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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

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