_Eleventh trial of the Ring._
The Pensions.
Congo had been disturbed by bloody wars in the reigns of Kanaglou and
Erguebzed; and those two monarchs had immortalized themselves by the
conquests they had made over their neighbours. The emperors of Abex and
Angola look'd on the youth of Mangogul and the beginning of his reign,
as favourable conjunctures to recover the provinces that had been taken
from them. Wherefore they declared war against Congo, and attacked it
on every side. Mangogul had the best council in all Africa: and old
Sambuco and the Emir Mirzala, who were train'd up in the former wars,
were placed at the head of the troops, gain'd victories on victories,
and formed generals capable of succeeding them; an advantage of greater
importance than even their successes.
Thanks to the activity of the council, and the good conduct of the
generals, the enemy, who thought themselves sure of overcoming the
empire, did not advance as far as the frontiers, made a poor defence of
their own, and saw their fortified towns and provinces ravaged. But,
such constant and glorious successes notwithstanding, Congo grew weaker
by aggrandizing itself: the frequent raising of troops unpeopled the
towns and country: and the treasury was exhausted.
The sieges and battles had cost a vast number of lives: the grand
Visir, very lavish of the blood of the soldiery, was accused of
having hazarded battles that tended to nothing. Every family was in
mourning: not one, but wept a father, a brother, or a friend. The
number of officers slain was prodigious; and could be compared to
naught but their wives, who sollicited pensions. The closets of the
ministers were beset with them. They pestered the Sultan himself with
petitions, in which the merit and services of the deceased, the grief
of their widows, the dismal condition of their children, and other
moving motives were not forgotten. Nothing seemed more equitable than
their requests: but on what fund to ground pensions which amounted to
millions?
The ministers, after having exhausted speeches, and sometimes
peevishness and rough language, were obliged to deliberate on the means
of bringing this affair to a final issue: but they had an excellent
reason for concluding nothing: there was not a penny left.
Mangogul, tired with the false reasonings of his ministers and the
lamentations of the widows, hit upon the expedient, which his ministry
had been so long hunting after. "Gentlemen," said he to his council, "I
am of opinion that, before any pensions are granted, it would be proper
to examine if they are lawfully due." "This examination," answered the
great Seneschal, "will be immense, and of prodigious discussion. Yet
how to resist the clamors and persecution of these women, by whom you,
sir, are particularly teazed?" "It will not be as difficult a talk as
you imagine, Mr. Seneschal," replied the Sultan; "and I promise you
that by to morrow noon the whole affair shall be terminated, by the
laws of the strictest equity. Do you only bring them to my audience
chamber by nine in the morning."
The council broke up, the Seneschal went into his office, pondered
profoundly, and drew up the following proclamation; which in three
hours time was printed, published by sound of trumpet, and fixed up at
all the most public places of Banza.
By the Sultan's most excellent majesty, and my lord the grand
Seneschal,
We Gander-beak, grand Seneschal of Congo, visir of the first bench,
train-bearer to the great Manimonbanda, chief and super-intendant of
the sweepers of the divan, give notice, that to-morrow morning at nine
of the clock, the magnanimous Sultan will give audience to the widows
of the officers slain in his service, in order to decree, on sight of
their pretensions, what to him shall seem meet. Given at our office
the twelfth of the moon of Regeb, in the year 147200000009.
All the distressed women of Congo, and a great number of them there
was, did not fail to read the proclamation, or to send their footmen to
read it; and less still to be at the appointed hour, in the lobby of
the audience chamber. "In order to avoid a crowd, let no more enter,"
said the Sultan, "than six of these ladies at once. When we have heard
them, let them pass thro' the back door, which leads to the outward
courts. You, gentlemen, be attentive, and pronounce on their demands."
This said, he made a signal to the first gentleman usher of the
audiences; and the six, who happen'd to be next the door, were
introduced. They entered in long mourning robes, and made low
reverences to his highness. Mangogul addressed the youngest and
handsomest of them, whose name was Ifec. "Madam," said he, "how long
is it since you have lost your husband?" "Three months," answered Ifec
weeping. "He was lieutenant general in your highness's service. He was
kill'd in the last battle, and six children are the only legacy he left
me"--"He left you?" interrupted a voice, which, tho' issuing from Ifec,
was not exactly in the same tone with her's. "Madam knows better than
she says. They were all begun and finished by a young Bramin, who daily
came to comfort her, while my master was in the field."
'Tis easy to guess, whence proceeded the indiscreet voice, which
pronounced this answer. Poor Ifec, being put out of countenance,
grew pale, trembled, fainted. "Madam is subject to the vapors," said
Mangogul with an air of tranquillity: "let her be carried into an
appartment of the Seraglio, and be taken care of." Then immediately
addressing Phenice: "Madam," said he, "was not your husband a Pacha?"
"Yes, sir," answered Phenice in a trembling voice. "And how have you
lost him?" "Sir, he died in his bed, quite exhausted with the fatigues
of the last campaign"--"With the fatigues of the last campaign,"
replied Phenice's Toy. "Go, madam, your husband brought a firm and
vigorous state of health from the camp; and he would still enjoy it,
had not two or three scoundrel players,--you understand me, take care
of yourself." "Write," says the Sultan, "that Phenice demands a
pension, for the good services, which she has rendered to the state and
her husband."
A third was interrogated on her husband's age and name, who was said
to have died in the army of the small-pox. "Of the small pox," said
the Toy, "a fine story indeed: say, madam, of two good strokes of a
scymeter which he received from the Sangiac Cavaglio, because he took
it ill, that his eldest son was said to be as like the Sangiac, as one
egg is to another: and madam knows as well as I," added the Toy, "that
a likeness was never better grounded."
The fourth was going to speak without being interrogated by Mangogul,
when her Toy was heard to cry out from the lower regions, that these
ten years part, which the war had lasted, she had made pretty good use
of her time; that two pages and a huge scoundrel of a footman had
supplied her husband's place; and that without doubt she designed the
pension, which she was solliciting, for keeping an actor of the comic
opera.
A fifth stept forward with intrepidity, and with an air of confidence
demanded the reward of her late husband's services, who was an aga of
the Janissaries, and lost his life under the walls of Matatras. The
Sultan turn'd his ring on her, but to no purpose. Her Toy was mute. "I
must own," says the African author, who had seen her, "that she was
so ugly, that the by-standers would be astonished, if her Toy had any
thing to say."
Mangogul was got to the sixth, and here are the express words of
her Toy. "Truly, it well becomes madam," meaning her, whose Toy was
obstinately silent, "to sollicite pensions, while she lives upon the
poule, keeps a breland table which brings her in three thousand sequins
a year, makes private suppers at the expence of the gamesters, and
received six hundred sequins from Osman, to draw me to one of these
suppers, where the treacherous Osman----"
"Due regard shall be paid to your petitions, ladies," said the Sultan:
"for the present ye may withdraw." Then directing his words to his
counsellors, he ask'd them, if it did not seem ridiculous to them to
grant pensions to a herd of little bastards of Bramins and others, and
to women whose employment it was to dishonor brave men, who had enter'd
into his service in quest of glory, at the expence of their lives.
The Seneschal stood up, answered, declaimed, resumed, and gave his
opinion obscurely as usual. While he was yet speaking, Ifec recovered
from her fit, quite enraged at her adventure; and, as she expected no
pension for herself, and would run distracted, if any other obtain'd
one, which would have happened in all likelihood, she went directly
into the antichamber, and whispered to two or three of her female
friends, that they were summoned thither purely to hear their Toys
chatter; that she herself heard one deliver horrid things in the
audience chamber; that she would not name it for the world; but that
they must be fools, to expose themselves to the same danger.
This advice passed from hand to hand, and dispersed the crowd of
widows. When the gentleman usher opened the door to let in a second
parcel, not one was there. "Well, Seneschal, will you believe me
another time?" said Mangogul informed of the desertion, to the good
man, clapping him on the shoulder. "I promised to rid you of these
female weepers, and I have done it. Yet they were very assiduous in
making court to you, notwithstanding your fourscore and fifteen years
of age. But whatever pretensions you may possibly have: for I am not
ignorant of the facility you had to form pretensions on these ladies,
I fancy you are obliged to me for their retreat. They gave you more
_embarras_ than pleasure."
The African author informs us, that the remembrance of this trial is
kept up in Congo; and for that reason it is, that the government is so
sparing of granting pensions: but this was not the only good effect of
Cucufa's ring, as we shall see in the following chapter.