130 ON THE METHOD OF ZADIG. [LECT. 



But Zadig was fated to experience the vanity of such 

 expectations. 



One day, walking near a little wood, ho saw, hastening that 

 way, one of the Queen's chief eunuchs, followed by a troop of 

 officials, who appeared to be in the greatest anxiety, running 

 hither and thither like men distraught, in search of some lost 

 treasure. 



" Young man," cried the eunuch, "have you seen the Queen's 

 dog?" Zadig answered modestly, "A bitch, I think, not a dog." 

 "Quite right," replied the eunuch; and Zadig continued, "A very 

 small spaniel who has lately had puppies ; she limps with the 

 left foreleg, and has very long ears." " Ah ! you have seen her 

 then," said the breathless eunuch. " No," answered Zadig, " I 

 have not seen her ; and I really was not aware that the Queen 

 possessed a spaniel." 



By an odd coincidence, at the very same time, the handsom- 

 est horse in the King's stables broke away from his groom in 

 the Babylonian plains. The grand huntsman and all his staff 

 were seeking the horse with as much anxiety as the eunuch and 

 his people the spaniel ; and the grand huntsman asked Zadig if 

 he had not seen the King's horse go that way. 



" A first-rate galloper, small-hoofed, five feet high ; tail three 

 feet and a half long; cheek pieces of the bit of twenty-three 

 carat gold; shoes silver?" said Zadig. 



"Which way did he go? Where is he?" cried the grand 

 huntsman. 



" I have not seen anything of the horse, and I never heard 

 of him before," replied Zadig. 



The grand huntsman and the chief eunuch made sure that 

 Zadig had stolen both the King's horse and the Queen's spaniel, 

 so they haled him before the High Court of Desterham, which 

 at once condemned him to the knout, and transportation for life 

 to Siberia. But the sentence was hardly pronounced when the 

 lost horse and spaniel were found. So the judges were under 

 the painful necessity of reconsidering their decision : but they 

 fined Zadig four hundred ounces of gold for saying he had seen 

 that which he had not seen. 



The first thing was to pay the fine ; afterwards Zadig was 



