International Short Stories: French - Various
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The lord of the castle was one of those Arabians who are commonly called
robbers; but he now and then performed some good actions amid a multitude
of bad ones. He robbed with a furious rapacity, and granted favors with
great generosity; he was intrepid in action; affable in company; a
debauchee at table, but gay in debauchery; and particularly remarkable for
his frank and open behavior. He was highly pleased with Zadig, whose
lively conversation lengthened the repast.
At last Arbogad said to him; "I advise thee to enroll thy name in my
catalogue; thou canst not do better; this is not a bad trade; and thou
mayest one day become what I am at present."
"May I take the liberty of asking thee," said Zadig, "how long thou hast
followed this noble profession?"
"From my most tender youth," replied the lord. "I was a servant to a
pretty good-natured Arabian, but could not endure the hardships of my
situation. I was vexed to find that fate had given me no share of the
earth, which equally belongs to all men. I imparted the cause of my
uneasiness to an old Arabian, who said to me: 'My son, do not despair;
there was once a grain of sand that lamented that it was no more than a
neglected atom in the desert; at the end of a few years it became a
diamond; and is now the brightest ornament in the crown of the king of the
Indies.' This discourse made a deep impression on my mind. I was the grain
of sand, and I resolved to become the diamond. I began by stealing two
horses; I soon got a party of companions; I put myself in a condition to
rob small caravans; and thus, by degrees, I destroyed the difference which
had formerly subsisted between me and other men. I had my share of the
good things of this world; and was even recompensed with usury for the
hardships I had suffered. I was greatly respected, and became the captain
of a band of robbers. I seized this castle by force. The Satrap of Syria
had a mind to dispossess me of it; but I was too rich to have any thing to
fear. I gave the satrap a handsome present, by which means I preserved my
castle and increased my possessions. He even appointed me treasurer of the
tributes which Arabia Petraea pays to the king of kings. I perform my
office of receiver with great punctuality; but take the freedom to
dispense with that of paymaster.
"The grand Desterham of Babylon sent hither a pretty satrap in the name of
King Moabdar, to have me strangled. This man arrived with his orders: I
was apprised of all; I caused to be strangled in his presence the four
persons he had brought with him to draw the noose; after which I asked him
how much his commission of strangling me might be worth. He replied, that
his fees would amount to about three hundred pieces of gold. I then
convinced him that he might gain more by staying with me. I made him an
inferior robber; and he is now one of my best and richest officers. If
thou wilt take my advice thy success may be equal to his; never was there
a better season for plunder, since King Moabdar is killed, and all Babylon
thrown into confusion."
"Moabdar killed!" said Zadig, "and what is become of Queen Astarte?"
"I know not," replied Arbogad. "All I know is, that Moabdar lost his
senses and was killed; that Babylon is a scene of disorder and bloodshed;
that all the empire is desolated; that there are some fine strokes to be
struck yet; and that, for my own part, I have struck some that are
admirable."
"But the queen," said Zadig; "for heaven's sake, knowest thou nothing of
the queen's fate?"
"Yes," replied he, "I have heard something of a prince of Hircania; if she
was not killed in the tumult, she is probably one of his concubines; but I
am much fonder of booty than news. I have taken several women in my
excursions; but I keep none of them. I sell them at a high price, when
they are beautiful, without inquiring who they are. In commodities of this
kind rank makes no difference, and a queen that is ugly will never find a
merchant. Perhaps I may have sold Queen Astarte; perhaps she is dead; but,
be it as it will, it is of little consequence to me, and I should imagine
of as little to thee." So saying he drank a large draught which threw all
his ideas into such confusion that Zadig could obtain no further
information.
Zadig remained for some time without speech, sense, or motion. Arbogad
continued drinking; told stories; constantly repeated that he was the
happiest man in the world; and exhorted Zadig to put himself in the same
condition. At last the soporiferous fumes of the wine lulled him into a
gentle repose.
Zadig passed the night in the most violent perturbation. "What," said he,
"did the king lose his senses? and is he killed? I cannot help lamenting
his fate. The empire is rent in pieces; and this robber is happy. O
fortune! O destiny! A robber is happy, and the most beautiful of nature's
works hath perhaps perished in a barbarous manner or lives in a state
worse than death. O Astarte! what is become of thee?"
At daybreak he questioned all those he met in the castle; but they were
all busy, and he received no answer. During the night they had made a new
capture, and they were now employed in dividing the spoils. All he could
obtain in this hurry and confusion was an opportunity of departing, which
he immediately embraced, plunged deeper than ever in the most gloomy and
mournful reflections.
Zadig proceeded on his journey with a mind full of disquiet and
perplexity, and wholly employed on the unhappy Astarte, on the King of
Babylon, on his faithful friend Cador, on the happy robber Arbogad; in a
word, on all the misfortunes and disappointments he had hitherto suffered.
THE FISHERMAN
At a few leagues' distance from Arbogad's castle he came to the banks of a
small river, still deploring his fate, and considering himself as the most
wretched of mankind. He saw a fisherman lying on the brink of the river,
scarcely holding, in his weak and feeble hand, a net which he seemed ready
to drop, and lifting up his eyes to Heaven.
"I am certainly," said the fisherman, "the most unhappy man in the world.
I was universally allowed to be the most famous dealer in cream cheese in
Babylon, and yet I am ruined. I had the most handsome wife that any man in
my station could have; and by her I have been betrayed. I had still left a
paltry house, and that I have seen pillaged and destroyed. At last I took
refuge in this cottage, where I have no other resource than fishing, and
yet I cannot catch a single fish. Oh, my net! no more will I throw thee
into the water; I will throw myself in thy place." So saying, he arose and
advanced forward, in the attitude of a man ready to throw himself into the
river, and thus to finish his life.
"What!" said Zadig to himself, "are there men as wretched as I?" His
eagerness to save the fisherman's life was as this reflection. He ran to
him, stopped him, and spoke to him with a tender and compassionate air. It
is commonly supposed that we are less miserable when we have companions in
our misery. This, according to Zoroaster, does not proceed from _malice_,
but necessity. We feel ourselves insensibly drawn to an unhappy person as
to one like ourselves. The joy of the happy would be an insult; but two
men in distress are like two slender trees, which, mutually supporting
each other, fortify themselves against the storm.
"Why," said Zadig to the fisherman, "dost thou sink under thy
misfortunes?"
"Because," replied he, "I see no means of relief. I was the most
considerable man in the village of Derlback, near Babylon, and with the
assistance of my wife I made the best cream cheese in the empire. Queen
Astarte and the famous minister Zadig were extremely fond of them."
Zadig, transported, said, "What, knowest thou nothing of the queen's
fate?"
"No, my lord," replied the fisherman; "but I know that neither the queen
nor Zadig has paid me for my cream cheeses; that I have lost my wife, and
am now reduced to despair."
"I flatter myself," said Zadig, "that thou wilt not lose all thy money. I
have heard of this Zadig; he is an honest man; and if he returns to
Babylon, as he expects, he will give thee more than he owes thee. Believe
me, go to Babylon. I shall be there before thee, because I am on
horseback, and thou art on foot. Apply to the illustrious Cador; tell him
thou hast met his friend; wait for me at his house; go, perhaps thou wilt
not always be unhappy."
"Oh, powerful Oromazes!" continued he, "thou employest me to comfort this
man; whom wilt thou employ to give me consolation?" So saying, he gave the
fisherman half the money he had brought from Arabia. The fisherman, struck
with surprise and ravished with joy, kissed the feet of the friend of
Cador, and said, "Thou art surely an angel sent from Heaven to save me!"
Meanwhile, Zadig continued to make fresh inquiries, and to shed tears.
"What, my lord!" cried the fisherman, "art thou then so unhappy, thou who
bestowest favors?"
"An hundred times more unhappy than thou art," replied Zadig.
"But how is it possible," said the good man, "that the giver can be more
wretched than the receiver?"
"Because," replied Zadig, "thy greatest misery arose from poverty, and
mine is seated in the heart."
"Did Orcan take thy wife from thee?" said the fisherman.
This word recalled to Zadig's mind the whole of his adventures.
He repeated the catalogue of his misfortunes, beginning with the queen's
spaniel, and ending with his arrival at the castle of the robber Arbogad.
"Ah!" said he to the fisherman, "Orcan deserves to be punished; but it is
commonly such men as those that are the favorites of fortune. However, go
thou to the house of Lord Cador, and there wait my arrival." They then
parted, the fisherman walked, thanking Heaven for the happiness of his
condition; and Zadig rode, accusing fortune for the hardness of his lot.
THE BASILISK
Arriving in a beautiful meadow, he there saw several women, who were
searching for something with great application. He took the liberty to
approach one of them, and to ask if he might have the honor to assist them
in their search. "Take care that thou dost not," replied the Syrian; "what
we are searching for can be touched only by women."
"Strange," said Zadig, "may I presume to ask thee what it is that women
only are permitted to touch?"
"It is a basilisk," said she.
"A basilisk, madam! and for what purpose, pray, dost thou seek for a
basilisk?"
"It is for our lord and master Ogul, whose cattle thou seest on the bank
of that river at the end of the meadow. We are his most humble slaves. The
lord Ogul is sick. His physician hath ordered him to eat a basilisk,
stewed in rose water; and as it is a very rare animal, and can only be
taken by women, the lord Ogul hath promised to choose for his well-beloved
wife the woman that shall bring him a basilisk; let me go on in my search;
for thou seest what I shall lose if I am prevented by my companions."
Zadig left her and the other Assyrians to search for their basilisk, and
continued to walk in the meadow; when coming to the brink of a small
rivulet, he found another lady lying on the grass, and who was not
searching for anything. Her person worried to be majestic; but her face
was covered with a veil. She was inclined toward the rivulet, and profound
sighs proceeded from her mouth. In her hand she held a small rod with
which she was tracing characters on the fine sand that lay between the
turf and the brook. Zadig had the curiosity to examine what this woman was
writing. He drew near; he saw the letter Z, then an A; he was astonished;
then appeared a D; he started. But never was surprise equal to his when he
saw the last letters of his name.
He stood for some time immovable. At last, breaking silence with a
faltering voice: "O generous lady! pardon a stranger, an unfortunate man,
for presuming to ask thee by what surprising adventure I here find the name
of Zadig traced out by thy divine hand!"
At this voice and these words, the lady lifted up the veil with a
trembling hand, looked at Zadig, sent forth a cry of tenderness, surprise
and joy, and sinking under the various emotions which at once assaulted
her soul, fell speechless into his arms. It was Astarte herself; it was
the Queen of Babylon; it was she whom Zadig adored, and whom he had
reproached himself for adoring; it was she whose misfortunes he had so
deeply lamented, and for whose fate he had been so anxiously concerned.
He was for a moment deprived of the use of his senses, when he had fixed
his eyes on those of Astarte, which now began to open again with a languor
mixed with confusion and tenderness: "O ye immortal powers!" cried he,
"who preside over the fates of weak mortals, do ye indeed restore Astarte
to me! at what a time, in what a place, and in what a condition do I again
behold her!" He fell on his knees before Astarte and laid his face in the
dust at her feet. The Queen of Babylon raised him up, and made him sit by
her side on the brink of the rivulet. She frequently wiped her eyes, from
which the tears continued to flow afresh. She twenty times resumed her
discourse, which her sighs as often interrupted; she asked by what strange
accident they were brought together, and suddenly prevented his answers by
other questions; she waived the account of her own misfortunes, and
desired to be informed of those of Zadig.
At last, both of them having a little composed the tumult of their souls,
Zadig acquainted her in a few words by what adventure he was brought into
that meadow. "But, O unhappy and respectable queen! by what means do I
find thee in this lonely place, clothed in the habit of a slave, and
accompanied by other female slaves, who are searching for a basilisk,
which, by order of the physician, is to be stewed in rose water?"
"While they are searching for their basilisk," said the fair Astarte, "I
will inform thee of all I have suffered, for which Heaven has sufficiently
recompensed me by restoring thee to my sight. Thou knowest that the king,
my husband, was vexed to see thee the most amiable of mankind; and that
for this reason he one night resolved to strangle thee and poison me. Thou
knowest how Heaven permitted my little mute to inform me of the orders of
his sublime majesty. Hardly had the faithful Cador advised thee to depart,
in obedience to my command, when he ventured to enter my apartment at
midnight by a secret passage. He carried me off and conducted me to the
temple of Oromazes, where the mage his brother shut me up in that huge
statue whose base reaches to the foundation of the temple and whose top
rises to the summit of the dome. I was there buried in a manner; but was
saved by the mage; and supplied with all the necessaries of life. At break
of day his majesty's apothecary entered my chamber with a potion composed
of a mixture of henbane, opium, hemlock, black hellebore, and aconite; and
another officer went to thine with a bowstring of blue silk. Neither of us
was to be found. Cador, the better to deceive the king, pretended to come
and accuse us both. He said that thou hadst taken the road to the Indies,
and I that to Memphis, on which the king's guards were immediately
dispatched in pursuit of us both.
"The couriers who pursued me did not know me. I had hardly ever shown my
face to any but thee, and to thee only in the presence and by the order of
my husband. They conducted themselves in the pursuit by the description
that had been given them of my person. On the frontiers of Egypt they met
with a woman of the same stature with me, and possessed perhaps of greater
charms. She was weeping and wandering. They made no doubt but that this
woman was the Queen of Babylon and accordingly brought her to Moabdar.
Their mistake at first threw the king into a violent passion; but having
viewed this woman more attentively, he found her extremely handsome and
was comforted. She was called Missouf. I have since been informed that
this name in the Egyptian language signifies the capricious fair one. She
was so in reality; but she had as much cunning as caprice. She pleased
Moabdar and gained such an ascendancy over him as to make him choose her
for his wife. Her character then began to appear in its true colors. She
gave herself up, without scruple, to all the freaks of a wanton
imagination. She would have obliged the chief of the magi, who was old and
gouty, to dance before her; and on his refusal, she persecuted him with
the most unrelenting cruelty. She ordered her master of the horse to make
her a pie of sweetmeats. In vain did he represent that he was not a
pastry-cook; he was obliged to make it, and lost his place, because it was
baked a little too hard. The post of master of the horse she gave to her
dwarf, and that of chancellor to her page. In this manner did she govern
Babylon. Everybody regretted the loss of me. The king, who till the moment
of his resolving to poison me and strangle thee had been a tolerably good
kind of man, seemed now to have drowned all his virtues in his immoderate
fondness for this capricious fair one. He came to the temple on the great
day of the feast held in honor of the sacred fire. I saw him implore the
gods in behalf of Missouf, at the feet of the statue in which I was
inclosed. I raised my voice, I cried out, 'The gods reject the prayers of
a king who is now become a tyrant, and who attempted to murder a
reasonable wife, in order to marry a woman remarkable for nothing but her
folly and extravagance.' At these words Moabdar was confounded and his
head became disordered. The oracle I had pronounced, and the tyranny of
Missouf, conspired to deprive him of his judgment, and in a few days his
reason entirely forsook him.
"Moabdar's madness, which seemed to be the judgment of Heaven, was the
signal to a revolt. The people rose and ran to arms; and Babylon, which
had been so long immersed in idleness and effeminacy, became the theater
of a bloody civil war. I was taken from the heart of my statue and placed
at the head of a party. Cador flew to Memphis to bring thee back to
Babylon. The Prince of Hircania, informed of these fatal events, returned
with his army and made a third party in Chaldea. He attacked the king, who
fled before him with his capricious Egyptian. Moabdar died pierced with
wounds. I myself had the misfortune to be taken by a party of Hircanians,
who conducted me to their prince's tent, at the very moment that Missouf
was brought before him. Thou wilt doubtless be pleased to hear that the
prince thought me beautiful; but thou wilt be sorry to be informed that he
designed me for his seraglio. He told me, with a blunt and resolute air,
that as soon as he had finished a military expedition, which he was just
going to undertake, he would come to me. Judge how great must have been my
grief. My ties with Moabdar were already dissolved; I might have been the
wife of Zadig; and I was fallen into the hands of a barbarian. I answered
him with all the pride which my high rank and noble sentiment could
inspire. I had always heard it affirmed that Heaven stamped on persons of
my condition a mark of grandeur, which, with a single word or glance,
could reduce to the lowliness of the most profound respect those rash and
forward persons who presume to deviate from the rules of politeness. I
spoke like a queen, but was treated like a maidservant. The Hircanian,
without even deigning to speak to me, told his black eunuch that I was
impertinent, but that he thought me handsome. He ordered him to take care
of me, and to put me under the regimen of favorites, that so my complexion
being improved, I might be the more worthy of his favors when he should be
at leisure to honor me with them, I told him that rather than submit to
his desires I would put an end to my life. He replied, with a smile, that
women, he believed, were not, so bloodthirsty, and that he was accustomed
to such violent expressions; and then left me with the air of a man who
had just put another parrot into his aviary. What a state for the first
queen of the universe, and, what is more, for a heart devoted to Zadig!"
At these words Zadig threw himself at her feet and bathed them with his
tears. Astarte raised him with great tenderness and thus continued her
story: "I now saw myself in the power of a barbarian and rival to the
foolish woman with whom I was confined. She gave me an account of her
adventures in Egypt. From the description she gave me of your person, from
the time, from the dromedary on which you were mounted, and from every
other circumstance, I inferred that Zadig was the man who had fought for
her. I doubted not but that you were at Memphis, and, therefore, resolved
to repair thither. Beautiful Missouf, said I, thou art more handsome than
I, and will please the Prince of Hircania much better. Assist me in
contriving the means of my escape; thou wilt then reign alone; thou wilt
at once make me happy and rid thyself of a rival. Missouf concerted with
me the means of my flight; and I departed secretly with a female Egyptian
slave.
"As I approached the frontiers of Arabia, a famous robber, named Arbogad,
seized me and sold me to some merchants, who brought me to this castle,
where Lord Ogul resides. He bought me without knowing who I was. He is a
voluptuary, ambitious of nothing but good living, and thinks that God sent
him into the world for no other purpose than to sit at table. He is so
extremely corpulent that he is always in danger of suffocation. His
physician, who has but little credit with him when he has a good
digestion, governs him with a despotic sway when he has eaten too much. He
has persuaded him that a basilisk stewed in rose water will effect a
complete cure. The Lord Ogul hath promised his hand to the female slave
that brings him a basilisk. Thou seest that I leave them to vie with each
other in meriting this honor; and never was I less desirous of finding the
basilisk than since Heaven hath restored thee to my sight."
This account was succeeded by a long conversation between Astarte and
Zadig, consisting of everything that their long-suppressed sentiments,
their great sufferings, and their mutual love could inspire in hearts the
most noble and tender; and the genii who preside over love carried their
words to the sphere of Venus.
The woman returned to Ogul without having found the basilisk. Zadig was
introduced to this mighty lord and spoke to him in the following terms:
"May immortal health descend from heaven to bless all thy days! I am a
physician; at the first report of thy indisposition I flew to thy castle
and have now brought thee a basilisk stewed in rose water. Not that I
pretend to marry thee. All I ask is the liberty of a Babylonian slave, who
hath been in thy possession for a few days; and, if I should not be so
happy as to cure thee, magnificent Lord Ogul, I consent to remain a slave
in her place."
The proposal was accepted. Astarte set out for Babylon with Zadig's
servant, promising, immediately upon her arrival, to send a courier to
inform him of all that had happened. Their parting was as tender as their
meeting. The moment of meeting and that of parting are the two greatest
epochs of life, as sayeth the great book of Zend. Zadig loved the queen
with as much ardor as he professed; and the queen loved him more than she
thought proper to acknowledge.
Meanwhile Zadig spoke thus to Ogul: "My lord, my basilisk is not to be
eaten; all its virtues must enter through thy pores. I have inclosed it in
a little ball, blown up and covered with a fine skin. Thou must strike
this ball with all thy might and I must strike it back for a considerable
time; and by observing this regimen for a few days thou wilt see the
effects of my art." The first day Ogul was out of breath and thought he
should have died with fatigue. The second he was less fatigued, slept
better. In eight days he recovered all the strength, all the health, all
the agility and cheerfulness of his most agreeable years.
"Thou hast played at ball, and thou hast been temperate," said Zadig;
"know that there is no such thing in nature as a basilisk; that temperance
and exercise are the two great preservatives of health; and that the art
of reconciling intemperance and health is as chimerical as the
philosopher's stone, judicial astrology, or the theology of the magi."
Ogul's first physician, observing how dangerous this man might prove to
the medical art, formed a design, in conjunction with the apothecary, to
send Zadig to search for a basilisk in the other world. Thus, having
suffered such a long train of calamities on account of his good actions,
he was now upon the point of losing his life for curing a gluttonous lord.
He was invited to an excellent dinner and was to have been poisoned in the
second course, but, during the first, he happily received a courier from
the fair Astarte. "When one is beloved by a beautiful woman," says the
great Zoroaster, "he hath always the good fortune to extricate himself out
of every kind of difficulty and danger."