第 八 章 · THE HISTORY OF CUNEGONDE.

"I was in bed and fast asleep when it pleased God to send the Bulgarians

to our delightful castle of Thunder-ten-Tronckh; they slew my father and

brother, and cut my mother in pieces. A tall Bulgarian, six feet high,

perceiving that I had fainted away at this sight, began to ravish me;

this made me recover; I regained my senses, I cried, I struggled, I bit,

I scratched, I wanted to tear out the tall Bulgarian's eyes--not knowing

that what happened at my father's house was the usual practice of war.

The brute gave me a cut in the left side with his hanger, and the mark

is still upon me."

"Ah! I hope I shall see it," said honest Candide.

"You shall," said Cunegonde, "but let us continue."

"Do so," replied Candide.

Thus she resumed the thread of her story:

"A Bulgarian captain came in, saw me all bleeding, and the soldier not

in the least disconcerted. The captain flew into a passion at the

disrespectful behaviour of the brute, and slew him on my body. He

ordered my wounds to be dressed, and took me to his quarters as a

prisoner of war. I washed the few shirts that he had, I did his cooking;

he thought me very pretty--he avowed it; on the other hand, I must own

he had a good shape, and a soft and white skin; but he had little or no

mind or philosophy, and you might see plainly that he had never been

instructed by Doctor Pangloss. In three months time, having lost all his

money, and being grown tired of my company, he sold me to a Jew, named

Don Issachar, who traded to Holland and Portugal, and had a strong

passion for women. This Jew was much attached to my person, but could

not triumph over it; I resisted him better than the Bulgarian soldier. A

modest woman may be ravished once, but her virtue is strengthened by it.

In order to render me more tractable, he brought me to this country

house. Hitherto I had imagined that nothing could equal the beauty of

Thunder-ten-Tronckh Castle; but I found I was mistaken.

"The Grand Inquisitor, seeing me one day at Mass, stared long at me, and

sent to tell me that he wished to speak on private matters. I was

conducted to his palace, where I acquainted him with the history of my

family, and he represented to me how much it was beneath my rank to

belong to an Israelite. A proposal was then made to Don Issachar that he

should resign me to my lord. Don Issachar, being the court banker, and a

man of credit, would hear nothing of it. The Inquisitor threatened him

with an _auto-da-fe_. At last my Jew, intimidated, concluded a bargain,

by which the house and myself should belong to both in common; the Jew

should have for himself Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, and the

Inquisitor should have the rest of the week. It is now six months since

this agreement was made. Quarrels have not been wanting, for they could

not decide whether the night from Saturday to Sunday belonged to the old

law or to the new. For my part, I have so far held out against both, and

I verily believe that this is the reason why I am still beloved.

"At length, to avert the scourge of earthquakes, and to intimidate Don

Issachar, my Lord Inquisitor was pleased to celebrate an _auto-da-fe_.

He did me the honour to invite me to the ceremony. I had a very good

seat, and the ladies were served with refreshments between Mass and the

execution. I was in truth seized with horror at the burning of those two

Jews, and of the honest Biscayner who had married his godmother; but

what was my surprise, my fright, my trouble, when I saw in a

_san-benito_ and mitre a figure which resembled that of Pangloss! I

rubbed my eyes, I looked at him attentively, I saw him hung; I fainted.

Scarcely had I recovered my senses than I saw you stripped, stark naked,

and this was the height of my horror, consternation, grief, and despair.

I tell you, truthfully, that your skin is yet whiter and of a more

perfect colour than that of my Bulgarian captain. This spectacle

redoubled all the feelings which overwhelmed and devoured me. I screamed

out, and would have said, 'Stop, barbarians!' but my voice failed me,

and my cries would have been useless after you had been severely

whipped. How is it possible, said I, that the beloved Candide and the

wise Pangloss should both be at Lisbon, the one to receive a hundred

lashes, and the other to be hanged by the Grand Inquisitor, of whom I am

the well-beloved? Pangloss most cruelly deceived me when he said that

everything in the world is for the best.

"Agitated, lost, sometimes beside myself, and sometimes ready to die of

weakness, my mind was filled with the massacre of my father, mother, and

brother, with the insolence of the ugly Bulgarian soldier, with the stab

that he gave me, with my servitude under the Bulgarian captain, with my

hideous Don Issachar, with my abominable Inquisitor, with the execution

of Doctor Pangloss, with the grand Miserere to which they whipped you,

and especially with the kiss I gave you behind the screen the day that I

had last seen you. I praised God for bringing you back to me after so

many trials, and I charged my old woman to take care of you, and to

conduct you hither as soon as possible. She has executed her commission

perfectly well; I have tasted the inexpressible pleasure of seeing you

again, of hearing you, of speaking with you. But you must be hungry, for

myself, I am famished; let us have supper."

They both sat down to table, and, when supper was over, they placed

themselves once more on the sofa; where they were when Signor Don

Issachar arrived. It was the Jewish Sabbath, and Issachar had come to

enjoy his rights, and to explain his tender love.

IX