138 ON THE METHOD OF ZADIG. 



mitted to open his defence to the court, which he did in the follow- 

 ing terms : 



" Stars of justice, abysses of knowledge, mirrors of truth, whose 

 gravity is as that of lead, whose inflexibility is as that of iron, who 

 rival the diamond in clearness, and possess no little affinity with 

 gold ; since I am permitted to address your august assembly, I 

 swear by Ormuzd that I have never seen the respectable lady dog 

 of the queen, nor beheld the sacrosanct horse of the King of Kings. 



" This is what happened. I was taking a walk towards the 

 little wood near which I subsequently had the honour to meet the 

 venerable chief eunuch and the most illustrious grand huntsman. I 

 noticed the track of an animal in the sand, and it was easy to see 

 that it was that of a small dog. Long faint streaks upon the little 

 elevations of sand between the footmarks convinced me that it was 

 a she dog with pendent dugs, showing that she must have had pup- 

 pies not many days since. Other scrapings of the sand, which 

 always lay close to the marks of the forepaws, indicated that she 

 had very long ears ; and, as the imprint of one foot was always 

 fainter than those of the other three, I judged that the lady dog of 

 our august Queen was, if I may venture to say so, a little lame. 



" With respect to the horse of the King of Kings, permit me to 

 observe that, wandering through the paths which traverse the 

 wood, I noticed the marks of horse-shoes. They were all equi- 

 distant. 'Ah!' said I, 'this is a famous galloper.' In a narrow 

 alley, only seven feet wide, the dust upon the trunks of the trees 

 was a little disturbed at three feet and a half from the middle of the 

 path. ' This horse,' said I to myself, ' had a tail three feet and a 

 half long, and, lashing it from one side to the other, he has swept 

 away the dust.' Branches of the trees met overhead at the height 

 of five feet, and under them I saw newly fallen leaves ; so I knew 

 that the horse had brushed some of the branches, and was therefore 

 five feet high. As to his bit, it must have been made of twenty- 

 three carat gold, for he had rubbed it against a stone, which turned 

 out to be a touchstone, with the properties of which I am familiar 

 by experiment. Lastly, by the marks which his shoes left upon 

 pebbles of another kind, I was led to think that his shoes were of 

 fine silver." 



All the judges admired Zadig's profound and subtle discern- 

 ment ; and the fame of it reached even the King and the Queen. 

 From the ante-rooms to the presence-chamber, Zadig's name was 



