Gullivers Travels | Page 8

I lay in a profound sleep, by the force
of that soporiferous medicine infused into my liquor. Fifteen hundred of the emperor's
largest horses, each about four inches and a half high, were employed to draw me
towards the metropolis, which, as I said, was half a mile distant.
About four hours after we began our journey, I awaked by a very ridiculous accident; for
the carriage being stopped a while, to adjust something that was out of order, two or three
of the young natives had the curiosity to see how I looked when I was asleep; they
climbed up into the engine, and advancing very softly to my face, one of them, an officer
in the guards, put the sharp end of his half-pike a good way up into my left nostril, which
tickled my nose like a straw, and made me sneeze violently; whereupon they stole off

unperceived, and it was three weeks before I knew the cause of my waking so suddenly.
We made a long march the remaining part of the day, and, rested at night with five
hundred guards on each side of me, half with torches, and half with bows and arrows,
ready to shoot me if I should offer to stir. The next morning at sun-rise we continued our
march, and arrived within two hundred yards of the city gates about noon. The emperor,
and all his court, came out to meet us; but his great officers would by no means suffer his
majesty to endanger his person by mounting on my body.
At the place where the carriage stopped there stood an ancient temple, esteemed to be the
largest in the whole kingdom; which, having been polluted some years before by an
unnatural murder, was, according to the zeal of those people, looked upon as profane, and
therefore had been applied to common use, and all the ornaments and furniture carried
away. In this edifice it was determined I should lodge. The great gate fronting to the north
was about four feet high, and almost two feet wide, through which I could easily creep.
On each side of the gate was a small window, not above six inches from the ground: into
that on the left side, the king's smith conveyed fourscore and eleven chains, like those
that hang to a lady's watch in Europe, and almost as large, which were locked to my left
leg with six-and-thirty padlocks. Over against this temple, on the other side of the great
highway, at twenty feet distance, there was a turret at least five feet high. Here the
emperor ascended, with many principal lords of his court, to have an opportunity of
viewing me, as I was told, for I could not see them. It was reckoned that above a hundred
thousand inhabitants came out of the town upon the same errand; and, in spite of my
guards, I believe there could not be fewer than ten thousand at several times, who
mounted my body by the help of ladders. But a proclamation was soon issued, to forbid it
upon pain of death. When the workmen found it was impossible for me to break loose,
they cut all the strings that bound me; whereupon I rose up, with as melancholy a
disposition as ever I had in my life. But the noise and astonishment of the people, at
seeing me rise and walk, are not to be expressed. The chains that held my left leg were
about two yards long, and gave me not only the liberty of walking backwards and
forwards in a semicircle, but, being fixed within four inches of the gate, allowed me to
creep in, and lie at my full length in the temple.



CHAPTER II.

[The emperor of Lilliput, attended by several of the nobility, comes to see the author in
his confinement. The emperor's person and habit described. Learned men appointed to
teach the author their language. He gains favour by his mild disposition. His pockets are
searched, and his sword and pistols taken from him.]
When I found myself on my feet, I looked about me, and must confess I never beheld a

more entertaining prospect. The country around appeared like a continued garden, and the
enclosed fields, which were generally forty feet square, resembled so many beds of
flowers. These fields were intermingled with woods of half a stang, {1} and the tallest
trees, as I could judge, appeared to be seven feet high. I viewed the town on my left hand,
which looked like the painted scene of a city in a theatre.
I had been for some hours extremely pressed by the necessities of nature; which was no
wonder, it being almost two days since I had last disburdened myself. I