One day, when Zadig was walking near a little wood, he saw the Queen"s attendants and several officers running towards him. He noticed that they were in great anxiety, for they ran about as if they were quite bewildered, looking for something of great value which they had lost.
When they came up to him, the Chief Attendant said, "Have you seen the Queen"s pet dog? "Zadig replied, "It is a very small spaniel; it has a limp of the left forefoot, and it has very long ears. ""You have seen it, then? " exclaimed the Chief Attendant, joyfully.
"No, " replied Zadig. "I have never seen it. I did not know that the Queen had such a dog. "Precisely at the same time, the most beautiful horse in the King"s stable had escaped from the hands of the stable attendants and galloped out on the plains of Babylon. The Grand Vizier and all the other officers ran after it with as much anxiety as the Chief Attendant ran after the spaniel.
The Grand Vizier addressed himself to Zadig, and asked him if he had seen the King"s horse pass. Zadig replied : " It is a horse which gallops to perfection; it is five feet high, with verysmall hoofs. It has a tail three and a half feet long; the bit of its bridle is of gold; its shoes are of silver. ""Which road has it taken? Where is it? " demanded the Vizier.
"I have never seen it, " replied Zadig, "and I have never before heard it spoken of. "The Grand Vizier and the Chief Attendant did not doubt that Zadig had stolen the King"s horse and the Queen"s dog. They had him convoyed before the judges, who condemned him to be flogged and to pass the rest of his days in exile.
The judgment had scarcely been pronounced when the horse and the dog were found. The judges were under the sad necessity of reversing their judgment, but they condemned Zadig to pay four hundred ounces of gold for having said that he had never seen what he had seen. He was first obliged to pay this fine; after which he was permitted to plead his cause before the Council.
He spoke in these terms:-
"This is what happened to me. I was walking towards the little wood, where I lately encountered the venerable Chief Attendant and the most illustrious Grand Vizier. I had seen on the sand the traces of an animal, and I had easily judged that they were those of a little dog.
"Other traces which appeared to have continually raised the surface of the sand by the side of the front feet told me that it had long ears. As I remarked that the sand was always less crushed by one foot than by the three others, I understood thatthe dog of our august Queen was, if I may dare say so, a little lame.
"With regard to the King"s horse, you must knew that, while I was walking in the roads of this wood, I perceived the marks of the hoofs of a horse. They were all at equal distances. Here, said I, is a horse which gallops perfectly. The dust of the trees, in a narrow route only seven feet broad, was brushed off here and there, to right and left, at three and a half feet from the middle of the road. This horse, I added, has a tail three and a half feet long, which, by its movement right and left, has scattered the dust.
"I had seen under the trees, which formed a canopy five feet high, newly-fallen leaves from the branches, and I knew that this horse had touched them, and therefore it was five feet high. As to the bridle, I knew it must be of gold, for I saw where it had rubbed its bit against a stone. I judged, finally, by the marks which its shoes had left on the pebbles of another kind, that it was shod with silver. "All the judges marvelled at Zadig"s deep and subtle discernment, and a report of it reached the King and Queen. The registrar, the bailiffs, and the attorneys came to his house with great solemnity to restore him his four hundred ounces; they kept back only three hundred and ninety-eight of them for legal expenses; and their servants, too, claimed their fees. Zadig saw how very dangerous it sometimes is to show oneself too knowing.
Voltaire (pen-name of Francois Marie Arouet)
"How hast thou purchased this experience? " "By my penny of observation. "Shakespeare
Author.-Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778) was a French poet and philosopher who wrote tales, dramas, histories, and essays, and exercised great influence over European thought.
General.-The exploits of Sherlock Holmes and other moderndetectives of fiction are not more interesting than those in old stories. Remember the Dervish and the Camel. Find an instance of Voltaire"s sarcasm in the last paragraph, and another in the middle of the story.
