hardly one of them who has not received a fall, and some of them two or three. I was assured that, a year or two before my arrival, Flimnap would infallibly have broken his neck, if one of the king's cushions, that accidentally lay on the ground, had not weakened the force of his fall.* There is likewise another diversion, which is only shown before the emperor and empress, and first minister, upon particular occasions. The emperor lays on the table three fine silken threads of six inches long; one is blue, the other red, and the third green. These threads are proposed as prizes for those persons whom the emperor has a mind to distinguish by a peculiar mark of his favour. The ceremony is performed in his majesty's great chamber of state, where the candidates are to undergo a trial of dexterity, very different from the former, and such as I have not observed the least resemblance of in any other country of the New or Old World. The emperor holds a stick in his hands, both ends parallel to the horizon, while the candidates advancing, one by one, sometimes leap over the stick, sometimes creep under it, backward and forward, several times, according as the stick is advanced or depressed. Sometimes the emperor holds one end of the stick, and his first minister the other; sometimes the minister has it entirely to himself. Whoever performs his part with most agility, and holds out the longest in leaping and creeping, is rewarded with the blue-coloured silk; the red is given to the next, and the green to the third, which they all wear girt twice round about the middle; and you see few great persons about this court who are not adorned with one of these girdles.†

Sir Walter Scott says that Swift here alludes to the retirement of Walpole from office in 1717, through the successful intrigues of Sunderland and Stanhope, who gained the ear of the King while he was in Hanover. On Walpole's resignation Stanhope became First Lord of the Treasury; till whose death, in 1721, Walpole did not return to office. It is said that the Duchess of Kendal, the King's mistress, was mainly instrumental to his restoration to favoura fact that is indicated by the King's cushion breaking his fall. This lady, Erengard Melesina, Baroness of Schulenburg, exercised a surprising influence over the King, though she was neither handsome nor graceful. Indeed, she was so tall and thin that she was nicknamed the "Maypole;" while the Countess of Darlington, another of the King's favourites, was called from her great obesity, the "Elephant and Castle."

†These decorations are obviously the three orders of knighthood—the blue being the "Garter," the red the "Bath," and the green the "Thistle." Swift here alludes disparagingly to Walpole, on whom the King conferred the order of the Bath (revived for the occasion) a few days before the prorogation of Parliament in 1724. In 1726 he was installed a Knight of the Garter. On the occasion of the revival of the Order of the Bath, Swift wrote some lines in which the germ of the idea in the text is found

"And he who'll leap over a stick for the king,

Is qualified best for a dog in a string."

5

The horses of the army, and those of the royal stables, having been daily led before me, were no longer shy, but would come up to my very feet without starting. The riders would leap them over my hand, as I held it on the ground; and one of the emperor's huntsmen, upon a large courser, took my foot, shoe and all; which was indeed a prodigious leap. I had the good fortune to divert the emperor one day after a very extraordinary manner. I desired he would order several sticks of two feet high, and the thickness of an ordinary cane, to be brought me; whereupon his majesty commanded the master of his woods to give directions accordingly; and the next morning six woodmen arrived with as many carriages drawn by eight horses to each. I took nine of these sticks, and fixing them firmly in the ground in a quadrangular figure, two feet and a half square, I took four other sticks, and tied them parallel at each corner about two feet from the ground; then I fastened my handkerchief to the nine sticks that stood erect, and extended it on all sides, till it was tight as the top of a drum; and the four parallel sticks, rising about five inches higher than the handkerchief, served as ledges on each side. When I had finished my work, I desired the emperor to let a troop of his best horses, twenty-four in number, come and exercise upon this plain. His majesty approved of the proposal, and I took them up, one by one, in my hands, ready mounted and armed with the proper officers to exercise them. As soon as they got into order, they divided into two parties, performed mock skirmishes, discharged blunt arrows, drew their swords, fled and pursued, attacked and retired, and, in short, discovered the best military discipline I ever beheld. The parallel sticks secured them and their horses from falling over the stage; and the emperor was so much delighted that he ordered this entertainment to be repeated several days, and once was pleased to be lifted up, and give the word of command; and, with great difficulty, persuaded even the empress herself to let me hold her in her close chair within two yards of the stage, when she was able to take a full view of the whole performance. It was my good fortune that no ill accident happened in these entertainments; only once, a fiery horse that belonged to one of the captains, pawing with his hoof, struck a hole in my handkerchief, and his foot slipping, he overthrew his rider and himself; but I immediately relieved them both, and covering the hole with one hand, I set down the troop with the other, in the same manner as I took them up. The horse that fell was strained in the left shoulder, but

the rider got no hurt; and I repaired my handkerchief as well as I could: however, I would not trust the strength of it any more, in such dangerous enterprises.

About two or three days before I was set at liberty, as I was entertaining the court with this kind of feats, there arrived an express to inform his majesty that some of his subjects, riding near the place where I was first taken up, had seen a great black substance lying on the ground, very oddly shaped, extending its edges round, as wide as his majesty's bedchamber, and rising up in the middle as high as a man; that it was no living creature, as they at first apprehended, for

it lay on the grass without motion; and some of them had walked round it several times; that, by mounting upon each other's shoulders, they had got to the top, which was flat and even, and stamping upon it, they found that it was hollow within; that they humbly conceived it might be something belonging to the man-mountain; and if his majesty pleased, they would undertake to bring it with only five horses. I presently knew what they meant, and was glad at heart to receive this intelligence. It seems, upon my reaching the shore after our shipwreck, I was in such confusion, that before I came to the place where I went to sleep, my hat, which I had fastened with a string to my head while I was rowing, and had stuck on all the time I was swimming, fell off after I came to land; the string, as I conjecture,

breaking by some accident, which I never observed, but thought my hat had been lost at sea. I entreated his imperial majesty to give orders it might be brought to me as soon as possible, describing to him the use and nature of it: and the next day the wagoners arrived with it, but not in a very good condition; they had bored two holes in the brim, within an inch and a half of the edge, and fastened two hooks in the holes; these hooks were tied by a long cord to the harness, and thus my hat was dragged along for above half an English mile; but, the ground in that country being extremely smooth and level, it received less damage than I expected.

Two days after this adventure, the emperor, having ordered that part of his army which quarters in and about his metropolis to be in readiness, took a fancy of diverting himself in a very singular manner. He desired I would stand like a Colossus, with my legs as far asunder as I conveniently could. He then commanded his general (who was an old experienced leader and a great patron of mine), to draw up the troops in close order, and march them under me; the foot by twentyfour abreast, and the horse by sixteen,* with drums beating, colours flying, and pikes advanced. This body consisted of three thousand foot, and a thousand horse. His majesty gave orders, upon pain of death, that every soldier in his march should observe the strictest propriety.

I had sent so many memorials and petitions for my liberty, that his majesty at length mentioned the matter, first in the cabinet, and then in a full council; where it was opposed by none, except Skyresh Bolgolam,† who was pleased, without any provocation, to be my mortal

The incident was naturally suggested by what is related of the celebrated brazen statue, 105 feet high, placed at the entrance of the harbour of Rhodes, with a foot on each mole, under which the largest ships, with all their sails set, were able to pass. The well-known passion of George I. for military reviews is probably intended here to be ridiculed, and it must be admitted that nothing could exhibit a martial pageant in a more ludicrous light.

† It has been conjectured that Swift meant by this Lilliputian Minister to allude to the Duke of Argyll. The only grounds for this presumption appear to be that Gulliver calls him his mortal enemy-a description which, in relation to Swift, we fear would apply to a great many other persons than the Duke. At one period, previous to the publication of "Gulliver's Travels," Swift and the Duke appear to have been upon very friendly terms; and in a letter which the Dean addressed to the Peer, in 1712, after the estrangement appears to have commenced, he says "I think few men were ever born with nobler qualities to fill and adorn every office of a subject, a friend, and a protector." The Duke quarrelled with the Ministry, of which Swift was a warm supporter; and this cause of disunion between the quondam friends was not diminished by the antipathy which Swift entertained against all Scotchmen.