like a queen, but was treated like a maidservant.  The Hircanian, without even deigning to speak to me, told his black eunuch that I was impertinent, but that he thought me handsome.  He ordered him to take care of me, and to put me under the regimen of favorites, that so my complexion being improved, I might be the more worthy of his favors when he should be at leisure to honor me with them, I told him that rather than submit to his desires I would put an end to my life.  He replied, with a smile, that women, he believed, were not, so bloodthirsty, and that he was accustomed to such violent expressions; and then left me with the air of a man who had just put another parrot into his aviary.  What a state for the first queen of the universe, and, what is more, for a heart devoted to Zadig!”

At these words Zadig threw himself at her feet and bathed them with his tears.  Astarte raised him with great tenderness and thus continued her story:  “I now saw myself in the power of a barbarian and rival to the foolish woman with whom I was confined.  She gave me an account of her adventures in Egypt.  From the description she gave me of your person, from the time, from the dromedary on which you were mounted, and from every other circumstance, I inferred that Zadig was the man who had fought for her.  I doubted not but that you were at Memphis, and, therefore, resolved to repair thither.  Beautiful Missouf, said I, thou art more handsome than I, and will please the Prince of Hircania much better.  Assist me in contriving the means of my escape; thou wilt then reign alone; thou wilt at once make me happy and rid thyself of a rival.  Missouf concerted with me the means of my flight; and I departed secretly with a female Egyptian slave.

“As I approached the frontiers of Arabia, a famous robber, named Arbogad, seized me and sold me to some merchants, who brought me to this castle, where Lord Ogul resides.  He bought me without knowing who I was.  He is a voluptuary, ambitious of nothing but good living, and thinks that God sent him into the world for no other purpose than to sit at table.  He is so extremely corpulent that he is always in danger of suffocation.  His physician, who has but little credit with him when he has a good digestion, governs him with a despotic sway when he has eaten too much.  He has persuaded him that a basilisk stewed in rose water will effect a complete cure.  The Lord Ogul hath promised his hand to the female slave that brings him a basilisk.  Thou seest that I leave them to vie with each other in meriting this honor; and never was I less desirous of finding the basilisk than since Heaven hath restored thee to my sight.”

This account was succeeded by a long conversation between Astarte and Zadig, consisting of everything that their long-suppressed sentiments, their great sufferings, and their mutual love could inspire in hearts the most noble and tender; and the genii who preside over love carried their words to the sphere of Venus.