From the time that Mangogul had received the fatal present of Cucufa, the ridicules and vices of the sex were become the eternal subject of his jokes: he was never done with them, and his favorite’s patience was frequently quite tired out. Now, two cruel effects of this teasing on her, as well as on many others, was to put her into a bad humor, and to sour her temper. At those times woe to him that came near her: she made no distinction of persons, and the Sultan himself was not spared.

“Prince,” said she to him, in one of these peevish fits, “though you are so knowing in many things, perhaps you do not know the news of the day.”

“What is it?” said Mangogul.

“It is, that every morning you get by heart three pages of Brantome, or of Ouville: people do not determine which of these two profound writers you prefer.”

“They are mistaken, madam,” answered Mangogul, “ ’tis Crebillon, that⁠—”

“O, pray don’t excuse yourself from that sort of reading,” interrupted the favorite. “The new calumnies that are invented on us, are so insipid, that it is better to revive the old. Truly there are very good things in this same Brantome: if to these little stories you add three or four chapters of Bayle, you alone will in a thrice have as much wit as the marquiss D’⁠⸺, and the Chevalier de Mouhi. That would spread a surprising variety on your conversation. When you have equipped the ladies from head to foot, you might then fall on the Pagodas; and from the Pagodas you might return on the women. In truth, all that you want to make you quite diverting, is a small collection of impieties.”

“You are in the right, madam,” answered Mangogul, “and I will take care to lay in a good stock. He who is afraid of being duped in this world and the next, cannot be too much upon his guard against the power of the Pagodas, the probity of men, and virtue of women.”

“Then, in your opinion, this virtue is a very ambiguous thing?” replied Mirzoza.

“More so than you imagine,” answered Mangogul.

“Prince,” returned Mirzoza, “you have a hundred times talk’d to me of your ministers as the honestest men in Congo. I have so often patiently heard the praises of your Seneschal, of the governors of your provinces, of your secretaries, of your treasurer, in a word, of all your officers, that I am able to repeat them by memory word for word. It is strange, that the object of your tenderness should be the only person excepted from the good opinion, which you have conceived of those who have the honor of being near your person.”

“And who told you that it is so?” replied the Sultan. “Be persuaded, madam, that the discourses, true or false, which I make on women, do by no means concern you, unless you think proper to represent the sex in general.”

“I should not advise madam to that,” added Selim, who was present at this conversation. “She would gain nothing by it but defects.”

“I do not,” answered Mirzoza, “relish compliments which are addressed to me at the expense of my sex. When anyone takes it into his head to praise me, I could wish that nobody suffered by it. Most of the fine speeches which are offered to us, are like the sumptuous entertainments which your highness receives from your Pacha’s: they are always at the expense of the public.”

“Let us pass that by,” said Mangogul. “But sincerely, are you not convinced that the virtue of the women of Congo is but a mere chimaera? Pray observe, my soul’s delight, what the present fashionable education is, what examples mothers set to their daughters, and how the head of a pretty woman is filled with the notion, that to confine herself to domestic affairs, to manage her family, and keep to her husband, is to lead a dismal life, to be eat up with vapors, and to bury herself alive. And at the same time we men are so forward, and a young unexperienced girl is so raptured with being attack’d. I have said that virtuous women were rare, excessively rare; and far from changing my sentiment, I might add freely, that ’tis surprising they are not more so. Ask Selim what he thinks of the matter.”

“Prince,” answered Mirzoza, “Selim has too great obligations to our sex, to tear them in pieces without mercy.”

“Madam,” said Selim, “his highness, who could not possibly meet with cruel women, ought naturally to think of the sex as he does: and you, who have the good nature to judge of others by yourself, can hardly have any other sentiments than those which you defend. I will own however, that I am apt to believe there are women of sense, to whom the benefits of virtue are known by experience, and whom a serious reflection has convinced of the ill consequences of an irregular life; women happily born, well educated, who have learn’d to feel their duty, who love it, and will never swerve from it.”

“And not to lose ourselves in speculative reasoning,” added the favorite, “is not Egle, with all her sprightliness and charms, a model of virtue? Prince, you cannot doubt it, and all Banza knows it from your mouth: now, if there be one virtuous woman, there may be a thousand.”

“Oh! as to the possibility,” said Mangogul, “I dispute it not.”

“But if you allow it possible,” replied Mirzoza, “who has revealed to you, that they do not actually exist?”

“Nothing but their Toys,” answered the Sultan. “And yet I grant that this evidence does not come up to the strength of your argument. May I be transform’d into a mole, if you have not borrowed it from some Bramin. Order the Manimonbanda’s chaplain to be called, and he will tell you that you have proved the existence of virtuous women, much as he demonstrates that of Brama, in Braminology. Apropos, have you not taken a course in that sublime school, before you entered the Seraglio?”

“No ill-natured jokes,” replied Mirzoza. “I do not draw my conclusion from possibility: I ground it on a fact, on an experiment.”

“Yes,” continued Mangogul, “on a lame fact, on a single experiment; while, to your certain knowledge, I have a multitude of trials for my opinion: but I will not sour your temper by farther contradictions.”

“It is a favor,” said Mirzoza, “that after two hours teasing, you cease to persecute me.”

“If I have committed the fault,” answered Mangogul, “I will endeavour to make amends for it. Madam, I give up all my past advantages; and if, in the trials which I shall hereafter make, I light on a single woman really and constantly virtuous.”

“What will you do?” interrupted Mirzoza smartly.

“I will declare to the world, if you require it, that I am charmed with your reasoning on the possibility of virtuous women; I will support the reputation of your logic with all my might; and will give you my castle of Amara, with all the Saxon Porcelains which adorn it; even without excepting the little Sapajou, or red-faced monkey in Enamel, and the other valuable knickknacks, which I had out of the cabinet of Madame de Verue.”

“Prince,” says Mirzoza, “I will be content with the Porcelains of the castle, and the little monkey.”

“A bargain,” replies the Sultan, “Selim shall be our judge. I only desire a little respite before I examine Egle’s Toy. The court air, and her husband’s jealousy, must be allowed time to operate.”

Mirzoza granted a month to Mangogul; which was double the time he required: and they parted equally filled with hope.

The city of Banza also would have been full of wagers on either side, if the Sultan’s promise had been divulged. But Selim kept the secret, and Mangogul clandestinely prepared for winning or losing. As he was quitting the favorite’s apartment, he heard her call out to him from her closet: “Prince, and the little monkey.”

“And the little monkey,” answered Mangogul, and went out. He was going directly to the private lodge of a senator, whither we will attend him.