th ruinated and consumed most famous
and stately buildinges. Nowe my hart is well at ease, sithe
before I dye, I haue had power to declare myne affection, which
is equall vnto yours, sauing that the honor of men and women be
not a like: beseechinge you, my Lorde, from henceforth not to
feare to addresse your selfe to the greatest and moste vertuous
Ladies that you can finde: for in such noble hartes do dwell the
strongest passions, and there the same be moste wisely gouerned:
and God graunt that the grace, beautie and honestie, which be in
you, do not suffer your loue to trauell wythout fruite: haue in
remembrance good, my Lord, the stabilitie of my constante minde,
and do not attribute that to crueltie which ought to be imputed
to honor, conscience and vertue: which are thinges a thousande
times more acceptable, then the expence and losse of transitorie
life. Nowe, farewell, my Lorde, recommendinge vnto your honour
the state of my husband your good father, to whom I pray you to
reherse the troth of that which you doe know by mee, to the
intent that he may be certefied how dearely I haue loued God and
him: for whose sake I beseech you to absente your selfe out of
my sight: for from henceforth I do meane holye to giue my selfe
to the contemplacion of those promises which God hath louingly
decreed, before the constitucion of the world." In saying so
shee kissed him, and imbraced him wyth all the force of her
feeble armes. The sayde Lorde, whose hart was dead for
compassion, as her's was in dying through griefe and sorrow,
without power to speake one onely worde, withdrew himselfe out
of her sight and laye downe vpon a bed within an inner chamber:
where he fainted many times. Then the gentlewoman called for her
husbande, and after she had giuen him many goodly lessons, shee
recommended him to the Lord of Auannes, assuringe him that nexte
to his parson, of all the men in the worlde shee had him in
greateste estimacion: and soe kissinge her husbande shee badde
him farewell. And then was brought vnto her the holye
Sacramente, which shee receyued with such ioye, as one certaine
and sure of her Saluacion, and perceyuinge her sighte begynne to
fayle, and her strength diminishe she pronounced aloude: _In
manus tuas_, &c. At which crie the Lorde of Auannes rose vp from
the bedde, and piteously beholding her, he viewed her with a
swete sighe, to rendre her gloriouse ghost to him which had
redemed it. And when he perceiued that sh