ble and tender; and the genii who preside over love carried their
words to the sphere of Venus.

The woman returned to Ogul without having found the basilisk. Zadig was
introduced to this mighty lord and spoke to him in the following terms:
"May immortal health descend from heaven to bless all thy days! I am a
physician; at the first report of thy indisposition I flew to thy castle
and have now brought thee a basilisk stewed in rose water. Not that I
pretend to marry thee. All I ask is the liberty of a Babylonian slave, who
hath been in thy possession for a few days; and, if I should not be so
happy as to cure thee, magnificent Lord Ogul, I consent to remain a slave
in her place."

The proposal was accepted. Astarte set out for Babylon with Zadig's
servant, promising, immediately upon her arrival, to send a courier to
inform him of all that had happened. Their parting was as tender as their
meeting. The moment of meeting and that of parting are the two greatest
epochs of life, as sayeth the great book of Zend. Zadig loved the queen
with as much ardor as he professed; and the queen loved him more than she
thought proper to acknowledge.

Meanwhile Zadig spoke thus to Ogul: "My lord, my basilisk is not to be
eaten; all its virtues must enter through thy pores. I have inclosed it in
a little ball, blown up and covered with a fine skin. Thou must strike
this ball with all thy might and I must strike it back for a considerable
time; and by observing this regimen for a few days thou wilt see the
effects of my art." The first day Ogul was out of breath and thought he
should have died with fatigue. The second he was less fatigued, slept
better. In eight days he recovered all the strength, all the health, all
the agility and cheerfulness of his most agreeable years.

"Thou hast played at ball, and thou hast been temperate," said Zadig;
"know that there is no such thing in nature as a basilisk; that temperance
and exercise are the two great preservatives of health; and that the art
of reconciling intemperance and health is as chimerical as the
philosopher's stone, judicial astrology, or the theology of the magi."

Ogul's first physician, observing how dangerous this man might prove to
the medical art, formed a design, in conjunction with the apothecary, to
send Zadig to search for a basilisk in the other world. Thus, having
suffered such a long train of calamities on account of his good actions,
he was now upon the point of lo