_Selim at Banza._
From the masquerade Mangogul went immediately to take rest; but the
favorite finding that she had no inclination to sleep, sent for Selim,
and pressed him to continue the history of his amours. Selim obeyed,
and resumed the discourse in these terms.
"Madam, galantry did not fill up all my time: I snatched some
moments from pleasure, which I bestowed on serious occupations; and
the intrigues in which I was embarked, did not prevent my learning
fortification, riding, fencing, music and dancing; observing the
customs and arts of the Europeans, and studying their politicks and
military art. On my return to Congo, I was presented to the Emperor,
grandfather to the Sultan, who granted me an honourable post in his
troops; and I soon was made one of all the parties of the prince
Erguebzed, and consequently concerned in the adventures of pretty
women. I was acquainted with some of all nations, ages, and conditions,
and found very few cruel; whether it was that my rank dazzled them,
that my prattle pleased them, or my person struck them. At that time I
had two qualities, with which a rapid progress is made in love-affairs;
assurance and presumption.
"At first I dealt among the women of quality. I took them in the
evening in the circle, or at play at the Manimonbanda's: I passed
the night with them, and we hardly knew each other in the morning.
One of the occupations of these ladies, is to procure lovers, nay,
to decoy them away from their best female friends; and the other, to
get rid of them. Thro' apprehensions of ever being unprovided, while
they are enjoying the sweets of one intrigue, they squint at two or
three others. They possess a number of little arts to attract the man
they have in view, and a thousand tricks in reserve, to disengage
themselves from their present spark. This has always been, and always
will be. I shall name no body; but I knew every woman of Erguebzed's
court, who had any reputation for youth and beauty; and all these
engagements were formed, broken off, resumed, forgot, in less than six
months.
"Disgusted with that world, I passed into its antipodes. I visited
the citizen's wives, whom I found dissembling, vain of their beauty,
perched on the pinacle of honour, and almost constantly beset with
savage brutal husbands, or certain splaw-footed cousins, who acted the
passionate lovers with their female cousins from morning till night,
and were very disagreeable to me. It was impossible to be alone with
these women one moment. Those animals broke in upon us perpetually,
disconcerted a rendezvous; and thrust themselves into all our
conversations. These obstacles notwithstanding, I brought five or six
of these prattling creatures to my intended point, before I finished
with any one of them. What diverted me much in their commerce, was,
that they piqued themselves, on delicacy of sentiments, and I must
value myself on the same; and they talk'd on that subject eno' to make
one die with laughing. Besides, they required assiduity of attendance;
and in their dialect I was continually deficient in this point. They
preached such correct love, that there was a necessity of renouncing
it. But the worst of all was, that they had your name eternally in
their mouths, and that sometimes one was obliged to appear in public
with them, and incur all the ridicule of a city adventure. Wherefore
on a fine summer's day I bid adieu to their shops and the whole rue St.
Denis for ever.
"People had then the madness of keeping private lodges. I hired one in
the eastern suburb, and there successively had some of those girls who
are seen and not seen; to whom one speaks, and says not a word; and
whom we discard, when tired of them. I frequently mustered a set of
friends and opera actresses together, and gave little suppers, which
prince Erguebzed now and then honoured with his presence. Ah! madam, I
had delicious wines, exquisite cordials, and the best cook in Congo.
"But nothing gave me so great amusement as an enterprize which I
executed in a province remote from the capital, where my regiment was
in quarters. I set out from Banza to review it; and as that was my
only business, I should have been quickly back, were it not for the
extravagant project to which I devoted myself. At Baruthi there was
a monastery of very beautiful nuns. I was young and beardless; and
I contrived how to get admission under the disguise of a widow, who
sought an asylum against the dangers of the age. I ordered womens
cloaths to be made for me, then dressed myself, and went to offer
myself at the grate of those recluses. I met with a very tender
reception: they comforted me for the loss of my husband; the price of
my board was agreed on, and in I went.
"The appartment appointed me had a communication with the dormitory
of the novices. They were very numerous, most of them young, and of
a surprising bloom. I was extremely polite to them, and soon became
their bosom friend. In less than eight days I was let into all the
interests of the little republic, informed of the several characters,
and instructed in their secret history; I received confidences of all
colours, and found that detraction and calumny are not better managed
by us profane mortals. I observed their rules with severity, catch'd
the wheedling air and smooth canting tone: and they whispered to each
other, that the community would be happy, if I took the habit.
"No sooner had I thought my reputation established in the house, but
I fixed upon a young virgin, who had just taken the first veil. She
was an adorable nut-brown girl: she called me her mamma, and I called
her my little angel. She gave me innocent kisses, and I returned very
tender ones. Youth is curious: Zirziphila put me daily on the subject
of matrimony, and the pleasure of husbands, and desired me to inform
her: I artfully whetted her curiosity; and from question to question I
led her to the practice of the lessons which I gave her. She was not
the only novice that I instructed; and some young nuns came likewise to
be edified in my cell. I managed the hours and meetings so dexterously,
that no one interfered with another. In fine, madam, what shall I tell
you? The pious widow made a numerous progeny. But when the scandal,
which caused many a secret sigh, broke out, and a council of discreet
matrons met, and sent for the physician of the convent; I meditated
my retreat. Wherefore in the dead of the night, when the whole house
was asleep, I scaled the garden wall, and disappeared. I went to the
waters of Piombino, whither the physician had sent half the convent;
and there, in the habit of a cavalier, I finished the work, which I had
begun under that of a widow. This, madam, is a fact which the whole
empire remembers, and of which you alone know the author.
"The rest of my youth," added Selim, "was spent in the like amusements,
always women, and of all sorts, seldom any mystery, a number of oaths,
and no sincerity." "But at this rate," says the favorite, "you have
never been in love?" "Psha!" replied Selim, "I thought much of love
at that time; I aim'd at pleasure only, and at those women who were
most likely to afford it me"----"But," interrupted the favorite, "is
there any pleasure without loving? What can it be, when the heart says
nothing?" "Alas! madam," rejoined Selim, "is it the heart that speaks
at the age of eighteen or twenty?"
"But in fine, what is the result of all these experiments? What have
you pronounced on women?"
"That most women have no character at all," says Selim. "That they are
most powerfully influenced by three things, interest, pleasure and
vanity; that perhaps there is not one of them who is not governed by
one of these passions; and that those who join all the three together,
are monsters."
"As for pleasure, that I can allow them," said Mangogul, who had just
then joined the company: "though little dependance can be had on this
sort of women, yet they are to be excused. When the constitution is
wound up to a certain pitch, it is an unruly horse, which carries his
rider over hedges and ditches; and most women are mounted astride on
that beast." "'Tis probably for that reason," says Selim, "that the
dutchess Menega calls the Chevalier Kaidar her master of the horse."
"But is it possible," says the Sultana to Selim, "that you have not
had the least adventure, in which the heart was concerned. Will
your sincerity tend only to dishonour a sex which constituted your
pleasures, if you were their darling. What! in so great a number of
women, not one that desired, and even deserved to be beloved; that is
not to be conceived."
"Ah! madam," replied Selim, "I feel, by the readiness with which I obey
you, that years have not weakened the empire of a lovely woman over my
heart. Yes, madam, I have loved like other folks. You desire to know
all; I am going to tell all, and you will judge if I have performed a
lover's part in all the forms."
"Are there any travels in this part of your history?" says the Sultan.
"No, prince," replied Selim. "So much the better," says Mangogul, "for
I find no propensity to sleep."
"For my part," rejoined the favorite, "Selim will allow me to take a
little rest."
"Let him go to bed likewise," says the Sultan; "and while ye both are
reposing, I will interrogate Cypria."
"But, prince," answered Mirzoza, "your highness does not reflect, that
that Toy will lead you into a string of voyages without end."
The African author informs us in this place, that the Sultan, struck
with Mirzoza's observation, took care to provide a most powerful
antihypnotic. He adds, that Mangogul's physician, being his intimate
friend, had given him the prescription, and that he had put it in to
the preface of his book: but of that preface there remains no more
than; the three last lines, which are as follow.
Take of----
of----
of----
of _Mariamne, and the Paysan Par_, four pages.
of the _Egaremens du Coeur_, one sheet.
of the _Confessions_, twenty five lines and a half.