Haria was formerly young and pretty. She had had lovers of her own rank, but they all disappear’d even sooner than her charms. By way of comforting herself for this desertion, she gave into a whimsical sort of pomp, and her footmen were the handsomest fellows in Banza. She grew older and older, and years threw her into economy: she restrained herself to four dogs and two Bramins, and became a model of edification. And surely the most envenom’d satyr could find no room to carp at this management; and for above ten years Haria was in peaceful possession of a high reputation of virtue, and of those animals. Nay, her tenderness for the pug-dogs was so well known, that the Bramins were no longer suspected of sharing it.
Haria renewed her intreaty to those beasts, and they had the complaisance to obey. Then Mangogul applied his ring, and the superannuated Toy set about relating the last of its adventures. It was such a vast while since the first were atchieved, that it had almost lost the very remembrance of them. “Withdraw, Pompey,” it said with a hoarse voice, “you fatigue me. I like Dido better; I find her more gentle.” Pompey, who was absolutely ignorant of the Toy’s voice, went on in his own way: but Haria awaking, continued. “Get away, then, you little rogue, you hinder me from taking rest. That is well some times: but too much is too much.” Pompey withdrew. Dido took his place, and Haria fell asleep.
Mangogul, who had suspended the energy of his ring, turn’d it on, and the antiquated Toy, uttering a deep, sigh, fell to jabbering, and said: “Alas! how I am grieved for the death of my large greyhound; she was the best little wife, the most caressing creature: she never ceased giving amusement. She was so sensible, so genteel. Ye are but beasts in comparison of her. That naughty master of mine killed her.—Poor Zinzolina, I never think of her, without watering my plants. I thought it would have been the death of my mistress. She neither eat nor drank for two days, and narrowly escaped losing her senses. Judge of her sorrow: her director, her friends, nay her very pug-dogs were kept from me. Orders were issued to her women to refuse the door of her apartment to my master, under the penalty of being turn’d off.—‘That monster has robb’d me of my dear Zinzolina,’ cried she; ‘let him not appear before me, I am resolved never to see him more.’ ”
Mangogul, curious of learning the circumstances of Zinzolina’s death, revived the electrical power of his ring by rubbing it on the skirt of his doublet, pointed it at Haria, and the Toy resumed: “Haria, Ramadec’s widow, coiffed herself with Sindor. This youth was of good birth, had no other fortune, but a certain merit which pleases the sex, and was, after dogs, Haria’s predominant taste. Sindor’s indigence conquered his repugnance to Haria’s years and dogs. Twenty thousand crowns a year blinded his eyes with regard to the wrinkles of his mistress, and the inconveniency of the pug-dogs; and he married her.
“He was in hopes of getting the better of our beasts by his talents, and complaisant behavior; and to bring them into disgrace from the very commencement of his reign; but he was deceived. After the expiration of some months, when he thought he had merited much by his services; he took into his head to remonstrate to madam, that her dogs were not as good company in bed for him as for her; that it was ridiculous to have more than three; and that to admit more than one at a time, was turning the nuptial bed into a kennel.
“ ‘I advise you,’ said Haria, in a furious tone, ‘to attack me with such speeches. Truly it well becomes a pitiful younger son from Gascony, whom I have taken from a garret, which was not good enough for my dogs, to give himself airs of nicety! To be sure, your sheets were perfumed, my little squire, when you dwelt in furnish’d lodgings. Know this once for all, that my dogs were long before you in possession of my bed, and that you may choose either to quit it, or be content to share it with them.’
“The declaration was peremptory, and our dogs remain’d masters of their post. But one night, as we were all asleep, Sindor, in turning unluckily kick’d Zinzolina. The hound, not used to such treatment, bit the calf of his leg; and madam was immediately awaked by Sindor’s cries. ‘What is the matter with you, Sir, one would think your throat was cutting: you dream.’
“ ‘It is your dogs, madam, that devour me, and your greyhound has just torn off a piece of my leg.’
“ ‘Is that all?’ says Haria, turning from him. ‘You make a vast noise for nothing.’
“Sindor, piqued at this discourse, jump’d out of bed, swearing that he would never set his foot in it again, till the pack was banish’d thence. He employ’d friends, in order to obtain the exile of the dogs: but they all failed in that important negotiation. Haria’s answer to them was, that Sindor was a knight of the post, whom she had drawn out of a cockloft, which he shared with rats and mice; that it ill became him to be so nice; that he slept the whole night long; that she loved her dogs; that they amused her; that from her infancy she had taken a liking to their caresses; and that she was resolved never to deprive herself of them till death. ‘Tell him besides,’ continued she, addressing the mediators, ‘that if he does not humbly submit to my will, he will repent it while he lives; that I will retract the donation I have made him, and will add it to the sums which I have bequeathed by my will, for the support
