The slaughter on Turkish and Russian sides alike was very great, and Azov was put to fire and sword, neither age nor sex being spared. Only the fort, where the members of the seraglio were lodged, protected by two eunuchs and twenty Janizaries, remained. The Russians sought to starve them out; the determined but starving Janizaries ate the two eunuchs rather than surrender. A few days later, they were about to eat the women, but a pious, compassionate imam (Mohammedan priest) persuaded them to restrain themselves and to cut off only one buttock from each of the ladies. The horrible operation was performed just before the Russians arrived in flat-bottomed boats and slaughtered the Janizaries. Fortunately, there were French surgeons available, and one of them took care of the ladies. Not only did he cure them but he was most consoling: it was a law of war for them to be so treated.
The girl and her companions were sent to Moscow, where she was given as a slave to a boyar (Russian nobleman), who made her his gardener and saw to it that she was beaten daily. But the boyar himself was broken on the wheel with some other noblemen for some petty offense, and the girl was able to escape across the whole of Russia. She traveled far in Western Europe, working as a servant in various cities, including Rotterdam. Once most beautiful, she had indeed grown old in misery. Many times she had wanted to end her life, but she still loved it, for this clinging to life is one of the evidences of humanity's stupidity. Man caresses the serpent that devours life until it has eaten up his heart. Among the very few who loathed their lives and had the courage to commit suicide, she cited the case of the German professor Robeck, author of dissertations on the futility of life, who drowned himself in 1739 at the age of sixty-seven.
The old woman had made her point. Most things are relative. Cunégonde, a baron's daughter, had indeed suffered much. But evil pervades the world, and others have suffered, often to a far greater extent. After all, how many have been deprived of a buttock? Her concluding advice is that one should get what enjoyment one can and learn from others in life's journey. Nowhere will Cunégonde find a person who has not often cursed life and contemplated suicide.
