When he had given due praises to that noble resolution of sacrificing her life to the preservation of her honour , looking upon her with an action much more passionate than before : I should be ungratefull to the Gods , said he , if I should not be thankfull to them , as long as I live , for the favour they have done me , in guiding me to the occasions of serving you , and in giving me the means to conduct you into a place where I can offer you part of what you seek ; but if my interest might be considered to the prejudice of yours , and if I might afflict my self as much at my own ill , as I ought to rejoyce at yonr good fortune , possibly I would say , that in this rancounter I have no more cause to commend than to complain of my destiny , and that it is as much for my losse as for your safety that the Gods caused you to land upon this Coast , and leade me into the wood where I defended you agaiust the violence of Zenodorus .

Gallus spake in this manner , and the Queen , though she almost comprehended his discourse , and received it with a very grief , pretended for all that , that she did not understand him , and that she might not continue without a reply , she answered him without being moved : I should be very sorry that my arrival in this Country should occasion any damage to a person to whom I am ingaged for the preservation of my life and honour , and to prevent the future , since it is not in our power to recall what is past , I shall depart without regret from a place where you have given me refuge , if my continuance here be never so little offensive to you . Alas ! replyed Gallus , with a sigh , how unprofitable would your departure be now , since you cannot carry away the wound , that I have in the midst of my heart , together with the eyes that made it ? or rather how cruel would it be to me now , since in parting from me you will deprive my days of all that makes them desirable to me , and possibly bereave me of a life , whereof all the remaining moments are dedicated to you ?

Whilst he spake thus , the Queen oppressed with a violent grief , upon this occasion of new crosses , which former passages made her foresee in a moment , studied for terms to explain her self , both according to the greatnesse of her courage , and the condition ofher present fortune , whereby she saw her self absolutely subjected to Cornelius his power ; and when he had done speaking , composing her countenance to a more serious posture than before , which with the Majesty that Gallus observed in it , strook him into some awe : I am obliged to you , said she to him , for my life and honour , and I should be much more engaged to you , if you would preserve the glory of your benefit entire , and not diminish the price of it by the offence you do me . If it be an offence to love you , replyed the Pretor , and if it be an infinite offence to love you infinitely , I confesse that there is not a man in the world who hath offended you more than Cornelius ; but if love , in the Country where you were born , be not different from that which we have observed in ours , if it makes a man abandon his liberty to bestow it upon that he loves , if it makes him forget his own proper interests , to sacrifice himself intirely to the person beloved , and in fine , if it produce no other effects , than what we have seen it produce in those places where I have passed my life , I cannot easily comprehend the ground of the offence which you can find in the love I have for you . I know not , replyed the Queen coldly , eiiher the effects or qualities of that passion , but the discourse of it is not conformable to my humour , and I should be very much obliged to yon , if you will find some other matter of entertainment .

Cornelius , though a little repulsed with the answer , which made him partly understand the difficulties he should have to conquer the spirit , which he had attempted , prepared himself to speak , when he saw the Princesse Elisa approach , who having understood that Candace had been walking upon the Terrace a great while , had made her self ready with all speed to come & find her , to enjoy in her company that little consolation which she could meet with no where else . Elisa was in a very carelesse dress , part of her hair fell upon her cheeks without art or order , her complexion was extraordinary pale , and her eyes were dulled with watching , and red with their continual exercise of weeping , and yet she appeared to the eyes of Candace and Gallus like a dazling Star , and made them judge that neither art , nor nature could produce any thing more beautifull or more compleat .

Candace being very much satisfied to find this agreeable diversion from the importunate conversation of Cornelius , advanced toward the Princesse with open armes , and giving her the Good morrow with a great many kisses full of tender affection , she received the embraces and caresses of the fair Princess , which expressed no less affection than her own .

After they had spent some time in mutual embracings the fair Queen beginning the discourse , I longed said she , to know how you had passed this night , and I had come to inform my self at your chamber , but that I was afraid to interrupt your sleep . Alas replyed the Princess with an action full of tenderness and sweetness , how little acquaintance have sleep and I together at this time , and how ill an office did your goodness render me in depriving me , for a little rests sake , which is now a stranger to me , of a sight wherein I find all the comfort of my life . Candace repayed these words with others as full of affection , and Cornelius seeing them enter into a discourse which did not permit him to pursue that which he had begun with Candace , after he had continued a while longer with them in a conversation full of civility , he left them alone to goe either to muse upon his passion , or to employ himself in such affairs as his charge required .

After his departure the two Princesses began to entertain each other with more liberty than before , and the first discourse being bestowed in the comforting of Elisa , and upon the hopes which she might yet conceive of her Artaban's safety , ( though she built but little upon them ) the Princess , though she thought upon nothing else but the sad cause of her grief , for all that observed some new pensiveness in Candace's countenance , and having asked her the cause of it with a grace , which left her no liberty to deny , the fair Queen prefacing the confession she was about to make with a little smile : 'T is , said she , because I am a little more unhappy than you , in that you did not arrive at Alexandria before me ; for if Cornelius had seen the Princesse Elisa before Candace , Candace would not be exposed to that persecution which she hath begun to suffer to day . Elisa easily comprehended the Queen's discourse , and receiving it with a modesty like to her own , If it be the love which you have caused in Cornelius , said she , which creates you a new subject of displeasure , I was not capable to guard you from it , and what your powers have done in one day , mine being far inferiour to them , could not have done in divers years . If we had any other Judges but our selves answered Candace , the part which you maintain would be very much weakned ; but in brief , such as I am , if his words be true , my misfortune hath made Cornelius in love with me , and he hath newly made a declaration of it to me , which hath almost as muh offended , me as he obliged me by the assistance which he gave me some days agoe .

Upon these words she related to the Princesse , Cornelius his discourse , and not desiring to make a secret either of this adventure , or the more particular thoughts of her soul : Besides the crosses which I foresee will befall me , pursued she , in the love of a man to whom I am obliged , and into whose power I am fallen , I cannot see without a great deal of resentment , that he who possesses as the Lieutenant of an adopted Cesar , the place which my true Cesar ought to possess as Soveraign , raises his thoughts to the same place where he hath planted his ; and my dear Cesario hath received offences great enough from these cruel enemies by the loss of his dominions , his parents , and dignities , though , through his hard destiny , the same enemies did not attach him in his love , and in that thing wherein he thought himself secure from their persecutions ; you have a great deal of reason , replyed Elisa , but I beleeve that Cesario is very secure upon that part ; and that if his enemies had had no greater power in relation to the troubles and dangers to which they exposed him in his tender youth , he had not only suffered very little by their persecution , but had never seen any of the dominions of Ethiopia . I had rather , answered Candace , never have seen the light , and though the affection I have for Cesario may possibly cost me a great kingdom , that loss will be so far from diminishing the content I have to have seen and loved him , that I cannot but take it well , and acknowlege my self obliged to Augustus his cruelty , from which alone I have received my beloved Prince , and without which , though possibly h● might have lived in a more peaceable condition , he had not lived for Candace . Heaven had ordained him for you , added the sad Elisa , and the admirable perfections of the fair Queen of Ethiopia could not be well matched but with the rare qualities of Cesar's son ; yet I advise you , that in preserving inviolably what you owe to him , you gently manage Cornelius his spirit , and do not put your self in danger by too rough usage of him , of making him make use of the power he hath over you . I am too sensible of it , replyed Candace , not to follow your counsel , and whatsoever difficulty I have to dissemble my thoughts ; yet so long as the man shall keep himself within the bounds of that respect which he hath hitherto observed , I shall forbear distasting him as much as is possible , but if he never so little trasgress , I will make him know what I am , and I have seen death often enough before my eyes already , to make me endure the face of it , rather than the least offence against my honour , or that which I owe to the love of my dear Cesar .

The two Princesses entertained one another in this manner , and they had a very long discourse together besides , in the same place , wherein having passed from Candace's affairs to Elisa's , that Princess , according to the Queens Counsel , was resolved to conceal neither her birth , nor her name from Cornelius , supposing upon good grounds that she could not find a better Sanctuary against the cruelty of the King of Parthia , than amongst the Romans his enemies , where Tyridates her Unkle had found refuge , and whose protection was the most puissant that she could look for in the world . Candace believed , that then she might , without putting Tiridates in danger , inform his Niece of the place of his retreat , and the obligations she had to him , which she did without any further delay , and by that discourse she wrought in the Princess great thoughts of tenderness and esteem towards her Uncle , whose person was unknown to her , and as earnest a desire to see him , as in this sad condition of her life she was capable of having for any thing in the world .

This desolate Princess restrained her self pretty well before Candace , and indeed without laying any restraint upon her self , she found a sweet consolation in her company ; but at the Core her grief was ●o violent , that without an admirable strength of ●pirit , she could not easily have supported it so long without sinking under it . The Image of her brave ●ut unfortunate Artaban returned incessantly into ●er memory ; and after she had ran over the marvelous actions of that great man , and recalled into her ●membrance the fair proofs of love which he had estowed upon her , when she fell upon that deploable passage how she saw him thrown down headong , and buried in the waves , all her constancy ould not defend her against the violent effects of her grief , and she remained more dead than alive between the armes of Urione , or her daughter , who were eternally employed in drying up her tears , and recomposing her Spirit by all the words which piry , and the real affection they had for such a Mistress could put into their mouths . 'T was in her bed that the tears took the liberty to overflow into a deluge , and the darkness wherewith the earth was then covered much better fitting the sadness of her soul , than the brightness of a fair day , brought back in●o it the sorrowfull objects in their most natural form , and left nothing in her mind but meer Ideas of death . Then it was , that after she had shed Rivers of tears , wherewith her pillow was all wet , and forcing the sobs , which would have stopt the passage of her speech : My dear Artaban , said she , is it possible that Elisa should bestow nothing but tears upon thy death , and that thou canst take so poor a payment for so precious a life as thou hast given her , and lost only upon her account ? Can all the prodigious effects of thy valour , whereof she was the only aim and cause , all those so tender , so excellent , and so admirable testimonies of love , and in fine that cruel death which thou hast suffered before mine eyes in the destroying waves for my interest alone , find nothing in the weak Elisa but tears for reparation of them all ? Ah! mine eyes you spend you spend your stores in vain , and though you could make a Sea as waste as that wherein my dear Artaban is intombed , i● you make it not of my blood , you will bestow bu● little upon Artaban , all my sighs , and sobs , an● complaints make no change in his condition , no in mine , and 't is Elisa , certainly 't is Elisa which he requires amongst the shades below , if he can require any thing . Ah! continued she , with many sighs , if it be only Elisa that thou requirest , thou hast reason to be satisfied , in whatsoever place the destinies cause thy Ghost to wander , Elisa bears thee company inseparably , and if some weakness , or some remainders of an ill-grounded hope , have hindred her from making the last attempt upon her life to come , and bear thee company below , her spirit is not absent from thee one moment , either out of any defire of life , or expectation of comfort .

From these sad discourses she had with Artaban , wherein she found more sweetness than in all the other actions of her life , she turned her complaints against her ill fortune , and all her moderation and piety towards the Gods could not hinder her sometimes from quarrelling at the rigorous decrees of Heaven , for the cruel continuance and sad success of her misfortunes . In this sorrowfull employment she passed almost whole nights , and hardly at the break of day did she give any access to sleep , and that rather out of weakness , than any intervals of repose .

One night , during which she had extrordinarily tormented her self , having closed her eyes a little before the darknesse began to quit the earth , at the time when dreams present themselves to our imagination more clear and undisturbed : After some visions without order or coherence , which most commonly precede those which seem most agreeable to the truth ; whether it were upon the effect of those thoughts which had possessed ●er whilst she was awake , or upon some intelligence that heaven was pleased to send her , it seemed to her that she was again upon that unfaithfull Element which she perpetually accused of her losses , and where she had seen all her joys and hopes intombed in the person of her Artaban . In this hatefull place she had a while discharged her resentments against the cruel waters , by which she had lost all , when she saw arise from beneath the waters , the God of the waters , in a Chariot drawn by Tritons , with his Trident in his hand , and such as he is represented by the Poets , who after he had heard her complaints , looking upon her with a discontented air . Forbear Elisa , said he , forbear to accuse me of thy misfortunes , I detain nothing from thee , and I have rendred thee thy Artaban , whom thou shalt see again upon the Shore at the Tombe of a Faithfull Lover . The God , as he spake these words , before he plunged himself again beneath the waves , shewed her with his hand the shore of Alexandria , and it seemed to this sleeping Princess , that turning her eyes at the same time towards the place which he pointed out to her , she saw upon the Shore her dear Artaban stretching out his arms to her , and calling her to him with gestures all composed of passion . This sight having produced a violent effect upon Elisa's spirit , she would have cried out with transport , and by the effoort she used in that action she wakened her self with a start . When she was awake he had her arms stretched out to the Image which was presented to her eyes when they were shut , and not being able by awakening presently to drive that dear Idea out of her immagination , she felt about the bed , and sought after that Artaban which had appeared before her , pronouncing his name two or three times . But when her sleepiness was perfectly over , and she saw her self abused by sleep , her grief renewed with violence , and seeing that object that was so agreeable to her eyes , and dear to her memory , no longer appear , she abandoned her self to regrets , and recalled her tears which had hardly stopped their course whilst she was asleep : Ah! Artaban , said she , melting into tears , thou deceivest me , and fliest from me , and thou dost not present thy self to me during these moments of sleep which thou leavest me , but to render the losse more present to me , and to renew my griefs , thou callest to me from the shore , or rather from the port whereunto thou art arrived by thy death , after thou hadst been so long tossed upon the tempestuous Sea of miseries and crosses , wherein thou leavest the deplorable Elisa ; thou callest me Artaban , & by thy action reproachest me for this weakness , which hath not permitted me to go and seek with thee that tranquillity which thou enjoyest ; but if thou beest not cruel , do not accuse me for having abandoned thee out of any remainders of love of life ; but beleeve that I am so little in love with it since I lost thee , that I am ready to give willingly the remains of it to be reunited to thee . Upon this thought divers Tragical resolutions presented themselves to her spirit , and passing from this remembrance to the former part of her dream , where the God of the Sea promised her that she should see her Artaban again at the Tomb of a Faithfull Lover . Yet , continued she , 't is no small comfort to Elisa , that she may see again at the Tomb , him whom she beleeved was buried in the entrals of the Fishes . I do not doubt but that my Artaban hath been faithfull to his Elisa , and since I have not been permitted to close his eyes , and to receive his last breath , I could not , God of the Seas , receive from thee in reparation of the cruel outrage thou hast done , a dearer favour than thou dost me , in bringing this beloved body to the shore , and in giving me the means to enclose my self in the same Tomb with my faithfull lover ; I willingly fly to the Tomb that is consecrated for Elisa , and as Artaban himself is the grave wherein all my affections are buried , so I will not avoid the occasion of enclosing my self with him in the same Tomb upon the shore of Alexandria .

Whilst Elisa uttered these sad words in a condition which might move the most insensble hearts to pity , the brightness of the approaching day began to spread it self about her Chamber , and at the noise of some words which she pronounced aloud , and some sobs that accompanied them , a young Slave , whom with divers others Cornelius had given to her to serve her ( as he had given many likewise to the Qu. of Ethiopia ) drawing near her bed asked her with a great deal of care if she were not well , and if she had need of any thing . Elisa being quite buried in the sad thoughts which possessed her , heard not the Slaves words , and instead of dreaming of her , resuming her discourse with many sighs ; Ah dear Image of that I love , continued she , return again to me for a few moments , and since that by the cruelty of my destiny I am condemned never to see thee more but by illusion , make these illusions last as long as the deplorable life thou hast left me .

These words pronounced with a tone of voice which might have made a passage into the most obdurate souls , pierced deep into the mind of the Slave who heard them , and she possibly being not ignorant of the effects of that passion , which was the cause of Elisa's greatest misfortunes , her compassion made her presently interesse her self in the grief of a person , whom her admirable parts made her serve already with a great deal of inclination . Ah! said she , with a sigh as profound as Elisa's could be ; as far as I can judge both Love and Fortune exercise their powers every where , and those which till now complained of their Tyranny may find companions throughout the whole world . She had possibly enlarged her self in this meditation , if Elisa , not being able to take repose in any posture , had not turned here self that way , and seen her by her Bed side , whereof the Curtain was a little drawn . The Princess was a little surprized to see her there so early , and having taken notice that it was neither Urione nor Cephisa , she asked her with a great deal of sweetness what occasion had brought her thither . 'T is my desire to serve you Madam , answered the Slave , and I have heard some complaints from your mouth which made me fear that you were indisposed . Alas ! replyed the desolate Princess , how can you apply any remedy to my indisposition , and how unprofitably are your officious cares imployed in the comfort of so unfortunate a person ? As for the diseases of the mind , answered the Slave , reason , time , and the assistance of Heaven may remedy them , and there are possibly Madam , some as unfortunate at your self , who make their reason act for their consolation , and expect from Time and Heaven the sweetning of their miseries .