since that the vail of absence is altogether necessary to a Father that knows his daughter is sacrificed innocently I say innocently Sir and in this word I beseech you to take part of the only consolation that accompanies me in the loss of my life It is now time to speak truth or never seeing I am going before the tribunal of him that will condemn all those that prefer falshood before truth and who will not acknowledge for legitimate children those that do not fix their eys upon the light of truth God under whose providence run all the moments of this mortal life permitting that at this present my innocence shall appear guilty yet will make known in another season this imaginary guilt to be apparently innocent And I conjure you by the agonies of any death to prolong your life untill that happy time by which the honor of your house that appears now to suffer some stain shall flourish more then ever I must confess that after the death of my husband from whence all my calamities have drawn their original nothing hath so much afflicted me as the pain I have seen you suffer for my occasion For since death had made me widow of the most noble Alliance I could have hoped for in the world I intended to have died to the world and to all the pomps thereof and to have confin'd my self to a Cloister there to have ended my dayes But since it hath pleased the divine wisdom to dispose otherwise be it that I live or die so I appertain to him for ever I pass not be it for ignominie or for reputation so I attain unto the celestial glory it is indifferent to me I believe now that Andronico is innocent of the crime which I accused him of more by suspition then any firm ground I had and it may be God permitted I should be wrapped in the same condemnation to punish my disloyalty thaâ— broke the right of a friendship as holy as it was vertuous for I desire not heaven to pardon me if even there passed between us other but that was worthy and honest or if in the writing that my facility drew from my hand I ever thought to prejudice Philippin in his honour or life The secret judgments of God are marvellous which sounds the depths of all secrets and by the greatness and majesty of him you will know in the end how the murder was done for God is too just to let this deed go unpunished For my self I repent me to have accused Andronico of whom I beseech you to love the memory as mine own and not to bear any hatred against his parents I am as much and more cause of his death then he of mine We have demanded pardon one of the other and pray all the world to pardon us We remit our honour as out lives into the hands of God sacrificing both to his greatest glory I beseech you Sir to implore his misericordia on our souls by your prayers and to â—ake care of little Dalimene since blood and nature require it of your fatherly goodness Farewel my dear Father Oh refuse not your holy benediction to this miserable creature that demands it at the last minute of her death being she is innocent of the cause of her condemnation which for the love of God she goes freely to suffer With the same hand and heart she drew these other lines for Sophie MADAM MUst my deplorable misfortunes bring death into the breast of her that gave me life Must I like a Viper open the bosom of her that gave me my being And must fortune insatiable of my miseries direct the stroke of my trespasses on the body of her that is as innocent of my faults as I am of that which causes my death by a secret judgment of God which I adore although ignorant of Madam the sharp cutting sword that is to sever my head from my body and my body from my soul will not be so sensible to me as the feeling of the grief that hath laid you in your bed for the sorrow of my loss and shame The compassion I have of your heart is more incomparably grievous then the pains I am to suffer If I might die often to deliver you from the torments and pains wherein your own goodness throws you if I should measure the grief you have to lose me by the dear affections you have alwais shewed me I see nothing so extreme as your unconsolable displeasures For knowing how tenderly you have brought up this wretched creature and how highly you esteem your honour I know not how to express nor conceive with what air you can support the loss of both Just Heaven which permittest crimes and hindrest them if thou sufferest that I die without being able to justifie my self of these two false infamies Adultery and cruel murder of my husband at least yet Thou that declarest things that are most dark make for the consolation of my dear mother that from the midst of my ashes may arise the light of my innocence without suffering that truth should not only be detained prisoner by injustice but also stifled with falshood Madam I desire not you should take pitty of my suffering but to cast your eys on my innocence I have no other justification then my protestations which I make in a point where falshood trains after it an eternal ruine You will not be so cruel and severe to me as my Judges And although an Adulteress and a Murderer cannot be purged by oaths yet I think you have had so long knowledge of my soul by my carriage to believe me in this truth which I profess with a dying voice I die innocent of the crime that is imposed on me as God shall love and save me Live Madam even till that day that he makes it appear in evidence from the midst of the clouds that hinder this clearness I have no more to add but to demand your motherly blessing which I ask with joyned hands for the last favour from you and ask it by your intrails that bore me and by the mercies of that good God in whom I put all my hopes Farewell my dearest Mother And remember in your prayers this poor Elise that will have no period to her trespass of more sweet imagination then the memory of Sophie as of the best mother in the world Time with an insensible course advanced with great paces the hour of execution of this Innocencie guilty Our Lovers are brought to the place with as much joy and gladness as if it had been to their wedding When they appeared on the bloody Theatre they were beheld with many eyes yet very different For many had compassion of their miseries by a natural feeling that touches the hardest hearts Others had them in horror not so much for their faults for to sin is a thing humane but because they published so loud their innocence this displeased them like Bats to whom light is unpleasing
pain yields to this advice to And having acquainted an antient Servant whom they trusted stout of his hands whom we will call Râ—boaldo he 's ready to assist Herman in this enterprise They come to the town well mounted with arms necessary to execute it and being hid in the day not going out but by night hoping to entrap Philippin returning from some company the occasion of this Wedding-supper seems fit to bâ—ing to pass their vengeance Whilst Philippin and Andronico are in feasting dancing mirth and joy with pleasant jests and gallantries their looks are always at'on'side not speaking but with eyes whose sparkles in stead of love threaten death yet do they contain themselves to maintain their promise Not but that they said what they pleased for in those corners separated it was impossible to joyn not holding themselves to have power to speak without being moved and once moved to strike it was very hard to discourse and not betray their passions Here are wars made at Philippin upon the subject of his Amazon but he raises her merits with such art as his eloquence blinds the judgments of all those that hear him and those who accused him in the beginning excuse him in the end At another corner Andronico being persecuted in jest and sport as Elise's Knight what says he not in the praise of this vertuous woman And that he says in honour of her could not but turn to the disadvantage of him that used her with so much in justice And as he was founded in a truth he he sustains it with so good terms that there was not any of those which heard him that had not their eyes fixed on his good fashion and ears on his tongue Many times he unfortunately happened to say That if Philippin were dead which might shortly be expected by the justice of heaven he would esteem himself much honoured to marry Elise as widow to a Knight and one of the honestest women on earth But Isabel could not say so much For if Philippin lived she was dishonored He being dead she durst not appear in the eyes of the world From thence his passion carried him to say that Elise deserved better fortune then Philippin who in truth without the express commandment of her parents would never have married him And after this falls to other particularities which had not fallen to the ground though they had not been gathered up by the ears of Philippin Many times those which heard them speak so disgracefully one of the other would fain have broken off this discourse But as there is nothing that tickles the ears more then detraction by a natural malice which inclines us to ill all give way to their discourse And that which at last lost Andronico was a word that slipt from him unawares as reproaching Philippin of the assassination of Valfran although he were innocent by the oath of the delinquent It might have been easie and it may be permitted says he by the course of the world to return a treason by another but I hate too much such base unworthiness Andronico this will cost you very dear It is now time to conduct the new married pair to bed where being arrived all this fair company are separated In the great number of Caroches and horses which waited at the gates it was easie for Herman and Roboald to stand in the darkness of the night amongst this press from the midst of which comes Philippin slightly accompanied and on foot by reason of the neerness of his lodging As he drew neer Roboald who stroke down the Page that carried the torch Herman on horsback comes upon Philippin like thunder presenting the mouth of his pistol to his forehead with a steel-bullet which strikes out his brains on the stones Philippin seeing him come believed it was Andronico and cryed O Traitor O Elise thou mak'st me be murdered And so dyed After this blow Herman and Roboald retire by favour of the night to their lodgings from whence they went next morning by break of day arriving at Vaupre with an assurance as if they had done nothing for they were certain not to have been perceived But let 's return to the City where in an instant all was in rumor and alarm Many fled others more valiant went to behold this tragick spectacle of Philippin spread stark dead on the pavement Andronico who was no way guilty comes on hors-back with others He laments as Caesar did Pompey the death of his enemy nevertheless with a certain fashion mingled with joy which gives an entrance to suspision if it were not himself that after so detestable a deed comes to counterfeit the innocent Many circumstances seem to accuse him as the discourse he had held in the Wedding-hall and 't was a man on hors-back that kill'd Philippin Many said aloud that if he did it not he had made it to be done which he denies with as much constancie as truth There were other testimonies of some that had seen him take horse at the very time that Philippin was shot giving assurance that he could not have committed an action so base but that he was of the plot there was place for suspition leaving all these groundless reports He raising his head strengthened with his own innocence retires confidently to his house believing already to be in possession of his Elise Who had no sooner understood the bloody murder of her husband with this miserable circumstance of Andronico's being suspected but changing the love she had for Philippin into pitty and the good will so worthy which she had born Andronico into a mortal hatred she takes this conjecture for a truth and upon this first impression no way doubts it whether it was to have her in possession according to the promise she had given him or to be revenged for the attempt of Valfran he had done this base act himself or made it be done And even as that friendship which is grounded on vertue swouns before its contrary the same doth charity in the soul encountring vice like the stone called Prassuâ— that loses its lustre at the approach of any poyson Here is she for the loss of Philippin filled with grief not to be comforted her affection is redoubled by this cruel and dangerous trespass and so void of good will for Andronico that she hath his name in horror and the thought of him is an abomination insupportable Philippin is conveyed to Bellerive to the sepulchre of his fathers whither couragious Elise had the strength to accompany him Her mourning and tears as sincere as her love was true moved more pitty in those that saw her thus living then for her dead husband For all saw by the misgovernment of this young Lord a just punishment from heaven the hand of God lay heavy on his head that had been dashed in peeces according to that word of David A perfidious man given to flesh and blood never sees the days of half the course his life Scevole
kept the more he would gather the more it disperses it self All know the combat of the Wind and the Sun who should despoil man at last the sweet rays of the Sun did that the blustring blasts of the other could not The more Isabel importunes Roboald to discover his affection with confidence the more he hides it and the more he enters into distrusts yet when she presses him least he burns with impatience to manifest it to her not being able to die of a silent grief being so neer his remedy Love whose attempts are not so hard but as quick as those of necessity subtilsied his spirit and gave divers means to make known to this Damosel that which she knew but too well already but fains to be ignorant of by an artificious countermine It is reason that Verses symbols of this passion that touches the heart and Poesie daughter of this affection come to the relief of Roboald He is acquainted with â—imer that would furnish him with Madrigals which he lets often fall as by negligence but with design in the chamber of this prisoner She reads them and laughs and to let him burn in a little fire and take her vengeance in this love by a new industry she makes no shew to understand these Enigâ—a's nor did they say any thing in particular Such is the folly of this childish passion which is not fed but with follies nor imployed but in thoughts as frivolous as the hunting of Butterflies And to let you see the impertinencies of Roboald behold his folly in these three scrolls of which this is the first 'T is harder not to love then be denied By such a look who being deified Doth with the wound it gives my panting heart Both joy and pleasure to my thoughts impart When silent grief of sweetness is so full I thousand deaths had rather on 〈◊〉 pull Thou not to yield to an attempt so fair Where hope 's to be preferr'd before despair Happy is he can love and hide his flame Suppress affection and conceal Her name Who can in midst of anguish pleasure find And hug his passions though she prove unkind Here is the second that seems to cherish the folly of the first Nor do I here present it in this place for any thing of worth but to make known clearly how hard it is yea impossible to be wise and love at once and as shadows serve to pictures even so the follies of some to raise the wisdom of others From thence it comes that Cato said that the wise learnt more of fools then fools did of the wise But let us hearken to our Rimer What rigor is it for to be a Lover And not to dare his passion to discover So pale and dropping is my physnomie That every one I am in love may see Now if my soul be in such agonies Who can obstruct or blame my plaints or cryes To be severely punish'd is a grace When one attempts an Angel to imbrace At last to throw the third scroll was the accomplishment of his impertinence for it is the end of presumption always to rise He says Dear origen of all my fears and fires Not knowing the extent of my desires Must I thus perish and yet dare not say 'T is you who doth my soul and passions sway But why do I stay in reciting his idle thoughts which would be better buried under silence then raised upon this paper But to imitate the fashion of Painters that set off the features of a fair face by an extreme deformity as also to throw confusion in the face of those that in their follies commit these extravagances I follow expresly in this the imitation of Nathan that threatned David to manifest to the light of the sun what he had committed in darkness and to cast his shame on his face if by a confession unfained and healthfull penitence he had not prevented the publication Even so the Saviour of the world threatned to make be preached in the publike places the evils committed in the most private chambers when the secrets of the dark should be manifested and the counsel of hearts given to iniquity And who knows not that shame and disgrace is the certain recompence of vile Love Thus Roboald seeing that all these small lights gave none to Isabel to make her know that herself was the idol to which he offers his thoughts languishing with a silent grief so neer his remedy and such a remedy as seemed should yield to his mercy with much facility yet durst not promise it himself however resolves to attempt by an art after which he thought that necessity would break for him as to the son of Craesus the obstacle that hindred his speech One day as Isabel pressed him on this subject which was their ordinary entertainment for from the mouth proceeds the abundance of the heart you will not believe said he to what extremity hath brought me shall I say my affection or my folly to an evil so extraordinary having sought all the strangest remedies that humane thoughts can devise The curious Maid conjures him not to hide his means being they gave no knowledge of the cause Roboald that strove always to oblige her and to make this obligation more precious made himself to be prayed earnestly for a thing of which he had more desire then his suppliant herself And to cherish this in her You press me quoth he to discover a means that you lead as by the hand in the sight of the subject of my passion and then my secret will be no more a secret nor my own being disclosed not only to another but to a woman as capable to contain it under silence as a sieve is to hold water At which Isabel makes a thousand protestations of fidelity and silence but they were oaths as light as if they had been written on the sands or drawn on the waves At which Roboald fained to yield and to remit his life with his love into the hands of this gracious prisoner If your oaths quoth he should not bind you with chains as strong as they seem holy the interest you have your self will bind you to conceal that I shall manifest unto you for the part you have in heir whose face I will let you see is such that you will be constrained to confess to me when you have seen it that you have not a better friend in the world You must know then that having been just to that point to consult with a Magitian of this Country who as yet hath promised nothing good of the issue of my design but on the contrary threatens me that the hope of a Nuptial bed will be the grave of my desires yet I have taken his prophesie as coming from the father of lyes so that as the antient Oracles I have believed one may better judge of his truth by the contrary And indeed I have already known by some hopes that if I persevere to love with fidelity