as my intended husband; I now love thee as the
preserver of my honor and my life." Never was heart more deeply affected
than that of Semira. Never did a more charming mouth express more moving
sentiments, in those glowing words inspired by a sense of the greatest of
all favors, and by the most tender transports of a lawful passion.

Her wound was slight and was soon cured. Zadig was more dangerously
wounded; an arrow had pierced him near his eye, and penetrated to a
considerable depth. Semira wearied Heaven with her prayers for the
recovery of her lover. Her eyes were constantly bathed in tears; she
anxiously awaited the happy moment when those of Zadig should be able to
meet hers; but an abscess growing on the wounded eye gave everything to
fear. A messenger was immediately dispatched to Memphis for the great
physician Hermes, who came with a numerous retinue. He visited the patient
and declared that he would lose his eye. He even foretold the day and hour
when this fatal event would happen. "Had it been the right eye," said he,
"I could easily have cured it; but the wounds of the left eye are
incurable." All Babylon lamented the fate of Zadig, and admired the
profound knowledge of Hermes.

In two days the abscess broke of its own accord and Zadig was perfectly
cured. Hermes wrote a book to prove that it ought not to have been cured.
Zadig did not read it; but, as soon as he was able to go abroad, he went
to pay a visit to her in whom all his hopes of happiness were centered,
and for whose sake alone he wished to have eyes. Semira had been in the
country for three days past. He learned on the road that that fine lady,
having openly declared that she had an unconquerable aversion to one-eyed
men, had the night before given her hand to Orcan. At this news he fell
speechless to the ground. His sorrow brought him almost to the brink of
the grave. He was long indisposed; but reason at last got the better of
his affliction, and the severity of his fate served to console him.

"Since," said he, "I have suffered so much from the cruel caprice of a
woman educated at court, I must now think of marrying the daughter of a
citizen." He pitched upon Azora, a lady of the greatest prudence, and of
the best family in town. He married her and lived with her for three
months in all the delights of the most tender union. He only observed that
she had a little levity; and was too apt to find that those young men who
had the most handsome