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CHAPTER X IN WHAT DISTRESS CANDIDE, CUNEGONDE, AND
THE OLD WOMAN ARRIVED AT CADIZ; AND OF THEIR EMBARKATION.
"Who was it that robbed me of my money and jewels?" said Cunegonde, all bathed in
tears. "How shall we live?
What shall we do?
Where find Inquisitors or Jews who will give me more?"
"Alas!" said the old woman, "I have a shrewd suspicion of a reverend Grey Friar,
who stayed last night in the same inn with us at Badajos.
God preserve me from judging rashly, but he came into our room twice, and he set out
upon his journey long before us."
"Alas!" said Candide, "dear Pangloss has often demonstrated to me that the goods of
this world are common to all men, and that each has an equal right to them.
But according to these principles the Grey Friar ought to have left us enough to carry
us through our journey. Have you nothing at all left, my dear
Cunegonde?"
"Not a farthing," said she. "What then must we do?" said Candide.
"Sell one of the horses," replied the old woman.
"I will ride behind Miss Cunegonde, though I can hold myself only on one buttock, and
we shall reach Cadiz."
In the same inn there was a Benedictine prior who bought the horse for a cheap
price.
Candide, Cunegonde, and the old woman, having passed through Lucena, Chillas, and
Lebrixa, arrived at length at Cadiz.
A fleet was there getting ready, and troops assembling to bring to reason the reverend
Jesuit Fathers of Paraguay, accused of having made one of the native tribes in the
neighborhood of San Sacrament revolt against the Kings of Spain and Portugal.
Candide having been in the Bulgarian service, performed the military exercise
before the general of this little army with so graceful an address, with so intrepid an
air, and with such agility and expedition,
that he was given the command of a company of foot.
Now, he was a captain!
He set sail with Miss Cunegonde, the old woman, two valets, and the two Andalusian
horses, which had belonged to the grand Inquisitor of Portugal.
During their voyage they reasoned a good deal on the philosophy of poor Pangloss.
"We are going into another world," said Candide; "and surely it must be there that
all is for the best.
For I must confess there is reason to complain a little of what passeth in our
world in regard to both natural and moral philosophy."
"I love you with all my heart," said Cunegonde; "but my soul is still full of
fright at that which I have seen and experienced."
"All will be well," replied Candide; "the sea of this new world is already better
than our European sea; it is calmer, the winds more regular.
It is certainly the New World which is the best of all possible worlds."
"God grant it," said Cunegonde; "but I have been so horribly unhappy there that my
heart is almost closed to hope."
"You complain," said the old woman; "alas! you have not known such misfortunes as
mine."
Cunegonde almost broke out laughing, finding the good woman very amusing, for
pretending to have been as unfortunate as she.
"Alas!" said Cunegonde, "my good mother, unless you have been ravished by two
Bulgarians, have received two deep wounds in your belly, have had two castles
demolished, have had two mothers cut to
pieces before your eyes, and two of your lovers whipped at an auto-da-fe, I do not
conceive how you could be more unfortunate than I.
Add that I was born a baroness of seventy- two quarterings--and have been a cook!"
"Miss," replied the old woman, "you do not know my birth; and were I to show you my
backside, you would not talk in that manner, but would suspend your judgment."
This speech having raised extreme curiosity in the minds of Cunegonde and Candide, the
old woman spoke to them as follows.