreadfull effect of a prodigious cause That fury and rage which yong men call love in arming those two youthfull Princes dispoyled them of all judgement and humanity Thinke after that what they were capable to act They contented not themselves in covering the earth with the bloody pi◅ces of their broaken armour but made rivers of their owne blood and becomming far different and unresembling the men they had beene till then confinde all their former generous ambitions in the fearefull desire of each others destruction At last Polexanders invincible Angell compelled Alma◅zot's to contend no more against his fate and to humble himselfe before a power that mastred his Almanzor covered with blood and woundes fell downe under his horse legs Polexander was as quickly alighted and to him with his sword in his hand you desired said he to be overcome confesse now that you are so That Prince seeing himselfe neere the losse of his life contemning the threats of his enemy cast his thoughts on Alcidiana and addressing himselfe to her made to that Queene a resignation of his life in such tearmes as drew teares from the eyes of his Conquerour What said I his Conquerour No the King my Master in hearing them confessed himselfe vanquished presented his sword to Almanzor begged him his life and avowing that he was only worthy to serve Alcidiana he added yes certainely you deserve that honour and you are too sole vanquisher for our combate having for object nothing but Alcidiana's service he alone may justly be termed victor who hath given the best testimony of his love and constancy Polexander yet went further for seeing Almanzor desperate of life he left him his sword and going away as if afraid strove to make it believed he had had no advantage ore Almanzor That poore Prince would faine have died where he fell but his Servants carried him back into his ship and finding his woundes not mortall omitting nothing to hinder despaire from doing more then the sword of Polexander But all their labour was in vaine for Almanzor would absolutely dye and after a languishing of many moneths perceiving he began to amend he caused himselfe to be carryed into that stately Tombe which is to be seene in one of our Isles and unmercifully turned on himselfe a weapon more cruell then that of his Rivall The King my Master heard not of his death till a long time after by meanes of his forsaking his Realme as soone as his woundes were healed and rebeginning his errant life to lose the sorrow for his victory as also to tempt fortune againe and meet some Angell or some star that might reconduct him to the Inaccessible Island But neither on the waters nor in the skies found he ought but what had conspired his ruine Neverthelesse he returned to the Isle of the Sun and had long conference with some Priests whom he had wone by his gifts From them he got all that
Prince yet I freely confesse to you I am of your opinioâ—… and I love with so much fervency that I would â—…f 't were possible for me set all Europe in a conflagration rather then to make a cessioÌ„ of whom I serve to the greatest of Kings or dearest of all my friends I have well perceived said Polexander your love to Thamiris is very violent and t is by that example which I would prepare you to judge favourably of such things as love commands me to put in execution I will make knowne to you heere on what tearmes I am with Thamiris nor what the cause is which makes me so much affect her It shall suffice me that you know I love in so high a place that all the virtues and beauties of the world have conspired together to compose the object of my love Let the Reader imagine whether Polexander were sensible of these words or no whether the jealousie they imprinted were not powerâ—…ull enough to make him forget all his Rivalls courtesies He could not indure he should goe further and had not reason assisted him 't was to be feared that conversation had not ended as it began Polexander suppressed his first agitation and returning into cold blood thus went on againe Ther 's no more time left to conceale my selfe and â—…ide from you a businesse which you must necessarily know I am Polexander the servant of Alcidiana and Phelismond is the enemy I come by her command to seeke in Denmarke After this short Declaration he related to him at large the humours of that proud Queene and told him word by word the tearmes she made use of when she let him understand by one of her slâ—…ves her aversion to his suâ—…te and himselfe As soone as he had begun this discourse Phelismond loâ—…t both his colour and countenance and looked on Polexander as if he had been no more the man to whom he had vowed so much amity At last comming to himselfe he very distinctly spoake thus to the King I shall never be capapable of contradicting Alcidiana's commands Since you come from her I am ready to bring you into the field to him whom so great a Princesse holds to be so uncivill and barbarous Come Sir you that are happy in all things let us hasten her revenge and satisfie her justice by the death of this Northerne Monster This new proofe of Phelismonds generousnesse so cooled Polexanders blood that it neither left him the power nor the desire to doe what he had so often resolved Neverthelesse after he had a long time contested with himselfe it seemed to him that Alcidiana upbraided him with his thoughts of pity and accused him of private correspondence with her enemy This made him give Phelismond this answer If our Princesse could be won by merit or rather if the distance of places had not been so exâ—…reamely disadvantagious to you I doubt not but being one of the prime Princes of the world you might have prevailed as much ore the affection of that faire Queene as you have done ore the mindes of all the North. Questionlesse I should be that Barbarian which she hath a will to destroy and you had received in my place the command which I am resolved to put in execution But let us not amuse our selves if you please in condemning the disorder we finde in our adventures but since that great Princesse will is the sole Law we ought to keepe let us on where her absolute power calls us Can I take armes replied Phelismond without adding rebellion to rashnesse No there is nothing left for me to doe but to dye Too sweete a tongue hath pronounced my sentence of death that I should desire life Pâ—…lexander strove to bring him from this extasie and perceiving how insupportable Alcidiana's disestimation was to him he repented his naming the tearmes of Monster and barbarous After Phelismond had muâ—…ed a while in fixing his eyes on the earth he at last cast them on Poleâ—…ander and told him he would go to the King to dispose so well of all things that Alcidiana should have cause to hold her selfe saâ—…isfied and after he had thus spoke he imbraced him and besought him to doe nothing till he came back from the Pallace Polexander promised to obey his command and accompanied him to his chamber where they discoursed a while of indâ—…fferent things but as soone as he was adverâ—…sed of the Kings being awake he left Polexander in the company of five or six of his particular fâ—…iends Hâ—… stated above two houres with the King and when he saw him ready to goe to the place of the combate he returned to Polexander and told him he had nâ—…w nothing to feare and how he had obtained all that was fitting for his safety Polexander thaâ—…ked his for all his favâ—…s and said aloud he thought himselfe the most unfortunate man of the world in putting him to so many troubles Hereupon he tooke his leave because t was late and returned to his lodging to put things in order After he had beene there an houre there came a Gentleman from Phelismond to intreat him to come and arme himselfe in his lodgings where he should meet with five or six Lords whom the King had sent to conduct him to the field Polexander went to him and after more then an houres being with the Prince caused himselfe to be armed The King sent to tell Phelismond he was risen from table wherupon Polexander and his conductors got to horse and came to the Justing place The Windowes the Terrasâ—…s and the Scaffolds were filled with men and women of the Court and the City and the Kings guard stood about the railes he had not beene long there when Phelismond recompanied with five or six of his friends rid round about the field and then placed himselfe right against his Rivall As soone as the King was at the window of his pavillion the Judges of the field sent to search the Combatants and dividing the Sun betwixt them set them one opposite to the other Presently the trumpers â—…ounded and the word of letting goe together the good Knight was given by the Danes King at Armes Phelismond came on with his lance in his rest as if he would have 〈◊〉 Polexander through and through Yet he made his intention appeare to be cleane contrary For Polexander he had resolved to over come him wâ—…thout lance or sword When they were in the midst of their careere they lifted up their speares and so passed without touching one another All the Assembly gave a great shâ—…ute and seemed to aske the reason of this novelty In the mâ—…ne time the two Rivalls ran the secâ—…d â—…ime and dâ—… as aâ—… first Indeed their horses who were ignorant of their intentions iâ—…countred so furiâ—…usly thaâ—… Pâ—…lexanders failed but little of being overthrowne The other 's was foâ—…ced back to the earth on his crupper and so broke his harnesse that Phelismâ—… fell â—…n tge ground This disorder put
whereof you accuse her she hath prostituted her self she hath lost her honour and deserves not to live one quarter of an houre longer This was all she said then and since that time for all their threatnings and all the tortures presented to her she never spoke but once when the Prince came to her chamber Two or three daies after this cruell proceeding that unfortunate Prince was inform'd that the Earle of Trinobant was abroad in the country with a great many of his friends and the Earle of Littidur disguis'd like a Fisherman had pass'd in a barque divers times under the castle This news startled him and made him looke as well after his owne preservation as well as the ruine of his pretended adulterers After hee had meditated on diverse evasions and was to avoide that mischief hee found none better then to force Eolinda to write to them and under a pretext of an amourous appointment to make them fall into the trap where he desired to catch them To give more colour to this assignation he sent back his mother to London and putting his wife into the custody of an old gentleman who had alwaies very faithfully serv'd him prepar'd himself to return to Court He took horse at full noon with all his houshold but at the first lodging he feign'd himself sick and put one of his Confidents into his bed to amuse the world In the mean time he got on one of those admirable gueldings which will run you some hundred or six score miles in ten or twelve houres and so in two and an half return'd to his house At day-break he came into Eolinda's chamber where he found her at prayers at her beds feet As soon as she saw him she arose came towards him with such a respect and meeknesse as would have mov'd the heart of the most barbarous man alive and falling at his feet My Lord said she to him I hope much since I and you are alone in this chamber Thou must said he rudely obey me if thou wilt hope with reason I never had any other intent amourously repli'd Eolinda Hear me then said her husband and bethink thy selfe well of the answer thou wilt make me The Earle of Littidur and the other of Trinobant are not far hence and without doubt are come upon some advertisement thou hast sent them If thou wilt save thy life thou must write to either of them according to my minde but doe not look to be much intreated for I condemn thee either to write to them or dy My Lord repli'd Eolinda I do not fear death since it is the certain repose of innocent creatures but had I committed that treason which my enemies have constrain'd you to alledge I should be so faulty that I would think my self worthy all the torments prepared for the damned Ah impudent woman cri'd the Prince what yet more testimonies of thy incontinency I endure these injuries repli'd Eolinda sweetly because heaven hath given you all authority over me but since I am not thereby commanded to obey you when your commands are offences be pleased that for this time I may be disobedient Thou must then dy said the unfortunate Prince I am ready prepar'd repli'd Eolinda strike bodly my Lord said she modestly opening her breast I will receive the blow without fear and blesse the hand that gave it me I will have thine own to be the executioner said he That is not yet permitted me replied Eolinda besides it would give you the greater satisfaction if you your self avenge your honour since you beleeve I have wrong'd it These words penetrated the hardnesse of the unhappy mans soule In that very moment he remembred what he had been before-times The standish and ponyard which he held fell out of his hands and pitifully looking on her Would to heaven said he thou wert innocent I am so she repli'd yet I deceive my self No my Lord I am not since you have been capable of mistrusting me The unfortunate Prince not deserving the grace of coming to himself departed the chamber overcome but not perswaded He lock'd her up and keeping about him the keyes of the door went to walk in his Parke to deliberate on what he should lastly resolve As long as 't was day he did nothing but go and come and was above thirty times to see what Eolinda did through a little hole in the door and found her still on her knees holding her eies and hands towards heaven and understood plainly once that she beg'd thence a pardon for her persecuters and that it would have commiseration on her husbands error Those words almost wrought that miracle which she would have requested from heaven and the unfortunate Prince began to be himself when his wicked mother arrived according as they had agreed at parting He told her what he had done and alledg'd the new doubts Eolinda's words had wrought in him The abominable hagge sharply reprehended him to suffer himselfe to be so easily seduced and to confirme him in his former resolution said That it behoov'd him to send Pantaira and Lycambus to the two Earles that by the successe of their voyage he might draw the last manifestation of his wifes incontinence Those two wretched agents were hereupon sent and so well instructed by the old woman that for the further misery of many innocents their journey took alike effect Lycambus met with the Earle of Trinobant and propounding to him the facility of delivering his mistris and by consequence of enjoying her he wonne him to hazzard himself in that enterprise with all the rashnesse of a man very young and very valiant The brutish high-lander conducted him even to the place where his master lay in ambush to surprise him where he was enwrap'd overloaden with cassockes and cloakes gag'd and so led away to the Castle The Earle of Littidur with the same easinesse was taken in his fisher-boat and as unworthily handled as his rivall They were presently shut up in two chambers and severally examined by the Prince himselfe They confess'd they were to blame and had no other excuse for their offence but the extream beauty of Eolinda and the tyranny of love But the Princesse said they both had other meanes enough to free her self of us without blemishing her vertue by so base a treason She needed but have made known the aversion she hath alwaies had to us though some traytors have told us the contrary and we would have shewn to her by a faire death that our lives were lesse dear to us then her favour You shall neither of you save your selves by these crafty excuses said the Prince Confesse your crime if you will have pardon Our offence repli'd they each one in particular is already confessed We do infinitly love Eolinda and would willingly give our lives to have some small part in her good opinion It hath not cost you so much answered the Prince Therefore prepare your selves to wash away with your bloods the
staine you have thrown on the house of your King We dare die said those unfortunate illustrious Gentlemen but we protest to you for the discharge of our consciences that if the intention be not a crime worthy of death we shall die innocents The most condemnable Prince having lost all humanity with his reason and being truly possest with the Devill of blood and fury which serv'd for a soule to his mother hastily resolv'd the death of those young Lords and brutishly had them ponyarded by foure Irish men After this execution done he would have gone to the innocent Eolinda's chamber either to have cut her throat or done her some other bloody indignity but as he was in a place of the staires whence you might see Eolinda's chamber doore he heard somebody call him by his name and forbad him to goe further He cast up his eyes and saw in the doore of that chamber a young English Gentleman of his houshold who with his sword and pistoll in hand threatned him to throw by all respect if he came any neerer The Prince ask'd him the cause of his extravagancy Aske me rather repli'd the generous Englishman the cause of my just resentment and I will tell thee blind and enraged Prince that I am here to protect as farre as my life can the innocent Eolinda against the persecutions of thy wicked mother The Prince threatned to have him punished according to his desert and commanded two of his murderers to seize on him A great Irish villain stept forth with a partisan in his hand but when he came within a few paces of Eolinda's generous defender two pistoll bullets stopt his journey and roul'd him to the bottome of the staires His fellow beleeving that the brave Englishman had no more fiery weapons furiously came up towards him with an intent to strike him through with his halberd but he had not time to perform that brave thrust for he received a like chastisement with his companion for the like offence committed They perceiv'd then the valiant English man had forgotten nothing of what was necessary for his long defence Indeed he had yet three pistolls charged and was so advantageously placed by reason of the thicknesse of the wall that he could not be set on but before The Prince would have obliged the two other Irish men to revenge the death of their companions but they would doe nothing unlesse they had peeces They therefore brought them two long fowling peeces and the villaines discharg'd them both on Eolinda's courageous martyr O heaven quoth hee feeling himselfe shot in so many places receive my soul and my life which I have freely expos'd for the defence of vertue and with those words fell downe dead yet for all that remained vanquisher For the unhappy Prince having had leisure to bethink him of the execrable murder he would have committed or else with-held by the last words of the heroicall English man return'd from whence hee came and told his cruell mother he would never kill one whom he had so much affected The damnable hagge after she had some time grumbled told him he worthily deserv'd his dishonour since he took pleasure in preserving the cause of it The Prince offended with this reply entred the great hall of his Palace and the first that came before him was the execrable Lycambus who very likely came to demand the reward for his treason And art thou there then thou infamous and perfidious slave by whose assistance I have lost mine honour and comfort The miserable Scot cast himself at his feet and the Prince taking him by his long haire dragg'd him about a great while and then with a brōad sword that he had stroke his head from his shoulders The traytor to save his life would have accused the old Dutchesse but before he could speak a word there was neither speech nor life in him The Prince then called for Pantaira but she was so close hidden that it was impossible to meet with her His mother seeing him in such a fury ask'd him if he could not distinguish between the guilty and the innocent You should discharge your choler said she on that lascivious French woman and not on those wretches who durst not disobey her Never doubt it said he Eolinda shall have her punishment with the rest but it shall be so that no one whosoever of mine shall besmeare their hands in the blood of that miserable woman Presently his wit furnishing him with a new kind of punishment he commanded that barque to be made ready wherein you saw the innocent Eolinda die and cutting off the two Earles heads and that of the charitable English man made them to be nayl'd with the other of Lycambus in that manner as you saw them Then went he into Eolinda's chamber and though she fell into a swound at his entrance yet he caus'd her to be carried into the vessell and set her in the same posture you found her That done he commanded all his followers out of the barque the sayles being all hoys'd and tow'd her into the open sea by two shalops and then abandon'd her to the mercy of the winds See a great many tragicall events yet am I not at the end of all for scarce was the Prince got up againe into his chamber when Pantaira it may be repenting she had been the cause of so many murders came to him and beseeching him to heare her confess'd that neither Lycambus nor her self had done any thing but by the command of his mother Protested boldly that Eolinda never knew ought of their practices nor done any thing misbeseeming the vertue and honour of a most chast Lady That shee had never seen but in publick any of the two Earles and that the letters which were found in her cabinet had been conveigh'd thither without her knowledge and that she had never seen them She had told more but that the old Dutchesse flew on her and in the fury she was would have strangled her if she had not been taken out of her hands The Prince in the meane while filled with horrour at what he had heard reflecting presently into himself What hast thou done cri'd he unnaturall mother I now doubt no more Eolinda is innocent and with those words fell into a swound and had not I borne a part of his fall he had infallibly broken his head against the floore of his chamber We laid him on his bed and whilst his faithfull servants bewail'd his misfortunes and strove to recover him from his fainting his wicked mother caus'd Pantaira to be strangled and sent to make ready a ship of warre which lay in the rode with a secret order to her most Confidents to make after Eolinda and to throw her into the sea All this could not be done presently In the meane time the Prince recover'd his spirits and spying me at the head of his bed Altoph said he if my faults have not taken from thee that amity thou hast
alwaies borne me goe quickly and strive to save Eolinda If thou bring'st me her not alive be secure thy Prince is dead I presently went forth not knowing where to finde a ship to goe after Eolinda but as I came out of the Castle those whom the old Dutchesse had sent to make an end of the innocent Lady told me the ship was ready and if I would be of the party I should follow them Though I was ignorant of their designe yet I took hold of the occasion and imbarqued my self with them and understood the command they had a little before our mariners had descri'd your ships I can tell you nothing of what past betwixt the mother and the son after my departure but by what hath hapned in your presence from the one and the other it is very easie for you to imagine how matters pass'd betwixt them Thus the Englishman ended his mournefull relation accompanied with many a sad teare Polexander let fall some to the memory of Eolinda and having blamed the imprudency and bewayled the misfortune of the Prince sent back all the English and commanded his Pilot to put off from the coast of England If the notes which are left me of the life of this great King have beene carefully written there hapned not to him any adventure worthy to be published from the coast of France to those of Spaine which are the neerest to Africa But it is remembred how in that place he made use of that incomparable valour and greatnesse of soule which had ever made him triumph over all dangers all fortunes and even of death it selfe He was beset with above thirty sayle of ships which falling in upon him without any observance of the ceremonies used at Sea assayled him so hotly that he had scarce time to put his men in case to defend themselves He fayled not to carry in a combat so unequall the same majesty of spirit he was wont to shew in his other combates But seeing no way of safety he would at least dye in one of the enemies vessels and make himselfe a glorious tombe of their bodies whom he had slaine Through sword and fire therefore he made up to the greatest vessell and grapling with her leapt in to make a terrible but chery of his infamous affailers He had no sooner put his foot into the ship but he was knowne by him that commanded her Hold cryed the Captaine to all he was clad after the Turkish fashion lay downe your Armes t is the King of the Canaries These words went from one end of the ship to the other and flying from ship to ship all the fleet knew in an instant they had beene like to have ruined the famous Polexander King of the Canaries In the meane while he who had first divulged this verity intimating to our Hero a great deale of joy My prayers are heard said he I have somewhat satisfied the obligations I owe your Majesty You once gave me my life and I dare say this day I have preserved yours For I most certainly know that at last you would rather have chosen an honourable death then an ignominious servitude I am the same Hamet whose life you preserved in the presence of Bajazet Iphidamantus and Zelmatida Know more Sir you are here amongst your servants since all of us know no other Soveraigne then the great Bajazet Hamet replyed Polexander this meeting is so strange that I can scarce beleeve what I see and understand But tell me I prethee where is Bajazet and why lyes his fleet on this coaste Sir said Hamet my Generall is sick in his Island and sick with griefe that he cannot recover the treasure he hath lost which if fortune and our diligence render not the sooner to him this Age will lose the rarest Jewell it hath next your Majesty and chiefly to prevent that mischance came we to Sea My companions and my selfe have altered our condition and suspending for Bajazets sake our former trade we are no more Pirates but to get into our hands the fairest women We flye up and downe to every place where fame tels us the most beautifull are and not dreading the hazard we run in so difficult and fantasticall an enterprise we place out highest felicity in the preservation of our Generals life Since you parted from our Island we have sent him twenty of the fairest women of the world but she whom he longs for is not among that number Two dayes since we tooke one in Portugall who is certainely the rarest and most wounding beauty can be looked upon She will not tell us what she is and that makes us believe it may be the same which Bajazet desires Hamet could say no more because ten or twelve of his companions came and did obeisance to our Heroe He entertained them with a courtesie which charmed the most barbarous and by a brave speech amplifying the fortune they had made him run told them t was not without cause their meeting was more feared on the Ocean then that of rocks and shelves The Pirates answered this commendation as well as they could and the aged Achaim among the rest told him it was farre from any intention of theirs to turne their forces against him for said he we have an expresse order from our Generall to obey you as himselfe and to follow your Majesty in all occasions wherein you please to do us so much honour as to make use of us and our armes T is not yet fifteene dayes since at the sacred name of Polexander we released one of the fairest ships we ever tooke She came from that inaccessible Island whereof all the world talkes and no body can see The Pilot which guided her a very venerable old man assured us he came from the Island of the Sun to see you at the Canaries and impart very important newes to you At these words the bloud flashed in Polexanders face and he felt a beating of his heart which was not usuall with him and being not able to suppresse this amorous emotion entreated Achaim to tell him what course he had seene that vessell steere We left her on the coast of Morocco replyed Achaim and the Pilot told us they went then to the King of Senega Polexander had gone away presently if his ship had beene in case But she had received so many Cannon shot that the highest sayle or top-gallant saile the maine mast and that which bore the sprits saile were shattered the maine sheet and the greatest part of the yards were torne and broken the very body of the ship was shot through in many places it required time to rectifie all this which Polexander was forced to give in spight of his impatiency To divert him Hamet propounded to his companions the shewing him their faire prisoner and his advice being approved Polexander went out of that ship into the Rover Selims and there into a Cabin where the faire Captive was kept Hee understood by Hamets
certain death before him Every one therefore got hold of what he could to hinder their sinking with the vessell but the storme made all their forecast bootlesse for the justling of the waves which confounded themselves one within another swallowed up all my mariners and souldiers with that which they had gotten to save themselves I only who without doubt had not suffered enough for my many offences was frustrated of that quiet which my companions found in the armes of death Having therefore without faining no intent to preserve my miserable life I was thrown by a wave into a Cavern which time and the surges had digged under the rock of Guargetsem When the sea is very high or that there is a violent storme as there was then the water enters into the bottom of that Cave and throwes in what it brings with it but when the waves retire or that it is calme the place is dry and hath some resemblance with those grottes which Art hath invented for the imbellishing of Gardens For an hour or two I was but ill at ease within that cave for I was upto the neck in water and knew not where to place my selfe better At last the sea went out and then I found I was out of danger The Sun which inclined towards the West and was then very near to the Tropick of Cancer suddainly striking through the thicknesse of those cloudes which had been so fatall unto us enlightened the most obscure corners of my retreat I set me at the mouth of it to injoy the suns heat and dry my clothing About an houre after I had been there I perceived some fishermen who questionlesse were got out in their boates to gather the remaines of our shipwrack I will not tell you that surely chance was the Author of the good fortune befell me at that instant but will let you know how those fishermen being desirous to get a chest which floted on the waves and which I knew to be the same wherein my servants put my best habiliments drove right to my Cavern As they were about to take it in I cried to them for helpe and my voice on a suddan comming out of that cave so affrighted them that they left the chest and betooke them to their oares I besought them to take me in and told them the chest which they were about being mine I would freely give it them if they would bee so charitable as to carry me to the next shore and tell me on what part of Africk I was shipwracked My habit and language makeing me passe for a Musulman the fishers believed that Mahomet had sent them thither to exercise the hospitality which he so strictly recommended to them They therefore tooke me into one of their boates set my chest by me not permitting me to open it for their reward and betaking them to their oares brought me to a little-port which is as the entry of a Suburb by which they ascended to the fortresse of Guargetsem There the fishers dwelt and they received me into their Cottages built of clay and straw with a great deale of humanity and carried my chest into a place under ground whereof they gave me the key I refused it and to obliege them to the continuation of their affection tooke out of my chest some chaines of gold and rings which I distributed amongst them They grew ravished at the richnesse of my presents and judged by them that I was a person of great quality I thought it not amisse to keepe them in that opinion and to that end I went presently to put off my spoyled sea weeds and take on others of cloth of gold enriched with buttens of rubies When I had fitly clad my selfe with the richest cloathes I had I came in to my fishermen and astonished them farre more by this second sight then he had done at first They lifted up their hands they whispered together came and peered me in the face handled my cloathes my belt and Cymiter and asked me often whether I were an Angell or a man When all their wonder was over they told me in what place I was and assured me their King would already have sent to entertaine me according to my desert had he been advertised of my arrivall I asked them where he was and after they had by their answer informed me he was come a few dayes besore into the fortresse of Guargetsem I thought there was no better course for me then to make my selfe knowne to that Prince I therefore sent one of those fishers to the Castle and expresly charged him to relate truly how I was shipwracked He went up and presently came back againe with Moores The first that saw me blinded with the lustre of my Jewels or surprised with seeing me stopped on the suddaine and turning to his companions Ennoramita said he to them Ennoramita The rest gaz'd on me and all with one voice cried out that I was Ennoramita Straight they cast themselves at my feet kissed my hands called me their Princesse and entreated me to go to their King They drew me out of my cottage and causing all the mountaine to ring againe with the name of Ennoramita carried me whether I would or no up to the fortresse Some of them being run before to advertise Hely of my arrivall so ravished him with the newes of it that forcing his weake legs to uphold him maugre their feeblenesse he came to meet me welcomed me with a great many pleasant huggings repeated a hundred times over the name of Ennoramita would even adore me and gave me the title of a Goddesse and sometimes that of an Angel He entreated me straight to tell him how I escaped out of the hands of the cruell Nephizus brought me into a chamber the best furnished I ever saw next to those of Zelmatida and Bajazet and entreating me to take my bath withdrew with a great deale of respect Presently came in diverse white Eunuchs and seven or eight black The last fetched all that was necessary for my chamber and the women having brought me into a great withdrawing roome shut the doore on us all If I were wonder-strooke at what I had seene and heard I was farre more when I saw my picture done like a woman hanging under a cloth of Estate made of cloth of gold I asked those who would have undressed me whether I would or no for whom that picture was made They answered me all at once t was for the Princesse Iphidamanta At that word I was like to have falne downe and certainely believed I was got into the house of some one of those Enchanters which every day worke so many prodigies in the townes of Africa I knew not which way to be cleered of my doubts In the meane time I was in an extreame perplexity But perceiving that Hely and his servants had no other intent then to serve me I said to my selfe I should be very unwise to dis-obliege them I went therefore
had a farre more cunning then extravagance After he had better weigh'd it hee judg'd him to be some excellent wit who as all others having its defect and weaknes was fallen into that vaine curiosity of knowing things to come He entertain'd him then very courteously and excusing himself for not performing it sooner Father said hee I feare for your satisfaction lest your Art be not so certaine as you present it to me And I assure my selfe that when you shall take the paines to review your calculations you will confesse that if you have not fail'd in the place yet you have mistooke in the person I say in the person rather then in the place because there is in this chamber a Prince which is yet more then you have discovered by your characters With that he shewed him Zelmatida and told him he was King of an Empire greater then the fourth part of Europe and richer then all Europe together If he be such as you say repli'd Ismeron how then hath he forgotten the only person of the world who can best free him of his doubts Zelmatida had not given any great attention to the precedent discourse but when Polexander by naming him had brought him out of his musing and the old man by the reproaching his forgetfulnesse oblig'd him to speake Alas father said he shew me that person which I search for through the world There he is quoth the old man and with that shewed the Lad which Alcippus had presented to his master The little one cast up his-eyes fix'd them on Zelmatida who as earnestly regarding him knew 't was the Princesse of Mexico's dwarfe Habul Ismeron made use of that disturbance this agnition wrought for when he saw Polexander was busied about Zelmatida he slip'd out of the chamber got again to his ship and so set saile He was scarce out of the palace when Zelmatida returning from his astonishment cast his eies full of teares on the dwarfe and drew him to the like passion too What Galtazis said he Izatida is then dead and cruell Hismalita could not then indure that divine maiden who by her innocent life too highly reprov'd the crimes of her own Galtazis standing a while unable to speak at last broak through his sighes and sobs and rather answering his owne thoughts then Zelmatida Why had I not died said he in my desert Island rather then be the dismall messenger of so deplorable a novelty yet said he doe not think I come to relate to you the death of Izatida No Sir she lives but 't is such a kind of life as in lieu of comforting you should adde to your just sorrows Weep then Zelmatida weep more then if my Princesse were dead And know that inhumane fortune hath for ever shut up those fair eyes which our Prophets our Priests and our own thoughts acknowledged for the auspicious stars of all Mexico Zelmatida apprehended not at first what Galtazis meant by his last words and therefore ask'd the explication Izatida is blind replied Galtazis sighing Blindleri'd Zelmatida and have the Gods which are represented to us for so just done so great an impiety When that poor Prince had thus spoken he fell down as dead and lay a long while in a swound in Polexanders armes After they had much troubled him he came to himself and being recollected O Izatida said he with a dying voice thy faire eies then the true fountaines of light are shut up for evermore and mine ingratefull and perfidious dare have recourse to that of heaven Pluck out remedilesse Zelmatida pluck out those objects of hatred and to dare doe something which may equalize the greatnes of our affliction teare out those unfaithfull eies which open themselves to such light as comes not from Izatida With that he lifted his hands to his eies and if Polexander had not hindred his resolution hee had seen him renew that ancient desperate act which is to this day the glorious and horrible wonder of the tragical Theater Garruca who ran to succour his dear master held his right arme and Polexander the other who intreating him to remember that Izatida was alive said further that if he surmounted not this furious fit he would make it beleev'd that he lov'd his Ladi's life far less then her beauty after he had thus spoken he made a signe to Galtazis to continue his speech The little one seeing his news and perswasions had wrought their effect farre beyond his expectation My Lord said he if that unfortunate and innocent Lady whom you justly bewaile could receive from any other then you the consolation which is so needfull to her in her blindnesse I would be the first should counsell you to dy but since Izatida's afflictions call to you for redresse preserve carefully that life which is not absolutely your owne and which you cannot lose without violating your faith without becoming ingratefull and holding correspondency with our Princesse enemies I am perswaded Galtazis said Zelmatida I will live and since my life as unhappy as it is can contribute somewhat to Izatida's contentment it shall hence forward be as dear to me as before it was irkesome Relate to me therefore I prithee the dysasters which ensued the supposed death of thy fair Mistris Whil'st all Mexico said Galtazis bewail'd the death of their Princesse and that the people ran thronging to the place where they thought her buried The silly Montezuma and the bloody Hismalita rejoyc'd for diverting from them the storme which to their brutish feares seem'd ready to powre down upon them but their joy was soon turn'd into an exteam desolation Posts came to them from all parts by whom newes was sent you had escaped from all those traps they had laid for you and that by the assistance of certain men who came from another world you were resolv'd to besiege them in their owne palace This intelligence was seconded by another more terrible to them They knew you had landed in the Isle of Cuba took the inexpugnable fortresse cut the throats of some of the garrison given life and liberty to the rest and freed the old Alisma whom Montezuma fear'd more then all the rest of the Peruvians My faire mistresse heard of all this in the prison of the Lake where she was straitly guarded she gave thanks to heaven for your preservation and honour and shutting her selfe up with her Governess pass'd over the daies and nights in praiers for your happinesse Some little time after the cruell Hismalita came to visit her and calling her a thousand times the farall firebrand that was to put all Mexico into a conflagration Go said she thou stranger go and dy by some other hands then mine since my Gods will not have me imbrue them in thy blood The night after these furious threatnings being halfe spent we saw come into the Princesse's chamber some unknown men who hood-winking her eies and seising on her Governess and my self gag'd and so led us out of our
of Benin Let them live in that error still and talke not to them of a crime of which they are ignorant that they may so continue without knowing the offender Almanzor was staid at Palmira's words and though he gave no great beliefe to them yet fearing to commit a fault durst go no further Presently he led away Palmira with his prisoner and left me and my women poore innocent creatures as we were in such a feare that we passed the rest of the night in asking one another what offennes we had committed with Palmira At day breake there came into my chamber the President and the most ancient of Almanzors Councell After they had put forth my Governesses they asked me many questions and would compell me to confesse I knew Palmira for some other then the Princesse of Benin Be pleased my deare Comforter that I open not againe an unfortunate processe which made those who knew me not to suspect my innocency and was like to have utterly ruin'd both mine honour and life Know that Almanzor of a debonaire and loving father growne suddainly a mortall enemy permitted the inhumane and miscreant Baramas Prince of Anzicana to maintaine publiquely I had lost mine honour with Zabaim In prosecution of this false accusation he gave me over into the hands of such Judges who without doubt were wonne by that unfortunate Tyrant and with his owne hand sign'd the Sentence of death which they had pronounced against me 'T was by that bloudy Judgement I understood not onely Palmira to be that Zabaim for whom I was accus'd but also how without any regard to the quality of a Soveraigne he was condemn'd to three strange kind of punishments First they enjoyn'd him to marry me to satisfie the publique Scandall and restore me my honour lost by his meanes Secondly he was to fight with Baramas or confesse the crime whereof he was accused And lastly 't was said if he escap'd the first combat he should be expos'd to the Lions for reparation of the injury he had dar'd to commit against the Crowne of Congo In the interim the Name of Zabaim and his regall quality running in my minde I long time meditated on the danger he had undergone for me and by little and little engaging my selfe to wishes for his most advantage I admir'd the discretion wherewithall he had liv'd among all the liberties I had given him Afterwards I approv'd of his love and finally my memory representing him to me farre fairer then it was painted there by mine eyes made him so deere to me that I griev'd not so much to lose mine honour as to be depriv'd of so true and respectfull a lover For himselfe he thank'd the Judges for their severity and calling them his tutelar gods and his benefactors besought them a thousand times to cause their Sentence to be speedily executed His excessive joy made my father thinke I had not so farre forgotten my selfe as to satisfie the Princes desire Notwithstanding imagining he could not stop the speech of the people nor resettle his shaken reputation but by that great execuâ—…ion he would not have it put off Many of his subjects petition'd for my pardon and Zabaims and told him that though he would not be so good a father as to have pity on a daughter whom all the world thought innocent yet should he be so wise as not to draw on his hands the forces of many of his neighbours who sought but an honest pretext to proclaime warre agaiâ—…st him These reasons which in all likelihood should have staid were the cause why he hasten'd the execution of Judgement I will not tell you Zabaims extreame joy when he was taken out of prison to marry me nor what countenance I kept during an action which in effect was to me as glorious as in appearance it was full of dishonour The Prince spake to me a hundred things powerfull enough to obliege me to love him yea if I had beene to that time his enemy and seeing I dissolv'd in teares Madam said he casting himselfe at my feet why do you so exceedingly afflict your selfe In troubling the peace which the witnesses of your conscience should give you you justifie the injustice of our common enemies Remember that you are innocent and in performing the actions of a criminall you cast blots on that most pure reputation with which you ought to returne to heaven But what an ill Interpreter am I of your sorrow You weepe not with griefe for your offence since most certainely you have committed none 'T is the discontent to wed a Prince without Name and merit which afflicts you and you believe without doubt that this alliance is no lesse infamous then the crime whereof you are unjustly accused If it be so Madam be of comfort since you shall be a widow assoone as married and at farthest within foure and twenty houres you shall see your selfe freed from that ignominious servitude whereto a cruell necessity hath ingag'd you I could not endure that Zabaim should say more but entreated his silence and my request was accompanied with such a countenance as sufficiently shew'd him what my intention was The chiefe Priest of the gods of Congo had order to come where we were and he entred with his attendants where omitting no ceremonies which are observ'd at the marriage of Princes he link'd Zabaim and my selfe in such a bond that in spight of a devilish Sorceresse charmes it holds to this day Assoone as these Rites were performed the Prince of Senega was conducted back againe to prison and I was left without any other company then my afflictions teares and prayers The next morning they made me put on mourning and in those funerall ornaments I was brought to the place where my deare husband was to fight with the perjur'd Baramas He came presently after me and desiring to see me before he died presented himselfe at the foote of my Scaffold Long time stood he with his eyes fix'd on me and shew'd he durst not speake for feare of offending me I perceiv'd his feare and desirous to assure him of my love by such termes as was firting for me Our enemies said I have imagined they should lessen your courage and encrease your adversaries valour by cloathing me as if you were already dead But their malice shall have a successe quite contrary to their hopes and the black I weare is a certaine presage of that death which your valour and just iudignation have prepared for them For the rest if you love me thinke of preserving a life which is the beginning of mine and fight with this beliefe that one onely Soule equally animates both our bodies and she therefore cannot be separated from yours but it must instantly abandon mine I will then Madam replied Zabaim live and overcome since 't is your pleasure for I should doubt of that Providence which governes all should I doubt of the victory which its Justice and your Innocency assures me The Prince could
great apprehensions that both sleeping and waking me thought I still saw that deare Prince in his grave Had I not fear'd his displeasure I had gone to see him in his Army But rather willing to be unfortunate then to undertake ought he might dislike I had recourse to my vowes and prayers and did then nothing but beg from heaven either to take me from the world or preserve to me the friendship of my deare Lord without which my life was a torment to me In lesse then three weeks I sent above twenty Postes into Guinea Those who most truly loved me return'd with that haste I commanded them and brought me the Kings letters I receiv'd them with that transport of joy you may imagine But when I saw not in them those termes of love I had read in the former Alas cried I I have lost my Lords affection Unfortunate that I am some one of my actions or of my words have receiv'd an ill interpretation I confesse deare Zabaim I have erred but how great soever my offence be it merited not so rigorous a punishment since my heart never consented to it My griefe had even carried me to despaire if my women had not used all kinde of reasons to suppresse it Sometimes they accused me for suffering my self to be deceiv'd by vaine imaginations then they put me in minde that time and businesse had changed the Kings amorous thoughts into others more serious These considerations did a while master my sorrow but a little after I rejected them and would receive no more comfort At last after I had well wept written much long expected and made many prayers and sacrifices my deare Lord return'd to me I did not think to see him of eight dayes when he came into my chamber This suddaine welcome surprisall so transported me that going to meet him I lost at once my strength my knowledge and my sight What did not that good King doe seeing the excesse of my love He kissed me a thousand times and wetting my cheekes with his teares stood a while without turning his eyes from me When he saw I came not againe he caused me to be carried and laid on my bed where joyning his mouth to my cheeks Poore Princesse said he aloud that my Nurse might heare him can I be rationall and betray thee as I do With that he held his peace and stirr'd not from my boulster till some remedies had recovered me which by little and little I did and the first thing I took notice of were some teares which were yet on my deare Lords face That sight presently blotting out all displeasing imaginations that remain'd yet behinde and making me believe I had ill conceiv'd them I gently let fall my head on Zabaims cheek and thus bespake him Your Almanzaira then is yet pleasing to you She may yet glory she enjoyes your favour and time hath not depriv'd her of that which love had given her The King could not answer me His Speech was restrained by I know not what hinderance but his silence and teares assured me of his love farre better then his words would have done I besought him to go take a little rest and after so long and painefull a journey not to give himselfe new vexations To these words I added a many more and entreated him so often to looke to his preservation that he arofe from me but in rising said Ah Almanzaira how happy should we be if we might be alwayes together Though that Speech made me feare some new disaster yet I made all other thoughts give place to that of the Kings health and pressed him so hard to go repose himselfe that he gave me that contentment He was not above two houres away when he came again to me where he passed the evening and part of the night In all which time he left not to entertaine me in the same manner he was wont before his voyage Nay me thought he had in his speeches more of tendernesse and of passion then I had noted in those I had from him when his love was most violent I know well these particularities doe but weary you and you may laugh at my simplicity but pardon if you please for this troublesome remembrance a woman who loves nothing in the world but her husband and yet cannot have the contentment to be with him Five or sixe dayes together the King was in his good humour and I already esteemed my selfe the most fortunate Princesse of my time when I found my feares were just my suspitions reasonable and the Kings kinde usage but forced He fell without any apparent cause into so deep a melancholy and was mov'd with so much impatience and disquiets that in all the Court there was none but I who found him supportable My entertainement grew troublesome to him all companies displeas'd and not suffering himselfe to be seene but seldome he abode whole dayes retired in his Cabinet His anxiety went yet further It made him hate his Palace the aboade in townes and the frequency of his Courtiers He retir'd him to a Castle which his Predecessors had built for their pleasure in hunting and seem'd to be delighted with that Sport to have some pretence and meanes to muse and plod at his liberty and wander the woods alone This life made me feele my first griefes and search all the imaginable meanes to know the cause of it and thereto to apply a remedy Before I had recourse to those extraordinary I would try the most speedy and facile I therefore went to the King in his retirement and besought him by his first affection to tell me the cause of his melancholy Deare Almanzaira said he if it be true that thou yet lovest me doe not enquire after my affliction Get thee from me and let me undergoe the punishment I have deserved The feare I had to displease him kept me from pressing him any farther or staying longer with him With mine eyes drown'd in teares I left him and promised in that to shew my obedience as well as in all other things Believe what I am now about to tell you and thereby judge of my Lords noble nature He could not refraine from weeping when I went from him and the griefe he had to see me afflicted made him to teare his haire and oftentimes beg his death from the Deities When I was come back to Senega my first sorrowes renewed and feare representing to me the future more unfortunate then I have found it made me leade a life so retired as if with the Kings favour I had for ever lost the hope of seeing him againe At last I threw my selfe into the armes of the afflicteds Comforter and thence supplicated for sufficient strength to resist so prodigious a calamity Truly that Bounty that would not have a teare of theirs lost who are conformable to its will suffer'd not mine to be fruitlesse but granted all I petitioned for See how it hap'ned You may please to know that
by all those who assisted me as if he had beene the tutelar god by whose vertue the power of the Sorceresse should be absolutely annihilated A little after his birth they gave him me in mine armes As feeble as I was I tooke him and I befeech the gods said I to him thou beest borne to a more happy Fate then thy Mother Presentâ—…y the Messenger whom I had chosen to carry the newes to the King went away and used such expedition that in two dayes he came to the unfortunately inchanted Island Zabaim receiv'd the message with an appearance of joy but sent back my Posts not giving him leave to take his repast and made him set saile without the permission of speaking with Almaid of any other The same day he came to me conceal'd what might discontent me and inventing an extreme satisfaction said the King had promis'd he would be quickly with me Alas he came not and thought it enough to send Almaid That generous Favourite seeing me so desolate forc'd himselfe as much as was possible for feare of encreasing my afflictions but the compassion he tooke of my fortune overcame his resolution and drew teares from his eyes 'T was yet worse when he would have spoken to me for his speech failing him at the first word he stood as knowing not what to say and by that confusion told me what Zelopa's wickednesse was able to make me suffer In the meane time that Wisdome which is the Source of all other forsooke me not in that extremity In lieu of despairing at Almaids discomfort I found my selfe miraculously fortified My courage encreased and finding my selfe armed against all that might happen What Almaid said I must I contribute a constancy and consolation which I expected from you Cannot you endure the sight of an unfortunate woman or have you not the heart to tell to what new torments she is condemned Almaid seeing with what constancy I bore my affliction tooke courage and thinking there was no need of mincing my misfortune to make it the more supportable to me Madam said he the King who is not yet well satisfied in his former suspicions would see the little Prince before he would have him acknowledged for his Son He hath commanded me to come hither and to bring the child to him without delay Let nothing hinder you from being conformable to what he desires Doe this last violence on your selfe Give him that admirable proofe of your love and obedience and consider if you please the consequence and importance of his command Cruell and barbarous command cried I but I must obey it since my Lord will have it so and that with the sensibility of Nature I lose all those feares which our Enemy throwes on us Take this little Infanâ—… Almaid and go maugre your selfe deliver it to the fury of inhumane Zelopa She cannot endure Zabaims lawfull heire to live He must dye to assure her tyranny One same day must give and take away from me the quality of a Mother and without doubt by a fearfull agnition that monster must offer up the Son to those Demons which have sacrific'd the father to her Almaid having by his remonstrances and teares obliged me to put a period to my laments Madam said he if any of my actions have had the power to make your thoughts doe me the honour as to thinke me worthy the name of an honest man I submisâ—…y beseech you to believe the little Prince shall run no danger and that I will dye a thousand deaths if possible ere I suffer any whatsoever to attempt ought against his life Let your Majesty therefore set your minde at rest and satisfie the will of a father who is most dangerous to be provok'd I wil not say some great happinesse may succeed your obedience but I am certaine your refusall will render our wrongs absolutely incurable After he had thus spoake and told me what perill it was to detaine him he cast himselfe at the feet of a Lady of Senega who was most of my Counsell and all my comfort to dispose her to follow his opinion I knew well I must resolve to leave my childe I therefore call'd for it and bedewing it with my teares Goe said I little creature unfortunate assoone as borne goe under the protection of heaven which I adore whither his commands call thee by whom thou sawest the light Give him a tryall of thy obedience even before thou knowest him and when thou art with him suppresse thy cryes and teares for feare of his ill interpretation by imagining thou turn'st against him all those armes which Nature hath bestowed on thee With these words I fell into a swound and my childe had falne on the ground if Almaid had not caught him He carried the childe to his lodging and in lesse then two houres making all things ready put on his way with my Son and the women which waited on him The very day on which that desolate troupe came to a Castle on the Sea side Zabaim heard of it and leaving his inchanted Island came to see this living image of himselfe Almaira presented the child to him and said I beseech'd him by our first love to consider that Infant as he was the father of it 'T is that to which Zelopa represents me cried Zabaim She would have me use that power which the name of father gives me and would not have any thing that is mine owne to be deerer to me then my selfe Thou therefore poore innocent creature must bethe Sacrifice not for the expiation but the continuance of thy fathers offences Zelopa covets thy life weake and unfortunate Infant and will not believe my love to be without example till she have seene me commit a murther which shall never have any Dye then since my fury condemnes thee and let my weake and captivated reason give way to that unjust necessity which pronounceth the Sentence of thy death What thou weep'st my childe and thy little cries seeme to implore my assistance against Zelopa's cruelty Stay thy teares smother these laments and if thou wilt have me to be pitifull do nothing that may make me so But alas I see that all things conspire with thine Enemy Nature betrayes in fayning to succour thee Thy teares in lieu of pleading for thy safety solicit thy destruction and thy cries precipitate thy fate in going about to divert it Well 't is done I am vanquish'd Pity hath mollified my hard heart I feele the force of bloud I confesse my selfe thy father and therefore thou must dye for Zelopa assign'd me that fatall moment and commanded me then to begin thy murder when Nature gave me the most lively and tender feelings a father could have for his Son Zabaim could not continue his lamentations The overflowing of his teares and the violence of his fobs and sighes tooke away the use of his voyce He stood sometime like a Statue but on the suddaine passing from one extreme to another He
agitated spirit makes me feare the explanation of certaine words which that old woman spake to me who came for Almanzaira Whilst he said thus he saw that Matron running as fast as she could He would faine have avoided her but not being able to do it without incivility he went to meet her and ask'd whether she desired any service from him You may render a signall one replied she to the person that sends me and she therefore conjures you by the name of Alcidiana that you will not disdaine to see her At that word Polexander grew pale and trembled but unwilling the aged woman should perceive it I will goe said he where you please Yet I am most certaine you take me for another With that he went in great haste to the garden gate and there remembring his pace was not proportionable with the Matrons he return'd to her and so went to the same Cell where he staid at his entrance into the Hermitage Almanzaira met him at the doore and shewing her sadnesse by her eyes full of teares Amalthea said she knew you at your first entrance into this place and though that knowledge hath brought her into the misery she is yet hath she an extreame desire to see you It may be she expecteth her cure from the hand that wounded her Be pleased then to enter and let us see what lessening of paine that poore sick Lady can receive from your presence Almanzaira presently led Polexander into Amalthea's chamber and plac'd him where she might see him 'T is he cried the dying Lady 't is even he but miserable Amalthea regards him not The desire thou hast made knowne to see him is certainely a temptation of those cruell Enemies who would retard thee from that rest which vertue hath prepared for thee in heaven With that she shut her eyes turn'd her head aside and calling Almanzaira Madam said she to her let him depart if he please and when I am dead give him the letter which you shall finde under my beds-head She spake so low those last words that the Queene well deem'd she was departing She lamented her as much as if she had beene her owne daughter and to performe her last will tooke the letter which she had laid under her boulster and gave it to Polexander The Prince unwilling to stay in a place where his sight was so deadly went forth much afflicted and felt in Amalthea's death one of those new disasters whereof a little before he had spoken to Alcippus and Diceus He forbore not to open the dead Ladies Letter but he durst not reade it for all his imaginations having no other object but Alcidiana he conceiv'd he should therein meet some great example either of that Princesses anger or contempt After he had well considered on what he had to do he ventur'd to reade the letter and first found these words on it To the unfortunate Polexander 'T is to me indeed said he this letter is addressed For though there may be other Polexanders in the world yet there is none that can dispute with me for the title of Unfortunate Reade then Polexander reade a Letter which must bely its superscription if it be not extremely dismall to thee After these words he leant on Alcippus and found in the paper this that followes SOme other may talke to you of my life for mine owne part I will give notice to you of nothing but my death I say of that long and cruell death of which I have beene three yeares or rather three ages dying I was with the divine Alcidiana and liv'd in that delightfull and continuall repose which Innocence crownes youth withall when the Queens Sacrificers and Pilots publish'd in the Inaccessible Island the wonders of your life They spake of your courage as of that of the ancient Semi-gods They extold your generosity beyond all others and prov'd your incredible prosperities were the pure effects of your excellent vertue and not the favours nor Capricioes of fortune I confesse it unfortunate Polexander I was struck to the heart with the recitall of so many miracles and Love whose name and maliciousnesse I knew tooke the maske of esteeme and admiration to gaine under that disguise what he could never have obtained of himselfe I was in Alcidiana's privy Chamber when this mischance betided I lost the respect I ow'd to her quality and that to mine owne birth and declaring to her my folly Madam said I is it possible you have so long time beene ignorant of these things or have you envi'd your Subjects the protection of so brave a man Alcidiana blush'd to heare me say it and ask'd me whether her people had need of any other safeguard then her owne Nature said she hath beene too favourable to reduce us to the shamefull necessity of imploring the help of man We have no need of Polexander For had we beene so unfortunate as to have occasion to use his courage we would have retain'd him when Fortune cast him on our Island Have you then seene him said I interrupting him and can you keep this indifferency or rather so cruell a neglect Ah Madam your insensibility will be one day punish'd I durst not prosecute this discourse because I perceiv'd by Alcidiana she lik'd it not but desirous to leave to her Subjects a memorable example of her severity she not onely forbad them to speake of you but by a declaration contrary to her owne inclination condemn'd your memory to an eternall oblivion and any whosoever of her Priests or Pilots which should conduct you into the Inaccessible Island to be expos'd with you to the flames of the Altar of Vengeance All these rigours no way lessen'd my passion It got new strength in growing elder and when I knew it proceeded from love I found my selfe too weake to suppresse it One day finding my selfe alone with the Queene I cast my selfe at her feet and besought her with teares in mine eyes to let me know all she had heard of you She grew extremely cholerique at it but seeing her anger did but the more stirre up my desire and impatiency I will said she give you that vaine contentment yet I vow your extravagancy amazeth me A hundred times I kissed her hands in lieu of being troubled and confessed to her I was no more rationall In the meane time my teares my sighs my dying looks and my faintings wrought so much pity in the heart of that Princesse that she told me of your arrivall in her Kingdome and the command she gave for your departure thence assoone as she knew your affection By the content she tooke in that narration I judg'd you were not so indifferent to her as she would make me believe and that her passion betraying it selfe discovered that which she held with so much difficulty Assoone as she had ended her discourse I felt my selfe cleane alter'd from what I was before Reason which had forsaken me tooke her place againe and setting before mine
eyes the fault I committed against my selfe made me condemne my first inclination I retir'd from the extremity whither my disposition had hurried me and contemplating you as destinated for the sole Alcidiana Amalthea said I to my selfe thou canst not love him without a crime for to enjoy him thou must either betray the Queene or thy vertue Give over then leave that so amiable Polexander to his just Possessor But art thou so silly as to perswade thy selfe that he who so much disquiets thee is so lovely as they would have thee beleeve Ask some who are lesse interessed then a Mistris and her servants and thou wilt finde there is a great disproportion betwixt the true Polexander and Alcidiana's I did what I said I chang'd my opinion and would have let the Queene know it but she prevented me and ask'd what I thought of Polexander That which I thinke of all men said I and I sweare to you Madam by the duty I owe your Majesty that I never enquir'd after him but onely to satisfie my curiosity Alcidiana smil'd at my answer and strictly embracing me Amalthea said she I will fully content that affectation when thou pleasest Thus wee parted For my part I got to my bed But all night long I did nought but call to minde the defects which they usually cast on men to give me just cause to neglect you Not to lye I had almost effected it and my imagination had already halfe cured the wound it had made when Fame contemning Alcidiana's declarations brought you into the Inaccessible Island as a Conquerour over the Kings of Castile and Portugall I look'd on you with excessive joy in a table where you were drawne defending alone the Port of one of your Isles against all the Enemies fleet The Sea was stain'd with their bloud and the shore strew'd with Spaniards which seem'd to have come offer themselves to your sword that they might have the honour to dye by your hand O! how fatall was that sight to me I confesse it to my shame Polexander I felt my selfe burne with so sweet a fire that in spight of all the remonstrances of reason I tooke delight in being consum'd by it My extravagancy which till then had beene conceal'd at that time burst out and made me stop mine â—…ares to all prudent counsell Neither the consideration of Alcidiana nor the care of my reputation nor the feare of heaven could make me alter my resolution I got from the Inaccessible Island and not daring to take leave of Alcidiana put to Sea without other Guide then my blinded passion Heaven could not suffer my unbridlednesse nor consent to my ruine It staid me on the brink of the precipice by a violent fever made an end of another that was far more burning That sicknesse was my health For that great Physitian which never leaves his cures imperfect so strengthened my soule by the weakenesse of my body that he made me capable of that horror we should have for all the ordures of the earth I renounc'd the greatnesse of my birth I tooke leave of the world and to do a long penance for the errours of my youth came and confin'd my selfe within this Isle Almost two yeares have I tried to appease the anger of that incomprehensible Spirit that is no lesse just then mercifull I have bewail'd my loving the Creature more then the Creator I have fasted I have prayed I have wept in briefe I have omitted nothing of all that which might restore me the Innocency which my frailty had rob'd me of My sufferings have beene followed by consolations and though my minde hath beene often tempted by the charmes of your remembrance yet I can say it came off victorious Yes I dare brag now I am certaine of my victory I see the end of my combat such as I desired Heaven opens it selfe to receive me and shewes me that immortall Crowne it hath prepar'd for all those hardy Combatants who know how to tame the rebellion of sense and the disorders of the will Farewell then Polexander admire the vertue of Alcidiana and condemne not the infirmity of Amalthea Polexanâ—…er had his eyes full of teares all the while he read the letter and when he had ended it I did verily beleâ—…ve said he this letter would be to me a Source of new disasters O fortune O Alcidiana O love O death which of you foure wil have so much pity as to put a period to my miseries This sad cogitation having a long time tormented him he call'd to minde the assurances Amalthea had given him by her letter of Alcidiana's favour to him But he had not beene scarce a moment setled on so pleasing a subject when despaire and incredulity depriv'd his thought of all those faire Idea's He return'd againe to those old distrusts of himselfe tooke for lyes Amalthea's verities and rejecting his least hopes as rashnesse worthy thunder made himselfe as miserable as he had cause to think him happy Thus to no purpose he persecuted himselfe when Almanzaira came out of Amalthea's chamber as much afflicted for the death of that Princesse as for her owne misfortunes At the first word Polexander was about to speake to her she interrupted him and shewing him a man who then entred the Court of the Hermitage 't is Almaid cried she and presently ran to meet him and said what was fitting to oblige him to speake freely before Polexander After that declaration Almaid was not fearefull of being knowne therefore addressing him to his Queene Madam said he give heaven the thanks which its justice and pity deserve Your misfortunes are at an end and your enemies power is extinguished I know replied Almanzaira the unfortunate Almanzor hath slaine himselfe 'T is true Madam said Almaid the brave Polexander which seemes to be descended from heaven on earth to free the world of tyranny and exterminate monsters hath deliver'd you from two the most fearefull and cruell that Africa ever bred Polexander in lieu of making himselfe knowne undertooke Almanzors defence and addressing him to Almaid Our passions said he are disorders of the soule and therefore the harder for those by whom they are govern'd to preserve either all their judgement or all their imagination This being so I wonder not your affection transports you so from your selfe as to draw your sword against a woman and pardon not the memory of the dead I am farre from justifying Zelopa since her actions accuse her and being condemned by Almanzaira she is so by the mouth of Justice it selfe 'T is Almanzor I defend not onely for being Zabaims son but because I knew his vertues and that he never consented to the crimes of his mother Besides his valour was so extraordinary that all these Seas have beene the Theater of it and if he had not coveted death he by his acts would have shewd himselfe the worthy son of that great Monarch who is the Author of his life Polexander never vaunted he
or banishment would force the throne to be yeelded to her To bring that to effect she altered her ordinary course of life she avoided all occasions of being with Zabaim and when she was engaged to see or speake to him 't was with such a coldnesse that not a King but a slave would have beene troubled to endure it After she had a while thus dissembled and saw by her disdaines and cunning refusals that Zabaim had more love and lesse reason then ever she counterfeits one very passionate and complaines that her too much facility hath made her the scorne of him she so highly adores Zabaim not able to resist her charmes cast himselfe at the feet of that harlot gave her such honours as are due to none but a Deity confirm'd the vowes of his eternall servitude and excepting nought in the world protests not to retard any thing she will command him to execute When Zelopa saw him in that fury What am I the better said she for all these protestations since they prove at last but false hopes and vaine words whilst another is plac'd in the throne and solely acknowledged for Zabaims wife She must likewise onely enjoy you or if I doe 't is fit I see no more such a difference betwixt her and me as may make me justly doubt of your affection Ah Zelopa replied Zabaim you know my love is unfained and that every moment I lay at your feet those Crownes which Almanzaira weares on her head If that be not enough exact from me stronger proofes of it and he who to please you hath not spar'd his owne Son will not stick at things of lesse moment Put therefore out of my thoughts the displeasing object of Almanzaira's happinesse replied Zelopa and let not my love have any more the affliction to be crossed by so powerfull a Rivall Zabaim contented if not to the death at lest to the banishment of his wife But when it came to the point of pronouncing the Sentence he was strooke with an extreme remorse and would not have Zelopa's Instruments employed in that Commission He chose one of his Gentlemen whose age and vertue assured him he would acquit himselfe of it with as much addresse as modesty Him he sent to the Queen who since the losse of her Son was falne into such a strange disease as she had scarce strength to stand and yet was it impossible for her to endure either lying or sitting she was walking in her Palace-garden when Zucalin so was the discreet Gentleman called came to her Assoone as she saw him you are welcome said she and pronounce boldly by what death Zelopa would have me end my miserable life Madam replied Zucalim that is hapned at last which all good people forelaw Ordinary crimes have drawn on extraordinary and the love of a Strumpet after it had quench'd that which Zabaim ought you now enforceth him to account you for his Enemy O heaven cried the Queene at that word of Enemy doth the King then beleeve after so many proofes of my obedience and love that 't is possible for me to hate him Yes Madam said Zucalin He beleeves you plot against his life and use all kinde of meanes to oblige his subjects to take Armes against him Almanzaira could not answer to that supposition but lifting her eyes to heaven Thou knowest it infinite Intelligence who seest the hearts and thoughts of all men thou knowest it said she weeping Yet avenge not that calumny laid on me for I feare Zabaim may be compris'd in the punishment Zucalin admiring the resignation and vertue of Almanzaira told her he had an expresse command to see her out of Senega and to conduct her to Melly Do you imagine whether these newes might touch her Yet she received them with a constancy which seem'd insensible of all kinds of persecutions But when Zucalin told her she was to prepare for her departure How said she shall I not be permitted to see yet my Lord once more and be able to assure him in my leave-taking that not onely banishment but even death would be welcome to me if he had commanded it Madam replied Zucalin that contentment is taken from you till your Innocency after better examination be generally knowne Ah Zucalin said the Queene 't is not credible that the King feares my Innocency But I can yet well undergoe that last of misfortunes for his sake After that she went to a Chariot which to that end attended her at one of the Palace â—…tes and entring it was with a Guard conducted to the frontiers of Melly She 〈◊〉 â—…o sooner gone from Senega but Zabaim and Zelopa made their entry there as in triumph and within a few dayes after the blinded Zabaim was publiquely married to his Sorceresse and not onely caused her to be crowned Queen of all his Realmes but declar'd that the children he should have by her should be the onely lawfull Inheritors At that word Almaid turning to Polexander Since you knew the false Almanzor said he I doubt not but you have heard how six months after the crowning of Zelopa she was brought to bed of him and in her lying in receiv'd a discontent which in all likelihood she could not expect from Zabaim if Almanzaira had been as deere to him as she was before her banishment The King of his absolute authority and may be to testifie to his Subjects he yet remembred and affected Almanzaira would have Zelopa's son to bear the name of Almanzor The tears the prayers the fury of that cruell ambitious wretch could not alter his resolution She was forc'd to let her Son carry the name of her mortall Enemy and to avoid by that little disgrace those greater which threatned her This rebellion of Zabaims will contrary to hers made her verily beleeve that so long as Almanzaira liv'd her name would never be blotted out of that Princes memory She therefore stood no longer trifling out time but resolved to make her away and to that end gave an accursed Commission to such as she thought fit for such an imployment But Almanzaira having twice or thrice escaped the knife and doubly the poyson after neere fifteene yeeres of imprisonment was advised by her most affectionate Servants to free her selfe from Zelopa's fury and by a feigned death to divert a true one Zucalin who by Zabaims expresse command had her alwayes in guard thought notwithstanding all his care and precautions she would at last fall into Zelopa's traps and he was the first who gave her that judicious counsell She consented to him and after a sicknesse of some forty dayes which was not counterfeited but in the successe the report went that Almanzaira was dead Her women who the better to deceive others were the first deceiv'd so lamented her losse in speech and behaviour that in seeing them Zelopa's Spies and the Queens Enemies could no more doubt of her death At that very time I came to Melly and confirming the
presently alighting from his owne and offering his Sword to that dejected proud one 'T is now said he Abdelmelec that thou must beg thy life of me and since thou art not in case to instruct me I will take thy place to tell thee that thou soyl'st thy vertues with a vice which is not so much as supportable in the person of those who are continually victorious Courtesie and humility should be the particular vertues of Kings Others which are not of so high a birth may sometimes be proud but Princes renounce the advantage they have over the rest of men as often as they are apt to forget themselves This long oration was not very pleasing to Abdelmelec for Almanzors Sword was all that while at his throat nor would he answer a word to it but shewed by his demeanour he desir'd rather to dye then to beg his life Almanzor gave it him and presenting his hand to help lift him up Come said he let 's goe get our selves dress'd and never afflict your selfe with the successe of your Combate for I swear to you Alcidiana hath not brought me in love with her and I have no intent to crosse your Suite Abdelmelec hearing Almanzor's declaration could well have wish'd he had never been jealous of him but 't was too late for those thoughts He was then carried to the Palace and put into the Surgeons hands Almanzor who had but two sleight hurts got againe on horse backe and follow'd with the Acclamations and Praises of all the Court went to Zabaim and related to him what had pass'd betwixt Abdelmelec himself The King would see his wounds and have their first dressing in his presence For Abdelmelec he was sore hurt but his rage to be twice quell'd by one same man troubling him more then his wounds he besought Zabaim to be pleas'd he might retire to Morocco Zabaim told him the danger whereto he exposed himselfe yet had he rather hazard his life in getting further from Almanzor then to preserve it by being ingag'd to see him againe Zabaim did all he could to stay him but seeing his exceeding resolution to be gone would not hinder it but conducting him to his Ship left him to the protection of Mahomet Almanzor in the meane time thought on his cure and in lesse then fifteene dayes was in case to leave his chamber The second time he went abroad as Zabaim and he walked on the Sea shore they perceiv'd a ship beare right up to them they had the patience to stay her entrance into the Gulph and assoon as she had furl'd her sayles the curiosity of learning newes wonne them to send for the Captaine of the Ship who receiving the commandment sent backe him that brought it and intreated he would let Zabaim understand that he had such things to shew him as would be very pleasing to him The Messenger was no sooner return'd but the Captain landed and with him an ancient man clad like the Jewes of Africa and a woman of more then three sore yeares old which led in her hand a young mayden of sixteen or seaventeene yeares so amiable and so richly clad that the two Princes invited by her admirable beauty stood long time gazing on her Ah Almanzor thou hadst not now been the Captaine to a company of theeves if the power of thy soule had not slackned at sight of that faire Wanderer Zabaim after he had long look'd on her made her come neere and ask'd the Captaine whence he was and by what adventure those three persons he brought with him were falne into his hands The Captaine following the ill custome of those that come from farre unwilling to let slip the least accident had befalne in his voyage was about to begin a very tedious relation when Zabaim cutting him off bade him answer succinctly to these two questions The Captaine obeying against his will told him he was of the Isle of Madera and had a long time trafiqued into Spaine The last time I was at Lisbon said he I had such contrary windes and the tempest was so furious that I was cast on the coasts of Fez I staid there some time to trim my ship and attending a favourable winde the very day before I set saile as I walked on the strand those three persons you see there came out from under the rocks which were by the Sea side and shewing their feares by their teares cast themselves at my feet this old man imbracing my knees began thus My Lord said he if you beleeve there is in heaven a Divinity which recompenceth pious actions and watcheth for the preservation of oppressed Innocents have pity on three miserable creatures and suffer not this harmlesse Soule with that he shew'd me this young mayden to be a prey to those villaines that pursue her If their cruelty would have beene satiated by our deaths we had glutted it but their fury threatens us with a more horrible disaster They would immolate the honour of this Virgin to the brutishnesse of their Prince and have us consent to the ruine of that for whose preservation we would give a thousand lives The good man's speech much mov'd me I tooke him with his company into my ship and weigh'd anchor to returne to Madera but the winde unwilling to have it so hath cast me on this Coast and the old man knowing it gave thankes to heaven and besought me to land him with his wife and daughter I could not deny him so just a request and therefore bring him with me taking to witnesse the Justice which reignes in heaven that I have carefully observ'd the Lawes of Hospitality and have not fail'd of any duty which the prudent Law of nature wills us to render to one another This Commander that might passe for a miracle amongst Sea-faring men ask'd those whom he conducted whether they had any cause to complaine of him but receiving thankes and blessings from them in lieu of accusations tooke leave of them and the Princes and so retir'd into his vessell Zabaim was ravish'd at the vertue of that Pilot but he was farre more with the beauty of that visible Angell who was come from a place so remote to put her selfe under his protection For Almanzor he stood as tied by the eyes on the face of the faire stranger at last hee suddenly came out of his deep and dangerous contemplation and having heard nothing of what had been said 'T is to be confess'd said he to Zabaim that she is perfectly faire but let 's know what she is and whence she comes For this quarter's houre repli'd Zabaim wee have talk'd of nothing else No doubt if you continue as you begin you will out-goe all those that have been before you Almanzor blush'd at Zabaim's jeasting and though it reflected on the pleasure he had taken in beholding the faire stranger yet he could not refraine from looking on her againe and to wonder in himselfe at the sweetnesse of her eyes and the power of
could not extinguish Assoone as he saw the Princesse What Princesse said Almanzor to Osmin interrupting him Pardon me that mistake my Lord repli'd Osmin I would have said the unfortunate Axiamira Goe on father said Almanzor and eâ—…e no more so The poore Osmin blush'd and all asham'd for disclosing a thing he would have kept secret thus continued his discourse Assoone as Zabaim saw Axiamira You would not be Queene said hee and you are now going to be a miserable slave who shall languish all the remainder of your life under the cruell yoke of an inhumane Mistris Thy threats replied Axiamira sway me as little as thy promises I have scorn'd the one and I feare not the other With the same courage that I trod under-foot thy Crownes I can undergoe all kinds of torture Yet when I have a mind to free my selfe from thy tyrannie and the slaverie wherewithall thou threatnest me thy guards and thy irons shall be too weake to hold me Zabaim mov'd with those words and feeling his flame rekindling by the generositie as well as the attraicts of Axiamira wept before her a long time and cursing the rigour of his Destinie shew'd he had no minde to have her ruin'd and yet he could not save her He presently flew thence as if he had fear'd Zelopa knew of his visit and left us in a firme resolution to die rather then to fall into the hands of that inhumane Sorceresse Axiamira would not have us linger any longer and proposing to us death as an expedient or helpe the most facile and pleasant besought us for the last course to renounce all desire of life and not put our selves againe to the hazard dangers and incommodities of a flight which could not be discovered but it must be far more dismall to us then death I need not my Lord tell you it was not for our owne sakes that we could not resolve to die Had we been alone my wife and I we had soone disburthened our selves of an irksome old age but when we came to consider that we should destroy in the birth a miracle which nature had produc'd to be the ornament of her age our constancie vanish'd and death seem'd to us a monster which we were obliged to avoid as long as we had any meanes left to escape My wife and my selfe having therefore resolv'd to try for our safetie we propos'd it to our daughter she shew'd her selfe very repugnant to it neverthelesse her obedience being farre stronger she consented to all we desir'd of her Presently we provided our selves for that escape and taking hold of the occasion which may be was offer'd us we deceived our slaves in faining Axiamira to be sicke The night then after the departure of Zabaim being come we disguis'd our selves and getting through a lower window which look'd into the Palace gardens we got into the wilde fields and from thence into a desert which is frontire betweene Guinea and Senega Though our flight was favour'd by the departure of Zabaim and a very precipitate breaking up of Court yet was it discovered and as we entred the desert we saw five or six black slaves which pursued us their Scimitars ready drawne Affrighted with the yellings and furie of those barbarous villaines wee flung our selves into the next Caverne we saw without feare of meeting any of those furious beasts which usually retire themselves into such like places Our feare was our safety for sliding into that hole with all the silence that accompanieth timiditie we hid our selves among bushes which almost stopt up the mouth of it Those who ran afterus redoubling their shouts and threatnings cast themselves into the Cave but having without doubt by their yellings awakened two lions which lay there asleep they were constrained in lieu of taking us to defend themselves This unhop'd for succour made us turne up our eyes to heaven which we saw not and beg that great Soule which animates it to restraine the furie of the lions and not suffer them that had been our Defenders to be our devourers Our prayer was heard Those lions after they had satiated their hunger on those wretches forsooke their den and lessening our feare by their departure gave us liberty to breathe and to know our selves My wife and I searching for Axiamira gropingly found her farre lesse affrighted then in Zabaim's Court and received from her that heartning and comfort we would have given She advis'd us to forsake that place whilst those we feared were gone We did so and after vve had vvandred above a moreth amongst the mountaines of Lions without any food but what we got by our prayers from the Inhabitants of those mountaines we passed the River of Saban to the towne which carries the same name Many Merchants of Mansara who were come thither to trafique received us into their companie and taking pitie of my wife's age and mine and of Axiamira's tender yeares set us all three on their Camels and conducted us happily to the Citie of Ponda Finding my selfe so neere the ordinary abode of Zabaim new feares followed my ordinary ones and they were yet augmented by the report that ranne of that Prince his returne with his wife I forsooke therefore the towne where I had beene so well receiv'd by night with my little company and having none other Guide then the same who had so happily conducted us to that time I came at last to the house of charitable Servonitez His reputation which is not much lesse great then Zabaims but more worthy to be envy'd invited me to him and there made me meet yet with more then I was made to hope for I need not my Lord recount to you the particularities that Knight said he pointing to me hath not held till this time from relating them to you Almanzor seeing Osmin give over I know said he the end of your adventures but the beginning of them which I would faine heare is yet behinde But we will deferre that recitall to another time and imploy the time we have in giving order for our particular affaires For Zabaim we will forget him till the time come wherein we may make him know without avenging his perfidy by another that he hath more wrong'd himselfe then us when to satisfie his sensuality he hath undervalued our requests and friendship Speake therefore father to me freely and tell me whether you intend to follow my fortune and love me so well as to end your dayes with me and give over into my hands the care of your family This proposition was conceiv'd in such sort as Osmin noted in it a hidden necessity of abiding with Almanzor But that necessity was so conformable to his thoughts that he receiv'd it as the highest favour could come from the Prince He told him likewise that since he had left his countrey and the advantages of fortune because he would neither violate the divine Lawes in flattering his King in his vices nor the humane in running into rebellion
from Morocco with Iphidamanta Osmin his wife and their domesticks and in all haste came to the Fortresse of Guargetsem There as if he had been in the highest peace that could be or had abjured all things but his love he even forbad Osmin from speaking to him in any manner about businesse nor to trouble his repose with the fortune of an Estate which he abandon'd to the ambition of Sonnes Osmin affrighted with this command was neither sufficiently coward nor traytor to obey him He secretly sent for the Governour of Taradant and besought him by the excellency of his vertue and by his valour so often approv'd to have pity on the Kings weaknesse and his countreys desolation That Governour promis'd Osmin all that a man of honour should in such an occasion but whilst he was in preparation the two detestable Princes made themselves masters of the best townes and found every where so little resistance that they were at the gates of Guargetsem before the Governour of Taradant had time to assemble his friends or his troups Hely who passed his time altogether in idolatrizing Iphidamanta and in promising her such Crowns as he had lost was much astonished when the roaring of Cannons and the clamours of Souldiers told him aloud what his most affectionate servants durst not whisper to him Presently he ran to Iphidamanta and casting himselfe at her feet Would to heaven faire Princesse said he that I might by my death free you from the danger wherewithall you are threatned by my cruell and unnaturall Sonnes You should see me run to it with joy and voluntarily yeeld up what remaines of my life for the ransome of your honour and liberty But their abominable ambition will be no more glutted by my death then it is by my Crownes 'T is your honour they aime at and the accursed Nephisus will not thinke himselfe fully clear'd of those execrable vowes he hath made if at once he commit not two of the greatest murthers can be imagined I meane if after his attempting on my life he doe not the like on your honour Iphidamanta according to her custome dissolv'd in tears whilst Hely spoke to her but at last urg'd by a just indigdation It behov'd you then to have had more care of my liberty repli'd she when it was in your power So would you not have been reduc'd to give me now such vaine testimonies of your feare and weaknesse but take no care for me I know better then you how to prevent the villanies of your Sonnes Hely stood wholly confounded with love and joy at those judicious words and leaving Iphidamanta with Osmin's Lady went to see whereto his enemies had brought him Osmin followed and charging him but with silken words if it be lawfull for me to use the Court tearmes with the irreparable faults his passion had made him commit would have perswaded him to thinke on his safety whilst it was not absolutely desperate Hely stopping at that speech There 's an end of the matter said he I must die Abdelmelec and Nephisus have too constant and assured an impiety to promise me the least good that can be That very day they combin'd to make war with me they resolv'd my death Should I give into their hands all regall authority and on the faith of a solemne Treaty open the gates of this fortresse assure your selfe they would not be satisfied They will have me end my miserable life by the most infamous tortures can be invented by their mercilesse impiety But that which I more feare is they will expose Iphidamanta to such horrours as the sole imagination of them kills me I will therefore prevent all these disasters by a death which shall not be unworthy Iphidamanta nor my selfe With that he walked on and ascended up a bulwarke from whence he might descry all his enemies camp He knew the ill estate of the place he was in and judg'd rightly by the advanced works and demolitions the Cannon made that he had but a short time to live He stood there above two houres as if he had expected some Cannon shot to finish all his disquiets by a faire death But heaven which is alwayes indulgent to humane frailty preserv'd that sacred head and would not by a tragieall end give his unnaturall children cause to glory in their wickednesse nor yet would it absolutely preserve that drowsie and rest-loving Prince for feare he should utterly lose himselfe in his remisnesse and too much insensibility Osmin perceiving Helies intention withdrew him against his will from the bulwarke and trusting in the Governour of Taradants promise assur'd him he should shortly have succour from whence he expected it not Hely laughed at it and as if he had knowne his approaching misfortune staid at the foote of a towre which his enemies battered A great part of it fell in that instant and in such a manner that without the particular providence of heaven Hely and Osmin had beene orewhelm'd with the ruine Osmin was not hurt at all but Hely scap'd not so cheape He was struck downe and wounded in his head and many other parts of his body Some of the garrison Souldiers thinking he had beene slaine drew him from under the rubbish and ruines of the towre and carried him to his chamber Assoone as the trusty Eunuch Atlas saw his Master in so ill plight he ran to Iphidamanta and melting into teares Come said he and see to what point of mishap your beauty hath brought the best Prince of the world Follow me Iphidamanta and try at least by one teare and one word of comfort to witnesse to my Lord the King that you are sensible of his wounds Iphidamanta was astonished at Atlas sad relation and her naturall goodnesse making her forget all other consideration she went with Osmins Lady to the Prince his chamber Assoone as she came neere his bed and that she saw him all bloudy O heaven she cried permittest thou thine owne lively image to be thus disfigured Hely knowing her stretch'd out his hand and raysing himselfe a little faire Princesse said he since my life pleased you not let me know at least that my death is welcome unto you Impute not to heaven nor to the inhumanity of my children the tragicall end of dayes They have both rather with pity then rigour treated me as they have done and death it selfe shews how pitifull she is since it hath prevented the despaire and contempt whereinto your losse would infallibly have carried me Give them thanks rather for being so conformable to your wishes and for delivering you at last from that bondage which hath cost you so many teares Farewell then faire Princesse weepe no more if you desire not to afflict me at mine end Rather by a pleasant countenance signifie to me that you take my death as a favour I will even hasten it if you desire it But whilst I seeke for comfort in my misery I forget the care I should take for your
all alive seeing her funeralls perform'd and notwithstanding Mahomets forbidding to receive such honours as are reserv'd for men onely wept as much for joy as griefe and even ravish'd to see how deare her memory was to Zabaim When the prayers were ended Zabaim arose from his place as pale and wan as he had been ready to give up the ghost and made a signe that he would speake Presently there was a great silence and the Prince beginning his speech with teares continued with these words I should rather let you know by the effusion of my bloud then my teares how guilty I am All that former ages have seen of cruelty of barbarisme of inhumanity cannot parallel but the least part of my actions I have violated all manner of Lawes I have by execrable courses blotted out the Character which heaven had imprinted on my brow and the Majesty of Kings which hath been hitherto the love and safety of all Nations is become by being communicated to me the terrour of Innocents and abomination of all men 'T was I my friends 't was I who thrust the sword into the bosome of the incomparable Almanzaira I am the unnaturall father who consented to the death of him to whom I gave life Yes I have depriv'd you of your legitimate Prince I pluck'd him out of his Nurses armes and to glut the ambition of a wicked woman have not trembled to abandon that Innocent to the outrages of fortune Had I alone contributed to his birth as I have to his misery I would esteeme you happy in being delivered from the race of such a monster as I. But alas Almanzaira gave him you and you beleeve as well as my selfe she being the perfect rendezvous of all royall vertues could produce nothing but what was worthy to governe Lament therefore and bewaile that great losse make the Author of your misfortunes feele your just anger Remember how dearly Almanzaira lov'd you and suffer not her executioner to be any longer your master At that word Zabaim was constrained to stop because his weaknesse being neither answerable to the vehemency of his action nor the excesse of his griefe he stood suddenly without voyce or motion This accident causing a great trouble among the people every one arose to help the Prince and the noise increasing with the opinion they had of his death Almanzaira left her place and thrusting her selfe in amongst the prease without any other consideration then to get neere the King made so good shift that she came close to the Kings throne when he came out of his faintnesse Every body seeing him recover'd tooke their places againe and Almanzaira hiding her selfe behinde some of the Guard would attend till her Lord descended to cast her self at his feet He in the meane time all dying and wet with teares What my friends said he have you no resentment Will you let me live since Almanzaira is dead She is not cry'd out the Queene breaking forth from behinde those which hindred her from being seen she is not for heaven would not suffer her to be so soon depriv'd of her Lord. Zabaim affrighted to heare that voyce and to see a woman come creeping on her knees towards him arose from his chaire and presently fell backe againe and there lay long without stirring In the meane while those who were neerest the King look'd on Almanzaira and knew her though she seem'd to them much chang'd and ask'd one another if what they saw were not some new inchantment of Zelopa Whilst Zabaim came out of his insensibility and that all the world press'd and cry'd out to see the Queene Almaid declar'd himselfe and intreated them to make way for him At this new cause of astonishment the multitude redoubled their acclamations throng'd together and seeing Almaid could not passe lifted him up and from hand to hand carried him to the King Art thou descended from heaven deare Almaid said Zabaim to confirme the good newes I heare and dare not beleeve He staid not for an answer but certainly crediting that she before him could be none other then Almanzaira he fell on his knees and taking her by the hands Doe I then said he see you againe deare Almanzaira and have your enemies been lesse cruell to you then I But do you not return to upbraid me of my inhumanity and aske Justice for it from all the World My Lord repli'd the Queen forget if you please the griefes I have throwne on you and let me see that my returne and life is not displeasing to you All the assistants lifted their hands to heaven throng'd about the King and Queen to congratulate so miraculous a re-union and understanding it was an effect of Almaid's fidelity they call'd him aloud the Redeemer of Senega This worthy Favorite to satisfie the King his master and the rest of the company declar'd in few words all that we have knowne before At which recitall their admiration increased and the multitude which takes pleasure in framing to themselves causes of astonishment added miracles and prodigies to Almanzaira's adventures to the end to give new nourishment to their greedinesse of deceiving themselves In the meane time the Priests changed their prayers and requests into giving thankes They praised Heaven for this happy and unexpected successe and sent backe Zabaim with as much comfort and joy as he had of despaire and sorrow when he came into the Temple Almanzaira for all her being re-established in her former fortune and environ'd with such glory as any other but her selfe had been lost in it forgot not Polexander She besought the King he might be look'd after to render him what she ought as the person whom the eternall Providence had made use of to denounce the end of her miseries Polexander straight presented himselfe and doing reverence to the King without making knowne who he was follow'd him to the Palace with Almaid and many others of the chiefe in Court The people on their parts renew'd with their fires the joy they had so long smother'd and running as their manner is from one extreame into another spent the rest of that night in sports in feastings in musicke and other jocundnesse Zabaim spent it more seriously for assoone as he had bid good night to all the Court he shut himselfe in his privy chamber with Almanzaira Polexander and Almaid and accusing himselfe in their presence of all those crimes his love had made him commit ask'd the Queen pardon a thousand times and mov'd her so much by his submissions as she thought so good she was there was no body guilty but her selfe But to divert Zabaim from his sad thoughts My Lord said she the same Goodnesse which hath preserv'd your Almanzaira from the power of all the Devills hath not onely had care of the true Almanzor's life but hath many times sent him you as a tutelar Angell to defend you against your ill-affected Subjects Rebellion and to re-conquer those Countries which divers tyrants had
great number of those Arabian theeves which wander up and downe Africa hearing Benin was besieg'd ran thither for pillage I who foresaw the lamentable successe of that warre shipp'd Andromeda Iphidamanta the Nunnes and other chiefe Ladies of Benin to the number of towards eight hundred and sent them downe the River to a fortresse which for its being built on a rock encompassed by the Sea hath by our Predecessors beene called the Palace of Safety Within a few dayes after the towne was taken through the trechery of some Arabians who dwelt in it and I reduc'd to a condition more miserable then death it selfe I presented my selfe to my ingratefull Perseus assoone as he entred the towne and opening my breast Sheathe here said I to him sheathe here barbarian the murtherous steele which reekes yet with thy brothers bloud I deserve that punishment since I am the author of thy life and I beg it from thee as a favour rather then to see thee cut the throats of so many innocents for whose preservation thou art bound to expose nay to lose thine owne life The inraged Perseus was about to grant my request but as he lifted his arme a white Slave which Almanzor had given me stept before me and with his Symeter strooke Perseus such a blow on the head that he fell from his horse and presently addressing his speech to that wretches Souldiers Come ye infamous and cruell rabble cried he come and imbrew in my bloud your hands accustomed to so many murthers Imitate your accursed Leader and permit not vertue to be one sole minute in safety before you The unnaturall Perseus is not content to have drench'd his ponyard in the breast of Almanzor but he would have the King his father try the same steele and that his rage should be glutted on him since it could not be satiated on his brother But heaven cannot suffer these horrible murders It makes use of the most weake instruments to instruct us that it can at pleasure confound the malice of the most strong and is continually the avenger of unfortunate parents This Slaves speech had beene powerfull enough to have mitigated Lions and Tigers had they beene capable of understanding but it wrought nothing on mine enemies They fell on that trusty and generous Slave ran him through and through and after they had hack'd him in peeces tooke up Perseus who was sorely wounded and to make my thraldome more ignominious loaded me with irons and so brought me back to the palace There was I strictly guarded till Perseus was healed Some few dayes after by his command I was taken out of prison and brought to the Isle we came from 'T is three months since I arriv'd and was already resolv'd to end my miserable life there without laying the fault on any other then my self or bewailing any of my losses but that of my deare Andromeda This morning walking by the Sea side I saw those men land whom you have parted They had order to kill me but there was onely one part who came to execute that barbarous command Of thirty which they were fifteene of them intended as they told me not onely to save my life but to take me out of that desolate Island and carry me either into Congo or Guinea Assoone as they came on shoare they hastned to me and made knowne Perseus command But when they were all come to the place where you found them those who had agreed to save my life put themselves before me and made knowne their resolution to their Companions That made them enemies and brought on the Combat which you have ended In these few words brave Knight you have the recitall of my long afflictions I can accuse none but my selfe for them Perseus their author is lesse guilty then I. My negligences my flatteries and my blinde affection have beene the fosterers of that young mans most vicious inclinations and bred him up in the practise of all wickednesse Finish then O heaven finish my punishment adde new torments to those I have suffered I will accept them with thanks provided they satisfie thy Justice and that they be great enough to expiate the offences I have committed either by my selfe or the to be deplored Perseus Abrinzias could not make an end without teares for notwithstanding his great courage and the intire resignation he made appeare yet was he afflicted not with the thought of his miseries but the griefe for deserving them Polexander to wipe off his teares gave his word not to forsake him till he had brought Perseus to an accompt and made him quit the throne he had so brutishly usurped These promises might have comforted some other unfortunate Prince but they could worke nothing with Abrinzias He continually call'd to minde the ill breeding of his Son and repenting his more care taken for his fortune then vertue lifted every moment his eyes to heaven and begg'd from thence afflictions proportionable to the enormity of his offences Polexander thinking it was impossible to stop this torrent let it run over with all its violence and when he saw a remarkeable diminution My Lord said he to Abrinzias you are not the sole father which resents the impiety and fury of his children The King of Morocco for being too indulgent like you hath as you lost his Crownes and liberty The undutifull Nephisus hath no lesse attempted against him then Perseus against you but by some mysteries which are not knowne but above that Prince in striving to satisfie his lascivious desires is falne under the avenging sword of your deare Almanzor Doubt not then but Perseus leading the same life will meet the like end if heaven touch not his heart and draw him from this obduratenesse Let 's hence presently if you will be advis'd by me and suffer not your subjects and may be your Queene to be any longer expos'd to the fury of that unnaturall Son Abrinzias thought he resisted the will of heaven in not consenting to Polexander and therefore besought him to do what he thought fittest Polexander who had businesse otherwhere presently commanded his Mariners to steere for Benin and in the meane while consulted with Abrinzias but farre more with himselfe to finde meanes for the speedy terminating the warre betwixt the father and the son and redeeme his Sister from those barbarous parts Two dayes was he in these consultations and the third he descried the rock on which was seated the Palace of Safety When he was neere enough to distinguish of objects he perceiv'd the rock to be inviron'd with a great many little boates He shew'd it Abrinzias and told him that Perseus for certaine had besieg'd the place With that he went throughout his ship and commanded his Gunners to shoote betwixt winde and water and not make an unprofitable shoote Next he gave order amongst his Souldiers and giving them advantagious and thick plancks with holes in the middle for their shot to play through told them for their
HE IS DEAD FOR ALCIDIANA 'T IS A GLORY THAT COMMANDS YOU WHETHER YOU WILL OR NO TO ENVY HIM YOU WOULD HAVE ESTEEM'D HIM MOST HAPPY IF THE PLEASURE OF THAT PRINCESSE SIGHT HAD PRESERV'D THAT BRAVE LIFE HEE HAD BEGUN HOW MUCH MORE SHOULD YOU ESTEEME HIM SINCE THE ONELY FEARE OF NEVER SEEING ALCIDIANA WAS ABLE TO MAKE HIM DYE Whilst our Heroe was making amourous Comments on Almanzors testament Cydaria went to see a little Altar which was in the chiefe front of the Tombe Upon it were foure statues of marble Some lay along and others sate Two represented the Pleasures as well by their youth their mirthsomenesse somewhat alaid with a kinde of sadnesse and their Crownes of roses as by the Instruments of Musick which lay at their feet And the two other by the many Crownes on their armes and the Diamonds Pearles and other Jewels which they carelesly let fall from their hands plainely enough intimated they were Magnificence and Majesty They all foure held a great heart of Albaster and speaking by a Roll of brasse hanging downe from the same hands which held the heart thus seem'd to expresse their thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 IN LIEV OF THIS HEART NOW IN OUR HANDS WE SHOULD HAVE HAD THAT OF THE GREAT ALMANZOR HAD HE NOT SCORN'D TO HAVE LIV'D FOR ANY OTHER THEN ALCIDIANA FEW HEARTS HAVE PREFER'D SLAVERY BEFORE COMMAND OR DISCONTENTS BEFORE ALL PLEASURES FEW HEARTS TOO CAN BE COMPAR'D WITH THAT OF SO GENEROUS A PRINCE AND FEW SHOULD WITH JUSTICE EXPECT FROM OUR RESENTMENT THOSE TEARES WHICH SO GREAT A LOSSE SHALL ETERNALLY DRAW FROM OUR EYES 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Polexander and Cydaria unwilling to stay longer among so many causes of sadnesse retir'd into the most obscure part of the Sepulcher and not thinking it an offence to implore heaven for a miserable soule besought it with teares to convert its justice into mercy and save him who like a mad-sick man had taken poyson in thinking to take a wholesome potion Their prayers once ended they came out of the Tombe where they found Osmin and Alcippus who by their action made knowne how much they were astonish'd Osmin spake first who shewing his admiration proceeded from somewhat else then Almanzors Sepulcher This Isle said he to Polexander may rather be call'd the Isle of Tombes then the Isle of Fer. I cannot conceive through what urgency so many unfortunate people should be compell'd hither to graspe with death About fifty paces hence you may see if you please to walke thither foure Monuments under which are interr'd so many Spaniards which are called by the Inscriptions the foure Lovers of the Princesse Benzaida A little further we have seene a Sepulchre as meane as this is stately The outside which is painted black and powdred all over with flames and teares made well guess'd what horrour there might be within In the midst is an Inscription which neither Alcippus nor my selfe can understand Cydaria besought her brother to goe see this novelty and getting his consent march'd foremost to satisfie her longing Polexander after he had seene the foure Spaniards Tombes went to the last and presently spied the Characters which neither Osmin nor Alcippus could decipher He thought it not strange for 't was Slavonique ill enough done to puzzle more understanding men then they in the knowledge of languages He turn'd to Cydaria after he had twice or thrice read it over and assuring her she was to heare some very strange thing Do you see said he the letters drawne on that linnen which two Cupids crowned with myrtle and Cypresse hold in so mournefull a posture and looke on with so much griefe that the teares fall from their eyes they tell us that Sepulcher is the Monument of two Sisters The other Inscription which is incompass'd with trophies of love troden under foote by death and cruelty and sowne with golden flames and silver teares is the Epitaph of those two Princesses This is the Explication word for word TO THE ETERNALL MEMORY OF HISTERIA AND MELICERTA'S MISFORTUNES AND TO THE PERPETUALL SHAME OF THE INSENSIBLE SOLIMAN ONe same instant brought us into the light and one and the same Destiny giving us equall inclinations made us alike misfortunate Death hath not sever'd those who by birth and fate were knit in so strong a ligament They are buried in one grave and have done that by Election which Nature had done by Chance Thy curiosity Reader is not may be satisfied with these generall notions See wherewithall to content it Yet if causes exacting teares comply not with thy humour turne thine eyes away from these following lines and give way no more to a desire that shall be so mournefull to thee But for all this thou wilt weep and no admonitions can coole thy charity Well then reade on and marke seriously with what rigour and command both the senses and passions do tyrannize o're all rationall soules The greatnesse of our births raysing us above all the Princesses of the world seem'd to have establish'd us in a felicity which could not be travers'd by the injuries of earth or heaven But O the vanity of humane condition what all the strength of the Universe could not execute weakenesse alone hath done it and Fortune to surprise us made use of that which we neither ought to feare or foresee A Slave hath triumph'd over our liberties and he whose life was at our disposall hath seene us at his feet shamefully begging the continuance of our owne 'T is true the mercilesse Solyman hath seene us implore his clemency and with teares beseech him he would afford us the honour of living his slaves Neither birth beauty nor love no nor vertue it selfe could obtaine any thing from that rock He saw the constant Hysteria dye and was no more capable of pity then he was of love Melicerta surviv'd her Sister but 't was onely to outlive all her hopes She hath beene inforced to intombe her selfe alive within this Sepulcher to finde in death that compassion which she could not meet withall in ingratefull Solyman 'T is enough Passenger we should be as mercilesse as he if we kept thee longer in the affliction of reading this Go then in peace and if it be possible obtaine from heaven that our second life may be more happy then our former After Polexander had read this Epitaph seeing his sister so much mov'd at it was willing to withdraw her from those mournfull places though he depriv'd himselfe of the contentment he receiv'd among the Monuments of so many desperate lovers But Alcippus entering on a sudden with an affrighted countenance ingag'd Polexander to inquire of him the cause of his astonishment 't is so strange said he that the more I call to minde the more I doubt of it mine eyes and eares which assure me of it cannot perswade me and I should beleeve I dream't if the thing were not yet before me And whence come you said Polexander that in so
tremble yet so that it neither troubled his minde nor judgement He thought a while on what he had heard and made a little noise that he might as well satisfie his eyes as his eares presently he saw come out from behinde the tombe an apparition like to that Alcippus had describ'd to him he was extreamely pleas'd at that sight and not doubting but it was a Spirit resolv'd to aske it newes of what was to come and to know whether he should give over the hope of seeing Alcidiana againe when therefore he saw the Ghost neere enough to him Be not offended said he faire soule who even in the grave retainest thy love and fidelity if I disturb the peace and silence of this sad abode unfortunate lover that I am I seeke every where for some one that may instruct me by what way I may return towards the glorious and worthy cause of my flames and afflictions If pity have any place in thee amorous Spirit be favourable to a man full of love Help a wretch which wanders sea and land without regaining the blisse he hath lost and tell him whether Time reserves nought for him but death for the end of all his miseries Thoâ—… art deceiv'd replied the Spirit I see no clearer then thou dost into future things and though my abode my habit and countenance make me passe for a Ghost know yet I have onely the resemblance of one but am indeed a most unfortunate mayden who in this tombe bewaileth a bloudy and precipitated death and a life farre more worthy of compassion This speech amaz'd Polexander more then the former had done or the thought he had of that miserable mayden and looking on her as on something more strange then a phantasme Who will ever beleeve said he that your love to an ingratefull man hath been able to worke in you so prodigious a perseverance as to make your selfe an enemy to light life and your selfe only to preserve your heart for an unmercifull man who contemnes it Goe not on in these revilings repli'd the mayden I love the cruell Solyman too well to suffer him to be censured his rigours are pleasing to me his insensibility augments my passion I am all fire because he is all ice But let us breake off a discourse which neither merits thy paines nor mine Since thou art in love get farre away from these aboades which are so mortall to Lovers and trouble no longer the unhappy peace of two poore Sisters who have met with none from the time of their birth I wish Madam replied Polexander it were fitting to obey you I should then be farre from interrupting by my presence the repose you finde in your selfe-persecution for I know by a long and rigorous experience that consolations are new griefes to afflicted soules and the greatest enemies the misfortunate meet withall are those indiscreet Counsellours who would perswade them they should leave to be sicke assoone as they should cease to refuse the remedies But when I call to minde what my birth and profession bindes me to I finde my selfe compell'd to continue troublesome and to intreat you by that ingratefull man you too-much love to let me know if there be no meanes left to you to be avenged of his ingratitude I have vowed said the desolate Lady never to discover my griefe but on a condition to which I thinke it not just to ingage you How strange soever that condition be repli'd Polexander I subscribe to it provided I may execute it and not be faithlesse and disloyall Your generousnes quoth the Lady revives those hopes which were with me buried in this tombe I imagine you may bring some ease to my afflictions and I may finde their end if I left to you the guidance of my fortune I therefore accept your offer and even now make you the Judge betwixt Solyman and my selfe and condemne me voluntarily to finish my miserable life farre from those faire eyes which sometime inlightned my Soule if my pretentions and prosecution appeare not as equitable as they may seeme strange unto you After the Lady had ended this Speech she opened the place inclosed by the ballisters and taking Polexander by the hand Let us said she goe hence into another place not farre off we shall there finde a place more fit to entertaine our passions she walked whilst she spoke thus and Polexander who led her saw come from out the sides of the tombe two maydens clad like the former which slowly and softly followed her and seem'd by their action they were not loath to abandon so sad an habitation Assoone as Polexander was out of that obscurity which shaded the beauties of the desolate Lady he found them so extraordinary as he began in good earnest to hate the ingratefull person that had despis'd them He took too from thence a new occasion to entertaine the Lady and intimating to her his admiration That barbarian said hee who could look on so much attraction and yet preserve his infamous liberty was surely borne among those horrible rockes which an eternall winter covers with â—…akes of ice and snow 'T is doubtlesse some monster whom angry nature produc'd in some extream corner of Scythia Turkes are naturally cruell and unpitifull but they are not insensible and the furious tyrants who in their unjust anger spare nor age nor sex yet have hearts capable of love and to please their slaves can sometime lose the title of master and conquerour If any allurement repli'd the afflicted Lady could have mov'd the heart of insensible Solyman it must have beene more powerfull then my sister's or my beauty neither have we pretended thereby to gaine to us that great heart who as obdurate as he is can neither be accused of savagenes nor barbarisme He is no Turk but by the injustice of his fortune nature hath made him born from a Prince who was no lesse polite then courageous and both France and Greece which have equally contributed to his birth publish who shall most that if Solyman had not the great Polexander for his brother he should be held the first of men Madam said the Prince you amaze me to have so much love and goodnesse for one so ingratefull as should have exhausted all But who should that Solyman be halfe Greeke and halfe French Was it not the sonne of the unfortunate Periander whom the cruell Usurper of Constantinople even feared in his fetters You know repli'd the Princesse the amiable author of our long afflictions 'T is that Prince happy in his misfortunes who changing his name of Iphidamantus for that of Solyman exchanged his prison for the favour of the redoubtfull Baiazet and is found susceptible of all kind of alteration excepting that which may be advantagious to my sister or my selfe Polexander had more particularly inform'd himselfe of his brother's adventures had he not seene Cydaria who all affrighted with the seeing him conversing with that faire apparition drew backe still as he came
himselfe over to his griefe would have converted the nuptials into a funerall and the mariage bed to a tragicall Scaffold But being diverted by his friends and hem'd in the hall where all the Nobility of the Province were assembled he turn'd now towards ne and then to another and speaking sometimes to the Lords and otherwhile to the Ladies See said he your selves and judge if the unnaturall Chersach after the act he hath done deserves that I looke on him as my father 'T is true I owe him my life but 't is as true that this day he hath rob'd me of it and the ill his last voluptuousnesse hath done me is infinitly beyond the good his first love hath givven me Cruell father turne thine eyes on me aswell as on the faire Astalia Thinke with thy selfe that I am not lesse sensible then thou and that the heate of mine age joyn'd with that of my love is but too powerfull to force from me the little reason I have left and that I can well forget the name of a childe since thy incontinence alone makes thee throw off the quality of a father The murther is no lesse when a father assasinates his Son then when a son kils his father If thou gavest me my liâ—…e when thou thoughtst not of it I have given it thee twice not onely on premeditation but even then when I was to hazard this life to preserve thee that same which is now the cause of my death I have paid thee with use Exact no more from me but permit that I enjoy in the fruition of my wife that life which I owe to chance rather then to thy selfe But what doe I faire and deare Princesse I lament in vaine and in the meane time you are brought to your prayers teares and cryes and it may be to something more worthy compassion Your Tyrant sollicites you presseth forceth you and not able of himselfe to vanquish your just repulses imploies against you the same hands he useth to strangle his Enemies And makes of his hangmen the Spectators aswell as the Instruments of your martyrdome and my dishonour He would have said more when an extraordinary noise farre above that he made in complaining on his father flew into the hall and put them all into a feare and disorder After the noise many people came in and all denouncing by their gesturrs and teares that accident which their mouthes durst not utter oblig'd Antenor with his sword drawne to flye out of the hall His friends followed and brought him back againe whether he would or no and then sent to know what had happened One of my poore fathers Pages came in all bloudy and addressing himselfe to his Lord told him with teares the Princesse was dead Before she resolved to lay violent hands on her selfe she spake and did all she thought fit to stop the violence of your father say Chersach cried Antenor and make an end of killing me But went on the Page when she saw her selfe in the hands of foure servants to Chersachs lust and that her women were enforc'd to undresse her Well my Lord said she I yeeld and give way to your excessive love I shall not altogether lose my lover since in his losse I winne the affection of him who was the Author of the others coming into the world Use me then as thy wife and forbid these Inâ—…olents to continue their outrage I shall grow despeâ—…ate if â—…hey touch me againe If thou lov'st me let them instantly be gone and give me all the liberty which my birth and the honour of being thy wife requireth in thine owne house Chersach deceiv'd by these words sent away his Panders and himselfe withdrawing from Astalia told her she was where she had absolute command and that his desire to make her as happy as she deserv'd had engaged him to take her from his sonne since he was neither prudent nor powerfull enough to make good use of so great a fortune Astalia seeing her selfe at liberty ran into a Balconi which look'd over a precipice and before Chersach or any of us which were left with torches in the chamber could withhold her Deare Antenor cried she 't is to keepe my faith to thee that I dye With that she flung her selfe downe the precipice Her body was broken against the rocks and the bloud wherewithall I am besprinkled came from the torne face of that generous Princesse Assoone as I saw her fall I ran out of Chersachs chamber and descending to the bottome of the downefall by the diâ—…ches of the Castle I saw her dye repeating thy name I was bringing you her body when Chersachs guard met me tooke it away and carried it back to the Castle My afflicted father hearing of Astalia's death would have spoken a thousand things at once but the extremity of his griefe would not give him leave to utter onely one His eyes became two Comets and his bloud-heated countenance too true forerunners of despaire and death made all the Assembly feare more tragicall accidents then those which had already betided The venerable Moceniqua reading in my fathers face all that he was about to execute Hearken said he to a friend that shall never be so unjust as to approve of thy fathers violencies nor to condemne the resentments of the Son Thy complaints are lawfull and Chersachs act cannot be too much censured If the severity of Lawes were not suspended as often as the faults of a Soveraigne come in question I should be the first would have recourse to their assistance to the end so extraordinary a rape and no lesse a murther should not remaine unpunished But when our Lawes and Magistrates trample under feete the respect due to the living Images of the Deity and would with all their rigour make a great example of a great Offender they must either cut off his liberty of justifying himselfe or see themselves reduc'd to a necessity of absolving him To judge according to your opinion Chersach is extreamely guilty but to weigh that which hath beene perpetrated in the same balance where we so exactly weigh the lives and deaths of men we shall finde Chersach to be very unfortunate but not very guilty Whosoever shall be chosen to accuse him will exaggerate his violence and maintaine with a great deale of likelihood that he is a Ravisher and a murtherer But what will not he reply who shall take on him his defence Chersach will he say confesseth he was capable of as much love as his Son and that Astalia's beauty had no lesse power over his white hayres then o're the flaxen locks of Antenor His bloud which age had cooled became all on fire at the sight of that admirable Princesse and those hot boyling desires which the Son borrowed from the heate of youth the father feeles out of the greatnesse of his affection In a word he would have her for his wife whom Antenor had chosen for himselfe After the example of many fathers who
least your excuses since those you made to us hereto fore would in the condition where you are now witnesse rather your scorne then respect Soliman receiv'd this Letter by the addresse of an old Jewish woman who hoped for a great setling of her fortune if our loves had a happy successe He advised long whether he should answer us At last he resolv'd to it not to entertaine us in our errors but to make us lose with the hope of their good successe the intention of continning in them See those cruell words which gave the first mortall blow to poore Histeria and have handled me more rigorously since they make me languish far far beyond her The Slave SOLIMAN to his two Princesses Histeria and Melicerta PArdon me Ladies if I begin my Letter with accusations in liue of most humble acknowledgements and thanks which obliege me to your incomparable courtesie You censure by appearances as well as vulgar Soules and think I have changed my condition because I have changed my bonds No faire Princesses I am not what I seeme to be I am still a Captive I am still unfortunate and therefore I must yet make use of the same excuses which serv'd me as often as you forgetting what you were borne had so much goodnesse as to deigne to cast an eye on your Slave I will never lose that quality because I hold it more glorious then all that fortune can give me Withall I will inviolably reserve for you those respects and yeild you the same duties which the law of that Servitude commands me THis Letter so respectfull in appearance but so proud in effect did but encrease our afflictions We therein found an absolute refusall of our affections and an infallible assurance of being eternally scorned Yet would we not believe our malady to be absolutely despâ—…ate We intreated we importun'd we writ in briefe wee let passe no occasion to thaw that heart of ice But we lost all hope when Solyman departed from Constantinople on that great designe which the Emperour had on the territories of the Venetian Commonwealth The navall Army being gone out of the Channell came to Nigroponte and a little after to Romagnia I will not relate the particulars of that war Far more strange events call on me and passing by all fights by Land and Sea would have me come with the insensible Soliman to the siege of Lepanto I will dispence with you for this present for not crediting all the truths I have to tell you for they are so extraordinary as they are beyond the beliefe of the most credulous Solyman was no sooner gone from Constantinople but my Sister and my selfe were almost our of our wits We were no more restrain'd either by the consideration of our birth or the interest of our honour or by the feare of death We resolv'd to follow our Enemy I confesse had I beene alone I should never have put on that resolution but I was swayed by the violence of Histeria's love We stole out of the Sultannesse our motherâ—… Seraglio and disguising our selves so as it was very hard for any to know us wee mingled our selves amongst those troupes were imbark'd for the Venetia war We came to Lepanto a few dayes after it was besieged The first thing we did after our landing was to goe to Soliman's quarter and to endeavour by all meanes to be entertain'd in his Service Our designe did not absolutely succeed well Yet we had leave to lodge in his quarter and to see him at severall houres in the day Histeria who had not told me her last resolution strove to bring it to passe without engaging me in it After a furious sally wherein the Souldiers of Lepanto did all that despaire could advise men of courage to Solyman sav'd a part of the Emperiall Army and unawares gave the rash Histeria her life The night following that fight my poore Sister seeing all things opposed her Designe and that Soliman himselfe tooke paines to preserve that life she desir'd to lose resolv'd to speake to him Finding therefore a convenient time to discover her selfe she aborded him with an extraordinary constancy and without faultering in her Speech I doe not said she give thee thanks for saving my life since those good deeds which are not voluntary obliege not those to whom they were done No I will do what I never resolv'd I will thanke thee for a good which thou never intendest to do me and if thou do not repent thee of it 't will be too much for me to be eternally indebted to thee Thou seest Soliman here before thee the most unhappy Histeria who unable any longer to endure thy deniall or thine absence hath in her strange resolution fear'd nothing but to finde thee yet insensible Thou wondrest at this declaration and seem'st to doubt whether my words be true But being never yet capable of love thou art no more neither of conceiving to what extremities Love is wont to carry such as affect truly Do not doubt of my being the same I tell thee My Sister whose alike passion hath made her undertake the same voyage and other testimonies lesse suspected will cleere thee when thou list of those doubts wherein thou art very willing to abide Soliman amaz'd and affrighted at so strange an adventure was a great while ere he could speake to my Sister At last he inforc'd himselfe and raysing up that disconsolate Princesse Would to heaven said he my death had accompanied my fathers We should then both have enjoyed that peace and quiet which fortune alike denies us O how hatefull hence forward shall that life be to me which hath hitherto been so troublesome since 't is by it that I see my selfe guilty of such crimes as cannot be too rigorously punished I deprive all at once my generous Master of all content honour and may be of life to whom alone I owe my life honour and fortune What shall I say to you Madam What will become of the Basha your father if he knowes of this vagary Nay what will become of your selfe In what corner of the world will your Sister escape the fury of a justly enraged father What can I doe that may avail you Tell me I beseech you for you have brought me into such a maze that I even scarce know whether I am my selfe or no Onely love me replied the poore Histeria with a voice able to mollifie a rock or if it be too much for thee yet at least give leave that thou be beloved and that being granted we shall have found remedies against all those ills which thou fearest Soliman had no reply to that proposition but stuck in a silence which proceeded more from his modesty and confusednesse then his naturall insensibility Histeria perceiving she wrought nothing on him rais'd her voyce a little and adding many teares to every word At least said she impassible Soliman if thou be not capable of love be capable of hatred and continue not
death nor Melicerta's miseries when the quietnesse of my minde and the mirthsomenesse of my humour forsooke me without any apparent cause That which till then pleas'd me began to be distastfull and the pensivenesse sighes and Bajazet's disquiets which I could hardly indure became my most pleasing diversions I found delights in solitude company was irksome to my melancholy and restlesse thoughts I learnt to sigh in earnest and found pleasure in it sleep left me and I knew by my long and troublesome watchings how cruell the nights are to the sicke and unfortunate Though I grew angry at this new manner of living yet I found some sweetnesse in it one night when certainly I slept though I thought my selfe awake a great flash of light dash'd all obscurity from my chamber and strooke into mine eyes at first I took it for lightning but the same lustre having as it were dazeled me the second time I opened my bed-curtaines to see what it was and perceiv'd walking with an incredible sadnesse and slownesse a young mayden which had her breast open'd with some blow of a sword the bloud gush'd out in great clots from the wound and the faire apparition inlieu of being terrifi'd look'd on it running out with a great deal of pleasure holding her eyes thus fix'd on her wound she drew neere me and shewing it to me with the point of her bloudy sword Looke on it said she as well as I insensible Solyman we have no lesse contributed to it the one then the other 'T was indeed this hand and this sword that made it but 't was thy disdaine and inhumanity which drove both to this desperate action Make thy selfe drunke with this bloud since thou hast so thirsted for it draine out all that rests in my veines I will indure thy cruelty so it extend no further and that my poore sister who languisheth in a desert Island be not compell'd to have recourse to my violent remedy for the cure of that malady whereof thou art the inflicter With these reproaches the Ghost vanished and I awaking found my selfe as cold as ice and as wet as if I had newly come out of a river Alas cry'd I presently faire soule which accusest me of thy death thou knowest well that I am but a farre distant cause and though my inclination would have drawne me to love thee yet my reason must have hindered me from it I confesse yet that I am guilty since thou condemnest me and would to heaven my ruine could restore thy life againe thou shouldst see me runne to my death with joy and alacrity but since these wishes and vowes are but bootlesse and vaine I will make one more just and solid and from this day engage my selfe never to be at rest till I have given Melicerta satisfaction I cannot tell you whether it were the effect of the vision or my vow that wrought my alteration but presently of impassible I began to be all passion and felt all those torments which Polexander and Bajazet had so often described to me I cast my selfe out of my bed and scarce having the patience to dresse me went to Bajazet not knowing well what I did Brother said I all amazedly I love and my desire to finde the worthy object of my affection will not permit me to stay longer with you Bajazet will tell you if you please that hearing me talke thus he thought me out of my wits and asked oftentimes to what end I held a discourse with him so out of all appearance 'T is very true though said I and that you may not doubt of it hearken to such things as I never yet disclos'd to any Thereupon I related to him all which had happened to me at Constantinople and Lepanto and ending with the vision I had lately seen I fill'd him with as much astonishment as commiseration Besides knowing my sicknesse by his owne experience Away away said he deferre it no longer 't is not justice that you should be exempted from the fate of your family He gave me a good tall ship with all such as I would chuse to accompany me and taking his leave My dear brother said he I will quickly follow you and but for Almaid and Hydaspes whom I daily expect I would be as well a companion in your voyage as I am in your fortune thus we parted and 't was after our separation that all those accidents betided me which I have recounted After I had been some while with Polexander and saw him as well as my selfe in a longing to attempt his fortune againe I left him steering for the inaccessible Island and bore up for the Straights of Gibraltar to get into the Mediterranean Sea and enquire after Melicerta either in France or Italy The winde driving me on the coast of Barbary I landed in the territory of Argier and went into the Towne with an intent to see whether Melicerta had not been so unfortunate as to be taken by those Barbarians and enchained among their slaves But my search was as effectlesse there as it had been in other places and for being too curious in those parts I lost the hope of seeing Melicerta againe That Towne being peopled with a many severall Nations and of all kinde of wits amongst others feeds a great sort of men and women which make profession of calculating nativities to divine of things lost and foretell of what is to come I went to one of these Cheaters which was of most reputation 't was a Marabou called Cid Amatonis which dwelt without the gates of Argier after that false Prophet had done a thousand superstitious Ceremonies wherewithall he was wont to deceive poore people he told me that which I searched after was not to be found but among the dead Polexander interrupting his brother Had you said he understood the true sense of those words you would not accuse your Mirabou of ignorance and lying for 't is very true insensible Solyman that the treasure you look'd for was shut up among the habitations of the dead and the constant and generous Melicerta had chosen for her retreate the Tombe of her dead sister Melicerta was a little moved at Polexanders reproving his brother and therefore speaking with her accustomed sweetnesse My Lord said she to our Heroe you know that Iphidamantus hath made his peace and by consequence we must not revoke to memory things passed The company could not heare these milde remonstrances without admiring the goodnesse of that Lady that made them and ravish'd with Iphidamantus strange accidents intreated him to proceed which he did from where his brother had interrupted him thus I confesse said he when Cid Amatonis had made me this fatall reply I laughed at his art and told him I was sure the person was alive whom I sought for My art said the Mirabou deceives me not and however assures me that personage is inclos'd in a Tombe and for confirmation of that verity Know with young man too faire
Melicerta triumph on her Rivall Thou art alone ô infortunate Ennoramita the person on whom Heaven powres all its choler and Love hath chosen as a victime which must be sacrific'd for the happinesse of Solyman and Melicerta The Princesses passion still furnish'd her with so many new thoughts that I had need of a wonderfull memorie to retaine them The King her father produc'd no lesse and seeing in the declining of my sicknesse that my mirthsomnesse came againe with my strength he thought Melicerta began to be worne out of my memorie That opinion gave him the boldnesse to discover his love to me and intimating that he would not treate me as other beauties which he kept shut up for his pleasure he at first promis'd me the Crowne of Tunis Your vertue said he and beautie which are both extraordinary exempt you from the Law of indifferent personages I will suspend the customes of the Kings my Predecessours to teach all Barbary that a merit without comparison may worke something without example Philomela shall be plac'd in the Throne without feare of companions or Rivall and if her vertue cannot indure in my Palace any subjects of impuritie from this houre I breake open the doores of my Seraglio and give both libertie and honour to so many faire slaves as the chance of warre hath given me To all these faire promises I continually oppos'd my inabilitie of accepting them and the losse of Melicerta 'T was a great deale worse when I had absolutely recovered my health and that the beautie which I will beleeve I had for feare of disobliging Cydaria taking new vigour shone in the eyes of Muley Hassen as he told me like the Sunne when after his leaving the Tropicke of Capricorne he ascends towards that of Cancer But leave we at last these extravagancies of love and since 't is the will of Fate end this Comedie by a tragicall Catastrophe Muley Hassen and Ennoramita meditated on nothing but how to become masters of a place which they had so long and vainly assaulted when they themselves were set on by the Garrison of Argiers who had correspondencie with some inhabitants of Tunis The Towne was instantly wonne and the Palace beset before Muley could resolve whether he should defend himselfe or flie the Turkes who knew his cowardise urg'd him to yeeld and after two daies battering wonne it by force See what love can doe Muley fearing more my losse then his owne no sooner saw the Turkes enter the Court of his Palace but he ran to my chamber and staying at the dore with his sword and buckler made them see that he who wanted a courage to defend his Crowne and life had an extraordinarie one to maintaine his passion and protect his pretended Mistresse The most resolute Turkes gave ground before the blowes of that Prince and seeing their obstinacie to contest with him did but serve to ruine them they talk'd to him of his safetie and that he should not hazard with his owne person his daughter and people Ah traitours cri'd the Prince you have not violated your faith and forc'd my City with an intent to have a care either of me or mine No I will die like a King and not doe as those infamous Princes who to prolong an unfortunate life cowardly present their neck and arms to the fetters of your Tyrant With that he flew among the Turkes and though they had command not to kill him yet the necessity of defending themselves made them neglect that order Assoone as I saw him fall at the feet of his enemies I was touched with an extreame shame for counterfeiting so long the maids part In a rage I flung out of Ennoramita's armes who besought me not to hazard my selfe and seising on a Cymitar and Target which were falne from a dying Turke I flew on those that were entred my chamber some of them I slew and drove out the rest I thinke verily that the respect to my sexe bridled the Turkes fury for exposing my selfe as I did to their arrowes and swords it had been very easie for them to have given me my pasport with Muley Hassen Ennoramita seeing me in that danger forgot what she was and the feare of my losse causing a neglect of her preservation she ran after me and as my buckler boldly defi'd death which inviron'd her on all sides One while the Turkes in respect to of her retaining their fury she fell on her knees and imploring their pity Take my Crowne said she and leave me this companion of my miseries but as she would have gone on with her petition an arrow shot at randome stroke through her tongue and passing on so dangerously hurt her that she fell downe halfe dead presently she cast her eyes upon me and calling me with a weake and pitifull voice Deare Solyman said she what a favourable shot was this since in depriving me of my life it hath taken away my feare of losing thee As she ended these words the bloud choaked her and I who thought I could not live without shame did I not rerenge the death of the father and the daughter so provoked those which would have spar'd me that they lost all respect and left me for dead between Muley and Ennoramita The Basha Aladin who commanded the forces of Argier hearing that one onely Lady resisted a great many Turkes sent word they should beware of wronging me and presently after came to see me but he found me among the dead and witnessing he was extreame angry at it would have had all those Souldiers undergoe the edge of the sword whom he thought authors of my death He drew neere to see whether I were absolutely dead and perceiving in me some remainder of life commanded his guard to take me up and brought me into the chamber of the too generous Ennoramita His extraordinary care of me sav'd my life and the warinesse wherewithall I conceal'd what I was thriv'd so happily that I was alwayes taken for a woman and so look'd after The Turkes being absolute masters of the Towne and not weeting from whence any force could come strong enough to trouble them in their conquest gave themselves over to all kinde of liberty But when they thought least on it they were set on by a Cozen to the late King called as himselfe Muley Hassen and whom the jealousies of State had banished into Mezila which is on the confines of the Numidian deserts That Prince understanding the devastation of his countrey got together a great many Arabians which usually frequented that Towne and assembling all the souldier-like of Distef of Necan of Thefas and of Thebessa fell unlooked for into the City of Tunis cut part of the Turkes in pieces and compell'd the rest to retire shamefully to Argiers Thither was I convay'd by the Basha's Eunuches and so carefully garded that when I strove to escape I found all meanes depriv'd me and all wayes shut up but love who had brought me to
for her searching she caus'd a great many torches to belighted that she might not mistake but at last finde Polexander either alive or dead Being come to the place where the slaughter had beene greatest she her selfe turn'd and remov'd a great many bodies and finding not that of her Protector began an incredible lamentation In the meane while Alcippus who with a torch in his hand searched more narrowly then shee came to the place from whence Polexander was newly gone and knowing his armour cri'd out that he was certainly dead His light fell out of his hands and lifting them aloft O Heaven cry'd he jealous of extraordinary vertue hast thou permitted an infamous rout to extinguish by an obscure death the bravest life of the world With that hee turned to Tisiphone and presenting her his tasses and one of Polexanders gantlets See said he all that you shall finde remaining of that Prince whom you have delivered into the hands and to the mercy of these murderers Tisiph one going out of one furie that had some bounds to another which had none at all tooke Polexanders gantlet and presenting it to the dead as if they had beene in case to heare her Villaines cri'd she who for these many yeares have been the authors of my afflictions what have you done with Polexander after you had kill'd him Shall I not have the comfort to injoy him dead since it was deni'd me living Seeke said she turning to Amintha and Alcippus seek ye faithfull servants of that unfortunate Prince and if ye cannot finde his body at least finde me his sword What! you hearken to me but assist me not and instead of prosecuting your search content your selves with unprofitable teares and lamentations With that she cast her selfe on the ground and besmearing her hands and clothes in removing many bodies drown'd in their bloud continued till almost day-break that horrible exercise At last she found out Astramadan and her hatred all goary as he was making her know him she seem'd to be infinitely joy'd at that incounter instantly she began extreamly to raile on him and finding a sword cut off his eares and his nose and the inraged woman not to be satiated at halfes commanded two of her Moores to strip the wretched Prince and assoone as he was naked she ran the sword into his body and rending his breast and tearing out his heart Accursed heart cri'd shee how unfortunate am I that thou art no more capable of suffering How glad should I be couldest thou revive againe and become sensible that thou might'st feele the extremitie of my hatred and torments but as dead as thou art I must teare thee in pieces and taste at least the shadow of that pleasure I had enjoyed in eating thee alive To it Tisiphone glut thy selfe with this accursed heart avenge thee as much as thou can'st since thou canst not as much as thou wouldest and intermingling love hatred despaire revenge and death together give succeding times a prodigious example what a woman can doe when she is as hardy as she is unfortunate With these words the inraged woman gnaw'd off and swallowed a piece of Astramadan's heart and whether that dismall morsell choak'd her or as 't is most likely the excesse of her furie discompos'd all that order of nature which preserves life so it was that she fell starke dead at Amintha's feet and freed her age of a monster which had made Heaven accus'd of Injustice had she not been punished by an exemplary chastisement Amintha Alcippus and others of Polexander servants being delivered from that womans tyrannie thought of nothing but on what they had lost Dead Polexander was the onely object which became master of their thought They invited one another to weepe and bewaile him and to preserve his memorie for ever among them made a vow to keepe more charily then their lives the reliques that were left of him Amintha tooke the gantlet which Tisiphone let fall in dying Alcippus his helmet and distributed the other pieces of his Princes armour to his most affectionate servants which done he erected a pillar in the midst of that fatall place and fastning to it Astramadan's armour all broken as it was tooke a great shield which he found all whole on the ground and writ thereon with bloud these words following Polexander for the eternall memory of his Victory and Astramadan's Treachery in the midst of this by fire consumed Towne hath here fix'd his Enemy's Armes which he lost with his life This Trophie being erected Amintha and Alcippus returned to the port and imbarking themselves in our Heroe's vessell thought of nothing more then how to accomplish the vow they had made to eternize the lamentation for his death But he in the meane time laid along in his boate without any more strength then what might suffice him to undergoe his many wounds was row'd on by the weake armes of Diceus or rather by fortune who desirous to belie those who accus'd her of that Prince's death imploy'd all her endeavours to preserve his life His boat made mighty quicke way whilst it was carried by the violent swiftnesse of the torrent but when that impetuousnesse was lost in the bosome of the Ocean Diceus perceiv'd he had not strength enough to handle the oares and imagining straight he had lost his master in striving to save him did so vively resent it that the most of his wounds opened againe and he the second time fell for dead at his masters feet The Prince beleev'd he was so indeed and bestowing on him some teares as the last tokens of his affection Goe Diceus said he goe to thine eternall rest and if Fidelitie as the most necessary vertue is the most worthily recompenc'd take thy place among the highest thrones which Eternitie reserves for the truly blessed I shall soone follow thee and restore if I dare hope it from the mercy of Heaven the prsence of that master whom thou hast alwayes so extreamely loved After he had spoke thus he stood some time without losing his sight and yet not seeing any thing but by little and little growing weaker it seem'd to him as if a thicke cloud tooke all light from him Then indeed 't was he thought he should die and that the judgements of heaven laying before him the vanities of his youth as so many causes of his condemnation and the ill imployments in which he had exercised his life hee fell to his oraizons After which he left all knowledge and lay a long while be twixt dead and alive In which time his boat carried by the waves out of sight of the desolate Island floated almost two dayes at the will of the the winde which having no lesse care of him then it would for a nest of Halcions brought them happily to an Isle where Polexander and Diceus recovered againe that life which they had more then halfe lost Truly that succour betided them whence with reason they could not expect any
begin her journey Some two hundred of the youngest amongst his Souldiers he selected and giving the charge of them to Bereamis who was very well armed mounted sent them before to accommodate the worst wayes take notice of the fittest places for lodging and serve for Avant-Courieers to the armie At breake of day Bereamis set on my Lord the Ynca commanded me to march five or six houres after and himselfe followed me far enough off to accompanie the Princesse Mexiqua which he caus'd to be carried in covered chaires The first dayes journey was not long Zelmatida was contented he was entred the mountaines and made seen when it came to bed-time how ingenious lovers are when there is question of accommodating their Mistresses He had privately made many little cabbins of wood which with a great deale of facilitie being to be set up and taken downe might be as easily carried That which was appointed for Izatida was pight in a place as pleasant as the sharpnesse of the mountaines would permit it the out-side was weather-proof against the most boisterous temper of that climate and within so rich and well furnished that the chamber wherein Bajazet and Zelmatida first saw one another was but a foile to it We march'd neere ten dayes along fearfull precipices though we had to go not above twelve or fifteene of your leagues At last we came out of those frightfull solitudes and descride at foot of the mountaines two armies which joyning at the very time we were in sight of them made us conjecture they had expected us to have some judge or witnesse of their combate Zelmatida after he had caus'd the Princesses chamber to be set up left me with a thousand men for her guard and told me at his departure that his good or ill fortune depended not on what he was going about but in that treasure which he intrusted to my courage and affection Your enemies I repli'd will not be so hardy to set on us in places so advantageous on our side but if by chance they undertake it assure your self we will perish all one after another ere they come any thing neere the Princesse Zelmatida thereupon mounted on that brave courser Alzan which you gave him in the Isle of Teneriffe and all cover'd with his guilt armour descended with his troupes from the top of the mountaine into those large plaines which the combatants had chosen where to fight their battle There was at his coming such a generall affright to see him in that equipage that he was taken for some strange monster by both the armies but his servants making the name of Zelmatida to resound againe through all the vale so inspir'd with courage Quasmes troupes and so absolutely quail'd it in Hismelita's that the one halfe of them fled and the other let themselves passe the edge of the sword rather then to abandon and leave their Queen to the mercy of her enemies Our souldiers at last inclos'd her and more then a thousand arrowes aim'd at her were about to avenge as many innocents which she had oppressed and to punish her for no fewer crimes When Zelmatida staid that cruell execution he tooke off his helmet and addressing himselfe to the chiefe officers of Quasmes armie My friends said he be not carried away by your first thoughts nor blemish the glory you have lately acquir'd by the death of a woman and a woman that begs her life of you This remonstrance wrought somewhat but not enough to stop the generall furie and hatred the Ynca my master tooke notice of it and presently thought that to save Hismelita there was no way but to make a shew of ill-treating her Hereupon he caus'd her to be taken by Bereamis and command him aloud to guard her so well that she might not escape that punishment which her wickednesse had deserved In the meane time the battle being fully gotten and of so many thousand Mexicans not one appearing who was not either dead or a prisoner Zelmatida thought on Quasmes and ask'd for him of some Caciques his tributaries who told him that having been for six moneths together in the armie in such incommodities as his age could not indure he was falne ficke and inforc'd to be carried to a palace some two leagues from the camp Presently the Prince sent away the young Cacique Procoros to let him know of his victorie and returne himselfe in the meane while went to Izatida to be the messenger of his owne good fortune in few words he made knowne that dayes successe and when he related to her the lamentable condition of Hismelita he perceiv'd that sweet natur'd Princesse to shed teares and could not without griefe heare the miserie of her enemie Zelmatida seeing her resentment commanded me to take care of the unfortunate woman and to treat her according to the greatnesse of her condition I confesse that imployment had not beene very welcome but that the commands of my Lord the Ynca were alwayes deare unto me But I was quickly freed from that guard for the next day receiving order to conduct Hismelita to Quasmes castle when she was before the King she perceiv'd Zelmatida and Izatida whom he held by the hands at which sight breaking the silence she had hitherto kept Base cheaters cri'd she traitours who have abused me with your lying promises must I then before the end of my dayes feel greater miseries then those your impostures seem'd to threaten me withall You have resolv'd then that these two plagues so fatall to Mexico accomplish that cruell destinie for which you brought them into the world Could neither iron nor poison nor the furie of man nor of the elements deliver me from these subverters of mine Empire And is my fortune come to that point it ought that I must live a slave to those tyrants which have pluck'd me from my throne No no fierce and not to be reconciled enemies unpitifull gods you shall triumph no more o're Hismelita she defies all your unjust power she contemnes your thunder and knowing well that with the losse of life we lose the vaine terrour of your names she will not be so cowardly and base to preserve that which maintaine your tyrannie Quasmes affrighted at that monster's blasphemie lifted his eyes and hands to heaven to turne away the thunder that wicked woman had deserved Zelmatida approaching intreated her to disbeguile her minde of all such errours where into her false Prophets had plunged her and to beleeve that neither Quasmes nor the Princesse had any designe on her estates or her life Izatida added to those remonstrances her teares and supplications call'd Hismelita her Lady and mother and imbracing her besought her to be consolated and to live But that eternall Justice which abandons all obdurate offenders to furie and despaire would not have that Queenes impietie remaine unpunished in lieu of being mov'd with the goodnesse of our two lovers her rage increas'd by it she thrust Izatida with all her
all the miseries which had befaine her house she could better relate them then any else The Thombutians intreated her to feare nothing and to make knowne to them all things as they had passed they pressed up thicke together that they might lose nought of what she spoke and got her to stand on a seate which by chance was by her that shee might be heard the farther off and a generall silence being impos'd thus she began If I did not inforce my resentments and sacrific'd not my teares and lamentations to the publike felicity I â—…eare lest you would thinke mee unworthie the compassion my misfortune winnes from you What shall I doe O ye Thombutians Shall not a daughter be permitted to bewaile the death of her father But shall a person who is obliged to you for her life be permitted to lament the death of your tyrant No Philesia will not confound things so differing she if you please will yeeld what she owes to nature and yet not denie the debt is expected from her to her Countrey She will rejoyce with you for the extirpation of your enemies and bewaile to her selfe the miserable death of her father and the desolation of her family But why should I with these thoughts deferre the recitall of those disasters which have finished yours Hearken ye inhabitants of Thombut and judge if that man be not devoid of reason that wishes for a Crowne Ambition which hath alwayes handled the minde of the King my father farre more cruelly then he hath done you advised him to adjoyne to his owne territories those of the most part of his neighbours He began with that of Galatia and the facility of the conquest gave him a desire to undertake some that were farre more considerable to that end he rais'd a mighty armie and was ready to proclaime warre against the King of Gheneoa when this visible Deitie with that she pointed to Polexander came to succour the King of Galatia and by the recovery of his Realme confounded all my fathers pretentions His ambition seeing it selfe curb'd in the beginning of it's course put into his thought such fearfull wayes of avenging himselfe that the onely relating them would be able to make that monster seeme more horrible to you then I can describe it My father therefore knowing the weaknesse of the King of Galatia was willing to make use of it he propos'd a peace to him on such conditions which he thought surely the other would not refuse it was accepted and the Princes of Galatia delivered not for a hostage but for the victime of that accommodation When my father had that infortunate Princesse in his power and with her this invincible stranger shewing Polexander crueltie which alwayes accompanieth ambition counsell'd him to joyne the pleasure of his revenge to the firme establishment of his authoritie Though that Devill be mercilesse yet is it farre more ingenious in the execution of its furie it perswaded my father that he should not be sufficiently avenged if he satisfied himself onely with murthering them and that temptation prevailed Thereupon he resolv'd that the Princesse of Galatia should die but he would have her suffer such a death that might fully glut his furie That Princesse was no sooner in the chamber where she was to receive the Crowne of Thombut but she saw her brothers enter not sumptuous and brave as she had seene them a little before but as two miserable slaves dragg'd to their execution Your enemy commanded them to strangle their sister which bloudy charge disturb'd all sense and reason in them and their sister upbraided them for their senselesnesse shewing the stoutnesse of her heart laugh'd at her husbands threatnings and made him beleeve that she came to Thombut with no other intent then to murder him The credulous King flew on her with an intent to take away the weapon which she made shew to plucke from under her robe but finding none he grew the more inraged and with his owne hands cast a bow-string about the necke of that to be deplored Princesse Long might she if she had listed have defended her life but she conceiv'd that to give it freely was the last signe of a true courage The executioners of your enemies cruelties bound the two ends of the string to the armes of the two Princes and compell'd them with blowes to be themselves their sisters stranglers Imagine if it be possible what their griefes what their sorrowes and what their torments were during that of their sister truely they indured so much of all that the eldest expired in seeing his sister die and he whom you see here had not been alive if in the height of his anxietie a long swound had not made him void of all sensibilitie These dismall beginnings had a sequell worthy of them the cruell Nigeran whom you banished from Thombut for the enormitie of his offences forsooke the ordinary place of his retreate and under favour of the night slipt into the palace to execute that which he had often attempted At his first entrance he cut the throats of the guard as they lay buried in sleep and wine and followed with above a hundred more banished fellowes flung into the chamber where your enemy feasted with pleasure on the bloudy fruits of his impious and abhorred vengeance To him he threw an impoyson'd dart which too well guided for me most miserable and disinherited orphelin entred under my father's left breast and with that blow fell'd him halfe dead on the body of his unfortunate wife My sister seeing him wounded ran in that she might not forsake him in that extremity but presently being shot with three arrowes she had the happinesse of neither surviving her father nor her fortune All the souldiers in the chamber were put to the sword and justly rewarded for their too wicked obedience For my selfe I fled and strove to save me by the most unfrequented places of the palace but my flight was bootlesse for I was found out by Atalas the most execrable of all Nigeran's companions many strange injuries he did me and hurl'd me on the earth either certainely to have torne out my heart or to murther me by some most cruell and inhumane way But by chance finding under my hand an arrow which that monster had let fall I gave him with it a deep wound in the thigh assoone as he felt himselfe wounded he arose and tearing off part of my haire dragged me by the rest crosse the court of the palace I cannot tell you what he would have done with me but I can well say that my invincible Protector staid him and with one blow depriv'd him of the power of doing any more mischiefe These my friends are the last night's events they are so strange and so many that they would be incredible were they a little remote from us I desire you not to looke on me now as on her that was lately your Princesse the dead have made that condition too odious
relation to another time You tell me wonderfull newes repli'd Apheristidez so was that King called and 't is fit to follow your advice and stay till we come to the palace for the hearing a matter of so much importance In the meane while if it be possible let us get hither some of my servants to have the body of my sonne carried to Gheneoa to be interr'd in the sepulchre of his ancestors Presently Polexander commanded Diceus to goe into the champion and call in some of the Kings attendants and he himselfe hastning abroad too took such paines that he stai'd a Cavalier who was getting to the towne as fast as he could ride to him he related the accidents which had betided Apheristidez and his sonne and ingaged him to follow Backe he came to the King who dissolv'd into teares and spent these lameâ—…ts on the torne body of his sonne Have I said hee offered so many victimes for thy birth and made so many prayers for thy life that thou shouldest be the prey of an enraged beast Wert thou by thy glorious actions thus to deserve the favour of that Queene with whom my false Prophets have so long time flattered my hopes Who will acquit me of the Promise I made to thee faire Alcidiana and what other my selfe able to serve thee shall goe and take on those beloved chaines which fortune and mine age hinder me from wearing Here he stopped because in turning he perceiv'd Polexander behinde him But our Heroe who had heard the name of Alcidiana was not a little troubled he grew pale he trembled could not speake and stood as he had beene out of himselfe at last hee overcame his first motions and loath that Apheristidez should perceive his agitation intreated him to goe into his boat and take that conveniency of returning to Gheneoa Apheristidez accepted his offer and walking to the strand where the boat lay entered and commanded the Skipper to steere him straight into the channels of his palace Our Heroe who had his afflictions as well as that Prince seated him downe by him and musing on the name of Alcidiana which he had heard uttered by the King was so long ere he spake as his boat was almost descending neere a little Temple but halfe a mile from Gheneoa That object suddenly dashing on his eyes awakened his spirit that seemed asleep though he was in a most violent agitation He remembred Apheristidez and to excuse his so long forgetting him said that the miseries of his life were so great a burthen that when he thought never so little on them he was as it were cleane overwhelmed with their excesse Hardly said he can I make you conceive the greatnesse of my misfortune if the affliction you lately received had not taught you how sad and dolefull the losse is of what we love this being granted you will be pleased not to thinke it strange that I have submitted to so powerfull an enemie and being ingaged in so rude a combate I have fail'd in such things as reason and duty commanded me Apheristidez could not heare these excuses without teares and imbracing our Heroe with a great deale of tendernesse How unhappy am I said hee since I see that from the place whence I expected all my consolation issues the redoubling of my miseries and that he who hath pluckedme out of the mouth of the lion cannot deliver me from the tyrannie of sorrow Ah deare stranger perfect that for which you were sent wipe off my teares since it is particularly the office of the Ministers of my Deitie and by the continuation of your assistance confirme me in the opinion I have alwayes had that there are corporall Angels on earth as well as there are incorporeall in heaven Polexander admiring his wisdome and fairenesse of spirit spake many things to comfort him and falling on the affaires of Thombut related all the accidents which had preceded and followed the death of that tyrant Apheristidez in lieu of answering Polexander lifted his eyes towards the Sunne And thou hast said he reveal'd to me often times that an ill life could have no happy end After that exclamation he stucke meditating a while on the prodigies hee had heard and as he was about to continue his discourse he saw 't was time to land for his boat stopped at the entry into the palace It was not inriched with marble nor imbellished with that worke which the Grecians skill invented in former ages for the magnificence of their buildings All that it had of faire was it's being invironed with a channell through which ran a little arme of the river Niger The forme of it was square and resembled a cloyster it was built of chalke and covered with thatch Polexander entered with Apheristidez and thought not to finde it better furnished then that of the Galatian King But he was astonish'd when he had travers'd a great court full of Negro's who were handsomely clad in streaked cotton and when he came into a hall which was for Apheristidez guard it was hung with carnatian and greene goats skinnes on which there were small and curious flourishings of gold But this was nothing in respect of what hee saw in the next hall to it there was a tapestrie of cloth of gold and many large turky carpets which the merchants of Morocco of Sally of Argiers and Tripoly came to trafficke withall in those parts for other merchandises which were more necessary for them Thence hee entred into a chamber which might justly be called the golden chamber all the floare was covered with broad lingots of gold on which were no figures but rayes the walls were adorned with the same metall and gravings excepting in the principall face of the roome there stood a statue of massie gold seated in a throne which represented the Sunne under the countenance of a woman Assoone as Apheristidez entered here he began againe his sighes and lamentations and casting himselfe at the feete of the Idoll Almazetide is dead cri'd hee and when I shall have followed him thou shalt not have O divine Alcidiana any more of those disinteressed Adorers who consecrate themselves to thy service for the sole glory of thy name The words renewed and increased our Heroe's unrests and impatiencies yet durst he not shew them for feare left his curiosity might cause to vanish away that little hope which the name of Alcidiana had raised againe in his minde That day and many others he let passe without daring to aske Apheristidez who that Alcidiana was whom he put among the number of the Gods In the meane time his winning conversation his faire personage and the wonders of his valour acquir'd so absolute a command in the Kings thoughts that he forgot at least in appearance the losse of his sonne Now one day being close alone with him in the golden chamber some while he kept his eyes fixed on the statue of the feminine Sunne at last turning them away spoke thus to Polexander
heavenly life since you goe to your death with a firme belief that the same steele which deprives you of life puts you in possession of a better Presently even presently one of you shall receive that worthy guerdon of his faith and with the same eies wherewithall he sees the lively image of that Deitie which he confesseth by the voice of his blood he is most assured to see him himselfe in the mid'st of his glory The Chiefe-Prelate having thus finish'd his Exhortation foure Priests came out of a Chappel carrying on their shoulders a table cover'd with plates of gold and on it a large vessell of Crystall of the rock in which were the names of all the noble Slaves The expectation of all the Spectators was doubled at sight of that fatall Vessell and though among the Slaves there were some that could not chuse but look pale on it yet they all made shew as if they were alike prepared for death Polexander had not so much as the slightest apprehension whether because he thought that Death respecting him in the most dangers and shipwracks would not be so daring as to set upon him in the haven or whether he beleev'd his life not to be in the disposall of Chance but depended absolutely on that eternall Providence which assignes a beginning and end to all things His passion adding many other considerations to these perswaded him that in exposing himselfe to death so voluntary for Alcidiana he gave her such proofes of constancy and fidelity as farre excelled all those he had ever rendred her But when Reason got the upper hand and came to be heard she shew'd him all things on the right side they were to be look'd on and made him see how most vainly he precipitated himselfe to an infallible death since Alcidiana being not a God to know his intentions he might beleeve that when she came to heare of his death which may be might never happen she could call it no other then a mischance or a blow of Despaire This thought made him not repent of what he had done but bringing him to bewaile his Fate I must said he to himself faire Princesse confesse my death is lesse welcome to me then it should be if it were known to you Long long agoe I was resolv'd to die since your just anger thought it not fit that I should live and that Fortune deni'd me the happinesse of your sight But I could wish to die in some place where your faire eies might be the witnesses of my death that so nothing might hinder you from beleeving that I died for you onely When by some exceeding good hap it may so betide that the newes of my last houre shall come to your knowledge what can I promise my self by it if you be ignorant of the cause The remembrance of me will be no lesse odious to you then was my life and may be you will account the death I have suffer'd as a punishment for my disobedience in swerving from what she had commanded me I dare speak it Alcidiana and it is most true I have had sufficient tokens of the care heaven hath had to perswade me that my ill Face proceeds onely from your indignation and that I could well have o'repass'd my miseries if the sentence you have pronounc'd against me had not made them eternall Here he stop'd and thinking on what he had said condemn'd it as subverting that extreame generousnesse which had been alwaies annexed to his passion He even grew angry with his owne wisedome and beginning againe with much sorrow How cowardly and perfidious am I said he to have more consideration of my self then of that incomparable beauty for whom I suffer In lieu of giving thanks for the miseries she would have me undergoe and run to my death since I can give her no other testimony of my humblest servitude I would articulate with her finde waies of moderating her sentence not performe her commands but conditionally chuse mine owne punishment and in short not present my selfe to the Martyrdome till I were assured of the Crowne Farre farre from me be this selfe-love I here faire Alcidiana quit it for ever I desire death since you command it I neither look for comfort nor recompence but goe instantly to present me to the steele that must end me with as much content as if it were in your owne hands Polexander transported with these imaginations went out of his station and had he not been with-held by Diceus as the day before he had given the whole Assembly cause to think strangely of that unexpected passion In the meane time the Chief Priest commanded those that carried the Lot vessell to approach and holding his hand over it Thou light said he which the Sun cannot obscure Intelligence which govern'st all others guide my hand and give thy selfe that victime which is most pleasing to thee By our last sacrifice we have confess'd thee to be the Author of our lives by this which we are now making ready for thee we intend to acknowledge thee to be the Author of death and as by the one we confesse thee All-good by the other we avow thee All-powerfull With that he put his hand into the Vessell and drew thence a ball of Ebony Presently he read the name of him that was to die and all the Priests together instantly began to cry out thrice Be favourable to thy sacrifice O milde Deity which takest not away the lives of thy Creatures but to render it more perfect and happy That done foure other Priests presented themselves at the foot of the throne carried a Vessell of gold made like one of the ancient Urnes The Chief-Prelate threw the ball into it which hee held and presently the Master of the Ceremonies caus'd all the Assistants to march The slaves by two and two went before the Priests and the Soveraigne Prelate seated in a chaire which was borne on the shoulders of eight Slaves held still his hand on the mouth of the Vessell wherein was the ball of death They went all into the Temple without making there any offering or prayers and came out of it by a gate open'd to the West That gate led to the long walk of Cedars of which I have spoken and beyond that to a rock which advanc'd it selfe farre into the sea There was discover'd a dismall Preparation On the left hand was seen an Altar built of marble as red as blood and on the right a funerall pile at whose soure corners eight little children held divers silver fire-pans full of burning coales The Pilgrims incompass'd the place The Clergy and the Embassadours of Gheneoa were rank'd before them The Priests joyn'd with them and made a second circle The Noble Slaves made a third and the Chief-Prelate staying in the midst of all with those which carried the Vessell of Death at last took it with his Assistants and put it on the Red Altar These Ceremonies were perform'd with a very deep silence
not onely strengthned mee in strengthning it selfe but serv'd for a speciall remedie to all my languishments The Court seeing me suddenly got from death to life knew not to what to attribute either the cause of my sicknesse or that of my health Even Amintha was deceiv'd in it and admiring so sudden a recovery perswaded her selfe that my maladie was no other then the melancholy vapours of the spleen A little while after my full amendment Arziland King of the Isle of Madera being by a tempest cast on our coast came to the Court and having seen the Queen began to be so foolishly amorous that he threatned to put all her Island to fire and sword if she declared not her acceptance of his love I thought then that I could not better imploy my life then in freeing the Queen from that Monster and that the service I might render her in that occasion would be of a greater importance then the former I had done her in the attempt of Siziphus I sent therefore to defie the Giant but thinking for certaine that I should be flaine in the combate I resolv'd to provide my selfe a faire funerall and to make knowne at least in dying the love I had conceal'd all my life time I put on a gilded armour which by the rayes upon it did not ill represent the Sun My Helmet cast forth beames too and I had for my crest the Phenix which Alcidiana took for the bodie of her Embleme Upon my buckler which was as shining as mine armour I had caus'd an Eagle to be painted in the region where the thunder is ingendred Yet in spight of all lightning and thunder claps hee flew thorow it and fixedly gaz'd on the Sun For the word to this Device there was this which spake my thoughts plaine enough I HOPE TOO MUCH TO FEARE Cover'd with these armes I went and met with Arziland and was so fortunate that after a combate of eight or ten houres I cut off the Giants right hand When he saw himselfe without armes and unable for defence hee confess'd hee was overcome and loathing to survive his shame would have kill'd himselfe But Alcidiana who preserv'd him to serve for a redoubtable example to all such rash ones as hee caus'd him to be put in strong hold and commanded that speciall care should be had of his life In the meane time I who had received divers great wounds fell as I had been dead in the place of combate and if the Queen had not shew'd that my life was so extremely deare unto her without doubt the day of my victorie had been the day of my death My wounds were so great that I kept my bed almost six moneths and was foure or five more ere I went out of my chamber Alcidiana the third time took the paines to come and visit me and gave me such signes of favour that my love in its greatest extravagancies could never promise to it selfe Arziland the while being gotten into case sufficient to be able to suffer the punishment whereto the Queens justice had condemn'd him was taken out of prison and lead to the place where he was to lose his life Though in the Inaccessible Island wee adore but one God yet there are Temples in severall places which from all antiquitie are dedicated to particular Deities In one there is worshipped a God which they term the God of Revenge The Annalls of our Kingdome tell us that that Temple was built by a Queen who having been long time earnestly sued to by a man unworthy her bed and after the receiving a great many wrongs and outrages from him at last took him in a day of battell When the barbarous man saw himselfe in the power of a personage whom he had so ill treated he never crav'd her pardon but besought her that she would not delay too long the time of his punishment That Princesse hearing from her Priests that their God had reserv'd vengeance to himselfe built to him a Temple during the imprisonment of her enemy under the name of the God of Revenge and causing the prisoner to be brought thither commanded he should be sacrific'd on the altar of that Deitie as a victime which was reserv'd for him Arziland who had committed the same fault receiv'd the same punishment For Alcidiana thought she could not doe better then to imitate the example of her Ancestor And to give the more terrour to such Princes as loved her she sent to proclaime in a thousand places a Declaration by which shee held for irreconcilable enemies all those that had the boldnesse to take on them the name of her lovers After Arziland had receiv'd his punishment and a Herald of the Queens sent into Europe she betook her selfe to her former manner of living and shutting her selfe up in her palace there relish'd againe her wonted innocent contentments I the while who knew very well the offence I had commiâ—…ted in discovering my love was tortured with a perpetuall remorse and not possibly imagining that after so visible signes of my passion Alcidiana should be still ignorant of it I drew out my malady to a longer date and could not put on any resolution to suffer my selfe to be cured But the tokens of goodnesse which I almost daily receiv'd from that Princesse the titles of honour which she added to those I had already and the excessive presents she sent not onely to my mother but to all those of my bloud made me beleeve at first that she understood nought of my designe but since that my vanitie and good fortune so dazled mee that I perswaded my selfe Alcidiana knew of my love and that shee was glad to see the continuance of it On this opinion which hath been the cause of all my miseries I hastened my cure and repair'd againe to the Palace with all diligence The Queen her selfe welcom'd me with such extraordinary demonstrations of favour that I grew confirm'd in that foolish beliefe which my vanitie had wrought in me So my last errours waxing worse then my first and particularly that of not being hated by the Queen working in me such thoughts as you may imagine I grew so insolent that there scarce pass'd an houre in the day wherein I did not violate some one of the lawes of the private Court and gloried in the neglect of that respect which I owed to the most generous Mistresse in the world I came into her privie chamber before shee was clad There I was when they dress'd her head and oftentimes taking out of her womens hands such things as shee used for that attire I was so indiscreet as to offer to doe their office The Queen wink'd at all these impertinencies and when I told some tales which truly were faulty enough to have made me been banish'd for ever from her presence she drown'd all in the greatnesse of my service and that shee might not be ingaged to reprove mee feign'd shee heard nothing Sometime her Lady of Honour
the fire and told him who presented it to her that she demanded obedience and not replies When I heard how cruelly I had been treated Ah! pitilesse Queen said I thou hast then rais'd mee to this height onely that I might receive a fall which should be infallibly mortall I am content to perish since thou wilt have it so but if thou be not altogether without judgement thou wilt at least confesse that I receiv'd my death from her hand whose life I preserved My griefe stai'd not on the vanitie of lamentations but proceeded to actions and blotting out of my mind all other thought then that of dying won me to send back to the Queen all her ceremonious markes of dignitie Presently I gave over all mine Office and shutting my selfe up in an Hermits lodge there abode twelve or fifteen dayes not suffering any of my friends to come neere mee nor enduring the presence of any of my houshold-servants I wept I complain'd I ask'd vengeance from Heaven for Alcidiana's ingratitude whereas indeed I should have begg'd her pardon for my disobedience and when I thought that my messengers were got to the Princesse I took poste and came to Court I truly doubted that if the Queen had notice of my coming I should not onely be barr'd from her presence but ran a hazzard to lose the hope of ever seeing her more To avoid that diaster I abode conceal'd till day in the place where shee was wont to give audience to people of all sorts As soon as I was certaine of her being in the throne of Justice and that she dream't not at all of my coming I slid closely into the Hall of audience O deare companion in my bonds what Miracle what Sun what Divinitie saw I in seeing Alcidiana When shee was seated in her Throne and her Ushers had impos'd silence I strook through the throng of those that came to implore justice and throwing my selfe at her feet presently discover'd who I was yet feigning to take no notice of the peoples astonishment occasion'd by their seeing me there and principally the Princesses I come said I Madam to put mee into the hands of your justice as a malefactour who being able to save himselfe and yet not of proofe to indure the cruell stings of conscience comes out of deserts and retreats of securitie to deliver himselfe into the hands of his Judges 'T is true Madam 't is to be punish'd and not to request a pardon that I throw my selfe at your Majesties feet I doe not intreat you to remember my services nor to cast your eyes on a wretch who is more rigorously punish'd then his faults seem to deserve I confesse I have disobey'd your commands abused those honours you bestow'd on mee and to speake them all in full and to the height I have oppress'd the innocent whom I was bound to protect and make happy Avenge then your neglected authoritie degrade me from those honours I am unworthy of and hearken to the voice of your people which cries for vengeance on my tyrannie The greatest of my sorrowes next to the losse of your favours is that I have but one poore miserable life to expiate so many offences and give satisfaction to the number I have oppressed Here I stai'd and with mine eyes cast to the earth attended what Alcidiana would pronounce against me But in lieu of answering me she turn'd to her high Chamberlaine and making no shew of being any way moved I deliver said she this mad man into your custodie take him hence and see him forth coming on your life The Chamberlaine who was my friend took me to his owne house and though hee made shew of a great deale of sorrow for my dis-favour yet he fail'd not to have such on eye over mee that was impossible for me to have escaped if I had had any such intention The third night after my confinement I was privately brought to the Queens Palace by the Chamberlain At the doore Amintha receiv'd me and intreating my conductor to stay brought mee into a chamber where Alcidiana was Assoon as I saw her I fell at her feet and perceiving I was ready to swoune Madam said I let mee dye quickly and suffer mee not to languish any longer With that I fell downe not knowing any bodie for neere a quarter of an houre When Amintha recovering mee I rose againe on my knees before the Queen and letting her know that what I requested came from mine heart I beseech you Madam said I then weeping to be no more cruell to me then you are to the rest of your subjects and suffer your selfe to be mov'd at mine indurements These words forcing from her soule all the indignation my extravagancies had be got there she for a while held her eyes fix'd on me and after a long thoughtfulnesse Wretch said she with what torture should not I punish thy disobedience But I must not doe so I understand by thy speeches thou offendest not willingly but that before thou wert resolv'd to cast off the respect thou owedst me thou hadst lost thy judgement Speak unfortunate man what is become of that discretion which went for a Proverb amongst the people and made the most judicious to say that at last wisdome and youth were met together Doest thou not see to what precipices thou daily run'st of thine owne contriving Art thou not afraid lest my patience grow wearie and that my pitie being exhausted I should to that justice which I owe to my selfe as well as to my subjects But this is what is wished thou say'st and truly I perceive well by thy actions that thou art fall'n into such a frenzie as makes thee delight in what is most dreadfull The love I owe to her that gave thee birth and the services thou hast done me preserve a sufficient will to dispose me to the forgetting thy crimes and to take pitie on thy folly Yes Pisander I will be so mercifull and would have thee know that I would willingly give a part of my Kingdome if by that losse I could settle thee againe in the estate I wish thee Whilst the Queen spake mine eyes were not drie I strove to stay my teares but 't was in vaine There was no remedie but they must flow forth and in spight of my desire to answer the Queen I must abide a while silent When my sighes and suffocatings as well as my teares gave mee leave to answer the Queen Madam said I mine indiscretion is so great that hitherto it hath not given in any intervall But your Majesties wisdome hath suspended that tyrannicall power and gives mee the use of reason Be pleas'd Madam that I imploy well these good motions and in expression of my gratitude that I confesse I am amaz'd at the new proofes of your clemencie Truly Madam when I consider the height of my guilt I cannot give credit to mine eares nor be perswaded there can be found on the face of the whole earth a
of that reward and make you confesse that Love and Honour are certainly two of those Inchanters which promise pearles and diamonds but give us onely a few oaken leaves and acornes My sonne repli'd the Hermit Ignorance is alwaies unjust but it is not alwaies criminall and is not so principally when it is accompanied with a deale of affection Yours is of that nature and therefore I condemne it not But know that the man whom you bewaile is not in case to deserve it Neither Love nor Death shall ever rob him of the felicities are due to him I dare say he enjoyes them already and though his troubles have been great his recompence shall be farre more But let us break off this discourse since I have not so long time to live that I should bestow any part of it on any other save my selfe In this sort having ended our conversation the holy man intreated me to goe and finish the grave he had begun and leave him a while alone to prepare himselfe seriously for the great voyage he was to make I obay'd him and was above an houre in digging That done I ascended againe up to the Cave and found the good Hermit laid on his bed of mosse I came neere to give him an accompt of my labour but he was not in case to receive it He lifted his eyes and hands towards heaven and seem'd to be so transported thither already that he remembred no more any thing that was earthly I took him by the hand all amaz'd to see him in that estate and demanded what he ailed and what I might doe to comfort him But he answer'd not I then thought him to be extremely sick and to get him out of his swoune began to stirre him By little and little his judgement return'd and presently knowing mee Oh! my son said he out of what a trouble have you brought me I saw the habitation of the Blessed all open My soule ravish'd to quit this clog of earth which hinders her flying thither did her utmost endeavour to be absolutely disburthened of it But as she complain'd for seeing all her industry bootlesse a voice call'd mee by my name Beware said it that thou break not those ligaments which hold thy bodie bound to thy soule Thou wantest one thing without which it is forbidden thee to enter into this place of all delights The voice flying into aire I call'd a long time to intreat it to instruct me what it was I wanted for my felicity But I re-claim'd in vaine It would not deliver me out of the torment whereinto it had throwne me and I was in such anguish of mind as is not to be imagined when your calling brought mee out of so strange a dreame or rather so wonderfull a transportation of the spirit No sooner had the holy man recounted to mee his vision but I imagined that heaven desirous to bestow on him that reward it hath promised to all good men had wrought a miracle in the moment of his departure that so by the knowledge of that verity which had never been spoken to him he might attaine the beatitude propos'd for the salary of its beliefe Hereupon I told him it was reveal'd me from heaven what was wanting for his gaining that true happinesse and afterwards as fully as I could in so short a time made knowne the mysteries and fundamentalls of what we beleeve After which that learned man who all his life time had made profession of the most solid and rationall parts of Philosophy witnessed so great a submission and gave so great a credence to such mysteries as being infinitely elevated above all reason must needs justle with his and cleane overcoming it hee demanded to be perfected by lavation which I performed and had no sooner done but he with an hearty ejaculation and instant prayer sunk downe by mee and testifi'd that the death of a good man is a true peace and a pleasing sleep I confesse I wept at so great a losse and you were not the onely man whom I was bound to bewaile I watch'd him till next day and as soon as the Sun arose carried him to the place chosen by himselfe for his interment His funerals ended I resolv'd to take possession of his Hermitage for the remainder of my life But knowing not where to draw the water or get the dates whereon hee liv'd I determin'd to dye with that absolute resignation and religious constancy which the holy man had taught me Yet was I not reduc'd to that extremity for eight dayes after the Hermits death I saw a little Barque arrive at my rock guided by two Negro's They descri'd me on the top of the rock and the distance hindring them from any certaine knowledge they surely took mee for my predecessour By their shouts they made shew of their joy and brought on shore eight or ten barrells of fresh water and some six little chests of dates As soon as those things were unshipp'd the Black-Moores cri'd out againe as 't were to take their leaves and so return'd without any curiositie of visiting me After I had long meditated on somewhat that was not very likely I imagin'd that the late Hermit being not desirous to be seen by any man had given order to such as were to furnish him with his ordinary pittance to land what they brought at the foot of the rock and so to returne without troubling him in his solitude How ere it was I remain'd there three moneths living according to the incouragement which the life and death of the holy Hermit gave me and receiv'd such things as were necessary for me from the hands of the same Negro's And I grew then so well accustom'd to that manner of life that the most pleasing things of the world pass'd not through my memory but as objects of commiseration and contempt and I thought on nothing but how to dye well when a great ship whose sailes were of purple and gold shew'd her selfe one morning some miles off my rock I confesse to you that object did not almost a jot move mee and I wished often that they who were in that proud Vessell fearing to fall on my rock would turne their sailes another way But I had not my desire satisfied On the contrary the tall ship came with full sailes within a mile of my rock and casting anchor there for feare of the shelves and the crags I perceiv'd five or six men which descended into a great boat and then with an extreme swiftnesse came right to the rock There they landed and presently came up to my Cave My haire was so exceedingly growne since my living there that I had not much lesse then I have now and besides being growne gray as you know it did begin to be so from mine age of five and twenty I seem'd to be above threescore and ten though I was not five and forty Those men certainly taking me for my Predecessour cast themselves at my feet imbrac'd my knees
the respect which Ambition and Impiety would have robb'd them of Let us on then said I my brethren and friends and forgetting all of us our owne interests labour for the glory of our great Master That very day I took leave of mine Hermitage and the blessed Ghost of the holy Hermit and imbarquing my selfe in the Vessell of the Sun happily arriv'd in this Island Here was I receiv'd by all the Clergy as some great Saint and install'd with a great deale of ceremony in the dignity of Soveraigne Sacrificator Since I exercis'd this charge I have seen the catalogue of all the Princes and Nations which have used to visit the Temple of the Sun and noting that the Princes of the Inaccessible Island came hither to celebrate the sacrifice of Alliance whereof we have spoken I not onely more lamented then ever your losse but I let my selfe fall into mutterings and speeches injurious to that Providence But it hath out of pitie and infinite wisdome subverted them and rendring me that blisse which I thought utterly lost ingaged me to convert my griefes and lamentations into thanksgivings Alter Alcippus had thus ended his discourse he humbly besought his Master to let him know how he fell into the hands of the King of Gheneoa Diceus said Polexander will at leasure informe you of all that The businesse is now to take order how I must hereafter demeane my selfe in this Island Alcippus having confirm'd him in all that Pisander had related touching the arrivall of Alcidiana's ship and made known the facility of sending to that Princesse for his being inroll'd in the number of her Slaves intreated he would not discover himselfe to any but expect with patience the houre of his good fortune Polexander approving Alcippus advice retir'd to his chamber as privately as he came thence When he was laid instead of sleeping he began to muse on the contentment he was to receive at his up-rising But as if his memorie had been jealous of his satisfaction though it was but imaginary it represented to him Alcidiana's anger farre greater and more mortall then it was and bringing him to meditate on that bloudy Declaration she had publish'd against his life made him conceive that he could not without disobeying her dare to set foot on the Inaccessible Island With that thought crying out as if hee had indeed committed some execrable crime Let me perish said hee since Alcidiana commands it nor let me by any subterfuge dispense with the necessitie of dying since the Lawes of this Temple ingage mee to it Throw in againe Alcippus throw in againe the ball to the vessell of death and doe not betray thy conscience for the sparing of a life which I cannot lose too soone since Alcidiana will not have it last any longer But may be thou wilt say You but little know that Princesses intention Those things which she hath made publick are different from those she retaines in private Her thoughts are not altogether answerable to her words You must interpret Alcidiana by Alcidiana and beleeve that she hath not pronounc'd the sentence of death against you for any other end then that she might have cause to make you sensible of her pitie Amintha and Pallante have said that you cannot doubt of Alcidiana's goodnesse without obliging her to doubt of your fidelity 'T is true Alcippus I have infallible testimonies of that Princesses favour If her Edicts affright me her thoughts re-assure me if I see my death in the one I meet my life in the other Let us therefore cast off all kind of settled will and resting in a generall indifferencie as to our selves goe and heare from the mouth of our Judge whether we must live or die With this resolution Polexander fell asleep and it caus'd it so soundly that the Sun was got far above the Hemisphere before he awak'd Diceus who durst not make any noise was as long in bed too But assoon as hee heard his Master stirre he arose and came and drew his curtaine Friend said the Prince wee doe ill observe the diligence prescrib'd us If our superiours come to know what we are doing and find us yet in bed I doubt we shall receive sharp reprehensions from them Your Majesty may give them leave to talk repli'd Diceus and laugh at the severity of a government under which you are so little while to live Thou sayest true said Polexander smiling Therefore help me up and expose me not to a displeasure which I may avoid Hee was no sooner clad but the usuall cry obliged him to goe to the common Hall There he found the King of Gheneoa's Embassadors which came to take their leave and to aske him in the name of their Master whether hee were fully resolv'd to persevere in the service of the Sunne and Alcidiana After Polexander had imbrac'd them all one after another Relate said he to the King your Master that I am more obliged to him then he can imagine and ere it be long I will send to give him thanks proportionable to the favours I have received The Embassadors tooke their leaves with teares in their eyes and went presently to imbark themselves with all the Pilgrims Assoon as the guards of the Isle saw they were out of sight the chiefe Priest with his Clergie and all the Slaves went to the Temple to make their accustomed prayers for the good successe of the Pilgrims voyage That day Alcippus had a long discourse with Polexander and ingaged Diceus to related to him in particular the adventures which had betided their Master since hee was left for dead in the Island of Astramadan Diceus forgot nothing in his relation but gave Alcippus so many new causes of astonishment that he could not chuse but cry out O great Prince by whose valour we see renewed againe the true age of the ancient Hero's what thanks and Altars doest thou owe to the Power that hath rais'd thee so high above all other Princes For a whole moneth intire Polexander Alcippus and Diceus did nothing every night but entertaine themselves with their adventures and prepare for the happy day whereon Alcidiana's ship was to be descri'd on the coasts of the Island of the Sun The very day they expected her there was a great Vessell by them discover'd which came steering the course from Alcidiana's Island The guards gave notice of it to the chiefe Priest and after the wonted ceremonies done they caus'd the ship to enter the Port. Those who were within her confusedly got to shore and thereby made the guard suspect somewhat Yet their habit of Pilgrims re-assuring them they brought them to the entry to the Temple But by chance one of the Priests being there and judging by their wilde and curst looks that they hid some wicked designe under their devout habit had the curiositie to come neerer and view them better But his prying cost him his life for those disguis'd theeves perceiving they were discover'd inhumanely murdered the
Priest and presently casting off their robes shew'd their armour They were at least two hundred desperate fellowes that resolv'd to dye or to rob the Temple of its treasure They fell furiously on the guard that would have stopp'd them and left not one alive The lesser Slaves of the Temple running to their succour fought a long while but seeing themselves forc'd to give back retir'd under the Portico of the Temple with a resolution to dye ere they would forsake it The fight was bloudy and furious About an hundred of the theeves were slain in that skirmish but above three hundred Slaves bore them company and the rest dis-heartened abandon'd the protection of the holy places and sacred treasure to the ravaging and pillage of those bloudy minded villaines Presently then the Arch-priest caus'd the illustriouâ—… Slaves of the Sun to arme themselves and desirous to make knowne Polexander's valour commanded him aloud to goe and expose his life for the defence of their Altars Our Heroe seeing himselfe remitted to his former true profession went out of the Temple and falling in among the theeves made them feele the power of his arme As many blowes as he strook so many men laid he dead at his feet The most obstinate to fight recoil'd before him and finding themselves brought to stand on their defence lost all the great hopes they had long conceived The Prince seeing them stagger pierc'd in among the troop and so drove them furiously to the Sea side Some were drown'd others flying into their ship were there burnt by the wilde-fire was throwne into her This tumult being ended the High-priest and his Clergie searched among the dead bodies to know whom they had lost They found about five hundred and amongst them twenty of the noble Slaves who following Polexander had a great share in the glory of that day The generous Pisander who fought still at our Heroe's side was slaine by the Captaine of the theeves and by so glorious a death sacrific'd his life to his Goddesse as well as to his Deitie I would say to the Queen Alcidiana as well as to the Sun Polexander much bewail'd the losse of so brave a man and publickly testifi'd that the Island was depriv'd of her principall defender But all those who had either fought by our Heroe or been lookers on cri'd out that to him alone belong'd that title and that his invincible courage had solely preserv'd the Temple the Priests and the treasure of the Sun Alcippus himselfe went and pluck'd a branch of Palme-tree and making a crowne of it plac'd it on Polexanders head He call'd him the second Tutelar God of the Island the Victorious the Invincible the Protector of their Altars and bringing him into the Temple as it were in triumph there with all his Clergie rendred thanks to the Sunne and hung over the Altar high our Heroe's bloudy sword The end of the fourth Book of the last part of Polexander THE LAST PART OF POLEXANDER The last Booke ALcippus who was not lesse sensible and generous then hee was obliged to be to the King his Master had no greater desire then to be able to contribute any thing to the honour of his Prince Seeing therefore so faire an occasion offer'd him by his incomparable valour hee made an Oration to his Clergie and so elevated what Polexander had done for the common good that they were like to have taken him for that God himselfe whose Slave he was He afterwards told them that the Eternall Providence had lead them to the brink of the precipice to advertise them that they were not to sleep in their sound securitie nor trust so much to supernaturall aide as to neglect humane protection 'T is for us my brothers said he to make good use of the advertisement hath been given us and to serve our selves of that succour which heaven hath afforded us in the very instant that our danger betided The sacred Temple had bin prophaned the Altars had lost their veneration the treasure had become the prey of sacrilegious theeves our holy Character had been violated in a word the aboad of a Deity was like to be turn'd into a retraict for theeves if the invincible Araxez Polexander had taken that name in Gheneoa whom the favour of heaven hath miraculously sent us had not imploy'd his victorious arme for the preservation of our Altars our Treasure Character Let us bind him to our defence by some title that may be honorable unto him and by a kind necessity force him to continue to us that which he hath begun out of his own generous inclination Thus ended Alcippus his proposition and all his Clergy finding it not only equitable but advantageous intreated him to instruct them by what meanes they might bring what he propos'd to a good issue The Chief-Priest after he had excus'd himself withall necessary modesty to make him the more considerable and perceiving that his excuses did but increase the desires of the Assembly My opinion is said he that wee should free from the Chaines and the Lot the victorious Araxez and infranchising him in the name of our Deity from the Servitude wherein he was ingaged to declare him Protector of the Island and Prince of the Clergie Atthis proposition all the Priests clapped their hands in token of their consent and gladnesse and unwilling the businesse should be defer'd to another time they arose to fetch Polexander Assoon as they had brought him into the Hall of Assemblies they caus'd him to sit down in a chaire which was a little below the throne of the Arch-Prelate and Alcippus began again and renewed their thanks and then told him in his usuall eloquence that his brethren and himself were not those alone that were bound to him for their safety This Temple said hee seemes to shake on its foundation to testifie the resentment of what you have done for its preservation our Altars share in that obligation and if your piety could permit it I would say that even the Deitie wee adore thinks he owes to your valour the Soveraignty of this Island and the possession of his treasure In recompence of an action where the interests of heaven are commixt with those of earth this Assembly which cannot erre frees you from the chaines you wore and for an eternall remembrance orders them to be hung by the sword wherewith you delivered us from the fetters of a prophane Slavery With that he took the chaines from Polexander and two of the ordinary Slaves of the Temple by command caâ—…ried them to be hung by the sword This Ceremony ended Alcippus taking Polexander by the hand told him he was free and that his virtue had made him Prince of that sacred and soveraign company Polexander refusing so glorious a title There would not only said he be a great deale of pride but even very impiety should I accept of a title which brings along with it the power of disposing of things sacred and to rule
wonder of this age had not been long in our Court but by his admirable indowments he grew so extreamly recommendable that he became the love and admiration of all Alcidiana confesseth to you that that Heroës virtue join'd to the service he had done her against her rebellious subjects insensibly wonne her to wish him well She did that at the beginning by way of acknowledgment which she did afterwards for her owne satisfaction In a word she lov'd him but perceiving her love began to goe beyond the limits she had prescrib'd it and what she indevour'd to conceale would in spight of her divulge it selfe sometimes by her disturbances otherwhiles by her deep musing then again by complaysancies which she deem'd unworthy her virtue and in briefe by the alteration of her complection she resolv'd to indure it no longer To make it sure she thought the best way was to get Polexander away While she was contriving it an occasion was offered in the stealing away of Amintha by a Spanish Pirate So soon as the newes came to Polexander he got to sea made after Amintha's ravisher Many dayes he pursued him and as many nights but in vain for a tempest drove him one way the pirate another In the mean while the love that Prince bore to the Queen my Mistris scarce permitting him to live out of her fight he left poor Amintha to the mercy of the ravisher and preferring slavery before all the Empire which his vertue had given he thought on nothing but of entring into Alcidiana's chaines A thousand times he strove to get to the Inaccessible Island as often the quality of that Isle beguild his hopes made him run almost through all the Ocean and yet found it not again After he had spent neare two years in such bootless voyages and undergone all the incommodities which accompany long navigations he arriv'd at the Isle of two Tyrants There he slew Amintha's ravisher and set that Lady again at liberty but his generousnesse ingaging him to avenge the Queen Tysiphone for the outrages she had receiv'd from the gyant Astramadan he was murdered by that tyrants subjects and Amintha after she had long time bewail'd the death of that famous Prince was forc'd to get to sea to avoid the violence of those of that Isle Almost assoon as she was under saile a tempest arose and by a strange accident being separated from the faithfull and generous Alcippus Polexanders favorite she was at last fortunatly cast on the coasts of the Inaccessible Island where being known of all she was brought to the Court and welcom'd by Alcidiana with so much joy as if after the lamenting her for dead she had been newly rais'd to life againe But the Queenes contentment was disturb'd by that which Amintha related touching the death of Polexander And since that time our Princesse hath not given over the afflicting her selfe with continuall plaints and lamentations Her conscience or rather her affection continually upbraides her for the death of the Canaryes King and makes her believe that she is truly guilty of it Every night his Ghost all goary either appeares or seems to appeare to her and displaying his wounds See saith he to her to what a case the desire of seeing and serving you hath brought mee But how deare is my misfortune to me since you pity it with what pleasure doe I spend my bloud since it drawes teares from you and how beneficiall is my death to me since it hath acquir'd me a place in your memory I should never have done if I would relate what Polexanders ghost spoke mightily to Alcidiana However my Lord these visions wrought an alteration in her health troubled her repose and brought her to such extremities that if they leave her not I shall soon see my Country full of afflictio such calamities as must follow the death of Alcidiana Loe here my Lord all that which my Mistris commanded me to communicate unto you and since she can expect from nâ—…e other then heaven the tranquillity she hath lost she beseecheth you to offer sacrifice for the expiation of her offence if shee be guilty of Polexanders death Yet what e're betide she beseecheth you to remember him in your devotions and to beg from heaven for a cessation of these visions which persecute her and since she shew'd not her selfe insensible of Polexanders love but that shee might not be so in the respect of her honour that it would not permit her innocency to be look'd on as a crime After Lynceus had spoke Alcippus reply'd thus The Deity whom we adore is too cleer-sighted to find any blots in so pure a life as that of Alcidiana Assure her from him that shee is not guilty of Polexanders death and that her disquiets proceed from some other sourse then that pricking remorse wherwithall the Eternall Justice begins to inflict vengeance in this life on offenders 'T is her love Lynceus that brings on these dreames and is the cause of all the agitations which molest her I advise her to quiet her minde Yet I forbid her not to love the memory of Polexander since 't is all she can love of him now But I would have her love to be peacefull and quiet and if it be true that my minde is somtime inlightned by the beames which come from above I assure her that heaven in retribution of her virtues preserves for her such contentments as it communicates not to many Princes Lynceus fully satisfi'd with this answer took leave of the Arch-priest and so well imprinted in his memory all that was said to him that he truely related it to the Queen his Mistris Alcippus on the other side perceiving it lay in his power to render our Heroe perfectly happy was almost ready to disclose to him what he had newly discovered but being retain'd by the sanctity of his oath and the Majesty he had call'd to witnesse He thought in becoming perjur'd he should in lieu of advancing Polexanders happinesse infallibly ruine it by his execrable untruth He therefore protested again to discover to him nothing of Alcidiana's secret and went to bed so well pleas'd with his vow that from that very night he tasted such contentments as ever since made him tread under foot all those that are earthly The next morning he went to the Temple and consecrating himselfe wholly to heaven promis'd solemnly to have it ador'd with all the purity had ever been taught to man That very day the bloudy sacrifice was to be offered and Polexander as Prince of the Clergie was bound to supply the place of the Arch-prelate at that dismall Ceremony He then be thought him it was time to put in execution what he had resolv'd with Alcippus and to imploy all his eloquence and credit for the abolishing of that horrible custome of humane sacrifices Assoon therefore as they advertis'd him that the Priests of the Sun and Alcidiana's Embassadors were assembled in the Temple he went
thither with all the Slaves and beseeching the company to give him audience thus bespoke them If I were yet bound to the observation of those criminall Lawes which make Religion to become a Sacriledge and blend piety and homicide together I would impose silence on my just sorrow and patiently indure the injustice of your Ceremonies since I could not condemne them but by making you call in doubt either my zeale my obedience or courage But being infranchis'd from so cruell a slavery and disburthen'd of those chaines which submitted my life to the blind necessity of Chance I will tell you boldly that your Predecessors have made an execrable mixture of Religion and Impiety of heaven and hell of divine worship and that of the divells You adore you say a Deity which is nothing but Spirit Light and Puritie and yet as if he were a tyrant which took pleasure in bathing himselfe in humane bloud or some furious beast that feeds only on the flesh of men you cut the throats of your brethren at the feet of his Altars and if it were in your power you would make him drink their bloud all hot and reaking I know at other times he hath commanded the immolation of beasts on his Altars but I know it was ordered to affright a brutish people and to tell them by so many massacres that if they were not exact observers of his Lawes he would leave them as a victime to the vengefull sword of their enemies I have not time enough nor sufficient learning to unfold to you another mystery of that bloud Let it suffice that I tell you 't was a figure of an immolation which was to be but once perform'd And as for the sacrificing of men I protest and assure you 't is an invention of hell and the relick of that Idolatry which had almost infected the whole world Advise with the monuments of your fathers have recourse to the establishment of Religion in this place reflect on these sad and fearfull Ceremonies which you never put in practice but with horror and condemning them and you shall find that you have offended in thinking to doe well cut off then from the number of your mysteries these abominable superstitions and from hence-forward adore a Power which is all Innocence and purity with Ceremonies as innocent and pure Assoone as Polexander had ended his remonstrance all the Assemblie cast their eyes on the Arch-priest and expected what he would say either in condemning or approving the fained Araxes Speech and he full of that zeale which had consecrated him to the Altars tooke heaven to witnesse that he had not entred into that holy place but with a firme resolution to die or to make them renounce the abomination of their bloudy Sacrifices Yes my companions said he I am of Araxes opinion and to confirm it I tell you Heaven hath expected but one the like Sacrifice for the satisfaction of it's Justice the Devill who takes pleasure to imitate the workes of the Divinitie or rather by his execrable malice endeavour'd to annihilate all religious mysteries hath wonne us to slaughter one another that he might confound in these detestable Sacrifices the maine one which concernes and deprives us at once of all our knowledge and hope which depends on it My deare companions therefore and this Assemblie if it be not by a blind and brutish custome but a true devotion which makes you apply your selves to Heaven intreat from thence an inlightning of your blindnesse and in bestowing on you that knowledge which you want it would please to let you understand in what manner you should yeeld your adoration All the Assemblie without further deliberation cri'd out against the bloudie Sacrifices and the whole Clergie presently being shut up to consult advisedly upon a matter of so much importance set downe among their constitutions that it was neither fit to sacrifice men nor beasts To this resolution Alcidiana's Embassadors gave their consent and did it the more willingly since in the Inaccessible Island the bloudy Sacrifices were so seldom practised that in a whole age there were but two or three seen Every one rejoyc'd at this alteration but the illustrious Slaves as the most interessed made their joy to be taken most notice of for though there was but one of them to die that day yet they thought themselves all to be redeemed from death since there was none among them who from the Lot was exempted yet were they not absolutely disingaged from the vowes of their servitude but in stead of being bound to expose themselves to a voluntary death they were onely to passe the rest of their lives in the service of the Altars The next day Alcidiana's Embassadors having ended their Ceremonies the Arch-Priest made them their farewell feast and after he had assured them that he would take paines to his utmost for the reformation of abuses and establishment of a right worship he intreated them to make knowne his intention to their Queene and win her for the discharge of her conscience to make the like reformation within her Territories After that he brought them into his withdrawing chamber and suddenly composing out of divers true accidents a mysterious Fable thus bespoke them My Lords said he I must discharge my trust and satisfie the passionate desires of a Prince which holds your Princesse for a visible Divnitie I beleeve there is none of you all but knowes him as well by the magnificence of his Offerings wherewithall he hath inriched the Temple of the Sunne as by Princely presents he hath often sent to the Queene your Mistresse Before he passed from his condition to a better and ere time had cover'd him in that darknesse where he lies interr'd he sent for the last time his Embassadors to this Island and after he had satisfied his zeale he would likewise content his passion he therefore be sought me by his letters and Embassadors that assoone as you arrived here I should deliver into your hands the last presents he had appointed for Alcidiana I am intrusted with these treasures and to acquit me of my word given to that Prince I intend presently to put them into your charge That which is most to be valued amongst them is our Prince Araxes who as the wonder of his age and the glory of men hath beene consecrated to heaven and destin'd for Alcidiana You may say that having received his libertie for the great service done to this Island it were Injustice in your Queene to put him againe in the company of Slaves but let not that thought hinder it Araxes so passionately loves that Prince who deem'd him worthy the service of Alcidiana that he preferres the will of that King before his libertie and life the Queene may doe as she please either give him her chaines or infranchise him The Embassadors overjoyed that they had so great a Present for their Queâ—…e urg'd the Arch-Priest to dispatch them that they might set saile while
their continuall assaults The very day Polexander came before the towne he went to take notice of it in spight of the enemies cannon and having chosen a fit place to encamp himselfe the night following began to lodge his Army the place was opposite to a tongue of land which divided the two townes and was shadow'd by many little hills which besides the commodities of water and wood wherewithall they furnish'd the camp serv'd for defences to safeguard them from all surprises and assaults After Polexander had spent foure or five dayes in skirmishes if not unprofitable at least very little advantageous and seen that he could not draw the Spaniard to a land battell perceiv'd he lost time and that if he had not ships he must have the misery of beholding Alcidiana and her towne lost before his eyes To avoid that disaster he sent to demolish all the houses of a Bourg which had felt the Spaniards furie and of the timber which had escap'd the fire caus'd some thirty ferry-boats to be made and sixscore others which were able to take in foure rowers and twelve souldiers a piece Whilst a great many Carpenters and Shipwrights were busied about the building these vessels Polexander hazarded some of his followers that were most skil'd in swimming to get into the besieged city and give notice to the Queene of Tantalus death and of her subjects resolution to lay downe their lives for her preservation But the barques which the Spaniards had laid in guard all round the city drowning some of them and forcing the rest to swim backe againe were the cause that what should have given hope and comfort to the Queene increas'd her despaire and fully overwhelm'd her with melancholy Assoone as the ferries and boats were finished Polexander advertis'd the principall Commanders in the Army of an enterprise he had on the Fort which the Spaniards had built in the midst of that tongue of earth which we call'd the neck of our figure after he had made knowne to them the importance of that designe and the reasons he had to undertake it I know said he 't is a great deale of hazard but before we came out of Arzilea I intimated fully to you that if we would preserve this State we were to take such wayes by which others have usually bin ruin'd I meane in rejecting the counsell of wisdome and abandoning our selves to all manner of rashnes One of the most eminent and considerable in the Assembly reply'd When my companions and my selfe resolv'd either to loose our lives with you or to save our Country and Soveraign wee despoil'd our selves of our selves and marching on the faith of prophesie beleeved that he whom heaven had expresly sent for our good could not advise any thing amisse Wee are still of the same opinion and though the proposition you make us seemes out of all likelyhood yet only because you counsell it we believe there is nothing more facile Polexander rejoycing that his souldiers errours were so advantageous to him would confirme them in it to the end he might meet with no opposition in all he should command them to â—…dertake He therefore assur'd them from their Deity that the Spanyards should be beaten and their Fort wonne in spight of all their resistance After this counsell he presently chose out such as he meant to make use of in this exploit and giving order for the manner and time of the assault planted eight Culverins in a place whence they might extreamly incommodate the enemies ships Whilst his Ordinance play'd and made them change place and design the night came on and with it so violent a winde and mightie a rain that they both seem'd to be of confederacie with our Heroe for the depriving the Spanyard of all meanes of preventing their misfortune All the time the ill weather gave him the commoditie of sure labouring he launch'd all his ferryes and boates into the Lake The first he arm'd with fortie small field Peeces and fill'd the others with men arm'd at proof who had all made a vow even to devoure the Fort but they would carry it Polexander assur'd the successe of their enterprise promised them the visible assistance of the God of Warre and putting himselfe in the front of all Companions said he do not thinke it is to excite your valour by mine example or to dispute with you the honour of this action that I fall first on I know your courage needs not to be solicited and my pride would deserve punishment if it wonne me to conâ—…est for a thing which cannot be granted but to those wonders which with full resolution are to be performed by you Go on then my companions go on whither â—…lse Lawes both divine humane call you Finish the resolution of heaven Make it appear that the power which you adore promiseth nothing untrue and fighting on his word you run certainty to the victorie Alcidiana's foure Embassadors entred all into Polexanders boate and seeking no other glorie then to have that Prince witnesse of their actions told him with a great deale of jollity that the occasion presented it selfe in which they should have the honour to be applauded of him dead or alive The feigned Araxes â—…mbraced them one after another and inhancing himselfe on their words Yes said he I will commend you and if the Queen ever triumph over these Monster that have outrag'd her she shall be forc'd her selfe to confesse that you have been their exterminators The most part of the night being spent in this discourse and in ranking the greater and lesser boats in the order they were to floate Polexander commanded them to put on under favour of the winde and darknesse Both which made the voyage so private that but for the noise the souldiers made at their landing the Spanyards had been vanquished before they had been prepar'd to defend themselves But before they well knew whence the noise came they were set on Polexander all at once assail'd all parts of the Fort and made so happy use of the bavins and ladders he had caus'd to be brought that the place was wonne and all the Spanyards put to the edge of the sword Our Heroe there lost two or three hundred of his men and was himselfe shot in the leg but so favorably that it took not from him the libertie of walking above ten or twelve dayes at most At the beginning of the assault he had planted eight field Peeces betwixt the Fort and the Town and so level'd all those that were in the greater boats that they swept along the tongue of the land and made every one who shewed himselfe on that passage to run the hazard of his life And when the Spanyards would have assisted their companions they were so ill dealt withall by the Canon that they were forc'd to stay within their walles and to send their barques to beat off their enemies barges 'T was in this Combat that Polexander made them believe he was
lastly for the preservation of him which it had sent for their defence After she had ended her praier all the people confirm'd it by their acclamations and applauses and so went out of the Temple blessing the Queen and waited on her to the Palace with such testimonies of affection as were farre beyond all that had preceeded As she entred the second Court of her palace Diceus who had plotted that action with his Master presented himselfe and humbly besought her to have pity on a Canarian who had lately escap'd out of the Spanish fleet Alcidiana was so troubled and diverted that shee took no heed to what the man said But Amintha who attended her thought she should know the Supplicant and staid to look on him Ah madam said Diceus if the memorie of a personage whom you have somtimes affected be yet deare to you have compassion on that miserable estate whereto his losse hath reduc'd me Amintha knowing Diceus by his voice better then by his countenance and unable to suppresse that violent passion which she alwaies had in any thing concerning Polexander How Diceus cri'd shee art thou yet alive Arise and follow me Alcidiana at Amyntha's noise turned her head and saw the Lady talking to Diceus but not imagining whom he might be kept on her way and retir'd to her chamber where she presently â—…eil on a Couch and commanding all to withdraw fell to her usuall reveries An houre after she awoak and call'd Amintha They told her she was gone Let her be fetch'd hither said she and after that Commandement fell again into her former imaginations Amintha came presently after and approaching the Queen your Majestie said she may be knowes not the man who this morning fell at your feet The Queen answering that shee had not taken notice of him 'T was said Amintha that faithfull servant of Polexander who was only with him when he was murthered by Astramadans Subjects He was about to tell me in what manner hee escaped after his Masters death and by what accident hee arriv'd in this Island when your Majestie vouchsafed the honour to send for mee At these words Alcidiana coming as it were out of a deep sleep How said she is Diceus here O you thou lov'st me Amyntha let me see him The recitall he will make me of his Masters death will serve me for a great diversion A sad and dismall diversion replid ' Amyntha I doe not think Diceus can relate any thing more particularly to you then I have done 'T is all one said the Queen I shall be glad to see him and hear the reproaches he will throw on me for the death of his Master Hee hath been too well bred repli'd Amintha to take such libertie as shall not please you I am in such an humour said the Queen that whatsoever he shall say will not be able to displease me Therefore without losing more time let me see him With that Amintha making a low reverence went out of the chamber and calling for a Squire commanded him to go call Diceus The Squire obey'd the command and Diceus presently after entring the Queenes chamber Amintha brought him where she lay Alcidiana trembled at his sight and finding her selfe more troubled thâ—…n she thought she could be Alas poor Diceus said she thy Master is then dead Diceus continuing on his kneees though the Queen bad him arise Madam said he my Master dy'd because your Majestie thought his life was not worth the preserving Neither his life nor death depended on my will repli'd the Queen The will of your Majestie said Diceus hath alwayes had more power over him then that soveraign law on which depends the destinie of all other men It seemes then by what thou saiest answered the Queen that thou wouldst make me guiltie of thy Masters death Heaven said Diceus who can make us immortall was never accus'd but by blasphemers for confining the course of our life to so short a date Nor hath the King my Master who alwaies look'd on you though not as a Deity yet as its living image otherwise then with a benediction receiv'd the sentence of death you pronounc'd against him And the last time he did me the honour to speake to me Diceus said he let my death come when it will I will take it for a speciall favour from heaven since 't is the onely thing iâ—… left me whereby I may witnesse my obedience to the greatest Queen in the world Alas repli'd the Queen how knew he that I bore so great a hatred to his life Hee hâ—…d read it quoth Diceus in the declaration which Pallantus shew'd him in the Pirates Island but he read it more clearly in the effects of your anger I mean by the warre which nature her-selfe had denounc'd against him and by the ill successe of â—…ll the voyages he undertook to have the happinesse of continuing to you the testimonialls of his most humble Servitude I should condemne my Declaration answered the Queen though it were justly done if it hastened the death of your Master But 't was his valour and not Alcidiana that slew him Hee thought himselfe immortall as he was invincible and judging of his enemies by himselfe imagin'd there was none base enough to commit a murther Hee had too much loved life said Diceus or to speake better he had been as he was the superstitious observer of your commands if he had thought on the preservation of a life which he knew pleas'd you not He is dead Madam and died the more happily since he was perswaded in dying he should give you a strong and unquestionable proofe of the greatnesse of his love and obedience These last words touch'd Alcidiana to the heart so that spight of her selfe she sigh'd and feeling her teares in her eies turn'd her head towards Amintha that her too lively resentment might not be perceiv'd Assoon as her amorous teares were wip'd off she beganne again and would know of Diceus by what meanes he sav'd himselfe after the death of his Master I will not relate to your Majestie said he for what cause the King my Master came to the Isle of Astramadan Amintha was by when he was ingag'd to sight with him and I doubt not but she hath entertain'd your Majestie with it I will therefore content my selfe with the narration of the most strange and diversified Combate that ever was seen since weapons have been us'd He related how Polexander had sent to defie Astramadan with how many Knights he had to do till he came to haâ—…die stroakes with the Gyant in brief all that which we have descri'd at large heretofore But when he came to that part wherein we spoke of Tisiphone's arrivall and the firing of Astramadans City I had said he to the Queen the honour that day to serve my Master in the place of his Squire and to doe somewhat worthy my new quality assoon as the Tyrants Guard assail'd the King I fell in amongst them and wâ—…s so
fortunate that I was beat down cover'd with wounds before that multitude of murtherers had overthrowne the greatest valour of the world I was a great while ere I came to my selfe again but at last recollecting my spirits and seeing all our enemies laid all o're the field I crawl'd to finde out the bodie of my Master Me thought I heard him groan and got to him and disingaging him from under a many bodies took off his cask and the rest of his armes Assoon as he had taken aire his senses came to him but he was so weak and so wounded that he could not possibly rise Presently I took some earth which was very soft being all soak'd with blood and stopping his greatest wounds with it brought him to a little more strength With much pain he arose so did I and helping one another got out of that unfortunate place by the meanes of the tumult and fire But how said Amintha interrupting him did not Polexander dye in the place of Combate No Madam repli'd Diceus he escap'd that great danger and should not be a languishing and wandring Ghost as he is now if he had not receiv'd more dangerous wounds then those were given him in that detestable occasion When I had lead him out of the town and brought him to the Sea side Whither shall we go said he Let 's make an end of a thing that is so well forwarded and since it is forbidden me by Alcidiana her selfe for ever to pretend to the happinesse of seeing her again let us Diceus let us shut up those eyes which can serve mee in no stead but to make me see what a miserable man I am 'T was then repli'd Alcidiana hastily that Polexander died Could he dye better Madam repli'd Diceus then to dye not by the wounds â—…e had receiv'd from his murtherers but of those as pleasing as deadly which he receiv'd at the same time both from your severe justice and his incomparable fidelitie 'T is enough said Alcidiana and in saying so she would not conceale from Diceus the teares which griefe forc'd from her eyes And he unwilling to lose so faire an occasion to further his Masters affaires O! too pretious teares to be lost cri'd he why have you not already rais'd again Polexander Wheresoever his faire soule straies she feeles your virtue and I doubt it not but she will returne and joine againe with his bodie if she could know for truth that 't was their separation which had drawne you from the eyes of Alcidiana Believe it Diceus said the Queen heartily sobbing and assure thy selfe that if the moiâ—…y of my life could recall Polexanders I would give it with all my heart That Prince Madam repli'd Diceus shall rise again since you will have it so or rather he will dye once more if he know 't is for his sake that your Majestie is so much discontented Alcidiana unable to give any interpretation to Diceus last words then what in all likelyhood they ought to have took them for a true exaggeration of that love which Polexander yet preserv'd for her even in his Sepulchre She then dismissed Diceus and told him she desir'd he would serve her After he had given her humble thankes and spent the rest of the day in the Palace or with Amintha he secretly got out of the Towne assoon as it was night and hastened to the King his Master To him he related the happie successe of his journey and made him so plainly see how much Alcidiana lov'd him that Polexander fear'd to offend the Princesse if he persever'd in in the ill opinion he had of his fortune But presently feare blotting out of his Soule that which hope had trac'd there Thou deceiv'st us both said he to Diceus The love thou bear'st me hath assuredly made thee give a too favorable construction to the Queenes words Didst thou not look on her angry eyes as if they had been pitifull or take that melancholy which appeares in the face of such as we importune for the compassion thou wouldst faine perswade me to Art thou certaine she wept Didst thou surely heare her sigh Canst thou secure me that my life shall not discontent her Thou answerest not Diceus Art thou to my greater misfortune better informed now then when thou gavest me so great assurances Sir repli'd his faithfull Servant your thoughts will never leave being ingenious in persecuting you They eternally doubt the truth of all good which betides you and the onely appearances of ill passe with them for most certain realties Yes Sir Alcidiana loves you and I believe it because she repents the rigour she hath shewne you because she bewailes your death because she respects any thing that puts her in mind of you and finally because Amintha hath often sworne to me that the verie moment she heard newes of your death shee made a vow to end her life in a rigorous kind of widow-hood Ah! 't is too much Diceus repli'd our Heroe I now believe my selfe to be happie but I must by some important service make my selfe worthie of being so Presently he resolv'd to disturb that rest which his indisposition had lent his enemies to hinder their going on and by a generall assault to let them know that the winning of Eliza was very ill assur'd them At breake of day he was abroad in the Fort and calling all the officers of the Armie together to make them capable of a thing which till then he could not propose to any Told them there was newes come to him touching the Spaniards and that they only expected to be assaulted to gaine an honest pretext for forsaking the Towne and to put themselves under saile All the hardie Islanders beleev'd what he had spoken and by what had pass'd judging of the future thought that Araxes as inspired from the Deity which had sent him could undertake nothing but what he was assur'd of the succes Every one therefore preparing himselfe for so daring an action they sent Rhadiotez newes of it He presently hastened to the Palace to informe the Queen but perceiving her to be in an extraordinarie insensibility for what so much concern'd her he thought it fit to treat her as some sicke person whose violent disease and the distaste of remedies had depriv'd of all desire of life Hee caus'd all the best troopes in the Town to march forth sent Artillerie to the Fort and having almost all the day executed the charge of Generall of an Armie imploy'd all the rest in the functions of his Priesthood Orders was given for prayers and the Temples were open all night long Mothers carried thither their children as innocent offerings they pretended to heaven to appease its anger and to obtaine out of pitie an end of their calamities Polexander in the mean while unwilling the enemie should know his designe beate them all night with the Canon The Peeces in the Barges and on the Caus-way shot continually and hid by the thicknesse of the
enemies intrenchments and had forc'd them as he had done the rest if his soldiers gall'd with the Canon had not been forc'd to shelter themselves behinde the Gabions Each partie was all night in armes and continued their vollyes and skirmishes till breake of day When the Spaniards seeing themselves threatned by a revolt of the Inhabitants in the lower towne and fearing to be involved resolv'd to drive Polexander from what he had fallen into To that end they planted on the top of their intrenchment five Cannons which for three houres together never left shooting Foure Towers and a great Pavillion which made up the Entry Polexander had wonne were beaten to dust the place where he was lodg'd laid open and many of his men buried under the ruines or maimed with the slattering of the stones or the walls r◅ptures The Spaniards were paid well backe againe For our Heroē very advant ageously planting his Canon beat their houses about their cares and ten Pieces charg'd with chayne-shot being planted along the intrenchment cut off all those that undertook to fall on Alcidiana's troopes That whole day almost passing thus a little before night they descry'd above an hundred saile on the Lake The Inhabitants of the upper towne imagining them to be the supply which their enemies expected were strucken with their former terrour and ran out of their houses with terrible outcries and extreame confusion Some betooke them to their armes others flew away from them In this moment the streets were so full that men were readie to be stifled and in the turne of a hand after they were all emptie and no creature to be seen The Market places and Temples filled withold men women and children resounded with lamentations and every where wandred the image of death and despaire See what 't is said they to wrong the blessings of heaven and to neglect the meanes of our safety Every man would have witness'd his respect and obsequiousnesse to the Queen and every one confess'd that their respect and complaisancy had loft them If yesterday the Queene had been forc'd to doe that which now they must be obliged to compell her she might have been already freed from this violence and the publik secur'd of the successe of a businesse which now may chance to have but an ill issue because it was so long deserr'd Whil'st one part of the people was talking thus and the other gotten to the Palace gates calling for the Queene and threatning to take her thence Rhadiotez and Amintha were with the Princesse intreating her to beare with the infirmities of her subjects to pardon their rashnesse their indiscretion their revolt and to weigh to how many other violences the extremitie of feare is able to hurrie weake minds Alcidiana appearing full of an extraordinarie Majestie I intend not said she to deferre the contenting my people Goe you father said shee to Rhadiotez and tell them that precisely at midnight I will depart my Palace and goe to the Temple of Wisdome The good man loath to debate more particularly with the Queene for feare of offending her caus'd the Palace gates to be opened suffred all to enter that would and publishing by a Herauld his Princesses will went to prepare himselfe for an action which his judgement aswell as his loyaltie assur'd him would be as glorious for his Queene as advantageous for her Subjects shee had not the same thoughts For being retir'd into her closet onely with Amintha sh open'd a little Cabinet and taking out a Poniard See said she without any emotion that which shall disingage my word and deliver me from all prepar'd Slavery Yes Amintha I will dye but not till by the accompishment of the Prophesie I have laid an eternall foundation for my peoples felicity Thinke not to stay mine arme either by your teares or remonstrances If you have truly lov'd me you will approve my resolution of being stil Mistris of my selfe And if Polexanders memory doe any way touch you you may be glad to see mee labour so couragiously for the preservation of that which hath been so dear unto him Let us prepare our selves therefore seriously for the most important and considerable of our actions Let us on bravely to the end of our miseries Leave wee not our fetters sadly but believe that the life which wee expect hereafter is too glorious and of more blisse then to make any account of that which wee are likely to loose here And thou deare Soule which art readie to bee remitted to thy halfe-selfe descend from thy everlasting abode meet with Alcidiana be present at the Sacrifices shee is at the point to offer and judge by the last act of her life the intention of all those that have preceeded After these words she went to her Ladies and carrying in her countenance a gaity and extraordinarie calme told them smiling that at last the day was come wherein shee was to submit her selfe to the power of a man Let therefore said shee every one prepare her selfe for this solemnity but with moderation for too much magnificence and rejoycing will not be approv'd of such wretches as shal be witnesses of this fatall action After she declar'd by these words in what manner she would have her Ladies and Maides to be dress'd for the Ceremony she attir'd herselfe as she was wont to be on the dayes consecrated to the memorie of the Kings her predecessors Assoon as shee was free from this necessary amusement she commanded that all those that were to attend her should be readie before midnight and to that end dismissing all that were in her chamber shee entred her closet with Amintha That Lady extreamly afflicted for the Queenes resolution began to look on her with such eyes as spoke enough that which her mouth durst not utter and falling at last at her Mistris feet was even there like to have taken her last gaspe Alcidiana seeing her in that extremitie rais'd her up and after a many times kissing her What said she is become of that brave spirit which hath so courageously brought you through rape exile imprisonment and more insupportable miseries Whither is that Constancy fled which hath withdrawne me many and many a time from those precipices which mine owne weakenesse hath hewen out Whence is it that Amintha is no more what she was and why indeavours shee to disswade me from what she hath so often advis'd me Is not a speedy death farre better then a languishing life And where shall the miserable find comfort but in shortnesse of their tortures No no Amintha the resolution I have taken is not such as you imagine it It hath nothing of sad and dismall but in appearance The interior is brave pleasant alluring and delightfull 'T is true I quit my Crowne and quit it in the eighteenth yeare of my life but to consider things aright what is a Crowne What is Youth And if you will what is Beauty Surely nothing but so many extream subtile and
overcame him and that report which attributes to him the glory of it is even more injurious to Polexander then to Almanzor Almanzaira knowing that Almaid could not reply to this speech but with bitternesse interposed and addressing her to Polexander as not knowing him Your generosity said she agrees well with that pity I have for Almanzor I confesse him to be more worthy our bewailings then our reproaches and I should not have lesse love to my selfe then Almaid witnesseth if the just cause I have to wish ill to the mother should make me descend to hate her son But tell me said she turning to Almaid how was Almanzors death taken in Senega Madam replied Almaid after Polexander no matter what they say to the contrary had overcome the false Almanzor and the newes of his death was spread through all Zabaims dominions there was so great and so generall a joy that the most time-serving and most interessed Courtiers suppressed their infirmitie and cowardise to be the first to let Zabaim and Zelopa understand an accident which was to be so insupportable to them Zelopa was sicke for her Sonnes absence and had resolved to put to sea to seek him when her Confidents brought her newes of his death At which shee became as immoveable as that Queen whom a like accident had before time turned into a Rock But when that mortall insensibility had even given place to those fearfull resentments which grief despaire and rage hurle on all miscreants Zelopa not onely grew furious but seemed to be fury it self She cast her self on the earth tore her haire scratched her face and talked of nothing but what was horrible called an hundred times for all the Devills in hell to assist her No no cried shee afterwards come not at all poore weak and deceitfull spirits you cannot give me back the life of my Son and I desire nothing else from you The rest is in my power It must be executed and by an act worthy my courage and plunge all Senega her King in a calamity which shal have no end but by the death of the one and the intire desolation of the other Every one trembled with horror to heare the threatnings of that Fury and some ran to advertise the King of his wifes desperation Hee came with all speed to comfort her but he found her weltring in her gore and yet holding the ponyard in the wound she had made When she saw him she cast her furious and gastly lookes on him and drawing the weapon out of her wound Hold here Zabaim said she see the last pledge of our abominable allyance Take it yet reeking with my bloud and making an end of that murther I have began appease the shades of thy wife and Son With that she gave up the ghost and let fall the ponyard she presented to Zabaim At that word Almanzaira interrupting Almaid Alas said she for heavens sake tell me what became of the King my husband He did strange things replied Almaid He tooke Zelopa in his armes lamented her in termes full of impiety a hundred times kissed her wound and all bloudied with his horrible kisses carried that miserable creature into his closet The very day of that murder I came to Senega and caused to be published in many places not onely that you were not dead but that the true Almanzor was yet living and full of honour Assoone as I had spread abroad this newes and had understood in what manner the false Almanzor was slaine I put to sea to advertise you of it That which you are to doe Madam is presently to leave the place of your long banishment and by your presence give content to the longing eyes of so many people which by your returne expect that of their former felicity Let 's go replied the Queene and quickly to render what we owe to my deare Lord and not permit if it be possible the Sorceries of Zelopa to last after her death And you O my deare Comforter said she to Polexander I beseech you by your generousnesse and your obliging offers not to forsake me till you have seene the end of those adventures whose beginning I have related to you I shall have need of your courage your counsell will be behoofull to me and the same Genius who in comforting me by your sight presag'd my happinesse tels me that without you it cannot have its accomplishment Though replied Polexander I account my selfe unable to contribute any thing to the perfecting a worke which more excellent hands then mine have undertaken yet I will waite on you and not being capable of performing any more at least I will testifie my obedience to you Go hence then Madam the soonest you can and think how necessary for Zabaims preservation those moments are which my consideration makes you lose Almanzaira went presently to take leave of her Company and Hermitage and then ran towards the Sea Polexander commanded Diceus to embalme Amalthea's body and that when he had caused it to be brought aboard his ship to follow him to Senega Alcippus went with his Master and embarked with him in Almaids vessell Almanzaira fearefull least there might happen some slightnesse betwixt them did what she could to make them discourse often together and taking the occasion of letting Polexander know the sequell of her fortunes I have said she to Almaid related to this Knight all that hath betided me to the day that you went to Sea with my Son I entreat you to let him know the rest Almaid who to himselfe had much esteemed the generousnesse of Polexander was glad an occasion was offered to oblige him At first he entreated to be excused if he repeated such things as he had already heard and adding to that request other civilities in this manner continued the adventures of Zabaim and his wives A Continuation of the History of the Princes of SENEGA THat generall peace which reignes so absolutely from the height of heaven to the very depth of the waters makes me call to minde that most happy day wherein I violated the humane Law to observe the divine and wherein by a just disobedience I chose rather to expose my selfe to the danger of losing the fathers favour then to lay open the Son to the hazard of losing his life But before I relate to you the strange accidents of my voluntary Exile and the faire adventures which accompanied the youth of the lawfull Prince of Senega be pleased I recount to you the misfortunes of Almanzaira and the dreadfull resolutions which the too much blinded Zabaim tooke through the ambition and fury of Zelopa When that Sorceresse understood by the returne of her Idolater that the young Prince was got away she sent all the ships she had after him and commanded to bring back againe dead or alive Almanzor and Almaid Whilst the Instruments of her cruelty strove to execute her horrible commands she turn'd her fury on Almanzaira and either by her death