umes of the wine lulled him
into a gentle repose.

Zadig passed the night in the most violent perturbation. "What," said
he, "did the king lose his senses? and is he killed? I cannot help
lamenting his fate. The empire is rent in pieces; and this robber is
happy. O fortune! O destiny! A robber is happy, and the most beautiful
of nature's works hath perhaps perished in a barbarous manner or lives
in a state worse than death. O Astarte! what is become of thee?"

At daybreak he questioned all those he met in the castle; but they were
all busy, and he received no answer. During the night they had made a
new capture, and they were now employed in dividing the spoils. All he
could obtain in this hurry and confusion was an opportunity of
departing, which he immediately embraced, plunged deeper than ever in
the most gloomy and mournful reflections.

Zadig proceeded on his journey with a mind full of disquiet and
perplexity, and wholly employed on the unhappy Astarte, on the King of
Babylon, on his faithful friend Cador, on the happy robber Arbogad; in
a word, on all the misfortunes and disappointments he had hitherto
suffered.

THE FISHERMAN

At a few leagues' distance from Arbogad's castle he came to the banks
of a small river, still deploring his fate, and considering himself as
the most wretched of mankind. He saw a fisherman lying on the brink of
the river, scarcely holding, in his weak and feeble hand, a net which
he seemed ready to drop, and lifting up his eyes to Heaven.

"I am certainly," said the fisherman, "the most unhappy man in the
world. I was universally allowed to be the most famous dealer in cream
cheese in Babylon, and yet I am ruined. I had the most handsome wife
that any man in my station could have; and by her I have been betrayed.
I had still left a paltry house, and that I have seen pillaged and
destroyed. At last I took refuge in this cottage, where I have no other
resource than fishing, and yet I cannot catch a single fish. Oh, my
net! no more will I throw thee into the water; I will throw myself in
thy place." So saying, he arose and advanced forward in the attitude of
a man ready to throw himself into the river, and thus to finish his
life.

"What!" said Zadig to himself, "are there men as wretched as I?" His
eagerness to save the fisherman's life was as this reflection. He ran
to him, stopped him, and spoke to him with a tender and compassionate
air. It is commonly supposed that we are