Mangogul, being thoroughly satisfied, returned to Mirzoza in fifteen minutes. “What, Prince,” said she, “return’d already. Well, what have you learnt? Do you bring fresh matter for our conversations?”
“I bring nothing,” answered the Sultan.
“What! nothing?”
“Nothing at all. I never knew a Toy so silent: I could get nothing from it but these words. ‘I love Celebi, I love Celebi, and have never loved any other man.’ ”
“Ah! Prince,” replied Mirzoza with vivacity, “what do you tell me? What happy news! There is one virtuous woman found at last. Will you suffer her to remain longer miserable?”
“No,” answered Mangogul: “her banishment shall be at an end, but have you no apprehensions that it may be at the expense of her virtue? Egle is chaste, but consider, my heart’s delight, what you require of me; to recall her to my court, in order that she may continue so: however you shall be satisfied.”
The Sultan sent for Celebi immediately, and told him; that having made a strict inquiry into the reports spread abroad concerning Egle, he had found them false and calumnious, and commanded him to bring her back to court. Celebi obey’d, and presented his wife to Mangogul: she was going to throw herself at his highness’s feet, but the Sultan stopping her said: “Madam, thank Mirzoza. Her friendship for you determined me to clear up the truth of the facts imputed to you. Continue to embellish my court; but remember that a pretty woman sometimes does herself as much mischief by acts of imprudence, as by adventures.”
The very next day Egle waited on the Manimonbanda, who received her with a smile. The Petits-Maîtres redoubled their insipidities towards her, and the women all ran to embrace and give her joy, and began again to tear her in pieces.
XXXI
Was Mangogul in the Right?
From the time that Mangogul had received the fatal present of Cucufa, the ridicules and vices of the sex were become the eternal subject of his jokes: he was never done with them, and his favorite’s patience was frequently quite tired out. Now, two cruel effects of this teasing on her, as well as on many others, was to put her into a bad humor, and to sour her temper. At those times woe to him that came near her: she made no distinction of persons, and the Sultan himself was not spared.
“Prince,” said she to him, in one of these peevish fits, “though you are so knowing in many things, perhaps you do not know the news of the day.”
“What is it?” said Mangogul.
“It is, that every morning you get by heart three pages of Brantome, or of Ouville: people do not determine which of these two profound writers you prefer.”
“They are mistaken, madam,” answered Mangogul, “ ’tis Crebillon, that—”
“O, pray don’t excuse yourself from that sort of reading,” interrupted the favorite. “The new calumnies that are invented on us, are so insipid, that it is better to revive the old. Truly there are very good things in this same Brantome: if to these little stories you add three or four chapters of Bayle, you alone will in a thrice have as much wit as the marquiss D’⸺, and the Chevalier de Mouhi. That would spread a surprising variety on your conversation. When you have equipped the ladies from head to foot, you might then fall on the Pagodas; and from the Pagodas you might return on the women. In truth, all that you want to make you quite diverting, is a small collection of impieties.”
“You are in the right, madam,” answered Mangogul, “and I will take care to lay in a good stock. He who is afraid of being duped in this world and the next, cannot be too much upon his guard against the power of the Pagodas, the probity of men, and virtue of women.”
“Then, in your opinion, this virtue is a very ambiguous thing?” replied Mirzoza.
“More so than you imagine,” answered Mangogul.
“Prince,” returned Mirzoza, “you have a hundred times talk’d to me of your ministers as the honestest men in Congo. I have so often patiently heard the praises of your Seneschal, of the governors of your provinces, of your secretaries, of your treasurer, in a word, of all your officers, that I am able to repeat them by memory word for word. It is strange, that the object of your tenderness should be the only person excepted from the good opinion, which you have conceived of those who have the honor of being near your person.”
“And who told you that it is so?” replied the Sultan. “Be persuaded, madam, that the discourses, true or false, which I make on women, do by no means concern you, unless you think proper to represent the sex in general.”
“I should not advise madam to that,” added Selim, who was present at this conversation. “She would gain nothing by it but defects.”
“I do not,” answered Mirzoza, “relish compliments which are addressed to me at the expense of my sex. When anyone takes it into his head to praise me, I could wish that nobody suffered by it. Most of the fine speeches which are offered to us, are like the sumptuous entertainments which your highness receives from your Pacha’s: they are always at the expense of the public.”
“Let us pass that by,” said Mangogul. “But sincerely, are you not
