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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow LETTER CXLVII.: The Chief Eunuch to Usbek at Paris. - Complete Works, vol. 3 (Grandeur and Declension of the Roman Empire; A Dialogue between Sylla and Eucrates; Persian Letters)

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Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: History
Collection: Banned Books

LETTER CXLVII.: The Chief Eunuch to Usbek at Paris. - Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Complete Works, vol. 3 (Grandeur and Declension of the Roman Empire; A Dialogue between Sylla and Eucrates; Persian Letters) [1721]

Edition used:

The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 3.

Part of: Complete Works of Montesquieu, 4 vols.

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LETTER CXLVII.

The Chief Eunuch to Usbek at Paris.

THINGS are come to such a pass here, that the state they are in is almost desperate; your wives have taken it into their heads, that your departure has left them entirely at liberty, and that they may do what they please with impunity: most shocking things are done here, I cannot write the dreadful account of them without trembling. Zelis, as she was the other day going to the mosque, let drop her veil, and appeared with her face almost entirely uncovered before the people. I found Zachi in bed with one of her female slaves, a thing positively forbidden by the laws of the seraglio. I, by meer accident, surprised the letter which I now send you; I could not possibly discover who it was intended for. Yesterday a young lad was found in the garden of the seraglio, but he made his escape over the walls. To this add all that has escaped my knowledge; you must doubtless have been betrayed. I wait for your orders, and till the happy moment that I receive them, shall remain in constant anxiety. But if you do not give me an arbitrary power over all these women, I cannot answer for any of them, but shall every day have news equally afflicting to send you.

Usbek to the Chief Eunuch at the Seraglio of Ispahan.

RECEIVE, by virtue of this letter, an unlimited power over the whole seraglio: command with as much authority as I do myself: let fear and terror accompany you every where; visit every apartment with correction and punishment; let consternation seize upon all; let all shed tears in thy presence: question all that belong to the seraglio: begin with the slaves; do not spare even my love: let all be subject to your awful tribunal: discover the most hidden secrets; purify the infamous place, and make banished virtue return once more to it. For, from this moment, I will place the smallest faults committed there to your account. I suspect that Zelis is the person to whom the letter you intercepted was addressed: pry into that affair with the eyes of a lynx.