When the cantata was ended, a chamberlain made an oration three quarters of an hour long, in which he particularly praised him for all the good qualities he wanted. The speech being ended, they conducted him to table by the sound of instruments. The dinner lasted three hours, before he condescended to speak: as soon as he opened his mouth for that purpose, the first chamberlain said he was in the right; scarce had he pronounced four words, when the second chamberlain cried-' Sir, you are perfectly right!' The other two chamberlains employed themselves in laughing heartily at every smart thing Irax had said, or seemed willing to say, and were lavish in their praises of his wit. After dinner, the adulating chorus was repeated.

The first day Irax was in raptures, and he thought the king of kings paid a proper attention to his merit; the second seemed less agreeable; the third was somewhat troublesome; the fourth insupportable; and the fifth tormenting. In short, disturbed at hearing them always singing-In vain our feeble pow'rs we raise,' with hearing them continually say he was in the right, and at being harangued every day at the same hour, he wrote to court to beseech the king to recal his chamberlains, his musicians, his stewards of the household, and his cooks; and promised, in the most submissive manner, to be less vain, and apply himself more closely to business. From this time he grew less fond of adulation, and had fewer feasts, though he was yet more happy; for, as it is said by Sadder-' Always pleasure, is no pleasure.'

Scarce a day passed wherein Zadig did not exhibit some fresh proof of his amazing penetration, and extreme goodness of heart; he was adored by the people, and beloved by the king: even the first misfortunes of his life served to augment his present felicity. Every night, however, he had a dream which filled him with uneasiness. He imagined that he laid himself down on a heap of dry herbs, among which there were prickly ones that greatly incommoded him; and that afterwards he reposed himself in the softest manner on a bed of roses, from whence there proceeded a serpent, which wounded him to the heart with it's sharp and envenomed tooth. Alas!' said he, 'I have long laid on these dry and prickly herbs; I am now on the bed of roses; but what shall be the serpent?'

CHAPTER VII.

THE FORCE OF JEALOUSY.

THE misfortunes of Zadig proceeded in a great measure from his preferment, but more particularly from his merit. He every day conversed with the king and his august consort; and the charms of his conversation were redoubled by that desire of pleasing which is to the mind what dress is to beauty. The youth and graceful deportment of Zadig had a much greater influence on Astarte than she readily perceived; and her bosom continually nourished an affection of which she was by no means conscious. She freely, and without scruple, indulged the pleasure of seeing and conversing with a man who was not only dear to her

husband, but to the whole empire. She was continually speaking in his praise to the king; and he was the whole subject of her conversation among her women, whose eulogiums of him even exceeded her own. In short, every thing served to sink into the heart of Astarte the arrow which to her was imperceptible. She made presents to Zadig, in which there was more of gallantry than she imagined; she thought only of speaking to him like a queen pleased with his services, but her expressions did not unfrequently resemble those of a woman in love.

Astarte was far more beautiful than Semira, who had such a hatred for one-eyed men; or his late affectionate spouse, who had been willing to cut off his nose. The pleasing familiarity of Astarte; her tender expressions, which sometimes crimsoned her cheeks; and the delicate glances of her eyes, which in spite of herself were continually fixed upon his; all conspired to light up a fire in the heart of Zadig, at which he was himself amazed. He endeavoured to extinguish it, by calling to his assistance that philosophy which had hitherto been his support; but drew nothing from this source but empty knowledge, without any real consolation.

Duty, gratitude, and violated majesty, presented themselves to his mind as avenging deities; he struggled bravely with his passions, and at length gained the victory; this conquest, however, which he was obliged every moment to re-obtain, cost him many sighs and tears. He now durst not speak to the queen with that delightful freedom which had hitherto proved but too agreeable to them both: his eyes were veiled with a mist; his discourse was un

N

connected, and had the appearance of constraint: he endeavoured to look another way, that he might not behold the queen; and when, contrary to his wishes, his eyes met those of Astarte, he found that her's, though bathed in tears, were capable of darting forth arrows of flame: they seemed, in short, silently to intimate, that they were afraid of being in love with each other, and that both burned with a fire which both condemned.

Zadig left her presence with a mind unsettled and dismayed; and his heart was oppressed with a burden too great for him to bear. Amidst the violence of his agitations, he disclosed to Cador the secrets of his heart; just as a man who, having long supported the fits of a violent disease, makes his anguish known by a cry, which it's redoubled sharpness forces from him, and by the cold sweats which hang on his brow.

'I have already discovered,' said Cador, 'the sensations you would fain have concealed from yourself; the passions shew themselves by signs which will not suffer us to be mistaken. Judge, my dear Zadig, since I have read your heart, whether the king will not discover a sensation so offensive to him. He has no other fault than that of being the most jealous of mankind. You will resist your passion with greater strength than the queen will combat her's, not only because you are a philosopher, but because you are Zadig. Astarte is a woman; and suffers her looks to speak with the more imprudence, as she does not believe herself to be yet guilty. Conscious of the innocency of her heart, she is by much too unguarded. I tremble for her, because she hath nothing with which to reproach herself. Were you both agreed, you might deceive the whole world: a rising passion, which is smothered, breaks out into a flame; but love, when once gratified, knows how to conceal itself with art.' Zadig shuddered at the proposal of violating the bed of his royal benefactor; nor was there ever a more faithful subject, though guilty of this involuntary crime. The queen, however, so often pronounced the name of Zadig, with her face covered with blushes; she was sometimes so animated, at others so much depressed, when she spoke of him in the presence of her husband, and was seized with so deep a thoughtfulness when he was absent, that the king became extremely uneasy. He believed all that he saw, and imagined all that he did not see. He more particularly remarked, that the queen's sandals were blue, and that those of Zadig were of the same colour; that her ribbands were yellow, and that Zadig's turban was also yellow. These were terrible prognostics for a prince of his delicacy to reflect on. In a mind so distempered as his, suspicions became as facts.

The slaves of kings and queens are so many spies over their hearts. It was soon discovered by them, that Astarte was tender, and Moabdar jealous. Arimazes had not corrected his envious disposition; for flints never soften, and venomous animals always preserve their poison. 'This wretch sent an anonymous letter to Moabdar; the infamous recourse of a sordid mind, and which is always the object of contempt; but at this time, it had the intended effect, because it seconded the fatal sentiments that possessed the prince's heart. In short, he no longer thought of any thing besides the manner of his re