บทที่ บทที่ 12 · THE ADVENTURES OF THE OLD WOMAN CONTINUED.

"Astonished and delighted to hear my native language, and no less

surprised at what this man said, I made answer that there were much

greater misfortunes than that of which he complained. I told him in a

few words of the horrors which I had endured, and fainted a second time.

He carried me to a neighbouring house, put me to bed, gave me food,

waited upon me, consoled me, flattered me; he told me that he had never

seen any one so beautiful as I, and that he never so much regretted the

loss of what it was impossible to recover.

"'I was born at Naples,' said he, 'there they geld two or three thousand

children every year; some die of the operation, others acquire a voice

more beautiful than that of women, and others are raised to offices of

state.[13] This operation was performed on me with great success and I

was chapel musician to madam, the Princess of Palestrina.'

"'To my mother!' cried I.

"'Your mother!' cried he, weeping. 'What! can you be that young

princess whom I brought up until the age of six years, and who promised

so early to be as beautiful as you?'

"'It is I, indeed; but my mother lies four hundred yards hence, torn in

quarters, under a heap of dead bodies.'

"I told him all my adventures, and he made me acquainted with his;

telling me that he had been sent to the Emperor of Morocco by a

Christian power, to conclude a treaty with that prince, in consequence

of which he was to be furnished with military stores and ships to help

to demolish the commerce of other Christian Governments.

"'My mission is done,' said this honest eunuch; 'I go to embark for

Ceuta, and will take you to Italy. _Ma che sciagura d'essere senza

coglioni!_'

"I thanked him with tears of commiseration; and instead of taking me to

Italy he conducted me to Algiers, where he sold me to the Dey. Scarcely

was I sold, than the plague which had made the tour of Africa, Asia, and

Europe, broke out with great malignancy in Algiers. You have seen

earthquakes; but pray, miss, have you ever had the plague?"

"Never," answered Cunegonde.

"If you had," said the old woman, "you would acknowledge that it is far

more terrible than an earthquake. It is common in Africa, and I caught

it. Imagine to yourself the distressed situation of the daughter of a

Pope, only fifteen years old, who, in less than three months, had felt

the miseries of poverty and slavery, had been ravished almost every day,

had beheld her mother drawn in quarters, had experienced famine and war,

and was dying of the plague in Algiers. I did not die, however, but my

eunuch, and the Dey, and almost the whole seraglio of Algiers perished.

"As soon as the first fury of this terrible pestilence was over, a sale

was made of the Dey's slaves; I was purchased by a merchant, and carried

to Tunis; this man sold me to another merchant, who sold me again to

another at Tripoli; from Tripoli I was sold to Alexandria, from

Alexandria to Smyrna, and from Smyrna to Constantinople. At length I

became the property of an Aga of the Janissaries, who was soon ordered

away to the defence of Azof, then besieged by the Russians.

"The Aga, who was a very gallant man, took his whole seraglio with him,

and lodged us in a small fort on the Palus Meotides, guarded by two

black eunuchs and twenty soldiers. The Turks killed prodigious numbers

of the Russians, but the latter had their revenge. Azof was destroyed by

fire, the inhabitants put to the sword, neither sex nor age was spared;

until there remained only our little fort, and the enemy wanted to

starve us out. The twenty Janissaries had sworn they would never

surrender. The extremities of famine to which they were reduced, obliged

them to eat our two eunuchs, for fear of violating their oath. And at

the end of a few days they resolved also to devour the women.

"We had a very pious and humane Iman, who preached an excellent sermon,

exhorting them not to kill us all at once.

"'Only cut off a buttock of each of those ladies,' said he, 'and you'll

fare extremely well; if you must go to it again, there will be the same

entertainment a few days hence; heaven will accept of so charitable an

action, and send you relief.'

"He had great eloquence; he persuaded them; we underwent this terrible

operation. The Iman applied the same balsam to us, as he does to

children after circumcision; and we all nearly died.

"Scarcely had the Janissaries finished the repast with which we had

furnished them, than the Russians came in flat-bottomed boats; not a

Janissary escaped. The Russians paid no attention to the condition we

were in. There are French surgeons in all parts of the world; one of

them who was very clever took us under his care--he cured us; and as

long as I live I shall remember that as soon as my wounds were healed he

made proposals to me. He bid us all be of good cheer, telling us that

the like had happened in many sieges, and that it was according to the

laws of war.

"As soon as my companions could walk, they were obliged to set out for

Moscow. I fell to the share of a Boyard who made me his gardener, and

gave me twenty lashes a day. But this nobleman having in two years' time

been broke upon the wheel along with thirty more Boyards for some broils

at court, I profited by that event; I fled. I traversed all Russia; I

was a long time an inn-holder's servant at Riga, the same at Rostock, at

Vismar, at Leipzig, at Cassel, at Utrecht, at Leyden, at the Hague, at

Rotterdam. I waxed old in misery and disgrace, having only one-half of

my posteriors, and always remembering I was a Pope's daughter. A hundred

times I was upon the point of killing myself; but still I loved life.

This ridiculous foible is perhaps one of our most fatal characteristics;

for is there anything more absurd than to wish to carry continually a

burden which one can always throw down? to detest existence and yet to

cling to one's existence? in brief, to caress the serpent which devours

us, till he has eaten our very heart?

"In the different countries which it has been my lot to traverse, and

the numerous inns where I have been servant, I have taken notice of a

vast number of people who held their own existence in abhorrence, and

yet I never knew of more than eight who voluntarily put an end to their

misery; three negroes, four Englishmen, and a German professor named

Robek.[14] I ended by being servant to the Jew, Don Issachar, who placed

me near your presence, my fair lady. I am determined to share your fate,

and have been much more affected with your misfortunes than with my own.

I would never even have spoken to you of my misfortunes, had you not

piqued me a little, and if it were not customary to tell stories on

board a ship in order to pass away the time. In short, Miss Cunegonde, I

have had experience, I know the world; therefore I advise you to divert

yourself, and prevail upon each passenger to tell his story; and if

there be one of them all, that has not cursed his life many a time, that

has not frequently looked upon himself as the unhappiest of mortals, I

give you leave to throw me headforemost into the sea."

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