1759
CANDIDE
or, The Optimist
by Voltaire
translated by Tobias Smollet
Electronically Enhanced Text (c) Copyright 1996, World Library(R)
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Translated from the German of Dr. Ralph.
With the additions that were found in the Doctor's pocket when he
died at Minden, in the year of grace 1759.
CHAPTER 1: How Candide Was Brought Up in a Magnificent Castle and
How He Was Driven Thence
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In the country of Westphalia, in the castle of the most noble Baron
of Thunder-ten-tronckh, lived a youth whom Nature had endowed with a
most sweet disposition. His face was the true index of his mind. He
had a solid judgment joined to the most unaffected simplicity; and
hence, I presume, he had his name of Candide. The old servants of the
house suspected him to have been the son of the Baron's sister, by a
very good sort of a gentleman of the neighborhood, whom that young
lady refused to marry, because he could produce no more than
threescore and eleven quarterings in his arms; the rest of the
genealogical tree belonging to the family having been lost through the
injuries of time.
The Baron was one of the most powerful lords in Westphalia, for his
castle had not only a gate, but even windows, and his great hall was
hung with tapestry. He used to hunt with his mastiffs and spaniels
instead of greyhounds; his groom served him for huntsman; and the
parson of the parish officiated as his grand almoner. He was called
"My Lord" by all his people, and he never told a story but everyone
laughed at it.
My Lady Baroness, who weighed three hundred and fifty pounds,
consequently was a person of no small consideration; and then she did
the honors of the house with a dignity that commanded universal
respect. Her daughter was about seventeen years of age, fresh-colored,
comely, plump, and desirable. The Baron's son seemed to be a youth in
every respect worthy of the father he sprung from. Pangloss, the
preceptor, was the oracle of the family, and little Candide listened
to his instructions with all the simplicity natural to his age and
disposition.
Master Pangloss taught the metaphysico-theologo-cosmolonigology. He
could prove to admiration that there is no effect without a cause;
and, that in this best of all possible worlds, the Baron's castle was
the most magnificent of all castles, and My Lady the best of all
possible baronesses.
"It is demonstrable," said he, "that things cannot be otherwise than
as they are; for as all things have been created for some end, they
must necessarily be created for the best end. Observe, for instance,
the nose is formed for spectacles, therefore we wear spectacles. The
legs are visibly designed for stockings, accordingly we wear
stockings. Stones were made to be hewn and to construct castles,
therefore My Lord has a magnificent castle; for the greatest baron in
the province ought to be the best lodged. Swine were intended to be
eaten, therefore we eat pork all the year round: and they, who assert
that everything is right, do not express themselves correctly; they
should say that everything is best."
Candide listened attentively and believed implicitly, for he thought
Miss Cunegund excessively handsome, though he never had the courage to
tell her so. He concluded that next to the happiness of being Baron of
Thunder-ten-tronckh, the next was that of being Miss Cunegund, the
next that of seeing her every day, and the last that of hearing the
doctrine of Master Pangloss, the greatest philosopher of the whole
province, and consequently of the whole world.
One day when Miss Cunegund went to take a walk in a little
neighboring wood which was called a park, she saw, through the bushes,
the sage Doctor Pangloss giving a lecture in experimental philosophy
to her mother's chambermaid, a little brown wench, very pretty, and
very tractable. As Miss Cunegund had a great disposition for the
sciences, she observed with the utmost attention the experiments which
were repeated before her eyes; she perfectly well understood the force
of the doctor's reasoning upon causes and effects. She retired greatly
flurried, quite pensive and filled with the desire of knowledge,
imagining that she might be a sufficing reason for young Candide,
and he for her.
On her way back she happened to meet the young man; she blushed, he
blushed also; she wished him a good morning in a flattering tone, he
returned the salute, without knowing what he said. The next day, as
they were rising from dinner, Cunegund and Candide slipped behind the
screen. The miss dropped her handkerchief, the young man picked it up.
She innocently took hold of his hand, and he as innocently kissed hers
with a warmth, a sensibility, a grace- all very particular; their lips
met; their eyes sparkled; their knees trembled; their hands strayed.
The Baron chanced to come by; he beheld the cause and effect, and,
without hesitation, saluted Candide with some notable kicks on the
breech and drove him out of doors. The lovely Miss Cunegund fainted
away, and, as soon as she came to herself, the Baroness boxed her
ears. Thus a general consternation was spread over this most
magnificent and most agreeable of all possible castles.
CHAPTER 2: What Befell Candide among the Bulgarians
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Candide, thus driven out of this terrestrial paradise, rambled a
long time without knowing where he went; sometimes he raised his eyes,
all bedewed with tears, towards heaven, and sometimes he cast a
melancholy look towards the magnificent castle, where dwelt the
fairest of young baronesses. He laid himself down to sleep in a
furrow, heartbroken, and supperless. The snow fell in great flakes,
and, in the morning when he awoke, he was almost frozen to death;
however, he made shift to crawl to the next town, which was called
Wald-berghoff-trarbk-dikdorff, without a penny in his pocket, and half
dead with hunger and fatigue. He took up his stand at the door of an
inn. He had not been long there before two men dressed in blue fixed
their eyes steadfastly upon him.
"Faith, comrade," said one of them to the other, "yonder is a well
made young fellow and of the right size." Upon which they made up to
Candide and with the greatest civility and politeness invited him to
dine with them.
"Gentlemen," replied Candide, with a most engaging modesty, "you do
me much honor, but upon my word I have no money."
"Money, sir!" said one of the blues to him, "young persons of your
appearance and merit never pay anything; why, are not you five feet
five inches high?"
"Yes, gentlemen, that is really my size," replied he, with a low
bow.
"Come then, sir, sit down along with us; we will not only pay your
reckoning, but will never suffer such a clever young fellow as you to
want money. Men were born to assist one another."
"You are perfectly right, gentlemen," said Candide, "this is
precisely the doctrine of Master Pangloss; and I am convinced that
everything is for the best."
His generous companions next entreated him to accept of a few
crowns, which he readily complied with, at the same time offering them
his note for the payment, which they refused, and sat down to table.
"Have you not a great affection for-"
"O yes! I have a great affection for the lovely Miss Cunegund."
"Maybe so," replied one of the blues, "but that is not the question!
We ask you whether you have not a great affection for the King of the
Bulgarians?"
"For the King of the Bulgarians?" said Candide. "Oh, Lord! not at
all, why I never saw him in my life."
"Is it possible? Oh, he is a most charming king! Come, we must drink
his health."
"With all my heart, gentlemen," said Candide, and off he tossed his
glass.
"Bravo!" cried the blues; "you are now the support, the defender,
the hero of the Bulgarians; your fortune is made; you are in the high
road to glory."
So saying, they handcuffed him, and carried him away to the
regiment. There he was made to wheel about to the right, to the left,
to draw his rammer, to return his rammer, to present, to fire, to
march, and they gave him thirty blows with a cane; the next day he
performed his exercise a little better, and they gave him but twenty;
the day following he came off with ten, and was looked upon as a young
fellow of surprising genius by all his comrades.
Candide was struck with amazement, and could not for the soul of him
conceive how he came to be a hero. One fine spring morning, he took it
into his head to take a walk, and he marched straight forward,
conceiving it to be a privilege of the human species, as well as of
the brute creation, to make use of their legs how and when they
pleased. He had not gone above two leagues when he was overtaken by
four other heroes, six feet high, who bound him neck and heels, and
carried him to a dungeon. A courtmartial sat upon him, and he was
asked which he liked better, to run the gauntlet six and thirty times
through the whole regiment, or to have his brains blown out with a
dozen musket-balls?
In vain did he remonstrate to them that the human will is free, and
that he chose neither; they obliged him to make a choice, and he
determined, in virtue of that divine gift called free will, to run the
gauntlet six and thirty times.
He had gone through his discipline twice, and the regiment being
composed of 2,000 men, they composed for him exactly 4,000 strokes,
which laid bare all his muscles and nerves from the nape of his neck
to his stern. As they were preparing to make him set out the third
time our young hero, unable to support it any longer, begged as a
favor that they would be so obliging as to shoot him through the head;
the favor being granted, a bandage was tied over his eyes, and he was
made to kneel down.
At that very instant, His Bulgarian Majesty happening to pass by
made a stop, and inquired into the delinquent's crime, and being a
prince of great penetration, he found, from what he heard of Candide,
that he was a young metaphysician, entirely ignorant of the world; and
therefore, out of his great clemency, he condescended to pardon him,
for which his name will be celebrated in every journal, and in every
age. A skillful surgeon made a cure of the flagellated Candide in
three weeks by means of emollient unguents prescribed by Dioscorides.
His sores were now skimmed over and he was able to march, when the
King of the Bulgarians gave battle to the King of the Abares.
CHAPTER 3: How Candide Escaped from the Bulgarians and What Befell
Him Afterward
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Never was anything so gallant, so well accoutred, so brilliant, and
so finely disposed as the two armies. The trumpets, fifes, hautboys,
drums, and cannon made such harmony as never was heard in Hell itself.
The entertainment began by a discharge of cannon, which, in the
twinkling of an eye, laid flat about 6,000 men on each side. The
musket bullets swept away, out of the best of all possible worlds,
nine or ten thousand scoundrels that infested its surface. The bayonet
was next the sufficient reason of the deaths of several thousands. The
whole might amount to thirty thousand souls. Candide trembled like a
philosopher, and concealed himself as well as he could during this
heroic butchery.
At length, while the two kings were causing Te Deums to be sung in
their camps, Candide took a resolution to go and reason somewhere else
upon causes and effects. After passing over heaps of dead or dying
men, the first place he came to was a neighboring village, in the
Abarian territories, which had been burned to the ground by the
Bulgarians, agreeably to the laws of war. Here lay a number of old men
covered with wounds, who beheld their wives dying with their throats
cut, and hugging their children to their breasts, all stained with
blood. There several young virgins, whose bodies had been ripped open,
after they had satisfied the natural necessities of the Bulgarian
heroes, breathed their last; while others, half-burned in the flames,
begged to be dispatched out of the world. The ground about them was
covered with the brains, arms, and legs of dead men.
Candide made all the haste he could to another village, which
belonged to the Bulgarians, and there he found the heroic Abares had
enacted the same tragedy. Thence continuing to walk over palpitating
limbs, or through ruined buildings, at length he arrived beyond the
theater of war, with a little provision in his budget, and Miss
Cunegund's image in his heart. When he arrived in Holland his
provision failed him; but having heard that the inhabitants of that
country were all rich and Christians, he made himself sure of being
treated by them in the same manner as the Baron's castle, before he
had been driven thence through the power of Miss Cunegund's bright
eyes.
He asked charity of several grave-looking people, who one and all
answered him, that if he continued to follow this trade they would
have him sent to the house of correction, where he should be taught to
get his bread.
He next addressed himself to a person who had just come from
haranguing a numerous assembly for a whole hour on the subject of
charity. The orator, squinting at him under his broad-brimmed hat,
asked him sternly, what brought him thither and whether he was for the
good old cause?
"Sir," said Candide, in a submissive manner, "I conceive there can
be no effect without a cause; everything is necessarily concatenated
and arranged for the best. It was necessary that I should be banished
from the presence of Miss Cunegund; that I should afterwards run the
gauntlet; and it is necessary I should beg my bread, till I am able to
get it. All this could not have been otherwise."
"Hark ye, friend," said the orator, "do you hold the Pope to be
Antichrist?"
"Truly, I never heard anything about it," said Candide, "but whether
he is or not, I am in want of something to eat."
"Thou deservest not to eat or to drink," replied the orator,
"wretch, monster, that thou art! hence! avoid my sight, nor ever come
near me again while thou livest."
The orator's wife happened to put her head out of the window at that
instant, when, seeing a man who doubted whether the Pope was
Antichrist, she discharged upon his head a utensil full of water. Good
heavens, to what excess does religious zeal transport womankind!
A man who had never been christened, an honest Anabaptist named
James, was witness to the cruel and ignominious treatment showed to
one of his brethren, to a rational, two-footed, unfledged being. Moved
with pity he carried him to his own house, caused him to be cleaned,
gave him meat and drink, and made him a present of two florins, at the
same time proposing to instruct him in his own trade of weaving
Persian silks, which are fabricated in Holland.
Candide, penetrated with so much goodness, threw himself at his
feet, crying, "Now I am convinced that my Master Pangloss told me
truth when he said that everything was for the best in this world; for
I am infinitely more affected with your extraordinary generosity than
with the inhumanity of that gentleman in the black cloak and his
wife."
CHAPTER 4: How Candide Found His Old Master Pangloss Again and
What Happened to Him
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The next day, as Candide was walking out, he met a beggar all
covered with scabs, his eyes sunk in his head, the end of his nose
eaten off, his mouth drawn on one side, his teeth as black as a cloak,
snuffling and coughing most violently, and every time he attempted to
spit out dropped a tooth.
Candide, divided between compassion and horror, but giving way to
the former, bestowed on this shocking figure the two florins which the
honest Anabaptist, James, had just before given to him. The specter
looked at him very earnestly, shed tears and threw his arms about his
neck. Candide started back aghast.
"Alas!" said the one wretch to the other, "don't you know dear
Pangloss?"
"What do I hear? Is it you, my dear master! you I behold in this
piteous plight? What dreadful misfortune has befallen you? What has
made you leave the most magnificent and delightful of all castles?
What has become of Miss Cunegund, the mirror of young ladies, and
Nature's masterpiece?"
"Oh, Lord!" cried Pangloss, "I am so weak I cannot stand," upon
which Candide instantly led him to the Anabaptist's stable, and
procured him something to eat.
As soon as Pangloss had a little refreshed himself, Candide began to
repeat his inquiries concerning Miss Cunegund.
"She is dead," replied the other.
"Dead!" cried Candide, and immediately fainted away; his friend
restored him by the help of a little bad vinegar, which he found by
chance in the stable.
Candide opened his eyes, and again repeated: "Dead! is Miss Cunegund
dead? Ah, where is the best of worlds now? But of what illness did she
die? Was it of grief on seeing her father kick me out of his
magnificent castle?"
"No," replied Pangloss, "her body was ripped open by the Bulgarian
soldiers, after they had subjected her to as much cruelty as a damsel
could survive; they knocked the Baron, her father, on the head for
attempting to defend her; My Lady, her mother, was cut in pieces; my
poor pupil was served just in the same manner as his sister; and as
for the castle, they have not left one stone upon another; they have
destroyed all the ducks, and sheep, the barns, and the trees; but we
have had our revenge, for the Abares have done the very same thing in
a neighboring barony, which belonged to a Bulgarian lord."
At hearing this, Candide fainted away a second time, but, having
come to himself again, he said all that it became him to say; he
inquired into the cause and effect, as well as into the sufficing
reason that had reduced Pangloss to so miserable a condition.
"Alas," replied the preceptor, "it was love; love, the comfort of
the human species; love, the preserver of the universe; the soul of
all sensible beings; love! tender love!"
"Alas," cried Candide, "I have had some knowledge of love myself,
this sovereign of hearts, this soul of souls; yet it never cost me
more than a kiss and twenty kicks on the backside. But how could this
beautiful cause produce in you so hideous an effect?"
Pangloss made answer in these terms:
"O my dear Candide, you must remember Pacquette, that pretty wench,
who waited on our noble Baroness; in her arms I tasted the pleasures
of Paradise, which produced these Hell torments with which you see me
devoured. She was infected with an ailment, and perhaps has since died
of it; she received this present of a learned Franciscan, who derived
it from the fountainhead; he was indebted for it to an old countess,
who had it of a captain of horse, who had it of a marchioness, who had
it of a page, the page had it of a Jesuit, who, during his novitiate,
had it in a direct line from one of the fellow-adventurers of
Christopher Columbus; for my part I shall give it to nobody, I am a
dying man."
"O sage Pangloss," cried Candide, "what a strange genealogy is this!
Is not the devil the root of it?"
"Not at all," replied the great man, "it was a thing unavoidable, a
necessary ingredient in the best of worlds; for if Columbus had not
caught in an island in America this disease, which contaminates the
source of generation, and frequently impedes propagation itself, and
is evidently opposed to the great end of nature, we should have had
neither chocolate nor cochineal. It is also to be observed, that, even
to the present time, in this continent of ours, this malady, like our
religious controversies, is peculiar to ourselves. The Turks, the
Indians, the Persians, the Chinese, the Siamese, and the Japanese are
entirely unacquainted with it; but there is a sufficing reason for
them to know it in a few centuries. In the meantime, it is making
prodigious havoc among us, especially in those armies composed of
well-disciplined hirelings, who determine the fate of nations; for we
may safely affirm, that, when an army of thirty thousand men engages
another equal in size, there are about twenty thousand infected with
syphilis on each side."
"Very surprising, indeed," said Candide, "but you must get cured."
"Lord help me, how can I?" said Pangloss. "My dear friend, I have
not a penny in the world; and you know one cannot be bled or have an
enema without money."
This last speech had its effect on Candide; he flew to the
charitable Anabaptist, James; he flung himself at his feet, and gave
him so striking a picture of the miserable condition of his friend
that the good man without any further hesitation agreed to take Dr.
Pangloss into his house, and to pay for his cure. The cure was
effected with only the loss of one eye and an ear. As he wrote a good
hand, and understood accounts tolerably well, the Anabaptist made him
his bookkeeper. At the expiration of two months, being obliged by some
mercantile affairs to go to Lisbon he took the two philosophers with
him in the same ship; Pangloss, during the course of the voyage,
explained to him how everything was so constituted that it could not
be better. James did not quite agree with him on this point.
"Men," said he "must, in some things, have deviated from their
original innocence; for they were not born wolves, and yet they worry
one another like those beasts of prey. God never gave them twenty-four
pounders nor bayonets, and yet they have made cannon and bayonets to
destroy one another. To this account I might add not only
bankruptcies, but the law which seizes on the effects of bankrupts,
only to cheat the creditors."
"All this was indispensably necessary," replied the one-eyed doctor,
"for private misfortunes are public benefits; so that the more private
misfortunes there are, the greater is the general good."
While he was arguing in this manner, the sky was overcast, the winds
blew from the four quarters of the compass, and the ship was assailed
by a most terrible tempest, within sight of the port of Lisbon.
CHAPTER 5: A Tempest, a Shipwreck, an Earthquake, and What Else
Befell Dr. Pangloss, Candide, and James, the Anabaptist
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One half of the passengers, weakened and half-dead with the
inconceivable anxiety and sickness which the rolling of a vessel at
sea occasions through the whole human frame, were lost to all sense of
the danger that surrounded them. The others made loud outcries, or
betook themselves to their prayers; the sails were blown into shreds,
and the masts were brought by the board. The vessel was a total wreck.
Everyone was busily employed, but nobody could be either heard or
obeyed. The Anabaptist, being upon deck, lent a helping hand as well
as the rest, when a brutish sailor gave him a blow and laid him
speechless; but, with the violence of the blow the tar himself tumbled
headforemost overboard, and fell upon a piece of the broken mast,
which he immediately grasped.
Honest James, forgetting the injury he had so lately received from
him, flew to his assistance, and, with great difficulty, hauled him in
again, but, in the attempt, was, by a sudden jerk of the ship, thrown
overboard himself, in sight of the very fellow whom he had risked his
life to save and who took not the least notice of him in this
distress. Candide, who beheld all that passed and saw his benefactor
one moment rising above water, and the next swallowed up by the
merciless waves, was preparing to jump after him, but was prevented by
the philosopher Pangloss, who demonstrated to him that the roadstead
of Lisbon had been made on purpose for the Anabaptist to be drowned
there. While he was proving his argument a priori, the ship
foundered, and the whole crew perished, except Pangloss, Candide, and
the sailor who had been the means of drowning the good Anabaptist. The
villain swam ashore; but Pangloss and Candide reached the land upon a
plank.
As soon as they had recovered from their surprise and fatigue they
walked towards Lisbon; with what little money they had left they
thought to save themselves from starving after having escaped
drowning.
Scarcely had they ceased to lament the loss of their benefactor and
set foot in the city, when they perceived that the earth trembled
under their feet, and the sea, swelling and foaming in the harbor, was
dashing in pieces the vessels that were riding at anchor. Large sheets
of flames and cinders covered the streets and public places; the
houses tottered, and were tumbled topsy-turvy even to their
foundations, which were themselves destroyed, and thirty thousand
inhabitants of both sexes, young and old, were buried beneath the
ruins.
The sailor, whistling and swearing, cried, "Damn it, there's
something to be got here."
"What can be the sufficing reason of this phenomenon?" said
Pangloss.
"It is certainly the day of judgment," said Candide.
The sailor, defying death in the pursuit of plunder, rushed into the
midst of the ruin, where he found some money, with which he got drunk,
and, after he had slept himself sober he purchased the favors of the
first good-natured wench that came in his way, amidst the ruins of
demolished houses and the groans of half-buried and expiring persons.
Pangloss pulled him by the sleeve. "Friend," said he, "this is not
right, you trespass against the universal reason, and have mistaken
your time."
"Death and zounds!" answered the other, "I am a sailor and was born
at Batavia, and have trampled four times upon the crucifix in as many
voyages to Japan; you have come to a good hand with your universal
reason."
In the meantime, Candide, who had been wounded by some pieces of
stone that fell from the houses, lay stretched in the street, almost
covered with rubbish.
"For God's sake," said he to Pangloss, "get me a little wine and
oil! I am dying."
"This concussion of the earth is no new thing," said Pangloss, "the
city of Lima in South America experienced the same last year; the same
cause, the same effects; there is certainly a train of sulphur all the
way underground from Lima to Lisbon."
"Nothing is more probable," said Candide; "but for the love of God a
little oil and wine."
"Probable!" replied the philosopher, "I maintain that the thing is
demonstrable."
Candide fainted away, and Pangloss fetched him some water from a
neighboring spring. The next day, in searching among the ruins, they
found some eatables with which they repaired their exhausted strength.
After this they assisted the inhabitants in relieving the distressed
and wounded. Some, whom they had humanely assisted, gave them as good
a dinner as could be expected under such terrible circumstances. The
repast, indeed, was mournful, and the company moistened their bread
with their tears; but Pangloss endeavored to comfort them under this
affliction by affirming that things could not be otherwise than they
were.
"For," said he, "all this is for the very best end, for if there is
a volcano at Lisbon it could be in no other spot; and it is impossible
but things should be as they are, for everything is for the best."
By the side of the preceptor sat a little man dressed in black, who
was one of the familiars of the Inquisition. This person, taking him
up with great complaisance, said, "Possibly, my good sir, you do not
believe in original sin; for, if everything is best, there could have
been no such thing as the fall or punishment of man."
Your Excellency will pardon me," answered Pangloss, still more
politely; "for the fall of man and the curse consequent thereupon
necessarily entered into the system of the best of worlds."
"That is as much as to say, sir," rejoined the familiar, "you do not
believe in free will."
"Your Excellency will be so good as to excuse me," said Pangloss,
"free will is consistent with absolute necessity; for it was necessary
we should be free, for in that the will-"
Pangloss was in the midst of his proposition, when the familiar
beckoned to his attendant to help him to a glass of port wine.
CHAPTER 6: How the Portuguese Made a Superb Auto-Da-Fe to Prevent
Any Future Earthquakes, and How Candide Underwent Public Flagellation
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After the earthquake, which had destroyed three-fourths of the city
of Lisbon, the sages of that country could think of no means more
effectual to preserve the kingdom from utter ruin than to entertain
the people with an auto-da-fe, it having been decided by the
University of Coimbra, that the burning of a few people alive by a
slow fire, and with great ceremony, is an infallible preventive of
earthquakes.
In consequence thereof they had seized on a Biscayan for marrying
his godmother, and on two Portuguese for taking out the bacon of a
larded pullet they were eating; after dinner they came and secured Dr.
Pangloss, and his pupil Candide, the one for speaking his mind, and
the other for seeming to approve what he had said. They were conducted
to separate apartments, extremely cool, where they were never
incommoded with the sun. Eight days afterwards they were each dressed
in a sanbenito, and their heads were adorned with paper mitres. The
mitre and sanbenito worn by Candide were painted with flames reversed
and with devils that had neither tails nor claws; but Dr. Pangloss's
devils had both tails and claws, and his flames were upright. In these
habits they marched in procession, and heard a very pathetic sermon,
which was followed by an anthem, accompanied by bagpipes. Candide was
flogged to some tune, while the anthem was being sung; the Biscayan
and the two men who would not eat bacon were burned, and Pangloss was
hanged, which is not a common custom at these solemnities. The same
day there was another earthquake, which made most dreadful havoc.
Candide, amazed, terrified, confounded, astonished, all bloody, and
trembling from head to foot, said to himself, "If this is the best of
all possible worlds, what are the others? If I had only been whipped,
I could have put up with it, as I did among the Bulgarians; but, oh my
dear Pangloss! my beloved master! thou greatest of philosophers! that
ever I should live to see thee hanged, without knowing for what! O my
dear Anabaptist, thou best of men, that it should be thy fate to be
drowned in the very harbor! O Miss Cunegund, you mirror of young
ladies! that it should be your fate to have your body ripped open!"
He was making the best of his way from the place where he had been
preached to, whipped, absolved and blessed, when he was accosted by an
old woman, who said to him, "Take courage, child, and follow me."
CHAPTER 7: How the Old Woman Took Care of Candide, and How He
Found the Object of His Love
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Candide followed the old woman, though without taking courage, to a
decayed house, where she gave him a pot of pomatum to anoint his
sores, showed him a very neat bed, with a suit of clothes hanging by
it; and set victuals and drink before him.
"There," said she, "eat, drink, and sleep, and may Our Lady of
Atocha, and the great St. Anthony of Padua, and the illustrious St.
James of Compostella, take you under their protection. I shall be back
tomorrow."
Candide, struck with amazement at what he had seen, at what he had
suffered, and still more with the charity of the old woman, would have
shown his acknowledgment by kissing her hand.
"It is not my hand you ought to kiss," said the old woman. "I shall
be back tomorrow. Anoint your back, eat, and take your rest."
Candide, notwithstanding so many disasters, ate and slept. The
next morning, the old woman brought him his breakfast; examined his
back, and rubbed it herself with another ointment. She returned at the
proper time, and brought him his dinner; and at night, she visited him
again with his supper. The next day she observed the same ceremonies.
"Who are you?" said Candide to her. "Who has inspired you with so
much goodness? What return can I make you for this charitable
assistance?"
The good old beldame kept a profound silence. In the evening she
returned, but without his supper.
"Come along with me," said she, "but do not speak a word."
She took him by the arm, and walked with him about a quarter of a
mile into the country, till they came to a lonely house surrounded
with moats and gardens. The old conductress knocked at a little door,
which was immediately opened, and she showed him up a pair of back
stairs, into a small, but richly furnished apartment. There she made
him sit down on a brocaded sofa, shut the door upon him, and left him.
Candide thought himself in a trance; he looked upon his whole life,
hitherto, as a frightful dream, and the present moment as a very
agreeable one.
The old woman soon returned, supporting, with great difficulty, a
young lady, who appeared scarce able to stand. She was of a majestic
mien and stature, her dress was rich, and glittering with diamonds,
and her face was covered with a veil.
"Take off that veil," said the old woman to Candide.
The young man approached, and, with a trembling hand, took off her
veil. What a happy moment! What surprise! He thought he beheld Miss
Cunegund; he did behold her- it was she herself. His strength failed
him, he could not utter a word, he fell at her feet. Cunegund fainted
upon the sofa. The old woman bedewed them with spirits; they
recovered- they began to speak. At first they could express themselves
only in broken accents; their questions and answers were alternately
interrupted with sighs, tears, and exclamations. The old woman desired
them to make less noise, and after this prudent admonition left them
together.
"Good heavens!" cried Candide, "is it you? Is it Miss Cunegund I
behold, and alive? Do I find you again in Portugal? then you have not
been ravished? they did not rip open your body, as the philosopher
Pangloss informed me?"
"Indeed but they did," replied Miss Cunegund; "but these two
accidents do not always prove mortal."
"But were your father and mother killed?"
"Alas!" answered she, "it is but too true!" and she wept.
"And your brother?"
"And my brother also."
"And how came you into Portugal? And how did you know of my being
here? And by what strange adventure did you contrive to have me
brought into this house? And how-"
"I will tell you all," replied the lady, "but first you must
acquaint me with all that has befallen you since the innocent kiss you
gave me, and the rude kicking you received in consequence of it."
Candide, with the greatest submission, prepared to obey the commands
of his fair mistress; and though he was still filled with amazement,
though his voice was low and tremulous, though his back pained him,
yet he gave her a most ingenuous account of everything that had
befallen him, since the moment of their separation. Cunegund, with her
eyes uplifted to heaven, shed tears when he related the death of the
good Anabaptist, James, and of Pangloss; after which she thus related
her adventures to Candide, who lost not one syllable she uttered, and
seemed to devour her with his eyes all the time she was speaking.
CHAPTER 8: Cunegund's Story
-
I was in bed, and fast asleep, when it pleased Heaven to send the
Bulgarians to our delightful castle of Thunder-ten-tronckh, where they
murdered my father and brother, and cut my mother in pieces. A tall
Bulgarian soldier, six feet high, perceiving that I had fainted away
at this sight, attempted to ravish me; the operation brought me to my
senses. I cried, I struggled, I bit, I scratched, I would have torn
the tall Bulgarian's eyes out, not knowing that what had happened at
my father's castle was a customary thing. The brutal soldier, enraged
at my resistance, gave me a wound in my left leg with his hanger, the
mark of which I still carry."
"Methinks I long to see it," said Candide, with all imaginable
simplicity.
"You shall," said Cunegund, "but let me proceed."
"Pray do," replied Candide.
She continued. "A Bulgarian captain came in, and saw me weltering in
my blood, and the soldier still as busy as if no one had been present.
The officer, enraged at the fellow's want of respect to him, killed
him with one stroke of his sabre as he lay upon me. This captain took
care of me, had me cured, and carried me as a prisoner of war to his
quarters. I washed what little linen he possessed, and cooked his
victuals: he was very fond of me, that was certain; neither can I deny
that he was well made, and had a soft, white skin, but he was very
stupid, and knew nothing of philosophy: it might plainly be perceived
that he had not been educated under Dr. Pangloss. In three months,
having gambled away all his money, and having grown tired of me, he
sold me to a Jew, named Don Issachar, who traded in Holland and
Portugal, and was passionately fond of women. This Jew showed me great
kindness, in hopes of gaining my favors; but he never could prevail on
me to yield. A modest woman may be once ravished; but her virtue is
greatly strengthened thereby. In order to make sure of me, he brought
me to this country house you now see. I had hitherto believed that
nothing could equal the beauty of the castle of Thunder-ten-tronckh;
but I found I was mistaken.
"The Grand Inquisitor saw me one day at Mass, ogled me all the time
of service, and when it was over, sent to let me know he wanted to
speak with me about some private business. I was conducted to his
palace, where I told him all my story; he represented to me how much
it was beneath a person of my birth to belong to a circumcised
Israelite. He caused a proposal to be made to Don Issachar, that he
should resign me to His Lordship. Don Issachar, being the court banker
and a man of credit, was not easy to be prevailed upon. His Lordship
threatened him with an auto-da-fe; in short, my Jew was frightened
into a compromise, and it was agreed between them, that the house and
myself should belong to both in common; that the Jew should have
Monday, Wednesday, and the Sabbath to himself; and the Inquisitor the
other four days of the week. This agreement has subsisted almost six
months; but not without several contests, whether the space from
Saturday night to Sunday morning belonged to the old or the new law.
For my part, I have hitherto withstood them both, and truly I believe
this is the very reason why they are both so fond of me.
"At length to turn aside the scourge of earthquakes, and to
intimidate Don Issachar, My Lord Inquisitor was pleased to celebrate
an auto-da-fe. He did me the honor to invite me to the ceremony. I had
a very good seat; and refreshments of all kinds were offered the
ladies between Mass and the execution. I was dreadfully shocked at the
burning of the two Jews, and the honest Biscayan who married his
godmother; but how great was my surprise, my consternation, and
concern, when I beheld a figure so like Pangloss, dressed in a
sanbenito and mitre! I rubbed my eyes, I looked at him attentively. I
saw him hanged, and I fainted away: scarce had I recovered my senses,
when I saw you stripped of clothing; this was the height of horror,
grief, and despair. I must confess to you for a truth, that your skin
is whiter and more blooming than that of the Bulgarian captain. This
spectacle worked me up to a pitch of distraction. I screamed out, and
would have said, 'Hold, barbarians!' but my voice failed me; and
indeed my cries would have signified nothing. After you had been
severely whipped, I said to myself, 'How is it possible that the
lovely Candide and the sage Pangloss should be at Lisbon, the one to
receive a hundred lashes, and the other to be hanged by order of My
Lord Inquisitor, of whom I am so great a favorite? Pangloss deceived
me most cruelly, in saying that everything is for the best.'
"Thus agitated and perplexed, now distracted and lost, now half dead
with grief, I revolved in my mind the murder of my father, mother, and
brother, committed before my eyes; the insolence of the rascally
Bulgarian soldier; the wound he gave me in the groin; my servitude; my
being a cook-wench to my Bulgarian captain; my subjection to the
hateful Jew, and my cruel Inquisitor; the hanging of Doctor Pangloss;
the Miserere sung while you were being whipped; and particularly the
kiss I gave you behind the screen, the last day I ever beheld you. I
returned thanks to God for having brought you to the place where I
was, after so many trials. I charged the old woman who attends me to
bring you hither as soon as was convenient. She has punctually
executed my orders, and I now enjoy the inexpressible satisfaction of
seeing you, hearing you, and speaking to you. But you must certainly
be half-dead with hunger; I myself have a great inclination to eat,
and so let us sit down to supper."
Upon this the two lovers immediately placed themselves at table,
and, after having supped, they returned to seat themselves again on
the magnificent sofa already mentioned, where they were in amorous
dalliance, when Senor Don Issachar, one of the masters of the house,
entered unexpectedly; it was the Sabbath day, and he came to enjoy his
privilege, and sigh forth his passion at the feet of the fair
Cunegund.
CHAPTER 9: What Happened to Cunegund, Candide, the Grand
Inquisitor, and the Jew
-
This same Issachar was the most choleric little Hebrew that had ever
been in Israel since the captivity of Babylon.
"What," said he, "thou Galilean slut? The Inquisitor was not enough
for thee, but this rascal must come in for a share with me?"
In uttering these words, he drew out a long poniard, which he always
carried about him, and never dreaming that his adversary had any arms,
he attacked him most furiously; but our honest Westphalian had
received from the old woman a handsome sword with the suit of clothes.
Candide drew his rapier, and though he was very gentle and
sweet-tempered, he laid the Israelite dead on the floor at the fair
Cunegund's feet.
"Holy Virgin!" cried she, "what will become of us? A man killed in
my apartment! If the peace-officers come, we are undone."
"Had not Pangloss been hanged," replied Candide, "he would have
given us most excellent advice, in this emergency; for he was a
profound philosopher. But, since he is not here, let us consult the
old woman."
She was very sensible, and was beginning to give her advice, when
another door opened on a sudden. It was now one o'clock in the
morning, and of course the beginning of Sunday, which, by agreement,
fell to the lot of My Lord Inquisitor. Entering he discovered the
flagellated Candide with his drawn sword in his hand, a dead body
stretched on the floor, Cunegund frightened out of her wits, and the
old woman giving advice.
At that very moment, a sudden thought came into Candide's head. "If
this holy man," thought he, "should call assistance, I shall most
undoubtedly be consigned to the flames, and Miss Cunegund may perhaps
meet with no better treatment: besides, he was the cause of my being
so cruelly whipped; he is my rival; and as I have now begun to dip my
hands in blood, I will kill away, for there is no time to hesitate."
This whole train of reasoning was clear and instantaneous; so that,
without giving time to the Inquisitor to recover from his surprise, he
ran him through the body, and laid him by the side of the Jew.
"Here's another fine piece of work!" cried Cunegund. "Now there can
be no mercy for us, we are excommunicated; our last hour is come. But
how could you, who are of so mild a temper, despatch a Jew and an
Inquisitor in two minutes' time?"
"Beautiful maiden," answered Candide, "when a man is in love, is
jealous, and has been flogged by the Inquisition, he becomes lost to
all reflection."
The old woman then put in her word:
"There are three Andalusian horses in the stable, with as many
bridles and saddles; let the brave Candide get them ready. Madam has a
parcel of moidores and jewels, let us mount immediately, though I have
lost one buttock; let us set out for Cadiz; it is the finest weather
in the world, and there is great pleasure in traveling in the cool of
the night."
Candide, without any further hesitation, saddled the three horses;
and Miss Cunegund, the old woman, and he, set out, and traveled thirty
miles without once halting. While they were making the best of their
way, the Holy Brotherhood entered the house. My Lord, the Inquisitor,
was interred in a magnificent manner, and Master Issachar's body was
thrown upon a dunghill.
Candide, Cunegund, and the old woman, had by this time reached the
little town of Avacena, in the midst of the mountains of Sierra
Morena, and were engaged in the following conversation in an inn,
where they had taken up their quarters.
CHAPTER 10: In What Distress Candide, Cunegund, and the Old Woman
Arrive at Cadiz, and of Their Embarkation
-
Who could it be that has robbed me of my moidores and jewels?"
exclaimed Miss Cunegund, all bathed in tears. "How shall we live? What
shall we do? Where shall I find Inquisitors and Jews who can give me
more?"
"Alas!" said the old woman, "I have a shrewd suspicion of a reverend
Franciscan father, who lay last night in the same inn with us at
Badajoz. God forbid I should condemn any one wrongfully, but he came
into our room twice, and he set off in the morning long before us."
"Alas!" said Candide, "Pangloss has often demonstrated to me that
the goods of this world are common to all men, and that everyone has
an equal right to the enjoyment of them; but, according to these
principles, the Franciscan ought to have left us enough to carry us to
the end of our journey. Have you nothing at all left, my dear Miss
Cunegund?"
"Not a maravedi," replied she.
"What is to be done then?" said Candide.
"Sell one of the horses," replied the old woman. "I will get up
behind Miss Cunegund, though I have only one buttock to ride on, and
we shall reach Cadiz."
In the same inn there was a Benedictine friar, who bought the horse
very cheap. Candide, Cunegund, and the old woman, after passing
through Lucina, Chellas, and Letrixa, arrived at length at Cadiz. A
fleet was then getting ready, and troops were assembling in order to
induce the reverend fathers, Jesuits of Paraguay, who were accused of
having excited one of the Indian tribes in the neighborhood of the
town of the Holy Sacrament, to revolt against the Kings of Spain and
Portugal.
Candide, having been in the Bulgarian service, performed the
military exercise of that nation before the general of this little
army with so intrepid an air, and with such agility and expedition,
that he received the command of a company of foot. Being now made a
captain, he embarked with Miss Cunegund, the old woman, two valets,
and the two Andalusian horses, which had belonged to the Grand
Inquisitor of Portugal.
During their voyage they amused themselves with many profound
reasonings on poor Pangloss's philosophy.
"We are now going into another world, and surely it must be there
that everything is for the best; for I must confess that we have had
some little reason to complain of what passes in ours, both as to the
physical and moral part. Though I have a sincere love for you," said
Miss Cunegund, "yet I still shudder at the reflection of what I have
seen and experienced."
"All will be well," replied Candide, "the sea of this new world is
already better than our European seas: it is smoother, and the winds
blow more regularly."
"God grant it," said Cunegund, "but I have met with such terrible
treatment in this world that I have almost lost all hopes of a better
one."
"What murmuring and complaining is here indeed!" cried the old
woman. "If you had suffered half what I have, there might be some
reason for it."
Miss Cunegund could scarce refrain from laughing at the good old
woman, and thought it droll enough to pretend to a greater share of
misfortunes than her own.
"Alas! my good dame," said she, "unless you had been ravished by two
Bulgarians, had received two deep wounds in your belly, had seen two
of your own castles demolished, had lost two fathers, and two mothers,
and seen both of them barbarously murdered before your eyes, and to
sum up all, had two lovers whipped at an auto-da-fe, I cannot see how
you could be more unfortunate than I. Add to this, though born a
baroness, and bearing seventy-two quarterings, I have been reduced to
the station of a cook-wench."
"Miss," replied the old woman, "you do not know my family as yet;
but if I were to show you my posteriors, you would not talk in this
manner, but suspend your judgment." This speech raised a high
curiosity in Candide and Cunegund; and the old woman continued as
follows.
CHAPTER 11: The History of the Old Woman
-
I have not always been blear-eyed. My nose did not always touch my
chin; nor was I always a servant. You must know that I am the daughter
of Pope Urban X, and of the Princess of Palestrina. To the age of
fourteen I was brought up in a castle, compared with which all the
castles of the German barons would not have been fit for stabling, and
one of my robes would have bought half the province of Westphalia. I
grew up, and improved in beauty, wit, and every graceful
accomplishment; and in the midst of pleasures, homage, and the highest
expectations. I already began to inspire the men with love. My breast
began to take its right form, and such a breast! white, firm, and
formed like that of the Venus de' Medici; my eyebrows were as black as
jet, and as for my eyes, they darted flames and eclipsed the luster of
the stars, as I was told by the poets of our part of the world. My
maids, when they dressed and undressed me, used to fall into an
ecstasy in viewing me before and behind; and all the men longed to be
in their places.
"I was contracted in marriage to a sovereign prince of Massa
Carrara. Such a prince! as handsome as myself, sweet-tempered,
agreeable, witty, and in love with me over head and ears. I loved him,
too, as our sex generally do for the first time, with rapture,
transport, and idolatry. The nuptials were prepared with surprising
pomp and magnificence; the ceremony was attended with feasts,
carousals, and burlesques: all Italy composed sonnets in my praise,
though not one of them was tolerable.
"I was on the point of reaching the summit of bliss, when an old
marchioness, who had been mistress to the Prince, my husband, invited
him to drink chocolate. In less than two hours after he returned from
the visit, he died of most terrible convulsions.
"But this is a mere trifle. My mother, distracted to the highest
degree, and yet less afflicted than I, determined to absent herself
for some time from so fatal a place. As she had a very fine estate in
the neighborhood of Gaeta, we embarked on board a galley, which was
gilded like the high altar of St. Peter's, at Rome. In our passage we
were boarded by a Sallee rover. Our men defended themselves like true
Pope's soldiers; they flung themselves upon their knees, laid down
their arms, and begged the corsair to give them absolution in
articulo mortis.
"The Moors presently stripped us as bare as ever we were born. My
mother, my maids of honor, and myself, were served all in the same
manner. It is amazing how quick these gentry are at undressing people.
But what surprised me most was, that they made a rude sort of surgical
examination of parts of the body which are sacred to the functions of
nature. I thought it a very strange kind of ceremony; for thus we are
generally apt to judge of things when we have not seen the world. I
afterwards learned that it was to discover if we had any diamonds
concealed. This practice had been established since time immemorial
among those civilized nations that scour the seas. I was informed that
the religious Knights of Malta never fail to make this search whenever
any Moors of either sex fall into their hands. It is a part of the law
of nations, from which they never deviate.
"I need not tell you how great a hardship it was for a young
princess and her mother to be made slaves and carried to Morocco. You
may easily imagine what we must have suffered on board a corsair. My
mother was still extremely handsome, our maids of honor, and even our
common waiting-women, had more charms than were to be found in all
Africa.
"As to myself, I was enchanting; I was beauty itself, and then I had
my virginity. But, alas! I did not retain it long; this precious
flower, which had been reserved for the lovely Prince of Massa
Carrara, was cropped by the captain of the Moorish vessel, who was a
hideous Negro, and thought he did me infinite honor. Indeed, both the
Princess of Palestrina and myself must have had very strong
constitutions to undergo all the hardships and violences we suffered
before our arrival at Morocco. But I will not detain you any longer
with such common things; they are hardly worth mentioning.
"Upon our arrival at Morocco we found that kingdom deluged with
blood. Fifty sons of the Emperor Muley Ishmael were each at the head
of a party. This produced fifty civil wars of blacks against blacks,
of tawnies against tawnies, and of mulattoes against mulattoes. In
short, the whole empire was one continued scene of carnage.
"No sooner were we landed than a party of blacks, of a contrary
faction to that of my captain, came to rob him of his booty. Next to
the money and jewels, we were the most valuable things he had. I
witnessed on this occasion such a battle as you never beheld in your
cold European climates. The northern nations have not that
fermentation in their blood, nor that raging lust for women that is so
common in Africa. The natives of Europe seem to have their veins
filled with milk only; but fire and vitriol circulate in those of the
inhabitants of Mount Atlas and the neighboring provinces. They fought
with the fury of the lions, tigers, and serpents of their country, to
decide who should have us. A Moor seized my mother by the right arm,
while my captain's lieutenant held her by the left; another Moor laid
hold of her by the right leg, and one of our corsairs held her by the
other. In this manner almost all of our women were dragged by four
soldiers.
"My captain kept me concealed behind him, and with his drawn
scimitar cut down everyone who opposed him; at length I saw all our
Italian women and my mother mangled and torn in pieces by the monsters
who contended for them. The captives, my companions, the Moors who
took us, the soldiers, the sailors, the blacks, the whites, the
mulattoes, and lastly, my captain himself, were all slain, and I
remained alone expiring upon a heap of dead bodies. Similar barbarous
scenes were transacted every day over the whole country, which is of
three hundred leagues in extent, and yet they never missed the five
stated times of prayer enjoined by their prophet Mahomet.
"I disengaged myself with great difficulty from such a heap of
corpses, and made a shift to crawl to a large orange tree that stood
on the bank of a neighboring rivulet, where I fell down exhausted with
fatigue, and overwhelmed with horror, despair, and hunger. My senses
being overpowered, I fell asleep, or rather seemed to be in a trance.
Thus I lay in a state of weakness and insensibility between life and
death, when I felt myself pressed by something that moved up and down
upon my body. This brought me to myself. I opened my eyes, and saw a
pretty fair-faced man, who sighed and muttered these words between his
teeth, 'O che sciagura d'essere senza coglioni!'"
CHAPTER 12: The Adventures of the Old Woman Continued
-
Astonished and delighted to hear my native language, and no less
surprised at the young man's words, I told him that there were far
greater misfortunes in the world than what he complained of. And to
convince him of it, I gave him a short history of the horrible
disasters that had befallen me; and as soon as I had finished, fell
into a swoon again.
"He carried me in his arms to a neighboring cottage, where he had me
put to bed, procured me something to eat, waited on me with the
greatest attention, comforted me, caressed me, told me that he had
never seen anything so perfectly beautiful as myself, and that he had
never so much regretted the loss of what no one could restore to him.
"'I was born at Naples,' said he, 'where they make eunuchs of
thousands of children every year; some die of the operation; some
acquire voices far beyond the most tuneful of your ladies; and others
are sent to govern states and empires. I underwent this operation very
successfully, and was one of the singers in the Princess of
Palestrina's chapel.'
"'How,' cried I, 'in my mother's chapel!'
"'The Princess of Palestrina, your mother!' cried he, bursting into
a flood of tears. 'Is it possible you should be the beautiful young
princess whom I had the care of bringing up till she was six years
old, and who at that tender age promised to be as fair as I now behold
you?'
"'I am the same,' I replied. 'My mother lies about a hundred yards
from here cut in pieces and buried under a heap of dead bodies.'
"I then related to him all that had befallen me, and he in return
acquainted me with all his adventures, and how he had been sent to the
court of the King of Morocco by a Christian prince to conclude a
treaty with that monarch; in consequence of which he was to be
furnished with military stores, and ships to destroy the commerce of
other Christian governments.
"'I have executed my commission,' said the eunuch; 'I am going to
take ship at Ceuta, and I'll take you along with me to Italy. Ma che
sciagura d'essere senza coglioni!'
"I thanked him with tears of joy, but, instead of taking me with him
to Italy, he carried me to Algiers, and sold me to the Dey of that
province. I had not been long a slave when the plague, which had made
the tour of Africa, Asia, and Europe, broke out at Algiers with
redoubled fury. You have seen an earthquake; but tell me, miss, have
you ever had the plague?"
"Never," answered the young Baroness.
"If you had ever had it," continued the old woman, "you would own an
earthquake was a trifle to it. It is very common in Africa; I was
seized with it. Figure to yourself the distressed condition of the
daughter of a Pope, only fifteen years old, and who in less than three
months had felt the miseries of poverty and slavery; had been
debauched almost every day; had beheld her mother cut into four
quarters; had experienced the scourges of famine and war; and was now
dying of the plague at Algiers. I did not, however, die of it; but my
eunuch, and the Dey, and almost the whole seraglio of Algiers, were
swept off.
"As soon as the first fury of this dreadful pestilence was over, a
sale was made of the Dey's slaves. I was purchased by a merchant who
carried me to Tunis. This man sold me to another merchant, who sold me
again to another at Tripoli; from Tripoli I was sold to Alexandria,
from Alexandria to Smyrna, and from Smyrna to Constantinople. After
many changes, I at length became the property of an Aga of the
Janissaries, who, soon after I came into his possession, was ordered
away to the defense of Azoff, then besieged by the Russians.
"The Aga, being very fond of women, took his whole seraglio with
him, and lodged us in a small fort, with two black eunuchs and twenty
soldiers for our guard. Our army made a great slaughter among the
Russians; but they soon returned us the compliment. Azoff was taken by
storm, and the enemy spared neither age, sex, nor condition, but put
all to the sword, and laid the city in ashes. Our little fort alone
held out; they resolved to reduce us by famine. The twenty
Janissaries, who were left to defend it, had bound themselves by an
oath never to surrender the place. Being reduced to the extremity of
famine, they found themselves obliged to kill our two eunuchs, and eat
them rather than violate their oath. But this horrible repast soon
failing them, they next determined to devour the women.
"We had a very pious and humane man, who gave them a most excellent
sermon on this occasion, exhorting them not to kill us all at once.
'Cut off only one of the buttocks of each of those ladies,' said he,
'and you will fare extremely well; if you are under the necessity of
having recourse to the same expedient again, you will find the like
supply a few days hence. Heaven will approve of so charitable an
action, and work your deliverance.'
"By the force of this eloquence he easily persuaded them, and all of
us underwent the operation. The man applied the same balsam as they do
to children after circumcision. We were all ready to give up the
ghost.
"The Janissaries had scarcely time to finish the repast with which
we had supplied them, when the Russians attacked the place by means of
flat-bottomed boats, and not a single Janissary escaped. The Russians
paid no regard to the condition we were in; but there are French
surgeons in all parts of the world, and one of them took us under his
care, and cured us. I shall never forget, while I live, that as soon
as my wounds were perfectly healed he made me certain proposals. In
general, he desired us all to be of a good cheer, assuring us that the
like had happened in many sieges; and that it was perfectly agreeable
to the laws of war.
"As soon as my companions were in a condition to walk, they were
sent to Moscow. As for me, I fell to the lot of a Boyard, who put me
to work in his garden, and gave me twenty lashes a day. But this
nobleman having about two years afterwards been broken alive upon the
wheel, with about thirty others, for some court intrigues, I took
advantage of the event, and made my escape. I traveled over a great
part of Russia. I was a long time an innkeeper's servant at Riga, then
at Rostock, Wismar, Leipsic, Cassel, Utrecht, Leyden, The Hague, and
Rotterdam. I have grown old in misery and disgrace, living with only
one buttock, and having in perpetual remembrance that I am a Pope's
daughter. I have been a hundred times upon the point of killing
myself, but still I was fond of life. This ridiculous weakness is,
perhaps, one of the dangerous principles implanted in our nature. For
what can be more absurd than to persist in carrying a burden of which
we wish to be eased? to detest, and yet to strive to preserve our
existence? In a word, to caress the serpent that devours us, and hug
him close to our bosoms till he has gnawed into our hearts?
"In the different countries which it has been my fate to traverse,
and at the many inns where I have been a servant, I have observed a
prodigious number of people who held their existence in abhorrence,
and yet I never knew more than twelve who voluntarily put an end to
their misery; namely, three Negroes, four Englishmen, as many
Genevese, and a German professor named Robek. My last place was with
the Jew, Don Issachar, who placed me near your person, my fair lady;
to whose fortunes I have attached myself, and have been more concerned
with your adventures than with my own. I should never have even
mentioned the latter to you, had you not a little piqued me on the
head of sufferings; and if it were not customary to tell stories on
board a ship in order to pass away the time.
"In short, my dear miss, I have a great deal of knowledge and
experience in the world, therefore take my advice: divert yourself,
and prevail upon each passenger to tell his story, and if there is one
of them all that has not cursed his existence many times, and said to
himself over and over again that he was the most wretched of mortals,
I give you leave to throw me headfirst into the sea."
CHAPTER 13: How Candide Was Obliged to Leave the Fair Cunegund and
the Old Woman
-
The fair Cunegund, being thus made acquainted with the history of
the old woman's life and adventures, paid her all the respect and
civility due to a person of her rank and merit. She very readily
acceded to her proposal of engaging the passengers to relate their
adventures in their turns, and was at length, as well as Candide,
compelled to acknowledge that the old woman was in the right.
"It is a thousand pities," said Candide, "that the sage Pangloss
should have been hanged contrary to the custom of an auto-da-fe, for
he would have given us a most admirable lecture on the moral and
physical evil which overspreads the earth and sea; and I think I
should have courage enough to presume to offer (with all due respect)
some few objections."
While everyone was reciting his adventures, the ship continued on
her way, and at length arrived at Buenos Ayres, where Cunegund,
Captain Candide, and the old woman, landed and went to wait upon the
governor, Don Fernando d'Ibaraa y Figueora y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y
Souza. This nobleman carried himself with a haughtiness suitable to a
person who bore so many names. He spoke with the most noble disdain to
everyone, carried his nose so high, strained his voice to such a
pitch, assumed so imperious an air, and stalked with so much loftiness
and pride, that everyone who had the honor of conversing with him was
violently tempted to bastinade His Excellency. He was immoderately
fond of women, and Miss Cunegund appeared in his eyes a paragon of
beauty. The first thing he did was to ask her if she was not the
captain's wife. The air with which he made this demand alarmed
Candide, who did not dare to say he was married to her, because indeed
he was not; neither did he venture to say she was his sister, because
she was not; and though a lie of this nature proved of great service
to one of the ancients, and might possibly be useful to some of the
moderns, yet the purity of his heart would not permit him to violate
the truth.
"Miss Cunegund," replied he, "is to do me the honor to marry me, and
we humbly beseech Your Excellency to condescend to grace the ceremony
with your presence."
Don Fernando d'Ibaraa y Figueora y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza,
twirling his mustachio, and putting on a sarcastic smile, ordered
Captain Candide to go and review his company. The gentle Candide
obeyed, and the Governor was left with Miss Cunegund. He made her a
strong declaration of love, protesting that he was ready to give her
his hand in the face of the Church, or otherwise, as should appear
most agreeable to a young lady of her prodigious beauty. Cunegund
desired leave to retire a quarter of an hour to consult the old woman,
and determine how she should proceed.
The old woman gave her the following counsel:
"Miss, you have seventy-two quarterings in your arms, it is true,
but you have not a penny to bless yourself with. It is your own fault
if you do not become the wife of one of the greatest noblemen in South
America, with an exceeding fine mustachio. What business have you to
pride yourself upon an unshaken constancy? You have been outraged by a
Bulgarian soldier; a Jew and an Inquisitor have both tasted of your
favors. People take advantage of misfortunes. I must confess, were I
in your place, I should, without the least scruple, give my hand to
the Governor, and thereby make the fortune of the brave Captain
Candide."
While the old woman was thus haranguing, with all the prudence that
old age and experience furnish, a small bark entered the harbor, in
which was an alcayde and his alguazils. Matters had fallen out as
follows.
The old woman rightly guessed that the Franciscan with the long
sleeves, was the person who had taken Miss Cunegund's money and
jewels, while they and Candide were at Badajoz, in their flight from
Lisbon. This same friar attempted to sell some of the diamonds to a
jeweler, who presently knew them to have belonged to the Grand
Inquisitor, and stopped them. The Franciscan, before he was hanged,
acknowledged that he had stolen them and described the persons, and
the road they had taken. The flight of Cunegund and Candide was
already the towntalk. They sent in pursuit of them to Cadiz; and the
vessel which had been sent to make the greater dispatch, had now
reached the port of Buenos Ayres. A report was spread that an alcayde
was going to land, and that he was in pursuit of the murderers of My
Lord, the Inquisitor. The sage old woman immediately saw what was to
be done.
"You cannot run away," said she to Cunegund, "but you have nothing
to fear; it was not you who killed My Lord Inquisitor: besides, as the
Governor is in love with you, he will not suffer you to be
ill-treated; therefore stand your ground."
Then hurrying away to Candide, she said, "Be gone hence this
instant, or you will be burned alive."
Candide found there was no time to be lost; but how could he part
from Cunegund, and whither must he fly for shelter?
CHAPTER 14: The Reception Candide and Cacambo Met with among the
Jesuits in Paraguay
-
Candide had brought with him from Cadiz such a footman as one often
meets with on the coasts of Spain and in the colonies. He was the
fourth part of a Spaniard, of a mongrel breed, and born in Tucuman. He
had successively gone through the profession of a singing boy, sexton,
sailor, monk, peddler, soldier, and lackey. His name was Cacambo; he
had a great affection for his master, because his master was a very
good man. He immediately saddled the two Andalusian horses.
"Come, my good master, let us follow the old woman's advice, and
make all the haste we can from this place without staying to look
behind us."
Candide burst into a flood of tears, "O my dear Cunegund, must I
then be compelled to quit you just as the Governor was going to honor
us with his presence at our wedding! Cunegund, so long lost and found
again, what will now become of you?"
"Lord!" said Cacambo, "she must do as well as she can; women are
never at a loss. God takes care of them, and so let us make the best
of our way."
"But whither wilt thou carry me? where can we go? what can we do
without Cunegund?" cried the disconsolate Candide.
"By St. James of Compostella," said Cacambo, "you were going to
fight against the Jesuits of Paraguay; now let us go and fight for
them; I know the road perfectly well; I'll conduct you to their
kingdom; they will be delighted with a captain that understands the
Bulgarian drill; you will certainly make a prodigious fortune. If we
cannot succeed in this world we may in another. It is a great pleasure
to see new objects and perform new exploits."
"Then you have been in Paraguay?" asked Candide.
"Ay, marry, I have," replied Cacambo. "I was a scout in the College
of the Assumption, and am as well acquainted with the new government
of the Los Padres as I am with the streets of Cadiz. Oh, it is an
admirable government, that is most certain! The kingdom is at present
upwards of three hundred leagues in diameter, and divided into thirty
provinces; the fathers there are masters of everything, and the people
have no money at all; this you must allow is the masterpiece of
justice and reason. For my part, I see nothing so divine as the good
fathers, who wage war in this part of the world against the troops of
Spain and Portugal, at the same time that they hear the confessions of
those very princes in Europe; who kill Spaniards in America and send
them to Heaven at Madrid. This pleases me exceedingly, but let us push
forward; you are going to see the happiest and most fortunate of all
mortals. How charmed will those fathers be to hear that a captain who
understands the Bulgarian military drill is coming to them."
As soon as they reached the first barrier, Cacambo called to the
advance guard, and told them that a captain wanted to speak to My
Lord, the General. Notice was given to the main guard, and immediately
a Paraguayan officer ran to throw himself at the feet of the
Commandant to impart this news to him. Candide and Cacambo were
immediately disarmed, and their two Andalusian horses were seized. The
two strangers were conducted between two files of musketeers, the
Commandant was at the further end with a three-cornered cap on his
head, his gown tucked up, a sword by his side, and a half-pike in his
hand; he made a sign, and instantly four and twenty soldiers drew up
round the newcomers. A sergeant told them that they must wait, the
Commandant could not speak to them; and that the Reverend Father
Provincial did not suffer any Spaniard to open his mouth but in his
presence, or to stay above three hours in the province.
"And where is the Reverend Father Provincial?" said Cacambo.
"He has just come from Mass and is at the parade," replied the
sergeant, "and in about three hours' time you may possibly have the
honor to kiss his spurs."
"But," said Cacambo, "the Captain, who, as well as myself, is
perishing of hunger, is no Spaniard, but a German; therefore, pray,
might we not be permitted to break our fast till we can be introduced
to His Reverence?"
The sergeant immediately went and acquainted the Commandant with
what he heard.
"God be praised," said the Reverend Commandant, "since he is a
German I will hear what he has to say; let him be brought to my
arbor."
Immediately they conducted Candide to a beautiful pavilion adorned
with a colonnade of green marble, spotted with yellow, and with an
intertexture of vines, which served as a kind of cage for parrots,
humming birds, guinea hens, and all other curious kinds of birds. An
excellent breakfast was provided in vessels of gold; and while the
Paraguayans were eating coarse Indian corn out of wooden dishes in the
open air, and exposed to the burning heat of the sun, the Reverend
Father Commandant retired to his cool arbor.
He was a very handsome young man, round-faced, fair, and
fresh-colored, his eyebrows were finely arched, he had a piercing eye,
the tips of his ears were red, his lips vermilion, and he had a bold
and commanding air; but such a boldness as neither resembled that of a
Spaniard nor of a Jesuit. He ordered Candide and Cacambo to have their
arms restored to them, together with their two Andalusian horses.
Cacambo gave the poor beasts some oats to eat close by the arbor,
keeping a strict eye upon them all the while for fear of surprise.
Candide having kissed the hem of the Commandant's robe, they sat
down to table.
"It seems you are a German," said the Jesuit to him in that
language.
"Yes, Reverend Father," answered Candide.
As they pronounced these words they looked at each other with great
amazement and with an emotion that neither could conceal.
"From what part of Germany do you come?" said the Jesuit.
"From the dirty province of Westphalia," answered Candide.
"I was born in the castle of Thunder-ten-tronckh."
"Oh heavens! is it possible?" said the Commandant.
"What a miracle!" cried Candide.
"Can it be you?" said the Commandant.
On this they both drew a few steps backwards, then running into each
other's arms, embraced, and wept profusely.
"Is it you then, Reverend Father? You are the brother of the fair
Miss Cunegund? You that was slain by the Bulgarians! You the Baron's
son! You a Jesuit in Paraguay! I must confess this is a strange world
we live in. O Pangloss! O Pangloss! what joy would this have given you
if you had not been hanged."
The Commandant dismissed the Negro slaves, and the Paraguayans who
presented them with liquor in crystal goblets. He returned thanks to
God and St. Ignatius a thousand times; he clasped Candide in his arms,
and both their faces were bathed in tears.
"You will be more surprised, more affected, more transported," said
Candide, "when I tell you that Miss Cunegund, your sister, whose belly
was supposed to have been ripped open, is in perfect health."
"Where?"
"In your neighborhood, with the Governor of Buenos Ayres; and I
myself was going to fight against you."
Every word they uttered during this long conversation was productive
of some new matter of astonishment. Their souls fluttered on their
tongues, listened in their ears, and sparkled in their eyes. Like true
Germans, they continued a long while at table, waiting for the
Reverend Father; and the Commandant spoke to his dear Candide as
follows.
CHAPTER 15: How Candide Killed the Brother of His Dear Cunegund
-
Never while I live shall I lose the remembrance of that horrible day
on which I saw my father and mother barbarously butchered before my
eyes, and my sister ravished. When the Bulgarians retired we searched
in vain for my dear sister. She was nowhere to be found; but the
bodies of my father, mother, and myself, with two servant maids and
three little boys, all of whom had been murdered by the remorseless
enemy, were thrown into a cart to be buried in a chapel belonging to
the Jesuits, within two leagues of our family seat. A Jesuit sprinkled
us with some holy water, which was confounded salty, and a few drops
of it went into my eyes; the father perceived that my eyelids stirred
a little; he put his hand upon my breast and felt my heartbeat; upon
which he gave me proper assistance, and at the end of three weeks I
was perfectly recovered. You know, my dear Candide, I was very
handsome; I became still more so, and the Reverend Father Croust,
superior of that house, took a great fancy to me; he gave me the habit
of the order, and some years afterwards I was sent to Rome. Our
General stood in need of new recruits of young German Jesuits. The
sovereigns of Paraguay admit of as few Spanish Jesuits as possible;
they prefer those of other nations, as being more obedient to command.
The Reverend Father General looked upon me as a proper person to work
in that vineyard. I set out in company with a Polander and a Tyrolese.
Upon my arrival I was honored with a subdeaconship and a lieutenancy.
Now I am colonel and priest. We shall give a warm reception to the
King of Spain's troops; I can assure you they will be well
excommunicated and beaten. Providence has sent you hither to assist
us. But is it true that my dear sister Cunegund is in the neighborhood
with the Governor of Buenos Ayres?"
Candide swore that nothing could be more true; and the tears began
again to trickle down their cheeks. The Baron knew no end of embracing
Candide, be called him his brother, his deliverer.
"Perhaps," said he, "my dear Candide, we shall be fortunate enough
to enter the town, sword in hand, and recover my sister Cunegund."
"Ah! that would crown my wishes," replied Candide; "for I intended
to marry her; and I hope I shall still be able to effect it."
"Insolent fellow!" cried the Baron. "You! you have the impudence to
marry my sister, who bears seventy-two quarterings! Really, I think
you have an insufferable degree of assurance to dare so much as to
mention such an audacious design to me."
Candide, thunderstruck at the oddness of this speech, answered:
"Reverend Father, all the quarterings in the world are of no
signification. I have delivered your sister from a Jew and an
Inquisitor; she is under many obligations to me, and she is resolved
to give me her hand. My master, Pangloss, always told me that mankind
are by nature equal. Therefore, you may depend upon it that I will
marry your sister."
"We shall see to that, villain!" said the Jesuit, Baron of
Thunder-ten-tronckh, and struck him across the face with the flat side
of his sword. Candide in an instant drew his rapier and plunged it up
to the hilt in the Jesuit's body; but in pulling it out reeking hot,
he burst into tears.
"Good God!" cried he, "I have killed my old master, my friend, my
brother-in-law. I am the best man in the world, and yet I have already
killed three men, and of these three, two were priests."
Cacambo, who was standing sentry near the door of the arbor,
instantly ran up.
"Nothing remains," said his master, "but to sell our lives as dearly
as possible; they will undoubtedly look into the arbor; we must die
sword in hand."
Cacambo, who had seen many of this kind of adventures, was not
discouraged. He stripped the Baron of his Jesuit's habit and put it
upon Candide, then gave him the dead man's three-cornered cap and made
him mount on horseback. All this was done as quick as thought.
"Gallop, master," cried Cacambo; "everybody will take you for a
Jesuit going to give orders; and we shall have passed the frontiers
before they will be able to overtake us."
He flew as he spoke these words, crying out aloud in Spanish, "Make
way; make way for the Reverend Father Colonel."
CHAPTER 16: What Happened to Our Two Travelers with Two Girls, Two
Monkeys, and the Savages, Called Oreillons
-
Candide and his valet had already passed the frontiers before it was
known that the German Jesuit was dead. The wary Cacambo had taken care
to fill his wallet with bread, chocolate, some ham, some fruit, and a
few bottles of wine. They penetrated with their Andalusian horses into
a strange country, where they could discover no beaten path. At length
a beautiful meadow, intersected with purling rills, opened to their
view. Cacambo proposed to his master to take some nourishment, and he
set him an example.
"How can you desire me to feast upon ham, when I have killed the
Baron's son and am doomed never more to see the beautiful Cunegund?
What will it avail me to prolong a wretched life that must be spent
far from her in remorse and despair? And then what will the journal of
Trevoux say?" was Candide's reply.
While he was making these reflections he still continued eating. The
sun was now on the point of setting when the ears of our two wanderers
were assailed with cries which seemed to be uttered by a female voice.
They could not tell whether these were cries of grief or of joy;
however, they instantly started up, full of that inquietude and
apprehension which a strange place naturally inspires. The cries
proceeded from two young women who were tripping disrobed along the
mead, while two monkeys followed close at their heels biting at their
limbs. Candide was touched with compassion; he had learned to shoot
while he was among the Bulgarians, and he could hit a filbert in a
hedge without touching a leaf. Accordingly he took up his
double-barrelled Spanish gun, pulled the trigger, and laid the two
monkeys lifeless on the ground.
"God be praised, my dear Cacambo, I have rescued two poor girls from
a most perilous situation; if I have committed a sin in killing an
Inquisitor and a Jesuit, I have made ample amends by saving the lives
of these two distressed damsels. Who knows but they may be young
ladies of a good family, and that the assistance I have been so happy
to give them may procure us great advantage in this country?"
He was about to continue when he felt himself struck speechless at
seeing the two girls embracing the dead bodies of the monkeys in the
tenderest manner, bathing their wounds with their tears, and rending
the air with the most doleful lamentations.
"Really," said he to Cacambo, "I should not have expected to see
such a prodigious share of good nature."
"Master," replied the knowing valet, "you have made a precious piece
of work of it; do you know that you have killed the lovers of these
two ladies?"
"Their lovers! Cacambo, you are jesting! It cannot be! I can never
believe it."
"Dear sir," replied Cacambo, "you are surprised at everything. Why
should you think it so strange that there should be a country where
monkeys insinuate themselves into the good graces of the ladies? They
are the fourth part of a man as I am the fourth part of a Spaniard."
"Alas!" replied Candide, "I remember to have heard my master
Pangloss say that such accidents as these frequently came to pass in
former times, and that these commixtures are productive of centaurs,
fauns, and satyrs; and that many of the ancients had seen such
monsters; but I looked upon the whole as fabulous."
"Now you are convinced," said Cacambo, "that it is very true, and
you see what use is made of those creatures by persons who have not
had a proper education; all I am afraid of is that these same ladies
may play us some ugly trick."
These judicious reflections operated so far on Candide as to make
him quit the meadow and strike into a thicket. There he and Cacambo
supped, and after heartily cursing the Grand Inquisitor, the Governor
of Buenos Ayres, and the Baron, they fell asleep on the ground. When
they awoke they were surprised to find that they could not move; the
reason was that the Oreillons who inhabit that country, and to whom
the ladies had given information of these two strangers, had bound
them with cords made of the bark of trees. They saw themselves
surrounded by fifty naked Oreillons armed with bows and arrows, clubs,
and hatchets of flint; some were making a fire under a large cauldron;
and others were preparing spits, crying out one and all, "A Jesuit! a
Jesuit! we shall be revenged; we shall have excellent cheer; let us
eat this Jesuit; let us eat him up."
"I told you, master," cried Cacambo, mournfully, "that these two
wenches would play us some scurvy trick."
Candide, seeing the cauldron and the spits, cried out, "I suppose
they are going either to boil or roast us. Ah! what would Pangloss say
if he were to see how pure nature is formed? Everything is right; it
may be so; but I must confess it is something hard to be bereft of
dear Miss Cunegund, and to be spitted like a rabbit by these barbarous
Oreillons."
Cacambo, who never lost his presence of mind in distress, said to
the disconsolate Candide, "Do not despair; I understand a little of
the jargon of these people; I will speak to them."
"Ay, pray do," said Candide, "and be sure you make them sensible of
the horrid barbarity of boiling and roasting human creatures, and how
little of Christianity there is in such practices."
"Gentlemen," said Cacambo, "you think perhaps you are going to feast
upon a Jesuit; if so, it is mighty well; nothing can be more agreeable
to justice than thus to treat your enemies. Indeed the law of nature
teaches us to kill our neighbor, and accordingly we find this
practiced all over the world; and if we do not indulge ourselves in
eating human flesh, it is because we have much better fare; but for
your parts, who have not such resources as we, it is certainly much
better judged to feast upon your enemies than to throw their bodies to
the fowls of the air; and thus lose all the fruits of your victory.
"But surely, gentlemen, you would not choose to eat your friends.
You imagine you are going to roast a Jesuit, whereas my master is your
friend, your defender, and you are going to spit the very man who has
been destroying your enemies; as to myself, I am your countryman; this
gentleman is my master, and so far from being a Jesuit, give me leave
to tell you he has very lately killed one of that order, whose spoils
he now wears, and which have probably occasioned your mistake. To
convince you of the truth of what I say, take the habit he has on and
carry it to the first barrier of the Jesuits' kingdom, and inquire
whether my master did not kill one of their officers. There will be
little or no time lost by this, and you may still reserve our bodies
in your power to feast on if you should find what we have told you to
be false. But, on the contrary, if you find it to be true, I am
persuaded you are too well acquainted with the principles of the laws
of society, humanity, and justice, not to use us courteously, and
suffer us to depart unhurt."
This speech appeared very reasonable to the Oreillons; they deputed
two of their people with all expedition to inquire into the truth of
this affair, who acquitted themselves of their commission like men of
sense, and soon returned with good tidings for our distressed
adventurers. Upon this they were loosed, and those who were so lately
going to roast and boil them now showed them all sorts of civilities,
offered them girls, gave them refreshments, and reconducted them to
the confines of their country, crying before them all the way, in
token of joy, "He is no Jesuit! he is no Jesuit!"
Candide could not help admiring the cause of his deliverance. "What
men! what manners!" cried he. "If I had not fortunately run my sword
up to the hilt in the body of Miss Cunegund's brother, I should have
certainly been eaten alive. But, after all, pure nature is an
excellent thing; since these people, instead of eating me, showed me a
thousand civilities as soon as they knew was not a Jesuit."
CHAPTER 17: Candide and His Valet Arrive in the Country of El
Dorado- What They Saw There
-
When they got to the frontiers of the Oreillons, said Cacambo to
Candide, "You see, this hemisphere is not better than the other; now
take my advice and let us return to Europe by the shortest way
possible."
"But how can we get back?" said Candide; "and whither shall we go?
To my own country? The Bulgarians and the Abares are laying that waste
with fire and sword. Or shall we go to Portugal? There I shall be
burned; and if we abide here we are every moment in danger of being
spitted. But how can I bring myself to quit that part of the world
where my dear Miss Cunegund has her residence?"
"Let us return towards Cayenne," said Cacambo. "There we shall meet
with some Frenchmen, for you know those gentry ramble all over the
world. Perhaps they will assist us, and God will look with pity on our
distress."
It was not so easy to get to Cayenne. They knew pretty nearly
whereabouts it lay; but the mountains, rivers, precipices, robbers,
savages, were dreadful obstacles in the way. Their horses died with
fatigue and their provisions were at an end. They subsisted a whole
month on wild fruit, till at length they came to a little river
bordered with cocoa trees; the sight of which at once revived their
drooping spirits and furnished nourishment for their enfeebled bodies.
Cacambo, who was always giving as good advice as the old woman
herself, said to Candide, "You see there is no holding out any longer;
we have traveled enough on foot. I spy an empty canoe near the river
side; let us fill it with cocoanuts, get into it, and go down with the
stream; a river always leads to some inhabited place. If we do not
meet with agreeable things, we shall at least meet with something
new."
"Agreed," replied Candide; "let us recommend ourselves to
Providence."
They rowed a few leagues down the river, the banks of which were in
some places covered with flowers; in others barren; in some parts
smooth and level, and in others steep and rugged. The stream widened
as they went further on, till at length it passed under one of the
frightful rocks, whose summits seemed to reach the clouds. Here our
two travelers had the courage to commit themselves to the stream,
which, contracting in this part, hurried them along with a dreadful
noise and rapidity.
At the end of four and twenty hours they saw daylight again; but
their canoe was dashed to pieces against the rocks. They were obliged
to creep along, from rock to rock, for the space of a league, till at
length a spacious plain presented itself to their sight. This place
was bounded by a chain of inaccessible mountains. The country appeared
cultivated equally for pleasure and to produce the necessaries of
life. The useful and agreeable were here equally blended. The roads
were covered, or rather adorned, with carriages formed of glittering
materials, in which were men and women of a surprising beauty, drawn
with great rapidity by red sheep of a very large size; which far
surpassed the finest coursers of Andalusian, Tetuan, or Mecquinez.
"Here is a country, however," said Candide, "preferable to
Westphalia."
He and Cacambo landed near the first village they saw, at the
entrance of which they perceived some children covered with tattered
garments of the richest brocade, playing at quoits. Our two
inhabitants of the other hemisphere amused themselves greatly with
what they saw. The quoits were large, round pieces, yellow, red, and
green, which cast a most glorious luster. Our travelers picked some of
them up, and they proved to be gold, emeralds, rubies, and diamonds;
the least of which would have been the greatest ornament to the superb
throne of the Great Mogul.
"Without doubt," said Cacambo, "those children must be the King's
sons that are playing at quoits."
As he was uttering these words the schoolmaster of the village
appeared, who came to call the children to school.
"There," said Candide, "is the preceptor of the royal family."
The little ragamuffins immediately quitted their diversion, leaving
the quoits on the ground with all their other playthings. Candide
gathered them up, ran to the schoolmaster, and, with a most respectful
bow, presented them to him, giving him to understand by signs that
their Royal Highnesses had forgot their gold and precious stones. The
schoolmaster, with a smile, flung them upon the ground, then examining
Candide from head to foot with an air of admiration, he turned his
back and went on his way.
Our travelers took care, however, to gather up the gold, the rubies,
and the emeralds.
"Where are we?" cried Candide. "The King's children in this country
must have an excellent education, since they are taught to show such a
contempt for gold and precious stones."
Cacambo was as much surprised as his master. They then drew near the
first house in the village, which was built after the manner of a
European palace. There was a crowd of people about the door, and a
still greater number in the house. The sound of the most delightful
instruments of music was heard, and the most agreeable smell came from
the kitchen. Cacambo went up to the door and heard those within
talking in the Peruvian language, which was his mother tongue; for
everyone knows that Cacambo was born in a village of Tucuman, where no
other language is spoken.
"I will be your interpreter here," said he to Candide. "Let us go
in; this is an eating house."
Immediately two waiters and two servant-girls, dressed in cloth of
gold, and their hair braided with ribbons of tissue, accosted the
strangers and invited them to sit down to the ordinary. Their dinner
consisted of four dishes of different soups, each garnished with two
young paroquets, a large dish of bouille that weighed two hundred
weight, two roasted monkeys of a delicious flavor, three hundred
hummingbirds in one dish, and six hundred flybirds in another; some
excellent ragouts, delicate tarts, and the whole served up in dishes
of rock-crystal. Several sorts of liquors, extracted from the
sugarcane, were handed about by the servants who attended.
Most of the company were chapmen and wagoners, all extremely polite;
they asked Cacambo a few questions with the utmost discretion and
circumspection; and replied to his in a most obliging and satisfactory
manner.
As soon as dinner was over, both Candide and Cacambo thought they
should pay very handsomely for their entertainment by laying down two
of those large gold pieces which they had picked off the ground; but
the landlord and landlady burst into a fit of laughing and held their
sides for some time.
When the fit was over, the landlord said, "Gentlemen, I plainly
perceive you are strangers, and such we are not accustomed to charge;
pardon us, therefore, for laughing when you offered us the common
pebbles of our highways for payment of your reckoning. To be sure, you
have none of the coin of this kingdom; but there is no necessity of
having any money at all to dine in this house. All the inns, which are
established for the convenience of those who carry on the trade of
this nation, are maintained by the government. You have found but very
indifferent entertainment here, because this is only a poor village;
but in almost every other of these public houses you will meet with a
reception worthy of persons of your merit."
Cacambo explained the whole of this speech of the landlord to
Candide, who listened to it with the same astonishment with which his
friend communicated it.
"What sort of a country is this," said the one to the other, "that
is unknown to all the world; and in which Nature has everywhere so
different an appearance to what she has in ours? Possibly this is that
part of the globe where everywhere is right, for there must certainly
be some such place. And, for all that Master Pangloss could say, I
often perceived that things went very ill in Westphalia."
CHAPTER 18: What They Saw in the Country of El Dorado
-
Cacambo vented all his curiosity upon his landlord by a thousand
different questions; the honest man answered him thus, "I am very
ignorant, sir, but I am contented with my ignorance; however, we have
in this neighborhood an old man retired from court, who is the most
learned and communicative person in the whole kingdom."
He then conducted Cacambo to the old man; Candide acted now only a
second character, and attended his valet. They entered a very plain
house, for the door was nothing but silver, and the ceiling was only
of beaten gold, but wrought in such elegant taste as to vie with the
richest. The antechamber, indeed, was only incrusted with rubies and
emeralds; but the order in which everything was disposed made amends
for this great simplicity.
The old man received the strangers on his sofa, which was stuffed
with hummingbirds' feathers; and ordered his servants to present them
with liquors in golden goblets, after which he satisfied their
curiosity in the following terms.
"I am now one hundred and seventy-two years old, and I learned of my
late father, who was equerry to the King, the amazing revolutions of
Peru, to which he had been an eyewitness. This kingdom is the ancient
patrimony of the Incas, who very imprudently quitted it to conquer
another part of the world, and were at length conquered and destroyed
themselves by the Spaniards.
"Those princes of their family who remained in their native country
acted more wisely. They ordained, with the consent of their whole
nation, that none of the inhabitants of our little kingdom should ever
quit it; and to this wise ordinance we owe the preservation of our
innocence and happiness. The Spaniards had some confused notion of
this country, to which they gave the name of El Dorado; and Sir
Walter Raleigh, an Englishman, actually came very near it about three
hundred years ago; but the inaccessible rocks and precipices with
which our country is surrounded on all sides, has hitherto secured us
from the rapacious fury of the people of Europe, who have an
unaccountable fondness for the pebbles and dirt of our land, for the
sake of which they would murder us all to the very last man."
The conversation lasted some time and turned chiefly on the form of
government, their manners, their women, their public diversions, and
the arts. At length, Candide, who had always had a taste for
metaphysics, asked whether the people of that country had any
religion.
The old man reddened a little at this question.
"Can you doubt it?" said he; "do you take us for wretches lost to
all sense of gratitude?"
Cacambo asked in a respectful manner what was the established
religion of El Dorado. The old man blushed again and said, "Can there
be two religions, then? Ours, I apprehend, is the religion of the
whole world; we worship God from morning till night."
"Do you worship but one God?" said Cacambo, who still acted as the
interpreter of Candide's doubts.
"Certainly," said the old man; "there are not two, nor three, nor
four Gods. I must confess the people of your world ask very
extraordinary questions."
However, Candide could not refrain from making many more inquiries
of the old man; he wanted to know in what manner they prayed to God in
El Dorado.
"We do not pray to Him at all," said the reverend sage; "we have
nothing to ask of Him, He has given us all we want, and we give Him
thanks incessantly."
Candide had a curiosity to see some of their priests, and desired
Cacambo to ask the old man where they were. At which he smiling said,
"My friends, we are all of us priests; the King and all the heads of
families sing solemn hymns of thanksgiving every morning, accompanied
by five or six thousand musicians."
"What!" said Cacambo, "have you no monks among you to dispute, to
govern, to intrigue, and to burn people who are not of the same
opinion with themselves?"
"Do you take us for fools?" said the old man. "Here we are all of
one opinion, and know not what you mean by your monks."
During the whole of this discourse Candide was in raptures, and he
said to himself, "What a prodigious difference is there between this
place and Westphalia; and this house and the Baron's castle. Ah,
Master Pangloss! had you ever seen El Dorado, you would no longer have
maintained that the castle of Thunder-ten-tronckh was the finest of
all possible edifices; there is nothing like seeing the world, that's
certain."
This long conversation being ended, the old man ordered six sheep to
be harnessed and put to the coach, and sent twelve of his servants to
escort the travelers to court.
"Excuse me," said he, "for not waiting on you in person, my age
deprives me of that honor. The King will receive you in such a manner
that you will have no reason to complain; and doubtless you will make
a proper allowance for the customs of the country if they should not
happen altogether to please you."
Candide and Cacambo got into the coach, the six sheep flew, and, in
less than a quarter of an hour, they arrived at the King's palace,
which was situated at the further end of the capital. At the entrance
was a portal two hundred and twenty feet high and one hundred wide;
but it is impossible for words to express the materials of which it
was built. The reader, however, will readily conceive that they must
have a prodigious superiority over the pebbles and sand, which we call
gold and precious stones.
Twenty beautiful young virgins in waiting received Candide and
Cacambo on their alighting from the coach, conducted them to the bath
and clad them in robes woven of the down of hummingbirds; after which
they were introduced by the great officers of the crown of both sexes
to the King's apartment, between two files of musicians, each file
consisting of a thousand, agreeable to the custom of the country.
When they drew near to the presence-chamber, Cacambo asked one of
the officers in what manner they were to pay their obeisance to His
Majesty; whether it was the custom to fall upon their knees, or to
prostrate themselves upon the ground; whether they were to put their
hands upon their heads, or behind their backs; whether they were to
lick the dust off the floor; in short, what was the ceremony usual on
such occasions.
"The custom," said the great officer, "is to embrace the King and
kiss him on each cheek."
Candide and Cacambo accordingly threw their arms round His Majesty's
neck, who received them in the most gracious manner imaginable, and
very politely asked them to sup with him.
While supper was preparing, orders were given to show them the city,
where they saw public structures that reared their lofty heads to the
clouds; the marketplaces decorated with a thousand columns; fountains
of spring water, besides others of rose water, and of liquors drawn
from the sugarcane, incessantly flowing in the great squares, which
were paved with a kind of precious stones that emitted an odor like
that of cloves and cinnamon.
Candide asked to see the High Court of Justice, the Parliament; but
was answered that they had none in that country, being utter strangers
to lawsuits. He then inquired if they had any prisons; they replied
none. But what gave him at once the greatest surprise and pleasure was
the Palace of Sciences, where he saw a gallery two thousand feet long,
filled with the various apparatus in mathematics and natural
philosophy.
After having spent the whole afternoon in seeing only about the
thousandth part of the city, they were brought back to the King's
palace. Candide sat down at the table with His Majesty, his valet
Cacambo, and several ladies of the court. Never was entertainment more
elegant, nor could any one possibly show more wit than His Majesty
displayed while they were at supper. Cacambo explained all the King's
bons mots to Candide, and, although they were translated, they still
appeared to be bons mots. Of all the things that surprised Candide,
this was not the least.
They spent a whole month in this hospitable place, during which time
Candide was continually saying to Cacambo, "I own, my friend, once
more, that the castle where I was born is a mere nothing in comparison
to the place where we now are; but still Miss Cunegund is not here,
and you yourself have doubtless some fair one in Europe for whom you
sigh. If we remain here we shall only be as others are; whereas if we
return to our own world with only a dozen of El Dorado sheep, loaded
with the pebbles of this country, we shall be richer than all the
kings in Europe; we shall no longer need to stand in awe of the
Inquisitors; and we may easily recover Miss Cunegund."
This speech was perfectly agreeable to Cacambo. A fondness for
roving, for making a figure in their own country, and for boasting of
what they had seen in their travels, was so powerful in our two
wanderers that they resolved to be no longer happy; and demanded
permission of the King to quit the country.
"You are about to do a rash and silly action," said the King. "I am
sensible my kingdom is an inconsiderable spot; but when people are
tolerably at their ease in any place, I should think it would be to
their interest to remain there. Most assuredly, I have no right to
detain you, or any strangers, against your wills; this is an act of
tyranny to which our manners and our laws are equally repugnant. All
men are by nature free; you have therefore an undoubted liberty to
depart whenever you please, but you will have many and great
difficulties to encounter in passing the frontiers. It is impossible
to ascend that rapid river which runs under high and vaulted rocks,
and by which you were conveyed hither by a kind of miracle. The
mountains by which my kingdom are hemmed in on all sides, are ten
thousand feet high, and perfectly perpendicular; they are above ten
leagues across, and the descent from them is one continued precipice.
"However, since you are determined to leave us, I will immediately
give orders to the superintendent of my carriages to cause one to be
made that will convey you very safely. When they have conducted you to
the back of the mountains, nobody can attend you farther; for my
subjects have made a vow never to quit the kingdom, and they are too
prudent to break it. Ask me whatever else you please."
"All we shall ask of Your Majesty," said Cacambo, "is only a few
sheep laden with provisions, pebbles, and the clay of your country."
The King smiled at the request and said, "I cannot imagine what
pleasure you Europeans find in our yellow clay; but take away as much
of it as you will, and much good may it do you."
He immediately gave orders to his engineers to make a machine to
hoist these two extraordinary men out of the kingdom. Three thousand
good machinists went to work and finished it in about fifteen days,
and it did not cost more than twenty millions sterling of that
country's money. Candide and Cacambo were placed on this machine, and
they took with them two large red sheep, bridled and saddled, to ride
upon, when they got on the other side of the mountains; twenty others
to serve as sumpters for carrying provisions; thirty laden with
presents of whatever was most curious in the country, and fifty with
gold, diamonds, and other precious stones. The King, at parting with
our two adventurers, embraced them with the greatest cordiality.
It was a curious sight to behold the manner of their setting off,
and the ingenious method by which they and their sheep were hoisted to
the top of the mountains. The machinists and engineers took leave of
them as soon as they had conveyed them to a place of safety, and
Candide was wholly occupied with the thoughts of presenting his sheep
to Miss Cunegund.
"Now," cried he, "thanks to Heaven, we have more than sufficient to
pay the Governor of Buenos Ayres for Miss Cunegund, if she is
redeemable. Let us make the best of our way to Cayenne, where we will
take shipping and then we may at leisure think of what kingdom we
shall purchase with our riches."
CHAPTER 19: What Happened to Them at Surinam, and How Candide
Became Acquainted with Martin
-
Our travelers' first day's journey was very pleasant; they were
elated with the prospect of possessing more riches than were to be
found in Europe, Asia, and Africa together. Candide, in amorous
transports, cut the name of Miss Cunegund on almost every tree he came
to. The second day two of their sheep sunk in a morass, and were
swallowed up with their lading; two more died of fatigue; some few
days afterwards seven or eight perished with hunger in a desert, and
others, at different times, tumbled down precipices, or were otherwise
lost, so that, after traveling about a hundred days they had only two
sheep left of the hundred and two they brought with them from El
Dorado.
Said Candide to Cacambo, "You see, my dear friend, how perishable
the riches of this world are; there is nothing solid but virtue."
"Very true," said Cacambo, "but we have still two sheep remaining,
with more treasure than ever |
