A Moste Terrible and Trve Discoverie​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Of the Bloodie Practises, Heathenish Sorceries, & Patrist Treasons of that Infamous Companie called THE STYGIAN BLADES, being Murderers, Conjurers, & Sworn Enemyes of Shald, the Queene, and All Good Shalden Subjectes of this Realme

[Here would be placed a woodcut: a dark-skinned Woman of foreign Aspect, bare from the Waist, her Hair unbound and wild, seated upon a four-posted Bedde astride the Bodie of a young Gentleman whose Throate is opened and whose Sheetes and Pillowes are blacke with Bloode, the Bloode pooling upon the Floore beneath. In her Hande she holdeth a curved Blade of Sahrian fashion. In the Doore-way standeth a Nobleman in ruffed Collar and fine Attire, one Hande raised, from which Rayes of Light doe pour forth. A great crescent Moone hangeth in the upper Corner. The Border on all Sides is filled with capering Devills bearing Pitchforkes and Tridents, with Rosettes at the Corners.]

GOOD PEOPLE of Crownspire, harden your heartes and stoppe your eares against all pittie, for here is sett downe the plain and naked truthe of such villainyes as would make the Mistress of Blades, even the Archdemon Nirzara herselfe, to blush, were she not already so well acquainted with the Actors thereof.

There is lodged amongst us, in the verye bowells of this Cittie, a most pestilent and abhominable Bande of Cutthroates, Sorcerers, and Agenttes of the Flayer, who doe style themselves the STYGIAN BLADES: a name well chosen, for they are in truthe Instruments of that Stygian Darknesse which is the Void itself. Their Captaine is one CHÓCHT, a Moorish Gypsy of unknowne and heathenish Origine, whose very Name doth stick in the Mouthe like a Curse spoken in some Devill’s Tongue, a Mercenarie who hath sold his Sworde to every Patrist Prince upon the Continent, who fought in the Fenlands for Calbrinese Golde and in Erynidh for the slaughter of good Reformist Soules, and who did most infamously turne his Coate in the late warres of Tìranach, fighting first for one side and then for the other as the Coyne demanded, having neyther Honour, neyther Faith, neyther Countrey; as is the Nature of his wandring and rootlesse Kinde, who are every where Strangers and no where Subjectes, who owe Allegiance to no Crowne and worship no God but Golde, and who doe carry in their verye Bloode the taint of Treacherie as a Dogge doth carry Fleas.

And what manner of Cretures hath this darke-skinned Captaine gathered unto himselfe? Marke them well, good Reader, and tremble.

FIRST, a Sahr WOMAN; and here, let modest Wives and chaste Daughters stoppe their Eares, for the Truthe must be tolde: an Assassine by trade and a WHORE by nature, a Daughter of that same Sahrian Darknesse which hath ever sought the Ruine of Shaldendom, a Creature of such wanton and brazen Carnalitie as would put the Harlotts of Old Valinor to shame. For it is well knowne that the Women of the Sahr Landes are raised from Infancie in the Artes of fleshly Seduction, being schooled in such Practices of the Bedchamber as no Shalden Woman would suffer to heare named, and trained to ensnarl the Soules of honest Men through the cunning Employment of their darke Bodyes, their perfumed Oyles, and their Serpent’s Tongues, so that a Man who doth lie with such a one may wake to finde his Purse emptied, or else may never wake againe at all, his Throate opened from Eare to Eare. And yet so debased is this Creature in her Lustes that no naturall Coupling can satisfie her Appetites, for she is knowne to take her carnall Pleasure of other WOMEN, after the manner of the Sahrian Landes where such Abhominations are practised openly and without Shame in the Seraglios of their Princes, wherein Women are kept in great Numbers for the Pleasure of their Masters and of one another, as though Shald had not made plain in his Holy Worde the proper Order of the Flesh, so that she is at once a Whore unto Men when it serves her Purpose, and a Sodomitesse unto Women when it serves her Pleasure, and in both Capacities an Offence unto Shald and all Decencie. And this very Sahr Jezebel was seene by credible Witnesse at the house of BARTHOLOMEW QUILLIAM, great-Nephew to the Earle of Dunmere, on the very morning of his most horrible Murther, having by what lewde Enticements we may well imagine gained Admittance to his Chambers, wherein that unfortunate young Gentleman was found in his own Bedde with his Throate cutte neare through to the Bone, his Bloode soaking the very Sheetes upon which (let the Reader blush to think it) she had not Houres before performed such Actes of Sahrian Whoredome as did leave him sleeping and insensible to the Blade. And who accompanied this Murderesse upon her bloodie Errand? None other than the LORD DAGGERFORD, the Ninth of that name, of whom more shall be saide anon.

SECOND, an ELDRIGALIAN DOCTOR, a man expelled from the Schooles of Physicke upon the Continent for his most unholye and revolting Obsession with the cutting open of the DEAD, pulling forth their Inwardes and handling their corrupted Organs with his bare Handes as though they were so many cuts of Meate at a Butcher’s Stall; a Necromancer who doth commune with the Departed through his abhominable and blasphemous Artes, who doth practice the Blacke and Shadowed Magicke whereby a man may render himselfe invisible to the Eye and creep unseen into the Bedchambers of the Innocent, and who hath without doubt supplied the Poisons and darke Philtres whereby this accursed Companie doth carry out their Murtherous Designes. For what else should we expect of an Eldrigalian but Poison and Deceite? It is a Nation of Sodomites and Dissemblers, who smile as they slide the Knife between your Ribbes, and this one hath added to the naturall Vices of his Countrey the supernaturall Vices of the Necromantick Arte.

THIRD, a DWARFE of monstrous and unnaturall Aspect, white as Bone from Heade to Foote, with Eyes of pinkish Hue like unto a Rabitte or some other unwholesome Creature bred in Darknesse, whom they call CANNON, a Pistolman of deadly Ayme, who goeth armed at all Tymes with sundry Pieces, and who by his very Appearance doth give Proofe that the Almightie hath sett a visible Marke upon those who are given over to Deviltrie, for what Shalden Childe was ever borne so pale and bloodlesse but by the Intervention of some Infernall Power? He is in Truthe neyther one Thing nor another, neyther Man nor Childe in Stature, neyther quick nor dead in Colour, a Creature of the Threshold, belonging to the Worlde of Men no more than a Goblin doth.

FOURTH, a GIANT of the Darkward, a barbarous and savage Heathen, marked from Crowne to Sole with Tattowes of blew Dye in the manner of the ancient Pagans, as though he were a walking Monument to Idolatrie, a Beast in the shape of a Man, who knowes neyther Letters nor Manners nor the Grace of Shald, whose people doe still eate raw Flesh and drinke the Bloode of their Enemies from Cuppes fashioned of their Skulls, and who doth worship still those false Goddes of Thunder and Slaughter that were old when Shald was young. He is knowne to tear his Enemyes asunder with his bare Handes, and no Shalden Man may looke upon his blew and heathen Visage without feeling that here is a Creature sent up from some colder and more savage Void than any our Divines have yet described.

FIFTH, and here, good Reader, let your Shalden Soule take especiall Horrour, for now we come to that LORD DAGGERFORD, the Ninth of that name, a Baron of this Realme, though it doth sicken the Tongue to call him so, who was seene at the house of QUILLIAM on that same bloodie morning in the companie of the Sahr Murderesse, and who hath so degraded his Noble Bloud by the writing of lewde and lascivious Playes for the common Stage, and by the practise of such Unnaturall Vices as would offend the Modestie of this Pamphlet to describe, that he hath fallen at last into Companie befitting his Corruption, and is become a Conjurer of Spirites and False Visions, a Soothsayer and Trafficker with the Fae, who doth summon unholy Sprites to doe his bidding, who doth cast Glamours upon the Eyes so that honest Men see what is not and believe what never was, who doth presume to scry the hidden Purposes of Shald through blasphemous Divination, and who doth offer false Healing to the Sicke and Lame, such Healing as comes not from the Flayed God’s Mercie but from Compactes made with Spirites beneath the Shroud, and which doth mend the Flesh onely to damn the Soule. What darke Compact binds this degenerate Lord to the Sahr Temptresse and her Moorish Master, whether of the Flesh or of the Soule or of both, this Pamphlet leaves to the Judgement of the Reader, saying onely that those who lie downe with Dogges shall rise with Fleas, and those who lie downe with Infidels shall rise in the Void.

And SIXTH, as though this Catalogue of Wickednesse were not yet full, there is newly come amongst them one KATHERINE TARLTON, a strolling Player and vagrant Wench, lately fled from Fryhaven where she did most foully MURDER the virtuous RICHARD PERCY, eldest Sonne and Heire to the noble Baron of Umberlow, striking downe that godly Gentleman in the very flower of his Youthe, for which bloodie Crime the Sheriffe’s Men of Fryhaven have posted a Reward of FIVE POUNDS STERLING for her Capture, living or dead. And how doth this Murderesse conceal herselfe from Justice? By the most unnaturall and abhominable Device of clothing herselfe in MEN’S ATTIRE, donning Breeches and Doublet and cropping her Haire, so as to pass among honest Folk as a Boy, in open Defiance of the Lawes of Shald and the Realme, which doe forbid such monstrous Confusion of the Sexes as is an Abhomination before the Flayed God. Marke her well, for she is described thus: auburn Tresses (now shorn or hidden), green Eyes that gleame with Devilrie, a wan and freckled Countenance as though marked by Nirzara’s owne Quill, and a lean and scrawny Frame. She was bred upon the Stage, that Schoole of Vice, that Nurserie of Ungodlinesse, where Boyes play Women and Women play at being Men, and where the very Distinction between Truthe and Falshood is made a Jeste. Little Wonder then that such a Creature hath found her naturall Home amongst the Stygian Blades, where Murther is a Trade and Deceite a Way of Life. And lest the Reader think her Sinnes confined to Murther and Disguise, let it be knowne that this same Katherine Tarlton doth lie in carnall and unnaturall Congress with one MOLL WEAVER, who calleth herselfe ROSE, a common Whore and knowne HEDGE-WITCH of the Velvet Sheath, who doth brew Charmes and Philtres and practice the cunning Artes whereby simple Folk are deceived and their Soules endangered, so that the Murderesse and the Witch doe share a Bedde, and what Deviltries they worke together between those Sheetes, whether of the Flesh or of the Craft or of both, this Pamphlet dares not speculate, but leaves to the Horrour of the Reader’s owne Imagination.

These, then, are the Stygian Blades: a Moorish Gypsy, a Sahr Whore, an Eldrigalian Necromancer, a bloodlesse Goblin, a blew Pagan, a disgraced Lord whose Lusts have led him to Treason, and a cross-dressed Murderesse who hath taken a Witch for her Bedfellow. And where did they make their Neste? In the VELVET SHEATH, a House of common Whoredome in the Stewes, where they lodged openly and without shame amongst Harlotts and painted Jezebels, spending the Bloode-Money of their Victims upon carnall Pleasure, the Sahr Woman practising her Trade alongside the other Whores of that House when she was not practising Murther, and the whole vile Companie plotting by Night, between their Lecheries, the Overthrow of our most Gracious and Beloved QUEENE, at the direction of their Panveric Masters, who would see this Realme brought againe under the Yoke of the Patriarch, the Shroud itself rent asunder by the Flayer’s servants, and the fires of Gallowsgreen rekindled for the burning of true Reformist Soules.

BUT MARKE THIS WELL: on yestertide, in the darke of the closing, the VELVET SHEATH was consumed by FIRE, and is now nothing but Ashes and blackened Timber. Whether this be the righteous Judgement of Kahdishor Shald upon that House of Sinne, or whether the Flames were sett by the Sorcerie of the Stygian Blades themselves, who sought to burne away the Evidence of their Treasons and cover their Flight in Smoke and Confusion, this Pamphlet cannot say with Certaintie, but saith onely that where there is Deviltrie there is oftentymes Fire, and where there is Fire there is the Hande of Shald or the Hande of Nirzara, and in eyther case the Cittie should tremble. For the Stygian Blades are now LOOSE in this Cittie, without fixed Lodging and without Shame, and may be hiding in any Alley, any Taverne, any Warehouse, any private House whose Master is fool enough or wicked enough to shelter them.

LET EVERY GOOD SUBIECT of this Realme looke well to his Doores and his Familie, and let every honest Husband looke well to his WIFE, for the Sahr Temptresse is abroad in this Cittie, and the Moorish Gypsy goeth where he pleaseth, and the blew Heathen walketh our Streetes as though they were his owne, and the Murderesse Katherine Tarlton walketh among you in a Boy’s Skinne, and there is no Doore so strong nor Vertue so firme that these Agents of the Flayer cannot finde their Way through it. If you should see the Moorish Captaine, or the Sahr Murderesse, or the Eldrigalian Necromancer, or the Ghostly Dwarfe, or the Blew Giant, or the Disgraced Lord, or the Wicked Freckled Trull in Breeches who hath made herselfe their Creature, let him raise the Hue and Crye, and suffer not these Wolves to walke amongst the Sheepe of Shald one Daye more.

SHALD SAVE THE QUEENE. SHALD CONFOUND HER ENEMYES.

Printed by T.W. at the Signe of the Flayed God in Fount Rowe.