"
"But," said Cacambo, "the Captain, who, as well as myself, is
perishing of hunger, is no Spaniard, but a German; therefore, pray,
might we not be permitted to break our fast till we can be
introduced to His Reverence?"
The sergeant immediately went and acquainted the Commandant with
what he heard.
"God be praised," said the Reverend Commandant, "since he is a
German I will hear what he has to say; let him be brought to my
arbor."
Immediately they conducted Candide to a beautiful pavilion adomed
with a colonnade of green marble, spotted with yellow, and with an
intertexture of vines, which served as a kind of cage for parrots,
humming birds, guinea hens, and all other curious kinds of birds. An
excellent breakfast was provided in vessels of gold; and while the
Paraguayans were eating coarse Indian corn out of wooden dishes in the
open air, and exposed to the burning heat of the sun, the Reverend
Father Commandant retired to his cool arbor.
He was a very handsome young man, round-faced, fair, and
fresh-colored, his eyebrows were finely arched, he had a piercing eye,
the tips of his ears were red, his lips vermilion, and he had a bold
and commanding air; but such a boldness as neither resembled that of a
Spaniard nor of a Jesuit.
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