te of their famous beautie hath
made him hardlie to beleeue them to be such, as common bruite
would fayne doe him to vnderstand." Ariobarzanes not well able
to conceiue the meaning of the king's commaundiment, reuolued in
his mynde diuers thinges touching that demaund, and concludinge
vpon one which fel to his remembrance, determined to send his
younger daughter, which (as we haue sayde before) was not in
beautie comparable to her elder sister, whereupon hee caused the
mayden to be sent for, and sayde vnto her these wordes:
"Daughter, the king my maister and thy soueraigne Lord, hath by
his messanger commaunded me to sende vnto him the fayrest of my
daughters, but for a certaine reasonable respect which at thys
time I purpose not to disclose, my mynde is that thou shalt goe,
praying thee not to say but that thou thyselfe art of the twayne
the fayrest, the concealinge of whiche mine aduise wil breede
vnto thee (no doubt) thy great aduauncement, besides the profite
and promotion that shal accriue by that thy silence: and the
disclosing of the same may hap to engendre to thy deere father
his euerlasting hindrance, and perchaunce the depriuation of his
lyfe: but if so be the Kinge doe beget the with childe, in anye
wise keepe close the same: and when thou seest thy belly begin
to swell, that no longer it can be closely kept, then in
conuenient time, when thou seest the kinge merily disposed, thou
shalt tell the king that thy syster is far more beautifull than
thyselfe, and that thou art the yonger sister." The wise maiden
well vnderstanding her father's minde, and conceiuing the summe
of his intent, promised to performe his charge, and so with the
Haraulde and honorable traine, he caused his daughter to be
conueyed to the Court. An easie matter it was to deceiue the
king in the beauty of that maiden: for although the elder
daughter was the fairest, yet this Gentlewoman seemed so
peerelesse in the Courte, that without comparison she was the
most beautifull that was to be found either in Courte or
countrey: the behauiour and semblance of whiche two daughters
were so like, that hard it was to iudge whether of them was the
eldest: for their father had so kept them in, that seldome they
were seene within his house, or at no time marked when they
walked abroade. The wife of the king was dead the space of one
yeere before, for which cause he determined to mary the daughter
of Ariobarzanes, who although she was not of the royall