,
egged and prouoked these yong trembling children (not yet wel
resolued what to do) with her encharmed woords in sutch wyse, as
in the ende, some dranke the poyson, and other strake them
selues into the body and by hir commaundement were throwen ouer
boord, not altogether dead, and so she set them at liberty by
death whom tenderly she had brought vp. Then she imbracing hir
husband the companion of hir death, both did voluntarily throw
themselues also into the sea: And when the kinge's espials were
come aborde the ship, they found the same abandoned of theyr
praye. The cruelty of which fact did so moue the common people
to detestatyon and hatred of the kinge, as a generall cursse was
pronounced against him and his children, which heard of the Gods
aboue was afterwardes terribly reuenged vpon his stocke and
posterity. Thys was the end of good Poris and his stout wyfe
Theoxena, who rather then she would fall into the lapse of the
king's furie, as hir father Herodicus, and hir other husbande
did, chose violently to dye with hir own hands, and to cause hir
husband's children and hir owne, to berieue them selues of Lyfe,
whych although agaynst the louinge order of naturall course, and
therefore that kinde of violence to bee abhorred, as horrible in
it self, yet a declaration of a stout mind, if otherwise she had
ben able to reuenge the same. And what coward heart is that,
that dare not vpon such extremity, when it seeth the mercilesse
ennimy at hand, with shining blade ready bent, to stryke the
blowe, that withoute remedye must ridde the same of breath,
specially when it beholdeth the tremblyng babe, naturally
begotten by hys owne kinde and nature, before the face imploryng
father's rescue, what dastarde heart dare not to offer himselfe,
by singular fight (thoughe one to twentye) either by desperate
hardinesse to auoyd the same, or other anoyance, aduenture what
he can? which in Christians is admitted as a comely fight,
rather than wyth that Pagane Dame to do the death it selfe. But
now returne wee to describe a fact that passeth al other forced
deedes. For Theoxena was compelled in a maner thus to do of
meere constraint to eschue the greater torments of a tyrant's
rage and thought it better by chosen death to chaunge hir lyfe,
than by violent hands of bloudy Butchers to be haled to the
slaughter. But thys Hidrusian dame was weary of hir owne life,
not for that she feared losse of lyfe, but desperate to think of
Fortune's