Here Mangogul was of opinion that Selim had heard enough, to cure him of his perplexity: wherefore he exempted him from the remaining part, turned off his ring, and went away, abandoning Fulvia to the reproaches of her lover.
At first the miserable Selim was petrified: but his fury giving him strength and speech, he darted a scornful look on his unfaithful mistress, and said: “Ingrateful, perfidious woman, if I loved you still, I would take revenge: but as you are unworthy of my affection, so you are likewise of my wrath. A man like me, Selim to be mixed with a pack of scoundrels.—”
“Truly,” interrupted Fulvia smartly, in the strain of an unmasked courtisan, “it much becomes you to give yourself airs for a trifle: instead of thanking me for concealing matters from you, which would have made you mad at the time of their transacting; you take fire, you fly into a rage, as if you had been injured. And pray, Sir, what reason can you have for preferring yourself to Rickel, to Seton, to Mollio, to Tachmas, to the most amiable cavaliers of the court, from whom their mistresses won’t be at the pains even of cloaking the slips they make. Consider, Selim, that you are exhausted, infirm, and long incapable of engrossing a pretty woman, who is not a fool. Acknowledge then, that your presumption is ill-timed, and your rage impertinent. Infine you may, if you are dissatisfied, leave the field open to others, who will make better use of it.”
“So I do, and most heartily,” replied Selim with excessive indignation: and went away, fully resolved never more to see that woman.
He went home, and shut himself up for some days, less grieved for his loss, than for his long error. Not his heart, but his vanity suffered. He dreaded the reproches of the favorite, and the jokes of the Sultan; and he shun’d the one and the other.
He was upon the point of resolving to renounce the court, to go into retirement, and turn philosopher for the remaining part of a life, of which he had thrown away a great part in quality of a courtier; when Mirzoza, who guess’d his thoughts, undertook to comfort him, sent for him to the Seraglio, and made him this speech. “Well, my poor Selim, then you abandon me? ’Tis not Fulvia, it is me that you punish for her infidelity. We are all concerned for your adventure, we agree that it is vexatious: but if you set any value on the Sultan’s protection and my esteem, you will continue to enliven our company, and you will forget that Fulvia, who never was worthy of a man like you.”
“Madam,” answered Selim, “age admonishes me that it is high time for me to retire. I have sufficiently seen the world; and four days ago I would have boasted that I knew it. But Fulvia’s stroke confounds me. Women are indefinable, and I should hate them all, if you had not been included in the sex, of which you have all the charms. May Brama grant, that you never imbibe their perverseness. Farewell, madam, I am going to give myself up to useful reflections in solitude. The remembrance of the favours, with which you and the Sultan have honoured me, will follow me thither; and if my heart forms any vows henceforth, they will be for your happiness and his glory.”
“Selim,” replied the favorite, “your chagrin is your adviser. You are afraid of mockery, which you will less avoid by withdrawing from court, than by remaining at it. Have as much philosophy as you will, this is not the time to put it in practice; your retreat will be attributed to peevishness and melancholy. You are not framed to confine yourself in a desert; and the Sultan—”
Mangogul’s arrival interrupted the favorite: she informed him of Selim’s design. “Then he is turn’d fool,” says the prince; “is it possible that the base usage of that little Fulvia has turn’d his head.” And then addressing himself to Selim—“That shall not be, my friend, you shall stay,” continues he: “I want your counsel, and madam your company. The welfare of my empire, and Mirzoza’s satisfaction require it, and it shall be.”
Selim, moved with the sentiments of Mangogul and the favorite, bowed respectuously, stayed at court, was loved, cherished, sought for, and distinguished by his favour with the Sultan and Mirzoza.
XLVII
Prodigious Events of the Reign of Kanaglou, Mangogul’s Grandfather
The favorite was very young. Born towards the end of Erguebzed’s reign, she had scarce any idea at all of the court of Kanaglou. A word accidentally dropt had given her a curiosity to know the prodigies, which the genius Cucufa had wrought in favour of that good prince; and none could more faithfully inform her than Selim. He had been an eyewitness and even a sharer in them, and was thoroughly versed in the history of his time. One day that he was alone with her, Mirzoza put him on that topic, and asked him if the reign of Kanaglou, which made so great noise, had seen greater wonders, than those, which then engrossed the attention of Congo?
“I have no interest, madam,” answered Selim, “in preferring times past to those of the reigning prince. Great things are come to pass under him,
