<h3>I - CHAPTER VII.</h3>
<p class="gutsumm">The author, being informed of a design to
accuse him of high-treason, makes his escape to Blefuscu.
His reception there.</p>
<p>Before I proceed to give an account of my leaving this
kingdom, it may be proper to inform the reader of a private
intrigue which had been for two months forming against me.</p>
<p>I had been hitherto, all my life, a stranger to courts, for
which I was unqualified by the meanness of my condition. I
had indeed heard and read enough of the dispositions of great
princes and ministers, but never expected to have found such
terrible effects of them, in so remote a country, governed, as I
thought, by very different maxims from those in Europe.</p>
<p>When I was just preparing to pay my attendance on the emperor
of Blefuscu, a considerable person at court (to whom I had been
very serviceable, at a time when he lay under the highest
displeasure of his imperial majesty) came to my house very
privately at night, in a close chair, and, without sending his
name, desired admittance. The chairmen were dismissed; I
put the chair, with his lordship in it, into my coat-pocket: and,
giving orders to a trusty servant, to say I was indisposed and
gone to sleep, I fastened the door of my house, placed the chair
on the table, according to my usual custom, and sat down by
it. After the common salutations were over, observing his
lordship’s countenance full of concern, and inquiring into
the reason, he desired “I would hear him with patience, in
a matter that highly concerned my honour and my
life.” His speech was to the following effect, for I
took notes of it as soon as he left me:—</p>
<p>“You are to know,” said he, “that several
committees of council have been lately called, in the most
private manner, on your account; and it is but two days since his
majesty came to a full resolution.</p>
<p>“You are very sensible that Skyresh Bolgolam”
(<i>galbet</i>, or high-admiral) “has been your mortal
enemy, almost ever since your arrival. His original reasons
I know not; but his hatred is increased since your great success
against Blefuscu, by which his glory as admiral is much
obscured. This lord, in conjunction with Flimnap the
high-treasurer, whose enmity against you is notorious on account
of his lady, Limtoc the general, Lalcon the chamberlain, and
Balmuff the grand justiciary, have prepared articles of
impeachment against you, for treason and other capital
crimes.”</p>
<p>This preface made me so impatient, being conscious of my own
merits and innocence, that I was going to interrupt him; when he
entreated me to be silent, and thus proceeded:—</p>
<p>“Out of gratitude for the favours you have done me, I
procured information of the whole proceedings, and a copy of the
articles; wherein I venture my head for your service.</p>
<blockquote><p>“‘<i>Articles of Impeachment
against</i> QUINBUS FLESTRIN, (<i>the Man-Mountain</i>.)</p>
<p><span class="smcap">Article</span> I.</p>
<p>“‘Whereas, by a statute made in the reign of his
imperial majesty Calin Deffar Plune, it is enacted, that, whoever
shall make water within the precincts of the royal palace, shall
be liable to the pains and penalties of high-treason;
notwithstanding, the said Quinbus Flestrin, in open breach of the
said law, under colour of extinguishing the fire kindled in the
apartment of his majesty’s most dear imperial consort, did
maliciously, traitorously, and devilishly, by discharge of his
urine, put out the said fire kindled in the said apartment, lying
and being within the precincts of the said royal palace, against
the statute in that case provided, etc. against the duty,
etc.</p>
<p><span class="smcap">Article</span> II.</p>
<p>“‘That the said Quinbus Flestrin, having brought
the imperial fleet of Blefuscu into the royal port, and being
afterwards commanded by his imperial majesty to seize all the
other ships of the said empire of Blefuscu, and reduce that
empire to a province, to be governed by a viceroy from hence, and
to destroy and put to death, not only all the Big-endian exiles,
but likewise all the people of that empire who would not
immediately forsake the Big-endian heresy, he, the said Flestrin,
like a false traitor against his most auspicious, serene,
imperial majesty, did petition to be excused from the said
service, upon pretence of unwillingness to force the consciences,
or destroy the liberties and lives of an innocent people.</p>
<p><span class="smcap">Article</span> III.</p>
<p>“‘That, whereas certain ambassadors arrived from
the Court of Blefuscu, to sue for peace in his majesty’s
court, he, the said Flestrin, did, like a false traitor, aid,
abet, comfort, and divert, the said ambassadors, although he knew
them to be servants to a prince who was lately an open enemy to
his imperial majesty, and in an open war against his said
majesty.</p>
<p><span class="smcap">Article</span> IV.</p>
<p>“‘That the said Quinbus Flestrin, contrary to the
duty of a faithful subject, is now preparing to make a voyage to
the court and empire of Blefuscu, for which he has received only
verbal license from his imperial majesty; and, under colour of
the said license, does falsely and traitorously intend to take
the said voyage, and thereby to aid, comfort, and abet the
emperor of Blefuscu, so lately an enemy, and in open war with his
imperial majesty aforesaid.’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“There are some other articles; but these are the most
important, of which I have read you an abstract.</p>
<p>“In the several debates upon this impeachment, it must
be confessed that his majesty gave many marks of his great
lenity; often urging the services you had done him, and
endeavouring to extenuate your crimes. The treasurer and
admiral insisted that you should be put to the most painful and
ignominious death, by setting fire to your house at night, and
the general was to attend with twenty thousand men, armed with
poisoned arrows, to shoot you on the face and hands. Some
of your servants were to have private orders to strew a poisonous
juice on your shirts and sheets, which would soon make you tear
your own flesh, and die in the utmost torture. The general
came into the same opinion; so that for a long time there was a
majority against you; but his majesty resolving, if possible, to
spare your life, at last brought off the chamberlain.</p>
<p>“Upon this incident, Reldresal, principal secretary for
private affairs, who always approved himself your true friend,
was commanded by the emperor to deliver his opinion, which he
accordingly did; and therein justified the good thoughts you have
of him. He allowed your crimes to be great, but that still
there was room for mercy, the most commendable virtue in a
prince, and for which his majesty was so justly celebrated.
He said, the friendship between you and him was so well known to
the world, that perhaps the most honourable board might think him
partial; however, in obedience to the command he had received, he
would freely offer his sentiments. That if his majesty, in
consideration of your services, and pursuant to his own merciful
disposition, would please to spare your life, and only give
orders to put out both your eyes, he humbly conceived, that by
this expedient justice might in some measure be satisfied, and
all the world would applaud the lenity of the emperor, as well as
the fair and generous proceedings of those who have the honour to
be his counsellors. That the loss of your eyes would be no
impediment to your bodily strength, by which you might still be
useful to his majesty; that blindness is an addition to courage,
by concealing dangers from us; that the fear you had for your
eyes, was the greatest difficulty in bringing over the
enemy’s fleet, and it would be sufficient for you to see by
the eyes of the ministers, since the greatest princes do no
more.</p>
<p>“This proposal was received with the utmost
disapprobation by the whole board. Bolgolam, the admiral,
could not preserve his temper, but, rising up in fury, said, he
wondered how the secretary durst presume to give his opinion for
preserving the life of a traitor; that the services you had
performed were, by all true reasons of state, the great
aggravation of your crimes; that you, who were able to extinguish
the fire by discharge of urine in her majesty’s apartment
(which he mentioned with horror), might, at another time, raise
an inundation by the same means, to drown the whole palace; and
the same strength which enabled you to bring over the
enemy’s fleet, might serve, upon the first discontent, to
carry it back; that he had good reasons to think you were a
Big-endian in your heart; and, as treason begins in the heart,
before it appears in overt-acts, so he accused you as a traitor
on that account, and therefore insisted you should be put to
death.</p>
<p>“The treasurer was of the same opinion: he showed to
what straits his majesty’s revenue was reduced, by the
charge of maintaining you, which would soon grow insupportable;
that the secretary’s expedient of putting out your eyes,
was so far from being a remedy against this evil, that it would
probably increase it, as is manifest from the common practice of
blinding some kind of fowls, after which they fed the faster, and
grew sooner fat; that his sacred majesty and the council, who are
your judges, were, in their own consciences, fully convinced of
your guilt, which was a sufficient argument to condemn you to
death, without the formal proofs required by the strict letter of
the law.</p>
<p>“But his imperial majesty, fully determined against
capital punishment, was graciously pleased to say, that since the
council thought the loss of your eyes too easy a censure, some
other way may be inflicted hereafter. And your friend the
secretary, humbly desiring to be heard again, in answer to what
the treasurer had objected, concerning the great charge his
majesty was at in maintaining you, said, that his excellency, who
had the sole disposal of the emperor’s revenue, might
easily provide against that evil, by gradually lessening your
establishment; by which, for want of sufficient for you would
grow weak and faint, and lose your appetite, and consequently,
decay, and consume in a few months; neither would the stench of
your carcass be then so dangerous, when it should become more
than half diminished; and immediately upon your death five or six
thousand of his majesty’s subjects might, in two or three
days, cut your flesh from your bones, take it away by cart-loads,
and bury it in distant parts, to prevent infection, leaving the
skeleton as a monument of admiration to posterity.</p>
<p>“Thus, by the great friendship of the secretary, the
whole affair was compromised. It was strictly enjoined,
that the project of starving you by degrees should be kept a
secret; but the sentence of putting out your eyes was entered on
the books; none dissenting, except Bolgolam the admiral, who,
being a creature of the empress, was perpetually instigated by
her majesty to insist upon your death, she having borne perpetual
malice against you, on account of that infamous and illegal
method you took to extinguish the fire in her apartment.</p>
<p>“In three days your friend the secretary will be
directed to come to your house, and read before you the articles
of impeachment; and then to signify the great lenity and favour
of his majesty and council, whereby you are only condemned to the
loss of your eyes, which his majesty does not question you will
gratefully and humbly submit to; and twenty of his
majesty’s surgeons will attend, in order to see the
operation well performed, by discharging very sharp-pointed
arrows into the balls of your eyes, as you lie on the ground.</p>
<p>“I leave to your prudence what measures you will take;
and to avoid suspicion, I must immediately return in as private a
manner as I came.”</p>
<p>His lordship did so; and I remained alone, under many doubts
and perplexities of mind.</p>
<p>It was a custom introduced by this prince and his ministry
(very different, as I have been assured, from the practice of
former times,) that after the court had decreed any cruel
execution, either to gratify the monarch’s resentment, or
the malice of a favourite, the emperor always made a speech to
his whole council, expressing his great lenity and tenderness, as
qualities known and confessed by all the world. This speech
was immediately published throughout the kingdom; nor did any
thing terrify the people so much as those encomiums on his
majesty’s mercy; because it was observed, that the more
these praises were enlarged and insisted on, the more inhuman was
the punishment, and the sufferer more innocent. Yet, as to
myself, I must confess, having never been designed for a
courtier, either by my birth or education, I was so ill a judge
of things, that I could not discover the lenity and favour of
this sentence, but conceived it (perhaps erroneously) rather to
be rigorous than gentle. I sometimes thought of standing my
trial, for, although I could not deny the facts alleged in the
several articles, yet I hoped they would admit of some
extenuation. But having in my life perused many
state-trials, which I ever observed to terminate as the judges
thought fit to direct, I durst not rely on so dangerous a
decision, in so critical a juncture, and against such powerful
enemies. Once I was strongly bent upon resistance, for,
while I had liberty the whole strength of that empire could
hardly subdue me, and I might easily with stones pelt the
metropolis to pieces; but I soon rejected that project with
horror, by remembering the oath I had made to the emperor, the
favours I received from him, and the high title of <i>nardac</i>
he conferred upon me. Neither had I so soon learned the
gratitude of courtiers, to persuade myself, that his
majesty’s present seventies acquitted me of all past
obligations.</p>
<p>At last, I fixed upon a resolution, for which it is probable I
may incur some censure, and not unjustly; for I confess I owe the
preserving of mine eyes, and consequently my liberty, to my own
great rashness and want of experience; because, if I had then
known the nature of princes and ministers, which I have since
observed in many other courts, and their methods of treating
criminals less obnoxious than myself, I should, with great
alacrity and readiness, have submitted to so easy a
punishment. But hurried on by the precipitancy of youth,
and having his imperial majesty’s license to pay my
attendance upon the emperor of Blefuscu, I took this opportunity,
before the three days were elapsed, to send a letter to my friend
the secretary, signifying my resolution of setting out that
morning for Blefuscu, pursuant to the leave I had got; and,
without waiting for an answer, I went to that side of the island
where our fleet lay. I seized a large man of war, tied a
cable to the prow, and, lifting up the anchors, I stripped
myself, put my clothes (together with my coverlet, which I
carried under my arm) into the vessel, and, drawing it after me,
between wading and swimming arrived at the royal port of
Blefuscu, where the people had long expected me: they lent me two
guides to direct me to the capital city, which is of the same
name. I held them in my hands, till I came within two
hundred yards of the gate, and desired them “to signify my
arrival to one of the secretaries, and let him know, I there
waited his majesty’s command.” I had an answer
in about an hour, “that his majesty, attended by the royal
family, and great officers of the court, was coming out to
receive me.” I advanced a hundred yards. The
emperor and his train alighted from their horses, the empress and
ladies from their coaches, and I did not perceive they were in
any fright or concern. I lay on the ground to kiss his
majesty’s and the empress’s hands. I told his
majesty, “that I was come according to my promise, and with
the license of the emperor my master, to have the honour of
seeing so mighty a monarch, and to offer him any service in my
power, consistent with my duty to my own prince;” not
mentioning a word of my disgrace, because I had hitherto no
regular information of it, and might suppose myself wholly
ignorant of any such design; neither could I reasonably conceive
that the emperor would discover the secret, while I was out of
his power; wherein, however, it soon appeared I was deceived.</p>
<p>I shall not trouble the reader with the particular account of
my reception at this court, which was suitable to the generosity
of so great a prince; nor of the difficulties I was in for want
of a house and bed, being forced to lie on the ground, wrapped up
in my coverlet.</p>
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