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With mutual Ardour, they repeated the Demonstration; till at last the Demonstrator quite spent, sunk under the Fatigue of the Arguments. In this Manner Zeokinizul and Lenertoula amused themselves, when he was informed of the Barbarity with which his Enemies carried on the War in his Country, at which he was deeply affected.
The Favourite followed the King as Lenertoula had done, whom she certainly equalled both in Love and Honour. The Campaign was opened with the Siege of a Town which the great Zeokitarezul had fortified at a prodigious Expence, which, besides a strong regular Wall and Outworks, had a Citadel which was accounted by the Connoisseurs, a Master-piece of Fortification.
Lenertoula, that he might talk more at Ease, desired him to sit down by her upon a Bank of Turf, and after some Questions on the Condition of his Fortune, offered him her Services, if needful, for its Improvement.
His Fondness for Lenertoula did not slacken his Pursuit of Glory, it rather tended to animate and increase it, she being exorbitantly ambitious, and esteeming her Lover's Laurels her own; upon a Persuasion that her Grandeur would increase with the King's Power; then her Pride could not bear the Thought that the Queen of Ghinoer and her Allies should prescribe Laws to a Prince, whom she would have under no Controul but her own.
During the first Days of his Illness, Lenertoula never left the royal Patient's Bed, who also protested, that Death had nothing bitter to him, but the leaving his Mistress and his Subjects. But no sooner was the Monarch sensible of his desperate Condition, than a Cloud of awful Ideas broke in upon his Mind. The Principles he had imbibed by Education, revived in his Conscience.
His Love for Lenertoula appear'd to have been like a sudden Fire, ready to burst out with greater Vehemence. At first he was sorry for his using her so abruptly; than he began to frown on the Advisers of her disgraceful Removal, and recall'd Kelirieu and others who had sided with his injured Favorite.
It having been whispered among the Country Folks, that Lenertoula had occasioned the King's Illness, and they being possess'd of a Notion, propagated by her Enemies, that she had been bribed to poison the King, crowded all the Roads in her Way, loading her with Curses and Invectives, threatning to tear her to Pieces, had they not thought it would be a more galling Punishment to her Pride, to let her pass on amidst the same Hisses and Outrages of their Fellows, for above eighty Leagues successively.
Zeokinizul, who now was intent only upon dying in the Religion of his Ancestors, pleasing his People, and carrying their Esteem as well as their Grief with him to the Grave, complied with all the Mollak's Injunctions, ordered Lenertoula to be immediately dismissed the Court, with a Prohibition from ever appearing in his Presence.
Thus, under a Pretence that true Repentance required more than a Detestation of what was past, and guarding against future Relapses, he signified to Zeokinizul, that it was still his farther Duty to make some signal Satisfaction for the Offence which he had given to the whole Kingdom. That in order thereto, he must disapprove and abrogate all his Grants and Favours to Lenertoula.
Lenertoula was so fully satisfied by such evident Proofs of her Sovereign's Love, that she now consented to make him happy. Jeflur was now no longer in a Condition to contrive her Fall, as he had that of Leutinemil. He was too much shock'd at the Sight of his approaching End; for a few Days more were to terminate his Greatness.
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