_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.