n
danger, she was only concerned for the fate of her dear Zadig, who, in
the meantime, defended himself with all the strength that courage and
love could inspire. Assisted only by two slaves, he put the ravishers
to flight and carried home Semira, insensible and bloody as she was.

On opening her eyes and beholding her deliverer, "O Zadig!" said she,
"I loved thee formerly 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 waited 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