I shall conclude this Essay with the Story of Herod and Mariamne, as I have collected it out of Josephus; [5] which may serve almost as an Example to whatever can be said on this Subject.

Mariamne had all the Charms that Beauty, Birth, Wit and Youth could give a Woman, and Herod all the Love that such Charms are able to raise in a warm and amorous Disposition.  In the midst of this his Fondness for Mariamne, he put her Brother to Death, as he did her Father not many Years after.  The Barbarity of the Action was represented to Mark Antony, who immediately summoned Herod into Egypt, to answer for the Crime that was there laid to his Charge. Herod attributed the Summons to Antony’s Desire of Mariamne, whom therefore, before his Departure, he gave into the Custody of his Uncle Joseph, with private Orders to put her to Death, if any such Violence was offered to himself.  This Joseph was much delighted with Mariamne’s Conversation, and endeavoured, with all his Art and Rhetorick, to set out the Excess of Herod’s Passion for her; but when he still found her Cold and Incredulous, he inconsiderately told her, as a certain Instance of her Lord’s Affection, the private Orders he had left behind him, which plainly shewed, according to Joseph’s Interpretation, that he could neither Live nor Die without her.  This Barbarous Instance of a wild unreasonable Passion quite put out, for a time, those little Remains of Affection she still had for her Lord:  Her Thoughts were so wholly taken up with the Cruelty of his Orders, that she could not consider the Kindness that produced them, and therefore represented him in her Imagination, rather under the frightful Idea of a Murderer than a Lover. Herod was at length acquitted and dismissed by Mark Antony, when his Soul was all in Flames for his Mariamne; but before their Meeting, he was not a little alarm’d at the Report he had heard of his Uncle’s Conversation and Familiarity with her in his Absence.  This therefore was the first Discourse he entertained her with, in which she found it no easy matter to quiet his Suspicions.  But at last he appeared so well satisfied of her Innocence, that from Reproaches and Wranglings he fell to Tears and Embraces.  Both of them wept very tenderly at their Reconciliation, and Herod poured out his whole Soul to her in the warmest Protestations of Love and Constancy:  when amidst all his Sighs and Languishings she asked him, whether the private Orders he left with his Uncle Joseph were an Instance of such an inflamed Affection.  The Jealous King was immediately roused at so unexpected a Question, and concluded his Uncle must have been too Familiar with her, before he would have discovered such a Secret.  In short, he put his Uncle to Death, and very difficultly prevailed upon himself to spare Mariamne.