found him THe fortunate meeting with a Brother such as Caesario was had raised in the Princesse Cleopatra such a satisfaction as since the imaginary infidelity of Coriolanus she had not been capable of whence it came that she passed over that night with more delight and took more rest than the precedent Now as the best part of the night was spent ere she lay down so was it accordingly very late ere she awoke in the morning insomuch that those who knew not any thing of her long sitting up would not have a little wondered she had slept so long had they not imagined that the trouble and hardship she had gone through for some daies before might require a more than ordinary repose 'T is a common observation that it is ordinarily at our waking in the morning we make the most naturall reflections on the conditions and accidents of our lives She accordingly had no sooner opened her eies but the Idaea of her late adventures presented it self to her remembrance and as she was of an excellent good nature so that sympathy which her meeting with Caesario had raised in her mind was the first effect that was produced there Her thoughts were with no small satisfaction taken up with that fortunate rencounter as looking on it as a thing extreamly advantageous to find a Brother whom she thought dead so many yeares before changed into a Brother so great so amiable and so considerable as well for his vertue as the greatnesse of his actions She reflected on the noble accidents of his life the strange Fortunes he had run through and fixed her consideration on the present posture of his affaires which in all probability was such as promised him a safe harbour against all those tempests whereby he had been tossed up and down for the space of so many yeares and seemed to be an establishment such as gave him not any occasion to envy that of his Ancestors The consideration of her Brothers concernments had that effect on her which it might be expected they might have on the best sister in the world and struck her thoughts with so much delight that for some time she could hardly make any reflection on her own but at last she could not keep them off any longer but they must needs do a violence to her memory and the Idaea of her unfortunate Coriolanus presented it self to her in the same posture as she had seen him the day before Her first imaginations represented him to her in that terrible posture wherein he had forced out of the vessell those that fought for her deliverance but there being not so much satisfaction in this as in the reflection on the other accidents that succeeded it she soon quitted it and imagined to her self a sight of the Prince in that mortall surprise wherein he was upon his first knowledge of her and fell into a swound upon the â—eck as also in that undaunted posture wherein hef had desied the King of Armenia and was engaged himself alone against so great a number of Enemies and lastly she thought on him in that subâ—isâ—â—ve posture whereinto he had put himself â—efâ—re her anâ— Marcellus to clear his innocency 'T was upon this last reflecâ—ion that â—he fastened her thoughts more than any as desiring not so much any assurances of the valour of Coriolanus whereof she had sufficient experience as of his innocency whereof she had been so long in doubt and whereof either the certainty or uncertainty occasioned all the happinesse or unhappinesse of her life She had so well engraven in her memory all the words which â—ell from that poor Prince that notwithstanding the disturbance she had been in while he had spoken them there had not so much as one slipped out of her remembrance And finding them all very pregnant and full of conviction it was a certain imaginary pleasure to her to be in a manner perswaded that it must needs be innocence and truth that put them into the mouth of that Prince to convince her of that errour wherein she had passed over so many sad daies Alasse with what satisfaction and with what tendernesse did she repeat them over and over and how did she make it her â—ain businesse to heighten those circumstances that any way made for him All indeed were very strong for him from the time that she first opened her eies to truth and the discoveries of that pretended infidelity and she could not but acknowledge her credulity in having too easily been perswaded to a belief of things that were contrary to reason and common sence She could not find the least favourable imagination to perswade her that Coriolanus should fall in love with Julia being then absent from her when even in her presence and during the time that she expressed a great aflection towards him he had ever slighted her and that the Prince should so much court the friendship of Augustus she thought yet more improbable and that he should proffer himself to be tributary to him when he had by open hostility recovered a powerfull Monarchy when he had refused the same friendship at a time when he was not master of any thing but his sword and could not expect any thing but by his meanes and assistance She called to mind in what termes he had vindicated himself with so much apparent reason and found so much eviction in all that there needed not much absolutely to justifie him in her apprehension During these pleasant intervalls she opened her soule to give admission to that joy which of a long time before could never have the least entertainment there but it was at the same time very much abated by a cold reflection on the miserable condition to which that Prince was reduced as having lost the Kingdomes he had conquered and being deprived of all support and relief in the world through her inflexibility towards him These reflections equally divided between grief and joy drew many a sigh out of her breast and this was the entertainment of her thoughts all the time she lay in bed after her awaking and while she was dressing She was just upon the point of going out of her chamber to go into that of Candace's whom she now looked on as a Sister to whom she was engaged for the life and fortunes of her Brother and who as well as the Princesse of the Parthians had lain longer in bed then she had when Prince Marcellus comes to give her a good morrow Cleopatra entertained him as a beloved Brother but what confidence soever she might have of his prudence and generositie yet did she not think it fit to trust him with the secret of another though she had with her own and so made not the least mention to him of Caesario though she had not the least jealousie that any consideration whatsoever might induce Marcellus to do him any ill office This Prince after the first civilities were past being sate down by her Sister said he
that he needed not envy the fortunes of any Roman whatsoever and though he had not those Kingdoms at his disposal which had been at his Fathers yet did he keep up our house in the greatest lustre it ever was in before the death of Julius Caesar and before Anthony and Augustus made themselves Masters of the Empire He was elder then Alexander and my self by seaven or eight years insomuch that within a short time after our misfortune and while we were yet brought up as children by Octavia he was numbred among the young Princes that pretended to employments and opportunities of acquiring fame He was certainly born to all the noblest and greatest endowments and though he were not so fair as Alexander yet had he a high and majestick look was of a proper stature and wanted not any of those advantages either of body or mind which could rationally be wished in him With this his inclinations were absolutely noble he was wholly disposed to the acquisition of vertue and an earnest suitor to those opportunities which lead a man to glory We cannot indeed complain but that he expressed as great affection towards us as we could expect from a Brother and him a vertuous one but in regard we were of several venter's lived in several houses nay that ours was in some sort divided between him and us and that even among the kindred of Fulvia there was no small aversion for the name of Cleopatra certain it is that our familiarity was so much the lesse with him and that he concerned himself lesse in our Affairs then if our family had not been disunited which is the reason that you have had so little mention made of him in the first beginnings of the life of Alexander and mine Whence yet I would not have it thought as I told you that we can reproach Julius Antonius with any backwardnesse to do all the civilities and good offices we could expect from his friendship but that when any great emergencies interven'd he was no longer among us and it is upon that account that I have been destitute of his assistances in all those occasions which the love of Coriolanus hath furnished me with to make use of them of which I have already made you a relation You have I question not understood from Alexander as also from me all the particularities of our younger years but to give you an account of Julius Antonius I am to tell you that after he had attained perfection in all those exercises that are proper to persons of his birth he was no sooner arrived to an age fit to bear arms but he sought out the wars with much earnestnesse and engaging himself in the armies of Dalmatia Pannonia as also that which Marcus Crassus conducted against the Basternae and having gone through all employments and charges suitable to his age with all the good successe imaginable he acquired a noble fame and gave the World ground to conceave as glorious hopes of him as of any other whatsoever Being after several years spent in travel returned to Rome he setled there and was honoured by all nay wanted not from Caesar himself more then ordinary expressions of esteem and affection He was at first established at the Court among persons of the highest rank so far that onely Marcellus and the children of Livia particularly favoured by Caesar seemed by reason of the advantage of their fortune to aim at higher pretences His expence was noble and magnificent his disposition inclined to do civilities and to oblige and his whole deportment such as all the World approved and were satisfied with Accordingly he soon got him a great number of friends and those onely excepted whom the divisions of Rome and the distractions of the Triumvirate had made irreconcileable enemies to our house there were very few of the Roman Nobility who had not a particular esteem for him and courted not his friendship When he went to Augustus's Palace he was attended by a gallant retinue of young Gentlemen In all publick shews and all Assemblies that met either at the Empresses or at the young Princesse Julia's he alwayes had the general acclamations and it was already the ordinary talk in Rome that if Fortune were any thing favourable to him he would raise the house of Anthony to the height of lustre it had been in some few years before But it was not the pleasure of the gods he should continue long in that condition and the quiet that he himself lost after a very strange manner proved the occasion of our losing of him to our no small grief Now Sister shall you hear something which you will haply be astonished at as to the parallel you will find there is between the fate of Alexander and that of Antonius whence you will haply imagine that Fortune treating them as Brothers would needs have some conformity between their adventures Among those exercises of the body he was most addicted to Antonius was the greatest lover of hunting and used it very often To that end being gone a dayes journy from Rome on the Tusculum side where the Country is very pleasant and very fit for that kind of divertisement he passed away certain dayes there with abundance of satisfaction The last of those he intended to bestow on that exercise being as he was hunting a Stagge forced to crosse certain woods in the pursuit he came into a very pleasant valley where putting on his Horse very negligently down a little descent and along the slippery grasse he stumbled but so of a sudden that he could not get his feet out of the stirrops nor prevent the horse from falling upon him so violently that having knocked his head against the root of a tree he was not onely sense-lesse for the time but receaved also a very considerable wound A further misfortune was that none of his fellow-huntsmen being mounted comparably to him or having taken other wayes there was not any one of his people neer him to afford him any assistance in that condition so that he lay groveling on the ground senselesse loosing bloud and being much in need of help when certain persons that passed by in a Chariot in a way not far off drew neerer and came out of the Chariot to relieve him They were in number three and they women without any man with them but he that drove the Chariot and certain slaves that followed it She of the women that seemed to be of the greatest quality perceaving my Brother to be in the sad condition I told you of was extreamly troubled for him and concluding otherwise by his countenance and the sumptuousnesse of his cloaths though he had onely a riding-suit on that he was of no mean condition she seemed very much inclined to do him all the good she could She first looked on the wound in his head which she found not to be very dangerous yet did she not think it amisse to put some linnen to it which
the Unknown Beauty somewhat angrily they have done me such an injury as I shall never be able to pardon them and if what you say be true you will find your self very unfortunate in your addresse to a person who cannot otherwise then by hatred and aversion make any return to your affection I am indeed easily perswaded replies the amazed Antonius that I deserve this cruel aversion by reason of some defects in my person since I am confident I could never have merited it by any action or thought I have ever been guilty of I see then replyed she much displeased with him that I am still unknown to you and were you not ignorant whom you speak to I am confident you would not speak to me at all Certain it is said he to her with a very submissive gesture that I am to learn whom I speak to and whom I have bestowed my self on unlesse there be no more requisite to know you then to have well observed the divine qualities of your admirable person all the endeavours I have used to gain a more particular knowledge of you have proved ineffectual so that I am now at a losse what I ought to learn or what I ought to desire since the knowledge of your person is of no lesse concernment to me then that of your aversion You shal know both together replies the Unknown Beauty and you will be no longer to seek why I shun you when I have told you that I am Daughter to Cicero and you remember that you are Son to Anthony and Fulvia his Executioners With these words she goes out of the Closet into Emilia's Chamber and out of that into another where she locked up her self for fear of further pursuit But indeed there was no necessity she should take all that pains for he whose pursuit she was so much afraid of was at such a losse and so surprized at the discovery she had made to him of her self that he hardly knew where he was Not that from his understanding that she whom he loved was Cicero's Daughter he felt any diminution in his love nor yet that being his Daughter she appeared lesse amiable but that all the hopes he might have conceaved vanished away in an instant And when it came into his mind not onely that Anthony had caused Cicero to be put to death but also that Fulvia his Mother had caused his head and his hands to be fastened to the Rostra where he used to make his Orations and had committed a thousand cruel indignities on the reliques of that great person whose memory was so precious among the Romans he had no more to say for himself and could not blame his Daughter for the horrour she had conceaved against the Son of Anthony and Fulvia For though indeed divers persons had lost their lives during the proscriptions of the Triumvirate which yet occasioned not eternal enmities between families yet it is certain that in the death of Cicero there had been some circumstances so cruel and Fulvia naturally inclined to bloud had used him with so much inhumanity even after death that my Brother whose memory was of a sudden burthen'd with all those things and whose inclinations were absolutely vertuous could not think on them without horrour Woe is me cryed he at last rising up from the place where he had continued all this while and turning to Scipio and Emilia who had been witnesses of all that was passed the Daughter of Cicero hath indeed reason to avoid the Son of Fulvia but the son of Fulvia hath not his own destiny at his disposal and cannot forbear loving whiles he lives the Daughter of Cicero With these words he at the entreaty of Emilia sate down and lay under such a dark cloud of affliction that for a good while he was not fit for any conversation During that time he understood from Emilia without any desire of his to be informed that Tullia was a neer Kinswoman of hers and that her Mother Terentia was of the family of the Scauri that the beauty and excellent endowments of that young Ladie had made no great noise in Rome and that her person had not been known there so much as in all probabilitie it ought to have been by reason that while she was yet verie young and that during the time the house lay under disgrace her Mother had carryed her to a Country-house neer Tusculum where she had spent her life in solitude without ever returning to Rome and that haply she had not come thither so soon if upon occasion of her Mothers death which happened not long before her Brother Quintus Cicero who lived at Rome after a verie noble and high rate and had been nominated Proconsul in some part of Africk had not some few daies since sent for her Emilia further acquainted Antonius and Scipio that Tullia besides the perfections of her body had a many admirable endowments that she had cultivated an excellent disposition with an excellent education and that during the time of her solitude being addicted to the study of the nobler kind of Sciences she was grown perfect therein that she discovered abundance of courage and vertue that she was not subject to the weaknesse of our Sex and that she was of a conversation infinitely pleasant when she was among persons to whom she was pleased to communicate her self To these Emilia added a many other things in commendation of Tullia whereof the effect was that they made the wound of the unfortunate Antonius wider than it was and disarmed him of all the forces he had to oppose a passion wherein he expected not to find any satisfaction Scipio was extreamly troubled at it through those sentiments which friendship inspired him with and Emilia who had that esteem for his vertue as all others had that were acquainted with it had an extraordinary compassion for his misfortune and would have been very glad to find out any means to comfort and assist him But knowing Tullia to be a person constant and unchangeable in her resolution especially in those wherein she thought her honour concerned and that from what she already knew she foresaw that the passionate Antonius would find but little satisfaction in his love she endeavoured to divert his thoughts from it with the best arguments she could make against it and forbore not to tell him whatever she imagined might put him into some doubt of the successe and fear of her friends humour My Brother heard her with abundance of patience and great expression of the resentment he had of her goodnesse in concerning her self so much in his misfortune but when all was done he protested to her that it was impossible for him to make any advantage of her good advise and that that unfortunate passion was grown so predominant in his soule that he was out of all hopes ever to see himself free from it what course soever he might take Scipio added his remonstrances to those of Emilia and
for him and by the stairs joyning thereto came up into the Amphitheatre As all that were present had a secret admiration for what he had done so did all gladly make way for him it being perceaved that it was his intention to restore Tullia her picture and accordingly having without much trouble gotten up to the place where she was he comes to her with a submissive action and presenting her with the box Were I not odious in your sight Madam said he to her I would entreat you to entertain the inconsiderable service I have done you without aversion and if I am so unhappy as that I cannot be otherwise I beseech your acceptance and acknowledgement of that I would have done you by exposing my life which you so much detest Now the enmity which is between the Children of Cicero and the House of Anthony being known to all the World no body took any exceptions at those words of Antonius but there were many who thought that that action should have obliged Tullia to some kindnesse or at least to receave that service with a seeming civility But her deportment was quite otherwise and instead of making any acknowledgement of the service he had done her she turned her face another way and vouchsafed not so much as either to make him any answer or receave out of his hands the picture he presented to her This action which displeased all that were present struck Antonius to the very heart but having fortified himself with an extraordinary courage and done an action so full of gallantry that he thought himself obliged to presse it home Madam said he to her not without some violence done himself to smother his grief in so great an Assembly I must confesse my unhappinesse such that I deserve to be treated as I am but do not haply the precious treasure you are pleased to leave me as such as I durst not have detained had you thought good to receave it These words â—cartled young Cicero a little who sate neer his Sister and was as much displeased at my Brother's action as she but withal would have been much troubled to see him keep his Sister picture But he whom they had greatest influence on was the amorous Cecinna who being passionately in love with Tullia could not without much disturbance within himself see her picture in the hands of a man whom he looked on as his Rival and withal a powerful one so that he would undertake to Antonius to perswade Tullia to receave the picture and while he desired it Cicero reached forth his hand to receave it from him But Antonius looking on them both with a certain contempt and with a disdainfull smile T is not thee Cicero said he to them and much lesse to thee Cecinna that I intend to restore it And since Tullia is content it should remain in my hands I shall keep it no otherwise then I would do my life If thou wouldst have had it added he looking on Cecinna thou shouldst have gone for it to the place where it fell through thy negligence and if thou art so desirous of it thou must force it out of a place whence there will haply be as much difficulty to get it as from among Bears and Tygres However it be I hear protest before the gods that I shall never part with it willingly till Tullia desire it of me her self and that I will never put it into other hands then hers With these words he left Tullia and without any more adoe immediately quitted the Amphitheatre out of a fear that Tullia might change her mind and call for her picture She was upon the point to do it as being desirous it should not remain in his hands nay indeed would not have been well satisfied to leave it with any man how great an affection soever she might have for him but thinking there were other wayes to retrive it she thought it better to have patience for some dayes then to remit any thing of her disdain and stoop so low as to desire it after what had passed before so many great and Illustrious Persons This action raised no small noise in Rome and found all people matter of discourse Several judgements passed upon it there were a many that attributed it to the true cause others made it onely a piece of gallantry and the effect of a violent desire of glory a thing not inconsistent with the fiery humour of a young man Nay some pitching upon an opinion probable enough according to the intention of Antonius and the discourse he made of it which was that having discovered Tullia in that great Assembly to be the Lady from whom he had receaved such assistance when his horse fell under him whom till then he had not known and had sought out so much though he knew not who she was imagined that he had resolved to expresse by some service the resentment he still had for the kindnesse she had done him and that just then an opportunity offering it self he thought he could not without basenesle that is without being accounted either an ungrateful person or a man of little courage let it slip With this discourse did my Brother satisfie the Emperour who blamed him very much for exposing his life to so great a danger without any necessity but that account of the businesse being probable enough Augustus who could not disapprove those actions that argued courage had a greater esteem for Antonius then he had before Octavia who was as tender of all the children of Anthony as she was of her own especially of him she intended to make her Son in Law entertained this discourse as the Emperour did and attributed to gratitude excellency of nature and the courage of Antonius what was meerly a demonstration of his passion And yet what had past at the closure of the businesse concerning Tullia's picture which he had refused to restore either to Cicero or Cecinna with words passionate enough might cause a little suspicion but it might also be attributed to pure gallantry which might produce that effect in a person of the age my Brother was then of and that after the doing of so noble an action In fine every one censured it according to his inclination and Antonius whatever might be said to him could not repent him of it though he was extreamly troubled at Tullia's deportment towards him and that the vexation he conceaved thereat put him sometimes into a resolution to do what lay in his power to free himselfe of that cruell slavery Some dayes after having intreated Scipio to bring my Brother with him to her house he failed not to come and having told her that he should think himself extreamly happy if she would be pleased to lay any commands upon him she told him before Scipio who was present that she was desirous to have some discourse with him upon the entreaty of Tullia who had charged her to demand her picture of him and had desired her
told you that so many memorable accidents have happened in our Family such as no doubt but he would have concerned himself in as he ought to have done had he not been absent nay it may be absolutely lost It was much about the time of his departure that Coriolanus made the first addresses of his love to me or it was then at least that I was come to an age wherein I seriously began to take notice of them I have already acquainted you with all that hath befallen me since even to the most inconsiderable circumstances so that I am dispensed withall as to any relation that concerns my self though what hath happened to me be of greater consequence than any thing else that hath befallen our Family For what relates to Alexander you have been acquainted with the adventures of his first years to his departure from Rome and for what hath happened to him since I have learned it from your self who must needs have been the best acquainted of any with his adventures as having been the onely occasion thereof All then that now lyes on my hands to do is to give you an account of young Ptolomey of the Children of Anthony and Cleopatra and of those of Anthony and Octavia of my two Sisters Agrippina and young Antonia whom you have so particular an affection for For Ptolomey he is yet of an age wherein it cannot be expected he should meet with many adventures though the World hath from several particular actions of his conceaved very miraculous hopes of him and for my Sisters I shall punctually acquaint you with all you desire to know concerning them These two Princesses born no doubt to all the perfections of nature have extreamlie improved and heightned them by an excellent education for I need say no more to you then that they have been brought up by their Mother Octavia to let you understand what advantages they might derive from that Agrippina is certainlie a verie rare and exquisite Beautie hath a great command of understanding and is of an exemplarie vertue nay it will haplie be found that the World is but poorlie stored with persons whose accomplishments and perfections may come into the ballance with those of this Princesse Yet is it as certain that Antonia surpasses her in all things and though Heaven hath bestowed on her a Beautie of the first magnitude among those terrestrial constellations whose influences the earth adores and is guided by yet is this Beauty of her person much below that of her mind and that of her inclinations Never was there any one of her sex that had a mind fixed with so much soliditie refined by so much puritie and heightned by so great a disengagement from things that are inconsiderable and beneath her It discovers such a consonancy of sweetnesse and severity as amounts to a just moderation and all her actions are guided by so certain a rule that they defie whatever the most irreconcileable malice durst object against them I could tell you much more of her Sister and yet be in some fear I might not speak enough since it is undenyable that taking her in all things there cannot be any thing more accomplished then Antonia and it is generally acknowledged in Rome that Octavia the honour and ornament of her Time could not have furnished the World with any thing else that were more worthy her self or more like her Mother in all her great and excellent perfections It is not many years since Domitius Aenobarbus a man Illustrious enough by his extraction but much more for his great employments and the noble actions he did addressed his affections to Agrippina and afterwards became an earnest and constant Servant of hers And in regard his engagement in this design was not without the approbation of the Emperour Octavia and in a word of all those persons whose countenance he stood in need of Agrippina out of pure complyance with Octavia entertained his addresses with the esteem and acknowledgement she was obliged to and without any repugnance or violence of passion was resolved to submit to the disposal of those persons to whom she ought an obedience But on the contrary Antonia having a dis-inclination to love and an aversion for whatever had but the least appearance of gallantry had spent all the years of her life to this very last not onelie without loving but even without so much as enduring any discourse or indeed the least discoverie of any such thing though her extraordinarie Beautie and the amiable excellencies of her person had raised her no small number of servants among those of greatest qualitie upon earth Among the most eminent of those that had any thoughts for her Archelaus King of Cappadocia a young Prince of great valour and abundance of vertue was one of the first that declared himself a servant of hers and certainly if an excesse of merit heightned by services full of passion and respect might have had any influence on the heart of Antonia it was not improbable they should faile of their effection it on the behalf of that Prince His allyance with Caesar or rather his dependance on the Empire to which his dominions were tributary as were those of most Kings upon earth obliged him to be very much resident at Rome where all other Kings as well as he were forced to make their constant addresses to the Emperour T was in one of these voyages that he became a sacrifice to the fair eyes of Antonia and upon that account stayed longer in Rome then he had resolved to do Whole yeares past away ere he durst make his case known or any way discover himself to her who was the occasion of all his sufferings And though that during this time he travelled very much up and down either within his own Kingdom or into those of his next neighbours whither the war often drew him yet was his love his perpetual attendant and upon the least occasion brought him still to Rome where he had left the fair object of his passion When ever he felt in himself any inclination to discover to Antonia what he suffered for her sake her severitie and that modest fiercenesse she was subject to put him to immediate silence and whereas upon all other occasions he was never known to be awanting as to courage yet all that great confidence he was naturally master of proved as to this design absolutely unserviceable and that out of no other consideration then that he was not ignorant of the inflexible humour of Antonia But at last he ventured to break forth into speech after he had ushered in the discourse by thousands of actions which might have signified no lesse then what he spoke but this first overture of his proved so little to his satisfaction that for a long time after he could never reflect on it without a certain regret which must needs be the greater in that Antonia who till then had suffered his conversation as she would do
For my part fairest Antonia I am the greatest of your Enemies since that I am of all mankind the person that hath the greatest affection for you and I tell you that confidently which I should not without trembling were I not unknown to you You have seen and known the person while yet you were ignorant of his passion but now that the passion is discovered it is but fit the person should be concealed that onely his Love may be exposed to your indignation And since it is onely Love that you hate and not the persons that are inclined to love you if it be possible to engage the aversion you have for it with such good successe as that you may be entreated to be more favourable to it those who are guilty of no other crime will appear before you in a lesse odious posture when their crime is pardoned or at least connived at by your indulgence The most guilty of all those that commit any offences of this nature against you seeing himself reduced by your inflexible maximes to a cruel necessity of either holding his peace or concealing himself stands in suspence at the choice he is to make which though it be in appearance fantastick yet is in its consequences rational enough nay haply generous enough since that he cannot be charged with any consideration of his person but onely of his love and that it is to induce you to bear with his Love that he addresses himself to you and not to engage you to any affection towards his person which he conceals from you and which he shall conceal haply as long as belives Pardon him this innocent surprize which he intends your rigour and let onely your Beauty engage against him in a case wherein to punish the rashnesse of his attempt it wants not the assistance of your cruelty As soon as I had given over reading I looked on Antonia who at the same time cast her eyes on my face with certain discoveries of astonishment not inferiour to what I was in my self In a word we were both equally surprised and whereas we inferred from the first words of the Letter that it came from Mithridates we concluded from the sequele not onely the quite contrary but were perswaded withall that the person who had writ it had never made any expression of his love to Antonia and that in that Letter he took occasion to make the first discoveries of it 'T is true we were somewhat distrustful as to that opinion when we reflected on the first words which were the same she had said to Mithridates and could not apprehend how they could come by chance so pat into the imagination of the Unknown Lover but for all the rest it had so little relation or consistency either with the humour former proceeding of Mithridates or the terms wherein he was with Antonia that we were satisfied it must needs be some other and that one that either out of curiosity or concernment in the businesse might have gotten behind the trees that were on both sides the walk wherein the discourse had past and listening attentively to what was said had heard some part of it Being agreed in this opinion as the most probable we fell into discourse upon the adventure so far that Antonia thought there was some thing in it so full of surprise and so extraordinary that she could not be angry at it as she had been before at the confidence of Mithridates We searched among all the men I have named to you the person we could with any likelihood suspect but though it was out of all question that it was one of those that had passed the day with us yet after we had examined them all one after another we could not fasten on any one whom we could charge with it Divers of them had come neer Antonia as well during the Comedy as while they danced and at the Collation but of all those that she could remember had had any discourse with her there was not any whom we knew not to be otherwise engaged as to matter of affection or to be much awanting in point of ingenuity to carry on such a piece of gallantry When we had discovered almost to wearinesse about it Who it may be it matters not saies Antonia he puts himself to a great deal of trouble to no purpose and if he deprive me of the object of my indignation by concealing his person from me he also deprives himself continued she laughing of the acknowledgement I should return his affection by not discovering himself Ah Sister said I to her how well is this man acquainted with you and how true is it that if you were as ready to make acknowledgements as to be transported with indignation he would have taken a course quite contrary to what he hath but be he what he will I do not onely think him extreamly ingenious but I believe he may carry on his design very successefully and dare passe my word that you have a lesse aversion for him then for Mithridates and others who have been so confident as to discover their passions to you I acknowledge no lesse replies Antonia and am of your mind that if I never know him while I live I shall never while I live know whom I ought to hate However it may be replyed I t is out of all doubt this man hath Vnderstanding and in that understanding something that is great and signifies very visibly that he is a person of eminent quality we shall know him when he shall think it fit ... And I hope added Antonia interrupting me that if he be a man of his word we shall never know him In troth replyed I my mind gives me I should be extreamly troubled at it and must confesse this untroden way of proceeding hath raised in me a more than ordinary curiosity We should have had abundance of other discourse upon this adventure but it was so late or rather so neer day that we were loath to sit up any longer so that going to bed a little after we soon fell asleep For some dayes ensuing though it might well be thought that the misfortunes of my own life being at that time such as found matter of discontent enough should have left me but little curiosity I made it my earnest businesse to find out whom that Letter should come from nay seemed to be much more concerned in the business than Antonia her self who looked on all these things with the greatest indifference imaginable And what much heightned my inquisition was that me thought the adventure argued somewhat so far beyond the ordinary way of proceeding that contrary to my natural inclination I was extreamly desirous to see the issue of it But all the little inquiries I made proved ineffectual for I never could come to the least discovery of any thing with so great circumspection had that person managed all things in order to the design he had to continue still unknown though
and calling to mind all the occasions upon which I had observed too great familiarity between Elisena and Cleontes I was astonished at my own blindnesse or rather inadvertency and upon that came to my memory a hundred circumstances which I condemned all as criminal O ye gods how did this fatal discovery eat into my heart to make a place there for the greatest grief it could be capable of And what deplorable effects did that self-tormenting passion immediately produce there This black impression wrought a kind of Metamorphosis in me insomuch that I was become quite another man than what I was some daies before Being thus convinced of my want of circumspection and consequently of any misfortune I railed at Fortune I quarrelled with heaven and I took any occasion to discover my affliction Is it possible said I that one that is so dear to my heart this great example of vertue and tonjugal love hath so soon turned bankrupt as to all vertuous inclinations and lost all the affection she had promised me Or if she never were vertuous nor had any real affection for her Husband is it possible she should be so well read in the art of dissimulation as to â—conceale it from a mans knowledge with so much artifice for so long time How can that Elisena to whom I had absolutely sacrificed my heart that Elisena for whose sake onely I love my life prove unconstant to me and it may be dishonour me O inexpressible cruelty of my destiny against which it cannot be expected my courage should be able to rescue me O Heaven O Fortune what resolutions would you have me to take Shall I ever be able to hate what I have so affectionately loved and from hatred can I proceed to revenge against an object so dear to my heart and that the only object of all my affections But if I do not I shall be insensible of the persidiousnesse of an ungrateful woman and can I with an unparalleld basenesse endure those extraordinary affronts which must needs blast my honour for ever Hatred Love you that divide my heart between you let either one or the other give place and persecute not my soul with perpetual uncertainties and irresolutions Many dayes did I spend in these reflections and discourses while in the mean time my countenance began to change with my humour and the alteration that happened there was so observable that all the World took notice of it Elisena was one of the first that observed it and by all demonstrations and expressions of love took occasion to discover the grief she conceived thereat but her carriage towards Cleontes was still after the old rate And whereas my eies were nowâ— much more open than they were before and discerned all things after another manner then I had done in times past methought I could perceive in all her actions so much tendernesse and so much love for Cleontes that I made it no more a question but that I was as unfortunate as I had imagined my self I saw the whole day in a manner was little enough for them to spend together they had ever and anon some secret or other to communicate one to another and when they were at too great a distance to speak one to another they discoursed by their eies and cast looks at one another that were more eloquent than any thing of conversation and this to the observation of all the World as well as my self This alteration seemed very strange insomuch that all those that had known Elisena a little before could not without an excess of astonishment make any comparison between these sallies of lightnesse and liberty and her former reservednesse and modesty True it is neverthelesse that notwithstanding all those demonstrations of affection that past between her and Cleontes her carriage towards me was as it had been ever before and I could never porceive either from her discourse or her countenance that there was any abatement or remission in her love towards me or that she was lesse taken with my person then at the first hour of our marriage Her caresses and her insinuations were still the same she spoke with the same sweetnesse and acted with the same complyance save that she did it not so constantly as in times past that she left me often to go and discourse with Cleontes and bestowed on his entertainment the best part of those houres which she had before onely devoted to mine At last my grief was seconded and reinforced by my resentment of those things and after I had been a long time sad and melancholy I became at length exasperated and studying how to be revenged of Cleontes I began to discover to Elisena how that her caresses had not over me that influence they were wont to have that I looked on them as the pure effects of artifice and dissimulation and that I felt my soul changed from the love I sometime had for her to the passion that was most contrary thereto I gave over looking kindly on her I took a bed by my self and by degrees forbore all discourse with her She seemed to be as much troubled at this alteration as the most affectionate woman in the World could possibly be and gave me all the demonstrations of a grief as violent as any soul can be able to endure She used all the insinuation that could be she melted into tears and omitted nothing which she could imagine might perswade me that she was really moved In some intervals I was extreamly sensible of those expressions of her affliction and those imperious remainders of love that were yet left in my soul did partly produce therein the effect she desired but a little after through the cruel prejudice that had taken root there all was dashed out again and I had no more regard to what she did then as if it had been meer personation and sycophancy At last after a many dayes silence she would needs force me to speak and having found me all alone in my chamber whither I was often wont to retire since the change of my humour she runs to me with her face bathed in tears and grasping my both hands with an action full of earnestnesse and passion Ah my dearest Husband said she to me shall I be any longer unhappy and not know the cause of my unhappinesse And will you by so many several expressions make it appear to all the World that I am odious in your sight and not acquaint me by what horrid misfortune I have lost your affection Am I lesse worthy of it now then I have been formerly by reason of some defect which you have discovered in my person or have I made my self unworthy of it by any offence I have committed against you To these words she added a many others no lesse earnest and pressed upon me so far that I could not forbear making her some answer Madam said I to her methinks you take abundance of pains to expresse with your
sets his men to kill him but upon the mediation of Cleopatra he is proffered life and liberty He refusing both is again set upon kills Aristus Zenodorus and divers others and keeps all in play so long till a ship of Alexandria coming in quest of Cleopatra comes to his relief The ships being ready to close Artaxus threatens to kill the two Princesses whereupon the Egyptian Vessel wherein were the Princes Alexander and Marcellus dares not fasten on the other Artaxus would have put his barbarous design upon the Princesses in execution but is miraculously prevented by Coriolanus who thrusting him to the other side of the ship sets himself before the Princesses Marcellus taking his advantage upon that interval boards the Armenian Alexander would have killed Artaxus but upon the mediation of Artemisa forbeans yet he scorning life from an enemy falls upon his own sword Coriolanus is charged with and at last informed what his ancient infidelity to Marcellus and Cleopatra was promises to clear himself and is promised to be restored to Cleopatra's affection Marcellus Alexander and the two Princesses return to Alexandria whither the body of Artaxus is brought by Megacles who in his way set Coriolanus ashore to find out some means to approve himself a faithful lover and servant of Cleopatra THis was the conclusion of Zenodorus's discourse and when he had given over speaking the King of Armenia acknowledged his obligations to him for the proffers he had made him of his Services and by way of requital promised him that as soon as they were arrived in Armenia he would furnish him with all the assistance he could desire either to restore him to his Estate again that he might spend the rest of his life in quiet or put him to sea in as good a condition as he had been in some daies before Zenodorus told him on the other side that it was neither prudence nor safe for him to make any stay in Armenia because of the Friends of Elisena who could not look on him without a certain horrour and therefore he relied more upon the hopes he had put him into of his furtherances in that course of life which he was resolved to follow Artaxus who by this unexpected supply was twice as strong as he had been before in men not onely well versed in Sea-affaires but much acquainted with those coasts was not a little glad of the adventure and out of a design of engaging Zenodorus the more to serve him he thought it not amisse to discover to him all that had passed how things then stood and related to him the manner how he had brought away the Princesse Cleopatra and Artemisa and how that his intentions were to carry them to Armenia as soon as the wind should serve The Pirate was infinitely pleased to see a King fallen into that course of life which he had followed for so many yeares and being almost out of himself for joy that he had such a companion he encouraged him in his enterprise and promised him successe in it or that he would perish in his Service These two soules neer of the same making were extreamly glad at this renewing of their acquaintance but Megaeles a person of a quite different disposition and one that could not without a certain regreet endure the violences of his Master looked on the Pirate with horrour and had shed many teares at the unfortunate adventure of the deplorable Elisena Having therefore taken his rest which he should otherwise have done out of a consideration of his indisposition during the whole time that this relation had lasted Artaxus thinking it long since he had seen the Princesse Cleopatra rose up from his bed and was going to her chamber But before he was gotten into it calling to mind that vertuous unknown person in whose commendation Megacles had spoken such great things and though he were of a cruell nature yet upon the account of his courage which indeed was very great in him having a certain esteem for noble and generous persons he would needs give him a visit and so went to the place where he was in his bed The unknown person lifted himselfe half up at his coming in for having heard the word King often spoken of in the vessel out of an imagination that he might be the King himself who did him that civility he received him with abundance of respect and with as great demonstrations of cheerfulnesse as might be expected from so deep a melancholy as he then groaned under The place was something dark and the day almost spent but it was not long e're torches were brought in by the light whereof the King soon discovered the gracefulnesse of the unknown person which raised in him not onely astonishment but much respect for him The first discourse he made to him was to expresse how much he was satisfied with the assistances he had received from Megacles repeating some part of those proffers which Megacles had made him before and the unknown person on the other side though he entertained them not as one that had any intention to make advantage of them yet acknowledged how great an obligation he had laid upon him and did it in such termes and with such a grace as raised no small admiration in the Armenian Having understood by the account Megacles had given of him that he was a person much inclined to Vertue he thought it not fit to let him know any thing of his carrying away of Cleopatra as conceiving he might not approve of it whence it may be inferred that Vertue hath this advantage that even in the persons of the miserable she raises a fear of her self in the most happy and most powerfull He told him that he had to his no small satisfaction understood that since his coming into the ship he had lost some part of that aversion which he had for life or at least that he would not prove his own executioner as he had intended the day before The unknown person made him answer that as to matter of Life it was no dearer to him then it had been when he had endeavoured to rid himself of it but that having called to mind a certain obligation that lay upon him to continue it till such time as he should be disengaged from it he had resolved to make one attempt more to meet with some opportunity to do it and consequently not die with a regreet of having omitted any part of his duty That discourse ended the King asked him whether he would goe along with him in a voyage he intended to make with the first fair wind or if he had no inclinations to that whether he had in some other designe any occasion of his assistance The unknown person made answer that not able to imagine how he could do him any service by reason of the despicable condition whereto fortune had reduced him and satisfied on the other side that being unserviceable he must needs be troublesome he made
no proffers of his company but entreated him that e're they set saile thence he would order him to be set somewhere ashore Some further complements past between them but at last the King remembring where he was to goe and impatient to see the Princesse put a period to the discourse and having left the unknown to his rest which he seemed very much to want he went to the chamber where Cleopatra was He came to her with a countenance wherein through the Love it discovered was visible some part of the discontent he was in and not able to dissemble the occasion of it All things Madam said he to her are contrary to me all things oppose me while you are against me nay the winds themselves which seem to depend of another power than yours will never turn to do me any service while I am hatefull in your sight You may thence also infer replied the Princesse the injustice of your designes since that where there is a want of the assistance of men the very Elements fight against you We must not alwaies replied Artaxus measure the justice of the intentions by the easinesse of the obstacles which we meet within the execution of them and if you lay that down as a generall rule without any exception you must consequently reconcile Fortune and Vertue who are seldome found to be very great Friends I am of your mind as to that replies the Princesse and if Fortune did take part with justice and afford her assistances to vertue 't is out of all question that you had been e're this punished for the violence you do me or at least I should not be your Captive Ah Madam saies the King of Armenia do not call her my captive who her self hath me in chaines and disposes of me with a soveraign power I pray give me leave onely to dispose of my self saies Cleopatra interrupting him since that there 's no Law in the world that gives you any power over me The Lawes of Nations replies Artaxus are of much lesse authority than those of Love and it is onely to these latter that men such as we are that like so many stars of the greatest magnitude are of the highest quality ought to submit themselves By this law of Love whatever my passion puts me upon is justifiable and all that I could alleadge as concerning the affronts and injuries I have received from your house hath much lesse of argument in it than this imperious reason It was with no small trouble that Cleopatra endured not onely the discourse but even the presence of the King of Armenia and notwithstanding her reservednesse no question but she had treated him with a great deale of scorn and contempt had it not been out of a consideration of Artemisa whose condition pitied her no lesse than her owne and a conceit withall that there was no way to keep Artaxus within the bounds of civility and respect but by an excesse of patience Supper was brought them in and the King to expresse his complyance permitted them to eat alone as knowing they would look on it as a favour and endeavouring by such behaviour to dissemble the resolution he had taken to make use of his power when he were gotten off a little further from a Countrey where he was not over-confident of the safety of his prize He spent some part of the night in discourses of the same nature with the precedent and when he thought it time to leave the Princesses to their rest he withdrew into his own chamber and before he lay down gave order that a good strong guard should be set in the ship to prevent all designes the Princesses might have to get away in the dark The two Princesses passed away this night as they had done the precedent save that they were in a much greater feare of their sudden departure than before if it were not prevented by some unexpected assistance from heaven and the kindnesse of the winds which did them all the favour they could Artaxus tormented with his Love and a fear of loosing his beautifull prize could sleep but little The unknown person disburthened himself of frequent sighs which were heard by some in the vessel that were nearest him And Zenodorus bursting almost with grief and rage for the losses he had received had much adoe to find any rest The day hardly began to appear when upon the first dawning of it those who were upon the watch discovered a vessell which being gotten somewhat neer them while the darknesse was not yet dissipated made all the saile she could towards them as having a very good wind that indeed in a manner forced them upon the shore They immediately gave the alarme and all being prepared and in expectation of an engagement with the other ship all that were able to bear armes took them and came up upon the deck in order to a fight There were much more armes in the ship than were requisite for the number of men that were in her insomuch that the Sea-men who minded onely the conduct of the ship could not as she then lay be any way employed as being in such a posture as they were loath to quit by reason of the advantage of the place which was so advantageous that the enemy could not assault them but by one onely side Zenodorus and Megacles having put all into armes and there being as I told you but one side to make good they fortified it with men and put it into such a posture of defence that it was as defensible as if they had had a far greater number of men This charge did Zenodorus and Megacles take upon them because of the wounds which the King had received not long before whereby he was still a little indisposed and would fain have had him kept his bed but he would by no meanes take their advice by reason of the great concernment which he had to make his party good and accordingly starting out of his bed upon the first alarme he called for armes and came up upon the deck in the posture of a man that wanted not either courage or confidence Zenodorus and Megacles walked up and down the ship putting all things into good order and Artaxus shewing himself among his own people in a posture of fighting personally with them endeavoured to encourage them as well by example as by words He omitted nothing of all that he thought might any waies animate them to fight and promiseth them extraordinary rewards if they behaved themselves gallantly and came off with honour During all this time the other vessell drew nearer and nearer and when it was come within a competent distance Zenodorus discovered by the flag that it was one of those ships that belonged to the Praetor Cornelius and which ordinarily lay in the port of Alexandria This discovery exasperated him not a little as calling to mind the wounds he had received and the great losses he had suffered by the same enemies
cannot expresse the experiences I have found of it but by my silence and confusion I shall therefore acquaint you as well with what past at Meroe as what hath been done in Aethiopia since your departure thence whereof the relation cannot be long because it can amount to no more then a diary of some few daies actions and afterwards what hath happened to my self since it hath been my businesse to find you out Now it comes into my mind added Candace when I entertained this fair Princesse with a relation of our adventures I forgot to give her an account after what manner you got off from that bloudy battel which with a handful of men you gave the great and numerous army of Tirabasus and where you were left for dead and passed for such in my apprehension as you did in the general opinion of all the World till the day that I saw you again in the garden at Meroe And though you since told me something of it yet was it so confusedly that as well for that reason as that I thought not fit to confound that discourse with the perfect relation I had to entertain the Princesse with of other things I made not the least mention thereof So that it shall be your businesse to acquaint her with that particularity which is all she wants of your adventures to your returne to Meroe and then we shall be glad to know what hath happened to you since my departure thence The discourse you have to make you will I know contract what you can by reason of the disturbance I shall be in if you make any long abode in this place where I cannot look on you without fear as knowing what danger you expose your self to With these words the Princesses having called Vrinoe who onely remained in the Chamber entreated her to take such order as that there should not come neer them any of the slaves that had been appointed to waite on them and to have a care with Clitia that they might not be surprised After this precaution given the Prince having seated himself between them as the Queen had commanded him after a recollection of some few minutes to recal into his mind the things whereof his discourse was to consist began it at length in these terms The continuation of the HISTORY OF CAESARIO I Must needs confesse that in the battle wherein with 16000. men the greatest part wounded and unfit for service I engaged with an Army of 100000. I did not do like an experienced General or a man that had before commanded Armies and gained Victories But it is also to be acknowledged that it was not out of any hope of victory that I came into the field but meerly out of a desire to dye proceeding from the despaire whereto the misfortunes of my great Queen had reduced me and to endeavour even at my death to shake if not overthrow the perfidious usurper of her Crown and Liberty Besides having considered all things I found my self not in a condition to make my party good by retreating before the army of Tiribasus which was come of a sudden upon us into that very field where not many dayes before I had defeated 35000. men and killed Antenor the Brother of Tiribasus by whom they were commanded I shall not therefore spend any further time to justifie that action which will be thought more pardonable among persons prepossessed by a violent passion such as was that of mine then among persons experienced in the businesse of war and consequently shall onely tell you that I was not fortunate enough to effect what I had undertaken though I had the happinesse to see Tiribasus fall in the midst of his men with two or three wounds about him and had this comfort in my misfortune that with the losse of my own I saw the field covered with a number of carkases three times greater then that which I could make when I first came into it At last it was my lot to fall loaden with wounds amongst those that covered the ground with their carkases and as my good fortune would have it my faithfull Governour Eteocles who still kept as near me as he could having fought it out a little longer fell also not far from me with such wounds about him as had deprived him of all sence and apprehension The Enemy spent the remainder of the day in shipping the dead and in burying or burning their friends but in regard that about that place where we were the air was grown a little infectious by reason of the precedent battle the Generalls thought not fit to make any longer stay there and thereupon marching all away in the night they encamped at a good distance thence upon the way to Meroe insomuch that there were none left in the Fields but the dead or at least what were thought such by those that left them Now the wounds of Eteocles proving not very great and that his weaknesse proceeded not so much from their danger as the great losse of blood he had undergone he made a shift to recover himself assoon as it was night and I am in this extreamly obliged to him that e're he had bestowed many minutes to reflect on the condition he was in himself he came to see what was become of me He sought me out and with much ado found me notwithstanding the darkenesse because I was not far from him and crawling along as he could to get a little nearer me he came and felt me all over trying by all the waies he could whether there were any life in me The cold air of the night stayed the bleeding of my wounds insomuch that Eteocles finding me cold as ice all over his first apprehensions concluded me absolutely departed this world but at last laying his hand on my breast he found by the palpitation of my heart that there were some small remainders of life in me The weak hope which this unexpected discovery raised in him filled him with all the joy he could in that condition be capable of and though he took abundance of paines about me to recover me to some degree of sensibility yet all his endeavours proved ineffectuall insomuch that the whole night which at that time of the year was of the shortest was over e're he could do any good with me He many times endeavoured to get upon his feet and to go seek out some held but his weaknesse was such that he was not able and e're he could halfe get up he fell down again by me I shall not trouble you either with the complaints that fell from him or the griefe it was to him that he could not effect what he desired and it were but to make my relation the more tedious to insist upon such frivolous particulars The Sun was gotten into his chariot when I first began to open my eies and to breath in such manner that Eteocles perceived it He immediately creeps neerer my face almost out of himselfe
on the wretched condition I was in I had almost cast my self through my own despair into that danger out of which they took so much pains to deliver me Whereof this certainly must be the reason that the violent desire of death which had forced me to engage in the sight being not yet gotten out of my mind I should in all likelihood have followed what that inspired me with and had rendred the endeavours of those that took so much trouble upon them about my recovery absolutely ineffectuall had it not been for the continuall sollicitations and importunity of Eteocles for whom I have ever had a very great esteem and a most affectionate friendship I shall not trouble you with a repetition of all those reasons whereby he endeavoured to make me apprehend that I did not onely betray a great want of prudence but that I was guilty of a capitall crime against my Love by courting my own death at a time that my life might be necessary for the Queens service and that since I had not received any tidings that she was either dead or married to Tiribasus there was no reason I should rush into extremities which I might overtake time enough when those misfortunes were come to passe To be short he pressed these things to me with so much reason and conviction that I began to acknowledge the truth of them and to submit to his judgement that it was not well done of me to hazard upon such light grounds a life which I had bestowed and consequently could not dispose of my self while she that was the Mistresse of it might expect any service out of it Upon this consideration I was content they should endeavour my recovery and entertained with great acknowledgements the care they took of me Asson as I had arrived to such a degree of recovery as that I was able to endure discourse Eteocles came and told me what place I was in and by what adventure I was brought thither and at the same time acquainted me what aversion Eurinoe had had for me upon account of the death of her Brother and her Love and what affection she had conceived for me of a sudden Now his health being in a much better posture then mine as having given over keeping his bed while I was yet in great danger he had had more leasure to informe himself of all that he was desirous to know and had understood that Eurinoe was a widow of very great quality that her friends and her husband had alwaies kept her at a distance from the Court that she had had two Brothers very deeply involved in the interests of Tiribasus whereof the younger was slain in the late Battle and the elder had staied at Meroe by the orders of Tiribasus who affected him very much and reposed great trust in him that she had been very earnestly courted since her widow-hood by that Teramenes on whom she had bestowed so many teares a person it seems of very great worth and very amiable as to his person that she had loved him very dearly and that after many great traverses and revolutions she was upon the point of marrying him with the consent of her friends when death deprived her of him Eteocles acquainting me with all these things told me withall how circumspectly I should carry my self that I might not be discovered by any other persons then those whom Eurinoe was forced to trust with that secret not doubting but that if such a misfortune should happen my life must needs be in manifest danger as well by reason of the rage of Eurinoe's brother as the near relation he had to Tiribasus who out of all question would never suffer me to live should he once find out where I were retired But as things stood the security of that secret consisted not altogether in our circumspection for Eurinoe was so much concerned in it her self not onely out of the desire she had to preserve a person on whom she had bestowed her affection but also for fear of her brothers indignation whose savage humor she was acquainted with that she omitted nothing which in point of care or caution might be expected from her I shall not presume my great Princesses before you whose beauties eclipse what ever is beautifull in all nature to say any thing of the beauty of Eurinoe but certainly among the beauties of the rank next inferiour to the first and chiefest the might very well passe for a handsome woman somewhat duskish not absolutely black the lineaments of her face very good of a good stature and in a word one of the handsomest persons that ever I met with in Aethiopia I should commend her farther were it not that you would imagine fairest Queen that in the commendations of her beauty I should have no other design then to celebrate my own sidelity Assoon as I was grown any thing capable of conversation I had her perpetually at my bed-side and I soon observed in all her deportment what Eteocles had told me before of her affection Her modesty indeed was such that she would not in words discover what her heart was burthened with but her eies betraied some part of it and all her actions sufficiently confirmed the observation which Eteocles had made of her During some few daies at first while the successe of my recovery was yet doubtfull and my fever very violent she said little to me and I saw her not but at some certain times but when I was a little recovered and permitted to discourse she was very liberall of her company She was one day at my bed-side where she seemed to be extreamly satisfied to see my health in so good a posture when I venturing to speak more than I had done before took occasion to give her thanks and to make all the acknowledgement I could of her care and tendernesse towards me and commended the generosity she exercised towards a man who had been of a party contrary to that of her Friends and withall so unfortunate as by the chance of war to do her a displeasure She patiently bore with my discourse and taking her advantage of my silence My lord said she to me I have done no more for you than your vertue deserved but shall entreat you not to attribute meerly to a consideration of generositie all that I have done to serve you After you had not onely been the death of my Brother but also deprived me of a person I infinitely loved and one with whom I was upon the point of marriage there was no reflection of generosity strong enough to oblige me to do an action whereby I cannot but incur if it be known the reproaches of all the world and the indignation of all my kinred and you may therefore well judge that it must proceed from some more powerfull motive that I conceived my self engaged to relieve you I shall take it upon what ground you please replied I but you will give me leave to imagine
of the chains of the Pirates as she had related to Philadelph two daies before These last obligations put upon them by Britomarus were of such consequence that in a mind such as was that of Arsinoe they could have produced no lesse then an acknowledgment equal thereto and when that in the person of that great Artaban whom she looked on as a man whose sword decided the fates of Empires she found that of Britomarus to whom she ought her honour and her brothers liberty shâ— could not avoid being seized by a violent surprise yet such withal 〈◊〉 was delightful and brought with it no less satisfaction then astonishment Nor indeed either could she or would she dissemble it and thereupon coming up to him with such a confidence as she might have expressed towards a most affectionate brother What Britomarus said she to him are you then that great Artaban whose fame fills the universe and who under that illustrious name of Artaban are pleased to conceal from us that of Britomarus to whom I stand engaged for my own honour and my Brothers life The other three Princesses could not but wonder very much at this discourse of Arsinoe but indeed Artaban could do no lesse himself as considering with himself not without astonishment how Fortune in so smal a space of time should bring together out of several Kingdoms that lay at a great distance one from another the onely three persons for whom he ever had conceived affection The presence of Elisa as things then stood put him into some little disorder and yet not willing to be thought insensible of the civility he had received from Arsinoe for whom he had infinite respects after he had saluted her with as much submission as he could have done even when his affections were most violent for her Madam said he to her the same fortune that makes Delia's and Arsinoe's may also make Artaban's and Britomarus's and under both these names I continue towards the Princesse Arsinoe a respect which nothing shall ever be able to make me forget Elisa during this discourse being gotten close to Arsinoe What Madam said she to her it seems you are acquainted with Artaban Since Britomarus is the same with Artaban replies Arsinoe I dare tell you Madam that I knew him before you and shal further let you know that I have much reason to be acquainted with him since that not to mention the addresses he sometime made to me in my own Country even while he was yet very young he hath within a small time by his admirable valour and with the hazard of his life preserved that which amongst us is counted most precious and delivered my brother out of the hands of the Pirates What Sister cries out Olympia is it than to the great Artaban that we are obliged for the safety of Ariobarzanes It is so Sister replies Arsinoe t is to him that we are obliged for him and I believe let him go which way he will he shall every where meet with persons engaged to his fortunate valour If your considerations are limited by the engagements you have to my valour replied Artaban you may reflect onely on services which you might justly have expected from all those persons whom fortune had favoured with the same opportunities to do them but if you call to mind that over-confidence as you thought it which you punished with so much severity and disdain while I continued in Armenia you will haply conceive your self more obliged to my crime then my services and that I had presented you with a thing at that time which might have made a greater impression in your memory then that little relief for which you are endebted onely to my sword These words made Arsinoe blush and while she was considering what answer she should make Candace not well affording her the the time to do it Ah Madam said she to her might it please the gods that the wish I made some minutes since may be accomplished and that it were true that Britomarus were guilty of the same infidelity towards you which you so much approved or at least thought so excusable by reason of the noble cause thereof For matter of infidelity replies Artaban I am not guilty of any towards the fair Arsinoe for she never accepted of my fidelity nor entertained the respect I had for her with any obligation But certain it is Madam that when I left you I brought away this young heart which was upon my first inclinations grown confident enough and laid it at the feet of Arsinoe and that without all question I had spent my whole life in that engagement if the rigour of this Princesse and the pleasure of my destiny reserving me for another vassaâ—age had not involved me in other chains for which I should willingly forsake with all it contains that is most excellent the Empire of the whole World But who can be confident saies Elisa to him not with too much earnestnesse that these last chains will not be broken as the former were and what â—eauty in the world can be secured against your inconstancy since that of these two fair Priecesses hath not been able to fix it I am very confident replies Artaban that she whose vassal I now particularly professe my self to be is not in any fear I should break the chains I am in and am far from thinking my self so happy as to put her into any fear which might raise me to a degree of felicity whereto I am not yet arrived Might it please the gods I were on those terms with her for I should find it no hard matter to 〈◊〉 her that I conceive my slavery too too glorious for me to imagine there is any need of fidelity to continue in it These few words he thought sufficient as to that point and Elisa was satisfied therewith not insisting upon any further matter of justification to be convinced of a fidelity which she had experienced in so many extraordinary demonstrations Upon that account was it that she fell upon some other discourse and so asked Artaban by what miraculous means he had escaped out of the sea into which she had seen him cast himself and being satisfied for that day she could not hope to have any private discourse with him she entreated him to relate before those Princesses by what strange waies he had escaped and in what manner he had spent his life since their unexpected separation Artaban was preparing himself to obey her commands conceiving as she did that he must needs expect till some other more favourable opportunity to enter into private discourse with her when there come into the room Agrippa Philadelph Ariobarzanes Ovid and some others who had dined that day with Agrippa Arioborzanes and Philadelph how impatient soever they might be to see their beloved Princesses from whom after so cruel an absence they could hardly bear with one that took up onely some few minutes found that desire when they were come to
danger and wherein you have received such barbarous entertainment And is Artemisa still so happy as to have the continuance of your affections after she had put them to such terrible tryals Assure your self my Lord replies Alexander that for what I have suffered for Artemisa I place abundance of glory and happinesse in it and the reflection I should make thereupon must needs be very pleasant if I am so fortunate as to find you in sentiments as much to my advantage as those of King Artaxus were to my prejudice Ah my Lord replies Ariobarzanes make not the least doubt but I shall acknowledge the great honour you do our house and be confident that notwithstanding I am the son of Artabasus I shall have my eies so far open as to consider how little you have contributed to the misfortunes of our Family No I have still fresh in my memory the first expressions of your friendship and I should have disclaimed my Sister had she not done what she hath for your safety especially in an extremity whereto you were reduced meerly for your love to her I shall not therefore tell you she is yours for you have but too much interest in her for any man to dispute her with you but I shall for your further confidence make this protestation to you and that truely and sincerely that your affection to her cannot be greater than the earnest desire I have to serve you both in your mutual inclinations Alexander almost out of himself for joy to hear Ariobarzanes in these expressions comes up close to him whereupon these two Princes embraced one another with so many discoveries of a reall friendship that the whole company could not forbear taking notice of it not without much sympathy and satisfaction Artemisu could not smother the felicity she conceived therein as seeing her self after so many storms prosperously arrived into so happy a Port and finding by reason of the sweet and generous disposition of Ariobarzanes her fortune much different from what it had been some few daies before While her thoughts were the most taken up to find out terms to expresse her satisfaction or rather to moderate it she accidentally cast her eies on Prince Philadelph whom till then by reason of the disturbance she was in and the many illustrious persons she had seen before she had not taken any particular notice of And after she had looked on him for some time very earnestly she found him to be that Prince of Cilicia whom she had met with some daies before and who had entertained her with a relation of his noble inclinations for Delia and who upon the point of their parting had so gallantly defended the Princesse Cleopatra against those that would have carried her away Artemisa upon this occasion conceived such an esteem for Prince Philadelph and was so much moved at the relation of his loves to Delia that she could not look on him without expressing an extraordinary joy thereat Whereupon coming to him with a countenance wherein were visible the great kindnesse she had for him What my Lord said she to him I have it seems the good fortune to see you again and the liberty withall once more to assure you of the esteem which I have conceaved for your admirable vertue Philadelph whose joy had had put him into so much disorder as Artemisas could have done her and who waited the opportunity to discover himself to Artemisa and to put her in mind of their last meeting kissing one of her fair hands with the greatest submission that might be Madam said he to her my fortunate meeting with you proved the prologue to that good fortune which the gods have been pleased to send me since and you may also inferre thence that I was not absolutely blinded by my passion when I took you for Delia. How extreamly I was moved at your relation replies Artemisa the gods onely know and consequently you may well think your self obliged to let me know immediately whether you have had any tidings since of that Delia for whom you pretended so extraordinary an affection These words of Artemisa causing Philadelph to look on the Princesse Arsinoe with a smiling countenance I know not Madam said he to her whether it be any prudence in me to acknowledge my inconstancy to you but I cannot forbear making this confession to you that that Delia for whom I had so much affection hath resigned up all the right and title she had in my heart to the Princesse Arsinoe your Sister Ah Philadelph cries out the Princesse with some precipitation though my Sister were the most amiable person in the World I should never approve that change in your inclinations and I should no longer continue that esteem towards you which I some time had for you if I thought you could be guilty of any such infidelity These words fell from her with so much earnestnesse that Philadelph could not forbear laughing at it in such a manner as put him afterwards into a little disorder and more sport might have been made of it if by reason of the death of Artaxus civility had not obliged them to a more serious conversation And yet Arsinoe thinking it sit to make some rejoinder to the former discourse What Sister said she to Artemisa it seems you would advise Philadelph to prefer a person he never knew before me She said but these few words but the action wherewith they were pronounced raised at first some suspicion in Artemisa which afterward grew into a satisfaction in some measure as to the truth of that businesse With that reflection looking on them both with a countenance wherein were legible the characters of her astonishment Ah Philadelph said she to him is it possible that Arsinoe and Delia should be the same person Philadelph who thought it unseasonable to continue that lightnesse of discourse any longer discovered the whole truth to her and telling her that that Delia whom he had professed so much love to in his relation was the Princesse Arsinoe her Sister put her into such an astonishment that for a long time there fell nothing from her but exclamations which once over she embraced a hundred times together that amiable Delia and entertained Philadelph with all the caresses she could expresse towards a beloved Brother Ariobarzanes who all this time was in discourse with Alexander had neverthelesse taken notice of what had passed between his Sisters and Philadelph And when that first astonishment of Artemisa was over taking her by the hand and presenting her to Olympia who stretched out her arms to her with much affection What Sister said he to her would you bestow all your caresses on Philadelph and Arsinoe and will not look on my Princesse here her I say to whom I not onely owe my life but have sacrificed it to make her satisfaction in some measure for what I am obliged to her Artemisa without any difficulty cast her self into the arms of Olympia in whom
but that time expired she got up any having understood what quality Elisa was of and had some account of Candace and finding her self inclined to a great esteem and affection for both she would put off no longer the returne of a civility which she conceived she ought them and going out of her own chamber with her woman Camilla she went to that of Elisa The two Princesses quarrelled very much at her for that strictnesse of ceremony and seemed to be very much troubled that she had taken so little time to rest considering the great trouble and hardship she had undergone But she made them answer that the rest which her body might require was not so considerable to her as the obligation she thought lay upon her to return their civilities nor so deare to her as the honour to wait on them which she was not able to dispense with any longer after she had been deprived of their sight with so much precipitation The two Princesses made her answer with equall civility and whereas Candace was already passionately in love with her as well out of a consideration of her excellent endowments which might produce that effect in any one as upon the account of Caesario and was very desirous to be more intimately acquainted with her looking on her in a most passionate manner As for the fair Princesse of the Parthians said she to her whose extraordinary merit makes an immediate assault on all hearts and whose illustrious birth is known to you she may without any unjust presumption claim some place in your friendship and there are few soules can stand out long against her charmes if she thinkes fit to make use of the battery thereof But for one whom you have no other account of then that she is a person of some quality born in Ethiopia and cannot aspire above a mediocrity of parts she cannot rationally hope for the same advantage if in some measure to ballance those wherein Elisa so much excells her she could not pretend to something that more particularly recommends her to your notice For matter of recommendation replied the Princesse smiling at the modesty of her discourse there is so much legible in your face that it were supererogatory in you to look for any elsewhere and as for your being born in Ethiopia you are never for that the lesse worthy of our affections and our respects I am not I must confesse made absolutely acquainted with your birth though I have understood something of it but besides what I have observed of the Princesse Elisa's familiarity and behaviour towards you there are a many other arguments whence I inferre that your quality must needs be of the highest and I shall haply know more of it when you shall be so well acquainted with me as to think I may be trusted with a secret of that consequence I know not replied the Queen whether I can with civility distrust you but besides the bent of my own inclination which naturally engages me into a very great confidence of you I have haply some very particular reasons to discover that to you which I have not to any but the Princesse of the Parthians And therefore to begin with something I shall make no difficulty to acknowledge my self to be Candace Queen of Ethiopia whom Fortune hath been pleased to cast on these coasts and that dispossessed of a Kingdome which she hath since recovered by the assistance of a person not unknown to you Upon this discourse of Candace Cleopatra asked her pardon in case through an ignorance of her quality she had been awanting as to point of civility towards her and gave her many thankes for the confidence she was pleased to repose in her with a protestation that she should make no other advantages of that acknowledgement of her then such as might give her the occasions to serve her if she should be so happy as to find them And thereupon reflecting on the last words that fell from her whereby she confessed her self obliged for the recovery of her Crown to a person of her acquaintance May I pretend to so much happinesse said she to her as that there should be a person within the reach of my knowledge that may have done you a service of so great importance as that you tell me of and can I beg his name of you without presuming too farre upon the confidence you have honoured me with I hope it will not be long replied Candace ere I shall make you far greater discoveries of him than that of his name and it may be renew your affectionate inclinations towards a person upon whose account I presume so much upon your friendship but till that happen give me leave to aske you whether you did not see Cleomedon in the house where Prince Alexander made some little abode upon his arrivall neer Alexandria It is very true replied Cleopatra that I have seen him in that house where I staid one night and some part of the next day till such time as I was carried away thence Alexander procured me the sight of him in his bed which he was confined to by reason of some wounds so that I could not see him with as much advantage in that condition as no question I should have done in another But to measure him by that little observation I then made of him I perceived as well in his countenance as his discourse something that argued a certain grandeur much beyond the ordinary rate of men and it now comes into my mind that my Brother procured me that sight of him as a person of a great and noble fame and told me withall that his name was much cried up in Ethiopia for many famous victories Alexander replies Candace hath told you no more of him than Truth will justifie but I am in hope that he will bring both you and Alexander those tidings of a person whom you once thought very deare which may prove very advantageous to me and very much further the designe I have to purchase your friendship and it is for that onely reason that I asked you whether you had seen him and that I am desirous to give you another sight of him before this night be quite passed if you give me the liberty to do it It cannot be replied the fair Princesse but too great a satisfaction to me to see a man so considerable both upon the account of his own worth and the great services he hath done you and I think my self so much concerned already in whatever relates to you that I cannot but with much more interest than heretofore look on a man to whom you are obliged for the recovery of your Crown Not Madam that any consideration of his person or the hopes I may conceive within my self of him can adde any thing to the respect which I have already for you and assure your self that if the friendship you are pleased to desire of me were any thing of far greater value
sensible of the assistance which she had received from Caesario joined her sollicitations with the others to establish a perfect union between those two great men But they might very well have spared their endeavours to that purpose for the behaviour of these two great soules was so mutually ingenuous and cordiall that there was such a prefect consonancy between their words and thoughts that it might be said their friendship was truely consummate before they had in a manner made the first overtures thereof These foure illustrious persons all satisfied though with some inequality would have fallen either together or separately into some pleasant discourse had not Candace be thought her self that the Princesse Cleopatra was not gone to bed out of an expectation to hear from them and if she had not had a great desire to make her acquainted with Caesario that night Upon that reflection having taken the Prince a little aside and at the same time left Elisa with Artaban in an affectionate and pleasant discourse she discovered to him her desires that he would make himself known to the Princesse his Sister to whose prudence it were not unsafe to commit things of the greatest importance and repeated to him all the discourses which she had entertained her with to prepare her thereto Caesario very willingly condescended to the proposition of Candace as having already found it no small difficulty to conceale himself from so amiable a Sister and having forborn it upon no other account than the submission he had for the Queen Candace would have sent word to Cleopatra of it but she was a little troubled that Artaban should be present as not conceiving that Caesario would before him declare a thing the least discovery whereof would infallibly cost him his life She acquainted him with her thoughts to that purpose and advised with him what course should be taken to have things so carried as that Artaban might not be present at that action But Caesario's soul being too great to entertain the least distrust of such a person as Artaban and upon the first discovery the Queen made of her jealousie slighting that precaution and lifting up his voice purposely that he might be heard by all that were in the Chamber There is no necessity Madam said he to her of any such circumspection when we have to deale with a vertue such as is that of Artabans I know him so well as that I would trust him with something more precious than my life and therefore since it is your pleasure we should see Cleopatra I shall discover my self to her before Artaban with as much confidence as before your selfe All that were present were infinitely pleased with the ingenous clearnesse which Casario expressed and Artaban who had heard the words and easily imagined the occasion on which they were spoken willing to returne him an answer not unworthy the good opinion he had of him I must needs confesse said he to him that this demonstration of your generosity is very great wherein you are content to make a discovery of your self to me which among persons of whose faith you were doubtfull might prove prejudicial to your safety and I receive with the resentment I ought a confidence whereto I have not any waies obliged you But that you may be satisfied that I am not absolutely unworthy of it and that you need not fear I should abuse it now that you have assured me of your friendship I am to let you know that even during that time wherein I had the greatest aversion for nay in the time of youth which is not ordinarily over-apt to keep a secret I have known your name and birth and that you will not tell me any thing I know not when you shall discover your self to the Princesse your Sister to be Caesario the son of Caefar and Cleopatra This discourse of Artabans little expected by Caesario raised in him some astonishment and might have put Candace into some jealousie of Elisa had she not immediately called to mind to some words which Artaban had said to her when they met at Tiridates's Tomb whence she might have imagined that the birth and true name of Caesario were not unknown to him The Prince upon this new expression of true friendship could not but admire the great courage of Artaban who notwithstanding the strange aversion he had ever discovered towards him and that in an age which is not much inclined to the moderation of the most violent passions had slighted the opportunity he had to prejudice his enemy and observed that secrecy towards him which he would not without some difficulty have found even among his friends And certainly his astonishment had been the greater at this kind of proceeding if these characters of an elevated soule had been lesse familiar to him and if he had not found in himselfe an inclination to do the like towards Artaban However he thought it but just to let Artaban know what esteem and acknowledgment he conceived at so generous a carriage and looking on him with an action which in some measure expressed what his thoughts were employed about I must needs confesse said he to him that all things are admirably great in you and that it will be a great injustice in fortune if she raise you not above Kings since they are things you can pull down when you please There are few persons certainly would have made so little advantage as you have done of a discovery which might have proved so prejudicial to me in the world but there are yet fewer would have effected those great things which are in you the accomplishments of your generous beginnings But may I presume to ask you by what adventure you should come to the knowledge of that which all the World was ignorant of A young man that had sometime been a servant of yours replied Artaban and who since as I have been informed was killed in one of the battles which you fought in Nubia having for me a very particular friendship revealed that secret to me and there needed no more then the illustrious characters I observed in your person to satisfie me that he told nothing but what was truth If those characters are able to work that effect said Caesario to him I must needs imagine you to be the issue of the gods and though you are not pleased to derive any recommendation from a birth which you do not stand in need of to make you equal to the greatest Princes that are yet can I hardly be perswaded but that yours is of the most eminent Artaban would have made some modest return to this discourse when the Princesse Cleopatra whom Candace had sent for comes into the room the Princesses having not thought it fit that she should receive Caesario's visit in her own because of her women to whom there was no necessity he should discover himself The room upon her coming into it seemed to be filled with a new light which dazled both
might well happen that the Princesse and the Prince her Brother could not upon the first sight discover the face of their Brother in that of Cleomedon whose speech proportionably to the rest was altered by growing bigger since their separation Yet was not all this alteration so great nor their memories so weak but that after what Cleomedon had said and the particular observation which he had obliged them to make they would have known the Prince had they not been carried away with the general opinion that he had departed this World Nay after they had well considered his face they in a manner knew him but that discovery had no further effect on them then to force out certain sighes whereupon the Princesse Cleopatra assuming the discourse after she had looked on Alexander to see whether he was of the same opinion I must needs acknowledge said she to the Prince that I find abundance of resemblance between your countenance and that of a Prince with whom my Brother and my self were brought up and one that might have been much about your age if the gods had thought fit to have continued him in life and health and to preserve him against those powers by which he received an untimely death I am also very much satisfied added Prince Alexander that if out Brother Caesario were living he might be very like the brave Cleomedon And thought that from the age of fourteen years which was that of Caesario when he dyed to that of Cleomedon which seems to be greater by nine or ten years there happens more alteration both in the bulk and countenances of men then in all mans life besides and that it might be withal granted that time may in some measure have worn away out of our memories those Idaeas which cannot be expected otherwise then imperfect in the minds of children such as we were then yet can I not call them to my remembrance without a certain conceit that I find them again in Cleomedon and imagining to my self that if Caesario were now alive there would be a very great resemblance between them Nay I am much inclined to believe from the great hopes that were conceived of him and the glorious bloud that ran in his veines derived from illustrious ancestors that this resemblance might have reached to the greatnesse of courage and that he would have thought it a dishonour to come too far short of that stupendous man whom it was his glory to imitate in all things The modesty of the son of Caesario made him blush at these obliging expressions of the son of Anthony whereupon looking on him with a smiling countenance It is but just indeed I should suffer any thing said he to him from a Prince to whom I am obliged for an assistance that preserved my life But since you and the Princesse Cleopatra are pleased to flatter me so pleasantly with so advantageous a resemblance I must in requittal assure you that it is yet greater in all things then you imagine it and that I am not onely as to my inclinations comparable to Prince Caesario but also that my fortunes have been absolutely suitable to his I should put you to some astonishment should I tell you that as he so I was dearly loved by Alexander and Cleopatra in their younger years That I was loved as tenderly as he was by the Queen your mother and that her indulgence towards me was as great as what she expressed towards him that as he so I also left you to seek out my safty in Ethiopia after the downfall of your house That I was born as well as he of an unfortunate Queen and am son to the greatest that ever was of mankind and in a word I am so extreamly like him that I might even in Alexandria presume to own the name of Caesario if by such an acknowledegment I should not put you to the hazard of loosing him once again These words of Caesario raised such a distraction in the souls of Cleopatra and Alexander that neither of them being able to comprehend any thing of it could do no more then look on him that had spoke them with a silence which argued their astonishment much more then any verbal expressions could have done The sonne of Caesar had suffered them to coninue a while in that posture when he sees Eteocles coming in whom he had caused Clitia to call from the Terrace where he had left him Whereupon reassuming the discourse with an action which held the Brother and the Sister equally in suspence That you may be absolutely satisfied said he to them that my fortunes have been in all things conformable to those of Caesario behold the man that brought me up and who presumes that he hath been of the same name was of the same Birth same Country and same countenance as the Governour of Caesario If you look on him with more earnestness then you have done for some daies past when he was with you in that very house where I received your assistances you will easily observe that resemblance and he is a person of such an age as wherein ten years cannot make so great an alteration as they may in that wherein one passes from infancy to a more advanced age While he thus spoke the eies of Cleopatra and Alexander were fixed on the countenance of Eteocles and it being very certain that it had undergone much lesse alteration then that of the Prince they immediately found therein all the features of that of Eteocles with whom they had sometime been so familiar as having been one that had carryed them thousands of times in his arms and had been brought up in the house as son to the faithfull Apollodorus the dear favorite and confident of Queen Cleopatra Whereupon both the Prince and Princesse cryed out that it was really Eteocles and immediately turning to the Prince with an astonishment much greater then what they were in before by reason of this last circumstance Cleomedon said the Princesse to him for heavens sake keep us not any longer in the disturbance which you have raised in us and let us know that Caesario is living to tell us so much himself T is onely his death that abates that confidence which we raise from all the other circumstances and if Caesario were living I should be immediately satiefied that you were he Should he discover himself to be Caesario in any place that is under the jurisdiction of Augustus replyed the Princesse there is so little expectation of any Fortune thereby that it were hard to suspect such a confession subject to any imposture but it is withall a thing so glorious to be born of Caesar and Cleopatra thaâ— without an excesse of basenesse a man cannot disclaime it and there is so much satisfaction to Caesario to meet with a Brother and Sister great and amiable as Alexander and Cleopatra that no consideration in the World can oblige him any longer to conceale from them a brother they have
be concealed from all the World and though I must introduce into my discourse persons whose power is much to be feared yet shall I not forbear since that within a few daies I shall either be in a condition not to fear it or if the gods think good to continue my life I am more willing to see it exposed to some danger by my confession then be perpetually persecuted with remorses which make it much more insupportable to me Be pleased to afford me your attention to the discourse I have to make to you and it is my earnest prayer to the gods that it may in some measure repair the mischief I have done and restore that happinesse and fortune which I have unfortunately disturbed To this effect was the discourse of Volusius and perceiving that instead of making any answer Cleopatra and Marcellus hearkened very attentively to him he reâ—ssumed the discourse in these terms THE HISTORY OF VOLUSIUS WE are satisfied by experience that both the remembrance of good turns and that of injuries have a different operation according to the different character of those souls where they are entertained and that as there are some minds wherein offences make but a very light impression much lighter then that which good offices might make in them so on the other side there are some in whom the greatest benefits cannot smother the least injuries or to say better who not much sensible of obligations laid upon them have neverthelesse eternal resentments for injuries That I have been worsted and disgraced by Prince Coriolanus I must attribute it meerly to his valour and my own unhappinesse and that I was nobly treated by him it was the effect of his pure generosity and yet the impression of the injury filled my soul in such manner that it leaves not any place for that which the generous entertainment should have had there and opposed the resentment it should have conceived thereof that so I might be the more absolutely hurried into contrary resolutions I doubt not Madam but you have heard how that having been several times defeated in the persons of my Lieutenants I was at last overthrown in my own and through the valour of the son of Juba having lost a battel which in all probability I should have gained I was by the same valour cast to the ground and taken prisoner You have also further understood how that after some daies imprisonment such as was sweetned by all the kind entertainments which I could have received from a brother or the best friend I had the same Prince whom by all manner of injuries I had obliged to treat me with cruelty forgetting all out of an admirable generosity and comforting me in my disgrace with the most obliging words could fall from man gave me my liberty without any condition loaded me with presents of great value and furnished me with ships and men to bring me to Rome or any other place where I would my self It might in all probability be expected I should have been sensible of this treatment as much as I had been of my misfortune but having through my disgrace besides the fame I might have acquired in my former years lost the government of two great Kingdoms a very high fortune for a private man and the hope of finding again among the Romans an establishment comparable to that I had lost the grief I conceived thereat had so cankered my soul that I was not able to entertain those expressions of the goodnesse and clemency of the King of Mauritania with the least discovery of gratitude However I pretended to be extreamly sensible thereof as I ought to have been of a favour I should not have expected and I received with my liberty the other effects of the magnificence of that Prince with those demonstrations which might well perswade him that I was not insensible thereof I went a-board with a soul half burst with grief and I carried with me into the sea an affliction grown so violent through the change of my fortune that there was nothing able to afford me any satisfaction And yet I am apt to imagine that my grief would have been satisfied in being onely a torment to my self without producing any effects prejudicial to the fortune of my Conquerour if something of chance and the sollicitations of other persons had not furnished me witlâ— the occasions to do it and that at a time wherein my sufferings were not aggravated by any design of revenge The third day after my departure I was overtaken by a Vessel that came after me from Mauritania and he that was Commander of it being come aboard mine to give me a visit was known to me to be a person of very great quality among the Moors named Theocles whose Father had had under King Juba the father of Coriolanus the greatest places in the Kingdom and the governments of greatest importance But it happening upon the death of King Juba that Theocles revolted to the Romans and sided very particularly with me as having not the least remainder of love for the royal bloud and that further he had expected till the issue of the war without declaring himself for his Prince as the greatest part of the Moors had done young Juba coming to the Throne had accordingly slighted him though he had not any way disobliged him nor taken away any thing he was possessed of and in the distribution of the Governments and charges which he bestowed on those whom he thought most worthy and had expressed most affection towards him he conceived himself not at all engaged to prefer Theocles whose pretensions were great suitably to his quality and the high rank his Father had lived in before him Theocles thinking himself hardly dealt with and taking it very impatiently that his soveraigne should prefer other persons before him such indeed as were inferiour to him in birth but much more considerable than he by their services and their fidelity to their Prince would needs leave Mauritania and lurk among the enemies of his King and bring over with him among the Romanes his resentments and desires of revenge So that having taken ship the same day that I departed the third after he comes up to me and coming out of his own vessell into mine he gave me a visit making the greatest expressions he could of the affection he had for me Now this man being he that of all the Moores I had held the greatest correspondence with and his discontents being not unknowne to me I was extreamly glad to meet with him and having understood from him that the resentments he had against his Prince were the occasion why he left the Country to follow me and to go along with me to Rome this consonancy of thoughts made me the more confident of him and raised in me a certain affection for him and engaged me to promise him all the friend-and assistance amongst the Romanes that I could possibly help him to Thus resolved we continued
were at the same time subject to such a distraction of thoughts that it had been some difficulty to unravel them and to make their confusion capable of some order Yet is it certain that their first apprehensions were those of joy and that neither of them could without being infinitely glad entertain the news that Coriolanus had ever been a constant lover and a faithful friend and that they could not any longer doubt of that innocence which they so much wished They looked one upon another during this first apprehension and in their countenances expressed their mutual satisfaction Cleopatra as the most concerned in the businesse spoke first and letting the Prince read in her eies what her heart was so full of Well Brother said she to him you see that Coriolanus is innocent and that it was not without some ground that I was satisfied of it before I had understood so much from the mouth of Volusius I acknowledge the indulgence of the gods replies Marcellus as great towards me in this as in the greatest favour they ever did me and I take them to witnesses that what you and Volusius have perswaded me to of the constancy of Julia hath not caused in me such a satisfaction as what I have understood of the â—idelity of Coriolanus How replyed the Princesse with a certain transportation not suitable to her ordinary moderation it is then infallible that Coriolanus whose pretended infidelity cost me so many tears hath ever been constant to his Cleopatra and that Princesse who by her misapprehension thought her self condemned to eternal afflictions may now re-assume those joies and hopes she had before broke off all acquaintance with Here would she have taken occasion to open her soul for the reception of a passion which of a long time had not had any entertainment there but that joy was soon eclipsed by an interposition of grief and a certain reflection which filled her heart with all the sadnesse it was capable of when she thought on her cruel depâ—rtment towards that Prince the deplorable effect it had produced as having proved the occasion of the losse of his Crown and of all her hopes and that fatal resolution which he had expressed to Volusius that he intended to take and whereof he had given her some notice at their last parting In a word being thus convinced of his fidelity she could not call to mind the cruel entertainment she had made him at Syracuse when enflamed to the highest pitch of love and thinking it a thousand times more glorious to be her servant then what so noble a conquest and the recovery of his Kingdoms had made him he had passed through thousands of dangers to come and offer her those very Kingdoms she could not think on the cruel and injurious speeches wherewith she had received him and the sad condition wherein she had left him without a mortal wound in that heart which nothing but the love of that Prince could ever make any impression in From that doleful reflection calling to mind how she had met him in the Woods of Alexandria the day that he relieved her with greater valour then successe against those that afterwards carried her away and lastly remembring the meeting she had had with him in the King of Armenia's ship whereof she represented to her self all the particulars after another manner then they had appeared to her while she was still prepossessed by her cruel mistake as well out of a consideration of that long swounding into which her sight and words had put him as the discourse full of a generous confidence he had made to her and the admirable resolution he had taken and gone through with by sighting alone for her liberty against so great a number of enemies with such prodigious valour and by the last words he had spoken to her at their parting wherein as well as in his actions his innocency was but too too apparent And from these things whereof her eies had been but too too faithful witnesses diverting her thoughts to others that were of no lesse consequence such as the losse of a great Kingdom which he had conquered for her and which he neglected to maintain through the despair she had reduced him to that which he had expressed when he cast himself into the sea because he would not survive his disgrace and the shame he thought it that he was not able to rescue her from her Ravishers the miserable condition he was brought to having no place of refuge no relief nor any comfort in the World and lastly the resolution he had discovered to Volusius and her self of his unwillingnesse to have her any longer engaged in his misfortunes and to seek out the remedies thereof onely in death which for a courage such as his was it would not be hard to find she could not fasten her thoughts on all these truths which were but too importunate upon her memory without giving way to such a grief as neither all her own great constancy nor yet the joy she conceived at the innocence of Coriolanus were able to abate After she had for some time smothered the disordered agitations she was in being not able to hold out any longer and conceiving she might freely disburthen her self before Marcellus whom she was confident of and whose soul during that time was persecuted by imaginations much of the same nature Coriolanus is innocent said she breaking forth into a rivulet of tears But O ye heavenly powers such is my cruel destiny that Coriolanus cannot be innocent but I must at the same time be the most criminal person in the World That Prince the most amiable the most generous and the most vertuous of men hath continued inviolately constant to me and hath still persisted in the same perfect affection which had at first taken in my soul and yet unfortunate wretch that I am I have had the cruelty to banish him my presence as a Monster I have had the inhumanity to see him in a manner expiring at my feet and never could be moved at it and I have at last reduced him to such extremities as have proved the occasion of loosing that Kingdom which he had designed for me have made him a restlesse vagabond all over the earth made him seek out precipices and now make him resolve to seek in death a Period of these deplorable miseries into which I onely I have brought him O Cleopatra unfortunate Cleopatra what pretence of joy canst thou find in the justification of Coriolanus since it must needs expose thee to the most cruel regrets that ever persecuted guilty souls It were much more for thy satisfaction at least if it were not for thy satisfaction it would be much more to thy advantage that thy Coriolanus had been found unconstant and that thou shouldst be found innocent thy self and since that thy innocence and his are things inconsistent either he ought to be guilty or thou have continued in the misprision which thou