ut 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 on 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 an 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.

GULLIVER SEIZES THE ENEMY'S FLEET

_By Jonathan Swift_

One morning, about a fortnight after I had obtained my liberty,
Reldresal, principal secretary (as they style him) of private affairs,
came to my house attended only by one servant. He ordered his coach to
wait at a distance, and desired I would give him an hour's