Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A62415
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Tachmas, prince of Persia an historical novel which happen'd under the Sophy Seliman who reigns at this day / render'd into English by P. Porter.
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Segrais, Jean Regnauld de, 1624-1701.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing T100; ESTC R24077
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23,123
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120
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insults and divided betwixt these two Objects had at last stifled all the Flames of Ambition with intent for ever after to feed those of Love only That now she began to acknowledg the truth of the first words she had spoken to him which were That she would shut her Eyes to all the Crowns of the Earth to open them to his Virtues That he needed no other tryal of her Love than that sincere Confession she had made him which was the greatest proof she could give him of it And that she did call the Holy Prophet to witness That neither the offers of the Throne nor the persecutions of the Sophy should ever be able to overthrow that Empire which Tachmas had acquired over her Heart Though these Discourses and others might re-assure the Prince Yet he could not wholly suppress his Jealousie for he judged That as Negara had eloped from Ambition to Love she might with the same easiness return from Love to Ambition At that very instant Seliman whom Allagolikan had acquainted with what passed betwixt Tachmas and him came rushing into the Chamber and commanded Tachmas to go out after forbidding him upon pain of Death never to see nor speak more to the Princess whom he designed for his own Bed He reproached her with the want of affection for him telling her It was an odd way of deserving the Honour he was going to do her by suffering any other to entertain her besides himself That all the Beauties of Persia would most earnestly wish not only for the Rank he intended for her but even for the least particular favour of their King That she deserved to be used like the meanest of his Slaves were it not for the respect he had for her Blood He was not satisfied to have forbidden her for ever the sight of her Lover but commands an Eunuch to wait close in her Chamber to spy all her actions and to give him a faithful account of them He told her as he was going away from her That she should prepare her self to receive his Faith the next morning Whatever has been said of the strength of our mind it must be allow'd that all its faculties are very weak since they are not able to support the violence of our passions extremity of Grief and excess of Joy make us insensible as Statues they must abate of their force to make us sensible of them The Sophies Discourse left Negara without sense or motion and she was a long while before she could recover her self or consider the state she was reduced to When she came to her self and was able to open her Eyes she could see nothing but an Abyss of Miseries As our Desires commonly encrease by Obstacles and are irritated so much the more by how much the possession of their Object is difficult so the Princess felt her Love to Tachmas grow so much the greater by the reflexion she made that she was going eternally to lose him The Minutes seemed to flye faster and the Sun to precipitate his course to advance that fatal hour which was to deliver her a Victim to the Sophies will In vain she look't about her for Relief she could find nothing that could ease her grief The very liberty of complaining was forbidden her she durst not so much as let fall a tear nor breathe out a sigh lest if the Sophy should know it he should pour down all his vengeance upon her Lovers Head In the mean time Tachmas being instructed by Allagolikan of Seliman's Resolution was no less perplexed Whatever project this great Soul could set on foot he saw himself shut up in a Palace full of Eunuches and barbarous Slaves all devoted to the Sophies Will all his hopes rested in Allagolikan it was from him alone he expected some solace in his Despair Knowing then that he was all powerful in the Palace He entreats him to facilitate his Access once more to the Princess before that fatal hour wherein he was for ever to be banished from her sight Allagolikan opposed him for a great while representing to him the impossibility and the hazard of what he desired That the Discovery would expose both theirs as well as Negara's life to inextricable destruction At last seeing himself more and more pressed by Tachmas he seemed to yield to his Prayers and told him If any mischief followed he should in no ways attribute it to him He pretended to the Prince That he was going to give Order to a trusty Slave to come to give them sudden notice if the Sophy were coming out but it was indeed to let the Sophy know that the Eunuch whom he left in Negara's Chamber was corrupted Allagolikan returns and leads him to speak to another Eunuch that was brother to him that watched in the Princess's Chamber The Prince followed him and the door was opened as soon as the Eunuch made his voice be heard Negara was not a little surprised to see the Prince once more Love Fear Joy and Grief confusedly agitate her Soul These ill-Starr'd Lovers scarce had time to mingle tears and to inform one another of their mutual tenderness by their passionate looks when of a sudden they heard a great noise of many people coming hastily that way the Eunuch all in confusion run to a back-door that opened into Begona's Appartments to let the Prince slip out that way but was furiously pushed back by the Sophy himself that entred that way and caused him immediatel to be run through by another Eunuch that rushed in at the other door without giving the poor wretch the time to justifie himself He Commands them likewise to strangle Tachmas who heard this Cruel sentence without the least concern and who would have made them sensible of a more undaunted Courage if a man that is passionately in Love could resolve to dye without regret The Princess hearing this barbarous Command threw her self prostrate at Seliman's feet and with her tears and repeated Cryes stopped or at least suspended the execution of this severe Order which those barbarous Eunuchs were upon the point of executing Begona at the same instant came running in and would have joyned her supplications with Negara's but the Sophy who had always observed that she had a more tender affection for Tachmas than for himself which had been indeed the cause of their falling out believed that she was of intelligence with them and therefore would not hear her He did not then push matters to the extremity but gave all sufficiently to understand by the severity of his Countenance by the flaming of his Eyes all full of fury and by the often shaking of his Head that the punishment he intended to inflict upon these Lovers was but defer'd He caused Tachmas to be clapped into a dark Dungeon and placed at Negara's door those of his Eunuchs in whom he most confided with strict Order to let no Soul enter upon pain of falling into the same disgrace with their dead Companion and so goes
speak to the Sophy but if that within two days he had no Answer he would pass by all Formalities and go himself to speak to his Brother and that his impatience was so much the greater because he was sure the Vows of this Princess agreed with his own We strive in vain to resist our selves and endeavour to oppose the bent of Nature which is so powerfully attractive in us when the Heavens have given our affection a proclivity to any one Passion all the rest are not powerful enough to draw us from it All the faculties of Negara's Soul were in distraction at Tachmas's sight and Discourse Her Ambition to no purpose shews her the Charms of a Throne and tells her This tenderness which began to make a revolt in her heart was but a shameful weakness which she ought to stifle and sacrifice to her Glory The Empire has no more that lustre when she considers she cannot attain to it but at the price of her Faith the despair into which she saw her inconstancy must throw this poor Lover touched her with pity and repentance to have so rashly precipitated her Resolution in declaring so inconsiderately in favour of the Sophy Love at that instant dispelling with his flambeau the beams of Supream Majesty left her nothing now to see but the Thorns that encompass the Crown and for a solid Good she sees nothing but a Phantasm and a vain illusion All those tumultuary insults of Pride Ambition and Vanity vanish out of the heart with the same promptness they had been raised The Imagination of all the Excellencies that were in Tachmas offers it self with more endearing luster than ever and as the Virtues appear unto us quite different in those we love than in those who are indifferent to us Those which were common to them both seemed in Tachmas a glorious Body of which the Sophy possessed but the shadow She was a long time without being able to make any other answer than by her sighs but as he pressed her with much impatience to inform him of the causes of her sadness She related to him what the Eunuch came to tell her from the King Tachmas at this news as if he had been Planet-struck stood like a Statue As soon as he recover'd himself he resolved to run transported as he was back to this perfidious Minister to punish him for his Treachery But Negara foreseeing the danger he was going unseasonably to expose himself to threw her self in his way and with the Eloquence of her sighs and tears allay'd the heat of his fury The Princess being ignorant of Allagobikan's bad inclinations towards Tachmas endeavoured to justifie him alledging That perhaps this Favourite might know nothing of the Kings passion or that he had not concealed it from Tachmas but out of a just apprehension to hurry him into some rash undertaking that might be of very funest inconsequence That taking the proceedings in the stricctest sense he could be accused of nothing but too much Zeal towards her by desiring to see her upon the Throne She added That it was prudence carefully to conceal their Love from the Sophy That it was necessary he should go immediately to Allagolikan to desire him to keep their secret and to engage him by all manner of Endearments to make him employ all his Credit and Address to draw the Sophy from his Design That Seliman's Love might happily be but a slight Flame which might be as quickly smother'd as it was kindled That she would avoid his sight as much as it was possible for her and that nothing but force should ever trample over her constancy and fidelity to him There is no Passion predominant in mans Soul that so often makes Storms and Calms succed one another in us and agitates our minds with so many contrary motions as Love Tachmas who before this Discourse was all Fury and Rage against Allagolikan is now of a sudden all Love and Kindness towards him and his Bad Genius utterly blinding his Reason had now as favourable thoughts of his intentions as the Princess had He goes to him and by an imprudence which nothing but Love could excuse in a Prince so Judicious He furnishes him with Reasons to excuse his Treachery He told him He very well knew that he had not concealed the Sophies Love from him but through his excess of Zeal towards him and that he entreated him for the future to give him a faihtful account of what should happen by which only means he should be convinced of his fidelity to him Allagolikan after a thousand frivolous protestations swears by the Heavens and all that was Sacred and Holy that he would not fail to give him a true Account of whatever came to his knowledg without delay As he was endowed with a piercing Wit he quickly found that this unhappy Lover had let his flame encrease to that degree that there was no possibility for him ever to be able to quench it He thought it to purpose to embroil him with Negara to inspire him with so much the more hatred against his Brother because he endeavoured to rob him of his Princess's Heart as well as of the enjoyment of her Person Feigning of a sudden to repent him of his Oaths and Promises lets Tachmas know That he had a secret of Importance which he should be glad not to be obliged to declare but after shifting for a long time the Prince's importunity to raise in him a greater desire of knowing it at last told him That Negara's inconstancy ought as much to be apprehended as Seliman's Love That he had been certainly informed that she received the news of the King's passion with so much Joy and shewed so much readiness to comply with his Desires that he did not doubt but the lustre of the Diadem had dazled her Eyes Tachmas returns presently to the Princess all distracted tells her the cause of his sighs and the occasion of his Jealousie Negara that naturally loved sincerity ingenuously confesses to him That when the Sophy had sent her a Declaration of his Love she had received it favourably in respect of what he was and she regarded more his Quality than his Person so that when an Eunuch came to flatter her with the Hopes of being the Sophie's Queen she still followed the impulse of her Ambition and she could not defend her self from the attractive Charms of a Throne but that the presence of Tachmas had in a moments time dissipated all that Ambitious pride and that those Tears she had shed and those sighs which stole from her when she saw him enter ought not to be attributed to any thing else but the regret she had for shewing the Eunuch her Joy and her submission to the King's Order That since he left her her Ambition striving to rebel against her Love she had suffered all the Conflicts that those two Imperious and Tyrannical passions can raise in a Soul That her Heart after being rent by their Cruel