Ariamenes then informed me, that being enflamed with rage against these impious villains, he rose from the ground, remounted his horse, and defied the two traitors aloud, threatening them with death, unless they abandoned their impious design.
Taxander made no answer, but rushed furiously upon him, and had the baseness to suffer his wicked associate to assist him: but the valiant Ariamenes, though he spoke modestly of his victory, yet gave me to understand that he had made both the villains abandon their wicked enterprise, with their lives; and that dismounting, in order to see if they were quite dead, he found himself so faint with the wounds he had received from them both, that he had not strength to remount his horse; but crawling on, in hopes of meeting with some assistance, fainted away at last through weariness and loss of blood.
While he was giving me this account, the chariot I had sent for arrived, and having made him such acknowledgments as the obligation I had received from him demanded, I caused him to get into the chariot; and sending one with him to acquaint the prince my father with all that had happened, and the merit of the valiant stranger, I returned the same way I came with my women, my thoughts being wholly engrossed by this unknown.
The service he had done me filled me with a gratitude and esteem for him, which prepared my heart for those tender sentiments I afterwards entertained, to the ruin of my repose.
I will not tire your patience, madam, with a minute detail of all the succeeding passages of my story; it shall suffice to tell you, that Ariamenes was received with extraordinary marks of esteem by my father; that his cure was soon completed; and that having vowed himself to my service, and declared an unalterable passion for me, I permitted him to love me, and gave him that share in my heart, which I fear not all his infidelities will ever deprive him of.
His attachment to me was soon suspected by Taxander's relations, who having secretly vowed his ruin, endeavoured to discover if I had admitted his addresses; and having made themselves masters of our secrets, by means of the treachery of one of my women, procured information to be given to my father of our mutual passion.
Alas! what mischiefs did not this fatal discovery produce! My father, enraged to the last degree at this intelligence, confined me to my apartment, and ordered Ariamenes to leave his dominions within three days.
Spare me, madam, the repetition of what passed at our last sad interview, which by large bribes to my guards he obtained.
His tears, his agonies, his vows of everlasting fidelity, so soothed my melancholy at parting with him, and persuaded me of his constancy, that I waited for several months with perfect tranquillity for the performance of the promise he made me, to do my father such considerable services in the war he was engaged in with one of his neighbours, as should oblige him to give me to him for his reward.
But, alas! two years rolled on without bringing back the unfaithful Ariamenes. My father died, and my brother, who succeeded him, being about to force me to marry a prince whom I detested, I secretly quitted the court, and attended only by this faithful confidante whom you behold with me, and some few of my trusty domestics, I came hither in search of Ariamenes; he having told me this country was the place of his birth.