"In this famous city, which with a wonderful greatness opposeth
Italy, and astonisheth Africa, there was born a lady of noble
parentage, who having been a firebrand unto her country, had no
small conformity with Greek Helen. Her name was Florinda, her beauty
heavenly and her spirit divine, and she having attained unto years
fit for marriage, two knights equal in youth, greatness of means and
nobleness of blood did seek her love, with like hope but unlike
favour. Love, natural inclination, a sympathy of manners or an
influence of the stars did constrain Florinda to love Doricles and
hate Filander, who to shorten his way between hope and possession,
and to prevent his rival, demanded her in marriage of her parents,
who would willingly have given the respect which they might unto the
intercessor and his merits, had they not found that Florinda felt
differently on gaining knowledge of the husband which they
propounded to her. They loved her tenderly and would not constrain
her with rigour, but speaking frankly to Filander, told him that she
would not agree to it, although they had persuaded her as masters,
and commanded as parents. Filander augmenting his love by her
dislike, found out that the love which Florinda bore for Doricles
was the cause of the disdain she bore him. The idea of revenge came
to him, and he formed a resolution to remove from the world the
obstacle of his design, notwithstanding the scandals and evils that
so brutal an enterprise might bring. He armed himself with such
company as he thought good (as he was not unprovided with friends
nor wanted servants) at such times as he thought he might find
Doricles at his mistress's door, or in the street by her house. But
his rival, dubious of his plans, always went well accompanied and
better armed, as one who did not think that he could have a better
friend than his sword. Having caused a ladder to be brought upon the
eve of a feast unto her garden wall, by that means to speak with
her, it happened that Filander coming into that street, and
performing his usual office of spy, heard Florinda speak to
Doricles, and saw her give him a nosegay of jasmine which she had in
her hand, with embracings more insupportable to him than favourable
to Doricles. He charged those which kept the gate, and began with
them a cruel combat: Doricles comes down, and searching Philander in
the midst of his enemies, wounds him and puts him to flight: for a
favoured lover is as a gambler who wins, and in all hazards is
always master of the fortunes of his adversary. Doricles goes away
victorious out of the street, while Filander's love (which had
turned to disdain) became by this encounter a mortal hatred. Then
either side increased their bands; the fire of their anger kindled
all their parents; and although they every day spoke together as if
they had no quarrel, they failed not to fight every night when they
met. In this scandal Doricles lost the enjoying of his mistress,
Filander her favour, she her renown and their parents their honour.
Time increased the love of the one, while the other's hatred
increased his desire of revenge, and of the small pleasure which the
two lovers had, Filander had the least, it seeming better to him in
this business to rely upon his industry for the effecting of that
which his strength would be wanting. Having then learned that
Florinda was to take her pleasure at sea in a bark, he hid two or
three days before a brigantine in a creek not far from the shore, in
which he appareled himself like a Turk, with some other of his
friends (for accomplices in amorous enterprises are seldom wanting)
and with necessary rowers attended his mistress: the Meuxin, which
is the tower where the watch of Barcelona is kept, having discovered
that no enemies sailed in all the sea. In the meantime the contented
Florinda with her companions was not gone from the shore a league
when the counterfeit frigate hoisted sail, and beating the water
with her oars, overtook her bark, the mariners whereof looking for
nothing less than such a surprise, could not resolve either to fly
or to defend themselves; but contrariwise (as the fearful bird
seeing the proud merlin come fiercely stooping upon her, is
accustomed to attend her with couched wings) acknowledging by the
Turkish sails, the power of their enemies which were upon them, and
quitted their oars; and fear (which with a cold shivering ran
through all their veins) gave them no time to discern their deceit.
Finally they boarded them, and two or three of the disguised Turks
leaping into the bark ravished away the new Helen, who was carried
into the brigantine and found herself in the arms of Filander. The
counterfeit words of these pirates, who called him Murat Rais, made
those who remained free in the bark believe that he was the author
of this robbery, and seeing that they took nothing but Florinda,
they returned again to Barcelona, recounting the disgrace in every
street and place where they came, with more cries and tears than
words, which coming to the ears of her parents, caused more grief in
them then can be told, principally in her sorrowful mother, who
bewailed her loss with a passion more befitting her sex than a
generous courage. Mounted scouts in vain spurred up and down the
coast, but Filander (who had brought Florinda into a private garden
house, having taken away his turban and his Turkish disguise)
declared unto her, that the incomparable force of his love had
constrained him to have recourse to this deviousness, and did enjoy
her beauty with assurance, although she took heaven, the trees and
the fountains to witness the violence which was used on her.
Of no less consideration was Doricles' pain, who full of mortal
sorrow, was a thousand times by the sea's side ready to imitate the
despair of those nymphs which saw Europa ravished; nevertheless, and
as well to oblige unto him his mistress's parents, and to satisfy
himself, he bought a ship of an Aragonese, which had brought in
wheat, and loading it with silks, velvets and other merchandise gave
his sails to the wind, turning his prow toward Argiere, Sali, Morat,
Fuchel, Mami, Xafer, and other pirate haunts; Doricles enquired
amongst them of his mistress, and of as many others as he knew did
rob upon the coast of Spain. But when he met with none who could
tell him news of her, whom his rival enjoyed with such pleasure, he
went to Constantinople, and from thence unto Cairo, and having run
along the coast of the kingdoms of Fez, Morocco, Tarndan, and
Tafilet, despairing of ever finding her, whom he had so long time,
and so vainly sought, changed his merchandise into Christian slaves
and returning into Spain, disembarked at Ceuta. While the deceived
Doricles did thus run along the coast of Africa, a servant of
Filander, were it either out of some displeasure which he had taken,
or out of envy of his happiness, revealed all the proceeding unto
the Justice of Barcelona, who in the night following besieged the
garden house, with main force, and took Filander then when he least
expected it. The news and admiration, which his subtility and
surprise caused in the city, moved the citizens confusedly to see
him pass through the streets; through the midst of whom he was borne
to prison, and the sorrowful maid (already made a woman against her
will) was rendered unto her parents; the sentence was mortal, the
opinion common, the approbation general, and the process short. The
scaffold was ready, Filander disposed himself to die, and made it
appear that he had the courage of a knight, and the soul of a
Christian; nevertheless the Viceroy and the Bishop, interposing
their authority, assembled the parents, and having mollified the
nearest, dissuaded Filander's death, in respect of the honour which
they might gain by his life. So of two evils choosing the least,
they had more care to the reparation of their honour, than to the
contentment of revenge; thus they changed the mourning which was
already provided for Filander into nuptial habits, and the scaffold
into a bed, where Florinda was given him in lawful marriage: but the
same day that they joined hands with the contentment and rejoicing
of all the world, Doricles entered into the city, and unlooked for
appeared at the head of two hundred men, whom he had drawn out of
captivity, upon whose casques did shine in silver broidery the arms
of Barcelona and their restorer; his word was I love the King. The
sight and entry of this heroic citizen was exceedingly agreeable and
dear unto the Barcelonians; but the insupportable news of his
rival's marriage with his mistress was no sooner come unto Doricles'
ears, but all the city in arms were divided into factions, and
contrary parties. This suspended the marriage for some days, during
which time it was remonstrated unto Doricles, that he could not
marry Florinda without infamy. He answered that what he could not
have, ought not to be given to Filander, it being in no way
reasonable that this deceiver should gain by fraud what he had lost
by so much travail; and there was no other means to accord him, but
that Florinda should retire into a monastery. This distressed her
parents who were already contented with the satisfaction of their
honour, and the alliance of their son in law, whose parents offered
unto Doricles a beautiful sister of Filander in marriage; but he
unwilling thereunto, demanded justice against Filander for his
crime, offering that after he should be beheaded he would marry
Florinda as widow unto a knight. This last offer was in principle
agreed unto by Filander's and Florinda's parents, but when Doricles
thought that Filander had been led to prison, and from thence to
death, he was given to understand how he was pardoned, and the
marriage consummated. If his sorrow were great it may be known by
the effects, seeing it is now twenty years since, from these
Pyrennean mountains which divide France from Spain, he hath lived as
an outlaw, robbed, pillaged and ruined all that he finds, neither
kingdoms being able to take any revenge. He was one and twenty years
old when he came from Africa: he is now forty one: a strong man,
vigorous of his person, which is much fortified by his austere and
wild life. And that may be believed of him, which was said of
Hercules, that without doubt he had three lives, for if he had had
but one, it had been a miracle that he had not lost it by so many
wounds.
This day about sunrise he came down to see what noise this was,
which the night before had sounded from the sea unto the woods, and
he with about ten of us which followed him having found some boards
which the sea had cast up, upon one of which was seated a young man
in habit of a pilgrim like thyself, pale, in a trance, all drenched
in water, his hair full of dirt and sand, and to conclude, evil
accommodated with this tempest. He commanded us to carry him to that
place where the rest of his men were, and as well to dry him as to
get him breath, which he had almost lost, we endeavoured to unclothe
him, but he refusing to be seen or to be touched by us, it made our
captain suspect that he was not a man, for although he enforced
himself to appear so, yet his actions showed the clean contrary;
when as preventing the desire which the captain had to be cleared of
his sex, this pilgrim of whom I tell thee (taking him aside)
confessed that she was a woman, who came in this habit from Italy,
with her husband; in which voyage, they had suffered shipwreck upon
this shore: and in saying this, shame and desire to defend herself
brought colour into her face, and valour into her heart; with one,
she appeared perfectly fair, and with the other extremely hardy:
Nevertheless her beauty being more powerful to hurt others, than her
strength to defend herself, hath vanquished Doricles' mind, who with
sweet and courteous words persuaded her to rest this day in his
company, during which time her face hath never been without tears.
In the meantime he commanded, after sunset, that his supper and his
bed should be provided in one of those villages, but we instantly
heard that some charge of money which was to be carried to Genoa,
should come this way, and having waited for them until midnight, we
were without both supper and lodging: for this cause we sent two of
our companions before, who are they which found you together with
him who conducted us hither; Doricles is now with this pilgrim; I
cannot tell thee whether he hath gained her or no, nor whether the
bed had made a peace between two minds so absolutely differing: but
certain it is that they are now lodged together."
The soldiers easily perceived that the pilgrim hearing this story,
bathed his face with his tears, and with sad and violent sighings
endeavoured to pierce heaven: they desiring the cause, he remaining
a long time silent, and they still pressing him; in the end he began
to cry out: Oh miserable wretch that I am, I have lost my honour, my
glory is destroyed, my hope is dead, by the hands and weakness of a
woman. Oh that ever the sea pardoned my life, since that with so
much pity, it reserved thine, to the end that my eyes might be
witnesses (after so many labours and dangers) of such an offence.
Well did the soldiers know that this was the man whom the pilgrim
respected, and the true north star unto which she turned the needle
of her affection: but they endeavouring to comfort him, so much
increased his fury, that drawing forth his sword out of his
pilgrim's staff, the outside whereof served as a scabbard, he ran
enraged out of the house unto the house where the captain lay, and
there gave such blows upon the door, and such loud cries, that the
captain thinking he had been assailed by the Justice or by the
inhabitants of that place, leaped out of his bed in his shirt, his
pistol in his hand, and opening the door asked Who was there? A
wretched man, answered the pilgrim with an incredible fierceness,
and one from whom thou hast taken his honour, with this vile woman
which thou dost possess. Doricles discharged his pistol and the
pilgrim turning his body, the bullet lit in his arm. All the company
ran thither at the noise, and the valiant Catalonian disposed
himself to strike quicker than the lightning come out of thunder
sent by Jove against the giants, when the miserable pilgrim woman,
embracing him with prayers, begged the pilgrim's life, saying unto
Doricles, that this man was he whom she did only acknowledge for her
master, and on the other side assuring her desperate husband that
she had not transgressed against her honour, neither in deed, word
nor thought; because his prayers had not vanquished her, and his
threats could never. I do not know if it ought to be believed of a
woman: the history commendeth her chastity, and I do religiously
believe the virtue of this sex so much esteemed by me, and so
greatly held in account all my life. Doricles would willingly that
the pilgrim should have been contented with his life, which he would
leave him, and that he should have gone away without the woman, but
the incensed Castilian defying him to a single combat, began to
defame him, and provoke him in such manner, that he commanded his
soldiers to hang him up at the next tree of the mountain: hardly was
the word out of the captain's mouth, when the pilgrim found himself
carried out of the village by those barbarous fellows, and upon his
way towards the wood where he should be branched up. Finding himself
then at the place of execution and in the presence of an inevitable
death, he entreated them with tears that they would let him
recommend his soul to him that was the author thereof; which being
permitted unto him, he drew out of his bosom an image of the blessed
Virgin; which holding up, with his eyes and his hands to heaven, he
began his prayers devoutly, having the match of one of their pieces
about his neck near unto him who tied it to a bough of a great oak,
only waiting for the end of his devotions: nevertheless even as he
fastened the last knot, the fair morning rejoicing the world with
new light, clearly discovered the amiable colour of his face.
Who will believe that in the space of one night so many fortunes
should happen to one man, if it were not known that things are
written to be marked, and that evils do seldom come alone, seeing
that the evils which happen in one night to one unfortunate man, do
surpass all the prosperity which can happen to a fortunate man in
all his life? The soldiers seeing the honest and grave countenance
of this pilgrim, his youth and his innocence, and being otherwise
mollified with his prayers; or having their hearts secretly touched
by the hands of God, for he who hardened Pharaoh's heart can mollify
others, they resolved to let him live, not willing to be more cruel
than the sea, which the day before had cast him upon land from
drowning; and thinking it was an infamous cruelty, that he who had
been spared by things without sense, should be destroyed by them who
ought to have reason. The pilgrim gave them thanks for their
liberality, and referring their reward unto heaven, entreated them
that if by chance, this woman which he had left, did persevere in
the firmness of her speech, they should tell her that she should
find him at Barcelona: this said, he took his way towards the city,
and the soldiers towards the village. But the feigned news of his
death which they were constrained to deliver unto Doricles, so much
deprived the sorrowful pilgrim woman of sense (whom he had already
thrust out of his chamber, being vexed with her cries) that she
remained a long time as dead, and when as she was come again unto
herself, she did and said so many pitiful things, that these fierce
men most accustomed to shed blood, did now shed tears. So that the
captain despairing of ever being able to pacify her, and thinking
that the beginnings of extreme grief do easily pass to a frenzy,
commanded that she should be carried upon the great highway; where
the miserable woman was left, drowning herself in tears, and
murdering her face with her hands, she made herself look with great
deformity: from thence following the way by the seaside she went to
Valencia.
The pilgrim in the meantime was at Barcelona, having stayed two
days, to view the goodly strong walls of the city; the third day as
he was beholding the Viceroy's palace, this fisherman, whose voice
had so unhappily drawn him from the cabins of the other fishermen,
and as a deceitful hyena had called him to bring his life into such
danger, knew him, and demanded of him if he were not the thief,
which entertained him the other night with words, until his
companions came and entering by force into the houses of the
village, had robbed them and pillaged them? It is true answered the
pilgrim, that I am he who by the sound of thy voice came out of the
cabins of men of thy profession, but not he who came with the
robbers which you speak of: upon this they contested one against the
other, insomuch that the people ran to the noise; and as to be
pursued with hue and cry, there needs no more cause but to be a
stranger, so all the world believing in the natural Catalonian's
words, the poor pilgrim was impetuously carried away by the people,
and as a robber put into prison.
The infamous rabble who for crimes great or small are accustomed to
possess these places, which are like so many true representations of
Hell, put him into a dark corner worse than the worst sink of
Constantinople, where it is impossible to recite the blows they gave
him, and the injuries they said unto him: because having no metal
about him but the bullet, which Doricles shot into him the night of
his misfortune, he had not wherewith to pay his garnish or entrance,
nor ability to find better means to appease them.
Night victorious over human cares, imposing rest unto their labours
and their thoughts, and reducing their actions to a deep silence
came amongst these barbarous people, yet the miserable stranger only
not so much as closing his eyes: he felt not the grief of his wound,
not the infamy of his imprisonment, all that which troubled him, and
all that which he feared, was the pilgrim woman's losing of her
honour, which wrought so with him, that whilst others slept in this
confusion, without that the want of beds, the importunity of many
noisome creatures, which run up and down in the prison, the fear of
judgement to come, nor the present misfortune could wake them; our
pilgrim only is awake, complaining against heaven, the sea, and his
cruel fortune which had preserved his life, then, when he had no
feeling of death, to make him suffer it now in a state so sensible.
At the length the sun with a countenance full of shame and as if he
had been constrained, shone through the thick bars of the prison
windows, showing in the pale colour of his beams, that he feared he
should be kept there, when the pleasant blows of the jailer, and the
sweet noise which his keys made in the strong locks, awaked from
their forgetfulness those unto whom the fear of punishment for their
faults could work no remembrance: but the pilgrim was not waked,
because he was not asleep; he came out amongst the rest nevertheless
to give thanks to the day, for having passed over so miserable a
night. There began this miserable body to move his parts, going many
leagues in a little space: prayers importuned some, care wearied
others; necessity called out here, hunger sighed there, and Liberty
was wished for everywhere: the laws called upon execution, ministers
upon punishment, and favour importuned for delay; those who had
wherewith went out by the air, others not having wherewith could not
find the door; the confusion of voices, the unquietness of the
judge, the coming in of some, the going out of others, and the noise
of fetters, made in this discordant instrument a fearful striving.
In this time, a knight, who for the nobleness of his blood, and the
antiquity of his imprisonment, was generally respected as the
master, cast his eyes upon the pilgrim, and considering his deep
melancholy, his habit and his person, incited by his good
countenance and aspect, (for there is no letter of favour which
worketh greater effects in all necessities) called him to a little
alley which answered to the door of his chamber, and asked his name,
his country, and the cause of his imprisonment. The pilgrim recited
unto him the success which you have heard, beginning his life, from
the time that the sea gave it him, by casting him upon the shore not
far from the walls of Barcelona. The knight wondered at it, and
collecting from his reasons, and the manner of his speech, his
understanding and his gentleness, took such affection unto him, that
he placed him in his chamber: where having restored his weak forces,
with conserves which he had, he made him reveal his arm, and he
himself healed the wound with medicines and words, which he had
learned being a soldier; for if herbs and stones have this virtue,
wherefore should it be wanting to holy words?
The contented pilgrim afterwards turning his eyes round about the
chamber, saw written upon the walls with a coal according to the
ancient manner of prisoners, certain hieroglyphic verses, at the
sight whereof, he knew that he who had written them was not
ignorant. Over the picture of a young man, which had the chief
place, was written this verse from Virgil:
in somnis ecce ante oculos maestissimus Hector
After that was painted a heart with wings, which flew after death
with the letter of Aeneas, sending the body of his friend to the
great Evander.
mortuus Pallante
Near unto that was figured Prometheus, or Titius, who being tied
with strong chains to the rocks of Mount Caucasus, nourished an
Eagle with his entrails, the words were from Ovid, and said thus:
Vitae dolor, vita molestiae et magnis gratos fore morte, sed mori
non potest
By a river, between two infernal shores, Forgetfulness was painted,
being a young man who carried a vessel full of remembrances, which
he did endeavour to fling into the water, with these words of
Lucretius: