It happened that one day he took it in his head to give an entertainment
to a lady, who, instead of accepting it, went to sup with Zadig. At
another time, as he was talking with Zadig at court, a minister of state
came up to them, and invited Zadig to supper without inviting Arimazes.
The most implacable hatred has seldom a more solid foundation. This man,
who in Babylon was called the Envious, resolved to ruin Zadig because he
was called the Happy. "The opportunity of doing mischief occurs a hundred
times in a day, and that of doing good but once a year," as sayeth the
wise Zoroaster.

The envious man went to see Zadig, who was walking in his garden with two
friends and a lady, to whom he said many gallant things, without any other
intention than that of saying them. The conversation turned upon a war
which the king had just brought to a happy conclusion against the prince
of Hircania, his vassal. Zadig, who had signalized his courage in this
short war, bestowed great praises on the king, but greater still on the
lady. He took out his pocket-book, and wrote four lines extempore, which
he gave to this amiable person to read. His friends begged they might see
them; but modesty, or rather a well-regulated self love, would not allow
him to grant their request. He knew that extemporary verses are never
approved of by any but by the person in whose honor they are written. He
therefore tore in two the leaf on which he had wrote them, and threw both
the pieces into a thicket of rose-bushes, where the rest of the company
sought for them in vain. A slight shower falling soon after obliged them
to return to the house. The envious man, who stayed in the garden,
continued the search till at last he found a piece of the leaf. It had
been torn in such a manner that each half of a line formed a complete
sense, and even a verse of a shorter measure; but what was still more
surprising, these short verses were found to contain the most injurious
reflections on the king. They ran thus:

To flagrant crimes
His crown he owes,
To peaceful times
The worst of foes.

The envious man was now happy for the first time of his life. He had it in
his power to ruin a person of virtue and merit. Filled with this fiendlike
joy, he found means to convey to the king the satire written by the hand
of Zadig, who, together with the lady and his two friends, was thrown into
prison.

His trial was soon finished, without his being permitted to speak for