me!  Two women have basely deceived me, and now a third, who is innocent, and more beautiful than both the others, is going to be put to death!  Whatever good I have done hath been to me a continual source of calamity and affliction; and I have only been raised to the height of grandeur, to be tumbled down the most horrid precipice of misfortune.”  Filled with these gloomy reflections, his eyes overspread with the veil of grief, his countenance covered with the paleness of death, and his soul plunged in an abyss of the blackest despair, he continued his journey toward Egypt.

THE WOMAN BEATEN

Zadig directed his course by the stars.  The constellation of Orion and the splendid Dog Star guided his steps toward the pole of Cassiopeia.  He admired those vast globes of light, which appear to our eyes but as so many little sparks, while the earth, which in reality is only an imperceptible point in nature, appears to our fond imaginations as something so grand and noble.

He then represented to himself the human species as it really is, as a parcel of insects devouring one another on a little atom of clay.  This true image seemed to annihilate his misfortunes, by making him sensible of the nothingness of his own being, and of that of Babylon.  His soul launched out into infinity, and, detached from the senses, contemplated the immutable order of the universe.  But when afterwards, returning to himself, and entering into his own heart, he considered that Astarte had perhaps died for him, the universe vanished from his sight, and he beheld nothing in the whole compass of nature but Astarte; expiring and Zadig unhappy.  While he thus alternately gave up his mind to this flux and reflux of sublime philosophy and intolerable grief, he advanced toward the frontiers of Egypt; and his faithful domestic was already in the first village, in search of a lodging.

Upon reaching the village Zadig generously took the part of a woman attacked by her jealous lover.  The combat grew so fierce that Zadig slew the lover.  The Egyptians were then just and humane.  The people conducted Zadig to the town house.  They first of all ordered his wounds to be dressed and then examined him and his servant apart, in order to discover the truth.  They found that Zadig was not an assassin; but as he was guilty of having killed a man, the law condemned him to be a slave.  His two camels were sold for the benefit of the town; all the gold he had brought with him was distributed among the inhabitants; and his person, as well as that of the companion of his journey, was exposed to sale in the marketplace.

An Arabian merchant, named Setoc, made the purchase; but as the servant was fitter for labor than the master, he was sold at a higher price.  There was no comparison between the two men.  Thus Zadig became a slave subordinate to his own servant.  They were linked together by a chain fastened to their feet, and in this condition they followed the Arabian merchant to his house.