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 sunrise 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 upon 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 pointing to the north was about four feet high, and almost two feet wide, through which I could scarcely 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 blacksmith 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-andthirty padlocks. Over against this temple, on the other side of the great highway, at twenty feet distant, there was also a turret of 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. The emperor afterwards descended from the tower, and advanced on horseback towards me, which had like to have cost him dear; for the beast, though very well trained, yet wholly unused to such a sight, which appeared as if a mountain moved before him, reared upon his hinder feet; but that prince, who is an excellent horseman, kept his seat till his attendants ran in, and held the bridle while his majesty had time to dismount. When he alighted he surveyed me round with great admiration, but kept beyond the length of my chain. He ordered his cooks and butlers, who were already prepared, to give me victuals and drink, which they pushed forward in a sort of vehicles upon wheels. I took these vehicles, and soon emptied them all; twenty of them were filled with meat, and ten with liquor; each of the former afforded me two or three good mouthfuls. I emptied the liquor of ten vessels, which was contained in earthen vials, into one vehicle, drinking it off at a draught, and so I did with the rest. The empress, and young princes of the blood of both sexes, attended by many ladies, sat at some distance in their chairs; but upon the accident that happened to the emperor's horse, they alighted, and came near his person. He is taller by almost the breadth of my nail than any of his court, which alone is enough to strike an awe into the beholders. He held his sword drawn in his hand to defend himself if I should happen to break loose; it was almost three inches long; the hilt and scabbard were gold enriched with diamonds. His imperial majesty often spoke to me, and I returned answers, but neither of us could understand a syllable. There were several of his priests and lawyers present (as I conjectured by their dresses), who were commanded to speak to me, and I answered them in as many languages as I had the least smattering of, which were High and Low Dutch, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and Lingua Franca; but all to no purpose. After about two hours the court retired, and I was left with a strong guard to prevent the impertinence, and pro bably the malice of the rabble, who were very impatient to crowd about me as near as they durst; and some of them had the impudence to shoot their arrows at me as I sat on the ground by the door of my house, whereof one very narrowly missed my left eye. But the colonel ordered six of the ringleaders to be seized, and thought no punishment so proper as to deliver them bound into my hands; which some of his soldiers accordingly did, pushing them forwards with the butt ends of their pikes into my reach. I took them all into my right hand, put five of them into my coat pocket, and as to the sixth, I made a countenance as if I would eat him alive. The poor man squalled terribly, and the colonel and his officers were in much pain, especially when they saw me take out my penknife; but I soon put them out of fear, for, looking mildly, and immediately cutting the strings he was bound with, I set him gently on the ground, and away he ran. I treated the rest in the same manner, taking them one by one out of my pocket; and I observed both the soldiers and the people were highly delighted with this mark of my clemency, which was represented very much to my advantage at court. Towards night I got with some difficulty into my house, where I lay on the ground, and continued to do so about a fortnight, during which time the emperor gave orders to have a bed prepared for me. Six hundred beds of the common measure were brought in carriages, and worked up in my house; a hundred and fifty of their beds sewn together made up the breadth and length, and these were four double, which, however, kept me but very indifferently from the hardness of the floor, which was of smooth stone. By the same reckoning they provided me with sheets, blankets, and coverlets, tolerable enough for one who had been so long inured to hardships. Ir is pleasant to observe how free the present age is in laying taxes on the next: future ages will talk of this; this shall be famous to all posterity: whereas their time and thoughts will be taken up about present things, as ours are now.-Dean Swift. ALTHOUGH men are accused for not knowing their own weakness, yet, perhaps, as few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of.-Dean Swift. Llewellyn and the Greyhound, HE spearman heard the bugle sound, And still he blew a louder blast, Oh, where does faithful Gelert roam, So true, so brave-a lamb at home, 'Twas only at Llewellyn's board He watched, he cheered, he served his lord, In sooth he was a peerless hound, But now no Gelert could be found, And now, as over rocks and dells That day Llewellyn little loved Unpleased, Llewellyn homeward hied, But when he gained the castle door, The hound all o'er was smeared with gore, Llewellyn gazed with fierce surprise; His favourite checked his joyful guise, Onward in haste Llewellyn passed, He called his child-no voice replied; "Hell-hound! my child's by thee devoured!" The frantic father cried; And to the hilt his vengeful sword His suppliant looks as prone he fell, But still his Gelert's dying yell Aroused by Gelert's dying yell, Concealed beneath a tumbled heap, All glowing from his rosy sleep, Nor scratch had he, nor harm, nor dread; Lay a gaunt wolf, all torn and dead, Ah, what was then Llewellyn's pain! Vain, vain was all Llewellyn's woe: The frantic blow that laid thee low And now a gallant tomb they raise, |