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ply with my request, and depart, than he ventured to enter my apartment at midnight, by a secret passage, and conveyed me to the temple of Orosmades; where the magi his brother, shut me up in that huge statue, whose base reaches to the foundation of the temple, and whose head rises to the top of the dome. There I lay concealed, or rather buried, for some time; but was carefully attended, and furnished with every necessary, by that venerable and loyal priest. In the mean time, the king's apothecary entered my chamber by break of day, with a potion in his hand, composed of henbane, opium, hemlock, black hellebore, and aconite; and another officer went to yours, with a silk bowstring. Our flight had, however, happily frustrated their designs. Then Cador, the better to deceive the king, affected to accuse us both, and informed him that you had taken the road to the Indies, and that I was fled to Memphis: on which the guards were immediately dispatched after both of us.

'The couriers who went in search of me, knew nothing of my features; for, by the king's express orders, I had hardly ever shown my face to any besides yourself. They followed the pursuit, on the description that had been given them of my person; till a woman of the same stature as myself, but who perhaps had more charms, appeared before them on the frontiers of Egypt. She was found alone, and in a very disconsolate condition; they therefore made no doubt but that this woman was the queen of Babylon, and accordingly took her to Moabdar. Their mistake at first threw the king into a violent rage; but, having considered her more attentively, he found her extremely beautiful, and became reconciled. This

lady was called Missouf; and I have since been informed that her name, in the Egyptian tongue, signifies the capricious fair one: a title to which she certainly was well entitled. She had, however, as much art as caprice. She pleased Moabdar, and had sufficient influence over him to make him choose her for his wife. She then began to unfold her real character, and gave herself up to all the fantastical whims of her vain imagination: she endeavoured to oblige the chief of the magi, who was old, and troubled with the gout, to dance before her; and, on his refusal, she made him suffer the effects of her resentment. She ordered her master of the horse to make her a pie of sweetmeats: the master of the horse wisely represented that he was not a pastry-cook; but his making the pie was an affair of great importance, and she degraded him from his office, for being too obstinate. She gave the post of master of the horse to her dwarf, and the place of chancellor to a page. In this manner did she govern Babylon. Every body regretted the loss of me. The king, who had behaved with great uprightness, till the moment he resolved to poison me, and caused you to be strangled, seemed to have drowned his virtues in the prodigious fondness he had discovered for the capricious fair. He came to the temple on the solemn festival of the sacred fire; and I saw him implore the gods in behalf of Missouf, at the feet of the statue in which I was inclosed. I then raised my voice, and cried out"The gods refuse to listen to the vows of a king, who is become a tyrant; who has sought the life of his innocent consort; and has suffered one to supply her place, who is distinguished only by her folly." At

these words Moabdar was confounded, and his head became disordered. The oracle I had pronounced, and the behaviour of Missouf, disturbed his judgment, and in a few days his reason entirely forsook him.

'His madness, which seemed a chastisement from heaven, was as the signal of a revolt. The people arose; they ran to arms; and Babylon, that had so long indulged herself in indolence and ease, became the seat of a dreadful civil war. I was now taken from the hollow of the statue, and placed at the head of a party; and Cador hasted to Memphis, that he might bring you back to Babylon. The prince of Hircania, hearing of these fatal contests, came with his army, and made a third party in Chaldea. He attacked the king, who fled before him with his capricious Egyptian. Moabdar was so closely pursued, that he died of the wounds he received in his retreat, and Missouf fell into the hands of the conqueror. I myself had the misfortune to be taken by a party of Hircanians, and was led to the prince, at the very instant when Missouf was brought before him. Your vanity will perhaps be flattered, by learning that the prince esteemed me more beautiful than the Egyptian; but you will no doubt be afflicted to hear that he destined me for his seraglio. He told me, with great resolution, that, as soon as he had completed a military expedition which he was going to perform, he would honour me with a visit. Figure to yourself what was then my grief! The bonds which had bound me to Moabdar were broken; I had the opportunity of being the bride of Zadig, and was fallen into the power of a barbarian! I answered him with a the pride that sprung from my rank and lofty sentiments; having been always told that heaven bestowed on persons, like me, such peculiar marks of grandeur, as, with a word or glance, reduced to the lowliness of the most profound humility those rash persons who dared to swerve from their duty. I spoke like a queen; but was treated like the most servile domestic. The Hircanian, without even condescending to address himself to me, turned to his black eunuch, and told him that I was impertinent, but he thought me handsome. He ordered him to take care of me, and to put me under the regimen of his favourites, to the end that, my colour being heightened, I might be rendered more worthy of his favours, on the day in which he should be pleased to honour me. I told him, that I would first put a period to my existence: he replied, laughing, that life was a blessing too valuable to be thrown away; and that he was prepared for such speeches. He then left me, with the negligence of a person who had just put up a parrot in its gilded cage. What a state was this for the first queen of the universe! and, what is more, for a heart devoted to Zadig!'

At these endearing expressions Zadig prostrated himself before the queen, and bathed her feet with his tears: when Astarte tenderly raised him up, and proceeded thus-' I found myself in the power of a barbarian, and the rival of a silly coquette with whom I was confined. She related to me her adventure in Egypt; and I judged by the lineaments she painted, by the time, by the dromedary on which you was mounted, and by every circumstance, that Zadig had fought for her. I did not doubt of your being at Memphis, and therefore took the resolution to retire

thither. "Beautiful Missouf!" said I, "you are much more agreeable than me; much better will you divert the prince of Hircania: facilitate as much as possible the means of my escape, you will then reign alone; and, while you render me happy, will at the same time free yourself from the fear of a rival." Missouf listened to my request; she joined with me in concerting the means of my flight; and I secretly departed with an Egyptian slave.

'No sooner had we reached the borders of Arabia, than a famous robber, named Arbogad, seized upon me, and sold me to some merchants, who brought me to this castle, the abode of the lord Ogul, where I was purchased without being known. He is a man who delights in voluptuousness; seeks for nothing but to gratify his appetites; and believes the Almighty has sent him into the world merely to sit at table, He is excessively corpulent, and in continual danger of suffocation. His physician, whom he but little regards when he has a good digestion, governs him, when he has eat too much, with the most despotic sway. He has persuaded him at present that his life is in danger, and nothing can cure him but a basilisk stewed in rose-water: the lord Ogul has therefore promised his hand to the female slave who first brings him a basilisk. You see I have left them to obtain this honour; and I never had less desire to find the basilisk, than since heaven has permitted me to see you again.'

After this declaration, they gave utterance to those tender sensations that had been so long smothered, and said all that love and misfortunes can inspire in hearts the most noble and passionate; while the

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