To such a learned discourse it was impossible to make any answer. I submitted to labor in the garden of an old negress, in order to save my nose and ears. After continuing in slavery for a whole year, I was at length happily ransomed.
As I had now seen all that was rare, good, or beautiful on earth, I resolved for the future to see nothing but my own home. I took a wife, and soon suspected that she deceived me; but, notwithstanding this doubt, I still found that of all conditions of life this was much the happiest.
[1] The reader will perceive that this is a spirited satire on mankind in general, and particularly on persecution for conscience sake.—Trans.
[2] Alluding to the infamous practice of poisoning and assassination at that time prevalent in Rome.—Trans.
[3] This was the famous Concini, who was murdered on the draw-bridge of the Louvre, by the intrigues of De Luines, not without the knowledge of the king, Louis XIII. His body, which had been secretly interred in the church of St. Germain de l'Auxerrois, was next day dug up by the populace, who dragged it through the streets, then burned the flesh, and threw the bones into the river. The marshal's greatest crime was his being a foreigner.—Tr.
[4] Referring to the massacre of Protestants, on the eve of St. Bartholomew.—Tr.
Brahma, the Creator.—Vishnu, the Preserver. —Siva, the Destroyer.