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VOLTAIRE.

to incline her to Christianity. He proposed to purchase Zaire, Fatima, and ten Christian knights with the property he had acquired in France, and to carry them to the Court of St Louis. He had the boldness to demand from the Soldan permission to return to France on his parole, and the Soldan had the generosity to allow it. Nerestan set out, and was two years absent from Jerusalem.

Meanwhile the beauty of Zaire increased with her years, and the touching simplicity of her character aided still more than her beauty to render her lovable. Orosman saw and conversed with her. A heart like his could not love otherwise than madly. He resolved to throw off the effeminate habits which had been the bane of so many Asiatic sovereigns, and to possess in Zaire one who should share his heart with the duties of a prince and warrior. The faint ideas of Christianity, barely traced on the heart of Zaire, vanished at sight of the Soldan; she loved him no less than she was loved by him, without letting ambition mix in the least with the purity of her tenderness. This is how she speaks to her confidante Fatima:—


"Who could refuse to give him all her heart?Not I, who but for this o'ermastering lovePerchance had been a convert to the Cross,But, wooed by Orosman, I all forgot.I see but him, and my enraptured soulBrims o'er with bliss to find itself adored.Call up in your own thought his feats, his grace,That powerful arm which many kings hath crushed,That charming brow whence glory radiates,I speak not of the sceptre he confers;No, gratitude were but a small return,A slighting tribute, all too poor for love—My heart craves Orosman and not his crown.I may too easily believe his flame;But if the heavens had been harsh to him,Condemning him to chains that I have borne,And placing Syria's realm beneath my rule,
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