At that very instant, His Bulgarian Majesty happening to pass by
made a stop, and inquired into the delinquent's crime, and being a
prince of great penetration, he found, from what he heard of
Candide, that he was a young metaphysician, entirely ignorant of the
world; and therefore, out of his great clemency, he condescended to
pardon him, for which his name will be celebrated in every journal,
and in every age. A skillful surgeon made a cure of the flagellated
Candide in three weeks by means of emollient unguents prescribed by
Dioscorides. His sores were now skimmed over and he was able to march,
when the King of the Bulgarians gave battle to the King of the Abares.
CHAPTER 3
How Candide Escaped from the Bulgarians and What Befell Him
Afterward
Never was anything so gallant, so well accoutred, so brilliant,
and so finely disposed as the two armies. The trumpets, fifes,
hautboys, drums, and cannon made such harmony as never was heard in
Hell itself. The entertainment began by a discharge of cannon,
which, in the twinkling of an eye, laid flat about 6,000 men on each
side. The musket bullets swept away, out of the best of all possible
worlds, nine or ten thousand scoundrels that infested its surface. The
bayonet was next the sufficient reason of the deaths of several
thousands.
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