Les Bijoux Indiscrets, or, The Indiscreet Toys

"'Selim,' replied she seriously, 'I have no secret for you, and you shall have none for me, if you please. How far are you advanced?' – 'Almost to the end of the novel' – 'And with whom?' said she earnestly – 'You know Marteza' – 'Yes, sure; she is a very amiable woman.' 'Well then, after having in vain tried all means to please you, I turned to that side. I was wished for above half a year; two interviews levell'd the outworks, a third will compleat my happiness; and this very night Marteza expects me to supper. Her conversation is amusing, light, and a little caustic; but, that excepted, she is the best creature in the world. A person transacts his little affairs better with those giggling women, than with those lofty dames, who.' – 'But, my Lord,' interrupted Cydalisa with a down-cast look, 'in complimenting you on your choice, may one observe to you, that Marteza is not new, and that before you, she has reckoned lovers?' – 'What is that to me, madam?' replied I. 'If Marteza loves me sincerely, I look on myself as her first. But the hour of my appointment draws near, permit me.' – 'One word more, my Lord. Is it really true that Marteza loves you? – 'I believe it.' – 'And you love her?' added Cydalisa. – 'Madam,' answered I, ''tis you that have thrown me into the arms of Marteza: I need say no more to you.' – I was departing, but Cydalisa pull'd me by my Doliman, and turned back in a hurry. – 'Does madam want to speak with me? Has she any commands for me?' – 'No, Sir, how, are you there still? I thought you were a good way off by this time.' – 'Madam, I will double my pace.' – 'Selim' – 'Cydalisa.' – 'Then you are going?' – 'Yes, madam.' – 'Ah! Selim, to whom do you sacrifice me? Was not Cydalisa's esteem of greater value than the favors of a Marteza?' – 'Without doubt, madam,' replied I, 'if I had nothing more than esteem for you. But I loved you.' – 'It is not so,' cried she with transport: 'if you had loved me, you would have distinguished my real sentiments; you would have been prepossessed with them, you would have flattered yourself, that your perseverance would in time get the better of my pride: but you grew tired, you have abandoned me, and perhaps in the very moment' – At this word Cydalisa stopt short, a sigh slipt from her, and her eyes were wet. – 'Speak, madam,' said I, 'make an end. If my tenderness lasted still, notwithstanding your rigorous treatment, could you.' – 'I can do nothing, you do no longer love me, and Marteza waits for you.' – 'If Marteza was indifferent to me; if Cydalisa was dearer to me than ever, what would you do?' – 'It would be folly to explain myself on suppositions.' – 'Cydalisa, I beseech you to answer me, as if I had supposed nothing. If Cydalisa was constantly the most lovely of her sex in my eyes; and if I never had the least design on Marteza; once again what would you do?' – 'What I have always done, ingrateful man,' answered at length Cydalisa: 'I would love you.' – 'And Selim adores you,' said I, falling on my knees, and kissing her hands which I water'd with my tears. Cydalisa was struck dumb, this unexpected change threw her into the utmost confusion: I took advantage of her disorder, and our reconciliation was sealed by certain marks of tenderness, which she had not power to refuse."

"And what did the good natured Ostaluk say to this?" interrupted Mangogul. "Doubtless he allowed his dear half to be generous to a man, to whom he was indebted for his lieutenancy of the Spahi's."

"Prince," replied Selim, "Ostaluk shewed great gratitude, whilst I was not listened to; but no sooner was I made happy, but he became troublesome, ill-humour'd, insupportable to me, and brutal to his wife. Not content with disturbing us in person, he caused us to be watched, we were betrayed, and Ostaluk, convinced of his pretended dishonour, had the impudence to challenge me to a duel. We fought in the great park of the Seraglio: I gave him two wounds, and obliged him to own himself indebted to me for his life.

"While he was under cure of his wounds, I never quitted his wife: but the first use that he made of his recovery, was to part us and ill-use Cydalisa. She sent me a pathetic account of her unhappy situation: I proposed carrying her off, to which she consented, and our jealous pate, returning from the chase, wherein he attended the Sultan, was vastly surprized to find himself a widower. Ostaluk, instead of giving vent to his passion in useless complaints against the author of the rape, instantly meditated revenge.

"I had Cydalisa in a country house, two leagues from Banza; and every other night I stole out of town, and went to Cisara. Mean while Ostaluk set a price on the head of his false one, bribed my servants, and was let into my park. That evening I was enjoying the refreshing breeze there with Cydalisa; we were got to the remoter end of a dark walk, and I was on the point of lavishing the most tender caresses on her, when an invisible hand pierced her breast with a ponyard before my eyes. It was the hand of cruel Ostaluk. The same fate hung over my head: but I prevented Ostaluk, I drew my dagger, and Cydalisa was revenged. I ran to the dear woman: her heart still panted: I hastened to carry her to the house, but before I reached it she expired, her mouth closely pressing on mine.

"When I perceived Cydalisa's limbs to grow stiff in my arms, I cryed out with vehemence: my people ran to me, and forced me away from this place of horror. I returned to Banza, and shut myself up in my palace, excessively grieved at Cydalisa's death, and loading myself with the most cruel reproaches. I loved Cydalisa sincerely, and was passionately beloved by her; and I was at full leisure to consider the greatness of the loss, which I had sustained, and to mourn for her."

"But at length," said the favorite, "you comforted your self?" "Alas! madam," replied Selim, "I thought I never should; but this one thing I have learnt by it, that there is no grief eternal."

"Well," said Mirzoza, "let me hear no more of the men: there they are all. That is to say, Signor Selim, that this poor Cydalisa, whose history has moved us to compassion, and whom you have so much regretted, was a great fool to rely on your oath; and that, while Brama perhaps chastises her severely for her credulity, you pass your time pleasantly enough in the arms of another."

"Pray, madam," replied the Sultan, "calm your self: Selim loves again, Cydalisa will be revenged." "Sir," answered Selim, "your highness may possibly be misinformed. Ought I not to have learnt, once for my whole life, by my adventure with Cydalisa, that true love was too prejudicial to happiness?" – "Without doubt," interrupted Mirzoza, "and yet I would lay a wager, notwithstanding your philosophical reflections, that you actually love another more ardently than – "

"More ardently," replied Selim, "I dare not assert: these five years past I am attached, but attached from my heart to a charming woman. It was not without difficulty, that I made her listen to me, for she had always been of a virtue!" – "Virtue!" cried the Sultan; "courage, my friend, I am charmed, when one talks to me of the virtue of a court lady." "Selim," said the favorite, "continue your story: " "and always believe, as a good mussulman, in the fidelity of your mistress," added the Sultan. "Ah! prince," replied Selim with vivacity, "Fulvia is faithful to me: " "faithful, or not," answered Mangogul, "what is that to your happiness? You believe it, and that is sufficient?" "Oh then! 'tis Fulvia that you are now in love with," said the favorite. "Yes, madam," answered Selim. "So much the worse, my friend," added Mangogul: "I have not a grain of faith in her. She is perpetually beset by Bramins, and these Bramins are terrible fellows: besides, I find she has little Chinese eyes, with a turn'd up nose; and an air thoroughly inclining to the side of pleasure. Between us, is this true?" "Prince," answered Selim, "I believe she has no aversion to it." "Well," replied the Sultan, "every thing gives way to that charm: which you ought to know better than I, or you are not" – "You are mistaken," replied the favorite, "a man may have all the sense in the world, and not know that. I wager" – "Always wagers," interrupted Mangogul: "I am out of all patience; those women are incorrigible. Pray, madam, win your castle, and lay wagers afterward."

"Madam," says Selim to the favorite, "might not Fulvia be of use to you in some station or other?" "As how?" ask'd Mirzoza. "I have observed," answered the courtier, "that the Toys have seldom or never spoke, but in presence of his highness; and I have fancied, that the Genius Cucufa, who has done so many surprising things in favour of Kanaglou the Sultan's grand-father, might have endowed his grand-son with the gift of making them speak. But Fulvia's Toy has not as yet opened its mouth, as far as I could ever learn: might it not be possible to interrogate it, in order to procure you the castle, and to convince me of the fidelity of my mistress?" "Doubtless," replied the Sultan; "what is your opinion, madam?" "Oh! I shall not meddle in so ticklish an affair. Selim is too much my friend, to expose him, for the sake of a castle; to the risque of being made unhappy the rest of his days." "But you do not consider," replied the Sultan: "Fulvia is virtuous: Selim would run his hand into the fire to prove it. He has said it, and he is not a man to flinch from his word." "No, Prince," answered Selim, "and if your highness will give me a meeting at Fulvia's house, I will certainly be there before you." "Be cautious of what you propose," replied the favorite. "Selim, my poor Selim, you go very fast, and how worthy soever you are of being beloved" – "Fear not, madam; since the dye is cast, I will hear Fulvia: the worst that can befal me, is to lose a faithless woman." "And to die of regret," added the Sultana, "for having lost her." "What a romance," says Mangogul. "You believe then that Selim is become very weak. He has lost the lovely Cydalisa, and yet there he is full of life; and you pretend, that if he happened to find Fulvia unfaithful to him, it would kill him. I'll insure him to you as immortal, if he is never demolished but by that stroke. Selim, to morrow at Fulvia's, do you hear? you will have notice of the hour." Selim bow'd, Mangogul quitted the company: the favorite continued to remonstrate to the old courtier, that he play'd a high game. Selim thank'd her for her tokens of good will, and each retired in expectation of the great event.

CHAP. XLVI.

Twenty-seventh Trial of the Ring.

Fulvia

The African author, who had promised to bring Selim's character into some part of his book, has thought fit to place it here: and I have too much esteem for the works of antiquity, to assert that it would come in better some where else. "There are," says he, "some men, whose merit gives them access every where, who by their graceful person, and free easy wit, are in their youth the darlings of many women; and whose gray hairs are respected, because having known how to reconcile their duties with their pleasures, they have rendered their middle stage of life illustrious, by services done for the state: in a word, men, who at all times are the delight of society. Such was Selim. Though he had reached sixty years, and that he had entered the list of pleasure early; a strong constitution and some management had preserved him from the infirmities of age. A noble air, an easy carriage, insinuating language, a great knowledge of the world, founded on long experience, the habit of dealing with the sex, made him to be regarded at court, as a man whom every body would chuse to resemble, but who would be unsuccessfully copied, for want of being endowed by nature with the talents and genius which had distinguished him.

"Now I desire to know," continues the African author, "if this man had reason to make himself uneasy on the score of a mistress, and to spend the night like a mad man? For the fact is, that a thousand reflexions rolled in his head; and the more he loved Fulvia, the more he feared to find her unfaithful. 'Into what labyrinth have I thrust my self?' said he to himself. 'And to what purpose? What advantage will accrue to me, in case the favorite should win a castle; and what will be my fate, if she loses it? But why should she lose it? Am I not certain of Fulvia's love? Ah! I am in the sole and entire possession of her; and if her Toy speak, it will be of me alone. – But if the treacherous – no, no, I should have had some previous notion of it; I should have observed some unevenness in her temper. Some time or other, these five years past, she would have betrayed herself. – Yet the trial is dangerous. – But it is now no longer time to recoil, I have lifted the vessel to my mouth, I must finish, tho' I were to spill the liquor. – Perhaps also the oracle will be in my favour. – Alas! what can I expect from it? Why must others have failed in their attacks on that virtue, over which I have triumphed? – Ah! dear Fulvia, I wrong thee by my suspicions, and I forget what it cost me to conquer thee. A ray of hope enlightens me, and I flatter myself that thy Toy will obstinately keep silence. – '"

Selim was in this agitation of mind, when he received a card from the Sultan, which contained these words: This night, precisely at half an hour after eleven, you will be where you know. Selim took his pen, and answered with a trembling hand: Prince, I will obey.

Selim passed the rest of the day, as he had done the preceding night, fluctuating between hope and fear. Nothing is truer, than that lovers have an instinct: if their mistress be unfaithful, they are seized with an horror much like to that, which animals feel at the approach of bad weather. The suspicious lover is a cat, whose ear itches in cloudy weather. Animals and lovers have this property also in common, that domestic animals lose this instinct, and that it grows dull in lovers, when they are converted into husbands.

The hours seemed very tedious to Selim, he look'd a hundred times on his watch: infine the fatal moment came, and the courtier went to visit his mistress. It was late, but as he had admission at all hours, Fulvia's appartment was opened for him – "I had given you over," said she, "and I went to bed with a swimming in my head, which I owe to the impatience you have thrown me into" – "Madam," answered Selim, "business and respect have detained me with the Sultan; and since I parted from you, I have not been master of myself one moment." "And for my part," replied Fulvia, "I have been in a dreadful humour. How! two whole days without seeing you." – "You know," answered Selim, "what my rank obliges me to: and let the favour of the great appear ever so fixed" – "How," interrupted Fulvia, "has the Sultan shewn you any coldness? Has he forgot your services? Selim, you are pensive, you do not answer me. – Alas! if you love me, of what avail is the prince's good or bad reception to your happiness. It is not in his eyes, it is in mine, 'tis in my arms that you are to seek it."

Selim listened attentively to this discourse, examined the countenance of his mistress, and in its motions sought that character of truth, in which a person is not deceived, and which is impossible to counterfeit well: when I say impossible, I mean to us men: for Fulvia was so perfectly composed, that Selim began to blame himself for having suspected her, when Mangogul entered the room. Fulvia was silent in an instant, Selim trembled; and the Toy said: "In vain does my lady make pilgrimages to all the Pagoda's of Congo, she will have no children; for reasons well known to me, who am her Toy. – "

At this declaration a deadly paleness seized Selim: he attempted to rise, but his trembling knees failed him, and he fell back into his seat. The invisible Sultan step'd up to him, and whispered in his ear: "Have you enough?" "Alas! Prince," replied the melancholic Selim, "why did I not follow the advice of Mirzoza; and the misgivings of my own heart? My happiness is eclipsed, I am a lost man: I die, if her Toy does not speak; if it does, I am a dead man: let it speak out however. I expect frightful intelligences; but I fear them less than I hate the state of perplexity, in which I am. – "

In the mean time Fulvia's first motion was to put her hand on her Toy, and to shut its mouth: what it had hitherto said, might bear a favorable interpretation: but she dreaded the sequel. As she began to take courage on account of its remaining silent, the Sultan, urged by Selim, turned his ring: Fulvia was obliged to spread her fingers, and the Toy went on.

"I will never hold, I am too much harassed. The too assiduous visits of so many holy men will always obstruct my intentions, and madam will not have any children. If I had been regaled by none but Selim, I might possibly prove fruitful: but I lead the life of a gally-slave. This day fatigued by one, to morrow by another; and always at the oar. The last man which Fulvia sees, is always the person, whom she believes destined by heaven to perpetuate her race. None can be safe from this fancy. O how tiresome is the condition of the Toy of a titled lady, who has no heirs! These ten years past, I am exposed to people, who were not made even to lift their eyes up to me."

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 stroak 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 chagrine 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, staid at court, was loved, cherished, sought for, and distinguished by his favour with the Sultan and Mirzoza.

CHAP. XLVII.

Prodigious events of the Reign of Kanaglou, Mangogul's Grand-father

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 eye-witness and even a sharer in them, and was throughly 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, but they are perhaps no more than specimens of those which will continue to render Mangogul illustrious; and my time is too far advanced, to flatter my self with seeing them." "You are mistaken," replied Mirzoza; "you have acquired, and will keep the epithet of eternal. But tell me what you have seen."

"Madam," continued Selim, "Kanaglou's reign was long, and our poets have named it the golden age. This title suits it upon several accounts. It has been signalized by successes and victories: but the advantages were blended with crosses, which prove that this gold was sometimes mixed with bad alloy. The court, which sets the example to the rest of the empire, was very gallant. The Sultan had mistresses, the nobility piqued themselves on imitating him, and the lower people insensibly assumed the same air. The magnificence in dress, furniture, and equipages, was excessive. Delicacy in feasting was reduced to an art. People gam'd high, ran in debt, paid no body, and spent while they had either money or credit. There were very good laws enacted against luxury, but not put in execution. Towns were taken, provinces conquered, palaces begun, and the empire drained of men and money. The people sung victory, and were starving at the same time. The great had stately castles and delightful gardens, and their lands lay uncultivated. A hundred ships of war had rendered us masters of the sea, and the terror of our neighbours: but a good calculator made an exact estimate what it cost the government to keep these hulks in good order; and notwithstanding the remonstrances of the rest of the ministry, they were ordered to be turned into a bon-fire. The royal treasury was a great empty coffer, which this wretched oeconomy did not fill; gold and silver became so scarce, that the mints were, on a summer's morning, converted into paper-mills. To compleat our happiness, Kanaglou suffered himself to be persuaded by a set of fanatics, that it was of the utmost importance, that all his subjects should resemble him, and that they should have blue eyes, snub noses, and red whiskers, as well as he: and he expelled from Congo above two millions of people, who were not blessed with these regimentals, or who refused to counterfeit them. Such, madam, was this golden age; such those good old times, which you daily hear regretted: but let those dotards prate on, and do you believe that we have our Turennes and our Colberts, that, all things considered, the present is better than the time past; and that if the people are happier under Mangogul than they were under Kanaglou, his highness's reign is more illustrious than that of his grandfather, because the happiness of the subject is the exact measure of the greatness of the prince. But let us return to the particulars of Kanaglou's reign.