This gave the old king some affliction; but he salved it with this,
that the obedience the people pay their king was not at all inferior
to what they paid their gods; and what love would not oblige Imoinda
to do, duty would compel her to.
He was therefore no sooner got to his apartment but he sent the
royal veil to Imoinda; that is the ceremony of invitation: he sends
the lady he has a mind to honor with his bed, a veil, with which she
is covered, and secured for the king's use; and 'tis death to disobey;
besides, held a most impious disobedience.
'Tis not to be imagined the surprise and grief that seized the
lovely maid at this news and sight. However, as delays in these
cases are dangerous, and pleading worse than treason; trembling, and
almost fainting, she was obliged to suffer herself to be covered and
led away.
They brought her thus to court; and the king, who had caused a
very rich bath to be prepared, was led into it, where he sat under a
canopy, in state, to receive this longed-for virgin; whom he having
commanded should be brought to him, they (after disrobing her) led her
to the bath, and making fast the doors, left her to descend. The king,
without more courtship, bade her throw off her mantle, and come to his
arms. But Imoinda, all in tears, threw herself on the marble, on the
brink of the bath, and besought him to hear her. She told him, as
she was a maid, how proud of the divine glory she should have been, of
having it in her power to oblige her king; but as by the laws he could
not, and from his royal goodness would not, take from any man his
wedded wife; so she believed she should be the occasion of making
him commit a great sin if she did not reveal her state and
condition, and tell him she was another's, and could not be so happy
to be his.
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