This Sentence being pronounced, I was taken away out of the Palace, richly Cloathed; but in derision, carried in a magnificent Chariot, as on a Tribunal, which four Princes in Harness drew; and in all the publick places of the Town, I was forced to make this Declaration: "Good People, I declare to you, That this Moon here is not a Moon, but a World; and that that World below is not a World, but a Moon: This the Council thinks fit you should believe." [1] Drumming, striking; _cf_. Nahum ii. 7: "And her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabouring upon their breasts." [2] Cyrano writes all proper names by musical notation, in imitation of the language of the moon as he has described it. [3] Possibly "field officers" here; in exact ranking, the Maréchal de Camp stands between Colonel and Lieutenant-Général, and corresponds to Brigadier-General. [4] Fencing sword. _Cf_. Shakspere, _Hamlet_: "If he by chance escape your venomed tuck." [5] _Cf_. P. 95, n. 1. (See note 3 chap. VIII) [6] Folly, foolishness, ridiculous belief. _Cf_. Shakspere. _Merry Wives of Windsor_: "... drove the grossness of the _foppery_ into a received belief." [7] _Cf_. the saying attributed to Galileo immediately after his public recantation (June 22, 1633): "E pur si muove"--"yet it does move." CHAPTER XII. _Of a Philosophical Entertainment._ After I had Proclaimed this, in the five great places of the Town, my Advocate came and reached me his Hand to help me down. I was in great amaze, when after I had Eyed him I found him to be my Spirit; we were an hour in embracing one another: "Come lodge with me," said he, "for if you return to Court, after a Publick Disgrace, you will not be well lookt upon: Nay more, I must tell you, that you would have been still amongst the Apes yonder, as well as the _Spaniard_ your Companion, if I had not in all Companies published the vigour and force of your Wit, and gained from your Enemies the protection of the great Men in your favours." I ceased not to thank him all the way, till we came to his Lodgings; there he entertained me till Suppertime with all the Engines he had set a work to prevail with my Enemies, notwithstanding the most specious pretexts they had used for riding the Mobile,[1] to desist from so unjust a Prosecution. But as they came to acquaint us that Supper was upon the Table, he told me that to bear me company that evening he had invited Two Professors of the University of the Town to Sup with him: "I'll make them," said he, "fall upon the Philosophy which they teach in this World, and by that means you shall see my Landlord's Son: He's as Witty a Youth as ever I met with; he would prove another _Socrates_, if he could use his Parts aright, and not bury in Vice the Graces wherewith God continually visits him, by affecting a Libertinism,[2] as he does, out of a Chimerical Ostentation and Affectation of the name of a Wit. I have taken Lodgings here, that