Les Bijoux Indiscrets, or, The Indiscreet ToysDiderot, Denis
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Les Bijoux Indiscrets, or, The Indiscreet Toys
Diderot, Denis
Erotic fiction; Louis XV, King of France, 1710-1774 -- Fiction
Mangogul got up in wrath, went away, and in the twinkling of an eye
was in the favorite Sultana's appartment. "Well, prince," said she
upon seeing him, "who has won the day, you or Orcotomus? For his
Toys have performed wonders to be sure." The Sultan took some turns
about the room without a word of answer. "But," resumed the favorite,
"your highness seems dissatisfied." "Oh! madam, the impudence of that
Orcotomus is not to be match'd. Pray, do not so much as mention him
from this moment--What will you say, O future generations, when you
shall be informed, that the great Mangogul allowed a hundred thousand
crowns in yearly pensions to such fellows; while gallant officers, who
with their blood had watered the laurels that surround his brow, were
reduced to twenty pound a year?----By Jove, the thought distracts me: I
shall be out of humor this month to come."
Here Mangogul broke off, and continued to walk about the room. He hung
down his head, marched to and fro, stop'd, and now and then stamp'd the
floor with his foot. He sat down a moment, rose up in a hurry, took his
leave of Mirzoza, forgot to kiss her, and retir'd to his own appartment.
The African author, who has immortalized himself by the history of the
high and marvellous exploits of Erguebzed and Mangogul, continues in
these words:
By Mangogul's ill humor it was thought, that he was on the point of
banishing all the learned out of his dominions. Far from it, the next
day he arose in a gay mood, performed his exercises at the riding-house
in the morning, in the evening supp'd with Mirzoza and some favorites,
under a magnificent tent in the gardens of the Seraglio, and never
appeared more disengaged from affairs of state.
The dissatisfied and the disaffected of Congo, and the newsmongers of
Banza, did not fail to spread their reports of this conduct. For what
do not people of this stamp find fault with? "Is this," said they in
the public walks and coffee-houses, "is this governing a state? To
spend the day in tilting, and the night at table." "Well, if I was
Sultan," cried a little Senator ruined by gaming, parted from his wife,
and whose children had the worst of education, "if I was Sultan, I
would make Congo a flourishing empire. I would be the terror of my
enemies, and the darling of my subjects. Within six months I would
reestablish the Police, the laws, the army and the navy in their full
vigour. I would have a hundred ships of the line. Our heaths should
soon be grub'd up, and our high-ways repair'd. I would abolish the
taxes, or at least reduce them to one half. As for pensions, gentlemen
of sublime wit, by my faith, ye should but just taste them with the
tip of your tongues. Good officers, Pongo Sabiam, good officers, old
soldiers, magistrates like us, who devote our labours and night studies
to dealing out justice to the people; these are the men on whom I would
shed my bounty."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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