CHAPTER VII.
THE AUTHOR, BEING INFORMED OF A DESIGN TO ACCUSE HIM OF HIGH
TREASON, MAKES HIS ESCAPE TO BLEFUSCU. HIS RECEPTION THERE.
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.
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.
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,[34] 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 honor
and my life. His speech was to the following effect, for I took notes of
it as soon as he left me:--
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.
You are very sensible that Skyrris Bolgolam (_galbet_ or high-admiral)
hath 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, Limtoc the general, Lalcon the chamberlain,
and Balmuff the grand justiciary, have prepared articles of impeachment
against you, for treason, and other capital crimes.
This preface made me so impatient, being conscious of my own merits and
innocence, that I was going to interrupt; when he entreated me to be
silent, and thus proceeded.
[Illustration: "HE DESIRED I WOULD HEAR HIM WITH PATIENCE." P. 80.]
Out of gratitude for the favors you have done for me, I procured
information of the whole proceedings, and a copy of the articles;
wherein I venture my head for your service.
ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST QUINBUS FLESTRIN, THE MAN-MOUNTAIN.
ARTICLE I.
Whereas, by a statute made in the reign of his Imperial Majesty
Calin Deffar Plune, it is enacted, That whoever shall lay hands
upon the empress, or upon any of the royal children, shall be
liable to the pains and penalties of high treason. Notwithstanding,
the said Quinbus Flestrin, in open breach of the said law, under
color of extinguishing the fire kindled in the apartment of his
Majesty's most dear imperial consort, did maliciously, and
traitorously, pull her by the arms, and lift her high in the air in
both his hands, against the statute in that case provided, &c.,
against the duty, &c.
ARTICLE II.
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.
ARTICLE III.
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
open war against his said majesty.
ARTICLE IV.
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 hath received only verbal license from
his imperial majesty; and under color of the said license, doth
falsely and traitorously intend to take the said voyage, and
thereby to aid, comfort, and abet the emperor of Blefuscu, so late
an enemy, and in open war with his imperial majesty aforesaid.
There are some other articles, but these are the most important, of
which I have read you an abstract.
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 endeavoring to extenuate your crimes. The
treasurer and admiral insisted that you should be put to the most
painful and ignominious death, by setting fire on 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.
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 honorable 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 honor
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.
[Illustration]
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 extinguished the fire in that unprincipled
manner, might at another time inundate and 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.
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 sort of fowls, after which they fed the faster, and grew
sooner fat. That his sacred majesty, and the council, who are your
judges, were to 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.
But his imperial majesty, fully determined against capital punishment,
was graciously pleaded to say, that since the council thought the loss
of your eyes too easy a censure, some other might 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 food, you would grow weak and faint, and lose
your appetite, and consume in a few months; neither would the stench of
your carcase 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.
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 illegal method you took
to remove her and her children the night of the fire.
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 favor of his majesty and council, whereby
you are only condemned to the loss of your eyes, which his majesty doth
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.
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.
His lordship did so, and I remained alone, under many doubts and
perplexities of mind.
It was a custom, introduced by this prince and his ministry (very
different, as I have been assured, from the practices of former times),
that after the court had decreed any cruel execution either to gratify
the monarch's resentment or the malice of a favorite, 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 through the kingdom; nor did anything
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 favor 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
favors I received from him, and the high title of _nardac_ he conferred
upon me. Neither had I so soon learned the gratitude of courtiers as to
persuade myself that his majesty's present seventies acquitted me of all
past obligations.
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 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 stript 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 until 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 hand.
[Illustration]
I told his majesty that I was come, according to my promise, and with
the license of the emperor, my master, to have the honor 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.
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.
[Illustration]