her robe she caressed him very much and prayed him to remember that he left a Mistress at Monaco shewing him Aemilia The Marquis answered laughing that he should not fail therein and to the end she might not doubt of it he would take the libertie to vvrite unto her I shall be glad of that said the Princess and vvill enjoyn Aemilia to receive your letters In the mean time Doria vvho vvas in love vvith the Counts sister-in-lavv named Sophronia began to be in some unquietness for that he did not return unto Genoua vvhich being observed by Justiniano he conjured him to abide no longer at Monaco and to go along vvith the Count. Doria vvithstood it a vvhile but at length he suffred himself to be persvvaded to that vvhich he desired The Marquis vvas so dextrous as he took the opportunity vvhilst the rest vvere complementing vvith the Princess to approch unto Aemilia for to assure her a little more seriously than he had used to do that he had such thoughts for her aâ— he had never before but onely for tvvo or three of all that great multitude of vvomen vvhich he had loved in his time it is likely he vvould have said more unto her had not the Count gone avvay They departed out of the Princesses chamber accompanied by Justiniano vvho conducted them to the Port vvhere they imbraced one another vvith a great deal of kindness and also renevved their friendship vvith nevv protestations Having vveighed anchor upon the Counts Signall given the slaves fell to rovving and in an instant the gally vvas carried far from the shoar and from Justiniano vvho in returning to the Castle began to fear that the Princess vvould press him to declare the end of his History and likevvise to consider vvith astonishment the deplorable estate he was in but going insensibly along tovvards the Princess he found himself in her chamber before he vvas avvare that he vvas comâ— thither This sad thought had already painted such a melancholy in his face as Isabella perceived it as soon as he entred and for vvich she quarrelled vvith him saying that it proceeded from the absence of his friends Justiniano surprised vvith this discourse laboured to recollect himself and told her he had been so accustomed to sâ—dness that assoon as he vvas but a moment out of her sight it still regained some empire over his heart And to keep the Princess from speaking to him of ending his history he besought her to be so good as to relate to him all that had arrived unto her during so long an absence Alas said she unto him what do you ask of me Doth it not suffice that you know you were not here that I believed you to be either inconstant or dead and that being in a place wherinto I could forbid an entrance to all the world I have scarce had any other adventure than to weep all day long at leastwise since the death of my mother and the unlucky love of the Prince of Masseran which Doria hath recounted unto you as also that of some other Soveraignes of Italy where nothing hath past more remarkeable than the coldness which I have used towards them And truly in so austere a solitariness I wanted not imployment the remembrance of our felicities past and of our then miseries furnished me but with too much entertainment of my self and I may say that the memory of our good fortune was more cruell to me than the sense of our ill fortune But continued she these thoughts are too dolefull for so happy a season as this is wherein I see you and we are not yet so far eloigned from the time in which we thought to have suffered shipwrack as to look upon this Sea without dread or grief The adventure of the Prince of Salerno and of Don Fernando de Mendoza said Aemilia interrupting her is not so inconsiderable as that you should not be obliged to impart it unto a person who hath rendred you so exact an account of his life but if either your modesty or your compassion doth hinder you from acquainting him with the effects of your beauty and the mischiefes which you have caused without thinking of them I do offer to make him a faithfull recitall thereof You will be unjust Madam answered Justiniano if you will not permit that I shall know what hath befallen you and you will give me cause to fear that remembrance of some one of my Rivalls doth touch you but too sensibly The Princess did what she could to remit the matter to another time but Justiniano who sought to shun the occasions of speaking of the end of his adventures was willing to oblige the Princess to let him understand hers When as she saw then that he was resolved for it she took a pretext to go and write to Leonardo the Count of Lauagnes wife to the end she might not be present at Aemiliaes relation Justiniano complained for that she deprived him of the sight of her but whatsoever he could say she entred into her Cabinet saying she would punish him for his obstinate curiosity She was no sooner gone but Aemilia having first been permitted by Isabella so to doe began to speak in this sort to Justiniano The History of Isabella SEeing the Princess hath commanded me to render you an account of her life I am very willing to obey her having nothing to tell you that is not advantagious for her and also for you I will not repeat her first adventures since I know that you are not ignorant of the Prince of Masserans love Juliaes violence and artifices Felicianaes treason Doriaes generous resentment the death of that infortunate lover and consequently that of Julia. But I will onely tell you that when she saw she was Mistress of her self by the loss of her mother and that she had in vain sent to seek for you in Germany she resolved to go no more to Genoua but to live alwaies at Monaco to avoid the counsells and propositions which she foresaw would be urged upon her for to draw her to mary though she had ingaged her faith to you For whereas your long absence had made all the world believe that you were dead there wanted no reasons to be alleged unto her for the perswading of her to the change of her resolution As indeed notwithstanding all the care she had taken to bar an entrance into Monaco of all those which might speak to her of such like matters yet the fame of her beauty and vertue was spread abroad in such manner as there was not a Prince in all Italy which sent not unto her for a permission to visit and serve her But she who feared her Lovers more than her Enemies brought so much care to the frustrating of all their designes as none of them could ever obtain so much as the liberty to see her She lived in this austere retiredness untill such time as about a year ago or little less there ran a
howsoever I am very sure that he is not considerable at all either in the Court of Spain or with the Vice-Roy I see no likelyhoood replyed the Painter for one to believe that the Emperor and the Vice-Roy have entertained you with these matters whilst you were playing on the Violl There is yet less said the Musician that they should tell you the contrary of that which I affirm whilst you were besmearing of walls Ah! Madam said the Painter interrupting him permit me to punish the lying and malice of this impostor who dares traduce a man so insolently whom certainly he does not know and a Prince too who cannot be absolutely without merit since he is capable of the design to serve you He hath been my Master and is now your servant pardon me then if for your sake I lose the respect which is due unto you Do not you fear said the Princess unto him that Don Fernandoes speeches shall ever hurt the Prince of Salerno neither doubt you that this noble ardor which you show in maintaining his party shall displease me but contrarily I shall esteem of you the more for it and I forbid Don Fernando from ever speaking of that Prince but with respect but withall I charge you not to remember what he hath said and command both of you once more to live lovingly together The Painter wholly filled with hope rendred thanks to the Princess and the Musician not able to doe othervvise got him avvay assoon as the Princess vvas entred into her Cabinet vvith a purpose to ansvver the letter vvhich she had received from the Prince of Salerno Who being vvithdravvn in private and reflecting on Don Fernandoes boldness in maintaining of a lie and on all that had past betvvixt them he no longer doubted but that he vvas a man of quality vvhom the same reason vvhich had made him a Painter had made a Musician Coming then to look on Don Fernando as on his Rivall he had an hundred times a mind to discover himself unto him that he might oblige him to fight vvith him but this first sense of revenge and jealousie being over he knevv it would ruine his design For He considered that if the Princess ansvver to him vvas favourable he should have time enough to be revenged and if it vvere not that then he should discover himself to ill purpose and deprive himself of the means of executing that vvhich he had premeditated he resolved then to make a shevv in case the Princess ansvver'd rigorously of having forgotten vvhat had past vvith an intent to live very civilly vvith Don Fernando to the end that conversing often vvith him and observing al his actions he might not be prevented by him Don Fernando on his side believed after he had vvell thought upon it that this Painter had been sent by the Prince of Salerno to speak well of him to the Princess before he declared himself knowing well enough that she permitted not the entrance of any person of quality into Monaco and in this thought he purposed likewise to observe him very carefully In the mean time the Princess sent the next morning for the Prince of Salernoes messenger to receive his answer where the Painter and the Musician were also present having thrust themselves amongst those which conducted this Messenger to her The Princess in giving him her letter prayed him to assure his Master that she should be eternally obliged to him for the honor he had done her that she besought him to believe that though she did not grant him that which he desired of her yet could it not be tearmed a refusall since she refused him nothing but what she could not grant him that she owed that respect to the ashes of her father as not to violate that faith which she had given by his commandment and that being thus no longer her own he was not to take it ill if she assured him that she could never be his that nothing resting in her power but the esteem of him and his friendship she assured him both of the one and the other and of an acknowledgement that should last as long as her life This obliging refusall asswaged not the Prince of Salernoes grief who himself heard his own sentence pronounced nevertheless he had reason enough left to use his uttermost indeavour to conceal it for fear he should be suspected of the Princess As for Don Fernando the joy which he testified for this adventure was so great as the Painter was the more confirmed in the opinion which he had After the Prince of Salernoes Messenger was gone that the Princess had given him a diamond of great value and that she had commanded him to be conducted to the Barque vvhich vvas to carry him back to his Vessell the Painter craved leave of he that he might accompany him vvith the rest for he durst not speak to him said he unless it pleased her to permit him You are discreet said the Princess and this respect merits more than this which you demand of me The Painter having obtained this permission went and overtook his Governor to salute hm this man who was instructed as he ought used him like a Painter and dexterously giving him the commodity to talk with him this Prince willed him to return unto Villa-Franco under pretext of mending something about his vessell and to send the Master of his Horse the next morning disguised unto him with as much money as as he could bring Now you are to understand that the day before he hapned to meet and know an old Souldier which sometime had born armes under his Father and whose life he had saved being at that time Sergeant of one of the Companies of the Garrison The Prince of Salerno comeing to know him found the meanes to speak with him in private and after he had given him three hundred pistolets he made himself known unto him This man ravished to see the Son of his old Master but more yet with his liberality testified after his manner both his acknowledgement and his joy In the mean time the Prince of Salerno who had not made himself known unto him only to inrich him told him how he was to serve him in a busines that concern'd all his happines This man told him that he was his subject and his obligee so that consequently he might expect any thing from him Then the Prince asked him whether he lived alone in his house and having learn that he did he asked of him further whether he could not suborn a Fisher-man with mony this Souldier having answered him that the poverty of those kind of people did not permit him to doubt but that he should find out an hundred in stead of one he gave him wherewithall to gain him without discovering any parâ— of his design unto him assuring him only that this Fisher-man should be exposed to no perill nor have ought els to do than to carry his nets That which made the
so great throng of people pressed in amongst them as they lost one another in the croud and each of them seeking to be cleared in this matter they got out of the Town spight of the obstacles which they met with at the Gate whereof the three parties had been Masters more than once I cannot repeat all this sight unto you but at length the Princesses people fought with such courage as they killed very near all the Prince of Salernoes and Don Fernandoes Souldiers And when it appeared that there were no more enemyes in the Town they shut up the Gate Part of the Garrison and of the inhabitants having in the mean time pursued and made an end of defeating them returned into Monaco Hereupon the Prince of Salerno having certainly understood that the Princess had not been carried away by Don Fernando for we learnt so much by certain Souldiers and seeing that he was hurt that it was impossible for him to do more and that he had lost his Rivall in the press he resolved to get to his Vessell As for Don Fernando he found himself yet in a stranger condition all his Souldiers having been well neer slain or fled away whilst he was fighting with the Prince of Salerno he beheld himself almost alone covered over with wounds and not knowing what to do having no Vessell to facilitate his flight by Sea nor any security on Land for him with so little company It is credible considering what I have said that seeing himself in that estate and perceiving that the Prince of Salerno followed by some of his men made towards the port he with his Souldiers mingled amongst them and entred into his Vessell with him the darkness of the night favouring the design which doubtless he had to kill the Prince of Salerno and to make himself master of his Vessell For when the day began to break there was a great noise heard on the Port side which made every one to get up on the walls for to see what the matter was The Princess and I went up to the top of the lodgings where we were which looked upon the Sea and whereas it was grown very light we saw a Vessell that was making from the Port and on the hatches a great number of men fighting together whereof some tumbled alive into the Sea and others fell down dead at their enemies feet In the midst of this disorder we knew the Prince of Salerno and Don Fernando by their apparell who combated with such violence as moved the Princess to compassion but at length the Vessell still getting further of we saw that after a long combat these two Rivalls remained fighting almost alone and presently after both of them tumble down upon the hatches and so on an instant the Vessel vanishing we could no longer discern those two couragious Lovers who more happy in this sad adventure than they were aware of made the Princess shed teares of pitty but she shed them abundantly when as in her return unto the Castle she beheld so great a number of dead bodies as the streets were even covered with them The Prince of Salernoes Master of his horse was found living still as well as he whom Don Fernando had sent into the Milanese and it was by their meanes that we came to learn the particularities of this History which without them I could not have told you for the Princess understanding who they were caused them to be very carefully looked unto that she might learn that which I have related The Captain of the Gate and the traiterous Sergeant were found amongst the number of the dead and as if the Prince of Salernoes Master of his horse and Don Fernandoes Agent had prolonged their lives but only to tell the Princess what she desired to know they dyed within a few dayes of their hurts As for their Masters we heard aftervvard that being fallen dovvn as it were dead in the manner as I have told you the remainder of the Prince of Salernoes men having made an end of killing those which had followed Don Fernando de Mendoza and believing their Master to be dead three or four of them took up the body of Don Fernando for to cast it into the Sea vvhen as the Prince of Salerno coming out of his svvoon and seeing vvhat they vvere going to do recovered so much strength as to forbid them from it generosity being greater in him than hatred or revenge This commandement of the Prince vvas executed and that too of seeing vvhether he had any life remaining in him and vvhen it vvas reported unto him that he still breathed he charged them to have as much care of him as of himself as indeed he vvas looked unto and treated in the same manner I vvil not declare the conversations of these tvvo Rivall unto you but in brief it sufficeth to let you know that the Prince of Salernoes generosity so nearly touched the heart of Don Fernando as he ceased to hate him and would needs land with him at Naples to be throughly cured there And as if on the healing of their wounds that of their minds had depended they surmounted the love which they bare to the Princess the first out of reason and the other out of his pride And each of them following his own sense they sent to the Princess wrote unto her the last with rhodomontades according to the humor of his Nation and the other with a great deal of civility beseeching her to remember that she had promised her friendship to the Prince of Salerno and praying her also to attribute all that had past to the passion of the Painter Lucilio and not to him who vowed alwaies to seek occasions to serve her and to publish every where that she was the admirablest creature on the whole earth The Princess answered with much discretion both to the one and to the other and in this sort endeâ—â— the adventure which she would not recount unto you and which possessed me with so much fear that though it be now three months since it hapned I am not yet well recovered of it Justiniano thanked Aemilia for the paines she had taken commended her wit and her address and after he had ended thâ—s complement he saw the Princess come out of her Cabinet who having heard Justiniano talk judged rightly that Aemilia had finished her relation This faithfull Lover no sooner saw her but he complayned for that she would have concealed an adventure from him where things had past which heaped glory and confusion on him how it was almost as much as to say that she repented the having of too advantagious thoughts for him in that she would not have let him have known them but she answered him very obligingly that the remembrance of others misfortunes alwaies touched her so sensibly when as she esteemed herself the cause of them as she thought she should render herself guilty of those of the Prince of Salerno and of Don
serve you and to acquaint me with all your misfortunes to the end that knowing them I may the more easily finde necessary remedies for them But I know fair Felixana that this is to constrain your inclination and that you had rather talk with Vlama's Slave then renew your sorrows by calling them to remembrance but to comfort you I will promise to leave this Slave with you until we have some pleasing news to send Vlama Felixana thanked him for this favor and assured him that she had no greater desire then to obey him though the remembrance of her miseries would augment them and that it may be they would afflict him too For my Lord said she unto him my adventures are so intermingled with those of the Princess of Persia and of two Princes whom you have dearly loved as I am constrained to recount them seeing it is certain that mine make but a part of theirs Ibrahim was glad to see her in this resolution for he hoped he should know that by her which Soliman would not tell him so that causing her to sit down and Halima by her he summoned her to the performance of her promise which she accomplished in this manner The History of the Princess AXIAMIRA ULAMA and FELIXANA THat which you desire to know of me generous Ibrahim hath cost me so many tears and sighs that if I did not strive to turn away my thought from the last adventures of this History it were impossible for me to relate the beginning where you will finde nothing but the hopes of an extream felicity for me But to take things from their first source and to render my discourse more intelligible I am to tell you that Scach Tachmas whom we call the Sophi otherways King of the Persians remained a widower almost as soon as his wise who as I have heard say was an excellent Princess had brought him two sons Ismael and Mahamed whereof the last is blinde and two daughters of which the one is the Princess Axiamira or to say better the wonder of her age and the youngest named Perca is of an indifferent beauty of a malicious humor and of a minde uncapable of any kinde of friendship As for Ismael it might be said that as he hath no great virtues so he hath no great defects and that he is in the rank of those persons who do almost pass away their lives so as they can hardly be known to live if their quality did not make it appear that they are in the number of the living Now for Mahamed the same cannot be said of him but contrarily it seems that Nature hath deprived him of the light of the day to make it shine the more in his minde For whether it be that this privation of sight is the cause of its better recollecting it self and operating with the more activity or that his memory which is so marvelous in him as it may be thought he hath never forgotten any thing doth furnish him with that which renders him agreeable so it is that his conversation is so charming as one can never be weary of it But that which is most excellent in him is that he is exceeding virtuous and that his passions though violent have never surmounted his reason Behold my Lord what the royal Family was when I was brought to the Court which was at that time in the City of Tauris My Father had always been considerable enough in this Monarchy and the Sophi to testifie the esteem he had of him had made him Governor of Strabat and Mazanderon two very fair Towns which are scituated on the bank of the Caspian Sea But whereas my Father had marryed the sister of the Governor of Tauris it was by his means that I was put to Axiamira with a many other maids of a condition equal to mine which were divided between those two Princesses and were with them as one might say rather to help them to pass away the time then to do them any service Axiamira might be about fourteen years of age and I fifteen and whereas she was younger then the Princes her Brothers Mahamed as I think was not far from sixteen But to let you first know all the persons of whom I am to speak in this History I shall tell you that there was at the same time in the Court one named Deliment whose birth was not very noble but who had by means of his high spirit and extream riches so wrought himself into the Court and good grace of the Sophi as there was none but was afraid to be in ill terms with him I say afraid because it is certain that no man desired his friendship but for fear least his hatred should be prejudicial unto him and truly it is not to be marvelled if one could have no other opinion of him for he was insolent ambitious undertaking beleeving there was scarce any thing worthy of him easily offended never pardoning and that which rendred all his bad inclinatâ—ons more dangerous was that he had a great wit Now if Deliment were of this humor Vlama was opposite to him in all things for his birth is noble as being the chief man of Caramania his courage is without brutishness and whereas you have not seen him but since he was infortunate I conceive I may be permitted to tell you what he was during his felicity When I arrived at the Court nothing was spoken of but the valor of Vlama for it was a little after the War of the Azemites where having done wonders and to say all been the cause of the Sophies carrying away the victory to recompence him for this great action he made him Satrap of Caramania at two and twenty years of age and gave him his sister in marriage whom Vlama espoused rather out of obedience then out of inclination it being certain that this Princess as the incomparable Axiamira hath oftentimes told me had nothing recommendable in her but her birth And indeed as if Heaven had found this marriage unjust a month after it was accomplished she dyed of a burning Feaver And whereas it is the custom of the Kings of Persia to have all the royal Family lodged in one and the same Palace Vlama as brother-in-law to the Sophi was lodged there too so that though the women live very straitly kept all over Persia yet left we not for all that to have a great deal of liberty and to lead a life happy and pleasant enough having in the same Palace the two Princes and Vlama whom we saw as much as they pleased for the Sophi had ordained that the Princesses lodgings should be open to them when they would I and that all the Satraps young sons might see and speak to us when as they accompanyed the Princes Things being in these terms at such time as Vlama's wife dyed the Princesses went by the commandment of the Sophi a little after the Funeral to give a visit to Vlama whom I had scarcely
to joy and he was very glad to hear that you were living that you were not in the power of the Sophi and that at length he might hope to see you again But this first motion being over he entered into another quite contrary What said he do I fight against my lawful Prince to endeavor the delivery of the Princess Axiamira and Felixana or to revenge them and whil'st I hazard my life with this intention it falls out that I shed my blood for the service of a Prince who keeps them prisoners and Fortune that is become ingenuous to persecute me makes me fight against those which oppose him who oppresseth and ill-intreateth them Pardon me continued he great Princess the crime which I have done pardon me dear Felixana the error which I have committed and know that though I am covered all over with wounds which I have received in serving thy Enemy yet have I heart enough still left me to undertake the deliverance of thee I should never have done Madam if I would recount unto you all that he said upon this occasion But at last after he had used his uttermost endeavor to be carried into a Chariot against the advice of his Physician he was constrained to stay two days journey from Bitilisa so that knowing it was impossible for him to proceed further on his way as yet he sent me to the grand Visior with direction if he were not returned from a secret expedition upon which it was said he was gone to attend for him and to endeavor by his means to see you and to give you the Lâ—tter which I have delivered unto you assuring me that as soon as he was able to endure to travel he would come himself to crave your liberty of the Grand Signior This Slave who had no more but the name of it with his Master having given over speaking left Axiamira very much contented and Felixana with a great deal of satisfaction to know that Vlama had still conserved his love to her And though his wounds were the cause of some unquietness to her yet joy was of most power in her heart But in regard it was indifferent late the Princess dismissed this Slave and resolved in what estate soever her health should be the next morning not to forbear seeing of him who was to be her Deliverer The Second Book THe hope of a more quiet life having restored the Princess Axiamira to some strength it was no sooner day but having caused her self to be made ready she sent to desire the grand Visier he would do her the favour that she might see him Ibrahim having received this Order went to the Princesses lodging but when first he saw her he remained as much surprized as he had been at such time as he beheld her picture for certainly she very much resembled Isabella Howbeit respect drawing the Illustrious Bassa out of this pleasing surprise he saluted the Princess with a great deal of submission and assured her that she might absolutely dispose of him that he came not but to offer her all that lay in his power and to testifie unto her the grief he had to visit her in a place unworthy of her and from whence he would labour to free her in a short time The Princess answered to all these things both with very much spirit civility and greatness of courage But when as Ibrahim would dextrously have engaged her to the recital of her adventures she desired him he would be pleased that Felixana who had already acquainted him with part thereof might continue the relating of the rest unto him The grand Vister turning him then to Felixana requested her punctually to recount unto him all that had arrived to the Princess Axiamira and her after their Shipwrack because it was important for their interest that he should not be ignorant of it Felixana who ever since the Discourse which Vlama's Slave had made unto her was more aâ—fected to our Illustrious Bassa then before would by no means refuse him that he desired of her although she certainly knew that this relation would renew all her sorrows Wherefore alter she had received the Princesses Command for it and that Ibrahim was set down by Axiamira at her intreaty she began to speak in this sort The History of GIANGER and MUSTAPHA My imagination representing to me all at once whatsoever I am to recount unto you fâ—lleth my mind with so much confusion and grief as I doubt whether I shall be able to deliver things precisely unto you as they arrived unto us and whether I shall not stand in need of the Princesses goodness to put me in mind thereof if I should fail in acquainting you with some circumstance of that which you desire to know But to come to my discourse I will not stand then to tell you in what manner we suffered Shipwrack only I will say to you that when we judged by the cries of the Mariners we were in danger of perishing I approached to the Princess whose great heart was not shaken in this occasion but contrarily feared the Port more then Shipwrack and casting my self at her feet I demanded of her with tears the grace that I might dye by her This generous Princess imbraced me and taking me by the hand she never quitted it till the Vessel driven by the wind and the waves with an incredible impetuosity against the point of a Rock broke all to pieces and separated us but in what manner it was done I am not able to tell you for I was so troubled and the horrors of death seized on me in such sort at that dreadful instant as I knew not what became of me Yet was not the Sea altogether unpitiful unto us for by an extream good fortune in the midst of our ill fortune it carried us to the shoar which was not far off and not only preserved our lives but made me be found within thirty paces of the place where the waves had cast up the divine Axiamira in a swoon as well as I. But admire my Lord that which I am going to tell you and how weak beginnings have sometimâ—s long and dangerous consequences You may well remember how I told you yesterday that the Sophi gave the Princess Axiamira's and my picture to a forreign Merchant with order never to sell them to any but Princes And you have told me if I be not deceived that you knew how that Merchant being mistaken in selling one of those pictures to Soliman gave him that of the Princess Axiamira for mine Now my Lord the same error produced another for that Merchant passing afterwards to the place where Prince Gianger lived sold him my picture for that of Axiamira But if the first fault had been the cause of carrying away the Princess by force the second accasioned that which you are going to hear The same day wherein we suffered Shipwrack Prince Gianger who as you know remained by Solimans Order very near to the
him to let Mustapha understand that which he desired of him but with such pressing terms as it had been impossible for his brother to have refused him And giving order for the departure of the Princess whom before folks he intreated as he was wont to do we set forth two days after for Amasia with as little company as might be and in Turkish habits to be the less noted I will not tell you my Lord with what generosity Prince Mustapha and Saraida his wife received Axiamira let it suffice me to say that Gianger having left us some two miles short of Amasia under the charge of an old Governor of his in whom he very much confided and having acquainted his brother and sister in law with our Fortunes they rendred in particular to Axiamira all the honors which she could have received in her own Country A little while after all that we had delivered was plainly justified For Mustapha understood the return of Rustan and his disgrace and presently thereupon he was told that the Princess and I were not at the Sophi's Court that the report went we were drowned and that others believed how Tachmas and Deliment had caused us to be forcibly carried away After this we lived happily enough Mustapha's care Saraides compliance and Gianger's respectful affection rendred our Exile supportable enough Axiamira could not for all that be at rest she wrote many times to divers persons which were affected to her in Persia without ever receiving any answer And whereas she saw no end of her miseries she could not be without unquietness which at length brought her to a sickness which it was thought would prove mortal to her Her Fever was not very violent but it was without intermission and though she felt no great pain yet was she so weak and so low brought as we durst not hope she could surmount the disease wherewith she was taken during the which Saraida and I never abandoned her and the two Princes saw her as often as the necessity of their affairs and civility would permit them Now though Mustapha had nothing but friendship for Axiamira yet seemed he to be as much afflicted as Gianger such a sympathy was there in all things between these two excellent Princes We continued three Months in this sort without knowing what we were to expect concerning the Princesses life for albeit at length the Fever left her sometimes yet was it for so little while as it did not permit us to hope the recovery of her health But whil'st I was shâ—dding tears for her the Princes and Saraida took great care to conceal from the Princess and me too that Soliman had made War in Persia which was the cause I knew not that Vlama had betaken himself to his party And that which kept Mustapha from saying any thing to us of â—t was not only the fear of afflicting Axiamira but the doubt Gianger was in that iâ— she came once to know it she would be averted from a Prince whose father went about to desolate her Country We lived then above two Months in this ignorance after the Princess was out of danger for whereas we saw no body but Mustapha Saraida and Gianger that understood our language it was easie for them to keep us from knowing any thing but what they pleased But one day as the Princess and I were alone speaking of the affection that Gianger hore her and amplifying his vertues which I opposed to the vices of Deliment I in some sort pressed her to acquaint me with the thoughts which she had for him Why I will tell you now Felixana said she unto me I esteem of Gianger as much as his vertue doth merit I do acknowledg his good Offices as much as one can and I bear as much good-will to him in my heart as I do to Prince Mahamed my brother but for that passion which disorders the mind which destroys Reason and which troubles the rest of them whom it possesseth I am not capable of it and I could wish that Gianger carried a more quiet affection to me That weakness is a blemish which I do not desire should be in great Souls nor is it any thing but the subtilty of men which hath perswaded us that this passion is not vicious since all others are and that every one believes them to be so though they do not produce such deadly effects And to know how much more dangerous it is then the rest we are but to consider how it commonly stirs up all of them Hatred Anger Envy and Ambition it self are many times the followers of it yet do not think that I will be ingrateful to Prince Gianger for know how averse soever I am from marriage I would notwithstanding resolve to be his wife rather then render him unhappy if the Sophi and Soliman could consent thereunto For continued she I may indeed oppose the Sophi's pleasure but I can never be drawn to dispose of my self without his order As I was going to take Gianger's part he entered into the Princesses chamber and approaching to her with all the observance which he was accustomed to yield her he began to talk to her of his affection and he represented unto her the respect wherewith he had served her the greatness of his love the little testimony she had given him of accepting it the deplorable estate of his Fortune the small likelihood there was that after so many Letters vainly written into Persia that the friends which she had left were still generous enough to serve her That he knew how the Sophi was more affected to Deliment then ever and that he alone governed the Empire So that she could never hope either to alter Deliment or to make the Sophi change his resolution but by the necessity of resolving on that which they could no longer avoyd I perceive well my Lord answered she sighing that my misfortune is so strange as the most ingenuous spirit could not foresee any other end of it then such as must be fatal to me for if I have Enemies in Persia I have others also at Constantinople But to answer the complaints which you make against me I will open my heart unto you and if after that you be not satisfied I profess that Fortune hath not yet made me feel her cruellest rigors Ah Madam said the Prince interrupting her suffer me first to tell you that if you deprive me of the hope which my extream love hath made me conceive nothing will be able to preserve my life My Lord replyed Axiamira have patience and do not condemn me without hearing me And to begin with the Obligations wherein I am engaged to you I know that I owe you my life that the respect which you have shewed to me in a time when you knew me not for that which I was hath sensibly obliged me and that the generosity which you have demonstrated in providing me a sanctuary and preferring my interests before Solimans and
Generals of Armies and that they have been required of them but by one man accompanyed onely with four Mutes I think you will not think it less strange that the Governor of Amasia albeit much affected to Mustapha should notwithstanding open him the gates as soon as he had seen Rustan's power and that too without consulting with Prince Gianger thereupon I leave you to imagine in what a case this Prince was when he beheld Rustan at Mustapha's Palace gate followed by so great a number of armed men The first thing he did was to go with speed to Axiamira's lodging either to endevor the saving of her or to dye in her defence But this thought of affection was that which caused her to be taken the more easily for Rustan had no sooner marked the way which Gianger took but leaving one part of his forces at the gate he followed the Prince in haste with the other even to Axiamira's chamber whereinto he entred by force with him Judg illustrious Bassa what becaâ—â— of the Princess when she saw Rustan whom she presently knew Ah base v llain cryâ—â— she comest thou now to carry me away forcibly a second time He must first said Giaâ—geâ— with a great deal of fury take away my life thus unarmed as I am I will do neither the one nor the other answered wicked Rustan who would not be constrained to come to violence against the son of Roxelana but I will onely execute the Grand Signior's Order who hath commanded me to bring him all the papers which shall be found in Mustapha's Cabinet Sarraida who was with Axiamira and knew well enough that there could be nothing found which might be prejudicial to her husband went her self and shewed him the door of it In the mean time to separate Gianger from the Princess Rustan told him that he had a matter of importance to communicate unto him but the Prince answered him that having no interest severed from Axiamira he might speak before her Rustan surprized with the liberty of this discourse began to deal in another manner and letting Gianger see the absolute power which he had he put the Princess into despair and Gianger into fury who without considering that his resistance would render him culpable left not quite unarmed as he was to do strange things in opposition of Axiamira's carrying away by force He would have snatched Rustan's scimitar from him to have used it against him and doubtless he had done it if those with whom he was accompanyed had not hindred him He sought all about the chamber for something wherewith he might have defended himself but at length seeing all his endevors vain he past from one extremity to another and after he had exceedingly reviled him he on a sudden conjured him with tears in his eyes that he would have some pity on him in the person of the Princess Axiamira that he would remember he was the son of Roxelana whose daughter he had marryed being assured if the Sultana his Mother knew his designs she would approve of them that he would consider how Mustapha coming one day to raign he could not meet with a better occasion to secure his fortune then to oblige him in this encounter that besides knowing how considerable the interests of the Sultana Queen were to him he found that he should not do her any very good service in conducting a Princess to Soliman with whom he was desperately in love To all these things Rustan answered with an insolent coldness how he remembred very well that he was the son of Roxelana and for that onely reason Soliman should not know of the resistance he made to the execution of his commandments that he feared not the disobliging of Roxelana by conducting Axiamira to his Highness since she could be but his Slave and that Roxelana would always be the Sultana Queen His Slave I answered Gianger and Axiamira both together surprized with so insolent a speech that shall never be I should abuse your patience if I should repeat unto you all that love fury and despair made Prince Gianger say upon this occasion and all that sorrow and generosity put into the Princesses mouth in so grievous an encounter but in conclusion they must give way to force and obey Sarraida also had a command to enter into a charet with Axiamira which she did without any resistance as soon as she had obtained that an onely son which she had should not abandon her but contrarily she seemed to have some consolation out of the thought that she was going to meet with her dear Mustapha again As for Gianger Rustan told him that he might do what he pleased but this Prince was not in an estate to reason upon that he had to do It is easie for you to comprehend the deplorable condition wherein he found himself and what the separation was between that Prince and the Princess He earnestly desired her to think of her conservation and to comfort her in some sort he told her how he hoped that Soliman could not resist her tears that he had a great and generous soul and that provided love did not prove stronger in him then reason he was most assured that she would remain very well satisfied of him that in the mean time he promised to do all things possible for her service and that if by ill fortune he saw things desperate he would despair himself and at least-wise for the love of her since he had not been able to live for her A discourse so tender drew tears from the fair eyes of the Princess as she assured me afterwards She reached out her hand to him in turning away her head to conceal her weeping from him and assured him that whatsoever Fortune could do she should never destroy the friendship and esteem which she had for him That she promised him for a testimony that she would not be ingrateful to think as much of the conservation of Mustapha as of her own and not to attempt any thing on her life if nothing were attempted on her honor This discourse had lasted longer if cruel Rustan who had been busie in ordering of his men had not separated them and caused the Princesses and the little Prince to part away whom he placed in the midst of the thousand Archers which had accompanyed him thither Gianger seeing he could enterprize nothing for the saving of the inconsolable Axâ—amira set himself at least to follow her and getting instantly to horse he never lost the sight of her charet Now my Lord I have already told you I think that Rustan arrived at Amasia the next day after Mustapha and I were gone from thence so that our voyage having lasted a day longer then it should have done by reason of that breaking of the charet whereof if I be not mistaken I have spoken to you before and Rustan having caused the Princesses to set forth two hours after his arrival chance or to say better our ill fortune
his great chamber leaning on a Cane garnished with gold which he most commonly went with when he was in health he would needs have him walk down to the end said he unto him he might fortifie himself the better by taking the ayr Ibrahim who sought not the preservation of his health did not obey the Sultan for the reason alledged by him to perswade him to walk down but contrarily he did it out of the belief he was in that his weakness being exceeding great the more he should put himself into agitation the more would his forces diminish and the neerer he should be to his grave With such different designs did the Sultan and the Bassa descend into the Court and the Grand Signior seeming as though he would not have the Bassa make too long a walk at a time caused him to lean on the balustrade that divided the Court-yard of his Palace there to rest himself with him Scarcely had they been there a quarter of an hour when as they saw an hundred Janizaries enter attired all in cloth of gold who ranked themselves in order on both sides The Grand Visier surprized with this pomp demanded of Soliman what it might be but he told him smiling that he must behold the end of this ceremony before he could be cleared therein The Bassa then saw the Aga of the Janizaries enter who marched alone gorgeously appareled He was followed by the high Treasurer whom the Turks call Testardar accompanied with an hundred Slaves carrying two and two great maunds of silver all full of the richest ornaments that the women of the Levant do use In some of them were little hats set all over with precious stones chopines garnished with Turkeyses and Rubies smocks embroidered with gold and pearl most sumptuous gowns which being layd confusedly together made a pleasing mixture of curled cloth of gold of cloth of silver and of velvet whose ground was gold The last maund was not open on the sides like the rest and appeared to be full of all sorts of jewels of so excessive a value as there were three or four hundred thousand crowns worth of pearls amongst them They which carried these precious presents ranked themselves all along the balustrade where the Sultan and Ibrahim were leaning After this entred twelve charets full of young virgin Slaves richly clothed each of them drawn by six white horses and driven by two Eunuches Then followed thirty other virgins apparelled in cloth of gold accompanyed with so many black Slaves having all of them chains and collars of massive gold These Slaves being placed on their knees where the Aga of the Janizaries appointed them there entred next two hundred Mules laden with hangings of cloth of gold of sattin of velvet the ground silver with cushions embroidered all over which are the seats of that Country and with a great deal of the most sumptuous furniture for a house All this being set in a most marvelous order four and twenty men advanced bearing two and two twelve coffers of China garnished with gold and precious stones who being placed as the rest made way for twelve Slaves to be seen carrying Torches in their hands which were covered half way with plates of gold and shined more with the precious stones that were on them then with the flame which consumed them Until then the Grand Visier had beheld this ceremony with a great deal of admiration and astonishment but when as after these Torches he saw twelve other Slaves carry a great Canopy of crimson velvet covered with another Canopy higher then that and all enriched with plates of gold the curtains thereof close drawn reaching to the very ground he passed from astonishment to grief especially when he saw that this Canopy was followed by a Charet covered with cloth of gold drawn by six white horses and accompanyed with thirty of the fairest Slaves that ever had been seen being all on horseback with their hair hanging loose upon their shoulders and attired with as much magnificence as gallantry For calling to minde that this pomp was like unto that which the Turkish Emperors use for their own daughters when as they cause them to be conducted to the Palaces of them whom they give them for husbands he beleeved that Soliman would at length constrain him to marry Asteria to binde him wholly to his service and in this thought he had already resolved to lose his life both out of a sense of love and out of a sense of Religion before he would consent unto it But he was strangely surprized when as the Grand Signior had made a sign to the Aga of the Janizaries to draw the curtains of the Canopy to see upon a white steed held by two black Slaves his incomparable Isabella Ah my Lord cryed he out in Italian Is not this an illusion may I beleeve that I see and do not my eyes beguile me And then losing all respect in this encounter he went maugre his weakness and without attending Soliman's answer to help the Princess off from her horse and to clear himself throughly of the doubt whereinto this surprize had put him but he could not execute his design for the Aga of the Janizaries had rendered him that service already and had conducted her to the half pace of the balustrade where the Bassa received her This Princess had not seen him yet because at such time as the curtains which concealed her were drawn the sight of so great an assembly had not permitted her to mark him though she had carefully sought about with her eyes to finde him out But when as Ibrahim advancing towards her did by the sound of his voyce force her to look that way she had no less joy then he though not so much amazement for she knew well enough that he was at Constantinople and she beleeved too that she had been forcibly brought away by his order for Rustan would never tell her any thing And though this violent design was not pleasing to her yet felt she nothing but joy for all that at this first vâ—ew nor did the paleness and change which Ibrahim's melancholy had painted in his face any whit afflict her being very glad to see the marks of his love in those of his grief Is it possible Madam said Ibrahim unto her that I should once more see the incomparable Isabella Is it from Love or Fortune that I hold this grace Neither from the one nor the other replyed Soliman in Italian who was come to the top of the half pace but from the good-will which I bear thee and from the desire I have to preserve thy life This voyce brought respect again unto Ibrahim who told the Princess that she saw the greatest Monarch of the world for fear she should not render unto Soliman the honor that was due to him Isabella would instantly have cast her self at his feet when as this Prince raising her up against the custom of the Grand Signiors and beholding her
will not fear to tell thy Highness what my birth is being confident of thy generosity Thou maist be pleased to understand then that I am of the illustrious race of that infortunate prince from whom the valor and fortune of Mahomet the second thy great Grandfather took his Empire and his life and who interred himself with all his glory and with all that of the Paleologues under the ruines of this famous City of Constantinople Thou art not ignorant my Lord that after so great a subversion of that State and in so generall a destruction all that remained of the Princes of the Imperiall House were dispersed over all the earth and not able to conceal their unhappiness in generall some of them concealed themselves by changing a too famous name for their present fortune Justiniano Paleologue of whom I descended was of that number for seeing he had saved out of that shipwrack wealth enough for a particular but not enough for a Prince of so illustrious a blood as his he retired to Genoua retaining but the name of Justiniano which since hath been the surname of our House the very same with that of a Popular Family which was before in the same City And that poor Prince desiring to accommodate his quality to his misfortune shut up that secret within his Family and in this sort though we be in effect Princes yet have we past ever since for Gentlemen That which obliged him to chuse Genoua for his retreat rather than any other place of Italy was for that he knew how the Genoueses had alwaies been well affected to that Empire how they had mightily succoured Michaelo Paleologue and hovv in case it should happen that he should be knovvn for that vvhich he vvas he should be in a place of safety And truly he had some reason to fear it for he had rendred himself so remarkable by the gallant actions vvhich he had performed and had so signalized himself on the day of the taking of Constantinople as he vvas the last that vvas seen to defend the breach but at length beholding the City taken the Emperor Constantino Paleologue dead and the whole Empire subverted he stole away his person from the victory of his Enemies and being retired almost alone he took the resolution which I have delivered I know very well my Lord that it is too much temeritie in the estate wherein things are for me to let thee understand that I am of a blood which gives me some right to pretend to the Empire that thou possessest at this present but my Lord I am to tell thee that in the disposition wherein I am for thy Highness I would prefer my former chaines before the Empire of my Ancestors and that if I were the distributer of Crownes I would set them all upon thy head reserving nothing for my self but the onely glory to obey thee Soliman not able to indure that a discourse so generous should continue longer without an answer took Justinianoes hand and wringing it with a great deal of affection I have alwaies indeed believed said he unto him that thy birth was as high as thy mind and I am glad that I have not been deceived in my conjecture and without knowing the right which thou couldst pretend to this Empire I have at least rendred thee all the justice that I could render thee for I protest unto thee by all that is most holy and most sacred unto me that if the conveniency of things would permit me to yield thee up the title as wel as I have given thee the power of it I would do it with joy out of the knowledge which I have of thy vertues and out of the affection I bear thee But continue I pray thee the relation of thy adventures unto me Ibrahim would fain have answered to these civilities of Soliman but being kept from doing so by him he proceeded in this manner That last of the Paleologues and that first of the Justinianoes had a sonne called Philippo who retaining something of his birth had an imperious spirit that would give place to no man this Philippo Justiniano my great great Grandfather finding himself alwaies opposed to one Astolpho Grimaldi the one having ever followed the party of the Fregozes and the other that of the Adornes it was his hap also to be a pretendant to the Charge of the Generalissimo as well as he so that their secret intentions breaking forth in this occasion they fell to quarrelling so outragiously that they ingaged all their kindred and all their friends in their interests and as their ambition was extreme so also was their violence But without amusing my self in recounting this troublesome History to thy Highness it shall suffise me to say that following the detestable custom which is observed over all Italy that particular and persosonall hatred passed even to my father who yet could never approve of that habit in his heart that will have one receive with his life the hatred of his Predecessors enemies which being just for them becomes unjust in their children since it is addressed to innocency but at length to follow the custom rather â—han his inclination Ludovico Justiniano so vvas he called that gave me being had never any commerce with Rhodolpho Grimaldi the chief of that other Family contrarily knowing that his enemy was of an haughty humor and that he might draw some advantage from his goodnes he alvvays took care to conceal it from him and both on the one and the other part they did all that an irreconcilable enmity could suggest to two vindicative and powerfull men Behold my Lord the order wherein I found things at my comming into the World but without speaking of my infancy to thy Greatness I will only say that as soon as I had attained the age wherein strength began to permit me to travell I obtained of my father the means to content the extreme desire I alwaies had of going to admire the pompous ruins of the antient Rome and the grandeurs of the new away I went then with an Equipage answerable to my condition but my curiosity not being limited by the view of one only City I resolved to give no obedience to the commandment which I had received to return unto Genoua with in six moneths after my departure and as if fortune had taken pleasure to favour my design and inclination she wrought so that the Emperor of the Christians came to Lucca where I then being for to see the interview of the Pope and that Prince I understood that preparation was making for the War of Algier I will not fear my Lord to confess unto thy Highness how joyfull I was to meet with an occasion whereby I might learn a trade which I was resolved to exercise all my life I will therefore acknowledge freely knowing thy generosity that he who would now spend all his blood for thy service was thine enemy in that action This resolution taken I had not
since as I have before delivered he was at Genoua unknown The matter failed not to fall out even as he had conceived it for he was advertised that the Prince of Masseran was in this walk attended but with two of his servants he went forth then speedily with the like number and overtaking him in a place where few persons could be witnesses of his action As soon as he was so near him as he might speak to him he asked him whether he knew my name and whether it were possible he should be ignorant that Isabella could not lawfully be his because she was mine but since the thing was done he must at least render himself worthy of so noble a conquest by the loss of his life as I had bought it with my blood in saying so they both drew out their swords and Doria without attending the Prince of Masserans answer attacqued him so vigoriously as he was constrained to give ground They that accompanied him would have opposed themselves to this fury but they that followed Doria would not suffer them so to do and whereas they were equall in number they began a just combat whereof the modesty of my friend kept him from telling me the particulars but in the end notwithstanding whatsoever the Prince of Masseran could perform the victory sided with reason and Doria after the receiving of a slight hurt pressed his enemy with so much courage as he ran him into the body in four severall places which made him fall down as if he were dead A minute after Nature doing her last devoir he opened his eyes and seeing Doria coming from parting their followers and giving order to his help to carry him to some place he had yet so much strength as to call him and before he expired to crave pardon for the outrage he had done me and to pray me to consider the power of Isabellaes eyes for the excusing of his fault moreover he conjured him to tell me that the Princess had kept her faith inviolable to me then he acquainted him in few words with all the violences of her mother with all the resistances which she had made thereunto and at the last swore that he was not her husband but that Julia had used this artifice in hope to make me away as I have already told thy Highness not doubting but that if I were dead she should have carried her daughter to all that she had desired Scarcely had that infortunate Prince made an end of speaking but he dyed in Doriaes armes who with sorrow remitted him into the hands of his servants to goe and provide for his own safety so that without losing time and before this combat was divulged he sent to hire a Feluca and without returning into the City he imbarqued himself for Naples for in the uncertainty of the event of the combat he had brought mony enough about him to mak his retreat into that place and had left a letter in his Cabinet which instructed one of his friends with the order hee would have taken in his affaires He departed then safely away in this sort but the next day he incountred the Pirate Arsalon and in the manner which thy Highness understood yesterday he came to Constantinople But my Lord to make all the rigor of my destiny known to thy Majesty I am to tell thee further that not long since Doria hath met with a slave of Monaco who hath related unto him that as sooon as Julia knew of the death of the Prince of Masseran anger and grief seized so upon her as she died therewith in a little time so that Isabella seeing she was Mistress of her self had sent a man into Germany to desire me to come and take care of her State and to receive her person for a reward of my fidelity For she knew nothing either of my jealousie or despair which having carried me far enough from the place whither she had sent to seek me beguiled all her hopes and destroyed her felicity by the fruiteless return of him she had imployed unto me since that she lived in a very austere and melancholick solitariness saying openly that she was resolved to renounce the world as soon as she knew that I was no longer in it And whereas there ran a bruit in Genoua about a year ago that I had been seen in Naples she dispatched away this man for to goe and see if it were so having made a vow if his voyage proved vain to shut her self in a Cloister for all the rest of her life but whereas fortune hath never done any but extraodinary things in my adventures she so wrought that this man putting himself into a French Barque to pass over thither was taken by a Pirate whose vessells lay under the covert of a Rock which is near to a place by the Italians called Porto Hercoles And whereas he had a grat number of Slaves he stayed not long from going to sell them at one of the Islands of the Archipelago from whence by divers accidents this man came to Constantinople where Doria by chance knew him as having at other times seen him in Rhodolphoes service After all this my Lord it will not be difficult for thy Highness to imagine the deplorable estate wherein I find my self by thy bounty and by the proposition which thou hast made me concerning the Sultana Asteria I should not be so hardy as to speak to thee in these termes if I did not call to mind that the charmes of the divine Roxelana have been of sufficient force to vanquish the most victorious Monarch of the world and that for this reason I may hope to see thee sensible of my misfortune to obtain pardon for my ingratitude and to be heard in my justifications It is true indeed that to excuse my fault I need no more than to beseech thy Highness to consider that if I could even banish from my heart the image of Isabella forget her affection her oathes and her constancie become the most ingratefull of men to his Princess cause her death by my change which she would quickly know prefer my Master before my mistress and my duty before my love the Religion I profess prohibiting me the plurality of wives which that of the Mahometans doth permit I could not dispose of a faith which I have already given seeing I am a Christian under the habit of Mussulman although I be not believed to be so in all the extent of thy Empire But whereas for all that it is not just that my temerity should be vanquished deprive a man of thy favor who refuseth an alliance which a great King outght to receive on his knees Banish from thy sight and Court a man whom so many benefits whom so many greatnesses and to say all whom thy affection cannot make perfectly happy and to satisfie the Sultana Austeria I am ready to reenter into the irons from whence she drew me and to die her Slave since I cannot
Genoua it self with all the forces of his Empire This Ambassador was so surprised with hearing the Sultan speak of Justiniano and Doria as it had divers times like to have made him forget the respect which he owed him for to interrupt him but at length after Soliman had given over speaking he answered him that the thing he desired was so beneficiall to the Republique as his Highness need not fear to be refused that the merit of those two excellent men was so generally known as the Senate had not obeyed the Laws but with grief and that doubtless they would be extremely joyfull of so just and specious a pretext to infringe them After this Soliman dismissed him and told him yet once again how he should remember that in this occasion they were to satisfie him or to have him their enemy howbeit he somewhat caressed him in bidding him farewell and excused the not receiving him with all requisite Ceremonies for some reasons which he might not tell him that in the mean time he should prepare himself for his departure and that he should have his dispatch When he was retired according to the custom that is without turning his back to the Sultan Ibrahim came forth of the Cabinet and cast himself at his feet to give him thanks for so many testimonies of the affection which he received every minute from his Highness But Soliman took him up and told him that eight years service well deserved that acknowledgment that withall likewise in labouring for his good he should establish his own felicity which would never be perfected till he saw him contented that the impatience he was in for his departure was occasioned by the desire he had of his return and that it might no longer be deferred he was to go and make an end of taking order for his affairs and that immediately after noon he should come and bid him adieu and bring Doria with him Ibrahim answered to all these things with as much generosity as kindness and for a conclusion he deeply protested never to think himself acquitted of the infinite obligations wherein he was ingaged to his Highness but in sacrifising his life for his service He would have proceeded further but the Sultan interrupted him and once more commanded him to have no other thought than of going to see the incomparable Isabella and of giving life again to Soliman After this the Grand Visier durst not make any reply but retired homewards to go unto his dear Doria whom he had not seen since the evening before and he encountred him in the Hipodrome so intentive in observing the stately structure of his Palace as the Bassa was fain to speak to him before he would heed him or be drawn out of so sweet a contemplation But when as Dâ—ria seemed to be unwilling to stir from thence till he had at leasure considered that Master-peece of Architecture Ibrahim told him he was contented he should so as he stayd not long about it for that having goodlier things to shew him and not having much time to spare they were to mannage so much as they had till dinner was made ready in letting him see all the beauties of the Palace which he had caused to be built That whereas he was skilfull in Painting in Perspective in Architecture in rarities and in all parts of the Mathematicks he should be glad to know whether according to his judgement all the rules of those fair Arts and of those excellent Sciences were found to be observed there as according to his they were But first sayd Doria to him I would fain know how in so little a time you could make up a building which for its greatness and for the magnificence of its structure would require the whole life of a man and the treasures of a great Prince This last replyed Ibrahim is the only necessary thing for with it is done in a small time what whole Ages and all the industry of man could not do without it and both to answer you and to take from you the means of troubling me with new objections I am to let you know that having a purpose to build this Palâ—â—e I easily found out a way to do it as well speedily as magnificently For dispoâ—ing of all the Revenue of the Empire I could want nothing save Artisans to execute my design but fortune sent me them for good luck would that a great Architect two Painters and two Sculptors having put themselves in company together for to pass out of Italy into Spain from whence they had been sent for to make a stately Palace for the Emperor were taken by Pirates who afterwards sold them here at Constantinople and whereas I have alwaies been very carefull to inform my self of places where any Christian slaves were that I might relieve them I met with these same knew what they were and employed them for two whole years together after which I sent them back in a vessell laden with riches You have peradventure heard say that the Turks do not suffer the image of any living thing to be made and that the Alcoran seems to forbid it but as in all Religions heresies do from time to time arise this same which is composed of nothing but absurdities hath not been wanting therein for some remedy whereof they one day cast into the River of Adezelia that runs by Damascus two hundred Camels lading of Books of the different opinions of their Religion retaining but six of them which since have produced many others whereof one maintains upon this Article that the rest have misunderstood that passage where their Prophet had no other meaning but to forbid them the worshiping the images of men of beasts and of plants and not the making of them for the ornament of houses And indeed this opinion hath been followed chiefly by the Grandees The Seraglio hath its Galleries full of Mosaique work where are seen great store of interlaced foliage and birds represented by suitable peeces of differing Marble The Emperor Selim could paint himself and he sent a Battel drawn with his own hand to the Venetians and Soliman his son hath his Fathers Picture alwaies hanging by his bed-side so that after such illustrious examples I have adorned this Palace but with pictures and statues wherein it may be you will find wherewith to satisfie the knowledge which you have in those excellent arts The description of Ibrahims Palace WHilst the Bassa was talking in this sort he and his friend came still nearer to the Gate where Doria stayed to consider the superb front of a great Paviglion which rose up into a Dome over the Gate and that equally divided a long wall of white Marble which made the inclosure of that great and marvailous fabrick Doria could not sufficiently admire three orders of columns of differenâ— Marbles which adorned that Portall whereof the basis and capitall were of Brass but wrought with so much art that neither the Greeks nor the Romans
indeed his memory hath been so reverenced that even to this day all his Successors have held it for a glory to carry his name You may observe in his Physiogminy that he vvas a Prince as prudent as the rest of the Table vvill shevv him to be couragious This battell which you see afar off is that which he obtained against the Teggiur of the Town of Prusia but mark a little how the industrious Painter hath so done it as all these figures seem to move and that in this disorder one may know the victorious party he hath done it so too that Othoman is easily discerned there But if this sight be well represented this assault of that Town of Prusia and where he afterwards established the seat of his Empire wil not seem less marvellous unto you This pane of the wall which you see fallen down and which lets you perceive them plainly that defended it is it not admirably well done These other Towns which you behold so distinctly are those of Sinopa in Galatia of Angauri in Phrigia of Sebasta in Capadocia and these which you see further off towards those Rocks are the rest which he gained on Mare major As for this Land-skip set thick with Towns which you see beyond Prusia it is of Natolia that he wholly conquered and this Army which seemeth to march and whereof all the souldiers are laden with booty is the first that ever passed into Europe and that made strange havock under this excellent enemy But without staying to consider the rest let us pass on to this other Table The Pourtrait of Orchan the second Emperor of the TURKS THis Prince was the truly worthy sonne of Othoman continued Ibrahim infortunate nevertheless in this particular that he was forced to be the first who-began to make war on his Brothers and wholly to exclude them from all pretension to the Empire but if he were unhappy in this encounter fortune recompensed him otherwayes his conquests having extended their limits on the one side to the Helespont and on the other to Mare major These Towns which you see neerest hand are those of Nicea and Nicomedia and this Army in disorder where the Painter hath so well represented fear and amazement is that of the Emperor Paleologue which was routed by Orchan neer to Philocratia as you may discern afar off As for this great extent of Countrey and this number of Towns which take up all the rest of the Table it is Misia Lacaonia Caria and Phrigia except the Towns of Gallipolis and Philopoli which you see on the right hand and which were his last conquests for he died soon after But let us behold the next The Pourtrait of Soliman the third Emperor of the Turks IF the life of this Emperor had been longer he would have yet surpassed his Father both in valor and in prudence and we should have seen the Table of his victories filled up more than it is but whereas his reign indured but two years he had no more time than to take Andriâ—ople conquer a great part of Thrace and bring also under his subjection the Towns of Pergamas Edrenuta Zemeniqua and some others as well on this as on the other side of the Helespout which you see here running athwart this Table But this other piece will furnish us with more matter to speak of than this same The Pourtrait of Amurath the fourth Emperor of the Turks TO describe unto you the humor of this Prince before I speak of his Triumphs I must tell you that he had together both force and weakness curtesie and cruelty and agility in his age that he was both terrible and loving that he was insatiable in shedding of blood and that nevertheless he never put any one to death but most justly It was as well by these according contrarieties that he rendred himself admirable to Posterity as by his valor which being seconded by fortune maâ—e him take Pherea the capitall Citie of Macedonia conquer Misia from Dragus and Mount Rhodope from the Pogdan two valiant and mighty Princes and the most part of Armenia from the Greek Emperor Carathin a great Captain conquered for him also the Towns of Cherales Seres Marolia and the renowned Thessalonica which the Painter hath made to be seen more distinctly than those I have already shewed you as being of more importance Doria could not then forbear interrupting Ibrahim for to pray him to let him know whether those millions of armed and fighting men which he saw in this Table were not the picture of all the Battells that were given during the reigns of all the Emperors You have reason my dear Doria answered the Illustrious Bassa to be amazed at the prodigious number of men which this Table doth shew you where the Art of the Painter hath as well eternized his own glory as that of Amurath by representing seven and thirty battells which he won And that which is yet more marvellous therein is that he died triumphing in the last See you not continued Ibrahim this Army discomfited And this great heap of armes in the midst of the place of battail upon the which a dead man appeares holding nevertheless a scymitar still in his hand and upon whom Victory which you may see here represented in the air throws down Crownes it is the body of Victorious Amurath whose death was worthy of envy and whose life would have defaced the glory of all them that preceded him had it not been blemished with cruelty But if the death of Amurath deserved to be envyed that of Bajazet will give you cause of pitty The Pourtrait of Bajazet the fifth Emperor of the TURKS THe nature of this prince cannot be well represented but by the lightning which terrifieth universally which ravageth indifferently passeth in a momant and perisheth in an instant all of them qualities admirably befitting Bajazet surnamed by his subjects Guilderum that is to say the lightning of Heaven But whereas the remembrance of his life strikes me with horror by reason of the unheard-of cruelties which he exercised it shall suffise to tell you that after he had gotten some battailes which you see presented in this Table taken the Town of Eritza and those of Hisipolis Iconium Casura Migdia and Assara from the Caraman and gained also by armes from a Greek named Theodorus the Town of Damacia and that of Delphos which you see here near hand after he had I say sacked all Hungaria Bossina and Croatia defeated the French Burgingnians and Hungarians in that memorable battail of Nicopolis after he had I say filled the whole Universe with terror put all the Provinces where he passed to fire and sword he lost in one onely battel his Empire and his glory serving Tamerlan who had vanquished him all the rest of his daies and at last was constrained for his geting out of misery to make his tomb of his prison by beating out his braines as against the iron barres of the cage wherein
longer hereupon it shall suffise to say that after the battel of Varnes he conquered Peloponnesus that he dismissed himself absolutely from his Empire which to took upon him again soon after for to obtain a battel against the valiant Huniades he made the King of Bosnia also his Tributary which was his last victory For the couragious George Scanderbeg Castriot King of Albania who had been his Slave and that had acquired unto himself with so much justice the glorious title of the Buckler of Christendom oposed all his enterprises with such valour as this great Prince seeing him self forced so raise his siege from before Croya dyed with grief and spight at it The Pourtrait of Mahomet the second the eleventh Emperor of the Turks IT was not without some cause that this Prince would be surnamed Bovi which is to say Great or the Terror of the World seeing all his actions have been so great and high that if his excellent qualities had been without blemish this Prince had been incomparable He was great in his enterprises great in courage great in conduct great in prudence a great Politician great in conquest great in beauty and in subtilty of wit but he was also great in impiety in dissoluteness in revenge in perfidiousness and in ambition The greatness of his courage and of his enterprises carried him against the Greeks Hungarians Trebisondians Mifians Valachians Transilvanians Bosniaus Albanians Rhodians Venetians and divers other people In conclusion my dear Doria this Prince had to do with all the Warlike Nations of the World but this Table contains too many things to be explaned particularly unto you wherefore it shall suffice that you only do admire the exquisite ordering of it and that I tell you in generall how Mahomet conquered in two and thirty years that he reigned twelve Kingdoms and two Empires that of Trebisond and that of the Greeks together with this mighty and renowned City of Constantinople as also that of Croya and all Albania Valachia Bosnia Scodra Peloponesus and the Town of Otranto He reduced the Caraman under his obedience Stiria Carinthia Synope the Iland of Metelin and after the battell which he gained against Usuncassan he constrained him to seek his amity Howbeit he was not equally fortunate for the valiant Huniades and the valorous Scanderbeg vanquished sometimes in him the Vanquisher of all others And whereas ambition was the predominant passion in the heart of Mahomet it followed him even to death ordaining that upon his Tomb there should be set after a long narration of all his Victories in the Turkish tongue this subscription in Latin He had a purpose to ruin Rhodes and superb Italy But the divine justice extinguished his desires with his dayes The Pourtrait of Bajazet the second the twelfth Emperor of the Turks THe life of this Prince is so replenished with divers adventures as it cannot be defined certainly whether he had more good than bad fortune The begining of his Reign was established by three Battels which he obtained against a Brother of his who was constrained to fly unto Rhodes When he was at peace he conquered Caramania did great spoyl in Moldavia took the Town of Chilliem together with the Castle and that of Moncastro the chief of the Province he took also Lepanto Modon Coron and Junqua from the Christians whom he defeated iâ— a Navall-fight as you may behold in this Table where the Painter verily hath done prodigies See you not continued Ibrahim these two vessels grapled together consider a little with what ardour the assailants seem to go to the fight and how one of these Janizaries striving to leap aboord this small vessel is repulsed by this Christian how in falling he hath seized on his enemy whom he drags along with him Behold also on the left hand this vessel which the Turks had invested and how that rather than they would yeeld they have blown up themselves observe withall these flakes of fire which light upon this other vessell whose tackle and sayles already begin to burn and how this great cloud of smoak which steals away the rest of the Army from our eyes is an address of the Painter who wanting room hath repaired that defect by this invention But without standing on the last disorders of this Prince which were strange whether for the violent deaths that he caused or for that which he received let us pass on to thiâ— other piece The Pourtrait of Selim the thirteenth Emperor of the Turks THis gloomy physiognomy and this haughty look do not ill paint forth unto us the ambition and cruelty of Selim but they conceal from us his vertues which certainly were very great He was prudent and advised amidst dangers prompt and vigilant in his enterprises indefatigable in War of an invincible courage a reasonable Justicer manger his cruelty extremely liberall and that which is of most marvail in this Prince is that he was never vanquished after he was Emperor He loved the reading of History he made verses in his own tongue was very skilfull in Painting and even to the point that he sent as I have already delared the Battell which he obtained against the Sophy drawn with his own hand unto the Venetians who conserve it still unto this day in their Treasurie There is also a great number of his works to be seen in the Seraglio He was very Eloquent and nothing curious of the magnificence of Apparell and that which I most admire in him is that he alwayes refused those adorations which are accustomed to be rendred to the Turkish Emperors never suffering any to cast themselves on the ground in speaking to him nor to do him reverence on their knees And truly if this Emperor had not blemished his glory by that prodigious desire of reigning which carried him to take away the life of him from whom he had received his to cause two of his Brothers eight of his Nephews and as many of his Bassaes to be strangled he had been excellent in all things But to pass over his Victories lightly because time doth press us I will onely tell you in few words that he won a famous Battle of the Sophy at Zaleran that he took Tauris which he kept not long and Keman at his return he rendred himself Master of Aladulia after he had vanquished King Ustagelu he passed into Siria where he defeated Campson Gauri Sultan of Cairo in a battel neer to Aleppo which was rendred unto him as well as Damascus and all the rest of Siria from thence going to Jerusalem he conquered all Palestina by the valour of Sinan Bassa who obtained a Battel neer to Gaza whereupon Selim having passed the deserts of Egypt fought a battel vvith Thomombey hard by Matharea and constrained him to retire to Cairo where was given the most memorable battel of our Age for it lasted three dayes and three nights in continuall fight but in the end Selim was victorious and forced the Mamelucks to abandon
the City unto him and having recovered new forces they were utterly defeated and Thomombey taken prisoner After he had given the pillage of Cairo to his souldiers as you may see in this Table where this dreadfull disorder is so well exprest he went and took also Alexandria Danâ—ietta Tripoli and all the rest of Egypt and Arabia One of his Bassaes obtained likewise a great Victory against the Persians But at last after he had been in so many fights won so many battails and conquered so many Provinces in less than two years as he thought to return triumphant to the seat of his Empire he dyed at Chiourli in the very same place where before he had given battel to his faâ—her after he had reigned only eight years The Pourtrait of Soliman the second the fourteenth Emperor of the Turks THe Victories of great Soliman are so universally known of all the World that upon the least considering of this Table you will bring them unto your memory again it being impossible but that fame hath acquainted you with them You will easily then knovv Belgrade and the Isle of Rhodes where this Emperor stood in need of all his conduct and of all his valour This Battel which you see a far off is that of Mohacs vvhich he gained against the Hungarians wherein dyed Lewis King of Hungary This City which here I shew you continued Ibrahim is Bagadet vvhere Soliman vvas crovvned King of Persia but though I have some share in this War as well as in that of Natolia vvhich you may see also in this Table I will refer this narration to another time that may be more opportune for us I know my dear Doria that this proposition displeases you but you must obey me for you vvill not be the strongest at Constantinople and though you may absolutely command Justiniano yet must you at this time follovv the pleasure of Ibrahim Let us make an end then of running over the Victories of Soliman again and without particularising every one it shall suffice me to tell you that Assyria and Mesopotamia do obey him that he hath taken Strigonia and Alba Regalis that he hath made six expeditions into Hungary that he hath subdued Aladulia and the Kingdom of Aden with many other Towns on the red sea that he hath rendred Argier Tributary that he hath also subjected Pialli Tripoli and Gerbes But after all these things that which I find to be most excellent in the life of this Prince is that he conquered a Kingdom for to restore it unto him to whom it appertained by rendring unto him again all the strong places that he had in his hands which he performed in the person of John King of Hungary and I more esteem of him for having surmounted this ambition vvhich is naturall to all Monarchs than I commend him for all his Victories And whereas I make more account of the gifts of Nature than of the presents of Fortune I had rather make you an Elogium of his person in particular than speak further to you of his Conquests which are already but too great on Christendom side Behold then my dear Doria this Majesticall face and this vertuous physiognomy did you ever see a more goodly man or one of a better aspect There appears in his eyes a vivacity of spirit and a sweetness vvhich charmeth hearts and in the air of his face a certain tranquillity which sufficiently shevvs that this Prince is master of his passions and that without doubt he hath no interior trouble I know not whether my affection to him doth blind or dazle me but I see something of such state in his port and of so much majesty over all his person as I hold it impossible for one to look upon him and not to love him Furthermore this goodly apparance is not deceitfull and the qualities of this Princes soul are so noble and vertuous that if he were a Christian he would be of all men the most perfect He hath together both much valour and much conduct he is infinitely just towards his own people and exceeding clement towards his enemies he is so rigorous an observer of his vvord as he vvould resolve rather to lose his Empire than not to keep it when once he hath given it He is great in spirit great in judgement and great in memory he understands the Mathematicks and the universall History so admirably as nothing can be propounded to him toâ—â—hing those matters which he resolves not upon the place Finally he is a Prince that possesseth all vertues and that hath never been vanquished save by one only passion but whereas it is the noblest of all others I think you will pardon him this weakness he hath been then passionately amorous of divers women but amongst the rest of the Sultana Roxelana whom he would needs espouse to the end she might partake with him in that supreme greatness which the Othoman Princes do not lightly bestow and which to conserve wholly to themselves they never or seldom marry howbeit love was stronger in Soliman than either reason of State or the example of his Predecessors Behold my dear Doria a simple draught of this great Emperor whom ere it be long you may compare with the originall that so you may judge whether I have robbed him of any thing or flattered him for this great Prince hath commanded me to bring you to the Seraglio when as I go thither to take my leave of him in the mean space since we are pressed with time let us make an end of viewing this house In saying so Ibrahim opened a door which gave upon the Lobbey whereof I have already spoken but before they past on Doria testified to Ibrahim hovv glad he was of the hope he had given him that he should present himself to the Grand Signior he rendred him thanks also for having so punctually explaned all those peeces by abridging unto him the History of so great an Empire which he had never understood but very confusedly before He would have said more if our illustrious Bassa would have suffered him but his impatience appeared so visibly in his eyes that Doria without further stay went out of the Gallery smiling into the Lobbey from whence they past through three outward chambers which were all of a floor before they came to Ibrahims the feeling of them were very magnificent and the meanest of the Hangings were of cloth of Gold of Tinsell or Persian Tapestry the floors as of all the rest vvere made of suitable peeces of severall Marbles and in proportionable divisions After he had stayed a vvhile to consider all these things they entred into the Bassaes chamber vvhere Doria vvas surprised vvith the furniture of it both for the richness and fashion thereof for it was hanged with black Velvet set all over with tears and flames imbroidered in pearl Here it was where Ibrahim desired his dear Doria to remember the things which he should see in this chamber
the services are voluntary one may tell me peradventure that the satisfaction should at leastwise be equall to the crime for the defacing of it out of an incensed spirit and that Justiniano having taken away the life of a child of Philippoes it is not enough for obtaining the pardon thereof that he hath restored his only sonne to his liberty but grant it were true that Justiniano had done no other thing than break the chains of Alphonso this objection could not be received but by base and weak souls it being most certain that a generous man will always prefer the conservation of his liberty before that of his life It is a good so generally known of all the world as there is no Nation that hath not made war to conserve it The most honourable Servitude hath ever found some rebellion in the minds of those who have imbraced it and if the Religion which we profess did not prohibit us from disposing of our selves there is not a Slave amongst the Turks that would not make himself away with joy to get out of the miseries which he indures for if one hath seen at other times both men and women to have recourse to this extreme remedy because they were for one day only to follow the Chariot of the Victorious bound with chains of gold what ought not men do who laden with irons are sent to the prisons of the black Sea where it may be said that they enter alive into their graves being put into deep holes where horror and darkness which always reign there are the least of their pains They feel the rigor of hunger they are beaten and tormented in their bodies yea and persecuted in their minds by the injuries and blasphemies which they daily hear from the mouths of their torturers It is my Lords from this dreadfull place that Justiniano hath drawn out Alphonso to bring him back into his Countrey for to speak the truth he could not avoyd the feeling of the miseries which I have represented unto you or of dying cruelly his Sentence was pronounced as well as of that of his companions and if we had tarried but one day longer before we arrived at the place where hâ— was retained Solimans Order had come too late to work that which he had formerly given and the succour of justiniano had been in vain Now I leave it to be judged whether the reparation be equall to the crime and whether Philippo hath reason to oppose the return of Justiniano But not to conceal one important thing that may lead him to a good sense I must say further that Alphonso who cannot be worthily enough praised and whose presence keeps me from speaking more of it knowing how far he is obliged to Justiniano is absolutely resolved to follow the fortune of his Deliverer it is by his order that I speak and his silence doth sufficiently prove this verity unto you it is not but to confirm what I say that he is come hither to obey Justiniano who would not let him stay with him as he desired At last my Lords if Philippo will preserve his son he must joyn his prayers to those of all the people who conjure you to accord the grace of him who hath filled your City with abundance all the families of Genoua with joy all the acclamations of gladness which you hear at the Palace gate speak to you for pardon and mercy but if you oppose the severity of the Laws to prayers so just so pressing and necessary for the publick tranquility I have to answer you that it is not to offend them but to satisfie justice which ought to be the rule of them and that the same Lawes which will have a crime punished will also have vertue recompenced If there be need of examples of Sentences that have been revoked all antiquity will furnish us therewith Aristides was banished by the Ostracisme and repealed within three yeares after Cimon was exiled from Athens and intreated to return even by those that had driven him away at Sparta one Leontidas was used in the same manner amongst the Lacedemonians Philoxenus had the same fortune and if we will go to Rome we shall find that Seneca was banished by Claudius and called home again by him for some praises which he had given him in a letter of consolation that he wrote to Polibius his favorite judge now my Lords whether flattery spoken with a good grace may enter into comparison with the service that Jnstiniano hath rendred you But to pass from antiquity to the modern age have we not seen amongst the Venetians Hortensio Contarini condemned to a perpetual banishment who returned into his Country a little after with the same honors which he formely had there And without going to seek for authorities amongst our neighbors which we may find amongst our selves hath not one seen Antonia Fregoza exiled for ever from his Country who nevertheless was by a decree from the Senate restored to his former liberty in Genoua I could also find many other particulars in History to confirm my proposition but I think it may suffice that Greece and Italy have marked you out the way which you may follow without fear of failing after so many Illustrious examples Howbeit you will peradventure say that albeit you could infringe your Lawes in favor of Justiniano because he hath done you such great services yet Doria cannot pretend to the same grace seeing he himself oweth his liberty to our Deliverer but I am to answer you for the glory of this disinteressed friend who hazarded his life by a generosity without example to revenge the outrage which the Prince of Masseran did to Justiniano that this action seemed so gallant to Soliman when as Justiniano recounted it unto him that he hath judged Doria worthy of his protection Besides do you not imagine that the interests of these two illustrious persons can ever be separated And to tell you all that I think in this incounter prepare your selves to execute vvhat I have promised or resolve to lose at the same instant all the commanders of your Vessells who have every one as vvell as my self solemnly sworn never to enjoy the liberty vvhich Justiniano hath gotten us unless he be partaker of it vvith us As for me vvho doe certainly knovv of vvhat importance this affair is for the publique good I should think that I should betray my Country if I should conceal the eagernes vvhich I observed in the mind of Soliman vvhen as he told me that one of his slaves having found grace in his sight had besought him to pardon us and that he had consented thereunto provided that you should revoke the Sentences which you had given against Justiniano and Doria wherein if you failed he swore in fury that he would come with all the forces of his Empire to destroy our Republique It is no longer then my Lords a particular interest it is no longer the merit of Justiniano that
had rendred her thanks for so generous an apprehension Doria told him that he could not better acquit himself of that devoire than to acquaint her by what inchantment he got out of this adventure Isabella having testified by her action that Doriaes impatience was hers Justiniano prosecuted his History in this manner Since your Excellency will know how I was delivered I am to let you understand that to go from the place where my doom had been pronounced to that where it was to be executed we were of necessity to pass by one of the faces of the Seraglio and my good luck would have it that when we came to that part the Sultana Asteria great Solimans daughter was leaning at a window whereof she had pulled up the grate and seeing a far off the multitude of people which accompanyed me and who seemed by their carriage to take part with my misfortune it chanced that she cast her eye upon my face and that she found something in it which begot a curiosity in her whereupon she commanded them that conducted me to stay and demanded of them what crime I had committed I knew afterwards for then I understood not the language very well that one amongst them told her I was innocent and recounted unto her by what mishap I was in that estate by aggravating with a great deal of vehemency the obstinacy of fortune in chusing me still and the constancy which I had shewed in this encounter As long as this discourse lasted I observed that she considered me very attentively so that perceiving by some words which I had already learned during the voyage and by her gesture that she spake of me and that she pittied me I saluted her with a profound respect At length Madam the young Sultana Asteria was so compassionate and generous that after she had asked and knew of what Nation I was she expresly charged them that conducted me not to stir from thence till they had order from the Grand Signior her father They who knew both the rank and credit which the Sultana had with Soliman were carefull not to fail in obeying her in the mean time she went to the Emperor her father who was then very luckily in the old Seraglio where she was and which is not inhabited but by the Mothers Sisters Daughters and Aunts of the Grand Signior There she besought him to grant her the life of a slave that was an Italian and innocent whom the Bassa Sinan had purposed to have presented unto him but novv vvould put him to death onely to serve for an example After she had obtained the effect of her prayer she rested not there for she reported so many things of my constancy and resolution to Soliman as it begot a desire in him to see me so that sending a command to deliver me I received order by a Trucheman to go unto the Grand Signior To tell you Madam what this change wrought in me would be to no end since it is easie for you to judge that he who so much despised life received it not with much joy and I dare say that I stood in more need of constancy to resolve to live than another would have had to resolve to die Howbeit I went to his Highness and whatsoever aversion I had from life yet did I not forbear rendring him thanks for granting it to me When first I appeared before Soliman he began to speak to me for whereas he knew before that I was of Italy he beleeved that I would understand a language which at Constantinople they call the Franks toung and spoken there by every one for the commoditie of commerce and which also I understood perfectly because it is no other than a corrupted Italian It was not for that this Prince out of an extraordinary curiosity proper to those of his Nation is not acquainted not onely with all the Orientall tongues but with the Spanish the French and the Italian howbeit in regard he doth not exercise them he understands them only without being able to speak them with facilitie nevertheless I must for the present except the last which in consideration of me he learned afterwards very perfectly It was then in that language wherof I have spoken that he demanded of me whence I was what vvas my birth and profession and by what adventure I came into the power of the Bassa Sinan I answered him that I was a poor Italian Gentleman whose life had nothing remarkable enough wherewith to entertain so great a Prince and that the only chance of War had made me a slave at Argier where the Bassa had bought me not long after I confess I had somewhat ado to disguise the truth but being resolved that I would never be heard spoken of more I did not tell what I was foâ— fear if it had been known and that it had been discovered hovv I could have given a sufficient great ransom intelligence would have been sent to Genoua of my being at Constantinople Soliman told me then that I had something in the air of my face that shewed me greater than I had delivered my self to be and that all the rules of physiognomy were false or I had not spoken sincerely unto him I received this discourse with a great deal of respect and modesty after which he talked to me of the customs of my country of war of fortifications and when he perceived by my answers that I was not absolutely ignorant though in this occasion I was not forward to shew my self very knowing or of any great wit there is not any good art or excellent science which he did not discourse with me about for the space of two hours that I had the honour to be with him At last Madam this great Prince was so satisfied of me as he sent word to the Bassa Sinan that having understood he meant to present me unto him with three hundred slaves he remitted unto him not only his three hundred slaves but assured him that he would give him also as many more for a recompence of the service he had done him in bringing me under his obedience And when he had ordained that care should be taken of me he did me the grace to tell me that I had so neerly touched his inclination as after he had given me my life he would have given me me my liberty too if he could have resolved to deprive himself so soon of a person which was agreeable to him I must confess that this generosity came near my heart and that I was almost ashamed to receive so extraordinary a favour with so little testimony of joy I retired then infinitely satisfied of this Prince and I was conducted to the quarter of the Slaves that were destined to his Highness although I was not treated like them having no other pain than that of wearing my irons This revolution of fortune sâ—emed so strange unto me when I came to consider it as I remained all the night in
of his Vessell which the waves had brought to Land so that despairing of any comfort he went to the habitation that was nearest to the place where he was and stayed there certain days to make search if at least the body of Axiamira might have been found as also to meet with some means for him to return to Constantinople As for the Princess all his care in vain he found indeed some dead Souldiers and Mariners along the shoar but of her he never could have any tidings so that the unhappy Axiamira is doubtless without life and without sepulture In the mean time Rustan thinking of his return although he were neer to a place where Prince Gianger the youngest of Solimans sonnes was residing yet would he not demand any assistance from him for fear he should be obliged to tell him a thing which was to be concealed wherefore he had recourse to the Governor of a small Town that was not above four miles from thence where he had suffred shipwrack who furnishing him with all things requisite for his journey he returned by Land to Constantinople with so melancholick a countenance as at first sight one might easily perceive that his enterprize had not been prosperous I was at that time with his Highness and I have not lost the remembrance of so dolefull a conversation As soon as Rustan had made an end of relating to the Grand Signior that which you have heard he would have excused himself for having forcibly carried away Axiamira without his order but Soliman said unto him with a face wherein grief and choller equally appeared Speak no further unto me thou base and infamous ravisher and know that if thou hadst not maried my daughter Chimeria thy death should have satisfied for that of Axiamira Ah poor Princess said he how deplorable is thy face and how unhappy is mine Then turning himself towards me who was present at this mournfull relation do not reproach me my dear Ibrahim said he unto me for not giving credit to thy counsell which I remember but too well for my content and the estate wherein I am punisheth me sufficiently for my imprudence Can any innocent be found more infortunate than I But what say I innocent continued he I cannot be so of the death of this Princess it is I that have delivered her into the hands of Rustan it is I that have exposed her to the tempest and it is I that have been the cause of her loss Could I be ignorant that she was not an ordinary person No Ibrahim I could not I loved her under the name of Felixana but I was to adore her in my heart as a great Princess I saw something so high and so majesticall in the air of her face as I cannot be excusable for not knowing her for howsoever if the possession of Axiamira was necessary for my felicity she was to be intreated after another manner and if my love would have constrained me to have recourse unto violence I should have gone in person in the head of an hundred thousand men to make so noble a conquest with honor she should have been brought in a triumphant Chariot and not in the Vessell of a Traytor and impious man I should not have thought of possessing her till I had set a Crown upon her head and if I could not have obtained her I should have changed my love into respect and with admiration have looked upon a bliss that was forbidden me But Rustan did not believe that I was capable of such noble apprehensions he hath judged of my minde by his own he thought because he is violent that I should be wicked he hoped for a recompence of his crime and out of an inhumanity which is without example he hath betrayed an innocent Princess he hath put a stain upon my life which I shall not be able to deface and hath reduced my soul to an estate never to be comforted Then addressing his speech to the Princess as if she â—ould have heard him and calling to mind her last words which he had caused to be repeated to him more than once he cried out with an exceeding transport Yes Axiamira thy death shall be the cause of the revenge which thou desirest and the grief which I shall have for it all my life shall be instead of an eternall punishment unto me There needs no Arms to invade my State there needs no proclamed Enemy to fight with me I carry oâ—e in my bosom which shall alwayes surmount me repentance and sorrow shall be inseparably with my spirit and the image of so unhappy and of so beautifull a person shall accompany me even to the grave Soliman having been constrained by the excess of his displeasure to give over speaking I did what I could to restore tranquillity to his soul but his grief was so vive and so strong as I needed a great deal of time to vanquish or to say better to moderate it Behold Madam the History of the unfortunate Axiamira all the particulars whereof which I have told you I learned from Rustan and more too from one of his souldiers who returned a little after him and was saved almost in the same manner Isabella could not then forbear interrupting of Justiniano to lament the misfortune of Axiamira but after she had satisfied her compassion she desired to make an end of contenting her curiosity and intreated Justiniano to continue his discourse which he did in this sort The Sequele of the History of Iustiniano I Will not stand Madam to relate unto you how I imployed my self after my return from Natolia in regard I know that Doria purposeth to let you understand that Ibrahims Palace was built by my direction and how it was in that intervall of peace and assoon as I was Grand Visier that I caused the ornaments thereof to be made having seen that work finished but a little before Doriaes arrivall at Constantinople It is true said Doria that I have a desire to describe that inchantâ—d Palace to her Excellency and to acquaint her with all the magnificences and all the grandeurs which you have quitted for her sake and to make her comprehend a part of what I say I am but to present her with that which the Grand Signior hath seâ—t her saying so he drew out of his pocket the box of gold which Soliman had delivered unto him and having opened it he let her see one of the goodliest things in the world Isabella was so surprized with the richness of this present as she would not have received it but at length Doria having told her laughing that he was not determined either to keep it or to carry it back to Constantinople she was constrained to accept of it Doriaes jesting made Justiniano fetch a great sigh beginning already to apprehend the end of his narration and for that cause had spun out that of the Adventures of Axiamira as much as possibly he could in exactly recounting her
think she will find the coldness which is betwixt us better grounded when as I shall tell her that our dissension proceeds from our not knowing one another Or it may be said Don Fernando interrupting him from our knowing one another too well Never a whit replyed the Painter for you are as unskilfull in painting as I am in musick and so we are but bad judges of each other and it is the Princess alone which will one day put a difference between us when as she shall know me bâ—tter and that the designes which I am about shall be wholly finished The Princess who thought he spake of the designes of his Pictures told him that she knew him enough already to admire all that he did And whereas Don Fernando would have replyed she forbad him and commanded them both to live better together afterwards than they had done They answered that they would obey her as much as they could and so retyred with a great deal of unquietness The Prince of Salerno found Don Fernando too haâ—dy for a Musician and found also that all his songs were too passionate too amorouâ— and suiting too much with the Princess for to be sung without design In fine he thought that as he was capable of disguising himself like a Painter so might another be of disguising himself like a Musician Nevertheless this likely suspition continued not long with him and considering how much men of this profession are caressed by great persons he no longer mervailed at his boldness he found likewise that his observations upon his songs were ridiculous for said he as we understood since upon what subject would I have them made that they should not suit with the Princess All songs for the most part are of love they speak of beauty of dispair of respect of fear of Jealousie they say that they dare not discover themselves that love would have them and that respect will not suffer them to do so And whereas few songs are made upon giving of thanks I am not to wonder if Don Fernando sings â—hat which is sung every where and in all languages Whilst the Prince of Salerno deceived himself in this sort the Musician reasoned with himself about that which had passed between them but that which he stood most upon was his observation that in all the designes which this Painter had drawen at Monaco there was alwaies some disguisement in them Howbeit he himself destroyed his own reasonings as well as the Prince of Salerno and coming to consider that Fiction is one of the greatest sciences of Painters he changed his opâ—nion And that which prevailed yet more with him vvas to see him whom he beheld many times as his Rivall paint so excellently for he could not imagine that a man of quality could understand this Art so perfectly These divers thoughts were never for all that so vvell setled in their minds but that they past often from the one to the other and so were alwaies ready to quarrell one with another Sometimes the interest of their Nations was the occasion of their disputes and if the Princess authority joyned to the fear which they had of venturing themselves unseasonably and destroying their designes had not kept them from it they had without doubt fought more than once In the mean time the Princess and I lived without suspecting any thing of the truth Howbeit I remember that one day it came into my thought that there was something extraordinary in Don Fernando for teaching me an ayr which I found to be extremely passionate and of his own making I demanded of him laughing whether it were possible for him to speak so of love without being in love He answered me thereunto that he could not for that it was impossible for him to speak against his heart But said I unto him may not I be your confident and may not I know the person for whom you make such excellent things You would no sooner be my confident answered he but you would be mine enemy wherefore I will not tell you any thing nor shall you know it but when I can no longer conceal it I confess my simplicity unto you for my first apprehension being over I believed that I had some share in this discourse and fearing I should be obliged to intreat the Princess to turn Don Fernando away if he came to lose the respect which he owed me I pressed him no further contenting my self with being his scholer and not his confident And I was so affraid to part with him as I never spake of this matter to the Princess who past a good part of her time in seeing the Prince of Salerno paint In the mean space these two disguised Lovers finding no reason for them to discover themselves were even in dispair with it They saw the Princess every day more firm in the resolution she had taken for whereas they were dextrous and interessed they had so gained some of the Princesses Officers as by them they knew all that did pass and all that had past I have told you already that the Princess imployed a good part of the day in seeing him paint this entertainment agreeing better with her melancholy than Musick It was then impossible but that being good as she is the Prince of Salerno should often have occasion to talk with her and in those incounters she had found so much spirit and civility in him as one day she pressed him to let her know where he had led his life And whereas he had taken a resolution which you shall understand by and by he answered her that he had never had any other Master but the Prince of Salerno who was one of the most considerable both for his birth and riches that was in all the Kingdom of Naples that it had been in his late fathers house where he had learn'd to know the fashions of the world better than ordinarily Painters do and that not long before through a mischance which he could not avoid he was come away from the Prince of Salernoes service But Madam continued he though I be from him I cannot chuse but say that his inclinations are great that he loves glory and vertue for touching his wit it is not for me to judge of it I mervail said the Princess unto him if he be such as you say that you would leave him for being great in birth mighty in riches and so vertuous as you paint him forth to be he must also without doubt be liberall so that I do not see any reason for your abandoning him That is it Madam answered he wherein I can not satisfie you howsoever I can assure you that next to you there is no body in the world whom I would serve with more affection It was in this sort that the Prince of Salerno began to give good impressions of himself to the Princess that he might prepare her the better to his desire and divers times the Princess and he had
seeing him in this case conjured him again with more earnestness to acquaint her with the cause of all these alterations in him that they might labor to give some remedy unto it Alas Madam said he unto her with somewhat a low voice that he might not be heard by one of the Princesses women who was at the other end of the Cabinet the knowledge which I shall give you of my disease will not make you find a remedy for it for it is of a nature not to be cured but by death Yet if I should suffer it my self alone I would not complain of it but I am afraid that it would be contagious for you that the knowledge which you should have of it would increase my grief by causing yours that I should be more infortunate in your person than in mine own and that in conclusion you would be yet more to be lamented than I who deserves the miseries which oppress me since I am the cause of all yours The Princess judging rightly by this discourse that there was some great matter to be known commanded her woman that was still in the Cabinet to go and stand at the door for to keep any from coming to interrupt her This order given she turned back to Justiniano and scarce knowing what to say or what to demand in so unexpected an occasion she beheld him a while without speaking neither durst he likewise open his lips but after she had recollected her spirits and knew that it concerned not the sickness of the body having a great and generous soul she said unto him with a firm and assured voice What mark have you had my dear Justiniano of my little affection or of my weakness that you fear so much to give me a part in your griefs No no cast off this fear and permit me to tell you before you acquaint me with that which I can neither divine nor comprehend that besides the loss of your affection there is no misfortune wherein I shall not receive some comfort partaking it with you Ah! Madam said Justiniano interrupting her cease to be unjust in being too good to me and believe that when you shall know the point where at this present we are you will finde that I have reason to be greatly troubled in resolving to acquaint you with it Why said the Princess exceedingly impatient concerns it life liberty or honor if it be the first provided I may die before you I have felt sorrows sharper than death if it be the second and that I may be a slave with you I will accustom my self to wear irons but if it concerns honor I confess that we have reason to despair and that to conserve it any thing is to be done you see said she unto him that I am prepared for the greatest misfortunes and for such as seem to be the furthest off from me hold me no longer then in pain if it be true that I have any power over you Justiniano seeing he could not avoid it went on with his History from the point where he had left it he recounted unto her his pains his unquietness and his joys when as he knew that she was not inconstant that not knowing what els to do he had been constrained to acquaint Soliman with his whole life and consequently that the permission which he had obtained to come and see her was but for six months only having ingaged his word to that Prince to return unto him precisely within that time Judge after this Madam said he with sighs that well neer suffocated him and that scarcely suffered him to speak whether my complaints be not just whether I am worthy of your favour and whether death alone be not the remedy which I can find for my miseries For consider I beseech you the pitifull estate whereunto I am reduced which way soever I turn me I see you still infortunate but unhappy and infortunate only for the love of me Ah Madam if you knew how touching this object is how sensible and grievous it is you would easily apprehend the evill that I suffer it is so great as there is no expression strong enough to represent it well You have believed me to be dead and I have thought that you were inconstant your vertue hath been tryed by a long absence and my crime hath been punished with slavery but when as fortune seemed to be weary of persecuting us when as your constancy was sufficiently known and when as my crime was punished enough she made some truce with us I knew that you lived for me and you were not ignorant that I always lived for you I am returned Madam but must I repeat it once again I am returned a Slave fortune hath but lengthened my chain and not broken off my irons You seem Madam continued he by your silence to tell me that I had done better for your rest not to have returned and to have left you in the belief of my death than to come for to assure you that I do live but that I do not live for you I think Madam that reason is on your side but it is a reason which I cannot follow My voyage is not an effect of my reason nor of my will I never stuck at the taking of this resolution I followed my sense and my love and my passion so mightily blinded my reason as my soul abandoned it self wholly to joy I no longer thought that I was to return again to Constantinople but only that I was going to Monaco that I should have the pleasure to see you there and that afterwards I could not be unhappy In fine Madam I have not done that which I ought but I have done that which I could not choose but do In the mean time I have no sooner seen you but I have beheld you as a good which I was to lose and as a person which I have made unhappy For Madam if I break my word with Soliman I am an infamous creature I shall put your State and your Honor in danger and if I abandon you I am treacherous to you and cruell to my self and to say all I am so unhappy as death alone can succor me But for all that Madam it is you that must pronounce my sentence and dispose of my life Justiniano then felt himself so prest with grief as he could say no more The Princess who had heard him with a great deal of attention astonishment and sorrow was also a good while without answering him agitating in her self so difficult a thing to be resolved She was then leaning with one arm on a little table of ebony looking on Justiniano who durst not lift up his eyes for fear of incountring those of the Princess which were full of teares But at length this generous person who had a great and noble soul brak off her silence and said unto him with a constancy which hath scarce any example I confess my dearest Jusâ—iniano that our miseries
had any thing that was agreeable in my face yet could he not have been touched with it being not able to see it and as for wit I was in an age which ordinarily is not capable of making great conquests Indeed it is true that my complying with him might render me pleasing to him for whereas all my fellows were not of my humor they when Mahamed was with Axiamira declined his conversation or at least-wise applyed not themselves to it and this out of the thought that being incapable of seeing their beauty they beleeved him to be also incapable of love and for this reason they would not lose that time with him which they thought might be better employed in the entertaining of all those young persons of quality which accompanyed the Princes to Axiamira As for me who cared not as yet either for loving or for being loved I gave my self onely to things that pleased me and whereas I was infinitely taken with the conversation of Prince Mahamed and that generosity it self carryed me thereunto I set my self as often as I could to talk with him but that which engaged me yet farther to this compliance was that the Princess Axiamira loved him dearly for whereas Ismael and Perca were unworthy of her affection the first for the defects of his spirit and the other for her malice she had placed all her liking on Mahamed so that when the Princess could not entertain him her self she commanded me to stay with him which I did with a great deal of joy because there was nothing of more power at that time in my minde then the desire to please the Princess who in all her actions seemed to prefer me before all my fellows On the other side the Sophi who would fain know whether I would be as agreeable to his eyes in the Princesses Lodging as he had found me in Vlama's or whether the shining of so much light and that chamber hung with black had not served to deceive him used to come sometimes to the Princesses without giving me notwithstanding any greater mark of his affection then to behold and commend me more then the rest when occasion was presented for it for whereas I was very young at that time he durst not as I understood afterwards speak plainly to me of his passion fearing I should not be discreet enough to conceal it from others But whil'st he attended the improvement of my reason the time whereunto the ceremony of mourning had confined Vlama being quite expired he came to render his duty to the Princesses and to thank them for the honor they had done him and whereas I was almost never absent from Axiamira he saw me in her chamber and by a second view confirmed himself in the advantageous opinion he had conceived of me and so strongly resolved to love me as fearing he should be obliged to dislodg from the Palace because the Princess his wife being dead without children he was scarcely any longer of the royal Family he purposed to endevor all he could to discover his affection unto me for fear he should be deprived of the commodity of doing it so easily if he were constrained to be gone from thence As for me I confess to you blushing that in this visit which he gave to the Princess I felt a desire arise in my heart that I might be pleasing unto him and without making any reflexion on this thought I remember well that although it had been a great Court that day I never thought of heeding my apparel but as soon as Vlama was entred I observed my self with care and without knowing any reason for it I would have been glad that I had been better drest then I was But in fine my Lord two or three hours after Fortune was so favorable to Vlama's design as having found me alone in the Princesses Chamber who was shut up in her Cabinet he spake to me of his affection with so much passion as I knew not what to answer him having never met with such like encounters And whereas his speech had ever since remained in my memory and that it hath been the beginning and cause of all my pleasure and of all my misery I cannot forbear repeating it unto you He no sooner entred into the chamber but I advanced towards him to let him know that I was very sorry for that he could not see the Princess as yet and that having forbidden me interrupting her I durst not advertise her of his being there Do not afflict you self fair Felixana said he unto me for a thing which is infinitely pleasing to me and if you will render me perfectly happy trouble not my good fortune in doubting of this truth What said I unto him exceedingly surprized do you come to see the Princess and yet are glad that you cannot meet with her truly this seems so strange to me as I cannot comprehend the reason of it It is not for all that very difficult to finde out answered he me for I come to see the Princess Axiamira out of duty and the beautiful Felixana out of inclination I am her subject but I am your servant and that in such sort as you shall raign eternally in my soul there being no kinde of service which I will not render you with joy and henceforth continued he receive fair Felixana all the duties which I shall tender to the Princess as appertaining to you and beleeve that I am ravished with finding you thus alone whereby I have had the opportunity to make this Declaration unto you This discourse surprized me in such manner as I should have been much perplexed to have answered it if Axiamira had not at the same instant called me so that being prest to obey the Princess all that I could do was to tell him that knowing him and my self too I should always be able to discern how to beleeve that which was fit for me to beleeve both for his glory and mine But my Lord without particularizing all these things unto you it may suffice me to tell you that in six months space Vlama gave me so many marks of his love and discretion as I should have been ingrateful and insensible not to have rendred him some testimony of my good-will and whereas I was neither the one nor the other Vlama received from me all the proofs of friendship which virtue could permit me to give him and I may say that this was the onely time wherein I lived with pleasure And truly I must confess that the life which I led was happy enough I saw my self favored by the most amiable person that ever was caressed by the Sophi esteemed of Mahamed and passionately beloved of Vlama who without contradiction surpassed all that were at the Court in that blessed time Prince Mahamed resolved then to declare his passion overtly to me so that one day when the weather was very fair and that according to Axiamira's custom we were gone down into the
marks of resentment as made me much to pity this poor Prince Will you endure dear sister said he unto her that the Enemy of Mahamed shall become the husband of Axiamira That a man which hath made use of your chamber as of a sanctuary to affront me with impunity shall be yet so audacious as to pretend to the possession of your person Ah! no you are too generous to have such base thoughts and I hope though my eyes are not able to guide my hand so as it may give this Insolent an â—undred stabs yet that yours will at the least take all the revenge of him you can in shewing him so many marks of your rigor and disdain as the love and ambition which reign in his heart wanting satisfaction he may howsoever have two domestical Enemies which will persecute him incessantly or to say better until such time as I have found out a man generous enough to guide my arm or to lend me his Vlama entred into the chamber just at that instant and having heard those last words wiâ—â—out giving the Princess leasure to answer he went to Mahamed and assured him that except it were against the person of the Sophi he might dispose of him in any thing and â—â—ploy him in such revenge as he pleased Mahamed having quickly known Vlaâ—◠〈…〉 â—â—ce Ah! generous Vlama said he unto him that I am not in a condition to acknâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—â—y virtue rather then to have need of thy courage against an infamous fellow who cannot pretend to any other part of valor but that which those cruel beasts may have who are not valiant but because they are strong and of a bloody disposition The Princess who perceived that in stead of being appeased Mahamed grew the more incensed with talking made him enter into her Cabinet with Vlama and me where we no sooner were but she beginning to speak assured Mahamed that she was no less sensible of Deliment's insolency then he that she promised never to marry him not said she because I would have you obliged to me for it or that you should think I do it for the love of you but contrarily I desire you would beleeve that when Deliment shewed the most love and respect to me I would still have made choyce of death rather then be his wife for in fine his birth his humor his wickedness and his arrogance have possessed me with so much hatred against him as there is no extremity whereunto I will not be carryed rather then consent to any thing that may please him But that which I desire you should think is that if the greatest Prince of the Earth and that did most touch mine inclination should offer you any outrage I would be his cruellest Enemy and the first that would be revenged on him for it Ah! generous sister said Mahamed interrupting her and much comforted with hearing her speak so I was perswaded that my quarrel should be yours and that you would not abandon me When as I saw that their discourse resolved on nothing I told them that without amusing themselves about giving testimonies of their affection one to another which was to no purpose since it could not be doubted of it would be better for them to employ the time in considering whether Mahamed should complain to the Sophi or whether he should stay to see in what manner Deliment would live with him for the future after he had forbidden him his preâ—ence This advice seeming just unto them they began to examine the matter As for Mahamed he would neither complain nor stay but onely revenge himself Vlama who foresaw that no good could come of this revenge either for the Prince or for the Princess or for himself stay'd till Axiamira had delivered her opinion pretending that he was not to speak his in regard said he that it belonged onely to him to execute that which the Princess and Mahamed should resolve upon So that Axiamira being unwilling to speak alone by her self commanded me to say what I thought was fit to be done in this affair I confess to you generous Ibrahim that notwithstanding the hate which I bare to Deliment I advised that things should be gently carryed and that if he came to submit himself to Mahamed he should be received and shew made of pardoning him but upon condition nevertheless that he should appear as seldom as he might in places where Mahamed should be And that which carryed me hereunto was the thought that if Vlama enterprized any thing against Deliment the least that could arrive unto me by it would be that Vlama would be constrained to absent himself and leave me in the power of the Sophi As for the Princess she was of the opinion that a gentleman should be sent from Mahamed to complain to the Sophi of Deliments insolency and that withall great care should be taken to publish it because said she to Mahamed it will be requisite to make him be contemned and hated of every one as much as possibly we can that we make use of that hatred and contempt when time shall serve for continued she the world is not acquainted with his temerity and audaciousness and whereas he is rich and liberal he hath partisans and servants who durst not declare themselves to be so if they knew that you and I did hate him Why sister replyed Mahamed would you have me publish that I have received an affront with impunity Yes said she I would have it published that you may be revenged of Deliment seeing you may do it without offence to your reputation Consider added she that if the generosity of Vlama should carry him to fight with Deliment your revenge would be doubtful since you cannot be ignorant that the success of Arms is always so and if peradventure it should cost you the blood and fortune of so excellent a man you would repent you of this violence No Madam said Vlama interrupting her never stand on these considerations seeing my fortune my blood and my life could not be employed more gloriously then in revenging Prince Mahamed But replyed she the matter is not so easie as you imagine your design may be discovered the opportunity of executing it perchance will not be presented and then to speak freely unto you I cannot approve of that violence in Mahamed which I should condemn in others It will be better then to lay the blame on the Sophi and Deliment in a gentle way and procure him secret Enemies who when occasion shall require and that we would openly oppose his violences may serve us with courage and give us the means to be revenged without fear and with honor In brief this sage Princess maintained her opinion with so many reasons as it was followed And to execute it I went to give order for the fetching of an old Governor who had brought up Mahamed and that was one of the wisest and understandingest men of our age to the end he might go
dictated them had made them very obliging but because the Prince finding them so badly pen'd was perswaded that it was Amariel's fault who read them ill for he could not imagine that a person whose wit seemed worthy of his esteem should express her thoughts with so bad a grace and to that effect he made him read them over many times that he might be able to discern the faults of the Reader from those which they made to pass for mine But whil'st the malice of Deliment triumphed over the Sophi's facility and our innocency Mahamed being well amended caused himself to be led to the Princesses lodging to render her his first visit or to say better to have a pretext to give me one For he hath told me since how he was not without impatience to hear me talk to the end he might know whether I had still the same wit which he had so much prized in me He did not marvel that I had always answered him with rigor enough because he might well think that mine own vertue and the fear of committing my self to the discretion of him that was to read my Letters would carry me thereunto but to say things from the purpose to him was that which he could not comprehend As long as his sickness had lasted the Princess Axiamira had been often enough to visit him but Perca had most commonly been in her company so that we spake not together until that coming as I have said one morning to visit Axiamira with a purpose if he found her alone to declare to her the passion which he was in for me not finding her yet awake and making as though he would attend till she was he caused himself to be led to my chamber when he came thither I had almost done reading a Letter from Vlama who provoked by the force of his passion and the fear he was in lest the Sophi's love should prevail with me more then his conjured me to remember the promises which I had made him never to love any but him and consequently passed over again all the testimonies of affection which I had rendred him that so he might oblige me not to deprive him of it At first when Mahamed entred into my chamber I thought to have hid the Letter which I held but suddenly calling to minde that he was blinde I laughed at my providence and so much the more for that he had commanded Amariel to stay in a gallery through which one was to pass for to come into my chamber When I saw my self alone with Mahamed except it were a maid that served me and in whom I confided in all things I was taken with such impatience to make an end of reading Vlama's Letter as presently after the first civilities I began to unfold it as softly as possibly I could and without answering precisely to Mahamed's discourses I read that which Vlama writ unto me Mahamed who certainly hath a great deal of understanding and that according to the custom of the blinde is always a little suspicious though out of discretion he makes as little shew of it as may be hearing the noise which the Letter made in turning it from the one side to the other for it was indifferent long imagined that there was some mystery in it which he did not comprehend that peradventure the Sophi had during his sickness absolutely gained me and that the paper which I held and whereof he heard the noise was a Letter from him or from Deliment In so grievous a thought this so wise and so moderate a Prince could not resist the temptation of clearing himself of a doubt which gave him so much unquietness so that at such time as I never dream'd of it and that I was folding up Vlama's Letter again and deeply musing on that which I had read Mahamed directing his hand by the noise which I made in doing it up chance led it so just where it should be that he snatched it from me sooner then I was able to withstand him I must needs know said he amiable Felixana whether this blessed Paper which hath kept you from answering me merits the honor you do it to my prejudice My Lord said I unto him exceedingly troubled if you could see what is in this Letter I would not resist your pleasure but since you cannot know what it is but by a third person permit that I may conjure you to render it me This extream earnestness that I shewed to draw that Paper out of his hands was that which provoked his curiosity the more and though he did infinitely fear to displease me yet did he fear much more to be over-reached And then again beleeving Amariel to be very faithful he thought he should hazard nothing in resolving to let him read it In this opinion the more I importuned him the more did he defend himself from according that which I required and I verily beleeve that in so great a trouble I should have told him the truth of the matter and confided in his generosity if Deliment who had been advertised that Prince Mahamed was in my chamber had not come thither with Ismael of whom he made use upon all occasions to trouble our conversation For he feared that so particular an interview would discover the trick they had playd us and that thinking to destroy our friendship they should settle it better then before But that which they feared was far from arriving for Mahamed and I had other manner of thoughts then to entertain our selves with Letters which we had received from one another When first I saw Ismael and Deliment I testified a great deal of unquietness and addressing my self to Mahamed with an anger which I had not much ado to counterfeit You perceive my Lord said I unto him that bad examples are soon followed and that the liberty which you have taken to enter into my chamber hath drawn in a company which I ought not to have admitted without the commandment of the Princess The Princess replyed Deliment doth she dispose of all your actions Yes said I unto him and so absolutely as I am incapable of ever disobeying her So that continued he if one were in love with you must he address himself to the Princess That he must without doubt answered I him roundly for I beleeve her to be so just as she will never force me in things whereupon depend all the felicity or all the infelicity of my life We had it may be continued in further talk had not one come and advertised them that Axiamira was awake and that they might see her They left me then to go to her howbeit Prince Mahamed stay'd not long in the Princesses chamber and that he might part from thence with civility he made as though he found himself not well upon going forth so soon after his sickness and retired to his lodging as speedily as he could When he came there he commanded Amariel to clear the room
had no intent to take your scimitar from you since contrarily in the estate wherein I see things it would methinks be fitter to seek for arms to revenge you rather then to destroy you For if Felixana be dead you cannot lose your self more nobly then in revenging her of them which have been her Enemies during her life and if she be not what do you think she will say when as she shall know that the generous Vlama in stead of stirring up the people of demanding succor of some forraign Prince of marching in the head of an Army to assail her persecutors weakly abandons her in abandoning himself to his despair and entreats her yet more cruelly then Fortune doth since he will deprive her of the onely man that can deliver her and the onely person whom she loves And how will you have me deliver her if I know not in what place of the Earth she is That my Lord answered I must be carefully enquired after but if you should not discover any thing yet must you take up Arms For if you are ignorant where Felixana is you are not ignorant at least-wise who are the Enemies of the Princess Axiamira and Felixana I should never have done Madam if I should rehearse all Vlama's discourses unto you Sometimes he would kill Deliment though we made it apparant to him that it would be almost an impossible thing again he would present himself to the Sophi then he would go unknown to Mazanderon to enquire himself of your loss But for a conclusion of all he still returned to the resolution of dying At length without opposing our selves directly to his grief we knew so well how to inspire his minde with choller as the sole design of revenging you preserved his life He resolved then to return to his Government for to think of the means he was to use for the same As for his friend he sent him back again and pray'd him still to advertise him of whatsoever should pass at the Court and to endevor to discover in what place you were retained for he made no question at all but that you were in the Sophi's hands When we were returned he understood that Deliment had bethought him to say no longer that you had suffered shipwrack but contrarily he caused Prince Mahamed and Felixana's Father to be arrested upon suspicion that they were intelligent with your carrying away causing it to be bruited withall that Vlama had some part in their crime and that also preparation was a making to go and apprehend him in his Government as rebellious and disobedient to the Sophi's commands My Master acquainted with this news was yet further confirmed in the opinion that your loss was an effect of Deliment's artifice This thought made him absolutely conclude to think of his safety to the end he might be revenged And to that effect he retired to a good strong place which appertained to one of his friends where he lay certain days concealed to advise of what he was to do and after he had well considered every thing he judged it would be best for him to put himself under the protection of generous Ibrahim whose reputation filled all the Orient For knowing that Soliman had always pretentions enough upon Persia to have a specious pretext for the recommencing of their ancient Wars he hoped that by assuring him of his friends and intelligences he might peradventure carry him thereunto and the rather for that he knew the Georgiens had for a good while together made many incursions into Comagena and Mesapotamia This resolution taken he dispatched me away to Ibrahim at Constantinople with one of the most obliging and generous Letters in the world wherein he signified to him that for the confirmation of what he had written and confiding in his generosity he would put himself into Bitilisa which is within Soliman's dominion and not above four days journey from Vlama's Government As indeed I was no sooner departed but my Master after he had written to the faithfullest of his friends to entertain some intelligence with them in case he should have need of it set forth towards Bitilisa and committed himself into the hands of one named Serefbeg unto whom this Town appertained as Vassal of the Othoman Empire But though Vlama told him that he came to seek the protection of Soliman and that he had to that effect dispatched one to Ibrahim yet this man being of a cruel disposition and provoked by an indiscreet and bruitish zeal in stead of barely assuring himself of his person by putting a guard upon him until he heard from Soliman he caused him to be seized upon to be bound and in that deplorable estate sent him to Constantinople In the mean time I had made my voyage very happily and having delivered my Letter to Ibrahim I well perceived that he was very joyful of it that the reputation of my Master was come even unto him and that he was not ignorant of his high birth As truly a little after he obtained for Vlama all that he had demanded And as he was preparing to send to receive him with honor and was talking with him in the Hipodrome before his Palace gate about my return I saw my Master arrive bound upon a horse his hands manacled and his face so changed as I hardly knew him but being sure it was he without thinking of the respect I owed to the grand Visier I left him and approaching to Vlama My Lord said I to Ibrahim suffer not him whom you mean to protect to be so unworthily entreated nor let the valiant Vlama be chained like a Slave Vlama cryed the grand Visier Yes generous Ibrahim continued I you behold that Vlama whose valor is incomparable whose birth is as noble as any in all Persia and who hath demanded protection of none but you I had no sooner said thus but Ibrahim ran himself to unloose my Master and beholding them which accompanyed him with fury he willed me to help him which I did with a gâ—eat deal of joy As for Vlama he was in such a confusion to see himself in that estate as hâ— could almost have wished that I had not named him but the thing being done and having understood that the grand Visier spake the Persian Tongue These chains said he unto hâ—m generous Ibrahim for he had observed that I had named him so are glorious unto me seeing they are taken from me by so illustrious an hand as yours And owing my liberty to you at our very first encounter judg whether all the rest of my life I shall not absolutely depend on you It is true replyed Ibrahim embracing him that these chains are not shameful but for those that have made you wear them and by a fate clean contrary to that of all deliverers I must after the freeing you of them crave pardon of you for the ill usage you have received yet so far happy at least-wise herein as you cannot suspect Soliman
cruel and unjust a Commandment or whether contrarily he posted not with an extream precipitation to obey him Achmat perceived wâ—ll by his countenance that the order which he had received was not displeasing to him but he did not suspect that the matter would have gone so hastily on so that albeit he was in some unquietness at this proceeding yet desired he to make profit of his absence and stay by Soliman He no sooner saw himself alone with him but he undertook the defence of Mustapha again when as Soliman in choller charged him to speak no more to him of him Whereupon Achmat would have retired but the Sultan commanded him to stay and fell a walking sometimes very fast sometimes more leasurely one while he stood looking on Achmat without saying any thing unto him by and by he lifted up his eyes to Heaven then suddenly turned them down to the ground at last after so violent an agitation both of body and mind he leaned on Achmat and beholding him with more marks of grief then of anger Must I said he unto him after I have lived until now exempted from all the crimes of my Predecessors be constrained by Mustapha to lay a stain upon my life and must it be said of me that I have dipt my hands in the blood of my son Achmat surprized with this discourse and willing to make use of so good a motion cast himself at his feet and said so much unto him that neither his Reasons nor the good nature of this Prince being any longer combated by the malice of Rustan he told him with tears in his eyes that he feared he had been but two well obeyed and that his repentance came but too late And then after he had confessed unto him the Order he had given Rustan he commanded him to go with all speed to revoke it But my Lord there was no more time for it because as soon as Rustan had gotten permission to exercise his cruelty the wicked man had taken four Mutes along with him having each of them a Bow-string in his hand for in that manner it is as you know that the children of the Royal Family are here put to deatâ— and carried them to the Tent of Mustapha from whom at the first they had required his Scymitar which he had given them without resistance This Tyger staying without the Tent with them that had accompanied him as well to keep any body from entring as to hear what this miserable Prince would say in breathing out his last his Executioners began to attempt the accomplishing of their charge When Mustapha first saw these four Mutes enter he made no doubt but he was lost yet being strong and courageous he could not resolve to suffer himself to be strangled without some defence The first that would have put the string about his neck he layd at his feet the like he did to the second and having put himself in a posture that he could not be seized upon behind he not a little troubled his Executioners He had already taken three of their strings from them and it may be he might have defended himself so long till Achmat might have arrived soon enough had not the Traytor Rustan put his head into the Tent and by signs threatened the Mutes to do their duty Mustapha hearing this voyce and knowing it left his Executioners to go to Rustan which was the cause that those four men falling all upon him overthrew him the more easily to the ground and put the string about his neck This deplorable Prince had the leasure yet to say in strugling with them as some of them who accompanied Rustan have reported Do so much at least wise thou cruel man that I may be the only sacrifice to appâ—ase the rage of Roxelana and that my death may obtain the lives of Gianger Sarraida and Axiamira of Soliman With these last words which interceded for anothers life Mustapha lost his own and in his person dyed one of the greatest and most excellent Princes of the World The people have bruted abroad how by a communication that was there from Soliman's Tent to Mustapha's that Prince had the cruelty to excite the Mutes to strangle his son but very far from that Achmat arrived within a moment after Mustapha expired who as I have told you came to change the fatal Order which Rustan had but two well executed This Prince was no sooner dead but Rustan as if some glory would have redounded to him by so barbarous an act went to render Soliman an accompt of it without knowing ought of the alteration of his mind for Achmat had been so surprized and afflicted to find this Prince to whom he was bringing life already dead as he had not said any thing to him of a matter which could then serve to no purpose This first motion of sorrow being over the vertuous Achmat believed that he owed the conservation of Gianger to the memory of Mustapha he wâ—nt then with speed to him for fear lest being acquainted with this lamentable news by another he should take some strange resolution In the mean time the report of this death being spread over the Camp all the Janizaries came flocking to Mustapha's Tent where finding him dâ—ad they rendered him all the testimonies of grief which affectionate Soldiers could render to their General All the Commanders did the like there were nothing but cries and lamentations some threw themselves upon his body and embracing him wet him with their tears others said aloud that they must revenge his death teer out Rustan's heart remove Soliman from his Throne go and burn Roxelana in her Serraglio and declare Mustapha's son Emperor though he was but a child Some again less violent and seditious threw down their arms made a vow never to bear any and having thereof framed as it were a Trophy which they erected to the vertue of this Prince they layd his body upon it and abode round about it weeping the loss they had sustained Never was there a more general consternation seen all the Soldiers continued four and twenty hours without eating and if the prudence of Achmat had not shewed it self in this occasion Soliman's Throne had been overturned and his person in danger As for us we heard indeed a great noise but it was impossible for us to comprehend what it might be and they whom Rustan had left to guard us were so faithful unto him as they would not clear it unto us We imagined with our selves that peradventure Prince Gianger having made one part of the Soldiers to rise endeavored to deliver Mustapha to the end he might come afterwards and deliver us also and in this estate we were between fear and hope In the mean while Rustan was gone back to Soliman who seeing him enter alone demanded of him what Mustapha said of his clemency My Lord answered he mightily surprised Mustapha is no longer in a condition ever to say any thing to thy
far notwithstanding Achmat's providence that the Soldiers who would revenge the death of Mustapha and Gianger seeing one part of their companions content themselves with weeping and not take up Arms against their Soveraign as they did assaulted them with such violence as the others being constrained to defend themselves there was so terrible a confusion in this fight that the two parties could not be distinguished and with an enraged fury they killed one another not knowing wherefore Already some of them were preparing to go to the Grand Signior's Tent when as he caused it to be published over all the Camp that he deprived Rustan of all his Commands and gave them to the generous Achmat. This Declaration suspended the fury of the Soldiers who notwithstanding their despair and rage soon quitted their Arms to go and gather up the money which was thrown amongst them Achmat having caused this largess to be given them from the Grand Signior as it were for a recompence of the zeal they had shewed to the Princes This present liberality made them forget that of Mustapha and the very same Soldiers who would have carryed fire even to the Emperors Tent cryed Long live the Sultan a quarter of an hour after when as in person he made a turn about the Camp He commanded the bodies of the two Princes to be put into one Coffin and the same being placed in a Charet covered with black velvet he ordained them to be carried to Constantinople and laid in the same tomb which he had prepar'd for himself neer to the Mosque he had built He willed also that the said Charet should be attended upon by half of his Army and that this funeral pomp should be celebrated with the same magnificence as if it had been of an Emperor that had dyed in the Wars As for himself he had a purpose to have gone to Mecqua to expiate his fault and to pray unto God and the holy Prophet for the Souls of the Princes but the affairs of Persia pressing him he contented himself with going to Ierusalem where he gave so many testimonies of his repentance and grief as it was easie to know that this Prince had not acted by his own inclinations But my Lord whil'st Soliman gives marks of the sorrow he is in for his violence Roxelana repents her not of her wickedness and far from having so good a motion she thinks of new cruelties I have told you if my memory fail not how Rustan was chased from Solimans Tent but I have not told you what became of him afterwards You must understand then how having executed that which Roxelana had so ardently desired he thought it was not fit for him to expose himself inconsideratly and that having nothing more to do there for the service of the Sultana he might go and render her an account of his doings He parted immediately then as secretly as possibly he could but he stayd nevertheless at the first Town he came to where one of his servants whom he had given in charge about it came and acquainted him with all that had been done in the Camp I mean the revolt of the Soldiers the death of Gianger Soliman's extream repentance the retreat which Sarraida had chosen and briefly all that had past there This cruel man fully informed of all things went with all speed to Roxelana and as he related it himself as Achmat hath told us although she was acquainted both at one time with the death of Gianger and that of Mustapha yet the loss of this last comforted her for that other albeit he was her own son There remained an unquietness yet in her minde the blood of Mustapha had not fully satisfied her rage she would also have the life of his son to the end the race of him might be utterly abolished So that to content this horrible desire she told Rustan that knowing the power she had over the spirit of Soliman he might beleeve that she would appease his anger and that it would be easie for her to re-establish him in his commands but he must first deal in such sort as the race of Mustapha might be quite extinguished in the person of his son Rustan who never found any thing difficult when it concerned the committing of crimes not onely promised it to her but executed it Scarcely had Sarraidâ— been two months at Prusa scarcely had she had leasure to dry up her first tears when as the Traytor Rustan gave her a new cause of weeping He went disguised to the parts about Prusa and from thence sent to Sarraida one of the ministers of his fury who was his Slave and who made shew that he was come to this excellent Princess from the Grand Signior to assure her of the continuance of his good-will and protection He also brought presents to her son as being gages of the Sultan's affection He told her further that his Highness would make Mustapha revive in the person of this young Prince and that he commanded her to have a great care of his health and education This infortunate mother who knew by the publique voyce how much Soliman seemed to repent him of his violence suffered her self to be perswaded that all which this wicked man said was true In the mean time he thinks of executing his design any way whatsoever and seeing it was hard for him to remove this young Prince from Sarraida either to finde means to poyson him or to do any violence in a Town where the memory of Mustapha was in so much veneration he bethought him to perswade Sarraida that she would accustom her self to take the ayr for fear lest keeping always in that sort within doors her melancholly should pass unto her son and so prove prejudicial to his health After he had gotten this Princess to yeeld unto that which he desired he propounded to her a thing which very much agreeing with her sad and heavy humor seemed to be a very fit and pleasing entertainment for her which was to go and see the Grand Signior's Tombs that were four or five miles distant from this Town and whose stately Mosques are to this day very carefully maintained Now my Lord that which induced this Traytor to give Sarraida this counsel was that having suborned him who was to drive her Charet he had broken the axletree of it not quite through but in such a manner as he foresaw how upon their arrival at a very difficult passage which was just in the midst of the way that which he expected would assuredly come to pass as indeed the matter succeeded accordingly In helping the Princess into her Charet he perswaded the young Prince to go with him on horseback who according to the custom of children was ravished with this proposition Sarraida out of a thought of tenderness or it may be out of an instinct that advertised her of her misfortune opposed it as much as she could but seeing her son afflicted at it and that this man
in so deep a melancholy as Roxelana her self with all her artifices could not divert him from it Behold my Lord what hath been the fortune of Mustapha and Gianger what is the Princesses and that which she hath commanded me to tell you It is for you after this continued Axiamiâ—a O generous Ibrâ—him not only to protect me as you seem to be willing to do but to counsel me also For in the estate wherein things are I find my misfortune so great as I know not what to desire To continue a prisoner as I am keeps my mind in a continual unquietness not simply for the privation of my liberty but out of the fear I am in lest Soliman's melancholy coming to cease he should remember that he hath heretofore found something that was agreeable to him in my picture To wish I may return into Persia Delimenâ— will not suffer me so that not knowing so much as what grace to demand of you I fear that all your address your generosity and your power cannot find a remedy to such desperate miseries It is certain Madam answered Ibrahim that it is hard to cure them throughly but not impossible to ease them And then he assured her that if he had not lost his credit with Soliman he would obtain one thing of that great Prince which according to his judgment would cause her to lead a more pleasing life till Fortune weary of persecuting her would permit her to return into Persia The Princess not able to believe a thing wherein she saw so little likelyhood requested him to tell her by what means he hoped to do that which he said but our illustrious Bassa being loth to acquaint her with his design till he was able to execute it besought her to dispence with him for it and to give him only two days to make good his word unto her That in the mean time she would live assured that whatsoever he had hitherto done at the only intreaty of Vlama he would do it from thence forward out of the sole consideration of her birth her vertue and her merit After this discourse they parted Ibrahim leaving Axiamira and Felixana with some consolation and himself charged with extream grief to see that this Prince whom he so dearly loved had been so weak as to suffer himself to be carryed to the greatest cruelty that can be exercised he who out of his own inclination was one of the best Princes of the world This thought begetting another the image of others misfortunes so lively represented unto him his own that he returned to his Palace with so much heaviness as if some new occasion of afflicting himself had arrived unto him though to speak rightly of things he was capable of no sorrow after that which he had endured in absenting himself from Isabella The Third Book THe next day Ibrahim went to the Grand Signior and with a dextrous discourse he gave him to understand that he had learned what he durst not tell him But in imparting this to him he let him see also that he lamented him without accusing him and carrying him insensibly to speak of Axiamira he besought him to grant him one grace which he would demand of him in favor of her and Felixana Soliman gave not the Bassa leasure to explain his desire but assured him that he might do what he pleased for Axiamira the repentance of his fault and the remembrance of his misfortune having so absolutely extinguished the love which he had born her that if he would even send her back into Persia although she was the daughter of his Enemy and that she might serve for the good of his affairs yet would he not refuse to consent unto it My Lord answered Ibrahim I pretend to no other grace for Axiamira then to make her change her prison in obtaining of thy Highness that she may be sent to Bitilisa and that she may be entreated as a person of her birth And then to oblige him the more to that which he requested of him Ibrahim acquainted him with the interest which Vlama had in Felixana He made it appear unto him also that his in this occasion was annexed to that of Axiamira that it was requisite he should by his good usage of her justifie himself to her for the violence which Rustan had offered her in carrying her forcibly away against his Highness will that she would be in his power as well at Bitilisa as at Constantinople but that being neerer to her Country she would receive the more comfort by it and might be even the means of an advantageous peace for his Highness After all these reasons Soliman answered him that they were needless since his entreaty alone sufficed to make him consent to all that he could desire there being but one onely thing which he could never obtain of him The Grand Visier not daring to be curious in this encounter for fear of receiving some distaste by it contented himself with giving Soliman thanks and omitting no time he went and gave order to have a stately equipage provided for Axiamira And whereas he was exact in all things he used such diligence as the day after all was in the state which he desired it to be He went the next morning to the Castle of the seven Towers where in few words he propounded to the Princess her going to Bitilisa whereof Vlama was Governor and where she should have no straiter a prison then the walls of the Town nor other guard then his and Vlama's faith He told her moreover how in that place she should finde every one disposed to serve her and to render her all kinde of obedience by the order which he would give for it that means should be setled on her to maintain her like a person of her quality that there she would be far enough from Constantinople for ever being in fear of Soliman and neer enough to her Country to keep correspondence with Prince Mahamed her brother and to procure it may be a general peace between those two great Empires That for his part he promised her to be always most careful of her interests and not to suffer any propositions to be accepted which the Sophi might happen to make for the drawing her out of Soliman's hands unless they were such as she needed not be longer afraid of the violences of Deliment Axiamira ravished with the generosity and prudence of Ibrahim rendred him a thousand thanks and requested him to furnish her with some means that she might not be altogether ingrateful You may Madam answered he not only pay me for the services which I intend to do you but also make me beholding to you all the days of my life provided you will suffer your self to be perswaded that his Highness had never any intention to have the Princess of Persia be carryed away by force that he hath not been violent towards Mustapha his son but at the instigation of others that the onely defect
Lord IF I had gone out of your Dominions of mine own accord I should think my self obliged to ask you pardon for it but since my flight is a crime of Fortune and that I have no other part in it then the suffering of the evils which she hath made me endure I beleeve that without charging my self with a fault which I have not committed it will suffice that I most humbly beseech you not to take it ill if I dare say to you that I have some consolation in my misfortunes to see that my Prison is a Refuge for me against the violences of Deliment and that not able to be free with you I am at leastwise absent from you without being culpable of it But my Lord I am but too much in having contrary thoughts to yours I know it certainly and yet whatsoever I do it is impossible for me to cease from being faulty in this sort for methinks Reason makes it appear to me that I have no aversion for Deliment but because he stains your glory abuses your goodness thinks of nothing but contenting his ambition is an enemy to vertue and in conclusion I wish him no ill but for the love of you But my Lord I am almost confident that every word I write is a crime that in thinking to excuse my self I become the more culpable and that in seeking to justifie my cause I sign my condemnation Permit then that my death or banishment may be the punishment of this fault and that I may beseech you to beleeve that the former would be sweet unto me if I could hope to be lamented of you and that the other would be insupportable to me if there were not some hope remaining for me that you will one day consent that Axiamira may live with you and not be constrained to be the wife of Deliment It is that which is hoped for and implored of you My Lord By your most humble most obedient and most faithful Subject Daughter and Servant AXIAMIRA The reading of this Letter touched the Sophi in a diverse manner he felt tenderness confusion and anger and it may be if he had been alone Nature and Reason had prevailed so powerfully for Axiamira as she had carried away the victory from her enemies but the counsels of Perca and the speeches of Deliment wrought a clean contrary effect in him Perca told him that it was too daring a part in her to be so bold as to write such things to him of a man whom he loved that without doubt Axiamira spake not thus but because she was well assured that whatsoever ransom was offered she should never be remitted into his power that he was to testifie a great deal of resentment for this insolent proceeding and to intreat him ill whom the Princess had sent who questionless was come to Prince Mahamed or as a Spy rather then to bring him this Letter which could not serve Axiamira for ought whether she remained in the Grand Signior's Dominions or whether she returned into his Empire Deliment seeing the Sophi sufficiently incensed took a different way from that which Perca had held which yet produced the same effect He besought the Sophi with a false generosity to permit him to withdraw himself from affairs and from about him for the contenting of Axiamira But the Sophi as Deliment had rightly forecast it forbad him the further prosecuting of this discourse his anger redoubling so much the more by this artifice And for a conclusion he called the party before him who had brought him the Letter from Axiamira charged him never to come within his Dominions again and told him that if he had not puâ—â—sed to have him carry back his Commands he would have had him severely punished Then he willed him to say unto her that had sent him for he would not call her the Princess his Daughterâ— or Axiamira that he had no other answer to make her but that if the ransom which â—e had sent to offer for her did not bring her back into Persia he would go and fetch her in the head of an hundred thousand men and that in the view of so mighty an Army he would deal with her as Soliman had done with Mustapha After this cruel answer the Sophi commanded this man to be searched to see whether he had any Letters about him for Mahamed or his Governor this search was not vain they found one for the Prince wherein what care soever Axiamira had taken that it should not prejudice him if it were met withall yet had she not sufficiently concealed the extream affection which was between them and the intelligence they had held together when she was at Amasia So that as soon as it was read it was resolved for fear Mahamed should receive others by some more secret way to have two things done The first to change all his House to the end that having none that he could trust about him he might not receive any news from Axiamira And the second to secure his person lest some abroad should attempt that which was doubted from them This design being resolved was quickly executed Deliment according to his wonted insolency went himself to command the blind Prince from the Sophi not to stir out of his lodging and to charge both his Governor and all his servants to be gone from him That done he placed a Guard about him and left this Prince in an affliction the like whereof he had never felt before All that came near him were his Enemies Agents and whether he would or no he was enforced to let them wait upon him This detention made a great noise in the Sophi's Court even the people themselves were divers times about to rise but amongst the rest the Princes domestick servants could not endure this violence And indeed Mahamed's Governor having assembled the chiefest of them together propounded unto them the enterprising of carrying away the Prince their Master to Bitilisa He told them that it was better to put him into the hands of a courteous enemy as Soliman was to Axiamira then to leave him in the power of a cruel and incensed father that as for them if they continued at Sultania they would not be in safety but upon the least suspicion that one should have of them they would be severely punished so that as well for the conservation of the Prince as for their own they were to undertake the delivery of him They all answered him with a great deal of zeal and affection that they were ready to expose their lives for the Prince their Master but that they did not think they could commodiously do it for him Whereupon this wise Governor told them how he knew certainly that those which guarded him relying on his blindness were not very exact in keeping him that it being so the matter would not be very difficult because the Prince lay in a low chamber that jetted upon the Palace garden whereof the
walls were not very high that the only difficulty was to advertise him not to make any noise at such time as he should hear his chamber window opened which indeed would not be very easie to do by reason the Prince could neither read that which should be written to him nor see the signs that might be made him so that he concluded something was to be left to chance that for so much as concerned their getting out of the City the Governor thereof was resolved to follow the fortune of Axiamira and to abandon a Government which he knew well would be taken from him in a short time by reason of the great affection he had testified to this Princess and that so it would be easie for them to escape This Proposition being approved of by all they thought of nothing else but of executing it And whereas the nights were very dark in regard the Moon did not shine they deferred it no further The Governor of Sultania whom Mahamed had formerly gained chose amongst his Soldiers those whom he believed were most faithful to him and without any notice taken of it he placed them at one of the gates of the City through which he meant to pass Night being come all Mahameds deliverers met together at a Randezvouz appointed by them they brought lâ—dders to enter into the garden whereof the walls were but low as I have already observed For whereas Sultania was not the residence of the Sophi they had not since the loss of Tauris is yet erected any magnificent buildings there This generous Troop passing between two Senâ—inels got into the garden without any obstacle went directly to Mahamed's lodging opened one of the windows of it without awakening him or any of his guard who lay in his anti-chamber and then he whose voyce they thought he best knew entered into his chamber with his drawn Scymitar in his hand approached to his bed after he had sought for it a while and though he wakened him very softly yet could he not so speak to him but that he gave a a great skreek and demanded with much resolution whether Deliment haâ— sent to kill him Mahamed spake so loud that some of his guard awaked and made a noise amongst themselves but the Prince coming to know his voyce that spake to him and whom he was assured was very faithful to him held his peace and by his silence made them of the guard who were â—wake hearing nothing any longer to get them again to sleep believing that Mahamed had had some troublesom dream which had caused him to speak so loud being not much careful besides in guarding him because they had order only to keep any from speaking with him and bringing him Letters In the mean time Mahamed having understood in few words in what manner they would deliver him suffered himself to be conducted by him that spake to him All this Troop received him with exceeding joy but fearing lest they should be troubled with some cross encounter as soon as they had put clothes upon him which they had brought purposely along with them they went out of the garden and presently after forth of the City About an hundred paces from the gate they found horses which the Governor of Sultania had caused to be there ready provided and getting upon them they rode away with all the speed that possibly they could make But whereas the Prince could not guide his horse but was constrained to let him be lead by another they could not go so fast but that the second day of their journey they espyed a Troop of Horse posting after them which being far more in number then they made them beleeve not only that they were pursued but that they were all lost nevertheless they resolved to sell their lives dearly The Prince too as blind as he was caused a Scymitar to be given him and to the end that if they fought he might not strike his friends in stead of his foes he commanded his followers not to come near him without calling him by his name and whereas his eyes did not serve him to assault any he resolved to abide in one place with an intention not to suffer himself to be taken alive But whatsoever he could do his people placed him in the midst of them much against his will being resolved to dye or to save him In the mean time the Troop which they beleeved to be their enemies came still on and every one was already preparing for defence when as the son of the Saâ—rap of Mesapotamiae an enemy to Deliment advancing foremost and throwing his Scymitar to the ground to let them know that he would not fight with them made them change their resolution of defending themselves into embracing them Prince Mahamed understanding who he was and knowing him by his voyce caressed him exceedingly and learnt of him that it was long before his flight was known because his guard not having been accustomed to enter into his chamber but when he called them had waited till noon without going in that the matter being discovered Tachmas at the first shewed a great deal of fury that Perca had done nothing but laugh at it and in a bitter jeering manner had wished that Soliman would make him General of his Army to the end that a man who saw so clear might chuse out the most advantageous places for the encamping of his Troops that for Deliment whereas he hated his father he accused him for having been privy to his escape and that having been ill-intreated by the Sophi he was retired from the Court and had commanded him to come and offer him whatsoever lay in his power not doubting but he had taken the resolution to repair to the place where Axiamira had already found a sanctuary that in the mean time it was requisite for them to make away with all speed in regard it might be that Tachmas had altered his determination and would resolve to have them pursued Prince Mahamed desired further to know of him who they were that accompanied him which proved to be the worthiest men of the Court The Prince made very much of them and that he might not hazard persons to whom he was so much obliged he sent one of his servants before to Bitilisa to know of Axiamira whether the place of her retreat would not be a safe one for them This while they rode on as fast as possibly they could but when they were come to the uttermost part of the frontire they stayed to hear some news from him whom they had sent to Bitilisa Vlama came and brought it them himself and this excellent man received Prince Mahamed with so many testimonies of joy on either side as they were a long time before they could separate themselves or resolve to march forward All the rest came afterwards to salute Vlama who assured them all of his service and protection Mahamed as they rode along enquired after Axiamira's health but
for her more safety during his absence he held it fit that Isabella should not abide in his Palace but should pass away that time in the old Serraglio in the company of his mother of his sisters and his daughters that the Sultana Asteria to whom he was somewhat obliged should take care to entertain her and that for the exercise of her Religion she should go forth as often as she would that his making of this proposition proceeded from the remembrance of the seditious tumult which was raised at such time as he was in Natolia for whereas the people and the Janizaries were perswaded that this War was undertaken by his counsel if by mischance news should come either true or false that he had been beaten he feared lest the fury of the one or the other or of both of them together should fall foul on his Palace and Isabella be involved in that disorder Ibrahim seeing a great deal of reason in that which the Grand Signior said humbly thanked him for his providence and told him that he would go and propound the matter to Isabella But he knew not that this proposition was made rather to undo then preserve her and that this Prince whom he beleeved to be so generous as indeed he was when as love did not trouble his Reason thought not so much of the Conquest of Persia as of the Conquest of Isabella In this dangerous ignorance he went to the Princess and made that proposition to her which the Sultan had made to him but not till he had rendred her an account of all that had past in the Divano At first that name of the Serraglio affrighted her and her modesty could not suffer him to continue speaking without interrupting him But after she had told him I know not how often that she could not resolve to go thither she was constrained to alter her mind Ibrahim having made it appear to her that the old Serraglio was the only place of all the Orient where the most vertues and the fewest vices were As indeed it is not inhabited by any but the Mother Aunts Daughters and Sisters of the Emperor who never have any commerce with the Sultana's of the other Serraglio unless it be with the Sultana Queen which lives in the Grand Signiors lodging For touching the people abroad they never see any of them having no other entertainment then to learn Needle works and Musick which certain Jewish women teach them to walk in their gardens which are very fair to receive the visits which the Sultan sometimes gives them especially when his Mother is still living to look out at the windows which open upon the Port and the City and to see the publique â—easts when they are celebrated at Constantinople living otherways with a great deal of reservedness until the Sultan marries them to some of his Bassa's for a recompence of some great Conquests atchieved by them Isabella having then understood all these particulars â—urmounted the aversion which she had against the entring into that place and was at length perswaded that she should be much better amongst women then to live alone with Emilia and Slaves in the Palace where she was This resolution being taken the grand Visier gave order to his servants to prepare all things for his voyage that he might part the next day and expresly forbad them after that from coâ—ing â—o speak to him of any affair if it were not directly from the Grand Signior intending to employ the small time he had resting in talking with Isabella Never was conversation so sad as theirs and seeing that which they had resolved upon even ready to be executed they almost repented them of the design they had undertaken Ibrahim would not willingly have parted and yet prepared to part And the Princess in testifying to him that she could wish he would not abandon her spake to him of their farewel and separation Remember said she unto him that in the War whither you are going you must have a care not only of your own life but of mine Think not so much of the victory as not to think of preserving your self And to oblige you thereunto remember every time you go to fight that in defending your life you defend Isabella's that upon your return depends her felicity and that if you love her you will not think so much of vanquishing as to keep your self from being vanquished That can I never be Madam answered he after so many glorious marks which I receive of your affection And since in preserving mine own life I shall preserve yours there is no Enemy which can be redoubted of me and which I shall not easily surmount Remember yet Madam that on Victory our happiness depends that to obtain it I must expose my self to peril that in all other things Fortune gives the good that she does but in War Crowns must be violently pluck'd out of the hands of Victory if one may be permitted to speak so One must fight to remain Master of the field one must give an example for the Soldiers to follow and put ones self in jeopardy of being vanquished for to be victorious I tell you all these things Madam to the end you may not take it ill if I dare assure you that I will not remember you but to fight with the more courage You are a captive for the love of me it is for me then to deliver you and therefore do not enjoyn me to manage my life with so much care But Madam without anticipating our miseries through fear and without encreasing those which we feel through the apprehension of those which peradventure will never arrive unto us tell me I beseech you whether you can forgive me all the evils which I have been the cause of to you if you do not represent unto your self how you have favorable received the affection of a man who was once reckoned amongst your enemies and who by a strange fate in ceasing to be so hath been the occasion of more misery to you in adoring you then all your cruellest adversaries purposing to hurt you could have done Do not charge your self with the crimes of Fortune said she unto him and beleeve that I am generous enough to distinguish the guilty from the innocent and never to remember the evils which I have suffered without remembring those withall which you have endured for me I am as faulty towards Justiniano as Justiniano is towards Isabella or to say better we are equally innocent and our innocency it may be causes our persecution since it is ordinary with Fortune to fall foul upon none but vertuous persons I hope nevertheless added she that Heaven will ere long give an end to our captivity or to our lives If we were continued Isabella in the hands of a Prince that used us ill and laded us with irons I should methinks have the more consolation for in murmuring against the Tyrant that persecutes us there is some to be found
she owed her all things and since Ibrahim could not acknowledg it to her himself it was for her to do it Asteria who certainly had wit generosity and more address then the retirement wherein she lived seemed to permit answered her that her sight and acquaintance recompenced her beyond that which the service she had rendered her deserved That pity being a sense so natural to the sex whereof she was she merited no great glory for having had compassion of so gallant and handsom a man as Ibrahim For continued she although I know very well that they talk amongst the Christians of us as if we were barbarous yet I can assure you that this rule is not so general but it hath exceptions And pity which is a thing quite opposite to that which is beleeved of us is one of the first precepts of our Religion it extends even to unreasonable creatures and there are found amongst us such careful Observers of the Law as they buy up Birds to let them fly Judg after this whether that which I have done deserves to be ranked in the number of extraordinary things and whether contrarily there had not been cause to wonder if seeing a man carried to dye whose countenance so little resembled a Slayes or Malefactors I should not have had the thought to save him And then again added she if any one ought to recompence me for this action it must be the Sultan since I have preserved him a man whose brave actions have rendred his Empire famous and whose merit and conversation hath made up all his felicity ever since he was here For as for you continued she I do not see how you are obliged to me if I had been contented with saving of Ibrahim's life you might well have said so but since it was I that was the cause of the Sultan's seeing loving him and retaining him in his service methinks I ought rather to demand pardon of you for robbing you of him then to attend thanks for his preservation Isabella who did not think that Asteria was acquainted with all her history knew not how to answer her which the Sultana perceiving desired her not to marvel if she understood by her discourse that she was not ignorant of all her adventures She told her then how the Sultan her father had been almost constrained to impart them unto her for a reason which she would tell her another time it being unjust to keep her any longer from the liberty of lamenting an absence which could not chuse but be very grievous unto her Isabella was so satisfied with the civility and wit of Asteria that she felt some consolation in finding a reasonable person in a place where she imagined there had been nothing but stupidity so that to oblige her she requested her with a great deal of tenderness and respect not to leave her for that reason nor to defer to another time the acquainting her with that which she would fain hear although she knew it Asteria then recounted unto her what Ibrahim had already told her namely that Soliman had purposed to have married her to him but she particularizing the matter further unto her in letting her know how this business had not been so hastily carried but that some days were past after the Grand Signior had spoken to her of it when as Ibrahim's discourse obliged him to propound it sooner unto him then he had intended That whereas he could not foresee how this marriage should be disagreeable to Ibrahim he had resolved to have had her conducted to his Palace upon the day of his Triumph to the end he might do the more honor to the grand Visier but that he had been hindred from it by a Persian named Alibech who came to demand Justice of him against the Bassa of the Sea and had kept him till it was night in the Hipodrome That having learnt all these things from the Sultan's own mouth and seeing afterwards that nothing came of all this she had cast her self at Soliman's feet and besought him to let her know for what cause Ibrahim had refused her and that after many intreaties having had experience of her discretion in other encounters he had declared unto her the truth of the matter That after this she had far more esteemed of the Bassa then before and that his fidelity to her had in such sort touched her heart as far from being incensed against him for the refusal he had made of her she had commended him for it in her talk with Soliman Do not disquiet your self said this Sultana to Isabella if I dare say to you that I have been your Rival that Ibrahim's glory had touched my inclination and that I could have resolved with joy to have been his wife since I had not thus opened my heart unto you if it had not been free enough to offer you all manner of service and to assure you that that which I felt for the Bassa could not be named Love but a simple desire to marry a gallant and vertuous man Do not regard me then as your Rival seeing that could not be without hatred but as a person that hath no stronger a passion then to serve Ibrahim in you You are too generous answered Isabella and Ibrahim too happy for him to be indebted to you I should condemn him nevertheless continued she for not failing in his fidelity to me had he had the honor to know you but his misfortune hath made him commit this fault Do not accuse him then for want of judgment in preferring my conservation before your Conquest since his ignorance hath been the cause of it and seeing you know my whole life as well as I lament us without accusing us But what say I added Isabella reprehending her self rather admire Ibrahim's good fortune in that he could oblige you to save his life and afterwards gain the affection of the greatest Prince of the Earth and to joyn our good fortunes as our interests are joyned I must add further in having procured me the honor of your acquaintance This conversation having lasted an indifferent long time combined the Sultana Asteria and the Princes in so strait a league of friendship as they were almost inseparable so long as Isabella continued in the old Serraglio The day after she was come thither Soliman visited her and by this last sight made the chains which captived him stronger then before The incertainty he was in wholly ceased and the combat which he had in his heart between his fâ—iendship to the grand Visier and the passion he was in for Isabella was at an end and love remaining absolutely victorious his mind had some more peaceable moments so thâ—t he had no other thought then of the Conquest of Isabella But whereas he knew that to make himself be beloved he must first please he complyed so far with her as not to speak of any thing but Ibrahim in this first visit He craved pardon of the Princess for
said she unto him that you can speak to me in this sort and conserve any memory and judgment Do you believe added she that a person which refuses the affection of your King can receive yours Do you not remember that you have an hundred times commended the resolution which I have taken to dye rather then to satisfie him shall I be more vertuous in harkening favorably to your love then to Abdalla's What part do you play said she unto him without giving him time to interrupt her You betray your Master in speaking to me of your love and if you will pass for my Lover you do me an injury in charging your self with moving the Kings to me and howsoever it be I ought to hate and despise you more then him After Hipolita had testified all her resentment and her anger Aly nothing daunted not displeased besought her not to condemn him without hearing For fair Hipolita said he unto her it may be you will finde some difference between the love that Abdalla bears you and that which I bear you He onely loves the beauty of Hipolita and I adore the vertue of Hipolita He is not your servant but to make you his Slave and I do not love you but to marry you His flame is unjust and mine is lawful the end of his love is his own satisfaction and that of mine is your glory and your conservation For in fine continued he if it be true that you love honor you will have some indulgence for the affection which I carry to you seeing there tests no other mean to warrant you from the violences of Abdalla's love but that of receiving the same which I offer you I acknowledg said he further to her that I am an ill subject but it is not but to be a faithful Lover and because I will not expose you to the greatest miseries which a vertuous person can suffer For if you will said he unto her all the Kings love all his force and all his power shall not keep me from protecting and marrying you Aly having made an end of speaking left Hipolita for that he would not have her said he answer him without advisement in a matter whereon all his happiness or unhappiness depended From thence he went to the Princess Mariama to whom in appearance he bore a great deal of respect And whereas for some time past this Princess had given him more commodity to speak to her then before out of the design she had to discover his intentions concerning him that was to succeed Abdalla it was not difficult for him to talk with her in private so that after he had protested an inviolable fidelity to her and had sworn to her that next to the glory and interests of Abdalla nothing in the world was so dear to him as hers he told her that knowing her exceeding vertue and prudence he thought he was obliged to acquaint her how the King was so desperately in love with Hipolita as he feared that his passion would carry him to lose the respect which he owed to her in drawing him to use some violence to this maid That if in this occasion he might be permitted to give advertisements and counsel both together he conceived that the best course could be taken would be to remove Hipolita out of the way or to marry her That as her Slave she might dispose of her without the Kings having any lawful pretext to contradict her since he himself had bestowed her on her The Princess received this discourse of Ala's as if she were obliged to him for it and although she knew not as yet the interest which he had in this affair because she had not seen Hipolita yet she believed that this generosity which appeared in his speech was not in his heart She thanked him notwithstanding for the advice he had given her promised him to observe the Kings and Hipolita's actions and then told him that she would resolve of nothing in this affair without demanding his counsel about it and that he on his part should not fail to advertise her of all that he knew Aly to let the Princess see that he lyed not desired her to call to minde all the testimonies of unquietness and affection which the King could not conceal in the visits he had rendred her for some time past And when as she had told him that she remembred them very well he went very well satisfied of her For knowing the vertue and prudence of this Princess he doubted not but that now understanding the love which the King bore to Hipolita she would oppose it with all her power and so if it happened that Hipolita should tell her the prâ—position he had made to marry her she would not contradict it because it would be a mean to keep the King from committing a fault and because she would believe also by this way to put him out of grace with Abdalla which he feared not much in regard that all the force of the Kingdom was in his hands that all the Governors of Places depâ—nded on him and that it was impossible for Abdalla to rid himself of him but by taking away his life which he stood in no doubt of for he could not imagine that a Prince to whom he had conserved the Crown could make him lose his head And after this manner he resolved to make a shew of confiding in the Princess Mariama judging â—hat nothing could arrive therein that would not be advantageous to him In the mâ—an time Abdelcader had his designs both of love and ambition as well as Aly and though he was no very excellent Prince yet the desire of reigning is so natural in men as it found a place in his heart and so much the more strongly because he knew that according to equity the Crown of Marocco appertained to him after the death of his brother though Abdalla had a son for that the Xeriff Mahomet had so ordained by his Testament In this thought he had a long time already very much courted Aly to the end he might gain him as much as he could out of the hope that if Abdalla came to dye he would side with him or at leastwise remain a neuter between the son of Abdalla and him Nevertheless whereas at that time Aly had other designs he never said any thing to Abdelcadâ—r which might make him hope for ought from him But whereas he was dextrous and knew not certainly whether he should let Abdalla's son raign or raign himself he had never disobliged him but was contented to tell him still upon the divers propositions which he had made unto him that for matters regarding the State he was not the servant of the person of Abdalla but of the King of Marocco That as for him he was perswaded how it was neither reason nor justice that ordinarily made Kings but Fortune only And without considering whether she were blind or no in the distribution of Crowns he was
But my Lord to oblige thee no longer to continue so dangerous a fiction know that if it were true that thy Highness had for me the violentest affection that ever was heard spoken of it should not serve but to hasten my death it being most certain that the most terrible and horriblest torments that can be imagined should never carry me to be wanting either to that which I owe to Ibrahim to my self or to thy Highness No my Lord I should never be a Complice of great Soliman's fault and for his own interest I ought always oppose my self against him But continued she it is in some sort an injury to thy Majesty to answer so precisely to a discourse whose foundation is not truâ— Would to Heaven replyed Soliman both for your content and mine that it were so But amiable Isabella it is but too true what I say and if there be any feigning in my discourse it is that I have not said all that I feel I confess that I am faulty towards Heaven that I am so towards Ibrahim that I betray the friendship which I have promised him that I forget the care of my glory and honor and that I betray my self but in conclusion being faulty towards all the world I am innocent towards you since it is certain that a violent love to speak reasonably can never offend the person that hath begotten it And how constant soever you be for Ibrahim how rigorous foever you be for me you cannot without injustice but take pity of the deplorable estate wherein I am I do not demand of you your love as yet but some compassion and at least bemoan me if you cannot love me Great Princes replyed Isabella ought to be sensible of pity but they never ought to put themselves into a condition of being the object of it to others Neither will I be drawn to beleeve that Soliman hath a thought so unworthy of himself For my Lord how can I think that thy Highness will stab a Poignard into the heart of Ibrahim after thou hast saved his life if it should be so it had better both for him for me and for thy Highness that he had been left to languish in his irons or to dye of melancholy then to save him for to kill him the more cruelly Let thy Majesty consult well with thy self and thou wilt find without doubt that thy heart agrees not with thy mouth that thy words betray thy thoughts and that Ibrahim is yet more powerful in thy Soul then the fatal beauty of Isabella No said Soliman interrupting her do not justifie me in this sort since in the terms wherein I am I have no other design then to let you know that I am the most faulty of all men in perswading you that I am the most amorous Ah my Lord said she to him weeping doth not thy Highness consider that at this very time it may be wherein thy Highness useth so strange a discourse unto me Ibrahim is fitghing with thine enemies is hazarding his life for thy service and shedding his blood for a Prince who makes me shed tears and who without doubt will bring me to my grave if his unjust love doth continue Soliman being moved with so pressing a discourse stood a while without answering thereunto but at length his passion still surmounting his vertue in this occasion I know said he unto her that Ibrahim's life ought to be dear unto me but I know withall that mine ought to be considerable to me and I am certain that what exploits soever he can do in Persia I have done more yet in consideration of him I have fought for him against my self I have felt my self in the flame without daring to complain love and friendship have torn my heart and I know no torments so terrible which I have not endured since the first instant that I saw you rather then to do any thing against the affection which I bear him But being come to the terms either of dying or speaking I chose the last and so much the rather because I do not think but a man who could abandon you at Monaco to come unto me to Constantinople will easily enough resolve to quit you for the saving of a Princes life to whom he is indebted for his own Ah my Lord I cryed Isabella if Ibrahim be faulty in this occasion it is against me and not against thy Highness who by this very fault art yet the more straitly obliged not to commit one against him For what doth not a man deserve who rather then he would fail in his word which he had given thee resolved to abandon not only his Country not only his Friends but the only person whom he could love who was in stead to him of all the world and without whom his life had been irksom and death the term of his desires No my Lord continued she flatter not thy self in this occasion think better both of Ibrahim and of Isabella and be most assured that as I am certain he would dye a thousand times rather then abandon me so should I do the like rather then be unfaithful to him And if by some prodigy which I cannot fear should happen Ibrahim should consent to thy passion if he himself should speak to me of thy love yet let thy Highness know that I am not capable of failing by example I should cease to love Ibrahim if he ceased to be generous but I should love thee never a whit the more contrarily I should regard thee then both as having outraged me and as having bereaved me of a vertuous Lover Isabella was going on in her discourse and Soliman was going to interrupt her when as the generous Asteria entered And whereas the Sultan had still some respect for Isabella he would not command the Sultana to withdraw but being unable withall in the estate wherein his Soul was to begin an indifferent Conversation he went away leaving Isabella with an affliction that may be better imagined then described He was no sooner departed but Asteria who had observed a great deal of alteration in Isabella's and Soliman's faces demanded of her with much impatience and grief what it was that had caused the trouble wherein she saw her Alas answered the Princess how have my fears been too well grounded and how true have your suspicions been and then she recounted unto her what had past betwâ—â—n her and Soliman with so many testimonies of resentment that the Sultana Asteria was exceedingly moved therewith This misfortune did not altogether surprize her for all that bâ—cause she had sufficiently observed in divers occasions that the Sultan her father was desperately in love with Isabella but she had nevertheless conserved some remainder of hope that his reason and the friendship which he bore to Ibrahim would surmount his passion or at leastwise keep him from discovering it to her Isabella for her part had thought as much so that being equally surprized one might almost say that
it seems just unto me to tell thee once for all that nothing can change my minde that neithâ—r ambition nor fear have any power over my soul that vertue onely raigns there and that thy Highness forgets thine own glory to no purpose Isabella made this speech with so much firmnâ—ss as Soliman not able to be moved with compassion suffered himself to be transported with fury but in such a manner as there were not any threatenings which he used not to the Princess And for a conclusion he said unto her as he was going away if fear can no whit prevail on your soul no more shall pity on mine we shall see in the end if you be not changed in eight days whether your minde will be as constant as you say and you shall know but it may be too late that Soliman when he pleases can tell how to make himself be obeyed at Constantinople After he had said this he left Isabella and abandoned her to her grief which Emilia saw to be so just is she could not condemn her and all that she could do in this encounter was to weep with her What a misery is mine said this infortunate Princâ—ss after she had been a while without speaking who ever saw continued she a like adventure The greatest and best Prince of the Earth is become the basest and cruellest amongst men he pays a generosity with ingratitude he betrays the friendship which he hath promised he violates the law of Nations my protector is grown to be my Tyrant and whilst Ibrahim is venturing his life for his glory thiâ— unjust Prince would make me forget mine but what say I it may be that his cruelty will not rest there he that can betray what is most sacred in this world that harkens not to reason that no longer knows vertue may also be capable of a design to destroy Ibrahim And of all this continued this Princess Isabella is the cause she alone is the source of his misfortunes she alone gave him encouragement to follow his gâ—nâ—rosity when as she made him return to Constantinople for continued she if I had effectually testified that I would not have had him gone if I had told him that the chiefest duty carries all the rest that he was to have considered nothing but me in that encounter that one ought not to be generous to the prejudice of the person beloved and that in the end I had joyned force to intreaty he had not returned I had not been carryed away by force I should not be at Constantinople Soliman should not be my persecutor and we should not be separated yet this is not my last fault added she I should not have let him go into Persia or resolved to have gone along with him my sâ—lf but alaâ—s who would not have been deceived therein and how could I have bâ—lieved that which now I see my heart indeed advertised me that our separation would be fatal to mâ— but I foresaw not the mischief which was to arrive unto me it had not been so great if it could have been foreseen In fine said this illustrious Princess I am come to that pass as I can scarce fear new miseries I am in fear for my friends I am in fear for my self and I am in fear for Ibrahim There is a design on my glory and on the life of the person that is dearest to me in the world after this let Fortune do what she will she cannot increase my misery more The like was never seen in any age the infortunate illustrious persons of Antiquity had at least this advantage to be perswaded by the error wherein they lived that their despair was without crime and that they might with glory finish their torments in finishing their lives but for me I am to attend this succor from the pleasure of Heaven and from my grief alone it is true indeed that I feel it so great as it makes me hope it will not be long Ah Madam said Emilia to her then do not abandon me and to oblige you thereunto remember that your death would be the cause of Ibrahim's Let us not call him any more so said Isabella to her sighing since that name hath been given him by our Enemies Remember then added Emilia that Justiniano cannot live without you But remember you replyed the Princess that Isabella cannot live without glory and that it will be far more advantageous for her to be lamented by Justiniano then to be exposed to the violence of a Prince who can be no longer moved neither by my tears by my prayers nor by his own interâ—st Saying thus she perceived the Sultania Asteria coming in who seeing her weep could not forbear weeping too though she knew not certainly the cause of it and not daring to ask of her what she ailed nor Isabella able to tell her so much was she opprest with sorrow they stood a pretty while without speaking but at length the Sultana rightly imagining that Soliman was the cause of this redoubling of grief approached to the Princess and taking her by the hand I do not ask said she unto her what makes you to weep but I ask of you whether another bodies crime doth not set me at odds with you and whether you can endure that the daughter of a Prince who persecutes you dare still assure you that she shares with you in all your sorrows You may without doubt replyed Isabella and your compassion is so much the more generous by how much you are the less obliged thereunto it being certain that you have more occasion to regard me as the object of your hatred then Soliman hath to consider me as the object of his love for if this Prince had not seen me he would not be unjust his violences would not give you unquietness and your Soul would not endure the pain that it feels in condemning the thoughts of a Father but generous Sultana shall we not finde a remedy for the curing of this deadly passion and to set me in safety against his violence Soliman's interest ought to carry you unto it and since Justiniano is already indebted to you for his life make him indebted to you also if it be possible for my glory which doublâ—ss is dearer to him then his own you have drawn him out of Irons draw me out of servitude and by this noble action tender your sâ—lf worthy of immortal renown Asteria not able to endure that Isabella should longer intreat a thing of her which she desired as much as she assured her that she was capable of undertaking any thing for her service but that she was afraid all her endeavors for it would do her no good Thereupon Emilia and she bent their minds to seek out some way whereby they beleeved they might get out of the pain wherein they were they propounded an hundred expedients whereof the execution was impossible and at last after a vain search they concluded that no succor could come to
may justly demand my liberty for a recompence why do I Madam see more signs of grief in your minde than when we had all to fear and nothing to hope for The Princess not answering precisely to Jbrahim began to make him partake her unquietness He believed then that he was more unhappy than he thought he was and suddenly calling to minde the change which he had noted in Solimans face he no longer doubted but that there was something which Isabella dâ—d not tell him What accident said he unto her Madam is befallen us Hath fortune invented some new torment to persecute us withall Speak I earnestly beseech you and whatsoever it may be be pleased to let me know it Jsabella would then have put him off with assuring him that she had no new matter to acquaint him with but the more she stood off the more unquietness she gave him Wherefore he began to cast in his minde what the mischief might be which would not be told him Hath any one said he unto her wronged you during my absence hath any body conspired against your life hath the hate which Roxelana bears me carried her to seek the means to hurt you would she have sacrifised you to her revenge as she hath sacrifised Prince Mustapha to her rage would they have forced you to change your Religion hath Rustan plotted any thing against me and that which would be my last misery and which I think cannot possibly be is Soliman become my Rivall or mine Enemy The Princess thereupon not able to retain her tears put her hand before her eyes to conceal them from Ibrahim Ah! Madam said he unto her then gently pulling down her arm do you answer me with tears can it be possible that this Prince should hate me or love you too much leave me not long in pain and I beseech you Madam express your self more clearly I would I could draw you out of it answered the Princess still weeping but since I cannot conceal that from you which I have been commanded not to let you know and that my tears have betrayed me believe what they have told you for it is but too true and save me the labor of using any longer discourse to you on so strange a subject What cryed out Jbrahim then wholly transported with grief doth Soliman love you He hath told me so replyed she and in such a manneâ— as makes me look upon death as the onely remedy that is left us to avoid his fury After this Jbrahim having in an instant exactly run over all that the Grand Signior had said to him no longer doubted of his unhappiness and in thâ—s certainty he said all that a just resentment could make one say in a like adventure What cryed he out this Prince who is so great so generous who hath loved me so tenderly and who hath seen me ready to dye because I was absent from the incomparable Isabella will he ravish her from me for ever and stab a dagger into the heart of a man that hath hazarded his life for his glory and that had committed this illustrious person to his protection after this said hee to Isabella I will no longer trust my self I beleeve Madam that I can betray you I beleeve that I can abandon you and that I can be your enemy since the greatest Prince of the earth hath been capable of violating the law of Nations as well as naturall equity of betraying the friendship which he had promised me of forgetting the services which I have done for him of despising vertue of not harkning to reason and of blemishing his own glory with an unjust passion But Madam added hee I am too blame my self and I am the cause of your misery for why should not I fear any thing from a Prince who had dipt his hands in the blood of his son for an unjust love he that had been capable of so cruell a thought might easily forget the respect which he owed to your vertue I am not excusable for abandoning you It is no time to speak of that which is past said the Princess unto him but to think of that which is to come Ibrahim was not for all that in an estate to give counsaile for his minde was filled with so many severall thoughts as hee scarcely understood what Isabella said unto him He was possessed with grief anger and repentance hatred and jelousie had also some place in his soul nevertheless in the midst of his transports and although the interest of Isabella prevailed over all others yet had he loved Soliman so much that there were some instants wherein without considering Isabella and without considering himself he was afflicted for that this Prince had given this blemish to his life But when as he surprised himself in this thought he repented of it as of a crime and reentred into his former fury At length after that Isabella and he had said all that their grief and affection could suggest and that the Princess had related to Ibrahim all that she beleeved was necessary hee should know the better to advise on that which they had to doe they found that their reason was too much troubled and they themselves too much interessed in the business in question for to judge soundly thereof They resolved then to call unto this counsell both their he and she friends to the end that all of them together might seek out the meanes to avoyd the mischief that menaced them Isabella for that effect willed Emilia to call them and the French Marquis taking this imployment upon him brought this fair troup a little after into the Princess chamber who with teares in her eyes craved pardon of her deer friends for having made a secret to them of a thing which she would fain have concealed from her self and then having recounted the estate wherein shee was with Soliman she filled their hearts with grief both for the interest which they had in her fortune and for their own knowing very well that their liberty depended on Ibrahim and Isabella who being at odds themselves with Soliman were not like to obtain that for others which they could not obtain for themselves This misery then being common they all fell to think of what might be done Some would have Ibrahim without testifying any knowledge of this unjust love pursue his first designe and demand his liberty of Soliman because said they it may be that this Prince being ashamed of his fault and incensed with Isabellas constancie will grant him his request and resolve to deprive himself of the sight of a man whom he can no longer look upon but with confusion and of a person whom it is impossible for him to conquer But Ibrahim opposed this opinion for whereas he knew Soliman full well he was sure that love being once entred into his heart would never goe out of it again but with violence and that he could not be capable of repenting but when as the crimes which
I had set him and my friendship quits and abandons me and not content to steal a person from me whom I love and without whom I cannot live he gets him away it may be with intelligences that he hath in my Empire to make war upon me and to recover from me that which he saith appertains unto him But he was never of the Race of the Paleologues And then continued he if he could perswade me to it that would be yet a further reason to oblige me to destroy him It behoves he should die out of reason of State as I pretend he shall die out of reason of Love If I regard him as a slave I have power over his life since every slave that breaks his irons deserves to lose it If I regard him as my subject he is worthy of death for going out of my Empire without my consent If I regard him as a Christian I cannot hate him enough and if I consider him as an Enemy-Prince it behoves he should die that the end of his life may make an end of setling my Throne to my successors Soliman having as it seemed to him setled his resolution firmly enough felt some rest in his minde Howbeit suddenly some beam of light coming to him again he was ashamed of his own thoughts yet would he not oppose them but rather sought how he might fortifie them nevertheless there was one thing that retained his fury for a while Suppose said he that I resolve to destroy Jbrahim that he be already punished for his ingratitude and perfidiousness that the end of his life hath ended the love which he bears to Jsabella let us see after this whether in thinking to do our self service we do not hurt our self For can she love a Prince who bereaves her of the person that is dearest to her in the world But can she continued he love any other than Ibrahim as long as he is living No no sayd he raising his voyce it behoves hee should dye and I shall alwayes have this consolation that if shee love not mee shee shall at leastwise love nothing in the world But cried he again after he had continued a while without speaking he whom I will destroy is the same Jbrahim who hath done me such important service and whom I have so much loved howbeit continued he it is Jsabellaes Lover it is a fugitive slave it is a revolted subject it is a Prince my enemy or it may be an impostor In such like thoughts as these was the Grand Signior when as Rustan came to him who out of his malice carried him to further violence against Jbrahim by forging matters which he affirmed he had heard him speak against him Presently therupon Roxelana entred who making as if she did not know that there was any interest of love in the hatred which Soliman bore to Jbrahim spake not but of the good of the State and of the glory of the Empire She represented to Soliman how mightily he had alwaies protected the Christians in all occasions that had been presented as indeed she lyed not But although the most part of those things were done by Solimans consent in the favor of Jbrahim yet was this Prince so unjust as to hearken to this accusation as if he had been acquainted with new crimes After then that this wicked woman had made him resolve to put Jbrahim to death she told him moreover that if hast were not made to take away his life the people undoubtedly would rise to save him for said she out of the design which he hâ—th had to usurp the Empire he hath alwaies taken great care to make himself to be beloved of them Soliman seeing himself upon the point of absolutely resolving the matter felt a new combat in his heart love hatred jealousie friendship shame and glory did their last and uttermost endeavor to vanquish one another but at length vertue was surmounted in this occasion by the wickedness of Roxalana and Rustan And Soliman consented that without further delay he should go and execute this fatall sentence which their hatred rather than he pronounced against the illustrious Jbrahim Away he went with a great deal of speed for fear lest the Sultan should alter his mind Nevertheless not daring wholly to fall in the usuall form he sent for Jbrahim to come to supper and this perfidious wretch who feared a revolt kept all that were in the Seraglio from going forth In the mean time Jbrahim being set at table as the rest Rustan in the midst of the meal presented him with a robe of black velvet which was an undoubted mark that the end of this fatal feast should be the end of his life For after this manner is the news of death denounced to persons of quality that are to lose their lives in the Seraglio Jbrahim seeing his ruin certain received this robe for all that with a great deal of constancie And whereas it was presented to him by Rustan because no body else would tender him this strange present I receive it sayd he unto him without fearing the death which it presageth and without being any whit surprised therewith knowing full well that it is a dependance of the charge which I have possest and that few Grand Visiers have dyed otherwaies But I receive it with grief because it blemisheth the glory of a Prince whom I have loved and for that it is offered to me by the hand of Rustan This ceremony much afflicted all them that saw it yet did not Ibrahim rise til the time which custom requires in such like occasions was past nor forbear talking to some Officers of the Empire which were at this fatal supper by Rustans order in the grand Signiors name for he feared if they should have gone forth and acquainted the people that Ibrahim was going to be put to death they would have risen before he had been executed And truly this design was not amiss for whereas Ibrahim was infinitely beloved their eys were all bedew'd with tears and certainly had they had arms they would have attempted to succor him or at leastwise would have lost themselves with him Never was there a more deplorable feast than this same none that were present at it did eat any thing they seemed all to be condemned to death and Ibrahim only testified by the tranquillity of his countenance and by his constancy that he was in case to comfort the rest Four mutes which were to strangle him stood before him with each of them a black silk bow-string in his hand which was to serve for that deadly office Now though this object possest all those that considered it with terror and pitie Ibrahim seemed no more sensible of fear than Rustan was of compassion This Illustrious Bassa was seen with an admirable tranquillity and with a constancy without affectation he indured his misery without murmuring he beheld the tears of others without shedding any and if any sign of sadness appeared in
his face the interest of Isabella alone was the cause of it indeed this thought made him suffer very much The regret of being separated from her the uncertainty of what should become of her after his death which was scarcely irksom unto him but for the grief which Isabella would take at it replenished him with heavy thoughts Whilst he was in this estate whilst he attended the time of his execution and whilst he was preparing to intreat some of them that were about him to say something to Soliman for the preservation of Isabella the Sultan was not without unquietness Roxelana who had still remained with him had not only kept his mind from inclining to compassion but contrarily had so incensed it as he many times seemed to be very impatient for that he could not receive news of Ibrahims death Nevertheless he had no sooner had such a like thought but straightway he was of another opinion He would have a thing and he would not have it and in this incertainty his imagination represented unto him all Jbrahims whole life He sought not for all that to remember the friendship which he had born him and the marks which he had given him of it but to hate him the more This ingratefull man said he could not resolve to comply with a Prince who would have given him his daughter in mariage who would have allied himself to him and who besides yeelding up his Throne to him hath done all things for him This remembrance wrought a strange effect in Soliman he suddenly changed colour after he had mused a little as it were to call something to his memory he cried out with strange precipitation to have Rustan fetched back again and looking about him the matter is at an end said he wholly transported with fury I cannot destroy mine enemy he must live since I have sworn it let one go with all speed said he to some of his attendants and revoke the sentence which I have given but no delay must be made for otherwise I shal draw the heavy wrath of heaven upon my head Roxelana surprised with this discourse would have kept them from obeying the grand Signior untill she knew from whence this mutation came But having commanded a second time that one should go do that which he had ordained she was compelled to consent unto it What so sudden a change said she unto him is arrived in thy Highness mind is it possible that Soliman whom I have heard an hundred times say that repentance is a weakness whereof he was not capable should at length be possessed with it at this present No said Soliman to her I do not repent but contrariwise that I may not repent and that I may keep my word I am carried to that which I do The Sultana having obliged him to explain himself more clearly he informed her how as he was laboring to remember the obligations wherein Ibrahim was ingaged to him to the end he might detest his ingratitude so much the more his memory had represented unto him how he would once have given him the Sultana Asteria to wife how at the same time on the same day to secure Ibrahim from the fear which he seemed to have of the change of his fortune he had sworn to him by Alla that as long as he lived he should not dy a violent death After this said he to her Never ask me what hath made me alter my minde I do not repent I would still have Jbrahim destroyed but being unable to put him to death without violating violating my Oath I must no longer think of it mine Enemy must live I must not be revenged and all this is because I my self have tyed the hand which should strike a dagger into his heart The Sultana who was not so scrupulous as Soliman nor made so exact a profession of keeping her word did what she could to perswade him not to keep his No said he unto her I may not fail in it and had I promised my Empire and my Liberty I should descend from my Throne and put on the Irons my self which I was to wear Ibrahim must live since I have promised it I have sworn by ALLA and that is to say all that can be said I should draw down the wrath of Heaven upon me and I should do that which I have never done if I should do otherwise I have observed all that ever I have promised in my life even without an Oath having then sworn so solemnly I may by no means break it I should destroy mine enemy but thereby I should bring one into my heart that would persecute me eternally and repentance which is a motion unknown to me would without doubt find place in my Soul At length after a long contestation Roxelana perswaded Soliman to take the advice of the Muphti who she knew was absolutely hers as having gotten him the place which he held during Ibrahim's absence And albeit Soliman did not think that this man could find out any thing that would satisfie him yet he sent for him When he was come and that Roxelana in propounding the matter unto him had dextrously signified to him that she desired the death of Ibrahim this man who naturally had wit malice and cunning was nevertheless sufficiently troubled to answer precisely unto that which was demanded of him for the contenting of Roxelana He said then that this affair was not to be spoken of precipitously and having required an hours time to think of it after he had caused Soliman to repeat unto him the very same words which he had before-time used to Ibrahim he fell deeply a musing But he was not long in searching out that which he did not think to find My Lord said he to Soliman the Prophet whom we worship hath no doubt inspired me with that which I am going to tell thy Highness that thou mayst be able to punish him whom thou wouldst destroy And when as Soliman had asked him how he thought to perform that which he said he obliged him to repeat once more unto him the promise which he had made to Ibrahim I remember it but too well answered the Sultan and lo the very words which I spake Remember said I unto him how I swear unto thee by ALLA that as long as Soliman lives thou shalt not dye a violent death This sufficeth replyed the Muphti for my Lord to express my thought to thy Highness is it not true that the promise which thou hast made to Ibrahim is a thing which cannot secure him but only during thy life and is it not certain that thy Successors should not be obliged to preserve him It being so my Lord said he unto him it will not be hard for me to content thee For thy Highness having promised Ibrahim that he shall not dye a violent death as long as Soliman lives if I can make it appear to thee that there are every day some hours wherein Soliman
doth not live it will appear to thee by the same reason that during the said time Ibrahim may dye without breaking of thy Highness word The Sultan hearing him speak thus beleeved that this man knew not very well what he would say but the other nothing daunted and speaking to him with as much confidence as if he had been inspired from Heaven My Lord said he unto him it is a matter whereof no body is ignorant that Sleep is called the brother of Death by all Nations and in all Languages and truly it is not without cause that he is termed so it being certain that a man which is asleep cannot with reason be said to be living since we see that he is deprived of all the functions of a reasonable life which alone is the life of man I confess indeed how in that estate he still enjoys the life of plants but not that of man which consists not but in the use of Reason whereof he is wholly bereft in that estate Sleep equals Kings and Shepherds as well as Death the stupid and the witty the happy and the unhappy good men and bad and there is no difference seen between them but that sleep is a short death and death an eternal sleep Wherefore it being evident that a man asleep cannot to speak reasonably be said to be living I conclude from thence that thy Highness without breaking thy word may take away Ibrahim's life when as sleep hath throughly benummed thy sense and Reason Roxelana failed not to approve of this advice and maintained that he had spoken judiciously But for Soliman he yielded not with so much facility he made many objections to the Muphti whereunto he still answered with as much cunning as wickedness Thus although this Prince had a very piercing wit in all other things yet the desire which he had to make away Ibrahim perswaded him that the Muphti had Reason and that he might put the grand Visier to death when he was aslâ—ep For this wicked man said to him thy Highness hath not absolutely promised him not to put him to death but only that he should not dye a violent death as long as Soliman lives and Soliman shall not live when as the Bassa shall dye This design being concluded it was resolved that they should tarry till night was come for the executing of it For whereas sleep is not a voluntary act they thought it requisite to attend till the time of sleep was come In the mean season Ibrahim had been brought back to the place which served him for a prison not knowing whether grace would be shewed him or whether his execution was but deferred This incertainty was almost as displeasing as the assurance of an approaching death had been grievous to him yet did he not ask any thing that regarded himself directly but only enquired after Isabella who on her part was not without a world of grief She had understood that Ibrahim had been lead to a place where oftentimes the grand Visiers had been deprived of their lives and that made her to be as much afflicted as if she had already seen him breathe out his last It may be said she that now whil'st I am speaking Justiniano is defending himself against his Executioners it may be he is yielding up his last breath and is thinking of me once for all Ah! if it be so cryed she I beseech Heaven at leastwise to spare me the affliction that I may not hear of his loss and by my death to keep me from the grief of lamenting his Howbeit I fear said she that my prayers will not be heard and that Soliman's cruelty will let me live to persecute me But let him arm his Executioners let him invent torments I will complain no more after this sorrow he that shall acquaint me with the loss of Justiniaeno shall render me insensible to all others Alas what say I added she it seems in hearing me speak that I will conserve my life after he shall be deprived of his no no Isabella will not survive Justiniano and that which the rage of Soliman will not do grief alone shall execute Let this unjust Prince do what he will I hope that I shall get out of his power by getting out of my life Heaven is interessed in the prayer which I make unto it I beg this grace of it to preserve mine innocence and if my despair be a fault I hope it will pardon it in regard of the greatness of my misfortune of the purity of my affection and of mine own weakness In this deplorable estate Isabella having understood that Ibrahim had been brought back to his quarter hope began again to find some place in her Soul and she beleeved that Soliman having desired to see him had peradventure been moved to compassion Sophronia Hipolita Leonida Emilia and the rest of their Troop which were in another place had the same hope hearing what had past But the matter went otherwise for as soon as night was come Rustan who wholly governed this deadly ceremony went himself a second time to fetch Ibrahim by the Grand Signior's Command He led him then into the same Hall where formerly he had been and having left him in the company of four mutes which were to strangle him as soon as Soliman was asleep he returned to this Prince who had at that time no greater a longing then to make away Ibrahim As for him although he did not fear death and was exceeding peaceable yet had his Soul great agitations Ah said he to himself I shall never see Isabella more I and I shall not only be deprived of her sight but I shall abandon her to the violence of a Prince who I beleeved had been her Protector and who it may be provoked by her vertue will take away her life as well as mine for since Soliman can consent to my death he may well sign hers Alas continued he to what an estate am I reduced If I wish that she should live I make wishes against her glory I consent to the exposing of her to the rigor of a violent and amorous Prince I cannot wish her her life without doing her wrong and then again not only I cannot desire her death but I cannot so much as think of it without a despair that is not to be parelled If this Prince who is my Rival could be her husband I would make vows against my self and I love Isabella so much as to be willing to save her life with the loss of all my felicity But as the case stands she cannot be his not only without infidelity not only without infamy but with an horrible crime Alas added he if it were not so my loss should not be without comfort loving me as she doth she would live without pleasure but also without shame She would bewail my death without other interest then that of conserving my memory and fear having no place in her heart the grief alone of having
speak not of your death if you will not have me dye in despair Let us go Madam let us go rather to beg your liberty of Soliman and obtain of him that the loss of my life may be the price of it I will not have it without you answered she wherefore persist not in wishing to save me In the mean time they arrived at Soliman's Chamber whom they found still leaning on a Table and in a posture that they could not see his face As soon as they were there Ibrahim and Isabella cast themselves at his feet My Lord said the Princess if I may obtain the grace of thee that I may dye with Justiniano I will not complain of thy Highness but contrarily I will praise thy justice I am guilty my Lord and of an horrible crime against thee I have made thee despise the friendship which thou barest to Justiniano I have made thee abandon Reason I have put a stain on thy life I have blemished thy glory I have troubled thy rest and I have constrained the greatest Prince of the Earth to oppose all his inclinations which carry him to vertue for to follow an unjust passion Thou plainly seest my Lord that wrath ought to have a more just foundation in thy soul then this Love which afflicts thee and persecutes me Change thy passion in my favor but in such sort that as I have been the object of thy love so I may be likewise of thy hate Think of revenging thy self on the true cause of thy unquietness think of destroying and not of gaining me the last is impossible and the other is very easie for thee It is not because if my tears could move thee I can yet assure thee that hate should have a place in my soul For know my Lord that even Justiniano from whom thou wilt take away both his honor his life and my person which is as dear to him as both the other yet cannot hate thee I have seen it in his eyes I have known it by his discourse he complains of fortune he accuses that which thy Highness calls beauty in me he names that weakness which another would name injustice in fine my Lord being ready to dye innocently by thy directions and command yet am I well assured that he will dye without hatred and that even in dying he will make vows to obtain of Heaven an advantageous change for thee Judg after this whether thou oughtest to refuse me the grace that I may dye and that he may be saved since I am guilty and he is innocent My Lord said Justiniano interrupting her harken not to the vertuous Isabella but to admire the greatness of her courage and suffer not thy self to be perswaded to that which she desires of thee I will not stand to examine whether I am culpable or whether I am not since to be hated of thee is to be so but my Lord I will onely tell thee that if the sentence of my death shall be pronounced by thy mouth I will not murmur at it I confess my weakness to thee my Lord I cannot yet believe but that all that which I have seen since my return is an inchantment and not a truth For how can it be imagined that great Soliman who hath loved me so tenderly and given me so glorious marks thereof can be carryed at this present to such unjust designs That with the same hand wherewith he broke my chains and put the reyns of his Empire into mine he can put about my neck the string which is to strangle me Doth thy Highness no longer remember the thoughts which thou hadst at such time as seeing me ready to enter into the grave rather then displease thee with craving my liberty of thee thou resolvedst to have the incomparable Isabella be brought away by force Was it then my Lord out of a design to ravish her from me to persecute her to blemish thy glory and to take away my life in having unjust thoughts for her Think not my Lord of the services I have done thee but of those which I purposed to do thee yet think not of them my Lord for to pardon me but think of them to save Isabella Restore her to her liberty make not me the cause of her undoing send her back into her Country and after that put me to death here But grant me at leastwise the grace to pronounce my sentence unto me for I confess to thee once more that I doubt whether it be possible that thou shouldst be the same Soliman which hath so dearly loved me It is in vain for you to desire said Isabella that we should be separated that thought is unjust and does wrong to our affection it is a motion whereof I repent me and whereof you ought to repent you Beg then of Soliman that we may dye or that we may live together for provided he will grant us this I will attend his sentence without grief and without unquietness You shall live said Soliman then to her discovering his face which he had all bathed with tears you shall live generous Princess Ibrahim's vertue hath surmounted me Approach said he unto him and if it be so that thou dost not hate me still beliâ—ve for a certain that the good-will which I have born thee is recovering its place in my Soul Repentance which was a motion unknown to me chases the love of Isabella from it therein to re-establish my friendship to Ibrahim I feel it coming my Reason re-assumes its use I see my injustice and my violence with confusion I see the vertue of Isabella and no longer see her beauty she strikes me with admiration and no longer strikes me with love I wish I could imitate her generosity and no longer desire the possession of her In fine said he to Ibrahim know that of all the marks of affection that which thou receivest from me at this present is without doubt the greatest and to give no bounds to it and to make thee see that knowing my fault I will punish it and to keep my self from falling into it a second time I do not onely give thee thy life which I would have unjustly taken from thee but I do also give thee thy liberty as well as that of the incomparable Isabella Oh! my Lord cryed Ibrahim I hear the voyce of Soliman they which spake to me from him have betrayed his true thoughts No continued Ibrahim let us speak no more of this doleful adventure but as of a fable and without thâ—nking of that which is past suffer me onely to give thee thanks for thy clemency As for me added Isabella who eternally remembers benefits and very easily forgets injuries if it be so that great Soliman hath vanquished himself I promise thy Highness to make vows as long as I live for thy glory Doubt not of that which I say replyed Soliman and the better to assure you thereof I permit you said he unto her with a voyce interrupted with
much ado to execute it for whereas Andrea Doria Prince of Melphi was powerfull with the Emperor Charles he did me the honour to make me known unto him and promised me to write unto my father for to get him to be pleased with my design the care that he took thereof was not in vain for as soon as he was advertised of it being good and generous he furnished me with means to perform that voyage with magnificence I will not tell thee the lamentable success of that War because the tempest which shipwrackt our Army was not of so small importance but that it may be imprinted in thy memory the loss of tvvo hundred vessels and above fifteen thousand men that were all swallowed up of the waves or dashed in peeces against the Rocks was so dreadfull an adventure as the only remembrance of it strikes horror into me At length my Lord I escaped that danger after I had an hundred times seen death for which I have been very sorry I know not how often since but whereas we had scarce any leasure to have other enemies to fight with than the winds and the seas I could not resolve to return to Genoua before I had found some opportunity that might make me known whether I was worthy to carry the name of the Justinianoes so that the relicts of our Army parting from Bugia where they had sought for a shelter I would not follow them that were discharged contrarily I imbarqued my self with the Emperor of the Christians who took the way of Majorica and from thence went and landed at Carthagena But hardly was he arrived there when as he saw himself constrained wholly to quit all his designs of Africa for to think of defending himself from the French It would be unjust to abuse thy patience with the recitall of a War which no way servs to my discourse it wil suffice then that I say how I followed him three whole years together except when he was at Genoua whither I would not go for fear of being retained by my parents But at last after I had been a witness of all the brave actions which he performed in Navarre in Germany in Luxemburg against the Duke of Cleves and in Guelderland I received express order from my father to come home to him vvhich I presently did though the Emperor was loth to let me go But my Lord what cause of misfortune hath that return been unto me Ah! how much better had it been for me that I had dyed in the Wars than to have gone to a place where so many grievous adventures were to befall me It was not for that I was not received with joy caressed by my kindred imbraced by my friends with all kindness and if I dare say it regarded by the enemies of our house with more esteem than that inveterate hatred which had been long between us would permit but contrariwise it seemed that the Fates had resolved to let me tast all the content of a quiet and delicious life for to make me feel at once both the privation of the good and also the evill which was prepared for me After I had then bestowed some time in receiving the caresses of our family and that I had answered all the questions which my father made me touching the War and my Voyages after I say I had recounted unto him an hundred times over all the occasions wherein I had been present I desired to make it appear that War and Gallantry were not incompatible and that after having been three years in slaughter and blood I was not returned from thence nor more wild or more uncivill I took care then to inform my self from my friends whether there were not some Assembly shortly to be where I might make comparison betvveen the Beauties of our Ladies and those which I had seen in Spain Thereunto they answered me that I might in a little time content my curiosity for that in three or four dayes the Nuptials of two persons of quality in our City would be solemnized I further demanded of them whether a Niepce of Andrea Doriaes held not still the Empire of beauty Or whether since my departure some other had not bereaved her of that advantage which had been given her with so much justice They told me that she was fair as I had seen her but as for the prime place she had been constrained to yeeld it up to a springing beauty which made all that came near it to dy for love and that they accounted me most happy for not being exposed to that danger But when as I demanded of them by what false consequence they conjectured that I was insensible of love they answered me then that Isabella Grimaldi the only daughter of Rhodolpho was that same admirable person who could not be sufficiently praised and of whom they had spoken unto me and that knowing the terms wherein we stood they beleeved that I was so generous as I would not suffer my self to be vanquished by mine enemy This discourse stirred up such an emotion within me as hath made me to understand since that there is a supreme power which forceth us whether we will or no and without the aid of our knowledge oftentimes to love a person whom common reason forbids us to regard And consider my Lord the extravagancy of my adventure I took a resolution then carefully to seek out all occasions to see the incomparable Isabella and to shew that there was already something extraordinary in this motion I concealed my curiosity and my design from my friends and I made a secret and a mysterie of a matter wherein according to all likelyhood there would never be any and indeed soon after I quitted them and without further delay I went and passed two or three times before the windows of mine enemy It was not because I knew not well enough that I should not see her for it is the custom of Italy as well as of Constantinople that all the windows of the Ladies have an iron-grate before them which permits them to see but suffers them not to be seen unless they will dravv up the grate which is a grace they seldom shevv and vvas not to be expected of me howsoever I went thither because I could do no othervvise The next morning I failed not to be more diligent than I vvas vvont and I did all that possibly I could to incounter her for knowing her mother I was certain that I should have no need to ask her name but whether it were that whilst I vvas in one place she vvas in another or that fortune would defer my captivity I could not meet with her any vvhere hovv carefull soever I vvas to do it I demanded of my reason an hundred times over vvhat aim I had in this design but after I had reflected on this unquietness I condemned my self and resolved patiently to attend the hap of incountring her vvho vvas to content my curiosity I past some
of this Prince is onely a facility whereof love and his gentle nature are the causes and that in fine he hath so many rare qualities as he is not unworthy the esteem of the incomparable Axiamira The affection whâ—ch you bear to this Prince replyed she justifies if not all that he hath done at least-wise all his intentions And though he be in some sort the cause of the greatest part of my miseries yet I promise you O generous Ibrahim to give credit rather to your words then to mine own experience and never to speak of this Prince but as you speak of him your self I will complain of Fortune without murmuring against Soliman and albeit I am resolved to weep all my life-time for the loss of those two illustrious children of his yet will I not accuse any for it but the cruel Roxelana and the perfidious Rustan This conversation lasted yet a good while longer and was spent in civility on either part Felixana in her particular gave Ibrahim a world of thanks and assured him she would render Vlama an exact account of that which he had done for her to the end he might help to acknowledg it in publishing it since they could never acquite themselves of it other-ways Presently thereupon the Grand Visier took his leave of the Princess and told her that she might depart the next morning if her health would permit her As indeed all her equipage was ready accordingly but with such magnificence as if she had been in Persia This excellent Princess had made her self to be so beloved of them that guarded her as they could not see her part without abundance of tears though they very much rejoyced for all that to know that her prison should not be thence forward so strait But amongst the rest Halima was so afflicted at it as she was not to be comforted she gave her two Slaves who had always waited upon her during her imprisonment and Axiamira in recompence thereof gave her a chain of Diamonds which she had still kept in all her misfortunes In the mean time Ibrahim had sent away Vlama's Slave whom he had brought away from the Castle of the seven Towers the day before to advertise his Master to repair to Bitilisa if his strength would permit him there to receive the Princess But in case he should no be able so to do he dispatched away another man with a command from the Grand Signior to all the Governors of those Towns which were upon the road whereby she was to pass to render her as much honor as if she had been the Sultana Queen And the Grand Visier to omit nothing that might be for the Princess of Persia's safety had also commanded five thousand Janizaries to be her convoy whom she found ready attending for her a days march from Constantinople This Princesses journey had as prosperous a success as Ibrahim had wished it should She was received with a great deal of magnificence at all the places where she passed and without having any other commodity then that which the weariness of so long a way might occasion she arrived at Bitilisa whither Vlama though very weak of his hurts and sickness was to come to receive her and to enjoy the sight of his deâ—r Felixana When as he was advertised of their approach to the Town he went forth to meet the Princess with half the Garison the principal inhabitants of Bitilisa received her at the gate and conducted her to Vlama's Palace who out of respect had left it to her so as it seemed that Axiamira was the Governess of Bitilisa rather then that Bitilisa was the priâ—on of Axiamira It is easie to imagine what the joy of these three illustrious persons was at this interview but very hard to express it well especially that which Vlama felt in finding Felixana again living and faithful after he had beleeved her to be dead or inconstant But whil'st Ibrahim asswages other folks sorrows his love renders him every day more unhappy The more he sees Soliman the less appearance he sees of obtaining his liberty which he had resolved to demand of him at his departure from Monaco This Prince ceased not dayly telling him that he had been dead if he had not returned that he was the soul of his Empire that he could not subsist without him that six months absence of his had been the cause of more misfortune to him then he had had in all his life besides and that in fine not being able to live without him he must resolve to dye with him To all these particulars the illustrious Bassa made no other answer then with low submissions but by his sighs and silence he testified sufficiently to the Sultan that he expressed not all his thought and that the sight of his Mistress had rather augmented his love then diminished his unquietness Nevertheless whereas the Grand Signior was desirous to avoyd all occasions that might constrain him to refuse Ibrahim he made as though he did not perceive his sadness but endevored to gain him absolutely and divert him from his melancholy by all the honors by all the liberalities and all the caresses that a great Prince can confer on a great Minister But the more the Bassa saw himself obliged the more affliction he had He received the Sultan's presents as so many new chains which tyed him unto him his favors were torments unto him and though in his heart he loved this Prince dearly yet would he not have been loved of him so certain it is that love is stronger then amity In this deplorable estate lived Ibrahim with an extream constraint he delt no longer in affairs as he was wont he declined the world as much as he could yea the very sight of Soliman became insupportable to him and not daring to desire of him the power to return into Italy out of the opinion he had that he should be denyed he sought no longer for any thing but onely solitude It was not because his grief was the less sensible to him by it but it was because he knew that the liberty to bewail ones self is some kinde of consolation to an afflicted person At length after he had well consulted with himself he resolved to speak plainly to the Grand Signior with an intent if he were refused as he almost made no doubt but he should to abandon himself in such sort to grief as death would be constrained to succor him but he knew not when he took this resolution that he could not execute it for as often as he went to the Serraglio for that purpose Soliman with so much address avoyded all manner of discourse that might carry the Bassa to speak to him of Isabella and always took such care to let him know the necessity he had of his presence as the Grand Visier no longer doubting but that Soliman would deny him if he demanded his liberty of him undertook not to augment his displeasure yet further by