assault for I neuer had doubt of them as full well I haue giuen them since to vuderstand but onely by descending without ladder or fraction with my hand set vppon the window easelie going downe to giue way and place to their furious insolence and threatning cries and for shunning of committing any act of hostilitie in a house of hospitalitie and also because I would not giue any dishonorable suspition to their sister whose honor if I had not had in more recommendation than they who haue brought it in question without leauing the place I had well defended their entrie and haue sent them with their parents like insensible fooles But hauing these two respects I thought better to stake my force and hardines and to giue place to their furie than to fight with mine hostes and giue scandall to their sister And if I had found no impeachment in the court no drop of bloud had béen shed by me in their house But you know O iust Diocles that it is permitted yea and necessarie by the righteous lawe of nature to repulse force by force and violence by violence Wherefore perceiuing my selfe ercluded from all way of flying combat and finding my selfe inuironed with a mightie companie of armed men who had sworue either my death or captiuitie who am free and sonne of free and liberall condition and assailing mee on euerie side without mercie or grace I retired my selfe towards the azile and sacred statues of the Charites and Graces thinking there to finde grace franchise and safetie Wherefore if in defending my bodie some ouer rash persons haue faine vnder my trenching sworde I say that it is not I that haue staine them for I neuer had will thereto and the iust lawe dooth not iudge but voluntarie deedes as for these they themselues like furious wilde Bores haue rashlie come to bee staine and therefore of their owne voluntarie death I pleade my selfe innocent To conclude whereas they charge mee with violence and Rape committed on the person of their sister I answere it is so farre from trueth as contrariwise their sister Noëmia being by the terrible and sauage Centaure rauished and without hope of recouerie from being euer lost I by valiance against violence haue brought her home safe and sounde and so restored her to her brothers Whereby if it were so that I had subtracted her to mee and appropriated her person to my will yet haue I no taken but that which ought to bee mine by good conquest and right of warre for that they lost her with ill keeping and I got here againe from the monsterous Centaure and therefore she should be mine by vniuersall right of people And thus concluding for mine absolution I craue full deliuerance and restitution of mine armes Or otherwise if I be found guiltie of death which shall lesse greeue mee after the death of my most deere Noëmia most instantly I beseech you O Lorde Diocles and all you the assistants that you will cause that murthcring archer to bee sought and found out that so traiterously hath staine the innocent Noëmia and after that you haue condemned him to cruell death as reason and Iustice require to put him into my hands that I may execute and take vengeance vppon him to the ende my soule after her departure out of this bodie may carrie agreeable newes to the spirite of Noëmia in witnes of the constant loue that in her life and after her death I haue borne her And for faithfull proofe of my wordes spoken and alledged in my defence let the domesticall seruants euen vnto the torture bee examined and asked who kept her companie when she was rauished by the Centaure and by mee deliuered out of his handes Likewise let Arcana her familiar chamber maide be examined who to all her deedes and secrets was most priuie The defense of Alector heard and vnderstood which seemed not vnreasonable the thoughts of the whole assistance by close fauor accorded to his absolution and deliuerance But the iust Iudge Diocles who beleeued not easely in simple words by the aduise of the Counsel caused Tharsides and Calestan domesticall seruants in the house of the Gratians to be sent for who had been in the companie and conduct of Noëmia present at her rauishment likewise Arcana her secret damosell was sent for who appearing before the Potentate Diocles were adiured in the name and by the faith which they ought to Soueraigne Ioue to tell trueth of all that they knewe and had seene betwéene Alector and Noëmia with threaten of death if they dissimuled any thing or if they concealed or disguised the truth of the matter as it was These poore seruile persons so adiured began to looke one vpon another without speaking word either of them fearing in himselfe to vtter or conceale the thing whereof they might be coargued by the other vntill Tharsides first tooke and addressed his speach to the Potentate in this manner A Narration of the Rauishment of Noëmia carried away by the sauage Centaure of her recouerie by Alector the beginning of their secret loue in the den and the continnuance thereof till her death CAP. 3. MY Lord Diocles and most iust Potentate in whose presence the most assured tremble for reuerence of thy seuere iudgement which receiueth neither fauor flatery nor lying I protest puerly and entierly to vtter that which I know without conceale or dissimulation There are two moneths alreadie past or there abouts that my Ladie Noëmia deceased whose Soule rest in peace was sent for by my Lady Callirhoa her cousen to her castel of the Greene-head to accompanie passe the time with her certaine daies whiles my Lord Spathas her husband was gone twelue iournies from thence toward an Augur beeing an ancient Hermit of a most straite life and a Diuine man resident about the horned rock to inquire and knowe of this holy man of certaine ordinarie and almost daily praies and slaughters which were done in his lands and woods of persons and beastes either staine rauished or incurably lost without knowing by whome or whether it were a Diuell a sauage beast or a man that committed these outrages For the bodies of those who were found staine were stroken and pierced with arrowes headed with the venemous teeth of Dragons or else marked and striken with round blowes without wound which gaue suspition that they were shot or stroken downe by the hand of a man But when any man followed them who were rauished there could none other trace be founde but the footing of a horse so soone vanished into the thicknesse of the wood that those who pursewed them oftentimes found themselues lost And for that cause my Lord Spathas was gone towards this diuine Augur to vnderstand and heare some certaine aduice of him In the meane while my Ladie Noëmia sent for by her Cousen Callirhoa with the leaue of her Parents and three brethren who had the charge and soueraigne recommendation of her after the death
out of the sepulcher whereupon with the aide of his Page Calyph he laid the stone returned to his lodging accompting these things to his man who was priuie to all his dealings especially of this his loue toward the deceased Thanais and with him consulted whether he shuld obay the Morisquine spirite and returne againe thether within thrée wéekes or no which thing after some deliberation taken was concluded And the two and twentieth daye after at the same nightly houre they came to the place and remooued the stone from the monument whereinto Mammon entred and by the variable shining of a blew sulphurian fire which sparkled betwéene the heads of the dead bodies he might perceiue an Infant newly borne laid at the féete of Thanais vppon the ende of the winding shéete betwéene two women of terrible aspect of diuers formes for the one had a visage pleasant and laughing but blistered with diuers colours like the worke of a rich iewell enameled and yet neuerthelesse delectable to behold and she like a Fatallesse as she was predestinated the child in this sort Thou childe Desalethes for so thou shalt be named in beeing borne without terme nourished without milke I foretell thée that thou shalt be the greatest liar of this world a simuler and dissembler in words and déedes in al false workes and speaches vnder apparaunce and colour of amiable veritie and cleane contrarie in couert thought to that which thou shalt speake in open words euen as thy externall members are faire and thy interuall foule and filthie As in truth this childe named Desalethes was his face neck hands and all that outwardly appeared being verie white faire gracious to the eye pleasant and alluring holding the forme and beautie of the mother but the rest of his bodie and members which were hidden were swart and filthie according to the deformitie and obscuritie of his father After that this first Fatallesse had thus sinisterly presaged vppon this byformed Brat the second Fatallesse who was of visage more sad seuere and of colour pale but white and cleanly thus propounded his destime Like as you my sister Calendre haue cast your sort vpon this childe that he shall liue so long as hee continueth in his lying euen so I doo destine him that he shall die for telling the truth and that so soone as hee shall haue spoken it So be it Sister Clarence quoth Calendre in giuing their hands right and left the one to the other and so comoyned they laid them vppon the head of the childe who at that instant arose as it were of the age of fourtéen yeares furiously-crying Mammon thou honest man thou shalt leaue me here rather buried than borne No no my deare sonne quoth Mammon that will I not truly and therewith imbraced him and the two Fairesses sodainely vanished away with the sulphurian fire which turned to a most stinking smoke and at that verie instant issued out of the bodie of the Moore the horrible voyce of a wicked spirite thundring out these words That which is thine take thou away And in this place no longer stay At this commaundement Mammon remembring wel what he had heard and vnderstood of the Destinies of his Sonne Desalethes tooke him by the hand and went out of the Monument together whereon by the help of Calyph they laid the stone againe Which was no sooner laid but a thunder clap and lightning fell from Heauen vppon the plate of Porphirie with the statues of blacke Marble of Alabaster and Ieate in figure of a blacke Knight a yong Mare and of a Mowle euen as we haue now séene them And foorthwith were found engrauen these two last verses in bloudie letters beneath the verses which the two Brothers of Thanais had first set vp written simply in olde blacke letters which two verses last engraued as it is shought with the diuels clawe as also the statues fallen out of the aier are without either plaister or souldring so firmely affixed to the Porphirie that it is impossible to remooue them All thost who afterwards saw and read them haue remained meruailously astonished and could not coniecture nor vnderstand what they should signifie vntil such time as the whole matter was discouered by Calyph the Page of Mammon and that by this aduenture Of the first institution of Desalethes vnder Doctour Pseudomanthanon of the artes which he insigned him and how his disciple profited what paiment he gaue his Master and in what manner he practised his science CAP. 10. MAmmon and his sonne Desalethes being come out of the sepulcher the father coueted the naked childe with his cloake so tooke their way homeward with Calyph who followed them giuing care to their talke amongst the which Mammon by the way asked his sonne Desalethes if hee had seene the two fatal sisters Calandre and Clarence and vnderstood their presages vpon him Desalethes verie simplie answered no. But alreadie hee lied according to his naturall propertie For he both saw the two Sisters and vnderstood their talke yea vetter than Mammon as one that was betweene them The father hearing his young sonne answere so simply with a white visage faire sweete and amiable and esteeming that he said truth which was nothing lesse reckoned to him the presages that he should not die but for telling the truth whose contrarie is lying and therefore for the conseruation of his durable life like a most wicked man as hee was hee exhorted him to set all faith and truth aside and to settle himselfe continually to speake and practise lyings fraudes and disloyal insidelitie whereto the simple babe answered hee knewe not how to lie neither could he doo it But therein he lied so egregiously and filthily that the aire therewith was infected as if it had been with the breath of a Basilisque for he could no more lie than the Basilisque kill the Wolfe deuoure the water drowne and the fire burne whose primitiue beginnings were for that intent In such sort that when he spake most simply he then most of all lied Yet his father being deceiued in his false dissembling simplicitie beleeued him and being come to his lodging incontinentlie he apparelled him in braue and sumptuous aray which he could doo verie well being one of the richest in the Citie of Orbe and decked him in cloathes of golde siluer and and silke of all kind of colours except white and red but specially of changeable colours and of all seuerall sorts of silkes mettalls and cloathes of tissue embroderie and others and of all the diuers cuts and variable fashions which could newly be found throughout al the Nations of the world Desalethes thus apparelled with such rich and braue habites and for euerie day a new change which couered his blacke laydnesse and set out the faire and white parts of his visage necke breast and hands hee seemed so faire a childe so pleasant and gracious to all that euer ie one tooke of him great pleasure Wherefore
agast babled against him certaine barbarous and sauage speeches of â—urious threatning and gaue him such a waightie blowe with his Club that made Alector who receiued it vppon his shield to bowe his knee but hastily getting vp againe hee restored it him so fiercely with a blowe of his sword so rudely set vpon his humaine haâ—…h which was his horsely shoulder that hee discouered his sinewes with great dolor and effusion of bloud wherewith the monster cast foorth a crie so hidious that all the wood rang of it and the wilde beasts for feare ran to hide themselues and after that lift vp his massie Club and let driue a lurdie blow sufficient to fell an Elephant But Alector both light and nimble easilie shunned his great stroake which fell in vaine and so rudely that the Centaure therewithall had his arme and hand astonned so as with great paine could hee lift vp his massie Club any more The which Alector perceiuing with his good sworde cut off one of his hands hard by the ioynt which fell to the ground with his massie Club which cauled the Centaure to cast foorth a more horrible crie than before and seeing himselfe disarmed and dismembred with the feare which hee had of the shining sworde of Alector turned his hinder horsely parts yerking out such strokes that the aire seemed to sparkle with fire But the valiant Esquire prompt and quick to turne himselfe shunning alwaies the blowes or else bearing off with his shield the furious yerkes of his heeles stroke him ouerthwart in his yerkings with such a cutting blowe that notwithstanding the hardnes of his skin and bruskled haires he cut a sunder the sinewes of his leggs euen to the discouerie of his bones which as yet were whole Which the Centaure dolefullie feeling turned againe his face and with great ire lept vpon Alector thinking to haue beaten him downe with his forefeete But the gentle Squire seeing so faire a marke forgat not himselfe but with a thrust into his horsely breast pierced vnto his humaine heart And so this byformed monster beeing stroken to death fell downe to the earth with all his foure feete tumbling in his black bloud and giuing vp his last crie not altogether in humaine voice nor altogether in horsly gneyng but mixed with both like a man gnaying or like a horse brutally speaking vntill such time as hee was cleane dead and at that instant the Heauens began so to powre with Lightning Thunder and great Raines which as I thinke were the Diuels carying awaie the soule of this monster that necessitie constrained my Ladie Noëmia and mee at the perswasion and assurance of Alector to retire our selues into the hollow of the Rock which was the habitation of the Centaure where we entred in not without great feare agast at the merueilous combat and of the hardines and prowesse of the valiant Squire who comforted and assured vs right humainely And there within we found much Venison and diuers fruites of the wood which wee vsed that night for the present necessitie And whiles they were eating my Ladie Noëmia in whose heart loue had alreadie taken place by regarde and admiration of the beautic hardines prowesse and graciousnes of this yong Esquire whome shee beheld with great admiration by the light of a most meruailous scabberd of his sworde which hee caried so cleere in the night and in an obscure place that it gaue so much light as a flaming brand demaunded him what good aduenture had brought him so happelie for hir deliuerance My faire Ladie saide Alector who on his part was no lesse attaint with the grace and beautie of Noëmia than shee of his I knowe not well by what way I am come hether more to my happines than your owne but this I am certaine that either by some Hyperborian winde or spirite I haue been since one moneth past rauished vpon the Septentrionall Seas from the top of the wings of Durat Hippopotame the great swimming and flying horse of my Father Franck-Gall and carried by him ouer Lands and Seas by many iournies to the great discomfort and sorrowe of my said Father whome I knowe searcheth mee throughout the Worlde vntill at length this windie spirite reposed mee in a faire Garden of a Castle not farre from hence where a young Damosell like you but not so faire and somewhat more aged found me and vnderstanding my name mounted mee on horseback vppon that condition that I should followe you virto this wood and giue you aide if you needed the same For an olde Witch the same morning had told her that if you were not recouered by Alector you would be vtterly lost And that the first man which shee found called bv my name shee should without delay send after you Now thus it is that I was no sooner reposed in the Garden but the Spirite who had carried mee about so farre at his departure seemed to say to mee after a whispering manner in my left eare entring into my braines these words following Alector rise and goe to saue the snowie Hinde From monsters hands then trudge Franck-Gall thy sire to find Who doth thee seck on lofty seas ytost with many a wind And thereupon entered into the Garden a right godly Ladie faire yong and of great grace but notwithstanding sorrowfull and lamenting her owne Cousen Noëmia lately departed from the Castle of Greene-head for so was the place named froÌ„ whence I came for the words which the old witch had told her This yong dame thinking her selfe to be alone and vnproudied finding me in the garden which was closed on euerie side with high walles beyond the compasse of a ladder was not a little abashed but after assuring her selfe demanded of me who had let me in What I was And what I would haue And I answered I could not tell Alector a horse She hearing this name of Alector without demanding me other thing led me into the Esquurie gaue me leaue to choose the horse which pleased me best vpon the foresaid conditions The which most agreeably accepted I chose this faire apple grey which you see now had he because of the tempest put his horse vnder couert amongst the trées which Noëmia and I incontinently knewe to bee the horse of my Lord Spathas And wee vnderstoode that shee who sent him after vs was my Lady Callirhoa of the castle of Greene-head Continuing than his purpose I chose quoth hee this faire apple grey who presently was sadled and bridled for mee and whiles that hee was making readie the Ladie of the Castle aduertised mee of a certaine monster Thus being mounted with leaue taken of the Ladie I promised to accomplish her commaundement And vpon this horse euer since from that place for my former iournies I could neiter marke norknow no more than the waie which the bird maketh in the aire the serpent on the ground or the ship on the sea yea on this horse haue I been brought hether without finding any man
vp the visor giuing it all to his page who followed him being a yong and lustie man called Oplophor And so remained Franc-Gall onely in his single corslet great and straight his bodie being of a faire and vpright stature exceeding the common forme of men and lifting vp a head alreadie halfe balde what with age and bearing of his helmet his haires white and his heard siluered long wreathed like the streames of a swift brooke his visage faire and being open full of redoubtable serenitie with a gracious dignitie admirable to all the beholders chieflie to the olde Archier who seeing him openly esteemed in his heart neuer among mortall men to haue séene a more faire creapure sauing that the serenctie of his face was somewhat troubled with a cloud of inward griefe yéelding foorth grose teares which distilled downe his white beard which thing the Archier apperceiuing said vnto him after this manner Noble Lord for so thy apparaunce doth declare leaue I beséech thee these lamentations to women and children and to soft and effeminated men reckon constantly to vs thine aduentures for vnto a man of such a personage as I see thou art armour is more séemely than teares Thou saist truth quoth Franc-Gall and speakest like a wise man and of a high affaire and for that cause will I suppresse my passions and in proceeding on our way accompt vnto thée mine actions and therefore giue eare That will I doo quoth the olde Archier sauing vnder thy correction I will now and then make some short and interlocutorious demaunds vpon such points wherein I shall perceiue a more plainer intelligence to be better than a simple narration Right willinglie quoth Franc-Gall for by that meanes I shall haue leasure to breath in my going and speaking and our talke shall be more gracious being altred than continued and the matter better remembred and vnderstood And therefore I pray thée feare not to enteriect incidences and breake my talke where thou shalt sée thy selfe not fully satisfied And now behold I begin my historie A narration of the ancient Tower of the three fatall Sisters and of their olde Mother Lady Anange CAP. 7. THere is in the World a certaine long way 〈◊〉 and little frequented by reason of the sharpe blinde and hard keeping thereof the which way notwithstanding leadeth to the most ancient Temple of the Souereigne And by which the renowned King Perseforest tooke 〈◊〉 of the architecture of that pâ—…relesse Temple dedicated to soueraigne Iehouah which he erected and edificated in the diabolicall forest of Darmant to these and extermine the wicked spirites who at that time kept their habitation in those solitarie forests and to giue addresse to wandring Knights who in those pathlesse woods â—pentsearching straunge aduentures At the â—…ie of which way leading towards the foresaid soueraigne Temple was a most ancient round Tower builded before the memorie of man whose foundations were 〈◊〉 deepely hidden euen vnto the bottomlesse pitts and there under a most horrible Barathre or prison of accursed and wicked creatures But the top thereof was so highly eleuated that it seemed to exceed the heauens and whereunto no earthly eye were it euer so sharp could euer attaine onely three faire ample stages might be perceiued garnished with great and mightie porches engrauen and figured with infinite images and shadowed with diuers and sundrie colours mettalls and precious stones of exceeding splendor and for the rest vnprohibited to all people with open gates cleere windowes Within these three Stages were dwelling three Fates Sisters germaines and daughters to a high puissant and auncient Ladie called Anange resident as it is said and helde for certaine on the highest top of that Tower 〈…〉 her in the first Stage her worâ—… her 〈◊〉 and first fatall Sister called Cleronome was 〈◊〉 〈…〉 Stage another fatal Sister 〈◊〉 Zodore 〈…〉 and in the last and lowest 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 fatall Sister who had to her proper name Termame 〈◊〉 Thus were these three fatall Sisters germaines 〈…〉 resident with their traine in the three paâ—…s 〈◊〉 â—…ent Tower so well contriued and neere together that â—…selie they might enter the one into the other but 〈◊〉 all ruled their ancient mother Anange Vppon this point the olde Archier began to replie in this sort It is a common prouerbe quoth he that a good lier must haue a good memorie least by forgetting his first talke he contrarie himselfe in his last Wherefore 〈…〉 take heede that in the beginning of thy processe thâ—… be not found by thy forgetfulnesse a liar which 〈…〉 I can hardly beare withall Remember 〈…〉 thou toldest me that the foundations of the Tower â—…of thou speakest are so lowe as the obscure depths where the eye of mortall man neuer penetrateth and that the top thereof by his immensall height doth 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of our humaine sight how then commeth it to passe that the depth of this Tower and the things there 〈◊〉 are knowen amongst men and how is it euident that on the top thereof the auncient Lady whom thâ—… callest Anange mother to the three sisters inhabiting in the foresaid three palaces is there resident seeing thou hast said the excellâ—…ude of the Tower is not to bee comprehended with the eye of man whereby it feemeth that either thou doost gesse therof by imagination or els that thou knowest it by reuealation Therein thou failest not quoth Franc-Gall for partly I haue knowen it by cleare and true reuealation by a Calodaimon verie familiar with me who assisteth me in al things and oftentimes rauisheth my spirit out of my bodie carrying it into farre and strange places and showing me merueilous things which no man can tel vnles he had been there present whereof being returned againe to my selfe I haue good remembrance and I haue reported that which afterwards hath been found veritable And thereby it happened that one day being at the foote of this Tower contemplating the meruailous workmanship thereof and reasoning with my selfe that according to the exceeding height of it belonged necessarily a foundation of terrible depth whiles I was ouercome with this consideration beholde from a part of Heauen came flying towards me a white feathered Bird with her beake legs so red as faire corall her eyes of the colour of fire flaming in shew like two precious carbuncles who in kissing wise came and put her beake into my mouth wherewith by an occult vertue she drew my spirite vnto her leauing my bodie in the mean time gasping and panting much like to one in a traunce And so hauing eleuated my spirite vnto the lower Region of the aier not by flight vpwards but as it were turning going round about all the climates of the world like those who by often winding clime the rude and high mountaines vntill it was eleuate right towards the North ouer an Island called Ireland where sodainly this Bird left mee and let mee fall shooting like a tempest into this Isle in a great hole
Pilgrimes which would ascend vp to the souereigne Temple whereunto the waye was verie difficile by reason of the obscure pathes verie hard to be kept without conduct and light going before For which cause these thrée fatall Sisters were there constituted in that office to furnish the Pilgrimes trauellers with cierges aswell to lighten them in the waye wherein they are to walke as also to offer their oblations to God in the souereigne Temple And they gaue and distributed them not after one fashion but after diuers sorts euen as by fortune or rather by secret ordinance they came to their hands some being great and long some lesse and others verie small The first fatall Sister resident in the inferior Stage gaue to euerie one his cierge the second lightened them and the third finally put them out either before or after they were offered vp Now these fatall cierges were like the Brand of Meleager and in them consisted the life and death of those who receiued them and they carried them with such determination that so long as they burned and gaue light the person carrying them liued and incontinentlie so soone as by the office of Termaine they were put out at the same instant ended the corporall life of those who carried them For by the ordinance of Anange it was necessarie that once they should bee extinguished either by default or violence to the end that in offering them their sauour might ascend to God who was worshipped in the ancient Temple to be receiued or reiected good or euill according to the matter whereof they were made and according as they had béen vsed and handled honestly and purely or foiled broken or polluted filthelie and villainouslie And none or verie few were offered at the sacrifice during their liuely light but necessarily they must be by the three fatall Sisters extinguished either in default of matter or violent accident And yet neuertheles after they wer once lightened they remained in the arbitriall conduct enterteinment gouernment of those who had them in their keping with expresse defence of putting them out but constantly and clearly to carrie them vntill such time as Termaine had put her hand thereto Notwithstanding some either by enuious disdaine desperation or other euill affection would put them out before the time and spitefully cast them to the ground together with their bodies dying others would cut breake them in péeces of despite Some thinking to make them burne more clearely than their substance and wyke would permit did trouble snofe reuerse trauerse and blowe them in such sort that in a while they cōsumed them so as they endured but a short space Some others going about to stuffe annoynt grease them with olde oyles and other fat liquours thinking to make them last longer and adioyne to their first making being a thing impossible haue clean contrarie to their opinion euflamed more aboundantly and consumed more hastely rendring moreouer a smoke of most filthie sauor but contrariwise others there were who held and carried their faire cierges in a constant rightnes highly eleuated whereby they rendred light more apparant longer shining aswell to themselues as to those who went before and folowed them Others also adioyned thereunto Balme Myrrhe incense other aromaticall gummes seruing not onely to their shining but also causing them to leaue a most good and gracious smell after their putting out and sacred offering in the Temple where by the Sacrist Termaine they were extinguished and gathered together Howbeit all of them came not to the terme of receiuing in the end of their peregrination and offring of their cierges by the third fatall Sister Termaine but the greatest part failed by the way either by reason that the matter of the light was of so small durance as being of pitch rosell or terpentine or for being too little or ouer small of substance or by reason their wyke ouer grose in respect of the waxe or for that oftentimes they were violently put out by casualties hapning by the way specially by the blustering of windes by hurts and embushments of euill encountrie by raynes waters tempests other like accidents which put out the lights and so consequently kill those who carrie them because they were fatalized as hath béen showed before whereby it commeth to passe that the greatest part of the Pilgrimes perish by the way and neuer arriue at the third station of the fatall Sister Termaine noryet to the Temple to offer and present the sanour of their cierges Thus were these thrée sisters resident in thrée lodgings within this great Tower furnishing to the Pilgrimes the cierges of their conduct way and life which the first and highest presented them the second and lower lightened and the third and last put out and offered in the Temple But as the Poet diuinely singeth By fatall sort all things doo fall to ruine and decay From ill to worse and at the last consume weare away Euen so commonly it falleth out that the first munistcences are larger and more liberall than those which followe as all naturall things are best at the first So commeth it to passe that the cierges which haue béen first presented haue béen fairer longer and greater better fashioned and of better waxe and so consequently of longer indurance cléerer light Likewise the first men who receiued them were found more greater stronger like Giants as they were to carrie and eleuate them yea and more wise and apt to conduct and mainetaine them as those who knewe well that their life and death depended thereupon which they would neither dispraise despite nor haue in sorrowe but estéemed honoured and kept them right dearlie as the gift and grant of the great King of all kings in whose honour they would render it againe to him in his Temple in offer of their last voyage and to the termination of the last fatall Sister Termaine to whom all in a manner happely arriued without anie mal-encounter trouble or hurt Of the Macrobians their vertue and great age of the long lift of Franc-Gal and causes thereof CAP. 13. BUt amongst all those great light bearers the most prudent most aduised of spirite and the most strong and durable of bodie haue shewed themselues to be the blood of the Macrobians who were children of a good sage rich and noble laborer called Kamat and of a vertuous and excellent Lady and singular good Huswife called Madame Sophroisne who accompanied not themselues with rascals but on the contrarie estéemed it great honour and noblesse to employ bodie members and spirite to all honest and fruitefull labor and excerior exercise of the bodie and interior and temperate moderation of the minde And thereby haue sprung of their bloods most mightie Kings Princes and valiant Knights Cyrus the most renowmed King of Persia from them descended and tooke therein great glorie Agathocles King of Sicilia thereof vaunted The good Romaine Consull Marcus Curius thereby held himselfe honoured
and the worthie Knight Serran thereof made his brauados the rich King Hugon labouring in his golden chariot thereby kept amagnificall estate to showe that he was extract of so high and generous a race as that of the noble Lord Kamat and the vertuous Ladie Sophroisne whose successors were called Macrobians men engendred of good lawfull and shamefast blood vnder good consteflation well and temperately nourished with the first and best fruites of their most wholsome and fertile Region scituate in the high Aethiopia betwéene the East and the South vnder the most temperate Climate of Meroë abounding in all goodnesse in swéete and wholesome waters and in a most pure and beautifull aier like a continuall Spring people of a most faire forme of bodie of members strong and boisterous of good and liberall spirite louing and exercising iustice equitie and liberalitie reuerently honouring age their fathers mothers parents and betters their auncitors and God aboue al who is auncienter than all things and elder than time it selfe Such were the Macrobians to whom by fortune or rather by prouidence happened the first best and most durable cierges which they carrying keeping and gouerning wisely liued two three and foure times so long as other men And to me which am of their race befel one deliuered me by Cleronome long straight well waxed and tempered durable and of cleare light Where is it then quoth the Archier hast thou offered it vp alreadie or hath it failed or gone out by the way No no quoth Franc-Gall for if it were our I should then bée dead Shewe it me then quoth the Archier that I might sée the fashion thereof Then Franc-Gall smiling said vnto him thus show me also thine that Cleronome gaue thée in the beginning of thy Pilgrimage Mine quoth hee I haue none that I knowe of for I am no Pilgrime neither haue I anie remembrance that euer any cierge was giuen me Neither hast thou remembrance quoth Franc-Gal of thy first shirt which neuerthelesse hath béen deliuered to thee so likewise hath thy vitall light been giuen to thée as mine hath béen to me but they are vnuisible to our corporall eyes for euerie oue carrieth them not vppon him but within himselfe Of whose flame we féele the naturall heate which faileth when they be extinguished by their light we sée outwardly and vnderstand inwardly how we ought to guide them in our peregrination wherein we be Pilgrimes from our youth and by diuers wayes aduentures and dangers doo bend our course toward the soueraigne Temple where wee are promised rest as if it were to the retourne of our proper and paternall house How quoth the Archier I had thought we had not had other light than the dayly Sunne the Moone and nightly starres and the burning fire to conduct vs. Thou art not sufficiently aduised for so good an Archier quoth Franc-Gal for when this light which in the beginning is giuen vs by Cleronome for our conduct commeth once to be put out then wee sée and knowe nothing albeit wee haue our eyes open and that the Sunne the Moone the Starres and the cléere light of candles and torches shine vppon vs. Wherefore thou maist well vnderstand that neither our light which we vse in our pilgrimage nor the cierge of our sight life and way which was giuen vnto vs by the first Fatall Sister Cleronome consisteth of those externall lights I vnderstand well nowe quoth the Archier oh how thou hast lightened the eyes of my vnderstanding and illuminated my light with the clearnesse of thine Well at this instant begin I to knowe my selfe and thy mystirall secret talke which is verie profitable and delectable vnto me wherefore I pray thée if it shall not be ouer tedious vnto thée to goe forward vnto the ende thereof Marke well then quoth Franc-Gall After that I had receiued of Cleronome this faire cierge great streight full of good matter well made and garnished with manie swéet and flagrant sauours and that the second fatall Sister named Zodore had lightened it with a cléere and liuely fire I carried it high and straight without doing it force or iniurie in such sort that it hath alreadie lasted and conducted me 900. yeares and more continually flaming and in most illustrious manner shining aswell before as behinde me round about me below me and aboue me yea euen vnto the heauens By the cleare light whereof I haue walked by the benefit of the long daies yeres and worlds wherein I haue liued I haue séene a farre off the gouernance of things both before and behinde me although I sée not the one so well as the other because I must tourne my head a tene side to beholde them Likewise I haue beholden the circumstances aswel on the right side as on the left together with the things which haue falne vnder my féete and the imminent perils which haue hong ouer my head from the high point of my Saturnian Planet whereunder I was borne And all this by length of the time haue I seene through the resplendaunt brightnesse of my cierge by the which I haue viewde the causes of things and the consequences and progresse of of the same and as I was not ignorant of the antecedents so compared I the similitudes adioyning to the present the things to come so that thereby I haue foreseene the whole course of my Peregrination which hethertoo hath been long durable and diuers through strange countryes and regions of the East West North and South not without suffering of manie labours trauels fortunes and strange aduentures Of the preuision of the Cataclysme of Durat Hippopotame the sea horse whereon Franc-Gal surmounted the waters whereby he was sirnamed Cocke and of his encountrie with Priscaraxe a my-serpentlike woman CAP. 14. FOr one day eleuating my cierge towards Heauen I perceiued an exorbitation of the eight Sphere from the West vnto the East contrariwise from the East vnto the West approching and drawing together aboue the center of Aries and Libra not in stretching wise of the right course in length but of exorbitant moueing in height and bredth by equation approching and drawing together making two small circles of exorbitance wherby after long progression of time this exorbitant mouing was come to the point of the small circle the Zenith being regarded by the Signe of Pisces and Aquarius of the Planets of Orion and Hyades then knewe I well by proofe that the Cataclysme of inundation should be shortly Wherefore for the auoyding of all perills that might happen I tooke in the great riuer of Nylus in Aegypt a yong Hippopotame that is a watrie horse hauing head and bodie like a horse but without comparison farre exceeding in greatnes strength and belly other terrestrial horses hauing legs accordingly sauing that the feete finished in large and flat cartilages in the fashion of a goose foote for swimming the better neither had he onely foure feete like a terrestriall horse but manie and a great