e
with her. The lady wept, fell into a passion, and at last became more
mild and gentle. They sat longer at supper than at dinner. They now
talked with greater confidence. Azora praised the deceased; but owned
that he had many failings from which Cador was free.

During supper Cador complained of a violent pain in his side. The lady,
greatly concerned, and eager to serve him, caused all kinds of essences
to be brought, with which she anointed him, to try if some of them
might not possibly ease him of his pain. She lamented that the great
Hermes was not still in Babylon. She even condescended to touch the
side in which Cador felt such exquisite pain.

"Art thou subject to this cruel disorder?" said she to him with a
compassionate air.

"It sometimes brings me," replied Cador, "to the brink of the grave;
and there is but one remedy that can give me relief, and that is to
apply to my side the nose of a man who is lately dead."

"A strange remedy, indeed!" said Azora.

"Not more strange," replied he, "than the sachels of Arnon against the
apoplexy." This reason, added to the great merit of the young man, at
last determined the lady.

"After all," says she, "when my husband shall cross the bridge
Tchinavar, in his journey to the other world, the angel Asrael will not
refuse him a passage because his nose is a little shorter in the second
life than it was in the first." She then took a razor, went to her
husband's tomb, bedewed it with her tears, and drew near to cut off the
nose of Zadig, whom she found extended at full length in the tomb.
Zadig arose, holding his nose with one hand, and, putting back the
razor with the other, "Madam," said he, "don't exclaim so violently
against young Cosrou; the project of cutting off my nose is equal to
that of turning the course of a rivulet."

THE DOG AND THE HORSE

Zadig found by experience that the first month of marriage, as it is
written in the book of Zend, is the moon of honey, and that the second
is the moon of wormwood. He was some time after obliged to repudiate
Azora, who became too difficult to be pleased; and he then sought for
happiness in the study of nature. "No man," said he, "can be happier
than a philosopher who reads in this great book which God hath placed
before our eyes. The truths he discovers are his own, he nourishes and
exalts his soul; he lives in peace; he fears nothing from men; and his
tender spouse will not come to cut off his nose."

Pos