charms of the beautiful Zoe had ſo infatuated me, that it ſeemed eaſier to part from life. My friend, ſaid I, your laſt words are a ſentence of death. Did not you yourſelf ſay, that love without hope was bitterer far than death. Had you let me pine in the tower of famine, I had got rid of this wretched life, which can only be a burden and plague to me; if I am to give up all my hopes, let me die an honourable and knightly death. Tell the prince without reſerve, that I have choſen the beautiful Zoe to be the miſtreſs of my heart, and am ready to maintain my choice in a ſingle combat for life or death: and, ſince I can never gain her as the prize of valour, I will engage all his knights, till I fall by the hand of one of them, in order that ſhe may ſhed a tender tear over me in ſecret! My friend Theophraſtus ſhook his venerable head, and ſmiled on me, as on one whoſe brain had become delirious from the violence of a fever. Your ſcheme, ſaid
