met you, you were singing, and caressing the Theatine with so much fondness that I absolutely thought you as happy as you say you are now miserable.”
“Ah! dear Sir,” said Pacquette, “this is one of the miseries of the trade; yesterday I was stripped and beaten by an officer; yet to-day I must appear good-humoured and gay to please a friar.”
Candide was convinced, and acknowledged that Martin was in the right. They sat down to table with Pacquette and the Theatine; the entertainment was very agreeable, and towards the end they began to converse together with some freedom.
“Father,” said Candide, to the friar, “you seem to me to enjoy a state of happiness that even kings might envy; joy and health arc painted in your countenance. You have a tight pretty wench to divert you; and you seem to be perfectly well contented with your condition as a Theatine.”
“Faith, Sir,” said Friar Giroflée, “I wish with all my soul the Theatines were every one of them at the bottom of the sea. I have been tempted a thousand times to set fire to the convent and go and turn Turk. My parents obliged me, at the age of fifteen, to put on this detestable habit only to increase the fortune of an elder brother of mine, whom God confound! Jealousy, discord, and fury reside in our convent. It is true, I have preached some paltry sermons, by which I have got a little money, half of which the prior robs me of, and the remainder helps to pay my girls; but, at night, when I go hence to my convent, I am ready to dash my brains against the walls of the dormitory; and this is the case with all the rest of our fraternity.”
Martin, turning towards Candide, with his usual indifference, said, “Well, what think you now? Have I won the wager entirely?”
Candide gave two thousand piastres to Pacquette, and a thousand to Friai Giroflée, saying, “I will answer that this will make them happy.”
“I am not of your opinion,” said Martin; “perhaps this money will only make them much more wretched.”
“Be that as it may,” said Candide, “one thing comforts me; I see that one often meets with those whom we expected never to see again; so that, perhaps, as I have found my red sheep and Pacquette, I may be lucky enough to find Miss Cunegund also.”
“I wish,” said Martin, “she one day may make you happy, but I doubt it much.”
“You are very hard of belief,” said Candide.
95
