“ ‘And of Gabalis too,’ added Selim, ‘beyond all doubt. This supposed, I do not believe they will refuse to execute each a third part of the articles of the treaty. Yes, this to me seems just: and to you, madam, I commit the care of disposing them to it.’
“ ‘Indeed, Sir,’ says Olympia, ‘you are a strange man. I protest, these ladies have no pretentions to Gabalis: but in order to extricate them and my self from this embarras, if you think me responsible, I will endeavour to discharge the bill of exchange, which you draw on them.’ Selim accepted the offer. Olympia did honour to her word: and there, madam, is what Selim ought to have informed you of.”
“I excuse him,” says the favorite: “Olympia was not so good an acquaintance, that I should condemn him for having forgot her. I cannot imagine whither you go to hunt out that sort of women: indeed, prince, your conduct is that of a man, who has no desire to lose a castle.”
“Madam, to me it seems, as if you had entirely changed your notions within these few days,” answered Mangogul: “do me the favour to recollect the first trial of my ring, which I proposed to you; and you will see, it was not my fault that I have not lost it ere now.”
“Yes,” replied the Sultana, “I know, you have sworn to me, that I should be excepted out of the number of speaking Toys; and that since that time you have applied to such women only as have forfeited their character; to an Amina, a Zobeida, a Thelis, a Zulica, whose reputations were already pretty well settled.”
“I grant,” says Mangogul, “that it would be ridiculous indeed to rely on those Toys: but for want of others, I was necessitated to confine myself to them. I have already told you, and I now repeat it: good company with respect to Toys is scarcer than you think; and if you will not resolve to gain yourself—”
“I,” interrupted Mirzoza smartly, “I shall never have a castle while I live, if I must use those means for obtaining one. A speaking Toy! Fy! That is so indecent.—Prince, in one word, you know my reasons, and with great seriousness I now reiterate my menaces.”
“But, either do not complain of my trials, or at least hint at some persons, to whom you think we may have recourse: for I am quite uneasy that the affair is not terminated. Libertin Toys, and what next? Libertin Toys, and always Libertin Toys.”
“I have great confidence,” says Mirzoza, “in Egle’s Toy; and I wait with impatience for the end of the fortnight which you demanded of me.”
“Madam,” replied Mangogul, “that term expired yesterday; and while Selim was telling you stories of the old court, I learnt from Egle’s Toy, that, thanks to the ill humor of Celebi, and the constant attendance of Almanzor, it’s mistress can do you no service.”
“Ah! Prince,” cry’d the favourite, “what have you said?”
“ ’Tis fact,” replied the Sultan; “I will regale you with that story some other time: but in the meanwhile seek another string to your bow.”
“Egle, the virtuous Egle, has at length given herself the lie,” says the favorite in a surprise; “indeed I cannot recover myself.”
“I see you are quite unhinged,” replies Mangogul, “and know not whither to turn yourself.”
“Not so,” says the favorite; “but I own to you that I depended much on Egle.”
“Pray think no more about it,” added Mangogul; “only tell us if she was the only virtuous woman that you know.”
“No, Prince, there are a hundred others, and amiable women too, whom I will name to you,” replied Mirzoza. “I will answer, as much as for myself, for—for—”
Mirzoza stop’d short, without having pronounced any one name. Selim could not refrain from smiling, and the Sultan from bursting out into laughter, at the favorite’s embarrassment, who knew so many virtuous women, and could not recollect anyone.
Mirzoza, piqued at this, turned to Selim, and said: “pray, Selim, help me out, you, who are so great a connoisseur. Prince,” continued she directing her discourse to the Sultan, “apply to—whom shall I name? prithee, Selim, assist me.”
“To Mirzoza,” says Selim.
“You make your court to me very ill,” replied the favorite. “I am not afraid of the trial, but I abhor it. Name someone else quickly, if you would have me pardon you.”
“One may try,” says Selim, “if Zaide has found the reality of the ideal lover, which she formed to herself, and to whom she was formerly wont to compare all those who made love to her.”
“Zaide?” replys Mangogul. “I must own that she is a very proper subject to make me lose.”
“She is,” added the favorite, “perhaps the only woman, whose reputation has been spared by the prude Arsinoe and the coxcomb Janeki.”
“This is strong,” says Mangogul: “but the trial of my ring is a better argument. Let us go directly to her Toy.
“That Oracle is surer much than Calchas.”
“How,” adds the favorite smiling: “you retain your Racine, like a player.”
XLIX
Twenty-Ninth Trial of the Ring
Zuleiman and Zaide
Mangogul, without answering the favorite’s joke, departed instantly, and went to Zaide’s house. He found her retired in a closet, at a small table, on which he observed some letters, a portrait, and some trifles scatter’d here and there, which came from a cherished lover, as it was easy to presume, by the fondness she expressed for them. She was writing; tears ran down her cheeks, and wetted the paper. Every now and then she kiss’d the portrait with transport opened the letters, wrote some words, returned to the portrait, snatched up the above mentioned trifles, and pressed them to her breast.
The Sultan’s astonishment was incredible; he had never seen any tender woman, but the favorite and Zaide. He thought
