[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.He was firmly persuaded, despite the latestphilosophical notions of his day, that the year consisted of threehundred and sixty-five and a quarter days, and that the sun was atthe centre of the universe.And when the senior magi looked downtheir noses at him and told him that he had unsound views, and thatZadig 111only enemies of the State thought that the sun turned on its ownaxis and that there were twelve months in a year, he kept his peacewithout anger or disdain.Zadig, possessed as he was of great wealth and hence of manyfriends, and having also a healthy constitution, a genial air, a fairmind, a level head, and a sincere and noble heart, believed that hecould be happy.He was to marry Semira, who was by beauty, birth,and fortune the finest match in Babylon.He held a firm and virtuousattachment for her, while Semira was passionately fond of him.Thehappy day which was to unite them was drawing near when, outwalking together near one of the gates of Babylon, beneath the palm-trees which used to grace the banks of the Euphrates, they saw somemen coming towards them, armed with sabres and bows and arrows.They were henchmen belonging to young Orcan, the nephew of aminister, who had been led to believe by his uncles minions that hemight behave just as he pleased.He had none of the virtues andgraces of Zadig but, thinking himself much the better man, des-paired at never being preferred to him.This jealousy, which derivedentirely from his vanity, made him think that he was madly in lovewith Semira.He had resolved upon her abduction.Her assailantsseized her and, in the heat of their violence, wounded her, so shed-ding the blood of one the sight of whom would have melted thehearts of the very tigers on Mount Imaus.She rent the heavens withher laments.She cried out: My dear husband! They are taking me from the man I love!She had no care for her own danger; she thought only of her dearZadig.He, meanwhile, was rallying to her defence with all the mightthat valour and love may inspire.Assisted only by two slaves, he putthe abductors to flight and bore Semira home, unconscious andbleeding from her wounds.On opening her eyes she beheld herdeliverer, and said to him: O Zadig! Once I loved you as my future husband.Now I love youas the man to whom I owe my honour and my life.Never was there a heart more profoundly moved than that ofSemira.Never did a mouth more ravishing express sentiments moretouching, and all in those words of fire that spring from a sense ofgratitude for the greatest gift of all and from the tenderest transportof the most lawful passion.Her wound was slight: she soonrecovered.Zadig s wound was more serious: an arrow had struck112 Zadighim near one eye and left a deep gash.Semira asked of the gods onlythat they might cure her lover.Her eyes were bathed in tears, nightand day.She waited for the moment when Zadig s own might oncemore enjoy her gaze; but an abscess which had developed in thewounded eye gave every cause for concern.The great doctorHermes was summoned all the way from Memphis, and he arrivedwith his numerous attendants.He visited the patient and declaredthat he would lose the eye.He even predicted the day and the hourwhen this fateful event would occur. If it had been the right eye, he said,  I could have cured it.Butwounds in the left eye are incurable.All Babylon, while lamenting Zadig s fate, marvelled at the depthof Hermes knowledge.Two days later the abscess burst of its ownaccord.Zadig was completely cured.Hermes wrote a book, provingto him that he should not have got better.Zadig did not read it.But,as soon as he was well enough to go out, he made ready to visit theperson who was his one hope of future happiness, and for whomalone he wished to have eyes.Semira had spent the previous three days in the country.On hisway to her he learnt that this fine lady, having loudly proclaimed aninsurmountable aversion to men with one eye, had just marriedOrcan that very night.On hearing this news he swooned.The painwhich he suffered brought him to the very brink of death.He was illfor a long time.But in the end reason prevailed over his affliction,and the sheer awfulness of the experience served even as a kind ofconsolation. Since I have been the victim of such a cruel whim on the part ofa young lady brought up at court, he said,  I must marry a com-moner s daughter. He chose Azora, the best behaved and the bestborn in the city.He married her and lived with her for a month,enjoying the delights of the most tender union.Only, he then beganto notice a certain flightiness in her, and a marked tendency to findthe best-looking young men to be also the wittiest and the moststerling.Zadig 113CHAPTER 2The noseOne day Azora returned from a walk much angered and expostulatingloudly. My dear wife, whatever is the matter? asked Zadig. Who canhave upset you like this? Alas, you would be just as indignant , she said,  if you had seenthe spectacle I have just witnessed.I went to comfort that youngwidow Cosrou who, just two days ago, saw her husband buried by thestream that runs alongside the meadow.In her grief she vowed to thegods that she would remain at his tomb for as long as the waters ofthe stream should flow beside it. Well! said Zadig,  there s an estimable woman for you.She mustreally have loved her husband! Ah, said Azora,  if you only but knew what she was doing when Ivisited her! What then, fair Azora? She was having the stream diverted.Azora launched forth into such a torrent of abuse and deliveredherself of such violent reproaches against the young widow thatZadig took exception to this extravaganza of righteousness.He had a friend called Cador, who was one of the young people inwhom his wife found more integrity and worth than in others.Hetook him into his confidence and sought to ensure his loyalty, as besthe could, by making him a handsome present.Azora, having spenttwo days in the country at the house of one of her friends, returnedhome on the third.Weeping servants informed her that her husbandhad died suddenly that very night, that they had not dared bring hersuch terrible news, and that they had just buried Zadig in the tombof his forefathers at the bottom of the garden.She wept, pulled herhair out, and vowed that she would die.That evening Cador beggedleave to speak with her, and they wept together.Next day they weptless and had dinner together.Cador confided in her that his friendhad left him the greater part of his estate and gave her to understandthat it would make him very happy if she would share his fortunewith him.The lady burst into tears; took offence; was mollified.114 ZadigSupper lasted longer than dinner.They talked together more freely.Azora sang the praises of the deceased; but she owned that he hadhad faults from which he, Cador, was quite free.In the middle of this supper Cador complained of a violent pain inhis spleen [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]