"Madam," says Selim to the favorite, "might not Fulvia be of use to you in some station or other?" "As how?" ask'd Mirzoza. "I have observed," answered the courtier, "that the Toys have seldom or never spoke, but in presence of his highness; and I have fancied, that the Genius Cucufa, who has done so many surprising things in favour of Kanaglou the Sultan's grand-father, might have endowed his grand-son with the gift of making them speak. But Fulvia's Toy has not as yet opened its mouth, as far as I could ever learn: might it not be possible to interrogate it, in order to procure you the castle, and to convince me of the fidelity of my mistress?" "Doubtless," replied the Sultan; "what is your opinion, madam?" "Oh! I shall not meddle in so ticklish an affair. Selim is too much my friend, to expose him, for the sake of a castle; to the risque of being made unhappy the rest of his days." "But you do not consider," replied the Sultan: "Fulvia is virtuous: Selim would run his hand into the fire to prove it. He has said it, and he is not a man to flinch from his word." "No, Prince," answered Selim, "and if your highness will give me a meeting at Fulvia's house, I will certainly be there before you." "Be cautious of what you propose," replied the favorite. "Selim, my poor Selim, you go very fast, and how worthy soever you are of being beloved"—"Fear not, madam; since the dye is cast, I will hear Fulvia: the worst that can befal me, is to lose a faithless woman." "And to die of regret," added the Sultana, "for having lost her." "What a romance," says Mangogul. "You believe then that Selim is become very weak. He has lost the lovely Cydalisa, and yet there he is full of life; and you pretend, that if he happened to find Fulvia unfaithful to him, it would kill him. I'll insure him to you as immortal, if he is never demolished but by that stroke. Selim, to morrow at Fulvia's, do you hear? you will have notice of the hour." Selim bow'd, Mangogul quitted the company: the favorite continued to remonstrate to the old courtier, that he play'd a high game. Selim thank'd her for her tokens of good will, and each retired in expectation of the great event.
[CHAP. XLVI.]
Twenty-seventh Trial of the Ring.
Fulvia.
The African author, who had promised to bring Selim's character into some part of his book, has thought fit to place it here: and I have too much esteem for the works of antiquity, to assert that it would come in better some where else. "There are," says he, "some men, whose merit gives them access every where, who by their graceful person, and free easy wit, are in their youth the darlings of many women; and whose gray hairs are respected, because having known how to reconcile their duties with their pleasures, they have rendered their middle stage of life illustrious, by services done for the state: in a word, men, who at all times are the delight of society. Such was Selim. Though he had reached sixty years, and that he had entered the list of pleasure early; a strong constitution and some management had preserved him from the infirmities of age. A noble air, an easy carriage, insinuating language, a great knowledge of the world, founded on long experience, the habit of dealing with the sex, made him to be regarded at court, as a man whom every body would chuse to resemble, but who would be unsuccessfully copied, for want of being endowed by nature with the talents and genius which had distinguished him.
"Now I desire to know," continues the African author, "if this man had reason to make himself uneasy on the score of a mistress, and to spend the night like a mad man? For the fact is, that a thousand reflexions rolled in his head; and the more he loved Fulvia, the more he feared to find her unfaithful. 'Into what labyrinth have I thrust my self?' said he to himself. 'And to what purpose? What advantage will accrue to me, in case the favorite should win a castle; and what will be my fate, if she loses it? But why should she lose it? Am I not certain of Fulvia's love? Ah! I am in the sole and entire possession of her; and if her Toy speak, it will be of me alone.—But if the treacherous—no, no, I should have had some previous notion of it; I should have observed some unevenness in her temper. Some time or other, these five years past, she would have betrayed herself.—Yet the trial is dangerous.——But it is now no longer time to recoil, I have lifted the vessel to my mouth, I must finish, tho' I were to spill the liquor.——Perhaps also the oracle will be in my favour.—Alas! what can I expect from it? Why must others have failed in their attacks on that virtue, over which I have triumphed?——Ah! dear Fulvia, I wrong thee by my suspicions, and I forget what it cost me to conquer thee. A ray of hope enlightens me, and I flatter myself that thy Toy will obstinately keep silence.——'"
Selim was in this agitation of mind, when he received a card from the Sultan, which contained these words: This night, precisely at half an hour after eleven, you will be where you know. Selim took his pen, and answered with a trembling hand: Prince, I will obey.
Selim passed the rest of the day, as he had done the preceding night, fluctuating between hope and fear. Nothing is truer, than that lovers have an instinct: if their mistress be unfaithful, they are seized with an horror much like to that, which animals feel at the approach of bad weather. The suspicious lover is a cat, whose ear itches in cloudy weather. Animals and lovers have this property also in common, that domestic animals lose this instinct, and that it grows dull in lovers, when they are converted into husbands.
The hours seemed very tedious to Selim, he look'd a hundred times on his watch: infine the fatal moment came, and the courtier went to visit his mistress. It was late, but as he had admission at all hours, Fulvia's appartment was opened for him——"I had given you over," said she, "and I went to bed with a swimming in my head, which I owe to the impatience you have thrown me into"——"Madam," answered Selim, "business and respect have detained me with the Sultan; and since I parted from you, I have not been master of myself one moment." "And for my part," replied Fulvia, "I have been in a dreadful humour. How! two whole days without seeing you."—"You know," answered Selim, "what my rank obliges me to: and let the favour of the great appear ever so fixed"——"How," interrupted Fulvia, "has the Sultan shewn you any coldness? Has he forgot your services? Selim, you are pensive, you do not answer me.——Alas! if you love me, of what avail is the prince's good or bad reception to your happiness. It is not in his eyes, it is in mine, 'tis in my arms that you are to seek it."