sessed of these ideas he retired to a country house on the banks of
the Euphrates. There he did not employ himself in calculating how many
inches of water flow in a second of time under the arches of a bridge,
or whether there fell a cube line of rain in the month of the Mouse
more than in the month of the Sheep. He never dreamed of making silk of
cobwebs, or porcelain of broken bottles; but he chiefly studied the
properties of plants and animals; and soon acquired a sagacity that
made him discover a thousand differences where other men see nothing
but uniformity.

One day, as he was walking near a little wood, he saw one of the
queen's eunuchs running toward him, followed by several officers, who
appeared to be in great perplexity, and who ran to and fro like men
distracted, eagerly searching for something they had lost of great
value. "Young man," said the first eunuch, "hast thou seen the queen's
dog?" "It is a female," replied Zadig. "Thou art in the right,"
returned the first eunuch. "It is a very small she spaniel," added
Zadig; "she has lately whelped; she limps on the left forefoot, and has
very long ears." "Thou hast seen her," said the first eunuch, quite out
of breath. "No," replied Zadig, "I have not seen her, nor did I so much
as know that the queen had a dog."

Exactly at the same time, by one of the common freaks of fortune, the
finest horse in the king's stable had escaped from the jockey in the
plains of Babylon. The principal huntsman and all the other officers
ran after him with as much eagerness and anxiety as the first eunuch
had done after the spaniel. The principal huntsman addressed himself to
Zadig, and asked him if he had not seen the king's horse passing by.
"He is the fleetest horse in the king's stable," replied Zadig; "he is
five feet high, with very small hoofs, and a tail three feet and a half
in length; the studs on his bit are gold of twenty-three carats, and
his shoes are silver of eleven pennyweights." "What way did he take?
where is he?" demanded the chief huntsman. "I have not seen him,"
replied Zadig, "and never heard talk of him before."

The principal huntsman and the first eunuch never doubted but that
Zadig had stolen the king's horse and the queen's spaniel. They
therefore had him conducted before the assembly of the grand desterham,
who condemned him to the knout, and to spend the rest of his days in
Siberia. Hardly was the sentence passed when the horse and the spaniel
we