Donzella Desterrada, OR, The Banished Virgin.  
Written originally in ITALIAN: By Cavalier Gio. Francisco Biondi, Gentleman Extraordinary of his Majesty's Privy Chamber.  
Divided into three Books: And Englished by I. H. of Gray Inn, Gent.  
Printed at London, by T. Cotes, for Humphrey Mosley, and are to be sold at his shop, at the three Kings in Paul's Church yard. 1635.   illustrated border   

TO The Right Noble and most Excellent PRINCESS, the Lady Katherine, Duchess, marchioness and Countess of Buckingham and Coventry, Viscountesse Villiers, Baronesse Rosse of Hamelake, and of Whaddon.  
Most Illustrious Madam,  
WHen first I read the hard fate of this distressed Virgin in the native Language where she and her sorrows had their birth; I confess myself so uncharitable, that I took delight in the strangeness of her misfortunes; But since returning to a more considerate apprehension of her being exiled by brainsick envy, merely for her virtues (as were sometime by Ostracism from Athens the more eminent Citizens for their famed integrity) I then began so feelingly to compassionate her case, as to conceive myself (in penance that I so had solaced me with her sorrows) charged in conscience, (at least in humane civility and obliged respectiveness due to her sex, plight and quality) to either succour or bear a share with her in her sad pilgrimage: In accomplishment whereof, having conducted her out of her native Country into a foreign clime, I there did her the further service of assisting her in the Language to relate her own disastrous story; which I assure myself will beget so much compassion in the nobler breasts, that she shall find among them a free and hospitable entertainment. Now Madam, for her better encouragement I have presented her unto your Excellency, whom, out of mine own long observation aswell as out of the mouth of fame (too narrow for so high an expression) I knew to be one of the rarest precedents of virtues that our age could boast of. Banished then though she be, yet will she not think her condition hard, so she be but received into your Princely Patronage. Her Tale (Renowned Madam) may prove pretty company to your grave retirement, which when your Grace shall but vouchsafe so to conceive of, you will highly honour the slender endeavours of  
Your Grace's Humblest Admirer and Honourer JAMES HAYWARD.   

THE Translator to the observantly-Iudicious Reader.  
IF (as our-as-yet-unparalleled Sidney by enucleated if not Irrefutable arguments hath sufficiently proved) The Art (or rather divinely-inspired-gift-by-art-to-perfection-reduced-skill) of Poesy (for being of all the most available means for enriching of memory, purifying of wit, enabling of judgement, and enlarging of Conceit, which we call learning, the easiest, best and more exquisite; and withal most efficacious and conducible, both for raising us to the highest pitch of perfection that our degenerate souls made worse by their clay-lodgings can be capable of, and also for hatching and bringing forth of virtuous actions the final aim and ending-end of all earthly learning) be by many degrees incomparably more prizeworthy than any other Art or science whatsoever: And if also (as is excellently-manifest by his inimitable example, since such a Phoenix would never (thou mayest be assured) have strowed his nest with other than the most precious and choicest Aromatical spices) This by him worthily-selected Helidoran strain, be in all respects the most excelling note of that Sphere-resembling kind of heart-ravishing harmony, which he (as appears by the form and being by him given to his posthume brainbabe) most affected, and therefore most worthy to be generally so affected since he so affected it: And if further the throughly-civilized European for naturallby-art-neerest-perfection-refined qualities be no less deservedly than generally held to surpass both the Tawny self-conceited Asian and swarthy scienceslighting African (For, as for the savage American I quite exclude him from all favour of Competitorship, for having by reason of his being yet more naked of civil-by-science-rectified endowments than Raiment, a touch too too rude for so delicate a string:) and last, if likewise among the more-that-way-excelling Europeans, the deepe-conceited-subtilly-grave- Italian be as deservedly by general approbation marshaled as Leader of one of the worthiest files in the first rank of elevated spirits breathing forth the by skill-more-rarefied conceits; Then, (I say) Then; sithence I dare as confidently (because howsoever in that sole respect knowingly) aver, aswell Biondies Poems (no matter though compiled in prose, since rimeing being but an ornament and no cause to Poetry no more makes a Poet than doth a long Gown a Lawyer) to be of all Tuscan works of that kind the in-every-regard-best-penned, and in Italy (when I some 5 years sithence there resided of the more judicious generally-best-esteemed of all as then published; As also this (by him entitled the first tome of his Donzella Desterrada) to be the masterpeice of all the volumes as yet sprung from the fertile ground-plot of his gravely-mature brain: Albeit I will not (as perhaps I yet with modesty might) from the grantable (because undeniable) beforeinfered premises conclude, that, for reducing thine inclinations to an accomplished habit of the more generous virtues, or continuing them such being already so reduced, thou canst not use a more easily-availing mean than in familiarising thy memory with Poems of this nature, and so with this by consequence; yet at least wise I hope (and have I hope satisfactorily here displayed the ground of my so hoping) That any well-tempered (if impartial) judgement will (although he never mean to make use of its Original (as inferior to none for loftiness of stile and elegancy of phrase) for attaining unto the knowledge of the slately-grave- Tuscan tongue) concede, that he may worse spend some few of his more spare hours than in running over this (indeed a) Translation, of which kind all (says one more guessingly perhaps than knowingly) are in respect of their originals like the knotty Insides of Arras; which though admitted for such, I have yet in this endeavoured by close-shearing off and burling those, to dress and slick this as much as I could without losing the ground-knots and altering the whole form of the work, considering how little the English liking simpathizeth with that of the Italian, which later naturally more affects variety of matter compendiously expressed or rather straightened in the narrow content of fewest words, than prolixly delivered for being beautified with interlaced-obvious conceits enriched by connected links of pleasing Epithets, and Rhetorical flourishes sweetened with various delightsomely-interposing parentheses, as best relish the palates of our fluent-tongued English: A mean path how soever between both which, may (by whoso judiciously please to confer this with its original) be here discerned to have been trodden-out by me, and that I have too withal stretched the string of the Tuscan Idiom for adapting it to the bow of the English phrase as far as I durst for bursting either the one or other. Now to divulge (as thou mayest haply expect by a key as we call it) the true names of the personages, in this true-feigned under aptly-devised ones represented, the author will not as yet assent; In respect many of them (though most in Italy) are to this day survivant. Howbeit thou mayest (in the mean time) of thyself (if thou hast in any measure observantly stowed up in the store-house of thy memory any quantity of foreign-state-passages happened within the periphery of these last thrise-seven years) by the particular occurrences herein related come lightly to discover the persons intimated, by such and such peculiar and their-onely-resembling actions and adventures palpably denoted: From experimenting whereof least I detain thee overlong and for not disproportioning the gate to the In-buildings (as did whilom the Citizens of Myndus;) with first praying thee (sithence error is an inseparable accident to humanity) benignly to pass by any either oversight of mine, or escapes of the press, whose grosser (though too-many) particularised in the Errata thou mayest do well to correct, I wish heartily and bid thee happily:  
Farewell.   

THE Author's Epistle Dedicatory.  
To the most Renowned and truly Heroic Prince, Thomas of Savoy.  
Right Excellent Prince,  
I Promised your Highness in France the translation of the two first books of that famous Knight Sir Philip Sydney's Arcadia, with an intention soon after my return into England to send it you with all convenient expedition. But then I found myself so far uncapable of performing it, that I choosed rather to fall short of my word to so excellent a Prince as your Highness, than to deform a work so excellent sprung from the brains of a more excellent Author. The traduction that I made cannot be said mine; Because, for not understanding the tongue myself, I was driven to make use of many persons, some whereof either conceived not the elevated conceits of that delicate wit, Or at leastwise knew not how to express them; So as not translating but rather paraphrazing it, I made him speak what he never meant, he alone having the talon of both, conceiving and expressing himself. Failing in this, and resolved, since I could not satisfy the debt, to show that I desired to do it, I bethought me of dedicating unto your Highness this present work of mine; which, though far short of the promised, will nevertheless prove (I hope) to be such as no man shall have just cause too complain of its defects: The mettle being my own, digged out of mine own Mine, coined in mine own mint, and though of base alloy, yet neither uncurrant, cried down, or subject to the punishment due to such as counterfeit that which is another man's. If I resolve to finish the work, it shall be in the less-displeasing stile; If not; And that another pen undergo the charge thereof, he cannot use that way that shall not well please me. In the mean time I beseech your Highness to accept (with a benign eye) this in discharge of the Arcadia; though there be not any acquittance that can absolve me from the obligations I have to serve you. The Lord our God felicitate your Highness in all your Noble designs, whilst I with all submissive reverence humbly kiss your hands.  
From London the fourth of july 1626. Your Highness' most humble and most devoted servant Gio: Francisco Biondi.   

In Authorem.  

BIondi, qual meta have ' l tuo moto? e quale  
termine ' l tuo volar troth le figure?  
la, dou' è ghiaccio estremo, estrema arsura,  
la tua gran fama ha' nel girar grand ale.  
Più non ti resta oue passar, ch' eguale,  
l'Vniverso, e'l tuo nome have la misura:  
SH' altri con alia e perigliosa cura  
ignoto clima a discoprir non vale.  
Che se più sono i mondi; esca homài fuore  
verace oggetto, e non fallace aborto,  
del prisco dir, che non è spento ancora.  
Si dirà poi, già che l'occaso, e l'orto  
te, fatto Nun, entro gli scritti adora,  
ad un stil novo un novo Mondo è forto.  
Francisco Belbi.    

On his worthy friend Mr. james Haward his Translation of the Banished Virgin, out of the Italian.  

SOme hold Translations not unlike to be  
The wrong side of a Turkey Tapestry,  
Or wines drawn off the lees, which filled in flask,  
Lose somewhat of the strength they had in Cask.  
'tis true, each Language hath an Idiom,  
Which in another couched, comes not so home:  
Yet I ne'er saw a piece from Venice come,  
Had fewer thrums, set on this Country loom.  
This wine is still one-eared, and brisk, though put  
Out of Italian cask, in English Butt.   

Sopra l'istessa traduttione.  

LA Donzella di Biondo é fatta Inglese,  
contal destrezza, e notable feed;  
Che l'alma di Biondo, cangiando sede,  
all petto d'Hawardo un uólo press.  
Di Biondo dunque sia ella chiamata,  
Figlia, & d'Hawardo l'Inamorata.    
ja. Howell Arm.   

To his much honoured friend Mr. james Haward, upon his, Translation of Donzella Desterrada out of Italian.  

LEt none mistake my purpose, some will guess,  
I have committed these few lines to th' Press  
To honour thee (dear friend) in commendation  
Of thy so learned, so well penned Translation:  
But they err much: my duller Muse ne'er durst  
Aspire so high; since who'll commend, must first  
Assume a power to judge; or else declare  
His praise (since groundless) vain as th' idle air.  
But this is not my aim; I but desire  
T' express my service, that when all admire  
(As needs they must) thy worth; and justest fame  
Shall loud resound the Banished Virgins name,  
And thee her Tutor, I may humbly then,  
Wait on the triumph of thy matchless pen.   

All mesmo.  

Haward, el gran valour, y hermosura  
De la Donzella Desterrada serive,  
Con gentileza tanta, y dulcura,  
Que mas ser Destierrada no parece:  
Pues aqùi es por ella fabricada  
una etèrna y muy bel'morada.    
Wi. Br. ex hospitio Graiensi Gen.   

To his much endeared friend Mr. james Haward upon his Translation of Donzella Desterrada.  

COmmerce enricheth, Conversation  
Doth civilize the ruder Nation;  
If both be rich, Commerce adds yet more store,  
If both be civil, Th'other yet doth more  
Refine men's minds and manners: There is none  
So furnished with all knowledge; as alone  
Can say He's skilled in all things: my proof for't  
Is that, the Arts are long, and man's life short.  
Digesting many Nations skills in one  
Compendious way, comes near perfection;  
I mean in Learning, whereof the best kind  
Is Poetry, 'cause that doth move the mind  
To Virtue more, yea and doth teach it too  
More winningly than any else can do.  
Precepts are burdensome; Philosophy  
Must therefore cede the bays to Poesy;  
This by example teacheth, paints of man  
But what he should be; Where th' Historian  
Tells what he was, And reckons sometimes store  
Of horrid vices, ne'er perhaps before  
Herd of by th' Pupil, whence it comes he longs  
T' offend, merely to try conclusions:  
These two o'erthrown, all other Arts must down  
And homage do to''th' Poet's Laurel Crown.  
The ware then (Honoured friend) by thee in-brought  
To this Monarchal Isle cannot be bought,  
Nor valued too dear; since it (the flower  
Of all the modern Poems that this hour  
In Tuscan language extant are) so well  
Is cultived by thee (who dost excel  
In this Transplanting Art) That smelling it  
(Beside its virtue of refining wit)  
With looking but on th' earth whereout it sprung,  
May make one Master of the Tuscan tongue;  
I then deservedly first commend the worth  
Of thy discreet resolves, for venturing forth  
To fetch us in such rare plants; Next my voice  
I'll pass thy judgement's side on, for the choice  
It made among the sciences; And then  
I praise th' election of the tongue and pen  
Thy Muse made so good use of; Lastly I  
(If the short reach of my capacity  
May have a voice allowed) in approbation  
Of this thy Choice-exactly-pened Translation,  
Averre, it betters, or at least in all  
Respects coequals its original.   

Sopra l'istessa Traduttione.  

ESser esperto nel'l'arte di Guerra  
Ed in Ragione non mancò di stato,  
Saper misurar cos ' ogni sul terra,  
E l'altezz', e'l profund, e larghezza d'ogni lato;  
Esser' ancorà benissime visto  
In questa e quella lingua straniéra,  
Son ' qualitadi, de'i quali provisto  
Ben' dourebb' esser' quel ch'alla fiera  
Dest'rrada per Maestro sareb' accettato:  
Eccelo che l' Hawardo é desso bramato.    
Ma. Ard.   

To his Noble friend Mr. James Haward upon his Banished Virgin.  

MY ruder Muse trained up in martial field  
Writes not, presuming she can furtherance yield  
To beautify this work; but rather she  
Doth hope by it she should eternised be,  
These lines being its attendants; some may guess  
That you affect the Mathematics less  
Than you were wont, wont you have spared some hours  
To guide this banished Lady to our shores,  
And her accoutring in so rich attire,  
That her own Natives seeing her, admire  
Her grace should be the same sans alteration  
As well in th' English as th' Italian fashion:  
But they mistake; those Arts are still the game  
Your fancy flies at, this bears but the name.  
Wil Stand.    

To his selected friend Mr. james Haward upon his Translation of the Banished Virgin.  

Such is the envy of the present age,  
No book (though dressed in the best equipage  
Art can invent) shall pass the censure of  
Some Critic, who will forge wrong cause to scoff  
At ne'er so good a piece, rather than he  
Would be thought guiltless of sufficiency:  
I loathe his carping humour, and if I  
Had power to inflict a penalty  
On him; before judicious audients he  
Should be forced comment on this history,  
Where, in discovering with his own vile breath  
His Idiotism, he'd be jeered to death.  
Critics thus punished, what should I expect,  
That mean to chide thee for thy disrespect  
Unto the Mathematics (arts esteemed  
Worthy a Prince's study, where it seemed  
To me thy Genius was so enthralled  
That, if the Turkish Emperor had called  
Thee to be King of Cyprus, thou'dst not be  
Debarred of them to sway a Monarchy.)  
Perchance thou'lt counter check my checks, and say  
My judgement's blind, I not discern the way  
Thou treadest, my conceit is wrong, because  
I judge, thou, having given a breathing pause  
Unto those studies, hast perpetually  
Relinquished them: Imagine not I'll die  
In such an error; No; I much approve  
In thee thy Noble courtesy, thy love  
To th' Exiled Virgin, pitying whose state,  
Thy goodness moved thee to extenuate  
Her griefs, by her conducting from her home  
To sojourn here in courteous Albion;  
The guerdon thou dost merit's sure, for she  
Whom thou so honouredest will rehonour thee.   

Al'lettore, dell'tradottore.  

RAdò l'essempio l'original'eccede,  
Auchor'ch'Appelle istesso dipingesse;  
Mátal'accuratezza l' Hawardo possiede,  
Che ne'i colori più vivi, che potesse  
Art truovar', l'ha messo: però non sprezzi  
Lettor' di darlo de'isuoi mer't'i prezzi.    
Tho. revel ex Hospitio Graij.   

Errata.  
IN p●●● 18 lineaque 30. for were, read was. pa. 41. li. 8. for so, read too. ibid. l. 43. r. dearer. p. 71. l. 2. for wind r. join. p. 72. l. 46. r. lest. p. 75. l. 47. r. she p 76. l. 26. & p. 121. l. 46. r. strong. p. 79 l. 46. r. site. p. 84. l 40. r. whose. p. 85. l. 44 r. plo●. p. 90 l. 37. r. enuring. p. 100 l. 25. deal: many. p. 101. l. 21. r. which could. p. 107. l. 17. r. so npious. ib l. 41. r. sender. p. 119. l. 41. r. compartments p. 120. l. 6. r. envious. ib. l, 33 r. supportable. p. 127. l 24. r. afoot. ibid. l. 45. r. lovely. p. 128. l. 11. r. insured. p. 130. l. 15. r. great. p. 136. l. 39 r. experimentist. p. 141. l. l. 10. r. me. p. 142 l. 30. r. ran. p. 144 l. 21. r. raccounted. p. 146. l. 8. r. wrought. p 159 l 6. r. they found. p. 162 l. 4. r. rod. p. 163 l. 8. r. loves ib. l. 48. r. suffer. p. 172. l. 34. r. tack. p. 188. l. 18. &. p. 199 l. 33. r. meant p. 188 l. 2●. r. nor. p. 192. l. 37. &. p. 208. l. 16. for the, r. her. p. 194 l. 1. r. choler. p. 201 l. 17. r. direst. p 202. l 22. r. was then p. 203 l. 13. r unboweling. ib. l. 19 for own r. over. p. 207. l. 29. r. her wont p. 229 l 35. for know r. knew.   

Cavalier Gio. Francisco Biondi HIS DONZELLA DESTERRADA. THE FIRST BOOK.  
THE obscuresable night, leaving behind her the shady twilight to make good the rear against the hot approach of the fire-breathing Sun, surrendered up the field unto a gloomy morning; when the Mariners discovering land, changed the fear of their continuing wrack-threatning fortune, into another far greater both in esteem and effect. The ship through her long working and continual repercussions was all over riven and quite spoilt, so as the ordinary instruments sufficed not to empty the water, which gushing in through the chinks of her sides above, and leaks sprung about her keel beneath, still more and more overcharged the Pump.  
The very day before, and the self same night too, they (by sounding the Seas depth) knew they were not far off the land, though they yet saw no possible means of reaching to it without imminent peril of shipwreck; But now that danger (although indeed still the same) seemed in their eyes somewhat lesser, considering that which the opposite shore menaced their crazy vessel. The blustering winds incessantly whistled on all sides; But to hold more on the one hand than on the other lay not in the power of such as endeavoured it, the ship riding right under the Island, whose capes were so far distant that there appeared no hopes to wade thither with any assurance of safety. Thus then being certain of naufrage, every one endeavoured to fit himself with some small plank or other, it being lawful for any such as had none, to tear one off the ship and make it the means of his deliverance. Their confused cries (in the mean while) mounting up to the skies equalised the rustling noise of the loud-roaring Sea, which grew to be so boldly domestic, that it came and went familiarly in and out without ask any leave.  
The extremely-shivering Pilot, who with the furtherance of three assistants, and help of his strongest Cables was not able to command the helm, having now abandoned it, and eased him of the burden of his clothes, sought out for some thing serviceable for the conveying his body from the tyranny of the devouring Ocean; whilst the night to the Sun's shame (which being totally eclipsed by the interposition of the terrestrial Globe continued its course in the opposite horizon) recovering the possession of her hereditary darkness imparted to these distressed caitiffs a glimpse of dusky light, to the end the sight of their misery might increase its sensibility.  
The Ship (like a Sea-bird among the surging waves) held on her course, diving under the foaming surface of the raging maine, whilst the boiling billows grew still more and more swelling and violent, by how much the nearer they approached the shore, till by bulging on an occult rock, it wanted little of being quite overturned, so forcibly was it hurried along the dissembling smoothness of the water by the fury of an unresistable wind; fear so increasing their out-cries, as they seemed to be persuaded, that they could with their vows force the heavens to do what they would have them.  
Among other passengers there aboard was an aged Gentleman, whose grey hairs and grave countenance spoke him worthy of a respective reverence, he alone among all these clamours had the power to contain himself all this while within the bounds of silence; Till now casting his eyes on the shore and sails, at the very instant that with the benefit of a favourable wave they had surmounted the rock (though with their Ship shrewdly bruised and well near split) he loudly pronounced this speech.  
And is this (my masters) a time to be spent in lamentations, and lazily invoking the heavenly assistance, without using the necessary means of your deliverance? Peradventure you believe it should by some strangely-miraculous way be pressed upon you, whilst it being already proffered you, you have neither the judgement to conceive it, nor the will to make use of it: To what end (I pray you) were your hands made, and the reach of reason conferred upon you? you call out for instruments as though you wanted them, and knowing that the gods ab horre idleness would yet have them be propitious to your slothful orisons. The danger is not yet such altogether as you conceive it to be, though indeed it will doubtless grow to be such, if you use not the remedy to prevent it; Seeing we have yet a good way to the land, our Ship being almost all over leaky and battered; the shore abounding in sandy shelves, and all our Sails strucken down. True it is, that whilst the night lasted, it was our safest course to strike all save a small Trinket Saile, the violence of the winds and the darkness then requiring it; But now (alas) our state is far different, For I tell you, that if you put not in practise all the means you can imagine to run us ashore with all expedition possible, it will be impossible for us to escape drowning.  
This speech of his was so efficacious, as it seemed to infuse new courage into their drooping spirits, so as hoissing up all their Sails, the Ship receiving (as it were) a new liveliness from the forwardness of their resolutions, merrily ran aground in a Channel not far remote off the land, whence after a short space, at the ebbing of the Sea, they had the conveniency of conveying themselves at their leisure, to the much desired shore.  
The old Gentleman (with a servant he had with him) having landed, took his way towards a wood, where lighting on a small path, he followed it so far, that at last it led him to the mouth of a cave. But by then the death-menacing disquietness he had endured in the night, the drowsiness of his spirits for want of sleep, the tedious toilsomeness of the uncouth way he was come, but above all, the irksome heaviness of his old age had so overtired him, as he found himself unable to go on any farther, until he had first refreshed himself with a little rest. But here, as he thought to lay him down, he heard an odd kind of murmur in the cave hard by him, and more attentively listening, might distinctly hear two faintly-lamenting voices, which with a pitiful accent interchanged some few but weak words, as though in sighs and sobbings they had been two doleful corrivals. Whereupon, entering into the cave (its mouth being freed of a large slate-stone wherewith it was used to be closed up) he passed along through a narrow entry so far, that he came to find out its door; through which (although it was covered with a sumptuous piece of hangings embroidered with gold, and adorned with a rich coat of Arms under a royal Crown) he might yet espy a noble matron, who having taken up in her arms a babe borne but that very instant, laid him aside on a bed, to go & lend her assistance unto his mother, who lay grovelling on a mattress with her face in such a posture, as it could not from where he stood be seen; continuing a pretty while in that plight, with her spirits so retired from executing their peculiar offices, as they seemed to have quite forsaken her. But the matron (assisted by an other Damsel) by wetting and chafing her pulses with sovereign waters, brought her again to herself; when upon their lifting her to lay her in a more easy posture, was discovered such a shape of a face, as (in despite of all paleness) was one of the fairest and best featured that ever was painted with celestial pencil, distended upon an youthful tablet of some eighteen years of age; her hair hung down all dishevelled about her seemly shoulders, (the only fit dressing to ravish amorous hearts) her apparel too was costly, and all things else in her promised no less eminency than excellency; only the place and her present condition wore the badges of a distressed state. A long while continued she deprived of the ability to make use of the Organs of her speech, left alone of her women, who were gone down to the bottom of the cave to look to the newborn babe; only her sighs kept her company by turns, now and then interrupted by a weeping groan (I might well say) loving, if a lugubrious and desperate love could be capable of so sweet an epithet.  
The Matron returned more cheerfully than she went (so much pleased her a male child, but much more a manly beauty) and making her a low reverence, she thus bespoke her.  
Most excellent and dearest Madame, be of good comfort, (I beseech your Highness) for behold here the fairest and best proportioned creature that ever was borne: Oh what a beautiful and goodly progeny would the world produce if really affectionate love were always sole agent in hymeneal unions! I have always heard say, that stolen embraces and furtive births proved to be ever the best, goodliest, and most beautiful; all the spirits concurring, and being with an affectionate will strongly united together, and wholly intentive to the performance of that only office. The heavens be praised, for having now at length out of the mass of our diasters extracted us this dram of comfort.  
The young Lady raising herself upon her elbow, took at one look a full survey of her child; but being reduced to such weakness as she was not longable to rest on the feeble support of her arm, causing him (wrapped in a rich mantle) to be laid by her on the bed, she tenderly kissing him thus answered.  
Ah Paralette: And good reason have you to say, he is a goodly fair child, for so indeed he is (unfortunate infant!) Peradventure he pretends to make the deformity of his destiny seem less ugly through the veil of these his goodly beautifulness and comely making; these (alas) look not as if they were for their birthplace beholding to homely caves seated among desolate groves, where the necessity of shunning the daylight, presents their owner for his first object with darkness and horror. But with this returned to weeping and then again to kissing him, she proceeded, saying.  
And seems it unto you (Mother) that an effect so beautiful aught to be a just ease to my calamities? and that the Gods have, out of my misdeeds, extracted that for my good, which is likely to prove to me a perpetual occasion both of griefs and miseries? No, no, the heavens not fully satisfied in having made me in the highest degree miserable in my own person only, are pleased to manifest their infinite power in an endless misery; for in extending it to another they multiply my agonies with the multiplication of the causes of my fortunes; she was notable to utter another word, for being fallen into a swound, more through the extremity of her grief, than the agony of her sickness, continuing a good while in this deadly trance, whilst her women carefully employed the best of their endeavours for the recovery of her senses.  
The old Gentleman, full of noble pity, would willingly have added an helping hand to assist her, but that he considered, that extreme afflictions admit not of any other relief, than little-availing compassion. Besides, that the quality of her infirmity prohibiting the presence of men, would have made his courtesy been construed for an unexcusable point of incivility. Taking afterwards more observant notice of the place, he discovered in its poverty an object of discorrespondent furnitures, the bed and arras hangings being all of silk and gold. But whilst he thus stood observing what they were a doing, Carildo a Squire appeared at the call of the Matron, which caused him to retire from the cave, but not to part away thence, in that he conceived she was sending him forth, nor was he indeed therein mistaken; for as this Squire would have put himself on his way out, he came to meet him full butt; at which unexpected sight the Squire (carried by the violence of a just judgement to an unjust suspicion) was no less dismayed than affrighted: till the Gentleman courteously saluting him, enquired the way to some neighbouring village, where he might provide himself of a ship, seeing that the vessel that had brought him thither had been (through the discourtesy of the sea and tempest) wracked on that shore; To which the Squire (perceiving now by his language that he had entertained a wrong suspicion of him) made answer; That howbeit to find shipping in that Island would be somewhat difficult, yet that he could not lightly miss of fitting himself in Feacia. But in the mean time, where may I (replied the Gentleman) provide me some victuals? In a very good place (answered the other) for on the way that I am now going, we shall pass by the house of a reverend Druide, who entertains very kindly all strangers, but more especially Gentlemen of merit as you seem to be; who also will out of his ordinary goodness see you provided of shipping, and supplied of all other necessaries; Being then by the Gentleman asked the name of that Island: It is properly called (said he) Ericusa, but more commonly the Island of Adventures, for here arrives not any Cavalier, that in a short time lights not on divers strange and unexpected accidents; Certainly (replied the old Gentleman) I believe that to be most true, since my shipwreck may very well be accounted in the number of these accidents, but much rather that which I chanced to see within your cave: Here observing the Squire grow pale at his pronouncing of these later words he proceeded.  
Be not dismayed (my kind friend) for it was neither curiosity nor any ill intention that brought me to pry into your secrets; only I would to God it lay within the reach of my power to do this noble Princess any service, you should then soon see, that I would willingly effect it even to the effusion of my blood.  
[Now the Gentleman knew not as yet, that the Lady delivered of the child was a Princess, yet did he boldly style her so, for that he guessed her to be such, as well by the title given her by the Matron, as by the Crown he had discovered above her Arms, persuading himself, that by boldly giving her that eminent title, he might easily work out of the Squire the secrets of her being and quality, which indeed fell out accordingly] for the Squire hearing him relate the passages of the cave, which induced him to conceive that she was already known unto him, had not the power to be longer silent; and the subtle old Gentleman perceiving him come to the point he wished for, prayed him to disclose how her former fortunes had guided her to the state of her present being: To the which he willingly condescending, said: (Sir) There is not any body here that knows her otherwise, than by mere conjectures, so as what you might have been casually informed of, cannot choose but be far wide off the truth.  
Corianna my Lady and Sovereign Mistress became enamoured of Lucano Duke of Lucania, a Gentleman in all excelling qualities, the most accomplished that was, (I will not say of all her Father's Subjects, but) of all the Princes that are this day in the world; For in nobility and estate there was not one that equalled him in the whole Kingdom of Parthenope, nor elsewhere any that exceeded him in comeliness of personage, hardiness or knightly valour, yet were these (though rare) endowments but handmaids to others far more prizeworthy; at leastwise to those wherewith he captivated men's minds, as his bounty and modesty, and above all, his discretion, the moderatress of all other virtues, and of herself too. So that to love then the Duke of Lucania was so far from being a fault, that he was not held for a gentle spirit that did not both honour and (in a manner) adore him.  
Corrianna then (casting both her eyes and heart, I know not whether more upon the comely and well-featured personage or sweet disposition, and other excelling qualities of Lucano) grew to be so affectionate both to the one and the other, that her becoming blind thereat, so dimmed his eyes, that they stumbled, or rather tumbled down both together over the precipice of inconsiderate resolution, into the bottomless gulf of despairing misery.  
The King her Father had solemnly promised her to the King of Sicily, for the Prince his Son; and she very readily had assented thereunto: for, being (at that time) a free woman, she wholly rendered herself obedient to the disposition of her parents: But after that love (the infringer of wholesome laws, and destroyer of good orders) had violated her modesty and corrupted her mind, she then gave liberty to her licentious will, which afterwards occasioned his fatal end, and her utter ruin.  
The Princes & Lords of that Kingdom are (for the most part) used to resort to the Court but few months in the year; for, it being their humour to make a glorious show, the great expenses they make therein do so far exceed their abilities, that for not being able to maintain themselves there (any long time) in their accustomed pomp, they are constrained (for fear of their utter undoing) to retire themselves to their own home and means.  
The Father of Lucano by thus overrunning his courses, left at his death his estate so encumbered, as it was judged a happiness that he died (although for other occasions he was well worthy of life) and his Mother being his guardian, assigning an honourable allowance towards her housekeeping, and towards the maintenance and nobly breeding up of her son (who at that time passed not nine years of age) employed the residue towards the discharging of debts; so that at his going out of his minority, he was so rich, that without prejudice to his estate, he could liberally spend conformable to the unbounded greathesse's of his mind, and eminent degree of his nobility. This was the reason that Lucano never frequented the Court but (in his Father's time) when he was very young, making his abode during the residue of his blooming years in foreign countries, it being discreetly considered of his prudent mother, that ones natural climate and air (how temperate and pure soever) is subject to the imperfection of being uncapable of itself to make any man complete; study and instruction being of themselves dead things without Travel and Experience, the only means to polish the rudeness, and embellish the deformity both of minds and manners.  
At the publishing of these nuptials, the Court was enriched with Princes, Lords, and Knights, and pompously adorned with magnificent and glorious shows, in so much, as Parthenope (though always gentile) seemed now exceedingly to exceed herself, so as such as beheld her, wondered what wit could invent, or purse minister and supply the excellency and abundance of the Artifice, and stately curiosities that were there seen.  
The walls seen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such 〈…〉 expressible varieties of delightsome objects: In the morning the temples refounded with the harmonious noise of care-ravishing Music, and odoriferously smelled of sense-recreating and fragrant savours: In the afternoon their fair large streets strewed all over with rich Caroches and proud Coursers, made a most glorious show in the distinct medley of such a number of Nobility, who towards the setting of the sun, retired themselves under the jetting-out windows, and fair balcones of the King's Palace, enriched with a comely aspect of most beautiful Ladies, a sight which wrought in the Cavaliers an ardent desire to deserve the being eyed and gazed upon.  
The Sun (taken with the delightsomeness of these heroical exercises) was loath to withdraw himself to his accustomed rest, until he had seen broken by two hundred lances (that there were burst in shivers) two hundred of his more resplendent rays; the vapours of the earth, at that hour, serving for sticklers to divide it equally among the tilters.  
From the lists they betook themselves to the dancing hall, the first place of admittance granted novice-lovers in Cupid's Academy, and best affected solace of roseal and love-adoring years.  
In this happy time came Lucano to the Court, entertained by the King with particular favours, his worth speaking him the prime Peer of the Realm, but much more his graceful aspect and Princely presence, qualities forwardly recommended by Nature unto other men's favours. And having with all ceremonious reverence performed his duty to the Queen, he with a sweetly-respective-humbleness kissed the hand of the Princess. But while they interchangeably beheld one another, their eyes were at first sight so constantly fixed on each others countenance, as though their objects had been long before familiar to them, and seen elsewhere; for clearing themselves of which ambiguity, their rays as faithful Heralds by peering while here while there, question either the other about it. What the particular answers of either side returned were, is unknown; only most certain it is, that the scope of it was love, for to love they concluded.  
Now the daily news of the future bridegroom began to sound harsh in Corrianna's ear, all his rich presents were prized but as mere dross in her esteem, nor could she endure to give the Ambassadors as much as a look, that might any way promise them that she bore the least good liking to their embassy, her thoughts, affection, and will were in a moment quite altered, and if the feigning of herself sick had not deprived her of the sight of Lucano, she from feigning had become sick in good earnest, her body being already disposed to follow the indisposition of its mind, which was discovered by the evident signs of the alteration of her countenance, were it for the relation that is between it and the mind, or through her want of sleep, or rather because from that time her heart began to make an ominous presage of her ensuing disasters.  
The sports and revel were reduced all into one place, where in dancing were by them laid the ruinous foundation of their utter ruin. It never came within the reach of my knowledge, to discern which of them both was the first that made the motion of love, but I am persuaded that (their wounds being equal) both at the self same time sought for the proper salve to cure them with: yet I have heard the Princess herself often say, that she alone was in all the fault, and that the unfortunate Duke (foreseeing the future misfortunes) resolved to go on, rather because he would not have her believe that he little esteemed her, than because he was either inconsiderate, or any way uncapable of performing the office of a prudent and discreet Gentleman; Nature having foreripened his bosom, because the Destinies had over-forwarded his death. But where fortune prevails (it is most certain) that little avails there any humane judgement.  
Their flames then being thus reciprocally revealed, there wanted nothing now save the means and opportunity of attaining to the remedy; but because that place was inconvenient to treat thereof, and their conference often interrupted, (not without danger also of being observed) they resolved to talk further thereof in her chamber; yet dancing almost every evening, and holding on sometimes till the break of day, it behoved her to counterfeit herself sick whensoever she desired to enjoy his company.  
Paralette Duchess of Magnagrecia, a principal Lady and near kinswoman to Lucano, was her governess, her it behoved the Princess to win of her party, being she always lay in her chamber, and almost never departed out of her presence; yet was it a difficult thing (I will not say) to persuade her to be a furtherer of their desires (that being a thing impossible to be accomplished) but to prevail with her so far, as to procure her silence, she often menacing to reveal all to the King: Corianna for all that (certain of the contrary for the affectionate respect she bore her, and being howsoever resolved to go on, although the King himself had been already acquainted with it) little regarded her threats of discovering all; yet, finding her so averse to her desires, was enforced to disclose the whole tenor of her secrecies unto one of her women, of whose faithfulness she boldly presumed to be confident.  
At the hour appointed Lucano came, but then the Duchess slipped away, and the Gentlewoman, by casting a small cord out of the window, drew up a scaling lader, and fastened it to two iron hooks, by which means he climbed up into her chamber, where, after their complemental salutes, she thus bespoke him.  
My Lord Lucano, I know not what opinion you may entertain of me, who being already promised to a husband, have yet been the occasion of your coming into this place; I therefore beseech you (Sir) if such boldness be otherwise unexcusable, that you (out of your nobleness) would yet be pleased to extenuate it, by giving it some other name; and by so much the rather, that it proceeds from my overloving you, an extremity which constrains me to make you a participant of my dangers, as I am comforted with the hope of your being a reciprocal partaker of my love: The truth (in brief) is, that I desire to be yours, though I cannot (in that manner as I pretend to be) without a world of dangers, yet if the affection which you bear me be of such a carack, as that it weighs them not, I shall then think on the means that shall work our full content, and that is, to go with you whithersoever your discreet resolutions shall be pleased to guide us. But if in such a degree I possess not a room in your noble bosom, then do, I beseech you, but disclose it unto me, that I may then resolve of some means of weaning me from the thought of it.  
Much amazed remained Lucano at this so unlooked for a proposition, for that he a little before believed, he should safely arrive at the harbour of his desires without hazarding the vessel of his content and fortunes among the dangerous rocks of inconsiderate and desperate resolutions; love her he did very ardently, but yet not in such a way; nor imagined he, that she (who was already as good as married) had any such thought in her, persuading himself that one woman might very well be interessed in two men, under the distinct titles of law and love; and although such a thing in itself be indeed ill, yet thought he its badness much extenuated by its commonness, accidents of that quality happening every day unto thousands. But what could a generous heart, and a heart overflown with a deluge of love (upon such a sudden pinch) resolve of? Having therefore kissed her hand, he returned her this answer.  
Right noble Madame, I beseech your Highness not to conceive me to be either so discourteous in opinion, or so free from the engagements of affection, that I can pass any other judgement on you, than such as obliged duty and love (my only directors) address me unto, without either of which I have no power to judge at all: the one shows me, that I have neither state nor life to make account of, where I have the honour of, but simply serving you; much less the happiness of being blessed with the enjoying you, as out of the inexhaustible treasure of your goodness, you have (beyond all my merits) benignly offered me; the other is such, as I cannot properly term it extreme, for, the greatest extremes have their limits; whereas my love, being in me infinite, produceth its infinite effects; so as your Highness hath no reason to doubt, that I most loyally affect you, whom I have so great reason to love and honour. But as for that which concerns the accomplishment of our desires, I confess there appears no means of effecting it without evident danger both of life and honour, not in regard of myself (for my acquist hath no hazard equivalent, nor peril that can equal it) but in respect of your royal person. For, alas, me thinks I already see in it toilsomeness, travels, sufferings, a private life, a sparing, and peradventure a poor one too, being all of them conditions contrary to your birth and quality; hard, yea and impossible for the greatness of your mind to undergo and endure.  
The Princess well pleased with this his answer, (with a countenance that seemed to have expelled all clouds of mistrust from her till then-uncertain thoughts) thus cheerfully replied.  
My choicest and dearest-best of truest friends, I have now of you what I most desired, that is, the assuredness of your inclination, which facilitates unto me all the difficulties that you in any thing propose, such (how great soever) having no equality with my affection, which is sufficiently powerful to dispose of impossibility itself. That which compels me to tell you this, is, that in respect of my being already promised to a husband, it is expected I should go home to him; but then alas! to live so deprived of you will be impossible for me; and again to entertain you for my secret friend, honesty forbids me; besides, my resolution of choosing rather to dye than enjoy you in such a way. The sole inconvenience then, that will follow my determination, is, that I, for being promised unto an other, shall disobey my Father; but those that will follow the contrary will be many, as to dye, if either I enjoy you not at all, or but only for a short time, (for long I am sure you could not make your abode in Sicily) and that short time too, to the dishonour of myself, my father and husband; such a determination carries with it, I know, an appearance of no small mischiefs, which cannot indeed choose but prove such in effect. What then is our best course? to resolve of nothing? Shall we take instruction from those who perceiving imminent dangers to environ them on all sides, dare not, for mere fear of them, use the means to prevent or shun them, whilst their irresolution brings them on to encounter them to their far greater ruin? The faint-hearted man cannot suffer his wound to be touched, because he hath not the patience to brook the sense of the pain, until it grow to be so festered, that (in despite of his froward will) he must (at last) endure both searing and lancing-irons, yea and oftentimes the loss of the diseased member, and his life to boot. Matters of great consequence are never unattended on by dangers of all sides. There is no man that in a dangerous affair can make other than a dangerous resolution, but the less dangerous is (indeed) the better resolution, and the best the most sudden. Our case hath no resolution without danger, if we retrune not to our former state of freedom, and unlove again; But with what heart, I wonder, can you return to what you profess to have utterly relinquished? For my part I am certain, that I shall never be able to unsettle my affection; if then necessity require that you be mine, it will surely prove a lesser evil, that I enjoy you in certainty by flying away with you hence (it being so but one sole evil) than, being married to an other, to enjoy you in uncertainty with evident dangers of both life and honour.  
Lucano could have wished to have been at that instant rather amidst an army of enemies, than in the strait he was in, being well assured, that if once she grew to be obstinate, they could resolve of nothing but their utter ruin, nevertheless he thus courteously replies.  
Incomparable Lady! it lies not in the power of me, your devoted creature, to be otherwise than altogether obsequious unto your Highness' will and pleasure; since that two wills are incompatible in one only soul; much less fitting is it for me to advise you in an affair that tends to my own good and interest, which altogether debilitates my judgement, and clouds it with passion; yet, so you be but pleased to grant me leave to suspend our peculiar wills for the better accomplishing of our mutual desires, I trust I shall be then able in some sort to advise you, my interesses being surmounted by the feeling consideration I have of your utter undoing. To come to particulars were superfluous, for I am sure your Highness comprehends them better, than I know how to display them; or if I thought that you resolved of the contrary, for some reasons by me unconceived, I would then humbly beseech you not to demand my counsel in it, but to command me its execution, wherein I shall ever be most ready to obey you.  
At this the Princess, surprised with a scarlet blush, thus interrupted him.  
Ah Lncano, I see now you are not in love, for love is neither scrupulous nor forecasting; nay it hazards all, and is uncapable of other consideration than of itself. In which point she so enlarged herself, as Lncano would have had much ado to raze out of her conceit the wrong impression of his love; if (laying aside all persuasive reasons) he had not expressed his willingness of flying away with her; but how to effect it they knew not, doubting whether it were their better course to convey themselves privily away from Parthenope, or to stay till they went for Sicily, and so steal away by the way; judging the later to be the less dangerous, they agreed to cause to be packed up in a little farthel all their jewels and gold Coin, that so they might be ready for their embarking and flight.  
That night was employed in no other occasions, she pretending to extenuate her errors with the title of matrimony, besides their minds troubled with stinging considerations made them uncapable of delight: and though he thought to make authentic their resolved ruin with the sweetness of some momentary pleasure, yet would she by no means yet permit him, but promised him, that another night she would (as a loving wife) be conformable in all things to his discretion and will.  
Lover's most commonly at their parting from the objects of their loves have their hearts swollen with content, only Lucano parted from his with a mind overcharged with sad and heavy thoughts, yet were they so supported by the vigour of his youth, and repulsed by the power of his desires, that he made no great account of them, preferring the value of the reward before the greatness of the danger; it being the more confirmed, since the Princess, constant in her promise, was contented in the presence only of her Gentlewoman to receive the wedding-ring, not daring as then to acquaint therewith the Duchess as afterwards she did; which was the occasion that she (good Lady) kept her bed, deprived of the ability of stirring thence for a great while after.  
Fridone Duke of Daunia was then Lord high Constable of that kingdom, a Peer (next Lucano) the chief of the Realm, and this office of great authority, seconded by the greenness of his blooming years, made him become both rash and arrogant. 'tis true, that he was Lucano's own Cousin, but it is not the vicinity of blood that forms the unanimity of friends; for their Father's having long contended in law, left an hereditary ill-will rooted in the hearts of the sons. Also Fridone, besides this hereditary evil inclination, was of his own nature worse affected towards Lucano, whom he envied at the heart, because he saw him surpass all others in deserts, and excelling qualities. It happened as he passed one day by a shop, where were a making certain tassels for his horses, that he entered into it (not so much for any necessity or desire that he had to see them, as that he idly loitering, sought for any occasion to pass away the time with) where at first sight, he espied (lying upon a shelf) a bundle of silk, which he having snatched out of the hands of the shopkeeper that endeavoured to hide it from him, perceived to be a ladder wrought with marvellous curiosity; and imagining it was made of purpose for amorous thefts, he so earnestly solicited him both by fair words and menaces, that he got him at length to confess, it was the Duke of Lucania's, brought him the day before to be mended, where it was a little worn out by the edge of a window, Parted thence, he began to bethink himself, where Lucano could in so short a time have gotten him a Mistress; but finding no probability for his imagination to pitch on, he resolved to watch him narrowly at the next show at Court, being assured, that there he should discover what game his fancy flew at; yet found he himself (when he had in that behalf used all the best means he could) as far to seek as at first, Lucano showing himself still indifferent in his carriage to all, which so madded this other Lord, as he bit his lips for mere anger, accusing himself for an inapprehensive and simple fellow; yet still nevertheless persevering in observing him, the heedless Princess gave him occasion to build a great suspicion on the foundation of her carriage; for, being alured by the sweet bait of his love, and by their secret matrimonial knot, she might be easily perceived (by one that were a curious observer) to entertain Lucano with terms both of love and respect; whereupon the other's envy increasing, and his jealousy engendering an indelible hatred, (himself having had the boldness to love her too in private, and not enduring that another man should possess what he durst not somuch as aspire to) he resolved to sound the depth of his designs, by his nightly frequenting the walls of the Palace; which he had not done the second time, ere the Princess (under pretence of enjoying the prospect of the water, and of going privately to take the benefit of the fresh sea-aire in a Barge) was retired into a Castle situated on the seashore, the more conveniently to fly away from thence; having altered her first resolution upon the feeling of herself to be quick with child, and upon the coming of her pretended Bridegroom from Sicily in person to fetch her away.  
Lucano (in the mean time) had (unknown to his Mother) secretly mortgaged so much of his lands, as had raised him a great sum of money, wherewith, with the addition of his jewels and those of the Princess (over and besides some other few but precious household-furniture) he made account to lead a contented life, which may, perhaps, be lighted on by such, who depending on the supply of their own means, and living free from the tyranny of affections (especially of those two disquieting ones, Covetise and Ambition) have the fortune to live either alone, or in company conformable to their proper humour and ways. But alas! we see it but too frequently fall out, that humane designs prove altogether deceitful, when the execution of them wholly relies on the favour of content-thwarting fortune.  
The Duchess (who was Corrianna's governess) seeing her thus precipitate herself (the love she bore her having by this time wrought an alteration in her mind) determined, now that she saw no other remedy, to participate both of her weal and woe, especially seeing her to be with child, little (for her own particular) regarding how the world would censure her; yet repenting, though now too late, that she had not in time revealed all to the King, not without fearing the being punished for them all, in case she stayed behind them.  
Lucano glad of this company so necessary and acceptable to the Princess, by the means of a most faithful servant of his, provided himself of a pinnace, that by chance then anchored in the haven, ready to way anchor and hoist up sails for the East, and causing him to go and stow their baggage aboard her; he gave order that she should ride at anchor, just but so wide off the Castle, as she might well hear the signal that should be given, which was the throwing of a stone into the sea, in a direct line towards her.  
The Princess (immediately after midnight) came forth at a private door where Lucano stood all alone expecting her coming, and on her waited only the Duchess, her Gentlewoman and I loaden with a burden of apparel; scarce were we come to the door which stood to the seaward, when the Gentlewoman opening it, and looking out at it, all affrighted, screeched out to the Duke; Look to yourself my Lord! I see people approaching: And true it was indeed, for three men came making hastily towards us; upon this the Duke having made all of us to get speedily aboard (the pinnace being by this time already come without any signal at the noise of the unbolting of the door) knew one and the foremost of them to be Fridone.  
Now he (by virtue of his Constable's office) might come and go any where unquestioned, yet not without special occasion into that Castle, reserved then (being a time free from all suspicion of hostile invasion) to the sole use of the Princess, so as Lucano's coming thither was always by stealth, even so was he also fain to use the like means for his entrance, and now come near Lucano was by him thus greeted.  
What's, I pray you, the best news Cousin? And (if it may without offence be known) whither away wend you so late? To chastise thee for thy treachery (answered the other.) With that word their swords were suddenly drawn out, & Lucano set upon by three at once, made short work to rid himself of two of them, whose so unmanly assault he with two blows so repulsed, that they lay prostrate at his feet, without hope of ever rising more to requite the courtesy he had done them; being left now hand to hand with the Constable, he thrust at him with his point, wherewith he ran him quite through the body; with this he (feeling the pangs of death seize on him) advanced on so forwardly with a desperate passage, that his mortally-wounded breast came to touch his enemy's hilts, and then throwing away his sword, he with his dagger stabbed Lucano, that he fell to the ground, himself having the precedency of falling before him. All this was done in a moment, and I believe there passed not above four Stoccadoes of a side, but all mortal, for I having hastily laid aside my burden (accompanied with the Duke's servant) came in as speedily as I could to his succour, but found him grovelling on the ground with a whole stream of blood gushing out of his fainting body, yet was he alive, and as yet unforlorn of either sense or memory: for seeing us busied about him, he said, Leave off now, oh! leave off Carildo; sithence to employ any care about me is but labour lost; I am alas! a dead man; with that, laying his hand upon the wound in his throat, as though he would a little while have kept in his latest breath, he proceeded.  
Carildo, lead away the Princess and that quickly too, it will be easier for her to obtain her pardon and reconcilement, being a freewoman, than a prisoner, so shall she avoid the imminent calumny, and be timely delivered of her burden: Conjure her by virtue of our true immaculate love, to support with a generous courage this my untimely death: for my part I cannot choose but joy, that I die in her service. The supreme powers have been pleased to let her, by my death, see, that I was not worthy of her: Assure her also, that if in the other world I shall find any measure of compassion, I will then procure a licence to pass the Acheron, to come and hover about her; peradventure that favour will not be denied me, my case being but too compassionable, besides the privilege of lovers to continue after death in the perseverance of their affections. There is nothing that makes me diffident thereof, but the meanness of my deserts, which cannot choose but fall short of the merit of so great a glory; yet hope I with her merits help to obtain it, beauty being such a power, as it once forced Pluto to wander out of his infernal dominions. And to the end she be not affrighted, to see me appear all imbathed in blood; tell her I will come transformed into a gentle breath of wind, and will, without either affrighting or annoying her, softly steal under her veil, and so solace and sport myself in her beloved bosom, which as oft as she feels, tell her it is I, and pray her to receive me joyfully: Tell her also—. But here his spirits failing him, his last will remained unexpressed, to my so great grief, that I had undoubtedly killed myself in the place, had I not more dearly tendered my Lady's welfare, than my own despised life. But now, danger not affording us the leisure to vent our grief in tears, I ran to call away the mariners, with an intention to bear him away with us whatsoever came on't; when my companion coming running after me hastily, told me he descried people approaching, and true it was indeed. Wherefore we highed us aboard, crying out to the mariners to launch out, which they suddenly did, their pinnace being manned with fourteen good Oars.  
The Princess having heard the clashing of the swords, and comprehending (by our fear, by our being alone, and by our faces all besmeared with the blood that spouted out of the Duke's throat) the disaster that had befallen us, incontinently swooned; the woeful-hearted Duchess, in a plight not much better, used for reviving her the best means she could, which soon after successfully effected, she, all enraged with passion upon her coming again to herself, burst out into these speeches.  
And what, a God's name, mean you to do? to contend with the cruelty of fortune and to overcome it? or to procure me a sensibility, thereby to make me become more lively sensible of death? Carildo! how left you Lucano? ay, miserable wretch, had not the power to find out on a sudden fit words to sweeten so great a bitterness; whereupon she seeing me so silent, asked me if he were dead? But I, weeping afresh, knew not how to express so dolorous an affirmative; whereat tearing her hair and face, she proceeded.  
Hast thou then so forsaken me Lucano? No, no, it is indeed I that have forsaken thee; Pardon me, oh pardon me! I beseech thee my dearest lover, when once I come again where thou art, I will never leave thee more, but will ever follow thee, and be anew joined inseparably unto thee; With this she would have desperately flung herself headlong into the sea, had not her garments, the tackle of the Bark, and all we that stood about her, hindered her from executing her so desperate an intention.  
The Duchess supporting her between her arms, comforted her the best she could; but alas! possibility itself hath no possible arguments available in extreme calamities; only this one good effect it wrought, (which was) the procuring her to be silent; so as the mariners, understanding little or nothing of our language, could not comprehend our case or being: And although the suddenness (at first, and afterwards the renewing) of our lamentations made them curious in better observing of both our words and actions, yet did the ignorance of both the fact and persons keep them afar off from the conjecture of the truth. She in the mean time never ceased from weeping, depriving herself of all refreshing & refection, either of sleep or sustenance, so as her body was reduced to such a weakness, and her throat waxen so dry, that she was scarceable to speak any more; yet did she, for all this, pronounce the name of Lucano, with such a compassion-meriting passion, as was able to enforce even cruelty itself to bear a share in her sorrows.  
Grieved to the heart was the good Duchess to see her in so woeful a plight, yet seeing she could not persuade her to use any restorative means to her body (already disposed to pine itself away) she bethought herself to assay if she could any way cheer up her drooping spirits with the more sovereign medicines of the mind; wherefore with a no less ardent than compassionable affection she thus bespoke her.  
Madame! the time now presents you with an occasion to manifest the greatness of your worth; oh than I beseech you be but pleased to consider, that Nature having bestowed on you a talon larger than that of any other woman, as you may therefore jusly esteem yourself to be singular among all those of your sex, so may she as justly accuse you to be above all other women living singularly ingrate, if you make not an opportune use of her benefits. True it is, that your crosses exceed those of any one of your sex, nay though all their several disasters were added together, yet could they not amount to the sum of yours; for, you have not only lost your husband, but also utterly abandoned your country, your fortunes, your state and parents: yet (me thinks) that she that had the resolute boldness to hazard such inestimable losses, should not want the courage to endure and slight them with a magnanimous patience; Fortunes game, Madame, is like that of dicing, at which no body should venture other than such a stake as he cared not whether he won or lost, yours was (I confess) an unlucky cast; nor is it any marvel that your loss was multiplied upon the by, since that your hazard was a thousand to one. But will it not be yet worse, if you, having lost that thousand, should merely, out of a desperate folly, throw away all the rest of your stock, without reserving any thing, if not to hazard another time at a more indifferent lay; yet, at least wise, for settling the foundation of some better advised course of life? Remember Madame, I beseech you, that the afflictions which the Gods send us should serve us (and you in particular) for favourable admonitions, since they are the means of recalling us into their love and favour; which if they seem so grievous unto you, now that they are but the emblems of their anger; how terrible will they then appear, when they shall be transformed into the effects of their unappeasable fury? It lies, you know, in their power to reduce you to a more miserable plight than you yet are in. They have not their hands so shortened as that they cannot lengthen them at their pleasures: Although we cannot with the weak eyes of humane judgement discover the manner how, which is the only argument that makes for your comfort. But if for your corporal crosses you will needs have a corporal comfort, then do but look into yourself, and remember, that you are a bearer of a burden that will doubtless prove an abortive, if you in time desist not from your grieving, fasting and watching. up, up, dear Madame, and be confident, that if worldly fortune hath disfavoured you, the heavenly will not fail to glance a favourable look on your distressed state, presupposed, that you must both aspire to, and expect it. Lucano, whose soul is, I am sure, ever present with you, cannot choose but be much aggrieved at your so little esteeming that dear pledge of his love he left you. Do him not then (oh do him not) such an injury; he already pretends to live again to you in another quality; and yet you, because you cannot enjoy him alive that way that you would, will in another quality put him to death again in the person of another. This the Duchess told her in so gentle, and yet feeling a manner of delivery, that the Princess recollected all her weak powers to return her this answer.  
Mother, the reasons of one that comforts are ever the same, though the griefs of the afflicted be never so different; if I had but one sole loss, and one only grief, as I have, the Gods know, but too too many of either, I am persuaded you would still comfort me with the self same arguments; as indeed the intellect hath not conceits proper for all misfortunes, nor can one and the same salve serve to cure all manner of sores; some afflictions there are, that admit of no consolation, for want of comfort proper and proportionable to their peculiar degrees; make trial of it in mine, and you shall see, that every one is of itself worthy of those reasons you infer for all.  
Can there any grief come nearer ones heart, than the loss of ones country? how many have chosen to die miserably in it, rather than to live any where else? Our goods and means, are not they numbered among our chiefest felicities? yet alas! I have lost them all. Now for my state and quality, what woman will not (for this only respect) deem me the most unfortunate of my sex, that am from an adored Queen become an ordinary, unknown, yea and disrespected woman? And to come to my parents, what greater misery can there be imagined, than to lose the loving care of a provident Father, and the sweet comfort and charilytender affection of a dear Mother, and to remain an orphan deprived of the privilege of ever more invoking those endeared names? then for my husband; 'tis, I grant, to a disaffecting wife, a happiness to be rid of a bad husband; but otherwise, where there is true, real, indissoluble, and reciprocal love, 'tis a misery that cannot be paralleled. The loss of country, means, fortunes, state, dignity, and parents, bring with them a multitude of heart-stinging anguishes, but yet with limits, because time may wear them all away; but the loss of a loving and a deserving husband (being withal a man every way most worthy and accomplished) is to an affecting wife the sum of all misfortunes, in so much as that she is not able to endure the want of him, without ever leading an ever-dying-life: Moreover yet, if things in this world be not such as they seem, but such as we imagine them to be, especially in subjects of extreme affection, then certainly my misfortunes far surpass those of all others, since for the enjoying of a husband agreeable to my own hearts desire, I esteemed it an happiness to become unhappy with the loss of my country, means, dignity, fortunes, state and parents; nay I would have been contented to have lost more too, had I but had more to lose. (Here the Duchess would wilingly have replied, but she commanding her silence proceeded.) Besides all this, I have lost mine honour, oh that mine inestimable jewel mine honour! which you have not as yet reckoned, supposing, perhaps, that for being placed among imaginary things, it was not at all to be esteemed of; but in my case, my disobedience to my Father, my breach of a marriage concluded on my own word, and my flight from my native country, have all relation to the rule of common honour, against which I have not imaginarily but really offended.  
As for the talon you say Nature hath bestowed on me, I am full little (God wot) beholding to her for it: Since privileged spirits have (besides the acuteness of the understanding) an equal quickness of sensibility, so as whoso is most apprehensive, is likewise most sensible: Again, to contrast with crosses and to overcome them, proceeds not from the privilege of Nature, but from an habit acquired by us; which if I own (as it is not likely, since I have not been yet much enured to ill fortune) I then have it among so many thorns, that it is a great marvel, if it be not by this time torn to pieces.  
To game with-fortune is the trade of all that live, so to be of the losing hand is ordinary, but yet not to be quite undone; for that is incident only to persons extraordinary as I am, Princes seldom lose without being utterly ruined: yet should I not be (for all that) much blamed for hazarding so much as I did, for great and right precious was the stake that I hoped to win, which cannot be valued either by quantity or weight, One precious jewel is more prized than many masses of gold.  
Now for what concerns the Gods, I know not how to answer you, for I neither know nor comprehend their ways; no, I have (I confess) but too much strayed besides them, yet if their mercies exceed our offences, wherefore have they not then exceeded mine? They will raise me up (you will say) and again restore me to my former state! In good time; but if I voluntarily forsook it for Lucano's sake, and they taken him from me, how can they then any way ease my grief, seeing he is the only thing I want and desire? Is their Omnipotency (can you tell me) so regulated, as to extend even to contradictories? Can they let me have him in the same instant both dead and alive? More she would have spoken, but the good Duchess well knowing that extreme passions minister unwholesome conceits, interrupted her, by inferring consolative reasons; and she after patiently listening unto her, finding herself at length convicted with her discreet arguments, returned to tell her.  
Mother, the Gods are not so firmly bound by the unabsolveable oaths they vow by the infernal Lake, as you have bound me to let him live to me, upon the interest of the burden I go now with child of. Live than I will, that he may lead a living, and I an ever-dying life, among perpetual tears in eternal sorrows. Here she thought to have proceeded further, thereby to have vented out her grief, but the watery humour abundantly flowing from her eyes, so suffocated her words as she could not.  
In the evening she was persuaded to taste of some restorative conserveses, continuing so to do the other days following, until the mariners touched in this Island to refresh themselves. But then she leaving us aboard with the goods, attended only by her women, would by all means go ashore; where espying (by chance) the cave you saw, she boldly entered it, and out of the little esteem she had any more now of her life, a desire took her to settle her abode there, for that she judged it a place most proper to live concealed in.  
The mariners therefore, after being largely rewarded, were licenced, and my fellow-servant and I (necessity being our crafts-master) hewed out the inside of the cave, and contrived it into divers convenient rooms that you yet saw not; on its backside we erected a wall, covered so artificially with brambles and briers, as no man would imagine to be there either house or garden. As soon as we were thus accommodated, the Duchess Lucano's man, clad in a pilgrim's habit, to Parthenope, to learn out what succeeded after our departure, whilst we with extreme patience endeavoured to moderate the extreme impatience of the Princess, who calling me (one day) unto her, would needs know of me, if Lucano spoke any thing of her as he lay dying; for, all that while had not I related any of his speeches, for fear of augmenting her afflictions: But now holding myself obliged in conscience to perform the will of the dead, I imparted her all he had enjoined me to tell her. A strange thing it was, to see what a sudden effect it wrought in her. She searched in every corner of the cave, without finding the least breath of wind, the air being so calm, as there was not a leaf that stirred; till come to the entry door, she there felt a gentle blast of air, (occasioned by some subtle exhalation, that arising there, were kept in by the air, which being issued from the concavous content of the cave whirled round in that straight; for being so beaten back as it could not get out, but was forced to turn back again, converted into a little breath of wind through the door where the Princess stood) which she with opened arms welcomed, conceiting, that she embraced Lucano; accompanying this act with tears and words so compassionable, as none of us could refrain from weeping with her; this imagination nourishing her so efficaciously, as (I am confidently persuaded) that but for it she had been dead ere this time.  
Moreover, she happening sometimes to dream that Lucano was not dead, we made a show of believing it, inferring, that the self same visions are never reiterated but in dreams unquestionably true and certain, the souls of lovers communicating their plights and beings one to another by natural (though unknown) ways, so persuading her upon this uncertainty to suspend the certainty of her grief, till the return of Olmiro: (for such is the name of Lucano's servant whom we expect from Parthenope.) True it is, that then peradventure we shall be in a worse case than now we are in, being he can bring us no other news, than such as shall augment our griefs; yet shall we then (maugre the worst that can befall us) remove from hence, which will prove no little breathing to the suffocation of our so grievous disasters.  
Much did the good old Gentleman commiserate the so miserable case of so worthy a Princess, and fain would have been a furtherer in the employment of removing her thence, but that he saw no means of effecting it till Olmiro's return; yet, but that a greater tie of duty called him thence, he had stayed there of purpose to expect the opportunity of serving her: Having therefore kindly thanked Carildo, he told him, he was sorry at the heart for the ill-fortunes of so great a Princess, and the more for her being (until the hearing of more certain news) uncapable of resolving how to dispose of herself; howbeit he hoped that his return would be in a time convenient enough to dedicate to her his service, which he unfeignedly meant to perform, it being a case that bound any Gentleman to put a helping hand unto; here observing Carildo become a glad man at his offer, he on and told him, that it behoved him of necessity to strike over into Greece for a certain affair which would not detain him above two or three months time, and that if it stood with the conveniency of his Lady's service to stay there but for that small while, he would come and serve her in all things, especially in removing her from that most noisome habitation so obnoxious to her health, and would wait on her whithersoever she pleased to go: And (withal) would take on him as though he came thither accidentally, and also (for giving her no cause of other suspicion) attend him without the cave, that so gotten out thence they might confer, and resolve of what should be done.  
Full well pleased was Carildo with what they agreed on, conceiting, that the heavens had sent thither that Gentleman: (for years and gravity fittest of any man for such an employment) yet for his better assurance thereof (after yielding him respective thanks) he craved his name; which not being denied him, and to him by report well known (as it is a thing ordinary to know the names of great persons eminent in the Courts of Princes) he desired to kiss his hand.  
Continuing reciprocally in courteous language each to other, they walked on till they entered into a very pleasing site for prospect, where, on the brow of a little hillock, stood erected an homely house, and close by it a fair Temple, encircled all about with meadows and a delightsome shady grove; here it was that the Druide dwelled, and here took Carildo his leave, whose daily exercise was to go see if any Vessel came thither from the West, to the satisfaction of the impatient Princess.  
Now the way to get up to the hill passed through the wood, on the one side whereof stood erected under a lofty Sycamore-tree the Image of jove the preserver, and on the other one of Venus with her Son; in the shade of the tree at the foot of the Goddess, the Gent: (who was the good old Count of Bona) might see, sleeping with his face upwards, a goodly and well-featured young Knight, by sight under seventeen years of age, his shield painted over with a violet-brown, besprinkled with tears rested on the footstall of the statue; and not far thence stood grazing a horse of such perfections, as nothing that tended to singularity was wanting in him. He was of colour bay, with leg, tail, and mane black, daintily crisped and plaited with silk, his head little and lean, full of veins and nerves, was beautified with a white star in the forehead, and adorned with short thin pricked up ears, and a goatish large sparkling eye, his nostrils were flaggy and so puffed out, as there lay discovered to the beholders eye their fiery coloured insides, and withal wide enough to evaporate the often fumes of his proud lungs; his mouth ragged, full of thick foam ever champing on the Bit, his neck short, and eminently hooked in the bent of its crest; broad and ample was his breast, his back short and dented down to his very tail, his crupper large and fleshy, his legs strait and lean with one white foot, a short pastern with a hard, high concavous, and round huff.  
The sight of the horse, and the well-promising demeanour of the Squire that stood near him, bred in the Count a curiosity of knowing his Master's name, which after saluting him he demanded. I am sorry Sir, (answered him the Squire) that I may not obey you, but hope the command imposed on me to conceal it, will free me from the censure of behaving myself unmannerly to-you-wards, with this much only I can acquaint you, that he is of a remote country, and travels abroad guided by a desperate melancholy; something more he would have said, but stopped his speech, when he saw the Count observe the Druide descending with a Gentleman in his company, who seemed to contend as they came, the Druide with grave gestures, the Gentleman with vehement but humble ones. The Count thought it unfitting to intrude (as then) into their company, seeing them so serious in a discourse (to his guessing) very important; but retiring behind a fir-bush, caused the Squires to do the like.  
Being come before the Image, they adored it, where afterwards espying the young Knight that lay asleep, and observing him a while to their wonder, they passed-on farther without awaking him. What the two discoursed of, these could not overhear, till a pretty while after, their passion transporting them to high words.  
Sithence you then will not (said the Druide) be satisfied with what's reason, I cannot help it; And doth your Highness (answered the Gent.) call it reason to be confined here without having regard to what you should? And to what (replied he) should I have a regard to, but to myself? Marry to these (said the other) whose weal and woe depends solely on your Highness; or if so great a tie of duty cannot yet prevail with you, (since you pretend to be quite stripped of all humane affections) yet let the duty which you owe the Gods, work something on you, who preordained you should be borne a Prince, to govern the people committed to your charge, a charge which you without their consent cannot lay by, no more than they may without your assent accept of any other Sovereign Lord. And thus much my duty binds me to tell you; nor pretend I hereby to persuade you to give over this kind of life, which (you say) is so pleasing unto you, though (to the end it may prove yet more delightsome by your continuing it without either scruple of conscience or vexation of spirit) I can do no less than beseech you to but only return home to comfort the King your Father; and then (having once settled the Realm-affairs) either to return hither, or lead a solitary life there, as shall best suit with your liking: what the answer was could not be understood, because in respect of their discoasting them, these could not (being so far off them) hear other than the confused sound of their voices, so as the Count (become curious by reason of what he had heard) had now a great desire to know who he was, thinking the extremes to be passing strange between a populous court and pensive solitariness, a spacious Kingdom and an homely hermitage. Whilst in this manner reasoning with himself he traced him with an observant eye, he might see him, having taken in hand a book from under his arm, part from the Gent: who the same very way returned much confused in mind. The Count stepping out to go meet him, they courteously saluted each other, and the Gent: understanding the manner of his landing in that Island, bade him be of good comfort, with assuring him, that he could not be unsupplied with shipping by such time as, for refreshing himself after his sea-sufferings, he had made a competent abode in that place, which though it were remote and but a kind of an hermitage, was yet sufficiently commodious to entertain Cavaliers, for which sole end it was builded: The Count (well pleased to find in such a place such unexpected courtesy) said unto him: Me thinks (Sir) this hermitage hath a society convenient to itself, which is the variety of sites, and objects therein, that here all about are to be seen, effects of industry and invention more than ordinary; which induce me to believe, that the religious Founder thereof hath fashioned out the rungs of a ladder to heaven by these of a foreseeing and quick-witted humanity, the means of enjoying both the one life and th' other. I conceive not what it is that you mean (answered him the Gent:) sithence that though the love to serve the Gods ought indeed to spring from the knowledge of things, yet believe I not those things to be (for all that) humane, especially if it be true that our election depends not immediately on us, but on him that calls us; howsoever it be, such an election should have wings to raise us to heaven without any mixture of terrene causes, and without making one and the same things serve both for cart and wheel. By all this meant the Gentleman the Druid's person, which (because the Count well conceived him not) occasioned between them a long dispute. The first maintained, that the vocation of such was no true calling, who either wearied with painstaking, or forsaken of their pleasures, make choice of a solitary life; such motions proceeding neither from the spirit, nor from any desire of serving the Gods, but either from the desire of repose, or from the irksomeness of not being able to satisfy their own corrupt affections; which the Count opposing not, only added, that the Gods call men sundry ways, and that that of worldly interesses manifested their power in converting what was ill into good. But the Gentleman (whose mind was transported with passion) not able to contain himself within the compass of generalities, said unto him; And would you think such a vocation befitting a Prince, who being tied in duty to procure the welfare of his Father and Country, abandons both the one and the other, merely out of a frantic melancholy for his love's proving unfortunate. But the Count not resolving him, but demanding such an example: I will (answered the other) satisfy you willingly, hoping that you also will (since the Gods have conducted you hither) satisfy the honest desire I have to be by you assisted in so pious a work, sithence the Druide that you saw, is he, who (being deceived in his conceits) goes about to cover his affects with the pretext of serving the Gods, pretending that charity towards himself which he denies to others, like those who being overcharged with debts for fear of disincommodating themselves, pay not one of their creditors though he starved for want of it; with this, taking him gently by the hand, he proceeded.  
I beseech you (kind Sir) let us retire to yonder shade, where you shall be fully informed of our case and being, to the end, that knowing us you may be moved to take compassion of him, me, and infinite others, who bear a share in his sufferings; I am confident that you (worthy Sir) may with the authority of your reverend aspect and presence much further my charge, it being impossible that the reverence of hoary age work not much in a young Prince, already, by reason both persuaded and convicted: As for time and opportunity to accomplish it, we shall not miss of that, it being his ordinary use to walk through this grove for the preservation of his bodily health, though it conduce nothing to that of the spirit, which the Count, not contradicting, leaving his Squire to accompany the other, sat him down by him to hear his story.  
The young Knight (in the mean time) overwearied with past watchings, continued his sleep, arrived-upon unexpectedly by a Lady, both for complexion, beautiful comeliness, and comely beauty worthy to be numbered among the fairest; she was clothed in a sky-coloured, silk gown embroidered with gold and pearl, which she wore after the fashion most used by Nymphs, tucked up with a rich girdle about her slender waste, so as there lay discovered to the eye her silvered buskins, fastened with ties of ribbon, which in the form e of leaves encircled in the midst of them a little rose of diamonds; her breast sparingly discovered, dispersed not elsewhere the beholder's sight, but engrossed it wholly to itself, without giving it any occasion to repent its employment; the parts subject to excellency and defect indifferently appearing; her hair neatly smoothed but dishevelled, made disorder become so seemly and delightsome, that never any order could boast of such passing seemliness: There encompassed them for honour (for, for ornament themselves were their sole adorners) a gay and odoriferous garland: Her dainty hands (the amorous hooks of hearts) discovered transparently, how slender-boned they were, fleshed tender, soft, and almost unpalpable; exquisitely proportioned and long, delicately hilly, and lasciviously dimpled, adorned with golden bracelets, interlaced with clasps that hooked together hearts inlaid with diamonds. She was thither come all alone, carrying with her a basket of Roses, and in a little silver vessel quick embers. The sight of the Knight stayed her not from adorning with her flowers the Goddess and her little one, nor yet from burning some of her sweet incense, the odoriferous fume wherofawoke him; so as rising from off the ground, and gazing on her with astonishment, he could hardly (as he had reason for it) believe himself; opening therefore his eyes better (and then yet more fixed in his error) he opened their sluices, and with a flood of tears, burst her out these speeches.  
Oh with what words should I thank you, the Lady of my life, Liarta, who having already but too much obliged me whilst you lived a mortal, are (now that you are celestial) come to undo me with your meritable favours? Is it possible that my plaint could mount so high, and move you, enthroned among the glory of the happy, to come and commentate my griefs? Which said, he (rapt with a conjugal love) ran to embrace her, which she avoiding, he spoke on; And will you not then (dear life of my soul) permit me to clasp you in my unfortunate arms? No: I am sure you cannot, for I know you to be unpalpable; yet let me enfold and hold within the circle of my arms this faite Image, which though dead to the world, lives yet in the centre of my heart; with that offering again to embrace her, and she shunning him as before.  
I perceive it is not then true (proceeded he) that to the blessed spirits, together with the affects of virtue, doth (for their greater bliss and glory) remain the memory of things past; for then (I am sure) you would not have forgotten your Almadero: Or was there perhaps together with your mortal body buried my immortal love, as unworthy to be blessed with you in heaven, to make me only among all upon earth most miserable and unfortunate? What! are souls dumb, or can they not distinguish words as well as represent personages? But (be it as it be will) I am sure I see you, in whose fair countenance I yet discern the lilies I so esteemed; but ah! what is become of the roses? alas! death hath gathered them off. Which the Lady with a beck of her head denying, and gently smiling, showed him those of the Goddess. When he (being now come to himself somewhat better) perceived she was not indeed the same he believed her to be, and would therefore have craved her humble pardon, but so suddenly lost both his speech and conceit, that he could not accomplish his intent.  
She that attentively had observed him in all his deportments, and no less liking his person than pitying his passion, returned him this answer. I am not (gentle Sir) the Lady you take me for, since I have a real body, am yet a woman and live; nor enjoy I ought that is celestial, save the sole hope of this Goddess. I am very sorry that I awoke you, and crave you pardon for it, but being come hither expressly to adore the Goddess, I could do no less than offer her my accustomed oblations.  
The Knight with a greedy eye examining in her all those beauties that in a fair woman could be desired, (dispensing withal now, if not forgetting, his loyal affection to his Liarta) makes her this reply.  
The favour (fair Lady) that I receive from you, is of itself too great to be merited, without the unexpressible addition of these your-to-me-too-too-courteous satisfactions: yet wonder I not thereat, knowing that as the Gods extend not their liberality unto us according to our dignity, but conformable to their abundant benignity, so cannot those divine beauties of yours, choose but participate of the self same nature, which if when unemployed it excel the loftiest imaginations, will (no doubt) when it is well employed surpass all humane merit; both courtesy and beauty in you with equal pace march on to exceedingness; so as I being too feeble-eyed to behold the shining splendour of the one, am dazzled with the glittering rays of the other, nor can I possibly correspond with any parity an imparity so discorrespondent; for, having been already dazzled with the like beams, I find myself so weak-sighted, that my very intellect being, together with my senses and optic organs enfeebled, cannot express, nor fully discern the good which in its ill it receiveth: yet will I not (for all that) forbear to acknowledge, merely out of my being sensible of the greatness of your merits, how deeply I am engaged unto you; to the end you may both know me to be yours, and withal (so you be pleased so much to honour me) declare me being such for your Knight and servant.  
The Lady (who by nature was endued with a vivacity disposed to a pause-not-intermitting-motion) impatient at so long a discourse, would gladly have many times interrupted him, being inclined rather to speak than hear; but restrained or rather curbed by a certain unknown force, she stood patiently-silent, no otherwise than doth a generous Courser, who though he bite and champ the Bit, refuseth not (for all that) to obey his rider. The sight of this gentle Knight disliked her not, though she yet liked not well the passion of his old affection, so as making as though she meant to turn from him with an odd kind of between an amorous and disdainful look, she would oft move her lips, eyes, and body in the action of parting, whilst part yet she neither could nor would. Till observing him afterwards silently expect what she would say, and his discourses (contrary to his custom) seem short unto her, herself withal become now tongue-tied with new affects, & (for so being new) undigested.  
Sir Knight (said she) the freeness of your speech, and your language itself speak you a stranger, in respect whereof though you have not a little offended me, yet judge I you worthy of both excuse and pardon: For know (Sir) that wives live in this Country subject to laws not common, whilst husbands live after the particular laws of their own passionate-unjust wills; Indeed the maids that live free from them, observe no other law than that common one of honesty, conserving themselves (like stars in all aspects) entirely beautiful; whereas the married women have their wanes in the aspects of their husbands, from whom proceed both their light and the manner of using it: For my part (Sir) I am a married woman, and though living in a Country favourable to women, yet with a husband disfavourable to a wife; his age and my youth, his jealousy and my honesty, with other contrary conditions (which for modesty's cause I conceal) have occasioned many wanes, but many more eclipses to my liberty; your thus-entertaining me therefore with private conference is so far from steeding me, that on the contrary it would much prejudice me, if any body but saw you here with me, since your qualities aswell by women as by men will ever presuppose arguments of suspicion, if not of blame, especially in regard of me, who (for many respects) might have reason to love any other than the Prince my husband. As for your courteous proffers, I lovingly thank you for them, and to rid from you all suspicion of my being discourteous unto you, I kindly and gratefully accept your good will, and so commending you to the Gods, I am gone: Yet as though she had been nailed to the earth, stirred never a foot, but standing with her eyes immovably fixed on those of the Knight, seemed to expect rather a reply than a farewell.  
Behold we Liarta, before so heavily sighed for, now quite forgotten, yea and of a spirit once reputed constant; the ashes (in fine) burn not, they are no more than the memorial and marks of an extinguished fire, and death is no progress but an end of love, whose object are neither carcases nor buried bones, but a living body, the rather if it be well featured and much more if accompanied with a gentle mind, nay though it be such as participates of neither, yet shall it suffice that it be endued with affections proportionate to the nature or (at leastwise to the) imagination of the lover. But to thee deceased Liarta what imports all this? who if thou hast now no more being (as fools argue) thou hast surely than no organs to express thy grief by; or if thou livest (as 'tis most certain thou dost) than questionless thy present being (freed from the rags of flesh) cares no more for our materialities; but being united to that first essence, enjoys in a pure way of action the purity of actions, loathing now what it formerly loved in the material being of thy senses, so that since there now remains with thee no other love, than such as wholly conforms itself with the effect of the spirit and virtue, thou scorn and abhorrest the other; and now that thou art blessed, grievest only, that he (being yet earthly and mud) doth wallow so in earth. But return we now to the Knight, who by the words & actions of the Princess was fatally caught, insomuch as quite altering his purpose and designs, he (resolved now both to love and wait on her) thus bespoke her.  
The heavens forbid (Madame) that I who was borne to serve you, should ever be the occasion of your least discontent. The duty of a Cavalier is not to ease but to remove and rid the afflicted from misery. How then can I endure, that you so deserving should be so unworthily dealt withal, whilst I more than any other am obliged to procure your content? It was no vulgar fortune (sweetest Madame) that conducted me hither, but that eternal moderatrix, to the end your wants might by my means be supplied, since Nature made me a King to attempt it, dignity a Knight to effect it, and love an Orator to crave it at the hands of your promissing-goodness: Let not your husband's jealousy any whit dismay you, for I will protect you both against him and all the world. Yet if you will not either credit or favour me for the present, vouchsafe then (I beg of you) to command my stay here, till such time as after being ascertained of both my quality and affection, you may be pleased by accepting my service, to favour my desires.  
The title of King wrought on the Princess inclination as much (if not more) than the beauty and youth of this young Knight, but espying (with that) from a far off the servants that came for her; My Lord (said she) the time permits me not to answer you, see yonder where my folk come, I pray you let them not see you, but lay yourself down distended as you were. For the rest, since I may not pretend any authority over you, you may do what suits best with your own liking.  
The Knight well comprehending that these speeches tended not to a refusal (to obey her) squatted close to the ground, following her nevertheless with his eyes as far as he could see her, and fixing her shape and gesture so deep in his thoughts, as he had not for a good while the power to get up, affording thereby leisure to the Cavaliers (whom we left sitting under the trees shade) to finish their discourse.  
By this time they two were retired to a place, whence they might (for doubt of being surprised by the Druide) see him as he returned; and the Squires having withdrawn themselves, afforded them the conveniency and leisure of speaking freely; whereupon the other (losing no time) said unto the Count; I shall (noble Sir) recite you the strangest story that ever you heard or read of; wherein you may observe truly miserable effects, occasioned by youthful passions, imaginations that corrupt health, melancholy that physic abhors, and in these the occasion too that I have to find myself aggrieved: Be then (Sir) pleased to understand, that among the Royal and Sovereign Scepter-swayers of no less fair than fertile Albion, one of them is entitled King of Venedotia, who by a fair and virtuous wife had issue three sons and two daughters, whose comeliness of personage and surpassing beauties were such, as although the Island for these endowments beareth away the bell from all the people of the world, and Venedotia from the rest of the whole Island, yet did the Royal House as far again surpass that way all the Families of that Kingdom, as the condition of a Subject is exceeded by one who borne to superiority, bears the Royal thereof, which are titles and Crowns. The elder they waxed in years the more grew they (though borne all of one and the same body, and sprung all from one and the same seed, to differ in qualities, affections, and inclinations, to falsify the common tenant, that arguments of the body can determine any one's wit and disposition: virtues and vices being here individually divided; insomuch, as, look what portion of good was owned by some of them, even so much possessed the others of evil, and because there was a disparity in the number, badness would (without any nay) seize on the greater part, so as two of them being wholly inclined to virtue, the other three gave themselves altogether over to all lewdness and dishonest abominations. The bringing up of them was in every respect equal, or if otherwise, yet but so much unequal or different as was due to the difference of the disequality of the sexes, since for the rest, as time, direction, and years, the one enjoyed not any privilege more than the other: Their virtuous Father thinking it unfitting to be partial in the breeding of his children, sithence Nature had given them him without partiality in bringing them into the world.  
The last borne among the males was called Feredo, the very same you (in a Druid's habit) saw with me erewhiles; of the other two, the firstborn was named Edmondo, the other Galfrido. Scarce was Feredo full eighteen years of age, when Gelinda his eldest sister fell in love with him, whilst Edmondo and Galfrido (blinded with the like affection) doted on their younger sister named Adeligia. Full glad was the King to see his children so loving each to other, whilst he (good man) was far mistaken, for conceiving himself blessed in that, which made him afterwards an example of misery to all Fathers.  
Gelinda nourished her fire so covertly that none could perceive it, nor durst she indeed discover it to her brother, whose integrity (which was a natural inclination to goodness) curbed if not terrified her, besides her own conscience accusing her of the deformity of her love. ●●ine would she have shaken it off, when it showing her the sweets of its delights, ever also multiplied by imagination, deprived her of the sight of her internal lights; no servant had Feredo more diligent about him than was his sister; for were he disposed to exercise himself in any feats of Chivalry, his officious sister (not trusting his Squires) would with her own hands arm him; if armed he happened to be before, she (forsooth) must go ●●ite him; and if disarmed, 'twas she that rubbed and dried him; were he 〈…〉 ride a hunting, she would never leave him, but be his perpetual companion; no Roebuck nor Greyhound was to be found, that for velocity surpassed her or her swift Courser: no precipice could stop her career; If descending she were, she seemed to precipitate; if running, to flee: In affronting wild beasts she always prevented him, though then ever with a panting heart too, for being still jealous and fearful of her own in another's life. In fine, she so behaved herself, that Feredo had been stupid, if he had not perceived the occasion of all these courtesies, instructed therein no more now by a vulgar prudence, but by the love of the other two brothers towards Adeligia; for which he abhorring them, abhorred also Gelinda for the self same regard, conceiting with himself, that the very thought of an affection so abominable was able to attaint him with guiltiness. For the first remedy, he determined to shun her society, without taking on him to conceive her designs; so as he continued to ride a hunting, but without her company; whereat when he saw her grieve, he excused himself with displaying before her the inconvenience that time had laid before his consideration, how that a Princess ambuscadoed between hunters and savage beasts, incurred continually manifest hazard of her life; beseeching her therefore to stay at home; or if she would needs go, he wished it might be when her mother and sister went. This so over-chary circumspection pleased not well Gelinda, especially when she once penetrated into the cause thereof. And he on the other side (seeing that obstinate courtesy is wont to argue discourteously in whoso denies to accept it) knew not how to disenvelop himself otherwise than by the hope he had of weaning her from it by little & little without discontenting her.  
The other Brothers (in the mean while) hotly solicited Adeligia, whose shunning them could not serve her turn. Edmundo the elder and bolder of the two, had the audacity to express himself unto her one day in these speeches.  
I know not wherefore I affecting you (Adeligia) far more than a sister, you love not me somewhat more than a brother. Whereto she answered: (My Lord) if I loved not you, I should surely hate myself, yet if in loving you I surpassed the limits of a sister's love, I should then neither love myself nor you, but were worthy of both your hatred and scorn; The Prince could as then make her no reply, for his sister favoured with the occasion of her mother's coming (who the very same instant entered into the chamber) was rid of him for that time, though it steeded her not much (sithence he still made use of any opportunity of meeting her) but much less Galfrido, for being the occasion of depriving him of the means of ever speaking to her any more. A resolution irksome and heavy to one, but mortal to the other two; for the Brothers gone one day out on hunting, and in chase the Hart (happening to be severed a good distance off the rest) the Prince made a stand, that Galfrido might pass before him, and then suddenly running him with his sword through and through, bore him shear off his saddle, alighted that he was off his horse to dispatch him, he might perceive him stark dead before: Returned home alone, the Father (who some days before had observed both the misaffections and disaffections of his sons) ran with his imagination to the very truth; and giving thereupon order to some few (but trusty Gentlemen) to go in search after him, he was the self same night found out, and carried into his chamber.  
I will not take on me the task of expressing his heaviness, because the tongue is not a pencil to portray the grief of a Father, to whom the death of one son may give just occasion of becoming cruel against the other. Having therefore called before him the Prince, he showed him the corpse, with ask him if he had slain him: but seeing him deny it in away that argued somewhat of guiltiness, he said unto him; he that makes no scruple to murder a Brother, will surely make no great conscience to tell a lie: the blood that at thy appearing gurled out of this wound, both convicts thee, and requires at my hands justice, which I will not deny it; Only I am sorry that thy quality (in consideration of myself) permits thee no other executioner; with this, snatching out his sword (not as yet wiped fully dry from the blood of his Brother) he ran it in his heart; and then (causing them to be laid in two coffins) he strictly commanded, that this tragical case might dye with his sons; charging all that knew it, to give out, that they were sick, and three days after dead of a pestilential fever.  
Well might the fear of offending the King tie men's tongues (which are subject to sense) but not their judgements, which being internal and free, enjoy the privileges of a free exemption from any humane dominion: But the best was, that the Kingdom made no great reckoning of the loss of either, both of them being by their behaviour grown to be as unworthy of bemoaning as of life. But now the Sister (good soul) the innocent occasion of the evil, could not be either comforted or quieted, till her Father permitted her to retire to the I'll of Man, where under the discipline of certain religious persons there residing, she dedicated the rest of her days to a contemplative life. Only Feredo now remained of the youngest the eldest, and his so being the sole son had more endeared him to his Father, if his other worthy qualities had not been more singular and respect worthy, than his being an only Son.  
Gelinda (having understood the true tragic story of her Brother (mortified herself a little, or at leastwise somewhat depressed the growing fire of her affection from suggesting occasion of more disgrace: till seeing Feredo increasing together with his years, in comeliness of person, virtue, and the love of all, she deemed it very inconvenient for her to falter in her affection. Banishing therefore from her memory the sufferings and shame of her Royal House, which till then taught her to be cautelous if not honest, she began to prosecute her desires anew, with such fervent affection and winning-allurements, that the Fort of Feredo's constant goodness remained therewith shaken if not battered. But because in him goodness prevailed more than youth, and continency more than the enticing baits of an enchanting love; he purposed (for clipping the wings of her incestuous hope) to go live far off her, praying his Father's assent thereunto, under pretext of going to travel, which he no sooner asked than obtained; for, the good old King (having noted his Daughters incestuous affection, and fearing the arising thence of some new accidents) found his absence for some time to be to purpose, hoping that time would in that while dry up in her that ill humour with the medicine of oblivion, or some other new affections easy to be exchanged for old, especially (as he imagined) in the inconstant nature of that amorous sex.  
But Gelinda more constant than the virtue of constancy permitted her, obstinate in retaining her first designs, and resolved either to die or transmute Feredo from a brother to a lover; emboldened with her illegitimate love, and raised by her mortiferous resolution within a degree of the height of impudence, taking him from the company of some young Gentlemen that entertained him in discourse, and conducting him in her hand to the garden, she thus bespoke him.  
I hold it (my Lord and Prince) a thing superfluous, to consume the small time I have to stay with you, in any other than a free and brief language: sithence neither the growth of years have been sufficient to give you notice of my affection, nor the late tragedy of our Brothers served for a precedent to mollify you, which me thinks it should, if not for my love's sake, yet (at least) for the honour of our Father, our House, and ourselves: you are now going to travel, for not having me near you, and conceit (perhaps) by so doing to shun me; but (alas) you much deceive yourself; for I am resolved, not only to be near you, but also closely to cleave to you, as doth your inseparable Genius or shadow; and if by violence you discoast or avoid me, I will then so accost and haunt you, as (do what you can) you shall not shake me off; for, if it lie in the power of spirits to do it, mine then perpetually shall do it, since you will not permit myself to enjoy so much happiness; Pity me! oh! (I beseech you) pity me, that without you am worse than nothing: nor let the deformity of my love serve you for an excuse; for I swear by the immortal Gods, that if you quite reject and abandon me, I will when I am so scorned or hated, transform me into a Fury, & will haunt you whithersoever you go, nor will I (so it be within the reach of my power) suffer ever any other woman to enjoy you more than I  
Strucken dumb remained Feredo with this so rash and dishonest proposition; about her eyes (as kindled embers) he observed a deadly bluish paleness, arguing a mortal rancour and ghastly despair; well knew he that neither reproach nor reproof was able to terrify one that feared not to dye, nor was he less confident of her desperately-bold haste, which might easily raise her resolution to such a height of frantic desperateness, as she would not stick to kill herself; holding it therefore his safer course rather to shun than hazard a certain mischief, he returned her this mild answer.  
Dear Lady and Sister, the love which I bear you is such, that if you knew it, you would then know you had no cause to think yourself aggrieved; I intent to part ('tis true) not to elong myself from you, but to be more worthily near you, when the heavens shall be pleased to favour my return. Love (dear Sister mine) is not to be required with hate, (as you seem to doubt of) especially by me towards you, whom I (for many special reasons) am bound both to love and serve; all than that I beg of you, is, that (abandoning your passions) you unite yourself to reason, which can of itself alone give you on my behalf sufficient satisfaction. Do then but discreetly remember (sweet Sister) who we are, and what the name of a Brother imports in nature, law, and use; and next call to mind and consider the miserable end of the others, which should serve us for an example, not of imitation, but of detestation and horror. Grant me (I lovingly beseech you) your good leave to be gone on my intended journey, since I desire it may be with your free assent and good liking. And to the end you may rest fully assured of my true affection towards you, I here faithfully promise, that if it come to my hands to dispose of you (my Father not preventing me for manifesting my brotherly affection to you that way) I will spend all the Royal treasure, yea and my very Crown besides, but I will see you well settled to your own hearts desire.  
Upon this the King calling him he left her, preparing himself to begin the morrow following his journey towards the Kingdom of Logria.  
But she (to whom brotherly admonitions were reproaches, courteous language abuses, and promises of a rich dowry an unappealeable sentence of death) putting on a manly courage, and laying aside all appearance of grief, could so far temper nay command her passion, as with unbeteared eyes to see him at parting, yea to salute him, and bid him her last farewell; and that in so free a way too, as made him think her an altogether altered woman; whereby he became so consolated, as he could not refrain at his departing to drop some tears for mere unlooked for joy, though gazed on by all the Ladies that stood by her, and accompanied (a good while on his way) by the flower of the Nobility. But no sooner lost she once the sight of him, than that she remained as a statue cold, senseless, and immovable: Recovered out of her stupifying fit, she retired to her bedchamber too too delicious (God wot) for a scene of so lugubrious an act. The return of such as had sent Feredo on his way was the passing-bell that rang out her knell of death, the recommendations sent her from him, she received with disdain and contempt: and then presently (not having the patience or power to stay till night) she put off her clothes and laid her down; where being (as she thought) all alone, she burst forth into these terms.  
It is now time Gelinda for thee to free thyself from the tyranny of thy insulting enemy [Love] 'tis high time that thou now revenge thyself on this thy neither brother nor lover. Come, thou must die, and that's no news to thee; death shall not seize on thee at unawares. Thou shalt have the odds of the rest of mortals, in being thyself thine own judge, so freeing thyself both from the judgement of others, and from the qualities and diversities of deaths, being conditions that make unexpected death look on the dying wretch with an aspect so fearful and horrid. A great spirit as thine is will flight it, to be by it cruelly revenged on him, that no less cruelly than ungratefully hath injured thee. This said, she would have killed herself, but thinking it too short a preamble for so doleful an end, her despairing soul roaring from within her with an horrible and ghastly noise, she proceeded.  
Implacable Deities, ye infernal Powers, to you have I (forlorn wretch) recourse, to you do I bequeath and consecrate this re●●●ed life of mine, in recompense where of I desire no more, than that I may pursue and haunt the ingrateful Feredo whithersoever he goes; put me no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implore the heavens or their influences; for if mortals (subjects to the h●●vie clog of a body, and by consequence ignorant and feeble) can domineer over them, what may then the immortal souls do, which being separated from these imperfections, must needs be more powerful, in respect of their habits corresponding to that privation? I grant too, that humane judgement and discretion may perhaps shun them, yet mighty ye, whose power hath no paragon, are able (I am confident) either to corrupt or alter them. But (alas!) if it prove not so to be, how ill then am I advised? yet how can I (that despairing hope) be possibly well advised? whilst I believe revenge to have place among the infernal miseries, which to the damned might prove happiness and glory, if glory and happiness had any access to those dismal horrors? Die I will, were it but to spite and grieve Feredo. But what place (I wonder) among the disordered confusions there, shall the order of my uncouth affections hold? Shall it be possible, that among those eternal disorders there, the soul be not confounded with all its parts, especially the intellect; and that also the order which I prefix to my revenge, be not in danger to be broken? But oh that the web I warp here might be there spun, for than would I think hell were blessed! and all would then go thither; But who will assure me thereof? yet doubtless thy death (Gelinda) will grieve Feredo, will it so? die then merely to vex him. But soft, too too foolish were such a revenge, as but makes an addition to the avengers' proper prejudice. But said I not, that hell observes no order? then no reason neither by reason of that disorder. If so, to what end tend then so many considerations? they are needless and superfluous, ('tis true) yet let them be dispensed withal, in privilege of being my last farewell. Here (respiting a while to vent out the anguish of approaching death) she with a heavy groan spoke on.  
Happy thee Gelinda hadst thou never been borne, since that being borne thou wast borne for hell, whose first torments thou provedest when first thou fellest in love: Yet if I deserved so much misery, had it not been a greater pain for me not to have been borne at all? if true it be, that such had been greater than to be borne to be damned as I was? But ah me! if this were true, sure than I had never been borne; for if among all the things that I am none of, there had been but one, that in privation of being, had exceeded the not being of others, then surely that same one thing had been Gelinda. Therefore Gelinda (to her greater anguish) believes that such a thing cannot be. Besides, the Gods were unjust, if they punished such as were not any way blemished with as much as original sin.  
Enough then! let these be my last meditations. Die I must and will; Feredo will none of me, no more will I him now, and for not having him I must go elsewhere: The passage is (I confess) hard, the issue doubtful, but whatmatters all that? I'll even venture and run with the rest; the Furies of hell shall direct me, nay I'll make one among them, they shall adopt me, and I'll be the fourth of those Eumenidan Sisters, which if it cannot otherwise steed me, it shall then suffice me, that the dise●●●●teous Feredo be troubled in his sleep, and in his repose, desire death the sole remedy to his heart-wasting miseries; and besides, that in his loves never woman beloved by him may ever love him, that some untimely end betid her not. More she would have said, when one of her women (that all this while had attentively observed her) ran towards the bed; at the first trampling noise of whose fear Gelinda stabbed herself under the left pap, with a long silver bodkin, where with she used to right her hair, but by her destined for this fatal effect, which succeeded her desire so well (if a man may say well in so ill a case) that slipping between her ribs, it pierced her heart; which proved now as tender to the force of hand, as it had before done to the dart of love.  
The Gentlewoman that faw no signs of any violence done, and by consequence, not suspecting any such matter, did the best she could to comfort her, till (seeing she could get no answer of her) she opened the windows, and then seeing her look so pale, she was again amazed; yet finding no drop of blood about her (though her lips and eyes looked of a pale bluish colour) she gently took her by the hand, and respectively kissing it, besought her to speak one word to her, but was answered with a ghastly groan, wherewith she expired, because of her wounded heart's being by then quite suffocated with blood.  
The Gentlewoman searching over her body anew, and yet finding nothing, (considering that the occasion of her death was not to be divulged) shut the door, and went and acquainted therewith the King; who, because he could not believe that she died without violence, commanded to view her better, himself casting (the mean while) an eye on her pulses and paps, under one whereof as he more heedfully observed, he came to discover the bodkin by a little blood that trickled off the orifice of the wound; and so comprehending the cause of her death, he charged that no words should be made thereof, giving out the morrow following, that she was dead of an apoplexy.  
Feredo in the mean time hastened on his journey (believing that the farther he went from Venedotia, the nearer he came to content and quietness) till he chanced to come to the famous Court of Logria; whose then King Alfrido observing him (besides the comeliness of his person) to be endued with incomparable qualities, had a mind, at first sight, to make him his Son-in-law: for establishing the dominions which he possessed, lying open to divers hostile incursions, with the alliance and stay of a King, for territories and power next himself the greatest of all Albion.  
One sole Daughter had he of some eighteen years of age, named Alight; for beauty singular among the fairest; and one son (as then absent) addicted to exercises of Chivalry. No sooner was Feredo seen by her, than that she began to affect him, seconding her Father's secret design with an honest open love: and the correspondency (as it was fitting it should) had been by him as forwardly repaid her, but that at his first coming thither he began suddenly to feel strange passions of melancholy; which (transporting him to turbid imaginations) would never suffer him in quiet, for that he thought he saw Gelinda every hour in an horrid shape with a naked and bloody breast settle herself by him, whether he were laid in bed or walking any where abroad, so as he passed most nights without closing his eyes; which made him desire to watch with merry company, who upon his corrupted affects wrought just such an effect, as doth one single drop of water on one tormented with a burning fever, that thinks all the rivers of the world too little either to cool his heat, or quench his thirst.  
Many a time have I thought upon these visions, whether any such really be or no, and whether that which appeared was the very spirit of Gelinda, or nothing but the mere imagination of Feredo. For if the Gods permit the dead to walk, why more for hatred than for love, since we hear not (for the most part) of any such apparitions, save in the likeness of such as have come to their deaths by violent means? between husband and wife, father and son, brother and brother, and friend and friend (in whom Nature and long practice imprint reciprocal affections with greater efficacy) we seldom or never hear of any such, though they should be ordinary. Which though they also were, yet could they then neither be no arguments making for imagination, and use would discover unto us those of reason, Nature being not able to work ordinarily by extraordinary reasons, contrary to itself.  
The Count who attentively listened, seeing him look as if he expected an answer, said unto him: Nature (gentle Sir) cannot give a reason for all things, as (it seems) you expect it should, since we have for attaining to it only the two means of the practic and speculation. By the practic we cannot, she requiring time, and we being short-lived. By speculation much less, she never soaring higher than the pitch of sense. Hence comes it, that our common knowledge (obscure even in things manifest) is subject to the censure of contradictions, where of such as were Antagonists choosed for the surer side, rather to doubt of all, than to affirm any thing for certain out of the uncertainty of our understanding; and the same knowledge, though in much deceivable, is yet nevertheless embraced for want of a better, which well may (I believe) be hoped for, but not found by the means of humane organs without a long and almost eternal life.  
If then we be so ignorant in things subject to our very senses, what can we be in those of the soul abstracted from them? yet should not (for all this) the insufficiency of means of attaining to the knowledge of things make us deny their effects, if any be; and yet the curiosity of seeking out for them is hurtful, because speculation too much subtilised makes a man unfit not only for the active, but even for the contemplative life; so as if he be but short in conceiving the first heads, he becomes quite dull by that time he comes to the second; so blunted shall he find his intellect with the hardness of what he understands not; therefore a man's choicer course were to rest at quiet, and to believe that which common opinion both drawn from all the laws, and approved by all the prime Schoolmen of the world in all ages, induceth us to believe; which if otherwise it were not so, this Prince his very case might be a sufficient argument for it. Since he was in perfect health when he came from home, nor was he ever troubled with any infirmity of his fancy, till after the death of his Sister, and then too without knowing whether she were dead or no. So as we must of necessity, either deny all, and by consequence make the Prince a liar; or in believing him, believe the general terient, which is a real apparition of the dead, a belief due to the obedience of the Laws.  
The Gentleman that stood listening unto him, little satisfied with what was alleged, and loath to let the discourse fall, replied. My doubt (honoured Sir) neither toucheth nor arrives to the law, but is (as I may say) an abstract from it; touch it perhaps it might, if it were incorporated with it, and partaked of its substance and colour, as wine doth with those of water. The laws have all of them the self same principals and the self same ends (at leastwise in appearance) that is, God and good dealing or piety, the end of this is to fear those. It will not be denied me, that apparitions belong to piety, and by consequence make wonderfully for it: my doubt doth but question the power of Nature; for, if Nature could but be united or conformed to the Law in things supernatural, and that what the one affirms might be visually proved by the other, than had neither wee occasion to doubt, nor the Laws to multiply as they have ever hitherunto done; so as all that I say, is, but to attempt their union, (if it may be) if not, I rather retire to the Law, being well assured that in so doing I cannot err, though the intellect remain (for all that) subject to be snapped at by its natural enemy [ignorance.] Let it not then (I beseech you courteous Sir) offend you, that I say, that the denying of the effects of things (when any such really are) is but an ignorant presumption. Now our question is, whether any such be or no: but how can they be, if neither reason nor sense comprehend them? Nature shows them us not, the intellect conceives them not, the relations of them are uncertain, & the Prince his example absolutely concludes them not; conclude them perhaps it might, had he not known his Sister's intention. But because imaginations cannot be fully illustrated otherwise than imaginations, I will fall again to my story.  
Alfrido having had intelligence of the death of Gelinda by the Fathers own letters, endeavoured (by charging all the Court to make no words of it) to conceal it from Feredo, though he become by his continual visions most certain (as he thought) of the truth, incessantly bewailed it with such excess of grief, that he at length conceived Gelinda's ghost (seeming to be therewith in some sort appeased, if not satisfied) had left him in quiet. How be it he could not for many days recover himself from the great weakness he thereby was reduced unto. To wean him from those his melancholy fits, he was accompanied with all the Court by turns; Alight showing herself in a deed so pious more fervent than any other, though most cruel to herself; for her continual conversing with this right noble Cavalier, kindling every day more than other her affection towards him, brought her at last to that pass, as she could no longer conceal it from him.  
Feredo was in one respect a naturalist, desirous of posterity, especially in consideration of his being brotherless, insomuch as he began already to be sorry he had left his home, not for being taken with any domestic pleasures, but because he (considering to how many dangers travel was subject unto) would gladly first have seen a son of his own, to secure the succession, in case the heavens disposed of him otherwise than well. Looking therefore with a no less judicious than amorous eye into the merits and affection of the fair Alight, he thought himself bound to assure her as much as by words could be expressed, of the grateful correspondency of his re-affection, entitling himself her Knight and servant.  
The night following arose a tempest so cruel, that at the air's being filled with hail, thunder, and lightning, the better half of the City was burnt amidst a deluge of water, and the innocent Alight strucken with a thunderbolt, found on the morrow in her naked bed converted to ashes. The desolation of the Court, the grief of the King, the complaint of the Queen, and the ruin of so fair a City, would have moved even Tigers to compassion; and Feredo that thought himself the sole cause of all these disasters, & raving exceedingly thereat, banishing all further hope of fortune or content, abandoning his servants, and all that ever he had secretly stole away from this destroyed City, when posting to the next haven, he suddenly embarked himself on the first ship that launched out, which was bound for Gallicia, whence travelling whither fortune carried him, he came to Catalonia, making his first residence in the City of Barcelona.  
To acquaint you with his designs or intentions for parting from Logria so unaccompanied and unattended, and wherefore thence to Gallicia and so to Catalonia, without any regard of his quality, or determinate end of his intentions, would prove but superfluous, nor are you to expect of me any reason for it; for that desperation and love work not by any reasonable or orderly means.  
Scarce was he come, when eyed by the Catalan Prince, and in him observed his disposition, and a certain majesty, far different if not contrary to his then present-seeming fortune; a humour took that Prince to have him (for certain ends of his) to the service of the Princess his wife, and Feredo (thinking thereby to veil himself from the eyes of both the world and fortune) willingly accepted of the proffer. Become so from a Prince a subject, and from an only son a puny servant, sealed this metamorphosis with his name, which he by altering Feredo into Calaplo, endeavoured with his present condition to raze out the memory of his past misfortunes; hoping to appease at full his Sister's Ghost with the severity of such a penance: Wherein (for now seeing himself no more tormented) he grew to be so confirmed, as he resolved with himself never to return home more, conceiting that very place to be subject more than any other to the influence of his horrible visions.  
Few months had he continued in that Court, when Don Peplasos (for so was the Prince called) taking him with one other Gentleman and a Gentlewoman in his company, went with his wife on pilgrimage to the Temple of the Goddess juno, in the Pyrenean Mountains. That Princess was one of the fairest and most virtuous Ladies of the world; but for antipathy of qualities extremely hated of her husband, who being resolved to rid himself of her, intended to have her slain in those Mountains, and then by procuring at the self same time the death or flight of Calaplo, to make the world believe, that she being enamoured of him, was run away with him, hoping this report would be the rather believed in respect of his comeliness and bodily perfections, and much more, for that he having been with mortal passions wooed by the fairest and noblest Dames of all that Kingdom, had (poor as he seemed to be) rejected great fortunes in marriage, which (would be thought) he did merely for the correspondency of affection, he hoped for at the hands of the Princess Eleina, a worthy occasion of slighting that of all the rest.  
But come to the Temple, and considering that two murders could not (without great danger) be committed in one and the same time, he gave Calaplo a little wallet stuffed full of Coin and jewels, brought thither (it should seem) for that purpose, together with a menacing charge contained in a few words, but concluding, that without any reply he should take it, and get him gone so far as he might never be more seen nor heard of. He not imagining the occasion of it, knowing the Prince to be no less mischievous than cruel, and therefore doubting lest his denying to take the wallet might prove dangerous unto him, thought it his best course to obey him; so as taking it with prompt obedience from before him, he set himself onwards on his way which the Prince himself had showed him. But passing the day following from mountain to mountain, and chancing to see in a deep bottom that vallied a steeper precipice, a barefoot and barelegged woman weeping, (whom upon better observance he discovered to be the Princess) which as he thought to turn back to succour, he was set upon by three (as he then thought) highway thiefs, but were indeed man-butchers sent purposely thither (for aught I believe) by the Prince; whereof he having at the first blow laid one along at his feet, and with the sight thereof put the second to flight, the third remaining alone, thought to save himself by the nimbleness of his heels, till Calaplo being now justly enraged, by obstinately pursuing him, overtook him (after a full leagues race) with a blow so mortal, that depriving him both of speech and breath, he could make no answer to any thing he asked him. Endeavouring to return to the Princess, he could by no possible means find out either her, or the place where he had left her; but resolved to leave no where thereabouts unsearched for her, and coming by chance (as he enquired for her all about) to the seashore, he had tidings of her by certain fishermen, who had seen her (afar off) made a prize by Pirates. Whereupon reputing himself a compend of misery, and conceiting that he could not choose but infect with his very presence all such as he should ever but converse withal; he resolved with himself at last (after he had bestowed in the search of her four other months in afric, where most Pirates have their residence) to retire to somewhere far remote from his native home, and there to end the remnant of his days. Crossing over therefore into Sicily, he thence arrived into this little Island, and judging it commodious for his purpose, he by the permission of the Prince of Feacia, (who is Lord thereof) made this his resting place, reducing it which before was savage, into the state you at this present find it in, bestowing therein the best part of his time to withdraw his mind from more noisome fancies.  
The King his Father thus deprived of five children, three of them come to untimely ends, a fourth dedicated to the Gods, and the fifth a lost child, whom (after he had caused him to be sought for, though in vain, over the greater part of the known world) he had utterly despaired of ever hearing any news of, had he not been consolated with new hopes, springing from the voluntary proffers of certain Knights, who bound themselves by solemn oath never to return home, unless they found him out, or heard certain news what became of him: which coming to the ears of others, the company increased to the number of fifty (where of I am one) dividing (by unanimous assent) ourselves over all the Countries of the world, with order to send and give intelligence at a place by us agreed on, for that end. Fortune would so have it that I found him out, though to my as yet but small comfort: for though the King will be glad to hear that he lives, yet will he be extremely sorry, when he understands that he will not return home, he pretending to pass here a blessed life, and thinking the shades of these trees here to be the Elysian fields, for having never seen here abouts any apparition of Gelinda. And alleging withal, that since he is resolved never to marry, his return would be but unprofitable to the Kingdom, troublesome to himself, and prejudicial to her he might match withal, in case that upon altered determination he might be persuaded to resolve of a further trial in that kind.  
Much wondered the Count at the strangeness of the story, and comforting the Knight, he promised him to stay there some days of purpose, to further him in his designs. But scarce had he opened his mouth to requite this story of the Knights, with the relation of his adventures, when he might espy issuing from out one part of the wood Feredo, and from out the other the young Knight. Arisen up, they went to meet the later that was next them: After reciprocal salutes, and complemental language passed of either side, the Venedotian Knight invited the young Knight to dine with the Druide; (showing him, with that, Feredo) the young Knight espying him, and well-liking his garb and habit, went onwards to give him the meeting: And he understanding they were none of those that came to seek him, received them with extraordinary courtesy, with thanking them kindly for the favour they did him. Then would he have them mount on horseback to get up the hill, thinking all of them therewithal provided; but seeing the Count want one, he told him, he was sorry for it, the heat being great, the sun of a good height, and that day as fair and calm, as the preceding night had been foul and tempestuous.  
The young Knight was so far from following his advice, as he blushed to hear him, whilst his proud Steed by his prancing seemed to invite the Knights, to prove whether he were as good, as well shaped. The heat put them off their ceremonies, by causing them to hasten to gain the shade not far off them under a thick row of trees, that began at the foot of the hill, which Nature had all about adorned with choice vines. The way to ascend had planted orderly on each side thereof (like so many halberdiers) fruit-bearing trees worthy the being grafted by a Princely hand; the hillocks top yielded a fragrant odd our from its fair crown of Orenge-trees; flowers might there be seen laid scatteringly over the surface of the earth, in such a form as the stars are placed in the firmament, seeming to lie glorying in their rich show, encamped in pavements embroidered with odoriferous herbs contrived into divers figures.  
The first part of the habitation that presented itself to the eye, was the Temple, round in form, and rough-cast without as far as its Architrave with fine white lime, supporting a rank of finest white marble pillars, orderly placed by two and two, with so much distance between them, as sufficed to afford it light; the spire-roof having no other opening, nor the round body of the Chapel other windows. Upon the pillars (which were four and twenty) was displayed a thin border of fine sky-coloured mettle, divided into twelve equal spaces, every space where of containing one sign of the Zodiac, was again subdivided by very small lines into 30 Degrees, the first point of Aries touching the last of Pisces in the very midst of the Frontispiece. About this border might be seen to gyre the two celestial lights, the one coloured with gold, the other with silver, with an Index towards the lowermost surface of their circumference, which precisely pointed out the place, which the true lights possessed in that very instant in the celestial Zodiac. There might a man see all the aspects in their proper characters. Moreover, the Moon (for the better fitting her conjunctions) had an ampler gyre than that of the Suns; nor could it have other in respect of us, though it were contrary to the sphere in respect of the firmament: that same thing representing in the artificial the convex, which indeed is naturally the concave; the eclipses likewise might be there seen (when any were) by a plate of dark-coloured Iron's covering so much of the Moon as was requisite. The figure of the Sun (drawn to a correspondent circumference) corresponded to the truth of the Eclipses of the true Sun, covered or rather vailed by his sister, according to astronomical suppositions. And being not able to imitate the sphere in setting and rising, it showed instead thereof the eclipses, that were out of our sight in the other Hemisphere.  
Upon the spiry roof stood a brazen statue of excellent workmanship, representing time, that in its footstall with the butt-end of its cive struck the hours and quarters, with so dainty an artifice, as the ear could discern no noise of counterweights or wheels, nor the imagination conceive that any such could be contained in the straightness of so narrow a concave. The doors standing one of them towards the East equinoctial, and the other on the opposite, side, were both of them adorned with seemly pillars, the Eastern of snow-white Alabaster with stairs, threshold, and lintel of the same. The Western with its supplements of a coal-black touchstone; that garnished with a white Eagle, being the Hieroglyphic of heaven, this with a barking Cerberus sad emblem of hell, never opened but when sacrifice was done to the infernal Deities for Gelinda's ghost. For the same purpose also stood erected two Altars, and on either of them an Image.  
These briefly survaid, all of them entered into the Temple, where the sacrifices were the hearts of two white doves, burnt upon the quick embers; that done, they retired to the house, and were invited to sit at the table, where the two guests were strucken with amazement at the servants and order of service; they admired at such abundance without excess, and such delicacy without defect; and withal, to see conformed to the humility of fair white earthen dishes such a royal personage, place, and service. The Druide entertained them with pleasant discourse, apparelling his countenance with an aspect to outward seeming cheerful and blithsome; showing them withal, how that Country was the utmost bound of Greece to the seaward; and then made them a grateful expression of the great courtesies he had received at the hands of the Prince of Feacia Lord of that I'll, and was about to particularise somewhat thereof, when altering his conceit upon turning towards the Count, he besought him to impart some occurrences of the Western parts, it being ten years' space, sithence he had heard any news from thence.  
The Count willingly embracing the occasion of assaying to persuade him to return home, making no show of knowing any thing thereof, expressed a forwardness to satisfy him; so as having made some prelueds proper to his ends, he spoke in this manner.  
Irinico King of Gaula Belgica had besides two sons (the eldest whereof died) one only daughter, whose beauty (though singular) was yet surpassed with so many virtues, that the people thought her the compend of the Kingdom's glory; desired she was of many, wooed by few, and won by one that was little thought of; among her Suitors, the principal man was Teuton King of Scandinavia a Prince, who though rich both in years and posterity, was not yet by his years brought to any disability of body; and now his disgusts which he received every day more than other from his sons, made him desirous of new heirs, since he was grown resolute to raise walls against walls, till he had leveled with the ground those, which (to his confusion) were by them built against him, a thing practised by him many years before to the cost of the lives of some of them, and the brothers too. Now he had already taken many wives, and had used them all very ill, as indeed he married them not for love, but altogether for means, nor ever admitted he any one of them to his bed on other, than the sole hopes of their patrimonial Kingdoms, which conformable to his expectation failed him not. Known it is not whether it was policy or nature in him to affect not one of them, the sole aim of his love being leveled at the enlarging of his Monarchy, and making himself great.  
He had already by the means of some Kings of his alliance, gotten a great footing in neighbouring Countries; whereupon grown desirous to become one day owner of Irinico's Kingdom, he made suit for his alliance, merely to ground thereupon a foundation for his pretensions, and not to enjoy those incomparable beauties, the only white whereat the desire of all other Princes aimed. And having gotten an use of letting himself to be seen but of a very few, by withdrawing himself sometimes (for many months together) from the popular sight, a fancy took him in the head to go himself in person to Irinico, and so (under the veil of an Ambassador) to pry into the secrets of his Kingdom, corrupt his subjects, and win himself a wife, and by her in time a Kingdom.  
Having then left such order as he thought requisite to such as were to manage the secrecy of his absence, he parted, accompanied with very few, increasing by the way his retinue with such persons as had never seen him before; travelling with all the little that he went by land, so secretly by an invention that he had got, to confine himself for some retired imaginations within his horse-litter, that no man in the whole dominions could come to see him in the face.  
Irinico receiving him with all possible courtesies, understanding the sum of his embassy would not suddenly dispatch him (though he were already resolved of what he meant to do) but referred the business to his privy Council, not so much to understand their opinions, as to know those who (some while before) were suspected to have been corrupted.  
He (in the mean time) being admitted to the sight of the Princess, proved to be in love; indeed a strange effect in him, and yet more strange by reason of his so fretting thereat; for, persuading himself that he could not choose but love his own person the less, by such a portion of affection as he settled upon any other; so as he could have heartily wished the possibleness of distinguishing the person of a Prince from that of an Ambassadors, had been within the reach of his power, that so in personating either, he might exercise his cruelty over the other. But love (as the case stood) domineering over the fury of his furious projects, brought his pride to so low an ebb, as from a Statesman he would have gladly subjected his stout spirit to any inferior servile condition, had it not showed itself too too apparently contrary to the issue of his desires.  
No whole day suffered he to pass without visiting Doricrene, this solicitous Ambassador labouring to gain the favour of her affection to his Prince, which was himself, who for being more than ordinarily enriched with a buffonizing and jeering humour, was generally in all companies a most welcome companion; for, laying aside all gravity, he served for a makesport, not only to the Princess, but to all the Court besides; insomuch as Irinico himself (taking pleasure therein) liked his company marvellous well, and withal affected very much his way of expressing himself so different from those of other men, for that he never spoke but by figures and proverbs, applied with particular acuteness, with significations ever-equivocating to be solved as he pleased; (it being indeed but reason for the speaker to be his own words interpreter) his countenance, carriage, and habit speaking him to be one that cared for nothing; and though he indeed was rather a Sophister than a Philosopher, yet seemed he by his outward expression of himself, to be merely composed of refined Court-philosophy. Speak he would the plain truth when he was sure there was no credit given to what he spoke, yet blushed he not to lie loudly, when it made any way for his ends, both the one and the other always most false and deceitful like himself; little gave he, though he promised much, yet the freeness of his carriage in what he did, grounded in men's conceits, a foundation for the performance of his large promises. A marvellous sower he was of soaring hopes, from which since there sprung nought else than briers and nettles, he imputed the fault to their ill husbanding, deferring the harvesting both of them and of other new seed to the ensuing year. Yet with all his shifts and devices he had never the fortune to arrive to the height of his first design, the true artifice of accomplishing such, consisting indeed either in not having any double meaning, (which is the sure way) or in a handsome way of concealing it, which is full of difficulties; or being otherwise accompanied with excessive promises, it dismembers itself and becomes subject to the brand of incredulity.  
Now Irinico had (long before this) made choice for his Son-in-law of the King of Vlmigaria, a Prince of known great dignity, whom he thought might serve him for a strong link in the long chain by him fore-contrived on that part of Europe in bar of the growing power of Teuton; and therefore he so crept slily on with his politic reaches, dissembling being a prime article in gaining or establishing the possession of Kingdoms; and thought that the affinity with that other King carried with it apparent advantages, yet the counterpoising disadvantages proceeding from it, were also so apparent, nay so palpable, that an ordinarily discreet personage (much more such a sage Prince as he was) would have not only refused but abhorred the alliance of such a froward old man, ill reported of, and worse conditioned, cruel to his wives, brothers, and children; besides the consideration of the likelihood of making away the Prince Elimante by sword or poison, the Princess being capable of succession, and sole heir in case her brother were dead.  
Well perceived Teuton (though somewhat of the latest) that his was a journey vainly bestowed, being secretly advertized, that Doricrene was otherwise to be disposed of, so as he now comprehends how his expenses in that Kingdom (in hope of furthering his affairs) was but money cast away; his dependences and those of his faction being not only suspected, but most of them known, so that therefore his stay there could not be otherwise than very chargeable, as the profit he could expect or hope to gain thereby could be (in comparison of his charge) but very small; nay (which spited him most) that Irinico himself laughed (as we say) in his sleeve to see his subjects and state enriched by his ill-founded projects and bounty. Resolved for such reasons to alter his first determination, he feigned the receiving of new commissions importing,  
That his King had commanded him (sithence he had not, all that while, concluded the marriage) suddenly to return homewards, his years now dissuading him from matching any more; howbeit that he should assure Irinico of his friendship, in a degree no less than if the affinity had been contracted; and in case he saw him inclined to a cross match, to proffer him his Daughter Celene for Elimante.  
To this last proposition Irinico willingly listened, & (licensing the seeming Ambassador with many presents) willingly embraces the offer.  
As soon as Teuton came home, he sends back thither an express Ambassador, giving him charge to keep the marriage from concluding as long as he could, and yet to subscribe to promise all rather than break off.  
The fair Doricrene was (in the mean time) married to her designed husband, abandoning unwillingly her dear Country, and dear Brother; a match less fortunate than corresponded to the merit of so accomplished a Princess, and indeed the unfortunate and deceiving effect of humane prudence. Before these nuptials, pictures of her were spread far and near over the greater part of the world, so as there was not a Prince that therewith adorned not the most conspicuous wall of his Palace, to rejoice and recreate by the eyes the internal senses of the heart with an object of such an excelling beauty; only Durislao King of the Sarmatians, was that one, that taking it away from the common view, stored it up in a secret place, thinking it sacrilege to profane an image by him reputed celestial, so much, as to suffer it to be exposed to the survey of the purblind eye of popular judgement. And growing to like it every day more than other, he at length arrived to that pass, as he knew not whether he were more enamoured of the true Doricrene which he had never seen, or of her (by him so continually courted) picture. When at any time he resolved to absent himself from his Realm to go to Gaul to see the original, he had not the power to stir when he came but to take a farewell of the Copy, conceiting he could not be present with the one, as long as he was absent from the other; nay he would swear, it did stir, rejoice and grieve too, according as it saw the disposition of his affection inclined; to such a point of insensibility had amorous superstition reduced him unto, in believing false imaginations (the Meteor of his desires) to be the true effects of sense and reality. But when he heard she was married in Vlmigaria with a neighbouring diffident Prince, and one whose dominions bordered with his, he was like to dye with hearts-grief, rage, and spite; and had resolved (even then suddenly) to have either forcibly taken or stolen her away, if the extreme grief which he conceived thereat, had not (by corrupting his health) stopped the current of that his enterprise.  
The fair picture exposed then to any one's view, was placed in his sight, at his beds feet, where he two months lay sick, nor had he then risen, but for the comforts of his uncle Teuton, who upon information received of its cause, sent to tell him;  
He wondered the fierce Sarmatia could so much degenerate from itself, as to have instead of a martial King a dejected lover; who for certain could not possibly be other than a changeling, being those of his Royal Family and blood were never owners of soft & effeminate hearts; which if otherwise he were indeed a true branch of so Royal a stock, that he should then rouse up his spirits and be well, since both lay in his power; warranting him, that the noise of trumpets would soon awake him from his dump of heaviness, and a contrary imagination as soon restore him to his former health, his love being no other than a mere conceit, and his sickness an effect of the like cause: Adding (for his more comfort) that he himself had also sought her to wife, but had since with more wholesome counsel withdrawn from her his affection; wishing him to do the like; or if affection in him (for being the younger man) bore somewhat a greater sway, yet should its force be weakened, by considering, that if he could leave and slight her when the effect thereof was possible, much rather than should this nephew of his desist from an impossible enterprise, necessity teaching him to forget her, and amorous disdain to abhor her now that she was enjoyed by another; or if all this yet sufficed not, yet should he not droopingly abandon himself to grief and heaviness, but like a brave Bull win her from out the hands of his rival, and deprive him not only of her, but also of his sceptre, state, and life. Since Kings have no other law than their wills, nor other justice than power and Arms, the rest being but old-wivestales, and fables of weak and heartless men. Promising if he (like himself) bravely resolved to do thus, that then he should see how he would show himself to be an uncle unto him, they being both of the same family, and having now a joint colour of quarrel against one and the same enemy; and withal, that he was (for his part) content to let him have to himself, and own together with his Mistress, the booty, honour, and conquest.  
This embassy delivered, up got Durislao off his bed, persuasion being a hard Chizell to ding out of his fancy his amorous conceit, and a sharp spur to prick him on to disdain and anger; that sweet love-commanding countenance, that before with its sweet perfections so ravished him, seemed loathsome to him, now that violent passions were chased away by their opposites extreme ones; the fair picture rend off his bed was unrooted from out his heart, and the disdain that succeeded in its place (kindled by the remaining sparkles) flashed up with an outrageous fury.  
Behold we now Sarmatia resounding all over with the death-menacing clattering of Arms, and her vast Champion-fields covered with swarming troops of man and horse; Fame which saw them mustered (carrying the news thereof from the next adjacent to the remoter Regions) caused peace to retire to the heavens at the appearance from out their abyss of the infernal Furies, with all the rabble of their haggish train.  
There was between Vlmigaria and the other neighbouring Kings a strong defensive league, wherein, though the enemy were not expressly named, yet their intent leveled at Teuton and Durislao; so as at the first notice of the being of so great an army on foot, they huddled together a great number of bodies though few hearts, and each of these few too governed by its fears, and by their inducement rather inclined to truce than fight; whence sprung the source of all the ensuing evils: for, humane prudence teacheth us to embrace peace till it begin to appear prejudicial unto us; but the dice once cast, the true Cavalier cannot (without exposing himself to dangers) manifest his valour, since life and fame cannot equally be cared for.  
Durislao appeared on the confines, where he found Defendants enough, or such at least as seemed to be such; who gave him battle, lost it, and fled, or rather indeed fled ere they lost it. The extolled prudence of their General, so many years before in estimation incomparable, being now tried by a true touchstone, discovered the falseness of its mettle; the mountains-promising valour of so many Princes that under their pavilions seemed to be invincible, as soon as it now appeared in open field was beaten down and trampled, or (at least) put to flight, choosing to lose (rather than hazard their lives) both their dominions, friends, and liberties; yet among all these evils, there was one good thing, that the more base and dastard spirits (preventing the time) gave (by their running away the first) time to the Court to save itself by flight, the City being unable to defend it under the command of so faint hearts: their greatest care was to inform themselves, whether the enemy had as yet entered into or sacked the City, the terror whereof so wrought upon their timorousness, as many of them forgot their very children in their cradles.  
The sweetly-majestical Queen seeing things reduced to such a point, the City and Kingdom lost, the women weeping, and the men standing staring about them with beteared eyes, and so confusedly crowded together, as their disorderly swarming might endanger their escaping with safety: She (mounted on horseback) said thus unto them.  
I have no cause to wonder at my women, whose weapons are their tears, but at you, who being Knights by your profession, had not the courage to defend them, and yet now discover your effeminateness so far, as to imitate them in weeping; I can do no less than be astonished; yet (now that I consider it) you do well; for, it may chance to save your lives, since the enemy (how little generous soever he be) will scorn to imbrue his warlike sword in such cowardly blood as yours. Here without staying for any answer, she (putting onwards her Steed) spurred away, much repenting, she had not made one in the battle, her heart giving her, that her very presence there had prevented the disaster.  
Durislao (having gotten so easy a victory) with his Lance in rest marched in brave order towards the City, where he found the gates wide open, and no man that durst either gainsay or withstand him; yet seeing himself deprived of his hoped-for spoils, now thought himself to be rather the conquered than conqueror. Egged on therefore by his old love-fits, kindled by the ancient fire that lay raked up in the ashes of his contrary resolution, he spurred onwards to overtake the runaway Court troop, who followed by their King, (having abandoned their peculiar charges) had betaken themselves to the speedy legs of their swift Coursers. Discovering the baggage, he hoped to find there Doricrene, but found nothing answerable to his expectation, there being no other than persons of servile conditions, indifferently unworthy of either his love or hatred. Here understanding for a certain, that he could not overtake her (for his coming too late, and her having far outstripped him, and that in a crossway too) he stopped his course, taking no joy in any thing he had got, sithence he had lost her, the sole booty that he made any esteeeme of.  
Whilst he stood a good while fixed in this imagination, love opened unto his apprehension the door of humanity, by laying open to his meditation's-consideration, a Queen, a great King's daughter, deprived of her dominions, forced to fly, and wander through woods and uncouth parts, without having (now that she had lost her baggage) as much as clothes to shift her withal; whereat he could not refrain from dropping out tears amain; not love now, but mere humanity, a generous spirit, and native nobility ministering him this subject of condoling. Causing therefore the carriages to advance under the convoy of a strong troop of horse, he commanded them to present them her from him, offering her there withal his Royal person to be her knight and servant.  
The fair Doricrene gotten out of the City, never once turned back to look on it, so diligent was she in her speedy course, for not falling into the hands of her well-wishing enemy, and unbeloved lover: Onwards galloped she all-alone foremost of all the company, without either dropping a tear or breathing a sigh; but yet her fiery eyes kept every one aloof off her, she being (for her disposition) generally known to own a generous heart, that never made reckoning of any losses how heavy soever; so as what now troubled her mind was only the dastardliness of her forces, and their misbehaving themselves; and now she fled without knowing or caring whither, when at the King's stopping his horse, all the rest made a stand.  
My friends (said he) our trouping in this manner were good, if we were to fight, but not to save ourselves by flight, as we must do; we are (ye know) unprovided of victuals, which if we chance to light on by the way, yet will there not be enough for all of us; our better course therefore were, to separate ourselves, and take every one of us that way fortune shall direct him in; and if the Gods shall ever hereafter behold me with a more propitious eye, I will then remember such as have well served me. Here licensing and embracing them one after another, he burst forth into such a passionate weeping, that the Queen become thereat impatient, girked her Palfrey and so (followed only by one Gentle woman) in an instant got out of all their sights: Away she road she knew not whither, only she (as near as she could guess) directed her course towards that star which the King at their parting seemed to tend his too, till losing the sight thereof at her entering into a Forest, she committed herself to the discretion of her horse, who (somewhat after midnight) brought her to a little dwelling, where she stopped her pace, and espying some light there, she threw herself off her horse, her Gentlewoman not being able to alight without help; peering then through the keyhole, she might see an old hermit, that praised God with unfeigned devotion, and so attentively, as he heard not the trampling of the horses, nor had he but for the neighing of one of them heeded them when he did; but then, not staying till they knocked, he courteously opened the door, without ask who was there: No sooner saw he the guest, than that he (used to the splendour of Royal Majesties) failed little in guessing what she was, con-Ceiving in an instant the merits, if not the titles of so high a presence: Taking then a light in his hand, he went out, clothing his countenance with a welcome-speaking charity so gravely-gladsome as the Queen become consolated, thereat said unto him.  
Father, may it be permitted us to stay here with you, till the coming of the new day? being we know not whither to go, we having lost our company and they us: Whereunto the good old man with a respective humbleness made answer.  
Worthy Lady, to a person of your quality all things should be permitted, except suffering, therefore your stay here depends on your own will, though the discommodiousness of your entertainment in so homely a place cannot be as I could wish it were; so as albeit I have (for the service of the Gods) made choice of a voluntary poverty, yet would I think it no sin to wish for a momentary proportion of riches to serve and accommodate you; with that helping down off her horse the Gentlewoman, he lead the Steeds to a near-adjoining Cottage, where, casting his eye on the furniture, he saw wrought in gold on the saddle, the Arms of that Kingdom, whereby he (not ignorant of the coming of the enemy) conceived rightly who she was; entering then into his cell, and observing her to be the very same as had been formerly described unto him, he said unto her.  
And what misfortune (Royal Madame) leads your Majesty so alone, & at so late an hour into my poor lodging? Let me howsoever bewail the universal miseries, since your unparralled constancy teacheth me to suffer your private ones to pass without any tear. Is that goodly kingdom lost (Madame, I beseech you?) which if it be, then are we lost too, & utterly ruined (for company) with it; yet is that loss of our infinitely augmented by the loss of your Majesty, which was the richest purchase that ever we acquired?  
The Queen unwilling to leave unsatisfied so good an inclination; I am not (honest friend) answered she, the first that was, nor shall I be the last that shall be oppressed by the tyranny of fortune; though yet its violences have indeed no force against such as esteem them not, as its blows are weak to a constant mind armed for them long before: But since I see you know me, you shall do me a special piece of service in showing me some secure way, for, I shall not think my losses great, so I but escape the being made the enemy's prey.  
The Hermit (drying his beteared eyes) assured her, he would guide her on such a way as should (God willing) bring her beyond all danger; and then making her a frittado of eggs and milk he set it before her, whereof she (not having eaten any thing all that day) willingly tasted, and then being by him prayed to repose herself on his straw-bed, she there laid her down, giving herself over (for the space of two hours) to a sound and sweet sleep.  
The good man in the mean time looking to the horses carefully, attended his time of awaking her, which was a good while before day, and causing her to ride with her woman hard by her, he led them the way, having much ado (although he were well acquainted with the Forest) to find the way out, warning them, not to speak a word; all thereabouts being a dangerous place fortheeves, whom he yet hoped to escape by keeping wide off their dens. The journey through the wood endured as long as the night lasted, there appearing unto their view by that time it was day the open fields and houses, but so abandoned that no living soul was to be seen in any of them.  
Assured of her being out of danger, she thought to licence the old man, and in the way of alms to give him a diamond, which he refused to accept of, with telling her.  
Such things (Madame) befit not me, who am obliged to serve you as I am a Knight; and besides, as I am a religious man my gems are those above, whose beauty and order make me comprehend the Deity; I will wait on you yet a little farther (if you please to give me leave) of purpose to declare unto you a case, which, if the having of company in adversity can give any comfort to an oppressed heart, will afford yours (I am persuaded) no small argument of consolation.  
The Queen hearing he was a Knight, used him with a greater respect, and therefore the more earnestly importuned his return, till seeing him resolved to accompany her yet farther, she said unto him.  
Kind Father, the journey will be too great a trouble for you to go on any farther, which if that you do, is (I assure) much against my will; yet sithence you will need have it so, I will not refuse your courtesy in hearing the story you would tell me; where at he drawing nearer her, spoke as followeth.  
I (Madame) am a native of Norwey, a great Kingdom; which though it lie situated under a very cold clime, is not yet 10 barren that it enjoys not many benefits of Nature, Gimislao was the last that there swayed sceptre, a Prince exceeding well conditioned to suit with the birth of a private man, but too too simple for a Sovereign King, which proved by consequence to be prejudicial no less to his subjects than himself. Teutone King of Seandinavia who of (whilom) so poor a petty King is now come to be so great a Monarch, casting an observant eye on the simplicity of Gimislao, never left him, till (by deceiving him by feigned signs of friendship) he had wrested him out of his dominions; whereof though he (harmless Prince) was often warned by divers, (and among them by my undeserving self in particular) yet was it never possible to make him understand it, so as he (unfortunate man) was in the same time assaulted and pillaged of all that he had, saving with much ado his person by flight, the two Princes his sons remaining behind in the hands of fortune. I (that had bred them up, and from the beginning of the war had safely placed them in a strong castle, knowing it could not hold out long when all the rest were once lost) abandoned the Father already past all help) to save the sons from the tyrannous paws of the usurper, I clothed them then poorly; and suiting myself in the like equipage, I barefoot and barelegged conducted them (as mine) through the midst of the enemy's army, assured by poverty which no man took notice of: Gotten to the sea, I sailed prosperously, the wind driving me to the Cimbrians, who (in maintenance of their liberty) wage continual war with Teutone: There found we Gimislao, who repenting him too late of his over-coldness, moved even the very stones with the pitiful moan he made for regaining his Realm; and after, having spent in spies and levying of troops the little treasure he brought with him, he died a beggar for want of any one to relieve him, ambition assailing him now out of season, who was as incapable of riches with a kingdom, as of poverty with a private life; having performed for him his last rites of funeral, I seeing the impossibility of establishing the Princes in their dominions, left them in pay with those people; and then examining (by the vanity of the world) the inconstancy of fortune, and how moving the wheel wherein she jeered was, I resolved to bid her adieu, and to retire myself somewhere, where neither she nor humane hopes should ever any more deceive or molest me: Travelling then through many countries, I chanced (at last) to light on and like the place that I now reside in, where the meditation of divine things rid my mind of terrene affections, making me become far more happy in my present poverty, stripped of all vain desires, than I was in worldly riches and honours, encumbered with insatiable affections, grieving only that I had not known sooner, that 'tis merely opinion that torments the mind, a torture that ever augments the unhappiness of humane life.  
I thought good (Madame) to tell you this short story, for ministering unto your present state some argument of consolation, and that you might support your losses with a mind worthy yourself. Which said, he kissing the skirt of her garment, returned without either taking any further leave, or staying for other answer.  
The Queen calling to mind that her husband's last resolution was to go to the Cimbrians, was no whit afraid to see herself alone, but still holding strait forwards on that way, she found at the waxing brown of the evening a few cottages, where she was lovingly (though poorly) entertained. The day following she saw no body. On the third she met with a young country-swain, that with a piece of bread in his hand was chase away his hunger. And she that the day before had not eaten any thing, and the forepast days but very little, pricked on by the spur of famine said unto him:  
Impart me (good lad) I pray thee, some of thy bread, and I will willingly requite thee for it. The boy that till then had never seen a woman of so majestic an appearance (paring off with a knife that part where his teeth had bitten) reached unto her the rest with a liberal readiness; and then seeing them and their horses too almost starved for hunger, he (serving them for a guide) led them into a village, where she was unexpectedly met by her husband, accompanied with a few others; who fearing till than that she had been lost, joyed now very much to see her safely escaped.  
Advertized afterwards of the enemies sending her her wardrobe that was coming a little after them, with one who in his name came to present her with it; she (in an anger) rose up, and calling for her Palfry answered them, that she would have none of her enemy's gifts, and much wondered that they were not sent back when they were first proffered; which said, she road on, (followed by her train) till she came to the Cimbrians, whither were a little before arrived from Gaul many Ladies and Knights, among whom was Elicarncta Duchess of Monconciaco, daughter to the old Duchess that had been her governess. The pleasure and joy which she then conceived in seeing her, exceeded her pastgrievances and displeasures: The Duchess exceeding by qualities not ordinary, all ordinary merits, though great in that sex; thither was she come (good Lady) extremely afflicted both in mind and body; in mind for the incomparable cross-fortunes of her beloved Mistress; in body for the weakness of her tenderly-delicate complexion, which imitating the delicacy of her noble conditions (the singular deliciousness of that Court) seemed to teach us, that nature forms complexions with declination and disadvantage after the image and according to the excellency or defect of spirits; Weep they did, but not much, so just were they in paying every one its due, a few tears dropped they for the infortunate, omitting not though the consolation due to prudence.  
Irinico that (in the mean time) could not either with embassies or reasons dissuade the Scandinavian from siding with the Sarmatan King against his son-in-law, hearing now of his overthrow, and being not able to reinstall him by Arms; smothering the injury, thought with himself to prosecute the affair of matrimony (the Prince Elimante being already enamoured of his pretended wife) hoping that this means might open him the way to the restitution of what was taken away from his daughter; but the marriage being all this while unconcluded on, he resolved to permit the Prince to go himself in person into Scandinavia, there to prosecute the enjoying of his loves; accordingly he goes thither unknown, giving out, that he went to travel as a Knight-errant into other parts: Arrived there, he saw the King, whom (though the home-glass of many years were since run out) he yet knew by that Ambassador our that had been at his Fathers, a caveat that taught his intellect to guide his behaviour somewhat the more warily; become in that regard more cautelous of concealing himself than before, he assayed all the means his invention could propose to come to the sight of the Princess, who stirring abroad but very seldom, by consequence could be but seldom seen: But prudence and love, or rather a prudent love instructing him far above his years, and discreetly governing him in all his ways, he came (I know not how) to have ingress into a park where for her health's sake she used to walk sometimes all alone in.  
The Prince was clothed in the habit of a Squire, and though his Royal greatness remained not vailed by the disguise of the habit he was clothed in, yet was it nevertheless shadowed with a certain middle-kind of humility, wherewith he believing to hide it from the fight of others, made it become (indeed) in the eyes of all men more observed, and regardful for its inexpressibly-sweet delightsomeness, and rarely self-peculiar hearts-winning amability.  
The Princess had (given her by her Father) Elimanto's picture sent from Irinico, and now walking all alone, she opening its Diamantine cover, heedfully beheld it; when casting her eye aside towards a by-corner not far off the place where she walked, she discovered its true original: Start back at the unexpected sight of him she did not, but drew her eye from the artificial to the natural; and then believing she was not deceived in the certainty of her conjecture, said unto herself. Sure this is Elimanto.  
He pierced through the heart with that sudden glance, had surely fainted, but that love received himself before him the shaft shot by the bow of her fair eyes, (a pity not imputable either to piety or virtue, knowing him without any new wounds to be already wounded, and withal, that he could not (in case he killed him outright) so triumph over him as he intended.)  
Elimanto taken on him to be by this encounter surprised at unawares, and doing her submissive reverence, made a show of retiring himself, when she asked him whom he belonged unto, and how he got in there: The answer was.  
Most excellent Madame, it is not long since the Knight my Master died, and then I desirous to see, and seek a fortune in this great Court, for the famousness thereof, came hither to that end; for the rest, I beseech your Highness' pardon, for my being got in hither as a stranger, curious to see what I had never seen before.  
Upon this, Celene ask him if he had ever known her before, and if not, how he then came to know she was the Princes? I never had (indeed) the happiness to see your Highness before (answered her the Prince) but yet to know you is as easy as to know the sun by its shining rays; besides, my coming from a country, in which your Highness is known by pictures, merits, and relations, I might say by love too, if I thought there were any Prince living worthy of your Highness: At this Celene smiled with a gentle gravity, without taking off him her eye, more certain than before that he was Elimanto; then ask him what Country that he spoke of was, and understanding it was Gaula Belgica, she not daring to pass any farther held her peace: But he with a courage spurred on by a sincere affection) proceeded.  
If Prince Elimanto could but imagine me here, I am sure he would with all his heart exchange beings with me, he owning not that affect that more sweetly tortures him, than the desire of serving your Highness; so as if the affair of the-by-him-so-ardently-desired-nuptials be not shortly determined, I would not give one of these leaves for his life.  
Knoweth-you than the Prince? (said Celene) if yea, why then suffers he you to go seek any other Master? Yes Madame (said he) he knows me, but is as willingly content that any of his subjects travel hither, as he would more gladly come himself, so (as I dare say) that this sole favour (I am now honoured with in seeing your Highness) would suffice, to make him the happiest of all the Princes in the world; how then can he choose but be well content, that others come here for service, your Highness being Sovereign Mistress of his desires, and by all his so reputed? And could I be but so fortunate, in joining the desire to the effect so far, as that your Highness would be pleased to receive me into your service; Prince Elimanto would think a great part of his desires accomplished in my being so for his sake accepted, the most honourable mark of your Princely favour that your Highness can favour him withal.  
My favours (said then Celene) stand at the dispose of the King my Father, of whom I have not as yet received any command to any such purpose; but you (for being a stranger, and happening to come to me before any other) I will accept into my service, seeing the desire you have to serve me. With that, bidding a Lady that followed her, to cause him to be (on her behalf) entertained of her Stuart, she yet held him some while longer in discourse, growing to be ever more and more assured, that she had not judged amiss.  
Elimanto seeing himself at his first entrance so highly favoured by fortune, conceived a confident hope of a good issue therein; and conferring by night with his Father's Ambassador, under colour of bringing him letters, made him when he knew him) tremble to think of his no less bold than dangerous enterprise, Teutone being of all Princes the most malicious, whose honour-despising resolutions had no other scope, than his own private profit.  
Little less than a whole years' time lived Elimanto in this habit, and yet the business went on never a whit all this while, one day suggesting unto the other new articles of difficulty to hinder its conclusion. Nor had he (good Prince) been yet disinveigled so soon as he was neither, (so intent were all his thoughts on the object of his love) but for the Princess herself, who was the first that showed him the false card dealt him.  
Now she had endeavoured by all the means she could, to carry herself fairly; for though of tender years, yet being at one and the self same time no less prudent than upright-hearted, divers conjectures had made her imagine, that her Father treated of this alliance with no fair meaning; so as she gave not her affection full power to settle itself wholly on Elimanto, doubting lest he should be betrayed, and so excluded from her; watching therefore continually an occasion to clear her imagination of that doubt, Fortune at length favoured her better than she expected; for, chancing to be one day in her Father's gallery, whereinto no man entered but himself alone, she at the chamber-door heard him in discourse with one of his Council & favourites; saying, he was sorry that the King of the Sarmatans' carried not himself more sagely in his courses than he seemed to do, since being assured of having Celene, and that the holding of Irinico in hopes, was but to establish what he had already conquered, and to facilitate the way for acquiring of more; he had (for all that) importuned him with perpetual embassies, as if the jealousy of Doricrene could not be otherwise extinguished than with the new love of his daughter. A foul shame for a great Prince to love women for affections sake, whereas his love should have no other end than his own proper ends and interesses. Whereof in respect he had divers times written unto him without being able to make him yet conceive the mystery of his intention, he was now resolved to send him thither to tell him by word of mouth: That Celene was his, and should be no other man's, since he neither would nor indeed could settle her in a better or fitter place, their blood and interesses loudly proclaiming her his; That the late conquest of Vlmigaria did but make his way to greater erterprises, if he would be but ruled by him, if not, that then he might chance to encounter with greater difficulties than he yet imagined; That his intention was to go on the way he had begun, which was, to procure Arms of Irinico (that hang rusting on the walls) under the hopes of the marriage of Celene to his son; That therefore if he heard of any treaty about it, he should not be (in the least manner) moved thereat, nor in any case believe it, though his ears and eyes with all his outward senses showed it him concluded: That his design was to negotiate it till such time, as their joint Standard-royal and victorious Arms (passing the Rhine and Elbe) were displayed victorious in the Countries and dominions of Irinico, where he had infinite dependants that favoured their faction. And that so high a design merited his patience, the delay not depriving him of his Spouse, but presenting him (together with her) occasions to make him become the famousest King that ever wore Crown; to these added he many other instructions tending all to one and the same purpose: But here the Princess (for fear of being espied) retired, astonished at such a master-plot of treachery and being conditioned differently from her Father, could not choose but favour Elimanto's true affection, and correspond thereunto as far as her honour permitted her, so as she resolved (whatsoever came on't) to open the matter unto him that he might be gone his ways, and dispose otherwise of his affection.  
All this while had she governed herself with such circumspection, that he could never perceive that she knew him, and he (on the other side) was endued with such a singular modesty, as he had not the boldness to discover himself, content only to contemplate in the sun (as doth a generous Eagle) those rays he so admired and loved; and though youth prompt him on to more bold resolutions, yet bore reason and discretion in him a greater stroke than any other affect whatsoever.  
Celene went (according as she was wont) into her park to walk, whither causing to be brought her by Elimante (that gave out his name to be Velusio) a little mantle (which she usually wore to keep her from the cold air when she walked) she thus bespoke him.  
Velusio, I have hitherto known thee so discreet, that I hope thou wilt serve me faithfully in a business wherein I mean to employ thee; which is, that thou return to thy country, and tell Prince Elimante from me, that all the means which he and his Father use to obtain me are but merely vain, the King my Father being resolved to dispose otherwise of me; acquaint him further, that his love hath obliged me to correspond him, if not in love, yet (at least) in good will, which hath transported me to discover unto him this countries crossing of his design, seeing I cannot (with my honour) requite him with any greater or other expression of my gratitude; here told she him all that she had heard, charging him to part suddenly, and to advise Elimante to alter the object of his love, and think of another wife: I know not whether or no there distilled at these words some humidity from her fair eyes, for, the staidness of her countenance and speech made not any show of any greater affect than her language uttered. To describe the case Elimante was in, were impossible for me, whose heart (good Prince) was so overwhelmed with extremity of anguish, that if anger & disdain (which served for a compound cordial) had not sustained his drooping spirits in their functions, he had doubtless sunk to the ground: But considering how much it than stood him upon, he with a generous resolution returned her this answer.  
Incomparable Madame, I yield your Highness the greatest thanks that I can express or imagine, since the favour you do me far excels any merit of mine, only in one respect I may think myself worthy, which is, that your Highness shall not be deceived in the opinion you conceive of my fidelity. I see in this business two great extremes; the King, and your Highness: Prince Elimante (though betrayed) will never repent him of having served so high and virtuous a Princess, whose exemplary gratitude shall make him think well employed all the time spent in bearing with the ingratitude of others. I shall acquaint him with as much as your Highness commands me, beseeching you to rest assured, that he will never forget his beholdingness to your Highness for so great a favour; One sole thing I doubt of, (which is) that the badness of the news will go near to kill him, and by so much the rather, that in the loss which he sustains, the same in the very act of its losing shows the inestimableness of its excellency and value. But the Princess having not the heart to answer him (her constancy beginning now to fail her) without further speech to him, went and placed herself among the Ladies.  
The Prince making no longer tarrying (having conferred with his Father's Ambassador, and changed his apparel) departed thence, arriving within few days at his own home, where unbuttoning his breast, he plucked out thence the wrongs done him. He burst off the treaty, and would (if his Father had suffered him) have broken off the peace too; howsoever, the seeming preparation he is now busied about, makes the world expect for wars.  
The other Princes stand all of them observing the issue, desirous to free themselves from suspicions and hidden treacheries, though with manifest dangers; and I am now going to recall Polimero Prince of Sardinia, (now many years sithence banished, through the occasion of the King his Father-in-lawes-doting fits) to the end he, returned home, may (if need be) make one with the rest. This is the danger wherein wear: The world on that part hath one sole enemy, superior to any one, inferior to all together; this is known unto all, and yet such as can withstand him, will not; they shut their eyes, and run for company down the stream of the ruined to their own utter ruin, thinking themselves more hurt with the biting of a flea that skips in their shirts, than with the venomous teeth and poisoned breath of the dragon, that both infects them and devours their dominions. Some Princes there are, that (for certain rules) cannot leave off siding with the Scandinavian, though they be sure to be in the end oppressed, or (which is the least evil they can hope for) to be of freemen made first subjects, and then slaves: Others think it a happiness to be the last that perish. We have none of us any prudence, but are all carried to action it we do any thing) by spirits of confusion, and brought to that pass, that the Gods (being pleased to punish mortals) reduce them unto, which is, to deprive them of their diviner part their understanding.  
Here held the ancient Knight his peace, seconded with a sad silence of all, full of that horror wherewith an unexpected evil encumbers men's spirits: But the Druide having stood a good while with downcast eyes, thinking his present profession obliged him to speak, knew not well what to resolve of; so distracted was he with a passionate affection that egged him on, to make others believe that, which reason suffered not himself to give any credit unto. Now he had ever since the arrival of the Venedotian Knight had great conflicts in his mind about his return, but his first deliberation grown up now to the height of obstinacy, tied him fast to his resolution of not parting; though love and filial duty persuaded him strongly to the contrary, insomuch as he persuaded himself that that was his best course, now that the entrance into wholesome counsels was shut up, and that he fostered (in their steed) imaginations, which being once tasted, it is a hard matter to forget their smack, & leave them to catch hold of the real substance and guile-detesting truth.  
Having then heard this story treating of a public State, which imposed on him a necessity of changing his purpose, he gladly would for not changing it have deceived himself, with beguiling also the rest of the company, and persuading them to think well of that opinion, which he knew in his own conscience to be stark naught.  
This noble Knight's tale (said he) hath horrible appearances, and minds taken at unawares may easily conceive fears to be where none are, by measuring the effects, or rather the expectation of them with the deceivable rule of false good and false evil: Here is presented to our view an altered and a new world, as if it and its accidents had not ever been the same, sithence it first began to have a being; not that I deny alterations, but consider them in the revolution of times, which if they could choose but be changed, mutations than could not but be denied; but if they be at this present in a bad state, they shall (no doubt) hereafter be in a good one. 'Tis ordinary for old men to praise the greenness of their youth, and for Poets to run on the commendation of the Spring, yet perceive not the former, that if they were not waxen old, nothing would seem altered unto them; Cities, towns, and houses would then have the self same aspects, and appear unto them with the very same beauty; menthen should have their delights confined to past-sports, would taste all meats with the same relish, and the spirit glutted and tired with merry thoughts, far distant from melancholic Philosophy, would not be capable of such differences, no not so much as to imagine that any such were or could be. Poet's likewise would say, that the world were ever the same, or if it ever altered, that then it rather bettered than otherwise; for, in later ages were never known (as in the first) brother-killers without any precedent example, promiscuous lusts without shame or punishment, incests with fathers, nor a thousand other mischiefs and lewd villainies.  
Alterations of States, civil and domestic enmities, pestilences and famines have been in all times; so have there ever been eclipses, lightning, thunderbolts, droughts, earthquakes and comets; and if not always deluges, no more doth there always meet in the deepest of the heavens in the sign Cancer the great conjunction of jove and Saturn: Besides, the Gods (which is indeed the true reason) do not always punish us according to our deservings. The world though placed in the midst of the air, yet falls not, it's own nature upholds it, and makes it durable for alterations, without which the heaven and earth would seem to us to be of iron. If it be so; then things present should not seem so strange to us, (seeing they are but even what have been before) nor yet afflict us, if leaving natural considerations, we accost to the supernatural, which may alone serve us for a true rule in all things. Men talk of a general revolution in the world, by which most believe, that the buds of the growing Monarchy is to be pruned off, no otherwise, than if we thought it possible to strike a nail in the celestial wheel, or believed that the disposition of the Gods were unto us as prejudicial as incomprehensible: But if we believe that there are Gods, and that they have a provident care over us, doth it not imply, that the means of their providence stand above the reach of our knowledge, and that they oftentimes make for our good, when they seem in our eyes to work our prejudice? Humane minds (capable only of the individual things present) measure all eternal universal acts by the short Ell of their clouded capacity, not considering, how that the infinite essence hath a constant care of the finite, with an Idea of eternity, which we comprehend not: for, to comprehend it, would be required an instrument proportionable, which is divinity, being a rule fit to square all things by, from which are derived, and wherein ends the circle of the whole universe and all things therein contained, with a perpetual undeceivable gyre, not casual, but predeterminate & certain, so as our oppositions cannot hinder it, nor our reasons persuade it to alter its course. Which if it so be, to what end then serve either our fears or complaints? And again, if it be not so, what good do our Altars or Temples do us? What! are there no Gods at all? well! we'll then be gods to ourselves, and may then rest confident, that in whatsoever we do or take in hand, either the strongest or subtlest will prevail; Let the hopes and fears of the life to come then cease, nor let us any more vainly spend either our time or blood for maintaining the opinion of Deities in this present life, not knowing either what or who they are: But if such both are indeed, and will needs have these alterations, let's then cede to their power and will, it befitting not us to know or dispute the reason why, but humbly to kiss the whip wherewith we are scourged: Nor should our having in our own hands the disposing of our own freewill make us believe that we are (for all that) withdrawn from under the subjection of their providence; for if it so were, than were that providence in vain, and divinity quite abolished, or at least idle, unactive, and uncapable of any operation: Now than if any Gods be, doubtless they do foresee and provide, not that which we, but what they in their inscrutable wisdom judge expedient for us; And if to withstand or repine at what befalls us be to oppugn the divine providence, then whoso believeth, opposeth it not, but obeyeth their irresistible wills, and suffers this wheel to run round, since it cannot but gyre, to the end its standing still make it not become contrary to the nature of the eternal motion. The world could not conserve itself in its general being but for corruption, which in it engenders singular things of their own essence; and this change is that so much spoken of vicissitude, by which the Gods abase and exalt whom and what they please.  
These are the reasons which for the one only (though the only good) part, may partly be alleged in this matter.  
For the other, I see no reason of opposing rising commands, or growing Monarchies; be it of Prince or people; of Princes, they know that theirs must one day come to a period, and therefore the signs foreshowing it being once come, they should not either impugn them, or oppose the will of Fate. Alteration is less violent in ceding than withstanding, The bow that bends not, breaks: But grant, that they will defend themselves, tell me, will they do it solely or jointly? If solely, the inferiority then of forces will be the touchstone of their losses; if accompanied, than the disaccompanying of their interesses will reserve them by such delay for a greater precipice. The colleagues have all of them their particular and several ends, and when in the extreme ruins of their fellows they see themselves likely to escape the being ruined for that present, they neglect to succour them in the field, and withdraw their hand from the community of their perils, for fear of falling with them. Examples thereof we have enough in the present days, without borrowing any from past ages; but could a Prince be always in the same state, it were doubtless better for him: The worst is that, which this noble Knight tells us; That the world become senseless, neither sees nor feels its own imminent evils; That the enemy may ever run and rove wheresoever he list, the impediments being few and weak; That whoso can withstand him, is by fatal inconsideration become so confident as he will not do it; being all of them signs, whereby Princes are admonished to foresec, and with prompt remedy to provide for the evils that hang over their heads, which in wills so disjoined in such a conjunction of perils and interesses, I see not how they can otherwise do than by ceding; since yielding brings far lesser losses than utter undoing.  
For the people, I know no necessity of their ruining themselves with their Sovereigns, they are always sure to serve one or other; to what end then should they purchase a ruinous decaying servitude at the price of their blood, and ruin of their country? Must the ambition (forsooth) of Princes destroy the world? the Fates forbid that; Why they have commanded already their shares, let them therefore (a god's name) give place to others. Have they more pretention in what they or their Ancestors acquired, than others have had? Were they borne (trow we) Princes with the world, or came they by that dignity after a long succession of years, and after others that ruled before them? If so, the first that got it, could he come by it otherwise than by violence? and if by such means, why then may not another do the like? The self same shall in future ages befall our present Conquerors, who for being by then founded on the continuation of a long possession, will think it an injury to them what now they make no scruple of doing to others, though indeed it neither than will be, nor now is such. The world is a scene where are represented its accidents; the spectators are the Gods, who delighting themselves in humane things, would take no pleasure therein, if they continued to be always the same; they will that their power shine over all; and such men as ordinary (though miraculous) things cannot illuminate, must be taken out of darkness by extraordinary means: In fine, I believe, the Gods deprive not Princes of their judgement and valour, but to bring in new personages in a new comedy, and the scene being theirs, they may represent there what they please, and we can but serve them at a beck, in taking up and letting down the hangings, and in putting a hand to the machine's, and being employed in other common and meaner services, whilst the Princes appearing in the scene (sometimes happy, and some other times miserable, one while triumphant, and another while captives) show themselves in the Catastrophe to be subject to a power greater than theirs.  
Here ended the Druide, when the Venedotian Knight, who had many timés changed his colour, seeing him now silent, rose up and said.  
Feredo Prince of Vencdotia (even this same (my Lords) you here see in this habit) and with that turning towards him; I beseech your Highness (said he on) to pardon my discovering you.  
The times now permit you not to be any longer confined to these weeds, nor with them to those resolutions that ruin the person of so great a Prince; you pretend that humane judgement, for being deprived of the right instrument to judge things by, is deceivable; and true it is: But be it what it will, either you were not pleased to express it, or else you would not seem to know it, for doubt of being induced to yield to what you might by irrefutable arguments be persuaded unto. The Gods (with your gracious pardon) are not that instrument, though they be indeed the Authors and the end thereof; nor in giving it us, give they us themselves, but their assistant grace, whereby we are made capable of using it; nor yet have they been pleased to bestow it upon us in an incomprehensible way, beyond the capacity of our senses, as they themselves are; lest we should then impudently deny it, as they themselves have been sometimes impiously renounced; to prevent which, they have naturally engrafted it in us, and withal made us doubly sensible of having it in our heart, and in our intellect; Conscience that witness against ourselves, is that instrument, that conscience which I will term Natural, to distinguish it from the Religious one. By this Natural Conscience, I mean that remorse common to all creatures, which though void of reason, are not (for all that) deprived of a certain knowledge of the evils they commit, more or less according to the degrees of their capacities; and such a conscience is singular in us in the years of our infancy.  
A Religious Conscience I intent to be that, whose object is Divinity, but for being built upon divers laws (contrary or disaccording) cannot be so general, as to form this instrument; Natural Conscience then, as a common immutable principle, shall serve us for a rule in our affairs, without neglecting (for all that) the use of the religious one, when we treat of the Gods, or of their operations in us.  
Let us now then first see, if Princes and people be indifferently bound to conserve, those their dominion, these their present state; or if the pretext of predestination or divine will doth constrain them to run to ruin, for default of defending themselves: For the Princes, my Prince here believes there is no reason for it, since their own interesses will make them use the means. For the people, he speaks nearer the quick of the seeming truth; for he holds them exempted of all defence, for not receiving any change thereby (as touching the natural conscience) and for not opposing the divine will in obsequiousness to the religious one. But I (being (under correction) of a contrary opinion) say, that they ought to shun by all means any new principality; for being by the religious Conscience thereto bound by oaths of fealty and obedience. And the alleging, that the beginnings of Monarchies were violent, is a reason that (under favour) proves not his, but my opinion; since when the Law declareth things unowned to be his that first comes to the enjoying of them, it shows clearly the property thereof to be by natural reason such or such a ones: And the same Law that by the self same reasons would take away all occasions of contentions that might spring from old pretensions, gives us likewise prescription of time, which being expired, declares the things in controversy to be under the dominion of the last possessor; But I admit not this violence, much less believe it to have been a degree to the first Signiories: For, if it be true, that golden ages first were and afterwards degenerated, 'tis strange to me, since I find them not now degenerated nor abased, but rather reduced to a finer carat and a better state than ever they were before in.  
Nature desires Monarchy and will needs have it; we see not any one thing that depends not on another. The Sun lords over the Planets, among beasts the Lion rules, and of birds the Eagle is sovereign; The secondary causes also depend on one prime singular; the affects and temperatures are subject to one predominating Element; the soul rules the body, the father his children and family; if then every little house hath by nature its King, why shall not then a City, a Province, nay a whole Nation have one? The first that reduced men together, did it not to lord over, but to instruct and disciplinate them; nor can indeed a Teacher discharge well the function of a Teacher, without jurisdiction over his Disciples; and the Heavens that would have a Monarchy among men, as in other things brought in for monarchs elevated wits, which were the first that began to oversway the depressed and servile: And though I did admit (which I do not) that the stream of Monarchies sprung from the fountain of tyranny, yet might I gather thence the learning of good government by bad (as by the infirmity the medicine, and by it the restauration of health) which being an inestimable treasure, let us endeavour as much more to conserve it, as in procuring its reduction from tyranny to a legitimate and necessary Magistracy, whereby and by whose means mankind is governed and made happy. So far therefore are those that first ruled out of the reach of accusation, that even antiquity itself hath (to eternize their memories) honoured them as Gods.  
The people than ought (for the religious conscience's sake) to obey their Princes, and (for the natural one) to do the same for their own peculiar interesses. Never was there State seen pass from one government to another without its own proper violence of Laws or customs, which being so violated, breaks the peace, and engenders factions and sometimes insurrections, by reason of the Subject's being restrained to new laws and orders contrary to the first; a passion in Nature intolerable: Besides that, a new Prince, though he enter never so peaceably, cannot yet otherwise choose but come armed, so as the Subject's goods and houses remain to be exposed to the Soldiers, and justice in the hand of new Ministers under new terms and laws: And if the change chance to be from a bad Prince to a worse, or from a good to a bad one, should not then an indifferent and easy servitude be preferred before an heavy and intolerable one: The comparison demonstrating unto us, that a great difference in things, though of the selfsame species, makes them become not only unequal but opposite? My Lord (the Prince) counsels as a Druide, that which as a Prince he surely would not do, which is, that considering the confusion and ill intelligence among Princes, and seeing the signs of the divine will to threaten (as it were) their ruin, it would prove their best course, quietly and patiently to endure the yoke of the divine will, and withal as willingly to subject themselves to the hand of man for fear of perishing. But I would fain know, who will or can assure me of the will of the Gods? or in case I might be thereof assured, yet who will calculate me the degrees thereof, or show me the limits of its extent? But will they needs have me undone howsoever? Indeed, if I look into my own demerits, it will be no difficult matter to induce me to believe it, nay I doubt me, that by this reason most, if not all the world would be undone.  
That than which concerns me to know more particularly, is, Whether they will deprive me of my dominion totally, or with it subject me to another, or neither this nor that, but afflict me with long wars? If no man can tell it me, how shall I then behave myself for not opposing the divine will? Nature teacheth me to defend myself. The Gods forbid me not to do it, and men will commend me for so doing; none will blame me for it save mine enemies, to whom only my virtue will be detestable, for being prejudicial unto them. If to conserve my state I bow my neck to the yoke of subjection, I shall then oppose the Gods, in case their will be to have me either afflicted or utterly ruined; the same may I say of any other election of mine. The Gods when they are disposed to subject, ruin, or afflict me, will not send me Geniuses to buzz or trumpet it in my ears, they need no means, but can make myself serve for the instrument of my own raising or downfall: yea my own ill directed actions will conduct, nay hurry me to the end prefixed me by their will; so as under such a pretext to do this rather than that, will give them cause, not only to cross me, but to be withal justly displeased at me, for pretending to pry into that which is inscrutable, whilst I should rather second it with the means bestowed upon me, which is defence.  
As for the reason, that Princes have no just title in their possessions, presupposing their coming by them anciently to have been by violence, I would here fain know how the new may be termed just, if the old (justified by ancient possession, with the prescription of times, assent of subjects, and confirmed with blood oftentimes, spilt in defending it, yea with the death of the Princes themselves) be unjust? And as touching the scene and its representations, the Gods would not be spectators if there were no stage-players, whose parts to act, one Prince must defend if another assail. But if there be this day any Prince obliged to the defence of his Subjects, you (Prince of Venedotia) are surely he, you having no brother, your father being sickly and weak; your people left for a prey to their enemies, without any Prince, or defender. With which, prostrating himself at his feet, he proceeded. Therefore I humbly beseech your Highness, that, abandoning your incertain deceivable conceits, you reassume the filial affection that you have forgotten, the inclination of a Prince which you have left off, and the duty of a Cavalier by you some while sithence abandoned. More he would have said, but that his tenderheartedness restrained him, so as, with an affectionate respect, kissing his knees, he besought him with silence and tears more effectually, than he could have done by either persuasions or entreaties: But he graciously raising him up off the ground, after a short pause, said unto him.  
Cataulo no more, since you have already by doing your duty taught me mine, and though ought otherwise than good should come thereof, yet will I prefer the public good before my own private interesses; I thank you for the pains you have taken, which shall not (on my word) prove to be sown in the sands. Behold, I am now persuaded to go and restore myself to my father and Country, in hope the Gods will be therewith well pleased: At these words, all of them rising up did him humble reverence, with congratulating and praising the resolution he had taken.  
All that day passed they over exceeding joyfully, and the ensuing, the Prince (desirous to know them) enquired who they were, especially the young Knight, who now standing in a muse, discovered by his face a confused mind, he seeming at the instant of Feredo's resolution, to ruminate some till then unthought of deliberations, and to contemplate that site with greater curiosity than before. Of which new passion of his, the Prince taking notice, could not choose but tell him, that he much marveiled to see him so transported.  
My Lord (with blushing thereat said he) I beseech your Highness not to take it ill I obey you not, my fortunes and quality being so mean, as the knowing them cannot be any way serviceable unto you; and though that the concealing thereof might disadvantage me in the way of begging a favour at your Highness' hands, nevertheless such is the opinion that I have of your generous and noble disposition, that I hope you will grant it me by so much the willinger, by how much the less my silence merits it; And withal, I should think my obligation doubled to your Princely favour, if vouchsafing to admit of my excuses, you deem me the less discourteous by believing, that I conceal myself for an urgent and necessary occasion.  
Feredo that by this young Knight's Squire had secretly learned who he was, not caring to know thereof any further, answered him. Your aspect (Sir) promiseth so much, as your quality and unseen merit cannot without injury be doubted of; therefore if the desire I had to be acquainted with you only to serve you, made me desirous to know your being, the same now teacheth me to content myself with what best pleaseth you, so as your silence should no whit disencourage you from commanding me, since it deprives me not of the will to obey you.  
The young Knight blushing at this courteous answer, with doing him humble obeisance, said. I must then (my Lord) in begging this favour at your Princely hands, first tell you this much of myself, that being a distressed Gentleman exiled from my Country, and in disfavour with my Prince, I thought (my heart indeed so giving me) when first I had the fortune to see you, that the tempest had brought me hither to shroud me here as in a sanctuary: But seeing your Highness now resolved to return home, I bethought me of a new course, which was to implore of your liberality, the resignation of this place under such vassalage and obligation as might stand best with your Highness' good liking.  
Much wrought this request on the noble heart of Feredo, who by his own case had learned to have a feeling of that of anothermen; full loath was he to say his demand, nay, and yet having been informed of his desperate love, he feared that the subscribing to his desire might turn to his prejudice; Taking him therefore aside, he prayed him to acquaint him with the occasion that moved him to settle himself in that Island: But seeing he could not draw any thing out of him, he then by laying before his eyes his own example, counselled him to alter his resolution, for the suspicion or rather belief he had, that some desperation had guided him to some ruinous resolution; but the young man with a gladsome countenance assured him, no manner of desperation now troubled him, any passion tending that way being cured by that climate, where it behoved him to stay some time, to take the benefit of that air for confirming it.  
Feredo would not rest satisfied with such reasons, neither would the other manifest unto him his secrets, yet so much did he by the order and manner of his speech discover, that the Prince might penetrate somewhat into his new love, or at least free himself of the suspicion he had of him before; observing now in him those joys, which cannot easily be concealed in those enamoured hearts, which confidently hope for the full fruition of their desires, so as, laying aside all doubts, he bestowed on him the house with all that was therein, with no other obligation but to acknowledge it the Prince of Feacia's; so gladsome was the Knight of this gift, that he would by all means kiss his hands for so noble a favour.  
As they two stood pleasantly conferring together of divers subjects, their discourse was interrupted by the trampling of two horses, who (pricked hotly on) thought by the swiftness of their course to shun the sting of the spur; the one fled from the other, and the foremost (being not able to rule his) suffered him to run his breast against the wall, and his forefeet into a window of a house, that stood erected on that plain, but thence fell down so near the wall, that his rider (tumbling down topsy-turvy with his head undermost) dinged out his brains, and remained stone-dead in the place; The second that pursued him, being already alighted, seeing him quite dead, remounted on horseback, without doing him other harm, but turning back to encounter a great troop of highway the eves that made after him; and giving no ear to the Prince, (who courteously welcomed him thither) he furiously galloped down the hill, and rushing in among them, made of them so great a slaughter, that by that time Feredo arrived (who with the others came in speedily to his succour) the greater part of them lay dead in the field, the rest (knowing themselves inferior in force, and seeing no possibility of running away) yielded to the vanquisher; who being weary, and in some parts of his body wounded, went and laid himself down on the ground, to recover his then well-near-forlorn breath.  
Before I tell you who this was, give me leave to let you know, how that the Princess Elenia stayed a great while in Sardinia with Eromena, for being so fond each of other, as they could not part company; till at last the multiplied messengers from Elenia's father, her duty, and desire of seeing him after so many years, induced her to take her leave, she parting obliged, beloved, and presented with rich gifts.  
Her tenderly-loving father (that in her misfortunes had refined his love, by the experimented confirmation of the constant opinion he had of her goodness) welcomed her with all those expressions of a fatherly affection, which could be showed towards an only beloved and virtuous (though little fortunate) daughter.  
Her stepmother having first heard of, and afterwards seen the reality of her merits, conformed herself in her entertainment both to her husband's will and her own inclination. Don Eleimo was seen of her with such an eye, as generous Princes are wont to behold with, such as have loyally served them, she thinking it withal no shame to publish her obligation, and confess her engagement to him; for which she could never satiate herself in rewarding his merits, and gratifying him, though indeed she thought all money too light for such an use. But to Don Eleimo seemed it on the contrary, that so great and accumulated favours, brought (in some sort) a prejudice or blemish to the greatness of his generous mind; and living perpetually in some measure tormented with an extreme desire of going to seek after Don Eulavio, whom he feared to be in a weak and succour-needing fortune, he made suit to depart, obtaining at length by his assidual importunity leave, though with much ado, which but for that sole occasion he could not have obtained. And so away he goes to travel, & seeks him over all such countries as his Genius directed him to; and at last (after the spending of many years in the search of him) found him out, and brought him to the Court of Aquitaine, where he resolved to make a period of his travels, and to spend the remnant of his days, not trusting to the Catalan's promises, but refusing them, he (banishing the too-tender affects to country and kindred) resolved to let the world see, that he could live any where, and that a sincere innate goodness is more acceptable in foreign countries than in its own. Needs would Don Eleimos by all means bear him company in his exile, to recompense in some measure his accompanying him in his misfortunes, the sole occasion of his so living a banished man.  
Impossible it were to describe a happier life than this of theirs, both of them being ennobled Gentlemen of one and the same Country, nursed up with the milk of one and the same Court, banished for the self same cause, both alike magnanimous in enduring misfortunes, and in counting them instruments of their felicity, for having been the means of joining them together, the one serving to the other for father and brother, having but one and the same purse, one interest, and one heart. But Don Eulavio fortuning to dye a little after, the other (deprived of so dear a friend) seeing fortune not yet satisfied to have loaden him with perpetual vexation of spirit, thought to lighten it with toiling exercises of his body; In accomplishment whereof, when he had sought after death through all the wars of the Western, Northern, and Southern parts of the known world, and yet not found it; he resolved to seek then after new erterprises in those parts where the Sun riseth, but being by a storm wind-driven into Ericusa, he happened (as he walked along the seashore) to light on that good bird Catascopo.  
That villain was fled from Arelate the very day before he should have made a miserable spectacle of himself unto the popular eye, by paying with his death the debt due from the deeds of his mischievous life. He had about him in his clothes a flat-fashioned bottle of a certain water of so strange a virtue, that it made all the iron it but touched become instantly as brittle as glass, which he had got from one, that having spent all his substance in alembics, in hope of finding out the richest transmutation of metals, had by chance lighted on this rare secret: Nor is it a thing to be wondered at, for such men happen sometimes (after many losses and much time and coin spent in vain) to meet by the way with many excellent things, without being therefore beholding either to other men's doctrine or their own proper judgement. And this purchase came in that archcaitive his way, just as (returned from the Pyrenean Mountains) he lived in doubt how to dispose of himself, when he had counterpoised in a just balance his Master's nature with his own foul demerits.  
Having then oftentimes experimented the secret, and found it by proof to be right and good for his purpose, he bought it, ministering thereby matter to the poor Alchemist to waste his brains about his endless search of his rich gold-hatching Elixir, though the others conscience made him esteem this water far more precious than the Philosophers-stone itself: yet never was he favoured with the opportunity of making use of it all the time of his long imprisonment in Sardinia, nor yet in Arelate, till the very night that should have preceded his ignominious death; But then being cast into a low prison not much pestered with company (as in sundry places is usual and ordinary, to the end the condemned may dispose of what they have, and prepare themselves for death) he having by his water's virtue made brittle and beaten to pieces first his manacles and shackles, and then his heavy bolts, escaped shear away: And then, not knowing either whither to go, or what course to take, his worse than bad inclination (depriving him of the least good thought) brought him to rob on the highway; but being weary of the Gauls, he passed the Alpes, and got into the fair Provinces of Ausonia, where grown to be for his infamy famous, he in a short time assembled all the murderers and thiefs of that Country, by whom he being proclaimed king of the fields, usurped the authority of commanding often contributions and exactions, not only from Villages and Castles, but even from walled Towns and strong Cities, till such time as being desirous of a stayed life, he entered into the pay of the Eugaenean Republic, entertained by them to confront other thiefs like himself that pestered their sea coasts; but he neither obeying them in any thing committed to his charge, nor going whither he was by them directed and sent, but busying his brains about the sacking of Cities, that he might afterwards retire again to his wont haunts, and sheltering groves, was ere he could execute his purpose set upon unawares by the General of that noble people, and constrained to fly away with but sixteen of his consorts, leaving the rest a prey to the fish and Praetors; whereof when sixty of them were hanged, the rest were reserved for the galleys: He in the mean time chanced to be wind-driven into Ericusa, where lighting on a Bark (that launching out of the Illirian Bay, was bound for Peucetia) laden with horses, he robbed her of them, and then mounting thereon his confederates, was (as he stood busied in putting them in order to disorder the Island) unexpectedly arrived on by his old betrayed Master Don Elcimos, whose physiognomy and countenance, though not seen by him long time before, nevertheless so stung his horrid conscience with a feeling of his own infamous treachery, as his eyes unable to endure the justice-menacing-looks of his betrayed Lord, forced him to fly his presence, but was as speedily pursued by him, who with prompt counsel mounted on one of the very same horses, and fiercely chased him, till the happening of what hath been already related.  
Just that very morning had Feredo put off his habit of Priesthood, so as it was now lawful for him in his coming down to buckle on his armour, which he always kept in a by-room for that purpose, thinking (nor did he therein think amiss) that such a store was no sore, as might steed no less a peaceable man in conserving his quiet, than a man of a contrary inclination to a contrary use. Yet had he now no occasion to make use of them, the troop of thiefs being before he came, put to rout and forced to yield; so as he needed to take no other care, than about Don Elcimos' wounds, which though not very deep, did yet somewhat trouble him in mind, because he had not wherewithal to cure them; but the patient himself making no reckoning of them, (for having been used to be his own Chirurgeon) courteously thanking them all for their careful loves, suffered himself to be conveyed to the house, where with Turpentine incorporated with the yolk of an egg (an easy and soon made medicine) he in a few days cured himself.  
Causing in that mean space to be brought before him all Catascopo's companions, and informed by them at full of their quality and being, he determined to let them go free, for not knowing what to do with them; now, that he had already restored the horses and bark to the Merchants that owned them: Having therefore admonished and persuaded them to leave off that wicked course of life, he licenced them to depart, when one of them speaking for the rest, after having humbly thanked him for so great a favour, said thus unto him.  
My life's Lord, we have promised you to leave off the wicked life which hitherunto we have led, and that surely with a sincere and fraudless intention; because (if nothing else induced us so to do) our very being wearied therewith necessarily enjoins us thereto, besides the being impossible that fortune also be not as much wearied in conserving us. But yet no man can be bound to do more than he can do, we are now in such a case as we cannot live anywhere safe, since that the eye of justice being bend towards our past life, will (without making any reckoning of our present internal repentance) punish us wheresoever we be resident. The proposition therefore of reducing us to a civil life, is (though weebe most obsequious thereto) a thing even impossible for us to perform, since we enjoy not the least assurance of our secure living by such a life, our offences being innumerable, our enemies infinite, there being no Prince by us unoffended, and ourselves, though accustomed to toilsomeness and sufferings, yet be not enured to the miserableness of poverty or want, the sole motive that compels many men to take lewd and desperate courses of life; Nay give me leave to tell you yet further, that any he of us that shall have the greatest desire to be reduced to a good course of life, cannot attain thereto but by wicked means, (and that is) by the murdering of one or more of us his companions, without whose deaths it is certain he is sure not to obtain the impunity of his delicts; therefore as it lay in your hands to give us both life and liberty, so may you also (if you please) conserve those lives of ours to a good use, without suffering them to be the means of greater misdeeds. You have here Catascopo dead, his head (so your goodness be pleased to give it us) is of a value sufficient, not only to restore us to our liberties, and procure us our free pardon in our own Countries, but also to raise us to a competent estate, which may serve us to live honestly withal, it being worth many talents which shall be among us equally shared.  
This request of theirs no whit displeased Don Elcimos, who freely granting it, gave them leave to depart with it, and use it as they pleased. Whereupon they taking it off the trunk, emblamed it to preserve it from putrefaction, and then carried it to Parthenope the Metropolis of those happy Countries, where (crowned with a counterfeit Diadem) it was placed on the principal Gate for a perpetual example.  
Don Elcimos was courteously visited of all, and especially of Feredo, who having first heard Catascopo's name, and then seen his wicked head, knew him for that of the Traitors: But because Don Elcimos had need of repose, he thought it unfit to trouble him with any discourse till the day following, and then he acquainted him with his being also a personal actor in the Tragic-comedy of that virtuous Princess Eleina; the other astonished at so strange an accident, (with humbling himself before him more submissively than before) told him, he was heartily sorry to have had for companion in his miseries so worthy a Prince, howbeit he now believed the Gods had so many years reserved Catascopo to make him in both their sights an example of his justice, to satisfy both of them the debt due to their revenge, the Princess being partly avenged before by his long imprisonment.  
The Prince afterwards falling into discourse of the general affairs of the then-present times, and desirous to know why Polimero lived an exiled Prince, the Count of Bona not knowing how to conceal himself, tells him what he was, relates unto him all Polimero's affairs, and what had happened him from his first parting from Sardinia even to his second, where he continuing his discourse, proceeded in these words.  
King Arato remained so profoundly heart-strucken with the death of Prince Perosphilo, that not ceding in his love to him to the Queen his Mother, he would needs evidently testify it, though not by being stark frantic as she was, yet by raving in such a manner, that as oft as he happened to remember it, he (deprived of his understanding) spoke and did things unworthy of his Regal quality; and if he chanced to observe in any young Gentleman any extraordinary good parts, he would then instantly repine at them, as robbed from his son, and withal extremely hate such as owned them. But if there was any accomplished Gentleman, that in bodily feature and excelling qualities exceeded all others, and paragonized Perosphilo, then surely that same one was the excellent Polimero, who returned from Mauritania with his wife and daughter, passed three years' time without any notable disturbance, his father-in-law's doting humour being not as then grown up to its full ripeness, but increasing proportionably with his age, and by his remarking every day more than other in Polimero such qualities as were peculiar in Perosphilo, he began first to envy and then by degrees to hate him, till at last he grew to that pass, that he could not endure the sight of him.  
In all things else Arato conserved his ancient prudence with other virtues wherewith he was well stored; nor were they always obscured with this frantic humour of his, which being a motion of the imagination contrary to the ordinary motion of reason, prevailed only then when reason (oppressed with this frantic humour) remained impedited in its operations, free in any other thing where the mind was not obstructed by its malignity, only in this one thing he lost, nay went besides himself, so as there was no man about him that could or durst either show him his error, or appease or divert him from the passion of his no less unreasonable than violent desire, either to see Polimero dead, or never to see him at all.  
Eromena more troubled in mind with this than ought else that ever befell her, spoke and did (good Princess) what she could; the same did also the King's Council: But (alas!) what good can persuasion work upon a doting brain, that in its fancy forms things diversely from what they really are, by reason of the judgement and senses being corrupted and spoiled? But Arato finding the point of ridding him away to be difficult to be resolved on, it treating of a Prince and his supposed successor, innocent, generally beloved, & behooveful to commonweal and country, thought now to beguile his humour, in making the world believe, 〈…〉 was not he that he disaffected, but that the bow of his hatred (a strange and unheard-of fantasy) was bend against the babe, presumed heir to Perosphilo, being such a one too as indeed together with the kingdom succeeded him in perfections of body & mind, those of manly valour (though in a woman) not excepted; on her therefore spent he all the talon of his hatred, whilst she (pretty soul) that with her sweet loveliness and acquaint prattling was able to win the hearts of the cruelest tigers, could never (for all that) any whit mollify that of her brainsick Grandfather, by whom she being banished from Sardinia, was conveyed by her mother's affectionate care into Majorica, whither for some new progressions of the Tingitan, Metaneone was run with his Eromilia, of both which she was received with affections different from those of her Grandfather, they compassionately bemoaning in the tenderness of her years the hardness of her fortune, for which respect no body could ever afterwards endure to call her Lindadori, but ever by the nickname of Donzella Desterrada (that is). A damosel expelled or banished her country.  
Express I would (if knew how) the fair Eromena's griefs in their pure essence (especially at her parting from her dearly-tendered girl) and the adorations which she made her father to remove him from that passion, if the expression of them were less difficult than their imagination; yet this beteared privation neither augmented nor diminished, only it aggravated his frenzy, for not discerning before which of the two it was that he hated; but now seeing himself rid of the one, which confounded his judgement, in distinguishing the hatred he bore to the other, he came to know that he had erred, the plummet of his passion falling not on Lindadori, but on Polimero; it may be, he would have thought the same of her if she had stayed, because the violence of the humour was come to such a pass, as it passed all limits of discretion and judgement, the first effects of his infirmity taking up all his mind, and staying it from proceeding to any other operation. And withal, to contradict or dissuade him from any of his Capriccios, was as dangerous as bootless, for than he becoming raging mad, both commanded as a King, and executed as an officer; the Court being taught by other men's harms to shun him in those fits, or at least to stand quiet without contrasting with him, who in the rage of his fury would have gone near to have killed Eromena herself, had she not proved as strong in resisting as discreet in evading his furious passions.  
The noble-hearted Polimero was therefore constrained to give his humour way, and to retire into Corsica, a kingdom (by his prowess) acquired and united to the Crown of Sardinia. But because Eromena went often to see him, the crazy-brained King, upon calling to mind the repining hate of the Corpse's, the reason that Polimero had to detest him, the greatness of his reputation in both kingdoms, together with the nearness of his affinity and alliance with the two neighbouring Kings of Majorica and Mauritania, resolved not to have him by any means abide so near him. And knowing that it was his best course to confirm his banishment with the authority of his Privy Council (a prime article in the art of ruling, to make other men the authors of things odious and displeasing to the people) he called them unto him and told them:  
That he well knew that his kingdoms, and some (or perhaps all) of them there present disliked his demeanour towards his son-in-law (a Cavalier in all things else of royal parts, and real worth) but yet that the reasons moving him so to do were of so high a consideration, as would astonish them, were it but lawful for him to publish them; That now then the same reason that before induced him to banish him from Sardinia, constrained him also now to exile him from Corsica; he would have said from Majorica and Minorica too, if in those parts he had had the same jurisdiction over him as King, as he had as predecessor and father-in-law; but where the one wanted, his intention and will was, that the other might supply its defects, with promising, that if (as a good son) he so made appear unto him the respects and observance he owed him by this implicit obedience, not retiring into Majorica or Mauritania places by him suspected, that then his such obsequiousness should serve as an instrument to screw into his favour by, and a prevailing Orator for obtaining leave for his more speedy return, telling them plainly therewithal, That his sending for them to come to him, was not to ask their counsels, but to make them the authors of his, which he straightly enjoined them to execute in such form as best suited with the accomplishment of his desire.  
The sweetly-majestical Princess that till that instant knew nothing of her father's design, remained blank at such an Oration; what to resolve of she knew not; contrasting with him being as perilous as profitless, till at last with bending one knee, she thus briefly bespoke him.  
My Sovereign Lord, there is no reason for any one to contradict your Royal will, and yet less for me than any other; yet, because I know that Prince Polimero is to you both a good son, and a loyal servant; and that though declared for such by your own mouth, you are for all that resolved to banish him; it is not fitting that I (being his wife) be here consenting to any such decree against him, much less by dissenting to oppose any will or command of yours. Which said, she went her ways out, though then neither her warlike ferocity, nor native generosity was able in that delicate sex to stop the lubric channels of her eyes from dropping a few pearl-like tears.  
The King let her go without speaking any word to her, but seemed by his actions to express, that he would not have her know all; the decree was hard to be expounded, it being impossible for colours to subsist without any substance. But that which made it the more difficult, was, that the King unwilling to express himself, would yet have his intention effected, as if they had understood him; which was the occasion, that they there spent the whole day about it, the Secretaries being puzzled in penning each his peculiar draught, and the King leaning on the shoulders while of the one and while of the other, was ever busied in reading, cancelling or interlining, all-to-be-blurring and blotting it, as black and foul indeed was all that was there done. At length a long edict was concluded upon, couched in abstruse words with an equivocal sense, to make it the more difficult to be understood of any that would construe it in the right and worse sense, plainly discovering absolute authority in the whole, justice never a whit, words enough without any kind of sense; The contents of as much as might be understood thereby was:  
That Prince Polimero was at the request of the Privy Council banished both kingdoms (during his Majesty's pleasure) for secret reasons concerning the State: In this decree were involved particular letters from some of the Council to Polimero, wherein were plainly expressed their unwilling sorrow to be drawn to subscribe to such a resolution, beseeching him to retire to some place unsuspected, far distant from the kingdoms of Majorica and Mauritania, from which it lying not in their power to banish him, they did as good as pray him to banish himself, otherwise that the punishment of his transgression would be, his being deprived of all hope of ever being recalled again.  
Eromena presently upon her going out (as I told you) from the Council, gave order that (whilst she armed herself) the fleetest galley that then road in the bay should be made ready to part suddenly; nor knowing how otherwise to evaporate the bitterness of the anger she conceived against her father, she wrote him a letter, and then accompanied only with Aretia and a few servants, she went to the port, where turning towards those that had attended her thither, she said unto them.  
Countrymen and friends, I go in expedition of a business that much imports both ye and me, I leave you in a settled peace, and recommend to your care, obedience, and love, the King and Realm; and you Count of Toralba I shall enjoin to deliver the King this letter.  
The people that no less loved than honoured her, seeing her armed at all peys (a habit not used to be worn by her, save in time of war or tourneys) remained amazed thereat, kissing with all affectionate reverence some her fair hands, and other some the skirt of her bases; but she causing the ladder to be hoist aboard the galley, that none might follow her, went aboard the long boat, and then (without permitting either the Ghing to salute, or any Trumpet to be touched) launched out, steering a direct course for Sardinia, where the second day she safely arrived, and being there landed, would not suffer any other messenger than herself to bring her husband the news of her arrival thither.  
Polimero abode in Corsica adored by all, insomuch as even those, to whom (by occasion of the wars) he had been somewhat prejudicial, seeing now in so many occasions his royal demeanour, grew to be so affectionate towards him, as that they accounted their losses well employed, for having made so advantageous an exchange of Epicamedo for him: And though his domestical affairs, as the privation of his wife and daughter much troubled his mind, yet the noble company of the marquis of Oristanio & other accomplished Gentlemen much solaced him, who also discreetly endeavoured to wean his mind from grief, by being always employed in some exercise or other.  
And now it so pleased fortune, that he was that day road forth on hunting that very same way that Eromena came galloping to find him out, who hearing the winding of the horns, and deep cry of the hounds, imagined what was there a doing; following therefore the cry, she arrived unawares just as the Prince, the marquis, and I were alighted to the fall of a goodly Stag: She leaping from off her horse into her husband's arms (that with great amazement was by then run to help her down) having affectionately kissed him with out answering to his demand of her sudden coming, would needs come benignly to greet us and all the rest one after another.  
The Prince most glad of this unexpected encounter, said unto her; Your coming (sweet Lady of my bliss) cannot prove but most welcome and happy unto me, be it for what occasion it will; though in token of my extreme content I cannot (at this present) dedicate to your welcome other than the life of this Hart.  
The tired beast lay on the ground expecting his death with beteared eyes, grieving perhaps, that Nature having been liberal in enduing him with so long a life (if what is thereof reported be true) humane cruelty for an inhuman delight corrupted his enjoying it, without the curiosity of as much as trying in him, whether his life could extend itself to many ages; whether he had in himself any such discourse or no I know not, though I well know, that the gentle Eromena, accosting and seeing him a goodly one, and to seem (at the very point of death) to beg favour at her hands, answered: Be your present (my endeared Lord) waited on by a good augury, which I accept with a better, and will (so please you) that he live: with this, calling for the huntsmen, she asked them what years he might be of; But because the Gods gave us the world in controversy, not excluding as much as those things whereof practic and observation are our masters, they could never accord about his years, by reason of their disagreeing in the marks of his age: The belief then of knowing any thing certain, so as others think they have not their certainties to contradict it, is a belief notoriously false.  
The Princess (whose mind was busied in a more important thought) remounting with the rest, rode towards the City, where being come, she would needs have the marquis and myself to be partakers of her relation contained in a few words: By which she unfolded her father's obstinate mind, her departing without his leave, and resolution to live and dye with her husband; discourse there was enough, without (for all that) so much as once proposing any thing that savoured of violence; the marquis and I being old enough to know what are the troubles of a civil war, especially of such a one which (for all the reasons making for it) cannot but be unjust against a father with the schism of subjects and states; and they though young, and undeservedly hardly used, being yet of a sweet nature, patiently bare with the author of their injuries, choosing rather to suffer, than to endeavour to avenge or right themselves.  
The whole difficulty consisted in the choice of a place to reside in; for Majorica and Mauritania being prohibited, they knew not whither to betake themselves; we argued a long time whether or no it were her best course to follow him, and leave the Realm in the hands of a frantic father, whose infirmity might encourage the Corpse's to attempt innovations, spurred on by the Tingitan with promises of men and shipping. Besides, the ill constitution of Sardinia whose dangers were manifest, by reason of the intelligences of bandities (being the relics of the Admiral's conspiracy) who, backed by the Tingitan, daily wrought and persuaded their kinsfolks and allies to revolt; which once happening, who alas was there then to sustain the ruin, she being far off, the Corpse's become rebels, and the King for his weakness contemned? these reasons the Princess would neither give ear to, nor admit of. Polimero knowing them to be good as he opposed them not, so contradict his wife he durst not, yet wished he that some body else would persuade her to stay: but because the decree was not as yet come thither, and that for the executing thereof there was no necessity of an immediate departure, they resolved to stay till it came, their deliberations in the mean while ripening with the privilege of this short time.  
Arato gone out from the Council, was by the Earl of Toralba presented with Eromena's letter, whereat he ask if she could not come to speak to him herself? No (my Liege) answered the Count, for she is some two hours since gone aboard the vice-admiral and launched out without acquainting any body whither she went, but for aught was seen she made towards the Promontory of the East. Arato confused in mind opened the letter, which I afterwards often read, so as I believe I shall not fail much in repeating it, whose tenor was such.  
My Sovereign Liege, I go to Corsica to find out Polimero, a husband taken by me by your Royal assent, a Prince every way worthy and accomplished, to whose virtue and prowess the kingdom owes its conservation, and you both the Crown of Corsica and Perosphilo's revenge. I know not whether I ought or no to excuse myself for departing without your Royal leave, nor yet in case I should, know I to whom to do it, to a King, or to a father; your Majesty using towards me the power of the distinct person of a King, and quite debarring me from the privilege of the other; I well know that I speak to a King, yet forget I not that I am a King's daughter and heir, and that I ought to be used as such a one. I am sure I have ever honoured you as a daughter, served you as a vassal, and borne with your passions in so obsequious a manner, as other than such as have the gift of obedience (as I have) could not have done. I will not (my Liege) exaltmine own merits, though the having the power to transgress and not to do it, is in some respects esteem-worthy. Only I must tell you, that as I have from you the right of the Realm's succession by nature, so have you from me the possession thereof by prowess, for (though as then a may den) I only with the assistance of Prince Polimero saved both it to you, and you to it; and did (when your infirmities brought you to be uncapable of holding its sceptre) bind it to your hand, and with my own hands fastened on your head the kingdom's Crown: whereas you now suffer yourself to be upbraided, rather than you will acknowledge, much less remunerate the deserts of others, so constraining me to leave you for your unjustly-depriving me of my husband, and more cruelly bereaving me of my daughter, to whom by the Laws both of God and nature the mother is so expressly bound to tender and bring up; from which since I cannot otherwise conjecture, than that your pleasure is to live all alone in the world, I leave you to live so (in God's name) and pray Heaven (to the end you may the longer live) to shower on you all content and happiness. Eromena.  
This letter wrought not that effect that reason required it should, for, the King more enraged for it than before, would (by all means) disinherit his daughter, suspending the decree against his son-in-law, with an intention to unite them in the fault, that so he might wind them both in one punishment; so as it was very difficult to wean him from that humour, with the considerations of his being aged, his having no other child, and the being of no other Princes of the blood to succeed him, have the marquis of Oristanio, who was not only old and issueless, but above all others the most faithful servant to Eromena and her husband: Besides the being of Corsica in dange to be lost, for, being environed with enemies, and bereft of her friends, unless it yielded to the subjection of the Tingitan, the only means to deprive (together with his daughter and grandchild) himself also of the Sardan Crown, since other than he would never accept of a kingdom in the midst of the sea, so far distant, with so many difficulties, and undergo the charge and trouble of defending it from so many enemies, which were Right, the Corpse's, the Moors, and the Balears.  
The King bore an innate hatred to the Tingitan, than whom he knew no other would have accepted the proffer of succession, being so dear a purchase, considering the danger & charge wherewith it was to be maintained; but that which most of all vexed him, was, to think that his children in all probability would (if all other helps failed) put themselves (out of mere desperation) under his protection, which he would not see come to pass for as much as his life was worth. Doubting therefore, lest they should settle themselves in Corsica, and be there crowned, he commanded his horse and foot to be suddenly mustered, marching himself in person towards Luogodori, followed by all the Nobility and attended by his Council. He received by the way the marquis of Oristanio's letters with news of the Princess' arrival, and how that expecting the decree against her husband, she prepared to accompany him in his banishment: Hence taking occasion he showed him the discontents and inconveniences that might thence arise, displaying before him his sons-in-law merits, with the advantages he had in keeping him near him.  
The King was upon these news somewhat pacified that his daughter departed not for any evil intent of doing him any hurt, yet not quite freed from suspicions, and resolved not to suffer Polimero to live either at home or near him, he wrote to the marquis, sending him the Counsels decree, and commanding him to put it in execution, composed nevertheless of moderate words, as if he desired rather to triumph over his sons-in-law obedience, than to harbour any intention of keeping him long a far off him; The same made he his daughter also believe, writing unto her a kind letter, and recalling her home with the hope of her husband's speedy return.  
These letters being read, Polimero knew not what to resolve of, well conceived he that the humbling himself to his father-in-law could not but be imputed unto him for glory, so as the satisfying of his desire troubled him not, but to be deprived of a beloved wife, & debarred of either seeing his daughter, saluting his brother, or visiting his father, without knowing whither to betake himself, was that which tortured him much, but much more Eromena, who not caring for her father, was resolved to neglect all other affairs and follow him; company (God wot) of all others to him the dearest, and incomparably most desired, but yet neither expedient or necessary; Oppose her (as I have already said) he would not, love being a thing too too delicate, and too much encumbered with fears and jealousies; Who knows (thought he with himself) but that prudence may be by her construed for an effect of small love, which (for being blind) neither sees nor admits of virtues if they thwart it, nor any other affect save itself? But the marquis and I wrought so much, that we both persuaded the one, and disposed of the other. The agreement was, that she should stay, because that besides her watchfulness over the state-affairs, she might light on an opportunity of procuring his more speedy return, and that he should travel towards the East, where having spent such time as he pleased in seeing of foreign countries, he might (in case his return were not by that time procured) make his abode in some part of Greece; Athens was named for the place of correspondency, whither were to be directed, sent, and conveyed their letters, messengers, and moneys. Of this his resolution to part, they sent the King word, to free him (as much as in them lay) of his doubts and jealousies, which the Princess also signified unto him by writing, praying withal leave to stay there till her husband's departure, wherewith he was well contented, not abandoning (for all that) the sight of Corsica, but standing always in a readiness with his Army, and Galleys pressed to cross the channel if ocsion required.  
The few days that the Prince spent with his wife were by her passed in qeeping and heaviness, which made us endeavour to hasten his departure, that so she might the less waste herself with the imagination of this privation; but the day being come, she said thus unto him.  
I see then (my Lord) you will go, and leave behind you your Eromena, which wanting you will want both heart and soul, impossible will it be for her to live being separated from you, or if any thing keep her alive, it must needs be the hope of seeing you again shortly. I am sorry that her love hath so small interest in you, as that other considerations exceed it; such force have they not in her, whom if you permit to go along with you (as by your mutual affection she thereto conjures you) no loss (though it were the heaviest that could be by any imagination conceived) shall then taste bitter in her palate, might it be but sugared with the unexpressable sweetness, which she shall receive in being present to serve you; with that word she affectionately kissed him without ceasing to importune him with more earnest entreaties mingled with her tears, till he being no longer able to refrain from accompanying her in the weeping-expression of her heaviness, returned her this answer.  
I part hence (dear directress of my destiny) 'tis true! but not so, as not to have you continually with me; the tempest of my travels shall ever have repose in the pleasant calm of your ever-dear memory, the only sovereign cordial to my misfortunes; which without it would sink me into the gulf of an unmedicable despair; as for my love I cannot imagine how you can in the best manner doubt of it, or how you can but imagine that I can prefer any necessity how urgent-soever before that of enjoying your presence, since it is in you only that I both joy and live. But if such whose judgements are not clouded with our passions hold it convenient, the execution of it then depends on you; for, I not having the power to discontent you in any thing, would much more unwillingly displease you in that whereon all my content and joy depends.  
Their kisses confused among their tears were numberless, their grievings measureless, all in extremes and endless. But go he needs must howsoever; I would have had our departure to have been about midnight without making any words of it, but that the marquis would not; laying before our eyes the distaste which she would have conceived threat, beside the being impossible for us to steal away whilst she lay asleep, for she as then never closed her eyes; the last parting-words were Polimero's concerning his daughter, which were not well heard of any, or at least I was so heart-stucken with their griefs as I heeded them not; but I suppose that their purport were to advise her not to take away their daughter from her uncle, as long as Arato continued in his mad whimsies.  
Arrived that we were in Greece, I would by all means pass further on, and accompany him whithersoever he went: But no sooner came we to Athens, than that he made me return back to bring tidings of him: Accordingly I went, and carried first to Mauritania to the King his father the packet I had for him, and thence passed over into Sardinia, where having with his letters and my relations comforted Eromena, I found unexpectedly the King a quite altered man; for he not only (contrary to his wont custom) vouchsafed to admit me to his presence, but also with great tenderness kindly asked me how his son-in-law did. And I being afterwards desirous to go to Maurica to see the young Princess, he hearing her but named, was suddenly moved with a passionate tenderness of affection, which made him (after he had stood a pretty while silent) say thus unto me:  
My Lord, you shall do me a special courtesy in thanking the King of Majorica and Prince Metaneone his son-in-law for the favours I received from them in my Lindadori, and to tell them, that I mean shortly to send to fetch her away, which friendly office I would have now prayed you to have done me, if I thought that you could pass with her hither in safety. But our seas being full of the vessels of the Tingitan, I doubt she cannot safely be conveyed hither without a fleet, and I hope that to strengthen the convoy, both he and the King of Mauritania will for such an occasion prove so courteous, as to lend me their galleys. The Princess (hearing this) ran to kiss his hands, and he courteously (lifting her up) kissed her on the cheek, promising her to perform it the next Spring, willing her (in the mean time) to take the charge of putting all the galleys in a readiness, and me on his behalf to write to Mauritania, and to further the offices which he would cause to be there done by his Ambassador; adding, that he would to that end send by me letters to the King and Prince of Majorica. And further promising her (on his Royal word) that when this were done, he would (for the accomplishment of her content) immediately recall Prince Polimero, assuring her, that he was already well pleased, that he came when he thought good.  
Having heard this good news, and sent them in writing to Polimero, I went to Majorica, where I found the no more now Lindadori, but Donzella Desterrada, so displeased at her grandfather, as that she openly and plainly said, that she would never see him more; which I at first conceiving to be some by-phrase that some Lady had taken pleasure to teach her to say by rote, perceived it afterwards to be no such matter, sithence her uncle and aunt, and all the rest with persuasions, and pretty alluring toys, endeavoured to win her to the contrary, though to no purpose; for, the generous girl, by reciting the occasions she had to disaffect him, showed, that such conceits were her own, and not infused into her by others.  
Arato (by this time fully returned to his senses) not only disliked his former extravagancies, but was sorry that he heard no news from his son-in-law, who (not making account to return till after his fathers-in-law death) was parted for Greece, with a resolution to survey the utmost parts of the earth, leaving in Athens his letters which were received of Eromena, with that heaviness which an interrupted hope brings with it. fain would she have gone in person to seek him out; but Arato using no more now the authority either of a King or father, showed her so many dissuasive reasons, and so earnestly entreated her to the contrary, that she yielded to his persuasions upon the uncertainty of finding him out.  
For Donzella Desterrada were galleys a trimming, and new ones a building in three several Arsenals; mean while the Tingitan had his spies every where, it being ordinary with him to spend more on them than on his soldiers.  
The South hath for its scourge the Tingitan, as the North hath the Scandinavian, who for their age, nature, and ends, a man would take for one and the same thing; In those parts the one enjoys all, in these the other confounds, entangles and devours all that he can; showing himself very liberal to the corruption of States, taking example from the corruption of an humane body, after which follows sickness, and after sickness death. Being fortunate in having an advantage over all other Princes, not one of them using such politic reaches and cunning ways in governing as he doth; for which sole reason he would by this time have gotten into his subjection all that part of the world, if the great body of his dominions, and monstrous division of its members (which in maintaining themselves contrast with nature) had not made the end of his designs almost impossible. The three kingdoms of Majorica, Sardinia, and Mauritania lie so near and fit for him, that he thinks himself no King till he acquire those, so as he hath many complices in every of them, brought to be at his devotion by pensions and hopes which many times prevail more than even present gifts themselves; for, when Kings govern after the manner of ancient times, when there were not any superior forces, without altering upon new occasions their old form of government, they do (in some sort) foreshow their downfall; whereupon the more ambitious, aspiring to the raising of their own particular fortunes, cannot choose but desire if not attempt the ruin of their Prince and Country.  
The Tingitan then having understood by these his spies, the secret preparation of the fleet with the occasion thereof, was exceeding glad of it, and being rich of invention hatched many projects, whereof he would be well content if but any one took effect. First then he sent Ambassadors to all three, to express how sorry he was, that the pirates (without any fear or danger) insolently scoured all the coasts, and commanded the sea, whilst their galleys (to the common prejudice) lay rocked in their havens, of three things therefore he demanded any one, that they would agree to, (which were) either that they would clear the seas alone, or unite themselves with him, or else give way to him to clear them alone at his own sole charge, which he would do, upon condition, that the parts of all three stood open and free for him, and that withal his fleet might have for money such provision as it should stand in need of.  
This embassy was by the wiser Statesmen taken for a martial defiance, and the Ambassadors reputed for Harrolds, who entertaining themselves at the charge of the Kings, (under pretext of staying for new Commissions) pried into the secrets of the King and State that entertained them, the posts and vessels of intelligence (in the mean while) going and coming incessantly without any business; long it was ere the answers were returned, by reason of the Kings communicating them between them, that so they might the better accord on them; for which end I was sent from Prince Metaneone to Sardinia, and thence to Mauritania. The sum of their contents was;  
That the Tingitan complained of what they had far more reason to complain of, none of them having to do in that business. Sithence as for the Kingdom of Majorica, that (alas!) could not be termed other than a point (as it were) in the Mediterranean, and withal stood so far distant from afric, as there was no reason to charge it, where it had neither utility nor interest. That the parts nearest it were the Tingitans now acquists in Iberia, and the farthest off it afric itself, being the Tingitan's ancient possession, so as the defence thereof concerned him most, the pirates (a few excepted) being his natural subjects, and nested in his own ports, where he might (if he pleased) take them without a fleet; a deed well becoming both the justice of a good King, and power of a great Monarch.  
The same was answered for Sardinia, for being separated from afric and its commerce; she trafficking and trading with the opposite shores of Gaul, Liguria, and Ausonia; adding, that she was sorry for the insolent roving of the pirates, whose pride she would be glad to see abated; yet held it not fitting to do with more that which well might as well be done with less; especially since each by himself (but with an unanimous accord) might in one and the same time pursue and extirpate them, if the neighbouring Kings would but accord as well to do good, as they did to effect what was evil: which was not indeed to be hoped for, because the pirates being his subjects and harboured in his ports, had correspondency with many great ones, and (what imports more) the speech went, that they were countenanced by him himself.  
And for Mauritania the answer was, That she wondered at his demand, she suffering no damage by such rascally sea-scummers, who having their abode in Tingitana, lie lurking only for the shipping of the Ocean, from whom they got more than they were like to get from his, and whose being so molested and hindered, redounded to the Tingitan's no small profit, the greater part of them being such as before were his subjects, and colourably pretend to be rebels against him; besides, that in case she were any way incommodated by them, she would not expect to be led on or assisted by any other, but would with her own sole forces & power chastise them conformable to their demerits. So might the Tingitan also do (if he listed) being potent enough to effect it, without borrowing foreign galleys, or needing the use of foreign havens.  
This last answer nettled the Tingitan more than the other two, which he had made known to the world too; but that he had enough to do elsewhere, yet being desirous to lay a foundation to the ruin of that kingdom confining with him by a long space of ground, besides its being that of his, its competitor by name, and ancient enemy by neighbourhood, he bethought himself how to gaul him another way, without making any show of it, and that was, by putting in execution a conceit of his, sprung from his fertile brain many years before.  
There stands East of Mauritania the Island Melita, of a most strong situation, under the command of a particular Prince; many times had the Tingitan thought with himself, that to separate the countries, he had acquired in the West of Europe from their assistants in the East, it behoved him to become Lord of the sea, without which he was never able to enjoy his acquists, nor to pretend claim to the rest, or live much above the common opinion of other ordinary Princes: But not knowing where to set footing, he was advertised, how that in this Island (owning most ample ports, under the jurisdiction of a weak Prince) he might by sending thither unexpectedly a strange fleet, build a good fortress, wherewith he might not only shut up the ports on that part of that sea, as he had blocked up on the other part those of the Ocean by his conquests in Iberia, but also make way to the conquering of Sicily, and by it to that of Ausonia, barring up the passage between Sicily and afric, and penning in the Lands within it, together with Mauritania, so as all those Kings could never hope to be succoured by other than their own forces.  
This project till now being (as I said) immature in the fertile soil of his brain-plot, grew upon this occasion to be fully ripened; for, gathering together his galleys (under pretence of sending them against pirates) and ballacing them with tools and materials to build withal, he first scouring amain along those coasts, passed before Majorica and Sardinia to terrify them, and then (with his sails swollen with a fair stiff gale of wind) went and landed unawares at port Euro in Melita, where (disembarking his troops) he in a few days built a fortress, which at this day is unexpugnable. To the Prince's Ambassadors (that came to know what that fleet pretended was answered, that the King of Tingitana, taking into his careful consideration the safety of that sea, because of the large share of dominions he had thereabouts, (desirous to cleanse it from pirates, and understanding that the Prince of Melita kept so important a port in danger of being seized on by some foreign power for want of being fortified) had sent to build the sconce they there saw, for the good of the Island, Prince, and all the Mediterranean Kings: A charity by the Ambassadors judged tyranny and wicked hypocrisy, as if it were lawful to rob and enjoy that which is another man's, for fear some other should rob him of it and possess it. To this they answered, that their own Prince would make one himself; whereunto was replied, that then he should do well to treat of it with their King, for that subjects were bound to execute such orders as they received.  
The walls being thus reduced to a defensive form, the General leaving there a strong Garrison and a Squadron of thirty galleys, returned back, passing and repassing in a braving manner before the channel of Birsa, so to hinder Catalampo from joining with Arato: It was my chance to be then there, where I saw the Mauritanian King stand a good while in a muse not knowing what to resolve of; at length he thought of dispatching me into Sardinia, for counselling Arato to send privily to fetch away the little Princess with a swift shallop under my conduct, saying, that in desperate cases unlooked for attempts thrive best. Since he could not possibly unite himself with him and Majorica, for being hindered by the fleet that coasted his kingdom, but much more for the danger he remained in, if when he wanted his fleet, the enemy came and assailed him; besides, that although they were joined, yet lay it not in their power (riding as they must have done in the open sea) to shun the fight, wherein if they chanced to have the worst, than they lost all, if the better, yet could they not reap from that victory other fruit than forcing the enemy to a retreat, their forces being too weak to assault him at his own home, the ordinary disadvantage of all those that war in defence.  
Having received my instructions, I passed over to Sardinia upon a galley reinforced to the full, where having delivered my embassage to Arato, I added: That if the counsel seemed dangerous in his eyes, it might then very well be suspended, there being not any urgent necessity that required (for aught I knew) the return of the Princess in that instant, since that Metaneone and Eromilia tendered her dearer than any daughter of their own, and would be loath to hazard her unnecessarily to so great a danger. Upon this Eromena seeming to sparkle fire out of her eyes, turning towards her father thus bespoke him.  
My Lord and Sovereign, it is a foul shame for us to endure to be so braved and cubbed in as we are; the return of my daughter (though nor otherwise necessary than to enjoy the favour you have done me) should be hastened, were it but to let the Tingitan see, that he with all his forces are not able to hinder it, my opinion therefore is, that embracing the King my fathers-in-law counsel, you send the Count of Bona to fetch her away.  
The King consenting thereto gave order to the Admiral to arm secretly the shallop of the Royal, and to double-man her with the best and choicest of the whole fleet. I embarked myself the very same night, leaving my own galley riding in the bay, which made every one think, that I was in Caleri, the King giving out, that I was sick, and causing a fame to be spread abroad by a most trusty physician of his, that my disease was both infectious, very dangerous, and past all hope of recovery, with strictly forbidding all men from coming to visit me.  
ay, in the mean time (resting neither day nor night, but changing rowers every five miles, and leaving some to repose themselves whilst the others laboured) arrived (by force of oars in the still calm of summer with fresh ghing) at Majorica; where wondering to see me come in such a vessel so unexpectedly, they expected some bad news after the subjection of Melita; but the letters being read, they resolved to deliver me, the Princess, that I might depart with her that very night; and she (being already informed of the altering of her grandsires humour) was now most willing to return; for though she loved well her aunt, yet had she a great desire to see her mother; whom though she did not otherwise remember than (as it were) in a dream, yet hearing that she was fierce and martially given, she thought every hour an year till she might feast her eyes with the delightsome spectacle of seeing her clad in complete armour, that she also might arm herself with her. She was then near thirteen years of age, of a stature somewhat taller than ordinary, and withal so well proportioned, and in her deportment so graceful, as that she had not her equal; her manners and demeanour were form altogether after the Idea of honour by nature, education, and hight of courage; for the rest, she was endued with peculiar pure spirits, and inclinations quite different to those of all other girls, yea and unto her very sex; It grieved her to be a woman, because she could not endure man should be termed her superior, which made her profess him open enmity. Love she would and hate too without any mediocrity, friendship she would have to exceed reason, and reason to be trampled under the feet of disdain; being all affects extreme, and unjust, but yet generous.  
Whilst then it was thought, that I (wearied with my sea-voyage) lay sleeping in bed, having taken leave of the King and Metancone, and of Eromilias' tears (the children-princes and all the rest knowing nothing of this my parting) I embarked this martial girl, accompanied with one only damosel and two Knights: and returned (in the same manner as I came) without any breath of wind, when the third night the arising of a thick dusky cloud (the Moon than not appearing for being weary of running through almost all the Signs of the Zodiac) so deprived us of the benefit of our sight, that in the main sea, we (thinking we were run against some rock) fell foul on the larbur side of a fleere-galley of pirates, which (carried by the tide) fell towards us. The shallop entangled in the shrouds could not put off, & the pirates (perceiving themselves shrewdly bruised) fell to their Arms, and killing some of our Oar-men, became master of our shallop, ere we could well put ourselves in defence.  
My grief for this unexpected disaster cannot be described, whose unsupportableness would surely have forced me to drown myself, had there not sprung from my heart I know not what kind of hope, which raised my spirits to that height of boldness, as to ask who they were, whereunto they as boldly answering me, proved to be such as I well knew; yet doubting lest they should violate the Princess, I (turning towards the principal among them) said thus unto him:  
Captain, you have in your hands a prey of a great value, from which you may raise as great an utility, I beseech you then to use her with all due respects, for which I promise you such a ransom as shall well merit your being courteous unto her; upon this he ask me who I was, I told him freely; and for the Princess, though I once thought to feign her my daughter, yet doubting my being found a liar, would redound the more to her prejudice, and knowing that the worst was but a matter of ransom, I preferred her security before any interest of treasure whatsoever. He (glad of so rich a booty) promised me to use her with all the respects that could be, praying me only to bring her aboard the ship, where she should be well accommodated more at her ease in a convenient chamber.  
The Princess that from out the poop Room of the shallop had heard all, yet spoke never a word, till after she had caused herself to be half clothed, she asked who was there? whereupon I acquainted her with our misfortune, but yet told her, that we were in the hands of a noble fellow that would not suffer her to be any way injured; whereunto she (being very sleepy and void of apprehension, peering out in the dark through the cabin window, answered, that it was no great matter; yet changing her disposition in an instant, with shaking off her drowsiness, and making a reflection upon my words, seeing before her the ship and those smotty-faces, she concealing her disdainful anger, said, she would sleep no more, because it was day, which by then was so indeed, the clouds together with the night vanishing away for fear of the fiery look of the approaching Sun.  
Then we passed over into the ship, where we were with interessed kindness conveniently accommodated in the Castle of the poop, without being pestered with any of their company, and bringing thither our bedding, they laid the Princess' bed in a little chamber, whereon she lay a while in her clothes, causing her woman to lie down by her.  
The pirates searching our shallop, and finding nought there (save victuals, our Arms, and the Princess' jewels) towed her along, having first assured her with six of their men to secure her from the rowers already disarmed.  
At Sunrising there began to breathe a gentle breath of wind, so as desirous to spread the sails, one of the sailors came abaft to the mizzen mast near us, and where the Princess (come out of her chamber with her Gentlewoman, to shun the sweltry hot air of her cabin) was laid her down upon a quilt. This fellow being a lusty young lad (as soon as he espied them) in beastly manner threw himself upon the Gentlewoman that was nearest him, straightly embracing her to force a kiss from her, The Princess not accustomed to such sports, seizing on a whinyard she spied hanging at his side, stabbed him with many thrusts, not without endangering th' Gentlewoman; the young fellow escaping out of her hands, leapt down, showing of himself a miserable spectacle to his companions.  
The Castle of the poop was the standing-place of the archers, and therefore well furnished with bows, arrows, spears, and javelins to steed them in occasions of boarding. The Princess took a bow in hand without any further intention, than to assay if she had well learned that art. Whilst the pirates looking for no worse than what was past, desirous to chastise our boldness, and not believing that such stabs were given by a maiden's hand, would needs come up to us: we (fortified by the odds of our side) kept them off with half pikes we there found, which (for all that) had done us but small service, if the Princess had not secured us with her bow, whose ascendent being Sagittarius it was no marvel, if she never shot that she either wounded or killed not.  
I seeing the two sides well defended, seconded the stout Princess with another bow, the Gentlewoman supplying both of us with arrows; but it was not possible for me to level one shaft aright, for she triumphing in her hits, came to me to rejoice for them, as it our shooting had been in jest, and those living bodies immovable marks not to be accounted of. Our good-fortune indeed was the indiscretion of the pirates, who excepting in the poop, and on main Top, had never a bow; therefore they went climbing along the shrouds to get to the mainyard, but ere they scarce could proffer to touch a rope, they still fell down dead or wounded; yet they having no other save this one (though dangerous) way to relieve themselves, thought to attempt it in so many several places at once, as the obstinate resolution of many might gain time of our few shafts, so as they endeavoured to get up by clammering by three and three upon divers several tackles.  
The Princess glad to have the pleasure of varying her shots ministered her by their so varying of her marks, bethought her of a subtlety fitter indeed to be experimented some other time; and that was, to try if (leaving the men) she could cut in two the shrouds; whereupon making her aim at the file of the rope, she clove it in twain, which for being well twisted, received the blow for them that climbed it up; but being unable to bear their weight, burst just in the cloven place, letting the three fall down on the hatches between dead and stupefied: Of this shot the Princess was so exceeding joy full, as she ran to embrace me, showing me (by pointing at) those that tumbled down with such gladsomeness, as greater she could not have conceived at any recreative spectacle whatsoever. And I busied in shooting, did applaud her for it, to the end she might neither give over herself nor hinder me.  
The Captain seeing the bloody slaughter of his men, stood crying, and lifting up his hand, with a desire (it should seem) to speak some thing: Be there the Princess deeming that posture of his worthy one of her arrows, shot at him, wherewith she nailed fast his hand to his mouth, as if the one had enjoined the other to silence, so as in the self same time she paid and he received her ransom. In fine, she slew so many of them, as I with the two Knights durst (though unarmed) descend to make an end of the rest, who were crouched and squatted down to shelter and hide themselves, some behind the masts, and others beneath in the sink.  
In the shall op were heard these great out-cries, though the occasion thereof was unknown, till the accosting of the six to one of the sides afforded our Knights the commodity to tell our Oar-men that the ship was by us taken, and all her men slain; whereupon they, suddenly assaulting their guardians, slew three of them, and had not then stayed their hands, but for my crying out to them to save the rest alive.  
The Princess then laying aside her bow, returned all-quiet into her shallop, and having given the sack of the ship unto her rowers, we set her a fire and so left her, arriving in Caleri the day following.  
The King understanding that she was arrived at the haven, would needs go in person to meet her, followed with such shoutings for joy by the Court, City, and whole kingdom, as the like was not seen for many years before. The old King could never satiate himself in making much of her, and blaming himself for his fault, for which he had done sufficient penance by being (for so long a time) deprived of her all-delighting company. Eromen a likewise (giving full reins to her extreme affection) expressed unto her a mother's unparallelled tenderness to an only child.  
Whilst thus she stood half-ecstasied with joy, there were presented her letters from Polimero, written from Pelusio, wherein he promised to return shortly into Greece; Whereupon both father and daughter prayed me to go to find him out, and bring him home: Whence being for this effect parted, I happened to come hither in the manner you already wot of.  
Extreme was the delight which all of them conceived at the Count's narration; in way of courteous expression where of the Prince assured him, he would not depart till he saw him accommodated, who soon after sent Cataulo to the Prince of Feacia (that resided not far thence in one of his houses of pleasure) with order to tell him who he was, and also to acquaint him with his resolution of parting thence, (though not without first thanking him for the favours received of him) and to entreat him, that he might (with his Princely assent) leave that place to a Knight, who being banished from his Country, would (so it stood with his Highness' good liking) make his abode there. He charged him further, to inquire out for some ship bound for Greece.  
Full sorry was the old Prince, for having had in his house veiled under such a habit so great a Prince, without honouring him conformable to his high quality; causing therefore his horses to be saddled, he went to visit him. Feredo taking by the hand the Knight of the tears, went to meet him, whom (when they had done complementing) he presented unto him, with saying, that he had substituted him to be his servant in his steed, whereunto the Prince answered, that he was sorry for his parting, but embraced the favour of his substitute, not to expect any service from him, but to do him the service he owed his substitutor.  
Going afterwards to take his leave, he had much ado to find justifications against the courteous quarrels of the Princess, to whom he presented (as unknown) the Knight that she well knew before; and then having courteously resigned him his house and servants, he parted for Feacia, whence taking his journey towards the Western parts, he kindly took leave of the Count of Bona and Don Eleimos, who embarked themselves together, turning their prow towards the Eastern territories.  
The end of the first Book OF Donzella Desterrada.   

Cavalier Gio. Francisco Biondi HIS DONZELLA DESTERRADA. THE SECOND BOOK.  
POlimero (after the Count's departure) remained in Athens, full little satisfied with his content-thwarting fortune; Much was he (good Prince) afflicted with the heart-stinging memory of the King his father-in-law's froward humours, difficult to be purged by reason of his bloods being corrupted not by any curable infirmity, but by that desperately incurable disease [oldage.] What to resolve of he knew not, his discontented mind become now both Sergeant and Gaoler to arrest and imprison his ambiguous will, so as he found himself (by being so deprived of his freewill) quite excluded from all choice of running any course conformable to the noble inclination of his heroïke Genius.  
True it is, that at his arrival there, he thought (by frequenting those famous Schools) to ease the pain of his wounded mind, with the sovereign balm of Philosophy, which he heard to be there propagated with precepts directed to its use. But when he came to experiment it by his own ocular observation, he found it far short, if not quite different from his expectation, in that the lives and manners of the professors held no conformity with what they professed, the later requiring the solid truth, the former content with the superficial truth-resembling, the one reality of matter, the other formality of words.  
Strange seemed it to him, That the repeating by rote a thing read in a bare literal sense, without understanding its true meaning, was reputed knowledge. That a compendiary way might serve for a master-path of disciplines, whereas indeed science cannot be reduced to a compendiousness in respect of the infiniteness of intelligible objects. And that mere discourse sufficed to teach one virtue, whilst vices were learned in a measure so boundless, as there could never be found actions or means enough to put them in practice. All which are no less fond than false conceits, entertained and approved by common Custom, but not by a well-instructed Polimero; That Custom being a false, popular, and appealeable judge, for being oft the cause that the white of virtue is hit by so few; and that the greater number having no staidness nor assurance in their aim, shot wide of all sides of the Butt.  
He therefore resolved, after he had first given order whither any letters to him should be directed (leaving the rest of his attendants behind him) to part thence, waited on by no other than Catasio. His first journey was for Egypt, which Country then (thanks to its good Kings) flourished in the excellency of all things. Psemitide at that time reigning, had extended his dominions alongst the seacoasts, from the mouths of Nile to the Western Promontory, having acquired of the Inland all from the Arabian Creek to Mount Azaro, containing some thirteen degrees in longitude, without comprehending the eight of latitude thence to the Libyan sea. Passing then Eastward of the Tropics, his Sovereignty reached even to the Equinoctial in Ethiopia, placed between the Arabian sea (as far as the Troglodytes) and that continued file of Mountains which sever it from the Garamants. The scope of his intent was to come as far as the springs of Nile in the Mountains of Luna, and there to bound and terminate his dominions, but that the dangerous sands, the scorching heat of the Sun, and (above all) the uncertainty of finding them out, made him alter his designed intention.  
Returned home, he would needs there also outdo, and surpass his predecessors in all things, for slighting the Pyramids (as but Tombs of the dead) he with a till-then-unheard-of-wonder founded a City in the waters in the midst of the Lake Meride, assembling there such as (for having been by the sword expelled from elsewhere) were desirous to give this new miracle a beginning.  
The Streets there were Channels, the Coaches stately Barges fortified at both ends with long necks of bright steel engrailed, & covered with such pompous stateliness and stately commodiousness as stirred up envy in the starry ship of the firmament. The buildings (emulating the great-designs of Kings) were not private, but royal edifices, and from one part of the City to the other were (in various prospectives) reared up divine-seeming Temples, and sumptuous Palaces, enriched with furniture worthy to entertain Sovereign Princes; for the rest, as the beauty of the women, the commerce of trade, the liberty and concourse of all sorts of people, 'tis a description not to be comprehended otherwise, than by the Organ of the eye guided by the ray of a perfect judgement: And withal, that this his City might not be any way defective, he made it a free State, subject to nothing but laws, and such laws too as indeed raised it to a pitch of immortality, for being grounded on equity the only law written in men's hearts by the hand of Nature.  
Thither would Polimero's will have presently guided his longing eyes, but that it was retarded by the inviting commodity of his being so near the Pyramids, where Architecture bred in him no less admiration, than their excessive charge astonishment: Surveying them therefore with an observant eye, he chanced to espy in one of them a great deal of blood, and a little further a young woman wounded, whose habit denoted her to be of eminent quality, her years seemed to be short of six and twenty, her countenance was pale and wan, yet not so altered as to hinder the conceit to discern the perfections of an exquisite (though martirized) beauty.  
Now Polimero had with him a guide and two men, who carried upon two camels his pavilion and victuals, having sent then Carasio to cause the former to be pitched, and to fetch thereout some unguents, he night see her a little after come to herself; her tongue and voice were deprived of the use of their organs, yet seemed she by the expressive signs she made with her eyes and hands, silently to pray him not to discover her.  
Carasio being returned, found to be in her breast and lower down in her flank three deep wounds: yet the probe managed by a gently-expert hand (long before to his Lords cost Master in that art) assured her of her life: Polimero being (in the mean time) busied in comforting her, and using courteous force in constraining her to endure the being dressed, without being able to get one word out of her, till (a while after) when her pain was by the medicaments operation somewhat assuaged, she began in the Greek tongue, to ask where she was? and being by Carasio answered, In merciful hands, unlike to those that so hardly had used her, she thanked him; and then turning to Polimero-wards, and pitifully weeping.  
Courteous Sir (said she) I am in good hope you will not aband on me wretched woman, but that (to oblige me the more to your goodness) you will cause me to be (by some means or other) brought to Memphi. Polimero (assuring her that he would rather abandon his own life than leave her unaccompanied) persuaded her to take her repose; and sending the day following for some that (for the service of passengers) dwelled near the pyramids, he having caused them to contrive with many poles joined together a kind of a litter, made them therein carry her to the next village, because it was impossible to bring her to Memphi in the dangerous plight she then lay in, her weakness withal so increasing as they many times reputed her dead, many day's expiring ere they could conceive any assured hope of her life.  
Exceeding loath was Polimero to leave her, though he yet had an extreme great desire to see those countries ere his return to Greece; observing therefore the critical days, and forecasting with himself how that by the judgement which by them and by the wounds Carasio made, it would be long ere she could be cured, he resolved to go thence alone, and to leave Carasio with her, whereunto he would by no means assent, but become now (contrary to his accustomed carriage) disobedient, would in any case obstinately follow him, endeavouring by all means possible to persuade his Lord to the acceptance of his necessary attendance, by laying before him a thousand accidents that in such a journey might befall him. Till in the end his Lord was fain to command him absolutely to stay there behind him.  
Polimero then setting himself forwards on his way to Memphi, without knowing any foot thereof, lost the direct road, so as his horse the third day of his journey carried him to some of those low grounds, which the Nile by its frequent inundations makes in many places to become fenny; where not knowing which way to get out, he made towards a plat of ground bearing canes, whereunto the nearer that he approached. the more distinctly might his attentive ear hear one while the loud shouts of skreeching voices, and another while the uncouth murmur of dying groans, which though they still more and more increased, yet deprived they him not of hearing also the sound of blows as of men fight; come thither on a speedy gallop, and discovering what (for the canes) he could not before discern, he saw one Knight alone combated, beaten off his horse and wounded; the assaulters being above thirty, and all Arabians, the greater part whereof lay down on the field either dead or wounded, (with such marvellous dexterity swayed that one his sword) so as he being armed seemed to fight with them being unarmed, as with beasts that had neither tooth nor talent, yet had they for all that unhorsed him with the rude blows of poles and clubs, whereto he was for fear of killing his horse constrained to cede.  
But no sooner came Polimero, than they were forced to save themselves by flight, for, he encountering him that had seized on the Courser, bore him to the ground with a thrust, and then taking the Steed gently by the reins, courteously presented him to the Knight, who lightly remounting him, slew of them as many as he could come at, assisted by the valour of his companion, who seeing them betaken to their flight (not deigning to pursue them) came to him and asked how he felt himself; he affectionately thanking him, answered, that he had no hurt at all, which indeed was true, though his wounded thigh by its free bleeding gave the spectator's eye occasion to suspect the wound to be far more dangerous than it was.  
This Knight seemed not to be above eighteen years of age, which bred the greater wonder in Polimero, who taking from out his saddlebow a box of ointment (prepared for him by Carasio for such like occurrences) carefully dressed him, understanding by him (in the mean while) that the fray sprung from no other occasion, than from the desire they had to rob him, the ordinary profession that these bloody villains lived by.  
Desirous therefore to know whitherward he went, (for that he was loath to leave him in those perilous places alone) he understood that his way tended towards the red Sea, to pass over thence into Arabia, where he had some small affairs of his own to dispatch: and this expressed he in a strangely-intricate manner of speech, which being composed of sundry languages, would (for the well understanding of it) give a good linguist somewhat to do. It seemed to Polimero, that he should know that accent whereof he grew soon afterwards to be more assured, when observing the devise of his shield, he saw there a Swan, which coming out of the Sea, pitched his foot upon an Island, that (by the number of bones that there might be seen) seemed to be a Churchyard, environed with a motto in the Etrutrian character and tongue, which imported, No matter so I but sing. And being in that tongue prayed to discover what that device intimated, he answered:  
That fortune having now at length driven him ashore on a most pleasant Island, he (having till then champed on the bit of a continued though undue affection towards his, to him unjust and ungrateful Country) had resolved to end there his days, yet in such a condition as he might not dye there obscurely. And that as the swan (if it be true that he dies singing) publisheth his death with the melody of his song, even so desired he also to have his actions appear to be such, as might leave a good name behind him, so as death should gain nothing by him save his bones only.  
Full well pleased was Polimero with so accomplished a spirit, remembering that contemners of fame are commonly despisers of virtue; and though the desire of eternising it be indeed in some respects a most vain affect, yet is it nothing so in such as consider the branch whence bud forth those generous acts which make a man become beneficial to the community of humane society.  
Beholding him therefore more observantly, he might see his upper garments and bases all over slashed and shagged, rather with swords than with any instrument of ingenious invention, so as in an habit of simple show his quality promised very much, and that too very contrary to the present being he then appeared in; but in his face (being the paper wherein Heaven imprints the character of good and evil) might be read a constant nobleness: There also might be discerned lamps of heroical inclinations, so as neither poverty nor destiny were able either to remove the one or obscure the other, wherewith Polimero was so taken, as he would (by all means) bear him company to some secure place, no more now for pities sake, but to satisfy the ardent desire he had to enjoy his company.  
Being both than come (with no mean toil) to a Country-farm, and there informed, how they were (by then) come past Memphi to the seaward in the confines of Arabia, subject to the Egyptian; Polimero told him, that (for his part) his affairs made no distinction of Countries, seeing that Knight-errantry governing itself from one accident to another, was neither observer of days nor provident storer for aftertimes; and that therefore since he was come on so far, he now intended to see whether the further Arabia enjoyed with just title the surname of Happy.  
The young Knight (with his cogitations parted between perturbation and pleasure) stood pausing a good while, without making him any answer; till after having by the examination of his judgement found him to be neither Araba nor Egyptian, but rather of those countries where himself was bred in, and by consequence not to be suspected, he thus bespoke him.  
Noble Sir, if you had not already so much obliged me to your merits, you then had at this instant bound me to be eternally yours by this your resolution, which (but for doubt of arrogating too much to myself) I should conceive to be done in favour of me. But be it as it be will, it cannot but constrain me to kiss your hands for it, beseeching you to believe it employed on one that shall serve you whilst he breathes. Or if I be deceived in so flattering myself, and that you have a desire to survey those parts merely for your pleasure and minds sake: Behold me then most ready and willing to attend and serve you: If neither that nor this, but that this day's example, or your pitying my youth and weakness, moves you to leave me not unaccompanied; be pleased then (worthy Sir) to give me leave to tell you, that the profession I am of, wills me to beseech you to spare yourself that labour.  
Polimero (having from the beginning of his suspension observed in him some concealed suspicion, and in its progress many reasons which denoted a kind of a strange reservedness in his demeanour, desirous to know what he was) framed him this reply.  
I cannot (Sir Knight) deny my going for Arabia to be a new resolution conceived in this very instant, though I shall entreat you to believe me, that to go thither rather than elsewhere is to me a thing indifferent, my business consisting wholly on the passing away of two or three months time, nor will I tell you, that my desire to wend that way is sprung from the gust I conceive from your company (which I would not confess unto you to be so, though it were, lest you (whom I see so replete of courtesy) might pretend yourself beholding to me for it) only this much I affirm, that these countries make me hate solitariness; and since that fortune hath made me so happy as to light on your company, I would not willingly forgo the benefit & content of enjoying it, but rather heartily offer (for the accomplishing or furthering of any affair of yours) my person at your free dispose and service.  
The excellent Polimero had in expressing himself a natural efficacy, accompanied with a kind of winning behaviour far from any dissimulation, a quality as noble again being discreetly employed, as prejudicial being used indifferently to all men: this was it that persuaded the Knight, not only to accept but desire his company.  
That night they reposed themselves, riding the day following towards Arsinoe, during which time Polimero by taking a particular survey of all his actions, observed how in his discourse his mind would be often alierated from the subject treated of, and (than a little after) recover itself again, which gave him occasion ofttimes to tell him smiling, that surely love should be the occasioner of these abstractions, in which point the other forbore a while to satisfy him, yet could not at length (after divers excuses and new demands) choose but return him this answer.  
Worthy Sir, I acknowledge and judge myself over-discourteous in concealing from you my being and affairs, yet fear my proving much more injurious in drawing on (perhaps) (by acquainting you withthem) your forward goodness to bear a share in my perils. I beseech you then to believe, that this was the sole cause of my being hitherto silent, and the obligation of obeying you the only spur that now pricks me on to reveal unto you the true and whole story of my life and being, albeit I yet know you for no other than for the most courteous Cavalier living. here Polimero suddenly interrupting him, answered.  
Gentle Sir, your knowing me in so favourable a construction is too too courteous, wherein if you be mistaken (which I would be sorry you should) yet shall you not be deceived in knowing me for Polimero of Mauritania, Prince of Sardinia, who if before he were inquisitive of your being, only to be acquainted with you, desires now to know you, to the end he may lend you his assistance in any thing he may steed you in; wherein I pray you spare me not, for I assure you, that the greater the danger which you propose me shall be, the more shall I think myself favoured by you.  
The young Knight exceeding glad of this offer, excused himself in the best terms he could imagine, for not having borne him the respects due to the eminency of his quality, with promising, that he would yet make him amends (in part) for that defect, by acquainting his Highness with some news which (he was sure) would well please him; and therewithal told him; How that his Father-in-law King Arato had (now somewhile sithence) fully recovered his health and senses; whereof the first sign was, his sending to fetch (by the Count of Bona) Donzella Desterrada from Majorica, relating unto him the story of the pirates, and acquainting him with what tears of joy she was welcomed home by her Grandfather: The second was, the ardent desire he had to see him his son-in-law again; for which end he (not knowing how to accomplish it otherwise more speedily) had with the privity and counsel of the Princess Eromena given order to the Count of Bona to go fetch him home, who (at his parting thence) had not for aught he could learn (as then) begun his voyage, but could not (for all that) choose but be by then at Athens, where he was to inquire whither to go to find him out.  
Inestimable were the joys that Polimero conceived at these good news, for which he (affectionately embracing the Knight) assured him, that he was not able to express his thankfulness; But gathering by his discourse that he came not thence, he asked him, how he came to know these passages: Sithence it is (answered him the other) your Highness' pleasure to command me to lay open unto you my being and quality, you shall therefore by the story of my life understand where I might have heard them, assuring you in the mean time, that your Highness need no whit to doubt of their certainty. Polimero (more curious now than before) prayed him to do him the favour of relating it. Whereupon the other (who was Coralbo son to the Queen, and heir of Arabia) succinctly recounted to him his past fortunes; the beginning whereof is in the sixth Book of Eromena, whose progress he continued in these words.  
Sotiro kept me in the Island of Capraia till I came to be six years of age, mistrustful of the very air, and observing with a jealous eye even the poor fishermen that came thither, and many times suspecting their simplicity to be some counterfeit train to steal me away; till upon discreetly considering, that superfluous and overnice care in bringing up a child, doth often deprive him of the means of well-receiving any good breeding: he thought it needful to hazard me somewhat more, by committing me (my years now requiring it) unto a civil society. Away then took he me from the Island, and with me as much of the treasure as he thought necessary for my maintenance for many years, burying the residue under the rubbish and ruins of the Cottage, (having first burnt all its timber and thatch, lest the commodity of the materials might invite any man to build it up anew:) which done, he placed me to the study of Arts (I having before hand during the time of our abode in the Island learned of him my first rudiments of humanity;) But he (good man) entertained of me too too elevated an opinion, in being persuaded, that Nature had bestowed on me a peculiar ingenuity of examining her ways, seeing that in the investigation thereof, no means which I judged either insufficient or vain could give me any kind of satisfaction. Pedants and their ways were unto me insupportable, I could not brook the being necessitated to believe what they said, only because they said so; as if the intellect could be satisfied with the bare authority of such kind of people, when the true reasons (being by them either harshly or not at all explicated) are so far distant from their purblind sight, as is the South point from the inhabitants of the Arctic Pole.  
A glad man was Sotiro to see me to his thinking so punctual, hoping that the speculation of general things would wear out of my memory the smarting thought of my own particular crosses; and that by becoming stupefied by continual poring on books, I might happily shun the eminent dangers which hung over my head, by occasion of the waking curiosity of knowing what I was. Yet I vow unto you by Mars, that, though no man gave me ever any such inkling, I yet never believed him to be my father (albeit he ever preached me such a doctrine) were it for the respect he bore me, or that some Genius so inspired me. Suffice it, that among my general speculations, I never abandoned my private and particular ones, to lose the knot of this my so important doubt, which I reduced at length to this certain proposition, that (for certain) he was not my father.  
Most true it is, that I called to mind my having seen the Princess Eromilia, who with her husband the Prince of Mauritania (your renowned brother) chanced to land in our Island, when I was yet but four years old; and that he having admitted them to our secret dwelling, had (without heeding me) made them a punctual relation of my fortunes, whereof there remained in me a certain impression, which though then obscure and imperfect, became afterwards in time more clear and perspicuous; so as I was no sooner grown up to be ten years old, than I began to raise my spirits to such a pitch, as to pretend to become from his son and pupil, to be his Master & Prince, which though I declared not openly in words, yet did my carriage & actions manifest as much; for (rejecting my books) I then took no pleasure in any thing I had formerly learned, save only Music, the exercise of Chivalry and Arms grown indeed to be now the chief Lords of my desires, which I drank thirstily with my eyes, for not being yet able to practice them, because of the tenderness of my years; and with the same facility wherewith I had learned the Arts, conceived I also the precepts that I heard given in the exercise of Arms, intentively meditating on the terms and ways of both warding and striking, and considerately practising it alone by myself; strictly observing if one foot corresponded in due distance to the other, if my pace were constantly-varying, my point continually-moving, or rather giring about the centre of a true guard, and my thrusts put on with a fair reach, seconded with a proportionate, firm, and nimble retire, or nod; handling otherwhiles (for loosening of my hand, and confirming of my nerves and pulse) some massy thing or other, with enduring and practising myself in advancing, retiring, and imitating whatsoever I had seen done by any judicious weapon-man.  
These ways of mine Sotiro noted with great disgust, sprung from the fear he conceived, lest such a study united to the nobility of my birth, might in time occasion my fatal overthrow; for which he (become now severe) did often jerk me; so as I being unable to endure him, determined with myself to run away from him; which determination of mine grew soon afterwards to be confirmed to a resolution, by my chancing to get into my hands a Book of errant-chivalry, in so much as I persuaded myself to find (as soon as I were gotten out of the walls) an enchantress to furnish me with horse and Arms, and some unknown Prince to dub me a Knight. But meeting by chance with a pilgrim, and putting myself into his company; it was my fortune to be stopped for getting out by some of the watch that knew me, whom a little more had incited to stay for company my new Comrade, out of the suspicion they conceived of his having seduced me away.  
Upon this occasion Sotiro advertised my mother of my disobedience to himwards, whereupon she (good woman) egged on with a motherly affection took on her to go to perform a vow she had made to jupiter Ammon, and so came in pilgrim's weeds to see me; which journey of hers (though far) was yet neither very toilsome nor over-difficult; for she freighting a-ship in one of the mouths of Nile, fared by sea as far as the port of the Goddess Venus, and thence without any great ado came and found us out at Nepa, where we then sojourned. I know not whether was then greater, the wonder or discontent of Sotiro to see her, conceiting, that her coming tended to the destruction of the foundation of my education, laid by him rather with an intention to conserve me in safety from the knowledge of my cruel brother-in-law, than to restore me (with such eminent dangers) to the greatness of my birth; and thus much made he known unto her ere she saw me. All which notwithstanding she (were it for the greatness of her mind, or that she were impatient to live long without me) having a purpose quite contrary to his, would needs make me know her for my mother, with intention to take me home with her; till he (discreetly reasoning with her of the imminent dangers that hung over my head, and letting her plainly see, how ruinous a foundation the relying on the wavering love of the people was) after she had for two months space stayed with us, persuaded her (with much ado) to return without me, having first straightly charged me to the obedience of Sotiro, as of the faithfullest and truest friend, she had found and tried in the worst of her adverse fortunes.  
The course they resolved on, was, to suit my education to my years, (wherein I went advancing) and in such a way as might enable me when I came to mature years to be mine own counsellor, as soon as I had attained to the strength of putting it in execution, and years not to be contemned of such as yet conserved in the closet of a loyal breast, her and my father's memory and affection.  
My mother being then gone, I remained with a mind more prompt and heedful to the instructions of Sotiro, being assured, I should one day take such a course of life as were most conformable to my own Genius. Yet began I now to addict myself to the exercise of Arms and riding, retaining of my old studies, only such things as bred in me the greater delight and liking; for being such as might really steed me in some of my important occasions, it being indeed a tenant undeniable, that disciplines illuminate the intellect, making it more apt for humane affairs, and that from them discourse receives ornament, and prudence an essential stay.  
By now I was got free from under the subjection of Pedants, the only insupportable weight that overloaded me; the observant Sotiro was well pleased to see me (without abandoning suddenly my first education) apply my mind of my own accord) to the Mathematics, with an intention to steed me there with in the Art Military: But the habit which I had gotten in speculation, was the cause that not contenting myself with that part which that study required, I would needs assay the other which pretends to measure the heavens, calculate the course of the Planets and stars, and to know their nature, influence and inclinations. From which sprung the curiosity of knowing also what they promised me, excepting always the divine providence, against which neither influence, science, art, nor artist can in the least measure prevail. I comprehended that all was but vanity, and found the wiseman's saying true, that whoso accumulates knowledge, heaps up but trouble and vexation of spirit: For I found an unfortunate ascendent, a fall of parents, loss of goods, recovery thereof none or small, late, and subject to the will and power of others; the love of Princes, but without effect, a good fame and repute, but a fortune bad, lame, and weak; so as I could have wished never to have known it; such ado had I in striving not to believe it, though both divinity and reason dissuaded me from giving any credit to it.  
Thus spent I my time while Sotiro lived, which was till I came to be thirteen years old; with being by him sometimes instructed for travelling State-policy and practices of Princes Courts, as far as that age was capable of, not as yet of the fittest for such judgement-requiring disciplines; yet (me thought) it did me good in razing from my intellect oblivion, and in its steed bringing in the memory of such things as I possessed when I was last in the world: If so be it be true, that when the Firmaments slow gyre is ended, we either return to live again with the same accidents, manners and qualities as before, or that we pass from one body into another.  
After my mother's departure, we continued there some two years without hearing any news from her, or sending any body to her; for that we daily expected some messenger from her, till at length, seeing no body came, Sotiro (mistrusting that some disaster had befallen her) resolved to send to learn the truth thereof. He and I having spent sometime in surveying of foreign parts, were by this time returned from our travels to Etruria, and thence to Capraia, where we were to expect what answer the messenger would bring us, but there (to our grief) we found the Caban leveled with the ground, the dwelling under the soft stone broken open, and discovered, and all the treasure stolen away: The other losses, though no less than of kingdoms were all nothing in comparison of this, which made the good Sotiro (who examined its consequences more feelingly than I) to fall into a melancholy so deep and grievous, that for its being incurable by either Physician's skill, or virtue of medicines; he (shortly after our return to Nepa) took his last leave of both me and the world: which I, that (drawn on with childish affections) had till then wished him dead, took (now that I had obtained my desire) so to heart, as I wonder that I in some of my many extreme fits of grief, died not after him. Then was it and not before, that I came to know his tender loving care, & my obligations to him for it his happiness to be rid of worldly troubles, and my hard fortune to remain overladen with them in a tender age, without parents, government, means, or counsel. Only the Heavens (who caused me to be borne for toil and sorrow) had given me withal bodily force and courage, that I might live to endure their influences.  
I had yet left me a small residue of that coin which Sotiro took with him, when we first parted from the Island (as I told you) wherewith I purposed to expect the answer of our messenger, and then to go for Arabia. Till after seeing, that for the space of a year and more I had expected it in vain, without hearing any news of either our messenger or any other in his steed, I resolved by going myself to be both ambassador and embassy: For Nature having together with making me to be borne a Prince, endued me with a spirit conformable to that dignity, drew me on to the impossibility of the journey, and yet seemed to delay it by violently hurrying me on the wheels of an overfree disposition to bounties disproportionable to the state I was in; and this chiefly, because (poor as I was) the miseries of other men touched my compassion nearer the quick than any of mine own. So is it (for the most part) wont to befall such, as are predestinated to perish; for, whom fortune cannot bring to ruin by means of open vices, those she precipitates down the precipice of misery by the means of masked virtues, which lose their name, though not their lustre. Because impoverishing by malignity of destiny, engenders compassion, whereas such as hazard the falling into a greater poverty when fortune hath forewarned them of it, deserve to suffer for their folly: and liberality itself grown to be prodigality, and so become its owner's foe, both draws contempt on them, and shows others the way of being ingrateful towards them. To be short, I stayed so long till the wings of my liberality were so clipped, as I was fain to depart accompanied with no other than my old foster-father, even he that whilom had carried me in his arms one of Cardamina.  
Come near that we were to Parthenope in the Sannits Country, we lighted on a company of highway thiefs, from whom whilst I did my best to defend myself, the poor old man was slain before my face; his death I to my utmost power endeavoured to revenge, till beaten off my horse, robbed and stripped, I lay on the ground half dead and senseless all the night, scaping narrowly from being trodden under foot, by a strong squadron of horse that came prancing that-a-way by the break of the next day, if two of their Scouts had not (by good fortune) chanced to hear me groan; who making thereupon a stand, and espying the dead bodies, and among them my unfortunate self, robbed, stripped, and wounded, they soon imagined what had been done, which made them return to give an account of what they had found and seen; On this, the rest spurring on in a fair troop, with a Lady in the midst of them, came where I was: But she, commiserating my youth and woeful plight, (seeing my weakness disenabled me of satisfying any demand of hers) caused my wounds to be bound up; and then being by her commandment laid in a horse-litter that followed her, I began to come to myself, and to beseech them either to bury my foster-father, or to let me lie there and dye with him for company, with giving them special marks and countersigns to know him from the rest; whereupon he was laid athwart one of their horses, and so carried to a Castle hard by and there buried; and thus the first act of my tragedy ended.  
I remained a long time in cure, my wounds (which were all deep and inward) being aggravated with many raving-feverish fits, my body withal become now so void of blood, as it was a wonder it remained not void of life.  
The noble Lady, touched with a fellow-feeling pity of my hurts, came often to visit me, the desire to see me cured daily increasing in her noble heart, so as at the recovery of my spirits, she began to change her compassion into a love-preceding pity.  
This Lady being the greatest Princess of that Country was a widow fresh and fair, and a mother of two sons. Little dreamt I (God wot) of any affection of hers, nor had I (alas!) any reason to hope for any such matter, my weakened body being sore all over by reason of my wounds, my dejected mind afflicted for my irrecoverable losses, and my wretched self so bereft of my good hopes, as I knew not how to dispose of myself if I were recovered: And though hope-inspiring youth endeavoured the best it could to cut off the plummets thread wherewith the depth of miseries were sounded, yet the extremity of my overhard fortune forcibly countermanding it, vanquished both youth and nature, and subjected their bold necks to the heart-mastering yoke of despair-ushering melancholy, in so much, as upon considerate examination of my deplorable condition, I heartily wished rather my death than recovery; till after that the channels of my veins began to be replenished with fresh springs of blood, I then grew to be somewhat better consolated, though I yet knew not whether it then proceeded more from the sweet pity or rare beauty of the Duchess Crisanta, for so was she called. I had (I confess) lightly assayed before some touches (if not slight wounds) of love's shafts that had already spurred on my desire to the knowledge of its sweets, which was of me (being then but a raw youth) as easily undergone as forgotten. For I was a short time a novice at Cupid's Academy at Nepa, where though I was as yet but fifteen years old, yet had my standing there freed me from the name of a freshman. Oftentimes would I contemplate the fairer parts of her sweetly-featured face, contending among themselves for graceful comeliness and comely gracefulness, from whose attracting presence (me thought) I breathed so vital an air, as my wounds were rather cured by it, than by the virtue of the unguents. Full oft would my captived heart pant and beat in hot desire, when she feeling my pulse, (through inward alteration distempered) would with a kind of fellow-feeling compassion bemoan it to the Physicians, who finding it by that time they touched it to be otherwise, admired thereat, for not conceiving, that th'artire touched by the delicious hand of a beloved Mistress beats differently from what it doth at the feeling of the cold hand of a Physician.  
Scarce was I freed from the peril of death, when I found myself so dead for love, as (having quite forgotten all my past disasters) I thought now no more of being Coralbo, of the loss of my estate, or my naked condition; but banishing all such like conceits, I suffered myself to be by my imagination transported to those gusts, which were (as I then thought) far from any effect, which plunged me anew into the gulf of so deep a mellanc holy, that if timely remedy had not happened, I am persuaded I had in few days remained irrecoverably dead.  
The Duchess (on the other side inflamed with the ardency of her affection) led (good Lady) a life subject to greater sufferings; because she saw no means of ever accomplishing her desires, in that she durst not discover them, fearful was she of imparting to me her affection, and mistrustful of my green years, which she conceived to be either hazardous or unfit to be trusted unto, for being as yet too young to discern a real fire from an imaginary sparkle; and again to acquaint me with her flames, as it stood not with her honour, so believed she that it might bring her into manifest danger.  
All this while left I not my bed, but (simple as she took me for) conceived (though) which way the wind blew, to my so excessive joy, that if I had been to balance it with all the pleasures of the world, I would have been heartily content for the enjoying of it alone to rest deprived of all others: Then (and never till then) was it, that I first began to distinguish between charity and love, between the effects of the one and affects of the other, the consolation whereof restored me to both flesh and colour: But now the more I amended, the more she drooped; the more I fattened, the leaner grew she; my recovery occasioning her sickening, for that she feared that I would not (when I were fully recovered) make any long abode with her.  
Her sons following the mother's example, came likewise often to visit me, who though they punctually examined not my qualities, yet did the nearness of our years and other proportions between us procure me (besides their friendship) their good opinion and affection, so as delighting in my conversation, they (out of the hope they had of enjoying it so much the longer) made wondrous much of me, not without expressing (withal) so much unto their mother, who therefore began now to hope she would not lose me so soon as shee-once feared she should: No sooner was I fully recovered, than I began to manifest myself to be other than fortune showed me to be; In public exercises I appeared no more him that was the other day robbed, stripped, and wounded, now that it behoved me (being wounded with a fresh and more inward wound, and robbed of my wont liberty) to subject myself to the cruel hazard of a severe and despair-threatening destiny.  
There was then Lord of Can one named Cripasso a wealthy and well-esteemed Cavalier, who (being somewhile before enamoured of the Duchess) had done what he could to gain her liking, though for being composed of an indeed odious symmetry, he could never gain as much as her least good liking, much less her affection. His age was conformable to hers, nor came he much short of her for nobility and riches, I would say for virtue and good parts too; but that the end of his actions and life together deprived him of the merit of so splendent attributes; he was indeed famed to be one of the most courteous and valiant spirits of all that country; but yet grown (to be for his person) much deformed through the dissolution of his youth consumed in disordinate lusts. For his forehead grown to be deeply dented and foully scarified through the want of a bone (which for being rotten by the French malady was taken out of his skull) made him look monstrous ugly; besides, the littleness of his face disproportioned to the rest of his body, and yet more disfigured, with his hollow-squint-fired-eyes; so as if the sweetness of his carriage, his liberality and such other like noble conditions of his, had not in some sort countervailed those his imperfections, he would have been notoriously noted for the monstrous deformity of that age.  
Many years before was Crisanta (being left a widow in the flower of her fairer years with two male babes) sought for and sued unto by him in the way of matrimony, though she could not by any means be drawn to hearken thereunto, his good parts and laudable conditions being not only obscured, but come to be of no value in comparison of the contrary, and therefore shifted she him modestly off with an excuse, that she never meant to marry any man; the state of her sons, and good (as she would allege) of her house requiring her being free from the subjection of husbands.  
He not thinking himself (for all that) rejected, for being so excluded only in general terms, daily waited on her, and observantly served her, hoping in time to enjoy her as a Mistress if not own her as a Wife, wherein though the course of many years had showed him his mistake, yet lay it not (for all that) within the power of his discretion to withdraw from her his affection; love being now grown a tryant over him, and his desires not only linked-in him but in such sort inflamed, as merely ceremonial respects served him for touch-powder to fire it the more vehemently. And since it is a thing in us so ordinary and natural to conceit well of ourselves, it was no wonder, if that he never once observed as much as one among so many disproportions of his, because his self-love flattering him hid in one and the same bundle among his good qualities his worse, which later because he saw not, he could not choose but be confident of, and presume on those others which he saw, by which he thought he merited not only the Duchess Crisanta, but even the worthiest, fairest, and greatest Lady of the Universe.  
I know not how he came by seeing me to know himself somewhat better than he did before, not in regard there abounded in me any womandelighting qualities, but because there superabounded in him conditions not only ill-beseeming, but even odious in any man, and by consequence more eminent in a person of his quality. Me than he envied and beheld with a jealous eye before he knew of any of my doings, without conceiting for all that) any thing the worse of himself, envy (or rather emulation in love) being numbered among the more generous defects. But understanding how I was found on the highway robbed & stripped-naked, he then imagined he had no cause to fear or doubt of me; as if love and hatred had forsooth) their dependencies on the favours or defects of desert-seldom favouring fortune.  
In the mean while Crisanta, in whom during the time of my sickness love had (as I told you) sowed its heart-enflaming seeds, felt them (now that I was recovered) sprout up and grow to the prejudice and anguish of both her life and spirit. I know not if or no it were her modesty that restrained her from having recourse to me for remedy; in that I believed, that true modesty neither proceeds from fears, nor hath other ends than itself; only I must tell you, that her silence interpreted by my simplicity to be coldness of affection made me resolve not to lose myself in an imaginative sense, doubting or rather believing that all former demonstrations which made me think myself beloved of her, were but merely sweet effects of a noble mind, which then gave me occasion to learn to discern the true difference between well-wishing and affection. For my own part I hated the ordinary presumption of such young men as believe that a woman cannot (as much as) glance on them a look, with out intimating to her eyes object the homage of her liberty and person; well might I indeed persuade myself, that some internal gift might perhaps serve me for a ladder to climb up to men's good opinions, but was never (for all that) so self-conceited, as to believe, that either my looks, face, or person had the power to allure or gain me the affection, liking or good opinion of any one sex or other: Then began I to make some signs of my departure not without an internal hearts-grief occasioned by a truly-affectionate love: But scarce had I therein opened my mouth, when Crisanta reposing her hand on my arm as we walked alone in a large alley in the garden, spoke thus unto me.  
Celio, (for so made I myself be called) I understand that this country likes you not (no more doth perhaps this house neither) and that you therefore intent to be gone; But I could wish you would prove so courteous, as to make first known unto me the reason why you do so; for if it so be that you received any disgust here, take my word, I will endeavour to see you righted; because indeed my intent and desire is, that of mine you be honoured, as of me you are beloved and held in as dear and respective an esteem as are my own sons. But if this be not it that ails you, and that nought else save mere heat of youth spurs you onwards to such a resolution, I could then advise you to think better on it first, and to consider how you are (now that you have lost your old servant) left all alone; & although I would not be backwards in supplying you with whatsoever you should want for your journey, yet should you (me thinks) have already learned to your cost, that simple provisions suffice not, being you may in your way light on not only highway thiefs (as you did in my country) but a thousand other inimaginable misadventures: now then so you be pleased to oblige me so much as to let me but know who you are, and to make withal your business appear to me, such as require your so sudden departure, I will then (on my word) take order that you be conveyed by such a company, as shall secure you from all perils: But if the case with you stand quite otherwise, and that there be no such matter, I shall then lovingly entreat you, to suspend the deliberation thereof, at least so long, till I have time to resolve with myself, whether I can be without you or no, whom I love (though you know it not) dearer than my own life. These last words drew she out of her mouth with a kind of a pretty unwilling willingness, which so got out had drawn others after them, if bashfulness (having displayed its vermilion colours on her beteared cheeks) had not stayed her tongue with the modest curb of the consideration of her sex.  
At the sweet sound of these her sweeter words I altered my first deliberation, more speedily than doth a dancer at the change of the music's tone alter his manner of footing. Nor held I it my best course to tempt fortune, by doing the office of a woman in refusing, since she had already done that of a man in proffering; for, having been already sufficiently turred therein at the cost of others: That a woman (unless she be impudently-bold) can hardly resolve with herself to ask a second time a blesh-procuring question. The consideration where of made me return her this answer.  
This is (unparalled Madame) the only Country where I have lighted on the best and worst of fortune's spite and favour, your Excellency being the best of good, and the thiefs that robbed me the worst of ills. But now the evil (since past and gone) corrupts not the sweet relish of the present good, which is the only subject whereabout my thoughts are busied; and that the rather, because discontent hath no abiding place either under the heaven you breathe in, or in the spirits that receive from you their influence: And for my own part (Madame) I see myself both honoured beyond my fortune and beloved beyond my merit, so as the resolution of my parting hence springs not from these grounds your goodness thought good to mention, nor yet from my (in that behalf) innocent youth, but indeed from the consideration of my being a mere stranger, and from the doubt I conceived of abusing with a too too bold (if not odious) indiscretion the noble courtesy of so long an entertainment; besides some peculiar affairs of mine own requiring my crossing the sea, to see the state and being of my poor house and mother, though I know I cannot do that neither without your courteous and obliging furtherance, which in its time I neither can nor will refuse to accept of. The loss which I sustained in the death of my dearly-tendered servant was indeed exceeding great, but millions of degrees short, nay nothing in comparison of the acquisition of so high and noble a Mistress. here stopping my speech with coloured cheeks and downcast eyes, I stood (some short while) mute, when she taking me by the hand and gently wring it) thus bespoke me.  
Hitherto (Colio) do I hold myself satisfied, but what answer make you me for the rest? What further answer can I make you Madame (said I) seeing that for as much as depends on me I have already expressed myself; and then for that which depends on you, the answer thereof lies in your own breast: Depends it on me (replied she) to know either your being, since I am a mere stranger to it, or your stay here, since I cannot divine your thoughts? yea Madame (said I) very well both the one and the other, because my being depends wholly on you, nor can I in such a case either make myself better known unto you, or receive any alteration of being without you: But she not yet fully conceiving me, I then with a bolder courage thus proceeded.  
Noble Madame, of my native being I beseech you question me no farther at this time, lest the story thereof seem a fable unto you, all other being of mine is yours, and hath its whole dependence on you. By you and through your means I live to the world, for having been (through your compassionate benignity) from being left for dead gathered up and cured: And by you also (thanks to your obliging love) I now live to myself, being cured of a wound which for not daring to manifest, I should (if I had parted hence) have carried along with me bleeding in my heart. No sooner heard she this, than with a blithsome countenance, she said unto me.  
My Celio, I know not whether I may confidently believe or no what you tell me, I beseech you deceive me not, though I must confess, that my dovot of it springs but from the difficulty of believing what is ardently desired. But if it so be indeed, that your words are true interpreters of your heart, resolve (I conjure you) then to stay here with me: for, the company of my sons and the excuse of expecting to hear some news from your home will give a sufficient colour for the occasion of your abode here.  
This advice of hers being by our mutual consent grown to the ripeness of a resolution, we (after having first taken such order as was requisite for the fruition of our loves) returned in gladsomely disposed, delaying no time of confirming our words with actions, to the so passing content of both of us, as there was no degree (I am persuaded) of joy and delight that could exceed that of our furtive conversation. The darkness with us was light, our sun eyes, its beams amorous glances, our sincere affection the fair weather, heaven our bed, and its truer influences dalliance and kisses, so as the large scope of our imaginations could not comprehend any felicity or condition more desirable than ours: And I, though of years but green, burned yet in love so vehemently, that the more I enjoyed her, the more ardently found I myself inflamed; whereas she being of fully ripened years, and therefore consequently capable of enjoying its pleasure at full, found herself so ravished with its delicious sweets, as for not being able to endure the tedious longsomeness of the day, which deprived her of them, she would often come with divers excuses to take me away from her sons, for engrossing me to herself alone; so had her affection blinded her, as she neglected or rather forgot both the dignity of her place and quality of her person.  
But after that love had reduced us both to one only heart, taking from us all other distinction, except (to make us the happier) that of our persons and sexes, it lay then no more in my power to conceal from her either Coralbo, or his birth or harsh fortunes, which wrought in her a confirmation if not augmentation of her affection. But tormented afterwards with the Idea of my State's privation, reason persuading her, that the recovery thereof was necessary, she would ofttimes sigh to think of it, with proposing me divers proffers for the accomplishing by other men's means, what none but myself could well effect; but comprehending every proposition defective, as hatched by the blindness of an extreme affection rather than by any perfect rule of a prudent judgement, she assented to the reasons that contradicted her, but dissented again, when to put them in effect, the discording string of my departure was to betouched.  
Her design was to give me martial forces under pretext of employing them in some secret enterprises; but the consideration of the way being for distance far, and for passage difficult, and through the dominions of sundry Princes, stopped even in its very source the current of any such counsel. But admitting that both all those difficulties were removed, and all these ways leveled; yet (alas!) what could they have done without me? she proffered me a great sum of money to levy soldiers in those parts by my mother or some other, yet made not this neither for the purpose, as well because no man could put a hand to the enterprise without me, as also for that the principal means for the recovery of a State consists not either in foreign forces or expense of treasure, but chiefly (if not wholly) in the love of the subjects, which only being wanting, all other means would prove no least vain than superfluous.  
In the mean time she seeing me desirous to be knighted would by all means procure my content, the age of her sons become now capable of the like honour; therefore sent she all of us to Parthenope to receive the Order of Knighthood, with the occasion of the marriage of the Princess Corianna the King's only daughter, which was then shortly to be solemnised, accompanied with a train of many noble Knights, & among them the Lord of Can, who thought by this service to manifest the continuance of his affection towards her, with the opinion of meriting it, or to show the constancy of his affections to be such, as could not be blown down by any blast of small hope.  
Arrived at Parthenope, we were all three of us dubbed Knights, the Court favouring us, though ill satisfied with the Duchess for not coming thither, she being known to be the fairest Lady of the whole kingdom: But the reason indeed of her not coming, was an agreement between us, that I being to part away from my company under the colour of some secret enterprise, she should take on her to be sick, that so she might expect me at her house, whither I was privily to retire myself for the enjoying of each other free from the scanning of so many eyes, especially of those of her sons, which troubled her more than the rest.  
The Prince of Sicily was expected to come and espouse the Princess, when one night she fled out of a Castle that lies on the Sea, whither (feigning herself sick) she was retired, and where were many found slain, the Duke of Lucania & the Lord high Constable, two of the chief Peers of the Realm, together with two servants of the later: The original ground of which accident could not be possibly learned out. There was not a Knight that set not himself in the search of her, and among the rest the two brothers my companions, I taking for an excuse of not following them a blow of a lance which the day before had both beaten off my helm, and bruised my head, which (me thought) happened very fit for my purpose.  
The Lord of Can, who with rather enamoured than squint-eyes had noted something between me and Crisanta, seeing me now stay behind, resolved to do himself the like, and then watching the time of my parting, dogged me afar off, till upon his observing my way tend towards the Sannits, he assaulted me unawares, with calling me unworthy villain and base traitor; I unused to be so styled answered him with sword in hand: The fight lested a good while, both of us being armed, and each of us resolved to kill the other; of my death, his valour and my youth made him confident, till my agility deprived him of that hope; for being, because of the weariness of our horses driven to alight, I then so tired him, as he was glad to fall from pursuing me to defend himself.  
The danger and earnestness of this our combat could not (for all that) withdraw my thoughts from musing what should be the occasion of this affront; seeing him therefore stand in need of a breathing-time, I besought him to hear me a word; whereunto when he condescended, I asked him why he had so assaulted me and called me traitor? he answered, Because I had violated the bonds of hospitality by enjoying a Princess whom I was not worthy as much as to name, whilst others far worthier than myself were of her favours in the way of affection most injuriously excluded; At these words I was so exceedingly vexed at the heart, as I cannot tell you which at that instant was greater my spite and rage, for having a rival, or fear that my secrets were revealed: howsoever, I made no conscience to lie boldly, in telling him, that he lied most falsely, and to defend (by so belying him) the Dutchess' honour and mine; howbeit my words were few, assured and confirmed rather by the sword than by a good conscience: But by this time, for being exposed to the open violence of the sun, even half melted with heat, and grown fainty for weariness, thirst, and sweat, we therefore agreed to disarm us, and so make a quick dispatch one way or other: In execution whereof, we hastily cut off each others armour-strops, throwing there withal away our shields together with our daggers, the usual successors in that office.  
Our faces so now uncovered, there provoked us on more eagerly, him my youth, and me his ugliness, the disequality encouraging each of us to rid himself of his enemy by no milder means than death, the one to free himself of a rival which could not be surely effected by other means than by killing him; the other to cure the wound given Crisanta's honour could not be salved otherwise than by his rivals death; scarce had we force enough left us to wield our swords, being now grown so weary and faintish, as we could not lift them up to make use of our edges, whilst our eyes stood fixed or rather chained (as it were) to the enemy's sword-hand, to gather thence the time, and so either to prevent or put him by:  
By this time we were both of us slightly wounded, rather through the defects of our ill-closed hilts, than for any great odds that either of us had of other in fencing, and by our swords-points slipping through the hilts into our hands and arms, though then in our heat we had no feeling of being so mangled.  
For my own part I persuade myself that I had sooner obtained the victory, if I had but made use of, and followed the advantages I saw; for, holding it (though I know not why) foul play, to both strike and thrust when the enemy made only use of his point, I still followed on my play conformable to his, as if there had been a law so to do. But considering at length how this kind of play did but dally out the time, and observing my advantage of having my pulses both firmer and less wearied than those of mine enemies, I began to alter my play, falling from thrusts to downright and back-blows, and those laid I on too with all the force I had, so as the back of the contrary sword (sustained by a tired arm, and withal carried without the compass of my offers and his true ward) favoured me with the opportunity of striking him first in the face athwart the midst of his nose, and afterwards on the head; at which blow the sword dropped out of his hand to the ground, and close by it himself (to my thinking) dead; which so freed me of a rival, and Crisanta of infamy.  
But now the worst was, that I could not possibly rearm myself, my armour-tyes being (as I told you) almost all of them cut off. And though my Genius seemed to prompt me to make Cripasso cock sure, with fresh and more certain wounds, yet could I not find in my heart to do so, for that I deemed such a deed unworthy a Gentleman, yet parted I not presently (for all that) but stayed to see whether he would revive or no; till the wound of his head (which was the dangerous one) occasioning a strange wriggling of his members with hanging out his tongue between his teeth, (he being at best but very ugly, and now in such a plight gastfull for being assailed with terrible convulsions and shiverings) made me confident of his being dead; so as to rid me off so hideous and horrible a spectacle, I went my ways without any longer stay, leaving him laid along in the field, and my Arms hard by him.  
The Duchess (to expect me with more conveniency in a place where I might be received by night, without being encumbered with any watch) was retired to the Country, having at my parting from her given me the key of a Tower, that so I might steal in unto her unknown to any body, and so indeed I came in thither unexpected, and found her a-bed broad waking, and entertained in discourse by the Gentlewoman that was our counsel-keeper, who lay on a pallet at her beds feet. The Lamp let her soon see who I was, yet were her (at first sight) excessive joys mortified by seeing my right hand swaddled up, and my arm hung in a scarf at my neck, howsoeven she imagined the disaster to be far less than it was; for having found me herself once before in a far worse taking, but having understood how the case stood, she was like to sink down dead at the conceit of it, but for my assuring her that I had slain him: the sense of this her grief was aggravated by the accident of Corianna befallen in the self same time, but much more by the departure of her sons; so as our content remained corrupted by the mortifications that suspicions and fears wrought in her: Full often conceived she (as indeed she had good reason so to do) that all slips of women would be more rigorously examined for the Princess' errors sake; so as she could by no means be persuaded to desist from weeping and grieving; besides she slept never a wink, which caused our before-amorous-watching to be now changed into consultations, discourses, and presages of evil: But Nature requiring in me some repose, I was fain to sleep (as I may say) waking, so exceedingly was I troubled with the heartrending tones of her lamentations; till at length I (unable to endure them any longer) grew to be so perplexed thereat, that choosing rather to dye than to see her so languish, I thus bespoke her.  
Dear bliss of my joys, I beseech you prevent not the uncertain evil with a certain, what cause (I pray you) of fear have you, now that Cripasso is dead and gone? sithence we may so behave ourselves as the very air cannot smell out our secrets; 'twas nothing (alas) but mere jealousy that made him believe the truth to be true, though (for all that) such as he could not possibly be ever an eyewitness unto, nor consequently assure himself thereof. For, otherwise he had never (I warrant you) this long have deferred its discovery. Here interrupting me, Ah! Coralbo (said she) you are but young, you think that Cripasso is dead, but (the more woe is me) I fear me he yet lives, the accidents that you saw in him were (for what I gather by your describing them) no other than convulsions and violent stupifying fits. I cannot believe but he is by this time come to himself again, since he hath not any wound, save that of his head that can prove mortal: you tell me that he sunk not down presently, but fought a good while after, whence I gather, that it was a strangelystupifying blow but not otherwise dangerous, which if it so prove to be, I am then a woman utterly undone. Besides, your reason of our not being otherwise discovered than by a bare imagination is not good, since mere imagination in this case is sufficient to make me lose both life and honour. Besides which, even Cripasso's behaviour towards me speaks him to be more discreet, than to discredit himself in blazoning to my infamy upon bare conjectures any miscarriage he certainly knew not in me, who never did him other injury than deny him my love, which nothing in him obliged me to grant him: But now that he hath for the self same occasion been so roughly handled by you, he will doubtless endeavour to be revenged of us both at once.  
The Duchess persisted constantly in these her opinions, from which I could not by any means divert her, especially because of their likelihood of being true, upon the divulging of news, that Cripasso was found dangerously wounded, and that the Surgeons had warranted his life; howbeit the wound on's face had so disfigured him, as he had not been known but by his former and more ugly scars; but how this had befallen him no man knew, because of his concealing of both its author and occasion.  
On this, Crisanta began in her desperation to conceive some hopes of comfort, from the consideration of Cripasso's wont modest demeanour, wherein his concealing the case seemed (to her thinking) to argue a perseverance; but alas (good Lady) she was therein exceedingly mistaken. For, his affection (being corrupted by the injury sustained, and extinguished with desire of revenge) egged on his cruelty to plot the mischief, which afterwards he put in execution against us.  
Cured that I was of my wounds, we resolved upon my return to Parthenope, that I should go find out her sons, and on my going (as soon as I had reconducted them home) to go look to my own affairs, with an intention to send her (when I had recovered my kingdom) Ambassadors to espouse her for me. Accordingly I went, and found the two brothers in Parthenope confused in mind for my being departed, Cripasso's lying wounded, the impossibility of finding out the Princess, the extreme perplexity of the King, and both desolation and dissolution of the Court. Return home they would not, but desired to go travel as Knight-errant; I signified by letter so much unto the Duchess, who was well pleased therewithal, for being thereby freed of her mind-afflicting fear that in their way homewards they would call to see Cripasso, as they could (indeed) no less than do, his house lying right on their road, which was (I profess) a thing that I never dreamt of.  
Some months spent we in this our journey, (wherein I was favoured with occasions of obliging them sundry times) and had continued it longer, had not the Duchess (who now thought herself secure) sent for us home, where the affection between her and me (more ardent now than ever before) recalled us to our wont pleasures, when Cripasso sent the brother's word to have a more chary respect to their honours, which for being so drily written, made them the more earnestly desirous to know the occasion thereof; but finding him unwilling either to come himself to them, or to suffer them to come to him, they appointed a place to meet and confer together, where he telsthem.  
That he having long before taken notice of the noteworthy favours which the Duchess hourly showed me, and of her good liking to me, construed them for no other than effects of noble courtesy; till such time as he coming one day to see her, found the door of her back-chamber fast-locked, into which he (because he heard there within some gentle stirring) observantly peeping through the keyhole, might there see her and I, in close embraces together, whereof he had no reason (though) to make any words of, the fact not concerning him otherwise than as a wellwisher to their house and honour: Besides, his being the more unwilling to discover it, as well because he thought it could not be remedied otherwise than by violence, as also for the hope he conceived that my departure would bring that evil to an end. Till seeing how I had in Parthenope left them embark themselves alone, of purpose to sneak homewards without them, he resolved to trace me, with an intention (in case I went that way) to prove a rub in my way: assuring himself, that if he did not so, the infamy (till then kept secret) would for want of circumspection in us be noted and made shortly known to all the world. But that fortune disfavouring him, he was by me shrewdly wounded and left for dead in the open field; with all which passages he thought fit to acquaint them, now that grown to men's estates, and honoured with the dignity of Knighthood, they might have an eye to their own honours, wishing them withal to provide for the executing of what was intended, since he could warrant them, they should without any great ado catch (as they say) the hare in the parfley-bed.  
The young Noblemen (pricked to the quick with such unwelcome news, and being besides of their own nature prone enough to any cruel resolution, and yet more feelingly incensed by his egging them on) resolved to murder us both in the act; from which Cripasso dissuaded them, by showing, that it was fit indeed that their design should be effected, but yet not at one and the same time, since it was best, first to kill me and the Gentlewoman mediatrix, under pretext of having found us twain naught together, and so save their own honours with that of their mothers; whom they might afterwards (without making any show of suspecting her) strangle or make away by poison or other means, as they saw occasion: Having thus concluded, they knew so well how to dissemble, that we (having by this time clean forgot Cripasso's injury) were taken napping when we least thought of them.  
It was past midnight when the Gentlewoman rushed in furiously to awake us, whereupon I (guessing by the bouncing at the door, what she had to say, taking a farewell-kiss of the Duchess, and clothing myself as well as haste permitted me) took my weapons in hand: By when the door (for not being opened from within when they knocked) was beaten down from without, with no less force than fury. Whereupon the Duchess (fearing lest her sons should come and find me) besought me to fly, which I would not, for not letting her be slain unrevenged; till at length upon her assuring me, they would bear her respect, I gave way to her persuasions. My resolution of obeying her, and the bursting open of the door happened in the self same instant of time, so as they saw the first steps of my flight: Upon this, leaving the rest, they hastily pursued me, though their being unacquainted with the rooms marred all their design; for, they believed, that my coming in was through the ordinary door, through which they had entered, which also made them miss of me many nights before, that they had spent in watching my coming; not without suspicion that Cripasso, to revenge himself of me, had maliciously invented this slander; whereupon some dispute fell between them, till he causing me to be searched for in my chamber, understood that I was gone thence, though he was yet confident, that I must needs have come in the right way through the lodgings, (which indeed I did never) so as he made full account to pen me in; since having (as he thought) but one way to enter, they had now left me none at all to go out through.  
The Dutchess' withdrawing chamber butted on an arch, erected on a backalley through which no man passed; it had anciently served for a passage to another house, which (till it happened to be burnt) was a member of the Palace, the arch remaining ever since unuseful, and its door shut, and so covered with the Arras-hanging, as there was none but herself and some of her ancientest servants that knew there was any such: On the outside of this Arch stood an old ladder to get down by, which wanted in some places one, and in other two rungs; the room was very low, full of filth and rubbish, and o'ergrown with brambles, weeds, and briers, having two other rooms adjoining to it, the foremost whereof was assured with a good lock and key, through which I secretly came and returned without any danger.  
Those that pursued me were four, Cripasso, the two brothers, and one servant; but the foremost of them was Cripasso, who came running after me with sword in hand; fain as live would I have turned to strike at him, but doubting to be overtaken by the brothers (whom I had no will to injure) I went fairly onwards, fortune favouring me beyond either my expectation or imagination; for being slowly pursued, because of their conceiting to pen me up in the farther chamber, wherehence they saw no way for me to get out; I had leisure to descend the ladder without any danger; for in drawing only the Arch-door together after me, I deprived them of the time (although it were but shut with a latchet) of hindering my descent.  
Cripasso marvelling to see me gotten so low down, unacquainted with the place, but much more with the defects of the ladder, (the torch which the servant carried not sufficiently illuminating all those darksome by-corners) and he withal seeing but very little for being very weak-sighted, tumbled (for the extreme haste that he made to pursue me) headlong down from one end of the ladder to the other; whereat I resolved now neither to lose any time, nor to fail to kill him as I did the other time before run him (for making the surer work of him) at two thrusts through the neck and breast; in the later whereof, I ran my sword up to the hilts, conformable to my desire, whilst the rest of his company stood immovable spectators from above for fear of the precipice: This done, I went my ways, keying fast after me the door that had the lock on it, to hinder them from pursuing me, and so hying me to the City walls, I got me out without any great ado, and then (during all the rest of the night) traveled afoot the speediest pace I could towards that part of the country where its territory was narrowest, for I thought myself safe enough in any other dominion.  
Continuing this my journey, I chanced to meet (by good fortune) a Knight with whom I had been acquainted at Parthenope, who by occasion of certain lands was a great enemy to Cripasso; to this Knight enquiring the occasion that he saw me so afoot, I unmasked the whole business, save that in steed of the Duchess I made him believe, that I went to enjoy her woman, and was fain to save myself with Cripasso's death; Whereupon the Knight affectionately embracing me, told me, he was much bound to me, inviting me withal to his Castle, where he assured me, that I should not need to fear or doubt of any thing; I thankfully accepted the invitation, but desired (for his safeguard aswell as mine own) to abide there undiscovered, whilst he suddenly dispatched away a discreet Gentleman, to go learn if Cripasso were dead indeed, and how slain.  
The Gentleman after a few days returned and told him, That fortuning to be entertained and lodged by a Knight who was an intimate friend of his, and a bosom one of the brethren, he had not only been informed, but was also by him favoured to see under the seal of secrecy the whole truth of the fact; which was, That Cripasso was dead for certain; That the brothers having dragged the Dutchess' Gentlewoman to the top of the ladder, had tumbled her down headlong over it, and then slain her upon Cripasso's corpse, martyrising her with so many wounds, that her body was seen all over pierced through with stabs: That the Duchess could neither with authority nor entreaty obtain life for her, but was (oh unnatural cruelty!) herself the day following by them-themselves cruelly strangled; and the Coffin happening to be too short for her, one of them stepped up on her legs that reached out of the Coffin, and with his feet crushed them to pieces, that the Chest might contain them; and all because she was taken with me, they having been before advertized by Cripasso of all the particulars by me related.  
Now though they had not published the case to be as it was indeed (they giving out, they had surprised me with the Gentlewoman, and that the Duchess extremely affrighted to see her slain before her face, died in the place for mere fear) yet had they (for all that) imprudently communicated the truth to most of their friends, so as the people came to know it by having their conjecture in that behalf confirmed by the coffin's being nailed up and pitched, ere any body was suffered to see it; That Cripasso's corpse were embalmed up, and solemnly sent to his own barony, (upon a chariot of black velvet, drawn by eight horses covered and trapped with the same down to the ground) accompanied with two hundred Gentlemen, clad they themselves and their Coursers with their head-stalls plumes and trappings all in black, with unbraced drums, sordine trumpets, trailed standards and mournful music.  
On would Coralbo have proceeded in his story, but here interrupted with sudden sobbings he was forced to reiterate by the dropping of a few great pearl-like tears his (in this manner many time's resolemnized) funerals of his beloved Crisanta; Polimero therefrom not diverting him, for his conceiving the not giving way to just griefs to be a thing too far distant from humane putty: but soon after the water being soaked away with the drought of reason, stopped of itself; and then he blushing to see himself (according to the opinion of some) contrary to a manly spirit overmastered by his affections, after a short pause thus spoke on.  
Of the two hundred Gentlemen which accompanied (as I told you) Cripasso's corpse, fifty solemnly vowed, to spend one years' time in the search of me, and in case they found me out, to bring and sacrifice me on the slain Cripass' tomb; And missing to light on me in that years' space, though they were thence forwards freed from further seeking after me, yet remained they (in case they ever fortuned to meet me) still tied to the same obligation. Understood that I had these unhappy news, I would needs part suddenly, all persuasions of retaining me any longer proving dissoluble and to no purpose. Having then procured (of the Knight my host and friend) the favour of furnishing me with complete Arms, and refused those he would have had me take for being too superfluous, contenting me with those I now wear, I caused to be portraited on my shield the Impresa of the swan, stamped in the internal part of my imagination ever since I was a child, upon the occasion of the old disasters of my poor home, whereunto this new one in my conceit came near enough.  
It was my luck to meet ere I embarked myself, with eight of the fifty Gentlemen, of whom understanding the oath they had taken, I had the fortune to absolve them of it, by from some taking and to others giving their lives. Come to Taranto I met with the ninth, without either knowing him or he me; We embarked both of us in the same ship, where, upon his telling me whom he sought after, I could have found in my heart to have fought with him then instantly; but (considering the ships being full of passengers) I forbore till we arrived in Feacia, and then made myself known unto him, where gone ashore, Mars favoured my cause with the death of the pursuer. And then passing over into Crete, I came thence to Egypt where you found me, and by your valour saved me from my second murderers. My intent now is, to cross over hence to Arabia, there either to recover my kingdom or lose my life; or if neither this nor that, yet shall I (at least) see with my own eyes the reasons that exclude me from all further hopes thereof, that I may then return me thence to the Island my nurse, and there spend and end the residue of my days.  
The noble Polimero was so taken both with the relation of these passages and with the person that related them, that (embracing him with an affectionate respect) he thus bespoke him. Prince Coralbo, I crave you humble pardon if in any thing I have failed to tender you the honour due to your quality, whereinalthough my not knowing you might (in some regard) serve me for an excuse, yet mean I not to steed me therewith, because my not discovering in you those indelible marks of a Prince stamptin you by nature, merits just accusation. But sithence it cannot now be otherwise remedied, I shall endeavour to make my future service become in part an amends for my past miscarriages, and will besides (so you but favour me with your courteous leave) be a fellow-sharer in your adventures; for the being of both of us strangers in Arms and language will secure us from all dangers, so that you shall not need to make yourself known to any other than such, whom (for your affairs sake) you shall reveal yourself unto.  
This courteous proffer Coralbo could not but accept of, acknowledging him no small obligation for this his so highly-engaging favour. So travelling toward Arsinoe, it grew to be twilight ere they were aware that they had strayed out of their way, yet even then and later too the clime of Egypt is canoped with so bright a sky, that there the night (though deprived of its greater light) is yet very brightsome and clear, the golden splendour of the stars being of themselves (for not being clouded with any foggy vapours arising from below) sufficiently lightsome to illuminate that portion of the earth: the air also enjoying there a fair open horizon (for not being damned in by any near bordering mountains) glories in having no other shade save only such as are merely accidental.  
Thus in darkened light or lighting darkness continued these Princes on their intended journey till almost midnight, without meeting with any one, of whom they could inquire the way, so as now imagining they had lost it (as indeed they had) they were much perplexed in mind, their Steeds being well nigh quite tired and fainty with extreme thirst, when of one side of them they might descry glimmering a little light; yet not certain of its being really such (the interposing trees not suffering them to judge whether it were indeed such or no) Coralbo desirous to be cleared of his doubt, and at length through his accurate observing infallibly assured it was no star, told Polimero, that for certain there were houses near at hand; riding then towards the light, they saw it vanish them in an instant, yet holding on their way directly thitherward, they were soon gotten into a fair large green, encircled with a pleasing row of palmtrees orderly planted; about the which in an artificial channel rolled over a bed of snow-white pebble, a little crystal brook most pleasantly murmuring; from thence they discerned (fast by them) a house with lights in many of its rooms; whereat they no sooner knocked than they were courteously spoken unto; but yet the porter would (ere he would open the door) needs first go know his Lady's pleasure, which was not needful;) for she appearing herself presently at a window, courteously asked them who they were? Two stranger-knights of a remote Country (answered her Polimero) who being out of their way, pray to be either favoured with a night's lodging, or directed where they may get one; which he (endeavouring to express in that country language) uttered with such difficulty, that seeing the Lady return him no answer, he persuaded himself that she understood him not; till upon his returning to repeat his former speech, she told him, that she had already understood him, howbeit she prayed him to tell her what countrymen they were? We are (said Polimero) Ausonians; how Ausonians (replied the Lady) your pronunciation (me thinks) and accent hath but small affinity with those of that Nation? Yea Madame (answered her then Coralbo in the pure Etrurian tongue) we are indeed of Ausonia, and now go travelling abroad through the world, to find out wars and adventures.  
The Lady now bethinking with herself, that she should know that voice and accent, commanded the gates to be presently opened; so than the Knights (demounting off their Steeds in a fair courtelage) were with a pair of torches lighted into the hall, where they were courteously received by the Lady, accompanied with a most beautiful damosel her daughter, the near resemblance she had with her confirming her to be such, both of them as well in gesture as countenance discovering an incomparable majesty: They entertained these two Knights not after the manner of country gentry, but with a stately grave deportment as the most accomplished Ladies of the Court, presenting them (in expression of their welcome) with a glass of fair fountain water deliciously tempered with Sugar and the juice of Lemons, to qualify their internally distempering heat, and then commanded supper to be speedily made ready: But the Knights already infinitely satisfied both in the way of welcome and sweetly-grave aspect of the noble Lady, besought her to forbear the incommodating her family for them, it being so late as they wondered they found them not all asleep, telling her, that a dry crust with a little fruit, and that most delicate water should suffice them to their exceeding content.  
To this the Lady smilingly replied, that she had not as yet supped herself, but seeing them admire thereat; 'Tis my custom (said she) to satisfy my hunger at the summons not of the clock but of my stomach, and therefore I now mean to sup, for I only eat when my appetite invites me, a custom that I have ever observed, and ever found myself the healthier for it; This the Knights did well approve of, instancing the like in a Queen and a great Prince of their country. But the Lady desirous to be informed of their occasions, with a gravely-limited boldness asked them; Whitherward could any affair of theirs lead them that way, seeing they could not travel on any farther, without first crossing the seas, whereunto Polimero endeavouring to make answer, but expressing it with much difficulty. Sir, said the Lady (in a most sweetly-respective manner interrupting him) I am loath to prove so unmannerly troublesome unto you, as to put you to speak a language you cannot readily express. Be therefore pleased (I beseech you) that this other Knight your companion ease you of that trouble, by speaking in his own native tongue, wherein I having got a little knowledge (out of the curiosity I formerly had in bestowing sometime in the reading of it) shall understand him very well, and his accent too far better than I can yours; which she said, because beginning now to grow yet more suspicious that he was Coralbo, she was desirous to be cleared of that doubt. Polimero glad to be easied of that burden, with willingly obeying her, assured her, that his companion was excellent in that tongue.  
Coralbo thanked him for his good opinion of his language, and then submissively inclining to the Lady, told her, that he received her commands as especial favours; and that touching their journey, they intended to cross the seas, to see the Kingdom and Court of Arabia Foelix, which in the last deceased King's time was famed to be very great.  
The Lady greedily peering him in the face, and then suddenly glancing her eyes on her daughter, made no answer at all: In this often translocation of her looks she so long persisted, that she gave Polimero occasion to take notice thereof, who doing by her example the like, perceived she did it not without very good reason, considering the affinity of favour she might observe between the Knight and the damosel; which later when he had well observed together with Coralbo, favoured both of them very much the Lady her Mother; who (with that) espying his left arm hung in a scarf, asked him, what hurt he had there; he (not as yet cured of the wounds lately received of the Arabians) answered, It was nothing but a slight scratch; whereat she seeming to be sorry, told him, she would then presently cure him herself, being provided of the best would-balm that ever Arabia distilled; But he replied, that he durst not so far presume to trespass on her goodness, as to repute himself worthy of so great a favour, and that she needed not trouble herself about it, since he could very well make a shift to dress it himself as he went to bed: To that she agreed not, but taking in her hand a golden vial (that her daughter had by now brought her) she dropped thereout two or three grains weight, which yielded so pleasing an odour, that all the senses and spirits were thereby exceedingly comforted and recreated. And then it behoved Coralbo to suffer himself to be dressed, the Lady casting (the mean while) her eye on that hand, to see if he had there a little half moon-resembling scar, that he had once cut with a knife near the root of his thumb, which she espying, remained (though she made no show thereof) the joyfullest woman breathing.  
Supper being by this time laid on the table neatly furnished, with nappery and service surpassing the quality of a private Lady, they sat down to meat, she (all supper-while) ever-enquiring something of Ausonia & Etruria; But when she named Nepa and the Island of Capraia, Coralbo could have bitten his fingers for mere madness thereat; which observantly perceived by her gave a supplement to her content. As soon therefore as the cloth was taken away and the servants departed the room, she thus bespoke them.  
Gentlemen, ye are much bound to fortune for being so favourable to you, as to conduct you hither, ere your passing over into Arabia, sithence when you had been there known to be of that country whence you are come, you would have incurred the danger of being unrecoverably undone, especially you (Sir Knight) being Coralbo, or another in his shape indistinguishable; whom if you be, as I am well assured you are, let me then tell you, that you cannot repose trust in any, that either more dearly loves him, or can perhaps in some respects better advise him in the managing of his affairs than myself; fear not therefore to discover yourself to me, for (howsoever) I certainly know you to bethe very same.  
Here seeing them gaze with admiration one upon the other (as though they summoned all their wits to counsel how they should best devise an answer for her) she proceeded: You need not stand gazing so strangely each on other, nor yet fear or any thing doubt of the presence of this my daughter; for she desires more to see in happy state Coralbo, than doth any other wight living: At which words the damosel wept, the Mother after a long restraint accompanying her with her tears.  
By this time Coralbo was so distracted in mind as he knew not what either to say or think, imagining, that being so soon known by a woman, he must necessarily be sooner sitted out and sounded by any man that he should happen to converse withal; and that it could not otherwise be, but that some private mark of his was made manifest by some secret spies. Considering therefore with himself, that his intended journey could not but prove dangerous unto him, he thought it his safest course to commit the discovery of his person and being to the trust of that noble Lady, who by her words and tears could not choose but love him, and be of the Queen his mother's faction; yet amidst all his fears and doubts he had (though the worst that betid might, betided him) this one comfort to encourage him, that he was as yet in a country free from all dangers, and remote enough from any power of his enemy: Polimero likewise grew to be thereat exceedingly confused in mind, till lighting on the self same reasons, he beckoned unto the other to discover himself.  
The Lady having (the mean while) dried her beteared eyes, boldly took him by the left hand, and smilingly observing it, For certain (said she) you are undoubtedly Coralbo; To this he now overcome with the confidency of her affirmation, answered: I cannot imagine (noble Lady) what should move you to say I am he, what marks (I beseech you) descry you in me that denote me to be such? What marks (said she) marry the age of seventeen years as hath Coralbo, a face shaped and favoured like his, when he was as yet but ten years old, and this scar that Coralbo cut in his hand at table, his mother being present, when she came seven years sithence to visit him at Nepa; other marks too I yet know besides, but will not tell them you, unless you confess that you are he: Coralbo now looking on his hand, and therewithal calling to mind that cut, and how his own mother had dressed it and bound it up, remained more astonished than ever, so as he now could hold no longer from saying:  
Much honoured Lady; the marks and description which your goodness and noble courtesy have vouchsafed to impart and particularise to me, are so punctual and unrefutable, that I cannot deny me to be Coralbo; whom if I were not, I would yet heartily wish to be, were it but to serve you: At these words she rising off the table with her daughter, and embracing him about the neck; Since you then (said she) are my son Coralbo, behold here your disinherited mother and sister, not altogether unhappy, since their eyes are once more blessed with the now heart-extasing sight of you: Coralbo who at their first motion of rising up, was risen with them, at the instant of his hearing these words prostrates himself on his knees to her, whence she raising him up, stood some while embracing him with a motherly tenderness; Nor had she so soon freed him from out the weak prison of her arms, but that reason commanded her to communicate him to her daughter his sister, the affects thereon ensuing proving such as even Polimero himself was so overmastered with an extreme tenderness of a fellow-feeling compassion, as he could not refrain from bearing a part in their weeping consort. The Mother afterwards understanding who he was, and wherefore come thither, could never be satisfied in manifesting by most lively affects the gratefulness of a royal mind obliged. But seeing that the night was (by this time) far spent.  
Right noble Prince (said she) it is not convenient that my joys become discommodious to you; the present reason requires repose, and Coralbo's wounds ease and rest; To morrow is a new day, and then we will confer together at better leisure: With that, she leading him on to a withdrawing chamber there hard by, consigned him to the care of certain Gentlemen to help him to bed. Whilst Coralbo, not having the power to part from her, would needs know of her the manner and occasion of her coming to reside in that place. But she differing it till the ensuing day, got him at length (with much ado) to go to bed; where sleeping little or nothing, by reason of such alterations of affections, he got up earlier than his passed toil would have another time permitted him.  
The day being come, there needed no consort of Music to summon them to come together, their several desires being sufficiently powerful to effect that office. The Queen finding Polimero just as he had made an end of clothing himself, entertained by Coralbo who was already dressed, leads him into the garden, to take the benefit of the fresh air; when seating herself between them both under an arbour of Gelsomine, and her daughter close by her brother's side, she thus framed her speech.  
I know that I cannot well defer the relation of your affairs (Coralbo) though I would gladly do it, since they cannot but prove unpleasing unto you; yet since it pleaseth the heavens they should so be, we must not repine at their unresistable predestination. I persuade myself that you came hither in hope to make trial of your valour: But (alas!) such a trial should be of the fortitude of the mind, and of other virtues thereto correspondding; the strength and valour of the body coming now too late any way to steed you. This much I thought good to acquaint you first withal, for preventing of those passions which Nature & Reason might administer you: And now to go on with your story.  
At my coming to Nepa, I left in Cardamina (the only residing-place I had then left me) Dariacan a servant once dear to your Father, who having sent secret intelligence of my departure to King Bramac my son-in-law, capituled to yield him up that Hold, on condition that all the treasure there found should be his, Bramac made a show of being well contented for the treasure, but not for the rest, pretending to have delivered up into his hands together with Cardamina your person, imagining (it should seem) that I would at my return bring you back along with me, which induced him to defer the effecting as then of his first complotted treachery, for the assurance that he had of putting in execution at the self same time both the one and the other.  
Feigning then to have believed that I was gone to the Oracle, he commanded the bordering Governors to have a care of my estate, that it were not encroached on, nor prejudiced by any whatsoever; making by this seeming-good office a show of being not only alienated from any evil intention, but also tenderly careful that no other should offer me any injury. So that at my return I had cause to give him thanksarks for it, he then also making a show of honouring me, by sending me Ambassadors, who under pretext of congratulating my return, came to espy whether you were come with me or no: But getting afterwards out of- Dariacan all my secrets, he bade him counsel and persuade me your return, as being the request of the greater part of the Barons ill satisfied with the present government; I simple woman, believing him, taking his having conserved me Cardamina (whereof I ever doubted) for an assured testimony of his inviolable fidelity, resolved to send you Cogamar the brother of Stelinete your Squire, him whom (from among a number of others) Sotiro had chosen for your service: which happened the self same time that Sotiro (for not having heard any news from me since my parting from Etrunia) had sent to me Stelinete: And as fortune would have it, the brothers met by the way, and reciprocally trusted each other with the sum and privity of their several commissions: There Cogamar (through the intelligence he held with Dariacan) being acquainted with the King's designs, and consequently corrupted, imparts it to the other, not to make him the instrument of remedying or preventing it, but rather a means to content the Tyrant, by effecting his desire; showing him, how all our hopes were quite extinct, Bramac possessed of all, and they in the way of being (for such a masterpiece of service) advanced to great honours and special favour; objecting unto him on the other side, the poverty and miseries of so long an exile, the irksome tediousness of a solitary life in an Island, (especially in a Country so remote from their native clime) without any likelihood of ever expecting (after all these sufferings) from our exclusion and poor condition, other than poverty, exclusion, dangers, and a miserable and unhappy end.  
The wicked Stelinete who till then had continued honest, merely for the hope he had, that you (restored to your royal state) would richly reward him; seeing now the effect (to his thinking) impossible, presently turned coat, and that (as you shall hear) a most villainous way too; for reasoning with himself upon other men's infidelity by the argument of his own, he concluded it a point of wisdom to prevent the uncertain rewards of Princes, but more particularly of Bramac, knowing there was no reciprocal relation of any virtue (especially of that of gratitude between the Tyrant & the Traitor) with a certain one, whereof he might besides'be himself his own carver; So being first persuaded by his brother to one arch-plot of wickedness, he now persuades him to another more base, if not more wicked.  
For he tells him of the treasure reserved and trusted to the guard of stones in the Island of Capraia, and buried under the feigned ruins of a slender cottage, with letting him see, how the taking it away would prove a service very steedable to Bramac, for thereby depriving you of the principal means of recovering your kingdom; especially now that I (for being deprived of the treasure I had in Cardamina) had not wherewithal to maintain myself, much less such an Army as were requisite for so long and expensive an enterprise as this of ours was like to prove.  
This design of Stelinete was partly conformable to Cogamar's avarice, though he could not suddenly approve of it, bethinking with himself, that being sent to put one plot in effect, it lay not within the reach of his brainpiece to form thereof a second. But at length the eye of his judgement becoming dazzled with the certainty of lucre, made him blind to more wholesome considerations, so as dispencing with the express commission first given him, he resolved to follow Stelinete's counsel, who freighting a ship of purpose, steered from Paphos (where they had met) by Crete, Feacia, and Parthenope to the Elbe, and thence in a good fishing-boat to Capraia, where they alone (having first easily removed the rubbish that stopped up the passage to it) took thence away the treasure, packing up such things as they had picked out for Bramac in the same manner that they were brought thither, a trade that Stelinete was well versed in, this not being the first time he had done it.  
They had once determined before their going to Capraia, that Cogamar should pass over to Nepa, & having there executed his commission should then return to Stelinete who was to expect him: But the difficulties that opposed that proposition were many, and among the rest one, that he could not so part thence without ministering subject of jealousy to Sotiro, who in case he believed him, would (as was presumed) have come along himself to conduct you, which he could not have done, neither, ere he had first gone to Capraia; where, upon missing the treasure he would have smelled out the treachery: On this consideration, than they concluded, that the one could not be handsomely effected, without leaving the other altogether unattempted.  
Being come to Zambra, they there found the King, where Cogamar known by some (who were altogether ignorant of the King's stratagems) was laid hold on, upon suspicion of being sent by me as a spy to the Court, and upon this conjecture laying a thousand criminal matters to his charge. Bramac commanded him to be brought before him, as though he would have examined him himself; but finding his command unexecuted, he caused both him and his brother to be first gagged, and then cruelly tormented to death, giving out, that they were sent thither by Sotiro to corrupt with the treasure of the Crown the Subjects loyalty and State's quietness. At the self same time he commanded Dariacan to lay hands on me too; but I (being by some of my more trusty friends advertised thereof) saved myself by flight, taking on me to go to Are a neighbouring Island, to take the air, carrying along with me a small part of the gold, but well nigh all my jewels.  
Dartacan having presently after my departure received order to arrest me, caused me to be pursued in vain, I being (by that time they had traced me to the kingdom's limits) got (out of all danger) over hitherward on the shore and territory of Egypt.  
Bramac hearing the news of my escape, not imagining that I could be advertized by any in a matter so secret, but believing (or at leastwise making show of believing) that Dariacan himself had been the instrumental means of my flight, went in person to Cardamina, upon the walls whereof he caused him to be hanged up, so giving him (as he had before done to the rest) the guerdion due to their treachery.  
I (trusting on the King of Egypt's royal protection) retired me hither, where in this private manner of life I could live more contentedly than ever, were it not for the consideration of your person, whose ill fortune is the only thing that makes me miserable and unhappy. Upon this she surprised with two fugitive tears, but repelling their followers with a more than womanly constancy of courage, thus proceeded.  
Now upon this state of things it remains, that we see what resolution we were best to fix on; whether to tyre our fortune or no, or whether or no the very trying it be not dangerous to our weakness. I know there is no man can better counsel us herein than your Highness, Prince Polimero; yet I hope you will hold me excused that I beg not that favour of you; because I persuade myself that you being come hither in favour and furtherance of Coralbo, will think it unbefitting your great spirit to advise otherwise than for the enterprise: at the Queens thus hitting the very white of the truth Polimero blushed; But she not staying for his answer spoke on.  
I shall herein desire no other than Coralbo's opinion, whereunto I will (so his reasons convince mine) willingly subscribe. He after a short pause with a demurely-resolute aspect, made her this answer.  
I pretend not to convince you (Madame) but only in humble manner to express myself, seeing it is your will to command me so to do. Many things there are which out of reason and honesty ought to be done, and yet are not done for being thought unexpedient, which I believe bears a great stroke over you in the consideration of this our case. I (for my part) was borne a Prince, and am by Order a Knight, it behoves me then to dye like whom I was borne, and do like whom I am; if dangers had wherewithal to bind our hands, there would then never any thing be done in the world, Besides, that security and danger sometimes so nearly resemble each other, and are in humane actions so confused (as it were) that they glide through our hands undistinguished; in so much as we often take (or rather indeed mistake) the one for the other, so as if reason will that we take hold of this, the selfsame commands us not to despair of that.  
How many from out of loathsome prisons (hourly expecting the deadly stroke of the executioner) have been happily transferred to the possession of honours and crowns? And how many again swaying Royal Sceptres have by their own guards (in whom they reposed the safeguard of their lives and persons) been cruelly butchered and inhumanely murdered? A Prince's heart therefore should never be either elevated with felicity or depressed with misery, but ever indifferent though in far different fortunes; never believing destiny to be grown so powerful, that valour backed by discretion can no more countermand it, and though no other benefit could be reaped from it, yet will it in all the seasons of his age be for a man's honour and commendations to dye valiantly a fair death. His mother observing he had thus set a period to his speech, with a gravely-sad smile thus replied.  
I see then you answer me not in jest (Coralbo) since in steed of reasons you give me sentences; yet (alas!) did you but know, how easy they are in their explicating, and how hard in their experimenting, you would then (I am persuaded) have omitted the reading them. Action and speculation, doing and speaking, are as nature and portraiture; the one really makes what the other but visually represents. And although those first real bodies be not in that degree of perfection as the exactness of the unfallible Art of the Mathematics would require, yet are they nevertheless both lively and necessary, whereas the second being either merely imaginary, or at the best but the brats of fancy, are but inanimate and superfluous.  
The Philosophers (humanity's picture-drawers) have indeed drawn many pictures of her, without being (for their hearts) able to add to her other beauties, than such as are apparent in her face, covering the members (whereunto they knew not what proportion to give) with side garments which they called habits; but if Nature had not herself given them their true proportions, which are good inclinations, bootless then and vain were their habits, well might they veil but never take away their imperfections; a Mask (we know) may well cover a face, but never clear off it one little mole, or scar; and the body's habit (by the self same reason) cannot by any means take quite away the halting of a broken leg, though it be never so neatly rejoined and knit together. I could therefore wish, that virtue were considered by you (Coralbo) not according to the imaginary abstracts of the theoric, but real experience of the practic. These ideal transcendent virtues are proper solely to God, and such men as, abandoning humane actions, pretend to seize on them by main flight, come tumbling down with them to the earth, where they burst their necks with the fall.  
The world hath its general rules, and with honest men, profit and honesty go hand in hand. Let us then square our case by this rule, and by it examine our resolutions.  
To this Coralbo knew not well what he were best answer, for that he before thought his mother's words would prove to be such as might by some critic (had they been a subject to a poetical pen) have been censured for not observing a decorum; as though there could not be among women either that hight of subtlety of spirit and wits acuteness, as to apprehend things well, or that supreme degree of copious and sweet language as were requisite to express themselves in the best and most elegant manner; but she standing so seriously attended to her conceits, that she nothing heeded her son's admiration held on her speech.  
I once (said she) in my happier years knew a decrepit Prince (whom both the graces and heavens had endowed with the best gifts that lay in the power of their bestowing (a memory which of me shall be ever honoured though unpleasing) this Prince gave for his devise a Leopard, his motto [I either take or surcease] taken from the propriety of that beast, which as soon as he conceives that he cannot overtake the beast he hath in chase, gives over his pursuit; so could I wish, that you (without a bandoning your swan) wear that Leopard: For applying of whose sense to our occasions I say, That if to suffer oneself to be carried away to great but possible erterprises be greatness of spirit, then surely to attempt things impossible is mere temerity and presumption.  
If the kingdom's title were to be tried by a suit in Law, and we withal sure to have justice, than needed we not doubt of its recovery; or though the title were uncertain, yet should we do well to try if the uncertainty of the Judge's own judgement, his inclination towards us, or some other humane affect in him might any thing avail us; for then without hazarding either ourselves, our honours, our friends, or servants, we might well adventure (being at the very worst) the hazard of the better. But (alas!) who can hold plea with a tyrant Prince, who being entered into our possession by fraud and force, thinks he deals fairly enough, though he say he will have no other judge than his own conscience? a judgement in Law unreversable, since (for having no conscience at all) he hath no judge to condemn him; this way of justice to private men open, but to us 〈…〉 up, enforces us either to retire us, or to pass through a way so full of the thorns of dangers, as we shall wish we had; for whoso would recovere kingdom, should have at his devotion, first some strong Hold for a reiltring-place, and next supplies of men, money, and munition, together with a strong faction of friends, interest in neighbouring Princes, and dependence and inclination of its subjects. For the first alas! we have been already treacherously expelled from Cardamina; for money, you have been robbed of the treasure in Capraia, and I bereft of that in Cardamina, save only the more unfit for such employments; the gold remaining there, which for its weight and massiness I choosed rather to leave behind me, than to be with it made a prize myself. Friends we have now no more, the old friendship being now changed for a new, with the altering by a new potent Prince of the old into a new government; Besides, if we duly consider the present state of things, we shall then clearly see, they could not, were they ever so willing, any whit aid us; nay more, that there is indeed none to help us.  
Our Arabia environed on all sides with the sea being secured him by Susiana on the one part; and that Susiana by the ruin of the Parthian King your Grandsire, who this day in his extreme decrepit age lives worse yet than we, in extreme poverty and misery, stateless and hopeless. For the others, those petty Kings bordering on the two Arabia's stand in fear of him, out of the doubt they have of being themselves one day oppressed by him; which is like enough to be fall them whensoever he hath but a will to do it; he having in his own hand the forces, and wearing the Crowns of Parthia, Susiana, and of the three Arabia's, that are the happydesert, and stony.  
Now for the great monarchs, as the Persian and Egyptian, they are pieces not to be moved without certain gain: besides their not residing near enough these States, sithence the seas disunite them, but more than all a secret reason of loving both of them to have one Prince between them, who though inferior to either of them, is yet such a one as can subsist of himself; for in case he were so weak as he could not, then must he of necessity be fain to put himself under the protection of the one or the other of them; which would cause not only troublesome wars, but also dangers and rebellions in their own States and Subjects; who for being composed of differing laws and languages, and desirous to enjoy their liberty and privileges under their own peculiar Kings, would not lose the occasion of rising up in Arms; it being the policy of such (whose ends are Monarchies) to be ever in war, but yet to be sure that it be but with some one feeble enemy or other; since many small forces united in one, become apt and able not only to gall, but in time to subject even the most potent Princes.  
Then for servants, I cannot now name you one that depends on us, Bramac having but too cunningly won them to be all at his devotion, besides that he hath not a Governor in any place of importance that is not a Susianian. And for the Arabians (which is the last of the conditions I spoke of) he hath so handsomely screwed himself into their good opinions with an outward show of justice and liberality, as there is not one of them that desires any change, especially now that they see him blessed with a goodly progeny, ever present in the eyes of the people, and nursed up by those who once loved and honoured us more than all the rest. This is the contents of all that which with more words, reasons, and examples might have been produced against your propositions in general, whereunto I will notwithstanding for your in that behalf more ample satisfaction, answer in particular.  
First you allege, that all honest and reasonable things that are not done, are lest und one merely by reason of inexpediency; as though inexpediency were not a reason sufficient enough: why? I know no reason why all things should not suddenly decay and fall to ruin, but that it is not expedient they so should. Again you seem to believe, that your being by birth a Prince, and by Ordera Knight, obligeth you to attempt aught beyond your strength. For the first, do Fortune what it do can, you shall dye a Prince howsoever; the Title is Nature's gift not Fortunes, and he shall ever be a Prince that's borne of Princely parents. And for the other, to do the acts of a Cavalier, I both advise and entreat you, but would fain know of you first, what you conceive them to be? and whether a Knight be bound to attempt any enterprise whatsoever, wherein is required courage and strength? As for example, if singly to affront an Army, if at a leap to skip over from the Egyptian to the Arabian shore: Likewise if neither to fear Neptune in his tempests, nor jove in his thunderbolts, be a quality befitting a Knight, or rather some impious brutal villain given over to execrable despair, I would gladly know?  
For the rest, you hear not me say, that you ought to leave any honourable enterprise unattempted for fear of dangers, or suffer yourself to be trampled down by misfortunes, or that virtue cannot do more than Destiny, or that you should in a just and honourable occasion shun a valiant death; God forbid I should give you any such counsel, only my wish and desire is, that all your actions be squared out by the rule of reason. But yet admit, that I approved of your designs, to assault Bramac, and take from him the State or dye: I would fain know how we shall do it? whether by us four, two women and two Knights, or with forces of men? if we alone should attempt such an enterprise, I then fear me the world will say, that none of us either did or died like Knights, or discreet personage: If with Armies, where shall we levy them? In Egypt, the King will not permit us, nor hath he indeed any reason to profess Bramac enmity without any ground or foundation of quarrel. Shall we promise him in recompense all our States save only Arabia? well I am willing we so do, yet tell me, dare you trust him? or in case we did, where (I wonder) are the moneys to levy those Armies? nay admit we either had or could make shift for them too, where will you make up a Fleet to transport them? We'll conduct them (you'll say) by land through the deserts: content, but where are the provisions? will they rain down (trow you) from heaven on us? or will the rocks distil waters for us to drink in those sands? No, no, the Gods work not such miracles, but when they please, nor can we expect that they'll do so for us, since they are not ministers but avengers of humane avarice and ambition. And though in our case we have (indeed) justice which they are accustomed to favour, yet shall we be never the better for that neither, because it is not justice that p●●● you on; no, 'tis Ambition, the avidity of a Crown, the desire of revenge, and the vanity of making yourself eminent and famous in the world; venue is but only the shadow, for vain affects are the solid body of your design.  
This sharp redarguing of the truth pricked Coralbo nearer the quick than the truth itself; well could he have found in his heart to have replied, (though weakly) rather than have yielded the field at the first assault; but considering with himself, that so doing could not any way steed him, nor indeed work other effect than bring him within the censure of an obstinate and indiscreet disputant, he answered her with silence. When she bethinking now with herself, that she had held them in too long a discourse, turning herself with a sweet respectiveness towards Polimero.  
Renowned Prince (said she) I doubt I have abused your noble courtesy in troubling your spirits (contrary to the terms of civility) all this while with our tristing affairs; for which I humbly crave your benign pardon; let us therefore now (so it please you) walk forth to recreate ourselves a little: and though you here find nothing worthy of you, yet I shall beseech you to take in good part such entertainment of me as may be afforded, not by a Queen to a Prince, but by a poor disinherited widow to a benign and courteous Cavalier. To this Polimero having first done her humble reverence thus answered.  
Royal Madame, you need no such preventions, for virtue hath supplied fortunes defects with such an extraordinary liberality, that there is not any participant there of but must therefore remain your eternal debtor; And for the house, although it be not worthy your Royal person, yet is it such, as with its conveniency might give as good satisfaction as a more sumptuous. Yet were there no other consideration, its very homeliness would argue the malignity of the Harbinger that so lodged you. But I hope to see you one day in another-guise-state.  
No; no, (redoubted Prince) said she, comfort proceeds not from imagining an alteration in misfortunes (because in case the same succeed not accordingly the pain becomes greater) but rather by arming oneself against them, and correcting the venom of fortune with the antidote of patience; which if I have not yet constantly observed and wholly performed, yet do I every day more than other profit somewhat in that to me so necessary Philosophy.  
Which divinely-philosophical speech of hers was indeed evidently demonstrated by the irrefutable theorem of her deportment and actions, for she nothing less expressed the greatness of her spirit within the narrow circuit of these private walls, than she had at other times done within the spacious cloisters and comportments of her royal palaces; since she wanted nothing save the superfluity of Nature, without which Art can hardly show the height of her excellency; conducted she had through some small channels of the River Nile a great quantity of water, wherewith she not only watered her garden, but also nourished curious fountains and spacious fishponds, wherein were, as well for delight as conveniency, bred and fed a great number of choicest fish and daintiest waterfowl; whence the spectators eye was variously attracted to divers statues of Marble (in stately order erected about those well-contrived ponds) so as succeeding ages took models of them, which added to the skill of the most famous modern Sculptors. She made a trial also (though not with a success answerable to her expectation) of planting the weeping balmtrees, and cultiving the seeds of the other Arabian odours, the only affect now lest her after so many losses, but the obvious clime rejecting (out of a discourteous antipathy) those her labours, frustrated that her so noble design.  
Now she had (the first day of Coralbo's arrival, and at the very instant of his discovering himself) asked for Sotiro, and could not (when she heard of it) reflaine from bemoaning his death, an affliction by her judged to be far greater than any loss or cross she had sustained either in her own person, or those of her children; construing her being thus by degrees deprived of all means of comfort, to be an evident sign of heavens continual wrath; he being that only one, among so many, that faithfully stuck to her till his dying hour; preferring the interesses of others before his own, and contemning honours and riches, for becoming in a ruined State, a singular example both of flourishing loyalty, and of a most constant, and till then unheard of fidelity.  
The Knights continued there to repose themselves well-nigh a month, in which time it was resolved, that Coralbo should not, without good foundation, assay any impossibility, nor yet make his abode in Egypt, for not hazarding the danger of being made known to his brother-in-law; where the one enjoyed the benefit of a discreet mother's counsels, and the other the royal conversation of a peerless woman; nor had they then parted so soon neither, if she (well knowing Polimero's occasions) had not herself expressed, how sorry she would be, that their stay there should any way prejudice them.  
And though her daughter (fond of her brother, and hopeless, for aught she knew, of ever seeing him any more) earnestly besought her to detain him there somewhat longer; yet she would often tell her, that it was a folly to think to cure one grief with many, and that the privation of things dearly loved were less insupportable after a long than after a short fruition of them; and that when Coralbo had sojourned there a whole years' time, she would have been then more loath to part with him, than if he had stayed but a day, instancing for an example a fever, in the hot excess of whose burning fit, the more a man drinks, the more he thirsteth, and yet the gain that the patient reapeth thereby is enfeebling of his stomach, and prolonging of his fit; considerations all of them though undoubtedly true, yet (for all that) insufficient to extirpate from a tender heart the roots of a naturally-affectionate remorse.  
Their parting day being come, the Queen went to visit Polimero, to whom (after having in most lively colours expressed the obligations she owed him) she recommended her son, therewithal presenting him with a box of gold full of most precious Balsam, on whose out side was with curious artifice form the face of a woman weeping, her tears represented with rich orient pearls, sprinkled with artificial ornament here and there one, on the anterior part of her countenance, the rest being all over richly beset with Diamonds of an inestimable value: A present (as she told him) unworthy of so great a Prince, but necessary for such a Cavalier, whose heroic spirit might by spurring him on to great erterprises, bring him dangers, and those dangers wounds which by that precious liquor might in a few hours be cured: Her son she both enriched with precepts, and accommodated (for prevention of adverse Fortune's incommodity) with her richest jewels. She once thought to give him a squire too, till upon calling to mind the infidelity of the others, she conceived it safer for him to be served with such as knew him not. The last charge she gave him, was, to think sometimes on her, praying him after a while to come again, that she might see him yet once more ere she died: With that word (after dressing her face and eyes at the lookingglass of constancy, and giving him a farewell kiss) she parted from him, and left him to begin his journey, accompanied with his sister's eyes and tears.  
The two Princes rode on their way diversely affected, the one being melancholy and pensive, the other blithsome and merry; the later being now resolved (leaving the way of Ammon's Temple, whither he once purposed with himself to go) to return directly to Athens, his heart telling him, that he should shortly light on some unexpected good accident; Coralbo he comforted more with offers than reasons, an argument of an unfeigned comforter; and he (knowing it now bootless to contrast with the will of Heaven) having his mind fortified with generous resolutions, stoutly trampled under the feet of his courage both want and fortune.  
Both these Knights being desirous to see (by all means) the great Court of Egypt, put themselves on the way to Memphi, where the King then resided, faring sometimes well, and other timesill, conformable to the quality of their lodgings.  
Phoebus' now hastened to bathe his sweltry Steeds in the foaming Ocean, when they might descry affront of them a Grove of Palmtrees, and in it might hear a great rumour of voices; whereupon, lacing on their helmets, they spurred onwards as fast as their horses could gallop, where come, they might see two knights and no more, busied in slaughtering their assaulters, at least forty in number, who seemed rather to turn tail than to fight; observing (though) their time of charging and wheeling about altogether in such an orderly disorder, that the fight seemed to such as beheld it from a far off, rather a show than a skirmish.  
Polimero suddenly started (as one amazed) at the sight of one of them, whom he thought he should know by a black Eagle which he wore on his crest, and was assured thereof when he saw his Squire, by that time beaten off his horse by six of those thiefs that presently fell a-stripping of him maugre all his struggling to get out of their mischievous clutches; and full ill would he have fared (they being already fully bend to butcher him) but for the timely arrival of Polimero, who sacrificed their cursed lives as an oblation due to the infernal spirits; his well guided sword so conforming to his heroïke spirit, that he struck never a blow without expected success, for doubt of coming in too late to the rescue of the other two, who bravely maintained the fight against a strange squadron of these rascals. Coralbo seeing them skirmish in several divisions, affronted one of them, charging it with so resolute an arm, that he disconfited it in a moment, and then without lofing any time set upon the second, which with as much facility was routed by the same valour: upon this the third fronting to their flanckward spurred towards him, which one of the two unknown Knights perceiving, he (leaving his companion, to make good the field against such of their enemy squadron as survived their deaths-right usurping blows) resolutely spurred on all alone to encounter it; whilst Coralbo seeing his assistance so well employed, turned to second him with as brave a resolution.  
Of a great number that the enemies were, there remained now but the hardiest of them, the rest lying all scatteringly grovelling about the palmtrees, as the trophy of these four Knights valour, so that the remnant of them, knowing they were not able to make long defence, dispersed themselves upon their flight into several ways, which occasioned the separation of the four Knights also in their pursuit; Polimero and the Knight of the Eagle went together, and Coralbo with the other followed by the Squire: never was chase so obstinately maintained, nor hunted Deer so fleetly pursued, as either of these couples did these fugitive villains, which was the cause that they lost sight each of other in the confused order of the wood, massacring (all the while) without any remorse those, who remorseless and void of pity or humanity lived on the blood of innocent travellers. At length Polimero with the Knight of the Eagle being left (though well-nigh tired) sole Masters of the field, speedily ran to embrace and take acquaintance each of other, the twilight having by that time surrendered his dominion to his elder brother [Darkness] whilst the Sun plunged in the depth of the Ocean, left sight-depriving night in her full possession. When Polimero lifting up his beaver thus greets his companion.  
I know not whether or no mine eyes or imagination deceive me, but if you be not Eromena my Lady and Princess, Angel of what Hierarchy (I beseech you) be you then of, noble and valiant Cavalier? The other instantly knowing him by his voice, impatient of any delay embracing him with his Arms about his neck, made him this answer. If I then be her, for certain you are my Lord and Prince Polimero. Delightsome it was to see, how readily (without any more words) their amorous affects adapted their nimble hands to unbuckle each others helms, that the wounds of their kisses might have the deeper impression in their love-inflamed faces. Nor had they been so soon weary of this as they were of the other battle, had not Eromena's telling him that the Knight her companion was Landadori, put him in mind to go seek her out, whom accordingly they road a whooping & hollowing for, overall the wood (though in vain) till their horses in the end grown weary near a homely house that stood in the open field, they repaired thither to repose themselves; he freeing (by the way thither) Eromena from all fear of her daughter's miscarriage, by the confidence he had of Coralbo's valour, seconded with the assistance of Carasio (who was the Squire) and order before hand taken to meet at Memphi, in case they happened to lose one another.  
Come to the lodging, after replied embracements, the first thing that Polimero desired to know, was, the occasion that moved her to come through so many dangers into those so remote parts. Whereupon she having told him as much as he had formerly understood by Coralbo, said on.  
That after the Count of Bona's departure the King her father was sullen into another far different but better frenzy, upon considering with himself, That the Count being now (good man) grown decrepit and of a crazy constitution might fall sick by the way, and so find him either not at all or too late; and that upon proposing therefore of sending some other, Lindadori offered (to the passing content of her Grandfather) to undertake herself that service; and that whilst the business esteemed but a jest, passed unthought on, a great many that were named (fearing the girl's humour) made their excuse with confessing its occasion, but the consultation of dispatching her, appearing to her at length to be but in jest, she inwardly fretted thereat, and boldly told the Council, that she was now in years to bear Arms as well as any other whatsoever; and that in respect she could not be dissuaded neither by hers nor by the King or Council's persuasion, she was forced (out of the tender care she had of her welfare) to become herself her companion, and that so leaving the King rather appeased than satisfied, they had departed to seek him out: That understanding at Athens what way he had taken, they (without hearing any news of the Count) crossed over into Egypt, where meeting (by good fortune) Carasio, they traveled towards Memphi, where they were by the way set upon by those villainous Robbers in manner as he had seen them.  
Excessive were the joys that Polimero conceived at the relation of these good news, rejoicing withal, that he was so fortunate as to be an eyewitness of his daughter's valour, though sorry he heard no good tidings from the good Count, doubting his Father-in-law had not in vain presaged some ill that might since have betided him, which (if any such should happen him) he would have been as fully or little less sensible of, than if it had befallen his own Father.  
The morning being come, they returned again to their search, but hearing no news of them they enquired after, they put themselves on the way to Memphi, to meet them, as was formerly concluded on.  
Donzella Desterrada, for her part, gave her runaway villains the chase with such an intentive eagerness, that she thought not of as much as what concerned the security of her own person, so intently were all her thoughts busied in chastizing them. She had under her an Andalasian Courser of such surpassing speed, as was able to beat one after another all the horses that ever drew in Phoebus' fiery Chariot. And such a one had she indeed need of, to conform with the velocity of her fiery humour, now also exasperated with the eagerness of her resolution of not leaving one of them escape her avenging hand, conceiting that she added edge to her blade, and nerves to her arm by this her maiden hand-fight, and first encounter.  
Coralbo on a passing fleet Arabian Steed, given him by the Queen his mother, speedily followed her; well might he have outstripped the wind for swiftness, but not overtake her; nay he would have lost sight of her, had not her staying to fight and kill given him time to get near her.  
Carasio in the mean time solicited his horse with the sharp Rhetoric of his spurs; but losing sight of her, he followed as fast as he could drive Coralbo, whom he might see Northward of him, till at last he overtook them both glutting their swords with the blood of those slaughtered caitiffs; A strange marvel, that two generous young spirits inclined to piety, nay that seemed to breathe nothing but compassion, should in their fights show themselves to be (or at least seem to be) so merciless, inhuman, and cruel; unless the reason thereof be, either that true compassion springs not from any soft disposition which sensibly feels in himself another's smart or sufferings, for such were not virtue, but rather faintheartedness a brat of imagination; Or, that those virtues depending on justice (their true nurse) hold compassion in the punishment of the wicked to be merely vicious.  
But to go on with our story, Of all that mischievous squadron there remained unslain but two for the two knights to deal withal, nor had those neither survived their fellows, but that by their wily dexterous shifts and favourable situation of the close-grown Palme-grove they found a way to save themselves a while maugre the fleetness of the pursuers horses, so as watching their time, and retiring from one tree to another, they made a shift to recover (hard about the waxing brown of the evening) to the mouth of a grot, whereinto they being suddenly entered, used all possible diligence to dam up its entrance with great stones, logs of wood, and such like heavy materials.  
The two Knights thus mocked and overreached by the wiliness of these villains, amazedly staring each other in the face, knew not what to resolve on, when Carasio with a modest smile thus bespoke them.  
I should under favour (Gentlemen) conceive it requisite, that valour sometimes cede to discretion, these fellows are safely lodged, whereas we are shut out without either supper or lodging; leave them (I beseech you) with a mischief to some others chastizing hand, since we must either leave them, or hazard the losing of our company. But Lindadori after having patiently heard him, as impatiently answered; that she would by no means part thence, without first chastizing them, they well meriting it, were it but for fooling her so long as they had done; bidding him (with that) go seen out for their company, whilst they would expect him there without stirring thence.  
Carasio obeyed, but seeing after a short gyre that his light was turned to darkness, he hollowed till he grew hoarse again, and then considering with himself, that he might both miss those of his company that he looked for, and hazard the losing of the rest too, he returned and found them in the same place he had left them, busily endeavouring (though in vain) to force open the entrance of the den, and had no small ado to persuade them to a short truce, upon hope that he would (so they had but a little patience) fire it open; taking then from off his saddlebow a portmanteau, and out of it some victuals, he got them to sit down and fall to, necessity being in such a case of all other the best persuading Orator.  
Their helmets being taken off, they marveiled each of them at the others beautiful youth and youthful beauty, so as (without speaking a word) they gazed each other in the face, either of them expecting that the other should speak the first word; when Coralbo thinking it stood him upon to sweeten the envenomed fury of the maiden, whom he took to be a man, thus broke first the ye of their silence.  
Sir, me thinks we should do well to follow this gentle squires discreet counsel, though (in case you dislike it) I shall be most ready and willing to obey your commands. She without making him as yet any answer, stood with her eyes ever fixed on the den, so fired with disdainful anger, that they served for a candle in the pitchy darkness of the night, made yet more horrid by the interposing shade of the thick grove: only mutter out at length she did in answer to him some few half-pronounced words which could not be understood, she having peculiar to herself alone one unexpressible quality, which was a pretty pleasing kind of displeasure, and now she was sullen and swaggered though it could not be discerned why, or with whom it was: But Coralbo continuing still his courtesies and she her silence, he held it more discretion to excuse her for the tenderness of her age, than accuse her of small discretion. And though he well observed how richly she was armed, yet judged he her to be of some great quality, not so much by her Arms as by her face, wherein her magnanimity and native greatness, though vailed under a maiden simplicity & exceeding green years, showed by her disdainful & haughty gestures more than common merits of reverence and love, being no kind of defect, sithence such a generous affect in a Virgin, is (to my thinking) haughtiness of spirit, that like a fierce mastiff in the garden of honesty secures her from the presumption of either too lustful or overbold lovers.  
Her forces being refreshed by the meat she had eaten, inflamed her choler; up then she rises, and bundles together whatsoever comes to hand of her, every bough, shrub, bramble, and stick, here or there (wheresoever she could light on them) would serve her turn: Rend off and gather she did all that she found either dry or green; of the later whereof there was good store, the thiefs having the day before (for their own use) lopped many trees: All that Carasio did (to that purpose) could not please her, so as snatching the tinderbox out of his hand, she herself would needs, and did strike fire; which well performed its office, by kindling in a few hours the matter it fed on into such flames, that the defenders unable to endure its violent heat, left the field of the denne's entrance free for their assailers.  
The hot-spirited Princes, having not the patience to stay to see the (though short) course of that sufficiently furious element, assayed by all the means and ways she could imagine, to force an entrance through the cave's mouth, by thrusting by the logs that stopped it (without considering that for not being acquainted with the perhaps many entrances & windings of the cave, she could not without light do there any good) but could not possibly move them (for their being so unwieldy and massive) till such time, as they being half burned dissevered and fell down of themselves; so making a narrow though dangerous passage, to such as had a will to enter; which the Princess would instantly have done, and had (twenty to one) spoiled herself for ever, if Carasio by entreaty, and Coralbo by persuasion had not for a little while restrained her, by showing her both the danger of the fire in entering, and that of the place within being entered, where she might (by very probable conjecture) rest overcharged in the dark by the desperation of these two (by her unseen) enemies; but she not approving of this their cautelous consideration, bethought her of a strange invention to lighten her passage; for, finding among many stocks half burnt, one fit to be waved circlewise, she went onwards waving it in her hand to the inmost part of the grot, Coralbo there easing her of that labour, by doing himself that office, till come to the farmost part of it, they found the fugitives prepared for their defence: But little availed it them, miserable caitiffs, to oppugn (unarmed as they were) the unresistable valour of these now with just anger inflamed warriors. Coralbo handfasting his, with fase got him under him, now trembling with fear of seeing his dagger at his throat-pipes, whilst the maiden had already slain hers. And there being provision enough, and among the rest chains and cords to bind such as they retained to be ransomed, Carasio takes one, and therewith binds his hands and arms, so as he could not stir to help himself, whilst he lay mumbling out many words understood by none but him, which was to beg his life; for ransom whereof he promised him both riches and prisoners: The Princes being told of this, would fain know where those prisoners were, that they might free them. And being answered, near a Lake not far off thence, they granted him what he craved.  
Come forth to the air, they put off their helms, Lindadori soon after settling herself to her rest, and sleeping as sound as if she had been in her own naked bed, whilst Carasio watched for doubt of some sinister accident, till such time as Coralbo awaked, persuaded him to go sleep, with telling him, it was now his turn to stand sentry: But upon Carasio's holding that inconvenient, they fell into further discourse, whereby the Squire perceiving that Coralbo knew Polimero by his right name, and was withal very desirous to know the other two unknown Knights, he thought good to reveal him their names; whereat the other became so astonished, as he knew not what to say of it, expressing himself infinitely sorrowful for having lost them; till upon hearing how they were to meet again at Memphi, he was somewhat consolated, but would without any gainsaying, when they had ended their discourse, that Carasio should (by all means) lay him down and sleep.  
In the morning as soon as the Princess awoke, they put themselves on their way, arriving to the Lake in a piece of an hour's space, where (having passed through a plat of marish ground thickly overgrown with bulrushes and canes) they found in an uncouth by-slad a slender Barge that ferried them over to a small I'll, where having among thousands of thorns and brambles descried a large cottage, they thence heard a pitiful murmur of voices and lamentations.  
The Princes had upon their coming into the Bark caused the thief to be loosed, whose being seen in liberty by the villain of a Boatkeeper, was the occasion that he threw not himself into the water for fear of the two Knights. Entered the cottage, the first thing they did was losing the prisoners, which between men and women were some fourteen in number, all pale, lean, and weak; and among these her, who was found wounded in the Pyramid and dressed by Carasio, and who ere she was fully healed had fled away by night, to the great discontent of him, who for her had been left there, and forbidden to follow his Lord Polimero: And now she well knowing him, was more confused in mind to see him, (whose presence so upbraided her ingratitude) than joyful of getting out of so loathsome and miserable an imprisonment. She stood with neavy downcast eyes, not in seeing her nakedness appearing through her tattered rags, (sithence whoso hath once lost her honesty, stands not upon such terms of modest shamefastness) but for having before her eyes him, who by replicated good-turns proclaimed (in being silent) her faults and ingratitude: Being then asked, why she parted from him ere she was throughly cured, her answer was silence and weeping: But the Princes knowing nothing from this business, causing the cottage to be emptied and searched over all its corners, found therein more than ordinary riches in jewels, Coin, and aromatical odours and spices, all which the Princess (Coralbo having resigned to her all his authority of disposing them) shared among the prisoners, not so much for defraying their charge to their own homes, as for recompense of their past sufferings.  
Causing afterwards the Cottage and the Boat too (when they had past the water) to be burnt, she gave, though unwillingly, to the two thiefs their promised liberty, she imagining that promises should not be kept with such mens-names-usurping Cannibals, to the damage and prejudice of the weal public.  
Thence going altogether in a company, they got to a channel of the Nile, where they shipped themselves all save the fair woman of Carasio's acquaintance, who would by no means embark herself, but yet would for all that (a fool as she was) follow the Knights; who for being there surprised by the night, resolved to make it their lodging, with intention to take the ensuing day the right way to Memphi.  
By this time the noble Coralbo had his mind taken up with new thoughts, for being caught with the graces of the fair Princess, without daring to manifest it, upon examination with himself of her tender years and customs, both those and these being incapable of any such affect. And withal (which seemed most averse to him) of a nature far from an amorous inclination, a contemner of men, and a mortal enemy of such of her sex, who for conforming to their lover's passions, showed themselves any thing pliable to their loves: And though he hoped that time might alter her, yet did the suspense of the selfsame time also torment him, for being unable to suffer the agony of such long-expecting and uncertain hopes, he being but a traveller without either state or means, deprived of any certain place of abode, yea and of all power to resolve of any thing, excepting such as fortune might favour him withal. But being unable to contrast with heaven, upon re-examined deliberation with himself, he determined to serve her in a somewhat more than usual manner, and withal to smother his flames, by assaying if approached her, they could by any means without her knowledge warm her. Or in case nought else come of it, yet should he not need to despair wholly, were it but for the content that he hoped to receive from her most lovely presence, and yet more lively (because unparalled) gestures; and though the worst that could happened, yet should he not be the first that for nourishing his amorous hopes, had been voluntarily deceived, for not yielding himself up to death's tyranny.  
The princely Maiden on the other side, far (God wot) from any such thoughts, beheld him with an indifferent eye, only fretting herself for his being such as she could not hate. Her youthful spirit ruminated on nought else save war and death, with cruel revenges of wrongs, which poor women every day (as she conceived) received from men. She held the subjection of her sex to be tyrannical, and conceived, that both Nature and the Law were therein deceived, and that only for being abased by tyrant custom, it showed not its native virtue: That it was now high time to let the world see it, and (by reacquiring their lost liberty) to make the so enured female sex, if not superior, equal and companion to the other, in favour whereof she was egged on by examples. Well knew she, that in Egypt (where she then abode) the Kings had effeminated the men, put them to domestic services, to the distaff and spindle, to free themselves from dangers and suspicions; she had also read the Amazon's valorous erterprises, and thereupon, contemplating the greatness of her own spirit, was confident of accomplishing the full of her intentions. Wherein she perceived but one sole difficulty, which was, to deprive women of their natural fears, though she believed them to be rather habitual than natural. Herself she knew to be valorous, not so much by the force of her body, as by the courage of her heart; she comprehended, that valour consisted, in being neither careful of one's person, nor encumbered with the fears of death: That the sensibility of wounds enfeebles the forces and blunts the edge of courage, seeing it is the sole cause that makes it effeminate and backward in assailing, and disadvantageous and slow in defending: She therefore concluded, them only to be more valiant than the rest, in whom had taken deepest root the indifferency of either living or dying, confirmed in such an opinion by the nature of irrational animals, whereof the fiercer are not the stronger but the more courageous. Since that for being endued with more force than men, they would merit the title of fortitude rather than they, if such virtue had its seat in bodily force; that then since women were equally capable of the conceits of the mind, wherefore then not of their effects too? Such were her internal discourses, which if they sometime took a turn about any passages, told her of divers effects of love, she then ever sparkled out disdain against the she-lovers, and could have found in her heart to have torn in pieces such of her sex, as being rejected or slighted, tormented themselves with love, an affect (to her thinking) neither necessary nor necessiting, but a simple proposition of free will, an incompatibility by consequence unnatural to love one that hates the person loving, which if it be not (conceived she) a frenzy, must needs be an infirmity of the brain to be cured with penance and fasting.  
The day being come and the horses saddled, the young woman there waited in a readiness, with her coats gathered up for the better trudging afoot, which the Princess abhorring, and failing to persuade her to make use of the benefit of the channel, was therefore fain to consent that she came along with her, upon the importunity of her entreaties, accompanied with such a quantity of tears, that never mother shed so many for the loss of her children. Causing her therefore to be put on horseback behind Carasio, she asked her who she was, and whither she meant to go; having already understood how she was found, and runaway from Carasio, she (considering that no evasion could any thing steed her) resolved now (though not without being thereof ashamed) to recite in the terms of truth the story of herself in such like words,  
I (redoubted Sir) am the most miserable woman that ever was yet borne, since whereas others miseries proceed from fortune, mine spring merely and wholly from myself, so as though but too unworthy in all other respects, yet in this above all I deserve to be pitied of no man, in so much as if the unfeigned repentance of my faults had not enabled and prepared me for supporting the penance due for them with an intention to impose on myself others somewhat greater, I should then not only find myself to be in a desperate case, but should also have together with a perverse mind a lying tongue, that in steed of faults and dishonour would blazon my merits and honours, not so much to conceal from your knowledge my dishonesties, (which should indeed be buried in the centre of the earth) as to find pity in you, and to gain your better opinion. At the hearing of these words, the Princess, kindled as fiery-hot embers, was about to make her hold her peace, till upon her becoming more pliable because of Coralbo's expectation, and shortening the longsomeness of the way, she gave way to her relation.  
My name (said she) is Diatistera, by Nation a Grecian, and by birth of the noblest blood in Chio, not because my Father possessing himself of its liberty, became tyrant thereof, but for that no other one Family in all jonia is of more ancient memory than ours, nor any ancestors more remarkable for virtue, nor renowned for trophies than are our Forefathers. I was conceived in a private estate, my father then (conformable to the styles of republics) being himself but a Citizen, & though in greater estimation than the rest, yet marked with no titulary dignity of apparent greatness or eminency above the other prime Senators: This cockarrice of ambitious Sovereignty was then but a-hatching in his brain, for acquiring whereof, he with more than common wiles and subtleties made a show of those virtues, which indeed he never owned, concealing those vices, which being borne with him, were both his nurse and nourishment.  
He fell enamoured of my mother, not for any great beauty of hers, but because the malicious subtlety which he discovered to be in her, pleased him extremely; a thing ordinary to the worst people, to have an inclination to such as live by quillets and inventions, choosing and indeed loving to be rather deceived by such, than well served by better: Now Nerca my mother in the beginning of this their love was married, and wife to one Rotildo, a personage of conditions most noble, (and to praise them well) quite contrary to hers. Many times had she tempted him to bring his Country into servitude, with the favour of the Persians, who then ruled (as they do also to this present day) all Asia. She would always be a showing him the facility of the enterprise, by him rejected without making any account of her words, which being sharpened on the whetstone of ambition, endeavoured to foine him, as if generosity (a royal virtue) would be lodged with tyranny and treacheries. But seeing it nothing avail her, and considering withal, that though she could have persuaded him in time, that yet he was not (for all that) to be trusted (seeing that a mind fast cleaven to virtue cannot be from it dissevered, without danger of repentance) she cast an eye on Pridale my Father, the state and nature of whom being well examined, she thought by his means to withdraw herself from equality by her so much hated, and to be reduced to principality which so impatiently she longed after, taking for example the Tyrants of Mileto, Epheso, Colofone, and Pirene.  
The first step to the enterprise was Adultery, wherein they found such sweetness, that the avidity of enjoying each other waxed so insupportable, as they began to think of the making away of Rotildo, and then of the subjection of Chio, and climbing to the right of their pretended greatness. 'Twas strange if not marvellous, that they should have (as they had) both of them ere ever they knew one another, the self same design, and after being acquainted, that this second (which I now told you of) should serve them for a reciprocal instrument: And yet a man (when he well considers it) may see, that both these make no greater matter of marvel, among the good, and yet less among the wicked if their thoughts strike all in one white. She judged him to be the prime and most ambitious man of all the Citizens, and he knew her to be of great parentage, which might afford him matter if not more apt for servitude, at least less difficult, for being less subject to envy and dangers.  
But Rotildo's death must not be effected by violent means, his Nobility and power accompanied with the favour of the Laws suppressed their principal end; sithence the very suspicion of being his murderers had been as much as their lives were worth; by so much the rather that (he being endowed with no less mild than amiable conditions, and having no enemies) no man could miss of conjecturing the truth. So as the most favourable sentence that could be denounced against them must have been banishment, which would burst the neck of their principality, whereunto they could never aspire as long as they were exiled persons, and deprived of their estates, goods, and fortunes. The best course than they could think of, was to cause him to be put to death legally, by laying to his charge that crime which he most abhorred, and which was indeed particularly theirs, by plotting the treachery with malicious accusations so subtle as might deceive the world, the Magistracy and the Laws themselves.  
Now my Father had a bastard-brother named Timocle, more mischievous yet than himself, to whom he had no sooner communicated his design, and what he had to do, than he picking (against all reason) a quarrel with one of the principal Citizens slew him, and then getting aboard a Vessel for that purpose manned, passed over into Asia, and thence to Susa, whilst his brother (than chief of the Magistracy) seeming to detest more than all the rest both the foul fact, and the guilty actor, banished him (under a capital pain) for ever returning again to his Country for any occasion whatsoever, subjecting to the self same punishment all such as should but propose his recalling.  
The infamy of so enormous a fault was in a loud cry suppressed by the justice of his brother, for which the people adored him as a restorer of the ancient integrity, and as the true Idea of a just Citizen in a well-governed republic.  
Timocle arrived at Susa, laying aside the popular Greekish arrogance, adored the King after the Persian manner, and told him, he was rend from Pridale a brother of his and the prime Citizen of Chio, not concealing the abominable murder committed expressly to shadow the plot, and offered him the Sovereignty of the I'll under the principality of Pridale. He proposed, for bringing the affair unto a head, that under pretext of demanding a revocation of his banishment, the Persian King should send thither an Ambassador, because in case they did not (as he knew they would not) grant it, they should then be constrained to send him another, to acquaint his Majesty with the reasons why they did it not; That then Pridale would cause to be chosen the most potent of them, to the end that taking occasion of calumniating him as corrupted by the Persians, he might be put to death, which succeeding, the City would then rest wholly under his brother's authority.  
This was not the first time that the King had treated with other Grecians of the like affairs, so as their legerity & inconstancy were already known to him, though he would never have believed them to have been so mischievous: But the insatiable desire of domineering, having no regard to either virtue or vice, he being already possessed of the greater part of the Cities of jonia in the Continent, deemed the occasion most opportune for getting footing in the sea. And therefore accepting of the proffer, after being sundry ways (but more especially by Pridale's Letters) assured, that Timocle's relations were no false alarms; he wrote to Farnabazzo his Lieutenant in Asia, to execute as much as by him were proposed him.  
Farnabazzo readily obeys, sending a Captain to Chio, to demand on the King's behalf, the revocation of Timocle. To whom Pridale making a show of being now a more irreconcilable enemy than before, cried out; That such favours from a King so long since a pretender to the subjection of Greece could not be obtained of a Timocle without conventions dangerous to both the State and Liberty; and though it so were not, as it could not but be so (since he would not have the boldness to return with danger where he was hated without the security of some secret forces) yet should he not at any hand be so gratified, were it but for not shaking the foundation of the Laws; an example apt to minister occasion to other Princes to require the like, which in effect was to bring under the free dispose of stranger-princes both the liberty and republic: Declaiming afterwards against the case, he was so loud on it, that the very walls seemed to shake thereat; particularising withal, the circumstances, to make him appear so much the more unworthy of clemency: But seeing the most part of the Council rest ambiguous, for not knowing how to deny the favour without injury, he proposed the Embassy in designed terms. To him it was easy to obtain all, yea they would that he himself propounded the Ambassador, which was even all that he desired; he obeys, and (after many long and tedious excuses, carried with a no less artificial than counterfeined modesty) he at length names Rotildo, with a fair encomio of his praises, saying, he did it not for his Nobility and riches, but for the amability of his conditions and carriage; and also because he being of an incorruptible goodness, and already gracious with the Persians, would with universal satisfaction obtain as much as he required or desired.  
Accordingly Rotildo was (conformable to the wished desires of all of them) created Ambassador, he (harmless Gentleman) not repugning it, for being desirous to do his Country any good service. But on the contrary, expressing an obligation to Pridale for having done him the honour of making choice of him among so many, an election for the which he came to be declared (and not without envy) the best and worthiest of all the Citizens. Nor failed he to thank him also apart, taking with the public instructions his counsels; (by the direction whereof he believed he could not err) and with them the company of two young Gentlemen, not only a kin, but also partial to Pridale. Arrived at Susa, the King took on him to be beyond all measure incensed at the negative, so as he was fain to stay there above three months, to work out of his mind the apparent misimpressions; the King suffering himself to be (in that while) gained by little and little, in so much as placing him (at length) among the number of his friends, he did him all such favours as could procure him to be envied, and ill-spoken of the Courtiers, by sending to him oftentimes (contrary to his custom) the greatest favourites of his Peers and great ones, making them stay and fall into private conference with him, as though they had treated of some affairs of exceeding great consequence.  
Timocle on the other side (who at the first made a show of being his enemy, by saying and doing against him all the ill offices that such an appearance required) showed himself now in the self same time more mild, and afterwards honouring him with the favour of his often visits, would style him the light of Greece, the honour of Chio, and a personage worthy to be for his virtue honoured, nay adored even of his very enemies. And because all this was true, his words were taken to be really and truly spoken, and his feigned courtesies to be friendly offices to the Ambassador, who afterwards parted gratified and honoured to the joy of all his retinue, who returned triumphant, for bringing (to their thinking) along with them to the republic both peace and the King's favour.  
In the mean while of this his stay abroad I was conceived, so as my mother doubting lest her husband should take notice of the effects of her adultery, solicited my father to the precipitation of the business. But he (who would save all) contented her, with assuring her, that the time should work out her safeguard without disordering any thing.  
Two months were not passed after Rotildo's return, when Timocle passed into jonia, with order from the King to levy in the neighbouring Provinces such forces of men as he should think fit, and by feigning the order to be secret, caused its fame to be spread overall Greece. The Governors shipped the levies of men and sent them him from all parts, he keeping his rande-voo at Ephesus, to make up there a Fleet of Ships, whilst all the Isles and Cities of Greece prepared themselves for defence, each of them standing in fear, this warlike-storm would fall on her; only Chio secured by Rotildo never thought on it; In so much as the people astonished that she thought herself so secure, showed her her ruin so palpably, as if they had pointed at it with their fingers, arguing it from the presence and authority among enemies of an injured and banished Citizen, who for the denial given to the King's Embassy on his behalf, could ruminate no other than affects of anger, discontent, revenge, and despair.  
There chanced to be then in Ephesus one Chirito of Lisbo, who whilst he lived a young man at Athens, was a very intimate friend of Timocle, (both of them having not only lived under one roof, and for a long time dieted at the self same table, but had also in common (together with their studies) their pleasures, commodities, and incommodities) and was now come to Ephesus to a sister of his, who being left a widow, had sent for him to take order for her widow, estate and children. This Chirito as he was a lover of liberty, so was he an enemy to the tyranny of the Persians in particular; for seeing them on the point of subjecting Greece, as was not unknown to Timocle, whom the other wonders to see now side with them, but more at the authority he there exercised, which was much for such a man as he to attain unto, under so great a King as that of Persia, which he imagined could not but be to the prejudice of either Chio or that Country. The newly-conceived hate therefore more than the old friendship made him desirous to go see him, merely to espy his actions, and get what he could out of him, whilst Timocle, who desired nothing more than to be espied, made as though he took no notice of it. After reciprocal salutations Chirito tells him, how glad he was to see him near so great a King in so eminent a degree; for which Timocle courteously thanked him, with telling him, that his fortune should not yield a barren return to his friends obliging favours, since the chief end of his desire to be advanced to any eminency, was to be able to gratify and serve them. But as concerning his enemies, he would let them see, that he knew how to make use of it to their smart and prejudice. So afterwards in his further discourse, complaining of his Country and brother, he vowed he would so work his revenge, that the world should have somewhat to talk of.  
Chirito purposely fallen on this proposition, stood watching the opportunity to draw out of his mouth his intended design, whereas the other on the contrary feigning that he did all he could to keep it in, expected but the occasion of telling it, making now a show of being heat with anger, and that the fury of his choler had made him thus vomit our his secret; And with that he praised heaven, for having changed unto him Greece for Persia; pride, and the disdainful Citizen into the gentleness and contentsome delights of a great Court, and the tyranny of an inhuman and cruel brother into the favours of the greatest and most courteous King of the Universe; who missing to restore him by any fair means, bade given him forces, thereby both to restore himself to his liberty, and also avenge him of his enemies. But Chirito with counterfeit chariness showing him, that the Fleet he there saw was not enough for his turn, Chio being strong of itself; besides that in respect of the confederate commonwealth contributing all of them towards her defence, (as he might be assured they would) the enterprise would not prove to be so easy, especially considering that they would perhaps have sought with him ere his arrival in Chio; To this Timocle in a despising manner answered him; That before the Fleets could join together to offer him fight, he would have hanged up without the Walls upon the Gate of Chio that Traitor his brother. And for the rest, that he was not so foolish to stir in it without being certain of the enterprise. Chirito (with shrinking in his shoulders replied) that he conceived not how that could be, without secret intelligence. To which Timocle smiling answered; But admit I had such, what wouldst thou say of it then? I tell thee then I have, and such too, that little shall my brother's malice or some others presumption avail them. Here he named Rotildo, and then taking him by the hand proceeded. From hence forwards thou mayst know Chirito how much ancient friendship can do, I have now committed to thy trust the greatest secret that is this day in the Court of Persia: see therefore (I pray thee) that it be safely locked up in the secret cabinet of thy breast: If thou wilt continue my friend, I will further thy advancement, and do for thee; if otherwise, yet shalt thou have no cause to think hardly of me. Come along with me in this expedition, and I will give thee (over and besides the merit and favour thou shalt gain thee in the King's eyes) a worthy place of command among the chief Captains. And that thou mayst see that my proceedings are grounded on a sure foundation, I'll tell thee all. Know then that Rotildo, upon promise of the Principality, agreed with the King to sow at my arrival sedition within the City, and to bring me in with his faction; which may be easily done, by assaulting Chio both within and without.  
Chirito remained at these news struck to the heart: Rotildo he knew wondrous well, but the treason was so handsomely contrived, and the appearances thereof so correspondent, that the argument of his goodness conceived to be now o'ercome by his ambition, had no force so to conclude for him, as Chirito punctually believed not all that he had heard; and then without staying to hear any more, commending him for grounding his affair upon such sure foundations, accepting the offer of going along with him, and infinitely thanking him for honouring him with such a favour; he thought every minute a year till he returned to his lodging; where writing a letter thereof at full, he sent it to Chio by a trusty friend of his, forbearing to send it by any of his servants for fear of being discovered. The sea was then free, for though the suspicion of the war was great, yet was there not (for all that) heard of till then any hostile effect.  
The messengers with most prosperous wind arrived in Chio, a little after that my fathers two kinsmen that had been with Rotildo in Persia, deceived or suborned, presented themselves to a certain Magistrate of supreme authority in State-matters. An accidental branch of whose office was to keep inviolably secret both the accusers & testimony of witnesses. There they exposed and deposed, That they never had since their return from Persia had the heart to believe, much less relate that which they had with their own ears heard against the person and faith of Rotildo; but that seeing the pass whereunto things were now brought, and understanding for a certain, that Timocle was in Ephesus with an Army, they moved with the love of both their country and themselves, accorded to be no longer silent, now that the said appearances made them believe that to be true, which till then they did not: This praeludium ended, they said on.  
That fortuning to be locked up in some of the Royal lodgings of Susa, near the chamber where sat the privy Council, who were wont to shut themselves up when they were come together, they heard them serious in discourse about Chio and Rotildo, these two names being all they understood, (the Council speaking in their own language) till they heard Timocle called for, and a little after asked in Greek, if Rotildo had power enough to give up Chio to the King; and if also having gotten the principality thereof he would prove faithful and loyal to his Majesty? He answered yes, discoursing with that a long while upon his Nobility, riches, and train; That for his faith they might well be assured of it, because of his being a marvellous upright and honest Gentleman, and such a one as would not have accepted of any condition that prejudiced the liberty of his Country (he being not naturally ambitious) but for the exceeding pride of the Citizens becoming extremely insupportable. This said, there was no more Greek spoken, nor Timocle any more heard speak; and we being besotted with Rotildo's famed integrity, firmly believed, that Timocle had maliciously caused us to be locked up there, to make us believe what he had made us hear. Upon this deposition, the good Rotildo was suddenly shut up in close prison, so as no man could come to speak with him: And whilst upon his examination he called the Gods to witness of his innocence, thither came Chirito's letters: Whereupon without being any more suffered to speak for himself, being so accused by two, and now convinced by the third, he (unfortunate Gentleman) was miserably and injustly strangled.  
Timocle understanding of Rotildo's death, seeming to be then apparently desperate, as if by it all his designs had been frustrated, and the neck of all his projects broken, made a show of licensing his troops for returning to Susa, but yet entertained them howsoever, having by his former seeming-real fame dissolved the conjunction of the Greekish forces, whilst my Father (not without being therefore censured) espoused my Mother, she telling such as thereof spoke to her, that she would have married not only Pridale, a personage so eminent, but any base man whatsoever, rather than hear herself called after the unlucky surname of a wicked Traitor; a resolution, which as it attoned all my mother's kindred, so was it the occasion that those of Rotildo retired for absenting themselves from the City the time of that marriage, to my Father's exceeding content, for being so secured from any more contrasting until the full accomplishment of his design.  
Timocle being advertized of what he had to do, parted one night, arriving at Chio so suddenly, as her Citizens had not time to shut their Gates. And my Father gathering together his old and new kindred and alliance, and guarded with a great squadron of armed followers (as himself was too from head to heel) he bade them cheer up their hearts, since that Fleet was come thither at his request: here without staying for any answer, they being bid follow him, did so, nor had they indeed time to consider of a denial. His Brother he met at the Gate without the City, who accompanied with many Captains salutes him by the title of Prince, pitching with that the colours royal of Persia on the Walls of the City and public Palace, wherein the new Sovereign immediately lodged, expelling thence the Magistrate, and altering the Orders of the Government, over which he placed Timocle Precedent.  
Unexpressible was the amazement of the Citizens, seeing themselves baffled with the most malign and envenomed hypocrisy that ever was heard of; the justest, honestest, and most zealous among them, having been under pretext of justice and zeal betrayed and put to death; whilst the other complotted such a business by ways twice as wicked as wily, who yet had made them believe, yea and see too the contrary in the contrary, and gotten himself to be deemed the best, whereas he was full of all imaginable wickedness and villainy, and was whilst he took on him to be the sole vindicator of the Commonwealth's liberty, a-mounting up to the throne of his tyranny at the cost of their simplicity and folly. And yet their evils had been less, if they had here ended. But the Persians being departed, after having first left him secured by a strong band of their old milice, he called before him the Citizens, the greater part whereof he caused in divers Temples to be put to death by sundry torments. But I will pass over this relation serving now no more for my purpose, it behoving me to come to the story of myself.  
I was borne the fourth month after that the Matrimony was contracted by my Parents, they adding to the sum of their former hatred and infamies that of adultery, before not publicly known; which (for declaring me theirs) was by them themselves most shamelessly published. The Gods were pleased to show in me their Omnipotency in my creation, by giving me the fairest body and the foulest soul that ever creature in this world was composed of. I grew in beauty, and with it in the worst conditions, my parents having no other aim than to please me, nor I other examples than their dishonesties. At three year old I was mistress of shamelesseness. Grown to sixteen, my brother (borne a year after me) was my sweetheart and lover; but we had both of us rivals, I my mother, and he my father; we therefore had run away together, so worried were we with their importunity & hindrances that they brought us, if they perceiving it, had not given us way: I conceived almost presently the occasion of providing me for husband the Tyrant of Samo's son, who a few years before had also usurped that Principality by my Father's means.  
The young man came and married me, with an intent to bring me home immediately; but I for being gone by then five months of my time, would not assent to go, for fear of subjecting myself (in case I were discovered) to the dangers of any man's passions. The first night that we came together I showed myself a daughter worthy of him that had begotten me; There was not any species of simplicity that I counterfeited not affectately, nor tears seconded with sobs & skritches, that I seemed not to shower abundantly, and act to the very life: The toil and ado he had to possess himself of me were sufficiently manifested by his sweeting and weariness. There was not the least mark nor symptom of untouched virginity to be desired in me, that I had not sufficient to beguile the best experientest living in that kind. Nay I was not ashamed with my crying and frequent skritches to turn the house topside-turvy: In runs my Mother (as was before between us accorded on) to act her part of the tragicomedy, and showing how I was (forsooth) swooned, she revives me by besprinkling me with vinegar and odoriferous waters.  
My time of childbirth being come, as I was laid a-bed, upon the very point and instant of my delivery, in came my husband, so as I was forced with compressing my cries and tears, to bring forth my burden under the quilt in his presence, smothering the babe with my knees, lest its crying might bewray me. I called my disease fits of the Colic. And the very fame night supped (as I was wont to do) out of my bed, and had (so impudently bold was I) laid with my husband too, but for my mother, who said she would sleep with me herself, to help me with medicines if my fits returned.  
He in the mean time all inflamed with love of me, could not endure the want of me, nor believe me to be his as long as I abode among my own kindred. Every day would I promise to go along with him; but the incestuous blind love of my brother had mored my anchors so fast, that my ship could not be loosened from those shores; and my husband impatient of my stay, did the more importune me, for conceiving this brotherly affection to be of another sort than that of them which were borne of one and the same womb: He therefore began now to open his eyes better, though better it had been for him that he had not; For chancing to come suddenly into a chamber, and finding us there together in an act not of the honestest, he drew out his sword, my brother doing the same with his, and so (there being no body to part them) miserably killed one another in my presence; my brother dying suddenly, to whom I ran, and affectionately kissing him, reviled my expiring husband with such injurious language, that had (but for my being in the highest degree impudent) been capable to make me for a third dye for mere shame. But being used to care for nothing, this disaster being past, I cared little for it, and less for my brother, whom I had loved merely for my pleasure, which failing with him, I was to supply by others.  
This disaster was (as others were) masked by the subtlety of my father and mother; who considering how prejudicial my presumption might in time prove, began to hate me, upon the aggravation of Timocle's persuading them either to curb or kill me. All affections in him, though in all vices extreme, ceded to that only one of reigning; so as though inclined to all kind of mischief, he became to be in outward show virtuous, for not falling at the fall (or decease) of his brother, from that state wherein he (in his conceit) lived happily. And my father knowing, that as he was the instrument of his greatness, so he might be also the like for his depression, stood so in fear of him, as he doubted he would be angry if he followed not his counsels, having a perpetual eye to the good opinion the King of Persia, and many great ones had of him, to whom he was become gracious by his nature, pliable to all humours; so as Chameleonlike he with the good would appear in the best colours, and with the wicked in the worst.  
Nerea my Mother an hundred for one more malicious and mischievous than my Father, and that for her own ends, had esteemed his brother more than he, entertaining him with the carriage rather of a strumpet than a sister-in-law, and salving her husband's jealousies with the self same cunning; endeavouring to make him believe, that so she must have done to save them both from being undone: Reasons (at first) perhaps good, but no longer now after the disaster of his son; doubting, and with reason too, that she carried herself towards him as she had done towards her other husband; observantly therefore examining her demeanour towards his brother, he considered it to be the fabric of his danger & ruin.  
All my Mother's wit was after the death of her son employed in expugning the interessed continency of Timocle, which being once battered, she hoped to be whole directress and commandress of all. Much ado she had in assaulting it, but at last she won it. Timocle as wily, malicious, and mischievous as so many more, subjecting himself by degrees to the web of the ill-warped thread of a worse spinster. The business went not far onwards, because my Father was now resolved to make sure work of them, who considered that the Principality being to him and his heirs, took from all others all pretext thereunto, as long as he and I stuck together; not without forthinking, that women's disability to tyranny (an engine to be managed with forces and terrors, conditions far distant from the nature of their sex) and my being horribly detested of every one, would have brought him no small disadvantage: Yet howsoever having no other prop to lean upon, he choosed this for his present ends, any shade serving his turn that lies scorched by the Sun. And though that innovating might go near to spoil all, and move on to a certain end uncertain perils, yet thought he it not his best course to put it in doubt, since preventing a mischief and surprising the mischief-plotter is better than to be prevented and surprised. He therefore began to honour me, using me (as presumed heir) with much respect, by participating to me his affairs, calling me into counsel, and giving me a Family, and among them, some of the best reputed and honestest Matrons of Chio, persuading me to virtue, good conditions, and more especially to a modest and honest course of life, framing himself also to the same in outward appearance so punctually, as he now seemed to be no more that first Pridale: And to the end that Nerea and Timocle might prove the authors of their own ruin, he seemed to be hoodwinked at their actions, by cherishing and making more of them now than before, making an account, that their becoming odious unto the world would preserve him in his Principality, for doubt of a worse, if not for choice of the better.  
Timocle penetrating his brother's thoughts by his behaviour, considering how the government had won him many, all favours having been done either mediately or immediately by him, and all rigours and injustice imputed and conceived to be Pridale's, although his conscience told him, that he was ever hated but in an equal degree with himself, who was a murderer, a betrayer of his Country, and good men, a complotter of tyranny, an adulterer, and an incestuous miscreant; abandoning therefore all domestic hopes, he fastened on foreign, better founded and more certain. He wrote to the Persian Court, and complained of Pridale, not in terms of enmity, but as a well-meaning man, proposing the dangers of sedition in the people, who were like enough (so they but once recovered their liberty) to break the hedges not only of jonia, but even of all the Provinces of Greece. That therefore order should be given for some number of good Soldiers and Galleys to keep the I'll in awe: He obtained as much as he desired, upon a conformable letter of Farnabazzo Lieutenant General in Asia, an ancient friend of Timocle's, and conserved such by presents, and by the common opinion of the Peers, that he was rather a Persian than a Grecian.  
My Father looked pale at the hearing of the order of sending him Galleys and Garrisons. And seeing himself in such a straight, resolved to clip his brother's ambition's wings, by having him guided to the precipice of his downfall. He surprised Timocle and his wife together on the fact, or as we say with the manner, whilst they were more carelessly licentious, for thinking themselves secure enough from him; and showed them in the act both to the Principal of the City, and to the Persian Captains and Officers, and then speedily convicting them, put them to death; the most welcome accident that had befallen Chio, since she had lost her liberty, which she judged to be a very good beginning: Feign would my Mother have seen me before her death, but that last boon of hers was not granted her.  
Having stepped this irrevocable pace, my Father not knowing how to refuse the destinated milice, bethought himself of sending me into Persia, that I serving for a silent hostage might more handsomely excuse him thereof, hoping that my beauties were sufficient to obtain of the King & Court all that I knew how to demand. Having received my instructions, we gave out (to veil with a modest pretext this till then unheard-of feminine embassy) that I went to be entertained in the Queen's service, till I married again.  
Come to Asia accompanied with a Noble Family of Knights and Ladies, I came to speech with Farnabazzo; I stood not to praying, but commanded him (so much authority conceived I to have over him in an instant) to forbear to send the forces either of men or galleys destinated for Chio, till he had further order from the Court. I was obeyed, passing afterwards from place to place without any expense, besides my being gratified by all, even till I came to Susa, reserving (all the while) apart my natural conditions, to the end the coin of my beauty (being conserved in its full weight) might be the more currant to steed me where I went to spend it; I arrived in Court, with a noble conduct of such as beyond any expectation of mine came to meet me by the way, although indeed I strongly relied on my winning qualities. Being presented to the King, I carried myself Courtier-like, having in three month's time learned the Court-customs and phrases, of such as had honoured me with their company and attendance, so as I now knew well how to convert the Grecian demeanour into that of the Persian, and the odious popular audacity into venerable adoration; insomuch as I cannot tell you, whether the King remained thereat more amazed or taken. I superficially passed over the faults of my Uncle and Mother, and enlarged myself upon their conjuration, giving it such colours as pleased me best, I showed him that my Father could not display before him any more evidently visible ensigns of his devotion, than by sending me his only Daughter and heir, to do him obedience, and put myself at his feet, to the end, that she being form after the Idea of his royal will and pleasure, might give him certain assurance of our loyal subjection, for obtaining the favour of conserving those branches, which by the favour of his Majesty and our good fortune were grafted to the stock of so high and noble a Monarchy.  
The King listened to me with great attention, and then without suffering me to kneel any longer, raised me up, and put me to sit on a cloth of Tissue Cushion, himself being seated upon a Throne of pure gold under a large canopy chased all over with pearl and precious stones, adorned with fair banners enriched with deep fringe of finest gold. He sat environed with his Peers divided into two wings, with that semblance of humility that comes nearest adoration. His answer was short, his joyful countenance and smiling garb partly expressing his intended speech, which was, That he was glad of my coming, and that Pridale could not think of a better means to free him from blame; whom, to gratify me, he received into the number of his friends; whereat I being risen up to adore him, he took me by the hand, and amorously beholding it, asked me if I were not weary after so long a journey; whereunto (I submissively kneeling down, and kissing his unawares of him) answered; that wearisomeness had no place in such, who were honoured with enjoying the paradise of his celestial presence. So pleased was the King with my action and adulation, that raising me up himself, and kissing me, he said to his Peers, that he had never all his live's time seen either a fairer or a discreeter woman; giving (with that) order to the Lord high Chamberlain to assign me lodgings; which was soon done, for he accompanying me out, consigned me the richest Chambers, and nearest the King of all the rest.  
I cannot express unto you the joy that I conceived from so good a beginning, not that there stuck not in my heart a certain internal doubt of the issue of the enterprise, upon laying before the eyes of my consideration womanish envies, from which (for all that) my heart would have given me a free issue, if mischievous subtlety could have done it. But what I doubted of was Fortune, a thing above the reach of humane will.  
Scarce was I possessed of my Lodgings, when I pretended to go see the Queen, a favour rarely granted to strangers, the women being there ever retired, not stirring abroad, but vailed and waited on by eunuchs. But to me any thing was easy to be obtained of the King (who was disposed to will even what I willed) and of the Queen too; because she being informed of my coming, and of the graces and favours I had received, had an extreme desire to espy out some imperfection or blemish either in my face, body, or demeanour; I found her indeed of rare beauty, though insipid & liveless, of a mean spirit, and that little poorly pieced up with simplicity and an ill grace; so as it was no wonder, if the King grown weary thereof became inflamed of me, rather for my garb or carriage (as I perceived) than for any excelling beauty of my face, for that I confidently believed (and that without mistaking too) that the Queen was fairer than I Beyond measure than remained I consolated, when I comprehended the advantages I had of her; I had now therefore no more fear of myself, since I was assured to bring the King subject to my beck, for that I was to encounter with a Genius inferior to mine. I form nevertheless (with my seeming foresight, and penetrating the unexpert craft of those women) an ocean of jealousies and absurdities; because whoso means to beguile another, must make a show of conditions uncapable of beguiling any. I should be too tedious in recounting unto you all the particulars of accepting and entertaining me in her service, the grace I thereby acquired, her ill will being changed into liking, & her envy into well-wishing, trophies little esteemed by me, otherwise than as they served to my principal end.  
The enamoured King, thinking to gain me with the smoke of his favours and presents, remained astonished to see me so deceive his expectation, and ask me the reason of my (as he termed it) cruelty; I answered him; That it was not the use of Princesses in my Country to serve for Concubines, nor could I with my honour be such, though to so great a Prince; so as he was excluded from enjoying me otherwise than as a wife. But the plurality of women not of wives being accustomed in Persia, gave him by my words an inkling of either repudying or making away of his present wife; he that conceived well enough my meaning, ecstasied with excessive love answered no.  
That he had no other occasion to put her away, than for her barrenness; and then again to take another without being assured of having issue by her, was a thing he could not do, because in case that that other proved barren, it would behoove him (for his State's satisfaction) to follow the first example, a point that troubled me much, so as I thought upon it many days with myself, till seeing that my consideration hammered ever on the anvil of the selfsame conceits, I was forced to condescend to his desire upon his royal promise, that as soon as I were known to be quick with child, he would make me his wife. But tasted that he had once the sweetness of my embraces, and seen the difference between a woman of frost and one of fire, he became so transported with the exceedingness of his content, as he thought of nothing else save to rid himself of his wife. Now he never thought of making her away with poison as I would have done (the easiest way for him,) nay I was a good warrant to do it without ask him any leave, if I could, but that I wanted the simples and means to effect it withal; so that there now resting me no other hopes than from being quick with child, I quite despaired thereof, after five or six months time, wherein I tried so many experiments, as went near to cost me my life, by endeavouring (as much as in me lay) to prove my mother's prognostics false; who upon my delivery of childbirth told me, that I should never suffer any more such pains, my incommodious delivery having so bruised me within, and its soreness so augmented by my natural heat, as deprived me of all possibility of conceiving any more.  
I made many trials of myself according to my Physician's direction, especially of certain suffumigations of Myrrh, Incense, and Storax, which passing from the inferior parts of the body to the mouth and nose, denotes a possibility of conceiving, but through me (to my but too great discontent) they passed not, though upon experimenting it on one of my Gentlewomen, I found a different effect.  
Missing thus of the Direct way, I turned to the Oblique, and to the supplying with cunning the defects of Nature. For, I caused to be laid wait for in three several places, three women great with child little or nothing differing in their time, my Physician serving me faithfully in that employment, and making each of those women believe, that he would rear it up as his son, in performance of a Vow he had made to Esculapio. And my will was, that they should be three, out of the likelihood that one of them might be a boy, and that I might (in case one of them died) have my choice of the other two; so than I took on me to be great with child, to the Kings so great pleasure and joy, that he went near to grow wild thereat; I wanted (you may well imagine) no symptoms, being therein helped by certain vomitive pills, which by me swallowed down in the morning wrought on me at so measured a time, as they began their operation just at my rising off the table; In the night time likewise (by taking half a glass-full of certain water, privily laid by one of my women at my bed's head) I awakened with my vomiting the King, who forgetting what he was, served me for a servant and waiting-boy: That which beguiled him, others, and (well near) myself too, was the coming no more of my ordinary visits, & the appearing of milk in my breasts within two months after; insomuch as I believed that I was with child in good earnest; but my Physician soon lopped off that pleasing branch from the tree of my conceit, by letting me see, that the veins being over-stuffed with blood, which should have run elsewhere, had transmitted it up into my breasts, where it converted into milk; which in case it (for my not purging my body) continued, would occasion me a dangerous and violent disease.  
Delivered that one of the three women was by night, and by good fortune of a goodly male-child, he was brought me by the Physician, and handsomely conveyed under my coats, close to me, with all circumstances needful for keeping the plot undescried; my Midwives and nurse-keepers I had ready at hand, and one Lady that the Queen put with me to see me delivered, by me long before so beguiled, as she now no more doubted of my being great with child. For, I having lately caused to be taken away from too kitlings newly littered the claws and tongues, and handsomely fitted them under my smock, made them feel thereabouts with their hands, whilst they made just such another motion, as babes do in their mother's womb.  
No sooner was my Physician departed, than that I shrieked out such loud cries, as waked all the Palace, I hastily roam to my bed, where I lay in such a plight, as they took me for dead, so handsomely did I counterfeit myself for such, by my fast-grasped hands, and eyes so rolled up, as nothing but the white of them appeared. They all-to-be-rubbed me over, and kept such a do about me, as they had killed the little creature, but for the moistness of the blood that discovered it. Lifting up the bedclothes, they found nothing wanting in me for manifesting my being delivered.  
The King hearing I was on the point of death, came running into my Chamber, the same did also the more than me dead Queen, it behoving her in spite of her heart to make a show of gladness on this birth, which pierced her very heart, and of sorrow for that evil, which would have proved the supremest of her joys, if this had been the last and extremest disease that ever I should be sick of: The babe being washed escaped hardly the being smothered by the Kings hugging and kissing it: At the news of this adored birthday the night was turned into day, every body stirring abroad, and all the City with lights in all their balcons, and bonfires in all their streets, though not before that my Physician (to whom alone I would needs give the honour thereof) had with his counterfeit medicines cured my counterfeit disease.  
up risen that I was from childbed, my first business was to hasten the repudiating of the Queen, and next my wedding not as yet obtained; because wise (though potent) Kings will not at all times do what they both can and have a desire to do. They have their own ends, and yet will give the people satisfaction, and discreetly wait for the opportunity of time to put in execution such things as they are sure cannot please them: Yet well might I upon this occasion have been married, if the Gods had been pleased to have permitted my wickedness to have rested perpetually concealed.  
The King had near his person a great Lord named Gobria, his contemporary for age, bred up with him from his infancy, and his companion in Arms in all erterprises. This Lord's integrity was never shaken with those infernal blasts, Avarice and Ambition; for the King never gave him so much, as that his liberality gave him way to enrich himself therewithal; neither did ever his dignities and favours make him either so proud or discourteous as to neglect to any man any respect due to him. He was naturally a mortal enemy to all corruption, ill-speaking, and ill-speakers, but above all things to dissembling and treason; never saw he the King incensed against any man, that in an humble and prevailing manner he excused him not, so he but thought he deserved it. Or if at any time he seemed to accuse any man, it than was but to second his Prince's nature, which he knew to be more apt to pardon upon confession, than excuse of errors; so as it is not known that ever he did any prejudicing office against any man, but upon great and sound reasons, he being in all his deportment more satisfactory and familiar, than indeed befitted either his greatness or the stateliness of the Persian customs. And yet he that never in his lives time had harmed any body, was nevertheless the instrumental cause of my utter ruin.  
My Physician had infore-speaking the women (as you have heard) made every of them believe, that (because he had no children of his own) he would bestow nursing and breeding on what they should be delivered of, so it were a boy, so as the first that was delivered, observing how hasty he was to disburden her of hers, and how that without as much as binding up his navel they had borne him away, with leaving her in his steed a great purse of gold, she first doubted that it was to make use of him for some ill purpose; seeing that if he had a mind to breed him up, he might well have had the patience to stay till he were weaned; But afterwards upon better consideration of the business, and of him, me, and my being with child, she conceived the case just as it stood; which though she liked not very well, yet joyed she that her son should run the career of so great a fortune, keeping in mind a mole she had taken notice of under his left pap: But grown desirous now, (since she could no more get a sight of him, to know what was become of him) she went to Court, where renewing her acquaintance with an under-maid-servant that served the Queen's wash-woman, (an ancient acquaintance of hers) she saw her weep, the occasion whereof she understood to be, that by reason of the Queen's being repudiated they should be all of them turned out of service. For in respect I had brought forth a male child, the divorce was concluded on for my succeeding her, to the end the heir of the Persian Monarchy might be no bastard. The woman (glad of being so easily ascertained of what she was come thither of purpose to be informed of, more desirous (as it should seem) to have her son though poor to be hers, than a King and another's; or else hoping, that she should not only by discovering the truth satisfy her conscience, but also reap therefrom both reward and preferment, which in the other state could not (as she conceived) befall her; for that she imagined, that she should never come to be known of her son, (and by consequence must have led a discontented kind of life) bethought herself of some course of remedying it, and having made means to come to speak to Gobria, she began to count him up the story, when he penetrating its substance, interrupted her with telling her, that he would have her speak what she had to tell him in the Queen's presence, and with that, leaving her in his own Chamber, with order that she stirred not thence; he a little after returning, took her along with him to the Queen, where having sent for some of the best and prime personages of the Privy Council; Gobria in presence and hearing of them all, thus gets out of her the whole business.  
Good wife (saith he) you were telling me of a certain passage of business, which for some convenient respects I would not then hear out, I pray you therefore come out with it now boldly here before this noble company, who will vouchsafe you a benign audience.  
The woman beginning again her relation, punctually accounted the importunity of the Physician, her delivery, the sudden conveying away of the child, the gift received, and the mark of the mole.  
I leave you to think whether the Queen were a glad woman or no at these news. Taking then the woman aside, commending her for her good conscience, and promising her large rewards for her discovery; they fell to consultation of what was best to be done, the harmless queen's shallow brain furthering it no otherwise than by her tears and supplications: when the no less discreet than truehearted Gobria shows the rest, that reasons prevailed but little with lovers, less if they were great men, and least of all if Princes. That therefore truth should be instilled into the ears of Kings seasonably and by little drops. Accordingly then their consultations were at length reduced to an agreement. That every of them should impart the secret to some trusty friend or other. But a full hour's time was scarce expired, when all the Court was full of it; so as penetrating to the ears of my Physician, me, and my retinue, it put us all to our wit's end.  
The King marvelling to see me so troubled in mind, never left me till he had drawn me to tell its occasion; and I thinking it would advantage me very much to be the first that should speak of it, set on the bold face to tell him: That the Queen's servants had spread abroad some malign rumours which could not choose but vex me extremely, beseeching him to free me thereof speedily, if he desired that I lived. Upon this he ask me of whom I had understood them, and I telling him that I had heard them of such a one, he found the relations thereof so entangled, as he could not possibly find out the source thereof; willingly would he have whoshed them up, but that the importance of the business permitted him not so to do, considering the difficulty of the divorce, because of the opinion of the child's being but my supposed son. Therefore thought he it necessary to convict thereof the Queen, and punish her, and in such a determination sent for her.  
My trouble of mind was in the mean time augmented long of the babe, who seeming to be at first a goodly well-shaped child, was now grown hunch-backed, by reason of the becoming crooked and shrinking up I know not how of his Chain-string, a natural defect (it should seem) in him that had begot him. Now neither the King nor the rest knew nothing thereof; howbeit it grieved me, that after having (as I conceived) accomplished my intent, there should yet be added to the sum of the rest this other affliction, hard to evade, if by ill fortune together with the general relation of the case, this particular of the child's father were also published. I suddenly sent my Physician to the mother, who missing her, and hearing that she was some four days since gone to Court, without being yet returned home, comes running to me like a man half distracted, and hastily rounds me in the ear, that all the affair was discovered, and we undone; this said, he slipping suddenly out of my sight, and fetching some moneys that he had in store, got on horseback, and road away with intention to save himself.  
The Queen came (in obedience of her Lords command, clad in a lugubrious habit with a side-train) supported under the arm by Gobria himself, and accompanied with most of the Lords of the Council. A sight that struck the King to the heart more than all the rest; for knowing Gobria to be of a mind so upright, and disposition so well tempered, that passions could not any way sway him. They prostrated themselves all of them at his feet without speaking a word; when seeing the King mute, upon his spirits becoming amazed with the object: The Queen animated with Gobria's friendly support, sighed out these words.  
Behold here (Royal Sir) your Majesty's most humble handmaid, who in all humility beseecheth your royal goodness to vouchsafe to open unto her the oracle of your Sovereign will and pleasure; I am come here sent for by your Majesty's command, not daring to presume to present myself otherwise before your royal presence. The King somewhat mollified at the sight of those rare (though mortified) beauties, told her, There was broached by some of her servants, a most malicious calumny, which was; That the son borne him was not his, whereof in case she proved the Authoress, he could do no less than inflict on her some exemplary punishment, since it concerned together with the interesses of his mother, that of the kingdom, whereunto the babe was borne Prince. And that therefore it behoved her, either to show herself innocent of that calumny, or dye the death. At that word the poor simple Lady sunk down in a swound, and had therewithal by her so falling hurt herself, but for Gobria's sustaining her. The King unable to endure the sight of her, committing her to the charge of her women, leaves the room, commanding his Council to follow him, out of a desire of hearing their opinions in this case. Gobria thereupon being beckoned unto by the others, in a most submissively-humble manner thus bespeaks him.  
My Sovereign Liege, that which your Majesty hath intimated to the Queen might be as well intimated to all of us here present, she knowing in this no more than we, nor we no more than she: Therefore, if what is reported be a calumny, your Majesty shall then have the calumniator at his mercy; but if there be no such matter, than I (under pardon) hope, it were special service done to your Majesty, that the truth were manifested, and the faulty chastised: here he relates him the whole story, and then calling for the woman, made her both confirm the same, and show him the purse of money given her. Which he (to my ill fortune) finding to be the very same that he himself had given me, presently knew it, which was the only impression of truth in his mind; insomuch, as he that at first had cast an ill eye on Gobria, sent (now that he saw the passages prove true) in all haste for my Physician, whom (seeing he could not be found) he imagined to be fled away; he than sent posts after him, who overtook and reconducted him: But yet calling to mind (for all that) how dearly he had loved me, he came unto me (as soon as he was parted from the Council) and told me, how aggrieved he was in himself, that I had so abused and fooled him; whereunto I (supposing he was now too well informed for me to stand either on my own justification or denial of the truth) answered, that my fault was but an effect of love: since that for enjoying him solely and securely to myself, I had found out this invention, without any intent of harming the Queen, which therefore was both pardonable and excusable. His reply was, that he was sorry to leave and lose me, since it behoved me either to fly or dye: I must confess to you, that at that word my spirits fainted; yet he as though the last minute's time of our being together stood on the moment of its expiration, with a giddiness taking me up in his arms, threw me on my bed without speaking ever a word, where having taken of me his pleasure, he charged me to get me gone that very night: But upon my answering him, that I knew neither how nor whither; he replied, he would give me a guide, wishing me at no hand to fail to be ready to follow whomsoever should restore me that Ring; and with that, slipping a Diamond Ring off my finger, away he hies.  
I as soon as my women were laid a-bed (trusting not one of them) clothed myself in man's apparel, when just as I had packed up in a fardel all and nought else save my jewels, I might hear some body knocking gently at my door, which I no sooner opened, than that a young Gentleman ceremoniously kissing my Diamond restored it me, with saying, that the King had commanded him to come and serve me; I took the Ring, and instantly followed him; and then mounted that we were on Steeds for their speed advantageous, I (having even from my childhood been bred up, as in many other manly exercises, so in this of riding in particular, which was one of the many links that form the chain of the King's love to me) left that Country which I once hoped to be Queen of, galloping with incredible speed that remnant of night without any whit reposing me: so as the ensuing morning with our horses dropping wet with sweat, we came to a Castle, where (showing the King's order signed by his own hand, and under his Privy-seal, requiring that fresh horses should be speedily delivered us) we remounted, continuing thus our changing of horses and riding-post until the evening.  
I profess to you I never till then found myself so weary; yet reposed I that night without any kind of fear, for being assured by the Gentleman my guide, that the King would not cause me to be sought after, save on the Road of Asia, under colour that he thought I was fled to Greece. Howbeit that it stood us upon to ride post, lest any others sent by the Queen happened to light on that way. He then likewise tells me, that the King had commanded him, to conduct me as far as the Persian creek, being the narrowest and nearest confine of his Empire, to the end my toil of riding and danger of being overtaken might the sooner come to an end. 'Twas my good fortune, that before the arrival of this accident, the King had occasion to come (for some important affair of his) to Perselope, a place distant from the sea, little more than ten days journeys of such as we made; since if I had taken the direct way to Greece, I must then (after I had gotten out of Persia) have crossed Assyria and Armenia, ferried over the Euphrates, forded the Antitauro, and measured in its full length all Asia minor o'er, ere I could have arrived to either Eolide or jonia: which to do, a whole months time (alas) had not been enough for a post to run without any intermission. Again, if I had gone to Susa, I then (neither) had no other than the selfsame way, unless I would as soon as I was entered into Media have furrowed the Ircanian Sea, and thence passed the Caucasus, Iberia, and Colchis, re-embarked me on the Eusin, and so stricken homewards over the Bosphorus and Obelespont, with many dangers, these ways being yet more pestered with Scythians, than those other with Arabians. But when I saw myself in the midst of the Persian Gulf, I then (and not till then) thought myself indifferently secure, but much more, at my arrival in Arabia; where I soon regained my wont vigour, nature, and customs: And thinking then no more on the Persian King, who had (as I by that time pretended) against all right and reason put me to shift for myself, I being (as it is an ordinary thing in women of my humour and quality) more excelling in that of ingratitude than in all other vices, fixed my eyes on the Gentleman my conduct: whom for all his being as modest again as trusty, I at length corrupted, it being too difficult for him in respect of his too raw years, to escape the being ensnared by me.  
During all the time of my abode in Persia, ambition had made me patient of the King's cold embracements, (he good man being of fifty years of age if not upwards, without thinking of others) but now freed of that affect, I returned to my ordinary and former contents: Now my loves were ever in their ingress very vehement, and full of jealousies and vexations of spirit, which made those I loved believe, that I could not turn my affection to others; wherein they were much deceived, nay the selfsame in the end beguiled me too. For, come to Memphi (rich with what I brought with me, but far richer for what the Gentleman presented me withal from the King in jewels of an inestimable value) we forgetting our journey, stayed thereto enjoy each other in that City in the height of luxury and lasciviousness, without wanting any thing requisite to the fullness of our contents; for satisfying whereof we every day sought out for new devices and inventions. Here by the news that flew from one Court to another understood we my own story; and that my Physician was found, and in the ground buried alive up to the throat, and that being exposed to the sun and flies with his face all-to-be smeared over with honey, he in that manner miserably died. That the King having by my own servants understood my passed life, (ashamed for having suffered himself to be so grossly beguiled, but much more of having so loved me) had commanded Farnabazzo to take from me the Island; and in case he found me not to be hanged, to take and hang up my Father for me; which (with other news we a little after heard) was executed: whereupon I suspecting that disloyalty in others which I knew to be in myself, bethought myself how to rid me of Ariobarzane (for such was the Gentleman's name) forthinking, that upon my rejecting him (as I was already taken with a new love) it was likely he would requite me with the like or as great a discourtesy; especially considering he had lost his Prince's favour, and forsaken his Country, fortunes, means, and all for love of me.  
This Gentleman having been borne and brought up in Court, knew not how to lead any other than a Courtly life and conversation. Whereupon in often-frequenting it he got acquaintance enough to draw on him by my means his utter ruin. He gave himself out to be of Susiana, lest his professing to be (as he was) a Persian, and my being with him might make us known for what we were, for better concealing whereof, he always called me wife, and I him husband. We gave out, that we were come to pass to the Oracle of jupiter Ammon, and that the reason of our sojourn there, was but to stay for the season of the year. He often brought along to dine with him a valiant and proper young Gentleman called Ersemeo, one favoured of the King, and highly esteemed of all that knew him; his qualities conforming with those of my now supposed husband, especially in suffering himself to be corrupted by me, as the other had been before. Ariobarzane was no whit jealous, but loving both his friend and his company, favoured him with such liberty, as he would many times, when he found him not at home, entertain himself with me, to stay for his coming. I that lived by (or at least loved best) often change, grew soon to be amorously inflamed of him, and found ways to let him see it too: But he, though he well enough conceived it, being honest though, and loyal to his friend, either did not, or would not understand me in the right construction of my intent. Strange seemed it unto me, that he being a young Gentleman, an Egyptian, and a Courtier too, should (or could) be so continent; and therefore because I durst not in plain terms unbosom myself unto him, for doubt of either his not consenting, or bewraying me, I bethought of a way of making him entrap himself thus.  
I would take on me (if it were in the forenoon that he came) to begin to go dress myself, and would, at the instant of his coming in, be sure to be unsmockt, letting him see my breast and paps in their lively colours and true proportions, able to change both proportion and colour in Saturn himself. If in the afternoon, I then would be putting on my stockings or shoes, the border of my coats and smock-hem being the while lifted up so high, that though I with making a show of being surprised, would with a counterfeit bashfulness clap them down, yet did I not so before he had seen and conceived enough to make him languish with an amorous desire. In the sweltry hot noon-tides, I would be little better than naked, barefoot and barelegged, naked-breasted, with an exceeding fine and sight-penetrable Cambric smock, lasciviously discovering what it not hid but vailed. From the waste downwards, I wore a Kirtle of slight cobweb lawn, from under which appeared two relevate flanks, accompanied with those parts which had (as they should) their proportionable risings. Nature having given me a body that needed not the common helps of rectifying its proportion, by bombace or the like: And for my hair I wore it dishevelled in a careless fashion, without either hair lace or crisping-wire.  
At these taking-objects the poor Ersemeo freezed and burnt at one and the same time; whilst Ariobarzane glorying in my beauty, thought himself happy merely out of the conceit he had that other men did for it esteem him such: young men's felicity being thought to consist more in other men's opinions than in its proper substance. Such as say that naughty women bewitch men, are not otherwise mistaken than in the manner, for the bodies are wasted away by such things as can naturally wear away or consume them, but the Will only fears the Magic of an advantageous beauty, endowed with craft, and enriched with taking qualities.  
After that the poor Gentleman had lain a long time tormented with the flames of an intolerable passion, and that friendship was forced to give place to concupiscence, he ventured to proclaim himself (in a silent way) my to-death-enamoured servant, but yet with such fair terms, as I could not without proving too-too discourteous make any show of being in the least manner therewith displeased. So as at our next meeting we concluded on the time and place, where we were to enjoy each other; I being for my own part in such affairs a mortal enemy of irresolutions. Ariobarzane soon spies out our false play, and so indeed desired I he should. Never was there snake or serpent wrythen up so suddenly as he; he grew pale, lean, and hoarse, and all in an instant, there was not a member of his that wasted and pined not away, only his big-swollen eyes flowed with the streams of a perpetual river of brinish tears. I could have found in my heart to have pitied him, but that cruelty is the first oath taken by an infamous woman; the worst for him was, that he (unfortunate Gentleman) knew not with what looks to eye me, or what words to bemoan himself, sithence to get him gone lay no more now within the power of his freewill, despair and injury not having as yet loosed him from my fetters: Which admit I had, alas! where or whither could he have gone? To Persia he durst not, his conscience accusing him, and his long sojourn convicting him before his Prince to have been entangled in my love. And again, elsewhere he had not wherewithal to live, for not having carried with him more than was necessary to defray the charge of his return: Yet could I not (for all that) hold from ask him the cause of his melancholy; whereupon he reassuming an hearty courage, spoke to me in passionate angry terms, thinking thereby to terrify me; I (that desired nothing more) omitted not the opportunity of such an occasion, but told him, that his suspicions were malign & false, that I had done him too much favour and honour, in deigning to love him, and that I was now right sorry I had not known him sooner; that if I could recall what was past I would most willingly do so; since instead of acknowledging me the obligations he owed me, he was become so ingratefully insolent, as to threaten me; and that but for the regard of my honour, I would make his suspicions prove true, were it but merely to spite him: Not forgetting to stand up on my points of being a Princess, and therefore privileged to walk in the fair field of my content, without being countermanded by any man: replying a thousand times the selfsame words, to vex him the more. Whereupon he, being of a generous spirit, and of as noble a progeny as most in Persia, having first craved me humble pardon, kneeled down before me, begging of me with tears and conjurations to grant it him; but seeing all nothing avail him, he suddenly starts up all-enflamed with choler, and reviles me with the basest injurious terms that could be given the arrantest common strumpet of the Universe, concluding them with spitting in my face, and fretting, that he could not in respect of my being a woman take a more ample revenge on me.  
I know not whether by then my disdain were not greater than his jealousy at first, which if it were not, yet sure it could not be less: In the end away he went, without making any outward show of being any whit grieved, to the end that despite and madness might touch me nearer the quick. No sooner was his back turned, than in came Ersemeo. I will not stand a particularising on this business any longer, seeing that I have already but too much encroached upon your noble patience. Briefly then; I, having informed him of those passages, and how that Ariobarzane was not my husband; and withal that he now was gone a-reviling and threatening of him (which, God wot, was nothing so) he parted from me for the last time, and found the other at Court whither he was gone expressly to seek him out, thence with a joint consent they went where they had pointed field, which was a little without the City walls, where with single swordfight they ended their quarrel, by dying both of them in the place; which as soon as I heard of, I in this height of my cruelty clothed my countenance with a grief-expressing compassion, in a solemn mourning weed, celebrating the funeral of Artobarzane my reputed husband. Where I both alured and entrapped a thousand silly young Gentlemen, not sparing to favour the desires of such of them as best liked my fancy; finding change more pleasing to me, than diversity of choice cates to an Epicurean palate: But such was my luck, that grown to be at length enamoured in good earnest, I was misused and impoverished by a young spendthrift of two and twenty years of age. From whom as I thought to withdraw me (his prodigality lavishing my goods, menacing my utter undoing:) I was by him (under colour of walking to solace us) conducted all alone to see the Pyramids, where he left me in the manner I was found by your Lord and you Carasio; with an intention (I believe) to rifle my house, and seize on the few jewels he had left me unlavished. And this was the reason that made me slip away from you, for doubt of coming too late to prevent him. But I by the way fell into the hands of those Arabians, whence ye of your noble goodness have freed me, humbly beseeching you, that as ye had that compassion of me that I deserve not, so you would be benignly pleased to permit me to go on constantly in my determination; which is to go and end the remnant of my days among those who retired from the world, are devoted to the service of Ammon's Temple.  
Such was the woman's story, diversely affected by those that heard her. When upon Lindaaori's returning her no word of answer, (she having listened unto her all the while, she was relating it with a more than passionate disdain, that for not discovering her sex, she must have heard her out) Coralbo told her, that the Gods called sinners divers ways; and that therefore repentance (so it were unfeigned) absolved the delinquent, and assured him of his calling. But come by this time to their Inn, they resolved to rest there that night, and to follow the trace of their company the ensuing morning.  
The end of the second Book OF Donzella Desterrada.   

Cavalier Gio. Francisco Biondi DONZELLA DESTERRADA. THE THIRD BOOK.  
THe Count of Bona provided himself in Feacia of a both strongly-manned and will-rigged frigate, for having her arm d and prepared aswell for becalming as blustering weather; the tediousness of the voyage being shortened by the noble conversation of Don Eleimos, who voluntarily accompanied him out of the longing desire he had of becoming acquainted with Prince Polimero, whose virtues were the sole attractive motives that drew him on so long a journey. Steered on they had near the Taenarian Promontory in the Messanian Gulf, when they descried a Galley, which (as if she had been hurried onwards by the impetuosity of a tearing gale of wind) came scouring after them in the great calm of a scorching summer-noon-tide. But losing sight of her by their fetching about the Promontory, they might within two hours after see her do the like, and then soon after gain so near them, as the eye might distinctly see all her proportion and gallantry; though that (excepting the men and fresh lively colours of vermilion and azure) nought else could be seen save most curious carved and graven work of Ebony and Ivory, most richly adorned with silk and gold; the ears being (the mean while) entertained with the sweetly-shrill music of many trumpets, half drowned with the harsh antique consort of Fifes and Drumslads. By that time she was got within a mile of them, they might perceive her stow up her Oars, (the force of her late stiff rowing maintaining yet her course) and then might they behold seated in her rich Poop adorned with waving streamers, a Lady and two Knights, all of them of a gentile aspect, near about the same age, but of different complexions. The one was extraordinarily comely, with such a complexion, as the Sun is sometime wont (out of envy) to dye brown with its scorching beams; the other went pompously triumphant with such beauties as Aurora takes ofttimes pleasure, in first frosting over with her candied dews, and then painting with her more lively colours the Rheineberry or full-ripe Cherry; the third not ceding to the other two in blithsome livelihood and feature of body, came (for all that) short of them in the rest, Nature seeming to be desirous by such variety to put the diversity of her gifts in consideration.  
By this time the two Knights might well perceive, that the Galley fetched them up either to know or hail them; and observing the reverence wherewith a number of gallant Gentlemen stood before the three, they guessed them to be personages worthy of their respective observance; saluting them therefore with terms reserved for great ones, they were corresponded (though in a majestic grave manner) with equal courtesy. The brown Knight was the first that in a courteous language asked them whence they came; to whom the Count answering, from Sardinia, he prayed him to tell him, whether he had (as he touched Parthenope) heard any thing of the Princess Corianna; but being told by the other that he struck not in there; he then enquired of him touching Polimero and Eromena, whereunto the Count so framed his answer, that relating him the truth, and satisfying him in all the particulars of his demand, he made no mention either of himself or of the occasion of his voyage, save only telling him, that they were bound for Athens. But the three desirous to entertain them yet longer, and to be instructed in the affairs of the West, (with offering them the towing of their frigate) besought them to come aboard their Galley, since they were to run the same course till they came to the mouth of the Egean Sea: Whereunto they (not knowing well how to say nay) agreed to get up aboard her, understanding of those that on the ladder received them, that one of the three was the Prince of Pontus, and the other that of Cyprus with his Wife.  
The two Knights therefore humbled themselves before them, and then after fell to such discourse as best liked them; till such time as come a pretty distance from the Meltacan Promontory, and about to take leave of them, they might descry on the Island of Cythera a great smoke, and soon afterwards six Galleys, which launching from out the Promontory, came with main force of Oars a scouring towards them. Which seen by the Princes, they suddenly armed themselves, commanding (the mean while) their Top-armings and Battlements to be pitched, and their Standart of war to be marborated; fain would they have licenced the two Knights; but they on the contrary, having caused the Frigate to be loosed off the Galley, and commanded their Mariners to retire her apart, protested they would by no means abandon the Galley in such an ayde-requiring occasion. The Princess no whit dismayed (having first gathered up her coats) armed herself with Cuirass and Helmet, and then girding her with her Sword, she having commanded a Bow to be made ready for her, made choice of the Castle of the Poop for her place of standing, with an intention to defend it herself alone; till the Count and Don Elermos' begged of her the favour of being received as Guardians of her person, which upon her accepting of, she told them, that such a favour was not worthy the being required with so great an hazard, and that she was very sorry for having taken them out of their Shallop, wherein they were not like to light on so dangerous an encounter: Upon these compliments, the Princes (who had been giving order for the defence) returned with an undaunted resolution rather to dye than yield; and seeing the valorous Princess so clad in glittering Armour, they earnestly be sought her to retire herself, which she would not by any means condescend unto; though some from the Main-top shrieked out, that the Galleys were of Thrace. The Princes had between Soldiers and Knights little less than four hundred fighting-men, the Galley of three and thirty banks, being capable of receiving them all; besides, the Galley-slaves being well provided with stones and slings, the Crossbow-men with all kind of shafts and shot, and the Poop and Prow well furnished with Bows and Pikes.  
All things requisite for their defence being in judicious order disposed of, they might see the enemies separate one single Galley steering directly towards that of the Princes, the others reduced into two wings, that so she might be at one and the same time assailed at her Poop, and both her sides. At their first disuniting they form the figure of a half moon, a little Frigate appearing in its concave rowing before the rest of the Fleet, they holding water to give her time to pass before them. Come near that she was, there appears in her an Herald, who with his head covered over with a veil, accosting the stern of the Galley with a loud and fearful voice cries out:  
Give ear to me thou great God of War, harken to me thou Ionian Cretan, and Egean Neptune: Bear me witness ye Cythera and Epla, ye Strands of Laconta and Eurota, and listen to me thou Astrea. I am public Herald of Prince Erpandro of Phrace, and come sent both piously and justly. Melianto Prince of Cyprus hath against all reason taken, stolen away, and in Himeneus own presence ravished the great Princess Deodora of Illirio destinated Spouse to the most noble Prince Erpandro my Lord and Master. By which act of his, he hath violated the bonds of hospitality, extinguished another's funerall-tapers, and dishonoured a Virgin in contempt of all both divine and humane Laws. Of thee therefore, I say of thee Melianto is required that thee not-befitting prey, over thee is imminent a thee-befitting punishment, and against thee is denounced blood, war, and death. Melianto was about to answer him, when Deadora praying him to be pleased to leave that office to her, with a bold voice and firm resolution returned him this answer.  
Herald, go and tell Erpandro; that Deodora of Illirio was never any Spouse of his, that the agreement of Father's form not marriages, without the consent of children, that by the privilege therefore both of Law and Nature she is wife to no other than Melianto, with whom she voluntarily parted not for doing, but for not receiving injury: that the Gods will prove favourers of his just actions, and not punishers of those pretended faults which Erpandro falsely lays to his charge. And as for his threats, tell him that Melianto hath a sword so keen and well tempered, that it will neither turn edge nor wax blunt, though he made use of it against six times as many: that that other dastardly Prince durst not have in any other manner affronted him, knowing his inferiority to him in Arms, which he unknightlike endeavours to supply no less injuriously than basely with the odds of men and Arms; yet let him assure himself (spoke she on) that he hath yet one enemy more than he ever yet made account of; and that's I, who ere he shall be his death (as he threateneth to be) will kill him myself with my own hands; which if (through fortunes disfavouring) it succeed me not, yet shall I not fail howsoever either to take him prisoner, or dye in the attempt. And you (said then the Herald, not knowing the Princess in that habit) that make such an answer for Melianto, who are you to have authority so to speak? I am (answered him she) Deadora, which sithence thou now knowst, and hast heard and spoken enough, return whence thou camest, and that quickly too.  
The Herald throwing towards the Galley a bloodied Dart, bidding his Oar-men strike amain, returned crying, oh jupiter, oh Mars, oh Bellona, ye Gods all of Heaven, Earth, and Hell listen and hear: Let Melianto, an unjust Prince, unreasonable, a ravisher, a violator of quiet and the Law, be this day chastised and corrected by you. Come to his Lord, he relates unto him both the Princess' answer, and the habit he saw her in; whereat he was like to swoon for grief, conceiving, that if she were (as she professed to be) married, he had then no reason to pretend right in her any more; but examining that such considerations were secret, and therefore could not satisfy the world; whereas the rape was a publicly declared injury, he thought he could not (without prejudice to his reputation) abstain from revenge. Therefore he boarded the enemy a-prow, causing him to be at the selfsame time boarded on both the Starboard and Larbur-sides, and last of all a-poope by other five with a mighty force. The assaulted ship bravely received the shock of the four that ran at her sides, the poop being assured from being endangered by the beak of that Galley which came to offend it, with many straw-mats that were hung down round about it, which also served for a parapet to such as defended it.  
The quantity of slain-men almost equalised the number of the arrows shot in the first assault; for the Thracians (having parted from out their Country in Vessels fitter for pompous show than for fight) had not wherewithal to shelter them from the shower of shot, imagining that in respect of their number, they should not (in case they were necessitated to fight) encounter other difficulty than boarding their Enemy's Galley; so as there flew not an arrow from out the assailed Galley that either slew or wounded not; whereas her men on the contrary were so well covered, as they could hardly be any way offended: The easiest places of mounting aboard her was her prow and poop, her sides being defended aswell by her own as her Enemy's Battlements, and close-fights: Besides, if any one endeavoured to climb up that way, 'twere of the two more likely he should fall lower than get higher; the Prince of Pontus having taken on him the care and charge of keeping the Enemy at distance off that part.  
The Prince of Cyprus standing armed on the prow, received the Enemy's shock with a greater countershock, charging him with the full force of all his Oars; The stems burst both alike, but with an unlike effect, that alone being all the prejudice he received; whereas Erpandro deprived of the planks (that being laid athwart the prow sustained his combatants) lost by that wrack forty of his company between Knights and Galley-slaves, whereof the greater part were by the weight of the timber, and sudden falling of them one atop of another either maimed or wounded, he being thereat run thither himself to defend the entrance, or to speak more properly, to issue out through it, thinking that he had by reason of his great advantages the victory cock sure in his own hands.  
Deadora hearing the terrible crash of their encounter, and knowing the Enemies could not without great difficulty mount up the poop, (for its being bravely defended by the Count and Don Eleimos, seconded by others of their own company) hastily shifted off her gown, and then arming herself at all pieces, ran to the prore, where forcing Melianto to cede her the place, she put herself before him; up she gets on the beak head with an half pike in her hand, the Archers playing (the mean while) their parts from above, thence she leaps over into the Enemy's Galley, followed by Melianto, who was vexed at the heart for this her overrash boldness. 'Twas her good luck, that the disorderly falling down of the planks and timber-works disordered the Defendants, so as they could neither reunite themselves, nor stand to their ground without treading on such as had been beaten down, who lying senseless along and athwart the Decks and Hatches, became a ruinous impediment, otherwise she had done enough, if (after making a proffer of her courage) she could have but fairly retired without being wet, considering how the Enemy's Galley was manned with the hardiest and choicest Knights of all Thrace. But fortune over furthers a bold resolution; for, forcing her passage onwards, she was followed by fifty resolute Gentlemen, the greater part whereof abandoning their pikes, conformable to the necessity of their enterprise, laid about them with their swords, with such an undaunted resolution for gaining the Vessel, as amazed the Thracians.  
Deadora knowing Erpandro first among the foremost, furiously flew at him, and after many main active blows received and given, seeing him yet unwounded, she granshed her teeth for mere rage of anger; Now she had one of the best mettled and tempered blades that ever was forged or wrought, Vulcan himself never made the like; it was form hookedwise, of an edge somewhat thick, and near three fingers broad; it would cut an armed arm in two, but with a blow fetched by such an arm as hers, which made her wonder, that neither her blade nor arm wrought now their wont effects.  
Erpandro was a stout Knight, tutored in a good School of Arms, and armed as advantageously as could be; since there was not a juice-affording herb, whose virtue the Artificer made not use of in tempering the Armour he was clad in, only he was ill-provided of a Sword; for in warding of a blow, the one half thereof burst off and dropped at his feet, whereby his sword-arm lay open and wounded. Upon this the Princess was assaulted by such as were nearest her, but by wounding three of them in an instant, she freed herself from out that straight. And now seeing the valiant Melianto fiercely lay about him to guard her, she goes to single out Erpandro, who with a new sword made towards her to revenge himself of her; They aimed both of them at the selfsame time at each others head, their blades fortuning to meet edge to edge with the selfsame success, only that of Deadora lighted more dangerously on the Enemy's helmet, without any apparently wide gash, but yet with so terribly-smart a stroke, that piercing his skull, made him fall at her feet, she therewithal defending herself from such as endeavoured to recover him with such a furious dexterity, that even those of her own side stood in fear of her blows: here after Erpandro's being suddenly put over prisoner, she with Melianto retired themselves, giving order to the rest of her train to do the same, which accordingly was without any disorder performed with the pikes in the rearward, and the Archers continuing their shot, it sufficing them to keep their own, since the acquiring of what was other men's in such a disparity could not but redound to their prejudice, in respect it could not be done without their dismembering themselves.  
The conflict lasted well nigh two hours, their Galley not being fought now withal a-poope and at her sides, save afar off, the example of one Galley set on fire by a potful of an infernal unquenshable composition, deterring the rest from attempting the boarding the enemy, insomuch as they were forced to retire them, to save such as threw themselves into the sea to escape the devouring fury of the inextinguishable wildfire; and had indeed retired themselves for good and all, if the Admiral's fight men resolved now to dye, had not for the loss of their Prince obstinately continued the fight; whereupon the rest of the Fleet, having recovered as many as they could, returned to fight, mounting up the Admiral astern, to re-man her, whose men to the two third parts and more lay slain; and taken too she had been, if Melianto had but so resolved; who thinking it victory enough to have (without losing many of his men) gotten the Enemy into his hands, caused to be thrown out a certain fired liquor, which was no sooner shed abroad, than that with a whizzing murmur it fired whatsoever it lighted on; suddenly spreading itself, and furiously enflaming the matter it fed on, unquenchable either by water or heaps of wet rugs; so as it soon set all the Galley afire maugre all that endeavoured to save her, the others having enough to do to save the men, whom they transported with all the speed they could; But Melianto not caring for them, held on his way, the fight being ended by the Princess' valour, and fires violence. Of all his men there were slain but three Knights, and those too in boarding the Enemy's Galley, in attempting whereof one of them was tumbled down into the sea, and there drowned. The wounded were many, among whom were the Count and Don Eleimos both of them with arrows, whose wounds were more troublesome though than dangerous; they had fought sometimes so near as that they came to push of pike, and had burnt this third Galley too, had she not after the example of the others timely retired herself, so as the malign liquor falling, stinted not burning in the water till it was quite consumed.  
The Princess that had observed the valour of the two Knights, rendered them infinite thanks; the Prince loath to cede to her in gratitude, was careful to see their wounds speedily dressed, with an intention to take them along with him; but they being bound for elsewhere, prayed him to hold them excused; and with that making signs to the Bark, which then road near the Strand of Peloponesus would needs part much against the will of the three, who could not persuade them to accept (at their parting) two jewels as a slender token of their affection: Only they promised to come and see them as they passed by Cyprus. fain would Melianto have enjoyed their company at his going to visit Erpander; but the Count fearing lest his voyage (being much hindered already by reason of the fight) should be yet more delayed by occasion of this other business excused himself (as soon as they were come where they were to steer a different course) by assuring him, that the urgency of his occasion would by no means permit him to make any longer stay.  
Got aboard their Frigate they coasted Laconia, where because of a fever that seized on the Count, and afterwards on Den Eleimos, by occasion of their wounds they were forced to stop their journey; their disease so augmenting its violence and enfeebling their forces, as they could not part thence for a whole months time; their Frigate also being already for that respect licenced and returned back; so as when they arrived at Athens they found to have been there the Princess Eromena with her daughter, who were gone for Egypt four or five days before, to the Count's such exceeding sorrow and trouble of mind as his tormented thoughts could take no rest, conceiving that he justly now incurred the censure of a negligent messenger, for having so lingered in his voyage tending to an affair so important; now therefore he stayed not an hour, but boarding a good Vessel parted with his companion, forced by the winds violence to coast Crete, and then passing from the Capartian sea to that of Cyprus they were constrained to go ashore in that I'll, where they understood of the arrival of Melianto with Deadora, and how Erpandro affectionately honoured of all, was to be the hand-joiner of the wedding couple, without knowing any other particular in that behalf.  
Come to Egypt, they went to Memphi with intention, in case they found not Polimero, to stay for him there, being directed to a Merchant, whom he was of necessity to have recourse unto; but hearing no news there of him, much less of the Princess, he remained thereat exceedingly confused in mind; since being parted from Athens so long before him, they should (by all probable conjecture) have been there before his coming, and addressed themselves (for further intelligence) to the very same place: But this his anxiety of mind lasted but a little, for he no sooner went to Court, than he there found them come the day before, though without Lindadori; whereat the good old man was so exceedingly joyed, that (but for their preventing him) he had kneeled to kiss their hands, with suddenly ask for Donzella Desterrada his Lady and Princess, whom (as they stood relating the accidental cause of their separation) they might see enter accompanied with Coralbo; her Mother presently taking her by the hand, and receiving Coralbo with the affects of a respective esteem, (having already understood by her husband the story of his disasters) and then (for being left to themselves) they retired them altogether thence to their lodging, with a longing desire to be informed reciprocally of each others adventures, where the Count was for his necessitated tardance excused, and Don Eleimos affectionately respected of all of them, but more especially of Eromena, for her extraordinary affection to Eleina, of whom he had well deserved. They resolved to entertain themselves there three or four days, to see that great Court, and then to part suddenly out of the impatient longing they had to return into Sardinia.  
The Court of Egypt was (at that time) one of the most flourishing of the Universe, frequented by brave and doughty Knights, drawn thither formerly by the lasting and victorious erterprises of King Ptsemitide, and at the present by his liberality, and by the free carriage and beauty of the Ladies of that Court. Never was there Prince that joined greatness with familiarity, or familiarity with gravity better than he; the mere ordinary Guard of his body form a sufficient Army; he had five several orders of Soldiers, and among them three of Nobility and Gentry: the first composed of four fallanges of Knights and gentlemen's younger sons, the firstborn in Egypt as in many other kingdoms, bearing away the whole faculty. here, as in Academy, in the most tranquil and calm peace, was exercised Martial discipline with as strict order and rigorous observance, as others use in the ardour of the most dangerous war. They were constantly removed and changed every three months; the novices of them being usually spread over the neighbouring Garrisons, and the other three Regiments in Memphi warding the City and Palace royal: From this Seminary sprung Captains, Camp-masters, and sometimes even Generals themselves. Of the other four, two were Knights, the one of the new and the other of the old Band, who gloried to have recommended to their loyalty in peace, & valour in war, the sacred person of their Royal Sovereign. The fourth of Halberdiers clad with the Royal device, and so many in number as reached divided into two files on either hand along the stairs, and all the way from the grand portal to the great Hall. The last of Light-horse-men covered with coats, enriched with Embroideries of a colour and form suitable.  
Through these Guards was the way to the King's withdrawing Chamber, and thence into a Gallery a quarter of a mile long, of a breadth and hight proportionable, with its lights towards the Nile, adorned between its stately balcons with lively pictures of the most noble and fairest Cities of the world. here entertained himself the King thronged with a great concourse of ennobled Cavaliers, insomuch as it was (many times) hard to know which of them was the King; the Egyptian Nobility might easily be discerned from the rest by the pomp and curious inventions of their habits, delighting more in the sight of their Prince, than doth the Eagle in beholding the Sun; never was the Court seen so solitary, that it had attending it less than three thousand Nobles and Gentlemen, sumptuously apparelled and completely equipaged. The Queen's side (on the other part) being no less numerous and frequented, her Chamber of presence never empty, to Cavaliers and Ladies never shut, so as the whispering noise of so many softly-speaking tongues might be aptly resembled to that humming the Bees make in their Hives at such time as they are most busied in working of their Honey.  
Ptsemitides was grown all hoary, but yet in full vigour with lively spirits and an indefessible able body; and withal though matched with the fairest wife that that part of the world could afford him, yet was he almost continually employed in some new love or other; his Queen being reserved merely for use of child-bearing, and for that cause beloved. That Court than was (in respect both of itself and the nature of its Prince) the most joyful and amorous of as many as ever were; many sons had he, but by wedlock only the Prince than a babe, and one daughter, whose towardly nature and sweet disposition was not equalled by any in that great Monarchy. She passed not much fifteen years of age, yet had she an aged-seeming (because well experimented) spirit in the more worthy perfections, sucked almost with her breastmilk by perpetual conversation of refined wits, and her only delight of various reading, wherein she consumed her hours with a gust that exceeded her age & sex.  
Polimero and Eromena had already seen the King, but so had not Lindadori nor Coralbo, who coming likewise to see him, were met by the others, and so left the Court to be private together, as was told you. There dwelled near to their lodging an ancient Knight, who observing the two couple, (that though unknown, manifested yet their greatness by their exterior qualities) would needs (courteous as he was) go visit them; conceiving that their being strangers obliged him thereunto; for his quality, he was a great Soldier, favoured by the King for his valour, and therefore highly esteemed of all the Court; and understanding that they knew no body, he would needs present them before the King, who received them without any distinction, taking them all for Knights, observantly eyeing (though) their youth and beauty, whereof he saw no paragon in all the Court: He stood discoursing with them in Greek for a good while, and (as one quicksighted in discerning of persons) suddenly judged the four younger to be of no ordinary quality; which made him very desirous that the Queen might see them; nay more, he would needs bring them in himself, an unwonted favour done to none save Princes; and so taking Polimero by the hand, he drew all the rest after him, those Lodgings being so full, that two could hardly pass abreast through them.  
The Queen was seated at her beds-feets with her daughter by her side, accompanied with four Princesses of the Blood-royal, encircled with many Lords standing about them; when Eromena presented herself before her, Polimero dexterously drawing back to give her the honour of precedency. They were by her received all of them with royal courtesy, Elitrea the Princess following her example in honouring them, but exceeding it with Lindadori. She liked well those like-her-own tender innocent beauties, and a well-becoming careless carriage of hers, which made her so heed her, that superficially passing over the rest, she taking her for a Knight, desired to entertain her alone, whilst the Queen interchanged complemental courtesies with Eromena, with the very same both belief and affection.  
The King (after having jested a short while with some of the Ladies) retired him thence, and the two indeed Knights, (observing the Queen and Princess their prodigious inclination towards the two maskers) withdrew themselves apart, as it were, for good manners sake with the four Princesses of the blood, who received them with exceeding great courtesy.  
Eromena upon discovering of the Queen's mind, knew not well what countenance to frame; she answered to the demands she made her with that extraordinary grace, which the Heavens had with extraordinary privilege granted her above all other women. Lindadori being simple, and in such affairs a novice, (not building on others fancies, but altogether intent about the well-representing of a man's person) marveiled at the customs and carriage of the young Princess; in whom besides a more than ordinary courtesy, she observed a more than usual freeness and else-where-unknown liberty, gravity in that Country being reputed an imperfection or defect, or at least taken for a dependant if not a sister of sullenness, pride, and subjection. The presence of so great a Queen, which elsewhere would have closed up all lips with silence, and engraven in all hearts a modest melancholy, was here a motive to apparent joy and discourse. Benign Mercury diffusing himself in their mouths, and showing himself here as prodigal as elsewhere sparing, and withal sending where he was not himself some of his false ministers with his winged shoes, and road to be taken for him and his imps, though indeed they were nothing such.  
Returned to their lodging, there was no small ado to imprint the pleasantness of their conceits in Lindadori, who held it ill to nourish under a counterfeit habit the fiery thoughts of an harmless Girl, so ignorant and unexperimented in all wiliness and cunning artifice in her demeanour as to discover her love, not only to the more apprehensive, but even to her in that behalf dim-sighted eyes; whereof she making her moan to her mother, canestly besought her to bring her no more thither, whilst her father and Coralbo could not refrain from laughing at both the occasion of her dislike, and her manner of expressing it; yet at length she was (though with much ado) pacified, by being informed, that the Nobility and Gentry of that Country were wont (though indeed they were far otherwise inclined) to take on them to be ever in love, only for good manners sake; because not knowing how otherwise to entertain or court Ladies, they had recourse to the Articles of Love; being assured, they could not be better pleased, than to see deserving men so deceived, as to believe and style them beautiful, though they were nothing so.  
The two Princesses that with others had entertained in discourse the two Princes, (whereof the one was of Bernice, and the other of Cirene) remained beyond measure taken with their noble carriage, upon considerate observation of their merits, and passing liking they had to a certain cold reservedness, by them judged to be an enemy to presumption and daughter to respect, only to Eromena this complementally-amorous way of courting was nothing pleasing, who though happy in a husband worthy of other women's loves, was yet unhappy long of that passion of love, which (by a cold name contrary to its fervide effects) the vulgar call jealousy, which she had long before victoriously fought withal; and at length more by the confidence of her own merits, than with any force of her natural inclination; being assured, that he might well enjoy, but not possibly love other women than her: which (between jest and earnest) she had many times told him: And now considering her being past the fair Meridian of her youth, and his being not yet come to that of his, and his now having not only a likely but also (to her thinking) a near occasion and fair opportunity of enjoying, she could not shut the door of her mind against imagination, which being lubric and invisible, penetrated (ere she was thereof aware) into the closet of her heart, so as she could no longer refrain from thus briefly expressing herself unto him.  
My endeared Lord, we are all of us fortunate in love, but in an unequal degree, mine cannot but make you pastime, nor yours choose but displease and trouble me. Lindadori she frets and grieves, and so do I too, she for overmuch simplicity, and I out of overmuch practice; let us wend therefore hence, I beseech you, since we have seen already enough if not too much: Which it much behoves us to do, were it for nothing else, but to shun the adventuring her in love's school, wherein whoso studies in jest, may learn in good earnest. This Bernice likes me not for you, nor this same Queen for me, both which will (I doubt me) prove dangerous sports, since you cannot but injure me, nor I choose but deceive her; mean while my father finds the want of us at home, where for being aged and solitary, he takes small joy of himself. If we stay lingering here to prosecute our commenced practices, we shall not rid us thereof a while, and then too not without disgust-giving, and therefore the sooner the better we end them; fastidious and unprofitable creatures are for the most part by nature endowed with short life; so our lives for being of the selfsame quality, deserve to be no longer lived, than are the wind-flies that live not above a day's space; and could we ere their birth-time be abortively delivered of them, for certain we should be the less hurt by them.  
Polimero smiled at these reasons of his beloved wife, whom (after having affectionately kissed her) he thus answered: Let us do (dear Lady of my life) what please you, not because the case with us so is, but because you seem to conceive it so to be, why? think you that your beauty is so slightly imprinted in the memory of my affection, that any other woman's can raze thereout the obliged respects I bear you? you (alas you wrong) by so conceiting both yourself and me; yourself, because your merits are such, that not the Princess of Bernice, but as many Princesses as are in the world cannot merit what you alone deserve; and me, because this suspicion of yours loads me with infidelity and ignorance. There is no choice without some kind of equality, how then can I make choice of any other in your presence, without notable stupidity and weakness of judgement? Or admitting you were not present, do you hold me to be so freed from the obligation of your love, as that any other canallure me? I know it stands us upon to wend us hence as soon as we conveniently can, so as I stand indeed upon thorns (as it were) all the while I stay here; but alas! how can we yet go for shame? shall we sneak away like fugitives, ingrateful to our courteous entertainers, and not without being suspected that such our resolution sprung from cowardice and fear of trying ourselves in Arms with these Knights? For Lindadori your reasons were indeed considerable, if the nature whereof she is composed were like that of other Girls, for you know, that she is an inexorable Enemy, not only to such a School, but even to all mankind; so as I pray God that we may ever persuade her to like of any husband; all which Eromena knew to be most true: Wherefore it was between them agreed, (as soon as the next Tourney was ended, which the Knights of that Court used to exercise twice a month) to go on their intended journey.  
But among all the actors on this amorous scene, Coralbo (good Prince) was that only one, who in appearance free, was yet more than any other muzzled and puzzled with the occult love that he bore the fierce Desterrada. Pass there did many an amorous compliment and pleasing discourse between him and the Princess of Cirene, whom he well perceived to be well inclined towards him; nor would he have slighted such a fortune, but that the finding himself under the lee of those three, with whom, for his pretensions sake, it behoved him to comply, made him abhor that congress, for doubt of irrecoverably falling. Now Coralbo never loved but in one sole place at once; and being oncetyed, he could never more lose himself; yet was he never (for all that) so overshot, as to offer his body to pine away, or sympathise with the consumption of a captivated spirit, as being no whit ambitious of loyalty in love, a virtue (in his conceit) melancholic, and beseeming such whining fellows as take a pleasure in sighing; or such Poets whose blunt fancies must be whetted with grief, ere they can pitch on a well-relishing conceit. For his part, he enjoyed where he could, holding in that behalf more choice-worthy the cunningly-carried evil than the foolish-reputed good; an opinion though bad, yet more practised, and (it may be) more prized than better. But the accident that now (as you shall hear) happened, rid the rest of their pain and him of his trouble.  
Bramac had corrupted a servant of Coralbo's Mothers, by whom he came to be advertized of all that ever she did, delivering his letters unto a post that came clad in rags and patches a-begging to her door for God's sake. This man discovering him to be Coralbo (though somewhat too late by reason of the queen's concealing him as long as possibly she could) avertized thereof Bramac, in a time that he could no way harm him: who now hearing that he was to part suddenly, sped away instantly certain choice men to murder him, and with them a Knight, with order to go (in case they lighted not on him) to Memphi, and there demand him in his name of Pisemitide. They accordingly came, but yet a day after Coralbo's parting, so as making yet sure account to surprise him by the way, they followed him with all possible diligence. But his meeting with the two Princesses, the fight, and his pursuing the runaway thiefs that led him out of his way, was the occasion that they both miss and came to Memphi before him.  
The Knight that had the letters and charge of Embassy, thought the delivery thereof bootless before he were ascertained of his being there; but not finding him (whom he was persuaded he should know both by countersigns, and by his likeness in favour to his Mother of him very well known he imagined that his losing of the way was the cause of his so long tarrying, which put him in a conceit of remounting on horseback to go meet him, assured he should do his Master a more acceptable piece of service in so murdering him, than in requiring him of Ptsemitide; yet this his determination was hindered by two obstacles, which were the disserviceableness of his own horses (that lay distended in the stable so tired, as they were not able to stand on their legs) and the doubt of meeting him by the way: Whilst then he thus stood irresolved whether course to take, sending in the mean while to inquire after him over all the Inns of Memphi, (a bootless diligence for a private man in a City peopled with five millions of men) he might two days after see him with his companions kiss the King's hand, knowing among them Polimero by the countersigns given him, though none of the rest, wherefore at the instant of Ptsemitides return from the queen's to his own lodgings, he with presenting his letter, opens him his Embassage; whereupon he (the most generous Prince of his time) inflamed with anger, thus bespeaks him.  
I will (my friend) excuse thee for being but an Ambassador, in discharge of whose office thou mayst not but obey him that sends thee, but for which I would inflict on thee such a chastisement, as might serve for a deterring example to all such as dare require of a Prince of my quality, things not only unjust, but also unworthy. Tell Bramac that I was borne King of Egypt, and if I acquired other Crowns, the world knows I usurped them not, but both won and hold them by the imperial Law of my victorious blade, ever an enemy to guile and treachery; which I never elsewhere read of than in the legend of his life and actions. And that therefore Coralbo (natural and true Prince of Arabia) shall be by me not only denied him, but also so protected, as that I will for his sake declare myself his enemy, both to chastise him for his rash judgement made of me, and to restore to the true and rightful Queen and to her son apparent heir thereof, the kingdom which he so injuriously and contrary to all Laws usurped. Now for thee, get thee from out our presence and that quickly too, nor allow I thee any longer time to abide in Memphi, than the unexpired piece of this day. This said, he turns his back and goes towards the Queen's lodgings thinking to find there Coralbo with his company; but finding them gone ere he came, he caused to be made ready two sumptuous Chariots, commanding the Lord of Pelusio to go fetch them to Court, without making any speech of the Ambassador, but telling them from him, that in respect of their being strangers and of Countries thence far remote, and residing now in a Country where the Greek tongue was not elsewhere spoken than in Court, he would be their host himself.  
The four Princes were even going to sit them down to supper, when the Embassy arrived; which they construed to proceed from the Queen and two Princesses of Bernice and Cirene, rather than from the King; which notwithstanding Polimero yielded such humble thanks, and used such reverend language, as befitted so great a Monarch and courteous a Prince, with beseeching the Lord of Pelusio to tell him, if the command were dispenseable till the following morning; but he protesting he was sent thither with express order to come and conduct them to Court presently, they willingly obeyed.  
The Noble man thought to give Coralbo the first place, as knowing who he was; but seeing the respect which he in his demeanour bare to the other three, he imagined that either they were also great Princes, or else that they knew him not; this conjecture of his being confirmed by his observing the same all the way, and withal in the two women-signs that bred in him a doubt whether they were men or not. Come that they were to the Palace and ascended the stairs, they marveyled at the glorious sight of the number of Nobility they there saw, the King having sent to meet them the greatest Lords of the Court, and coming himself from out his withdrawing Chamber in person to receive them: To whom Polimero was about in a respectively-complemental way to express their grateful engagement for so high a favour and great honour done them; when he taking by the hand Coralbo, whom by the countersigns given him he knew, thus smilingly bespoke him.  
And is it thus indeed, that you without any safe conduct come into my Territories my Lord Prince of Arabia, and think to be here unknown? At these words Coralbo (good Prince) remained astonished, for not knowing in what sense to interpret them, and had (but for his mother's having that authentic protection which she had) made the worst construction thereof; although the fame of the King's generous disposition and noble-mindedness made him conceive them somewhat nearer their right sense; yet stood he a good while musing what answer to make, irresolved whether he were best confess himself to be such or not: which Ptsemitide observing; You need not Prince (spoke he then on) conceal yourself from me, who will be to you not only a friend, but a father too, which you shall see by real effects. Coralbo at these words kneeling before him, would needs have therefore kissed his hand; but he not suffering him to abide in that submissive posture suddenly raised him up, who having by this time regained his breath and courage, returned him this answer.  
Royal Sir, I deny me not to be Coralbo, but well affirm, that your Majesty hath in two words so obliged me, that I am so far from denying you my name, as I'll not deny you my life, so fortune made me so happy as to spend it in your Majesty's service. The King upon this (after having again embraced him) reaccounted unto him openly Bramac's embassy with his answer, and then proceeded. I will endeavour to re-acquist you the kingdom or dye in the attempt; the deferring whereof shall be no longer than till the getting together the forces necessary for such an enterprise. Coralbo was so confused in mind (or rather so transported beyond himself) at this so unthought of good fortune, as he could not hit on language suitable to his beholdingness. When the King observing that his companions comprehended with no symptom of strangeness this title of Prince, withdrawing him aside, asked him who they were. Coralbo (to whom denying the truth seemed a term of ingratitude, and again the discovering it (he knew) could not but disgust them his highly-honoured friends) answered: I cannot say (Sir) that I know them not, but I well know that they would not be known; therefore I refer it to your Majesty's discreet consideration to command me what your royal pleasure is I should do; I pray you (replied he again smiling) tell it me howsoever, and I promise you it shall be from all else kept as secret as if you had never told me of it. But then at hearing it, his astonishment was such, as it almost made him break his word: Willingly would he have known then presently the story and occasion of their coming thither, but that doubting of their taking notice thereof, he remitted it till after supper. And now whilst the Courtiers ran to kiss Coralbo's hand, he thence retiring himself with the two Princesses and Polimero, thus greets them.  
I doubt me (worthy Sir) ye have judged me discourteous, for having (by being so long in presenting my honoured respects to the Prince of Arabia) neglected my observance to you, for which I beseech you to excuse me, and withal to command in this house such entertainment and service as best likes you. Polimero who at first upon Coralbo's being discovered was exceedingly confused in mind, but afterwards at his hope-surpassing good fortune beyond expression joyful, answered him: Mighty Sir, your Majesty cannot be moved to say thus to us otherwise than by your royal courtesy, whereby you have obliged all that knew you; the favours and honours we receive so exceedingly beyond all degrees of exceedingness surpass the meanness of our merits, as they argue that your Majesty's benignity after a long contestation with your greatness, is become in every respect its equal: Besides, that the favours you do the Prince of Arabia is so well employed, as your Majesty could never confer them on a more deserving personage. The King steadfastly beheld the two she-warriors with great delight, affecting naturally both beauty and valour; nor was it now difficult for him by the inkling before given him to discern their sex, which taking on him he did not though against his will: Your aspects (answered he) are such as speak you worthy of my more respective observance, I should be loath to one past error to add many greater; and therefore I pray you tell me who ye are, that I may the better know how to suit your entertainment to your quality; your endeared friendship and intimate familiarity with the Prince of Arabia, and your having known him for such before (as I am induced to believe by your not marveyling at my naming him by his title) persuade me, that you are his equals if not superiors. At this Eromena blushed, and doubting lest her husband should by importunity be wrought to tell him what they were, she answered:  
Be your Majesty (we beseech you) pleased to lay apart so high an opinion of such mean Gentlemen as we be; we are ('tis true) Knights errant, and that is the greatest quality we can assume or ever aspire unto: If upon understanding what till then we knew not of the Prince of Arabia, we made no present demonstration of our joy and duty, it was not because we knew him before, but to afford others the more ample commodiousness of doing him congratulating offices, which (we presumed) we could not miss of at his more privacy and leisure, our travelling together and long conversation having (we thank his benign goodness) made us somewhat familiar.  
The King well knew the Princess' mind, and as one that never displeased Lady, would not displease her; but turned his discourse to another subject. And then as soon as Coralbo was rid of his complemental cumber, he led them all to the Queen; who already informed of Coralbo's being, expressed much joy thereat, all the other Princesses doing the same, but that of Cirene more than all the rest. And then after supper (where their bodies were not so much refreshed with food, as their minds solaced with mirth & pleasing discourses) they were accommodated with Lodgings conformable to the quality of the host, and greatness of the Inn. And in the nighttime their Chambers being near adjoining (as they desired they should be) Eromena persuaded her husband to a sudden departure, showing him, that to stay for jousts was but a reason vain, and capable of entangling them in endless affairs.  
The day being come, Polimero renews his congratulating joys with Coralbo, that fortune had declared herself so favourable unto him for the recovery of his state, with expressing how sorry he was that he could not be in his own person a partaker in that service, the affairs of Sardinia, and his fathers-in-law infirmity necessarily requiring his speedy return home. Coralbo (that had beforehand been fully informed of all) answered him. That on the contrary he was right sorry, that he could not serve him in Sardinia according as he had once purposed; howbeit he hoped (upon fortune's favouring him, with a little vacancy from his affairs, to which he was for the present necessitated to attend, more for honour's satisfaction than for any great list he had thereunto) to find a time to come in person to make a real expression of his mindfulness of the obligations he stood bound to him in. The courtesies were of both sides reciprocal, entertwyned by those of Eromena, who earnestly besought Coralbo to procure them speedy leave to depart, which conformably followed to the amazement of all the Court, and passing sorrow of the Queen, her daughter, and Berenice. The King privately informed by Coralbo of the urgency of their occasions, without making show that he knew any thing thereof, was content to let them go on their way. Only Coralbo above all others felt extreme grief at this separation; I make no mention of particular affections, of the words and offers of the three pretended-she-lovers, of the promises of return and well-carried dissimulations of the two she-warriors, accompanied a good part of their way by Coralbo, who had passed on further too, if they had permitted him. Stammer out then he did some service-intimating compliments to Lindadori, by her rather heard than conceived. From Polimero and the rest the period of his parting-farewell was rather silence than any compliment. Come to the Seashore, they embarked themselves for Cyprus, a Course though somewhat more giring, yet more secure than the shorter cut; whereof the Count of Bona was very glad, making an account of informing himself there, of the particular successes of Prince Melianto. But there was thereof no need, there fortuning to be aboard the ship they were in, a Gentleman of that Court, bound thither, who being asked what news stirred in those parts, answered; that Cyprus was now the joyfullest kingdom in the world, sithence that alliance which was thought to prove the occasion of bloody war, was now grown to be an indissoluble knot of unexpected friendship. Whereupon Eromena seeming to be desirous to understand the particularities thereof, the Gentleman courteously corresponds her desire in these words.  
Illyria a most warlike kingdom hath for King one called Ormando, a Prince many degrees above his predecessors both virtuous and excellent. The feats of Arms he performed whilst he was a young man, afforded rich matter both to poesy and story; And now that he is become old, his prudence and justice give yet a greater light to Statesmen; who gathering from out this one Prince's life, so many cases to judge by, and so many examples to govern by, apparently saw, that the world had now no more need of any other exquisite pattern for the well-governing of Commonwealths, and Idealty of Princes; his kingdom being such a Commonwealth, and his person such a really-formed Prince, as others endeavour to form imaginarily. Acquired he had (before his coming to the Crown) an infinite number of Countries, which (for being far remote from our parts) have names that never came to our knowledge, excepting some of the less distant and more famous of them, as those of the Misians, the dardan's, the Triballs, the Sarmats, the Bohemenians, Russians, and others in the large-extending Territories of vast Germany, to whom he gave both Princes and liberty; content (in memory of his Victories) only to tie them to speak for ever the Illirian tongue. He fortuned (whilst he was a Knight-errant) to become enamoured of Arnelinda Princess of Cyprus, who (though already promised in marriage to Arbon King of Pontus (a fierce young Prince) could not yet choose but love him, whose gestures, disposition, and presence were means but too potent to force her will. But she (being among all the Virgins that ever Minerva nursed the most constant in good actions) one day that he made bold to speak to her of love, thus wrothfully checked him.  
Your words (Prince Ormondo) make me now perceive, you are not that good Prince you are taken for; seeing you, that of mine (as being a Virgins) honour should be a defender, are that only he that attempts its bane, and that (by undermining it) goes about to destroy and ruin it: Alas! I have not any Knights to defend me: Defend you me then against yourself. I am already a married wife, and that you well know too: Seeing than you sin not through ignorance, 'tis certain you do it out of malice. What is it (I would fain know) that you pretend of me? Seem (I wonder) either my behaviour or fame such in your prejudicating eyes, as might suggest in your undermining heart so outrageous a presumption? Or though it so were, that you loved me unfeignedly, and that (through my ill fortune) I loved you too; yet what comfort, nay what hopes of comfort could out desires have, that can prove otherwise than treason and shame unto me, and treachery and shame unto you? It will then be the lesser evil, that (for not tormenting me) you retire yourself. Fortune, you see, hath bestowed me upon another; sithence than be yours I cannot, you must be content that you cannot be mine neither. At these words Ormondo remained astonished; perceiving himself in an instant to be (ere he was aware thereof) beloved; and yet again in the very same moment of time (contrary to love's nature) refuted. But the property of generous hearts being inclinable rather to hope than fear, he returned her this answer.  
Right excellent Madame, as my words aimed no way at your prejudice, so shall my actions tend ever to your service: And though I be not for the present a crowned King as is that of Pontus, yet am I to be one day such by the order of nature, and of such a kingdom too, that (as I may without any vaunting say) Pontus and ten such cannot equal it. Of the persons I mean not to make comparisons: But if there be no other worth or good that makes for me, than the courteous inclination to me-wards, which to my good hap I discover in you; yet shall that alone sufficiently serve my turn to merit you in your own judgement, and yet much more in the judgement of others for its depriving them of all merit: I want, and seek for a wife myself too, and marriages are written in heaven, the prime Article of whose Law is, that the married couple be thereunto voluntarily consenting. Therefore although I say not that the King of Pontus is not worthy of you, considering his noble conditions; yet will I boldly affirm, that he cannot be justly your husband, in case you thereof are not contented otherwise than in obeisance of others. I (Madame) never entertained a thought of motioning love unto you, otherwise than in a lawful and honourable way. And so to do both your fame and conditions emboldened me, yea that fame, which (to your passing glory) sounds a singular note of excellency in the ears of all men, and these conditions which serve for a norm and pattern for all the Princesses and women of the earth to form their lives and actions by; for but for your being such, I had ne'er fixed on you an affectionate eye. Moreover, although (I grant) that your beauty and outward feature have force to violent hearts, yet may there be, for all that, a heart armed against them, & penetrable only by the Arms of innocence and internal purity. Again, for me to get me gone without you is altogether impossible: You say you are married, and yet (I know) you are not; the Ambassadors of Pontus and your father had no authority to bind you; you only are she that makes up the Matrimony, and she that may choose and refuse to make it; The parts thereof are yet both in their entire, and both free: The bonds of the two Laws, Humane and Divine, though they be made ready to bind you, have not bound you yet though, so as they cannot be thereby any way infringed. A true and lawful Matrimony indeed it would be, that you accepting me for your servant and husband, would vouchsafe to bless me by pronouncing one single voluntary Yea; that then I might ascertain you, that the hopes you please to build on me are neither vain nor ruinous.  
Humane inclinations were ever subject to persuasions. The Princess who merely for Ormondo's fame was in some sort enamoured of him ere ever she saw him, now after seeing him accompanied with so many virtues (so excellently-excelling, as only one of them was able to dignify and make worthy any Cavalier whatsoever) became so inflamed with love of him, that the Matrimony contracted seemed a hell to her, wherefore doubting whether she should ever more light on the like occasion, her affection being already unveiled, she deemed it best to unveil also her desire; fetching then a deep sigh that intimated the as yet doubtfulness of her hopes, she thus bespeaks him.  
Prince of Illirio; I render you not thanks for your love, as according to the custom of the times I should do, because I like not the being an affectate follower of the common stile; I follow mine own, and have (as I conceive) my reason for it; knowing that who so loves, loves for his own affections sake, so as the obligations and reciprocal duties so complementally professed amongst friends, are words merely superfluous, and terms and names unfit to be used. Touching now what you offer me, I am persuaded you do it not, without having first examined the difficulty of the enterprise with your dangers and their consequences: Let me now then see in case I pronounced your desired Yea, what (for the less dangerous) course would you take to have me? Whereto Ormondo all-joyfull answered; The usual course (Madame) in such cases throughout all the world. The Prince of Thrace my Cousin will lend me his Galley, which is one of the swiftest that ever furrowed the Ocean. Come once but to set footing in Illirico, I then fear not all the powers of the world; for your Father and Brother, they will (I persuade myself) be glad upon comprehending the exchange you have made of a little King for a great kingdom: And for Arbone I conceive no occasion you have to fear him. Arnelinda would not resolve of any thing for that present, but took time to think thereon, which served for an item for the now half-promised bridegroom to prepare himself.  
Ormondo was then come from the Eastern parts with an intent to return homewards; but passing from Phenicia to Cyprus he there chanced to find Serpidoro Prince of Thrace his Cousin german, with whom he being bred up from a child, and both of them having learned the exercises of Chivalry together, there sprung from this their conversation a friendship which transcended the love of blood, the strongest tie of the most part of kinsmen, which gave to as many as knew them an example of an illimited love without paragon. Now Serpidoro had (after having given the chase to some vessels of pirates which he afterwards took in the Cilician Sea) heard of the neighbouring nuptials in Cyprus, whither he thereupon retired with one sole Galley, (having sent the rest home) with an intention to try himself in Arms at the Tourney; where finding (beyond his expectation) his endeared Cousin Ormondo, they both resolved to maintain the lists against all the adventurers of the jousts. But this new amorous congress set their brains a working on new deliberations, Serpidoro causing (upon Ormondo's scarce opening of his mouth) his Galley to be new-calked and rigged, with giving special order, that nothing should be wanting her, that might any way make her more useful and serviceable to steed his friend. Senesteo King of Cyprus, and more than he the Prince Ortomano his son, enamoured of the qualities and fair disposition of Ormondo did him all imaginable honour, not without repining though too late, that it had not fallen to their lot to have had him instead of Arbone, now that they perceived him somewhat affectionately inclined to Arnelinda: Love [the fire of the mind] being hardly smothered, and therefore not unlike the elemental fire, which if it flame not must needs smoke.  
The Princess as soon as Ormondo was parted from her, summoned all her thoughts before the tribunal of her judgement, the main subject of her consideration in her case was the sole point of honour, the arguments about which were great, but all solved by the title of Matrimony: For her father, she imagined that he being discreet, would not be displeased thereat; not because children stolen away ease their fathers of their duty of caring or doing for them (such being only a shake-off excuse and advantage of base and servile-minded people) but because the affinity with so great a King might steed him very much; besides, the having of so valorous a Prince for his son-in-law, of whom he might promise himself more than of the King of Pontus, whose foolhardy rashness could not but stir up suspicion in him and in her fear and terror: A discourse wholly tending to the substance, since she could not light on any opposition touching any outward appearance, feature or, demeanour; she conceiting, that no other man than Ormondo could ever make her happy; that no other than he deserved the Epithet of handsome, proper, and well-carriaged; that no face, speech, or behaviour could be esteem-worthy or graceful, that either in aspect, accent, or manners any thing differed from his. In brief, she conceived, that in him alone was comprehended all humane good, wherein though she indeed was not much deceived, yet concludes, that not (for all that) she could not be beguiled, as for the most part are deceivable all such Matrimonies whose ends are venery and lust, such not eiing but where they like: For, pleasure being an enemy to the privation of itself, abhors the sight of the unlovely parts, for not being constrained to loathe them; and hath for feeding that its humour perpetually fixed on the lovely parts more eyes than Argos, but is to the loathsome ones stark blind; Or if he hoodwinked see any of them, he may then chafe and fret, and perhaps persuade himself to be mistaken, but not have the power to dissolve any part of his beloved object; so as the thought there of either flies away like a bird, or vanisheth like a spirit: For her brother she saw no probability of his disliking her choice, whom she knew he tendered dearly, as being to Arbone no whit, but to Ormondo altogether inclined. After all which considerations, her resolution was, to get her thence, so she might but do it without danger.  
Ormondo (that thought that no time to lose time) failed not to come the day following to visit her; and having obtained his desired Yea, calling unto him the Prince of Thrace, who stood apart entertaining the Ladies, he unnoted of any other, espoused her in his presence, and then instantly proposeth the plot of taking her away that very night, which accordingly so happily succeeded, that no living soul either perceived or suspected it.  
The careful Serpidoro, having lodged the bride-couple a-bed, sailed on with all diligence all the night long, so as the following morning he was got so far, as that they could now no more descry the beloved Cyprus. The fair Arnelinda, though exceedingly content with her Bridegroom, was yet a little discontent, or at least pensive for what she had done, a kind of repentance, (if so it may be called) counterfeit and feigned. The consideration of the likelihood of her being talked of and censured, for having left her father, and unmarried and remarried again at her pleasure, vexed her to the very heart. For aught else she was so far from repenting, that if she had been yet to do it, she would have done it again & again, although in doing it she had hazarded much more than she did. Ormondo joys her, and Serpidoro cheers her up, and does her all loving offices as tenderly-careful as if she had been his own sister, failing all the while with a prosperous gale till they came within kenning of the coasts of Licia, where their being becalmed roused up the ghing, who obeying the boatswain, made the Vessel stir on with main force of Oars. But now that they were got within ten miles of the Chelidonian Lands, they might see launch out from among the rocks a Fleet of ten Galleys, which (as the Pilot judged) had been kept in by contrary winds, and were now in that calm set out. At the sight where of the sweet Arnelinda grew pale, imagining (nor was she indeed mistaken) that they were of Pontus, and that aboard them was the King, bound for Cyprus to marry her; which believed so to be by Scrpidoro too, he caused (for shunning the encountering them) the Mariners to take about towards Libecchio.  
The Fleet observing the Galley (that before steered directly towards them) begin now to alter her course, grew thereupon suspicious of her, and taking her to be some pirate, gave her speedily a stern-chase, with three of the fleetest, the others following them. Serpidoro looking Ormondo in the face without speaking a word, seemed to expect he should command him either to abide the fight or fly; whereupon the other turning toward him in a smiling manner said: And what else shall we do (noble Cousin) but shun the fight? since that if we chance to have the worst of it, the vanquisher will then gain my prize; and again, in case we have the best on't, then shall I be much blamed for first taking away the wife, and then killing the husband too; let us therefore (a God's name) hold on our way, we shall have good sport in seeing ourselves vainly pursued, seeing we have (I thank you) a Galley able to contend with the Dolphins for fleetness. This Counsel pleased well Serpidoro, so did not the pastime Arnelinda, who enlarging herself on the reason produced by her husband, told them, that for her part she held it not fitting to jeer any offended person, for not accumulating (against all reason) scorn upon injury; which she more efficaciously expressed upon discerning soon after the Admiral (who being a very swift one had left the others a poop of her) making a sign (as the custom is) with a bunch of feathers, in token of her commanding obeisance. The Princes all this while could not betake themselves to a resolute (as they had done to a determinate) flight; but now since that it stood them upon, they (not despising their enemy's fleetness) scoured on with all the force and speed they could, after being vainly pursued full twenty miles.  
The King of Pontus seeing the impossibility of overtaking her, returned to steer his intended course, meeting with (towards the evening) the whole squadron of Cyprus, that came tracing the fugitive Galley. Hailed that they had each other, the Admiral hies to the King's Galley, whom he acquaints with the rape of the Princess, stolen away by the two Princes of Thrace and Illyria; I know not whether he thereat became stone or no, so astonished was he at this unexpected accident; which if he did, 'twas then surely a fiery stone, for there flashed from out of it such flames of anger and disdain, as seemed to be able to consume the world: He now perceived that the Galley he had given chase to, was the thief; and therefore repented he had not pursued her to the utmost. But seeing it could now be no otherwise remedied, causing his to tack about, and the Galley-slaves to be refreshed, he made them ply justily their Oars, steering all the night long, the slaves rowing in their quarters, and the Knights, Soldiers, and himself too putting their helping hands to the Oars to relieve them, that there might be no minute of time lost.  
The two Princes seeing that the King was (for being weary of chase them) retired, and that the Princess (now rid of the fear she stood in) desired to see land, went and anchored in Rhodes, their ghing being tired, and no breath of wind stirring on Sea. They took port in the Island, shunning the City for their more freedom. But scarce was it day, when the Scout from off the Main-top cried out, that there made after them a Fleet of sixteen Galleys, not above twenty miles a stern of them: Upon this Ormondo starting from out his bed, found the vigilant Serpidoro, that having already weighed anchor, was now launching out of the Bay. By when they might see the sixteen Galleys, who before rowing but quarterly with a fourth part of their Oars, tugged (now that they descried her) with the utmost and united might all their Oar-men had, whilst others abbassed the Decks, and put all things in readiness for the fight. Never was there seen a fairer chase, nor a fairer trial of good Galleys. Most of the Fleet came lagging on by one and two's, for not being able to maintain so swift a course as the foremost four, of which also three in less than fifteen miles' course came halting after the Admiral, some five, some six miles short of her, she alone continuing her main speed as at first, the King doing himself the office of Boatswain, ghing-captain, and unjust inflicter of more unjust cruelties on the lives of such, whom being little privileged in bodily force he would have (to Nature's shame) to have more strength than they had. Thus lasted the flight and chase from the setting of Lucifer to the rising of Hesperus; of sixteen Galleys there now appearing none save the Royal of Pontus; the Admiral of Cyprus being far a poop of her, and the rest here one and there another, six and eight miles short of her.  
Good pastime had Serpidoro all that day, in observing Arbon's folly, marvelling that the trial he had two days before made of his Galleys swiftness had not by now taught him more wit, since the very Grayhounds cease their course, when they see their prey so far outstrip them, as they see no possibility of overtaking it. And his ghing though they seemed to row but for their pleasure, got notwithstanding ever more and more ground of their pursuers, and then upon the breathing of a gentle North-east wind, entering into the Channel between Crete and Caria in the Ciclads Labyrinth, leaving on the right hand Stefalea, and on the left Terasia; they sailed with some danger, till they struck into Ecatea, where they cast anchor, having got out of Arbon's sight the first evening, without seeing any more sign of him: For all which Arnelinda could not yet think herself safe enough: All this way steered they in a short time, although Ormondo all this while fretted exceedingly at the necessity of their flight, whilst the enemy being severed from his company might be well fought withal and vanquished, his ghing being even dead with overlabouring, his Soldiers quite tired in relieving them, and Arbon himself, over and besides his native rashness, being now long of the torture of his own chafing fury more than ever void of judgement and discretion: By alleging which reasons he (changed from his former determination) earnestly importuned and oft entreated his wife's assent, who as earnestly of the other side dissuaded and begged of him to forbear. Reposed themselves that they had one night, they (weighing anchor) steered away aloof of the Arbon's right way for Pontus, and theirs for Bisantium) and thence towards Maronea the first place of Thrace, where they abode till Serpidoro by advertising the King Ciriandro his Father of their arrival, received commodious means for conducting them to Court as beseemed such Princes. fain would Ormondo have (under one) brought his Bride strait to Illirio, for not incommodating his friend, which the other would by no means suffer him to do, but took hold of this occasion of entertaining and honouring his friend at his home as he had often wished for; which courtesy it behoved the other to accept, as well for Arnelinda's sake, who was now weary of the sea, as also for the hope he had, that his sojourn there would not prove unnecessary, considering the probability of Arbon's hostile incursions into Ciriandros' dominions, the two kingdoms being not otherwise separated than by the Bosforum, and by consequence near enough to molest each other.  
Ciriandro understanding how the case stood, was nothing pleased therewith, as foreseeing what must in its respect befall him; yet omitted he not (for all that) the sending of Litters, Horses, Ladies and Knights to serve the Princes; taking there with hall such order as was requisite for his Statesdefence. And then came himself in person together with his Queen Siledc being Ormondo's own Aunt, and Eliante his Daughter to the foot of Mount Rhodope to meet them: whence he conducted them to Nicopoli, and thence to Bisantium; by when he was advertized that Arbone was preparing to pass over the Bosforum with an indifferent strong Army, impatient of staying for as much as the necessary provisions requisite for such an enterprise.  
In the mean space King Chronno Prince Ormondo's Father, a Prince rigorously-just (advertized of the case by the Queen of Thrace his sister, by speedy messengers) banisheth from his State his son, for being married without his consent, for the stealing away of another's Bride, and the injury done to two Kings his friends; yet forbore he not (for all that) to furnish him abundantly with all things needful, by sending him (as from his mother) moneys for him, and jewels for Arnelinda, and for the wars, a silent assent to the Nobility, and express Commissions to the Milice to pass in small disordered squadrons over into Thrace. So as the number of Cavaliers was sufficient not only to finish that war, but even afterwards to conquer the greatest part of the known world.  
Arbon's first enterprise was to ravage and run over with his Army all between the Bosforum and the Hellespont, sacking and then (to Ciriandro's more damage) burning whatsoever he lighted on, and thence crossed over the sea to besiege Bysantium. Permitted he was to land, but to his fatal ruin, for that war was ended by that one battle, his forces being almost all of them there cut in pieces, and himself taken prisoner by Ormondo; who passing afterwards with his Illirians over into Pontus, took all that kingdom, and with it Bonarea and Arselia King Arbon's sisters, whom together with their brother he delivered over to the hands of Ciriandro. Met in his return was Ormondo with great triumphs by his endeared Cousin Serpidoro, who eyeing Bonarea, became suddenly enamoured of her, an affect necessitating his cheering her up with terms and offers between courteous and amorous, which was the occasion that made her soon lay aside all womanish desperations; and so account her imprisonment the means and occasioner rather of her joy than discontent. She appeased as well as she could the raving fury of her more than furious brother, whose liberty she might (as she presumed) have begged ransomless, but that his precipitous nature could not abide the motioning of such a resolution; his prison was nevertheless large enough, for he might go where he listed over all the Castle. So was he like wise in all other respects honoured and served more like a King than a prisoner. Serpidoro this mean while communicating his love to his friend, besought him to bethink himself of some way of satisfying his desire; for that he doubted that his Father, despising the condition of a prisoner-princess, would hardly assent to his choice. Upon this Ormondo (after having considered with himself the importancy of the business) goes to Bonarea, whom he finds gladsomely enjoying the sweet company of Eliante and Arnelinda. Taking her therefore apart, he thus bespeaks her.  
If I pretended (sweet Madame) to implore of your goodness any favour for myself, I were then ill advised to come in my own person, with any hope to obtain it; for knowing, that my having done you so many injuries cannot choose but give you just occasion to hate me. But (so the Gods love me) all passed faults of mine in that behalf are mecrely innocent errors; whereof the first was of love ere ever I knew your brother; the second of natural defence, wherein he through his ill fortune lost his liberty; the third of war, by which I took from him his State, and your noble personage more esteem-worthy than either kingdom, Crown or any thing else; and this thought I fit to acquaint you with (Madame) before I pass any farther, to the end my actions might in some excusable way be construed by you, whose good opinion I esteem more than all my acquists, as I now mean to let you see. Bonarea marvelling at such a preamble, and longing to understand its sequel, returned him this answer.  
Most valorous and redoubted Prince, Fortune hath by your victorious hands so abased me, that neither you have occasion to beg aught of me, nor I wherewithal to favour, you, which if I had, I would then let you see, even in the present estate I yet am in, that a maiden of my condition regards more the intention than the effects; and though I know that you are the total ruin of our State, and the sole occasion of our disasters; yet know I likewise as well, that what you tell me is not far from the truth. So as though I seem to have cause, yet neither ought I justly, nor can I with reason hate you. Next for your person, it (right noble Prince) carrieth with it so many and so great privileges, that to believe yourself to be in its respect disadvantageous with me, were rather to accuse me of unjust judgement in your merits, than just passion for your faults; but the present being of both of us, will soon rid us of any such doubt, since that I being your vanquished prisoner, am by the practised Law of Arms to receive Laws from you my vanquisher. The generous hearted Ormondo remained astonished at so noble a spirit, so as established firmer now than ever in his good intention, he in this sort replied.  
Princely Madame, such generous hearts as yours neither know what disasters mean, nor are any way subject to vanquishers; nay they losing evermore gain; well may fortune have power over what's theirs, but yet never over them, and (by her favour) she is now like to disclaim her interest in either. But here, because they were standing, he courteously presenting her a stool, and then seating himself on another close by her, thus proceeded. I have seriously bethought myself (Madame) of finding after so many evils a remedy for such as are yet revokeable, as is the Realm, and liberty on such conditions as may assure a true and durable peace between the kingdom of Thrace and that of Pontus. The enmity (you know) is sprung from an intended marriage, broke off by me; in recompense of which one, I would now make up three; the King your brother can now have no more pretensions, since he hath lost Bride, Kingdom, liberty, sisters, and all; which not with standing, my intention is to restore him all, excepting your person (Madame) not to detain you prisoner, but that being a free woman you may oblige me in bestowing yourself in an honourable way on my Cousin Scrpidoro, who entirely loves and highly honours you: The Princess Arselia I mean (so she be therewith pleased) to match with Ortomano Prince of Cyprus my brother-in-law. And to your brother for Arnelinda that I took from him, I'll give my Cousin Eliante, and with her for dowry both the kingdom of Pontus, and his liberty. Now although I know that such conditions make for his advantage, yet held I it not fit to propose them to other than you, that you might treat thereof with him, considering that he'll not easily be overruled by other, than such whom he is well acquainted with.  
Unexpressible was the consolation that the noble-minded Bonarea received from so beyond-all-hope-generous a proposition; whereunto she (after having humbly thanked him in the most grateful and courteous language she could devise) told him; that touching Arbano's business, she would treat with him of it; but for the other that concern 〈…〉 herself, she meant not to will other than that which to him, to her-so-great obligation seemed good for her to determine of, styling her disasters happiness, and her losses invaluable acquisitions, since they had been the means to bring her to such noble acquaintance, and such happy friendship. She usually went to visit her brother almost every day, and had by commending the Cavaliers of that Court, and their courtesies (seconded with adverse fortune which makes men become wise) somewhat mollified the hardness of his fierce humour, and now as a discreet woman falling to discourse first at large of the business, she by degrees fell to propose, how advantageous it were for him if such things could be effected, which indeed were already granted. But he thinking they would never be drawn to such conditions, which he for his part would but too willingly assent unto; she (with that) opens unto him all that Ormondo had treated of with her; whereupon expressing with shouts of joy the infiniteness of his obligations to him; and being after set free out of the Castle, there was soon in liberty concluded on, what in liberty was to be enjoyed.  
Ciriandro first sends a noble Embassy into Cyprus to Senasteo with the six Galleys that had been taken from him; acquaints him also with all that had happened, and offers him with the marriage a perpetual amity; shows him, to how good an end the ill beginning came to, and how there was fallen to his lot the most noble and valorous son-in-law that the world could boast of. Conformable to this writes also Arnelinda, and withal craves her Father pardon, invites her brother, and prays both of them to accept of both the peace and alliance. Arbone too by his particular ambassadors assures him of the memory that he would perpetually conserve of his love, no otherwise than if he had indeed been his son-in-law; and that since he could not have Arnclinda, he yet could not choose but commend her for having so happily transgressed; he proffers him Arselia for Ortomano, and thanks him for his Galleys, which though by him lost, were yet out of the vanquishers noble courtesy resent him.  
Senesteo comprehending such a stinging business of difference to be so composed and determined to his honour, gave his free assent and leave to Ortomano, who (conveyed by fifteen Galleys) went flying to Thrace, where he was courteously received, and nobly welcomed by his sister, brother-in-law, and Bride with infinite joy: And then with all convenient speed were the treble nuptials solemnly celebrated, Pontus restored, and Ormondo with the good leave of his Uncle and Cousin (leaving Arnelinda quick with child) issued out with his Illirians to the field, not accepting of one Thracian in all his troops. And taking occasion to remember how his men were ill treated in passing through the Countries of the dardan's and Triballs, he assails, subdues, and then incorporates the later to the Crown of Thrace in recompense of the kingdom of Pontus, by him restored to Arbone; the same did he also to the dardan's, subjecting them to his Father. Returned to Nicopolis, he found Arnelinda freed of her burden, having brought to the world two goodly twins, a boy and a girl, the first named Ladomonte, and the other Deadora; yet would he not (for all that) part from Thrace ere he saw bud forth the fruit of the other three. Bonarea bare Serpidoro a male child called Erpandro, Eliante brought forth Arbone, another named Vincireo, and Arsilea to Ortomano a third hight Gradamoro. But then sent for home by frequent Ambassadors from his father, longing to see with his son his daughter-in-law with her little babes, he parted (leaving many a farewell weeping eye behind him) though not without first agreeing on a marriage between Erpandro and Deadora, as then but few months of age. The love of the two friends ever studying how, and yet never finding means sufficient to conjoin, and in varied ways reconjoin those affects in them, which could not possibly be ever either disjoined or worn away by any malicious suggestion of time or fortune.  
The valorous Ormondo having thus by his return satisfied his Father's desire, goes out against the Dacians, and subjugates them; and then having conquered both Panonians, wheels his victorious front towards the Sarmacians, next whom he vanquisheth the Russians; combated had he also with the frozen Neptune of those seas, but that the frost of the Hyperborcans retreated him. And being daily abundantly supplied with fresh men, that from Illirio swarmed to him like Bees rather to the victory than booty, he thought best to make a modestly-discreet use of his fortune by restraining the bounds of his Empire within a governable distance; selecting therefore the best deserving among the most valiant, he bestows on them his acquisted Crowns; for conserving which, he left with each of them an Army, which served both for a Colony, and Seminary of his language; Ormondo having by his victories imposed no other yoke on the tributary Kings, than the obligation of leaving the Illirian tongue hereditary to posterity. And thence passing into Germany, he there with other Provinces subjected the Bohemians, subjugating likewise the Isntrians in returning homewards; where come, he found his father decrepit, his wife (as it were) half a widow, and his children well grown up. The first he now therefore eased of the burden of government, who a little after died happy in his sons glorious acquists: the second he comforted with new offspring: The third he took care for, placing Ladomonte in the career of an heroic education; and seeing that Deadora, disdaining the needle and spindle, with generous affects emulated his victories, he would not force nor thwart her natural inclinations, which though not best beseeming her sex, were yet no whit misbeseeming a royal Lady, a great Princess, and an Ormondo's Daughter. A liberty which although she assumed, yet made she such delicate use of it, that Nature repenting the having made her a woman, bestowed on her a manly deportment, limbs, and force, though yet no point farther than love permitted her; for observing her to be fair among the fairest, and in both gesture and aspect graceful and lovely among the prime that way endowed; he would not with those his graces have enriched her in vain, but would thereof in some sort participate, so as though she were a Masculine to others, yet was she a soster sexed creature to him.  
Ormondo's Court was so frequented, (his fame summoning all honouremulating Cavaliers to come from all parts to see him) as that it had not its paragon in all Europe. Among the younger sort whereof were his three Nephews, sprung from the three marriages made by him, (who were) Erpandro of Thrace, whom as soon as borne he had made his son-in-law; Vincireo of Pontus, and Gradamoro Arnelinda's own Nephew, all which lived in the company of Prince Ladomonte, who by his actions showed himself to be a true branch of Ormondo's stock. In quality he seemed to be their King, in maturity, if not a father, than something of a name less severe; for title of contemporary (or peer in years) became him not: Now there was ever among the other three Cousins an unfeigned emulation, the two of Cyprus and Pontus holding still together against that other of Thrace, so as being ever of accord and friends either with other, they ever discorded and were at jurre with him: Again, Deadora (for her part) always frequented her Brother and Cozen's exercises, as hunting, barriers, jousts, and the like, in all which she behaved herself so dexterously, as no man could judge what sex she was of, her ability in performing no way discovering her for a woman; so as her brother ever chused and named her above and rather than all the most experimented in Arms. Only Gradamoro beheld her, and she him in either of their pure being, Erpandro by her neither observed nor regarded, but slighted and in heart despised.  
Ormondo had in so long wars in those cold climes attracted no few indispositions; but above all the Gout most tormented him, which made him ever seek for some diversion, and of them to have recourse to the less incommodious, so to be the less sensible of his pain. He therefore retired to Faria the principal Island of his kingdom, where the constant perfection of the air, the pleasing solitariness of the Rocks thereabouts, the singular prospect of itself, and neighbourhood of Issa (the most delicious of all Lands) afforded him means of no less commodious than delight some entertainment; for, being now become unable to ride, he had changed that exercise to roving from Port to Port in that sinuous Region, which in despite of both tempest and blustering winds is ever constantly calm; thanks to the rampire-like sheltering rocks and crags, among which (as in a Fishpond or Wear) are conserved an infinite number of the most delicious and choicest fish of the Sea. The City hath its prospect fully Southward, with a Haven warmly sheltered from the opposite winds, Nature having providently planted near it a rock that steeds it for both Rampire and Parapet; behind the Sea-bank stand built the houses, ascending higher and higher by degrees even almost to the top of an elevated Mountain, on whose cime stands erected a little, but well built Castle; which besides its strength, shows delightful to the eye, in respect of its being so advantaged by Nature, and embellished by Arts curiosities. The Dwellings spreading from the top to the bottom, and well near from one point of the Heaven to the other in a lunar form, seem to represent a fair and well-proportioned scene.  
Issa thence eighteen miles, enjoys between its exquisite sites, large vineyards, and with game-abounding forests such choice and variety of contentsome pleasures and delightsome objects, as it is both a sufficient and indeed most fit place of entertainment for a Prince, who after long toil and acquired glories, aspires to repose. Besides, her vast Bay capable of receiving exceeding great Armadoes, served for a pleasing gulf, he there doing for preservation of his health in his Barge that exercise, which others of a more wholesome disposition do either on foot or horseback; and the Court being retired hither, their delights increased with the alteration and variety of sites.  
Gradamoro was (besides his passing well-proportioned bodily feature) by nature endowed with most amiable conditions, so as there was no man that knowing him, loved him not. Erpandro on the contrary (with his face all blemished over with pock-holes, of a nature rigid and dogged, and a vaunter withal) was much given to scorn and mock others, and the toy taking him sometimes in the pate to counterfeit Gradamoro in his gentle garb and acquaint demeanour, he did it so misbecommingly, and with gestures so unseemly, as made him loathsome to such as saw him act it. If therefore ormondo loved him, 'twas for his being a son to so dear a friend of his, for having destinated him for his son-in-law, and for not fully nor throughly knowing him; whereas Ladomonte and Deadora who had him ever in their eye, could not endure the sight of him; and therefore entertained him always with respect, for keeping him at a distance off their familiarity; but she above all others could not brook the sight of him, especially when with sighs and sobs he would (as pitifully and handsomely as he could) represent the person of an heartsick passionate lover; whereas tears though real, and sighs though unfeigned, full ill (God wot) became his mouth and cheeks. No one had this poor Prince that set before him a natural glass, to see therein his misbecoming carriage; Courtiers he had enough that followed him, puffed up with an ambition of being trusty to him; but knowing the good opinion he had of himself, they still seconded him in his humours, which made him become ever more and more peevish and impertinent.  
Gradamoro on the other side, to whom the Graces were Midwives, discretion mother, and the Muse's Nurses, had won him the hearts of all that knew him, Ormondo loved him for his merits, Arnclinda for nearness in blood, Ladomonte for friendship, and Deadora for love, she being resolved rather to dye than marry Erpandro; at whose appearance she would freeze, and sweat if she but heard him speak; and indeed to her it seemed wheresoever he was that mirth and discourse gave place to silence and melancholy: and again, where Gradamoro but entered, there was no kind of thing that in her eyes seemed not to rejoice, the very statues had then tongues, and the walls voices. How many times (alas) would she all alone drop from her fair eyes successive showers of brinish tears, in bethinking how to withdraw herself from such a husband? How often also made she her moan there of unto her mother, who whilst she comforted her with her tongue, lamented her with her heart? Ladomonte much pitied her, and wished in his heart to see her freed from him, but yet durst not speak of it, well knowing, that any such proposition, though just, would not be well taken of Ormondo; the match having been made when as they were as yet in their cradles, and with a friend whom it was not fit he should displease, since neither of them had ever given the other any cause of either distaste or discontent.  
No sooner was the gentle Gradamoro arrived in Illirio, and seen the sweetly-majestic Deadora, than that he rend off the habit of a Cousin: Her beauty accompanied with such singular virtues apparelling him in the finest love that ever lover was clothed in; but having heard the story (or perhaps read in the Chronicles) of the stealing away of his Aunt, the war that thereupon followed, the friendship between Ormondo and Serpidoro, the marriages and children sprung from them, among whom himself was one, and how that Deadora was firmly promised to Erpandro, he durst no more lift up his eyes, for doubt lest the object of an hopeless and hapless love should bring him to a despairing end; during a great course of time endured he this tormenting pain, without communicating the same to as much as Vnicireo, to whom he communicated even his very heart, wearying his feeble forces in endeavouring to disburden himself of it; but more potent forces forced him to undergo its load, so as afterwards being used to it, he began to delight in it; or else that being invisibly eased by Deadora's love, it was consequently easy for him to sustain a weight of itself sweet, with her much sweeter assistance. Love hath in all times been a cunning warrior, he durst not assault the generous and chaste heart of Dcadora, ere he had first battered it on both sides, that towards Erpandro with the Ram-engine of hatred, and that to Gradamoro-wards with hope and affection; he led on the assault through the ruins of anxious thoughts; and though the fight was no less dubious than dangerous, and the Captain assailant used to vanquish the stoutest Gods, yet thought he it not the least of his achievements to conquer such a maiden. And then too she pensively lamented for such losses that many another would have been glad of, whereof what judgement to make, I know not; nor can I tell you, whether or no it were, that she hated herself for suffering her resolution to be overcome, or for loving another with dead and almost impossible hopes.  
One morning had the Princes and she with them run at the Ring, where after sundry lays, it came by order of career to her turn to lay with Gradamoro, and 'twas that the loser should submit himself to the discretion of the vanquisher, in whatsoever it should please the same to command the other; she perhaps would not win, that so her true loss might be shadowed by this false one at play; or howsoever it was, lose she did. Gradamoro encouraged by the victory, taking off the Ring, thus accosts her.  
Dear Lady and Cousin, it hath pleased fortune to show me in this game how exceedingly she can hate me; she will that I bear you this Ring, for an other guise one, which to my ineffable content I would more than gladly have given you, had she been but pleased to have blessed me in my swathing-bands as she hath done others. What by this wager I can pretend (so it stand with your good liking) is, that you would be pleased, that I ever burn for you, and that in such a fire all the remnant of my lives time may blaze out, being resolved, since the Destinies deny me you, never to have other woman. That golden shaft which is feigned to strike through hearts, and impoison them with love, is no more than an amorous word steeped in the affection of a passionate lover, the one stabs, the other envenoms; so much teacheth us Deadora, who thereof is both the testimony and example. Unpossible is it to represent the trouble of mind she conceived thereat, and the internal commotion of her affections, spirits, and heart. Anger it was not, for love had expelled that passion: 'twas sure one of those things which cannot be known; or (as I by its operation should judge it) an effect of poison. Answer him she could not devise how, she was dumb to him now, and though she had known how, yet now wanted she time for it, the Princes being run thither to see what Gradamoro meant to command her; who though they came near of taking them both napping, yet he without losing any whit of his innate vivacity, complains to them, that the Princess making use of a maiden's privilege, pretended herself exempt from paying him any thing, invoking (with that) justice, the Gods, and their assistance, which he expressed with terms so pleasing, that Deadora herself could not choose but laugh thereat as well as the others. But come that evening to entertain her with his company as he was wont to do, the others being then by chance with the King, she thus bespeaks him.  
Cousin, you were telling me this morning something that I well understood not, please you therefore to be plain with me, that I may know whether you be in jest or good earnest? Madame (answered he) with a Princess of your condition and merit, and by a person of my quality, and one having withal such a relation to you as I have, full ill becomes jesting in such a subject. I was indeed borne very near you in blood, but your virtues tied me yet nearer you in servitude, and your beauty, graces, and merits with an indissoluble knot fast-bound me nearest you of all in love, if loving you be an offence, then must the being your servant and Cousin be no less; and if you judge me worthy of punishment, then must you likewise judge, that your virtues, beauty, and excelling parts deserve to be the first punished: But I beseech you to believe (peerless Madame) that these (though great) occasions had not (for all that) made me this day so bold as I was, but that I knew that your nuptials drew near, and that Erpandro now expects Ambassadors from his Father for effecting the Matrimony, which if it stand with your good liking, behold me then ready to serve you therein, as I shall in all things else whilst I breathe. If not, then should I think my audacity to have been necessary, and, as such, worthy of both excuse and pardon. Deadora, who at first had determined with herself to act the disdainful coy one, pierced now through the heart with the very mention of that marriage, replied.  
Cousin, your boldness is every way unexcusable; for, I being long sithence married, it is not for you to judge whether it be with my liking or not, it behoving me to subordinate my fancy to my Father's liking, who commands me. And had you any such thought out of any charity to me-wards, you should then have stripped yourself of the interest of your love to yourself, which adviseth me not for my good, but for his own behoof, and such as (perhaps too) cannot well please me. My Brother and Vincireo who have not your ends, have not that pity of me, a sign that your having it is more for your own sake than mine; therefore know I not, whether or no I ought either to believe a person interessed as you are, or make any account of your counsels. But granting they were true, and that I brooked not such a husband; methinks than you, that exposed the inconvenience, should likewise propose me its remedy. Well knew the warily-observant Gradamoro, that the Princess' words were not such as they sounded for, and that for well understanding them, it behoved him to make as though he understood them not; wherefore, as one penitent for his presumption, I will not (Madame) answered her he, defend or excuse my overboldness, whilst I pretend both to confess and crave pardon for it; only I beseech you, that weighing the occasions that occasioned it, you admit it to be excuse-worthy. Of your obedience to your Father, I neither have, nor mean to speak any dissuasive word; well affirm I, that Fathers should be well-advised in their commands, if they will not be disobeyed. For sometimes out of their fatherly privilege and authority, they (without thinking that they do otherwise than well) pitch upon such resolutions touching their children, which they would not have done, if they had but considered or foreseen their ensueable inconveniences. Now for the self-good-tending ends or interesses that you accuse me of, I am so far from denying it, that I openly confess, nay (as it were) proclaim it. Why! believe you (sweet Madame) that loves are other than interesses? surely no, love is even an interest or self-tending end of satisfying those affects in us, but for whose being there, we should never be troubled with love; so as when we love, we in loving ever love first our own affect, and then that which it loves for its own pleasure. Therefore if you condemn me for that, than you can do no less than condemn with me both the World and Nature, the later whereof having not the power to be otherwise than such, makes me that I cannot choose but love you, whilst I cannot choose but love mine own inclination and affect, which entirely loves you.  
This said, Gradamoro held his peace; but seeing her make no answer, he thus proceeded: Next for the counsel which you command me to give you, I should think any advice needless to such as mean not to follow it. In which regard I should hold it expedient, that you first resolve, whether you will, or will not have the Prince of Thrace, whom if you please to like and accept for your husband, it would be then but superstuous to discourse of what should be done: But in case you will not have him— Scarce had he pronounced the last accent, when they espied coming running towards them the three Princes, rejoicing that the King had told them, that within four months space he would have celebrated the nuptials of his Daughter with Erpandro, and had by letter signified so much to the King of Thrace to send Ambassadors to that end; and withal discoursed of the order he would have observed in the solemnities & jousts, and commanded Ladomonte to acquaint his sister with as much. But he was so discreet, that taking on him to be glad, whereas indeed he was sorry for it, he would not speak unto her a word thereof before their Cousins: But taking occasion to conduct her to their Mother's Lodgings, he then performed his Embassy; where with the Princess stung with an envenomed grief, thus bespeaks him.  
My Lord and Brother, you deliver me a message so cross to my content, as it draws on me the greatest anguish and hearts-grief that fortunes utmost spite can inflict on me. I ought to obey my father, ('tis true) yet ought my father then give me such a husband as I abhor not: you are my brother, and as being my only one, my only hope in all adverse fortune. I therefore conjure you to be my protector, and a means for breaking off of this Marriage, which ere ever I consent to, I am resolved (I here vow to you) to dye a thousand deaths. The Prince that tenderly loved her, all-confused in mind thus answered her.  
Dear Lady, and dearest sister, I never have nor mean to deny you any thing you ask of me, which any way tends to your behoof or content. And in this present occasion, I had (to tell you the truth) rather do than promise. For (to be plain with you) this match never liked me. My Cousin Erpandro is (indeed) a good Prince, but yet no fit husband for you; I am sorry we have suffered the disease to have his course for so many years without curing or stopping it, since its remedies can at this present prove but slow in operation, if not almost bootless. I will work with my father as much as possibly I can; but won he must be by degrees, for the affair is delicate, and yet to handle it gently we are disadvantaged by the brevity of time that precipitates it. I (many times) thought to go and confer with my Mother about it; but yet refrained, out of the belief I had, that she would never openly declare herself opposite to that match, were it but for her love to the King of Thrace, to whom she stood so highly obliged, when he with my Father conveyed her away from Cyprus, but would (I am persuaded) believe, she did an act unworthy of the friendship and gratitude she owed him. More for the present I cannot promise you, but that I am resolved (sithence no other expedient course can be therein taken) to wait for an opportunity to speak of it to the King, who is so discreet and just, as I presume he will not force you to match against your liking. These considerately-stayed reasons of her brother (whom in all other things she knew to be most resolute) made Deadora perceive that she might not rely upon any prevailing offices to her ends in this business, considering that to content her, there was a necessity of offending Serpidoro; wherefore having sent for to come to her the Prince of Cyprus, she thus bespeaks him.  
Behold me now (Cousin) resolved to have none of Erpandro, what therefore (I pray you) is now to be done? I have thereof spoken to my Brother, and find him (contrary to his ordinary temper) cold, and seeming to despair of furthering me rather than otherwise; he indeed accuseth me for not having thereof acquainted him sooner, by occasion of which neglect, the remedy (saith he) is grown to be more difficult, a difficulty which conjoined to some other considerations may be interpreted an impossibility: Which being so, it stands me upon to prevent it, for not being constrained to what I am most unwilling to do.  
Gradamoro seeing her now come to the point he wished for, returns her this answer. It's remedy (divine Dadame) is easy enough, so you but give way to it: Be pleased to read over the Annals of the King your Father, whom you know to be so virtuous and valorous, and by that Rule square your deliberations; look if you can there light on such another case, and then (I am persuaded) that by that time you have considered the modesty and other virtues of my Aunt the Queen your Mother, you will comprehend, that necessity sometimes tramples upon reason. Inextricable knots (Madame) are not undone but by either cutting or bursting. A Matrimony contracted from the very swathing-bands between two Fathers so dear friends, without having been in so many years' time any way disavowed by the least opposition of either side (as hath been discreetly considered by the Prince your Brother) cannot possibly be broken off without violence; which because it cannot be expected from the King, must needs proceed from you. Your only way therefore is to steal away, for which you want not a precedent to imitate. Nay more, the very accident will be adjudged to be a premeditated plot; revenge done by a blow given, in quittance for a blow received. But this might perhaps rather withdraw you than otherwise, if the so patly-counterhappening of the selfsame accidents to the very same persons, made not the world believe it to be an effect of divine providence: A document for Fathers to be indulgent to their Children for such faults as themselves are precedents for; which in case you would do, you should have the advantage of not being followed after, especially if you would resolve to lift me into heaven, by blessing me with the title destinated to Erpandro. I (Madame) am of that stock whence your Mother was stolen away, you the Daughter of him that stole her, the King of Thrace (complice of the delict) his son will I rob you of; Vincireo sprung from him whom your Mother was promised to, will accompany me in conducting you to Cyprus not without divine disposing, to the end there might be by our so rendering like for like confirmed between us all an indissoluble bond of perpetual friendship.  
No whit pleased was Deadora with such discourse as this, there springing in her first a suspicion, that Gradamoro's love was (as we say) but from the teeth outwards; and too withal, although she knew all this before, yet gladly would she have seemed to have been ignorant of it, for that she conceived those historical considerations of rapes, complicits, delicts, revenges, disobligements received and requited, rather aggravated than extenuated her fault: Rather could she have wished to have erred in simplicity, without penetrating so main considerations. But Gradamoro for being of a free nature, suffering himself to be wholly guided by affection, quite forgot all circumspection, a quality most necessary in such an affair, which ministered her an occasion to vent out her passion in these terms.  
I thought so, that it was nothing but merely your own ends that moved you, Gradamoro: And though with sophistical reasons you have endeavoured to make me believe the contrary, yet do you now (against your will) discover it by an affect of mere revenge, taking me to be so simple as not to conceive you; but assure yourself that I will neither believe you, nor be ruled by you. But content myself to have been deceived in the good opinion I once conceived of your love, rather than in the false effects of it in a time when my repentance will come too late. Now the Gods keep me from being an instrument of such revenge. I will neither marry Erpandro nor follow you, but will rather than do either languish and dye. Whether Gradamoro's grief were great or no, may be well conjectured by the unexpectedness of any such language, nothing availed him either arguments, oaths, or tears, all was but vain, the Maiden-princess rejecting his reasons in respect of her being fully fraught with jealousy, diffidence, and fury; no remedy then but part needs he must and leave her in that extremely-passionate mood: And left he had the City too, but for his being in his return to his lodgings seized on by an excessive cool shivering, accompanied with vomiting and swound; no fire was there that could warm him; the Physicians ran to him, the like did the Princes and Queen, yea the King himself would be carried to him. A long time lay he motionless, with lither arters, dead clouded eyes, grinched teeth, and grappled hands; in so much, as there was none, thatby sight thought him not dead, and bemoaned him not. The Queen (who as a child of her own dearly tendered him) was even heartbroken with grief for him. The King solicited the Physicians for fresh Pittims and new Cordials, but nothing availed him, since they penetrated not into the nature of the disease, nor its true occasion; Ridden he had and danced too that morning, but without excess, exercises to him ordinary: Dined he had too, but yet sparingly, repletion and disorder had no place in him. Deadora seeing him in such a plight, too late now repenting her being the causer of it, taking him by the hand warmed it between hers, calling to him with so many throbs and tears, that happy he, had he but seen them: Nor did such demonstrations any way impeach the reserved modesty of her sex, their nearness in blood, education, and domestic amity sufficiently privileging her so to do. At length he came to himself, just in that time when little better than abandoning him for dead, every one's thoughts were busied more about his funeral than life; for now the King, Queen, Princess, and Princes were all of them parted save only Vincirco, who stayed behind with the Physicians, and was now set a weeping over him as dead. The King having notice thereof, returned with the rest, and finding him laid in warm clothes in a feverish fit, shaking every joint of him, he began to hope the best of him: And because the throng of Courtiers that came in with him might not disturb his cure, he took them all again out with him, leaving there only the Queen with Deadora: The former where of being told by the Physicians, that the accident proceeded from some great oppression of the heart, much marveyled thereat, for that she had observed him to be ever merry; yet believing that some internal humour falling on that part, had caused that accident, she ran to her lodgings for a most delicate paste made for that purpose, leaving with him her daughter and Vincireo. She seeing the Physicians retired, and herself all alone with Vincireo, whom she cared not for concealing herself from, accosting his bedside, cures the wound given by the weapons of her former sharp, by the balm of these her milder words.  
My Princely Lord and dearest Cousin (said she) I confess myself faulty, and pronounce myself most worthy of chastisement, for having been (against all reason) the cause of endangering your life, by bringing you thus to death's door. I confess, yea I now from my soul confess your interesses to be full of love, and most worthy of being really corresponded with an equal affection; Behold me here now (my endeared Lord) most ready to make you plenary amends; Cheer then up yourself (I beseech you) for lo I am disposed and immutably resolved to go whithersoever you please. Banish then from you all melancholy, since I am ever yours, and never will be any others; which that you might be the more assured of, I have not (you see) abhorred the testimony of the Prince of Pontus your Cousin and mine here present; which she expressed with an affection so sincerely-ardent, as both amazed Vinciero, and restored Gradamoro to life. It is natural for an oppressed heart to disgorge in tears (in the very instant of its being eased) that malign humour that suffocated it; a token of health, and a sign that Melancholy departing leaves room and way for joy to enter. Right so befell it now the Prince of Cyprus, he stood a good while, taking first the Princess' hands between his, and distilling rivulets of tears out of the fountains of his eyes, and then affectionately kissing them, returned her this answer.  
I know not (incomparable Madame) when I shall be ever able to serve you, conformable to the great obligation to your more than excelling courtesy. You (Madame) cannot be faulty where you have sovereign power, nor be subject to punishment, whereas you sway the sceptre over all the laws of my affections. Your nobly vouchsafing to comprehend in the better sense my interesses, and out of your goodness to accept them in good worth, is to me a supreme favour; but your benignly deigning to correspond them surpasseth even all expectation of mine, much more the slenderness of my merits: so as I am so far unable from really requiring your nobly-obliging favours by deeds, as I cannot find apt words to express or acknowledge them. For the rest, could I but have thought, nay hoped, that the King your Father, upon any earnestly-solicitous Embassy of mine, could have been wrought to bestow you on me, I then would (I protest unto you) never have presumed to have preposed you your flight: but being promised as you are, alas! what likelihood is there for you to have (by his consent) other husband than Erpandro? And the example of your mother that I proposed you, with the revenge that thereupon ensued, were never by me intended for arguments to persuade you (since I knew them far from being available in that behalf) but to show you, how by them you might assure yourself, that your resolution should be less blamed and censured. Besides, that I pretend not to rob what's any other man's; for so you (Madame) be but pleased to make me (by your noble assent) but worthy, I will marry you ere we part, to the end our faults (if such they be) may seem by so much the less in the eyes of both heaven and the world. The Princess resolved both to felicitate and cure him, here thus interrupts him. Well, my Lord, to the end you may see, that there is no need of justifications, behold me here at your disposure, therefore (so you be therewith pleased) marry me (a-Gods-name right now in the presence of your Cousin here; who astonished to see them at that point without imparting any inkling thereof to him till then, taking off his finger a rich Diamond, (Gradamoro having then no Ring ready) reached it him to marry her therewith, as instantly he did; remitting the rest to another time.  
The Physicians being called, found his pulse at a good pass, and the Queen come, he would needs take what she brought him, to make her the Authoress of his health, and then got out of his bed the day following so healthsome and blithsome, as if he had not been sick at all. But then Vincireo could not forbear from taxing him with discourtesy for the small sign of love he showed him in this occasion of making use of him; When he craving him pardon, told him, that at first he had concealed it with out knowing himself the reason why, (having entered into this business beyond all expectation) and that afterwards doubting that he would have dissuaded him, he was confirmed in his silence, judging it a lesser evil to offend by concealing his affection, than after communicating it, not to follow his counsel, or be in some way ruled by him. And being thereupon demanded, how he meant to carry the business, now that his resolution had excluded all other either deliberation or counsel? He answered, that on the very day wherein the King had spoken of the Marriage and solemn feasts, to be kept in honour of its solemnisation, he had dispatched (as he also knew) a fleet pinnace for Cyprus, under pretext of fetching him all necessaries requisite for his appearing at the jousts, giving apart secret command to the Admiral to send him a Galley reinforced with all those advantages that such a Vessel might have: And that having therewithal written unto his Father, to send him a good number of the best Knights of the kingdom to appear with him in the Tourney, the Galley would come strongly furnished with men of war, without giving either here or there the least occasion of suspect: That as soon as that Galley were arrived, he went to embark the Princess and him, and so pass all three of them over into Cyprus.  
Erpandro likewise in the selfsame time had by land dispatched a Post into Thrace, with news to his Father of what was concluded on, praying him to send with all possible conveniency, Ambassadors for the Ceremony, provisions for him, and jewels for his Bride, whom he thought to conduct home through Macedon, upon considering with himself, or being advised by his Council, that being accustomed to ride and curious to see, she would receive more gust from such a sight by land, and that prospect of the Island by Sea, than from the savage-grown, or rather devasted Country of the dardan's and Triballs, nor yet recovered or well re-civilized since the last war. Requesting therefore his Father to be pleased to send him half a dozen of well-furnished Galleys, to expect him the far side of the Isthmus, in which might be also embarked a troop of Ladies to come meet the Princess, and wait on her in her voyage. Requiring also safe-conduct of such of his confederate Princes and Kings, whose Countries he was to pass through.  
The two Cousins received speedily from their several Fathers the accomplishment of their particular requests, there arriving unto the one his Galley, and to the other his Ambassadors hard about the selfsame time. Mean time Deadora begins now to show herself openly disgusted, that her Father had never spoken word to her touching this business, as though the same no way concerned her. Whereas indeed the good King supposed there was no need thereof, conceiving that she could not but be therewith well pleased, since the first thing that she knew after her coming into the world was her being a married wife, and yet never showed herself thereto disassenting: besides, his presuming, that she was sufficiently told thereof by her Mother and Brother. The day of the Ambassador's arrival, having sent for her to him, he in Erpandro's presence presented her them as their Princess. But she received them coldly, and without as much as once looking towards Erpandro: Retired soon afterwards that they were from out of the Presence Chamber, he asked her why she showed herself so strange. Because I was surprised at unawares (answered she) without knowing either whose the Ambassadors were, or wherefore come. Well understood Ormondo that this answer aimed at him, yet not conceiving that it contained any sense more important, but well liking that her smart generosity, and smiling thereat, (kissed her that he had in the forehead) he dismissed her to her lodgings. Already was it murmured over the Court, that such a marriage pleased her not, upon observing, that (the Ambassadors being come, and the solemnisation of the marriage published to be within eight days space) she made no answer to such as wished it might prove much joyful unto her, and that her Mother-self could not draw one word out of her that concluded her assent; but yet her making (of the other side) no show of being melancholy, gave no suspicion that she meant to reject him with a flat denial. Towards her pretended husband she carried herself as she was wont to do before, in the terms of a kinswoman, calling him cozen, smiling on him if he but spoke of love without giving him any answer.  
Mane times had the Queen observed the reciprocal inclinations between her Nephew Gradamoro and her Daughter, and heartily would wish to herself, they could have been matched together, yet discovered she not so much (for all that) as to come to know such an affection in its true essence. For, being Cousins and bred up together in the very same exercises, and withal like in conditions, and therefore deerely-esteeming each other, there might to their familiarity and love be well afforded other privileged pretexts than a downright reciprocal affection. Only Prince Ladomonte, who for being by nature of a deep penetrating judgement, observed more than the rest, might best of any other light on the right, sorrowing that the effect confirmed not his suspicion, from his soul could he have wished that the Galley of Cyprus had been a new Taurus, and his sister another Europa; for he loving her heartily, was sorry to see her matched against her will, affect he did Gradamoro exceedingly, Gradamoro tendering him no less dearly, so as the great love between them seemed to require a greater tie of alliance, were it but to have a lesser with Erpandro. Mean while the eight days began to run the course of their expiration, the City being all over busied in working, and more than half of it merely employed for the Prince of Cyprus, who sending for all the choicest silks of Persia, and all the rarest inventions of Greece and Egypt, made all believe that he thought of nothing else, than to appear with more sumptuous curiosity, and curious pomp than all the rest. Retired he was into the shady valley between the Citadel and the opposite Mountain behind the City, where having erected his Pavilions, he did day after other nothing else than try himself with Ladomonte in the lists, at barriers, on foot, and on horseback; sometimes hand to hand, otherwhiles accompanied, being both of them by Ormondo assigned to be maintainers of the lists. Seldom was he seen in Deadora's company for continuing his abode without; and chancing to meet her, he discoursed with her of nothing else save horses and livres, giving thereby all men occasion to conjecture that he dreamt of nothing else, leaving wholly to Vincireo's discreet care the ordering and appointing of both the time and manner of their flight.  
Four of the eight days term being expired, the Galley launched out of the Port, under pretext of going to take in fuel, yet at night returned without making any noise, and road without the point at random. The Princess gotten out at the garden door well armed, found there the two Princes that stood expecting her, whence taking the outmost way through difficult passages full of grubs and crags, they got to the seaside, and there found a longboat wherewith they embarked themselves; and then suddenly the Galley steered a main speed towards the East, as it stood her indeed upon, it being but two hours before day, the night then of the shortest, and the lightsome Planet signing its circle a little wide from the line of our Tropic. Gradamoro had removed well near all his family to his pavilions in the valley, where they also were often wont to lodge, so as it was easy for him to get them embarked unperceived of any, leaving for his wardrobe and stable their Officers whom he could not commodiously provide for in the valley.  
Deadora's Bed-chamber-woman used constantly to enter very early into her Chamber, and softly opening the windows for ingress of the fresh morning air, to return to bed again without awaking her. That morning on the break of day going to do the same, she espied the bed empty, but then not believing her eyes, she (for more assuring her of the truth) felt with her hand, but found her not, for she was not there; yet gave she not herself over (for all that) to scritches and cries, because she knew not what the matter might be. Entered into the Closet (whereof her Mistress self was wont to keep the key) then wide open, she might there see wanting her Arms and sword. Yet could she not imagine how she could cloth herself, all her apparel being (as soon as she was stripped of them) usually carried into a back-withdrawing Chamber, and not thence brought back again till she listed to clothe herself; which as she stood musing on, there came to her mind Vincireo's twice coming thither, and carrying with him (by a Page) a Fardel involved in Taffeta Sarsenet, and that come to the Chamber, he had taken it out of his hand to give it himself to the Princess, so as no body else knew what it was; she now imagines they were man's clothes, but fixing a more observant eye on all the corners about her, she might espy on a little by-table many letters sealed, To the King, the Queen, and the Prince, with the three several Seals of Illyria, Cyprus, and Pontus. By this certain of the fact, and terrified with the likelihood of her being suspected for a Complice, she would have fled, if she had known whither or how. Till assured by her conscience, and the improbability of her staying behind them, had she been such, she held it her best course to bring the Queen the letters. The Maids of honour marvelling that she desired to speak with her at such an hour, could not resolve to go to disturb her rest, till upon her importuning them with solemn protestations, they at length ventured to awake her. She without speaking ever a word to her, presented her the letters, which the Queen knowing by the Seals all-amazed opened, reading in that of her Daughter (which was the first) the resolution taken for which she craved her humble pardon, showing her punctually the reasons that induced her to do it. Reading afterwards that of her Nephew, and the other, she compressing her tears, hies her to her husband's lodgings, who intending to ask her what she made there at so rather an hour, forbore his speech upon receipt of the letters. He first began to read Deadora's, but had not the patience to read the reasons, having read the resolution; speak he would in all haste with the Gentlewoman of her Chamber, but was never a whit more satisfied by her; and what more could indeed by the strictest examinations or more diligent inquiry be learned in it, since their being fled and gone was the first and last news of it?  
A good while stood Ormondo in a muse, as not used to be transported with the sudden fury of any passion; and then discreetly weighing the case, with calling to mind how himself had done as much, and considering withal, that his Daughter had made a better choice for herself with the time, than he could have assigned her before the time, he both pacified himself and consolated the Queen, so as nothing else now troubled him, save the injury done Serpidoro, which he knew not how to make him amends for. But calling to mind, that he alone was with him at stealing the Queen away, he thereupon said; Our Daughter and Nephews (wife) have erred, but yet we must bear with them, since 'tis impossible that they have not looked into our lives, and that our example hath not emboldened them. Here sending for Ladomonte, he gave him his letters: By this time amazement being past, and reason returned to its proper seat of residence, the King was no whit displeased at the change of his son-in-law. The Queen (likewise) was glad thereof, and the Prince exceeding joyful, was by his Father commanded to acquaint therewith Erpandro, who was like to grow wild at it. He ran to the King and Queen, and then finding no Galleys ready in the Haven, would have leapt into the Main, and swum to overtake the fled-away Vessel. But that remembring-himself of the Galleys that road expecting him at Peloponcsus, & that riding-poaste he might get thither before Gradamoro; be mounted on horseback and ran post thitherward night and day. Arrived he sent one of them to Zacinthus to espy if the other were passed, and was joyed at the heart when (at her return) he understood, that she was with a long prospective-glass descried to be so far discoasted, as a good sight not interposed by the curvity of the Globe might discern, and that she would be more than a day a coming, calculating the slow course she had steered since the time of her setting out. And that there was placed on the Island of Cythera a Sentry, who upon her coming by night (which for certain would not be, she sailing not by night by the proportion of their account) should give notice by fire, and by day with smoke: So as it behoved him to transport himself presently to Capo Melio for being there ready to assail her.  
Erpandro approved of that counsel, and launching from out the Promontory, at the smoke he descried from Cythera, met and fought with her with very bad success: For, notwithstanding his advantage of so many Galleys, he was (in his very own) by the Princess herself fought withal, beaten down, and taken prisoner, whilst two of his Galleys were burnt, and the rest retired. But dressed and cured with all possible diligence, visited, consolated, and opportunely persuaded to reason and patience by Vincirco, he not only grew to be pacified, but also upon calling to mind the passages between their fathers no less considerately than discreetly conceived, he had no occasion to find himself aggrieved: Whereupon licensing the Galleys that made after to recover him, he wrote to his Father, praying him not to be displeased for what had happened, since he (for his part) would conserve himself in the ancient love and favour of his Cousins, and be present at the solemnising of the nuptials, judging himself fortunate, to have miss the marrying a woman that loved him not; especially considering his being withal confident, that at his return, King Ormondo would not fail to give him instead of this Cecromma the other Daughter. Arrived in Cyprus, they were received by the King with great joy and triumph; who would needs prolong the solemnities already commenced, and send Ambassadors into Illyria, Thrace, and Pontus, who successfully obtained so much of the offended as not to pretend themselves such, and conformable to his expectation, Cecronimas instead of Deadora. Ladomonte causing to be embarked both his and his brothers-in-lawe preparations destined for the festival solemnities of Faria, commanded they should be brought after him to Cyprus, where he in a choice Galley arrived in a few day's space, entirely welcomed and honoured with all affectionate respects, conformable to the passing love they bore him. Nor wait they for now towards the celebration of the festivals for aught else save the things embarked, so as we shall come time enough to see them, being they are to be kept at Pafo near the famous Temple of Venus, whither they are all of them reduced to thank the Goddess for so prosperous an issue of these affairs.  
Polimero had heard talk of Ormondo and his great exploits long before, which made him now very glad to hear his disgusts thus terminated by so pleasing an alliance, the old passage taking from him all occasion of revenge. And right joyful was Lindadori, to light on by the way so solemn jousts; hope also she did, that her Father would dispense with his haste to be acquainted with those Princes, she being more especially desirous to see Deadora, and to try herself at Arms with her. But so it befell them, that neither Polimero had occasion to displease her, nor she opportunity of working her own content; for the sea swelled into such extraordinary billows, for being overblown with the rage of a tearing wind, that the Pilot was forced with haling the tack aboard to strike a hull, and lash sure the helm a-lee, till gaining the wind astern, he was fain to ease the Vessel with a small Trinket sail fastened to her Mainyard, so as she now carried on with an excessive violence outran the course, and leaving on the right hand Cyprus, could not possibly choose but pass to Crete, where with much ado they made a shift to get ashore.  
Greatly steeded this Tempest Polimero by advancing him much on his way, besides the pleasure he took at his Daughter's anger, and her chafing at the sea and winds; yet that accident afforded her another way, that which fortune had denied her for contenting her martial humour. For that time the kingdom of Crete stood afflicted by a war little otherwise than civil, divided into factions, every one attempting to effect his own peculiar ends under pretext of the public good, an ordinary mask wherewith the most seditious are wont to cover the true face of their actions.  
Virate King of Crecte left behind him three sons, whereof Cretaneo the eldest inherited the Crown: the other twain being accommodated with two of the goodliest and richest Dukedoms of the whole Island, Restargo with the fair Duchy of Cidone, and with that of Ritinna Riverargo. Now Cretaneo was a good Prince, a lover of Philosophy, and in it so plunged, as he conceited to make by its direction both himself and his kingdom happy; yet never philosophised he, that Kings may well be capable of Philosophy, but not Philosophers of kingdoms: For than had he learned, that Kings ought (for well ruling) to be form of virtues more real than philosophical, and that these without those ruin such as own them. Disposed then for conveniencie's cause to marry, and hearing famed for beauty the Princess of Caria being a neighbouring kingdom, he sends thither Restargo, believing, that Carito's King would willingly grant her him, for being demanded by so great an Ambassador as his brother, whom he allowed a great train of followers, and store of moneys; to the end he might carry himself both like a personage of his rank and quality, and conformable to the greatness of him that sent him; an ordinary custom in those Countries not to concede men wives, till they be first for some while wooed and served by the pretenders, and (if they be Princes) by Ambassadors in their steed.  
This Princess was (over and besides her beauty and comely feature) an only child, and by consequence heir apparent to the Caritan Crown; In which regard Restargo alured by the occasion of gaining himself a Crown, forgetting both his allegiance and trust reposed in him, did that office for himself, which he should have done for his brother; whom whilst with false letters he held in hand with more false hopes, 'twas easy for him (malignly procuring to be brought to the King of Caria's ears passing bad relations of Cretanco) to get his daughter for himself: Having won all the Courtiers with the prodigal effusion of his brother's treasure. Cretanco thus injured, without making show of being angry thereat, excused it with his wont facility, judging it (in respect of its occasions) pardonable, upon discoursing within himself, that interesses of preferment make men (if they be not professed in the habit of virtue) from very good to become exceeding bad; yet knew he how to be so much angry (for all that) as to forbid him for coming ever more in his sight, and that become now successor of a kingdom, he should keep him within its limits, without venturing to return into Crete: For the rest, he neither meddled with his patrimonial Dominions, nor came to those terms, whereto justly incensed Kings are wont to come to.  
Restargo making no account of words, rather confident of his brother's lenity than timorous of his justice, forgetting his being forewarned, grew desirous three years after (Cretaneo being by then married) to pass over into Crete; ambitious (it should seem) of being there honoured above the rank of the first Peer of the blood Royal, in the quality of a Sovereign Prince, and in his time King. But no sooner was he come, than that the prison was his lodging, where he remained seven years, the King and Princess of Caria proving all the while unprevailing suppliants for his freedom. The seventh year being past, it seeming good to Riverargo to intercede for him, he without any difficulty prevailed, King Cretaneo being by then weary, if not half-sorry for having contrary to his nature retained his colour for so long a time, thinking that justice became now cruelty, and that the revenge exceeded the injury, especially in a brother; not considering (as he should have done) that his brother had his affects corrupted, and that such a man as had been once wicked, should be ever presupposed to be such. Restargo instead of repenting (waxen now more wicked than before) provides in a few days from Caria in small disordered companies a good band of men, besides those of his own State, and knew so well how to do ill, that deposing his brother from his Royal Throne, he put him in the very same prison that he had kept him seven years in, and then sending for (together with his wife) new forces, he assumed the title of Governor with his other brother, affirming the King to be unable to govern, speculations having brought him to be now dotish and good for nothing.  
The seven years being past, Riverargo thinking to obtain of Restargo for Cretaneo such liberty, as Cretaneo had before granted him for Restargo, moved him earnestly for it; but where two natures are different, 'tis certain that their effects cannot but be unlike; Which we may hear confirmed by the example of Restargo, who judging Riverargoes pity to be too-too-tender, showed him; That in setting him at liberty, he should commit a fourth error, whilst the three former (one his, and Cretanco's two) pointed at it so apparently. His, when building on his brother's overgood nature, he came and put himself like a sheep into his hands. Cretaneo's first, when depriving him of his liberty, he bereaved him not also of his life; and the other, that he restored him to the one without taking away the other: yet that having then erred both of them without a precedent example, they were in some sort excuse-worthy; but that now a fourth error would be altogether inexcusable, and yet more especially this of his, for offending so grossly against the rule of the former three. Offend he should against the first, in relying again on that good nature, which he had already found passionate in a case of a less offence; and also expose himself against the second and third with danger of life, having at both their costs learned, That fierce beasts will not endure the goade's pricking, but must be either pierced quite through, or not touched at all. Nay though it so were not, yet even common sense taught him, that a person injured never pardons, unless he be either extraordinarily good, or irrevocably foolish. Now he but too well knew, that Cretaneo was no fool though they indeed made of him such; nor yet that good natured man they took him for, having been so constantly wedded to his anger for seven years' space. And ' though yet he were as good-natured as man can be yet were it bad relying on it, since a man is changed in an instant, especially where the Clock of good nature hath for counterpoises passions and injuries. Besides, that he should not lose the quality of good, Revenge in Kings writing itself in great Characters JUSTICE. With such reasons, he not only satisfied, but terrified Riverargo, but more especially by making him comprehend himself to be a complice in the fault, for having (of his own proper authority) entitled himself Governor, persuading him therefore to govern thenceforwards with the title no more of Governors, but of Kings. Agreed on't, they consecrated in Mount Ida Priest to jove, Lascaro only son to Cretaneo, and causing him to renounce his pretences both to the Crown and all worldly things else, they necessitated him to fly; For, being (for his pusillanimity) hated of his father's friends, he not only wanted the things necessary for his lives sustenance, but had also his fears increased in such a manner, that suspecting to be one day ill entreated, he went his way whither no news was ever sithence heard of him.  
Mean while the two Kings commanded equally, and caused money to be coined under their stamps, images, and names, writing themselves Kings over all; till such time as Restargo desirous to reign alone, told the other, That the people could not brook two Kings, a novelty (to speak the truth) monstrous and exampleless: That he therefore had designed to take for his part the Dukedoms of Cidone and Ritinna united, and leave to his brother solely both the Kingdom and Royal Title, so to prevent with the disgust the insurrection of the people. But Riverargo (a lover of ease) thinking the both States equalled both the title and kingdom, advantaged with the being freed from the weight of government, answered him; that it was no reason, that he being the youngest should remain solely King, the eldest excluded: In which respect, since an unity was so necessary, he was content to accept of the two States, and cede him the kingdom. Restargo then being proclaimed King, there was no more tidings heard of Cretaneo, followed a little after by the new King, who left both his life and kingdom: Him succeeded Caricreto his only son, but being cockered up by his Mother in passing bad customs, odious to the Subjects, together with the domination of the Carians to them insupportable, they banished him, and chose for their King Riverargo, taking the occasion of his then absence, as being conducted by his Mother to Caria, to be thereof crowned King, his Grandfather by then being dead: And now he pretends as his patrimony the kingdom of Riverargo, and with the favour of his Father's servants moves war against him, publicly complaining to all of the wrong he did him, by him not denied, in case Caricreto had been son to Cretaneo and not to Restargo; alleging, that Restargo was no King buta Tyrant, for depriving Cretaneo of the privilege first of Nature, in taking from him his wife; next of the Law in usurping his Crown, and lastly of humanity in causing him to dye in the miserable loathsomeness of a close & nasty prison. And that he (for his part) was freely elected King by the States of the Realm without any sinister practice or corruption. And therefore, that if he were to lay down the Crown, it should then be to restore it to Cretaneo's, but not to Restargoes son. In these confusions stood then that goodly kingdom, battered by the arms of the Carians, supported by many Barons, with an intention, when they had deposed Riverargo to chase away afterwards the Mother and Son, and so to carry away from the public calamities private emoluments, making themselves Masters of both the money and Royal authority in those Provinces, wherein obedience was denied Riverargo, whereas Caricreto was but in a show obeyed neither.  
Polimero with his companions setting foot on ground, without knowing any thing from these confusions, (leaving the Knight of Cyprus sick aboard the ship) took their way to a hill-wards, to see if they might thence descry any habitation. Come thither that they were, they found on the other side of it an ambush of fifty horse, who ask them (after the military wont) who lived? and receiving no answer, suddenly assailed them. Lindadori that had with impatience longed for tourneys, jousts, and barriers, was (missing of these) beyond all expression joyful to light so unexpectedly on a battle; so as without staying for any other to give her example by leading the way, she furiously forced her passage into the midst of that Troop, neither considering nor caring for the advantages of the site, but necessitating the others to follow, either to free her, or dye with her: But the valorous effects corresponded to the maiden's undaunted heart.  
These folks had scoured the field all that night, got good store of bootyn, ruined houses, and burnt Villages; yet of all their spoils the noblest was Ermestea daughter to the Baron of Manetusa, among the fair ones of Crete the fairest, and among the noblest the flower of that Country. The Soldiers stood now a watching her; for though she was exceedingly afflicted, yet had now the extreme weariness of her body in so long and incommodious a journey given truce to the affliction of her spirit, and procured her sleep, though interrupted by her waking grief, and hardness of the bed, easy only in that part that her tears had softened. And now at the sound of Lindadori's thundering blows she awoke, started up, broke the truce with grief, and confederated with hope, who placing himself as her guard in the bulwark of her breast, boldly defended her (though with much ado) against the assaults of her cruel enemy [Fear]; yet was she hurried again near the ghastly precipice of despair, when she saw herself remounted on horseback by the Soldiers, to convey her farther on, under the conduct of some fifteen of them, but that suspension tormented her not long. For Lindadori imagining her by her tears to be a prey of those people, ran thither alone forcing to fight them, who in respect of their being so many, made an account to exempt themselves from the necessity of sharing of the battle. Off cuts she at first blow the hand of him that held her by the bridle, and him that at lifting her into the saddle, was suddenly so taken with her, as he could not forgo his hold of the skirt of her coat, she passed with a thrust through the heart, so as one wound was cured by the other. A certain experiment, that the weapon's stabs cure those of love. Eromena seeing her daughter inconsiderate in all dangers, as resolutely followed her, and slaying some of them, both she and her daughter were constrained to retire to the hillock, closely pursued by above twenty of the Enemies; the whole company (leaving the prisoners and baggage) now facing towards the assailers, thinking they did no small act, if they but defended themselves united together.  
Polimero seeing his wife and daughter in such a plight, was raging-mad that he could not come to relieve them for the wall of so many men that stood in his way, whilst Don Elcimos had the fortune to open it of his side (where was less throng) with the death of one of them, whence he ran and laid at their backs, himself being no otherwise strucken at by such as pursued him at the heels. Polimero by this time less charged, and by the good old Count of Bona valiantly assisted, made such havoc of the rest, as that he gained the passage; and running to rescue his company, made a shift between him and the Count to ease them of four, by them slain ere they were aware of their coming; yet too much would they have had to do though, if fortune had not by another means favoured them; for the soldiers being hardy, well armed, and resolved either to save their prey or dye, never thought of running away, their horses being all laden with pillage; and although they had lost many of their company, yet had they so many left as they hoped to get the best of their Adversaries, by worrying if not vanquishing them. And so had it by all probability befallen them, if the fair Ermestea (gotten lose and flying back the way whence she was led) had not met a Knight, who hearing she was taken away, was coming with a good troop of horse to rescue her. Understanding how she was fled away, and that too, rather to go find out some to aid the five Knights, than to save herself, she hastily returned to show him the place, whence they might hear the cries and blows ere they descried the Combatants; this assault quite ruined the soldiers first hopes, now that they were assailed by two parties; the rescuing Knight having the edge of his valour sharpened with revenge and anger against those men, insomuch, as he was loath to receive into his mercy such of them as yielded themselves unto him, judging that such deserved no fair quarter, which warred against women, beauty, and their merits.  
Ermestea alighting off her Steed, ran to the Knights, whom she could not find sufficient conceits to express her beholdingness unto, a thing ordinary for a grateful mind to suffocate itself in words, by endeavouring to make them serve for errs of the effects it thinks itself tied to perform. But to Lindadori above all the rest strove she to acknowledge a greater obligation, to whose lot befell the being the more efficacious (if not the prime) cause of her deliverance: Wounded they were all five, so as Carasio's hands had wherewithal to employ them, but with such felicity, that as no one of them had any dangerous wound, so was there as few of them that any way bemoaned their pain. But Lindadori more shrewdly wounded than the rest, and being in respect of both her age and sex more tender and delicate, wrought amazement in all that considered, how she, being in all things else over-sensitive and impatient, was yet in her sufferings even insensible, and far from bemoaning herself or troubling any body. Very importunate was Ermestea to have them home with her: But Polimero (considering that the courtesies of such personages had no limits of time, and how much it stood him upon to hold on his way, his affairs admitting of no delay) fairly excused himself, yet with assuring her, that to do her service he would have omitted all businesses of his own. But sithence this was but merely in consideration of themselves, they were necessitated (without loss of time) to pass further. But the owner of the ship not yielding to any persuasions of passing them any farther, his Vessel being freighted for Cyprus, they were forced to accept of the invitation, for being constrained to furnish themselves of a new Vessel. Satisfying then the Mariners, and taking their leave of the sick Knight, (by whom the Count failed not to excuse himself by letter to Gradamoro and Deadora) they mounted on horseback, Ermestea causing the booty to be brought back to be restored to its owners. And then after having released the prisoners, setting on a round pace homewards, whom might she meet a little onwards but the Baron her Father, that with two hundred horse came running after the tract of those that had stolen her away, whose joys were now by so much the greater, by how much they were less expected.  
The wounded Knights were accommodated at their ease with Chambers near one another, as they had desired; and served with such respective diligence, as if they had been known for what they were. Polimero not neglecting to solicit for a new passage, wherein for doubt of displeasing him Ermestea failed him not. News came (the mean while) that the nuptials were celebrated in Cyprus with great solemnity, the flaws in friendship occasioned by new injuries being soldered up by the old affronts, and both reduced to a confirmed friendship by a new realliance. And for domestic affairs; That King Riverargo by a great defeat given the Carians, had totally chased them from Crete; that Caricreto was thence fled, his men slain, the field sacked, four Barons beheaded, the Rebels hung up on trees in such places as they chanced to be taken in; All news, that to the house of Ermestea brought incredible consolation, it having ever taken part with the royal side, whereof whoso knows not how to be, knows how to perish. Cromeno (the Knight that had relieved them) was he that brought them these news, having (when he had conducted them to the house) taken leave of them to go and make one in the battle which he knew was to be presented the Enemies. The Count of Bona had some while before related to the Princes the story of Corianna, and prayed them to touch at Ericusa, and thereupon had that suit of his without any great difficulty granted him; for which end there was provided them a Vessel for that part.  
Ermestea in the mean time had observed and perceived the counterfeited sex of the two Princesses, whereupon she en quired thereof further of Lindadori, who could not conceal from her her condition, obtaining in recompense thereof her promise to come to Sardinia to see her, of whose company she was already so enamoured, as she could never be from her: Which observed by her lover Cromeno, occasioned him to assay the sharp stings of poisoned jealousy. Returned he was from the Camp, and for enjoying Ermestea's company frequented the house, entertaining the unknown Princes with respective observance for finding in them conditions surpassing any contrary affect, jealousy not depriving him of his inclination to their merits. But the two young Ladies taking notice of his passionate sufferings made it their pastime. And although Ermestea, that truly loved him, had indeed compassion of him; yet could she not (for all that) forbear from heart-vexing him for the nonce, with the favours which boldly without showing him any respect, she did every day more than other to Lindadori. A pass that put him (poor Gentleman) to ruminate on strange thoughts; since although himself was now favoured as he was wont to be, yet saw he a rival before his face as good as courted, and that in such a manner too, that she seemed to hold it lawful for her so to do. Sometime it would come to his mind to speak to her of it, but then seeing her with a pleasing and smiling countenance slip away from him, he knew not what to judge of it, especially when she would (which was yet worse) as she thus fled from him, run directly to Lindadort, who discovering the business to her Mother, made her a third participant of their pastime. Yet this sport lasted but a few days, for the ship being furnished of its necessaries and the horses embarked, they took their leave. Ermestea seeming to be dissolved into tears for so hard a separation, and confirming her promise of going to see them as soon as she were married, which she was shortly to be with her so pleasingly-made-jealous Cromeno.  
The Baron and all the rest were not a little offended at her for not better concealing her affection to Lindadori; but understanding afterwards who she and the others were, he was as much then displeased on the other side, that she revealed them not to him or her Mother: Only Cromeno was joyed at the heart, to hear they were such, being never a whit ashamed of suffering himself to be so deluded by two Girls; the remaining whereof being by her Mother chidden for it, thus excused herself: You blame me (Madame) for what you should (under favour) rather commend me for; you know how we are by men held to be blabs, which induced me by silence to show, that we can (if need be) lock up secrets in the cabinets of our breasts better than they can.  
Favoured with a gentle gale, prosperously sails on the valorous company without lighting (for a good space of time) on any adventure, for giving me time and leisure to get me elsewhere.  
Olmiro Lucano's servant (that was sent to Parthenope by the Princess Corianna in pilgrim's weed) came thither in a few days, without lighting on any remarkable encounter by the way; and having got him a lodging in a Lane behind Lucano's house, he took on him to be a passenger bound for Sicily, to accomplish a vow he had made to the Goddess Ceres: His Host told him, that to go thither was at that present very dangerous; it being not as yet known how that King was inclined; who although he had indeed no cause to think himself injured, was nevertheless much suspected for his extravagant whimsies and excessive pride. Olmiro ask the reason why, was by the other told of the loss of the Princess gone away no man knew how or whither; only it was probably conjectured, that one of the two Dukes that were found slain in the Castle had conveyed her away. But because it could not be learned out which of them it was, the King who went to wrack his spite on their corpses, was with much ado persuaded to grant them to their friends, such a revenge being unjustly taken on the innocent of them, and prejudicial to his honour and Royal dignity; since it could not but suggest to the world disgustful matter of displeasing discourses: That being (upon this) retired to his royal Poggio (whither he admitted no man) he was sundry times like to dye for grief: That the Queen too sickened so dangerously, as her life was much doubted of: That all the Nobility and prime Gentry were retired home to their own mansions and estates, except the Duchess of Lucania; who having sent home to her territories her son's corpse, would not follow it thither, out of a conceit that she had of having him present with her; never sithence stirring out of her Chamber, but keeping its windows close shut, so as it is doubted, that in a few days she is like to follow him, by breaking her heart with grief: That Ambassadors and foreign agents were fain to have recourse to the Lords of the Council, who dispatched such affairs as they could: That the City (thus deprived of the Court and Nobility, lived in great misery, the houses being tenantless, the wares unvented, and no money stirring; a loss that Parthenope is like for a long time to feel the smart of: And as for Sicily, that its Prince coming to fetch his Bridegroom, had (even at his launching out) met the Galley that was sped him with that dolorous news, whereat he burst out into terms that exceeded the bounds of all gravity, modesty, and civility: His Father worse yet than he, a doting, turbulent, wavering, and spiteful old man, aggravating the conceived affront done them.  
Much was Olmiro troubled in mind at these news, not so much because it grieved him to hear them, as for that humane hopes, though founded on dreams, do yet so dilate themselves in despairing consolations, as if they chance to be crossed or frustrated by confirmed certainties of the contrary, than the grief for them increases an hundred fold. But whilst he stood musing what to do, he might from out the window see passing by his old Comrade Erinnio, his sometimes fellow-waiter in Lucano's Chamber; upon this he hems and spits to make him cast up his eye: The other not knowing him with a close-shaven beard in such an habit, (seeing him make signs to him to come up and make no words of him) beheld him more observantly, till by a peculiar gesture of Olmiro he came to know him. Glad then that it was he, he likewise made signs that he was coming up to him: Now some of Lucano's meaner servants were sometimes wont to go drink in that house, so as it was an easy matter for Erinnio to find an excuse to go thither to ask for a horsekeeper: But being answered by the Host, that none of their household had been there since their Lord's death, he affirmed that he had seen him at the window: The Host assured him that he was mistaken, praying him withal (in case he believed him not) to go himself up and see, telling him, that all the rooms above-stairs were open, without any other living soul in them save a poor pilgrim. Erinnio gotten up the stairs, in great haste told him at a breath, that he could not speak with him there, but wished him to come at two a clock at night to the secret door that lead to their Master's Lodgings, where he should find him ready to let him in. And then returning down, he told the Host that he was indeed in the right; howbeit that the pilgrim from a far off resembled much the horsekeeper who wore his beard close shaved as this man had his.  
Olmiro miss not the hour appointed; the first thing he asked Erinnio was, How he got to stay in the house after the death of their Lord? My Lord (answered him Erinnio) is (God be thanked) yet alive, ' though he can lead but a dying life, till such time as he recover the Princess, and accommodate their affairs. Olmiro, rapt with unexpected joy, with a countenance of one transported beyond himself, gladsomely replies: Is it possible (my dear Erinnio) that my Lord is yet alive; oh let me bless mine eyes with the dear sight of him; bring me, oh bring me quickly unto him! and I'll bring him news of the Princess; for she it was that sent me hither. Erinnio embracing him anew, lead him the way in, having already made the Duke acquainted with his coming. Ascended that they had the stairs, they found him with a visage pale and won, laid all along on a low velvet couch. Olmiro knew not whether he were awake or no; or if he were, yet did Lucano, Erinnio, the Chirurgeon (that stood apart) and the very house itself seem in his ecstasied eyes to be visions and ghosts; howsoever, his joy was such, as he falling flat to the ground lay melting himself for mere overjoy into brinish tears, deprived of the power of stirring from thence.  
Lucano more yet transported than he, had not freed his speech for a long time from the prison of a more than ecstasied passion, if his impatient desire of knowing how the Princess did, had not burst open the gates of his silence. Olmiro acquainted him with all that had befallen her, the place she dwelled in, the grief that tyrannised over her, the daily self-wasting life she lead, her dreams of him, and imaginations that the wind was his spirit come to see her; of his beloved name's being called upon, invoked, and cried out unto, both in light and darkness, with the orders given him to go learn what had happened since her departure: That, in case Lucano were (according to the relation of signs) alive, he might then come to find her out; and if dead, that she might beg of death the favour of being joined with him. In sum, Olmiro forgot no one particular to make even cruelty itself become compassionate, and the direct hatred well-affecting. But all was (God wot) but superfluous for Lucano, to whom the sufferings of Corianna were aggravations of hearts grief; he could not endure to hear the end of her story, so rend was his affectionate heart with what he had already heard of it, though by fits eased by the hope he conceived of corresponding her obligements with equivalent gratitude.  
The relation being ended, Olmiro (said he) I will not thank thee for thy fidelity, because honest men (as thou art) pretend not such a foundation for their merits; nor yet for the toil thou hast endured, since I persuade myself, that the love thou hast ever borne me, not only takes away the irksomeness of it, but withal makes it pleasing and delightsome unto thee. I only thank thee for having endeavoured to keep me (whom thou thought'st to be dead) alive in the life of her, for whom alone I desire to live or dye: I thank thee for the good news thou brought'st me; and for having taken me out of the jaws of a more-than cruel death, which was the not knowing where she was. But first of all I render hearty thanks unto the immortal powers, that have raised me up so benignly from so low a fall. But tell me Olmiro, shall we go now presently? And with that starting off his bed, he hastily walks the round of the Chamber, love causing him to make that way in an instant, which lay subject to the measure of time. But Olmiro (that saw him so heartsick of an heartburning fever of affection, that he raved with desire) thus answered him. Our parting shall be when it shall please you, my Lord. We cannot solicit it so much, as for the Princess sake we should; an hour to her is an eternity. Time (as yourself have found by proof) is in consolations and pleasures most swift, in afflictions and hopes slow if not immovable: Yet should I (for all that) be sorry to see harm done by seeking to do good, which cannot but happen, in case you being not (I doubt me) as yet well recovered, should hazard your life, in too soon undergoing this voyage; the same Erinnio also told him: But he still standing constant to his determination of parting suddenly, was at length dissuaded by the consideration of the want of a fit habit to go disguised in, and the necessity of referring the resolution thereof to the will of his Mother, for not causing her to fall from one grief into another. Here seeing how impatiently-desirous Olmiro was to know how he was brought to life again: I will recount unto thee myself (said he) the things succeeded since Carildo and thou partedest, leaving me (to your thinking) dead.  
The clashing noise of the swords awoke the Captain of the Castle, who thereupon came down; and finding us both slain, could not imagine how we came by our deaths, much less how we entered into the Castle; so as he being thereat no less amazed than affrighted, grew to be yet more afraid, when he found the gate to the seaward wide open, which because none save the Princess had any key of, he went instantly to her lodgings, where causing her Ladies to arise to go and awake her, there was no Princess to be found. Thou mayst easily guess what a case he was in, who was ofttimes minded to cast himself into the sea, and had, but for the inward comfort of his assured innocence, undoubtedly drowned himself. Behoof him it did to acquaint the King with it instantly, business of such importance enduring no delays: But yet to abandon the Castle in such a time might bring him to merit through justice that punishment, which he feared would be inflicted on him merely out of a furious anger; and again, to trust another in such an affair was dangerous, one word misconceived being able to occasion his utter ruin, much more if spoken to his disadvantage.  
There was the chief Chamberlain (as thou knowst) to the Princess the Count of Cana a noble and honoured Cavalier, he, because there was no other fit for such an employment, resolved to be the messenger of these dismal tidings. And understanding by that day's watch, that neither of us was come in, he imagined that we got in (and so indeed we did) by night under the privileged names of the Princess' servants. On he went, and turned the Palace topsy-turvy, saying he must needs speak with the King instantly: Brought in, he related him the case. The King rising up in a fury sent to call the Admiral, whom he gave sudden order to search every creek of the sea (knitting with that his threatening brows, and framing his mouth in a wrying posture in saying) to find out his Daughter. We the mean while lay distended on the cold surface of our Mother Earth, little regarding aught that was a doing against us, the Constable and his being dead indeed, and I in such a plight, as no man imagined that I had any life in me. The King was once minded to have us both hanged up by the feet by the beams of the Draw-bridge; but his consideration laying before the eyes of his judgement, that one of us two was innocent, though he could not come to know which of us both it was, wrought him to conceive how unfitting it was for imagination to usurp the place of certainty, in a case so doubtful, with persons of so eminent a quality, so as he came at last though with much ado to be entreated to give way that our corpse should be restored to our friends, forbidding us though funeral Rites, and all ceremonial pomp: All which succeeded to my great advantage, since there was no man in all the Court that thought me not guilty, now that the success of the case opened the general eye to take notice of the Princess' favours, which before were sufficiently observed, but yet of all men taken and construed as ceremonious respects due to my birth, the greatness of my Mother, and parity of our years.  
My Mother being made acquainted with the case, was by some one or other counselled to send speedily for my body, which having all the night long lain exposed to the benumbing coldness of the piercing air, without (for aught I believe) one drop of blood left in it, was thereupon presently brought home in a close Horse-litter: But whilst Erinnio inconsolably stood weeping over me, doing me (as he thought) the last services I should ever stand in need of; having stripped me to wash off the blood, and embalm me, he found that part of my body that lay next my heart warm and panting: which he discreetly concealing to himself, found means to rid him of all the company-standers by, save only Tideno and the Chirurgeon thou there seest; who upon his making it known, that I had yet life in me, throwing hastily aside his instruments, prepared for opening and imbowelling me, fell to dressing me with applications so cordial, that I in a short time recovered my spirits, but yet so weak and benumbed, by reason of the great quantity of blood I had lost, and malignity of the raw nocturnal air that had poisoned the wound, that I remained two days speechless.  
Having thus dressed me, they knew not how to make my Mother acquainted with it, without incurring the danger of discovering all with their own sudden gladsomeness; till Erinnio takes on him the charge of managing the business; who leaving with me the other two, went to the place, where she (woeful woman) with her hair all dishevelled, sat weeping among a great company of Ladies, that stood busied in comforting her the best they could: He then whispering the secret in the ear of her woman Antea, soon devised a way to get them all out. Left thus alone, Erinnio acquainted her, how they had found and left me in so hopeful a plight, as the Chirurgeon doubted not of my life, upon the assurance he had of the wounds not being mortal: Yet with putting her in mind, that if then she showed not her prudence in discreetly-depressing her joy, the second inconvenience would much exceed the first.  
At these unexpected news my poor Mother was so overjoyed, as she fell in a swound; and that was indeed even it that Erinnio desired; who thereupon ran out of the Chamber, calling no less hastily than loudly for water, and crying out that the Duchess was stone dead. The Ladies returned all in again; and having laid her a-bed unlaced her, whilst others were busied in spirting and sprinkling water in her face, to bring her again to her speech which she had lost, for an occasion quite contrary to what was by outward likelihood by the spectators conjectured. Come then again to herself, she said.  
I kindly thank you (my Ladies all) for the charitable offices you do me, I pray the Gods reward you for me, sithence to me being in their hands, and under their afflicting rod, there rests no other spirit, than to crave them mercy, and to yield them thanks for having given me a disposition to conform and subject my will to theirs. I beseech you to assist my prayers with yours, that they thrust me not out of their sight; and that we may the better do it, be pleased (I pray you) to retire you all, to the end that the meditation of my faults, and my sorrow for having offended them may so increase in me, as may either rid me of the extreme hearts-grief which I am overcharged with at this present, or make me apt and able to support it rather according to the law of Grace, than to that of Nature. These pity-moving words drew fresh tears from the eyes of all there present, insomuch as many of them would not avoid the room: Till some of the discreetest (perceiving that the instance was not ceremonious, and that great griefs have their exhalations from themselves rather than from any other ground, and are withal soon stopped by being suffocated) persuaded the rest to avoid the room, leaving with her only her domestic servants, from whom also she quickly found means to free herself, to come and see me. By this time they had conveyed me into that Chamber there that's next hers; and in this room wherein lay my (to their then thinking) dead corpse, Erinnio had placed my Coffin full of heavy things with another lesser one for my bowels, so as she needed not to go further than from her Chamber to mine: Upon this she told them, that she desired to be left all alone, and then bid Antca lock the door, and so leaving her in trust to keep it, with Erinnio's help rose up on her feet trembling for fear of being observed or discovered: as soon as she saw me alive, she had much ado to keep herself from swooning: Feign would she have embraced me, but that my wound (that passed from my throat quite through the neck-joint into the head, not touching (by good fortune) the Weason-pipe) was so sore, as that I could not endure to be touched; yet could not the extremity of my agony so stupefy my memory, as not both to know her, and with beteared eyes to express the sorrow that I conceived for the affliction and grief that I had drawn on her, in grateful expression whereof I with a reverend affection touched her hand, and used (because I could not speak) all the outward expressions I could possibly imagine to comfort her: here understanding by the Chirurgeon anew that he warranted my life, she considered with herself, how she might best keep the business concealed. The main heads whereto her resolutions were reduced to, were; That leaving her bedchamber for being too near to that where my corpse had been, she should remove into the other on the far side of it (she herself or Antea keeping the key of it) to the end that her Gentlewomen might neither hear me, nor the trampling of those that came to serve me: That there should be allowed Erinnio and Siledo a good table, under pretext of observing a Fast in the Chamber where they had laid me for dead, and the leaving of their table to be reserved for the poor, who were to be served with their own hands through the gate you came in at, to the end those of the house might not suspect, that there were any more than two mouths to consume it: That the Chirurgeon should (as he might with a good colour do) give out, that he was, for some dangerous cure, gone afar off, for not giving any ground of suspicion to his family or others, by absenting himself from home, having before hand carefully provided all things necessary that could in any occasion happen to be requisite for me: That Antea should serve me for Cook, till I were able to chew, under colour of doing it for my Mother: And that my Mother should not stir abroad, to the end the presence of her person in those Lodgings might keep off others from coming thither. In sum, matters were so well disposed of, that there is not to this day any one that believes I am not dead. The Coffin sent to Lucania was placed in my Ancestors vault, my Mother leading ever sithence so retired a life, as the world believes it to be, from a good one that it is, raised to the pitch of a Saintlike and holy one; the fame whereof was in such sort divulged abroad by her women, and so increased by passing from one mouth to another, as it ministered subject to many a strange story.  
I afterwards pretty well cured as thou seest me, was yet so troubled in mind, for not knowing what was become of the Princess, that I was like both to undo myself, and spoil all: For, walking one evening in my chamber all alone, whilst Erinnio was with my Mother in her chamber, I became to be transported with an affect so strange, that I fell talking to myself, overheard by two Gentlewomen, by ill fortune, and through Antea's fault for leaving the door of that chamber open. Then burst I out a complaining, that fortune after so many felicities, had made me the most unfortunate Gentleman breathing, seeing, she not content with causing me to be slain, had for tormenting me with a double death deprived me of the knowledge of my Corianna's state and being. More I would have said, but that upon sudden consideration of my indiscretion I held my peace, and the words believed to be uttered by a dead man occasioned the spreading abroad a rumour, that my spirit was heard stirring all over the house, but especially in the room where my Coarse had been laid; and that Erinnio had seen it, but was afraid to confess it, for doubt that some harm would betide him for it: And indeed upon the Gentlewoman's questioning him about it, he was forced (for concealing the truth) to induce them to believe the false rumour by ambiguities, and a kind of affirming-silence, charging them to make no words of it ' though it were true, lest the King should be taken with a humour of interring my body deeper, and for not joining of greater fears to the Dutchesses already more than too-too grievous afflictions.  
Whilst Lucano stood thus relating his own disastrous adventures, they heard the noise of a key unlocking a door, & then beheld come in thereat the Duchess, to see her son ere her going to bed; who (good Lady) though that Olmiro's habit and beard had much disfigured him, yet failed not (for all that) to know him suddenly. And having been formerly told that he was gone along with the Princess, she joyed not a little to see him, out of the hope she conceived of hearing some news from her, and so to see (by some means or other) end with some more happy conclusion Lucano's till then over-tragical disadventures. Olmiro having kissed her hands, told her of the Princess, all that he had formerly related to Lucano, beseeching her to give him leave to go find her out as soon as his weakness permitted him; with showing her, how that (over and besides the obligation interceding for her) mere pity should win her assent thereto.  
Olmiro (said she) Corianna is both my Princess and Mistress, which subjection I will never forget for all the privileges that she hath or may give Lucano. Howbeit I ingeniously confess to thee, that I know not how the harm she hath done me can any way oblige me unto her, whereof if she hath endured much too, yet is not the fault mine, sithence the Gods know, that I was never so ambitious as to have a King's daughter to my daughter-in-law at so dear a prize. But what's once done and passed cannot be undone again. And I am (for what depends on me) most heartily willing that Lucano make known unto her, that as he hath spent one, so he is most ready to spend a thousand lives in her service. Nor can he (indeed) ever declare himself to her to be such and so deserving, that the love showed by her, and the virtue that should be in him, require not that he should strive to express himself in an-yet-more-ample measure. I mean not then to hinder him, but rather to command him to go, and that too as soon as may be: Nevertheless to stay yet a week (or such a matter) cannot but be his best course; for being by that time throughly well, he will be able to perform his voyage without falling into any relapses or new indispositions, which would prove to him dangerous, and to Corianna and me a subject of augmenting and prolonging our griefs. Concluded it was, that go he should as soon as he were fully recovered. The Duchess thinking every hour an year till she saw him out of the Realm, conceiting it impossible, that his long sojourn discovered him not; being withal very desirous of Corianna's return, for the ending of her so heavy sufferings. Little ambitious (God wot) in the rest, (when she had considerately examined all things that made for her disadvantage) for by reason of the Realm's having a Prince (though a babe) Lucano could not aspire to the Crown: Also that the Princess should be there but slenderly esteemed; it being not likely that she should ever get a good look of her Father; and her not elected but forced affinity likely to prove odious and displeasing to both King and kingdom. To these were added womanish emulations, for respect whereof she would rather have had a daughter-in-law of a middling condition that were obedient unto her, than a royal Princess, whom it behoved her to be observant of. Full little slept the Duke that night, thinking himself to be already gone, nay arrived in Ericusa, in the cave, and between the arms of his more beloved than deere-bought Corianna: so as not yet throughly well and abandoned of sleep, the humours stirred up with unexpected joy, brought on him a new fever, which lasted him many days; insomuch as it was impossible for him to part till a month after. But then clothed in a course habit, and accompanied with no other than Erinnio and Olmiro, taking the way of Taranto, he embarked himself for Feacia, and thence to Ericusa. But here contentcrossing Fortune thinking she had not yet afflicted him enough, would needs (to make it perhaps known that she made no reckoning of Princes) take her pastime on him by ways unlawful, with an intention happily (according to her custom) cruel, to kill him with grief, since she could not kill him with the sword.  
Corianna was by this time uprisen from childbed, and Carildo being (according to his wont manner) sent to see if he could see arrive any ship, and in her Olmiro, beheld (under the house of Feredo, inhabited then by Almadero as hath been told you) the then owner of the house himself, who upon a hunting-nag was then riding to visit the Princess of Feacia. Now he was in all things so like Lucano, that Carildo believed it was he, yet could not imagine how that could possibly be, being he had left him (to his thinking) dead: Besides, that being now (to his seeming) living, he had not in his retinue any one of his wont servants, to him very well known. But that which chiefly induced him to believe it, was his language and accent, when he heard him speak to his servants in the pure language of Parthenope. Accosting therefore one of them he prayed him to tell him, who that Knight was? and understanding that he was the Knight of the tears; he was not half-satisfied with that new by-surname of his, though he were thereby the more confirmed in his opinion, by conceiving that he had ta'en on him that name for the loss of Corianna; but praying the same man again to inform him of his proper name and country, he was answered, that he could therein be satisfied by no man save only his Squire, (who was now gone before to see if the Princess of Feacia were at home) since all of them had been the Druid's servants, and were now his, without knowing of him any more than that he was settled there, upon some not-openly-known discontent or cross-fortune befallen him in his own country, but that he (for certain) came from parthenope, where of his language accused him to be a native: yet howsoever it were, he could be no less than a great Prince by his manners, carriage, and expense.  
Carildo having thanked this servant of his, remained astonished, when he observed how the Knight himself, upon his saluting him, had eyed him as a man he had never seen before, thinking it impossible, that Lucano could be so forgetful, as not to have retained in his memory some guess of having seen or known him before: He therefore would willingly have followed him, but that he thought it his better course to go see if he could espy in the house any thing that might rid him of his doubt; but yet could not discover there any more: Led he was through every room, and showed all his Arms and Armour, but yet could not gather any thing from them neither; seen that he had that noble Steed, which by his marks and making, he well knew to be of Lucano's breed, (the prime race in all that kingdom) he remained so confused in mind, as he knew not what to think on't. Returned to the cave with his wont answers, he renewed to the unfortunate Princess' wont afflictions, which made her accuse Olmiro of negligence, and the Fates of cruelty for hindering his return. Carildo would not acquaint her any whit of his suspicions, but taking an excuse to return about some business he had to do abroad, he went out the morning following, with an intent to speak himself unto the supposed Lucano, whom upon his entrance into the wood, he might see close by the Princess of Feacia in amorous practices.  
Lucano was the night before arrived, and by Olmiro conducted towards the cave through the wood, when unseen they saw the same that Carildo did; there was not any one of them that took her not for Corianna, and by peering one in another's face, they expressed their amazement at her habit misbeseeming an afflicted person; at her countenance that argued content, but most of all at her gadding so alone to find out some one to accompany her; for, passing-by without seeing them, she jetted on with a pace so indecent, as pierced Lucano to the heart, a wound (for all that) supportable, till such time, as seeing Almadero meet, kiss, and close with her in amorous embraces: His doubt ceded to certain realty to the eye and sense, which (as issuing out of some violent machine) struck through his heart with the sharpest grief that ever cold jealousy tempered with its envenomed juices in the infernal forge, assisted by the Furies and spitefullest spirits of the worst of hells. Kill him outright it did not, the force of his animal spirits supplying the place of his abated courage by conspiring against it, increasing for the increasing of his torment, and to make him miserable above all those that ever grieved either for perversity of stars or malignity of Destiny; and withal to the end nothing might be wanting him towards the making full of his heart-racking tortures, there appeared for next object to his sight Carildo, that (whilom) honest, faithful, and obliging Carildo, become now traitorous, disloyal, a pander of dishonesty, and instrument of his Mistress' shame, whom he imagined to be so retired aside of purpose to wait for to reconduct her from the polluted grove to the wicked cave, th'abominable receptacle of infamy.  
The with-love-re-inveigled Almadero had ever since Feredo's departure, employed all his study to gain the love of the Princess of Feacia, which succeeded him so well, that the little love she bore to her old husband so accelerated her resolution, that she from a love became to be a lover, insomuch as upon his many times forbearing out of the respect due to the husband, she (whom another sort of intelligence ruled over, not caring for any such observances) would oftentimes come to find him out just as she had done that day; because, that though he had been the day before a-seeing of her, yet had she not (for all that) the opportunity of being with him as she desired. Taking now therefore an excuse to go to her wont devotions in the wood, she left to wait for her return at the entrance there of her servants and horses, for having no spy over her actions; the same had she done whilst Feredo was there; for having been enamoured of him, without being (for all that) able with all her devices ever to win him to pitch nearer the lure of her desires than in the far distant grove of rigid lovers, & that but through the suggestion of an imaginary birth of her conceit neither. And now because she had the day before made a match with Almadero to come thither at that hour, they therefore (in respect of his being there before to wait her coming) met jump together, retiring themselves (after their first reciprocally-halfecloying each other with burning kisses) into the thickest of the wood, in a place there made commodious for their loves.  
Carildo upon the appearing of the true Lucano knew Olmiro and Erinnio, but not him, so disfigured by his habit and long sickness, which in case they had not the force to alter him, yet had his new-come grief power enough both to transform and deform him. He therefore now doubted no more of Almadero's being Lucano; seeing these three infallible witnesses, instruments (to his thinking) of the most detestable and basest treachery that ever was heard of; imagining that upon their landing in Ericusa, he fell to be enamoured of that woman, and that forgetting his lawful love, he was now given over to unlawful adulterous lust, without caring any more for her, to whose affection he was so highly obliged: But that which the more argued the baseness of his foul fault, was the impudency wherewith he carried it, in taking on him that he knew him not, for thinking to keep by such base shifts his villainously-disloyal fact undiscovered: Whereupon resolved to unmask his knavery, (though he died for it) he bent his pace towards the three, to see what they would say to him. But by than Lucano unable longer to resist the violent agony of his grief, seized upon by an extreamely-shivering cold, caused himself to be conveyed out of the wood, so as the trees took him and his out of Carildo's sight, who finding them gone from the place he had seen them, wandered all over the wood to seek them out, imagining then that upon their espying him, they were slipped away for fear of being discovered by him, which made him so mad with anger, as he would willingly have slain Olmiro, Erinnio that third man, and himself too: Till finding that he could not wreck his spite that way, he thought it his next best course to expect for the coming forth of the supposed Lucano, and to affront him in the presence of his new Mistress: Yet considering his Lady and Mistress her being and dwelling in her country a friendless and acquaintantless stranger, subject to wrong, without any defender, he resolved to return home, acquaint her with the fact, persuade her to hate him perpetually, and to get her thence to some other place less griefsome and less odious.  
Accordingly then Carildo returns home all-enraged, and appears before the Princess a quite-altered man from what he was wont to be: He now observes neither measure nor reason in his actions; he speaks never a word, nor makes any answer to any question asked him; he lets fall out of his hand whatsoever he handleth, stumbles and trips wheresoever he puts his foot: His eyes are heavy and sunk in's head, his brows lowering, his countenance grim, sour, and pale. The Princess takes notice of him, and imagining this change could not spring but from some great and extraordinary occasion, thus bespoke him.  
What's the matter (Carildo) that thou art so changed? hast thou any ill news for me, that thou canst not find in thy heart to impart me? if thou hast, I pray thee tell it me boldly, for I am now become a soil fit for such seed. Hast thou (tell me) met with Olmiro; yea sure thou hast, since thou mak'st me no answer; and with that fetching a deep sigh she spoke on: yea, yea, I well knew that it was not ordinary to raise up the dead again otherwise than in a dream: But yet (I pray thee) Olmiro, wherefore comes he not near me? Because he's a wicked villain (answered her Carildo.) She stricken to the heart with so harsh an epithet, by her thought blasphemy, held her peace, whilst he thus proceeded.  
Madame, your Highness must both know how the case stands, and resolve courageously to accomplish and do what I dare advise you. Corianna, who was even dead to understand his meaning, answered him. Tell me it then a God's name, if thou wilt not that thy faintheartedness in discovering it, should teach me how unable I must be to support it. Madame (said he then) I beseech you to pardon me if I proceed preposterously in this business. For, before I acquaint you with what is done, I must first tell you what is to be done. Well, do as thou wilt (so thou but tell me) answered she. Madame (replied he) be not (I beseech you) then offended, if I make bold to tell you, that what you ought to do, is, never to love Lucano more. Thou shallowpated fool (answered him she then) thou sure either dotest or art mad; what? must I love him no more because he is dead? yet if thou be'st not stark mad, then show me the reason for't, since thou well knowst how impossible a thing it is for me to resolve of a thing so unjust; explain me therefore (if thou canst) any possibility or reason for me to do so: Marry so I soon will (said he) so you but vouchsafe me the patience to hear it, which I briefly thus deliver. If Lucano were alive and loved not you, but (seeing the present state of life you lead, and either detesting or slighting it) were become enamoured of another woman, and past his time with her, would you then think and grant that impossibility merited the becoming possibility, and unreasonableness reason to love him no more? This said, he stopped his speech, which upon her not answering, he thus continued. I beseech your Highness to tell me, if rather than to have Lucano dead, you would be contented to have him alive (mistake me not) not yours, but a woman's whom he keeps and enjoys before your face here in this Island, whilst you live like a serpent under ground for love and long of him; and where (because you could not dye with grief) you strive to kill yourself with the rotting humidity and malign exhalations of the dankish earth. But be pleased (I beseech you) my Lady and Princess, (whom I know to be discreet) to tell me, Is it not a strange thing, that the Duke of Lucania, who before was dead, should be now risen again to life; who before a lover, should be now a loather of his deservedly-beloved object, and who formerly was a noble and loyal Gentleman, should (as for certain he now is) become most perfidious and ungrateful. Corianna become clay cold thereat, had not the power to answer him; the Duchess also with the Gentlewoman astonished at these strange news, stood mute like so many statues; till she herself at length, having first dried her beteared cheeks, thus said.  
Lucano then is not dead but lives, and yet is no more mine? And is it possible that Lucania could bring forth and foster such cruelty and ingratitude? No, no, the world will not believe it, no more do not I. Thou dreamest, (alack) thou dreamest Carildo; the constantly-good-gentle-carriage of Lucano is a cloth died in grain, incapable of either spot or stain. But hereupon Carildo's distinct relation of all he had seen, (taking for the right Lucano the true Almadero) she flung herself on the ground tearing her hair, clothes, and face, and had doubtless killed herself in that passionate fury, had not the discretion of her attendants hindered and crossed that her so desperate intention.  
Lucano on the otherside (being by his loyally-loving servants conducted to the place where he landed, and whither Carildo was wont to come to buy provision, and to espy for the landing of any shipping, was in a poor lodging, provided of a poorer bed with small hope of life, his grief augmenting his fever whilst his spirits hourly wasted. Resolved then to dye, he yet resolved first to be the death of the Knight that was the cause of his death. Olmiro and Erinnio did by turns the best they could to bring him out of the imminent desperation he was in, from which they could not think of a better or more powerful diversion, than the loathing of Corianna; showing him withal, that in respect of loves being engendered by love, the one should surcease to be, upon the ceasing of the others being. A correspondence (in their judgement) every way just, for that if the hazarding one's life for any ones love, was an effect not only of affection, but also of duty; wherefore then (since we have all of us reason to respect ever chiefly our own good, and to love ourselves best) should any man so love any one that loves him not, as to hate himself to death? with further telling him, that amorous constancies were poetical fables; and if not, that yet they could not be virtues, their effects being vicious and against reason. That that which was constantly to be liked and loved in a woman was constancy, honesty, modesty, shamefastness, and the like, and not their opposites and unlike. But Lucano arguing the case according to his passion, returned them this answer.  
My well-meaning friends, the privilege of men in health is to judge of sicknesses as they conceive of them, and not according to the sick man's pain. Would not ye hold me for a mad man, if I (being well and you sick) went about to persuade you, that it is ill done to be sick, and contrary to the reasons of loving a man's own good, and content; with adding, that your being sick makes your friends sorry, disquiets your family, and leads you the highway to death; and that therefore your best course were to be well again, which if you please you may be? Yet ye now persuade yourselves that I can do what I cannot, thinkign that passions should be ranked among things indifferent; whereas indeed true love hath ever been a supreme Commander, and to this day exerciseth his Sovereignty, not only over reasonable men, but also over reason itself; how much more powerfully than must I needs be tyrannised over by mine, that hath been already possessed of its sweets, and since (in an exampleless manner) suspended from them by time and sufferings? Think you that a thing so precious, acquired with the hazard of my life, and loss of my state and fortunes, can be by me given over and resigned to another; only because my will and resolution (you say) should be to do so? You would persuade me to it, out of charity to myself for sooth; but (I pray you) tell me how can I express myself more charitable to myself, than (seeing a necessity of my death) to dye quickly and willingly? To love no more Corianna is impossible for me; nay more, the mere instincts of love yet persuade me she is innocent, and the Law we live under enforces me to believe her such: Again, that she hates me I cannot believe, nor yet dared ye tell me so. Is she (having heard of my death) obliged to languish perpetually? Or do the Laws deny marriage to fair, young, orphan-widows, and in a plight so miserable as she was in? Corianna was borne to love me out of her voluntary nobleness, to cause me to be slain, yea and slay me too, but innocently; Corianna hath for my sake forsaken both Father and Country, nay lived too like a worm under ground through my doings; till occasion was offered her, that a gentle Cavalier moved to compassion at her sufferings, freed her thence, and she (poor Lady) was fain to accept of his courteous offer, now that she lived (for loving me) excluded and deprived both of Realm and honour: Nor can I but acknowledge myself (in some respect) obliged to her Knight her new servant, and am sorry that I cannot requite him, since that Corianna being mine cannot be his too, nor have two husbands at the same time living; I therefore am necessitated to slay him with my own hands; or if he chance to kill me, I shall then (Heaven be my witness) dye contentedly, and dying, wish him that felicity, which my own heart desired I should enjoy with my dear Corianna.  
The disconsolated Princess slept not all that night, but spent it in bemoaning Lucano living, as she had before lamented him dead, resolved the next morning to go find him out herself; which because Carildo dissuaded her from, as both a thing unworthy of her, and a subject of favour to Lucano, and of triumph to the Princess of Feacia; she bade him spare his speech, and get her a few new-laid eggs, she having not eaten any thing all the day before. In this he obeyed her with all readiness, and by so much the more willingly, that the innocent babe (which she nursed herself) suffered exceedingly through the want of milk, and abounding of ill humours which his Mother's passions engendered in him: and then accompanied with no other than the Duchess, she leaving her woman to look to the babe took her way to Almadero's house-wards, going rather a Bacchan's or bedlam's than a royal or sick-woman's pace, and so speedily as the Duchess had much ado to follow her. They well knew the next way without going any compass, having been used to walk it often, when sometimes they went out to enjoy the benefit of the fresh air. The sun began to send out his hotter beams by that time they were come to the foot of the hill, which made them irresolute, whether it were their better course to go up, or expect his coming down into the wood. But such was their good fortune, that Almadero chancing to espy them, came running down towards them, taking one of them to be his Lidomia, for such was the Princess of Feacia's name. The Ladies, on the other side, discovering him a far off, and not doubting that he was Lucano, retired themselves to along bench, seated at the mouth of the wood, to attend there his coming  
Almadero having first commanded his Attendants to stay behind, came running down the descent of the hillock all alone, with as great speed as could be imagined. Being come near them, and seeing Corianna (whom he believed to be Lidomia) so altered and pale, he with a compassionate accent cried out, Alack for woe! what face is that dear Mistress of my life? how came it so to lose its colour and fresh beauty in one short day? With this, offering to take her gently by the hand, and she disdainfully but faintly withdrawing it, her spirits failed her, her head hung drooping down, & her breathless body had also sunk to the earth, but that the Duchess and he supported it; Almadero not knowing the Duchess, asked her, what disastrous fortune had so discourteously used the Princess his Lady and Mistress, as to alter her so exceedingly in so short a time? In so short a time (answered him then the Countess) 'tis indeed but a short time since thy disloyalties were known, but not since she began to suffer for thee, thou false unworthy Knight; whereas if she had listened unto my words, we had not been at the pass we now are reduced to. But Lucano? thou the most abominablest of men, hast thou so flinty a heart and brazen a face, as forgetting the miseries which are and have been endured for thee, to falsify even before the face of so high-born a Princess (to whom thou art so much bound) that plighted troth, which was the occasion of her becoming unfaithful, and a promise-breaker to the King her Father, the King of Sicily, and herself? Ah thou ungrateful, unworthy Traitor.  
Strange seemed this language to Almadero, for being unacquainted with the actions he was taxed withal, nor could he imagine the reason why this woman (whom he never knew nor saw before) so spoke unto him, as if she had been before of his acquaintance, till the naming of Lucano made him somewhat conceive the error, but the naming of the Kings much more; yet could neither of these stop the violent current of his first conceit; for the seeing of (to his thinking) Lidomia in such a plight, made him believe, that the Lady might be mistaken in the names but not in the fact, wherewith he imagined some false report might have misinformed her conceit: But seeing her not yet come to herself, he thought it a more beseeming office to run to fetch water to revive her, than to take any heed to the bitter words of a misinformed woman: But no sooner was he parted from her, than upon hearing her fetch a profound sigh, he returned, contemplating in her with an eye of sorrow-displaying pity a mortallbluish paleness; here offering to take her by the hand anew, and again repulsed with open disdain.  
Madame (said he thereupon) I now well see, that this place is against all reason the Island of Adventures, whereas its name should rather be the Island of Misadventures, seeing its adventures grow from good to evil; considering how you are from a healthy woman become so sick and altered, as I scarce know you, and I from an honest man grown to be disloyal, unworthy, and a Traitor. This Lady (whom I know not what she is) both contrary to the modesty of her sex, and beyond the limits of reason takes on her too much authority to injure me: I am verily persuaded she knows me not, but mistakes me for some other, since her being with you, and her noble aspect should not (me thinks) permit her to give such unmannerly language to any man, much less to me. Upon this the Duchess leaving Corianna half unlaced, turning angrily towards him: Would to Heaven (answered she) that I had indeed never known thee, for then hadst thou never been the ruin of our House, and shame of our blood. Woe is me, I know thee but too well, though I indeed never till now knew thee to be so shameless and impudently-audacious, as to dare to deny with the acts the persons; tellest thou me, thou knowest me not? wilt thou say thou knowst not the Lady Princess neither? To this Almadero half-angry replied: I never have nor will deny what I knew, and for my Lady the Princess, I shall much sooner forget the knowledge of myself than of her; sithence for retaining the knowledge of her everlastingly, my spirit hath so stamped her shape in my memory, that appear she well in health, courteous and favourable as she did yesterday; or angry, disdainful, and sick, as she seems to be to day, yet shall I never forget either her noble person or obliging favours. All reasons making for the contrary touch not me, which if they did, then were I indeed that disloyal, unworthy miscreant that you make me. For the rest, I understand you not, you call me Lucano, a name that I never heard of before, and you talk (I know not what) of our house and blood; But truly I believe, that if such interesses were between us, I should then know you as well as you imagine you know me. For which if I had no other argument, the very falseness of the calumny which you brand me with, is so manifest, that I knowing that I have never shamed my blood; know by consequence, that none of my kindred can upbraid me of any such crime.  
The Princess that had the while with a stern-louring eye ofttimes beheld him, perceived she was mistaken, now that she had observed in him the favour and making, but neither the gesture nor true accents of Lucano, imprinted in her memory with an indelible stamp; and therefore now grown desperate, upon the becoming dead again of her a little sithence resuscitated lover, she began to grieve with a new kind of sorrow, and had willingly spent her dearest blood, to be (without being deceived) the beguiled and betrayed one, so he but lived: Whence we may gather, that there is not any affect either more inconstant in its operations, or more contrary in its self, than that of amorous jealousy: Hatred and love are ever constantly the same, the one neverthinkes of loving, the other never descends as low as hating; but when once jealousy enters, than they confound themselves. The lover knows not which of them he were best pitch upon, if he enjoys the one, he covets the other, which gotten he abhors, and returns to the first again; hence proceeds that vicissitude or perpetual motion of war and peace in amorous affections. The Duchess observing the language of the (to her thinking) Lucano, though she imagined not that she was mistaken, yet discreetly conceiving, she had too much offended him, she with a milder countenance thus bespoke him.  
Nephew, if with my fortunes and the rest I had lost my wits and memory, I might then doubt of knowing you, though I have no reason to wonder that you know not me; but should indeed marvel more, that in all the time that we lamented you dead, our hues and faces were not altered, and more yet that we are not overgrown with grass instead of skin and hair. But for all this alteration, is it possible that I am so disfigured as you know not the Duchess of Magna Grecia your own Aunt? That you could know the Princess my Mistress sooner than me, is to me a double wonder, her griefs and sufferings having been greater than mine, and her beauty and youth more subject to change, than my wrinkles and withered agedness: But since you say you know her, I pray you then how came you to know her, if you be not Lucano? The Knight at these words peering in her face, stood as immovable as a stone, upon his comprehending of this mistake: Glad then of being disburdened of the great pain, that the alteration of his believed Lady and beloved Mistress had drawn on him, he with a smiling countenance thus answered her.  
For certain Lady I may well be your servant (and so I now offer you to be) the being such depending on my choice: but be your nephew for truth I cannot, that being an office reserved to Nature; I am sorry that the resemblance which I might have to that nephew of yours Lucano, hath deceived you, as the likeness in favour of this noble Lady to the Princess of Feacia hath beguiled me; but now that mistake deludes me no longer, seeing that it is impossible that she whom I so lately saw so well and in such perfect health could in so few hours lose both flesh and colour; and now if there be any thing in me, that may better satisfy you for the further clearing of your mistake, behold me most ready and willing to obey you.  
The Princess who till then had her pale lips sealed up with silence (become now but too certain of the truth) said unto him: Worthy Sir, there needs no other proof; the acting of such a deceitful part cannot be expected from a person of your quality: and for this lady's using you discourteously, she was indeed persuaded she might do it, out of the conceit she had, that she spoke to her Nephew, and upon the supposed ground of a fault, whereof he (unfortunate Gentleman) is so much the more innocent, by how much his being reduced to earth and dust deprives him of the power of sinning; with that word, she sinking down her head swooned again, and became as cold as ice. Almadero (the sweetest dispositioned Knight living) had much ado to refrain weeping for mere pity; and seeing some of his servants not very far off him, he called for water, which came (but too late) with the accourse of all that were above to help her. fain would he then have known who she was, but held it no good manners to ask it yet of the Duchess, who was both confused in mind for him, and busied about the Princess; but having already understood the story of Corianna, he ran with his imagination to the truth: Use therefore he did all the means he could imagine by entreaty and persuasion, to have her carried up, whereunto the Duchess assented, yet she could by no means be persuaded to it, but suddenly parted to avoid his importunity. Whereupon Almadero would at least have her carried to her Barge, (for they had made him believe, they had a Barge that attended them) but she would by no means agree to that neither, being resolved rather to dye by the way, than to let any one know where she abode.  
Carildo gone out of the cave (as was told you) came where Lucano was lodged, where (as before he guessed he should) he met with Olmiro. Both of them grew pale, and in vent of their spiteful ire each against other, Carildo first thus reviles the other. Is it thus that Princesses ought to be served? Olmiro: Is this the faith thou owest such personages? Is this the gratitude to thy Sovereign Mistress for so many favours? To know that she pines and dies for news from Lucano, and yet both Lucano being alive, and thou living with him, lead a most dissolute course of life, whilst she (unfortunate Lady) lies a dying? Now fie for mere shame, if you have no charity, yet should ye (me thinks) have so much modesty and respect (injuring her with so much ingratitude, and with so little reason as ye have to do so) as to do it at least so privately as she know it not.  
Olmiro (who understood the matter otherwise) thought these the most dissembling and counterfeit words that e'er were uttered, and Carildo the unworthiest man breathing; which made him thus retort. If thou hadst served the Princess as loyally as I have done, thou hadst not then brought herto that dishonest pass she now (through thy means) is brought unto: We have well seen that she lies not dying, but for her greater content, lives in thy presence accompanied, with whom I know not save with whom she listeth or lusteth after. Wicked miscreant? is this the care thou shouldst have of a Princess? Is this the thanks thou givest Lucano's bounty? Is this the duty due to his favour and merits? Must he (unfortunate Knight) who was slain and half-buried, live again; and being come hither for life, find here his death? Me thinks ye should at least have had the patience to expect my return; sithence if he were alive (as for his greater misfortune it is but too certain that he is) he would then take from you the occasion of falling into the error you are in; if dead, then would there rest to her (being so rid of her husband) the field honourably free to other loves, whereas ye are now through your frantic impatience become inexcusable, by becoming yourselves the murderers of that unfortunate innocent Knight.  
Carildo the noblest-minded Squire living, conceiting that Olmiro had for hiding his and Lucano's faults, invented this dishonest calumny; and that not content to injure him alone, he had basely let run his lying tongue on the honour of his innocent Lady and Mistress; forgetting now all the rules of patience, clapped his hand on a skein that hung at his neck, Olmiro doing as much with another such weapon, and then either of them redoubling his blows on the other, did his utmost endeavour not to wound, but (like cruel enemies) to speed each other; so as one of them had soon been slain, but for the arrival of five Knights: But I must now crave leave to get me elsewhere, undertaking to deliver them you in in a short time woundless and friends.  
We left Polimero and his company parted from Greece with their prow to the Westward; who as they sailed with a gentle Loom-gale, discovered (the second night of their voyage) a far off in the Island of Cythera, a great number of fires, which seemed to go and meet one another; an effect not to be judged of, in respect of the motion of the Vessel; whereupon to satisfy their curiosity, they steered directly towards it; where drawn near, they perceived them to be Torches, wherewith some dead man was accompanied to his last home. The pomp was considerable both for quantity and variety; the men were all hooded with Capuchios', and the more principal wore long trains; the horses trapped with black velvet down to the hoof: the Funeral contrived into a curious form of lights and banners; the military Music orderly divided into correspondent spaces, whereof those of voices next about the Bier enforced with their sweetly-mournful consort, the stoniest affects to grieve and sorrow. Polimero could by the great pomp he there observed judge no less, than that the dead man was some great Prince; for which cause, and because also the she-warriors were desirous to see him, he commanded to run a shore there: yet could they not land so soon, but that the Bier was before entered into the Temple, whilst they stood wondering, that there could be in so small an Island, so stately a show, and such a number of Nobility. There stood placed in the midst, a Pyramid-wise-built Scaffold, with stairs to get up on it, and so high, as it seemed to contend with the height of a Cube; there sustained it twelve great Pillars, and under it was laid the Bier with the corpse, whose principal ornament were many Arms; the fairest of them (which for being enriched with precious stones glittered at the flaming-light of the Torches) were on the nethermost of the stairs, whose corners were adorned with statues even to the uppermost of all; the first four of the four cardinal virtues, the others of the succeeding, wrought with such exquisite artifice, as they seemed to be of finest Marble; the Torches in great quantity orderly ranked from the top to the bottom in great silver Candlesticks, and the whole circumference lighted by an infinite number of wax-lights proportionably contrived and moulded.  
The Princes passing by all other curiosities, hastened to see the coarse, which being a youth of about nineteen years of age, exposed to the eye (though dead) a show of such lively beauties, that the privation of life seemed counterfeit, only that he might be gazed on; he lay armed all save the head. A Mantle of fine purple, within lined quite through, and without down to the waste with white Ermines, & a Crown (which for being set full of precious stones shone on his head) manifested him to be undoubtedly some great Prince. There sat at his feet two damosels' clothed in black, whose habits, together with their nethermost border without, were lined with fair white veils. They lamented him, singing in a tone so mournful, that there was not an unbeteared eye among all the spectators: Another such pair was placed one of each side of him, with two great rich wind-fans in their hands; busied they were in fanning him air, till the two first, having by then given over their song, successively underwent their office. But the sweltry heat (which for being increased by the lights and pestering throng of people, made them feel it still more and more stifling) enforced them to retire to the air into a Cloister hard by; where being by a Priest known for strangers, they were by him courteously offered the commodity and sight of the house; seeming desirous withal to relate unto them its beginning, and how there was there nursed the fair Goddess of Cyprus: But they moved with the curiosity of that lugubrious spectacle, besought him (though they had understood the generality of it already) to tell them its particulars, how that Prince came to dye in that Island of Cythera: the good man willing to obey them, (following a great Torch that he caused to be carried before them, and walking right on to a long Gallery, that led to that part of the house that was called the stranger's Lodging) thus satisfies their curiosity.  
Some two years sithence may there be (saith he) expired, since the Queen of Macedon (a kingdom not hence far distant) having sent of three sons that she had the two eldest, to be educated and taught elsewhere, holding native homes, especially those of Princes unfit and prejudicial (in respect of the authority which they there possess) to the institution of their youth, was taken with a longing desire to go see him disguised, but yet in the habit of a noble pilgrim; and of them unexpected came to the marvellous City of the Meridian Lake, where taken with the rare delightsomeness of the site, and other excellencies there remarkable, she made for some while her abode; the scope of her desire was to go see Egypt, and thence to return to Macedon; but was not so soon launched forth into the sea of Creta, than that Corideo the eldest of the two sickened; whereupon being necessitated to come ashore here; she thereof advertized her husband, who hastened (good Prince) with all possible speed to the beloved sight of his wife and son, though the joys of seeing her (part of himself) were corrupted by the likelihood he faw of losing his son, part of them both: Wherefore when he had (in vain) experimented all the remedies of Art to be bootless, he then, as though his recovery lay in his sons own hands, thus bespoke him.  
And wilt thou then leave me (my Corideo) now that I am run hither unto thee, of purpose that thou mightst not aband on me? Cheer up thy spirits, (my son) for behold me here ready to accomplish thy wishes; and if the wide world can raise up thy drooping courage, there is not (assure thyself) any one thing in it that I'll not procure to give thee content: We have here hard by, Macedon, where thou art wished for, and where thou shalt be cured, so thou be but pleased to be merry: Wilt thou by dying deceive the expectation which the world hath of thee living, as if thou distrustedest to accomplish with effects, what thou promisedest by the hopes conceived of thee? No do not, oh do it not (my dear Corrideo) death though timely will seize on thee but too soon, which (alas) he should not in this the fair spring-time of thy youth, and in the budding forth of its flowers, before the taking of its fruit, and ere it be either gathered or tasted. Look on thy dear Mother, her love towards thee is no new affect, and thinkest thou that thou canst satisfy her by dying, the debts thou owest her living? For myself, I say nothing; for if I desired that thou shouldst live for my sake, I should not then love thee but myself; but I loving both thee and her, aught to procure thy life for her sake and thine. More he would have said, but here ceased, for having his royal spirits overwhelmed with a fatherly affection, seconding (as rain follows thunder) his lamentation with tears.  
My Sovereign Lord (answered him the Prince) if one that already feels the ravishing sweets of a better life would follow the affections of this, he were unworthy to enjoy them. I never (the Gods know) meant to abandon you; which if it be conceived by any, that I by dying leave you, such a conceit argues not wisdom in the hatchers thereof; your Majesty (I am sure) is not of that opinion. This life is a race unequal in all men; mine (whatsoever one it be) is ended; I find myself at the mark in my best strength, and therefore since I have won the prize, you have no reason to repine or be sorry for my gain. The young man and decrepit dotardare (when they are once parted hence) in an equal degree, nor would my dying an old man do me any more good in consideration of my present years, since eternity admits of neither number nor time: Indeed if I abandoned you for the interest of my own sole advantage, you then had reason to grieve for it; but (alas) the arrest that is laid upon me comes from a higher power; your royal commandment extends not so far, no more than my possibility in the effect of serving you. Therefore (my dread Sovereign) the accusing me with the argument of my duty towards you, and my Mother's love to me, corrupts to me the divine sweets, which I already relish with the bitterness of unsavoury terrene affects, which like sharp thorns prick me but too-too much already on this my deathbed? Now for those things which you proffer me, with putting me in mind of my Country and kingdom, they (alas) are not to be paralleled with those I aspire unto; besides, I were most unworthy if it lay in my power to live, to live for any other end, than to honour and serve you. That I (by dying) corrupt the hopes conceived of me, I (in my judgement) in so dying dye an happy man, having in these few years of mine learned, that actions contend with opinions of volubility and inconstancy; so as, although who so doth well, digresseth not; yet escapes he not (for all that) the censure of opinions, which like mere shadows and Chimeras of spirits, run along with our days and alter with our years. Therefore (my Royal Sovereign) if your persuading me to live, be to command me, be then pleased (I beseech you) that I tell you, that neither your authority nor my obedience hath so large an extent, since the spirit, for being the better choice, hath more prevailing arguments than the flesh. For the rest, behold here my Brother Almondo, on whom my memory may together with the heritage be settled. If you but look well into him, you shall have no occasion to grieve for want of me: Be not (I beseech you) blinded with my lovely livelihood, and prompt forwardness now done and passed, that nature which you see sweetly-grave in him goes on (indeed a slower but) a surer pace. To you (Madame) it rests that I make known, that in this my passing over into the other world, there lies no greater rub in my way, than my affection to youwards as yet not transmuted, but half-terrene and mingled with your motherly affects; yet I hope that the Gods will hold me excused, for its being an effect of pity to one, whom next them I owe most unto. Madame, my Liege, Almondo I now go hence, let the memory of me be dear unto you, which to the end I may part hence contented, I pray you promise it me without grieving. With that word, he offered to reach them his hand, which as he began to raise up, sunk down again; he (with that) restoring his divinely-sweet spirit to him that had sent it him.  
Such was the end of Prince Corideo, which may serve for an example, to who so aspires to gain that which should be desired far before any earthly thing. The lamentation and moan made for him was exceeding great, the King also being no more capable of consolation than the Queen, although to comfort her, he took on him to grieve less than indeed he did. They are now retired into that Chapel there (pointing with that towards the place with his finger) whither our Father Guardian (a Priest of much holiness and profound learning) is gone a little while since to comfort them, and I was just now a going thither to see and hear them. If you therefore can dispense with my service, I shall crave leave of you to go on, or if otherwise you be possessed with the same curiosity as I am, I will then (so you be therewith pleased) see you seated in a dark window whence you may unseen see all. Upon acceptation of this last courteous proffer, they mount up; where (upon the opening of a door leading from a privy chamber) they discovered a little Temple, wherein upon large velvet cushions sat the King and Queen, whose Royal aspect so discovered their dignities, that their mourning-habit void of both pomp and ornament, could not disguise their native greatness. She being endued with a beauty so majestically-grave as might strike reverence into the stubbornest spirits, and he bearing stamped in his forehead the true characters of a magnanimous and generous heart. In the same instant entered the Priest, who being made sit on a low stool close by the Queen thus framed his speech.  
Madame, the Gods send me hither to be both your Physician and Ambassador, with command to comfort you as an Ambassador, and to cure your grief as a Physician; so you therefore be but pleased to make a short pause on your hitherto-just-tears; I will (the God's willing) accomplish both the one and the other. The Queen (lifting up her eyes, and seeing stand before her a reverend old man, who clothed in a snow-white raiment, made a show of something more than humane) dried her beteared eyes, but returned him no answer; for being at one and the same time to do two (as it were) contrary offices, which was, to retain her tears, and give free way to her speech. Whereupon he, as one long sithence acquainted with the nature of grief, without expecting any answer, proceeded.  
Madame, I am glad that saving health begins already to have place in your Majesty, since at the very name of God I see you shake off the shackles of that benumbing droopingness wherewith you were fettered. Humane afflictions have (Royal Madame) two most potent arguments, or rather means of shunning extremes; the one practised through the help of Philosophical virtue, the other infused by celestial grace; that common to all, this only to those whom God communicates it unto: From the first we may learn, that ordinary accidents should not in any extraordinary measure afflict us; that the gifts of Nature are bestowed upon us for use, not possession; that riches, children, and honours are more suddenly lost than gotten; that prudent and discreet persons receive from reason that consolation in an instant, which others are wrought unto by time and persuasion, and that such comfort too depends on our imagination, and our imagination on us, so as the prefixing to ourselves things either burdensome or light, is to shut or open the gates of comfort. The second teacheth us; that the death of the just is precious before God; that humane capacity conceives not the joys of such as have an eternal seat amongst the blessed; that the life of such is not taken away, but conserved till that long expected day, which must bring us, being freed from the tyranny of time and fortune, to the enjoying of a truly-perfect life; that that death which terminates the course of an holy life, is not properly death, considering the sweet quietness that ensues it, the fair advantageous exchange it makes, and the undoubted assurance it receives of it; that the good are called before their time, for ridding them out of the hands of the wicked, and from being by them either molested or corrupted; that God makes no difference between the hasty-greediness and lateness of time, but that man arrived to the term prescribed him, becomes old even in his very childhood; and that therefore we should with a cheerful mind accept what he sends us, to offer him in gift what we owe him of duty.  
The Queen listened unto the Priest with great attention; and seeing him now silent, with a countenance composed to constancy, whose mild serenity showed she had chased away the cloud of passion, she returned him this answer.  
Father, I yield the Gods hearty thanks for having vouchsafed to remember me through your means. I could not (I confess) answer your arguments, if I had the power to practice them, but wanting it, it behoves me to search for it in the secret of your precepts. And first, I beseech you to teach me, how I shall conceive to be ordinary that which never was heretofore? I lament not (as I am a woman) the general death of man; but bemoan (as a mother) the particular death of my son; I know that it is an ordinary thing that every man dye, but to dye in youth, to break the order of Nature, & to have befall us in our more pleasing years that which should not happen us before our decrepit loathsome old age, is (I am sure) no ordinary thing. For the gifts which we receive, alas I grieve not for being debarred the possessing them, which I pretend not, but for being deprived of the use of them, which was violently taken from me. If it were ordinary for mothers to be deprived of their sons, the world would then be soon ended, for in one sole age there would not be either fathers or sons to be found; that worldly things are transitory, our very sense shows us, but ere sense can renounce the grief that follows the privation of them, Nature must first forbear the forming it of passions. For the discreet I know not in what sense to conceive them; conceive them perhaps I might, if the proprieties of affects were punctually known, but who can fit me one pleasure or one pain to two that be just equal to them, and reduce withal their constitutions to such a parity, that tense make not a difference of them? which if it could be done too, yet could there be no great matter of prudence in it, since we are tied to work with such equality: And again, if it cannot be done, I must then call it rigidness of nature, declination of sense, stupidity or defect of apprehension at the least. The procuring in fine that mere imagination should bring us to comfort, is beyond the reach of my understanding. And I would fain know, if such an effect shall be conformable to its cause? which if it be, then must such a consolation needs be false, the imagination being form of things not true. To your second Arguments I make no answer, their authority being but too great, and their truth most manifest. But the supreme truth not being comprehensible, otherwise than by the mind, it should not (me thinks) seem strange to you, if I (for being governed with the sharp sense of my griefs) comprehend it not in its own rays; whereunto I (for all that) submit both myself and my griefs so I be but permitted to evaporate them a little, lest the principal be exceeded by the interest.  
Upon the hearing of these words, the Assistants who till this time were all tongue-tied by a drooping silence, made resound the Cube of a confused lamentation, the aged Priest weeping with the rest: Till observing a little after that the Queen dried up her tears, and that returned to her former quiet temper, she stood expecting some further speech of him; he thought to reply, when she continued the file of her speech, saying.  
Father, there are some passions which have more need of sword than shield, which a man must either quite defeat or still live withal; which if it so be, where then shall I (alas) for shunning such deadly company, find Arms to defeat mine, ere I be first by them quite ruined? Philosophical reasons are (God wot) but feeble wards, they are shields framed by wit, which many times either speaks what it is not sensible of, or practiseth not what it speaks. 'Tis but too difficult a thing to put off the habit of humanity, there is not any man that disburthens himself of it without sorrow at parting from it. In heaven (answered the Priest) where in the height of bliss lives the glorious Prince Corideo, you (Madame) by that time I have assured you of your glory, shall find this vital sword. And being asked how he could know it, and if the places appointed for the happy were not the Elysian Fields? These are mysteries (said he) which I should indeed conceal, if the imparting them you were not the unguent wherewith I should heal you. The ordinary place then appointed for the happy, is indeed the same you now mentioned, but yet there are of them others granted but to a few, for but few such are there as was the Prince Corideo. The soul (Madame) is a fire, a ray or sparkle taken from the divinity, infused by the Gods into bodies in different degrees, the cause of the differences that are seen between soul and soul. All the Gods infuse not this fire, nor other save such of them as have the virtual power of influence, and by the quality of our working, is known by which of them we were inflamed. This fire so infused, worketh in us the same effect, as the real fire doth in coals, anticipating in kindling according to the portion given it, if little slowly, if much quickly: Hence comes it that the knowledge of old men surmounts that of younger, because the coal in these scarce kindled, is in those quite burnt out. This is the ordinary operation according to the course which the Gods proposed in Nature, and such as of this order dye just in this life, have their repose among the fair pleasing shades of the Elysian Field: But the extraordinary one (employed only on such whom the Gods are, out of their benignity, pleased to favour extraordinarily) is not only to communicate the fire in a multiplied portion, but also to take it from joves' own rays, which he himself with the consent of the other Gods infuseth, to form thereof a hero, a demigod: And this multiplied portion is in some so swift in its working, that some, though babes, are in knowledge and discretion old men, and yet but children at their dying hour; because the fire having done its operation, both kindles and consumes away even in an instant: Of this number (Madame) was the Prince Corideo your son; for I observed in him whilst he was sick, the spirit of jove, the infusion imparted from the other Gods, obliquely regarded with grim and malign aspects only by Mars and Saturn: Yet such like spirits are not infused by men and Earth, but by the Gods and Heaven; and have when they are separated, three distinct places of bliss prepared for them, conformable to the distinct degrees of the rays they received upon their being united to bodies: The first which is the inferior contains the spacious latitude of the air, enjoyed by such, who despising vulgar opinions, lift up their minds to heaven, there to consider Nature, and (joying for enjoying now not the uncertain and enigmatical, but the real and clear sight of this fabric) compassionate such, as with a stern philosophical brow teach lies believed for truth even to this day. Here it is, that they contemplate the true Spheres, the certain motions of the heaven (I would say of the earth too, if it were credible) the reasons of ebbing and flowing of the Sea, the perennity of fountains, the generations of winds, with a number of other things, whose reasons are thought to be known, but indeed are not: And such spirits, because they ever loved mankind, enter into terms of natural charity with them, not ceasing at all occasions to help them, either by freeing them from evils, (if it lie in their power) or at least in foretelling them of such ere they arrive; appearing in sundry shapes, and forms of Rainbows, Suns, armed Squadrons, fiery Meteors, and pleasant domestical spirits enamoured of such as have a spirit in a degree like them. The second place is the extent of heaven, which is the superficies of the firmament: Thither come such, who not content to have with the speculators of nature known God for the first cause, believe further his providence, and teach virtue and piety, which (for being a strong weapon of the spirit) defeats, puts to flight and slays vices, which are the true monsters of the earth; and being made stars, sparkle outwardly the light of their creation, in sign of their divine internal love, watered by the water of their regeneration. The Asterisms under the shapes of beasts and lifeless things, are form of Heroes made blessed for the virtues peculiar to such a living creature; as subtlety to serpents, active strength to Lions. The Bear represents a solitary life; the Eagle the elevation of the mind to God; the Triangle the ineffable mystery; the Altar Religion, the Balance justice; the Po the river of celestial grace, and so forth the rest. True it is, that our having (in our time within the space of these two and thirty years) seen two spirits (the one in Cassiopeia, the other in Sagittarius) taken away two years after their appearing, hath made us believe, that the divine providence hath been pleased to show us by their being exalted, that the starry Circle is not the supreme place of bliss, but that there is yet a further passage to a third, which neither eye can see, nor understanding conceive where the light is inaccessible, and where every rash and overcurious eye is not only weakened, but also blinded. Here abide such as issued out of natural predicaments transcended nature, and by the contemplation of the divinity, become partakers of the glory which the Gods only enjoy, where among the eternal melodies of the supercelestial Spheres, they (become worthily fellow-guests to the table of the Gods) are feasted with divine Nectar and Ambrosia. Here (Madame) in all fullness of bliss resides the Prince Corideo, whence he conjures you, not to corrupt his joys and glory with your heaviness and lamentations, contenting yourself, that he being borne for heaven, remain there, without wishing him, to your own grief, a sojourn here contrary to his felicity. Her replies the good old man knew how to satisfy with reasons so lively, that as well the Queen as the King remained well satisfied therewithal.  
Eromena moved to commiseration, and somewhat grieving thereat, besought her husband to be gone; whereupon kindly thanking the Priest, they returned to embark themselves, so favoured with the winds, that in a few days they arrived at Siracusa; where they had scarce set foot aground, when they saw two Squires, who having suddenly slipped out their weapons, furiously endeavoured to speed each other: The Count of Bona knowing one of them for Carildo, stepped in between them, and by him also known; Good my Lord (said Carildo) I beseech you hinder us not, for I must needs either slay this Traitor or dye: The other (who was Olmiro) telling him in spiteful manner that he lied in his throat, begged of the Count the very same favour; with telling him, that his enemy being the most infamous villain of the earth, should not be taken out of his hands, for not freeing him from the punishment that he deserved: But having the lie retorted him by the other, they being hindered from closing with their swords, buckled together with their reviling tongues, accusing each other with the selfsame, or a very-like fault; which so puzzled the five in striving to find out the truth (each of them showing probable appearances of reason of his side) as they saw no likely way of according them.  
Mean while Almadero being got away from Corianna, was no sooner come to his house, than the repercussion of the Sun on the weaponblades gave him occasion to descry from above, the scuffling between these two at the next Port. Whereupon, thinking they were Gentlemen come of purpose to fight in that Island, he bidding some of his servants to bring a horse after him, descended the downhill, ever almost running till he came to the place where the affray was; where seeing the Knights that had parted them, he courteously saluting them, was again in the same manner resaluted by them, when Carildo said to Olmiro: God be praised that thy Master is now come to thee to participate of thy triumphs, since that by his own testimony these Gentlemen may judge whether of us is the Traitor: Olmiro having seen Almadero before (though he had not in the wood well observed him) had now also taken him for Lucano, if his healthful plight and habit had not assured him of the contrary. But Carildo noting him yet more now than before, turning towards him, thus boldly bespoke him.  
And is it possible (my Lord Duke) that crosses and adversity (which in others quell rebelling humours, and refine their minds, by bringing them to a better temper) should work such a contrary effect in you, as you become strangely ungrateful do not only take pleasure at the death of your noble Lady and Princess, but that to trample the more on her calamity, you (upon your reviving) must also come hither so contemptuously to wrong her without so much as once voutchsafing her the favour of coming to see how she languisheth for death? Nor yet herewithal content, but that you uphold or (for aught I know) command your servants to accuse me with those treacheries which are merely yours and theirs in particular? Olmiro (who grown to be confused in mind at the appearing of this new Lucano, and who for knowing what plight he had left the true one in, took not this for him, could not for all that upon more serious surveying him choose but believe him to be the very same, notwithstanding that reason convinced his fancy) stood thereat so amazed, as he had not the power to utter a word. Almadero, on the other side, perceiving these new injuries to spring from the old equivocation of her whom he before had met with Corianna, could not refrain from smiling thereat, and had made good sport of it too, but that he duly considered the importance of the case as it stood; whereupon he used this mild language.  
Honest friend, if your adversary hath no greater cause to be offended with you, than you have to be angry with him for my sake; you will then (I am sure) be both soon wrought to an accord; for (I tell you) I am not that Duke you say I am; neither is he here my servant, as you take him for. I never saw him (I protest) to my knowledge till now; nor is it long sithence I was taken for one Lucano whom I know not. What is he, I pray you? Is he dead or alive? Here Carildo felt himself struck to the heart upon the conceiving of his mistake; whereupon he crying him mercy, would needs run to embrace Olmiro; who more enraged now than before, thrust him off him, with threatening to be his death if he but came near him; doubting indeed of some new stratagem, for that he could not believe that either Carildo took Almadero for Lucano, or that Almadero knew not Carildo, since he knew him for the very same that was in the wood with the Princess of Feacia whom he took for Corianna. But being entreated to be either friends with him, or to tell them his reason why he would not be so; he answered, that a friend to him he would never be; and that to tell his reason openly, he neither could nor needed; since the other knew it but too well. Every of these replies were so many deaths to Carildo, there was never a word of them, that pierced not the very centre of his heart. Believe me Olmiro (said he at length) thou wrong'st me to accuse me as thou dost; I have not (I vow to thee) offended other than God, and that too by sins that concern no other than myself; and since thou wilt not talk with me in the presence of these noble Gentlemen, be but pleased (by their good permission) to retire apart with me: For, I assure thee, that as I would have sworn that this noble Knight was Lucano, and on that mistake, without imagining that I lied, would not have stuck to accuse him of treachery as well as thee; so likewise shalt thou find thyself every way deceived in me; wherein if thou find me any way faulty, or short of my word, I now here deliver myself into thy hands to be punished at thy pleasure. The Knights persuaded him to content himself with this his so reasonable proffer, and so left them alone. Whereupon Olmiro said to the other, Well now; how canst thou excuse thyself of having been the instrument, that the Princess is given for a prey (under what title I know not) to that Knight there, whom thou takest on thee to have mistaken for Lucano? whereas Lucano and others besides myself have seen her with him in the wood. Carildo's heart so leaped for joy, to hear Lucano was alive indeed, whereof he was till then uncertain in respect of his mistake, that Olmiro, who expected to see him amazed, marveiled at a contrary effect, when Carildo lifting up his eyes to heavenwards, thus bespoke him.  
Alas Olmiro! how strangely and dangerously are we reciprocally mistaken! 'tis but a little while since this Knight came hither, as thou shalt shortly know; neither saw I him ever, till the day that I took him for Lucano; and yesterday in the wood, where he courted the Princess of this Country, who (for resembling Corianna as you shall see) deceived you; and he again (favouring very much Lucano) beguiled me, who believed that, forgetting and slighting the Princess, he had given himself over to this new love. Therefore (dear brother mine) if the Duke lives in such torment, (as indeed he hath reason to do) let us go and free him of it, and that quickly too, sithence I have left also the Princess in a case so desperate for the same mistake, as it is an even lay whether she be by this time alive or no: Upon this Olmiro believing now the case to stand as indeed it did, with lovingly embracing him, heartily cried him mercy: But because the then-dangerous state of the business required something else than words; they returning speedily to the Knights told them, they were now accorded, with beseeching them to dispense with the relation thereof till another time; not without yielding them infinite thanks for the courteous office done them, but for which they had undoubtedly killed one another.  
By this time Almadero had invited the Princes to come lodge with him; wherefore he answered them, that he would expect them at his house, out of the curiosity he had to know the end of that business, and more especially to understand how he was taken for another; wherein the Squires promised not to fail him, and with that (taking their leave) returned to Lucano's lodging, where they held it best that Olmiro should first enter, so to take from him the occasion of venting his passion on Carildo: But scarce was he entered when (for missing to find his Lord within) he came out again; upon this, enquiring of the man of the house for Erinnio, they were showed him with heavy downcast looks coming droopingly towards them. Being asked for the Duke, he (with a deep sigh) answered, that he was slipped away no man knew whither: But espying (with that) Carildo, he stooped down for a stone; when Olmiro seizing on his hand, briefly reaccounted unto him how the case stood: Whereupon, after friendly embracing each other, they went so long enquiring after Lucano by countersigns, that in the end they learned he had taken the path of the wood, whitherward they were then going. Carildo by the way relates unto the others the life led by Corianna, with the manner of their mistake; but now come to the wood they could not find him out, although they with exquisite diligence sought for him all over: what way therefore to take they knew not, when Olmiro thus bespeaks the other two:  
Here do we (being, as we are, all three together) but trifle out the time; it were therefore better, that thou Carildo wentest to the Princess to comfort her; and (that done) to return hither, or to our lodging, if thou hast but time; then one of us may keep hereabouts to hinder the Duke to come to fight with the Knight, whilst the other goes to his lodging, lest he chance to come thither; and the first of us that happens to find him, may impart him the good news, and send word to his fellows. But how shall I (said Erinnio) find the way to the cave, in case it should behoove me to come thither? Marry very well, as I shall now direct thee, (replied Carildo:) For, ere we walk an hundred paces farther, I will put thee on a path that leads directly thither, and will withal give thee such countersigns as thou canst not miss of it though thou wouldst. But scarce were they gone fifty steps on their way, when they might hear a faint voice, whose pitiful lamentations were often parenthesed with sighs and tears; whom, upon their passing further on, Carildo perceived to be the Duchess.  
Corianna was parted from Almadero in a bodily state exceeding feeble (as I told you) having refused to accept his courteous proffer of causing her to be carried to the Bark, which (for keeping concealed the place of her abode) she made him believe she had waiting for her return, but went not far, ere her heart was so choked with the extreme agony of her passionate grief, that she sunk breathless to the ground, a benumbing cold that seized on her corpse depriving it of all likelihood of her ever reviving any more, and the soul-afflicted Duchess having experimented on her all the remedies that place could afford her, and seeing them all bootless, was now set a bemoaning her, and stood a crying over her with rending her clothes and tearing her hair, when the three Squires arrived, who seeing a little way off the Princess in such a plight, were ready to drop down for grief.  
On the other side, Lucano who remained in his lodging, accompanied with none save Erinnio, whom because he knew not how to be handsomely rid of, that so he might effect his intent, he bethought himself of sending him to learn out who that Knight might be, and accordingly straightly charged him not to return without a distinct relation thereof. But no sooner was Frinnio gone, than that the Duke got him out of his bed, and then making the best shift he could to clothe himself, he took the way of the wood, with an intention to stay there, till such time as the Knight (his reputed rival) came forth, that then he might slay him or dye. Laying then himself along under a tree that grew apart, he might espy (a good way off) the three met together, who having sought him in vain, went to observe the way that led to the cave; he marveiled to see them so loving together, whereat conceiving an unthought-of hope, he followed them afar off, to see what they meant to do; till seeing them make a stand, he likewise rested him behind a tree, from whence he might hear the Duchess utter these despairing speeches.  
And is it possible (Madame) that you will burden poor innocent me with those vengeances which you inflict on your as innocent self; (whereas they should be inflicted on no other than injuring Fortune) wounding thereby my very soul for not reserving them for a time more desperate? Open (dear Madame) alas! open (I beseech you) those fair eyes of yours; oh let that gentle soul of yours respire in you; or if you have such power over the Heavens as to dye when you list, then befriend me therewith too, by procuring that I may follow you; for, I trust I have deserved that favour at your hands; you know I associated you voluntarily in your sufferings and travels, therefore I hope you will not shake me off from accompanying you in your sweet repose: Besides, sithence I forsook all to serve you, it befits not a magnanimous & noble Princess (as you are) to recompense me with this, to you, sudden, to me unexpected death, and so leave me a miserable-exiled-stranger, deprived of you even in that place, where among the torments of your inexplicable sufferings it was my height of glory to be near you, both to lament and participate of them. Thou Lucano, thou (woe is me) art he, who not content to have (while thou livedest) robbed her of her freewill, wilt yet (now that thou art dead) deprive her of her life too. But (sweet Madame) alas will you leave your sweet little Prince Lucandro motherless, as well as fatherless? his acquaint prettiness and taking graces must then dye too, since that when you (both his mother and nurse) are once dead, there is none then to give him (poor infant) any more suck. The disconsolated Duchess stood so attended to her griefs, that the three were come at her ere she saw them; so as the first motive that drew her eyes on them, were these words of Carildo: Why! what mean these strange alterations, Madame? am I come to bring you good news, and pretend you to receive them with so dolorous a spectacle? my Lord Lucano lives, nobly-honest and loyal as ever, nay more! he is here too; and will then his (more than life beloved) Princess dye because she will not see him? At that word the Princess opened her eyes, and faintly sighing peered Olmiro in the face; when he prostrating himself on the ground thus bespoke her.  
Right excellent Princess, if any tardance of mine be the occasion of your Highness' sufferings; I then pray Heavens that yours be my death: But know (my liege Lady) that more than is, could not possibly be done; I beseech you strive with yourself to pluck up a good heart; for to your comfort know that the Duke my Lord is here, and by reason of a mistake lies in as bad a plight for you, as you do for him: Be pleased then (I beseech you) to give us leave to carry you to the cave, that I may then after hie me speedily to him to give him life, and bring him to you.  
Whilst Lucano stood as a by-spectator of this part of a Tragicomedy, he might see displayed from out the wood another scene. The Princess of Feacia (whom he before had taken for Corianna) not knowing that her Almadero was otherwise busied, was met by him whom she had espied from the hill top: And Polimero with his company seeing the three Squires coming out of the wood, went another way to find them out: Whilst Lidomia being told by Almadero that he had strangers at home, goes her way. Lucano at first sight was almost deceived again; nay he had questionless so been, if the lamentation of the four had not pointed him out the true Corianna: And now seeing those Knights go that-a-way, he made a stand, though his heart drew him out of the ambush he lay in, as free by then from jealousy as more than ever sick of love and pity. Corianna (now that she was somewhat able) was about to speak in answer to Olmiro, when she saw stand over her the five Knights, and a little after Almadero; Lindadori forgetting her design of passing for a man, sat close by her like a young Girl, comforting her with the prettiest words that could be: When Almadero (by this time come) greeted her with these speeches.  
Madame, it hath pleased (you see) the Gods to chastise you for the disfavour you (to your own prejudice) did me, in refusing to accept of a short repose in my poor house: I hope you will now oblige me with that favour, sithence these noble Gentlemen join with me to entreat you to suffer yourself to be carried up, there to continue till such time as you have recovered strength enough to go on your intended voyage: But she, not being yet able to speak much, with a low voice thanking him, told him, that those her three servants would carry her very well to her Bark; and with that, calling to her Olmiro, she whispered him in the ear to go for the Duke, and bring him presently to the cave. Lucano who standing aside observed all, seeing him part, and imagining that he went for him, stepped out to Olmiro, (a joyful man to see him, whom he was already bethinking with himself whither to go to find out) who now told him in two words all the business by him before hand sufficiently comprehended: That done, Lucano suddenly breaking through the circle of Knights, prostrated himself before her, and then taking her by the hand and bathing it with his tears, he affectionately kissed it: She presently knew him, and at the very sight of him instantly recovered her full strength, her soul then returning to its proper mansion, and her spirits executing their several offices. Clasping then her arms about his neck, forgetting the nice decorum of her sex, and the (at other times blush-procuring) presence of so many Knights, she (parenthesing her words with greedy kisses) thus bespoke him.  
And what God restores you to me now, my sweet Lucano? what spiteful death (alas!) took you from me, dearest life of my soul? Die I, or live I now, I shall live or dye contented for seeing you alive, and too withal not another's but mine. But tell me (I beseech you) are you indeed Lucano, or the sweet spirit that was in him? No, no! you are my true loyal Lucano. Spirits (I see) are not dissolved by the blows of Fortune. This your languishing paleness is a mark infallible of your love, and a most glorious trophy of mine: But (my dear soul) you are in some sort recompensed for it, since your tomb hath not any either more worthy Epitaph, nor your Hearse any Elegy that express your disasters more lively than doth this face of mine, whereon (so you but cast your eye) you may there read in sad characters the deposition of my affection. To this Lucano after he had first (as a praeludium to his speech) vented a few profound sighs thus answered.  
The life (Madame) that at this present I receive, is the height of so great a glory, that the death and now past calamities that I suffered, come exceedingly short of meriting it: Happy therefore were I, if for better expressing my loyalty and to do you further service, I might often reiterate the sufferings of my disasters. For, though that your favour to me-wards ever the same doth ever warrant my content from becoming subject to alteration; nevertheless Fortune's so various accidents make me (now that I have proved and felt them adverse) relish better my happiness than before, when I knew nothing of its spiteful effects. Only I affectionately beg of you, to add this one favour more to the sum of my obligations, (which is) that you will presently cheer up your spirits, and live; otherwise I protest unto you, that I may well resolve to dye myself, but not to endure to see you lead me the way to either death or grief: which said, he embracing her affectionately, nourished by the assistance of their cloise-joined lips, her weakely-panting with his fresh-vigorous spirits; and then (she having first bestowed such time as was necessary for recovering her intercepted breath) bethought of getting herself up, and to be gone to her retiring-place, her cave: For furthering of which her desire, the Duchess, to strengthen her fainting spirits, presented her with a morsel of restorative conserve, which she had brought with her purposely to revive her, but could not persuade her to take of it before, because of her then resolution to starve herself, or otherwise set a final period to her days. Now also afterwards she was by importunity won to taste of a little comforting wine, which together with other dainties Almadero caused to be brought down for her, and now presented her withal, not without letting her know how sorry he was, that her diffidence extended so far as to Cavaliers, who were obliged to serve her.  
Eromena lighting now on an occasion conforming with a determination of hers, concluded on by her husband and the Count of Bona of taking her along with them, thus greets her: Madame, I know you by your high birth, noble spirit, and disasters, ere e'er I had the honour to be acquainted with your person; and now that I have the happiness to know you that ocular way too, I thank the Heavens for favouring me so much as to find you out in such a time or plight as I may any way steed you. And to the end you may be excuseless, for not commanding me, I am Eromena—. More she would have said, but that name scarce expressed, bred such joy in Corianna, that she interrupted her with saying; And how happy a day is this for me (Madame) wherein Fortune hath been so liberal as to restore me my Lucano, that so both he and I might personally tender our service to you, whom we so much honour and desire to serve? But Eromena observing her speak with a great deal of pains, made her this sudden reply; Sweet Madame, let us (I pray you) lay aside all compliments, and think of some means of conveying you hence, to take some comforting-cordial-simples, for I conceive you have need of them: Besides, you may honour me by voutchsafing to be acquainted with Polimero my Lord, and Lindadori my daughter, who are also come here to serve you together with these two Knights, the one of them which is this (showing her the Count of Bona) having chanced to espy you out before, hathconducted us hither expressly to bring you along with us to Sardinia, where we shall with your greater advantage treat of your reconcilements. And then, after complemental courtesies replied on all sides Almadero would by all means have Corianna carried up, which favour she accepted not of, but in excuse thereof said:  
Courteous Sir, I may not accept of your much-obliging proffer, not because I dislike of it, but for that I cannot conform the necessity of my occasions to the desire I have to obey you; in explanation whereof I must tell you, that I am (though I presume you hitherto know not as much) your near neighbour, and have at home a young sucking babe that expects me; and therefore I shall make bold to beg of you one undeniable request (which is) that you would be courteously pleased to leave to my Lucano and me with our company the use of my cave; whereunto (seeing her resolution so fixed) they all assented; so as she was seated and carried thitherward in a chair accompanied (though against her will) with all of them; who when they came to see that subterranean habitation (though adorned with royal furniture) they could not refrain from weeping: But more than all the rest Lucano, though he afterwards passed from a sea of tears to an Ocean of joy upon sight of the babe, whom Lindadori would needs feed, whilst Eromena (having first excluded all the menkind) helped Corianna to bed; and then soon after readmitting them, she with some sovereign restoratives by then prepared her by the noble maiden, both comforted and restored her enfeebled forces.  
Full fifteen days entertained they themselves all of them in Ericusa: For the Prince of Feacia being informed of their qualities, went in person to conduct and lodge them in a delicious house of his pleasingly-situated on the sea side, where upon Corianna's recovering her former beauties, they were observed, although in appearance the same with Lidomia, to be animated (though) with different spirits; only so far alike, as took away all marvel of their being taken the one for the other. Lucano rather was a greater subject of amazement, since between him and Almadero could not be discerned any sensible difference of favour or making, other than in certain gestures, and those too rather habitual than natural.  
Many complemental ceremonies passed between Eromena and Corianna, touching their going together, till at length upon the later her accepting of the invitation the old Prince furnished them with a Galley:  
Leaving then Almadero protested-unto of a perpetual amity, they fetching about Sicily, prosperously arrived in SARDINIA.  
FINIS.