Zadig left the royal presence full of perplexity and despair, and having his heart oppressed with a burden which he was no longer able to bear.  In the violence of his perturbation he involuntarily betrayed the secret to his friend Cador, in the same manner as a man who, having long supported the fits of a cruel disease, discovers his pain by a cry extorted from him by a more severe fit and by the cold sweat that covers his brow.

“I have already discovered,” said Cador, “the sentiments which thou wouldst fain conceal from thyself.  The symptoms by which the passions show themselves are certain and infallible.  Judge, my dear Zadig, since I have read thy heart, whether the king will not discover something in it that may give him offense.  He has no other fault but that of being the most jealous man in the world.  Thou canst resist the violence of thy passion with greater fortitude than the queen because thou art a philosopher, and because thou art Zadig.  Astarte is a woman:  she suffers her eyes to speak with so much the more imprudence, as she does not as yet think herself guilty.  Conscious of her innocence, she unhappily neglects those external appearances which are so necessary.  I shall tremble for her so long as she has nothing wherewithal to reproach herself.  Were ye both of one mind, ye might easily deceive the whole world.  A growing passion, which we endeavor to suppress, discovers itself in spite of all our efforts to the contrary; but love, when gratified, is easily concealed.”

Zadig trembled at the proposal of betraying the king, his benefactor; and never was he more faithful to his prince than when guilty of an involuntary crime against him.

Meanwhile the queen mentioned the name of Zadig so frequently and with such a blushing and downcast look; she was sometimes so lively and sometimes so perplexed when she spoke to him in the king’s presence, and was seized with such deep thoughtfulness at his going away, that the king began to be troubled.  He believed all that he saw and imagined all that he did not see.  He particularly remarked that his wife’s shoes were blue and that Zadig’s shoes were blue; that his wife’s ribbons were yellow and that Zadig’s bonnet was yellow; and these were terrible symptoms to a prince of so much delicacy.  In his jealous mind suspicions were turned into certainty.

All the slaves of kings and queens are so many spies over their hearts.  They soon observed that Astarte was tender and that Moabdar was jealous.  The envious man brought false reports to the king.  The monarch now thought of nothing but in what manner he might best execute his vengeance.  He one night resolved to poison the queen and in the morning to put Zadig to death by the bowstring.  The orders were given to a merciless eunuch, who commonly executed his acts of vengeance.  There happened at that time to be in the king’s chamber a little dwarf, who, though dumb, was not deaf.  He was allowed,